Let's Go To Court! - 67: Fraud, Embezzlement, and the Vatican & Road Rage

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

If Martin Frankel had one thing, it was confidence. Confidence in his own intelligence. As a young adult, Martin wanted to get ahead in life. He figured the easiest way to do that was to get involved in a brokerage business. He studied as hard as he could. He amassed an impressive amount of book smarts. But there was one thing he didn’t have: Ethics. Then Kristin scars Brandi for life with the story of Sara McBurnett. Sara was driving toward San Jose International Airport with her little dog Leo in the passenger’s seat when an SUV cut them off. Sara accidentally hit the SUV’s bumper. The driver of the SUV jumped out of his car and ran over to Sara. She tried to apologize, but it was no use. The man was livid. Then, he reached into her car, grabbed Leo, and flung him into oncoming traffic. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “Can a little dog’s death end the road rage plague?” by Jeffrey Page, The Record “Jailed killer of dog sues dog’s owner,” Associated Press “Dog’s killer gets 3-year sentence,” by Ron Harris, Associated Press “Dog’s death leads to howls of anger,” by Ray Delgado and Annie Nakao, San Francisco Examiner “Nothing new yet in dog traffic killing,” San Jose Mercury News “California road rage trial begins,” by Ron Harris, Associated Press “New evidence permitted in dog’s traffic death,” Associated Press “New evidence in animal cruelty case,” Associated Press “Judge hands maximum sentence to dog killer,” Washington Post “California court rejects appeal by dog killer,” CNN.com “Dog-killing case gets stranger as trial halts,” Los Angeles Times In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Martin Frankel: Sex, Greed and $200 Million Fraud” by Rachael Bell, Crime Library “Billion-Dollar Vanishing Act?” by CBS News Staff, CBS News “The Martin Frankel Case” episode American Greed “17-Year Sentence Affirmed for Investor Who Looted Insurers” by The Associated Press, The New York Times  

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts! I'm Kristen Caruso. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court! On this episode, I'll talk about a terrible case of road rage. And I'll be talking about fraud, embezzlement, and the Vatican. I'm very excited.

I know, you love a good fraud case. I'm very excited. I know. You love a good fraud case. I love. Yeah. This, I feel like you'll enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a Kristen case for sure. Okay, great.

Not so much a Brandy case. How did you even find this? I stumbled on it and I was like, hmm, like the headline caught me and I was like, I feel like I could do this. All right. But before we get to that. Oh, Kristen. I'd like to welcome you back to a segment that we haven't done in a minute.

Oh, no. A segment of the podcast called Shit Brandy Fucked Up on the last episode. I'm so relieved it was you. Yeah. Okay. I love this segment. So if you'll recall on our last episode, I was very sick. You were.

And apparently didn't feel the need to reference my notes that often. And I really fucked something up. Oh, no. And it was like in my notes. Sure. OK, so I talked about the life insurance payout that Sharon Kinney got. Right. You said it was $38,000.

Yeah, if I recall, Justin for Influenciate said it was $38,000. Yeah, if I recall, Justin Furfugio, it was $38,000. Yeah, yeah. Could not have been more wrong. Okay. And I had this information in my notes. Did I bother to go back and reference it when we were recording that podcast?

No, no. Absolutely not. You were looking me dead in the eyes the whole time. Yes, that's right. So, in actuality, what she got in 1961 was a $30,000 life insurance payout, which adjusted for inflation was. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Did you mess this up?

I did. I did. She got a $29,000 life insurance payout, which adjusted for inflation is about $245,000. Okay. I'm going to take some of the blame on this because I sat here and silently thought, God, that does not seem like much at all. Now that all makes sense. Yes.

Way more sense. Makes sense that she could just go out and buy herself that powder blue Thunderbird that she wanted so badly. And get a new boyfriend. That's right. Yeah. That's right. So I apologize for that. I will blame my tonsil blisters.

I don't know that there's ever been a better excuse. Those things were crazy. Were crazy. And I will say, even though we're only recording two days later, really more like a day and a half since you basically had a sleepover at my house. You significantly better. Thank goodness.

I've turned a corner. Yeah. The blisters are subsiding. The tonsils are returning to a normal size. They are no longer touching my uvula, which is part of the vagina. Those things were huge. Jesus. You mean to tell me uvula doesn't sound like part of the vagina?

Doesn't sound like part of the vagina. For those of you that don't know, it's actually that hangy ball in the back of your throat. The clit, if you will. It's really the clit of your face. Would you call that your face? Fine. Your head. Oh my gosh. Believe it or not, this is not being recorded after dark.

This is not. We're at regular recording time here. Okay, next. Oh, okay. I also made no attempt to properly pronounce John Boldiz's last name. Yeah, we called him John B. Yeah, that's right. His last name is spelled B-O-L-D-I-Z-S.

And I was like, how the fuck would that even be pronounced? Well, my mother was very disappointed in me. And she said, excuse me, have you never heard of Zsa Zsa Gabor? What does that have to do with it? A Z and an S together are pronounced like a sound so his last name is boldage okay well all right yes fair enough but you know i feel like in that episode the one who really dropped the ball on the names was me. So that brings me to my next note. Oh, no.

So I got another love message this morning from Casey, my sister, about your pronunciation of Dolly's last name. Oster- So I told you that I thought it was Osterreich yeah which is also wrong okay Casey took two years of German in high school and so she

has deemed herself an expert and she says it's Eisterreich the O E together make an I sound

like A Y well I would say two years of German makes her an expert because I had one semester of law school and I had one semester of law school

and I had one semester of criminal justice and look at us go so according to my German expert sister it's eisterreich that's so much prettier than Osterholm not nearly as pretty as, what is it? Wal-ber- Wal-ber-ga. Wal-ber-ga. God. All right. That concludes this week's segment of shit Brandi fucked up on last week's episode. Thank you for joining us. On to this week's mistakes.

Great. Let's make some new mistakes today. Here we go. I'm going to start off by saying that this all comes almost entirely from two sources. An article by Rachel Ball for Crime Library and an episode of American Greed. Oh, yes. You know you're going to love it it this is kind of a good mashup because you love crime library i do and i love american greed exactly okay here we go i'm like this is our our crime baby martin marty frankel began life in toledo oh on November 21st, 1954,

as the second of three children born to the highly respected Lucas County judge, Leon Frankel, and his wife, Tilly. It wasn't really a happy family. Marty had a very strained relationship with his parents from an early age. His upbringing was always characterized as unhappy and in some cases abusive. That seems to be the consensus about his life. However, members of his family would say that that's not entirely true. And much of the those negative aspects of his childhood were created by Marty himself to gain sympathy. OK.

OK. Who knows? Who knows? Exactly. Marty was a super bright kid. He distinguished himself in school academically, but he was not very social. He was odd. And he had this view of himself where he was smarter than everyone around him.

Oh, I love people like that. That's great. Which did nothing to endear himself to his classmates. Holy! Oh! Hmm. Shockingly enough. Everyone loves a condescending ass.

Yes. Great. Yeah. So up until his last couple years of high school, Marty did excellent in school. He had great grades, though he did not apply himself at all. He was able just to kind of skate by and, you know, do very little homework, very little studying and still pick up enough to pass his classes pretty well. I used to be so jealous of those people in high school. Yeah.

That I would do that, too. But the thing is. You didn't have the same results. No. No, I wasn't smart enough to do that. So here's what i did i um i have that crazy sponge brain so like just shit like stays in there but i was terrible about doing my homework i hated doing homework uh-huh and so i do like excellent on the tests right and then i have to

like turn in a bunch of homework why would we like that i don't know i don't know yeah it's like i couldn't do the homework like right right and i'd always catch it up like i always did and so but yeah i hated doing homework i get so mad looking back at my high school self it was like you ungrateful little brat yeah you've got one job to do yes don't do it yes so um he's skating along doing really well and then all of a sudden he just isn't anymore and it turns out that marty has developed this kind of test phobia. So he's not studying. He's present in class all the time.

He's doing his classwork. But when it comes to a test, he just like freaks out. And this phobia, this pressure phobia, would carry on with him throughout the rest of his life. Had he built himself up so much in his own head that the idea of being threatened or challenged was like too much? I think likely. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. And so he managed to finish high school and get into a good college. He went to the University of Toledo. And then his anxiety about test taking just grew and grew and grew. And he ended up like racking up like 200 hours of uncompleted credits. What? Yes.

Because he just would not finish a course. God, now I'm wishing I could remember how many credits it takes to finish a bachelor's degree. Right? I mean, that seems crazy. Yes. And just like a ridiculous amount of money that would have been wasted. Yeah. Yeah.

Although this was back in the day when you could actually afford to go to school. Yes, exactly. The good old days. Yes. So he can't complete his courses because he can't handle taking the test. So he finally he drops out of college and he kind of toys with the idea of selling real estate. But as I already mentioned, he was not very personable. Yeah, you have to be. That's like the number one thing when it comes to being a realtor is you have to be able to be very personable.

