Scamfluencers - ENCORE: Coachella Con Artist

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

With the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on the horizon, we’re revisiting an epic Coachella scam. This encore episode follows a wealthy, glamorous and mysterious business woman looking to cash in on the California dream. When she announces her latest project — a luxury resort she plans to build in the desert — she quickly nets millions of dollars. There’s just one problem: Her dazzling property is nothing more than a mirage.See 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 listen to scam influencers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts. Sachi, your favorite time of year is upon us. Can you guess what it is? I assume you're talking about Ramadan because you know I'm a woman of God. Um, no, but thank you for being inclusive. Actually, I'm talking about Coachella season, which somehow keeps coming back every single year.

I, for one, am not going, I cannot stand that long. But it does remind me of one of the greatest scammers we've covered on this show, Serena Shee. Do you remember her? Yes, impossible to forget. Legend. Well, put on your floppy hat and sunglasses because we're headed to the desert. Here's our encore of Coachella Con Artist.

We'll be back with all new episodes on March 18th on Wondery Plus and March 25th everywhere else. Sachi, is there one celebrity where, like, if they were endorsing something, you'd absolutely buy it? I mean, like, if they were endorsing something, you'd absolutely buy it. I mean, like, who's your goop, basically? Uh, Wilford Brimley. I don't know who that is. He's the guy who used to do those ads.

He had, like, a mustache and he'd be like, I'm Wilford Brimley and I'm Diabetes. Okay, well, I'm gonna tell you about the first scam we've done for the show that, honestly, I know I've said this before but it is the easiest to fall for scam. I would fall for it and I do think you would too. It's February 2017 and it's a scorching hot day in California's Coachella Valley. A crew of four construction workers stand in front of an empty landscape except for some yucca, some brittle bush, and two giant bulldozers. The four men look like they're ready to get to work. They're holding shovels, wearing hard hats, and having their photo taken by Serena Shi. Serena looks incredibly out of place. She's petite, has a black bob, and is wearing oversized Versace sunglasses.

She's gathered these workers because Serena works in real estate and has big plans. Plans to develop a luxury resort right here in Coachella Valley. She holds up her phone and captures every angle as the crew just stands there. Sachi, I have one of the photos she took that day. I need you to take a look.

Okay. It just looks like a bunch of them digging into like a new plot of land. It looks like a screen grab from a rest of development when they're trying to build like a house in sudden valley. Yes. And if it seems like something's off, Sachi, it's because it is.

These aren't actual construction workers. These are just four dudes she hired to pose in hard hats. The thing about Serena's Coachella resort is that progress has been slow, like incredibly so. And her Chinese investors have been breathing down her neck demanding progress updates. So Serena faked a photo shoot to buy herself some time. Okay, does it work?

Well, the four workers collect their paychecks and go, and Serena climbs into her Mercedes SUV and scrolls through the pictures. She picks a couple of her favorites and attaches them to an email to one of her investors. She writes, Broke ground, everything here is great. And she hits send.

Feeling extremely accomplished, Serena floors it on the 10 and heads back to her office three hours west in Beverly Hills. After a hard day of work, she might treat herself with a shopping spree on Rodeo Drive or dinner at Spago. And her investors are none the wiser

because what they don't know is that Serena's Coachella luxury resort isn't just delayed. It's never going to exist. And when the truth comes out, it'll leave the city of Coachella, international real estate moguls, and a bunch of Chinese investors wondering how they fell for her scheme in the first place. For more information on the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest

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of the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest of the latest Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally flawed me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. I think that's fair, Peter.

I mean the way in which her music comes across is so powerful no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. Fort Nina Simone. From Wondery, I'm Sarah Haggy and I'm Sachi Cole. And this is Scam Fluencers. Come and give me your attention, I'll forever learn my lesson. Tell my speakers to a love and I'll feel like a legend. Sachi, this week we're diving into one of my favorite types of scams. The kind that starts out as truly a pretty good idea,

and the type of scam or the amount of effort put into the con, it's almost more than if they actually just did things legitimately. Of course. I cannot wait to tell you about Serena. Honestly, she puts the ladies of selling sunset to shame. She set out to develop a resort in the Coachella Valley, but sheer greed and the pull of that influencer lifestyle, it was just too hard to resist.

