Imagine a dog with a private jet, luxury homes, a personal chef, and hundreds of millions of dollars. It sounds like something from a movie, but for years people believed it was true. The story of Gunther VI captured worldwide attention because he was supposedly the richest dog on Earth. Yet the deeper people looked into the story, the stranger … Read More
The Scam Behind the World’s Richest Dog | Gunther VI Ep 328
Episode Transcript
00:00 Hey man, what's up? Happy to be here. Have you ever heard of Gunther the sixth? No, but I know the other five. I can tell you a lot about Gunther for 00:17 oh and that's making you unhappy. It's hard to be happy when everybody goes happy when you look like hitler. I like when I see Alex's eyes kind of light up where he goes a little lines going in the intro things I learned last night. 00:47 go to the six. Let's start here. Actually in twenty twenty one, this feels too recent to be a sixth. You got to quit doing that. I feel like third is the max third is the max. What if what if you're from a long line of people who just keep renaming names? That's bad, dumb wrong should end. If you're from oh, what if you're from a long line? Stop you right there, stop the lie right in the light because isn't it so finish the blood patch of homes named his kid 01:17 Patrick, right? Yeah, and Patrick Mahomes is the second. Yeah, so his son is the third. The third, feel like is acceptable because you don't want to be junior. Yeah, so you name your kid also and it gets you out of being junior. Yeah, now you're at the second. Yeah, you know, yeah, but after that, Patrick Mahomes, the third should not should probably choose a different name. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, or his kid could be Patrick Mahomes, the fourth. That is how that would go or 01:46 the obvious option. Are you? you? These people are stupid. Do you think people are stupid? um well, the option is to choose a different name or 01:58 or he could be the fourth or he could be George W. Bush. He could be is what I'm saying. This is my kid George W Bush Mahomes. Wait, is his first name George W. All one word George W. Bush and it's not a W. It's the word W W, but not it phonetic G E O R G E D O U B L E you 02:25 E-U-S-H. 02:30 George W. Bush people call him W for short because that's the part of that. That's the easiest part that people remember anyways. So in 2021 02:43 in twenty twenty one Miami. A state was left listed for sale. Okay, for thirty. This is the style of house that my wife wants. By the way, tell her how much it costs thirty one million dollars. We ain't got that. ah And so yeah, it was listed for thirty one million dollars and this made worldwide headlines because the seller, the owner of this home was Gunther the sixth and this is Gunther the sixth. ah He's a uh he's a he's a you want to describe this image to 03:11 sure another picture of them. can describe this image to our list. Anyone who's not watching yeah, if you're not watching, he's got a necklace on and he's like his hair is like brownish reddish black, a bit of black. Yeah, coloration big German vibes for sure. He's got his tongue hanging out crazy for a picture professional photo like this. Yeah, so go on about 03:36 I like the idea of leaving the audio listener in the dark like how long can we do that? Like can we leave it not very long because it's pretty okay. He's a dog. He's a German Shepherd. You know why and that's where I'm fine. I'm fine if he names one of his dogs the seven. Do you know 03:58 if he wants to name one of his pups and that's another thing that weird people do is they call their kids their pups. That's why your these are my pups. You know I kind of like that. Oh you know mama bears love doing that with my cubs protected my cubs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet you are you protect them from from all the scary stuff at target. All right, Rarely are those people protecting their cubs from diabetes. I'll tell you what yeah, man comes love diabetes. 04:29 so gunth I hate the videos online or it's like the mom is feeding the kids the horrible stuff. Yeah, I mean it's like help me make here. Watch me make breakfast for my four kids and it's just like stuff. You're like, my gosh, dogs and tricksy and then all the comments will be like the comments will be like good on you for feeding you. You know, keep those babies fed mama. You know that kind of stuff. Yikes. That's the stuff that you're like. Yeah, no, you know. No, yeah, it is interesting like 04:58 You know, you know something interesting that happened to me today actually? uh So, my whole life, I've been like a hardcore show person, so I like hang out at bars a lot, outside the bar, and everybody's smoking. That's something that people in that scene do, they smoke cigarettes. And so it's become a thing pretty quickly where like, it doesn't bother me. 05:20 usually don't really even notice it. It's very normal. No, we need is a total side tangent on your side. But you know how liquid death made water that looks like alcohol that you could be drinking a liquid death and people were like, oh, he's chill. It's a beer, right? Beer because people were like, look, there's hydrate and water. Give him goth water to feel better. Right? We need liquid death cigarettes. Yeah. So what is it? Like, what are you? Is it just like a little like 05:48 It's like a liquid IV. It's like a tiny amount of water. No, I mean like you're doing, you know, you're doing like it's like the clothes cigarettes. One of the movies or you're not doing anything that's like hurtful, but it's just it's just fun to pretend you're just like, but then you don't get ostracized standing outside of the scene. 