The shoplifters walk in and walk out like they own the place.

They tell the security guard not to touch them, Carrying an armful of clothing, they walk right out of the store.

I've been watching these brazen shoplifting stories on the news every day for the past ten years.

And Atlanta woman's accused of stealing from four different stores in a single day.

And it just keeps getting worse and worse, especially in California, where I live.

They stroll in like regular shoppers, then scramble out lugging bags filled.

And arms full of stolen goods.

Last year, the Americana, a ritzy shopping center in Glendale, a place I go to all the time, was hit by an actual shoplifting mob.

And it was a brazen burglary that happened in a broad daylight here at the Saint Laurn's store.

Glendale police is calling it a flash Moberg and says thirty to forty people were involved.

Now, the suspects escaped in about twenty separate cars, getting away with about three hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise.

All these crazy instances of retail theft just seem so random, right, But they're actually not.

They're actually very very planned.

These ladies would come in, they would immediately select a number of items, high value clothing from different retailers Lululemon, Nordstrom, Macy's, and then they would immediately exit and leave.

It turns out all these shoplifters are really just worker bees buzzing around all day in search of honey.

Thousands of dollars worth of cosmetics.

Lots and lots of honey, nine hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry, and they're bringing all that honey back to the hive, back to the shoplifting queen Bee herself.

California Mom is the alleged ring leader behind an eight million dollar retail theft ring.

She's accused of operating a nationwide shoplifting scheme for more than a decade, according to the California Department of.

Justice, from her Tuscan style mansion in beautiful southern California.

Investigators say fifty three year old Michelle mack spearheaded a team of sophisticated all female shoplifters, deploying them to bring her millions in stolen merchandise, and according to authorities, she hid it all in plain sight.

She's the antithesis of what you would expect to be the head of an organized retail theft operation.

And why is that?

I mean, I'm just gonna address the elephant in the room.

It's it's her ethnicity, it's her gender.

She's a blonde, white woman.

It's it's her socioeconomic status, wealthy, nice neighborhood, big house baller.

What does your average criminal look like in a Hollywood move?

It's not Michelle Mack.

Let's just say that.

I'm Jonathan Walton and this is Queen of the con Season six, The California Girls, Episode one, another bougie woman shopping for makeup.

Shoplifting was always kind of like a thing.

That's just like, oh God, my buddy.

Evan Goldstein is many things, a husband, a father of two, a big time showrunner for that History Channel series The Unexplained with Me William Shafner.

But up until now, I had no idea Evan Goldstein is also a reform shoplifter.

I remember one time in a comic book shop in Union, New Jersey.

I'm sure they're still after me.

You know, I was big into comics and there was a Moonnight comic.

I don't know what came over me, but I just wanted it and I didn't have enough money for it, and I turned kind of my back and I put it in my pants, like like kind of where the you know, where the waste is?

Like how old are you at this point?

Eleven?

So wells aren't very big, no, no, And it wasn't premeditated.

I didn't go in to steal it.

I didn't go in thinking I was just going into brows and I just I just wanted it.

I just needed to have.

It, and I put it in my pants and I walked out with the comic book, and I remember feeling so bad about it afterwards.

I remember feeling terrible and it was like my dark secret.

I was racked with guilt.

I'm just like, I'm a thief, I'm a criminal.

What have you done with your life?

As you know, eleven years old?

And honestly, the comic book wasn't the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

I felt a lot of guilt about it, I really did.

But I could see it was a hit of adrenaline.

Wasn't it.

Yeah, Like there was like a certain kind of chemical reaction in my body that was just and.

I get away with this?

Are they watching me?

Are they watching me?

Run?

Am I going to the clink?

And I could see how it could become kind of like this addictive kind of dopamine rush where it's just like you crave that kind of sense of can I get away with it?

That kind of Bonnie and Clyde of it?

You know?

Yeah, No, it's dude.

From age I don't know ten to age eighteen, I was a kleptomaniac.

Really, I was like a color toe.

I stole everything all the time.

There it is my confession to Evan and to the world.

I myself am also a reformed shoplifter.

What were you stealing?

Nothing of value?

Just a little trink I would steal little things like keychains.

Or food, kind of like things that would fit in your pocket.

Things that you could just grab and not pay for a night light, like really dumb things.

Nothing of value.

Re And was it that you really wanted it or was it just the act of taking it and getting away with it?

Was the act?

I didn't know at the time, but I was a kleptomania.

Yeah, I enjoyed the rush.

I'm not gonna get caught them.

They didn't get away with it.

They don't know what's happening.

Yeah.

And when I was in Epcot, you know Epcot Center, you know Disney Orlando, Epcot, we were in the Mexico pavilion and I put on this giant, like sixty dollars sombrero.

Took a picture and I just kept walking and I went on the ride.

And my cousins, you know, they were my ages.

They were like laughing, ha ha, Jonathan stolen sombrero and I have that picture.

Maybe I'll post that picture at Queen of the Con on Instagram.

Me in a stolen sombrero.

Oh, Mexico and Epcot evidence.

You're Eisner's after you.

Yeah, that listen, that's stock price.

They need all the help they can get.

The day I quit shoplifting, I went cold turkey after an ill fated trip to the supermarket.

I stopped because I was at Albertson's and there's like a salad soup bar, and I take the potato Leaks soup and I walk around the store pretending to be looking at other things, and I'm pick up the milk to check the expiration date, and I put the soup down that I'm done.

With put the milk down, and they walk out of the store empty handed, and I get that tap on the shoulder, excuse me, sir, are you gonna pay for that soup?

And I just like turned white.

I just like freaked out.

I'm like, crap, I'm busted.

And then I never stole again.

So it was okay for years and years.

You get away with it.

It's fine, you're taking these trinkets, these little bit bobbles whatever, and then all of a sudden, the kind of reality hits you when it's like, hey, are you gonna and you're you're caught.

I got caught, and so then it's just like, oh my god, this is like I don't want this.

The life of crime is not for me.

No, I don't want it.

It's like there goes you know.

It's just like I got a hundred night lights.

I want it.

I was trying to trying to get to one hundred and one.

But hey, I'm in distinguished company, right, A lot of celebrities like Wanona Rider.

Wana Rider was arragned today charging her with grand theft.

Lindsay Lohan low and pled not guilty to felony grand theft stemming from her alleged shoplifting of a necklace from a Venice jewelry store and James Franco, Like.

In eighth grade, we started stealing cologne.

We had like thirty bottles of Colone each.

When most people think about shoplifters, it's kind of like this low rent kind of crime.

You know.

That's the reason celebrities can get away with it for a while is because they're the last person you would expect to be a shoplifter.

Yeah, and that seems to be the key to this season's Queen of the Cohn.

This woman is literally the last person on Earth you would suspect of running a shoplifting empire.

But that empire all comes crashing down around Michelle Mack In the wee hours of the morning on December sixth, twenty twenty three, in the Bucolic community of Bonzol just north of San Diego.

The sun's coming up, illuminating that big California sky, casting a morning haze on dozens of hilltop mansions framed by rolling fields and green pastures.

It's abundantly obvious that wealthy people live here, really wealthy people, some of whom allegedly have nefarious sources of income, because all of a sudden, a squadron of investigators from the California Highway Patrol and from Homeland Security pull up in a fleet of SUVs and they start assembling outside one of these big mansions.

So you guys all we got the outplan correct, yea?

And what happens next stuns every homeowner on the block.

After the break, Welcome back to Queen of the Cohn.

Tactical teams from the California Highway Patrol and Homeland Security are now surrounding a Tuscan style mansion just north of San Diego, and they're ready to pounce and working diligently.

Amongst all those law enforcement agents.

We have all our entrying tools, so everybody bring them.

Is a team of investigative journalists from CNBC.

How the hell did you guys get the access like you were embedded with the California Highway Patrol.

How'd that happen?

So it was a lot of work.

Gabrielle von Rouge is CNBC's award winning retail reporter.

We had started this project and we wanted to get an up close look at what organized retail crime actually looked like.

And Gabrielle poured months of her blood, sweat, and tears into this investigation because getting frontline access with law enforcement can be impossible.

A lot of these guys won't even return my phone calls, much less allow me to embed with them and record their early morning busts.

It's kind of hard to convince the cops to let you in bed with them sometimes, especially when you've got a TV crew and numerous cameras and a sound guy and all this kind of stuff, and they are in the midst of an actual police operation.

