Bill Cosby: Talent Agency Supplied ‘Hush Money’ To Pay Off Comedian’s Teenage Sex Victims


A talent agency for Bill Cosby recently confessed to supplying “hush money” to pay off the comedian’s teenage sexual assault victims. One talent agent in particular, Tom Illius, reportedly complained about Cosby’s inappropriate behavior, but paid teens to stay quiet for years because it was his job, according to an exclusive report by Radar Online on Thursday. A longtime friend of Illius, casino executive Barry Sinkow, told Radar Online exclusively that teenage girls as young as 15-years-old would be “delivered” to Cosby’s dressing room.

News that Bill Cosby had sexual exploits with teens came to light just last month when a portion of the 78-year-old Cosby Show star’s deposition was released. The Inquisitr previously reported in May that part of the comedian’s deposition was released one day prior to a scheduled preliminary hearing. The hearing was for Cosby’s only criminal case against him after a Supreme Court judge in Pennsylvania decided there was enough evidence against Cosby to charge him with drugging and sexually assaulting 43-year-old basketball player Andrea Constand in January, 2004.

Constand had originally filed a civil suit against Bill Cosby in 2005 for a sexual assault that reportedly happened in Cosby’s home in 2004 when Constand was working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater. The civil suit was settled for an undisclosed amount of cash in November, 2006. However, years later, in 2015, Cosby was actually charged with aggravated indecent assault as a result of accusations made by Constand, as well as Cosby’s 2005 deposition.

A Pennsylvania judge decided on May 24 that Bill Cosby should stand trial for all three second-degree felony charges brought against him. According to the Inquisitr on that same day, new documents were made public from Cosby’s 2005 deposition from the civil suit filed by Constand in 2004. Released pieces from the deposition say that Cosby had several sexual encounters with teens when he was under the Hollywood-based talent agency, William Morris, now known as WME. The deposition went on to say that the William Morris Agency actually found and sent Cosby teen girl models on a weekly basis for sexual encounters, as well as a “very, very good meal.”

Tom Illius, who died in 2011, was Bill Cosby’s longtime William Morris talent agent, and reportedly confessed to Barry Sinkow, who’s now also deceased, that the talent agency made payments to these teen girls to keep them quiet and make them go away. According to Sinkow, Tom had to personally deliver the “hush money” to Cosby’s teenage victims because the bosses told him to, and Bill Cosby was one of those bosses.

“He couldn’t do anything about it! Cosby was his boss. Cosby paid his salary. Cosby paid for his home.”

Sinkow went on to tell Radar Online in an exclusive interview before he passed last month that he didn’t like what the William Morris Agency was doing at all, but kept his mouth shut and watched it go on. According to Sinkow, William Morris supplied the “hush money” to protect their big star, starting in the late 1970s. At that time, Cosby was a big star thanks to the Fat Albert character that was developed during his stand-up comedy routines, a character that eventually turned into a long-running animated TV series called Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

During that same timeframe, Bill Cosby also produced and starred in the very popular NBC television sitcom The Cosby Show, which aired for eight seasons from 1984 until 1992. Sexual assault allegations against Cosby didn’t surface until about 2000, but allegedly started taking place as early as the mid-1960s. More than 50 women have since come forward, accusing Cosby of drug-facilitated rape and sexual battery. Bill Cosby actually admitted in his 2005 civil suit deposition to giving quaaludes, a prescription sedative and hypnotic medication, to a 19-year-old girl in 1976.

If found guilty, the recent sexual assault criminal case could land Bill Cosby in prison for up to 10 years, but People Magazine says Cosby hasn’t lost his sense of humor, according to a source close to the Cosby family.

“He has not lost his sense of humor and he has not become morose. But he is somber and there’s been a physical toll — his walking is halting and he can seem downtrodden.”

The source went on to say that Cosby’s wife of more than 50 years, 71-year-old Camille Cosby, continues to love and stand by her husband, even though “it’s a nightmare every day” for both Camille Cosby and Bill Cosby.

[Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images]

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