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Who was the hottest Bond Girl? • What was the best 007 movie? • Who was the best 007 villain? • What should you never eat if you are impersonating a Saudi Sultan? • Which Ferrari model is for juniors and losers? • How can you get diplomatic immunity on Ebay? • Which impostors’ salaries do we pay? • All this and more in this true and insane story!
America hates criminals but loves con men. The goofball with the bangs in the thumbnail is one of the best. Known as an “international swindler.” Which is a damn cooler job title than anything you’ll find on LinkedIn.
Allegedly, Anthony Gignac (pictured) is Colombian-born and Michigan-raised. He was impersonating the guy on the right – Sultan Bin Khalid Al-Saud, of the Saudi Royal Family. Anthony doesn’t look remotely Arabian, does he? Wonder if he laid on the makeup and fake accent as he worked his mark.
Anthony’s “mark” was this hotel: the Fontainebleu
He wanted to buy 30% of it from the owner. Which adds up to $440 million. So he staged all this theater with a fancy Ferrari with fake diplomatic plates (that he bought on Ebay – here’s where you can but some, too).
He had fake social media accounts to show off his bling and cash and was always leaving meetings because he had to “report to the State Department.”
The scam fell apart when he sat down to a meal with the hotel guy and scarfed down a massive hunk of pork.
Duh.
Now he’s awaiting sentencing. I hope he escapes or gets off lightly. Even though he’s a criminal, he’s entertaining, flamboyant and memorable. Unlike the thousands of boring, cookie-cutter criminals who work for us in Washington DC. Their crimes are many, from their lack of personality, putrid faces and outrageous compensation.
How does this relate to James Bond? Because one of JB’s first capers began at the Fontainbleu hotel in the fabulous town of Miami. A town they could well re-name “Pointy Chick Central” I’ve been to Miami a bunch of times. I always dig it.
Now that there are 25 James Bond movies in the archive, the arguments never cease among Bond freaks – of which I am one – sorta. ( My interest waned somewhere during the Pierce Brosnan period.) The scripts just became too moronic. But I still check them out now and then.
My all time favorite was Goldfinger. Probably because of her – Honor Blackman.
Not another Bond girl, she was a Bind woman. Besides her obvious physical attribures, she had two can’t miss aphrodisiacs – competence and confidence. (That’s right — Baby Dolls and Cheerleader types are a bore.)
So in this episode, we not only unspool a fatastic con job, we settle, once and for all, the controversy over the best 007 (Connery), the best 007 movie (Goldfinger), Bond Woman (Honor). You’ll have to listen to the episode to learn the best villains.)
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