Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced today that the manager of a now-defunct Bergen County used car dealership was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role as “point man” in a bank financing scam that netted $1.4 million in fraudulent loans for luxury cars.
Hector Marquez, the general manager of D.I.B Leasing in Teterboro, was also ordered to pay $110,370 in restitution under the sentence handed down yesterday by Superior Court Judge Susan Steele in Bergen County.
Marquez, 44, of Monroe, pleaded guilty in July to first-degree money laundering and second-degree misconduct by a corporate official in the dealership case. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree insurance fraud in a separate indictment involving a $139,000 Bentley purchased at his dealership and later torched and reported stolen to an insurance company.
He was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for that case and will serve both sentences concurrently.
Last week, the dealership’s finance manager, Paul Russo, 52, of Scotch Plains, was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $150,267 in restitution by Superior Court Judge Steele. In July 2015, Russo pleaded guilty to second-degree money laundering and second-degree misconduct by a corporate official in the dealership case.
Marquez and Russo are the last two defendants to be sentenced in the D.I.B. Leasing scheme that also involved the dealership’s owner, title manager, loan applicant assistant, and bookkeeper.
Prosecutors said the defendants created fake employment records, inflated incomes, and supplied false pay stubs and fictitious employee verifications to dupe banks into approving auto financing for customers whose income levels did not qualify them for loans on the pricey vehicles.
Four of the loans were taken out in the names of customers who had submitted personal information to apply for financing but ultimately did not buy cars from the dealership, prosecutors allege. The fifth loan was in the name of a person who had never been to D.I.B. Leasing or applied for a car loan there, prosecutors alleged. The loan money obtained from the banks was used for personal benefit by the various employees of the dealership, prosecutors said.
Patsy Galasso, 76, of Cliffside Park, owner of D.I.B. Leasing pleaded guilty to third degree money laundering and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Jennifer Perez, 31, of Union City, who assisted with loan applications was admitted into Pre-Trial Intervention program in August 2016.
Michael Ricciardi, 54, of Wayne, who did bookkeeping for the dealership pleaded guilty to third degree trafficking in personal identifying information and was sentenced to four years of probation in December 2016.
Lisa Ghobrial, 49, of Ridgefield, the dealership’s title manager, pleaded guilty to third-degree misconduct by a corporate official and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Ricciardi was also charged in the separate indictment involving the scheme to falsify the insurance claim on the used Bentley, which was purchased at D.I.B. Leasing and then fraudulently reported stolen to an insurance company after it was torched. He pleaded guilty to third-degree conspiracy and was sentenced to four years of probation in December 2016.
Also charged in that Bentley scheme were D.I.B. salesman John Jarzabek, and his parents Chester and Anna Jarzabek. The younger Jarzabek and his parents were accused of falsifying a car loan application and providing bogus documents to inflate the elder Jarzabeks’ income to obtain financing for the luxury vehicle. The trio was also accused of fraud in the insurance claim reporting the car stolen.
John Jarzabek, 27, of Harrison, pleaded guilty to second-degree insurance fraud and was sentenced to four years in prison in January 2017.
Chester Jarzabek, 64, of Harrison, was admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention program in September 2016.
Anna Jarzabek, 62, of Harrison was admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention program in January 2017 and ordered to pay $44,511.94 in restitution to TD Auto Finance.