of San Antonio, Texas. It also opened its first dealers in Las Vegas, Nevada and opened two dealers in New Mexico. By August 1997, the company had 24 dealers in five states, and 64 branch offices in 17 states. Through the branches, Champion purchased financing contracts from 2710 dealers. Many of those contracts required casualty insurance; Ugly Duckling went into the insurance business, buying policies for those required to do so. Ugly Duckling's Drake Insurance Agency did this through American Bankers Insurance Group, and offered other types of insurance as well. Another area of business was Cygnet Finance, Inc. which Ugly Duckling started in September 1996. This subsidiary offered financing for car dealers which could not. Ugly Duckling became profitable and increased its number of employees from 652 at the start of 1997 to 1776 nine months later. A greater percentage of the company's income came from financing, and the November 11, 1996 issue of The Washington Post said Ugly Duckling was "a bank masquerading as a used-car lot." By 1999, though, Ugly Duckling was out of the financing business; Garcia bought Cygnet and Champion closed. At the same time, Ugly Duckling was developing its own software, and CEO Gregory Sullivan said this company was the only one buying car dealers in 1999. Markets added included Orlando, Florida and Richmond, Virginia. In 2001, sales were $541.7 million, and the headquarters moved to a former Mega Foods grocery. Ray Fidel, DriveTime's former president and chief executive, started working with Ugly Duckling in 2001 as it prepared to go private again. DriveTime Garcia owned 65 percent of Duckling by January 2002. That same year, Garcia and Sullivan bought out the remainder of the company's stock. Company officials renamed the newly private enterprise DriveTime effective September 1, 2002, with the registered name DriveTime Automotive Group intended to distinguish the auto seller from educational company Az Drive Time. The company operated 76 dealerships in eight states as DriveTime sought to expand across the U.S. O'Leary and Partners took over advertising in May 2003. Prior to their involvement with DriveTime, Garcia and Fidel were known in connection with the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association scandal during the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s and 90s. Garcia pleaded guilty to a fraud charge in 1990. Fidel, Lincoln Savings and Loan's former president, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in 1991. Both men received sentences of three