March 7, 2025 • 37 mins
This week we talk about Weathervane Productions, a company backed by affluent men with ties to Wells Fargo, which gave them the appearance of reliability. They funded multiple box office participation trophies, but the funding deal they were peddling seemed too good to be true.
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(00:02):
Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff has been arrested and
charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Congress wants to know what caused the Enron meltdown, and
while the collective rage currently is focused on low
comp. Tyco CEO Dennis Koslowski was
convicted of looting hundreds ofmillions of dollars.
This is one of the biggest fraudcases ever.
(00:23):
Their president's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.
Find out more on this week's episode of White Collars, Red
Hands. Lights, camera, action.
In 2020, four 569 films were released in the US and Canada.
In India, over 1000 films were released in 2023.
(00:46):
It's easy to say that people love movies, unless you're
Amish, and they'd probably love them too if they were allowed to
watch them. However, not all films can be
made by big fancy studios. Some of them have to be funded
independently, which is where Weathervane Production stepped
in. Weathervane Productions was a
(01:06):
godsend to the indie film industry.
Their promise of matching funding for films was a glimmer
of hope to film makers who were trying to pave their way in
Hollywood. That is, until the lights went
dim. Find out what happened on this
week's episode of White Collars,Red Hands. 569 films and one of
(01:28):
them had to be fucking Amelia Perez.
Did you watch it? Here we are.
No, I I'm I'm set to watch it with a friend of mine, but I've
seen clips and it's just there'sno way that watching it's gonna
change my mind. Like like you can definitely
jump to some conclusions sometimes, but like seeing a
couple of the songs from but I'mlike, this is terrible.
(01:50):
I don't have an opinion on it. It won two Oscars.
I know. And also just everything but oh,
and then that it was so sad thatLady trying to start the sing
along at the Oscars of the song.And I'm like, no one's watched
this dude. No one's going to sing.
No one is going to sing this song with you.
She tried. She tried to get it started.
(02:11):
And we're going to try to get you interested in this episode.
Welcome back to another episode of White Collars, Red Hands.
Emilia. Oh so sad.
My name is Kushat. And I'm Nina and I did not watch
Emilia Perez and I don't even know what it's about.
Yeah, I'm not going to get into the lore.
Yeah, don't get into the lore. Go online for that, yeah.
(02:34):
And we're not Amelia Perez podcast.
Thank God. Oh my gosh.
We're not Oscar commentary. Also thank God.
I I think that would actually bevery boring.
Most Oscar films are not super. What's the word I want to use in
rapturing? Yeah, entertaining because
they're. Not yeah.
(02:55):
Wonder if you've watched some ofthe movies we're going to talk
about today. The where it all starts in the
beginning, the back story, like every good movie has 1 Jason Van
Eamon. He grew up in Oklahoma and he
was born to a middle class family who did well for
themselves. Fan Eamon was a very good
(03:16):
student and athlete and it seemed like he was gonna do
great in life and he was really smart.
He was actually accepted into the Air Force Academy.
But after a year in school, he realized that the sky actually
was the limit for him and he spread his wings into a new
direction. He wanted to be an actor.
(03:37):
Dang, the Air Force. You actually have to get any
kind of score on the Asvaps to get in there.
I don't even know what the Asvaps are.
Asvab. See I.
Don't know, it's the test to getin the military and if you do
poorly they just put you in likethe army infantry.
Van Eamon, He wanted to be an actor and he had the charm.
He had the looks and there was no reason why he couldn't be the
(03:58):
next George Clooney. He did have some success as an
actor in Hollywood. He did land a role in a film
called Regarding Billy. It was a coming out story
between an Air Force pilot and his best friend.
They did ask and they did tell in that movie.
Oh. My God, that was that.
What a great poster tagline. It wasn't.
(04:19):
I just came up with that right now.
I'm so proud of myself. He.
Asked, he told. He asked, he told regarding
Billy. A coming out story or a coming
in and out story? Oh.
What's the What's the Tom Cruisemovie?
Vanilla Sky. No.
Mission Impossible. The What about flying Nina?
(04:41):
No Top Gun. Yeah, coming to theaters, Coming
to a theater near you. Top Gun 2 but gay?
But gay? I would love a gay version of
Top Gun. I think it's just Top Gun.
I'm trying to think about top and bottom.
They have that shirtless volleyball scene.
I think it's just Top Gun. I don't.
I watched that movie one time. I really don't remember.
(05:02):
I've never seen it, but I know. But show business is hard, and
Van Eeman decided to leave Hollywood.
Like so many other wannabe actors before him.
He went back to Oklahoma to get married and start a family.
However, he never let that Hollywood dream die.
He decided he wanted to be on the production side of things
and started his very own production company, Weathervane
(05:25):
Productions. And the beautiful the beautiful
film Mecca of. Oklahoma.
All right. Listen, everywhere needs and
there is. There's a there's an industry
for everywhere. What was he looking to film
Wrangler commercials? Yes, that's what that's what
he's going to get in. Oklahoma In 2011, Van Eamon met
(05:47):
an investor in Miami named Ben Mcconley.
A mutual friend who worked with both Van Eamon and Mcconley
introduced them to each other. Mcconley is the owner of Forest
Capital Partners and claims to have an impressive portfolio of
wealth that runs through his family's office.
Mcconley also had links to WellsFargo and seemed to have it all
(06:08):
together. So.
And it was very clear that Mcconley was doing well for
himself and had money. He flew on private jets, had
fancy sports cars, wore nice suits, flashy watches.
He had a hot IG model girlfriend.
I mean, just like everything that Van Eamon wanted.
You mean Van Eamon wanted more than his the wife and kids?
(06:30):
He already did. You said he wanted to start a
family. Does he already have a wife and
kids or is he just? Not totally clear, yeah, but I
think it was more the material goods that he was after.
Fair enough. Or maybe his wife wasn't that
hot, you know? I don't know, I'm looking for an
upgrade man. Hey can I trade this old model
in and swap? This out for the new one.
(06:51):
The old ball and chain over here.
The two decide to partner up alongside Mcconnelly's banking
assistant Benjamin Raphael. So Van Eamon, using his
Hollywood connections, he claimed to be able to finance
film projects up to 50% with hisbusiness partner.
And Mcconnelly would be the one to give them the money.
(07:11):
So he's like, you have a, you have a film you're trying to
produce, you have a portion of the money.
We will match it up to 50%. And then it was actually
Mcconley. Allegedly it was Mcconley's
money that was going to be the one matching this.
Because of all of his assets andinvestments, he was going to be
able to put up this money. He's the money guy.
(07:34):
He's the money guy. He's a he's a producer.
The production company did produce some St. to streaming
faith-based projects initially which are just shitty Christian
films. I grew up on these as a child
and all those these weren't super successful.
They were producing credits thenVan Eamon was earning, building
him his resume. As they continued making films,
(07:56):
their IMDb pages began to speak for themselves.
Eventually they began to producehigher quality films that
starred a list celebrities, including some of the films
being Jane Got a Gun starring Natalie Portman, The Sound
starring Rose McGowan and Christopher Lloyd, and The Tale
which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but was bought by
(08:18):
HBO. So Needless to say, the their
lineup of films was becoming increasingly more impressive.
Soon, producers from all over the world began contacting
Weather Vane Productions to helpthem finance their films.