But at the end of the day, these are public agencies and they are required to be transparent with the public, and in beds, you know, police departments, all kinds of public agencies.

The military have a long history of allowing journalists to inbed with them, to be able to see their work up close and personal firsthand, and be able to share that information with the public so that the public understands what law enforcement is doing, how their tax dollars are being used.

So it does help a little bit that before I started business, I was a crime reporter for ten years.

I have a lot of experience in betting with police departments and with other law enforcement agencies.

Back outside in bonseil.

Now, in a matter of moments, CNBC reporter Gabrielle von Rouge steps out of the way and a pelax of CHP and Homeland Security agents rush in wearing bulletproof vests with guns drawn, and they storm that three million dollar mansion, and in minutes, a blonde woman in her early fifties, looking dazed, hair disheveled, wearing pink pajamas and fuzzy slippers is led out in handcuffs.

There is a mother in California who is running an online makeup store on Amazon, and police suspect that all of the goods that are being sold are stolen, and she is working with a network of professional thieves who she is deploying across the country to rob makeup stores in order to fill her online make it store.

Her name is Michelle Mack, and she and her husband, Kenneth are charged with a bonch of felonies, including conspiracy to commit organized retail theft and multiple counts of receipt of stolen property.

This entire bust, caught on CNBC's cameras is just insane.

I'm posting a clip of it at Queen of the Cohn on Instagram, but I highly recommend you watch the entire seventeen minute investigative piece on CNBC's website.

I want a map drawn of the house, separated into two groups, and then we can start loading.

If you google how the shadowy world of organized retail crime works, the entire video of that CNBC investigation will pop right up.

My god, the footage you guys captured in that investigative piece stunning.

You know, you see Michelle Mack getting handcuffed, getting walked to the CHP vehicle.

You see all the crap they found, and by crap, I mean stolen loot they found in her place, and you got just phenomenal job.

It really paints a picture of what we are dealing with.

It's eye opening.

It was an incredible story and it got a lot of attention, and it really I think we accomplished the job that we had set out to do, which is what does organized retail crime actually look like?

And Michelle Mack is a perfect case for that.

According to the felony complaint filed by the California Attorney General's Office, it's alleged that Michelle Mack hired twelve women to steal millions of dollars worth of merchandise from hundreds of stores.

She'd then sell all that stolen merch on Amazon to make a fortune.

According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

This is a multimillion dollar criminal scheme.

It was complex, it was orchestrated.

The crimes occurred from the West coast to the East coast in this country.

During the bust, law enforcement agents are seeing removing boxes and boxes from Michelle max ball or for car garage, which on the inside looks more like an Amazon fulfillment center.

I mean, her neighbors had no idea.

Those boxes being carted out by law enforcement all contain cosmetics from Alta and Sophora and merchandise from stores like Bloomingdale's, Sunglass Hut and Lens Crafters.

In all, the CHP confiscates nearly four hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise from Michelle Max's garage on that one day alone.

What I am surprised at is the level of sophistication.

CNBC's Gabrielle Fonrouge again.

The extent that police alleged Michelle Mack went to to run this retail crime organization at that point.

I mean she has like technically employees, She's sending them all across the country.

She's paying for their rental cars, for their flights, for their hotel.

She's directing them, you know what, to steal, sending in the shopping list.

She's keeping an eye on market dynamics as well.

She has to set the price appropriately, so that's requiring a lot of research at that point, why not just run a legitimate business, you know what I mean?

Like people get into crime the idea of it is because it's easy money.

But this doesn't feel like easy money.

The effort and time that goes into it and the risk that's involved.

Oh, I have an answer for you.

And this is why Michelle Mack is the subject of this season of Queen of the Con because at her heart she is a con artist, and every con artist the money is only secondary.

And you make a great point.

This is so much work in planning and expertise and execution, and she's hiring and firing people and setting up schedules and you know, buying and shipping, and she could run a real business and not run a foul of the law and make a lot of money and do well.

But the thrill for Michelle Mack is the same threat for every con artist.

They love getting away with stuff.

They love lying and cheating, they love manipulating people.

I guarantee you she gets off on tricking her customers.

They think these are legitimate products.

I'm selling them stolen stuff.

They have no idea.

