March 26, 2025 • 29 mins
David Bloom, forcefully accompanied by a group of his victims, goes to the bank to retrieve a fraction of what he owes. Despite bilking hundreds of thousands of dollars from his friends and neighbors, David only manages to come up with $20,000 to partially pay them all back. Police are called, and David gets arrested. But he quickly makes bail and is released from custody. And to everyone's surprise: David is not charged with any crime.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on Once Upon a Con.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
When he first started working for me.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
He hit us within a month of Oh, I'm so connected.
I know everybody. My wife, she's doing all these things politically.
She's connected to Gavin Newsom and he's dropped so many names.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
How much money did you invest with him?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I invested forty grand total.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I uncover more victims of David Bloom, including his former employer,
and we all band together and show up at David's
front door to get our money back.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
David, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
We're gonna do right here?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm Caroline de Moray and this is Once Upon a
Con Episode eight. Nobody knows which end is up.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
I was the only one who couldn't be there.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I just had I surgery that day.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
We pre arranged that I would record everything on my iPhone.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I'm talking to my business partners back in Erin, who
are instrumental in the planning and execution of this confrontation.
David Bloom was actually out of town for a couple
of weeks, and we were scared maybe somebody tipped him
off that we were coming for him.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
We didn't even know whether he really was in London
and really was coming back everyone was texting him and saying, David,
do you want to He goes.
Speaker 7 (01:42):
Yeah, I'm on my way back.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
I didn't really think he would walk in the door. Actually,
I thought there's no way, and he's leading everybody on
and saying, and we were checking, you know, was his
stuff still in his apartment or was he really going
to come back. So when he walked in the door
on a Sunday night about seven pm and went up
to his apartment, I was personally.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I was shocked.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
I was like, wow, he's walking back into this.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We're an angry group of six that night, back in
August of twenty twenty one, all victims of con artist
David Bloom, even Harry, his former boss at that credit
repair company, is there.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I was enraged because at the time I had trusted
this man, I actually cared about him. One of the
things he did to help me like make me really
believe he was genuine, and then to realize all that
was a lie. It felt like being cheated on. It
was like confronting a cheater while catching them in the act.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So when we knock on his door, David actually opens
it sees us all standing there angrily staring him down.
He takes a beat and says, but Harry speaks up
for all of us.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
We're gonna get right here, David. I want to know
the truth.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
You've told me a lot of things that are different
than the stories I'm hearing from these people.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I'd like to know the truth stories, David.
Speaker 7 (03:04):
Everyone's an all on room right now, everyone's everyone's hoping.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
David is weirdly calm, acting like this is all just
one big misunderstanding, which strikes us as odd. Another neighbor speaks.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Up, he's basically swindled out thousands and thousands and thousands
and thousand.
Speaker 7 (03:26):
Okay, then let's get the money back.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Can tell it all sort of projects.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
One of the victims confronting him is out seventy thousand dollars.
Another one gave David forty thousand. Suddenly, Harry starts up again,
asking about his employee, Terry, who we now know pretended
to be the Whole Food CEO ac Gallo on the
phone with me that day.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
You've involved Terry in some of these feelings.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Has Terry been accomplass to some of your deals?
Speaker 8 (03:56):
Has he ever made a phone call for you.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
On your behalf? You've never wrought him a screw how
the trip to Texas HA.
Speaker 7 (04:05):
Do you even have a contact at No, you don't.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So it was the voice that spoke to me as
if they were the president of HOLF.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
Was the guy from No, it was not, And I've
actually confirmed that it was not.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And I've actually confirmed that you don't know Ron Burkel
from who you used to let all of us believe
that the money that we were giving you came.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
From an I p O.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
I do actually know Ro doesn't he denies?
Speaker 7 (04:28):
Do you know?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
People speach out to him? He never says best.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Friend knows the story of what's going on right now.
And EXTRA confirmed that you do not know Rombrokel. You
do not text him every day, You do not do
any of that.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
It's all bad.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Call him right now since they're such good friends.
Speaker 7 (04:46):
It's hear you call your guy.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I don't. I don't call him.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
You text him all the time?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You show me Texas is all the time, David, Come on,
I've confirmed that you do not know him. And it's
very scary because all of us have giving you money
for an IPO based on your relationship with ron ayad Sylvie.
When you said you were at the CEO of Netflix,
where you were and you were by the fucking pool
and you were not leaving, And you called Amanda and
(05:12):
you invited her to a barbecue that day, knowing that
you were not getting on a flight coming to see us,
letting us sit in Texas.
Speaker 7 (05:18):
What was the point of that?
Speaker 4 (05:20):
You know why?
Speaker 7 (05:20):
I'm completely broke. You know your blue daughter.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I have a zero of anything, and you allow me
to spend my last that was my salary, my whole salary,
going to.
Speaker 7 (05:30):
Texas to have a meeting that didn't exist. I collaborate
with Whole Foods that the meeting didn't exist. Acy Gallow
doesn't know who you are. This is a lie? Why
lie to me? Why? I want to know why?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I am so enraged at this point, I am literally
turning red. Part of me wants to punch David Bloom
into next week. I'm inches from his face right now,
and he's just calm and emotionless. He's got a dexter
vibe going on.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
I apologize to you.
Speaker 9 (06:05):
Why would you do that to me when I thought
we were friends?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We are friends?
Speaker 7 (06:09):
Well, but what did you gain from that?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Nothing?
Speaker 7 (06:14):
What was the purpose?
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Nothing?
Speaker 7 (06:16):
I almost loved everything, everything you know what you said
to me. You said, use your.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Last dollar, Caroline, stay on the couch because this is
so big for you as a businesswoman.
Speaker 9 (06:28):
Stay spend your last dollar for this meeting, because it's
so big for you, it's life changing. Stay on the couch,
live on people's couches until you get to the place
where you need to go.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
Why would you say that shit to me?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Why?
