In 1998, Smith advised a reporter that a wealthy media mogul in Montreal named Richard Szalwinski experienced invested in Vice. In 1999, Vice moved into an place of work paid out for by Szalwinski on West 27th Street, exactly where the founders were astonished to come across espresso devices, twenty five workers members, and a human-sources section that chastised McInnes for calling a homosexual co-worker a "fag.