Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari and Chevrolet Corvette are just some of the luxury car models found by police investigators registered in the names of vegetable dealers. In another case, a Mazerati vehicle worth more than a million shekels was registered in the name of an unemployed person.
Thus the criminals found a sophisticated way of money laundering. Investigators from the Lahav 433 unit and central units in the north of the country and the Hof district recently arrested dozens of criminals from some of the largest criminal organizations in Israel in the Jewish and Arab sectors, as well as contractors who were allegedly involved in laundering hundreds of millions of shekels when distributing fictitious invoices.
Investigators were shocked to find that the same criminals were driving luxury cars worth millions of shekels and registered in the names of family members and friends who allegedly work in their “business” to obscure traces of money laundering. They were surprised to find that some of the owners of the luxury vehicles of the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Chevrolet Cobert models are registered in the names of stall owners in markets that sell parsley, mint and basil. In addition, a Mazerati vehicle was registered in the name of the unemployed.
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“We suddenly discovered that one of the owners of the luxury cars worth almost two million shekels is a seller of parsley and mint in one of the markets in the north of the country. We tried to understand where he got money to buy a Lamborghini but he could not explain how he managed to buy it from mint, parsley and basil.” A police officer revealed, “We realized he was a ‘monkey’ working in the service of the same offender and we passed his details to the IRS who would also check his bank accounts and income from his business in the market.”
In another case, investigators were shocked that Ferrari had a record in the name of an unemployed woman who purchased the car was a known offender who registered it in his name. “I did not know it was a Ferrari. I did not even ride it once,” the unemployed woman claimed.
In another case, investigators discovered that a luxury Mercedes jeep worth about a million shekels was registered in his name with a fruit stand in the market. “I’m actually driving a 2018 Ford,” the fruit stand owner claimed. When asked how the luxury jeep was registered in his name, he replied: “I did a favor for a friend.”
Investigators suspect that the “monkeys” after whom the luxury cars are registered received a sum of about NIS 5,000 from the criminals who also took care to pay the reports and fines they accumulated when they drove the luxury cars.
In the parade of luxury cars confiscated: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Chevrolet Corvette, Mercedes and BMW Jeeps, Maserati, Jeep Land Rover, Jeep Rubicon, Lexus, Audi R8 and Porsche.
“Most of the vehicles were purchased with money laundering of billions of shekels,” a senior police officer noted. “Those criminals know that in order to evade taxes they register the cars in the name of those ‘monkeys’ and pay them money for it.”
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July 3, 2022 Published by Israel Mako News.
