Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, Saron, Hey Elizabeth, how are you good?
Speaker 3: I was just sitting over here watching Smoking in the
Speaker 3: Bandit Too, which is just the worst movie. And I
Speaker 3: love the Smoking the Bandit series, but it's such a
Speaker 3: cash grab. Oh my god, it's so bad. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's just terrible. But I love it for how terrible
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 2: I love that for you.
Speaker 3: That's what I was doing. How are you been?
Speaker 2: I'm good? Good is yeahm hm yeah. Do you know
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I do, Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: Tell me?
Speaker 3: Do you remember? I'm not sure if you were into
Speaker 3: this because it's a you know, I think it's one
Speaker 3: of the things like you usually need cousins or like
Speaker 3: some friends, and you apparently neither. So the easy bake oven? Yeah,
Speaker 3: did you ever play with an easy bake oven?
Speaker 2: I had a classmate who had one. I went to house.
Speaker 2: This is basically like you stick batter under a light bulb.
Speaker 3: An actual incandescent light bulb, but that was the heating element,
Speaker 3: and you pull out this like undercooked cake or like
Speaker 3: under cookies, and then the kids would eat them while
Speaker 3: their parents were like, look at that. They're like a
Speaker 3: little adults.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I wanted one, and my mom and
Speaker 2: my grandmar are like, we have an oven, what's wrong
Speaker 2: with you?
Speaker 3: It was a huge It's in the Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: of Toys, Like, even though it made really bad cake
Speaker 3: and cookies, people loved it and apparently get this, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: I got good news for you. You can get your own
Speaker 3: because it's back.
Speaker 2: Is it now?
Speaker 3: I swear to god? Has Bro brought it back? And
Speaker 3: they have this They just brought one out at the
Speaker 3: end of last year and it was the hit of
Speaker 3: apparently the holiday season. It was only available from Walmart
Speaker 3: and it sold out.
Speaker 2: Does it have AI?
Speaker 3: No, it doesn't have AI, but it interesting. They did
Speaker 3: update it with quote new retro modern style, colorful sprinkle lights,
Speaker 3: a built in timer, upgraded baking tools, and new mixes
Speaker 3: featuring updated flavors. If you're wondering about the heating element,
Speaker 3: they actually they don't use an incandescent light bulb anymore
Speaker 3: because you can't buy them right Hoast in California. I
Speaker 3: don't know about the rest to the country, but we
Speaker 3: couldn't have them, and they have a miniature heating element,
Speaker 3: so I imagine it's like a coil of some kind.
Speaker 3: So there you go, and it's like almost like forty
Speaker 3: five bucks at Walmart, they're sold out. You're gonna have
Speaker 3: to wait. You're dropping, is thought because you like cooking.
Speaker 2: I have then died a few months ago, and then
Speaker 2: I got a new one.
Speaker 3: Was it easy bake?
Speaker 2: No? No, I got a new one.
Speaker 3: That's awesome. Is it one of those like induction and
Speaker 3: everything everything itself? Yeah, it tells you its own name.
Speaker 2: Is zaps. My Apple preheating is done a super smartphone.
Speaker 2: I do. I just don't care anymore. I'll just hook
Speaker 2: everything up to everything.
Speaker 3: Your car, text you, your text, yure, my washing, text you.
Speaker 3: Your life is foreign to me.
Speaker 2: It's it's so great. I feel like I'm in the
Speaker 2: jetson You're somewhere. And then meanwhile, like LG is going through.
Speaker 3: My phone with it's like AI agent my.
Speaker 2: You know what? Who cares? I don't care.
Speaker 3: I don't care anymore about anything.
Speaker 2: No, really, there's no such thing as privacy. I don't care.
Speaker 2: Do whatever you want.
Speaker 3: Money's a lie. There's no such thing as privacy.
Speaker 2: Everything's everything's in a lab.
Speaker 3: I tell no one my real name.
Speaker 2: It's well, do you want to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2: I do messing with the fish. Oh, this is Ridiculous Crime,
Speaker 2: a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons.
Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
Speaker 2: percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Damn right, Oh gosh, I know.
Speaker 2: Every now and then when we stumble upon a crimer
Speaker 2: who is so perfect for this podcast.
Speaker 3: It hurts a poster child.
Speaker 2: IY so someone who embodies all the best parts of
Speaker 2: the crimes and the criminals that we love. And today
Speaker 2: I have that for you. Yes, this has San Francisco
Speaker 2: art crime, prison escapes, casinos, courtroom drama, beach fights, and
Speaker 2: trout fraud. What I could weep?
Speaker 3: That last one?
Speaker 2: He could weep. I've been at a real funk lately,
Speaker 2: like clinically funky, and this story, this criminal has lifted
Speaker 2: my dark mood like you wouldn't believe.
Speaker 3: George Clinton, he re enlivened your funk.
Speaker 2: Yes he did, he really did. It's like the universe
Speaker 2: saw my plight, saw that my light had gone out,
Speaker 2: and said, not so fast, lady host. Help is on
Speaker 2: the way, so let's get right to this. This guy
Speaker 2: is named Luke Brugnara, Luke Brugnara. Yeah, he says. He's
Speaker 2: often called Lucky Luke because he was so lucky in
Speaker 2: business in life. That was just like when I told
Speaker 2: people I have him and called Dizzy. Yes, very much.
Speaker 2: So you have to be very careful when you try
Speaker 2: and give yourself a nickname. He has a website, Brugnaracorp
Speaker 2: dot com. Naturally, please indulge me while I read to
Speaker 2: you from his bio on there.
Speaker 3: Oh, I love this, go please.
Speaker 2: Luke is a fourth generation San Franciscan, growing up in
Speaker 2: the Sunset District, attending Holy Name Grammar School, where he
Speaker 2: was student council and editor of the newspaper in yearbook,
Speaker 2: which Luke began for Holy Name School and then attended
Speaker 2: Saint Ignatius Preparatory for High School, where Luke competed in track,
Speaker 2: setting records in the long jump which stand today. Luke
Speaker 2: won the Jesse Owens National Invitational in Houston at thirteen
Speaker 2: years old and Los Angeles fourteen years old, jumping seventeen
Speaker 2: feet six inches and twenty one feet, respectively, winning the
Speaker 2: national championships. Luke also set the national accuracy fly casting
Speaker 2: record for the American Casting Association at fourteen years old
Speaker 2: in Columbus, Ohio, casting a perfect score one hundred in
Speaker 2: the fly accuracy, which still stands today as the national record.
Speaker 3: I don't believe any of this. Wait, I mean some
Speaker 3: of the early details, but twenty one feet at fourteen
Speaker 3: years old is ridiculous as a long jumper, one hundred
Speaker 3: percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I you know, this is a grown man on his
Speaker 2: corporation's website is telling us all the things he did
Speaker 2: as a child.
Speaker 3: Child and making them up or exaggerating.
Speaker 2: Nobody care. Yeah, so, I mean, I could honestly read
Speaker 2: the whole thing, but let me paraphrase some other highlights.
Speaker 2: He went to San Diego State. Okay, he ran track
Speaker 2: there and was amazing.
Speaker 3: Naturally, I was gonna ask.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, he went to San Francisco Law School.
Speaker 3: He didn't set more records in his Oh no, it's.
Speaker 2: Just like it was amazing and he was too good
Speaker 2: for the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they wouldn't let him compete anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's too good. You got to get off the track.
Speaker 3: Let someone else shine by.
Speaker 2: He didn't go to u S University of San Francisco,
Speaker 2: or like UCS San Francisco, which used to be called Hastings.
Speaker 2: He went to San Francisco Law School, and it's not
Speaker 2: accredited by the American bars near that. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 2: California bar. Pass rate is pretty dismal, okay, but it
Speaker 2: does have other interesting alums.
Speaker 3: It does exist.
Speaker 2: It does exist. Oscar Zeta Acosta, the inspiration for doctor
Speaker 2: Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He went there.
Speaker 2: The Buffalo former California Governor Pat Brown, father of governor
Speaker 2: and all around awesome guy Jerry Brown. His dad went
Speaker 2: there and Charles Gary. Now, if you ever have the
Speaker 2: desire to go down a rabbit hole, he's worth looking into.
