A PHILIPPINE native who operated a large car dealership in Glendora, California before fleeing the United States nearly 30 years ago pleaded guilty Monday, Oct. 5, to federal charges for bank fraud and lying to banks, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
Eminiano “Jun” Reodica Jr., 71, entered his plea a day before he was scheduled to go to trial in Los Angeles, City News Service reported, admitting to defrauding banks out of nearly $50 million in the 1980s. At the time, Reodica was president of Grand Wilshire Group of Companies, which included Grand Chevrolet, then the country’s third-largest car dealership.
He further admitted to engaging in schemes to defraud banks and making false statements to at least five banks from 1984 to 1988, according to a release from the US Attorney’s Office. Among these banks include First Central Bank, First Los Angeles Bank, Imperial Savings, Manilabank and Union Bank. Specifically, Reodica admitted to simultaneously promising the same car contract as collateral to two different banks.
Press reports in the 1980s told the story of how Reodica initially worked as a busboy at restaurants in Los Angeles and then went on to own one of America’s largest dealerships.
However, when investigations into the business began as it was collapsing in 1988, Reodica fled to the Philippines.
A 1994 indictment filed against Reodica stated that lenders who approved substantial lines of credit to his dealership were allegedly impressed with his high-risk customers’ ability to make on-time monthly payments on their auto loans.
Afterward, it was found that Reodica hid from banks that customers were delinquent on their auto loan payments, that his employees allegedly made payments for delinquent customers, that he repossessed and resold cars without informing banks, and that he erased negative information on customers’ credit reports, according to a 2014 Asian Journal report.
The fraudulent scheme further involved employees who were instructed to forge customer signatures on car contracts. The forged contracts would then be promised to a second bank.
Reodica also admitted he directed his employees to take loans for cars they weren’t actually buying, as a means of bringing more money into the dealership. The 1994 indictment claimed that those cars would be sold to dealership customers; the dealership would then make payments on the employee loans and include the fraudulent sales in their reports to persuade investors to continue financing the operation, according to court documents.
In a September 1988 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Imperial Savings lawyer Victor Vilaplana called Reodica’s scheme “one of the most elaborate and well-conceived scams imaginable.”
A number of investors in Reodica’s scam, including Imperial Savings, suffered financially after Grand Chevrolet filed for bankruptcy in 1988. Filipino professionals, many of whom were doctors, were among those who invested in Reodica’s business. Some families also had to file for bankruptcy, according to a 2014 Asian Journal report.
In 1992, Reodica became an Australian citizen under the name Roberto Abrian Coscolluela, Jr., according to court documents. He lived in Australia for two decades where he defrauded customers, posing as an accountant, real estate agent and insurance agent in Cairns and Brisbane. Court records and sources from Brisbane allege that Reodica, as Coscolleula, defrauded several members of the Filipino-Australian community.
Authorities arrested Reodica at Los Angeles International Airport in November 2012, during a layover on a flight to Canada. Traveling under his Australian alias, Reodica was requested by airport security to complete a fingerprint scan, which revealed his identity.
“The guilty pleas by this defendant should be a warning to all fugitives facing charges in federal court that the United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office have a very long memory,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker of the Central District of California.
Reodica will be sentenced in February 2016. He faces up to 79 years in federal prison and a $6.5 million fine or two times the loss that resulted in his offenses.
