If money’s not an object and you’ve got space in your garage for three classic movie cars, then this upcoming auction might pique your interest. After Ryan Sheridan of Ohio pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges involving his business, he lost all of his prized vehicles by forfeiture to the feds. This includes reproduction vehicles of the Batmobile from Batman, the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, and Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine from Back to The Future, all three of which are headed to auction courtesy of the U.S. Marshals to help recoup the millions of dollars stolen by Sheridan.
Said to be a car enthusiast, seeing these vehicles go just might be a worse punishment for Sheridan than his lengthy prison sentence. “These three flashy cars are an example of the ill-gotten gains obtained with the tens of millions of dollars that Ryan Sheridan stole from Medicaid, and therefore American taxpayers,” U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott of the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement on the U.S. Marshals website. “The U.S. Marshals routinely sell vehicles, real estate and other assets in order to return proceeds to victims of federal crimes.”
The Batmobile, based on the version of the iconic vehicle driven by Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton Batman movies, is in actuality a 1995 Chevy Caprice Classic. Straight from Ghostbusters, the Ecto-1 is a modified 1959 Cadillac hearse that looks just as it does when Ernie Hudson is behind the wheel as Winston Zeddemore. Meanwhile, the DeLorean is a legitimate DeLorean, a DMC-12 model from 1981 fully customized to resemble the famous time machine, though it’s highly unlikely to actually send you back in time. According to his financial records, Sheridan has spent $160,350 for the Batmobile, $140,359 for the Ecto-1, and $51,300 for the DeLorean.
According to police, Sheridan had been overbilling Medicaid by tens of millions of dollars between 2015 and 2017. This was allegedly done through his business, the Braking Point Recovery Center, which had offices in the Ohio towns of Austintown and Whitehall. In January, Sheridan was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay more than $24 million in restitution. In addition to the movie car replicas heading up for auction, prosecutors also sought to seize Sheridan’s property and more than $2.9 million in cash and accounts. It would seem that the real Batman would be very disappointed in Sheridan.
The auction will be held in Canal Fulton, Ohio, at 9 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 1. Skipco Auto Auction will be hosting the event. Only up to 120 people will be permitted to enter the premises, with face masks strongly encouraged along with social distancing. It will also be simulcast online for potential buyers to place their bids without attending the auction in person. Anyone interested must first register online at http://www.skipco.com/Skipco, at which point bidders can even input their maximum bids ahead of the auction if they do not wish to participate during the live auction. This information comes to us from the U.S. Marshals Service.