Speaker 2: I saw a documentary about him a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: He was an Armenian guy who was chief counsel for
Speaker 2: the Black Panthers and a bunch of other really like
Speaker 2: famous and infamous groups. You're super interesting guy. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: Charles Gary was Garabedian. Okay, Yeah, he changed it anyway.
Speaker 2: So that's where Luke went to law school. He worked
Speaker 2: as an investment banker after graduating. I don't think he
Speaker 2: passed the bar took the bar, maybe because the California
Speaker 2: Bar has no record of him when I ran this yet.
Speaker 3: He went into em and a Elizabeth all that mergers next.
Speaker 2: Exactly, still going to put us the bar for that one.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety he married his college girlfriend and in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two he formed the Brugnara Corporation. He has
Speaker 2: four kids, Luke.
Speaker 3: The second, Lucky Luke Jr.
Speaker 2: Vincent, Lauren, and Brianna, and according to the website, the
Speaker 2: boys are also involved in the business. How up to
Speaker 2: date is the website?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Let me give you some more direct quotes from his website.
Speaker 2: This is so good. Luke has royal lineage with Habsburg
Speaker 2: bloodline on both his mother's and father's side, so.
Speaker 3: You're like Habsburg double.
Speaker 2: I think the Cannibal Brugnara. Luke's great grandfather times four
Speaker 2: was the Archduke of the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire from
Speaker 2: seventeen sixty to seventeen ninety six. On his mother's side,
Speaker 2: Pelais Gris di Mehramon, Luke's great grandparents were the Marquess
Speaker 2: and Marquessa of Catalonia Barcelona in the seventeenth to early
Speaker 2: twentieth century. It was a long they lived a long time.
Speaker 2: They were like biblical years. Yeah, like the biblical aufurs Luke.
Speaker 2: I'll continue. Luke was bestowed honorary thirty third degree by
Speaker 2: Sovereign Grand Commander of the Freemasons, Henry Clawson in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety three. Luke's maternal great grandfather times two is Alexander Morrison,
Speaker 2: founder of the venerable law firm Morrison Forrester, who was
Speaker 2: a San Francisco civic luminarian judge who endowed the Academy
Speaker 2: of Sciences Morrison Planetarium and UC Berkeley Library Morrison Library.
Speaker 2: Here's a fun fact about Morrison Forrester. Please everyone refers
Speaker 2: to it as MOFO. Yeah, Ley lean in to it.
Speaker 2: Their website is even mofo dot com. Yeah. So there's more.
Speaker 2: This will be important later.
Speaker 3: It was important to me then.
Speaker 2: Luke and his family have lived in Seacliff for the
Speaker 2: past twenty one years and Las Vegas. Luke purchased his
Speaker 2: Seacliff estate from Cheech Marin in two thousand. Luke leased
Speaker 2: his twenty five thousand square foot Las Vegas mansion to
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson in two thousand and eight for a million
Speaker 2: dollars for six months. Luke's house was the largest home
Speaker 2: in Las Vegas at that time like this is everything
Speaker 2: is the best, the biggest, the most expensive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well familiar, it's it's like an eleven year old
Speaker 3: Lyne to you.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly exactly so for those not the know, Seacliff
Speaker 2: is a neighborhood in San Francisco. It's west of the Presidio,
Speaker 2: right on the Pacific Ocean, just outside the Golden Gate
Speaker 2: And in fact most homes there have views of the
Speaker 2: Golden Gate bridge, but looking at it into the bay,
Speaker 2: not the other way around us. Your magnificent, beautiful and
Speaker 2: Cheech Marin, of course, is the actor slash comedian best
Speaker 2: known as one half of Cheech and Chong.
Speaker 3: And then also Nash Bridge for his work.
Speaker 2: On Nash Bridges, set in San Francisco, which you were
Speaker 2: familiar with. Personal used to heckle them and I could
Speaker 2: see them, so I think I've told this here he may.
Speaker 2: When I would see him and Don Johnson filming on
Speaker 2: the streets, I would yell dad to Don Johnson. And
Speaker 2: it happened a lot, and it really.
Speaker 3: Annoyed him, but it made Cheach smile. She thought it
Speaker 3: was funny, like this is a comedian.
Speaker 2: Like the fifth or sixth time that it happened over
Speaker 2: the course of like months. Dad, No over, Dad, please
Speaker 2: this no, look this way, I'm here anyway, this time
Speaker 2: I miss you. So Cheech's place in Seacliff was right
Speaker 2: on the water, and in fact there's this crazy zigzagging
Speaker 2: steep stairway down said cliff to the water below. You
Speaker 2: can check the house out on Zillow two to two
Speaker 2: four Seacliff Avenue. Look, the stairway I mentioned is illegal,
Speaker 2: by the way, never got permits. I don't think Cheech
Speaker 2: was the one who.
Speaker 3: Put it in, probably not probably, I think he does.
Speaker 2: Things on the up and up. So how did we
Speaker 2: get here? How did Luke become Lucky Luke? Let's go
Speaker 2: back to nineteen ninety three, Oh, back when he became Amazon.
Speaker 2: That's when Luke bought a note for one point five
Speaker 2: million dollars in bankruptcy court for the Cress Building at
Speaker 2: nine to three to nine Market Street in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: It was originally the Pantagious Theater in the consideration, and
Speaker 2: then it became a Crest department store.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: What it was when Luke picked it up. Offices maybe Anyway,
Speaker 2: he foreclosed on the former owner then got a three
Speaker 2: million dollar loan using the note, which made him one
Speaker 2: point five million upon clothes at Escrow, and he just
Speaker 2: kept buying buildings Downtownsco.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So in nineteen ninety five he bought seven three five
Speaker 2: Market Street. I used to work next door when Mother
Speaker 2: Jones was located at seven three one Market. That's another
Speaker 2: fun fact for you. So he bought seven three five
Speaker 2: Market for two point four million dollars and sold it
Speaker 2: two years later for five point two five million to
Speaker 2: get in this credit, Heidi prophet, I don't know, he
Speaker 2: told SF Gate quote. The plan is to keep buying.
Speaker 2: I'm only thirty two years old, and I'm going to
Speaker 2: buy as many properties as i can in the Central
Speaker 2: Business District in downtown San Francisco for as.
Speaker 3: Long as I can.
Speaker 2: He's like, We're going to run out of buildings, folks,
Speaker 2: till I own everything. So he's thirty two years old
Speaker 2: and he owns five hundred thousand square feet of office
Speaker 2: space in the city.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's incredible, it's wild.
Speaker 2: He said that he was worth one hundred million dollars
Speaker 2: and that he amassed it in just four years.
Speaker 3: And that's back when you wanted office space.
Speaker 2: In downtown share then there was a high demand, not
Speaker 2: like No. What's interesting too, is he has all this
Speaker 2: royal lineage, he says, but his was like a supervisor
Speaker 2: at juvenile Hall, so he didn't come from money.
Speaker 3: That's why I was wondering where the credit line.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Of course, maybe his freemason friends.
Speaker 2: Perhaps. According to sf Gate quote Brugnar's strategy quote, I'm
Speaker 2: going after any deal that's available because there's not much
Speaker 2: money available right now for borrowers. And I'm in a
Speaker 2: good position because I don't have anyone to answer to.
Speaker 2: Of course, I surround myself with the best people to
Speaker 2: help me make the right decision.
Speaker 3: I'm like a shock I sleep.
Speaker 2: But things weren't always on the up and up.
Speaker 3: No, it seems so on the straight and narrow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. In two thousand, he had to pay more than
Speaker 2: a million dollars in fines and penalties for letting tenants
Speaker 2: at the Post Street Medical and dental building he owned
Speaker 2: illegally disposed of syringes and gauze pads like they're supposed
Speaker 2: to be sealed and locked away before being removed by
Speaker 2: a licensed biohazardous waste disposal company.
Speaker 3: He's like, look, there's holes in the wall.
Speaker 2: Just throw it in the regular trash.
Speaker 3: I'm not paying, are you kidding?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I thought it was in the building. It was like,
Speaker 3: make it the trash in the dumpsters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, make make the needles the trash guys problem. According
Speaker 2: to SFGate quote, Brignara had argued in court that city
Speaker 2: officials were unfairly targeting him after he made unflattering comments
Speaker 2: about them in a San Francisco magazine.
Speaker 3: Well that's just done right there, That's what the judge.
Speaker 2: Was not buying it, and he's like, that's just done
Speaker 2: right there, he said.
