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# Honda whistle-blower hits back
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/honda-whistle-blower-hits-back/
- Published: 2005-10-07T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:52:12.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Business, Mid-City, #archive-import

*Whistle-blower’s case to be settled out of court*

MID-CITY — The former general manager of Honda of Santa Monica who blew the whistle on alleged consumer fraud by the dealership’s sales and finance departments is suing his former employer for wrongful termination.

James Alexandre, who was general manager at the dealership until April 2002, is suing North Carolina-based Sonic Automotive, which owns car dealerships across the country. Sonic reportedly bought Honda of Santa Monica in 1999 from Kramer Motors Incorporated.

Alexandre claims that once he learned that six employees were allegedly overcharging customers to pad their own commission sales, he went to Sonic managers to alert them of the scam. But they did nothing, Alexandre claims.

“He reported it and they put him off,” said Mike Goldstein, a Beverly Hills-based attorney who is representing Alexandre. “He got more vocal about it... he was wrongfully terminated because he knew that there were wrongdoings at the dealership and they forced him to resign.”

John Boggs, a Northern California-based attorney who is representing Sonic Automotive in Alexandre’s claim, didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Alexandre, who still lives in the Los Angeles area and works for himself, is seeking unspecified damages for loss of earnings and emotional distress, Goldstein said.

“He was out of work for a long time,” Goldstein said, adding his request for a jury trial was recently denied by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

Because Alexandre signed an arbitration agreement in his employment contract, it binds him to settle the matter out of court with Sonic representatives, a mediator and a retired judge. That binding arbitration hearing is scheduled for Nov. 28 through Dec. 1, Goldstein said.

Goldstein also is representing seven other former Honda of Santa Monica employees who left the dealership after the scam was reported. That arbitration hearing is scheduled for June 2006.

The alleged scam, which occurred from 2000 to 2002, involved the car dealership’s sales representatives tacking on charges of “theft etch” to customers’ contracts without them knowing it. Theft etch marks a vehicle’s parts with traceable numbers in the event of a theft.

After reporting the alleged scam to Sonic managers, Alexandre went to the Santa Monica Police Department, as well as to an Assistant U.S. Attorney, who apparently was a customer of Honda of Santa Monica.

“He reported to a number of different authorities,” Goldstein said.

Alexandre wrote a letter to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office detailing the allegations, which was received July 9, 2002\. The following day, the investigation was launched. The dealership was raided by investigators, including FBI agents, who seized boxes of files from the finance and sales departments on Sept. 25, 2002.

After a three-year investigation, the DA’s office one week ago issued felony arrest warrants for five former employees of Honda of Santa Monica. A sixth former employee was charged with fraud, but no arrest warrant was issued for him. A majority of them surrendered this week and will be arraigned on Oct. 31.

According to the felony complaint, 33 different 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. But authorities believe there are many more victims and at least $500,000 was defrauded from customers at the dealership.

The 25-page complaint details 114 overt acts that the defendants allegedly took part in. There also are 24 additional counts that charge the defendants with grand theft of personal property exceeding $400.

On the same day of the raid, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the dealership in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit alleges several customers were ripped off by the dealership, located at 1720 Santa Monica Blvd. That suit has been put on hold until the criminal investigation is complete, said Dan Hoffman, the attorney representing the plaintiffs.

Customers who have signed onto the lawsuit allege they had been given favorable deals in the showroom only to have the dealership’s finance department renegotiate the deals afterwards. Such a practice is forbidden by state law, according to the lawsuit.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 7, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/100705.pdf?ref=smdp.com)