Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Hi, Saron, Hey Elizabeth, how are you good?
I was just sitting over here watching Smoking in the Bandit Too, which is just the worst movie. And I love the Smoking the Bandit series, but it's such a cash grab. Oh my god, it's so bad. I mean, it's just terrible. But I love it for how terrible it is.
I love that for you.
That's what I was doing. How are you been?
I'm good? Good is yeahm hm yeah. Do you know it's ridiculous?
I do, Elizabeth?
Tell me?
Do you remember? I'm not sure if you were into this because it's a you know, I think it's one of the things like you usually need cousins or like some friends, and you apparently neither. So the easy bake oven? Yeah, did you ever play with an easy bake oven?
I had a classmate who had one. I went to house. This is basically like you stick batter under a light bulb.
An actual incandescent light bulb, but that was the heating element, and you pull out this like undercooked cake or like under cookies, and then the kids would eat them while their parents were like, look at that. They're like a little adults.
Yeah, I was. I wanted one, and my mom and my grandmar are like, we have an oven, what's wrong with you?
It was a huge It's in the Hall of Fame of Toys, Like, even though it made really bad cake and cookies, people loved it and apparently get this, Elizabeth. I got good news for you. You can get your own because it's back.
Is it now?
I swear to god? Has Bro brought it back? And they have this They just brought one out at the end of last year and it was the hit of apparently the holiday season. It was only available from Walmart and it sold out.
Does it have AI?
No, it doesn't have AI, but it interesting. They did update it with quote new retro modern style, colorful sprinkle lights, a built in timer, upgraded baking tools, and new mixes featuring updated flavors. If you're wondering about the heating element, they actually they don't use an incandescent light bulb anymore
because you can't buy them right Hoast in California. I don't know about the rest to the country, but we couldn't have them, and they have a miniature heating element, so I imagine it's like a coil of some kind. So there you go, and it's like almost like forty five bucks at Walmart, they're sold out. You're gonna have to wait. You're dropping, is thought because you like cooking.
I have then died a few months ago, and then I got a new one.
Was it easy bake?
No? No, I got a new one.
That's awesome. Is it one of those like induction and everything everything itself? Yeah, it tells you its own name.
Is zaps. My Apple preheating is done a super smartphone. I do. I just don't care anymore. I'll just hook everything up to everything.
Your car, text you, your text, yure, my washing, text you. Your life is foreign to me.
It's it's so great. I feel like I'm in the jetson You're somewhere. And then meanwhile, like LG is going through.
My phone with it's like AI agent my.
You know what? Who cares? I don't care.
I don't care anymore about anything.
No, really, there's no such thing as privacy. I don't care. Do whatever you want.
Money's a lie. There's no such thing as privacy.
Everything's everything's in a lab.
I tell no one my real name.
It's well, do you want to know what else is ridiculous? I do messing with the fish. Oh, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Damn right, Oh gosh, I know.
Every now and then when we stumble upon a crimer who is so perfect for this podcast.
It hurts a poster child.
IY so someone who embodies all the best parts of the crimes and the criminals that we love. And today I have that for you. Yes, this has San Francisco art crime, prison escapes, casinos, courtroom drama, beach fights, and trout fraud. What I could weep?
That last one?
He could weep. I've been at a real funk lately, like clinically funky, and this story, this criminal has lifted my dark mood like you wouldn't believe.
George Clinton, he re enlivened your funk.
Yes he did, he really did. It's like the universe saw my plight, saw that my light had gone out, and said, not so fast, lady host. Help is on the way, so let's get right to this. This guy is named Luke Brugnara, Luke Brugnara. Yeah, he says. He's often called Lucky Luke because he was so lucky in business in life. That was just like when I told people I have him and called Dizzy. Yes, very much. So you have to be very careful when you try
and give yourself a nickname. He has a website, Brugnaracorp dot com. Naturally, please indulge me while I read to you from his bio on there.
Oh, I love this, go please.
Luke is a fourth generation San Franciscan, growing up in the Sunset District, attending Holy Name Grammar School, where he was student council and editor of the newspaper in yearbook, which Luke began for Holy Name School and then attended Saint Ignatius Preparatory for High School, where Luke competed in track,
setting records in the long jump which stand today. Luke won the Jesse Owens National Invitational in Houston at thirteen years old and Los Angeles fourteen years old, jumping seventeen feet six inches and twenty one feet, respectively, winning the
national championships. Luke also set the national accuracy fly casting record for the American Casting Association at fourteen years old in Columbus, Ohio, casting a perfect score one hundred in the fly accuracy, which still stands today as the national record.
I don't believe any of this. Wait, I mean some of the early details, but twenty one feet at fourteen years old is ridiculous as a long jumper, one hundred percent ridiculous.
I you know, this is a grown man on his corporation's website is telling us all the things he did as a child.
Child and making them up or exaggerating.
Nobody care. Yeah, so, I mean, I could honestly read the whole thing, but let me paraphrase some other highlights. He went to San Diego State. Okay, he ran track there and was amazing.
Naturally, I was gonna ask.
Yeah, No, he went to San Francisco Law School.
He didn't set more records in his Oh no, it's.
Just like it was amazing and he was too good for the Olympics.
Yeah, they wouldn't let him compete anymore.
Yeah, she's too good. You got to get off the track.
Let someone else shine by.
He didn't go to u S University of San Francisco, or like UCS San Francisco, which used to be called Hastings. He went to San Francisco Law School, and it's not accredited by the American bars near that. Yeah, and it's California bar. Pass rate is pretty dismal, okay, but it does have other interesting alums.
It does exist.
It does exist. Oscar Zeta Acosta, the inspiration for doctor Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He went there. The Buffalo former California Governor Pat Brown, father of governor and all around awesome guy Jerry Brown. His dad went there and Charles Gary. Now, if you ever have the desire to go down a rabbit hole, he's worth looking into. I saw a documentary about him a couple of years ago. He was an Armenian guy who was chief counsel for the Black Panthers and a bunch of other really like
famous and infamous groups. You're super interesting guy. Yeah. So Charles Gary was Garabedian. Okay, Yeah, he changed it anyway. So that's where Luke went to law school. He worked as an investment banker after graduating. I don't think he passed the bar took the bar, maybe because the California Bar has no record of him when I ran this yet.
He went into em and a Elizabeth all that mergers next.
Exactly, still going to put us the bar for that one. In nineteen ninety he married his college girlfriend and in nineteen ninety two he formed the Brugnara Corporation. He has four kids, Luke.
The second, Lucky Luke Jr.
Vincent, Lauren, and Brianna, and according to the website, the boys are also involved in the business. How up to date is the website?
I don't know.
Let me give you some more direct quotes from his website. This is so good. Luke has royal lineage with Habsburg bloodline on both his mother's and father's side, so.
You're like Habsburg double.
I think the Cannibal Brugnara. Luke's great grandfather times four was the Archduke of the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire from seventeen sixty to seventeen ninety six. On his mother's side, Pelais Gris di Mehramon, Luke's great grandparents were the Marquess and Marquessa of Catalonia Barcelona in the seventeenth to early twentieth century. It was a long they lived a long time. They were like biblical years. Yeah, like the biblical aufurs Luke.
I'll continue. Luke was bestowed honorary thirty third degree by Sovereign Grand Commander of the Freemasons, Henry Clawson in nineteen ninety three. Luke's maternal great grandfather times two is Alexander Morrison, founder of the venerable law firm Morrison Forrester, who was a San Francisco civic luminarian judge who endowed the Academy of Sciences Morrison Planetarium and UC Berkeley Library Morrison Library. Here's a fun fact about Morrison Forrester. Please everyone refers
to it as MOFO. Yeah, Ley lean in to it. Their website is even mofo dot com. Yeah. So there's more. This will be important later.
It was important to me then.
Luke and his family have lived in Seacliff for the past twenty one years and Las Vegas. Luke purchased his Seacliff estate from Cheech Marin in two thousand. Luke leased his twenty five thousand square foot Las Vegas mansion to Michael Jackson in two thousand and eight for a million dollars for six months. Luke's house was the largest home in Las Vegas at that time like this is everything is the best, the biggest, the most expensive.
Yeah, well familiar, it's it's like an eleven year old Lyne to you.
Yes, exactly exactly so for those not the know, Seacliff is a neighborhood in San Francisco. It's west of the Presidio, right on the Pacific Ocean, just outside the Golden Gate And in fact most homes there have views of the Golden Gate bridge, but looking at it into the bay, not the other way around us. Your magnificent, beautiful and Cheech Marin, of course, is the actor slash comedian best known as one half of Cheech and Chong.
And then also Nash Bridge for his work.
On Nash Bridges, set in San Francisco, which you were familiar with. Personal used to heckle them and I could see them, so I think I've told this here he may. When I would see him and Don Johnson filming on the streets, I would yell dad to Don Johnson. And it happened a lot, and it really.
Annoyed him, but it made Cheach smile. She thought it was funny, like this is a comedian.
Like the fifth or sixth time that it happened over the course of like months. Dad, No over, Dad, please this no, look this way, I'm here anyway, this time I miss you. So Cheech's place in Seacliff was right on the water, and in fact there's this crazy zigzagging steep stairway down said cliff to the water below. You can check the house out on Zillow two to two four Seacliff Avenue. Look, the stairway I mentioned is illegal, by the way, never got permits. I don't think Cheech was the one who.
Put it in, probably not probably, I think he does.
Things on the up and up. So how did we get here? How did Luke become Lucky Luke? Let's go back to nineteen ninety three, Oh, back when he became Amazon. That's when Luke bought a note for one point five million dollars in bankruptcy court for the Cress Building at nine to three to nine Market Street in San Francisco. It was originally the Pantagious Theater in the consideration, and then it became a Crest department store.
Okay, so I'm not sure.
What it was when Luke picked it up. Offices maybe Anyway, he foreclosed on the former owner then got a three million dollar loan using the note, which made him one point five million upon clothes at Escrow, and he just kept buying buildings Downtownsco.
Yeah.
So in nineteen ninety five he bought seven three five Market Street. I used to work next door when Mother Jones was located at seven three one Market. That's another fun fact for you. So he bought seven three five Market for two point four million dollars and sold it two years later for five point two five million to get in this credit, Heidi prophet, I don't know, he told SF Gate quote. The plan is to keep buying.
I'm only thirty two years old, and I'm going to buy as many properties as i can in the Central Business District in downtown San Francisco for as.
Long as I can.
He's like, We're going to run out of buildings, folks, till I own everything. So he's thirty two years old and he owns five hundred thousand square feet of office space in the city.
Yeah, that's incredible, it's wild.
He said that he was worth one hundred million dollars and that he amassed it in just four years.
And that's back when you wanted office space.
In downtown share then there was a high demand, not like No. What's interesting too, is he has all this royal lineage, he says, but his was like a supervisor at juvenile Hall, so he didn't come from money.
That's why I was wondering where the credit line.
I don't know.
Of course, maybe his freemason friends.
Perhaps. According to sf Gate quote Brugnar's strategy quote, I'm going after any deal that's available because there's not much money available right now for borrowers. And I'm in a good position because I don't have anyone to answer to. Of course, I surround myself with the best people to help me make the right decision.
I'm like a shock I sleep.
But things weren't always on the up and up.
No, it seems so on the straight and narrow.
Yeah. In two thousand, he had to pay more than a million dollars in fines and penalties for letting tenants at the Post Street Medical and dental building he owned illegally disposed of syringes and gauze pads like they're supposed to be sealed and locked away before being removed by a licensed biohazardous waste disposal company.
He's like, look, there's holes in the wall.
Just throw it in the regular trash.
I'm not paying, are you kidding?
Yeah?
I thought it was in the building. It was like, make it the trash in the dumpsters.
Yeah, make make the needles the trash guys problem. According to SFGate quote, Brignara had argued in court that city officials were unfairly targeting him after he made unflattering comments about them in a San Francisco magazine.
Well that's just done right there, That's what the judge.
Was not buying it, and he's like, that's just done right there, he said.
As he's done right there.
He said Brugnara had quote no credibility, and this testimony must be quote rejected in its entirety as being untrustworthy with the judge. Yeah, he's just not having it. In nineteen ninety nine, Luke tried to get into the casino business. Oh no, he bought the Silver City Casino on the Strip in Las Vegas. It's a couple of blocks down from Circus Circus. Okay, he paid thirty one and a half million dollars for the building. Did he get the casino or just the hotel? Well, he got the he got the both.
The whole thing, okay, and it was I don't think.
There was a full hotel. It was like, I think it was more of a locals place, okay. Mandalay Resort Group was leasing the space at the time, and then Luke took it over, but he didn't have a gaming license, so the place closed down on Halloween nineteen ninety nine. All one hundred and fifty employees found themselves.
Out of work. You would you get that first, because like.
Luke, he applied for a gaming license in August of nineteen ninety nine, but he was still undergoing a pre licensing investigation.
Sure.
Yeah, so No Casino.
Nevada takes that stuff seriously.
He wanted to redo the whole thing anyway. He's like, I want to tear this thing down. I want to build a San Francisco themed resort on this property.
No one wants.
Now, there was already a Walgreen. No, no one wants that. There was already a Walgreens on the property that he'd have to build around for some reason. Yeah, right, and everything is locked up inside of it. But he thought he'd have everything running up by like two thousand and two. Oh god, so three years here's the thing. The Nevada Gaming Commission denied his gaming license in a unanimous decision. Las Vegas Sun newspaper, one of the best to ever
do it. Quote. Major concerns were poor financial record keeping, allegations Brugnara had failed to file tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service from nineteen ninety two to nineteen ninety six, run ins with San Francisco City regulators over alleged building code violations, and issues from Brugnara's personal life, particularly on allegations that Brugnara had made several death threats to associates and government officials.
Death threats. Yeah, I like, how like they dug everywhere that they wouldn't look downy play I serious, but I didn't really just so investigated. That's great.
So Luke was like, you know what, I'm going to sue you. Of course, must sue you, sue me, sue you.
His settlement is like, you'll give me the license.
Well, he said he talked to Joe Alioto and I've mentioned him on here before, former San Francisco mayor, big time lawyer.
Tough guy, totally had the office in North Beach.
Yeah, so San Francisco Italian American to San Francisco Italian American. These two guys I started talking. Joe said he thought Luke had a case. At least that's what Luke was telling people. Look, Joe Alioto said, I got this. He didn't sue, but he did try again. And I guess you have to wait a year before reapplying. But if you get denied, you almost never get it on subsequent attempts. If it's uimous, unanimous and this stuff that you can't like explain or erase.
No, And they wouldn't have replaced that many in the commission that quick now, so they're like, didn't we already do this?
You're wasting my time exactly. So he sold the casino and the surrounding property in two thousand and two. The new owners tore everything down and built a ross dress for less. They paved paradise, put up a dress for less.
My mother would be happy.
So this is around the time that Luke bought Cheech's house. Okay, when he bought it, he got a glimpse of Cheech's art collection. Like Maren, is a serious collector. In fact, he has one of the largest and most important private collections of Chicano art anywhere in the world, more than seven hundred pieces, and he loans it out for exhibition and he actually now has pledged it to the cheech Marin Center for Chicano Arts and Culture in Riverside, Colugne,
the great museum there. Yeah. So he has absolutely incredible pieces and one that stood out at the Seacliff home is this huge, breathtaking painting by Diego Rivera. Oh nice so Brugnara. He sees all this impressive art work, he wants it for himself, naturally, not that work though, like instead of Chicano art, he started collecting more of the
old masters. From a Forbes article, quote, though Maren's taste ran to twentieth century Latin American artist like Diego Rivera, Brugnara prefers the pure a political craftsmanship of sixteenth and seventeenth century painters. And so you know, he goes on to tell Forbes that he finds great value in portraits of Jesus. Oh, and this is what he said to Forbes magazine quote, most of the great dealers are Jewish. That's not a bad thing, but it's a fact, and
it's not their top priority to promote Jesus Christ. What the I don't even know what to do with that. And as I as I always like to say, I'm just going to leave it lay where Jesus flaying it. Oh my god, Yeah, that's what we're going to do with that. So two thousand and three, Brugnara bought a painting Christ carrying the Cross for five hundred thousand dollars and it was supposed to have been painted by this minor Renaissance artist named gian Francesco d Mainieri. Luke didn't
accept that. He was like, you know what, that looks like a Da Vinci to me. Yes, yeah, right, A lot of the Ninja Turtles did this one. So Christie's, the auction house that sold it to him, was like, well, you know, if you really think it's a Leonardo, reach out to a very well respected Italian guy. We know. He's seventy five years old, retired Professor's name's Carlo Pedretti. He's a Leonardo expert Florence.
Great guy.
Yeah, And like when he saw what Luke had, he's like, I'm a little interested in this. In fact, I'm a little familiar. He's like, there are three others just like it that I think might be the work of like one of Leonardo's studio assistants. Maybe Leonardo, but probably yeah, like the backup Mona Lisa. Luke is stoked. He's so fired up, so he hires Padretti to do research to back it all up, and he sends him a check
for five grand. But then Luke finds out that even the hint of Leonardo, not even like confirmation of it, could drive the price up. So Pedretti. He's on vacation during the summer and not working fast enough for Luke's taste. So, according to Forbes quote, he decided he didn't want to wait for Padretti's opinion and stop payment.
On the check.
Oh.
I thought, I'm gonna say he sold it. No, He's like, stop.
Payment because he wants to go sell it. So, of course, The Brugnaro Corporation website says the company owns quote a significant fine art collection, including old masters Raphael Caravaggio, Da Vinci, del Sarto, Tish and Rubens, modern and impressionist Picasso, Van Dojen, Soutine, Monet, des Ga and Sizon. It's contemporary Pollock, Warhol, Liechtenstein, decooning Helmmen and Ramos. They also say that Leonardo da Vinci's Christ Carrying the Cross circa. Fifteen hundred is valued at
over one billion dollars one billion. Brugnar Corporation's fine art collection is valued at over three billion dollars.
The one billion would be a record, Like that's double the most expensive Leonardo painting.
Now, yes, that was then? Yeah, like how does he?
Who did he think?
He's lying to himself? Probably so who knows. Let's take a break and upon our return we're gonna up the legal ante.
Yes, zaren I loving dumb people. Lie, this is so good.
It's so good because it's just like, no, keep going? What else? They were three trillion dollars? How about that? Is that what you're your sofa is worth? Okay? So two thousand and eight was rough on a lot of people. There was that whole financial crisis thing, like thanks subprime mortgages, thanks derivatives. Two thousand and eight was rough for Luke Brugnara, but not for those reasons, although I'm guessing his finances
and his real estate didn't have too smooth a ride. No, two thousand and eight is when things started to catch up with him. We always say that you shouldn't lie to the FBI.
Oh, yes, we do.
You also shouldn't lie to the I R S.
Another good one not to lie to.
Luke lied to the I R S. Oh yeah, he caught three counts.
The irony of that is, they'll refer you to the FBI.
Exactly. He caught three counts in April two thousand and eight for filing false income tax returns back in two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand and two. Remember he went a stretch without filing at all because he had all those properties. Remember in those three years two thousand through two thousand and two, he sold a bunch of properties, and on each sale he made a profit, and he neglected to report those gains on his federal income tax.
Oh so he was filing at this point and then just and just saying I don't know how that happened.
Exactly. So he got those charges. But a few days later a grand jury hit him with more noise. On April tenth, two thousand and eight, Luke Brugnara and his corporation, Brugnara Corporation, they get charged with four counts of quote taking steelhead trout in violation of the Endangered Species Act and two counts of making a false statement during the course of the investigation.
About your bond son your crimes.
So it seems Luke intentionally blocked the flow of Little Arthur Creek, a watershed for steelheads. So there's this private dam called Pikell's Dam after the original homesteaders in the eighteen hundred, on some property that Luke bought just outside of Gilroy, California, Garlic. So he purposely closed the portal on the dam, and it was known that steelhead trout
migrated upstream of the dam on the property. They struggled all the way up from the Pacific Ocean at Monterey Bay, through fields and everything else to get to and there's a threatened species. Why are they threatened? Thank you? Well, folks like Luke were blocking off the waterways like Little Arthur Creek with dams. So state and federal Fish and Wildlife investigators they went to check it out and they saw a bunch of adult steelhead trapped downstream of the dam.
They couldn't migrate upstream to their spawning habitat, and a Federal Fisheries biologist he took a look, and we're like, these trout are essential to the survival of the species due to their low number found in the Pajaro River watershed and parro is how you know, locally we pronounced it, it's Paharo either way, So they had to be rescued
and moved upstream. They had to gather them up. So the rescue team arrives to move the steelhead upstream and investigators are like, there are no fish here, They're gone. And then they also found evidence of poaching and trapping activities, so it wasn't just that he blocked the like damned it up. He was, you know, netting them in. So they're like, we have to talk to the property owner and that's Luke. And he was like, I didn't take the fish, no, and you know, I have no idea,
did you. He's like, I don't even have the kind of lure that you would need that's capable of cat steelhead trout. He caught the fish, he had the lures.
Like he was lying, He's got the truck.
He's lying to Federal Fish and Wild So what's interesting is that this case is the first federal criminal case in the country charging an individual and corporation with taking steelhead trout by blocking access to upstream habitat first best, most important, dude.
He got one. He finally got record.
So it should be noted that in twenty twenty four, after decades of hard work by local fishing and environmental organizations, Pickel's Dam was.
Removed part of the Oravile Dam.
Trout Unlimited raised the bulk of the funds, coordinated the work, and a press release they said, quote this work removed the dam, it's non functional fish ladder, a concrete slab, and restored some three hundred feet of stream channel, enabling subservice water to rise and flow upstream of the dam in the dry season for the first time in decades.
Heck yeah, Now that the dam is gone to you will manage the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the creek on the project side to enable continued access for the property owner. So there's like this was a huge thing. There's all this video of them tearing it down.
I have remember friends posting videos on Instagram and they're excited about all. There's numerous damn teardowns in California going on right now and people getting geeked.
At but it's a cool thing to watch, and it was like such a huge effort. I'm pretty sure Luke's not the property owner anymore. So Back in two thousand and eight, he pulled another stunt with that creek. He tried to sell the water in it to the City of Gilroy. According to the Gilroy Dispatch, the city administrator Quote called the entire premise of the proposition puzzling because he wrote, it seems like Brugnara is trying to profit
off the way water currently flows. Water coming down Mount Madonna flows into Little Arthur Creek on Brugnara's one hundred and twelve acre property along Redwood Retreat Road and then feeds the Uvis Creek before percolating into the aquifer below Gilroy.
Instead of paying the Santa Clara Valley Water District two point four million dollars a year to pump nearly three billion gallons of water from the aquifer, which it helps replenish by releasing water from the Juviis Reservoir, Brugnara has offered to sell quote his water in arrears for three hundred thousand dollars a year for the first two years, and then a fifteen percent marked down from the district's
prevailing rate thereafter. Okay, and the article goes on. But if the water already leaves Brugnara's property and travels down Yuvus Creek along with the district's artificially released water, why would the city pay him on top of the water district thanks simple Brugnara has said, dump the godlike district and just pay him instead. The godlike quote godlike district.
I want to be the godlike water figure. This is like the old Western where he's doing dams and trying to sell water downstreet.
The city was like, big note, reject the offer, and Luke goes into a tizzy. He starts threatening people. He accuses everyone of corruption, and the city's like, you know what, that's crazy because we're still not interested.
And so he's a.
Waiting well he's doing this while he's a waiting trial on all this other stuff, on the tax stuff and on the trout stuff.
Out from Vegas.
It's nothing, and so he gets tangled up in a whole new legal mess. It's not so new. He'd been accused of these sort of things in the past, as we talked about threatening people, so in October of two thousand and eight, four different people got restraining orders against him. I told you two thousand was rough, right. Apparently two of those people were employees at his children's school. They said that Luke forced another parent off the road with his car, and they said that he was known to
carry weapons. Now, will I believe they mean a gun? I prefer to imagine like nunchucks or maybe a mace. Maybe he's maybe his fists are registered lethal weapons you know that are Anyway, Like I said, he had a history of this sort of thing. He once threatened a city attorney, court appointed receiver, his brother, his former mistress, and their child. Former mistress, Yeah, it was their child.
He had an outside child.
It was alleged that he threatened a witness to alter her testimony before the Nevada Gaming Commission. Wow, and then said witness already had a restraining order in place when he did this. So he later pleaded guilty to tax fraud and trout fraud. And then he tried to retract his pleas but they wouldn't let him, and then he did and then he like it went back and forth, Yeah, exactly. He eventually gets sentenced to thirty months in federal prison. He got out in twenty twelve. Two years later, he's
back at it baby. March twenty fourteen, he arranged to buy eleven million worth of paintings and other works of art from a dealer named Rose Long. Okay, eleven million.
Eleven million dollars of paintings.
Paintings in the business artwork. Yeah, he said that they were for display in his museum.
His museum.
So a couple notes on this one. He didn't have that kind of money in twenty fourteen.
I'm guessing not. He just got out prison.
And two he didn't have a museum.
That was my big main question, what museum.
Long was not aware of either of those notes and so, and since like it was going to museum and not a private collection, longs like, I'll give you a ten percent discount. That's fabulous, Okay. Luke was like, thank you so much. That's great. Also, I'm not going to pay for shipping. Okay, thank spy, Kay, thank spy. So he bought quotes sixteen paintings by Williem Da Kooning, the Dutch American abstract expressionist, for about seven million. For those, he
threw down three million for a Diga sculpture. They're four hundred and fifty thousand for a painting by American realist artist George Lukes, one hundred and sixty thousand for a drawing by Miro Yeah, and one hundred and forty five thousand for etchings by Pablo Picasso.
Baby patchings. Okay, I'll take.
Exactly so long of course, is like, okay, give me a deposit, give me a little upfront before delivery. And Luke's like, no, no, that's not going to work for me. Thank you, kay, thanks by He was like, don't forget I bought expensive stuff from you before. He bought a renoir for five hundred thousand dollars and another Picasso drawing. Oh really legitimately in the past. And so he's like, you know, I'm good for it.
She's like, you know me, She's.
Okay, fine, I'm in. So she gets all the pieces prepared for shipping, and she personally escorts them to San Francisco, where the museum is supposed to be. And so she and the art arrive and they make their way to the address of the museum two to four Seacliff Avenue, the former cheach House.
Yeah.
So about that museum. He told Long that he was opening a museum in San Francisco. She said that she hadn't heard anything about a new museum opening in San Francisco. He's like, oh, did I say San Francisco. It's actually be in Las Vegas. You know, so I slip up sometimes about.
Spanish words in San Francisco Las Vegas. Who knows.
She didn't want to just like leave more than ten million dollars in art in the garage of a house, but what else could she do? I mean take them back with her, of course, But no, she left them at the Seacliff house.
Okay.
Luke told her that he wanted to inspect the art when it came in. Yeah, But when Long and the art arrived, he was like, Oh, I can't. I'm busy. I have an appointment to view some property this morning. Sorry, I can't.
Miss your I'm double booked.
I'm triple books. Yeah. So Long left the house without the crates being opened, and then she also left without getting paid. And then so what she did get was a lawyer, but then so did Luke. Luke's like, sue me, sue you for his argument. His argument was that the art was all a gift. She just gifted this to me and I'm sorry, but no takebacks, no vacksies, Bai. She's so generous.
Kay, thanks by she loves me.
Yeah, I'm just you know, I'm lucky, Luke.
What can I say? Honor.
So Luke also told his lawyer that the pieces were quote unauthenticated and not worth muchauthentic.
Can you imagine being this dude's lawyer stuff and you're like, don't tell.
Me that, Long Layer. They're going back and forth you He's like.
No, no, no, no.
He puts his fingers in his ears. The lawyers are going back and forth. Luke's lawyer was like, you know what, only four crates were delivered and then like a small box. And Luke was like, you know what, I'll return the gifts that you gave me, but I want something in reach. What Yeah, I don't know. So negotiations are at a standstill.
So Long's legal team went to the FBI. Good for her, The FBI searched the Seacliff house in May of twenty fourteen, took custody of four of the crates from the garage. None had ever been opened, thank goodness. So in the crates we have the mirror drawing, the Picasso etchings, the dacooning pieces, the Luke's painting. By the way, there's a real possibility that all the dacoonings were duf fake. But that's another story.
Like intentionally counterfeit. She didn't know, she.
May not have known, you know. Wow, So the fifth crate. But me, here's the thing, we talk about enough art crime. I think most of it's fake A good percentage.
Yeah, er side, that's probably fair.
It's probably fake. So that fifth crate, right, the one with the bronze casting of the Degas Little Dancer statue nowhere to be found. So it was on like the FBI is like this tastes good. I love this. Luke gets charged with a bunch of different counts of fraud, taken into custody. We're going to trial people. Luke, however, was going to freedom. So in February of twenty fifteen,
right before the trial started, Luke made an escape. What the judge gave him a three hour furlough so that he could change out of his prison garb and into a suit and like street clothes to meet up with his lawyer at the Federal building in Oakland.
Sure.
Instead, he just made a run for it. He took off first six days he evaded the Feds. When he was caught, he was hanging out in Los Gadows, which is at the edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains between Santase and Santa Cruz. If you need some sort of orientation there, and he had a perfectly good explanation for it.
He took the road.
No. See, he had been held at the Glen Dyer Jail in Oakland, so they're like, oh, okay, I get it. It's the one that's closed down now. It's above police headquarters, right next to the freeway with the slits for.
Those downtown basically, So it wasn't just.
That it was Glen Dyre jail. It was that he was being starved there, malnourished. He said he was being malnourished and he was going to come back for trial. It was honest. But he just nipped out for a bite to eat and less got us fifty miles away. Yeah, anyway, multiple so his lawyer withdrew representations.
I knew. Yeah, his lawyer, he's just like, you're going to ruin my career just by being like.
Why he's like ethical reasons, Yeah I cannot, And so they get in, they bring in a replacement lawyer, and then the replacement lawyer is like, yeah I can't. I have to withdraw representation for ethical reasons.
So is it not a public defender? He's still paying right, and they're just like opting out, opting out.
So who's going to be his lawyers?
Erin himself, a fool.
Luke represented himself.
Oh my god, I remember suddenly he went to law school.
I went to law school. The trial was very chaotic, very unhinged, went on for two weeks.
The judge walked out with white hair, came in with.
Let's take a break, and when we come back, courtroom drama. Welcome back, Sarin.
Oh my god, I'm excited about this.
We we go now to the trial of Luke Brugnara. An appeals judge would later write in his ruling, quote, this isn't a judge's.
Ruling, this is the appeal. So he's looking at another judge's work.
Comes back and this is like, this is okay. Quote from the moment his trial began. Brugnara's behavior could be described as appalling. And then it just goes from thereat right. So apparently when government attorneys objected, he would just keep talking right over him, like he didn't hear him. He talked over and interrupted the judge like, Yeah, I'm gonna need you to hold it a second. I'm still not done. When he would be told to settle down, he would
just yell louder. He ignored procedure. He gave speeches when he was supposed to be questioning witnesses.
Is he trying to get his case thrown out? Like? Is he going for like a mist?
He's luking it up. And he tried to sneak in evidence during questioning that had already been ruled in admissible. He was he was rude. He was luke Luke. So zaren closure. You are a bailiff in the federal courthouse in San Francisco. You've been on the job for more than a decade and you've seen a lot. You're standing by the bench as the judge welcomes everyone back into court after a recess. The murmured conversations die down, and the judge tells the prosecution that they can call their
next witness. The government attorney stands and calls some commercial real estate broker to stand. A man at a fine suit and expensive haircut approaches and you swear him in. Brugnara stands and begins to question the witness. The US attorney calls out, your honor, that's her witness. The judge bangs his gavel and warns Brugnara to sit down. Brugnari stares at the US attorney, looks her up and down,
and then tells her that she dresses like a Nazi. Enough, shouts the judge, this whole trial has been wild, crazier than anything you've ever seen. Brugnara says something about how bossy the US attorney is and that the judge should just lend her his robe, seeing how she's running things in here. You cringe in anticipation of the judge's ire. He threatens Brugnaro with contempt of court. Brugnara ignores him and just sits back down. The gallery whispers to each other,
and the judge bangs his gavel again. After questions from the US attorney, it's time for cross examination. This is bound to be good, you think. Brignara asked the guy if he would still be able to obtain financing through his company if he were acquitted. The witness chuckles a bit and then says absolutely not. Brugnara doesn't like this. He asked the question again, telling the witness to really think about what he's saying. The witness repeats himself, absolutely not.
We would not finance you. Brugnara tells him they go way back, and that there are a lot of things the witness should consider before he makes that kind of statement. The US attorney objects, sustained, Brignara tries one more time. The witness stares Brugnara down. Then he says, you'd have a better chance of successfully doing brain surgery than placing alone for a museum of which you'd be the landlord
and tenant. Muffled chuckles fill the courtroom. The judge bangs his gavel again and then announce is that they're done for the day. They'll resume at nine am tomorrow. Everyone begins to file out of the courtroom, but then Brugnara loses it. He starts shouting about how he built himself up from nothing and that the court and the government are going to cost him a valuable business relationship. People stop in their tracks to listen to this. Insane tirade.
The judge looks at you and nods. You head over to Luke Brugnar and you take him by the arm. You're done here today, buddy, you say, get your hands off me. He shouts, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth. The attorney assigned to oversee him and the system, if necessary, quickly shuvels him off to the side room. You have another week of this madness and you aren't sure you can take it. People just do not wild out like this in federal court. You can't even read
the paper in the gallery. Decorum is everything, and somehow this guy keeps getting away with it. Act seran.
I mean, you just painted it well, so I can imagine. But do you imagine sitting through day after day of that guy running as his own lawyer, and you're like, look, we all know you're gonna lose. Can we just speed this out?
Exactly? And he's so everybody and yeah, told the US attorney you dressed like a Nazi. Yeah, what is that?
Interrupting the judge? You had me at interrupting the judge like, hey, pipe down your honor.
The trials keeps going on. Luke was like, I don't have that missing Dega sculpture that we all keep talking about. You go on and on. So first he was like, it was never shipped to me. I don't it never She never gave it to me. But then the prosecutors easily prove that to be false because they have all the shipping records. And he's like, okay, fine, for preparatoris
helping her. Fine, it did get delivered, he says, but I have these workmen at the house and they mistook the crate containing the degaf for a toilet and they stole it. You know, as you do.
Wait, were they trying to steal a toilet or do they recognize it was day good later.
I mean, some time you see a crate, you're like, that must have a toilet in it. I have to steal it.
And that's worth at least sixty bucks in the open market.
It is. So they put it over to the flea market. So he went on this long rant then about how all the art was fake and worthless anyway, and so they asked him, had you had it appraised and authenticated? He's like, no, of course notis like yeah, his assessment was like based on vibes so then came time for jury deliberations and the jury sent a note to the judge.
They said that one of the jurors had lied about his criminal history during Vadir and he was trying to influence the deliberations based on his experience as a prisoner. The same juror also just like ran out of the jury room in the middle of deliberations, and they found him later on another floor of the courthouse, like he was.
Just how are they picked for jury duty and made it through?
I don't know. So the judge called the jur they in the paperwork has only identified as IJ into the courtroom and he's like, what's up, my good dude, Like what is going on? What's this? I hear about your criminal history? And IJ flipped out and then went on what the judge described as, quote a relentless political tirade. Oh no, yeah, so security had to remove IJ from
the courtroom when he quote became physically belligerent. He apparently he like whipped his jacket, like, rips his jacket off, whips it against the seats of the jury box, and then he took off his shoe and brandished it like a weapon, like he was aiming for George W.
Bush Goods.
So Ij gets brought back in so the judge can dismiss him from jury service, and he flips out again, and this time he said that Luke was innocent because quote, he's Italian, and he accused the judge of quote representing a Nazi system.
Wow. Do you think Luke had gotten to this of it offered him money?
Has to be noticed. Jail do each other. I don't know, so Ij.
Are they running alternate jurorsm for this kind of case? I don't think so, because it's not like a private file.
No Ij gets dismissed, escorted from the building. Luke loses it. He objects to the dismissal, tries desperately to keep him on the jury, which like I can understand but sorry. So it should come as no surprise that Luke was convicted on six of the nine counts he was charged.
I'm what didn't go to mistrial or something?
I know. He gets sentenced to seven years in prisons, and that included more than fifteen months for contempt of court. He was racking it up in there, like every single time. The judge is like scratching it a lot. Fifteen months. Yeah. He was also ordered to pay six hundred thousand dollars in restitution for the DIGA and about eighty eight thousand dollars in attorney's fees. So of course he appeals his lawyer.
He got a real one for this, said Luke couldn't control his actions because of his quote untreated by polar disorder, delusions and narcissism.
Also the Twinkie defense.
Basically he said, quote, you have to look at it in the context of his mental illness. He cannot accept responsibility when that challenges his perception of himself, and that did not fly with the Court of appeals. There are a lot of narcissists and bipolar folks out there who.
Don't do this, and do you know how many we see in through here?
Right? So Luke went to prison and he got out around November twenty twenty on supervised release. And I wonder if it was one of those COVID releases. I was just about ask, Yeah, Luke is unstoppable though Zarin, No, No, he had to keep Lucky Luke in it up. So in July of twenty twenty three, a gun that was registered to his girlfriend. So it looks like he got a divorce at some point was found to have his DNA on it. Now, I don't know how how we
got to that point, but we got there. Felons can't have weapons here in Californiaia, so his supervised release was revoked.
Was the gun used in the commission of a crime?
I don't know, Okay, I don't know. And he had to do another four hundred and fifty six days in jail. Wow, four or five six? I think they just punched that in on the keyboard. Speaking of COVID just a moment ago, you know, he couldn't resist trying to con the government out of some COVID relief money.
Oh yeah, there's free money going around.
Yeah. Twenty twenty four, he gets indicted for just that.
Give me a PPP loan exactly so.
According to court documents, quote on or about January fifteenth, twenty twenty one, Brugnara electronically submitted two EIDL applications that's Economic Injury Disaster loan in his own name on behalf of Brugnara Corporation. As Brugnara knew at the time he submitted each application, they contained false representations that were intended to influence the SBA to release EIDL funds to which
Brugnara was not entitled. He first applied for a loan of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the SBA, which was twice denied. He said the company had four employees and its gross revenues the year prior were thirteen million, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So the next month he went after some of those PPP funds Paycheck Protection Program. He submitted a PPP application in the name of Brugnar Corporation.
In the application, he falsely represented that his company had twenty four employees and had an average monthly payroll of two hundred thousand dollars, and this time he was successful. They gave him a round like more than four hundred thousand dollars. So since that worked, he tried a second time, used all the same information that one got denied, and it caught him some charges, and then he did another
Oakland escape in May of twenty twenty four. I'm going to try not to be insulted by his desire to run from Yeah, so right when he was indicted in a pandemic relief fraud case. Luke was sent to an Oakland residential re entry center to serve the remainder of his prison term on that gun charge.
A halfway house.
Yeah, so he and another dude immediately escaped. Like he walks in and was like, I'm halfway out. Now takes off this time. They found him pretty quickly in a hotel room near San Francisco International Airport with his girlfriend.
Oh wow, those hotels, Yeah, exactly, staff, I have seen everything. Remember we did the one with the furries.
Were they all on drilling game?
Yeah?
That one.
So he currently faces nine felony counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering thanks to the pandemic. Yeah, the trial is set to start in June twenty twenty six. Oh but we're not done. We're not done.
I'm not done.
In January of this year, Luke was back. According to news outlet Sphist, Luke quote reportedly put up an illegal chain link fence around a piece of ocean front property in Daily City that has long been used for its hiking and equestrian trail and is a path to Thornton State Beach.
Why did he put up?
And he put up a sign that had like a hand drawn image of a gun and it said trespassers will be shot on site. S I te so yeah, so yeah, basically on this site. So the fence blocks off this trail that the public has used for generations. Okay, and as you know, what happens when you tell California beach combers, dog owners and hikers that they can't access the ocean like here go hell comes this is.
Yeah, especially those with you. I'm assuming this is like the sand duney area that's over the cliffs.
Yes, yeah, so San Mateo County at south of San Francisco Daily City would be like the municipality for it. I've mentioned my dude, Dan Noys of ABC seven Eyewitness News ITEAM. He's a boss, like old school sixty minutes, microphone in the face as you come out of your house journalists. He got an exclusive interview with Luke because of course he did. Where he's Dan Noise, get out.
Of here, Hue Leather reporting with Dan Noise.
Here's what Luke told him quote on the case. Not only is that fence not coming down, it's going to be replaced with a wrought iron fence. So we don't have to worry about people cutting holes in it anymore. That's what he tells Dan Noise. According to Sphist quote, the ownership structure is fairly complicated, involving multiple parties, some of whom are siblings, all of whom are elderly. So I'm like getting more and more confused as I'm trying to figure this out.
