Michigan Insurer Questions FBI Story About Wrecked Ferrari

A Michigan insurance company suing to force the federal government to pay $750,000 for wrecking a rare Ferrari in Kentucky has questioned whether it was simply an accident.

Motors Insurance said its investigation showed the high-performance car was being driven toward a dead-end in a Lexington, Ky., industrial park in 2009 “with no outlet to other roads.”

There is “good reason” to believe that an FBI agent and a federal prosecutor “were taking an extremely rare and exceedingly fast Ferrari out for a joyride,” the insurer’s attorney, Richard Kraus, said in a new court document filed last week.

The 1995 Ferrari F50, one of only 50 in the U.S., was stolen in Rosemont, Pa., in 2003 but recovered five years later in Kentucky. Motors Insurance, based in Southfield, says it gave authorities permission to keep it stored there during the criminal case.

The U.S. Justice Department has been tight-lipped about the crash and released just one document to the insurer, an email from Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Hamilton Thompson who was a passenger. He said he was invited for a “short ride” before the Ferrari was to be moved from an impound garage.

The driver, FBI agent Fred Kingston, 34, lost control and the car hit bushes and a small tree, Thompson said.

The government has asked U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn in Detroit to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it has civil immunity when controlling certain goods. Kraus said he’s been “stonewalled” in getting any information and asked the judge to allow him to interview people familiar with the crash.

Cohn met privately with both sides on June 13. Lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment.