Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Celebrity Kingpin Makes 1 Millionday Owen Hanson

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Owen Hanson shares his journey to fit in at USC leads him into the world of steroids, smuggling, and high-stakes crime, eventually making millions a day as a celebrity-connected kingpin.⁣ ⁣ Owen's links⁣ https://www.instagram.com/theofficialcakid/⁣ TheCaliforniaKid.com⁣ CaliforniaIceProtein.com⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://www.insidetruecrimepodcast.com/apply-to-be-a-guest⁣ ⁣ Get 10% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. ⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: [e-mail]⁣ ⁣ Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content?⁣ Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen 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/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Looking to grow your investing skills and make smarter decisions with your money in 2026, join Her Money's Investing Fix, the twice-monthly Women's Only Investment Club, where expert stock pickers pitch ideas and you help build the portfolio. Since launching four years ago, our member-driven picks have outperformed the S&P thanks to smart, collaborative choices. We've got a strong track record and a community that's learning and winning. together. So go to investingfix.com. That's Fix with two X's and join us. Mike Wahlberg did a documentary called B-Qa-quarterback. How would you like to make a million dollars a day? I have a lot of A-list celebrities. I'm sitting on $10 million in my Sydney apartment and I'm freaking out. How do you get that back to the United States? Good question. Get to college and I'm literally this this blue-collar kid coming into the University of Southern

California. You know, everyone has the American Express black cards, the fucking Mercedes, the BMWs. know, like, fuck, how am I going to fit in, right? And I remember, I was like, man, I got to figure out a way. Like, what am I going to do? And it actually took me to get cut from the volleyball team. My sophomore year, I got red. It's called red shirt where you get put, basically put on hold until you improve your game. And I got redshirted my sophomore year.

And I was like, fuck, what am I going to do? The coach told me, hey, you got to work on your vertical jump. You got to work on your arm strength. And I'm like, fuck, I'm just going to go get on the sauce. And I literally went down to Gold's Gym in Redonabondon. beach and I found the biggest body builder there and I said dude I just got cut from the volleyball team what can I do it's like illegal or illegally I said the quickest way I got you he says you got money I said no I don't got money and he's like well guess what you're

going to have to go down to Tijuana and go to the pharmacy and that's where it all started I literally got in my 1989 Toyota Camry that my grandfather gave me when he passed and I drove down to the Tijuana border parked on the American side walked over the bridge and into Tijuana and I went to the pharmacy I showed up there with this list and I gave them all the performance enhancing drugs that I needed and the lady's like okay she spoke perfect perfect English and I'm putting them in this bag the sandwich bag and I'm thinking my mind like how the fuck am I gonna get these back across the border right what do you what do like what year was this this

this was in 2001 no 2002 excuse me don't feel like oh 2002 Yeah. That's after 9-11 or just before? Yeah, just right after. Oh, no. I would be terrified. I'd be like, oh, no, I can't. So I...

I'd be throwing them over the wall. Yeah, the wall. So I literally put them in the sandwich bag and I had... The lady had some medical tape in there and I taped it up and I went in the bathroom and I literally fucking stuck this thing in the crack. And I tell people, man, it was the most uncomfortable feeling for the next three hours because I had to sit in the line waiting to cross the border. and my buddy's with me, he's like, are you okay?

I was fucking dripping sweat. I'm like, no, I'm not okay. Remember, I haven't broken the law. My whole life, I have to have this strict father, so I'm just thinking, man, I've never lied, I've never stole, I've never done anything bad, right? But I get to that customs agent, and he's looking at me, and I give him my passport, and this is right after, you know, 9-11,

he's looking at my passport. He's like, Mr. Hansen, are you bringing anything back? And for the first time ever I lied, I said, no, officer. I was just at Puppas and beer, having tacos, and in margaritas with my boy. All right. And he said, welcome back to America.

And I was like, fuck yeah, what a rush. You know? Like, that was like the first time I've ever done anything illegal. And I was like,

damn, that was a fucking badass feeling. Like, I literally took that one to the next level, eventually working for the biggest cartel in the world. Right.

So, so what happened? Do you get back on the team? I got back. Yeah, I got back. Yeah, I got back. I know.

So it's a funny, even funnier story. I got back, I got on the steroids, and I blew up. I got so big, one of the guys at the USC Strength and Conditioning Coach, he was part of the USC football team. And he looked at me and said, Hansen, I thought you played volleyball. I said, I do. He says, well, you look like a fucking football player.

I've never played football in my life. He says, you need to try out. And I said, try out for what? He goes, we got to walk on tryout. 50 guys are going to be there. You need to try out. And Matthew, I've never played football. My dad wouldn't let me play football.

Right. So I literally, I showed up to practice in my volleyball shoes, so this walk-on practice. And they threw me a few routes that I caught for the first time and did a vertical jump. I'm a volleyball player, so I had 37-inch vertical jump, hit that. They asked me to do a 40. I ran a 4-640.

And at the time, Pete Carroll, Norm Chow, Steve Sarkeesian, Kiffin, they're all there with their stopwatch. And they're like, who is this kid? Nobody knows I'm on the gear. And the next drill is we go down to the bench press. and we have two plates, $2.25, and I rep out 26 times, and that's like combine, NFL combine numbers,

and they're looking at me like, who the fuck is this kid? Right. And nobody knows I'm on the sauce. Did they drug test you at any time? No, not this time. This is just a tryout. Oh, okay.

And two weeks later goes, boy, and I go and look at the list on Pete Carroll's window, and it says one name, and it said Owen Hanson. I made the USC football team. And this is back, the dynasty years when we won the two national championships.

So I got back on the volleyball team. After like three months of volleyball and football, I'm like, fuck this. I'm going to continue playing football. I'm playing on the best team in America right now. Is this like a full scholarship? Like you don't need... Just rolled over my two-thirds from volleyball.

They just carried it. It was like a financial aid because that's... My dad didn't obviously have money, so they gave us a nice package, like a scholarship package for people that are... poor. Right. And I just, they let me just roll it over. And it worked great because now I'm playing volleyball. I'm now I'm playing football, excuse me. Right. And for sure you're continuing to take there. Are you, how long do you, do you finish college? Do you get in trouble? No, no,

no, no. No, I never get in trouble. I did. Actually, this is where it where it gets good. I, I, um, I realized that everyone's calling me Dr. O'Daw because all the players are saying, hey, what are you taking? Can I, can I get some of that? And I'm literally helping people with recoveries. Like, oh, you got a torn ACL? Oh, take some growth hormone system, some test sip. Oh, you want to get ripped? Here's some wind stroll and some Anavar. And I'm literally, they're calling me Dr. O'Dog. So where are you learning all this? Is this from the guys at the gym or just reading? You just at the gym and reading. Okay. Yeah. And now people, now I'm in the fraternity and people are seeing this and they're like, dude, can you get adderol? We're

trying to stay up for our tests. I'm like, fuck yeah, I can't get had arderal. And I went down to Tijuana and I got Adderall. And you, are you just, at this point, you're just, What, walking across the border? Walking across, yeah. They're not searching you. No, not yet. They do search. Oh, okay.

So eventually I'm, you know, three months into this thing, it's summertime. I'm 240. And I'm wearing a quick silver sweatshirt in the summer, right? But I'm wearing this baggy sweatshirt so people don't know I'm on the gear. Like if you're an officer, you're going to be like, that dude's on some sauce. Let's pat him down. Yeah. So I remember I have this quick silver sweatshirt on.

It's like 2X and it's in the middle of summer. And they come and they stop me. And they put me in a secondary and they come pat me down. And I'm like, oh, fuck, I'm fucked. Right. And they're checking my sweater and they're, because they're seeing, why is this guy wearing a sweatshirt in the fucking summertime, right? And then they literally get down to my waistline.

They touch around there, but they don't go where I keep my stuff. Right. And the crack, right? I was like, okay, that's it. I'm no longer smuggling. I got to figure out a way to smuggle it with girls. And I remember I started with bringing just girls from my house. high school. I bring them down and I'd give them each $100 and I'd take them for

paup and get them shots and they'd get all liquored up and they're like, okay, what do you need me to do again? And they would put them in their bras. We'd put them in their underwear. And these girls would literally help me smuggle them across the steroids and the Adderall and now Xanax and we're just, we're getting creative and we're using any tactic we can to get across. This is, you know, I'm just young. Are you making, like, I mean, I know at the time it probably felt like you were making a bunch of money. Now you look at it in, I was making nothing. Yeah. But what were you, were you making good, were you doing this for the money? No, no, I was just, I was just doing it to survive at USC. You got to

remember, everybody has money. I didn't have any money. Yeah. So I'm just using it to be able to go out with the sorority girls, drink with my fraternity brothers. And, you know, I'm just getting by in my sense, but when you look at it, high insight, I was, you know, making a couple thousand bucks a week just on the pills. And then eventually people are like, dude, why don't you sell the, all the fraternities do the car. And I'm like, okay, I can do it. You're already walking through the border. You're already getting through. Yeah, well, I wasn't going to start bringing the Mexico. I didn't even think that far outside the box. It's also, I think, a massively different charge. I agree. So I grew up in a north side Redondo area, which is, there's Mexican gangs. And I went to them.