She gets off that her neighbors think one thing and she's really doing another.

It's just like this hurricane of cues that thrill her that have nothing to do with the money.

I mean, the money is important, but with Michelle Mack and a lot of con artists, I believe the money is secondary.

The thrill is the lie, the cheat, the con, the swindle.

They get a thrill from it.

And according to authorities, Michelle Mack is extremely organized and detailed.

The team of twelve women she allegedly had working for her.

Law enforcement euphemistically dubs.

The California Girls.

They call them the California Girls.

Scott.

That's just sexy and exciting, and I can't believe that's the term they're using at the CHP, like we're on the Calibirls case.

And according to investigators, Michelle Mack would furnish her team of California Girls with detailed shopping lists, stipulating exactly what they need to steal and from where, and she'd instruct them to use large Louis Vauton bags to smuggle out the stolen merchandise.

It might have helped them blending a little bit.

It could have very well been to just be like, just look like another boogie woman shopping for makeup, and then no one's going to pay attention to you.

And then when you clean out an entire shelf, sorry it's too late.

She directed them to do that.

That's the costume you need to wear for this con.

You need to drink a shopkeeper into thinking you're this wealthy, well healed woman, and the Louis Vuitton goes a long way in doing that.

It's a disguise.

It's all part of the disguise.

That's why they're calling them the California Girls.

The Louis Vaton bag it's designed to throw off your lost prevention officer.

Seal Beach Police Sergeant Morakian has spent more than twenty years in law enforcement, busting shoplifters on the daily.

He even worked as a lost Prevention officer in San Diego that stores would hire specifically to catch shoplifters, and Sergeant Murrakian learned firsthand policing criminals that things aren't always what they appear to be.

I mean, early on in my career, I pulled over an elderly couple that had bricks of cocaine in the trunk of their car, you know, and.

Then you guys partied.

We look for.

Certain patterns, right, Someone wearing a mask and a hoodie walking into a store in twenty twenty four is the typical profile of someone who's about to steel on a hot summer day.

You know, why are they wearing a hoodie on a hot summer day?

Right?

Yeah, So these are things that we look for.

So if you just think about the lost Prevention officer or the employee at any of these retail stores, you know, you see a fairly attractive girl with a Louis Vaton bag.

That's not who you're gonna follow or look at.

Now a season lost prevention officer, will you know, they'll see that.

Oh, decoy distraction, and you pay attention.

We look at it.

Not we because I'm no longer Lost Prevention, but we look at it through a different lens.

And investigators alleged that those California girls were so next level good and they stole so much stuff from Michelle Mack.

She had nearly eight million dollars in sales on Amazon, where she sold high end cosmetics and beauty products for half the price they were selling for everywhere else.

I mean, who wouldn't buy from her?

A bottle of Coco Chanel perfume can cost one hundred and seventy dollars at alta, So if you saw that same bottle selling for eighty five dollars on Amazon, it's a no brainer.

And it's probably still land says California Highly Patrol Commissioner Sean Dori.

It's tough, and I don't know if anybody expects the consumers to do due diligence on every product that they're buying online.

But I'll tell you, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, and it's probably coming from some nefarious activity.

But perhaps the most unbelievable revelation to come to light is that, according to the CHP investigation, this went on for more than ten years, right under the noses of Michelle Max's wealthy neighbors, Her customers and even Amazon itself, much to the exasperation of California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

This Amazon marketplace site called the Online Makeup Store that was stelling the soul and goods year after year and it wasn't detected.

You have to ask yourself, what more can we do should we do to make sure that incidents like this don't occur in the future.

That's the right thing to ask.

I think they have the ability to root out more sales of stolen goods on their platform, And she'd asked themselves what work could they have done here and what more can they do going forward?

But like most professional con artists, Michelle Mack had a really good cover after the break Welcome Back to Queen of the Con.

So while Michelle Mack was selling millions in stolen beauty products out of her four car garage in Bonzol, she had a day job.

She was in the wedding business, renting out her Tuscan style mansion that actually had its own chapel and a vineyard, a truly picturesque setting for any couple looking to tie the knot.

That looks like the wedding setup that me and my husband.

Had Ooh, would you guys get married San Diego?

Did you get married at Michelle Mack's house?

It looks like it that looks like the exact same setup.

