A Filipino man accused of running a multi-million dollar fraud scheme that lasted for decades pleaded guilty before his case was to go to court.
Eminiano Reodica, Jr. pleaded guilty to federal charges, which include bank fraud and lying to banks.
The Los Angeles court will sentence him early next year. He will face up to 79 years in prison.
Reodica was an owner of one of the United States’ largest car dealerships in the 1980s. He would allegedly promise the same car contract as collateral to multiple banks at the same time.
He would also have his employees sign bogus car loans, front payments for delinquent customers, repossess and resell vehicles without informing the bank, and deleted negative information on car buyers’ credit reports.
His motive for all of these is to get the banks to give him more money.
This scam had pushed Reodica’s car dealership company to elite status, becoming the number one Chevrolet car dealership across the United States.
Reodica fled the country in when federal officials began investigating him. He became a fugitive for nearly 30 years and was only found in a hotel in the Philippines in 1988. He was later captured in that same year in Brisbane, Australia.
His biggest creditor, his investors, and customers (mostly Filipinos) eventually faced financial adversity. Victor Vilaplana, Imperial Savings’ lawyer, called Reodica’s operation as “one of the most elaborate and well-conceived scams imaginable” in an interview with Times in September 1988.
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Source : TFCBalitangAmerica
