The Hollywood Ponzi Scheme | The Talented Mr. Avery | Part One | 3
Scamfluencers
Wondery
4.1 • 7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zach Horwitz owns a sandwich and smoothie shop in Chicago, but dreams of moving to Hollywood to make it as an actor. Luckily, Zach knows a thing or two about creating high-stakes fantasy worlds, just like in the movies. So he crafts an opportunity of a lifetime out of thin air that lands him and his girlfriend, Mallory, in Los Angeles. Mallory is his biggest supporter, and for a while, it seems like Zach is finding fast success… until he bites off more than he can chew. Over the next three episodes, Scaachi and Sarah will explore the meteoric rise of a Hollywood wannabe best-known for his headline-making arrest.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, Scamfluencer's fans. |
| 0:02.0 | Want to be the first to know how these wild scams unfold. |
| 0:05.0 | Join us on Patreon to get early access to episodes, add free listening, and exclusive content that reveals even more of the drama. |
| 0:13.0 | Just search for scamfluencers on Patreon and dive deeper into the scandal. |
| 0:32.1 | Thank you. scandal. Sarah, what do you think of when I say Hollywood scam? I think of 3D movies. Like, I have to pay five extra dollars to wear some dumb glasses that don't work and then I have to give them back after. |
| 0:38.9 | Okay. Well, you're setting the bar really, really high, but I feel like I can still clear it. |
| 0:44.4 | I have a bonker story about a wannabe actor who pulled off one of the biggest scams in Hollywood history. |
| 0:50.4 | By pull off, I mean, he lived the high life while lying to his friends, his family, and the world until it all came crashing down. |
| 0:58.2 | I can't wait to hear it, baby. |
| 1:00.5 | It's early morning, April 6th, 2021 in Los Angeles. |
| 1:04.5 | Super early, like 6 a.m. |
| 1:07.1 | And Mallory Horwitz is fast asleep in her $6 million house in a bougie neighborhood near Beverly Hills. |
| 1:13.7 | But she jolts awake when someone pounds on the front door. |
| 1:17.5 | Mallory is in her 30s and she's pretty successful. |
| 1:20.6 | She's a hairstylist and she's married to an actor and movie producer named Zach Horwitz. |
| 1:25.3 | The two of them have this picture perfect life. Two beautiful kids, |
| 1:29.1 | luxury cars, fancy vacations. Zach is still fast to sleep beside her. So Mallory thinks that maybe |
| 1:35.7 | she's just dreaming, but the banging doesn't stop. The walls are literally shaking. And then she |
| 1:41.8 | hears a deep voice from outside the front door yelling, FBI, open up. |
| 1:46.8 | Her one-year-old son Cameron screams from his nursery. So she leaps out of bed and she runs to the |
| 1:52.9 | hall. And outside the window, a swarm of FBI agents with guns surround the house. She grabs |
| 1:59.4 | Cameron and runs down the stairs. |
... |
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