Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zarren.
Speaker 2: You can't give in here, you get in here?
Speaker 3: Was that? My girl? How you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm great? How are you pretty well?
Speaker 3: Feel okay? Greed for you?
Speaker 2: I'm so happy for you. Do you know it's ridiculous
Speaker 2: I do, Okay?
Speaker 3: So you know how I love giving people life tips
Speaker 3: and money advice.
Speaker 2: Un solicitous.
Speaker 3: I'm just going around well, no and all. Honestly, I
Speaker 3: never really do that, but I find it amusing how
Speaker 3: many how much media I consume where people are men
Speaker 3: telling other people how to live and especially with money
Speaker 3: and stuff. And then I found this guy and I
Speaker 3: was like, this is exactly life advice. I would have
Speaker 3: given a punk band on tour, but it wouldn't have
Speaker 3: worked for them because they would have been a punk band.
Speaker 3: But the idea would have been great otherwise, Okay, and
Speaker 3: if they would have done your thing and acted like
Speaker 3: they belonged to, act like they've been there before, act
Speaker 3: like they know, it would have worked. Here's the life advice.
Speaker 3: Keep all that in mind, you ready. Dude's name is
Speaker 3: Jack Rains. I don't know why I'm giving him credit.
Speaker 3: Be good, it's his words. So he does something called writing.
Speaker 3: He writes Young Money the best finance blog you've never
Speaker 3: heard of. Whatever. So this is from LinkedIn. Somebody who
Speaker 3: I don't really know posted this and I found it amusing.
Speaker 2: Anyway, here we go.
Speaker 3: There was a screenshot from LinkedIn. I'm not on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3: I don't even believe it with social media, I'm like,
Speaker 3: come on, apparently people use it like Facebook. Anyway, here
Speaker 3: we go. Quote. For the last two months, I haven't
Speaker 3: paid for a single meal in New York City. How
Speaker 3: is that possible? You ask? It's simple, free hotel meals.
Speaker 3: New York has thirty six hundred hotels, and many of
Speaker 3: those offer complimentary breakfast. By walking in and acting like
Speaker 3: you're supposed to be there, you can simply grab bacon,
Speaker 3: eggs and toast it any Hilton or Marriott in the city.
Speaker 3: The real trick is securing free lunch or dinner. To
Speaker 3: do this, you dress up a bit nicer and head
Speaker 3: to the restaurant. Order whatever you'd like, enjoy the occasion.
Speaker 3: When the waiter comes, he's going to ask card credit
Speaker 3: or charge to a room. Say charge to the room,
Speaker 3: then write down a random room number and name, and
Speaker 3: make sure you leave before the payment processes with thirty
Speaker 3: six hundred hotels. You can do this for ten years
Speaker 3: without double dipping. Follow me for more personal financial tips.
Speaker 3: I don't think it hashtag wealth hack.
Speaker 2: I don't think it works that way.
Speaker 3: It doesn't work that way. Room number, well, no, you
Speaker 3: can do that. I do just traveling, and they did
Speaker 3: exactly that. I just put it in on room number. They
Speaker 3: didn't ask me for any Nope, it's just all on paper.
Speaker 3: I just did this in a Hilton.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 3: He's totally right about that aspect. Yeah, but it's still
Speaker 3: the ready. It's not going to work for most people. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: who would probably want to benefit from this exactly? No,
Speaker 3: definitely not a punk band.
Speaker 2: But who read whatever the four people who read?
Speaker 3: But I did used to tell people who are on
Speaker 3: the road, go into nice hotels and eat a complimentary breakfast,
Speaker 3: grab some rolls for the road, and go.
Speaker 2: That's smart, right. I used to in the city in
Speaker 2: San Francisco if I back in the days pre you
Speaker 2: know uber moved all that, when we're all taking taxis
Speaker 2: and on evenings like Friday nights, you couldn't get a cab. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I go into a hotel, come out and fact, like
Speaker 2: I was staying there and ask the you know guys
Speaker 2: in front of the bell hop or whatever to hail
Speaker 2: me a cab, and I always get one. Other people
Speaker 2: are all trying to flag him down the street totally.
Speaker 3: I guess it's more of the doorman.
Speaker 2: Than a yeah yeah, yeah, So that was the move.
Speaker 3: That's a good one. I like, I'm gonna use that one.
Speaker 2: Well, we don't take cabs anymore, I guess I do. Yeah,
Speaker 2: isn't that ridiculous? Though? That is ridiculous. I like them
Speaker 2: a lot. Do you know what else I like? And
Speaker 2: that is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: No, Elizabeth? What else?
Speaker 2: Gerald Ford getting paid? This is ridiculous crime A podcast
Speaker 2: about absurd and outrageous capers. I send cons. It's always
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Oh you damn right, Zaryn.
Speaker 2: Yes, Eliza, I'm about to take you on a wild
Speaker 2: ride a fever dream.
Speaker 3: Yes, I love your fever dreams.
Speaker 2: Researcher Andrea the Magnificent She described a lot of this
Speaker 2: as surreal, and it is. It's so rich in eighties
Speaker 2: and nineties celebrities that you're gonna poop yourself.
Speaker 3: Should I get on my big boy underwear.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read you a list of names that
Speaker 2: are conveniently in alphabetical order. Paula Abdul Roseanne Barr, Milton Burrell,
Speaker 2: Red Buttons, the Clintons, Billy Crystal, Celine Dion, Michael Douglas,
Speaker 2: Betty and Gerald Ford, Wow, Michael J. Fox, Ja Ja Gabor,
Speaker 2: al Gore, Kelsey Grammer, George Hamilton, Goldie Hahn, Gladys Night, Nelson,
Speaker 2: Mandela Gregory, Pec, Rob rynder Niece, Rich Ray Ramono, Diana Ross,
Speaker 2: Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Swimmer, Britney Spears, Rod Stewart, John Travolta,
Speaker 2: Tina Turner, and Mark Wilbert.
Speaker 3: Why are you listing all my exes.
Speaker 2: One thing in common?
Speaker 3: I just told you what it was, herpies.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that was a joke. They were all somehow
Speaker 2: connected to the scandals generated by one Aaron Tonka.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I want to tell you about Aaron gulf of Tonka.
Speaker 3: He's an industry Oh.
Speaker 2: God, have you ever heard of Aaron Tonka.
Speaker 3: I've heard the name, I've never looked into him.
Speaker 2: He was born in nineteen sixty five in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Speaker 2: He grew up in Michigan, just about you know, two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty miles or so. He was obsessed with
Speaker 2: celebrities at an early age. When he was only twelve
Speaker 2: years old, he started cold calling Jacqueline Onassas and other
Speaker 2: celebrities like would get the number and be like, Hi,
Speaker 2: it's Aaron. Do you have a moment? I love that.
Speaker 2: He was desperate.
Speaker 3: Do you think they ever had good conversations.
Speaker 2: I don't think he had any conversation. I don't think
Speaker 2: he made it. No, he didn't make it through the screening.
Speaker 2: He wanted so badly to have Dean Martin performed at
Speaker 2: his bar mitzvah.
Speaker 3: Oh same, I don't even have of bar mitsman.
Speaker 2: I want that, and he just that's what he wanted.
Speaker 2: But he couldn't. He couldn't make it happen. Nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 2: his dad dies of cancer. His dad was a doctor,
Speaker 2: and he had a really difficult relationship with his mom,
Speaker 2: and so he decided to just like split and leave.
Speaker 2: He went to live with his aunt and uncle in Detroit.
Speaker 3: Teens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is what his aunt said. Michelle Sill's quote.
Speaker 2: He drove to our house straight through without a nickel
Speaker 2: in his pocket. He had to bust through the toll
Speaker 2: gase because he had no money bust through. I love
Speaker 2: the theatrics of that quote, like no, come on, He's like.
Speaker 3: He's splintering like a film montage.
Speaker 2: Totally, So he's like crashing at all these various relatives houses.
Speaker 2: He didn't really get like a job or anything. Of course, yes,
Speaker 2: and he care of he'd lie and he say he'd
Speaker 2: say he was going to work, but he was just
Speaker 2: going to like restaurant openings and press conferences because he
Speaker 2: thought that celebrities would be there in Detroit.
