Vulocity owner 'stunned' by kickback scheme

Alex Apostol, owner of Texas-based Vulocity, said he was "stunned" when he saw a copy of the Hernando Today article detailing how the county's fleet manager admitted to taking kickbacks from his company on the purchase of global positioning system (GPS) units.

As of Friday, Apostol said he is poring through sales contracts from all his vendors to make sure there are no other discrepancies to clients.

Until that investigation is complete, "everything's on hold," he said.

Apostol said he is also trying to track down the salesman who arranged the commission with Fleet Manager Jack Stepongzi.

If a public official was accepting money on the side, it is definitely wrong, he said.

"It is a kickback as far as I'm concerned," Apostol said.

That salesman, Manuel Fernandez, resigned from the company in September and is only working in a consultant capacity on older contracts, he said.

Apostol said the sales of the GPS units were not inflated or added to Stepongzi's commission.

Fernandez charged the county the standard rate of $369 for each GPS unit and $299.40 for the annual service subscription.

As far as he knows, Hernando County is the only government entity his company does business with in Florida. He stressed that he doesn't want to lose that contract over this incident.

To that end, he is drafting a letter to county commissioners stating that "we don't condone this kind of behavior and hope we can continue to do business with Hernando County."

Apostol said he bought the assets of Vulocity in September and is doing business under that name.

Most of his clients are private citizens, he said.