0:00

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0:02

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Wonder A Plus and the Wonder He App or

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Apple Podcasts. Saatchi. Your

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favorite time of year upon us!

0:11

Can you guess what it is?

0:13

I. Assume you're talking about Ramadan cause you know I'm

0:15

a woman. Oh God. I'm. No,

0:18

But thank you for being inclusive.

0:20

Actually, I'm talking. About Kotler

0:22

season. Which somehow keeps coming

0:24

back every single year. I for one,

0:26

am not going. I cannot stand that

0:29

long, but it does remind me of

0:31

one of the greatest scammers we've covered

0:33

on this show. Serene: A She: Do

0:35

you remember her? Yes. Impossible to forget

0:38

legend. Well put on your floppy hat

0:40

and sunglasses because we're headed to the

0:42

desert. Here's our encore of Coach: Hello

0:45

Con Artist Will be back with all

0:47

new episodes on March eighteenth on Wonder

0:49

You Plus and March twenty fifth everywhere

0:51

else. Saatchi.

0:59

Is there one celebrity were like

1:01

if they were endorsing something you'd

1:04

absolutely by it. I. Mean like,

1:06

who's your goop basically. Ah,

1:08

Wilford Brimley. I. Don't know

1:10

who that is he's the guy he's two

1:12

years ads he had like a mustache and

1:15

he be like I'm Wilford Brimley and I

1:17

die beat s okay well I'm going to

1:19

tell you about the first scam we've done

1:21

for the show that honestly I know if

1:24

so this before but it is the easiest

1:26

to fall for scam I would fall for

1:28

it and I do think you would to.

1:33

It's February twenty seventeen and it's

1:35

a scorching hot day and California

1:37

Coachella Valley. A crew of for

1:39

construction workers stand in front of

1:42

an empty landscape except for some

1:44

yucca, some brittle bush and to

1:46

giant bulldozers. The for Men look

1:48

like they're ready to get to

1:51

work there, holding shovels, wearing hard

1:53

hats and having their photo taken

1:55

in by Serena She serene. It

1:57

looks incredibly out of place. He

2:00

has a black bob and is

2:03

wearing oversized for such he sunglasses.

2:05

She's gathered these workers because to

2:07

reno works in real estate and

2:09

has big plans plans to develop

2:12

a luxury. Resort right here and

2:14

coach Hello Valley! She holds up

2:16

her phone and captures every angle

2:18

as the crew just stands there.

2:20

Saatchi I have one of the

2:22

thirty two that day I needed

2:24

to take a look uk. ah

2:26

it's it's. looks like a bunch

2:28

of them. Digging. And like

2:31

a new plot of land is look like

2:33

a. Screen grab from Arrested Development when

2:35

they're trying to build like a house

2:37

in Sun Valley? Yes! And if

2:39

it seems like something's off sad

2:42

see, it's because. It is.

2:44

these are actual construction workers

2:46

leaders for dude see, hired

2:48

suppose and hard hats. The

2:50

thing about Serene as hotel

2:52

or resort is that progress

2:54

has been slow. Bike. Incredibly

2:57

so and or Chinese investors have

2:59

been breathing down her neck demanding

3:02

progress updates. So serene affect the

3:04

photo shoot to by herself from

3:06

time. To. Pay as it were. A

3:09

for workers collector paid sexing though

3:12

and Sabrina. Climbs into her Mercedes

3:14

as you the and scroll through the

3:16

pictures. She picks a couple of her

3:18

favorites and it's hatches them to an

3:21

email to one of her investors. She

3:23

writes broke ground Everything here is great

3:25

and see headset and. Ceiling.

3:29

Extremely accomplished serene of floors that

3:31

on the ten and had spots

3:33

where Office Three. Hours West and Beverly

3:35

Hills. After a hard day of work,

3:38

she might see. yourself of the shopping

3:40

spree on Rodeo Drive. Or

3:42

dinner at spa ago and.

3:44

Your investors are none the wiser he

3:46

has, but they don't know. Is that

3:48

serene as coach. Hello Luxury Resort

3:50

isn't just delayed, it's never

3:52

going to accept and when

3:55

the truth comes out it'll

3:57

leave the city of could

3:59

tell us. International real estate moguls

4:01

and a bunch of Chinese investors wondering

4:03

how they sell for her scream in

4:05

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As. Such.

5:52

he this week we're diving into one

5:54

of my favorite types of scams the

5:56

kind that starts out as truly a

5:59

pretty good idea and the type

6:01

of scam where the amount of effort put into

6:03

the con, it's almost more

6:05

than if they actually just did things

6:07

legitimately. Of course. I

6:09

cannot wait to tell you about Serena. Honestly,

6:12

she puts the ladies of Felling

6:14

Sunset to shame. She

6:16

set out to develop a resort in

6:18

the Coachella Valley, but sheer greed and

6:20

the pull of that influencer lifestyle, it

6:23

was just too hard to resist. And

6:26

her scam exposes the dark side

6:28

of the American dream. I'm calling

6:30

this episode Festival of Lies.

