Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Celebrity Business Manager Steals Millions from Clients (The Real Story)

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches. Go to my sponsor https://aura.com/matt to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposedJonathan Schwartz he was once an icon financial advisor in the entertainment industry to A listers like Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, LINKIN PARK, and more. Then an addiction led him to steal millions from his clients. Today we share the full story...Johnathan's Links https://www.instagram.com/therealjonathanschwartz/[e-mail]://altus.rehab/residential-treatment/Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [e-mail] you extra clips and behind the scenes content?Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news 🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/reFollow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69

Long-Bendie Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going. I'm going. I embezzled $4.6 million. I represented Beyonce, Gwyneth Pautro, Mariah Carey, Matthew McConaughey. We want you to come and take a lie detector test. Now I have to tell my wife the truth. And to my surprise, she said, well, why don't we Google how to beat the lie detector test?

You know, one day I had this brilliant, genius idea that, you know what? Why don't I become a bookie with one of my fraternity brothers? Because bookies don't lose. And now I, because, you know, I grew up poor. So I didn't, like, I was around a lot of affluent college mates, right? And me, they're going out, they're going to the bars, they're going to get food. And I really didn't have that. access to money. So I'm thinking in my head, okay, let's become a bookie. So we become a bookie,

this fraternity brother and I, for about two weeks. Why only two weeks? Because we're probably the only bookies in the entire globe that lost. So we lost $10,000, $5,000 each. Now for a college student, or at least I'll speak for myself, $5,000 was like the equivalent of a million to me. So now I leave SUNY Albany and I put the onus on my fraternity brother to take care of the $10,000 in entirety. So that was the start of some really poor choices and bad behaviors. And, you know, the funny thing is I tried to make amends to that fraternity brother who now lives in Israel. And he basically sent me, I sent him a Facebook message when I was off probation. And he sends me this text saying, go F yourself. I hope you die of cancer.

And you know what? He's right. He turns out he had to take a job. to pay my portion and again, what kind of schmuck like myself would do that to someone who I cared about. And I did. And I felt terrible, but obviously I blocked them off of Facebook. And let's just say we're no longer friends on Facebook. And, you know, when I had the money, I should have paid him back. I just never did. So now I moved to San Francisco because at this time my mother was living in San Francisco with her husband. I called her up. I said, hey, mom, I'm transferring. Can I come live with you and is there a college I can go to and finish the last call a year and a half, two years of my studies? She said, yeah. So I went and moved in with her and her husband, took a part-time

job in the financial district of San Francisco for a CPA firm and went to San Francisco State to get my degree. Is that what you thought you were like the whole, when you entered college, did you think finance? Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, the only subject I was good at in school was accounting, you know, finance. The bookie thing doesn't lend well. Yeah, there's maybe no correlation. That could have been the cannabis that affected and impaired my cognitive abilities. But, yeah, I have seven cousins in my family that are accountants.

So I believe I was predetermined or predestined to be an accountant. Okay. And one of them was an accountant in the entertainment community, specializing in music. So when I graduated San Francisco State, you know, I called him up and I said, hey, cuz, I'm ready to come work for you. He said, you're not ready to come work for me. you're immature, irresponsible. What do you know about business management? My suggestion, Jonathan, is that you go work for a sole practitioner or a larger,

you know, one of the big four firms at the time and hone your analytical skills. And then when I think you're ready, I'll give you a call. So now fast forward. I get a job working full time after I graduate college for a sole practitioner CPA firm in the San Francisco Financial District. And it was the best suggestion I could have received because I really learned so much of the trade and how to hone my skills. And so he called me three and a half years later, and he said,

he said, you're ready to come work for me. So at the time, I had a wife now. Right. I've had my first of three sons now. And we moved down, we drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles. And I started working for him. We got this small little apartment in Brentwood. My cousin who hired me was paying me bupkis, but it was like going to grad school and getting

paid something. Right. But the financial stressor and the pressure was on. I was the first one in the office, the last one to leave because I didn't want the word nepotism associated with me. And I learned a lot. And then in 1999, he was acquired by Chase Manhattan Bank, now J.P. Morgan. And he asked me if I want to get into family wealth management. I said, because I love you. Thank you for the opportunity. I want to stay in entertainment business management. Oh, okay. And that's what his, you didn't mention that's what he was focusing on. That's his focus. Yeah. He was really well respected as the great music mind. I mean, he had some of the greatest clients you could have. He was a brilliant mind. He had a brilliant mind. So how do you stay in entertainment if he's being acquired? You go get another job, right? Thank you to ORA for sponsoring this video. Did you know that Dell had a breach that exposed over 3.9 million customer records, including sensitive personal information?

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In just two weeks, Aura will tell you if any of your personal data is exposed. You don't want to wait for your data to be leaked to realize you need to be. protection. Do yourself a favor. Go to aura.com slash Matt to get your free trial and start protecting what's yours today. I was starting to make a name for myself. I'll be it a small name. You know, my cousin allowed me to start working on, let's say, some B-level clients. And so people heard that I was doing some good work. And so this particular person, I called, I said, hey, his name is Michael. I said, you know, I'm leaving the firm. I'm looking for another place to work. He said, let's have dinner tonight. So we had dinner that night. So we had dinner that night.

He made an offer. I couldn't refuse. And so from that moment forward, I worked for GSO business management, which was the firm in which I ultimately became a partner in about four plus years after starting there. And that's when the spiral started. What exactly is it that you're doing? So what business managers do when I was starting to solicit clients, you know, they would ask me, what's the difference between a traditional CPA and a business manager? First of all, unfortunately, anybody can call themselves a business manager. Right.

The business managers that have the three initials as a professional designation CPA after are the ones that at least if I'm searching for a business manager that I want to hire. And so I had the CPA designation. And so what's the difference is most CPAs, traditional people, you know, stereotype is that you hire them and you retain them for tax work, right? You know, they plug in your W-2s and your other things and they turn. turn around and they get pull out of their printer these forms these tax forms now because they know how to enter the data and they know what the write-offs are they know what you can you can

depreciate what you what is an asset yeah correct and tax was boring to me frankly and so what a business manager does is that financial statement that you know we have bookkeepers you know that pay pay the clients bills right that creates the expense side of a financial statement we collect all their income as business as a business management firm, right? A bookkeeper is assigned to a client, deposits the checks, pays the bills. Now you're creating a financial script. And then we have a tax department that handles the taxes.

We have an insurance risk management department because we live in a very litigious society. And these high net worth celebrities are targets of lawsuits, right? You could be an artist, the drummer, and you throw your pick out or a guitar player and you throw your pick out, and it hits a fan

the eye, you're likely going to be sued. Right. Right. And that happens. So we have risk management. We have a tax department. We have a royalty department because all of these things are revenue streams, you know, for clients.

Right. You know, in terms of royalties and touring. And so the difference is business managers can look at a financial statement. Every line item means something towards the client's financial script. Right. Whereas CPAs are pretty much narrowly focused, for the most part, not all, of course, on taxes. Right. So you're also trying to determine that, you know, Warner Brothers pays this guy two and a half million. Are you saying, look, we can offset your taxes by putting a million dollars into this fund and do or that sort? Are you also allocating money or saying, you know, obviously having a conversation with them and saying, look, we could put this much money here. You don't pay taxes on it right now until you take it out. Put this much money here. We can buy this. You know, are you trying to manage their tax? what the liability right yeah we're certainly doing a lot of tax planning throughout the year

tax plan and trying to minimize their tax liability okay um what what we didn't do as business managers and some some business managers still do this today is invest we're not asset managers okay so we're not managing their portfolio of investments we're not telling them that you should invest in stock a b or c but what we do is we say okay we have these really strong relationships with let's say the top three asset managers in the entertainment space. Why don't you meet with these three, if you don't have your own asset manager now, see which ones you like because you have the choice in only you to select the one that you feel can manage your portfolio and meet your short, mid and long-term goals, right?

Right. So the reason why these three were selected for us to, you know, kind of introduce to the client is because they represent a lot of our clients. So they know that if they mess up on one client, we're going to fire them from all clients. Right, right. Right. So that was our leverage, if you will. So we didn't get involved, but as business managers, we're sort of the quarterback of the client's financial world, despite them having an asset manager.

So I was involved in all the meetings with the asset manager because the asset manager doesn't know. This client has publishing income coming in three months from now, and this is what we're estimating that monthly income is, you know, that revenue is going to be. right this is what we're projecting to be the tour profits from the upcoming world tour and so on and so forth so we want that information we want to provide it to the asset manager so they know how to you know invest the client's monies and again in order to achieve the respect of clients goals okay so when you when you move from your cousin uncle cousin's firm yes when you move from your cousin's firm to the new firm do you bring your client with you? Or does, because wouldn't that be, because that would be, your cousin would be pissed? Well, he's selling it anyway. What does he care? But anyway, is that the whole thing or you have to start over and get new clients or do they give you new clients? Great question. So he blessed me with giving me like three, four, you know, B level clients. So I was able to take a small, very small book of business over to this existing firm. Right. Are these B level clients? To me, B level clients,

if you're lucky, B level clients become A level clients, but some B level clients just never that you know they're always secondary you know role they never they're never going to be the lead in a movie or are do any of these people ever move up i'm just curious yeah they do they do so i took some of those clients um and you know like for example ruthless records which was easy ease estate i mean it's not like necessarily a b level client but it's also not you know a a taylor swift of today if you will, right? And I actually loved very much and cared very much for the widow of EZ, whose name is Tamika Woods Wright. So she agreed to come with me. Boney James, a jazz artist, came with me. John B, a young, you know, hip-hop R&B guy came with me. And those are small

clients at the time. And some of them grew, like Ruthless Records grew. She was able to grow EZ's label when he died in 1995. And she actually helped produce, out of Compton movie. I have a lot of respect for her. But the real break in my career, I wasn't made a partner so fast, as I said earlier. I had to really also continue with my work ethic, be the first one in, the last one to leave,

learn from now a new mentor in my life, Michael Oppenheim, who represents some of the greatest artists in the world, the M&Ms at the time, the Backstreet Boys. I really admired him, and unfortunately he passed away in early last year,

and I was still on probation. and the hardest part of that was that I couldn't, under probation, I was not allowed to speak to my former partners or my direct victims. And that was really hard for me. And I really wanted to go to the funeral, but I knew that I wouldn't be welcome at the funeral. Right.

And so that was tough, and I think about him every day. I want to make amends to his wife and daughter, but I've been advised that making amends could cause her harm and bring up some bad memories. And so when that's the case, you choose not to make amends. At this point in my life, as much as I want to make amends,

I don't think it's the right time to do that to his beautiful wife and daughter. So he got a meeting with Lincoln Park in 2000. And at the end of 2000, November 2000, was their first album hybrid theory released. So Lincoln Park comes and takes this meeting. It just kills me that you're my age and you know all the names of all these people.

can't, I mean, I recognize, the only person I recognize so far is Lincoln Park. Okay. You know, but I couldn't tell you one name. I couldn't tell you the fact that you're, you know, it makes me feel so old. The new Bimo, V.I. Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more, more perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new Bimo, V.I. Porter MasterCard. and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months.

