What is this page?
This is the story that I filed with the Court in my Declaration for the first WVRO case. It's relevant to all of the cases.
The Responses to allegations part is on a different page:
https://abuseofprocess.net/responses-to-christine-long-allegations.html
Important: This page was converted from the actual Court PDF using OCR. So there may be errors. To read the actual Court PDF, use the following link:
DECLARATION OF ROBERT KIRALY: 21CV004608
I, ROBERT KIRALY declare as follows:
The statements made below are within my personal knowledge or are stated upon information and belief, which statements I believe to be true. If called upon to testify, I could and would competently do so.
Contents:
1. Overview and key points
2. Deceptive practices at Fremont-Toyota and the “Jihadi” issue
3. Responses to allegations. This part is on a different page:
https://abuseofprocess.net/responses-to-christine-long-allegations.html
Part 1. Overview and key points:
This document is Robert Kiraly's declaration related to case 21CV004608.
Background:
I'm a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with High Honors in Mathematics and Honors in Computer Science.
I'm also a software architect and data specialist with 44 years of professional experience. My decades of experience include anti- terrorism for UK-NCIS after 9/11, military database appliances, data conversion, and other tasks for the U.S. Defense Technical Information Center and the CIA, CCPA and HIPAA privacy issues, and the detection of fraud of different types for two corporate chains, including a respected national chain that has about 1,500 stores.
Over the past decade, I've spent a significant amount of time on fraud detection while employed in those capacities.
My involvement with Brian Martin:
Brian Martin is a licensed private investigator in the S.F. Bay Area. In December 2020, Mr. Martin purchased a Toyota Tacoma from Fremont- Toyota. In connection with the vehicle purchase, Fremont Toyota provided Mr. Martin with a forged document that the dealership claimed evidenced Mr. Martin's agreement to pay $9,995 more than had actually been agreed to. My understanding is that this worked out to about $6,000 in terms of the actual net cost to Mr. Martin.
Mr. Martin first noticed the loan fraud in Spring 2021 when he looked into discrepancies in the paperwork. He was aware of my background and believed that I'd be able to comment objectively and accurately. So, not long after he noticed the issue, he asked me to determine whether or not there was evidence that confirmed the existence of fraud.
I agreed to do so as a personal favor and in the public interest. Mr. Martin did not hire me.
My review of the loan fraud:
Mr. Martin provided materials of different types for review. This included text messages and emails that supported his story. I reviewed meta-data in the email headers and it was consistent with Mr. Martin's allegations that his signature was forged onto an addendum of the sales contract entitled “market adjust[ment]” that increased the vehicle price by $9,995.00.
It turned out that the forged document didn't even purport to be an agreement. It was just an electronic copy of a signature pasted onto a copy of a price sticker. There was nothing about an agreement other than the hand-scrawled words “Market Adjust”. The figures didn't add up. In short, this was an unusually clumsy example of loan fraud on the part of Fremont Toyota.
Hence, after my review of Mr. Martin's allegations, including his supporting evidence, I believed loan fraud had been committed by Fremont Toyota, and I designed a way to seek further evidence of a systemic practice of loan fraud by creating two websites. The number of websites was increased to three in January 2022 for reasons explained below.
The websites:
I elected to put the story online for the purpose of protecting automobile consumers from being defrauded by Fremont-Toyota. Ultimately, three websites were placed by me online: fremonttoyota dot org, markhashimi dot org, and christinelong dot attorney.
I created a number of alternate domain names as well. The alternate domain names simply linked to the original three sites.
The “fremonttoyota” and “markhashimi” websites set forth my opinions “that Fremont-Toyota side has committed auto loan fraud against multiple unwary Toyota buyers”. The websites offer advice to auto buyers, including to “Be suspicious of every dealership regardless of history unless you trust a particular salesperson” and to “nail down the numbers.”
The websites further recommend that the public: “Never buy from a dealership that has a history of fraud or abuse of different types. This includes Fremont-Toyota of Fremont, California. The rhyme to remember is: Stay away or be prey.”
The “christinelong” site discusses, additionally, the retaliation that Fremont-Toyota customers may face if they talk publicly online about loan fraud.
None of the websites are used for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of products, merchandise, goods or services.
Other victims came forward:
Two people came forward to comment regarding loan fraud occurring at Fremont-Toyota. Their statements suggested that the loan fraud issue wasn't limited to Martin's experience and that the general public was at risk of systemic loan fraud by Fremont Toyota.
One person, a Fremont-Toyota customer named Sandra Melendez who had recently purchased a Toyota Sienna LE, indicated that Fremont-Toyota had falsely claimed that she too had agreed to a $9,995 markup over the agreed-upon vehicle price.
Brian Martin forwarded some of Ms. Melendez's evidence of concern to me. My understanding was that these were the files Ms. Melendez was providing to attorneys in the course of seeking redress.
In Ms. Melendez's case, there was once again no agreement to a price change; just the words “Mark up” and the $9,995 figure crudely scrawled by hand onto a generic price sticker. The $9,995 figure was the exact same number that had appeared in the forged document in Mr. Martin's case. My assessment was that the dealership might be using a standard approach to commit fraud on a regular basis. This was consistent with what I learned from the next person.