Across the pond, a passion project for Saul Papadopoulos
and Terence Davis, who is a veryesteemed filmmaker, makes its
(08:43):
way to Weather Vane Productions.The film is A Quiet Passion, a
story based on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson.
It was going to star Cynthia Nixon, who was the actress who
played Miranda in Sex and the City as Emily Dickinson.
Is Emily Dickinson the one that stuck her head in the oven?
I don't know about that. That was a poet.
(09:05):
Hey, that was Sylvia Plath. That sounds more like Sylvia
Plath. She's the one that was was real,
real sad. Yeah, I think so.
Emily Dickinson was also a sad girl, but she was like in love
with her pastor who was married.Classic.
Classic. We read summer verse poetry in
high school. I don't know a whole lot about
(09:26):
her. I do kind of want to watch this
movie though after learning about this story.
Oh. They actually made it.
Yes, it. Well, I just figured out, yeah.
Papadopoulos was in charge of financing the film, and while
looking for potential investors,he stumbled upon Weathervane
Productions and they and he knewthat they could help him.
However, Papadopoulos immediately realizes that Van
(09:50):
Eamon's finance structure is odd.
Weathervane Productions would match the investment.
Like I said earlier, the way VanEamon told him that it worked,
the investment would be 5050. They match your contribution,
and then there's the money for your film.
But. You have to give them the half
first and then they give you back.
(10:11):
The full amount. So basically what was going to
happen was you would give them. Yeah, so you would give them.
Yeah. So let's say my budget for my
film is $20,000 and I obviously don't have $20,000.
So I would give them 10 and thenthey would put it into a
production account and match theother $10,000.
(10:33):
So now my account has $20,000. So you did have to give them the
money, and this is not normally how this works.
And Papadopoulos knew that because he had been in the film
industry for a long time and he knew how things typically went.
They were able to do this matching because, like I said
(10:55):
earlier, Mcconnelly had a lot ofassets and he was able to invest
all this money because of his other businesses and his other
assets. By doing this by the budget
matching or the funding matching, Weathervane would then
be entitled to 50% of the film'sprofits and so they would only
make money if the film made money.
(11:17):
Obviously the film makers were weary of this deal because, like
I said, no one else is really doing this.
But Weathervane's track record was really solid and films had
been made with them and they hada good reputation.
This was happening. A Quiet Passion was I think it
(11:37):
came out in 2016 and like Jane Got a Gun that came out in 2015,
the one with Natalie Portman. So like, they're already doing
bigger budget films at this point.
So that's kind of why Papadopoulos and Davis kind of
went ahead and went with them. Yeah, plus, I mean, they have
this track record of such hits such as, you know, coming inside
(12:02):
Jesus, you know, from their old streaming days or, or.
Worthy is the lamb. The passionate love of God fills
you, you know, just like, just like great stuff, you know, Of
course they can be trusted. Daddy God.
Would a Would a Christian ever take your money?
Well, they never just to just. To take it.
(12:23):
No, never. Never.
Never. Never.
Never. Never.
Never. But if you're not familiar with
the film industry, there are pretty much two different types
of films. You've got studio films and then
independent films, studio films.There's actually at least one
more. All right, fine.
Adult. When you can argue could also be
(12:45):
a studio or an independent film.I meant to say there's a lot of
people, a lot of people moving to independent nowadays.
Yeah, absolutely, bunch. Of people from from college.
Yeah, but I've gone into the. Theater it's.
Actually crazy how many film makers yeah I've met in my life.
I have a lot of friends that areindependent filming.
(13:06):
Yes, me too. An accountant somehow.
Homemade, back to studio films, independent films, Studio films
are produced by a studio. So you know, these are companies
like MGM, Disney, Sony, etcetera, DreamWorks, alright,
(13:27):
just to name a few. And the film is financed by the
studio, meaning that they pay for everything.
They're the ones who like through the company, the
director is hired. I mean they hire people to hire
the director, the actors, the crew, etc.
Everything is done through them.The only I don't want to say
(13:52):
problem, but one thing that sometimes people have an issue
with when it comes to studio films is that they don't have as
many creative liberties. The rules are a little bit
stricter. The studio is giving the yay or
nay to certain things in the film, even if the director wants
to, you know, even if the director wants the film to be
(14:12):
another way, the studio can say no.
We don't want that singing to know.
We don't want this person actingin it and so on.
An independent film is filmed outside of the studio and it is
financed by the individuals who are making the film and this is
done in a variety of ways. One way that this is done is by
crowdfunding. Independent film makers will
(14:35):
make a GoFundMe or something similar to finance the film.
I know with the very low budget independent films that I have
been a part of, that this is a really big way that people do
finance films is by, you know, putting up a GoFundMe and you
just pray that all your parents,middle class friends will donate
(14:55):
$100 to your film so that you can shoot.
I didn't put it in here, but I've been a part of several
fundraisers for films, either those being talent shows or a
variety show or something, or along those lines to try to gain
money for the film. Silent auctions, etcetera.
(15:18):
Another way that this is done isby debt financing.
So that's that's by using like bank loans or gap funding, which
is a one time loan together to cover the gap in the financing.
Equity financing, which is investors or back end
compensation. So investors will receive
additional compensation if they're entitled to it.
And you can also use grants. There are obviously a ton of
(15:41):
ways that someone could finance a film, but these are the most
popular ones. Papadopoulos had been doing this
for a long time. So we knew right away when
Weathervane was like, Oh, well, when you give us half and then
we match that half, he's like, like, you've got a good track
record, but something's off. A quiet passion begins
(16:04):
production and everything seems to be going well.
However, 90 days into production, Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos expects to have $4 million in the production
account. When he goes to check the
account, the balance sits at 0. That's a lot less.
That is a lot less. When questioning via Eman about
(16:26):
the lack of finances in the account, he tells him that there
are issues with the banking and that there are compliance issues
but everything is fine. Like, don't worry about it,
everything is fine. However, at day 100 there is
still no money in the bank and there are 65 workers who have
begun building sets who desperately need to be paid.
(16:46):
I'm about to say, how are they paying for anything?
They don't have any money. Exactly, they're not, and the
producers are forced to take outloans to pay their employees,
which is really frustrating because in all reality, they
could have just taken out a loanin the 1st place to cover all of
this. After pressure from
(17:07):
Papadopoulos, Van Eamon sends them two transfers of $10,000,
but this is nowhere near the amount of money that they should
have. It is taking so long to get the
funds that there's a point wherePapadopoulos isn't sure.
He does not know if he can pay Cynthia Nixon, the star of his
movie. And Nixon is supposed to fly to
(17:29):
England to shoot the film. And agents will not let their
actors on a plane before they are paid.
So he's really scrambling at this point.
They put more heat on Van Eamon.And he kind of, he, he really
does like do this thing where heis just kind of playing them
where he's just giving them a couple thousand like little bits
(17:50):
of $10,000 at a time to kind of what's the word I want to use?
String them. Along, yes, to just kind of
string them along so that they can't necessarily say that this
is a scam or fraud, but also at the same time they don't have
access to the funds that they'resupposed to have access to.
And Papadopoulos says that this was just this was one of the
(18:13):
worst filming experiences he ever had in his life, not
because of what was happening onset, but because he had to
harass and bother Van Eamon every single day of filming to
get his money, which is so has. That has got to be just like the
most frustrating thing as a producer and like someone who's
(18:35):
helping with the directing process, you, your worry should
just be on the creative process at that point.
