Two auto-loan brokers admit Orchard Park scam
The owners of a defunct Orchard Park auto-loan brokerage pleaded guilty Monday to bilking 120 customers out of more than $240,000 on auto warranty and bank loan deals before their company was shut down by State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo more than a year ago.
Matthew Hunter, 35, with addresses on Tracy Street in Buffalo and Sawgrass Court, Hamburg, could get a prison term of one to three years on his plea to grand larceny and scheming to defraud, State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang told him in court.
The judge told John Pazamickas, 55, of Youngstown, she is considering a six-month-to-one-year jail term on his plea to two grand larceny charges. Wolfgang scheduled sentencing for March 30.
Assistant Attorney General Dennis Rosen said Cuomo will demand the two suspects also share in total restitution of about $250,000 to compensate a bank and two warranty companies that cooperated in sparing the victims of the fraud.
Hunter and Pazamickas operated Hunter-Paz Funding Services, which also was known to consumers as HP Funding.
Hunter was allowed to remain free on previously posted $20,000 bail. Pazamickas, who agreed to turn over $30,000 in cash at sentencing to begin the restitution payments, was allowed to remain free on his own recognizance.
Both declined to comment as they left court.
Pazamickas’ payment of $30,000 will cover victims who paid Hunter and him for vehicle and boat warranties after both the Interstate National Dealer Services and Wynn’s Extended Care warranty concerns stopped doing business with them after the probe began, Rosen said. KeyBank also agreed to help the victims of the scams.
Rosen told the judge that Hunter and Pazamickas put funds from bank refinancing and warranty payments collected from customers into their own bank accounts, leaving their victims at risk.
Hunter faces a longer time behind bars because “he played a greater role in the operation” than Pazamickas, Rosen said.
From September 2006 through November 2007, Hunter and Pazamickas collected about $275,000 from their customers and were supposed to keep about $130,000 as sales commissions, passing the balance on to the warranty companies, Cuomo said.
Before the probe caused the two men to close the company, Hunter and Pazamickas made only a few token payments to Interstate and no payments to Wynn’s, and kept KeyBank loan refinancing proceeds rather than passing them on to customers, Cuomo and Rosen said.
The attorney general’s investigation began after consumers began contacting the warranty companies for services only to learn they had no coverage. The two were arrested in June.
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