Luxury car case spawns 26 police reports and a flurry of lawsuits

It looks like luxury car enthusiasts will have a long wait to resolve claims they were victimized by a Boca Raton dealership that filed for bankruptcy after all of its inventory disappeared from its showroom last month.

Multiple customers, financiers and former business partners who have the means to trade Lamborghinis, Ferraris, McLarens and Maseratis like kids trade baseball cards are fighting on numerous legal fronts over as many as 90 high-end vehicles with disputed ownership, missing titles, unknown whereabouts, or all three.

Disputes over ownership of high-end vehicles sold by Scott and Kristen Zankl through companies they control in Broward and Palm Beach counties have been swirling since early April, when customers noticed luxury vehicles being removed from Excell Auto Group’s showroom on Clint Moore Road in Boca Raton. When the business permanently shut down and declared bankruptcy on April 8, creditors, and customers who claim they were owed either titles or vehicles, went into action, filing civil lawsuits and summoning police.

Boca Raton police acknowledged this week that they have opened 26 cases tied to allegations of fraudulent activity at the dealership on Clint Moore Road. Citing Marcy’s Law, the department won’t disclose the names of accusers or any details about their claims.

Incident reports obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show that officers were called to the dealership 26 times between March 23 and April 19. Fifteen of the reports were labeled as fraud complaints. “Victim said he never received any money after selling a car through Excell Auto,” an officer wrote on April 19. On April 7, the victim said he purchased a vehicle that was never delivered, another report stated. On

March 23, the seller said the dealership never paid off the balance owed on his trade-in.

In the weeks since customers began filing police reports, seven civil cases have been filed in Palm Beach County. Two have been filed in Broward County. And a long list of creditors are lining up in federal bankruptcy court to fight over whatever is left of Excell’s assets.

Customers allege fraud

None of the customers who identified themselves in court filings as victims agreed to be interviewed for this news article. They know there’s little public sympathy for people who can afford to spend up to a half million dollars on luxury vehicles, lawyers trying to straighten out the mess confided.

Derek Stephens, a Broward County resident suing two businesses involved in the case, said he lost a 2013 Ferrari 458 Spider that he had left on consignment at one of the Zankls’ businesses, Karma of Palm Beach. Karma told Stephens that the car was taken by the dealership’s landlord in a dispute over unpaid loans. Karma had agreed to pay Stephens $230,000 if it sold the vehicle, Stephens’ lawsuit states.

“Some people don’t feel sorry for him, having that kind of car,” said Stephens’ attorney Darin Mellinger. “Even still, it’s a sad situation.”

Lawsuits and motions filed in the bankruptcy case lay out numerous claims by customers against various connected companies and individuals, including the Zankls, Excell Auto Group, the Zankls’ companies Karma of Palm Beach and Karma of Broward, plus their former landlord and financier Moshe Farache and his company Auto Wholesale of Boca LLC: „

▪ In a suit against the Zankls, Karma of Palm Beach and two employees, Palm Beach County resident Geoffrey Keable said he paid Karma $185,500 in February for an Audi R8 Performance Special Addition with a Lamborghini engine, but later learned he could not get a title for the car because of a preexisting lien of more than $100,000 had been filed against the vehicle, “which the defendant had no intention of satisfying.” „

▪ In a motion to intervene in a suit filed by one of the financiers, Lee County resident Arby Lipman said he paid Karma of Broward $448,000 for a 2020 Black 812 Superfast Ferrari, then sent the car to Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale for routine maintenance and repairs. “On April 1, the vehicle was stolen by Farache and/or [Auto Wholesale of Boca] without Lipman’s authorization or consent,” the filing states. The car’s VIN number matches one of the 22 cars that Farache told the court were in his possession, Lipman said. „

▪ Frank Evans, in a suit against Auto Wholesale of Boca, said he bought a 2021 Ferrari 812 GTS from Karma of Palm Beach for $431,000 plus a trade-in, his 2017 Ferrari valued at $274,000. Yet the title for the 2021 vehicle “ended up in the name of [Auto Wholesale of Boca],” the suit states.

