Brett Cooper (0:00)

Guys, the hits just keep coming with Justin Bieber. A murder investigation, betrayal. I mean, what is going on with Justin Bieber's closest circle? And why is he cutting all of them off? Now, guys, before we get into this third installment of our Justin Bieber series, I kind of want to do a recap because in episode one we touched on the incestuous nature of Hollywood in the entertainment industry where everyone is connected and corruption runs rampant and there just seems to be a general lack of accountability. And as I go deeper and deeper into Justin's story, as I talk to people close to him, as people are coming out of the woodworks with tips and information, this is on full display. And I just keep having to ask, was anyone actually working for Justin Bieber? Was anyone working in his best interest? Or were they all tied back to someone else? Now, we've unpacked many of these key players, these key characters of the last couple of episodes, but today we have the final two. Now, before we dive into that story, make sure that you're following our podcast page and leave a rating if you're enjoying the show. And as we're reminder, if you want ad free episodes, a subscriber only personal newsletter from me and Dear Brett, videos that are curated based on your questions and your conundrums that you guys are going through. Make sure to check out Cooper Confidential. You can find that in the description below or you can go to BrettCooper.com to check it out. So guys, the next person in this cast of characters that you need to know about is a man named David Bolno. And David Bolno is a big time music executive. He has of course worked with Justin Bieber, he's worked with Drake. He has also worked with Post Malone. And like so many of the other people that we've talked about in this series, David Bolno been interwoven in Justin's life for years, basically since the beginning. And in his case, David was Justin's longtime business manager before Justin fired him and replaced him with Lou Taylor, who of course we talked about last week. And as I laid out, as I was describing Lou's role, a business manager has massive control over the life of somebody like Justin Bieber. They see everything that comes in and out of your bank account. They have the power to move it around, to invest it, to pay people, to basically do whatever they want with it because you've signed that control over to them. And this is all supposed to be for your benefit. They're supposed to advise you and help you invest and save and manage and spend your money in the best way possible. And this usually and should be a role that is separate from other people on your team because it is so intimate, because it is so financial. Like they should not be in bed with your agents and your managers and your label heads. But in Justin's case, as per usual, it wasn't that cut and dry. Because like with most people on Justin Bieber's team, Bolno is also very good friends with Scooter Braun, who many years ago brought him onto the team. He's been referred to in the media as Scooter Braun's right hand man, who played executioner with David playing the bad guy and Scooter playing the good guy in all of their situations. And to muddy the waters even more, while he was actively being Justin Bieber's business manager, he was also made the COO of Hive America, which of course is Scooter Braun's company. So again, this is technically Justin Bieber's business manager who still has his own firm that Justin is connected to, but he is now also working full for Scooter, the man that Justin contractually has to answer to, for lack of a better phrase, the man that he has been in business with for years and years and years. And for more context on how this all played out and how Bieber felt about the situation, this is what his team had to say as he was letting go of Bolno about a year ago. Quote, Bolno's close relationship with Braun has been complicated for some artists. Bieber left Bolno and nksfb, which is his firm, last fall. A person close to the Bieber camp said before they stopped working together, Bolno was involved in brokering the $200 million sale of Bieber's catalog to Hypnosis closed in January. And obviously you guys know how that worked out. So there were some burned bridges there. David Bolno is conflicted in a lot of ways. The person close to Bieber's camp said, are you the business manager for Scooter for Hybe, or are you the business manager for talent? I don't think it's ever a good idea for any artist when you don't have separate representation. And I can tell you guys it is not a good idea because if one person or one group is representing every aspect of your life, from your finances to your music, to your touring, to your clothing line, to then getting involved in your personal life, then there is no real representation on behalf of the artist. There is no negotiating power because everything is coming from one group. And that is the situation that Justin found himself in time and time again until last year when he started Clearing House, which again we've been talking about for the last couple of episodes. And David Bolno was certainly impacted by these cuts. Now keep in mind that even though David Bolno was fired as Justin's business manager in 2022, he stayed on the board of DrWhouse. And this will be important to discuss later, but where it really gets interesting and honestly kind of SC is that in 2023 something happened that resulted in David Bolno basically being white from the Internet and being publicly distanced from Scooter and Hybe he was investigated in the death of a young singer. Now before we get into the rest of David's story, because it is truly crazy, I want to take a quick break to tell you about my sponsor. MaricHealth is the premier health optimization platform empowering you to maximize your health. Thanks to personalized expert guidance that you'll have in your back pocket, Marek Health offers cutting edge diagnostic labs, concierge health coaching and expert clinical oversight. They support clients in achieving their health and fitness goals by leveraging data driven lifesty and nutrition recommendations along with supplement and prescription treatment options. 