Owner of Fairfield Ohio Car Dealership Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering

CINCINNATI – Bryan Barbarawi, 35, of West Chester, Ohio, pleaded guilty to committing money laundering relative to the sale of a vehicle. Barbarawi faces a maximum prison term of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Joseph P. Reagan, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office, announced the announced the guilty plea entered before U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott.

According to court documents, since February 2011 Barbarawi owned and operated a car dealership in Fairfield, Ohio under the names Nationwide Credit Solutions, LLC d/b/a Auto Max, Extreme Imports and Falcon Auto Sales, Inc.

On November 5 and 6, 2014, Barbarawi committed money laundering by concealing the source and ownership of the proceeds from narcotics trafficking, as represented to Barbarawi by an undercover law enforcement officer, while conducting a financial transaction. Specifically, Barbarawi sold a vehicle to an undercover law enforcement officer, who represented that the money used to purchase the car was drug proceeds.

Barbarawi received approximately $21,533.50 in cash from the sale of the vehicle and then caused an employee of his car dealership to fabricate a Form 8300 – Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business, which falsely reported the purchaser of the vehicle and the source of the funds used to purchase the vehicle.

“IRS, Criminal Investigation focuses on the flow of money which ultimately leads us to the individual who attempts to conceal the true source of the money,” said Guy A. Ficco, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation of this case by the DEA and IRS, and Assistant United States Attorneys Jessica W. Knight and Karl Kadon, who are prosecuting the case.