Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Asheville police investigate 2nd embezzlement at RMC Financial Services

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Asheville police investigate 2nd embezzlement at RMC Financial Services

    http://lavozindependiente.com/?p=283

    For the second time in three years, Asheville police are investigating a report of embezzlement of loan payments from customers of the Hendersonville Road branch of RMC Financial Services, also known as Regional Finance. While RMC manager David Morgan did not return a telephone call seeking comment, according to a report he filed with Asheville police on February 23, RMC had been the victim of embezzlement of at least $6,000. The report named David Jimenez Marin, 31, of Candler as a person of interest.
    Jimenez, who is now in the Buncombe County jail in federal custody on unrelated cocaine trafficking charges, performed auto repossessions for RMC and is the husband of ex RMC employee Dianna Maria Alemán, 23, also of Candler.
    Asheville police detective Mike Downing said the couple are “persons of interest” in the case and two Hispanic RMC customers told La Voz Independiente that Alemán took cash payments from them without crediting their accounts.


    Borrower Rolando Vásquez Palofox of Asheville said he believes he paid far more to RMC than he owed, but that Jimenez, with the help of Alemán, repossessed a motorcycle and pick-up financed through RMC. Vasquez supplied receipts to La Voz Independiente, including a $300 “repossession fee.” The receipt is hand-written on a generic receipt form and does not appear along with other payments on a computerized statement on RMC stationery provided by Vasquez. A second client who asked not to be identified said he paid about $2,000 in cash to Alemán that was never credited to his account. In this case, the client’s vehicle was not repossessed.
    Alemán denied the allegations of both customers in a telephone interview in which she maintained that both clients regularly made their loan installments late. “They are liars”, she said, adding that she was suspended by RMC, rather than fired, for purportedly giving loans to family members.
    Downing said he is unaware how many clients’ accounts might be affected. After the initial RMC report, nearly three months have passed without the company providing Downing with more detailed documents he has requested.
    Alemán is out on bond awaiting sentencing in federal court after pleading guilty last week of a charge related to cocaine-trafficking, according to federal court records.
    Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Jimenez on Februrary 25, two days after the initial RMC report to Asheville, after intercepting a cellular telephone conversation a day earlier in which Jimenez indicated his intention to “flee the United States to Acapulco, Mexico to evade arrest on possible criminal charges unrelated to this investigation,” according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Asheville.
    Downing said Tuesday he was unaware of the intercepted telephone conversation.
    According to the DEA criminal complaint, Jimenez admitted supplying more than 3 kilograms of cocaine for use in the manufacture of crack cocaine at a residence on Waters Street in Asheville. DEA agents had Jimenez under investigation since last September, and their evidence includes video and wire-tap surveillance, according to the federal court documents.
    This is the second investigation of embezzlement at RMC investigated by Downing involving Hispanic customers at the same Hendersonville Road branch. In 2007, Ramona Sue Flowers, 35, formerly of Brevard, pleaded guilty in Buncombe County Superior Court to embezzling $38,000 and stealing the identities of three Hispanic customers in 2006.
    Flowers, who now lives in Haywood County, is serving five years supervised probation and is paying more than $33,000 in restitution to RMC in $595 monthly installments, according to Superior Court recor

  • #2
    Advise to lending instutions: Hire a criminal . They work on the cheap. Are you guys kidding me?

    Comment

    Working...
    X