Terms and conditions apply. Visit bemo.com slash the iPorter to learn more. Or so just out of touch with the fact that you're in touch with all that you know who these people are. And I don't. It's funny. You say that too because the truth is I'm not enamored by musicians, artists, or anybody, right? They put the same socks and shoes on that you and I do. Right.

So I never got caught up in that part of the entertainment world. And even my friends today that knew me throughout my whole career will say, you never were really, like, excited when you would tell us who you represented. And then I would ask you, they would ask me, do you know so-and-so? And I would say, I know them, but I really don't know their music. See, because I wasn't on the talent side, right? I was on the financial side. So the names that I'm sharing with you today are names that I worked with.

And that's probably the only reason why I know them. Right. So I'm like you. I'm not really immersed today in the music business. Makes me feel a little bit. That was my goal to make you feel good. but so linking park got this great break in 2000 when they released hybrid theory so they interviewed prior to the early that year right they were this young new artists no one really heard of them but the manager said you want to take a chance on these guys they've got some real opportunities for success here and as business managers who specialize in music film and all that like we did you have to take a chance you don't have to you know you consider taking chances because one of these young artists could become a major artist tomorrow.

Right. Right. So they interviewed a whole bunch of business managers, and Michael Oppenheim and I took a meeting with them. And they liked sort of at that time I was considered young. They liked the young guy and the older guy, and we really connected with them. All six of the band members came in,

and we were fortunate enough to get them because that was sort of the crossroad of my personal career with professional career. You know, they came out of the box when they released this album, hybrid theory faster than most any artists in history at that time. I'll still use the word CDs and albums. They sold, I think 20 million albums or whatever they sold in the first year after the release of hybrid theory. They were like a tremendous success because of that success that they had

and the expectations that they had on a business manager myself, they really taught me a lot about what I needed to do to become a better business manager. I mean, they treated their music like it was Apple, right, which was rare because the first time I went on their tour bus, I'm thinking sex drugs and rock and roll. This is going to be awesome. Well, it was six guys playing video games and they were nerds. Right. Right. But they're nerds because they take, they took their music and their career seriously. Right. And I really admired them for that. And it was great opportunity. So from that moment, now I'm getting calls from agents, lawyers, personal managers, saying, hey, we want to take you to lunch or dinner.

And now my business started to grow. And that was sort of like, that's why I say that was, Lincoln Park was the crossroad of my quote unquote success. At this time, are you, are you already having issues with addiction? No. No? No. Well, I kind of, I don't know, for sure.

I kind of assumed it was kind of always kind of there, but it's not, it hasn't. Okay. No, I mean, to answer your question. Are you gambling at all? Not really. No, like when I say not really, so I gambled in college as the bookie. Yeah. I dabbled with my cousin's firm.

I gambled. I had like a week worth of gambling where I actually lost like $3,000 and my cousin's partner paid that, that off for me. And then I stopped. I didn't gamble until that came later. Okay. So now you're kind of, you know, you're up and coming. People are, instead of you seeking them out, they're seeking you out. So how do we go forward from there?

What happens there? Who are, you know, are you getting bigger clients? I mean, or is it more of the up-and-coming people? Or is it more established? Are these more established people reaching out to you at this point? More established. Dude, now I would use the term A-listers, right? So now Lincoln Park falls in a category of an A-lister.

Right. Then the next big break for me was Alanis Morset. Okay. Now, Alanis Morset wasn't perhaps relevant as much as she was back when jagged little pill was, you know, came out. She was still Alanis Morset. I mean, she was still an icon, a legend, if you will. And it was great because that one I sort of got on my own, right? Whereas Lincoln Parker was me and Michael. That one was, that was for me to either get her or not get her. So she was taking these meetings with about 10 business managers, whatever, six, whatever it was.

And she, she, I was the only business. So I go there. And the irony behind why she selected me over call it the others, is because I brought visual aids. I was Jonathan transparent at this time. Right. Right. I was the one who said, this is, if you want to, you know, work with me, we'll meet every month. I'm going to bring you your, we're going to do a financial budget, and this is what a financial budget looks like, personally and professionally. If you're going on tour, let's discuss your tour budget, your bottom line, and see if you're comfortable at the profit margin before you commit to the tour. If you're not yet committed, let's see how we can sort of, you know, reduce some of the production expenses, or maybe you'll sell out, and maybe there'll be some

bonuses or overages. So anyway, Alanis was that next client for me, and it was really nice to work with her. As you know, she was like the one client of a handful of clients that I embezzled money from that spoke publicly about this. So she actually came to my sentencing and spoke so beautifully against me, but, but, I mean, she's all kidding. I know it's funny, but she's the one, I mean, she really did. Her and my former partner, Bernie, presented a strong case in front of the judge as to what an ASS, this guy, Jonathan is. Right. And they were right. I mean, she, one thing about Atlanta is she's super intellect. And she, like I said, she really nailed it. well, I almost wanted to melt when I heard what she was saying about how much harm I caused

her. And the truth is, I caused her tremendous harm. You know, she didn't deserve any of that, nor did some of the other clients deserve it. But sitting her in the, you know, on the side of the government was hard. It was hard. But, you know, deservingly so. I needed, you know, I needed to hear it at that time because I was, even as I entered sentencing, I had an ego. Like, oh, I'm not going to get this. I'm only going to get a year and a half, two years. Like that, ego still entered the room when i could be facing several years many years right so so what so you she ends up hiring you and so you're meeting with her once a month going over plans um how long does it like how long does this go on until you know things start going bad or or

are there other well i understand you get you get additional clients right what year is this when you you when you take her on it was probably early early 2000s right and what kind of are just in general what kind of money are you making in general every year just working at this at the company I mean is this a job you're making a couple hundred thousand a year or is it more than that so the way it worked is all I had three partners right so the four of us okay we would all have our respective clients. Right. And we were, so at the end of the year, we would say, okay, Jonathan, you brought in this

much partner, other partners, two, three and four, you brought in this much. What's the, take the profit margin of the company. And so whatever I brought in was multiplied by, let's say, 45% profit margin. I would get paid that. So before I really started to become successful in what I did, I probably only made like $500,000, $750,000. But before I left, I was making. $500,000 a year?

A year, yeah. That was before you became successful. Correct. And this is almost 20, this is 20 years ago. Correct. Yeah, I got it. How were you living on that, bro? Well, like, I mean, were you?

Come on now. You're the whole families. They're living in one bedroom and buff beds. I mean, what's going on? Fair, fair, you know. But I will say, and the irony is money didn't bring me the happiness. I was miserable. Right.

So shortly thereafter I started making probably, you know, seven figures, 1.3 million, 1.4 million a year. and now we're making now i'm making real money and now you know i could provide for my wife and now fast forward three kids because on the half a million you couldn't well you can't buy the house that my wife wanted okay okay she was she was driving the low-end Mercedes you know she was oh my god i probably should choose my words better listen it was a lot of money 500 000 was a lot of Can you imagine that there's four guys on a roof right now listening to this? They're like, fucking mother, that was definitely a lot of money at that time.

But I'm using that as that was like the base of me starting to make my introduction to making real money, 500,000, right? Now I'm graduating to seven figures and it feels good. I could really, if I went to 1,000, I couldn't buy the house in Los Angeles in the suburbs that, let's say, my family wanted, but we were able to buy a small house and we were we had a lot of expenses and again yes in reality it's a lot of money but then as i started to make more um we were able to provide more for our kids and with one of them in private school and things like that and and also we spent money on vacations you know i was pretty irresponsible

when it came to spending money certainly at the commencement of my addiction but at that point i was quasi responsible so when does that happen when do you when does the your addiction become an You know? 2010. Okay. Why? It's a great question. So the why is because I was coaching my kids to use sports teams, their baseball and other soccer

and basketball. And I met a gentleman who was my, I won't call him a gentleman. I really like to call him a name, but I won't say, use foul language with you right now. He was an assistant coach and he said he was into real estate. He dabbled. Those are the worst. I tell you, I don't know anyone else. I already know he's a scumbag.

Say no more. There you go. Commercial real estate. And he was avid quasi-professional poker players. So he knows I like sports. So he says to me, you want to bet? I'm like, you know, I bet from time to time. Sure, I'll place a bet.

So I place my first bet. Maybe it's $50, right? You have never. So far in every betting story you've told, you've lost money. So you, I mean, at some point, you seem like a smart guy. say maybe, maybe I should stay away from it, huh? Right. Of course. Ten grand here, three grand here. Fair. Unfortunately, I wasn't smart then. Again, you know, one of my many poor choices leading up to where we are right now. So start betting, you know, $50, maybe $100. And all of a sudden, I got, became really now.

Now it wasn't something in moderation. Now I was completely dependent on gambling. And so from 2010, to probably end of 2015, I was gambling, or at some point in 2015, I was gambling every day for six years, literally every day, there is no exaggeration. I turned my phone records over to the government. I don't even wanna tell you how much they said I gambled, unless you're interested.

I am interested. Okay, I mean, 50 bucks a day is not gonna hurt you. It became $21 million gambled over a six year period. So the $50 became, you know, betting every day on sports, literally, the phone record show, bookie being called, this guy became my bookie, this guy. And so it turned out that this guy also told me he was just a liaison as a friend. And because I was betting hundreds of thousands of dollars a day now, he said, you know, I'm just doing this as a favor for you, so you'll just pay me the 10% too.

And the bookie will get his 10%. okay, when you lose, which obviously I lost most, most times as you alluded to earlier. And it turned out three, four years into this gambling disease, if you were addiction, it turned out he was actually the bookie. So now he's been taking advantage of me. Okay. So it wasn't $21 million in loss. It was just $21 million in gambling. In gambling, placing the bets at the end of each week. So every night. So now some of this money is just being reinvested. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So now Sunday nights come along for me.

Do you know how much, sorry, do you know how much loss there is? Seven million. Seven million. I got that on me. No. Okay. So I was a degenerate. Let's be honest. I was a complete degenerate. But you're driving a nice car. I'm actually driving a Prius, I think, at this time. I was driving some nice cars. Yes, but again, yes. I was driving some nice cars. Does it scale from, okay, $50 to first bet? You know, is it a rapid jump?

