Although Stratos claimed to be a producer, he was also playing a con that for want of a better name I would call the Saudi Royal Family scam. In this scam, the perp claims to be a member of, or to have close connections with, the Saudi royal family. His collateral-- the trappings that give him credibility -- is driving Rolls-Royces and living in hotel penthouses, spending lavishly at nightclubs and resorts. All this is, of course, heavily leveraged and paid for by house-of-cards arrangements that inevitably collapse.
But in the meantime, the heart of his operation is basically to say, "My share of the royal family's fortune is $2 billion. I'm impressed ty the brilliance of your _______ project, and I want to invest at least $42 million in it. However, I'm having some difficulty getting the transaction through your Treasury Department for final approval. I've been on the line to Secretary Mnuchin and even President Trump, of course, but this may still take a few more weeks. In the meantime, could you help me out with a mere $3.3 million to satisfy the requirements of _________ to secure final approval?"
The basic incentive is that via flattery and the prospect of great wealth in a few weeks time, the con artist milks the mark for large incremental amounts, with the prospect of the ultimate boodle always remaining a short distance away -- until the perp disappears, adopts a new name, and continues his schemes, leaving multiple marks holding the bag. This was the essence of the Troy Stratos scam.
I make no secret of my view that there's something hinky about Fr Wooten's mysterious million-dollar gift. I feel quite certain that if anyone prompted him to verify it in the most minimal way -- Father, could you show us just last month's bank statement? -- he'd give a folksy sorta-kinda rigamarole about how it's not that simple, you probably aren't all that familiar with how these things are done, the money is in a separate whoopdedoodle brokerage until it can be released, but it's the vice of curiosity to ask too many questions about this. Blah, blah, blah. I wouldn't put it past him to invite me into the confessional to confess my sin of curiosity, frankly.
I think the million-dollar gift is always going to dangle just out of reach, but in the meantime, he's gotten Houston to waive its maximum age requirement for ordination, ordain him priest on the fast track, and heaven knows what else. I'm sure there's a what else. He didn't resign his Episcopal orders for nothing in my view. Did Houston even try to contact Bp Iker? The plus for Houston is that it gives a distant hope of looking successful in the Fort Worth area, which had once had prospects of being a hotbed for new ordinariate parishes. My regular correspndent remarks,
This part of Texas has been quite the merry-go-round. Fr Chuck Hough III we have discussed before. Fr Kennedy has been posted here and there. Not much evidence of a coherent plan.Anoher visitor comments on what this portends for Bp Lopes's future;
He can retire a Bishop if the Ordinariate lasts long enough and if it goes under, meh. Next stop, back to Rome or some other administrative job for a nuncio in DC or other such post. It’s all very rosy for Bishop Lopes and his live-in secretary/whatever–position-he-is, friend. There doesn’t seem to be a fire under him to produce results, but I also don’t see Rome investing new money or any effort into helping him out, either. Foot note in history, perhaps.That Houston is placing bets on Fr Wooten and his mysterious donor is not a good sign.
