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Former Gizmondo executive Stefan Eriksson, who left the company under a cloud of allegations that he had links with the Swedish mafia, has been involved in a car crash which destroyed his $1 million Ferrari Enzo.
The car was travelling at an estimated 120 mph on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when it slammed into a power pole, leaving the vehicle sliced in two. Police believe the Ferrari was taking part in a street race with an SLR Mercedes, worth around $500,000. Perhaps thanks to the Enzo's legendary safety system, Eriksson escaped with only minor injuries.
Eriksson's blood alcohol level was over the limit but he claimed that he was not behind the wheel at the time of the crash, stating that a German man called 'Dietrich' was driving. According to Eriksson, Dietrich ran from the scene, but a three hour search by the LAPD failed to locate him.
"[Eriksson] had blood on his mouth and both airbags in the car deployed, but only the driver's side airbag had blood on it, not the passenger side," Sergeant Philip Brooks told the Associated Press.
"Maybe the 'driver' had a friend who picked him up. Maybe he thumbed a ride. Maybe he was a ghost."
Brooks added that Eriksson is "still considered as the passenger," stating: "We're continuing our investigation and he's not in custody."
Less than 400 cars of the type destroyed in the crash were ever made, and the Ferrari community is said to be mourning the loss of a vehicle which many describe as a work of art. Other Hollywood residents who own an Enzo include Nicolas Cage and Britney Spears.
"He destroyed one of the finest cars on Earth, maybe the finest," said Chris Banning of the Ferrari Owners Club, speaking to the LA Times.
"It's like taking a Van Gogh painting and burning it."
Eriksson was formerly an executive officer of Gizmondo Europe, but resigned last October. It was later revealed that he had previously been convicted of a number of mobster-related charges in his native Sweden and given a ten-year prison sentence.
This is not the first time Eriksson has been involved in an expensive car crash - in 2002, he crashed a Tiger Telematics-sponsored Porsche 996 GT3-RS in a race in Sweden, destroying the vehicle. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Last edited by Brian503a on Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
'Fat Steven's' Ferrari crash sparks international intrigue
Authorities now estimate the car was traveling 162 mph, possibly was being repossessed by a Scottish bank and was not street legal.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Feb. 24 Web update
Deputies investigating the Tuesday destruction of a $1.2 million Enzo Ferrari said they have taken into evidence the blood-smeared air bag from the driver's seat, and will again question the Swedish millionaire owner of the car who says he cannot remember how his car was destroyed.
Stefan Eriksson, 44, is a Bel-Air resident who reportedly was convicted of racketeering and counterfeiting in his native Sweden 12 years ago. He was found legally drunk and with a cut lip next to the scattered wreckage of the Ferrari early Tuesday morning on Pacific Coast Highway near Decker Canyon Road. Another man was with him, who claimed not to be a passenger of the car. Authorities have not released his name.
Eriksson was photographed by The Malibu Times with blood on his mouth, and both air bags had deployed in the Ferrari. However, deputies said only the driver-side air bag had blood on it, and deputies at the scene said they suspected that this blood would match Eriksson's DNA. Eriksson said the driver had fled into the hills.
Newspapers in Stockholm are reporting that Eriksson may have lied to U.S. immigration officers to gain entry into this nation following a string of convictions for serious racketeering charges in Uppsala, Sweden in 1995.
Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet reported that he was then known as a member of an "Uppsala mafia" who went by the name of "Fat Steven." Eriksson served prison time but then dropped from public sight, according to the Swedish newspaper. Several years later he surfaced as chief technology officer at a British game console company called Gizmondo, which British newspapers say was looted by executives of millions of dollars in inflated salaries, perks like Formula One race cars and other unearned benefits.
The high tech British-American electronic game manufacturing company is being liquidated in Britain this week after what newspapers there call a spectacular collapse.
Sources close to the case have told The Malibu Times that the Bank of Scotland is attempting to find out if Eriksson's destroyed Enzo is one of two that he imported several years ago as "show cars."
The Enzos cannot pass U.S. smog standards and therefore cannot be driven on public highways or issued license plates. The source said the Enzo was in the process of being repossessed by the Bank of Scotland.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies Thursday released their findings that the car was going an estimated 162 miles per hour when it began swerving on the highway at 6:06 a.m.
The car went 20 feet up an embankment, smashing into a power pole, before ending up on the highway and shattering into pieces over more than 400 yards. The engine came to a rest in the center of the road, and the passenger compartment continued spinning another 50 yards down the shoulder. The car was severed in half.
"It sounded like a huge lumber truck or something lost its load and started scraping down the highway," said one highway resident, standing in his driveway surveying the scene. "Stuff was falling everywhere."
Deputies who arrived at the scene said neither of the two men found at the scene would admit to driving the two-seat car.
"They both said somebody else had been driving the car, and that this driver had run up into the hills," said Sheriff's Sgt. Peter Charboneau.
A helicopter and several firefighters and deputies searched the area, but found no one.
Eriksson claimed he had allowed a friend, whose name he could not recall, to take the wheel of the car, officers said.
Witnesses had seen the red car speeding through Trancas just before the wreck, deputies said. The two men questioned in the case, however, said the driver of the Ferrari had been racing another car, which allegedly left the scene.
Eriksson admitted to a reporter that he been in it, and had a cut lip from the air bag. The man smelled of alcohol and told a reporter he did not remember what happened.
"At this point we can't place either of them in the driver's seat, and unless another witness or somebody turns something else up, we can't charge them," Charboneau said.
The sergeant said both men admitted to deputies they were drinking alcohol before the dawn accident.
"We cannot charge someone without either a witness, or circumstances that put him behind the wheel of the car that eliminate the possibility that anyone else was there," he said.
Dangling power lines and hundreds of pieces of fiberglass and metal meant Pacific Coast Highway was closed to morning commuters for two hours. Southbound traffic backed up more than a mile.
A high-voltage distribution line feeding Decker Canyon and the La Chusa area was destroyed, putting 1,475 homes in the dark temporarily. By midmorning, power had been restored to all but 75 houses in Decker Canyon, Southern California Edison spokesman Tom Boyd said. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
The Plot Thickens in Ferrari Crash
A gun's magazine found near the wreckage may be connected to the accident, and a Scottish bank says it might own the destroyed car.
By Richard Winton and David Pierson
Times Staff Writers
February 28, 2006
The mystery deepened Monday in the case of the puzzling crash last week of a $1-million Ferrari Enzo on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
Sheriff's detectives said Monday that they believe a gun's magazine discovered near the wreckage is connected to the crash, and they plan to interview an unnamed person who they believe was in the car with Swedish game machine entrepreneur Stefan Eriksson.
The crash has also garnered the attention of a leading Scottish bank, which has informed sheriff's investigators that it may own the destroyed car. At the same time, detectives are trying to figure out why another exotic car in Eriksson's extensive collection, a Mercedes SLR, was listed as stolen by Scotland Yard in London, said Sheriff's Sgt. Phil Brooks.
The totaled Ferrari was one of two Enzos that Eriksson brought into the United States from England along with the Mercedes SLR, Brooks said. But detectives concluded that the totaled vehicle did not have appropriate papers and was not "street legal" for driving in California, he said.
Detectives have been trying for nearly a week to sort out what exactly happened last Tuesday morning when Eriksson's Enzo — one of only 400 ever made — smashed into a telephone pole, totaling the car. Eriksson told deputies that he was the passenger and that a man he knew only as "Dietrich" was behind the wheel. But detectives have been openly skeptical of the story, noting that Eriksson had a bloody lip and that the only blood they found in the car was on the driver's-side air bag.
Brooks said detectives have called in Eriksson for another interview. Eriksson has declined through the security guard at his gated Bel-Air estate to comment. An attorney who has previously represented Eriksson in civil matters, Ashley Posner, also declined to comment Monday.
But some city leaders in Malibu, where the crash has been the talk of the town, were less circumspect.
"The guy should have had an IQ test," said Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Ken Kearsley, who has been following the coverage of the crash with a half-grin. The driver's IQ "couldn't come up above 60 if he was doing 120 on PCH," Kearsley said.
But in fact, Brooks said Monday, the car was traveling 162 mph when it crashed, far faster than the 120 mph originally believed. The Ferrari, with just a few inches of undercarriage clearance, hit a bump at a crest in the road, sending the vehicle airborne and into the power pole, Brooks said.
Brooks said they are investigating whether someone else may have been present and are trying to determine whether the recovered gun component is connected to the case. He declined to say more about the find or elaborate on the status of the Scottish bank and Scotland Yard in the case.
The question of whether Eriksson was the driver is key to the case, Brooks said. Eriksson's blood-alcohol level was 0.09%, higher than the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle.
Sheriff's officials are still trying to confirm witness reports that the Ferrari might have been drag racing with another car, and officials aren't sure if that's what happened.
