Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Hello, Elizabeth, Hey,
Speaker 1: do you know it's ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yes, I didn't expect you to just.
Speaker 1: Come like coming right out of the gate. You know what,
Speaker 1: No nonsense, cut to the chase.
Speaker 2: You know. I'm always trying to like expand how long
Speaker 2: I can hold my breath underwater. It's just like one
Speaker 2: of my own hobbies. I've been trying to get it
Speaker 2: up to two and a half minutes. I'm still in
Speaker 2: the over two, but not near near two and a half.
Speaker 2: I need a lot of I need to work. My
Speaker 2: goal is three. Anyway, My point is I looked up
Speaker 2: to see how long like it is, like, what's the
Speaker 2: longest thing? Was overhold their breath? Twenty four and a
Speaker 2: half minutes? Twenty twenty four minutes. Yes, it's a deep No.
Speaker 2: This Croatian guy Buonimir Sobat on March twenty seventh, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, he held his breath for a total of
Speaker 2: twenty four minutes and thirty seven seconds.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I looked this up to quantify it for
Speaker 2: you so you could put.
Speaker 1: This people in the briny deep wood. Yeah, they've been
Speaker 1: holding it forever.
Speaker 2: Correctly Baby Jones's locker crowd with these in terms you
Speaker 2: would relate to, And that's the way I didn't want
Speaker 2: you to be like, why that can't be possible. I
Speaker 2: was like, no, I'll put these in terms of you
Speaker 2: can relate to. In the December is song Sunshine, there's
Speaker 2: a line, why hold your breath until your face turns blue?
Speaker 2: That song is two minutes and twenty four seconds long, Yeah,
Speaker 2: which means you could hear that song ten times, ten
Speaker 2: point two, five sixty nine times in the full twenty
Speaker 2: four minutes and thirty seven seconds that that dude Budamir
Speaker 2: sobat held his breath underwater, you could hear Colin malloy
Speaker 2: sing that line, why hold your breath until your face
Speaker 2: turns blue? Yeah, ten times before you gave up her hair.
Speaker 2: That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That is ridiculous. And I also just don't buy it.
Speaker 2: You don't buy it.
Speaker 1: You've seen people, oh yeah, does he have brain damage?
Speaker 2: They trained so that they're they're basically their whole body
Speaker 2: is oxygenated, so they're not requiring as much pull for
Speaker 2: oxygen as we would think. They train their body to
Speaker 2: just hold air really long.
Speaker 3: Straw he just hasn't really like string and they give
Speaker 3: you say, guys who go down dive deep and they
Speaker 3: pull themselves down by by a rope, they can get
Speaker 3: further and further, and they're letting out air, but they're
Speaker 3: also compressing it, and they're moving air around inside their
Speaker 3: lungs inside of different like sections, if you will, and
Speaker 3: then releasing bits.
Speaker 2: It's why I'm telling you I'm so far behind these guys.
Speaker 1: Why I just keep saying, what Dave, That guy could
Speaker 1: hold his breath all the way through Joan in the
Speaker 1: garden and time. Yeah, we're talking in our December's terms.
Speaker 2: My god, that ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That is really ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I can do like the human animals.
Speaker 1: I can do like forty five seconds, can you No,
Speaker 1: I'll put you down for like thirty eight tops. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't want to try. You know what else?
Speaker 1: This is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: No, I do not. I'm all out.
Speaker 1: Lawsuits on lawsuits on lawsuits.
Speaker 4: Oh flax, Yeah, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons.
Speaker 1: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
Speaker 1: percent ridiculous. Oh damn right, that's right. I am you
Speaker 1: and I have talked about that show Yellowstone. Yeah, total,
Speaker 1: you're a fan of it and it's spin offs.
Speaker 2: Yes, I like eighteen sixty three and I liked the first.
Speaker 1: And nineteen ty threes are eighteen eighty three?
Speaker 2: What did I say? Eighteen sixty three? Eighteen matter?
Speaker 1: Who cares?
Speaker 2: I got thrown by the Gemstones. They did like a
Speaker 2: knockoff eighteen sixty three or eighteen sixty two, I don't know.
Speaker 2: They did it in one of other episodes recently. They
Speaker 2: did like a back story and it had to take
Speaker 2: place in Sam.
Speaker 1: I'm cursed to share a name with a character from
Speaker 1: the show. Oh right, from both Yellowstone and nineteen twenty whatever,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three. Yeah, so's it's a lot for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet, I bet you got a lot of
Speaker 2: fan mail.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do. Before there was Yellowstone, people sending you
Speaker 1: like steaks in the mail all the time. It was great.
Speaker 1: Before there was Yellowstone, the Kevin Costner vehicle that's part
Speaker 1: of a franchise with a Pynchon for depicting the brutalization
Speaker 1: of women. There was the Yellowstone Club, more on that later,
Speaker 1: And before there was the Yellowstone Club, there was Tim Blixeth.
Speaker 2: So I know this named Tim Blicks.
Speaker 1: Tim blick Seth, You say, Elizabeth, Yes, Elizabeth, that Tim
Speaker 1: blick Seth. You haven't heard of Tim blick Seth.
Speaker 2: I mean I don't. I'm not supposed to tell. I
Speaker 2: mean lame I signed.
Speaker 1: Well, neither had I until a few days ago. Oh really, yeah,
Speaker 1: So he is a kid in rural Oregon. His family
Speaker 1: was painfully poor. He hunted to put food on the table.
Speaker 2: So they were eating like tree bark. Yeah, like critters,
Speaker 2: like old shoes.
Speaker 1: Yea. His dad was a Lutheran minister who'd immigrated to
Speaker 1: the US from Norway. So this is sounding very like.
Speaker 2: Oregon Trail and he's not a very good man, very.
Speaker 1: Yellowstone spin off eighteen eighty three. Well, Tim was born
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Okay, a lot.
Speaker 1: Of his early story is like super frontier man stuff.
Speaker 1: So according to his website, yes, he's got a website,
Speaker 1: so you know this is all going to be really good. Quote.
Speaker 1: I grew up on welfare in a tiny town called Roseberg, Oregon.
Speaker 1: We were so poor that I had to hunt deer
Speaker 1: and elk to put meat on my family's table and
Speaker 1: endured the taunts of my classmates when I lined up
Speaker 1: for free lunches in the school cafeteria. My parents did
Speaker 1: the best they could for my four older sisters and me,
Speaker 1: but as a boy, I ate more government provided spam
Speaker 1: than I care to remember. Tell it he had a
Speaker 1: rough one.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: To add to that, he was raised in an apocalyptic
Speaker 1: Christian cult. Oh well, he called it a mini cult quote,
Speaker 1: not nearly as big or sophisticated as.
Speaker 2: Song oh scale.
Speaker 1: It was called Jesus Name of Oneness. And that's different
Speaker 1: than Oneness theology that rejects its Pentecostals who like reject
Speaker 1: the Trinity. This was his parents, like homegrown blend.
Speaker 2: His family cult.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like his family did it. According to his CNN
Speaker 1: Money article, quote, the blick sets belong to what Tim
Speaker 1: describes as quote a local cult known as the Jesus
Speaker 1: Name of Oneness. It had sixty seven people in it,
Speaker 1: and it was just very strange, he explains during an
Speaker 1: interview one day last fall from the forty five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a night Botaga Vanetta Suite at the Saint Regis
Speaker 1: Hotel on Fifth Avenue. What I know they like the
Speaker 1: whiplash David. You've come a long way, baby, I'm telling you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So he got to love a local cult. Yeah you do.