06:06 Here's the thing, here's the thing. I never thought, I never had a problem with it. I honestly thought people who had a problem with it were kind of weird. I was like, whatever, if you don't want to do life answer, like whatever. like, I don't know. And I've always kind of been of the mindset that like, even like people with kids, I'm like, yeah, they're going to be around cigarette smoke. Like it's part of life, you know? Like you can't really avoid it. Today, I was driving back from the doctor's appointment with my son and we had the windows down because it's a nice day. Pulled up next to his car, smoking a lot. 06:36 and there was this like animal deep inside me that was like you need to go smash that guy's teeth into a steering wheel for smoking near your kid. I didn't do that, but we know, but but it's so like I all like I never thought I would care. Yeah, I could do it. I could smash that guy's face into a steering wheel. Describe the other guy first. I couldn't see him like and then you were like I got to roll the windows up in my car to save my kid. 07:12 you to get out, go back to his window. You crawling over to get out of your password or the bed. I get to roll it. You know, I understand the it's because your car sucks. I know the bit. I know what maybe it wasn't the guy next to you. Maybe your car was on fire like this guy, but then you assault this guy for smoking. I wasn't even smoking your car was so and that's what sucks man. Anytime you're near somebody who smokes like you just smell 07:37 Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's hard to like you can't help but yeah, it's crazy. You open the door and it just wass into you. Whoa. And that's never bothered me before. But now to my surprise, I can't stand it. To my surprise. I really like that happened today. And then I drove away and I was like, huh, interesting. Because I was like, didn't I my whole life. was like, I want to care. I almost went full Mama Bear and I was like the red light. 08:04 it did. It did genuinely make me angry. So Gunther owns a house and this is what sucks. So come to the six. Here's the thing. I know that I'm older than that guy. I don't like when younger people are are further than I am. He's the thing. Gunther the six is the Guinness world record holder of as the wealthiest dog. He has a net worth of four hundred million dollars. Yeah. And so he this is his life. He's got a personal chef 08:32 he has an entourage. uh He has an entourage as a private jet. He's having a little cocktail as a yacht. He has a human attached to him. That guy probably has something to do with the money right, and so he is living. He has a staff of twenty seven. He's got multiple properties all over the world. Sure, uh 08:55 How is this legally? It's not legally in the dogs name. There's no way. Yeah, it is. It's how it's an irrevocable trust. We learned about that in last week's episode. Okay, so here's a story. Here's a story of gut there. I'll give you his story. Is he a clone? Is that why he's the sixth? No, no. Okay, so some people do that. Yeah, that clone their dogs. No, not this, not gunther. Would you do that? Would I clone my dog? No, I are good enough to be cloned. 09:22 He's a good dog. Gunther. What'd you call your dog? Probably not. He's not genetically a good dog. 09:32 He's not genetically came from his let it leave the gene pool. That's horrible. That's a horrible thing to say about your dog. I can't believe you just said that about your dog. That's a little like you just said. I hope that my dog's genes leave the gene pool. You just said that. I hope the breeder that he came from is more responsible. Hey, there you go. That's a better way to say it. Yeah. But it's also doesn't mean the same thing. Um, so ah 10:00 here's the I like the idea of me saying something and then being like I can't believe you just said that I did it. You said that I kid. I believe you just said that so in 1992 there was a woman by the name of Carolotta Liebenstein, Carolotta Carolotta Carolotta Liebenstein and the interesting thing about her is she was a German countess and let me see. I got a picture of her in here. Here she is 10:30 with her dog Gunther the third. uh and in 1992 she passed away and here's the thing about Carolotta. She was a countess, very wealthy woman. uh Her husband had already passed away. Her son was a huge soccer fanatic, wanted to go pro in soccer, played like for a youth like feeder team that was going into a professional team. His name was actually Gunther. He had a dog named Gunther. How do you feel? How would you feel? What do you mean? It's like 11:01 Okay, I'm just out right there. His name is also Gunther. Okay, his name was Gunther. He had a dog out of confusion when she died. Here's the thing. This is all left to Gunther. He's like, that's me and the lawyers are like, but that dog is also Gunther and he's like, no, no, no. She obviously meant to leave the trust to leave it to me and they were like, this is too hard to tell her 11:27 No, so got their gun there. He had a dog and he named his dog Gunther the second. ah But when he was a young man, like early 20s, I've never said young man before, like a young man. It was also a stupid thing to be like, imagine. 11:46 I know I'm I know I'm going to imagine you. You know you go over to somebody's house like what's up man? You don't know gun through that well. You just met gun there. You're like what's up? You guys you met while you were smoking outside and gun well gun there. You know you're not comfortable enough yet. You don't know that well. Yeah, it's your first time at his house. He's like yeah, he's German. It's actually pronounced good. This is my gunter and this is my is my girlfriend Amber and this is our dog gunter 12:16 You're like... 12:22 got there. It is pretty crazy to name your dog. I'm saying that's that's where he's being like. Well, he had a dog named gun to the second obviously and so the cat like you're just trying to gloss over it like that's not an insane person thing to do. Yeah, you're right. You're I feel like that's a bit that we've done in the show before where it's like a I'm Tim. This is Tim 12:48 you're like what speaking of Tim's, know we're too far from the story. Tell it later. All right, I'll tell you later. I'll tell you now. Let me tell you now. I was talking to my dad this morning, whose name is also Tim. By the way, I feel like that's a relevant thing to this is that he's not Tim Jr, because they did different middle names. All right, we're both Tim and then your dad was like your. know your dad was sitting there being like. I hope he names this kid Tim and just name him like a different J middle 13:17 you know yeah, just like there's Timothy John and Timothy James. He can be Timothy, Jay John's. He could be Timothy John, Timmy John Timothy John, can be Jimmy John's take it. I should have named him to that's okay. Dude, you can name your second. I don't know what which is just awful. Oh yeah, this is my second kid. 13:47 Tim, what's your first kids name? Not to