6:35

Saatchi, I'm sure you're wondering how

6:38

Serena Xi's operation got so out of

6:40

hand that she had to fake a

6:42

photo op in the middle of the desert. I

6:44

am. Well, it all

6:46

starts with a TV show in China

6:48

called Financial Eyes. The

6:51

show is super popular, and

6:53

it's hosted by an economist named

6:55

Long Xianping. And Long

6:58

Xianping isn't some kind of normie

7:00

economist. He's a big

7:02

deal, like a huge celebrity.

7:05

It's like if Jim Cramer was

7:07

Oscar Isaac. Oh, that is sexually

7:09

confusing. He's such

7:11

a heartthrob that a newspaper once

7:13

joked that Chinese women's hobbies were

7:16

Louis Vuitton bags, Cartier watches, and

7:18

Long Xianping. In

7:21

2015, Financial Eyes does an episode

7:23

about buying overseas real estate. And

7:25

the guest is a 31-year-old woman

7:28

with short black hair, an impeccable

7:30

outfit, and great lipstick. Watch

7:32

this clip, Saatchi. Okay,

7:37

so is this Serena from the fake

7:39

construction worker photo shoot? She looks great.

7:42

She looks amazing, and yes, it's our

7:44

girl, Serena. And at this point

7:46

in her life, she's known in China by her birth

7:48

name, Roy Shui. But make

7:50

no mistake, her life wasn't always this

7:53

glamorous. Roy Shui says

7:55

she grew up lower class in China's

7:57

far northeast. But she always wanted

7:59

to try to get her hair done. to travel the

8:01

world and to breathe fresh American air. After

8:04

years of hustling, she's now the president

8:06

of a fancy real estate company in

8:08

Beijing. The company is called

8:10

Global House Buyer LLC, or

8:12

GHB for short. She

8:14

has about 20 agents working for her, and

8:17

GHB isn't just limited to Beijing.

8:19

The company helps Chinese customers buy

8:21

real estate in Australia, Europe,

8:24

and Canada. While

8:26

Roy Shui becomes a staple on financial

8:28

eyes and comes across as a

8:31

smart, fabulous real estate expert, people

8:33

are into it. She

8:36

expands and soon captures the attention of

8:38

powerful figures in China. They

8:40

all want a piece of her growing global

8:42

empire. So Roy Shui decides

8:44

to take the show on the road, literally.

8:49

In 2015, some Chinese investors are

8:51

worried about the country's slowing economy.

8:53

And so buying overseas real estate

8:55

becomes an even bigger trend. You

8:58

also want to move their families to places with

9:00

less pollution and great schools. So

9:02

GHB, Roy Shui's company, is in

9:04

high demand. She's going all

9:06

over the country to give potential investors

9:09

presentations on buying homes in the US.

9:11

There's actually a video of what one of these events

9:14

look like. Sachi, you have got

9:16

to see it. Okay,

9:19

well, it looks like a packed

9:21

house at a conference. There's giant

9:24

screens. Everybody looks really

9:26

important and smart. I

9:28

mean, these events are basically just PowerPoints,

9:32

but Roy Shui spices it up

9:34

by having opening acts like a

9:36

guy who mixes cocktails while bottles

9:38

of booze are on fire, a

9:40

celebrity emcee and famous guest like

9:42

Long Xian Ping from Financial Eyes,

9:44

and other legit celebrities make cameos

9:46

too, like music executives, actors, and

9:49

other big names in the world

9:51

of finance. Roy Shui

9:53

explains that GHB is a full service

9:55

real estate firm. They'll take care of

9:57

all the legal paperwork and will even... design

10:00

and build houses with stuff Chinese

10:02

homebuyers want, like good feng shui,

10:04

mahjong rooms, and walk kitchens. The

10:07

biggest benefit of all, GHB investors

10:10

will cut the line for a U.S.

10:12

visa. And Sachi, I know you went

10:14

through this process. Would this

10:16

be interesting to you? Would you

10:18

be like, yeah, this could work?

10:21

Yeah. I mean, as a green card holder, I

10:23

certainly would be interested in it, but it

10:25

also sounds like bullshit. Yeah.

10:28

Well, they go all over China

10:30

with the investor roadshow and they

10:32

don't advertise in boring financial papers

10:34

or whatever. They go to WeChat,

10:37

the Chinese messaging app, and they use

10:39

text messages, flyers and radio ads. The

10:42

audience is full of average people,

10:44

not necessarily experienced

10:46

investor types, but

10:48

GHB says, don't stress. They'll

10:50

handle everything for you. OK.

10:53

I mean, that does seem like a nice

10:55

idea, if possible. Yeah. And again, she tapped

10:57

into something that people really want and

10:59

a bunch of celebrities are backing

11:01

her up. She's telling these

11:03

want to be homebuyers that they could get

11:05

fabulous returns on their investments in

11:07

California. And there's one part

11:10

of California that she says needs more

11:12

development. Coachella Valley, home

11:14

of the famous music festival.

