American Greed · Salt Bae · Michael Jackson
Plus: The guy who inspired Syriana gets into arms trading
the true crime that's worth your time
After 15 seasons, 222 episodes, and three spin-offs, CNBC primetime financial true crime series American Greed might be withering away. As noted by Variety, the 2023 season of the series was much shorter than past years’ (six, as opposed to the usual 12 or more) and no more episodes are currently being produced.
CNBC said via statement that the show — known for its process-y breakdowns of business-y malfeasance — has not been canceled, and that might be true; instead, according to an anonymous source who spoke with the trade pub, the show is sort of getting broke-ass ghosted:
The end of production for new episodes in 2023 was brought about for financial reasons, according to one of the people familiar with the situation, with many units of NBCUniversal looking to cut spending and budgets as the company grapples with the complexities of the streaming era. This person suggested that CNBC could call for new episodes in 2024, but said the network has yet to indicate a timeframe of when it might do so.
(You could seriously swap in my name and “student loans” to this paragraph and have a very accurate description of my current relationship with EdFinancial, FYI.)
It’s not fair to mourn or eulogize AG quite yet — who knows, someone at NBC might find the money for the show, the same way I might win the lottery and pay off my education. But I still think this is a nice time to recall our favorite American Greed episodes, in a pre-demise celebration of the good times. I’ll go first: my go-to AG is the one on allegedly shitty TV house flipper Scott Menaged, because I hate Discovery series Property Wars, on which Menaged starred, crowing about his wins during Phoenix’s devastating mortgage meltdown. The DOJ has the episode spoiler here.
How about you? Drop your fave in the comments. — EB
When I worked at Eater, we always knew that any story we did that mentioned Salt Bae would be a traffic success. It was a begrudging acceptance, a cost-of-doing business thing to cover Instagram-famous Nusret Gökçe, who a former colleague described as “perhaps the meme of 2017.” The sunglassed Turkish butcher, with a chain of restaurants in spots like Turkey, Dubai, Miami, and New York, is an online sensation who has racked up critical sneers, but people keep coming to his spots so joke’s on the critics, I guess?
But while critics have gone after Gökçe’s food while praising him as “hard-working” and good at what he does (that is, being a personality), that praise might escape Gökçe in the future, if an Insider piece published today headlined “Salt Bae's former employees describe tip theft, discrimination, and polyester uniforms within the memeable meat empire” is accurate.
Reporter Sophia Ankel spoke with nine employees of six of his restaurants, and pored over seven lawsuits against Gökçe that span two separate cities. The portrait that emerges includes “wage theft, discrimination, labor violations, and a testosterone-saturated culture of fear,” and the less criminal but still sketchball “false promise of luxury.”
Restaurants that are all flash and no pan are pretty common, especially when arguably famous owners are in the mix. (Did you ever eat at Planet Hollywood? Well, there you go.) But wage theft and worker abuse are legitimately illegal behaviors, despite what fictional restaurant grind shows like The Bear might imply. Here’s a snip of just one of the alleged Salt Bae-related shenanigans:
A November 2021 lawsuit describes a similar environment. In the complaint, Elizabeth Cruz, a former bartender at Nusr-Et New York, alleges she was asked by a general manager to change into a "short skirt, high-heels, and revealing top" on her first day of work. Upon realizing she was Dominican, Cruz said in her filing, her manager told her, "My wife is Dominican. I know how you women are," which she took as a suggestion of sexual promiscuity.
Though she felt humiliated, Cruz complied with the manager's request. Her male colleagues began to harass her, the filing said. One employee told her that she should work as a stripper. Another followed her home one evening, pestering her to go on a date with him despite her pleas to stop.
Two weeks into the job, Cruz asked to wear the standard uniform of pants and a button-down shirt instead, but the manager denied her request. Several days later, she was fired. In her complaint, Cruz alleges she was terminated in retaliation for her complaints. (The lawsuit is still ongoing; Gökçe's lawyers requested to move to arbitration, but Cruz's lawyers want it to remain in the courts.)
The entire article smells like a story that’s as ripe for adaptation as the avocados I got last week are for guac — that is to say, very. I could see this as a Bad Vegan-style limited series, can’t you?
