Tag: Houston

B.Z. Listening Podcast Part I: Pedogate Primer Interview

by plasticscreen, posted in Interviews, plastic screen & Walking the Wire, True Crime, Corruption & Deep Politics

I talked with indie journalist B.Z. Douglas recently for a two part interview. In part one we talk about my book Pedogate Primer: the politics of pedophilia which can be purchased at major booksellers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million and a handful of shops (multiple in some countries) in Australia, Norway, UK, Poland, Holland, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and elsewhere. I personally recommend supporting independent booksellers like Powell’s, Skylight Books or Trident’s Book Cafe. if you plan to buy it. As always if you can’t afford a copy, drop me a line at kafkaguy at gmail.com or via the contact form (if you don’t get an answer through the contact form try again with the email to be safe).

We had initially met through a mutual on Twitter who knew we were both dealing with harassment from lawyers with very vague and toothless threats trying to get us to pull factual reporting.

Right down to “false memory syndrome,” real estate fraud, corrupt officers of the court, prosecutorial misconduct, conflicts of interest and other points from each of our stories kept lining up as we became acquainted on a zoom call that morphed into the idea to collaborate on the upcoming Walking the Wire podcast. Speaking of, we have been doing aftershows via Streamyard and Twitter Spaces, our second was recently released online and can be found here.



I’ll be doing a Q/A session for B.Z.’s patreon supporters, Patreon supporters are also eligible for a free digital copy of my book as well (as always reviews always appreciated as they really help). You can also watch the above video at the B.Z. Douglas YouTube channel.

We’ll also continue doing “aftershows” at the @walkingwirepod account to discuss more about our cases as they relate to The Wire via Streamyard and Twitter spaces. Call in guests are welcome, you can see our second aftershow (first recorded) below.

Look for part 2 of this interview in a couple days. This Friday at 9pm EST B.Z. will be hosting me for a livestream Q&A.

If you’re a Patreon supporter, a PDF copy of my book is available for you at https://www.patreon.com/bzdouglas. 

FOOTNOTES:

Escape and Overcome: Jessica’s Story (through the plastic screen podcast ep02)

by plasticscreen, posted in Interviews, plastic screen & Walking the Wire, True Crime, Corruption & Deep Politics

I spent months talking to victims of a Texas ponzi and real estate fraud ring before sharing my notes and numbers with journalist Alissa Fleck. For backstory make sure to check out Crimescoop.org’s coverage. Part II will be coming soon. Dozens of people lost everything, some, even their lives. Today we will be focusing on Jessica’s story. 

Jessica was married to one of the members of the con ring. It wasn’t until she found herself living in Costa Rica that some issues began to arise that were too big to ignore. We will hear her harrowing experience and courageous escape. She has spent years keeping in contact with some of the others who were hurt by this callous gang and has repeatedly done what she can to get this story of multimillion dollar fraud, a mini-Madoff ring that preyed not on the fabulously wealthy but on people from all walks of life. 

You can listen to it at Buzzsprout, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible or other podcasting platforms.

A HOUSTON RACKETEERING RING OF “MINI-MADOFFS” HAS BEEN EXTORTING VICTIMS OUT OF THEIR LIFE SAVINGS FOR DECADES. THE SYNDICATE IS ALSO LINKED TO A TRAGIC 2016 MURDER-SUICIDE INVOLVING TWO CHILDREN

by plasticscreen, posted in True Crime, Corruption & Deep Politics

I spent several months tracking down victims of a far ranging ponzi ring that spent decades swindling numerous innocent people. Like a Mini-Madoff in Houston and Marlin, the story is tragic and heartbreaking and I’m so proud to share a byline with investigative reporter and true crime podcaster, Alissa Fleck on this. She did an astounding job of taking the interviews and some of my notes and tracking down more info to really flesh out this story.

So proud to finally see this go live. Hopefully having their story told is the first step to closure and peace for some people who lost everything, including family members in a few instances. The article below is just part one of a series, here’s hoping that law enforcement and other investigative reporters pick up some of the breadcrumbs we’ve left them…

Check out the first few paragraphs below and you can read the rest at Alissa’s site Crimescoop:

PART I: MURDER AND FRAUD IN TEXAS

Lakshimanarayan “Lucky” Srinivasan, Jeremy Raju Srinivasan, Gwendolyn “Gwen” Stone Stallworth-Sumrall, Alvar Chari, Anirban Haldar and their many co-conspirators, have conned individuals, families, businesses and other organizations out of multiple millions of dollars in cash and assets over the past several decades, leaving many of their victims destitute and their lives ripped apart. The racketeering ring has used a combination of check-kiting, reverse Ponzi and other fraudulent investment schemes to extort money from their hard-working victims, court records show. In 2016, under mounting financial pressure caused by his and his co-conspirators’ volitional fraudulent entanglements, Jeremy murdered his wife and two young children before fatally turning the gun on himself. Lucky, Gwen and the others continue to actively seek new investors to swindle.

BY ALISSA FLECK & PHILIP FAIRBANKS 

*Some names in this story have been changed where requested to protect victims’ identities. Their names are asterisked. 

LUCKY SRINIVASAN, NATALIE ALTIER-SRINIVASAN, MJ SRINIVASAN, JEREMY SRINIVASAN (SOURCE: FACEBOOK)
LUCKY SRINIVASAN, NATALIE ALTIER-SRINIVASAN, MJ SRINIVASAN, JEREMY SRINIVASAN (SOURCE: FACEBOOK)

Exactly five years ago today, on the morning of April 19, 2016, at 8:30 a.m., Jeremy Raju Srinivasan, 37, sent his father Lakshimanarayan “Lucky” Srinivasan a final text message: “Everything is not OK. Please call police. Goodbye.” What came next was a tragedy that would rock their quiet Houston, Texas suburb, leaving in its wake a trail of devastation and unanswered questions.

Within 15 minutes of sending that text message, Jeremy, his wife Natalie Altier Srinivasan, 35, and their two children, 5-year-old Sienna and 2-year-old Michael James (“MJ”), would be found dead by police inside their Katy, Texas home. One of the detectives who processed the scene, Detective Daniel Calvillo of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department, told family members that Natalie was found in bed with a single bullet wound to the head. Jeremy had killed his wife, then shot each kid twice in the head where they lay asleep in bed, before turning the gun on himself.

read the rest of part I directly at Crimescoop!

https://www.crimescoop.org/news/a-houston-racketeering-ring-of-mini-madoffs-has-been-extorting-victims-out-of-their-life-savings-for-decades-the-syndicate-is-also-linked-to-a-tragic-2016-murder-suicide-involving-two-children