I dont know the purpose of all that. The organization was run as a Ponzi scheme,[6] and money contributed by investors was spent on supporting lavish lifestyles for young members of the club. The True Story of the Billionaire Boys Club, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. With him was Martin Levin. It was a matter of principle, he explained: I felt very strongly about the reasons why we had started the BBC . Fifteen feet farther down they discovered radius and humerus bones. Black is white and white is blackthat was the paradox, Joe said. Wearing an Armani suit and his mask of indifference, Joe claimed to have made maximum use of his time in jail, achieving fluency in French and Japanese. Hunt and Alex Gaon were at their Quotron in Cantor, Fitzgeralds trading room every morning at 6:00, but Joe would never put more than half the money he collected into the commodities market. Taron Egerton landed himself another serious side role next to Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, and Emma Roberts in the 2018 film Billionaire Boys Club, playing the role of Dean Karny, right-hand man . Canchola and Lopez identified pictures of Levin from multiple photographic lineups as the same man they had seen at the gas station. Gamsky was so avid he even spent his lunch periods in the debate room, arranging and rearranging the plastic name tags on the tab board where the squads rankings were displayed. Recalled lawyer Holmes: He got them deals.. Ron had good reasons of his own for disappearing: under criminal indictment for illegally purchasing $300,000 worth of computer goods and photography equipment, Levin faced almost certain conviction and a state-prison sentence of up to seven years. Since criminal charges were pending against other Billionaire Boys Club members, the film changed their names. Joe Hunt was released in September 1985 on a $2-million property bond, the amount secured by a man who earlier had been outspoken in his hatred of Hunt, Bobby Roberts. Bond trading was a very special field of endeavor, Joe explained: There are no crop periods or seasonality. Billionaire Boys Club - Wikipedia Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? And so anyone who wasnt prepared to deal with a much greater level of responsibility could leave right then and there, Dean Karny remembered Joe saying. of Deputy District Attorneys, said she is not surprised that Hunt is making a bid to commute his sentence. .css-gk9meg{display:block;font-family:Lausanne,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;padding-top:0.25rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-gk9meg:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.15;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}Scenes from a (Group) Marriage, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Cult of Personality, 13 Outtakes from Our Winter Cover Shoot With BTS, The Best Joker Actors Ranked From Worst to Best. At the top of the page was a title: At Levins, TO DO. Below was a list of fifteen numbered items: Close Blinds; Scan for Tape Recorder; Tape Mouth; Handcuff . Two days later, Cantor, Fitzgerald liquidated the accounts, leaving the trading funds of Tom May and Dean Karny some $60,000 overdrawn. Those charges were dropped after jurors deadlocked on the allegation that he and others killed Hedayat Eslaminia, a wealthy Iranian-born businessman, in July 1984. Mr. Eslaminia was dead, Dean told Joe and Ben. He just decided to hang in there, foster whatever relationship he could, and eventually see if there was something that he could get out of Ron, Dean explained. "We have basically an open investigation.". Verified. His back began to burn a few moments later, and fearing he had been attacked with acid, Swartout undressed in his office and rinsed himself with water. His classmates were the sons of the wealthiest and most powerful families in southern California, students who had been sent to the Harvard School as much to introduce them to the social network of the ruling class as to take advantage of the college-level curriculum. Three months later, Joe was marketing options on the machinerenamed Cyclotronto investors in six western states through a BBC subsidiary called Microgenesis of North America Inc., one of four new companies under the BBC umbrella. 