Speaker 1: Novel.
Speaker 2: Hey listeners, this is Ellie Flynn. Before we get started,
Speaker 2: I just want to let you know that this episode
Speaker 2: contains swearing and explicit sexual language. It's also a story
Speaker 2: of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks to the women who
Speaker 2: have shared their stories with us. We contacted the photographer
Speaker 2: mentioned in this podcast multiple times for comment, but we
Speaker 2: never heard back. He has not been charged with any
Speaker 2: crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also
Speaker 2: contacted Playboy USA. They state that they have asked their
Speaker 2: licensees to blacklist the photographer mentioned in this series and
Speaker 2: that they prohibit paid to play which you'll hear more
Speaker 2: about later in the series. Our research into his association
Speaker 2: to Playboy and their statement will be detailed in episode
Speaker 2: four of this series. Let me tell you a little
Speaker 2: story about the power of Playboy. In nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: Echo Johnson was just an ordinary girl living in Santa Fe,
Speaker 2: New Mexico.
Speaker 3: I was eighteen, and I was two months out of
Speaker 3: high school, and I was in a restaurant having dinner.
Speaker 2: She noticed the guy a few tables away staring at her.
Speaker 2: After a while, he gets up and walks over.
Speaker 3: He introduced himself to myself and my mom and invited
Speaker 3: us Verger's table.
Speaker 2: The guy, a photographer named Greg, said he shot for
Speaker 2: a load of magazines like Vigue, Rolling Stone, and Playboy.
Speaker 3: He was shooting a Playboy and he wanted to test
Speaker 3: me to be in that Playway and I was like, no,
Speaker 3: absolutely not. I could not take my clothes off. I
Speaker 3: think I'd seen Playway once in my dad's room. Like
Speaker 3: that's as much as I knew of it.
Speaker 2: Eco's mom was a bit more familiar with Playboy. She
Speaker 2: knew how getting discovered and featured in the magazine could
Speaker 2: propel you to superstardom, just like it had for Pamela Anderson.
Speaker 3: My mother she saw the opportunity and she said, you're
Speaker 3: doing this and then I was off.
Speaker 2: Soon, Echo was whisked off to Zion National Park in
Speaker 2: Utah for her first Playboy shoot with Greg, the photographer.
Speaker 3: I was good in front of the camera. I was
Speaker 3: pretty generic. I love the camera.
Speaker 2: Echo had done a little bit of local modeling before, catalogs,
Speaker 2: that sort of thing, but this was different.
Speaker 3: Working with the best of the best photographers, makeup, urners, stylus, everything.
Speaker 3: It was surreal.
Speaker 4: It was I was like, Wow, this is cool.
Speaker 2: On the shoot, She's surrounded by a dreamy desert landscape
Speaker 2: of pink sand dunes, epic rock formations, and endless skies.
Speaker 3: These beautiful photographs, there's an image of me laying down
Speaker 3: in the sand and you can see the perfect outline
Speaker 3: of my body in the sand, and it was just
Speaker 3: like I was suntanning. Most of the pictures were like that,
Speaker 3: and it was it was great.
Speaker 2: When those beautiful desert photographs were published, they caught the
Speaker 2: attention of the big guy.
Speaker 3: Hugh Hefner saw it and said, I want Echo to
Speaker 3: Bemis January nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2: Hugh Hefner, the founder and editor in chief of Playboy.
Speaker 2: He chose Echo to be the centerfold, the model featured
Speaker 2: in the middle pages of the magazine, the top star
Speaker 2: on the bill. Huge names have appeared there, Cindy Crawford,
Speaker 2: Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, They've all been centerfold.
Speaker 3: So it was like this whirlwind and a matter of
Speaker 3: two months out of high school, my whole life totally changed.
Speaker 2: Echo's career with Playboy made her serious money. Her centerfold
Speaker 2: appearance earned her twenty grand in nineteen ninety two dollars
Speaker 2: aka a lot of cash, and that was just the beginning.
Speaker 3: I worked nan step for gosh, I want to say,
Speaker 3: span of like ten years and hanging out on the
Speaker 3: Playboy yacht and going to premieres and people would recognize
Speaker 3: me all the time in the airport, on the airplanes, whatever.
Speaker 3: And you had your you know, loyal fan base, and
Speaker 3: I mean I was having time in my life.
Speaker 2: Even today, having long since left modeling behind, Echo credits
Speaker 2: all her success to that one lucky day in a
Speaker 2: New Mexico restaurant when a random photographer noticed her and
Speaker 2: changed her life forever.
Speaker 5: Gosh, I don't know, I don't know what my life
Speaker 5: would have been. I would have been very different. I
Speaker 5: know that, just right down to like the level of
Speaker 5: travel that I was able to do and the calor
Speaker 5: or people that I was able to meet and work
Speaker 5: with and have these amazing resources at my fingertips. I'm
Speaker 5: so grateful for the opportunity and I will always be.
Speaker 2: This is the dream that Luis Gomez sells to models today.
Speaker 2: Work with me and I'll get you in Playboy. Work
Speaker 2: with me and I'll make you a star. It's an
Speaker 2: enticing claim. And hey, if Echo being spotted by a
Speaker 2: random photographer in a restaurant could launch her career. Couldn't
Speaker 2: that just be a pre internet version of being spotted
Speaker 2: by Luis Gomes on Instagram today? Well maybe, except that
Speaker 2: random photographer that echo met that Greg guy. It was
Speaker 2: Greg Gorman. He's one of the most celebrated American portrait
Speaker 2: photographers of the last fifty years. He has a master's
Speaker 2: in cinematography and he's shot David Bowie, Barbara streisand Leonardo
Speaker 2: DiCaprio Al Pacino. He's legit, legit, but it's Luise. I'm
Speaker 2: Ellie Flynn and from the team at Novel. This is
Speaker 2: the Bunny Trap Episode three, Guy with a camera. So, Ellie,
Speaker 2: we made a discovery. Oh my god, very exciting. I'm
Speaker 2: sitting with my producer Eleanor and assistant producer rom Alia.
Speaker 2: After hearing the model's experiences, we want to figure out
Speaker 2: how Luis Gomez rose to power. He seems to be
Speaker 2: a big name in the glamour industry, but before starting
Speaker 2: this investigation, I'd never heard of him, so we have
Speaker 2: to start from scratch.
Speaker 6: So, in looking through a bunch of free public record websites,
Speaker 6: we found out Louise's date of birth and full.
Speaker 2: Name Luis Eduardo Gomez Lobo. He's from Venezuela and now
Speaker 2: lives and works in the US. He's also around sixty,
Speaker 2: so a lot older than I thought. I'm fascinated by
Speaker 2: who he is as a person. What was he like
Speaker 2: when you lived in Venezuela, Who is he and how
Speaker 2: do you end up becoming this person in your mid
Speaker 2: to late fifties. Luis Gomez is old enough to have
Speaker 2: lived multiple lives, including one as a rock star. Once
Speaker 2: upon a time, Luis was the guitarist for a rock
Speaker 2: band Feedback. They were pretty big in Venezuela in the eighties.
Speaker 2: They recorded three albums, festivals, and even appeared on TV
Speaker 2: talk shows.
Speaker 7: I guess the.
Speaker 3: Labor poor heave.
Speaker 4: Horrible well.
Speaker 2: Feedback usually stuck to rockier stuff. They weren't afraid of
Speaker 2: a left field cover choice, oh.
Speaker 8: Mister pols Mass.
Speaker 2: Such as a version of the Motown hit Please Mister Postman.
Speaker 2: But even when Luis was living out his rock star dreams,
Speaker 2: there were rumors. I learned about them from a local
Speaker 2: journalist who did some digging on the ground in Venezuela.
Speaker 2: She spoke to a friend in the music industry, and
Speaker 2: without naming names, said she'd heard about allegations of sexual abuse.
Speaker 9: The conversation was something like, if I asked to you
Speaker 9: about a venezuela and guitarist move away, who comes to
Speaker 9: your mind? And these musu chan played well, I imagine
Speaker 9: the feedback guy.
Speaker 2: Despite their early promise, feedback never hit the big time.
Speaker 2: So it seems Louise pursued a load of other ventures
Speaker 2: in Venezuela. Around the mid two thousands, he moved to Miami,
Speaker 2: got married, and kept pursuing music. We contacted some people
Speaker 2: who knew Louise personally, and reviews were mixed. One described
Speaker 2: him as someone you either love or hate, and another
Speaker 2: wanted to stop recording as soon as I asked about
Speaker 2: Louise's photography career, because it's when Louise puts down his
Speaker 2: guitar and picks up a camera that things really start
Speaker 2: to change. A YouTube video from that time catches my attention.
Speaker 2: Working under the Monika Universe one three seven studios, which
Speaker 2: he still uses today, Louise posts a video his film
Speaker 2: of a Miami runway show. This seems to be the
Speaker 2: first time Luis interacts professionally with the world of modeling
Speaker 2: and the glamor world is where Luise finds his brand
Speaker 2: new career, first as a model promoter and then as
Speaker 2: an aspiring photographer.
