Motorsport's most nefarious criminals

This is a summary of an article in Australian Wheels Magazine

http://www.msn.com/e...Azq1?li=AAgfYrD

The ten mentioned in the article are

Brett Stevens - Aussie drag racer
Pablo Escobar
IMSA aka International Marijuana Smugglers Association
Robert Boston
Scott Tucker
James Munroe
Vic Lee
Greg Loles
Jeremy Mayfield
L. W. Wright

They missed Robbie Bolger ........

 

https://www.whichcar...-holden-engines

Edited by GeoffR, 13 August 2019 - 12:28.

What's "nefarious" about smuggling Marijuana?

There is plenty more here in Oz, drag racers mostly. From Top Fuel down to Street Meet competitors. 

Corporate fraud? You can start with what happened to Dick Johnson, cost him huge money.

There is another similar thread already on this site. 

Maybe merge them? 

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 13 August 2019 - 10:06.

The WHittington Bros

Vic Lee

John Paul, jr.

John Paul, jr.

I dispute that he  belongs in the 'most nefarious'  category. He was convicted largely because he refused to testify against his father, who certainly belongs in the 'most nefarious' category. Paul Jr had the support of the racing community and was welcomed back after serving two years in  a minimum security facility.. On the other hand, his father served time for attempted murder, and is currently on the lam and being sought for his role in a couple of mysterious disappearances. 

There is plenty more here in Oz, drag racers mostly. From Top Fuel down to Street Meet competitors.
Corporate fraud? You can start with what happened to Dick Johnson, cost him huge money.
There is another similar thread already on this site.
Maybe merge them?

https://forums.autos...-2#entry8828726

There is plenty more here in Oz, drag racers mostly. From Top Fuel down to Street Meet competitors. 
There is another similar thread already on this site.

Yes Lee, there is another somewhat similar thread on this forum.

It is titled "Crooks in motor sport".

I did not link it because I thought it poor and not informative.

Two Australian road racing competitors that I recall were criminals (in that they broke the law and were convicted) were:

PETER WILLIAMSON
Had a very large Toyota dealership at Liverpool (SW Sydney)
He is best remembered for speaking on camera in the TV telecast whilst competing in the Bathurst Enduro. He was first to do it.
He was convicted of Sales Tax fraud by the ATO
You could sell a lot more new cars if you weren't paying sales tax on them
Because of this conviction Toyota took their franchise from him and left him with an empty yard.

FRANK DEMUTH
He had a public accounting practice. One of his clients was Frank Matich
He drove a Cooper S with Matich in 1966 Bathurst race.
He was convicted of Tax Fraud by the ATO
One of the best races I ever saw was in 1966 at Warwick Farm. Demuth had traded in his Lola Mk 1 Climax 1200 on Pete Geoghegan's Lotus 23B with 1600 cc T/C
Geoghegan raced the Lola to advertise how good it was. In a 10 lap race Geoghegan was all over Demuth the whole time despite having a much older and less powerful car.

Interesting, though, about that race...

The Geoghegans had fitted wider wheels to the Lola, so that's why it ran in practice with no rear bodywork. And Pete still didn't go as fast as John Martin's record in the same car.

Did Demuth, by any chance, cop his conviction over Matich's books?





.

Edited by Ray Bell, 21 August 2019 - 11:11.

John Martin was many pounds lighter than Pete, and this would make a difference in a small capacity car.

 

By the way I have never seen Geoghegan referred to as PETER.....

 

Demuth pleaded guilty at the start of the trial (probably to get a more lenient sentence). Thus no evidence was presented.

 

I do not recall the victim's names being made public

The weight advantage aside, IMHO Johnny Martin was every bit as good a driver as Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan...

As far as that car goes on that day, I'm sure it wasn't driven as smoothly as Johnny Martin drove it...

And I have corrected my 'slip of the key' so it's 'Pete' now.

Scott Tucker?

 

The massive, insane levels of embezzlement of Venezuelan govt/PDVSA sponsorship several years ago? 

Ill gotten gains and the funding of motorsport seem to go well together judging by the amount of threads the subject generates. I wonder who had the most success or reached the highest echelons of the sport thanks to their dirty cash? I have wandered around many a paddock admiring the equipment some teams have, often family run teams running one car and think how much did this cost to get off the ground!

Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, surely. Forced Labor and all that.

Paul Bird!!

Guy Jason Henry - Harry Stiller - Tony Dean - Joachim Luthi - perhaps dependent upon one's point of view Manfred von Brauchitsch (and Ferdinand Porsche - and Louis Renault - and Ettore Bugatti) - and then there's Randy Lanier - and Simon Atkinson - and Russell Spence - and Scott Tucker - plus Jonathan France (and racing associates) - and so on...  It is an immensely long list.  

 

DCN

Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, surely. Forced Labor and all that.

Surely that was only after WW2 started and I doubt they had much choice ?

