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Car dealership owner facing federal money laundering charges
The owner of a Hickory Creek car dealership who lives in McKinney is accused of funneling money through his business to launder cash obtained through drug deals, prostitution and other financial crimes.
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette
The U.S. Attorney's Office is seeking federal conspiracy charges against a McKinney man for laundering drug and prostitution money through his car dealership.
U.S. Attorney John Bales and Assistant U.S. Attorney Shamoil Shipchandler said in the indictment that Arledge, along with dealer employees 38-year-old Cecil Coleman of McKinney, 46-year-old Steve Ham of Richardson and 33-year-old Rustyn Thomas of Sanger, sold luxury vehicles to fellow defendants with money earned from illegal practices and concealed the identity of the purchasers to erase their money trail back to their original owners.
The purchasers would make large cash payments disguised as "down payments" on the vehicles and Arledge failed to report these payments to the Internal Revenue Service to further conceal their identities, according to the indictment.
The money used to purchase the vehicles was obtained through illegal business practices from drugs to prostitution. The indictment said that 33-year-old Warren "The Governor" Barconia of Carrollton, 39-year-old Jerome "Rome" Helen of Richardson obtained their money from prostitution. 46-year-old Stoney O'Neal Kidd, 33-year-old Charo Deuntray Knight and 32-year-old Clarence "Rat" Williams all of Dallas obtained their money through the sale and distribution of controlled substances. 46-year-old Tyrone McCray of Plano obtained his money through fraudulent financial crimes.
The laundering started in January of 2006. Coleman worked for Arledge as a salesman under his Expressway Financial business and would recruit or recommend purchasers to Arledge, Ham who worked as the dealership's sales manager or Thomas, the dealership's Internet sales manager. The purchasers used more than $1 million in cash to purchase expensive and lavish luxury vehicles from Arledge's dealership such as a 2007 GMC Yukon Denali, a 2007 Cadillac Escalade, a 2006 Maserati Quattorporte and a 2008 Mercedes CL63.
One of Arledge's final purchasers was an undercover IRS agent posing as a drug dealer looking to launder his money through the dealership, according to the indictment.
Arledge, Ham and Thomas would then advise the purchasers "how to structure payments to evade reporting requirements for cash transactions." Ham and Arledge also disguised the nature of the transactions by labeling them as "leases" instead of "purchases" in their accounting practices. Arledge stored the money in a Richardson bank in three separate accounts under the name of "PEGA, Inc.," according to the indictment.
The transactions were then placed under the names of third party individuals including 38-year-old Marcus Dean of Dallas, 29-year-old Jason Palmore of Mansfield, 31-year-old Aqueelah Hayat Waters of Dallas and 3-year-old Kendra Quebec Williams of Dallas. The U.S. Attorney's Office said these third-party defendants all had knowledge of Arledge's actions and gave them permission in order to help him conceal the true identity of the purchasers and the location of the money.
The indictment included a seizure order for 16 vehicles believed to have been used as part of the money laundering conspiracy as well as more than $100,000 in deposit funds and cash from Arledge's business accounts.
Upon conviction, each defendant could receive a prison term in a federal penitentiary not to exceed 20 years and/or a fine not to exceed $500,000 or "not more than the greater of twice the gross gain to the defendant or twice the gross loss to one other than the defendant or both," according to the U.S. Code.
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpapers.com.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
RESIDENTOF wrote on Jun 17, 2009 10:23 AM:
" This could and does happen in EVERY city in America, heck the world. This isn't only happening in McKinney. And, HELLO, they CAUGHT the guy! So law enforcement IS doing its job. This type of crime, they have to be under surveillance for a LONG time in order for the charges to STICK. Get a clue before posting nonsense. "
Common Sense wrote on Jun 17, 2009 1:07 PM:
" I think it's wonderful that this automatically comes back to McKinney PD and the City leadership. From what I read in this story it has nothing to do with McKinney other than the man living here. Everything illegial took place at the dealership in Hickory Creek, but somehow that's MPD's fault too? Hope-Change, I think you should go find a city where there has never been a crime committed and where the suspect from a crime does not live. I'm sure you'll have no problem with that. Report back to us when you do so we can all come and be your neighbors. "
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THE CITY OF MCKINNEY, HAS A / AN EVER GROWING CROP OF DRUG DEALERS & OUT-LAWS...
THE CITY OF MCKINNEY NOW HAS A DAILY OCCURRENCE OF DRUG OD'S, ROBBERY, RAPES, SHOOTING AND THE LIST KEEPS ON COMING...
BUT, NEVER FEAR THE CITY OF MCKINNEY IS GOING "GREEN" AND THIS ALONE WILL SOLVE ALL OF THE CITY'S PROBLEMS...
ITS NICE TO KNOW, WE CITIZENS HAVE SUCH WONDERFUL CITY LEADERSHIP FROM THE CITY & POLICE DEPARTMENT...
JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL & YOU WILL BE SURPRISED, WHO ELSE WILL BE INVOLVED IN THIS LITTLE DRUG RING, MONEY LAUNDERING & PROSTITUTION...
.......THE BEST IS YET TO COME...... "