Like, you know, was there a point where you just kind of fell? How do you go, do you go to full tilt? Like, okay, like, I don't know. Like, how does that progress? Yeah, because I'm so impulsive and I only know, you know, two extremes left and right. There's no in between anymore for me. Now I'm probably, I would say after a few months, okay? So after a few months, now I'm like, whoa, this is, this is, you know, I'm gambling

every day, $500 doesn't mean anything to me. You know, I'm going to go, you know, $1,500, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 a game. But remember, it's also, I'm not betting just one game. So, for example, on a Saturday when there's college football, I'm betting every game on the board. First of all, there's no good gambler, right? But the worst gambler was Jonathan Schwartz. You don't bet on every game, right?

And not only did I bet on every game, I bet the totals, okay? over-unders. I bet parlays. I mean, I bet teasers. I bet first half, second half. So now think about this. Every game, most games, I'm doing all bets, I'm doing four or five, I've got four or five directions within each game. Now Sunday comes along. Now I'm like, S-H-I-T. You know, I'm in the shit. You can say shit. Now I'm in the hole. I got to win on Sunday because after Sunday, the book he needs to be paid by Tuesday. Right. So I'm not sleeping during this five,

six year run at all because Sundays are the worst. I'm thinking maybe I won one every four Sundays at best, right? And so now I'm thinking, okay, I go to sleep. So this money adds up. It's like $250,000 a day now, I'm betting, you know, on the weekends when there's all these games and activities, right? So during the week, you know, there's maybe, basketball game college or basketball it's not 250,000 but on Saturday and Sunday those are

the big days because and that's why I'm playing the overunders teasers and all that stuff does this guy make you he doesn't make you um what do they call it level up before he takes another bet or he just lets it ride he lets it right term level up is that no it's a fair it's a term I haven't heard but it's probably a good term oh okay well what is it where you you I don't have to give him any I don't have to have money on the in on credit in other words i don't have to give him money to hold okay and is sports gambling legal at this time or where you're at no no yeah that's like to me well i guess it depends on where you or what kind of a guy he is i mean to me it could be like yeah i'm in the whole i'm not going to do this anymore will you owe me 250 yeah go fuck yourself i paid you you

made four million over the last fucking five years so i'm not going to pay you the 250 but you know the problem is it depends on what kind of guy that is you know okay well great i'm going to start burning your cars down i'm gonna make your life miserable i'm gonna right so right but you didn't get to that i didn't get to that point okay but there is a point later where i wish i would have burned his car down right um yeah so now i'm playing like you know now i'm really immersed into it and i really didn't like gambling i began to hate gambling you know sometime in maybe say 2012 13 i really started to hate it because every night i like i said earlier i'm not sleeping and i'm keeping this dark secret from my wife from all my friends

nobody knows what I'm doing. So now you call it halfway into this gambling, you know, six-year run, I'm thinking to myself, inevitably, I'm going to get caught. Like, how am I going to pay this? It was one client, then it became another client. Wait a minute, wait a minute. All right. So at this point, you're not using your own money.

Thank you. Right. Okay. Yeah, I thought you were just like you're making a million a year plus. I'm thinking you're just taking your checks and paying this guy and getting a little bit back, paying him, getting a lot back, paying him, getting losing. you know, back and forth, but it's your own money. Right.

At this one, it's not your own money? Right. So I quote-unquote borrowed. So what, yeah, I was going to say, what is the first time that happened? So I borrowed in 2010 when I started gambling from, like, say, 25,000 from Alanus, borrowing it. The intent was, I'm going to pay her back this next week, right? Because I'm a great gambler, right? Right.

Although everything indicates that that's not true. Sure. In my mind, right? This is the degenerate mind of a gambler. I'm thinking, I'll just pay her back. So I'm just going to quote unquote borrow it. Well, the next week comes and I lose again. What a surprise.

And now I'm like, shoot, I could either go into my own bank account, but now my wife's going to find out. My partners are going to find out. So I'm like, I'll win. I'll pay her back. Well, that day didn't come until another day in the long into the future, which we'll get to it another time. But so, yes, so I started, I embezzled $4.6 million.

from Alanis Morissette. Now, this is public knowledge, so I'm sharing that. And we'll get to how I understood that amount, too. That's really an important part of this. My story is, like, I was such a degenerate that I didn't realize it was that much money that I took from her, that I took from another client. And it was about four, it was about five,

maybe six clients in total that I embezzled from. They all got paid back, but it doesn't make what I did wrong right. So are you the only person that has eyes on the numbers? on their book like at no time can um alanus go and look at her own balance like can she go into she can't pull up her her wells fargo account and say how much do i have in checking hey you know no or is this all these are i call you you send something you email me something that's it there's no good question so they can have access now this is what's still going on in the

entertainment space today where there's not enough transparency. Right. Right. And so the reason why I was able to get away with this, unfortunately, for as long as I did, I wish I didn't get away with it. I wish I got caught right away. Right. But I didn't.

So when I would meet with Alanis every month, okay, to meet with her one time, I would create these Excel spreadsheets. Right. Right. What I didn't bring with me was source documents, i.e. bank statements, okay? Had she asked me for a bank statement? Done. Done.

I'm done. Yeah. I'd be done. So that was where Jonathan became this manipulator, right? Like, because I was afraid to get caught. And again, the sad part is I really respect, I know it sounds, I sound like a moron saying this, but I really respected her and I respected the other handful of clients that I took from.

But now I'm like, now I'm chasing. How am I going to pay Atlanta's back? Now how am I going to pay the next client back? So when I say I hated gambling, it's like all I'm doing at this point is chasing to try and win back this money. And that's where it really got out. of control for me um it it's funny because i always say whenever i've had guys on here who have run ponzi schemes it's it always ponsy schemes always start the the same way which is we had a bad

quarter you know what i'm saying like it's all they always you know we had a bad quarter like it's it's always the delusion that but so we lied to the client or i lied to the client about that we told we didn't have that quarter or at least i you know i didn't tell them as much as bad as it was and I just figured we're going to make it up on the next quarter so we doubled down on the next quarter we lost again right you know what I'm saying now I've lost so much I don't know how I'm going to make it up I then the next quarter I think okay well if we do this we can make it up and before you know it they're they're so in debt now you're practically just hoping you have decent quarters to be able to pay you know and it just becomes a full-blown posies given everything

is just a straight lie from then on and then you're just trying to keep the balls in the air enough you know you're just trying to continue to keep the balls in the air so nobody finds out how bad it is and then it just keeps growing and growing until eventually it all comes down but anyway no it's a great way of saying it that's exactly what happened my you know my world crumbled but again it's it's uh the chasing was awful like i literally was scared every night that when i heard a siren i was going to get caught and i and i subconsciously wanted to get caught because i didn't have the courage to ask for help right right very different than fast forward to where i am today I believe that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.

And I wish I would have viewed it that way, call it after the first few months of getting into this degenerative lifestyle and mindset, I should say. And, you know, I really, you know, although my, like I said earlier, although my clients got paid back, what I did was completely wrong. It doesn't make anything I did right. I take full responsibility for it. And I heard a lot of people.

We'll talk more about that. But that was Alanis and what happened with. Alanis. So did any, but this has happened with multiple clients. Yes. Do any of the clients show up and say, hey, can you bring the bank statements? No. Never. Never. This is what, so in my book, you'll see out, hopefully God willing in a year, you'll see that I detail and give real solid suggestions for celebrities today. You know, be proactive. Right. Ask for source documents. you know trust needs to be earned and perhaps maybe I earned the trust okay at that time because it was before I really started the cycle but the reality is the clients you know deserve to see

the source documents right and there are still business managers today taking money from clients well I think that probably what happens is well one this it makes me think of the um that great Ronald Reagan quote, you know, trust, but verify. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think probably clients don't want to say that because it's in, they don't want to. It feels embarrassing. It's, it puts you in a position where it's like you're saying, look, I don't trust you, bring the bank statements. And that, of course, that's an uncomfortable situation. That's uncomfortable to say that to someone. But the truth is, is that, you know, look, when money is when, when, I would say this, you really know what someone.

someone's like when when when when money is involved right like you could have i i've had good good good friends you know you think this is a great guy known him six years and then suddenly they borrow money or money or you guys have an agreement or a business arrangement or something and when it comes down to it suddenly they're like they don't want to pay you or they want to pay you less or they want to have an argument or they want to say yeah but you know i put in this and i worked harder than it's like we had an arrangement and you know you suddenly realized what someone's really like so to say you know hey and i and to me personally if i was one of uh if i was one of these celebrities that was going to one of these meetings i wouldn't even say it a week beforehand i would say it the day before

like i literally the day or hours before by the way i need you to go you know even you know hey do you have access to that yeah yeah great i need you to print off the bank statements and here's why i say that is that I actually created fake online banks. And I already had bank statements that were blank, color, front and back bank statements. So I was able to go and print bank statements that look like the bank mailed them to you in color front and back. So the problem with that is that if you were to ask me to do that, if you asked me three days beforehand, I'll have them ready for you. Right. But if you asked me two hours beforehand, man, there's a lot of numbers. Like, unless you've got some kind of a spreadsheet that's going to automatically, you know,

populate the entire thing and print it out, if you said, hey, by the way, I need you to send me the last, bring the last six months bank statements, I'd be like, oh, we're going to have to reschedule. I just, I'd call you back two hours later, or an hour later and go, listen, you're not going to my wife's in the hospital. I got to go. I'm going to have to put this back with. And if that happened, I'd be like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, something's wrong. Something's wrong. because you know you would that's what I'm saying about if you ask they have you can't give them too much time either right because if you're doing this if you're all in these people have a lot of money they'll find somebody you can go find somebody online right now w2s and paystubs there there are websites right now you can go to

and say hey I need two w2s the last two years that say I made over 250,000 dollars and they'll print them you say I want a year to date paste up that says I'm making this much they'll print them out send them to you yeah here right here you can't give them too much time I don't know about bank statements, but... No, you're absolutely right. And today I will say this. Like, and Lincoln Park was the start of this. Like what I said earlier,

they really viewed their career where there was merchandising, street team marketing, publishing, touring, and all the other things that they did as entrepreneurs. They really treated it as a business. Right. Young artists, so the artist started to do that more.

It wasn't about the sex drugs and rock and roll for many artists, many athletes. and actors and actors, they're starting to get more proactive in their financial affairs, but some of them are not. So, you know, I hope that that momentum of being proactive,

really not just pouring your trust into someone because your lawyer recommended or manager recommended this person to be a business manager. Spend quality time with them. Like, ironically, I spent a lot of quality time with each client. Many of them came to my kids,

bar mitzvahs. You know, many of them, you know, we went places together. But that's part of the problem. They like you as a person. Correct. They don't want to embarrass you or create a tent situation by saying, hey, by the way, could you print off the last three months bank statements for me real quick?

Just to double check. They feel like you might be, like, offended. They don't want to offend you. We're friends. We go to dinner. I call this guy once a week. He's looking after him. Of course I trust him.

You want to feel that way. Sure. But you have to differentiate. Great. And I want to keep trusting you. So print the fucking bank statements. Absolutely. You have to set boundaries.

