Chris Hansen: From TV King to YouTube Con Man

Chris Hansen commonly known online as the guy who baits criminals and puts them behind bars he gained quite a bit of notoriety on television in the early 2000s for being a bastion of justice fearless and daring that is and so he was fired and sued and arrested so his career in mainstream television had disappeared and that's when he decided to take the plunge and start afresh independently on YouTube the platform that gives everyone a voice it all started off well for Chris and he gained a significant audience from covering the oniisan case where he bought on victims have mentioned there was FBI involvement these streams happened again and again and again and again every time we thought something would happen it just ended up being another false promise Chris Hansen isn't doing this for the right reasons and in the next little while we'll be going down the rabbit hole together it's quite a ride so brace yourselves everyone Chris Hansen here on have a seat with Chris Hansen we're going to continue this evening on our investigation of Phoenicia a youtube sensation named on Missy on into the youtube streamer policeman we've been investigating miss young we are intensifying our investigation into Alicia we continue our investigation into Alicia we are deep into the investigation of DC on you are now on the front lines and a battle against a predator call coded 19 [Music] [Music] we all know don't you have a seat right over there please please have a seat here will you'll love him on Chris Hanson no you're not very enough this one and apparently TV audiences did to former television journalist Chris Hanson had one of the highest-rated shows on Dateline NBC and To Catch a Predator conducted 12 investigations between 2004 and 2007 with the help of online watchdog group perverted justice working in conjunction with law enforcement the show saw many deviants brought to justice however like any TV show to catch a predator was created for profit and good ratings and over time the journalistic integrity of the show dwindled to the point where some courts wouldn't convict anyone because TCAP and perverted justice were involved in the investigations despite this massive controversy the show continued through many investigations some successful some not and the eight time Emmy Award winner Chris Hansen was known across America and the world as the predator hunter all seemed to be going up for Hanson and NBC until the tragic case of Lois Conrad fifty six-year-old district attorney Louie Conrad was one of the individuals caught by perverted justice Conrad posed as a 19 year old University student engaging an online chat with the boy Luke who he thought to be 13 years of age Conrad attempted to solicits images from the 13 year old and things escalated when perverted justice hired an actor to play Luke over the phone after the first few conversations Conrad ceased on returning calls and he abandoned all online chance for the boy for unknown reasons he never showed up to the sting house according to perverted justice members content from Conrad's MySpace page began to disappear leading them to believe that Conrad was covering up his tracks and this played a part in the decision of the authorities tips you a warrant for his arrest Dateline NBC and Chris Hansen saw this opportunity to produce a piece of sensationalized TV and decided to show up to Conrad's house el juez before any warrant was signed but little did they know that this investigation would end in disaster the Murphy police obtained an arrest warrant for Conrad and did something we've not seen before they contacted the local authorities in Conrad's town and knocked on his door Conrad didn't answer but police said there were signs he was still inside so a tactical team was called in the officers lined up in formation then broke through the back door but before they could make the arrest the assistant DA pulled out a gun and pointed it at his head and he told them he wasn't gonna hurt them according to raw footage obtained by news publication Esquire you did a fantastic piece on the TCAP investigation of Conrad at least one Dateline cameraman had hidden himself near the Conrad residence door in an interview with Esquire Chris Hansen denied the crew members were on the private property this was a lie he also denied the perverted justice was present at the Conrad residence this was a lie Chris Hansen said it both in his blog and on air that Conrad's MySpace page began to disappear the fact of the matter is that he never even remembered seeing it and a later investigation by Esquire revealed that Conrad's page had not been touched for months before the sting another lie Conrad's death increased criticism of the already controversial show significantly with pieces in Rolling Stone and the previously mentioned Esquire with many publications calling it a mess from the point of journalism and that it created news rather than reporting it the sister of Lois Conrad Patricia Conrad filed a 100 million dollar lawsuit against NBC in July of 2007 and nine months later the judge allowed her infliction of emotional distress and civil rights claims to be heard by a jury the entertainment industry cannot act as police judge jury executioner and for a corporation like NBC ratings and many men another judge found that she had a reasonable chance of proving the NBC had pressed police into engaging in unreasonable and unnecessary tactics solely for entertainment value thus creating a substantial risk of harm he also found that NBC's actions