A prominent European high-tech executive was arrested Wednesday at his Bel-Air estate on suspicion of posing as a police officer to buy at least one gun, widening an international investigation that began with the crash of a rare Ferrari in Malibu.
Carl Freer, 35, allegedly flashed a badge from an obscure San Gabriel Valley transit authority and said he was a sworn police officer so that he could purchase a gun from a dealer without the required background checks, authorities said.
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives said they found 12 rifles and four handguns during searches at the Swedish national's home in the Bel-Air community and on his 100-foot yacht docked at Marina del Rey.
A statement released through the Sitrick and Co. public relations firm quoted Freer's attorney as denying that the executive did anything wrong.
"This is the result of a misunderstanding over the purchase of a gun, which we hope to resolve in the coming days," attorney Michael B. Miller said in the statement. "At no time did Mr. Freer misrepresent himself to a gun shop."
Freer is the former managing director of Gizmondo, a once high-flying European video game player company that went bankrupt last year and is now the subject of several investigations. A fellow executive, Bo Stefan Eriksson, has been accused of crashing an Enzo Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway while drunk in February.
Freer and Eriksson were also members of the "anti-terrorism unit" of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, a small private company that provides rides to disabled people and the elderly in Monrovia and Sierra Madre.
The men served as advisors and were not sworn officers. But the agency issued both men cards, and Freer received a gold shield with "deputy commissioner" embossed on it.
Until now, detectives were puzzled about why two Bel-Air businessmen would be involved in an obscure transit agency.
But sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Wednesday that officials now believe Freer used the badge to buy one weapon and in at least one case, signed a sworn document saying he was a police officer.
Neither Freer nor Eriksson would be allowed to purchase guns in the U.S. because they are foreign nationals, Whitmore said.
"We have a wider investigation into who was given police identification by this supposed police agency," he added.
Miller, however, said in the statement that Freer "never misused the SGVTA badge."