Speaker 7 (06:46):
Why tell me now? Why?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I am sorry?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
He says, he's sorry, but I'm way past believing anything
he says anymore. It's truly a surreal scene of us
standing in that hallway, exposing David Bloom for what he
really is, a despicable con man. Harry, in a lot
of ways, is the most vulnerable because David was his
(07:12):
employee for three years.
Speaker 7 (07:14):
I can lose my company room this fteen years I've
worked at that company.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Can you lose your company? How couldn't I? You're committing crimes.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
How couldn't I committing crimes?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
David actually told me and everyone else that he's the
one who owns Harry's credit repair company.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You're part owner of my company at Gary who was
the owner was the owner of I'm.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Glad you guys got to hear that okay, because I'm
shocked to hear that I'm not.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
There's also a woman who comes out of David's apartment,
his girlfriend, nearly twenty years younger than him. Not that
that matters. We've all hung out with her at different times,
and we think we know her. But now we've realize
David's been telling each of us different stories about her.
Harry turns and are in the eye.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
He told me that you were his mistress.
Speaker 7 (08:02):
His wife was okay with you guys have an affair.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
In reality, David's been divorced from his former wife, Nancy
for a couple of years now.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
I chose to.
Speaker 10 (08:12):
Tell a story because I didn'fferent story.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I didn't want anyone to.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
This entire confrontation goes on for more than a half
an hour. Again and again, we all keep demanding our
money back, and David keep saying we'll all have your
money back.
Speaker 7 (08:26):
There's no trust anymore. It has to happen.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Now, why do you I can't wire the money?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
Now we talk about though I can wire money all
day long, all this the internet.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I don't have a wiring app for my back account.
I will get you all start.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
You can go into Wolls Fargo, and you can do wire, and.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You can do zeale, and you can do anything. And
if you have all the money that you've been telling
all of us that you have, I want all that
we've given you tonight, right now, before we leave, because
I don't trust that you won't be on the first.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
Plane at of going anywhere.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I'm waking up here and I will go to the bank.
You can come with me tomorrow. I get certified tracks.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
David keeps insisting he'll go to the bank first thing
in the morning and get us all our money back.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Why don't you give us something that we can hold
as collateral so we can get the money for Why
don't you get your whole.
Speaker 8 (09:16):
Wall with all of your.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Just give We want your password and.
Speaker 7 (09:21):
Want your wallet.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
David bristles at the idea of surrendering his passport and
wallet to us and walks back into his apartment, shutting
the door. We're all thinking he might never come out again.
Then suddenly a minute later, it is, here's my wallet.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
There is my passport and my driver's license all over there.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Have you got enough money in the bank to pay
them all back?
Speaker 7 (09:45):
What?
Speaker 6 (09:45):
What you what you took from them initially, but for.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Good measure, we asked to hold onto his cell phone too.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I'm not going to get my phone. I'm going to
keep my phone and I'm gonna be here.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
Those privileges to decide an if you want.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
To, if you want to, wise, you are going to
take my phone.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
The mere threat of calling the police scares David into
handing over his iPhone to us.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
So everything, I will make it right for everyone. Okay,
So I'll see you. They had talk in the morning.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
We eventually leave David's place with his wallet, passport, and
cell phone. A few minutes later, a message from Terry
pops up on David's phone. Remember he's the guy who
pretended to be Whole Food CEO ac Gallo on the
phone with me. Now he's responding to a message titled
urgent that David must have sent in that sixty seconds.
(10:42):
He walked back into his apartment while we were waiting outside.
We don't know David's pass code, so we can't read
the rest of the message, but it's clear they're obviously
working together anyway. We all eventually walk back to our
own apartments. I don't see at all that night. My
adrenaline is pumping. When morning comes, my business partner Aaron,
(11:06):
and a couple other victims escort David to the Wells
Fargo down the street.
Speaker 11 (11:12):
I don't know what the security footage would have looked like.
I mean, it must have looked like some sort of
crazy heist of something. We all walk in and I'm
just sitting there just think this is as weird as
it gets. We all walk in and I'm just sitting
there just thinking this is as weird as it gets.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Probably looked like you guys were walking this poor old
man to rob him, to hand.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Him his last I was so aware of that just
I was really freaking me out. I was just watching,
going this is just crazy. They walk up to the
teller and he doesn't even have his wallet.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
And then we had it.
Speaker 12 (11:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
And then one of the victims, the other victim, pulls
out his wallet and hands it to the teller and
says it will draw out everything that's in this account, please,
And the teller didn't question it and said okay. And
then one of the other victims goes and how much
is left in that account? And then she said x amount.
(12:10):
And then he said he'll be back tomorrow for more,
and then the transfer was done, and then we all
walked down into the bank like nothing. It felt like
I don't even know what it felt like.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
It was just so surreal.
Speaker 11 (12:24):
In all, we got about twenty two thousand back to
be divided amongst all the victims.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
There was one person that lost about seventy thousand, and
that's just one person, so you can imagine that was pennies.
Each of us only got back a couple thousand dollars,
a tiny fraction of what David took from us. And
I was actually like grateful because I was now going
to be able to pay my rent. I was that
scarce on money that I didn't know how. I literally
(12:50):
was counting on this money to pay my next month's rent,
and I put everything I had in to this IPO.
David promises he'll get us the rest of our money
in a few days. We make the mistake of returning
his wallet, cell phone, and passport to him, But a
few weeks go by and he never gives us another dime.
(13:11):
So one by one we all go to the police
and report him, and to the LAPD's credit, they take
our case seriously and investigate David Bloom, but it takes
them nearly an entire year to do something about it. Nevertheless,
on August ninth, twenty twenty two, they arrest him, but
he's quickly released after posting a forty five thousand dollars bail.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
Gee.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I wonder where he got that money from.