And I said, hey, all these kids at USC, they love the Coke. They love the white girl, right? Sorry. Like, yeah. All these kids at USC love the white girl. And is there any way you can maybe front me some? And I'm telling these Mexican gang members, and they're like, yeah, we'll get you something. And they literally come to the USC campus and they drop off a styrofoam container of eight ounces of the white girl.

And I'm like, okay, I'm looking at it. Like, what am I supposed to do now? They're like, okay, well, here's a scale. Here's a gram bag. Here's a spoon. And they're like teaching me. I've never even done this, right? And I'm like, weighing it out.

I go to see his fucking clean cut, clean cut kid and his gang. Tats on his face and shit. And you're, dude, I look at it. I'm like, okay. And he's telling me, okay, you're getting it for $20 a gram. He says, what are they selling it for? I see. I said, the guys are paying $100 a gram.

He goes, undercut the market. Sell them for $60, $65 a gram. bucks. I'm like, okay, that's three times what it cost me. It's a no-brainer, math 101. And I go back up to my fraternity house and I tell my fraternity brother that lives with me. I go, hey, I need a favor. I said, I'm going to practice. I'm playing football now. We've got double days. It's, it's, it's, we're ready to go into season. He says, what's the favor? I said, every, every ounce you sell of this white girl, I'm going to give you one grand. because I already knew he liked the product.

He liked to do the product. And he's like, okay, that sounds like a pretty good deal. He says, what's the price? I said, $60. And he goes, you got it. So I have literally eight ounces of this white girl there. And we bag them all into grand bags. And I go to practice and come back after a training table and practice and film.

And literally, like, eight hours later, I get back to the fraternity house. and my fraternity brother is literally on the computer just like gacked out of his mind. He's like, hey, what's up, buddy? I'm like, oh, no, he did it all, right? That's what I was thinking. He goes, we got a problem. I said, what's the problem? He goes, we're sold out.

I'm like, oh, my, yeah, we have a problem, but this is a good problem. Right. He just sold out. And, you know, he's done eight grams of the white girl right now. You know, like, this guy's loving this. So I was like, okay, this is a good problem. I have a new untouched market because you got to remember University of Southern California, these kids aren't going to do this, right?

They're buying from a local dealer down at the corner of ARCO. That's probably cutting it with baby lactose, baby lactose, you know? So I was like, okay, this is my niche. This is what I'm going to do to survive. And that's where it started. But you're not, are you feeling like, like, yeah, like I'm a drug dealer? Are you thinking I'm just, it's just something on the size, not a big deal? It's not like I'm, this is my life.

It's just a goodbye. It was a temporary thing. I told myself, I'll do this while in college to keep up with the Joneses. And then when I'm done, I'm done. I'm going to go get a job with the USC alumni and be done. Right. And that's how it went. Okay.

You know, I ended up literally graduating from USC. Never got arrested. Never got arrested. Never got arrested. You lived in a bubble. You know, you're in a attorney house. No one's going to bust you. Yeah.

Well, I mean, people do get, like, you never know. You sell somebody who's fucked up. he gets he gets grabbed and then they said would you get it and he says oh it's this guy and then they'd love to get a uh a football player of course but at this time we're literally keeping it everything in-house right so i'm like okay we're we're safe right we have other fraternities coming and i'm putting my my roommate my fraternity brother in the mix like hey just deal with these other fraternities like so they're he's dropping off an ounce of the white girl all these other fraternities and we have these like you know sub sub drug dealers right right so the motto

was just okay, do this, keep up with the Joneses. When you graduate, you're done. And that's what happened. I graduated in 2005. I got a degree in public policy and management. I go to work for a big, big USC alumni. That's big football booster. And you're still working there today?

And you came by to say that. Yeah, it's great. Now the CEO, right? No, I said, okay, this is great. I showed him the national championship football ring. He hired me, you know, six figures first year out of college. I'm making good money. I'm like, this is it.

Everything else stopped. And what year was this? This is 2005. Okay. So I'm like loving it. You know, I'm working in Beverly Hills and Brentwood, the nicest areas of California. And in 2007, 2008, the recession hits. The real estate mark crashes.

Shit. Matthew, what am I going to do now? And I have a quick question. I'm sorry. What was your dad saying when you graduate college? you get the job like is he like oh he's like fucking i mean he was more stoked that i won two national championships oh okay you know like he was like that's my boy like he he couldn't believe it and then when i got a job making you know twice as much he's ever made in his life right my first year out he's

like fuck yeah that's that USC alumni network right that's what you go to school there for yeah i was like that saying uh your father is the only man alive that will ever want you to see do better than him yeah that's true right great feeling for him i'm sure yeah he was he was a great feeling for him i'm sure yeah he was happy. He's like, my son, he's done it. And then unfortunately, my dad, after I graduated and got that big job, he's like, okay, my son's no longer, I need to worry about him. I have a drink. And he started drinking again. Yeah. So, I mean, but that's alcohol. 13 years he was sober. I said, dad, why would you? He had a purpose. He did have a purpose. That's what got him through it. You need something to get him through. Yeah. And I respect him for that. He's a great father.

You know, but it is what it is. It's like when you go to prison, like you have, you know, It's hope that gets you. There's always something to push, because if you don't have that purpose, then people do bad things. Yeah. And you know, it's funny, Matthew, when I was in prison,

he did cut it back a lot, right? He'd come visit me and he, like, son, I'm doing good. And my dad, come on, I got to get through this prison pit. Right. Before you fucking go, I need to be able to golf with my old man. Right. And he stuck strong. I'm blessed that.

He's still here today. So the recession? Bundle and Safe with Expedia. You were made to follow your favorite bad. And from the front row, we were made to quietly save you more. Expedia, made to travel. Savings vary and subject to availability. Recession hits.

I'm like, fuck, what am I going to do now? You get laid off? I get laid off. My boss tells me, hey, you're the first to go. And I'm like, okay, what am I to do? And I remember when I was working for this big developer, we had this general contractor that did, you know, $100 million projects for us. Big, big contractor.

And he would always be placing bets on his phone. He'd be calling his bookie. And he put like $20,000 on the Dodgers, another $10,000 on the Raiders total. And it always interested me because I would hear him put these bets and I'm like, man, who's on the other line? Right. And then I start to understand the bookmaking business.

I'm like, okay, when I got laid off, I thought about that bookie. And then I was like, oh, man, I want to be a bookie, right? I said that would be a good, I'm in sports. Have you been betting? No, no. I didn't have any concept of... Because it seems very complicated.

It was. Listen, I had to learn it. And I remember telling my dad, I got laid off. And I begged my dad, he had a bookie from this Italian. He said, son, I'm not giving you the bookie. I said, please, I asked him 20, like literally 20 times. And he finally said, I'll give you a meeting, but it's up to Tony, Uncle Tony, to let you know if he's going to do it. He's already prepped Tony.

Like, don't let my son talk. You meet a bad guy. Meet Uncle Tony. It literally suddenly sits down and he goes, oh, and I can't do it. Your dad doesn't want you doing it. I said, man, just give me a shot. I said, I got all these fraternity kids I went to USC with. They got tons of money.

I said, I got all these now professional athletes that I used to play a college football with. I said, I got a VIP list that you would love to have. And I begged them. He's like, all right, I'm going to give you 20% of your customers, whatever they lose net, I'm going to give you 20%. Don't tell your dad. Dude, he didn't want me to tell him that.

Nobody wants your dad to know that, right? And I said, Tony, I won't let you down. I said, this is temporary. That's not nobody. We used to burglarize houses with his dad. Some dads are okay with all kinds of shit. So I go, I literally, within six months, I have, I go to that construction worker and I make a deal with him. I said, hey, I'm going to give you 10% off your losses, knowing that I'm getting 20.

I could at least keep 10, right? I'm going to give you 20% I'm going to give you 10% off your losses anything you lose within six months the guy lost a million dollars to hold the cash I'm like okay I found my niche I found a whale right and now I go

back to Uncle Tony I said Uncle Tony man I just brought you a million dollars off of one player I said I need more than 20% right like I just gave half of it back to the guy just to keep his business he's like that's not my problem I'm like okay Uncle Tony I'm telling you right now I'm going to figure this out

if you don't give me more than 20%, I'm gonna go figure this out myself because that million dollars could have been all mine. Right. Right, I'm like, okay, this is worth figuring out. And he didn't want to budge on the number. So guess what I did? I flew to Costa Rica, which is the mecca of sports books,

and I went office to office in San Jose until I finally found an office that would basically hold a, it's called pay per head. So you pay per customer you have, you pay a flat fee every week. So if I have 10 customers, I pay $20 a week for those customers to be able to bet on a website and call a 1-800 number down in Costa Rica. And this is how I started the business. Okay.

And do you get some part of their losses still? You get all of it. Oh, you're the house now. Oh, okay. So I'm basically, now I started this company called bet-odog.com. And I literally, this is how it started. I went down there. They gave me a 1-800 number.

They gave me a website. So it's like a white label kind of thing. Correct. Eventually I ended up becoming my own enterprise where I would have other bookies coming to me and use my white label service because I was like, this is so much more profitable. I have no risk.

Right. So, you know, you still have risk because... Like it's Costa Rica. There's some risk there's definitely risk, right? The phone lines are going out when there's a rainstorm. You know, the servers go down. So I... You're dealing with Costa Rica.

Costa Rica, right? Yeah, so I literally figure out the business. Now I'm making 100% of the money minus my, you know, small fee I'm paying for the office. And I blow this thing out of the water. These Uncle Tony's operation end up getting indicted in 2012. And they go down on a RICO case. You dodged it. So guess what I did?

I grabbed all their customers. Okay. And I said, hey, you know, Uncle Tony and Matro Sports are no longer in business. So guys, come play with Beto Dogg. Is this a conversation you have with Uncle Tony? Like, do you go to visitation and say, listen? No, definitely. Sign over your stuff and I'll slip you.

I'll pay your lawyer fee or something. No? No, no, definitely not. No, okay. Yeah, I'm not doing that. Remember, he was offering me 20%. Right. He's not getting any love like that.

So I literally, I blow up the business. I have Paris Hilton betting with me at Super Bowl. I have a lot of, you know, A-list celebrities. I have professional athletes now bedding with me, and I really blow this thing out of the water. years is it? This is, when they got and died, it was 2012, but I had already started taking this, this business to the moon.

Yeah, yeah. And it right around like 2010, I started to get really big. Right. But then when they dropped off, it was a nice chunk of, a nice influx of customers. So, so what about, you know, Matt, uh, Matt Boyer. Yeah, so Matt Boyer was, uh, was actually the first guy that tried to stiff me. Really? And I went after him.

Really? I just paid him like, I want to say I paid him like $150,000 the week before. Yeah. And then he lost like $70,000 the next week. And he says, hey, I'm out of town. I'm not paying. I said, well, listen, I just paid you $150,000. I said, what do you mean you're not paying?

He goes, I'll be in town next week. I said, okay, good. So he comes in town next week and he tells me he doesn't have the money. And he's making tons of money. So listen. But he also had a huge gambling problem. Bad, bad. This is why.

Okay, so I said, okay, well, I'm showing up. He goes, okay, he gives me his address. And he's living in, I think it was Laguna Beach at the time, Laguna Hills. And I show up in my range over. He didn't think I was going to show up. And he'll tell this story. He tells it better than me. But he literally put a shoe, he told his wife, I'm putting my shoes on right now.

His fucking USC football players coming up. And I'm jacked, Matt. I'm like 240, I'm fucking tatted back, right? I'm fucking jacked. And he told his wife. wife, that's probably going to get ugly, honey. And I show up there. And he goes, he goes, he told it on Ian Bick.

He goes, fuck, you got some balls. I said, you got some balls to stiff me, man. Who the fuck do you think you are, right? And we were literally like this close to going at it. And he's like, man, I respect you for coming over. He goes, you're going to get paid every dollar. He ended up paying me every dollar. But it was the principal.

It's like the cardinal rule. You don't get paid and then. if someone the next week when you've already got paid $150,000. And, you know, he had a gambling addiction. But at the end of the day, he was an honorable person. He paid me back. Yeah. And I'll tell you the story.

Matt literally blew up when I got arrested. He took it to the next level. And you were like... His uncle Tony. He took a lot of my customers. I'm not going to lie. But, you know, good for him, right? And, you know, unfortunately, Matt's in Lompoc camp right now.

But he had a good run. You know, he had showrun Tani and a lot of NFL guys, MLB guys. Yeah, that didn't help him out any. No, brought a lot of attention. It makes a good title and thumbnail, though. Yeah, yeah. Definitely he sells the story well. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, right? Like, you got to use that. Yeah, yeah, he's good. Matter of fact, one of his shorts, like the one where he's had to come up with the bail money or something, wherever he was. His podcast has done well. Yeah. But I think both you guys from someone who doesn't, like both you guys seem very similar

like the sports world and you guys are doing a good media run like you guys are everywhere. You don't have any face tattoos no, we got that good look. Plus he's a father. He's got six kids. Beautiful, beautiful wife. Well spoken, nice guy. He had a good strategy before he goes into prison.

I think he's gone for a year or so. Yeah, he got a year and a day. He'll probably be out. I talked to his wife last week. I think he'll be out in five months. Yeah, but he's got, I mean, he did all these podcasts that can kind of keep him alive. They're just pumping him right now while he's in there.

Yeah. They do well. Good strategy. I think he should be using a phone in there, you know, documenting his prison, right? I mean, like a cell, like a contraband phone? I mean, I'm not saying him, but hire a guy in there to do it. Right. Like, so people see what he's doing in there.

Not posting it now, but when he gets out. Yeah, he'll get in trouble. But, I mean, come on, we know that there's phones in every cam. So, I mean, now more than when I was in there, way more. I was at a FCI, and people had a phone, you know. So, listen, they have him where he's at. Yeah, yeah. But I think it would be cool for his story.

So you got all Uncle Tony's customers. You're doing great. Yes. And now in 2011, I'm going international. I call it Beto Dogg International. I'm going everywhere now. Like, you know what, I've got the U.S. sewed up. I want to go to Mexico.

I want to go to Canada or wherever else in North America. It's Bet O'Dog. O'Dog. My nickname was O'Dog. O Dog. Okay. So Bet O Dog. went international and I told one of my agents, my sub-bookies, you know, anybody you have in Mexico,

go for it. And I remember my sub-bookie brings me this whale. First week loses $250,000 cash, drops off a bag of cash, man. I was like, holy shit, you got a whale. I said, keep this guy happy. Next week he loses another quarter million. Third week, he loses like $2.40. I'm like, dude, whoever this guy is, keep him happy.

this is your bread and butter. Week four, he's finally going to crack. I see it. He's got a five team parlay with the Raiders. It's a Sunday night. I call the sub-bookie. I said, get over here right now. I said, I want to pay this guy on Monday.

I said, why Monday? Because he's been paying us on Monday. Let's return the favor. We don't want to be like Matt Boyer. We don't want to drag it out. Like that time Matt tried to do me. And I said, we will pay him Monday. And he'll be happy.

Just trust me. He's like, oh, right. Because he's probably been used to being dragged a little bit. Of course. In the bookie business, people usually collect the winners, collect from the losers, and then they pay the winners by, like, Thursday, Friday. It's not the right way to do business. You need to pay your customer when they win.

Yeah, well, you should have reserves for that. Yeah, if you're a bookie, you better have reserves. So I literally paid this guy Monday morning through my agent, and I'll never forget him, Matthew. The next day, two days later, the sub-book he comes, and he says, my uncle wants you to have this encrypted phone. I'm like, who's your uncle? He's like, my uncle is the one that's been gambling.

He's my customer. I'm like, okay, I get this Blackberry. He gives me a post it with three passwords. So I'm like, what is this? He's just, it's an encrypted phone. There's no microphone. There's no GPS. There's no camera.

I'm like, well, what the fuck's the point? Right? So he gives me this post and I'm opening it up. And by the third password, I open it up, and it says weddo, which, means the white boy in Spanish. I like the way you do business. I'm like, this is weird.

I'm like, hey, thanks for your business. Your awesome customer, anything you need, we got you. You know, I believe in, you take your customers. You treat them like the Bellagio treats their gambling customers. Give them a hotel, give them a fucking jet, give them whatever they want, because they're going to lose the money. And that's how I ran my business. I was a casino host, basically, online.

And I'm telling this guy, whatever he needs. and he writes back, he says, I know you're a bookie, and you probably have money throughout the U.S. I'm like, yeah, of course, what do you need? Like, right, we're giving them the service.

He goes, I got a deal. Anytime you drop off cash for me, I'm going to give you 10% on the money. I'm like, okay, that's a no-brainer. What do you need done? He goes, can you drop off $100,000 to a house in San Diego? Okay. Call one of my agents in San Diego.

Within 20 minutes, they drop off 100 grand to this, you know, at the time, I didn't know what it was. It was a stash house. Okay. I'm like, okay. Stash house, whatever that means. I get a message back within five minutes after the drop,

and he says, where do you want the 110 cent? I just made 10% on 100, right? I said, perfect. This is great. I have an office in Costa Rica. I'll have them wire the money to Costa Rica so now I can pay my office staff. You know, I've got a big overhead now. So I'm like, okay, perfect.

Send it to my, send it to my Costa Rican bank account. Boom. He sends $110,000. next week, same thing. Hey, can you drop off 100,000 in Florida? Next week is 100,000 in Texas. I'm like, okay, this is easy, right? 10%.

