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Trial Pending, Suspect’s Cars Will Soon Be Freed
Ramin Rahimian for The New York Times
Utah authorities plan to sell nearly 200 cars and motorcycles belonging to Jeffrey L. Mowen, charged with running an $18 million Ponzi scheme.
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: January 7, 2010
DENVER — The trial of Jeffrey L. Mowen, accused of defrauding investors in an $18 million Ponzi scheme in Utah and then trying to hire a hit man to kill four witnesses against him, is expected to be lurid at the least.
Ramin Rahimian for The New York Times
Included in Mr. Mowen’s collection is a three-wheeled motorcycle custom-built with knives and razor blades.
But to car buffs, there is another question, as pressing as Mr. Mowen’s guilt or innocence: What sort of person could really love a tricked-out three-wheeled motorcycle with Bowie knives on each side of the gas tank and rows of razor blades on the handle bars?
“Remember the ‘Mad Max’ movie?” said Rob Olson, the owner of Erkelens & Olson, an auction house in Salt Lake City, referring to the postapocalyptic road movie from the 1970s and its hyper-stylized punk imagery. “That’s what this bike is like. If you ever fell, it would cut your head off.”
Mr. Olson’s firm plans to put the one-of-a-kind bike — and nearly 200 other cars and motorcycles owned by Mr. Mowen — up for auction in the coming weeks under the federal government’s asset forfeiture program, even as Mr. Mowen’s trial, scheduled to begin Monday, moves forward.
If acquitted, Mr. Mowen would get the money. If convicted, the proceeds — projected by Mr. Olson at $2 million to $3 million — would go to people who lost money in Mr. Mowen’s investment funds.
But that simple-sounding plan has not been without its speed bumps. On Tuesday, two days before the first sale in the auction was to be held, a lawyer for Mr. Mowen filed an objection in federal court in Salt Lake City saying his client had not had enough time to assess or challenge the appraisals. The auction was postponed, probably for a week or two.
“Once these things are addressed, it will go forward,” said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office in Salt Lake City.
Meanwhile, the criminal case, with its low-budget echoes of the Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scandal, continues to reverberate in Utah.
Mr. Mowen, 47, who has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody, faces more than 100 years in prison if convicted of multiple charges, including wire fraud and retaliating against a witness. His lawyer, Stephen R. McCaughey, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
The federal indictment against Mr. Mowen says that in 2006 and 2007 he promised investors in a foreign currency trading operation returns that might have sounded too good to be true — and, according to the indictment, later turned out to be completely false.
Profits of up to 33 percent a month were paid for a while, the indictment said, but only because new money coming into the fund was used to pay off previous investors, which is the classic definition of a Ponzi scheme.
The resulting collection is one of the largest private vehicle fleets, not counting car dealerships, ever seized by the United States Marshals Service under the asset forfeiture program. Experts who have examined the trove, which was taken from warehouses, private garages and repair shops across Utah where Mr. Mowen had stashed his treasures, say it is also one of the strangest and tackiest.
“The word ‘bad’ comes to mind,” said Rick Carey, the auctions editor at Car Collector Magazine.
“It looks to me like a bunch of cars that somebody threw together, not to create a collection but simply to show off by buying,” Mr. Carey said. “Or somebody who wanted to look ‘bad’ to the people he dealt with.”
The Mowen list includes a mix of heavily modified custom creations like the razor-studded three-wheeler, replica versions of famous sports cars, genuine antiques, muscle cars from the 1960s and ’70s and, here and there — perhaps oddest of all — a basic transportation clunker, like a 1995 Chevy Impala with nearly 80,000 miles on the odometer.
But because many of the vehicles were essentially not for street use, or so flashy as to be perhaps unwise for a supposedly staid investment professional to be seen in, the collection also appears, for the most part, to have gone unused.
Several car experts, asked to assess what kind of person would amass such a collection, said they thought the pieces reflected an oversize ego, and beneath that, a lack of knowledge about cars or what makes other people want them.
Mr. Juergens said Mr. Mowen told him he was collecting the vehicles as an investment and believed that they would appreciate in value.
“I don’t know how smart that was,” Mr. Juergens said.
<for the entire article>
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/08auction.html?th&emc=th
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I know, I know...someone's gonna complain that I've posted to many new topics for discussion for today...but this one was just to funny to NOT POST IT HERE...something to laugh about instead of all the FUSS'N & FIGHT'N...