You have to talk to all kinds of people and people have to trust you. Yeah. So being a know-it-all who thinks you're better than everyone else. That is like the worst job for him. Yes. Yeah. So being a know-it-all who thinks you're better than everyone else. That is like the worst job for him. Yes. Yes. So that didn't work out. So he started to take an interest in the securities markets.

So he viewed the financial markets as a way of becoming wealthy very quickly. He became obsessed with learning everything he could about the brokerage business. His textbooks were the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Businessweek. And he was still living with his parents at this time, but he was spending his days hanging around brokerage houses, learning how trades were made, what decisions were used to or what deciding factors were used about when to buy and sell stocks, and how to use like that specialized equipment that brokers use. Okay. So I don't know who was letting him like just hang around like the brokerages like this, but he got a lot of firsthand knowledge from this. Okay.

But he got a lot of firsthand knowledge from this. He was sure that the world of finance would be his ticket to the lifestyle of his dreams. So he kind of grew in this, this like theoretical knowledge of how the securities market worked. He knew the ins and outs of how everything was supposed to work. Uh-huh. But he didn't have any actual, like, hands-on knowledge of doing actual trades or anything like that. Okay. He kind of became focused on the wrong side of it as far as ethics and morals go. Great. So he became obsessed with this guy, Robert Vesco, who I'd never heard of.

No. But he swindled hundreds of millions of dollars in one of the largest frauds in U.S. history. Wow. of millions of dollars and one of the largest frauds in U.S. history. Wow. And so he became like obsessed with this guy and learning like the ins and outs of how he did what he did. But that guy got caught, right? Of course he did.

So what? Well, yeah, he could just figure out how to do it better because he's better than everyone, Kristen. I'm sorry. I forgot that he was better than everyone. Right? So in the mid 1980s, Marty decided he was going to put all of this knowledge that he had better than everyone. Right? So in the mid 1980s, Marty decided he was going to put all of this knowledge that he had gained into practice. And one of the brokerage houses

where he had spent kind of a lot of time learning things and just observing was John F. Schulte Incorporated. It was a small company in the Toledo area and had an affiliation with Dominic and Dominic, which was a big trading house in New York City. John Schulte and his wife, Sonia, who was a broker at their firm, and she was very successful by her own right. They were like the two partners at this firm. So Marty kind of like got his foot in the door here by pretending to want to be a client of theirs. Okay. Yeah.

And so he started consulting with Sonia Schultz about, you know, where the strengths in the market were and all of this. where the strengths in the market were and all of this. And then somehow this turned into him bouncing financial strategies off of her and her being convinced that he was an asset that they needed to lock down at their firm. Not a bad strategy on his part. Not at all. Not at all. But all of these hours that marty and sonja spent together started to have a toll on sonja's marriage oh no john was like i'm not thinking that i'm loving this but sonja was convinced

that marty was like the answer to taking their brokerage to like the next level because he someone who thinks that they're better than everybody else can often sell themselves oh sure yeah sure like these are the reasons i'm amazing you need me uh-huh yeah and he he talked a great game he told them that he developed this system that could help them identify stocks that would be future winners so and he he came up with all of these examples he told them you know this did this and i saw these things here and here and here and then look what this stock did well that is easy you can sure do that in hindsight it's sure yeah so like on close so so this is what won them over they're like yes come on in be a part of our firm absolutely and

then john starts looking into it further and he's like hold the fucking phone he didn't tell us about anything that is going to happen he's only told us about stuff that already happened. Yeah. So John quickly becomes very suspicious of Marty. Well, yeah, as he should. Oh, you know what, Brandi? I knew that Apple would be big. Right. Yeah. Get this.

Walmart called it day one. Yeah. We are geniuses. Okay, who wants to hire us? Right. Yeah, you've heard what we correctly predicted so john realized very quickly that he'd made a mistake hiring marty on at the firm but sonja didn't see it and marty just kept making john more and more, like with everything he did. He felt superior to everyone at this firm, even the owners of the firm themselves.

Didn't Sonia and Marty have like a romantic relationship? Okay, there we go. And it's possible that they didn't at this point yet, but it was definitely on the on ramp to that happening. I was going to say you would have to have some kind of romantic feelings to not either not see the red flags or to ignore them yeah exactly so even down to like the dress code marty just flat out ignored it he came to work every day in like jeans and a t-shirt rather than the required suit and tie fucking mart Marty, that's so rude.

Yes, it's ridiculous. All of this time, Marty just is like, keeps selling this sure shot trading system that he'd come up with. And he just keeps talking it up and talking it up and talking it up. And John's finally like, shut up. Yeah. Like, put your money where your mouth is. You haven't shown me anything. You don't even know how to trade. You can't trade. Yeah. Like put your money where your mouth is. You haven't shown me anything. You don't even know how to trade.

You can't trade. Yeah. Things finally came to a head when Ted Bitter, who was a friend of John's. So John's, Sonia's husband, the owner of the firm. He kind of fell under Marty's spell as well. Shit. He was super impressed by Marty's talk about the market, and he put his savings in Marty's hands.

Yeah. He went around John, went directly to Marty, and he was convinced that this sure shot trading system Marty had come up with would give him the money he needed for retirement. But here's the problem. John was right. Marty was all talk. He didn't have the courage to conduct an actual trade. It was just like that test anxiety. He couldn't do it. Yep. He had what's called traders block and he was afraid that his inability to do these trades was going to cause this whole facade that he'd build up built up to kind of crumble and they'd figure out that he didn't know what the fuck he was doing. Yeah. And it would have. Yeah. So he's over here trying to figure out what he's going to do about Ted Bitter.

Because Ted Bitter's put all of his financial future in his hands. Right. And he can't do a trade. He doesn't know what to do. Meanwhile, he's also fucking up the Schultz relationship with this Dominic and Dominic in New York City. So Marty had fraudulently represented himself as an authorized agent of Dominic and Dominic in New York City. So Marty had fraudulently represented himself as an authorized agent of Dominic and Dominic on leases for like the electronic equipment

that stockbrokers use. And so it was like a huge deal. It made the Schultz firm look terrible. It sullied their reputation with Dominic and Dominic. And ultimately, Marty was fired over it. Oh. Yeah. Okay.

And John was like, great. You're out of our life now. We can move on. I can get my firm back under control. Ted, come on back. I'll take care of your money. We'll figure it out. Like, let's move past this but ted still believed in marty he was sure that this

was all a misunderstanding marty had told him you know just bear with me i'm gonna get you this money i promise and so now marty's on his own with his one client ted bitter who's john's friend yeah and he starts his own brokerage business out of his parents house boy yeah so as so this will tell you how great he was at being able to talk his way into anything. He convinced Chicago's LaSalle Street Securities to let him be their representative in Toledo. Yeah. So this is like a very well established securities firm. Uh-huh. He convinces them to let him be like a remote representative for them.

Wow. Yes. remote representative for them wow yes and so with that he formed winthrop capital a corporate entity that would allow him to pursue this venture and it was just a a bullshit nothing company i mean it makes me think of the wolf of wall street yeah like he just he just created it on paper one day uh-huh yeah but this time marty went further than just fraudulently signing lease agreements when he didn't have the right to do that he actually used the name and social security number of a friend without the friend's knowledge or consent and listed that person as the president of winthrop capital why because he he would be protected then if he wasn't the president of the company what an ass yeah yeah if this backfired if somebody found out that this

wasn't real he wouldn't be the one whose name was on it yeah yeah that's nice yeah so as part of his partnership with the LaSalle straight securities Marty took out these big yellow page ads um and so it's like it's like 1986 by this time so that's a huge advertisement like a way that people are doing advertising at that point yeah Yeah. You know, nobody even knows what a fucking phone book is anymore. But at that time, that was a huge way to get word out about your company. And so he took out these these yellow page ads and claimed to be the only brokerage that insured its accounts from losses in the Toledo area. Insured its accounts from losses. So these are 100 percent protected protected investments there's no such thing

no such thing but it's just like that one case that you did remember you did the same thing yeah you but you tell people like this is a sure thing your money's safe that's all they want to hear yeah because the scariest thing about investing is the risk absolutely but like you can't uh yeah yes so this is going well for him he's getting calls and whatever yeah and by 1986 an opportunity came up from a contact that marty had made when he was working back with the schultzes so this guy douglas maxwell heard a wildly fanciful account of how successful marty was and he agreed to link up with marty to create the Frankel Fund, which would be an investment partnership fund in which a limited number of partners. So there was like a cap on how many people could get in this. And they all had to invest at least $50,000 each.

to his sure shot investment plan and turn that money into a ridiculous amount of wealth. Okay. For all of these people. Okay. So this guy, Douglas Maxwell, gets involved. And then Ted Bitter gets involved. And then this new client who had responded to one of the Yellow Pages ads, his name was John Herlihy. He gets involved.

