A 24-year-old con man has made millions selling non-existent Ferraris to the wealthy. Until it's overdone

Daniel Lesin  is a young man in his twenties who, although from a wealthy family, could not afford the collection of cars he claimed to own. And even less, at 24, to have a pair of Ferrari Monza SP rewarded by the mark. Not one, no. Of them.

Lesin burst out of nowhere into New Jersey's bustling supercar scene in Bergen County, across from Manhattan. Nobody knew him. He quickly became a regular at Cars and Coffee meetings, road shows and other events.

Lesin explained his apparent lifestyle by alluding to being  the son of an oligarch , having a watch company that funded his automotive hobby, and his father helping him sell software. game.  In short, a litany of clichés about the life of a daddy's boy, explains  The Drive  in a long and documented article. And it is that the bigger the lie, the less it is questioned.

Moreover, he always appeared driving a supercar. Who knows, it might even be true what he explained. But that was not the case. At least that's what  the FBI thinks, which arrested him  on July 2. He is accused of committing approximately $3 million in wire fraud related to the sale of Ferrari Monza SP assignments which he apparently never owned.

From there, the story of the fake billionaire eventually came to light. Lesin was obviously not who he claimed to be. However, he was able for four years before his arrest to fool almost everyone with his lavish lifestyle.

Trying to sell two Ferrari Monzas you don't have is wanting to get caught

His history of cheating got out of hand when he started  selling Ferrari Monza SP missions. The Ferrari Monza SP1 and SP2 are the first two models in the series  of Icona special models  , produced in limited series and which Ferrari offers to its most loyal and privileged customers.

For example, among them are chef Gordon Ramsey and  Christiano Ronaldo . These are not cars that can be ordered from an official Ferrari dealer, it is Ferrari itself that offers the car directly to the customer.

This is why selling a Monza SP mission before the car is even built can be a very profitable operation for the seller and very coveted for the buyer. Of course, this is not normally something that is made public as Ferrari can withdraw the assignment and the seller is left without a car. Plus, this might be the last time Ferrari offers you an Icona series car or other special model.

Lesin justified that he had two Ferrari Monzas assigned because his family had 75 Ferraris. He therefore had excellent relations with the factory managers and could therefore order these special models.

The reality is that, according to the charging documents, he committed fraud and falsified documents. As simple as that. From fake signed purchase orders and fake Ferrari dealership forms to fake purchase orders showing Ferrari specifications, there was no real document.

Lesin financed his high lifestyle essentially by cheating. Through a series of companies created for this purpose, Lesin sold cars he did not own and took out loans, leaving a Ferrari he did not own as collateral. So, in total, he received  more than three million dollars to live a life of luxury that was not his.

But what he will eventually discover is that he has started selling two Ferrari Monza missions. You could have one pass, but two was already very, very rare. The saddest thing is that, they say, at one point he managed to sell three Ferraris as an intermediary for a sale. Three legal and real sales. Come on, he could have legally funded his lifestyle.

And that's what led this buyer to believe that Lesin could really sell him a Monza SP. The boy knew how to sell and had connections, apparently. Lesin's victims include  Beverly Hills dealership Pagani , Florida dealerships Veltracon, and Canada's JPCM.

How did none of them realize before being scammed? Due to the secrecy that surrounds this type of transaction. If Ferrari found out they had bought missions, they wouldn't be able to buy them a new Ferrari, whatever it was, for a long time. And part of their business is getting the latest super sports car before everyone else; it would be a very hard setback for your business.

How did they catch it? Lesin put in one of the Monza orders the Ferrari contact of the famous youtuber and businessman Rob Ferretti, a friend of his. Serious mistake.

One of the buyers Monza offered sent him a   $1.5 million  Porsche 918 Spyder as payment. But he had some doubts and asked Ferretti if he knew Dan Lesin and if he could give him his opinion on the documents Lesin had left him.

It turns out that the contact person at Ferrari that appeared in the documents was the salesman at the Ferrari dealership that Ferretti usually works with. Of course, it didn't take him long to call the salesperson in question.

 

The dealer's response was very clear: "You don't have a Monza award. We couldn't get one." Come on, this dealer has never sold Monza to anyone, let alone Lesin.

The buyer, annoyed, sends Ferretti transfer receipts made by Lesin to the Ferrari dealer in payment for the Monza. Again, the dealer assured Ferretti that they never got that money.

For Lesin, complaints soon pile up against him and his businesses. This purchase-sale was not the only one to be scammed, far from it. And it remains to be seen whether Ferrari itself will not pursue it as well. In any case, there were already numerous lawsuits against him. And that caught the attention of the FBI.

To act, the FBI relied on interstate transfers of very real money made in its name to buy cars that it did not own or to take out loans. As soon as the money moved from one state to another, it became a  federal crime .

Lesin remains in federal custody today awaiting trial on four counts of wire fraud, which is scheduled to begin September 26. Lesin faces a maximum sentence of  20 years in prison  with a $250,000 fine, in addition to what he already owes buyers who have never received a Ferrari Monza. The judge will decide whether the sentences for Lesin's four counts are applied simultaneously or consecutively.