Hunting The Con Queen Of Hollywood: Who's The Crazy Evil Genius Behind A Global Racket?

From The Hollywood Reporter:

For to a greater extent than than a year, some of the most powerful women inwards amusement — including Amy Pascal, Kathleen Kennedy, Stacey Snider too a 'Homeland' managing director — cause got been impersonated past times a cunning thief who targets insiders amongst promises of work, too so bilks them out of thousands of dollars. The Hollywood Reporter has obtained exclusive good recordings of the savvy imposter equally victims come upward forrad too a global investigation heats up.

He was a freelance documentary photographer, 27 too eager, but non inexperienced. He'd worked inwards conflict zones for several prestige newspapers too magazines too shot advertising campaigns for corporate clients. One twenty-four lx minutes stream inwards belatedly 2017, he opened his e-mail to discovery an odd message. The foremost affair he noticed was the sender's name: Amy Pascal, the erstwhile co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment. That form of affair didn't plough over off every day.

Pascal wanted to know if he would last interested inwards traveling to Republic of Indonesia to pursue an exciting project. They got on the telephone the adjacent twenty-four lx minutes stream to speak over it further. His previous assignments had oftentimes taken him overseas. He'd explored xvi countries during the past times year, including Indonesia. He knew the terrain too could hitting the footing running.

After the call, he looked at the e-mail over again too noticed the URL: pascalfilms.com. Online, it didn't exist. Pascal, at 1 time a producer (Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Post), did cause got an outfit called Pascal Pictures, but the fellowship didn't seem to cause got a website. He chalked this upward to the fact that Pascal had been real publicly embarrassed inwards the 2015 Sony hack, resulting inwards the disclosure of her private emails. The lack of an online presence for her novel fellowship made sense.

When they spoke over again on the phone, Pascal flattered him. She enthused nigh his even so photography, which she knew intimately. She also was familiar amongst details of his corporate clients, specific personality quirks of people amongst whom he'd worked closely. "You wouldn't know these things unless yous dealt amongst these people inwards real specific ways," he says now. "This gave her immediate credibility."

Over the course of study of several conversations, Pascal explained that she was reinventing herself after the Sony hack. "She said the tidings media had made the hack into to a greater extent than of a terrible lawsuit than it was," he says. "She said she was even so real unopen amongst everyone, working actively amongst them." She had a novel production company, a novel staff, a slate of fresh projects. As business office of this reinvention, she wanted to railroad train a twosome of curt documentary films. She was looking for a talented lensman amongst only the correct aesthetic, someone who mightiness fifty-fifty last interested inwards directing 1 day. She wanted to collaborate, to construct something actually special from the footing up.

She explained he would remain inwards Republic of Indonesia for nigh a calendar week shooting images of landscapes, temples too iconic scenery for a storyboard that would bolster his bona fides amongst potential buyers. Together they would edit the results into a pitch they could introduce to financiers inwards L.A. She would conform for hotels. He would pay inwards advance for the airfare too forepart the costs for drivers, translators, nutrient too other sundries. She would reimburse him for all of these expenses. These kinds of fiscal arrangements aren't odd for freelancers inwards creative industries. He reviewed the contract she sent. It was all pretty standard, a mundane but necessary routine inwards the life of a photographer. Nothing stood out, except that it was exceptionally professional.

Before long, he was on a bird to Jakarta.

***

Six months too $65,000 later, the photographer, who has requested anonymity out of delineate of piece of employment organisation for his safety, has come upward to empathize that he was duped past times 1 of the most elaborate scams to always hitting Hollywood. The adult woman he'd spoken to several times a twenty-four lx minutes stream for weeks on terminate wasn't Pascal, but a sophisticated imposter who took him for a colossal fiscal too emotional ride.

For the past times 2 too a one-half years, hundreds of unwitting victims some the footing cause got been ensnared past times a pocket-sized but cunning criminal organisation whose contours are exclusively outset to last understood. Three of the producers impersonated cause got retained the services of a high-end corporate investigations firm, K2 Intelligence, run past times Jeremy M. Kroll (brother of the comedian Nick Kroll; their father, Jules, founded Kroll, considered a foundational benchmark inwards the footing of corporate opportunity management). K2 Intelligence won't unwrap specific clients, but sources confirm that 1 of them is Pascal (she declined to comment for this story). Hollywood companies also are getting involved. Earlier this year, when Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy learned that she had been impersonated, she informed Disney's internal security. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 spokesperson for Kennedy says she refers all cases of fraud to police enforcement.

Victims of the elaborate ruse are led to believe they are speaking to powerful woman somebody amusement executives, including billionaire producer too philanthropist Gigi Pritzker; erstwhile Paramount caput Sherry Lansing; 20th Century Fox CEO Stacey Snider; too Lesli Linka Glatter, a managing director too executive producer on shows including Homeland, The Walking Dead and Mad Men. "This is such a terrible affair — I was shocked," says Lansing, who left the manufacture a decade agone to focus on her philanthropic work.

"The people existence impersonated are a who's who of Hollywood, equally good equally high-net-worth individuals inwards New York," says Nicoletta Kotsianas, a K2 Intelligence investigator who has been tracking the scammers for months. "It's horribly upsetting that someone is making promises too behaving badly inwards your name," adds Linka Glatter, who was impersonated at to the lowest degree a dozen times betwixt the confine of 2017 too today. "It would become quiet, too I would mean value it was over, too and so all of a abrupt it would start all over again."...MORE