amounted to conduct so outrageous and extreme that no civilized society should tolerate it in June of 2008 the lawsuit was amicably resolved out of shortly after this To Catch a Predator was officially canceled Hansen believed the segment's ended simply because they had run their course and that they had proven their point but the link between Conrad and the cancellation was to come incidental to ignore well Chris Hansen successful show was still running he and his team captured predators by the use of hidden cameras and sting operations so it is quite ironic that in June of 2011 Hansen was caught cheating on his wife of 20 years in an undercover sting operation arranged by the National Enquirer for over four months Chris Hansen was reportedly having an affair with Florida television reporter Kristen cattle who was 22 years his junior this was a big story in the tabloids back in 2011 and following this Kristen cattle said she was told to move to smaller markets and start a career over because of the scandal hard-pressed to find new work at any other station she said Hansen led her to believe his 20-year marriage to wife Mary Joan was on its last legs so he was free to date any other woman at the time this was hardly the reality [Music] D'Amato also dropped some images of Chris Hansen's romantic relationship with her and two weeks after those images were released Hansen was dropped from the NBC network with his contract not being renewed Chris has been a valued member of the team and we thank you for his many contributions to Dateline and NBC News over the last 20 years we wish him the very best a source told writer online that the recent Hansen's contract wasn't being renewed was simple his personal life was becoming an embarrassing distraction to NBC as a journalist when your personal life begins making the news there big problems NBC thought Chris exercised very very bad judgment by getting romantically involved with a local NBC affiliate reporter from Florida they could have left the network open to big legal problems Chris was becoming a punchline on late-night TV shows so it was time for NBC to cut ties with Chris since Chris Hansen was fired from NBC his entertainment life went on standstill so much so that on April 15 2015 he started a Kickstarter to fund a new set of predator caching investigations there's something you need to know I'm Chris Hanson and you are going to help me catch predators again go ahead have a seat right over there we've come to Kickstarter to bring back the show you love with you to create a second edition of predator that we can offer online using the best team technology and methodology available the hype around the TCAP community was wild and the campaign quickly took off with it being directly promoted by Kickstarter on top of a new set of investigations the campaign promised rewards to backers depending on your level of involvement you'll be rewarded with a variety of unique perks from a personalized voicemail message from me to a Hanson vs. predator t-shirt to an exclusive screening and background briefing event hosted by me and my crew the estimated time for the delivery of these rewards was December of 2015 just keep that in the back of you my dear the Kickstarter was covered in several news outlets and even found its way to Jimmy Kimmel Live the support behind Chris Hansen's movement was so great that the goal of $75,000 was reached in just 22 days and the campaign ended up raising eighty nine thousand dollars overall in mid-july 2015 production starter on this news set of investigations Chris Hansen went completely dark until February of 2016 when he announced that the new investigation had been completed and that he was pitching the program to networks to find a new home for Hansen vs predators for you you may be thinking didn't we just pass the December 2015 date when rewards were supposed to be delivered if he thought that you would be correct and in April 2016 Hansen's team came back with an update on rewards saying that the investigation required the team to go dark but now they were ready to give the supporters not only a great show but the awesome awards that were promised to them okay a few months delay no big deal right things happen and delays with rewards are common with Kickstarter's in April of 2016 Hansen was named as the new host for crime watch daily and the investigation that the back is funded would be airing on national television very soon but rewards to backers were still not being delivered people say let's become frustrated and word spread through the Tikal community with many people calling Hansen a conman and a scammer the next month the segment started to air on national TV and began to be posted to YouTube the series was praised and many people call it a great revival of the once popular NBC show but as the months went by the rewards to backers were still not being delivered even things that required no shipping like custom voice mails were not being delivered to backers even though Chris said they're happy delivered a long time ago in September of 2017 nearly two years after the initial expected date of delivery Chris Hansen bought thirteen thousand dollars worth of merchandise from a connecticut vendor which included three hundred and fifty five ceramic mugs 288 t-shirts and six hundred and fifty vinyl decals these were for the Kickstarter backers but according to the vendor Hansen's initial check bounced and the business father complaint against Hansen in April 2018 when there was still waiting to be paid in late April of 2018 over seven