Yeah. Right? And my intention wasn't to steal or embezzle initially. It was really genuine intentions. This is a business relationship. There's nothing wrong. It's like having a business friend. We're friends at business, but guess what?

When I worked as an insurance adjuster for six months at this one place, and I thought I had some really good friends, I never talked to those guys again. Right, right, sure. We're business friends. We laughed and joked and everything. I never talked to you outside of work. That's right. So, yeah.

That's true. We must establish professional boundaries, right? And that's what I'm hoping is happening in the entertainment. in space today. So for Alanis, why did you choose her account to pull from initially? Or was there something that you look for down the line? Like, okay, I know that I can, you know, hide money from these people. Like, they won't really suspect it. Was there something? What made you choose them over someone else, I guess? Sure, great question. I was going to say, it almost sounds like it could have been any of them because none of them were asking for, for a verification. Correct. So I first

started with Alanis because we had earmarked a bank account of $4.4 million, if you will, for her to eventually buy another house. So the monies were segregated, right? And I knew she wasn't going to touch that, or at least hoped she wasn't going to touch that for years. And by then, of course, I'm going to pay her back, right? The mindset, again, of the degenerate I was. And so that's how come she was sort of the first of a handful of victims, if you will, because she never really asked about that account. And the intention was she wasn't going to ask until she was ready to buy a house.

And I knew that I had a few years, a cushion, if you will, before she would really want to buy a house, and then I better pay her back by then. So that's why she became called victim number one. For a $4 million house, $5 million? I mean, I'd be afraid everything would go wrong. I wouldn't even be able to afford the taxes.

you know let's face it if the career the music career goes to go get a job at uh what's the famous what's the famous what's the famous restaurant out there easy burger or something was it oh in an out burger in an out burger course not that she's gonna go but still but a lot of these clients like her at this time you know she's a legend at this time right she's an icon she has multiple homes you know she has real assets and she's done a very good job saving money basically um i realized i can't take from alanus anymore right and i don't know what what made me think that but it was in my mind i didn't even know it was the 4.6 million at that point yet in fact i didn't know that until i got caught at the end um i'm thinking it was maybe a million two million from that household account and what happened

was i'm like let me go take from another client what other client isn't very proactive in their financial affairs again a client of course that i cared deeply for but those are the all of my clients so what other client am i going to take from because i can't take it out of my own accounts still, my ex-wife will kill me, my partners will kill me, my career will be over, let me just continue to chase. And as a degenerate, that's what I did. And it became another client who, out of respect, I'll keep anonymous that client. The listeners can guess who they may be in the book.

Maybe I'll reveal a little bit more. Maybe I won't. But so I started taking money from this other client. And this other client, I took a million dollars from. And then some other client. Right away? No, over a period of time. Okay.

Again, from 2009-10, if you will, to 2015-ish, that six-year period. Was it the same thing? They had allocated certain funds. There was like a dormant account that they were putting money into, and you just sort of pull them because you knew they never checked on that? Yeah. Yes. Because I think it would be hard to do on the spreadsheet.

Correct. If they knew they had an investment of, I got $400,000 in this account, and then suddenly for it to not, you know, for you to pull from that account, I think it would be easier to, continually cook the books if it was a dormant account that didn't have a lot of activity. So what I started to do is I started to call up and ask a manager that represented this client. And I said, client A needs $25,000 this week. They're over their monthly budget. He's like, really? Why are they so over their budget? And I said, well, I don't know, they're just spending, I'm having, I mean, I'm lying, right? I'm lying. I'm in survival mode.

Like, how is this degenerate going to continue until I can pay people back? So I've got to continue my lies and manipulation. And so I did. And now this asset manager who represented about two or three of my clients was the only one, by the way, that I was able to make amends to when I came home. Because truthfully, he trusted me when I said to wire the money to their checking accounts. And when this came out, those three, you know, let's say, say those two or three clients he represented.

I'm sure they gave him a lot of shit. You said I could use that word, so I'm still using it. And so I wanted post-probation, I called him. He was kind enough to call me back. I made amends to him. And thankfully, he's in recovery over 20 years, and he understands the intention of an amends, and he understands that what I did back then

was not the real Jonathan Schwartz. And I'm grateful for that. We don't communicate today. We talked about going to get coffee. I hope we can because I really respect him and admire him. In fact, I think he's one of the best asset managers in the world. And I mean that sincerely. But so

that's how it became the next client. Like, okay, this client has, you know, enough money for me to take from. They only spend this much. So their goal is to accumulate wealth. So let me take it from the wealth, the portfolio. Right. Right. And let me use

that to pay for call it this week's losses. God, I feel so fucking I can't believe that this is entering my mind. And I know, I know this is wrong. Well, let's call me a scumback. No, no, it's not that. It's that my first thought was, how do I do this in such a way that I can get away with it?

And also give myself an out. Like, at no point, like to me, I immediately thought, well, you know what you do is you start, go ahead and start another company, provide invoices for something legitimate, something reasonable. and then pay those invoices to this company that you're in charge of. And then I can continue to do that because most of these guys have so many invoices that are coming up, coming in. This was a catering company or something that's reasonable that you can hit people a little bit across the board, $25,000, $35,000. Because let's face it, you got a big party. And then all those clients aren't going to figure that out at the same time. One client figures it out and you go, what are you talking about?

What do you mean? I was provided an invoice and I paid it. And then they would say, that wasn't what invoice? For what? You go, I don't know. I thought you had a party. You guys forwarded me an invoice. I mean, then you can say, well, what, it's not your, oh, let me look into it, blah, blah, blah. I contacted a friend of mine on the sheriff's department. He looked into it. Turns out this was a company that actually was doing this. It was a long-term scam. I'm so sorry, we're going to go ahead and pay you back. And then I just pull from another client, wait for them to figure it out. Like to me, I'm, I would be thinking, how do I do this so that I survive an inquire? And you weren't doing that. You were just like taking it, spending it, thinking I'll pay them back later. But that was because you had a, well, like you said, you had a real trust built up and they weren't going to inquire. That's exactly right.

Okay. And this has been years. You've known these people for years. For years. And the one client, like Lincoln Park, for example, they weren't a victim, direct victim. Of course, they were an indirect victim in the sense that I embarrassed them, right? Right. But the reason why they weren't targeted, for lack of a better word with me, is because they were

both individually and collective. collectively very involved and required source documents. They're going to notice 50 grand missing. They're going to notice a dollar missing. That's how smart they were. Yeah. And that's why I said earlier, they really taught me everything. Got to hate those, got to hate those smart victims.

But no, so that's how it's sort of led to, let's say, four, five, six. I don't really know the exact amount of call five clients, six clients under the high side. But ultimately, like, who can I take from in this moment? And then there were some athletes that were in that five, six group category of victims that I would call up and they, I'd say, hey, do you want to invest? Give me $30,000. Because let's say that was the loss for the week. Can I, you want to, I'm going to take this money and I'm going to invest it in some nightclub and I'll give you your 30,000 back with a return. So for two or three athletes within that five, six of direct victims, that's how I was able to take. So in that, case, I wasn't lying to them. I was lying to them, but they knew the money was leaving their accounts. Right. Right. Very different than call it the first two, three victims. Now I'm like, okay, I really have nobody else that I can take from that I feel like I won't get in trouble or caught right away with. Let me call up football player B and say, hey, I need 30,000. I'll give you

back 35,000 next week. Okay. Something like that. Well, I'm curious. As far as the logistics of of the betting with the bookie. How often do you have to pay him out? Is he not affiliated with any of your partners? Like, is there, are you worried about, hey, like, this guy, him telling somebody that you're in a gambling debt or like, how are you making, you're just calling him up? Hey, Friday night, these are the butts I'm going to make. And how often do you have to pay?

Just I guess they'll hold the logistics of that. Sure. Good question. So, first of all, the logistics were Monday through Sunday. So at the end of Sunday night, I now know how I lost all week. Okay? I have to pay them by Tuesday. So now, even though I can't sleep Monday night, Tuesday night,

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what do you need it for? Well, now I have to give them every week an excuse because they don't call the clients. I have power of attorney. That's how I was able to steal the money, right? So they call me and I say, oh, well, he wants to pay cash for some construction he's having done in his house. He's got a cheaper price by the contractor. The amount of excuses and lies I gave every Monday to the bank to seek money or to the asset manager was disgusting. And that's what almost brought me to offing myself. But this person has a person that worked for him. So the bookie was very close with one of my partner's son-in-law. And it was really like, in fact, this son-in-law saw me after I was sentenced,

but before I went away and surrendered into prison, he saw me at a local grocery store. His name is, I think his name is Robin. He's quite the ass. So he sees me in a grocery store. He gambles too, by the way. But his father-in-law doesn't really know that. So I walk into whatever was, Gelson's, and he sees me walking down an aisle.

He makes a scene in the grocery store. This guy's going to jail. He stole money. He's a felon, and he's screaming this. I'm so embarrassed. All these things are true what he's calling me, you know, but I immediately had to walk out. That was like, that was really kind of a weird moment. Are you serious?

Like, that's insane. It was so embarrassing. And you're, and he's the guy that worked for the bookie. He didn't, he worked with the bookie on the real estate side, but not on the bookie component. But he also bet himself. Okay. So he was a, he was also a degenerate who just didn't get caught because he was getting money from my partner because my partner was helping support his son and law and his daughter. So it was, you know, for him to do that, he was just whatever reasons he had he had.

I can't, you know, everyone's entitled to their opinion. But for me, in that moment, it was exciting. and so I had to vacate the gross gelson's quickly. I can't. That's horrible. What a fucking jerk off, you know? I mean, true or not, it's like, but there's, there's a mechanism for this, which is the justice system to take care of that.

Like, you know, throwing a little scene there to try embarrass me. I'm about to go to fucking prison, bro. Right. Like, I got enough problems. You don't think that I've already brought enough embarrassment and shame onto my, you know, myself, my family, my partners, my. And you work for one of the guys that definitely helped facilitate this whole situation. So when this whole thing is happening, I mean, are you thinking every time you do this and you pay these people off?

