Friday, May 27, 2016

the Goodguys Trendsetter award in 2010 was awarded to a guy that just was found to have been cheating customers for years


The 43-year-old owner of Redline Performance Motorsports near Pittsburg was charged with stealing more than $430,000 from classic car customers who left vehicles in his care over the past six years, when he also moved his shop 4 times (that's what the above map is for)  from Warrendale to Coraopolis until December 2014, then moved to Zelienople and Harmony.

Curtis Ukasik of 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.

For example, a 1969 Chevy Camaro was delivered to the RPM garage in 2010, along with of $227,500 in payments to Ukasik from June 2010 to October 2011.

The car ended up being stored until 2014, and barely any work had been done, during that time Ukasik gave regular email updates 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.


Ukasik has a history of building cutting-edge cars that combine reliability, style and extreme performance, according to Goodguys. He, along with his team, built Bill Steele’s Model A, which earned the title of Goodguys 2009 Gearstar Hot Rod of the Year. In addition, he built Bryan Frank’s 1969 Pontiac Trans Am, which was named the Goodguys 2009 Detroit Speed Muscle Machine of the Year. Ukasik became even more well-known when he took on the build of the 2010 Goodguys Grand Prize Giveaway Car, known as the Boss Snake. Ukasik is the 13th recipient of the Goodguys Trendsetter award.

 Past recipients of the award include Chip Foose (Foose Design), Troy Trepanier (Rad Rides) Alan Johnson (Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop) Eric Peratt (Pinkees Rod Shop) Tim Strange (Strange Motion) Dave Lane (Fast Lane Rod Shop) Zane Cullen (Cotati Speed Shop) Jesse Greening (Greening Auto Company) Dean Livermore (Hot Rods by Dean) Troy Ladd (Hollywood Hot Rods) J.F. Launier (JF Kustoms, Desert Speed Shop) Phil and Jeremy Gerber (The Roadster Shop)  https://theshopmag.com/features/curt-ukasik-named-goodguys-2010-trendsetter

http://blog.garagistry.com/2016/05/while-you-were-away-9.html
http://www.observer-reporter.com/20160421/auto_shop_owner_from_finleyville_charged_with_stealing_430000
http://www.hotrod.com/news/1011sr-curt-ukasik-2010-goodguys-trendsetter/

1 comment:

  1. Well.....THIS explains a lot, trying to get invoices paid for work done on equipment at the shop keep coming back as "No such business......"

    Thanks, first I've heard of RPM's demise.

    ReplyDelete