One LESS Enzo in the world....

Another Turn in Ferrari Saga...

(from LA TIMES)
Investigators in the wreck of a showpiece car ask how a small firm started a police department and find that it's quite easy.
By Richard Winton and David Pierson, Times Staff Writers
March 8, 2006

Sheriff's officials investigating the crash of a Ferrari in Malibu last month are asking how a small private transit company could create its own police department and allegedly hand out law enforcement identification to civilians, including the car's owner.

According to Yosef Maiwandi, it wasn't as difficult as you might think.

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The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority is a tiny, privately run organization that provides bus rides to disabled people and senior citizens. It operates out of an auto repair shop.

Maiwandi is the owner of Homer's Auto Service in Monrovia and is also one of three San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority commissioners.

Maiwandi said he started the nonprofit organization after receiving a bus in a trade for several motorcycles. He decided to use that bus and four others he later purchased to help transport disabled people in his community. The transit agency has memorandums of understanding with Sierra Madre and Monrovia to transport disabled people.

He said he formed the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority Police Department shortly afterward in part because he has long been interested in police work. He also found that having a police department allowed him to do background checks on potential volunteers more quickly and seek federal money for security on the buses.

It is there where the story of the little transit authority intersects with the story of the rare Ferrari, which crashed last month in Malibu.

The Ferrari's owner, Stefan Eriksson, showed deputies a card stating that he was deputy police commissioner of the San Gabriel Transit Authority Police's anti-terrorism division. A few minutes after the crash, two other men who said they were with Homeland Security appeared at the scene and eventually took Eriksson away.

"We are just trying to help people," Maiwandi said, adding that he feels his agency is being unfairly tarnished because of his association with the Ferrari crash. "I wish he was driving a Corvette."

Maiwandi said he came in contact with Eriksson from another member of the transit board, Eriksson's civil attorney, Ashley Posner. Neither Posner nor Eriksson would comment.

Maiwandi said Eriksson approached him with an offer. Eriksson volunteered to install free surveillance cameras and a "facial recognition scan" — which could compare a person's image to one depicted in a wanted poster — on a bus to show law enforcement agencies how that could be helpful in catching criminals. He said he had given a similar system to transit agencies in England.

After a background check on Eriksson came back clean, Maiwandi said, he told the businessman he could use the authority's five buses to install the equipment.

In return for his volunteer efforts, Eriksson was made a deputy commissioner of the police department and given business cards. But Maiwandi denied that the other two men who said they were with Homeland Security had anything to do with his organization.

Although the department's website suggests that it is a fully functioning police agency, Maiwandi acknowledged that it consists of six people, including himself and the chief, who he said is a former Los Angeles police officer who volunteers his services.

State public utility regulations allow transit agencies to create police departments — even if they are not certified by the state's central training body for peace officers.

Typically, such private police departments are established by universities — such as Stanford, USC and Whittier College — or transit agencies like the Napa Valley Railroad.

But forming a police department is not as big a deal as it might seem.

State officials said police agencies cannot arrest people unless their personnel meet training and hiring standards set down by state law.

Most local police agencies are certified by California's Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training. But Alan Deal, a spokesman for the agency, said the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority Police Department has not been certified.

Without meeting state standards, a police officer has few powers beyond that of a security guard, who can carry weapons and make citizen's arrests.
 
WOW!

mash.jpg
 
enzo crash test dummies? (where's dieter?)

(from LA TIMES)
Video May Hold Clues to PCH Wreck
L.A. County sheriff's officials say two men who crashed a rare Ferrari in Malibu last month may have been filming the incident.
By Richard Winton and David Pierson, Times Staff Writers
March 16, 2006

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's investigation into a mysterious crash that destroyed a rare $1-million Ferrari in Malibu last month is now focusing on a videotape that was purportedly shot from inside the vehicle at the time of the accident, according to sources close to the case.

The sources said that Ferrari owner Stefan Eriksson and the other man in the car, identified by authorities as Trevor Karney, had a video camera rolling as they raced on Pacific Coast Highway on the morning of Feb. 21 at speeds in excess of 162 mph.

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Deputies who arrived at the scene did not recover any video equipment. But sources said detectives were later told that the high-speed driving was taped. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation.

The revelation is the latest twist in a crash that has prompted both an accident investigation and a probe by the Sheriff's Department's Homeland Security Division.

Although no one was injured in the crash, the investigation has generated significant attention because of the strange circumstances and the fact that it destroyed one of only 400 Enzo Ferraris ever made.

Eriksson, a former European video game executive, told deputies who arrived at the scene that he was not the driver and that another man, named Dietrich, was behind the wheel. Eriksson said Dietrich fled the scene.

But detectives have always been skeptical of his version of events. Investigators have taken a swab of Eriksson's saliva to match his DNA against blood found on the driver's side air bag of the Ferrari.

Eriksson also told deputies that he was a deputy commissioner of the police department of a tiny transit agency in the San Gabriel Valley.

