Illinois man sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment for fraud involving luxury vehicles

Date: June 27, 2024

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Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on June 26, 2024, Tomasz Bazarewicz was sentenced to fifteen months' imprisonment for conspiring to commit money laundering. Bazarewicz's term of imprisonment will be followed by three years of supervised release. Along with his coconspirators, Bazarewicz also will be responsible for paying $3,500,000 in restitution to his victims.

Publicly filed documents in the case reflect that Bazarewicz and his coconspirators engaged in a sophisticated scheme to defraud vehicle brokers and dealerships involving the foreign sale of luxury automobiles. Over the course of the conspiracy, Bazarewicz both lied to the conspirators' customers, calming their fears about missing automobiles, and laundered the conspiracy's proceeds during luxury gambling trips. All told, Bazarewicz was responsible for laundering over three million dollars of ill-gotten funds.

"At the time he learned of the ongoing conspiracy, Mr. Bazarewicz was professionally successful and doing well financially," said U.S. Attorney Haanstad. "Despite this, rather than avoiding the criminal conduct or doing the right thing by reporting it, he joined in and helped further it for his own financial gain. I commend the hard work of the investigating agents and all who worked to hold the conspirators accountable in this matter."

"Our commitment to justice is unwavering, and the outcome of this case exemplifies our dedication to dismantling criminal enterprises that exploit the financial system," said Ramsey Covington, acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Chicago Field Office. "The collaborative efforts of IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office has been instrumental in achieving this result, ensuring Bazarewicz and his co-conspirators are held accountable for their criminal activities."

At the sentencing hearing, United States District Judge Lynn Adelman noted that confinement was appropriate in Bazarewicz's case to deter other would-be fraudsters from engaging in similar conduct. Judge Adelman also noted that while Bazarewicz was not the conspiracy's ringleader, he took an active role in advancing these crimes, establishing his own subsidiary company to be used in the scheme and encouraging other members of the conspiracy, via text message, to "run it up."

This matter was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI). It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Laura Kwaterski and Kevin Knight.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.