yeah, it's not. We actually legally changed the first kids name to not Tim. All one word in O T T I M don't pronounce it. Not them. It's not not them. It's not. It's not Tim. There's a glottal stop in there. Not Tim, a galore stop. That's what it's called. That's the technical term. His name is not go. I'll stop him in O T 14:17 gee, I don't know, as bug a lot. Also, I stopped with it. No, so my dad, my dad's, I don't even know if that's a real word. You just said it and I repeated it. It's a real word. That's lot. That's the influence you have over me. So your dad, Tim, I told me the story today. He's your mom, three siblings, him. He's the youngest of three siblings. I told all named to 14:46 My dad's the youngest of three. He said when he was four years old, so his brothers would have been six and seven. He said they convinced him that if he ate dog treats, like they would make him faster. And he says he remembers like opening up the thing of dog treats and he's like, this smells really bad. And they're like, that's the thing that makes you fast. Like that's why dogs get so strong. He's like, they eat the treats and it makes them fast. And what they would do is he would eat it and then they would go and they would lose to him like unintentionally to convince him. 15:14 And like they sprung this joke along where they'd be like outside playing football and they'd let him score because they're like, well, we got to keep that. We got to the doctor. We got to keep going. We can't. can't. I want to win, like I keep the doctor. What's more important? The doctorate. And he believed that until he was 24 years old. I gotta make me fast. I love. I love. It's so diabolical for a six and seven year old to be like, give him doctorates. 15:43 and then lose on purpose to keep giving them dog kids are crazy. Kids are wild, insane. Okay, so uh so okay, so she's got so Carolotta Carolotta who cares a lot of and her son Gunther has the dog gone to the second okay wants to be a soccer player like gone to the second is the first dog though. Yes, gone to the second stuff. Got it Gunther is the first right first got to the human is the first on third human. Yeah, I got the human 16:13 Anyways, so he wants to go pro in soccer, a big soccer fanatic. uh But when he's in his early twenties, he's third second is the one who made the team. There's no rule that a dog that says a dog can't play soccer or sorry, there's no rule that a dog can't play football. It was there in Germany. 16:39 I know exactly what you're doing right now. I'm so mad already. I'm like pretty bad and it's gonna work on me and I'm so mad about it. Okay, whatever. Anyways, so Gunther and his in his early twenties, he struggled on and off with depression and he ends up taking his own life and so I was a pretty hard pivot. So the mom was such a hard. So Gunther's mom takes in gun to the second. It's really sad that the second has a little puppies and she names one of them gun to the third and then years later in ninety two 17:09 She passes away and she has no heirs. And so she leaves her entire fortune to Gunther the Third. And in that trust, she outlines some pretty like strict guidelines of like what the caretakers of Gunther were to do with And this is where? This is in Germany. Yeah. And so she leaves $400 million to her dog. And within that uh trust, the law said they had to like maintain the bloodline. And so like, 17:38 Gunther the third had to have a fourth and had to have a fifth and had that in it. So right that lineage had to continue on and the money would just continue being passed down through Gunther's indefinitely right until it runs out because I don't know if you know this about dogs. Not great. The earning potential is just really not really bad with budgets. Yeah, super fast though, because the treats because the cheats they eat a lot of treats to the quick 18:07 They're so good at football. Yeah. Yeah. 18:14 get it because because it's funny because like they play like in Germany it's called football right 18:36 Tim is really mad about how funny this is. I don't know the comments are going to be like Jaren's really mean to Tim, which one 18:57 Hey, thanks for watching our show. you like it, a great way to help out is by being a Patreon supporter. Doing that helps make this show possible, but it also gets a lot of perks for you. You can get every episode a week early ad free. You get access to a Discord where you can meet a lot of other people who love the show and actually hang out with Jaren and I every month on a hangout. And we're also in that Discord chat all the time, hanging, talking with people, talking about episodes and just random stuff in life. It's super fun. 19:20 We do, there's a way to get birthday messages, a free gift, merch discounts in there. So there's a lot of really great reasons to be a Patreon supporter. You get a lot of benefits out of it. And it also makes the show keep happening. So if that sounds great to you, you can go to support.tilling.com or tilling.com slash support, uh or just tilling.com and search around until you find the links and become a Patreon supporter. really appreciate you doing that. But if not, right back to the episode, right? 19:48 So in this trust, she outlines like how to use the money. And so like a good chunk of it is going to caretaking the dog. So she literally is like defines the staff of 27. And so he has a personal chef. I don't get hired by this dog. What do mean? You know, how do you apply for who's, know, so it's funny you say that uh he has this whole staff, like the things you expect, like a trainer, a personal chef. 20:13 like a vet, like all the things you would expect, a groomer. There's a vet on staff. Yeah, a vet on staff that takes care of his health. A breeder who's going to maintain the bloodline. But then there's some other things that don't make a lot of sense. One, he has a spokesperson. And the spokesperson was actually approached. He had, for a long time, the spokesperson. And I think I actually have a picture of him in here. I think he is in this posse. Yeah, so the guy in the top left corner, he's a spokesman. Okay. Or spokesperson. 20:41 And he was like an aspiring actor and he had auditioned for some stuff and the auditioning director was like, I actually know these guys looking for a spokesperson. I think you'd be a good fit for that. And so he got hired by them and he's been the spokesperson for like 30 years now. Okay. Speaking for Gunther, guess, publicly. Yeah. It's crazy. They also have like researchers. They've got a team of scientists that are researching Gunther. 