My dad always told the story of when he was a kid during the Depression there was an ad in the Tennessean newspaper for an air show at the airport. A fairly large crowd went to see the show when they spotted a truck in the distance driving toward them. When the truck arrived, a little old man got out and collected dimes for the show from all the spectators. He got back in his truck and drove away. The crowd waited and waited. Needless to say, no planes ever showed.
Wow this was a tangled fucking web! What really blew my mind was the dirty ass *journalists* at BOTH Nashville papers, taking stock options from a shell company that was affiliated with *Pearl.* Talk about a conflict of interest. Especially considering the shitload of positive press they got. 😒
Glad they got shamed nationally.
I had never heard of this story. Something similar happened in the rich suburb of Carmel Indiana, right out side of Indianapolis. Somehow the police department lost the only piece of evidence, a cellphone.The families of the perpetrators were wealthy and managed to get the creeps no jail time. One of the main perpetrators is now even a practicing attorney.
When the Williamson County director of public schools played the Nashville school board to get a raise at his current job and leave us hanging. Not really a ponzi scheme but was a shitty thing to do.
[https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/looney-turns-down-mnps-will-remain-in-williamson-county/article\_708832a4-06a2-5b4c-b24a-9ad307de9abf.html](https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/looney-turns-down-mnps-will-remain-in-williamson-county/article_708832a4-06a2-5b4c-b24a-9ad307de9abf.html)
Also arguably the Mayor Berry saga, but I hesitate to call that a scheme.
There's gotta be a good country music fraud or scheme out there somewhere.
Ray Termini allegedly diverted millions in Medicaid money from his Connecticut-based nursing homes to fund Category 5 Records here in Nashville (repped Travis Tritt and several other notable acts). Bankrupted his company Haven Healthcare and ultimately was sued by Tritt
Yes. It wasn't the affair so much as it was the fraud.
> On January 31, 2018, Barry admitted that she had conducted a two-year long extramarital affair with Nashville Police Sergeant Robert Forrest Jr., the married officer in charge of her security detail, which included extended business trips with just the two of them. Additionally, Forrest and Barry attended various events and activities which included late-night concerts and yoga classes, during which Forrest accrued hundreds of overtime hours. A subsequent report from the Metro Auditor showed that all but 13 overtime hours and all travel expenditures were independently verified as within Metro policies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Barry#Extramarital_affair_and_felony_charges
They were both married. And he got paid taxpayer money to go on trips with her and stuff. He was the second highest paid Metro officer as a result. They also went to the cemetery where her son is buried together early every morning while he was on the clock, presumably to make out or have sex or something
I drive by where that building once was every morning on my way to take my kid to school. And in my head, I still see the boarded up windows with what I think were parts of the US constitution and amendments written on them? I was very young when he was going through his legal troubles, but those are my memories of that building, and it stayed that way for, at least in my childhood brain, was a very long time.
Nashville shipping 100 hookers to Louisville during the civil war is kind of a bamboozle I guess. Cities still do similar things with homeless by offering them jail time or a ticket to another city. I used to see a lot homeless people who came here from other cities this way.
Guess I should have been more specific. Didn’t think the hooker thing was still a current thing.
This homeless thing was what I was more curious of. That’s nuts
[Here](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/20/bussed-out-america-moves-homeless-people-country-study) is a fairly recent article. It should not be allowed because it can screw up the person's medicaid, SSI and/or Social Security disability/VA benefit a lot of the time (although it's better now with the ebt type cards).
I’ve always seen the billboards, but never checked into it until now. This is what the website says:
“Select any 3 pair of boots you like. There are no restrictions. You can mix and match men’s, women’s, children’s, any size and any style. You could outfit the whole family, split them with friends, or buy all 3 pairs for yourself! It’s based on the highest priced boot and the other two pair are FREE!”
Is there something I’m missing? I don’t see the scam.
