Customer Reviews

Under Investigation: The Inside Story of the Florida Attorney General's Investigation of Wilhelmina Scouting Network, the Largest Model and Talent Scam in America

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As someone who was conned by the 'businessmen' mentioned in this book, I have to recommend it to anyone else who found themselves unknowingly caught up in this scam.

Whether you were (like me) a talent scout, an aspiring model, a parent of a child who was told that your kid has model ability, a vendor, a franchise owner, a landlord, whatever... we were all duped and none of us will ever see a penny of what we put into this company.

For me, there's a certain amount of closure that this book brought to me. It made me realize that no, I wasn't dumb to get caught up in this, they were just THAT GOOD at the game. And all of the things that I thought were shady, actually were. And that this whole thing was a giant, manufactured LIE of a business.

Yes, it's very detailed. And it's history starts long before the WSN scam. But, the background helps to paint the picture of what was to come. And though the details can get tedious, it's the details that really made this business able to thrive, despite all of our government regulation of business in this country.

It disappoints me that this book couldn't have had a happy ending, but I already knew that. But i'm glad to see that the WSN scam didn't just fade away in some people's minds.

In the late 1990s I stumbled across the web pages of the Wilhelmina Scouting Network. I could not believe that the world renowned modeling agency would cheapen their brand on such a low-grade idea brand. It turns out I was right. They never had.

I did not realize that until I read Les Henderson's expose Under Investigation. It is the tale of the largest modeling scam in America and secret political corruption at the Florida Attorney General's Office.

It is the story of models who paid $995 to pursue their dream, only to discover they were scammed. It is the story of more than 2,000 consumers who filed complaints at the Florida Attorney General's Office expecting state action. Instead they got nothing.

I have always been fascinated with great sales people who can only find scams to pursue. The legal road to riches is within their grasp. Instead they dedicate themselves to lives of deceit. Henderson is a skilled investigative journalist of the old school. He spares no one writing this book.

Thoroughly researched and aggressive told, this tale leaves one wondering why we place any faith at all in our government to protect us from ourselves.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. I'm a fan of TRUE investigate journalism: Dateline, 20/20, Primetime, and local reporters who do the research.

First, when I lived in Tampa in 2001, my (ex) girlfriend was scouted by these guys, paid $495 and got a whopping 2 jobs (earning about $150 total). So I'm more than familiar with these scammers and was eager to read a great book detailing their nightmarish existence.

I've also taken journalism classes, so I was expecting not just a well documented book on this scam(which the author provides), but a WELL WRITTEN one as well. On the second account, this book fails miserably and it's why I regrettably have to give it a bad rating. I'm rating the BOOK, not whether the companies investigated were scams, which in my opinion they certainly were.

What you get instead is 60 chapters (SIXTY!!) of childish writing by a self-styled "investigator", Les Henderson. He does not list his qualifications as an investigator other than a previous book he wrote.

He then proceeds to lay out the history of some of the bigwigs behind the con. But I started noticing by about the third chapter how his personal hatred was creeping into the language of the book. A scammer was not simply a manipulative person, but described as: "fat, fat cat, wicked webmaster, the deceiver, wolf in sheep's clothing", etc. I actually started writing them down; that's how noticeable they became.

In addition, he points out that one main scammer was born in Egypt, although he is presumably a full US citizen, and another scammer was a Jew. Why didn't he tell us if the rest of the main characters were white Christians? He also calls the Egyptian scammer a "terrorist" late in the book. Writing about the guy, Alec Defrawi, he says Defrawi "decided to attack American financially." Wow. A none too subtle Muslim stereotype. Very classy.

By the end of the book, I was so disappointed in the way the "investigator" let his personal biases creep into the writing that I started marking pages where any editor would have simply taken a red pen and scratched out the ridiculous phrases. In court, a judge would've admonished Henderson, "stop badgering the witness and STICK TO THE FACTS". No editor is listed and the address of the "publishing company" and its website link back to Henderson's first book- making one think that he edited and published this himself. Nothing wrong with self-publishing, but self-editing in this case clearly was a mistake.

My other two big issues with the book may have been out of Henderson's control. First, as we ALL know by now, one of the main scammers, Lou Pearlman, is now in jail, accused of massive financial fraud in some investment scheme.

So as much as Henderson does a good job early on in laying out a history of total fraud by Defrawi and Dave Elliott and Cort Randell, it appears in hindsight that Lou was not some innocent victim unwilling to make the hard changes to improve the program; it appears Lou himself may have been just as bad if not worse than the main scammers.

Second, Henderson's whole conspiracy theory centers around how a former assistant AG (Jackie Dowd) got "fired" for trying to sue TCT/Options. But could it have been that the AG was investigating Pearlman's financial scam, told Jackie to slow down with the modeling stuff because they wanted to get him on the investment scam, and if she refused, they fired her? Nobody knows and the book was written before the Pearlman stuff hit, so I don't begrudge the author.

The other issue for me was that my ex DID actually get two modeling jobs off the website in Tampa. Didn't pay the "hundreds per hour" they lied and said, but she did make about $150. Yet Henderson does not interview one single model of the 150,000 who signed up who got booked on one single job??? Was my ex the ONLY ONE out of 150,000 to get a job?

She still feels she got ripped off (as do I), but I can't believe he couldn't locate a single model who got a job to ask them about it and offer some factual balance. After all, he's an "investigator."

In the end, the ONLY reason these scammers were shut down was because Monster.com and Hotjobs.com refused to let them advertise for scouts. Without scouts they couldn't recruit new models and they died quickly.

