MUSTANG, Okla. – A metro couple says they were conned into buying a bad car.

If the accused salesman sounds familiar, there’s a reason; we’ve done stories on Ryan Tate before.

He’s the former head of the now defunct Tate Publishing Company, and he’s facing criminal charges.

“We pulled him on OSCN and we’re like, oh gosh, he is a scam artist,” said La Tasha LaGrange.

Josh and La Tasha LaGrange needed a car so they took their search to Facebook.

“We decided to purchase the car from Mr. Tate and he wrote us a two week warranty on it and that was January 31st, and February 4th, the car broke down,” said La Tasha.

Engine problems stalled the car, along with communication with the previous owner when they asked for the car to be repaired.

So, they decided to search him on the internet to see who they were dealing with.

“All of a sudden, we’ve seen all these news articles, newspaper reports,” said La Tasha.

Ryan Tate and his father, Richard Tate, were once owners of Tate Publishing Company, and they are now facing embezzlement, extortion and racketeering charges for alleged scams on authors and musicians.

When asked why it was taking over a month to replace the vehicle or give the LaGrange’s their money back, Ryan Tate said, “We had it at my place, it was at their place, we brought it back to my place.”

LaGrange told us they can’t even legally take the car because Ryan Tate is listed on the title as a registered owner.

Over the phone with News 4, the LaGrange’s told Ryan Tate they wanted their money back.

“Uh, no. We’ve been probably talking to them for two weeks about this,” Ryan Tate responded.

Finally, the LaGrange’s gave Ryan Tate one last option.

“We were promised our mechanic could do the work. You don’t want my mechanic to do the work and pay for it, then we would like a replacement or our money back. One or the other, that’s it,” said La Tasha.

A few hours after our interview, Ryan Tate paid the LaGrange’s back their $1,900 for the car.