And all of these people, they have a minimum of $50,000 to invest. So you know what they have? They have wealthy friends that they can also bring. Of course. Because who has $50,000 of disposable income that they're just going to throw at this? Right, Besides me. Yeah. And that's the end.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Marty was running the Frankel fund out of his bedroom in his parents' home. But none of these people knew that. Of course not. Yeah. How old was he?

Gosh, I don't know. So he's born in 54. So by this time, he's in his 30s. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. By this time, things are going pretty well. He's managing to sell this Frankel fund as a real investment.

And nobody's asking for their money back yet. So it's working. But Marty knows that where the real retirement money is, is Florida. And so he needs to move to Palm Beach, Florida. And there will be tons of investors there. And this guy, Douglas Maxwell, has a ton of partnerships in Palm Beach, Florida. So Frankel decides he's going to move there and really grow this fund there. Eventually, like upwards of a million dollars find their way into this Frankel fund.

So it's got investor upon investor upon investor. And most of it was lost on bad trades. Douglas Maxwell ended up being the one who did all of the trades because Marty couldn't do it because of his anxiety. And most of it was lost um the stuff that wasn't lost was used to cover marty's living expenses what do you mean lost though like bad trades like they lost it in the market that's impossible though because he had yeah you're right he had that sure shot method. And it was guaranteed to not lose money.

So I just don't understand how this could have happened. Finally, the jig was up. Yeah, I mean, there's only so long you can do this. Ted Bitter realizes that his money's gone. John Herlihy is like, fuck, where'd my money go? And Marty can't produce it for them right and so they go to authorities in a panic to try and keep this from going down frankel managed to like round up a certain amount of money and pay off the biggest investor to the fund so somebody

could say that they had come out okay but he couldn't give money back to everybody it was just gone yeah so in 1991 the securities and exchange commission the sec finished up an investigation into this and they barred martin frankl for life from the securities business they said you're not a he's not a genius he's not a financier he's kind of like a a woody allen character that people kind of feel sorry for and then trust because of it uh-huh yeah oh that's weird yeah and so because he doesn't he doesn't look like a threat. Mm hmm. Yeah. OK. So in 1991, he was he was banned from the securities business for life. They didn't spend a ton of time on this investigation because it wasn't a ton of money that was involved.

There weren't a ton of people involved. It seemed like he was just a small time operator and that that with him being banned, like, the threat was gone. Okay. But what the SEC missed, because they didn't do a very big investigation, was that Frankel had already created a new venture over on the side. How did they miss that? I don't – they just didn't go in deep enough. So in 1989, he had already created Creative Partners Fund, which was another scam, just like the Frankel Fund. But the minimum investment this time was only $10,000. Oh, good. Get more people

in there. Yes, exactly. So it was designed to pull in a much broader base of investors and it didn't require like a certain level of net worth to be involved. Like your everyday people could get in this. Yes. And they're being guaranteed that their money is safe. Yes. Yeah. He hadn't created this on his own. And this is also partly why the SEC didn't find it. He had done it with the help of an established broker. Someone we've already met in this story. She didn't. Sonia.

No. Set up the fund for him. She had left John by this time and filed for divorce. And she was helping Marty. And so despite his lifetime ban, Marty's like, I am good. They didn't even see that this is going on. I'm golden. I'm going to keep on keeping on.

Yeah. Yeah. So he was preparing to take this to the next level. He was focusing on creating shell corporations, opening offshore accounts, and learning how to launder money. Oh, great. Yes. Yep. Uh-huh.

So at some point in 1991, Marty met this guy, John Hackney, who was a Tennessee businessman. And he had some banking experience. And he thought, like, this Tennessee guy thought that he was, like, this great business guy. So you've got this guy who thinks he's a genius meeting up with Marty who knows he's a fucking genius. I mean, just a match made in heaven, right? Yeah. And so he comes up with this idea that he wants Marty's help in. He wants him to put together a group of investors to buy this troubled life insurance company, Franklin American Life Insurance

Company of Franklin, Tennessee. So there's a reason that he wanted him to buy a life insurance company. And I'll get there in just a minute. Because I'm like, what the fuck are you going to do with a life insurance company? It's interesting. OK. So around this time, Marty has started up another trust company the third sooner sooner that can't be how that's pronounced i would hope not

t-h-u-n-o-r sooner sooner yeah i mean i, sooner or later. That's terrible. Wait, they had their choice to make this? They made this up, yes. Oh, my. So he sets up this trust company. And according to the documents that were set up with this, it had a $3.7 million fund from investors. That's very impressive. Yes.

And again, Marty wasn't alone in setting this up. Uh-huh. Yep. His good buddy, Sonia, was all on that paperwork with him, as was someone who had no idea that he was involved in any way. Oh, that same friend? Different friend. Okay.

The Tennessee guy, John Hackney. All of a sudden, he's the sole trustee of this Thuner Trust. And he has no idea. Wow. Yes. So he had started, so Marty had started this trust company right about the same time that he met Hackney because he liked this idea of buying these life insurance companies. And he was like, let's set this up in a way that I am protected, but I can get my hands on this money. Because here's what I didn't know about life insurance companies. So they can often, when they're in trouble, they can be purchased at a very low price.

But they're often valued way higher than that because there are state regulations that require insurance companies to keep very large reserves of money so that they can pay out claims to policyholders. Sure. That makes sense. Yes. So when an insurance company is in trouble, it is sold off at a very low price, but it has a big cash reserve on hand because of state requirements. I feel like you're giving us business tips. And so Hackney meets up with Marty and he's like, hey, let's save this insurance company. Yeah. And Marty's like, yes, let's. Excellent idea. Excellent idea. Very good.

Yeah. And so we're talking about millions of dollars in reserve funds. So like he could buy a life insurance company for like $48,000 and it might have a hundred or $48 million and it might have $150 million in reserve money. Holy shit. Yeah. Yes. How is that even possible?

Because that money wasn't allowed to be included in the valuation of the company. Because it is set aside specifically for the policyholders. And they can't touch it to save their own business. Okay. Correct. Yes. Isn't that interesting? That's fascinating.

Yeah. So then you got this scumbag coming in here and he's like, I don't care what they say. I'll take all the money. Oh my God. Yeah. So the plan was to use the large reserve funds after an acquisition to buy another insurance company. So you take the reserve, you buy another one, you buy another one, you buy another one.

This is working out so great for us. Let's buy as many as we can. Yes. Yes. So the trick was to deceive the regulators into thinking that the reserves were untouched, which required a lot of creative money transfers from company to company because they were completely looting these reserves. Sure. Because Marty wanted to build this insurance empire. And then he also was using that money to fund this lavish lifestyle that he had always dreamed of.

Yeah. So yeah. So it's like you buy a company. Yeah. He had gotten super good at figuring out how to funnel the money so that the watchdogs wouldn't notice it. Uh huh. And he'd completely just like deplete those reserve funds.

Yep. So the first insurance company to be purchased under this scheme was the Franklin American Life Insurance Company. And he purchased that in October of 1991. Insurance regulators were thrilled to see this company saved because that's what it looked like. It looked like they saved it. It was like this Thuner Trust was going to put like $4 million into it. And in return, it had a $20 million reserve fund. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So the first thing he did after acquiring this first insurance company was to shut down the creative partners fund he didn't need that anymore he pulled some money out of the insurance company paid off those investors i'm this is small potatoes yeah i'm done with that yeah i'm on to bigger and better things oh my god i'm not dealing in tens of thousands of dollars anymore i'm dealing in millions oh my god yeah so this has at this point, a giant Ponzi scheme. Yeah. It's huge. The scale of which they're not even sure of to this day.

They don't have an exact number of how. It's somewhere between. Are you ready for this? Yes. $200 million and $1 billion. What? Yes. 200 million and 1 billion dollars what yes because it just kept growing and growing and growing and it just snowballed yeah yeah that is crazy i think it's crazy that they can't get an exact like i know and then it would be that big yes yeah holy shit. But it was simple.

Investors give the investment company money and expect a profit. And they, you know, are given breadcrumbs along the way. They're like, of course, here's your money. Of course your money's doing well. Yes. Look how well you, oh, you want to pull some out? Absolutely. Yeah. As long as no one wants to pull all of their money out.

Yeah. Yes. Yep. So this keeps going. More insurance companies, more people are involved. I'm not even sure what the number of companies that they ended up buying for in it. But by 1998, this Thuner Trust claimed to have $434 million in assets when in actuality it had nothing. Yeah. That's amazing.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Isn't that nuts? I'm sure this guy's personality got so much worse after you've been caught and nothing really happens to you and then you go on and make something so much bigger yeah yeah you would think you were the biggest genius in the world yeah are you ready for this next part i'm i'm waiting for the vatican takes we're here okay we're here and this is the craziest shit i've ever heard okay so things are going really well he's got this empire built

but it's not enough he decides that he needs to set up a charitable foundation that has visible links to the Catholic Church and the Vatican. The exact reasons for this obsession are not clear, but most likely it's that he thought that if he could link the biggest business in the world, That he thought that if he could link the biggest business in the world, that it would offer protection of some form. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. At the end of the day, the Catholic Church is the largest business in the world.

