Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was a Doctor — Then I Went to Prison | Dr. Linda Varisco

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Dr. Linda Varisco had it all — a wealthy upbringing in Long Island, a thriving chiropractic business, and a picture-perfect life. But when her marriage to a crack-addicted, cheating husband imploded, her world spiraled out of control. In a shocking twist, she got entangled with a criminal enterprise running through her business, leading to federal charges for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. In this entertaining and unfiltered interview, Dr. Varisco reveals how she went from living in luxury to serving a year and a day in federal prison — and how she rebuilt her life from the ground up. #PrisonStories #TrueCrimeInterviews #WhiteCollarCrime #RedemptionStory #WomenInPrison #TrueCrimePodcast #PrisonLife #lockedinwithianbick Buy her books: Book 1: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Million-Dollar-Smile/dp/B0DQHB6RF6 Book 2: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Right-Million-Dollar-Smile/dp/B0FB3QNQYW/ref=pd_bxgy_thbs_d_sccl_1/145-3040682-0764748?pd_rd_w=D8Nbx&content-id=amzn1.sym.dcf559c6-d374-405e-a13e-133e852d81e1&pf_rd_p=dcf559c6-d374-405e-a13e-133e852d81e1&pf_rd_r=3YCY59SGYR34T4NQT3WQ&pd_rd_wg=BLygp&pd_rd_r=f534e269-9786-4ee8-bb4b-aec22fae8cac&pd_rd_i=B0FB3QNQYW&psc=1 Follow her: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thelifeofmrpeaches?lang=en Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Get 50% off the Magic Mind offer here: https://www.magicmind.com/IANB50. #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Use code LOCKEDIN for 20% OFF Wooooo Energy Buy Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 Prison Stories & Bunkmate Drama 00:22 Introduction: Dr. Linda's Dramatic Life 01:46 Growing Up in Long Island 02:44 Family, Upbringing, and Parental Influence 05:33 Education, College and Career Choices 07:37 Switching to Chiropractic: Inspiration & Path 10:12 Starting Out as a Chiropractor 13:10 Early Business Partnerships and Trouble 16:02 Moving On: Cancun, Romance, & New Beginnings 18:08 Meeting Her Husband & Building the Business 21:02 Business Growth and Early Warnings 23:32 Betrayal, Lawsuits, and Business Collapse 25:43 Family Changes & Financial Struggles 28:08 Discovering Addiction & Heartbreak 32:32 Separation, Divorce, and Parental Challenges 36:46 The Aftermath: Rebuilding Business and Life 41:46 The Wrong Business Partners 44:35 The Big Mistake: Letting Others In 46:32 Warning Signs, Rapid Growth, and Anxiety 49:35 The FBI Raid: Clinic Seized 53:14 The Criminal Case & Legal Nightmare 57:04 Facing Federal Charges 01:00:01 The Trial, Plea, & Sentencing 01:04:09 Processing Prison & Self-Surrender 01:10:07 Prison Life: Friendships, Adjustment & Survival 01:16:16 Daily Reality & Finding Community in Prison 01:23:00 Loss, Tragedy, and Emotional Stories in Prison 01:26:30 Release, Halfway House, and Life After Prison 01:29:37 Rebuilding: New Career and Identity 01:33:31 Public Perception, Judgment, and Sharing the Story 01:36:01 Resilience and Lessons Learned 01:36:44 Final Thoughts, Humor, and Farewell Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All the girls on the top bunk could see each other, right? So I'm sleeping one night and I'm here. I'm like, oh, damn it. So I'm putting the pillow over my head and I'm hearing all this morning. I'm like, ah, it's like getting faster. After like 15 minutes, I go, just come already. From a luxury upbringing in Long Island to running her own chiropractic clinic, Dr. Linda Verisco seemed to have it all until her world unraveled,

a husband addicted to crack. financial ruin and a shocking federal indictment for health care fraud left her facing prison for the first time in her life. This is the entertaining story of how she lost everything and fought her way back to rebuild it. Dr. Linda Verisco, how are you today? I'm great. Thank you. Welcome to Lockton. I know you had quite a journey to get here today. A lot of traffic coming for the city. But you're fired up and ready to go. You bet. And I want to plug in your books at the top of this episode. These are two different books, right? It's all, it's book one, book two, and book three is coming out. All right. If you want to give the audience like the elevator

pitch of what these are about, and we'll have to link in the description of this episode. I went to a publisher, brought him the books and he said, it's awesome, Linda. It should be a Netflix story, but it's too long for one book. So he had me chop it up into three books. And each book leaves you with a cliffhanger. And it's about your story, though. It's about my life. Unfiltered. Yeah, the first thing you asked me today was, could I swear in there? Could I be myself?

So you already know it's going to be a good episode when the guest is asking you that. Where did you grow up, Linda? I grew up in Long Island, went to college, Villanova, went to chiropractic school in South Carolina, and then moved to Florida and been there ever since. Where in Long Island?

Woodbury. Okay. I worked in the Westbury hold food for a little bit, and then I helped open the Massapea one. And my family's from Rockville Center. they live in that area. Not far. No, and I did a little stint in North Valley stream for a couple months, so that was interesting.

But being back in New York, I could really leave it behind. You're a Florida girl. It doesn't feel like home anymore to me. Really? No. And you don't like how cold it gets up here. That's secondary to the amount of people in traffic that you can't leave your block without hitting traffic. Yeah.

Oh, the traffic's horrendous. We were just in Florida a couple weeks ago to go to Universal Studios. and it's so much better driving out there than it is out here, California, really anywhere. New York City traffic's horrendous, though. Who'd you grow up with? Who were you raised by? My parents. And what'd they do for work?

My dad was worked for Grumman Aerospace. He had four patents. He worked on all the first, all the first, I didn't expect you to ask me that. so it wasn't in my mind, but he worked, he built, he was a structural guy, so he worked on the first astronaut, the Luna module. He designed thing for the Tomcat, all those. He has five patents. He's an awesome man.

He's 92 now. Oh, wow, good for him. And what did your mom do? My mom, when I was growing up, was a piano teacher. She was a concert pianist, and then she worked. When we went back to school, she started to work again. and I was like the glue. And then when my parents, when I went off to college, my parents split up.

So would it be safe to say that you guys grew up with some money? Yes, because my dad, not initially, but he learned how to make it real quick. He got subcontracting job for the government, and he was just, it was amazing. Like one year we got central air condition. The next year we got a pool. You know, my mother got a new Cadillac every year. So yes, I did grow up with a gold spoon in my mouth. And it was just you know, no siblings.

No, I had a brother who was six years younger. But you said you were the glue of the family. I was. And when I went off to college at 17, he was six years younger, so he was 11. And my parents split. And the poor kid, he was run between the two households. So my childhood, I would tell you was great. And he would tell you his childhood was terrible.

Isn't it interesting that two people could come from the same family, but just a time space makes it two entirely different upbringing? It's almost like growing up in different neighborhoods. Right. Like right next to each other, but it's a whole different experience. My mother was, she was a runway model. She was a model for L'Oreal, beautiful woman. What were some values your parents taught you as a kid?

A lot of values. My dad taught me that, Linda, it was always like, whatever you want you could achieve, you just have to do some hard work to get to it. I never grew up with any limits because there were no limits. when my parents saw that I had a creative flare and I got a scholarship to art school, which I never took. He went out, bought me the easels, the paint sets.

It was just, I remember driving in the car, and I was a little kid, six, eight years old. Linda, what are you thinking about? Like, he was always curious about what my thoughts were, and he was just still to this day. He's like my rock. The first man, a woman ever loves is her daddy, you know? Would you have considered yourself,

hard worker? Yes. What other traits did you have? Other traits? Yeah, other than being a hard worker and a go-getter or someone that was creative. I play tennis. I don't know. I went off to college. I mean like every other kid, I went to Villanova where the new Pope is from, by the way. He graduated three years before I got there. So I didn't know him. But I definitely got in trouble with the priests a lot of times and I was a little rambunctious, not really bad. I was, I had, I knew my boundaries and

I stayed within them. So Villanova's a Catholic school? Yes. Is it still to the stay at Catholic school? It was originally all boys and now it's, now it's co-ed since the 80s. I didn't realize that. So if you go to Villanova you have to practice religion? No, we had Jewish

kids there. No, you don't have to. But you got a better tuition if you were Catholic and you had a, you know, from the Catholic Church, you got a little letter, you got a little savings on your tuition. When did you know what you wanted to do when you grew older and wanted to go to college for? Interesting. That's a good question. So I always saw myself as an artist, and then I got into the University of Pittsburgh full scholarship, and I didn't want to become an artist anymore. And I started talking about being an OBGYN. That was my dream. And then my mother became paralyzed by a disc when I was at Villanova. She got into a car accident.

And I spent the summer between, I think it was sophomore and junior year with this chiropractor out in Long Island. And I felt even the guy's ego wouldn't have fit in this room, but he was fabulous. He was a great chiropractor. And I worked under him and I learned. They didn't let me do much, but I observed. And I go, you know what? This is for me. And I just knew it was right.

And I went there. And so when I went to Villanova, I was liberal lots and then I switched to biology. Why OBGYN to begin with? I don't know. I always just thought I would be cool like, you know, hey, push it out. Come on, stop your whining. Like, I would just be a cool OBGYN. Now, for chiropractor, is that, was that a four-year degree that you had to go for that?

