March 12, 2025 • 33 mins
Caroline is shocked to learn that not only was she scammed by David Bloom, but many of her neighbors in their apartment building were also ripped off by the con man. Nearly out of funds and desperate to find answers, Caroline organizes for a group of David's victims to come together and confront the "Wall Street Whiz Kid."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on Once Upon a Con.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
He's a predator and he needs to be stopped.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
David Bloom's ex wife, Nancy shares her experience of what
it was like being married to the con artist for
nearly ten years.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He convinced me that he was the only one who
really knew me, who loved me like no one else had,
the only one that truly understood me. And then, you know,
how could I be without him? I finally found this
person and he was able to identify kind of my
(00:38):
insecurities and basically played them. You know, I wanted to
be taken care of, so he took care of me.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
But in reality, David Bloom is pulling one of his
most cruel and evil cons to date that will ultimately
destroy Nancy's life.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It was insane. The stuff he was doing was insane,
and I was trying to make sense of something that
doesn't make any sense, or to understand things that I
could not have thought of in my wildest dreams to do.
So how could we understand what he's doing. We would
never think about doing it ever.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Is what you boys.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm Caroline de Morey and this is Once Upon a
Con Episode six. He will not stop until he kills me.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
David was now selling advertising on billboards. We said he
had big clients like Circu Salet and Fiat Chrysler and Westfield.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
It's late twenty sixteen. Nancy and her husband David are
living happily ever after in Los Angeles. He seems to
have turned his life around and he's making great money
selling billboard advertising. So Nancy takes some time off work
and David appears to be taking care of her.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
A couple of times, you know, I would do some
consulting here and there, and he'd have me engage with
people and say that Fiat Chrysler was going to sponsor
an event, provide cars, vehicles and financial support for philanthropic events.
So I think there was an event with Vogue, a
(02:45):
women's conference. There was the LACMA Gala Annual Gala, and
there was the Friars Club Gala in New York, and
Fiat Chrysler was going to provide a jeep Cherokee for
the Vogue event. They were going to provide a car
or cars that were going to be out front of
(03:06):
the LACMA event at the step and repeat, all the
celebrities We're going to walk.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
By LACMA or LACMA is an acronym for the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, and their galas are star
studded events where LA's rich and famous gathered as schmooze
and be schmoozed.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Additionally, David was going to fill a table celebrities for
the actual gala. It was heavy hitters and wealthy people,
you know, and lacmaists at that time thrilled we have
all these new people coming, potential donors and supporters in
the future. We've got Fiat Chrysler supporting your car. And
(03:47):
then in New York he was going to provide transportation
to the talent the celebrities coming to honor Jerry Lewis.
So the night before the Fires Cup gala, were invited
to a private dinner at the Friars Club to honor
Jerry Lewis, Elvis Costello and Diana Prawl. They're sitting across
(04:10):
from us. Leonardo DiCaprio's there, and you know, we're all
at this private dinner. I mean, they're probably fifty sixty
people around the big U shaped table. They're all sitting there,
and you know, David is calm as a fucking cucumber.
We're drinking, he's chatting, we're laughing.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
That celebrity dinner the night before their big gala goes
off without a hitch. David hobnobs with Hollywood stars and
rubbed shoulders with New York's rich and powerful elite, who
are in fact legitimately donating hundreds of thousands of dollars
to the Friar's Club, and David convincingly pretends he is too.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
But we go into the next day where David's supposed
to produce these cars to transport talent, and they don't
show up. And I had gotten out to get my
hair done, of course, bought new clothes, come back to
the hotel room. He started getting emails, and I started
getting emails about people canceling. Their private plane got canceled.
(05:15):
They weren't going to make it in for the dinner,
Fiat canceling. But we're sitting there together and I'm getting emails,
right sod Avid can't be sending them because we're reading
them together, and so everything falls apart, and I was
I just freaked out. I just I can't even remember,
and I think, you know what, I may not have
(05:37):
done a good job in conveying is the confusion that
he created in my head. The cars were a fake.
This Fiat price or support was a fake. He worked
his way in there and act like, you know, the
big swing in and had nothing.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Nancy's head is spinning. She had literally just gotten off
a transcontinental from Europe to attend the Friar's Club event.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
We came to New York from Italy, where we had
gone to meet with Fiat Chrysler, and it never materialized.
They got busy, stayed in these beautiful exclusive places that
Fiat had paid for for us. Later I find out
I had paid for for us. And then from there
(06:26):
we flew to New York for the Friars Club. I
went a day head I can't remember. I think he
had important meetings, yeah right, and he joined me. You know,
we were in Lake Cuomo. Fiat was just lovely to us,
except Fiat never clearly existed.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
It's twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
At this point, I was married to David for almost
ten years.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And Nancy begins to realize that David doesn't really have
a high paying job selling billboard advertising to huge companies,
and she's about to make another startling discovery too just
exactly where all the money he's been using to support
them both financially for the past couple years is coming.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
From living in Venice and I go to the mailbox.
David had been very strategic. He always got the mail
before I got home, and he knew I didn't like
to go get mail. And honestly, like kind of shows
you where I came from. I grew up with a
single mother, right my father died when I was five.
(07:32):
She was a public school teacher. We didn't have a
lot of money, and mail stressed her out because it
was bills and so literally, like I remember, she had
opened the mail once or twice a week because it
was too stressful, and so I kind of have that mentality.
So I was like, David's getting the mail. I don't
have to worry about it whatever. So what he was
(07:52):
doing was getting the mail, and if there was anything
that I shouldn't see in it, I didn't see it.
So I must have gotten home before him and I
got the mail. And there were all these overdue notices
from credit cards. He had opened the credit cards in
my name and added his to the account. He knew
(08:13):
my social Security number, address, etc. Birthday, signed up online
and signed up for online billing, so he never received
a bill charged all this and was who knows at
that point, stealing from Peter to pay Paul and going
from bank to bank covering the minimums on these credit
(08:35):
cards for a while, so they're continuing to rack up charges.
He's covering the minimums, but at some point he must
have not been able to cover the minimums, so they
started sending bills to try to collect. And that's what
I discovered.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
In total, the money Nancy lost while being involved with
David Bloom it was upward.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
To a couple hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So Nancy, with a stack of overdue credit card bills
in her hand, linked to accounts bearing her name that
she had no idea even existed, confronts her husband when
he gets home that evening.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I said, what are these bills? And David has this
way about him it's hard to even explain until you
the person confronting him. But again, he can just so
calmly take it in and then you know when he
finally if he does admit to something, which obviously you
have to, you know the bills are right there and
(09:35):
there are some charges I recognize like plane tickets to
Italy and things like that, dinners hotels that he cops
to it, but it's always in this way. It was
for you. I wanted to do it for you. I'm
so sorry. I love you. You're the love of my life.
I didn't want to hurt you. I just how could
I do this to you? I love you so much.
(09:56):
But that was really kind of the last straw for me.
I was panicked. I'm not working now right because we're
so rich. I don't need to, you know, And I
don't have the money to cover any of this. I've
got rent, I don't know how I'm paying my bills,
and so that was really kind of the beginning of
the unraveling. I asked him to leave multiple times. He
(10:18):
was in and out, he'd work his way back and
I'd ask him to leave, and then one day when
he had been gone, and every time he was gone
he'd come back. You know, I'm just doing this for you.
I love you. I'm so sorry. Will you ever forgive me?
He had burst into the apartment and I caught him
with my phone and I said, what are you doing
(10:39):
with my phone? And he'd put it down. Oh, sorry,
I thought it was my phone. I said, what are
you talking about? So he bustled around and he was
actually frightening that time.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Nancy has no idea that when David takes her phone,
he secretly blocks a number on it, the number of
a mutual acquaintance, so that person now has no way
of calling Nancy directly.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
But their friend called me and told me about a
scam had been running locally. Their friend called me and
told me about a scam had been running locally selling
pre Ibo Snapchat stock to them, but had included me
(11:24):
as part of this. Had wanted to start a business
with one of the guys, but had been using me
as part of this scheme, but had told them not
to talk to me because I didn't like to talk
about business. At this point, had been emailing people from
accountcy developed in my name, and had been doing a
number of things. So they called me to say, we've
(11:46):
been asking for our money back. We're tired of this
and we want our money back. What are you guys doing?
And I said, I have no idea what you're talking about.
I think at that time, I said, and I call
you back. I want to get my locks changed. I
hung up I called a friend to come over so
(12:06):
I wouldn't be alone. I called a locksmith and had
a locksmith come and changed my locks. And then I
called them back, or they called me back, and they
told me the story of what David had been doing
with a lot of local businesses, which goes back to
a lot of what he had done in New York earlier.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So Nancy gets her own apartment and tries to hide
from David Bloom, but he eventually finds her and once
again worms his way back into her life, playing on
her sympathy. He suddenly shows up one day and he
looks homeless and smells like he hasn't bathed in weeks.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
He tells Nancy, I've been sleeping on the street. You know,
can I take a shower?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So Nancy reluctantly lets him in to use her bathroom,
and eventually he his way into sleeping on her sofa
until he can find a place of his own. She
doesn't want to be with him, but at the same time,
she felt like she couldn't put him out on the street.
Nancy was slowly turning into a shell of her former self, disoriented, isolated,
(13:18):
and severely depressed.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I was working now and it was abusive. I
mean again, I couldn't think straight. I didn't know what
day it was, I didn't know what season of the
year it was. It was all I could do to
get up, get myself to work, try to appear like
a functioning human being, and get home. David, at one
(13:42):
point was living now in my new place where I
had tried to disappear. He was staying in the living
room kitchen area, and I would come home, get something
little to eat, and sit on my bed with the
door closed while David had the rest of the apartment.
And it was one night when I was sitting there
(14:03):
and I could barely function, and David's, you know, telling
me how he's going to get this job and help
me get that job and do this, and he's gonna
have money, he's gonna pay me back, and he's gonna
pay her taxes and doing all that that I saw,
how like dominuative, I've become that I was barely functioning,
and I just had this realization that he will not
(14:25):
stop until he kills me. He sees what he has
done to me, and he does not care. And I
summoned my strength, and that was the last night he
was there.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Nancy finally kicks David out for the last time and
promptly files for divorce.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Took another two years to actually get a divorce. It's
very difficult to get a divorce when you don't know
where the other person is, so you have to go
through a whole process of sending. The government has to
send papers to the last address they have on five
for the person, and then when they're not returned within
six months, then they can go on to the next step.
(15:07):
I didn't have any money, so I had to do
most of it by myself.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And as if what David had stolen from her and
the horror he put her through with his years of
endless lies and manipulations wasn't enough, Some of David's victims
he scammed using Nancy's identity, file a lawsuit against her.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I can't fault people for trying to get their money back.
I'm sorry that they thought that I was involved. I'd
like my money back too.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
And these days, nothing surprises Nancy about David Bloom because
she's witnessed firsthand his power and malicious influence for years,
and she understands now that no one is safe.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I was never even physically attracted to David, but somehow
he still had control and power over me and made
made me feel like I could not exist without him.
