The Swedish businessman will serve three years in prison for grand theft and embezzlement, authorities said.
RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
Swedish tycoon Bo Stefan Eriksson pleaded no contest to embezzlement and being a felon with a firearm. Eriksson, who attracted attention after crashing a Ferrari Enzo in Malibu in February, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Friday, a mistrial delayed Eriksson’s trial on four charges of embezzlement and grand theft until December.
“The jury declared it was ‘hopelessly deadlocked,’ 10-2 in favor of conviction,” said Jane Robison, press secretary for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
Eriksson, convicted of nine felonies in his native Sweden, would have been tried separately Monday on charges relating to the .357 Magnum found in his home during the course of investigating the accident. It is unclear how the gun, that belonged to Orange County Sheriff’s Department volunteer Roger Davis, got there.
The case slammed into the public eye in February, as tantalizing details came to light.
Eriksson’s red Ferrari Enzo, one of 400 of the $1 million cars made, crashed along Pacific Coast Highway after traveling 162 miles an hour, according to police.
Eriksson, who was over the legal drinking limit, claimed a German he knew only as Dietrich had been driving. Dietrich was never found, and Eriksson eventually pleaded no contest to driving under the influence of alcohol.
Two men later arrived at the scene and claimed to be members of Homeland Security, flashing badges and demanded to speak to Eriksson. Baffled, authorities refused to let Eriksson leave with the men.
Authorities now believe the badges came from the anti-terrorism unit of San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, a nonprofit organization that transports the disabled.
The mistrial related to separate charges, over a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and a black Ferrari Enzo that were found as police investigated the crash. Prosecutors say Eriksson scammed two different banks by illegally importing the two luxury cars, collectively worth about $1.5 million, from Great Britain, then stopped all payments after reaching the United States.
Eriksson’s defense attorney admits his client stopped paying for the cars, but say it is only because he no longer could afford them.
Eriksson was CEO of Gizmondo, a video game company that had aimed to challenge Nintendo and Sony. Then, a month before the Enzo crashed, the company went bankrupt.
Gizmondo was launched in early 2005, but investors lost confidence in the business when its product was widely ridiculed and three executives — including Eriksson — resigned after their connections to Uppsala Mafia, a white collar crime ring in Sweden, were revealed.
In 1993 Eriksson was convicted of assault, making threats, and counterfeiting about $2.6 million worth of Swedish kronor.
After he is released from this most recent conviction, Eriksson will most likely be deported, according to one of Eriksson’s defense attorneys.
11-09-2006