Like, okay, boom, I'm sorry, you pay the bookie off. I paid them off. Okay. At no time during the, and I already know the answer to this, I'm almost positive. At no time during this whole thing, does this guy ever say, listen, bro, you know, you need to get a hold of yourself. You're losing and losing. He didn't give a fuck. he didn't get shit right does he ever say you got an issue you got a problem because i'm assuming you're kind of

feeling like you're friendly with this guy right like you said he didn't he teach little league or something you met him at the little league right we actually went on vacations with our families together to the atlantis why the atlantis because i always had to go to a hotel that had a casino right so we we were quote-to-quote friends until about the end the last year and a half of the six-year run i realized i said to him i want to stop i can't do this anymore i'm going to off myself and he's like okay cool like he's giving me reverse psychology with the okay cool something okay let me stop so weeks goes by maybe two weeks go by and i stop and he calls me back hey you sure you don't want to get back into it all let me get back into it so you know he really that's when i knew

that he was actually not just the bookie he was the end all be all and so he had seven million dollars after all this was said and done and i tried to encourage the government to go get it from him because my lawyer said, my attorney said, if you have the money, your sentence will come down because, you know, your guideline will come down based on the amount you embezzled. Right. So if you could return that, I said to my attorney,

Nathan Hockman, who happens to be the district attorney of L.A. now, I said, I wish I did. I really wasn't that smart of, I wasn't smart. I wasn't smart enough to put any money under a rock. So when I came out of prison, I'd have it. You know, that's what my ex-wife kept telling my kids. You know, your dad has $7 million under her bed, Really? I wish I had $5,000 when I came home. I'm poor broke. I have no money. I'm working at a day later where I work, but I don't have money. Right. Okay. I wish I was smarter than I really was, thought I was. But so in any case, I forget where we were. Yeah, we were at, we were at, we were at your lawyer said if you have the money and you said, go after, what about the guy that made the fucking $7 million? You know, go after him, go talk to him. He's got money.

He's an illegal bookie. And he didn't report the income on his taxes, right? He really could have given the government some money. But the special agents with the IRS that worked in this case to do all the audit. And the prosecutor's office said, we're not really interested in him. We just want you. And it's sad because the truth is they could have gotten a lot of money from him. Right.

If not all of it, at least more than half of it. Well, you've got the big time, you know, the, what is it, the media attention, you're going to get the big bang going after some bookie. That's irrelevant. They get to use you. They get to use all these stars' names. They get to really look. This guy took advantage of these people and, you know, we get these big headlines. Right.

Yeah, unfortunately, that's why. And it's sad. But, you know, the truth is, again, I'll keep saying it. I deserve what I got. And you know what I keep saying. It doesn't matter that there's going to be people in the comment that are going to say, he's not sorry. There's always some douchebag in the comment section

that's going to be like, he's not sorry, or he's got money underneath his mattress. The same thing that, listen, I have the same thing. Listen, I had American greed. It was American greed. It was American greed at the end. The secret service agent, which looked through all the documents and knows for sure

none of this is true says that Mr. Cox, there's still $7 million, $5 million? There's still $5,000, even though my restitution's six, she's like, there's still $5 million missing in Cox's case and we'd like that money back.

Like, what the fuck are you saying? And then they say, then American Greene jumps in there with it'll be a long time before Mr. Cox can remove that money from his Cayman Island account. Keman Island account. I always joke with my, I joked with my wife. I said, I go, how cool would it be if when I got up, get off probation, I said, I get off, we get the letter in the mail, and I say, grab your passport, we're going to the, we're going to the airport. I said, we jump on a plane, we fly to the Cayman Islands, and I really do have five million in a Cayman Islands account.

I go, how cool would that be? She goes, very cool. Is it true? And I said, no. He said, well, okay. yeah there's no there's no money hidden wouldn't that be nice it would have been nice my you know my favorite was i used to joke about this too i used to say i'm going to go one night i'm going to dig a hole in my ex-wife's backyard just a few feet right and then and then or shoot 10 inches you know dig a hole

put a black box in there and then bury it and then i said when i'm going to wait i'm going to pull up i'm to wait until she's pulling up in her car and I'm going to be in the backyard digging up the hole and I'm going to pull it out and I'm going to throw it in the back trunk and get in the car. She's going to be doing. What are you doing? And I'm going to be like, don't worry about it. I'm going to back my car out and drive away. Yeah. What's in the box? What are you doing? Yeah. Unfortunately, there was no money that I was able to conceal or hide. And that made reentering society after prison really pretty awful. Oh, I know. It's horrible, right? Like you don't realize I had a guy that gave me, I want to say, I'm going to say three, is it, three or four hundred.

I forget exactly. I've always heard four. 400? Yeah. Yeah. I think it was a guy who was locked up who, it's funny because he had put money on my books before. You know how you only have, you can only spend so much. Right.

You know, which I think maybe one time, the whole time I was locked up, almost 13 years, I only hit my limit once. It was because I bought a pair of tissues. Wow. I only bought one pair of. of tennis shoes myself a whole time was locked up so um he would because he hit his limit every month he would send money to my books 200 bucks whatever you know and say can you buy me 200 bucks you know whatever buy me whatever you can buy you know use 40 for yourself or something you buy you know the scam yes so he would mail me he'd send that money so I I knew the name it came in

it wasn't his name it was somebody else's name on the street and so I was joking about when I got out. I was going to the halfway house for seven months. And I used to joke with everybody. I was like, bro, I'm going to make sure that I've spent every single dollar. And so it was like a week, I think it was like maybe a week before I left. No, can't get paid anymore. And I said that I actually was going to have like 79 cents. And I was like, I have so little money on my, the card they're going to give me that I couldn't even use the card because they charged you like a dollar 50 use it. I said, I won't even be able to get the 79 cents because they charge you a buck 50 to use a card. And I was laughing about it.

Everybody's like, wow, bro. I was like, you're going to, totally broke. I said, totally bro. I said, nobody's going to help me. I got nobody to send me money. Nothing. I said, but it's good, though, because I'm going to get the halfway house and I'm going to go work at McDonald's. They're like, you're not going to work at McDonald's. I'm like, I want to work at McDonald's. I want to work at McDonald's. I want to be five

years from now. I want to look back when somebody's bitching and moaning about how hard it is. I'm going to be like, motherfucker. I was working at a McDonald's five years ago with no money. And so I used to joke about this. And So when I was about to get out, he, one day, I go to do something. I forget.

I get on the computer and I happen to look down and there's $400 on my account. And I went, what the fuck? And keep in mind, I don't have enough time to go to, there's no commissary for me between now and the time I leave. Right. So I look at it and I go to him and I know it's his, like the same name he has people send me money, go to him and his name is Tommy. I go, Tommy, I said, bro, did she send me 400 bucks? And he goes, yeah, yeah, I did. And I went, why?

I said, I'm not going to commissary. And he goes, no, no, this is for when you hit the halfway house. He goes, you're going to need some stuff. Oh, it's nice. And he goes, you know, he said, you're going to need some clothes. And he goes, and I know. He said, I know you think it's funny that you're going to get out without things. He said, but you're going to need something.

He said, so it's $400 and you've been cool with me and I'm cool with you. And he said, so we're good. And I was like, I said, bro, I'm not like I can pay you back or they said, I don't give the fuck about that. He didn't give a shit. He had plain money. He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, so, listen, that meant so much to me.

Sure. Because I had nothing. I went and spent $300 at Walmart. And listen, people were like, you don't have any money. Oh, I don't have any money. Listen, for $300, you can get an entire wardrobe at Walmart. Absolutely. It's not a great wardrobe.

I got rubber black boots. I don't know if you know this, but rubber black boots in Florida, it's not a good situation. I mean, it's complete sweat, just, whole. horrible but I wore rubber black boots almost the whole time well no not even almost the entire time I was locked up or in the halfway house I wore those rubber black boots to working back and I got I got blue jeans 29 bucks yeah I got I think I got a couple pair of two or three pair of those I remember I got black t-shirts that fit amazing because I was an amazing shape when I got out mediums black t-shirt and it was like 15 bucks for or was it $20 for

10 of them or they were basically like $2 a t-shirt yeah they fit amazing though now granted i realized right away that you could only wash them about five times they started coming undone and it came but it's fine i worked it at the gym so it's fine but they work great but yeah so i was able to buy a bunch of stuff with that money and i had 100 bucks left over yeah so i was lucky people don't even realize that like most people don't have a tommy right and so what do you do then you're i think if you had no money at the Salvation Army, I think they would give you like a voucher and you could go into the Salvation, to the Goodwill. It wasn't Salvation Army, by the way. It was Goodwill. It was the Halfway House is in Goodwill. So I think they gave you like a $20 or $50 voucher

where you could go in to Goodwill and get Goodwill close. Right. Which probably would have been okay, too. Not as good as the Walmart close up. Right. Yeah, no, I get it. I'm assuming. And by the way, you know, how many times I'd been in Walmart prior to

zero. Never. Right. Walmart, that was a joke that people shop at Walmart. Sure.

It was like, it was embarrassing. You shop at Walmart. I don't even understand what you're, what are you saying? Right. You buy,

they have clothes at Walmart. What do they sell? I don't even know what Walmart sells. It's like, oh, that's, oh my God, bro. Are you serious?

Listen to this day, Jess and I go to Walmart, buy stuff at Walmart. To this, I can't stomach the idea. We went into, sacks or urdines or dillards

the other day and listen and had to buy clothes they were they were like regular they're like 130 bucks 180 bucks

are you out of your fucking mind I can go to bells and get that for $12 and it says IZOT or whatever it's you know you can get Calvin Klein you're buying $200

shirts for Calvin Klein I can go to I can go to to marshals and get it for for 18 dollars yes it's insane i can't even stomach the idea of paying that much now and i can pay that much i just couldn't do it right i'm sorry no it's good no no it's a beautiful tangent because it's true it's sure i mean it's definitely more fiscally responsible today with very little money you know you watch every i watch every dollar if i go to starbucks and pay 575 that's a lot of money for me today for for a latte right i could just make my instant coffee from home. Yeah. No, I, listen, I probably, I think I did, I used to go every once in a while

when I had a car. I'd probably go once or about three times a week maybe, but I don't think we go now. We probably went three or four months without ever stopping by there. I do think we went like two weeks ago. I think we stopped. But other than that, yeah. Yeah, it's the same thing. It's five, six bucks. It's fucking ridiculous. It's a waste of money. I mean, literally every dollar counts today. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I told you, I don't have a car. Right. There's no reason for to have a car. I almost never leave the house. If I go to the gym in the morning, Jess drives, she drives us back. We go to dinner. We go in her vehicle. There's no reason for me to drive. If the other day I had to go to H&R block, she was at work, I took an Uber. It was $30 there. I remember

exactly how much. It was $30 there. It was $36 on the way back, $36 on the way back, plus the tip for both of them, like that. But to me, if I did that, I'd have to do that 20 times a month to pay for my car payment. So there's just no reason I used to, you to have a car there. And the thing is what people don't realize is that to not have a car, it's got, it's an ego thing. Sure. It definitely, you know, it's, it's slightly emasculating to be trapped.

