Clark P. Rittersbach, a 51-year-old business owner from Cape Coral, Florida, has been sentenced to 24 months in prison after being convicted of wire fraud. The sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo.
Rittersbach owned Concours Classic Motor Cars, a Macedon, New York-based company that specialized in restoring and selling antique vehicles. Many of his customers were located far away or internationally and depended on his updates about the progress of their restoration projects.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn M. Hartford explained that between 2018 and April 2022, Rittersbach made false statements to customers regarding work he claimed to have completed on their vehicles in order to receive payments for unfinished jobs. “His intent was to obtain money for the unfinished work he claimed was finished, and to stall his clients so he had enough time to complete the work,” Hartford said.
In one instance from 2019, Rittersbach told a customer via text message and email that he had finished work on a Duesenberg engine and sent an invoice for $25,000. The customer wired the funds based on these representations. In another case, Rittersbach overstated the amount of work done on a 1964 Porsche in emails to another customer to secure payment for tasks not yet performed but which he planned to do later.
Overall, Rittersbach’s actions resulted in approximately $2.5 million in losses for victims of the scheme.
The investigation leading up to this sentencing was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Special Agent-in-Charge Philip Tejera.
