Richard, for all his faults, was really trying to get our business off the ground. We had what seemed to be endless meetings with potential investors. And it’s funny how talking to one person leads to another, which leads to another, and so on.
One fellow we talked to said he knew an investment group in Hollywood and that he’d put us in touch with them. I didn’t see that coming.
Off the top of my head, I can’t remember the name of the investment group, but they did contact us. They were a group of Hollywood big wigs, celebrities and such, who were holding the funds, almost $4B, from the sale of a large insurance underwriter. All they had to do was keep the funds in their account and collect the interest until the sale was finalized. Sounded simple enough.
Question: What do you call 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
Answer: A good start.
Once the news got out about this, lawyers started swarming, locking up the funds until a ton of frivolous lawsuits were settled. Oh fer cryin out loud! So close and yet so far.
On top of this, I didn’t feel right in my spirit about dealing with this bunch. Something just wasn’t sitting right about the whole thing. Something evil.
In the midst of this, Richard received a call from a once famous singer, Dion Warwick. She loved the RV project and said she wanted to help, to the tune of $26M. Richard was all over it, but Janelle and I had our doubts. Ms. Warwick was also the biggest 900 number occultist in the world, which didn’t rest well with my new Christian faith. None of that mattered to Richard, all he saw was the dollar signs. She owned a company called DWDG, or Dion Warwick Design Group, and she wanted to design the interiors of our RV’s, as well as be a big investor. Temptation comes in a pretty package, as they say.
Ask Whitney Houston how her aunt helped her out. Oh yeah, she’s dead.