The Charity Cheat: Aaron Tonken

Aaron Tonken was celebrity obsessed from a young age, so naturally he made his way to Hollywood. He also made his way into the good graces and wallets of many entertainment icons. With phony or plain chaotic charity galas, Tonken fleeced the rich and famous in one whirlwind fever dream of a conning career.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zarren.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
You can't give in here, you get in here?

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Was that? My girl? How you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm great? How are you pretty well?

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Feel okay? Greed for you?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm so happy for you. Do you know it's ridiculous
I do, Okay?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
So you know how I love giving people life tips
and money advice.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Un solicitous.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm just going around well, no and all. Honestly, I
never really do that, but I find it amusing how
many how much media I consume where people are men
telling other people how to live and especially with money
and stuff. And then I found this guy and I
was like, this is exactly life advice. I would have
given a punk band on tour, but it wouldn't have
worked for them because they would have been a punk band.
But the idea would have been great otherwise, Okay, and

(00:45):
if they would have done your thing and acted like
they belonged to, act like they've been there before, act
like they know, it would have worked. Here's the life advice.
Keep all that in mind, you ready. Dude's name is
Jack Rains. I don't know why I'm giving him credit.
Be good, it's his words. So he does something called writing.
He writes Young Money the best finance blog you've never
heard of. Whatever. So this is from LinkedIn. Somebody who

(01:06):
I don't really know posted this and I found it amusing.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Anyway, here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
There was a screenshot from LinkedIn. I'm not on LinkedIn.
I don't even believe it with social media, I'm like,
come on, apparently people use it like Facebook. Anyway, here
we go. Quote. For the last two months, I haven't
paid for a single meal in New York City. How
is that possible? You ask? It's simple, free hotel meals.
New York has thirty six hundred hotels, and many of

(01:33):
those offer complimentary breakfast. By walking in and acting like
you're supposed to be there, you can simply grab bacon,
eggs and toast it any Hilton or Marriott in the city.
The real trick is securing free lunch or dinner. To
do this, you dress up a bit nicer and head
to the restaurant. Order whatever you'd like, enjoy the occasion.

(01:54):
When the waiter comes, he's going to ask card credit
or charge to a room. Say charge to the room,
then write down a random room number and name, and
make sure you leave before the payment processes with thirty
six hundred hotels. You can do this for ten years
without double dipping. Follow me for more personal financial tips.

(02:15):
I don't think it hashtag wealth hack.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I don't think it works that way.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
It doesn't work that way. Room number, well, no, you
can do that. I do just traveling, and they did
exactly that. I just put it in on room number. They
didn't ask me for any Nope, it's just all on paper.
I just did this in a Hilton.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Like.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
He's totally right about that aspect. Yeah, but it's still
the ready. It's not going to work for most people. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
who would probably want to benefit from this exactly? No,
definitely not a punk band.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
But who read whatever the four people who read?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
But I did used to tell people who are on
the road, go into nice hotels and eat a complimentary breakfast,
grab some rolls for the road, and go.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
That's smart, right. I used to in the city in
San Francisco if I back in the days pre you
know uber moved all that, when we're all taking taxis
and on evenings like Friday nights, you couldn't get a cab. Yeah,
I go into a hotel, come out and fact, like
I was staying there and ask the you know guys
in front of the bell hop or whatever to hail

(03:10):
me a cab, and I always get one. Other people
are all trying to flag him down the street totally.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
I guess it's more of the doorman.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Than a yeah yeah, yeah, So that was the move.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
That's a good one. I like, I'm gonna use that one.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, we don't take cabs anymore, I guess I do. Yeah,
isn't that ridiculous? Though? That is ridiculous. I like them
a lot. Do you know what else I like? And
that is ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (03:31):
No, Elizabeth? What else?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Gerald Ford getting paid? This is ridiculous crime A podcast

(03:59):
about absurd and outrageous capers. I send cons. It's always
ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Oh you damn right, Zaryn.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yes, Eliza, I'm about to take you on a wild
ride a fever dream.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yes, I love your fever dreams.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Researcher Andrea the Magnificent She described a lot of this
as surreal, and it is. It's so rich in eighties
and nineties celebrities that you're gonna poop yourself.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Should I get on my big boy underwear.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
I'm going to read you a list of names that
are conveniently in alphabetical order. Paula Abdul Roseanne Barr, Milton Burrell,
Red Buttons, the Clintons, Billy Crystal, Celine Dion, Michael Douglas,
Betty and Gerald Ford, Wow, Michael J. Fox, Ja Ja Gabor,
al Gore, Kelsey Grammer, George Hamilton, Goldie Hahn, Gladys Night, Nelson,

(04:50):
Mandela Gregory, Pec, Rob rynder Niece, Rich Ray Ramono, Diana Ross,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Swimmer, Britney Spears, Rod Stewart, John Travolta,
Tina Turner, and Mark Wilbert.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Why are you listing all my exes.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
One thing in common?

Speaker 3 (05:03):
I just told you what it was, herpies.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Oh no, that was a joke. They were all somehow
connected to the scandals generated by one Aaron Tonka.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah? I want to tell you about Aaron gulf of Tonka.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
He's an industry Oh.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
God, have you ever heard of Aaron Tonka.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
I've heard the name, I've never looked into him.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
He was born in nineteen sixty five in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
He grew up in Michigan, just about you know, two
hundred and fifty miles or so. He was obsessed with
celebrities at an early age. When he was only twelve
years old, he started cold calling Jacqueline Onassas and other
celebrities like would get the number and be like, Hi,

(05:41):
it's Aaron. Do you have a moment? I love that.
He was desperate.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Do you think they ever had good conversations.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
I don't think he had any conversation. I don't think
he made it. No, he didn't make it through the screening.
He wanted so badly to have Dean Martin performed at
his bar mitzvah.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh same, I don't even have of bar mitsman.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I want that, and he just that's what he wanted.
But he couldn't. He couldn't make it happen. Nineteen eighty seven,
his dad dies of cancer. His dad was a doctor,
and he had a really difficult relationship with his mom,
and so he decided to just like split and leave.
He went to live with his aunt and uncle in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Teens.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, this is what his aunt said. Michelle Sill's quote.
He drove to our house straight through without a nickel
in his pocket. He had to bust through the toll
gase because he had no money bust through. I love
the theatrics of that quote, like no, come on, He's like.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
He's splintering like a film montage.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Totally, So he's like crashing at all these various relatives houses.
He didn't really get like a job or anything. Of course, yes,
and he care of he'd lie and he say he'd
say he was going to work, but he was just
going to like restaurant openings and press conferences because he
thought that celebrities would be there in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, they do have the auto industry, so there might
have been you.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Know, like I had coca. Oh yeah, And so he's
hoping he can like rub shoulders with him and then
he would come home and be like I sold two
thousand pairs of socks today and they're like, that's amazing.
You set a record. He's like, I totally did. So
he wants to he wants to rub shoulders and by
that I mean hobnob not massage. Yes, of course he
wanted more. Though, what's more, Elizabeth he Arizona. He went