Speaker 1: Anyway to continue his pioneer childhood, we hear from the
Speaker 1: Great Falls Tribune quote he discovered his knack for the
Speaker 1: art of the deal when he was thirteen. He bought
Speaker 1: three donkeys for twenty five dollars each and what told
Speaker 1: him a few weeks later now touted as pack mules
Speaker 1: for a profit of one hundred and fifty dollars. After
Speaker 1: high school, he worked in a sawmill, then moved into
Speaker 1: buying timber.
Speaker 2: So he rebranded some Docus.
Speaker 1: Pack mules timber. I'm loving this is like Oregon in
Speaker 1: the early sixties. Yeah. So this little log cabin hustler, right,
Speaker 1: he's selling donkeys. Not enough, he goes he wants to
Speaker 1: go bigger. He was still in high school when he
Speaker 1: got into real estate.
Speaker 2: One of those kids.
Speaker 1: He bought a house and he flipped it. He sold
Speaker 1: it to one of his teachers, and that was just
Speaker 1: the beginning. Like so in a few years he's doing
Speaker 1: like big land deals. Like he's got that thing like
Speaker 1: where you start out with a paper clip and you
Speaker 1: try and trade it to get stuff. That's like bigger
Speaker 1: and bigger. I did not like those games no anyway,
Speaker 1: Like I would just be like I like paper clips.
Speaker 2: And then the first thing exactly.
Speaker 1: With this, So he was like he would have rocked
Speaker 1: it in that. So he's doing in real estate stuff,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't his day job. He worked in a
Speaker 1: timber yard. He was bundling cedar shingles.
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 1: You know what a cedar shingle is for a roof? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he bundled them together.
Speaker 2: But I mean, is that like a thing like were
Speaker 2: he is he inventing this sarin?
Speaker 1: They're not going to bundle themselves that. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: just like on the on the job, like wrap and twine.
Speaker 2: So that you guys ever thought about selling these in
Speaker 2: bulk time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, bundling them up? They're like put them in packs
Speaker 1: of twenty five.
Speaker 2: He was selling exactly.
Speaker 1: So a while away at the time, he hummed tunes
Speaker 1: to himself. Okay, because as a kid, he wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to listen to music because that part of the doomsday.
Speaker 1: No music, no playtime, no holidays. Yeah, but he loves
Speaker 1: music like it's it's a part of him, and so
Speaker 1: he would sneak a radio into his room and listen
Speaker 1: quietly at night to like the hits of the day.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: He loved to listen to music, create it, perform it.
Speaker 1: It was his passion, a passion.
Speaker 2: It's like, so he's like it's like foot loose, yes,
Speaker 2: but less dancing, more music. Yes.
Speaker 1: And he looked he did not look like Bacon. That's okay,
Speaker 1: it's fine. Did he look like Timothy Salome Jesus won this? No,
Speaker 1: I don't think he did. So he was passionate about music,
Speaker 1: but he was also passionate about money. Oh and that
Speaker 1: took the front seat.
Speaker 2: I bet it did.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So by the time he's in his thirties, he
Speaker 1: was like a timber property baller.
Speaker 2: Oh, thirty thirties, tons of.
Speaker 1: Investments, lots of land, so much woodland. You have no
Speaker 1: idea this man got wood. Yeah, I mean it wasn't
Speaker 1: easy to get there. Like a decade earlier, it was
Speaker 1: wasn't going.
Speaker 2: So how were you getting into the wood industry in
Speaker 2: this seventies eighties, eighties? I mean I figured that'd be
Speaker 2: kind of locked up in family, like Wirehouser and all
Speaker 2: these Like.
Speaker 1: When you're when you can trade a paper cliph you
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. According to Willamette Week quote in
Speaker 1: the late nineteen seventies, he crashed hard in this way.
Speaker 1: He left dozens of enemies furious. Creditors claimed he used
Speaker 1: bankruptcy is a slick dodge. Others charged that he's a
Speaker 1: mercenary con man who talked them out of their money.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so there it is.
Speaker 2: That's how he got in Columbia.
Speaker 1: That's how he got a little peak behind the curtain.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't be telling you about him otherwise
Speaker 1: I should have remembered that. Yeah. So while he had
Speaker 1: all these assets in his thirties, he wasn't necessarily sharing
Speaker 1: that truth. So there are some court documents from nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty two where he said his monthly income was zero dollars.
Speaker 2: I've been there, brother, zero point zero zero.
Speaker 1: And somehow he was still at the same time investing
Speaker 1: in restaurants in real estate.
Speaker 2: Okay, have not been there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me neither. And for someone you know whose income
Speaker 1: was zero point zero zero, I.
Speaker 2: Can speak to this.
Speaker 1: He was living pretty.
Speaker 2: Well, much better than I ever was. At zero point zeros.
Speaker 1: He said he couldn't pay child support because at this
Speaker 1: point he had kids and was divorced.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's dodging a lot.
Speaker 1: But he could go on vacations to like Hawaii and Disneyland.
Speaker 2: Crazy money manager, this guy.
Speaker 1: He also could use a helicopter to pick up his
Speaker 1: kids when it was his turn for visitation.
Speaker 2: So this is like a perfect balance. He's going off. Yeah,
Speaker 2: zero point, zero point. My costs and the main come
Speaker 2: are perfectly balanced.
Speaker 1: Zero's out. So in eighty three he married his second wife, Edra.
Speaker 2: Crocker Okay from the Crocker fan.
Speaker 1: From the Yeah from the Country Crockers, Elizabeth, how do
Speaker 1: you do it? Edra was a partner in a local
Speaker 1: hotel and restaurant business called Chow Chow Willies. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just really had to put that in there when
Speaker 1: I saw so at this point, Tim straight up lumber baron,
Speaker 1: and uh, I mean, obviously is one who was making
Speaker 1: zero dollars.
Speaker 2: Of course it's a very well balanced lumber baron.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to start telling people that my job
Speaker 1: is lumber baron when they ask work. It's a great title.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just remember to tell me that so I
Speaker 2: can confirm what's your lumber bearon on page?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like Elizabeth, Oh, yeah, lumber bear, I forgot
Speaker 1: zero points zero in the woods. So Tim, by eighty six,
Speaker 1: his fortunes had shifted once again. He was fifteen million
Speaker 1: dollars in debt and he had only four grand in assets.
Speaker 2: Did he get caught in the market downturn eighty six?
Speaker 1: Yeah's eighty seven eighty seven?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Black Monday saving October. Yeah, but I'm saying
Speaker 2: that you still have a lot of those pressures coming. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's just I think he operates independent of
Speaker 1: those things. I mean, he counts on the woods. He's
Speaker 1: he's killing so dinner. So what's the guy to do?
Speaker 2: It's still raining when.
Speaker 1: You when you have fifteen million dollars?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is a man that he's supposed to do?
Speaker 1: K bankruptcy? Oh British knights man, you got a lock
Speaker 1: up like a British Knights cool ideal. They get into
Speaker 1: the king now, he and his wife they declared bankruptcy
Speaker 1: in like a real way, not in the Michael Scott
Speaker 1: way shout So. But then another three years go by
Speaker 1: and guess what, he's rich again? Whoa, And he's now
Speaker 1: a real estate developer.
Speaker 2: So he declared emotional bankruptcy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's I don't know any money, but now I do.
Speaker 1: Now he's developing real estate.
Speaker 2: So he's in a real estate and stone lumber. I
Speaker 2: imagine he.
Speaker 1: Also no, he also ran got out, He ran his
Speaker 1: own record label.
Speaker 2: I should keep up. I'm going to fast forward here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna jump from the late nineties to two thousand
Speaker 1: and five. Brace hold on tight. Here's a little snip
Speaker 1: snip from his website quote. In August two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: I sat glued to my TV as the Category five
Speaker 1: storm known as Hurricane Katrina touchdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 1: As I watched the devastation and sheer desperation of the
Speaker 1: people of the Gulf, I knew I had to do
Speaker 1: my part. Sure Fortunately, guidance arrived in the form of
Speaker 1: a song, Heart of America. Came to me in a
Speaker 1: dream at three am, almost like it had already been
Speaker 1: written a long time ago.
Speaker 2: Why yeah, I remember he got back into music.
Speaker 1: Watching Katrina on TV.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: I was actually living in Glasgow at the time.
Speaker 2: I was living in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: It was surreal to be that far away, Adam.
Speaker 2: That was my birthday. I had a birthday party and
Speaker 2: we all watched it. I was planning New Orleans, no way,
Speaker 2: I watched my plans go away.
Speaker 1: I was I flipped back and forth between BBC and Sky.
Speaker 5: News.
Speaker 1: Coverage was really slow to relay news, but everything was
Speaker 1: like confirmed truey was coming in fast and furious, but
Speaker 1: only like forty. They'd interview people waiting down the street
Speaker 1: and they'd make some wild claim and Sky was like,
Speaker 1: all right, here's the news.
Speaker 2: So we just heard from Greg.
Speaker 1: I watched the coverage and my heart ripped open for people.
Speaker 2: It's terrible.
Speaker 1: I waited for news of my great uncle. He was
Speaker 1: down there in Gulf Coort. He survived. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: I didn't write a song about it.
Speaker 2: No, you did not. I don't remember.
Speaker 1: I didn't even write a poem about it. But Tim
Speaker 1: he wrote a goldern song for the people, but he
Speaker 1: didn't perform it. You know who did who? Michael McDonald
Speaker 1: actually Michael McDonald.
Speaker 2: Known a Judd Wait what?
Speaker 1: And Eric Benney and you know what, Jay Z says,
Speaker 1: never go Eric Binney. I don't even know what else
Speaker 1: to say. So you don't need The Today Show on
Speaker 1: NBC they used the song for Katrina relief coverage and.
Speaker 2: Then wait, wait what NBC NB Today Show, how did
Speaker 2: he get Michael mcdoni claims or that it raised more
Speaker 2: than one hundred and twenty million dollars for hurricane relief charities.
Speaker 1: What So, Yeah, I watched the video You're welcome.
Speaker 2: But it's like when Kanye said, George don't care about
Speaker 2: black people, Like there's going on? Is this a song
Speaker 2: in like that type of they have performed it?
Speaker 5: Then?
Speaker 1: Probably? So I watched the video. It's behind the scene
Speaker 1: footage of the recording mixed in with like media coverage
Speaker 1: of the hurricanes aftermath. So there's Michael McDonald rolling into
Speaker 1: the studio, thank you for having me, that's what he says.
Speaker 1: It is good on and then it cuts to someone
Speaker 1: like weeping on a damp sidewalk next to an empty
Speaker 1: shopping cart. And then it's like Michael McDonald to Michael
Speaker 1: McColl up in the microphone. He's like doing his thing
Speaker 1: while reading the lyrics off a sheet of paper in
Speaker 1: his hands. And then there's like a shot of people
Speaker 1: on a rooftop, water lapping at their feet as they
Speaker 1: wait for help. Huh. Then it cuts to Winona Judds
Speaker 1: singing at the mic and y'all, I'll say, like, you know,
Speaker 1: doesn't she remind you of anyway? So then like there's
Speaker 1: like a shot of an elderly person on a pool
Speaker 1: float being pushed through like waste deep water on a
Speaker 1: major street by someone in a soap under shirt. And
Speaker 1: then now we cut to Eric Benet sitting sitting with
Speaker 1: Tim in the studio like conferring over key changes or something,
Speaker 1: and Eric Benet then smiles and like congratulates Tim, and
Speaker 1: then cut to someone sitting on the ground outside the Superdome.
Speaker 1: We bing, like you get it. It's very weird of
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: My spirits are half listen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mine weren't. So that's Tim's music. Let's get
Speaker 1: back to his land man stuff.
Speaker 2: So I'm so confused. Okay, I'm going with you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go back. We're gonna go back now to
Speaker 1: the late eighties.
Speaker 2: Wow, because I just know I mentioned he had.
Speaker 1: A record label. I looked into it. I had to
Speaker 1: talk about this. Let's go back anyway, So late eighties,
Speaker 1: Tim did a big deal. He swapped one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: acres that he and these two partners had in Montana,
Speaker 1: and the swap was with the US government. Oh. It
Speaker 1: took two specialized acts of Congress to make it happen.
Speaker 1: What Yeah, So the partnership divided up this new government land.
Speaker 1: Other two dudes took the land with viable timber reserves,
Speaker 1: and Tim took some primo real estate with potential killer
Speaker 1: ski slopes. And I'm going to stop here for some ads.
Speaker 1: And when we return, Tim's going to make big money moves. Zarin,
Speaker 1: We're back. Did you miss me?
Speaker 2: I did? I always do it.
Speaker 1: I was over on the ones and twos, remixing and
Speaker 1: curating those adverts. The thought of my work spend money, y'all.
Speaker 1: So when I left off Tim he picked up a
Speaker 1: huge parcels Montana lands to develop.
Speaker 2: He finessed the government.
Speaker 1: It took him almost a decade to see his dream
Speaker 1: become a reality, but he pulled it off.
Speaker 2: Well. He held onto that lamp for oh yeah, and
Speaker 2: he was.
Speaker 1: Working on it, working at the Yellowstone Club, Like what's
Speaker 1: thattle is it?
Speaker 2: What is the yellow Stone Questions? That was related to
Speaker 2: the hell Fire Club.
Speaker 1: It opened in nineteen ninety seven, and that's all you
Speaker 1: need to know. Yeah, Oh, Zarah and I kid Tim
Speaker 1: and his wife. They cooked up a massive playground for
Speaker 1: the walthy.
Speaker 2: They love those. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This thing was from what I hear, six hundred acres okay, Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was a private club. There were homes you could buy.
Speaker 1: There was a golf course, a gigantic ski resort, seventy
Speaker 1: five runs what just outside a big sky of Montana.
Speaker 1: It was like twenty miles north of Yellowstone National Park.
Speaker 1: The clubhouse was decorated in the very like luxe design.
Speaker 1: Over the top, there's a caviar bar.
Speaker 2: Oh god, the ski run that's what I want, fishakes.
Speaker 1: The ski runs had names like lear Jet Glades.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: No, I'm not kidding you. In I was like, what
Speaker 1: does that mean? I don't know. I'm a good citizen, though,
Speaker 1: I'm going to look it up. I said that out
Speaker 1: loud to myself. It stands for earnings before interest, taxes,
Speaker 1: depreciation and amortization.
Speaker 2: I did know that. It's the acronym. I thought you
Speaker 2: were doing like ABITHA.
Speaker 1: Oh that would be.
Speaker 2: Wrong.
Speaker 1: It's a total like fat cat shokes. Oh yeah, so
Speaker 1: Tim and his wife.
Speaker 2: They ran a tak My accountant would love this.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, So, according to the New York Times quote,
Speaker 6: he described himself in other media interviews as the club's
Speaker 6: benevolent dictator, and with Miss blick Seth at his side,
Speaker 6: he ruled with a velvet fist early on.
Speaker 1: Miss Blixeth served as chief operating officer for a time,
Speaker 1: but her neck for hospitality was her real contribution. Members say,
Speaker 1: mostly with fondness, that Miss blick Seth's aesthetics were more
Speaker 1: madam than monarch. Indeed, decor in some parts of the
Speaker 1: clubhouse almost smacked of Montana bordello there, just as at
Speaker 1: Porcupine Creek quality met kitsch, with Persian carpets and antiques
Speaker 1: rubbing up against huge marble statues and a couch covered
Speaker 1: in real zebra skin.