Math 101. What am I? So where is this guy located? Do you realize that this guy has got, this has got to be some, this is money laundering at this point? Listen. Like, who do you think this guy is?

At the time, I don't know who he is. Are you just kind of willful blindness? No, Matthew. Listen, if the guy's losing a quarter million dollars a week to me, and I'm handling cash only. I know I'm breaking the law. Yeah. You know, I've already crossed the path of illegal activity, no doubt.

I've figured that out. Right. And I'm not doing anything that bad in my mind, okay? I'm dropping off cash and I'm having it wired to my fucking office in Costa Rica. Okay. What is it? Money laundering, maybe a couple years, right? Right.

That's what I'm thinking in my head. I'm already a bookie. You can get a lot for money laundering, but you don't know that. No, I don't know. I'm a young kid, right? I only know that. I'm 25 years old. You know it because you've been.

Yeah. So I, okay, this is great. I'm making 10% a day drop on off cash. This is, this is easier than the betting business, right? I'm taking no risk. This guy's just producing this money like that. Plus he's losing every week. Like, keep him happy, right?

And then he asked the question, can you pick up a million dollars for me? I'm like, pick up, I was just dropping off. Right. This is where I knew something went bad. I said, he says it's rival territory. You have to go to Brownsville, Texas. right then and there I knew. Okay, rival territory.

Okay, that's answered that question. But remember, a million dollars a day, or excuse me, a million dollars would be 10% would be 100 grand for one day's work. Who wouldn't do that? Right? I'm like, okay, I'm going to figure it out. So what do I do? I hire. I'm a little scared just hearing the story, and I'm not even near fucking Texas.

I mean, so not even involved in as soon as you said rival territory. was it sarcato what was the name of that movie sacario yeah yeah god that fucking horrid have you ever seen that colby oh my god it's so uh it's just it's so just violent terrifying the whole thing did you ever see the um the counselor oh the awesome yeah horrible it is a great movie but it's like

the ending of it so overwhelmingly horrific that it's just and that guy was not that guy i almost feel like that guy is you like he's not he's not a part of this world no you know he shouldn't be he wasn't he wasn't prepared for to be for the consequences of what that world you know entails no I agree I'm the same way as soon as he said rival I knew okay now listen but I'm I'm ambitious right right I'm a bookie now I'm like moving money I'm to be honest I like the rush I'm having fun with it right it's a game for me young I'm young big fucking good kids he can handle everything

So I didn't mean much with the other guy, $45. Exactly, right? So I'm like, okay, I'll figure it out. I hire a jet company to fly me there. I've got this twin turboprop. Hired one of my muscles, tank. He handled, like, my collections, right?

Tank. That's perfect. Go ahead. Hired him and hired an MMA fighter. And I was like, okay, we'll have two securities just in case anything goes wrong. We fly over, we land in this private airport in Brownsville, Texas.

I get off the plane and I'm messaging this boss. We'll call Mel Hefe. I said, El Hefe, I'm here in Brownsville. What do you want me to do? He says, give me five minutes. As soon as the five minutes is up, there's a F-150, like a pickup truck, just a dumper. Picks, pulls up in the parking lot, and a gardener comes out. He's wearing overalls.

And he's like, go meet the guy in the truck. And I go, and this gardener hands me a duffel bag. He goes, Este Pada hell El-Hefé, this is for the boss. I'm like, okay, I take it. I'm like, oh, shit. Like, where am I right now? like am I going to get you know bombarded by rival territory like that's what I'm thinking I get on the plane I tell the pilot we're good we're good let's get out of here I'm freaking out the pilot the pilot is not asking questions he's getting paid cash right and I get on the plane and we land this thing and tap to the Torrance airport private airport I message Jal Heafé where do you want this bag dropped off he says take out your hundred grand and he says drop off the 900 and it was in Riverside and uh I pay my workers 2,000 each, and I pay the pilot.

And I think my profit was like $75,000 after I paid it for one, you know, eight hours of work. I'm like, fuck yeah. This was a good lick, you know, almost $10,000 an hour. And I said, this is good, right? Like this is, life couldn't get better than this. I'm laundering money for somebody now. And I remember he says a week later, he goes, do you want to do this same thing you're doing now in Australia? I'm like Australia

Why Australia? He's like, how would you like to make a million dollars a day? Like, fuck Matthew. I'm fucking the son of construction worker. I still, I'd be terrified. I'm like, I know something to go on. A million dollars a day. How can you say no to that at that age, right?

And he, I'm like, man, at this point, I'm like, okay, I'm not going to say no. Right? I'm like, I haven't said no yet. And I'm liking this high. right like this is the feeling that i'm like i'm going to keep going like i'm having fun with this and i'm like okay what's the catch right he's like he goes listen i i work for the cartel

and i yeah i work for them you have a lieutenant and he goes i have i have product over there i'm like okay i already know what kind of product yeah but he can't get the cash back yeah he can't get the cash back i'm like okay i'm going to figure it out matthew for a million dollars a day i'm going to figure it out right yeah so He tells me what needs to be done. And I'm like, okay, well, how am I going to get a buyer? Right? Like, he's like, no, you'll find a buyer.

Trust me. This is like, they call Isla de Oro, like the Golden Island. I don't understand a buyer. I thought you, he wanted you to just go get cash and drop it. No, no. So basically, I'm going over there. He's got product over there, the white girl. Oh, I thought he meant he had product.

No, no, no. And there was cash now. No, what had happened. Yeah, what I found out happened later on is someone in his group got busted over there. so they had all this product just sitting there and they had no one to move it. So he hired me to do it. To do it in Australia?

Yes, yes. And I'm like, okay, well, now I got to get creative. Like, how am I going to do this? And I went back to my Rolodex. I remember, and I was like, okay, I got someone. And I remember I played at USC. There was a baseball player that his brother was in the international game.

And I went through any hoop I could to get to this brother. And I finally met this brother in San Diego. And he's like, dude, that game is a different game than the business. He says, you need to talk to this guy. And I meet this Italian gangster, old 65-year-old, you know, just straight, wise guy. And I start to talk to him in America. And he's like, no, no. He says, you're not speaking to me in America.

I said, for why? He said, I don't talk about business in America. He goes, I've been indicted. You want to speak to me? Speak to me in my country. Yeah, conspiracy, right? He's a smart man, right? He's like, come speak to me in Naples, Italy.

Like, he's, hey, I got to respect the man. He's still, he hasn't been arrested to this day. You know, and I fly to Naples, Italy. And I sit down and I tell him, I said, listen, I got product in Australia. And he looks at me, he goes, nephew, there's no way you have any kind of product over there. He says, that's the most impossible country in the world to get that product over there. I'm like, I have it. I'm telling you, I have it.

It's just sitting there. He says, you know what? what, I don't believe you. But when you get there and you see it with your own eyes, they don't come over. Like, okay, what am I going to do? So what do I do? I tell El Hefe, I got a guy. I'm lying because that the guy is really not committed yet. I fly to Sydney, Australia. Now I get to Sydney, Australia. Now I got to lie to the Italian because El Hefei wants me to work, but I got to tell the Italian, I've seen it, which I haven't seen it yet, because I don't want to see it. I don't even want to touch it. So I tell the Italian, I've seen it. I've

seen it, get over here. I lied to him. He flies over. Two days later, I'm with the Italian. He's like, where is it? I'm like, okay, I'm messaging El Jaffe. He says, go to the four seasons. He says, as soon as you're there, tell me the room number you're in. Okay, I go to the four seasons, the nicest hotel in Sydney, Australia. I get room 428 for me and we'll call him Uncle Louis, gets room 426. The reason being is I don't want to touch this product. So I was going to receive it. Now I was going to knock on the door, the wall basically and say, Uncle Louis, get your ass over here. So this is what happened.

I get there. I tell if I'm in 428, 30 minutes later, a guy shows up in a DHL outfit with a package. I'm like, holy smokes. I bang on the wall. I go, get over here. Uncle Louis comes over. And I said, here, I'm like scared. Shitless, Matt.

I don't want to be around this. I start to do my homework. Anything over two and a half kilos is a life sentence in Australia. And he's looking at me. He's like, man, you were not lying. Like, he couldn't believe it. He cuts it open. He looks at him and he's looking at the product.

He's like, this is, you know, pure Colombian white girl. And I'm like, well, now what, right? He's like, give me 20 minutes. He literally takes the product, comes back, and he gives me a million dollars for ten of these birds, we'll call him. I'm like, dude, a million dollars. And I'm doing the math. And El He says, he gets 50,000.

and I get 50,000 per, so that's half a million dollars for me on this trial run. Right. Right. And Uncle Louis just made another half a million because he charged 150. So everyone made 50,000 on each one, and we just did 10, right? And I'm like, okay, this is awesome. That was a trial run. So now Uncle Louis is like, okay, when can we get more?

Like you couldn't believe it. Went like that. And what did they do in distributing it within Australia? Yeah. No, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. He's got his international ties in Australia. Okay.

