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Police: BMW Dealer Used Tenafly Buyer's Money For Himself

TENAFLY, N.J. – A BMW dealer from Westchester used a Tenafly customer’s money to pay for his own car and its insurance, said police who arrested him on theft charges.

Tenafly police: (201) 568-5100

Tenafly police: (201) 568-5100

Photo Credit: Jerry DeMarco

Michael J. Goldberg, 25, of Yorktown Heights stole the victim’s checking account information, made several withdrawals from the account and also never credited him for a service contract he bought for a new car, Capt. Michael deMoncada said.

The money was transferred instead to an account maintained by BMW Financial Services, then ended up being used or pocketed by Goldberg, he said.

The victim contacted police after noticing that several unauthorized withdrawals totaling more than $4,600 were made from his checking account after he bought a car from an out-of-state BMW dealer, deMoncada said.

“Over the course of several months, additional unauthorized withdrawals were reported to detectives by the victim,” the captain said.

“During the course of their investigation, detectives learned that [Goldberg] diverted funds meant to pay for the victim’s additional service contracts to a personally owned account,” he said.

Goldberg “continued to initiate additional withdrawals totaling over $2,700 over the next several months to pay for his own car payment and vehicle insurance,” deMoncada said.

Detectives processed Goldberg on charges of theft and identity theft and sent him to the Bergen County Jail.

A judge the next day ordered him released without bail pending a court hearing

deMoncada reminded citizens to “to closely monitor their banking statements on a regular basis for unusual activity and report any suspicious activity to their banking institution and police.”

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