Speaker 2: So it's like eyes wide shut. The ski resort.
Speaker 1: Pak, Yeah, it's pretty much the only members only ski
Speaker 1: resort in the world at that point. Really, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: something like or I'm not sure there was, but what
Speaker 1: I read said it was. And I'm not going to
Speaker 1: argue with the internet. Right, since it was in this
Speaker 1: like prime Virgin territory and out of the way the
Speaker 1: violently wealthy, our favorite people, they immediately flocked to become memorials.
Speaker 2: Oh, of course there was going to be none of
Speaker 2: the poores.
Speaker 1: Here no, no, keep them away. And they were paying
Speaker 1: not just for luxury, but for the privacy of.
Speaker 2: Course, and to be around each other so they could know,
Speaker 2: I see you. You're here too, We're both here.
Speaker 1: People like Bill Gates, he was an early investor alongside
Speaker 1: Mary Heart of entertainment tonight.
Speaker 2: Shame he could finally and be Mary Heart.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you had all the money in the world,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you want to rub shoulders with Mary Hart?
Speaker 2: Would fight to get there.
Speaker 1: Dan Quail of not knowing how to spell potato fame.
Speaker 2: How do I get into this room?
Speaker 1: Apparently Bill Gates loved the club because you didn't need
Speaker 1: to have security with you on the slopes or in
Speaker 1: the club. Exclusive they had their own security for it
Speaker 1: was all ex secret service.
Speaker 2: Oh god.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was marketed with the phrase private powder. All right,
Speaker 1: I gotcha.
Speaker 2: They have never changed, by the way, rich people the same,
Speaker 2: never since ancient Rome. Before then, the agent by.
Speaker 1: The decor may have been over the top, but the
Speaker 1: whole vibe was very discreet. So like club members, they
Speaker 1: didn't talk about the place to the media. They didn't
Speaker 1: kind of divulge each other like oh they remember they
Speaker 1: were gifted this anonymity and in a rare move for
Speaker 1: a place like that, it was totally family friendly. The
Speaker 1: kids were super welcomes, like most of these like exclusives
Speaker 1: want to get Yeah, yeah, they want to. They want
Speaker 1: to you know. Yeah, so just t shirts, no pants.
Speaker 2: And that's everyone's dress. I mean, and then and then
Speaker 2: little sun coverage up top.
Speaker 1: People get to see that. Oh my god, you have
Speaker 1: a little curly tail. That's how that works. You're not familiar.
Speaker 1: According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle quote, Surrounding the mountains
Speaker 1: are fourteen three hundred acres of club property, most of
Speaker 1: it under a conservation easement. Members can ride horses or
Speaker 1: hike or bicycle if they crave a little privacy. Alongside
Speaker 1: the ski slopes sky Crane's loom building more mansions. Business
Speaker 1: is brisk. Last year, that's two thousand and seven, the
Speaker 1: club sold ninety five million dollars worth of real estate,
Speaker 1: according to club executives, bringing the total above one billion
Speaker 1: dollars over the past ten years.
Speaker 2: Selling really so they're basically selling condos.
Speaker 1: Yeah, essentially like mansions and then condos in the inside
Speaker 1: the complex. Yeah, The one hundred and twenty thousand square
Speaker 1: foot lodge contains ski shops and restaurants, lobbies and bars,
Speaker 1: and lots of big gas fired fireplaces.
Speaker 2: So they don't have like one central fire. People gather
Speaker 2: around to drink hot chocolate. They got all these individuals.
Speaker 2: People can be sitting in their an little they go on.
Speaker 1: Fine art adorns the walls, Bronze statuary stands guard everywhere,
Speaker 1: the wineless broadze statuary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got like knights standing at the door like
Speaker 2: wooden Indians.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's say they do all right. I just
Speaker 1: it's like every five feet is a knight's armor.
Speaker 2: Totally, like let's go, Yeah, I got done. Pictures like
Speaker 2: a British cat, and.
Speaker 1: Then like in between each one is a grandfather claw.
Speaker 2: Exactly see them.
Speaker 3: It's very Scooby Do, like Nancy Drew put together.
Speaker 1: What was the article? Say, okay, quote the wine list
Speaker 1: will blow your hair back. A lot of night train
Speaker 1: that's why, or at least, the prices will almost everywhere
Speaker 1: you look, and employees cleaning something. The furniture is heavy,
Speaker 1: the spaces are expansive, ceilings rise and rise and rise.
Speaker 1: The heat bill must be incredible. Upstairs, you find condominiums,
Speaker 1: some serviced by private elevators.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad I'm a millionaire. It sounds insufferable every
Speaker 2: time I've been around people like this, but.
Speaker 1: It's the worst.
Speaker 2: I like people.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you it's really hard to be wealthy like that.
Speaker 2: I bet have a hard time. Yeah, you must suffer.
Speaker 1: I really do the houses there not these rustic cabins
Speaker 1: in line with the places where these people live. So
Speaker 1: there's like wine cellars, movie theaters, spas. The New York
Speaker 1: Times talked about this one spec house called the River
Speaker 1: runs through it home Wow. Quote featured an all glass
Speaker 1: passageway to the guest quarters with a heated river flowing
Speaker 1: beneath it.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, it's like for a glass hallway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but is it like a lazy river in a
Speaker 1: water park? So your kids are floating in it? So good?
Speaker 1: This is just the smell of CHLORINEK.
Speaker 2: You're able to work here. I have, Oh, bodily, function's gotten.
Speaker 1: It should come as no surprise though it was not
Speaker 1: cheap to join.
Speaker 2: Up what I thought this sounded reasonable, like.
Speaker 1: A coupon book thirty eight thousand dollars to give you
Speaker 1: one of those you know, when people are buying or
Speaker 1: selling those charity coops.
Speaker 2: Yeah, theyk o the kids go door to door? Yeah,
Speaker 2: did you want chocolate? How about magazine? How about a
Speaker 2: membership to the Jackson clubes a minimum sorry Yellowstone.
Speaker 1: Minimum initial fee five.
Speaker 2: Dollars, thirty would have gotten.
Speaker 1: Two and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: I was so close. I know it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a margin of era.
Speaker 2: In the grand scheme of things with much bigger numbers.
Speaker 2: It would have been you.
Speaker 1: Pay that you buy in two hundred and fifty grand.
Speaker 1: But then you also have to buy a home or
Speaker 1: a condo, so you're looking at anywhere between five million
Speaker 1: and thirty five million there. And then there's annual dues
Speaker 1: that are like twenty grand, which I think is low.
Speaker 2: Do they have a homeowners association?
Speaker 1: If people coming down you can't.
Speaker 2: Paint your door that he needs your Mary Hart complained.
Speaker 1: And then to qualify for membership you had to have
Speaker 1: a minimum of three million dollars in liquid assets.
Speaker 2: I missed it.
Speaker 1: I'm so close. It says right on the website quote
Speaker 1: or it did at the time. Sometimes you have to
Speaker 1: pay to play.
Speaker 2: Sometimes sometimes, honey, you guys always have to pay to play.
Speaker 2: No one wants to play.
Speaker 1: Places doing really well though making money maintaining it's a lure.
Speaker 1: Around around two thousand and four, Tim wanted born.
Speaker 2: Oh he wasn't happy.
Speaker 1: No, he wanted to take the concept international, of course,
Speaker 1: and he told investors at the club would never take
Speaker 1: on debt. That was like the promise, that's the Tim
Speaker 1: Blick seth promise. Okay, that it would be self sustaining.