Speaker 10: So I first met Louise Goilmez probably in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 10: and he was inquiring about private training for photography.
Speaker 2: That's Nino Batista. Back in the day. Nino was a
Speaker 2: big glamor photographer and in the mid twenty tens he
Speaker 2: was running a side hustle in photography workshops. That's how
Speaker 2: he and Louise first met.
Speaker 10: He was pretty new at photography, like he didn't get it,
Speaker 10: which is fine, that's what people come to my classes for.
Speaker 10: And he came out to a lighting worksho a small one,
Speaker 10: probably about five or six attendees.
Speaker 4: That I did at my house.
Speaker 2: Nino had booked a few models for the training photographers
Speaker 2: to shoot, and I.
Speaker 10: Did notice that was It's hard to say, but do
Speaker 10: I remember exactly, No, But do I feel like maybe
Speaker 10: he was engaging with my models in ways I would
Speaker 10: consider unprofessional?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nino does remember Louise making some inappropriate comments to
Speaker 2: the models.
Speaker 10: I think a model just kind of gave him a
Speaker 10: tight liped smile, a little quick back kind of to
Speaker 10: whatever he said, and I just remember thinking, got to
Speaker 10: watch this one. Another thing I did notice, as I recall,
Speaker 10: was he didn't pay a whole lot of attention to
Speaker 10: the instruction. It kind of fit his sort of archetype
Speaker 10: that I already pegged him on, which is I just
Speaker 10: want to show up and shoot girls. Everything was about
Speaker 10: the girls. Now that's not uncommon. Lots of guys entering
Speaker 10: the field are like that.
Speaker 2: Nino thought Luis was probably a guy with a camera
Speaker 2: or a GWC. It's a term in the glamor business
Speaker 2: for someone who, as Nino puts it, just wants to
Speaker 2: shoot girls.
Speaker 10: So the concept of guy with camera GWC is a
Speaker 10: you know, it's an insulting term, to be clear, okay,
Speaker 10: and it should.
Speaker 2: Be, Nino says. These men are everywhere in glamour, guys
Speaker 2: who get into photography with zero qualifications, and often not
Speaker 2: for their love of lighting and lenses.
Speaker 10: This is not a new problem men, especially older men,
Speaker 10: praying on young women. This is a problem going back
Speaker 10: to the dawn of time.
Speaker 2: Think about what it took to call yourself a photographer
Speaker 2: in the nineties when Echo was breaking onto the scene.
Speaker 2: All that training, not to mention the professional accolades that
Speaker 2: Greg Gorman had. Luis Gomez didn't have any of that,
Speaker 2: but he had the right equipment, a bit of training,
Speaker 2: and stars in his eyes. After the workshop, Nino says
Speaker 2: that Luis kept in touch with him enthusiastically via Facebook.
Speaker 2: He even suggested they have a jam, come.
Speaker 10: Over and let's play guitar. You know, we should start
Speaker 10: a band, and I'm like, no, we shouldn't. Kind of
Speaker 10: blue sunshine on my butt and said he wants to
Speaker 10: be like me, he wants to.
Speaker 4: Do work like I doe.
Speaker 2: Nino was trying to keep his distance. Louise had left
Speaker 2: a bad taste in his mouth. But the year after
Speaker 2: the workshop, he says, Louise had news.
Speaker 4: He said, Hey, I've.
Speaker 10: Got to publication that I've started some small.
Speaker 2: Magazine, Universe one three seven magazine. It was self published,
Speaker 2: several pages of glamor models pictured clothed and in bikinis,
Speaker 2: along with short articles and interviews. Luis has somehow made
Speaker 2: the leap from GWC to magazine publisher. At first, I
Speaker 2: was confused by how someone could just start their own magazine,
Speaker 2: but Nino tells me that self published magazines are common.
Speaker 2: They're everywhere in the industry and the Internet is the
Speaker 2: reason why. The first thing you need to understand is
Speaker 2: that glamor magazines aren't like they used to be.
Speaker 10: In the old days of magazine was a big production,
Speaker 10: there was a lot of costs involved.
Speaker 2: But today it's very different.
Speaker 10: That process has become so streamlined and easy. Now you
Speaker 10: can put together a layout and you can flow some
Speaker 10: texts and some photos, a couple graphics, cheesy logo, and
Speaker 10: export PDFs and now you are publishing.
