Judge OKs sale of fancy cars seized in money laundering scheme

A federal judge has given the Secret Service a green light to sell more than $2.4 million worth of luxury cars seized during the probe of a Kenosha-based international money laundering scheme involving identity theft and the export of hundreds of pricey vehicles to China, according to newly filed federal court records.

The order by U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller is the latest development in the case, in which straw buyers purchased and exported more than 400 luxury cars worth nearly $30 million to China and Korea. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the investigation in December.

At the center of the scheme is Mao Peng, 25, a Kenosha man who fled to China with his wife, Min Ai, more than two years ago — around the time the Secret Service seized 31 vehicles owned by Peng or his Longen Trading company. The couple were arrested in March in a Los Angeles Chinese restaurant shortly after they returned to the United States.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/judge-oks-sale-of-fancy-cars-seized-in-money-laundering-scheme-b99505623z1-304839061.html