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Win Ben Stein's Money is an American television game show that ran from July 28, 1997 to January 31, 2003 on the Comedy Central cable network with episodes airing until May 8, 2003. It featured three contestants who competed in a general knowledge quiz contest to win the grand prize of $5,000 from the show's host, Ben Stein. In the second half of the show, Stein participated as a "common contestant" in order to defend his money from being taken by his competitors. The show won five Daytime Emmy awards^[1]; Stein and Jimmy Kimmel, the show's original co-host, shared the Outstanding Game Show Host award in 1999.

As noted in a disclaimer during the closing credits, prize money won by contestants was actually paid from a prize budget furnished by the producers of the show. Any money left over in that budget at the end of a season was given to Stein. If the total amount paid out during a season exceeded that budget, the production company paid the excess, so Stein was never at any risk of losing money out-of-pocket.

Stein's co-host was Jimmy Kimmel for the first three years of the show's run. Kimmel left in 2000 (though he did make occasional guest appearances afterward and even hosted College week episodes in 2001). Nancy Pimental replaced Kimmel and co-hosted the show through 2001. Kimmel's cousin, Sal Iacono, who took over the role in 2002, was the show's last co-host.

Game format[link]

Round 1[link]

The game began with three contestants and $5,000 in Stein's bank. Five categories were always available for players to choose from, with punning (and sometimes raunchy) titles hinting at the questions' content. After a player chose a category, Stein would ask a toss-up question that was assigned a dollar value, depending on the level of difficulty; questions in this first round could be worth $50, $100, or $150.

Players were equipped with signaling devices; the first player to ring in on the toss-up earned the right to answer the question. If the player answered correctly, the question's value was deducted from Stein's bank and added to the contestant's score; if the answer was incorrect, the other two players could ring in and attempt to answer. After a player gave a correct answer, Stein would ask that contestant a follow-up question on the same category for an additional $50. Again, if the player answered incorrectly, either of the other two players could ring in and attempt to answer. If none of the players correctly answered the original toss-up, the follow-up question became a second toss-up on which all three players were eligible to ring in and answer the question correctly for $50. After both questions were asked, a new category replaced the old one and the player who had given the last correct answer got to choose the next category.

At the end of the first round, the contestant with the lowest score was eliminated from the game and that player's money (if any) was added back into Stein's bank. If there was a tie for second place after the first round, a tie-breaker question would be asked to determine which player would advance to the next round. In a tie-breaker, a player who answered incorrectly was immediately eliminated.

Round 2[link]

In round 2, Stein himself defended his money by becoming a contestant, replacing the player eliminated at the end of the first round and competing against the two remaining contestants. The co-host took over asking the questions, with the disclaimer that "from this point on, Ben has no advance knowledge of any of the questions to be asked."

Like the first round, the second round also contained five categories at a time, but the question values increased to the range of $200 to $500 in increments of $100, depending on difficulty. All questions in this round were toss-ups, with no follow-up questions asked. Stein would choose the first question. As in the earlier round, any money earned by the other two players was deducted from Stein's bank; when Stein answered a question correctly, his bank total simply remained unchanged; since whatever was in the bank was considered to be his total and was already displayed, his podium's scoreboard simply displayed a dollar sign.

At the end of this round the lower scoring contestant was again eliminated from the game, with that player's winnings going back into Stein's bank. The other player kept their money and advanced to the bonus round to compete head-to-head against Stein for the grand prize of $5,000. In the event of a tie, a tie-breaker question was again used to decide which player would advance (without Stein answering).

Bonus Round[link]

The bonus round was known as the "Best of Ten Test of Knowledge." Both Stein and the winner of the second round were placed in isolation booths, so that neither could hear the other player's answers. The isolation booth for the contestant was plain, with a hardwood stool and a bare hanging light bulb, while Stein's booth was more luxurious, with a leather wingback chair and other lavish furnishings. In later seasons, the contestant's isolation booth was made to appear in disrepair, with a large crack running down the back wall. The contestant had the choice of playing first or second (whoever played second had headphones on while in their booth); the co-host would ask each of them the same ten questions, and they each had 60 seconds in which to answer as many of them as they could. Any missed or passed questions could not be returned to; though after the first player finished, the co-host went over the missed/passed questions before the second player played. If the contestant answered more questions correctly than Stein did, the contestant won all of the $5,000 that Stein had put into the bank at the beginning of the show. If Stein answered more questions correctly, the contestant kept only the money won in the first two rounds. If both gave the same number of correct answers, the contestant kept their winnings from the first two rounds plus an additional $1,000.

