This docu­ment was prepared originally using LibreOffice 7.1 under Laclin, a Linux distro of OldCoder's own design (see laclin.com).

Fremont-Toyota management:

Mark Hashimi, General Manager
Anna Vierra, Controller
John Alocozy, General Sales Manager
Hugo Alcan­tar, Finance Manager
Rachel Ghir­ing­hel­li, Company Contact

As back­ground information, the Abdullah or “Abby” Wali Sho­koor dis­cus­sed here is be­lieved to be the one who was alleged to have writ­ten bad checks in Virginia. Reference: Westmoreland General District, Case Number 193GC9300021800

John Alocozy's real name seems to be Abdul Alocozy. He's be­lieved to be the “John Alocozy” who completed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy 10 years ago this year (2021).

“John” Abdul Alocozy and “Abby” Sho­koor both seem to be from Virginia or to have connections to the State. It isn't clear yet that this is or isn't coincidental.

Hugo Alcan­tar has a real estate license; spec­i­fic­al­ly, CA State Real Estate License #01487228. The license technically expired in March 2021 but has been extended. Research into re­la­ted issues is in progress.

STATEMENT OF BRIAN MARTIN

1. Who am I?

I'm Brian Martin, a licensed P.I. in the S.F. Bay Area and a long-time Toyota enthusiast. Long-time as in 25 years. My Cal­i­for­nia P.I. license num­ber is 21866.

Fremont-Toyota has con­tact information for me on file. Others such as news media are invited to email me using the fol­low­ing temporary email address:

No longer valid. Use the web­site linked be­low.

My pro­fes­sion­al website is:
https://bmartininvestigations.com/ or www.BMartinInvestigations.com

2. Me and my Toyotas.

I have some experience with vehicle technology. I'm qualified to com­ment in this context.

I've work­ed at American Auto Body as a technician. I have advanced ICAR auto-body cert­i­fi­ca­tions. And I've work­ed as a crew chief for Jeremy Newberry's race team.

Jeremy Newberry, to clarify, is a retired pro­fes­sion­al athlete who played for the 49ers, Raiders, and Chargers. On his team, I was respon­si­ble for main­tain­ing a 700HP dirt mod­i­fied car as well as a 360 CI power­ed wing­less sprint car.

My first car was a 1969 Camaro. I restored it myself. The car was fast but it guzzled gas like there was no tomor­row. So, I replaced it circa 1994 with a 1987 Toyota SR5 pickup truck.

In 1995, I start­ed working as a P.I. I bought a camper shell for the 1987 Toyota and this was suf­fi­cient to make it a good vehicle for surveil­lance.

The idea was that I'd park the Toyota in a subject's neighbor­hood and jump from the driver's seat through the little window into the back camper part. It was a little like Bo and Luke Duke. Then I'd sit in the camper part and observe the area with­out being observed myself.

A camper shell has a back door. But I couldn't use that to enter the back of the Toyota be­cause onlookers would be like­ly to see me do­ing so. Plus you can't lock the door of a camper shell from inside and I need­ed to have the door locked. P.I. work is often mundane but P.I.s do get knives pulled on them some­times. A locked door is the best policy.

The 1987 Toyota was serviceable as a P.I. vehicle but I married not long after purchasing it and we had our first child in due course. Space and comfort became considerations. As one example, we missed A/C. So, we got a Ford Explorer.

The Ford Explorer didn't live up to Toyota standards. In 1999, therefore, we upgraded to a 2000 Toyota Tacoma. It was com­pat­i­ble with surveil­lance work as it had the same type of camper shell. It was com­for­ta­ble enough. And it was as reliable as the rising of the sun.

I had a close friend who'd been a Toyota mechanic. He told me that if I ever had a com­pon­ent fail on my new truck I shouldn't replace it with any­thing less than an orig­in­al Toyota part. He ex­plain­ed that I'd be bet­ter off rebuilding the part instead of replacing it be­cause of the difference in quality between Toyota Factory parts and so-called “replacement parts”.

I followed that philosophy religiously: rebuild rather than replace.

I'm guilty of not fol­low­ing the maintenance schedule as close­ly as I should have. But the 2000 Toyota Tacoma exceeded my expectations regard­less. In the end, which came in Decem­ber 2020, I'd gotten 427,000 miles out of the vehicle. That's 17 drives around the world.

