The infamous Gas Monkey Ferrari F40 is currently the subject of an online auction by the United States Marshal Service. The car was seized from Richard Scott, a Los Angeles parking lot operator who plead guilty to defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of more than $13 million.
This particular F40 has a chequered history. It was built from the remains of a crashed car by the Gas Monkey Garage team. The donor car was crashed in 2014 by a mechanic in Atlanta, Georgia. Richard Rawlings and Aaron Kaufman purchased it as a salvage title for $400,000.
The Ferrari F40 was acquired using money Scott gained from his fraud. Scott operated a parking lot, owned by the VA. His contract required him to provide the VA with 60 percent of the parking revenues from the lots. He submitted annual reports detailing revenue generated by parking fees. An investigation determined that Scott kept two sets of books. One contained false revenue and expense statements. The second contained the actual revenues and expenditures. US Marshal’s were able to determine the extent of the fraud from the evidence contained in the two ledgers. Scott also admitted to bribing the VA contracting official Ralph Tillman, paying him a total of about $300,000.
The United States Marshall Service seized other possessions belonging to Scott included a racing boat, two other Ferrari’s, a 1969 Corvette L88, two Mercedes-Benz and a Shelby Super Snake Mustang.
As for the car, the build of this unique F40 was covered by the Discovery Channel in its Fast N’ Loud program. It was rebuilt to an uprated specification. Gas Monkey fitted a new TUBI competition exhaust, upgraded the turbos (keeping the factory cases), fitted an aluminum flywheel, a new Kevlar clutch and special F1 adjustable shocks made specifically by Penske Racing. The car produces around 550 hp and is probably one of the most modified, of all of the F40’s.
When it was finished, Gas Monkey placed it for auction. It was originally purchased by Reggie Jackson. A short time later, it appeared at auction again and was sold, presumably to Scott.
The auction of the Gas Monkey Ferrari F40 had already reached $505,000 at the time of writing. It is set to remain open until tomorrow at 12pm Eastern Time. It seems that fraud and bribery were not Richard Scott’s only deceptions. The auction notes that there is a discrepancy between the 8,130 miles reported on 1 February 2015 and the 2,117 miles in March 2017. The odometer currently reads 9,095 miles.