Speaker 1: And so he has all these investors right, but then
Speaker 1: he had to scratch that expansion itch. So he went
Speaker 1: out and he got a three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: million dollar bank loan from Credit.
Speaker 2: Swiss personally, so that we didn't take on debt.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no for the club. He used the club
Speaker 1: assets as collateral.
Speaker 2: That's what I was wondering. So basically, like his.
Speaker 1: Wife Edward told the New York Times quote, I didn't
Speaker 1: recognize it as such, but that Credit Swees loan was
Speaker 1: the beginning of Tim's midlife crisis before we could contain
Speaker 1: him after it was ego gone wild.
Speaker 2: She didn't realize it at the time. He's got a
Speaker 2: third of a billion dollars to do with whatever he wants.
Speaker 1: Well, the original plan, he was going to ask the
Speaker 1: bank for two hundred and twenty million dollars. Okay, but
Speaker 1: the credit sweez. They had other ideas, so they like,
Speaker 1: what about something more? No, they said, we have Okay,
Speaker 1: we've got all these investors who are willing to dump
Speaker 1: more than a billion with a B dollars into the resort.
Speaker 1: Like they the bank wanted to syndicate the loan to
Speaker 1: big investors, and it's.
Speaker 2: Like, we want to turn you a dirt into a deriva. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They're like, Tim, don't you want more money? And he's like,
Speaker 1: yes money, sure, Yeah, so they up it up to
Speaker 1: three seventy five. The bank made a seven point five
Speaker 1: million dollar fee on the loan, just off the top.
Speaker 2: That works.
Speaker 1: The money comes in three hundred and seventy five million.
Speaker 1: He immediately transfers two hundred and nine million to this
Speaker 1: entity that he controlled, okay, separates it up.
Speaker 2: Is it like in a foreign bank? Also, No, it's
Speaker 2: just like under American.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The rest of it went into buying posh resorts all
Speaker 1: over the world. So he bought a twenty eight million
Speaker 1: dollar fourteenth century chateau complete with a moat outside of Paris,
Speaker 1: a forty million dollar Mexican resort Wow, twenty eight million
Speaker 1: dollar private island in the Caribbean.
Speaker 2: I'll take it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, forty million dollar site in Scotland where he was
Speaker 1: going to build a golf retree. And we know how
Speaker 1: how much the locals love when that happen.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, your favorite come in please our national sport.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Membership sales were suspended though at the Yellowstone Club
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six because of lack of interest.
Speaker 2: Really hard to slow down. And yeah, this is before
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, so there was still a lot
Speaker 2: of easy.
Speaker 1: Saying, like according to The New York Times. In December
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, mister blick Seth made headlines by
Speaker 1: announcing he was building a Yellowstone Club mantz that he
Speaker 1: boasted would be the most expensive home in the world,
Speaker 1: priced at one hundred and fifty five million dollars. The
Speaker 1: fifty three thousand square foot home, called the Pinnacle, would
Speaker 1: have a heliport, an ice skating rink, and underground parking
Speaker 1: for twenty SUVs. The home was never built but for
Speaker 1: the driveway. Mister Blickseth would later sell the site for
Speaker 1: ten million dollars.
Speaker 2: I would love to have a moment to talk to
Speaker 2: somebody like that. And just like you be like very
Speaker 2: real with them, be like you know that hole inside
Speaker 2: of you. This is not going to hap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can build many.
Speaker 2: If we all point and look and go. That's the
Speaker 2: most amazing man I've ever seen in all my Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's still not going to do it.
Speaker 1: So he's like he's making bold claims. He's flitting all
Speaker 1: over the world looking at properties. Remember I was like,
Speaker 1: people aren't buying memberships just because back home at the
Speaker 1: Yellowstone Club, things are not going swimmingly. Like the places
Speaker 1: started to fall apart. There are potholes in the streets,
Speaker 1: and there was a big sewage backup at the lots.
Speaker 1: According to the New York Times quote, the power grid
Speaker 1: was meant for eighty homes, as it's strained to meet
Speaker 1: the needs of three hundred. The ski lifts would occasionally
Speaker 1: creak to a halt.
Speaker 2: Because they have so many like movie theaters in people's homes,
Speaker 2: they can't make their.
Speaker 1: Heats all cranked. But they're like, yeah, exactly, And meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Bill Gates is like dangling over the lear jet rot
Speaker 1: Mary Heart. What if Bill Gates had an affair with
Speaker 1: Mary Heart? There allegedly what if allegedly I think we
Speaker 1: all know, but so like having it all Jaki like that,
Speaker 1: that's not the way to attract new members.
Speaker 2: It's actually way to lose your current members.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, and so like that, the investors aren't happy.
Speaker 1: Nobody's happy. You know who was unhappy? You know it's
Speaker 1: one of those three time Tour de France winter in
Speaker 1: Northern California zone. Greg Lamont what Gregg Greg Lamon? Greig Lamon.
Speaker 1: He was an early investor and homeowner at the Yellowstone.
Speaker 1: In two thousand, he entered into negotiations with Yellowstone Development.
Speaker 1: That's like you know, Tim was the representative and he
Speaker 1: bought a five acre parcel known as Lot eleven.
Speaker 2: So cycling can get you there, huh. Apparently in the eighties,
Speaker 2: I mean talking like lance when he got like advertising money.
Speaker 1: You know, no one was wearing Greg Lamont bracelets, and
Speaker 1: we really should have been.
Speaker 2: He did sell bikes, actual bikes, they did, but not
Speaker 2: many exactly Elizabeth er.
Speaker 1: So an email from Tim outlined this deal where like
Speaker 1: Greg Laman is going to get the lot for a
Speaker 1: million dollars Love eleven, but the price would be offset
Speaker 1: by one hundred thousand dollars for each new member that
Speaker 1: he would bring into the clubs, which would allow him
Speaker 1: to basically get the property without paying for it if
Speaker 1: he could bring it exactly. Yeah, the dorm, He's like,
Speaker 1: who has five on? It? Gets everyone in? Lamon held up,
Speaker 1: I understand, I know, right to translate. Lamon held up
Speaker 1: his end of the bargain. He promoted the club like
Speaker 1: he was supposed to do, but like no formal contract
Speaker 1: was signed. He got four other family members and associates
Speaker 1: to invest, so he got it like for half price.
Speaker 1: They each kicked in seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for one percent shares of the club.
Speaker 2: There's how many four of them?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So fast forward to that credit sweet loan. So
Speaker 1: there was that two hundred and nine million dollars that
Speaker 1: Tim put into his own account.
Speaker 2: Yes, the outstanding personal ones.
Speaker 1: Greg Lamon and other shareholders were like, that should be
Speaker 1: distributed to us because like these the shares are what
Speaker 1: was used as collateral.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, getting kind of lippy. Greg coming in quick
Speaker 2: and hey, listen, how do I get some of that
Speaker 2: money over there?
Speaker 1: In two thousand and six, then so he and other.
Speaker 2: Guys to see how Greg got money.
Speaker 1: He didn't play. He and other minority shareholders filed a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against Tim and all of his associated entities. They
Speaker 1: alleged eighteen counts of malfeasance, including breach of contract and
Speaker 1: fiduciary duty. They said that Tim tried to buy out
Speaker 1: their shares at undervalued prices without providing necessary financial disclosures,
Speaker 1: despite appraisals that valued the club way higher.
Speaker 2: Than he was saying the deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so Lamon's lawsuit included a claim for the
Speaker 1: conveyance of that lot eleven. It had been reconfigured and
Speaker 1: incorporated into a larger part known as the Overlook.
