Rachel Lee's Biggest Bling Ring Bombshells From ‘The Ringleader’ Documentary

Rachel Lee finally offered her unfiltered truth about the Bling Ring — including the aftermath of the crimes.

“I don’t resonate with that Hollywood version [of what happened]. At all. But I could see how it was quite entertaining for the world to see the story that way. It was more of a storm for me,” Lee explained during HBO’s The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring documentary, which aired on Sunday, October 1. “Everything that we do has a consequence. And the consequence I have to deal with is that in history, my name was dragged through the dirt. But who created that? I did.”

The Bling Ring made headlines in the 2000s after stealing roughly $3 million in cash and belongings from celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Audrina Patridge and Rachel Bilson. Lee, Nick Prugo, Alexis Neiers, Courtney Ames, Diana Tamayo, Johnny Ajar and Roy Lopez Jr. were arrested for their involvement in the crimes, which took place from 2008 to 2009.

Lee ultimately served 16 months in prison for her role in the Hollywood heists before stepping back from the spotlight. She remained largely tight-lipped after being released from jail but made a rare comment in 2018.

“As a teen, I was chasing love in all the wrong places, and by the time I realized, it was too late and I was in prison,” she exclusively told Us Weekly at the time. “I truly feel prison was a blessing in disguise — the best thing that ever happened to me. It made me realize you can only trust yourself at the end of the day.”

Meanwhile, Prugo and Neiers separately participated in Netflix’s The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist. The September 2022 special offered their version of events, but Lee was notably not involved in the project.

Scroll down for all the biggest bombshells from HBO’s The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring:

Rachel Lee Got Arrested Based on the Paris Hilton Robbery

According to Lee, items seemingly connected to Hilton led to her arrest. “The whole time they were just tossing the house,” she recalled about the police raiding her father’s home in Las Vegas. “Then finally, they found a ripped up photo of Paris Hilton naked in my bathroom trash can.”

Rachel Lee Breaks Down How She Was Connected to Other Bling Ring Members

How Rachel Lee’s Dad Was Accused of Allegedly Being Involved in the Cover-up

Rumors spread about Lee allegedly receiving assistance from her father when it came to covering up the crimes. Lee’s father, who appeared in the documentary, maintained that he wasn’t involved.

“I knew she was going to get caught sooner or later. So, I wanted her to cut that relationship with those friends by relocating her from Los Angeles to Las Vegas,” he told the cameras. “I tried to stop her but I didn’t know how to persuade or how to change her mind.”

In the HBO doc, Lee explained why there was speculation that her dad helped her bury items related to the case.

“I asked my dad, ‘If you were trying to get rid of stolen property …’ I just wanted to know — I like knowing people’s psyches. I asked him, ‘What would you do if you had a bunch of stolen stuff? What would you do with it?’ And he said, ‘I would bury it in the middle of the desert,’” she noted. “And Nick twisted that into, ‘Rachel’s dad said to bury it in the desert.’”

Lee’s dad, meanwhile, offered his side of the story in a confessional.

“As a parent, [our hope] is that they don’t get caught. You better get rid of all the things — the evidence,” he said. “My name was [brought into it] for publicity. I was not related to the concealment of the goods or whatever but I became the person who could be asked about that matter. So, I just gave up all the business I was doing and I disappeared. I stayed in Korea for three years.”

Source: US Magazine