Career con-artist Paul Monea may have one of the world’s rarest health conditions: a hearing problem that acts up on command. In his money laundering trial that started today, Monea’s lawyer Bill Whitaker filed a motion for Monea to get special “accomodations” for his hearing loss.
But before U.S. Judge John Adams starts searching the Yellow Pages for deaf interpreters, he should check out the FBI transcripts of Monea’s conversations with “John Rizzo,” the undercover agent Monea was trying to sell a 43-carat diamond and Mike Tyson’s former mansion through.
During this particular conversation, Monea was driving to the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas with Rizzo to meet “Geraldo,” another FBI agent posing as a South American drug lord.
Rizzo: “I’m really gonna be up front with you. I make a lot of money with these guys. They don’t sell coffee beans. . . . They’re drug dealers.”
Monea: [Turning to his friend in the car, Scott] “Hey Scott, you know how I am deaf in my left ear and my hearing aid battery comes and goes. . . . I don’t have any problem doing business with rug dealers, do you?”
Scott: “Rug dealers? No, I love rug dealers.”
Stay tuned to C-Notes for word on how the deaf defense works out for Paul Monea. — Jared Klaus

This article appears in May 9-15, 2007.

14 replies on “Paul Monea’s convenient case of hearing loss”

  1. I think that you need to do a little more homework and work on getting your facts straight my young friend. If you better educate yourself and practice thorough reporting you may even write for a real news publication one day.

  2. I think Jared wants to marry Paul Monea. Jared cannot stop writing about Paul… He’s infatuated with every aspect of Paul’s life. Jared Monea. Awwww, you have a crush!!!

  3. I knew Paul personally…he deserves what he gets! Funny thing is (about the above comment) Paul has an obnoxious brat of a daughter named Brooke Ashley. Aww..little girl has to defend daddy now?

  4. Ofcourse Im going to defend my family and in doing so comment on the quality of reporting that Im reading. I think that Jared is quite an amazing creative writer actually, his analogies make me laugh. However, he hasnt completely disclosed all of the facts that were displayed in the court room.

  5. This is so dumb. If you pulled out any money from your wallet I’m willing to bet that has touched a drug dealer’s hand. Plus, drug dealers can have a legal business too. I’d understand if he traded drugs for these items. But he didn’t.. Not at all,… If someone was to offer me $10000 for my Jeep, but said he worked real hard selling drugs to get the money, I would probably tell law emforcement, right after spending the money. I did’t know it was illegal to sell something to a drug dealer!!! If that was the case, everyone who sold something to a drug dealer should be arrested.

  6. I recently spent the past five months with Paul at his current location, the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown. His unique hearing loss continues. I admit I too was initially taken in by his claims of entrapment and federal misconduct, however, some things didn’t ring quite true so I did a Google seach on Paul, you can imagine my suprise at the number of hits. I can assure everyone that Paul continues to spin his story with just enough truth to be believable. But then again, most of Paul’s current pals are not the sharpest tools in the shed, otherwise why would we have been locked up with him in prison. I must admit that the articles I have read have given me a very good laugh when I put in context Paul’s wonderful stories of rubbing elbows with Clinton and what really was going on. Someone told me in prison, you can be anybody you want to be. He forgot the caveat, beware of someone getting out before you who knows how to use Google.

  7. I have a new feeling about my
    government. It is not what I thought growing up. Paul Monea was entrapped! Mickey Miller, the man who also, in my opinion, entrapped by the FBI to get to Paul. Mickey had a business partner who helped him buy a Car Dealership in Wadsworth, Ohio. Problem was, this business partner was an undercover agent for the FBI. Mickey was also a trustee for Paul Monea. Mickey’s “partner” was selling autos to another undercover agent in Cleveland for ungodly profits. Example: Cars that would book for $15,000.00 were being sold for $30,000.00. Mickey thought his “partner” was doing well and making him money. Thus, he helped set up the “business” meeting with Paul Monea. Paul had the Tiger Eye diamond and property formerly owned by Mike Tyson. The appraised value being somewhere between 10 and 13 million. They offered Paul Monea 19.5 million and a Cigarette Boat located in Florida for the property. Paul turned them down several times. They would not let up. Finally, the price was too good to pass up and Paul sold the property and diamond. The bust was on. Mickey lost his Dealership in Wadsworth. All the jobs, located at the dealership were lost. It effected many hard working families in the area, uncluding me. I hope Paul Monea beats this. Thanks to my government for NOTHING!!

  8. Paul Monea is as dirty as they come. He is a greedy con man who only cares about himself. Jared was right on the money in his well written articles about Paul. More accurate than anything I’ve ever seen.
    December 7th will be a glorious day.

  9. My wife is an inventor who has a patent on a hair curler. She signed with the Monea children and Scott Ramsey 3 years ago. Needless to say she was used by Paul Monea who was the puppet master of the whole deal. We tried to get the family and Ramsey to sign off on the the contract that they breached but Ramsey still wanted to market the product but did not want to pay us the $ 90,000 owed. He claimed he had other people who were interested but my wife and I refused to be part of any further dealings. At present our product (which is amazing), sits idle but we are hoping to move toward some potential investors soon. We only hope that the unscrupulous have not tried to market this product behind our back. If anyone has any information concerning this, please let us know. Thanks, R. Anzevino

  10. Randy,
    I hope things go well for you. Unfortunately, anyone who has ever touched the Monea family comes up smelling like crap. These people are scum.

  11. So what happened to the Tyson property?? Who owns it, Paul or the goverment? And Brooke, How long is your father in prison for?

  12. I grew up with Paul Monea, knew and have always known him to be a compassionate, legally ethical person. I can’t believe the U.S. government has been allowed to steal his assets by entrapping him into this money laundering hogwash. Let’s go ahead and imprison the bankers who knowingly handle drug money, and the luxury car dealers who sell six-figure autos for cash and certainly know where it’s coming from. This imprisonment of Paul Monea is the biggest legal hogwash I’ve ever heard of. It’s a felonious seizure of property perpetrated by our government against a private individual. It should send a chill down the spine of every American

  13. I grew up with Paul Monea, knew and have always known him to be a compassionate, legally ethical person. I can’t believe the U.S. government has been allowed to steal his assets by entrapping him into this money laundering hogwash. Let’s go ahead and imprison the bankers who knowingly handle drug money, and the luxury car dealers who sell six-figure autos for cash and certainly know where it’s coming from. This imprisonment of Paul Monea is the biggest legal hogwash I’ve ever heard of. It’s a felonious seizure of property perpetrated by our government against a private individual. It should send a chill down the spine of every American

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