It's kind of like a cult, That's what I'd liken
it too.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And one of the most shocking revelations Nancy shares is
David's magical ability to continue scamming his own family, who
already know full well he is a con artist from
way back in the eighties in his New York days,
where he swindled hundreds of victims out of fifteen million dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
His sister was so embarrassed by David and his crimes
she moved to northern California to get away from him,
got married. She and her husband didn't like David, hadn't
spoken to until we went and visited the family. He
even conned them. He created an email in my name
(16:50):
and used it for communications with a lot of people
with this local group, but emailed his sisters and her
husband saying he had this access to this pre IPO stock.
I think because of me. They gave him something like
eighteen thousand dollars. They were going to make all this money,
and then the delay game starts right so why aren't
(17:13):
they getting their money at this point? They just want
their money back whatever. And David's told them now that
I had to go to the hospital for a blood
disease which I had when I was younger, so a
little you know, he didn't pull it out of complete
thin air. And so I found these emails that David
was writing to his sister and brother in law as
(17:37):
me lying now. It shows you he was completely heartless
and ruthless to steal from his own sister. He also
stole from his parents, but to do it in my
name and to lie. And the fact that even she,
(17:59):
after basically disowning him and knowing his entire criminal history,
still fell for him again. Still he was able to
convince them to give him money again.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Nancy reports David Bloom to the police multiple times. She's
hoping and praying he gets charged with scamming her, and
in the meantime, she's keeping.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Tabs on him. As I have read the most recent article,
and I credit David's OCD. He doesn't reinvent himself. He's
been running the same old sorry schemes for the last
couple decades and seems to continue to do so. And
I had heard about another woman, that the younger woman
(18:46):
that he had taken advantage of a couple of years ago.
But I wasn't in any position, you know, to do
anything at that time. I was still trying to get
my own life together. And it just hit me that,
you know, enough is enough. I have worked on women's
issues and been an advocate on women's issues for the
(19:07):
last couple of decades, and I cannot stand by and
watch him do this to anybody, but let alone take
advantage of a young woman.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's abuse, It certainly is, and she's just one of
many victims David tricks out of money in the LA area.
At this point, it feels like I've gotten my PhD
in David freaking Bloom, from his New York scams in
the eighties and nineties to the decade long series of
cons he pulls on his wife and even his own sister.
(19:41):
I know now what I have to do. I have
to warn everybody this man is dangerous. So I start
calling every single person David Bloom ever introduced me too,
Like you called me.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Probably like in the week when we came back from France. Me,
I think, did you give him money?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, that's r asta and.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Then I said yes, and you asked me, I think,
did you give him money?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, that's r asta.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
And then I said, yes.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's La restaurant tour and chef Vincent San Marco. I
remember the day David brought you to the Villa Carlotta,
and I just thought, Wow, this like super cool French
chef here with David. They're going to open some you know,
fabulous restaurant together.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I think I was coming to hang out with him
at the swimming pool and to maybe put a little
legged in the pool or something like that. And you
were here with your beautiful hair, beautiful smile, and beautiful
gorgeous daughter, and introduce me to you. You were very sweet,
very nice, not you know, not Hollywood. You're a very
(20:58):
very genuine person.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And you were to me another person that validated David
Bloom right, And I'm sure I must have somehow validated
him back to you. Indeed you did, because that's kind
of what he does.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
But we validated him by us in our existence, but
not by words or by anything of discussion, because.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I mean, because we weren't allowed to really speak to
each other. He keeps everybody kind of separate. But shows
you that they exist, right, correct. I was so impressed
with Vincent when David introduced me to him back in
twenty twenty one. I mean, there's actually a documentary about
Vincent San Marco streaming right now on Amazon called bell V.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
I'm the third generation.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Asto bellev is the name of Vincent's restaurant in Brentwood,
and in late twenty twenty it's ground zero for how
Vincent end up in David's crosshairs.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
He started coming in with his girlfriend and they were
coming at the bar happy hour, very talkative. He knows
about arts, he knows a bad stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
So he comes into your restaurant, he sees you. Did
he know you were the owner? How did he strike
up a conversation with you?
Speaker 4 (22:20):
I mean, you come into my restaurant, It's very easy
to talk to me. I talked to everybody. This is
what I do. You know, whether it's my restaurant or
I work for someone else.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
I'm a very open person. I'm very genuine.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
He started to coming twice a week, three times a week,
and then started to talk a bit about movies. I'm
highly passionated about theater. And then he started telling me
that he invested in this movie which just came out,
the last Christopher Nolan movie, tenet.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Happened Here hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
And that he put one million dollars into that movie.
He was named dropping a lot.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
One of the names David drops in front of Vincent
is one you all know very well by now, that
supermarket Titan billionaire Ron Burkele.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
He took to me a lot about him all the time,
as he was his good friend, and that they hang out,
they used to play tennis together and so on and
so forth. So I mean, like, okay, he's a good guy.
And then maybe I google the name of Ron Burkel
probably three months after he started talking to me about
that person.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know, did he ever show you text messages from Ron?
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Probably?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
We used to do that to me all the time.
So it's interesting here I'm realizing he was doing your
con at the same time that he was doing mine. Sadly,
COVID nineteen takes a lethal toll on Vincent's restaurant, bell Vie,
which is actually what that Amazon movie is about.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
A good friend of mine, Marcus Mizel, did the documentary
about me using my restaurant during the pandemic.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, and Vincent's restaurant closing gives David Bloom the opening
he needs to step in and help. Remember the credit
repair company David told me he owned, well, He tells
Vincent the same thing and offers to fix his credit.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
He actually did repair my credit pretty well.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I did, so it's also legitimized.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Him because like when I lost the restaurant, I need
a personal bankruptcy and I was at four hundred of
credit score, and like when the company took care of
my repair credit and like in three months, I was
at six fifty yep, and now I'm at six eighty already.