(07:20):
to live with one of his grandma's in Arizona. And
it makes it sound like he has a stable of
old ladies retainer one of his grandma's.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
He's going through a platoon of old ladies. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
So there he is in Scottsdale, Okay, and it was
there that he met John Murphy. John Murphy drove a
nineteen eighty six corvette and he owned a silk pants company.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Oh so he's like a snowbird just cruising around Arizona. Like,
pick it up on old bird.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
He has my new fake job when introducing myself a
purveyor of fine silk pants.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
So I thought it was serious. He's aveyor.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
We're sent dead to write serious that he's in an
eighty six corvette and he owned a silk pants company.
I love Saren, I'm telling you the truth here. So
Murphy is like, I like the cut of your jip.
I'm going to offer you a job. You can be
a salesman. Tonkin's like, let's do this. This is what
Murphy said. Quote. He was the best phone guy I'd
ever seen, just incredibly persistent. I've sat in his office

(08:17):
in l a And he's the fastest dialer I've ever seen,
just incredible. He just won't take no for an answer.
Fingers fly finger like lightning speed at that. That's what
makes you the best phone guy. I can tell him,
we're so fast.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
You guys, and then I get to the hang up
call onto the next so quick.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
So in nineteen ninety, Murphy sells the pants company. But
don't worry. I don't want you to worry about it
when from him, uh tongan, don't worry about him. He's
cozying up to Gilbert or Tega, aka the King of
Indian Jewelry. So he owns Gilbert or Taga Galleries, which

(08:56):
is the largest retail of Native American arts and crafts
in the world. We're talking turquoise Bolo ties for days talking.
He gets a job, a sales job from Ortega. Remember
he's got like fingers of lightning totally. And then he
even moved into Ortega's house.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Why not sure?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
This is what Ortega's first wife, Linda Ortega said, quote, oh, well,
you know when Aaron moved into Gilbert's house. The way
Aaron got to Gilbert was he said his mother wanted
him to learn business before he could collect his trust money.
He said he thought Gilbert was the perfect person to
learn from. It appealed to Gilbert's ego. You know, you're
so great, I need to learn from you. It's the

(09:34):
same when he met me. You're such a great mother.
I wish I had a mother like you. You kind
of knew he was faking, but somehow he had this quality.
You felt sorry for him.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Oh he played that flip so.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Pretty soon the Ortega's they're over him. Okay, yeah, they've
had enough. This is what Gilbert said, quote he's very
very very very very aggressive. If that boy learned to
use his talents in the right way, he be a billionaire.
But man, he'll eat up and spitch you out. That's
a salesman talking, Gerry So talking. He eventually moved out,

(10:08):
but he owed them money, of course. And his next
gig he got as a marketing manager for Scottsdale Limousines.
And that's kind of like a good way to get
celebrity adjacent or prom adjacent.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Oh I guess like a Major League Baseball training you
can meet Mike Schmid that.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Way, very prom forward gig, and then like minor league
Baseball or major league.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Got a couple of ways.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
This is what the owner, Eddie McCoy had to say, quote,
he was just a kid, a kid I hired after
he worked for Gilbert. He did very well on sales,
brought in several accounts. I was always leary of him, though.
He always wanted me to get into things. One time,
I remember he asked me if I wanted to have
breakfast with Grant Woods, the state attorney general. I said, why,

(10:54):
why would I want to do that? In his heart
of hearts, you can see Aaron was doing it because
he thought somehow it could help me. He was obsessed
with celebrities, anyone who was famous or important or powerful,
just collecting him as interesting. So one day, nineteen ninety two,
talking he shows up for work in a station wagon
that he said he bought for three hundred bucks, crammed

(11:14):
full of his stuff, and McCoy, the owner said, quote,
the day he left Arizona, he came by here and
he said, I'm going to La to seek my fortune.
It was the bravest thing I've ever seen a young
man do. I mean, someone who was so troubled. It
seemed to me that he had just run out of
things to do. He needed to find his way. So
he said, I'm going to California. I may be an actor.

(11:34):
I don't know, but I'm going to be a success.
Then he drove off in that old station wagon.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
And that's the bravest thing that this man saw you do.
And he tried left Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
So he gets a call. McCoy gets a call a
few days later from the guy that sold the station
wagon to Tonkin looking for payment. Yeah, because he's looking for
who's going to pay me for the station wagon? He
said to call you, and you bought it. So why
did decided that it was time to head to Hollywood.
I mean it's a natural thing for someone who's celebrity obsessed.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
The impetus for him was that he had cozied up
to Angelica Houston's stepmother. Angelica Houston's stepmother, I guess she
lives in Arizona.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
So John Houston's wife, the Bob I.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Expose, Yeah at some point. So he did a brief
stint as her assistant, but it didn't work out. But
when he was assistant to Angelica Houston's stepmother, he he
rubbed shoulders and he meant the holy grail of aging
Hollywood madness needed an assistant.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Would you believe me if I would have said, well,
you asked me, why did he go to al Ja?
I was pulling him west.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
There was you could feel it.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
I'm like, Lady the wonderhorse over here.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
So 's an assistant. Tonkin needs a job. He also
needs a place to live, natural fit faster. And you
can see Kato Klin. He moved into the guest house
in Jajaabor's backyard.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
He's like, have you seen these fingers?

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Now he'd made it. So he's getting chummy with the
likes of Red Buttons and Milton Burrele. So assisting Jaja
was was already starting to hurt. I know, I know,
assisting Jajah is great, it's great work. But Tonkin's expenses
exceeded his.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Income naturally, and that's that's a risk.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
So when Jaja would go out of town, which is
you know, pretty accident, Tonkin started going outside and waving
down those tour buses that drive by with like the
tours of those stars homes, star maps so and then
he'd be like, wait, wait, wait, look, this is Jaja
Boor's house. I'll give you a tour, and he would
charge the people on the bus to get out and

(13:54):
walk through Jaja Bar's house.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
You know he's not watching them, So there's picket pocketing.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Stuffy Ja finds out because sees all of course Sar
he gets fired, but that also meant that he lost
his place to live.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
So a reporter, why would he do that?