"Ben Stein's Cup" episode[link]

At the end of the fourth season, three of the best players of the season who had earlier won $5,000 returned for a special "Ben Stein's Cup" episode, for a chance to win $25,000. In Round 1, the question values were $200, $400, and $600; with follow-up questions worth $200. In Round 2, the questions were worth $800 to $2,000 in increments of $400. The winner attempted to defeat Stein for the entire $25,000.

Versions outside the United States[link]

Win Beadle's Money, a British version, hosted by Jeremy Beadle, ran in the United Kingdom in 1999. The grand prize was £1,000. It aired on Channel 5.

Win Roy & H.G.'s Money, an Australian version, hosted by Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson, ran in Australia in 1999-2000. The grand prize was $5,000 (Australian). It aired on the Seven Network.

Music[link]

Various pieces of classical music were used as the themes. The opening theme was the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Ode to Joy, which was repeated to begin the second round, and again if the champion won the $5,000. The closing theme was Ride of the Valkyries, from Richard Wagner's The Valkyrie. (The Ride of the Valkyries was also played in the contestants' headphones in the isolation booth, to prevent them from hearing the other contestant's answers.) Other classical music pieces used on the show included:

• Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme by Johann Sebastian Bach (at the beginning of the show where Stein introduces himself).
• Water Music by George Frideric Handel (leading to first commercial break).
• Spring from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (Coming out of the first commercial break).
• Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (leading into the second commercial break).
• Trepak (a/k/a "The Russian Dance") from The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (used to segue to the final commercial break).
• Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky (coming out of the final commercial break and cuing to the final round).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Win Ben Stein's Money at the Internet Movie Database
• Win Ben Stein's Money at TV.com

Ben Stein
Stein speaking at the 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings
Born	Benjamin Jeremy Stein (1944-11-25) November 25, 1944 (age 67) Washington, D.C., United States
Residence	Beverly Hills, Malibu, Washington, D.C., Sandpoint, Idaho
Nationality	American
Education	Columbia College
Alma mater	Yale Law School
Occupation	Actor, writer, commentator, lawyer, teacher, humorist
Years active	1970–present
Home town	Washington, D.C.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Alexandra Denman (1968-1974; 1977-present)
Children	Tom (adopted)
Parents	Herbert Stein, Mildred (née Fishman) Stein

Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Later, he entered the entertainment field and became an actor, comedian, and Emmy Award-winning game show host.

Stein has frequently written commentaries on economic, political, and social issues, along with financial advice to individual investors. He is the son of economist and writer Herbert Stein,^[1] who worked at the White House under President Nixon. His sister, Rachel, is also a writer. While, as a character actor, he is well known for his droning, monotone delivery, in real life he is a public speaker on a wide range of economic and social issues.

Life and career[link]

Early years[link]

Stein was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mildred (née Fishman), a homebaker, and Herbert Stein, a writer, economist, and presidential adviser.^[2] He is Jewish and grew up in the Woodside Forest neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Stein graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1962 along with classmate journalist Carl Bernstein; actress Goldie Hawn (class of 1963) was one year behind. Actor Sylvester Stallone was a schoolmate at Montgomery Hills Junior High School.^[3] He went on to major in economics at Columbia University's Columbia College, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi society and the Philolexian Society. After graduating with honors from Columbia in 1966, Stein went to Yale Law School, graduating in June 1970. He says that he did not have the highest grades in his class at Yale "by a long shot," but claims to have been voted valedictorian by the students because he was the "most popular."^[4]

Legal and academic career[link]

Stein speaking at Miami University in 2003

He was first a poverty lawyer in New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. before becoming a trial lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission.^[5]

Stein's first teaching stint was as an adjunct professor, teaching about the political and social content of mass culture at American University in Washington, D.C. He subsequently taught classes at University of California, Santa Cruz on political and civil rights under the United States Constitution. At Pepperdine University in Southern California, Stein taught libel law and United States securities law and its ethical aspects. He was a professor of law at Pepperdine University Law School, from about 1990 to 1997.^[6]

