Fast-living Cook's wheels on the block

Matt Rabanus has seen a lot of cars come and go through his Classic Auto Storage garage over the years, but he's never seen one quite like the Audi RS600 owned by Minneapolis money manager Trevor Cook.

Cook, 37, is sitting in jail on civil contempt charges for refusing to cooperate with a court-appointed receiver who's been searching for assets that can be liquidated to repay Cook's clients in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving currency investments. Federal regulators have accused Cook of soaking about 1,200 investors for more than $190 million, and investigators have found relatively few valuable assets thus far.

Six cars linked to Cook go up for auction Saturday at Classic Auto Storage, 2011 N. 2nd St., Minneapolis. Most are tired, high-mileage vehicles that will draw little interest. But not the Audi.

"What we've been told is, there's only two of these in the world," said Rich Rabanus, Matt's dad. Cook's Audi is black. The other is silver.

James Pieron, CEO of JDFX Group in Zurich, Switzerland, said the 2004 Audi started out as an RS6 sedan. "The Audi was our first company car. Since Zurich is a walking city and there isn't much need for a car, I used the car as a hobby project," he wrote in an e-mail last August.

Pieron's a techie. His website says he founded JDFX in 2004 as an early electronic participant in the foreign exchange market. The company built its reputation on high-frequency trading, high-speed order routing and statistical arbitrage.

"Over the course of many years, I kept the car in my garage and made several performance modifications to the car," Pieron said. "Unfortunately, I made too many mods in total and the car failed inspection twice in 2008 and could no longer be driven in Switzerland. For those reasons, I sold it to Trevor Cook."

Shipping records show JDFX shipped the car from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Newark, N.J., in May 2008. An investor said he was told by an adviser who worked with Cook that he had to have the car modified by race car mechanics to make it street-legal in the United States.

Sportec AG, a Swiss company, had installed a 600-horsepower, dual-turbo engine and swapped out an automatic transmission for a six-speed manual, Matt Rabanus said. He estimated the value of the conversion at $30,000 to $40,000. The odometer reading is in kilometers, and equals 29,433 miles. Other modifications include a custom suspension, oversized ventilated disc brakes and special Sportec aluminum wheels.

An emblem on the fender displays the currency symbols for U.S. dollars, European euros, Japanese yen and British pounds. Though the car looks like an ordinary sedan, it can top 200 mph, Rabanus said.

"Listen to this," he said, turning the key. The engine came to life with the deep, throaty rumble reminiscent of a NASCAR race.

The other Cook cars to be auctioned include a 1985 Pontiac Fiero dressed in a Lamborghini body kit; a 1998 BMW Z3 convertible; a 1989 Mercedes-Benz 420 SEL that had been driven by Cook's former business associate, radio show host Pat Kiley; a 1985 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur sedan; and a 2000 Lexus ES 300 Platinum Series sedan. None of these cars is expected to bring much money because of their mileage.

Ken Locklin of Fredicksburg, Texas, is among those who lost money in the currency investment Cook promoted. A car buff, Locklin said he had planned to bid on the Audi until he learned it has an undisclosed reserve price that must be met. He figures the car would sell retail in the mid- to upper-$30,000 range.

"If I had my money I wouldn't argue with them. I'd just buy it and fly up and get it," Locklin said. "If the car doesn't sell, then we're going to maybe take a shot at it. I'd love to have the car, but I can't justify it."

Dan Browning • 612-673-4493