Michigan car salesman accused of fake employee pricing costing FCA $8.7 million

Federal authorities have charged a 34-year old salesman named Apollon Nimo with wire fraud, saying he masterminded an employee pricing scheme that reportedly cost Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) around $8.7 million. He operated undetected for several years, authorities said, giving thousands of new-car buyers unbeatable deals while receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses.

Nimo began giving employee discounts on purchases and loans in 2014, court documents say, but it's a little puzzling that such a scheme wasn't uncovered until 2021. He closed more sales with employee discounts than any other FCA salesperson in the United States, according to Automotive News. Prosecutors believe his customers received a 5% discount by falsely claiming they were the brother- or sister-in-law of an FCA employee. They added that Employee Purchase Control Numbers (EPCN) were often bought and sold on private Facebook groups.

For example, court documents assert that Nimo's father, Salim, leased at least three different cars in 2014 through his son, who worked at Parkway Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Clinton Township, Michigan. He received a discount on each vehicle by claiming he was the brother-in-law of three different FCA employees. FCA seemingly trusted its dealers and their personnel to do the right thing, and it did not verify whether the family connection was true.