February 12, 2025 • 27 mins
David Bloom is a silver-haired father figure type. He quickly develops a close bond with Caroline after moving into her storied Hollywood apartment complex. He presents himself as a real titan of industry and very, very wealthy. Caroline is strapped for cash so David offers her an investment opportunity she can't pass up. He also offers to help get Caroline's organic Pizza Girl sauce onto the shelves of Whole Foods supermarkets across the country. After all, he says he's good friends with the CEO. So Caroline and her business partners fly out to Texas with plans to meet the CEO and secure a life-changing deal.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on Once Upon a Con.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Why would you do that to me?
Speaker 1 (00:05):
When I thought we were friends?
Speaker 3 (00:06):
We are friend.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I got scammed by a professional con artist who was
a neighbor of mine at the Villa Carlata, a really
high end building where I thought I was safe. This
is a place where people work in this industry and
you don't rely on their reputations to get jobs, whether
it's acting, consulting, video editing, what have you. And a
man I trusted with everything I had scammed us all.
(00:29):
Why would you say that shit to me? Why Sam
took some shit? I'm Caroline de Morey and this is
(00:51):
Once Upon a Con Episode two. If you live in Hope,
you die and shit.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
And Bloom was there during lockdown No.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So he came probably like a year after I was there.
I'm talking to my BFF Hammy about the first time
I ever met David Bloom at the Villa Carlotta. I
was there for like three years, so he came like
halfway through, towards the end of my stay. It was
April eighth, twenty twenty one. I'll never forget that day
(01:29):
as long as I live. I was hanging out by
the pool doing some work on my laptop. It was
a gorgeous sunny day, and all of a sudden I
noticed David Bloom on the other side of the pool.
Holding court was some of my neighbors. They're all laughing
with him and having a good time. He looked like
a guy in his early sixties, kind of short, maybe
(01:50):
like five five or five six, with a thick shock
of silver hair. He really seemed like the life of
the party. You hear him laughing from aross the pool, like,
you know, talking to everybody. Seems like he knows everybody.
He walks over to me had heard that, you know,
I had this company called Pizza Girl, and he had
(02:12):
gone and bought my sauce at the supermarket next door
and was so impressed with my company. You know. So,
Pizza Girl is the name of my organic pasta sauce
that I started selling back in twenty twenty. I'm Italian
and this sauce is a guarded family recipe and it
(02:33):
tastes amazing. Pizza Girl is also the nickname they called
me when I was a kid helping my dad deliver pizzas,
and you know what, it kind of stuck. I've been
pouring my blood sweat and tears into pizza girl ever since.
Little did I know that having my life story out
there on the Internet and in magazine articles and news reports, what.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Makes your sauce is unique? Well, it's all.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Locally sourced ingredients. It's literally like homemade in a would
come back to bite me in the ass. Enter David Bloom,
a mega rich, successful businessman who had just moved into
my building. He had had this story that he was
staying at the Villa Carlotta because he was going to
(03:17):
buy it. He had this house supposedly that was right
below the chateau, and I remember he had this story
of how the chateau it's the only house where the
chateau has to deliver food. The chateau I'm talking about
here is the Chateau Marmont, a world famous hotel in
the foothills of West Hollywood, a super wealthy neighborhood where
(03:40):
stars like Johnny Depp and Katie Perry have homes. So
that's where David Bloom told me.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
His house was.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I even saw pictures of it. I had no reason
not to believe him. After all, he just moved into
the Villa Carlotta and was hob nobbing with all my wealthy,
accomplished neighbors, some of whom were paying ten ran a
month to live there. I'm the one who actually felt
like an impostor, you know, because I was only paying
a little over two grand. Remember I got that COVID
(04:09):
rent special. David Blooms seemed like the real deal to me.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And he knew your boyfriend at the time, and he
knew everything and everybody, so it was like a perfect
playground from him.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
He just had a big presence and everybody seemed to
know him and like him. So I had no reason
to think anything, you know, And it was very well known.
I mean, I was on the hills, and you know,
a lot of my personal life was already out there.
It was known that I went through a divorce. It
was known that I had this company that I was
trying to get off the ground. And he, you know,
(04:43):
comes to me with like he's heartbroken, knowing that I'm
a heartbroken and we kind of bonded on that and
he was like my ex girlfriend, she broke my heart.
Now it just devastates me. I even remember one day
he cried actual tears to me about how sad, and
you know, lonely he was. I felt for this man,
(05:07):
and then he really showed interest in Pizza Girl. Being
that I was this like wild party girl that everyone
kind of knew of as just this party girl, it
meant a lot to me. I had to fight to
like be taken seriously as a CEO and as a businesswoman.
I really had to overcome all of that, you know,
(05:28):
that time in my life for sure. So to have
this business man, you know, respect my business side. He
never hit on me, which was refreshing.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He really just seemed like he said, if you ever
need advice, I'll take meetings with you. I'll kind of
mentor you exactly. So we would start taking meetings down
by the pool. I was looking for funding, so I
showed him, you know my deck.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
That was the sweet spot, was like treating you as
like a reputable business person. Yes, that's what was like,
That's what made your ears perk up with him.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yes, absolutely, he really showed an interest in Pizza Girl,
in me as a businesswoman, and that felt fucking amazing.