But you have to kind of, I had to kind of sit there and go, no, this is not a responsible decision to be paying $6 or $700 a month on a vehicle that you're driving once or twice a month. And that's to go to pick up, to pick up because we ran out of, like, creamer. Right. Like, that's just stupid. Just don't get your creamer. and when when jess comes home can you swing by and pick up some creamer right it was just like yeah

you're an idiot bro like that's just a waste of money so you can what have to feel confident about being able to leave like get the fuck over it yeah yeah when we get there i'll tell you about my car that i drove when i came out of prison oh no bro i promise you it's i've got i've got an equally i had one that when you hit the hit a bump the radio went out yeah exactly i would have to bang on the dash to get the radio to come on so it may be feel kind of cool like Fonzie but you know what's the other thing oh the AC went out after about a month the AC went out so I had to roll the windows down Florida and the worst thing is one day my wife my I'm sorry one day my ex-wife was visiting my mother and I came to visit my

mother and she had to pick up her vehicle which was in another location and she said I was she was going to call somebody or she was going to have my mom's nurse taker. And I was like, well, I can take you. And she went, okay. She said, yeah, yeah, okay. So she gets in the car. We drive there. As we're driving, she went to turn on the radio and it doesn't work.

And I went, oh, I said, hold on, hold on. And I hit the dash. Bam, bam, bam. And it came on. And I said, and she goes, she looked at me, she goes, are you. serious and I went I said yeah and I said the whole Fonzie I said yeah it was kind of cool though because it makes me feel like Fonzie and we're driving and she goes it is really hot she's can you turn on the AC and I went yeah and I hit the windows and they went down and she goes your AC doesn't work

I said yeah I rolled the windows down I said oh I said you mean that in the car and I go no no that's for rich people that's for rich people I said that's not how we're to live in anymore and I was driving and she just was staring at me and I looked at it and I went what and she goes you have fallen so far and I just was like yeah yeah but I was I'm like but I'm okay with exactly like I feel like I'm laughing about it I'm joking about it like I feel good about it because it's a good feeling that I'm happier now that I was happier then I don't know how happy I'm now but I was happier then living in the rooming house and driving a shit whole car then prior to prison

having all the money in the world Right You know at least the people that were around me Then I knew were around me Because they cared about me Those people before that didn't give a fuck about me Yeah I've learned that too

So but we were we were We were back at You had taken from the other client It was Lincoln Park Lincoln Park was so proactive Right And about Yeah that they you couldn't possibly take from them

Right You had to take from clients That weren't paying attention Right exactly and so that's how i was able to identify the other few you know few clients like the athletes that we talked about um yeah yeah yeah yeah you're asking 30 000 and i'll give you like 10% of that on the yield back next week because i'm going to invest it in like x y and z are you giving them the money back or sometimes yes sometimes sometimes okay sometimes and then sometimes i would yes

and yeah i would actually are you betting on their games uh no no there's no inside uh unfortunately no insider betting going on here but i think now so now you know i just want to share with you like you mentioned your story when you were caught like how did you know how did you get caught right and so like for me like getting i was in such denial that what happened was i I was, I got a call, I was in Tampa Bay, Florida, of all places. I was in Tampa Bay, Florida, Beyonce was starting her lemonade tour. And so I get a call from one of my partners, and they say that, Alanis fired me, let me back up a moment, Atlanta has fired me in 2015.

Oh, okay. How come? She fired me likely because I was giving more of my attention to the bigger name clients, the more relevant clients, and she felt neglected. Okay. And so she fires me, and the irony is she goes and hires my cousin that I started my career with's firm. Okay.

I mean, of all the places, that's the place she chooses to go to. So now my cousin doesn't work on her account, but his partner Howard does. So Howard... Sorry, when she fires you, you have a deficit with her. Right. What is that? Is that complete panic? Or you've got to assume they're going to.

to over they're going to do a they're going to kind of audit the books real quick before they start right right so i in 2015 midway through the year i really started to have thoughts of just offing myself right because i couldn't take this anymore i mean i'm violating my client's fiduciary my my fiduciary responsibility to clients i i don't see a way out here that's when i really started using blow every day for 24 hours a day nonstop waking up in sheets that are soaked and i have coronary artery disease my heart's pounding and this is why subconsciously i was likely trying to off myself totally disregarded my health yeah i'm assuming using you know powder and having a heart issue is is probably not a good combination right exactly and you're just using it just to what

make yourself feel better get yourself up and moving because you're just out of depression yeah i just because with that came the party scene the women right I was cheating on my wife and just, I just didn't care about myself anymore. I just, so the only reasons I could identify to live were my three children, my wife at the time, and my mother and stepfather. And so that's why ultimately I, thankfully I got caught because if I continued using blow, then likelihood I would have been dead. And so now when I, when Alanis's, my cousin's firm calls my partners and says,

hey, where did this $4.6 million go? This is the call I receive when I'm really helping Beyonce with her Lemonade Tour rehearsals. We did it at the Tampa Bay Stadium, whatever stadium that's called. And I'm trying to help her improve her bottom line. So she, you know, is happy with the profit margin. She has now, I'm like, oh, shit, I'm about to get caught. So now I leave Tampa. Who calls you?

My partners. They're saying, they're saying, Alanis is business manager, your cousins, your cousin's partner, Howard, called them and said, you turned over the financials. Yeah. So I turned them over carelessly because I wanted to get caught. All right. Okay. So I just turned them over.

I didn't ask the bookkeeper to doctor it up. I didn't ask the bookkeeper to clean up everything instead of just tucking it under cash withdrawals and put it towards legitimate expenses. I just said, just leave it. I basically just threw my hands up and said, done. Inevitably at that moment, I knew I'd get caught. I didn't think it'd be that as fast as it was. I thought maybe I could have some time to think about, but I didn't. And so I flew back. Now, now we're talking about sometime in the first quarter, 2016. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. You still skipped over some. So you're here in Tampa, you get the phone call.

What do they say, and what do you say to them? So good question. So they asked me, what did I do with the $4.6 million that I embezzled from Alanis. They don't even question. Did they even say what happened? Were they say you embelled it? No. They said, is there a legitimate reason here?

Like, what's going on? Like, is there, are we missing something? The latter. At this point, they don't know that I stole it. Okay. They're asking me legitimately, where did the money get spent? Because Alanis told her new business manager that she has no, she had no idea about $4.6 million.

So I lie to my partners at the time. This is how much my ego still existed and my deniability still existed that I can get out of this thing. I can escape trouble. This is a crazy mindset I had, right? And so I tell them, oh, she invested in a cannabis business, and that's where the money went. But, you know, I'll come home.

I'll fly back to the office, and I'll show you that Atlanta signed off on it. I'm like, there's no shot of me showing them that Atlanta signed off. Right. I'm just trying to buy it. And she's going to tell you. She's going to say, I didn't invest in any business.

So here I am trying to buy one minute at a time before ultimately, you know, everything falls down. on me. Yeah. And so I was able to buy very, maybe a couple weeks, and they'd asked me if I had it. And I said, I don't have it. I haven't met with Alanis lately. And they said, I said, so now they call in their lawyers. And so I say to the lawyer, you guys, I'll tell the truth. I'll take a lie detector test, playing, playing chicken with them. Like, again, lying. I got, guys, I'll tell you the truth. I'll go to, I'll go to, I'll go to take a lie detector test. Yeah, but you don't have.

have the paperwork. Of course not. This is, again, the ego for Jonathan in the past talking, that he thinks he's Superman, he thinks he can beat the system, and he'll figure out a way to pay everybody back. So now I'm celebrating my anniversary with my now ex-wife at the time. We're in Santa Barbara, where I'm doing, you know, blow, and I'm gambling. Does she have any idea? She has no idea. So I get a call from Michael Oppenheim, a partner that I talked about earlier. my mentor, and he said, you said you would take a lie detector test. This is on a, let's call it a Sunday or Saturday night. We want you to come Sunday or Monday, whatever day it was, to Beverly Hills. Now this is about an hour and a half away. My wife and I are celebrating our anniversary.

We want you to come and take a lie detector test. Okay, no problem. So now this is a Saturday night. I hang up the phone. Now I have to tell my wife the truth. I have to tell everything I've been doing in six years. I tell her, and to my surprise, she said, well, why don't we Google how to beat the lie detector tests? I'm like, I'm high. I'm high. I got blow on my system. I'm placing vets. And I'm like, great idea. So we- You're a gangster. I don't know why she was so cooperative with me. That was, but instead of saying F you were divorced right away, effectively me, she did that maybe a month or two later. But in that moment, that was what I thought she would say. But she, She was, she saw, she knows, she knew that I did really, she knew I was a good guy. I just, obviously, I did horrible things, right? Deep doubt in my soul.

So she supported me. We Googled it. Now I get in the car, the next morning I wake up. I'm like, well, I'm going to go down and meet one of the former FBI agents, best polygrapher and a polygrapher, and I'm going to beat this system, right? This is my mentality. So, so much so that in the car ride, remember, about an hour and a half, I'm doing. doing blow after blow after blow. It was May 8th, 2016, because my sober date is May 9th, 2016, and I placed my last bet with my bookie. This is what I'm doing on the way to get this

lie detector test done. Okay? I walk in there arrogant. I walk in there like this big shot to this professional. Never taken a lie detector test in my life before, but now I know I can beat it, right? I'm on blow, no problem. You've read a couple articles. Yeah, of course. A couple articles. Who goes to a lie detector test, like where your body is shaking from the stimulant? I was going to say, you're going to, that machine, I would say, isn't even going to register that you're telling the truth when you say your name at this point.

It should be so fucked up just because your body's in such a chaotic state. Right. So the degenerate I am, I don't know what's going to happen, but I didn't realize this until after the test was over. He's trying to build a rapport with me. So I'm thinking the guy likes me. I'm building this rapport with this guy, right? Like, he's asking me all these questions.

He's going to work with me. Yeah, he's going to work with me. He's going to be kind to me. So next thing I know now, he's like, this is about maybe after two hours. He's ready to connect me to the machine. So I sit down. He asked me, you know, did I steal money from Alanis Morset? No.

All these questions. No. So I leave there thinking maybe there's a chance that I passed. So as that day progressed, I couldn't reach my attorney. He hadn't heard anything yet from the polygrapher. And later that afternoon, early evening, my assistant, I called my assistant

because I no longer had access to my office computer. So I was like, that's the sign that maybe I didn't pass. So I called her, I said, are you access? Can you access? She goes, no. She goes, yes, I can. I go, oh, so then I call my lawyer. My lawyer says, I was just about to call you.

Just so you know, Jonathan, you failed that test worse than anybody in the history of this former FBI agent polygrapher. I said, oh, so what does this exactly mean? Well, it means you need to come to my office tomorrow and we've got to figure out a strategy. So now I'm starting to really cry because this is becoming real. and I talked to my ex-wife and I was like asked them on the phone because she was there with me

I said like what do you think I'm facing he goes Jonathan I don't know we gotta figure this out but probably over 20 years I said now I'm like my poor kids my wife now my whole crime's going to be revealed all the people that I hurt

and so we met and you know and he He was, he's a brilliant attorney and he was able to work out a four to six year plea agreement with the government. And then, so that was in May of 2016. What happens in the interim? Are you still living at your house?

