A painfully convoluted car purchase - I don't know how to proceed

Background - I have a family friend that lives in Germany. Last year I was helping him look for an old Mopar to ship to Germany. He found one he liked on eBay, it was across the country but near Boxhead Tim, and Tim graciously agreed to look at it. A deal was struck, the seller was honorable and all of us coordinated getting the car shipped and safe to its new home in Frankfurt.

Mopar Dude has a friend (German Ford) who found a 67 Mustang and purchased it, and the deal is a nightmare. Mopar Dude asked me for help. As near as I can tell Shady purchased the Mustang at a Mannheim Auction (based on a couple pics of the car). Shady lives in FL (I think) but operates a Montana LLC. German Ford paid for the car (I have the invoice and wire transfers) but it never showed up to port. First excuse was that there was a lein on the GA title that needed to be cleared. More stalling. Now it seems like Shady has declared bankruptcy.

If this is the case, there is a Mustang out there somewhere in the USA with a problem.

How do I even begin to help? I know it's a mess but I feel bad for German Ford. I don't want to invest a huge amount of time and spend a lot of money chasing a problem that isn't mine, but I feel the need to do something, just not sure what.

Your going to be unraveling this for a while. Especially if they used a Montana LLC which I have learned many things about, very few of them good.

How much are we talking about in terms of cost on the mustang. If it was sold at Mannheim it had a clear title at one point.

Port of entry. Did someone pick up the car ? Was it impounded by customs ?

I don't think it was ever delivered to the port in the USA. Its whereabouts are unknown. I can't even confirm that Shady actually touched the car. A couple of the pictures he sent show it sitting in line at an auction, and the vehicle info page said Manheim somewhere on it, so that's the only way I pieced this much together. I don't have that photo here at work and can't remember if there was any sort of Manheim vehicle # on it. If so, is there a way to trace it through that? I don't even know which location the picture was taken at.

I have the VIN number of the car but I don't know what to do with that to make forward progress. I guess I first need to figure out if Shady had a legal right to sell the car to German Ford. If not this is pure theft and fraud, and if he did actually own the car in some fashion then there is a car floating around that someone has paid for and doesn't have.

Total paid is in the $15k range. I just feel bad for German Ford and Shady is giving American car guys a bad name.

I'd call manheim with the VIN. They should be able to catalog and find it with that.

Oh E36 M3, this sounds awfully familiar (and I don't mean the Mopar part). I've heard at least one story like this before with a German buyer, a cheap Viper, also out of Florida, that never made it to port either. That one also had "title issues" that were allegedly uncovered after the sale and would delay shipping. Last thing I heard about that one was that it very much looked like the car never existed.

Sorry to say this but chances are high that the car and the VIN never met and the VIN is parked in an innocent third party's garage or at least was never in the possession of Shady.

Other than trying to confirm with Mannheim, you can't do much that won't cost time and money. TBH at that point it's probably lawyer and private detective time to try track down Shady and introduce him to some members of law enforcement. That might well be throwing good money after bad, though.

Honestly it's stories like these that have me considering having a car inspection service for non-US buyers as a side business if I could figure out a way to make it work financially. I hear about fraud with US car exports way too often.

From what I have read, you said the only picture was an Auction photo.
I suspect that the scam is...
The car was truly up for auction. Real VIN, real car.
Shady never really attended the auction or actually bid at the auction.
Shady reported to the buyer a price and stated he had the car.
Once the money got to Shady...Shady disappeared.

I suspect that Shady never had any intention of buying the car just take the money and run.
Sorry for you loss.

Sadly, I think Tim is right. My guess would be the pictures allegedly from Manheim are either just internet sourced or fakes. The "car" that was sold probably never existed...or at least it wasn't ever really for sale. As Tim said, the car with that matching VIN may belong to an owner who has no clue their VIN was used in a scam.

Ironically I have a friend who sold an inherited Mustang last year to a guy in the Manheim area. I'll ask for details on the car.

Update: friends Mustang was a Yellow 67 Convertible.

JohnRW1621 wrote: From what I have read, you said the only picture was an Auction photo. I suspect that the scam is... The car was truly up for auction. Real VIN, real car. Shady never really attended the auction or actually bid at the auction. Shady reported to the buyer a price and stated he had the car. Once the money got to Shady...Shady disappeared. I suspect that Shady never had any intention of buying the car just take the money and run. Sorry for you loss.

That's how I interpreted the most likely scenario as well.