One thing after another, we've become kind of friends. We
hang out, it comes to my house, he comes to
(24:46):
my house for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So you guys became really close.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, it looks like you want to help and mentor
me business wise and more investment wise, which I didn't
have any money at the time.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And here's where things get really interesting. David used the
same two part scam on Vincent that he used on
me for me. The first part was the dangling carrot
of that Whole Foods meeting in Texas. I never gave
David any money for that. Looking back, he just used
(25:18):
that entire Austin fiasco to distract me from the real
con he was pulling, which was that Soho House IPO
where I gave him thirty five thousand dollars And David
pulled the same two part con on Vincent too, but
the dangling carrot part was a new restaurant. The story
I remember was that he was building out a restaurant
(25:40):
for you to be the head chef.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
At He was telling me, oh, I have a building
in downtown LA and I know that.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
He owns owned, yep, yep, and that the building it's
right next to Bestia.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
It's in the Art district tonight.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
It's an old fly house which got transformed as an
hotel I think probably five years ago and got closed because.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
He was not working.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
And he was saying he bought the building for super
cheap and he wants to open a restaurant.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
He wants me to take care of it. And I
just lost my restaurant and I mean perfect timing, perfect timing,
I mean I need it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And while all this is going on, in early twenty
twenty one, tragedy strikes Vincent's brother in law suddenly dies,
and David seems to really step up and be there
for Vincent and his family.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
He was there at the Finer Hut and everything.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
He was at the funeral.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
Because he was a friend. I mean, like.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
He came and received me in tough days, in tough
time and be here for me to cheer me up
and stuff like that all the time, all the time,
here for me.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, like a friend.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
My mother in law, my wife are just like broken
and like you said, like hey, oh like Ron Berkel again.
You know, he has a resort very close in Montana
with houses. You give me a house, we'll be next
to Facebook creator and stuff like that. We have a
private plane coming to take us. So right, we were ready.
(27:17):
We did our suitcase man.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
And if you google Ron burkele and Montana, you'll see
that he actually does own a resort there in Yellowstone.
So Vincent and his wife and mother in law are
really looking forward to their trip to that Yellowstone resort
compliments of David Bloom, if only for a temporary reprieve
from their grief. So on the day that you're supposed
(27:41):
to go to Yellowstone, you're all packed and you are
on your way to go be with ron burkele your
wife and David what happens?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Well, like it just said that the security of ron Bergera,
because we've just been vaccinated just eight days ago, doesn't want.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Us to come.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
He pulled the bavaccinated card on me too. Not surprisingly,
that Yellowstone trip never happens, but David does offer to
help Vincent, who is now unemployed, with an incredible investment opportunity.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
It was an IPO.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Was it the Soho House ipo?
Speaker 4 (28:17):
It was No, it was like some kind of glasses Oh,
Warby Parker well eyeglasses company giv him ten k.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
And you can see too that Warby Parker was ipoing
at the time. He's very smart.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Everything is on points.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
And you know I never invested money or anything due
to the fact that I really don't support speculation.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I think it's a.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Cancer for our society. But I mean, he was insisting,
and he was saying, I'm going to make so much money.
So I started giving ten k, and then the Soil
House come in. I give twenty k.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So David takes thirty thousand dollars in all from Vincent,
who again is unemployed and has a wife and two
babies at home to support. But Vincent isn't worried at
all because David just bought that old firehouse downtown and
he's going to convert it into a high end restaurant
for Vincent to run.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I'm very good in operation. I'm akila in operation. So
he made sense. It's not betting on a dream. He's
betting on your hard work. And you're successful and you
believe in yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
He has you so invested in this restaurant and running
this restaurant and being a part owner in this restaurant
that when he pressures you for the IPO on the side,
it's like, Okay, no big deal, Let's get back to
the restaurant. That's kind of how he did it to
me too. I had this big meeting with the president
of Whole Foods because of Ron Brkel that when the
IPO thing came along, he played it as, Oh, yeah,
(29:42):
just get together whatever money you can. It'll help you
survive until the big money comes in from the business.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Talking to Vincent is a real eye opener, and it's
helping me piece together where exactly David was just before
I met.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Him, he was living in the vnb's and stuff like that,
and I think with the thirty k went to the
Villa Carlotta.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Wow, this is really an AHA moment. So in April
of twenty twenty one, David Bloom is using Vincent's thirty
thousand dollars to move in and pay rent at the
Villa Carlotta, which was about eight thousand per month. And
that place turns out to be fertile ground for a
(30:26):
crafty con artist, chock full of victims who David is
about to scam, myself included. And David shows off Vincent
at the Villa Carlotta frequently telling us all he's opening
a new French restaurant with him in the very near future.
So that helps make David seem like he's on the
up and up to everyone. Not to mention he's also
(30:49):
a brilliant manipulator. But he cried to me one day
at the pool me.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Too many times. Yeah, so he opens himself.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
He's really like and I think when he cries he
was very uh, genuine, authentic.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
It was really of course, Vincent and I had no
idea we were both getting scammed by David Bloom. Well,
he already got scammed. I was about to but as
the weeks pass, David gets himself into a bind and
does something really uncharacteristic.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
He's pathologically He's a psycho pot. They're like a real
psycho pot.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Next time on Once Upon a Con, he.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Was doing great at work. He ramped himself up to
a point where he was making about fifteen grand a month,
and he set record after record at my company.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
But David Bloom's employer has no idea what he's really up.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
To because he literally had us doing jumping through hoops
like a little circus analys, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
He is a very smart man.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Oh he's a genius.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Like I have no doubt now that I've seen this
side of him, because I always thought at the time
he was just a great salesman.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Now I realize he's just an absolute psychopath.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
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,
(32:25):
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 Molena Kroyevsky. Sound designed
by Tim Mulhern, Edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising
(32:48):
editor Victoria Chang, Mastered by Victoria Chang. Engineering by Justin
Longerbeam Legal counsel for AYR Media, Gianni Douglas. Our theme,
Saw 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 (00:04):
He's a predator and he needs to be stopped.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
David Bloom's ex wife, Nancy shares her experience of what
it was like being married to the con artist for
nearly ten years.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He convinced me that he was the only one who
really knew me, who loved me like no one else had,
the only one that truly understood me. And then, you know,
how could I be without him? I finally found this
person and he was able to identify kind of my
(00:38):
insecurities and basically played them. You know, I wanted to
be taken care of, so he took care of me.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
But in reality, David Bloom is pulling one of his
most cruel and evil cons to date that will ultimately
destroy Nancy's life.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It was insane. The stuff he was doing was insane,
and I was trying to make sense of something that
doesn't make any sense, or to understand things that I
could not have thought of in my wildest dreams to do.