 

Intrigued by Russell Spence.

Edited by RAP, 21 October 2019 - 11:00.

Spence was after his racing days, relatively recently.

More details of the Spence case here:

https://www.google.c...d-1-4028973/amp

Gary Brabham, I'm afraid

Does Charles Brocket count? I think he murdered some Italian sports-racing cars.

You've got to include Roy James, Great Train Robbery getaway driver and Formula Junior competitor.

Does Charles Brocket count? I think he murdered some Italian sports-racing cars.

The sad story of Bosi Bosisto comes to mind also. Least said..... if you know, you know....
Roger Lund

Former IMSA and FIA WEC driver (and Stormy Daniels lawyer) Michael Avenatti has been found guilty of attempted extortion against corporate giant Nike:

 

 

https://www.nytimes....-convicted.html

 

https://www.hollywoo...n-trial-1279471

 

https://www.racingsp...enatti-USA.html

 

https://sportscar365...g-2015-options/

Tony Parravano? Ended up in a personalised concrete plot somewhere in California.

 

Stu

What was the name of the British historic racing driver whom committed fraud? 

Motor racing teams need money all the time, public numbers on sponsorship are usually huge ( so an excuse) and the teams operate globally so have to collect money in one place and spend it in another - the perfect set up for tax evasion or money laundering.

 

Of course it can be more subtle - Manchester City have just been banned from Champions League by UEFA for breaking the " financial fair play " rules. . What they are basically accused of is disguising  the continuous underwriting of losses by the owners as sponsorship. They are sponsored by the  families in the nation which owns Emirate Airlines so the question is when does "commercial" sponsorship become "unfair" subsidies.

 

The UK Saracens Rugby team have just been demoted for a similar  sort of thing.

 

I am not implying that Man City or Emirates etc have done anything wrong in law but it is an interesting warning as Liberty/FIA try to set a budget cap.  

Edited by mariner, 17 February 2020 - 10:31.

In order to avoid legal implications, please sing Dusty Springfield's song, "Nothing Has Been Proved" while reading this post.

 

Nick Whiting was a regular saloon car competitor in the sixties (in a Ford Anglia if my memory is accurate). He was the brother of Charlie Whiting, of Ecclestone's Brabham team and later the FIA.

 

In 1990 Nick Whiting was kidnapped at his All Car Equipe in West Kingsdown near Brands Hatch, and driven away in the boot of a car. His body was found in Rainham Marshes in Essex, having been stabbed nine times and shot twice. It is alleged that perpetrators of the 1983 Brinks-MAT robbery, reported as the highest value UK crime ever, thought Whiting was an informer. One wonders why they would have thought he knew anything...

David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse.  Who did he fleece? Will we ever hear the truth? 

The Russian businessman Boris Rotenberg must have spent more cash on motorsport than everybody else mentioned in this thread combined. (Apart from maybe PDVSA.)

 

Some allegations against the oligarch involve "corruption", "organized crime", "money laundering" as well as other irrelevant charges of economic nature. However, in what will surprise likely nobody here, the man is hardly at a present risk of getting Russian jail time for anything, given his very close ties with a certain mr Putin.  

Edited by noriaki, 17 February 2020 - 19:38.

David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse.  Who did he fleece? Will we ever hear the truth? 

Didn't he move abroad because the Inland Revenue objected to sponsoring Ecurie Ecosse?

Two Australian road racing competitors that I recall were criminals (in that they broke the law and were convicted) were:

PETER WILLIAMSON
Had a very large Toyota dealership at Liverpool (SW Sydney)
He is best remembered for speaking on camera in the TV telecast whilst competing in the Bathurst Enduro. He was first to do it.
He was convicted of Sales Tax fraud by the ATO
You could sell a lot more new cars if you weren't paying sales tax on them
Because of this conviction Toyota took their franchise from him and left him with an empty yard.

FRANK DEMUTH
He had a public accounting practice. One of his clients was Frank Matich
He drove a Cooper S with Matich in 1966 Bathurst race.
He was convicted of Tax Fraud by the ATO
One of the best races I ever saw was in 1966 at Warwick Farm. Demuth had traded in his Lola Mk 1 Climax 1200 on Pete Geoghegan's Lotus 23B with 1600 cc T/C
Geoghegan raced the Lola to advertise how good it was. In a 10 lap race Geoghegan was all over Demuth the whole time despite having a much older and less powerful car.

Anything to do with the ATO, or most tax offices are 'in the opinion' of the relevant office.

To be taken with a very large truckload of salt.

Here in Oz there has been many prominent business people taken down or had very large legal arguments with the ATO. Starting in more recent times both Kerry and James Packer, Paul Hogan and many other performers, enterprueners.

As for drug convictions, while never condoning it the numbers get higher on every court apperance it seems. A kilo of grass seemingly becoming about 50 kilo. I have known a few convicted people. One a well known state level racer.

And know of a few drag racers as well.