It's all in the family...
My wife is the finance manager for the group at Ford responsible for the RM-Ford Auction at PB (see a little further down the page, Kayvan, for that story and link on the page link you posted). My neighbor is the guy actually responsible for those cars.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/13/monterey-2010-blue-oval-bargains-kick-off-rm-auction/The article is correct, they didn't get quite as much as they wanted, but prior to the auction management had backed out some of the cars originally slated for auction. Two charities were the sole beneficiaries; the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and the Children's Center. None of the articles on that auction seemed to mention that it was a charity fund-raiser, not a corporate fund raiser.
The sad thing is my neighbor returned home here on
Friday; he had the requisite tickets for
everything there--the Concours, Laguna, Historics--but came home after the RM Auction. When taking a walk on Sunday and I saw him, I told him he was crazy for missing that stuff! Then I told him the
next time he does this sort of thing, he can still come home AFTER giving me his tickets and passes!