I still had the orig­in­al alternator, starter transmission rear axle, A/C, etc. My friend was right. Toyota orig­in­al parts quality is in a class of its own.

3. Expectation.

I loved my 2000 Tacoma and I love the 2021 Tacoma that I replaced it with. However, I need to write about the circumstances.

A prompt and posi­tive response from Fremont-Toyota is ex­pect­ed.

The re­sponse will be treated as public and will ulti­mate­ly show up in Google. Non-re­sponse or negative re­sponse will mean that other organizations and venues will need to come into play. Such organizations and venues may include Toyota Nation­al, social media, and formal actions.

4. Selecting a new Tacoma.

In Decem­ber 2021, my reliable 2000 Toyota Tacoma truck final­ly gave up the ghost at 427,000 miles.

My wife Janis found a new 2021 Toyota Tacoma advertised for sale on the Fremont-Toyota deal­er­ship website. This was a 2021 Toyota Tacoma SR Double Cab.

It was/is the one with a 2.7 L 4-cylinder engine. Horsepower: 159 hp @ 5,200 rpm. MPG: 20 city / 23 highway. It came stand­ard with adaptive cruise control, nav system with Google satellite sup­port, and other features. This was the truck for me.

On Decem­ber 11, Janis and I went to see the vehicle. Our daughter Amanda, an adult and a credible witness, accompanied us.

5. “Abby” Sho­koor.

A sales­per­son of Asian ancestry named “Kenny” — pos­si­bly Kenny Ye, but this is uncon­firm­ed — showed us the Toyota Tacoma. We told Kenny that we were interested in a purchase. He went to get a “sales manager”.

The “sales manager” turned out to be some­body that I'd met be­fore. This was Abdullah aka “Abby” Sho­koor.

In the past, “Abby” was the proprietor of Brentwood Game Exchange in Brentwood, CA. Note: That bus­i­ness still exists but has con­firm­ed that “Abby” is no longer in­volved with its oper­a­tions.

About a decade ago, I in­stall­ed a security camera system for Brentwood Game Exchange. “Abby” came across as the type that cuts corners. He asked me to change one of the lights while I was on a ladder. I wasn't licensed to do that type of work and was concerned about safety as well. However, I agreed to do so.

“Abby” assured me that the power was off. Subsequently, it turned out that the power had been on the whole time.

To the best of my re­col­lec­tion, that incident was the extent of my past rela­tion­ship with “Abby”. In an odd note, though, later in Decem­ber 2020, some­body at Fremont-Toyota char­ac­ter­ized me as a “buddy” of “Abby's”. We'll come back to that part.

6. Decem­ber 11, 2020 nego­tia­tions.

This was dur­ing one of Toyota National's Sale-a-Thons. The list­ed price was $28,633 and the deal­er­ship was sup­posed to honor it. However, in nego­tia­tions on Decem­ber 11, 2020, “Abby” waved away the num­ber. “There's markup”, he said.

The stick­er price was $35,628. “Abby” didn't demand that price but he seemed to want to start with it in nego­tia­tions. My re­sponse was that the list­ed price was $28,633 and that I ex­pect­ed the deal­er­ship to honor the list­ed price.

The ad may have in­clud­ed fine print that permitted the deal­er­ship to brush aside the list­ed price. However, if this is the case, it's ir­rel­e­vant because “Abby” ulti­mate­ly agreed to sell me the Tacoma for $28,633.

My wife Janis noticed some­thing odd dur­ing the dis­cus­sion. We made it a point to explain to “Abby” that we'd come to Fremont-Toyota spec­i­fic­al­ly to get the Tacoma that had been list­ed for $28,633.

“Abby” said, regard­less, “You drove past 7 Toyota deal­er­ships to get to Fremont-Toyota. Why did you come here?”

It might just have meant that “Abby” wasn't a very good lis­ten­er. That seems odd for a sales­per­son. I think it sim­ply didn't reg­i­ster for him that car buy­ers might take list­ed prices ser­ious­ly and actu­al­ly come in to buy cars at those prices.

7. The num­bers.

I can't state the num­bers part of the deal exactly be­cause parties at Fremont-Toyota later stole and most like­ly destroyed the orig­in­al paperwork. However, I can pro­vide approx. num­bers.