2023 E! Joe continued to solicit Rons respect. Actually Jim Pittman asked me once in the lobby if I would be interested in meeting Joe and Dean because he thought that I would fit in with the group. Joe had found his own Wayparadox philosophy, he called itonly when he realized that it was possible to approach the same situation from an infinite number of angles. They actually cheered. Three days later the board of directors unanimously gave Hunt, who had turned twenty-four two weeks earlier, complete control of a company claiming $12 million in assets, naming him both president and chairman of the board. Ron regarded the swindle as an art form and loved to boast of his accomplishments. And not only because he rode his bike there and back. Club members, clad in Armani suits and driving high-end BMWs, dined at Spago and partied with supermodels. On May 20, 1993, a few months after all charges were dropped against him in the Eslaminia case, Jim Pittman admitted on the television program A Current Affair to have participated in the Levin murder, confessing that he was the one who shot Levin and bragging that he was now untouchable in court due to the restriction on double jeopardy. From the Davey Glen Apartments, they drove directly to a U-Haul dealership, where the blue trunk was transferred from the camper to the back of a twelve-foot truck. Joe was using any name, any innuendo that he could to convince the world the BBC had power and big money behind it, Dean said. On November 26, Les Zoeller visited the Karny home on Outpost Drive. Jim advised him not to touch the stuff, Steve recalled, warning that it was DMSO spiked with strychnine and would cause a heart attack. Before they left, Evan remembered, Joe stopped to play back the messages on the twins answering machine. He is a borderline sociopath in my opinion.. Eventually, when Hunt sought his share, it turned out that Levin, despite having shown him paperwork thatsaid he had deposited $5 million, had never invested at allpart of a bigger scheme he was running that involved other parties. [9] At the time of his disappearance, Levin was free on bail and awaiting trial, and Hunt's defense team argued that Levin left the country to escape a pending FBI investigation into his financial misdeeds. "They cannot charge me for the murder of Ron Levin because they dropped it," Pittman said. Jerry Brown to commute his sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Tall, good-looking, a surfer from Newport Beach, Raymond had been brought to the BBC by the Mays. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, Plaschke: Lakers live up to their legacy with a close-out win for the ages, L.A. Affairs: I had my reasons for not dating white men. Twitter. It's what's happening / Twitter Less than five minutes after the twins pulled into their driveway in Brentwood, Tom May recalled, Joe Hunt was at their front door. Ron was really amazed and said that Joe had found a real fish, Dean remembered. Olga, a doll-faced, soft-bodied woman with long legs and a breathy voice, gave interviews to local TV stations, and the San Francisco papers picked up the story, leading with the suspicion that Eslaminias disappearance had been the work of a Khomeini hit squad. Vasquez did not mention to the media a second possibility, one already under consideration among law-enforcement officialsthat Eslaminia had been abducted during a drug deal. The bodyguard and alleged triggerman in Levins killing, James Pittman, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder. Brian McNamara's age is 62. He just struck everybody who got to know him as the person you wanted to be with, who could help you achieve your goals, whether they were financial or personal. . Hunt and Pittman pursued the Mays into the Mojave Desert the next afternoon, hunting them without success by truck, motorcycle, and twin-engine plane. His eyes were piercing, one acquaintance thought, shifty, according to another, but no one who met Levin forgot the high and nasal voice that poured forth ideas, observations, promises, and propositions at a rate that left his listeners either dazzled or dumbfounded. They pulled the money right off the table in front of their eyes, Breiling said. It was on a street corner outside the BBC office in West Hollywood that Joe and Ben first described for Dean the fabulous wealth of a man named Hedayat Eslaminia. As one of his new duties, Pittman went to the bank with Hunt several times a week, riding shotgun in the black Jeep Joe drove when he wished to remain inconspicuous. News in a recent interview. He began taking us out to lunch, Dean recalled, buying us games at the video arcade. During Deans summer vacation, Joe began spending the night at the Karny estate in the Hollywood Hills. During the celebration, Joe called the Bank of America to ask how long it would take to cash a Swiss check. All of us were just amazed that this was happening, Vega recalled, but we just closed a circle on him, and then he put his hands up.. An hour later, Joe, Ben, and Jim entered the condominium complex wearing their brown outfits, Dean said; within ten minutes, the three returned with the loaded truck, and the plan proceeded on schedule through the transfer at the U-Haul agency. For young Joe Hunt, Levin would remain a figure who not only fascinated, but also frustrated him. 2016)", https://freejoehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/habeas_petition_denial_10-5-18.pdf, https://freejoehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LEGAL-ODYSSEY_-Commutation-Application-JAN-2018.pdf, "Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton to Star in 'Billionaire Boys Club', "Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton Starring in 'Billionaire Boys Club' Movie (EXCLUSIVE)", "Kevin Spacey Joining 'Baby Driver' & 'Billionaire Boys Club', "Kevin Spacey film takes in just $126 as it flops at US box office", "Kevin Spacey's new film 'Billionaire Boys Club' opens to incredibly low $126 following sexual misconduct allegations", "Judd Nelson Returns for 'Billionaire Boys Club' Remake (EXCLUSIVE)", "Timothy Olyphant Hosts a 'Billionaire Boys Club' Crime Podcast: Listen", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Billionaire_Boys_Club&oldid=1128837397, This page was last edited on 22 December 2022, at 06:36. Most memorable, according to a BBC member, was the time she painted her entire body with watercolors, spread a huge sheet of art paper on the floor, pressed herself against it in a series of postures that looked as if they had been lifted from the Kama Sutra, and wrote I LOVE YOU, JOE in one corner. And he said he killed Ron Levin, and therefore Ron Levin must be dead. If that is the case, there is no physical evidence., The irony of the situation isnt lost on me, said Hunt, who admits he was the consummate liar, drawing an analogy to the fable of the boy who cried wolf. Before he drove to the airport that morning, Dean Karny recalled, he stopped by the real estate office to rent the house on Beverly Glen. Join Facebook to connect with Dean Karny and others you may know. Within weeks of the BBCs first meeting, Joe led a caravan of Porsches, Mercedeses, a Rolls-Royce, and a BMWWe all borrowed our parents cars, Dean rememberedto a demonstration at Gene Brownings desert plant in Hesperia. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. Things had happened fast after that. After she told Hedayat that Reza was outside, Olga recalled, he became very upset and told me never to allow him in the apartment.. As they sat down to eat, Hunt mentioned that he had invited a friend for dessert. The records of Financial Futures and several other BBC companies disappeared at the same time. She did not begin to suspect that Eslaminias disappearance might have something to do with the bad blood between Hedayat and his eldest son until three days later, Vasquez said, when Reza showed up at the condo with a young man, whom he introduced as my associate, Joe Hunt. Before admitting Reza and his friend to the condo, Olga called the buildings security officer and asked him to stand guard. Look, I am innocent. He is known for being a TV Actor. One trunk was filled with their equipment, including the handcuffs Dean had picked up at the International Love Boutique. He was told later that the bank had received his message at the very moment the $127,000 was being counted out for Ben and Reza. The man apparently needed to write a how-to for his own crime and needed to bring it with him - he probably should have put "take evidence with you" on that list. A guy like that might be good for the BBC, Hunt said, and hired Pittman as a martial-arts instructor. In the bedroom, Blanche saw that the down comforter and the top sheet were missing. When Microgenesis made its first significant sale, collecting $150,000 from bank president Michael Dow as an option on a total purchase of $4 million, Joe brought the check directly to Levins door. The European autos imported for West Cars became their private fleet: twenty-two-year-old Ben got a Mercedes 350, Dean and Steve took big BMWs, and Joe gave himself a Porsche 911. Karny said Hunt told the story as he strolled through the Westside Pavilion mall, describing vividly Levins explosive gasp upon death and how they disfigured Levin with a shotgun his brain jumped out of his skull and fell on his chest before dumping his body in a remote part of Soledad Canyon. View the profiles of people named Dean Karny on Facebook. A credit check revealed that he had registered with an American Express card showing thousands of dollars in past-due charges. Notorious founder of the Billionaire Boys Club wants parole. It's just It was Friedman, though, who asked the first question: I said, Did you ever do that story? When Hunt did not answer, Friedman asked another question: Were you aware that the money wasnt real?, After a very long pause, Joe told him, Yes, I was aware., Joe cornered Levin that night, but now Ron had a new story: He said . That con job, to the L.A. County district attorneys office, was a clear motive for Hunt. Joe got Ben Dosti to take Jim shopping for clothes, promised to send him to UCLA to improve his vocabulary, even bought him a tuxedo for the BBCs black-tie New Years Eve party. One by one, the BBC members who had attended the June 24 meeting were being served with subpoenas. ), "No one that I have met to this day really knows the whole story. They had considered posing as police officers, and had even rented blue uniforms from a costume shop in Hollywood, Dean recalled, but then Joe had decided that policemen attract more attention than delivery boys.. A group of wealthy boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s establish a 'get-rich-quick' scam that turns deadly. Before covering it, he and Jim had disfigured the body with shotgun blasts, Joe said. [16], In October 2018, the Los Angeles Superior Court denied an additional habeas corpus petition. That same day, Joe was appearing on his own behalf at the Los Angeles County Court in Santa Monica, where he requested the return of personal property that included the contents of his briefcase, engaging the presiding judge in a discussion of case law that grew so involved the assistant district attorney on the case interrupted just to remind you Im here., Six days later, Hunt and Pittman were arrested in Westwood, each charged with murder, special circumstances, in the death of Ron Levin. Behind the cover of his new name, he had begun trading at the Beverly Hills brokerage house of Cantor, Fitzgerald & Company in accounts that had been set up under the names Tom May, Dean Karny, and Alex Gaon. The young executives were ensconced in a suite of offices in West Hollywood, taking an entire floor of an office building on Third Street. he had used the statements from that account in order to get credit in other brokerage houses fraudulently, and that he had actually scammed up about a million and a half dollars, Dean remembered, and he agreed to give Joe about two or three hundred thousand of it., Joe spent nearly two months chasing Ron Levins last promise to him, Dean recalled, then let it go: He said that . They traveled only a short distance together, Dean remembered, before Joe noticed that the sounds from the trunk had ceased. I am not going to lie about it.. On June 6, 1984, Hunt showed up at the office with a $1.5 million checksigned by Levin. In August 1984, two of Hunt's fed-up associates went to authorities to report that they had been swindledand thatthey had reason to believe Hunt and his bodyguard, Jim Pittman, had something to do with Levin's disappearance. Three weeks, he was told. And in Costa Mesa, uniformed officers twice evacuated Gene Browning and his family from their home after warnings that Hunt had purchased a contract on the inventors life. That inmate was released last month. Joe insisted the BBC would come through this, Dean recalled: Ben and Reza had already found an account in Geneva containing $127,000 and would have the money within two weeks. Joe thought that it was a symbolic gesture of guilt, Dean said. Formed along with Joe Hunt a group of rich boys like them, including . The True Story of the Billionaire Boys Club - Filthy Lucre And so a lot of people became very hostile toward him, and one of the big brokerage houses had decided to squeeze him out., That was not how Tom Utrata, director of the Mercs Compliance Department, remembered it. Hunt sat on an ottoman in the center. And the bonds were very strong as long as Joe appeared to have the answers to things, both in terms of philosophies and in terms of coming up with money to keep people happy and activities to keep them busy.. More than two hundred people attended, taking chairs in rows that faced the table where Hunt sat flanked by the BBC. Pittman recalled: Hed, put it in, but hed take it back out. The first to break the circle was Jeff Raymond. Investigation Discovery's Behind Mansion Walls revisited the case in the 2011 episode "Fatal Greed". Nothing ever came of it, authorities secure in the knowledge that Joe Hunt was in prison. Tom and Dave May are also prosecution witnesses. His aphorisms were delivered now as public proclamations, codes of conduct for true believers. In October 1983, the BBCs core members took up residence at the Wilshire-Manning, a high-rise of luxury condominiums above Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, where their neighbors included Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, Mr. T, and a young Saudi prince who sent the bellboys scurrying every time he opened his front door, hoping to catch one of the hundred-dollar tips he handed out. In northern California, defense attorneys have subpoenaed several federal agencies, including the CIA, for evidence supporting the theory that Hedayat Eslaminia was killed either by Iranian terrorists or by drug dealers. Several former disciples testified that they believed Hunt was still attempting to have them killed. Joe said that there were going to be some very sensitive things discussed at this meeting, Dean remembered, which would bring some of the members there to a higher level of information. At the time, searches were still being conducted for Levin's body. In June, Ron finally called Joe to say he was ready to talk business. You noticed that systematically, one by one, people would break up with their old girlfriends, tell their dad to go fly a kite, and become more and more integrated into the fabric of the BBC and more isolated from society and Normies, Dean said.