11:17

To really make this deal happen, Roy Shui

11:19

needs to go there herself. Roy

11:23

Shui's plan to conquer American real estate is starting to get

11:25

legs. She

11:27

moves from Beijing to Southern California. And

11:30

now that she's in the U.S., she starts going

11:32

by another name, Serena She. So that's what I'm

11:35

going to call her from now on. Her

11:38

first order of business as Serena, setting her

11:40

sights on the Coachella Valley. Most of the year,

11:43

Coachella's not much of a tourist destination. It's

11:46

a working class agricultural area, kind of

11:49

like where Serena She is. Serena

11:51

grew up, but for two

11:53

weekends every April, the whole

11:55

area transformed. Hundreds

11:58

of thousands of music bands fled into. see

12:00

performances by the biggest artists in the

12:02

world at the annual Coachella Valley Music

12:04

and Arts Festival. It's the

12:07

highest grossing festival worldwide and in 2022 750,000 people showed

12:09

up. Saatchi, I know you well enough to know you

12:11

would never

12:17

step foot in Coachella. How

12:19

much would I have to pay you to go to Coachella? You

12:22

would have to pay me like a ten-figure sum

12:24

in a currency that no longer exists. What if

12:26

Will, whatever his name is, was going with you?

12:28

Will for Brimley? Will for Brimley is going to

12:30

Coachella? I'm going to Coachella if Will for Brimley

12:32

is going to Coachella for sure. Okay cool.

12:34

He's dead but yeah I'd definitely

12:36

go. Maybe he has a son. Woo

12:38

woo. I also agree

12:40

though I would never in a million

12:43

years go to any music festival let

12:46

alone Coachella. Despite the

12:48

fact that so many people besides

12:50

us go each year there actually

12:52

aren't any luxury accommodations in the

12:54

city of Coachella itself. So

12:57

lots of people have to drive to nearby towns

12:59

like Palm Springs and Serena

13:01

sees the problem and she

13:04

has a solution. She

13:06

wants to build Coachella's first ever

13:08

luxury housing development. It'll have

13:10

condos and hotel rooms. Chinese

13:13

investors will buy the condos and rent them out

13:15

to make their money back. Your

13:17

company, GHB, will arrange everything.

13:19

Saatchi, what do you think of

13:21

that? I mean it's

13:23

certainly a gentrifier's dream but it is also

13:25

like a pretty good idea. Serena's

13:28

raring to go but

13:31

all she has is a pitch deck. She's

13:33

gonna need help with all that red tape. So

13:35

she turns to an Arizona asset

13:38

manager named James D. Clark. James

13:40

has short brown hair and a strong chin.

13:42

He looks like what you'd find

13:44

if you search businessman on a stock photo

13:47

website and he knows Serena

13:49

can access a ton of Chinese money

13:51

because he's already working with her. He's

13:54

leasing Texas oil wells to Chinese

13:56

investors that GHB finds for him. So

13:59

when he hears about her plans for Coachella, he

14:01

sees major dollar signs. And

14:04

he wants in. In March 2015,

14:06

he joins GHB as

14:08

Director of Development. And he

14:10

starts by finding land where they can build

14:12

the luxury real estate development. He

14:15

finds about 47 acres for sale

14:17

in Coachella, more than enough space, but

14:19

the price tag is $7.6 million. Okay,

14:24

I mean, that's not nothing. But I

14:26

guess it seems reasonable for the area.

14:28

I don't know. Oh, but wait, Sachi,

14:30

this land, it's not exactly ready to

14:32

go. It doesn't connect to

14:35

any public roads. It doesn't

14:37

have any plumbing or electric

14:39

infrastructure. All of

14:41

that would have to be built from the ground

14:43

up, which is, as you can imagine, a huge

14:46

pain. Also, Serena

14:48

needs approval from the city of Coachella to

14:50

do any of this. But

14:53

making deals, this is where

14:55

she shines. She knows exactly what her

14:57

audience wants to hear. Mark

15:01

Weber is a tall, mild-mannered white guy

15:03

who works as the economic development manager

15:05

for the city of Coachella. When

15:08

he gets a call from a Chinese real

15:10

estate company that wants to build a luxury

15:12

resort in the area, he's pretty interested. But

15:14

Mark doesn't want to get his hopes up. Developers

15:17

have come and gone over the years,

15:19

and nothing ever really happens. They

15:21

bail when they realize they'll have to pay to build roads

15:24

and other infrastructure. But

15:26

Coachella really needs something like this.

15:29

The city's unemployment rate is double the

15:31

national average. Okay, so Serena has a

15:33

good idea, and it's for an area

15:36

that really needs it. Exactly. And Serena

15:38

also knows how to sell her idea. Sachi,

15:41

remember that pitch deck I mentioned? Yep.