Speaker 2: Lots, so the hotel shining. Yeah exactly, sounds.
Speaker 1: Like why seriously. Two thousand and seven, Lamon he filed
Speaker 1: notice of list pendants on the Overlook Lots to like
Speaker 1: assert his claim on them. So that basically means that
Speaker 1: he flagged the property in County Land records as being
Speaker 1: part of a pending lawsuit. Okay, this is what The
Speaker 1: title pretty much stalls any sale, but him didn't care.
Speaker 1: The next year, he and a partner formed Overlooked Partners,
Speaker 1: LLC and purchased the lot for fifteen millions, even though
Speaker 1: there's pending litigation. So Greg Lamon settled the lawsuit in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight for thirty nine and a half million.
Speaker 2: Dollars settled for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, get it, Greg geez Yeah.
Speaker 2: Correct, Way better than on a bike courtroom run.
Speaker 1: I know things were more than a mess on the
Speaker 1: Yellowstone side of things. So we'll come back to that later. Now, though,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about trying to con the Pentagon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is happening all at the same time.
Speaker 2: He's like, I got one over in the bla.
Speaker 1: It starts with this dude, Dennis Montgomery. He was a
Speaker 1: software programmer and co founder of Etrepid Technologies based in Reno, Nevada.
Speaker 2: Not a good name, no.
Speaker 1: He said that he developed software that could intercept and
Speaker 1: decode hidden Al Qaeda messages embedded in Al Jazeera broadcast.
Speaker 2: Of course, why not.
Speaker 1: And he said that he could also detect secret codes
Speaker 1: in video streams using advanced signal process.
Speaker 2: So he's got a secret decoder ring, yes, essentially.
Speaker 1: And he marketed this technology US government agencies after nine eleven.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they bought five.
Speaker 1: And he's like, let's prevent future attack. I won't ever
Speaker 1: want never again.
Speaker 2: There's a billion dollars.
Speaker 1: So in two thousand and six, this banner year for
Speaker 1: Tim Right. He became a key financial backer of Montgomery's ventures,
Speaker 1: particularly through a company called Opspring llc Opspring, which is
Speaker 1: a technology firm that Montgomery co founded with Blick Sas.
Speaker 1: So Opspring wanted to market montgomery software to these US
Speaker 1: intelligence and defense agencies, like we can identify hidden terrorist messages,
Speaker 1: Tim and Edra. They get like super into promoting the software.
Speaker 4: Okay, and they were like, this is a revolutionary counter
Speaker 4: terrorism tool.
Speaker 1: We should know. We own a resort in montang hang out.
Speaker 1: So he leveraged all of his connections and like all
Speaker 1: these Yellowstone Club members like X government officials to like
Speaker 1: pitch the technology the high ranking federal officials. So for
Speaker 1: like a really brief moment, maybe forty five seconds, US
Speaker 1: government agencies took his claim seriously, like, well, let's.
Speaker 2: Lipkk to this.
Speaker 1: So the CIA, Department of Homeland Security they tested the
Speaker 1: software and then CIA and Air Force Intelligence Unit were like,
Speaker 1: this is total garbage. This is a fraud. There's no
Speaker 1: scientific or technical basis for your claims. Get out. There's
Speaker 1: a two thousand and nine Playboy Artday, Sir that described
Speaker 1: how yeah, the software had like caused false alerts, including
Speaker 1: canceling a transatlantic flight based on bogus quote intelligence.
Speaker 2: So put somebody on like a no fly list by mistake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, According to a two thousand and nine deposition, Montgomery
Speaker 1: later admitted that the software never actually worked and he
Speaker 1: knew it. Yeah, and the former CIA officials referred to
Speaker 1: it as quote, the biggest con ever perpetrated on the
Speaker 1: US government.
Speaker 2: Could you imagine thinking that you can go and con
Speaker 2: the CIA's tech people with something you know doesn't work. No,
Speaker 2: this guy, Wait, that's like I can't imagine like driving
Speaker 2: over and just making that full drive there. They're like
Speaker 2: way past that.
Speaker 1: But while Greg Leman's suing him, yes, exactly, it's business
Speaker 1: with Montgomery. They get in all these other lawsuits and
Speaker 1: counter lawsuits with all these fraud accusations, his intellectual property, theft,
Speaker 1: defamation and so, like you know, the Yellowstone clubs falling apart.
Speaker 1: He's doing this.
Speaker 2: They're like a monetary distribution system for lawyers, Like we
Speaker 2: take money here, but give it to lawyers there.
Speaker 1: That's what this guy is. Whatever happened to Dennis Montmy Montgomery?
Speaker 1: Glad you ask, I'll give you a quick rundown of
Speaker 1: his greatest hits following this scam two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: again Banner year, he accused Nevada gubernatorial I'm.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Elizabeth, I just realized you said two thousand and six.
Speaker 2: We're a year past him doing the song in New Orleans.
Speaker 2: So at the same time, he's also doing charity songs.
Speaker 2: He's really in peace.
Speaker 1: He's all over the place.
Speaker 2: Okay, go on to but this is now Dennis montud Yes,
Speaker 2: his business partner. Yes.
Speaker 1: He accused Nevada gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons of accepting a
Speaker 1: bribe that Montgomery had offered him. He said, he gave
Speaker 1: Gibbons I offered you. Yeah, he gave Gibbons ten grand
Speaker 1: and some casino chips in order to lock in military
Speaker 1: contracts for the bogus software.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: The FBI investigated, Gibbons was clear because like Montgomery had
Speaker 1: faked this email trail that he used his evidence. Twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: Montgomery was hired by Garbage human being Sheriff Joe R.
Speaker 1: Pio a Marizona County, Arizona as a confidential informant.
Speaker 2: Hired as a confidential they do tell this to the press.
Speaker 1: Montgomery told him that using information that he picked up
Speaker 1: when he worked for the CIA, there he could expose
Speaker 1: a conspiracy against our PIO between the US Department of
Speaker 1: Justice and G. Murray snow, a federal judge presiding over
Speaker 1: a racial profiling lawsuit that had been filed against the county.
Speaker 2: I got your back, bro.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So then these NSA am NSA looks at it
Speaker 1: and they're like, Nope, this is not CIA stuff, according
Speaker 1: to Reuter's quote. In twenty nineteen, Montgomery sued our Pio
Speaker 1: alleging libel. The computer programmer claimed the sheriff's office had
Speaker 1: hired him to quote hack into databases and websites to
Speaker 1: help improve their beliefs about President Obama's ancestry and birth information.
Speaker 2: Oh wow yeah.
Speaker 1: Twenty seventeen, he said that he had intel about the
Speaker 1: Trump Tower wire tapping allegations, and he sued former FBI
Speaker 1: director James Comey, saying there was a cover up case dismissed.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one, Montgomery said there was a supercomputer called
Speaker 1: the Hammer that was used to steal votes from Trump
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty election, and then that my pillow
Speaker 1: dufis Mike Lindell. He loved the story, repeated it all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Oh, is that why he's in trouble now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, vote machine, the vote machine. The director of the
Speaker 1: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of the
Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security, called the claims quote nonsense and
Speaker 1: quote a hoax. So remember, kids, you are the company
Speaker 1: you keep. Let's take a break for some ads and
Speaker 1: up next drama. Wo zaren, Yes, welcome.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: So we had that credit sweee thing.
Speaker 2: Right, I was just a cock. She's sending them an
Speaker 2: email asking for a loan of about two hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1: The show is collateral.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would like to, you know, prioritize some mountain land.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at like that.
Speaker 1: That sounds good.
Speaker 2: I'll let you come. I'll have a private club.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'd like to be in the club. Dave, do
Speaker 1: you want to be in the club.