months after the original check was supposed to be paid Hansen issued another check to the vendor but it bounced three days later when the business asked Hanson what was going on Hanson replied Peter I truly thought I had this covered I'm scrambling to get it done please give me to the end of the day I sold a boat to cover the rest of this and need to pick up the payment this afternoon but another check never came and the police issued an arrest warrant for Hanson Hanson turn himself in and was arrested on the 14th of January 2019 and was released without bond on the promise to appear in court it was very clear at this point that Hanson was in some serious money problems and the day after reports of his arrests were made public on the 18th of January 2018 the Daily Mail obtained court documents that showed Hanson owed fifty eight thousand dollars to American Express 126 thousand dollars the TV Bank over $15,000 to ally financial and over 1 million 78 thousand dollars to his mortgage lender the US Bank Trust according to complaints filed in Connecticut courts over the previous three years on top of all of this Hanson also owed over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in Bank taxes and not only that but he was also being evicted from his Manhattan apartment for not paying rent for the previous five months Hanson was clearly in some serious issues and at this point any new move to solicit money from his fans should have been met with immediate backlash but this was not the case hey guys just popping in here with with an emergency beam video Chris is really starting to go in a new direction online with a number of different websites and channels and stuff - Chris we're talking to you right now we want to help you we love what you're doing so Chris has got this new channel he's launching a new website he's going in a new bold direction Chris a couple errors dressed so I noticed Chris is uploaded about 60 videos in the last three days which is okay that's fine I get anyone a little catalog when people get there let's watch his most recent video here okay so the Chris Hansen update Chris Hansen updates just wanted to tell you how excited I am about my new YouTube channel let's go look at your header on YouTube alright let's go over here to youtube speaking the YouTube stuff I'm looking at your catalog here Chris I see that you wanted to have a culmination of some of your greatest hits that's fine I know what your licensing situation is if you have the legal rights to upload old NBC clips or other crime watch daily things and I'm not just even then we see stuff Chris I'm looking here you've uploaded an appearance of yours on Conan a fan-made compilation of the best animated parodies of you in like an Oprah appearance I'm gonna go to live and say you don't own the rights to that that's fine just maybe take those down yeah you can put up in other places probably like just your Instagram or Twitter but on YouTube that's gonna be a dope me yeah that's a hard pass despite the rocky start Hansen's arrival on the YouTube scene was met with overall positivity many youtubers including Gus and Eddie and mr. Gigi promoted his channel hey guys Chris Hansen here just breaking in to let you know that tomorrow night Wednesday p.m. Eastern on my youtube channel Hansen vs. predators the live show a special guest mr. Gigi and as a result his subscribers and interest in his new projects quickly grew at first it seemed like Chris was using his YouTube channel to gain some interest in upcoming investigations he heavily promoted his new website but also got involved in analyzing some other cases in the YouTube community join me tonight live on my youtube channel Hansen vs predators calm for the Austin Jones case tomorrow night on the live show Eastern on my youtube channel Hansen vs. predators we're gonna take a look at the only me blade case my specific modern-day streaming shock-jock or is there something more disturbing going on on discord check out my live show Wednesday 8:00 Eastern on my youtube channel Hinson vs. predators and Jeffrey Epstein tune in tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern on my youtube channel Hanson vs. predators we'll have the very latest on the Jeffrey Epstein human trafficking sex scandal and investigation major scoop in the Jeffrey Epstein case right now stay tuned I'll have the very latest right here on all my social media and YouTube as well as the web site Hansen vs. predators calm more to come okay then Chris was running his YouTube channel and website with the help of a web guy Vincent Nicotra a fellow New York resident who owned a website designing company called then interactive media but as the week's went by it was pretty clear that Vincent was not the most competent when it came to this area I mean come on the website looks like it was made by seventh grader but this begs the question of why did Chris use Vince and not someone more competent well it's because Vince would do it for free yes folks I talked to a few people to cover this story back in the day and apparently Vince was not being paid for his work with Chris Hanson instead he would be paid with exposure with ads for his website being plastered everywhere on the YouTube channel two incompetent individuals trying to make a start on YouTube what could go wrong well a lot actually on his live shows an update videos Chris Hansen promised more predator investigations coming soon on his website I know we always get wins an ex predator investigation equipment around yesterday is better thank for that and that's