Four accused of colluding to cheat car buyers, banks

A Costa Mesa woman faces 39 years in prison for her alleged role in what Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas is calling the largest fraud case against a car dealership in the county’s history.

Luz Belem Corral, who was a desk manager at Douglas Nissan in Orange, allegedly helped cheat banks, car buyers and others out of close to $1 million during a two-year period.

Along with co-conspirators Frank Urbano, Kevin DeRosier and Marwan Abdellatif, Corral filled out hundreds of loan applications with false information, authorities said.

“We got a tip saying that the Nissan Group was engaging in these kinds of fraudulent practices,” said Susan Kang Schroeder, a district attorney spokeswoman.

When they investigated these claims last year, the district attorney’s office found numerous complaints of identity theft and fraud filed with the Orange Police Department and the Better Business Bureau against the dealership.

The defendants mostly targeted Spanish-speaking customers who might not have understood what they were being asked to sign, officials said.

By overstating the incomes of their customers on loan applications, the salesmen were able to secure loans that were impossible for the car buyers to pay back, Schroeder said.

When a customer defaulted on a loan, they would lose their car, and the bank would lose money, but the salespeople would still benefit from the sale.

The defendants are charged with 43 felony counts of forgery, 31 felony counts of grand theft, one felony count of conspiracy to defraud another of property and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a crime. They are expected to be arraigned at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana soon, but a time has not yet been set.

— Alan Blank