Speaker 2: I'm in. Yeah, he's already the vice president.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, so you've been talking about it without me?
Speaker 2: No cute whatever he started.
Speaker 1: So we have credit Sweee birth. All these lawsuits countersuits.
Speaker 1: In an eight year span, federal court dockets listed tim
Speaker 1: on one hundred and fifty nine cases involving bankruptcy's civil
Speaker 1: actions or appeals and fifty A lot of those are
Speaker 1: ones that he finds. It was just a big mess,
Speaker 1: Like you're saying, he's just generating billable hours for lawyers.
Speaker 1: But this was something that Tim and Edra could not weather.
Speaker 2: Oh the couple, Yeah, I can't believe she stayed this
Speaker 2: long in two thousand and six kids banner year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they filed for divorce.
Speaker 2: I imagine she so they well know this.
Speaker 1: How it works. They told the Wall Street Journal that
Speaker 1: it was like super chill and they did the goop
Speaker 1: and the guy who's the beanie thing like conscious uncoupling,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, respectful positive.
Speaker 2: What's his band? Uncle cracker, no cake?
Speaker 1: Cool guy? Yeah, Tim and Edra they sat down one
Speaker 1: afternoon at the Beverly Hills Hotel with a bottle of
Speaker 1: wine and a yellow notepad.
Speaker 2: I mean, who among us hasn't That's.
Speaker 1: Exactly they carefully split up the assets.
Speaker 2: I knew it.
Speaker 1: Not a lawyer in sight.
Speaker 2: I knew it.
Speaker 1: Just a bad moves.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so they're not actually working together. Protection.
Speaker 1: You can't always associate lawyers with ranker like it's it's
Speaker 1: just why to navigate the law with someone training that's
Speaker 1: why they're.
Speaker 2: Called counselor advocate counsel.
Speaker 1: This is someone my family's crawling with lawyers, I've been
Speaker 1: trained to say. But in the end they really should
Speaker 1: have had lawyers because it fell apart. It fell apart.
Speaker 1: As part of the divorce settlement, Edre became the majority
Speaker 1: owner and CEO of the Yellowstone Club. Yeah, he's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, you can have the club. It isn't
Speaker 1: really good financial it is, so it is just make
Speaker 1: it printing money. I want you to have it, please nod,
Speaker 1: but okay, transfers it over. So the divorce settlement came
Speaker 1: under legal scrutiny when creditors alleged that Tim had used
Speaker 1: it to shield assets from the Yellowstone Club creditors. So
Speaker 1: courts found that the club did not receive equivalent value
Speaker 1: in exchange for releasing claims on Tim and it's his entities.
Speaker 1: And it was at this point, not at the time
Speaker 1: of the loan, that it was revealed that Tim had
Speaker 1: diverted that two hundred and nine million from the loan
Speaker 1: intended for club development. So it wasn't tucked away for
Speaker 1: the club. He wasn't doing it for the club. He
Speaker 1: was using the funds for his personal ventures. So the
Speaker 1: club basically Edra at this point filed for Chapter eleven
Speaker 1: bankruptcy in November two thousand and eight. There was so
Speaker 1: much debt, so much debt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, does she not have like an accountant or a lawyer,
Speaker 2: anybody look at their paperwork. She's just like, oh, I'm
Speaker 2: taking it, and like the.
Speaker 1: Assets for the place were like one hundred million to
Speaker 1: five hundred million in that category, but they owed way
Speaker 1: more than so, like, thanks Tim.
Speaker 2: He got the balance wrong.
Speaker 1: With the bankruptcy in motion and her divorce finalized, Edge
Speaker 1: made a move. She threw a party. What zaren closed out?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: I was wondering. Oh my goodness, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Clo, I want you to picture it. Yes, it's two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine. You are a seventy five year old
Speaker 1: Palm Springs bachelor, a former film industry executive. You are
Speaker 1: stupid rich. All through your younger years, you put your
Speaker 1: career first. You didn't really date and never married. A
Speaker 1: lot of people thought maybe you were gay. You weren't,
Speaker 1: but you thought working to dispel rumors was silly. Who cares.
Speaker 1: When you were in your fifties, you were at a
Speaker 1: beach bonfire trying to close a deal with an agent
Speaker 1: to land a megastar for a project. A large ember
Speaker 1: from the fire popped out of the flames and into
Speaker 1: your right eye. It was horrible. You wound up losing
Speaker 1: your eye, and you've worn an eyepatch ever since. So
Speaker 1: here you are, a silver fox with an eye patch
Speaker 1: who's finally retired and looking to just enjoy life. You
Speaker 1: moved full time to your place in Palm Springs and
Speaker 1: you're enjoying socializing just for the sake of socializing. No networking,
Speaker 1: just hanging out with folks. A neighbor has invited you
Speaker 1: to a party Rancho Mirage not far away at a
Speaker 1: house known as Porcupine Creek over lunch at the country club.
Speaker 1: This neighbor told you all about the house. Two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty nine acres, its own golf course and driving range,
Speaker 1: eighteen thousand square foot house, four guest houses, each with
Speaker 1: a theme Old Hollywood, Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean for casitas,
Speaker 1: fully wired stage and entertainment area at the fifteenth Green
Speaker 1: like a full sized carousel. It's basically a huge resort,
Speaker 1: and your neighbor tells you it's owned by Edra Blixeth.
Speaker 1: You aren't familiar with her. He tells you she's just
Speaker 1: filed for bankruptcy and is about to list the house
Speaker 1: for sale for seventy five million dollars. He wants to
Speaker 1: go to this party and make a move on her,
Speaker 1: get in on that money. You know that for the
Speaker 1: mega rich, bankruptcy doesn't mean poverty. You ask your neighbor
Speaker 1: why he thinks she'll be hot to draw it. It's
Speaker 1: a divorce party, he tells you. So on the night
Speaker 1: of the shindig, the two of you roll up in
Speaker 1: your black nineteen sixty two Porsche three fifty six speech There.
Speaker 1: Heads turn as the valet takes your keys, and the
Speaker 1: two you make your way into the party. You adjust
Speaker 1: your eyepatch. Disco music plays as you walk through the
Speaker 1: foyer into a large living room area. Lights flash and
Speaker 1: people whoop it up. You're handed a glass of champagne.
Speaker 1: On a tabletop. To your left is a display of dolls,
Speaker 1: all with the same guy's face, all full of pins.
Speaker 1: Voodoo dolls. I'm guessing that's the X, you say to
Speaker 1: your neighbor. He doesn't hear you. He's bopping in time
Speaker 1: to the music, scanning the room and its assortment of wealthy,
Speaker 1: middle aged women. Look into party. You hear a smacking
Speaker 1: noise and cheers coming from the next room. You walk
Speaker 1: over to investigate and see a group of people gathered
Speaker 1: around a pinata. It's shaped like the man on the
Speaker 1: voodoo dolls. People take turns whacking at the effigy pinata
Speaker 1: until it busts open and seeming the endless amount of
Speaker 1: chocolate gold coins comes spilling out. You turn away. This
Speaker 1: says all a little much. You head to an order
Speaker 1: of station and overhear staff whispering about the party. This
Speaker 1: whole thing cost her ninety thousand dollars. There are more
Speaker 1: than a hundred people here. That guy over there just
Speaker 1: grab my butt. Have you seen this swag bag? You
Speaker 1: look around a swag bag at a divorce party. The
Speaker 1: concept of a divorce party seems so ghost to you
Speaker 1: in the first place, But to hand out favors. You
Speaker 1: spy a table brimming with gift bags in the corner
Speaker 1: of the room. You pick one up and pull out
Speaker 1: the contents. It's a roll of toilet paper with the
Speaker 1: ex husband's face printed on it. See why would anyone
Speaker 1: be in a hurry to get married? You wonder A
Speaker 1: woman approaches you and strokes your arm. I love your eyepatch,
Speaker 1: she coos. You slowly reach up and lift it away
Speaker 1: from your eye, exposing the gaping hole beneath. She gasps
Speaker 1: and walks away. A woman your age with a smart
Speaker 1: haircut and a stunning lauro Piana outfit is watching you.