Yes, it's a four-year, but we were able to go through the summers. We were on quarter systems, so I was able to do a four-year in three. So it was great? Now, is it like a regular doctor where you don't get your actual doctor until afterwards? after college? Yes. You don't have a doctorate like you're not an MD. You're a D.C. Doctor of chiropractic. We don't prescribe. You know, there's a lot of things we don't do, surgeries and so forth. But I love the profession because I work with people with chronic pain and you get them. It was very rewarding. Very. So it's just a four-year degree to get that doctor.

You need your bachelor's to get, you know, you need to get what's your bachelor's, and then you get your four-year degree. Would you go for your bachelor's? Villanova. Oh, so before it was, what was the other college you just said? Oh, I went to chiropractic school. Oh, chiropractice. It wasn't the college that you left for, no. That you got accepted to for art.

No, I passed that by. Okay, gotcha. I also had a partial scholarship to the SUNY school, Onianta. Yeah, I've heard of that. Yeah. So we drove up there. My father says, where's the admittance? And they said, pass the co-ed dorms.

My father goes, what? past the co-ed dorms. We drove out. I never got out. We drove five hours to only aunt. I never got out of the car. I was the only daughter of an Italian father, and, you know, that's what it was. Did your dad want you to go into business?

He never pushed me in any direction. It was always up to me. Were they happy with your decision for a chiroprice? I think so. My mother wanted me to do some modeling. She entered me. I was Miss New York, by the way. And I won Miss Long Island, then I went off long.

I went, this is a year. years ago, I went on to, and I lost Miss New York. It was very political. It was all who you knew. You won it and then you lost it? You win, like there's different sections. There's Long Island. Then you go out for the whole state. And then I lost. And how old were you when that happened? Oh, 716, 17? Just before college. Yeah. So all together, what did you do about six years in schooling? Eight years in schooling? Well, seven, because I did the four year and three years. Okay. Yeah, I graduated as a doctor, 26 years old. And what happened? It was ready to take on the world. What happens once you graduate? So you go. You either work with a doctor or you start your own, you know, you put your own shingle out and you go.

Did you end up going for a doctor, like working with a doctor? Or did you go right into your own practice? No, I, my mother's best friend's son was also a chiropractor. And so him and I decide we had history. And we decide. History, yeah. Now I'm trying to be, you know, subtle about it. which now I would say, why would I do that, you know, now with my years of wisdom that I've gained.

But, yeah, so we went into practice together. We actually were in chiropractic school together. And, you know, I went in there. He was much ahead of me, like almost two years. And then he was working somewhere down in Miami, Biscayne. And then I came out. His mother threw me a big party. And then we decided to go into practice together.

Looking back on it now, do you wish you had that experience working for someone else before going for your own practice? No. No. I just wish I would have chose a different person, basically. So you choose him, you guys start business. Do you end up getting married? No. It's just like a fling? It was a fling during chiropractic school. Then I realized he had addiction problems. And his mother was like a second mother to me. And I said to Higo, your son, he got hooked on pain meds from, um, who's in a

major car accident. He's dead now. But I went into practice. He started disappearing. Wouldn't show up for like a week at a time. Wouldn't answer his phone. So I was running the whole practice. And then one of the patients, he came in one day and one of the patients said, you know, I think he's on drugs. And I go, nah, nah. But meanwhile, when she left, I searched his gym bag, which was in our x-ray room. And sure enough, you know, I found some cocaine. And she called the DPR, Department a professional regulation. They came in and asked to him, I was nervous wrecked. These are the people you don't want in your office, right? And they eventually caught up with him, made him piss in a cop. And he came in like a raging lunatic, had me pinned against the wall. You know,

you called on me. Why would I call on you? He wouldn't even listen to me. He had me pinned against the wall and being, you know, the New Yorker that I am. I'm like, oh, you're a big man. You're a big man, beat up on a woman. And instead of, you know, backing down, I edged him on because he pissed me off so bad. He wouldn't believe me. And so we eventually split up. There's a story along the way. Yeah, we split up. And then I, about five, six years ago, I decided I was going to walk into his clinic and make peace with him. And I walked in. He was behind the front desk. It was the original clinic that we started together. And he says, I have nothing to say to you. I said, I'd like to make peace.

I'd like to put this, you know, you know, sometimes you just want to clear the air. I thought that so many years had passed, like over 25, you know, like he, no, he threw me out of the office. Whatever. Wait, he never lost his license after that? He never lost his license. What happened with that investigation? I don't know. I know he started doing the Colombian cleaning lady that we had cleaning the office because I went to do a final, I went to do a final report at home.

and I went back to get the file, and I, you know, caught them on the desk. And then he winds up marrying her. How long were you guys in business for before you realized he was an addict? 87. I got out, like, how long was I in business with him, total? Maybe two and a half, almost three years. But how long did I realize he was an addict? Probably about six, eight months into it. I realized I was in trouble.

What a terrible first business experience for you. Fresh out of college, you got the degree. Yeah. You did all that work and... I was building the practice. It was doing great. I didn't miss him when he didn't come in, to be honest with you. There was no way to push him out or get it.

Eventually, eventually we dissolved it with the help of our parents getting involved. Now, this business was all legal. It was all on the up and up. Oh, yeah. So nothing was fishy with this business. No, nothing was fishy. Except him. So you find out that all happens and you walk away from that business.

business. Yes. What happens? Well, something happened in between. Okay. So when I graduated chiropractic school, my mother says, I know you're a workaholic. I'm buying you a timeshare in Cancun. So I had been dating some guy named Joey in New York and, you know, and then I moved to

Florida. I knew it wasn't going anywhere. So when the time came to go on this time share, I said, ma, let's go together. Now, she was divorced from my dad, you know, she was, I think my dad was the only guy she ever knew her whole life. And then after she separated, she went a little wild. And I had to have a sit down with her. And anyway, so when it was time to go to Mexico, I said, Mom, you and I'll go together. So we get to the beach. And I'm bitching about, man. It was 26 years old at the time. She goes, go take a walk on the beach and air your mind out, Linda, because we're going to have a great

time. So I did in my 26-year-old, very beautiful, hot playboy body with my beautiful bikini walked down the beach. These guys were cat-calling me. I walked three hotels down. These old men were standing. I turned to them and I said, God, I don't get this much aggravation in Florida. Well, that was my future father-in-law that I said that to. So on the way back down the beach, he wakes up his son who came in from L.A. on the red eye the night before, and he comes walking up to me. He goes, hi, I'm Joseph. I said, hi, I'm Linda. Now I'm like this, you know, when you're, so he goes, you know, when you get here, we're making small, he goes, what do you do? I said, I'm a chiropractor in Florida. He goes, so am I. I'm a chiropractor in L.A., and I looked at him. I go, I really hate when guys lie to me. So then I proceed to start firing questions out of him. What would be the triad of multiple sclerosis? How would you adjust this? What's this listing?

And he answered. So he said to me, stop. I took the Irene Gold Board Review. Now, unless you were a chiropractor, you would not know about that. And I stopped and I looked at him. He goes, come on, let's go. So I said, I'm with my mom. He says, let's walk back to the hotel.

I'll buy you and your mom a drink. So he goes to the bar and I'm with my mom. And I go, that's your future son-in-law. And she goes, how many drinks did you have? I go, I don't know, Ma. Something about it was like he was familiar to me when I met him. I had met him for like 10 minutes. She thought I was crazy. But then I met an Italian chiropractor on the beach in Mexico. What's the chances? When you know, you know. I knew.

So that's before this other fling with the... I'm still in the chiropractic office with this guy at this point. Oh, and you meet him. I meet him simultaneously. Exactly. Okay, so this ends. Wishing you could be there live for the big game, soaking up the atmosphere of the crowd. But too often, life gets busy or the price hold you back. Priceline is here to help you make it happen. With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live. Don't just dream about the trip. Book it with Price Line.

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World Room romance, back and forth from, you know, Pacific Bell. His first bill was, this is before sells, right? His first bill was like $800. We're back and forth talking, learning about each other, and then he flies to Florida to see me. Then he flies me out to L.A. He says, I want you to come live here. I don't like L.A.

I'm sorry. I didn't like it. It didn't feel like home to me. And so then he flew back. And then when he was in Florida again, this was going back like every month. We got a call from his dad, said his grandfather had massive stroke. So I rearranged his flight back to New Jersey instead, because he's originally from Jersey, you know, to go that way instead of going back to L.A. And then I joined him.

And then on his dad's, his grandfather's deathbed, he said to me, we need to be together. I'm selling everything. I'm moving to Florida. How long into your relationship was that? I was 26 when I met him. By 27, he was moved to, well, I was 27, he moved into my one-bedroom apartment with his dog, his half-coyote, half-shepard dog. I had a dog. And then we bought a house, and then we got married when I was 28.

And did you guys start a new business together? We did. Okay. Tell us about that. So when I was bitching to him about, you know, John and all the problems he was giving me, he goes, just put your big girl panties on and face. what you got to face, and I eventually separated from John. But what happened was when I was dating him, I confided in him about a couple of things. And then it all came out when we were trying to separate.

He told his mother, who told my father, and it was a whole big drama mess. Got very ugly he got. And that was it. So we dissolved that. I opened Verisco family chiropractic. Joseph came down. He had to take the boards for the state of Florida. So he goes to stay with my dad, who's still in his womanizing days in New York,

who's still living in the house I grew up with. And I remember my future husband saying, you know, he knows I'm staying with him. Like he has to get it on on the steps when he knows I'm coming home from the, you know, the classes. My father was crazy. Very good looking guy. And even at 92, he still looks damn good. And so we had this big romance, and we got married in Long Island at the Crest Hollow Country Club. And my parents did not spare dime for that.

