Lawsuits against former Fiat Chrysler Australia executives Clyde Campbell and Veronica Johns, over basically blowing company money on playtime and parties, are ongoing. And apparently so is the search for all the free cars they weren’t supposed to give out.
Reports from Australia’s Herald Sun and other news outfits down under say “hundreds” of vehicles given out to celebrities through some kind of vague brand ambassador program are unaccounted for and worth something like $10 million AUD in total, almost $8 million US.
Someone identified as a Fiat Chrysler “insider” told the Daily Telegraph; “We accepted it because the marketing budget wasn’t that big and brand ambassadors can be a cheap way of getting your brand out there. We knew Harry Kewell was an ambassador … but no one really knew what they did.”
To save non-Australians a Google search, Kewell is a famous athlete down there. As to what these people “did,” the answer is; basically take and post pictures like this:
Jesinta Campbell is an actress and model and Miss Universe Australia 2010. 45 celebrities of varying fame-levels are supposedly driving gifted vehicles.
But reports are saying this free-car-giveaway went a lot deeper than Australian celebs. Apparently one of the sued FCA executive’s wife’s hairdresser was rolling around in a comp’d car as were executives from FCA supplier companies and their families.
As for Clyde Campbell (no relation to Jesinta) and Veronica Johns, no admissions of guilt as been made and indeed Campbell’s attorney is already fighting the allegations.
Nobody’s accused the recipients of these free cars of wrongdoing (yet?), but if you’re driving a Jeep you got from FCA Australia you might want to make sure they haven’t cancelled your registration. Or, maybe, see if they want that car back.
Image via SF Celebrity Management
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.