Former Toyota Employees Colluded with a Body Shop
Two former Toyota employees conspired with an auto body contractor to exploit a support program designed to help customers and fix vehicle paint problems. The dealer involved is Toyota of Watertown in Boston. The lawsuit says two former dealership service employees and a former body shop contractor exploited Toyota’s support system and submitted more than $2.1 million in fraudulent claims for vehicles that were not eligible for reimbursement.
The lawsuit named Rodney Dukes, former Fixed Operations Director of Watertown Toyota; Paul Nguyen, former Service Adviser of Watertown Toyota; and Autobody Quad of Malden, Massachusetts, and its former owner, Fabio Gomes. The mentioned parties are the defendants in this case.
The Scheme
Watertown Toyota has a manufacturer-powered program that helps its consumers deal with peeling paint. Dubbed the Customer Support Program ZKG, it aims to right manufacturing wrongs by fixing paint issues through third-party contractors. Launched in 2019, the program reimburses dealerships and authorized contractors to fix peeling paint caused by defective primer, Automotive News reports.
However, instead of doing their due diligence and supporting the program, according to the lawsuit, Autobody Squad saw it as an opportunity for unwarranted enrichment. To facilitate this, the two former Toyota employees, Dukes and Nguyen, received under-the-table payments and gifts to keep processing fraudulent peeling-paint claims…