Remember Virgin's 'Full Tilt Poker' sponsorship?

[Jordan192]

So... yeah.

Sponsors getting sued for fraud? That's some top-notch Rejectiness, that is.

[FullMetalJack]

Because being beaten by HRT two years in a row isn't quite rejectful enough.

[Yannick]

Wasn't Leyton House also sued for fraud?

And how about the original Lotus' involvement in the DeLorean fraud case? There surely is a tradition at Group Bahahahahar ...

Oh, I shouldn't be so mean. I mean will they or won't Group Lotus badge an IndyCar engine for next year?

[sswishbone]

As bad as this is it won't top sassetti being sued for fraud himself during the most gloriously rejectful team owner term ever served

[Captain Hammer]

Sponsors getting sued for fraud? That's some top-notch Rejectiness, that is.

Reject sponsor, yes. Not a Reject sponsorship deal. From the sounds of things, Full Tilt Poker had a lot of people conned - a lot of professional poker players endorsed them, too. And they'd be in a bigger and better position to judge a company like Full Tilt than Virgin's management.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time an online gambling company that sponsored a racing team got in hot water. In 2009, the V8 Supercars saw "Team IntaRacing", sponsored by online gambling site IntaBet, run by a Queenslander named Daniel Tzvetkoff. But Tzvetkoff disappeared - it's currently believed that he is a federally-protected witness in the USA - and IntaBet was revealed to be a similar scam.

[David AGS]

There are a few sponsors who put logos on the car but didnt pay up:

A few come to mind:

GAZPROM, Wilux and STAYER with Minardi
Phard with Pantano?

Oh, and Prince Malik from Arrows 1999.

But then you got other reasons, I think like Eurobet, who backed out of a big sponsorship deal with Arrows mid-way through due to massive debt etc.

Slightly off topic, I got F1 2011 Game, Hispania Group getting free coverage, after all the cars liveries were taken from the start, as we know Hispania Group no longer involved!

[Cynon]

I mean will they or won't Group Lotus badge an IndyCar engine for next year?

They're SUPPOSED to. Will they? Doubtful.

[mario]

I mean will they or won't Group Lotus badge an IndyCar engine for next year?

They're SUPPOSED to. Will they? Doubtful.

It's especially odd that Group Lotus have gone quiet on the Indycar engine given that they don't even have to do all that much besides change the name on the engine cover - Judd are doing most of the design work, albeit nominally in accordance with Group Lotus's instructions.

As you say, though, the longer that things have gone on for, the less and less we are hearing about Group Lotus's plans, especially since the team they currently are sponsoring have confirmed that they do not intend to use a Group Lotus badged engine. Also, it's worth noting that Group Lotus claimed that they would develop their own independent aero package for the new Dallara chassis - OK, work on that will have to be postponed to 2013 now, but we haven't heard anything about that program for a while either...

[IdeFan]

I mean will they or won't Group Lotus badge an IndyCar engine for next year?

They're SUPPOSED to. Will they? Doubtful.

It's especially odd that Group Lotus have gone quiet on the Indycar engine given that they don't even have to do all that much besides change the name on the engine cover - Judd are doing most of the design work, albeit nominally in accordance with Group Lotus's instructions.

As you say, though, the longer that things have gone on for, the less and less we are hearing about Group Lotus's plans, especially since the team they currently are sponsoring have confirmed that they do not intend to use a Group Lotus badged engine. Also, it's worth noting that Group Lotus claimed that they would develop their own independent aero package for the new Dallara chassis - OK, work on that will have to be postponed to 2013 now, but we haven't heard anything about that program for a while either...

They also had a LMP2 program that no one has heard about since last year too.

