Ex-Hoboken Councilman Charged In $7M Livery Cab Fraud Scheme

A former Hoboken City Council president has been charged with perpetrating a scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in car loans, authorities announced Wednesday.

Fort Lee resident Christopher Campos – who served as Hoboken’s 4th Ward councilman between 2001 and 2007 – was one of four men charged with allegedly conducting bank and wire fraud to orchestrate the $7 million scam, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (Southern District of New York).

Campos also recently served as chief of staff to NJ Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia.

Other charged suspects include Julio Alvarez, 47, of Fort Lee, Marco Blasio, 52, of Commack, N.Y., and Geuris Ramos, 38, of the Bronx, N.Y.

Police arrested all four suspects on Wednesday.

According to prosecutors, the four individuals allegedly used at least 20 straw buyers to obtain more than 200 new automobiles based on false representations that the straw buyers would use the cars for their personal use.

Instead, the cars were allegedly obtained to lease them to livery cab drivers, authorities stated.

“The cost of these loans, which ultimately went into default, will eventually be transferred to ordinary citizens seeking financial assistance,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez alleged in a news release.

According to the allegations in a federal criminal complaint, Campos – who was a practicing attorney - along with Alvarez, Blasio and Ramos, orchestrated the scheme between October of 2012 and September of 2013.

In order to secure financing in connection with the purchase of these new cars without having to pay the higher interest rates typically charged for commercial vehicles or borrow the cost of the vehicles based on their own ability to pay, Alvarez and Campos allegedly enlisted and aided individuals with good credit histories – known as “straw buyers” - to submit fraudulent car loan applications to numerous lenders, prosecutors stated.

In order to obtain the new vehicles, the defendants sent straw buyers, including Ramos, to several car dealerships located throughout the New York City area, where dealership employees, including Blasio, helped straw buyers submit fraudulent loan applications, prosecutors stated.

The auto loan applications submitted by the straw buyers falsely represented that the vehicles would be used for the buyers’ personal use, rather than as part of the defendants’ leasing business, authorities claim.

According to prosecutors, in many cases, the car loan applications allegedly misrepresented personal information about the straw buyers, including their incomes and assets. The four suspects also allegedly caused financing applications to be sent to multiple financial institutions at the same time so that the lenders would not know that the straw buyers were incurring obligations to other lenders in connection with the purchase of multiple new automobiles.

In total, the scheme involved at least approximately 20 straw purchasers, the purchase of more than approximately 200 new vehicles and more than $7 million in fraudulently obtained loans from a variety of financial institutions.

The four individuals are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, one count of bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, and one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The complaint can be seen here.

An investigation remains ongoing, authorities stated.

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