That's a whole other story. And then we went to practice together. And the business is great when you first start. Yes. The business is great. Everything was great. So I was in a smaller office. Then we expanded to a larger office.

And then that office wasn't big enough. We expanded to another one. In the meantime, Joseph started what's called in Florida back then, a drug-free workplace. I don't know if you have them up here. But that's if you're hiring somebody who have to let them do a piss test. If they test positive, you don't have to hire them. Right. And if they're hurt on the job and they test positive for something, you don't have to pay their work from scum.

So it was the newest thing. This was like in the early 90s. And he started this business. and in one room in the chiropractic office, we used to tag team patients. We had so much fun. Like, okay, you do the best necks, you do the neck, I'll go in, I'll do the mid and low about it.

He was so much fun to work with. It was great. We had a great staff. So the drug-free workplace starts to grow. And he meets this guy who is affiliated with Columbia hospitals. And he says, okay, we can do all the urine testing at that. hospital. He says, I said, you need to get front office girl because my girls, we couldn't do it all. So he goes, I'm going to get this guy's wife. I go, no, I don't like her. Don't hire her.

And he said, no, no, I already hired her. You know, you meet somebody in every hair on the back of your neck sticks up. You get that gut instinctual feeling. Well, I got it. Times going on. The business is growing at a rapid rate. The chiropractic office is booming. You know, we still didn't have kids at this point and he said oh no that's a lie we had my son we waited five years to have our first kid and they came to him with a business proposal and I said to him he said Linda this is a chance to create this monster business I said don't do it pay them for them what they're bringing to the table and he gave them shares of his business I said please don't do it please please please don't do it we fought it was the only time I remember fighting with him, and I said, remember we made a promise to each other that we

act as a team, and you're going against the team. I'm saying no, you're saying yes. A week later, they were at my house. He was selling the paperwork. I couldn't stop it. Within three weeks of that, he was fired from his own company because his friend, who he had given shares to, and their shares, outvoted his shares. But aren't you in this business, too? No, I was nothing to do with this business. I was doing the chiropractic. Okay. He wanted to go off on his own and start a separate business. He was doing the, well, we were in the same office until it got to the point where I had to remove them from our office.

They were causing too much trouble. So he gets kicked out of the business. What happens? He has a, I don't know, undiagnosed nervous breakdown. I don't know what it was. There was a knock on my door in the chiropractic office. I opened it up. He's staying there. He's got no phone, no car. Everything was through the business, right? he was I was fired from my company. I took him home. He didn't leave the bed for 10 days.

10 days. I had to keep the shades shut. I had to feed him. I had to bathe him. And he had a nervous breakdown. And then that wonderful man that I married turned into something that was not good. So I basically said, hey, you're a chiropractor. Come back to the office.

We always have this. The business is doing great. And I went after these people to sue them. And we won. But the problem was is that it took us, you know, $85,000 in an attorney cost to win, what, $180,000? It was just in the grand scheme of things. But my marriage was different now, very different because he was different. I couldn't reach him the same way.

I couldn't feel him. So do you guys end up staying together? Well, after this whole thing, you know, where he didn't listen to me, that pedestal that I had him on, I basically kicked it, the chair out and smashed it. And my relationship, my dynamic with him changed. Not only did he change, I changed because I didn't have the same level of trust with him anymore. And this was a great man. We were like the Barbie and Kent of chiropractic. We were like, everybody knew us.

We were big. We even bought a building that I didn't want to buy. He took me one day and he gets getting the car, Linda. I go, we're going to lunch. He goes, yeah, we're going to lunch, but I want to show you something. He stands in front of this dilapidated building. And he goes, this is our retirement. I go, this is a shithole.

I don't want it. I want to write a check for the rent every month and be done. I said, I don't want it. And he said to me, if your father does the numbers and he agrees to it, Will you give me a seal of approval? And I said yes. And him and my father, typical Italian style, sit down with a bottle of scotch and start running numbers.

And my father looks at me, he goes, I don't see how you can't buy this building. But they didn't predict the 2008-9 crash of the market. So I lost half my tenants. Oh, it was a nightmare. So this is an apartment building? No, this was a commercial building. We put the clinic in it.

Okay. And it's got to be pretty big if you have multiple times. Right. Yes. It was a three-story building. How long in your relationship does this happen that you guys buy this building? We got married in 1991. And then he took me 2001 to see the business, the building.

And then 2002, we moved in. Okay. And it's a successful run for those six years up until the crash? Up until the crash. Well, we weren't in the building until 2001. It took a year to get the opportunity. occupational licenses and we had to knock down walls and make it a chiropractic office. But from 2001 to 2008?

Well, he goes, he nose dives. So I didn't get to that yet. Okay. Where do you want me to go with it? No, keep going. Keep telling your story. So I realized after he's fired from his company, we're in this big lawsuit, I realized I was pregnant for my second child. I think at that point, I might have walked away, but then I was pregnant.

So I decided to lift him up again, get him back to the clinic, have the second baby, and life went on. We bought the building. Relationship was never the same, but it wasn't bad. And we raised our two kids. He was into the PTA. He was golfing with his friend. Life was good. And then his father got sick.

His father was a famous doctor in New Jersey. Gets cancer. Comes down to Florida. Wines up diet. left him $2 million, $1.8 something, million. And I started to see a change in his personality again. What I thought was depression, you know, sleep all day, up all night. So being, you know, the girl that I am, I don't like his behavior.

So I start to snoop when he's sleeping. That condo where his father was living, I figured something's going on there. So I went, made his keys. I went, copied all the keys. And then I went in. And what I discovered was unbelievable. It was they turned this beautiful condo into a crack house. My husband was on crack.

I had found these two bullbearing looking things in with his father. He used to carry this portfolio of all his father's money and the accounts and all this stuff. So I went through it and I found this plastic bag with these two ballsbearings. bearings and I bring it to the office to Big Daddy, who's my massage therapist for 20-something years. And I go, Big Dad, what is this? He goes, Dr. Linda, where did you get this? I go, what is it? He goes, it's crack. It was like drop it like it's hot. Like, I, are you kidding me? So he goes, where did you find you? I go, I found it in Dr. Joe stuff. So now I realize my husband's on crack. A doctor. Come from a great family. I don't know what happened.

So I set him up. I go to the gym one night. I usually go in the morning and then one night we changed it. And I come home, it's like 7.30. And he's standing there with our two little kids. And he goes, where were you? I go, he goes at the gym. He goes, I have a meeting.

I go at 7.30, where are you going? He goes, Linda, I got a meeting. He got belligerent with me. I didn't want anything in front of the kids. I said, fine, no problem. So I took the kids and said, bathed them, get them in their pajamas, read them their 50 stories, took a shower myself, put my loungy pajamas on. I'm laying in bed. It's like 9.30. I'm like, where is he?

I knew where he was. Something came over me. And I just checked my kids. They were sleeping, and I drove five minutes to the condo. And this is a story of all stories. I go around the front, all the shades of shot. It's the first floor condo. go around the back, all the shades are shut. But in the master bedroom there was like these verticals. And like eight to ten feet up was a bent vertical. I say, you know what? I shimmy with my pajamas and my flip-flops and I'm like Laura Croft, right?

Up the wall. And I peered in and there he is, my husband, having sex. I see his ass moving. I'm like staring at it. like six, ten feet up, straddled. And I'm looking in there. And like, I'm frozen. Like, is this really happening in my life?

Like, is this really happening? There's a porno tape on. And I was mesmerized by this whole scene. Finally, I, like, pulled myself together with, like, like, after like two minutes, jumped down, landed on my two feet. I was very proud of that. Went to the car, bawled my eyes out, like from the depths of my soul. And then it like happened.

It was like, shh. And like the car got really quiet. The only thing that was I could hear was my labored breathing from crying. And then it was like the angel on the left and the right shoulder. You need to go in there. You need to confront this. No, Linda, go home. Your kids are home alone.

And this like dichotomy is going on. And I, you know what I did? I picked up my keys. And I freaking walk. walked in. And I walked by the kitchen, and then I walk to the back bedroom door, and I'm standing against the, you know, the bedroom door opening. And I'm standing there looking at this scene, and then she spots me, and she taps him. And he looks over. They're having sex. Porn or flicks on. Just get the vision. And he looks at me and goes, how'd you get in? Like, of all things

to say to me, I go, does it really matter? Because I'm here now. And nobody moves for like 20 seconds. I take two steps into the bedroom and this girl starts to panic. She, you know, she probably thinks I'm some cycle. She pushes them off. And underneath her was a bloody towel. She had her period. Now, she didn't lose her maidenhood. Let's be honest. There's this bloody towel under her. I go, I looked at her. I looked at I go, I suggest you get the hell out of here fast. She runs out of the condo completely naked, okay? But she wasn't the object of my wrath. He was.

I picked up the bloody towel and I beat him with it. He's a big man, big man. Beat him, got him to the floor, started kicking him. I don't know what happened. It's like the scene of the Tasmanian devil. Like you don't realize what's happening until I couldn't move anymore. and I was completely out of breath. And then the obscenities, the stream of curses that came out of my mouth,

I would never have put them together. And I left him in a curled up heap on the floor, brushed my hair off, and walked out, and drove on automatic pilot to get home to my kids. Got home. I was crazy. I started, I went in the garage. I got the hefty bags.

Just like you see in a movie, grabbing all this crap out of the closet, throwing it all in the bag. like crazy, pacing up, you know, like having full conversations with yourself. Do all this shit into the garage. Try to go to sleep. I might have fallen asleep at 4.35 in the morning. And then my little daughter's come and crawling on me.

