Ant Anstead and his Radford Motors co-founders are promising to address lawsuits from several clients who claim they paid large deposits to the company, but never received the custom cars they ordered.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct 22. One week later, on Oct 29, a representative for Radford told PEOPLE that they have received court approval for financing to fund operations, which “will allow the [the company to] work towards completing vehicles in process” as they restructure.
The statement continues, “Any and all claims will be addressed as part of the bankruptcy case.” This seemingly refers to the numerous lawsuits currently filed against Anstead and his business partners, alleging that they accepted deposits in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for cars that were never completed — and failed to refund the customers for months or years.
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At least four clients have filed lawsuits against Radford in the last year, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE.
Would-be customer Timothy Tasker alleged in a May 2024 filing that he still has not received a limited edition Lotus-Radford Type 62-2 model nor his $101,000 deposit — two years after placing the order.
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Tasker’s filing claims he was told that his finished car would be delivered by 2023. However, in October of that year, he told Radford he wanted his money back due to “a lack of progress.”
Tasker claimed Radford “understood” his concerns and promised him “a full refund.” However, he claims his phone calls and emails went unanswered for “months” when he attempted to follow-up.
A Luxury car dealership, Lamborghini Palm Beach, and a Florida-based surgeon, Scott Katzman, are two other clients who filed a joint lawsuit against Radford in July 2024, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE.
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Neither of the two cars they ordered “has been delivered and no refund has been made,” the dealership and Katzman said of their individual customized Radford-Lotus vehicles, despite them making multiple deposits totaling $1,050,000.
Attorneys for Tasker, Katzman and Lamborghini Palm Beach did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Another lawsuit filed by one of Anstead’s former business associates, Roger Behle. alleges a similar scenario occurred in January 2024 with a customer who made a $100,000 deposit.
In the filing obtained by PEOPLE, Behle claims hours after the money was wired, Anstead and his business partner Daniel Bednarski “took $54,635.52 from this deposit and used it to pay a vendor for work unrelated to the new client’s vehicle” and “Twenty-nine minutes after the first wire was sent, Bednarski took more of the new client’s funds and paid himself $20,000 via wire.”
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Last week, Anstead exclusively told PEOPLE that he continues to be “fully committed” to the company, adding that his “role and dedication to Radford’s success continue unchanged.”
Speaking to PEOPLE in 2023 about his five-part docuseries Radford Reborn, which followed the creation of the brand’s Radford Lotus 62-2 supercar, the Celebrity IOU: Joyride host said the project was “personally a huge risk for me. We have seven people, and we privately funded this. We are doing it. We’re risking everything.”
Anstead added, “We are now moving into production … We’ve sold a number of cars to collectors all over the world, and we are now delivering those cars.”