Sheriff's officials said Eriksson was an executive with a game company that attempted to take on Sony and Nintendo, but the firm collapsed last year.
In Malibu, officials said they are not sure what to make of the accident.
Kearsley said the stretch of road was not known for drag racing, but for run-of-the-mill speeders. He said the Sheriff's Department has had success for the last year and a half using radar and lasers to catch overzealous drivers. The lasers are not detectable to drivers, he said.
"It's straight as an arrow where the accident was," he said. "You really have to go out of your way to hit a telephone pole."
Carol Moss, a longtime Malibu resident, activist and meditation group leader, said the accident came as no surprise.
"It was horrendous, but Malibu is full of idiots," she said. "There are a lot of wild cars and irresponsible people. The roads are dangerous. You always see people with those sorts of cars. You see some wild behavior."
But, in keeping with her Zen frame of mind, Moss extended an olive branch. "Everyone is welcome to attend the meditation group. Even the drag racer." _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
A 9mm Beretta clip is dropped at the scene, no other car was being raced and the Swedish owner of the million-dollar Ferrari will be charged with a misdemeanor hit and run, plus drunk and reckless driving, if blood tests place him behind wheel.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
The discovery of a 9mm Beretta handgun clip at the Ferrari crash site last week on Pacific Coast Highway and Decker Canyon Road has added the possibility that persons involved in the accident were carrying weapons at the time of the accident. Also, Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies revealed Tuesday that they've known for a week that there was no Mercedes, no car race and no mysterious accomplice named "Dietrich" who ran into the hills following the accident, as maintained by former Swedish game company mogul Stefan Eriksson, the owner of the Ferrari that was severed in half in the crash. Sheriff's Deputies investigating the accident said they expect to file misdemeanor charges against Eriksson if blood tests put him in the driver's seat of the exotic show car.
Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Lost Hills-Malibu Sheriff's Station said the gun magazine was found by a witness after he stopped his car at the crash scene Feb. 21, and let a person at the scene use their cellphone inside the witness' car. Brooks said the person who used the phone got out of the witness' car, but left behind the clip, which had bullets in it.
Brooks said he could not yet reveal who the person who dropped the clip was, but said the gun magazine is related to the crash.
"All will become apparent after we talk to Mr. Eriksson," Brooks said Tuesday.
At the crash site, Eriksson claimed to work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and authorities said Tuesday that unknown persons attempted to assert jurisdiction at the crash site by flashing some sort of official identification.
Meanwhile, an attorney representing the 44-year-old Bel-Air resident offered to make his client available for questioning on Thursday.
"He's decided it's time to come clean and talk to the cops," Brooks said.
For two hours after the accident, Eriksson and another man were standing next to the two-seater's wreckage, making frequent cellular calls and talking with other people. Neither was in custody, and both left the scene after two hours in the company of persons unknown.
During that time, Eriksson and the other man blamed a mysterious second racecar for the accident. The man standing with Eriksson, who authorities will not publicly identify, said he was dropped off at the scene before deputies arrived by the person allegedly racing a Mercedes SLR.
Deputies have now confirmed that the Mercedes story was not true and that an eyewitness saw the Enzo, unaccompanied by any other car, speed past his car on PCH at Trancas.
Brooks said he left the false story circulating in newspapers around the world to see how Eriksson would react.
"Every wrong fact out there makes this guy want to come to me even more," Brooks said Tuesday.
Investigators have reconstructed the crash using lasers and other high-tech measuring devices. Their computer program will analyze the laser measurements and produce an animation depicting the car bottoming out at 162 mph as it crested the small rise at Decker Canyon Road, Brooks said.
"It will take the locations of all the gouge marks and skids, and then show a driver's eye view as it went up the small hill, split the power pole and then blasted into pieces as the engine and passenger compartment spiraled down the street," Brooks said. "The TV stations will love it, but we're doing it to fully analyze the crash."
Brooks said deputies would ask Eriksson to supply a blood sample to be used to compare to a blood smear left on the driver's side air bag in the $1.2 million Enzo Ferrari that was found smashed at the end of 400 yards of skid marks, downed power lines and wreckage at dawn last week.
Eriksson was photographed by The Malibu Times at the crash scene with blood on his mouth, and both air bags had deployed in the Ferrari. However, deputies said only the driver-side air bag had blood on it.
Deputies suspected Eriksson was driving his car, and measured his blood alcohol content at .09 percent after the crash, just above the threshold level of the .08 percent legal limit for driving and drinking.
Brooks said the county will make thousands of dollars worth of DNA tests and other high-tech reconstruction "for a crime that, at the most, will get the driver a drunk driving conviction, and probably a first-time fine of a thousand dollars or so."
Eriksson reportedly was convicted of racketeering and counterfeiting in his native Uppsala, Sweden in 1995, and was known as "Fat Steven" to his cohorts in the Uppsala Mafia, according to the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet. The newspaper reported that Eriksson might have lied to U.S. immigration officers to gain entry into this nation following a string of convictions for serious racketeering charges in Uppsala in 1995.
Eriksson served prison time but then dropped from public sight, according to the Swedish newspaper. Several years later he surfaced as chief technology officer at a British handheld game device company called Gizmondo, which British newspapers say was looted by executives of millions of dollars in inflated salaries, perks like Formula One racecars and other unearned benefits.
Gizmondo manufactured a handheld game device that was launched last year at a gala party on Regent Street in Central London that featured an appearance by the Enzo Ferrari and a performance by the rock musician Sting. The high tech British-American electronic game manufacturing company was liquidated in Britain two weeks ago after what newspapers there call a spectacular collapse.
Brooks said he could not confirm reports that the exotic sports car was in the process of being repossessed by The Bank of Scotland at the time of the crash.
"They told me that on the phone, but I have not heard back from them and until I get a notice of repossession they can't have any of the pieces back."
The Enzo could not pass U.S. or California smog, safety or bumper standards and therefore could not be driven on public highways or issued license plates, authorities said.
Brooks said small pieces of the wreckage are being offered for sale on Ebay, including purported Enzo rear-view mirrors.
"I have both of the real ones," Brooks said.
"One man out there picked up a piece of the carbon-fiber passenger cage, and said, 'I may not own a Ferrari Enzo, but I have a piece of one,'" Brooks said, shaking his head. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Investigation Into Ferrari Crash On PCH Delivers Twists, Turns
POSTED: 6:15 pm PST March 2, 2006
UPDATED: 7:08 pm PST March 2, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- The plot continued to thicken Thursday in the mystery surrounding the crash of a $1 million Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, a sheriff's sergeant said.
"It's like a James Bond story," said Sgt. Philip Brooks, of the Malibu/Lost Hills Station traffic detail. "But I just want to find out who was driving the Ferrari."
Brooks is heading up the investigation to find out if Stefan Eriksson, of Bel Air, was at the wheel of the red Ferrari Enzo when it crashed into a pole off Pacific Coast Highway on Feb. 21 at an estimated 160 mph.
The impact caused the car to split in half and nearly disintegrate, but Eriksson suffered relatively minor injuries.
A bloodied Eriksson was found in the passenger seat and told authorities that the driver was a German man named Dietrich who fled on foot into the Malibu hills.
"Yesterday, Eriksson came to the station with his attorney, David Eldon, and voluntarily provided a DNA sample taken with a mouth swab," Brooks said. "We want to see if his blood matches the blood in the Ferrari."
Results are expected for a few weeks.
The blood was found only on the driver's side of the car, not the passenger's side.
On the advice of his attorney, Eriksson did not make a statement Wednesday.
After the crash, Eriksson told deputies examining the wreckage that he had been a passenger in the Ferrari and there was a street race with a Mercedes.
Brooks said that Eriksson had told deputies of his friend Trevor, who was a passenger in the Mercedes.
"Based on the evidence, we don't believe there was a Mercedes or any race. There was a sole vehicle driving too fast on Pacific Coast Highway," Brooks said.
He has not been able to prove that Eriksson was the driver of that Ferrari.
But he said that "the plot thickened" as the investigation continued.
He said that Trevor -- he has a last name but is not releasing it -- said he was a friend of Eriksson and gave as his home address a boat slip in Marina del Rey.
The boat in that slip was a $14 million yacht, maybe the biggest in the harbor. And the name of the registered owner is Carl Freer.
Eriksson's name was linked by several European newspapers, including the Guardian of London, to Freer for their involvement in the collapse of a prominent video game company in Sweden in which investors lost millions of dollars. Eriksson was reportedly sentenced to a long prison sentence in that case.
Another unnerving development -- Trevor was at the scene of the accident on PCH and asked a good Samaritan to use his cell phone to report the crash, Brooks said.
"An hour later the good Samaritan found a magazine to a 40 mm Glock which had been stuffed under the car seat and reported it to us," Brooks said.
