(2009-2012) MISCELLANEOUS
Shortly after the judge’s tentative ruling, on June 1, 2009, GM filed bankruptcy and notified approximately 1350 dealers of their elimination. As one of those dealers, GM presented me with a “Wind Down” Agreement that had to be signed and FedExed back to and received by GM by June 12. A dealer whom didn’t sign the agreement would lose his or her franchise(s) at the time the bankruptcy court ruled, which was anticipated to be within about a month, and would receive no money. A dealer who signed the Agreement could remain in business up till a maximum of October 31, 2010, receive a token payment, but must waive all rights to existing or future legal action. I considered my options, which included not signing the agreement and then appealing the judge’s ruling. Considering the additional stress and expense I would incur, as well as the fact that GM’s bankruptcy left it few assets to pay a judgment, I made the only sensible choice and signed the Agreement.
Almost immediately after GM’s June 1, 2009 dealer closure announcement, which was preceded by Chrysler’s April 30 bankruptcy and dealer closure announcement, there was angered backlash from several fronts beyond the terminated dealers themselves. Among those opposing the closures were many members of Congress and Attorneys General representing 37 states, including California. After much discussion in Congress (and opposition by General Motors) a law was passed that allows terminated dealers to apply for reinstatement through arbitration. In early 2010, many GM dealers applied for reinstatement, which was followed by GM reinstating hundreds of them, both pre- and post-arbitration. As the volumes of my Buick and Cadillac brands alone were totally insufficient to support a dealership in today’s market, and GM had repeatedly denied me its GMC franchise that GM itself says is necessary for a dealership to be viable, there was no point in my pursuing arbitration.
On July 20, 2009, according to public records, a corporation named “Fremont Real Estate Inv LLC” with Mr. Dosanjh’s Dublin business address purchased the Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep facility in the Fremont Auto Mall for $6,200,000, and then relocated Fremont Chevrolet there from Newark in August. GM’s Argonaut real estate division owns the vacated Fremont Chevrolet (formerly Saturn) Newark facility. In October 2009, GMAC foreclosed on Mr. Okenquist’s vacant Fremont Pontiac-GMC Newark facility. As a result, combined with the property GM purchased in 2007 (2 adjoining parcels), GM, GMAC, and possibly Mr. Dosanjh, owned properties for which it had paid approximately $28,000,000 in four Fremont-Newark locations, with only the newly purchased Fremont Auto Mall facility occupied. In addition, the facility I own was destined be empty when I would close, thus making it the fourth vacant facility. In addition to GM’s massive waste at this point, it will need to spend considerably more, possibly millions, to convert the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep facility image to GM’s image. It should be noted that had General Motors not rejected my proposal to relocate Buick-Pontica-GMC-Cadillac to the Fremont Auto Mall at no cost to itself in the early 1990’s, the vast majority of the massive financial waste and chaos it created for many parties in the subsequent years would have been prevented.
In light of the multiple appalling events both inside and outside GM amid GM’s longstanding openly expressed motive of obtaining my franchises upon which I built my business, many people familiar with this history have expressed concern for my safety, a concern I share. Aside from the conspired internal GM and GMAC harassment items, such as the malicious warranty audit and GMAC auction call status, the outside damaging events are even more frightening: eight months of picketers unwanted by the majority of the employees they represented, two IRS audits with circumstances so extremely strange that even IRS employees are baffled, and a denial of my right to a jury trial, an action that legal experts tell me almost never happens. While there are a few countries in the world in which these events might be expected, one would not think they could happen in America. As this series of damaging events statistically cannot all be coincidence, and thus raises the question of what else could happen, in May 2010 I filed a document-supported report of the history with the Fremont Police Department (the city of my residence) to keep on file in case I should encounter a mysterious catastrophic event. The Fremont Police also passed a copy of my report on to the FBI.
In July 2010, GMAC sold the foreclosed former Fremont Pontiac-GMC facility (in Newark) for $2,000,000, which was less than half its 1994 land and onstruction cost of $4,100,000, and well below GMAC’s asking price of $3,500,000. In approximately July 2011, General Motors sold the former Saturn facility it owned in Newark for $1,900,000, also most likely about half of what it cost to build in 1997. The selling prices of the Newark facilities are even more shocking when compared to the aforementioned $6,200,000 Fremont Auto Mall facility GM/Dosanjh bought in July 2009, and the facility of the failed Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealer in nearby San Leandro’s Marina Auto Center, which Chrysler Group Realty purchased for $6,100,000 for its Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep dealer in May 2010. Contributing to the low value of the Newark property is the fact that the City of Newark wishes to keep all the dealerships zoned as automotive due to high sales tax revenue from auto sales. With a finite number of franchises not already represented in Fremont-Newark, and empty dealerships on the block, the value of the facility I built in Newark at GM’s demand is in great question.
On November 15, 2010, an hour after the Signer Buick-Cadillac GM sign was hauled away, the cover came off a “Cadillac” sign that had been installed on the former Saturn facility two doors down. Inder Dosanjh has operated with my Buick and Cadillac franchises, as well as GMC, since that time, and as of this writing in January 2012, continues to rent the facility from the new owner until he builds a new facility in the Fremont Auto Mall. For the story behind Mr. Dosanjh’s mysterious meteoric rise, see Expanded Details, “Inder Dosanjh Instant Empire.”
Note: In the 2009-2011 time frame, many events occurred relating to the two IRS audits. For information, see various links under the “Expanded Details – IRS Audits and Ramifications” heading in the right column of the website. As of this writing in January 2012, my pursuit of GM/IRS/TIGTA accountability continues with a report I made to the FBI.