Speaker 3: Well, they do have the auto industry, so there might
Speaker 3: have been you.
Speaker 2: Know, like I had coca. Oh yeah, And so he's
Speaker 2: hoping he can like rub shoulders with him and then
Speaker 2: he would come home and be like I sold two
Speaker 2: thousand pairs of socks today and they're like, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: You set a record. He's like, I totally did. So
Speaker 2: he wants to he wants to rub shoulders and by
Speaker 2: that I mean hobnob not massage. Yes, of course he
Speaker 2: wanted more. Though, what's more, Elizabeth he Arizona. He went
Speaker 2: to live with one of his grandma's in Arizona. And
Speaker 2: it makes it sound like he has a stable of
Speaker 2: old ladies retainer one of his grandma's.
Speaker 3: He's going through a platoon of old ladies. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So there he is in Scottsdale, Okay, and it was
Speaker 2: there that he met John Murphy. John Murphy drove a
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six corvette and he owned a silk pants company.
Speaker 3: Oh so he's like a snowbird just cruising around Arizona. Like,
Speaker 3: pick it up on old bird.
Speaker 2: He has my new fake job when introducing myself a
Speaker 2: purveyor of fine silk pants.
Speaker 3: So I thought it was serious. He's aveyor.
Speaker 2: We're sent dead to write serious that he's in an
Speaker 2: eighty six corvette and he owned a silk pants company.
Speaker 2: I love Saren, I'm telling you the truth here. So
Speaker 2: Murphy is like, I like the cut of your jip.
Speaker 2: I'm going to offer you a job. You can be
Speaker 2: a salesman. Tonkin's like, let's do this. This is what
Speaker 2: Murphy said. Quote. He was the best phone guy I'd
Speaker 2: ever seen, just incredibly persistent. I've sat in his office
Speaker 2: in l a And he's the fastest dialer I've ever seen,
Speaker 2: just incredible. He just won't take no for an answer.
Speaker 2: Fingers fly finger like lightning speed at that. That's what
Speaker 2: makes you the best phone guy. I can tell him,
Speaker 2: we're so fast.
Speaker 3: You guys, and then I get to the hang up
Speaker 3: call onto the next so quick.
Speaker 2: So in nineteen ninety, Murphy sells the pants company. But
Speaker 2: don't worry. I don't want you to worry about it
Speaker 2: when from him, uh tongan, don't worry about him. He's
Speaker 2: cozying up to Gilbert or Tega, aka the King of
Speaker 2: Indian Jewelry. So he owns Gilbert or Taga Galleries, which
Speaker 2: is the largest retail of Native American arts and crafts
Speaker 2: in the world. We're talking turquoise Bolo ties for days talking.
Speaker 2: He gets a job, a sales job from Ortega. Remember
Speaker 2: he's got like fingers of lightning totally. And then he
Speaker 2: even moved into Ortega's house.
Speaker 3: Why not sure?
Speaker 2: This is what Ortega's first wife, Linda Ortega said, quote, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you know when Aaron moved into Gilbert's house. The way
Speaker 2: Aaron got to Gilbert was he said his mother wanted
Speaker 2: him to learn business before he could collect his trust money.
Speaker 2: He said he thought Gilbert was the perfect person to
Speaker 2: learn from. It appealed to Gilbert's ego. You know, you're
Speaker 2: so great, I need to learn from you. It's the
Speaker 2: same when he met me. You're such a great mother.
Speaker 2: I wish I had a mother like you. You kind
Speaker 2: of knew he was faking, but somehow he had this quality.
Speaker 2: You felt sorry for him.
Speaker 3: Oh he played that flip so.
Speaker 2: Pretty soon the Ortega's they're over him. Okay, yeah, they've
Speaker 2: had enough. This is what Gilbert said, quote he's very
Speaker 2: very very very very aggressive. If that boy learned to
Speaker 2: use his talents in the right way, he be a billionaire.
Speaker 2: But man, he'll eat up and spitch you out. That's
Speaker 2: a salesman talking, Gerry So talking. He eventually moved out,
Speaker 2: but he owed them money, of course. And his next
Speaker 2: gig he got as a marketing manager for Scottsdale Limousines.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of like a good way to get
Speaker 2: celebrity adjacent or prom adjacent.
Speaker 3: Oh I guess like a Major League Baseball training you
Speaker 3: can meet Mike Schmid that.
Speaker 2: Way, very prom forward gig, and then like minor league
Speaker 2: Baseball or major league.
Speaker 3: Got a couple of ways.
Speaker 2: This is what the owner, Eddie McCoy had to say, quote,
Speaker 2: he was just a kid, a kid I hired after
Speaker 2: he worked for Gilbert. He did very well on sales,
Speaker 2: brought in several accounts. I was always leary of him, though.
Speaker 2: He always wanted me to get into things. One time,
Speaker 2: I remember he asked me if I wanted to have
Speaker 2: breakfast with Grant Woods, the state attorney general. I said, why,
Speaker 2: why would I want to do that? In his heart
Speaker 2: of hearts, you can see Aaron was doing it because
Speaker 2: he thought somehow it could help me. He was obsessed
Speaker 2: with celebrities, anyone who was famous or important or powerful,
Speaker 2: just collecting him as interesting. So one day, nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: talking he shows up for work in a station wagon
Speaker 2: that he said he bought for three hundred bucks, crammed
Speaker 2: full of his stuff, and McCoy, the owner said, quote,
Speaker 2: the day he left Arizona, he came by here and
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to La to seek my fortune.
Speaker 2: It was the bravest thing I've ever seen a young
Speaker 2: man do. I mean, someone who was so troubled. It
Speaker 2: seemed to me that he had just run out of
Speaker 2: things to do. He needed to find his way. So
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to California. I may be an actor.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I'm going to be a success.
Speaker 2: Then he drove off in that old station wagon.
Speaker 3: And that's the bravest thing that this man saw you do.
Speaker 3: And he tried left Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: So he gets a call. McCoy gets a call a
Speaker 2: few days later from the guy that sold the station
Speaker 2: wagon to Tonkin looking for payment. Yeah, because he's looking for
Speaker 2: who's going to pay me for the station wagon? He
Speaker 2: said to call you, and you bought it. So why
Speaker 2: did decided that it was time to head to Hollywood.
Speaker 2: I mean it's a natural thing for someone who's celebrity obsessed.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: The impetus for him was that he had cozied up
Speaker 2: to Angelica Houston's stepmother. Angelica Houston's stepmother, I guess she
Speaker 2: lives in Arizona.
Speaker 3: So John Houston's wife, the Bob I.
Speaker 2: Expose, Yeah at some point. So he did a brief
Speaker 2: stint as her assistant, but it didn't work out. But
Speaker 2: when he was assistant to Angelica Houston's stepmother, he he
Speaker 2: rubbed shoulders and he meant the holy grail of aging
Speaker 2: Hollywood madness needed an assistant.
Speaker 3: Would you believe me if I would have said, well,
Speaker 3: you asked me, why did he go to al Ja?
Speaker 3: I was pulling him west.
Speaker 2: There was you could feel it.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Lady the wonderhorse over here.
Speaker 2: So 's an assistant. Tonkin needs a job. He also
Speaker 2: needs a place to live, natural fit faster. And you
Speaker 2: can see Kato Klin. He moved into the guest house
Speaker 2: in Jajaabor's backyard.
Speaker 3: He's like, have you seen these fingers?
Speaker 2: Now he'd made it. So he's getting chummy with the
Speaker 2: likes of Red Buttons and Milton Burrele. So assisting Jaja
Speaker 2: was was already starting to hurt. I know, I know,
Speaker 2: assisting Jajah is great, it's great work. But Tonkin's expenses
Speaker 2: exceeded his.
Speaker 3: Income naturally, and that's that's a risk.
Speaker 2: So when Jaja would go out of town, which is
Speaker 2: you know, pretty accident, Tonkin started going outside and waving
Speaker 2: down those tour buses that drive by with like the
Speaker 2: tours of those stars homes, star maps so and then
Speaker 2: he'd be like, wait, wait, wait, look, this is Jaja
Speaker 2: Boor's house. I'll give you a tour, and he would
Speaker 2: charge the people on the bus to get out and
Speaker 2: walk through Jaja Bar's house.
