U.S. Targets Buyers of China-Bound Luxury Cars - NYTimes.com: "Scott Winowitz, one of the people in North Carolina who bought a car for Mr. Downs, said he was surprised when several agents from the Secret Service showed up at his home on Sept. 14 to seize the Mercedes he had just bought for $66,537, because he did not think he was doing anything wrong.
“They were telling me you can get arrested and go to jail. I was practically having a panic attack,” he said. “I didn’t know that any of that stuff was illegal. People do exporting and importing every single day.”
Mr. Downs’s company became further ensnared in the federal crackdown in November, when prosecutors in New York sought to freeze $2.38 million in a bank account listed in his company’s name. His lawyer said the company account actually held much less money.
The New York action also seized bank accounts and 47 vehicles suspected of being linked to Efans Trading of Memphis, which had bought cars from Mr. Downs’s company.
Ely Goldin, a lawyer with Fox Rothschild who represents Efans, said the government was doing the bidding of the automobile manufacturers. Disputes, he said, should be resolved through private litigation and not the threat of asset seizures or criminal prosecution.
“It is an open question who are the so-called victims and whether the purchase and sale of cars should be considered a fraudulent scheme,” Mr. Goldin said."
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