Missing Mom Heidi Planck
Could this be a Red Collar crime?
I always say that there are only three real motives for murder: Money, sex, and money to get MORE sex.
As the strange story of missing mom Heidi Planck continues to unfold in Los Angeles, there are a lot of red flags emerging that signal to me that this could be a red collar crime.
For those of you who haven’t been following the story, here’s a recap:
Heidi Planck in a 39-year-old mother who was last seen on October 17 at her 10-year-old son’s football game.
Her ex-husband Jim Wayne saw Heidi there, and said that she seemed to be on edge - and after the game, she disappeared.
Jim said that he became concerned after she failed to call or text her son - which he said was completely unlike her. They had shared custody, and the next time Heidi was due to pick her son up was on Wednesday, October 20, at his school in Westwood.
When she didn’t show, Jim reported her missing.
Police released video footage that showed Heidi leaving her home on October 17 with her dog, Seven. She gets into her 2017 silver Range Rover with the dog and drives away.
The mystery deepened when it was reported that the dog was later found wandering alone inside a luxury residential apartment complex in Los Angeles called Hope + Flowers.
People wondered: How did the dog manage to get past the building’s tight security and keycard entry system in order to get to an upper floor?
JW told The Sun that a couple started leaving messages on Heidi’s phone the night of Oct. 17.
He said that he went into her house with LE and took one of Heidi’s phones on October 21 so that he could stay in contact with her friends and family. He traced the dog’s microchip and saw that Seven had been reported found - and then found the messages, and contacted the couple, who told him that they found Seven roaming on the 28th floor of the building and been taking care of the dog for almost a week.
JW said that he picked the dog up and brought it home.
THE EX-HUSBAND: Obviously, when a woman goes missing, people automatically focus on the ex-husband. But in this case, JW was the one who reported her missing, and started talking to reporters. This did lead a lot of online commenters to ask if perhaps he was sharing too much info in an attempt to deflect attention from himself.
Obviously, there’s a huge amount of information that we don’t have. But it really doesn’t appear that JW would have had a motive to hurt Heidi. They appeared to have a good relationship - both of them had moved on, and seemed to be cooperatively coparenting their son. He doesn’t appear to have an obvious motive.
THE BOYFRIEND: According to The Sun, the man Heidi had been dating is a Facebook executive who lives in the San Fransisco area.
JW told The Sun that the boyfriend and Heidi had an argument before she went missing and that the boyfriend assumed that Heidi was “ghosting him” and had no idea that she had gone missing.
But Jim told the newspaper that he had no suspicions regarding Heidi’s boyfriend. He said: “I don’t have any worries about him, he’s a great guy.”
Heidi’s mom appeared to back this up in an interview with the Daily Mail Her Facebook profile lists her as “Single”.
THE BOSS:
Jim Wayne has spoken to multiple media outlets, and he’s made it clear that he thinks that her job as financial controller at Camden Capital Partners and her boss, Jason Sugarman, could have answers.
Sugarman, managing partner of Camden Capital, is son-in-law of Peter Guber, co-owner of the Dodgers, Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Football Club and founder of Mandalay Entertainment.
The younger Sugarman has been accused of multiple instances of shady business practices. He faces charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly defrauding a Native American tribe out of million in pension funds.
In 2019, the SEC charged Sugarman for his involvement in a $43 million fraud scheme that left the tribe $60million in debt.
According to legal documents acquired by The Sun, the funds were used to “finance the acquisition of a global financial conglomerate of European and Bermuda insurers, and investment advisers based in Virginia and Connecticut"
Sugarman’s business partner, Jason Galanis, was sentenced to 189 months in prison for his involvement in the tribal bond ponzi scheme and other frauds.
This Reddit thread goes deeper in exploring the business and social connections of Jason Sugarman.
The property where a warrant was served on Friday October 29th by LAPD And Federal Agents and described as "the home of Heidi Plank" is an address listed as legal address on Sugarman's business ventures:
Camden Real Estate Opportunity Fund I, LLC. - Beverly Hills CA, Los... (bizapedia.com)
CBS Los Angeles posted new video showing a man identified as Jason Sugerman outside her home. In the video, he knocks on the door and drops off something that “could have been muffins” outside her door.
Jim Wayne started talking to reporters. He told the Daily Mail that Sugarman was unhelpful and declined to hire a private investigator or go public in the search for Heidi.
No one has been named as a person of interest or suspect in the case.
But I would love to know why, instead of talking to the media and asking for help in Heidi’s disappearance, Sugarman decided bakery products off at her home?
This case definitely has some red flags that IMO could indicate a Red Collar crime.
Heidi’s job trajectory. How did she go from being an executive assistant to a financial controller earning $125,000 per year plus several $1,500 bonuses? Jim Wayne told reporters that Heidi had no training or licensing in that field. Putting unqualified people in crucial positions within an organization (what fraud experts call a “weak internal control environment”) is a common tactic that white collar criminals use so that they are in control.
“Something’s dirty here.” Someone in Heidi’s position would know everything about the financial dealings of the company that we now know is under investigation. JW told the Daily Mail: “Heidi knows all of Jason's and the company's secrets. She knows where the bones are buried…Something’s dirty here.” An
The erasing of potential evidence. Why has Jason Sugarman’s LinkedIn profile been deleted since Heidi was reported missing (UPDATE: Since then tweets have gone missing and his Instagram page has also been deleted.) I can completely understand changing settings to private, but to delete social media and job information in the middle of an active LE investigation is fishy IMO.
Federal involvement. On October 29, FBI agents raided her home carrying away various files. It’s been reported that they went in with guns drawn and expected to find a crime scene. Instead, they reportedly found her home in “pristine” condition - but her work laptop and phone were left behind.
The white collar element of the case could be a red herring - but the timing of the investigation is definitely suspicious. Which brings me to my final red flag, and IMO the one that police should take the most seriously.
Jason Sugarman’s life circumstances. It seems obvious that Jason Sugarman and/or those close to him in that company were about to potentially have their lives implode once the SEC started digging.
JW told reporters that the SEC had called him and asked questions about Heidi - and her involvement with Capital Partners LLC.
And when someone is facing prison time and losing millions of dollars, when they feel backed into a corner - this is the moment when red collar criminals are most likely to strike out with rage - and sometimes, even murder.
Whatever happens next, I’ll keep following this story - a devastated son has lost his mother and her family need answers!
Heidi is white, 5-feet-3 inches tall, and weighs about 120 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes.
Law enforcement have asked that anyone who has information on Heidi to contact the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800.
During non-business hours or on weekends, they can call 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247).
Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly to http://www.lacrimestoppers.org .