So he had somebody in Australia. Yeah, I didn't ask questions, but he already had somebody in Australia. The international market's a very small market. Okay. And he basically handed it over to his contacts over there. Next day, 20 of these birds get dropped off. Okay. Two million dollars.

And you get a million for El Hafe, a million for me. Now I see where I'm making a million dollars a day. I'm like, okay, now we're talking. Eventually, we're working Monday through Friday. We take off Saturday and Sunday. I'm sitting on $10 million in my Sydney apartment. And I'm freaking out. I got money in the dishwasher.

I got it in the cabinets. I got it in the attic. I got it in the microwave. I got it in my closet and suitcase rollers. I got it fucking everywhere. How do you get that back to the United States? Good question, right? Like, this is where I say, El Hafei, okay, I got the money.

When is your guy coming to pick it up? Like, that's what I'm thinking. He's going to have somebody pick it up. he says, Waddo, this is why I hired you. This is why you're making a million dollars a day because that's your responsibility.

Like, fuck. I'm fucked. Like, I don't know anything about Australia, let alone bring stuff from another country. You just start a bookie operation in Australia so you can... Yeah,

well, I did get creative. You know, I did actually end up calling a gambler, a black check player out of all people. And I reach out through my, my girlfriend at the time and she says hey you should talk to this this gambler he's a guy out of Vegas big high roller he's he's considered a whale I'm like okay well introduce me right and she

introduces me I fly back from Australia into Santa Monica and I meet this this guy he's like this professional blackjack player he talks numbers with me he says 25% I'll do it he said well let's start with 1.5 million so he flies back to Australia with me. I'm literally handing him over a to me luggage with 1.5 million. He goes to the casino in Vegas, already been notified by the casino at the star because his host in Vegas called saying, hey, my high roller's coming to play. With 1.5 million. 1.5 million. So it looks perfect. He gets there. He puts the 1.5 million. The cage exchanges the chips. He's literally playing for a couple hours. And he tells them,

hey, I'm not feeling it. Cash me out. So they don't give him cash, but they give him a check. Which he can... Now he can take that to his sister casino in the Venetian, back in Vegas, with the checks. Now he can fly. He flies back to Vegas.

He's a high roller. What do they do? Mr. Siparani, here's some chips. Here's some cash. What do you want to do? Now he's cleaned the money like that. 48 hours, this guy's done it. Are you paying taxes on anything?

No. No, no, no. I was going to say you don't have some kind of a system where, like, you own a company that looks like legit. No, we're not going legit here. We've already broke the law. Okay. Like, come on. I was thinking about something to explain white.

You either stayed straight or you go down that path and that you don't do both. And I was like, fuck it. Like the scam is taking 25%. Right. I'm not saying in general, like some people will have like they start. A shell corporation. Right. Or just something so that if somebody starts to look at them, they're like, you're driving

a $200,000 Mercedes, you're living a $1.5 million house. Like, how is this happening? It's like, but if they look into it, they're like, okay, well, wait a minute, he does own these two businesses and he's, that's how he's doing it. And if they just look at it and they go, he's never paid taxes, then they really look at you. That's when, like, you know, the DEA is like, I mean, at the time we did have, you know, companies.

We had construction companies. Right. But I understand they're, you know, I want to get this. It's just, I mean, something to prove, like, how do you, I buy this? How am I driving a Mercedes? Yeah, no. So I literally this guy is this this this the answer right I'm telling a hefe we found our guy Dropping off his money in the US and

Telling hey we're paying 25% he's like great great work weddo The guy calls me the camera calls me and says let's do 2.5. I said I got it right now You know it's in a suitcase in my closet. He comes and I give him 2.5 million now and he's in three hours later I'm in the gym with my personal trainer and I get a phone call and like Holy shit, this guy is fast, right? That's all I could think. And I answered the phone, he said, we have a problem. He said, what do you mean we have a problem?

He says, I've lost all the money. All I have left is $300,000. So what? Like, what do you mean? You don't have 2.5 to lose. Like, your percentage is 25%. That's all you can lose. He was a gambler.

He's a gambler. Degenerate. He's a degenerate, yeah. So I fucking flip out. I tell my trainer, I said, we're going to the casino right now. He's like, what's going on? I said, this guy just lost 2.2. He says he only has 300,000 left,

and he needs more. I'm not giving him more money. Right. He's trying to get more money to try to win it back. It's not going to work. I go to the Star Casino. I'm with this personal trainer who's big, right?

He's fucking jacked. And we go in there and we show up in three-piece suits and we tell him, like, we need the money. Like, where is it? We're thinking, really now we're thinking, okay, did he take the money? Right. Did he scam him?

us with the pit boss and like he's in on it. Like that's how we're looking at it. What he really lost in my idea, right? Yeah, I mean, we went to the pit boss and they said they played, you know, we don't know how much he lost, you know. The docky series, it's still uncertain how much he did lose. I personally think he probably took a million. Right.

Put it aside and then he lost the rest. I think, right? That's what I'm thinking. So we tell him, hey, we need the 300 grand you have at your, you're, he was at the four seasons. I said, we need your 300 grand you have the four seasons. We don't want you losing it. Come bring it to us. And we want you to bring your passport.

You're not leaving the country until we get this back and we figure out what we're going to do. Because right now we don't know what's going on. My biggest fear was he's going to get the 300, the passport, and leave. And now I'm really fucked. So I remember, I tell the personal trainer, I said, you know what we're going to do?

I said, we're going to get a room and you're going to meet him there because I don't want him coming to the condo. Right. and we we get this room down the street at the Hilton and we message him we call them and said hey we're at the Hilton we're in 1326 right and we wait four hours Matthew nothing right I'm like okay this guy's not showing up right I'm like okay this is fucked so we go back to my condo my studio apartment and we're just sitting there like what are we going to do we're drinking wine or Dakin's annex we're snoring lines of this this white girl

I'm like, man, what are we going to do? And finally he calls. He says, I'm on my way. I'm like, okay, good. Right. So now I'm thinking to myself, okay, you know what? He's got 300. I tell my trainer, you know what,

I'm going to have you bring 700 grand. And when he brings the 300, that's a million. I said, I'm really paranoid at this point. I said, you know what, let's get this million out of here and put it up at your house. This guy, this gambler already knows where I live. So I give him 700 grand. and he goes to this hotel

that he's going to go meet this guy with the 300 this degenerate Hamler. Well unbeknownst to me, the gambler called the hotel and said there's a man in 1326 with a gun. So we don't know this. My trainer shows up with a suitcase, and right when he gets to the hotel,

there's four police officers waiting. And they say, we have a call from an American that you have a gun in your room. And he's like, I want to you talking about. We're going to need to check your suitcase. Oh, man. So now they checked the suitcase. There's no gun.

Right. There's 700 grand, though. So now I lost 2.5 million of the cartels in the 700. So now I'm in $3.2 million in less than 24 hours of the cartels money. I'm freaking out. I don't know it yet. Now I'm like, call on my personal trainer, he's not answering. I'm like, okay, did he burn me?

Right. That's what I'm thinking, okay, he got me too. Like six hours later, I get a call from the New South Wales Police to They're like we're calling regarding the 700,000 we've just found on your personal trainer Like oh shit right like this is bad Yeah, it's not me yeah I said yeah I said listen I They're like can you come into the police station I'm like I'm not coming to the police station I said I'll be there tomorrow it's four in the morning right and uh I freak out he gets out

he literally gets out of jail the next day and he's like dude we got a problem I said what he says that that gamblers been calling the police that he reported that we we threatened them and and he he left the country right oh great so now matthew i'm like okay i got to get out of australia like i'm a wanted man now for sure like that's all i'm thinking but you don't go to the police station you haven't no i'm not going to the police station you're trying to get on i'm trying to get on plane yeah he's like he's like don't worry bro we'll get that 700 grand back i'm like how like he's like dude australia we got we got attorneys that'll get that back right like we'll come up with something Like at this point my mind's like, okay, I'm so paranoid and scared.

I'm like, okay. Like if we can get it back, let's try to get it back, right? It's better than losing everything. So I'm like, okay, work on that. I fly back to America. And my personal trainer by now has found a lawyer that's going to come forward and represent us pro bono for a percentage. And I speak to this lawyer and he's like, oh, don't worry.

We'll pay off some barristers and pay a couple grandkids. here and we'll come up with a story. Don't worry. That's a, that's a system? Is that a system or what, right? And I'm like, okay, I'm thinking, I'm not from Australia, so maybe that's possible, right? Like, okay, great. Like, whatever we can get back, let's get back.