Brooks said the investigation also revealed that in September, Eriksson had brought two Ferrari Enzos into the country in San Diego -- one a red one and the other a black one. He also brought in a Mercedes SLR, a $600,000 vehicle.
Brooks said that the red Ferrari and the Mercedes have since been described as stolen, because the initial down payment on them was allegedly a fraudulent one through a company owned by Freer.
Federal authorities said Freer and Eriksson have connections to the Swedish mafia.
And then there's yet another wrinkle, Brooks said.
"At the scene of the accident, two associates of Eriksson showed up flashing badges from Homeland Security. Obviously, at the time the deputies were overwhelmed and didn't check out the badges. Eriksson also produced a business card describing himself as a deputy police commissioner with the San Gabriel Valley Transit," he said.
That entity is actually a privately owned security company, Brooks said. It consists of two vans used for paratransit working out of a garage across the street from the Monrovia Police Department.
The badges were apparently issued by the paratransit company, Brooks said.
Trevor told the deputies that Eriksson was part of the agency's anti-terrorism forces and that he was working on new facial recognition software for Homeland Security, Brooks said.
The sergeant said there was one additional piece of information.
The Ferrari company in Italy told Brooks it could fix the broken red Ferrari for a mere $200,000 to $300,000.
Many people had been upset at the destruction of the $1 million Ferrari, which is regarded as one of the finest cars ever made.
Brooks said that if it is determined that Eriksson was indeed the Ferrari driver, the most with which he could be charged is possibly misdemeanor DUI and reckless driving, along with providing false information to authorities.
Ferrari Story Takes Another Bizarre Turn
By Richard Winton and David Pierson
Times Staff Writers
3:08 PM PST, March 2, 2006
Sheriff's investigators are trying to find two men claiming to be "homeland security" officers from a small San Gabriel Valley transit authority who showed up at the site of the crash last week of the $1-million Ferrari Enzo.
The two men spoke with the owner of the car, Stefan Eriksson, who told investigators that he, too, was a commissioner of the transit authority.
Eriksson refused to be interviewed Wednesday by investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which is looking into the puzzling case. He did comply with the request for a sample of his blood, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Eriksson survived the crash of the Ferrari, which was traveling at more than 160 mph, investigators said. When emergency workers arrived at the scene, Eriksson produced a card identifying him as "deputy commissioner" of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority police department's antiterrorism unit, according to the Sheriff's Department.
A few minutes later, two unidentified men arrived at the crash site on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and flashed cards and said they were from "homeland security," according to a Sheriff's Department report.
The men were allowed by deputies onto the crime scene, where they spoke to Eriksson before leaving, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Phil Brooks.
Brooks appealed to the public for help in identifying the two men.
As sheriff's detectives try to unravel the mystery of the crash, their attention is turning to the obscure nonprofit organization that provides disabled people with transportation in cities such as Monrovia and Arcadia.
Eriksson, a former video game executive who, according to Swedish newspapers, was convicted of counterfeiting a decade ago in Sweden, has volunteered his time with the agency's antiterrorism unit, helping them with camera technology for the paratransit vehicles, said an agency official who asked not to be identified.
Eriksson's civil attorney, Ashley Posner, is the chairman of the agency. He declined comment today.
Officials in cities where the agency does business said they were mystified over why a small transit authority needs its own police department.
"We do not see the need for a ground transportation system for handicapped and disabled folks to have a police agency," said Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa. "We warned them that if the police agency operated with them in the city Monrovia, it would jeopardize their [transit] agreement with us."
According to the transit authority's website, the department has a chief, detectives, marked police cruisers and an "antiterrorism" division.
Monrovia Police Department Chief Roger Johnson said he checked out the department recently and found it is less than meets the eye.
"My impression at the time was that they were trying to get a police agency off the ground to go with their transit business," Johnson said. "I don't know if they have a police department to go with the website."
Eriksson has insisted he was a passenger in the Ferrari when it crashed. He said the driver was a man named "Dietrich" who fled from the scene. Officials are skeptical of that explanation, mainly because Eriksson had a bloody lip and there was only blood found on the driver's side airbag.
Sheriff's officials said they took the blood sample from Eriksson to determine whether it was his blood on the airbag. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Ferrari crash probe focuses on obscure transit agency
By Richard Winton and David Pierson
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES - As sheriff's detectives investigate last week's crash that destroyed a $1 million Ferrari, they are now looking into an obscure nonprofit organization that provides disabled people with transit in the San Gabriel Valley.
The car's owner, Stefan Eriksson, a former video game executive from Sweden, told Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies who responded to last Tuesday's accident in Malibu that he was "deputy commissioner" of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority police anti-terrorism unit, detectives said Thursday.
A few minutes after the crash, two unidentified men arrived at the scene on Pacific Coast Highway, flashing badges and saying they were from "homeland security," according to sheriff's department officials.
Deputies allowed the men into the accident scene, where they spoke to Eriksson before leaving, said Sgt. Phil Brooks.
Sheriff's officials on Thursday said they view those men "suspiciously" and want to question them.
"We (would) like the public's help with any information about these men or the crash," Brooks said.
They are also looking into the transit organization to see what connection, if any, it has in to the case.
The accident -- in which the rare Enzo Ferrari was traveling 162 mph and smashed into a power pole -- caused no injuries. But the case continues to generate much interest because the Enzo is one of only 400 ever built, and detectives have struggled to understand what exactly happened.
Eriksson has insisted he was a passenger in the Enzo when it crashed Feb. 21. He said the driver was a man named "Dietrich" who fled from the scene. But officials have been openly skeptical of that explanation, mainly because Eriksson had a bloody lip and there was only blood found on the driver's-side air bag.
On Thursday, Brooks said detectives now doubt early reports that the Ferrari was racing with a Mercedes SLR. Detectives had interviewed a second man who said he was a passenger in a Mercedes SLR that he said was racing with the Ferrari at the time.
"There was no Mercedes SLR," he said. "Simply, there was a Ferrari with two people in it. One of these men was driving."
Just as murky is Eriksson's connection to the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority.
The organization is a privately run nonprofit that has agreements with Monrovia and Sierra Madre to provide bus rides for disabled residents.
On its Web site, the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority lists its address as 148 E. Lemon Ave. in Monrovia. The location is an auto repair shop called Homer's Auto Service.
A transit authority bus was parked in one of its driveways, but nothing on the storefront indicated it was a headquarters for the agency. Inside, a young woman, who declined to give her name, said she was a dispatcher for the transit authority. She telephoned what she said was an agency official who declined to be interviewed.
According to the Web site, the organization also has its own police department, complete with a chief, detectives and marked police cruisers. Sheriff's investigators said Eriksson told deputies that he was deputy commissioner of the department's "anti-terrorism" unit.
But Monrovia Police Department Chief Roger Johnson said he checked the department out recently and found it's less than meets the eye.
"I don't know if they have a police department to go with the Web site," he said.
In a brief interview, Yosuf Maiwandi, a transit authority board member, said Eriksson had worked with their police department's "anti-terrorism unit," helping it with camera technology for the paratransit vehicles.
Eriksson's civil attorney, Ashley Posner, is the chairman of the transit authority. Posner declined to comment; Ericksson's criminal attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
Officials in cities where the agency does business said they were mystified over why a small transit authority needs its own police department.
"We do not see the need for a ground transportation system for handicapped and disabled folks to have a police agency," said Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa. "We warned them that if the police agency operated with them in the city Monrovia, it would jeopardize their (transit) agreement with us."
It remains unclear how Eriksson, who lives in a gated Bel Air estate, came to work with the transit agency.
Sgt. Brooks said Eriksson voluntarily gave a DNA swab, which will be used to determine whether his blood was on the driver's side air bag. Eriksson had a blood alcohol of .09 -- meaning he could face drunk driving charges if he is proved to be the driver, Brooks said.
Another mystery that remains unsolved is the Beretta bullet clip found next to the crash scene. Brooks said detectives believe it's connected to the crash but don't know how.
CALABASAS - The only-in-Los Angeles saga that began last week with the high-speed Malibu crash of a $1 million Enzo Ferrari owned by a Swedish playboy is racing toward absurdity.
Sheriff's investigators now say that a mysterious German named Dietrich never existed, but an American named Trevor has materialized, along with two intriguing figures who conned deputies at the crash site while claiming to be homeland security officials.
"It's just spiraling out of control," Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Malibu-Lost Hills sheriff's station told reporters Thursday. "It's simply amazing."
Sheriff's detectives continued to question Stefan Eriksson about the Feb. 21 crash on Pacific Coast Highway. Eriksson's top-of-the-line Ferrari split in two after its driver - who may or may not have been the Swede - lost control of the vehicle. The red sports car smashed against a utility poll.
Eriksson, who was at the scene nursing a bloody lip, told deputies he was just the passenger in his red Ferrari as it raced 162 mph against a Mercedes SLR. He claimed a German named Dietrich was driving the car and fled on foot after the smashup.