Mommy, my, it was the summertime. Let's play. Let's go. So I bring them into the kitchen and giving them breakfast. And he comes in through the garage. And he looks at me and he goes, what? You didn't make me coffee? I thought, I literally, I literally thought I was going to pounce on him.

But the kids were there. So, you know, hi daddy, hi daddy. They don't know. They're young. They ran into the bedroom and then it was just him and me. And at that point, I kicked him out of the house. Then I had to explain to my kids that he made some bad choices. And until he can get it together, mommy's, you know, you're going to live with mommy.

Did you guys end up getting back together and working it out? No. So that happens and then years go on of you just running the business solo? I tried to put him in rehab. Every time I saw him, he looked horrible. He was 6 to 250 pounds. Then he'd come in, he'd be 6 to 110 pounds. Then he'd be like 180.

I just, I thought it was the drugs. So he would disappear for months, not visiting. visiting his kids. I remember one time he came into the kitchen door and I said, stop, if any part of the Joseph that I knew and loved, can hear me? Don't let your kids see you like this. He looked like he was sleeping under a bridge. It was terrible. It was terrible to watch. And he left that day, but other days he plowed through me and want to go see the kids. And then he almost killed my son in a car accident. And then I realized that the only way I could protect my kids, was either get a restraining order against him or divorce his ass.

So, yeah, he fell asleep at the wheel with my little son in the car. And you ended up divorcing him after that? Yeah, I got it. We wound up going to mediation. I remember the day, you know, when you start the whole divorce thing, you go in front of the judge, he comes to the courthouse with no, no representation, he's got a black guy, looked like he hadn't slept in two weeks. And then after she says, all right, bring me the paper.

paperwork and come back. And then after he left, he looks at me, he goes, you got a 20. I got to get my car out of the garage. And I handed him at 20 in my return and he goes, what's wrong with you? I go, he's pathetic. It's so sad. He's still the father of my kids. It's a great man turned into something I didn't even recognize.

So then the wrath of destruction, we go through this divorce. Well, we go through a mediator. I forget this guy It was an Italian guy He was a judge And then when judges retire They become mediators And he shows up with this

An attorney who was a personal injury attorney I don't know what he was doing The F of Family Law But okay he shows up And I knew him I knew him He's like he kisses me And he said Linda I know what's going on

I won't ever do you wrong We get in there I lunge across the table Like three times to like beat somebody up. They were just, it was, they were incorrigible. There was just no word to describe. He didn't want to give me any child support, came into all this money. So I, somewhere, we're kind of getting there $1,000 a month for the child support. And then he goes, I want, he bought me this BMW when I was pregnant for my son. The car was now 11 years old. He wants the

BMW. I started, I could feel like the rage started to turn to tears. You just, you just just so frustrated. So the mediator, this guy Michael, he says, come with me, Linda. He takes me into his office. And I said, Mike, I'll never forget it. If I was your daughter, what would you do? Because if you were my daughter, I put a bullet in this jerk. Well, that's not the word he used. I put a bullet in this asshole's head. He says, this is what you got to do, Linda. You've got to divorce him and not look in that rearview mirror because he's going to go down. It's just a question of whether he's going to take you and the kids with him. And so we went back. in there. He calmed me down. I gave him the BMW, and then he says at the end of this eight

hour of torture, he says, I don't want to sign it. So then the mediator stood up and he said, Dr. Ferranti, you have till Monday at 5 o'clock to sign this paperwork. If not, we're going to go in front of a judge and all your drug, habitual use and all this stuff is going to come out. So over the weekend, he calls me and he says to me, um, I don't want to, you know, could you give me five? How about $500 a month? So at the time I was dating this, what we call Mr. Right now. And he said to me, he said to me,

you're never going to see a penny from him. Just agree to pay the $500 and divorce this guy. So I agreed to it. I got one check for $500. I copied it. I saved it, along with all the crack pipes. I just had to remember for the rest of my life, you know. what happens.

And I divorced him. And the shit hits the fan. So now, 2008, my birthday, he knocked on my door. I answer it. He's standing there with a cane, probably like 150 pounds. I'm thinking myself, wow. He says, can I come in? The kids were at school.

I said, yeah, he hands me an MRI. He's got metastatic. He's got kidney cancer that metastasized to his stomach. thoracic in Lamar-Stine's. He was dying. And I looked and he goes, I want to come home. Like it's really, it's like surreal in my life. And I felt, I felt for him. I felt as a human being, you know, and I loved him. He wasn't in love with him, but I still loved him. It's been 17 years together. And I said, if there wasn't kids involved, I'd let you come home and I'd take care of you, but there's no way that I'm going to allow you to come in this house and die in front of your kids that have already separated from you.

And so what I did was I became his health care surrogate. That was November 1st in 2008, January 5th, he dies. It was that quick. This massive kidney tumor started growing out of him just sucking the light. It was horrible. It took my kids there. It was horrible. Then he dies.

and then what do I do? I decide I'm going to bring him up and bury him where his dad is. I had all the paperwork. You know, there was a crypt for two. My father-in-law's sister was supposed to go there, but now his son died. I put him in there. I went up. I did the eulogy at his funeral.

I was the perfect wife. You know, what was the point at that point to badmouth him? I never badmouthed him into the kids either. To this day, I'd never do. did. Now they're older, so they understand. I didn't want them to grow up hating a man who was a great man who just, I don't know what happened. So go on, I go on, but go back to the office after the funeral. And I had a closed casket because I didn't want everybody to see him like that. And my son's out in New Jersey. He's playing in the snow. It's snowing. It's like he wasn't

even acting normal. My daughter I left behind. with my mother and my friend. She was young. And they're about to, he's looks at me, he goes, uh, I don't really believe

that daddy's in there. I'm going to need you to open that casket. I went, so my best friends were there, and I'm like, I go, give me a second. I went into the bathroom with them.

I go, what the hell do I do here? One of my girlfriend goes, you better open it up. Otherwise, he's going to throw that in your face the rest of the life. Linda,

you got to do what's in your heart. You know, follow your gut feeling on this. So, I decided that we were going to go into the room and I was going to open it up with just him and I I didn't want everybody to see him. He was in bad shape.

Remember, he died at 130 pounds. So I opened it up. The kid hadn't cried. Nothing. And then he starts to touch his father. You know, the funeral director's in his touch in his face. He's cold. And then he bursts out crying.

And then I felt that that was good because he was finally starting to show some emotion. I asked my sister-in-law, she wanted to come see him, and then that was the end of it. And we buried him. I flew back to New York. It started to snow really bad. And I said to one of his friends, I go, and you need to get me back to the airport. We're going to be snowed in at the 6 o'clock flight. There's a 3 o'clock flight.

Get me on it. I remember driving on the Jersey Turnpire like a maniac. and get to the carriage. I'm dragging this kid until I'm beside myself. And I start. I go, I need to get on that flight. She said, we're just about to shut the doors. I go, I just buried my husband.

I need to get out of here. I can't get snowed in. And this woman's like shaking her head. And then the supervisor behind him, he came up to me and he said, I'm so sorry for your loss. He says, and he made a call. They stopped the freaking plane. They ran me through TCA.

And then you have to do the walk of shame when, you know, you're holding up the whole plane. Everybody's sitting in there. The door's open. Him and I get in there and we finally get to his seat. I can, thank God this is over. And then my son says to me, what did they do? What did they do to his mustache, ma'i? I looked like Mussolini.

How did this kid even know who Mussolini was? Like, he starts saying all this thing, and I'm like, I said, let's play some rummy. I ordered a Bloody Mary, and then we went back to Florida. And then the shit hit. back in Florida. My medical doctor, we were a big medical doctor, MDDC practice doing Medicare. He gets in trouble with Medicare. This appears. Boom. Gone. So 80. This is a Bose moment. You've been there before. Somebody's apartment. Small talk that's going nowhere. Plastic up that's almost empty. It's not great.

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VALU-FII-7. Wall Supplies last. Selection varies by location. See associate or Lowe's.com for details. Senator, my practice goes along with him. Was he paying rent at your building? Yes. And thank God the building was being done to his name.

It wasn't being done to my corporation. Thank God. So now I have an $11,000 a month mortgage payment. that I had put $2,000 aside for the taxes, because it wasn't included, and my medical doctor gets in trouble. 2009 hits, right? He dies in 2009, the mortgage, and now I'm left with 20% of practice and this noose around my neck of this building with no money and no income.

Started going through Joseph's life insurance because I said to him, if I pay for your life insurance, can I keep it? This is before he really got sick. He said, yeah, so I went through $150,000 of his life insurance like it was nothing in a few months. So Mr. Right Now says to me, Linda, you need to find another source of income. He says, what's your next? I said, personal injury. I said, all right.

He says, start going to all the different attorneys and started getting, you know, so that's what I did. And everybody knew my husband. Everybody knew us. Yeah, Linda, I'll refer you some business on me, you know. I was treading water, but we were making it every month. with the help of his life insurance. At that point, in retrospect, I should have turned to my dad,

and I should have said, Dad, I need to sell this building. Could you float me some money for the next 12 months? That's what I should have done. But I was the prodigal son. I never went to my parents for help, and I decided I'm going to do it on my own. So I meet this one attorney.

He says to me, I think I might know people that could rent the space for you, introduces me this guy, Manny, he comes to my office. He says to me, my bosses want to meet you. I said, okay. So I said, I'll come for lunch tomorrow. I'll come down there. It was in Sunny Isles.