15:44

It actually has a picture of what these hotel rooms

15:46

will look like. I need to know what you

15:48

think. It's very desert

15:50

chic. They're quite nice. Yeah,

15:53

it looks like millennials who look

15:55

for musically-driven adventures, which is

15:58

actually from the press release Serena wrote up. about

16:00

the hotel. Ashie, could you please

16:02

give us the highlights? So

16:04

it's called the Hyde Hotel in

16:06

Residences Coachella Valley, and it includes

16:08

a 350-room lifestyle resort, two

16:12

pools, a spa, meeting

16:14

and event facilities, seats with

16:16

private plunge pools, and luxury

16:19

standalone villas. Plus, the

16:21

press release announces that GHB

16:23

is working with the luxury

16:25

hospitality chain, SBE Entertainment. SBE

16:28

owns other high-end hotel chains like

16:30

SLS, restaurants like

16:32

Patsuya, and fancy lounges like

16:34

Sky Bar in West Hollywood. Mark

16:38

gets excited. He thinks this could

16:40

really be something. So when

16:42

GHB asks to meet, Mark

16:44

invites them to Coachella City Hall, and

16:47

he asks Coachella's mayor, Steve Hernandez, to

16:49

come to. And Sachi, Mayor Steve,

16:51

is like a character out of Parks and

16:53

Rec. He's got Boy Scout

16:55

hair and square glasses. He's

16:57

only 32 and in his second year as

17:00

mayor, but he's been on city council since

17:02

he was 23. Aw,

17:04

Steve. Mark and Mayor Steve meet

17:06

with business owners all the time to encourage

17:08

them to come to Coachella. But

17:11

when they show up to the meeting with

17:13

James Watson, who's there representing GHB, it's

17:15

not like any meeting they've had before.

17:19

They're met with a full-on camera crew,

17:21

and they're pulled into hair and makeup.

17:24

The camera crew sets up in Mayor Steve's

17:26

office. They have a little photo shoot

17:28

and then record a video of him talking about

17:30

the city. They tell Mayor

17:32

Steve it's to impress the Chinese investors.

17:35

It's a little awkward, but they figure,

17:37

maybe this is how overseas investment works?

17:40

Is it? I don't know. I

17:42

couldn't really imagine walking into a meeting in

17:44

my own office with the camera crew that

17:47

I didn't know was gonna be there. Yeah,

17:49

I mean, I don't know. My understanding of

17:52

how investors work is probably now skewed

17:54

by who the president was. So it

17:56

does feel like something that would happen

17:58

in America. Very rare. Well, fair.

18:02

And at the end of the meeting, James

18:04

invites Mark to another meeting, this time

18:06

in China. This is the

18:09

big leaks. Serena wants a

18:11

representative from Coachella to speak directly to

18:13

investors in China to gain

18:16

their trust and open their wallets.

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feel like I like the

21:55

Grand Hyatt Beijing is in the heart

21:57

of the city. It's a five-star hotel.

22:00

hotel with a huge fountain out in front

22:02

and an indoor pool that looks like a sexy

22:05

lagoon. This is where

22:07

in November 2015 Serena holds one of

22:09

her road shows. Serena stands

22:11

on stage wearing a slick leather coat

22:13

and she looks like someone from The

22:16

Matrix. It's hot. I'm into this. Mark

22:20

gives opening remarks. James has

22:22

coached Mark about what to say, that

22:24

Coachella is a young, vibrant,

22:26

growing community with high demand for

22:29

resorts. And get this, there's

22:31

an interpreter in the room to help

22:33

translate Mark's English into Mandarin but

22:36

not the other way around. So

22:38

Mark doesn't really understand anything that's going

22:41

on. Okay, well that sounds

22:43

so embarrassing. I know, he's just

22:46

like sitting in a room talking to people,

22:48

not knowing what they're saying

22:50

back. Oh god. Which

22:53

is a bit of a red flag but also like you're

22:55

in a new country, you don't speak the language, you don't

22:57

know how things are done. Yeah, I probably wouldn't say

22:59

anything either. Well the investors

23:01

in the room hang on to every

23:03

word and Serena says, here's a

23:05

deal. Investors will put money down

23:08

for the condos which cost between $400,000 and $700,000.

23:13

But investors only need to pay 40%. Then

23:17

they can lease the condos back to

23:19

GHB and the company will rent them

23:21

out and send the investors monthly profits.

23:24

It's simple, Serena says. Then

23:26

she tells them the juiciest perk of all,

23:29

U.S. visas, for investors who shell out

23:31

$500,000 or more.

23:34

Okay, perhaps I just

23:36

don't understand enough about this but this sounds

23:39

like nonsense. Yeah, I

23:42

mean understandably the investors

23:44

have questions and Serena has prepared

23:46

all the right answers. When

23:48

they ask about project deadlines and

23:50

permits, Serena says she's already purchased

23:53

47 acres of land and that she's already

23:55

got city approval. And is that true? No.

