In the pre-dawn hush at a New Jersey auto warehouse, 47 gleaming SUVs sat sealed in containers. There were Mercedes, BMWs, and Range Rovers, all spotless and clean.
For federal agents, this wasn’t a routine bust of stolen vehicles but the climax of a years-long money laundering drama. Investigators later noted criminals were treating high-end cars like new shell companies – portable, valuable, and easy to move across borders.
What played out was a textbook cross-border trade fraud: shell companies, fake invoices and hidden payments all choreographed to launder illicit cash through the sparkle of luxury wheels.
⚬
Authorities framed the case as classic trade-based money laundering (TBML). In plain terms, launderers spun money through phony export transactions. Shell “exporters” wired funds from overseas as if paying for cars.
U.S. dealers received billions in deposits labeled as “auto purchase settlements” or “invoice payments,” even for vehicles that didn’t exist. With each foreign wire, the plot progressed.
⚬
The “Exporters” Who Never Sold a Car
The scheme centered on two paper exporters – Global Drive Auto Export LLC and Prestige Atlantic Traders Inc.
Both existed only in filings. They had no office, no employees and no website, yet their U.S. bank accounts moved millions of dollars.
Two men ran the show: a New York resident with deep ties to cross-border remittances, and a visa-holder shuttling between New Jersey and Lagos, Nigeria.
To car dealerships, these figures posed as legitimate “vehicle sourcing agents.” They brandished corporate registration papers, EINs and simple invoice templates to sell their story.
Their pitch was straight‑forward: “We export American cars to buyers overseas. The demand is huge.”
On paper it sounded like a niche export business, but in reality the companies had no real customers, no customer lists, and no auto sales revenue. In truth, the firms existed solely to turn illicit wire transfers into fleets of luxury vehicles.
⚬