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She sometimes has gone by Camilla in the press. Other people have written about her using her name Laura. But this is one person. So if you hear me saying a couple of different things as I'm reading articles, just know that that is why. But on March 29th in 2023. Just after midnight, Camilla arrived to a hotel room where David was staying in Miami. They were together for about four hours before he was seen on hotel security footage leaving to get on a flight. Now, around 8am, Camilla ordered room service to the room where they were staying. But when the hotel staff brought it to the room, there was no answer. They kept knocking. They kept knocking. Nobody was coming to the door. So they finally just went in and left the food inside the room. And then later that day, I'm guessing when nobody checked out of the room, when housekeeping was trying to clean it up and get it turned over. And she was found dead in their hotel room later that day. Now, her talks psychology report showed that she was heavily on drugs, including ketamine, mdma, pink cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, oxy and a sedative. Now, Bolno, because he was the last person to see her, was initially named a person of interest, but he has denied any wrongdoing. As you can read here, Bolno was initially a person of interest until he cooperated with the Miami Police Department. When asked why he was with Sterling at the hotel, the music executive said, quote, she was recording music the night before. She's a client. She was going to sign a record deal with me. I helped her make music. There's not much more to it. However, regardless of what David is saying, there obviously seems to be something more to the situation because they were used condoms found in the room that was reserved under his name, the room that they were in together the night that she died for four hours. And on top of that, there is still more, Business Insider wrote, quote, bolno and Sterling's relationship appears to be more intertwined than the executive has indicated. Text messages viewed by Insider showed that Bolno, who is married with two children, according to the Daily Mail, paid the rent on Sterling's $1.4 million condo in downtown Miami. And that Sterling referred to Bolno as her boyfriend in te to an apartment broker. He also created an LLC under his initials in 2021, seemingly for the sole purpose of releasing Sterling's music. Two of Sterling's friends said that it was an open secret among them that she was dating someone powerful in the music industry who was behind her rise. All of Sterling's friends who spoke with Insider asked to remain anonymous as they didn't want to be identified in discussing a powerful industry figure linked to Sterling's death. And one thing I'll just point out, not inferring anything, but there does seem to be a lot of fear surrounding all the men in this story. Now again, as you just saw, all of her friends knew that she was dating this secret, powerful music executive, and the people around her also said that they felt like the relationship was kind of on the rocks. The real estate broker that she had been texting with said that she was trying to move into a cheaper apartment even though Bolno had paid her rent a year in advance. So obviously something was going on there. And guys, from here it only got even fishier. Now Business Insider, who wrote this article and who also seems to have some questions about this entire story, wrote quote, it took more than two weeks for Sterling's name to come out in the press. The Daily Mail broke the story on April 13, and while the article initially said that Bulno was a person of interest, archived versions show that it was altered that day to say that he wasn't, even though he was, according to the Miami Police Department. And then they go on and they say since Sterling's death, Bolno has appeared to try to distance himself from the tragedy. More than 60 stories from blogs and websites which charge for publishing sponsored content that it can prove a person's SEO appear in Google search results for Bolno's name. So that is inferring that things were happening unorganically to try to boost his name in the press. Quote these stories hold Bolno up as a model businessman, dispense bland advice and talk up his contributions to charity, including a hefty donation to set up a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, of which his wife, a pediatric ophthalmologist, is an alum. David Bolno is a contemporary superhero who doesn't need an alter ego in a world full of capes and masks, says one such article