Neighborhood car dealership Prestige Automobiles allegedly utilized a shell company to send BMW cars from Guam to China to escape detection by producer BMW, according to a search warrant unsealed in the Superior Court of Guam.
Prestige Auto, the dealership's owner John Shen Sr. and others are charged with several counts of identity theft, listing tampering, forgery and conspiracy theories. Luxurious vehicles supposedly were registered in the titles of Guam inhabitants, without their knowledge, and were rather shipped to China. Shen controllers or is related to Shen's Enterprises companies Shen's Corporation and Pan Asia Wholesale Corporation, court records state.
Prestige Auto shipped cars to China using Pan Asia as a business from Guam. "Shen is simply licensed to import vehicles... into the Guam Micronesia area and sell the vehicles out of Prestige Automobiles," stated FBI agent Joshua Kipp within an affidavit attached to the search warrant. "By promoting the cars to Pan Asia, that subsequently exported them to China, Shen had been operating in another marketplace where he was not a certified dealer."
Prestige Auto in about 2014 and 2015 sold millions of dollars worth of luxury automobiles to Pan Asia in the course of 10 months, court records state. The earnings have been noted in Shen's Corporation's financing and tax returns, documents state. The earnings to Pan Asia were handled as revenue, which intended the Corporation of Shen or Prestige Auto did not have to cover Guam receipts taxes. Kipp said that trades through Pan Asia were done to so that the firm wouldn't pay local small business privilege tax.
BMW Singapore had penalized Shen, reportedly because Shen was not licensed to export automobiles court documents state. Shen had to pay 40,000 euros, or $45,000, to its Pan Asia earnings to BMW. Between January 2014 and August 2015 car traders wired money to MGT and over days MGT wrote checks to Shen's Corporation or Prestige Auto, according to the affidavit. More than $4.8 million has been paid out to Shen's Corporation or Prestige, court documents say. Court records say Pan Asia was formed in 2014 and Shen accountant is recorded as the representative in Department of Taxation and Revenue records, court papers state.
MGT Corporation has been formed to operate Goodyear Tire. Shen along with pleaded not guilty to the charges and the dealership's sales manager, Orlando Domingo, also former worker Ana Kristine Lara Absalon were indicted in December. After a man attempted to make an application for public aid authorities found Prestige Auto shipment of automobiles and Rev and Tax records showed he purchased two cars from Prestige Auto. The man reportedly never bought that the Land Rover or even a BMW X5 that were in his title, court documents say.
When the motor vehicle division asked Prestige Auto the way the car was registered to the man with no knowledge, the revenue manager then tried to"de-register" the vehicle, court documents say. Authorities were able to find. More than 50 cars were sold without liens on the software.
