Leonhard von Gottorp scandal
The Leonhard von Gottorp scandal, also known as KPA-Gate, was an accounting scandal involving KPA (Корпорация продвижения автоспорта), a Russian company formerly located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, tasked with handling promotional efforts for the AutoReject World Series since 2012. The resulting investigations and arrests and the financial fallout for AutoReject International directly led to the cancellation of the on-going 2020 AutoReject World Series season and the eventual dormancy of the series for two years.
2012-2018: Establishment of KPA and early scandals
KPA was founded in 2012 by former racing driver Jaropolk Petrovich (the alter ego of German racing driver Leonhard von Gottorp created as masquerade for his espionage of German high society) and was created specifically to handle the promotional business of the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series. The counter-series to Formula 1 founded by Frank Zimmer experienced massive growth in its first two seasons and the necessities of the fast-growing media business soon outperformed the financial means and personnel available of the Zimmer family. Over time, the company was tasked with all promotional endeavours of the series except negotiations with venues. The promotional agreement was maintained when the F1 Rejects Council moved to Europe and the growth of the series continued.
Further developments saw smaller part of the raceday experience, such as the catering for VIP guests and team-independent merchandise, handed over to smaller German companies which were owned by late German driver Leonhard von Gottorp. After von Gottorp was believed to have died, these companies were inherited by KPA. As inheritence taxes were filed properly and business resumed as usual, no enquiry into this development was made. In early 2015, the first major media outrage came towards KPA shortly after its promotional contract was extended until 31 December 2021: while there were previously heavy complaints about the quality of aforementioned merchandising were made on social media, those never grew to the point of media attention. The failure of KPA to deliver on the prizes of multiple raffles, including promised free tickets to F1RWRS Grand Prix weekends, drew negative international media attention.
During this time, KPA started overreporting expenses, the difference in sums being funneled towards the pockets of Jaropolk Petrovich to finance his racing exploits: competing in Russian club racing as well as lower-tier American Stock Car series. From 2018 onwards, KPA sponsored Eastern European karting drivers. This sponsorship would eventually end up revealing the extent of the scandal. After Russian business authorities fined KPA for overreporting expenses at the start of 2018, KPA instead funneled the money to Petrovich by overreporting sponsorship investments.
2019-2020: Death of Leonhard von Gottorp and cancellation of ARWS
From the end of 2018 onwards, the quality of the promotional efforts started heavily declining to the point that it became common knowledge in motorsport cycles. Online marketing at the time was reduced to amateur content creators on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, on-site logistics waned in quality at the expense of backmarker teams. In a web article on German newspaper Sport Bild, Blokkmonsta Motorsport accused on-site logistics issues caused by KPA caused some failures to qualify in the 2019 season. Further failed delivery of prizes for raffles and fan art contests damaged the image of the re-christened AutoReject World Series. While Daniel Prieto announced publicly that the series was looking to part ways with KPA and lobbied behind the scenes for the change, the very significant cancellation fee and the expected costs of finding a new promoter lead to the refusal of the commission to tie the contract with the target of letting the contract run out at the end of 2021.
As fraudulent book keeping resulted in an investigation of KPA's German sub-companies by German tax authorities and KPA itself found itself under fire for failing to deliver on the sponsorship agreements with a number of Russian kart drivers, Leonhard von Gottorp, under his Jaropolk Petrovich alias, entered the second season of the Africa Racing League. During the third race of the season on 15 December, von Gottorp experienced a severe stroke behind the wheel and died within a matter of minutes after crashing into the back of Salva Al-Bashir. While his motivations remain unclear, von Gottorp carried a testament with him that explained his fraudulent actions in detail.
On January 14, the appointed managing directors of the German companies were arrested and placed on trial for falsification of balance sheets and sentenced to suspended nine-month jail sentences. KPA itself was subject to an investigation by Russian authorities at the same time. The 2020 AutoReject World Series season went ahead despite this investigation, but on March 4, Russian authorities arrested a number of KPA employees and raided their head office in St. Petersburg. As the company became unable to fulfill its obligations and the financial responsibilities for promotion went back to the AutoReject International, the organisation proved unable to continue operation and declared bankruptcy on March 16, canceling the season in the process, leaving Alberto Cara and MRT as champions.
Aftermath
In response to the scandal, several tributes to Leonhard von Gottorp were removed. His bust was removed from the entrance of the Akrotiri Bay International Circuit where it was placed in 2014 after he had faked his death to honour his role in designing the track layout. The ADAC re-named the Leonhard von Gottorp-Pokal, a Northern German junior kart special race event, to the ADAC Kart Junior Challenge Nord.
After the bankruptcy of AutoReject International, a consortium of ARWS team owners purchased the assets of the organisation and tried to re-launch the series in 2021 as AutoGP but were unable to get the championship off the ground. After a second failed launch in 2022, Daniel Prieto cooperated with Japanese investors to re-purchase the ARWS trademarks in the summer of 2022 with the aim of bringing the series back. The AutoReject World Series returned in 2023 with a number of team owners from the AutoGP consortium entering the reborn series.