in the Jerusalem Post, which discloses that it was written in cooperation with Bolno. It adds it quote, david Bolno is ultimately more than simply a name. It is a symbol of transformation and optimism. And guys, this was all coming on the heels of him being named a person of interest. So somebody, I'm just saying somebody out there was hard at work to make sure that this situation did not impact him or his reputation. And remember from episode one that HYBE, the company where Bolno is COO and Scooter Braun owns and is CEO, also owns 51% of the Agency Group PR, which again is the PR firm involved in the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni scandal. And I just think that is interesting information and an interesting connection that maybe you guys should be considering now. In that same article, Business Insider also said, but within the upper echelons of the music world, quote, everyone knows about what happened in Bolno's hotel room that night, an industry insider said Bolno's closeness with Braun, who is battling his own public relations firestorm, has only added fuel to the gossip and stuff speculation. One person who was doing a business deal with Braun and Bolno last spring said that the pair seemed distracted and ghosted him after Sterling's death. And just from my perspective, I feel like them being distracted is putting it mildly now around this exact same time. Another distraction for them was the fact that Justin Bieber, who again was working with both of them, had allegedly decided that he wanted to cut ties with Bullno once and for all. And this is where we can finally get into Justin's clothing company, Drew House. And things really started to fall apart inside of Drew House when this news broke surrounding Bullno, one article wrote. Justin Scooter, Drew House co founder Ryan Good, church home pastor Judah Smith and David Bolno were all on the board of Drew House. But our Justin sources say the Trouble started in 2023 when Bolna was mentioned in news reports as a person of interest in the death of aspiring singer Laura Lozano. David was later cleared by the police. Now, originally, the board of Drew House consisted of Justin Bieber, Ryan Good, his best friend Scooter Braun, Allison Kay, who was another one of his business managers, and David Bolno. But things really started to change with DrWhouse in 2022, which was a year before the Columbian singer's death, when Alison was removed by Justin from the board and replaced with his longtime friend and pastor Judah Smith. And from what I've been told by people that are close to Justin, this was an intentional move on his part to try to make sure that there was somebody else on the board who was in his corner. And from there, as you can expect, these tensions only heated up. And after Sterling's death, according to a recent article from tmz, Justin also understandably wanted Bolno removed from the board, but Scooter insisted that he stay only caused further friction between Justin Scooter, whose relationship was apparently already on the rocks. And all of this starts to help us understand how Drew House inevitably unfolded. Now the last big drop that Drew House did was a collaboration with the Toronto Maple Leafs in February of 2024, and their last social media post was in May of 2024, which is right around the time that the Public learned that Justin was walking away from working with Scooter Braun. And from there, everything just went silent. Until a couple of weeks ago. A year later, on April 3rd of 2025, Justin announces that he's been working on something behind the the scenes. And that is his new clothing brand, Skylark. And he announces it with this video. Guys, if you were paying attention to that video, you might have picked up on a ton of Easter eggs, because they certainly exist in there. I mean, he is literally burning Drew House things in this fire. He rides in on a scooter and then leaves the scooter. I mean, it is all there. And then around the same time, he makes a post on his Instagram story where he explicitly says, I am no longer involved in Drew House. If you are supporting Justin Bieber as the person, you will not support Drew House. Skylark is my new brand. And Skylark is the first thing that Justin has been able to do creatively in years. This is the thing that he's been working on behind the scenes. He's been trying to pour his creativity into something, and that resulted in being Skylark. And you might be thinking, well, that is an amazing win for Justin. At least he has something. But the war wasn't over, because on April 10, drew House posts a video after a year of being silent. And it was a video with an animation that Justin had made in years prior, and they posted it without his knowledge. I mean, talk about how destructive this is to an artist to be using their own work against them when he is publicly saying, I am not associated with these people. I do not want to work with them. And they're turning around and saying, actually, here you go. We're still going to use your work. We still have this over you. It's like they're playing mind games with him at every single turn. But to make matters even worse, there was something even more sinister allegedly happening behind the scenes. Now, this is not confirmed, but allegedly, based on the things that I've seen online, Justin is literally being sued by the Drew House company for starting this new brand. And this allegedly