Who are some of the biggest playboy scammers out there?! Let’s dive right in and start with:
5 - The Deleted Playboy Cybercrime kingpin James Aliyu
faced extradition to the US over accusations of swindling millions of dollars through texts and
emails from US citizens. Nigerian-born Aliyu would use dating websites to meet his victims. Once they
were romantically involved, he would con them into giving him money. Most of his victims were women.
Aliyu was also allegedly involved in Business Email Compromise,
known as BEC, and likely stole $12 million from his victims.
Although he was targeting US citizens, Aliyu conducted his crimes from South Africa.
Authorities suspected he was part of a cybercrime ring involved in
money laundering, phishing, and internet scams.
Aliyu used the stolen money for lavish vacations and excessive spending on luxury
items for himself and his girlfriend. He became well-known in South African
social circles and on Instagram due to his extravagant lifestyle.
His world came crashing down when Interpol showed up at his luxury Johannesburg estate
and arrested him after an almost six-year investigation into the scammer's activities.
But his conviction wasn't going to be that simple.
Disappearing Act
Somebody destroyed information linking Aliyu to the fake identity of Msweli Velenkosini while
the kingpin was behind bars. Allegedly, Aliyu's biometric data from the fake identity disappeared
from South Africa's home affairs national identification system from his prison cell.
An official at the home affairs department faced
precautionary suspension for deleting the information, while the home affairs
minister instructed the department to investigate what happened thoroughly.
Aliyu was supposedly asking for help from
government officials with access to a cell phone he could use in prison.
Aliyu's case became even more complicated when a previous arrest for an identity fraud
case resurfaced. There was evidence linking him to the identity fraud,
but it was mysteriously withdrawn until he was back in custody almost a year later.
Aftermath
The 2021 identity fraud case allegedly disappeared to allow the investigator to
gather outstanding evidence. Authorities planned to refer the case to the senior
state prosecutor for a decision once they were done with the investigation.
When Aliyu realized the previous case would jeopardize his bail bid in his extradition case,
he allegedly panicked and found a way to delete the fingerprints.
But whoever removed the biometric information from
the system didn't know they would still be available in the department's archives.
The department had dealt with corruption from its officials before and transitioned
from using passwords to access the system to fingerprints,
allowing them to identify the corrupt employee that deleted the evidence against Aliyu.
Since most of his victims were based in the US,
US authorities applied for Aliyu's extradition in July of 2022. The case is still ongoing.
4 - The Classic Wall Street Playboy Former Wall Street whiz-kid and Ponzi
Schemer Mark Yagalla stole $50 million and somehow became involved with some wild
stories and a book deal! When federal agents seized Yagalla's assets, his ex-girlfriend,
Sandy Bentley, still lived in the extravagant Las Vegas mansion he'd purchased for her.
Before agents took the house, Bentley's new boyfriend,
Michael Tardio, and his best friend, Chris Monsoon,
stole $1 million in jewelry from the safe, with plans to sell them on the black market.
Tardio, a nightclub doorman, had never been involved in the criminal underworld. He
asked around the club to see if anyone was interested in the jewelry. When he
found a buyer, he and Monsoon rented a Mercedes SUV and met with them.
The pair never came home. At some point,
likely during the sale, someone went after the both of them.
The jewels disappeared, and authorities believed
they were melted and broken down into pieces before being sold.
When Bentley still dated Yagalla, she lived a lavish lifestyle. He bought
her a $3 million Las Vegas mansion and gave her a $100,000 per month spending account.
Even though Yagalla gave her cash, he still showered her with expensive gifts like a
$500,000 Chopard watch and a $150,000
replica of the necklace worn by Julia Roberts' character in 'Pretty Woman'.
Inspirations
Mark Yagalla began running Ponzi schemes when he was young and working
at a tree nursery in Pennsylvania. He was inspired by the 1987 movie Wall Street,
where Michael Douglas played a broker with the mantra' greed is good'.