21:10 like I was like Brian Johnson kind of stuff like where it's like. Okay, how do we how do we make sure this this this dog is healthy because what happens what if like he doesn't have any errors and then he dies? Well, that's the point that you have the breeders and so the breeders are always maintaining a next to kin for Gunther and so Gunther the sixth is who sold this house that I talked about in twenty twenty one K and so this is earlier. I think the sixth in this picture is the youngest one actually. Oh okay and so 21:38 They always have a series of puppies behind them that will take the fortune whenever uh the current Gunther passes on to the next life. 21:51 so good and then this is so crazy and then in the in the in the trust one day Gunther got an email from God. They have lawyers, he has lawyers and then he has oh him pushing through means something happening. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. He has financial planners that are managing like the finances of the trust yeah and then there is this like key figure ahead in the middle. You saw his picture earlier. Yeah, this guy by the name of Maritio me and 22:25 describe this picture. So this picture is of what's his name? Maritza on me and Maritza. Whatever looking straight out of the camera. He's an older guy. He's got a mustache that is just over the limit. Just I mean like it. He looks like who you think we're talking about, but it's 22:50 but the mustache is just big enough, just big enough to be like, it's not that guy, but it's close. And so, uh, you know, so he's got, but he's looking like, like, uh, like a seriously looking straight ahead, very serious, straight, very serious Italian. And then also being just slobberly licked on the cheek by this dog, which I think is photoshopped. 23:17 in right. I can't. It looks like maybe it's photoshopped. Yeah, I believe that it might not be photoshopped. It might be like retouched like I think like they might have accentuated the tongue a little bit here and added. That's what I mean is like I don't think the lighting on the tongue looks correct to the picture. Yeah, I think it's like this is a solid head shot that they then you know start another tried to put the dog. Yeah, that could that's the idea. This is probably his cover photo on Facebook. 23:47 And so Marithio Mian is the like executor of the estate. He is the CEO of what they call the Gunther Group, which is the company, like the corporation that runs Gunther's life. everything about this company is to give the current existing Gunther the best life possible. And so they got yachts, they got private jets, they have homes in Italy, Miami, California, all over the world and like. 24:13 desirable beachside locations with beautiful views. And then there's like some other things in this dress that are a little strange. One of the things was, I guess Gunther loved music. And so they were supposed to build a Gunther the dog music group. And... 24:40 and so they put it on third the dog music group, so they in the nineties they they can't and the night they try. I went on busy and I trademarked it for seven hundred forty nine dollars so and so it's on the nineties. They tried to put out a house album with Gunther and so it's it's house music, but occasionally Gunther barks on the track. 25:26 I was like I know where I'm going with this bit and it's never to a drop. I'll tell you that, but they 25:35 they in the nineties they put together this this house album and they tried to sell it and nobody would we have any audio of that. I don't have any audio. I might exist out there somewhere. I don't have any audio of it. It was very bad allegedly. And so they tried again in the early 2000s and this time they said what if we make like put together a pop group um where it's like not a boy band because it's men and women but we put together a group of young ah singles and we put together a pop group. So they started what they call the Burgundians uh 26:05 And so it is this group of people ah that we're going to produce music and we're going to tour the world. I'm going to say something controversial. OK. 26:16 All of these people look like they're doing drugs. 26:25 I mean, I'm so serious though. Look at their eyes. Yeah, I'm yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like look at his eyes in the back. Yeah, and then look at her, her eyes on the her eyes over here. Looks like yeah, I'm be honest with you. It looks like they're doing drugs. We'll get there and so and this was this is also the Burgundians because here's the thing about the Burgundians is it wasn't one set group of five 26:53 it. They were constantly auditioning people in and cycling people in and out and sending them on tours, and so you will go see the Burgundians. I don't know how many people ever went and saw the Burgundians, but you would go to a Burgundians show in Atlanta and it'd be a completely different group than was it in New Orleans because they were sending different people at different right there, like twenty people that were in the Burgundians. It's like Santas, very so 27:21 is actually just or the news boys. You know they're always different depending way year you go. That's a that's not the same way you know um and so they uh here's a thing they put together these Burgundians and then they moved to Miami and they bought that house sold and they were thirty one million dollars. They sold it for thirty one million. They bought it from Madonna in two thousand. This is Madonna and the dog yeah 27:52 so that was literally Madonna's house. She bought it. They bought it for seven point five. Yeah, so they made a good pro pay to the order of and that's crazy in that while page, the order of Madonna and then the the signature is a crazy wacky font. This is Gunther and then a little paw print because the dog signed it. Wow, they had this big ceremony and there's the spokesman there with his necklace. Yep, yep. 28:20 and because it's never a list is and so they it looks oh what they're all wearing. I get it. They're very thick necklaces but it's like we're all wearing collars. You know it's like that's the bit. Yeah. So they move