Speaker 3: You know he's not watching them, So there's picket pocketing.
Speaker 2: Stuffy Ja finds out because sees all of course Sar
Speaker 2: he gets fired, but that also meant that he lost
Speaker 2: his place to live.
Speaker 3: So a reporter, why would he do that?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 3: I need to make money?
Speaker 2: A reporter for the tabloid paper The Star.
Speaker 3: All of her neighbors focus on the bus stopped Josh
Speaker 3: in front of your house.
Speaker 2: Only employee's house, the gardeners lawn. So this reporter from
Speaker 2: the tabloid paper The Star heard about what happened between
Speaker 2: zz Gibor and Tucking and like and as an agent
Speaker 2: of chaos after my own heart, the reporter reaches out
Speaker 2: to Peter Paul, former manager of Fabio, and says, you've
Speaker 2: got to hire this guy, Aaron Tonkin. He needs a gig.
Speaker 2: He's an assistant. Like how chaotic? Is that so good? So?
Speaker 2: Who is Peter Paul? Hold the merry?
Speaker 3: Why did that names come from?
Speaker 2: He's gonna start ringing a lot of bells. In the seventies,
Speaker 2: he was an attorney in Miami and he represented Central
Speaker 2: and South American clients. In seventy nine, he got convicted
Speaker 2: of participating in the scheme to defraud the Cuban government.
Speaker 3: That's a smart movie.
Speaker 2: And then oh can I get a side order of
Speaker 2: cocaine possession?
Speaker 3: Oh, there you go.
Speaker 2: So he did his.
Speaker 3: Time, conscious figure, he does.
Speaker 2: His time, he moves to La. What did you do
Speaker 2: in La? Well, he did prod. He did what any
Speaker 2: of us who just got out of prison and needed
Speaker 2: a new start would do. He started charity foundations, including
Speaker 2: one for Jimmy Stewart, and so from there it was
Speaker 2: like an easy and natural jump to celebrity management. Of course,
Speaker 2: so his clients, the aforementioned Fabbia Mohammed Ali. He was
Speaker 2: Mohammed Ali's the manager for a while. So Paul, he
Speaker 2: listen from that.
Speaker 3: You're like, come on, is not getting better.
Speaker 2: It's not going well. Paul listened to that tabloid reporter
Speaker 2: higher Aaron Tonkin, why not talk? Got a desk in
Speaker 2: the hall offices at Wilshire Boulevard. Assignment One arranged for
Speaker 2: celebrities to make an appearance at a wedding in New Mexico.
Speaker 3: Tonkin's ultiple celebrities at the same wedding.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Tonkin's like hello, Pacific Southwest.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, this is my region. I've got friends.
Speaker 2: He locked in Charlton Heston to give a Bible reading.
Speaker 2: He got members of Kiss to provide the music, Like
Speaker 2: what is this? What is this? Okay, so now he's
Speaker 2: cooking with Gats like he has put this together. Paul
Speaker 2: has connections Tonkin latches onto all of them. But it
Speaker 2: wasn't just his employer who got him the ends. He
Speaker 2: said he found a Rolodex in the trash and that
Speaker 2: the Rolodex had belonged to Danny DeVito found found Rolodex
Speaker 2: and he said that he copied all the cards and
Speaker 2: then he contacted Big Danny to give it back, and
Speaker 2: apparently DeVito was super grateful, Like if it happened that way,
Speaker 2: this is a from.
Speaker 3: Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I swear to god. I found
Speaker 3: Danny Divita's Rotex in the trash. I called him up.
Speaker 3: He wanted to beat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now we're friends. Sandra Taylor, Fabio's ex girlfriend, huh
Speaker 2: said quote. He started throwing these smart little dinner parties
Speaker 2: at the Beverly Hills restaurant Tattoo. The mix of people
Speaker 2: was just amazing. Joe Maloof from the Sacramento Kings, Jermaine Jackson,
Speaker 2: Milton Burle. He definitely had his regulars.
Speaker 3: The maloof the owner of the Kings, not even like
Speaker 3: a player, the owner, the owner.
Speaker 2: Can we talk a little about tattoo of Beverly Hills
Speaker 2: in the nineties it was the spot big Mickey Rourke
Speaker 2: hang out, probably Christopher roknkor as well. What a time
Speaker 2: to be alive. So anyway, not a lot of information
Speaker 2: available about the supper club slash restaurant nightclub, but anyway,
Speaker 2: look up Getty images for it. It's amazing. Yes. So
Speaker 2: in the fall of ninety three, Tonkin and Paul they
Speaker 2: organized a joint book party slash charity fundraiser for Ivanna
Speaker 2: Trump and Fabio of course, which is okay, wine, sure,
Speaker 2: sign me up, Gavin maloof He sent a seventy five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars check to Tonkin for the Muscular District Association,
Speaker 2: and so the charity never saw a dime, no, of course,
Speaker 2: and talking kept the check the official check to him.
Speaker 2: The official with the association claim that when she requested
Speaker 2: the check from Tonkin, he told her.
Speaker 3: GoF did he loved to say that to a charity?
Speaker 3: Oh my god? The check oh my god.
Speaker 2: Okay, so debt started stacking up for Tonking, figuring that printers,
Speaker 2: travel agencies, photographers, actors, charities like everything he had. Over
Speaker 2: two dozen separate actions were filed against him in LA
Speaker 2: Superior Court. Yeah, and most of them were just like
Speaker 2: you know, he took money for those services rendered.
Speaker 3: He owes me eight thousand dollars for the car rental.
Speaker 2: Yeah. May of nineteen ninety four, a Russian immigrant Alex Khakov,
Speaker 2: he said he paid Tonkin twenty grand to help him
Speaker 2: get into the movie business, which is so weird. Kodakov
Speaker 2: though he never even made it onto a movie set,
Speaker 2: and like, for years he tried to get his money back,
Speaker 2: no dice. His lawyer said, quote, ten years later, I'm
Speaker 2: done chasing that guy, like they kept trying twenty grand.
Speaker 2: West Hollywood attorney Nathan Gawler he had opinions his girlfriend
Speaker 2: Irina Maliva, paid Tonkin forty five hundred dollars to help
Speaker 2: her break into the movies.
Speaker 3: So he's just milking naive Russians totally.
Speaker 2: And all she got out of it was an invitation
Speaker 2: or two to like a couple of Hollywood parties and
Speaker 2: so yeah, so her attorney boyfriend goes after him. Gave
Speaker 2: up trying to collect though, because it was happening. Nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety five, Tonkin through his own thirtieth birthday party at Tattoo.
Speaker 3: All that before thirty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a who's who of young hot Hollywood Okay,
Speaker 2: Leonard Nimoy, Milton Burrell, Casey Kayson, Alan Thicck, Bob Barker,
Speaker 2: cast members from the soap opera The Young and the Restless,
Speaker 2: and then friends and family from Arizona. Who was the
Speaker 2: host for the evening's entertainment, Red Buttons, Red Button's son
Speaker 2: Adam Buttons, which like, I don't know that. I just
Speaker 2: read that over and over again, just for a fight.
Speaker 3: Ohone Buttons.
Speaker 2: Adam Buttons. But yes, he worked for Tonkin as a messenger.
Speaker 2: He said, quote, Aaron was out of his mind. Every
Speaker 2: time I went to his office, Aaron was screaming at
Speaker 2: the top of his lungs at someone. He had a
Speaker 2: nervous breakdown every five minutes. Tonkin's uncle Sills but goes
Speaker 2: to the party at Tattoo says quote, we couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2: I mean, here's a kid, he had nothing, could go nowhere,
Speaker 2: had obvious mental problems and suddenly he's in Hollywood meeting
Speaker 2: hundreds of these movie stars. What a country, What a country?
Speaker 3: Indeed we did.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break. Can we come back. We'll find
Speaker 2: out whether Oh courant stars were in Aaron Tonkin's orbit.
Speaker 2: Welcome right, We're back to Hollywood cavalcade we're having here today.
Speaker 3: Oh man, the stars are out tonight, Elizabeth, they really are.
