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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 22:55
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 The Con Artist Lives Again
Bill Ash Re-Emerges With a New Tale of Lies and Lust
By Norm Kent
Publisher, www.nationalgaynews.com
It is a story that could only have South Florida roots.
It is September of 2007, and Seth Tobias, 44, a multi millionaire hedge fund investor, known nationally for his appearances as a respected financial commentator for CNBC is found very dead in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach Estate, a 5 million dollar, 6,700 square foot mansion.
 Allegations of sexual trysts, domestic violence, and drug abuse emerge as law enforcement officers interview the spouse, the brothers, and a mysterious online psychic whom the thrice-divorced wife apparently consulted with regularly. The psychic regales the willing media with lurid tales of drinking, of male hustlers, wild parties and cocaine.
That ‘psychic,’ Bill Ash, a rather large and exquisitely effeminate gay man, surprisingly alleges that the wife, his online confidant, is the one who murdered the husband to steal his fortune and avoid a divorce.
Ash purportedly holds secrets about the spousal relationship, and he has been peppering the media for months with hidden revelations, giving the story life, helping it run large in the tabloids and on the ‘net in force.
Today, it is all over pagesix.com
But Bill Ash is no psychic. Bill Ash is a con man with South Florida roots, and the roots have a very bad fungus.
You almost have to believe the movie rights are being sold as you read this. At the very least, the sordid and scandalous story of the sad death of Seth Tobias was the cover page feature of New York Magazine last week.
This week, not in the media, but in real life, in a Palm Beach county courtroom, a legion of attorneys- eight at least- are battling over the multi million dollar estate of Seth Tobias. His pre marital will leaves the bulk of his purported 25 million dollar estate to his family and brothers. But his wife, Phyllis, is fighting for her legal rights under Florida law, asserting she is now the rightful heir.
No one has been charged in the death of Seth Tobias, and months have passed without a measured toxicology report being published by the coroner.
Evidence is being gathered suggesting that Seth’s death was caused by an overdose; that there was cocaine and the sleeping pill, ambien, in his bloodstream. However, the mysterious gay psychic claims the wife confessed to him in an online session. So Seth’s brothers’ lawyers are using his testimony to advance the claim that as a potential murderer, she cannot be the rightful heir. It’s Florida law.
The psychic however, has claimed to have a relationship not only with Mrs. Tobias, but purports to have known Seth as well, claiming to have met him in La Jolla, California. He alleges that he provided male hustlers for Seth, took him to gay strip clubs like Cupid’s in West Palm Beach, and provided personal services on an ongoing basis for the deceased fund manager.
 Bill Ash cannot sustain a single claim about his alleged relationship with Seth Tobias. However, one of Seth’s secretaries can. She represents Bill called and demanded money.
The New York Times bought into Bill Ash, and on the front page of their Business section last December 4th, ran a story about the Tobias death. The paper related Ash’s allegations du jour, including a claim that his wife had lured Seth into the pool with promises she would arrange a sexual liaison with a gay porn star.
However, police, lawyers, investigators, and journalists, who have spent countless hours investigating and unraveling the claims of ‘Billy’- that’s his new moniker- Ash are just beginning to learn that the man making these claims has a sordid past, pockmarked by defrauding countless others to advance his own mercenary, self-aggrandizing artifices and schemes.
The truth is that Bill Ash is a con man and the truth has caught up with him again.
It is not just that William Ash is a convicted felon. It is that his criminal history involves acts of fraud, transparent lies, knowing deceit, and repeated dishonesty. It is that his reputation for truth and reliability is virtually non existent.
It is not just that he has misused his talents to persuade others to advance his own criminal acts, misdeeds, embezzlements, and swindles. It is that his skills at deception and dishonesty have harmed good and decent charitable organizations, as well as honest businessmen trying to earn a living. Add to that now the wild goose chase he must be sending lawyers for the Tobias family on.
The reality of Billy Ash’s chronicles of deception that newspapers and television crews are uncovering today in the Seth Tobias case were already exposed by The Express Gay News in March of 2000. I should know. I was the publisher and I was the author of the articles revealing his scams. Inconsistency and unreliability are Bill Ash’s middle name.
The crooked dealings of Bill Ash which I exposed in The Express seven years ago revealed a man who lied for a living, and attempted to compound one lie with another when caught and exposed in an untruth. It revealed a person who was incapable of remembering one story from another, since they were mostly made up to begin with. If his deeds were not so sinister, the conduct would have been comical.