And her scam exposes the dark side of the American dream. I'm calling this episode Festival of Lies. dream. I'm calling this episode Festival of Lies. Sachi, I'm sure you're wondering how Serena Xi's operation got so out of hand that she had to fake a photo op in the middle of the desert. I am. Well, it all starts with a TV show in China called Financial Eyes. The show is super popular and it's hosted by an economist named Long Xianping. And Long Xianping isn't some kind of normie economist. He's a big deal, like a huge celebrity.

It's like if Jim Cramer was Oscar Isaac. Oh, that is sexually confusing. He's such a heartthrob that a newspaper once joked that Chinese women's hobbies were Louis Vuitton bags, Cartier watches, and Long Xian Ping. In 2015, Financial Eyes does an episode about buying overseas real estate. And the guest is a 31-year-old woman with short black hair, an impeccable outfit, and great lipstick.

Watch this clip, Sachi. Okay, so is this Serena from the fake construction worker photo shoot? She looks great. She looks amazing and yes, it's our girl Serena. And at this point in her life, she's known in China by her birth name, Roy Shui. But make no mistake, her life wasn't always this glamorous. Roy Shui says she grew up lower class in China's far northeast. But she always wanted to travel the world and to breathe fresh American air.

After years of hustling, she's now the president of a fancy real estate company in Beijing. The company is called Global House Buyer LLC, or GHB for short. She has about 20 agents working for her, and GHB isn't just limited to Beijing. The company helps Chinese customers by real estate in Australia, Europe, and Canada. While Roy Shui becomes a staple on financial eyes and comes across as a smart, fabulous real estate expert. People are into it. She has fans and soon captures the attention of powerful figures in China. They all want a piece of her growing global empire. So, Roy Shui decides to take the show on the road.

Literally. In 2015, some Chinese investors are worried about the country's slowing economy. And so buying overseas real estate becomes an even bigger trend. They also want to move their families to places with less pollution and great schools. So GHB, Roy Choe's company, is in high demand. She's going all over the country to give potential investors presentations on buying homes in the US. There's actually a video of what one of these events look like. Sachi, you have got to see it.

Okay, well, it looks like a packed house at a conference. There's giant screens. Everybody looks really important and smart. I mean, these events are basically just PowerPoints. But Roy Shui spices it up by having opening acts like a guy who mixes cocktails while bottles of booze are on fire, a celebrity emcee and famous guest like Long Xiang Ping from Financial Eyes, and other legit celebrities make cameos too, like music executives, actors, and other big names in the world of finance. Roy Shui explains that GHB is a full-service real estate firm.

They'll take care of all the legal paperwork and will even design and build houses with stuff Chinese homebuyers want, like good feng shui, mazhong rooms, and wok kitchens. The biggest benefit of all, GHB investors will cut the line for a US visa. And Sachi, I know you went through this process. Would this be interesting to you?

Would you be like, yeah, this could work? Yeah, I mean, as a green card holder, I certainly would be interested to knit, but it also sounds like bullshit. Yeah, well, they go all over China with the investor wrote show. And they don't advertise in boring financial papers or whatever. They go to WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, and they use text messages, flyers, and radio

ads. So the audience is full of average people, not necessarily experienced investor types. But GHB says, don't stress, they'll handle everything for you. Okay. I mean, that does seem like a nice idea, if possible. Yeah, and again, she tapped into something that people really want, and a bunch of celebrities are backing her up.

She's telling these wannabe home buyers that they could get fabulous returns on their investments in California. And there's one part of California that she says needs more development. Coachella Valley, home of the famous music festival. But to really make this deal happen, Roy Shui needs to go there herself. Roy Shui's plan to conquer American real estate is starting to get licks.

She moves from Beijing to Southern California. And now that she's in the US, she starts going by another name, Serena She. So that's what I'm gonna call her from now on. Her first order of business as Serena, setting her sights on the Coachella Valley. Most of the year, Coachella's not much of a tourist destination. It's a working class, agricultural area,

kinda like where Serena grew up. But for two weekends every April, the whole area transforms. Hundreds of thousands of music bands fled into sea performances by the biggest artists in the world at the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It's the highest-grossing festival worldwide, and in 2022, 750,000 people showed up. Sachi, I know you well enough to know

you would never step foot in Coachella. How much would I have to pay you to go to Coachella? You would have to pay me like a 10 figure sum in a currency that no longer exists. What if Will, whatever his name is, was going with you? Will for Brimley? Will for Brimley's going to Coachella? I'm going to Coachella.

