Auto shop owner indicted

Auto shop owner indicted

By Nick Buglione

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota charged 57-year-old East Islip resident Dean Poupis, owner of the Masters Auto Collision shops on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow and Merrick Road in Seaford as well as Cavalier Auto Body in Huntington Station, with the top racketeering count of enterprise corruption on Monday, Dec. 16.

Also charged with the same count were Douglas Sessa, 41, manager of the East Meadow shop, Angelo Cianfarano, 47, co-owner of Cavalier, and Harry Zolotas, 26, described by insurance crime investigators as quality-control manager of Cavalier.

"Enterprise corruption is the state version of the racketeering statute that federal prosecutors use," said Bob Clifford, Spota's spokesman. "Racketeering is a planned, organized attempt to acquire funds or property by illegal means."

According to Clifford, Poupis and his associates had made hundreds of thousands of dollars in an insurance scam that allegedly involved billing insurance companies for unneeded parts and "juicing" claims.

"Juicing a claim is when you bring in a Corvette that has $4,000 in damage, and the auto body shop takes a sledgehammer to it and makes it $10,000 in damage and takes photos of it," Clifford said. "Some of these auto fraud rings also take undamaged parts off a vehicle, put on damaged parts just for the photos that go to the insurance companies, and put back on the undamaged parts."

Poupis, Sessa, Cianfarano and Zolotas all pleaded not guilty to the charges. At press time, none could be reached for comment. If convicted of enterprise corruption, they face 12 1/2 to 25 years in prison.

Thirteen insurance appraisers were also indicted for allegedly providing higher damage estimates for cars they knew shop workers had intentionally damaged.

 Auto shop owner indicted

"These arrests come as part of an aggressive new initiative by New York state to seize the assets of criminals engaging in insurance fraud," said Gregory Serio, superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, which worked closely with Spota's Insurance Crime Unit, "sending a clear message that criminals will not be permitted to profit off the backs of hard-working families."

Formed at the beginning of the year, the Insurance Crime Unit had been eyeing Poupis's businesses since last summer.

A search of his Cavalier Auto Body shop in July revealed $117,000 in cash in a garage floor safe. Following that investigation, Poupis, Cianfarano and Paul Mertz, 47-year-old general manager of the shop, were arrested for third-degree insurance fraud. Poupis posted bail after the arrest.

Knowing he had two other shops in Nassau, the Insurance Crime Unit then launched an investigation of those locations, Clifford said.

Searches were done at both sites, he added, and financial records and other pieces of evidence were seized. Clifford would not say exactly what was taken or if any cash was found at the East Meadow shop.

"If people were customers of either Masters location and they think there was something amiss, they should call the Suffolk County Insurance Crimes Unit," Clifford said. The unit can be reached weekdays at (631) 853-5510.

This is not the first time Poupis and his shops have made headlines. In June 2001, the Herald reported that East Meadow residents living near Masters Auto Collision had been miffed for years because the shop was parking wrecked cars waiting to be serviced on residential streets.

They were also concerned about Poupis's proposal to turn a small piece of property behind Masters into a parking lot to house the damaged vehicles. The Town of Hempstead later denied that request.

Auto shop owner indicted

Patricia Fonte-Daniels, who with her sister owns a house on nearby Fourth Street, said the shop is still an eyesore. "When I go to visit during the day, it's business as usual," said Fonte-Daniels, who no longer lives in the East Meadow house but visits her sister there at least twice a week. "He still has his wrecked cars parked on the street."