And they're really good at covering up bad stuff. Uh-huh. And so he thought that this would lend an air of respectability to his business. Yeah. Legitimacy. Respectability. Yep. Absolutely. And he may have even believed that it would make it easier to buy larger insurance companies. If he had the backing of the Catholic Church, it would maybe make people do less investigation into him when he's looking to acquire something. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. So Marty spent a lot of time researching individuals that he thought could help him, like, get this idea going. Eventually, he found three prominent people that he deceived into putting their reputations, careers, and futures on the line for him.

Thomas Bolin, Father Peter Jacobs, and Monsignor Emilio Colagiiovanni. Monsignor, Monsignor Emilio Colla Giovanni. Monsignor. Monsignor. So Thomas Boland was actually a lawyer and he was he knew a lot of people. He was a close personal friend of President Ronald Reagan. OK. Okay. He was a very, he was a super conservative guy, but he was very well respected and had, was, his ties to the Catholic church were very well known. Sure.

Father Peter Jacobs was considered a celebrity priest in New York. He devoted his life with great success to the poor and downtrodden in New York City. He was known as Father Jake, and he was known as kind of a liberal priest who was well-connected in Rome, though he spent most of his time in New York City. He was actually a good friend of Gloria Steinem and Norman Mailer. Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, yeah, he'd have to be a liberal priest then.

Yeah. Okay. And he served for many years as a chaplain to kids in a Harlem high school. So he was very involved in some good things in New York City. And then Monsignor Emilio Collegiovanni. Emilio Colagiovanni. He was a elderly judge emeritus of the Roman Rota, which is a church tribunal. I don't know much about the Catholic church.

I'm sorry. So I don't know what the fuck it means. And he also was the president of the Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation, He also was the president of the Monitor Ecclesiasticus Foundation, which was some kind of foundation that was established in Naples in 1967. So what would these three distinguished men. Why would they spend their time talking to Marty Frankel? Money. The answer, of course, is money, Kristen. Yeah.

So Frankel reaches out to them and he doesn't even he's not even going by Marty Frankel at this time. He's assumed some other identity. He's calling himself David Rossi, which is actually a real friend of his. Because I guess if they, you know, look too hard into Marty Frankel, they might find out that he's not who he says he is. Sure. Why not? Yeah. And so he convinced these three that he was a wealthy genius and he wanted to give some

$50 million to Catholic charities. And he needed their help to do that. Yeah, who's going to question that, right? Yeah. Yeah. So he did a lot of preparation for this, and they kind of call this like his ultimate con. He became an expert on the Catholic Church

and on St. Francis of Assisi. He sent like his employees on missions to scour bookstores and the internet for every possible volume they could find on the subjects. Dozens of books on St. Francis and other Catholic saints like filled Frankel's library. And he watched their like Franco Zeffirelli film about St. Francis, like, over and over and over again. He wanted to know everything he could and recite it at the drop of a hat. He could give a complete recitation of the 13th century saints' life, and he could discuss all of the details of, like,

every bit of the Catholic Church. He knew it all, inside and out. He could answer any question any of these three could come up with. Huh. answer any question any of these three could come up with. Huh. But I'm, I'm willing to bet that they didn't have that many questions for him, right?

I'm sure they didn't. Yeah. So he pitched it, um, as this idea of setting up the St. Francis of Assisi Foundation. And it seemed like a good idea. They were impressed with Frankel, a.k.a. Rossi's, knowledge of Catholic saints and institutions and promised to help introduce the proposal to decision makers in the Vatican. They're like, we're taking this directly to the source.

We got you. Taking it to the source. We got you. Taking it to the man with the biggest hat. Yes. But by the time that meeting in Rome took place, the idea had changed a little bit. The foundation would be headquartered in Liechtenstein, and it would have secret bylaws designating Rossi as the original grantor of the $55 million endowment. $50 million of those funds would be forwarded to a U.S. brokerage account, which, of course, Rossi would, you know, have full control over. Sure, because he's so good at managing money. That's correct. That's, yeah, you so good at managing money that's correct that's

yeah you that's correct and then the other five million would of course kristen would go directly into an account um that was controlled by the vatican yeah of course that seems like a good split yeah yeah i'll take this 50 million and then uh you guys can control this five million. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So as if those, that didn't get like shady enough. Yeah. Rossi added another stipulation that said their agreement will include that the Vatican's promise

that the Vatican will aid Rossi in his effort to acquire insurance companies and it would permit it, it would permit a Vatican official to certify to the authorities, if necessary, that the source of the funds is the Vatican. Wait, say that one more time. So there was a stipulation in this agreement that the Vatican, if they started this fund, the Vatican would then help Rossi,

Frankel, acquire more insurance companies. And that, if needed, the Vatican would say that they were paying for the insurance companies rather than Frankl. That is so unethical. Yeah. And the church agreed to it. Well, apparently somebody at the vatican was paying attention because it didn't get completed in the way that frankel wanted okay um the final deal did take place but it wasn't exactly how marty proposed it it would not be so it wouldn't be directly tied to the vatican instead it was tied to monsignor

cola giovanni and his existing foundation that he worked with okay so it was tied to the vatican through a third party because the monsignor's organization was tied to the Vatican and now this fund was tied to right okay so he didn't get exactly what he wanted but most of the aspects of that original 55 million dollar deal remained in place well yeah he got very damn close he got way too damn close to exactly what he wanted. So they've, as this kind of all came out, they started calling this the immaculate connection. Oh, gross. But basically it would keep a regulatory community from looking too closely at his insurance empire. Uh-huh. And the church would benefit from a safe distance.

Mm-hmm. From his crooked dealings. It was the perfect deal for everyone. They got to have money funneled to them without it, you know, looking too terrible. Mm-hmm. And he got the backing he needed. This makes me sick. It's horrible.

Yeah. So, by this time, I mean, I think Marty's head's fucking huge. He can barely stand up straight. Well, sure. Right? So, he has just started. His whole life, he wanted to be popular. He wanted to be liked. He didn't have anything to offer in the personality category.

But now he had the thing that can make up for a lack of personality. Money. Money. That's right. Yeah, he was quoted as saying money buys love. Oh, yes. Boy, honey. Yeah. So Marty had not had a sexual relationship in his life until Sonia. Like, so he was he was 32 years old by the time that he and Sonia started having an affair. And that was the first sexual relationship he'd ever had in his life.

By now, by this time, Marty is living his best life. He has all the money in the world. He decides he is going to set up this amazing house and he's going to move Sonia and her daughters in. And so he leases this crazy mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. I have an address for you if you want to look it up. He leased it? He leased it.

Probably he can't buy it because they start looking too deep into his finances, right? I thought you leased a car. I didn't think you leased a house. You didn't lease a house? Oh, okay. These are the things I don't know. Okay, lay that on me uh 889 lake avenue greenwich connecticut okay got it got it here we go oh i'm just looking at a rock wall okay um hang on i think i saw it on zillow

i saw like a little picture of it earlier. It says it's currently not for sale, but it's 6,800 square feet. Yeah, it's huge. Good. And this is like. Yeah, I can't find an actual picture of the house itself, though. That's a bummer. Hang on.

Try. Ooh, okay. Go to Remax. They've got the bird's eye view of the place. Oh, good. Ooh. Oh, yeah. I mean, the house has a parking lot.

It in fact does. That is a honking piece of property. No kidding. In Greenwich, Connecticut. That is a hefty price tag, you know. Pronounced Greenwich. It is not pronounced Greenwich, Connecticut. That is a hefty price tag, you know. Pronounced Greenwich. It is not pronounced Greenwich! So, he sets up this house.

He moves Sonia and her daughters in. Her poor ex-husband, can you imagine? Oh, no. No. Although, you know, I'm sure he eventually... Yeah. But, along with all of this money comes paranoia from Marty, obviously. And he sets up all of this crazy security stuff.

He has this high fence installed around the entire three acre property, which, of course, pissed all the neighbors off. Well, sure. which of course pissed all the neighbors off. Well, sure. And rumors started spreading constantly around town about all the secretive behavior that was going on at this compound. They started calling it a compound. Mm-hmm. So his empire is growing.

His embezzlement scheme is going perfectly. He's got the girl. He's got the house. His ego is fucking huge uh-huh so now i mean if his ego was huge when he was living in mommy and daddy's house running a business out of his bedroom yeah this has to be ridiculous so what do you think is missing from his life now kristen oh gosh well i mean could be a mistress could be i mean for me it'd be a dog you haven't mentioned a dog um more stuff um you were close on the mistress okay kinky sex kristen he's missing kinky sex. I should have guessed

it. You should have. So this dark side of Marty starts to emerge. And he became obsessed with S&M and group sex. So he sets up like this other house on the same street

in Greenwich and he basically is running a brothel out of it. The neighbors are pissed. Can you imagine? You've got a multi-million dollar house and then next door is a brothel for some weirdo. Sonia's pissed. Yeah.

There were just young women of all forms coming in and out of this house. One was shaped like a star all forms he was putting ads in the paper like snm ads and people were responding to them and coming in the house there was just like girls everywhere they called it his harem like it's just disgusting yeah yeah and it was just escalating and escalating and just. I'm sorry. The woman's name is Sylvia, right? Sonia. Sonia.

Sonia. Sonia knew about this. Yeah. And she was his only real traitor, right? Or she was a critical part. She was a critical part in setting up all of the legitimate, like the companies in the beginning. Yes. She leaves. she's over it she she and the girls move out yeah no kidding yeah she's had enough um i think the brothel is where i would also draw the line yeah so at some point a young woman named francis burge responds to one of marty's ads i mean these are like ads in like a

shady men's magazine like well sure yeah and so she shows up at the house and he is just he's not impressed with her she's not what he's looking for but he allows her to stay and she stays for a while and then well her name was francis so she was secretly 70, right? And then. Something happened. And in the summer of 1997, she was found hanging on the deck. In the back of the mansion. Oh, my God.

Yeah. It was ruled a suicide. No wasn't it was it was um it was the other women in the house said she battled with depression and whatever so who knows what happened i mean poor francis but yeah this was kind of like the tipping point for Marty. He was like, oh, shit. I think everything's about to spiral out of control. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yes.

It was inevitable. And Marty finally knew it. Eventually, some state insurance regulator would start poking around and the jig would be up. Yeah. Like the beginning of the end came in Mississippi. Wire transfers in and out of insurance company reserve accounts were central to deceiving the state regulators. We talked about that early on. Like he had a way of making the reserves look like they hadn't been touched when he was funneling the money out of them. Yeah.

And so the insurance commissioner in Mississippi, George Dale, started asking questions about where this money would be going. So he's like, why is money being funneled in and out all the time? Like this doesn't make sense. And he was like the first one to kind of catch this. And this has been going on for years at this point. Yeah. It's May of 1999. Oh my God.

Yeah. And he's like, I think that something's going on here. And so he made some phone calls and he started looking into one specific one of these insurance companies, Liberty National Securities. That was it was actually Liberty National Securities was actually handling the funds of one of these insurance companies. And so he called up Liberty and he wanted to talk to whoever's in charge. It turns out that Liberty National Securities was nothing more than a mailbox in New York. Uh-huh. Yep. And so he started taking a

deeper look. And he started looking into the St. Francis of Assisi Foundation. And each step he took, he got more and more concerned. He wasn't exactly sure what he had found but he knew something was

up something was up and so he placed marty's three mississippi-based insurance companies under state supervision whoa big fucking deal yeah Yeah. So it all came tumbling down in May of 1999. So Marty suddenly had to make all of these plans. He started delegating key tasks to his colleagues. He had false passports made. He got fake identities made. He gathered several million dollars in diamonds.

That's what you need. He had cash. He had hideouts organized. He gassed up a private jet to make his escape out of the United States. All the while, he had his astrological guide

with him telling him what his next move should be. What was his sign? I don't know. I bet he was a Scorpio. Can we look it up? Yeah. Well, we know his birthday.

Okay. His birthday is November 21st. Is that a Scorpio? I think so. Shut up. I think it is. Scorpio date site. Okay, hang on.

October 23rd to November 22nd. Knew it. Knew it. Is it because you're also a Scorpio? Yeah, we're the assholes. We're the assholes with the big egos. That's correct brandy

you're supposed to be like no so just a couple days after those mississippi companies were put under observation or what what did i say they called it state supervision state supervision marty along with two of his girlfriends slash employees maybe uh-huh well you can buy love fled the united states and headed to europe if obviously he doesn't get away with this but he's an idiot for not getting away with this. If you can't get away with it and you have your own private jet. No fucking shit.

And you have millions of dollars. Yeah. You're an idiot. Yeah. So at his mansion, he left behind all kinds of crazy shit like burnt papers and all kinds of records and a handwritten to-do list and task number one was escape launder money followed by get money to israel to get back in

you're kidding me no he left behind his plan like what an idiot who writes launder money on a to-do list yeah so he also left behind one of his astrological charts which was designed to help him answer the following questions will i go to prison will tom turn me in should i leave should i wire money back from overseas will i be safe what do you think the answer to those questions are well i'm thinking the authorities were like great who's this tom guy we got to go find him four months went by with marty frankel on the run he was not really on the run he was shacked up in a posh hotel in germany thinking he was such an idiot yeah a fucking idiot like he was just hanging out with that girlfriend slash employee named Cindy. They like, so four months have gone by.

They've had this great dinner. It's like 11 o'clock. They're laying in bed in this posh hotel room and Marty sits up and he's like, what was that? And he says that he heard a noise at the door. And Cindy's like, you're being ridiculous. And he's like, I think they're coming to get me. And she's like, stop. Like, they haven't come to get you yet. Nobody's here.

Nobody knows you're here. It's been four whole months. It's been four whole months. We're doing great. We just ate all this lobster. I'm going to sleep. Just then, two German policemen broke into the room, and they took Marty Frankel into custody.

It's actually funny because when they came in the room, they were focused on Cindy, and they seemed very confused because Marty just didn't look like an international fugitive. very confused because marty just didn't look like an international fugitive finally he was like because he's just this like tall lanky skinny guy and finally he was like i'm it's me i'm the one you're looking for martin what was his frankel frankel okay i gotta look him up oh yeah no he he looks pretty lame. Yeah. Gosh, were his glasses always askew or was that just one bad picture?

I think always. God, the confidence that white men have. I'm telling you. OK, OK, I'm good. So in October of 1999, Martin Frankel was indicted for masterminding the fraud that looted an alleged $200 million from insurance companies in several states. So prosecutors in the U.S. were building their case against Marty, but he's still over in Germany because Germany was building their own case against him for carrying false passports and various customs infractions, including smuggling in millions of dollars in diamonds. I don't understand what he was doing with the millions of dollars in diamonds. See, I think I think the diamonds were a good idea. Why?

If you're truly going to go on the run, you could use diamonds to get whatever currency you need. You don't have to go through a bank. I mean, it's not a terrible idea. I just wouldn't even know how to go about accruing millions of dollars in diamonds. Well, that's one of the things that separates you from this man. Do you think he went to Jared? He was all over Jared.

I hate those commercials. So. I do too. I don't care for him at all. So he's over here in Germany and he, in a surprise move, pled guilty to the charges in Germany because he believed it could help him delay or maybe even completely avoid extradition to the United States. Hmm. So. Did he just believe that on his own or did a lawyer? Well, no, I think he just believed it on his own.

So here's why. So in June of 2000, Marty was 45 years old by that time. He was sentenced to three years in jail in Germany and fined $1.6 million in diamonds. Great. For the smuggling charges so when that happened he did an interview with like a german newspaper and was like this is what i'm facing here and i will gladly pay for my crime but if you extradite me to the united states i will be looking at the rest of my life in prison, which is cruel and unusual.

No, it's not. Will you, as a country, Germany, allow that to happen? What? Yes, he basically, like, said, you need to protect me. You know how crazy that American justice system is. Save me. Keep me here. Don't extradite me,

because you know what's waiting for me there is cruel and unusual. He's equated it to basically a death sentence. Oh, I don't even know what to say this guy drives me nuts yeah yeah like he's gonna be germany's charity case yes that's exactly what he said he said so sorry for you i hope that germany will respect its commitment to human rights. Fuck right off! You don't have a right to commit crimes and then escape the justice system. That's not your human right.

No! Fuck right off! Yes. So he entered into kind of this lengthy appeals process in Germany. Meanwhile, the case is working its way through the justice system in America. Were the people of Germany like feeling so sorry for them? They all just reached into their pockets.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Finally, in March of 2001, it became clear that Marty was going to be extradited to the United States. And so, of course, he did what any normal person would do and he attempted to use a piece of wire to cut through the bars of his cell and escape.

But he was caught on security camera. Sure. And two weeks later, But he was caught on security camera. Sure. And two weeks later, he was officially charged in, arraigned in American court, and he pled not guilty to the charges of stealing $215 million from insurance companies. He also pled not guilty to charges of racketeering, money laundering, and fraud. Why didn't the Germans save him? He was facing up to 150 years in prison and $6.5 million in fines.

Okay. So he was ready to fight it, and he really, I don't... Well, because he was not guilty. Not guilty, that's exactly right. And it was all so cruel and unusual. That's right. Ultimately, he ended up pleading guilty in exchange for a much lighter sentence. Good call.

17 years is what he ended up being sentenced to. He only got 17 years? 17 years! Okay. That must have been just some lazy prosecution because... 17 years. I think that there was partially part of it was that he had to agree to kind of tell them how he did certain things. See, that's what I mean by lazy prosecution.

Well, maybe lazy is not the right word, but it's one of those crimes that I'm sure it's hard to know exactly what we have here. It's kind of risky to take it in front of a jury, so ugh, God. 17 years. 17 years. And he didn't end up serving all 17 years. Shut up! He's already out

of prison. Oh, come on! I hate this. He's out of prison. He did get in trouble following his release oh so part of the so i think he served he was released in 2015 um so i don't know total time served because he was spent some time in germany and whatever but um i mean 11 years i think is what he spent in prison. Good grief. He really had nothing to fear about America then. No. Yeah.

So somewhere between 11 and 13 years, I think, is what he ended up serving. So part of the condition of his early release was that he had to spend six months in a halfway house. And he got in trouble when he was at the halfway house. And he got sent back to prison for a time. Really? Yeah, because they said he had a bad attitude. So the judge sent him back to prison for like a couple months. And then he had to go do it again.

And he's out of prison now. Wow. What's he doing now? I don't know. He has no money now. And he can't do any kind of business. Well, we've heard that before. Right.

So I'm not sure. I don't know what he's up to these days. Wow. Yeah. I'm not sure I don't know what he's up to these days Wow yeah so In September of 2002 82 year old Monsignor

Kola Giovanni pled guilty to participating In the insurance Scam and I don't Know Got somewhere around five years For it death sentence In other words right Yeah I mean yeah and then sonia

schultz whatever she also ended up pleading guilty to lesser charges of racketeering and money laundering and served some amount of time nothing significant Yep. That was crazy. Yeah. Maybe he was a genius. If he only served that amount of time. For what he did. Yeah. Good grief.

Yeah. Yep. Man, white collar crime is where it's at. No kidding. Yeah, isn't that nuts? Yeah, he was officially released on october 27 2016 so from the halfway house and everything so it's been a free man for the last two and a half years isn't that nuts i'm so angry right now and that like i'm just thinking of all the people who are in prison for like pot or like just like this guy but clearly clearly he's some level of genius that he managed

to make some crazy connections with the fucking vatican i mean he you know I hate to call people geniuses. I know. But I think when you throw ethics to the wind. Oh, yeah. And you have an understanding that money can buy everything. And, you know, I think we all know enough about the Catholic Church now to know that you can. They're not always on the up and up. Crazy. That was one of the craziest fraud cases I've ever come across. Like the scope of it is nuts and that they still don't even really know.

Yeah. Like 200 million is like the minimum. And you know he's got money squirreled away somewhere. He's doing just fine. I, yeah. I guarantee you Marty Frankel is doing just fine. I, yeah. I guarantee you Marty Frankel is doing just fine. Yes. Absolutely.

Yeah. Probably looking at his astrological chart right now. Did you say afterlogical? Astrological. Okay, let's, I'm going to pull it up. Should we pull up his horoscope for today? Yeah. Yeah.

Let's see what it is. Okay. Taking the easy way out won't tempt you in the least today. This is not to say that you usually favor this approach by any means, yet it's safe to say that everyone is tempted from time to time. Well, goddamn. Well, if that's not fitting for Marty. Oh, Marty.

Oh, Marty. You know what I'm guessing? Huh? I'm guessing authorities don't want to know how big this thing was. Oh, I guarantee. Because if they found out how big it was, if people found out, and then it was like, yeah, we let him stay in jail for seven years then there'd be outrage there is actually let me see if i can find this quote that

i was gonna read i skipped over it earlier when they kind of did like a deep dive into this and figure out what the fuck happened uh-huh so congress looked into this so congress's general general accounting office in september of 2000 looked into this and they placed the blame on how this got so out of control and so missed they placed the blame squarely on state insurance regulators um so congressman john dingle of the House Commerce Committee wrote, This travesty occurred because state insurance regulators were either too blind to see or too unwilling to acknowledge the scam Mr. Frankel perpetrated. This fraud went on for far too long, not because Mr. Frankel was clever and deceptive, but because he was operating in an environment where the regulators lacked the skill, authority, access to basic information resources,

and healthy skepticism necessary. Wow. Ooh! Ooh! Yeah, not good. No. Okay, I'm going to run to the bathroom. Yes.

I will be right back to talk to you about road rage. Ooh! Okay. It was February 11, 2000. Sarah McBurnett was driving down the road near San Jose International Airport with her 10-year-old dog, Leo, in the car. Leo is a Bichon Frise. Mm-hmm.

So one of those super cute little fluffy white dogs about that okay what is it my mom and i were at a like a pet store one time and it was like one of those gross pet stores that has like the puppy mill dogs yeah but um i think we were buying fish and we weren't definitely weren't buying a puppy mill dog okay anyway um we were looking at the dogs and there was this girl there with her mom she was like a teenage girl and she looked at one and she goes mom is that a bitchin in a way it was that's cute yeah um so sarah and bitchin' were heading down the road, and they were going to the airport to pick up Sarah's husband, who is a pilot, when all of a sudden this SUV cut them off.

Sarah says she couldn't help it. She accidentally tapped the SUV's bumper. You know, it happens. So both vehicles pulled over. Sarah sat in her car gathering her license, registration, and insurance. But the driver of the SUV jumped out of his vehicle and he stormed over to Sarah's car and started yelling at her. She rolled down her window and apologized, you know, trying to say, hey, I didn't mean it. But, you know, this guy was pissed.

He was just this, you know, angry 20-something-year-old white guy yelling at her. And the apology did nothing. He was enraged. Leo hopped up onto her lap, wagging his tail. Pause. Is something going to fucking happen to Leo?

How dare you, Kristen? And that's when the man reached through Sarah's... I'm sorry. Reached through Sarah's open window, pulled Leo off of her lap and out of the car.

The man threw the dog into oncoming traffic. What the fuck is the matter with you? I'm not the one who did it. You picked this case. You know I can't handle dog stuff. I thought about warning you. Traffic was heavy that night.

Sarah freaked out. She says she loved Leo like a child. Oh, God, I regret doing this one. The look on your face. I'm so sorry. So she ran into oncoming traffic to try to save Leo. But before she could get to him, he was struck several times. She was.

What is the matter with you? I'm so sorry. I'm looking at your face right now. I feel terrible. I knew this would be. Are you going to make me watch A Dog's Purpose next? No. I don't think anyone should watch it.

There's a new one, A Dog's Way Home's out now. You want to check that out? I would never. Listen, Marley and Me, I watched that one time. Couldn't handle it. No. I can't do any of those. Okay, so Leo's fucking dead.

Great. Well, not yet. Oh, no. He's just been hurt really badly by several cars. He's been struck several times. So Sarah was able to reach Leo. She brought him back to her car. By that point,

the man in the SUV had sped off. She rushed him to a veterinary hospital, but Leo died on the way there. Of course he did. Sarah was traumatized by the whole ordeal, obviously. As was Brandy just hearing about it. She says she was so overcome by grief that it didn't even occur to her to call the police until a few days later.

But she did. By that point, a lot of people who'd been on the road that day and witnessed what that man had done had already called the police. Because can you imagine if you saw that happen? No, I can't! I mean, that would be so traumatizing for everyone. I could have lived my whole life and never heard that something like that had happened. I'm sorry. You've been doing so well lately.

I just wanted to drag you back down. You're going to break me down? So Sarah told the police her story. And soon enough, word got out. Sarah worked hard to find the man who killed Leo. All she really had to do was tell her story. That was enough to get people involved. Soon, donations poured in.

Someone created a website to monitor the story and give updates on the quest for Leo, which back in the day, setting up a website in 2000, people cared. Police gathered descriptions from eyewitnesses

and they had a sketch artist work on a composite of the man. Sarah told them what she could. He was a white guy, probably between 20 and 28. He had a goatee. He drove a dark SUV with Virginia plates. But it was tough. Sarah's description wasn't the same as some of the other witnesses,

and no one had memorized the license plate but the public rallied around sarah within just a few weeks of telling her story they raised forty thousand dollars as a reward for the arrest and capture of the angry white men as the story became more widespread, so this is where, okay, I'm going to say this next part. A lot of people questioned why so much money was being raised

over a dead dog when there were so many other worthy causes. This became like a big thing in the press. Like, you know, they'd tell the story, people would freak out and donations would pour in and then, you know, people would freak out about like donations would pour in and then you know

people would freak out about like what about missing children what about this what about that yeah what are your thoughts on that i think you'd never some yes there are probably more worthy causes but you don't know what people get drawn in on cases like on on stories like this and yes people want to help yeah like yes there are more worthy causes but i don't think it's unusual i it's funny because as i was reading this i started feeling myself a little like wow all this and you know i'm obsessed with my dog i love my dog to death but i was kind of like oh i don't know but one of the things i really dislike is when people are like why are you doing that when you could be doing that why are you giving to that charity

when there's also this other channel it's like shut up. People are trying to do something nice. People are trying to right a wrong. Quit it with your gatekeeping. Is that an example of gatekeeping? It's not. Is it? Might be. Should we look up an official definition? Gatekeeping is when you're like,

you can't be cultured unless you can tell the difference between, you know, blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So, the activity of controlling

and usually limiting... Meh. Meh. Maybe not. Meh, maybe not. I don't know. I just don't like it when... Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Weeks went by, but nothing was really happening police had hundreds of leads but none of them were the right guy turns out it's really easy to say hey i found an angry white man very hard to say i found the angry white man absolutely sarah got frustrated she went on oprah she talked about what happened and police got 80 more tips but time kept marching on 80 specifically yeah that's what this article said who am i to question should i have said 83 i? I don't know. The reward fund grew to more than $120,000.

