BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — A new lawsuit has been filed in Broward County, revealing more than 30 exotic cars that disappeared from an auto group in Boca Raton are now with the group's landlord, who claims he owns the cars and the group never had the right to sell them.
"There is a scam happening," Frederick Hall told WPTV.
"I've never felt so violated in my life," Chad Zakin said.
Contact 5 spoke with Hall and Zakin in early April when their $400,000 Lamborghinis vanished from Excell Auto Group in Boca Raton.
"It's gonna be a real big involvement of a lot of owners, cars," Hall said.
Hall's vehicle allegedly vanished while it was having routine maintenance work done at Excell's body shop.
Zakin told WPTV he brought his vehicle to Excell Auto to have it appraised. He claims Excell then sold it.
That same week, the owners of Excell Auto Group, Scott and Kristen Zankl, filed for bankruptcy.
Their landlord, Auto Wholesale of Boca, owned by Moshe Farache, then filed a lawsuit against the Zankls in Palm Beach County, saying the Zankls owe him more than $2 million.
"We're dealing with massive fraud," Jay Farrow, Farache's attorney, told WPTV. "South Florida, unfortunately, is a shady place with some shady people."
Farrow spoke with Contact 5 on Thursday in Broward County, where Farache is now being sued along with the Zankls.
The suit was filed by FVP Opportunity Fund III, a Delaware limited liability company.
According to the suit, FVP loaned the Zankls $7.5 million in January. It accuses them of having a "bold scheme" to "defraud the plaintiffs" and "convert the funds into expensive automobiles."
"This is part of the scam that Scott Zankl was running, was collateralizing these cars and then in some cases, selling them to unsuspecting victims, cars that belong to my client or even others," Farrow said.
Farache now has the 35 missing cars, which he claims he owns.
The suit accuses him of threatening to kill Scott Zankl if he didn't hand over the cars, allegedly saying, "He was associated with Israeli Intelligence and criminal underworld figures, and that he was a very dangerous person."
"My client denies those allegations," Farrow said.
It's all part of an ongoing investigation by Boca Raton police.
"This could look like a Ponzi scheme. At the end of the day, as far as my clients are concerned, they want to clear their name and they also want to assert their rights against the wrongdoers," Farrow said.
When WPTV did the original story, Scott Zankl's attorney, Guy Fronstin, sent us this statement:
"The vehicles in question were unlawfully taken from Excel Auto's showroom and Mr. Zankl is doing everything he can to help the police find the vehicles so that they can be returned to their rightful owners."
Fronstin did not reply to our requests for comment on Thursday.