Yagalla began investing funds from his neighbors and cousins. When he was 18,
he went to a nursery convention with his cousins, and afterward, they went to a strip club.
Yagalla's wild night ended with him buying a call girl a mink coat
using his father's credit card number, which he'd memorized.
Soon, Yagalla was addicted to buying flashy things and working as a trader. He got into
'pump and dump' schemes, where a promoter takes a company and inflates a story to sell to investors.
Once they had investors, they would roll it into a public shell company to get it
trading. They'd issue shares to offshore corporations to make it look like Yagalla
had less than five percent ownership, even though he and his partners controlled all
the shares. Yagalla followed that business model up until his arrest.
The Program
Yagalla loved women as much as he loved money, and when Yagalla met Playboy Magazine's Miss
February 1999, Tishara Lee Cousino, he put her on the system he called 'the program'.
'The program' involved buying Cousino an expensive house, a luxury vehicle
and giving her monthly allowances on a credit card. He did the same for several other women.
Then, he met Hugh Hefner's live-in girlfriend, Sandy Bentley, and her sister, who also lived
at the Playboy mansion. Bentley told Yagalla that she wasn't intimate with Hefner and was
dating Yagalla when she appeared with her sister on the Playboy cover in May 2000.
Their relationship spanned 14 months, and during that time, Yagalla bought Bentley
her Las Vegas mansion, several cars, fur coats, designer clothes, and jewelry.
Yagalla planned on marrying Bentley, but friends believed she was with him for his money.
The relationship ended following his November 2000 arrest, proving the friends right.
Federal agents ordered Bentley to return all her gifts from Yagalla,
but her new boyfriend, Tardio, had a different plan. He ransacked the
mansion with Monsoon and snuck $1 million in jewelry from the safe.
Aftermath
Someone most likely took a hit out on the best friends, which led to their double homicide.
Yagala spent five years and five months for securities
fraud at Pensacola Federal Prison in Florida.
He published a tell-all memoir titled 'Wall Street Joyride: The Story of the Prodigy,
the Playmates and the Missing $50 Million', where he opened up about his life before being arrested.
Yagalla moved to Thailand and has expressed deep remorse for his victims.
3 - The Playboy Wannabe
Former CEO Steve Shickles allegedly embezzled over $10.2 million from his company and spent
it on high-end cars and luxury purchases. Shickles resigned as CEO of Simple Helix,
a tech company based in Huntsville when the company confronted him about a Paypal account
he’d secretly been operating in Simple Helix’s name for more than 11 years.
A few weeks later, police came to his home and arrested him after the company filed a lawsuit
against him. The filing stated the Paypal account took in $2.5 million, and $1.6 million of that
money had been moved to personal accounts belonging to Shickles and his wife, Ronda.
Lifestyle
According to the lawsuit, the couple spent the money on everything from
dining at lavish restaurants, private school, spas, hotels, expensive dinners,
as well as 20 luxury vehicles that Shickles kept in warehouses around town.
The company performed an audit from 2013-2017 and discovered Shickles had
been reimbursed over $3 million for payments on his personal credit cars.
When Shickles was confronted about the charges, he refused to provide invoices.
Someone had also entered credits into the company’s account system,
which caused him to be paid an additional $3 million.
The lawsuit additionally claimed that Shickles
bought a vehicle and received loans in the company name.
Three companies sued Shickles over his actions- Simple Helix,
Deep Clue Holdings, and Alpha Hosting. Deep Blue is the parent company of Simple Helix,
and Simple Helix is the parent company of Alpha Hosting.
Aftermath
They accused Shickles of international conversion,
conspiracy to commit the intentional tort of conversion, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud,
breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duties.
His wife, Ronda Shickles, faced accusations of intentional conversion,
conspiracy to commit the intentional tort of conversion, and conspiracy to commit fraud.
Steve and Ronda Shickles filed for bankruptcy and
listed their creditors as the companies suing them.
