According to the arrest affidavit, Joseph Carlson, a representative of Toyota Financial Services based in Overland Park, Kan., told police that Toyota owned all the cars, having lent the dealership "millions of dollars in operating expenses." Carlson told police there was no reason to convert car documents to ownership titles except to "convert them (the vehicles) to cash."
Childress, the deputy county attorney, said the transportation company based in Utah appears to have been another victim and was not knowingly involved. He said the company had been paid with a fraudulent cashier's check. An arrest affidavit said the company had been paid $18,000 and had been cooperating in locating the vehicles.
As a retired veteran of the car business, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that the female controller (Fait) had a little something going with the dealership owner (Patch) if you know what I mean
From post #17
The document said in December there was a lot of turmoil between Patch, Fait and Covello and the employee heard Patch and Covello talk about Fait taking money. The employee said the three had a meeting and afterwards they were all getting along and Patch said Fait would be staying to close out the books.
I think the woman was confronted about the missing money and they ended up coming up with this car theft scheme.
From the article
Miranda Cervantes, an employee at Legacy Auto Sales, said employees arrived Tuesday morning and found most of the cars missing from the lot. The desks used by Patch, Fait and Covello had been emptied, and their computers had been taken.
Police found similar circumstances at the trio's homes. Spencer said police went to the home of Fait and a home shared by Patch and Covello. It appeared that most of their belongings had been removed, Spencer said, and both homes were posted for sale.
The men lived together. (not that there's anything wrong with that - just saying)