Mercedes-Benz dealers traded sex for discounts, former saleswoman claims

Yahoo

25-03-2025

Salesmen at a Long Island, New York, Mercedes dealership routinely offered discounts on vehicles to 'select female customers' in exchange for sex, a former employee alleges.
In a federal discrimination lawsuit filed Monday and obtained by The Independent, Talita Paulino, who was hired last year at Mercedes-Benz of Massapequa as a sales consultant, claims another employee, a 'product concierge,' shared videos of buyers providing sexual favors for discounts in the dealership's cars.
'Give them a good discount, and they'll do anything,' the salesman allegedly said, according to Paulino's complaint, which adds that she heard him say he had 'lost count' of how many women had agreed to such trades.
On another occasion, Paulino, 29, says she watched her boss shove his hand down a female client's pants and fondle her buttocks while offering her a special deal, after which the two of them drove away in his personal car.
The alleged behavior extended to staffers like Paulino, who contends the boss withheld crucial information from saleswomen unless they let him touch them 'in a sexual manner.'
When Paulino brought up the situation to a female colleague, her complaint says the woman responded, 'You just have to ignore it and let them be men.'
'Everybody should work at a place where they are respected and treated with dignity,' attorney Joshua Paul Frank, who is representing Paulino, told The Independent. 'This obviously goes far beyond that.'
In an email, Ana Shields, the lawyer representing Mercedes-Benz of Massapequa, said, 'The Dealership strongly denies the allegations as they are baseless and without merit. Additionally, after investigating the matter, the Dealership has no knowledge of the alleged discounts in exchange for sexual favors and vehemently denies that this occurred. We have found no evidence to support the Plaintiff's claims and intend to defend this matter vigorously. Since this matter is in active litigation, we will not be commenting further.'
Messages sent to co-defendant Automotive Management Services, Inc. (AMSI), which oversees the dealership, went unanswered. AMSI is owned by reclusive West Palm Beach billionaire Terry Taylor, the largest private owner of auto dealerships in the nation. He also did not reply to emails seeking comment.
Paulino began working at Mercedes-Benz of Massapequa on April 26, 2024, and almost immediately found herself being objectified by higher-ups, according to her complaint. During her second week on the job, it says the sales manager took Paulino for a ride in a new GLE 350 to 'demonstrate to her the model's features.' But when the sales manager pulled into the parking lot of a 7-11 and said, 'I can tell you like me,' Paulino told him she was in a committed relationship, the complaint goes on.
'Oh come on, you wouldn't cheat?' the complaint says he replied, to which Paulino said, 'Absolutely not. Let's head back.'
As time went by, Paulino saw the sales manager 'strok[ing] and caress[ing]' female employees in an inappropriate way, and making 'sexual and perverted remarks to them,' the complaint continues. However, when Paulino rebuffed the sales manager's advances, her rejections visibly 'angered him,' according to the complaint. Those women who played along were given more opportunities to make sales, and Paulino soon felt obligated to give in to the manager's demand for 'hugs,' in order to earn a living.
'[W]hen she permitted [the sales manager] to hug her, his attitude drastically changed for the better, which enabled her to work under calmer conditions and increase her sales production,' the complaint contends. 'Unfortunately, [the sales manager] did not long remain satisfied with hugs and began demanding that [Paulino] scratch his back.'
In one instance, the sales manager refused to provide Paulino with a sales quote for a potential customer unless she scratched his back, which she did, reluctantly, the complaint states.
From then on, each time Paulino needed a sales quote, he insisted she scratch his back, the complaint says. When she refused, it claims his 'hostile and unhelpful conduct returned.'
Soon, Paulino became aware that the sales manager and a product concierge-turned-sales assistant 'routinely provide[d] select female customers with discounts in exchange for sexual favors,' according to the complaint.
One unsettling episode occurred while Paulino was in the dealership cafeteria with a group of male coworkers, the complaint states. The product concierge walked in and made a joke about management having discovered a condom inside one of the dealership's cars, after which he 'began recounting some of his sexual experiences that he had had with customers inside of the dealership's cars during working hours,' according to the complaint.
'Management knows those condoms weren't mine,' the product concierge allegedly said. 'Because they know I don't use condoms.'
He then 'proceeded to take out his phone and show videos of customers with whom he had sex inside of dealership vehicles,' reiterating his practice of trading sex for discounts, the complaint states.
The sales manager, as well, made no secret of his interest in young women who showed up to buy cars, pointing to one and commenting to Paulino, 'Oh my god, I would destroy that little body,' according to the complaint. She also allegedly heard him proposition female customers, more than once, saying, 'Have you been with an older guy before?'
Broadly speaking, the dealership's 'male-dominated management team generally belittle[s] the subordinate female staff,' only giving them the same opportunities as male staff if they succumbed to their sexually inappropriate demands, the complaint states.
In October 2024, some seven months after Paulino started at Mercedes-Benz of Massapequa, she 'determined that it would be unreasonable to continue working under such detrimental conditions,' and resigned — a constructive discharge, in legal terms.
In fact, when she emailed her 'forced resignation' to management, telling them she could no longer abide the constant sexual harassment, she did not receive any reply, the complaint concludes.
Paulino is demanding economic and punitive damages, including lost sales opportunities, back pay, front pay, and loss of benefits, along with compensatory damages for emotional distress, mental anguish, and pain and suffering, as well as attorneys' fees.