And I go about my business and now I'm like, I'm trying to sweat this guy in America, trying to get this money back. And unbeknownst to me, now he's working with the feds. He's told the FBI that he laundered money from me before and he's got proof of it. He's got proof. He wants to sign a proffer, and he comes to them and gives them everything. We don't know it at the time. So now they have my phone tapped, my lawyer's phone in Australia, my personal trainer's

phone tapped, everyone's phones are tapped. While our phones are tapped, we're coming up with this story that my lawyer's feeding me, basically trying to tell me this story how we're going to get the money back. Right. And is El Hefei, El Hefe? Is he still texting you, like trying to get you to do stuff? Does he know that this is a whole thing's happening? El Hafe doesn't know.

Okay. But as soon as I get back to America, that's a good question, Matthew, because El Hafe messages me. Right. I need you to drop off $3 million. I'm like, oh, fuck, about that. Yeah. And this is where the story takes a little twern, a little twist, right? I message him.

I'm not going to tell him I lost his money. Yeah. You can't tell a guy that on the phone. Especially a guy you've never met, right? I'm like these are the kind of people that are forgiving. Yeah, he's not going to forgive me if I say, hey, I lost your money. Like, I need to see him in person and talk to him like you and I are talking. I said, I need to see you.

It's about that. I'm like, I'm not going to tell him I lost it. He says, okay, well, you know I'm not allowed in America. So you need to come see me in Mexico. I'm like, oh, boy, okay. Well, let's say, Matthew, this is the only way I'm going to get through this. If he's going to kill me, he better kill me like this, because then at least I know I'm dead. Like, that's how my mindset was working.

Like, okay, I'm not going to look over my shoulders of the rest of the my life. Well, the only reason I know why going to Mexico is, is probably for you, it's not that bad because this is, like, you've never lost money before. And according to my buddy Pete, he's like, if you, he's like, one, they kind of call you into Mexico because they're like, just to see if you'll show. Yeah. If you don't show, now you're done. He's like, but, but the guy is typically, what they show up and say, yes, we lost 40 keys or yes, we lost the 400 keys or the 1.5 million, but here's how we're going to pay you back. He's like, if, If it happens once, they'll usually let it slide if they trust you.

He's like, but it happens a couple of times. He's like, you're done. You're done. But then it's like, okay, well, let's talk. Come on in here. Let's talk about it again. Then you just never, you end up in a hole in the desert. Yes.

And that's what my mindset was. Like, okay, I'm going there. I got to tell them. And I literally, I remember one o'clock was our appointment. At 1 p.m. Beyond the Tijuana border side, there's a McDonald's. And Matt, I remember I was in my car and I threw in a couple of Xanax in my mouth. did a cap of GHB.

I did a long gagger that white girl. And I was like, if I'm going to die, I'm going to die in comfort, right? Like this, I'm going to be fucked up at least, right? That's all my mindset. I got there. I was like, so nervous. I'm 1255 at the McDonald.

I'm like, I'm here. He says 1 p.m. And I'm like, okay. 1 p.m. on the dot. Black suburban bulletproof vehicle. Rolls down the window, Wetto, get in the car. I'm like, okay, this is it.

I get in the car. The driver has a pistol on the side. I'm like, oh, no. I look behind me. there's two guys with AK-47s and a bulletproof jacket. I'm like, okay, this is it. These are Sicarios. I know what Sycarias do.

They kill you. Sakarios are a Mexican hitman. I'm stressing now. I'm like, okay, this is it. We literally start driving southbound. Another bulletproof vehicle shows up. Another Hummer comes behind us, and so we're now at this motorcade.

We're driving on this toll road. Like, this is it. We end up getting to this restaurant in Porto Nuevo, which is a town right outside. I had a Rosarito. And I remember we pulled into this restaurant that's usually packed. I've been going here for ages. And it's usually like a 30-minute line.

This guy has the whole restaurant shut down for him. I'm like, oh, wow. I get in there. There's one lady making tortillas and there's one waiter. And at our table, similar to this, he's got six Sicarios, three on each side himself. I go sit on the side of the side you're on. And there's the two Sicarias that were in the suburban behind me. I'm like, oh, my God.

like this is it. Like, this is like the fucking last supper. And I start telling him, I'm using Spanish. I'm using English. And I tell him what happened. I said, with the 1.5, remember it happened? It worked clean. I gave you the money.

And he's just shaking his head. He's reading me now, right? Like, he's done his homework. And I said that in the 2.5, this is what happened. He goes, why do I know? It's all in the newspaper. It's everywhere now. It's all over Australia.

Oh, you didn't know? I didn't know. Oh. I didn't know. He's already done his homework. This could, again, family's gone forward and basically told the story and they're showing how the money got picked off from this personal trainer and they're investigating the money. I'm like, oh, no. He says, what, I got good news and bad news. He says, you know the saying in our country, plateau or

plomo, which means you're going to either be killed or you're going to pay us, right? It's one of the, it's, it's, it's, it's plato means silver or lead, right? I was like, okay, that's an Escobar saying, right? Like, I already knew what that meant. And he's like, the good news is you're not going to die. The bad news is you don't know us $3.2 million. He says, I'm charging you an interest. You owe us $4 million now and you work for my cartel. I was like, oh my God.

But I was like, at the same time, Matthew, I was happy. I knew those guys behind me and weren't going to blast. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to walk out of here. I'm going home to day, right? Like, I was like, okay. In my mindset, it was like, okay, I'm figured out. I got to figure it out.

Like, he says, you're going to take two years off because he says that gambler is fucking hot. He says he's going to cause you problems. He goes, I see it. He says, take two years off. Don't do anything with the drugs, nothing with the money. You focus on your sports book. And that's what I did.

I literally focus on my sports book the whole time. But Matthew, I'm still trying to get the money back from this lawyer that's helping me. So I'm communicating with Australia. And now the authorities in Australia go to interview. We come up with the game plan that we have a concert promoter for ZZ Top. and Fleetwood Mac in Australia. Love Zizi.

So Zizi top concert promoter comes forward and says, that was my 700 grand. I gave it to Mr. Hansen. Nice. And we're like, okay, great. I said, well, what's the catch? He says, we're going to give the concert promoter money. But you now have to go talk to the authorities

about the 700 grand and tell them that you were a silent investor. Like, okay, where do I talk to him? He says, you're going to go to the Beverly Hills Police Department. Like, no, no, no, no. We don't talk to police. Like that's that's we're not going to do that like that's stupid let's forget about the 700 grand And my lawyer specifically tells me mate it's not a US matter you have nothing to worry about I'm like okay you're my lawyer I'm gonna take your advice

He says tell him the story yeah yeah of course We don't know the law he doesn't know our law right You know our law but he does it so I'm like fuck it I'm gonna take his advice I go to the police department in Beverly Hills I present my ID and now they set up back then it was Skype right They set up this Skype call. I'm looking at these officers in Australia, and I'm telling them this story.

They already know the story, because guess what? We're wiretapped. So I'm telling them this make-believe story, and they're sweating me, asking me questions, and I'm answering it. And I'm like, okay, something's off here. They're asking way too many questions. They're starting to ask about the gambler.

I'm like, this is about me giving the money to ZZTops manager. Why are you guys asking about this gambler? They're asking about the casino footage, and I'm like, okay, this is not good. When I get off this call and I call the lawyer in Australia, we're still tapped. And he's like, mate, you killed it. You did awesome.

We're going to get the money back. Like, okay, this is strange because they were just asking me about the gambler. Like, you sure? Literally, Matthew, this thing drags out. This is like 2012. This thing drags out for another three years. We still haven't received the money. And now the two years up, right?

And I got to go start paying El Hefe back. And he says, he says, Weddow, you're no longer going to use. just my routes. You're no longer going to have the product in Australia, but you have to figure out how to get my product from America into Australia. And he says, that's on you because you're not going to fuck up my routes. So by the way, whatever happened to the remaining money that you still had about what, six or seven hundred thousand in Australia? Is that money still in the dishwasher? No, so we were literally slowly laundering it through my accountant. We were bringing out with gold and silver and cash and then there's a couple million left in there and this lawyer

ended up going back and getting it as crooked lawyer. You're going to see where he comes into play. So I literally am now going to work for the cartel and I have to figure out a way to get the product now into Sydney, Australia myself. And I got creative. I started putting this white girl into liquid form using 150 proof ever clear alcohol. And I would break it down. I'd break down these birds in a bathtub. I'd take 150 proof ever clear. And I would turn this product into liquid.

I would then take these bottles from Napa because Napa is one of the most, you know, known wine countries in California. And I would empty these wine bottles. And I'd dump them out. And I'd take these funnels and I'd fill this liquid product into this, these wine bottles. And then I would have my runner go back to the winery with the same labeling, the address, and he'd ship in the same city. So it looks like it's coming from that area. And I started shipping wine into Australia in liquid form. My mate in Australia had a chemist that would bring it back

and take that liquid and bring it back into the product form. Okay. So now we figured out a way to do it. Like we figured out a way to how to get this product back into the country without using El Hefe's routes. And I was doing well, you know. We were, you know, three for three. And now the chemist that's doing this is like, I want half. And half of 100 grand. Like, I'm doing the math.