Will for Brimley's going to Coachella, for sure. full for brimley's going to coach. I'll for sure Okay, cool. He's dead, but yeah, I definitely go. Maybe he has a son. Woo. Woo. I also agree though I would never in a million years go to any music festival let alone Coachella Despite the fact that so many people besides us go each year There actually aren't any luxury accommodations in the city of Coachella itself. So lots of people have to drive to nearby towns like Palm Springs, and Serena sees the problem and she has a solution. She wants to build Coachella's first-ever luxury housing development.

It'll have condos and hotel rooms. Chinese investors will buy the condos and rent them out to make their money back. Here at company, GHB will arrange everything. Sachi, what do you think of that? Ah, I mean, it's certainly a gentrifier's dream, but it is also like a pretty good idea. Serena is raring to go, but all she has is a pitch deck.

She's going to need help with all that red tape. So she turns to an Arizona asset manager named James D. Clark. James has short brown hair and a strong chin. He looks like what you'd find if you search Businessman on a stock photo website. And he knows Serena can access a ton of Chinese money because he's already working with her. He's leasing Texas oil wells to Chinese investors that GHB finds for him. So when he hears about her plans for Coachella, he sees major dollar signs. And he wants in.

In March 2015, he joins GHB as director of development. And he starts by finding land where they can build the luxury real estate development. He finds about 47 acres for sale in Coachella. More than enough space, but the price tag is $7.6 million. Okay, I mean that's not nothing, but I guess it seems reasonable for the area? I don't know. Oh, but wait, Sachi, this land, it's not exactly ready to go. It doesn't connect to any public roads. It doesn't have any plumbing or electric infrastructure. All of that would have to be built from the ground up, which is, as you can imagine, a huge pain.

Also, Serena needs approval from the city of Coachella to do any of this. But making deals, this is where she shines. She knows exactly what her audience wants to hear. Mark Weber is a tall, mild-mannered white guy who works as the economic development manager for the city of Coachella. When he gets a call from a Chinese real estate company that wants to build a luxury resort in the area,

he's pretty interested. But Mark doesn't want to get his hopes up. Developers have come and gone over the years and nothing ever really happens. They bail when they realize they'll have to pay to build roads and other infrastructure. But Coachella really needs something like this. The city's unemployment rate is double the national average. Okay, so Serena has a good idea and it's for an area that really needs it. Exactly. And Serena also knows how to sell her idea. Sachi, remember that pitch deck I mentioned? Yeah.

It actually has a picture of what these hotel rooms will look like. I need to know what you think. It's very desert chic. They're quite nice. Yeah, it looks like millennials who look for musically driven adventures, which is actually from the press release Serena wrote up about the hotel.

Sachi, could you please give us the highlights? So it's called the Hyde Hotel in Residence's Coachella Valley, and it includes a 350-room lifestyle resort, two pools, a spa, meeting and event facilities, suites with private plunge pools and luxury standalone villas. Plus, the press release announces that GHB is working with the luxury hospitality chain,

SBE Entertainment. SBE owns other high-end hotel chains like SLS, restaurants like Katsuya, and fancy lounges like Sky Bar and West Hollywood. Mark gets excited. He thinks this could really be something. So when GHB asks to meet, Mark invites them to Coachella City Hall, and he asks Coachella's mayor, Steve Hernandez, to come too. And Sachi, Mayor Steve is like a character out of Parks and Rec. He's got Boy Scout hair and square glasses. He's only 32 and in his second

year as mayor, but he's been on City Council since he was 23. Aww Steve. Mark and Mayor Steve meet with business owners all the time to encourage them to come to Coachella. But when they show up to the meeting with James Watson, who's there representing GHB, it's not like any meeting they've had before. They're met with a full-on camera crew, and they're pulled into hair and makeup. The camera crew sets up in Mayor Steve's office.

