A Marin County automotive vendor has been charged in federal courtroom with two felonies for allegedly dishonest consignment sellers and evading payroll taxes, courtroom information present.
Walter Dawydiak faces counts of mail fraud, which carries a 20-year most jail sentence, and tax evasion, which is punishable by as much as 5 years in jail, in response to a prosecution submitting. He might additionally face a high quality of as much as $250,000 on every cost, plus restitution.
Dawydiak was not arrested. An arraignment has been set for Jan. 27 in federal courtroom in San Francisco.
The mail fraud cost alleges that Dawydiak — the proprietor of Automobiles Dawydiak on Paradise Drive in Corte Madera — bilked consignment sellers from January 2014 to September 2019, courtroom information present.
Dawydiak’s legal professional, Ed Swanson, stated he expects Dawydiak to plead responsible, and that he “promptly and fully accepted duty for his actions.”
Dawydiak “additionally applied new processes on the firm in September 2019 to make sure shoppers all the time obtain an in depth breakdown on bills and what they’re owed on a sale,” Swanson stated.
“He’s extraordinarily remorseful, and has been working intently with the prosecutors and brokers to repay shoppers who misplaced cash due to his conduct in addition to to make full cost to IRS for underreporting time beyond regulation payroll tax,” he stated.
Automobiles Dawydiak “operated primarily as a high-end luxurious car dealership in San Francisco,” in response to the charging paperwork. The dealership largely relied on consignment gross sales for automotive house owners trying to promote, and that the costs can be pre-negotiated.
As a part of the alleged scheme, prosecutors say Dawydiak would misinform the sellers about how a lot the automobiles bought for and pocket the distinction.
“Dawydiak took steps to hide this scheme, together with by inflicting the creation of false invoices and false gross sales transactions,” the prosecution alleged in its criticism.
Authorities additionally allege that Dawydiak tried to illegally cut back his payroll taxes by “willfully concealing the time beyond regulation cost of wages, together with by making the funds in money, conserving a separate set of information for these wages,” and falsifying tax information, the charging doc says.
Federal authorities filed the costs in December.
The enterprise’ web site says shoppers who promote their automobiles via Automobiles Dawydiak “will get way more” in comparison with promoting on their very own.
“We focus on pricing and also you set the beginning worth and have full management over the value you settle for,” the web site says.
The positioning says the dealership has been in enterprise since 1981.
The Impartial Journal contributed to this report