OCTOBER 23, 2003

DILLON: ROSLYN HEIGHTS AUTO DEALER ARRESTED FOR FRAUD

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon announced today that the owner and operator of a Roslyn Heights auto leasing and sales business has been arrested for misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars from his customers and various financial institutions.

Gregg Rubin, 46, owner of Shari Lyn Leasing Corporation, 185 Roslyn Road, Roslyn Heights, is charged with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a Class C Felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison; Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a Class D Felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison; and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a Class E Felony punishable by up to 4 years in prison.

According to Dillon, "The defendant would sell vehicles that he had either purchased from other auto dealers, or that had pre-existing liens on them. The defendant would keep all the money from the sale for himself, failing to either pay the dealer from whom he bought the vehicle or pay off the existing lien. This would leave the purchaser of the vehicle unable to obtain a clear title, and unable to register the vehicle; and it would leave the financial institution holding the lien with an unpaid loan and the loss of its collateral - the vehicle. In some cases, this resulted in the lien holder retrieving the vehicle from the purchaser, who bought it in good faith from Rubin, then ended up with no car and no money.

"In a second kind of scheme, the defendant would assign leases - falsely claiming that these leases had been accepted by his customers - to financial institutions as security for loans to Rubin's business, Shari Lyn Leasing. In some cases, the customer actually had possession of the vehicle mentioned in the lease, but had obtained financing from a different institution and knew nothing of the lease arranged by the defendant. In other cases, the customer never even had possession of the vehicle which Rubin had pledged as collateral for the loan.

"To date, we have received complaints from more than 30 individuals and businesses regarding this defendant. I urge anyone who believes they may also have been victimized by him to contact the District Attorney's Criminal Frauds Bureau at (516)571-3343."

Rubin will be arraigned today in First District Court, Hempstead. The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.