IRVING, Texas — Top executives at Irving-based subprime auto lender Tricolor have been indicted on federal fraud charges, including founder and CEO Daniel Chu, who could face life in prison if convicted.
According to an indictment unsealed Dec. 17 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Chu and Chief Operating Officer David Goodgame allegedly led a years-long criminal scheme to defraud banks and private credit providers. Prosecutors say the executives engaged in bank fraud and wire fraud by repeatedly double-pledging collateral to lenders.
Former Tricolor Chief Financial Officer Jerome Kollar and former Senior Director of Finance Ameryn Seibold pleaded guilty to fraud charges on Dec. 16 and are now cooperating with federal authorities.
The indictment alleges Tricolor created approximately $800 million in fictitious collateral between 2018 and 2025. Prosecutors claim the company pledged about $2.2 billion in collateral to lenders and investors while possessing only $1.4 billion in actual assets. This imbalance allegedly allowed Tricolor to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in cash advances.
Federal prosecutors say a portion of those funds was used by Chu for personal enrichment.
By the summer of 2025, lenders reportedly confronted Chu and other executives about irregularities in Tricolor’s collateral. Following those discussions, executives allegedly attempted to conceal the fraud or justify the discrepancies during secretly recorded phone calls.
In one conversation cited in the indictment, Chu allegedly compared Tricolor’s predicament to that of Enron, the energy company whose collapse in the early 2000s became one of the most infamous corporate accounting scandals in U.S. history.
The case remains ongoing as federal investigators continue to examine the scope of the alleged fraud.
