How to Scam Your Dad
And pretty much everyone else you meet along the way.
Choire is out, I’m taking over for the day, and I have some crazy stuff to tell you. —Matt Stieb
WHICH CALVIN?
‘Dad, I’m Not Trying to Take Advantage of You’
A grift targeting celebrities and a father’s strange patronage.
For much of April, I’ve been reporting out a story on Calvin Darden Jr., a convicted scammer who returns, like a cicada, every decade or so to defraud celebrities and assorted rich people, taking their hard-earned, or inherited, cash. His most reliable trick to date is pretending to be his father, an actually successful business executive at companies like Coca-Cola, UPS, and Target. Even though he knew what Darden Jr. was capable of, Darden Sr. kept bailing out his son in more ways than one.
With decades of material to parse through, there were an insane number of details we had to cut. Here’s just some of the juice:
Darden Jr. convinced his former business partner that he was close with an NBA prospect named James Wiseman, then convinced another NBA player to give them $1 million to loan to Wiseman, despite never meeting Wiseman.
According to that same business partner, Darden Jr. somehow knew Kanye West well enough to introduce them to each other.
One of the weirdest parts of this story is how so many rich people did not look up Darden Jr.’s criminal record before getting into business with him. For example, Dwight Howard never searched his name before wiring him $7 million. “Nobody told me he was a felon,” Howard said in court.
With the money he stole from Howard, prosecutors say, he bought an $11,000 outdoor TV. Perhaps, with all the glares he was getting in public, he wanted to avoid them at home, too.
PICKING UP THE TAB
Would Thou Like to Live Deliciously?
Maybe just don’t pay your bills, like Delicious Hospitality Group (allegedly).
As someone whose idea of a nice dinner out is saying “I understand” when they say “guacamole is extra,” I was struck by a few lines in Chris Crowley’s story on the many lawsuits facing Delicious Hospitality Group, the team behind buzzy New York restaurants, such as Charlie Bird and Pasquale Jones, that is allegedly having trouble paying its vendors. Lines like:
“Part of the job is paying as little and as late as possible,” one restaurant worker says. “As much as you can get away with it, that’s the game.”
“I joke that I am not a seafood provider,” said Vinny Milburn of wholesaler Greenpoint Fish & Lobster. “I’m a source of capital who offers a zero percent interest loan.”
So, like all your favorite restaurants are just stiffing their vendors all the time? Chris expanded a little more on this question:
It can be a tough business. Some people will say slim margins, but that can be a reflexive explanation for everything. Sometimes the margins are slimmer than they need to be, if you catch my drift. Smaller mom-and-pop shops will deal more with those slim margins than bigger, better-financed operators who often talk about it.
“I find when talking with chefs they forget that they’re part of the larger ecosystem and sometimes feel sorry for themselves? They forget that other people are going through the same everyday issues too,” one produce rep responded when I asked her about this. Often, she feels the need to remind her customers that they’re in this together. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in it when you’re focused on your own project solely. In turn, this might make them feel reluctant to pay on time or say, ‘This is all we can afford right now.’”
That’s not always it. As Vinny Milburn of Greenpoint Fish & Lobster told me, most people he sells to are good people who want to pay. Sometimes you’re just squeezed for cash. “It’s cash flow: We did a $100,000 weekend, but those credit-card charges won’t process until Monday, and payroll is due Tuesday, so what do I do?” as one of my sources who works at a food distributor will tell you. (Like a lot of these reps, he used to cook professionally.) “I’m just waiting for it to hit my account. There’s always a mismatch of when bills are due and payroll is due.”
Anyway, as far as bills go, there are priorities, and any chef or restaurateur will tell you that vendors are low on that list of priorities. Some vendors are more important than others. Meat over bread, for example. In New York, settling up with alcohol distributors matters more because if you’re delinquent with one, then no other company can sell to you until you pay up.
“It’s a mess, honesty. I love restaurants but I don’t miss working in them and I am so happy we don’t do wholesale,” one fishmonger responded when I asked about this.
Click Your Way Out
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