Stein was the commencement speaker for the Liberty University 2009 graduation on Saturday, May 9, at Williams Stadium.^[7] At this ceremony, the University awarded him an honorary degree. According to the school, Stein "delivered a message about creationism, patriotism, and value for humanity to graduates and their families."^[8]

Writing career[link]

Stein writes frequently on a variety of topics, including politics, investing, and economics. He writes a regular column in the conservative magazines The American Spectator and Newsmax. He has also written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Penthouse, Los Angeles Magazine, and Barron's Magazine, where his discussion of the Michael Milken Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond situation, as well as the ethical dimensions of management buyouts, attracted heavy US national attention in the 1980s and 1990s.^{[citation needed]} He wrote a regular biweekly column for Yahoo! Finance online, with his last article dated August 7, 2009.^[9] His bestselling books (with investment advisor Phil DeMuth) include Yes, You Can Retire Comfortably, Can America Survive?, and Yes, You Can Time the Market. In 2009, he published a collection of essays, The Real Stars.

Stein was fired from his position as a Sunday Business columnist at The New York Times in August 2009, due to a policy forbidding writers from performing product endorsements or advertising. Stein had recently become an advertising spokesperson for credit information company FreeScore.com, and according to a Times statement, had assumed there would be no conflict provided that he did not discuss credit scoring in general or FreeScore.com itself in his column. However, the publication felt that it would be inappropriate for him to write for them while he was involved in advertising, and terminated his contract.^[10] Writing in The Spectator, Stein states his belief that the real reasons for his firing were budget cuts at the Times, his criticism of President Obama, and pressure from those critical of Expelled, who "bamboozled some of the high pooh-bahs at the Times into thinking there was a conflict of interest".^[11]

Stein is currently an in-house journalist at Newsmax Magazine, a magazine by the conservative media group, Newsmax Media.

Political career[link]

Stein began his political career as a speechwriter and lawyer for President Richard Nixon, and later for President Gerald Ford. On May 3, 1976, Time magazine speculated on the possibility of Stein having actually been Deep Throat. Stein responded over the years by not only denying he was Deep Throat, but by going further and accusing journalist Bob Woodward of falsifying the famous secret source. In the May 14–21, 1998 edition of the Philadelphia City Paper, Stein is quoted saying, "Oh, I don't think there was a Deep Throat. That was a fake. I think there were several different sources and some they just made up."^[12] After Mark Felt's identity as Deep Throat was revealed, Stein stated that Richard Nixon would have prevented the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge if he had not been forced to resign. For his actions leading to that resignation, Stein said:

If there is such a thing as karma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life or the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide.^[13]

In 2005, Stein said in the American Spectator:

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POWs, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad? Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded. That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton—a lying, conniving peacemaker.^[14]

On June 24, 2008, Stein received the Freedom of Expression Award at the Entertainment Merchants Association’s Home Entertainment Awards for "his outspoken economic and political beliefs."^[15]

Career in the media[link]

Stein became a Hollywood consultant before he moved into acting. His film career was launched by his performance as the monotonous economics teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In one scene, he gives an unscripted economics lecture, relying on his own experience in economics. The topics covered in his lecture are the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 and the then-current debate over supply-side economics. The film's director John Hughes told him to speak about something he knew well.^[16] The only scripted lines are those in which he calls attendance, repeating "Bueller?...Bueller?" in a monotone voice.

Stein played similarly bland and unemotional characters. He had a recurring role in the TV series The Wonder Years and played himself in Dave.

He also appeared in several television commercials, most notably for the product "Clear Eyes" throughout the 1990s and 2000s (decade) ("The difference is clear…Clear Eyes." "Clear Eyes, Wow!")—many ads spoof movies of the day, such as one where Stein is a painter (a play on The Da Vinci Code). Before this, he appeared for a Godfather's Pizza ad in 1987 and as a bland science teacher in a 1990 ad for Sprinkled Chips Ahoy Cookies.