Speaker 2: Magazines basically, just like how any guy with a camera
Speaker 2: can call himself a photographer, any guy with the right
Speaker 2: software can make a PDF and call it a magazine.
Speaker 2: Including Luis Gomez. In twenty sixteen alone, he created eight
Speaker 2: different self published magazines. Today he has even more. On
Speaker 2: his website, he claims to publish fifteen magazines. So what's
Speaker 2: the point of making your own magazines? What does that
Speaker 2: even get you?
Speaker 10: It's just ragging rates. Like you know, I run a magazine,
Speaker 10: and if you're new to the industry, new model, you
Speaker 10: might think that means a lot more than it does.
Speaker 2: It's all about building a reputation to a model. He
Speaker 2: looked more legit than ever, but that reputation was built
Speaker 2: on a pile of PDFs. With his self published magazines
Speaker 2: and a crash course in photography under his belt. Louise
Speaker 2: is all set, but now he needs models to shoot.
Speaker 2: I managed to track down a model who shot with
Speaker 2: him around this time. Jenny's a former glamor model from
Speaker 2: the States. She's left the industry now, so asked us
Speaker 2: to give her a fake name. The Luis Gomez she
Speaker 2: describes shooting with is very different to the man the
Speaker 2: UK Glammor models told me about.
Speaker 4: He seemed very passive.
Speaker 11: It was whatever I said went.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised, Jenny says Louise let her take complete control
Speaker 2: of their shoot. I was like, listen, here's the deal.
Speaker 11: You're gonna let me pick out the photos that get published.
Speaker 6: I'm going to bring my girlfriend on set.
Speaker 4: I am going to have a drink.
Speaker 2: And when Jenny nearly canceled their second shoot together, she says,
Speaker 2: Luis begged her to reconsider.
Speaker 4: He's like, no, no, no, we can't cancel this shoot.
Speaker 1: You're like the only one I had lined up for this. Please, please, please,
Speaker 1: I'll do whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Sometime between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty something in bold
Speaker 2: and Louise to start behaving very differently, and I think
Speaker 2: I know what that is. On September third, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: Luise posts a picture on Facebook of a model in lingerie.
Speaker 2: It's a typical glamour shot, but there's something new in
Speaker 2: the top left corner, a familiar bunny eared logo. The
Speaker 2: post's caption reads, my.
Speaker 8: New editorial lim Playboy.
Speaker 2: This is the moment Luis Gomez first seems to claim
Speaker 2: to be a Playboy photographer. This is the moment everything changes.
Speaker 12: So I shot with this photographer and his name was
Speaker 12: Louise Gomez.
Speaker 2: This is Izzy, not her real name. Her words are
Speaker 2: voiced by a natta.
Speaker 12: His name came up, and he had all these credentials,
Speaker 12: he had the publications behind him, So for me it
Speaker 12: was exciting. I was assured up and down that he
Speaker 12: had connections, that he knew everyone.
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, Izzy says Luise offered her an opportunity
Speaker 2: to shoot for Playboy, and she jumped at the chance.
Speaker 12: I ended up doing this full photo shoot for hours
Speaker 12: at his house. I remember being coaxed a little like
Speaker 12: some of the poses and things. I was just I
Speaker 12: was not super comfortable with. They were a little more
Speaker 12: open than I would have liked, but you know, I
Speaker 12: was told this was what needed.
Speaker 8: To be shot.
Speaker 12: And then I think it was at the end of
Speaker 12: the shoot. I remember sitting at his table and you know,
Speaker 12: just being told I can get you on any Playboy
Speaker 12: cover you want. And I'm like, oh, my god, that's
Speaker 12: amazing these photos, you know, they're that good.
Speaker 2: I'm that good.
Speaker 12: Like I was excited, and then it became something else.
Speaker 12: He reached out, I think, and grabbed my hand and
Speaker 12: instantly my heart sunk and I'm like, oh, boundaries, Well,
Speaker 12: what's going on? And you know, he said, yeah, I
Speaker 12: can really help you, like I want to help you.
Speaker 12: I want to skyrocket your career, like take you to
Speaker 12: the next level. So you know, basically, you can do
Speaker 12: me some favors. And then i kind of caught on
Speaker 12: to what was going on, and I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 12: that's what this is. I'm like, no, you told me
Speaker 12: you could get me into Playboy. That's why I'm here today.
Speaker 2: This is the earliest allegation I've heard of Luise requesting
Speaker 2: sexual favors in exchange for promises of getting published in Playboy.