And he definitely did his research on my industry because
you know, he had mentioned his close friendship with Ron
Burkele Ron Berkele is this billionaire supermarket titan. He's one
(06:28):
of the richest men in the world. And David Bloom
convinced me he was good friends with him.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
And what's even weirder about the Ron Burkele of it
all is like we're all sort of like one degree
of separation away from Ron.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
I've been to his house for dinner and like it all,
it felt so close, and it felt like he actually
had this forged friendship with him, and like he just
ran with it.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I had met Ron years ago, the person that I
was kind of dating a little. He was best friends
with him. You know. I was even on his private
jet one time, million years ago, so I knew I
knew of him. And he was like, let me reach
out to him and see if there's any way he
could help you in any way. And I was like
holy shit, like wow, like I can't even believe it.
(07:17):
Even just a meeting would be incredible. Thank you so much, David.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
He would show me text.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Messages from Ron and he'd be like, Oh, I'm talking
to Ron right now. He's like, oh, he remembers you,
pizza girl. And then he'd be like, oh, I'm gonna
send him this picture of you. Oh Ron's laughing. He says, Hi,
pizza girl, And I was like, oh, that's so cool.
I never thought twice like should I call my friend
who knows him and you know, and confirm. I'm like,
but no, that's bizarre or you know what I mean, Like,
(07:44):
I never thought of that at all. And for the record,
I googled David Bloom a bunch of times during our friendship,
and I found David Bloom, the journalist.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Wildfires are raging across the American West.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
David Bloom, the economics professor, and it's projected to rise
to more than four hundred million by the year twenty fifty.
David Bloom, the artistic director of New York's Queer Urban Orchestra.
But I never found my neighbor David Bloom, the wealthy
(08:22):
businessman I recently met.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I can relate to that name because my name Tom Hamilton.
It's like a John Smith. It's like a David Bloom.
Like there's a million Tom Hamilton's, there's only one Caroline
de Morey. So it's like a Google search into you,
and it's like an open book of your life, shows movies,
things you've done, whatever, your personal life, all of it.
But like when you have that sort of generic name,
(08:46):
like a David Bloom or David Grant or like, there's
so many different paths and outlets in a Google search
will just be so full of things from all around
the world, you know. And so that's I think he
kind of skated by under just his simple name.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And I was very upfront and honest about everything. I said, David,
how can when I Google you nothing shows up? And
he would say, well, people like Ron and I, the
only place we want to be known is the bank.
He was like, we don't want anybody having our information.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Totally flying under the radar. This is how money people
really are.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And he had this story about his ex wife who
was in politics, who I was able to google, and
I did see photos of them together, and she's this
beautiful woman in politics, and that totally validated him to me,
you know. And he said that she tried to wipe
him from the Internet, or to help help wipe him
a little bit from the Internet, because they were being
reached out all the time for investment and whatnot. So
(09:47):
all of that made sense to me. I really thought
I had not just a friend, but a mentor and
someone who really looked at me like a you know,
a legit business woman. For the first time, I thought
David Bloom was an angel from heaven. He offered to
use his close connection with billionaire Ron Burkele to help
(10:10):
get my Pizza Girl pasta sauce on the shelves of
a giant supermarket chain. And I remember he said to
me he knew I was financially strapped. I was so
broke after my divorce. I was truly left with nothing.
And when I said that on the hills, I had
people being like, how dare you Like you're like this
(10:30):
like rich girl, Like your dad pays for this and that,
and that it's actually not trip okay, my dad can't
pay for this. In that, and I was loved with nothing.
I had a terrible divorce where I just finally gave
up and said take everything, and he did.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I got no child support, no alimony, and had to
figure out how I was going to make money every month.
So when David came along, he said he was gonna
be my investor. He's gonna invest in Pizza Girl, He's
gonna hook me up with Ron Burkele. But in the meantime,
he was like, you need some fast cash. He goes,
I'm a really good investor and I have this IPO.
Just round up as much money as you can. It's
(11:08):
for the Soho House going public. And you can look
and see that the Soho House was about to IPO.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Soho House is a private social club that's popular with
rich people and celebrities. They have locations all over the
world and in mid twenty twenty one, they were gearing
up to go public. And since David's good friend, billionaire
Ron Berkele, who was part owner of Soho House, David
was offering to get me in on the ground floor
(11:36):
of their IPO. He was like, you know what, if
you can only put together one thousand dollars, you know,
that'll help you out. He was like, but if you
can put together more, it's gonna be worth twenty nine
or twenty eight times whatever you put in in a
couple months.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And I was like, wow, that's it.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
He's like, so let's get you this so that you
can survive until you know the investment and the deals
with Ron and everything come together. I took out money
from my company. You know, you put in twenty five
hundred in the lab.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Right, Venmo, Yeah, Venmo to nowhere?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah. No.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I was like, all right, I guess it's like a game.
I'll just play like if you're so excited about it.
I don't even know if I met him at that point,
but I remember how hyped you were on him and
the Ron burkele of it all.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So I convinced my boyfriend at the time, my friends
and family, and my business partners to go in on
this incredible investment with me, and we all managed to
come up with thirty five thousand dollars cash and I
gave it to David Bloom to invest in that Soho
house IPO, with the understanding that that thirty five thousand
would be worth nearly a million dollars in just a
(12:52):
few months.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
That was the start of the cancer that David Bloom
kind of planted.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Aaron Coot, my business partner. I didn't even know what
IPO stands for.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
It stands for intelligent people only.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Clearly.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Sorry, I couldn't help it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh wow, you're an asshole. Aaron, along with his wife
Rebecca Williamson.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Everybody calls me back.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Invested in Pizza Girl and became my partners. I actually
first met back in Aaron at the Villa Carlata.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
We'd sold a company about a year before maybe, and
several people had come to us for looking for investment
or looking for partners, and we'd said no to everyone.