Speaker 2: They really are. So here we have Aaron Tonkin and
Speaker 2: his messenger boy Adam Buttons. So we have Aaron Tonkin
Speaker 2: throwing charity benefits with very cloudy accounting practices. A good
Speaker 2: friend of Aaron Tonkins was actor Jonathan Silverman, who grew
Speaker 2: up with David Schwimmer. So it was through that connection
Speaker 2: that Tonkin he gets tapped to organize the nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: seven Friends Helping Friends gala that's centered on the Friends cast.
Speaker 2: Of course, it sounds absolutely nuts. Tony Alverti, a longtime
Speaker 2: event security guy of Tonkins, he said, quote, people don't
Speaker 2: realize how he did those events, Like he'll meet a
Speaker 2: guy named Roger who knows someone who knows one of
Speaker 2: the guys in sync. Aaron tells everyone he has in
Speaker 2: sync and people come because of that. It worked every time,
Speaker 2: so of course he can't get in sync. So he says, oh,
Speaker 2: they had to back out. But I've got Wayne Newton,
Speaker 2: I got Natalie Cole, I love his like Switcheroose.
Speaker 3: Shows. Who wants to hear Wayne Newton totally?
Speaker 2: Zaren close your eye. Oh my god, Okay, I want
Speaker 2: you to picture it. It's nineteen ninety seven and you
Speaker 2: are Randolph Duke, the designer for Halston. You were hired
Speaker 2: the year prior to revive the brand, and you are
Speaker 2: exceeding expectations. You are creating minimalist, clean designs in the
Speaker 2: iconic Halston style of relaxed urban discothech chic. You're fabulous,
Speaker 2: from your five o'clock shadow to your buttery driving loafers.
Speaker 2: Some months ago, you were introduced to a man, a small,
Speaker 2: sloppy man. You met him through a friend of a
Speaker 2: friend and in a whirl of Hollywood, we should do lunches,
Speaker 2: and I have the perfect project for you. Somehow you
Speaker 2: agreed to dress the of friends for some charity thing
Speaker 2: coming up. Jennifer Aniston, Phoebe the dark haired one wearing Halston.
Speaker 2: Be great for the brand and for you. Of course,
Speaker 2: this Halston gig is great, but you have your eyes
Speaker 2: on your own collection. In the meantime, you're gathering contacts
Speaker 2: everywhere you go, amassing celebrity clientele that will hopefully one
Speaker 2: day wear a Randolph Duke gown on the red carpet,
Speaker 2: and they will but first friends with hard r. So
Speaker 2: there you are backstage. You've arrived early and the place
Speaker 2: is buzzing with excitement. You and your assistants are directed
Speaker 2: to a dressing room where you set up glamorous looks
Speaker 2: for the evening, strong red seguins, blush organza, spaghetti straps
Speaker 2: for barrious. As your assistants get things rolling, you cruise
Speaker 2: around and schmooze. You're sipping champagne and complimenting Tony Bennett
Speaker 2: on his velvet jacket. When one of your assistants tries
Speaker 2: to get your attention, you brush her off and you
Speaker 2: keep working the room. You look over and you see
Speaker 2: Jennifer Aniston. She's emerging from a dress room and she
Speaker 2: looks stunning, but not Halston stunning, Calvin Klein stunning. That's
Speaker 2: a Calvin Klein gown she's wearing, not one of your creations. Soon,
Speaker 2: the dark haired one on Friends walks by. She's in
Speaker 2: a lovely dress, but it's not one of yours, and
Speaker 2: she's fully made up and ready to go. You scan
Speaker 2: the room for the man who promised you the friends ladies,
Speaker 2: and you spot him, Aaron Tonkin. You push by people
Speaker 2: and rush to his side. Why aren't they wearing my gowns?
Speaker 2: You hiss at him. What then, No, baby, I've got
Speaker 2: someone even better. He holds your chin and turns your
Speaker 2: face toward a dressing room. The door opens, outwalks a
Speaker 2: beautiful woman in one of your tasteful gowns. She's wearing
Speaker 2: those pink tinted sunglasses and her honeyed highlighted hair is huge.
Speaker 2: Who the fuck is that, you asked, Tonkin. It's the
Speaker 2: host of MTV's House of Style. That's not Cindy Crawford. No,
Speaker 2: that's Daisy Fantaste, much better than Jennifer Aniston. In say,
Speaker 2: twenty seven years, no one will remember who Jennifer Aniston is.
Speaker 2: But Daisy Flentes, MTV's first Latina vej host of MTV
Speaker 2: spring Break. She'll be a household name forever. You stared
Speaker 2: daggers at Tonkin while the bustling backstage chugs along around you.
Speaker 2: You walk toward the dressing room. Mister Duke, such a
Speaker 2: pleasure to meet you, says Daisy Flentes. This gown, it's extraordinary.
Speaker 2: When Aaron told me you selected me to wear it,
Speaker 2: I was truly honored. You smile and shake her hand,
Speaker 2: and then stride into the dressing room. Wrap up the dresses.
Speaker 2: We're leaving. You turn to Miss Fwents. Have your people
Speaker 2: drop the dress off tomorrow at my studio. You turn
Speaker 2: and head for the exit. An assistant trailing behind you
Speaker 2: slips a business card to Daisy Flentes. The address of
Speaker 2: the studio is on there.
Speaker 3: She tells her, dah now and tell Dan Cortez not
Speaker 3: to call me anymore.
Speaker 2: Not Eric niece now. Vanity Fair sponsored the event. Vanity
Speaker 2: Fair's executive director of creative Services at the time was
Speaker 2: a woman, Gene Carlson. She said, quote, I don't think
Speaker 2: we knew what we were getting. The event was kind
Speaker 2: of messy. Everyone's screaming at me. At the end, they
Speaker 2: ran out of gift bags, and it went on so long.
Speaker 2: By the time Tony Bennett got up to sing, most
Speaker 2: of the people had left. It was not the work
Speaker 2: of a prot Let's check in with Adam Buttons. What
Speaker 2: is Adam Buttons.
Speaker 3: Yes, Adam Buttons, he said.
Speaker 2: Quote, I will go on record saying I did deliver
Speaker 2: cash to a number of celebrities on Friends Helping Friends.
Speaker 2: I don't know how much was in those envelopes. I
Speaker 2: didn't ask. I will say I didn't like the way
Speaker 2: he did business. That's why I stopped working for him.
Speaker 2: Say more Adam Buttons and like sorry, make red proud.
Speaker 2: Buttons wouldn't name names. However, an anonymous source said that
Speaker 2: some of the receivers of his cash included Paul Anka
Speaker 2: Not It's just all the hot stars of the nineties,
Speaker 2: Lance basovn sing Oh Chare, and Natalie Cole.
Speaker 3: It's an interesting mix of the hot stars of the
Speaker 3: nineties and the fifties.
Speaker 2: Well, it was mostly. By nineteen ninety eight, almost a
Speaker 2: dozen charities were suing him in an attempt to get
Speaker 2: the money back from all these events that just he
Speaker 2: would get paid for that never even took place, not
Speaker 2: even the big like messalage.
Speaker 3: He's just faking. Yeah, what do you think in your
Speaker 3: quiet moments you're lying their bed. You've got twenty four
Speaker 3: charities trying to see in your life isn't care. I've
Speaker 3: made some mistakes.
Speaker 2: No, no, just got to keep moving. Shark in the water.
Speaker 2: He filed for Chapter seven personal bankruptcy. Oh yeah, you
Speaker 2: got a BK when you hit that. But later the
Speaker 2: whole thing got dismissed because he didn't show up to
Speaker 2: the meeting of creditors.
Speaker 3: How does that work?
Speaker 2: I don't know. And it was during this time that
Speaker 2: Tonkin met Cynthia and Hal Gershman. They're an older couple
Speaker 2: who happened to be multimillionaires. Agency No, they had shopping centers.
Speaker 2: They had shopping centers, okay, And they also happened to
Speaker 2: live in Beverly Hills. And they also happened to throw
Speaker 2: amazing parties at their house. Of course, posy's up. They
Speaker 2: check all the boxes. So according to a family advisor,
Speaker 2: which like PS, you know you're wealthy when you have
Speaker 2: a family advisor. When Hal was on his deathbed, he
Speaker 2: urged Cynthia to let Tonkin look after her.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: And a friend said later that when Hal died something
Speaker 2: changed in Cynthia. Quote Cindy decided she had been held down.
