Fact Checking Bruce Nahin’s Rebuttal to Fake Co-founder Controversy

We wanted to fact check Mr Nahin’s rebuttal since he was questioning our article.

1. There was no documentation or verifiable proof through news media reports or photographs at the time of Chippendales (1979 – 1994) that Mr Nahin was a partner with Mr Steve Banerjee of Chippendales. There was one mention in a February 15, 1987 L.A. Times listing Mr Nahin only as the Chippendales attorney. California corporate papers and ABC alcohol control board documentation only list Mr Banerjee as the owner of Chippendales. Mr Nahin claims the FBI removed his documentation. We contacted a source with knowledge of FBI procedures. They said this was highly unlikely. Still there is no proof.
2. There was no proof with NBC that Mr Nahin was the inspiration behind the SNL Patrick Swayze / Chris Farley Chippendales spoof. The claim from Mr Nahin appears to be at best anecdotal and not verifiable.
3. Mr Nahin never refuted what Chippendales model, Dan Peterson said nor what Mr Banerjee’s son said about Mr Nahin’s credibility.
4. Mr Nahin never refuted falsely claiming a producer title with Chippendales on IMDb.com.
5. Mr Nahin never refuted his felony conviction for fraud of elderly people. Nor did he explain if this started when he was an attorney for Chippendales.
6. Time magazine in a November 23rd, 2022 issue filled with glaring errors wrote that Bruce Nahin was Steve Banerjee’s partner, however writer Shannon Carlin never returned our emails asking for her sources or explaining the errors (e.g.: Eric Gilbert was not the creative director of Playboy. He was the producer and creative director of Chippendales). And again; there were no sources cited nor were there any references to facts established when Chippendales was in operation.
7. Mr Nahin never refuted that he personally made multiple entries on the Wikipedia Chippendales website page over a 10 year period inserting his own narrative as Steve Banerjee’s partner in violation of Wikipedia’s editorial rules and submissions.
8. Mr Nahin never refuted that he himself described his Chippendales role as “Banerjee’s attorney” in a 1998 British documentary (four years after Mr Banerjee’s death) and never claimed to be a partner nor a co-founder of the iconic brand.

Lastly, Mr Nahin cries out that titles are unimportant. But titles are statements of fact. If Mr Nahin cannot support these statements of fact and does not believe the titles matter – why does he continue to publish and disseminate an unsubstantiated statement that he was the co-founder of Chippendales and partner to Steve Banerjee? Was he really the co-founder of Chippendales or is it fake? If Mr Nahin can provide proof to us, we would like to publish it.