A few minutes after the crash, two men arrived at the crash scene, identified themselves as homeland security officers and spoke to Eriksson at length before leaving.

Sheriff's Sgt. Phil Brooks said Wednesday that a few weeks before the accident, Eriksson was pulled over in West Hollywood without a driver's license.

At that time he told officers that he was a deputy police commissioner of the anti-terrorism unit of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority and showed a badge, Brooks said.

Before coming to the U.S., Eriksson lived in England. According to Noel Hogan, a British private investigator, formerly with Scotland Yard, Eriksson once told him that he was a police officer. Hogan had been trying to recover a Mercedes SLR worth more than $450,000 that had been reported stolen in England and which Eriksson had in his possession.

Officials at the transit agency, which provides transportation for the disabled and elderly from Monrovia, said Eriksson was given the title of deputy police commissioner after undergoing a background check and offering the agency free video security cameras for its five buses.

Eriksson left video game machine manufacturer Gizmondo last fall after a Swedish newspaper printed allegations of his criminal past.

Brooks said Swedish police have informed sheriff's investigators that Eriksson served five years in prison in the early 1990s for a counterfeiting-related crime.

Gizmondo, which hoped to compete with Sony and Nintendo gaming machines, earlier this year filed for bankruptcy amid more than $200 million in debts.

An animated re-creation of the crash made available to The Times on Thursday shows the driver of the Ferrari losing control, veering right off the road and then traveling a considerable distance before hitting a power pole and splitting the sports car in half. "Anyone in that was lucky to survive," Brooks said.

Brooks said officials were aware that a Scottish bank has claimed that it owns the Ferrari.

Eriksson could face several charges if deputies determine he was driving, including reckless driving, driving while intoxicated and lying to investigators. In the aftermath of the crash, his blood-alcohol level was found to be 0.09%, above the 0.08% legal limit. Eriksson could not be reached for comment.
 
Re: enzo crash test dummies? (where's dieter?)

queenlives said:
(from LA TIMES)


Before coming to the U.S., Eriksson lived in England. According to Noel Hogan, a British private investigator, formerly with Scotland Yard, Eriksson once told him that he was a police officer. Hogan had been trying to recover a Mercedes SLR worth more than $450,000 that had been reported stolen in England and which Eriksson had in his possession.

So...it was his SLR that he reported stolen in England and had it shipped here? Or it was someone elses car that he stole?
 
Re: enzo crash test dummies? (where's dieter?)

steveny said:
So...it was his SLR that he reported stolen in England and had it shipped here? Or it was someone elses car that he stole?
dunno... maybe the mysterious dieter copped it?
 
So...it was his SLR that he reported stolen in England and had it shipped here?

The SLR, when shipped, was his and the bank's. He reported it stolen and stopped making payments on it.

They need to stop wasting their time with this silly misdemeanor under the influence driving charge.

The SLR caper alone is worth two years: insurance fraud, grand theft, false police reports and multiple perjury counts. These charges are indefensible and easy to prove.

Any conviction on the DUI will run concurrently, so it is just a waste of time for everybody involved. The Lost Hills Sheriff (Malibu) are bored and really have little to do out here, the SLR is either Beverly Hills PD or Dept of Insurance (yes, they have their own police too....just like everybody else including the NAPA Rail Authority, USC ).

However, for those of you that like to drive PCH in your NSX. I recommend against it right now...there is a big crack down on driving a sports car right now. I recommend against your sports car for the remainder of this year. Major uproar in the local rags and even the city council is calling for increased enforcement of "high performance sports cars" on PCH.

Drew
 
News reports in LA say the event was being video taped for a video game :eek: I think I know how it ends.
 
There is literally like 5+ new articles on it in the last few weeks, just on one news web site.

I doubt there would be this kind of exposure if it was a 350Z, In fact I doubt most readers care who the driver is and what the story was, just that it was an expensive Enzo and it crashed spectacularly and that is apparently good news. In fact, most of the stories on the LA Times seem to go off on tangents completely unrelated to the incident.

It's like Biography on A&E, why does anyone need to know this stuff? :rolleyes:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11646530/

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ferrari16mar16,0,6869781.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ferrari8mar08,1,4660017.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ferrari3mar03,1,2366247.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-030206ferrari_lat,1,54073.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ferrari28feb28,1,3019293.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ferrari23feb23,1,725523.story
 
I think it is that this guy is a crook and all his wealth is stolen. This makes for good movie material: all big and mighty: brought crashing down by a silly accident.

Somebody did a "link analysis" (see attached).
 

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Great flow chart! Maybe we'll see it on an episode of CSI... a Las Vegas version of the story. They'll sort out this whole mess in 60 mins.
 
Reminds me of that old quote...behind every great fortune is a great crime.