Speaker 2 (14:10):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (14:11):
I need to make money?

Speaker 2 (14:13):
A reporter for the tabloid paper The Star.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
All of her neighbors focus on the bus stopped Josh
in front of your house.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Only employee's house, the gardeners lawn. So this reporter from
the tabloid paper The Star heard about what happened between
zz Gibor and Tucking and like and as an agent
of chaos after my own heart, the reporter reaches out

(14:45):
to Peter Paul, former manager of Fabio, and says, you've
got to hire this guy, Aaron Tonkin. He needs a gig.
He's an assistant. Like how chaotic? Is that so good? So?
Who is Peter Paul? Hold the merry?

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Why did that names come from?

Speaker 2 (15:02):
He's gonna start ringing a lot of bells. In the seventies,
he was an attorney in Miami and he represented Central
and South American clients. In seventy nine, he got convicted
of participating in the scheme to defraud the Cuban government.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
That's a smart movie.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
And then oh can I get a side order of
cocaine possession?

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
So he did his.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
Time, conscious figure, he does.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
His time, he moves to La. What did you do
in La? Well, he did prod. He did what any
of us who just got out of prison and needed
a new start would do. He started charity foundations, including
one for Jimmy Stewart, and so from there it was
like an easy and natural jump to celebrity management. Of course,
so his clients, the aforementioned Fabbia Mohammed Ali. He was

(15:48):
Mohammed Ali's the manager for a while. So Paul, he
listen from that.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
You're like, come on, is not getting better.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
It's not going well. Paul listened to that tabloid reporter
higher Aaron Tonkin, why not talk? Got a desk in
the hall offices at Wilshire Boulevard. Assignment One arranged for
celebrities to make an appearance at a wedding in New Mexico.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Tonkin's ultiple celebrities at the same wedding.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, Tonkin's like hello, Pacific Southwest.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Okay, Yeah, this is my region. I've got friends.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
He locked in Charlton Heston to give a Bible reading.
He got members of Kiss to provide the music, Like
what is this? What is this? Okay, so now he's
cooking with Gats like he has put this together. Paul
has connections Tonkin latches onto all of them. But it
wasn't just his employer who got him the ends. He

(16:42):
said he found a Rolodex in the trash and that
the Rolodex had belonged to Danny DeVito found found Rolodex
and he said that he copied all the cards and
then he contacted Big Danny to give it back, and
apparently DeVito was super grateful, Like if it happened that way,
this is a from.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I swear to god. I found
Danny Divita's Rotex in the trash. I called him up.
He wanted to beat.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, now we're friends. Sandra Taylor, Fabio's ex girlfriend, huh
said quote. He started throwing these smart little dinner parties
at the Beverly Hills restaurant Tattoo. The mix of people
was just amazing. Joe Maloof from the Sacramento Kings, Jermaine Jackson,
Milton Burle. He definitely had his regulars.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
The maloof the owner of the Kings, not even like
a player, the owner, the owner.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Can we talk a little about tattoo of Beverly Hills
in the nineties it was the spot big Mickey Rourke
hang out, probably Christopher roknkor as well. What a time
to be alive. So anyway, not a lot of information
available about the supper club slash restaurant nightclub, but anyway,
look up Getty images for it. It's amazing. Yes. So

(17:48):
in the fall of ninety three, Tonkin and Paul they
organized a joint book party slash charity fundraiser for Ivanna
Trump and Fabio of course, which is okay, wine, sure,
sign me up, Gavin maloof He sent a seventy five
hundred dollars check to Tonkin for the Muscular District Association,
and so the charity never saw a dime, no, of course,

(18:08):
and talking kept the check the official check to him.
The official with the association claim that when she requested
the check from Tonkin, he told her.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
GoF did he loved to say that to a charity?
Oh my god? The check oh my god.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, so debt started stacking up for Tonking, figuring that printers,
travel agencies, photographers, actors, charities like everything he had. Over
two dozen separate actions were filed against him in LA
Superior Court. Yeah, and most of them were just like
you know, he took money for those services rendered.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
He owes me eight thousand dollars for the car rental.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah. May of nineteen ninety four, a Russian immigrant Alex Khakov,
he said he paid Tonkin twenty grand to help him
get into the movie business, which is so weird. Kodakov
though he never even made it onto a movie set,
and like, for years he tried to get his money back,
no dice. His lawyer said, quote, ten years later, I'm

(19:12):
done chasing that guy, like they kept trying twenty grand.
West Hollywood attorney Nathan Gawler he had opinions his girlfriend
Irina Maliva, paid Tonkin forty five hundred dollars to help
her break into the movies.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
So he's just milking naive Russians totally.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
And all she got out of it was an invitation
or two to like a couple of Hollywood parties and
so yeah, so her attorney boyfriend goes after him. Gave
up trying to collect though, because it was happening. Nineteen
ninety five, Tonkin through his own thirtieth birthday party at Tattoo.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
All that before thirty.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, it was a who's who of young hot Hollywood Okay,
Leonard Nimoy, Milton Burrell, Casey Kayson, Alan Thicck, Bob Barker,
cast members from the soap opera The Young and the Restless,
and then friends and family from Arizona. Who was the
host for the evening's entertainment, Red Buttons, Red Button's son
Adam Buttons, which like, I don't know that. I just

(20:07):
read that over and over again, just for a fight.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Ohone Buttons.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Adam Buttons. But yes, he worked for Tonkin as a messenger.
He said, quote, Aaron was out of his mind. Every
time I went to his office, Aaron was screaming at
the top of his lungs at someone. He had a
nervous breakdown every five minutes. Tonkin's uncle Sills but goes
to the party at Tattoo says quote, we couldn't believe it.
I mean, here's a kid, he had nothing, could go nowhere,

(20:32):
had obvious mental problems and suddenly he's in Hollywood meeting
hundreds of these movie stars. What a country, What a country?

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Indeed we did.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Let's take a break. Can we come back. We'll find
out whether Oh courant stars were in Aaron Tonkin's orbit.

(21:08):
Welcome right, We're back to Hollywood cavalcade we're having here today.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Oh man, the stars are out tonight, Elizabeth, they really are.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
They really are. So here we have Aaron Tonkin and
his messenger boy Adam Buttons. So we have Aaron Tonkin
throwing charity benefits with very cloudy accounting practices. A good
friend of Aaron Tonkins was actor Jonathan Silverman, who grew
up with David Schwimmer. So it was through that connection

(21:37):
that Tonkin he gets tapped to organize the nineteen ninety
seven Friends Helping Friends gala that's centered on the Friends cast.
Of course, it sounds absolutely nuts. Tony Alverti, a longtime
event security guy of Tonkins, he said, quote, people don't
realize how he did those events, Like he'll meet a
guy named Roger who knows someone who knows one of

(21:58):
the guys in sync. Aaron tells everyone he has in
sync and people come because of that. It worked every time,
so of course he can't get in sync. So he says, oh,
they had to back out. But I've got Wayne Newton,
I got Natalie Cole, I love his like Switcheroose.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Shows. Who wants to hear Wayne Newton totally?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Zaren close your eye. Oh my god, Okay, I want
you to picture it. It's nineteen ninety seven and you
are Randolph Duke, the designer for Halston. You were hired
the year prior to revive the brand, and you are
exceeding expectations. You are creating minimalist, clean designs in the
iconic Halston style of relaxed urban discothech chic. You're fabulous,

(22:44):
from your five o'clock shadow to your buttery driving loafers.
Some months ago, you were introduced to a man, a small,
sloppy man. You met him through a friend of a
friend and in a whirl of Hollywood, we should do lunches,
and I have the perfect project for you. Somehow you
agreed to dress the of friends for some charity thing
coming up. Jennifer Aniston, Phoebe the dark haired one wearing Halston.

(23:08):
Be great for the brand and for you. Of course,
this Halston gig is great, but you have your eyes
on your own collection. In the meantime, you're gathering contacts
everywhere you go, amassing celebrity clientele that will hopefully one
day wear a Randolph Duke gown on the red carpet,
and they will but first friends with hard r. So
there you are backstage. You've arrived early and the place

(23:31):
is buzzing with excitement. You and your assistants are directed
to a dressing room where you set up glamorous looks
for the evening, strong red seguins, blush organza, spaghetti straps
for barrious. As your assistants get things rolling, you cruise
around and schmooze. You're sipping champagne and complimenting Tony Bennett
on his velvet jacket. When one of your assistants tries

(23:52):
to get your attention, you brush her off and you
keep working the room. You look over and you see
Jennifer Aniston. She's emerging from a dress room and she
looks stunning, but not Halston stunning, Calvin Klein stunning. That's
a Calvin Klein gown she's wearing, not one of your creations. Soon,
the dark haired one on Friends walks by. She's in

(24:14):
a lovely dress, but it's not one of yours, and
she's fully made up and ready to go. You scan
the room for the man who promised you the friends ladies,
and you spot him, Aaron Tonkin. You push by people
and rush to his side. Why aren't they wearing my gowns?
You hiss at him. What then, No, baby, I've got
someone even better. He holds your chin and turns your

(24:35):
face toward a dressing room. The door opens, outwalks a
beautiful woman in one of your tasteful gowns. She's wearing
those pink tinted sunglasses and her honeyed highlighted hair is huge.
Who the fuck is that, you asked, Tonkin. It's the
host of MTV's House of Style. That's not Cindy Crawford. No,
that's Daisy Fantaste, much better than Jennifer Aniston. In say,

(24:58):
twenty seven years, no one will remember who Jennifer Aniston is.
But Daisy Flentes, MTV's first Latina vej host of MTV
spring Break. She'll be a household name forever. You stared
daggers at Tonkin while the bustling backstage chugs along around you.
You walk toward the dressing room. Mister Duke, such a
pleasure to meet you, says Daisy Flentes. This gown, it's extraordinary.

(25:20):
When Aaron told me you selected me to wear it,
I was truly honored. You smile and shake her hand,
and then stride into the dressing room. Wrap up the dresses.
We're leaving. You turn to Miss Fwents. Have your people
drop the dress off tomorrow at my studio. You turn
and head for the exit. An assistant trailing behind you
slips a business card to Daisy Flentes. The address of
the studio is on there.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
She tells her, dah now and tell Dan Cortez not
to call me anymore.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Not Eric niece now. Vanity Fair sponsored the event. Vanity
Fair's executive director of creative Services at the time was
a woman, Gene Carlson. She said, quote, I don't think
we knew what we were getting. The event was kind
of messy. Everyone's screaming at me. At the end, they
ran out of gift bags, and it went on so long.

(26:06):
By the time Tony Bennett got up to sing, most
of the people had left. It was not the work
of a prot Let's check in with Adam Buttons. What
is Adam Buttons.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Yes, Adam Buttons, he said.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Quote, I will go on record saying I did deliver
cash to a number of celebrities on Friends Helping Friends.
I don't know how much was in those envelopes. I
didn't ask. I will say I didn't like the way
he did business. That's why I stopped working for him.
Say more Adam Buttons and like sorry, make red proud.
Buttons wouldn't name names. However, an anonymous source said that

(26:42):
some of the receivers of his cash included Paul Anka
Not It's just all the hot stars of the nineties,
Lance basovn sing Oh Chare, and Natalie Cole.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
It's an interesting mix of the hot stars of the
nineties and the fifties.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, it was mostly. By nineteen ninety eight, almost a
dozen charities were suing him in an attempt to get
the money back from all these events that just he
would get paid for that never even took place, not
even the big like messalage.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
He's just faking. Yeah, what do you think in your
quiet moments you're lying their bed. You've got twenty four
charities trying to see in your life isn't care. I've
made some mistakes.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
No, no, just got to keep moving. Shark in the water.
He filed for Chapter seven personal bankruptcy. Oh yeah, you
got a BK when you hit that. But later the
whole thing got dismissed because he didn't show up to
the meeting of creditors.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (27:35):
I don't know. And it was during this time that
Tonkin met Cynthia and Hal Gershman. They're an older couple
who happened to be multimillionaires. Agency No, they had shopping centers.
They had shopping centers, okay, And they also happened to
live in Beverly Hills. And they also happened to throw
amazing parties at their house. Of course, posy's up. They

(27:58):
check all the boxes. So according to a family advisor,
which like PS, you know you're wealthy when you have
a family advisor. When Hal was on his deathbed, he
urged Cynthia to let Tonkin look after her.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
And a friend said later that when Hal died something
changed in Cynthia. Quote Cindy decided she had been held down.
It was a chance to have some fun. I want
to have a good time. And be socially prominent and
be an actress. She started taking acting classes. She was
convinced she was going to be a movie star. Aaron's
genius was that he listened to what people wanted and

(28:32):
he gave it to them. Aaron was suddenly saying, I
can do this, I can do that.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Of course. Yeah, that's the classic con is like, hey,
what are you feeling?

