Marin County Figures Among 14 Charged In $1.8 Million Luxury Car Tax Evasion Scheme: Report

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Several individuals linked to Marin County are among 14 defendants charged by the California Attorney General’s Office in a sweeping scheme to evade over $1.8 million in state sales taxes on high-end vehicles, according to a report by The Mercury News.

Prosecutors said the defendants used the "Montana loophole," registering luxury cars out of state to avoid paying California sales taxes on more than $20 million in purchases, including a $1.8 million McLaren Elva and a $1.5 million Porsche 918 Spyder.

The criminal case, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court with 56 counts including conspiracy and money laundering, details several offenses committed in Marin County.

One incident involves Glenn Jonathan Meyers, who worked with Lana Hasan Abukweik and Harminder Singh Dhaliwal to create fraudulent documents claiming his Lamborghini and Porsche were being shipped to Montana, according to The Mercury News. Prosecutors accuse Meyers and Dhaliwal of failing to report and pay $37,016 in California sales tax for the vehicles.

Abukweik is the general manager of San Francisco Exotic Cars in San Rafael, where another defendant, Lisa Brandini, also works, The Mercury News reported. Two other defendants, Nagib Nemer Haddad and Parham Karbassi, are also accused of vehicle tax evasion with Marin County ties, according to The Mercury News.

All defendants were arraigned on Friday.

The scale of the problem is particularly pronounced locally. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) revealed that Mill Valley has seen 99 vehicle sales linked to the Montana loophole since 2023, making it the ninth most frequent place for the offense in the state, though far behind Beverly Hills, which led with 416, according to The Mercury News.

"Every dollar of unpaid taxes is a dollar taken from California’s roads, schools, and the vital services our communities rely on,” Attorney General Rob Bonta told The Mercury News Friday.

The scheme hinges on Montana law, which does not require a vehicle to be physically present in the state for registration, allowing buyers to use online services. By creating an LLC in Montana, California residents can mask their identity, providing "a way to hide these individuals who are making these purchases," Dennis David, a technical adviser for the CDTFA, told The Mercury News.

Read the full story at The Mercury News.