United States v. Gabler

Andrew Gabler (defendant) owned two Pennsylvania car dealerships, Lakeside Auto Sales and Lakeside Chevrolet, which sold and serviced new and used vehicles. Chad Bednarski (defendant) served as the finance manager for both dealerships. To purchase their vehicle inventory, the dealerships relied on floor-plan financing provided by S&T Bank. S&T Bank conducted monthly audits at both dealerships to verify the sales of vehicles that the dealerships had purchased using its floor-plan financing. Starting around January 2015 and continuing through January 2019, Gabler submitted fraudulent auto-loan applications to financial institutions on behalf of customers. He falsely reported that customers had made down payments when, in fact, they had not. At the same time, Gabler and Bednarski withheld crucial information from S&T Bank. After selling vehicles that the dealerships had purchased utilizing S&T Bank’s floor-plan financing, Gabler and Bednarski deliberately failed to notify the bank of the sales, in an effort to delay or avoid the dealerships’ obligation to pay S&T Bank. To conceal their misconduct, Gabler and Bednarski submitted falsified buyers’ orders during S&T Bank’s audits. These documents listed sales dates that were later than the actual dates the vehicles were sold. The intent was to mislead the bank into believing the delayed or missing payments were legitimate. This scheme caused approximately $1.88 million in losses to S&T Bank. Based on the foregoing facts, a federal grand jury charged Gabler and Bednarski with conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud in violation of federal law.