Speaker 8 (13:40):
I've definitely heard from other people who said they were
scammed by him.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
LA Times reporter James Coeley wrote a big article about
David Bloom that was published a month after his arrest.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
The Digital Returning's Office still has not brought a case. There's
been some frustration, you know, some of the victims that
have kept in touch with me, you know, just a concern.
There's no suspicion that he actually has much of the
money left that he allegedly took from people LAPD. I
think the captain of the division that investigate him actually
confirmed to me when they did a financial loud of him,
they did not turn up much in his personal accounts. So,
you know, maybe there's a mattress somewhere stuff with money.
(14:12):
I don't know, But by and large, at least what
people can see officially, this guy is not He's not
a flight risk at least in so far as like
he could finance a life well elsewhere. But people are
still afraid. You know, Listen, if I was accused of
a crime and there was heavy evidence against me, I
feel like most people might have an instinct to flee,
and there is concern that he might, you know, might bounce.
So there's definitely concerns on that level. But yet it
(14:32):
has not moved through the legal system much since since
I wrote about it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
As of this recording on April second, twenty twenty three,
it's been more than eight months since David Bloom was
arrested and then released. He's free as a bird right now,
and from what I hear from random people hitting me
up on Instagram, he's still out and about. In fact,
my best friend Hammy remember him.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
I just spotted David on the fucking street at the
bus stop, folks.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
This was a couple weeks ago. Ironically, David was waiting
on a bus near the Whole Foods on Santa Monica
and Fairfax when him he rolled up on him and
hit record on his phone.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
Hey, what's up, scammer?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Scamming people at the bus stop, that's what's up today?
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
The look of nervous terror on David's face is priceless
as he quickly darts off in the opposite direction, no
doubt on the hunt for more victims to scam in LA.
It's hard to believe he's not been charged with a
single crime for what he did to all of us.
Even with the mountain of evidence and all those recordings
(15:48):
we submitted to the police and to the DA's office,
bringing a con artist to justice really feels impossible.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
The overarching similarity between your con artist David Bloom and
my con artist, Mayor Smith akad irish eris she was
my neighbor too.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
How crazy is that?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Jonathan Walton has been producing this podcast alongside me from
day one. His own story of getting scammed and then
bringing his con artist to justice is chronicled in the
hit podcast Queen of the Cohn. After listening, I was
stunned to learn how similar my con artist David Bloom
is to Jonathan's con artist, Mayor Smith.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I've been investigating these cases now for the past almost
five years. Yeah, and they use the same playbook, even
with David Bloom. What's fascinating about your case is the
fake tears, you said, He cried. He cried, mine cry too,
Like they can cry. They're actor, they're total actors.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
They're a good actor.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And then the other thing, the fake emails and texts, Yeah,
is Mayor Smith's go to. She would show me a text,
Look what so and.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
So said, right, just like you would show me Ron's
text messages in such a way where he would be like,
Ron remembers you, pizza girl, He's saying hi, looking back.
David Bloom checks every box for being a professional con artist.
I just didn't know what the signs were. Now I do,
and I hope you all listening do too. I want
(17:27):
to do to David Bloom what Jonathan did to his
con artist, Mayor Smith, because he never gave up on
his fight for justice. Mayor eventually went to trial where
he testified against her, and she was convicted and sentenced
to five years in jail for scamming Jonathan.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
By going public with your story and by getting over
the shame and the worry of what people are going
to think and just outing this motherfucker to people, I
think that's important and I think you have helped people.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I'm frustrated because he's still out there, you know, he's
doing this as we speak, and I'm frustrated that the
system does not have a good plan to get these
people off the streets that they know that they can
get away with it. David even said it one day.
He was like, they're never going to arrest me. He knows,
and they all know, and that's why they do it.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
And you know, in a lot of ways, David is right.
The system doesn't go after they consider it, quote white
collar crime. It's nonviolent, but.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's destroying people's lives.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
It is.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I agree one thousand percent. The problem is Los Angeles, right.
Los Angeles is a big city, and there are thousands
and thousands of crimes and scams and cases in the
DA's office that you're just one of ten thousand cases.
So you have to set yourself apart. My advice to you.
Have you thought about staging a protest outside the DA's
office downtown.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Oh my god, that would get attention.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
If I were you, I would stage a protest, bring signs,
you know, charge David Bloom. That's what everyone should tell
the DA's office because this specific DA. George Gascon I've heard,
you know, he's very sensitive about protests and stuff that
would get their attention because there's no reason he hasn't
(19:13):
been charged yet. And if you stage a protest, I
will come down and protest too, and I'll get as
many people as I can go. You will, Yeah, let's
do it. Let's put this fucker behind bars for good.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh my god, I'm so down.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Let's make a noise.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Let's do it. I'm down. So on the morning of
March second, twenty twenty three, this seems like a good corner. Yeah,
I think the corner.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So we get traffic.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Jonathan and I meet up in downtown Los Angeles at
the intersection of Temple and Spring Street, right in front
of the District Attorney's office. We make a bunch of
signs and put the word out on social media.
Speaker 8 (19:51):
And he's on the way yep.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
And my friend Ricky he's bringing Isaac Amy. My dad's
on his way, Ricky on its way, man, and I
have two other people I know for sure.
Speaker 7 (20:04):
There's there's no shame in being called. We are not
the ones that need to be ashamed.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
He needs to be ashamed.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
That's why I'm names by you. It takes balls to
just be out there and say I got scammed by
bellfo it.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
You know what it takes.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Actually, it takes vagina.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It takes a big vagina.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Vagina, Yes, it actually is, because you know what, vagina
is ten times stronger and can do so much more.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
Than the saggy balls.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Okay, so it takes a big vagina to do what
I'm doing right now. Okay, not balls, Let's change that narrative.