24:00

Straight up lies to the investors, and

24:02

the person who could call her out

24:04

for lying, Mark, is sitting right there,

24:06

but without an interpreter, so he has

24:08

no idea. Oh,

24:11

okay, perfect crime. It's

24:13

pretty genius. And Serena

24:16

also says construction will start in 2017, so the

24:18

clock is ticking. If

24:21

investors want in, they'll have to pay up

24:23

now. But she'll make it

24:25

easy on them. She tells them they can pay

24:28

in multiple installments of just under $50,000 each. The

24:32

investors are hooked. The first

24:34

phase of residences completely sells out in

24:37

just one weekend, and all Serena finds

24:39

deals that will bring nearly $22 million,

24:44

mostly from investors with bank accounts in

24:46

China. Mark is thrilled. He

24:49

returns to Coachella, triumphant, and the city gives

24:51

GHB the green light to go ahead and

24:53

buy the land it needs. Serena

24:56

is finally falling into place for Serena

24:58

and her desert dream. What

25:00

she decides to do next will

25:02

set off an international scandal. It's

25:07

February 15, 2016,

25:09

two months after Serena's presentation in Beijing,

25:12

and investor money for the Hyde Hotel

25:14

in Coachella is flowing in. Serena

25:17

is excited to celebrate, so she spends $15,000

25:19

on tickets to the Grammy Awards. She

25:24

wants to party with pop stars and see

25:26

Taylor Swift and The Weeknd perform live

25:28

on stage. Don't we all? Yeah.

25:30

James is coming to Serena's house to pick her up.

25:33

But as he rounds a corner in a

25:35

black SUV, Serena sees red. She

25:39

specifically instructed James to pick her up

25:41

in an Aston Martin, and he dares

25:44

to roll up looking like an

25:46

Uber X? That's such a specific

25:48

burn. Can you imagine explaining that

25:50

to somebody from like 10 years

25:52

ago? Well, Serena's wasting

25:54

no time getting in with Hollywood

25:56

royalty. She also

25:58

hires her own on-demand. man stylist and

26:01

buys two Mercedes Benz's. Her

26:03

company, GHB, gets a new office

26:06

in Beverly Hills. It's not far

26:08

from Rodeo Drive where Serena starts

26:10

shopping at Valentino. She drops

26:12

more than $130,000 there without even trying anything on.

26:17

She tells a sales clerk, I want

26:19

this, this, this, this. She's channeling

26:21

Julia Roberts and Pretty Woman, you know,

26:23

that scene where she's all loaded up on

26:25

haute couture shopping bags. You work on commission,

26:28

right? Oh, yeah. Big

26:30

mistake. Yeah,

26:33

big mistake. It's literally my fantasy

26:35

to say that to a retail

26:37

worker who's getting paid 15 bucks

26:39

an hour. I

26:43

too want to dunk on someone making minimum wage.

26:47

Shortly after the Grammys, Serena starts

26:49

a jet setting world tour. She

26:51

posts pics on Instagram posing in front

26:53

of the Egyptian pyramids and lounging on

26:56

a boat in Paris. Her

26:58

trips are set up by a luxury travel

27:00

and concierge service for $2.2 million.

27:05

Well, I mean, what is that like

27:07

a drop in the bucket for her?

27:09

Yeah, Serena basically goes on a spending

27:11

bender in the spring and summer of 2016. All the while,

27:13

GHB continues to promote

27:16

the Hyde Hotel and residences, snagging

27:18

new investors in China. But

27:21

if Serena's life looks glam as hell

27:23

on Instagram behind the scenes,

27:26

things are starting to fall apart fast.

27:30

In September 2016, an investor named June

27:32

Wu goes to one of Serena's road

27:35

shows for the Hyde Hotel. The presentation

27:38

is in Beijing. But

27:40

June actually lives in Washington State, just

27:42

a short plane ride from Coachella. So

27:44

June can rent his condo and use

27:46

it as a vacation spot. In

27:49

the presentation, Serena says the whole project

27:51

is on track to be mostly completed

27:53

by the end of the year. So

27:56

June signs up. He wires

27:58

GHB about 100 $180,000,

28:01

thinking he'll start seeing returns in just a few

28:04

months. But what June and

28:06

other investors don't know is that

28:08

construction hasn't even started on

28:10

the luxury housing development. In

28:12

fact, Serena has only managed to buy 20

28:15

acres of land, less than half of what they

28:18

need. Okay, this is starting to feel like

28:20

it's going to fall apart. And if

28:22

things aren't chaotic enough, Serena and

28:24

her business partner James Clark are

28:26

in the midst of an epic

28:28

falling out, like a call her

28:30

daddy level meltdown. Do

28:33

you remember how Serena and James first

28:35

connected over that deal to lease the

28:37

Texas oil fields to Chinese investors? Yep.

28:40

Well, it turns out that some of the

28:42

leases James set up were totally fake. When

28:45

investors found out, they asked for their money

28:47

back. When James didn't pay,

28:49

GHB had to step in. So

28:51

in September 2016, around

28:54

the same time June becomes a

28:56

new investor, Serena's company, GHB, sues

28:58

James. Oh, wow. Okay, this is

29:01

like scammer inception now. Yeah, two

29:03

scams kind of cancel the other

29:05

out. Is that how math works? Is

29:07

it? Yeah. Okay. According

29:11

to The Desert Sun, Serena testifies

29:13

that James drew up fake versions

29:16

of company operating agreements and

29:18

that he was cooking up a $300,000 embezzlement scheme. She

29:23

also says that he starts going behind

29:25

her back, setting up we chat forums

29:27

with co-tella investors. She told

29:29

him GHB is insolvent and unable

29:31

to develop the project and

29:33

a bunch of those investors demand refunds.