Like, I've already technically done the funding.
This should be a non issue and you're making it this big issue.
And I'm sure he absolutely felt like it was damaging the product
of the film. However, he said that he made
(18:57):
sure that his cast and crew did not know what was going on at
all. I don't know.
I always, I do think that sometimes people in charge will
be like, well, I held it together and no one had any
idea. And it's like we kind of had an.
Idea so you should probably tellpeople.
No, you 100% should tell people but.
I think he was. Worried what's going on?
(19:17):
I think he was worried that people were going to think that,
like he couldn't do his job or something.
Like I think it was a pride issue honestly, to not let the
people who were working on the project know what was happening.
I guess, but it's obviously not his fault.
Like be like, I'm constantly harassing this guy to pay us the
money that that he said he wouldpay us, which is ridiculous.
No, that's absolutely yeah. It's absolutely ridiculous.
(19:40):
In 2016, the film debuts and is a success.
Papadopoulos thinks that the only reason that he was actually
able to get his money at all wasbecause it was a successful
project. The success of the film would
mean that Weathervane Productions would be able to use
A Quiet Passion as a credit for the production company.
However, not all of the films were as lucky as A Quiet Passion
(20:03):
was. In 2015, venture capitalist Paul
Martino sets out to make the indie film Inside Game.
The film is about an infamous NBA betting scandal that his
cousin was involved with. What?
You're like my cousin that was in a was in a betting scandal.
What did that make a great movie?
(20:24):
No, probably not. That's that sounds like a really
boring fucking story that you tell people and you think is
really interesting but no one cares.
Well people cared though becauseafter his cousin got out of jail
he started getting offers to sell his story.
So I guess people cared. They'll buy fucking anything.
(20:45):
Well, that's true. They bought the script once
again for Amelia Perez. OK, they'll buy anything.
It doesn't have to be interesting.
That's true. Touché 2 Fucking Shay you.
Just have to know someone, and it seemed like he knew someone.
He did know someone, however, his cousin.
The offers that people were making his cousin for his story
(21:07):
were really, really bad. And it's cousin was just trying
to rebuild his life after prison.
So he ended up buying the rightsto his cousin's story as a way
to help him get back on his feet.
And after doing so, he set his sights on making the film
Martino. He had a couple and like, he got
(21:28):
his friends to help to help invest in the film.
And he and his business partner,Michael Pierce, came up with the
budget, and they realized they needed about $4 million, four,
$1,000,000, to make the film. They didn't want to sink all of
their money into the project, sothey started looking for outside
investors, which I think is veryfair.
(21:48):
Yeah. You should never do that.
No, I think that's like rule #1 it's like, don't put your own
money in the project as a reallygood way to lose money.
No, that's a very good way to lose money.
I I actually have a friend who did this with a film.
I don't know if it was a short or a.
Francis Ford Coppola, yeah. Yes, my very good friend Francis
(22:09):
Coppola and. You're like, oh, don't.
My bestie. Francis don't sell part of the
winery. And then he does.
He's like, this movie is going to be great, all right?
It's about the Roman Empire, youknow?
Yeah. No, but I did have a friend who
put a lot of money into a project that they were filming
and then it kind of all went awry and they lost $10,000.
(22:34):
There you go. When they were did not have
extra $10,000. So they So Pierce ends up
finding Weather Vane Productionsand now Pierce really does do
his homework. He gets references from them and
he does his research on them. And just like Papadopoulos
thought they they really did seem to be legitimate.
(22:57):
He also liked the fact that theywere associated with Wells Fargo
because remember that Mcconnellyhad a connection to Wells Fargo
and Benjamin Raphael worked withWells Fargo.
And Pierce liked this because ofWells Fargo's strong reputation.
Too bad this was 2015 and he wasn't able to see into a
(23:19):
crystal ball into the future andfind out about their scandal
that would happen the next year.If you don't know what we're
talking about, you can go listento our Wells Fargo episode.
But Martino and Pierce agree to work with Weathervane and they
sign the paperwork and the deal's on the way.
Martino now, although he didn't want to sink all of his own
(23:41):
money into the production, he did put up 1.25 million of his
own money to fund the film. And he believes that that amount
is going to be matched by Weathervane Productions because
they also, even though that's clearly not the full $4000 or $4
million, excuse me, He also had other investors that were going
to make up that difference. Now, Van Eamon assures Martino
(24:04):
that he has nothing to worry about with their company and
even tells him unless they have someone in the bank, there's no
way you could lose your money. They wire the money to
Mcconnelly's account and all seems to be good until it's not.
Once production starts, a line producer realizes that there is
(24:25):
no money in the production account.
Very much like our last story, leaving cast crew and the 1.25
million hanging. Martino knows that something is
up. He, like Van Eamon's, given him
the runaround. Unfortunately, he is not as
successful as Papadopoulos in getting his money and so he
(24:45):
hires a private investigator to actually look into Ben Mcconley.
Not Jason Van Eamon, of course. The Pi finds out that he is
sketchy as hell. The Pi discovers that Mcconnelly
actually has a record. He has been arrested in his past
and despite his past run insurance with the law, he lives
(25:07):
a really lavish lifestyle. He, like I said earlier, like I
said earlier, when Van Eamon gotinvolved with him, he looked
like he was rich. It seemed like he was rich.
Private jets, nice clothes, nicewatches, sports cars.
He's taking these great vacations despite the fact that
he lives in literally a vacationhub Miami.
(25:27):
He's got the hot Instagram girlfriend that is miles out of
his league physically and he runs, He funds weekly photo
shoots for her so that she can pretend to be a model, a real
model. And that this part really
reminds me of Erica Jane, where like her husband was just like
throwing all this money for her fake career.
(25:50):
And we're like, it's all documented on social media and
we literally can see all of the money that they're spending
fraudulently and it's all documented.
It just reminded me of that. And Mcconnelly loved to party.
He didn't bat an eye at spending20K and one night at the club
(26:10):
for bottle service, which is just so ridiculous.
So we said earlier that the filmmakers were depositing all their
money into Mcconnelly's account.However, the way that Jason Van
Eamon works into this scheme, which is what I didn't talk
about earlier, was that once that money hit Mcconnelly's
account, he would kind of just decide how much money he was
(26:31):
going to send. Jason Van Eamon.
Jason Van Eamon was kind of likethe recruiter.
Well, well, not kind of. He was the recruiter.
He was the one getting people toinvest their money into the OR
the ones that he said he was going to invest the money into
the film and he was. Like he was like the Roper.
Yeah, he was our Lou Blomer episode.
Yes, he was definitely the Roper.
(26:53):
And then? Spieler.
Yes. And then Mcconley would get the
money into his account. He would transfer it immediate
into the production account. He would transfer it immediately
into his own private accounts. He would then send an whatever
amount he decided to, he deemed fit to Jason Van Eamon.
And then Jason Van Eamon would decide, OK, am I going to give
(27:16):
these people any money or am I not going to give these people
any money? He was basically the puppet
master. He was like, OK, which films are
am I going to fund? Which ones am I not?
And you know what? The two of them, they keep the,
well, the three of them, becauseBenjamin Raphael is also looped
into this as Mcconnelly's assistant.
They keep this scheme going for eight years.
