These items include "approximately 40-Mustang fastback shells, body parts, tools, lifts." This is going to be another online auction currently scheduled for June 24, 2008 at 10:00 am. We're waiting for full details to be released, but in the meantime check out the auction website for more information. (Thanks Cameron!) [67MustangBlog.com]

From what we have heard from the Dallas County D.A. they would much prefer to have Doug in a nasty state prison somewhere in west Texas in the 100+ degree sun than in some Federal country club where he can get visits from his girlfriend. Plus Governor Perry would surely prefer to have him under his control since he was made to look like an ass on TV by Stephanie Lucerio asking him why they were having his prisoners cutting VIN plates off cars inside the prison.

Just a quick recap for those who haven't been following this, Eleanor-duplicate maker Unique Performance was raided after customer complaints. During the raid police noticed missing VIN numbers on many cars, indicating title washing. The company then filed for bankruptcy so it wouldn't have to pay employees or customers. And they may have also used prison labor illegally. So, yeah, we still think someone is going to jail.

[CBS-11 via 67mustangblog]

We don't have a final tally on how much the lawyers get, or if there are other ways to recoup the money (maybe not). Either way, it doesn't look like those on the wrong end of this are going to get justice from this particular auction. Though, as one former employee told us "I guess we have the memories... and the hope to see [owner Doug] Hasty behind bars!" More when we get additional information.

Employees hope that the sale will cover the back-taxes so that they can get their back-pay. You'll remember one employee told us that Unique Performance lied about paychecks to get people to continue working. Details below:

Unique Performance/Unique Motorcars Auction

Bankruptcy Case No. 07-36211-BJH-7, Vintage Automotive Restoration. Moved for convenience of sale: Bankruptcy Case No.07-31392-BJH-7 Secure Car Armour Corp., armored luxury cars and bankruptcy case no. 07-45584-DML-7, Thomas Estate, 2005 Hummer
DATE:
March 27th, 2008, 10:00 AM
LOCATION:
13950 Senlac Drive, Farmers Branch, TX 75234
INSPECTION:
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 from 9 am until 4 pm (CDT)
STYLE:
Online Only

[Rosen Online Auction]

There have been a lot of claims made back and forth, including the recent news about Unique Performance using prison labor to possibly replace valid VIN numbers. It's unclear what the 25 charges are, but the DA is going to have to determine what is worth taking to a grand jury (though grand juries have a habit of voting in the affirmative) and what's worth starting a case over.

We can debate whether using 13 gallons of Bondo, Taiwanese parts and prison labor is a normal or abnormal practice when building $200,000 cars, but there has to be legal merit to the case. Where this case may have merit is that, in addition to taking people's money and not delivering cars, certain promises or advertisements were likely made about the quality and hand-built nature of the cars. If that's the case, and we assume it is since people forked over all that dough, the DA might have an easy way of proving fraud and deceptive business practices. The prison labor and suspected title washing is a bonus, as there's likely a trail of evidence if it turns out that what they did was in violation of existing Texas laws.

Federal investigators have also submitted cases to the US Attorney's office, giving this case a federal aspect. What federal laws were violated are unclear, though we do know the cars were sourced from other states and brought into Texas, which likely plays into it. The Secret Service involvement, and the claim of three suspects, is interesting. The Secret Service is the law enforcement arm of the Dept. of the Treasury and also has jurisdiction over certain types of fraud, mostly involving the transfer of money.

Either way, there are still many questions to be answered. If we were Unique Performance owner Doug Hasty we'd be worried. We see it as likely that Hasty may be pressured into some kind of plea bargain unless he's 100% convinced of his own innocence or the DA's case is so strong they don't feel like they need to do it. Of course, settling on charges with the Dallas County DA doesn't create an exemption from federal charges.

We'll let you know when the parties involved are formally charged.

[CBS-11 via 67 Mustang Blog]

History

After the success of Gone In 60 Seconds, Unique Performance with the blessing of Carroll Shelby started building "Eleanor" replicas. Turns out that most of those replicas may have been built with salvage or otherwise questionably titled Mustangs and, despite taking huge deposits, weren't being delivered. After being raided by police and shut down, the company filed for bankruptcy and refused to pay Unique Performance employees. That's where we stood before these latest revelations.

Statement From Doug Hasty's Lawyer

Every customer that has received a car has ultimately been satisfied with the quality of the car they received. Farmers Branch Police are continuing their witch hunt. They continue to leak false accusations to the press knowing that we have not had an opportunity to have access to the cars to rebut their claims. There were no title issues or criminal problems with the titles and no one has been defrauded. We are eager to address these cases in a court of law, on the record, where people will have to be responsible for their conduct. And I'm referring specifically to the Farmers Branch Police Department.

Special thanks to 67Mustangblog for following the story so closely. [All information via CBS-11 TV]

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]

FOOSE DESIGN TERMINATES ALL LICENSING AND BUSINESS ACTIVITIES WITH UNIQUE PERFORMANCE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (Nov. 9, 2007) - Foose Design announced today that effective immediately it has terminated all licensing and all business activities with Texas-based Unique Performance, Unique Performance Concepts and related companies. This termination includes the limited production of all vehicles formerly licensed to Unique including but not limited to, the Foose Mustang Stallion, Foose Camaro, Foose Challenger, Foose Motorcycle and the sales and marketing of the "Hemisfear", also known as the "Foose Coupe", manufactured by Metalcrafters. Foose Design has clearly stated that it no longer has any affiliation with Unique, and encourages customers to understand that Unique no longer has any rights to Foose intellectual property, the Foose name, image, likeness, logos or designs regarding any project.

Chip Foose, the winner of an unrivaled three "Ridler" Awards, and the Foose Design team have worked for more than eight months to resolve issues relative to Unique's problems but ultimately found it necessary to sever their relationship with Unique Performance.

Foose Design does not manufacture production vehicles rather it specializes in designing and fabricating custom built, one-of-a-kind custom cars. Foose Design created the concept for a prototype vehicle to be built under its license to Unique.

Chip Foose builds a special bond with every Foose vehicle owner and it causes him great stress to see this situation occur. Chip has worked tirelessly through the years to build his company, brand and image, which it works diligently to protect, both for itself and Chip's collectors and fans.

Foose Design is working with its legal staff to consider possible action against Unique Performance.