Utah authorities plan to sell nearly 200 cars and motorcycles belonging to Jeffrey L. Mowen, charged with running an $18 million Ponzi scheme.
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: January 7, 2010
DENVER — The trial of Jeffrey L. Mowen, accused of defrauding investors in an $18 million Ponzi scheme in Utah and then trying to hire a hit man to kill four witnesses against him, is expected to be lurid at the least.
Ramin Rahimian for The New York Times
Included in Mr. Mowen’s collection is a three-wheeled motorcycle custom-built with knives and razor blades.
But to car buffs, there is another question, as pressing as Mr. Mowen’s guilt or innocence: What sort of person could really love a tricked-out three-wheeled motorcycle with Bowie knives on each side of the gas tank and rows of razor blades on the handle bars?
“Remember the ‘Mad Max’ movie?” said Rob Olson, the owner of Erkelens & Olson, an auction house in Salt Lake City, referring to the postapocalyptic road movie from the 1970s and its hyper-stylized punk imagery. “That’s what this bike is like. If you ever fell, it would cut your head off.”
Mr. Olson’s firm plans to put the one-of-a-kind bike — and nearly 200 other cars and motorcycles owned by Mr. Mowen — up for auction in the coming weeks under the federal government’s asset forfeiture program, even as Mr. Mowen’s trial, scheduled to begin Monday, moves forward.
If acquitted, Mr. Mowen would get the money. If convicted, the proceeds — projected by Mr. Olson at $2 million to $3 million — would go to people who lost money in Mr. Mowen’s investment funds.
But that simple-sounding plan has not been without its speed bumps. On Tuesday, two days before the first sale in the auction was to be held, a lawyer for Mr. Mowen filed an objection in federal court in Salt Lake City saying his client had not had enough time to assess or challenge the appraisals. The auction was postponed, probably for a week or two.
“Once these things are addressed, it will go forward,” said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office in Salt Lake City.
Meanwhile, the criminal case, with its low-budget echoes of the Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scandal, continues to reverberate in Utah.
Mr. Mowen, 47, who has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody, faces more than 100 years in prison if convicted of multiple charges, including wire fraud and retaliating against a witness. His lawyer, Stephen R. McCaughey, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
The federal indictment against Mr. Mowen says that in 2006 and 2007 he promised investors in a foreign currency trading operation returns that might have sounded too good to be true — and, according to the indictment, later turned out to be completely false.
Profits of up to 33 percent a month were paid for a while, the indictment said, but only because new money coming into the fund was used to pay off previous investors, which is the classic definition of a Ponzi scheme.
The resulting collection is one of the largest private vehicle fleets, not counting car dealerships, ever seized by the United States Marshals Service under the asset forfeiture program. Experts who have examined the trove, which was taken from warehouses, private garages and repair shops across Utah where Mr. Mowen had stashed his treasures, say it is also one of the strangest and tackiest.
“The word ‘bad’ comes to mind,” said Rick Carey, the auctions editor at Car Collector Magazine.
“It looks to me like a bunch of cars that somebody threw together, not to create a collection but simply to show off by buying,” Mr. Carey said. “Or somebody who wanted to look ‘bad’ to the people he dealt with.”
The Mowen list includes a mix of heavily modified custom creations like the razor-studded three-wheeler, replica versions of famous sports cars, genuine antiques, muscle cars from the 1960s and ’70s and, here and there — perhaps oddest of all — a basic transportation clunker, like a 1995 Chevy Impala with nearly 80,000 miles on the odometer.
But because many of the vehicles were essentially not for street use, or so flashy as to be perhaps unwise for a supposedly staid investment professional to be seen in, the collection also appears, for the most part, to have gone unused.
Several car experts, asked to assess what kind of person would amass such a collection, said they thought the pieces reflected an oversize ego, and beneath that, a lack of knowledge about cars or what makes other people want them.
Mr. Juergens said Mr. Mowen told him he was collecting the vehicles as an investment and believed that they would appreciate in value.
“I don’t know how smart that was,” Mr. Juergens said.
<for the entire article>
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/08auction.html?th&emc=th
*****************************
I know, I know...someone's gonna complain that I've posted to many new topics for discussion for today...but this one was just to funny to NOT POST IT HERE...something to laugh about instead of all the FUSS'N & FIGHT'N...