Yet he underplays that. That and that alone appears to be the only reason they're out of business. If Henderson's conspiracy is to be taken at face value (the new Pearlman financial scam notwithstanding), then every single one of the 150,000 models got ripped off and yet the Attorneys General of dozens of state did nothing. The New York consumer protection board couldn't do anything. The economic crimes unit of Florida did nothing. The Financial Litigation units of Florida did nothing. THE LARGEST class action law firms in the country thought about suing but did nothing. (????!!!!!) The Orlando Police did nothing. Only 1 local TV station did any pieces and they took "bribe hush money" to stop running bad stories.

Personally, I know this company was a rip off from my own experience. Yet Henderson takes 400 pages with all sorts of insider info and all he can come up with is that one new Assistant A.G. killed the case for unknown reasons. None of that explains how any OTHER Attorney General in another state couldn't sue to shut the local franchises down. Or why the class action law firms (including the one that beat Microsoft) wouldn't want to sue a billionaire like Lou Pearlman???

It just doesn't add up, much as I'd like it to.

In the end, there probably were some models who got work. But "investigator" Henderson didn't find a single one who could explain why employees like Chris Roberts (who provided lots of info to the AG) would keep working there instead of running for the door after a week. So not everyone could've thought they got ripped. My ex only paid $495. Maybe when they raised prices people got more suspicious??

Who knows the real truth.

But as glad as I am that these guys are out of business and Lou is in jail, I have a hard time swallowing 400 pages of a huge conspiracy theory as well as Henderson's terribly biased, childish name calling of people he clearly wants us to hate because they're "fat, Egyptian" or whatever personal biases he holds.

Next time I humbly suggest the author hire an editor (there were also about half a dozen typos, missing words, etc.) and leave the name calling for the schoolyard, not a presumably serious journalistic tome.

Mr. Henderson was definitely on to something huge here, and provides tons of evidence to show that fraud was taking place with the tacit blessing of then Attorney General and now Governor Charlie Crist. Henderson probably wasn't even aware that the wheels were already in motion to uncover the largest Ponzi scheme and bank fraud case the US has every seen.

Recently boy-band Svengali Lou Pearlman (featured prominently in this book) was taken into Federal custody and has been indicted for bank fraud. Simultaneously, civil suits and forced bankruptcy proceedings are taking place. Transcontinental Talent (aka Wilhelmina, Options Talent, eModel, Studio 58 and others) is one of the businesses alleged to have been used to move and launder money for Pearlman's fake investment scheme estimated to have stolen half a billion dollars.

Lawsuits allege that Crist knew this was going on, and allowed it to happen. Certainly he received campaign contributions and special favors from Pearlman and his companies.

Mr. Henderson is to be commended for his simply amazing depth of research, getting his hands on documents the state of Florida certainly wouldn't want you to see. Unfortunately, we will probably never see a prominent republican like Crist prosecuted for virtually giving Pearlman the green light to steal.

So much information and so many details! An absolutely incredible primer for those interested in understanding how the criminal mind works, and how the government in Florida doesn't work.

If every actor and showbiz parent could take the time to read this book, the scams would be non-existent. It's a long read, but a great investment of your time!

Long gone are the days of World War II when real blood-and-guts investigative reporting existed right alongside the real-thing horrors of war. It not only prevailed but shined. Why have the methods of these journalistic giants disappeared as an art form? Who knows? Today,reporters wait for "official" handouts: spokespeople to clue them in; they wait to compare press releases from the news sources themselves. And, they compare rumors they hear with other reporters over lunch, and drinks in bars, before preparing their own pieces. The true investigative reporter--with the exception of a couple each at the Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily--is as long gone as the days of that world-wide near-Armageddon two-thirds of a century past.

Until now, that is. Les Henderson's Under Investigation: Attorney General, State of Florida, is a genuine throwback to those days of yore. In this rock-solid compendium of long-running fraudulent antics at the highest level, he has stripped bare the foundation, the motives, the methods, and every other means of flim-flammery and hanky-panky practiced by a giant of the model talent agency business in Florida. Not only is the operation itself painstakingly pieced together, from skeleton to full flesh, for all to see, but the State of Florida's political side is exposed as well. Acquiescence and complicity are boldly spelled out.

Buried in the bowels of the book, is perhaps the best example of Henderson's spellbinding wordcraft, his description of a disbarred attorney's involvement in the womb of the operation as well as the political aspects of it. Read it and see. His prose is not only revealing, captivating, but it flows like the cool waters of a high mountain stream.

Overall, Les Henderson's Under Investigation: Attorney General, State of Florida, affords a front row seat for a thorough look at dysfunctional living, at its highest-off-the-hog end of the lifestyle spectrum.

All at the expense of others, this is a scam to be thoroughly understood. And, thoughtfully contemplated.

If you are going to use quotes from my work, you should cite your sources. The quotes you used were not given to you; they were used in The Wave Magazine, the publication I worked for at the time that originally printed that article.

Sandy Brundage

Mr. Henderson is passionate about exposing the significant fraud of various model scout companies as well as the attorney general's office for their sudden decision to not prosecute after a significant investigation time. Without question he is correct that there was significant fraud and something wrong with the investigation. Unfortunately, the book reads very slowly with repetitive references to many of the same frauds and connections between the many model scout companies.

Mr. Henderson is correct but connecting this into a compelling book is another matter. A 450 page book prior to footnotes on the subject of a consumer fraud becomes tedious. Therefore I cannot recommend this book even though his thesis and passion are exceptional.