Speaker 1 (28:41):
What?

Speaker 3 (28:42):
You know? Not confident about what you would love to
feel confident about.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
So Cynthia Gershman. She starts paying Tonkin in nineteen ninety eight.
One of the loans was almost two million dollars. Yeah,
and in return, he tells her, We're going to make
you a movie star. You're going to be known as
Cynthia Palmer.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Know you can make the movie.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
There's no spring Chicken whatever. You could make the movie.
Well she did. She got her Screen Actors Guild card,
and she had roles in like like a couple of
minor films, including the Burt Reynolds two thousand film, The
Last Producer. Oh wow, she's in that. So we're talking
like big stuff. Her steps on, Cynthia steps on Ronald.

(29:24):
He worried about how all this was going to affect
the financial situation of the family foundation.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
So his inheritance.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, so he starts reorganized and he splits it off.
He's like, okay, here's the family stuff and then here's yours.
Just go nuts exactly, and so with control over her
part of the dough, then she just ramps up these
charity donations, but many of them were selected by Tonkin,
not her. And then she also underwrote his benefits and
that was like he did Gallas honoring Gladys Knight and

(29:54):
Milton Burle shows up all the time. Oh yeah, total,
plus the Pips and the Pips underwrite them of course.
So pretty soon, like Tonkin, he could get some of
the biggest names in show business and politics for charities
and political fundraising, get people come out. Natalie Cole introduced
him to Denise Rich, ex wife of fugitive financier Mark Rich. Yes, right, yeah,

(30:19):
Mark Rich, international commodities trader and businessman. In eighty three,
he gets indicted on federal charges of tax evasion, wire fraud,
racketeering and you know the little matter of making oil
deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
I didn't read all the fine print.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, so he's looking down the barrel of like three
hundred years in prison, no exaggeration, and he fled to
Switzerland never came back to the States. He left behind
his Democratic megadoner wife, Denise Rich. And you know, so
it only makes sense then that around nineteen ninety nine,
two thousand, so if Tonkin gets introduced to Denise Rich,
Denise continues the celebrity chain by introducing Tonkin to then

(30:57):
President Bill Clinton. Keep in mind that on Bill Clinton's
last day in office January twentieth, two thousand and one,
he pardoned Mark Yes famous exactly like down to the wire.
So anyway, Clinton's wife Hillary, I don't know if you've
heard of her. Hillary, she was gearing up to run
for US Senate.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Huh yeah, and how did her future go?

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Tonkin tells Bill, I got an idea. Okay, let's have
a bunch of Hollywood gallas to benefit Hillary's senatorial campaign
and New York. Yeah, the New York campaign. But we'll
do this in Hollywood. Gershman said that she would underwrite
some of the expenses, but Tonkin wanted more money, so
he reached out to his old friend and employer, Peter Paul.

(31:40):
Remember Peter Paul Byammy Koch Lawyer in two thousand. This
is this is, this is where we're into total fever
dream Terri.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
I just always keep picturing Jake Paul's father. I know
he's not, but I'm like, that feels like it's Jake Paul,
Peter Paul.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
On Peter Paul Mary. In two thousand, Paul started a
multimedia company built around stan Lee God stan Lee Wow,
creator of Marvel comics. Paul was working with Lee on
the internet based superhero creation, production and marketing studio stan
Lee Media. Okay, And so the venture was only around

(32:14):
for like two years. It was the victim of the
first dot com shutdown. So it starts in ninety eight,
two thousand. The things are looking both great and ominous
for tech, and so Tonkin and Paul they hope that
working with the Clintons would increase stan Lee's profile and
that they could get Clinton to join the board. Like,

(32:35):
what is happening right now? What even is this? Tonkin?
So he's like all right, he The story he tells
is that the Gala got set into motion after he
allegedly shared a limo ride with Clinton one summer evening
in June. You know, who else was in the limo,
Red Buttons Choka con.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
Yes, I could never guess. I just knew I would never.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
There's something about me that not a lot of people
know is that every night I have in my dreams,
there's almost always a celebrity cameo, and it's usually like.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
A d It's always.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
And it feels like one long dream that I'm in.
So Shaka Cohn's in the limo with Aaron Tonkin and
Bill Clinton evening, and Tonkin is like, because Tonkin's going
with like to escort Chaka Khan to an event. And
Tonkin has this conversation with Bill and it ends up

(33:34):
with Bill Clinton telling Aaron Tonkin to go forward with
all the galla plans. Let's do it. Let's have a gala.
So ahead, Peter Paul and Tonkin. That's like an also
Ran full trio. They worked with Hillary Clinton's people to
prepare the August twelfth. It's called quote the Hollywood Gallus
Salute to President William Jefferson Clinton. It's a fundraiser at

(33:56):
the Brentwood estate of businessman Ken roberts So. It was
hosted by Stanley Peter Paul and impending recall target California
Governor Gray Davis. Wow, there were tributes to the Clintons
from Michael Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Jack Lemon, John Traval to
Gregory Peckan many more.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
This is fun.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
And then Stevie Wonders Share, Melissa Ethridge, Natalie Cole, Diana Ross,
Paul Anka popping his head up again, Tony Braxton, Patty LaBelle,
Brian McKnight, and Sugar Ray performed. Can you believe they
got Sugar Ray?

