John Draneas

The latest stolen-supercar story hit the news recently when U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted a stolen Ferrari F50 on December 14, 2019, at the Peace Bridge Port of Entry in Buffalo, NY. Alert CBP officers noticed that some of the rivets on the dashboard VIN plate were covered in a black tar-like substance. The…

The collector-car world was recently stunned by the news that a Swedish court awarded judgment to Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in its copyright infringement case against Karl and Ann-Christine Magnusson. The court ruled that the Magnussons, who were in the process of building a C-type replica, had violated JLR’s copyright in the C-type form. Their…

The October 2020 “Legal Files,” co-authored with Prescott Kelly, reported about a lawsuit filed against Coys of Kensington involving a 1973 Porsche Carrera RS. That lawsuit seems to be the tip of a large iceberg. Once again, we want to point out that the previous Coys, owned by Chris Routledge, is the target of the…

Recently, SCMer Bruce Cochran wrote me with an interesting suggestion: “I thought this particular listing for a Ferrari F12 might be of possible interest for a future dissertation. Without knowing anything about ‘salvage titles,’ my first instinct has always been to run in the other direction. My assumption has always been that these cars have…

My interest was immediately aroused when I saw this in my inbox, a letter on which I had been cc’ed, from a renowned Ferrari expert and historian:  Attn. Mr. Rod Egan, Worldwide Auctioneers: I have been reading the January 2021 issue of Sports Car Market magazine and saw the Worldwide ad for the Arizona auction,…

Dear Legal Files: I read your article on shill bidding (“Legal Files,” November 2020) this week. It was funny because I had just bid at auction for a piece of art that I didn’t win. The bidding went to my bid limit, which was me, and then $20k higher on the next bid. I was…

Andreas Pohl is a wealthy and powerful man. The billionaire CEO of Deutsche Vermoegensberatung (DVAG), a German finance company, is also a car guy. One would think that with all the resources available to him, he wouldn’t get snookered on a car deal. Moreover, one would think no one would try. Unfortunately, he isn’t any…

Dear “Legal Files”: Have you written about or looked into “shill” bidding on Bring a Trailer? I’m not sure how common it is or if it even exists, but I recently had an experience that got me thinking. I was bidding on a nice restored Datsun 240Z. (By the way, I’m a Porsche guy, but…

Last month, “Legal Files” started the story of two Porsche 904s, one owned by “Dieter” in Germany and the other owned by the estate of Ken Allison in Kentucky, each claimed to be chassis number 904054 (September 2020, p. 52). Our firm partnered with the London firm of Goodman Derrick to represent Dieter. At the…

German collector “Dieter” was intrigued when he spotted an Internet ad offering Porsche 904 GTS chassis 904054 for sale. “That’s odd,” he thought. “That’s the same chassis number of my 904 GTS that is sitting in my garage.” The ad had been posted by TPE Ltd., a Japanese collector-car dealer operated by Akihiro Orimoto. The…