Sentencing hearing set for former auto dealer
By Dan Thesman on Sunday, May 1st, 2022 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories
SPOKANE — Former auto dealer Mark. W. Gilbert will be sentenced July 28 in U.S. District Court in Spokane. He pled guilty April 20 to a charge of fraud in connection to a document associated with buying a home in Hawaii in 2014.
In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors have agreed to dismiss all other federal charges which include bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and making a false declaration in relation to a bankruptcy case.
Prior to buying that home, Gilbert, who moved to the Columbia Basin in 2002 from the Portland-Vancouver area, acquired auto dealerships in College Place, Moses Lake and Walla Walla, Washington; Milton-Freewater and Pendleton, Oregon; and Moscow, Idaho.
It wasn’t long after acquiring these dealerships that lawsuits began piling up against Gilbert. Allegations began to surface he failed to fulfill commitments on repaying the city of College Place on the Commercial Way project associated with his Honda dealership, to complaints he failed to promptly pay off customers’ trade-in vehicles, to additional lawsuits from credit companies he violated agreements for replaying loans by using those funds for other purposes.
By the end of 2013, all of Gilbert’s auto dealerships had been closed. New ownership reopened the two dealerships in College Place and Walla Walla.
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