'Hollywood Con Queen’ Exposes How 'Genius' Impersonator Scammed Industry Hopefuls

For years, the female figurehead of an international scam syndicate shattered the career dreams of vulnerable Hollywood gig workers, emptied their bank accounts and coerced some men into performing sex acts via Skype for what they thought were auditions.

“There’s something much more devious and sinister going on here” beyond an impersonation scam, Johnson realized. “It just opened up a whole box of weirdness.” Actors, hair and makeup artists, and photographers hoping to break into show business or expand their portfolios paid tens of thousands of dollars to travel to Indonesia for what they thought were location shoots. In addition to covering their own flights and hotels in Jakarta, they were forced to pay cash to drivers, guides and other associates. All expenses would be reimbursed, they were told, and they were promised generous paychecks for their work — not to mention invaluable experience.

The con artist seemingly had a “desire to hurt somebody else without … any real explanation for why, other than there’s a kind of sadistic pleasure in itself,” Johnson said. Tahilramani was arrested in Manchester in November 2020, after he was indicted by a U.S. grand jury on eight federal charges,It's Another Trump-Biden Showdown — And We Need Your HelpAs Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

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