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"According to the DMV case report, whenever D&L employees went to the DMV office, they would make eye contact with Stefanski, who would then allow them to cut t

"According to the DMV case report, whenever D&L employees went to the DMV office, they would make eye contact with Stefanski, who would then allow them to cut the habitually long, slow-moving lines. In exchange for this favor, the report said, Stefanski would spend his days off walking the company’s lot selecting vehicles that had belonged to other people only weeks or months prior. D&L would then undervalue the cars on DMV forms, investigators said, allowing Stefanski to buy them cheaply and resell them for a profit." What? They're giving away cars just to cut in line? That seems a pointlessly costly deal. Maybe I'm not understanding the scam correctly.

datadrivenangel 2y ago
Preferential treatment may be quite valuable, but this definitely seems a bit overkill.
vonmoltke 2y ago
> What? They're giving away cars just to cut in line? That seems a pointlessly costly deal. Maybe I'm not understanding the scam correctly. You're not. As the article notes > Under state law, the profits from sales of towed cars are supposed to belong to the vehicle owners. Towing companies have to hold onto the proceeds for a year and turn over any remaining money, after subtracting their fees, to the state. This means D&L doesn't give a shit how much they sell the cars for as long as they get more than the towing and storage fees for them. Depending on how many cars they deal with, it might actually be more profitable to turn them over quickly for pennies on the dollar than let them sit in the yard and rack up higher fees.
djeastm 2y ago
The towing company isn't getting the profits from the sale of the cars. The law has the money going to the state if the owner doesn't claim it within a certain amount of time. So their incentive is just the favor and clearing out vehicles that don't benefit them quickly (and possibly a small kickback from the seller to the towing manager, but that's just my speculation) Pretty sad that after all that investigation no one seems to be held accountable, but I suppose that's life these days.
- jfengel 2y ago
  I assume they at least get their "storage costs" back. Which is plenty profitable.
thenewwazoo 2y ago
So I think it goes like this: * D&L Auto Body & Towing tows a car, incurring tow and storage fees * vehicle owner doesn't (or can't) recover the car, and D&L Auto Body & Towing may now request permission from Dominik Stefanski to sell the car to recoup costs if the car is worth less than $1500. state law says money from the sale above the towing and storage fees goes back to the (now-former) owner * Dominik Stefanski lets D&L Auto Body & Towing cut the line (saving time, and time is money) and grants permission to sell the car, in exchange for letting him preferentially purchase the car for under $1500 * D&L Auto Body & Towing misrepresents the car's condition in DMV paperwork to justify (to Stefanski!) the low valuation, which enables the sale. Dominik Stefanski purchases the car for less than $1500, but presumably more than D&L Auto Body & Towing's actual costs. the (former) vehicle owner gets cheated * Dominik Stefanski then restores the car to its condition when towed, and sells it for a tidy profit
- thrance 2y ago
  Now I wonder how long that line possibly could be, to justify losing hundreds of dollars simply not to sit in it.
  - nullc 2y ago
    I don't think the D&L is losing anything in that arrangement. They're only ever entitled to the towing and storage fees. Any excess above the towing and storage fees goes to the owner. Fairly pricing the car may make it take longer to sell. Assuming that towing is much more profitable than storage and that their business is mostly storage limited (e.g. they could tow more but their lot quickly fills)-- then anything that helps them quickly turn over cars-- including fast sales and line skipping-- can make them a lot more money. The only way selling hurts them is if they're so towing limited that quickly selling cars will leave their lot empty when they could have otherwise been earning storage fees. And even then, a car with storage fees in-excess of its value will never get picked up nor sell for more than those fees and could easily turn into a loss for them. Given that crooks like these can probably just go around and tow random cars should their lot ever be too empty, I'm going to guess that not having enough to maximize their storage income was never their problem.
netsharc 2y ago
It's probably not hard to guess that the D&L people are in on the scam and that this Stefanski guy is giving them a cut of the profits, but a newspaper can't write such speculations down. But hey, welcome to the new reality, this is probably fine in the corrupt nation of Elonistan. Relevant: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1062178 https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1062178
citizenpaul 2y ago
The Stefanski guy is obviously cutting the DMV employee in on the scam but the paper can't print that unless they can prove it or they can be sued for libel. We live in America where you can criminally enrich yourself but if a third party points out it is happening they go to jail instead.

