The Lambo Mambo
We know that legal documents are written in language that is difficult for the majority of people to understand, ironically because legal arguments need to be precise in order to be effective. The Mohameds indictment is one such document but there are parts of it that are plain, precise and hence accessible. Let us explain one such section and what it means in even plainer language, Count 11 that speaks to tax evasion on the purchase of the now infamous Lamborghini. According to the indictment, the “purpose of the scheme and artifice was for the defendant to defraud the Guyanese government in connection with taxes and royalties owed on the sale of a Lamborghini shipped for the defendant from Miami by submitting false and fraudulent paperwork to the GRA regarding the true value of the Lamborghini.”
In summary, what the charge says is that Azruddin Mohamed, in October of 2020, bought a 2020 Lamborghini Aventador in the United States valued at US $680,000 from a US company – however, the actual price paid was $695,300. To effect that payment, he wired money from his and his father’s joint Guyanese bank accounts reflective in total of that purchase price. To avoid the US $1 million in duties payable to GRA attached to the purchase of the car, he got the company in the US to do two things.
First is that he got them to create an invoice that reflected the car itself being sold for US $75,300 about a 1/10th of what he actually paid for it. That in itself is fraud, one that enters the US jurisdiction because the vendor company involved is a US company involved in the conspiracy, with money entering the US and a product leaving it, on the basis of deliberately false and deceptive valuation. Secondly, he had the same company provide false invoices to reflect three payments that together approximated the remaining balance of the US $695,000, plus a little extra on top. One payment was for US $350,000 for what the invoice says to be “Race Team Management” for the 2020-2021 season. Another payment is for US $22,000 for an on site “Race Support Fee” and “Travel Expenses”. And the other payment is for US $250,000 for what the company says is a Marketing and Advertising Campaign including social media content development, website development et cetera. This means that the company charged and was paid a total of US $695,300 for a US $680,000 car, money that left Guyana via wire transfer from Guyanese banks and entered the United States. It should be noted the original invoice for the car from the company was US $695,000.
There are two things to note here, relevant to the case. The first is that the company, International Speed Consulting INC, is not usually a retailer of racing cars nor is it a media management company. According to its website, “ISC Tuning specializes in ECU calibration, engine management systems, turbocharger, fuel systems, and custom wiring harnesses. With over 25 years of experience and a vast network of experts, ISC is dedicated to providing the best technical support and service to help racing enthusiast maximize performance.” The only car-related products it sells are small parts related to its core service. Also, US $250,000 to manage a Team Mohamed website that does not exist and social media that was already well-established is, well, to use a car racing term, a clear red flag.
In brief, Mohamed would have represented to both the Guyana and the US financial systems that he bought a car worth $680,000 from a company that does not normally sell cars, for US $73,500 and that he paid about nine times that value for services from that same company, even as documentation exists to show that the original paid invoiced valuation for the car (US $695,000) amounted precisely to total of the declared value plus the invoiced services. Duty was paid and payable on the US $73,500 product, but no duty was paid nor is payable on the claimed US $622,000 services, a prima facie case of invoice splitting and falsification the intended and natural outcome of which was the avoidance of taxes. That Lambo Mambo is what makes it an international case, and the basis of Count 11 of the current indictment by the United States.
