Overlooked: The Swede And The $3 Million Car Crash — Jan 30th 2008

By Dakota Smith

[An idyllic, wreck-free stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu]

Story: Man who crashed Ferrari in Malibu, going 199 mph to be deported
Submitted by: Propeller member JessicaLaurie

"I would rank it as probably the most incredible exotic car crash in history." That's Gregg Carlson, editor of WreckedExotics.com, speaking in Wired magazine about the 2006 Malibu car crash of Bo Steffan Eriksson, a Swedish businessman and gangster, whose pending deportation recently made headlines.

According to news reports, on the early morning of February 21, 2006, Eriksson crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo--valued at $3 million, and one of only 400 made--into a telephone pole on Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway. Eriksson was going at least 162 miles per hour, and some news reports estimated a speed closer to 199 miles per hour when he crashed. Not surprisingly, his car "disintegrated into thousands of pieces along the highway." The sole reason that Eriksson and his passenger, Trevor Karney, escaped injury was that their passenger cabin remained intact.

When the police arrived, Eriksson, who had been drinking that night, said that he too had been a passenger in the Ferrari. The driver, whom he called Dietrich, had supposedly fled into the hills. According to Wired, Karney told the police that he'd been in a passenger in another car, a Mercedes Benz. He claimed to have stopped to help Eriksson, at which point his friend in the Benz suddenly sped off. Even more bizarre: as police were interviewing Eriksson and Karney at the scene, two cars pulled up and a pair of men, who identified themselves as Homeland Security experts, said they needed to speak to Eriksson.

Given all those details, it's little wonder that the media pounced on the story. Shortly after the crash, the Los Angeles Times ran a profile of Eriksson, portraying him as a playboy businessman and gangster with a history of assault and counterfeiting. Additionally, Eriksson was involved with Gizmondo Europe Ltd., a London-based videogame company that declared bankruptcy in 2006 after suffering losses of more than $380 million. (According to the company's website, it will soon be back in business.) Meanwhile, it was revealed that a .40 Glock automatic pistol was found in the car of a stranger who had stopped to help at the crash scene--possibly hidden there by Karney. And that Homeland Security field team would eventually be exposed as a low-level security group run out of the San Gabriel Valley.

According to news reports, police initially said they didn't have any charges. Enter Eriksson's wife, Nicole Persson. According to CBS2, Nicole was stopped after circling a Beverly Hills block three times, in clear view of a parked police officer who eventually pulled her over for having no US license plates. The documents in the front seat would reveal that the crashed Ferrari was about to be repossessed by a British Bank. In fact, it was one of three cars that Eriksson had illegally had flown into Los Angeles in the cargo holds of Virgin Atlantic 747s.

Eriksson was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and fraud, and reportedly had been serving time in the Corcoran State Prison in the San Joaquin Valley. According to news reports, his deportation is the result of a decision to voluntarily leave the United States. Via CBS2: "Everything was ready before Christmas," wife Nicole Persson told the Stockholm newspaper Veckans Affaerer. "It took a while for the Swedish consulate to prepare a new passport. But he's expected to be on his way very soon."

Tags:

0 Comments