(27:39):
And this wasn't the only film this happened to, but production
for Inside Game comes to a screeching halt now.
Martino, Paul Martino, Paul Martino, he is from
Philadelphia, and he definitely has that Philly don't fuck with
me attitude. And he's not going down without
(27:59):
a fight. So his career, Martino's career
was mostly spent in the tech industry.
So he decided to make a website alert for when people looked up
Weathervane Productions to warn them about Van Eamon's schemes.
And in this warning, he's like, hey, if you've got questions, if
you've got concerns, contact me.Contact Paul Martino.
(28:21):
And Martino's line starts ringing off the hook.
Over 30 people contacted him about Weathervane Productions.
Oh, damn. Yeah.
Because either now there was a variety of reasons why people
were contacting him. Either they were contacting him
because they also were in the middle of getting scammed and
we're like, hey, I've, you know,something doesn't feel right.
(28:42):
What's your experience? Or it was people who were like,
hey, this guy's got this companyhas a really great track record.
But now this is popping up like,what do you know that I don't
know. So there was a variety of
reasons why people were contacting him, but nevertheless
30 people contacted him. So basically what was happening
is they were taking the money from all of these projects, but
(29:04):
then they were just redirecting money to pay the ones they
thought would actually be successful.
And just like completely stiffing the some movies that
they already took their money going like, Nah, let's not give
it to them. That's so crazy.
Yeah. No, that's exactly what
happened. So it's a.
Ponzi scheme? Kind of.
Kind of. I feel like it was a little more
(29:25):
just like blatant stealing than a regular Ponzi scheme.
Well, they use money from other investors to.
Pay, yeah, I guess that's true. But so, but a lot of these
people then too, they didn't gettheir full amount.
Crazy that it took so long for someone to get pissed off enough
to come after them. Eight years.
Yeah, well, but you. Feel like if one person gets
stiffed for this much money they're like oh fuck you.
Well, that's part of it that I'll get to because there was a
(29:49):
reason why there's a, there's a little bit of a reason why they
weren't gone after right away. The FBI does end up catching
wind of this scheme and they contact Martino and Martino
gives them all the evidence thathe had about Weathervane
productions. He was like, here are the 30
people that contacted me. Here's my own shit.
(30:09):
Here's what the private investigator told me.
So he, I mean, he did a lot of the grunt work for the the FBI
and the FBI realizes how much money was actually lost.
The largest loss was about $28 million.
But many film makers had just been scraping by, scraping their
pennies to finance their dreams.So a lot of these weren't super
(30:32):
big budget films. I know that the two that I
talked about were in the 4 million range, which is really
high. But like a lot of these were
just small independent films. So they didn't have the money or
the means or probably even the knowledge on how to go after
them. They were just kind of like
shit, my money got stolen and are just mad about it.
(30:56):
Yeah, I don't know. Couldn't be me.
Like I definitely. No, I would have.
I'm finding a way to sue these people.
As. Quickly as possible.
Yeah, but a lot of people didn't.
The FBI found out that in seven years, over $68 million was
moved out of Mcconnelly's personal Wells Fargo account. 20
million of that money was sent directly to Jason Van Eamon.
(31:19):
It was also found out that Mcconnelly's private banker,
Benjamin Raphael, his little assistant, was actually just
his. He had made it, made people
believe that Benjamin Raphael was just like this super smart
banker, an expert in what he did, leading in his field, but
he was in reality just a mid level banker who he hired to
(31:41):
help him with the fraud. And Rafael, he did work for
Wells Fargo, but he was fired bythem.
He just used their letterhead tomake the transactions between
the fraudsters and the investigators look legitimate.
So not only were film projects destroyed by Mcconnelly and Van
Eeman, but some people have their reputations and careers
(32:03):
ruined by their schemes. Van Eamonn, Mcconnelly and
Rafael were all charged with money laundering.
Mcconnelly pleaded guilty on September 14th, 2021 and was
sentenced to 13 years in prison.Rafael was sentenced to 42
months. But just like Paul Martino,
(32:26):
Jason Van Eamonn wasn't going down without a fight.
Van Eamon went into a six week long trial. 15 victims came and
spoke against him in April 2022.Raphael Benjamin Raphael takes
the stand against Van Eamon and he tells the court that Van
Eamon knew about the false bank documents and that he actually
(32:49):
helped create them. Van Eamon was in control of the
entire fraud. Now, Van Eamon's lawyer claims
that Van Eamon didn't know that Raphael was a fraud.
But, I mean, I don't believe it.You know what you were doing,
You know, you weren't giving people the money that they were
supposed to be getting, Like, yeah.
Because you're getting contactedconstantly saying I don't have
the money. I don't have my money and you're
(33:11):
actively not giving it to them. Literally actively not giving it
to. Them so you can't do all that
and then be like, I didn't know.So Jason Van Eamon was found
guilty on all accounts and on July 21st, 2022, Jason Van Eamon
was sentenced to 21 years in prison and has to pay $9 million
(33:32):
in restitution. Wow, these guys really got that
book thrown at them. They were making an example out
of these guys for sure, for sure.
Maybe the judge is just on the payroll of the Hollywood elite.
That is probably what is happening, actually.
No, I, I do, I think that this man is going to serve anywhere
near 21 years. Probably not.
(33:54):
No, no, no, no. I'll be shocked if he even
serves 10 but that's what he gotsentenced to that.
Is crazy though, yeah. The show must go on unless you
wrap production early, and that's exactly what happened to
Weathervane Productions. Weathervane Productions were cut
before they finished their take.Being of other people's money,
(34:17):
Ben Mcconnelly, Benjamin Raphael, and Jason Van Eamon
preyed on people with a dream. They stole their money right out
of their hands and had a great time using it for their own
gain. However, these ending credits
turned into blooper reels, the joke being their asses sitting
in prison. You didn't like my funds?
(34:40):
No, that's OK. I didn't do it for you.
No, I gotta get, I gotta get a key grip back on reality right
now. All right?
In the end, though, I at least know that I'm the best boy.
What does that even mean? Those are those are both titles
for production people on movies.There's a key grip and then.
(35:00):
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Key grip, yeah.
There you go. You are the best boy.
It was gross. That was disgusting coming out.
I'm gonna throw up anyway. If you liked, but you, if you
liked your, that was so gross. I want to eat soap.
Now I need to wash my mouth out with soap.
But if you liked what you listened to and you want more,
(35:23):
you can check us out on social media.
We are on facebook.com/white collars red hands.
We are on Twitter at White Collars pod.
We're on Instagram at White collars under score red hands.
We're on TikTok at White Collarsred hands and we are on YouTube
at, you guessed it, white collars red hands.
If you want another way to support us, please do so by
leaving a review. We love A5 star review but we
(35:46):
will take an honest review as well.
But we please make it 5 stars. Thanks.
Another great way to spread the word about us is just let a
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This is stupid. Just tell a friend about us and
then an unfree way to support usis by going to our website and
(36:07):
clicking on the merch tab. They'll take you over to T
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And our website is. White Collars.
Redhands.com If you hear of a white collar Crime Story and
you're like Oh my God, Nina and Kashan should totally cover
that, send it our way. You can do so by D Ming us on
(36:27):
any of our socials or sending itvia e-mail to
whitecollarsredhands@gmail.com. We'll use the contacts on our
website. That too.
That'll work as well. Yeah.
And I think that's it. I believe so.