That should have been right then and there. So I go the next day. I do GPS. I go to Sunny Isles. Go to this building. I have to get buzzed into this clinic. like you're outside the door, you push, who's this? This is Dr. Risco?

Yeah, yeah, okay, they buzzed me in. I walk into a big retundum with their physical therapy suites. It was very busy. They escort me to this room with three of the most scary-looking dudes I have ever set in my life. They were Ukrainians with the accent and all. Dr. Linda. So I, you know, they started. asking me questions, you know, where I said, look, I have the space to rent or you could buy the

whole building. You know, I'm thinking they're going to buy this thing. Can we come by tomorrow and see it? I said, yeah, let me, let me think about it. Every hair on my neck stood up. It was one of those moments where you know this is not, just like I knew with the building. This wasn't right. I got the same feeling. I left. I called Mr. Wright. I go, I'm not going with these guys. I got a funny feeling. They had cameras. Who has a camera? cameras in clinics, you know, on all the doors, they're seeing what's going on, made me nervous. I'm going to cut through the chase here. They come the next day. They love the space. And they said, okay, we're going to run a PI clinic in your office. I said, great.

You can have one side. I'll be on this side. There's plenty of space, 6,000 square feet, you know. Well, we are not medical professionals. So we're going to use your tax ID number until we can get our ACA license, which should take about a year and a half. At that point, I should have ran, because that's where I went wrong. So I still was unsure whether to go with these guys. I, you know, and I said yes, which was a mistake. Start, they come in, start seeing car accident cases through the Ying gang. And I'm like, where are you getting these cases? Oh, we advertise on 411 pain. We're doing SEO on Google. We're getting all this. I said, oh, that's great. Like 10 new ones. I couldn't keep up with it. It was just me. So after a few months,

and they bought this beautiful Ukrainian girl that I almost killed a couple of times. I wanted to beat the hell out of her. They, I said to him, I can't keep up with this. And so they brought another doctor in. So the doc, one doctor stayed on that side. I stayed on my side, seeing my car accident and my patients. And then this girl was destroying my practice. You have any questions for me? No, keep going. Okay. So she would, I couldn't keep up. She was timing me with patients. And I come out and she goes, you just spent 45 minutes doing an initial exam. I go, well, it was a lot of them there. And what the hell are you doing timing me? Like I was, I was ready for her. And her and her and I, her and I, She used to go out on the fire escape to smoke, and there was this one older lady, and I thought the case was BS.

And I go, I don't think this woman's hurt. I was doing the malingering tests on her. I go, you've got to get her out of here. Oh, Dr. Linda, you know, she was in a slip and fall. So, let's go on. So 2010, this started. 2015, somewhere along the line, I said, where's your ACA license? Why are you still practicing under my tax ID number? Oh, we're still getting it.

There was a couple of hitches. Meanwhile, the patients are pouring in. The clinic is flying. 100 patients a day coming through that clinic. I was going home with final reports and initial report. I couldn't keep up with it. It was like not only did I work there for 10 hours a day, then I go home and get that the kids organized,

and then I do more paperwork. So this became a joint venture with the two of you guys? Not really. It was really their venture. But they were referring you cases. Yeah, but they were making the money from it. I was on salary. So they were paying you? And you still had your own? I had my own thing. So I would get 60% of my own patients. They get 40 for doing all the paperwork and all that. Insurance billing the girls. So then 2015, May, it was a normal day. I'll never forget it because I was so excited my son. was coming home from college for the summer. You know, you have remembrances of this. And I'm on the second floor. Remember, the building was on stilts.

So some people parked underneath and some people parked in the back. Big Daddy and I were talking. I see like 10 SUVs, black SUVs, pull into the back of the parking lot. I go, Big Dad, what the hell's going on? He goes, I don't know. All of a sudden, if we're like on cue, all the doors opened up, IRS, FBI, State Police, Sunny Isles Police, all came out of the cars at the same time.

And I looked in and I go, somebody's getting busted. Yeah, until they ran into my office. That's how clueless I was. Clueless. And so my office was raided. There were speakers and speakers. like listening devices. They bugged it.

They bugged the phones were bugged. Two of the treatment rooms were bugged. They sequestered me to my office. And I remember I wanted to reach across my desk to grab my water and they had a cop stationed, some FBI agents. She goes, you sit down. Why are you talking to me like this? So then the next thing I know this guy comes in with gloves,

picks up my pocketbook. He's going through my making. makeup keys. Like, pulling each, like my lips. I go, what do you think you're going to find in there? A tampon with a razor blade? I mean, like, the guy was, and then the other guy, I'll never forget, State Police, he was laughing because I was like a little mouthy to these people. I had 10 patients there. They were all escorted. They gave me my license and the key to my car. And they sent me on the way. They said, we are confiscating your entire clinic. Every file, every commissue. computer. I don't know what to do. I drive home. And I call Stephen. I didn't tell you about

Stephen. Stephen's Mr. Wright. There was Mr. Right now. Then there was Mr. Right. And Steve's in my life. I go, I don't know what just happened. Then 10 minutes later, Big Daddy knocks on the door. I goes, what the hell was that? I go, I don't know. So I call my friend who's a, and he goes, get to my office right now. I'm going to call. I got friends in the right places. They call. They said if the feds came into her office, there's something definitely wrong. They've probably been building a case for her on two years, for at least two years. So I had to hire an attorney. I'll never forget, months would go by before anything would happen. So they basically took every file we had, every computer, my appointment, Everything was in the office, was on the computer, the patients.

I went, my staff was still there, and I said, let's go buy an appointment book. Well, we don't have any files. I said, when people come in, you start a new file on them. It's a new year, they're going to start a new file. I didn't know what else to do, so I just kept going. It's the only thing I knew. And we started to see patients again. And then three months into it, everybody else in the building on other floors are like,

what the hell happened, you know. That night of the raid, one of the Ukrainians was visiting his family in Israel. The other Ukrainian shows up in my house. And he goes, what the hell was that? I go, I don't know. Where's Iena? That was the front girl. I go, I don't know.

She disappeared. I never saw her after the raid. Never heard from her again. So the phone rings. He's getting ready to leave. this is like 10 o'clock at night, the same day of the raid. And it's her on my cell phone. She goes, Dr. Linda, your car, because the car was leased under my name, on my company,

I will leave your car at this and this thing with the key at some parking lot, and you can go get it. And I go, wait a second. Andrew wants to talk to you. And she goes, tell him, I never want to see him and speak to him again. And this was their right-hand girl. In retrospect, what I think happened, but I'll never know, is that I think that she got busted for drugs. She was acting crazy, like she was so bipolar up, down in and around.

You never know on any given day what you were going to get with her. And I said to them one day, I think she's using. And they go, you're crazy, Dr. Linda, yeah. I think she got busted and gave up her bosses because she's. nowhere to be found after that disappeared off the face of the earth. So I hired a criminal attorney. I went to, with Andrew, we went to different attorneys and we couldn't all have the same representation. Those two had to have one, each had to have an attorney and I had to have an attorney. They had 20 something clinics like that, but mine was the only one that was rated. So they had all

these other doctors using their tax ID number. This was a big, big case. You know what RICO is? Yeah. Okay, so it had to be $25 million or above. And I met with this attorney and I just hired him. And he told me, he goes, you've got to break up all dealings. You're never talking to these people again. Of course, they're calling me and I wouldn't talk to them. And so he met, he went and met with the federal prosecutors. This was a federal case. And you weren't charged yet by this point. They were still just investigating. Right.

Okay. And once went by, the attorney said to me, I met with these guys, Linda. You're going to meet with them. And they're going to ask you some questions. I'm just going to tell you the one prosecutor is going to be the good guy. The other one's going to be the bad cop, you know. So I went in.

I remember terrified. terrified. I went in with a suit and I met them. And when I opened the door to this conference room, it was two prosecutors, three FBI agents, state police, federal police, IRS. There had to be 12 people sitting around this table. So the bad cop, he starts talking first, New York Jewish guy. I actually really liked him. And he says to be, so Linda, you're a nice Italian girl coming from New York, right? Yeah. He said, then could you tell me why you are donating $10,000 a month to the shul in Sunny Isles? I went, oh, well, that's not me. He goes, no, that's not you, is it? They were washing money through the shul. I sat there and I, you know, they fired questions

at me. Did you do this? Why are there two bank accounts? Well, I said, yeah, well, mine's the Wells Fogel. Theirs is the Bank of America. He says, you were just an employee for these people, but you allowed them to use your tax ID number. Knew at that point, I was done. I was in trouble. So after about an hour and a half of this grueling, I go into my attorney's office. He used to be a prosecutor in Miami,

so I figured he knew the ropes, not cheap to hire criminal attorneys. And he said to me, you had to take a plea. He says, you've got to plead guilty. And I said, okay. What do I know? He's the professional, right? So I took a plea. Months went on, months, months, months, three years. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. I would meet with prosecutors and the FBI every Tuesday and Thursday. They allowed me to continue my practice.

Had to stop all the personal injury cases. And I would go in there and they would show me pictures. Who's this? Who's this? I don't know who this is. Oh, I know who that is. That's an attorney. but this was a huge case that funneled out all these different attorneys, kickbacks, MRI centers, a whole bunch of stuff. And it turns out I took a plea, continued to practice, and they're prepping me to go to court against these guys. What were you pleading guilty to? I was pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit health craft fraud. anytime you take a claim and you put it in the mail now becomes federal, right? So would they call that postal fraud or whatever the heck they call it?