Speaker 3 (34:30):
I cannot believe he was able to get his people
on the y And.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Can you believe also that Tonkin booked someone born after
Hawaii became a state. It's amazing to me. So that
wasn't the only Clinton honor that Tonkin had up asleep. Yeah,
he also put together an event called a Family Celebration
two thousand and one on April first, two thousand and
one at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Okay.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
So, Brian Burrow, this is like, right when the Clintons
are out of office, he's just trying to basically take
his victory lap. He's raising money for his library, and
she's using that as a time to basically also get
donations for her senatorial campaign, So they need to be
in the public. Yeah, so they'll take anything.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, Okay, and they loved Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah. I'm just trying trying to get why he's so
keen to have.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Her all these Yeah. So this is what it was.
In Vanity Fair, Brian Burrow wrote a piece quote the
stars poured in. Sylvester Stallone was there in a tuxedo,
chatting with his fellow honorees Betty and Gerald Ford. The
evening's co chairman, Michelle Pfeiffer and her husband Ally mcbeil.
Producer David E. Kelly sat at Clinton's table with members

(35:35):
of the McBeal cast. Nearby, MTV's Carson Dally M. Seed
and Elizabeth Taylor and Whoopee Goldberg made presentations thanking Clinton
for his years in office, and then came the music
songs from Dwight Yoko Man Ray Charles. Toward the evening's end,
Clinton put on a pair of ray bands, grabbed a saxophone,
and jammed for an uproar is five minutes with BB King,

(35:58):
who then performed a bluesy let the Times roll. The
evening ended precisely at ten point fifty with an energetic
set by.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Insane Sandy Laupper close.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
So the main beneficiaries were supposed to be charities selected
by Kelly and the cast of Ally McBeal, And for
the uninitiated, Ally McBeal was a Mark E. Kelly joint
about a lawyer played by Calista Flockhart. So he gave
us Calista Flockhart, which means he probably said in motion
her later romance with and marriage to Harrison Ford totally,
which I feel like gave us Harrison Ford still peering.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
And it did definitely. And also the people who like
when he went and saved their lives, like but he's playing,
or like people with the golfers he scared in Santamonic
when he crashed his.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Because of Davidy Kelly.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
All that's because of this, yeah, is right back.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Tonk can promised Kelly and his charities one hundred percent
of whatever money was raised, but then Tonkin also struck
a deal with in Syncs agents in exchange for their performance,
Tonkin agreed that charities selected by the band would get
fifty percent of the money raised, So one hundred and
fifty percent of the gate is now spoken for. One
of kelly producers found out about this a day before
the event, and like Tonkin smooths it out, says, you

(37:04):
know what, Cynthia Gershman's going to cover any funding gaps.
So to bank roll the dinner, Tonkin got forty grand
from Gershman, seventy five grand from la businessman Robert Lorsch,
and another one hundred and fifty thousand from a foundation
controlled by Loreen Arbus, daughter of one time ABC Television
president Leonard Goldenson. The California Attorney General would later allege

(37:25):
that much of the money was diverted by Tonkin to
pay for expenses unrelated to the event. President Ford got
his beak wet on it. What His agents at William
Morris demanded four hundred thousand dollars for his appearance at
the gala, what two hundred thousand to be donated to
the Betty Ford centerlus another two hundred thousand for President

(37:46):
Ford himself. This is a shakedown. Most people involved with
the gala did not know that Ford was being paid
to be honored there.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Yes, usually don't get paid.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
No. And then, according to Sandra Fert and Gabriel the
a Washington event planner that Tonkin hired to supervise the
evening when told like Ford got paid. Quote, he was
President Ford. That explains so much. I mean why he
went to that party the night before and the breakfast.
Oh that stuns me. That's so ghosh, one of my

(38:17):
favorite insulting descriptors. Ghosh. I love her. So, a spokesman
for the Fords confirms, yeah, he got paid, but said
that Tonkin only gave one hundred and fifty thousand to
the Betty Ford Clinic, not two hundred. Let's get his
direct number. So Paul, Peter Paul said he wrote hundreds
of checks to Tonkin, like two million dollars worth. Wait
what Yeah? That they were to cover things like table

(38:38):
linens and limos. And then the payments were later in
the center of like Paul's allegations about the Clinton's fundraising missteps.
But we'll get to that. So, coming on the eve
of the Democratic National Convention, the event gets all this
press coverage and Bill and Hillary they thanked Paul and
Tonkin in person. Clinton described mister Tonkin in a videotape
message as quote my good friend and in handwritten notes.

(39:02):
Several days later, though the Washington Post they put out
a story spilling it about Peter Paul's earlier cocaine and
fraud convictions. The Clintons immediately distanced themselves. They returned the
two thousand dollars in cash that Peter Paul had given
Hillary's campaign. Paul's attorneys said that Paul asked Tonkin to
approach the president about securing a pardon for his past crimes,

(39:23):
but Tonkin, whether he did or not, isn't known.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Federal prosecutors later said that Paul participated in a scheme
to manipulate stan Lee Media's stock price. He fled. Peter
Paul fled to Brazil in December of two thousand, four
months after the benefit federal investigators closing in. And it
was during this time that Tonkin met one of Paul's
oldest friends, a man named Stanley Myyatt. Let's take a break.

(39:50):
When we come back, we'll learn about this. Stanley Mayott, Hello, Hi,

(40:15):
how are you listen? Before I went to DJ that
set of amazing ads, like all the hits, they played the.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
Hits he mixed nice on the ones and two.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
I was telling you about how Peter Paul hold the
Mary had taken off for Brazil to avoid federal charges
over manipulating this stock price of Stanley Media fever dream
I told you and Aaron Tonkin our focus today. He'd
cozied up to a friend of Peter Paul's, a guy
named Stanley.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Myatt, Yes, don't know that name.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Myatt was known as mister Covert Operations because he was
an alleged CIA assassin. He was in with the Italian
and Russian mobs. Wow, he was a Wall Street scam artist.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Everywhere he is.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
He was a loan shark, FBI and dea informant.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
Was he also a race car driver?

Speaker 2 (41:00):
This is Aaron fever Dreams what I'm trying to say.
So the Philadelphia Mob boss, Ralph Natali, he said, quote
Mayat was an insurance scam man. He was a Wall
Street scam man. He bootlegged cigarettes years ago, made a
huge fortune. He got into the marijuana business and went
away for a couple of years. He came back and
he went down to live in Florida and he made

(41:21):
a big connection with Russian mob that came up through
Florida and him himself. He came to see me at
the Garden State Racetrack a couple times. Wanted to make
a connection with us. The Philadelphia Mob with the Russian mob.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
And they have to do that at a race check. Yeah,
legit not to know that those meetings that you never
know where they're going to take place.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
True, And according to Peter Paul, Mayatt invested in dozens
of companies. A lot of them were public at the
request of FBI handlers because the Feds wanted to peek
under the hood, and then Mayatt got him in there,
and according to Paul, the FBI looked the other way
while Mayatt quote looted the company. And how does Paul
know this, he said, because he also worked for the

(42:00):
FBI in the early eighties. And I also it was
the early eighties. We were all working for the f
It was a different time. He said that Mayatt was
his supervisor and that they worked together off and on
ever since. And in fact, he said that two of
them investigated mafia influenced in Hollywood during the nineties, and
by investigated, I think he means participated in This is