And then our mutual friends said, you need to talk
to Caroline. She's got something good going on.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
We were at a place where we were actually looking
to invest in a company we thought had potential. Generally,
what we do is we invest and then work in
a company we feel like that's the best way to
make our money work.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And it wasn't long until David bloom infiltrate their lives
too thanks to me.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
I remember you saying my friend David, my friend David,
my friend David a couple of times. The first time
I didn't think about it, but because it came up
a couple of times, I'm like, my friend David, who's
this David that's suddenly your friend. I didn't know whether
you'd known him for a long time or.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Who this David was, but he was. Remember he was
fixing your credit for you.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah. So, because I used to be somewhat of a
party girl when I lived in Vegas, my credit was
bad at the time. David told me he owned a
credit repair business, one of the many businesses he said
he owned by the Way, and he said he could
fix my credit no problem, And then he actually did.
(14:47):
My credit score improved dramatically, So that just reinforced to
me that David Bloom was who he said he was.
I mean, if he could magically improve my credit score
like that, what other magic did he do.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
David Bloom was so good at what he did, he
fooled us to in the beginning. He was strategic about it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So by this point in twenty twenty one, I had
known David now for a few months. He became like
a father to me, offering me advice and direction with
my company and helping me get in on this phenomenal
investment opportunity with Soho House. Then suddenly, one day David
tells me he wants to invest two million dollars in
(15:31):
Pizza Girl. I was ecstatic, and so were my business partners,
Beck and Erin.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
Of course, we believed in Villa Carlotta was full of
people who really got to know each other well. Because
I lived together, there was an innate trust, and that's
how we met Caroline. So then she met this guy
who was mentoring her.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It made sense, and he.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
Then, you know, dangled the chartive like he wanted to
invest in the business. Bottom line, everybody that lived Villa
car Lotta had money and connections and were doing amazing things.
So whatever we thought of him personally, we were very
careful not to blow any opportunity.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And that's the thing. Beck and Aaron never liked David personally.
They thought he was kind of weird.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
He was the center of everything, like wine nights on
Friday night, it was.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
All around David. Everybody everyone was around David. David was
the center of everything. It was bizarre.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
How does this guy, like this sort of uncharismatic guy
that drinks from nine am.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
He starts having his vodka.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
But he'd never seem wasted, which is interesting. And he
was drinking so heavily. And I used to talk to
him about it because I cared about his health. I'd
be like, David, this isn't right, like I feel like
you're getting older, like you know, and I would literally
try to help him not home himself.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
I started to get really suspicious when he would name
drop people that I actually knew and I would say,
and I started pushing him on it and say, oh, yeah,
I've known them for years. I saw them last week,
and I would see a little panic in him. But
it just gave me an odd feeling. And also in
his quest to make Caroline, you know, put her on
(17:14):
the pedestal, make her the center of everything, he would
push me out more and more.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I had no idea that we were all quickly becoming
victims in David's psychological chess match, where the endgame was
to isolate us all from each other. So it did
feel as if what he was saying was like putting
me on a pedestal, right when it felt like at
(17:43):
the time because I wasn't aware of what was going on,
that you guys were kind of kicking me down and
notch right. So I think that's where.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
The we had many of those conversations. You're like, why
are you always so negative? Right, Okay, we're just trying
to tell you the truth. This is what the business is,
and this is what it needs, and he's trying to
tell you what you want to hear.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Like several times Caroline would say to me in tears
that I thought this was my chance to be lucky.
I thought this was my chance for someone to save me.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I wanted the part of gold at the end of
the rainbow, and I'm not ashamed to say it.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
And it was heartbreaking to watch, And in my head,
what do you remember what I said to you?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The luckiest people are always the hardest workers. I've always
got to take it back to we look after ourselves.
It's you know, that's the only thing we can control.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
The rest is just you know, it might be luck,
but it's just a lot of waiting and hoping. And
my old school teacher used to say, if you live
in hope, you're dying shit. I find this part of
the business quite triggering to use a buzzword, because a
lot of the times I felt unsafe because I had
(18:55):
no say, or I didn't have a voice in or
a strong enough voice. When this other guy was manipulating
his way into the business.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Aaron's right David started dividing us, whispering things into my
ear about backing Aaron not being the right business partners
for Pizza Girl. I disagreed, but I respected his opinion.
After all, he wanted to invest two million dollars in
our company, so I had to be diplomatic, but then
(19:27):
things quickly came to a head. We had a fight
that night at a fancy LA restaurant off Melrose called Craigs.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
He had his weekly table at Craigs Right every Wednesday night,
which was around the corner.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's the celebrity hangout. Oh yeah, the new him, the
owner new him. Yeah, he'd go.
Speaker 6 (19:53):
And that was one of the things you told me.
You're like you, you know, when you had your doubts,
You're like, can't everyone seems to know him though, Yeah,
I at that place. He's hobviestly been going there for
a while. He's a regular week now. Minds he's been
going there for ten years.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, Craig's is one of the hot spots in La.