So how could we understand what he's doing. We would
never think about doing it ever.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Is what you boys.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm Caroline de Morey and this is Once Upon a
Con Episode six. He will not stop until he kills me.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
David was now selling advertising on billboards. We said he
had big clients like Circu Salet and Fiat Chrysler and Westfield.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
It's late twenty sixteen. Nancy and her husband David are
living happily ever after in Los Angeles. He seems to
have turned his life around and he's making great money
selling billboard advertising. So Nancy takes some time off work
and David appears to be taking care of her.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
A couple of times, you know, I would do some
consulting here and there, and he'd have me engage with
people and say that Fiat Chrysler was going to sponsor
an event, provide cars, vehicles and financial support for philanthropic events.
So I think there was an event with Vogue, a
(02:45):
women's conference. There was the LACMA Gala Annual Gala, and
there was the Friars Club Gala in New York, and
Fiat Chrysler was going to provide a jeep Cherokee for
the Vogue event. They were going to provide a car
or cars that were going to be out front of
(03:06):
the LACMA event at the step and repeat, all the
celebrities We're going to walk.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
By LACMA or LACMA is an acronym for the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, and their galas are star
studded events where LA's rich and famous gathered as schmooze
and be schmoozed.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Additionally, David was going to fill a table celebrities for
the actual gala. It was heavy hitters and wealthy people,
you know, and lacmaists at that time thrilled we have
all these new people coming, potential donors and supporters in
the future. We've got Fiat Chrysler supporting your car. And
(03:47):
then in New York he was going to provide transportation
to the talent the celebrities coming to honor Jerry Lewis.
So the night before the Fires Cup gala, were invited
to a private dinner at the Friars Club to honor
Jerry Lewis, Elvis Costello and Diana Prawl. They're sitting across
(04:10):
from us. Leonardo DiCaprio's there, and you know, we're all
at this private dinner. I mean, they're probably fifty sixty
people around the big U shaped table. They're all sitting there,
and you know, David is calm as a fucking cucumber.
We're drinking, he's chatting, we're laughing.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
That celebrity dinner the night before their big gala goes
off without a hitch. David hobnobs with Hollywood stars and
rubbed shoulders with New York's rich and powerful elite, who
are in fact legitimately donating hundreds of thousands of dollars
to the Friar's Club, and David convincingly pretends he is too.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
But we go into the next day where David's supposed
to produce these cars to transport talent, and they don't
show up. And I had gotten out to get my
hair done, of course, bought new clothes, come back to
the hotel room. He started getting emails, and I started
getting emails about people canceling. Their private plane got canceled.
(05:15):
They weren't going to make it in for the dinner,
Fiat canceling. But we're sitting there together and I'm getting emails,
right sod Avid can't be sending them because we're reading
them together, and so everything falls apart, and I was
I just freaked out. I just I can't even remember,
and I think, you know what, I may not have
(05:37):
done a good job in conveying is the confusion that
he created in my head. The cars were a fake.
This Fiat price or support was a fake. He worked
his way in there and act like, you know, the
big swing in and had nothing.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Nancy's head is spinning. She had literally just gotten off
a transcontinental from Europe to attend the Friar's Club event.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
We came to New York from Italy, where we had
gone to meet with Fiat Chrysler, and it never materialized.
They got busy, stayed in these beautiful exclusive places that
Fiat had paid for for us. Later I find out
I had paid for for us. And then from there
(06:26):
we flew to New York for the Friars Club. I
went a day head I can't remember. I think he
had important meetings, yeah right, and he joined me. You know,
we were in Lake Cuomo. Fiat was just lovely to us,
except Fiat never clearly existed.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
It's twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
At this point, I was married to David for almost
ten years.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And Nancy begins to realize that David doesn't really have
a high paying job selling billboard advertising to huge companies,
and she's about to make another startling discovery too just
exactly where all the money he's been using to support
them both financially for the past couple years is coming.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
From living in Venice and I go to the mailbox.
David had been very strategic. He always got the mail
before I got home, and he knew I didn't like
to go get mail. And honestly, like kind of shows
you where I came from. I grew up with a
single mother, right my father died when I was five.
(07:32):
She was a public school teacher. We didn't have a
lot of money, and mail stressed her out because it
was bills and so literally, like I remember, she had
opened the mail once or twice a week because it
was too stressful, and so I kind of have that mentality.
So I was like, David's getting the mail. I don't
have to worry about it whatever. So what he was
(07:52):
doing was getting the mail, and if there was anything
that I shouldn't see in it, I didn't see it.
So I must have gotten home before him and I
got the mail. And there were all these overdue notices
from credit cards. He had opened the credit cards in
my name and added his to the account. He knew
(08:13):
my social Security number, address, etc. Birthday, signed up online
and signed up for online billing, so he never received
a bill charged all this and was who knows at
that point, stealing from Peter to pay Paul and going
from bank to bank covering the minimums on these credit
(08:35):
cards for a while, so they're continuing to rack up charges.
