I just read this [ame="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4758848"]SUV bought for USC tailback Joe McKnight's girlfriend, owner Scott Schenter says - ESPN[/ame] and obviously this Scott Schenter believes that everyone else is a fool. Just get a load of these statements:
In e-mails to the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News, Scott Schenter, a Santa Monica, Calif., businessman, said the car is driven by Johana Michelle Beltran -- McKnight's girlfriend -- and that he helped purchase the Land Rover because Beltran's family had trouble qualifying for a loan.
So you buy them a Land Rover? If they can't qualify for a loan, then either they don't make enough to pay the payments OR they have a poor history of paying for loans in the past. Either way, why not buy her something less expensive? Seems like a really poor investment to purchase a vehicle,
in your name, for a girl who can't qualify for a loan unless you're using it as an investment device in some other manner. Sounds fishy to me. I just can't see any halfway competent businessman doing such a thing.
The risks are too great. If she doesn't pay the payments for any reason, he is on the hook for the loan. If she lets the insurance lapse and has a wreck, he's on the hook for the loan. I'm not sure about all the legalities, but if she were to have a wreck, injure a lot of people and/or destroy property and then left the scene and the authorities could not prove that she was driving the vehicle, the only legal entity that is available for civil penalties would appear to be Mr. Schenter. Legally, it is his vehicle if he is the registered owner and I would assume that, in absence of other proof, the assumption is that he is also the driver. That might not be enough proof for criminal penalties, but it probably would be enough for civil penalties.
If you were a businessman, would you risk all that for an employee who has a bad credit history or basically no credit history and wants a Land Rover? I generally don't have a good perception of people who attempt to live outside their means anyway. From my experience, they are usually not trustworthy and they're definitely not responsible (afterall, they're living spuriously on other people's money).
Schenter said a company he founded in May 2008, USC Marketing, stood for for "United States China Marketing," and that despite being an employee for the Los Angeles County's Assessor's office, he would "rather be known for my expertise in marketing and finance ventures."
Uh-huh. US China Marketing? It does seem that he has some indirect relationship with USC through McKnight, so he needs to show where he's been in some relationship with Chinese companies to legitimize his explanation of that name.