Financiers fight over collateral

While customers hope for help from the courts, legal fights rage among the business interests who thought they were investing in a high-profit enterprise.

In an affidavit filed in Broward County Circuit Court on April 14, Farache acknowledged taking possession of 22 vehicles prior to the Excell bankruptcy and filing and storing them in an air conditioned warehouse on North Dixie Highway. In the affidavit, Farache claimed he purchased the vehicles free and clear from Excell Auto Group and obtained titles to them.

But lawyers for New York-based FVP Opportunity Fund Inc. claim in a lawsuit against Farache, the Zankls and their associated companies that the cars belong to the fund because the Zankles put the cars up as collateral for $7.5 million loan in February.

An affidavit filed by a private investigator hired by FVP states that Scott and Kristen Zankl told the investigator that Farache “stormed into the dealership” on April 1 and intimidated Kristen Zankl into signing a document stating she was turning over multiple vehicles as collateral for unpaid debts to Farache.

Farache, the affidavit alleged, brought a “muscle man” to the dealership and “grew increasing(ly) hostile, and at one point told Scott he will ‘make him disappear.’ ”

In his affidavit, Farache said FVP’s allegations “that I threatened, intimidated, coerced, trespassed so to force [the Zankls] to transfer title and possession of the vehicles ... is patently false.”

The judge in the case issued a “freeze order” on the cars indefinitely barring Farache from selling or transferring possession of them. Farache’s attorney said in a filing on Friday that the order has caused irreparable harm to Farache’s operations.

In an April 8 lawsuit, Farache’s company, Auto Wholesale of Boca, accused the Zankls of keeping $4 million earned on car sales and failing to repay $2.4 million his company put up to pay for them. Farache, owner of the property where Excell Auto Group is located, has also filed an eviction lawsuit against the company, claiming it defaulted its obligations under terms of $7.1 million in loans tied to the lease agreement.

Several other finance companies have since filed their own suits with similar complaints that they fronted money for the Zankls and their associates to purchase cars but were never repaid after the cars were sold to customers.

An April 7 lawsuit by Delray Beach-based Prestige Luxury Cars LLC claims the company gave Excell $1.32 million to buy cars but Excell failed to repay the fronted money or remit half of the profits to Prestige as promised. The suit claims the Zankls transferred cars to the Karma of Broward showroom they control in Fort Lauderdale to prevent Prestige from recovering them as collateral.

Where are the cars?

Meanwhile in the bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, trustee Nicole Testa Mehdipour on April 15 produced a list of 72 vehicles compiled from records found at Excell Auto Group’s offices and other public records. She requested that the company’s owners submit a list of all of the cars’ current locations by April 28.

Whether the Zankls complied with the request could not be determined based on later filings in the case. The list included 17 vehicles with VIN numbers matching those on the list that Farache acknowledged on April 14 were in his possession.

On April 28, the court subpoenaed the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles to submit records of ownership, liens, registrations, titles, transfers of titles and current ownership information for 90 luxury vehicles identified in the trustee’s review of Excell Auto Group’s business dealings.

In a statement of assets and liabilities filed on April 18, Excell listed $1.9 million in assets and $40.6 million in claims by creditors, including a $2.2 million secured claim by Auto Wholesale of Boca for inventory and $38.4 million in “nonpriority unsecured claims” — mostly from companies identified as finance companies. Numerous other creditors, including customers, have registered claims with the bankruptcy court.

The court has set a June 22 deadline for creditors to submit proofs of claim.

In the FVP case, Farache’s attorney Jay Farrow on Friday filed a motion for a hearing that would require FVP to present evidence to back up its accusations against Farache and prove that it owns the vehicles in Farache’s possession.

Farrow said in an interview Friday, “You can say anything you want but you have to prove it.”