all I'm gonna say it's gone I know everybody's anxious and a lot of people want to set the timetable for me but that's just not as well as some new investigations coming very soon in a matter of days we'll have my new website on handsomer offenders with exclusive content we'll see very soon new investigations and we'll have so standby it's coming soon so the investigations are already under the works about to get out in the field for another Hansen versus penny in the meantime we're prepping to get out in the field for some more investigation and now we're working on some other investigations including human trafficking we sent some hem cameras into some different locations and we've got some very alarming results and we're in editing on that piece right now so you know we hear about it's at the word editing Ashley wants to know when the new Hansen vs. predators investigations will be coming online I if everything goes as planned it will be this fall you could purchase a subscription of $10 a month or 84 dollars a year to watch exclusive content in reality there is only ever one piece of exclusive content shown and it was an old investigation from the crime watch daily error that they chose not to air because it involved a 19 year old there were no new investigations as promised until this day nothing else has been published on the site other than a few extra bits of footage from investigations that had already aired Hansen was held accountable for this by the TCAP community and Vincent Nicotra his web producer was lumped into these videos with the most popular examples coming from channels west most and baked salmon Butz Hansen and Vince didn't like this very much and stooped to the level that almost no youtuber would ever stoop to they took down these critical videos using the copyright system and it wasn't just critical videos the videos owned by NBC Hansen might like to think he owns the rights to his NBC shows so this person put us right out on a piece of material that is my face my image bye boys but just in the clips we have it's very clear that he doesn't it's literally not how copyright works Chris it was pretty clear that Chris's insane assistant Vince was the one issuing these strikes to channels and mr. gg made a whole 25-minute video going into the specifics of that if you want to watch it Chris Hansen had a live stream and since he was traveling for work he was in a different location that was somewhat near a member of the To Catch a Predator G cab community that member was yap-yap she thought it would have been cool to possibly meet Chris and get her book signed so she was somewhat hounding him in the chat to see if he was up for it Chris never ended up addressing it in the live stream and that was the last week I was in Toronto's manip you know and a request came in from somebody who I get this I don't really know them in fact I was going to be available after the live broadcast to meet up it just didn't work out and I guess the people or that person and some other people were upset about that and they went to the YouTube channel here and they they did what is called a copyrights from the video yap-yap struck was a video directly lifted from her channel it was an NBC clip over to catch a predator investigation with some minor edits and probably did not qualify for fair use but because of pent-up frustration unfulfilled promises and a website subscription with a lack of content she issued a copyright strike to Chris Hansen's channel this was not the right way to go about this she clearly didn't own the rights to the clip but she did take accountability and retracted the strike Chris and Vince must have been a bit peeved off because they started to retaliate with their own copyright strikes not only against yap-yap for fair use videos and videos own by NBC but videos from other channels who did nothing wrong including bait salmon whose videos who are undoubtedly fair use baked salmon received not one not five not ten but thirteen claims and his channel was removed as a consequence effects in an email correspondence Vincent says they were not wrongful claims Vincent also struck mister Gigi's Channel following his critical video Chris Hansen's failed assistant has recently issued to copyright takedowns on Mike onto both videos of mine consisting of criticizing his childish behavior and his actions that Gauguin YouTube's Terms of Service even though he has yet again struck down baked Salmons channel his new channel because he won't stop people started to get angry even you know on the website we haven't quick enough for new content you know accusations that we were striking back at people because they're being critical of us which is farthest from the truth we struck back and it was it was an effort honestly to protect the property protectively we're doing from from whatever was motivating these people to do this and it really is kind of bizarre to watch all happen but we did what we thought we had to do to protect it and so some of these other channels were taken down myself and all of the content creators struck by Hansen's meat sceptre of reckoning had come to this community as fans of To Catch a Predator my channel is in danger you guys it's in danger and I don't know how much longer it'll be laughs we were behind this guy when we did use his content it was generally respectful and reverent Chris Hansen is going around putting in false copyright strikes on as many channels as it can that have anything to do to catch a predator you know and like I don't even do that stuff anymore man the