I mean the night we went, I got paparazzi because
you were with me right exactly. And like David, when
you walk in there, he literally he has this thing
where he makes it seem like he has known everyone
for decades, and he can do it to you, to me,
(20:28):
to everybody in a room. He'll be like, oh, yeah,
that's so high, Yes, it's so and so, and he
would pretend like he knew the owner and like I
know Craig, so it just never made me ever think twice.
So we all meet at Craig's in the summer of
twenty twenty one to discuss David's two million dollar investment
in Pizza Girl. Beck and Aaron had put together a
(20:48):
detailed proposal of where that money will go and how
much of a return David can expect to see on
his investment, but David never wanted to talk business like
at all.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I was telling you you shouldn't mix business and pleasure
and become hilarious because that dinner was supposed to be
the dinner about the business, about the investment and everything,
and Aaron and I are prepared.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And he didn't bring it up.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
So at that dinner, I'm sitting there waiting for our
opportunity and waiting for the conversation to come up, or
waiting to try to segue in. And then I'm just
watching the tension building, and I'm watching Caroline and David
and Beck all kind of starting to argue with each other.
I'm going job to do here, job to do, like,
let's keep our eye on the prize. And you know,
(21:33):
as it turns out, there was no job to do.
The only one doing the job was David by kind
of needling everybody. Then.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Remember he said to Karen, they are so in the wrong.
You should not discuss anything about your business at the table,
and I'm saying, but hold on, we came for you know,
he's going to invest He needs to know everything, and
he will know everything.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
That was a turning point for me that dinner.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
David was planting in me that you guys weren't substantial
enough investors. And he was planting in you guys that
I wasn't living up to whatever standards I needed to
live up to. Who pinned everybody against each other in
one dinner to the point where Rebecca and I stormed
out separately and I wasn't sure if we were going
(22:18):
to recover and if Pizza Girl was going to remain.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
But he sat back and let it happen. In sort
of built it to that point right that it was
going to have a blow up. Yep, we left and
she walked out with him, and he was all like, oh,
don't worry about them.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh yes, that was another end for him.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
When you guys stormed out, he was like, see what
I told you? He was like, they can't They're not
right for this business.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
This feels a lot more like therapy than a podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I think it will be honestly at the end of it, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I'm feeling stuff. It's pretty full on. Yeah, I don't know.
I've felt angry. I've had teas as a couple of.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Times, and it's I feel like I have a voice
that I didn't have within our dynamic.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
At this point, no one had any idea who David
Bloom really was or what he was up to. And
weeks after that dinner at Craig's where we all stormed
out hating each other, David magically got us all back
together and got us excited at the prospect of getting
my pizza girl pasta sauce on the shelves of one
(23:24):
of the most popular supermarket chains in the country, Whole Foods.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
He kept dangling this carrot, which was what we wanted.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
David had been promising that he was going to get
us this very big meeting based on his relationship with
Ron Burkell. So he says that Ron hooked him up
with the president of Whole Foods, Ac Gallo. He is
telling me that, you know, Ac Gallo and Whole Foods
have this program for emerging companies and they invest a
(23:58):
little bit of money and you grow within Whole Foods.
And we actually found this online. It was something you
could find on the internet. So he tells me that
he is going to get this big meeting with Ac
Gallo right and that all three of us are going
to be in this meeting. And shortly after that, while
(24:19):
Beck and Aaron are conveniently for David out of town,
David suddenly gets Ac Gallo on the phone to talk
to me. He starts telling me, he's like, listen, these
guys are so at the top that they don't do
things the way that you're used to. I was like,
why can't we do a zoom meeting? Why can't we
do especially at the height of COVID, It's like everybody's
on Zoom right now doing meetings right. So he was like, no, listen,
(24:42):
they're just so busy. He calls me and he goes, Carolyne,
I need you to come up to my apartment. He goes,
Ac has this long drive and he's willing to get
on the phone with you to talk about this, but
you have to do it now. So my thought was, Okay,
I'm going to record this so that I can play
for Rebecca and Aaron right, or so that I can
(25:02):
even transcribe it and try to remember every single detail
because this is such a big meeting.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
That recording I made that David consented to of me
talking to the CEO of Whole Foods Ac Gallow is
just unbelievable. I actually submitted it to the Los Angeles
District Attorney's office.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
A see, it's David.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I'm going to put you on speaker phone an interest
you to Carolina.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Right, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Next?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Time?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
On Once Upon a Con, David gets us all to
board a plane and fly to Texas for the opportunity
of a lifetime.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
I've never been to a meeting in my whole career
of walking in completely blind.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
From or by the person who set it up.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Is zero background other than Whole Foods are going to
give us money.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
My question is what but things end up going horribly wrong.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Clothing up.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I just feel like.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
This podcast is dedicated to the memory of my amazing mother,
Bonnie Major, who would be super proud of me standing
up for myself. Once Upon a Con is a production
of AYR Media and thirty two Flavors, hosted by Me
Caroline de Morey. Executive producers Eliza Rosen for AYR Media,
(26:29):
Alex Baskin for thirty two Flavors, and Jonathan Walton for
Jonathan Walton Productions. Written by Jonathan Walton, Producer Caroline de Morey,
Senior Associate producer Joe Pushesnik Coordinator Melena Kroyevsky. Sound designed
by Tim Mulhern, Edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising
(26:52):
editor Victoria Chang. Mastered by Victoria Chang, Engineering by Justin
Longerbeam Lee Council for a y R Media Gianni Douglas.
