At $11.9 million US, the agreed-upon price for the Mercedes was steep.
But the buyer — an alleged money launderer for a transnational criminal network — was accustomed to dealing in eye-watering sums.
CBC News has uncovered new details about the purchase last year of a rare Mercedes-Benz supercar, recently seized by the FBI amid its investigation into Canadian fugitive Ryan Wedding.
This spectacular seizure, thought to be the most valuable vehicle ever confiscated by U.S. federal authorities, made headlines around the world.
After all, the roofless 2002 CLK-GTR Roadster is considered a unicorn by car aficionados and was apparently coveted by Drake. Believed to be one of only six of its kind ever built, the FBI said the silver stunner was worth $13 million US — $1.1 million more than the purchase price last year — as it highlighted the seizure last week in a social media post.
According to a bill of sale obtained by CBC News, the vehicle was purchased last year by Rolan Sokolovski, a Toronto-area jeweller recently identified by U.S. authorities as one of Wedding’s two “chief money launderers.”
It’s not clear whether Wedding — a one-time Olympic snowboarder accused of leading a murderous cocaine-smuggling empire — ordered the purchase. But the vehicle appears to fit into what the U.S. Treasury Department recently described as a “complex web” of global assets used to launder Wedding’s vast sums of drug money.
The purchase agreement dated Aug. 8, 2024, features Sokolovski’s signature and names his company Diamond Tsar as the buyer. Treasury officials allege Sokolovski acted as a bookkeeper for Wedding’s $1-billion US criminal enterprise, using Diamond Tsar as a front to launder its funds.
In that role, the 37-year-old Sokolovski allegedly handled hundreds of millions dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency for Wedding, one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives, and procured jewelry and vehicles for him.
Wedding, 44, is believed to be hiding in Mexico, with the U.S. offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture.
A race car built for the street
As for that Mercedes, it’s like new — it has only been driven 22 kilometres.
The bill of sale lists two exotic car dealerships, based in Missouri and Florida, as being involved in the deal. With a $2-million deposit from Sokolovski, the Mercedes was to be delivered to Curated Vintage Supercars in Miami and kept there until the remainder of the $11.9-million purchase price was “paid in full.”
Later that month on its Facebook page, Curated heralded the CLK-GTR as part of “possibly the most epic arrival in the history” of the dealership.
With a powerful 6.0-litre, V12, 612-horsepower engine and a top speed of 335 km/h, this isn’t just a sports car. It’s a race car.
In the 1990s, Mercedes was required to make a road-going equivalent to its entry in the FIA GT Championship series. The CLK-GTR was designed as a street-legal “homologation special.”
In a video posted online, Hershel Zelcer, a representative for the Miami dealership, said that Roadster — number five of the six ever made — had belonged to the royal family of Abu Dhabi. He claimed the company had sourced the car for Drake, but the deal with the Canadian hip-hop star ultimately fell through.
“There might have been some miscommunications, but Drake didn’t show up to the party,” Zelcer said.
He told CBC News that Curated handed the car over to the FBI last month.
“Rolan was a very disarming individual,” Zelcer said in a telephone interview. “We would have never suspected he had anything to do with this kind of stuff.”
Big-ticket assets seized by U.S. federal law enforcement are often auctioned off, but it’s unclear what will happen to the Mercedes. An FBI spokesperson told CBC News an affidavit laying out details of the seizure remains under seal.
Ryan Wedding once represented Canada as an Olympic snowboarder; now he’s accused of being a drug kingpin and is on the FBI’s most wanted list — with a $10 million US reward being offered for information leading to his arrest. CBC’s Thomas Daigle traces his shocking path from the top of the slopes to the underworld.
‘Complex’ global money-laundering scheme
The Lithuanian-born Sokolovski was arrested last month and faces extradition to the U.S. on charges related to cocaine distribution and money-laundering conspiracies. He was named in a sweeping grand jury indictment recently unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which also led to the arrests of a prominent Toronto-area lawyer and a crime blogger accused of helping Wedding set up the murder of an FBI witness.
The indictment, combined with recent statements from U.S. Treasury officials, provides the clearest picture yet of what investigators believe to be a transatlantic money-laundering operation surrounding Wedding’s alleged drug ring.
“Wedding operates through a complex web of individuals and companies to launder his drug proceeds, using everything from front businesses to luxury cars to cryptocurrency,” Treasury Undersecretary John Hurley recently told reporters.
According to the Treasury, Sokolovski acted alongside former Italian special forces member Gianluca Tiepolo as the network’s chief money launderers. Tiepolo allegedly held millions of dollars’ worth of Wedding’s property under his own name, while operating luxury car and motorcycle businesses out of Italy and England.
Sokolovski made millions of dollars’ worth of monthly vehicle payments to Tiepolo on behalf of Wedding, according to documents filed in an Ontario court.
What’s more, Tiepolo founded Windrose Tactical Solutions, which provided “military-style tactical training” for Wedding’s hitmen, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement last month.
The Department also said the Thunder Bay, Ont.-born fugitive’s Mexican wife, Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno, “launders drug proceeds for Wedding and has helped him conduct acts of violence,” without providing further details.
Wedding’s network has been linked to dozens of murders, including the shooting deaths of a Indian couple in Caledon, Ont., who were mistakenly targeted over a stolen cocaine shipment.
Rasheed Pascua Hossain, another Canadian identified in the indictment as a key money launderer for the “Wedding Criminal Enterprise,” was arrested last month in Vancouver. Also known as “JP Morgan,” Hossain was allegedly found to have sent $207,808,779 to Wedding in the cryptocurrency Tether over a six-month span in 2024.
In all, the U.S. imposed Treasury sanctions last month on 10 individuals and nine entities linked to Wedding, including Sokolovski and Diamond Tsar.
“Im deeply concerned about the bank transfer you did for me before,” Wedding’s alleged top lieutenant, Andrew Clark, purportedly wrote to Sokolovski on Oct. 4, 2024. “Of [sic] that guy I tried to kill,” Clark added, “and police interviened.”
As the FBI continues its hunt for Ryan Wedding, the former Olympian turned alleged cocaine kingpin, CBC News has learned how he may have used a $13-million US Mercedes as part of a global money laundering scheme.
“If they wanted to ask me anything I think they would of [sic] by now,” Sokolovski later said, according to a partial transcript of the chat included in court records.
Sokolovski, who was living in a downtown Toronto condo at the time of his arrest, remains in custody. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.
His lawyer Scott K. Fenton declined to comment.
CBC News senior reporter Thomas Daigle has extensively covered the search for Ryan Wedding. He can be reached by email at thomas.daigle@cbc.ca.
