Runners-up: Congressman David Wu in a very unusual outing by staff, rapper Ja Rule commits tax fraud, R & B star R. Kelly also commits tax fraud, and ZZZZ Best’s Barry Minkow heads back to prison.
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Rep. David Wu, D-OR, saying he would resign from Congress before the end of August after coming under scrutiny for allegedly making an “unwanted sexual advance” (some say a euphemism for “rape”) on a supporter’s 18-year-old daughter. By itself, assuming the accusation isn’t false, this behavior is compelling evidence of alcoholism, especially when the alleged perpetrator is a 56-year-old 7-term Congressman. Even if the “unwanted” part of the allegation is false, the age difference alone is pretty good evidence. In the case of politicians, this is generally as far as we could go because getting proof of alcoholism in those who make (and enforce) laws is usually challenging at best.
David Wu is an exception. He was hospitalized due to an “adverse reaction” to a combination of Ambien and Valium in 2008. As pointed out in Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse, because a single dose of two different drugs packs a far more powerful punch than a double dose of any one drug, polydrug use (especially to excess) is almost always a certain indicator of alcoholism. Wu has admitted to taking prescription drugs given to him by a campaign contributor but denied knowing what the drugs were (a contributor claimed it was ibuprofen, which is over-the-counter, while a staffer said it was oxycodone, which is illegal to provide without a prescription and is an opioid commonly used by addicts). I think it could be safely argued that only an addict would lie about knowing which drug he took or would take a drug without knowing what he’s taking. Last fall, Wu’s senior campaign staff quit en masse after confronting him about his “drinking problem” and a pattern of erratic behavior. As pointed out in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in Its Early Stages, a pattern of erratic behavior is almost always a result of the effect of various chemicals on the brain. Diagnosing alcoholism in David Wu isn’t challenging in the least.
Rapper Jeffrey Atkins, known as Ja Rule, 35, sentenced to 28 months in federal prison for failing to file income tax returns from 2004 through 2006. The IRS usually doesn’t go after delinquents on charges of fraud, so an Enrolled Agent like me might predict the rapper, who has sold 40 million records worldwide, must have had a lot of income on which no tax was paid. In addition, since the IRS doesn’t usually prosecute non-filers, we might predict there were more years involved than just the three for which he was sentenced. Indeed, Atkins had more than $3 million in earnings on which he owed more than $1.1 million in taxes and the IRS dropped charges on at least two other years. Since those who believe they are more powerful than the U.S. government have an inflated sense of self-importance, which rarely occurs without the benefit of alcoholism, an addictionologist like me might predict that Atkins is a substance addict. It turns out he has a prior arrest for driving with a suspended license and marijuana possession, along with another on gun and drug possession charges for which he is currently serving a two-year sentence. Atkins blamed his youth, bad advice and an inability to manage his money properly for his poor judgment. We might instead suspect that alcoholism is doing what it does best: causing the afflicted to view everything he does through self-favoring lenses, leaving everyone and everything else to blame for his woes.
R & B star Robert Kelly, known as R. Kelly, 42, facing foreclosure and nearly $2 million in federal tax liens. The multi-Grammy winner with 10 albums to his name was involved in a brawl in 1996, arrested on multiple charges of disorderly conduct in 1998, arrested in 2002 and 2003 on child pornography charges (for which he was acquitted) and has written lyrics as only an alcoholic could: “We ain’t gon [sic] leave till four in the morning. Thousand dollar tab, what? I can afford it. On my fourth drink, but I’m not an alcoholic….so f*cked up man it’s just not my day. I need another shot of that Bacardi.” Brawls and episodes of disorderly conduct are almost always associated with alcoholism, which would likely be proven if those four drinks were doubles.
Juliette Dunn, 29, who, after being arrested by police, denied knowing why her 10-month-old baby tested positive for cocaine. Another mom on a playground called authorities after watching Dunn telling her four-year-old son to chug a beer, which he finished, earning the title “alcoholic” from his mother. A reporter asked, “How insane does one have to be to give beer to a preschooler in a public park? It seems almost impossible.” As I have said countless times, alcoholics are capable of anything. Unfortunately, this qualifies as “anything.”
Barry Minkow, now 44, was a teenager in the 1980s when he began building ZZZZ Best (a carpet and furniture cleaning company) on credit-card fraud and fabricated work orders. He was a poster-child for egomania in Drunks, Drugs & Debits (pp. 85-86), which was no doubt related to the large quantity of cocaine he kept in his desk drawer. After spending seven years in prison for the scam, which cost investors at least $100 million, he became a preacher and fraud-detection specialist for the FBI and other organizations. Unfortunately he relapsed, this time on Oxycontin. Since psychotropic drugs cause distortions of perception and memory in susceptible individuals, bad behaviors followed. Minkow pleaded guilty for securities fraud and will spend another five years in the slammer. (Wikipedia has a terrific synopsis of the scam, which is a classic in the annals of egomania taking hold at a very young age.)