Billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III is the co-founder of Irvine computer chip powerhouse Broadcom, but judging from his indictment on drug distribution and securities fraud charges that was unsealed Thursday, he'd rather be a hard-partying rock star.
According to the indictment, Nicholas was at Woodstock, maaan. Not the good Woodstock, but the shitty Woodstock '99, the one that ended in a fiery riot. What was he doing there? The indictment says Nicholas gave a technology executive ecstasy without the executive's knowledge. Dude!
Then there are the other allegations in the indictment. A secret underground warehouse in Laguna Niguel! Crazy meth and ecstacy parties with prostitutes! And our favorite alleged factoid, a 2001 incident where Nicholas smoked so much marijuana during a flight on a private jet between OC and Las Vegas that the pilot had to put on an oxygen mask.(Something tells me there's a Kottonmouth Kings connection someplace–just a feeling.)
Dude, that's so awesome!
And in yesterday's LA Times, we learned of a video that was posted to YouTube last summer–where the hell were we?–purporting to show Nicholas snorting lines of some sort of substance. Prosecutors say the substance is “illegal drugs,” and the video was taken by hidden cameras in Nicholas' bedroom.
Makes us wonder what other scenes Nicholas may have shot in his bedroom. Christ, haven't people learned anything from Nixon? And how could Nicholas, if the allegations are proved true, be so much of an idiot that he apparently forgot his own paranoia regarding recorded evidence? As Nicholas himself told the Weekly's Dave Wielenga in this July 2004 cover profile:
When you have $2 billion, you’re a walking target for frivolous lawsuits. Any record of anything you say—on tape or on paper—has the potential of ending up as evidence in a courtroom.”