Mail fraud. Mail fraud. I don't even ask because to me it was a blur of time. It was a blur. And they're prepping me for this big case. It was right around Christmas time. It was the week of Christmas. I'll never forget it.

And they pulled me in and they go, guess what? Felix and Andrew took a plea. I jumped up. I was like so excited. They go, sick out, Linda. But the other doctors didn't take a plea yet. I'm like, okay. So it turns out in the ninth hour she took a plea.

I didn't have to go to court. I was so relieved. So then it came time to go in front of the judge. For your sentencing. For me. So my attorney calls me up and he goes, I got good news and bad news. All right. What's the bad news?

Bad news is that you pulled the worst judge. you possibly could have. What's the good news? He's my friend. I go to all the Jewish shul, you know, the young Kippur and all the Jewish celebrations with him. I said, oh, okay. So I go, and I met him at his office and he said to me, he knew what was going to happen. He said, Linda, I have to create you're not, I got to create you as a human being, not just a number. He says, I need you to get letters from your patients, your family, your friends, and I need you, we're going to compile a book for you, and we're going to show pictures of your husband before and after and your kids and you with your kids and tell your story.

Because how does somebody like you wind up in this position? You know, he's going to need to humanize you, Linda. So we did this. I got 50 letters. You know, he compiles this thing. the judge was looking to throw me in jail for 36 months. The idiot that I am, the day of the sentencing, I remember my girlfriend Kathy came down. I was up at 5 in the morning.

My mother was sick at the time, and I said, you know, Ma, don't come. And she goes, no, you're my daughter. I have to be there. She had lupus. It was not a pretty sight. And her husband said, no, no, Marie, I don't think you should go. And she insisted. Well, patience and acquaintances of mine came to this little, you know, the federal courts,

their small little rooms. They were standing room only. You could not fit another person in there. They were like sardines. My whole family, my friends, patients came out of the woodwork for me. And I walked in there thinking, I'm going to get a slap on my wrist. I'm going to, they're going to take my license. probably do some probation, that didn't happen.

I remember sitting there listening to the prosecutor saying to the judge, you know, she cooperated with the government for three years. She was the best witness we had. Everybody wound up taking a plea, but we're still recommending. After they told me, Linda, we're going to keep you out of jail. Don't worry. They became friends with me. Like they would order pizza.

What do you feel like today? Chinese food, pizza, you know, like I was going through all this paperwork. and it was like you get to know these people. And then when he, it was the good, it was the good cop. Remember I said there were two, it wasn't the bad cop talking. It was the good cop. And he says, we're still recommending Prince's time. And I looked at him like, are you kidding me here?

I remember sitting there. And I remember the judge saying, I had to stand while he was sentencing me. I remember him banging the gavel down. And I remember him saying a year and a day. And then it was like I kind of left my body. Like I just was there, but I wasn't there. And I remember my mother sob. I couldn't see her, but I heard her, like, a cry.

And the next thing I knew, two Zizi top-looking marshals are escorting me out of the, up the private stairs to get fingerprinted. And I'm still, like, I'm there, but I'm not there. lights home but nobody's there, you know. And I remember they were done with me. They go, you can go. And I said, go where? I don't know where I am.

I don't know how to get back to my fans and family. I don't know. And I was running, I was stumbling around these holes up on that. It was on the third floor. I don't, I'm telling you, I was really not there. I couldn't believe that this, I couldn't believe that this was my life. This girl from Long Island, you know, that grew up with a gold spoon, like, how does this happened to me. I'm not that person. I finally found my friends and family. They were waiting

outside the courtroom. And I remember Steve, Mr. Wright, I'm running up to me. And he got this close to my face because that was the only way I'm going to hear him. And he says to me, Linda, we're going to get through this together. And then I look over and I see my father like this. Like he wasn't crying, but he was crying on the inside. My mother was hysterical. My brother. My father's crying, like his wife is crying, my kids. It was like, oh my God, what the heck did I just do to my family? And the next thing I know, oh, I didn't have to, I got to self-surrender. Let me explain what that means. That means they didn't take me away right then and there. Bruce, my attorney, said, you know, her son's graduating college, her daughter's graduating high

school, can you allow her to see that? And then can she self-srender? And he said yes. And by away, a year and a day translates in prison terms to 10 months. So that's either 10 months. They put me in a camp. Go further with the American Express Business Gold Card. Earn three times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels when you book through mxtravel.com. Whether your destination is a business conference or a client, meeting, your purchases will help you earn more points for future trips. Experience more on your travels with Amex Business Gold. Terms apply.

Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash business dash gold. MX Business Gold Card, Build for Business by American Express. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. The Four Seasons is back for Season 2, starring Tina Faye, Will Forte, Coleman Domingo, Marco Calvani, Carrie Kenny Silver, and Erica Henningson. After a difficult year, your favorite group of friends continue. their tradition of vacationing together now with a baby in tow. From the Jersey Shore to upstate New York and Italy,

their getaways are sure to take unexpected turns where comedy ensues. Watch the four seasons May 28th, only on Netflix. This episode is brought to you by Tidy Cats, here to level up your litter game with their new performance plus lineup. Your home is your happy place. Your cats, VIPs. So when it comes to the litter box, excellence isn't optional. Choose from products that specialize in max power clumping, low tracking, or overfighting so advanced, stink won't see it coming.

Tidy Katz Performance Plus. Mission Mighty Keep it tidy. Shop now at Tidycats.com. Or seven months in the camp and three months in a halfway house. Now, why did you want to give up your EIN number to these individuals? Was it because they were guaranteeing you rent money and that would help with the mortgage? Right. Or was it a mixture of both?

Like what was your mindset to taking a deal like that? They were going to pay me. There were several things that happened. Remember I told you when I drove away? I said, I'm not going with these guys. Well, the lady from the MRI company that I knew for 20 years, she called me that night, Roberta. And she said to me, Linda, I heard you met Felix and Andrew.

I go, yeah? I said, I'm not going with them. And she goes, why not? You're in financial duress, Linda. You can't stay above water. She said, I know these guys for 15 years. They're great business. man. You should go with them. They will help you. And she, because I trusted her and I knew her,

kind of convinced me even though my own gut was telling me not to, I went with them. They promised me $1,000 a week salary and $5,000 a month rent. And all you had to do is just review those cases, see what was wrong with these individuals. I was seeing my own patients, plus I was seeing most of theirs. And you're just writing, like, you're not physically doing work on them. I was physically adjusting a lot of them. Oh, you were adjusting them. Yes, yes. And then they're billing the attorneys for these personal injury cases. They're dealing the insurance companies. And, but attorneys are involved in this. Every case had an attorney. Because these are all accident cases. Correct. So there's a lot of money at play here. Yes. Do you know how much money that they were making? Well, I, when I got, when that hammer slammed down, I got a

a $5.7 million restitution on my head. And that's too. And that's too. Medicare? That, no, that's to, no. Insurance companies? Insurance companies, progressive, Geico, State Farm, all the auto accidents. Did they hit you with taxes, too? No.

They did not hit me with taxes. They hit me with this $5.7 million institution. Those guys were looking at RICO because they had over $25 million because they had all these clinics. None of the other clinics were busted. Eventually they were. But I was the one that they made the example of because I believe. leave that that girl, Ina, had something to do with it.

But you weren't reaping the benefits of profits from this. You were just on salary. Exactly. It's not like you were living lavishly off of this year. Same house for 30 years, right? Same car. Kids were in private school like they had been all along. No, I didn't get $5.7 million.

So when they threw the book at me at a year and a day, that included $5.7 million restitution and three years probation. Is that joint restitution with them or that's your own? That's my own goodies. And how did they come to that number? They said that's what the clinic billed in the, from 2010 to 2015 until when we were rated, that's what the clinic bill. That's how they came up with that number. I really don't know.

Did they subtract your other clients that were legitimate? No. They were all legitimate. When I tell you that not one thing was billed that was not performed, the problem was how they were getting the patients. And throughout that period of five years, are you ever thinking yourself, this is fishy? I need to look into this more. Well, I kept saying to them, where you're getting all these patients from? And they kept telling me they were throwing $10,000 a month at Google and 411 pain, which is very big in Florida. I don't know if you have that up here.

And I just thought that they were paying to get these patients. But what they were really doing was paying. They had runners. Do you know what a runner is? They have somebody like driving along. They see an accident. They go, oh, you got to go to this doctor. You've got to go to this clinic. And they were paying tow truck drivers. There was so much money being handed.

That's why when they were showing me these pictures of all these derrell-looking, derel-looking people, I didn't know who the hell they were. But they were all part of this giant scheme. Now, in my experience, I've been talking to people. I feel that people get into fraud by either greed or distress. Would you consider yourself in the distress factor of why you got into this? Definitely. Distress.

And like I said to you, I should have went to my dad. How did your dad react to this when he found out when this all unfolded? He was heartbroken. His baby was going to federal prison. Like, this doesn't happen in my family, you know. My father was the first guy in his family to ever graduate college. And then it was me. We came from immigrant farmers in Italy.

We weren't those people. and my gut was telling me things, but I didn't listen to it because I was so happy to be above water to be able to make that monthly payment of paying that mortgage and has taxes and then, you know, the elevator's breaking down. It was just such a nightmare. It was such a nightmare. Tell us about prison. What was prison like for you? Let me tell you about self-surrender. Okay.

So Mr. Wright, Steve, didn't want to drive me. I was sentenced to a camp, which was part of a five complex. Low, camp, low, medium, and two pens. The camp was the only female part of the prison. My daughter and my father's wife drove me up to Orlando. It's outside of Orlando in Cal Country. and you would think I was a celebrity. Like, you know, people are calling me, Hey, Dr. Linda, we just want to wish you the best. You know, they're playing all music that I like. It was almost surreal.

