https://www.wyff4.com/article/car-dealership-nightclub-owner-money-laundering/61899908

The United States Attorney of the Western District of North Carolina, Dena King, announced two men pled guilty to money laundering in North Carolina.

According to court documents, 50-year-old John Harvey Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, was the owner of iNetwork Auto Group Inc., which was a car dealership found in Charlotte. Martin also owned and operated a Charlotte nightclub called The Scorpio. Martin hired 47-year-old Vincent Emmanuel Jefferson Jr. of Fort Mill, South Carolina, as a sales manager of iNetwork.

Court documents show that from July 2017 to January 2021, Martin and Jefferson conspired in a money laundering scheme by selling about 20 luxury vehicles to an individual who the two knew was a drug dealer, which they were willing to turn a blind eye toward.

Martin and Jefferson received cash payments from the drug dealer, while knowing the money was made from some form of criminal activity, officials said.

The two further facilitated fraud by allowing the dealer to purchase the vehicles using the names of straw purchasers in an effort to conceal his identity and hide the source of the illicit cash. The two would also forge the signatures of the straw purchasers on sales, registration, and title paperwork for the vehicles, then notarize the documents, knowing the paperwork was illegitimate, King stated.

These cash payments from the dealer totaled over $250,000, court records showed.