Speaker 2: It was a chance to have some fun. I want
Speaker 2: to have a good time. And be socially prominent and
Speaker 2: be an actress. She started taking acting classes. She was
Speaker 2: convinced she was going to be a movie star. Aaron's
Speaker 2: genius was that he listened to what people wanted and
Speaker 2: he gave it to them. Aaron was suddenly saying, I
Speaker 2: can do this, I can do that.
Speaker 3: Of course. Yeah, that's the classic con is like, hey,
Speaker 3: what are you feeling?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 3: You know? Not confident about what you would love to
Speaker 3: feel confident about.
Speaker 2: So Cynthia Gershman. She starts paying Tonkin in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2: One of the loans was almost two million dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and in return, he tells her, We're going to make
Speaker 2: you a movie star. You're going to be known as
Speaker 2: Cynthia Palmer.
Speaker 3: Know you can make the movie.
Speaker 2: There's no spring Chicken whatever. You could make the movie.
Speaker 2: Well she did. She got her Screen Actors Guild card,
Speaker 2: and she had roles in like like a couple of
Speaker 2: minor films, including the Burt Reynolds two thousand film, The
Speaker 2: Last Producer. Oh wow, she's in that. So we're talking
Speaker 2: like big stuff. Her steps on, Cynthia steps on Ronald.
Speaker 2: He worried about how all this was going to affect
Speaker 2: the financial situation of the family foundation.
Speaker 3: So his inheritance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he starts reorganized and he splits it off.
Speaker 2: He's like, okay, here's the family stuff and then here's yours.
Speaker 2: Just go nuts exactly, and so with control over her
Speaker 2: part of the dough, then she just ramps up these
Speaker 2: charity donations, but many of them were selected by Tonkin,
Speaker 2: not her. And then she also underwrote his benefits and
Speaker 2: that was like he did Gallas honoring Gladys Knight and
Speaker 2: Milton Burle shows up all the time. Oh yeah, total,
Speaker 2: plus the Pips and the Pips underwrite them of course.
Speaker 2: So pretty soon, like Tonkin, he could get some of
Speaker 2: the biggest names in show business and politics for charities
Speaker 2: and political fundraising, get people come out. Natalie Cole introduced
Speaker 2: him to Denise Rich, ex wife of fugitive financier Mark Rich. Yes, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: Mark Rich, international commodities trader and businessman. In eighty three,
Speaker 2: he gets indicted on federal charges of tax evasion, wire fraud,
Speaker 2: racketeering and you know the little matter of making oil
Speaker 2: deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.
Speaker 3: I didn't read all the fine print.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's looking down the barrel of like three
Speaker 2: hundred years in prison, no exaggeration, and he fled to
Speaker 2: Switzerland never came back to the States. He left behind
Speaker 2: his Democratic megadoner wife, Denise Rich. And you know, so
Speaker 2: it only makes sense then that around nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 2: two thousand, so if Tonkin gets introduced to Denise Rich,
Speaker 2: Denise continues the celebrity chain by introducing Tonkin to then
Speaker 2: President Bill Clinton. Keep in mind that on Bill Clinton's
Speaker 2: last day in office January twentieth, two thousand and one,
Speaker 2: he pardoned Mark Yes famous exactly like down to the wire.
Speaker 2: So anyway, Clinton's wife Hillary, I don't know if you've
Speaker 2: heard of her. Hillary, she was gearing up to run
Speaker 2: for US Senate.
Speaker 3: Huh yeah, and how did her future go?
Speaker 2: Tonkin tells Bill, I got an idea. Okay, let's have
Speaker 2: a bunch of Hollywood gallas to benefit Hillary's senatorial campaign
Speaker 2: and New York. Yeah, the New York campaign. But we'll
Speaker 2: do this in Hollywood. Gershman said that she would underwrite
Speaker 2: some of the expenses, but Tonkin wanted more money, so
Speaker 2: he reached out to his old friend and employer, Peter Paul.
Speaker 2: Remember Peter Paul Byammy Koch Lawyer in two thousand. This
Speaker 2: is this is, this is where we're into total fever
Speaker 2: dream Terri.
Speaker 3: I just always keep picturing Jake Paul's father. I know
Speaker 3: he's not, but I'm like, that feels like it's Jake Paul,
Speaker 3: Peter Paul.
Speaker 2: On Peter Paul Mary. In two thousand, Paul started a
Speaker 2: multimedia company built around stan Lee God stan Lee Wow,
Speaker 2: creator of Marvel comics. Paul was working with Lee on
Speaker 2: the internet based superhero creation, production and marketing studio stan
Speaker 2: Lee Media. Okay, And so the venture was only around
Speaker 2: for like two years. It was the victim of the
Speaker 2: first dot com shutdown. So it starts in ninety eight,
Speaker 2: two thousand. The things are looking both great and ominous
Speaker 2: for tech, and so Tonkin and Paul they hope that
Speaker 2: working with the Clintons would increase stan Lee's profile and
Speaker 2: that they could get Clinton to join the board. Like,
Speaker 2: what is happening right now? What even is this? Tonkin?
Speaker 2: So he's like all right, he The story he tells
Speaker 2: is that the Gala got set into motion after he
Speaker 2: allegedly shared a limo ride with Clinton one summer evening
Speaker 2: in June. You know, who else was in the limo,
Speaker 2: Red Buttons Choka con.
Speaker 3: Yes, I could never guess. I just knew I would never.
Speaker 2: There's something about me that not a lot of people
Speaker 2: know is that every night I have in my dreams,
Speaker 2: there's almost always a celebrity cameo, and it's usually like.
Speaker 3: A d It's always.
Speaker 2: And it feels like one long dream that I'm in.
Speaker 2: So Shaka Cohn's in the limo with Aaron Tonkin and
Speaker 2: Bill Clinton evening, and Tonkin is like, because Tonkin's going
Speaker 2: with like to escort Chaka Khan to an event. And
Speaker 2: Tonkin has this conversation with Bill and it ends up
Speaker 2: with Bill Clinton telling Aaron Tonkin to go forward with
Speaker 2: all the galla plans. Let's do it. Let's have a gala.
Speaker 2: So ahead, Peter Paul and Tonkin. That's like an also
Speaker 2: Ran full trio. They worked with Hillary Clinton's people to
Speaker 2: prepare the August twelfth. It's called quote the Hollywood Gallus
Speaker 2: Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton. It's a fundraiser at
Speaker 2: the Brentwood estate of businessman Ken roberts So. It was
Speaker 2: hosted by Stanley Peter Paul and impending recall target California
Speaker 2: Governor Gray Davis. Wow, there were tributes to the Clintons
Speaker 2: from Michael Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Jack Lemon, John Traval to
Speaker 2: Gregory Peckan many more.
Speaker 3: This is fun.
Speaker 2: And then Stevie Wonders Share, Melissa Ethridge, Natalie Cole, Diana Ross,
Speaker 2: Paul Anka popping his head up again, Tony Braxton, Patty LaBelle,
Speaker 2: Brian McKnight, and Sugar Ray performed. Can you believe they
Speaker 2: got Sugar Ray?
Speaker 3: I cannot believe he was able to get his people
Speaker 3: on the y And.
Speaker 2: Can you believe also that Tonkin booked someone born after
Speaker 2: Hawaii became a state. It's amazing to me. So that
Speaker 2: wasn't the only Clinton honor that Tonkin had up asleep. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he also put together an event called a Family Celebration
Speaker 2: two thousand and one on April first, two thousand and
Speaker 2: one at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Okay.
Speaker 3: So, Brian Burrow, this is like, right when the Clintons
Speaker 3: are out of office, he's just trying to basically take
Speaker 3: his victory lap. He's raising money for his library, and
Speaker 3: she's using that as a time to basically also get
Speaker 3: donations for her senatorial campaign, So they need to be
Speaker 3: in the public. Yeah, so they'll take anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, and they loved Hollywood.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm just trying trying to get why he's so
Speaker 3: keen to have.