Ash’s criminal history includes a 1996 felony conviction for stealing the client list of a company that sold goods manufactured by the disabled and setting up a rival company; passing worthless checks for years while delivering false promises of restitution; misrepresenting his role and compromising the position of AIDS charities and Pride South Florida; lying to tabloids about celebrities while publishing untruths engineered to defame them; and scamming businessmen by rendering payments with checks from a man he knew was dead.
In one of his more elaborate deceptions in 1995, he chartered a boat for his own 31st birthday, arranging for thousands of dollars on flowers and balloons by telling vendors he was throwing the party for Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, and that the Miami businessman would be footing the bill.
In another episode in the year 2001, he misled one charity into thinking he was booking Jennifer Holliday as a main act, failing to reveal that Holliday was so appalled by Ash she had sought a restraining order against him the year before.
All of these acts led to criminal prosecutions which were eventually consolidated before a Broward County Circuit Court Judge. Ash would initially be placed on probation, but he would violate it by running an illegal escort service. The court would revoke his probation, convict him as a felon, and give him jail time.
Ash did not just spend months in jail for running a prostitution ring as some of the stories concerning Tobias relate. Ash was adjudicated guilty of multiple criminal charges, including grand theft, kiting checks, not making restitution, and fraudulent use of credit cards.
This is the gay man and key witness whose testimony the Tobias family lawyers, on both sides of the bar, are now fighting over. This is the man who the media gave a moment in the sun.
His escort scheme was gay soap opera. At the time, Ash was billing himself as ‘Mr. Madam’ and boasted he had an offer to write a book about his days as a Heidi Fleiss–like pimp. He feigned elaborate connections, international contacts, and incredible wealth, all while bouncing checks to restaurants for fifty bucks. He claimed to own bars he never bought, booked acts he never paid for, and be involved in deals with people he never met and knew nothing about him.
Bill Ash may have stumbled upon fame when Phyllis Tobias reached out to him, relying on ‘askbilly.com’ for advice, counseling, and guidance. I understand he got paid thousands and was sought out often by the wife of the late Seth Tobias.
With his persuasive charm, I cannot imagine how much his newly discovered professional ‘psychic’ career has generated for him. You never know. Like W.C. Fields once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
There may be some measure of truth in some of the things Ash is relating to the media and authorities about Phyllis and Seth Tobias, but those who are listening to the things he says today ought to be reminded of his lack of credibility yesterday. The big boy has cried wolf a few thousand times too many.
He left South Florida for San Diego in disgrace, and set up shop on the Internet as the ‘world’s best psychic’. He gets involved intricately in the death of a celebrity and milks it for everything it is worth.
With Bill Ash involved, my guess is the milk turns out to be very sour.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE AND DISCLOSURE
Writing for New Times in 2001, Wyatt Olson did an even more elaborate story documenting the details and dimensions of the fraud that was Bill Ash, Entitled ‘Ash and Burn,’ you can still find it on the Internet. See the link below.
Unfortunately, the new owners of the Express, who I sold the newspaper to in December of 2003, have not put the first four years of our paper online yet.
Consequently, those researching Bill Ash’s background could never have come upon our first series of very revealing stories from February and March of 2000. Too bad; the cops and litigators could have used some background material.
To her credit, Courtney Ford of CNBC did thoroughly read and review the story of Bill Ash in New Times, and has now contacted me for more information, some of which I have published in this story.
Related Stories for your perusal:
http://nymag.com/
http://nymag.com/news/features/43914/
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2001-05-31/news/ash-burn/full
Past Stories on Bill Ash from Feb 2000
Toxicology Reports Reveal Drugs Found In Seth Tobias' Body
Allegations In Tobias' Death Include Gay Affair, Voodoo Curse
Brothers Go To Court Over Millionaire Tobias' Death Case
Former Tobias Assistant Says He Passed Polygraph Test
Report Shows Marital Problems Before Tobias Drowning Death
Gay Porn Star Denies Role In Seth Tobias Death Case
Brothers Claim Millionaire Tobias Was Drugged, Drowned By Wife
Aide: Millionaire Found Nude In Mansion Pool Was Murdered
Psychic's tales inflame mystery of Tobias' demise
No charges seen in mystery-shrouded death
No sign of crime in mogul's death
No charges will be filed in death of TV commentator Tobias
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