They tried to sound the alarm, but no one listened... Join us as we explore the brave individuals who spoke out against celebrities long before their misdeeds became public knowledge. From financial fraudsters to predatory power players, these whistleblowers risked their reputations to expose the truth when everyone else looked away.
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00:00Jimmy Savile, I think he's a hypocrite.
00:03Weren't I right?
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at individuals who bravely spoke out against some seriously awful celebrities.
00:12Harry Markopoulos warned us about Bernie Madoff.
00:15The success of Bernie Madoff's Wall Street firm made him a celebrity in the finance world in the 90s and early 2000s,
00:21but his asset management business was revealed to be a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008.
00:26Madoff was telling his early investors that they were receiving 15% a year profits.
00:33Not one dollar of it existed. It was just made up.
00:36Now let's get to new revelations about Bernie Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
00:41Nine years earlier, in 1999, financial fraud investigator Harry Markopoulos said he took one look at Madoff's numbers
00:48and instantly recognized them as fraudulent.
00:50Markopoulos reported Madoff to the Securities and Exchange Commission several times over the course of multiple years,
00:55but to no avail.
00:57What I saw, when I saw it, and what my dealings with the SEC were that led me to this case
01:02being repeatedly ignored over an eight and a half year period between May 2000 and December 2008.
01:09It wasn't until Madoff's sons reported their father to the FBI that the scheme came crashing down.
01:14The SEC ignoring Markopoulos allowed Madoff to continue defrauding his investors for years.
01:19They didn't understand. They had lawyers there, not finance people.
01:22They weren't capable of understanding what I had written and presented to them.
01:25I had gift-wrapped this case and delivered it on a silver platter, and they still didn't take it.
01:30Floyd Landis warned us about Lance Armstrong.
01:33Once the most famous cyclist in the world, Lance Armstrong is now infamous for a massive doping scandal
01:38that stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles.
01:41He was exposed by Floyd Landis, a former teammate of his, in an email to the CEO of USA Cycling in 2010.
01:47And yet this is a man, Lance Armstrong, who was denied up and down for a decade
01:51that he's on anything but his bike, anything but just hard work.
01:57I denied it as well.
01:59You're saying Lance Armstrong is a liar?
02:03Yes, I suppose if that's the question, yes.
02:06At the time, Landis was reeling from the effects of his own doping conviction three years earlier,
02:11which led to the removal of his 2006 Tour de France title.
02:14He has a sense of entitlement that defies any kind of reason.
02:19I've never met anyone like it, and I don't hope to meet anyone else like it.
02:22After two years of investigations, Landis' claims were proven true
02:26in one of the most shocking scandals in sports history.
02:29It's the very definition of, if I go down, you're coming with me.
02:32He blames me, and I guess if he needs to attribute it to somebody directly,
02:36then I guess I'm the guy, but I wish he would just...
02:40I mean, I don't know, I feel bad for him.
02:42I wish he would be able to just, you know, move on with his life,
02:45but he still kind of resents me, so be it.
02:49Danny Gonzalez warned us about Andrew Tate.
02:52How did I become rich?
02:54Webcam.
02:54Definitely going to need him to elaborate on that a little bit.
02:57That's so vague.
02:57In 2022, commentary YouTuber Danny Gonzalez posted a seemingly ordinary video
03:02discussing an alpha male club known as The War Room.
03:05It featured the infamous and divisive social media personality Andrew Tate.
03:09Gonzalez's research revealed a suspicious-sounding webcam studio business
03:13that raised red flags for the YouTuber,
03:15prompting him to ask in a half-joking manner if Tate's business was fully legal.
03:20He gets them to get nasty on camera.
03:21I'm not a lawyer, but does this not...
03:24Does this not feel illegal?
03:26Ten months later, Tate would be arrested in Romania for human trafficking,
03:30among other charges related to this enterprise.
03:32The controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate has been arrested in Romania
03:37on suspicion of human trafficking.
03:40Tate denies the allegations, and the investigation is ongoing.
03:43We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty.
03:46Governor DeSantis saying the brothers are not welcome in Florida.
03:49But Danny Gonzalez's video demonstrates that Tate's online presence
03:53has been looking suspicious for years.
03:55Rita Chatterton warned us about Vince McMahon.
03:58I was pretty shocked at that point.
