Entrepreneur Magazine’s Revel Arrested : Ex-Bank Robber Held on Handgun, Perjury, Forgery Charges

The founder of Los Angeles-based Entrepreneur magazine, Chase Revel, was arrested Thursday at his Pacific Palisades house on suspicion of being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, forgery and perjury, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Revel was convicted 20 years ago of two bank robberies and three attempted bank robberies in Houston and Las Vegas under his given name, John Leonard Burke.

Larry Rooker, an investigator for the district attorney’s office, said authorities found the pistol and evidence of forgery and perjury during a search of the house.

Rooker said the evidence of forgery was a California driver’s license in the false name of Revel. He said the evidence of perjury was an application for the driver’s license in the false name. The application had been filled out under penalty of perjury, he said.

Rooker said that a warrant authorized the search for concealable firearms and for identifications in false names, but he declined to explain why authorities are investigating Revel, who claims to be 40 years old, although data on Burke shows him to be 49.

He said only that the investigation was prompted by “some of the allegations” raised in a palimony suit filed last month against Revel in Los Angeles Superior Court. He would not be more specific. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said.

That palimony suit, filed by Kristin Barrett-Whitney, alleged, among other things, that Revel, the author of a number of books on how to start small businesses, was actually Burke, the convicted bank robber. It also indicated that Revel had used the name Jacques Victor Baron, and as Baron had been convicted of mail fraud in a small business scheme in 1972.

Rooker said Thursday that he had confirmed that Revel, the author, was indeed the same man as Burke, the robber, and Baron, the perpetrator of a mail fraud scheme.

Rooker said that in the search authorities also seized a California driver’s license in Burke’s name and a number of documents “related to identification and financial transactions in the false name of Chase Revel.”

In her suit, Barrett-Whitney said she lived with Revel out of wedlock for more than a year in 1984 and 1985. She said she left Revel after he became abusive.

While Revel has not yet filed his answer to the suit, he has denied abusing Barrett-Whitney, who he says was his housekeeper.