It was almost surreal. And we pull up and it says Coleman Medium. So my daughter goes, Ma, you stay in the car. I'll go see. So she walks up and, of course, there's a camera there. And the guard goes, can I help you? And she's like, my mother needs to sell surrender at 12 o'clock. Are we in the right?

this doesn't look like a camp. He goes, yes, you're in the right place. It's 11.30. I have to be in by 12 o'clock. So my daughter comes back in the car and she goes, you want to go for some coffee? I go, do I look like I want coffee? You want to go eat something?

I go, we're in the middle of nowhere is, Will. It's going to take us a half hour to drive somewhere. So she said, all right, I said, here's the deal, guys. I'm going to walk in. I'm not going to look back because I won't go in. So I start to approach the two doors open. And it says my name. And I hear my daughter said, I hear like a cry from her stomach.

Like, you know, one of those, you know. And he goes, don't, why he says to me, how long are you here? I said a year and a day. And he goes, oh, that's a long weekend around here. And with this, I hear those two double doors closed. and now I'm in receiving and delivery. I knew the strip search was coming, and I knew that whatever clothes I had on

would be disposed of, you know, so I wore some yoga plants and some flip-flops. And so they, this guy, receiving and delivery guy, I can't even remember his name, right? Some guard, Nasser was his name. And he says to me, okay, are you, Linda? He says, you're lucky, you're the only one here. I'll process you. I'll have you in and out in 10 minutes. I'm thinking of it's all, okay.

So he comes out with this brown paper bag, slice of bologna, slice of cheese, a green apple and a water and two slices of bread. He goes, here's some lunch. And a laced potato chip. Because here's some lunch. Like I had any appetite to eat, right? And so this woman comes out and she's asking me about sexual preferences and all sorts of weird stuff. And then this other guard comes out and she says, okay, I'm going to need you to pee in this cup. So she takes me in the bathroom. And like, you know, I had been through this already, and I, you know, I had to run the water to, you know, it's kind of weird. And so I give her the urine. And then she takes me into room. She goes, okay, take all your clothes off. And I knew what was common. And you want to talk humiliation at all levels. Yes.

So it takes, you know, you have to bend over, you know, the whole bit. Just going through my hair and there's a lot of hair to go through my mouth. Open your mouth. That took of about three minutes. And then she fit me with some, it was a Friday. June 1st, 2018. She fit me with, well, look like base scrubs.

She didn't have a bra that would fit me. She didn't have really shoes that. She gives me like a size 40 sports bra, you know, so I'm like, and then she gave me two, like, rubber bands to tie it on either side so it would fit me. And I go back looking like some mangy, you know, I don't know. And then receiving and delivery was gone,

and then some girl in like this, I thought she looked like a park ranger. came in. She was actually an inmate. She goes, and he says, Erica, show Linda, around the campus. Sounds like you're going to college, right? You open the door and you're on a campus. The camp has no bars, no nothing. It's a working camp. The women do all the work. We run the commissary. We do landscaping. We do laundry, you know. So she brings in, everybody's looking at me because everybody's in a different color outfit than I am. So they know, and you've got those canvas boat shoes.

You'll look like a bag woman. And so she takes me. She says, okay, we have, this is the library, this is education, this is a working camp. You're going to have to get a job. So think about what you want to do. She wasn't mean, but she wasn't nice either. So she says, this is all rec room. She takes me, and she goes, this is our religious area.

and she says we have something called Helping Hands. Do you know what that is? Where the inmates, you buy extra stuff from the commissary, and when the girls get there, they give you like some flip-flops, some shampoo, because you don't have anything, right? And the commissary you're not available to. It's a Friday, it's the weekend. So in my camp, you wear grays on the weekend and after work,

and during the day you wore this, like, green army fatigue, looking things. And she says to me, where are you? I said, I'm in F1 and I'm looking at my thing. 162. She goes, welcome Bunky. She was actually my Bunky. I never heard that term Bunky before, but she was a lovely black woman from like North Florida, like really like an hour and a half away from me. She took me and she took such good care of me. Like she brought me and it's very segregated in the camp. You know, you have the blacks, you have the Hispanics, and then you have other. So I got into the black community. All her friends came and brought me grayes that I could wear, a pair of sneakers. And then I'm sitting there like a deer in the headlights and tears are streaming down my

eyes. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm in prison. She goes, come on, get up. She takes me. We had a, like a track. And she goes, you need to get it out now. She walked me around that track about 10 times as I bawled my eyes out. She was, get out, Linda. Come on, get it out because you're going to have to get comfortable in here. And then it was like, okay, that was it. Then I had to learn about the count. You know, I learned the expression, gay for the stay, straight at the gate, very big in the camp.

A lot of girls are in there for a long time. So they see their husbands, you know, every two weeks of visitation. but during, in between, they have these gay relationships. And like a couple months in, I'm laying in bed one night. I'm on the top bunk. You know, 56 years old, I'm on the top bunk. And it was like a half a mile to go to the bathroom. You know, it was a giant dorm.

All the girls on the top bunk could see each other, right? So I'm sleeping one night and I'm here. I'm like, oh, damn it. So, you know, I'm putting a pillow over my head and I'm hearing all this morning. I'm like, it's like getting faster. I'm like, after like 15 minutes, I go, just come already. Right? Well, 15 other girls started laughing on all the day.

Because I wasn't the only one they were keeping awake. It went completely silent. I don't know where the girls were. I knew the general vicinity. It's dark, right? And then there was a couple of times. I woke up during the night to pee. I had a walk and I see four legs in the shower.

So all the gay experiences were happening in between the counts. Because they knew when the counts were. In the camp, you can't touch other women. And so everybody kind of knew that I was a chiropractor and I became very famous in the camp because there's really no medical. Girls with migraines, girls with sciatica. but you're not allowed to touch them. So they started all calling me doc.

I wanted to get a job, you know, because you got the white-collar criminals. I was in with the mayor of North Miami Beach. I was in with Bernie Madoff's secretary. She was the only other Italian girl in there besides me, and she was not very pleasant. And you learn to get things with your hands. That's how I, you know. So word spread. wildfire. And so I got a job at Unicorn, which is we all have to work. I drove a forklift.

And I had my own row. And that's when I started to write down my experiences about my life. Like, how did I get here? And so we concocted a chiropractic table out of boxes on my row. And there would be a girl on the lookout. And then the girls would come and they'd get adjusted. and I would take care, I would do pressure points, whatever need to be done, I did. And in that, we had a hot pack. You know, I was able to devise a hot pack for the girl. I'm telling you, it was chiropractic prison style.

And there was a Spanish girl next to me. She wouldn't speak to me. She was from Puerto Rico. We had a lot of girls from Puerto Rico coming in to that camp. And she wouldn't speak to me. She wouldn't look at me. And then this bilingual girl said, me, Linda, you have to help Mariana. I go,

Mariana doesn't look at me, she doesn't talk to me. She goes, she can't turn her neck. She's suffering with bad migraines. So I said, okay, I'll help her. So I took her in the back. I did all my adjusting, my pressure points, and she said to me, I pay you. I go,

I don't want anything. I really wanted to kind of get in with the Spanish mamas. I was already in with the black girls. She says, I pay you. I go, I don't know, I don't want anything. So she brings me cardboard to line the pallets for for when we were doing invoicing shipment going out.

And she gave me like four pieces of cardboard. I was like, oh, thank you so much. And from that point on, the Spanish mamas took me in. Then they found I could draw, and then I was doing their Christmas cards, their birthday cards. And they made this prison-style cafe can leche, you know, after lunch. And then I'd be part of that with them, even though I couldn't stand the way it taste.

I chugged it down with the rest of them. And I became famous in the camp. I started Pilates two nights a week for the girls. I would teach them Pilate yoga. And I go, okay, guys, forget where we are. Close your eyes. We're going to, you know, just think. We did it outside a lot of times.

And we had a basketball court with no basketball hoops, but we would lay our mats. And I would, like, we'd talk them through, like we were on a cruise ship, and we were outside at night, and we were doing the stretching. And I took the girls away. And it was, I made an unbearable situation very bearable. How much of an impact did it have on you being surrounded by the majority of women who did not have the same upbringing as you?

Like you got to see a whole different part of life that you've never experienced in your life before. Yeah, it was very crazy. Because remember, you have blue collar work. You have all these white collar crime, doctors, attorneys in there with, you. Once they made the federal, the law with a certain amount of drugs, there were a lot of cartel girls in there. They were in for 20 years, 10 years for the first offense. So what happens is they do their good time at a lower or medium, and then they bring them in to the camp for the remainder. And when the girls get to the camp, you'd think they were arriving.

They were like, oh, my God, they bring them in shackles. And you'd think that they were arriving on a cruise ship. It was crazy. Did it make you appreciate your life more? I was never one that didn't have gratitude. I lived at a, you know, two-by-four locker. And I had the best shoes, the best clothes, the best bras, because I had everybody in laundry and kitchen, you know.

And when I left, the girls lined up to get all the stuff that I was given away because I had so much good stuff. I remember I was training this girl for my row when I was getting ready to leave and she had like really bad teeth and she was like maybe 40 and I said to her I go how does somebody get addicted to meth tell me she goes yeah I'm in for meth I go she goes I couldn't keep up with my four kids I go what about stop or she said I didn't have the energy from my four kids. I go, what about Starbucks? She goes, no, it was the meth that kept me going. And so I kind of found like I was starting to counsel these girls about life and about, like, I sat there.