Speaker 1: She laughs at the scene. You've just made. This whole
Speaker 1: thing is so messed up, she says to you. Want
Speaker 1: to get out of here? You ask her. Five minutes later,
Speaker 1: the two of you were speeding down a desert high
Speaker 1: in your Porsche. At long last you found your.
Speaker 2: Match on a dark desert high.
Speaker 1: Exactly look what I did for you. So Edra obviously
Speaker 1: thrilled to be done with Tim. I bet right, But like,
Speaker 1: how gross is that with all the like toilet paper anyway.
Speaker 2: Don't get me started. Yeah, So she never understood the
Speaker 2: whole toilet paper like I want to wipe myself with
Speaker 2: somebody's I've never gotten even as like an fgy type things.
Speaker 2: It's not how I think of my boy my bum
Speaker 2: my bum bum so Edra.
Speaker 1: She told a New York Times reporter in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, quote, I would rather feel the cold steel
Speaker 1: of a revolver in the roof of my mouth and
Speaker 1: pull the trigger than to ever think about living a
Speaker 1: day with that man again. Wow yeah boom, like for real, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I'm still like the ground's rocking. In twenty times,
Speaker 1: a federal judge held Tim responsible for the Yellowstone Club's
Speaker 1: financial collapse, good ordered him to pay forty million to editors.
Speaker 1: He turned around sued his former attorney for three hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy five million, alleging malpractice related to the bankruptcy.
Speaker 1: The case was dismissed in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: Oh that didn't work out now.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, Oracle founder Larry Ellison bought Porcupine Creek.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 1: He used it as a private residence for a decade
Speaker 1: before converting it to a five star wellness retreat, which
Speaker 1: it is today. Twenty thirteen, Tim was found in contempt
Speaker 1: for selling assets, including that Tamarindo, Mexican resort, in violation
Speaker 1: of court orders. So he's just going around like selling
Speaker 1: stuff off.
Speaker 2: I got a different country. You can't stop, it's right.
Speaker 1: He was jailed in December twenty fourteen for failing to
Speaker 1: disclose the details of that sale. He got released after
Speaker 1: seven days, but then he was re arrested April twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen and locked up for continued non compliance. He did
Speaker 1: fourteen months in jail for all these like contempt charges
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 2: Contempt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, charge his third wife, Jessica, because he got married
Speaker 1: after the Yeah, she served from divorce papers when he
Speaker 1: was in jail.
Speaker 2: It's third way, third wife that didn't last long. No, okay, now,
Speaker 2: want to hop on that grenade, that financial grenade. I
Speaker 2: don't understand.
Speaker 1: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a two hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty six million dollar judgment against him for fraudulent
Speaker 1: transfers relating to the club. In twenty eighteen, he finally
Speaker 1: reached a settlement with creditors and agreed to pay three million.
Speaker 1: That's it. He sued the state of Montana over the bankruptcy,
Speaker 1: but an appeals court cleared them last year. And it
Speaker 1: looks like there are various pending lawsuits over other random stuff.
Speaker 2: But like whatever, he's still out there in court.
Speaker 1: He's out there. Yeah. The Yellowstone Club still exists. In
Speaker 1: June of two thousand and nine, it was sold for
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifteen million to a private equity firm.
Speaker 1: Cross Harbor Capital Partners. One of the club members is
Speaker 1: like the guy who owns it. Coming out of bankruptcy,
Speaker 1: they were able to clear the debts positive cash flow.
Speaker 1: Membership doubled to more more than five hundred households.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then there.
Speaker 1: Since twenty thirteen, Cross Harbor has been like working with
Speaker 1: all these other entities, expanding the heck out of the property,
Speaker 1: gobbling up neighboring tracks and resorts. Yeah. Current high profile
Speaker 1: members include Bill Gates, still Mark Zuckerberg, j Lo Justin Timberlake,
Speaker 1: and Jessica Biel, Tom Brady, Nick Woodman's CEO of GoPro,
Speaker 1: Stuart Butterfield, a founder of Flicker and Slack, and then
Speaker 1: Phil Mickelson. He's up in there too, So Zarin, what's
Speaker 1: your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2: Rich people they're just not like us, No, no.
Speaker 1: I just like I can't imagine constantly making money, losing money,
Speaker 1: losing other people's money, you know, Like, and then the
Speaker 1: people who use bankruptcy is just like a wipe the slate.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make a difference because like if you're a
Speaker 1: financial divorce, yeah, if you're not, it'll ruin you, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? And like and even then not
Speaker 1: all your debt gets wiped. So it's like anyway hard
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah, you know what I need?
Speaker 2: What do you need, Elizabeth? Talk back? I thought you're
Speaker 2: gonna say it's some comfortable shoes and slip into.
Speaker 1: Well always, but can we even talk back?
Speaker 2: I went hi? Everyone.
Speaker 5: So when I was twelve, I was very religious, and
Speaker 5: when doing a school project, we couldn't get the computer
Speaker 5: to turn on. And thus I decided to start prayer
Speaker 5: for the computer, trying to scare the devil away, and
Speaker 5: me and all my classmates, the six of us were
Speaker 5: like praying for about an hour to scare the demon
Speaker 5: away from the computer. I then realized that the computer
Speaker 5: wasn't plugged in, so I did that very quickly and
Speaker 5: pretend that it was the prayer that was that got
Speaker 5: everyone very excited and cheering. And I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Do you know what the Lord showed you?
Speaker 1: That it wasn't plugged in?
Speaker 2: There you go, yes, unplugged it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love just the vision of all.
Speaker 2: These staring at their computer.
Speaker 1: That's it for today. You can find us online at
Speaker 1: ridiculous crime dot com. That is actually the winner of
Speaker 1: America's Next Top Model.
Speaker 2: Whoa, we went again.
Speaker 1: Congratulations. We're also on Blue Sky Instagram. We're on YouTube
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime pod. Oh. We also we had this whole
Speaker 1: thing going on Instagram about rud dude interns. Yes, where
Speaker 1: rude dudes were submitting pictures of their pets and we
Speaker 1: were sharing those and so we're going to try and
Speaker 1: get those going at some point up on the website
Speaker 1: Collection Gallery Gallery Gallery of interns. So look for that emaila.
Speaker 2: Submit like, go to the Gmail account.
Speaker 1: Yes, send them the Gmail. You give us a little
Speaker 1: account of what their name is and something funny or not.
Speaker 1: Just the picture of the names.
Speaker 2: Fine.
Speaker 1: Email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Leave
Speaker 1: a talkback on the iHeart app. Whatever you do, reach out.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
Speaker 1: produced and edited by Mayor of Jellystone Park, Dave Cousten,
Speaker 1: starring Annalys Rutger as Judith. Research is by Artistan Voodoo
Speaker 1: Doll Craft's person Marissa Brown. The theme song is by
Speaker 1: toilet paper printer Thomas Lee and Yellowstone Club chief sledding
Speaker 1: instructor Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany, five
Speaker 1: hundred guest here and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre.
Speaker 1: Executive producers are secret Yellowstone Club member Ben Bolan and
Speaker 1: fraudulent software inventor Noel Brown Say It One More Time.
Speaker 3: Riudiquious Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.