(42:21):
my guess. So, when being interviewed about working with Tonkin,
Miyatt said, quote, I don't believe I did anything, sinister.
I guess you'll get some things right and something's wrong.
It just doesn't make any sense for me to answer
any questions.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
It really does.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
It really doesn't make any sense. Mayatt had a Philadelphia
based hip hop music company.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
I'm gonna need you to say that again.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
A Philadelphia based hip hop music company called Antra Records,
best known for marketing the rapper Corrupt.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Oh wow, oh yes, I know.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah. Two thousand and one, he closed up shop and
he Mayatt met with Tonkin because he wanted to break
into the LA music scene. He had a new LA
company he called OFC Incorporated Organized Crime Family. Oh yeah,
so auditors they later go in search of, like the
missing money from a family celebration two thousand and one,
the bogus ally mcbeil scala. They found out that hundreds

(43:14):
of thousands of dollars passed through accounts controlled by Myatt,
who identified himself as Tonkin's money manager. Oh yeah, it's
always inconvenient.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Yeah, it's like being a family advisor cover so many.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Things, so many things. According to Peter Paul, Myyatt quote
controlled Tonkin and used him to infiltrate the music and
entertainment communities for the FBI.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
Huh, so curious or and curious.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Mayat was also He was a source of funds for
a family celebration two thousand and one, providing more than
one hundred thousand dollars in cash, much of which went
to Sylvester Stallone and Ray Charles demanded before they would appear, they.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Did that, James Brown, pay me or I'm not showing up.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, Sandra Ferton in cash, Yeah, Sandra Ferton. Gabriel, that
event producer. She said she saw Tonkin pull cash out
of the pocket of his g and he gave twenty
grand to Ray Charles. She said, quote, I was floored,
but that was just how Aaron did things.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Also, if you, I mean Ray Charles, if you grew
up on the Chitlin circuit, you're going to be paid
for your favors. Hit those.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Stallone's attorney said. Stallone like the thirty grand that he got.
He had kind of earmarked it to pay for medical
expenses of the relative of one of his housekeepers. Oh okay, sure, okay.
And then the remaining sixty g's was supposed to be
covering the trips that Tonkin promised two members of David E.
Kelly's production staff. So, according to an anonymous source, I

(44:35):
love those These are just one example of how celebrities
took incredible advantage of Aaron. I mean, these were charitable
events and everyone from Gerald Ford to Sylvester Stallone had
their hands out taking money from charity.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Well, it does give you a sense of what their
life is the rest of the time when they're not
around him.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, yeah, He's not the only one.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
They're doing this too, and when.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
It's not even supposed to be for charity, really knives out.
So Tonkin he gets he's facing federal charges of fraud,
one for mail fraud and the other for wire fraud.
According to the indictment, in September of two thousand, Tonkin
got five hundred and fifty thousand dollars for an event
to honor Diana Ross and he promised three charities that
they would receive all the proceeds. But the event never

(45:18):
even took place, and so Tonkin took a plea deal,
and on December ninth, two thousand and three, he's thirty
eight years old, he pleads guilty to the two federal charges.
During a thirty five minute appearance before Judge Dale Fisher
in federal court. He admitted that he misrepresented himself in
his purposes when he was like getting all these donors.
When the judge asked like, well, what was your intent,

(45:41):
he just flatly replied, to defraud. I'm just going to
say it.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
I'm just going to lay it out there.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
And then Tonkin also caught state charges. He was accused
of defrauding a bunch of like potential beneficiaries, including the
Betty Ford Center, of at least one point five million.
And for those charges, he was up against like maybe
ten years in prison as well as half a million
dollars fine, and then on top of that restitution for
the victims. Isn't that right he's got back? Oh yeah,

(46:08):
So all these charities, and of course Tonkin wrote a book, is.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Now a qualified author? He's got charges against you.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Two thousand and four, his book King of Cons came out,
and he wrote that he would use cash, luxury vacations, jewelry,
political donations to lure celebrities to his fundraisers and then
that would then raise his profile. Quote, my bill at
Cardier was a million dollars. I was handing out Hawaii
trips like someone would hand out their business cards to
these celebrities and their hangars on. I call it taking

(46:40):
from the needy to feed the greedy.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Wow, what he just said it?

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Uh huh. So in order to get Arnold Schwarzenegger at
a charity event in September of two thousand and two,
and this is before he was governor, cause he said
that Tonkin said he first had to make a contribution
to a campaign that Arnold had for a state ballot
proposition to promote after school sports programs, which I vaguely remember,

(47:05):
and that's when we all kind of knew this guy
is going to do it. State election records confirmed that
Tonkin gave a contribution of sixty five hundred dollars. What, Yeah,
that's huge. An assistant US attorney who specializes in major
fraud cases, Joseph Zwicker, he said in court that Tonkin

(47:25):
gave quote false promises to potential underwriters and that they
are the charities that they represented would benefit you know
that he's all this fake things, sometimes as much as
four hundred thousand dollars. And then Zwicker said that Tonkin
and his associates who weren't identified, would then divert some
er all the money to himselves, like basically laying out
what we've just seen. Zicker would not identify Tonkin's associates,

(47:49):
but he did say that they were being investigated. And
so Tonkin, he starts getting these email threats and two
of them were supposedly sent by these associates under investigation.
The government looks into it, they're like, you faked these,
You sent these to yourself. And so as a result,
Tonkin was no longer seen as important to the government's investigation,

(48:10):
and that means he's on his own. So he's insisting
that the threats were real, but the Feds are over him.
His deal evaporates. The prosecutors would not reduce his sentence,
and they were also really pissed off about the book deal.
Oh course, this is what Zwicker said, quote, if he
sells his story for money, that would have an impact
on his credibility with a jury. So like, we're not
gonna you can't be like state's evidence. Alan Rubin, Tonkin's attorney,

(48:35):
said Tonkin kept just quote a very small amount of
the money raised from all the fundraising events, and he
said that tonkins take amounted to quote less than five percent,
though he didn't do the math and say with the
original number of like, what's five percent.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
One million dollars is a very small amount compared to
one billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
It's all relative. George Byrd, another lawyer of Tonkins. He
issued a statement saying that it was the politicians and
the celebrity who quote benefited from Aaron's work. Unfortunately, the
charities did not receive the funds that rightfully should have
gone to them due to the greed of celebrities themselves,
which you know, he's not wrong. So Ruben said, Tonkin
didn't waste the money do flashy things. At the time