into Madonna's house. Yeah. And another thing that was strange about the trust move into Madonna's house is they take these 20 to 30 28:50 20 something singles that are the Burgundians and move them into Madonna's house with Gunther. And there's a line in the trust that, and I think this is because what happened to her son is that they were supposed to use a portion of Gunther's wealth to research happiness and what causes happiness. And there was like a list of ways you do this. So this is what the scientists were doing is they had all these 20 something singles and they basically- saying the singles. That's like the most important thing about them. 29:19 all these twenty something singles. Yeah, okay, it's like a yeah, whatever and so the scientists basically were twenty four seven surveilling these singles. These twenty something just say the twenty somethings. Why is it about how what is about their relationship status that defines? I know. I can't just I can't talk all of twenty something singles. Okay, it's a thirty something married 29:48 so they're watching everything that happens in this house, this guy and like they have cameras everywhere, but they're also like there. So like there's a lot of footage, okay, video footage from the house from this time where like stuffs going on with their bug, I mean so like in the pool or at dinner, they're hanging out for gun beans and in the background you see a guy in a lab coat with a clipboard just taking notes about what's happening. 30:19 Hey, how many? How many mojitos have you had for? Would you call yourself happy or sad? Would you rate your current state of singleness? Okay, and so essentially what they did is they created this imaginary world where they all were getting stipends. So they were all wealthy, kinda like they were living in this. Well, they were all in, but they a wealthy life. They got to live this wealthy lifestyle, getting good stipends. And then they had like every need taking care of them. They had 30:49 healthy food, they had a disciplined exercise routine that they had to do every day. They obviously weren't in the public eye-ish, and so they got to do these performances and shows. And then they would have these big parties that they would throw where it's like they could relish in the party lifestyle. And the idea was we're gonna do all these things, take away all the stresses of life from these people, give them all the fun stuff. Give them everything. And see if that makes them happy and what has the most impact on their happiness. 31:18 Oh, is this episode about to get like real and it's interesting. You said like they all look like they have been doing drugs because like they supplied them with drugs because they're like do drugs make you happy? Yeah, it's the it's the eyes do and like did they pay for her plastic surgery up top or those just like for the picture. She was just sitting there pinching her cheeks. Yeah, the and then this old guy 31:46 and then this old guy, the old guy also lived in the house and so yeah, I gathered that and I imagine that he's taken some liberty with the details of the trust. He definitely he let me see if he's not in this picture, not in this one. Let's see in this one, not in this one. Well, I don't know if I have a picture of her. He married one of the Burgundians. Well, actually he married two the because they got a divorce. They married another one 32:15 That's what I'm saying, and so he was that was pretty obvious. We could tell yeah, you're right. That's fair, and so he divorced the other one because she turned twenty four. You're too. I hate when they do that. Now you're not a twenty something single. Yes, as soon they start dating, he's like, you my girlfriend, she's like, yeah, no, get out of here. You're ruining the experiment. You just got fired. They had these the trust outlined 32:45 these 13 commandments. And so in the commandment was stuff like this. said, you can all have the gods you choose just as long as they don't set upset your enjoyments. Only those who enjoy life will go to heaven. Crazy. And so stuff like that, that's like you do all these things. And so as things like maintaining physical fitness, eating, health, not having any stress. And so like they had to hot. 33:09 Yeah and eat healthy, do a little bit of drugs, do a little bit of drugs and abandon any religious thoughts that you brought into here. This feels like I know where it's going and so life for the Burgundians became what they described an endless festival and so every day was a party like they did have like things that they were supposed to do. They're supposed to work out, they're supposed to eat healthy, they're supposed to go do their press things, but for the most part they just hung around this mansion all the time with all their needs met and just 33:39 did whatever seemed fun as long as they fell in line with the 13 commandments. And let me tell you, the 13 commandments were basically just hedonism. so this went on for years in Miami ah until a handful of the Burgundians started to feel weird about the fact that they were being watched all the time by scientists. And they kind of started- And also what do you do after? 34:03 Yeah, I mean my resume says for seven years I lived at a house in Miami at the behest of a dog. Yeah, I was. I was a research. I was a research research. Yeah, I was participating in a research study run by a dog. His dog was trying to see what makes you was happy and turns out I was never happy. So they fired me. Okay, 34:31 and so yeah, so so yeah, so the backyard agains are like we don't want to do this anymore. 34:41 so yeah, so this kind of a bunch of them leave and take like to the press and the press is like there's some weird stuff going on in this dog's house and so they didn't sell the house, but they moved back to Italy and they live full time in Italy. The dog, yeah, the dog and the staff, the whole staff, the dog and they try it again and they were like, all right, we're going to be an American, 20 something singles, a new group of Italian, 20 something singles. 