Thank you so much for listening,and we'll see you next time on
another episode of White CollarsRed.
Hands.
Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff has been arrested and
charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Congress wants to know what caused the Enron meltdown, and
while the collective rage currently is focused on low
comp. Tyco CEO Dennis Koslowski was
convicted of looting hundreds ofmillions of dollars.
This is one of the biggest fraudcases ever.
(00:23):
Their president's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.
Find out more on this week's episode of White Collars, Red
Hands. Lights, camera, action.
In 2020, four 569 films were released in the US and Canada.
In India, over 1000 films were released in 2023.
(00:46):
It's easy to say that people love movies, unless you're
Amish, and they'd probably love them too if they were allowed to
watch them. However, not all films can be
made by big fancy studios. Some of them have to be funded
independently, which is where Weathervane Production stepped
in. Weathervane Productions was a
(01:06):
godsend to the indie film industry.
Their promise of matching funding for films was a glimmer
of hope to film makers who were trying to pave their way in
Hollywood. That is, until the lights went
dim. Find out what happened on this
week's episode of White Collars,Red Hands. 569 films and one of
(01:28):
them had to be fucking Amelia Perez.
Did you watch it? Here we are.
No, I I'm I'm set to watch it with a friend of mine, but I've
seen clips and it's just there'sno way that watching it's gonna
change my mind. Like like you can definitely
jump to some conclusions sometimes, but like seeing a
couple of the songs from but I'mlike, this is terrible.
(01:50):
I don't have an opinion on it. It won two Oscars.
I know. And also just everything but oh,
and then that it was so sad thatLady trying to start the sing
along at the Oscars of the song.And I'm like, no one's watched
this dude. No one's going to sing.
No one is going to sing this song with you.
She tried. She tried to get it started.
(02:11):
And we're going to try to get you interested in this episode.
Welcome back to another episode of White Collars, Red Hands.
Emilia. Oh so sad.
My name is Kushat. And I'm Nina and I did not watch
Emilia Perez and I don't even know what it's about.
Yeah, I'm not going to get into the lore.
Yeah, don't get into the lore. Go online for that, yeah.
(02:34):
And we're not Amelia Perez podcast.
Thank God. Oh my gosh.
We're not Oscar commentary. Also thank God.
I I think that would actually bevery boring.
Most Oscar films are not super. What's the word I want to use in
rapturing? Yeah, entertaining because
they're. Not yeah.
(02:55):
Wonder if you've watched some ofthe movies we're going to talk
about today. The where it all starts in the
beginning, the back story, like every good movie has 1 Jason Van
Eamon. He grew up in Oklahoma and he
was born to a middle class family who did well for
themselves. Fan Eamon was a very good
(03:16):
student and athlete and it seemed like he was gonna do
great in life and he was really smart.
He was actually accepted into the Air Force Academy.
But after a year in school, he realized that the sky actually
was the limit for him and he spread his wings into a new
direction. He wanted to be an actor.
(03:37):
Dang, the Air Force. You actually have to get any
kind of score on the Asvaps to get in there.
I don't even know what the Asvaps are.
Asvab. See I.
Don't know, it's the test to getin the military and if you do
poorly they just put you in likethe army infantry.
Van Eamon, He wanted to be an actor and he had the charm.
He had the looks and there was no reason why he couldn't be the
(03:58):
next George Clooney. He did have some success as an
actor in Hollywood. He did land a role in a film
called Regarding Billy. It was a coming out story
between an Air Force pilot and his best friend.
They did ask and they did tell in that movie.
Oh. My God, that was that.
What a great poster tagline. It wasn't.
(04:19):
I just came up with that right now.
I'm so proud of myself. He.
Asked, he told. He asked, he told regarding
Billy. A coming out story or a coming
in and out story? Oh.
What's the What's the Tom Cruisemovie?
Vanilla Sky. No.
Mission Impossible. The What about flying Nina?
(04:41):
No Top Gun. Yeah, coming to theaters, Coming
to a theater near you. Top Gun 2 but gay?
But gay? I would love a gay version of
Top Gun. I think it's just Top Gun.
I'm trying to think about top and bottom.
They have that shirtless volleyball scene.
I think it's just Top Gun. I don't.
I watched that movie one time. I really don't remember.
(05:02):
I've never seen it, but I know. But show business is hard, and
Van Eeman decided to leave Hollywood.
Like so many other wannabe actors before him.
He went back to Oklahoma to get married and start a family.
However, he never let that Hollywood dream die.
He decided he wanted to be on the production side of things
and started his very own production company, Weathervane
(05:25):
Productions. And the beautiful the beautiful
film Mecca of. Oklahoma.
All right. Listen, everywhere needs and
there is. There's a there's an industry
for everywhere. What was he looking to film
Wrangler commercials? Yes, that's what that's what
he's going to get in. Oklahoma In 2011, Van Eamon met
(05:47):
an investor in Miami named Ben Mcconley.
A mutual friend who worked with both Van Eamon and Mcconley
introduced them to each other. Mcconley is the owner of Forest
Capital Partners and claims to have an impressive portfolio of
wealth that runs through his family's office.
Mcconley also had links to WellsFargo and seemed to have it all
(06:08):
together. So.
And it was very clear that Mcconley was doing well for
himself and had money. He flew on private jets, had
fancy sports cars, wore nice suits, flashy watches.
He had a hot IG model girlfriend.
I mean, just like everything that Van Eamon wanted.
You mean Van Eamon wanted more than his the wife and kids?
(06:30):
He already did. You said he wanted to start a
family. Does he already have a wife and
kids or is he just? Not totally clear, yeah, but I
think it was more the material goods that he was after.
Fair enough. Or maybe his wife wasn't that
hot, you know? I don't know, I'm looking for an
upgrade man. Hey can I trade this old model
in and swap? This out for the new one.
(06:51):
The old ball and chain over here.
The two decide to partner up alongside Mcconnelly's banking
assistant Benjamin Raphael. So Van Eamon, using his
Hollywood connections, he claimed to be able to finance
film projects up to 50% with hisbusiness partner.
And Mcconnelly would be the one to give them the money.
(07:11):
So he's like, you have a, you have a film you're trying to
produce, you have a portion of the money.
We will match it up to 50%. And then it was actually
Mcconley. Allegedly it was Mcconley's
money that was going to be the one matching this.
Because of all of his assets andinvestments, he was going to be
able to put up this money. He's the money guy.
(07:34):
He's the money guy. He's a he's a producer.
The production company did produce some St. to streaming
faith-based projects initially which are just shitty Christian
films. I grew up on these as a child
and all those these weren't super successful.
They were producing credits thenVan Eamon was earning, building
him his resume. As they continued making films,
(07:56):
their IMDb pages began to speak for themselves.
Eventually they began to producehigher quality films that
starred a list celebrities, including some of the films
being Jane Got a Gun starring Natalie Portman, The Sound
starring Rose McGowan and Christopher Lloyd, and The Tale
which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival but was bought by
(08:18):
HBO. So Needless to say, the their
lineup of films was becoming increasingly more impressive.
Soon, producers from all over the world began contacting
Weather Vane Productions to helpthem finance their films.
Across the pond, a passion project for Saul Papadopoulos
and Terence Davis, who is a veryesteemed filmmaker, makes its
(08:43):
way to Weather Vane Productions.The film is A Quiet Passion, a
story based on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson.
