A 62-year-old man was arrested for allegedly scamming a total of $600,000 from at least 100 clients of long-distance vehicle transportation brokerage companies he ran from his Southampton home.
Gregory Sclafani was charged Thursday with mail and wire fraud at Central Islip federal court.
“Under the guise of acting as a cost-effective broker of automobile transportation services, the defendant allegedly broke the trust of his victims and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from them,” said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said Sclafani solicited clients online to use his services to obtain hauling services for their vehicles, which gained him access to his victims’ bank accounts starting in 2008.
Sclafani allegedly failed to deliver the services and generated fraudulent checks in order to make repeated, unauthorized withdrawals from those customers’ accounts, authorities said.
Individuals who believe they may have been victims of his alleged fraud scheme should call 888-DOT-SAFT or file a complaint online.