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Employee steals $1 million from Mercedes dealer
When easy money is there for the taking, it takes a strong person to walk away. For David Delgado of Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel, the temptation was more than he could bare. Delgado worked for an employer with very little fiscal oversight, and in the end, the service lot attendant helped relieve the dealership of $1.053 million of its precious green-backs. The busy Mercedes dealership, which sells 450 new and used vehicles per month, entrusted Delgado with approving time cards for 27 temp workers at the car wash. Since nobody was watching over Delgado, he was able to work out deals with the workers to let them overcharge for hours worked, in exchange for getting a portion of that money for himself.
The scam worked for over three years before someone reported Delgado, which led to his confession of the crime. Delgado has to pay back all the money the dealership lost, and serve 18 months in federal prison for his felony crime. While it's good to see that justice was served in this situation, it boggles the mind how such a booming dealership could not notice an extra $1 million in car wash labor and not even notice. It's almost as bad as Delgado entrusting 27 people with his secret and thinking nobody would ever feel slighted and turn him in.
[Source: Auto News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
the marais 11:09AM (12/04/2007)
Well, from the company that has had no moral qualms with supplying cars to some of the world's most corrupt and embezzling leaders during the past 100 years, why wouldn't its employees follow suit?
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paul34 11:36AM (12/04/2007)
Um, what? What does that have to do with anything?
Ignoring for the moment this is a *dealer* and not a manufacturer, why would it even matter? If someone wants to buy a MB, MB will sell them a car. What's wrong with that?
It's called business. Should the city start cutting off utilities to lower-income areas as to not provide basic needs to areas that have more criminals? That's pretty silly and ignorant all at the same time.
Alex 11:11AM (12/04/2007)
Holy crap! Good luck paying back all that money David!
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tankd0g 11:27AM (12/04/2007)
+1 Reputation points for that awesome graphic.
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Clarence 11:26AM (12/04/2007)
"It's almost as bad as Delgado entrusting 27 people with his secret and thinking nobody would ever feel slighted and turn him in."
Maybe someone actually considered the act to be wrong rather than merely feeling slighted. Is there a chance that there is one human left on the planet who would do so?
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rgseidl 11:26AM (12/04/2007)
Makes you wonder if management was merely complacent or if someone above Delgado was in on the scam.
@ the marais -
your comment is wide of the mark. This particular person was employed by the dealer, i.e. a franchise owner. Besides, manufacturers are not responsible for their customers' behavior.
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Polly Prissy Pants 11:32AM (12/04/2007)
That doesn't even make sense. If you do the math then it runs approximately $28,000 a month over and above what they would normally expect to pay for carwash labor. Even if you had 27 full time employee's making $10/hour working 40 hours a week washing cars (?!?!) that would come to $43,000 per month. Assuming that estimate is somewhere close, who was managing this place to the point that they were paying $71,000 every month to wash cars instead of only $43,000 and it took them over 3 years to figure it out?
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Todd 11:35AM (12/04/2007)
My guess is that the temp workers were illegals, and Delgado probably threatened to go to ICE if they said anything.
Graphic would have been funnier if you used Hoss Delgado
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nissanfreak87 11:40AM (12/04/2007)
or the ham-burglar
R.Autry 12:22PM (12/04/2007)
To Marais...Please name one corrupt world leader that received a free Mercedes. Thanks...
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Luis 12:25PM (12/04/2007)
Another fresh off the press story...c'mon guys! This was out YESTERDAY!
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kevjohn 12:44PM (12/04/2007)
How DARE they post a story that's ONE DAY OLD?!?!? Regardless of the fact that it's news to most of us, some of us have already seen this story. The nerve!!
500 1:20PM (12/04/2007)
C'mon, it took them at least an extra day to come up with that graphic...
Gardiner Westbound 1:01PM (12/04/2007)
A "ghost" payroll is a better, less riskier way of scamming a casual payroll account. Non-existent employees can't rat you out.
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Fooman 1:16PM (12/04/2007)
Scary thing is that dealership moves 450 cars a month. There is an even larger MB dealership about 10 miles away that sells even more... Fletcher Jones in Newport sells more MB cars then anyone else in the world.
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LMBVette 1:44PM (12/04/2007)
I know of dealership that over 10 years had 30+ million stolen through it's rental car subsidiary by one person, who when caught, fled to a non-extradition country
. How much money must you be making to not notice 30 million?
Yeah....lots!
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Chase 1:52PM (12/04/2007)
"it boggles the mind how such a booming dealership could not notice an extra $1 million in car wash labor and not even notice"
huh?
Bloggers have a bad tendency to not even read over their blurbs once before posting them, this makes no sense...
I think he's trying to say that they didn't notice an extra million was headed out the window... and they didn't even notice lol
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Allen McDonald 2:25PM (12/04/2007)
According to the article, David Delgado was convicted of having stolen ± $1 million and subsequently sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Now, morals, ethics and integrity aside and assuming his ill gotten $1 million dollar income, that works out to him earning ± $55,555.55/month or ± $323.00/hour during his 18 month sentence.
That ain't no bad deal. (:-)
It all kind of depends on what sort of time frame leverage he can negotiate for his pay back schedule.
Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®
http://tinyurl.com/sl4vg
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Seminole 2:39PM (12/04/2007)
You missed the part where it said "Delgado has to pay back all the money the dealership lost."
So he is earning $0 per hour while in jail. If he looks on the bright side, he'll get to be someone's wife for free.
Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo® 2:54PM (12/04/2007)
¡ Hola Seminole et al !
And perhaps U missed the last paragraph of my comment –
"It all kind of depends on what sort of time frame leverage he can negotiate for his pay back schedule."
If he can negotiate a twenty year or so payback and cab surreptitiously invest the $1 million at a high enough interest rate, he can live quite well off the accumulated and ongoing interest when he is released and he STILL have access to the principal. (:-)
Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®