Tax Audit

I know 75% of what to do in order to recover money from this, but I’m always up for suggestions. Hopefully somebody with dealer issues can use this as a reference.

What happened in Arizona:
I found a post for a truck on craigslist from a private seller. Met the guy at a parking lot near both of us and test drove truck, inspected, and agreed to pay $4500. Title is in a woman’s name, with a few dealer transfers, then ends in an individual, so looks ok.

I insist on a Bill of Sale, and he agrees, and he also wants a copy, and signs, but I forgot to print multiple copies, so I tell him I’ll email him a copy when I scan it and get home. I had agreed to drop him off at his house but then he has me drop him off at a corner and walk home…this is where I knew something was wasn’t on the up-and-up. He pesters me for a copy of the bill of sale, but I go defensive and ignore him until I make sure I can get it titled correctly.

I get to DMV and they pitch a fit and won’t title it because it’s registered to a dealership. I give up trying to get them to push it through and instead go to a 3rd party title place and talk them into it. They look up the dealership info, make the paperwork and make me pay something like 8.5% (let’s just say $380). He signed as an individual, but they found his dealer #.

I call the guy back (he used GV), email, text, he disappears…great, I’m screwed for $380. I also later get a “use tax” audit and have to pay an extra $70. So around $450 total.

I managed to look up his dealer # that the 3rd party title was able to find, find his “place of business” which is in Oregon, and his mailing address is in AZ (near where I dropped him off on a corner).

What I’ve done so far:
Contacted Oregon’s dealer complaint department to let them know he is representing himself as an individual and he lives in AZ. They’re sending an investigator over to his lot. They’ve also gave me his surety bond # and company it is with if I want to make a claim against it.

I’ve contacted the Oregon department of justice and am opening a formal complaint that he is representing himself as an individual.

Contacted Arizona DOT dealer investigations and told them he is acting/selling as an unlicensed dealership in AZ. He can effectively sell cars at 0% sales tax if he fills Oregon paperwork out (and evade AZ tax) or he can do nothing and screw me over on AZ taxes that I didn’t expect to pay. They were VERY happy to go after him because I have scanned documents, dealer name/address, home address, contact name, etc. to build a good case.

He has ZERO paperwork signed by me. As a dealer, he’s required to have all sorts of paperwork. He has no bill of sale. I don’t think he even knows my full name because he expected me to send a bill of sale.

Question:
The surety bond company said I just submit a claim via email/fax/paper with a description of what happened and what I’m requesting…very informal. His bond is for $40k.

Does anybody have any experience making a claim against a surety bond?

I’m wondering if I should try and sue him in AZ small claims ($2500 max) for tax that I wasn’t expecting to pay that I factored into cost of truck, court fees, time spent…I can’t really think of much else. I have his name and home address, so I should be able to get him service. I could try and request treble damages because I considered it fraud.

I’d cross my fingers he doesn’t show and I win a big default judgement…then I can just submit that to the surety company and get a claim? I don’t know how surety bonds work.

Any suggestions on how to pursue? He should have no way to make a case that he represented himself as a dealership.