Speaker 3: As he's done right there.
Speaker 2: He said Brugnara had quote no credibility, and this testimony
Speaker 2: must be quote rejected in its entirety as being untrustworthy
Speaker 2: with the judge. Yeah, he's just not having it. In
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine, Luke tried to get into the casino business.
Speaker 2: Oh no, he bought the Silver City Casino on the
Speaker 2: Strip in Las Vegas. It's a couple of blocks down
Speaker 2: from Circus Circus. Okay, he paid thirty one and a
Speaker 2: half million dollars for the building. Did he get the
Speaker 2: casino or just the hotel? Well, he got the he
Speaker 2: got the both.
Speaker 3: The whole thing, okay, and it was I don't think.
Speaker 2: There was a full hotel. It was like, I think
Speaker 2: it was more of a locals place, okay. Mandalay Resort
Speaker 2: Group was leasing the space at the time, and then
Speaker 2: Luke took it over, but he didn't have a gaming license,
Speaker 2: so the place closed down on Halloween nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: All one hundred and fifty employees found themselves.
Speaker 3: Out of work. You would you get that first, because like.
Speaker 2: Luke, he applied for a gaming license in August of
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine, but he was still undergoing a pre
Speaker 2: licensing investigation.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so No Casino.
Speaker 3: Nevada takes that stuff seriously.
Speaker 2: He wanted to redo the whole thing anyway. He's like,
Speaker 2: I want to tear this thing down. I want to
Speaker 2: build a San Francisco themed resort on this property.
Speaker 3: No one wants.
Speaker 2: Now, there was already a Walgreen. No, no one wants that.
Speaker 2: There was already a Walgreens on the property that he'd
Speaker 2: have to build around for some reason. Yeah, right, and
Speaker 2: everything is locked up inside of it. But he thought
Speaker 2: he'd have everything running up by like two thousand and two.
Speaker 2: Oh god, so three years here's the thing. The Nevada
Speaker 2: Gaming Commission denied his gaming license in a unanimous decision.
Speaker 2: Las Vegas Sun newspaper, one of the best to ever
Speaker 2: do it. Quote. Major concerns were poor financial record keeping,
Speaker 2: allegations Brugnara had failed to file tax returns with the
Speaker 2: Internal Revenue Service from nineteen ninety two to nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 2: run ins with San Francisco City regulators over alleged building
Speaker 2: code violations, and issues from Brugnara's personal life, particularly on
Speaker 2: allegations that Brugnara had made several death threats to associates
Speaker 2: and government officials.
Speaker 3: Death threats. Yeah, I like, how like they dug everywhere
Speaker 3: that they wouldn't look downy play I serious, but I
Speaker 3: didn't really just so investigated. That's great.
Speaker 2: So Luke was like, you know what, I'm going to
Speaker 2: sue you. Of course, must sue you, sue me, sue you.
Speaker 3: His settlement is like, you'll give me the license.
Speaker 2: Well, he said he talked to Joe Alioto and I've
Speaker 2: mentioned him on here before, former San Francisco mayor, big
Speaker 2: time lawyer.
Speaker 3: Tough guy, totally had the office in North Beach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so San Francisco Italian American to San Francisco Italian American.
Speaker 2: These two guys I started talking. Joe said he thought
Speaker 2: Luke had a case. At least that's what Luke was
Speaker 2: telling people. Look, Joe Alioto said, I got this. He
Speaker 2: didn't sue, but he did try again. And I guess
Speaker 2: you have to wait a year before reapplying. But if
Speaker 2: you get denied, you almost never get it on subsequent attempts.
Speaker 2: If it's uimous, unanimous and this stuff that you can't
Speaker 2: like explain or erase.
Speaker 3: No, And they wouldn't have replaced that many in the
Speaker 3: commission that quick now, so they're like, didn't we already
Speaker 3: do this?
Speaker 2: You're wasting my time exactly. So he sold the casino
Speaker 2: and the surrounding property in two thousand and two. The
Speaker 2: new owners tore everything down and built a ross dress
Speaker 2: for less. They paved paradise, put up a dress for less.
Speaker 3: My mother would be happy.
Speaker 2: So this is around the time that Luke bought Cheech's house. Okay,
Speaker 2: when he bought it, he got a glimpse of Cheech's
Speaker 2: art collection. Like Maren, is a serious collector. In fact,
Speaker 2: he has one of the largest and most important private
Speaker 2: collections of Chicano art anywhere in the world, more than
Speaker 2: seven hundred pieces, and he loans it out for exhibition
Speaker 2: and he actually now has pledged it to the cheech
Speaker 2: Marin Center for Chicano Arts and Culture in Riverside, Colugne,
Speaker 2: the great museum there. Yeah. So he has absolutely incredible
Speaker 2: pieces and one that stood out at the Seacliff home
Speaker 2: is this huge, breathtaking painting by Diego Rivera. Oh nice
Speaker 2: so Brugnara. He sees all this impressive art work, he
Speaker 2: wants it for himself, naturally, not that work though, like
Speaker 2: instead of Chicano art, he started collecting more of the
Speaker 2: old masters. From a Forbes article, quote, though Maren's taste
Speaker 2: ran to twentieth century Latin American artist like Diego Rivera,
Speaker 2: Brugnara prefers the pure a political craftsmanship of sixteenth and
Speaker 2: seventeenth century painters. And so you know, he goes on
Speaker 2: to tell Forbes that he finds great value in portraits
Speaker 2: of Jesus. Oh, and this is what he said to
Speaker 2: Forbes magazine quote, most of the great dealers are Jewish.
Speaker 2: That's not a bad thing, but it's a fact, and
Speaker 2: it's not their top priority to promote Jesus Christ. What
Speaker 2: the I don't even know what to do with that.
Speaker 2: And as I as I always like to say, I'm
Speaker 2: just going to leave it lay where Jesus flaying it.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Yeah, that's what we're going to do
Speaker 2: with that. So two thousand and three, Brugnara bought a
Speaker 2: painting Christ carrying the Cross for five hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: and it was supposed to have been painted by this
Speaker 2: minor Renaissance artist named gian Francesco d Mainieri. Luke didn't
Speaker 2: accept that. He was like, you know what, that looks
Speaker 2: like a Da Vinci to me. Yes, yeah, right, A
Speaker 2: lot of the Ninja Turtles did this one. So Christie's,
Speaker 2: the auction house that sold it to him, was like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, if you really think it's a Leonardo, reach
Speaker 2: out to a very well respected Italian guy. We know.
Speaker 2: He's seventy five years old, retired Professor's name's Carlo Pedretti.
Speaker 2: He's a Leonardo expert Florence.
Speaker 3: Great guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And like when he saw what Luke had, he's like,
Speaker 2: I'm a little interested in this. In fact, I'm a
Speaker 2: little familiar. He's like, there are three others just like
Speaker 2: it that I think might be the work of like
Speaker 2: one of Leonardo's studio assistants. Maybe Leonardo, but probably yeah,
Speaker 2: like the backup Mona Lisa. Luke is stoked. He's so
Speaker 2: fired up, so he hires Padretti to do research to
Speaker 2: back it all up, and he sends him a check
Speaker 2: for five grand. But then Luke finds out that even
Speaker 2: the hint of Leonardo, not even like confirmation of it,
Speaker 2: could drive the price up. So Pedretti. He's on vacation
Speaker 2: during the summer and not working fast enough for Luke's taste. So,
Speaker 2: according to Forbes quote, he decided he didn't want to
Speaker 2: wait for Padretti's opinion and stop payment.
Speaker 3: On the check.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I thought, I'm gonna say he sold it. No, He's like, stop.
Speaker 2: Payment because he wants to go sell it. So, of course,
Speaker 2: The Brugnaro Corporation website says the company owns quote a
Speaker 2: significant fine art collection, including old masters Raphael Caravaggio, Da Vinci,
Speaker 2: del Sarto, Tish and Rubens, modern and impressionist Picasso, Van Dojen, Soutine, Monet,
Speaker 2: des Ga and Sizon. It's contemporary Pollock, Warhol, Liechtenstein, decooning
Speaker 2: Helmmen and Ramos. They also say that Leonardo da Vinci's
Speaker 2: Christ Carrying the Cross circa. Fifteen hundred is valued at
Speaker 2: over one billion dollars one billion. Brugnar Corporation's fine art
Speaker 2: collection is valued at over three billion dollars.
