Who signed the MCO??

When a Company Issues a Fake Certificate of Origin — What You Should Know

If you’re a Cortes Campers customer (or any RV buyer) who received a Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin (MCO)that turned out to be fake or misleading, you’re not alone — and you should know this isn’t just unethical. It’s illegal.

A Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin is a legal document that proves a vehicle was completed by the manufacturer and has never been titled before. It’s what your bank, your DMV, and your state all rely on to issue a valid title.
When a company signs or provides a fraudulent certificate to get money from a customer or lender, that’s fraud, plain and simple.

In Ohio, where Cortes Campers LLC is based, Ohio Revised Code § 4505.19 makes it a felony to knowingly issue or use a false or fraudulent certificate of origin.
That can mean up to 12 months in jail and thousands in fines for each violation — and each document can count separately.

At the federal level, if that document crosses state lines (as happens when a Nevada customer wires money for an Ohio product), it can fall under wire fraud or mail fraud statutes (18 U.S.C. § 1341 / § 1343), which carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison and massive fines.

The Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act (§ 1345.02) also applies, allowing customers to recover damages and regulators to impose civil penalties up to $25,000 per violation.

In our case, the Certificates of Origin provided to our bank appear to be signed by company representative Morgan Jarrell, who remains employed at Cortes Campers. These documents were used to release more than $112,000 in funding for three units that, according to the company’s own admissions, were not actually built or completed at the time the certificates were issued—a clear misrepresentation of fact and, in our opinion, a violation of both state and federal law.
Further evidence supports this timeline: in a legally recorded phone conversation, company owner Paul Spivak—a convicted felon—stated that the campers were not even started until October 2024, months after the funding was released. This statement aligns with the text messages and photos he personally sent prior to his incarceration, which corroborate the delay and the misleading nature of the documents provided to our lender.

This situation underscores why documentation matters. A single signature on a false Certificate of Origin doesn’t just break trust — it breaks the law. And those responsible can be held personally accountable for the financial and legal fallout that follows.

As always, this is my personal opinion and interpretation based on publicly available Ohio and federal law.

*This photo was provided to me by Paul Spivak on October 5, 2024*

*Bank representative information redacted*