Auto shop owner allegedly stole $430k
The 43-year-old owner of Redline Performance Motorsports was charged with stealing more than $430,000 from classic car customers who left vehicles in his care over the past six years.
Curtis Ukasik of 17 Boyka Drive, Finleyville, faces a 16-count list of charges, including multiple counts of theft by deception and deceptive or fraudulent business practices. Ukasik is accused of selling parts to pay rent and lying to customers throughout builds that authorities say often were never finished, or even started.
Allegations against Ukasik surfaced when customers told Allegheny County investigators he was billing them for parts that weren’t purchased and labor that wasn’t performed. The RPM garage was located in Warrendale until 2013 and relocated to Coraopolis until December 2014, then moved to Zelienople and Harmony.
According to a criminal affidavit, Robert Sechan of New Canaan, Conn., purchased a 1969 Chevy Camaro for $25,000 from a dealership in West Virginia and had the car delivered to the RPM garage in Warrendale in 2010. Sechan said he wired a total of $227,500 in payments to Ukasik from June 2010 to October 2011.
The car ended up being stored at Area 51 Autoworx in West Newton. Sechan hired a private investigator to track it down. The investigators said he found it in 2014, and determined barely any work had been done – it was a body shell with a frame and wheels and no motor – and it was in nearly identical condition to what it was when it was delivered to Ukasik in 2010.
Investigators said Sechan reported the car also was missing $10,000 in parts. During the time the Camaro was in Ukasik’s possession, he gave regular email updates to Sechan describing the progress, justifying delays and asking for additional money, all while asserting how good the end result would be upon completion of work, investigators said.
In another complaint in the investigation, Beth Johnson of Moss Point, Miss., sold her 1962 Chevy Bel Air to a buyer in Butler for $75,000 as part of a plan to use the money to do restoration work on her 1974 Plymouth Duster in September 2013. Johnson inquired about the status of the rebuild over a two-year period and ultimately found that in 2015, the car was in the same condition as when she delivered it, according to authorities.
A complaint from Robert Gottlieb of Pittsburgh detailed how he provided a 1971 Chevrolet Corvette to Ukasik in 2013 for a total rebuild and sent payments totaling $66,500. Parts bought for the car were sold on eBay, according to the criminal affidavit, and Ukasik allegedly admitted to investigators in January he owed nearly $60,000 to Gottlieb and hadn’t completed the build.
A 1970 Dodge Charger owned by Frank Salvati of Pittsburgh was given to Ukasik in 2012 for work totaling $179,300. Investigators said Ukasik insisted that Salvati make checks payable directly to him and not RPM, but Salvati refused. Salvati said he ultimately found the car in storage in June 2015, with the wrong chassis and frame, and sold the remaining portions of the car for $10,000 because it could not be restored.
Other vehicles that were given to Ukasik and not completed, according to investigators, were a 1949 Ford truck, a 1932 Ford Deuce, a 1950 Ford truck, a 2001 Chevrolet Camaro, a 1934 Ford Roadster, a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 1941 Willys hot rod owned by F. Grant Minor of Canonsburg.
Ukasik was arraigned Wednesday and released on unsecured bond ahead of a May 10 preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Mary P. Murray.