involves them actively trying to keep him from continuing to work on this creative project. But, guys, that still is not even the worst part. The worst part is that they used his best friend to drive the knife in his back. And that best friend would be Ryan Good. Now, Ryan Good is somebody that I have hinted at in the last two episodes. This would be his best friend and the man who was his best man at his wedding. And Ryan Good, just like everyone else. Has been on Justin's team since the beginning. One article says Usher felt like Justin needed another influence to guy him in the industry and develop his look. So they brought Ryan Good on board to be his road manager. So this guy was working for Usher at the time. Justin Bieber could not afford to have a stylist, have anybody that was consulting on his brand and helping cultivate his image. So they said, okay, Ryan, you're pretty cool. You look cool, you have great style. Why don't you come over and you help Justin and you manage his style? And that is where their relationship blossomed and these two men basically became inseparable until everything blew up last year. And I want you guys to know that everyone in Justin's circle is genuinely shocked by how all of this played out because they all thought up until last year that Ryan was on their side. He was actively fighting for Justin and defending him and saying, yes, you need to fight. You need to fight for your freedom. He was standing by him until he randomly wasn't. And now over a year later, he's even speaking to the press about Justin. One headline reads, justin Bieber's inner circle reportedly shrinks as longtime friend Ryan Good raises alarm over cult like pastor and sudden isolation. Now, sources close to Ryan allegedly told TMZ that Ryan Good, Justin Bieber's former road manager and creative director at JB's fashion brand drew House, hasn't spoken to Justin in over a year. We're told that Ryan and Justin haven't talked since Ryan left church home in Beverly Hills. It's the church Bieber still belongs to and where Judah Smith serves as pastor. Our sources say that Ryan felt the church home was a cult and he wanted out, so he left the church. And Justin getting close to Judah was a big factor in their separation. We are told that Justin added Judah to the DrWhouse board a few years ago, despite the fact that Judah and Ryan, the branch creative director, don't know, get along. And this is all just so random and weird to me because based on everyone I've talked to who is friends with both Ryan and Judah said that they would have considered them also best friends. Brothers. That is the exact word they used. They were like brothers Ryan Good and Judah Smith, who he has now turned on in the press, and he's now painting this entire story that actually the reason why they split up and they're not friends anymore is because of Justin's religion, Not something that was going on behind the scenes with Drew House and Justin's man. So after all of this, we have to ask ourselves, like what made Ryan flip or who made him flip? 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So initially, when things started to go belly up with Scooter and Justin, like I said, Ryan took Justin's side. He encouraged him to fight. He said, I'm going to stick with you. They would build something new, even if it meant that they had to leave Drew House to do so. But all of a sudden, Justin and his family were totally blindsided because Ryan totally flipped. And now they haven't spoken in over a year. Suddenly, based on what I've heard, he was taking Scooter's side in everything, was defending him, and was going completely silent on the fight that Justin was having for his freedom, that he watched Justin go into and defended him throughout up until this point. So again, what happened? What caused that? Well, remember, we have to go back and think about Ryan's career. It is basically entirely built on his friendship with Justin, with his affiliation with Justin. He went from basically being Usher's assistant, I think it was, to a stylist and a personal brand consultant to Justin because they didn't have the money to hire a real stylist. They became best friends. They were never apart. He was literally on the payroll. And then they went into business together with Drew House, which is what really put Ryan on the map financially. And knowing that, what you need to understand is that everything rides on Dryan. His wealth, his future, his home, his connections. And that is all tied back to Scooter and his team. Scooter's team, who makes up the majority of the Dru House board, who dominate and control the future of Dru House. So in my eyes, in looking at this whole situation, I think this was a man who was caught at a very low, weak moment. He was very easily swayed by money and threats of his future. And when push came to shove, I think he picked money over Justin. And that was obviously blindsiding. It was crushing to Justin. Of course, it would be crushing to. To look at your best friend who you had trusted, who had been so loyal to you, who was advocating for you and pushing you to one day just completely turn their back on you. Not only just do that, but then decide with the person who would hurt you more than anyone else. And in my eyes, I think that Ryan probably thought that he was choosing stability and success by aligning with Scooter. But I think that will only end up being his downfall. And