Under Investigation: The inside story of the Florida Attorney General’s investigation of Wilhelmina Scouting Network, the largest model and talent scam in America.

ISBN-0968713335 Paperback 512 pages $29.95

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Scott Bryant Photographer (www.scottbryantsbook.com)

Centreville, Virginia

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In The News

Modeling Firm All but Closed

FTC Cited Fairfax Company on Recruiting Tactics

Kenneth Bredemeier Washington Post Staff Writer
July 29, 1999; Page E1

Model 1 Inc., the controversial Fairfax County model-search firm, has
virtually shut down its operations in the face of a continuing Federal Trade
Commission probe of its high-pressured recruiting tactics. The year-old
Tysons Corner company, whose scouts have lured thousands of prospects in the
Washington-Baltimore area to the firm by telling them they had "the look" to
be models, ended its recruiting operations on July 13 and laid off almost
all of its staff--about 50 people. The firm, however, said it plans over the
next six months to continue to honor the contracts it has with would-be
models who have already paid for their training classes.

David T. Ralston Jr., a Model 1 attorney, said that beyond honoring those
contracts, the firm "will not be doing any training of actors or models."

The near-closure came after several months of consumer complaints and
government scrutiny. In May, a preliminary federal court order forced Model
1 and two companion firms to sharply curb the sales pitches they were making
to people for training classes that cost up to $1,600. Then earlier this
month, the FTC accused Model 1 of being in civil contempt by "flagrantly
violating" that order.

Jason Hoffman, Model 1's president, did not return repeated calls for
comment about the firm's virtual shutdown. Earlier this year, in response to
a Washington Post investigation of his firm, Hoffman said, "I am very proud
of my company's record."

In the latest allegations, the FTC accused Model 1, Hoffman, Creative Talent
Management Inc., an all-but-dormant talent-search company, and its
president, Ralph Bell, of using "a brazen sales approach--the 'screen test'
audition." The sales pitch invited consumers to try out for roles as extras
in movies starring John Travolta, Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise.

In one instance, the federal watchdog agency said a teenage girl and five of
her friends were approached by a talent scout who asked them if they were
"interested in being in a movie with John Travolta about gas-breathing
aliens."

But the FTC alleged that the screen tests were actually "a slick ruse
designed to mask the company's true objective to lure hundreds of unwary
consumers into Model 1's training program."

Model 1, Creative Talent and their executives settled the contempt case by
agreeing to offer to rescind all contracts that the would-be actors had
signed and refund their money. The FTC said it does not know how many
consumers had signed up for the training.

Meanwhile, Scott Bryant, a Model 1 photographer, said that on the Fourth of
July he used his keys to the firm's offices at 8150 Leesburg Pike to
retrieve more than 500 photographs as well as photographic equipment. Bryant
claims the firm owes him more than $63,000 for his work.

He said the model trainees need the photos to get work, but "I'm just a
vendor who wants to be paid for his services."

Model 1, however, viewed the action as a theft and called Fairfax County
police. Hoffman also sent a letter to its clients who were left without the
photos they had already paid for.

Hoffman wrote that police "have a primary suspect."

Fairfax Detective Jim Crabbe said he's not sure about the outcome of the
case. "I'm trying to see whether there was a criminal act or it's a civil
matter," he said.

In the face of the FTC action and the case of the missing photos, Hoffman
told Model 1 employees at a July 13 meeting that the firm "could not
survive," according to one talent-scout manager who was there and was laid
off after receiving only $600 to $700 for the seven weeks he worked there.
"He blamed the FTC for being too stringent and non-pliable," the manager
recalled Hoffman saying. "As a business, if you can't sell a good, you can't
stay open."

The man, who has a wife and four children to support, said he had sold two
liquor stores in Carroll County to join Model 1. He said he was
"disappointed but not surprised" by the closure. He declined to be
identified because he had pledged, like other Model 1 employees, to not
discuss the firm's operations with outsiders.

Comments

Scott Bryant was accused of theft, but he did have a right to the pictures, or a right to be paid. If he took the pictures, he may have had a legal right to them, or to keep them until he was paid. However, the question that begs being asked is: Why was Scott Bryant working for Model 1 when he knew or should have known Model 1 was a scam? Why was he making money or trying to make money off their huge scam?!!

Model 1 was the biggest modeling scam in Virginia at the time, and in fact one of the biggest modeling scams in U.S. history. It is probably the biggest modeling scam Virginia has ever seen. While there are many modeling scams in America, it is very rare that the FTC takes action against them. You would have difficulty finding more than a dozen examples since 1970. A scam has to be extremely bad for the FTC to take action.

Their BBB record was not good and it indicated they were running a scam. Further, at the time when Scott Bryant was involved with Model 1, and accused of theft, in July 29, 1999, it was not in the early days of the company, when people did not know it was a scam; rather, it was in its final days. In fact, Model 1 had been around for a long time as had its predecessor, Creative Talent Management (CTM), which ran the same scam since 1995. Both CTM and Model 1 had been in the news, the subject of critical news reports. The Washington Post, for example, had run at least three earlier news reports about Model 1 (one in April 1999, two in May 1999); the May reports announced the FTC action against Model 1. Bryant's association with Model 1 continued after the FTC action—he still had keys to Model 1 in July 1999.

Bryant knew or should have known Model 1 was scamming thousands of young people, yet he still attempted to make tens of thousands of dollars off the scam: "Bryant claims the firm owes him more than $63,000 for his work." His association with Model 1 is not only reflected in the amount of money involved, and how many consumers were recruited by the bogus Model 1 scouts, but also by the fact that he had his own set of keys to Model 1: "Scott Bryant, a Model 1 photographer, said that on the Fourth of July he used his keys to the firm's offices at 8150 Leesburg Pike..."

Model 1 was a modeling school scam and a photo mill scam. Aspiring models were misled to believe if they attended classes and bought photography, they would get work as models and earn a lot of money. The payments were made to the Model 1 agency. Rarely, however, did the models get work; so the FTC took action.

Now, in 2005, Scott Bryant's name shows up on the website of Artist Management Group (AMG), a company very similar to Model 1, which is also charging about the same price as Model 1, with the payments made to AMG instead of the photographer (same as with Model 1), as one of their photographers, and operating at about the same location as Model 1 (Tyson's Corner) in Virginia. Based on Mr. Bryant's rates, the early indication is Artist Management Group is operating like Model 1, jacking up the photography rate, and price gouging behind models' backs, with no commitment to get them work.

While Mr. Bryant cannot be accused of scamming the models like Model 1, he certainly helped enable it, and tried to make money off it.