In all, a group of about ten of us, carrying
signs and chanting.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
Huge shame, blue shote ya.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
He sho glue stage a protest outside the Los Angeles
District Attorney's office, and even David Bloom's ex wife, Nancy
comes down to join our cause.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
We have a lot of victims here. Nancy was married
to David for nine years.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, and this is her first time coming out taking
her power back. At one point, Nancy starts telling us
about a real estate scam David pulled on her that
she's never revealed before. He actually tricked her into believing
he was buying her a house.
Speaker 12 (21:22):
We had decorators that had my family goes through.
Speaker 10 (21:27):
I thought it was.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
You know mill.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
My God.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
That gives me such anxiety.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I wish David Bloom could see Nancy now. Protesting in
solidarity with US.
Speaker 13 (21:42):
Charge Dave, blow Blooms of scammers, fire Bloom David Blooms,
Scammer Charge blow Blooms of scammers.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Our signs and Chance get a lot of attention. People
dressed in suits come out of the DA's office to
observe what we're up to, and passers by are curious too.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
He's a really bad guy. He steals from everybody. He's
a scam artist in LA.
Speaker 9 (22:15):
He pretends to be somebody that he's not, some big
savvy investor.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
Instead, he tries to ruin your life. Yes, I don't
want to be business. You do not. He needs to
be in jail. George David Whoah, George David Who.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
We protest on that corner for about two hours straight.
A lot of people walking in and out of the
DA's office saw us, and I did manage to make
a few contacts, then lo and behold. Three weeks after
our protest, I suddenly get invited to attend a Zoom
meeting with the District Attorney of Los Angeles himself, George Gascon.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
There should be a way to be able to over
console's service. There should be a way to be able
to overcome sooloos erbs.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's a community zoom and I'm told that the status
of the David Bloom case is a topic he's going
to address as one of several issues brought to his
attention by the public.
Speaker 10 (23:18):
You know, we often get accused and I get a
packed all the time for being a soft on crime
and you know, not taking care of the community.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
But I sit through that entire meeting and they run
out of time before they ever call on me.
Speaker 12 (23:35):
Thank you everyone for the questions that you submitted that
we didn't get to get to, so I'll make sure
that we send those to the office and then send
back what we hear. Thank you for your time and
know it's crushous and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
It just doesn't make any sense to me. Why did
they arrest David Bloom eight months ago if they weren't
going to charge him.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
It does sound like something got lost in what they
call their ephile system. I don't want to speculate as
to how that happened, but yeah, there was confusion, to
put it lightly.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
LA Times reporter James Quey, who wrote one article about
David Bloom already and plans to write another if and
when he's charged. James has spoken to the DA's office
and to the LAPD several times and what they're telling
him just isn't adding up.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
Something got lost in the mail between the I mean,
for those who don't know, normally the way criminal cases
brought is well the most common ways brought. As a
police agency arrest somebody, they do an investigation, they present
the case for filing to a prosecutorial agency city attorney, DA,
US attorney, whatever, depending on your aisdiction, and then the
DA will make a filing decision. Somewhere between the point
where LAPD picks up Bloom and where the DA's office
(24:49):
makes a decision. I don't know what happened. The city
had been experiencing a pretty significant homicides spite the last
two years. It might just not be getting a lot
of priority. Bureaucracy in law enforcement is not a proble
that's ever going to go away, no matter how much
reform you do. They're just massive agencies.
Speaker 12 (25:03):
You know.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
LA Disition Attorney's Office is the probably the largest non
federal prosecutors office in the United States. LAPD is the
second or third, you know, biggest police agency in the country.
It's not this small town where like the sheriff is
also the investigating officer, everyone's got eighteen bosses and nobody
knows which ends up. But I mean, that's a little
bit of a little bit of speculation, which I'm not
supposed to do. Apologies to the journalism and gods, but
(25:25):
that's the best I could guess of just the sluggishness
of this.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It's April second, now, twenty twenty three. I've heard whispers
from some people in contact with law enforcement that David
Bloom will be charged in the next few weeks. So
I'm hopeful that I'll get my day in court and
be able to put that scammer where he belongs in
prison for years.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
The police actually said, the mistake you made, which you
should never have given him back his phone, because that's
our evidence you've given it to us.
Speaker 11 (25:57):
That's the thing, though, that little fear of we're doing
something illegal, even though he's doing something way more illegal.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Beck and Aaron have been along on this whole crazy
ride with me from the very beginning. The good news is,
through a lot of hard work and hustle, my company
is actually doing really well. Pizza Girl Pasta Sauce is
now available in a bunch of Whole food stores like
for real, and our reach is growing exponentially every month.
(26:27):
So it's goott a perfect Pizza Girl is finally in
like a really incredible position. And actually, just last week,
the real CEO of Whole Foods posted on his LinkedIn page,
which is also on my Instagram, he just said that
Pizza Girl is one of his top favorite products in
the country. He also bought Pizza Girl sauce for all
(26:50):
of his acquaintances and their gift baskets for the holidays.
So it turns out I didn't need you. David Gloom,
the CEO of Whole Foods is a big pan of
Pizza Girl. So that's a really nice, like full circle moment.
Speaker 11 (27:06):
But thank you for the motivation.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, but this story is far from over. I'm not
letting David Bloom off the hook for what he did
to me and what he did two dozens of other
victims in Los Angeles. I'm going to keep fighting until
justice is served.
Speaker 10 (27:25):
George David Bloo, George David Wloo, George David Bloom.
Speaker 8 (27:32):
Almost gonna make noise of protests should we have a
write to you right, nothing will change. Thank you got
a school, willould be the same? I appreciate you guys
doing all this.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
We're out here, David, no where to art now. 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
(28:04):
Caroline de Morey. Executive producers Eliza Rosen for AYR Media,
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
(28:27):
by Tim Mulhern, edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising
editor Victoria Chang, Mastered by Victoria Chang. Engineering by Justin
Longerbeam Legal counsel for AYR Media Gianni Douglas. Our theme song,
Freshly Served, was written and performed by the incredibly talented
(28:49):
Mattie Noise and is available on her SoundCloud.
