Aug 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued the former CEO and two other top executives of collapsed used-car seller and subprime lender Tricolor, according to a court filing on Tuesday.
Here are more details:
• The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that Tricolor executives Daniel Chu, Jerome Kollar and Ameryn Seibold defrauded investors.
• Representatives for the executives did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
• Tricolor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in a Texas court in September last year after Fifth Third Bank warned of alleged fraudulent activity at the company.
• The SEC accused Chu, Kollar and Seibold of a fraudulent scheme involving misrepresentations about auto loan receivables that were used as collateral to obtain liquidity needed to run Tricolor’s operations, meet debt covenants and prop up the business.
• “Between at least 2020 and September 2025, Defendants Chu, Kollar, and Seibold engaged in a fraudulent scheme that caused investors to lose hundreds of millions of dollars through their purchases of asset-backed securities,” the U.S. markets regulator said in the court filing.
• Earlier this month, a federal judge rejected Daniel Chu’s request to dismiss the top charge in a criminal indictment accusing him of systematic fraud that led to Tricolor’s collapse.
• Chu has pleaded not guilty to all charges in his eight-count indictment, including bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. A trial is scheduled for January 2027.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)
