OUR FRIENDS over at Jalopnik have a scoop: Secretly filmed video of Daniel Seppings, you remember, the man we identified as the religious extremist nutcase behind the Super Replica Car scam run out of David.
In more than an hour of video, we learn several things. First that there is no car factory where specialized personnel puts high quality replica cars together. There is, in fact, no factory at all. What there is is a driveway garage next to a house, with two beat up ugly fake Lamborghini cars made of styrofoam or something. The cars won't even start. They don't show these cars anywhere on the website. We think Seppings got these cars somehow for pennies and decided they'd be the basis for his new scam, until he figured out that it's much easier to just steal pictures of existing cars made in real factories.
The videos were made by a guy who knew Seppings' wife in the US. Fascinating part of the Jalopnik story:
"Seppings' former wife, Emily*, told Jalopnik via email that she met Seppings in May 1996 through their church. At the time, he had only been in the U.S. a few months and was working as a carpenter. Their courtship was brief but concluded in marriage
"It didn't take very long for me to realize the mistake I had made," Emily said.
Emily described Seppings as a compulsive liar, a person who tells falsehood after falsehood until they become truth to him, and someone who can maintain a facade of normalcy for only so long before launching into bizarre tirades about religion and government conspiracies.
Soon after they were married, Emily discovered Seppings was living in the U.S. illegally; admitted he had a wife in Australia and five kids; and told her he was a prophet ordered by God to "take down" the Mormon church. Seppings also told her God dictated new "scriptures" for him to write down. (...)
During their brief marriage, Seppings made various "pilgrimages" to places like New York and the Grand Canyon. Emily said she made it clear she wanted no part of what he was doing, and after he declared he needed to "go into the wilderness" again in 1997, she never saw him again. After learning he was still legally married in Australia, she got the marriage annulled."
Both the ex-wife and the author of the videos claim that Seppings is running his replica car scam to fund a lavish lifestyle and new religious endeavors. He seems to be living in a real nice big house in Chiriqui.
Which is exactly where we'll be heading later this week.
Here's one video, with Seppings talking in the car (a real car). For the full scoop, head over to Jalopnik, here.
What he is doing with cars is no different than many of the real estate agent / developers here. Drawings of things that don’t really exist, lies to the point they believe there own lies. False tagged Youtube videos showing somewhere else on the planet. Cad cam generated animated videos of their exclusive communities with Lamborgini’s parked in the driveways and Monaco yachts docked at the marina that CAN’T be built. Self generated press releases, self generated Wikipedia about themselves. Smokescreen fronts to entrap “investors” such as B & B’s hostels, restaurants, tour agency, and much more.
The only thing they lack is a religious nutcase such as Seppings.