Too Much Money

Jo and Doree are out reporting a story this week, so today we are bringing you an episode of a show that we love called Infamous: Inside America's Biggest Scandals. Infamous covers scandals of all sorts, but many of those scandals have to do with very rich people...because as longtime listeners of this show know, rich people are always behaving badly.

With the meteoric rise of Google in the early aughts, Anne Wojcicki and Sergey Brin became one of the wealthiest power couples in Silicon Valley. But when Anne strikes out to start her very own biotechnology company 23andMe, some critics question Sergey’s role in her success. Then, a DNA testing kit produces a troubling result that will change Sergey’s life.

You can hear more Infamous, and listen to the next part of this episode, but subscribing here.

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Rick Singer's "side door into college" wasn't all just bad water polo Photoshop. He also had an elaborate, long-running scheme to get rich kids higher SAT and ACT scores. And it all went through his fake charity, Key Worldwide Foundation.

You'll have more context if you listen to last week's episode, Varsity Blues Part 1.

Email us at [email protected]! Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music is by Lisa Brenner.

Sources for this episode:

• https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/us/william-rick-singer-sentencing-college-admissions-scandal/index.html
• https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admissions-scheme-how-it-worked/index.html
• https://www.propublica.org/article/an-unseen-victim-of-the-college-admissions-scandal-the-high-school-tennis-champion-aced-out-by-a-billionaires-family
• https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/01/expelled-students-family-paid-6-5-million-in-scandal-to-secure-her-admission-to-stanford/
• https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-kushners-curious-acceptance-into-harvard

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Getting into college is much less stressful when your parents are paying a college consultant to pretend that you're on the crew team when you've never rowed in your life. Or paying that same college consultant to get someone else to take your SATs for you. That's right — this week we're going deep on the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal. Come along as we discuss the LA dad who inadvertently tipped the feds off to the scheme, bad water polo Photoshop, and a connection to a previous episode that makes us realize that all rich people know each other.

This is Part 1! There was so much to talk about that we'll be finishing up next week.

Email us at [email protected]! Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music is by Lisa Brenner.

Sources for this episode:

• https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-morrie-tobin-college-admissions-scandal-20190331-story.html
• https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-12/college-admissions-scandal-morrie-tobin-sentenced
• https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-college-admissions-scam-tipsters-prison-sentence-reduced-4-months-stock-fraud-2021-10-01/
• https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/07/to-cheat-and-lie-in-la-college-admissions-scandal
• https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/08/09/ex-ceo-says-prison-in-varsity-blues-scandal-torture-under-un-standards/
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-22/operation-varsity-blues-how-pimco-s-ceo-fought-college-admissions-scandal
• https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/us/admissions-cheating-scandal-consultants.html
• https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/02/12/suit-reveals-elite-college-consultants-charged-family-15-million

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The $270 million compound that Mark Zuckerberg is building on the Hawaiian island of Kauai includes a 5,000 square foot luxury bunker, where he and his family will presumably be able to ride out the end of the world. This week, we go deep on why billionaires are obsessed with prepping for the apocalypse, what a $60 million bunker looks like, and why billionaires have decided that New Zealand will survive when the rest of the world crumbles.

Email us! Comments, questions, concerns — we take it all. [email protected]

Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music is by Lisa Brenner.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are billionaires obsessed with bringing animals back from extinction? Have none of them ever seen Jurassic Park? Do they not know the very dire consequences here?

Various billionaires (and multimillionaire celebrities like the Hemsworth brothers and Paris Hilton) have invested in trying to bring back the Woolly Mammoth, the Tasmanian Tiger and the Dodo. Sometimes they cloak these quests in an attempt to save the environment by restoring the pre-Ice Age ecosystem. But do they truly want to save the world or do they just want to ride a Woolly Mammoth? You can probably guess what we think.

Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music is by Lisa Brenner. Email us at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Madelaine Brockway came out of nowhere and went viral for her $59 million wedding that broke the Internet. The car dealership heiress that no one had ever heard of flew all her guests privately to Paris, had a pre-wedding get together at the Chanel Store, did her rehearsal dinner at the Paris Opera house, treated folks to an overnight stay at the Palace of Versailles, and hosted a private Maroon 5 concert at the reception. 

But now that her lavish nuptials are in the limelight it has emerged that the groom, Jacob LaGrone, is facing prison time for shooting at a police officer.

What gives? Why throw such a gonzo bananas wedding when you know the groom might be locked away? What kind of attention are they trying to command? And what exactly does $59 million get you in the wedding market these days?

Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music by Lisa Brenner. Email us at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is not cheap to build an exact replica of the Titanic. Estimates are a cool $500 million. But that did not deter eccentric billionaire Clive Palmer, a man so obsessed with the Titanic that he is desperate to build an exact replica of the ship that will sail across the ocean carrying passengers who may or may not be wearing period costumes. But is any project associated with the ill-fated ship doomed? Was this all a publicity stunt to bolster Palmer's political fortunes in Australia? And why are rich guys so obsessed with proximity to the Titanic?

The Titanic 2 was supposed to be one of the largest passenger ships ever built as well as being an exact replica of the original ship. Not everyone has loved the idea of the Titanic being rebuilt. It has been called disrespectful and a mockery of the tragedy. But will it ever actually be finished? Or is everything associated with the Titanic doomed no matter how much money you have.

Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music is by Lisa Brenner. Email us at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeff Bezos commissioned a $500 million "sailing yacht" from a company in Rotterdam. There was just one problem: the boat didn't fit under one of the city's bridges.

Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music by Lisa Brenner. Email us at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When "Bond King" Bill Gross bought his girlfriend a $1 million sculpture by the famed glass artist Dale Chihuly to display in the backyard of their Laguna Beach home, he had no idea that it would set off a bitter, years-long feud with his neighbors over their view of the Pacific Ocean. This is a story of what happens when the ultra-wealthy go to war... with each other.

Too Much Money is hosted and produced by Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir. Music by Lisa Brenner. Email us at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.