3 Arrested on Charges of Cheating Buyers in Sales of Used Autos

Three Orange County men have been arrested for allegedly cheating at least 20 people out of thousands of dollars by illegally acting as middlemen on used-car sales and keeping money that was supposed to be applied as down payments.

The arrests were made late Monday and revealed Tuesday by the Department of Motor Vehicles. The defendants, who could not be reached for comment, operated through Finance America in El Toro, North American Financial in Garden Grove and the now-defunct U.S. Financial Co. in Santa Ana, said Rande King, senior special investigator with the DMV.

Charged with multiple felony counts of illegal auto subleasing, grand theft and acting as unlicensed car dealers were Steven Anthony Drapeau, 27, of La Mirada; Orlando DeLeon Pangilinan, 33, of El Toro, and Robert Jay Papkin, 34, of Costa Mesa.

An arrest warrant has also been issued for a fourth suspect. He is Harry Ellsworth Jack, 65, of the Los Angeles area.

According to King, the suspects told car sellers that they would arrange sales to buyers who had shaky credit histories. The buyers were told that they were to make car payments to the original owners for six months, after which new financing would be arranged. The buyers were charged $1,000 to $4,000. Of that amount, only about $200 per transaction was to be the suspects’ fee, and the balance allegedly was to go toward a down payment in arranging a new loan, King said.

Instead, according to court papers, the suspects kept the entire fees received from the new buyers.