Speaker 12: I said no, I'm sorry, I don't want to, and
Speaker 12: he said, well, I can get these photos in a
Speaker 12: small publication. I said, said, well, what's the publication and
Speaker 12: he showed me and it was nothing. It was like
Speaker 12: a nothing magazine. I don't want to be in it.
Speaker 12: I said, I came here to shoot for Playboy and
Speaker 12: he said, well, I told you what it is, and
Speaker 12: I was like, okay, well, I guess i'll take the publication.
Speaker 2: Is These photos ended up in one of Luis's self
Speaker 2: published magazines.
Speaker 12: I remember the publication coming out and how goofy and
Speaker 12: embarrassing it was. I didn't even want to post about it.
Speaker 12: It was an awful magazine. I just I remember being
Speaker 12: so upset.
Speaker 2: In just one year, the balance seems to have shifted
Speaker 2: in Luise's favor. He was no longer a nobody. Now
Speaker 2: he had power and he was ready to use it.
Speaker 2: A lot of networking in the glamour industry is done
Speaker 2: at what's called shoot camps. There are events where models
Speaker 2: and photographers can meet, mingle, and expand their portfolios. They
Speaker 2: can be up to a week long and are often
Speaker 2: held at all inclusive luxury hotels in exotic locations. By
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, Luise was becoming one of their main attractions,
Speaker 2: but he was also gaining a reputation.
Speaker 1: I was specifically told not to work with Luis.
Speaker 10: Go means.
Speaker 4: I was, like, everybody keeps.
Speaker 2: Saying that that's Alex. One of the many models I
Speaker 2: spoke to who attended events with Luis over the years, they.
Speaker 1: Basically told me, you know, he has a tendency of
Speaker 1: trying to sleep with the models or getting ultimatums. I
Speaker 1: was just like, okay, I mean, he's got great work,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm not going to put myself at risk.
Speaker 1: So I legit just did not work with him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not my scene.
Speaker 2: But that didn't seem to put off event organizers.
Speaker 4: He said he had access to major publics, which meant
Speaker 4: him coming to the event guaranteed that anyone he shot
Speaker 4: with was published in Playboy. His associations are vital to
Speaker 4: his reach.
Speaker 2: This is a source who attended many shoot camps with
Speaker 2: Louise and witnessed his behavior there. She doesn't want to
Speaker 2: be identified or named, and her words are voiced by
Speaker 2: an actor. The source tells me about an incident she
Speaker 2: witnessed at a twenty eighteen event where Louise was the
Speaker 2: star attraction. A model had been shooting.
Speaker 4: With him, and this girl comes running and crying out
Speaker 4: of the bedroom saying that Louise attacked her. All of
Speaker 4: these women are now trying to comfort and protect this
Speaker 4: young girl. She was eighteen. Louise was asked to leave,
Speaker 4: and he refused to leave the property because he didn't
Speaker 4: have all of his equipment. So you know, you had
Speaker 4: people going up trying to locate and gather his equipment,
Speaker 4: and you know, throwing it out on the law and saying,
Speaker 4: don't ever fucking come back. How dare you? We trusted you,
Speaker 4: and if you don't leave, the authorities will be called.
Speaker 4: And he packed up his stuff.
Speaker 11: And he left, and that was it.
Speaker 2: Seven other women from that same event then came forward
Speaker 2: with accusations against Luise.
Speaker 4: It became this entire thing where these other women came in,
Speaker 4: like this morning, he said that to me last night,
Speaker 4: he said that to me yesterday. He made me feel
Speaker 4: like if I didn't sleep with him, that I would
Speaker 4: never be a model.
Speaker 2: They all made accusations that will sound depressingly familiar to
Speaker 2: you by now, level pushing and requesting sexual.
Speaker 4: Favors, and he was banned right then, right there.
Speaker 2: Banning Luise came at a cost. His magazine connections had
Speaker 2: been a big draw for the models.
Speaker 4: They want Playboy Maxim fhm. They want these major brand deals.
Speaker 2: Other photographers just didn't seem to be as established.
Speaker 4: None of them have the reach that Louis Gomez has.
Speaker 4: He's not a morally sound person, but he is connected
Speaker 4: very deep in the publication world.
Speaker 2: So shockingly, the event organizers invited Luis back on the
Speaker 2: condition that he wouldn't behave inappropriately with any more models.
Speaker 2: But according to the source, Luise was immediately up to
Speaker 2: his old tricks, and when he was confronted, he played
Speaker 2: the victim and made excuse after excuse.
Speaker 4: I didn't do that. I didn't, I wouldn't, I can't.