Speaker 2: Her all these Yeah. So this is what it was.
Speaker 2: In Vanity Fair, Brian Burrow wrote a piece quote the
Speaker 2: stars poured in. Sylvester Stallone was there in a tuxedo,
Speaker 2: chatting with his fellow honorees Betty and Gerald Ford. The
Speaker 2: evening's co chairman, Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband Ally mcbeil.
Speaker 2: Producer David E. Kelly sat at Clinton's table with members
Speaker 2: of the McBeal cast. Nearby, MTV's Carson Dally M. Seed
Speaker 2: and Elizabeth Taylor and Whoopee Goldberg made presentations thanking Clinton
Speaker 2: for his years in office, and then came the music
Speaker 2: songs from Dwight Yoko Man Ray Charles. Toward the evening's end,
Speaker 2: Clinton put on a pair of ray bands, grabbed a saxophone,
Speaker 2: and jammed for an uproar is five minutes with BB King,
Speaker 2: who then performed a bluesy let the Times roll. The
Speaker 2: evening ended precisely at ten point fifty with an energetic
Speaker 2: set by.
Speaker 3: Insane Sandy Laupper close.
Speaker 2: So the main beneficiaries were supposed to be charities selected
Speaker 2: by Kelly and the cast of Ally McBeal, And for
Speaker 2: the uninitiated, Ally McBeal was a Mark E. Kelly joint
Speaker 2: about a lawyer played by Calista Flockhart. So he gave
Speaker 2: us Calista Flockhart, which means he probably said in motion
Speaker 2: her later romance with and marriage to Harrison Ford totally,
Speaker 2: which I feel like gave us Harrison Ford still peering.
Speaker 3: And it did definitely. And also the people who like
Speaker 3: when he went and saved their lives, like but he's playing,
Speaker 3: or like people with the golfers he scared in Santamonic
Speaker 3: when he crashed his.
Speaker 2: Because of Davidy Kelly.
Speaker 3: All that's because of this, yeah, is right back.
Speaker 2: Tonk can promised Kelly and his charities one hundred percent
Speaker 2: of whatever money was raised, but then Tonkin also struck
Speaker 2: a deal with in Syncs agents in exchange for their performance,
Speaker 2: Tonkin agreed that charities selected by the band would get
Speaker 2: fifty percent of the money raised, So one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty percent of the gate is now spoken for. One
Speaker 2: of kelly producers found out about this a day before
Speaker 2: the event, and like Tonkin smooths it out, says, you
Speaker 2: know what, Cynthia Gershman's going to cover any funding gaps.
Speaker 2: So to bank roll the dinner, Tonkin got forty grand
Speaker 2: from Gershman, seventy five grand from la businessman Robert Lorsch,
Speaker 2: and another one hundred and fifty thousand from a foundation
Speaker 2: controlled by Loreen Arbus, daughter of one time ABC Television
Speaker 2: president Leonard Goldenson. The California Attorney General would later allege
Speaker 2: that much of the money was diverted by Tonkin to
Speaker 2: pay for expenses unrelated to the event. President Ford got
Speaker 2: his beak wet on it. What His agents at William
Speaker 2: Morris demanded four hundred thousand dollars for his appearance at
Speaker 2: the gala, what two hundred thousand to be donated to
Speaker 2: the Betty Ford centerlus another two hundred thousand for President
Speaker 2: Ford himself. This is a shakedown. Most people involved with
Speaker 2: the gala did not know that Ford was being paid
Speaker 2: to be honored there.
Speaker 3: Yes, usually don't get paid.
Speaker 2: No. And then, according to Sandra Fert and Gabriel the
Speaker 2: a Washington event planner that Tonkin hired to supervise the
Speaker 2: evening when told like Ford got paid. Quote, he was
Speaker 2: President Ford. That explains so much. I mean why he
Speaker 2: went to that party the night before and the breakfast.
Speaker 2: Oh that stuns me. That's so ghosh, one of my
Speaker 2: favorite insulting descriptors. Ghosh. I love her. So, a spokesman
Speaker 2: for the Fords confirms, yeah, he got paid, but said
Speaker 2: that Tonkin only gave one hundred and fifty thousand to
Speaker 2: the Betty Ford Clinic, not two hundred. Let's get his
Speaker 2: direct number. So Paul, Peter Paul said he wrote hundreds
Speaker 2: of checks to Tonkin, like two million dollars worth. Wait
Speaker 2: what Yeah? That they were to cover things like table
Speaker 2: linens and limos. And then the payments were later in
Speaker 2: the center of like Paul's allegations about the Clinton's fundraising missteps.
Speaker 2: But we'll get to that. So, coming on the eve
Speaker 2: of the Democratic National Convention, the event gets all this
Speaker 2: press coverage and Bill and Hillary they thanked Paul and
Speaker 2: Tonkin in person. Clinton described mister Tonkin in a videotape
Speaker 2: message as quote my good friend and in handwritten notes.
Speaker 2: Several days later, though the Washington Post they put out
Speaker 2: a story spilling it about Peter Paul's earlier cocaine and
Speaker 2: fraud convictions. The Clintons immediately distanced themselves. They returned the
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars in cash that Peter Paul had given
Speaker 2: Hillary's campaign. Paul's attorneys said that Paul asked Tonkin to
Speaker 2: approach the president about securing a pardon for his past crimes,
Speaker 2: but Tonkin, whether he did or not, isn't known.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Federal prosecutors later said that Paul participated in a scheme
Speaker 2: to manipulate stan Lee Media's stock price. He fled. Peter
Speaker 2: Paul fled to Brazil in December of two thousand, four
Speaker 2: months after the benefit federal investigators closing in. And it
Speaker 2: was during this time that Tonkin met one of Paul's
Speaker 2: oldest friends, a man named Stanley Myyatt. Let's take a break.
Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll learn about this. Stanley Mayott, Hello, Hi,
Speaker 2: how are you listen? Before I went to DJ that
Speaker 2: set of amazing ads, like all the hits, they played the.
Speaker 3: Hits he mixed nice on the ones and two.
Speaker 2: I was telling you about how Peter Paul hold the
Speaker 2: Mary had taken off for Brazil to avoid federal charges
Speaker 2: over manipulating this stock price of Stanley Media fever dream
Speaker 2: I told you and Aaron Tonkin our focus today. He'd
Speaker 2: cozied up to a friend of Peter Paul's, a guy
Speaker 2: named Stanley.
Speaker 3: Myatt, Yes, don't know that name.
Speaker 2: Myatt was known as mister Covert Operations because he was
Speaker 2: an alleged CIA assassin. He was in with the Italian
Speaker 2: and Russian mobs. Wow, he was a Wall Street scam artist.
Speaker 3: Everywhere he is.
Speaker 2: He was a loan shark, FBI and dea informant.
Speaker 3: Was he also a race car driver?
Speaker 2: This is Aaron fever Dreams what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: So the Philadelphia Mob boss, Ralph Natali, he said, quote
Speaker 2: Mayat was an insurance scam man. He was a Wall
Speaker 2: Street scam man. He bootlegged cigarettes years ago, made a
Speaker 2: huge fortune. He got into the marijuana business and went
Speaker 2: away for a couple of years. He came back and
Speaker 2: he went down to live in Florida and he made
Speaker 2: a big connection with Russian mob that came up through
Speaker 2: Florida and him himself. He came to see me at
Speaker 2: the Garden State Racetrack a couple times. Wanted to make
Speaker 2: a connection with us. The Philadelphia Mob with the Russian mob.
Speaker 3: And they have to do that at a race check. Yeah,
Speaker 3: legit not to know that those meetings that you never
Speaker 3: know where they're going to take place.
