Dance Moms: Abby Lee Miller Behind Barres with Ronnie Karam and Ben Mandelker | 34

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Abby Lee Miller was the force behind the hit reality show "Dance Moms" where she hurled insults - and occasionally chairs - to motivate future stars like JoJo Siwa and Maddie Ziegler. But while Abby was rising to the top of her own pyramid, she was also choreographing a little thing called financial fraud. Find out what happens when you text your accountant that you "need a little money laundering."

Ronnie Karam and Ben Mandelker (Watch What Crappens) join Misha to revel in the dizzying details of the Abby Lee Miller story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
0:05.3	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:15.0	On an ordinary fall evening in the early 2010s, the Honorable Judge Thomas Ogressy is presiding over some R&R time.
0:29.9	After a tough day at work being a judge and all that serious stuff, he's at home, lounging on the couch, watching TV. Cable, of course, he's no
0:39.9	cord cutter. Agresti channel serves, like you do, until he happens upon the Lifetime Network.
0:48.1	He stops a moment and realizes the show he clicked to, Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition,
0:56.9	stars a person from one of his cases.
1:04.5	Ogressy cleans his glasses. Yes, that's her. That's Abby Lee Miller, the dance instructor whose case in his bankruptcy court is almost wrapped up. Well, I'll be damned, he thinks to himself. Didn't she claim she was swimming in debt
1:13.5	and making only $8,000 a month or something? Maybe nine? Huh, a TV star definitely makes more than
1:21.8	that. Her financial disclosure statement has already been approved. She's about to be off the hook at her
1:28.7	hearing next week. And then an ad plays on TV. Abby is appearing on American Idol? All right,
1:37.7	that does it. Nobody dupes a cresty and gets away with it. Does Abby really think judges don't
1:44.0	have cable TV? Well, this
1:46.4	scufflaw is about to see what happens when you get between a judge and his evening relaxation.
1:51.9	Better cancel that hearing and launch an investigation before dinner gets cold.
2:01.3	Moms come from all over to bring their children to me.
2:04.3	Doesn't it make you feel stressed just to see that clip?
2:06.7	It is very stressful.
2:08.1	Almost as stressful as a 20-count federal indictment.
2:12.0	I can make you or I can break you.
2:13.9	The dance instructor is charged with hiding a whopping $775,000.
2:19.4	She faces several years in prison hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
	...

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