By now you’ve already heard about Saab being saved from certain demise thanks to Dutch supercar company, Spyker.
Spyker originally was rejected on its first bid but won the Swedish brand thanks to a revamped second bid that addressed some of GM’s concerns.
As a part of the new deal, GM made the odd request that Spyker Chairman Vladamir Antonov be removed from the company. Since Antonov is clearly Russian, it was speculated that this request was made so that GM technology wouldn’t fall into Russian hands (apparently there’s still some bad blood between America and Russia…who knew?)
As a result Antonov was asked to step down, and voila – Spyker got themselves a premium car brand for $75 million.
But new reports are surfacing as the the ‘real’ reason for Antonov’s removal. Find out more after the jump.
Antonov allegedly has ties to organized crime, specifically with the Russian Mafia. It was the Swedish government, who played a role in securing funds from the bank, that suspected Antonov’s ties were shady and alerted the FBI of their findings. The U.S government then ordered GM to stop the sale of Saab to Spyker as a result.
In any event, Spyker really wanted Saab so it got rid of Antonov without much fuss, and complied with any other stipulation made from GM.
All very interesting. This could make the plot for a great movie, would it not?
