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IRS searches car dealership

Gary Barbera's home was also targeted. Officials wanted tax records, a business manager said.

IRS agents executed a search warrant at Gary Barbera's car dealership on Roosevelt Boulevard and his home yesterday.

IRS spokeswoman Shauna Frye and U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Patty Hartman declined to comment.

Bill Berger, a dealership manager, said the IRS is interested in tax records related to a former Barbera dealership in Roxborough.

No arrests were made yesterday, officials said.

A lawyer for the dealership, Lane Fisher, was unavailable for comment, his office said.

Federal law enforcement agencies do not typically notify targets before they execute search warrants, but Berger said these "were scheduled."

"We expected it," Berger said. "They were invited in. We cooperated 100 percent."

Eric Gerstein, a dealership spokesman, said that Barbera started the dealership in 1989 with Dodgeland on Ridge Avenue in Roxborough.

"It's an American success story," Gerstein said. "By his own admission, he worked liked a maniac. . . . You talk about putting in sweat equity. In a few years, he made the place a massive, high-volume winner."

Barbera expanded the business in 1996, opening a Chrysler dealership on Roosevelt Boulevard, later adding a Jeep dealership, and eventually moving the Dodge dealership to the Chrysler location.

"The last three years, he's been No. 1 in terms of volume in the Mid-Atlantic region," Gerstein said.

This fall, Barbera opened a Chevrolet dealership about a mile and a half away, also on Roosevelt Boulevard.