A Ferrari belonging to former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles labor chief Alphons Iacobelli was sold days after prosecutors signaled he was connected to a $4.5 million embezzlement case, according to a news report.
The 2013 Ferrari 458 Spider was purchased in September 2014 by Iacobelli, Michigan vehicle registration data show, The Detroit News reported .
A year later, the sports car was sold for $292,150 -- roughly $73,000 less than what the former executive initially paid -- to Brian Mortz, who has yet to be approached by the FBI, the News reported.
The sale happened six days after prosecutors filed court documents revealing Iacobelli was a subject of a probe for fraud and money laundering
The red exotic car is the most expensive item that Iacobelli is accused of buying with money taken from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center. State records reviewed by the News help explain why federal prosecutors have not seized the vehicle.
Federal search warrants are sealed and it is unclear whether FBI agents seized cash from Iacobelli equal to the purchase price of the Ferrari, the News said in a report Friday.
"The buyer has an innocent owner defense," Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor, told the News. "Assuming the person can establish it was a bona fide arms-length transaction, the government can't get the car. They can only go after the proceeds or, if there is a conviction, the equivalent of the car's value from any other asset [Iacobelli] has."
The paper said prosecutors have filed court documents to seize Iacobelli's 6,815-square-foot mansion, upon conviction.
On July 26, Iacobelli was indicted by a federal grand jury and accused of using $1 million intended to train UAW members to buy the Ferrari, two solid-gold pens costing $37,500 each, a swimming pool and other luxuries.
Iacobelli remains entangled in the case alongside other high ranking and midlevel UAW officials. Months after the government seized $292,000 funds in connection to the case, a grand jury also indicted Monica Morgan, wife of late UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who led the union's FCA department.
The indictment has also ensnared former FCA financial analyst Jerome Durden, accusing him and others of using the training center accounts to route payments to Holiefield, former UAW associate director Virdell King and UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who succeeded Holiefield.
Durden and King have pleaded guilty in plea deals made with prosecutors.
Iacobelli abruptly parted ways with FCA in June 2015, a few months after Holiefield's death in March that year. He was hired roughly six months later by GM in January 2016 as executive director of labor relations but has been suspended following the grand jury indictment in July.
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