{"id":42511,"date":"2026-09-02T15:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/42511\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T15:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:41:09","slug":"stellantis-awarded-5-4m-judgment-against-iowa-dealer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/42511\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellantis Awarded $5.4M Judgment Against Iowa Dealer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mi-read-time\" aria-label=\"Estimated reading time\">\ud83d\udd512 min read<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Stellantis Financial Services has secured a default judgment worth more than $5.4 million against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myskyauto.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iowa-based Sky Auto Mall<\/a>, bringing a months-long dealership financing dispute closer to an end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Stellantis accused Sky Auto Mall of using the same vehicles to obtain financing from more than one lender, a practice commonly known in auto retail as \u201cdouble flooring.\u201d Stellantis filed suit in March against the dealership and owners Igor, Yelena and Alex Tovstanovsky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/news.dealershipguy.com\/p\/stellantis-wins-5-4m-default-judgment-against-dealership-in-alleged-floorplan-fraud-lawsuit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Car Dealership Guy<\/a>, Stellantis alleged that Sky Auto Mall borrowed against vehicles through multiple lenders, including Ford, while moving vehicles between its Newhall and Center Point locations. The company claimed the transfers helped conceal duplicate financing.<\/p>\n<p>Court Awards Stellantis More Than $5.4 Million<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The latest ruling was not the result of a trial. Sky Auto Mall failed to respond to the lawsuit, allowing the court to enter judgment by default.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Car Dealership Guy reported that Stellantis Financial Services was awarded $4,819,550.42 in principal, along with $750,265.83 in interest and fees. After a $69,869.80 offset, the total comes to just under $5.5 million. The ruling was entered Aug. 24 in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iowacourts.gov\/iowa-courts\/district-court\/judicial-district-6\/district\/6\/county\/linn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Linn County District Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">KCRG also reported that the dealership never answered the lawsuit and that the court granted judgment in Stellantis\u2019 favor. Earlier in the case, Stellantis claimed Sky Auto Mall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2026\/03\/26\/vehicles-seized-sky-auto-mall-part-lawsuit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">owed more than $12 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What Stellantis Alleged<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Floorplan financing is common in the dealership business. A lender supplies money so a dealer can stock vehicles, and that loan is paid back when the vehicle is sold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Stellantis alleged Sky Auto Mall went beyond that normal arrangement by obtaining more than one loan on the same vehicles. Court filings cited by KCRG also said the dealership of keeping separate financial records and transferring vehicles between its stores to hide the duplicate loans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The dispute quickly spilled beyond the courtroom. Sky Auto Mall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2026\/03\/12\/sky-auto-mall-fraud-lawsuit-leaves-76-workers-jobless-employees-say-they-were-kept-dark\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">laid off 76 employees across its two locations<\/a> in March. Later that month, a Linn County judge gave Stellantis the right to recover vehicles, and sheriff\u2019s deputies began removing inventory from the dealership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">KCRG reported that Stellantis attorneys also told the court the owners had filed for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<p>A Costly Ending<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The default judgment does not mean the fraud allegations were tested before a jury. It does, however, give Stellantis Financial Services a court award after months of legal action over the dealership\u2019s inventory financing.<\/p>\n<p>For dealers, the case is another reminder that floorplan loans depend on accurate inventory records, clean titles, and repayment of the money tied to each vehicle. Once those records fall apart, the consequences can move quickly from a lending dispute to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2026\/03\/26\/vehicles-seized-sky-auto-mall-part-lawsuit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> seized inventory<\/a>, closed stores, layoffs, and millions of dollars in court judgments.<\/p>\n<p>Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.dealershipguy.com\/p\/stellantis-wins-5-4m-default-judgment-against-dealership-in-alleged-floorplan-fraud-lawsuit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Car Dealership Guy<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2026\/08\/28\/stellantis-wins-55m-sky-auto-mall-fraud-case\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KCRG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert S. Miller\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788363669_767_e7ffc7c34349b9d01cde865b3bbcf944f1b843c95b3f60b14675c59ec8016dd1.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-96 photo mi-author-card__avatar-img\" height=\"96\" width=\"96\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mi-author-card__label\">Written by<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tRobert S. Miller<\/p>\n<p class=\"mi-author-card__bio\">Robert S. Miller is a diehard Mopar enthusiast who lives and breathes all that is Mopar. The Michigander is not only the Editor for MoparInsiders.com, 5thGenRams.com, and HDRams.com but an automotive photographer. He is an avid fan of offshore powerboat racing, which he travels the country to take part in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mi-author-card__links\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"mi-author-card__more\" href=\"https:\/\/moparinsiders.com\/author\/redriderbob\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tMore from Robert S. Miller\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd512 min read Stellantis Financial Services has secured a default judgment worth more than $5.4 million against Iowa-based&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[104,109,5461,5019,23238,115,1042,1150,27186,906,19750,27187,138,27188,905,18252,27189,27190,111,11553,27191,103,121],"class_list":["post-42511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stellantis","tag-auto","tag-chrysler","tag-court","tag-dealership","tag-default","tag-dodge","tag-financial","tag-financing","tag-floorplan","tag-fraud","tag-inventory","tag-iowa","tag-jeep","tag-judgment","tag-lawsuit","tag-lenders","tag-mall","tag-newhall","tag-ram","tag-services","tag-sky","tag-stellantis","tag-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}