He's covering the minimums, but at some point he must
have not been able to cover the minimums, so they
started sending bills to try to collect. And that's what
I discovered.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
In total, the money Nancy lost while being involved with
David Bloom it was upward.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
To a couple hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So Nancy, with a stack of overdue credit card bills
in her hand, linked to accounts bearing her name that
she had no idea even existed, confronts her husband when
he gets home that evening.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I said, what are these bills? And David has this
way about him it's hard to even explain until you
the person confronting him. But again, he can just so
calmly take it in and then you know when he
finally if he does admit to something, which obviously you
have to, you know the bills are right there and
(09:35):
there are some charges I recognize like plane tickets to
Italy and things like that, dinners hotels that he cops
to it, but it's always in this way. It was
for you. I wanted to do it for you. I'm
so sorry. I love you. You're the love of my life.
I didn't want to hurt you. I just how could
I do this to you? I love you so much.
(09:56):
But that was really kind of the last straw for me.
I was panicked. I'm not working now right because we're
so rich. I don't need to, you know, And I
don't have the money to cover any of this. I've
got rent, I don't know how I'm paying my bills,
and so that was really kind of the beginning of
the unraveling. I asked him to leave multiple times. He
(10:18):
was in and out, he'd work his way back and
I'd ask him to leave, and then one day when
he had been gone, and every time he was gone
he'd come back. You know, I'm just doing this for you.
I love you. I'm so sorry. Will you ever forgive me?
He had burst into the apartment and I caught him
with my phone and I said, what are you doing
(10:39):
with my phone? And he'd put it down. Oh, sorry,
I thought it was my phone. I said, what are
you talking about? So he bustled around and he was
actually frightening that time.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Nancy has no idea that when David takes her phone,
he secretly blocks a number on it, the number of
a mutual acquaintance, so that person now has no way
of calling Nancy directly.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
But their friend called me and told me about a
scam had been running locally. Their friend called me and
told me about a scam had been running locally selling
pre Ibo Snapchat stock to them, but had included me
(11:24):
as part of this. Had wanted to start a business
with one of the guys, but had been using me
as part of this scheme, but had told them not
to talk to me because I didn't like to talk
about business. At this point, had been emailing people from
accountcy developed in my name, and had been doing a
number of things. So they called me to say, we've
(11:46):
been asking for our money back. We're tired of this
and we want our money back. What are you guys doing?
And I said, I have no idea what you're talking about.
I think at that time, I said, and I call
you back. I want to get my locks changed. I
hung up I called a friend to come over so
(12:06):
I wouldn't be alone. I called a locksmith and had
a locksmith come and changed my locks. And then I
called them back, or they called me back, and they
told me the story of what David had been doing
with a lot of local businesses, which goes back to
a lot of what he had done in New York earlier.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So Nancy gets her own apartment and tries to hide
from David Bloom, but he eventually finds her and once
again worms his way back into her life, playing on
her sympathy. He suddenly shows up one day and he
looks homeless and smells like he hasn't bathed in weeks.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
He tells Nancy, I've been sleeping on the street. You know,
can I take a shower?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So Nancy reluctantly lets him in to use her bathroom,
and eventually he his way into sleeping on her sofa
until he can find a place of his own. She
doesn't want to be with him, but at the same time,
she felt like she couldn't put him out on the street.
Nancy was slowly turning into a shell of her former self, disoriented, isolated,
(13:18):
and severely depressed.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
And I was working now and it was abusive. I
mean again, I couldn't think straight. I didn't know what
day it was, I didn't know what season of the
year it was. It was all I could do to
get up, get myself to work, try to appear like
a functioning human being, and get home. David, at one
(13:42):
point was living now in my new place where I
had tried to disappear. He was staying in the living
room kitchen area, and I would come home, get something
little to eat, and sit on my bed with the
door closed while David had the rest of the apartment.
And it was one night when I was sitting there
(14:03):
and I could barely function, and David's, you know, telling
me how he's going to get this job and help
me get that job and do this, and he's gonna
have money, he's gonna pay me back, and he's gonna
pay her taxes and doing all that that I saw,
how like dominuative, I've become that I was barely functioning,
and I just had this realization that he will not
(14:25):
stop until he kills me. He sees what he has
done to me, and he does not care. And I
summoned my strength, and that was the last night he
was there.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Nancy finally kicks David out for the last time and
promptly files for divorce.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Took another two years to actually get a divorce. It's
very difficult to get a divorce when you don't know
where the other person is, so you have to go
through a whole process of sending. The government has to
send papers to the last address they have on five
for the person, and then when they're not returned within
six months, then they can go on to the next step.
(15:07):
I didn't have any money, so I had to do
most of it by myself.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And as if what David had stolen from her and
the horror he put her through with his years of
endless lies and manipulations wasn't enough, Some of David's victims
he scammed using Nancy's identity, file a lawsuit against her.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I can't fault people for trying to get their money back.
I'm sorry that they thought that I was involved. I'd
like my money back too.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
And these days, nothing surprises Nancy about David Bloom because
she's witnessed firsthand his power and malicious influence for years,
and she understands now that no one is safe.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I was never even physically attracted to David, but somehow
he still had control and power over me and made
made me feel like I could not exist without him.
It's kind of like a cult, That's what I'd liken
it too.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And one of the most shocking revelations Nancy shares is
David's magical ability to continue scamming his own family, who
already know full well he is a con artist from
way back in the eighties in his New York days,
where he swindled hundreds of victims out of fifteen million dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
His sister was so embarrassed by David and his crimes
she moved to northern California to get away from him,
got married. She and her husband didn't like David, hadn't
spoken to until we went and visited the family. He
even conned them. He created an email in my name
(16:50):
and used it for communications with a lot of people
with this local group, but emailed his sisters and her
husband saying he had this access to this pre IPO stock.
