What we learned from former Red Rock GMC financial manager Tiffany Miller’s arrest affidavit

Mug shot of Tiffany Momilani Miller, a former Red Rock GMC financial manager who was arrested earlier this month on charges of forgery, criminal impersonation and identity theft. (Photo: Daily Sentinel/GJPD)

Former Red Rock GMC financial manager Tiffany M. Miller was arrested earlier this month and charged with forgery, identity theft and criminal impersonation.

AnneLandmanBlog obtained a copy of the full August 2 arrest affidavit (pdf) for Miller.

The biggest takeaways from it are summarized below:

• A couple was trying to buy a vehicle from Red Rock GMC at 741 N. First Street, and applied for a loan through the dealership. After they left with the vehicle, two Red Rock financial managers, Tiffany Miller and Matthew Morris, phoned the customers’ lender and posed as the couple, in a claimed effort “to verify the information on the auto [credit] application,” and “expedite the loan process.”
• In addition to posing as the customers, Miller falsified information on the customers’ credit application, including who the primary driver of the vehicle would be, and the length of time the couple had lived at their residence, and she falsely stated the car had extra accessories it didn’t actually have, including running boards, rear bucket seats, a rear entertainment system and blind spot monitors. The customers told GJPD investigators the car they were purchasing had none of these features. These items would have increased the value of the vehicle to the lender. (Note: This is a practice that, according to a former Red Rock finance employee is called “Power Booking,” that is aimed at increasing the value of the car to the lender to get the customer a bigger loan.)
• The Grand Junction Police Department (GJPD) first sent the case to the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Auto Industry Division (AID), the enforcement agency for dealerships. Months later, the AID sent it back to the GJPD because “the allegations are for felony criminal activity.”
• Red Rock GMC General Manager Tyson Chambers said Red Rock GMC got “locked out” of Canvas Credit Union via their online lending platform, Credit Union Direct Lending (CUDL), because of the “victim complaint and the potential forgery on the loan application.”
  

  Tyson Chambers, General Manager of Red Rock GMC, who, according to Miller’s arrest affidavit, pressured Red Rock Human Resources Manager Amy Felix to lie on a form about why Tiffany Miller had left Red Rock. Felix told a police investigator Tyson had ordered her to lie on the form because he “didn’t want to ruin [Tiffany Miller’s] life.”

• Tyson Chambers fired both Tiffany Miller and Matthew Morris, the two GMC financial managers who posed as customers on the phone call to the lender. Morris later told the GJPD criminal investigator that he was told that making calls posing as customers was “just part of the business and everyone knows they do it, to include the banks.”

Morris told police he felt pressured to make the calls because [GMC General Manager] Tyson Chambers and GMC Sales Manager Caleb Stillman “knew the calls were being made, and essentially encouraged the behavior.”

Matthew stated he was terminated from his job “not for making the call, but for being caught.”

• Morris added that “when he first arrived at GMC, he had zero auto financing/sales background and was supposed to take a test for the [Department of Revenue] in which Tyson and Caleb recruited another individual to do it for him.”
• After getting fired from Red Rock, Tiffany Miller applied for a job with the Montrose Police Department (MPD), but lied to Montrose Police about why she had left Red Rock, saying it was because she lived in Montrose and the commute was too long. The Montrose Police Chief subsequently made it clear to the Daily Sentinel that Red Rock management intentionally misled MPD about Miller’s reason for leaving Red Rock when MPD called Red Rock to do a background check on Miller after she applied for the job.

Amy Felix, Red Rock Human Resources and Payroll Manager (Photo: LinkedIn)

• Red Rock Human Resources Payroll Manager Amy Felix told the GJPD investigator that GMC General Manager Tyson Chambers had directed her to falsely write on Tiffany Miller’s termination form that Tiffany had left Red Rock because of the long commute, and that she was eligible for rehire. Amy said Tyson told her to do this because he “didn’t want to ruin [Tiffany’s] life.” Amy confirmed to the GJPD investigator that Tiffany was actually fired for violating policy and was not eligible for rehire. Amy said she “felt pressured to falsely complete the record and regrets doing so.”