In a 1962 issue, Richie Rich says to his butler, “Cadbury, sometimes having all the money in the world is the worst kind of prison.”
When asked about the drug-laced comic books, Shaw replied, “Someone used his likeness. He’s a copyright holder, not a kingpin.” As news of the arrest broke, social media erupted in a storm of dark memes. The hashtag #JailBillionaireBoy trended for eight hours, with users photoshopping mugshots of the cartoon Richie Rich next to the actor’s face (the suspect bears a striking resemblance to a grown-up Macaulay Culkin). richie rich busted for drug trafficking new
But according to the 147-page indictment unsealed by the Southern District of New York, The Vault was not merely a pleasure craft. Affidavits claim the yacht was retrofitted with hidden submersible bays and sonar-dodging technology typically seen in military stealth vessels. In a 1962 issue, Richie Rich says to
Another referenced the old catchphrase: “Go west, young man’? More like ‘Go to federal prison, young man.’” Federal prosecutors were careful to highlight the human cost of the alleged trafficking network. The fentanyl-laced cocaine, which the indictment calls “Snow Cap,” has been linked to at least 47 overdose deaths in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida over the past 18 months. But according to the 147-page indictment unsealed by
“My client is a grown man who happened to inherit a fortune and has a fondness for comic book memorabilia,” Shaw said. “The government saw a kid with a silver spoon and invented a fairy tale of crime. The ‘Richie Rich’ persona is a media construct. He is not a trafficker; he is a collector who was set up by real criminals looking for a patsy with deep pockets.”
The charge? Operating a clandestine, high-seas drug trafficking network allegedly moving over $2 billion worth of fentanyl-laced cocaine and rare synthetic opioids from Southeast Asia into the United States and Europe. To the outside world, Richmond III was the living embodiment of his comic book namesake. Heir to a Gilded Age fortune built on munitions and shipping, he owned a private island in the Bahamas, a fleet of Bugattis, and a 300-foot superyacht named The Vault .
