Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Rich Influencer is Broke Now? - The RD Whittington story

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

RD Whittington is an influencer and celebrity car dealer who has his own reality show called Million Dollar Wheels. He's also allegedly having money trouble.

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Colagard is available by prescription only. Learn more or request a prescription today at colagard.com slash screen. So this influencer is super rich. He's also in really big trouble. Allegedly. Now his name is R.D. And R.D. is really into cars. He's a partner at a dealership for exotic cars where he sources super expensive rides for his clients.

And everyone there loves him. And R.D. also really likes being in the spotlight. And he often posts picks of his cars on Instagram, you know, trying to flex a little. And one day he posts a video. of this rare six-wheeled Mercedes Benz. And yeah, look at it, it's pretty cool. And suddenly he gets a DM from a rapper. And rapper's like, hey, is that Benz you posted for sale?

And RD's like, yeah. So the rapper's like, I'll take it. And RD's like, I. And he ends up selling him the car. So RD's looking at his Instagram account and I guess it suddenly hits him. Like, oh snap, I can make sales from Instagram? And soon enough, Instagram becomes a big part of his business.

Like people will go to his page and they'll see something they like and they'll reach out to him and boom. He'll deliver a brand new exotic car to their door and he'll collect his money. And from there, everything takes off. He's hustling, he's making sales, he's on call 24-7. He ends up hooking Jamie Fox up with a new ride and soon they become friends and they're like hanging out all the time. Then R.D. gets a call from a producer who's working on a music video for Taylor Swift and they're like, We need a Bugatti for a music video. And so they rent a Bugatti from him, and it appears in the video.

Like, there it is right there. And this starts to solidify R.D. as the car dealer to the stars. And just from his Instagram, you can see him with a ton of celebrities. Ryan Seacrest, Floyd Mayweather, Migos, Jimmy Kimmel, Travis Barker, Bad Bunny, Quentin Tarantino, Aesop Rocky, Aaron Paul, Michael Bay. But you get the point. Bro is suddenly rubbing elbows with a ton of famous people. And during all this, R.D. opens a car showroom in Beverly Hills called Wires Only.

And things are going really well for him. In fact, they're going so well, he eventually gets his own reality show called Million Dollar Wheels, hosted by him. And it's on HBO Max, you can watch it. But on the show, he sells exotic cars to celebrities like Kim Carducyan. Oh my God. I know it's been a while. I love it, it's worth. So good to see you.

Oh, my God. What do you think? Oh my God. Oh my God. And when RD's not shooting the show, he's still insanely busy, sourcing super rare cars and boats and private jets for his clients. And his Instagram blows up to over a million followers. And apparently, bro is getting super rich off all this.

How much is your business generating per year? Our business generates anywhere from $70 to $150 million per year. Damn. $70 to $150 million a year? Dude is making millions of dollars to drive nice cars and hang out with celebrities. Call me crazy, but I feel like he's got the perfect life. Until. Now, you know how they say things on social media aren't always as they seem?

Because, you know, people on Instagram just be lying. Well, allegedly, things aren't going as well for RD as he would want the world to believe. Because apparently, Bro starts missing payments on some of the cars he's leasing, suggesting. that he's having money problems. And like, instead of buying exotic cars and then leasing them to his clients, he allegedly leases a lot of the cars and then sub-leases them to his clients, which you're not supposed to do without proper consent, and people will sue you for that.

He also allegedly sells exotic cars that he doesn't have permission to sell, so that's not good. Also, his dealership is operating in Beverly Hills without a proper license or proper permits. And when he finally does petition the city for the proper permits, the city is like, nah, bro, probably because he had been operating illegally for years. So Beverly Hills denies his permit request and boom, poor R.D. has to close down his exotic car dealership. And he doesn't flex about that on his Instagram because that's embarrassing. And of course, from here, his checks start bouncing and people definitely start to notice and they're pissed.

And a lot of his clients and his business associates, they start to start. filing lawsuits against him for all sorts of things like breach of contracts, civil theft, fraud, deceit, negligent misrepresentation, violation of vehicle code. And before RD knows it, there are a dozen lawsuits against him, probably more at this point. And they range from people suing him for tens of thousands of dollars all the way to people suing him for millions of dollars. Not only that, one of those bad checks he wrote was allegedly a $13,000 check to MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. And casinos in Vegas, and Vegas, they don't f*** around with their money. So they report him to police and the state of Nevada issues a warrant for his arrest. And eventually, police find him in Beverly Hills and bam, they arrest him.

And I don't have a mugshot, but here's what he looks like in real life. And he does pay the casino back and those charges are dropped, but he still has a bunch of lawsuits against him. And to make it worse, around this same time, his wife Samantha, she's sort of an Instagram influencer herself. here's her page. Well, they separate and they start the process of divorce, and about a month after that, she files a domestic abuse restraining order against him, claiming that he had been assaulting her as well as stalking her. And this investigation and all the lawsuits against him are still ongoing, so I'll keep you updated.