New Jersey Brothers Sentenced To Prison For Shipping More Than $1.9 Million Worth Of Stolen Cars

CAMDEN, N.J. – Two New Jersey men were each sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for their roles in a large-scale conspiracy to ship stolen luxury cars to Hong Kong and elsewhere, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Andrew Clarke, 43 of Irvington, New Jersey, and Llewellyn Clarke, 42 of North Plainfield, New Jersey, were sentenced to 300 and 195 months in prison, respectively. Both were previously convicted on all four counts of a superseding indictment charging them each with one count of conspiracy to transport stolen motor vehicles and three counts of transportation of stolen motor vehicles in interstate and foreign commerce. They were convicted following a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler, who imposed the sentences today in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in in this case and evidence presented at trial:

The stolen car exportation ring was investigated by a multi-agency task force led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The investigation revealed that the Clarkes were purchasing stolen luxury cars from thieves operating in northern New Jersey and New York.

The Clarke brothers then recruited other conspirators to “re-tag” those cars, or have fraudulent vehicle identification numbers placed on the cars to mask the fact that they were stolen, and then had false title documents produced for those cars in New Jersey and Georgia. After the fake documents were created, the Clarkes shipped several of those stolen cars, valued between $1.9 and $2.1 million, from New Jersey to Hong Kong, while other cars were shipped to Georgia, Maryland and elsewhere. Once overseas or out-of-state, the stolen cars were then re-sold, some to unsuspecting buyers who later learned that their vehicles were in fact stolen.

In addition to the prison terms, Judge Kugler sentenced both defendants to three years of supervised release.

 U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of ICE HSI, under the leadership of Executive Associate Director Peter Edge and Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence S. Opiola, and the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes, for the investigation leading to today’s sentences. He also thanked U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor; Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez, and Union County Acting Prosecutor Grace H. Park, the Essex and Hudson County Sheriff’s Departments, the Newark Police Department, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, the Georgia Department of Revenue, and the Maryland State Police for their roles.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney José R. Almonte and James M. Donnelly of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark

Defense counsel:

Andrew Clarke: Brian O’Malley Esq., Haddon Heights, New Jersey

Llewellyn Clarke: Paul Sarmousakis Esq., Avalon, New Jersey