Fleet of seized supercars sells for $27 million at auction
Equatorial Guinea vice president's collection was seized during a money-laundering probe.
This Veneno Roadster sold for almost double its price when new.
Money laundering isn't a good thing to get involved in, but nevertheless, it happens. In recent Swiss probe, an investigation found the Equatorial Guinea vice president was involved in such practices, and it partially ended with the seizure of the official's supercars.
I'm not talking about just some Porsches, Ferraris or Lamborghinis that sit in dealerships. These supercars are multimillion-dollar icons. Headlining the 25-strong collection of seized supercars was the Lamborghini Veneno Roadster. The car, built to celebrate Lamborghini's 50th birthday, cost $4.5 million when new in 2014. Bonhams, which oversaw the auction, sent the car off to its new owner with a final price of $8.3 million. That's one heck of an appreciating asset.
Also included in the seized collection of cars was a Porsche 918 Spyder (sold for $1.5 million), an Aston Martin One-77 ($1.5 million), a Ferrari LaFerrari ($2.2 million) and a Koenigsegg One:1 ($4.6 million).
According to a report from Reuters, the supercars were part of a plan that investigations uncovered to fund social programs in the African country. The vice president was also found to be misappropriating public assets. These cars, now free from a life of crime, were sold with all proceeds going to charity.
At least these cars that began their careers on the wrong road are off to proper homes now. Everyone should sleep better at night knowing the receipts from their sale will go to good causes, too.
