Former NIADA President indicted for fraud that victimized CUs & banks
Andrew Gabler and Chad Bednarski allegedly ran a four-year, multimillion-dollar auto loan scheme.
A Pennsylvania grand jury indicted the former president of the National Independent Auto Dealership Association for allegedly running a four-year, multimillion-dollar auto loan fraud scheme that victimized credit unions, banks and General Motors.
Andrew Gabler, 50 of Harborcreek, who served as president for NIADA for more than a year and owned two car dealerships outside of Erie, and his finance manager Chad Bednarski, 48, of Fairview, were indicted last week on 17 felony counts of bank, wire and mail fraud.
According to the indictment, from January 2015, to January 2019, Gabler and Bednarski falsely said that customers made a down payment and then inflated their income on auto loan applications submitted to financial institutions on behalf of customers.
The scheme allegedly victimized the $317 million Widget Federal Credit Union and the $111 million Tendto Credit Union, both of Erie, the $373 billion Capitol One Bank in McClean, Va., the $7.3 billion S&T Bank in Indiana, Pa., and General Motors.
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