Eriksson said the driver of the Mercedes sped away, but a man who authorities only identified as Trevor was at the crash site and told deputies he was the passenger of the Mercedes. Trevor gave his address as a yacht slip in Marina del Rey. The $14 million yacht usually docked there is gone.
Investigators say Trevor waved down a passing motorist after the crash, asked to borrow a cell phone, and slipped a fully loaded magazine clip underneath the driver's seat of the good Samaritan's car. No weapon has been found.
After all the twists and turns, investigators now believe there was no race, and no Mercedes, only the Enzo and Eriksson and probably Trevor riding shotgun. They also are checking reports from Scotland about a missing Mercedes SLR, purchased through a fraudulent company, linked to a possible associate of Eriksson.
Eriksson was convicted of fraud and counterfeiting in Sweden in 1993 and 1994, and has been linked to a group known as the Uppsala Mafia, according to sheriff's deputies.
Along with Trevor, investigators said Thursday they are seeking two men who appeared at the scene of the crash. The men claimed to be "homeland security officials" with the Azuza-based San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, waved badges at deputies and were allowed into the crash scene. Authorities believe they had ties to Eriksson, who is an honorary deputy police commissioner of the same transit authority.
Eriksson, who does not have a California driver's license, handed deputies a business card with the honorary title as a form of identification the morning of the crash.
Ashley Posner, Eriksson's civil attorney and member of the authority, said his client was named an honorary member because of his "expertise on video compression technology."
"Mr. Eriksson is a guy that has developed some technology that can be used in transit systems to assist police agencies to respond to emergencies that involve transit buses," Posner said.
Posner said the transit authority offers free van service to disabled residents.
Throughout it all, deputies say Eriksson has been cooperative. On Wednesday, he appeared at the sheriff's station to submit to DNA testing. A sheriff's lab will analyze the swab of saliva taken from Eriksson's mouth to see if it matches blood found on the driver's side air bag.
As for the car, Brooks said Ferrari has said it could repair the vehicle for $300,000.
Only 399 Enzos were manufactured between 2002 and 2004, with one more made for Pope John Paul II in 2005. The Catholic Church auctioned that car off for $1.275 million to benefit charity.
The original sticker price was $643,330, but the Enzo usually resells for about $1 million.
Brooks said Eriksson owns two of the cars, and that he slipped into the United States in September.
If arrested, Eriksson could be charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol and providing false information to authorities and will face deportation, Brooks said.
Susan Abram, (818) 713-3664 _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Another Turn in Ferrari Saga
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.
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.
Deal said that his agency has discovered that several railroad agencies around California have created police departments — even though the companies have no rail lines in California to patrol. The police certification agency is seeking to decertify those agencies because it sees no reason for them to exist in California.
The issue of private transit firms creating police agencies has in recent years been a concern in Illinois, where several individuals with criminal histories created railroads as a means of forming a police agency.
Eriksson, 44, is a former executive with the video game machine company Gizmondo who left the firm shortly before a Swedish newspaper ran allegations that he had been convicted of counterfeiting a decade before in Sweden. Officials at the Swedish National Police confirmed Tuesday that he has a criminal record.
No one was injured when the rare Ferrari Enzo smashed into a power pole on Pacific Coast Highway at 162 mph. But the case continues to generate interest because the Ferrari is one of only 400 built, and detectives have struggled to understand what happened.
Eriksson told investigators he was a passenger in the Ferrari and that the driver was a man named Dietrich, who fled. But officials have been skeptical, noting that Eriksson had a bloody lip and the only blood found was on the driver's side air bag.
The transit authority is being examined by detectives on the Ferrari case as well as the sheriff's homeland security division.
And those officials aren't the only one curious.
Shelly Verrinder, executive director of Access Services, a county agency that provides transportation for the disabled, said she first heard of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority more than a month ago when a rider from an advisory committee said she used it.
Verrinder asked her staff to inquire about the transit authority, thinking that Access might work with the agency in the future.
So Verrinder had one of her staffers set up an appointment to meet the transit authority last Thursday at the Monrovia location — the auto shop — to receive a tour of the agency's facility. But before they met, a transit authority official called to cancel the meeting, saying that the group was preparing for an audit.
The rider from the advisory committee was Temple City resident Patricia Lafrance. She said she has used the transit authority buses about a dozen times over the last month.
"The experience has been wonderful," Lafrance, 63, said.
PATT MORRISON
Homeland Security and a fast Ferrari
Patt Morrison
March 9, 2006
IT'S THE MOST fabulously preposterous L.A. traffic accident since "Crash," and it just gets better and better. And unlike "Crash" — in case anyone believes that the movie is a documentary — it's true.
A million-dollar red Ferrari, just like one made for the pope, races a Mercedes up PCH in Malibu and crashes into a light pole at 162 mph. Total casualties: One cut lip, on the face of Stefan Eriksson, who insists that he was just a passenger and that the Ferrari's driver, a German fellow named Dietrich, ran off. The Mercedes sped away too, although investigators suspect that it, along with Dietrich, never existed.
This is all good stuff, but here's the part I really love: Two guys show up at the scene of the accident flashing badges. They claim Homeland Security status and spirit away Eriksson.
Eriksson turns out to be a suspected Swedish counterfeiter and ex-honcho of a European video game company that crashed almost as spectacularly as the Ferrari. He was waving around a business card declaring him to be a deputy police commissioner of an antiterrorism unit, a title awarded him for technical help to the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, which fields a fleet of — hang on while I get my calculator — five small buses. The SGVTA operates out of Homer's Auto Service in Monrovia, doing the laudable and much-needed work of ferrying disabled people to their appointments.
A little shuttle service has an antiterrorism unit? Gentlemen, repeat after me: it's Al Qaeda, and El Monte.
Sheriff's deputies, the feds and even Scotland Yard are puzzling all this out. So are Times newsguys Richard Winton and David Pierson. They found the "SGV Transit Authority Police" website (now vanished from the Internet), so puffed up you'd think the unit is a farm team for the LAPD. But the whole "force," according to Times reporting, consists of at most six and probably three guys, including the owner of the auto repair shop. It's like a Marx Brothers movie, minus one brother.
The website warns that even a little medical van service can be targeted by evildoers, but not to worry: There's a "vigilant undercover and overt officer presence" as well as "plainclothes officers and a narcotics detection K-9 team." Wow — with that massive police presence, are there any seats left on the bus for passengers?
People have been pretending to be someone else for fun and profit for centuries. One of the most famous restaurants in L.A. was run by a guy who claimed to be a Romanov prince, and everyone went along with it. And how about that perennial L.A. pickup line, "I'm a producer"?
If this antiterrorism transit cop thing is a lot of hype, it's doubly brilliant, because who could penetrate Homeland Security to check the story?
Then again, if it's legit, I'll stop snickering. There's nothing remotely funny about a climate and a culture in which even someone running a tiny bus service for the disabled need only invoke "antiterrorism" and "homeland security" and "9/11" to become a "freedom-fighter." Besides the great macho rush, doors open. And so do checkbooks.
Every police agency, every city wants a piece of the action — and a piece of the dough. With billions of dollars out there virtually for the asking, where's the line between bold and boondoggle? And who has the guts to say so?
Christopher Cox, the former California Republican congressman who now heads the Securities and Exchange Commission, remarked last year that the Department of Homeland Security sometimes ladled out funding so freely that authorities found themselves "looking for ways to spend the money." One of his peeved colleagues, a New York Democrat, hammered on preposterous projects that got Homeland Security money — a paging system for a South Dakota state fair, a customized trailer for a Texas mushroom festival and six figures to teach public-speaking skills to sanitation workers.
In the desert town of Hemet, firefighters got $150,000 of Homeland Security money for computerized communications, but San Diego has been stripped from the list of 35 high-risk metro areas. Hmm … tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border, major port, international crossroads — not a high risk?
All I'm saying is, I won't be surprised if a check shows up from Homeland Security, made out to the SGVTA antiterrorism unit. Whatever that turns out to be.
Arrest Is Made in Ferrari Accident
Stefan Eriksson, held on suspicion of grand theft, hadn't made payments on the Enzo wrecked in Malibu or on two other cars, authorities say.
By Richard Winton and David Pierson
Times Staff Writers
April 10, 2006
Sheriff's deputies have arrested the Swedish video game executive who crashed in a rare Ferrari in Malibu in February, alleging that he didn't own that car and others in his $3.5-million exotic car collection, authorities said Sunday.
Stefan Eriksson faces grand theft charges after detectives raided his gated Bel-Air estate Friday night, spent six hours searching it and then took him into custody Saturday night.
Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said detectives concluded that the wrecked Ferrari, a red Enzo — as well as a rare Mercedes and a second, black Enzo — were owned by British financial institutions.
