The Scorpio, Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ club, was tied up in drug deals, money laundering

The Scorpio — Charlotte’s oldest LGBTQ+ nightclub that closed in November and reopened earlier this month — was at one point bought with help from a drug dealer and a money laundering scheme, according to court documents and a guilty plea from the club’s former owner days before Charlotte’s Pride festival and parade.

John Harvey Martin, 50, could face up to 20 years in prison for laundering cash from 2017 to 2021.

He used some of that money to buy The Scorpio. According to court documents, he owned the club when it was located on Freedom Drive. It has since moved to South End under new owners, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.

Martin also owned iNetwork Auto Group Inc ., which had a location on Berryhill Road. There, he and an employee, Vincent Emmanuel Jefferson, Jr., 47, sold about 20 luxury cars to a drug dealer referred to only as “G.D.” in court documents, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

They got over $520,000 from G.D.

Martin used at least $200,000 to renovate his auto shop and at least $100,000 to buy The Scorpio.

Martin and Jefferson either knew G.D. was a drug dealer or were “willfully blind to the fact” that he was, according to the release. They let G.D. buy cars using “straw purchasers” names, or the names of others with better credit. Then they would forge the straw purchasers’ signatures on sales, registration and title paperwork.

They also “frequently notarized the paperwork knowing that the straw purchasers were not the true purchasers of the vehicles,” according to the news release.

Martin admitted in court Friday to concealing G.D.’s interest in The Scorpio and buying it back for at least $100,000 in cash.

G.D. gave that cash to someone referred to as “J.M.” who tried to drive to California to give it to G.D.’s drug trafficking source, according to the release.

When officers intercepted the money, J.M., under G.D.’s instruction, claimed the money was legally his. He said he got it when he sold his own shares in The Scorpio, and Martin supported that claim with fraudulent documents.

Martin on Friday and Jefferson on Tuesday pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges. A sentencing date has not yet been set.