Speaker 13 (29:00):
Y
Previously on Once Upon a Con.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
When he first started working for me.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
He hit us within a month of Oh, I'm so connected.
I know everybody. My wife, she's doing all these things politically.
She's connected to Gavin Newsom and he's dropped so many names.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
How much money did you invest with him?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I invested forty grand total.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I uncover more victims of David Bloom, including his former employer,
and we all band together and show up at David's
front door to get our money back.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
David, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
We're gonna do right here?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm Caroline de Moray and this is Once Upon a
Con Episode eight. Nobody knows which end is up.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
I was the only one who couldn't be there.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I just had I surgery that day.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
We pre arranged that I would record everything on my iPhone.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I'm talking to my business partners back in Erin, who
are instrumental in the planning and execution of this confrontation.
David Bloom was actually out of town for a couple
of weeks, and we were scared maybe somebody tipped him
off that we were coming for him.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
We didn't even know whether he really was in London
and really was coming back everyone was texting him and saying, David,
do you want to He goes.
Speaker 7 (01:42):
Yeah, I'm on my way back.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
I didn't really think he would walk in the door. Actually,
I thought there's no way, and he's leading everybody on
and saying, and we were checking, you know, was his
stuff still in his apartment or was he really going
to come back. So when he walked in the door
on a Sunday night about seven pm and went up
to his apartment, I was personally.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
I was shocked.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
I was like, wow, he's walking back into this.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We're an angry group of six that night, back in
August of twenty twenty one, all victims of con artist
David Bloom, even Harry, his former boss at that credit
repair company, is there.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I was enraged because at the time I had trusted
this man, I actually cared about him. One of the
things he did to help me like make me really
believe he was genuine, and then to realize all that
was a lie. It felt like being cheated on. It
was like confronting a cheater while catching them in the act.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So when we knock on his door, David actually opens
it sees us all standing there angrily staring him down.
He takes a beat and says, but Harry speaks up
for all of us.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
We're gonna get right here, David. I want to know
the truth.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
You've told me a lot of things that are different
than the stories I'm hearing from these people.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I'd like to know the truth stories, David.
Speaker 7 (03:04):
Everyone's an all on room right now, everyone's everyone's hoping.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
David is weirdly calm, acting like this is all just
one big misunderstanding, which strikes us as odd. Another neighbor speaks.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Up, he's basically swindled out thousands and thousands and thousands
and thousand.
Speaker 7 (03:26):
Okay, then let's get the money back.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Can tell it all sort of projects.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
One of the victims confronting him is out seventy thousand dollars.
Another one gave David forty thousand. Suddenly, Harry starts up again,
asking about his employee, Terry, who we now know pretended
to be the Whole Food CEO ac Gallo on the
phone with me that day.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
You've involved Terry in some of these feelings.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Has Terry been accomplass to some of your deals?
Speaker 8 (03:56):
Has he ever made a phone call for you.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
On your behalf? You've never wrought him a screw how
the trip to Texas HA.
Speaker 7 (04:05):
Do you even have a contact at No, you don't.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So it was the voice that spoke to me as
if they were the president of HOLF.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
Was the guy from No, it was not, And I've
actually confirmed that it was not.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And I've actually confirmed that you don't know Ron Burkel
from who you used to let all of us believe
that the money that we were giving you came.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
From an I p O.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
I do actually know Ro doesn't he denies?
Speaker 7 (04:28):
Do you know?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
People speach out to him? He never says best.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Friend knows the story of what's going on right now.
And EXTRA confirmed that you do not know Rombrokel. You
do not text him every day, You do not do
any of that.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
It's all bad.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Call him right now since they're such good friends.
Speaker 7 (04:46):
It's hear you call your guy.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I don't. I don't call him.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
You text him all the time?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You show me Texas is all the time, David, Come on,
I've confirmed that you do not know him. And it's
very scary because all of us have giving you money
for an IPO based on your relationship with ron ayad Sylvie.
When you said you were at the CEO of Netflix,
where you were and you were by the fucking pool
and you were not leaving, And you called Amanda and
(05:12):
you invited her to a barbecue that day, knowing that
you were not getting on a flight coming to see us,
letting us sit in Texas.
Speaker 7 (05:18):
What was the point of that?
Speaker 4 (05:20):
You know why?
Speaker 7 (05:20):
I'm completely broke. You know your blue daughter.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I have a zero of anything, and you allow me
to spend my last that was my salary, my whole salary,
going to.
Speaker 7 (05:30):
Texas to have a meeting that didn't exist. I collaborate
with Whole Foods that the meeting didn't exist. Acy Gallow
doesn't know who you are. This is a lie? Why
lie to me? Why? I want to know why?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I am so enraged at this point, I am literally
turning red. Part of me wants to punch David Bloom
into next week. I'm inches from his face right now,
and he's just calm and emotionless. He's got a dexter
vibe going on.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
I apologize to you.
Speaker 9 (06:05):
Why would you do that to me when I thought
we were friends?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We are friends?
Speaker 7 (06:09):
Well, but what did you gain from that?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Nothing?
Speaker 7 (06:14):
What was the purpose?
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Nothing?
Speaker 7 (06:16):
I almost loved everything, everything you know what you said
to me. You said, use your.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Last dollar, Caroline, stay on the couch because this is
so big for you as a businesswoman.
Speaker 9 (06:28):
Stay spend your last dollar for this meeting, because it's
so big for you, it's life changing. Stay on the couch,
live on people's couches until you get to the place
where you need to go.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
Why would you say that shit to me?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Why?
Speaker 7 (06:46):
Why tell me now? Why?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I am sorry?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
He says, he's sorry, but I'm way past believing anything
he says anymore. It's truly a surreal scene of us
standing in that hallway, exposing David Bloom for what he
really is, a despicable con man. Harry, in a lot
of ways, is the most vulnerable because David was his
(07:12):
employee for three years.
