By Don Lehman

GREENWICH -- The special finance manager at Whalen Chevrolet-Oldsmobile was arrested Wednesday on felony charges he created fake documents like tax returns and employer pay stubs to get prospective car buyers bank loans to finance car purchases, State Police said.

Raymond M. Ray, 44, of Hudson Avenue, Stillwater was charged with nine counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, a felony, in connection with car purchases in which fake financial documents were used, said State Police Investigator Ken Theobald.

Theobald said investigators believe Ray submitted the fake documents to finance companies like Capital One to get car buyers approved for credit that they wouldn’t have gotten based on their income. A number of the buyers had their cars re-possessed when they could not afford to make the payments Ray had set up for them, Theobald said.

Car dealership finance managers generally get commission or other compensation from banks or finance companies when they close deals.

Theobald said State Police seized car sales files for the last year -- Ray’s tenure at Whalen -- from the Route 29 dealership to see if additional fraudulent loans can be identified. Ray also apparently used the same scam while working at Nemer Volkswagen in Latham last year, and he will be charged there as well, police said.

He said the owners of Whalen Chevrolet-Oldsmobile were unaware of the apparent scam, and have cooperated with police.

"It’s a mess," owner George Whalen said Thursday. "It’s something we’re going to have to work through."

Theobald said State Police began looking into Ray’s actions after getting a tip from an investigator at the Social Security Administration, which had been contacted by Capital One when becoming suspicious of transactions Ray was involved with.

Investigators found he allegedly created false Social Security benefit letters, tax returns, employee W-2 forms and pay stubs to convince Capital One to finance transactions, Theobald said.

"He was either inflating or making up (income) amounts," the investigator said. "The customers were unaware he was doing this."

Theobald said Ray worked at a number of car dealerships in the Albany area over the years, and told police that he learned the scheme at another dealership that he did not identify to investigators.

He was arrested at the Whalen dealership Wednesday, and was no longer employed there in light of the arrest.

Whalen said he had been asked by police not to speak in-depth about the situation because the inquiry was ongoing. But he said the incident will prompt him to do criminal background checks on prospective employees in the future. He said police told him Ray had a criminal history.

"Obviously we would not condone anything like this," Whalen said of the scheme. "It’s unfortunate for everybody involved."

Ray was arraigned in Greenwich Town Court and sent to Washington County Jail without bail.

Theobald was assisted by State Police investigators from the Greenwich station.