Jalopnik
Many people have read All The President's Men, which covers the investigation into the Watergate scandal that eventually forced President Nixon to resign. Less people have read Final Days, the sequel, which chronicles the final months of the administration and the eventual decision to step down. But those who have read that novel will undoubtedly see similarities between that tale of executive confusion and misdirection and what's been going on at Unique Performance, which until recently was creating ersatz Elanores for wealthy car collectors.
A follow up report from CBS-11 in Dallas, which broke the story, confirms what we heard from an ex-employee about the company not paying wages. The company apparently owes something like $40,000 in back pay to employees.
The picture painted of the final days by the former employees at Unique Performance is bleak, with management apparently telling employees that they should continue to make cars and that they would be paid "probably in an hour, probably by the end of today, three o'clock today, four o'clock today and nothing, but please keep building this cars."
A lawyer for Doug Hasty, the CEO of Unique Performance, said "Many of those matters are in bankruptcy court and the decisions about who gets paid what and when belong to the bankruptcy court and the bankruptcy trustees." So who knows when or if these people will get paid.
Though businesses frequently go under and in many cases don't tell employees about what's going on until the end, this particular story is so gripping because of how easy it all seemed. There's such a strong desire for specialized cars, specifically muscle cars, that a small company was able to convince dozens of buyers to put down hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars for cars endorsed by Chip Foose and Carroll Shelby, two names intimately associated with American muscle car performance.
And though the original intention of the company was probably not to deceive, the money involved seemed to allow the deception to go on for months before finally coming to a head with the police raid last month. We even did a story in January about Foose Mustangs going on sale at Ford dealerships, though it looks like the company might have been experiencing problems before then.
It's a sad story and the victims seem to be both the unpaid employees that built the cars and the wealthy customers who may never see them. [CBS 11]
Comments
Novel?
That is one ugly, ugly paint scheme.
o hai I can haz a pwnd whayjess?
@Mad_Science: Its the need-4-speed edition dude.
@Dr.Danger: FOR ME TO POOP ON!
@POLAR: Okay, fine, I LOLed at that.
Looking for the article, but I read somewhere a few weeks back that Foose was looking at putting together some sort of bailout package just for the employees; the problem is that bollockses up the bankruptcy proceedings, because the employees are creditors owed money just like any of their suppliers, and those other creditors would then be able to go after Foose for debts owed by Unique. Interesting system y'all have down there.
Typical of a Texas Based company, because the rules were set up to be "business friendly". I hope the employees get their fair share.
@Spence: Technically it's non-fiction, but we consider it to be literary nonfic
It's too bad Foose was involved with these con-artists. He is a decent dude, and is probably trying to set things right with the employees whether he has to or not.
Shelby on the the other hand probably is running like hell from this. He may have given Unique the playbook to go by. Brent Fenimore -formerly of Shelby American was working at Unique. What a dirty business.
@hotrodmetal: Would that be the "Enron" playbook?
@Matt_Hardigree: Right, that's not a novel. The definition of which is a work of fiction.
It's like were reading each others thoughts!
Yeah, probably Enron. It's a Texas Thang. If you are reading this & are from Texas, you are excluded of course:)
Poop on that playbook for us MAD_SCIENCE
@dearthair: I can haz no munies!!1!
@Dr.Danger:
Nawwe, if it was that there would be an enormous wing on the back and it would be basecoated in bright green.
@Solo_Racer: Literary non fic!
@Matt_Hardigree: Matt, that still doesn't count as a novel. Most true crime, biographies and non-textbook accounts of history are literary. But they're aren't novels.
i feel sorry if their final paychecks are held up in bankruptcy because the employees are given the leftover scraps of what is left. i worked at a company that fell apart during the dotcoms. laid off in the spring of 2001 and just got my final paycheck december of 2006.
Sorry for the workers, though if my check wasn't there the irst time, adios. Less sorry for the wealthy customers who will, of course, get a tax write-off for the loss.
I feel bad for the employees that seem to have been scammed but they got off pretty cheap compared to the millions in deposites that customers paid. The customers didn't have the insight that an employee in that size of a company would have of the day to day operations. It's pretty easy to see signs of internal rot if you are having to put high dollar customers off on dellivery. I'm interested to see who were the people sucking off large salaries. Better be looking for that cash guys, I'm pretty sure tha cash didn't get used for welding rod and bondo.
@Mad_Science:
Is it a bad thing this company went out of business?
I do feel sorry for the ex-employees though.
You actually used the word 'ersatz'. Awesome.
Now, that begs the question; what's more ludicrous?
Paying $100,000 for a mint, matching numbers Mustang from 1967, which drives worse than a Civic Si? Or paying $100,000 for a company to produce an ersatz (albeit driveable) version of said car?
Unique Performance gives us the answer . . . paying $100,000 for someone to do it, and then not even getting the car.
I agree, Foose and Shelby didn't know this disaster was going to happen, still nobody has reported what caused the disaster there. Was it an owner who took they money or just mismanaged? It's been a PR disaster but I don't know anyone blaming Foose or Shelby, they certainly wouldn't have gotten involved with them if they know it was going to end up like this. If I were those two I'd just give the ex employees some money as a gift to help them get by, not calling it payment for anything. Mechanics are not rich to take a hit like that.
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