Edward Scott Rock, a Philadelphia used automotive seller, was arrested final week by federal authorities on prices of mail and wire fraud. Rock is accused of accepting funds from round 120 patrons throughout 36 states however failing to ship a car. Most of the autos concerned had been accessible for seniors, wheelchair customers and folks with disabilities, together with a 2017 Ford T150 van offered to 13 totally different individuals over 11 months.
The Department of Justice alleges Rock’s non-delivery gross sales scheme occurred between 2019 and 2023. The scheme centered on promoting the identical car as many instances as potential and not using a supply. Rock took in $260,000 for the beforehand talked about wheelchair-accessible T150 earlier than handing over the van to one of many patrons, and not using a title. The scheme induced over $2.5 million in losses, based on a DOJ launch.
The Associated Press spoke with a van seller who was given a ridiculous runaround by Rock:
David Sodemann, co-founder of Boho Camper Vans, an organization in Tempe, Arizona, that builds, hire and sells camper vans, stated he wired Rock about $25,000 for 2 Ford cargo vans. Just a few months later, when the autos had not arrived, Sodemann started asking for the cash again.
“It was a big mess for a long time,” Sodemann recalled in a cellphone interview Thursday. “He always had some excuse. He would take pictures of him sending the money back FedEx, but it never got dropped in the mail. It was all just a big show.”
It took virtually two years of near-daily cellphone calls and Sodemann’s firm getting a lawyer concerned, however Rock lastly returned the cash, Sodemann stated.
Rock may very well be spending the remainder of his life in jail if convicted. His prices carry a most sentence of 170 years in jail, a 5-year interval of supervised launch, a $2,750,000 positive, and restitution and forfeiture.
Source: jalopnik.com