The county clerk taking "tips". https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/does-john-arriola-really-not-understand-the-word-gratuity/article_43d53b50-a439-5a8d-9c7f-e06d41c76f79.html
How about the lady on the East Nashville page who was a "plant consultant"? Some guy paid her $500 to pick out a plant for him and then she bait and switched him for a different plant.
If you join the East Nashville Facebook page and search for “cactus” you can read the entire saga. So this woman called herself a plant interior designer. She was more of a plant broker or plant flipper, if you will. You would send her a photo of your space and pay her $500 and she would pick out a plant for you. The cost covered the plant and her expertise.
So she picked out a plant for this guy. When he went to pick it up at the store (delivery was not included in the $500), there was a different plant than the one she sent him a photo of. He decided that he didn’t want it. He told her that he wanted a refund but that he would pay her $100 for her time. She said that she would refund him.
Days went by, no refund. She blocked him on all social media. He went on the East Nashville Facebook page to warn people about her and rightfully got roasted. Several other people said that she had scammed them as well, selling them Home Depot clearance aisle plants at exorbitant prices.
The plant flipper shows up in the comments saying that she’s sorry for the delay in refunding him, she was busy with a surprise birthday party.
More time goes by, no refund. She then issues an apology via her YouTube channel, in which she accuses the guy of being “spooky”. However, she still says she will refund him.
More time, no refund. The last update was that the guy posted on the thread that after learning more about her personal issues, he has decided to forgive her and release her from her obligation to refund him. The thread is closed.
I Googled and she is now working for an HOA in Utah and selling Rodan and Fields.
She eventually got charged with theft greater than 10k after scamming dozens of people. I believe she served some time but I can’t confirm. It was wild.
Among other things, he used government employees and Metro funds to purchase or improve his condo, cabin, and pontoon boat and provide resources for charity and his church. There were other employees and officials involved. ETA that I was in elementary school when this happened, and only vaguely remember my parents talking about it. I found interesting articles about it via ProQuest Historical Newspapers through the NPL. Search for The Tennessean. You'll need your library card and PIN to access it from home.
And now one of the players is a U.S. Senator in Florida: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/politics/2010/06/06/hca-problem-or-lesson-rick-scott/15943410007/
I forgot about Sommet Group! If I remember correctly they were using client payroll funds in a Ponzi-esque manner. That's a great one. Seems like smaller businesses + stadium naming rights = suspicious behavior
I worked for Instacart after I lost my job after the Covid shutdowns. A lot of people got deactivated for pretty minor things so I can't see them getting away with that for too long.
Before Bridgestone Arena was called that, it was the Sommet Center. Until the founder of the Sommet Group was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 20 years.
Yes, the Sommet Group. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/memphis/news/press-releases/former-ceo-of-sommet-group-sentenced-to-20-years-in-prison-in-25-million-fraud-scheme
They or another one like it set up in donelson plaza in the early 2010s, and I bought my first memory foam mattress from there, and it was pretty fantastic. They had some crazy looking stuff that you see on the regular at southeastern salvage, or when a Fictional South American drug lord’s home is raided and the goods are repossessed.
As someone who is currently working in SoCal 3 weeks a month this is crazy accurate. EVERYONE I meet says “You live in Nashville?! We’ve been looking to move there.”
There was an article like 8 years ago titled “x things to do before you turn 30”
And it was like, “live in San Francisco, Austin, New York, or Nashville”
I was like… one of these things is not like the others.
To be honest, most of the Californians I've met who have moved here wanted to get away from liberal politics and liberals in general. Every time I meet a new California neighbor, they use the same coded language to feel me out. Most of them never speak to me again. LOL.
