TV Promoter Files for Bankruptcy : Tony Hoffman Sold Viewers Advice on How to Get Rich

Tony Hoffman, who once boasted that he became a multimillionaire using the real estate investment advice he sold to viewers of his cable television talk show, has filed for personal bankruptcy and will liquidate his assets.

Hoffman’s Chapter 7 filing on March 21 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles marks the financial collapse of a man who once promoted himself as a “financial Phil Donahue” and “America’s foremost expert in real estate.” The filing comes as the company he once headed, National Superstar in Westlake Village, is being liquidated under the bankruptcy laws.

Those filing a Chapter 7 petition agree to turn over their assets to a trustee for liquidation. The proceeds are then distributed to creditors.

Collapse of an Industry

Hoffman’s filing is another indication that the nation’s get-rich-quick real estate promotion business is virtually dead.

Making their pitches on late-night television programs and at hotel seminars, promoters in the late 1970s and early 1980s sold tapes, books and seminars purporting to teach people how to become wealthy by buying property with no down payment, often by giving sellers an unsecured IOU. Some industry executives have estimated that the get-rich business at its peak in 1985 had at least 20 television promoters who sold $150 million in home-study courses.

But the industry soon collapsed as the number of promoters soared and disillusioned investors returned cassette tapes and books. Last year, best-selling author and Westlake Village resident Albert J. Lowry, who was once a Hoffman mentor, filed a Chapter 7 petition. Another major real estate investment advice firm--Beckley Group in Iowa, which promoted real estate guru Ed Beckley--filed for protection from creditors last year in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Iowa.

In Hoffman’s personal bankruptcy petition, he and his wife, Margaret, list $6.8 million in liabilities, much of it debts that his former company National Superstar rang up. The petition says $1.7 million of the debt is unsecured. Hoffman’s debts include $42,000 owed the Internal Revenue Service and $13,000 owed the state Franchise Tax Board.

The Hoffmans list $831,050 in assets, including a $640,000 home in Westlake Village. The home has a first trust deed for about $500,000. The Hoffmans also list $75,000 in assets stemming from partnerships that invested in farms that grow jojoba, a desert shrub whose seed contains an oil used in cosmetic creams and ointments.

Hoffman now works for Venture Marketing Group in Westlake Village as a “producer of venture television,” according to the petition. Herbert Wolas, a Los Angeles attorney who filed the petition for the Hoffmans, would not comment on the filing.

Hoffman did not return telephone messages left at his home. In previous interviews, he has steadfastly maintained that the information in his tapes works for investors.

The petition lists Hoffman’s annual income as $301,000 in 1986 and $92,000 in 1987. It also said he returned a leased 1983 Mercedes-Benz and sold a 1986 Corvette for $18,000, using the money to pay off a lien on the car.

A native of Brooklyn, Hoffman, 46, hosted “Everybody’s Money Matters,” an investment program that ran on cable television. The cocky promoter relished publicity and enjoyed showing off his possessions, which included a chauffeured Cadillac limousine with the license plate “NEGOC8R,” a set of gold-inlaid china he said cost $18,000 and Salvador Dali art.

Shortly before National Superstar entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1986, Hoffman was featured in a documentary on Southern Californians broadcast by Atlanta television station WTBS.

Narrator Hal Holbrook described Hoffman in the segment as the “quintessential Californian” who “came here seeking fame and fortune and got it.”

Said Hoffman in the segment:”I’m nouveau riche.”