Oh my gosh.

Shelleyleggett is a local TV reporter in San Diego at the NBC station.

She didn't actually have her wedding at Michelle Max's house, just someplace that looked very similar.

But Shelley was one of the first reporters in San Diego to cover the Michelle Max story.

The woman they've identified as the head of the operation was recruiting young women to go into stores like Alta, Bath and Bodyworks and Sephora to steal items and bring them back to her so she could resell them for profit.

And how did you get involved in this case?

What happened to cause you to be at that Rob Bonta press conference.

This was one of those stories where I felt like I knew what I was getting into and it was completely different.

Me and my photographer that day.

I guess you can call us the breaking news crew.

That means our story was not that important.

It wasn't an a block story.

It was one of those evergreen stories that could be dropped if something bigger and better comes up.

And for listeners who don't know, when you say we weren't an A block story, that means you weren't at the top of the newscast.

You're like one of the big important lead stories the A block You were like BCD.

Yes, And we got the word maybe around twelve thirty that there was a one thirty.

Press conference for We had no clue what it was.

We were just going into it thinking, Okay, he's going to announce something.

We did not know what he was going to announce.

But your editor, your boss, your assignment DEESK managers like you got to go to this presser.

Yes, They're like he's going to announce something and we have to be there, and we're like okay.

And that press conference, well, good afternoon everyone.

Rob Bonte, California Attorney General, thanks for joining us.

Today is held February sixteenth, twenty twenty four, two months after that crazy raid on Michelle Max's mansion.

It was interesting when this happened.

I expected this to be like a younger woman doing this.

Because this is like internet savvy Internet.

Do you know how to like the Amazon marketplace?

I don't even know how to do all that.

I was like, Okay, somebody that's doing this has to be like real young in their twenties.

They're recruiting other young women to do this, and she's like a housewife that's just hanging out at home having everyone else do her dirty work.

And you cover these stories where twelve twenty people running a store grab and steal like they're bringing it.

Back to her, and you never hear about them.

No, they never get caught.

They disappear into the night, into the day, into the ether, and we move on with our lives.

And according to investigators, Michelle Mack had perfected the art of blending into her surroundings, and that camouflage allegedly enabled her to run this multi million dollar shoplifting ring undetected by law enforcement for more than ten long years.

If I'm a police officer and I see Michelle Mack driving down the street in her Land Road, I'm not going to think she's got a crew of people out nationwide stealing items so she can sell them in her Amazon store.

Sergeant Jordan Morakian, who policed shoplifters in San Diego, Michelle Mack's stomping ground for the first fourteen years of his career freely admits that Michelle Mack is an anomaly.

You know, she has kids.

I mean, there's nothing about her that would stand out to an investigator other than the fact that she and her husband live in a multimillion dollar property in Bonsaw.

A winery.

On that property they rented out for parties.

You know, well, me being me, and this is just how my cop brain works.

The first thing I'm going to say is, how did you afford that.

You're not going to be able to convince me that you afford it by selling things on Amazon?

Right, So you would have suspected her if you knew the details, if you were her neighbor, if you were a friend and acquaintance, it would have struck you as huh.

One thousand percent Wow.

I would have started me just how I operate.

I would have started asking questions like, oh, how much do you And this is a former fraud detective and this is what I do to people, and it drives my friends crazy.

You have this nice house, Like what do you what do you do?

Oh?

I sell things on Amazon?

How much do you make annually from that?

Oh?

I make this?

Where do you get your products from right.

Yeah, it's suspicious to you if she came across your pat in a social situation, or you were her new neighbor, or it would raise a red flag.

Her neighbors probably weren't questioning her because.

No, she was hiding successfully in plain sight.

In plain sight.

And and me just being me.

I mean, I've gone to dinner parties before and nice homes, and the first thing I do is I whisper to whoever I'm there with, is what does she do for or what does he do for me?

Because you're suspicious, you come in suspicious, right.

The other thing that strikes Sergeant Morakian is very deliberate and very planned, is where Michelle Mack chose to live and allegedly run her shoplifting ring out of the exclusive community of Bonzol.

Depending on who you talk to, they'll pronounce it Bonsoal or Bonsel.

It's like a piece of Italy in San Diego County.

