LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today announced the judgment against Accessibility Specialties, Inc. (ASI), and its owner, Russell Mashburn, for deceptively selling disability-accessible vehicles without the owners’ authorization or as a consignment sale and failing to allocate the proceeds to the owners of the vehicles. On eleven occasions, ASI and Mashburn sold consumers’ vehicles without the owners’ authorization and kept the proceeds of the sales.
“These defendants have taken advantage of our most vulnerable and now they must pay for their illegal and unconscionable actions,” said Arkansas Attorney General. “I urge any Arkansans who learn of con artists cheating consumers out of money to contact our office immediately.”
The Pulaski County Circuit Court ordered ASI and Mashburn to pay restitution of $13,350; civil penalties of $370,000, including enhanced penalties for targeting elder and disabled consumers; and the State’s costs and fees.
ASI and Mashburn have been in business in Little Rock since 1996 selling equipment such as stairlifts, elevators, ramps, and power wheelchairs. The business also offered accessible van rentals, personalized accessible van modifications, and sold used accessible vehicles to Arkansans with disabilities or their families.
In August 2020, a customer hired ASI to convert his Toyota Sienna van for his teenaged son who is disabled. After a few weeks, this customer found that ASI had wrongfully sold the Toyota Sienna for $49,500 without his consent. The buyer of the Toyota Sienna van did not know ASI was not authorized to sell the van.
On another occasion, ASI agreed to sell a customer’s converted van for $11,000. After the sale was completed, ASI kept the $11,000 and never paid the proceeds to the original owner of the vehicle. Yet another time, ASI sold a customer’s accessible van and a wheelchair on consignment but never paid the proceeds of $23,000 to the customer.
For more tips to help avoid falling victim to bad actors, or to file a consumer-related claim with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, call (800) 482-8982, email [email protected] or visit ArkansasAG.gov.
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn in on January 13, 2015, she is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected as Attorney General. She was resoundingly re-elected on November 6, 2018. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud. Further, she has held Rutledge Roundtable meetings and Mobile Office hours in every county of the State each year, and launched a Military and Veterans Initiative. She has led efforts to roll back government regulations that hurt job creators, fight the opioid epidemic, teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves on committees for Consumer Protection, Criminal Law and Veterans Affairs for the National Association of Attorneys General. She also served as the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for former Governor Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.