Police: Car dealer satisfied luxury tastes

Thomas Pennavaria's customers at J & B Motor Cars Inc. in Murrysville liked luxury cars.

They favored models such as BMW, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Tahoe and Chevy Suburban.

Some particularly liked the fact that the cars weren't leased in their names.

Instead, Pennavaria's leasing company would show up as the lessee if police ever checked the registration during a drug investigation, a state grand jury concluded.

Pennavaria was arrested Monday by state drug agents and charged with aiding suspected drug dealers by hiding ownership of their vehicles to prevent their seizure by police.

A state grand jury recommended charges against Pennavaria for helping Rakyym Hetherington, 30, of Greensburg, and other suspected cocaine dealers lease vehicles using fraudulent ownership records.

Hetherington is being sought by law enforcement authorities after a state grand jury accused him of being the ringleader of a drug network that distributed $6.5 million in cocaine in the Greensburg area since 1996.

Attorney General Mike Fisher said state forfeiture laws permit authorities to seize cars, homes and personal property if investigators suspect the items were purchased with drug money. Leased vehicles cannot be seized, Fisher said.

A former employee of Pennavaria's went before the grand jury and testified that Pennavaria supplied cars to suspected dealers from Westmoreland County, as well as to several people from Philadelphia suspected of supplying cocaine to Hetherington.

She testified that all of Pennavaria's leases had 'subleases' that gave a car, initially leased to someone else, to a suspected drug dealer.

If police spotted a car during a drug investigation and checked the license plates, ownership indicated the car was owned by J & B Motor Cars Inc.

By keeping the lease in his company's name, Pennavaria also deflected police scrutiny of potential suspects because insurance claims for accidents and parking tickets were sent to his company for payment.

The employee also testified that the suspects mailed their car payments directly to Pennavaria instead of the leasing company. Then Pennavaria would write a check to the leasing company, she said.

The grand jury learned that Pennavaria, a short, stocky man with a shaved head, was involved in vehicle-related scams before.

Robert Bernard, a former business associate of Pennavaria's, told the grand jury last year that he was arrested by the federal government for money laundering at Three Rivers Auto and Equipment Leasing Co. when he worked there with Pennavaria.

Bernard testified Pennavaria engaged in money-laundering schemes by using 'other people's cars.' He said Pennavaria came up with the scheme to keep the titles of leased vehicles in his company's name.

Here's how Pennavaria worked, according to Bernard's grand jury testimony.

When Pennavaria financed a vehicle, he omitted the lien holder on the title. The title would go back to Pennavaria free and clear. Pennavaria would then ask the state Department of Transportation for a duplicate title, claiming the original was destroyed.

Pennavaria recorded a lien on the second title and send it back to PennDOT, which then reissued the title, indicating the bank was the lien holder.

But Pennavaria still had the original title that he could use to obtain financing or sell the vehicle to an out-of-state buyer as if it were free and clear, thereby defrauding the bank or lending company.

Bernard said Pennavaria relied on the fact that the other state never checked the title with PennDOT.

Pennavaria also listed Hetherington as an employee so Hetherington appeared to have a legitimate source of income for tax purposes.

As a drug dealer, Hetherington needed a way to account for the money he was making through alleged cocaine dealing, authorities said.

Pennavaria listed Hetherington as a salesman and claimed to have paid him $36,000 a year. But agents surveilled J & B Motor Cars Inc. and never saw Hetherington working at the lot.