In 1997, Stein was given his own game show by Comedy Central titled Win Ben Stein's Money along with co-host Jimmy Kimmel (replaced by Nancy Pimental and later by Sal Iacono). True to its name, the money that contestants won on the show was subtracted from the $5,000 Stein earned per episode (in addition to his salary). The show won five Daytime Emmy Awards before ending its run in 2003.

In 1999, during the height of Win Ben Stein's Money's popularity, Comedy Central gave Stein another show, a talk show with celebrity guests entitled Turn Ben Stein On. One of the mainstays of the show was Stein's dog, Puppy Wuppy, who had free run of the set.

Other movies and television shows in which Ben Stein has appeared include Charles in Charge; Seinfeld; Full House; Casper; Casper: A Spirited Beginning; Casper Meets Wendy; The Mask and its sequel, Son of the Mask as well as the TV show, The Mask: The Animated Series; Earthworm Jim; Star Search; MacGyver; Richie Rich; Game Show Moments Gone Bananas; Cavuto on Business; The O'Reilly Factor; CBS News Sunday Morning; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Family Guy; the Michael Berger-hosted version of Match Game; Fairly Odd Parents; Duckman; Married... with Children; The Emperor's New School; My Girl 2; and the intelligent design documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.^[17]

In addition, Stein's voice roles include The Pixies, magical creatures on the animated series The Fairly OddParents; Mr. Purutu on the animated Series The Emperor's New School; Professor Wisenstein in Bruno the Kid; the birthday party clown, Mr. Giggles, on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius; a bingo caller on Rugrats; and Pip on Animaniacs, as well as the narrator of the Animaniacs' movie Wakko's Wish. Stein also voiced a psychiatrist, again named after himself, in the USA TV series Duckman; he once appeared in the sitcom Married with Children as a receptionist in the animal afterlife. He also made a cameo appearance in the comic book Young Justice, as Ali Ben Styn. Another cameo appearance was as Rabbi Goldberg in the Family Guy episodes "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" and "Family Goy". Stein also voiced the character Sam Schmaltz in the 1996 computer adventure game Toonstruck.

In addition, Stein has written for the television industry, including outlines for the TV movie Murder in Mississippi and for the lengthy ABC miniseries Amerika. He has also contributed to the creation of the well-liked TV comedy Fernwood 2 Night.

Ben Stein hosted a show on VH1 called America's Most Smartest Model.^[18] The show aimed to find the smartest among fourteen models through a series of challenges.^[19]

On May 14, 2006, during an appearance on the Fox News program Your World with Neil Cavuto, Stein called for a tax increase of 3.5% for wealthy Americans, to be earmarked for soldiers and military initiatives. Indeed, Stein wrote an editorial for The New York Times critical of those who would rather make money in the world of finance than fight terrorism.^[20]

On December 28, 2009, Stein appeared on CNN's Larry King Live with Dr. Ron Paul to discuss the attempted bombing of an American plane on Christmas Day 2009. Stein said that Dr. Paul's stance that the United States were "occupiers" in Iraq and Afghanistan "is the same anti-Semitic argument we've heard over and over again."^[21] The comment started a shouting match between the two men and prompted anger from Dr. Paul's supporters and those who believe Stein went too far in calling Paul's argument anti-Semitic.^[22] Stein issued an apology on December 30, 2009.^[23]

He is an occasional political and economics commentator on CNBC's Kudlow & Company.

Financial and economic commentary[link]

In the period preceding the Late-2000s recession, Stein made frequent and vehement claims that the economy was not in recession, and that the issues in the housing market would not affect the broader economy. On March 18, 2007, in a column for CBS News' online version of CBS News Sunday Morning, Stein famously proclaimed in the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis that the foreclosure problem would "blow over and the people who buy now, in due time, will be glad they did," the economy was "still very strong," and the "smart money" was "now trying to buy — not sell — as much distressed merchandise" in mortgages as possible.^[24]

In an August 12, 2007 column in the New York Times titled "Chicken Little’s Brethren, on the Trading Floor", Stein, while acknowledging "I don’t know where the bottom is on subprime. I don’t know how bad the problems are at Bear (Bear Stearns)" claimed that "subprime losses are wildly out of all proportion to the likely damage to the economy from the subprime problems," and "(t)his economy is extremely strong. Profits are superb. The world economy is exploding with growth. To be sure, terrible problems lurk in the future: a slow-motion dollar crisis, huge Medicare deficits and energy shortages. But for now, the sell-off seems extreme, not to say nutty. Some smart, brave people will make a fortune buying in these days, and then we’ll all wonder what the scare was about."^[25]