Speaker 3: The one billion would be a record, Like that's double
Speaker 3: the most expensive Leonardo painting.
Speaker 2: Now, yes, that was then? Yeah, like how does he?
Speaker 3: Who did he think?
Speaker 2: He's lying to himself? Probably so who knows. Let's take
Speaker 2: a break and upon our return we're gonna up the
Speaker 2: legal ante.
Speaker 3: Yes, zaren I loving dumb people. Lie, this is so good.
Speaker 2: It's so good because it's just like, no, keep going?
Speaker 2: What else? They were three trillion dollars? How about that?
Speaker 2: Is that what you're your sofa is worth? Okay? So
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight was rough on a lot of people.
Speaker 2: There was that whole financial crisis thing, like thanks subprime mortgages,
Speaker 2: thanks derivatives. Two thousand and eight was rough for Luke Brugnara,
Speaker 2: but not for those reasons, although I'm guessing his finances
Speaker 2: and his real estate didn't have too smooth a ride. No,
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight is when things started to catch
Speaker 2: up with him. We always say that you shouldn't lie
Speaker 2: to the FBI.
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, we do.
Speaker 2: You also shouldn't lie to the I R S.
Speaker 3: Another good one not to lie to.
Speaker 2: Luke lied to the I R S. Oh yeah, he
Speaker 2: caught three counts.
Speaker 3: The irony of that is, they'll refer you to the FBI.
Speaker 2: Exactly. He caught three counts in April two thousand and
Speaker 2: eight for filing false income tax returns back in two thousand,
Speaker 2: two thousand and one, two thousand and two. Remember he
Speaker 2: went a stretch without filing at all because he had
Speaker 2: all those properties. Remember in those three years two thousand
Speaker 2: through two thousand and two, he sold a bunch of properties,
Speaker 2: and on each sale he made a profit, and he
Speaker 2: neglected to report those gains on his federal income tax.
Speaker 3: Oh so he was filing at this point and then
Speaker 3: just and just saying I don't know how that happened.
Speaker 2: Exactly. So he got those charges. But a few days
Speaker 2: later a grand jury hit him with more noise. On
Speaker 2: April tenth, two thousand and eight, Luke Brugnara and his corporation,
Speaker 2: Brugnara Corporation, they get charged with four counts of quote
Speaker 2: taking steelhead trout in violation of the Endangered Species Act
Speaker 2: and two counts of making a false statement during the
Speaker 2: course of the investigation.
Speaker 3: About your bond son your crimes.
Speaker 2: So it seems Luke intentionally blocked the flow of Little
Speaker 2: Arthur Creek, a watershed for steelheads. So there's this private
Speaker 2: dam called Pikell's Dam after the original homesteaders in the
Speaker 2: eighteen hundred, on some property that Luke bought just outside
Speaker 2: of Gilroy, California, Garlic. So he purposely closed the portal
Speaker 2: on the dam, and it was known that steelhead trout
Speaker 2: migrated upstream of the dam on the property. They struggled
Speaker 2: all the way up from the Pacific Ocean at Monterey Bay,
Speaker 2: through fields and everything else to get to and there's
Speaker 2: a threatened species. Why are they threatened? Thank you? Well,
Speaker 2: folks like Luke were blocking off the waterways like Little
Speaker 2: Arthur Creek with dams. So state and federal Fish and
Speaker 2: Wildlife investigators they went to check it out and they
Speaker 2: saw a bunch of adult steelhead trapped downstream of the dam.
Speaker 2: They couldn't migrate upstream to their spawning habitat, and a
Speaker 2: Federal Fisheries biologist he took a look, and we're like,
Speaker 2: these trout are essential to the survival of the species
Speaker 2: due to their low number found in the Pajaro River
Speaker 2: watershed and parro is how you know, locally we pronounced it,
Speaker 2: it's Paharo either way, So they had to be rescued
Speaker 2: and moved upstream. They had to gather them up. So
Speaker 2: the rescue team arrives to move the steelhead upstream and
Speaker 2: investigators are like, there are no fish here, They're gone.
Speaker 2: And then they also found evidence of poaching and trapping activities,
Speaker 2: so it wasn't just that he blocked the like damned
Speaker 2: it up. He was, you know, netting them in. So
Speaker 2: they're like, we have to talk to the property owner
Speaker 2: and that's Luke. And he was like, I didn't take
Speaker 2: the fish, no, and you know, I have no idea,
Speaker 2: did you. He's like, I don't even have the kind
Speaker 2: of lure that you would need that's capable of cat
Speaker 2: steelhead trout. He caught the fish, he had the lures.
Speaker 3: Like he was lying, He's got the truck.
Speaker 2: He's lying to Federal Fish and Wild So what's interesting
Speaker 2: is that this case is the first federal criminal case
Speaker 2: in the country charging an individual and corporation with taking
Speaker 2: steelhead trout by blocking access to upstream habitat first best,
Speaker 2: most important, dude.
Speaker 3: He got one. He finally got record.
Speaker 2: So it should be noted that in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: after decades of hard work by local fishing and environmental organizations,
Speaker 2: Pickel's Dam was.
Speaker 3: Removed part of the Oravile Dam.
Speaker 2: Trout Unlimited raised the bulk of the funds, coordinated the work,
Speaker 2: and a press release they said, quote this work removed
Speaker 2: the dam, it's non functional fish ladder, a concrete slab,
Speaker 2: and restored some three hundred feet of stream channel, enabling
Speaker 2: subservice water to rise and flow upstream of the dam
Speaker 2: in the dry season for the first time in decades.
Speaker 2: Heck yeah, Now that the dam is gone to you
Speaker 2: will manage the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the
Speaker 2: creek on the project side to enable continued access for
Speaker 2: the property owner. So there's like this was a huge thing.
Speaker 2: There's all this video of them tearing it down.
Speaker 3: I have remember friends posting videos on Instagram and they're
Speaker 3: excited about all. There's numerous damn teardowns in California going
Speaker 3: on right now and people getting geeked.
Speaker 2: At but it's a cool thing to watch, and it
Speaker 2: was like such a huge effort. I'm pretty sure Luke's
Speaker 2: not the property owner anymore. So Back in two thousand
Speaker 2: and eight, he pulled another stunt with that creek. He
Speaker 2: tried to sell the water in it to the City
Speaker 2: of Gilroy. According to the Gilroy Dispatch, the city administrator
Speaker 2: Quote called the entire premise of the proposition puzzling because
Speaker 2: he wrote, it seems like Brugnara is trying to profit
Speaker 2: off the way water currently flows. Water coming down Mount
Speaker 2: Madonna flows into Little Arthur Creek on Brugnara's one hundred
Speaker 2: and twelve acre property along Redwood Retreat Road and then
Speaker 2: feeds the Uvis Creek before percolating into the aquifer below Gilroy.
Speaker 2: Instead of paying the Santa Clara Valley Water District two
Speaker 2: point four million dollars a year to pump nearly three
Speaker 2: billion gallons of water from the aquifer, which it helps
Speaker 2: replenish by releasing water from the Juviis Reservoir, Brugnara has
Speaker 2: offered to sell quote his water in arrears for three
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars a year for the first two years,
Speaker 2: and then a fifteen percent marked down from the district's
Speaker 2: prevailing rate thereafter. Okay, and the article goes on. But
Speaker 2: if the water already leaves Brugnara's property and travels down
Speaker 2: Yuvus Creek along with the district's artificially released water, why
Speaker 2: would the city pay him on top of the water
Speaker 2: district thanks simple Brugnara has said, dump the godlike district
Speaker 2: and just pay him instead. The godlike quote godlike district.
Speaker 3: I want to be the godlike water figure. This is
Speaker 3: like the old Western where he's doing dams and trying
Speaker 3: to sell water downstreet.
Speaker 2: The city was like, big note, reject the offer, and
Speaker 2: Luke goes into a tizzy. He starts threatening people. He
Speaker 2: accuses everyone of corruption, and the city's like, you know what,
Speaker 2: that's crazy because we're still not interested.
Speaker 3: And so he's a.
Speaker 2: Waiting well he's doing this while he's a waiting trial
Speaker 2: on all this other stuff, on the tax stuff and
Speaker 2: on the trout stuff.
Speaker 3: Out from Vegas.
Speaker 2: It's nothing, and so he gets tangled up in a
Speaker 2: whole new legal mess. It's not so new. He'd been
Speaker 2: accused of these sort of things in the past, as
Speaker 2: we talked about threatening people, so in October of two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, four different people got restraining orders against him.
Speaker 2: I told you two thousand was rough, right. Apparently two
Speaker 2: of those people were employees at his children's school. They
Speaker 2: said that Luke forced another parent off the road with
Speaker 2: his car, and they said that he was known to
Speaker 2: carry weapons. Now, will I believe they mean a gun?
Speaker 2: I prefer to imagine like nunchucks or maybe a mace.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's maybe his fists are registered lethal weapons you
Speaker 2: know that are Anyway, Like I said, he had a
Speaker 2: history of this sort of thing. He once threatened a
Speaker 2: city attorney, court appointed receiver, his brother, his former mistress,
Speaker 2: and their child. Former mistress, Yeah, it was their child.
Speaker 3: He had an outside child.
Speaker 2: It was alleged that he threatened a witness to alter
Speaker 2: her testimony before the Nevada Gaming Commission. Wow, and then
Speaker 2: said witness already had a restraining order in place when
Speaker 2: he did this. So he later pleaded guilty to tax
Speaker 2: fraud and trout fraud. And then he tried to retract
Speaker 2: his pleas but they wouldn't let him, and then he
Speaker 2: did and then he like it went back and forth, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: He eventually gets sentenced to thirty months in federal prison.
Speaker 2: He got out in twenty twelve. Two years later, he's
Speaker 2: back at it baby. March twenty fourteen, he arranged to
Speaker 2: buy eleven million worth of paintings and other works of
Speaker 2: art from a dealer named Rose Long. Okay, eleven million.
Speaker 3: Eleven million dollars of paintings.
Speaker 2: Paintings in the business artwork. Yeah, he said that they
Speaker 2: were for display in his museum.
Speaker 3: His museum.
Speaker 2: So a couple notes on this one. He didn't have
Speaker 2: that kind of money in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 3: I'm guessing not. He just got out prison.
Speaker 2: And two he didn't have a museum.
Speaker 3: That was my big main question, what museum.
Speaker 2: Long was not aware of either of those notes and so,
Speaker 2: and since like it was going to museum and not
Speaker 2: a private collection, longs like, I'll give you a ten
Speaker 2: percent discount. That's fabulous, Okay. Luke was like, thank you
Speaker 2: so much. That's great. Also, I'm not going to pay
Speaker 2: for shipping. Okay, thank spy, Kay, thank spy. So he
Speaker 2: bought quotes sixteen paintings by Williem Da Kooning, the Dutch
Speaker 2: American abstract expressionist, for about seven million. For those, he
Speaker 2: threw down three million for a Diga sculpture. They're four
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand for a painting by American realist
Speaker 2: artist George Lukes, one hundred and sixty thousand for a
Speaker 2: drawing by Miro Yeah, and one hundred and forty five
Speaker 2: thousand for etchings by Pablo Picasso.
Speaker 3: Baby patchings. Okay, I'll take.
Speaker 2: Exactly so long of course, is like, okay, give me
Speaker 2: a deposit, give me a little upfront before delivery. And
Speaker 2: Luke's like, no, no, that's not going to work for me.
Speaker 2: Thank you, kay, thanks by He was like, don't forget
Speaker 2: I bought expensive stuff from you before. He bought a
Speaker 2: renoir for five hundred thousand dollars and another Picasso drawing.
Speaker 2: Oh really legitimately in the past. And so he's like,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm good for it.
Speaker 3: She's like, you know me, She's.
Speaker 2: Okay, fine, I'm in. So she gets all the pieces
Speaker 2: prepared for shipping, and she personally escorts them to San Francisco,
Speaker 2: where the museum is supposed to be. And so she
Speaker 2: and the art arrive and they make their way to
Speaker 2: the address of the museum two to four Seacliff Avenue,
Speaker 2: the former cheach House.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So about that museum. He told Long that he was
Speaker 2: opening a museum in San Francisco. She said that she
Speaker 2: hadn't heard anything about a new museum opening in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, did I say San Francisco. It's actually
Speaker 2: be in Las Vegas. You know, so I slip up
Speaker 2: sometimes about.
Speaker 3: Spanish words in San Francisco Las Vegas. Who knows.
Speaker 2: She didn't want to just like leave more than ten
Speaker 2: million dollars in art in the garage of a house,
Speaker 2: but what else could she do? I mean take them
Speaker 2: back with her, of course, But no, she left them
Speaker 2: at the Seacliff house.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Luke told her that he wanted to inspect the art
Speaker 2: when it came in. Yeah, But when Long and the
Speaker 2: art arrived, he was like, Oh, I can't. I'm busy.
Speaker 2: I have an appointment to view some property this morning. Sorry,
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 3: Miss your I'm double booked.
Speaker 2: I'm triple books. Yeah. So Long left the house without
Speaker 2: the crates being opened, and then she also left without
Speaker 2: getting paid. And then so what she did get was
Speaker 2: a lawyer, but then so did Luke. Luke's like, sue me,
Speaker 2: sue you for his argument. His argument was that the
Speaker 2: art was all a gift. She just gifted this to
Speaker 2: me and I'm sorry, but no takebacks, no vacksies, Bai.
Speaker 2: She's so generous.
Speaker 3: Kay, thanks by she loves me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just you know, I'm lucky, Luke.
Speaker 3: What can I say? Honor.
Speaker 2: So Luke also told his lawyer that the pieces were
Speaker 2: quote unauthenticated and not worth muchauthentic.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine being this dude's lawyer stuff and you're like,
Speaker 3: don't tell.
Speaker 2: Me that, Long Layer. They're going back and forth you
Speaker 2: He's like.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: He puts his fingers in his ears. The lawyers are
Speaker 2: going back and forth. Luke's lawyer was like, you know what,
Speaker 2: only four crates were delivered and then like a small box.
Speaker 2: And Luke was like, you know what, I'll return the
Speaker 2: gifts that you gave me, but I want something in reach.
Speaker 2: What Yeah, I don't know. So negotiations are at a standstill.
Speaker 2: So Long's legal team went to the FBI. Good for her,
Speaker 2: The FBI searched the Seacliff house in May of twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: took custody of four of the crates from the garage.
Speaker 2: None had ever been opened, thank goodness. So in the
Speaker 2: crates we have the mirror drawing, the Picasso etchings, the
Speaker 2: dacooning pieces, the Luke's painting. By the way, there's a
Speaker 2: real possibility that all the dacoonings were duf fake. But
Speaker 2: that's another story.
Speaker 3: Like intentionally counterfeit. She didn't know, she.
Speaker 2: May not have known, you know. Wow, So the fifth crate.
Speaker 2: But me, here's the thing, we talk about enough art crime.
Speaker 2: I think most of it's fake A good percentage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, er side, that's probably fair.
Speaker 2: It's probably fake. So that fifth crate, right, the one
Speaker 2: with the bronze casting of the Degas Little Dancer statue
Speaker 2: nowhere to be found. So it was on like the
Speaker 2: FBI is like this tastes good. I love this. Luke
Speaker 2: gets charged with a bunch of different counts of fraud,
Speaker 2: taken into custody. We're going to trial people. Luke, however,
Speaker 2: was going to freedom. So in February of twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: right before the trial started, Luke made an escape. What
Speaker 2: the judge gave him a three hour furlough so that
Speaker 2: he could change out of his prison garb and into
Speaker 2: a suit and like street clothes to meet up with
Speaker 2: his lawyer at the Federal building in Oakland.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: Instead, he just made a run for it. He took
Speaker 2: off first six days he evaded the Feds. When he
Speaker 2: was caught, he was hanging out in Los Gadows, which
Speaker 2: is at the edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains between
Speaker 2: Santase and Santa Cruz. If you need some sort of
Speaker 2: orientation there, and he had a perfectly good explanation for it.
Speaker 3: He took the road.
Speaker 2: No. See, he had been held at the Glen Dyer
Speaker 2: Jail in Oakland, so they're like, oh, okay, I get it.
Speaker 2: It's the one that's closed down now. It's above police headquarters,
Speaker 2: right next to the freeway with the slits for.
Speaker 3: Those downtown basically, So it wasn't just.
Speaker 2: That it was Glen Dyre jail. It was that he
Speaker 2: was being starved there, malnourished. He said he was being
Speaker 2: malnourished and he was going to come back for trial.
Speaker 2: It was honest. But he just nipped out for a
Speaker 2: bite to eat and less got us fifty miles away. Yeah, anyway,
Speaker 2: multiple so his lawyer withdrew representations.
Speaker 3: I knew. Yeah, his lawyer, he's just like, you're going
Speaker 3: to ruin my career just by being like.
Speaker 2: Why he's like ethical reasons, Yeah I cannot, And so
Speaker 2: they get in, they bring in a replacement lawyer, and
Speaker 2: then the replacement lawyer is like, yeah I can't. I
Speaker 2: have to withdraw representation for ethical reasons.
Speaker 3: So is it not a public defender? He's still paying right,
Speaker 3: and they're just like opting out, opting out.
Speaker 2: So who's going to be his lawyers?
Speaker 3: Erin himself, a fool.
Speaker 2: Luke represented himself.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I remember suddenly he went to law school.
Speaker 2: I went to law school. The trial was very chaotic,
Speaker 2: very unhinged, went on for two weeks.
Speaker 3: The judge walked out with white hair, came in with.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break, and when we come back, courtroom drama.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, Sarin.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I'm excited about this.
Speaker 2: We we go now to the trial of Luke Brugnara.
Speaker 2: An appeals judge would later write in his ruling, quote,
Speaker 2: this isn't a judge's.
Speaker 3: Ruling, this is the appeal. So he's looking at another
Speaker 3: judge's work.
Speaker 2: Comes back and this is like, this is okay. Quote
Speaker 2: from the moment his trial began. Brugnara's behavior could be
Speaker 2: described as appalling. And then it just goes from thereat right.
Speaker 2: So apparently when government attorneys objected, he would just keep
Speaker 2: talking right over him, like he didn't hear him. He
Speaker 2: talked over and interrupted the judge like, Yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: need you to hold it a second. I'm still not done.
Speaker 2: When he would be told to settle down, he would
Speaker 2: just yell louder. He ignored procedure. He gave speeches when
Speaker 2: he was supposed to be questioning witnesses.
Speaker 3: Is he trying to get his case thrown out? Like?
Speaker 3: Is he going for like a mist?
Speaker 2: He's luking it up. And he tried to sneak in
Speaker 2: evidence during questioning that had already been ruled in admissible.
Speaker 2: He was he was rude. He was luke Luke. So
Speaker 2: zaren closure. You are a bailiff in the federal courthouse
Speaker 2: in San Francisco. You've been on the job for more
Speaker 2: than a decade and you've seen a lot. You're standing
Speaker 2: by the bench as the judge welcomes everyone back into
Speaker 2: court after a recess. The murmured conversations die down, and
Speaker 2: the judge tells the prosecution that they can call their
Speaker 2: next witness. The government attorney stands and calls some commercial
Speaker 2: real estate broker to stand. A man at a fine
Speaker 2: suit and expensive haircut approaches and you swear him in.
Speaker 2: Brugnara stands and begins to question the witness. The US
Speaker 2: attorney calls out, your honor, that's her witness. The judge
Speaker 2: bangs his gavel and warns Brugnara to sit down. Brugnari
Speaker 2: stares at the US attorney, looks her up and down,
Speaker 2: and then tells her that she dresses like a Nazi. Enough,
Speaker 2: shouts the judge, this whole trial has been wild, crazier
Speaker 2: than anything you've ever seen. Brugnara says something about how
Speaker 2: bossy the US attorney is and that the judge should
Speaker 2: just lend her his robe, seeing how she's running things
Speaker 2: in here. You cringe in anticipation of the judge's ire.
Speaker 2: He threatens Brugnaro with contempt of court. Brugnara ignores him
Speaker 2: and just sits back down. The gallery whispers to each other,
Speaker 2: and the judge bangs his gavel again. After questions from
Speaker 2: the US attorney, it's time for cross examination. This is
Speaker 2: bound to be good, you think. Brignara asked the guy
Speaker 2: if he would still be able to obtain financing through
Speaker 2: his company if he were acquitted. The witness chuckles a
Speaker 2: bit and then says absolutely not. Brugnara doesn't like this.
Speaker 2: He asked the question again, telling the witness to really
Speaker 2: think about what he's saying. The witness repeats himself, absolutely not.
Speaker 2: We would not finance you. Brugnara tells him they go
Speaker 2: way back, and that there are a lot of things
Speaker 2: the witness should consider before he makes that kind of statement.
Speaker 2: The US attorney objects, sustained, Brignara tries one more time.
Speaker 2: The witness stares Brugnara down. Then he says, you'd have
Speaker 2: a better chance of successfully doing brain surgery than placing
Speaker 2: alone for a museum of which you'd be the landlord
Speaker 2: and tenant. Muffled chuckles fill the courtroom. The judge bangs
Speaker 2: his gavel again and then announce is that they're done
Speaker 2: for the day. They'll resume at nine am tomorrow. Everyone
Speaker 2: begins to file out of the courtroom, but then Brugnara
Speaker 2: loses it. He starts shouting about how he built himself
Speaker 2: up from nothing and that the court and the government
Speaker 2: are going to cost him a valuable business relationship. People
Speaker 2: stop in their tracks to listen to this. Insane tirade.
Speaker 2: The judge looks at you and nods. You head over
Speaker 2: to Luke Brugnar and you take him by the arm.
Speaker 2: You're done here today, buddy, you say, get your hands
Speaker 2: off me. He shouts, spittle forming at the corners of
Speaker 2: his mouth. The attorney assigned to oversee him and the system,
Speaker 2: if necessary, quickly shuvels him off to the side room.
Speaker 2: You have another week of this madness and you aren't
Speaker 2: sure you can take it. People just do not wild
Speaker 2: out like this in federal court. You can't even read
Speaker 2: the paper in the gallery. Decorum is everything, and somehow
Speaker 2: this guy keeps getting away with it. Act seran.
Speaker 3: I mean, you just painted it well, so I can imagine.
Speaker 3: But do you imagine sitting through day after day of
Speaker 3: that guy running as his own lawyer, and you're like, look,
Speaker 3: we all know you're gonna lose. Can we just speed
Speaker 3: this out?
Speaker 2: Exactly? And he's so everybody and yeah, told the US
Speaker 2: attorney you dressed like a Nazi. Yeah, what is that?
Speaker 3: Interrupting the judge? You had me at interrupting the judge like, hey,
Speaker 3: pipe down your honor.
Speaker 2: The trials keeps going on. Luke was like, I don't
Speaker 2: have that missing Dega sculpture that we all keep talking about.
Speaker 2: You go on and on. So first he was like,
Speaker 2: it was never shipped to me. I don't it never
Speaker 2: She never gave it to me. But then the prosecutors
Speaker 2: easily prove that to be false because they have all
Speaker 2: the shipping records. And he's like, okay, fine, for preparatoris
Speaker 2: helping her. Fine, it did get delivered, he says, but
Speaker 2: I have these workmen at the house and they mistook
Speaker 2: the crate containing the degaf for a toilet and they
Speaker 2: stole it. You know, as you do.
Speaker 3: Wait, were they trying to steal a toilet or do
Speaker 3: they recognize it was day good later.
Speaker 2: I mean, some time you see a crate, you're like,
Speaker 2: that must have a toilet in it. I have to
Speaker 2: steal it.
Speaker 3: And that's worth at least sixty bucks in the open market.
Speaker 2: It is. So they put it over to the flea market.
Speaker 2: So he went on this long rant then about how
Speaker 2: all the art was fake and worthless anyway, and so
Speaker 2: they asked him, had you had it appraised and authenticated?
Speaker 2: He's like, no, of course notis like yeah, his assessment
Speaker 2: was like based on vibes so then came time for
Speaker 2: jury deliberations and the jury sent a note to the judge.
Speaker 2: They said that one of the jurors had lied about
Speaker 2: his criminal history during Vadir and he was trying to
Speaker 2: influence the deliberations based on his experience as a prisoner.
Speaker 2: The same juror also just like ran out of the
Speaker 2: jury room in the middle of deliberations, and they found
Speaker 2: him later on another floor of the courthouse, like he was.