29:37

James claims that when he discovered

29:39

Serena was not an honest person,

29:41

he cut her off completely. Either

29:44

way, by December 2016 Serena

29:46

and James have parted ways. Oh, and

29:49

SBE is also no longer involved

29:51

in the project. So now they can't

29:53

use that fancy hotel name to impress

29:55

investors. Now it's just

29:57

called the Coachella Project. I

30:00

feel like I'm having trouble keeping track

30:02

on who is honest in this story.

30:04

I mean, they're just dealing with invisible

30:07

things and real people's money.

30:10

GHB still hasn't submitted designs

30:12

to the city. It

30:14

has no permits to build. Investors

30:16

like June don't know any of this yet.

30:19

They're counting down the days until January 1st, 2017,

30:23

when GHB told them they'd start getting

30:25

monthly checks. But the

30:27

new year comes and goes. And

30:29

no checks. So some of

30:32

the investors, like June, start taking matters

30:34

into their own hands. And

30:36

what they find is worse than they

30:38

could ever have imagined. As

30:42

the months go by, Serena's construction deadlines

30:44

come and go. And Serena

30:46

is nowhere to be found. Her

30:49

investors are starting to panic. In

30:52

December 2017, nine months after

30:54

June calls it quits on the Coachella Project, a

30:56

Chinese investor named Joanne sends a letter

30:59

to the city of Coachella. She

31:01

says she's writing to find out why construction on

31:03

the project hasn't started yet. She writes,

31:06

I have devoted all my savings to this project.

31:08

Therefore, I'm anxious about the situation of

31:10

this project because it doesn't seem to

31:13

be going smoothly. Oh,

31:15

God. All these stories have someone who's

31:17

given a scammer all of their fucking

31:19

money. Yeah. And Joanne isn't the only

31:21

investor raising the alarm. In

31:23

fact, tons of investors have filed

31:25

complaints against Serena and GHB. But

31:28

Serena, she is totally

31:30

MIA. And it's not just because

31:33

she's jet setting and hasn't had the chance to check

31:35

email. It turns out

31:37

Serena is actually in prison

31:39

during this time in China.

31:42

And this is actually a detail that wasn't

31:44

widely reported in English speaking media. So

31:46

our researchers started digging into Chinese news reports

31:49

and we found out she'd been added to

31:51

a government blacklist. It's

31:53

a list of people who owe money and have enough money

31:55

to actually pay back their debts. But

31:57

they just don't. And the punishment.

32:00

is a jail sentence. Serena must

32:02

have known she was on the list, but

32:04

she still went on a trip to Beijing anyway,

32:07

and that's when she was detained. Hey,

32:09

wow, that's really bold. Serena's

32:12

in a kind of white-collar prison

32:14

in Beijing for months. Meanwhile,

32:17

one of her former employees in the U.S.

32:19

is trying to track her down. Serena

32:21

fired him earlier in the year when he

32:24

raised questions about where all the investor money

32:26

was going. He won a

32:28

wrongful termination lawsuit, and Serena owes

32:30

him more than $100,000. But

32:34

he hears nothing back. Maybe

32:36

because Serena's a little busy being in

32:38

prison. Honestly, that's a pretty

32:40

good excuse. Yeah, I mean, she didn't get

32:42

his mail. But in

32:45

January 2018, Serena finally responds

32:47

to the guy's legal team.

32:50

I guess white-collar prison does actually have

32:52

e-mail. And, Sachi, this note

32:54

has to be read aloud in, like,

32:56

the bitchiest tone you can come up

32:58

with. Well, you came to the right

33:00

person. Serena writes, I

33:03

am in China, and you are wasting

33:05

my time and yours. Enjoy

33:07

your life. Honestly, I

33:10

couldn't imagine writing that note to someone I

33:12

owed $100,000 to, but

33:15

we are talking about Serena Xi, yes.