On August 18, 2007, on Fox News Channel's Cavuto on Business, Stein appeared with other financial experts dismissing worries of a coming credit crunch.^[26] Thirteen months later, in the Global Financial Crisis of September 2008, global stock markets crashed, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the US government, AIG was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America Corporation, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs confirmed that they would become traditional bank holding companies.

In a Yahoo! Finance article written on October 17, 2008, Stein explained that his understanding of the debt obligations based on real estate loans was less than the "staggeringly large" amount of obligations that were created through trade in derivatives of those, and so why it wasn't as similar to collapse of junk bond empire in early 1990s as he'd thought it would be: "Where I missed the boat was not realizing how large were the CDS [credit default swaps] based on the junk mortgage bonds."^[27]

Business commentator Henry Blodget wrote a piece for Business Insider in January 2008 entitled "Ben Stein is an Idiot," stating that Stein's criticism of those with bearish views and positions on the market was either "delusional," or a deliberate and "shrewd" attempt to create false controversy and drive up web traffic.^[28]

Political views and advocacy[link]

Abortion[link]

Stein is an opponent of the legalization of abortion and was given a Pro-Life Award in 2003 by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.^[29]

Larry Craig scandal[link]

In 2007, Stein chastised the police and the GOP leadership for their response to the Larry Craig scandal. Stein said that Craig's sexuality should not be an issue: "A party that believes in individual rights should be rallying to his defense, not making him walk the plank."^[30]

Tax code[link]

Stein has criticized the U.S. tax code for being too lenient on the wealthy. He has repeated the observation made by Warren Buffett, one of the richest individuals in the world (who pays mostly capital gains tax), that Buffett pays a lower overall tax rate than his secretaries (who pay income taxes and payroll taxes). Stein has advocated increasing taxation on the wealthy.^[31] However, in 2010, after Obama proposed not extending tax cuts for the highest earning taxpayers, Stein stated he was being punished, saying: "But for what? I don't own slaves. I employ a lot of people full- and part-time and they are all happy with their pay. When charity calls, I almost always write out a check. I don't have a yacht or ponies or a plane. My wife doesn't wear a tiara. I don't gamble."^[32] In 2012, Stein stated that due to the tremendous amount of national debt, he agreed with Obama's proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy and that ultimately everyone's taxes should be raised to avoid defaulting on the debt. ^[33]

Other[link]

Ben Stein endorsed Democrat Al Franken in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, calling him an "impressive guy".^[34] That year, he also stated that he would vote for Ralph Nader for President.^[35] In January 2012, Stein appeared in political advertisements sponsored by Associated Industries of Florida supporting legislation that would create three resort casinos in South Florida.^[36]

Invesco Field interview[link]

Stein drew fire for a 2008 interview with Glenn Beck in which Stein compared U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign rally at Invesco Field to Adolf Hitler's Nazi rallies at Nuremberg. The Economist called Stein's invocation of Nazism an intentional use of Reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy to distract from the campaign.^[37]

Opposition to evolution[link]

Stein has denounced evolution, which he and other intelligent design advocates call "Darwinism", declaring it to be "a painful, bloody chapter in the history of ideologies," "the most compelling argument yet for Imperialism," and the inspiration for the Holocaust.^[38][39] Stein does not say belief in evolution alone leads to genocide, but that scientific materialism is a necessary component.^[40] He co-wrote and stars in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a film that aims to persuade viewers that evolution was instrumental to the rise of the eugenics movement, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, and portrays advocates of intelligent design as victims of intellectual discrimination by the scientific community, which has rejected intelligent design as creationist pseudoscience.^[41][42][43]

The media response to the film has been largely unfavorable. It received a 10% meta-score from Rotten Tomatoes. Multiple reviews, including those of USA Today and Scientific American, have described the film as propaganda.^[41][42][43]

