Gizmondo Exec/Mafia guy smashes one of a kind Ferrari

This is one of the guys who sunk our company by stealing money from investors.

And Carl Freer the other crook owns a Mercedes SLR...very fishy...indeed.

Check out the video -wow

So Speedy, So Exclusive, So Expensive, So Totaled
By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer

It was a SigAlert made for Malibu.

A red Ferrari Enzo — one of only 400 ever made and worth more than $1 million — broke apart Tuesday when it crested a hill on Pacific Coast Highway going 120 mph and slammed into a power pole.

The driver jumped out of the wreckage and ran into the canyon above, evading a three-hour search by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department helicopter and a mountain search-and-rescue team.

The crash did not result in serious injuries. But it sent shockwaves through both the tabloid and exotic car worlds as one group wondered if the driver was a celebrity and the other mourned the loss of a hand-built car revered by many as a work of art.

The car was certain to be owned by someone rich, if not famous. Actor Nicolas Cage owns one. And Malibu local Britney Spears has been chased in a Ferrari by the paparazzi.

But by day's end the tabloids were disappointed to learn that the demolished car had been owned by a Swedish millionaire without a Screen Actors Guild card.

Sheriff's investigators identified him as 44-year-old Stefan Eriksson, a Bel-Air resident. Officials are trying to determine whether he is the noted Swedish game designer whose firm, perhaps not surprisingly, was involved with car-racing themed video games.

Authorities said Eriksson said he was a passenger in the Ferrari, which he said was being driven by a German acquaintance he knew only as Dietrich.

One witness told deputies that the Ferrari appeared to be racing with a Mercedes-Benz SLR northbound along the coastal highway when the accident occurred about 6 a.m. west of Decker Road.

"It took out the pole, and part of the car went another 600 feet," Sheriff's Sgt. Philip Brooks said. "There were 1,200 feet of debris out there."

Eriksson told authorities that "Dietrich" ran up a hill toward the canyon road and disappeared. Brooks said detectives are far from convinced they have the whole story.

Eriksson "had a .09 blood-alcohol level, but if he's a passenger, that's OK," Brooks said. "But he had a bloody lip, and only the air bag on the driver's side had blood on it. The passenger-side air bag did not. My Scooby-Doo detectives are looking closely into that.

"Maybe the 'driver' had a friend who picked him up. Maybe he thumbed a ride," the sergeant added. "Maybe he was a ghost."

The crash left Ferrari fans anguished.

"I'm not surprised the driver ran away. He'd have been strangled by the owner," said Tex Otto, a Santa Monica graphic artist who edits two magazines for Ferrari owners.

"This will have a big impact on the local Ferrari community. This was not a car. It was a rolling art form."

Ferrari owner Chris Banning, a Beverly Hills writer who is finishing a book called the "Mulholland Experience" that will touch on the cult of sports car racing on that mountain roadway, characterized the Enzo's destruction as "a tremendous loss" to the automotive world.

"He destroyed one of the finest cars on Earth, maybe the finest. It's like taking a Van Gogh painting and burning it," said Banning, who is a leader of the Ferrari Owners Club.

Gil Lucero, a Mountain View telecommunications company executive who is president and Pacific region chairman of the Ferrari Club of America, said only 399 Enzos were at first scheduled to be assembled at the factory between 2002 and 2004, each priced at $670,000.

But a final car was built and donated to Pope John Paul II and later sold to raise $1,275,000 million for charity, Lucero said.

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I hope they deport his butt, as he is also a member of the Swedish Mafia, not even sure how he got into this country.

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Mafia article link

Executive resignations followed by wave of new information about dodgy connections

A senior executive at handheld console firm Gizmondo who resigned last week along with former boss Carl Freer had a number of convictions for involvement in a Swedish mafia group, as did two other Gizmondo staff.


Stefan Eriksson was an executive officer of Gizmondo Europe, and earned over $3 million in salary and bonuses from the company (along with a generous $100,000 vehicle allowance) before his resignation on October 20th.

However, Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet has revealed that in two trials in 1993 and 1994, Eriksson was convicted of a number of mobster-related charges, including financial fraud related to counterfeit money and an attempted $3m scam on a financial institution, and sentenced to over ten years in prison.

Eriksson was at the time considered to be the brains behind an operation referred to in the media as the Uppsala Mafia after the large town in Sweden where the group operated, and where, interestingly, Gizmondo now operates its Swedish office.

Two other Gizmondo staff members - who are also believed to have resigned last week - also had convictions for their involvement in this group, including Johan Enander, described as the Uppsala Mafia's "Torpedo", who was a debt collector for the group and was convicted of blackmail and assault. He was latterly employed as Gizmondo's "head of security".

Eriksson's connections to Gizmondo don't stop at his own employment for the firm, however; he is also a co-owner of Northern Lights, a development company which was paid $3.5 million by Gizmondo for its assistance in developing software titles Chicane and Colours - titles which were officially developed by Indie Studios and Warthog.

The other co-owner of Northern Lights is Carl Freer, the Gizmondo Europe managing director who also resigned his position on October 20th (but like Eriksson, retains stock in the company), claiming that it's now past the start-up position where his entrepreneurial skills can be of use. Both he and Eriksson claim that they will now pursue new entrepreneurial ventures.

At the end of last month, Freer paid $3.5 million back to Gizmondo, stating that it was a temporary move to "avoid any appearance of impropriety"; however, the company's 10-K regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission suggests that over $21 million is owed by the company to Freer and Eriksson, on the basis that the executives loaned this cash to the firm on a short-term basis.

The day before Freer repaid the $3.5 million sum, the 10-K form reveals, the board of Gizmondo formed an independent committee to look into a number of transactions approved by Freer and Eriksson in which they may have had a personal interest.

In the wake of their departure, Michael Carrender - who is now CEO, CFO and chairman of the board of Gizmondo - told Aftonbladet that he was not aware of Eriksson's connections with the mafia, and claimed that an independent counsel will now be appointed to look into any possible irregularities in the company's transactions.

The Gizmondo console launched in the United States last weekend, to what the company claims was an "enthusiastic reception" from US consumers. Twelve shopping mall kiosks around the country are selling the console, along with the official website, and a further 38 kiosks are planned for the coming weeks.

Tiger Telematics, Gizmondo's parent company, plans to begin trading its stock on the NASDAQ exchange in the near future. The firm reported an loss of $99.29 million in the year leading up to the launch of the Gizmondo, and expects an operating loss of $210 million in the first six months of 2005.

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I hope they fry him....

DD

 

And our product rocks....just a shame really.

DD

 

Drox,

Your link is broken.

DD

 

Gizmondo is in bankruptcy, unless they get new management and refinancing it is over.

I have moved on to another project, but am still hoping they get more money.

DD