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- [00:00]
Jake Brennan
Do you know what went down at the Viper Room the night River Phoenix died? Or how about the mysterious death of Brittany Murphy? Are you aware of how Steve McQueen escaped murder at the hands of the Manson family? The obsessive killing of Dorothy Stratton? The real life murder that inspired David Lynch's Twin Peaks? The three conspiracies surrounding Marilyn Monroe's death. These stories and more are told in the Hollywoodland podcast where true crime and Tinseltown collide. Hollywoodland is hosted by me, Jake Brennan, creator of the award winning true crime podcast Disgraceland. Follow and listen to Hollywoodland wherever you.
- [00:37]
Jed Lipinski
Get your podcasts Just wrapped. Another chilling case or unsolved mystery? Give your brain a break and keep the thrill going with Chumba Casino, your online social casino where fun's just a click away. Play slots, blackjack and live casino games, all without downloads or pressure. Sign up to claim your free welcome bonus plus daily login rewards to keep the excitement rolling. Chumba Casino when the case is closed, the real fun begins. No purchase necessary. VGW Group voidware prohibited by law 21t and CS apply this is the second episode of a two part series about a case the FBI dubbed Operation Sideswipe. In the previous episode, we told you about what that was. In short, a large group of people in New Orleans drivers, passengers and personal injury attorneys conspired to stage dozens of collisions with tractor trailers on the interstate over the course of eight or nine years. They collected millions in insurance payouts. A group of local defense attorneys eventually realized what was going on and alerted the Feds who opened an investigation. That investigation resulted in a handful of indictments targeting mostly low level crash participants. Many believed the personal injury attorneys were next. That's when the story took an unexpected turn.
- [02:08]
Mike Pearlstein
This is where 54 year old Cornelius Garrison was shot and killed late Tuesday night. Now, Garrison was indicted just four days ago before he was gunned down, charged with staging 50 in the summer of.
- [02:20]
Jed Lipinski
2020, Cornelius Garrison, a prolific crash organizer who was secretly cooperating with the Feds, was executed on the front stoop of his mother's apartment in New Orleans. To those following the case, the motive behind the murder seemed someone killed Cornelius to silence him. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South. In the last episode, we spoke with Nick Arnold, a New Orleans defense attorney who spotted the scam early on and helped bring it to the Fed's attention. In this one we're going to hear from an investigative reporter who's covered the scam and its aftermath more closely than anyone. WWL TV'S Mike Pearlstein. Mike talked to us for a recent episode about the New Orleans prison break. Mike Pearlstein has never spoken to Nick Arnold, but he first heard about the scam from attorneys in Nick's circle. And like Nick, these attorneys had spotted similarities between the crashes. Instead of continuing to settle the accident claims, they'd fought back and filed lawsuits of their own. Those lawsuits became the basis of Mike's investigation.
- [03:38]
Cornelius Garrison
As I started to dig into each individual accident lawsuit, I saw not only the similarities, but the similarities in the plaintiff's attorneys filing these lawsuits. It was just a very small handful of New Orleans area attorneys who were filing these claims over and over. And I must say, the scale, the scope, the brazenness, and the characters involved in this fraud was mind blowing to me. I'm a veteran criminal justice reporter at this point, not easily surprised. This one had just elements that were stunning to me.
- [04:20]
Jed Lipinski
Mike was stunned to learn that passengers in some of the crashes underwent unnecessary back or neck surgeries to inflate the cost of the settlements. How did he know they were unnecessary? Because he tracked down people in local.
- [04:33]
Cornelius Garrison
Medical clinics who were able to tell me that person wasn't hurt.
- [04:38]
Jed Lipinski
Mike scrutinized the counterclaims as well as the depositions and discovery the defense lawyers had collected. He learned, for example, that the people who staged the crashes, everyone called them slammers, had gotten quite skilled in the art of slamming.
- [04:53]
Cornelius Garrison
Their goal was to create as much physical damage to the car without any injuries of the people inside. It looks bad on the vehicle. You know, maybe a whole side of a car is kind of scraped up, but for the most part, there's no hard collision. There's no cars flipping or jumping curbs. Almost invariably, it was a sideswipe. But a person in that car can claim any kind of level of back or neck or soft tissue injury. If you have attorneys willing to file a lawsuit on your behalf and doctors and medical clinics willing to either fake or exaggerate the extent of injuries.