In a Trinity Broadcasting Network interview with Paul Crouch Jr. regarding Stein's movie,^[44] Stein made the following statement about science and religion:

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers, talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

At the University of Vermont, Stein was invited to receive an honorary degree and be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2009. The university president Dan Fogel received complaints about Stein's planned appearance, due to Stein's views on evolution. Due to the furor, Stein declined his commencement invitation.^[45]

At the Liberty University 2009 graduation Stein was awarded an honorary degree and, according to the university, "spoke extensively about his work on “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” a documentary exposing the flaws of Darwinism and showing how the scientific community discriminates against scholars who believe in creationism."^[8]

Personal life[link]

Stein is married to entertainment lawyer Alexandra Denman, with whom he has an adopted son.^[1] Tommy was adopted as an infant in 1987. Stein lives with Denman in Beverly Hills and Malibu, California.^[46][47] He also has a summer home in Sandpoint, Idaho.^[48] Stein also owns an apartment in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., which he inherited from his parents.^[49]

Bibliography[link]

Stein's book titles to date (7 fiction, 21 nonfiction) include:

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ben Stein

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ben Stein

• Ben Stein at the Internet Movie Database
• Ben Stein's Official Website
• Ben Stein's column on Yahoo! Finance
• Booknotes interview with Stein on A License to Steal, January 30, 1993.
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Stein, August 17, 2008

Curtis "Cocky" Warren^[1][2] (born 31 May 1963, in Toxteth, Liverpool),^[3][4] is an English gangster,^[5] who as Britain's most notorious drugs trafficker was formerly Interpol's Target One, and once listed on the Sunday Times Rich List.^[5][6]

Biography[link]

Curtis Warren is the second son of Curtis Aloysius Warren, a seaman with the Norwegian Merchant Navy, and Antonia Chantre, the daughter of a shipyard boiler attendant.^[7] Warren grew up with his elder brother Ramon and sister Maria in the Granby district of Toxteth.

Juvenile career[link]

After dropping out of school at age 11, Warren was cautioned for various pieces of petty crime, before stealing a car aged 12.^[7] Brought before the Juvenile Court, he was placed under a supervision order for two years. A year later he appeared before the local magistrates' court for burglary, and was ordered to spend 24 hours at an attendance centre. Aged 15 in 1978, he was sentenced to three months in a detention centre. Aged 18 he was sent to borstal for assaulting the police, and in 1981 arrested during the Toxteth riots. In March 1982, Warren was sentenced to two years in jail for attacking a prostitute and her client; the case revealed that he was running a scam where he blackmailed a prostitute and her client known as rolling.^[7]

Bouncer[link]

After Warren was released from jail, local police commented that he had turned his life around, becoming a bouncer at a Liverpool nightclub. It was here that he learnt about the drugs trade - bouncers have the power to control who comes into and out of a venue. He learnt the drugs trade from controlling dealers access and then befriending them, giving him an inside education.^[1]

By the time he was 20, Warren had become a drug supplier and later trafficker. In 1983, he was jailed for five years for armed robbery.^[7]

Charrington and acquittal[link]

In the late 1980s, he came to a working agreement with Middlesbrough trafficker Brian Charrington. In September 1991, using Charrington's personal yacht, the pair sailed to France on then-legal British visitor passports. They then travelled to Venezuela on British 10-year passports, and arranged a deal with the Cali cartel to smuggle cocaine in steel boxes, concealed in lead ingots.^[1]

On arrival in the UK, HM Customs and Excise cut open one ingot, but found nothing. Having let the shipment pass, they were later informed by Dutch police that the drugs were held in the steel boxes; by which time Charrington, Warren and the shipment were untraceable. However, a second shipment of 907 kilograms (2,000 lb) using the same method was already on its way from South America.^[1]

When the shipment landed in the UK in early 1992, Charrington, Warren and twenty-six others were placed under arrest, in a prosecution brought by HM Customs and Excise. However, in preliminary court procedures, it was revealed by police that Charrington was a police informant for the North-East Regional Crime Squad. HM Customs officials went forward with their prosecution, despite protests from his police "handlers" Harry Knaggs and Ian Weedon. In Newcastle Crown Court, it was alleged that Warren was so well informed, that he knew the length of the largest drill bit owned by HM Customs, and therefore the size/depth of the required ingots.^[8] Eventually, through Tory MP Tim Devlin, a meeting was arranged in which Customs was ordered to drop charges against Charrington on 28 January 1993. The case was dropped, with all accused including Warren acquitted of all charges.^[1]