The cars were purchased in Britain last year when Eriksson lived there. He apparently brought them to Los Angeles when he moved here. But financial institutions that held titles to the cars informed detectives that payments had lapsed, Whitmore said.
The arrest underscores that what started as a curious auto accident on Pacific Coast Highway has expanded into a multi-pronged investigation, he said. The search was conducted by the sheriff's emergency operations bureau, part of the county's Homeland Security division.
"This is the beginning of the investigation," Whitmore said. "All three cars have now been confiscated."
Although no one was seriously injured in the crash, the investigation has generated significant attention because of the strange circumstances surrounding it and the fact that it destroyed one of only 400 Enzos ever built. Authorities believe the car was going 162 mph when it smashed into a power pole.
Eriksson told deputies who arrived at the scene that he was not the driver and that a man named Dietrich had been behind the wheel.
Eriksson said Dietrich fled the scene, but detectives have been openly skeptical of this story.
Investigators took a swab of Eriksson's saliva in order to match his DNA against blood found on the Ferrari's driver-side air bag. The comparison results are back, but detectives won't release the findings.
A blood-alcohol test on Eriksson at the time showed him to be above the legal limit for driving in California, so he could face several other charges if he's found to be the driver.
Eriksson also told deputies that he was 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 scene, identified themselves as Homeland Security officers and spoke to Eriksson at length before leaving.
Detectives are investigating any connection Eriksson may have had to the agency.
Eriksson, 44, was booked into the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles. He is being held without bail because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has put a hold him, though it is unclear why. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
Eriksson was an executive with Gizmondo, a European video game company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year with more than $200 million in debt. According to Swedish authorities, he served prison time in the early 1990s after being convicted of counterfeiting.
During the search at Eriksson's Bel-Air home, detectives found the black Enzo, worth more than $1 million, Whitmore said.
His Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, worth $600,000, was seized last month when his wife was stopped in Beverly Hills on suspicion of driving without a license. That car had been reported stolen to London's Scotland Yard.
The case has been the talk of exotic car groups since the accident. On Sunday, some Ferrari aficionados expressed hope that the episode might finally be over.
"The Ferrari community is very upstanding and a very serious group of people," said Gil Lucero, Pacific region president of the Ferrari Club of America. "It's unfortunate folks with more money than sense get into these things."
Officials Delay Decision on Charges in Ferrari Case
By Richard Winton
Times Staff Writer
8:02 PM PDT, April 11, 2006
Prosecutors Tuesday delayed a decision on filing charges against a former Swedish videogame executive arrested on suspicion of grand theft of a rare Enzo Ferrari he crashed in Malibu and two other exotic sports cars.
The prosecutors said they need a few more days to review complex paperwork on how the vehicles were acquired.
Stefan Eriksson, 44, in custody since Saturday, will remain there because of an immigration hold issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a potential person to deport, officials said.
ICE has an ongoing investigation into the Swedish national but has declined to provide details.
Normally, Eriksson, who was booked Saturday morning by the sheriff's department under California law, would have to be released if he was not charged within 48 hours by prosecutors.
Defending the delay, District Attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said the decision to spend more time reviewing the case did not speak to the merits of it but rather the complexity of how Eriksson got the $3.5 million car collection.
"A decision will be made within the next few days on whether charges will be filed," said Robison. "The auto insurance fraud division is looking at a lot of paperwork from overseas here and they sorting through it."
It was unclear Tuesday whether Eriksson will be transferred into federal immigration custody in the meantime.
Sheriff's investigators who made the arrest allege that Eriksson imported the Red Enzo, a Black Enzo and a custom Mercedes SLR but that they are really owned by British financial institutions because they were not paid for in their entirety.
According to sheriff's officials the Mercedes was reported stolen to London's Metropolitan Police.
Ferrari Case Continues to Widen
Man whose car crashed in Malibu could be deported. A firearm and possibly cocaine were found in his home.
By Richard Winton and David Pierson
Times Staff Writers
April 11, 2006
The investigation into a former Swedish video game executive whose rare Ferrari crashed in Malibu widened Monday as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency confirmed it is investigating Stefan Eriksson.
Eriksson, 44, is expected to appear in court today or Wednesday after Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies arrested him over the weekend. They allege that his $3.5-million car collection — the red Ferrari Enzo, a black Enzo and a custom Mercedes — belonged to British financial institutions, not to him.
Sheriff's officials told The Times on Monday that in addition to the cars, detectives who searched his Bel-Air home seized several computers, a firearm and a substance believed to be cocaine. Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said the substance is now being tested.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, declined to provide details about the inquiry. But one question that has emerged since the crash is how Eriksson was able to get the rare cars into the United States — especially if British financial institutions claimed ownership of them.
Kice said that the customs agency has placed an immigration hold on Eriksson so if he is released from the county's Men's Central Jail it will be able to take him into custody.
"He is potentially subject to deportation," she said.
The federal probe is just one of several into Eriksson and the crash.
The Sheriff's Department is investigating the Malibu accident as well as a San Gabriel Valley transit company where Eriksson served as a member of the "anti-terrorism" unit. Scotland Yard has told local authorities it is investigating the ownership of at least one of the cars in his collection.
Although no one was seriously injured in the February crash, the investigation has generated significant attention because of the strange circumstances surrounding it and the fact that it destroyed one of the only 400 Enzos ever built. Authorities believe the car was going 162 mph when it smashed into a power pole.
Eriksson told deputies who arrived at the scene that he was not the driver and that a man named Dietrich had been behind the wheel. Eriksson said Dietrich fled the scene.
Investigators took a swab of Eriksson's saliva in order to compare his DNA to blood found on the Ferrari's driver-side air bag. The results are back, but detectives won't release the findings.
A blood-alcohol test on Eriksson at the time showed him to be above the legal limit for driving in California, so he could face several other charges if he is found to be the driver.
Eriksson also told deputies at the scene that he was deputy commissioner of the police department of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, a tiny private agency that provides rides to the disabled and elderly. A few minutes after the crash, two men arrived at the scene, identified themselves as Homeland Security officers and spoke to Eriksson at length before leaving. Detectives are investigating any connection Eriksson may have had to the agency.
Eriksson's attorney could not be reached for comment. Detectives over the weekend spent more than six hours searching his home in the posh Bel-Air Crest gated community. Several neighbors reached Monday said they didn't notice the search and didn't know Eriksson.
Before arriving in Los Angeles, Eriksson was an executive with Gizmondo, a European video game company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year with more than $200 million in debt. According to Swedish authorities, he served prison time in the early 1990s after being convicted of financial crimes. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Ferrari Crash Now Involves Reserve Deputy
A gun found at the home of Stefan Eriksson belonged to Roger Davis, an officer under controversial Sheriff Mike Carona.
By Richard Winton and Christina Hanley
Times Staff Writer
7:25 PM PDT, April 25, 2006
Detectives are trying to figure out why a handgun belonging a reserve deputy for the Orange County Sheriff's Department was found at the Bel-Air mansion of the European videogame executive accused of crashing a rare Enzo Ferrari in Malibu earlier this year.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies confiscated the gun during a raid at the home of Stefan Eriksson, who faces grand theft, embezzlement and DUI charges related to the February accident.
L.A. Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore confirmed Wednesday that the .357 Smith & Wesson was registered to Roger A. Davis, a Newport Beach businessman and a deputy with the Orange County sheriff's professional services division. Davis also serves on the Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona's Advisory Committee.
Davis was issued a permit to carry a concealed weapon by the Orange County Sheriff's Department in August 2002, for self-protection, according to public records.
The disclosure adds yet another twist to the Ferrari crash saga.
But it also comes as Carona has been criticized for his expansion of the reserve deputy program, in which he gives badges - and, in some cases, concealed weapons permits - to volunteers with no police training.
Last summer, a reserve deputy who is Carona's martial arts instructor was arrested and charged with flashing a badge and gun at golfers he thought were playing too slowly. That case is pending in court. Another reserve deputy who owns a Newport Beach restaurant resigned during an internal investigation into allegations he flashed his badge during a parking dispute on the Fourth of July.
The "professional services reserves" are made up of business executives who have no police powers but receive badges and sheriff's identification cards. They offer technical advice to the sheriff. The group, created after Carona took office, includes political donors and business executives in Orange County. There are about 330 professional service reserves, and about 600 traditional field reserve officers.
Davis did not return calls seeking comment during the last week. A woman at his Newport Beach home declined to comment.
Whitmore said detectives are still trying to sort out Davis' connection with Eriksson.
County records show that Davis is the owner of Roger Davis Estates, an upscale realtor located in the same Beverly Hills building as Gizmondo, the video-game firm where Eriksson was an executive.
Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles District Attorney's office, said the gun is a key piece of evidence: Prosecutors have charged Eriksson with a weapons violation because as a convicted felon, he is not allowed to possess a firearm.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department declined to comment.