- [05:41]
Jed Lipinski
The attorneys Mike spoke to were outraged that the scam had persisted for years with zero consequences for the scammers. But they were equally upset at how much money the personal injury attorneys seemed to be making.
- [05:54]
Cornelius Garrison
What the attorneys tracked, I guess in a deeper level, were some of these attorneys buying really expensive cars, vacation homes? One bought an airplane. That's what outraged them. You know, they're all attorneys kind of on the same professional level. They're toiling away while these attorneys are collecting cha ching, you know, million dollar payouts and living quite large.
- [06:19]
Jed Lipinski
Mike realized he Had a major story on his hands. He and his news director agreed on a highway robbery. In the fall of 2019, he started assembling material for a series. The problem was none of the scammers had been charged with a crime. Naming anyone was going to be a challenge. But then the first indictment dropped, and.
- [06:42]
Cornelius Garrison
It was pretty innocuous. Five people who packed a car and, you know, were involved in an accident. The feds claimed it was fraudulent. They collected settlements and they laid that out. But they also laid out that others were involved, including attorney A and co conspirator B. And as soon as I saw that, I said, I know who A, B and C are. I have this massive spreadsheet. Every attorney on every accident. So I huddled with my editor at the time and my news director at the time, and I said, we should go as bold with this as we possibly can because it's documented.
- [07:25]
Vanessa Mata
Five people recently charged with staging an accident. Maybe just the tip of the iceberg. In an all new eyewitness investigation, Mike Pearlstein looks at the ev evidence that federal authorities are gathering.
- [07:37]
Jed Lipinski
Mike Pearlstein became the first reporter to publicly name the attorneys and high level co conspirators involved in the staged accident scam. But he paid special attention to two of them. Sean Alfortish and Vanessa Mata.
- [07:51]
Cornelius Garrison
Sean Alfortish owns racehorses. Vanessa Mata is a former Hollywood stuntwoman who graduated from Loyola law School in 2015. Together, they come across as a vibrant and successful couple. So how is this local couple part of the sprawling federal investigation into 18 wheeler accidents being scrutinized for possible fraud?
- [08:14]
Jed Lipinski
As we said in the last episode, the indictment named Vanessa Mata and Sean Al Fordish only as attorney B and co conspirator A. But for Mike, outing them wasn't a big leap. Vanessa had represented people who were named in the indictment. Mike's sources said she was among the biggest offenders. Meanwhile, Sean Alfortish's fingerprints were all over the staged accident lawsuits. In one, he was found to be on the phone with a passenger in a staged accident just an hour before it occurred. It turns out this wasn't Shawn's first brush with the law. Years earlier, Mike Pearlstein had covered his conviction for rigging the election of the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protection association, or the Horseman's Benevolent for short.
- [08:59]
Cornelius Garrison
He went so far as to have loyal secretaries working for the Horseman's Benevolent take fraudulent ballots circling him as the, you know, their pick and going to these different cities, dropping those ballots in mailboxes so they would be postmarked in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and make it look like it was a legitimate ballot. It was just stuff in the ballot box.
- [09:29]
Jed Lipinski
Once the fraud was uncovered, investigators learned that Shawn had been exploiting his role as the association's president for years.
- [09:37]
Cornelius Garrison
Come to find out, he was spending a lot of money, like having their annual board meetings in various Caribbean islands. He was buying, you know, expensive vehicles and, like, I think, stereo equipment, claiming it was for the organization, but it was for himself and his cronies on the board.
- [09:56]
Jed Lipinski
At the time of the scandal, Sean was a high powered attorney and had even served as a local magistrate judge. It was a dramatic downfall, and I'll.
- [10:06]
Cornelius Garrison
Never forget, I was at his sentencing, and this very brash and flamboyant person who obviously liked a high flying lifestyle stood in front of that federal judge and cried, asking for mercy, asking for probation, talking about his young daughter. And it was just kind of an incredible moment.
- [10:33]
Jed Lipinski
The judge was unmoved. He sentenced Shawn to four years, of which Sean served just over two. After that, Mike figured Shawn had learned his lesson and forgot about him. So as he dug into the staged accident scam, he'd been amazed to see Shawn's name emerge as a co conspirator. In reporting the story, Mike started looking into what Shawn had been up to since his release. Court documents showed he'd gotten into the litigation finance business, that is, the business of fronting people money for medical costs after an accident in hopes of taking a cut of their settlement. Despite residing in New Orleans, Sean's main office was in Las Vegas, and that's.
- [11:15]
Cornelius Garrison
Where many of his emails were generated. From there, I was able to pinpoint a very plush office in Vegas. He was repeatedly flying back and forth, New Orleans to Vegas.
- [11:26]
Jed Lipinski
Mike also learned that Shawn was engaged to Vanessa Mata, the brash and attractive former stuntwoman turned personal injury attorney. The two had a young child together and lived in a $1.2 million home in the posh Lakeview neighborhood. Funnily enough, Mike knew an AC repairman who'd done some work on the house.
- [11:46]
Cornelius Garrison
And he had to report back to me. He said, man, you would not believe the kind of ostentatious trappings and fixtures and lap of luxury that they are living in.
- [11:58]
Jed Lipinski
From the lawsuits, Mike knew that Shawn had financed many of the staged accident claims and that he was likely the one responsible for Vanessa Mata's giant caseload.
- [12:08]
Cornelius Garrison
It was very clear that the person with connections, the person who knew the legal landscape, was Sean Alfortich. And what we suspected at the time was that he was the one dealing with slammers, that Sean Alfortish was the Kinect. He was the one dealing with the people staging and organizing accidents. Cornelius Garrison in particular.
- [12:33]
Jed Lipinski
In addition to Vanessa Mata and Sean Alfortish, Cornelius Garrison was among the most visible names in the lawsuits filed by the outraged defense attorneys. Vanessa's firm once helped him secure a $650,000 insurance settlement for fake injuries. The formula was simple. Cornelius caused the accident, Shawn's litigation finance company gave him money to fake his injuries, and Vanessa filed a lawsuit that turned the scam into a payday. And so when Cornelius was indicted in the summer of 2020, Mike Pearlstein figured Shawn and Vanessa were next. But then, four days later, with Cornelius scheduled to plead guilty to the charges, he was murdered. Mike was not alone in wondering if Sean Alfortish and Vanessa Mata were behind the My family and I do everything we can to keep our cats healthy and active. We buy them new toys and tasty treats. We schedule regular checkups with the vet, and a few months ago we swapped out their old litter for a new one. Pretty Litter. Actually, it's not just litter. It's also a tool we use to monitor their health. Pretty Litter changes color based on what's going on in your cat's urine, so it can help detect issues early by showing abnormalities in acidity, alkalinity, and even the presence of blood. That color changing feature total peace of mind for my family. Plus it ships free right to my door. It's non toxic, super low dust, controls odor like a champ, and one bag lasts an entire month. It's hard to know if our cats really appreciate what we do for them, but my daughter thinks they love their new litter.
- [14:21]
Vanessa Mata
The color, the freshness, the lack of clumps and dust. We've tried dozens of different litters over.
- [14:27]
Jed Lipinski
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- [15:02]
Sean Alfortish
Hey, what's up flies? This is David Spade. Dana Carvey. Look at I know we never actually left, but I'll just say it. We are back with another season of Fly on the Wall. Every episode episode including ones with guests will now be on video. Every Thursday you'll hear us and see us chatting with big name celebrities. And every Monday you're stuck with just me and Dana. We react to news, what's trending, viral clips follow and listen to Fly on the wall everywhere you get your podcasts.
- [15:32]
Jed Lipinski
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- [17:33]
Cornelius Garrison
When Cornelius Garrison was killed, it started as a New Orleans Police Department murder investigation and we're a high murder city. As you know, this was considered what might be called garden variety no motive, no suspect detectives, adding it to the long list of other homicides that they are investigating. Except on this one you had somebody who clearly was a cooperating federal witness. So I was able to report very early on that a team of FBI agents joined the case and it included some FBI agents from Washington, D.C. very unusual for a normal New Orleans murder.
- [18:18]
Jed Lipinski
Mike thought the FBI's involvement would yield some quick results and break the case wide open. But that didn't happen, in part because New Orleans was reeling from COVID 19. That year, the city had one of the highest rates of COVID related deaths in the country. Local hospitals were overwhelmed. Tourism revenue dried up. The cops were stretched thin. And the vast majority of homicides went unsolved. Another four years passed with no developments, which caused Mike to wonder if Cornelius Garrison's murder was going to go unsolved too.
- [18:53]
Cornelius Garrison
You know, the murder of a federal witness is a crime punishable by up to death. It is taken as one of the most serious federal crimes. And it was baffling to a lot of people over those years that we just weren't hearing a peep on any progress in solving the murder of Cornelius Garrison. And then, boom. Ryan Harris named as being instrumental in the killing.
- [19:20]
Mike Pearlstein
New details in the murder of a federal witness in the staged accidents probe. Giovanna Gardner and Ryan Harris were picked up yesterday, accused in the 2020 killing of Cornelius Garrison. The feds say both.
- [19:32]
Jed Lipinski
In May of 2024, a man named Ryan Harris, a 34 year old New Orleans auto mechanic, was indicted for conspiring to murder Cornelius Garrison. His girlfriend, Jovana Gardner, was listed as an accomplice. Mike recognized Ryan Harris name. Like Cornelius, he'd been a slammer in the staged accident scam. As the indictment noted, he'd even partnered with Cornelius in staging crashes. For the prosecutors. Ryan Harris motive was obvious. He wanted to prevent Cornelius from testifying against him. The indictment charged Ryan Harris and his girlfriend with witness tampering through murder. They stopped short of saying that he'd fired the bullets that killed Cornelius. But Mike tried to read between the lines.
- [20:19]
Cornelius Garrison
They didn't lay it out, but we're presuming, okay, you know, clearly they're saying he pulled off the murder. He's the trigger man.
- [20:25]
Jed Lipinski
The indictment noted cryptically that Ryan Harris and his girlfriend hadn't acted alone in the murder conspiracy. Other unnamed individuals were involved. But six more months passed with no word on who those people might be. Meanwhile, the broader investigation into the staged accidents seemed to have stalled. Despite their central role in the scheme, it was starting to look like Sean Al Fordish and Vanessa Mata might actually slip through the cracks. Then, just before Christmas, the feds finally showed their hand.
- [20:58]
Mike Pearlstein
Yes, some big news all morning. According to those close to this case, an arrest warrant has been issued for Sean Alfortish. He's the fiance of lawyer Vanessa Motta, who has represented numerous people who have already pled guilty to staging wrecks across New Orleans, then filing false insurance claims.
- [21:16]
Jed Lipinski
On December 9, the U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans unsealed a sweeping 10 count indictment as part of Operation Sideswipe. It charged eight people and two law firms with staging accidents, faking injuries, and collecting millions in lawsuit settlements. For the first time, Sean Alfortish and Vanessa Mata were mentioned by name. Along with facilitating the scheme, Sean and Vanessa were charged with obstruction of justice and witness tampering. The wording was intentionally vague, but it suggested that they'd both played some kind of role in Garrison's death. For example, the indictment said that Sean and Vanessa learned the feds were investigating the collision scheme. And in 2019, soon after, they discovered Cornelius Garrison was secretly cooperating with investigators. At that point, the indictment said Sean and Vanessa had offered to pay Cornelius and even move him out of the country if he agreed to stop talking. Mike Pearlstein heard about the indictment on a Monday morning. The FBI had apparently shown up at Sean and Vanessa's house to arrest them.
- [22:26]
Cornelius Garrison
So we knew, oh, boy, it's going down. They went to his house. He wasn't there. It was an FBI knock on the door. I don't know about a raid, but a knock on the door, he wasn't there. Where was he? Las Vegas.
- [22:38]
Jed Lipinski
And yet, just hours later, Sean made his first appearance in federal court in New Orleans. Mike Pearlstein was there.
- [22:47]
Cornelius Garrison
Like, I know this guy from so many years. I've seen him in court. I've seen him break down and cry. I've seen him when he was swaggering. High flyer. Let's go see what he looks like now. And he was up in that box with the other defendants, looking at the indictment for the first time, looking like kind of the old channel Fordish, little cocky, flipping through here, shaking his head down. You know, he was clearly, like, floored, but, like in denial, you know, like whispering to his attorney. Not true. No. You know, and his attorney put in for a bond hearing to get released on bond.
- [23:26]
Jed Lipinski
The bond hearing took place a few weeks later. Mike was present for that one, too, as were all the other local crime reporters.
- [23:33]
Cornelius Garrison
We all packed in like, okay, now we're really going to get. Because you know those hearings, that's when the feds can show, here's why this person should not be released as a danger and a flight risk. And I think he was probably both.
- [23:47]
Jed Lipinski
But Sean Alfortish wasn't the only defendant asking for bond. Also present was a man named Leon Parker, who everyone knew as Chunky. Like Shawn, Chunky had been charged with witness tampering and obstruction of justice. But the exact role he played was unclear. As Mike and the other reporters settled in their seats, the judge called for order and started the hearing.
- [24:12]
Cornelius Garrison
That evidentiary, you know, bond hearing was blockbuster. That was the opening for the feds to put an FBI agent on the stand and lay out how all this went down.
- [24:34]
Ryan Harris
Thanks for selling your car to Carvana. Here's your check.
- [24:37]
Jake Brennan
Whoa.
- [24:37]
Cornelius Garrison
When did I get here?
- [24:38]
Ryan Harris
What do you mean?
- [24:39]
Cornelius Garrison
I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online.
- [24:43]
Jake Brennan
I must have time traveled to the future.
- [24:45]
Ryan Harris
It was just moments ago. We do same day pickup. Here's your check for that great offer.
- [24:49]
Mike Pearlstein
It is the future.
- [24:51]
Ryan Harris
It's. It's the present. And just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind.
- [24:56]
Cornelius Garrison
It's all good.
- [24:57]
Jed Lipinski
Happens all the time. Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana.
- [25:02]
Ryan Harris
Pick up.
- [25:03]
Leon Parker
Times may vary and fees may apply.
- [25:04]
Vanessa Mata
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- [25:41]
Jed Lipinski
In his decades as a criminal justice reporter in New Orleans, Mike Pearlstein has sat through countless bond hearings. Many of them put him to sleep. The bond hearing for Sean Alfortish and Leon Chunky Parker, by contrast, felt like an episode of Dateline. Mike was on the edge of his seat. The FBI agent who took the stand that day was not available to speak on the record, but his argument is laid out in a 14 page document that captures in remarkable detail why Shawn and Chunky should not be released back into society. The document begins with Shawn Alfortish. It notes that he first began working with Cornelius Garrison in 2016, not long after his release from federal prison for rigging the election of the Louisiana Horsemen's Association. The document also notes that when Cornelius agreed to cooperate, he talked quite a bit about his relationship with Sean and Vanessa. For example, Cornelius told the feds that Sean paid him to stage collisions and gave most of the cases to Vanessa's law firm. Cornelius said Shawn found most of the passengers himself and often communicated with him in code, saying things like, I've got four horses for you. As for Vanessa, Cornelius said she knew the accidents were staged from the start. In fact, Vanessa was so impressed by his ability to stage car crashes that she'd offered to hook him up with some stunt drivers she knew in Hollywood. But things changed in early 2020, according to the document. That's when Sean and Vanessa learned that Cornelius was talking to the feds. Shawn offered him half a million dollars to take the fall for the staged crashes, Cornelius said Shawn also offered to move Cornelius to the Bahamas. Cornelius turned both offers down, but he told his FBI handlers that he'd begun to fear for his life. At this point, the FBI document pivots to Chunky Parker. Chunky is from Holly Grove, the neighborhood where Lil Wayne grew up. His criminal history includes first degree murder and burglary charges that were thrown out for lack of evidence. Years earlier, he'd been a passenger in a staged accident and was represented by Vanessa Mata. Two weeks before Cornelius murder, the FBI document says, Chunky started Googling Cornelius name. A few days later, someone texted him a photo of a 9 millimeter semi automatic, the same gun that killed Cornelius. Nice. Chunky texted back, that looks like mine. Then the day before the murder, Chunky withdrew nearly all of the money in his bank account, about $47,000, which the FBI took as a sign that he might soon be skipping town. That same day, he met with Ryan Harris, the man already indicted for Cornelius murder, in a parking lot near Interstate 10. Chunky's exact whereabouts at the time of the murder are unknown. The FBI suspected he gave a friend his cell phone and told that friend to go back to Chunky's house, call someone, and then stay on the line for about an hour, all to give Chunky a convenient alibi. But Chunky seems to have gotten his phone back later that night. According to the FBI document, he left his home around 11:20pm and traveled to a park behind a Home Depot. That Home Depot, the document said, is not far from where Sean Alfortish lived. Chunky's cell phone data showed that he stayed in the park for about 10 minutes before leaving. To the FBI, this suggested he'd met someone there. And while the document doesn't come out and say it was Sean Alfortish, it was strongly implied. Needless to say, none of this looked good for Sean Alfortish or Chunky Parker, who had shown up to court that day hoping to get released on bond. But it was about to get Even worse, what most people in the courtroom didn't know was that days before the bond hearing, Ryan Harris had pled guilty to participating in the plot to kill Cornelius Garrison. He then told the feds some eye popping details. For instance, he said that Sean, Chunky, and Vanessa had all described Cornelius as a snitch and a rat who was better off dead. He said that Sean had asked him point blank if he knew anyone who could help him kill Cornelius. In response, Harris said he personally arranged a meeting between Sean and Chunky at his auto body shop shortly before the murder. He said he saw Chunky wearing a mask and gloves and holding a gun. Afterwards, Chunky told him he'd killed Cornelius and that Shawn had paid him for it. As Mike Pearlstein sat in the courtroom listening to the evidence stack up against Sean Alfortish, he occasionally glanced in Sean's direction.
- [30:43]
Cornelius Garrison
When I looked over at Sean Alfortish, it was the crying, sheepish Sean Alfordish. When he was pleading for mercy back in that Horseman's benevolent case, he was slumped over. He looked very downcast, beaten. He just looked utterly dejected. And I just remember thinking to myself, this guy who's been living so large for so long, he's looking like a guy who's like dead man walking. Game over.
- [31:19]
Jed Lipinski
At the end of the hearing, Sean's attorney stood up and told the judge his client had withdrawn his request for bond.
- [31:27]
Cornelius Garrison
In other words, Sean Alfortish is okay with remaining locked up without bail.
- [31:34]
Jed Lipinski
The bond hearing made it clear that the government believed Sean Alfortish and Chunky Parker were both deeply involved in Cornelius Garrison's death. But the extent of Vanessa Mata's involvement remained murky. So what do people suspect Vanessa did? Or what role might Vanessa have played, if any, in the Cornelius Garrison scandal? Like that must have been a big question for all of you guys.
- [32:02]
Cornelius Garrison
We've seen no documentation linking her to the murder, no links to any even knowledge that Sean Alfortish was involved. And in fact, what the documents show so far is that she might have been intentionally kind of insulated to not know the details. You know, maybe she knows a whole, whole lot. Maybe she knows nothing.
- [32:29]
Jed Lipinski
Still, even if Vanessa had nothing to do with Cornelius Garrison's murder, the feds say she had a lot to do with the staged accident scam. She's been charged with fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. She's pleaded not guilty. But unlike Shawn and Chunky, the judge did not deem her a flight risk or a danger to the community. And she was released on bond. The trial of Shawn, Vanessa, and a handful of co defendants is scheduled for September of this year. Whether that trial actually happens is anyone's guess. As I write this in July, Operation Sideswipe has led to charges against 55 people. So far, 50 of them have pleaded guilty, and no one has gone to trial. Will Sean and Vanessa be the first to do so? Mike Pearlstein has thoughts. Vanessa, he said, is likely to strike a deal. Shawn has not directly implicated her in the fraud. And as the father of her child, he may try to protect her, claiming she was acting under his influence and didn't know the full extent of the crime. Either way, Shawn's outlook isn't good. Prosecutors have taken the death penalty off the table. But even if he pleads guilty, he still faces a mandatory life sentence, which means he's got nothing to lose and every reason to take his chances at trial. When I first learned that Sean Al Fordish, a former attorney with a child, a fiance, and a luxurious home, had helped orchestrate the murder of a federal witness, my first thought was, what was he thinking? Mike has been asking the same question.