It is alleged that on release, Warren purposefully walked past the HM Customs agents, saying: "I'm off to spend my £87 million from the first shipment and you can't touch me."^[1] Several months later, Knaggs was spotted by HM Customs officials driving a £70,000 BMW, previously registered to Charrington.^[9]

Netherlands[link]

Warren returned to Liverpool. But with the combination of various ritual killings of several organized crime figures, and the police after him in light of a high-profile case failure, he decided he had to move.^[1]

In 1995, Warren relocated to a villa in Sassenheim in the Netherlands. It is estimated that by this time that he owned: 300+ houses in the North West of the UK; mansions and office blocks in Britain; the Holker Street grounds of the Barrow-in-Furness football club, Barrow A.F.C.;^[7] (he is quoted as saying, whilst flying over the ground, 'I own all of that') casinos in Spain; discos in Turkey; a vineyard in Bulgaria; land in the Gambia; and money stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. He could have retired rich, but decided to continue.^[1] Warren calls these allegations "ridiculous," and claims he owns only two small flats and a house in Liverpool, insisting his multimillionaire status has been "grossly exaggerated."^[7]

Monitored by police calling his contacts in the UK, it was now that Warren's photographic memory paid off: he never called contacts by their names, but code words; all of the Swiss bank account details were kept in his mind, never written down; he never kept accounts for his drug dealing business. The result was that he had an unlimited credit line from cartels in South America, and with cannabis traffickers in Turkey and Eastern Europe.^[1]

Dutch arrest and prison[link]

On 24 October 1996, Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten raided Warren's villa, and other property he owned in the Netherlands. Warren and several associates were arrested, with police finding three guns, ammunition; hand grenades, crates with 960 CS gas canisters, 400 kilograms (880 lb) of cocaine, 1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb) of cannabis resin, 60 kilograms (130 lb) of heroin, 50 kilograms (110 lb) of ecstasy, and 400,000 Dutch guilder plus 600,000 US Dollars in cash. The whole haul was estimated to be worth £125 million.^[1][7]

In 1998, Warren made his only appearance in the Sunday Times Richlist, which stated as a property developer his fortune was estimated at £40million.^[8] His conviction in the subsequent trial ensured his removal, but still makes him the only criminal to have made the list.

In court, Warren's plan was shown to be the shipment of South American cocaine to Bulgaria. Shipped to his vineyard, the drugs were then suspended in wine for onward shipment to the Netherlands and Liverpool, UK. In total, police had retained illegal goods, drugs and wine valued at £125million. Warren was sentenced to 12 years in jail, in the maximum security Nieuw Vosseveld prison in Vught. However, further forensic accounting investigation only found £20million of his estimated £120million fortune, and none of that could be legally touched or confiscated by Dutch police, British police or Interpol.^[1]

Manslaughter conviction[link]

On the afternoon of 15 September 1999, Warren had a fight in the prison yard with Turkish national Cemal Guclu, who was serving a 20 year sentence for murder and attempted murder. Yelling abuse at Warren, Guclu walked towards him and tried to punch him in the face. Evading the punch, a short fight ensued, during which Guclu fell to the ground, and Warren kicked him in the head 4 times, Guclu got up and again went for The Cocky Watchman and was again punched to the floor. It was here he hit his head and became unconscious from which Guclu never recovered and died in hospital. In his trial defence in 2001, Warren said he "acted in self defence." Finding Warren guilty of manslaughter, the Dutch judge commented that "the defendant had used excessive violence," sentencing him to an additional four years with release scheduled in 2014.^[1]

In 2002, Dutch police still investigating the Bulgarian shipment obtained an asset seizure order against Warren. Although they could only find £180,000,^[8] they legally charged him to repay 26 million guilders ($14 million) under the proceeds of crime act, or face an added 5 years in prison; this would have extended his release date to 2019. After legal discussion ensued, Warren agreed to pay Dutch police 15 million guilders ($8 million).^[1]