It was going to star Cynthia Nixon, who was the actress who
played Miranda in Sex and the City as Emily Dickinson.
Is Emily Dickinson the one that stuck her head in the oven?
I don't know about that. That was a poet.
(09:05):
Hey, that was Sylvia Plath. That sounds more like Sylvia
Plath. She's the one that was was real,
real sad. Yeah, I think so.
Emily Dickinson was also a sad girl, but she was like in love
with her pastor who was married.Classic.
Classic. We read summer verse poetry in
high school. I don't know a whole lot about
(09:26):
her. I do kind of want to watch this
movie though after learning about this story.
Oh. They actually made it.
Yes, it. Well, I just figured out, yeah.
Papadopoulos was in charge of financing the film, and while
looking for potential investors,he stumbled upon Weathervane
Productions and they and he knewthat they could help him.
However, Papadopoulos immediately realizes that Van
(09:50):
Eamon's finance structure is odd.
Weathervane Productions would match the investment.
Like I said earlier, the way VanEamon told him that it worked,
the investment would be 5050. They match your contribution,
and then there's the money for your film.
But. You have to give them the half
first and then they give you back.
(10:11):
The full amount. So basically what was going to
happen was you would give them. Yeah, so you would give them.
Yeah. So let's say my budget for my
film is $20,000 and I obviously don't have $20,000.
So I would give them 10 and thenthey would put it into a
production account and match theother $10,000.
(10:33):
So now my account has $20,000. So you did have to give them the
money, and this is not normally how this works.
And Papadopoulos knew that because he had been in the film
industry for a long time and he knew how things typically went.
They were able to do this matching because, like I said
(10:55):
earlier, Mcconnelly had a lot ofassets and he was able to invest
all this money because of his other businesses and his other
assets. By doing this by the budget
matching or the funding matching, Weathervane would then
be entitled to 50% of the film'sprofits and so they would only
make money if the film made money.
(11:17):
Obviously the film makers were weary of this deal because, like
I said, no one else is really doing this.
But Weathervane's track record was really solid and films had
been made with them and they hada good reputation.
This was happening. A Quiet Passion was I think it
(11:37):
came out in 2016 and like Jane Got a Gun that came out in 2015,
the one with Natalie Portman. So like, they're already doing
bigger budget films at this point.
So that's kind of why Papadopoulos and Davis kind of
went ahead and went with them. Yeah, plus, I mean, they have
this track record of such hits such as, you know, coming inside
(12:02):
Jesus, you know, from their old streaming days or, or.
Worthy is the lamb. The passionate love of God fills
you, you know, just like, just like great stuff, you know, Of
course they can be trusted. Daddy God.
Would a Would a Christian ever take your money?
Well, they never just to just. To take it.
(12:23):
No, never. Never.
Never. Never.
Never. Never.
Never. But if you're not familiar with
the film industry, there are pretty much two different types
of films. You've got studio films and then
independent films, studio films.There's actually at least one
more. All right, fine.
Adult. When you can argue could also be
(12:45):
a studio or an independent film.I meant to say there's a lot of
people, a lot of people moving to independent nowadays.
Yeah, absolutely, bunch. Of people from from college.
Yeah, but I've gone into the. Theater it's.
Actually crazy how many film makers yeah I've met in my life.
I have a lot of friends that areindependent filming.
(13:06):
Yes, me too. An accountant somehow.
Homemade, back to studio films, independent films, Studio films
are produced by a studio. So you know, these are companies
like MGM, Disney, Sony, etcetera, DreamWorks, alright,
(13:27):
just to name a few. And the film is financed by the
studio, meaning that they pay for everything.
They're the ones who like through the company, the
director is hired. I mean they hire people to hire
the director, the actors, the crew, etc.
Everything is done through them.The only I don't want to say
(13:52):
problem, but one thing that sometimes people have an issue
with when it comes to studio films is that they don't have as
many creative liberties. The rules are a little bit
stricter. The studio is giving the yay or
nay to certain things in the film, even if the director wants
to, you know, even if the director wants the film to be
(14:12):
another way, the studio can say no.
We don't want that singing to know.
We don't want this person actingin it and so on.
An independent film is filmed outside of the studio and it is
financed by the individuals who are making the film and this is
done in a variety of ways. One way that this is done is by
crowdfunding. Independent film makers will
(14:35):
make a GoFundMe or something similar to finance the film.
I know with the very low budget independent films that I have
been a part of, that this is a really big way that people do
finance films is by, you know, putting up a GoFundMe and you
just pray that all your parents,middle class friends will donate
(14:55):
$100 to your film so that you can shoot.
I didn't put it in here, but I've been a part of several
fundraisers for films, either those being talent shows or a
variety show or something, or along those lines to try to gain
money for the film. Silent auctions, etcetera.
(15:18):
Another way that this is done isby debt financing.
So that's that's by using like bank loans or gap funding, which
is a one time loan together to cover the gap in the financing.
Equity financing, which is investors or back end
compensation. So investors will receive
additional compensation if they're entitled to it.
And you can also use grants. There are obviously a ton of
(15:41):
ways that someone could finance a film, but these are the most
popular ones. Papadopoulos had been doing this
for a long time. So we knew right away when
Weathervane was like, Oh, well, when you give us half and then
we match that half, he's like, like, you've got a good track
record, but something's off. A quiet passion begins
(16:04):
production and everything seems to be going well.
However, 90 days into production, Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos expects to have $4 million in the production
account. When he goes to check the
account, the balance sits at 0. That's a lot less.
That is a lot less. When questioning via Eman about
(16:26):
the lack of finances in the account, he tells him that there
are issues with the banking and that there are compliance issues
but everything is fine. Like, don't worry about it,
everything is fine. However, at day 100 there is
still no money in the bank and there are 65 workers who have
begun building sets who desperately need to be paid.
(16:46):
I'm about to say, how are they paying for anything?
They don't have any money. Exactly, they're not, and the
producers are forced to take outloans to pay their employees,
which is really frustrating because in all reality, they
could have just taken out a loanin the 1st place to cover all of
this. After pressure from
(17:07):
Papadopoulos, Van Eamon sends them two transfers of $10,000,
but this is nowhere near the amount of money that they should
have. It is taking so long to get the
funds that there's a point wherePapadopoulos isn't sure.
He does not know if he can pay Cynthia Nixon, the star of his
movie. And Nixon is supposed to fly to
(17:29):
England to shoot the film. And agents will not let their
actors on a plane before they are paid.
So he's really scrambling at this point.
They put more heat on Van Eamon.And he kind of, he, he really
does like do this thing where heis just kind of playing them
where he's just giving them a couple thousand like little bits
(17:50):
of $10,000 at a time to kind of what's the word I want to use?
String them. Along, yes, to just kind of
string them along so that they can't necessarily say that this
is a scam or fraud, but also at the same time they don't have
access to the funds that they'resupposed to have access to.
And Papadopoulos says that this was just this was one of the
(18:13):
worst filming experiences he ever had in his life, not
because of what was happening onset, but because he had to
harass and bother Van Eamon every single day of filming to
get his money, which is so has. That has got to be just like the
most frustrating thing as a producer and like someone who's
(18:35):
helping with the directing process, you, your worry should
just be on the creative process at that point.
Like, I've already technically done the funding.
This should be a non issue and you're making it this big issue.
