Two months prior to that adverse judgment, in May of 1994, Culwell was arrested by the Houston Police Department and charged with check forgery and tampering with a government record, both felonies. After those two third-degree felony charges were filed, Culwell's probation was revoked. The State of Texas sent him to prison for seven years on the 1989 burglary charge, and the new felonies were dismissed. The feds wanted a piece of Culwell, too; that was when Culwell was sentenced by Lynn Hughes's court in the Southern District of Texas to 42 months in prison for four counts of federal bank fraud. At least some of that sentence ran concurrently with his state time.
All of which brings us roughly to 2001, when Culwell, then still on supervised release from federal prison, decided to get in the online jewelry sales business.
A recent
Inc.com article identifies Brian Culwell as the CEO of fast-growing Gold and Silver Buyers, Inc. Culwell has claimed to the
Houston Press that he is neither an officer nor a director of Gold and Silver Buyers.
Barry Sigman
Brian Culwell has been a burr under Houston Better Business Bureau chief Dan Parson's saddle for years. Ten years ago, Parsons had bulging files full of complaints about Culwell's travel and jewelry sales businesses. More recently, Parsons says Gold and Silver Buyers attempted to claim BBB membership without bothering to join.
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Officer Oliver tells the Press that Culwell was running an eBay sales storefront on Stuebner Airline in north Houston when they met. It was one of those places where tech-naives could bring in their unwanted merchandise and have a tech-savvy person sell it for them and arrange the shipping and handling in exchange for a cut of the proceeds. Oliver sold a few items through Culwell, and was happy with the outcome.
Meanwhile, Oliver says that Olajuwon told him that he had a whole warehouse full of sports memorabilia he wanted to sell. "It was a whole lot of, I don't want to say crap, because those guys think it's worth something, but that was kinda what it was," Oliver remembers. Oliver checked around at some memorabilia shops, and also told Olajuwon that Culwell could sell it direct through eBay. He set up a meeting between Culwell and Olajuwon. (Olajuwon did not return a phone call left with one of his charities, and reportedly spends much of his time in Jordan these days.)
According to the report Lemerond generated for the DA's office, on meeting the towering Nigerian, Culwell quickly went into hustle mode. The Lemerond report and Oliver agree that Olajuwon and the cop both say Olajuwon okayed a deal wherein Culwell would sell the Dream's signed keepsakes and some personal effects. Olajuwon scribbled his name on some items, and later told Lemerond that he then pretty much forgot about the whole thing.
And for a time, Culwell confined himself to what he was authorized to sell, Oliver remembers. "Signed stuff, like basketballs and guitars," Oliver remembers. "And there at first, there was some other stuff that was Hakeem's personal stuff, like jewelry and a college ring that had actually belonged to Hakeem."
And then Culwell evidently decided that was not making the sort of nut he required. And Culwell's employees would later tell Lemerond that Culwell didn't stop his Internet tomfoolery even as Culwell was on supervised release from the feds and knew he was in the DA's crosshairs. According to the district attorney's memorandum, in late December of 2001 and January of 2002, Culwell continued full speed ahead.
According to Lemerond's report, after the search warrant was executed on December 4, 2001, a Culwell employee called the DA's office and told them that Culwell was holding seminars in which he taught people everything he knew about Internet jewelry sales, Brian Culwell-style. And soon enough, the investigator started receiving e-mails from previous Culwell victims, saying they were seeing new offers on the Web that were uncannily similar to the ones they had been seduced by. The sites were called classicdiamonds.com, classicjewels.com and turningpointe.com.
In late May of 2002, Lemerond received an eBay non-delivery of jewelry complaint from a New York-based Fulbright & Jaworski associate by the name of Jim Crawford. Though the complaint might have looked familiar to Lemerond — diamond earrings at a 90 percent discount, customer pays, earrings never show up — at first he didn't connect it to Culwell. This time around the eBay seller was someone called TurningPointe, and therein lies another tale within a tale.
According to the report Lemerond generated for the district attorney's office, a man named Kevin Essett was fresh in town from his home state of Indiana when he met Culwell at the Funnel, an odd Culwell-run strip-mall coffeehouse on FM 1960. The Funnel was nonprofit and ostensibly a wholesome Christian environment where parolees could meet, network and better their lives.
A seminary school dropout and fledgling minister, Essett had come to Houston with a dream. The Lord had told him to come to Texas and start a church. It was, he told Lemerond, a "leap of faith." The trouble was, Essett was broke, toiling away at a La Quinta Inn in The Woodlands.
Culwell could fix that. Essett told Lemerond that he could tell that Culwell was loaded. Culwell told him about his pal Hakeem Olajuwon, and claimed to have gone to his house, and Culwell's office was crammed floor-to-ceiling with high-dollar sports memorabilia.
And Culwell was willing to share. Essett said that Culwell simply gave him $2,500 when they were little more than acquaintances. In December of 2001, Culwell told Essett he could start holding religious services at the Funnel. At some point, Essett found out about Culwell's shady past, but Culwell soothed his worries by saying words to the effect that yes, there were some youthful indiscretions, but they were all behind him now.