Our theme song, Freshly Served, was written and performed by
the incredibly talented Mattie Noise and is available on her
SoundCloud
Previously on Once Upon a Con.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Why would you do that to me?
Speaker 1 (00:05):
When I thought we were friends?
Speaker 3 (00:06):
We are friend.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I got scammed by a professional con artist who was
a neighbor of mine at the Villa Carlata, a really
high end building where I thought I was safe. This
is a place where people work in this industry and
you don't rely on their reputations to get jobs, whether
it's acting, consulting, video editing, what have you. And a
man I trusted with everything I had scammed us all.
(00:29):
Why would you say that shit to me? Why Sam
took some shit? I'm Caroline de Morey and this is
(00:51):
Once Upon a Con Episode two. If you live in Hope,
you die and shit.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
And Bloom was there during lockdown No.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So he came probably like a year after I was there.
I'm talking to my BFF Hammy about the first time
I ever met David Bloom at the Villa Carlotta. I
was there for like three years, so he came like
halfway through, towards the end of my stay. It was
April eighth, twenty twenty one. I'll never forget that day
(01:29):
as long as I live. I was hanging out by
the pool doing some work on my laptop. It was
a gorgeous sunny day, and all of a sudden I
noticed David Bloom on the other side of the pool.
Holding court was some of my neighbors. They're all laughing
with him and having a good time. He looked like
a guy in his early sixties, kind of short, maybe
(01:50):
like five five or five six, with a thick shock
of silver hair. He really seemed like the life of
the party. You hear him laughing from aross the pool, like,
you know, talking to everybody. Seems like he knows everybody.
He walks over to me had heard that, you know,
I had this company called Pizza Girl, and he had
(02:12):
gone and bought my sauce at the supermarket next door
and was so impressed with my company. You know. So,
Pizza Girl is the name of my organic pasta sauce
that I started selling back in twenty twenty. I'm Italian
and this sauce is a guarded family recipe and it
(02:33):
tastes amazing. Pizza Girl is also the nickname they called
me when I was a kid helping my dad deliver pizzas,
and you know what, it kind of stuck. I've been
pouring my blood sweat and tears into pizza girl ever since.
Little did I know that having my life story out
there on the Internet and in magazine articles and news reports, what.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Makes your sauce is unique? Well, it's all.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Locally sourced ingredients. It's literally like homemade in a would
come back to bite me in the ass. Enter David Bloom,
a mega rich, successful businessman who had just moved into
my building. He had had this story that he was
staying at the Villa Carlotta because he was going to
(03:17):
buy it. He had this house supposedly that was right
below the chateau, and I remember he had this story
of how the chateau it's the only house where the
chateau has to deliver food. The chateau I'm talking about
here is the Chateau Marmont, a world famous hotel in
the foothills of West Hollywood, a super wealthy neighborhood where
(03:40):
stars like Johnny Depp and Katie Perry have homes. So
that's where David Bloom told me.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
His house was.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I even saw pictures of it. I had no reason
not to believe him. After all, he just moved into
the Villa Carlotta and was hob nobbing with all my wealthy,
accomplished neighbors, some of whom were paying ten ran a
month to live there. I'm the one who actually felt
like an impostor, you know, because I was only paying
a little over two grand. Remember I got that COVID
(04:09):
rent special. David Blooms seemed like the real deal to me.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And he knew your boyfriend at the time, and he
knew everything and everybody, so it was like a perfect
playground from him.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
He just had a big presence and everybody seemed to
know him and like him. So I had no reason
to think anything, you know, And it was very well known.
I mean, I was on the hills, and you know,
a lot of my personal life was already out there.
It was known that I went through a divorce. It
was known that I had this company that I was
trying to get off the ground. And he, you know,
(04:43):
comes to me with like he's heartbroken, knowing that I'm
a heartbroken and we kind of bonded on that and
he was like my ex girlfriend, she broke my heart.
Now it just devastates me. I even remember one day
he cried actual tears to me about how sad, and
you know, lonely he was. I felt for this man,
(05:07):
and then he really showed interest in Pizza Girl. Being
that I was this like wild party girl that everyone
kind of knew of as just this party girl, it
meant a lot to me. I had to fight to
like be taken seriously as a CEO and as a businesswoman.
I really had to overcome all of that, you know,
(05:28):
that time in my life for sure. So to have
this business man, you know, respect my business side. He
never hit on me, which was refreshing.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He really just seemed like he said, if you ever
need advice, I'll take meetings with you. I'll kind of
mentor you exactly. So we would start taking meetings down
by the pool. I was looking for funding, so I
showed him, you know my deck.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
That was the sweet spot, was like treating you as
like a reputable business person. Yes, that's what was like,
That's what made your ears perk up with him.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yes, absolutely, he really showed an interest in Pizza Girl,
in me as a businesswoman, and that felt fucking amazing.
And he definitely did his research on my industry because
you know, he had mentioned his close friendship with Ron
Burkele Ron Berkele is this billionaire supermarket titan. He's one
(06:28):
of the richest men in the world. And David Bloom
convinced me he was good friends with him.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
And what's even weirder about the Ron Burkele of it
all is like we're all sort of like one degree
of separation away from Ron.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
I've been to his house for dinner and like it all,
it felt so close, and it felt like he actually
had this forged friendship with him, and like he just
ran with it.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I had met Ron years ago, the person that I
was kind of dating a little. He was best friends
with him. You know. I was even on his private
jet one time, million years ago, so I knew I
knew of him. And he was like, let me reach
out to him and see if there's any way he
could help you in any way. And I was like
holy shit, like wow, like I can't even believe it.