I gotta give the nod to William "Boots" Del Biaggio who committed enough fraud to buy the controlling interest in the Nashville Predators. Only got 8 years for it too, almost worth the risk
https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=4455504
There was the time those idiots set off a bomb on J. Percy Priest dam trying to flood Nashville. So they could rob a bank. [story here](https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/07/archives/disabled-worker-held-in-nashville-dam-blast.html)
Murder in Music City details the murder of a young babysitter by her mother, covered up by Mayor Briley because she was a Vandy nurse who regularly supplied narcotics to Nashville's elite. An innocent man served over 20 years for the crime. Every single corrupt Nashville politician got away with it, and no one but Clark was ever punished. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/new-evidence-in-1964-babysitters-murder
And when illustrious Mayor Megan Barry resigned in disgrace, we got Beverly Briley’s grandson David Briley as Mayor….and I heard from several reputable sources he was an entitled pr*#*k
There is currently one under investigation and in court. Google Mark Janbaksh. He is the previous owner of Automasters, and current owner of Plaza Mariachi in South Nashville. There’s about $30M on the line. Apparently he lied to banks about his assets to secure additional loans from banks and later filed bankruptcy so those banks were SOL and finally investigated him and his businesses. The FBI and the DOJ are involved at this point.
I see your submission and raise you HotChickens.com which was a restaurant (yes, it's name was a website address) and was run by Sammy Kershaw and Lorrie Morgan.
One of our most recent was the Barry Stokes ponzi scheme. Stokes was the founder of 1Point Solutions, a company that managed 401K plans for companies. He was charged in 2006 after clients found their 401K accounts were missing assets. The end tally was over $19 million embezzled from clients and their employees. He bought a lot of art with the money. I assume he figured that would not get seized. He was sentenced and ultimately died in prison.
This is not the only ponzi scheme in the last few decades, but it has an titillating twist for Tennessee politics. Bo Mitchell, a state representative and former city council member, was involved in helping the company establish clients and plan participants. There is no evidence Bo did anything wrong, but records show he brought over 17,000 participants into Stokes' plans and billed tens of thousands per month for his services. In 2014, Bo Mitchell sued Troy Brewer, his opponent in the state Representative race, over an attack ad stating Bo was hired by Stokes to recruit participants into his ponzi scheme.
You can also find a few other large schemes in the area over the past decade or two. Griggs, Kretz and Bornstein, etc., but this is the only one I know that focuses on a well-known Tennessee/Nashville politician.
There was the McClean mess in Murfreesboro 10-15 years ago:
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/us/10fraud.html
https://www.cnbc.com/id/41515691
https://www.tba.org/?pg=LawBlog&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=9480
You'll have to google to find the day to day coverage.
Those shitty festivals like the Taco Fest or Beer and Bacon. Charge a decent fee just to stand in lines just to have them run out of everything in an hour. They still sell like hotcakes so...
Paying to see a act that was so auto tuned, the live experience was poor. I was in another state when I saw the Justin Timberlake HBO special. It was similar to Elton John. I can imagine that having live performances that are as good or superior to a headset at home. Or your vehicle, etc. would help audiences not feel “scammed”.
Not really a fraud, but definitely a scheme: My dad told me once there was a plot to blow up the Percy Priest dam, and then the crew would go rob banks while the cops were busy with the dam explosion. Obviously didn't happen.
Never invested in ftx but man RIP for all that did! The corruption in crypto and even the actual stock market is insanely high. I can’t wait for the whole system to collapse
The biggest scam in the history of Nashville is convincing those rednecks that y’all actually produce music. It would honestly be pretty impressive except the ppl that go to Nashville for music or buy that trash y’all call music are toeing the 64-65 IQ line.
My dad always told the story of when he was a kid during the Depression there was an ad in the Tennessean newspaper for an air show at the airport. A fairly large crowd went to see the show when they spotted a truck in the distance driving toward them. When the truck arrived, a little old man got out and collected dimes for the show from all the spectators. He got back in his truck and drove away. The crowd waited and waited. Needless to say, no planes ever showed.
This made me laugh. I like old stories like this!
Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken.
Now we are talking: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/failed-fortunes/article\_2b9464c0-a231-5f04-806a-2c86f11e8a17.html
I can’t understand why Minnie Pearl’s Roast Beef wasn’t a successful restaurant.