35:12 Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of things. I learned last night. If you liked the show, you want to support us, we've got merchandise that you can get and it's good stylish stuff that I made. put a lot of work into this stuff, so it's great to find other tilling fans in the wild and be like, wait a minute. I know that shirt. And so yeah, we would love for you to do that. You can pop over to shop.tillin.com or the QR code or there's a link in the description. There's plenty of ways to find it. We promise we made it super easy. So thanks for supporting the show and thanks for listening. 35:42 and it's the same thing. It's the same scheme. The one thing that changed though. Well, I guess there's two things that changed one. uh They put it on TV in Italy. It was like a reality TV show is like watch all these twenty seven singles try to be happy and science. Science tests are watching them. Okay, like it was like real life, weird life uh and also a dog owns the house, uh but then they gave them these neckless guys. What about this is crazy. What if we do like the real world? 36:15 but it's like a dog owns the house like a real world. It's not like the real world at all. Okay, okay. Is there anything else to the idea? No, you're not. No, you're not getting. let me close. Yeah, got that part, but like you like walk me through it a little like flesh. I don't think we're a good fit. 36:39 So they take this show to TV. And then they also, all the Burgundians, they gave them these necklaces that were pretty big medallion type necklaces. And they kind of looked like, remember those Simon Says games? They kind of looked like that where they had different colors and that was like their mood. And the scientists were watching them and moving the colors. Well, the scientists were watching them and they had remotes and they would move their necklaces to change like their, I guess you could call it score. 37:06 And so what they had to do is they had to get the happiness one to the top, like the most lit and so they were everything they did was to try to get this thing lit all the way up and they would just wear it around all the time on this show. Okay, so someone else observing you is to being like not enough and then you go it's like doing you're like oh no. Oh, I felt pretty happy about that. not happy enough. I guess I'm not very happy. How's your day going? I 37:35 I was. It was pretty good until I saw this thing. The but the light go down pretty good. I pretty good. I guess with the light like if you look at the look at the thing really great, a really great day to this day there to this day. They're like at breakfast with their spouse and like how you doing? Oh hey, hey Tim, none of these got married. They're at breakfast with their friend with their long time live in partner because now they are all afraid of getting married. 38:05 so they do this. Meanwhile, Gunther goes around Europe and buys up a bunch of soccer teams ah yeah like and and he's a great negotiator. You wouldn't believe it dude. He buys this as soon as he's in the boardroom. People are like who you can have and then they just like their guard is that then someone goes hey, here's the deal and they go. Well, that's not a good. Oh, you are a good boy. You are. Yeah, I think it's like crazy deals dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 38:34 it's the secret to sales. Yeah, there you go like the book. This have a dog with the book. The secret is the whole book and then the end is like oh yeah and forget everything else. Just buy a dog and bring it to negotiations um and so he one of the one of the companies he bought or I guess one of the teams he caught but was the piece a cult calcio, um which is the women's football club there. It was a very popular club and 39:00 Gunther became the president of the club and they had the whole teams and that year they actually won the championship. It was like a whole big deal like Gunther on the dog team wins the dog team wins. It was a true life air bud. It kind of they had it backwards. He didn't play on the field. He had to in upper management. Yeah, he had the whole thing. It was up in the suites. I should every day the dog owns the 39:25 the dog owns the team. It's not air, but air by the dog plays at a local youth. You didn't know this dog is a ruthless deal maker. This dog owns the Dallas Cowboys. I don't know how I can make this more obvious to you. You're not getting it. It's just seeds of this dog freaking cat brains to fire. Oh God, cutting players, cat brains and 39:52 Then the following year after the championship, there is a little bit of a scandal. One of the players on the women's soccer team, there is this big press interview. There is a very controversial politician who's running for office and she kisses this politician and this press release and Gunther was so offended. He sold the team backed out of his endorsement of the way. What? This was a real thing. This is a way. What? 40:18 what happened? Say it again. So one of the players on the team I was trying to make a joke that Gunther Gunther made like I was gonna be like and then Gunther tweeted. You know I was I was trying to think of a joke to say for that and then you were like someone kissed someone who kissed who so so one of the players on that women's soccer team the the piece of calcium she was at this like press briefing and there was a very controversial politician who was running for office that 40:48 a lot of public despise and she kissed him at this press conference. and Gunther was deeply offended, so Gunther sold his shares in the my mouth, kissed him, yes, mouth kiss. I didn't know if it was like a kiss his cheek or something. Oh, I thought you bet like she used her mouth to get so I was like what are they gonna kiss? He thinks we're dumb. By the way, Tim is always the kind of person who's just like am I the smartest person? He straight up just thinks everyone's around him dumb and he's like yeah, mouth kiss 41:16 Yeah, of course, she you think I was just used her mouth to get some done. What else? What else is she going to use to get them? So now, so yeah, so she kisses this politician gunther's deeply offended. Okay, sells the team. It's this whole thing. It's a huge got it and he puts out this big press briefing of what year is this now? um I don't know what year this happened sometime in the two thousand sure um and so he's going around. He's going around the basic moral of the story. 