Yeah, that seems like a lot, right? It might be. Finally, after a 14-month investigation, police got a tip that led to a man named Andrew Burnett. He was an out-of-work telephone repairman that led to a man named Andrew Burnett. He was an out-of-work telephone repairman. Yeah, I'm with you. Okay.

And he was 27. He was already in jail. Oh. For what? Turns out, he'd been charged with stealing thousands of dollars worth of equipment from his former employer. Oh. Why do people steal at work? Then you lose your job.

You lose your job and you get in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. No, don't steal from work. Don't steal at all. How about? Well, but especially, I mean, if we're giving advice. Also, he was charged with lying to get out of a speeding ticket

is that an official crime yeah apparently it is so here's what he did he got caught speeding and then filed a document saying that he couldn't have been speeding that day because he was in bosnia serving in the military okay Okay. Seems like a pretty easy thing for authorities. So obviously he was not in Bosnia. Andrew's trial took place in June of 2001. And it was pretty

short. He pled not guilty to felony animal cruelty charges. Because, here's the thing, this had all been a gigantic misunderstanding. Listen, and boy, you are going to be

feeling pretty bad for our buddy Andrew, who might be in Bosnia right now, might not be, I don't know. In opening arguments, defense attorney Mark Garcia. I missed a word in the script. Said Sarah McBurnett hit Andrew's car twice that day.

And yes, yes, he was angry. So he walked to her car to confront her. And he was standing outside her driver's side door, gesturing for her to pull over, when Leo bit his hand. So just running off natural instincts like anybody would. He flung him into oncoming traffic. Yeah, yeah, it was your oopsies. No.

The dog dropped to his side. And, you know, after that happened, well, you know, Andrew just walked back to his car, waited for the light to turn green, and went on his merry way. Bullshit. He, well,

he had no way of knowing that Leo would die. You know, he was just, he just acted the way anyone would. No. When they got bit on the hand. No. Bullshit. Deputy District Attorney Troy Benson said the exact same thing in court.

He said, no. Bullshit. Bullshit. No. No. Troy said, Sarah, whoa, whoa, whoa. Sarah accidentally bumped into this guy's car and he went ballistic. After he cut her off. Let's not leave that out. Well, you know, I just, I don't really get road rage.

It's like these things just happen sometimes. I don't really get road rage. It's like these things just happen sometimes. It was an innocent accident. And thanks to Andrew, Sarah is scarred for life. Ah, yes. And so is Brandy. Weird that they didn't mention you. I know.

A witness testified that Andrew jumped out of his car, flailing his arms and yelling. He did not angrily yet calmly walk to Sarah's vehicle. He said that Andrew threw the dog about five feet. Other eyewitnesses also testified. And Sarah took the stand. She sobbed. She told the whole story and she said that, leo never bit andrew i mean leo seemed like a pretty happy little dog one of the things they said and i didn't write this down

was that the reason leo kind of jumped over to her side was that usually like when they would go to the bank together he would always get a little treat from the teller so you know he saw someone coming up and he was getting a treat and said he died thank you christy i shouldn't have said that part should i i'm sorry this is horrible i mean they raised over 120 000 does that make you feel better like no oh well okay No! Oh, well, okay. Andrew was expected to take the stand in his defense. But he didn't. And here's why.

Before the trial, investigators discovered that Andrew might have had a history of violence toward animals. His former Navy supervisor was Audrey Warren. She came forward and said that when they were serving in puerto rico he told her that he'd beaten a dog to death with a police nightstick excellent yeah great more dead dogs i'm sorry the person i couldn't handle the picnics dogs that were left in their kennels in the middle of the street in your John Robinson case. Okay.

What fucking made you think I could handle this? I knew you wouldn't do well with it. Your reaction to that one was especially weird because that was like after so many dead women and then you were like, what happened to the dogs? Did they go a few hours without water? Shut up. I love dogs! What about humans?

I also love humans. Okay. Humans can fend for themselves, though. A small pygmy's dog, who's locked in a kennel, is going to get very hot and very thirsty. I had just finished talking about dead women. You're right. I'm sorry. You monster.

Okay. Hold on. So you beat a dog with a nightstick. Yes. I remember exactly where we're at, Kristen. So the prosecution obviously wanted to talk about that at trial they wanted to bring in audrey to testify but the defense fought hard for that testimony to not be heard in court it'd be devastating to their case ultimately the judge

the judge ruled that audrey could only testify if the defense raised the issue of Andrew's character. And obviously, that could have come up if he'd taken the stand in his own defense. So wisely, the defense chose not to put him on the stand. They chose not to address his character at all. So the prosecution wasn't able to bring up this other witness. In closing arguments, the prosecution mocked the idea that Andrew reached into the car for innocent reasons. Troy said,

What was he thinking when he reached into the car and grabbed the dog? Did he think Leo wanted a walk? Did he think the dog needed some fresh air? Did he think Leo wanted a walk? Did he think the dog needed some fresh air? The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for just 40 minutes. Holy shit. Yeah.

What do you think they found? Guilty. Yeah, for sure. Andrew faced up to three years in prison. But a probation report recommended that he get just probation or at the absolute most one year in county jail what do you think someone should get for life in prison for real what do you think um like a year see i actually even though like you and i are obviously reacting to this story in very different ways i think the punishment for this kind of thing should be super harsh

under using the logic that if you're gonna do that to dogs you could do it to people you're for sure in my mind you're for sure gonna do it to people so you need to like we need to dogs you could do it to people you're for sure in my mind you're for sure gonna do it to people so you need to like we need to get you off the streets anyway at his sense sentencing sarah addressed the court she said words can never convey the depth of love i had for my dog, Leo. About Andrew, she said, his clear intent was to terrorize me in the fastest and clearest way he could under the circumstances. Yeah, to me, this guy's freaking psycho. Yeah. But Andrew didn't see it that way. He wanted leniency. It had all been an accident. He said, I'm really sorry for what happened. I'd like to say that I'm sorry to the McBurnett family. If there's anything I could ever say or

do to bring back Leo, I would. But Judge Kevin Murphy didn't believe him. Kevin Murphy? What? Kevin Murphy. What about? Hair products. Really? Yeah. murphy what kevin murphy what about hair products really yeah it's like paul mitchell's less successful brother i mean kevin murphy yeah kevin murphy what's he do he makes hair products he's a celebrity stylist oh should i google him now i mean are you oh me? Oh, very sleek packaging. Yeah, I love the packaging. It's very pricey stuff. Good God, it sure is. Yeah.

Oh. This is why I haven't heard of him. Okay. But Judge Kevin Murphy, with his perfect hair, didn't believe Andrew. He said this was not an accident. And on top of that, he didn't even believe that Andrew was sorry. Nor do I. The judge said

to describe his story as unbelievable is being polite. It is insulting to my intelligence. It is insulting to the intelligence of anyone who thinks. It is preposterous. Wow. Get this judge judgment to fire it up.

The judge said that Andrew was a danger to the community. Then he gave Andrew the maximum sentence of three years in prison. Wow. The courtroom erupted in applause. Because by this point, you know, animal rights people were all involved. I mean, people cared a lot.

But the defense was stunned defense attorney mark garcia said he couldn't believe the verdict it was andrew's first offense this was unprecedented mark said that the public outrage about this case basically meant that the deck was stacked against his client why he couldn't get a fair trial because everybody was so mad i feel more like no the thing your client did kept him yeah it's like terrible yeah no fuck right off yeah that's like your guy being like i did something terrible and now people want to punish me for it. People are being so mean. Please don't call Marty Finkel my guy. My guy.