He's doing elder abuse and acting like this is his property.
ABC seven. Dan steps into clarify. Quote. The seven acres surrounded by fence right now at Thornton Beach State Park are owned by eight people. Real estate investor Luke Brugnara convinced one of them in November to give him their share, a deed for one twenty fourth interest and the ability
to get more when two other owners pass away. Even though he controls such a small portion, Brugnara tells the I team that he has a right to fence all seven acres, and then so a county supervisor sends a letter to the county you know, assessor's office, asking to investigate and is like, the deed, this has to be a fraud. This can't be real. Yeah, So that's all going on right now, Like there's developing its every day.
You could go see the fence right now, and then if you look, there's just like the stories keep popping up. New ones popped up while I was researching this. More from his dan Ney's interview quote, Dude, it doesn't matter whether I own one percent or twenty percent. I have a right to protect my interests and I have a right to protect the property. So much so that a couple recently called nine one one after they said Brugnar I told them, if you get near the fence, I will shoot and kill you.
Threats right Classico.
The cops roll up, they stop him because he's in a car that's being driven by his girlfriend.
I'm sure he doesn't have a license.
Well, yeah, he's in the rear passenger seat at the time, riding up front. And shotgun was a nine millimeter glock in an unlocked case. Woa, ladies and gents, we got a felon with a gun. He caught that charge as well as for all the threats he was making. And guess what that was the same gun from twenty twenty three with the DNA.
Yeah.
Yeah, so Daily City, where the fence is located, was going to tear down the fence. But then an associate of Luke's filed a lawsuit against Daily City to stop them, like an injunction. Basically, yeah, that associate Luke's twenty six year old girlfriend.
How is she?
And I'm like, honey, okay, hold on, if you're listening, you've got to walk away. You are young, you have better options. Yes, don't walk run please, my dear. She denied being his girlfriend. Now, she said that he is a real estate advisor to her family, like, oh, you're in good hands, top shelf. So Luke and the galpal are living in an RV on that one twenty fourth of the property man life and that's because Lucky Luke is, according to dan Ney's quote, facing eviction for disruptive behavior
from his single room occupancy hotel in Chinatown. The owner says Brugnara hasn't paid rent for five months, that he harasses other tenants and leaves trash everywhere.
This guy is just life a rack. It's just a movable feast of crap.
If it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all right now.
And he's the source of it. He's the sort of like when he said, like you know, Lucky Luke, it's the exact opposite. Like everything else, he says, it's the exact opposite, but.
Like this incredible rise and incredible fall, he goes from like owning all this property downtown San Francisco to living in a vanda.
By the way, we're speculating, Oh my god, Yes it was speculating. But do you think that girlfriend and he there bond is drugs?
In pure speculation? Yes, yeah, he's.
Honey, other people have drugs. He looks if it's the drugs other.
People, he looks rough. He's looking rough.
That's what I mean. I'm just guessing.
Yeah, So what's your ridiculous takeaway on this?
It's wild? How just from his bio that he wrote and he highlighted his childhood accomplishments, will say you could see the arc of his life. You didn't. I didn't know what details they would be. But the fact that he would just forcibly, demonstrably aggressively argue his truth against anybody, including the judge who decides his fate, It's all right there in that bio, just the whole Like if I say it, I can make it be true. I can make you believe it.
That's not any sure that he is unwell. Really, I'm interested to like know what his kids experiences are there grown and like he says that they're part of the company. Now oh yeah, I mean I don't know. Again, I don't know how I figure that was just old today. Yeah, but I mean it's like, what are they up to? What are they doing? And like this has got to be rough on, be embarrassing as all hell exactly, But I swear to God, like you you ask people like
have you heard anything about this? And like you know, friends of mine around the Bear friends in Vegas family, and I'm like as soon as and they're just like, oh yeah, I heard about that guy. He's just yeah, he's bike ride soon.
I don't know if it's far enough. I could go down to Daily City you see this, get a picture. I want to see if I get him to threaten me and be like, dude, you spelled your sight wrong on your sign, don't.
Go and bring a red marks. Yeah. What's my ridiculous takeaway is that this guy just like appeared like this vision in the night for me. I needed this, Luke, I needed this, and I you know I we've said before too that like all of us are a couple of bad decisions away from being on this podcast Steal the Trout, Come on, But like there's so many interesting elements that like I wanted to do side quests on it.
Like I was really fascinated about the Gilroy property and I started researching it and I thought, unimportant Isabeth back up? And then like where did he get the initial seed funding? All these things? And I really want to know, Like, you know, I want to know more about him because he's just he's like a classic ridiculous criminal, very Californian, but and he hits all the trout casinos Aret, Like why are you kidding? Are you trying to jam it all in their rooms?
Yeah?
So anyway, you know what I think I do need is a talk do kill you?
Oh god.
Much?
I love James, Elizabeth Zarn or should I say Regina corn Tower and Zaron. I was listening to your episode on George Leslie and Zaren. You kept calling the money pudding and it reminded me of the MTV show The State with Barry and LaVaughn and two hundred and forty dollars worth of pudding. If y'all get that reference.
I knew I loved y'all for a reason.
Keep up the great word.
Wait the state was one of the best.
So many comedy geniuses like most of Reno nine one one on there that is incredible. Definitely got that one.
I love it. I love that you gave us the That's all we have for today. You can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at Ridiculous Crime on both Blue Sky and Instagram. We're on YouTube at Ridiculous Crime Pod. Email us at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com and then leave a talkback please on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by dastardly Dave Couston, real Estate Baron of Rhode Island, starring Annale
Rutger as Judath. Research is by Chair of the Nevada Gaming Commission Marissa Brown and Jabbari Wanna Buy a Casino Davis. The theme song is by Irate Beach comber Thomas Lee and Trout enthusiast Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister andre. Executive producers are Gullible Art dealer Ben Bollen and Toilet.
Teeth No Bra, Ridicous Crime, Say It one More Time, Ridiqulious Crime.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.