Speaker 3: Just how are they picked for jury duty and made
Speaker 3: it through?
Speaker 2: I don't know. So the judge called the jur they
Speaker 2: in the paperwork has only identified as IJ into the
Speaker 2: courtroom and he's like, what's up, my good dude, Like
Speaker 2: what is going on? What's this? I hear about your
Speaker 2: criminal history? And IJ flipped out and then went on
Speaker 2: what the judge described as, quote a relentless political tirade.
Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, so security had to remove IJ from
Speaker 2: the courtroom when he quote became physically belligerent. He apparently
Speaker 2: he like whipped his jacket, like, rips his jacket off,
Speaker 2: whips it against the seats of the jury box, and
Speaker 2: then he took off his shoe and brandished it like
Speaker 2: a weapon, like he was aiming for George W.
Speaker 3: Bush Goods.
Speaker 2: So Ij gets brought back in so the judge can
Speaker 2: dismiss him from jury service, and he flips out again,
Speaker 2: and this time he said that Luke was innocent because quote,
Speaker 2: he's Italian, and he accused the judge of quote representing
Speaker 2: a Nazi system.
Speaker 3: Wow. Do you think Luke had gotten to this of
Speaker 3: it offered him money?
Speaker 2: Has to be noticed. Jail do each other. I don't know,
Speaker 2: so Ij.
Speaker 3: Are they running alternate jurorsm for this kind of case?
Speaker 3: I don't think so, because it's not like a private file.
Speaker 2: No Ij gets dismissed, escorted from the building. Luke loses it.
Speaker 2: He objects to the dismissal, tries desperately to keep him
Speaker 2: on the jury, which like I can understand but sorry.
Speaker 2: So it should come as no surprise that Luke was
Speaker 2: convicted on six of the nine counts he was charged.
Speaker 3: I'm what didn't go to mistrial or something?
Speaker 2: I know. He gets sentenced to seven years in prisons,
Speaker 2: and that included more than fifteen months for contempt of court.
Speaker 2: He was racking it up in there, like every single time.
Speaker 2: The judge is like scratching it a lot. Fifteen months. Yeah.
Speaker 2: He was also ordered to pay six hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in restitution for the DIGA and about eighty eight thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in attorney's fees. So of course he appeals his lawyer.
Speaker 2: He got a real one for this, said Luke couldn't
Speaker 2: control his actions because of his quote untreated by polar disorder,
Speaker 2: delusions and narcissism.
Speaker 3: Also the Twinkie defense.
Speaker 2: Basically he said, quote, you have to look at it
Speaker 2: in the context of his mental illness. He cannot accept
Speaker 2: responsibility when that challenges his perception of himself, and that
Speaker 2: did not fly with the Court of appeals. There are
Speaker 2: a lot of narcissists and bipolar folks out there who.
Speaker 3: Don't do this, and do you know how many we
Speaker 3: see in through here?
Speaker 2: Right? So Luke went to prison and he got out
Speaker 2: around November twenty twenty on supervised release. And I wonder
Speaker 2: if it was one of those COVID releases. I was
Speaker 2: just about ask, Yeah, Luke is unstoppable though Zarin, No, No,
Speaker 2: he had to keep Lucky Luke in it up. So
Speaker 2: in July of twenty twenty three, a gun that was
Speaker 2: registered to his girlfriend. So it looks like he got
Speaker 2: a divorce at some point was found to have his
Speaker 2: DNA on it. Now, I don't know how how we
Speaker 2: got to that point, but we got there. Felons can't
Speaker 2: have weapons here in Californiaia, so his supervised release was revoked.
Speaker 3: Was the gun used in the commission of a crime?
Speaker 2: I don't know, Okay, I don't know. And he had
Speaker 2: to do another four hundred and fifty six days in jail. Wow,
Speaker 2: four or five six? I think they just punched that
Speaker 2: in on the keyboard. Speaking of COVID just a moment ago,
Speaker 2: you know, he couldn't resist trying to con the government
Speaker 2: out of some COVID relief money.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there's free money going around.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Twenty twenty four, he gets indicted for just that.
Speaker 3: Give me a PPP loan exactly so.
Speaker 2: According to court documents, quote on or about January fifteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, Brugnara electronically submitted two EIDL applications that's
Speaker 2: Economic Injury Disaster loan in his own name on behalf
Speaker 2: of Brugnara Corporation. As Brugnara knew at the time he
Speaker 2: submitted each application, they contained false representations that were intended
Speaker 2: to influence the SBA to release EIDL funds to which
Speaker 2: Brugnara was not entitled. He first applied for a loan
Speaker 2: of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the SBA,
Speaker 2: which was twice denied. He said the company had four
Speaker 2: employees and its gross revenues the year prior were thirteen million,
Speaker 2: seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So the next month
Speaker 2: he went after some of those PPP funds Paycheck Protection Program.
Speaker 2: He submitted a PPP application in the name of Brugnar Corporation.
Speaker 2: In the application, he falsely represented that his company had
Speaker 2: twenty four employees and had an average monthly payroll of
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand dollars, and this time he was successful.
Speaker 2: They gave him a round like more than four hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. So since that worked, he tried a second time,
Speaker 2: used all the same information that one got denied, and
Speaker 2: it caught him some charges, and then he did another
Speaker 2: Oakland escape in May of twenty twenty four. I'm going
Speaker 2: to try not to be insulted by his desire to
Speaker 2: run from Yeah, so right when he was indicted in
Speaker 2: a pandemic relief fraud case. Luke was sent to an
Speaker 2: Oakland residential re entry center to serve the remainder of
Speaker 2: his prison term on that gun charge.
Speaker 3: A halfway house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he and another dude immediately escaped. Like he
Speaker 2: walks in and was like, I'm halfway out. Now takes
Speaker 2: off this time. They found him pretty quickly in a
Speaker 2: hotel room near San Francisco International Airport with his girlfriend.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, those hotels, Yeah, exactly, staff, I have seen everything.
Speaker 3: Remember we did the one with the furries.
Speaker 2: Were they all on drilling game?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: That one.
Speaker 2: So he currently faces nine felony counts of wire fraud
Speaker 2: and three counts of money laundering thanks to the pandemic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the trial is set to start in June twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Oh but we're not done. We're not done.
Speaker 3: I'm not done.
Speaker 2: In January of this year, Luke was back. According to
Speaker 2: news outlet Sphist, Luke quote reportedly put up an illegal
Speaker 2: chain link fence around a piece of ocean front property
Speaker 2: in Daily City that has long been used for its
Speaker 2: hiking and equestrian trail and is a path to Thornton
Speaker 2: State Beach.
Speaker 3: Why did he put up?
Speaker 2: And he put up a sign that had like a
Speaker 2: hand drawn image of a gun and it said trespassers
Speaker 2: will be shot on site. S I te so yeah,
Speaker 2: so yeah, basically on this site. So the fence blocks
Speaker 2: off this trail that the public has used for generations. Okay,
Speaker 2: and as you know, what happens when you tell California
Speaker 2: beach combers, dog owners and hikers that they can't access
Speaker 2: the ocean like here go hell comes this is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially those with you. I'm assuming this is like
Speaker 3: the sand duney area that's over the cliffs.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, so San Mateo County at south of San
Speaker 2: Francisco Daily City would be like the municipality for it.
Speaker 2: I've mentioned my dude, Dan Noys of ABC seven Eyewitness
Speaker 2: News ITEAM. He's a boss, like old school sixty minutes,
Speaker 2: microphone in the face as you come out of your
Speaker 2: house journalists. He got an exclusive interview with Luke because
Speaker 2: of course he did. Where he's Dan Noise, get out.
Speaker 3: Of here, Hue Leather reporting with Dan Noise.
Speaker 2: Here's what Luke told him quote on the case. Not
Speaker 2: only is that fence not coming down, it's going to
Speaker 2: be replaced with a wrought iron fence. So we don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about people cutting holes in it anymore.
Speaker 2: That's what he tells Dan Noise. According to Sphist quote,
Speaker 2: the ownership structure is fairly complicated, involving multiple parties, some
Speaker 2: of whom are siblings, all of whom are elderly. So
Speaker 2: I'm like getting more and more confused as I'm trying
Speaker 2: to figure this out.
Speaker 3: He's doing elder abuse and acting like this is his property.
