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Florida Man accused of buying Lamborghini with coronavirus relief funds

We'll preface this by saying that when things work as they're meant to, we don't hear about them. When it comes to the Paycheck Protection Program, created as part of the CARES Act in March to provide loans to businesses to pay employees during the coronavirus lockdown, that means many jobs were saved but we also get stories of honest businesspeople unable to get loans or blackguards abusing the program. This story is the latter. David T. Hines, a 29-year-old Miami man with four businesses, applied for PPP funds in May. He received about $3.9 million in loans, and blew about $500,000 of that before the government began investigating and his bank froze his accounts. Instead of applying for loans to cover monthly expenditures of about $200,000 among his four moving-related companies, the feds say, Hines' four applications through Bank of America claimed combined monthly expenses of $4 million to pay 70 employees. BofA approved three of the four submissions. After the government made its first of three planned deposits of $3,984,557 into Hines' Bank of America account, Hines continued requesting more money, authorities say, ultimately seeking $13.54 million.  The spending began almost immediately after the PPP disbursement. As far as the government could tell by going through Hines' records, none of the money was spent on employees who "either did not exist or earned a fraction of what Hines claimed in his PPP applications.” Instead, officials say, Hines picked up a blue Lamborghini Huracan Evo for $318,497. He paid a person he listed as "Mom" $60,000. Saks Fifth Avenue got another $4,000. In June, $8,500 went to the Graff jewelry boutique, and $7,000 went to Miami's Setai hotel. The disbursement problem has arisen because the Small Business Administration that backs the PPP loans doesn't verify the claims in the applications, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Berger. How did Hines get caught, then? He got into a hit-and-run accident in his blue Lamborghini in July, and Miami police impounded the car. That eventually attracted investigation from no less than six governmental departments: the FDIC-OIG, USPIS, IRS-CI, the SBA-OIG, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection-OIG. The U.S.

Lamborghini Aventador SV gets more, less weight [w/video]

Following Lamborghini's recent tease, we were pretty certain that the Italian supercar brand would unveil its Aventador Superveloce at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. Sure enough, during the Volkswagen Group Night event, the supercar with more power and less weight made its grand debut. Technically dubbed the Aventador 750-4 SV, Lambo revised the valve train and added a new four-exit exhaust with less backpressure. The result is a redline now at 8,500 rpm and a boost to 740 horsepower and 509 pound-feet of torque. Grunt still gets to all four wheels via a seven-speed gearbox. The changes help reduce the sprint to 62 miles per hour to just 2.8 seconds, and if that's not enough, 124 mph is just 8.6 seconds away from a standing start. The top speed reportedly rises to 217 mph. The other major factor in helping this improved performance is a 110-pounds reduction in weight to tip the scales at 3,362 pounds, which comes thanks to copious amounts of carbon fiber. On the outside, the door panels, side sills, fenders and new fixed rear wing are all made from the lightweight material, and the upgraded parts for the body reportedly increase downforce by 170 percent. The interior even features Lambo's Carbon Skin fabric for the headliner. Beyond the lighter weight and extra power, customers get magneto-rheological dampers, carbon-ceramic brakes and variable ratio electric power steering. All of this Italian performance comes at a price of 327,190 euros before any value-added tax when the cars go on sale in the spring. Official US pricing isn't announced yet , but that figure equates to about $366,000. Check out a video of the car being unveiled at VW's Group Night festivities in Geneva.

Phony Fauxrrari and Shamborghini replicas seized in Brazil

A shop in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil has been raided and shut down by police after it was discovered that it was turning out shoddy replica supercars. The Fauxrrari and Shamborghini (we borrowed the latter clever term from the Associated Press) copies themselves look impressively detailed considering that they were reportedly coming out of a father-son operation, but the engineering, underpinnings and powertrains are surely a wee bit shy of what's flowing out of the real factories in Italy. According to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, one replica was powered by the engine from a Chevrolet Omega, which we knew at one time in the U.S. as the Cadillac Catera. Scrolling through the image gallery above, though, we see at least one Ferrari knock-off that appears to have a bright red intake manifold behind the passenger compartment, so who knows? Police reported that the replicas were being offered on unknown social media channels for between $45,000 and $60,000. Needless to say, that's nowhere near the price of a real Ferrari or Lamborghini. And this isn't the first (and likely, not the last) time this has happened, either. According to the AP, the raid was conducted after at least one of the Italian marques tipped off authorities. Eight vehicles in various states of completion were found, along with tools, molds and what looks to be a treasure trove of car parts. It's not clear how many finished vehicles may have rolled out of the shop, or how many may already be in the hands of buyers. The father and son duo who ran the operation have been arrested on industrial property charges.