April 22 (Bloomberg) -- The owners of a Long Island, New York, exotic-car dealership that sells Bentleys and Aston Martins were charged with corporate espionage against a rival that sells Ferraris and Maseratis.

Giacomo Ciaccia and Leka Vuksanaj, owners of Universal Autosports LLC in Glen Cove, were arrested today at their homes, along with Creative Director Michael Lussos, Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin in Manhattan said in a statement. They are accused of illegally tapping into the e-mail of Ferrari Maserati of Fort Lauderdale-Long Island in Plainview, New York.

The defendants gained access to Ferrari Maserati’s e-mail server about 2,500 times from February to September last year from their homes and Universal Autosports, according to the criminal complaint dated April 16 and unsealed today.

“In one instance a dealer associated with Universal Autosports e-mailed a customer who had been negotiating with Ferrari Maserati to buy a rare Ferrari Enzo worth more than $1.3 million,” according to the statement.

“Is there any way I can help or get in the middle,” the dealer wrote, according to the complaint. “Have they found you a car yet?”

The three defendants appeared in court today. Ciaccia and Vuksanaj were released on bonds of $100,000 each. Lussos was released on a $50,000 bond.

“I’m used to real espionage cases,” said Vuksanaj’s lawyer, Stanley Cohen. “I’ve seen the complaint. I’m rolling my eyes.”

Other People’s Mail

“They have been charged with reading somebody’s e-mail and using that for their business,” said Ciaccia’s lawyer, Ronald Fischetti. “It doesn’t seem like it warrants” the attention it’s getting.

Lussos’s lawyer, Peggy Cross, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

Universal Autosports “deals in rare and expensive exotic automobiles” and opened in February 2008 in the space formerly held by Ferrari Maserati, according to the complaint. Ciaccia was Ferrari Maserati’s general manager and Lussos its webmaster until they were terminated in March 2007 after new management took over, according to the complaint. Lussos set up Ferrari Maserati’s e-mail accounts, according to the complaint.

Beginning in September, Ferrari Maserati learned that employees’ e-mails were being forwarded to an unauthorized e- mail address on its server.

Customer Information

The e-mails contained information about its customers, inventory and employee compensation, according to the complaint signed by Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent John Leo Jr.

Ciaccia, 43, of the Bronx, New York; Vuksanaj, 42, of Mahopac, New York; and Lussos, 40, of Coram, New York, are charged with one count each of “conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and obtain information for commercial gain and to further an intended fraud,” according to the statement.

The maximum penalty if they’re found guilty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case is U.S. v. Ciaccia, 09-mag-963, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporters on this story: Thom Weidlich in New York at tweidlich@bloomberg.net; David Glovin in New York federal court at dglovin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 22, 2009 17:27 EDT