If you're in the mood for a classic true crime beach read look no further than the CaaStle fraud! In 2024 Christine Hunsicker was a leather jacket wearing, mohawk donning, Forbes cover girl who made headlines for her clothing subscription service that boasted nearly a billion dollars in annual revenue. Investors were pumping her company full of cash on the promise of infinite hockey stick growth. But had those investors, including Bill Ackman and Peter Theil, used a single brain cell (!!) they would have discovered that Hunsicker's fashion business was a complete fabrication. By the end of the year she would plead guilty to a fraud worth $300m, one of the biggest financial frauds in recent history, and now faces up to 20 years in prison.

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This Startup Wanted to Revolutionize Fashion. Now It's Under Investigation for Fraud.

The Tech Fashion Darling Accused of Swindling Investors Out of $300 Million

SEC Indictment

CaaStle let CEO remain after learning of alleged fraud

Shareholder lawsuit

Good News: Libraries are for Everyone: How immigrants are finding community in Massachusetts libraries

To hear the full episode, join the Corporate Gossip Patreon and get TWO bonus epiosdes every month! If you want even more Corporate Gossip in your life join at the Murdoch's Mates level for access to the group chat and the quarterly book club!

Listen to the end for good news!!

Imagine if Gordon Bombay never had a redemption arc. That's the story of Murry Gunty, owner of Black Bear Sports, a Private Equity company that professionalizes shaking kids down for their lunch money - but you're gonna LOVE how this movie ends.

We'll also talk about Jeffrey Epstein associate Josh Harris and heir to the Smurf fortune David Blitzer who use their Blackstone connections and Wharton Business degrees to steal joy from children!! Don't worry, there's a comeuppance for them in this story, too!

Links:

Lord of the Rinks. Meet the hockey CEO cashing in on your kid's team

Youth Sports Are a $40 Billion Business. Private Equity Is Taking Notice.

Tennessee bill would criminalize harassment of student-athletes

As Youth Sports Professionalize, Kids Are Burning Out Fast

Private Equity Is Coming for Youth Sports

Bill would ban private equity 'vulture investors' from youth sports.

Now with enhanced audio!!!

Meet Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor and supreme Trump suck-up turned "peace guy" and his two failsons, Alex and Zach. They're in charge of World Liberty Financial, the "world's fastest growing crypto company" along with the Trump family and crypto hucksters Zak Folkman and Chase Hero. The WLF team might feel invincible, but this week one disgruntled investor filed a lawsuit that might take down the entire operation...

This episode has it ALL... a resurfaced body cam video of a Witkoff son being arrested for assaulting a bouncer and cocaine possession, a colon cleanse subscription business, a website called datehottergirls.com, and the 1954 Guatemalan coup!!!

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The Trump Family Business Empire Is Growing. We Mapped Out 268 Pieces of It

In real estate, Witkoff is royalty. In DC, he's the president's man

Where Mideast Envoy Pitched Peace, His Son Pitched Investors

The 'Crypto Punks' Behind Trump's Murky New Business Venture

Trump's entry into crypto opens new doors for those seeking political influence

How Trump's crypto business partners left their old clients in the lurch

Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches

Donald Trump Jr. denies rumors World Liberty Financial is falling apart

To hear the full episode, join the Corporate Gossip Patreon and get TWO bonus epiosdes every month! If you want even more Corporate Gossip in your life join at the Murdoch's Mates level for access to the group chat and the quarterly book club!

Tragic, the most annoying men on earth are fighting in federal court over "perfidy and deceit of Shakespearean proportions"!!!

Robby and Becca crack open their piggy bank and spend all their money downloading electronic court records from the Northern California district court to bring you the juiciest nuggets you won't hear anywhere else!

We recorded this episode on Wednesday evening and wanted to get it out quickly because this is an evolving story!

Links:

Battle of the Billionaires: What's at Stake as Elon Musk and Sam Altman Face Off in Court

The unflattering secrets revealed so far in Elon Musk's latest legal feud

This is the potential breakup song of Ticketmaster & Live Nation: a toxic relationship that, according to one lawyer, "essentially defrauds everyone involved." Becca and Robby bring you up to speed on the outcome of the company's fight in a trust-busting trial and then go all the way back to the villain origin story of this Frankenstein of scams. It makes us feel better to know that the founder of Ticketmaster is now miserable and possibly broke!