What's your wife saying? So for about a month or two, I stayed in the house. And actually about a, yeah, about a month and a half. And then we just weren't getting along. Now she realized what I really did. It became more clear. It's now she's starting to see it on the news. We have to, my, it's becoming public.

So she's hearing it from everybody in the community. Like now it's all... Are there newspaper articles? Newspaper articles, magazine articles, TMZ. Like, everyone is coming out all over the news with John, you know, former, you know, former Alanis Mooresyad Business Manager and Bezels $7 million. And now, unfortunately, I'm embarrassing my children and my wife and my mom. And so before I left, because she kicked me out, I said,

let's fly to Chicago where my oldest son who went to school in India. Indiana was, he graduated, he was working. I said, I don't want him to see before this comes out on TMZ. So we need to go down there, please, and tell him the truth. And so I flew out there, told him the truth. And then my middle son, we called and told the truth, sat him down and called him as well. And my younger son, we told. And it was the worst day of my life to tell my children, look them in the face, how much I hurt them, you know?

Right. Really hard. Excuse me. but today you know so that takes me into getting sentenced in on May 3rd 2000 I'm sorry in July 11th 2017 I get sentenced to what I thought would be five years which is what the government had asked for and within the plea agreement and the judge gave me six years and you know I was hurt it was hard because on the side of the federal government at that time sitting on the of the federal government and was my ex-wife and my middle son and that was the hardest things

i've ever experienced to date but as i've shared with you before i believe it's really important like today in recovery i could like back then after i was sentenced to six years and i saw my middle son in the in the garage i called them every name in the book i was so hurt right today i look at it going, my smittle son, who I hurt very much, along with my other sons, and my ex-wife, who I hurt so much, wouldn't be sitting on the side of the federal government if I, Jonathan Schwartz, didn't do what I did. And that's sort of how I look at things today in my recovery. Instead of blaming everybody, instead of playing the self-pity victim, or woo me, I've done enough reflecting over the last several years to realize that I get to take responsibility, you know,

for these poor choices that I made, and for all the people that are hurt, not just my direct victims, but the indirect victims, the community my kids were raised in in Agora Hills, California, to the entertainment world, all these people that were in some way directly or indirectly affected by my poor choices. I look at today, and I don't live in my past, but I don't forget it. I think that's an important part of me living today with this humility. It's like, if I live in the past, then how am I? going to learn forgiveness how am i going to how am i going to be the better version of myself carrying guilt and shame it just doesn't work that way in recovery so i'm almost nine years sober

and uh obviously it'll be the day after i did a lot of the snow and gambling on the way to that polygraph test but uh yeah that that's how i got caught and that's yeah i was going to say you you know if you went obviously went to prison i don't know where you did the time but 90 nine percent of the inmates in there blame all kinds they'll blame everybody else they'll blame the people that cooperated against them they'll blame the government they'll blame the agents they'll blame the like they like their co-defendants like they'll blame all these people very seldomly even if they're taking responsibility they never they always got too much time even me to this day like 26 years i'm like 26 years is fucking ridiculous but you know but

but but i absolutely should have gone to prison i probably should Honestly, I probably should have gotten 10 years. You know what I'm saying? Like I probably did roughly the amount of time I should have. But in general, most... So to meet an inmate that says, oh, I should be here. Or, oh, no, no, oh, I fucked up. Oh, yeah.

No, no, it's totally my fault. Totally my fault. Or then the guys that go to prison and then their wives leave them. Then they hate their wives. They dislike their children, their wives, their relatives. Anybody that gave up on them, they're like, oh, they're a scumback. They're a scumbach.

They're a scumbach. Like, wait a minute. Your wife didn't sign up for this. Exactly. You see what I'm saying? That's, I'd say this is worse than cheating, you know? Because a lot of wives will accept, or wives and husbands will accept, okay, you cheated. You had a moment, a moment of weakness.

You lied a few times. Let's get past this. Let's move on. We have a successful marriage. We're partners. Let's move on. But this is something that they look at and they're like, one, I didn't sign up. to be married to a, you know, a degenerate gambler, junkie, or whatever.

Yes. I certainly, and a cheater and someone that lied about it for years. So when someone says, hey, I, and now they're going to get out, be a felon, not be able to provide for me the way I'm accustomed to, which, you know, any one of those things you could be angry about. I'm angry because I cheated on you. It was wrong, but you should give me another chance. You could maybe make an argument for that.

probably not but you could some people do and it's whatever it's questionable but but the combination of all those things then it's like you got to go you know it's like like my i tell you for instance you know we talked about this on the phone like my son didn't talk to me for years for a year just recently started talking to me the worst part about that was like he has a powerful argument you know i can't say you're wrong no bro you misunderstood no no you understand exactly and this is the decision you made. And it's, you know, unfortunately, if I was anyone but me, I'd probably be saying you're probably made the right call. Right. You see what I'm saying? Like it's a horrible situation to be in when you're absolutely wrong. You know, you want to get forgiveness. I feel

I deserve forgiveness. I know you feel you deserve. Maybe you deserve forgiveness. That's probably how you feel. I don't know for sure. But, you know, and the worst thing is, having been someone who's gone through that made those horrific choices, I like to think I would forgive someone because I know because I've been that person, but they don't know that. Your wife doesn't know. She's never made those mistakes. Yeah, and to answer your question, I actually don't feel like I deserve their forgiveness. I feel like I hurt them, and it's not the word deserving.

I want to earn back their love and their trust, not through the mouth that they know it was so dishonest and manipulative before, but through my actions. And that's why I'm such a big 12-steper today, because it's all about doing the next right action. It's all about one day at a time. And for me, with the humility I have today versus the antithesis in my act of addiction being this egomaniac, I'm able to surrender on a daily basis to my higher power. And it's not religion. It's not, it's just the spirituality. It's like, I have a power greater than Jonathan because they say in the program, like my will, Jonathan's will, got me to where I am today, you know, was the one that made those mistakes, those poor choices.

But if I realize that there's a power greater than me, I pray every day to that power power. Please bring two of my three sons back into my life when they're ready. And that's why I don't deserve it. Then when they're ready, they'll come back on my life. You know, and it'll be probably received like you did with your son as a blessing. I want my boys back in my life. They're the most important people in my life, along with my mother and stepfather. but it's and it's been almost nine years but you know what they're adults and when they're ready to

come welcome dad back into their world in whatever capacity that might look like it'll be the happiest day of my life and um i know it'll happen just not yet um you mentioned uh aa is that as funny i i mean it's one of my dad tried to get sober so many times so many different programs so many different 90 days in this one 30 in this one 60 in this one the only time it ever took hold was this one program that taught that it went by you know uh a a and the 12 steps and then of course he kept going to the meetings you know initially he went to meetings every single day probably for a year and then he started running the meetings you know like and then then it got to a point where he was going, you know, a few times, he'd go maybe three times a month. I mean, I'm not a month.

I'm sorry, a week. And then he probably continued that all the way. I don't know if it was all I wasn't apart. I wasn't in prison. So at some point, I was out of the whole situation. But it was the only thing that kept him sober the entire, almost the entire time. And I think, yeah, I want to, I really feel like that. I mean, my sister would probably correct me. She'd probably like, no, no, no, one time he fell off and whatever. But I don't think so. I don't recall that. It was the only time when he went into a program and it taught the 12 steps and he got out and entered into the 12 step program and continue with it that he stayed sober almost the entire time that I know of. Other ones didn't take. I think a lot of them have, you know, overlapping similarities, but

the definitely AA was, was, and AA was probably one of the few that I think also teaches, you know, a higher power too, which I, you know, I believe in. Not that everybody does but i do so uh you know i like to think that that probably has something to do with it at the very least it gives you a purpose and i think having purpose is is huge yeah i mean it's giving me a purpose and i'm also very involved in it right like i was the los angeles inner group for gamblers anonymous co-chairman for a year i was the secretary of the entire los angeles region intergroups gamblers anonymous for a year i attend gamblers anonymous today on a weekly basis i have I had a commitment.

My term came up. I still go. I love going. I love the idea of a fellowship. But what happened was when I came home at a prison, when I came home, no one would hire me. I was a felon. So like you with the McDonald's, I took a job at Dunkin' Donuts. And, you know.

That's the equivalent. That's the equivalent. That's the equivalent of McDonald's. And for me, I thought I needed to become more humble when I came home. I was humble but not humble enough. And working in Dunkin' Donuts. that's provided me with the humility I needed to really just look into the future

and have some hope, right? That, you know, I'd be able to figure something out that I really want to find, have a passion for. And so I was fired after about two, three months at Dunkin' Donuts because I wasn't cleaning the floor as well, even though I did that in prison or I wasn't cleaning the shelves more. I mean, I was not, I got fired.

Really? And so now I'm thinking, what am I going to, now this is during COVID, because I was released April 16th, 2020. So now I can't find a job. It takes me a few months. This Lexus of Thousand Oaks hires me as an auto salesperson. I don't know anything about selling cars. But there's this thing called True Car, which gives you great prices on cars. Okay, so if anyone out there that's listening, you want to buy a car or lease a car, go on True Car because there are local

dealerships in your community that have a strategic relationship with True Cars. So when a customer walks in now and they say they want to get a lease a Lexus, here's the price I got on TrueCar. The dealership has to accept that. That's the lowest price they can get. So the dealership's not making that much money, right? But most importantly, I would tell clients or customers when they came in, say to my manager, you heard from True Car. This way I could look them in the eye. Jonathan now with integrity, Jonathan now with a moral compass that you didn't have for so long, is telling them, you're going to get the best price. Okay?

I say that to give you sort of this next share I'm going to give you, which is, in California, the auto salespeople are governed by the Department of Motor Vehicles. So I was given a three to four year provisional license while they do their background search. I'm sorry, three to four month provisional license. In month three, I received from the Department of Motor Vehicles that I can no longer work at Lexus of Thousand-O. because of my background.

We had another guy in California, by the way. Same thing. Same thing. It's amazing. But one thing I'll never take away. So, of course, I said, I want to go in front of the judge. I had the right to appeal. I did an administrative hearing on Zoom during COVID.

The judge saw how much rehabilitation I've done. I go to meetings in prison. I did, I programmed more than most people ever programmed. I taught a victim impact class to help people accept that there are victims of their crimes, whether it's white collar or other. or other. And so the judge was like, let's give this guy this chance. I mean, on paper, he's done everything he can do. And the manager and the general manager all support that he's a good guy today. You know, he's not that old degenerate. And so the judge said, I'll do that.

