Opinion ID: 197023
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Billmyer

Text: 32 As early as 1979, while Billmyer was the eastern regional sales manager, Cardiges, as zone manager for the mid-Atlantic states, accepted a $10,000 payment from a Honda dealer in Philadelphia, and split it with Billmyer. In late 1979 or early 1980, Cardiges presented Billmyer with a gold Rolex watch worth as much as $15,000 from a large Honda dealer in the Washington, D.C. area. Beginning with the 1984 holiday season and continuing through 1992, Cardiges received $20,000 to $25,000 each year from John Rosatti, a Honda dealer in New York City. Rosatti told Cardiges that he was paying Billmyer also, because, as Cardiges testified at trial, like other dealers Rosatti wanted favorable treatment, wanted more automobiles, more franchises, and wanted the ability to have the ear of the people who were in power at Honda.Cardiges and Billmyer both helped a dealer named Rick Hendrick acquire approximately thirty Honda and Acura franchises in various states, including Texas, Georgia, and the Carolinas. In return, Hendrick helped Cardiges buy a California residence from which Cardiges later realized a $250,000 gain. Thereafter, Hendrick defrayed approximately $150,000 in interest payments on a loan Cardiges had obtained to buy a $700,000 home in Laguna Hills, California. During this same 1989-92 time frame, Hendrick intimated to Cardiges that he was involved in financing Billmyer's home in Palm Springs as well. Cardiges also learned from Billmyer that Hendrick had provided Billmyer with a top-of-the-line BMW. 33 Cardiges described periodic payoffs from one Marty Luftgarten, who owned dealerships in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and southern California. For example, at the grand opening of a Luftgarten dealership during the mid-1980s, Billmyer, Cardiges, and two other Honda sales managers, Bill Kutchera and Jeff Conway, gathered in a conference room where Luftgarten handed each an envelope containing $5,000 in cash. Around the holiday season, another dealer customarily sent Cardiges $5,000 gift certificates from Neiman-Marcus for both Cardiges and Billmyer. See Boylan, 898 F.2d at 242 (noting that defendants often cooperated with one another by collecting payments). The record is replete with other evidence of cash payments from dealers and lavish shopping trips to Hong Kong. 34