And I'm sure he absolutely felt like it was damaging the product
of the film. However, he said that he made
(18:57):
sure that his cast and crew did not know what was going on at
all. I don't know.
I always, I do think that sometimes people in charge will
be like, well, I held it together and no one had any
idea. And it's like we kind of had an.
Idea so you should probably tellpeople.
No, you 100% should tell people but.
I think he was. Worried what's going on?
(19:17):
I think he was worried that people were going to think that,
like he couldn't do his job or something.
Like I think it was a pride issue honestly, to not let the
people who were working on the project know what was happening.
I guess, but it's obviously not his fault.
Like be like, I'm constantly harassing this guy to pay us the
money that that he said he wouldpay us, which is ridiculous.
No, that's absolutely yeah. It's absolutely ridiculous.
(19:40):
In 2016, the film debuts and is a success.
Papadopoulos thinks that the only reason that he was actually
able to get his money at all wasbecause it was a successful
project. The success of the film would
mean that Weathervane Productions would be able to use
A Quiet Passion as a credit for the production company.
However, not all of the films were as lucky as A Quiet Passion
(20:03):
was. In 2015, venture capitalist Paul
Martino sets out to make the indie film Inside Game.
The film is about an infamous NBA betting scandal that his
cousin was involved with. What?
You're like my cousin that was in a was in a betting scandal.
What did that make a great movie?
(20:24):
No, probably not. That's that sounds like a really
boring fucking story that you tell people and you think is
really interesting but no one cares.
Well people cared though becauseafter his cousin got out of jail
he started getting offers to sell his story.
So I guess people cared. They'll buy fucking anything.
(20:45):
Well, that's true. They bought the script once
again for Amelia Perez. OK, they'll buy anything.
It doesn't have to be interesting.
That's true. Touché 2 Fucking Shay you.
Just have to know someone, and it seemed like he knew someone.
He did know someone, however, his cousin.
The offers that people were making his cousin for his story
(21:07):
were really, really bad. And it's cousin was just trying
to rebuild his life after prison.
So he ended up buying the rightsto his cousin's story as a way
to help him get back on his feet.
And after doing so, he set his sights on making the film
Martino. He had a couple and like, he got
(21:28):
his friends to help to help invest in the film.
And he and his business partner,Michael Pierce, came up with the
budget, and they realized they needed about $4 million, four,
$1,000,000, to make the film. They didn't want to sink all of
their money into the project, sothey started looking for outside
investors, which I think is veryfair.
(21:48):
Yeah. You should never do that.
No, I think that's like rule #1 it's like, don't put your own
money in the project as a reallygood way to lose money.
No, that's a very good way to lose money.
I I actually have a friend who did this with a film.
I don't know if it was a short or a.
Francis Ford Coppola, yeah. Yes, my very good friend Francis
(22:09):
Coppola and. You're like, oh, don't.
My bestie. Francis don't sell part of the
winery. And then he does.
He's like, this movie is going to be great, all right?
It's about the Roman Empire, youknow?
Yeah. No, but I did have a friend who
put a lot of money into a project that they were filming
and then it kind of all went awry and they lost $10,000.
(22:34):
There you go. When they were did not have
extra $10,000. So they So Pierce ends up
finding Weather Vane Productionsand now Pierce really does do
his homework. He gets references from them and
he does his research on them. And just like Papadopoulos
thought they they really did seem to be legitimate.
(22:57):
He also liked the fact that theywere associated with Wells Fargo
because remember that Mcconnellyhad a connection to Wells Fargo
and Benjamin Raphael worked withWells Fargo.
And Pierce liked this because ofWells Fargo's strong reputation.
Too bad this was 2015 and he wasn't able to see into a
(23:19):
crystal ball into the future andfind out about their scandal
that would happen the next year.If you don't know what we're
talking about, you can go listento our Wells Fargo episode.
But Martino and Pierce agree to work with Weathervane and they
sign the paperwork and the deal's on the way.
Martino now, although he didn't want to sink all of his own
(23:41):
money into the production, he did put up 1.25 million of his
own money to fund the film. And he believes that that amount
is going to be matched by Weathervane Productions because
they also, even though that's clearly not the full $4000 or $4
million, excuse me, He also had other investors that were going
to make up that difference. Now, Van Eamon assures Martino
(24:04):
that he has nothing to worry about with their company and
even tells him unless they have someone in the bank, there's no
way you could lose your money. They wire the money to
Mcconnelly's account and all seems to be good until it's not.
Once production starts, a line producer realizes that there is
(24:25):
no money in the production account.
Very much like our last story, leaving cast crew and the 1.25
million hanging. Martino knows that something is
up. He, like Van Eamon's, given him
the runaround. Unfortunately, he is not as
successful as Papadopoulos in getting his money and so he
(24:45):
hires a private investigator to actually look into Ben Mcconley.
Not Jason Van Eamon, of course. The Pi finds out that he is
sketchy as hell. The Pi discovers that Mcconnelly
actually has a record. He has been arrested in his past
and despite his past run insurance with the law, he lives
(25:07):
a really lavish lifestyle. He, like I said earlier, like I
said earlier, when Van Eamon gotinvolved with him, he looked
like he was rich. It seemed like he was rich.
Private jets, nice clothes, nicewatches, sports cars.
He's taking these great vacations despite the fact that
he lives in literally a vacationhub Miami.
(25:27):
He's got the hot Instagram girlfriend that is miles out of
his league physically and he runs, He funds weekly photo
shoots for her so that she can pretend to be a model, a real
model. And that this part really
reminds me of Erica Jane, where like her husband was just like
throwing all this money for her fake career.
(25:50):
And we're like, it's all documented on social media and
we literally can see all of the money that they're spending
fraudulently and it's all documented.
It just reminded me of that. And Mcconnelly loved to party.
He didn't bat an eye at spending20K and one night at the club
(26:10):
for bottle service, which is just so ridiculous.
So we said earlier that the filmmakers were depositing all their
money into Mcconnelly's account.However, the way that Jason Van
Eamon works into this scheme, which is what I didn't talk
about earlier, was that once that money hit Mcconnelly's
account, he would kind of just decide how much money he was
(26:31):
going to send. Jason Van Eamon.
Jason Van Eamon was kind of likethe recruiter.
Well, well, not kind of. He was the recruiter.
He was the one getting people toinvest their money into the OR
the ones that he said he was going to invest the money into
the film and he was. Like he was like the Roper.
Yeah, he was our Lou Blomer episode.
Yes, he was definitely the Roper.
(26:53):
And then? Spieler.
Yes. And then Mcconley would get the
money into his account. He would transfer it immediate
into the production account. He would transfer it immediately
into his own private accounts. He would then send an whatever
amount he decided to, he deemed fit to Jason Van Eamon.
And then Jason Van Eamon would decide, OK, am I going to give
(27:16):
these people any money or am I not going to give these people
any money? He was basically the puppet
master. He was like, OK, which films are
am I going to fund? Which ones am I not?
And you know what? The two of them, they keep the,
well, the three of them, becauseBenjamin Raphael is also looped
into this as Mcconnelly's assistant.
They keep this scheme going for eight years.
(27:39):
And this wasn't the only film this happened to, but production
for Inside Game comes to a screeching halt now.