Now the lawyer for the department motor vehicle says, no, Your Honor, we will not do that. Here's why. Because auto salespeople is the number one profession with integrity. Now, the old Jonathan Wooden Ego would say, what the F are you talking about? Are you kidding me? No disrespect, by the way, to people. I love auto salespeople, no disrespect. But I can tell you that they're all looking

to fill their pockets with commissions, which means they're not giving you the best price. But Jonathan Schwartz truly was. So I'll never forget that. So now I've lost a job at Thousand Oaks after losing the job at Duncan Oates. So what am I going to do? And I decided, let me pay it forward.

Let me help people. So I go and I take this six, seven month online addiction studies school to become an expert in addiction and trauma, right, if you will. And so I've got my license and CADAC to get, now let me go to my, now let me go get a master's degree. Let me become a marriage or family therapist with an emphasis in addiction and trauma. I go to grad school. So today I'm a program director. If I can, I'd like to give a shout out to Altus Rehab, which is a six-bed luxury detox and residential. We actually have a second house opening up.

And we're just helping people who have co-occurring disorders, substance use and mental health. And this is why I make very little money. I also work as a teletherapist for a nonprofit Chabad Treatment Center in L.A. as well. So I'm giving back to my community. I'm giving back. I'm making an impact on people to not make the same mistakes that Jonathan made himself. I want to help people not make those same mistakes. Ask for help like I talked about earlier.

Be vulnerable. Be honest, you know, have the courage to share how you're feeling right now with a loved one or a professional therapist. Or if you're struggling with addiction, go to treatment, please. Because most people in addiction have that trauma that we talked about or some other adverse experiences, and they don't realize how much we rupture and hurt our family. Right. We also feel alone.

You feel like you're the only one going through. And when you go to AA or something, one of these programs, you start to talk to other people that are just like you, you realize, like, well, I'm not alone, and you can bounce back, and these people have been through, I don't have to lie to these people, they've been through what I've been through, and they go around and they tell their stories, and you're like, that guy just told my story. That guy just told my story. That guy, like, these aren't completely vastly different. Like, a lot of these people will have the almost an identical story to yours, and here's how, here's how they faced it and went through it, and here's what happened,

and here's where they are now, and you don't feel so alone. I think it helps you I mean, that's just my take. I mean, I can be completely wrong. No, you're completely right. It helps you feel better about the situation. And I think it allows you to realize that, hey, there's a path here to get through this as opposed to thinking about taking your own life. Like that's, you know, I'm so narcissistic. Like, I'll take it out about 15 other people before I go.

Just people that are making me uncomfortable. You know, I feel like you're contributing to me feeling bad about myself. You're going. But yeah, so at least you know, hey, there's a path to be followed here. and where you can get through this. And I know because this guy did it and this guy did it in this. And a lot of times those are some people

that can actually help you. And a lot of times there are people there that can give you good advice, albeit maybe brutal. You know, I know my dad had talked about one time there was a guy. They went around and he was complaining about how he couldn't find a job.

I just can't find it. You know, it's so hard. He was going on and on and on. He looked at him and he went, what kind of job were you looking for? He's like, I mean, are you holding out for a job making $250,000 as a, you know, as a, as a board of directors or, what are you doing?

Like, you keep saying, he's like, my idiot kid can find a job. Any of it, you can find a job. Maybe it's at Dunkin' Donuts. Right. Maybe it's working at a car dealership. You'd still be working there, by the way, in Florida. Because Florida, I think part of, part of it is that they don't hire you unless you have a felony.

But, you know what I'm saying? Like, he, but my dad looked at this guy and he's like, what are you doing? Like, sometimes it's tough love. Sometimes it's like, stop being a fucking jackass. You come here every day for six months. I've seen you three, four times a week for six months saying, oh, how hard your life is. You can't find a job. But the truth is, you can find a job.

You're holding out for a job making $300,000 a year that maybe you have to go find a shitty job at Burger King or McDonald's or something and work your way up. But you can find a job. And, you know, that guy came up to him later. Like, he found a job the next week. Came up to him a week later and said, you were right, bro. Like, I've been feeling bad for myself. And you're right. I've been applying for positions that I get turned down to for because I don't even, I don't qualify. And I know when I'm filling out the application, I don't qualify for this. You know, I think I deserve this, but you're right. It is easier to find a job when you have a job than it is to not to find a job when you don't have a job. Right. And then so many of these people that come in, whether it's Altus Rehab or any other treatment center, you know, there, some of them are homeless or some of them, you know, relapsed after being in sober living. And now they don't have a job, like you said.

And so, you know, now it's time before you leave here to let's get that resume. Let's look for jobs while you're here. So when you walk out this door, hopefully you have an aftercare plan that includes going back to sober living. But either way, even at sober living or not, you need to be gainfully employed. And it could be doing anything. Yeah. Like you said, like just roll up your sleeves, you know, get what you need, you're going to need to put food on the table. And it's tough for people out there.

but they have to be motivated, right? Because they're still so early in recovery. Well, a lot of times they don't want to humble themselves and they think, oh, I'm better than working at McDonald's. Are you? Right, exactly. Are you better than working at McDonald's? I mean, let's face it, you've got an addiction problem.

You're on the street. You've let down everybody you know. I don't think you are better. I think you go work as a cashier at Walmart until you can get a better job and you work your way up because you have some proving to do. Those guys that think, oh, I deserve better than that. The fuck, bro.

No, you don't. you don't like stop like that is such a um cathartic thing to humble yourself and be appreciative of you have especially when you have nothing right you know that's when it really that's what it really helps change the person that you are is when you have nothing and to be appreciative of of just the simple things you know like walking the track and feeling the sun on your face and being like wow this is like like it's funny because in those moments when you have and you're walking the track in prison that you feel alive. Like you got nothing and you're getting out to nothing

and you're happy to be walking the track and the sun's hitting your face and it feels good. Those are amazing moments. It's true. I used to walk almost like 15, 17 miles around track a day just to get away from where I had to sleep. But you're right. I mean, it's all about gratitude today for me, right?

Like I'm grateful like I talked about earlier for that $5.75 Starbucks that maybe I could treat myself to a latte today. There are times where my refrigerator may not be have a lot of food in it. I'm grateful that I have a box of cereal I can eat. You know, I'm really living in gratitude today. And I certainly didn't live that way in my act of addiction and during my criminal behavior. But today I'm humbled by everything. I'm humbled that I get to be here with you. Like, you know, I would have come to a podcast before I even knew there were

podcasts. Let's say in my active addiction, I'd be like, wait a second, I'm coming here. You're lucky I'm coming here with that attitude, right? Today I'm grateful that Matthew Cox and your team said, I can be welcomed here because it's an honor to be at your, you know, you as to meet you in person as a host of a podcast that I respect. And it's because I, you know, who I'm, I don't judge anybody today. And I want to say this if I can, because earlier you said something about like our friends, right? A little bit about friends. When this became public, I was seeing an Eastern Western medicine doctor.

And he saw this and he called me. He said, I want you to show up at this house tomorrow. And you need to wear a suit. So I put a black suit on. I have no idea what I'm doing. I go into this house. I know nobody. The doctor's not even there yet.

I walk in the backyard where I'm directed, and there's a rabbi giving a eulogy at a funeral, and people are crying. I have no idea. So now, shortly after word, the doctor arise, I'm sitting, of course, in the back row because I don't know anybody. And I said, Doc, what is this?

Doctor says, this is a staged funeral. It's a staged funeral. I started hearing about the popularity about it in 2016 or whatever. It's not a real funeral. Okay. But it's not a real funeral. So it was, the reality shows around this time. So I said, okay, so these people think this man is dead?

Jonathan, he says, yes, Jonathan. He's actually upstairs. Nobody knows this is his house watching his own funeral because he fears death. So, wow, okay. I feel bad for the people that really think he's dead. but okay for the moment. So then shortly thereafter we leave, he says to me, the doctor says to me,

Jonathan, what's your takeaway from this? I said, give me a moment to process that. I process and I say, okay, I think I understand why you asked me to come here. I said, in the height of my career, if I were to die, I'm making this number up. Let's say 600 plus people would be at my funeral.

98.5% of those people would have been there out of professional obligation. not because they care about Jonathan Schwartz. Right, right? Those that I did business with, et cetera, et cetera. Today, if I pass away, this is what I said back in 2016, 17, I said maybe, and today literally, I would say the same thing, maybe I'd have 50 people at my funeral.

But at least those 50 people care deeply for me. That's more powerful to me. Why do I bring that story up, if you will? I bring it up because today I have very few friends and very few people in my life by design. I have a quality inner circle. I don't have the ego that needs quantity of friends. I want genuine, authentic people in my life who don't judge me and I don't judge them.

And that's how I surround myself with today. And that's what I try and model for clients struggling with addiction of mental health. Like, it's about quality of people who support you. There's healthy and there's unhealthy relationships, right? Don't surround yourself only with healthy people, okay? And not just limited to sober peers. healthy people that are called normies today. But the moment you start to surround yourself with phony people, people who might even drink or use substances, you know, in abundance or other

unhealthy people, likelihood of you relapsing goes up significantly. So surround yourself with quality people. And so for me, I'm also grateful that I get to surround myself with a handful of quality friends in my life today. Can you list the clients that you worked with for some of the more notable ones? Sure, a list a handful of them. I represented, as I said earlier, Lincoln Park, I represented Beyoncé, Chance the Rapper, Halsey, Gwyneth Poutro, Moriah Carey, Matthew McConaughey, and many others, and some athletes as well, and some, but for now, those are probably the main ones. And did you ever run into any of them after the fact? No, two of them called me. When this just came out, not knowing all the details, asking me if I'm going to be okay, and I told him no, and I really can't talk about why.

But it was nice of those two people to call me. One was Brad from Lincoln Park, who's, I love him and his family. He was genuinely concerned. And the other was Tamika, the widow of EZ from Ruthless Records. But I couldn't get into the details. But I appreciated that they called once they heard on the news that this happened, and I was no longer with the firm. And the small chance that they're watching this or this gets put into a clip, do you have anything to say to them now?

I would say to the clients that were direct victims. I'm very sorry for the pain and suffering that caused you. I understand that you got the money back. But again, as I've said, it doesn't make what I did wrong right to you. And I would love the opportunity to make a formal amends if you have time to meet with me in person. and answer any questions that they might have for me as well. And for the indirect victims, I would also like a chance to apologize to them, those that I didn't directly embezzle money,

for embarrassing them as their business manager who they trusted. And I committed a white-collar crime and violated my fiduciary responsibility. And I would love to talk with them as well. Hey, you guys, I appreciate you listening. Do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button, hit the bell so you get notified of videos just like this. Also, we're going to leave all of Jonathan's links in the description box. You can just click on the description box, go there, and you can follow him and subscribe to his channels and check out his journey.

I appreciate you guys watching, and please consider joining our Patreon. It's $10 a month. We put Patreon exclusive content on Patreon. It really does help Colby and I make these videos. So thank you very much. See you.