41:45 is they're doing these weird experiments. He's going around the world buying businesses and properties and starting things. have. Well, because they have to expand that money. You can't just live out, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's investments going on. so and they also have this. What's the word I want to use? They have a breeder they're using and the breeder is breeding a bloodline for um for Gunther. And it's not just like they're getting one, they're getting 42:14 awful like puppy mill, essentially of Gunther's yeah and then they're choosing the top of the pack to be the sure there. The rest of them become like competition dogs and so like they're competing in these these god like the pre yeah. So yeah, you watch the best show movie no oh you watch best in show. Oh, that's that ass Disney Channel movie. No, no, it's a no. It is a it's an improvised movie and it's uh 42:43 you know Eugene. How do you say it? Levy, Levy, Oh really? Yeah and Catherine O'Hara and in this is early two thousands and they've been working together for a long time and it's best in show. It's like it's like the Thanksgiving dog show and it's a bunch of improv. You'll know you'll improv. Yeah, you'll know a lot of people. I didn't know it was improv. I mean I've heard of this movie like I've seen it. Yeah, it's improv the way curb is is improv. 43:10 yeah. Here's what's happening scene, but there's not a script most yeah. Most of the dialogue is just made up. That's fun, interesting. It's a I mean it's it's every wash it a lot. It's fun, Eugene's teeth yeah, it's in a crazy yeah, but and they do the same bit for modern family where like everywhere they go. You know people I forget her name and I forget Catherine. I hear his character's name, but they're always like I think it's like Trudy or Judy's and like yeah Trudy. You know in the modern family with like player 43:40 Yeah, they do the same bit. It's fun. That's fine. like that. Yeah. So essentially the picture I'm trying to paint is is Gunther's all over the world, flying in private jets, riding on yachts, multi-million dollar properties, buying multi-million dollar companies and doing these like large transactions, not just transactions, like events like they're throwing galas and they're doing like big public appearances with politicians and celebrities and it just like larger than life. Yeah. Lifestyle for this. 44:09 dog and appearing on TV throughout the nineties. There's there are segments where Mauricio appears on TV with the dog and they do these specials all over the world, like not just uh in like local like in Italy or Miami. Like they're going globally to appear on TV show. am that mustache man. I mean he really he is a really looks like he looks like it at all. 44:33 he looks too much like him to be like I'm going to trust some mustache like grow the full beard out. He looks he has the same facial shape. Yeah, yeah. Do we think that that's what certain 44:49 What are you trying to say here? Are you trying to say, don't think that that's like, might be a second. And then in 2008, have you heard of Lichtenstein? No. So Lichtenstein is a very famous tax haven. Okay. In 2008, there is the famous Lichtenstein tax scandal because a disgruntled 45:19 bank employee leaks a bunch of documents from Liechtenstein exposing uh all of the worldwide elites who have hidden their money there. Money hidden in Liechtenstein. And something very interesting that comes out in this is within Liechtenstein, the banks there, Mauricio Mian has an account worth $400 million, but he's not supposed to be rich. The dog is supposed to be rich. He is just the handler. 45:48 and so Marizio this guy bleeding the money well over the course of a couple over the course of almost a decade, very slow journalism was able to track down this story line uh to then in twenty twenty three, a group of journalists put together a documentary that is now on Netflix called Gunther's millions. It's a three part series, pretty good documentary. Is it worth it though? 46:16 I hate when I watch three parts and they go, that should have been a 90 minute. It is worth it. I will say I also hate when I watch a 90 minute and I go, that should have been three parts. No, it is worth it. It was, it was, was really good. One thing I will say we're a family from podcast that wasn't a family friendly. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And the stuff in the, the, yeah. Also when I say family friendly, this means we're not cussing. It doesn't mean I like your family to be clear. Family friendly comedy means like, I'm not going to say inappropriate stuff. It doesn't mean I like. 46:44 I'm not like, I'm friendly with your family. Yeah, you know, I actually I'll say it. I hate your family. 46:52 don't know what this bit is. I hate them. uh And so throughout the course of that documentary, and basically a decade worth of uh investigative reporting, it comes out that this storyline of the German Countess is completely made up. There is no Gunther I who took his life. There is no Countess. All of it is a complete fabrication because Maurizio was the heir 47:21 to a pharmaceutical uh corporation. His mother owned this massive pharmaceutical conglomerate and he was the heir to that empire. And when he inherited it, his mom did not want him to have to pay taxes. So they were going to put this into the tax shelter in Liechtenstein. But they realized that that was tax evasion. And so to try to throw people off of the scent, they created this fictional countess. 47:51 Carefully done. 47:55 And they grew with this storyline of the younger Gunther. And in the storyline, he grew up with Gunther. He's close friends with Gunther. And that's how he has the relationship and his name's the air, because he knew him and he knew the dog. And so he was placed over the job to take care of him. And then they made this trust. And within that trust, they were like, we got to make it really weird. So everyone just thinks, oh, this is a really eccentric multimillionaire who wanted her money to go to weird things. So they created this massive, crazy trust. 48:23 all to hide his wealth that he inherited from his mom, so he does not have to pay taxes on it. Oh my gosh! And he thought... These are the lengths that people will go to, by the way. And he thought, if we just make the storyline weird enough, no one will look into it. And it worked. And it worked for so long. For like 30 years, no one looked into And then he actually, he got caught as a byproduct of another thing, though. Yeah. Like someone wasn't investigating him and found that out. No, no, yeah. It was somebody who just was disgruntled employee, leaked all these documents. 