Widow of Roblox member allegedly taken for $6 million attempting to purchase out man from his escort contract
Marianne Flippo paid a male escort roughly $635,000 for eight months of unique companionship. Then, in line with a lawsuit filed this week in Manhattan Supreme Court, he and his company allegedly instructed her the one strategy to make the association everlasting was to pay $10 million to purchase him out of his contract.
“I now acknowledge that I used to be the sufferer of a horrendous scheme by Starr who’s a sociopath who lacks any conscience,” Flippo stated in a sworn affirmation filed with the court docket.
The swimsuit names the escort as Gregg Starr, an worker of an company known as Cowboys 4 Angels, and describes Marianne as newly widowed, managing cash alone for the primary time, and dwelling with a uncommon genetic dysfunction that heightened her vulnerability to medicine and alcohol. Court paperwork allege Starr constructed her belief earlier than defrauding her of practically $6 million.
During a February 2026 journey to go to Starr’s mom, who suffered from dementia, two company workers confirmed up unannounced and pressed Flippo to drink at lunch, regardless of realizing she was on medicine for a latest surgical procedure. The two ordered pictures for the desk, and after roughly 5 drinks, they produced an “Exit Agreement” requiring her to pay $10 million to finish Starr’s ties to the company.
“While I used to be drunk and confused (all of which was exacerbated by my drugs and medical situation), Starr and Collins started to press me to signal the Exit Agreement,” Flippo stated in her affirmation. She says she was taken to a resort room and had by no means seen the doc earlier than that day. The settlement states that “in no way has bodily companionship been bought for consideration.”
Flippo tried twice to wire the $10 million, however each makes an attempt had been independently flagged as suspected fraud, first by JPMorgan Chase after which by means of Westpac. Starr then directed her to open a joint account at Charles Schwab, which she says let him entry funds with out triggering a financial institution’s fraud assessment. She transferred $5.95 million into that account, and financial institution data filed with the court docket present Starr moved $5,719,010.37 of it into an account in his identify alone inside weeks, draining the stability to $12.61 by the tip of June.
A circumstantial assembly
Flippo suffers from vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a uncommon genetic dysfunction that makes her blood vessels and organs inclined to ripping and leaves her unusually delicate to alcohol and medicine. In December 2024, nonetheless grieving the lack of her husband, Chad, and needing to journey to Italy for a medicine that had change into unavailable within the U.S. due to the battle in Ukraine, she requested a former colleague of Chad’s for assist discovering an Italian-speaking companion.
Chad joined Roblox when it was nonetheless a startup—years earlier than it turned the multibillion-dollar gaming platform utilized by tens of tens of millions of youngsters worldwide—incomes a number of patents and constructing what Flippo describes as “a considerable quantity of wealth.” Battling with melancholy, Chad died by suicide in August 2024. The two had been married 28 years, had three youngsters, and had been collectively since they met at 13.
Flippo was referred to Cowboys 4 Angels, which paired her with Starr. At first, she believed the corporate offered private assistants however now says she realized it’s an escort company. Despite staying in separate rooms, Starr made advances towards her on the journey, which she turned down, and she or he paid the company $27,000 for his help, break up into three $9,000 funds she now believes had been structured to keep away from IRS reporting necessities. The company saved calling afterward and instructed her Starr missed her. An worker named Bridget Collins turned, in Flippo’s account, a trusted confidante who inspired her to reconnect with him.
By March 2025, Flippo agreed to pay roughly $150,000 for Starr to be “unique” together with her, however broke up with him that October after studying he was seeing an ex-girlfriend. But the company saved calling, and she or he ultimately agreed to talk with him once more. By December 1, 2025, Starr moved into her Upper West Side condominium, and she or he signed a proper “Independent Contractor Agreement,” paying $368,000 for his companionship by means of May. The contract states Starr would function her “male companion” for a median of 16 days a month; that the association “do[es] not embody sexual acts of any sort;” and features a clause requiring the cash be returned if Starr cheated on her with that very same ex-girlfriend. In January 2026, she paid one other $90,000 to increase the exclusivity interval.
Her sickness runs by means of practically each submitting. People with vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome have a median life expectancy of 48 to 51 years; Flippo is 49. After surgical procedure in early 2026, she was prescribed gabapentin and codeine, which she says left her “in a compromised psychological state” for months, worsened by a extreme an infection in each arms. It was throughout this era, her grievance alleges, that Starr and Collins started telling her he wanted $10 million to purchase his approach out of his contract.
“Unfortunately, I used to be not succesful or perceptive sufficient to know these statements had been false however, since I beloved and trusted Starr, I relied on what he stated. I now understand I used to be silly,” Flippo stated in her affirmation. And so the $5.95 million was transferred.
Flippo was already a shopper of Larry Hutcher for unrelated authorized issues when Starr’s demand for an extra $4 million got here up, in line with her affirmation. Hutcher says he seemed into what had occurred and concluded she “was the sufferer of a horrific scheme.” She didn’t see it that approach, and Hutcher stated she was nonetheless “underneath the Svengali-like management of Starr.”
Starr, in the meantime, had retained his personal lawyer to attract up an settlement for the extra funds, and Hutcher organized a July 7 assembly at his workplace to handle it. Starr believed the assembly was to barter the $4 million; as an alternative, Hutcher confronted him and stated “he was shamelessly and criminally exploiting Marianne’s vulnerabilities and had defrauded her out of $5,950,000 and that no additional cash can be paid.” Starr, in line with each affirmations, turned visibly offended and threatened to abscond with the $5.95 million already taken if she didn’t pay the remainder.
“In my fifty (50) years of apply I’ve by no means seen the kind of outrageous conduct that exists on this case,” Hutcher stated in his affirmation.
