Psychological traps, impersonations, hundreds of victims and millions of dollars lost make up the story of one of the biggest scams in the world, led by the mysterious ‘Con Queen’.

New Apple TV+ documentary series, Hollywood Con Queen, reveals how Hargobind Tahilramani, over 6 years, managed at least 500 victims – including makeup artists, chefs, actors, stuntmen and ex-military men who worked as security guards for wealthy and famous – to lose about two million dollars.

The great fraud that shook the planet

Behind the scam was Hargobind Tahilramani, Indonesianwho spent time in the UK and had an Instagram account as influencers of gastronomy with 50,000 followers, he was quite famous in some restaurants, first for being a regular and later for causing a disturbance when he felt he was not being looked after enough.

The Con Queen’s proposals were presented as a life-changing opportunity, and the people chosen were often men willing to take a risk.

Victims wasted time and money booking hotel rooms and flying around the world to meet the most powerful women in the entertainment industry who would change their lives.

The new documentary with testimonies of “victims”

The docu-series is based on the reporting of Scott Johnson, whose articles for the Hollywood Reporter since 2018 raised public awareness of the scam and prompted hundreds of victims to come forward. It is also based on the 2023 book The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Hunt for an Evil Genius.

Johnson began investigating the case years before his July 2018 Hollywood Reporter article went viral and shocked the world. He was led to the case by a tip and began to piece the puzzle together from the fact that all the scams were so similar, they were almost certainly perpetrated by the same person or group.

Private investigator Nicole Kotsianas also helped uncover the truth.

The story later became a global phenomenon, the subject of the “Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen” podcast, dozens of articles and now the documentary series.

The “Hollywood Con Queen” director included interviews with victims, email exchanges the victims kept with fake producers and phone calls with the scammer that the victims began recording when they realized things were getting suspicious.

A photographer who traveled to Indonesia three times in three weeks and an actress who was propositioned by the attacker while playing the ex-wife of Oracle’s Larry Ellison give their own accounts.

Director Will Strathman received an email purportedly from Sony executive Amy Pascal in 2017 asking him to fly to Jakarta, Indonesia, for filming, which Netflix would use for a series.

He paid for a trip from his home in Denver, waiting to be reimbursed, and was forced to return there twice more for more footage. He lost $54,452.

What is Tahilramani doing today?

The fate of “Harvey” as he is nicknamed has yet to be determined. Since his arrest in November 2020, he remains in the UK. On June 6, 2023, a British judge ruled that he be extradited to the US where he could stand trial for his crimes, so he is currently trying to avoid extradition. He is believed to be the only person who impersonated Hollywood executives in this case.