A recent story on Phoenix's Channel 3 gave me déjà vu.
It featured an Arizona woman who claims she was ripped off by a used car dealer. Her story goes that she put $1,000 as a down payment on a car, and that she was instructed to return later after it was repaired. But when she returned, she found the lot empty and the dealership closed down.
According to the report, the shop, Auto World USA, is owned by a businessman named Gustavo R. Anaya.
That name may be familiar to Fronteras Desk listeners. Back in March, I did a story about Anaya and allegations against him of loan modification fraud that targeted Spanish-speaking homeowners in Las Vegas.
At that point, Nevada's Attorney General had just filed criminal charges against Anaya for theft and mortgage lending fraud. A few months earlier, Arizona's Attorney General had filed a civil suit against him that made similar allegations about his activities in Tucson.
Before those suits, Anaya was well regarded enough in Las Vegas that a Spanish-language news show interviewed him as a guest to explain how not to get scammed.
The Las Vegas Sun also reported on Anaya, and found he had his own financial problems (and therefore a potential motive for get-rich-quick schemes). The newspaper reported that Anaya owed $2.3 million from a court settlement with Nissan Motor Company.
Now according to Channel 3, yet another agency is on Anaya's trail. The station reported that Arizona's Department of Transportation is investigating Auto World USA.