I'm like, okay, if he gets half, that's 50. It costs us this much. I said, by the time we get our cut, it's going to be like this much. I'm like, fuck that guy. Tell him he's not getting half. He's getting what he's getting. And if he doesn't want it, we're going to figure out a new route. Right.

And so I played a hardball with him thinking he'd come down. He didn't come down. And so I had to come up with a new round. And I literally started shipping it through pallets of chocolate. And I had some kids at USC that were in the import export business. And I started purchasing their pallets of chocolate for $50,000 a month for them to give me their expired chocolate. Okay. And I used their route, basically sending the product from their company that's import-export business that deals with chocolates.

And I would export it into the country of Australia and would go to a candy store. and the pallets would have product throughout. And this is how I paid him back. It literally took me, you know, a little over a year to pay him back the $4 million. And the boss is, let's, like, what do you want to do? And Matthew, I was like, man, I want to keep going. Like, this is, for me, it's like, it's my turn to make some money.

And I started, you know, making money. And a few weeks later, I'm laundering money with this group of guys. that was referred to me by the Australian people. They referred me a money launderer. Two of them that would do, they would basically have our cash from Australia sent to America and they charged 12.5% which is half of what we were paying.

That should have been the red flag right there. But my mates in Australia said, they're good, don't worry. So I start literally golfing with these money launders. I'm playing golf with them like once a week. They're laundering a half a million dollars in cash for me. given me my money in the U.S., and they're awesome. Or is it in cash, or are they depositing into a bank?

Cash. Wherever we want it, cash, wires. And I'm golfing with these guys. They're, you know, one guy's a Swiss banker, one guy's an accountant. They're just giving me these big titles. I'm like, okay, these are the real deal. And we're golfing. They're now gambling on my application, my betting app, Beto Dog.

and they're drinking with me. I'm not thinking anything of it. They're the boys. They're the fellows. And they're on even encrypted phones, which is like, if you're on an encrypted phone, you're in the game. Like, no one uses those except the cartel.

Well, six months after, I've met these guys, we go to meet up in the Aviar Country Club in San Diego, which is the nicest country club. We have a 710 tea time. We were discussing a drop of a half a million dollars. And I was like, okay, cool, I'll see you there at 710. Well, I get in my Porsche Panamara, and I'm driving from Beverly Hills, and I get there, like, 30 minutes early. And there's no one in the parking lot.

Like, oh, gosh, this is like the nicest country club in San Diego. Where is everybody? It's early, though, right? Yeah, it's early, but still, usually tea time start at like 6 a.m. Yeah, so I'm thinking, like, there's no one. I'm telling you, it's dead empty. I'm like, okay, there's like a gardener truck, and there's like six guys in the gardener truck. I'm like, that's weird.

So I literally drive to McDonald's, have an egg muffin, and then. I get a message from this guy that's been laundering the money, Al Wilson. He's like, where are you at? I'm in the clubhouse. I'm like, I'll be right there. I get back. There's still no one in the parking lot. My caddy pulls up in the golf cart, and I pop my trunk, and the catty's like shaking. I go, what's the matter? He's like, Mr. Hansen, welcome.

He's shaking. I mean, I said, catty, where is everybody? He's like, I don't know, Mr. Hanson. Like, I knew something was wrong. And I go to my passenger's door where I have this man bag, and I have, like, my encrypted phone. and my money and I go in there and I pull it out and I turn around and there's 15 FBI agents that come out of the bushes right and a helicopter in the sky I'm like holy shit the guys that were laundering money we're not they were the feds they were they were they were FBI I was like Australia

security I was FBI the whole time I don't know what their FBI is called FBI yeah they did have Australian authority there that day that arrested me as well okay um and so they were they nice about it no they like We're not nice. I didn't know, like, okay, all I'm thinking, Matthew is, okay, this, if this is for gambling, I'm going to be okay. Right. That's all I'm thinking. I'm in this vehicle.

They're taking me to some headquarters in Carlsbad, and all I'm thinking, okay, please be for gambling. Please be for gambling. As soon as I heard this Australian accent, he was talking to the guy in the front, I was like, oh, I'm fucked. My whole face turned white. Like, you read about this in articles from Australia that my face turned right. I heard the Aussie accent. Because you know, like, okay, this is for the drugs. Right.

But it's, the drugs, but it's still kind of just money. It's still money laundering, and they didn't catch you with any drugs. They never caught me with drugs. But I've already done some stuff with these FBI agents that. Oh, yeah, yeah. So they know what it's all connected, but they still know. These guys have been building a case for five years, you know. I'd rather it be money laundering than money laundering for the

cartel than actually dealing with drugs because I feel like they would be more laxed because it's almost like it's a white-collar crime, although you're probably indicted for, what were you indicted for? Yeah, I was indicted for racketeering. It was a RICO. Oh, so it was. Oh, okay. So I got a RICO on distribution of narcotics. Oh, that's not good.

Yeah, that's not good. That's the one. Now I'm a narco. I was illegal bookmaking and money laundering. So all three. And they gave me a kingpin statue, which is like the worst. They had me as the organizer, this 23-man indictment. So they went for everybody.

They got a Super Bowl champ that won three Super Bowls. That was my best friend that worked for me in the sports betting industry. They got insurance agents. They got my accountant. They got lawyers. They got private investigators. They got enforcers. They got everybody.

Right. It's a big case. You know the name of the game. It's like my lawyer said it best. You got 22 guys that are going to tell on you. Like, that's how the feds work. And I knew that. Did you say, have they arrested them yet?

Yeah, no. They said that's coming. They superseded them three months later. Well, fellas, you got the right guy first. Yeah. I mean, let me tell you what their addresses are. Yeah, no, they had a, they built her case over three months. They got all my phones and computers and they, literally we sat there just going, like,

what's happening? My lawyer said, there's something coming. I'm telling you. I'm like, this wasn't it? The RICO case wasn't it? The RICO came three months later. Oh, okay. Yeah, so they arrested before.

The first arrest was for about a week before we met that agent. That agent told us that he was in the same business as us, that he was doing the same thing we were doing, sending him to Australia. And he set up a purchase of five kilos through one of my employees. He says, hey, we need some of that white girl. Right. We're in the same business.

We don't have any of ours in stock right now. I'm like, okay, well, just get it from one of my workers. So one of my workers ended up dropping off five birds to him. And that's how they made that initial rest. That's how they got us arrested. That set up. They arrested us literally like two weeks after that. Yeah, it gave him probable cause.

Yeah. But you're going to say, there's something bigger coming. And I'm like, what is it? He's like, well, you were a big bookie. I'm like, yeah, but do they care about that? He goes, yeah, it's called a RICO. Now they got the drugs, they got the money, and they got the gambling. I mean, that's the perfect case for these.

This is a mob case. Like, mob, I'm a fucking school kid from USC. I'm like thinking, what are you talking about? He's like, no, they're putting you at number one of this thing. And man, when they indicted all those people and he told me what was going on, he said, you're fuck now. Like, you either tell on the cartel, are you going to do some time? I'm like, dude, I can't tell on the cartel.

It seems like a bad idea. I'm going to get a little desk certificate, signing death certificates. he's like, you're going to go away for a long time. And that's what happened. How much time? I got sentenced to 21 years. What the fuck? What year was this?

This was 2015. So what happened was... Well, I mean, I'm not great with math. Well, you got to ask what happened, Matthew? You know there's obviously a catch, right? What's the catch? I didn't tell on the cartel, and that was my biggest fear, right? But obviously a few years later in my prison bid, I get a call.

And they asked me if I would be willing to testify against my corrupt attorney in Australia. Right. What do you think I said? Well, absolutely not. The code. Oh, what about the code? Did you tell them about the code? I didn't care about code right now.

This guy got me indicted. By this point, you pretty much realize, like, oh, no, I'm doing all this. I'm doing 21 years. I'm doing it. I already do it. I was like, I'm doing 21. And my lawyer told me. Some people think, you know, like an appeal, like a this, like that.

You and I both know. It's not happening. But no, but I'm saying initially you've got that hope. Yeah. But after a few years, you see enough guys that have done 30 years. Yeah, I was already five years in. Yeah, you're like, the hope's gone. There's the only people I see leaving is cooperation.

Yeah. And it was like, okay, how are people going to look at this? Like, all I'm thinking about, okay, I didn't tell on the cartel, right? That's what I'm thinking about. Like, I'm not going to get killed. And then I'm like, okay, this lawyer was corrupt. he's supposed to represent me he's defending the law right you're supposed to represent your customer not giving a bad legal advice so i'm like thinking myself fuck it let's run it right and i remember

you had to so you i've been my lawyer you had to weigh the you had to weigh the you had to weigh the respect of your fellow scumbag inmates against not doing the remainder of 21 years and you went and it was immediately you immediately listen there's two people in the feds right there's the people that told and there's people that wish they told. Right? Like that's it. That's it. Yeah, dude. You guys are out of your fucking mind. If you think I'm not going to, what does it say?

