Lawyer searching for Lamborghini once owned by man accused of running crypto scam

A Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4, front, a Bugatti Veyron 16.4, center, and a Bugatti GTV8S Convertible, rear are pictured during the annual press conference of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 13, 2014. (Michael Sohn /AP Photo)

A Lamborghini was allegedly sold for just $20,000. It sounds like the deal of the century, so much so that it didn’t add up for a group of victims in a reported crypto currency scam.

Colin Murphy regularly posted photos and videos of himself Instagram along with his 2017 Lamborghini, which has become the central focus of a fraud recovery endeavor for lawyer Norman Groot. Murphy has been accused of operating a Ponzi scheme within a Ponzi scheme after an Oshawa, Ont. resident launched a civil lawsuit against him in December of 2022.

"Mr. Murphy initially advised (the courts) that he'd sold the Lamborghini for $20,000," according to Groot, who’s been working to locate Murphy’s assets for months.

Though recently, an alleged victim of Murphy’s says she found the Lamborghini online for sale in Fort Lauderdale, Flo. for $200,000 dollars.

The victim, whom CTV News is calling Sally, says she had been searching online for months. Sally says that before she handed over her cash investment to Murphy, she had him sign a lien on his Lamborghini. When Murphy claimed he'd sold the vehicle for just $20,000, she was sure he was lying.

She says she Googled the VIN "and three links popped up for a 2017 Lamborghini Huracan." Once she looked closer at the postings online, Sally says she thought to herself, "Oh my god, I think I found the vehicle."

A buyer in the United States claims that Murphy sold the Lamborghini in Las Vegas, not for $20,000, but for $120,000 cash. The buyers' lawyer even sent a photo to Groot of the cash exchange allegedly taking place inside the luxury vehicle, as well as the bill of sale.

"We have no explanation right now as to where the money is," Groot says in reference to the sale of the Lamborghini.

Murphy has been ordered to appear before a court and disclose where the missing money from the Lamborghini sale is located, but a date has yet to be filed.

Victims claim that Murphy is an associate of Canada's so-called "Crypto King," Aiden Pleterski, and that the two ran parallel Ponzi schemes. Pleterski allegedly owes at least $35 million to investors.

Both have since been arrested and charged with fraud of $5,000 in connection with the missing investments.

One investor says Murphy's lifestyle gave him credibility.

"He had some toys and some money, so there was a belief on my part that (Murphy) was legit for sure," said Craig Sutherland, who says he invested $270,000 with Murphy.

Sutherland also says Murphy sent regular updates reporting massive returns. Sutherland soon learned that it was all too good to be true. Murphy began ghosting him and other investors, then began to claim he too was a victim of Pleterski and that he'd lost money. But he was still taking lavish and expensive vacations and posting them online.

So he launched a civil suit and began speaking out.

In January 2023, Groot and a private investigator obtained a civil search warrant for the residence where Murphy was staying in Whitby, Ont.

Investigators executed the warrant and found an iPhone 13 hidden in a washroom inside the home. Murphy grabbed the phone from an investigator and refused to hand it over. When he finally turned it in the next day, forensic experts concluded that he had deleted data from the device, which he later described as "resetting" the phone because there were "intimate photos" on it.

Sutherland believes that Murphy is trying to hide a digital crypto wallet, which he claims Murphy showed him one night while they were out for dinner.

"He showed me his floating balance that he had on his phone and it was, like, $1.3 million in crypto," says Sutherland.

Murphy was convicted of contempt for wiping his phone, and sentenced to five months in jail -- which he's now appealing.

As for the cash from his recent car sale? That too remains a mystery.

At a loss about where all the cash might be, Groot notes that for all he knows, "It could be in a shoe box under his (Murphy’s) bed.

With files from Hannah Alberga and CTV W5