Speaker 2: True, And according to Peter Paul, Mayatt invested in dozens
Speaker 2: of companies. A lot of them were public at the
Speaker 2: request of FBI handlers because the Feds wanted to peek
Speaker 2: under the hood, and then Mayatt got him in there,
Speaker 2: and according to Paul, the FBI looked the other way
Speaker 2: while Mayatt quote looted the company. And how does Paul
Speaker 2: know this, he said, because he also worked for the
Speaker 2: FBI in the early eighties. And I also it was
Speaker 2: the early eighties. We were all working for the f
Speaker 2: It was a different time. He said that Mayatt was
Speaker 2: his supervisor and that they worked together off and on
Speaker 2: ever since. And in fact, he said that two of
Speaker 2: them investigated mafia influenced in Hollywood during the nineties, and
Speaker 2: by investigated, I think he means participated in This is
Speaker 2: my guess. So, when being interviewed about working with Tonkin,
Speaker 2: Miyatt said, quote, I don't believe I did anything, sinister.
Speaker 2: I guess you'll get some things right and something's wrong.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't make any sense for me to answer
Speaker 2: any questions.
Speaker 3: It really does.
Speaker 2: It really doesn't make any sense. Mayatt had a Philadelphia
Speaker 2: based hip hop music company.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna need you to say that again.
Speaker 2: A Philadelphia based hip hop music company called Antra Records,
Speaker 2: best known for marketing the rapper Corrupt.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, oh yes, I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Two thousand and one, he closed up shop and
Speaker 2: he Mayatt met with Tonkin because he wanted to break
Speaker 2: into the LA music scene. He had a new LA
Speaker 2: company he called OFC Incorporated Organized Crime Family. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so auditors they later go in search of, like the
Speaker 2: missing money from a family celebration two thousand and one,
Speaker 2: the bogus ally mcbeil scala. They found out that hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars passed through accounts controlled by Myatt,
Speaker 2: who identified himself as Tonkin's money manager. Oh yeah, it's
Speaker 2: always inconvenient.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like being a family advisor cover so many.
Speaker 2: Things, so many things. According to Peter Paul, Myyatt quote
Speaker 2: controlled Tonkin and used him to infiltrate the music and
Speaker 2: entertainment communities for the FBI.
Speaker 3: Huh, so curious or and curious.
Speaker 2: Mayat was also He was a source of funds for
Speaker 2: a family celebration two thousand and one, providing more than
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars in cash, much of which went
Speaker 2: to Sylvester Stallone and Ray Charles demanded before they would appear, they.
Speaker 3: Did that, James Brown, pay me or I'm not showing up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sandra Ferton in cash, Yeah, Sandra Ferton. Gabriel, that
Speaker 2: event producer. She said she saw Tonkin pull cash out
Speaker 2: of the pocket of his g and he gave twenty
Speaker 2: grand to Ray Charles. She said, quote, I was floored,
Speaker 2: but that was just how Aaron did things.
Speaker 3: Also, if you, I mean Ray Charles, if you grew
Speaker 3: up on the Chitlin circuit, you're going to be paid
Speaker 3: for your favors. Hit those.
Speaker 2: Stallone's attorney said. Stallone like the thirty grand that he got.
Speaker 2: He had kind of earmarked it to pay for medical
Speaker 2: expenses of the relative of one of his housekeepers. Oh okay, sure, okay.
Speaker 2: And then the remaining sixty g's was supposed to be
Speaker 2: covering the trips that Tonkin promised two members of David E.
Speaker 2: Kelly's production staff. So, according to an anonymous source, I
Speaker 2: love those These are just one example of how celebrities
Speaker 2: took incredible advantage of Aaron. I mean, these were charitable
Speaker 2: events and everyone from Gerald Ford to Sylvester Stallone had
Speaker 2: their hands out taking money from charity.
Speaker 3: Well, it does give you a sense of what their
Speaker 3: life is the rest of the time when they're not
Speaker 3: around him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, He's not the only one.
Speaker 3: They're doing this too, and when.
Speaker 2: It's not even supposed to be for charity, really knives out.
Speaker 2: So Tonkin he gets he's facing federal charges of fraud,
Speaker 2: one for mail fraud and the other for wire fraud.
Speaker 2: According to the indictment, in September of two thousand, Tonkin
Speaker 2: got five hundred and fifty thousand dollars for an event
Speaker 2: to honor Diana Ross and he promised three charities that
Speaker 2: they would receive all the proceeds. But the event never
Speaker 2: even took place, and so Tonkin took a plea deal,
Speaker 2: and on December ninth, two thousand and three, he's thirty
Speaker 2: eight years old, he pleads guilty to the two federal charges.
Speaker 2: During a thirty five minute appearance before Judge Dale Fisher
Speaker 2: in federal court. He admitted that he misrepresented himself in
Speaker 2: his purposes when he was like getting all these donors.
Speaker 2: When the judge asked like, well, what was your intent,
Speaker 2: he just flatly replied, to defraud. I'm just going to
Speaker 2: say it.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to lay it out there.
Speaker 2: And then Tonkin also caught state charges. He was accused
Speaker 2: of defrauding a bunch of like potential beneficiaries, including the
Speaker 2: Betty Ford Center, of at least one point five million.
Speaker 2: And for those charges, he was up against like maybe
Speaker 2: ten years in prison as well as half a million
Speaker 2: dollars fine, and then on top of that restitution for
Speaker 2: the victims. Isn't that right he's got back? Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: So all these charities, and of course Tonkin wrote a book, is.
Speaker 3: Now a qualified author? He's got charges against you.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and four, his book King of Cons came out,
Speaker 2: and he wrote that he would use cash, luxury vacations, jewelry,
Speaker 2: political donations to lure celebrities to his fundraisers and then
Speaker 2: that would then raise his profile. Quote, my bill at
Speaker 2: Cardier was a million dollars. I was handing out Hawaii
Speaker 2: trips like someone would hand out their business cards to
Speaker 2: these celebrities and their hangars on. I call it taking
Speaker 2: from the needy to feed the greedy.
Speaker 3: Wow, what he just said it?
Speaker 2: Uh huh. So in order to get Arnold Schwarzenegger at
Speaker 2: a charity event in September of two thousand and two,
Speaker 2: and this is before he was governor, cause he said
Speaker 2: that Tonkin said he first had to make a contribution
Speaker 2: to a campaign that Arnold had for a state ballot
Speaker 2: proposition to promote after school sports programs, which I vaguely remember,
Speaker 2: and that's when we all kind of knew this guy
Speaker 2: is going to do it. State election records confirmed that
Speaker 2: Tonkin gave a contribution of sixty five hundred dollars. What, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's huge. An assistant US attorney who specializes in major
Speaker 2: fraud cases, Joseph Zwicker, he said in court that Tonkin
Speaker 2: gave quote false promises to potential underwriters and that they
Speaker 2: are the charities that they represented would benefit you know
Speaker 2: that he's all this fake things, sometimes as much as
Speaker 2: four hundred thousand dollars. And then Zwicker said that Tonkin
Speaker 2: and his associates who weren't identified, would then divert some
Speaker 2: er all the money to himselves, like basically laying out
Speaker 2: what we've just seen. Zicker would not identify Tonkin's associates,
Speaker 2: but he did say that they were being investigated. And
Speaker 2: so Tonkin, he starts getting these email threats and two
Speaker 2: of them were supposedly sent by these associates under investigation.
Speaker 2: The government looks into it, they're like, you faked these,
Speaker 2: You sent these to yourself. And so as a result,
Speaker 2: Tonkin was no longer seen as important to the government's investigation,
Speaker 2: and that means he's on his own. So he's insisting
Speaker 2: that the threats were real, but the Feds are over him.
Speaker 2: His deal evaporates. The prosecutors would not reduce his sentence,
Speaker 2: and they were also really pissed off about the book deal.
Speaker 2: Oh course, this is what Zwicker said, quote, if he
Speaker 2: sells his story for money, that would have an impact
Speaker 2: on his credibility with a jury. So like, we're not
Speaker 2: gonna you can't be like state's evidence. Alan Rubin, Tonkin's attorney,
Speaker 2: said Tonkin kept just quote a very small amount of
Speaker 2: the money raised from all the fundraising events, and he
Speaker 2: said that tonkins take amounted to quote less than five percent,
Speaker 2: though he didn't do the math and say with the
Speaker 2: original number of like, what's five percent.
Speaker 3: One million dollars is a very small amount compared to
Speaker 3: one billion dollars.