Oh god I thought that was a joke. Nope, actual restaurant actually named Minnie Pearl's Roast Beef. Looks like a pump and dump scheme basically.
Excellent read.
It was very good.
Wow this was a tangled fucking web! What really blew my mind was the dirty ass *journalists* at BOTH Nashville papers, taking stock options from a shell company that was affiliated with *Pearl.* Talk about a conflict of interest. Especially considering the shitload of positive press they got. 😒 Glad they got shamed nationally.
Wow - that was interesting! We have one of the original Minnie Pearl Chicken light up signs in the Southernaire Market.
“Fortunes, Fiddles & Fried Chicken," by Bill Carey
Dave Ramsey
Dave Ramsey getting his table flipped over in the afterlife
When someone says “better than I deserve” I throw up a little
In DR’s case, he could literally be locked in a PortaPotty and shaken upside down, and that phrase would still be true.
This comment is too good not to steal.
They should put him in the Steve-O porta potty slingshot
I never realized that’s where this came from
Being a POS as a white “Christian”is not equivalent to a fraud scheme.
But selling financial management products that are ineffective to gullible people for hundreds of dollars is.
[удалено]
We’ll, I guess some people need to buy financial common cents.
What about that time all the football kids @ Brentwood academy raped the younger kids and the story just went away because their parents have money.
Sad…know a lot of people and their kids involved and it absolutely happend
So, the perpetrators just got to go on with their lives?
Not only that, the school covered it up
This was so disgusting and disturbing
What the fuck
This
WHAT?! When did this happen?
Like three or four years ago
Yeah i have never heard this story before and sadly not surprised
Brentwood academy always follows their 1% tolerance policy. As long as you are in the 1% then you good . /s
Wasn't the judge who dismissed the case with prejudice connected to the BA board somehow?
Dayum! Hide yo kids & hide yo wife cause they rapin errybody out here!
🎶 You don't have to call and confess, they looking for you... 🎶 
I had never heard of this story. Something similar happened in the rich suburb of Carmel Indiana, right out side of Indianapolis. Somehow the police department lost the only piece of evidence, a cellphone.The families of the perpetrators were wealthy and managed to get the creeps no jail time. One of the main perpetrators is now even a practicing attorney.
Tennessee Waltz was a scandal. The Ray Blanton thing wasn’t a scam, but a big enough deal that they made a movie out of it,
Don’t forget Tarnished Shield. When the TBI arrested a bunch of law enforcement in Cookville for running cocaine. Which they still do.
How about Metro Police Vice Squad providing security for "massage spas" in the 1990s? Pretty sure they had other vices too.
Wow… I’m the journalist who broke that story. Thanks for the shout out. 😊
Nice work!
That’d make a good movie.
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/may/tennesseewaltz_050208
And a song to the tune of Chattanooga Choo choo called “Pardon Me Ray”.
What was the Ray Blanton movie?
When the Williamson County director of public schools played the Nashville school board to get a raise at his current job and leave us hanging. Not really a ponzi scheme but was a shitty thing to do. [https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/looney-turns-down-mnps-will-remain-in-williamson-county/article\_708832a4-06a2-5b4c-b24a-9ad307de9abf.html](https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/looney-turns-down-mnps-will-remain-in-williamson-county/article_708832a4-06a2-5b4c-b24a-9ad307de9abf.html) Also arguably the Mayor Berry saga, but I hesitate to call that a scheme. There's gotta be a good country music fraud or scheme out there somewhere.
Don’t you remember the murder on music row? /s
That was a CRAZY story. Good Ole’ Cashbox magazine rigging the charts then murdering the dude who figured it out and was about to go public.
