Did Jerry Seinfeld Really Sell a Phony Porsche for $1.5 Million?

According to recent reports, Jerry Seinfeld is at the center of a scandal relating to the sale of a Porsche that was not authentic, leading to the entertainer allegedly being sued. A suit has been filed with the Manhattan Federal Court claiming that Seinfeld sold his Porsche to the buyer for $1.5 million and that the Porsche was not genuine. The suit also claims that Seinfeld has not reimbursed the buyer the money they paid for the sportscar. So, did Jerry Seinfeld sell a phony Porsche for $1.5 million and what has led to this claim?

The car at the center of this lawsuit is a 1958 Porsche 356 A 1500 GS/GT Carrera Speedster. It was part of a car collection that Seinfeld entered into the Gooding & Co. auction, which took place on Amelia Island on March 2016.

As the auction featured a collection of his cars, Seinfeld attended the sale in person. He is a known car enthusiast and it is believed that he had more than 150 cars in his collection, including an estimated 43 Porsches. This Porsche collection includes 10 Porsche Boxsters in different colors, a range of Porsche 911’s from various years, and the same color and model of 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder that James Dean was driving when he had the accident that caused his death. He has rented and bought property in several locations to store his vast collection.

The vehicle relating to the lawsuit was promoted as a highly sought-after and collectible four-cam Porsche. It is particularly desirable because the green coupe is one of only 56 manufactured by Porsche that was factory-built using lightweight aluminum panels.

Fica Frio is the Brazilian company that purchased the car in 2016. A year later, in March 2017, Fica Frio hired a Porsche expert to examine the car and determine its authenticity. The expert’s findings deemed the car non-authentic. The reason stated in the lawsuit for this declaration was that an insufficient number of photographs were produced during the restoration process. Therefore, the authenticity of the car could not be verified.

Further to this claim, the suit also states that Seinfeld had all-but admitted liability for the situation. The company claims that Jerry Seinfeld had rung the company in June 2017 leaving a voicemail in which he apologized for the nuisance.

The claims suggest that the message left by Seinfeld outlines the situation, with him saying that he would not expect them to keep the vehicle and that they would receive full reimbursement for what they had paid at auction.

He also allegedly made a personal apology for the situation and suggested that his own guys must have missed something when they inspected it as they did not see anything amiss. Seinfeld even joked in the message that he would love to know how they had figured it out.

Despite the apology and the supposed promise of reimbursement, the buyers claim that this has never happened, and this is what has led them to file the lawsuit. Now, the matter is in the hands of legal representatives of both parties.

A statement released by the entertainer’s lawyers said that he was cooperating to resolve what he has described as a frivolous lawsuit. Although Seinfeld has not delivered on the promise to reimburse the buyers so far, his lawyers claim he is willing to do what is right and wants the best outcome for all parties.

It has been suggested that the best way to proceed with this matter is to hire an independent evaluator to examine the car and determine its provenance. This is the fairest option for both parties involved in the lawsuit as the report is not biased. The finding of this expert will possibly become the biggest deciding factor in the decision of the court.

This is not the first time that Seinfeld has hit the headlines for incidents involving his car collection. In 2008, Seinfeld was involved in a road traffic accident while driving a 1967 Fiat 500. When the brakes on the car failed, he pulled the emergency brake to avoid driving onto an intersection. Due to turning sharply and pulling the emergency brake at the same time, the car came to a stop on its side. Fortunately, neither Seinfeld nor any other road users were injured in the incident.