Prosecutors accused Eriksson of embezzlement and grand theft for allegedly bringing the Enzo Ferrari and the rest of a $3.8 million car collection to the United States, even though he had only leased them from British financial institutions. The lease contract, authorities said, prohibited him from taking the vehicles out of England. Eriksson has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney said last week that his client did nothing wrong.
Although no one was seriously injured in the Malibu crash, the investigation has generated attention because of the circumstances surrounding it and the fact that the accident destroyed one of only 400 Enzos built.
Authorities believe the car was going 162 mph when it smashed into a power pole. Eriksson told deputies that he was 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 scene, identified themselves as Homeland Security officers and spoke to Eriksson at length before leaving.
O.C. sheriff launches probe in Ferrari case
Internal-affairs investigators want to know how a department volunteer's gun turned up in the crash suspect's home.
By JOHN McDONALD and GREG HARDESTY
The Orange County Register
Santa AnaAn Orange County sheriff's internal investigation is attempting to determine how a handgun belonging to a sheriff's volunteer ended up in the apartment of a convicted felon accused of crashing a Ferrari in Malibu.
The gun belongs to Roger A. Davis, a member of the sheriff's professional services responder unit since 2002. He received a concealed-weapons permit for the gun that year, which expired in March 2005, said Sgt. Roland Chacon, supervisor of the sheriff's internal-affairs unit.
"We are investigating to see whether a crime has been committed,'' said Chacon. He declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing probe.
The gun apparently belonging to Davis is among the twists in a high-profile investigation into the rare Ferrari and its destruction.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators found the .357-caliber Smith & Wesson Magnum in a raid at the Bel Air home of Bo Stefan Eriksson.
Eriksson, 44, has been charged with grand theft, embezzlement and driving under the influence of alcohol in connection with the Ferrari Enzo, which was found after crashing into a pole in February.
Authorities accuse Eriksson, a former video game company executive, of illegally bringing the car and others in his collection to the U.S. from Europe.
The connection between Eriksson and Davis is not clear, but the two have presented conflicting versions of how the gun ended up in Eriksson's apartment, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.
The gun is a key piece of evidence against Eriksson, she said.
One of the charges "is possession of a firearm by a felon," Gibbons said. "It doesn't make any difference where the weapon came from or who owns it."
Prosecutors charged Eriksson with a weapons violation because he served 5-1/2 years in a Swedish prison for assaults, threats and extortion charges.
Reserves in the sheriff's professional services responder unit do not have police powers and have no uniforms but carry an insignia that is different in shape and color than a deputy's badge and says "civilian," officials said.
The volunteers handle such tasks as piloting planes and staffing the lost-and-found booth at the county fair, said sheriff's spokesman Jon Fleischman. When Davis joined the unit in 2002, it was called the sheriff's professional services reserve; the name was changed last year to avoid confusion with reserve deputies, who are sworn officers.
Carona's reserves have come under fire in recent years, after some friends and political supporters were denied state recognition as reserve officers.
In July, the county settled the controversy with state officials when Carona's office agreed to give the reserves proper training and better background checks.
The county also has been sued by two men who alleged that Carona's martial arts instructor used his reserve deputy's badge and a gun to threaten them on a Riverside golf course.
Professional services reserve Fred Glusman, owner of The Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach and a major Carona campaign donor, resigned in November amid allegations that he flashed his badge during a July 4 dispute over a parking space.
2nd Arrest Made in Ferrari Case
A Swedish executive is suspected of using a phony police ID to buy a gun. Another executive at the firm is accused of crashing the rare car.
By Richard Winton And David Pierson
Times Staff Writers
April 27, 2006
A prominent European high-tech executive was arrested Wednesday at his Bel-Air estate on suspicion of posing as a police officer to buy at least one gun, widening an international investigation that began with the crash of a rare Ferrari in Malibu.
Carl Freer, 35, allegedly flashed a badge from an obscure San Gabriel Valley transit authority and said he was a sworn police officer so that he could purchase a gun from a dealer without the required background checks, authorities said.
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives said they found 12 rifles and four handguns during searches at the Swedish national's home in the Bel-Air community and on his 100-foot yacht docked at Marina del Rey.
A statement released through the Sitrick and Co. public relations firm quoted Freer's attorney as denying that the executive did anything wrong.
"This is the result of a misunderstanding over the purchase of a gun, which we hope to resolve in the coming days," attorney Michael B. Miller said in the statement. "At no time did Mr. Freer misrepresent himself to a gun shop."
Freer is the former managing director of Gizmondo, a once high-flying European video game player company that went bankrupt last year and is now the subject of several investigations. A fellow executive, Bo Stefan Eriksson, has been accused of crashing an Enzo Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway while drunk in February.
Freer and Eriksson were also members of the "anti-terrorism unit" of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, a small private company that provides rides to disabled people and the elderly in Monrovia and Sierra Madre.
The men served as advisors and were not sworn officers. But the agency issued both men cards, and Freer received a gold shield with "deputy commissioner" embossed on it.
Until now, detectives were puzzled about why two Bel-Air businessmen would be involved in an obscure transit agency.
But sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Wednesday that officials now believe Freer used the badge to buy one weapon and in at least one case, signed a sworn document saying he was a police officer.
Neither Freer nor Eriksson would be allowed to purchase guns in the U.S. because they are foreign nationals, Whitmore said.
"We have a wider investigation into who was given police identification by this supposed police agency," he added.
Miller, however, said in the statement that Freer "never misused the SGVTA badge."
Freer was arrested on suspicion of perjury for allegedly signing a declaration for the gun dealer that he was a police officer to obtain a .44 magnum handgun. Investigators are checking the background of the other weapons seized to determine how he obtained them, Whitmore said.
Detectives are still trying to determine what role the transit authority plays in the case. After deputies arrived at the scene of the Feb. 21 Ferrari crash, Eriksson showed them a card saying he was a deputy police commissioner for the agency.
A few minutes later, two men who identified themselves as "homeland security" officials arrived and spoke to Eriksson.
The transit agency has five buses and operates out of a garage in Monrovia. The two cities that had agreements with the agency have since canceled them.
"I think it's safe to say the house of cards is falling down," said Sierra Madre City Manager John Gillison of the latest revelations. "We were uncomfortable with a lot of the events and circumstances surrounding the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority."
Eriksson faces a preliminary hearing today on embezzlement, grand theft, drunk driving and firearms charges. Prosecutors charge that Eriksson possessed the destroyed Enzo Ferrari and the rest of a $3.8-million exotic car collection although it was owned by British financial institutions.
According to court records, Eriksson spent five years in Swedish prison for assault, counterfeiting and narcotics offenses before becoming an executive with Gizmondo.
Freer was well-known in Europe's gaming world as managing partner of an upstart company that sought to challenge Nintendo and SonyPlaystation with a gaming system.
Gizmondo received much publicity, and Freer was hailed in British newspapers as a young gun. At the gala opening of the company's London office, he arrived in a Rolls-Royce.
But users found Gizmondo didn't have enough hot games to compete with the bigger names. The company filed for bankruptcy with more than $300 million in debt.
Although no one was seriously injured in the Ferrari crash, the investigation has generated significant attention because of the strange circumstances surrounding it and the fact that it destroyed one of only 400 Enzos ever built. Authorities believe the car was traveling at 162 mph when it hit a power pole.
Ashley Posner, an attorney who was chairman of the transit board when the Ferrari case broke, said in an interview Wednesday that he resigned after the accident.
Posner, who at one time was Eriksson's civil attorney, said he was surprised by the continuing revelations. When asked if the agency made clear to Freer that the badge did not give him police powers, Posner said: "Absolutely." _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Ferrari Crash Leads to Confiscation of Badges, Guns
By Richard Winton and David Pierson
Times Staff Writers
2:21 PM PDT, May 9, 2006
Authorities confiscated guns, badges and several police cars while serving search warrants today as part of their investigation into a tiny San Gabriel Valley transit agency that finds itself at the center of a growing investigation into the crash of a Ferrari in Malibu.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies searched the headquarters of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority in Monrovia, as well as the homes of four officials.
The probe comes three months after a Swedish businessman crashed a rare Enzo Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway, telling deputies who responded that he was a deputy commissioner of the agency's "anti-terrorism division."
A few minutes later, two men arrived at the crash scene and told the deputies they were from "homeland security" and needed to talk to Bo Stefan Eriksson. Eriksson was charged last month with grand theft, embezzlement and being drunk when he crashed the exotic car.
A onetime business associate was charged with illegally obtaining a gun by claiming to be an officer with the transit agency's police department.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said today that detectives and prosecutors are trying to figure out why the men were connected to an obscure private company that provided rides to disabled people in Monrovia and Sierra Madre.
"This investigation is entirely focused like a laser beam on the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority Police Department and whether laws have been violated," Whitmore said. "Detectives are seeking to determine what the badges were used for and what is the extent of the agency."