I think because of me. They gave him something like
eighteen thousand dollars. They were going to make all this money,
and then the delay game starts right so why aren't
(17:13):
they getting their money at this point? They just want
their money back whatever. And David's told them now that
I had to go to the hospital for a blood
disease which I had when I was younger, so a
little you know, he didn't pull it out of complete
thin air. And so I found these emails that David
was writing to his sister and brother in law as
(17:37):
me lying now. It shows you he was completely heartless
and ruthless to steal from his own sister. He also
stole from his parents, but to do it in my
name and to lie. And the fact that even she,
(17:59):
after basically disowning him and knowing his entire criminal history,
still fell for him again. Still he was able to
convince them to give him money again.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Nancy reports David Bloom to the police multiple times. She's
hoping and praying he gets charged with scamming her, and
in the meantime, she's keeping.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Tabs on him. As I have read the most recent article,
and I credit David's OCD. He doesn't reinvent himself. He's
been running the same old sorry schemes for the last
couple decades and seems to continue to do so. And
I had heard about another woman, that the younger woman
(18:46):
that he had taken advantage of a couple of years ago.
But I wasn't in any position, you know, to do
anything at that time. I was still trying to get
my own life together. And it just hit me that,
you know, enough is enough. I have worked on women's
issues and been an advocate on women's issues for the
(19:07):
last couple of decades, and I cannot stand by and
watch him do this to anybody, but let alone take
advantage of a young woman.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's abuse, It certainly is, and she's just one of
many victims David tricks out of money in the LA area.
At this point, it feels like I've gotten my PhD
in David freaking Bloom, from his New York scams in
the eighties and nineties to the decade long series of
cons he pulls on his wife and even his own sister.
(19:41):
I know now what I have to do. I have
to warn everybody this man is dangerous. So I start
calling every single person David Bloom ever introduced me too,
Like you called me.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Probably like in the week when we came back from France. Me,
I think, did you give him money?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, that's r asta and.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Then I said yes, and you asked me, I think,
did you give him money?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, that's r asta.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
And then I said, yes.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's La restaurant tour and chef Vincent San Marco. I
remember the day David brought you to the Villa Carlotta,
and I just thought, Wow, this like super cool French
chef here with David. They're going to open some you know,
fabulous restaurant together.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I think I was coming to hang out with him
at the swimming pool and to maybe put a little
legged in the pool or something like that. And you
were here with your beautiful hair, beautiful smile, and beautiful
gorgeous daughter, and introduce me to you. You were very sweet,
very nice, not you know, not Hollywood. You're a very
(20:58):
very genuine person.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
And you were to me another person that validated David
Bloom right, And I'm sure I must have somehow validated
him back to you. Indeed you did, because that's kind
of what he does.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
But we validated him by us in our existence, but
not by words or by anything of discussion, because.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I mean, because we weren't allowed to really speak to
each other. He keeps everybody kind of separate. But shows
you that they exist, right, correct. I was so impressed
with Vincent when David introduced me to him back in
twenty twenty one. I mean, there's actually a documentary about
Vincent San Marco streaming right now on Amazon called bell V.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
I'm the third generation.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Asto bellev is the name of Vincent's restaurant in Brentwood,
and in late twenty twenty it's ground zero for how
Vincent end up in David's crosshairs.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
He started coming in with his girlfriend and they were
coming at the bar happy hour, very talkative. He knows
about arts, he knows a bad stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
So he comes into your restaurant, he sees you. Did
he know you were the owner? How did he strike
up a conversation with you?
Speaker 4 (22:20):
I mean, you come into my restaurant, It's very easy
to talk to me. I talked to everybody. This is
what I do. You know, whether it's my restaurant or
I work for someone else.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
I'm a very open person. I'm very genuine.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
He started to coming twice a week, three times a week,
and then started to talk a bit about movies. I'm
highly passionated about theater. And then he started telling me
that he invested in this movie which just came out,
the last Christopher Nolan movie, tenet.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Happened Here hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
And that he put one million dollars into that movie.
He was named dropping a lot.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
One of the names David drops in front of Vincent
is one you all know very well by now, that
supermarket Titan billionaire Ron Burkele.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
He took to me a lot about him all the time,
as he was his good friend, and that they hang out,
they used to play tennis together and so on and
so forth. So I mean, like, okay, he's a good guy.
And then maybe I google the name of Ron Burkel
probably three months after he started talking to me about
that person.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know, did he ever show you text messages from Ron?
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Probably?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
We used to do that to me all the time.
So it's interesting here I'm realizing he was doing your
con at the same time that he was doing mine. Sadly,
COVID nineteen takes a lethal toll on Vincent's restaurant, bell Vie,
which is actually what that Amazon movie is about.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
A good friend of mine, Marcus Mizel, did the documentary
about me using my restaurant during the pandemic.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, and Vincent's restaurant closing gives David Bloom the opening
he needs to step in and help. Remember the credit
repair company David told me he owned, well, He tells
Vincent the same thing and offers to fix his credit.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
He actually did repair my credit pretty well.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I did, so it's also legitimized.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Him because like when I lost the restaurant, I need
a personal bankruptcy and I was at four hundred of
credit score, and like when the company took care of
my repair credit and like in three months, I was
at six fifty yep, and now I'm at six eighty already.