(49:15):
this all went down, Tonkin lived in a nine hundred
dollars a month apartment. Really, yeah, and I did not expect.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
But then he also hired three thousand dollars a night escorts.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Wait what yeah, three thousand dollars a night, yeah, escorts. Yeah,
but three thousand dollars a night.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah, what they're doing.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
That's like a circ of sleat stuff. I mean, that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
So Ruben described Tonkin, who would not speak to reporters,
is quote extremely remorseful about his conduct in the case.
And then he said he played guilty because quote it
was important for him to admit and accept responsibility. Aaron
did something wrong, but he came in and faced the
music and accepted his punishment. There were a lot more
people involved in this than Aaron Tonkin. We just hope

(49:58):
the government does not leave him as the old We're
hopeful that things can work out in the future and
then other people who've been involved criminally will get their punishment.
August twenty fourth, two thousand and four, Yes, talking, he
gets sentenced to sixty three months in federal prison. Okay
for you know, all the scams with the charities. He
had to pay three point eight million in restitution.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Ooh does he even have any close to them? Think?

Speaker 2 (50:21):
So he apologized in court and he said that he
was excited for his life to quote move forward into
a new chapter. September twenty second, two thousand and four,
he starts serving his sentence federal facility in Kentucky. You
know low scarities got.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Five and a quarter years ago. I mean that's it's
going to be out in a couple.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Oh no, he was two thousand and four is when
he went in, and he had for five years, so
he was out twenty ten. He's out, and the LA
Times runs this huge interview with him and they proclaim
him reformed. And in search of redemption, and he was
apparently trying to help his victims get their money back.
He's like, let's work together to get the restitution because
I don't have it, but I know who does. Vegas

(51:00):
legend Wayne Newton is quoted in the article quote, I
am on that short list of people who want to
see him put his life back in order. I would
work with him anytime, anywhere.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Why Wayne, Why.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
I don't know. But then on the other hand, we
have Martin Gubb, a businessman who gave Tonkin cash for
a Celine Dion fundraiser that never happened.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
From the Gub report.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Yeah, quote, I hope he doesn't get his life back.
What he did is beyond words.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
So yes, we're gonna have both. It's unclear what became
of Tonkin, Like, you know, he he doesn't have like
a social media presence that I could finance, like an
old Twitter account. He hasn't touched in ages. Part of
his probation was that he was barred from fundraising or
handling money for nonprofits. Oh but he could act as
a consultant.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Oh well come on, come on, yeah, Oh he said
he doesn't get to touch the money. Yeah, that's essentially
what you did.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
In twenty ten, he was also pitching a line of
dietary supplements, of course, and then a year later, twenty eleven,
he was involved in some sort of thing suing the
insurance company for the old socialite Ladies Life insurancea Cynthia, No,
the one he was Cynthia. Okay, yeah, so that I'm

(52:13):
throwing in new celebrities exactly. I know, well she I'm surprised.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
She left her money to like a cat or or something,
a dog.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
I think it's amazing horrible. So anyway, Yeah, so he
was trying to get that out. He's just kind of
dropped off. You can't find them interesting. But yeah, wherever
he is, I hope he's doing well and not scamming folks.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
I hope he's reformed somewhat. It feels better about himself.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
What's your takeaway, Zaron in the ridiculous type of takeaway?

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Well, you know, thanks for asking Elizabeth the When I
was down in Hollywood, I learned really quickly that I
had an advantage of her a lot of people, which
is that I don't give a flying a fig about
a celebrity. All I see is a person with a
big head, and I oh, literally a physically big head.
They often the TV actors in particular, have oversized that

(52:55):
it's one of their secrets. But I could be in
a room with no matter who and I was like,
I don't care. I mean, they're just a person. But
most people are like this cat in one way or another.
They either want to leverage the celebrity. They want to
be made to feel important, to feel good. They want
to reject the celebrity like I don't care about them,
and personally I would either way. They're just a person
to me. I didn't feel negative or positive about that,

(53:17):
And so the people who wanted to pose me like, oh,
I don't want to be around them were just as
pretentious as that people who wanted to be around them. Right,
everybody had to position themselves relative to the celebrity. Because
of that, all these celebrities always talk to me in
social functions because I was the only one not trying
to talk to them or trying to ignore them. I
was just like, Gid, you hand me that napkin, and
they'd be like, well, so then we start talking. So
this guy is interesting to me in the sense that

(53:38):
he reminds me of the benefit of not giving a
care about a celebrity. You're free, look teenie and free.
What's yours? Elizabeth?

Speaker 2 (53:47):
What's your ridiculous ex ass?

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Try it out.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Sometimes I think it's just backs up my suspicion of
a lot of charities. Anytime you see like some big
fundraiser gala, I worry about the amount of money that
went in to put that kind of thing on. And
I always look at look for like more immediate, ground
level charities where you can see that the money goes
right to action and not to And I'm just disgusted

(54:11):
at these people asking for such amount of money, like
to perform at a charity event like Ford.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
I did not see the shakedown. These are charities are
like zoos. I don't think we really need them anymore.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
I really don't think so, Hey, David, can I have
a talk back? I've been good?

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Oh my god, I let get.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
Hey Elizabeth, Hey, zeron, do you want to know what's
ridiculous coming off of anesthesia and demanding to speak with
you guys? I just head back surgery, and when I
came off the anastesia, I just kept saying all these
different things about different episodes from Ridiculous Crime and how

(55:05):
much I needed to see Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett
because I needed to see them. Love you guys.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
I hope she's okay. I hope you're okay. Yeah, And
I'm also I really apologize that we're so deep subconscious
like that. That must be uncomfortable for you, but I am.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
I'm that's nice.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
That's all I have for today. You can find us
online at ridiculous Crime dot com and you can find
us all over the internet. Just keep looking. That's all. No, Okay, fine,
We're at Ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram, Ridiculous Crime
at gmail dot com. Uh, talk back as you heard
you know, you come out of surgery, you leave us
a talkback first thing, reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted

(55:59):
by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and edited by
Red Buttons right hand man Dave Cousten. Research is by
Marissa Brown, who demands four hundred thousand dollars per appearance
and it's worth every dime and impossible to dupe socialite
Andrea song Sharpenedear. The theme song is by house band
for All Mary Ann Williamson. Fundraising Gallas, Thomas Lee, and
Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred.

(56:23):
Executive producers are Ali mcfel's show runner Ben Bolan and
personal assistant to mister Wayne Newton Noel Brown. We Die
QUI Say It One More Time.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Cui Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more
podcasts from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.