This guy has obviously been a criminal all along. As I was laying in bed last night I was thinking about this situation. Here is a person who does have a skill set. He is a thief, and a good one at that. He learned how to go from a common petty thief to a big time white collar criminal. I don't condone his behavior one bit, but on the other hand he found a way to not only own one ENZO but two ENZO's and a SLR and I can only imagine what other great cars, homes, valuable treasures he has. Well I don't think it is right another part of me thinks who will give a rats ass about any of this 100 maybe even 50 years in the future. Each of us only get a short period of time here, well he went about it the wrong way Stefan used what skills he had to the fullest point and prospered, albeit at other people expense. But in the end this guy will and has experienced things only some of us get to dream about.
Right now I am sure he thinks he is having a nightmare.

The ironic part is that it is exactly what he went after that got him in trouble. Money. Even if he had still committed all the crimes he did but was driving a 350z in place of the ENZO when he crashed the hype would not have come and he would have walked away with a few driving tickets and maybe loss of his license.
 
drew said:
I think it is that this guy is a crook and all his wealth is stolen. This makes for good movie material: all big and mighty: brought crashing down by a silly accident.

Somebody did a "link analysis" (see attached).
**great** flow chart... i'm **sure** i see a new board game (or dare i say it, video game ;) based on it in the future.
 
steveny said:
<snip> Right now I am sure he thinks he is having a nightmare.<snip>
good post, steve.

re the above sentence, chances are a guy like this thinks, "i've gotten away with everything else, this is nothin'...." and, in fact, he may just walk away from this, too.

strange world we live in.
 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ferrari9jul09,0,7256119.story?coll=la-home-local

Wreckage From Ferrari Crash to be Returned to England
From the Associated Press
7:58 PM PDT, July 8, 2006


What's left of a rare, $1.5 million Ferrari that authorities say a Swedish businessman illegally imported into the United States before crashing it into a utility pole will be shipped back to Great Britain, a judge ruled.

Superior Court Judge Craig Veals on Friday ordered the red Ferrari Enzo, as well as a black Enzo and Mercedes-Benz SLR, released to British banks over the objections of attorneys for Swedish businessman Bo Stefan M. Eriksson.

Eriksson's lawyers claim he owns the pricey vehicles.

Prosecutors allege that Eriksson illegally imported all three cars to United States from Great Britain. Eriksson destroyed the red Enzo on Feb. 21 when he hit a utility pole on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu while traveling 162 mph, authorities say.

The wrecked car is the property of the Bank of Scotland and its subsidiary, Capital Bank, while Lombard Bank and Yorkshire Bank own the other two, the judge ruled.

The vehicles are being held in Sheriff's Department impound lots as Eriksson awaits trial.

They could be shipped overseas as early as Monday after prosecutors and defense attorneys comb them for evidence, said Deputy District Attorney Steven Sowders.

Eriksson has pleaded not guilty to grand theft, embezzlement and drunken driving charges. He is being held on $3 million bail and a federal immigration hold for a July 31 trial.

Eriksson is a former executive with Gizmondo Europe Ltd., a computer game company that went bankrupt last year. He spent five years in a Swedish prison in the 1990s for assault, extortion and other crimes.
 
drew said:
What's left of a rare, $1.5 million Ferrari.........


Why must they exaggerate so much ??

One on ebay now for 975k BIN.
5400 miles.

-j-
 
steveny said:
....
The ironic part is that it is exactly what he went after that got him in trouble. Money. Even if he had still committed all the crimes he did but was driving a 350z in place of the ENZO when he crashed the hype would not have come and he would have walked away with a few driving tickets and maybe loss of his license.

In a telephone interview a few weeks earlier, aware of what was coming, Maiwandi blamed his predicament on Eriksson's personal vanity: "This whole thing could have been avoided if Eriksson had just been satisfied driving a Trans-Am."
 
steveny said:
In a telephone interview a few weeks earlier, aware of what was coming, Maiwandi blamed his predicament on Eriksson's personal vanity: "This whole thing could have been avoided if Eriksson had just been satisfied driving a Trans-Am."

In other words, the higher you fly, the harder you fall. Same ol' same ol'.
 
akira3d said:
I haven't had the chance to read this yet, but the comic illustrations are nice:

http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/gizmondo.html

Awesome article- thanks for that. What a tangled web of crime, and deception this guy wove. It amazes me to see it come unraveled like the plot of a great mystery novel. It actually justified the fascination with this whole thing for me. Until reading that, all I knew was that some a$$ had crashed an Enzo running at high speed on a public road- here it turns out to be that there are people living an international crime saga.

After reading I have to agree with the author- this guy's vanity was his downfall.

Out of curiosity- i wonder how he got those Enzo's and that SLR into the country?

Philip
 
Can anyone help me understand why Freer is not being indicted on fraud and embezzelment with Erickson? It would seem like a fairly straight-forward case to anyone having common sense and a conscience. I'm sure they could find a jury that figure out the true motives of these guys was their egos instead of their passion for video games. It's so irritating that these type of people live the high life, while the middle-class indirectly pays for them via higher insurance premiums, bank loans, etc. They need to be punished for such abuses. It's too bad an Enzo had to get cracked up to bring these characters to light.
Jesse
 
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