The IRS still hasn't said why federal agents raided the Preston Hollow home of Straight Line Automotive Group founder Jeremy Wiggains in August, ultimately leaving the $3.3-million McMansion toting several boxes of documents. Pretty much all that could be gleaned at the time came from the bankruptcy filing he'd made the previous week, which claimed $50 million in debt to $1 million in assets and listed as creditors former Cowboy Martellus Bennett and current Cowboy Orlando Scandrick.
The Park Place family of car dealerships is more forthcoming about Wiggains' alleged misdeeds. In a lawsuit contesting the bankruptcy filing, the company says Wiggains was part of a conspiracy that siphoned off millions of dollars in cash and dozens of high-end cars from the local luxury-car empire.
According to the suit, Wiggains and his brother, Justin, did business frequently with a luxury-car wholesaler named Greg Duncan, who had been working with Park Place for two decades, buying some cars for the Park Place inventory while selling others for the company on commission.
The heart of the alleged scheme originated as a shell game. In order to avoid having Park Place dock his commission by $500 per car if they sat in his warehouse for more than 30 days, Duncan would pass them off to the Wiggains brothers to pretend to make a purchase.
On paper, this made Duncan look like a star, and he got full commission for the 40 cars he sold to the Wiggains. Yet when Park Place got around to collecting the money from the purchase, the money was nowhere to be found. Neither were the cars, which Park Place alleges were sold by the Wiggains to line their and Duncan's pockets.
The lawsuit doesn't specify what cars they stole, but the Park Place inventory is rather narrow, boasting Porsche, Mercedes, Lexus, Lotus and Volvo. Two of the vehicles came from Park Place's premiere collection, which includes Bentley, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Maserati and Jaguar.
The partnership was a two-way street. Duncan also bought cars from the Wiggains brothers for Park Place's inventory using Park Place money. In 44 cases, the lawsuit says, those checks were cashed but the vehicles they were for never arrived.
In court filings, Duncan and the Wiggains deny the accusations. Wiggains' bankruptcy case is ongoing. His most recent schedule of assets suggests he has parted ways with his 2012 Ferrari 458 Italia, valued at $240,000.