They have a little photo shoot, and they record a video of him talking about the city. They tell Mayor Steve it's to impress the Chinese investors. It's a little awkward, but they figure maybe this is how overseas investment works? Is it? I don't know. I couldn't really imagine walking into a meeting in my own office with the camera crew that I didn't know was going to be there. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. My understanding of how investors work is probably now skewed by like who the president

was. So it does feel like something that would happen in America very recently. Well, fair. And at the end of the meeting, James invites Mark to another meeting this time in China. This is the big leagues. Serena wants a representative from Coachella to speak directly to investors in China, to gain their trust and open their wallets. Get ready for puck drop at BetMGM, an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League.

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inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made Badminton sexy. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about? No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? Okay, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right, it's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all, but behind the trademark dark sunglasses

is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery App. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast British Scandal. On our latest series The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him I hear you say, but there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually

sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What Insued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and add free on Wondry Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondry App. The Real Housewives franchise bought some pretty iconic rivalries, but there has never been a fallout as explosive and dramatic as the feud between Candy Burris and Phaedra Parks of the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Dis and Tal is a podcast from Wondry hosted by comedians Sydney Battle and Matt Bellisai.

Each hilarious episode will take you through one of pop culture's most iconic celebrity feuds, and there's no shortage of Housewives rivalries. Candy and Phaedra went from TV besties to sworn mortal enemies. The relationship ended with a criminal allegation that rocked Bravo and its fandom for years to come. So, how did they get there? Dis and Tell tries to get to the bottom of the fallout and also looks at all the iconic drama of the season nine reunion.

Follow Dis and Tell on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Dis and Tell early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. And I feel like a legend. The Grand Hyatt Beijing is in the heart of the city. It's a five-star hotel with a huge fountain out in front and an indoor pool that looks like a sexy lagoon.

This is where in November 2015, Serena holds one of her road shows. Serena stands on stage wearing a slick leather coat. She looks like someone from The Matrix. It's hot. I'm into this. Mark gives the opening remarks. James has coached Mark about what to say. That Coachella is a young, vibrant, growing community

with high demand for resorts. And get this. There's an interpreter in the room to help translate Mark's English into Mandarin, but not the other way around. So Mark doesn't really understand anything that's going on. Okay, well that sounds so embarrassing.

I know, he's just like sitting in a room talking to people, not knowing what they're saying back. Oh God. Which is a bit of a red flag, but also like you're in a new country, you don't speak the language. Like you don't know how things are done. Yeah, I probably wouldn't say anything either.

Well, the investors in the room hang on to every word. And Serena says, here's the deal. Investors will put money down for the condos, which costs between $400,000 and $700,000. But investors only need to pay 40%. Then they can lease the condos back to DHB and the company will run them out and send the investors monthly profits. It's simple, Serena says.

Then she tells them the juiciest perk of all, US visas. For investors who shell out $500,000 or more. Okay, perhaps I just don't understand enough about this, but this sounds like nonsense. Yeah, I mean, understandably, the investors have questions. And Serena has repaired all the right answers. When they ask about project deadlines and permits, Serena says she's already purchased 47 acres of land

and that she's already got city approval. And is that true? No. Serena straight up lies to the investors and the person who could call her out for lying, Mark, is sitting right there but without an interpreter so he has no idea. Oh, okay. Perfect crime. It's pretty genius and Serena also says construction will start in 2017. So the clock is ticking. If investors want in, they'll have to pay up now. But she'll make it easy on them.

She tells them they can pay in multiple installments of just under $50,000 each. The investors are hooked. The first phase of residence is completely sells out in just one weekend. In all, Serena signs deals that will bring nearly $22 million, mostly from investors with bank accounts in China. Mark is thrilled. He returns to Coachella triumphant, and the city gives GHB the green light to go ahead and buy the land it needs. Everything is finally falling into place for Serena and her desert dream. But what she decides to do next will set off an international scandal.

It's February 15th, 2016, two months after Serena's presentation in Beijing and investor money for the Hyde Hotel in Coachella is flowing in. and investor money for the hide hotel in Coachella is flowing in. Serena's excited to celebrate. So she spends $15,000 on tickets to the Grammy Awards. She wants a party with pop stars and see Taylor Swift and the weekend performed live on stage. Don't we all? Yeah. James is coming to Serena's house to pick her up.

