DECEMBER 2, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015, 6:43 PM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The New Jersey Commission of Investigation (SCI) on Wednesday released a report targeting businesses known as multi-dealer locations that the agency said enable hundreds of car dealers to operate beyond the state’s regulatory authority.
The report, which identifies 11 multi-dealer locations (MDLs) in the state – including five in Bergen and Passaic – said they are part of a system that is open to abuses, such as non-payment of taxes by the dealers at the location, consumer fraud, and “suspicious financial transactions on a domestic and international scale.’’
Most of the report focused on the activities at one MDL, New Jersey Auto Dealers Mall in Bridgeton in Cumberland County, where 1,214 dealers are registered. The report said that dealer was a “sham that serves as the foundation for an amalgam of consumer and bank fraud, unpaid taxes, suspicious financial transactions and other questionable, unscrupulous and possibly illegal activities.” The owner also had ties to organized crime, the report said.
