LOS ANGELES : Car Brokers Settle Suit Over DMV Fees for $1.25 Million

The state’s largest chain of automobile brokers agreed Monday to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit that charged the firm with failing to turn over more than $800,000 in auto registration fees to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

In the stipulated final judgment signed Monday by Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Murray Gross, the chain also agreed to a preliminary injunction banning the practice, which was said to involve the failure to remit fees paid by dealers who were buying or selling cars through the brokers.

Los Angeles County’s chief deputy district attorney, Thomas A. Papageorge, said the civil judgment was the largest in the 23-year history of his office’s Consumer Protection Division.

Papageorge said the California Auto Dealers Exchange and its affiliate, the Fresno Auto Dealers Auction of Fresno, agreed to the settlement without any admission of wrongdoing.

Under the agreement, the brokers will pay the DMV $802,669 in unpaid registration fees. Civil penalties, which will go to the county, total $400,000. Investigative costs, to be divided by the district attorney’s office, the DMV and the state attorney general’s office, total $45,196.