But as he rounds a corner in a black SUV, Serena sees red. She specifically instructed James to pick her up in an Aston Martin, and he dares to roll up looking like an Uber X? That's such a specific burn. Can you imagine explaining that to somebody from like 10 years ago? While Serena is wasting no time

getting in with Hollywood royalty. She also hires her own on-demand stylist and buys two Mercedes Benzes. Her company, GHB, gets a new office in Beverly Hills. It's not far from Rodeo Drive, where Serena starts shopping at Valentino. She drops more than $130,000 there, without even trying anything on. She tells a sales clerk, I want this, this, this, this. She's channeling Julia Roberts and Pretty Woman,

you know, that scene where she's all loaded up on Oak Couture shopping bags. You work on commission, right? Yes. Big mistake. Big. Huge. Yeah, big mistake.

It's literally my fantasy to say that to a retail worker who's getting paid 15 bucks an hour I too want to dunk on someone making minimum wage Shortly after the Grammys Serena starts a jet-setting world tour She posts pics on Instagram posing in front of the Egyptian pyramids and lounging on a boat in Paris. Her trips are set up by luxury travel and concierge service for $2.2 million. Well, I mean, what is that? Like a drop in the bucket for her? Yeah.

Serena basically goes on a spending bender in the spring and summer of 2016. All the while, GHB continues to promote the hide hotel and residences, snagging new investors in China. But if Serena's life looks glam as hell on Instagram, behind the scenes, things are starting to fall apart, fast. In September 2016, an investor named Jun Wu goes to one of Serena's road shows for the Hyde Hotel. The presentation is in Beijing, but Jun actually lives in Washington State, just a short plane

ride from Coachella. So Jun can rent his condo and use it as a vacation spot. In the presentation, Serena says the whole project is on track to be mostly completed by the end of the year. So Jun signs up. He wires GHB about $180,000, thinking he'll start seeing returns in just a few months. But what June and other investors don't know is that construction hasn't even started on the luxury housing development.

In fact, Serena's only managed to buy 20 acres of land, less than half of what they need. Okay, this is starting to feel like it's going to fall apart. And if things aren't chaotic enough, Serena and her business partner James Clark are in the midst of an epic falling out, like a call her daddy-level mountdown. Do you remember how Serena and James first connected over that deal to lease the Texas oil fields to Chinese investors? Yep.

Well, it turns out that some of the leases James set up were totally fake. When investors found out, they asked for their money back. When James didn't pay, GHB had to step in. So in September 2016, around the same time June becomes a new investor, Serena's company, GHB, sues James. Oh wow, okay, this is like scammer inception now. Yeah, two scams kind of cancel the other out. Is that how math works?

Is it? Yeah. Okay. According to the Desert Sun, Serena testifies that James drew up fake versions of company operating agreements, and that he was cooking up a $300,000 embezzlement scheme. She also says that he starts going behind her back, setting up WeChat forums with Coachella investors. He told them GHB isn't solvent and unable to develop the project, and a bunch of those investors demand refunds. James claims that when he discovered Serena

was not an honest person, he cut her off completely. Either way, by December 2016, Serena and James have parted ways. Oh, and SBE is also no longer involved in the project. So now they can't use that fancy hotel name to impress investors. Now it's just called the Coachella Project. I feel like I'm having trouble keeping track on who is honest in this story.

I mean, they're just dealing with invisible things and real people's money. GHB still hasn't submitted designs to the city and has no permits to build. Investors like June don't know any of this yet. They're counting down the days until January 1st, 2017, when GHB told them they'd start getting monthly checks. But the new year comes and goes and no checks. So some of the investors, like June, start taking matters into their own hands.

And what they find is worse than they could ever have imagined. As the months go by, Serena's construction deadlines come and go. And Serena is nowhere to be found. Her investors are starting to panic. In December 2017, nine months after June calls it quits on the Coachella project, a Chinese investor named Joanne sends a letter to the city of Coachella. She says she's writing to find out why construction on the project hasn't started yet. She writes,

I have devoted all my savings to this project. Therefore, I'm anxious about the situation of this project because it doesn't seem to be going smoothly. Oh God, all these stories have someone who's given a scammer all of their fucking money. Yeah, and Joanne isn't the only investor raising the alarm. In fact, tons of investors have filed complaints against Serena and GHB. But Serena, she is totally MIA.

