THis came up in the paper yesterday. Off-topic but here...
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Lakewood police investigate forged Chrysler car parts organization (UPDATED)
Posted by Stacey Mulick @ 03:52:44 pm
Lakewood police raided a home and business full of suspected forged auto parts Sunday after the owner was arrested at a Pennsylvania car show over the weekend.
Investigators returned to Layson’s Restoratons, 3107 106th St. S., on Monday to continue looking into allegations the owner was selling forged Chrysler car parts, from headlights to metal emblems, Lakewood Assistant Police Chief Mike Zaro said.
“It’s a pretty extensive deal,” he said. “It’s going to be a part that looks real but it’s forged.”
The owner has not yet been charged in Pierce County in connection with the case.
Chrysler Corp. started investigating the business three years ago and tried to get the man to stop selling the suspected forged parts. He was also overcharging customers.
Zaro said the corporation got frustrated and contacted law enforcement.
The owner was arrested Saturday at the Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, Pa., after he allegedly sold some of the fake parts to undercover officers, Pennsylvania television station, WGAL, reported.
Agents seized about 1,000 car parts, many of them for headlights, the station reported.
The officers also notified Lakewood police, who executed search warrants on the man’s home and business warehouse Sunday, Zaro said.
“We’ve been working with the Chrysler investigators out at the warehouse, identifying the auto parts that are forged,” he said.
Lakewood investigators were talking with the man’s current and former employees to find out more about the operation.
“He’s having somebody made his own auto parts,” Zaro said. “They are doing it at his behest.”
No other arrests have been made so far.
“It’s got the potential to really explode in lots of different directions,” Zaro said of the investigation.
UPDATE: Layson's owner Dave Layson released a statement denying "any wrongdoing."
[More:]
Lakewood, WA – Dave Layson, owner of Layson’s Restorations of Lakewood, Washington vehemently denies any wrongdoing in connection with the investigation that resulted in the searches of his properties in Kent and Lakewood, Washington, seizures of his inventory, and his arrest at the annual Chrysler at Carlisle car show in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The investigation comes as the culmination of a long-running dispute between Layson’s and the Chrysler Corporation and is the result of competitor’s complaints about the market share Layson’s has been able to capture manufacturing long-discontinued parts for the collector car hobby. Competitors have long been frustrated by Layson’s ability to bring these parts to market, and sell them at fair prices to consumers.
The suggestion that excess or ill-gotten profits have been generated is totally without merit. The costs associated with engineering, producing, marketing and shipping these long forgotten pieces is substantial. Layson’s has always sought to produce the best part at the lowest cost for the consumer and has done extensive legal research to support its position in this.
Layson manufactures parts without Chrysler’s trademark Pentastar logo and under the law, is completely justified in so doing. Layson’s has always sold the parts it manufactures as “Reproductions” and has bent over backwards to make the distinction clear because frankly, the new parts are far superior to the originals.
In addition, Chrysler has yet to roll-out a meaningful licensing program to include manufacturing standards, exclusivity agreements, marketing agreements or a uniform royalty structure.
Because of that fact, and years of turnover and indecision at Chrysler, Layson’s Restorations, like many other similar vendors, has not opted to participate in the company’s ill-conceived and yet to be fully developed licensure program. As a result, Chrysler has tried to intimidate and coerce vendors in this industry to pay into what amounts to a, “Black hole” of a non-existent and yet-unformed licensure program.
Parts that carry the Pentastar logo seized from Layson’s were all purchased from “licensed” vendors, and are not so called “Forged auto parts” as the mis-informed authorities acting at Chrysler’s behest allege.
Layson has records and purchase orders to document the acquisition of these parts and is confident that a more careful investigation will prove these facts. While Layson’s does not subscribe to Chrysler’s claim of licensure, other mis-informed vendors have been intimidated into doing so, and subsequently have produced parts bearing the trademark Pentastar. Again, any of those parts in Layson’s possession were legally purchased from those vendors and the documents exist to prove it.
Layson’s believes that the Chrysler Corporation wrote a criminal complaint that constituted a, “Wish list” of sorts. Chrysler was then able to persuade investigators in tiny North Middleton, PA to carry their water, which in turn lead to a request for assistance from the Lakewood, WA Police Department.
The searches, seizures and resulting loss of business have been entirely excessive. The serious verbiage contained in the charges, excessive bail, and the use of clearly excessive criminal charges are outrageous.
The questioning of employees, the seizure of personal property and the blind speculation about, “Exploding” investigations by Lakewood law enforcement officials who have no background in this case or trademark law are way, way out of line, are libelous on their face and have already caused Layson’s Restorations serious and substantial damages in the marketplace.
Efforts to recover the company’s reputation, inventory and lost revenues will be vigorous.
www.thenewstribune.com
Posted on Lights and Sirens Blog there. I've actually been to these guys once a few years back, they had a catalog and all just like year one too, but I get to the place and it's run out of one of those rent-a-space complexs. Stuff was all helter-skelter and something just didn't look right about it, so I never went back after that. I bought an ECU but they deal mainly A-Body anyway, at least back then they did.
