Billionaire Boys Club (1987)

Based on the case that captivated the country in the early '80s, the BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB tells the shocking true story of Joe Hunt, a charismatic financial whiz kid who refused to let anything or anyone stand in the way of his pursuit of immense wealth.Starring Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire) in one of the most compelling performances of his career as the brazen and ambitious Joe Hunt, and Ron Silver (Ali, The West Wing) as the con man who ultimately becomes his victim, the BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB is a thrilling expos‚ of an era of excess and what happens when the desire for cold, hard cash trumps all. Album Description

A recipe for murder

Judd Nelson is excellent as Joe Hunt in this true story about greed and murder amongst the rich and privileged of Los Angeles.

Joe Hunt came from a poor family and was considered by his former "privileged" classmates as being nerdy, unpopular, and a scholarship kid. After college, Joe became reacquainted with some of his rich former classmates through Dean Karny. He convinced this group of guys that he was an expert in commodities trading and he had a "risk free" strategy that would produce big returns. The guys were very impressed so they gave Joe all of their inheritances to invest in the commodities markets. But instead of investing the money, Joe used their money to rent office space and hire employees for his new company, the Billionaire Boys Club.

Joe scammed money from wealthy businessmen, spent some of the money to maintain his lavish lifestyle and the rest he lost in the commodities market. And to keep his investors from getting suspicious, Joe mailed out fake statements that showed a small profit but eventually the investors started asking for their money back. Joe was desperate to find new investors.

Joe met Ron Levin, who was a wealthy businessman and con-artist himself. He was hoping to scam Ron Levin out of enough money that he could bail out the BBC. But as it turned out Ron scammed Joe. Joe was furious and decided to kill Ron Levin. Joe's biggest mistake was leaving a hand written "to-do list" at Ron's house. The police found this list and later used it in court. The prosecutor proclaimed, "It's a recipe for murder".

In Joe's continual pursuit for more cash, a plot was hatched to kidnap Hedayat Eslaminia, a rich former Iranian official and hold him for ransom. This plot didn't work either and Joe was losing control over the guys. Two of the guys secretly went to the police and this led to the end of the BBC.

Two especially good books were written about this story. They are as follows:

The Billionaire Boys Club by Sue Horton
The Price of Experience by Randall Sullivan

September 27, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...