And it's not just because she's jet-setting and hasn't had the chance to check email. It turns out Serena is actually in prison during this time, in China. And this is actually a detail that wasn't widely reported in English-speaking media. So our researchers started digging into Chinese news reports, and we found out she'd been added to a government blacklist. It's a list of people who owe money and have enough money to actually pay back their debts, but they just don't. And the punishment is a jail sentence. Serena must have known she was on the list, but she still went on a trip to Beijing anyway, and that's when she was detained.

Okay, wow, that's really bold. Serena's in a kind of white-collar prison in Beijing for months. Serena's in a kind of white-collar prison in Beijing for months. Meanwhile, one of her former employees in the US is trying to track her down. Serena fired him earlier in the year when he raised questions about where all the investor money was going. He won a wrongful termination lawsuit, and Serena owes him more than $100,000. But he hears nothing back. Maybe because Serena's a little busy being in prison. Honestly, that's a pretty good excuse. Yeah, I mean, she didn't get his mail. But in January 2018, Serena finally responds to the guy's legal team. I guess white collar prison does

actually have email. And Sachi, this note has to be read aloud in like the bitchiest tone you can come up with. Well, you came to the right person. Serena writes, I am in China and you are wasting my time and yours. Enjoy your life. Honestly, I couldn't imagine writing that note to someone I owed a hundred thousand dollars to, but we are talking about Serena Shee. Yes. Just a couple of weeks after sending that truly insane email, Serena gets a medical examination.

She's diagnosed with lupus, and so the prison lets her go after serving just four months. And Serena immediately flies back to the United States, where she's able to spend the next two years just doing her business. She buys a six bedroom house in LA for $5.7 million. She's fully moving forward as if nothing is wrong. But Serena's about to find out

that people can only be pushed around, lied to, and defrauded for so long. Eventually, the other shoe is going to drop, and for Serena, it is going to drop hard. Fast forward to January 2020. Serena's in downtown LA leading a staff meeting for one of her businesses. It's called Be Home U.S. and it operates out of a skyscraper covered in colorful mosaic art. The employees are gathered in a conference room, ready to hear from the boss. When suddenly, someone starts shouting in the hallway.

Outside, a woman named Stephanie barges into the office. She's a former business associate of Serena's, and she starts screaming. She says, you are a fraud company. All the documents you submit are fake. Ooh, direct, direct hit. Yeah, Serena's executive assistant steps in. She asks Stephanie to come back when Serena's free after the meeting.

Stephanie shouts over her. Serena has lawsuits filed against her. Stephanie tries to get past the assistant to the conference room. Serena's assistant and another employee actually have to jump in and restrain her. Stephanie is screaming, pointing at Serena. I want everyone in this room to hear. I want all your employees to know this is a fraud company. She isn't going to pay you. Eventually Stephanie leaves the office

but she tells them she'll be back tomorrow. Once she's gone, Serena immediately calls her lawyer and files a restraining order against Stephanie. And Stephanie never has a chance to come back. Hmm, okay. It is crazy that Serena, who's committed various crimes at this point, is so emboldened that she's like,

I'm gonna call the police. This is scary. Like imagine being a criminal and calling the police. Well, you have to be pretty delusional for a big chunk of this to go through. Yeah. Stephanie isn't the only person finally driven to the edge.

A Chinese investor, Sun Luyan, has reached her limit. She was one of the people who saw Serena on financial eyes and thought they could trust her. She told Chinese media that she wanted to buy a condo in California to send her kids to school and hoped one day to move her whole family to the US. But it's obvious now that it's not going to happen, at least not with the Coachella project. So, she and a few other Chinese investors decide to take action.

The group actually flies to Los Angeles to meet with the FBI in person. They provide details of all of Serena's lies in English. See, you can't mess with somebody with memes. They'll do something about it. Now that the FBI knows the extent of her fraud, all Serena's lies are about to catch up with means. They'll do something about it. Now that the FBI knows the extent of her fraud, all Serena's lies are about to catch up with her. Serena has turned her trusting customers into pissed-off vigilantes, and now this rogue band of investors is ready to pounce. In June 2020, Serena lands at LAX. She's back from another business trip. The pandemic may have

grounded most people that summer, but not Serena. Business never stops when you have millions to spend on a non-existent development. I like to picture her stepping off the plane with like one of those fancy masks that were all for fashion and didn't really do anything. Like, you knew droplets were going through that thing, you know what I mean? I love those. It's like all the discomfort and none of the functionality. Exactly.