33:18

Just a couple of weeks after sending

33:21

that truly insane e-mail, Serena

33:23

gets a medical examination. She's

33:26

diagnosed with lupus. And

33:28

so the prison lets her go

33:30

after serving just four months. And

33:33

Serena immediately flies back to the

33:36

United States, where she's

33:38

able to spend the next two years

33:40

just doing her business. She

33:42

buys a six-bedroom house in L.A. for $5.7

33:44

million. She's

33:47

fully moving forward as if nothing is

33:49

wrong. But Serena's about to

33:52

find out that people can only be

33:54

pushed around, lied to, and

33:56

defrauded for so long. Eventually,

33:58

the other shoe is... going to

34:00

drop and for Serena, it is

34:02

going to drop hard. Now

34:13

I feel like I'm, like, connected. Fast

34:18

forward to January 2020. Serena's

34:21

in downtown LA leading a staff meeting for

34:23

one of her businesses. It's

34:25

called Be Home US and it

34:28

operates out of a skyscraper covered

34:30

in colorful mosaic art. The

34:33

employees are gathered in a conference room ready

34:35

to hear from the boss. When

34:37

suddenly someone starts shouting in the

34:39

hallway. Outside, a

34:42

woman named Stephanie barges into the

34:44

office. She's a former business

34:46

associate of Serena's and she starts

34:48

screaming. She says, you

34:51

are a fraud company. All the

34:53

documents you submit are fake. Oh,

34:55

direct, direct hit. Yeah, Serena's

34:58

executive assistant steps in. She

35:00

asks Stephanie to come back when Serena's free

35:03

after the meeting. Stephanie shouts

35:05

over her. Serena has lawsuits filed

35:07

against her. Stephanie tries

35:09

to get past the assistant to the conference

35:11

room. Serena's assistant and another

35:14

employee actually have to jump in

35:16

and restrain her. Stephanie

35:18

is screaming, pointing at

35:20

Serena. I want everyone in this room to

35:23

hear. I want all your employees

35:25

to know this is a fraud

35:27

company. She isn't going to

35:29

pay you. Eventually

35:32

Stephanie leaves the office. She

35:34

tells them she'll be back tomorrow. When

35:38

she's gone, Serena immediately

35:40

calls her lawyer and files a

35:42

restraining order against Stephanie. And

35:44

Stephanie never has a chance to come back.

35:47

Hmm, okay. It is

35:49

crazy that Serena, who's committed various

35:51

crimes at this point, is

35:53

so emboldened that she's

35:55

like, I'm going to call the police.

35:57

This is scary. Like, imagine being a

36:00

criminal. criminal and calling the police. Well,

36:02

you have to be pretty delusional for a big chunk

36:04

of this to go through. Yeah.

36:07

Stephanie isn't the only person finally driven

36:10

to the edge. A Chinese

36:12

investor, Sun Luyan, has reached

36:14

her limit. She was

36:16

one of the people who saw Serena on Financial

36:18

Eyes and thought they could trust her. She

36:21

told Chinese media that she wanted to buy

36:23

a condo in California to send

36:25

her kids to school, and hoped one day to

36:28

move her whole family to the U.S. But

36:30

it's obvious now that it's not going to happen,

36:32

at least not with the Kotawa

36:35

Project. So she and a

36:37

few other Chinese investors decide to take

36:39

action. The group actually

36:41

flies to Los Angeles to

36:43

meet with the FBI in

36:45

person. They provide details

36:47

of all of Serena's lies in

36:50

English. See, you can't mess with somebody

36:52

with means. They'll do something about it.

36:55

Now that the FBI knows the extent of her

36:57

fraud, all Serena's lies are

36:59

about to catch up with her. Serena

37:01

has turned her trusting customers into

37:04

pissed-off vigilantes. And now,

37:06

this rogue band of investors is ready

37:08

to pounce. In

37:12

June 2020, Serena lands at LAX. She's

37:15

back from another business trip. The

37:17

pandemic may have grounded most people that summer,

37:20

but not Serena. This

37:22

never stops when you have millions to

37:24

spend on a non-existent development. I

37:27

like to picture her stepping off the plane

37:29

with one of those fancy masks that were

37:31

all for fashion and didn't really do anything.

37:34

You knew droplets were going through that thing.

37:37

I love those. It's like all

37:39

the discomfort and none of the

37:41

functionality. Exactly. And I

37:43

mean, Serena probably wanted a high-end car

37:45

service back to her 6500-square-foot house in

37:48

Brightwood, but instead of a

37:51

chauffeur, she gets a team of FBI

37:53

agents. Serena's immediately

37:56

arrested and charged with wire

37:58

fraud, deceiving investors, and disappropriating

38:00

scenes. She's in

38:02

the back of a police car because her

38:04

days of riding in Aston Martin's are over.

38:07

Oh, so sad. I know, she's one

38:09

of us now. She's taken

38:12

into the station and processed, but

38:14

she still has enough money in her bank accounts

38:16

to post bail, so she spends a couple of

38:18

months out in the free world. But

38:21

it's boring. So she tries

38:23

to get new travel documents using

38:25

a fake name. Prosecutors

38:29

find out what she's doing and

38:31

the judge has had enough. Serena's

38:33

clearly a flight risk, so he

38:36

signs a warrant for Serena's arrest.

38:38

This means she has to wait in jail for

38:40

nearly a year before putting in a plea. I

38:44

love thinking about these particular kinds of

38:46

scammers who sort of operate in wealth,

38:49

like demonstrable wealth. I

38:51

love thinking about them being in

38:53

prison. Like, listen, I don't like prison.

38:56

I don't believe in prison. You mean

38:58

the idea of them confined with no

39:00

resources to be fabulous? Yes, like the

39:03

struggle of how will you appear to

39:06

be glamorous without the trappings of glamour

39:08

that you have in the real world.

39:10

That's always interesting to me. I feel

39:12

like she would find a way to

39:14

assert herself in that situation. Very true,

39:16

and I'd love to see it. Yeah.

