Pinoy ex-car dealer to stand trial in US for swindling

A Filipino car dealer who allegedly swindled tens of millions of dollars from his clients and defrauded banks of hundreds of millions more has been scheduled for trial in the United States on January 28. Eminiano “Jun” Reodica, former president of Grand Chevrolet in Glendora, was caught by FBI agents on November 27 in California, his court appointed attorney Moriah Radin said. According to a report of the news site Asian Journal, the 68-year-old Reodica faces several charges of fraud, creating false credit statements; and aiding and abetting. Radin noted that there were no issues in Reodica's arrest as the suspect provided his true identity and has been "very cooperative with law enforcement officials.” Asian Journal reported that Reodica racked up $200 million in debt before he declared for bankruptcy of his companies, Grand Chevrolet, Grand Wilshire Leasing, Grand Wilshire Finance Corp., and Grand Rizal Finance. Reodica allegedly defrauded banks by forging car loan records and reselling duplicate loans while swindling clients with enticing returns of up to 20 percent. The report said Reodica made customers sign paperwork they barely understand and sold cars to people with bad credit to get a quick commission and regain ownership of the car. The Department of Motor Vehicles cited Grand Chevrolet with 1,500 violations totalling to a $100,000 fine which caused Reodica's car empire to collapse. In 1988, Reodica, a Laguna native fled, allegedly left his wife and four children and hid in the Philippines, his home country. Court records show that he later resided in Queensland, Australia where he became a resident in 1992 and remarried in 1993. It is not known if authorities extradited Reodica back to the US or if he was caught in American soil after 24 years of hiding. He is currently detained by authorities until the trial begins. Former role model Reodica who had a simple success story used to be one of the Filipino immigrants who were looked up to by the Filipino-American community in the US. He graduated with flying colors as a summa cum laude from the University of the East and arrived in the US in the mid-1970's. From being a busboy, he worked his way up the ladder to become the vice president of a car dealership in Encino. He then bought his own dealership in 1978 and employed an immigrant workforce that helped bolster employment in their area. His dealership, Grand Chevrolet then became the third in national sales volume with over 600 employees in the mid 80's. Even TIME Magazine featured his success story as one of the best of the decade as he got a $250 million extra line of credit for his companies presented by General Electric Credit Corp. His crowning glory was when he was appointed as a member of the New Motor Vehicle Board by none other than former California Governor George Deukmejian. - VVP, GMA News