Major classic car fraud uncovered in Aachen
The Aachener Nachrichten, which is published jointly with the Aachener Zeitung in the Aachen media house, reported yesterday on an ongoing investigation into a major case of fraud.
Porsche road and racing cars are said to have been forged on a large scale, rebuilt and created from wrecks. They were fitted with partially falsified or supplemented vehicle documents and sold for large sums in the country and internationally.
"Investigations are being carried out on suspicion of 'gang and commercial fraud'. The group is accused of having joined forces to rebuild scrap-ready vintage and racing cars or to manufacture replicas of such vehicles, to provide them with German registration papers and then to sell them at a profit as allegedly original vehicles," the police and public prosecutor's office stated according to the Aachener Nachrichten.
Last Wednesday, according to the newspaper, 18 homes and companies were searched simultaneously in several locations in Aachen and the surrounding area, as well as in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, as part of a raid. The unconfirmed fraud sum is said to exceed 100 million euros or even be higher, but there are no clear statements about this. The fact that a 48-year-old suspect from Aachen has been arrested and provisionally released from custody on bail in the millions also shows that the sums involved are large.
The counterfeiters are said to have gone about their work meticulously, exploiting gaps in manufacturers' chassis numbers, forging old documents with typewriters from the relevant eras and thus turning "fake" classic cars into "genuine" rarities.
The Bild newspaper also published the name of the main suspect (Uwe N.) and the name of the company in focus (Scuderia M66).
The investigation has apparently been going on for many months and is still ongoing. The public prosecutor does not want to give any information in order not to jeopardize the investigations, according to the newspapers.
The whole story doesn't really surprise anyone. When so much money is involved, fraud is bound to happen sooner or later. The cars of the fifties in particular are comparatively easy to reproduce and even between two closely related models there can be a difference in value of millions. This must attract criminal energy.
This will not be the first and not the last case to cause a stir.