So Andrew went to prison and pretty soon he went to trial for his other convictions. But I ask you, are we done here? No, what happened with the $140,000? Do we find out about that at all? Oh, I don't know. Okay. I mean, hopefully it went to some good cause. That's what I want to know. Who gets $140,000? I'm sure. I think at one point she might have hired a private investigator. I don't know though. Okay. But I hope it just went to an animal shelter lots of dogs ate off of it i hope so okay perfect okay are we done here no certainly there's more in february of 2003 andrew was still in prison and he was not loving it

it's my stomach how many episodes it's the ones where i go last i know and my stomach is just why haven't you fed me nachos cheese dip well that's the problem is that we talked about the nachos before we recorded we shouldn't we can't do that okay well we should stop and explain like a day and a half ago when we were together you were like i can we were trying to figure out where to go to dinner and you were like i can do anything except spicy food yeah so i woke up this morning craving some shows and i was like nope put that out of your head there's no way brandy's gonna be able to do that and then you came and bestowed the gift on me yeah that my blisters are healed enough that I can eat nachos.

So anyway, I've just been thinking about nachos this entire time. Yeah. Okay. Anyway. So Andrew's in prison, not loving it. He has no nachos. He has no nachos. And you know what I bet he had?

If anything, he had those disgusting nachos where it's just like chips on a cookie sheet shredded cheese oh yeah and no no those are not nachos no it has to be the melty goopy yes you need cheese dip on them yes yeah people these days get out of here with your shredded cheese nonsense yeah okay do you remember when we first started the podcast we're like let's try a different nacho place yes we went to a different nacho place i was so mad we got nachos shredded cheese nachos no cheese dip we have not been back obviously we've not been back yeah that makes me so mad when they do this here i was getting getting like people who are caring too much about this case anyone who puts shredded cheese on their nachos minimum three years in prison you know they're gonna try to kill somebody one day. So Andrew knew exactly who to blame for his predicament.

Sarah McBurnett. And the media. Is he going to sue her? So he said to himself, Let's go to court! Holy shit! Yes. What the fuck?

This is outrageous. This is so crazy. He sued Sarah and the San Jose Mercury News for mental anguish. He wanted more than $1 million in damages. Your head is tilting so hard right now. Can you describe what's happening in your brain? I just don't even understand that! He also wanted the county to waive all of his court fees and legal costs.

He decided, are you ready for it, to represent himself in court. Of course he did. Yeah. Of course he did. Because no lawyer would bring this, oh, yeah, hmm, you murdered a woman's dog and now you want to sue her for mental anguish? Great, I'm happy to take this case.

In his lawsuit, he claimed that when Sarah bumped her car against his, he suffered injuries to his spine and neck and that she tried to hide the damage to her own car. He accused the San Jose Mercury News of knowingly and maliciously printing libel about him.

He said that the newspaper had caused him humiliation and embarrassment, also fright and shock. Also fright and shock! And mortification! Oh! Not to mention lost wages. Mm, which is an out-of-work phone repair man yeah yeah so give me a fucking break right i will pay you your salary you were you were in jail when they found you what money were you losing there? Sarah was pissed. When reporters asked her for a comment, she called Andrew a pathological liar.

This was widely considered to be like the definition of a frivolous lawsuit, which is the irony that we just did that McDonald's hot coffee case where everyone's like, this is frivolous. No, this is frivolous. No, this is frivolous. I believe it was thrown out. I wasn't able to find anything more on it, but I mean, come on. That had to have been thrown out.

But I ask you, Brandy, are we done here? Obviously not. What happens now? You know something? Andrew really never should have gone to prison in the first place. He was for sure innocent.

Uh-huh. So he appealed. He claimed that there hadn't been enough evidence against him. And he claimed that his actions hadn't killed Leo. It was the cars? Uhhuh okay yeah so leo here here is this argument this this is infuriating leo killed himself when he ran back and forth on a dangerous road yeah you guys brandy's exploding right now it's a slow burn what the fuck can you imagine being sarah and hearing no oh no your dog killed himself no fuck your stomach i know my stomach

i'm trying to do a serious case here my stomach is like oh my leo killed himself yep that's the argument also the district court diminished andrew's credibility when they admitted evidence that he'd beaten a dog to death in 1995. So I kind of, I was curious when I saw that because what I read in the newspaper articles was like that testimony wasn't allowed. I mean, it was like allowed, but only if the defense had brought up.

So I don't know if maybe some of that got in there or what, but anyway, Andrew had an issue with that and his previous record of being shitty. But the appellate court was like, dude, shut up. They upheld his conviction. And that's the story of a horrifying case of road rage. That was terrible. I knew you'd hate that one.

I know. I'm sorry. You know what, Kristen? I read a case this week and I was like, Kristen will love this. I'm going to cover this. And I did love it. And you read a case, and you said, Brandi will hate this. I must cover it.

Okay, let me tell you something. Norman was the one who came up with this case. I was like, oh, crap, I need to find a case. And he found it for me, so blame Norman. I'll never forgive you, Norman. Oh, my God. Yeah yeah sorry about that one that was a rough one here's something interesting that um i don't know if she wants me to say this on the podcast so i'll email her back and see if she's OK with me saying this. And, you know, obviously, if it makes it in, she's fine. So Cassie emailed us and she's emailed us before.

She lives in Oklahoma and she listened to the lottery scam episode, you know, where like he was at Quick Trip. We talked about Quick Trip a lot. Here's what she wrote. I used to work at Quick Trip. They really are the best. And you mentioned you like them because they say see you tomorrow you were also surprised about the audio recording well they are connected oh yeah i get this i love this email because i was like oh i feel like i got the inside scoop at qt they sent in secret shoppers you had to one have your shirt tucked in and be wearing a belt two greet people when they walked in the door.

And three, tell them some sort of version of see you next time. You got $50 for a perfect shop and they actually did them a lot. I would get three to four shops a month and I only worked there 20 hours a week. Wow. At the registers, they record everything so they can verify shoppers. So now you know. They're actually, so they actually pay theirpers so now you know they're actually so they actually pay their employees really well yes yes i i love that they train them really well

they're always so good there yes yeah and it shows yeah imagine that paying people a living wage interesting that is inside scoop thank you cassie yeah it's really really cool i'm thinking about adding this other part i don't know if she wants me to add this other part i'm gonna add this and we'll see if she doesn't want it um she goes oh and i found this out mostly because some crazy old lady accused me of the terrible offense of calling her dude. I was like, I didn't call her dude at all. Pulled up the audio from that register, and there was a group of Little League boys in front of her, and one of them said dude, so we solved that mystery.

Oh, and since I have short hair, the lady kept calling me it and that thing, which is pretty much a million times worse than calling someone dude. The dude? Yes. Are you kidding? What the hell? oh my gosh so that lady's a monster yeah okay holy shit i wrote back holy shit that woman is a certified asshole yes in fact but anyway i i i hope she's okay with that.

Yeah. Oh, wow. In my email back, I told her I'd include this in my show notes for next week's episode. And that was a long time ago. Included now. Included now. Oh, my gosh. That's great. Is she the one that informed us how to pronounce Miami?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think so. on yep she sure did yeah yeah cassie's been very good to us thank you cassie please keep it coming we love it yes um so i've got some pretty devastating news kristin what's that? We're still not at 2,000 ratings. What? What?

I thought by now, for sure, we'd be there. For surely. For surely we'd be there. Nope. Sad to report that we're nowhere near it. So I've decided that, you know, I don't know why you didn't come up with this idea earlier, but I think that my idea is that we should break that goal down and instead focus on 250 ratings and reviews. Wow, what a brilliant idea.

See, it's like taking a baby step. And, you know, you take enough of those little baby steps, you'll eventually be at that big goal. Makes it more manageable. Interesting. Wow. Yeah. I came up with that idea all by myself. So, guys, brand new goal coming at you. They were manageable. Interesting. Wow. Yeah. I came up with that idea all by myself.

So, guys, brand new goal coming at you. We've never mentioned this ever before. Never. 250 ratings and reviews on iTunes. Please help us out. Head on over there. Leave us a five-star rating and review. Only five stars. We'll settle for nothing less than excellent.

I hate that. I cringe at that. Why? I mean, it's definitely what we want, but have you ever listened to a podcast where they ask for a five star? I know. I hate it.

I hate it too. It's why we've never done it before. Okay. Like we've never asked for it that way. Please just leave us a rating. Leave us a review. Feeling better already. And then while you're at it, find us on social we're on facebook we're on twitter we're on instagram we're on youtube we're on reddit find us all of those places and then uh be sure to

join us next week when we'll be experts on two whole new topics podcast adjourned and now for a note about our process i read a bunch of stuff then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited Podcast adjourned. info from the Associated Press, the Francis... Francis and Susie. You know what I got distracted by? In Washington Post, I have that O capitalized. And I was looking at that. Post! Francis and Susie! You've never been?

No! For this episode, I got my info from the Associated Press, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and CNN.com. And I got my info from an amazing article by Rachel Bell for the Crime Library, as well as articles from CBS News, the New York Times, and an episode of American Greed. Well said.

For a full list of our sources, visit lgtcpodcast.com. Any errors are, of course, ours, but please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff.