![]() ![]() ![]() And in the end, after another round of rage and hurt and talk of the homeless, Barnett applauds over the phone. In the end, the investigator, Assistant Attorney General Mark Barnett, does speak with the students and, finally, with Vu. “My attorney say not to keep calling this guy, that I am going to make him mad,” he announces. Why, sometimes, they say, even taking a bathroom break gets tricky. Worse, perhaps, they say his seminar is a week of sleep deprivation and mind control, that the rooms are kept freezing cold and that his instructors won’t stop class long enough to let them get a decent meal. About 30 graduates have filed complaints saying Vu’s teachings don’t work, that real estate agents actually laughed at them when they called, that some of Vu’s “techniques” don’t apply or are illegal where they live. The attorney general is looking into whether Vu deceived students about their prospects for success in real-estate investments. Vu’s in-house attorney, Richard Wheeler, sitting in the wings, frowning, motions Vu aside to warn him in hushed tones that the calls may serve only to make matters worse. The man with the video camera captures all, including the parade of loyal and eager students who march to a phone on a table at the front of the room and repeatedly attempt to call the state attorney general’s office and speak to the investigator on the case or, when that fails, the investigator’s boss. “And God told me, “The truth will set you free.’ “ He should be a success story in America!” “Why me? Why Tom Vu? What is big deal about Tom Vu? Tom Vu is only a hard-working man. “Do you know how many days now my family and I cry, feeling so sad, so sick in America?” Tom Vu continues, his eyes now wet with tears. No one seems shocked, only absorbed and pained. The dozen students and handful of instructors sit silent. Tom Vu is nearly shouting now, his voice shrill, his English broken. There are the orphans quietly, I donate to law-enforcement agencies I just give seven duplexes to the homeless without publicity, because I care!. I do a lot for the children in the world. I am a very good citizen in the state of Florida. Because if they fight me, it going to cost me money -the money I could give to the homeless. ![]() I want to appeal to your conscience and save the taxpayer in Florida some money. I would rather take the money and give it to the homeless children of Orange County!. ![]() And God, Vu says, told him to make a video and show it to people across the country, to anyone who would watch. And there is this highly distracting and disturbing matter of a Florida Attorney General investigation into his seminar business -not to mention 14 disgruntled seminar graduates who have threatened to sue him.īut Vu -Vietnamese boat person in 1975, now Longwood multimillionaire -talked to God last night. He has a conference room full of students from Los Angeles and New York and Vancouver and Boca Raton waiting inside. It is a Thursday in February and Tom Vu is midway into his intense five-day, $16,000-a-head real estate “Financial Power Investing” seminar. He wears a black, pin-striped suit, a red silk tie, burgundy wing-tipped loafers and a thin air of distraction. Tom Vu stands in a hallway of the downtown Orlando Radisson, looking slight and mildly stoop-shouldered -far from the cocky, champagne-swilling playboy he seems on his late-night TV info-mercials. Hello, darling,” he says, extending a limp hand and demure smile. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |