Multimillion-dollar fraud alleged in Auto Masters bankruptcy

Mark Janbakhsh at Plaza Mariachi

Local auto dealer Ben Freeland earlier this month agreed to buy bankrupt Middle Tennessee car lot chain Auto Masters, but the process hasn’t been free of roadblocks.

According to testimony in federal bankruptcy court, longtime Auto Masters owner Mark Janbakhsh on multiple occasions in the past month sent armed guards from Plaza Mariachi, the cultural and shopping center he opened on Nolensville Road last year, to the main Auto Masters lot, also on Nolensville Road, in order to “forcibly [take] possession” of the facility. The move “led to much anxiety and confusion,” according to testimony from one employee of the court receiver in the case. A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday said Janbakhsh, in bringing armed security to the lot, had “the intention of intimidating those parties … that he felt were acting against his interest.”