Speaker 4: It's not me. He was crying, and he was saying
Speaker 4: that he doesn't want his wife to find out. He
Speaker 4: loves his wife. She would leave him if she found out.
Speaker 4: I think English is his third language, so he uses
Speaker 4: that to his advantage, making it seem like he doesn't understand,
Speaker 4: or he doesn't comprehend, or he doesn't remember certain words,
Speaker 4: or oh, I'm sorry, I'm foreign. That's not what I
Speaker 4: meant my English isn't very good. It's a lie. He's
Speaker 4: very fluent in English. He understands and he speaks it
Speaker 4: as well as you and I. He plays stupid. You
Speaker 4: know who he is because of his pattern of behavior.
Speaker 4: You can reach across the globe and find out that
Speaker 4: he has done the same thing in multiple countries to
Speaker 4: multiple girls, and it goes on and on and on
Speaker 4: and on.
Speaker 2: Allegedly, it only took Luise two events to get banned again.
Speaker 4: He will not change the people that are like him
Speaker 4: or the people that enable him. They are the same.
Speaker 2: So who are the people Luise works with? My producer
Speaker 2: Eleanor and I go to Luis's website to try and
Speaker 2: find out. There's a page of collaborators and partners, so
Speaker 2: it's like a bio of each collaborator. There's loads of photographers,
Speaker 2: another photographer, photographer, photographer. On his website, Luise has posted
Speaker 2: thumb nails of eighty so uciates and collaborators from around
Speaker 2: the world, each of them with a little bio in
Speaker 2: English and Spanish about what they do and their relationship
Speaker 2: with his business universe. One three seven studios. We reached
Speaker 2: out to all eighty of these so called collaborators. Some
Speaker 2: of them said they hardly knew Luis at all, that
Speaker 2: they just met him once and was surprised to be
Speaker 2: on his website. Others, yes, little shit.
Speaker 8: Where do I start with Lewis? Oh my god, it's
Speaker 8: way darker and way deeper than I could ever imagine.
Speaker 2: But there's one collaborator who really catches my eye. Oh
Speaker 2: this is interesting. Niz Operations, director of Universe one three
Speaker 2: seven studios in the UK. I recognize niz His full
Speaker 2: name is niz Uddin and he acted as Luis's fixer
Speaker 2: in the UK. For a fee, he would help Louise
Speaker 2: find models to shoot with. He said, okay, you.
Speaker 4: Should book this news left the room and left me
Speaker 4: on my own with that Louise.
Speaker 7: This is our opportunity to for the first time speak
Speaker 7: to someone who was close with Louise. I mean, we
Speaker 7: kind of heard tale of this from the girls, but
Speaker 7: it seems that Nis and Louise are no longer associated.
Speaker 2: No, and I think we need to try and get
Speaker 2: him on record.
Speaker 11: Hi to all our Universe one three seven followers first
Speaker 11: shoots in the UK.
Speaker 2: By twenty twenty, niz Arden had worked in the British
Speaker 2: glamour industry for years. He helped Luis Gomez, a photographer
Speaker 2: living stylesands of miles away, make connections and book models
Speaker 2: for shoots. Here's a clip of both of them, which
Speaker 2: was posted to the Universe one through seven Studios Facebook.
Speaker 2: You can even hear Louise.
Speaker 11: We're in Newcastle upon Time, which is north east of England.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 2: But when the UK Glamor Models spoke to Nears about
Speaker 2: their allegations, he opted to keep working with Louise. This
Speaker 2: is an excerpt of Nears talking to hera, one of
Speaker 2: the group's leaders, on a call that she recorded.
Speaker 8: I called a girl who welcome takes female friends again.
Speaker 13: Instead of doing that just do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 13: instead of putting them in a position where they've got
Speaker 13: to take a friend with them, just don't let it happen.
Speaker 13: Why why do you why let a girl go into
Speaker 13: that type of like environment O a shoe that just
Speaker 13: shouldn't happen, Like no one should ever feel so I'm
Speaker 13: say that they should have someone sat.
Speaker 8: There with them. It's just it's just you know why,
Speaker 8: people who know me, they know I'm in it for,
Speaker 8: you know, the progress myself and make my money and
Speaker 8: go home. I'm not in it for the pussy mate.
Speaker 8: I'll be with my mid for twenty two years, so
Speaker 8: I'm in it for the pussy at all.