(07:17):
Even just a meeting would be incredible. Thank you so much, David.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
He would show me text.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Messages from Ron and he'd be like, Oh, I'm talking
to Ron right now. He's like, oh, he remembers you,
pizza girl. And then he'd be like, oh, I'm gonna
send him this picture of you. Oh Ron's laughing. He says, Hi,
pizza girl, And I was like, oh, that's so cool.
I never thought twice like should I call my friend
who knows him and you know, and confirm. I'm like,
but no, that's bizarre or you know what I mean, Like,
(07:44):
I never thought of that at all. And for the record,
I googled David Bloom a bunch of times during our friendship,
and I found David Bloom, the journalist.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Wildfires are raging across the American West.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
David Bloom, the economics professor, and it's projected to rise
to more than four hundred million by the year twenty fifty.
David Bloom, the artistic director of New York's Queer Urban Orchestra.
But I never found my neighbor David Bloom, the wealthy
(08:22):
businessman I recently met.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I can relate to that name because my name Tom Hamilton.
It's like a John Smith. It's like a David Bloom.
Like there's a million Tom Hamilton's, there's only one Caroline
de Morey. So it's like a Google search into you,
and it's like an open book of your life, shows movies,
things you've done, whatever, your personal life, all of it.
But like when you have that sort of generic name,
(08:46):
like a David Bloom or David Grant or like, there's
so many different paths and outlets in a Google search
will just be so full of things from all around
the world, you know. And so that's I think he
kind of skated by under just his simple name.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And I was very upfront and honest about everything. I said, David,
how can when I Google you nothing shows up? And
he would say, well, people like Ron and I, the
only place we want to be known is the bank.
He was like, we don't want anybody having our information.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Totally flying under the radar. This is how money people
really are.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And he had this story about his ex wife who
was in politics, who I was able to google, and
I did see photos of them together, and she's this
beautiful woman in politics, and that totally validated him to me,
you know. And he said that she tried to wipe
him from the Internet, or to help help wipe him
a little bit from the Internet, because they were being
reached out all the time for investment and whatnot. So
(09:47):
all of that made sense to me. I really thought
I had not just a friend, but a mentor and
someone who really looked at me like a you know,
a legit business woman. For the first time, I thought
David Bloom was an angel from heaven. He offered to
use his close connection with billionaire Ron Burkele to help
(10:10):
get my Pizza Girl pasta sauce on the shelves of
a giant supermarket chain. And I remember he said to
me he knew I was financially strapped. I was so
broke after my divorce. I was truly left with nothing.
And when I said that on the hills, I had
people being like, how dare you Like you're like this
(10:30):
like rich girl, Like your dad pays for this and that,
and that it's actually not trip okay, my dad can't
pay for this. In that, and I was loved with nothing.
I had a terrible divorce where I just finally gave
up and said take everything, and he did.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I got no child support, no alimony, and had to
figure out how I was going to make money every month.
So when David came along, he said he was gonna
be my investor. He's gonna invest in Pizza Girl, He's
gonna hook me up with Ron Burkele. But in the meantime,
he was like, you need some fast cash. He goes,
I'm a really good investor and I have this IPO.
Just round up as much money as you can. It's
(11:08):
for the Soho House going public. And you can look
and see that the Soho House was about to IPO.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Soho House is a private social club that's popular with
rich people and celebrities. They have locations all over the
world and in mid twenty twenty one, they were gearing
up to go public. And since David's good friend, billionaire
Ron Berkele, who was part owner of Soho House, David
was offering to get me in on the ground floor
(11:36):
of their IPO. He was like, you know what, if
you can only put together one thousand dollars, you know,
that'll help you out. He was like, but if you
can put together more, it's gonna be worth twenty nine
or twenty eight times whatever you put in in a
couple months.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And I was like, wow, that's it.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
He's like, so let's get you this so that you
can survive until you know the investment and the deals
with Ron and everything come together. I took out money
from my company. You know, you put in twenty five
hundred in the lab.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Right, Venmo, Yeah, Venmo to nowhere?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah. No.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I was like, all right, I guess it's like a game.
I'll just play like if you're so excited about it.
I don't even know if I met him at that point,
but I remember how hyped you were on him and
the Ron burkele of it all.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So I convinced my boyfriend at the time, my friends
and family, and my business partners to go in on
this incredible investment with me, and we all managed to
come up with thirty five thousand dollars cash and I
gave it to David Bloom to invest in that Soho
house IPO, with the understanding that that thirty five thousand
would be worth nearly a million dollars in just a
(12:52):
few months.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
That was the start of the cancer that David Bloom
kind of planted.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Aaron Coot, my business partner. I didn't even know what
IPO stands for.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
It stands for intelligent people only.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Clearly.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Sorry, I couldn't help it.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Oh wow, you're an asshole. Aaron, along with his wife
Rebecca Williamson.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Everybody calls me back.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Invested in Pizza Girl and became my partners. I actually
first met back in Aaron at the Villa Carlata.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
We'd sold a company about a year before maybe, and
several people had come to us for looking for investment
or looking for partners, and we'd said no to everyone.