One thing after another, we've become kind of friends. We
hang out, it comes to my house, he comes to
(24:46):
my house for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
So you guys became really close.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Yeah, it looks like you want to help and mentor
me business wise and more investment wise, which I didn't
have any money at the time.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And here's where things get really interesting. David used the
same two part scam on Vincent that he used on
me for me. The first part was the dangling carrot
of that Whole Foods meeting in Texas. I never gave
David any money for that. Looking back, he just used
(25:18):
that entire Austin fiasco to distract me from the real
con he was pulling, which was that Soho House IPO
where I gave him thirty five thousand dollars And David
pulled the same two part con on Vincent too, but
the dangling carrot part was a new restaurant. The story
I remember was that he was building out a restaurant
(25:40):
for you to be the head chef.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
At He was telling me, oh, I have a building
in downtown LA and I know that.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
He owns owned, yep, yep, and that the building it's
right next to Bestia.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
It's in the Art district tonight.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
It's an old fly house which got transformed as an
hotel I think probably five years ago and got closed because.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
He was not working.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
And he was saying he bought the building for super
cheap and he wants to open a restaurant.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
He wants me to take care of it. And I
just lost my restaurant and I mean perfect timing, perfect timing,
I mean I need it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And while all this is going on, in early twenty
twenty one, tragedy strikes Vincent's brother in law suddenly dies,
and David seems to really step up and be there
for Vincent and his family.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
He was there at the Finer Hut and everything.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
He was at the funeral.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
Because he was a friend. I mean, like.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
He came and received me in tough days, in tough
time and be here for me to cheer me up
and stuff like that all the time, all the time,
here for me.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, like a friend.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
My mother in law, my wife are just like broken
and like you said, like hey, oh like Ron Berkel again.
You know, he has a resort very close in Montana
with houses. You give me a house, we'll be next
to Facebook creator and stuff like that. We have a
private plane coming to take us. So right, we were ready.
(27:17):
We did our suitcase man.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
And if you google Ron burkele and Montana, you'll see
that he actually does own a resort there in Yellowstone.
So Vincent and his wife and mother in law are
really looking forward to their trip to that Yellowstone resort
compliments of David Bloom, if only for a temporary reprieve
from their grief. So on the day that you're supposed
(27:41):
to go to Yellowstone, you're all packed and you are
on your way to go be with ron burkele your
wife and David what happens?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Well, like it just said that the security of ron Bergera,
because we've just been vaccinated just eight days ago, doesn't want.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
Us to come.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
He pulled the bavaccinated card on me too. Not surprisingly,
that Yellowstone trip never happens, but David does offer to
help Vincent, who is now unemployed, with an incredible investment opportunity.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
It was an IPO.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Was it the Soho House ipo?
Speaker 4 (28:17):
It was No, it was like some kind of glasses Oh,
Warby Parker well eyeglasses company giv him ten k.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
And you can see too that Warby Parker was ipoing
at the time. He's very smart.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Everything is on points.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
And you know I never invested money or anything due
to the fact that I really don't support speculation.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I think it's a.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Cancer for our society. But I mean, he was insisting,
and he was saying, I'm going to make so much money.
So I started giving ten k, and then the Soil
House come in. I give twenty k.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So David takes thirty thousand dollars in all from Vincent,
who again is unemployed and has a wife and two
babies at home to support. But Vincent isn't worried at
all because David just bought that old firehouse downtown and
he's going to convert it into a high end restaurant
for Vincent to run.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I'm very good in operation. I'm akila in operation. So
he made sense. It's not betting on a dream. He's
betting on your hard work. And you're successful and you
believe in yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
He has you so invested in this restaurant and running
this restaurant and being a part owner in this restaurant
that when he pressures you for the IPO on the side,
it's like, Okay, no big deal, Let's get back to
the restaurant. That's kind of how he did it to
me too. I had this big meeting with the president
of Whole Foods because of Ron Brkel that when the
IPO thing came along, he played it as, Oh, yeah,
(29:42):
just get together whatever money you can. It'll help you
survive until the big money comes in from the business.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Talking to Vincent is a real eye opener, and it's
helping me piece together where exactly David was just before
I met.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Him, he was living in the vnb's and stuff like that,
and I think with the thirty k went to the
Villa Carlotta.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Wow, this is really an AHA moment. So in April
of twenty twenty one, David Bloom is using Vincent's thirty
thousand dollars to move in and pay rent at the
Villa Carlotta, which was about eight thousand per month. And
that place turns out to be fertile ground for a
(30:26):
crafty con artist, chock full of victims who David is
about to scam, myself included. And David shows off Vincent
at the Villa Carlotta frequently telling us all he's opening
a new French restaurant with him in the very near future.
So that helps make David seem like he's on the
up and up to everyone. Not to mention he's also
(30:49):
a brilliant manipulator. But he cried to me one day
at the pool me.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
Too many times. Yeah, so he opens himself.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
He's really like and I think when he cries he
was very uh, genuine, authentic.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
It was really of course, Vincent and I had no
idea we were both getting scammed by David Bloom. Well,
he already got scammed. I was about to but as
the weeks pass, David gets himself into a bind and
does something really uncharacteristic.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
He's pathologically He's a psycho pot. They're like a real
psycho pot.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Next time on Once Upon a Con, he.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Was doing great at work. He ramped himself up to
a point where he was making about fifteen grand a month,
and he set record after record at my company.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
But David Bloom's employer has no idea what he's really up.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
To because he literally had us doing jumping through hoops
like a little circus analys, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
He is a very smart man.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Oh he's a genius.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Like I have no doubt now that I've seen this
side of him, because I always thought at the time
he was just a great salesman.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Now I realize he's just an absolute psychopath.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
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,
(32:25):
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 Molena Kroyevsky. Sound designed
by Tim Mulhern, Edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising
(32:48):
editor Victoria Chang, Mastered by Victoria Chang. Engineering by Justin
Longerbeam Legal counsel for AYR Media, Gianni Douglas. Our theme,
Saw 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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