Cops shut down fake Ferrari and sham Lamborghini business in Brazil

Automaker complaints lead to a Cop shut down of ‘Fauxrraris’ and ‘Scamborghinis’ business in Brazil

Police in Brazil this week busted a counterfeit supercar ring that was building “Fauxrraris” and “Scamborghinis” and selling them at cut-rate prices.

(AP)

The father and son accused of running the illicit operation were arrested, and eight cars in various states of assembly were seized from their garage in the state of Santa Catarina after the automakers filed complaints with local authorities.

(AP)

Among the vehicles discovered were replicas of the Lamborghini Gallardo and Huracan, and a Ferrari 430 lookalike. The tooling and materials used to build them were confiscated in the raid, along with phony brand badges and seats embroidered with the companies' logos.

(AP)

(AP)

According to O Globo, the copycat cars were being marketed on social media and built to order for around $50,000 each, which is a tenth of what the real models sell for new in the country. Investigators are trying to determine how many other cars had already been delivered and will be calling on additional workers who were involved to testify.

(AP)

The crackdown occurred just a few weeks after Ferrari won a court case against an Italian company that was offering replicas of the 1960s-era 250 GTO, authentic examples of which are worth tens of millions of dollars.

The Associated Press contributed to this report