Feds selling $1 million worth of classic cars bought with embezzled Russian cash

Government seizure auctions tend toward the predictable cars of thieves and tax cheats; lots of high-buck SUVs or expensive sports cars. It's far rarer to see a piece of history like a 1939 Bugatti 57C fall into the impound lot, let alone a mini-fleet of eight classic cars that run from Packards to Mercedes-Benz valued at $1 million. Here's how a Russian money laundering scheme led to the G-men taking the keys.

According to federal court documents, the cars belonged to Leigh E. Sprague, an American citizen who worked in the Moscow offices of Rusal, a Russian company that's the world's largest producer of aluminum. Using fake emails and a shell company, federal officials say Sprague and his wife diverted some $10 million in Rusal's cash to their own accounts and used at least $1 million to buy 13 cars including several rare convertibles. When a Rusal executive in Moscow attempted to confront Sprague about the scheme in April 2011, Sprague said he had to go to the bathroom and ran out of the building.