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Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli announced today the arrest of twenty-seven (27) individuals for various offenses related to Leading Organized Crime, Racketeering, Money Laundering, Uttering Forged Instruments, Filing Fraudulent Income Tax Returns, Failing to Pay Sales Tax, Stealing Individuals Identity, Tampering with Public Records, Filing Fraudulent Documents with the Motor Vehicle Commission, and Engaging in Corporate Misconduct. The arrests were a result of a joint investigation lead by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Special Investigation Squad, under the direction of Chief Joseph Macellaro. The following Law Enforcement Agencies assisted and participated in this sixteen month investigation: The investigation began in March 2008 and initially focused on Ilya Igdalev the owner and president of two wholesale car dealerships: Gemp, LLC, and Best Buy Car Company. Previously, Gemp, LLC was manipulating the price differentials of the cost of new Mercedes Benz in the United States versus Europe. Gemp, LLC would purchase new Mercedes Benz in the United States and ship them overseas where they could be sold on the European black market at a substantial mark up, despite Mercedes Benz express written policy prohibiting this practice. Accordingly, Gemp, LLC was “black-listed” and placed on the list of dealerships that was barred from purchasing new Mercedes vehicles. Investigators from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission uncovered numerous fraudulent schemes being committed by Igdalev using Gemp, L.L.C. and Best Buy Car Company in order to continue selling motor vehicle overseas. It was discovered that Igdalev stole the personal identifying information of his previous customers in order to buy new Mercedes Benz vehicles in their name without the customer’s knowledge or consent. Igdalev then passed forged vehicle Title and Registration documents at numerous motor vehicle agencies throughout the state of New Jersey related to those sales. Igdalev also used All City Transportation to act as the “straw purchaser” of new Mercedes Benz vehicles. An examination of the Motor Vehicle Records revealed that Igdalev fraudulently titled and registered the vehicles as limousines and provided fictitious insurance information. In both instances, the purchased vehicles were exported to various other countries such as Russia, Poland, and Turkey to be sold on the European black market. Further investigation also revealed that Igdalev was “rolling back” the mileage on the odometers of used vehicles. The vehicles were then sold to unsuspecting consumers. On Friday June 27, 2008, detectives executed six search warrants related to the case. These search warrants were executed on the business of Gemp, LLC, located at 60 Railroad Avenue, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey; the residence of its owner, Ilya Igdalev, 216 10th Street, Cresskill, New Jersey, a related business known as All City Transportation at 9 Lone Star Lane, Manalapan, New Jersey; the residence of All City Transportation’s owner Ronni Raphaelov, 94 Pease Place, Manalapan, New Jersey and two safe deposit boxes related to Gemp LLC. As a result of the search warrants and related investigation, approximately $750,000.00 in illegal proceeds and twenty-eight (28) high-end vehicles were seized. Also seized were the auto dealership sales files and financial records relating to Gemp, LLC and Best Buy. An examination of the files and records revealed that Igdalev was also involved in large scale auto loan application fraud, New Jersey Sales Tax evasion, and money laundering. The investigation revealed a pattern of auto loan application fraud resulting in over $890,000.00 being stolen from various lending institutions. On behalf of his customer, Igdalev would facilitate automobile financing through outside financial agencies for vehicles being purchased from Gemp LLC and Best Buy Car Company. In order to qualify for automobile financing, Igdalev and many of his customers would submit fictitious information pertaining to their income earned and rental properties owned on their credit applications that were submitted to the lending institutions. Igdalev also stole nearly $100,000.00 in sales tax monies owed to the State of New Jersey. Igdalev masked his actual transaction between Gemp, LLC and the customer by issuing the customer a fictitious Bill of Sale from a Minnesota based car dealership named Auto Point located at 9130 Olson Memorial Hwy., Golden Valley, Minnesota. The fictitious Bill of Sale made the transaction falsely appear to be from Auto Point, an out of state car dealership, and no sales tax was required to be remitted from the out of state dealership to the State of New Jersey. The New Jersey resident customer, not the out of state auto dealership, would be required to satisfy the New Jersey sales tax obligations. Nonetheless, Igdalev did collect the sales tax owed on the automobile transaction directly from his New Jersey resident customer and keep it despite his legal obligation to turn it over the New Jersey Taxing Authorities. Furthermore, an analysis of Igdalev’s financial records revealed that, by virtue of his fraudulent transactions, Igdalev laundered over $1,100,000.00 in monies derived from criminal activity. Prosecutor Molinelli states that the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is an ongoing investigation.
1) ILYA IGDALEV
2) RAMI ALIJIBAWI
3) FRANCIS ANTOINE
4) JONATHAN DERMON
5) LORNA EVANS
6) OLEG FROLOV
7) KARL GLADDEN
8) DUBERNEY L. GOMEZ
9) COURTNEY E. HAYES
10) MILAN KORCAK
11) MARINA LAVRIK
12) MICHAEL LAVRIK
13) AMI MESIKA
14) ORIETTA MORA
15) ELLA MOROZOVA
16) MAGNOLIA PEREYRA
17) DINA PETLYAR
18) SOFIYA PETLYAR
19) TRAJCE POPOV
20) RAYMOND SAJOUS
21) GEORGE SIKORA
22) KEENON R. SIMMONS
23) CORI SOCHER
24) TERI STRAUGHN-DAVIS
25) AKPEROV UMULBANI
26) VITALI VASILYEV
27) ILONA ZILBERMAN
End of Release. |
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