- [34:11]
Cornelius Garrison
It's hard to know if he thought that getting rid of a key federal witness was going to basically stop the federal investigation in its tracks and I'll be scot free and continue my pretty high lifestyle. But I've never had a conversation with Johnny Fordish, so I don't know him in that way. But I've talked a lot of people who did work with him, knew him, knew him from the track, and let's just say he's a man of large appetites. It's no accident that he ends up with a Hollywood stuntwoman. They go in on a million dollar house in Lakeview. His house is full of bling. You know, those are his appetites. And there's maybe an element of, if you look into the psychology of it all, get addicted to a lifestyle, you can't give it up at any cost. You know, that's just my personal theory. But we have to wait to see what happens in court.
- [35:09]
Jed Lipinski
And yet, as wide ranging as Operation Sideswipe has been thus far, Mike and others agree that the upcoming trial may represent only the tip of the iceberg. Remember when I said that Vanessa Mata was called attorney B in an indictment? Well, that's only the second letter in.
- [35:26]
Cornelius Garrison
The Alphabet, but they go to C, D, E. I think they're up to F now. Of attorneys who clearly were representing clients in fraudulent accident claims.
- [35:39]
Jed Lipinski
Then there are the doctors who allegedly helped keep the whole scheme going. For years, we haven't even talked about the doctors. But early in the investigation, at a rare press conference, the U.S. attorney in New Orleans made it clear he knew doctors were involved and promised they'd be held accountable.
- [35:58]
Cornelius Garrison
And I will say that to be fair, no doctor or medical clinic has been indicted or named. But a lot of them closed. A lot of them, those doctors left Louisiana. That's maybe one of the great untold stories here, is that there was a major shakeup among that little cottage industry that was suspected and even laid out in some of these counterclaims as being part of the bigger fraud scheme.
- [36:27]
Jed Lipinski
The people I talked to for this story believe that Operation Sideswipe may be the biggest staged accident scheme in US History. For Mike Pearlstein, it's the kind of story that could only happen in New Orleans.
- [36:40]
Cornelius Garrison
You can't make this stuff up. It sometimes seems stranger than fiction, but all of this actually happened. And that's New Orleans kind of news landscape is we don't have the imagination to come up with some of the things that, like, actually happen that we get to report in the city. It's stunning.
- [37:07]
Jed Lipinski
If you have information, story tips or feedback you'd like to share with the Gone south team, please email us@gonesouthpodcastmail.com that's gone south podcast, and for bonus content you can follow us on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram @ Gone South Podcast. You can also sign up for our newsletter on substack. Gone south with Jed Lipinski Gone south is an Odyssey original podcast. It's created, written and narrated by me, Jed Lipinski. Our executive producers are Jenna Weiss Berman, Maddie Sprung Kaiser, Tom Lipinski, Lloyd Lockridge, and me. Our story editors are Tom Lipinski, Maddie Sprunkheiser and Joel Lovell. Gone south is edited by Chris Basel and Perry Crowell. It's mixed and mastered by Chris Basel. Production support from Ian Mont and Sean Cherry. Special thanks to J.D. crowley, Leah Reese, Dennis, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney and Hilary Schf.
- [38:11]
Cornelius Garrison
Foreign.
- [38:16]
I
Hey, I'm Ben Stiller.
- [38:17]
Jed Lipinski
And I'm Adam Scott and we host.
- [38:19]
I
A podcast called the Severance Podcast where we used to break down every episode of the TV show Severance.
- [38:25]
Sean Alfortish
Severance isn't back just yet, but the podcast is.
- [38:28]
I
Each week we'll discuss the movies, TV shows and ideas that influence the making of Severance.
- [38:33]
Jed Lipinski
We're going to talk to the incredible.
- [38:35]
I
Artists who inspire us us to do what we do. The Severance podcast returns Thursday, June 26th. Follow and listen everywhere you get your podcasts.
- [38:46]
Leon Parker
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