Local

Owner, sales manager of local exotic car dealership arrested for fraud

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax has learned that both the owner and the sales manager of Bul Auto Sales exotic car dealership in Jacksonville are facing fraud charges related to the business.

Jail records show the owner, Vladimir Ranguelov, better known as ‘Val,’ and the Sales Manager, Igor Westerman, were both arrested.

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This comes two and a half months after Action News Jax Investigates first learned about the exotic car dealership’s abrupt closures of both its Jacksonville and Albany, New York locations

Action News Jax reporter Madison Foglio spoke to a customer of Bul Auto Sales, who said he contacted JSO on June 5 because his car was missing from the dealership.

Video obtained from that day shows Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer and tow trucks taking the cars off the lot.

Since then, we learned that several people locally filed police reports naming the car dealership and claiming it took part in title forgery and fraudulent vehicle sales.

Shawn Branlund was a Technician at the dealership. We spoke with him back in June, but when asked for comment about the arrests, he decided against it. He previously told us that he would never expect something like this from his former boss.

“He paid everyone really well, he was always taking us out on his boat, and taking us out to dinner. He’s just a super nice guy, like, and definitely never saw this coming,” Branlund said.

Both Val and Igor are set to be arranged on September 17th. We reached out to FBI Jacksonville to see if agents there are separately investigating Bul Auto Sales. They replied saying: “as a matter of policy, the FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.”

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