It's like one minute you're in the city of San Diego, you're looking at buildings, you're looking at you know, the coastline, and the next minute you're driving through the hills of Bonsel and you're seeing wineries and big, big, huge mansions with Spanish tile and stamped concrete driveways.

This looks like something out of like maybe like Beverly Hills, like a celebrities house way up on the hill, hidden away landscaping is beautiful.

Local San dieporter Shelley like it again, if you've lived in a lot of other states, you're a TV reporter, you work in all these other markets.

Now you're in San Diego.

What have you noticed is different in regards to shoplifting in California versus other states.

Well, I didn't know that that weird law in California where it's like a certain amount of money it really doesn't matter.

I've never heard of anything like that anywhere.

Right, it's under one thousand dollars.

It's a misdemeanor.

Other states it's like you steal, you get arrested, and you go to jail and they give you papers and.

You go to court.

And it was just mind boggling when I got here and I was like, that's a law.

Yeah, yeah, And we see it again and again on television and TV news.

They allow them to walk out with like nine hundred dollars in merchandise because it's under the limit and no one doesn't even But since Michelle Mack and her team of California girls stand accused of stealing millions of dollars in merchandise, the land of misdemeanors is well behind them.

Gosh, why was one of those California girls?

I'd be sweating.

I know, the life of crime.

I'm sweating just talking about it.

But who are these professional shoplifting women who spend all day, every day driving from store to store stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff in plain sights every week for the Michelle Max of the world.

Were you worried at all that I might be a cop?

Not really, because I mean, like I've never heard of like an undercover cop like doing like like a bud for shoplifters.

They would have to catch you in the store stealing.

Yeah, exactly.

Coming up this season on Queen of the Con, I'm trying to find professional shoplifters.

I don't know, man, how did you get into shoplifting?

We were homeless for a while.

That's how we got, you know, like in the crowd.

You know.

Yeah, so you can make a thousand dollars a day shoplifting yeah, But.

What Michelle Mack was doing was human trafficking.

What Yeah, if you really think about it, right, the definition of human trafficking is you're basically exploiting a human being and forcing them, coercing them, or paying them to do a service for ill gotten games, for illegal activity.

Human trafficking.

She approached me, she was a little bit over the top about this, this florified mansion, and I had this feeling, and had I gone with the feeling that I normally would, I would have politely turned her down.

She may have stolen half of my wedding cake.

What she had a huge garage, like she had so much stuff.

She told me like she had storage units with more things.

Because she said her husband was telling her.

She was getting out of control, like getting.

So much stuff.

Who the hell was buying handpainted nail files from the Czech Republic?

What if the Czech Republic nail files?

What if those were never meant to succeed, those were just meant to provide her cover.

I'm not ceiling regular, I'm going to start feeling up my bag.

Couiic so I want to know stuff that I can grab a bulk.

That's a great text.

Message.

So these overt acts really kind of flesh out how the conspiracy operated.

They're going to minimize what she did.

She was trying to send her kids to college, right, she was operating a side business and it got a little out of control.

Like, why the hell would you think Michelle Mack would talk to your.

Good I'm looking for to pey, like realistic, Oh.

My god, good morning.

When you get to a gated property, bypass that gate.

Even when you bypass that gate, you're not trespassing until somebody says you are.

Is that her mineyard?

Look at this pouse?

Jesus, What the hell do these people do for a living?

Well, we know one of them stolen stuff on Amazon's.

Hey Michelle, my name's Jonathan.

I'm with the Queen of the Con podcast.

I just wanted to see if you'd be interested in talking to me.

So I hear the I hear the cops.

Did I think we should go?

Let's roll run on the cops.

If you're enjoying Queen of the Con, tell someone click that share button and send this podcast to anyone you think might be into it.

Also, if you can leave us a five star review, reviews really help other listeners find us Queen of the con The California Girls is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia, Hosted by Me Jonathan Walton.

Executive producers Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions and Elisa Rosen for AYR Media.

Consulting producer Evan Goldstein.

Written by Jonathan Walton, Sound design by Zack Hirsch, Edited and mixed by Zach Hirsch, Audio engineer Justin Longerbean.

Mastered by Justin Longerbean.

Legal counsel for AYR Media, Johnny Douglas, Executive producer for iHeartMedia, Maya Howard