But as I write this, I’m also thinking about all the other chefs and restaurant owners who have been accused of what Salt Bae is accused of, and worse. Raise a hand if you’d watch an episodic series a la our struggling American Greed about crimes in the dining, chefs, and restaurant world. I could fill out an easy first season with Mario Batali, Four Barrel coffee, the Daniel Brophy homicide case, Mark Sargeant, the murder of Masa Kobayashi, and Darius Cooks. Someone get Netflix on the horn and get me a deal, please. — EB
I just got a new dog, and she’s young and energetic — so I’m happy to hear about two new podcasts I can binge while I roam around town with her. Ellen “Ellie” Ripley is an estimated four-year-old presumed greyhound found as a stray in Central California, her story before that remains a mystery. She moved in with me this weekend, right after her spay surgery, so her activity is still restricted for now to leashed, sedate walks. In other words, podcast-perfect activities.
So new podcast Think Twice: Michael Jackson is timed perfectly for me: as first reported by Variety, it drops all 10 of its episodes on Thursday for folks who use Audible or Amazon Prime Music. Here’s its logline:
More than a decade since Michael Jackson’s death, his legacy remains complicated and unresolved. Think Twice: Michael Jackson is an exploration of the King of Pop’s life and impact – and an investigation into why his global influence continues to endure, despite the disturbing allegations against him. In this ten-part series, journalists Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smooth bring you a new perspective on the Michael Jackson story, based on dozens of original interviews with people who watched it unfold from up close.
As a big Jay Smooth (given name John Randolph) fan, I’m looking forward to this one — his departure from his longtime outlet when the place hired someone who’d been fired elsewhere for alleged sexual harassment sealed the deal. I trust him to tackle the complexity of the serious criminal allegations against Jackson with the smarts and sensitivity the case deserves, and I can’t wait to listen.
And once I get through that, there’s Just Say You’re Sorry, a new podcast from The Marshall Project that premieres on May 1. The six-parter (it will drop one episode a week) is about Texas Ranger James Holland, who you’ve heard of if you’ve followed the “confessions” of Samuel Little, which he allegedly elicited.
The move got him glowing coverage in outlets like the LA Times, but last year he was also the subject of an investigation from the Marshall Project, which was republished in the Dallas Morning News, that suggested his techniques also hooked in the innocent. Maurice Chammah, the reporter on that piece, hosts the show, and “also wrestles with how ‘true-crime’ podcasts treat their human subjects, from the families of murder victims to wrongly-convicted prisoners,” TMP says in the podcast announcement. I’m ready for a wrestling match about all that! — EB
I don’t remember much about 2005 prestige movie Syriana besides that George Clooney reportedly gained 40 lbs for his role but looked fine as hell. But as The Daily Beast reminded me this morning, it was inspired by a book by CNN pundit Robert Baer, a former CIA agent who also wrote assassination history The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins, among others. But something’s changed since his last appearance on the cable news network, it seems.
Per TDB reporter Shannon Vavra, Baer is now actively and openly engaged in arms trading, as relates to the Russia/Ukraine war.
Baer … registered as a foreign agent for Ukraine in March, according to filings with the Department of Justice obtained by The Daily Beast. The work was intended to “help Ukraine navigate through arms purchases,” one of the filings states.
In an early April interview with The Daily Beast about the registration, Baer said that: “What I’m trying to do right now is help the Air Force with various [equipment], with drones, with MiGs, aviation, things like that,” adding that some of the specifics for his work, which he said would be done pro bono, were still getting sorted out. “I think the Russians need to be stopped before they go any farther.”
After that, things get stranger, as “his intermediaries, who he claims roped him into the scheme in the first place and whom he has refused to name, started to go silent on him,” while Ukrainian officials took public their requests for the U.S. to give them F-16s. Is ostensible retiree/author Baer the person pulling the strings on that operation? Reading between the lines on Vavra’s report, it seems like she thinks the answer is “yes.” — EB
Later this week on Best Evidence: The European coke trade, upcoming docuserieseses, and Friday’s the last business day of the month, so you know what that means…BUDGET SWEEP!
What is this thing? This should help. Follow Best Evidence @bestevidencefyi on Instagram, email us at editorial at bestevidence dot fyi, or call or text us any time at 919-75-CRIME.