unapologetic way he dismissed our counterclaims the destruction caused to all who dare tribute his work and the man I bowie he destroyed his own integrity you're wrong you know you're doing Chris Hansen and you even said you said we're doing this because someone did it to us okay but it wasn't me it wasn't these other folks you're getting their channels deleted what's wrong with you Chris Hansen what's wrong with you man how much bitterness do you have in your heart to do this to people this was me reading a Lorne poem wearing my little Loren mask and you're trying to get my channel deleted for it [Music] following this situation a lot of Hansen's original audience began to lose interest in him and his channel his view started to tank and the promises of new investigations with no delivery were all too disappointing for his previously loyal supporters Chris really needed his next big break the story that would really put him on the map the promotion that would cast him into relevancy again and he got just that youtuber Blair White went on Chris Hansen show as a special guest to discuss a new case that Chris Hansen had not heard of before the case of initial Gucci punching-bag potential predator and professional creep this collaboration brought many new people over to Chris Hansen's channel and it was like a bomb was set off the comments were thrilled but world-renowned predator hunter was going after one of the biggest pieces of trash on the platform but just when things were looking up disaster struck I hope you're having a pleasant Sunday evening Chris Hansen here I need you to do something right away and it's critically important the people at YouTube have banned a long list of words from use on YouTube channels including the word put it I can't say the whole word because I might get me to trouble that's a big problem for a guy like me who's got a channel called Hansen versus Predator so now I have a new YouTube channel called have a seat with Chris Hansen all the new exciting content is now going to go there Chris stated that his old channel was terminated for having the word predator in his channel name but if you navigate to his old channel it says he was terminated for multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement and in a conversation with the YouTube representative they told me this means his channel was terminated for getting over three copyright strikes you can't tell me this wasn't because of the MBC clips he was uploading thank goodness Chris had live stream Blair White's interview to two channels funny that it's almost like he knew his current channel was in trouble Chris's next guest was rep seer and this stream did very well even better than the Blair White interview and this brought back his subscriber count' to respect double numbers everything was set up for a banger and bangers he did receive Cris interviewed Sarah who was in many of an easy on and Kies videos and live with them for months and also Canadian musician Shiloh who had been in a relationship with an easy on and also appeared in many of his videos back in the day these girls were given a platform by Chris to expose onii-san's repulsive behavior and everyone was behind him he brought on more victims and people associated with said victims and exposed many aspects of anis Yuans life and YouTube image every stream consistently did very well but some people felt like Hansen was trying to manipulate the narrative to sensationalize the story and keep the viewers interested my first thing was I spoke to Vincent and I spoke to Vincent basically I gave him the whole one down about my experience with who miss fawns my interactions with all New Zealand etc I went over all that and he said ok I'm gonna forward this on to the crest and we'll do a call with crest tomorrow so we did a pre-interview the next day and so we're doing this pre-interview and it was basically exactly like the interview I dead live on his shows basically the exact same conversation plus romaine has maybe a couple of questions so it was the same thing the day before at the end of this pre-interview he basically turned to Vincent and they were going over what the plan was for the next sure the next day and the thing that stood out to me the most where he said I really want to head home tomorrow night on this whole cult thing and he was basically telling me and Vincent that he was going to be putting emphasis on only stealing being a cult leader and stuff like that so it was clear to me right then as well that ok he's not entirely being an unbiased reporter here he's trying to paint a narrative here of only see on being a cult leader I mean he's asked me questions already about do you think what he soon as a cult leader and I'm like well I can't really answer that I don't know how to answer that I mean I think I gave a long answer and the interview I don't remember why I said but you kept asking me questions like that they were very leading like do you think is a cult leader do you think you should be in jail when I kept having to maneuver in my way around these questions as to not because I don't want to just say no because it's like well someone who'd to save the foot Nissan should be in jail or not I mean that's down to law enforcement if he's broken a law then sure he should be in jail but if not then okay he shouldn't so he kept asking questions like that and I could see how a lot of the other people who have done interviews before me would have felt very pressured into saying oh yeah definitely he should be in jail like I've watched the other it