The deal­er­ship took $500 off of the $28,633 as a “rebate”. This reduced the effec­tive price to $28,133. To that, tax of about $2,800 would have been add­ed.

There was an $85 docu­ment processing fee and a $223 vehicle license fee plus $287 for vehicle reg­is­tra­tion. $20 for smog abate­ment. $8.75 in Cal­i­for­nia “Tire Fees”.

Fremont-Toyota add­ed $299 more for an optional ser­vice named “Forever Start”. Note: This ser­vice was ap­par­ent­ly listed at $500 and dis­counted by $301 as part of the deal.

I made an initial down pay­ment of $7,000. Add it all up and my initial debt — taking the $7,000 pay­ment into account — was sup­posed to be about $24,557.

When I looked at the paper­work, I noticed that Fremont-Toyota had add­ed hundreds of dollars instead of sub­tract­ing them per the re­bate. I saw the num­ber $28,995 instead of $28,633 or $28,133. Note: I'm not sure of the last digit.

The rest of the paper­work seemed to be in order. So, I de­cid­ed to let the dis­crep­ancy go and sign­ed the papers.

8. Strange Fremont-Toyota be­ha­vior after the sale.

Starting shortly after the Decem­ber 11, 2020 sale, I start­ed to receive phone calls and texts from Fremont-Toyota that urged me to come back in. Some of the texts are shown in a screen­shot at the end of this sec­tion.

The calls and texts were mostly from Hugo Alcan­tar, a “finance manager” at the deal­er­ship. One call that I haven't tracked down may have been from some­body else.

Hugo Alcan­tar made statements simi­lar to the following:

“We forgot to get you to sign a docu­ment. Can you come in to sign it and bring all of the loan paper­work with you? We're sorry about the trouble and will buy you a tank of gas to com­pen­sate you for your time.”

I resisted the requests to come back in. Why did Fremont-Toyota need me to drive so far just to sign a left-over form? Couldn't they sim­ply email a PDF? And why was the rest of the paper­work need­ed for this?

Another odd part was that Hugo or the other caller refer­red to me in one call as a “buddy” of “Abby's”. I didn't know what to make of that.

I spoke again with Hugo at 12:00 noon on Decem­ber 29, 2020. I don't re­mem­ber if he called me or vice versa this time. He pressed me again to come in. I final­ly agreed to do so and drove to Fremont-Toyota in the mid-after­noon.

Hugo asked me for the paper­work and I gave it to him. He left, then return­ed with a piece of paper for me to sign. It was just a dis­claim­er. He return­ed the other paper­work to me dur­ing the dis­cus­sion.

Hugo didn't give me a copy of the new form that I'd sign­ed. At 6:34pm, I texted him and asked for a copy. That text is on the next page. At 10:29pm — this was still on Decem­ber 29 — he email­ed me the stick­er image that is shown be­low.

That isn't what I sign­ed. It's a for­gery that doesn't even make sense. I don't under­stand what it's even sup­posed to be.

As a re­la­ted issue, I've checked the paper­work that Hugo hand­ed back to me. It isn't the same paper­work which I hand­ed to him.

Editor's note: The top image be­low has been mod­i­fied as follows: (a) slight rota­tion to make it more ver­tical (b) split into two pieces so as to make it fit bet­ter on printed pages and in web­site windows.

From: "Hugo Alcantar" <hugo@fremonttoyota.com>
To: "BMARTININVESTIGATIONS@YAHOO.COM" <BMARTININVESTIGATIONS@YAHOO.COM>
Sent: Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 10:29 PM
Subject: COPY

Editor's note: Exactly what Hugo Alcantar's for­gery is sup­posed to be isn't clear. It seems to be a mod­i­fied sticker intended to sug­gest that Brian Martin agreed to a “Market Adjustment” of $9,995. However, the num­bers don't add up. It's also not part of a contract or agree­ment or any­thing that seems to be rele­vant.

For comparison pur­poses, here's a photo­graph of Hugo's clumsy for­gery next to the actual stick­er. As a re­la­ted note, advice re­la­ted to the sim­plest way to put Hugo in prison will be wel­come.

Editor's note: The “Fremont Toyota” stick­er on the right above is the non-forged version of the deal­er­ship sticker that was originally, we think, on the front passenger-side window. The factory stick­er is shown be­low in two parts. This one was originally on the rear passenger-side window.

