Gina (Film Editor)
Appearances
48 Hours
In The Line of Fire
You never know who's going to show up on For the Love with Jen Hatmaker. From Mel Robbins to Tig Notaro, Kate Bowler to Stanley Tucci. I'm Jen Hatmaker, and every week, my dear friend Amy and I dive deep with incredible guests who make us laugh and cry and think a little bigger about life in the middle years. For the Love, where great stories meet unforgettable people.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So Labor Day weekend, David thought it would be great if we rented a house in Malibu. Why don't we get a two-bedroom house on the beach? And again, my mindset at that point had changed in that all of this money was about to come in. It was really going to be a lot of money, and I was going to be able to rent a house or split a house on the beach.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And Labor Day weekend, I thought, how fun, and we'll have a party and invite a bunch of people. It was a dream of mine to do that. And he also made me feel and I think everybody feel like we could live our dreams. You know, we could we're going to be able to afford it now. So just do it. And so he rented the Malibu house. He took care of the logistics.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And it looked like he was just trying to make friends. I, of course, had ordered a key lime pie along with the Joe Stone crab. And he kind of moseyed over and said, you know, can I have a piece of pie? And we had plenty of pie, so I said, sure. Then he just sat down with us and started talking. And he was quite a talker.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
My understanding later on is that he put it on his girlfriend's credit card.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So it was fun. Mostly my friends came out and it was a great time. It wasn't Shaq. It wasn't a huge place, but it was on the beach, which I loved. And my dog came and we went out at dawn and walked on the beach, which is like, you know, I pretend I'm that girl who gets up at sunrise and walks her dog on the beach like I'm in a commercial.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So he posted a lot of photos from Europe, but oddly, they were never in any of the pictures. It was just like, well, here's the Notre Dame, and here's the beach, here's the Croisette, you know, but no pictures of them. So literally, they could have been in Glendale and just downloading photos of Europe from the Internet.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So I went out and met them at the pool just to visit. We always did that. That was normal. And the minute I got out there, she was sort of pacing back and forth and clearly upset. And she's like, I don't know how to say this. I don't know what to do. My heart is beating so fast. She said, but I have to say this. Did you give David any money?
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And that was the first time anyone else had ever sort of broken that veil. Once the floodgates opened, she had a lot to say.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
She just started questioning in a way that I hadn't.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
I sent him an email, and I think this is what tipped him off. Had he been in Europe or Glendale or wherever the hell he was, I wrote an email and I said, you know what? I'm getting uncomfortable with this. I didn't want to make him run, but I said, I don't know what my finances are going to look like. I'm a little concerned about this, and I'm kind of having buyer's remorse.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
Can you just give me my money back and we'll forget about it?
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
To me, he said something to the effect of, you know, we'll be back in a few days and we can talk about it then. Just saying, you know, we'll talk about it when we see each other, which made me think he possibly would have given my money back.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
At this point, we had amassed about 10 people who had been affected by David one way or another and his lies. We all were sort of poking the bear a little bit at that point. When are you coming home? What's going on? We were getting closer to the date that was supposed to be the buy date so we could get our shares. And he gave everybody a different date that he was returning.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So I think he was starting to get a feeling, or more than a feeling, that we all had started talking. And then the night he returned, we were all sitting out at the pool and we could see his light go on in his apartment.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
Basically, eight or ten of us marched over there, walked up to his door, stood in the hallway, and banged on his door and said, David, come out here. We need to talk to you.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
He did say sort of whimpering, I'll get you your money back. I'll pay you all back. I'll get you your money tomorrow. And so that's all he had. Like, that's all he had to say. But he didn't say he didn't do it. He didn't say nothing was true of what we were saying. So he basically admitted to what he did and said he would, you know, he would get everybody their money back. Just be patient.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And David said, I need my phone. Give me my phone back. I can't do anything without my phone. My understanding is David took his phone and then ran out of the building and tried to run. I guess there was a bit of a chase on the street and they got caught up in a bunch of homeless people.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
We finally, however this resolved, we finally got David to agree that he had about $22,000 in the bank and that he would give that to us.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
bizarre to me it's fascinating I mean it's horrible and I wish it hadn't happened to me and half of me wishes it would just go away but it doesn't but it is fascinating and I'm also oddly fascinated that I was duped you know I'm pretty savvy smart person and the fact that I could be duped I'm like wow this guy is really good at what he does
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
Julia Roberts lived there. Gary Oldman lived there for a while. Jennifer Coolidge lived there for a while.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
She's hilarious. No, she talks to my dog. She doesn't talk to me. What a funny looking dog.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
I had always wanted to go to Craig's, this kind of hot spot on Melrose. And it's a hard reservation to get, and I never went. And he's like, oh, I go to Craig's all the time, and I know the hostess, and we'll go to Craig's.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So that was our first dinner out. He and I alone went to Craig's and we got a great table. We were sitting next to Elton John. I just thought it was like, oh, this is great. And the hostess hugged him hello as if she knew him well. He was that kind of guy to make friends with the hosts that mattered. I think Craig even came over and shook his hand.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
