Area man convicted of fraud shares story
DANBURY — By the age of 21, Danbury’s Ian Bick had defrauded investors of nearly $500,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He’d become accustomed to first-class travel, expensive nights out at the casinos and his personal watercraft.
“In my mind … I was the next young millionaire entrepreneur, so I start[ed] spending it as if I already had it,” Bick said in an interview.
Bick, who became the owner and operator of the Tuxedo Junction nightclub in Danbury at the age of 19, is sharing his story in a new HBO Max series entitled ‘Generation Hustle,’ which begins airing April 22. The 10-episode series takes viewers behind a number of entrepreneurial ventures created by young minds that did not always end well.
Bick’s story is examined in the series’ second episode, titled “The Party’s Over,” chronicling how his ambition led him to build a concert promoting business on the backs of borrowed dollars, which were later used to splurge on a lavish lifestyle without much return.
The series’ director, George Plamondon, said they tried to bring a “balanced approach” with perspectives from investors who lost their money, the case prosecutor and Bick’s thoughts because he did “impact a lot of lives through his actions.” Yet, the question of whether Bick was running a Ponzi scheme, “intentionally misleading people and lying to people,” is at the center of the episode.
“And that is where I think the story gets fascinating, because in Ian’s mind, there’s a gray area of
‘Oh, I was just trying to buy myself enough time so that i could make back my investors’ money,’ but the means by which he did that are what got him in trouble because he wasn’t honest with them,” Plamondon said.
In the HBO trailer, audiences get a glimpse of Bick’s perception. Propped center stage in an empty nightclub dimly lit by party lights, he said, “I don’t think I was a con artist,” to the camera. After a quick shot of Bick pulling stacks of cash toward him, he gestured a slight nod and shoulder shrug stating, “I guess it’s a Ponzi scheme depending on how you look at it.”
Bick told Hearst Connecticut Media he didn’t even know who Bernie Madoff was, much less
what a doesn’t consider himself a “run of the mill con artist.”
“I wouldn’t label myself as a con artist because I did not set out to defraud anyone, it’s unfortunate that it happened and we strayed away, but it’s a learning lesson,” he said.
Instead, he chalked it up to being a “cocky, overconfident” young man who had a ton of “unguided ambition,” and counted his chickens before they hatched.
Angie Day, a showrunner for the series, said Ian was an attractive subject because of his “natural hustler” persona.
“He had so much initiative and so much ability well beyond his years and all of those things should have led to a success story,
but I think he took that a little too far,” she said.
“With Ian, you get the sense that if he had just made a few decisions differently, he could have been the kind of wunderkind success that people said he was,” she added.
Now, seven years later, Bick has completed his prison sentence and is working to pay back the $480,635 he was ordered by the court to return and wrapping up a three-year stint of federal probation.
Back in 2019, when Bick was first released, he told Hearst Connecticut Media he was looking to get back into the nightclub business, however, he couldn’t be further from there now.
“My mentality [back in 2019] was still a lot different than what it is now. I hadn’t
fully matured or grown up or reached a level I needed to be at. I was still in that same mentality I was in before prison, granted I had learned some lessons,” Bick said.
A federal judge was not entirely sold as Bick has filed for early termination of his probation. In a November order, Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer wrote the “Court is not yet convinced that Mr. Bick has changed his inclinations to cheat other people and to skimp or cut corners on his obligations to pay restitution.”
In the time he’s been released from jail, Bick has moved out of a halfway house, secure his own apartment and car, and assembled a career at a local Whole Foods as an assistant manager of the prepared foods department.
He estimates he’s working 80- to 90-hour weeks, slowly making restitution, and in his free time, helping his friends with marketing at the Brookfield Peachwave frozen yogurt shop.
In a court filing opposing his request for early termination of probation, federal prosecutors if he is working 80 hours in a week “he should have had no difficulty making the original court-ordered $1,000 a month restitution, let alone the $200 per month that he failed to make.” At the time, he was still living with his parents.
Bick said he always knew his story could be highlighted somewhere, such as a movie or television series. So, even after being prosecuted, Bick chased fame or a deal that he hoped would resolve his issues.
After hearing repeated “no’s,” in 2019 he gave up his dream of being in the limelight. But, he received a Facebook message from an HBO intern in early 2020 asking him about his story.
Despite his skepticism, Bick spoke to the intern, which led to several other conversations and a text message months later where he was told HBO was moving forward with his story and he’d be featured in an episode of “Generation Hustle.”
Plamondon said Bick’s attitude made him “easy” to work with.
“He was forthcoming, he wanted his story to be told. Part of that is he thinks it’s a good story that deserves to be told. Part of it is that, and this happened in the series too, is that subjects that do dramatic things like these, like attention and Ian, by his own admission, has always liked attention,” he said.