Speaker 2: So the models named and shamed Nis alongside Luise in
Speaker 2: their big social media call out. I want to talk
Speaker 2: to Nis about what happened in twenty twenty. Why did
Speaker 2: he continue to work with Luis even after hearing the
Speaker 2: women's allegations of abuse. Hi, yas that, Liz. I'm fully
Speaker 2: expecting Nis to hang up on me, yes speaking, but
Speaker 2: not only will he talk to me, he says he's
Speaker 2: happy to be in the podcast. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: It catches me off guard. If you're happy for me
Speaker 2: to use this conversation as part of it, then we
Speaker 2: can do that. And I've just there's a couple of
Speaker 2: things that would be helpful to clear up while I've
Speaker 2: got you now, then if that's okay, good, Niz says
Speaker 2: he You've got a fee for every British model he
Speaker 2: booked for Luise to shoot.
Speaker 8: The way it worked Earie was also commission based. Okay,
Speaker 8: I get the bookings and you've given me commission, so
Speaker 8: it's my job to really puts it, promote it, and
Speaker 8: really get it out there kind of thing.
Speaker 2: What was your commission? What did you earn?
Speaker 8: It can be anything from fifty pounds to one hundred pounds.
Speaker 2: Per you know, peripheral.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm sure with thetall bookings.
Speaker 2: Were you aware of anything that Louise would ask for
Speaker 2: instead of having payment?
Speaker 8: I know he's sent me a pup from our escort
Speaker 8: and he just say, you know, come from one service
Speaker 8: or service or whatever. But I'm not. I don't want
Speaker 8: to hear about it. It's between you lot. I don't
Speaker 8: get involved in any of that. You know, it's not
Speaker 8: our business.
Speaker 2: There's no way of knowing when there's first heard allegations
Speaker 2: against Louise, but I do know that he definitely heard.
Speaker 2: By September twenty twenty, the models gave me a trove
Speaker 2: of evidence proving that they told Nis about Luise's alleged behavior.
Speaker 2: Emily sent this voice note to the WhatsApp group describing
Speaker 2: a conversation she says she had with Niznis called me
Speaker 2: the day after my shoot, in the morning of my shoe.
Speaker 2: He had a forty minute conversation.
Speaker 4: I said, he's a fucking pervert.
Speaker 2: He crossed the line. He asked me if I was
Speaker 2: going to sleep with him. I've also seen multiple text
Speaker 2: messages in which models reach out to Niz informing him
Speaker 2: about bad experiences while shooting with Luis Tony.
Speaker 8: Good keep it quiet for a while, because he's thought
Speaker 8: holding on to a lot of commissions. If he was
Speaker 8: to get some books. Now, you'll back you into the
Speaker 8: space for whatever.
Speaker 2: And I wanted to see a single penny of it, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: So you were concerned that you wouldn't get paid if
Speaker 2: he was to disappear at that time.
Speaker 8: Obviously the individuals wait two three days extra or even
Speaker 8: during the shoot shoot, you know, wait a bit longer, okay.
Speaker 2: I suppose on the from the model side, though, they
Speaker 2: were very anxious to get the word out there to
Speaker 2: stop those shoots. They didn't want any more models to
Speaker 2: have to come into contact with him.
Speaker 8: So I guess through when you know the money is
Speaker 8: being elected.
Speaker 2: Literally, what the fuck isn't it saying what I think
Speaker 2: he's saying that he wanted the models to delay outing
Speaker 2: an alleged sexual predator just so that he could get paid.
Speaker 8: I had to right off frands worth of bookings.
Speaker 2: Do you have any sympathies with the girls you know
Speaker 2: from what they've been through with Louise.
Speaker 8: You know, a week longer, you know, I could have
Speaker 8: come out and said something, but they wait a few days.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's any responsibility in that.
Speaker 8: Or not at all? I mean they look cherone with you.
Speaker 2: I'm only taking bookings. Take a chaperone with you. This
Speaker 2: is all making me feel really uneasy undone.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know I deserve but why did I get done?
Speaker 8: I'm the guy bang in the middle of all this,
Speaker 8: you know, I'm the guy who is just taking bookings
Speaker 8: and their fit.
Speaker 2: What do you think the models have lost from this?
Speaker 8: It would be a bit of a safety and security
Speaker 8: I guess.
Speaker 2: Do you think that would have had a long lasting
Speaker 2: impact on them?
Speaker 8: Of course, of course it's actress it caused. I mean,
Speaker 8: I mean, if it supports me this kind of kind
Speaker 8: of distress, I'm sure it's probably called them the same
Speaker 8: thing as well.