Trafficking case and release[link]

In February 2005, Warren was charged by Dutch authorities with running an international drugs smuggling cartel from his Dutch prison cell. Moved around six jails during his trial for his own safety, he was found guilty but successfully appealed, and was released from prison in June 2007. Refused transport by EasyJet,^[7] he was escorted directly by armed Dutch police to the ferry terminal at Vlissingen, he arrived in Harwich and travelled back to Liverpool driven in a Lexus.^[5]

Refused a passport by the British, Irish and Portuguese governments, the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency then followed Warren's every move as part of a "lifetime offender management" programme, under the codename "Operation Floss."^[8]

In November 2007 Warren's former right-hand man, Colin Smith, was shot dead while leaving Nel's gym in Speke.^[10]

Jersey conviction[link]

Under SOCA's "Operation Floss," just three weeks after being freed from prison in the Netherlands, on Saturday, 30 June 2007, SOCA called Jersey Police to inform them that Warren had arrived at Manchester Airport, and paid cash for a plane ticket. Observed in Jersey with known Liverpool associate and now Jersey resident Taffin Carter, the pair drove around in Carter's VW Golf to various locations, including the isolated St Catherine's Breakwater.^[11]

With drugs at three times the street price in Jersey compared with the UK or France, after Warren returned to the UK, Jersey Police created "Operation Koala," monitoring and bugging various locations, including phone boxes and the home of Taffin's girlfriend, Suzanne Scurr. From this they discovered that Welsh intended to travel to Amsterdam to meet with known Warren associate, Moroccan Mohammed Liazid. Jersey Police wanted to bug Welsh's hire car from St Malo, but were refused permission by French and Belgian police, saying it was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. In what Judge Sir Richard Tucker later described as a "reprehensible" and "unlawful" act, Jersey Police, which is not signed into but bound by the ECHR, bugged the car anyway, and with Dutch Police, SOCA and Interpol monitored the transmissions.^[11]

In subsequent operations, SOCA monitored Warren in Liverpool, while Dutch police monitored police informant Liazid in Amsterdam, and co-ordinated information from various phone boxes to correlate who was speaking to whom. In the subsequent trial, it was revealed that Warren had three UK and one Jersey mobile, and had made 1,587 telephone calls in three weeks from these and phone boxes across the northwest and North Wales, including the Wirral, Liverpool, Manchester, Llangollen and Chester to Liazid.^[12]

In 2007, Warren was arrested in St Helier, over conspiracy to smuggle drugs; after a joint investigation involving Jersey police, Merseyside Police, SOCA, and law enforcement from Belgium, France and The Netherlands.^[3] He pleaded not guilty, and there ensued a two year legal argument over the legality of the information obtained by the bugging of Welsh's car.^[4] After agreement that there was sufficient evidence from other sources to substantiate the case, Jersey Police offered him a deal for pleading guilty of an 8 year jail term and no confiscation of assets: Warren turned this down.^[13] The Metropolitan Police agreed to lend Jersey Police a manned armoured prisoner transfer van, so Warren and his associates could be transferred safely during each day of the trial. The Court heard that no drugs had been imported as the Jersey contacts had 'failed to come up with the money."^[14] Senator Ben Shenton raised concerns that Warren's legal representation was at the cost of the Jersey taxpayer, while Progress Jersey raised concerns that the entire resources of the Jersey drug squad had been targeted at Warren.^[15]

Warren was found guilty on 7 October for conspiracy to smuggling cannabis. He was sentenced on 3 December 2009 to 13 years imprisonment for his part in the plot.^[16][17][18] After conviction, Warren was initially held in the high security wing of London's Belmarsh prison, over concerns with regards his security.^[19] Jersey Police are also starting an investigation into his wealth, with the aim of confiscating his gains from drugs trafficking.^[13] Presently held at HMP Full Sutton near York, on two occasions he has unsuccessfully appealled to the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey General Sir John McColl for leave to appeal his conviction, once in March 2011, and secondly in September 2011.

References[link]

• Barnes, Tony; Richard Elias; Peter Walsh. 2003 Cocky: the rise and fall of Curtis Warren, Britain's biggest drug baron ISBN 978-0-9530847-7-7

Notes[link]