And then our mutual friends said, you need to talk
to Caroline. She's got something good going on.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
We were at a place where we were actually looking
to invest in a company we thought had potential. Generally,
what we do is we invest and then work in
a company we feel like that's the best way to
make our money work.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And it wasn't long until David bloom infiltrate their lives
too thanks to me.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
I remember you saying my friend David, my friend David,
my friend David a couple of times. The first time
I didn't think about it, but because it came up
a couple of times, I'm like, my friend David, who's
this David that's suddenly your friend. I didn't know whether
you'd known him for a long time or.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Who this David was, but he was. Remember he was
fixing your credit for you.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah. So, because I used to be somewhat of a
party girl when I lived in Vegas, my credit was
bad at the time. David told me he owned a
credit repair business, one of the many businesses he said
he owned by the Way, and he said he could
fix my credit no problem, And then he actually did.
(14:47):
My credit score improved dramatically, So that just reinforced to
me that David Bloom was who he said he was.
I mean, if he could magically improve my credit score
like that, what other magic did he do.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
David Bloom was so good at what he did, he
fooled us to in the beginning. He was strategic about it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So by this point in twenty twenty one, I had
known David now for a few months. He became like
a father to me, offering me advice and direction with
my company and helping me get in on this phenomenal
investment opportunity with Soho House. Then suddenly, one day David
tells me he wants to invest two million dollars in
(15:31):
Pizza Girl. I was ecstatic, and so were my business partners,
Beck and Erin.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
Of course, we believed in Villa Carlotta was full of
people who really got to know each other well. Because
I lived together, there was an innate trust, and that's
how we met Caroline. So then she met this guy
who was mentoring her.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It made sense, and he.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
Then, you know, dangled the chartive like he wanted to
invest in the business. Bottom line, everybody that lived Villa
car Lotta had money and connections and were doing amazing things.
So whatever we thought of him personally, we were very
careful not to blow any opportunity.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And that's the thing. Beck and Aaron never liked David personally.
They thought he was kind of weird.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
He was the center of everything, like wine nights on
Friday night, it was.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
All around David. Everybody everyone was around David. David was
the center of everything. It was bizarre.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
How does this guy, like this sort of uncharismatic guy
that drinks from nine am.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
He starts having his vodka.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
But he'd never seem wasted, which is interesting. And he
was drinking so heavily. And I used to talk to
him about it because I cared about his health. I'd
be like, David, this isn't right, like I feel like
you're getting older, like you know, and I would literally
try to help him not home himself.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
I started to get really suspicious when he would name
drop people that I actually knew and I would say,
and I started pushing him on it and say, oh, yeah,
I've known them for years. I saw them last week,
and I would see a little panic in him. But
it just gave me an odd feeling. And also in
his quest to make Caroline, you know, put her on
(17:14):
the pedestal, make her the center of everything, he would
push me out more and more.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I had no idea that we were all quickly becoming
victims in David's psychological chess match, where the endgame was
to isolate us all from each other. So it did
feel as if what he was saying was like putting
me on a pedestal, right when it felt like at
(17:43):
the time because I wasn't aware of what was going on,
that you guys were kind of kicking me down and
notch right. So I think that's where.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
The we had many of those conversations. You're like, why
are you always so negative? Right, Okay, we're just trying
to tell you the truth. This is what the business is,
and this is what it needs, and he's trying to
tell you what you want to hear.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Like several times Caroline would say to me in tears
that I thought this was my chance to be lucky.
I thought this was my chance for someone to save me.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I wanted the part of gold at the end of
the rainbow, and I'm not ashamed to say it.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
And it was heartbreaking to watch, And in my head,
what do you remember what I said to you?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The luckiest people are always the hardest workers. I've always
got to take it back to we look after ourselves.
It's you know, that's the only thing we can control.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
The rest is just you know, it might be luck,
but it's just a lot of waiting and hoping. And
my old school teacher used to say, if you live
in hope, you're dying shit. I find this part of
the business quite triggering to use a buzzword, because a
lot of the times I felt unsafe because I had
(18:55):
no say, or I didn't have a voice in or
a strong enough voice. When this other guy was manipulating
his way into the business.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Aaron's right David started dividing us, whispering things into my
ear about backing Aaron not being the right business partners
for Pizza Girl. I disagreed, but I respected his opinion.
After all, he wanted to invest two million dollars in
our company, so I had to be diplomatic, but then
(19:27):
things quickly came to a head. We had a fight
that night at a fancy LA restaurant off Melrose called Craigs.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
He had his weekly table at Craigs Right every Wednesday night,
which was around the corner.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
It's the celebrity hangout. Oh yeah, the new him, the
owner new him. Yeah, he'd go.
Speaker 6 (19:53):
And that was one of the things you told me.
You're like you, you know, when you had your doubts,
You're like, can't everyone seems to know him though, Yeah,
I at that place. He's hobviestly been going there for
a while. He's a regular week now. Minds he's been
going there for ten years.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, Craig's is one of the hot spots in La.
I mean the night we went, I got paparazzi because
you were with me right exactly. And like David, when
you walk in there, he literally he has this thing
where he makes it seem like he has known everyone
for decades, and he can do it to you, to me,
(20:28):
to everybody in a room. He'll be like, oh, yeah,
that's so high, Yes, it's so and so, and he
would pretend like he knew the owner and like I
know Craig, so it just never made me ever think twice.