gives any sense at the end of the the thing he's sitting there going so what do you think should happen to leasing and he gives that really intense stare then the camera at them and these are just nervous girls who don't know what they're talking about and they're like we should definitely be in jail is what questions like that I found it he kept asking for someone with eight Emmys it does seem like Christmas preying on emotion in order to get more out of the story not exactly the most journalistic approach imaginable on top of this they also seem to be some behind-the-scenes drama taking place there was somewhat overshadowing the actual investigation mainly to do with Chris's web producer Vincent Nicotra Vincent was accused of making ablest jokes on Twitter he claimed he was hacked and also Docs people who he said had hacked his account of course these people were completely innocent rub this is Vincent we're talking about here in a series of videos by BAE Klein they also expose some of Vincent's side projects for misinformation and malpractice Vince claims to have created a website builder and a livestream application in-house by himself but our evidence from the video showed that you could buy these scripts online this misinformation led potential users to believe Vincent knew what he was doing when realistically he was drastically out of his depth on top of all of this and the false copyright strikes there was quite a list of questionable things that Vince had done Vince released an apology by Chris Hansen's Twitter account citing poor judgment ego and emotional responses shortly after this Vincent was officially fired by Chris Hansen as you know I've recently been reviewing the actions online and in person of my web producer Vincent Nicotra things he's said and done without my permission and without my knowledge I've come to the conclusion that I can't condone much of what he said and done and I can no longer work with him in any way going forward he's not gonna be involved in any further projects the investigation was back on track hopefully Chris learned from this and won't bring any more sketchy people on his team in the future I think you can see that this is going attorney Mike Morse from Detroit was the next individual brought on by Chris Hansen at first this seemed to be the perfect fit he could provide a legal perspective into what oniisan was doing and make educated judgments about certain claims fantastic Chris this is what we like to see but just one Google search for his name brings up a myriad of results and none too flattering first a 6 a 10 million dollar lawsuit pitting two high-profile attorneys against each other a client of Geoffrey Fieger is claiming Mike Mohr's did some disturbing things to her inside a Farmington Hills restaurant attorney Mike Morse under fire again and being sued a second time on accusations of sexual assault Carolyn Steven this is the third lawsuit filed in the last two weeks and this one involves a graduate student at the University of Michigan and a woman who otherwise wants her privacy protected yet another woman filing suit against him claiming sexual harassment as an employee at Morse's law firm oh never mind guys one of them committed perjury no problem oh no no no never mind the court says the others are still valid no no no no it's going to the Michigan Supreme Court well-known local attorney Mike Morris is denying claims from State Farm Insurance that he's been part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme involving what they consider bogus medical treatments Kristin how do you keep bringing on these sketchy people I'm convinced this man does no research at all into the people he brings on his team and show he did it with Vincent he did it with Mike Morse and he's done it many times since then and are we going into that more in the next part of this series okay enough with Mike let's move on over time people started to lose interest in Chris's investigation his views started to decrease and this was mainly due to the fact that the people he was bringing onto his show was actual victims of oniisan he just needed one more thing to bring everyone's attention back to the story and to keep the heat on oh nice yawn but what could that possibly be I won't mind we're recording hi there's a person who's been stalking me online and they just showed up to my house they're outside now yes they're not at my door okay they have a bunch of camera people like their YouTube stalkers and the one that's knocking on your doors he's the main one that you said has been stalking you yes okay and what do we know is Mabel it's Chris Hanson [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,498,158

Rating: 4.6971931 out of 5

Keywords: Chris hansen, chris hansen sold onision, chris hansen sold rights, chris hansen onision, chris hansen kickstarter, chris hansen scams, onision, louis conradt, have a seat with chris hansen, have a seat, hansen, hansen vs. predator, chris hansen criticism, chris hansen vs predator, chris hansen onision tv show, TV King, Con man, YouTube Con Man, Pt 1, Part 1, John Swan, john, swan, onision meltdown, onision hansen, kickstarter, kickstarter scam, nbc, dateline, john oliver

Id: 6ZU7JRu8J64

Length: 35min 35sec (2135 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/OgdruJahad]

Super video. It's actually pretty sad, he really did become a fraud of sorts.

[u/[deleted]]

Judging by the other videos on JohnSwan's channel, I think this person might be bias. There is a video defending Onision and multiple anti-Chris Hanson videos.