A former Duluth car dealer was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to more than six years in prison for swindling about $8 million from customers and former business partners.
Philip Swindall, 50, told U.S. Judge Steve C. Jones that his deteriorating financial situation led him down the path to wrongdoing.
“My intentions, as good as they were, turned bad when I got into debt,” Swindall said. “I got in way over my head, and at the time my character was tested, I did the wrong thing.”
Swindall, a half brother of former U.S. Rep. Pat Swindall, borrowed $8.2 million fr0m a bank and $4.7 million from a business partner to open Atlanta Chrysler Dodge in 2004, but was more than $3.5 million in debt a year later.
While Philip Swindall asserted the shortfall was due to a major fleet customer’s slow payment, auditors determined otherwise.
“Swindall had in fact used the $3.5 million so he could operate another dealership, pay off his credit cards (and) live a high-end lifestyle for himself and his family including foreign vacations, household expenses and household employees,” prosecutors said in a news release.
SouthTrust Bank, now Wells Fargo Bank, and then-business partner Jack Brocksmith lost more than $3.5 million, court authorities said.
Swindall told the judge he was truly sorry for any harm he had done.
“I take 100 percent responsibility, and that’s not because I got caught,” he said.
But Brocksmith, who said in court that he lost his home in Colorodo because of the swindle, didn’t believe his former business partner.
“I truly believe he’s only sorry because he’s facing punishment,” Brocksmith told the judge. “Every nickel I put into that dealership, he stole. Trips, bikes, boats, cars … when he went to the movies, I was paying for it.”
In a different scheme in 2009, prosecutors said Swindall kept more than $490,000 from another dealership venture – Auto Tailor Inc. – in which he purchased more than 30 cars on consignment or with fraudulent checks from other dealers, then sold them online.
According to prosecutors, Swindall “never provided the customers with title to the cars or paid the other dealers.”
A third racket in August 2009 found him taking out a $175,000 loan using an employee’s personal information.
In July, Swindall pleaded guilty to 17 counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Connected with those charges, he served 14 months in the Gwinnett County Jail – a tougher punishment than the minimum security federal detention camp Swindall will complete his sentence in, defense attorney Paul Kish said Wednesday.
Kish asked the judge for leniency in light of the $8.4 million restitution requirement that is part of Swindall’s sentence, requesting a five-year sentence reduced by the prior 14 months served, rather than the recommended minimum 87 months.
“The 87 months won’t allow the victims to be repaid,” said Kish, who also requested Swindall serve the time at the federal detention facility in Pensacola, Fla.
Jones handed down a sentence of 90 months – 7 1/2 years – to be reduced by time served, along with an additional three years of supervised release.
“The substantial amount of fraud that has been conducted was premeditated,” Jones said. “You were spending money for a lifestyle that 99 percent of Americans have never experienced.”
Swindall shot a scowl in Brocksmith’s direction when leaving the courtroom.
Brocksmith, 73, said he was happy with the conclusion, but didn’t expect that Swindall had learned his lesson, or would pay back any victims.
“Whether it’s 5 or 15 years, after he’s out, he’ll be back at it,” said Brocksmith, who said he recently had a pacemaker implanted. “I stayed alive long enough to see this day.”
About the Author
