#TrueDetective 3: “The #Cowles’ #Identity”

True Detective: Chicago, El Chapo, & Vince Vaughn’s Mom
True Detective 2: “The Vaughn Addendum”
True Detective 3: “The Cowles’ Identity”  

Daniel Hopsicker

 

According to the DEA—which, caveat emptor, lies like a dog when it suits its purposes—El Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel “supplies 80% of the heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, with a street value of $3 billion, that floods Chicago each year.” 

Though it seldom comes up, that flood flows both ways. And since the money from a ton of cocaine is several times the volume of the cocaine itself, the flood of drugs into Chicago must resemble a tsunami of cash surging back to Mexico. Only… it doesn’t. 

Sure, you can ship $20 million back to Mexico in a couple of 18-wheelers. But three-quarters of the money made in the U.S. from drug trafficking never leaves the country. Its much easier to take possession of your loot—already laundered—in the form of a loan from a corrupt American bank, of which there is no shortage, or a criminal enterprise pretending to be a bank, like Argyll Equities. 

It wasn’t exactly “When Harry Met Sally.” 

 

There is reason to be suspicious of everything about the couple, including how they met.

It used to be called Presidente Stroessner International Airport, just outside Paraguay’s capital. It was

#TrueDetective 2: “The #Vaughn #Addendum”

True Detective: Chicago, El Chapo, & Vince Vaughn’s Mom
True Detective 2: “The Vaughn Addendum”
True Detective 3: “The Cowles’ Identity”  
Daniel Hopsicker

 

 

In 2003, Directors Performance Fund, a hedge fund controlled and run by Sharon Vaughn, mother of actor Vince Vaughn, capitalized a “bank” specializing in providing financing to drug traffickers and snake oil salesmen peddling goat’s blood. 

The deal received attention only after Vaughn’s hedge fund went fully rogue two years later, in a much larger financial scam which caught the eye of the SEC first, before becoming the subject of a federal criminal investigation that resulted in federal charges against three men.

 

Hedge funds typically take positions on behalf of their clients in the stock of a number of different companies. One bad investment does not usually make or break a hedge fund manager’s career.

 

However, during the three-year lifespan of Sharon Vaughn’s hedge fund, she only made four investments.

#TrueDetective: #Chicago, #ElChapo, & #VinceVaughn’s Mom

True Detective: Chicago, El Chapo, & Vince Vaughn’s Mom
True Detective 2: “The Vaughn Addendum”
True Detective 3: “The Cowles’ Identity”  

Daniel Hopsicker

Actor Vince Vaughn, in the news for his starring role in HBO’s True Detective and recent controversial statements advocating more guns in schools, now has a new source of notoriety guaranteed to keep him in face time: his family. 

Vaughn’s mother, Sharon Vaughn, a sparkling and vivacious Chicagoland socialite, and his step-father, Stephen Ferrone, a lawyer and former brokerage manager, both have links to a criminal enterprise involved in the biggest seizure of drugs on a plane in Mexican history. 

 

Vince Vaughn’s intemperate comments spurred a second look at the financial fraud his mother was involved in seven years ago. That brought new details to light which finally bring some much-needed clarity to the case of the American-registered DC-9 busted in Mexico with 5.5 tons of cocaine, first reported and investigated in dozens of stories published here.