datadrivenangel 2y ago

Preferential treatment may be quite valuable, but this definitely seems a bit overkill.

vonmoltke 2y ago

> What? They're giving away cars just to cut in line? That seems a pointlessly costly deal. Maybe I'm not understanding the scam correctly. You're not. As the article notes > Under state law, the profits from sales of towed cars are supposed to belong to the vehicle owners. Towing companies have to hold onto the proceeds for a year and turn over any remaining money, after subtracting their fees, to the state. This means D&L doesn't give a shit how much they sell the cars for as long as they get more than the towing and storage fees for them. Depending on how many cars they deal with, it might actually be more profitable to turn them over quickly for pennies on the dollar than let them sit in the yard and rack up higher fees.

djeastm 2y ago

The towing company isn't getting the profits from the sale of the cars. The law has the money going to the state if the owner doesn't claim it within a certain amount of time. So their incentive is just the favor and clearing out vehicles that don't benefit them quickly (and possibly a small kickback from the seller to the towing manager, but that's just my speculation) Pretty sad that after all that investigation no one seems to be held accountable, but I suppose that's life these days.

jfengel 2y ago
I assume they at least get their "storage costs" back. Which is plenty profitable.

thenewwazoo 2y ago

So I think it goes like this: * D&L Auto Body & Towing tows a car, incurring tow and storage fees * vehicle owner doesn't (or can't) recover the car, and D&L Auto Body & Towing may now request permission from Dominik Stefanski to sell the car to recoup costs if the car is worth less than $1500. state law says money from the sale above the towing and storage fees goes back to the (now-former) owner * Dominik Stefanski lets D&L Auto Body & Towing cut the line (saving time, and time is money) and grants permission to sell the car, in exchange for letting him preferentially purchase the car for under $1500 * D&L Auto Body & Towing misrepresents the car's condition in DMV paperwork to justify (to Stefanski!) the low valuation, which enables the sale. Dominik Stefanski purchases the car for less than $1500, but presumably more than D&L Auto Body & Towing's actual costs. the (former) vehicle owner gets cheated * Dominik Stefanski then restores the car to its condition when towed, and sells it for a tidy profit

thrance 2y ago
Now I wonder how long that line possibly could be, to justify losing hundreds of dollars simply not to sit in it.
- nullc 2y ago
  I don't think the D&L is losing anything in that arrangement. They're only ever entitled to the towing and storage fees. Any excess above the towing and storage fees goes to the owner. Fairly pricing the car may make it take longer to sell. Assuming that towing is much more profitable than storage and that their business is mostly storage limited (e.g. they could tow more but their lot quickly fills)-- then anything that helps them quickly turn over cars-- including fast sales and line skipping-- can make them a lot more money. The only way selling hurts them is if they're so towing limited that quickly selling cars will leave their lot empty when they could have otherwise been earning storage fees. And even then, a car with storage fees in-excess of its value will never get picked up nor sell for more than those fees and could easily turn into a loss for them. Given that crooks like these can probably just go around and tow random cars should their lot ever be too empty, I'm going to guess that not having enough to maximize their storage income was never their problem.

netsharc 2y ago

It's probably not hard to guess that the D&L people are in on the scam and that this Stefanski guy is giving them a cut of the profits, but a newspaper can't write such speculations down. But hey, welcome to the new reality, this is probably fine in the corrupt nation of Elonistan. Relevant: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1062178 https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1062178

citizenpaul 2y ago

The Stefanski guy is obviously cutting the DMV employee in on the scam but the paper can't print that unless they can prove it or they can be sued for libel. We live in America where you can criminally enrich yourself but if a third party points out it is happening they go to jail instead.