Many members of the general public perceive car dealerships as places where questionable activities occur. According to one whistleblower, his experience working for a Chicago-area dealership revealed not only questionable sales tactics but also allegations of fraud, sexual assault and forgery among his former colleagues.
In Nicholas Davidson's federally filed whistleblower lawsuit, he said he worked for the Kunes Country Ford dealership of Antioch, near Chicago, for just under three months as a finance manager. Initially, he was asked to clean up deals done by the previous finance manager described as “illegal, fraudulent and deceptive."
He claimed those deals involved a regional general manager and several other employees. In one case, Davidson said, a co-signer signature on a piece of loan paperwork didn’t match that of their driver’s license or credit application. When he reported the suspected forgery, the general manager evidently took no action.
Davidson also said a salesman came into work drunk one day, assaulted him and caused serious injury. That same salesman would reportedly later plead guilty to battery, get fired for coming to work under the influence of alcohol, and then later be rehired by the dealer, said the complaint. According to Automotive News, the lawsuit contends the same salesman engaged in sexual harassment of an 18-year-old cashier at the dealership.
When Davidson helped this cashier prepare a sexual harassment complaint for the human resources department, he said he was targeted for retaliation. Not long after, he was fired despite receiving no disciplinary action for misconduct or performance issues. Now, the dealer is reportedly fighting his workers’ compensation claim.
Neither Kunes Country Ford nor Davidson’s attorney chose to release more details about the case when contacted by Autonews. The case is set for its first hearing Jan. 18.