he seems to know it based on the way that he is acting in the press and the things that he's saying about Justin. I mean, he is openly attacking Justin, attacking Judah, who was another one of his good friends, attacking the church that he also spent so much time in. But another thing that I want you guys to know is that even in spite of this, based on the conversations that I've been having with people close to both of these men, is that the Biebers and their close community do not harbor the same feelings of anger or fear towards Ryan. This is not somebody that they actively hate or resent. They're obviously confused. And obviously Justin had to move on from that friendship, considering his legal fight with Scooter and the fact that Ryan was aligning with him. And so, really, there was no way for that friendship to continue right now. But he still loves Ryan. He wants to be friends with Ryan. And it's just so unfortunate that all of this happened. And more than anything, Justin just wants to be able to move on. He wants to be able to prioritize his family and his freedom, even if that means cutting people out of his circle. And obviously, the press has noticed this. They have been relentless in writing articles about his isolation, the erratic way that he's cutting people out of his life. Based on my understanding, none of that is erratic. And I wouldn't take those stories at face value, because Justin is very clearly and has very clearly in the past drawn a line in the sand on what behaviors he will tolerate in the people around him. And what is the commonality in all of the people that he has cut off, both personally and professionally. They genuinely seem like they are not great people. Like they have moral failings that Justin just simply will not tolerate. I mean, let's go way back to 2020, when Justin cut off his former pastor and mentor, Carl Lentz. Regardless of what the press might say, that was not out of nowhere. Along with the public, Justin learned that Carl Lentz, who was the lead pastor at Hillsong, had been carrying on affairs, breaking up his family with two women, one of whom was a fashion designer that he met through friends, and the second was his children's nanny. And all of this is out in the open. Both of these women have come forward. Carl and his wife have talked about all this publicly. He's admitted to it. And one of the women, his nanny, even went so far as to accuse him of sexual abuse and manipulation in the workplace. Now, based on the conversations that I've had. Justin was understandably crushed and betrayed. He was angry at his spiritual mentor and he cut him off because what kind of spiritual mentor would be breaking up a family and carrying on two affairs while his wife was home with his two children? That was something that Justin was not going to put up with. In 2023, Justin split up with Scooter Braun after all of this alleged mismanagement and pain, A man who, in my opinion, has repeatedly used his clients to increase his wealth and put himself above everyone else. A man who we have heard talked about in the press for years. At this point, Justin finally said, enough. I'm walking away. He also walked away from the attorney who allegedly did not protect him. He walked away from business manager Lou Taylor after she refused to drop Diddy as a client, even as all of the allegations came out, which just allowed Justin to see the further corruption that was happening on his team. He also cut off David Bolno after Sterling's death. And whether he was actually involved in her death, one thing does seem pretty certain. He was cheating on his wife. He was destroying his family, which is something that Justin is clearly not okay with. This has become a pattern in his life, and it's a place where he's drawn a line in the sand. And then lastly, he understandably walked away from Ryan Good after he chose money over loyalty and friendship. So while the media might call that erratic, while they might say that he's insane, he's pushing people away, I think all of that would make complete sense to any rational, normal person. So after everything that we have now heard, after everything that I've been told and have shared with you, where does this actually leave Justin Bieber? Well, we know that he's trying to get out of his legal predicament, as a Hollywood reporter said, with Scooter. But this isn't just about the length and the time of his contract, because Justin still owes his label, which involves Scooter, four more albums. The Hollywood Reporter wrote this. Bieber's recording contract calls for four more albums via label partner Def Jam Records. And as I shared with you in episode one, Justin can't do these albums without Scooter's involvement. And so if he wants to make music right now, if he wants to be releasing songs, it has to be with Scooter, and Scooter has to approve all of it. So again, another massive power imbalance. And you might be thinking, okay, well, this is so simple. This is easy. Just pump out four more albums. Just get them out. We'll all understand and you'll just be done. But unfortunately it doesn't even work that way. And Justin is not the only artist who has been in this situation. As an example, the rapper Offset, who coincidentally is part of the group Migos, who assigned to the label quality control, who Scooter actually owns now, which is all very interesting, he laid this out a couple of years ago. Take a listen.