It made me believe that that's who he was pretty early on.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
He's Jewish. We sort of have that background. We started talking about people we knew in New York, and it seemed like some of that overlapped. He sort of grew on me, and we became friends and started going to Craig's once a week, and more villa people started coming. Within a few months, David had a whole little crew with him at Craig's, all from the Villa Carlotta. We would all pile in.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
We'd get six or seven or eight people even and pile into a booth.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
Or, like, what was his sort of order like? Yeah, well, they were appetizers he loved. So he would always order, like, the pigs in a blanket and the meatballs and a Caesar salad and then maybe a pizza. But yes, he was definitely a guy to order for the table. And then everyone would order. You know, whatever they wanted.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
There were a couple of men that he said he was very good friends with. They were big names that he dropped constantly. One of them was Ron Burkle, who was the owner of Soho House and Kroger grocery stores. And he's a big real estate guy around the country. And the other was Ted Sarandos, who was the head of Netflix.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
So there was an event at Ted's house that was, I want to say it was honoring his wife for something. And David's told us, a bunch of us, that he had bought a table and would we like to go? And so he invited me. He invited a bunch of people that I knew who were in the industry who, of course, would want to meet Ted. Ted Sarandos. And so we were all planning to do it.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And as the day got closer, he said that his friend Ron said, you know what? Because of COVID, no one's going to that event and only losers are going to go. Everyone's coming virtually. So we're like, well, it's COVID. All right. We shouldn't go to a big super spreader like that. Let's not go. And then ultimately, he said that they had canceled the event, that no one would be there.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And of course, two days later, we read all about the event in the paper. And the only people who didn't go were us. Did you ask him about that or no? I really don't remember. It just made sense. All right, it's COVID. Let's not go. And so that never happened. Ted felt bad that we didn't come to the event, and so he said he wants to meet you guys.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And I thought, well, why not? Who's Ted Sarandos? So anyway, that never happened. I guess he canceled because, again, based on COVID, his gardener got COVID or something.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
He was also pretty savvy about the world of finance. I'm interested in the stock market and finance, and it's not really my background, but he seemed to either pick up that I was interested or somehow we just started talking about different stocks and what was doing well in tech and what electric cars should we look into for the future and just stuff like that.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
He was big on lithium batteries, so he wasn't wrong about a lot of things. You know, lithium batteries was a great place to put some money five years ago.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
He had been showing me texts on his phone from Ron. Like, look what Ron said.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And I had been looking at it even before David brought it up. And so he said that Ron had offered him shares at, do I remember? He was so specific about the money. I think $2 a share. And he was being gifted many, many shares at this low price.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And because he loved me and wanted to help me, would I be interested in taking some of these shares that he was getting at the price he was getting them for? And he would offer me the same gift that Ron was offering him. And then he would take care of selling them. Usually with an IPO, there's a lockout that you can't sell until a certain date.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And that when that time passed, his guy at Goldman Sachs, who was going to buy us out for 26 and a quarter, that was the number he used, which he was, as I said, he was always very specific about his numbers. And it seemed like an interesting deal. And if this was the case, then I thought, why not do it?
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
Nobody was masking as much. We were sitting out together and I had ordered some Joe Stone crab to the villa.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
We were just sitting out at the pool, basically cracking open crabs and eating crab and laughing and looking like we were having a grand time, which we were. There was this guy, this new guy, who had moved in. He was sort of a, I'd say, older gentleman, but older compared to most of the people with the villa. And he was sort of milling around with a drink in his hand.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
There was a lot of talk from David about not telling anyone else. It was just for me. He didn't really want anyone else to know about it. And so I didn't think to. Did I think maybe there was some sort of nefarious aspect? I don't know. Maybe. But I never believed he would hurt me. At this point, I really believed that he would do whatever he was doing to benefit me. He'd always acted that way.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
with me. He loved me. He told me he loved me. He was my friend. I was, you know, he was so happy and lucky that he met me. Oh my God, that sounds so pathetic.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
And he said, Ron's opened up some more shares. Do you want to get further in? And I did. And I gave him a second check.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
I still believed him. I still was with him. And, you know, yeah, of course, my eyes were, again, a little big in terms of how much my return was going to be.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
I thought he would do this for me and take care of me. He talked about it so often that he wanted to be able to pay my rent for me. He somehow wanted to take care of me. You know, all my daddy issues start coming up. But like, why do you think he wanted to do that? Because I think he touched a nerve and saw it, that that's how to get me to open my wallet. I think that was his gift.
Big Time
Something’s Up at the Villa Carlotta | 8
was to find whatever it was in the person that would give him, that would trust him, that would open up to him, that would let him take care.