OPINION

When Beth Friedman puts on her outfits that cost thousands, does she know how Josh really got the money? Does Beth know about Canyon Partners’ many victims? How could she not? Preliminary indications are that she is so closely involved that she even has her own assistant at Canyon Partners.

So if Beth knows what is really going on, do the women in her circle know too? Or does Beth brag to her inner circle that her husband is a fabulous businessman but conceal what’s really going on?

Bernie Madoff was a liar who perpetrated the world’s biggest financial fraud. But is Josh Friedman any better? Arguably he’s worse. Madoff’s victims recovered 88% but many of Friedman’s victims lost everything.

It’s unclear what Bernie Madoff’s wife, Ruth, knew. But it seems likely that Beth Friedman is either lied to by Josh, like he lies to courts, or she is in on it. We wonder too, does Beth Friedman know the full horror of it? Josh may not even know. When he premeditates to take control of his borrower’s assets, he cuts off all communication to avoid witnessing first-hand the acute pain and suffering that he has inflicted. He caused bankruptcies, lost life savings, ruined reputations, utter despair and perhaps even premature deaths.

Joshua Friedman and his partner, Mitch Julis, just like Madoff are evil geniuses who are perhaps so charming and manipulative that no one can imagine that they have done so many terrible things. The reality, which is a cautionary tale for everybody who does business with Canyon Partners, is that they have gotten away with capturing hundreds of millions of dollars of their borrower’s properties because of a whole cadre of co-conspirators – their key employees, their outside lawyers who prostitute themselves, and perhaps their wives are in on it too. Their Big Law lawyers of course know better. But the $1600/hourly rates are too much to refuse.

Undoubtedly Beth pretends that Josh Friedman is a star - a highly respected Wall Street Statesman. He is a member of the board of directors of Harvard Management Company and serves on the boards and/or the investment committees of a number of endowments and foundations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the Broad Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

But don’t let those prestigious roles fool you. Bernie Madoff was the one-time chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. Madoff served on an SEC advisory committee; he was even touted as future chairman of that regulator. Madoff’s monstrousness resulted from his extreme self-interest and despicable greed. He was extraordinary. One of the biggest liars in financial history. His crimes were unprecedented. So we shouldn’t be shocked to understand that Josh Friedman, Mitch Julis and likely their wives too are no different. There is a culture of deceit at Canyon Partners and it will continue to fester unless organizations like Canyon Partners News Inc. confront it head on. Canyon Partners News Inc. will celebrate its one-year anniversary next month and neither the Friedmans, the Julises, nor Canyon Partners has so much as sent a letter to allege that a single thing reported by Canyon Partners News Inc. is untrue. They have an army of the highest-priced lawyers in history but none has ever uttered a peep that Canyon Partners, its owners or employees have been defamed. Why? Because the truth is an absolute defense.

Recently in a pathetic backhanded attempt in a Texas court, Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis, while of course having no qualms about lying in their affidavits to that court, are attempting again to silence Canyon Partners News. Apparently, they are so used to lying to their borrowers that they must have felt comfortable telling multiple lies to the Texas court too. No lie nor trick in the book is beneath them. They certainly won’t allow the truth to get in their way. They just hope to keep things so opaque that their many Boards and the ladies in Beth Friedman’s Inher Circle never really know the truth about the lies they tell or the hell they inflict to satisfy their greed.

Since Beth Friedman does not stand up to her husband’s deceit, there are questions about her integrity too. Certainly a noble wife can have zero tolerance for dishonesty. Thus far, it’s clear that Beth Friedman is not only tolerating it but reaping the rewards of it, Inher Circle. But we thank Beth for encouraging us on her Inher Circle website “to act on our knowledge”. That we have done and will continue to do.