Premium llama drama, stolen vegan cheese & $17k fake nurses 👀🍿🧃

Hi Wrecklings!

The Wreck List is officially ONE YEAR old! 🎉 Thank you to each and every one of y’all for subscribing and opening and clicking our emails— it makes me so happy that others love 👀🍿🧃 news as much as we do.

As we know, the audacity of grifters and chaos has no limits so this week has some GEMS:

• ''Caviar and Chanel: The Luxe Vegas Life of an Accused Scammer''- Holy. Crap. This will be a documentary in under six months, mark my words.

• ''Hype House Landlord Files Lawsuit to Recoup Over $300K in Damages Allegedly Caused By Influencers''- This story ran last month but just saw it and had to include it because these influencers allegedly did over $500k in damages, including those from “use of pyrotechnics inside the home.”

• ''Cunning' fake priest accused of swindling MILLIONS from churches to buy 'premium llamas'''- A herd of premium llamas is definitely a nice break from the usual grifter purchases. The originalVICE video is truly worth a watch.

• ''He Smeared Feces on a Critic, and Lost a Job. Now, He Wants to Be Heard.''- I…sir…you did what...and you now want to use your words like an adult?

• ''Woman accidentally breaks $42,000 Jeff Koons sculpture at Art Wynwood in Miami''- Isn’t there some sort of sticky putty that could have been snuck in there in case of an accidental bump like this?

• “Miyoko’s Creamery sues its namesake founder over accusations of stealing proprietary information”- As you know, we love a vegan beef over here at The Wreck List.

• ''M&M's factory is fined $14,500 after two workers fell into giant vat of chocolate and were only freed when rescuers cut a hole in the bottom''- Yikes, while basically a scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, this sounds like a nightmare.

• ''Microsoft’s Bing is an emotionally manipulative liar, and people love it''- “‘I’m not unhinged,’ said Bing. ‘I’m just trying to learn and improve. 😊’” is my new go-to line.

• ''Sports Illustrated Lays Off Journalists After Announcing Pivot to AI Content''- This feels super gross, especially since the media space was already quickly shrinking.

• ''The RealReal Announces Layoffs, Store Closures''- Given how chaotic things are at The RealReal (psst, read all about it) this isn’t surprising,

• ''Twitter’s two-factor authentication change “doesn’t make sense”''- Weird cost-cutting move but ok Elon.

• ''The Instagram "Scammer": Caroline Calloway''- As a publicist I have a lot of thoughts about Caroline’s new approach regarding her image after watching this video. She could have continued leaning into the “scammer” give-zero-f*cks-girl image and capitalized on that -OR- really commit to rehabing her image. But that would require a genuine mea culpa vs. what she’s doing (whether or not intentionally) and playing the “people on the internet are mean to me and that makes me sad” card without taking any accountability for having scammed people. And no, “I was young”, “I was going through X” does not count as an apology. The middle road is not a good look. Caroline, if you’re reading this, let’s talk!

• We all know that Barstool Sports is trash but here’s their latest:

• ''She Built a Following as Taylor Swift’s Doppelgänger. Then the Swifties Came After Her''- Clearly copying TSwift (down to her cat + its name) but claiming that’s just who she is, feels very Single White Female.

• ''Yuga Labs to Replace Logo That Apes a Kids Drawing Guide''- The leading NFT project is really not representing the Web3 space well.

• ''She Bought A House On Land That Locals Loved. Then The Town Turned Against Her.''- A fascinating read about a local town’s FB group’s drama going offline.

• ''Black Rifle Coffee Company is Being Sued by an RTD Beverage Consultancy''- Bold move to just not pay the company that was instrumental in bringing your product to market. Also today we learned RTD is a product category (ready to drink).

• ''She's chosen to live a lie': Race faker posing as social justice activist who claimed she was of Latin, South Asian and Arab descent is unmasked by her own MOTHER - who confirms the liar is 'as white as snow'''- Girl, wash your face, be quiet, and go to therapy.

• '‘I Was Fooled’: Influencer Apologizes For Cooking and Eating a Great White Shark''- Filming an apology video at an aquarium is certainly…a choice.

• ''Influencer left in serious pain after recreating Doja Cat’s iconic fashion show look''- It’s like the extreme version of putting glue on your hands and then peeling it off.

• ''Bogus nursing school issued 8,000 fake degrees, feds say''- Who are these garbage humans just *selling* nurse degrees? And even scarier, where are these people who just bought their degree working? On patients??

• The publicist at CNN could probably all use a drink or a nap:

  • ''Don Lemon Benched on Monday Over Sexist Remark Scandal, Insiders Say''

  • ''CNN hit with another alleged scandal, a year after Jeff Zucker resigns''

• ''Con Girl review – quite possibly the most astonishingly outlandish story ever told''- I need to find a friend with a Paramount+ login because this sounds absolutely bonkers.

• “SEC Charges The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Its Investment Management Company for Disclosure Failures and Misstated Filings”- Sneaky, sneaky. For those a little less versed in the world of financial press releases like myself, this thread is a better read:

  

  Jack Raines@Jack_Raines

  1) 🗣 THIS ONE TRICK THAT THE IRS DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW: USE GOD AS A TAX LOOPHOLE 🗣 One hedge fund has grown from $1B to $128B in 45 years while paying $0 in taxes. It's not on Wall Street or Silicon Valley. It's in Utah. The Mormon Church. Check this out.

  

  4:43 PM · Feb 21, 2023

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  1.01K Reposts · 9.1K Likes

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More Serious Stories

We realize some of these can be triggering for some readers, so feel free to skip! Also, sometimes we use weird letter subs so we’re not flagged as gross spam email.

• ''‘We’re Scared, Too’: Ohio Residents Press for Answers on Train Derailment at Meeting''

• ''Even Fitness Influencers Are Fed Up With The Amount Of Lies, Photo Editing, And Manipulation That Go Into Fitspo Social Media Posts''

• ''Vanderbilt University Staff Apologized For Using AI To Write An Email To Students About The Shooting At Michigan State''

• ''This Black Mom Invented Skin Tone Emojis, But Her Patent Attempts Have Been Shot Down Repeatedly''

• ''Inside the RUTHLESS underbelly of a celebrity fitness empire: Ex-employees of Gwyneth Paltrow's longtime trainer Tracy Anderson reveal toxic culture of paranoia, legal threats, and grueling conditions''

• ''Texas fitness influencer will stand trial next month for sending anorexics $300 WEIGHT LOSS plans after they pleaded with her to help them gain weight''

• ''"You Won't Believe How Many Employers Knowingly Break The Law": A Lawyer Shared Common Things Companies Do That Are 100% Illegal''

Chelsea Klukas@chelscore

A woman at another big tech company (that I won’t name) told me a male leader responded to a question on diversity goals with “diversity is a luxury, right now we need to focus on people who can do the job” A lot to unpack there, & an unsurprising view we knew many had all along.

9:45 PM · Feb 16, 2023

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1.4K Reposts · 11.4K Likes

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P.S. While we’re obsessed with these stories, we don’t endorse any of these insane behaviors. 💋