Federal authorities across the United States have begun seeing a relatively new scheme that involves the "illegal" export of luxury vehicles to China and other countries and they want anti-money laundering compliance officers to be on the look-out for related wire transfers, two federal prosecutors said at a banking conference earlier this week. The schemes involve the use of bogus leasing companies and straw leasers to convince luxury vehicle dealerships to sell BMWs and other vehicles that are then immediately taken to a port for export to China, said Evan Weitz, a federal prosecutor in New Jersey. Such activity cost states millions of dollars in lost sales tax revenue, he told the audience at a money laundering conference in Washington held by the American Bankers Association and the American Bar Association. Roughly a dozen U.S. attorney's offices across the country are currently investigating such schemes and have been aided by a number of suspicious activity reports (SARs)
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