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Trustee wants to sell ‘Dusty’ cars

By Damien Fisher - Staff Writer | May 24, 2017

Staff photo by DAMIEN FISHER One of the several garage doors at Dusty Old Cars on Airport Road.The company's warehouse contains close to 400 vehicles.

NASHUA – The trustee in charge of the bankrupt Dusty Old Cars is asking a bankruptcy judge for permission to sell all of the assets, including the cars, to pay the debts of the company.

Michael Askenaizer, the Nashua attorney appointed to oversee the company’s liquidation, wants Judge Bruce Harwood to approve a plan to auction off all the cars that are free from “liens, claims, and encumbrances” to pay off people owed money by the now defunct classic car dealership.

Askenaizer has been working to reunite cars with the original owners as he navigates the bankruptcy of the business that has generated controversy and a criminal investigation.

Dusty Old Cars owner Stephan Condodemetraky is due in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord on June 2 for his arraignment on 20 criminal counts related to the business, including title fraud, forgery and witness intimidation.

The title fraud and forgery indictments all deal with one man, Brad West, of Manchester, who was allegedly defrauded by Condodemetraky in 2013, though there are hundreds of other people who claim to have been taken by Condodemetraky.

The counts related to West claim that Condodemetraky forged signatures on the sales contracts for several classic cars owned by West and then used those contracts to obtain titles for the cars at the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles.

The West case is related to a Connecticut court case in which Condodemetraky was sued for allegedly using the titles of those cars as security for a loan which he defaulted on, according to court records.

More than 130 people have filed complaints against Condodemetraky and Dusty Old Cars with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, most coming in the last year.

The company started five years ago in Derry before moving to a warehouse facility on Airport Road in Nashua. It operated largely as a consignment dealer, entering into deals with the owners of classic cars to sell the vehicle for a percentage of the sales price.

The consignment customers claim Condodemetraky forged titles and sales agreements on the cars they brought to him to be consigned and then sold the cars without paying them, or paid them a fraction of the sales price after charging allegedly bogus repair fees.

The hearing on Askenaizer’s motion to sell the company assets is set for June 16 in the bankruptcy court in Manchester.

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