DA aims to put ‘human face’ on victims in Honda hearing
DOWNTOWN LA — Attorneys on Thursday argued in court that some of the car buyers allegedly swindled by finance managers at Honda of Santa Monica actually paid the price for the vehicles they bargained for.
Ali Asghar Hussain, Hamid Reza Khaki, Yaprem Zohrab Yaralian, Ahtamet Uersunthorn-wattana, Yaser Alkasem and Thomas Holterhoff all face felony counts related to the overcharging of customers at Honda of Santa Monica, located at 1720 Santa Monica Blvd., according to the District Attorney’s office.
The alleged scam primarily involved finance managers tacking on charges of “theft etch” to customers’ contracts without their knowledge. Theft etch marks a vehicle’s parts with traceable numbers in the event of a theft.
According to the felony complaint, 33 customers were bilked out of nearly $30,000 between 2001 and 2002, when all of the defendants worked in the finance and sales departments at the dealership.
During Thursday’s portion of the preliminary hearing, attorneys heard from two alleged victims of the scam, as well as John Yacovone, the county consumer affairs officer now responsible for the investigation. Yacovone on Thursday continued relaying testimony from the alleged victims whose car-buying experiences he began recounting for the court on Monday.
Deputy District Attorney Dana Aratani, a prosecutor for the case, said putting alleged victims on the stand during the preliminary hearing is not necessarily common in fraud cases. Aratani said there is a danger in allowing alleged victims to testify at both the preliminary hearing and later at a jury trial, as some may be called upon to do in the Honda of Santa Monica case, because defense attorneys may find contradictions in statements of those who testify twice.
Those contradictions may then be used against the people’s argument, Aratani said. However, the DA’s Office decided to present two of the alleged victims to the court in the hopes of putting a “human face” to the preliminary hearing, Aratani said.
Honda of Santa Monica is owned by Sonic Automotive, Inc., according to attorneys involved in the case.
The preliminary hearing is expected to continue this week and possibly into next week, according to the DA’s Office.
ALLEGED VICTIM TAKES STAND One of the victims who testified on Thursday was Douglas Greminger, a Torrance resident who traded an old vehicle for a 2002 Honda Accord, which he leased from Honda of Santa Monica on Nov. 30, 2001.
The dealership employee who assisted Greminger in his trade was “Joey” Yaralian, according to the DA’s Office. However, Greminger failed to identify “Joey” in court among the six defendants.
Greminger stated his goal with his trade was to see to it that he would be making payments in the range of $310 per month. While discussing the terms of the trade, Greminger told the court that he informed Honda staff that he didn’t want theft etch because he “didn’t need it, and I didn’t want to pay extra for it.”
According to Greminger, the Accord had a “kill switch,” which he felt would be more effective preventing theft than theft etch would.
While signing the paperwork, Greminger said he came across a work completion form which indicated theft etch had been added to the vehicle. He recounted that he was assured by Honda staff that he would not have to pay for the theft etch.
Deputy District Attorney Jeff McGrath, a prosecutor on the case, showed the court a purchase order for theft etch, valued at $785, which had been added to the vehicle.
On the order form was a signature which Greminger claimed was not his own.
“I did not sign [that portion] of the contract,” Greminger told the court. “That’s not my signature.”
Fred Minassain, Yaralian’s attorney, asked Greminger if the lease contract had included etch in it.
Greminger said “no.” Minassain then asked Greminger if in the terms of the lease he still received the $310 monthly payments he requested.
“Yes,” Greminger said. Gary Lincenberg, an attorney representing Khaki in the case, explained to the court that Honda of Santa Monica may have had some internal accounting practices in place by which some portion of car sales were shared between the sales and finance departments, perhaps to assist with employee commissions.
Lincenberg told the Daily Press the result of this form of accounting would be similar to adding a CD player to a customer’s vehicle, while not charging the customer extra for it.
Inside of court, Lincenberg asked Greminger if it would have upset him if he were paying the $310 per month for his Accord, as he requested, but had theft etch included at the same cost, for the benefit of Honda of Santa Monica’s accounting purposes.
“I have no understanding of [Honda’s] internal accounting,” Greminger told the court. “All I know is that I didn’t ask for the etch.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 20, 2006. Read the original PDF.