Diksha Sundriyal
Hulu’s ‘Welcome to Chippendales’ follows the story of Steve Banerjee, who risked everything for the success of his business only to become the very reason for its downfall. The story takes many twists and turns and things start to get serious when Steve unleashes his dark side. Being bitter and insecure is one thing, but to actually burn down places and have people killed is an entirely different matter. There are a lot of bad things that he does, which might make you wonder about how he was finally caught. Here’s what you should know about Steve Banerjee’s arrest.
Steve Banerjee’s Downfall: From Arrogance to Unwitting Confession
Much like it happens in the show, Steve Banerjee was caught five years after Nick De Noia’s murder after he confessed to being complicit in the crime while talking to Ray Colon about it. However, the events preceding it looked a little different in real life. In the show, Gilberto Rivera Lopez’s arrest leads to the spilling of beans about Steve, but in real life, it was another hitman, by the name of Strawberry, who came forward about the crime that was asked of him.
Steve was not happy with Adonis copying his formula, but what made him angrier was a couple of his ex-employees becoming a part of this new enterprise. To teach them a lesson, he decided to have them killed and passed on the task to Ray Colon, who, in turn, gave it to Strawberry. Ray gave this person some cyanide to poison the targets, but the hitman got cold feet and decided to go to the law instead. Because Ray had approached the hitman, the feds got to him and arrested him for the conspiracy of murder. It wasn’t until a few months later that Ray agreed to have a chat with Steve and make him spit out the truth.
It took a couple of tries to get Steve’s confession because he was extremely paranoid by now. In their meetings, he would write stuff on paper and then flush it as soon as Ray had read it. He checked for wires on his ex-employee because he was sure that the Feds were on to him. Still, when Ray asked to meet with him in Switzerland, Steve followed through with it. The conversation between them went on for hours, at the end of which, Steve said some incriminating words.
“[Banerjee asked] if the FBI had mentioned anything to Colon ‘about the D.’ That’s what was the code word that they used… for DeNoia’s name. And then Banerjee asked Colon, ‘Do they know that I gave you the money to buy the guns?’,” FBI agent Scott Gariola revealed. Steve further talked about hiring Ray for the murder as well as other criminal activities and that’s how the Feds finally got the evidence against him. The moment it was done, they barged into the room and arrested Steve Banerjee.
The Fate of Chippendales After Steve Banerjee
Chippendales was everything to Steve Banerjee. All the things that he did, be they good or bad, were solely focused to keep his business in good shape. Things did get a little difficult for him, but after Nick’s death, he got control over the touring rights as well and the business ended up making a lot of money. By this time, Steve was the only one left to run things, which makes one wonder, what happened to Chippendales after Steve was gone.
Steve Banerjee died by suicide a day before his sentencing, following which, Chippendales and all of his other assets were inherited by Irene Banerjee, as dictated in their divorce settlement. She didn’t hold on to the business for long and sold it for $2.5 million. Reportedly, Chippendales was owned by Lou Pearlman in the 1990s. He was a record producer who had quite a different plan in his mind regarding the place, but it never materialized. Eventually, he gave it over too, and Chippendales is now owned by several people. According to the Chippendales website, “Kevin Denberg and several other investors” bought the place and gave it a makeover, though they kept a few key things about it as is. Now, once again, Chippendales is a huge success all over the world.
Read More: When and Why was Chippendales in Los Angeles Closed?