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Live Nation anti-trust verdict

05:00 - Episode intro

14:00 - History / origin story of Ticketmaster

32:00 - Ticketmaster enabling / encouraging scalpers because "it's called CAPITALISM"

40:00 - Live Nation / Ticketmaster bribes every president EXCEPT Jimmy Carter

56:00 - Kid Rock is Live Nation's pain sponge

58:00 - Takeaways / Pearl Jam

1:09:00 - Good news!

Links:

Live Nation employee mocks customers as 'so stupid' in internal messages released in court case

Train Wreck? A Mogul's Battle Against The Bel-Air Subway

Ticketmaster's Dark History

How Ticketmaster became the most hated name in music

'A public relations nightmare': Ticketmaster recruits pros for secret scalper program

Live Nation reaches settlement in US monopoly case

Jury Finds Live Nation Acts as a Monopoly in a Victory for States

NYC's plan to tax luxury second homes, explained

5 Things to Know About New York's Proposed Second Home Tax

"Wars would be more effective and less destructive if the people in charge were stupider and hornier" - Donald Rumsfeld

Robby and Becca swallow a fistfull of zyns and party with the teenaged Gundo Bros at the center of America's booming defense tech sector. Then, they meet the movement's spiritual leader, Palmer Luckey, whose Power Ranger fantasy company Anduril just secured a $20b contract with the US Army!!! Move fast and break things, America!

Due to a technical glitch this epsiode is audio only, but click this link for Pics from the episode

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The Tech Bros Powering Silicon Valley's Military Fever Dream With Energy Drinks, God And Nicotine

AMERICA HAS NEVER BEEN SO BACK

Investors Gave A Teenager $85 Million To Build Hydrogen Weapons. It's Not Going Well

Palmer Luckey: Millennial slayer of U.S. defense giants

The Pentagon's Favorite Tech Guy Is This Hawaiian Shirt-Wearing Founder

Palmer Luckey's Suicide Headset Is Insane—and a Grim Part of VR's Future

Silicon Valley is coming for the Pentagon's $1T budget

The Year of the Trillion-Dollar US Military Budget Begins

Matt Gaetz's Future Sister-in-Law Says He's a Gaslighting 'Creep'

Good News: The Radical Monarchs launch in L.A. to school girls on social justice, Support the Radical Monarchs

Time stamps:

4:00 - Meet the Gundo Bros

21:00 Welcome Palmer Luckey, the flip flop wearing, goatee having, erotic anime figurine collecting brother-in-law to accused child sex trafficker former Florida congressmen Matt Gaetz!

50:00 Palmer Luckey was predestined to be a fucking ghoul

1:10:26 Good news about the Radical Monarchs

If you like what you hear, consider joining us on Patreon for bonus episodes, ad-free listening, group discussions, book club, and MORE! Our independent podcast is made possible by support from listeners like you!

Trevor Milton is BACK with a brand new scam... a jet with the world's largest toilet (it's true). He's just a human Secretariat living the American Dream baby!!

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Links:

Original Hindenberg Nikola report

Nikola Board Member Says Startup's Skeptics Are Too Focused on Past

Nikola founder Trevor Milton is facing criminal fraud charges. Insiders say a history of lies brought down the billionaire once considered the new Elon Musk.

Long Before Nikola Trucks, Trevor Milton Sold Investors on Startups That Faded

Pardoned for Fraud, a CEO Mounts His Comeback: 'We Can Trust You Now''

The People Trump Pardoned Are on a Crime Spree

Larry Ellison has been weirdly lurking in the background for decades, but then he turned 80 and decided that being the second richest man in the world wasn't enough, he also needed attention! Becca and Robby psychoanalyze baby Larry, visit his failed NOBU lettuce farm in Hawaii, and fall into the family's shiny new money pit. We think this could have all been avoided if Larry never discovered samurai swords...

TW: mention of suicide, death

Welcome to the NEW CO-HOST OF CORPORATE GOSSIP Robby Slowik

Thanks to our sponsor Orange Marketing

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Streaming alternatives

Cut off the Spigot

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introducing ROBBY!

(05:00) The myth of Oracle & Larry Ellison

(20:00) I actually think I can fix Larry Ellison!

(30:00) Hi, My name is Larry Ellison, I invented colonization and it's actually not that bad

(44:00) Larry's shiny new money pit (Paramount WBD)

Links:

Larry Ellison's Half-Billion-Dollar Quest to Change Farming Has Been a Bust

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison Is Stepping Down to Spend More Time With His Yachts

Still No. 1, and Doing What He Wants

Larry Ellison Is More Interesting Than Ever at 81

The Son King of Hollywood

Everyone Else Must Fail