[Bleu]

Of the "not paying" sponsor Broker (Sauber 1994) can be included. IIRC it was a financial newspaper but I think it never materialized

[Nessafox]

Moneytron obviously,
Sponsored a lot in 1989 (including the seldomly seen race version of the Ferrari Mondial) and wasn't seen after. The formula 1 story is well known, and also that he tried to
get Porsche engines and promised to sponsor Porsche's Indycar-project in exchange.
The company: Van Rossem claimed to have a formula to predict stock ratings, and said he could make an endless amount of profits. It soon became obvious that it was
fraud and he got a few years in prison for it. Nevertheless he did manage to get in to the Belgian parlement in the beginning of the nineties and his most famous act was
calling 'vive la republique' in front of the Belgian King.
Officialy they didn't retreat because of fraud, but probably they actually did, although deliberatly.
So probably retreating in the beginning of 1990 was not only because of disagreements, but he certainly knew Formula 1 was a bit costly and he had still political ambitions.

I read in an interview that 'Johansson got only third because it would break Van Rossem's heart if one of his cars would beat a ferrari to victory', tells you enough basically.
And another famous quote was 'i should have written Moneytron and Vive La Republique on the underside of Gachot's car, his car has all wheels from the ground anyway'

I've actually just read some interesting stuff. Rumours has it Alain Prost was willing to buy the team in 1989.
Reading that article i found also conforms that Van Rossem did retreat because of financial problems with his company. Basically he entered in 1989 with his company to
attract investors, because Moneytron was in huge debts already. Originally he intended to pull out after the 1989 season, but had still many debts, and needed F1 to
attract investors. A no-named sponsor was found for 1990 (al that is known is that it would have been an American company), but it retreated after the accusations of
Balestre having nazi-connections, althus the rumours. So then he called Bernie, who managed to sell the team To the Middlebridge group (known of Brabham) and they
then sold it to Monteverdi. Also Gachot seemed to get kicked out because he was arguing to much with Van Rossem, just like he got kicked out by Eddie Jordan later.

[patrick]

If we're listing nutty sponsorship, one obvious one that I always frown at is McLaren and Mobil 1; while most teams have an oil partnership, getting in bed with exxon mobil really rustles my jimmies. Then again, they probably equal McLaren on the scandal rankings so it's no wonder they have such a love-in

[dinizintheoven]

While we talk of rejectful sponsors, why has nobody mentioned SS United yet? What were they anyway and where was their money supposed to come from?

Suuuuupaaaaa Aguri wa totarry bathprugged desu!

[TomWazzleshaw]

While we talk of rejectful sponsors, why has nobody mentioned SS United yet? What were they anyway and where was their money supposed to come from?

Suuuuupaaaaa Aguri wa totarry bathprugged desu!

I read about SS United a few days ago. SS United is, according to themselves, an Oil Trading company based in Hong Kong supplying petroleum products to several countries in Asia. Therefore they should have had no problem paying up.

[Ed24]

Slightly off topic, I got F1 2011 Game, Hispania Group getting free coverage, after all the cars liveries were taken from the start, as we know Hispania Group no longer involved!

While liveries are theoretically supposed to be from the start of the season, they somehow had no trouble updating the Toro Rosso to Canada specification with the Nova Chemicals and Falcon Private Bank logos.

[DemocalypseNow]

Therefore they should have had no problem paying up.

Unless of course they don't have any, because they don't actually trade. I could head up to Edinburgh, pay £20 and have an officially registered company by next week, it's really that simple.
What is clear however is they no longer exist - their website is only avaliable using internet archives, usually a sure sign a company has gone under.

[Cynon]

On the NASCAR side, there was the "male enhancement" pill/drink (Google it) ExtenZe, which sponsored Kevin Conway's career in the Sprint Cup Series, and all of his slow failure.

It did produce an awesome paintjob, but you got to take a real nice look at it because Kevin Conway, in one year, established himself as the NASCAR equivelant of Jean-Denis Deletraz. Jeff Gordon's spotter told him during one race that Greg Biffle's car had lost a cylinder, to which Gordon quipped; "Yeah, the 34 (Kevin Conway's number at the time) is down a driver."

About ExtenZe's non-payment... they got sued by two different teams, Front Row Motorsports and Robby Gordon Motorsports for not paying up. Robby Gordon, being as awesome as he is, reportedly punched Conway at the Las Vegas Sprint Cup race this year in the garage. Conway and ExtenZe owe Robby Gordon something like over a million US dollars...