More than 25 deputies searched five locations, including a large home at Woodlyn Lane in Bradbury belonging to Yosef Maiwandi, a founder and transit commissioner, and his Monrovia business, Homer's Auto Service.
Also, Los Angeles city prosecutors said they charged Eriksson with misdemeanor hit and run and driving without a California license and insurance after he allegedly crashed a Porsche Cayenne into a SUV near his Bel-Air home.
Eriksson, 44, allegedly rear-ended a Ford Explorer on Jan. 4 on Sunset Boulevard at Beverly Glen Boulevard, said Jonathan Diamond, a spokesman for the city attorney's office.
"Rather than exchanging information, he drove off," Diamond said.
Diamond said Eriksson did not own the Cayenne, but authorities linked it to him. Diamond would not elaborate. A manual for that Porsche model was seized during a recent search of Eriksson's home, court records show.
Eriksson, a Swedish national, was to appear in court today on the three new charges, which were filed Friday. The arraignment was delayed to later in the month.
David Elden, one of Eriksson's attorneys, said the hit-and-run accusations were minor compared to the charges filed by the district attorney's office in connection with the Enzo and other exotic cars.
Eriksson faces up to 14 years in state prison if convicted of seven felony counts of embezzlement, grand theft auto and possession of a firearm by a felon and two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence.
He is accused of trying to defraud three British banks by importing three luxury vehicles — the red Enzo, a black Enzo and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren — into the United States without the banks' knowledge.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Tamara Hall said Eriksson tried to conceal the importation by using different Swedish passport numbers on customs forms and bank documents. Eriksson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
His attorneys insist that he did not steal the cars and was negotiating a financial settlement with the banks before his arrest last month. He is being held in lieu of $3-million bail pending trial. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
Life in Fast Lane Long Before Ferrari Crash
Before he shattered a red Ferrari in Malibu and became grist for Internet legend, Bo Stefan Eriksson ran a criminal gang in Sweden, raced cars in Europe, skippered a yacht called Snow White and helped run a video game company with dreams of taking on Sony and Nintendo, according to authorities.
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
May 15, 2006
UPPSALA, Sweden — Before he shattered a red Ferrari in Malibu and became grist for Internet legend, Bo Stefan Eriksson ran a criminal gang in Sweden, raced cars in Europe, skippered a yacht called Snow White and helped run a video game company with dreams of taking on Sony and Nintendo, according to police and bankruptcy investigators.
Eriksson had a rap sheet and the fading charisma of an athlete past his prime, but one who was skilled at creating the aura of money and sinister chic. The arc of his triumphs and travails intersected with the ambitions of his partner, Carl Freer, a fellow Swede with a keen mind for technology and a confidence that captivated investors.
The two men were executives in Gizmondo Europe Ltd., a London-based company that developed a hand-held computer game that one industry writer described as having more gadgets than a Swiss Army knife. Gizmondo was abuzz with hype and promise. In March 2005, the launch party for the new game at the Park Lane Hotel was stocked with champagne, rhinestones, pearls, paparazzi and celebrities such as Busta Rhymes, Danni Minogue and Sting.
But beneath Gizmondo's flash ran the darker threads of corporate gambles, of technological innovation and ingenious ideas unhinged by mismanagement and greed, according to investigators and people affiliated with the company. Gizmondo went bankrupt in January, amassing more than $300 million in debt in its three years of existence, according to corporate records.
As the company spiraled and unpaid bills lined up, Freer and Eriksson headed from Britain to Los Angeles, leaving a trail of private detectives, bodyguards, $1,500-a-day lap dancers and millions of dollars worth of homes, cars, diamond watches and other accouterments of those who get rich quick. The tempest around Gizmondo's slide intensified in February with Eriksson's spectacular 162-mph crash of a rare Enzo Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway.
Court-appointed liquidators are combing through thousands of pages of Gizmondo documents, but no one knows where all the money went, or how Eriksson and Freer transplanted their personal wealth and reinvented themselves in California. Financial investigators are also examining why investors and Gizmondo's parent company, the Florida-based Tiger Telematics Inc., were not aware that Eriksson was a felon, as were at least two other people connected with the company.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing reveals that in 2004, Eriksson was paid a salary of $867,465 as a senior executive and $2.3 million in bonuses, stock awards and other compensation. Freer, Gizmondo's managing director, earned more than $1 million and received $2.4 million in stocks, bonuses and perks.
The company also took care of people close to its management: Freer's wife was a high-paid consultant for marketing and public relations. Another senior executive's girlfriend worked as a corporate secretary at Gizmondo and was paid more than $232,798 in salary and bonuses, given a luxury car and company stock then valued at $467,213, according to the SEC report.
"They've lost a hell of a lot of money, more money than most people see in a lifetime," said Paul Davis, a British liquidator investigating company records. He said between January and September 2005, Gizmondo took in about $2.6 million but lost more than $263 million. "They are staggering numbers by anybody's standards. It's clear the directors lived lavish lifestyles with fast cars, planes, boats and travel. But certainly that wouldn't account for all of it."
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Charges Pile Up
The fates of Eriksson and Freer are also in question. Eriksson, 44, is in jail in Los Angeles awaiting trial on charges that include embezzlement, grand theft auto, illegally possessing a Smith & Wesson .357 magnum and driving while intoxicated. The counts arose from the Feb. 21 car accident and have become part a widening investigation into his activities after he entered the U.S. in August with two Ferrari Enzos and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, valued at $3.8 million and owned by British financial institutions. He had a lease contract on the vehicles, authorities said, prohibiting him from taking them out of the country.
Eriksson has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, David Elden, said that Eriksson put down about $1 million for the three cars and was in negotiations to sell his British mansion to pay off the balance on the vehicles before he was arrested. Elden described Eriksson's case as a "non-injury accident being blown out of proportion because it involved a Ferrari."
Real estate records show that Freer, 35, moved to the U.S. about the same time as Eriksson. He was arrested April 26 by Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives on charges of impersonating a police officer to buy at least one gun. Police said they confiscated 12 rifles and four handguns from Freer's Bel-Air home and his 100-foot yacht docked at Marina del Rey.
The incident was not Freer's first criminal case.
In October, a court in Stuttgart, Germany, sentenced Freer to 18 months probation and fined him 200,000 euros for buying four luxury cars with bad checks and having them delivered to a dealership in France. The cars were ordered between 1999 and early 2000, and German authorities issued an international warrant against him. Freer contended that he had canceled a check after believing he was being sold stolen cars.
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives are also investigating Freer's and Eriksson's membership in an "anti-terrorism unit" of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, a small private company that provides rides for the disabled and elderly in Monrovia and Sierra Madre. Sheriff's deputies on Tuesday arrested the transit agency's founder and seized guns, badges and police cars from offices and homes connected with the company.
Freer declined an interview request from The Times. Instead, his public relations firm, Sitrick & Co., responded to written questions. It said Freer was interested in the transit operation in order to test facial-recognition technology in the agency's vehicles. Elden said Eriksson also wanted to use the authority's buses to demonstrate a video system he had hoped to market as an anti-terrorism tool.
Eriksson's alleged affiliation with the transit authority is a contrast to the glamour, chauffeurs and musky woods of his old neighborhood in St. George's Hill, one of London's most exclusive suburbs. Along the community's winding roads, Eriksson was known for his sleek cars and long parties.
"A lot of very wealthy people lived up there," said Alan Koombs, a security guard for the gated community. "People like [pop singer] Cliff Richard and football stars and an influx of Russians with backgrounds you can't trace and very big minders [bodyguards]. Stefan lived at a house called the Washington. He projected himself as a Russian or Romanian, certainly not as a Swede. The residents association up there certainly didn't like" his lifestyle.
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Building a Reputation
Peel back the years to the late 1970s, when Eriksson was a beefy kid moving through the streets of Uppsala, a college town northwest of Stockholm. They called him Fat Stefan. The nickname stuck, even though Eriksson later joined a gym, pumped weights and began moving more like a linebacker than a bullied boy on the playground. In a nation not accustomed to violence or interconnected networks of criminal gangs, Eriksson both fascinated and frustrated the local police.
"We first got our eyes on him in 1980," said Kjell Soderberg, chief detective inspector for the Uppsala Police Department. "He was suspected of some thefts. They weren't ordinary. They were special. He'd drill holes through store walls to steal car parts. He was more imaginative than other thieves."
Eriksson began constructing his own underworld. Police say he pulled in friends like Johan Enander, a muscular man trained in martial arts and known as the "torpedo," or debt collector, and Peter Uf, described by police as a shrewd operator. After serving prison terms for violent and financial crimes, both men would join Eriksson in Gizmondo-related business. But their attention was first focused on Sweden.
