3 Bergen Car Dealership Employees Admit Running $1.4M Loan Scheme

The manager of a now-defunct Bergen County used car dealership and two co-workers plead guilty Tuesday to running a financing scam that bilked banks out of more than $1.4 million in fake loans for luxury cars, said Acting New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino.

Hector Marquez, 43, pleaded guilty to money laundering and misconduct charges in a hearing before Superior Court Judge Susan Steele, Porrino said. He also plead guilty to insurance fraud in a separate indictment involving a $139,000 Bentley purchased at his dealership that was later torched and reported stolen to an insurance company.

Marquez is the third person to plead guilty in the D.I.B. Leasing case. Paul Russo, 40, and and Lisa Ghobrial, 48, the dealership’s finance and titles managers, respectively, each pleaded guilty to misconduct. The state will recommend a maximum term of 10 years for Russo and three years of probation for Ghobrial, when they are sentenced Sept. 16.

The state will recommend a 16-year sentence for Marquez in the dealership case and a maximum seven-year sentence, to run concurrently, in the fraud case. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 20.

“Hector Marquez was the point man in a criminal conspiracy in which banks were duped into approving auto loans for customers whose income levels did not qualify them for financing on the luxury vehicles,” said Acting Attorney General Porrino. “He then furthered his criminal involvement by helping one of his buyers to unload a pricey vehicle by committing insurance fraud. The lengthy prison time he faces should serve as a deterrent to anyone who thinks this kind of fraud is a path to easy money.”

Along with those three, Patsy Galasso, the dealership’s owner, Jennifer Perez, 30, bookkeeper, and Michael Ricciardi, 53, a loan applicant assistance were also charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and trafficking in personal identifying information pertaining to another person in connection with conspiracy.

Prosecutors said they created fake employment records, inflated incomes, and supplied false pay stubs to dup banks into approving auto financing loans for customers whose income levels did not qualify them for loans on the pricey vehicles, officials said.

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 purchase vehicles from the dealership, prosecutors allege. The fifth loan was in the name of a person who had never even been to D.I.B. Leasing or applied for a car loan there.

The conspirators used the money obtained from the banks for their own “personal benefit,” authorities said.

Galasso and Ricciardi were also previously charged with 62 counts of theft by deception, conspiracy, money laundering, trafficking of personal identifying information, and identity theft. Galasso was also charged with misconduct by a corporate official, authorities said.

“These defendants not only defrauded banks and corrupted the integrity of the car loan process; they preyed on customers who trusted them with their personal information. Their disregard for the law has caught up with them and they’ll now pay the price,” said Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Christopher Iu.

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Photo: Hector Marquez, Lisa Ghobrial, and Paul Russo — New Jersey Attorney General's Office