Sam Pawar, an ex-employee of Fremont Toyota, contacted Brian Martin due to seeing the fremonttoyota.org website. Mr. Martin directed Mr. Pawar to me in the context of a loan-fraud assessment. Mr. Pawar told me that fraud against the general public was a common practice at the dealership. He then confirmed tome that the following statement which appeared subsequently on the websites was “100% true”:
“Most USA people are bad at math. The Fremont-Toyota people took advantage of this. If a dollar figure was at $9,999, Mark Hashimi and his people just added $10,000 to make it $19,999. Fremont-Toyota figured that it was on the customer to detect a mistake and that it would be no big deal to take care of it in the cases where somebody did. I saw them committing fraud and stealing from people. I talked to General Manager Kamal [Mark Hashimi]. He told me to get out of his office. Mark Hashimi was part of the fraud operation, so I lost my job. But I did the right thing. I just wanted to protect Toyota buyers from the fraud and explain how to buy a car from Fremont-Toyota without being robbed.”
The emails:
Mr. Martin and I separately sent emails related to the loan fraud to employees and agents of Fremont-Toyota.
In 2021, I published online primarily letters between Mr. Martin and “Mark” Hashimi. The purposes of publication included transparency related to inquiry into the loan fraud and to let the car-buying public judge for itself whether or not Fremont Toyota's denials of fraud were credible.
In January 2022, I wrote a detailed letter intended to be read by Mr. Hashimi and Fremont Toyota attorney, Christine Long. The letter offered for consideration points related to a case that had been filed agains Martin. I wasn't aware at the time of any case against me.
I sent that letter to multiple parties with the request that it be forwarded. In some cases, I added that consensual communication related to the points made in the letter would be welcome.
Part 2. Deceptive practices at Fremont-Toyota and the “Jihadi” issue:
Petitioner repeats numerous times in her complaints the point that Respondent has used the word “Jihad”. The goal is to suggest that the word was used inappropriately and impermissibly in the context in which it was found. The term “Jihadi” was referenced in my websites not at random, but as the dictionary word for the type of race and religious harassment that Fremont-Toyota employees subjected a minority-race employee named Sam Pawar to for months. This said, the word was never used except briefly well before the WVRO against Mr. Martin was filed. More about that fact further down.
Fremont-Toyota employees directed remarks towards Mr. Pawar of the following type: “Mother f*cker you can't call us brother because you aren't Muslim”. The group indicated as well that Mr. Pawar's race and other races were inferior and “smelly”. As Mr. Pawar was of Asia-India race, they also referred to him as “Mr. Curry”.
The hate-based perspective of the Fremont-Toyota core group extended to minority-race customers of the dealership. The word “smelly” was used in this context. Inside Fremont-Toyota, though, Mr. Pawar became a special target due to his failure to go along with deceptive practices that were used on a regular basis.
Mr. Pawar sold a Dodge van to an Indian couple. The couple asked him about lower interest rates. Mr. Pawar took them to see a Fremont- Toyota Finance Manager named Ayub Mohammad Jawal. Mr. Jawal was furious. He shouted, “Why you tell them about the lower interest rates?! How can we make money if we tell them about those rates?!”
At this point, Mr. Jawal became physically violent and threw an object. He shouted further, “All of you Indians are like that!! Stupid salesperson! Why you telling them about lower interest rate!! F*ck you! Get out of my office, you stupid man!”
Not much later, Mr. Pawar sold a Toyota RAV4. A Fremont-Toyota Finance Manager named Naqib U. Halimi credited half of the sale to another salesperson.
Mr. Pawar asked Mr. Halimi why this had happened. Mr. Halimi responded, “You asking lower interest rate from Ayub Mohammad Jalal and that's your punishment. I'm taking your half-deal and giving to other person.”
“You can't do that,” Mr. Pawar said. “I'll complain to the manager”. Mr. Halimi of Fremont-Toyota laughed. He said, “Go and complain to your Hindu god also and no one will help you”. This proved to be true. Racial and religious harassment of Mr. Pawar escalated rapidly.
Mr. Pawar asked, “Why is this happening?” The response was, “It's because you complained about Naqib Halimi”. Mr. Halimi had, again, confiscated Mr. Pawar's earnings to “punish” him for even bringing buyers to Mr. Jalal to discuss possible lower interest rates.
Respondent used the word “Jihadi” as the dictionary word for the conduct summarized above. The definition used is as follows. The definition has been cited by Petitioner in one complaint as being, in and of itself, incitement to violence:
“The Quran uses the word “jihad” in two general contexts: the internal struggle, “al-jihad fi sabil Allah”, and the external one. The inner struggle is praiseworthy. The external one, not so much. The latter ranges from, on the mildest side, those who proselytize to, on the most dangerous side, Muslim terrorists.”
The word is believed to have been removed from the websites within 48 hours of its initial use. It is believed not to have been used subsequently until Brian Martin was served with a SLAPP action intended to prevent the public from learning about deceptive practices against the general public. At that point, explanation of why the word had been used originally was placed online. Respondent used the word subsequently in correspondence as well.
Part 3. Responses to allegations:
This part is on a different page:
https://abuseofprocess.net/responses-to-christine-long-allegations.html