The former chief financial officer of Autonation Honda in northwest Miami-Dade County has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of grand larceny related to the buying and selling of vehicles.
Carlos Ravelo, 51, had worked as chief financial officer of the AutoNation Honda Miami Lakes dealership, located at 5925 NW and 167th St, in the city of Hialeah, from early 2021 to late December 2022.
After a months-long investigation, the authorities detected an organized fraud scheme by which Ravelo allegedly stole more than 110 thousand dollars from several customers in alleged sales of cars which had been made in cash, but whose vehicles were not never been delivered.
One of the victims allegedly denounced giving Ravelo $33,900 for the purchase of three cars that they allegedly sold to him at the dealership, but which he never received, according to the police report.
The man provided police with a bank receipt showing withdrawals from his Wells Fargo account for $8,900, a second for $15,000 and a third for $10,000, with which he paid cash for the purchase of a 2019 Honda Civic, a 2019 Honda CRV and a 2015 Honda CRV.
Another of the victims said that she went to the dealership where Ravelo worked because he had been a student of his stepmother and he trusted the place. The defendant promised her a good price but only if she paid cash, so the woman made two payments totaling $32,000 to buy a car she never received.
After a few weeks, subject stopped taking victim’s calls and she requested reimbursement. When he finally went to the dealership, they told him the subject was no longer working with them.
According to the authorities’ report, Ravelo called another of the victims and promised to sell him several cars worth $50,000, which he got in cash. After a week without receiving the cars or properties, the man demanded the full return of the money, of which he only got $45,000. The rest was never delivered to him because when he arrived at the dealership looking for the CFO, they informed him he had been fired.
In some of the scams, Ravelo offered bounced checks as a token of goodwill to victims who waited days for cars they had already purchased, according to the police report. In these was the home address of the defendant’s mother, as some people asked, only to find that the subject’s mother said she was aware that her son was taking money to people and that other victims had passed through her house with the same problem.
Those who complained to the dealership found only a response from senior management stating that the subject had been terminated but they did not know where he was, while urging them to file a complaint as they knew of other similar cases.
Most of the victims allege that they were under the impression that the transaction was a legitimate transaction because it was conducted in the office of the chief financial officer of AutoNation Honda Miami Lakes.
In an official statement, Marc Cannon, Executive Vice President and Director of Customer Experience for AutoNation, said, “We have been working with local authorities and will continue to assist with this issue.”
Carlos Ravelo is currently being held at Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Jail and faces multiple counts of robbery.