Speaker 2: I'm wasting for is to take some accountability. I'm giving
Speaker 2: him every opportunity I can think of. Does it make
Speaker 2: you regret anything that's happened over the pastor years.
Speaker 8: I just wish I'd never been him. It's actually made
Speaker 8: me put my up even more and makes me among that.
Speaker 8: You know, no one could be trusted out there.
Speaker 2: Niz just turns the spotlight back on himself.
Speaker 8: I've lost my recation. I've lost a lot for its
Speaker 8: out there people who trust me, you know, I've lost that.
Speaker 2: To me, it feels like Nis is still seeing himself
Speaker 2: as a victim in all this, whereas I can't help
Speaker 2: but think of the models who say they suffered at
Speaker 2: the hands of Luis Gomes. They were truly on their own.
Speaker 2: I feel like I have a better picture of Luis
Speaker 2: Gomes now. He started out like any old GWC, but
Speaker 2: he teuted connections to Playboy, which made him a start,
Speaker 2: and from twenty seventeen onwards, his behavior seems to have
Speaker 2: escalated claims of sexual abuse with a consistent emo called
Speaker 2: out by the women who say it's happened to them.
Speaker 2: It's like the anonymous source said to me, you know
Speaker 2: who he is because of his pattern of behavior. He
Speaker 2: has done the same thing in multiple countries to multiple girls,
Speaker 2: and it goes on and on.
Speaker 8: And on and on.
Speaker 2: My producer Eleanor and I are left feeling frustrated.
Speaker 7: The accountability lies with the people that are enabling this
Speaker 7: behavior as well nobody is doing anything about it, and
Speaker 7: it's sort of like, oh, well, we'll just turn a
Speaker 7: blind eye until he's arrested or until what Why why
Speaker 7: aren't people taking this seriously? Why isn't there more of
Speaker 7: a stand within the industry where people say, actually, that's
Speaker 7: not on. And then.
Speaker 2: We get a message it's from another collaborator. Hello, Ellie,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for reaching out to me. Assuming I
Speaker 2: am correct and who this person is, I have suffered
Speaker 2: more than anyone at his hand. His offenses go well
Speaker 2: beyond sexual harassment and abuse. I would like nothing more
Speaker 2: than to see him behind the far turns out there's
Speaker 2: a whole other side to what Luis is up to,
Speaker 2: because the allegations aren't just sexual, they're financial too. Coming
Speaker 2: up on the bunny.
Speaker 7: Trap, he said, for five pounds, I could be the
Speaker 7: playboy paymade.
Speaker 3: Effectively, any woman can be a covered all these days
Speaker 3: if you're willing to pony up the dell.
Speaker 10: They call him the venezuela and tapeworm really, and he's
Speaker 10: the definition of parasite. It's an organism that feeds off
Speaker 10: of others to their detriment.
Speaker 2: Thanks to the women who shared their stories with us,
Speaker 2: we contacted Luis Gomez multiple times for comment, but we
Speaker 2: never heard back. He has not been charged with any
Speaker 2: crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also
Speaker 2: sought comment from Playboy USA. They declined our request for
Speaker 2: an interview, but you can hear their statement later in
Speaker 2: the series. The Bonnie Trap is produced by Novel. For
Speaker 2: more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show is
Speaker 2: hosted by me Ellie Flynn. You can find me on
Speaker 2: social media by searching my name that's eb l i
Speaker 2: E Fly double N. This season is produced by Eleanor
Speaker 2: Biggs and written by me Ellie Flynn and Eleana Biggs.
Speaker 2: Our assistant producer is Amalia Sortland, with additional production from
Speaker 2: Lee Meyer and Saskia Collette. Additional research by Valeria Rocker.
Speaker 2: The editors are Georgia Moody and Austin Mitchell. Our executive
Speaker 2: producers are Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan. Our fact checker
Speaker 2: is Frendall Fulton. Production management from Scherie Houston and Charlotte Wolf.
Speaker 2: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Campsen and Nicholas Alexander.
Speaker 2: Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander Eleanor Biggs and Max O'Brien.
Speaker 2: Original music composed and performed by Jake Long, and additional
Speaker 2: production by Nicholas Alexander, Louisa Gersteine and Daniel Kempson. The
Speaker 2: series artwork was designed by Christina Limcold Willard Foxton, its
Speaker 2: creative director of development. Izzy was played by Florian Claire
Speaker 2: and the anonymous source was played by Maddie Ingram. Luisco
Speaker 2: Mers was played by Juan Solari. The Venezuelan talk show
Speaker 2: you heard was from Programma de Gala
Speaker 4: Novel