Speaker 2: It's all relative. George Byrd, another lawyer of Tonkins. He
Speaker 2: issued a statement saying that it was the politicians and
Speaker 2: the celebrity who quote benefited from Aaron's work. Unfortunately, the
Speaker 2: charities did not receive the funds that rightfully should have
Speaker 2: gone to them due to the greed of celebrities themselves,
Speaker 2: which you know, he's not wrong. So Ruben said, Tonkin
Speaker 2: didn't waste the money do flashy things. At the time
Speaker 2: this all went down, Tonkin lived in a nine hundred
Speaker 2: dollars a month apartment. Really, yeah, and I did not expect.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But then he also hired three thousand dollars a night escorts.
Speaker 3: Wait what yeah, three thousand dollars a night, yeah, escorts. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but three thousand dollars a night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what they're doing.
Speaker 3: That's like a circ of sleat stuff. I mean, that's incredible.
Speaker 2: So Ruben described Tonkin, who would not speak to reporters,
Speaker 2: is quote extremely remorseful about his conduct in the case.
Speaker 2: And then he said he played guilty because quote it
Speaker 2: was important for him to admit and accept responsibility. Aaron
Speaker 2: did something wrong, but he came in and faced the
Speaker 2: music and accepted his punishment. There were a lot more
Speaker 2: people involved in this than Aaron Tonkin. We just hope
Speaker 2: the government does not leave him as the old We're
Speaker 2: hopeful that things can work out in the future and
Speaker 2: then other people who've been involved criminally will get their punishment.
Speaker 2: August twenty fourth, two thousand and four, Yes, talking, he
Speaker 2: gets sentenced to sixty three months in federal prison. Okay
Speaker 2: for you know, all the scams with the charities. He
Speaker 2: had to pay three point eight million in restitution.
Speaker 3: Ooh does he even have any close to them? Think?
Speaker 2: So he apologized in court and he said that he
Speaker 2: was excited for his life to quote move forward into
Speaker 2: a new chapter. September twenty second, two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: he starts serving his sentence federal facility in Kentucky. You
Speaker 2: know low scarities got.
Speaker 3: Five and a quarter years ago. I mean that's it's
Speaker 3: going to be out in a couple.
Speaker 2: Oh no, he was two thousand and four is when
Speaker 2: he went in, and he had for five years, so
Speaker 2: he was out twenty ten. He's out, and the LA
Speaker 2: Times runs this huge interview with him and they proclaim
Speaker 2: him reformed. And in search of redemption, and he was
Speaker 2: apparently trying to help his victims get their money back.
Speaker 2: He's like, let's work together to get the restitution because
Speaker 2: I don't have it, but I know who does. Vegas
Speaker 2: legend Wayne Newton is quoted in the article quote, I
Speaker 2: am on that short list of people who want to
Speaker 2: see him put his life back in order. I would
Speaker 2: work with him anytime, anywhere.
Speaker 3: Why Wayne, Why.
Speaker 2: I don't know. But then on the other hand, we
Speaker 2: have Martin Gubb, a businessman who gave Tonkin cash for
Speaker 2: a Celine Dion fundraiser that never happened.
Speaker 3: From the Gub report.
Speaker 2: Yeah, quote, I hope he doesn't get his life back.
Speaker 2: What he did is beyond words.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yes, we're gonna have both. It's unclear what became
Speaker 2: of Tonkin, Like, you know, he he doesn't have like
Speaker 2: a social media presence that I could finance, like an
Speaker 2: old Twitter account. He hasn't touched in ages. Part of
Speaker 2: his probation was that he was barred from fundraising or
Speaker 2: handling money for nonprofits. Oh but he could act as
Speaker 2: a consultant.
Speaker 3: Oh well come on, come on, yeah, Oh he said
Speaker 3: he doesn't get to touch the money. Yeah, that's essentially
Speaker 3: what you did.
Speaker 2: In twenty ten, he was also pitching a line of
Speaker 2: dietary supplements, of course, and then a year later, twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: he was involved in some sort of thing suing the
Speaker 2: insurance company for the old socialite Ladies Life insurancea Cynthia, No,
Speaker 2: the one he was Cynthia. Okay, yeah, so that I'm
Speaker 2: throwing in new celebrities exactly. I know, well she I'm surprised.
Speaker 3: She left her money to like a cat or or something,
Speaker 3: a dog.
Speaker 2: I think it's amazing horrible. So anyway, Yeah, so he
Speaker 2: was trying to get that out. He's just kind of
Speaker 2: dropped off. You can't find them interesting. But yeah, wherever
Speaker 2: he is, I hope he's doing well and not scamming folks.
Speaker 3: I hope he's reformed somewhat. It feels better about himself.
Speaker 2: What's your takeaway, Zaron in the ridiculous type of takeaway?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, thanks for asking Elizabeth the When I
Speaker 3: was down in Hollywood, I learned really quickly that I
Speaker 3: had an advantage of her a lot of people, which
Speaker 3: is that I don't give a flying a fig about
Speaker 3: a celebrity. All I see is a person with a
Speaker 3: big head, and I oh, literally a physically big head.
Speaker 3: They often the TV actors in particular, have oversized that
Speaker 3: it's one of their secrets. But I could be in
Speaker 3: a room with no matter who and I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't care. I mean, they're just a person. But
Speaker 3: most people are like this cat in one way or another.
Speaker 3: They either want to leverage the celebrity. They want to
Speaker 3: be made to feel important, to feel good. They want
Speaker 3: to reject the celebrity like I don't care about them,
Speaker 3: and personally I would either way. They're just a person
Speaker 3: to me. I didn't feel negative or positive about that,
Speaker 3: And so the people who wanted to pose me like, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't want to be around them were just as
Speaker 3: pretentious as that people who wanted to be around them. Right,
Speaker 3: everybody had to position themselves relative to the celebrity. Because
Speaker 3: of that, all these celebrities always talk to me in
Speaker 3: social functions because I was the only one not trying
Speaker 3: to talk to them or trying to ignore them. I
Speaker 3: was just like, Gid, you hand me that napkin, and
Speaker 3: they'd be like, well, so then we start talking. So
Speaker 3: this guy is interesting to me in the sense that
Speaker 3: he reminds me of the benefit of not giving a
Speaker 3: care about a celebrity. You're free, look teenie and free.
Speaker 3: What's yours? Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: What's your ridiculous ex ass?
Speaker 3: Try it out.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think it's just backs up my suspicion of
Speaker 2: a lot of charities. Anytime you see like some big
Speaker 2: fundraiser gala, I worry about the amount of money that
Speaker 2: went in to put that kind of thing on. And
Speaker 2: I always look at look for like more immediate, ground
Speaker 2: level charities where you can see that the money goes
Speaker 2: right to action and not to And I'm just disgusted
Speaker 2: at these people asking for such amount of money, like
Speaker 2: to perform at a charity event like Ford.
Speaker 3: I did not see the shakedown. These are charities are
Speaker 3: like zoos. I don't think we really need them anymore.
Speaker 2: I really don't think so, Hey, David, can I have
Speaker 2: a talk back? I've been good?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I let get.
Speaker 4: Hey Elizabeth, Hey, zeron, do you want to know what's
Speaker 4: ridiculous coming off of anesthesia and demanding to speak with
Speaker 4: you guys? I just head back surgery, and when I
Speaker 4: came off the anastesia, I just kept saying all these
Speaker 4: different things about different episodes from Ridiculous Crime and how
Speaker 4: much I needed to see Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett
Speaker 4: because I needed to see them. Love you guys.
Speaker 2: I hope she's okay. I hope you're okay. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: I'm also I really apologize that we're so deep subconscious
Speaker 2: like that. That must be uncomfortable for you, but I am.
Speaker 3: I'm that's nice.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 2: That's all I have for today. You can find us
Speaker 2: online at ridiculous Crime dot com and you can find
Speaker 2: us all over the internet. Just keep looking. That's all. No, Okay, fine,
Speaker 2: We're at Ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram, Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Uh, talk back as you heard
Speaker 2: you know, you come out of surgery, you leave us
Speaker 2: a talkback first thing, reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted
Speaker 2: by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited by
Speaker 2: Red Buttons right hand man Dave Cousten. Research is by
Speaker 2: Marissa Brown, who demands four hundred thousand dollars per appearance
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