Speaker 7 (07:14):
I can lose my company room this fteen years I've
worked at that company.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Can you lose your company? How couldn't I? You're committing crimes.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
How couldn't I committing crimes?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
David actually told me and everyone else that he's the
one who owns Harry's credit repair company.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You're part owner of my company at Gary who was
the owner was the owner of I'm.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Glad you guys got to hear that okay, because I'm
shocked to hear that I'm not.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
There's also a woman who comes out of David's apartment,
his girlfriend, nearly twenty years younger than him. Not that
that matters. We've all hung out with her at different times,
and we think we know her. But now we've realize
David's been telling each of us different stories about her.
Harry turns and are in the eye.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
He told me that you were his mistress.
Speaker 7 (08:02):
His wife was okay with you guys have an affair.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
In reality, David's been divorced from his former wife, Nancy
for a couple of years now.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
I chose to.
Speaker 10 (08:12):
Tell a story because I didn'fferent story.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I didn't want anyone to.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
This entire confrontation goes on for more than a half
an hour. Again and again, we all keep demanding our
money back, and David keep saying we'll all have your
money back.
Speaker 7 (08:26):
There's no trust anymore. It has to happen.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Now, why do you I can't wire the money?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
Now we talk about though I can wire money all
day long, all this the internet.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I don't have a wiring app for my back account.
I will get you all start.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
You can go into Wolls Fargo, and you can do wire, and.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You can do zeale, and you can do anything. And
if you have all the money that you've been telling
all of us that you have, I want all that
we've given you tonight, right now, before we leave, because
I don't trust that you won't be on the first.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
Plane at of going anywhere.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I'm waking up here and I will go to the bank.
You can come with me tomorrow. I get certified tracks.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
David keeps insisting he'll go to the bank first thing
in the morning and get us all our money back.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Why don't you give us something that we can hold
as collateral so we can get the money for Why
don't you get your whole.
Speaker 8 (09:16):
Wall with all of your.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Just give We want your password and.
Speaker 7 (09:21):
Want your wallet.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
David bristles at the idea of surrendering his passport and
wallet to us and walks back into his apartment, shutting
the door. We're all thinking he might never come out again.
Then suddenly a minute later, it is, here's my wallet.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
There is my passport and my driver's license all over there.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Have you got enough money in the bank to pay
them all back?
Speaker 7 (09:45):
What?
Speaker 6 (09:45):
What you what you took from them initially, but for.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Good measure, we asked to hold onto his cell phone too.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I'm not going to get my phone. I'm going to
keep my phone and I'm gonna be here.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
Those privileges to decide an if you want.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
To, if you want to, wise, you are going to
take my phone.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
The mere threat of calling the police scares David into
handing over his iPhone to us.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
So everything, I will make it right for everyone. Okay,
So I'll see you. They had talk in the morning.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
We eventually leave David's place with his wallet, passport, and
cell phone. A few minutes later, a message from Terry
pops up on David's phone. Remember he's the guy who
pretended to be Whole Food CEO ac Gallo on the
phone with me. Now he's responding to a message titled
urgent that David must have sent in that sixty seconds.
(10:42):
He walked back into his apartment while we were waiting outside.
We don't know David's pass code, so we can't read
the rest of the message, but it's clear they're obviously
working together anyway. We all eventually walk back to our
own apartments. I don't see at all that night. My
adrenaline is pumping. When morning comes, my business partner Aaron,
(11:06):
and a couple other victims escort David to the Wells
Fargo down the street.
Speaker 11 (11:12):
I don't know what the security footage would have looked like.
I mean, it must have looked like some sort of
crazy heist of something. We all walk in and I'm
just sitting there just think this is as weird as
it gets. We all walk in and I'm just sitting
there just thinking this is as weird as it gets.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Probably looked like you guys were walking this poor old
man to rob him, to hand.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Him his last I was so aware of that just
I was really freaking me out. I was just watching,
going this is just crazy. They walk up to the
teller and he doesn't even have his wallet.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
And then we had it.
Speaker 12 (11:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
And then one of the victims, the other victim, pulls
out his wallet and hands it to the teller and
says it will draw out everything that's in this account, please,
And the teller didn't question it and said okay. And
then one of the other victims goes and how much
is left in that account? And then she said x amount.
(12:10):
And then he said he'll be back tomorrow for more,
and then the transfer was done, and then we all
walked down into the bank like nothing. It felt like
I don't even know what it felt like.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
It was just so surreal.
Speaker 11 (12:24):
In all, we got about twenty two thousand back to
be divided amongst all the victims.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
There was one person that lost about seventy thousand, and
that's just one person, so you can imagine that was pennies.
Each of us only got back a couple thousand dollars,
a tiny fraction of what David took from us. And
I was actually like grateful because I was now going
to be able to pay my rent. I was that
scarce on money that I didn't know how. I literally
(12:50):
was counting on this money to pay my next month's rent,
and I put everything I had in to this IPO.
David promises he'll get us the rest of our money
in a few days. We make the mistake of returning
his wallet, cell phone, and passport to him, But a
few weeks go by and he never gives us another dime.
(13:11):
So one by one we all go to the police
and report him, and to the LAPD's credit, they take
our case seriously and investigate David Bloom, but it takes
them nearly an entire year to do something about it. Nevertheless,
on August ninth, twenty twenty two, they arrest him, but
he's quickly released after posting a forty five thousand dollars bail.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
Gee.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I wonder where he got that money from.
Speaker 8 (13:40):
I've definitely heard from other people who said they were
scammed by him.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
LA Times reporter James Coeley wrote a big article about
David Bloom that was published a month after his arrest.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
The Digital Returning's Office still has not brought a case. There's
been some frustration, you know, some of the victims that
have kept in touch with me, you know, just a concern.
