Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Timepiece Gentleman' $5M Fraud Exposed: New Details

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Anthony Farrer operated for years as a luxury watch dealer but federal prosecutors claim he was actually a conman struggling with addictions to gambling and drugs. Farrer was based in Beverly Hills until he traveled across the country last year hoping to gather $5 million to pay back investors and clients. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy shows us the police body camera video of Farrer confronting another jeweler in Arizona and talks with former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani about the alleged Ponzi scheme in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Blueland has a special offer for Crime Fix's audience. Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to www.Blueland.com/CrimeFix.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I've been doing this six years. I've never had a watch stolen. That's Anthony Farrer, a self-proclaimed luxury watch dealer, claiming a watch at a jeweler is stolen. But the feds say Farrer is actually a con man who swindled people out of millions. You know, keeping up the appearances, it's eating me alive. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Right now, Anthony Farrer is in jail in Los Angeles, awaiting trial on federal wire fraud charges. The FBI says the founder of Gentleman's Timepieces

was a drug addict and a swindler, running a Ponzi scheme involving luxury watches. Here's Farrer last year on his YouTube channel. I'm $5 million in debt. About $3 million of that debt is to two big clients of mine. One who acted as an investor and I used his money to fund my lifestyle. The other who, I'll just leave it at that. I owe two big people $3 million. I owe a lot of small people a collective $2 million for watches that I sold. Farrer used YouTube to document his cross-country travels.

Call me if you need anything, all right? Thanks, Anthony. Take care. Take care, everybody. Bye. That was my client that yesterday you guys saw. He sent me in three watches to trade in, and then I sold him this. In another video entitled, I finally hit rock bottom, Carr talked about his problems, admitting to struggling with addiction and gambling and being $5 million in debt. Life, life just hasn't been fun lately. You know, like the message said, I battled with demons and I've, you know, I've let stuff get the best of me and I've made a lot of bad decisions. I've made a lot of dumb mistakes. I even lied in that message about a robbery,

you know, hoping to cover it up even more while I try to fix it. And, you know, it's gotten to where just living this, this fake lifestyle, this look at me, I'm smart, I'm successful, you know, keeping up the appearances. Uh, it's, it's eating me alive. You know, I drink every night just to be able to go to, just to be able to go to sleep. Um, I've lied to my employees. I've lied to my clients. I've lied to my clients. I've lied to my friends. I've lied to my peers. Farrar continued. This was shortly before his arrest by the feds. And it was all keeping up this facade. It was not being willing to admit that I've made mistakes very early on.

I'll admit it. I got a little taste of success and never wanted to forget that feeling. So when I did make dumb decisions, when I did make dumb decisions, I would write them off or I wouldn't address them. Because if I addressed something I did that didn't work, then to me that was admitting failure. And my ego was too big. This wasn't the only time Farrer's been caught on camera. There's an argument on this one watching the stuff between fire ander's been caught on camera. There's an argument on a stolen watch

and stuff between fire and it's getting a little heated. In May of 2023, a jeweler in Scottsdale, Arizona called police when Farrer claimed they had one of his watches and that it had been stolen. We filed leads. It has not come back stolen yet. It's still on hold. So he went to look at the watch and won't give us the watch back. But if it in fact is stolen, it has to now go through the police and the courts. Did you make a police report? Because I was already out of town. They said I had to come back. Where was it stolen from? A little later, that jeweler called out Farrer. It's pretty good. Take a look.

This is no doubt my watch. Whoever you guys bought it from, I'm surprised y'all bought a Richard Mill from someone that was in no box of papers. But you bought one with no box of papers. And it wasn't stolen. But how would you know that? Come on. Okay, stop.

Are you kidding me? You just came in here and said you'd buy a watch from somebody with no box of papers. If you Google the case number, there's plenty of articles showing that it's stolen. Benfair went outside and the jeweler told police what she believed was actually going on. Okay, thank you. This is also something that happens when they look up a watch on the Internet or text and then all of a sudden it's their watch and it was stolen because now they have the serial number.

Now they're going to go file a police report, which is BS. And why do you lose a $200,000 watch and not report it? I have guys who are pulling $1,000 watches. So how does that work? Because now he'll go file a report because he came in and got the serial number, and now he's going to say, that's my watch. Yeah. If you are anything like me, you are always cleaning up a mess,

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I have a screenshot of this. Just this one guy did four videos on my stolen Richard Mill in a matter of a day. So it's not like it's not out there and the scratches are obvious, the case number matches. All right, so I'm going to go to downtown Phoenix, file a police report. So who's got the watch? They do. The owner there. Okay. I think it's the guy with the white shirt.

Gotcha. Well, the store has the watch, okay. Yeah. So now they can't sell, right? Yeah, they're not going to sell. They're going to hold on to it. It's going to become a civil issue between you versus the store. I don't know how far you want to push that. Last fall, federal agents took the timepiece gentleman into custody, charging him with

wire fraud, claiming he was running a massive Ponzi scheme. An affidavit stated, Farrer will lull victims into a sense of security by engaging in smaller, successful transactions prior to requesting or engaging in significantly larger transactions. With me is former federal prosecutor Nima Rahmani. Nima, this guy made it really easy for the feds. He's traveling around the country. He's on YouTube basically admitting to stealing money. Internet, social media has really changed the game, both in terms of getting victims, but also getting caught if you're a criminal defendant. And that's what happened here. You see these people who are flashing their

ill-gotten gains on Instagram and TikTok, and it's easy evidence for the feds to track someone down. He is in, Anthony Farr is in jail right now awaiting trial. The trial is going to begin in October. The judge considers him a flight risk, so he's going nowhere. He seemed like somebody who, in his own words, hit rock bottom. He's on YouTube saying, I hit rock bottom. I'm $5 million in debt. I've made so many mistakes. So what do you anticipate here? I mean, it seems like they have him dead to rights. Do you anticipate a plea deal happening between now and October? I do, Anjanette. We know that the U.S. Attorney's Office, they don't indict someone until they have a made hand,

a bulletproof case. And that's what we have here. You have so many victims. The steam is so clear because you have money being wired and these financial transactions and the watches not being delivered or the wrong watch being delivered. So the fraudulent scheme here is as clear as day. There's no real good legal defense here. Saying that I messed up might be good for mitigation at sentencing, but it's certainly not something you could present to a jury at trial. In one of Farr's videos, he admits to robbing Peter to pay Paul, and that's really what a Ponzi scheme is. It seems to be going okay for a while. You might pay one investor back using money from another or a sale from some item, but eventually it all comes crashing down and it collapses because the person operating it can't keep up with what they've promised.

That's a textbook definition of a Ponzi scheme. You're constantly having to get new victims to pay the other ones that you've ripped off. And that's what happened here. And ultimately, you're right. It does catch up to you because you can't find new victims. Your marketing method doesn't work anymore. And people are smart and they realize that you're nothing but a scammer. He's facing 20 years. Do you see him getting that full 20 years? I don't. I know for wire fraud, 20 years is the max. It's not typical

for someone to get the statutory max unless you're really someone like Sam Bankman Freed or Elizabeth Holmes, people that defraud their folks to the tunes of billions of dollars. Not what happened here, obviously millions. And under the sentencing guidelines, we know that the advisory sentence is based on the amount of the fraud,

millions of dollars. That's no small sum. But he's going to get years, many years in federal prison, but he's not going to get anywhere near 20. Well, it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out. I mean, he's on YouTube basically admitting to this, which is amazing to me that he did that. He documented his travels and it's all there.

It's still up there for everybody to see. Nima Rahmani, thanks as always. Thanks, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here next time.