And I mean, Serena probably wanted a high-end car service back to her 6,500-square-foot house in Brentwood. But instead of a chauffeur, she gets a team of FBI agents. Serena's immediately arrested and charged with wire fraud, deceiving investors, and misappropriating funds. She's in the back of a police car because her days of riding in Aston Martins are over. Oh, so sad.

I know, she's one of us now. She's taken into the station and processed, but she still has enough money in her bank accounts to post bail, so she spends a couple of months out in the free world. But it's boring, so she tries to get new travel documents using a fake name. Prosecutors find out what she's doing

and the judge has had enough. Serena's clearly a flight risk, so he signs a warrant for Serena's arrest. This means she has to wait in jail for nearly a year before putting in a plea. I love thinking about these particular kinds of scammers who sort of operate in wealth, like demonstrable wealth. I love thinking about them being in prison.

Like, listen, I don't like prison. I don't believe in prison. You mean the idea of them confined with no resources to be fabulous? Yes, like the struggle of how will you appear to be glamorous without the trappings of glamour that you have in the real world. That's always interesting to me.

I feel like she would find a way to assert herself in that situation. Very true, and I'd love to see it. Yeah. In October 2021, she actually pleads guilty to all the charges, wire fraud, deceiving investors, and misappropriating funds. Serena hasn't been sentenced yet, but she faces up to 20 years in prison. Uh, that's a really long time, Sarah. I would be afraid.

And Jun Wu, remember that guy who flew to Coachella himself and only found rusty nails on an empty lot? Oh yeah. He filed a lawsuit against Serena in December 2020. It's a class action suit that covers more than 100 investors, including her victims in China, and that still ongoing. And the influencers who helped her might have to pay too. According to Chinese media, more than 20 Chinese investors have also filed lawsuits against

a host of financial eyes, and many of the celebrities who went on GHB's roadshows and legitimized the whole scam. So what's going to happen to the Chinese investors? Like, will they get their money back? I'm actually not entirely sure. Currently in Chinese media, the biggest worry is that the US government is going to sell Serena's fancy shit and keep all the money, all $20 million. So Junwu's class action might be their best hope to get anything back. Oh, that's grim.

to get anything back. Oh, that's grim. Okay, Sachi, this is definitely the most disappointing Coachella headliner, which is a high bar. It was just a very, very high bar to clear. And I mentioned earlier that this is something that I probably would have fallen for. And as you see, many people did fall for it, who certainly were not dummies. Why do you think that is? Well, I mean, there's a couple of reasons.

I think one, when someone just straight up lies to you, I don't think people are inclined to be like, hey, are you just lying to me? Like it's so bonkers to just deceive someone like this. She obviously seemed to be walking the walk and talking the talk, and she was hot as hell. Yeah, I mean, there was that legitimization from celebrities. There was the language barrier. And I also think there's something to be said about like how elaborate it

was, something that could have been real. We're going to buy up this real estate, then we're going to rent it out. That's how real estate works, you know, with the promise of potentially becoming a US visa holder. That part is the part that I think was probably really enticing to people. I mean, if you had asked me before I did the US visa process, if that would have tricked me, I probably would say yes.

It's enticing, very enticing. And you know what? Serena might be one of our biggest, I do not give a shit about any of you people, scammers we've had on this show so far. Yeah, she was really out for herself, man. Until next time, remember everyone. The only road show worth going to is one with antiques.

road show worth going to is one with antiques. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at WunderEat.com slash survey. This is the Coachella Con Artist. I'm Sarah Hagee. And I'm Saachi Cole. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were the LA Times article, How a High Living Thief Reaped Millions from a Coachella Res resort she never built by Michael Finnegan, and how the plan for Coachella's first hotel,

Wooed Investors, took their money and then collapsed by Amy D. Piero for the Palm Springs Desert Sun. Brian Taylor White wrote this episode, additional writing by Sarah Eni and us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggy. Additional research by Jason Tien, a special thank you to Moona Park for her help. Jen Swan is our senior producer.

Charlotte Miller and Tate Busby are our associate producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Freesong Sync. Our audio engineer is Sergio Enriquez, Adrian Tapia provided audio assistance. Our sound design is by James Morgan, our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Gens, and Marshall Louie for Wunder.