39:19

In October 2021, she

39:21

actually pleads guilty to

39:23

all the charges, wire fraud,

39:25

deceiving investors, and

39:28

misappropriating fans. Serena hasn't been

39:30

sentenced yet, but she faces

39:32

up to 20 years in prison. That's

39:35

a really long time, Sarah. I

39:38

would be afraid. And Jun Wu,

39:40

remember that guy who flew to Coachella himself

39:42

and only found rusty nails on an empty lot?

39:45

Oh, yeah. He filed a lawsuit against

39:48

Serena in December 2020. It's

39:51

a class action suit that covers more than 100 investors, more

39:54

victims in China, and that's still

39:56

ongoing. And the influencers who helped

39:59

her might have to pay to... According

40:01

to Chinese media, more than 20 Chinese

40:03

investors have also filed lawsuits against a

40:06

host of financialized. And

40:08

many of the celebrities who went on

40:10

GHV's road shows and legitimized the whole

40:12

scam. So what's going to happen to

40:14

the Chinese investors? Will they get their

40:16

money back? I'm actually not

40:18

entirely sure. Currently in Chinese media, the biggest

40:20

worry is that the U.S. government is going

40:22

to sell Serena's fancy shit and keep all

40:24

the money, all $20 million. So

40:29

Junwoo's class action might be their best

40:31

hope to get anything back. Oh, that's grim.

40:37

Okay, Sachi, this is definitely

40:39

the most disappointing Coachella headliner,

40:41

which is a high bar, which

40:43

is a very, very high bar to clear.

40:45

And I mentioned earlier that

40:48

this is something that I probably would

40:50

have fallen for. And as you see,

40:52

many people did fall for it who

40:55

certainly were not dummies. Why

40:58

do you think that is? Well, I mean, there's

41:00

a couple of reasons. I think one, when someone

41:02

just straight up lies to you, I

41:04

don't think people are inclined to be like, hey, are

41:07

you just lying to me? Like,

41:09

it's so bonkers to just

41:11

deceive someone like this. She

41:13

obviously seemed to be walking the walk

41:15

and talking the talk, and she

41:17

was hot as hell. Yeah, I mean,

41:19

there was that legitimization from celebrities. There

41:23

was the language barrier. And

41:25

I also think there's something to be said

41:27

about like how elaborate it

41:30

was, something that could have

41:32

been real. We're going to buy up

41:34

this real estate, then we're going to

41:36

rent it out. That's how real estate

41:38

works, you know, with the promise of

41:40

potentially becoming a U.S. visa holder. That

41:42

part is the part that I think

41:44

was probably really enticing to people. I

41:47

mean, if you had asked me before I

41:49

did the U.S. visa process, if that

41:51

would have tricked me, I probably would say yes. It's enticing,

41:54

very enticing. And you know what?

41:57

Serena might be one of our

41:59

biggest. I do not give a

42:01

shit about any of you people scammers we've

42:03

had on this show so far. Yeah, she

42:05

was really out for herself, man. Until

42:08

next time, remember everyone,

42:11

the only roadshow worth going to

42:13

is one with antiques. This

42:30

is the Coachella con artist. I'm Sarah Hagy. And I'm Sachi Kolb.

42:49

We use many sources in our research.

42:51

A few that were particularly helpful were

42:53

the LA Times article how a high

42:55

living thief reaped millions from a Coachella

42:57

resort she never built by Michael Finnegan

42:59

and how the plan for Coachella's

43:02

first hotel, Lude Investors, took their

43:04

money and then collapsed by Amy

43:06

DiPiero for the Palm Springs desert

43:08

sun. Brian Taylor White wrote this

43:11

episode, additional writing by Sarah

43:13

Enne and us, Sachi Kolb and

43:15

Sarah Hagy. Additional research by Jason

43:17

Tien, a special thank you to

43:19

Muna Park for her help. Jen

43:21

Swan is our senior producer, Charlotte

43:23

Miller and Tate Busby are our

43:26

associate producers. Our senior story

43:28

editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our

43:30

music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for

43:32

FreeSons. Our audio engineer

43:35

is Sergio Enriquez. Adrian

43:37

Tapia provided audio assistance.

43:40

Our sound design is by

43:42

James Morgan. Our executive producers

43:44

are Janine Cornillo, Stephanie Jens

43:46

and Marshall Louie for Wonder.

43:48

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our

43:50

podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina

43:52

Urquhart and I'm Ash Kelly and our

43:54

show is part true crime, part spooky

43:57

and part comedy. The stories we cover

43:59

are well-read. He claimed and

44:01

confessed to officially killing up to 28

44:03

people with a touch of humor. I

44:05

just like to go ahead and say

44:08

that if there's no band called Malevolent

44:10

Deity, that is pretty great. A

44:13

dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit

44:15

with a little bit of cursing. This motherf***er

44:17

lied like a liar.

44:19

Like a liar. And

44:21

if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy

44:24

up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you

44:26

love to hop in the way back machine and dissect

44:28

the details of some of history's most notorious crime. You

44:30

should tune in to our podcast. Morbid. Follow

44:33

Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you

44:35

get your podcasts. You can listen to

44:37

episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus

44:39

in the Wondery app or on Apple

44:41

Podcasts.