So we all meet at Craig's in the summer of
twenty twenty one to discuss David's two million dollar investment
in Pizza Girl. Beck and Aaron had put together a
(20:48):
detailed proposal of where that money will go and how
much of a return David can expect to see on
his investment, but David never wanted to talk business like
at all.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I was telling you you shouldn't mix business and pleasure
and become hilarious because that dinner was supposed to be
the dinner about the business, about the investment and everything,
and Aaron and I are prepared.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And he didn't bring it up.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
So at that dinner, I'm sitting there waiting for our
opportunity and waiting for the conversation to come up, or
waiting to try to segue in. And then I'm just
watching the tension building, and I'm watching Caroline and David
and Beck all kind of starting to argue with each other.
I'm going job to do here, job to do, like,
let's keep our eye on the prize. And you know,
(21:33):
as it turns out, there was no job to do.
The only one doing the job was David by kind
of needling everybody. Then.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Remember he said to Karen, they are so in the wrong.
You should not discuss anything about your business at the table,
and I'm saying, but hold on, we came for you know,
he's going to invest He needs to know everything, and
he will know everything.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
That was a turning point for me that dinner.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
David was planting in me that you guys weren't substantial
enough investors. And he was planting in you guys that
I wasn't living up to whatever standards I needed to
live up to. Who pinned everybody against each other in
one dinner to the point where Rebecca and I stormed
out separately and I wasn't sure if we were going
(22:18):
to recover and if Pizza Girl was going to remain.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
But he sat back and let it happen. In sort
of built it to that point right that it was
going to have a blow up. Yep, we left and
she walked out with him, and he was all like, oh,
don't worry about them.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh yes, that was another end for him.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
When you guys stormed out, he was like, see what
I told you? He was like, they can't They're not
right for this business.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
This feels a lot more like therapy than a podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I think it will be honestly at the end of it, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I'm feeling stuff. It's pretty full on. Yeah, I don't know.
I've felt angry. I've had teas as a couple of.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
Times, and it's I feel like I have a voice
that I didn't have within our dynamic.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
At this point, no one had any idea who David
Bloom really was or what he was up to. And
weeks after that dinner at Craig's where we all stormed
out hating each other, David magically got us all back
together and got us excited at the prospect of getting
my pizza girl pasta sauce on the shelves of one
(23:24):
of the most popular supermarket chains in the country, Whole Foods.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
He kept dangling this carrot, which was what we wanted.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
David had been promising that he was going to get
us this very big meeting based on his relationship with
Ron Burkell. So he says that Ron hooked him up
with the president of Whole Foods, Ac Gallo. He is
telling me that, you know, Ac Gallo and Whole Foods
have this program for emerging companies and they invest a
(23:58):
little bit of money and you grow within Whole Foods.
And we actually found this online. It was something you
could find on the internet. So he tells me that
he is going to get this big meeting with Ac
Gallo right and that all three of us are going
to be in this meeting. And shortly after that, while
(24:19):
Beck and Aaron are conveniently for David out of town,
David suddenly gets Ac Gallo on the phone to talk
to me. He starts telling me, he's like, listen, these
guys are so at the top that they don't do
things the way that you're used to. I was like,
why can't we do a zoom meeting? Why can't we
do especially at the height of COVID, It's like everybody's
on Zoom right now doing meetings right. So he was like, no, listen,
(24:42):
they're just so busy. He calls me and he goes, Carolyne,
I need you to come up to my apartment. He goes,
Ac has this long drive and he's willing to get
on the phone with you to talk about this, but
you have to do it now. So my thought was, Okay,
I'm going to record this so that I can play
for Rebecca and Aaron right, or so that I can
(25:02):
even transcribe it and try to remember every single detail
because this is such a big meeting.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
That recording I made that David consented to of me
talking to the CEO of Whole Foods Ac Gallow is
just unbelievable. I actually submitted it to the Los Angeles
District Attorney's office.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
A see, it's David.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I'm going to put you on speaker phone an interest
you to Carolina.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Right, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Next?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Time?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
On Once Upon a Con, David gets us all to
board a plane and fly to Texas for the opportunity
of a lifetime.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
I've never been to a meeting in my whole career
of walking in completely blind.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
From or by the person who set it up.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Is zero background other than Whole Foods are going to
give us money.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
My question is what but things end up going horribly wrong.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Clothing up.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I just feel like.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
This podcast is dedicated to the memory of my amazing mother,
Bonnie Major, who would be super proud of me standing
up for myself. Once Upon a Con is a production
of AYR Media and thirty two Flavors, hosted by Me
Caroline de Morey. Executive producers Eliza Rosen for AYR Media,
(26:29):
Alex Baskin for thirty two Flavors, and Jonathan Walton for
Jonathan Walton Productions. Written by Jonathan Walton, Producer Caroline de Morey,
Senior Associate producer Joe Pushesnik Coordinator Melena Kroyevsky. Sound designed
by Tim Mulhern, Edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising
(26:52):
editor Victoria Chang. Mastered by Victoria Chang, Engineering by Justin
Longerbeam Lee Council for a y R Media Gianni Douglas.
Our theme song, Freshly Served, was written and performed by
the incredibly talented Mattie Noise and is available on her
SoundCloud
Host
Caroline D’Amore
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com