48:53 And that's how this ended up all coming out. And what's really interesting in the documentary, they interview him, they have the whole thing. There's a lot of stuff that goes on. And then they bring up Lichtenstein and you can see he's doesn't want to talk about it. You see he's like angry. Oh, he's in the dock. Okay. Yeah. And you can see, he doesn't want to talk about it. They interview like his ex-wives and they're like, need to talk to him about that. His lawyer, like the staff, no one will talk about it. And then it keeps coming up. And then eventually they bring it back up and he's like, okay, I'll talk to you about it. And he basically just confesses the whole scheme. 49:22 and he's like he's like yeah, like this was a tax evasion scheme and like in outlines how there was no gunther. I was wondering was the dog paying taxes no, no, absolutely not social security number. There's that that's the benefit is a dog can't sign anything on their own. A dog, a dog sign that check to Madonna. I saw a dog side that checked on my bad. 49:48 I was going to be mad for a second. I was like this guy stealing from a dog. No, no, the dog was just the tax. Hey, this guy just likes German shepherds. Yeah, well, and here's the crazy thing is no one in the house knew no, none of the staff. There are staff members who are like I started to be curious about what was going on. The lawyers definitely knew obviously because it's like their job is definitely new. and their staff was like I started to have some some questions about this. 50:13 and what it basically and he just like surrounding himself with young people. This whole thirteen commandments thing in this whole happiness study was really just a way for him to fund a actual lifestyle yeah and he could act like oh I'm just doing what it's research wants to do. I'm just what the dog wants to do and what it is becoming kind of sad. The dog wants us to kiss 50:41 I mean if the dog wants you to kiss me, I mean I guess if the dog wants it, the dog would like us to get married. 50:51 the dog now the dog wants us to get divorced so because he wants me to marry her. The dog says you have to give me five hundred dollars. I don't know the dog said I'm as that is when I'm just doing what the dog said. my job is do what the dog says and it is actually when you as the story goes on actually becomes kind of sad because he struggled with depression throughout his life and Gunther in the story. 51:18 was actually like an alter ego of him. Yeah, and it's like the happiness study probably was him trying. It was him trying to be like, how do I become happy? Yeah, and so he was trying to pay a bunch of people to make him have wow. That's so he was. don't feel bad for him at all and that crazy. I hope I he spent his whole life. That guy spent his whole life hiding his money somewhere and trying to find happiness and I hope he never never finds it. Here's what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. Well, I'll tell you two things that are crazy. We got out of here. Yeah, I know. Hold on. I got to show you two things. One uh 51:48 All this stuff came out and nothing happened. Guinness Book of World Records took back their record. from Rich's Dog. You're going to keep that record. They're like, oh, it was just the guy. A bunch of like. It was just the Hitler lookalike. We all think that, buddy. all thought you did. You know what would help you? You know what would get you happiness? Shave that thing. Shave it off. The mustache. The reason you're unhappy is that people, they first see you, everybody sees you and they go, whoa. Whoa. OK, you're not. You're not. They all go, ah. 52:18 and that's making you unhappy. It's hard to be happy when everybody goes well, I'm be happy when you look like hitler. So 52:32 saw this. like to see Alex's eyes kind of light up where he goes. I was a little lines going in the intro. All this stuff happens. Guess what a roll records revokes their thing a bunch of like newspapers and news companies. They come out and they're like hey, sorry we reported on this stuff. We didn't look into it close enough RB and then nothing else happens. He doesn't get in trouble with the government. He doesn't have to pay back taxes. There's a tax. Everybody's the ways that things were structured. Yeah, everyone's just like whatever man and so now he has a house in La 53:01 And he's doing it again. He's got the House of Gunther. It's a content house in Los Angeles and they're out here making TikToks. And I don't know what his obsession is with trying to like create this like media thing. Wait, I know. I know. You know this house. Have you been there? No, go. I know the guy on the left. I go to play pickleball together. Do you I don't buy this. Yeah. Why would that be real? 53:25 I don't know. You just recently met a guy. You've been playing pickleball with them, so I haven't got nobody was possible. That's the best thing about the and so the documentary is the documentary ends. The credits like start to roll and then it's like and then it stops and it's like I'm trying to is this the right? Can we stop rolling and the filmmakers like yeah and so for sure gamers are off and so he's like he's like I'm trying to figure out the right time to tell you this and he's like but I like the breeder. We're not breeding the dogs. 53:55 clones. And then that's end of the documentary. 54:01 And so like I haven't been able to find anything verifying that they're clones other than he was just like yeah, they're clones Yeah, is the cameras off? Yeah, the cameras off. We're cloning them. Why is that? We're cloning them. I don't know how to tell you this. 54:25 Well fiddle off yeah, are we done? Cool. Hey, I wanted to tell you since we're done with the episode I was gonna tell you about another episode we did about Ida Wood who's a rich lady who hid her finances and she literally had just like zero boxes full of money and stuff. Yeah, we're not recording right? Cool. So if we were recording I would have said like something about Patreon, but you could share this episode that helps us the most. You don't have to financially support us, but you do have to share it. 54:50 Otherwise Gunther will be mad Gunther the dog told you to this episode.