In 1988, Eriksson was convicted of possessing a shotgun and selling 10 small bags of cocaine. He spent about two years in prison.
Shortly after his release, authorities say, Eriksson orchestrated plots with more nuance and complexity. Local police joined federal detectives in investigating what became known as the Uppsala gang. Swedish police sketched a flow chart of Eriksson's network that included investigations into drugs, robbery, extortion, counterfeiting, bank fraud, arms trading and contacts in Eastern and Western European criminal syndicates.
In the early 1990s, Eriksson was a familiar face in cafes and bars from Uppsala to Stockholm. Police and those who would later know him at Gizmondo said he was a master of mystique, projecting himself as a wealthy, dangerous and clever playboy who was as comfortable dealing with financiers in Brooks Brothers suits as he was men with guns hidden in black leather coats. He attended, along with members of the Hells Angels, the wedding of Serb Milan Sevo, a leading figure in Swedish organized crime.
His love of fast cars was well known, but investigators were startled when in 1992 a tanned and confident Eriksson motored up the Fyrisan River here on a yacht named Snow White. "That was a very big boat in a little river," said Soderberg, the Uppsala chief detective inspector. "They were calling attention to themselves. How were they paying for cars and a boat like that? It wasn't really clever, when you think about it."
In 1993, Eriksson was convicted and imprisoned on charges of assault, making threats and attempting to inject as much as 20 million counterfeit Swedish kronor, about $2.6 million at the time, into the country's money supply. While in prison on those counts, he was convicted in a separate case for enlisting at least one bank employee to falsify deposit and checking slips to divert money to Eriksson's connections in Sweden and to secret accounts in Spain. Police estimate that more than $7 million was stolen.
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The Freer Connection
Eriksson was released from prison in 2000, needed a job and got one through Carl Freer. Investigators believe the two first met years earlier. Freer's public relations firm described Eriksson as a "very old friend" who possessed "great talent" as a salesman. Eriksson went to work in Stockholm for a Freer venture known as Eagle Eye Scandinavian Ltd., which specialized in telecommunications and global positioning systems. Freer also had managed a media firm, a film production company based in Spain and an auto dealership in Cannes, France.
Swedish police say they suspected Freer of fraud several times over the last decade, but he was never charged. Through a spokesman, Freer said he was not made aware of such investigations. A Swedish newspaper reported last week that authorities first became aware of Freer when he was 18 and forged his parents' signature on a loan. A Swedish detective confirmed the incident. Freer contends that he had his parents' permission to sign on behalf of them for a student loan.
"He carefully plans," Soderberg said. "He has a tremendous verbal capacity. He could sell sand in the Sahara and refrigerators to Eskimos."
Freer moved to London around 2002 to head the European division of Tiger Telematics, a former flooring company with offices in Jacksonville, Fla. Freer and others moved the corporation into developing child-tracking computer devices and other wireless technology that could locate "people down to the street level in countries throughout the world."
*
The Gizmondo Venture
But Freer's attention shifted to video toys and an invention called Gizmondo. Several people who know Freer, whose father was a nuclear engineer and an IBM programmer, called him a technological visionary with extraordinary business and verbal gifts. A heavyset man with a boyish face who enjoyed being driven around in a Rolls-Royce, Freer had little inhibition and an infectious charm that impressed financial backers.
"I've heard Carl say the most unbelievable things and people listen," a former Gizmondo employee said.
Freer and Steve Carroll, an engineer credited with creating the game, were determined to shake up the industry with a console that would also play music, movies, contain a digital camera and send and receive e-mail messages. Gizmondo Europe moved into a store on stylish Regent Street in central London. And Eriksson, who drove a Ferrari plastered with Gizmondo signs at the race in Le Mans, France, was named company director.
"We spent three years of our lives totally dedicated to this from conception to launch," said Carroll, whose girlfriend, Tamela Sainsbury, was a company secretary with a salary and bonuses of more than $700,000. Carroll spoke briefly to a reporter over the phone recently. He asked the reporter to call back at a specific time, but he didn't answer after hours of repeated calls.
Freer believed the game would rival the hallmark names of Sony and Nintendo, said the former Gizmondo employee, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation by Eriksson. "There was massive excitement in the house about this. Carl was passionate about it. He thought it would be triumphant. They believed it would make them terribly rich. But greed and egos led to the downfall … [and] Stefan's cocaine … problem was out of control" in 2005, the ex-employee said.
Eriksson twice faced cocaine-related charges in Sweden — in 1988 when he was convicted of selling the drug, and in 2002 when he was fined 4,000 kronor, or about $550, for using cocaine and amphetamines.
Noel Hogan, a private investigator tracking the luxury cars Gizmondo had leased from British banks, said personal enrichment drove company executives: "All of Gizmondo was to fund a lavish lifestyle. When you invest in a company, you don't want the directors having 12 cars and having their girlfriends on the payroll…. But then the water went out of the bath and the tap wasn't on anymore."
A financial consultant hired by Gizmondo said the company was poorly managed and had little understanding of marketing. "They grew at an astronomical rate. I call it over-trading," said the consultant, who like many affiliated with the company asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. "I think the product itself was terrific, but it had some slight hitches that needed to be worked out. Maybe it was all too overly ambitious."
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Road to Bankruptcy
The company's financial problems didn't stop its executives' buying sprees. A former employee said Freer bought three homes for a total of nearly $15 million and owned a yacht valued at more than $10 million. Eriksson bought cars, watches, cocaine and often hired lap dancers from the Spearmint Rhino club in London, the former employee said.
Michael Carrender, chief executive of Tiger Telematics, said the company and a board of independent directors grew agitated in 2004 and 2005 over Gizmondo Europe's financial practices, especially after millions of dollars were spent on advertising and the game failed to make it to market by the date promised. The games were eventually manufactured and sold, but the company continued to lose money.
"In hindsight, it looks as if there was clearly self-dealing and perhaps a violation of fiduciary duties," Carrender said of Freer's and Eriksson's management styles in telephone interview this month. "It wasn't attractive."
When asked why Eriksson, a felon with little experience in technology, was made a senior executive, Carrender said, "That's an interesting question." He added that background checks run on Eriksson detected no criminal charges.
"We literally could find nothing," Carrender said. "We couldn't find it. He didn't tell us." He added that Eriksson, who spoke poor English and was often not understood at board meetings, was brought to the company by Freer to offer "strategic introductions" to high-profile car racing personalities who might promote Gizmondo.
Freer's public relations firm, however, said, "The people at Tiger Telematics were well aware of Stefan Eriksson's background." The firm also said that Freer invested much of his own money in Gizmondo and that the company "came within a hairsbreadth" of success.
As Gizmondo tumbled further into debt in 2005, the former employee said, "Stefan was rarely there. He'd come to business meetings, put his feet on the table and read glossy car magazines…. They collected watches. Last September, Stefan had 685,000 British pounds sterling [$1.3 million] worth of watches. Rolex. Cartiers. Mostly diamond-encrusted."
Some who did business with Eriksson and Freer had a foreshadowing of Gizmondo's crash. "They'd come in on a regular basis," said a London jeweler who knew the men for two years.
"At the beginning, they were as good as gold. Carl was more of a businessman, Stefan more of the playboy…. But nine to 10 months ago, the payments to us were slower coming in." The jeweler said he complained. "If I hadn't put my foot down, I'd be holding the baby like everybody else. Two of my friends lost 2 million British pounds sterling [$3.78 million] each. One was in the car business, the other in the jewelry trade. They played the part of millionaires, and that's why everyone got dragged along."
At the end of the business day Jan. 20, 2006, Gizmondo Europe filed for bankruptcy. The stock of Tiger Telematics has plummeted to 7 cents from $32 a share in January 2005. Eriksson and Freer quit the company Oct. 18, 2005, after a story appeared in a Swedish newspaper about Eriksson's criminal past. Their resignations scared off investors.
"Our fundraising just dried up," Carrender said. "We simply ran out of cash."
But by then, Eriksson and Freer had already moved to the U.S. Freer docked his yacht in Marina del Rey and invested in a firm called Xero Mobile, a company planning to offer free phone service to college students if they viewed at least 20 minutes of advertisements scrolling on their cellphones each day. He has since severed his business relationship with Eriksson.
Eriksson, who authorities say misled U.S. immigration by not declaring that he was a felon, settled into a $3.6-million Bel-Air mansion.
About 6 a.m. on Feb. 21, according to police, he and another man, Trevor Karney, were speeding in a red Ferrari west of Decker Canyon Road when they hit a power pole, shearing the car in half. Both men walked away, Eriksson with only a bloody nose. After his arrest April 7, police raided Eriksson's home and found two expensive watches, brass knuckles and a poster of the movie "Scarface" above his bed.
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Fleishman reported from Uppsala and London and Winton from Los Angeles. _________________ Need Law Enforcement Information? Click here for the Alipac Action Panel
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