A Marin County car dealer has been charged in federal court with two felonies for allegedly cheating consignment sellers and evading payroll taxes, court records show.
Walter Dawydiak faces counts of mail fraud, which carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence, and tax evasion, which is punishable by up to five years in prison, according to a prosecution filing. He could also face a fine of up to $250,000 on each charge, plus restitution.
Dawydiak was not arrested. An arraignment has been set for Jan. 27 in federal court in San Francisco.
The mail fraud charge alleges that Dawydiak — the proprietor of Cars Dawydiak on Paradise Drive in Corte Madera — bilked consignment sellers from January 2014 to September 2019, court records show.
Dawydiak’s attorney, Ed Swanson, said he expects Dawydiak to plead guilty, and that he “promptly and completely accepted responsibility for his actions.”
Dawydiak “also implemented new processes at the company in September 2019 to ensure clients always receive a detailed breakdown on expenses and what they are owed on a sale,” Swanson said.
“He is extremely remorseful, and has been working closely with the prosecutors and agents to repay clients who lost money because of his conduct as well as to make full payment to IRS for underreporting overtime payroll tax,” he said.
Cars Dawydiak “operated primarily as a high-end luxury automobile dealership in San Francisco,” according to the charging documents. The dealership largely relied on consignment sales for car owners looking to sell, and that the prices would be pre-negotiated.
As part of the alleged scheme, prosecutors say Dawydiak would lie to the sellers about how much the cars sold for and pocket the difference.
“Dawydiak took steps to conceal this scheme, including by causing the creation of false invoices and false sales transactions,” the prosecution alleged in its complaint.
Authorities also allege that Dawydiak tried to illegally reduce his payroll taxes by “willfully concealing the overtime payment of wages, including by making the payments in cash, keeping a separate set of records for these wages,” and falsifying tax records, the charging document says.
Federal authorities filed the charges in December.
The business’ website says clients who sell their cars through Cars Dawydiak “will get much more” compared to selling on their own.
“We discuss pricing and you set the starting price and have complete control over the price you accept,” the website says.
The site says the dealership has been in business since 1981.
The Independent Journal contributed to this report