We had hours. And then one day she asked me to go to lunch with all her friends. And between the four of at that table, I don't think they had a full set of teeth amongst the four of them. It was so sad because they used battery acid or something and it kills you. It was the stuff I witnessed, the sadness at so many levels. And this one story, I'll never forget this. So when the chaplain calls, makes an announcement over the speaker and the chaplain calls your name, somebody died. So this one girl in my dorm, they call her name at about, it was recall, so we had to go back to the dorm, just about a recall, so 8 o'clock. Then lights are out at 10. You don't have to go to sleep. You could read in your bunk or you can go to the room, you know.

And she comes back like 10.30 to the dorm. It's pretty quiet in there now. Her son was murdered, and they wouldn't let her leave. And she came in there, and she sobbed from the depths of her soul for an hour and a half, sobbed. And every woman that was a mother in there, I can tell you, was crying. Because I know I laid in bed thinking, oh, my God, this poor woman. And I remember she got out a month before me. And I said to, I don't even know her first name. We called her Soto.

I said, I go Soto. I'm so glad you're going. getting out and she said, I'm going right to the cemetery, to grieve for my son that I never got to say goodbye. It was horrible because he was in a gang. It was related with firearms and stuff. So there was another woman. They let her out on furlough to go bury her husband. I thought she was like 70 at the time. She was like younger than me. She just looked like that. the poor woman looked like she had a hard life. Like a lot of...

They let her go for 48 hours. She came back. She was so excited. She got to go to a Chinese restaurant, got to bury her husband. I mean, the sadness that I saw brought you to your knees. I came out a completely different person. Very humbling experience and very, like, nothing.

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Tell us about life after prison. So I defined myself as a chiropractor for almost 30 years. I didn't know what to do with myself. That's what I was. They took my license. They drained all my bank accounts. Came out. I went to a halfway house where my roommates stole from me.

They allowed me to go home for the weekend. You're not allowed to leave. And I get a call from Wells Fargo. that she charged, she took a copy of my debit card and then this stupid ass, her name is right on the thing. So I went back to the halfway house and I told them what happened. They go, you've got to press charges. I go, no way I'm pressing charges against her and I'm sleeping in the same room.

I'm going to wake up with a pillow over my head. No way. So they reported her. That night, they moved her out of my room and then they, she was two weeks from being free. no probation, no nothing. And then she does that. Like, didn't she learn? She was in the same campus,

she was in a different dorm, but I recognized her. I mean, like, come on. So she wound up doing more time. They brought her straight to county, and I don't know, she probably got resentenced for another, I don't know how long. I never heard from her or ever again in my life.

And I saw these people in the halfway house. I remember when they brought me to the halfway house, I remember Steve looking at it was like there was maybe 38 of us in there, maybe nine women, maybe eight women and some scary looking dudes. And, you know, they put the women in different rooms. And it was, I was like, oh, my God. But after being at the camp, I mean, like, nothing was going to shock me at this point anymore. So I come out, I can't be a chiropractor. And I need to get a job.

So while I was in the halfway house, I worked for one of my. personal injury attorney friends, who was close to the halfway house. I took the bus there. And I ran all his, you know, I knew what explanation of benefits were. It was easy for me. But we told the halfway house I was just doing secretarial stuff, filing. I said they didn't want me anywhere near that kind of stuff. But I ran his office for a while. He was so sad when I left. And then after I was done, they sent me home. I used to go home with an ankle bracelet. The last month I had an ankle bracelet. I was allowed to go home, take my car.

And I got in trouble because I forgot to call when I arrived, forgot to call when I was leaving this, all these rules. And now I find myself like, what am I going to do with my life? I didn't know anything else. I had a hat. There was a chiropractic out. There was a mommy hat. There was a wife hat.

But there was no other hat. So Steve, Mr. Wright, owns a plumbing conference. He goes to me, you could run my place, you can learn to do permits, and you could market my company. Okay. So I start doing that. I build his business up, like triple it. And then I realized, oh, my God, I'm a good marketer. I should have been doing that for the chiropractic office all these years.

I just, you know, I'm real with people. And I'm also transparent. So I'll tell you exactly how it is. You know, and sometimes that gets you in trouble. And so I built his clinic up. I built not his clinic, his plumbing business. And now he brought on investors, and we took a little, little company to a gigantic company. Did your kids look at you differently after prison?

No. My son used to come visit me. He was in USF at the time University of South Florida. He'd come in every other Sunday, and we would play what he called, risen rummy. And we would sit outside. There was no, there was no bars. He'd go, look, mine. He can't hold his hand. That's freedom. I go, shut the hell up. He was always like teasing me. It was, there's no big deal. I lost a ton of weight because the food is so horrible. And I remember when my family would come to town. My mother never came to visit me. My dad came

quite often, but my mother couldn't do it. She was really failing at that point. It was too much for her, but I would call her. And Steve, one time, he comes to visit me and he goes, I got something special for you. I go, yeah? He goes, I go, where is it? He goes, in my pants. I go, you smuggled something illegal in here? He goes, yeah. I go, okay. He goes, I got to go to the bathroom because I love, I have a fig tree. He had two figs in his pants. He had to go to the bathroom, pull him out, gave me these warm figs. I was never so happy to get some figs. I mean, we didn't have anything like that. When they would come, they'd bring a bunch of dollar bills and stuff. Like, I wanted yogurt, some fresh vet, like fruit, strawberries, blueberries. You don't

need any of that stuff. We had green apples and bananas. That was it. So it was the simplest things. Like, I wanted that baby root there or ice cream. Ice cream was a big one. My family would buy. I would sit there, like, for the two hours that we would have visitation and just eat myself to it. They would just stare at me like, oh my God, I can't believe she's eating so much. Didn't they sell ice cream on Commissary? They did, but half the time they didn't have it because all freezes were broken. I think I had one time I had it. But in the visiting room, they had the ice cream.

Yeah. And those cheeseburgers from the vending. Yeah, and they weren't bad. They were not bad. They were good. It was something different. My son looked forward to them. He loved it.

Because I'm going to get those cheese bread. It was just crazy. It was crazy. Do you feel like people judge you for your past now? Okay. So once I came out, I felt like I, everybody could see that I was, you know, an inmate or I was, you know, I was a felon. That term, I'm convinced.

You know, the way the gods treat you. The female gods were half, ten times worse than the male gods in my camp. Nasty, nasty. And I felt terrible. I felt like everybody was going to judge me. When I was in the camp, I started to write down my story. But then I didn't want to publish it because I figured, you know, I remember when the thing hit the Sun sentinel.

in Florida. Giant fraud, you know, and they, because I was never arrested, they never had my picture up there. Lucky you. I was very lucky. I also never had handcuffs put on me. Lucky here.

That's really lucky that I went through all that. Because my attorney said to me, you come with me into the room. He says, if you meet them and you show up, they're going to shackle you. Or they're going to put. So I walked in with him. they never bothered me.

I found that the guards, the marshals, they were really nice. I never had any problems. I never really had any problems. Yeah, some girls try to start some shit when you get ready to leave. They try to, like, piss you off. But I really kept to myself. I read 52 books in seven months. I wrote my story down, and I came out, and I started working at a chiropractor turns plumber.

Do you feel like people still judge you? No. And if they do, I started going on TikTok live to tell my story because I have, I rescue baby squirrels. And one day I just started talking about my experience. I'm like 300 people on TikTok listening to my story. Didn't get any judgment. Yeah, I went to jail. Yeah, I went to prison.

Yeah, I did. Yeah. I was like, wow, what's a big community out there? In my past, where I grew up, if you. You got, went to sent to prison. In my opinion, you should throw away the key and that was the end of you. I had no concept of how many people were in there because of stupid crap. And so my whole opinion about that changed.

It's a very humbling experience. Yeah, I feel like these smaller communities, especially like my town where I grew up, Danbury, Connecticut, they look at you a certain way because you went to prison. But once you start sharing your story, there's this whole world of people that are accepting and, you know, give you credit for going through that and coming out on the other side, and it makes you feel better. Yep. I think talking about the story is very therapeutic. I'm profoundly, profoundly changed from it.

And in a good way, I like the new Linda. And, you know, after 30 years of being a chiropractor, even before the raid, I kept saying, I don't want to do this anymore, I'm tired. I didn't want to go out that way, but that's how it turned out. What do you think is the most powerful lesson from your story that the audience should take away? resilient two things resilience because everybody has a story everybody's got knocked down whether you went to prison or when you went through a divorce or whether you went through a bankruptcy you know what we all get knocked down it's the people that get up that make the difference and the new version of yourself

you might even like better than the old version that's what I came out that's why I wrote the book But the second thing that I take away from this whole thing is, besides resilience, is I lost my train at the way. I just went, boop. What was the question? The most powerful lesson. So you said resilience and you had a second one. Yeah, I did have a second one. Hold on.

And maybe it'll come to me. Well, resilience is still pretty good. Yeah, but I can't remember. It'll come to me in about a minute. but maybe we'll be done by them, but that's okay. Resilience is good, but there was another really powerful lesson in there. Maybe it's keeping your humor throughout the whole process. Well, I never lost my humor.

Well, Doc, I appreciate you coming on the show today. You're a great storyteller. Thank you. Yeah, I'm sure the audience is going to love you. Thank you. And we'll have the links to your book in the description in this episode. Great. Now let's get back to the heat before you flip.

out. You said it's a little too cold in here. No, I'm comfortable. I'm comfortable. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate you.