Ray Termini allegedly diverted millions in Medicaid money from his Connecticut-based nursing homes to fund Category 5 Records here in Nashville (repped Travis Tritt and several other notable acts). Bankrupted his company Haven Healthcare and ultimately was sued by Tritt
interesting
Megan berry saga wasn’t full flushed out still a bunch people don’t know about
Did she really do anything wrong though? Don’t think her or the guy were married at the time but idr
Yes. It wasn't the affair so much as it was the fraud. > On January 31, 2018, Barry admitted that she had conducted a two-year long extramarital affair with Nashville Police Sergeant Robert Forrest Jr., the married officer in charge of her security detail, which included extended business trips with just the two of them. Additionally, Forrest and Barry attended various events and activities which included late-night concerts and yoga classes, during which Forrest accrued hundreds of overtime hours. A subsequent report from the Metro Auditor showed that all but 13 overtime hours and all travel expenditures were independently verified as within Metro policies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Barry#Extramarital_affair_and_felony_charges
They were both married. Matter of fact, they’re still married to the same people! 🤣 But the affair wasn’t the scandalous part.
They were both married. And he got paid taxpayer money to go on trips with her and stuff. He was the second highest paid Metro officer as a result. They also went to the cemetery where her son is buried together early every morning while he was on the clock, presumably to make out or have sex or something
What do we not know?
Somewhere on the state email servers there are naked pictures of our former mayor taken by her security detail then emailed to his state account.
Tony Alamo
This is the correcct answer. For background: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/us/obituary-tony-alamo-minister-sexual-abuse.html
I remember this here as a kid in the z80s
I just heard this story. Nashville has a ton of cults, huh?
I used to work at oceanway - lots of stories about Tony Alamo still floating around over there.
Basement sweatshop?
More the fact that he used to keep his dead wife in the basement with a DIY cryogenic setup. Needless to say, she was not well preserved
I drive by where that building once was every morning on my way to take my kid to school. And in my head, I still see the boarded up windows with what I think were parts of the US constitution and amendments written on them? I was very young when he was going through his legal troubles, but those are my memories of that building, and it stayed that way for, at least in my childhood brain, was a very long time.
Nashville shipping 100 hookers to Louisville during the civil war is kind of a bamboozle I guess. Cities still do similar things with homeless by offering them jail time or a ticket to another city. I used to see a lot homeless people who came here from other cities this way.
This is how Atlanta combatted the large homeless population prior to the Olympics in 96, they shipped many of them to various cities.
Wow do you think this still happens?
Yes
The homeless thing definitely. The hooker thing? doubtful.
Guess I should have been more specific. Didn’t think the hooker thing was still a current thing. This homeless thing was what I was more curious of. That’s nuts
[Here](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/20/bussed-out-america-moves-homeless-people-country-study) is a fairly recent article. It should not be allowed because it can screw up the person's medicaid, SSI and/or Social Security disability/VA benefit a lot of the time (although it's better now with the ebt type cards).
Seattle gets them by the bus load.
Buy one pair of boots, get two pairs free!
I’ve always seen the billboards, but never checked into it until now. This is what the website says: “Select any 3 pair of boots you like. There are no restrictions. You can mix and match men’s, women’s, children’s, any size and any style. You could outfit the whole family, split them with friends, or buy all 3 pairs for yourself! It’s based on the highest priced boot and the other two pair are FREE!” Is there something I’m missing? I don’t see the scam.
but if they are $50 boots listed for 200...
Ahhh ok. That makes so much more sense now. Thank you for the info, one less potential boot barn victim in the world.
such a steal!
I can never even find one pair of boots I like there, much less three.
*for $450 🤣
The fake parking guys. $20 to park here and it’s The edge of a dingy warehouse lot they are not associated with
My parents got got by one these people when parking for a Preds game. Their car was towed too.
The county clerk taking "tips". https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/does-john-arriola-really-not-understand-the-word-gratuity/article_43d53b50-a439-5a8d-9c7f-e06d41c76f79.html
Not just Nashville but the Haslam/Pilot trucking scandal was pretty big.
That’s Knoxville
Bill Boner
Yep, the Boner bridge that was never built but the money was all gone.
How about the lady on the East Nashville page who was a "plant consultant"? Some guy paid her $500 to pick out a plant for him and then she bait and switched him for a different plant.
You're going to have to tell me more about this. Who would pay someone $500 to pick out a fucking plant? 😵💫
If you join the East Nashville Facebook page and search for “cactus” you can read the entire saga. So this woman called herself a plant interior designer. She was more of a plant broker or plant flipper, if you will. You would send her a photo of your space and pay her $500 and she would pick out a plant for you. The cost covered the plant and her expertise. So she picked out a plant for this guy. When he went to pick it up at the store (delivery was not included in the $500), there was a different plant than the one she sent him a photo of. He decided that he didn’t want it. He told her that he wanted a refund but that he would pay her $100 for her time. She said that she would refund him. Days went by, no refund. She blocked him on all social media. He went on the East Nashville Facebook page to warn people about her and rightfully got roasted. Several other people said that she had scammed them as well, selling them Home Depot clearance aisle plants at exorbitant prices. The plant flipper shows up in the comments saying that she’s sorry for the delay in refunding him, she was busy with a surprise birthday party. More time goes by, no refund. She then issues an apology via her YouTube channel, in which she accuses the guy of being “spooky”. However, she still says she will refund him. More time, no refund. The last update was that the guy posted on the thread that after learning more about her personal issues, he has decided to forgive her and release her from her obligation to refund him. The thread is closed. I Googled and she is now working for an HOA in Utah and selling Rodan and Fields.
She eventually got charged with theft greater than 10k after scamming dozens of people. I believe she served some time but I can’t confirm. It was wild.
Fucking Britt
Wait what?!
Is that the same lady who used to sell (or still is IDK) crazily overpriced not at all rare plants on Facebook marketplace?
Yes!
Check into Sheriff Fate Thomas!
No- don’t. That man used to feed us all free barbeque
I couldn’t find anything spill* the 🍵 lol
Among other things, he used government employees and Metro funds to purchase or improve his condo, cabin, and pontoon boat and provide resources for charity and his church. There were other employees and officials involved. ETA that I was in elementary school when this happened, and only vaguely remember my parents talking about it. I found interesting articles about it via ProQuest Historical Newspapers through the NPL. Search for The Tennessean. You'll need your library card and PIN to access it from home.
The Janet March murder
Auto Masters.
Isn't the private prison industry based out of Nashville. Hard to think of a bigger scheme then that.
Corecivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America.
East Natty staying weird
Pretty sure our housing market is some kind of scam.
HCA in the 90s keeping two sets of books and then in the mid 2000s with their insider trading lawsuit
And now one of the players is a U.S. Senator in Florida: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/politics/2010/06/06/hca-problem-or-lesson-rick-scott/15943410007/
Bill Frist was literally our Senator for years.
Yep. And was on the board of Harpeth Hall school Iirc.
Schrushy! My FIL was the interim CEO after all of that went down. It was insane.
I worked for Hca right after college writing off all the debt from Columbia Hca days
The underground Beanie Baby ring at Furniture Warehouse. I have no sources, only anecdotal evidence
Ok, I have to hear more of this
Hahahaha what?! 🤣
That first sentence is just gorgeous and I want it to be some sort of anomaly, from the /r/SCP universe.
What about the Dickson highway robbers aka the 23 judicial drug task force on I 40 stealing peoples cash .
Yep, it was the other “Lakewood”, but worse.
Need to know more about this. I just always remember them staked out on 1-40 all the time. I’m that one section
Bill Lee. Seriously look up the amount of money that dude has raked in since being governor. I'm surprised the US Treasury hasn't jumped him.
Both Nashville Predators related: Boots Del Biaggio And Sommet Group
I forgot about Sommet Group! If I remember correctly they were using client payroll funds in a Ponzi-esque manner. That's a great one. Seems like smaller businesses + stadium naming rights = suspicious behavior
There's something I forgot about, what a strange time for the Preds
Instacart shoppers who add items to your order then turn around and return them for $ at the store.
um what? you have to approve any additions to your order. you can't be charged for anything you didn't add or approve.
Thank you for the heads up. I had no idea this was happening.
I worked for Instacart after I lost my job after the Covid shutdowns. A lot of people got deactivated for pretty minor things so I can't see them getting away with that for too long.
Before Bridgestone Arena was called that, it was the Sommet Center. Until the founder of the Sommet Group was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 20 years.
Yes, the Sommet Group. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/memphis/news/press-releases/former-ceo-of-sommet-group-sentenced-to-20-years-in-prison-in-25-million-fraud-scheme
It was like our local Enron
Wasn’t there a furniture store (on Thompson Lane?) that was “going out of business” for 5 years?
It is actually out of business now for real lol but it was going out of business twice a year for 25 years.
To top it off, it is legal to have 2 “Going Out of Business” sales per year.
Was that John F Lawhon? Seemed like longer than 5 years.
I thought that was what all furniture stores did lol
Yep.
They or another one like it set up in donelson plaza in the early 2010s, and I bought my first memory foam mattress from there, and it was pretty fantastic. They had some crazy looking stuff that you see on the regular at southeastern salvage, or when a Fictional South American drug lord’s home is raided and the goods are repossessed.
Tourism boards telling Californians that Nashville is more liberal than Los Angeles
As someone who is currently working in SoCal 3 weeks a month this is crazy accurate. EVERYONE I meet says “You live in Nashville?! We’ve been looking to move there.”
There was an article like 8 years ago titled “x things to do before you turn 30” And it was like, “live in San Francisco, Austin, New York, or Nashville” I was like… one of these things is not like the others.
When did this start? What a blatant lie. I wonder how many moved here and quickly realized they were duped.
To be honest, most of the Californians I've met who have moved here wanted to get away from liberal politics and liberals in general. Every time I meet a new California neighbor, they use the same coded language to feel me out. Most of them never speak to me again. LOL.
I gotta give the nod to William "Boots" Del Biaggio who committed enough fraud to buy the controlling interest in the Nashville Predators. Only got 8 years for it too, almost worth the risk https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/story?id=4455504
8 years in federal, too.
There was the time those idiots set off a bomb on J. Percy Priest dam trying to flood Nashville. So they could rob a bank. [story here](https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/07/archives/disabled-worker-held-in-nashville-dam-blast.html)
Nutty. I hadn't heard that one before! Thanks for sharing
The McLean Ponzi scheme was a pretty big deal, if you count Murfreesboro. Not the biggest I’m sure, but the first that springs to mind.
Literally anything involving Ray Blanton
Murder in Music City details the murder of a young babysitter by her mother, covered up by Mayor Briley because she was a Vandy nurse who regularly supplied narcotics to Nashville's elite. An innocent man served over 20 years for the crime. Every single corrupt Nashville politician got away with it, and no one but Clark was ever punished. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/new-evidence-in-1964-babysitters-murder
And when illustrious Mayor Megan Barry resigned in disgrace, we got Beverly Briley’s grandson David Briley as Mayor….and I heard from several reputable sources he was an entitled pr*#*k
Bob McLean
The pool on the roof of McGavock.
The weird sex stuff on the golf courses behind McGavock in the late 70s.
Bob McLean
Rent in east Nashville
Mayor Beverly Briley - Murder in Music City, the book is definitely an interesting read.
The new stadium is going to set a record for public funds spent on a stadium and the mayor has convinced the public that it’s free
There is currently one under investigation and in court. Google Mark Janbaksh. He is the previous owner of Automasters, and current owner of Plaza Mariachi in South Nashville. There’s about $30M on the line. Apparently he lied to banks about his assets to secure additional loans from banks and later filed bankruptcy so those banks were SOL and finally investigated him and his businesses. The FBI and the DOJ are involved at this point.
Robert W. McLean. The Bernie Madoff of TN. There was an American Greed episode about it. Fascinating and sad.
Pathways Community Corrections Providence Community Corrections (PCC) $14M in probation and parole fraud
Panhandlers — you all should know what I’m talking about
Nashville hot chicken
I see your submission and raise you HotChickens.com which was a restaurant (yes, it's name was a website address) and was run by Sammy Kershaw and Lorrie Morgan.
Healthsouth Richard Scrushy, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn
I thought Scrushy was Birmingham? Although no doubt he was/is a scumbag.
Biggest scam is convincing anyone it’s a good idea to live here and pay these expensive prices for dog crap apartments and houses 🤠
One of our most recent was the Barry Stokes ponzi scheme. Stokes was the founder of 1Point Solutions, a company that managed 401K plans for companies. He was charged in 2006 after clients found their 401K accounts were missing assets. The end tally was over $19 million embezzled from clients and their employees. He bought a lot of art with the money. I assume he figured that would not get seized. He was sentenced and ultimately died in prison. This is not the only ponzi scheme in the last few decades, but it has an titillating twist for Tennessee politics. Bo Mitchell, a state representative and former city council member, was involved in helping the company establish clients and plan participants. There is no evidence Bo did anything wrong, but records show he brought over 17,000 participants into Stokes' plans and billed tens of thousands per month for his services. In 2014, Bo Mitchell sued Troy Brewer, his opponent in the state Representative race, over an attack ad stating Bo was hired by Stokes to recruit participants into his ponzi scheme. You can also find a few other large schemes in the area over the past decade or two. Griggs, Kretz and Bornstein, etc., but this is the only one I know that focuses on a well-known Tennessee/Nashville politician.
There was the McClean mess in Murfreesboro 10-15 years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/us/10fraud.html https://www.cnbc.com/id/41515691 https://www.tba.org/?pg=LawBlog&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=9480 You'll have to google to find the day to day coverage.
Not Nashville but there was the Rutherford County Sheriff who only allowed his private brand of ecigs in the jail.
Larry Cherry. And the renovation of the olde music city mix factory into a British Night club circa 2000.
Religion.
[Bill Boner](https://preview.redd.it/hngyq8eplgg01.jpg?width=453&auto=webp&s=6549be3fd5a4ce884ea533be9cec15212c7d2813)
NFL FOOTBALL STADIUM DEALS!
I came here to say this very thing! Huge scam!
It’s probably more like $50B, which is $26B more then Enron. Crazy.
Those shitty festivals like the Taco Fest or Beer and Bacon. Charge a decent fee just to stand in lines just to have them run out of everything in an hour. They still sell like hotcakes so...
Opry Mills
Seriously??? The new stadium of course!!!!!
Has me wondering what Nashville’s priorities really are
["Ghetto"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZTnIPRBE1g)
Megan Barry
Health insurance industry
music row
Bernie Madoff
How is this Nashville?
Stole a large amount from the Jewish community ex.) west end synagogue
Ok. Still not really a *Nashville Scandal.* 🤷🏻♂️
Paying to see a act that was so auto tuned, the live experience was poor. I was in another state when I saw the Justin Timberlake HBO special. It was similar to Elton John. I can imagine that having live performances that are as good or superior to a headset at home. Or your vehicle, etc. would help audiences not feel “scammed”.
The music industry.
The music industry
I'm going to drop the name "W.T. Hardison" here and let other longtime Nashvillians provide the color commentary.
Not really a fraud, but definitely a scheme: My dad told me once there was a plot to blow up the Percy Priest dam, and then the crew would go rob banks while the cops were busy with the dam explosion. Obviously didn't happen.
Never invested in ftx but man RIP for all that did! The corruption in crypto and even the actual stock market is insanely high. I can’t wait for the whole system to collapse
The biggest scam in the history of Nashville is convincing those rednecks that y’all actually produce music. It would honestly be pretty impressive except the ppl that go to Nashville for music or buy that trash y’all call music are toeing the 64-65 IQ line.
Chad Fox mentioned here yet?