They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a federal court and listed $10 million in debt.
The bankruptcy meant the lawsuit against the Shickles went on hold.
Simple Helix wanted a judge to seize the couples’ vehicles, vehicle equipment, video equipment,
Segways, electronics, guns, tools, and everything else bought with stolen funds.
In July 2022, a federal court charged Steve Shickles with one count of wire
fraud. The maximum penalty for wire fraud is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
2 - The Playboy Advisor Former financial adviser Neil
Bartlett conned his victims out of $5.4 million in life savings. British-based Bartlett preyed on
lifelong friends, family members, and older women. He posed as their financial adviser,
but the fraudster stole their money and put it towards an extravagant lifestyle instead.
He used clients’ funds to travel internationally, gamble, and pay for nighttime dates.
Bartlett created a sole trader account under the same name as the company he
worked for and paid himself the money. His victims thought their
money was in a safe investment account that would accrue interest. It was not.
Power of Association
Investors trusted Bartlett, who promised they would receive good
returns on their money. He used fake bank accounts and forged investment
statements to make them believe their investment was increasing.
Many of his victims had known him since they were in school,
but that didn’t stop him from stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from
them. Bartlett had Power of Attorney over an elderly victim who he also defrauded.
One of his former clients claimed Bartlett had no morals and previously witnessed the
disgraced financial adviser’s chameleon nature,
which the victim had been aware of even before learning of his crimes.
Local Merseyside Police received multiple reports from Action Fraud, the National Fraud
and Cyber Crime Reporting Center, about Bartlett’s business practices and started an investigation.
Aftermath
When he learned about the hot water he was in, Bartlett fled to Russia but returned to the UK
when his money ran out. Police greeted him at Manchester Airport and arrested him immediately.
Bartlett claimed he lost his way after his marriage ended. His drinking got out of control,
and he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on women who help out lonely men and girlfriends.
Bartlett had $1222 in his pocket at the time of his arrest.
He pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud at Liverpool Crown Court,
with another 14 counts taken into consideration. The court sentenced him to eight years in prison.
1 - Covid Playboy David T. Hines, a Floridian
small business owner, fraudulently obtained $4 million in Covid-19 relief funds after lying
in loan applications about his company's size. Hines applied for Paycheck Protection Program
loans for small businesses. He claimed to have hundreds of employees across his four companies:
Unified Relocation Solutions, Promaster Movers, Cash-in Holdings LLC, and We Pack LLC.
In his application, Heines stated he needed $13 million to pay his
workers. He asked for several loans, and three were approved.
However, Hines didn’t have hundreds of employees, he only had 12,
and his business expenses were closer to $200,000 a month rather than $13 million.
Hines paid his workers on Venmo or Zelle, and his largest payment was $3,000. Before he received
the loan money, he had 30 cents in one business account and was overdrawn by $31,000 in the other.
Hines spent the loans on stays at luxury hotels in Miami,
a luxury Lamborghini Huracan Evo, and designer clothing. The criminal
complaint included claims that Hines spent some of the money on dating sites.
Repeat Offender
It was not the first crime Hines committed, having been arrested for battery following
an altercation with his girlfriend, who he claimed stole his Lamborghini in 2018.
In May 2020, he received a payment of $10,380 and $704,835. A few days later,
he bought his Lamborghini. He labeled two $15,000 payments
as 'Mom' and gave three other unnamed people similar amounts.
During that time, he spent $4000 at the Fontainebleau Hotel,
$47,624 at the Setai Hotel, and $5998 at the Miami Beach Edition.
Aftermath
Police arrested Hines and charged him with fraud. They seized his
2020 Lamborghini worth $318,000 and $3.4 million from his bank accounts.
Following his arrest, he was granted a $100,000 bond to stay
at his mother's house while wearing a GPS monitor.
He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in a federal court,
and the judge sentenced him to over six years in prison.
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