The White House party-crashers remind me of an incident that happened in my youth in Kenya. A man and a woman claiming to be bigwigs from what was then West Germany managed to con multiple high-level Government officials including my mother with promises of huge sums of money ($1 billion US)to finance charity.
Further scrutiny of the now infamous "guests" at President Obama's first State Dinner reveal a tangled web of deceit and hubris that only good con-artists can get away with.
In the case of the Kenyan con, the German couple had the greedy pols so bad that my mum was typing up budget requests and even ran an ad inviting applicants for all types of positions that the West German largesse would fund. Relatives lined up to share in the jackpot,as unseen wealth and riches were dreamt about.
The Government put the conmen/woman in the fanciest hotel and wined and dined them at the highest level .Nobody bothered to call the German Embassy to check them out. A Government minister traveled to London to meet with "German" officials to arrange the money transfer and ended up stuck with the hotel bill which he couldn't pay himself. Of course they stayed in the Presidential suite.Maybe thats when the Nigerian 411 scam was born because it was one of those really embarrassing actions that had to resonate with every scam artist in Africa.Many lost their jobs when the scandal hit the press but the couple got away.
In the Salahi's case , the con is more brazen because it involves the White House , the Secret Service and the protection of the most threatened President in the history of the Secret Service.As you peel away the layers from the Salahi's you find the same con.
First you con those closest to you.
The vineyard Tareq Salahi parents built in Virginia is on sale because Tareq used it to fund wasteful ventures and living that never panned out.His own parents are trying to evict him from the vineyard and accusing him of accumulating debt that forced the impending sale.
You then create false credentials/resume .
Tareq fashions himself as a member of a Polo League that nobody in the US Polo business has ever heard of,and has left a swath of debts behind from his non-profit that advertises the Indian polo team participating in a match with the US team.
The Salahis say the America's Polo Cup is sanctioned by the "National Polo League," an organization whose director says was founded in 1893 and lists teams across the country. But officials for the nation's largest polo organization said Thursday that they had never heard of the league, its teams or its purported director.But many sponsors listed by America's Cup for 2010 -- including Land Rover, Cartier, the St. Regis Hotel in Washington and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. -- say they are not sponsors for that event. Many vendors in previous years said in interviews that the Salahis have not paid for their services in the event's three-year history, expenses totaling about $500,000. India isn't even going to be there.
Problem is The Indian Embassy canceled that nation's participation in the Polo Cup's 2010 event. The couple has advertised that event will take place on the Mall, but the National Park Service said the Salahis had not been granted a permit. Yet as recently as in the emails to the Pentagon official , he is still using the US Polo versus India in 2010 tagline.
Seeming to be a good guy helps a good con .
Tareq Salahi said he had raised $250,000 for his charity, Journey for the Cure.
His charity collects money , in one case hundreds of thousands from Loudoun County to host his Polo event but only donated $15,000 in 2007 and nothing in 2008.
Loudoun County contributed $136,500 to help sponsor the event.Other big sponsors included Cartier and Land Rover. Vendors alone were screwed out of $500,000 which they are suing for.Investors were promised that polo playing Prince Charles was to attend. In the end no royalty, not enough food and the drink check bounced. (Virginia announced today its investigating the charity that just filed its papers in November , four years after it started collecting money).
Have brass ones 1.
They've been through the police thing too. Here's what a police detective found.
And in Montgomery County, a police detective said that when he investigated a complaint filed by the couple earlier this year, a law enforcement database showed that the couple has 41 records detailing various contacts with police, with the Salahis often saying they were victims of wrongdoing. The detective noted in his report that Tareq Salahi sent him paperwork that the detective judged to be false
.(WAPO)
Why the hell Matt Lauer didn't call them on any of this is interesting but that's how cons get over . Like Bernie Madoff, you need brass ones to pull off the big con. Forget the ambiguity in the emails which they want to use as a defense . They create the confusion deliberately if you read the emails carefully and guessed that a harried Secret Service agent standing outside the gates of the first event of a new President would hesitate to evict them, a rich well dressed couple , one in Indian dress ( nice touch) given they had emails in hand if the worst came to the worst.
Fact is this is the "Prince Abu" scam taken to the next level. This good- life loving couple doesn't want to work hard for its money so its conning its way onto reality television where being a conman is just another way to make a living. Shame some decent over-worked agents had to get suspended for this.They belong in jail but like the German couple will get away because people are gullible. They actually think this was just some error even as we find out they crashed a Congressional Black Caucus event too. And to mock us all they post the pictures on Facebook.I especially like the Joe Biden "smile but i don't know who the F these people are" picture. Those pictures would have been used to con some nice folks out of some cash somewhere else-see i know Barack Obama!!