There's no suspicion that he actually has much of the
money left that he allegedly took from people LAPD. I
think the captain of the division that investigate him actually
confirmed to me when they did a financial loud of him,
they did not turn up much in his personal accounts. So,
you know, maybe there's a mattress somewhere stuff with money.
(14:12):
I don't know, But by and large, at least what
people can see officially, this guy is not He's not
a flight risk at least in so far as like
he could finance a life well elsewhere. But people are
still afraid. You know, Listen, if I was accused of
a crime and there was heavy evidence against me, I
feel like most people might have an instinct to flee,
and there is concern that he might, you know, might bounce.
So there's definitely concerns on that level. But yet it
(14:32):
has not moved through the legal system much since since
I wrote about it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
As of this recording on April second, twenty twenty three,
it's been more than eight months since David Bloom was
arrested and then released. He's free as a bird right now,
and from what I hear from random people hitting me
up on Instagram, he's still out and about. In fact,
my best friend Hammy remember him.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
I just spotted David on the fucking street at the
bus stop, folks.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
This was a couple weeks ago. Ironically, David was waiting
on a bus near the Whole Foods on Santa Monica
and Fairfax when him he rolled up on him and
hit record on his phone.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
Hey, what's up, scammer?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Scamming people at the bus stop, that's what's up today?
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
The look of nervous terror on David's face is priceless
as he quickly darts off in the opposite direction, no
doubt on the hunt for more victims to scam in LA.
It's hard to believe he's not been charged with a
single crime for what he did to all of us.
Even with the mountain of evidence and all those recordings
(15:48):
we submitted to the police and to the DA's office,
bringing a con artist to justice really feels impossible.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
The overarching similarity between your con artist David Bloom and
my con artist, Mayor Smith akad irish eris she was
my neighbor too.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
How crazy is that?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Jonathan Walton has been producing this podcast alongside me from
day one. His own story of getting scammed and then
bringing his con artist to justice is chronicled in the
hit podcast Queen of the Cohn. After listening, I was
stunned to learn how similar my con artist David Bloom
is to Jonathan's con artist, Mayor Smith.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I've been investigating these cases now for the past almost
five years. Yeah, and they use the same playbook, even
with David Bloom. What's fascinating about your case is the
fake tears, you said, He cried. He cried, mine cry too,
Like they can cry. They're actor, they're total actors.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
They're a good actor.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And then the other thing, the fake emails and texts, Yeah,
is Mayor Smith's go to. She would show me a text,
Look what so and.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
So said, right, just like you would show me Ron's
text messages in such a way where he would be like,
Ron remembers you, pizza girl, He's saying hi, looking back.
David Bloom checks every box for being a professional con artist.
I just didn't know what the signs were. Now I do,
and I hope you all listening do too. I want
(17:27):
to do to David Bloom what Jonathan did to his
con artist, Mayor Smith, because he never gave up on
his fight for justice. Mayor eventually went to trial where
he testified against her, and she was convicted and sentenced
to five years in jail for scamming Jonathan.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
By going public with your story and by getting over
the shame and the worry of what people are going
to think and just outing this motherfucker to people, I
think that's important and I think you have helped people.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I'm frustrated because he's still out there, you know, he's
doing this as we speak, and I'm frustrated that the
system does not have a good plan to get these
people off the streets that they know that they can
get away with it. David even said it one day.
He was like, they're never going to arrest me. He knows,
and they all know, and that's why they do it.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
And you know, in a lot of ways, David is right.
The system doesn't go after they consider it, quote white
collar crime. It's nonviolent, but.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's destroying people's lives.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
It is.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I agree one thousand percent. The problem is Los Angeles, right.
Los Angeles is a big city, and there are thousands
and thousands of crimes and scams and cases in the
DA's office that you're just one of ten thousand cases.
So you have to set yourself apart. My advice to you.
Have you thought about staging a protest outside the DA's
office downtown.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Oh my god, that would get attention.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
If I were you, I would stage a protest, bring signs,
you know, charge David Bloom. That's what everyone should tell
the DA's office because this specific DA. George Gascon I've heard,
you know, he's very sensitive about protests and stuff that
would get their attention because there's no reason he hasn't
(19:13):
been charged yet. And if you stage a protest, I
will come down and protest too, and I'll get as
many people as I can go. You will, Yeah, let's
do it. Let's put this fucker behind bars for good.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh my god, I'm so down.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Let's make a noise.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Let's do it. I'm down. So on the morning of
March second, twenty twenty three, this seems like a good corner. Yeah,
I think the corner.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So we get traffic.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Jonathan and I meet up in downtown Los Angeles at
the intersection of Temple and Spring Street, right in front
of the District Attorney's office. We make a bunch of
signs and put the word out on social media.
Speaker 8 (19:51):
And he's on the way yep.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
And my friend Ricky he's bringing Isaac Amy. My dad's
on his way, Ricky on its way, man, and I
have two other people I know for sure.
Speaker 7 (20:04):
There's there's no shame in being called. We are not
the ones that need to be ashamed.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
He needs to be ashamed.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
That's why I'm names by you. It takes balls to
just be out there and say I got scammed by
bellfo it.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
You know what it takes.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Actually, it takes vagina.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It takes a big vagina.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Vagina, Yes, it actually is, because you know what, vagina
is ten times stronger and can do so much more.
Speaker 7 (20:26):
Than the saggy balls.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Okay, so it takes a big vagina to do what
I'm doing right now. Okay, not balls, Let's change that narrative.
In all, a group of about ten of us, carrying
signs and chanting.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
Huge shame, blue shote ya.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
He sho glue stage a protest outside the Los Angeles
District Attorney's office, and even David Bloom's ex wife, Nancy
comes down to join our cause.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
We have a lot of victims here. Nancy was married
to David for nine years.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, and this is her first time coming out taking
her power back. At one point, Nancy starts telling us
about a real estate scam David pulled on her that
she's never revealed before. He actually tricked her into believing
he was buying her a house.