04:00I, you know, I mean, we're talking profession here,
04:02and suddenly he wants more than just profession.
04:06Vince continued to, you know, if you want a half-a-million-dollar contract,
04:10you're going to have to satisfy me, and this is the way things have to go.
04:13Vince McMahon, co-founder and former CEO of the World Wrestling Entertainment,
04:17found himself under federal investigation in 2024
04:20and faced allegations of sexual misconduct and trafficking.
04:23Over 30 years earlier, in 1992, former wrestling referee Rita Chatterton
04:28spoke on Geraldo Riviera's show, Now It Can Be Told.
04:31When Vince was said and done, Vince looked at me and said,
04:35Do you remember what I told you about having sexual relationships with anyone?
04:39Well, you just did.
04:41And he just sat back and had this big smile and this big grin and just started laughing at me.
04:46There, she shared her story of how McMahon assaulted in 1986.
04:49The news didn't receive much attention at the time, but in 2022,
04:53Chatterton once again felt empowered to speak out when more victims began coming forward.
04:58Next thing I know, McMahon was in the papers again for paying hush money,
05:07and Mr. Reisman called me and asked me a few questions.
05:11I answered a few questions for him.
05:12Next thing I know, we're in the magazine, and here we are.
05:17This time, it was to a more receptive audience.
05:20She settled a suit with him.
05:22However, the federal probe was reportedly dropped in February 2025.
05:26Joan Tarshish warned us about Bill Cosby.
05:28You see Bill Cosby your whole life, and every time you see him,
05:33he's winning more and more accolades, and getting more and more,
05:37you know, presidents admire him, and Oprah Winfrey.
05:41You know, people that I respect have no clue what the man is really like.
05:45Bill Cosby's abhorrent behavior was an open secret in Hollywood for years,
05:49but it was Hannibal Buress' soberingly blunt comedy routine in 2014
05:53that made people start taking the allegations against Cosby seriously.
05:56Decades earlier, Joan Tarshish apparently told a reporter that Cosby had assaulted her
06:01when she was young and trying to make it as a comedy writer.
06:04He failed to publish her story, perhaps not wanting to be the one to tarnish the reputation
06:08of America's dad.
06:09Cosby managed to retain a squeaky clean image until Buress' remarks empowered more victims
06:13to come forward in droves, forcing the world to listen to their harrowing stories.
06:17I'm having nightmares.
06:19I've been waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning,
06:23having nightmares, thinking bad things are going to happen.
06:28Effie warned us about Armie Hammer.
06:30In 2021, an Instagram user known as House of Effie
06:34began posting screenshots of disturbing text messages from Call Me By Your Name star Armie Hammer.
06:39The account was initially dismissed as baseless celebrity gossip,
06:42but something about the specific nature of the messages
06:44and truly unsettling content caught people's attention.
06:48Yes, I told her that I was unfaithful.
06:50What made you be honest in the end?
06:53I got to a point where I realized I was becoming someone
06:56that I didn't recognize and didn't want to be.
07:00Realizing the power of her public statement,
07:02the user behind the account came forward
07:04in a virtual press conference to add further validity to her claims.
07:07I was completely in shock and I couldn't believe this.
07:11What I loved did that to me.
07:14I tried so hard to justify his actions,
07:17even to the point of responding to him in a way
07:20that did not reflect my true feelings.
07:22Effie claimed Hammer abused and assaulted her
07:24throughout their four-year on-and-off relationship.
07:27She was not the only person who experienced similar abuse from Hammer
07:30to come forward with her story either.
07:31He was investigated by the LAPD,
07:33but they ultimately decided against pursuing sexual assault charges against the actor.
07:37And despite the Hammer family's oil fortune being worth an estimated $1.6 billion,
07:43Army is now estimated to be worth between $10,000 and $100,000.
07:48Johnny Rotten warned us about Jimmy Savile.
07:51So you had heard the kind of thing that we now know about him or stuff like that?
07:56Yeah.
07:57I think most kids did too.
08:00Most kids wanted to go to the top of the pops,
08:02but we all knew what that cigar muncher was up to.
08:06But I'm very, very bitter that the likes of Savile and the rest of them were allowed to continue.
08:10Jimmy Savile was one of Britain's biggest sexual predators,
08:14but his horrific crimes weren't revealed until after his death.
