The owner of Sunnyvale Motorcars used car dealership, which closed late last year leaving many consignment customers unpaid and their BMWs, Cadillacs and other high-end vehicles gone, was arrested Thursday on six counts of grand theft, prosecutors said.
Officers of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety arrested Ameen Wisal, the 50-year-old Campbell man who often went by the fictitious name of “Andy Paul.” His bail was set at $500,000.
Wisal faces up to six years and four months in prison, if convicted. An arraignment has not yet been scheduled.
“When Sunnyvale Motorcars suddenly closed, people were left without their cars, recompense or answers,” Deputy District Attorney Georg Behrens said in a statement. “We will work hard to seek criminal accountability for their losses, as well as restitution.”
Until it closed in December, Sunnyvale Motorcars at 681 E. El Camino Real sold high-end used cars, many of them taken on consignment from their owners. Customers who consigned their vehicles with Sunnyvale Motorcars were never notified the business was closing and were met with an empty lot.
Many customers were not paid for the sale of their vehicles, prosecutors say. Others received bad checks from the dealership. Some customers complained that the cars they bought from Sunnyvale Motorcars turned out to be still legally owned by someone else.
Anyone with information about this case is requested to contact Detective Christopher Ketchum of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety at 408-730-7129.