Martino, Paul Martino, Paul Martino, he is from
Philadelphia, and he definitely has that Philly don't fuck with
me attitude. And he's not going down without
(27:59):
a fight. So his career, Martino's career
was mostly spent in the tech industry.
So he decided to make a website alert for when people looked up
Weathervane Productions to warn them about Van Eamon's schemes.
And in this warning, he's like, hey, if you've got questions, if
you've got concerns, contact me.Contact Paul Martino.
(28:21):
And Martino's line starts ringing off the hook.
Over 30 people contacted him about Weathervane Productions.
Oh, damn. Yeah.
Because either now there was a variety of reasons why people
were contacting him. Either they were contacting him
because they also were in the middle of getting scammed and
we're like, hey, I've, you know,something doesn't feel right.
(28:42):
What's your experience? Or it was people who were like,
hey, this guy's got this companyhas a really great track record.
But now this is popping up like,what do you know that I don't
know. So there was a variety of
reasons why people were contacting him, but nevertheless
30 people contacted him. So basically what was happening
is they were taking the money from all of these projects, but
(29:04):
then they were just redirecting money to pay the ones they
thought would actually be successful.
And just like completely stiffing the some movies that
they already took their money going like, Nah, let's not give
it to them. That's so crazy.
Yeah. No, that's exactly what
happened. So it's a.
Ponzi scheme? Kind of.
Kind of. I feel like it was a little more
(29:25):
just like blatant stealing than a regular Ponzi scheme.
Well, they use money from other investors to.
Pay, yeah, I guess that's true. But so, but a lot of these
people then too, they didn't gettheir full amount.
Crazy that it took so long for someone to get pissed off enough
to come after them. Eight years.
Yeah, well, but you. Feel like if one person gets
stiffed for this much money they're like oh fuck you.
Well, that's part of it that I'll get to because there was a
(29:49):
reason why there's a, there's a little bit of a reason why they
weren't gone after right away. The FBI does end up catching
wind of this scheme and they contact Martino and Martino
gives them all the evidence thathe had about Weathervane
productions. He was like, here are the 30
people that contacted me. Here's my own shit.
(30:09):
Here's what the private investigator told me.
So he, I mean, he did a lot of the grunt work for the the FBI
and the FBI realizes how much money was actually lost.
The largest loss was about $28 million.
But many film makers had just been scraping by, scraping their
pennies to finance their dreams.So a lot of these weren't super
(30:32):
big budget films. I know that the two that I
talked about were in the 4 million range, which is really
high. But like a lot of these were
just small independent films. So they didn't have the money or
the means or probably even the knowledge on how to go after
them. They were just kind of like
shit, my money got stolen and are just mad about it.
(30:56):
Yeah, I don't know. Couldn't be me.
Like I definitely. No, I would have.
I'm finding a way to sue these people.
As. Quickly as possible.
Yeah, but a lot of people didn't.
The FBI found out that in seven years, over $68 million was
moved out of Mcconnelly's personal Wells Fargo account. 20
million of that money was sent directly to Jason Van Eamon.
(31:19):
It was also found out that Mcconnelly's private banker,
Benjamin Raphael, his little assistant, was actually just
his. He had made it, made people
believe that Benjamin Raphael was just like this super smart
banker, an expert in what he did, leading in his field, but
he was in reality just a mid level banker who he hired to
(31:41):
help him with the fraud. And Rafael, he did work for
Wells Fargo, but he was fired bythem.
He just used their letterhead tomake the transactions between
the fraudsters and the investigators look legitimate.
So not only were film projects destroyed by Mcconnelly and Van
Eeman, but some people have their reputations and careers
(32:03):
ruined by their schemes. Van Eamonn, Mcconnelly and
Rafael were all charged with money laundering.
Mcconnelly pleaded guilty on September 14th, 2021 and was
sentenced to 13 years in prison.Rafael was sentenced to 42
months. But just like Paul Martino,
(32:26):
Jason Van Eamonn wasn't going down without a fight.
Van Eamon went into a six week long trial. 15 victims came and
spoke against him in April 2022.Raphael Benjamin Raphael takes
the stand against Van Eamon and he tells the court that Van
Eamon knew about the false bank documents and that he actually
(32:49):
helped create them. Van Eamon was in control of the
entire fraud. Now, Van Eamon's lawyer claims
that Van Eamon didn't know that Raphael was a fraud.
But, I mean, I don't believe it.You know what you were doing,
You know, you weren't giving people the money that they were
supposed to be getting, Like, yeah.
Because you're getting contactedconstantly saying I don't have
the money. I don't have my money and you're
(33:11):
actively not giving it to them. Literally actively not giving it
to. Them so you can't do all that
and then be like, I didn't know.So Jason Van Eamon was found
guilty on all accounts and on July 21st, 2022, Jason Van Eamon
was sentenced to 21 years in prison and has to pay $9 million
(33:32):
in restitution. Wow, these guys really got that
book thrown at them. They were making an example out
of these guys for sure, for sure.
Maybe the judge is just on the payroll of the Hollywood elite.
That is probably what is happening, actually.
No, I, I do, I think that this man is going to serve anywhere
near 21 years. Probably not.
(33:54):
No, no, no, no. I'll be shocked if he even
serves 10 but that's what he gotsentenced to that.
Is crazy though, yeah. The show must go on unless you
wrap production early, and that's exactly what happened to
Weathervane Productions. Weathervane Productions were cut
before they finished their take.Being of other people's money,
(34:17):
Ben Mcconnelly, Benjamin Raphael, and Jason Van Eamon
preyed on people with a dream. They stole their money right out
of their hands and had a great time using it for their own
gain. However, these ending credits
turned into blooper reels, the joke being their asses sitting
in prison. You didn't like my funds?
(34:40):
No, that's OK. I didn't do it for you.
No, I gotta get, I gotta get a key grip back on reality right
now. All right?
In the end, though, I at least know that I'm the best boy.
What does that even mean? Those are those are both titles
for production people on movies.There's a key grip and then.
(35:00):
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Key grip, yeah.
There you go. You are the best boy.
It was gross. That was disgusting coming out.
I'm gonna throw up anyway. If you liked, but you, if you
liked your, that was so gross. I want to eat soap.
Now I need to wash my mouth out with soap.
But if you liked what you listened to and you want more,
(35:23):
you can check us out on social media.
We are on facebook.com/white collars red hands.
We are on Twitter at White Collars pod.
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We're on TikTok at White Collarsred hands and we are on YouTube
at, you guessed it, white collars red hands.
If you want another way to support us, please do so by
leaving a review. We love A5 star review but we
(35:46):
will take an honest review as well.
But we please make it 5 stars. Thanks.
Another great way to spread the word about us is just let a
friend know about us. Tell a friend you know people
tend to take their friends recommendations.
This is stupid. Just tell a friend about us and
then an unfree way to support usis by going to our website and
(36:07):
clicking on the merch tab. They'll take you over to T
public and you can buy some merch from us.
And our website is. White Collars.
Redhands.com If you hear of a white collar Crime Story and
you're like Oh my God, Nina and Kashan should totally cover
that, send it our way. You can do so by D Ming us on
(36:27):
any of our socials or sending itvia e-mail to
whitecollarsredhands@gmail.com. We'll use the contacts on our
website. That too.
That'll work as well. Yeah.
And I think that's it. I believe so.
Thank you so much for listening,and we'll see you next time on
another episode of White CollarsRed.
Hands.
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