Ford is taking to court a cadre of Canadian supercar retailers and customers for allegedly improperly acquiring one of its 2018 GT supercars in a scheme to sell and re-sell it for massive profits, in violation of a purchase agreement that stipulates the buyer has to hold onto the car for 24 months after delivery.
The automaker’s lawsuit, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, accuses four defendants of engaging in a “civil conspiracy,” reports Automotive News; the defendants, on the other hand, are largely each accusing the other of the alleged improprieties in one very convoluted case.
Ford wants to “rescind the original sale deal and block any sale or transfer of the GT,” but it’s also asking for $1 million in damages for breach of contract, plus lawyer’s fees. In November, the judge presiding over the yet-to-be-scheduled trial endorsed a temporary injunction against the car’s resale by its current owner, apparently based in Hong Kong.
Justice Edward Morgan, in his decision, ran through the timeline of the car’s ownership history. It begins with the prospective purchase of the new $690,800 car – one of eight sold in model year 2018 to Canadian customers hand-selected by Ford – by Steven Hudson, former CEO of Element Financial Corp., via Toronto-based Downtown Ford.
(To prevent the exclusive Markham, Ontario-built limited-edition GT supercar being bought and flipped for profit, Ford decided on a case-by-case basis who the cars would go to, and famously stipulated as part of its purchase agreement that buyers had to maintain ownership for two years after taking delivery. Two owners of other GTs, including wrestler and actor John Cena, have so far violated that agreement; this car could be the third.)
The purchase was, however, completed not by Hudson, but by his then-business associate, Bradley Nullmeyer, former CEO of Element Fleet Management Corp. “Hudson’s lawyer, Chris Paliare of Toronto, told Automotive News Canada: ‘Mr. Hudson is now aware someone else used his name without authorization,’” says the news outlet, and Hudson had “no involvement in the initial purchase … nor any subsequent sales transactions.”
Less than three weeks later, the holding company – and thus the Ford GT – was bought up by Timothy Quocksister, president of collectible cars dealership Silver Arrow Cars of Victoria, B.C., allegedly violating that two-year resale restriction. (Nullmeyer and Quocksister both deny any wrongdoing.)
The deal was brokered with assistance from Jeffrey Seigel who, for his help, was allegedly paid a $126,560 commission and, Justice Morgan writes, a $200,000 “secret commission” by Nullmeyer. Quocksister says he was never informed about the resale restriction, which is why he brought Seigel into the case via a $1.5-million third-party claim. But evidence shows Seigel included the car’s confirmation order – which mentions the clause – in materials he gave to Quocksister.
Meanwhile, the car was allegedly being stored at Engineered Automotive (EA) in Concord, Ontario, just north of Toronto, for about a month, making it another defendant in the suit leveled by Ford. (That firm denies being involved in negotiations to sell the GT.)
The day Quocksister bought the supercar, May 1, 2018, he resold it for $1,734,480 to Richmond, B.C.-based exotic car dealership SR Auto Group. The dealer in turn quickly flipped it to “an undisclosed buyer from Hong Kong.” Justice Morgan’s decision does not note the car’s current location, but it is apparently now up for sale in Europe — or would be, if it weren’t for his injunction.
https://driving.ca/ford/auto-news/news/ford-sues-to-block-sale-of-gt-supercar-in-alleged-canadian-conspiracy
2020-02-26 12:08:00Z
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