This image has been mod­i­fied as follows: (a) It's been split into two parts so as to bet­ter fit it onto the page. (b) Some white space has been removed from the second part for the same rea­son.

9. Discovery of Fremont-Toyota auto-loan fraud.

The loan pay­ments were set at $585.78 per month. My wife Janis has been handling them. The first pay­ment was made on Jan­uary 25, 2021. 5 pay­ments total had been made as of the end of May 2021.

After Janis made the first pay­ment in Jan­uary, she told me the loan amount seemed to be $30,000. I told her that that wasn't pos­si­ble as we'd put $7,000 down on a truck that had cost only about $28,000 to begin with after the $500 re­bate.

I assumed initially that the incorrect loan amount was some sort of account­ing issue that had a reason­able explanation. However, in the Spring, we need­ed to make decisions re­la­ted to income-tax paper­work. As part of this, I reviewed the loan paper­work close­ly.

I was startled to see that the paper­work said I'd paid $33,991 for the 2021 Tacoma. I never sign­ed any such paper­work. The place where the num­ber $33,991 appear­ed is where I saw the $28,995 fig­ure [approx.] that I've men­tion­ed further up.

The paper­work turned out to be a color photocopy. I be­lieve that it's faked.

Hugo Alcan­tar or “Abby” Sho­koor or other parties replaced pages in the loan paper­work after Hugo took the paper­work out of my hands and left the room with it for no rea­son that was ex­plain­ed to me.

It's not clear how these peo­ple chose the $33,991 num­ber. It's pos­si­ble that they start­ed with the $35,628 stick­er price and sub­tract­ed the small­est amount that they could real­is­tic­al­ly pre­tend had been arrived at in nego­tia­tions.

I made a phone call to Fremont-Toyota regarding the issue. I instructed the per­son who I spoke with to have “Abby” Sho­koor phone me. No call has been re­ceived up to the date of this wri­ting.

To be clear, further com­mun­i­ca­tion related to this issue should be in wri­ting. A prompt and posi­tive response from the deal­er­ship will be appre­cia­ted.

10. Four-Square issue.

There's an add­i­tion­al element to the story that's in­ter­est­ing.

Auto-loan nego­tia­tions may include some­thing called a Four-Square. This is a work­sheet which lists four basic par­am­e­ters for a loan.

We were given a Four-Square. We re­mem­ber that it in­clud­ed a price in the $28,000 range — either $28,133 or $28,633 — and a month­ly payment of $585.78.

Subsequent to nego­tia­tions, we were sent to talk to a man in an office to finalize the paper­work. We don't know his last name but he gave his first name as Omar.

Omar dug out the Four-Square, said “This copy is too messy, I'll need to redo it”, and crumpled it up.

To the best of our knowledge, we were never provided with a replacement for the Four-Square that Omar de­stroy­ed.

One part that's worth noting — aside from Omar's odd need to destroy the Four-Square — is that the month­ly payment of $585.78 re­main­ed the same even though Hugo Alcan­tar changed the price later on to $33,991.

This suggests that the deal­er­ship planned to charge $33,991 from the start and that Omar was in on the plan to commit for­gery and fraud along with, it ap­pears, Mark Hashimi, Abby Sho­koor, and Hugo Alcan­tar.

It fol­lows from there that the for­gery and loan fraud may have been part of a pro­cess that the group had work­ed through be­fore. It seems unlike­ly that a group of 4 peo­ple would set up a com­pli­ca­ted ad hoc plan to defraud just one buyer.

This is, therefore, pos­si­bly a RICO case.

Legal notes and/or disclaimers:

L1. The mark “fremonttoyota” is used at the domain-name and content levels under Nom­in­a­tive Use and Fair Use. It should be noted that DMCA is generally in­ap­plic­able in this context.

Demands for domain-name takedowns should be submitted to the domain reg­is­trar. The domain reg­is­trar will for­ward them to the regis­trant.

The regis­trant will then reject such demands and for­ward them along with analyses of the issues in­volved to Toyota Nation­al as well as to local news media and social media.

L2. For add­i­tion­al points re­la­ted to the current matter, please see the Notices pages on the web­sites.

(end of document)