Speaker 12 (21:22):
We had decorators that had my family goes through.
Speaker 10 (21:27):
I thought it was.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
You know mill.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
My God.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
That gives me such anxiety.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I wish David Bloom could see Nancy now. Protesting in
solidarity with US.
Speaker 13 (21:42):
Charge Dave, blow Blooms of scammers, fire Bloom David Blooms,
Scammer Charge blow Blooms of scammers.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Our signs and Chance get a lot of attention. People
dressed in suits come out of the DA's office to
observe what we're up to, and passers by are curious too.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
He's a really bad guy. He steals from everybody. He's
a scam artist in LA.
Speaker 9 (22:15):
He pretends to be somebody that he's not, some big
savvy investor.
Speaker 7 (22:20):
Instead, he tries to ruin your life. Yes, I don't
want to be business. You do not. He needs to
be in jail. George David Whoah, George David Who.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
We protest on that corner for about two hours straight.
A lot of people walking in and out of the
DA's office saw us, and I did manage to make
a few contacts, then lo and behold. Three weeks after
our protest, I suddenly get invited to attend a Zoom
meeting with the District Attorney of Los Angeles himself, George Gascon.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
There should be a way to be able to over
console's service. There should be a way to be able
to overcome sooloos erbs.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's a community zoom and I'm told that the status
of the David Bloom case is a topic he's going
to address as one of several issues brought to his
attention by the public.
Speaker 10 (23:18):
You know, we often get accused and I get a
packed all the time for being a soft on crime
and you know, not taking care of the community.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
But I sit through that entire meeting and they run
out of time before they ever call on me.
Speaker 12 (23:35):
Thank you everyone for the questions that you submitted that
we didn't get to get to, so I'll make sure
that we send those to the office and then send
back what we hear. Thank you for your time and
know it's crushous and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
It just doesn't make any sense to me. Why did
they arrest David Bloom eight months ago if they weren't
going to charge him.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
It does sound like something got lost in what they
call their ephile system. I don't want to speculate as
to how that happened, but yeah, there was confusion, to
put it lightly.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
LA Times reporter James Quey, who wrote one article about
David Bloom already and plans to write another if and
when he's charged. James has spoken to the DA's office
and to the LAPD several times and what they're telling
him just isn't adding up.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
Something got lost in the mail between the I mean,
for those who don't know, normally the way criminal cases
brought is well the most common ways brought. As a
police agency arrest somebody, they do an investigation, they present
the case for filing to a prosecutorial agency city attorney, DA,
US attorney, whatever, depending on your aisdiction, and then the
DA will make a filing decision. Somewhere between the point
where LAPD picks up Bloom and where the DA's office
(24:49):
makes a decision. I don't know what happened. The city
had been experiencing a pretty significant homicides spite the last
two years. It might just not be getting a lot
of priority. Bureaucracy in law enforcement is not a proble
that's ever going to go away, no matter how much
reform you do. They're just massive agencies.
Speaker 12 (25:03):
You know.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
LA Disition Attorney's Office is the probably the largest non
federal prosecutors office in the United States. LAPD is the
second or third, you know, biggest police agency in the country.
It's not this small town where like the sheriff is
also the investigating officer, everyone's got eighteen bosses and nobody
knows which ends up. But I mean, that's a little
bit of a little bit of speculation, which I'm not
supposed to do. Apologies to the journalism and gods, but
(25:25):
that's the best I could guess of just the sluggishness
of this.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It's April second, now, twenty twenty three. I've heard whispers
from some people in contact with law enforcement that David
Bloom will be charged in the next few weeks. So
I'm hopeful that I'll get my day in court and
be able to put that scammer where he belongs in
prison for years.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
The police actually said, the mistake you made, which you
should never have given him back his phone, because that's
our evidence you've given it to us.
Speaker 11 (25:57):
That's the thing, though, that little fear of we're doing
something illegal, even though he's doing something way more illegal.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Beck and Aaron have been along on this whole crazy
ride with me from the very beginning. The good news is,
through a lot of hard work and hustle, my company
is actually doing really well. Pizza Girl Pasta Sauce is
now available in a bunch of Whole food stores like
for real, and our reach is growing exponentially every month.
(26:27):
So it's goott a perfect Pizza Girl is finally in
like a really incredible position. And actually, just last week,
the real CEO of Whole Foods posted on his LinkedIn page,
which is also on my Instagram, he just said that
Pizza Girl is one of his top favorite products in
the country. He also bought Pizza Girl sauce for all
(26:50):
of his acquaintances and their gift baskets for the holidays.
So it turns out I didn't need you. David Gloom,
the CEO of Whole Foods is a big pan of
Pizza Girl. So that's a really nice, like full circle moment.
Speaker 11 (27:06):
But thank you for the motivation.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, but this story is far from over. I'm not
letting David Bloom off the hook for what he did
to me and what he did two dozens of other
victims in Los Angeles. I'm going to keep fighting until
justice is served.
Speaker 10 (27:25):
George David Bloo, George David Wloo, George David Bloom.
Speaker 8 (27:32):
Almost gonna make noise of protests should we have a
write to you right, nothing will change. Thank you got
a school, willould be the same? I appreciate you guys
doing all this.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
We're out here, David, no where to art now. 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
(28:04):
Caroline de Morey. Executive producers Eliza Rosen for AYR Media,
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
(28:27):
by Tim Mulhern, edited and mixed by Tim Mulhern, Supervising
editor Victoria Chang, Mastered by Victoria Chang. Engineering by Justin
Longerbeam Legal counsel for AYR Media Gianni Douglas. Our theme song,
Freshly Served, was written and performed by the incredibly talented
(28:49):
Mattie Noise and is available on her SoundCloud.
Speaker 13 (29:00):
Y
Host
Caroline D’Amore
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