08:17In his lifetime, Savile was known as a media personality beloved by the British public.
08:21John Lydon, better known by his Sex Pistols stage name Johnny Rotten,
08:25was actually willing to speak out against Savile during his lifetime,
08:28only to be silenced by the BBC.
08:29Did you ever try and do anything about Savile?
08:32I did my bit. I said what I had to.
08:35Did they air that? No.
08:38It just got suppressed?
08:39Yeah.
08:40For legal reasons?
08:41Yeah.
08:42And I found myself being banned from BBC Radio there for quite a while.
08:48For my contentious behavior.
08:50A 1978 interview saw the musician calling attention to hush-hush rumors of Savile's behavior,
08:55but it was not aired at the time.
08:57If Lydon's comments hadn't been censored,
08:59Savile could have been exposed decades earlier,
09:01saving countless people from his abuse.
09:03The significance of it grew on you.
09:05It's not a throwaway line, but to me it's kind of like,
09:09it's, yeah, I understand what you're saying.
09:11It's flippant, but it's consistent through everything I do.
09:15Virginia Giuffre warned us about Jeffrey Epstein.
09:18Jeffrey lifts his head up, looks at Ghislaine, Ghislaine looks at him,
09:22and I call it the Cheshire cat grin because his face just went like this,
09:27and it was like a nod of approval.
09:29For two years, Virginia Giuffre was trafficked and abused
09:32by famed financer Jeffrey Epstein and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
09:36Epstein's victims have talked about how they weren't sure who this guy was,
09:40but because Ghislaine seemed so proper, surely it's got to be legit.
09:44Her posh upbringing, her accent, gave this veneer of respectability.
09:50Thankfully, she escaped to Australia with her husband in 2002.
09:54Grateful for having gotten out,
09:55Giuffre stayed under the radar with her family for years,
09:58but the birth of her daughter in 2010
10:00pushed her to publicly speak out against the horrific abuse she experienced.
10:04It's a completely different person, the person that takes over.
10:07You know, very scared of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing,
10:11and you do disassociate yourself from who you know you are, but who you have to be.
10:19Her brave statements brought widespread media attention to Epstein,
10:22who previously only faced lenient punishments for prior legal action taken against him.
10:27He was arrested again on trafficking charges in 2019,
10:30but was found dead in prison before his case could be prosecuted.
10:33Giuffre now runs Speak Out, Act, Reclaim,
10:36a non-profit to support victims of sexual abuse and trafficking.
10:39I'm calling BS on this, because that's what it is.
10:43He knows what happened.
10:45I know what happened.
10:47And there's only one of us telling the truth, and I know that's me.
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11:0650 Cent warned us about Diddy.
11:08You knew Diddy's character.
11:10Right.
11:11Yet you said you weren't a part of that lifestyle, you weren't going to the party.
11:15So what makes you so absolutely sure that these kinds of allegations that we've seen against him are true?
11:22Well, I'm surprised by the allegations as surprised as everyone else is.
11:26Sean Diddy Combs' media empire came crashing down in 2024,
11:30when the rapper was arrested on charges including racketeering and trafficking.
11:34But people have been publicly calling out his behavior for decades prior.
11:37Most notably outspoken was Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent.
11:41I had to say something about it later, because I was like, oh, it was fair.
11:44It wouldn't feel like all these years, you being the only one calling this out.
11:48I look like the crazy, I've been the crazy guy for a long time.
11:50Makes it like you're a hater.
11:52The two have had a longstanding feud, beginning with a Jackson diss track in 2006.
11:56For years, Jackson has made digs towards Diddy at concerts and on social media,
12:01referencing his strange behavior and now notorious parties.
12:04Since the arrest, 50 Cent has posted countless memes making fun of the disgraced media mocul.
12:09He's even producing a documentary expose, potentially titled Diddy Do It?
12:1350 tells the outlet,
12:15It seems like I'm doing some extremely outrageous things, but I haven't.
12:19It's really me just saying what I've been saying for 10 years.
12:23Did you believe their warnings?
12:24Let us know in the comments.
12:26I'm like, yo, it's just my perspective,
12:28because I stayed away from that stuff the entire time,
12:31because this is not my style.
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12:40We'll see you next time.
12:42We'll see you next time.
12:44We'll see you next time.