The former owner of Charlotte’s Scorpio nightclub has pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges involving an auto dealership and the club.
John Harvey Martin owns iNetwork Auto Group. Prosecutors say Martin along with a sales manager, Vincent Jefferson, sold 20 luxury vehicles to someone they either knew — or should have known — was a drug dealer.
According to court documents, the two allowed the dealer to buy them using the names of straw purchasers to hide the illicit source of cash. Over three years starting in 2017, Martin and Jefferson received $520,000 in cash from the drug dealer. Martin used at least $100,000 of it to buy the Scorpio nightclub on Freedom Drive. It’s the oldest LGBTQ club in Charlotte and just reopened in South End.
Prosecutors say Martin eventually bought out the dealer’s ownership interest — and tried to send the money to the dealer’s drug supplier in California.
