NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Four employees of Shoreline Mitsubishi in Branford, Conn., involved in a wire and mail fraud trial are accused of forging sales documents to make poor customers eligible for car loans and adding hundreds or thousands of dollars in hidden fees to boost profits and commissions, reported The Associated Press.
Prosecutors plan to call several former customers as witnesses as well as members of Mitsubishi’s financing division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael McGarry said dealership employees regularly falsified loan applications to show that unemployed people had jobs or that laborers held managerial positions.
The dealership also lowered payments for customers who couldn’t afford to pay more, but added a balloon payment to the end of the loan, McGarry said.
Defense attorneys said the customers signed all the paperwork and should have known that salespeople are in business to make a profit, leaving it up the customer to ensure he or she is not financially overextended.