Speaker 2: ABC seven. Dan steps into clarify. Quote. The seven acres
Speaker 2: surrounded by fence right now at Thornton Beach State Park
Speaker 2: are owned by eight people. Real estate investor Luke Brugnara
Speaker 2: convinced one of them in November to give him their share,
Speaker 2: a deed for one twenty fourth interest and the ability
Speaker 2: to get more when two other owners pass away. Even
Speaker 2: though he controls such a small portion, Brugnara tells the
Speaker 2: I team that he has a right to fence all
Speaker 2: seven acres, and then so a county supervisor sends a
Speaker 2: letter to the county you know, assessor's office, asking to
Speaker 2: investigate and is like, the deed, this has to be
Speaker 2: a fraud. This can't be real. Yeah, So that's all
Speaker 2: going on right now, Like there's developing its every day.
Speaker 2: You could go see the fence right now, and then
Speaker 2: if you look, there's just like the stories keep popping up.
Speaker 2: New ones popped up while I was researching this. More
Speaker 2: from his dan Ney's interview quote, Dude, it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: whether I own one percent or twenty percent. I have
Speaker 2: a right to protect my interests and I have a
Speaker 2: right to protect the property. So much so that a
Speaker 2: couple recently called nine one one after they said Brugnar
Speaker 2: I told them, if you get near the fence, I
Speaker 2: will shoot and kill you.
Speaker 3: Threats right Classico.
Speaker 2: The cops roll up, they stop him because he's in
Speaker 2: a car that's being driven by his girlfriend.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he doesn't have a license.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, he's in the rear passenger seat at the time,
Speaker 2: riding up front. And shotgun was a nine millimeter glock
Speaker 2: in an unlocked case. Woa, ladies and gents, we got
Speaker 2: a felon with a gun. He caught that charge as
Speaker 2: well as for all the threats he was making. And
Speaker 2: guess what that was the same gun from twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three with the DNA.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Daily City, where the fence is located, was
Speaker 2: going to tear down the fence. But then an associate
Speaker 2: of Luke's filed a lawsuit against Daily City to stop them,
Speaker 2: like an injunction. Basically, yeah, that associate Luke's twenty six
Speaker 2: year old girlfriend.
Speaker 3: How is she?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, honey, okay, hold on, if you're listening,
Speaker 2: you've got to walk away. You are young, you have
Speaker 2: better options. Yes, don't walk run please, my dear. She
Speaker 2: denied being his girlfriend. Now, she said that he is
Speaker 2: a real estate advisor to her family, like, oh, you're
Speaker 2: in good hands, top shelf. So Luke and the galpal
Speaker 2: are living in an RV on that one twenty fourth
Speaker 2: of the property man life and that's because Lucky Luke is,
Speaker 2: according to dan Ney's quote, facing eviction for disruptive behavior
Speaker 2: from his single room occupancy hotel in Chinatown. The owner
Speaker 2: says Brugnara hasn't paid rent for five months, that he
Speaker 2: harasses other tenants and leaves trash everywhere.
Speaker 3: This guy is just life a rack. It's just a
Speaker 3: movable feast of crap.
Speaker 2: If it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck
Speaker 2: at all right now.
Speaker 3: And he's the source of it. He's the sort of
Speaker 3: like when he said, like you know, Lucky Luke, it's
Speaker 3: the exact opposite. Like everything else, he says, it's the
Speaker 3: exact opposite, but.
Speaker 2: Like this incredible rise and incredible fall, he goes from
Speaker 2: like owning all this property downtown San Francisco to living
Speaker 2: in a vanda.
Speaker 3: By the way, we're speculating, Oh my god, Yes it
Speaker 3: was speculating. But do you think that girlfriend and he
Speaker 3: there bond is drugs?
Speaker 2: In pure speculation? Yes, yeah, he's.
Speaker 3: Honey, other people have drugs. He looks if it's the
Speaker 3: drugs other.
Speaker 2: People, he looks rough. He's looking rough.
Speaker 3: That's what I mean. I'm just guessing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what's your ridiculous takeaway on this?
Speaker 3: It's wild? How just from his bio that he wrote
Speaker 3: and he highlighted his childhood accomplishments, will say you could
Speaker 3: see the arc of his life. You didn't. I didn't
Speaker 3: know what details they would be. But the fact that
Speaker 3: he would just forcibly, demonstrably aggressively argue his truth against anybody,
Speaker 3: including the judge who decides his fate, It's all right
Speaker 3: there in that bio, just the whole Like if I
Speaker 3: say it, I can make it be true. I can
Speaker 3: make you believe it.
Speaker 2: That's not any sure that he is unwell. Really, I'm
Speaker 2: interested to like know what his kids experiences are there
Speaker 2: grown and like he says that they're part of the company.
Speaker 2: Now oh yeah, I mean I don't know. Again, I
Speaker 2: don't know how I figure that was just old today. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I mean it's like, what are they up to?
Speaker 2: What are they doing? And like this has got to
Speaker 2: be rough on, be embarrassing as all hell exactly, But
Speaker 2: I swear to God, like you you ask people like
Speaker 2: have you heard anything about this? And like you know,
Speaker 2: friends of mine around the Bear friends in Vegas family,
Speaker 2: and I'm like as soon as and they're just like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I heard about that guy. He's just yeah,
Speaker 2: he's bike ride soon.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's far enough. I could go
Speaker 3: down to Daily City you see this, get a picture.
Speaker 3: I want to see if I get him to threaten
Speaker 3: me and be like, dude, you spelled your sight wrong
Speaker 3: on your sign, don't.
Speaker 2: Go and bring a red marks. Yeah. What's my ridiculous
Speaker 2: takeaway is that this guy just like appeared like this
Speaker 2: vision in the night for me. I needed this, Luke,
Speaker 2: I needed this, and I you know I we've said
Speaker 2: before too that like all of us are a couple
Speaker 2: of bad decisions away from being on this podcast Steal
Speaker 2: the Trout, Come on, But like there's so many interesting
Speaker 2: elements that like I wanted to do side quests on it.
Speaker 2: Like I was really fascinated about the Gilroy property and
Speaker 2: I started researching it and I thought, unimportant Isabeth back up?
Speaker 2: And then like where did he get the initial seed funding?
Speaker 2: All these things? And I really want to know, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, I want to know more about him because
Speaker 2: he's just he's like a classic ridiculous criminal, very Californian,
Speaker 2: but and he hits all the trout casinos Aret, Like
Speaker 2: why are you kidding? Are you trying to jam it
Speaker 2: all in their rooms?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So anyway, you know what I think I do need
Speaker 2: is a talk do kill you?
Speaker 3: Oh god.
Speaker 2: Much?
Speaker 4: I love James, Elizabeth Zarn or should I say Regina
Speaker 4: corn Tower and Zaron. I was listening to your episode
Speaker 4: on George Leslie and Zaren. You kept calling the money
Speaker 4: pudding and it reminded me of the MTV show The
Speaker 4: State with Barry and LaVaughn and two hundred and forty
Speaker 4: dollars worth of pudding. If y'all get that reference.
Speaker 2: I knew I loved y'all for a reason.
Speaker 4: Keep up the great word.
Speaker 2: Wait the state was one of the best.
Speaker 3: So many comedy geniuses like most of Reno nine one
Speaker 3: one on there that is incredible. Definitely got that one.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love that you gave us the
Speaker 2: That's all we have for today. You can find us
Speaker 2: online at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at Ridiculous
Speaker 2: Crime on both Blue Sky and Instagram. We're on YouTube
Speaker 2: at Ridiculous Crime Pod. Email us at ridiculous Crime at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com and then leave a talkback please on
Speaker 2: the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by dastardly
Speaker 2: Dave Couston, real Estate Baron of Rhode Island, starring Annale
Speaker 2: Rutger as Judath. Research is by Chair of the Nevada
Speaker 2: Gaming Commission Marissa Brown and Jabbari Wanna Buy a Casino Davis.
Speaker 2: The theme song is by Irate Beach comber Thomas Lee
Speaker 2: and Trout enthusiast Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by
Speaker 2: Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and
Speaker 2: Mister andre. Executive producers are Gullible Art dealer Ben Bollen
Speaker 2: and Toilet.
Speaker 5: Teeth No Bra, Ridicous Crime, Say It one More Time,
Speaker 5: Ridiqulious Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
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