Sucker on my head? I'm a businessman at the end of the day. And if I can get home to my family sooner because I told them my corrupt attorney, go fuck yourself. Yeah. Listen, everybody, it's almost, not every. 95% of everybody would have already told. And probably everybody in your case already has told. Already had. Yeah.

And I already, listen. I've been, the cartels telling me you did right, do good job, do whatever you got to do to get out of there. Like, like, literally, I mean, I'm literally fighting my case for two and a half years and the cartel's bringing me folders of guys I can fucking tell on. I'm like, dude, I don't know these people. How am I going to go in and tell on these people? They're going to know I'm lying. And if you lie to these people, it's over. Yeah, your lawyer.

So my lawyers, my lawyer, my lawyer is like, are you crazy? You don't know anything about this cartel. How are you going to tell on this person? I'm like, dude, cartels lawyers are bringing me this. It's funny because I actually have to tell that story. Remember about the guy, the Mexican Tony Soprano that I was locked up with this guy.

It was like a Mexican, looked like Mexican Tony Soprano. Yeah. He was actually, and he'd gotten like 30 years or life real quick. And what happened was I was locked up in the U.S. Marshall's holdover for a year. And he had been there for a year or two.

And I was like, what's going on? And everybody knew this. Because it's, you know, and the Marshall's holdover, nobody gives a fuck about paperwork, right?

And they don't give a shit. They're fighting. cases. They're not, nobody gives a shit about snitching or anything like that. And this guy's also, he's probably got books on money on 10 guys' books. He literally was,

he had, let's say 30 years or life, whatever. He took a plea. I mean, he's been sentenced. And he's waiting. He,

what he's doing is he's setting people up in Mexico, putting 400 pounds of marijuana in their trunk, and the Mexicans, and then he has them drive across the border. He gets, they get arrested, he gets a direction. Then he puts a guy on an airplane.

Yep. And he's just, He's just letting him know. And he tells them, I'll give you a hundred, but $100,000 to a guy in Mexico who's going to do three years or five years. The Colombians are doing it all the time. Yeah. They don't give a shit. Some fucking peasant, he's like, fuck a hundred a rome.

It's a better lifestyle for them. They go in, they got $100 grand for their family. Of course. We have three meals a day. You got a bed. Yeah. Oh, listen, they're living better in federal prison than they are on the streets in Mexico. Oh, no doubt.

And it's happening. Yeah. I remember they're like, hey, we got 100 kilos of a month on a cross. You want to set it up. I'm like, you know, this happens. Yeah. I've seen it. Like this is the name of the game, right?

So you, so they come to you and they have a conversation with you. You say, I'm all in. No, they fly me literally to Australia. They don't tell me what's going on. Oh. And part of my agreement was, this was the risk is I'm going to get sentenced to the 21 years, which I did. And my lawyers kept telling me you probably are going to get, died. Most likely, extradited after you do the one.

You wanted to go do time in Australia for your case. I'm like, what? So that was in my head my whole time. I'm like, fuck, fuck, fuck. And my lawyer says, no one's allowing me to call my lawyer. These guys in suits pick me up from Australia. And they're like, mate, we can't, you can't call your lawyer. I'm like, dude, I need to talk to my lawyer.

Like, what are you guys doing? They're not telling me. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking I'm getting extradited to go serve my life sentence over there, right? That's all I'm thinking about, because it's 25 to life in Australia for life sentence. That's what's considered life there. Yeah. I'm like, that's all I'm thinking, right?

Like, it's still life, right? I'm thinking that in the back of my mind. I'm like, okay, I'm doing a life sentence right now. And I get there, and we go to a prison. They put me in the prison. And I'm literally sitting at this prison in Australia, MWRC, and I'm there, and I'm telling them like, hey, I need to speak to my lawyer.

And they finally, the guard finally let me call internationally to my lawyer in America. And he said, you just won the lottery in life. I said, what do you mean? He goes, you remember that corrupt attorney? He says, I've negotiated a deal that they're going to throw out the life sentence in Australia if you take the stand against him. I said, what do you mean? He says he was corrupt.

They want to show that he's corrupt. They've been wanting this guy for 30 years. Right. They haven't been able to get him. You're the only person that knows that you had to make this make believe story and you go tell him on the stand what he made you do. And I've got you the, the deal is that your life sentence in Australia is done. Yeah, but does that also, is that also going to give you a reduction on your federal system. Listen, we don't know at the time. Oh, yeah, yeah, because it's all, we'll consider it. We'll consider it.

Consider it. Considerable. So I take the stand against this corrupt attorney. I tell him, listen, my attorney made me tell this story. I was taking his illegal advice, and he told me to do this, this, this and this. And he was found guilty of, you know, corruption of the court, right? And you're saying, let's just walk away. Let's be walk away from the 700,000.

He's saying, no, let's lie to the court. Exactly. I'm telling him, like, this is not worse. it and that ended up bringing all this heat like we're making this story up as we're on a wiretap right like this is for 700 grand this i'm not going to even get half of that but at the end of the day that's how i'm thinking i'm like okay fuck it and i obviously he was sound guilty and i fly back to america knowing i don't have the life sentence in australia anymore right and and i'm sitting in in a victorville prison cell for literally a year and a half during covid we're we're not moving

everything's three box lunches a day you're getting taking one shower a week it's fucking awful Matthew awful and I don't know what's going on literally finally get transferred to Colorado prison FCI and

I get a hold of my lawyer it's 20 I want to say 2023 he's like hey we got good news I said what's the good news he says the prosecution in Australia wrote a letter to your judge I said well what does it say is it saying that you had an ineffective counsel

and that you helped their court system prosecute this corrupt attorney and they're asking to present it to the judge. And he's like, how are you doing in there? I said, dude, I just finished my master's degree. I got a job, I'm shot free, teaching kids GED in here. He's said, well, that's awesome.

We're gonna use that for this hearing. And they do a, you know, I think they, what do they call it? A- 35B. So the U.S. Attorney files a Rule 35 hearing.

You go in front of the judge. Do you actually go back when they just fill out the paper? Everything is internal. You know, they go sidebar or whatever they call it. Yeah, yeah. They just put in a motion in the judge.

They write up a motion saying, listen, he's substantially assisted, blah, blah. They probably put even one page and probably send it in. The judge just, he rubber stamps it anyway.

The prosecution's already asking, right? The letter's there, the fucking showing I got my master's degree. They're already like, okay, wow. Anyway, they're asking for six levels off or five levels off. The judge says, I think he ended up giving me eight and a half years off my sentence. Nice.

What did the, what did the corrupt attorney get? I think he did two years. Oh, come on. Yeah, dude, Australia, they're easy over there. That's nothing. It was during COVID, so he probably got a little easier. Two fucking years. It's not worth unpacking.

I think he ended up doing two. You know, in Australia, they'll give you like five or seven or whatever, but you do like two. It's not like the U.S. feds. Federal is 85%. You still smell us like still shitting out McDonald's when he gets out. Listen, he's fine. He's 70 years old. Right.

You've lived your life. You've been corrupt your whole attorney bid. So you get out. Well, so when did you get? Yeah, that's not all your time, is it? Eight years? No, no. So listen, I got 12 and a half years off my sentence.

At this point, it's 2024. I'm getting released for two years halfway. It was actually 16 months, I think it came out to be. Well, you said it was eight years off. No, 21 minus eight and a half years. Okay. Put you at 12 and a half years. Okay.

So I'm at 12 and a half years. Under the First Step Act, you can earn one year off. Yeah, yeah. And then with the 85%, you're earning a year and a half off. So that's two and a half already. And then Trump had the, it's called the halfway house where you earn a credit for your halfway house. I think that I want to say I got 20 months now that I think about it was 20 months halfway house. But you don't do it, I thought you went straight home.

I thought it was like. No, no. I did 20 months in the Van Nuys half a house. No, I loved it because I got to live there for free and I started to build my brand. For free? Yeah, they didn't charge. They didn't charge you. They stopped doing that. They stopped doing that.

Fucking pricks. Everybody gets a break but me. You know what I got all from the first step back? I got like seven days or 12 days or something. Yeah, because you probably just got in when it started. Well, no, no. I actually supposed to get like 45 days, but by the time the BOP implemented it. Yes.

They were like, okay, 45 days. but he's only got this much more of his sentence, so I only got like eight days or 11 days off or whatever. Exactly. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, that's ridiculous. Yeah. But actually, I was in the halfway house by that time.

Like, my counselor called me and said, hey, guess what? You're not leaving at the end of July. You're leaving in the middle of July. I was like, big fucking deal. Yeah. I was like, at that point, I didn't like the halfway house, but I was, and I didn't even mind paying the 25% because it was like, everybody was bitching about.

it, but I was like, where are you going to live for 25%. They're feeding you three meals a day, and they're good meals. Oh, see, mine weren't. Oh, mine were great. They were great meals. I would leave literally at 6 in the morning and come back 6 at night. If you sleep hot at night, you know how disruptive that can be. Whether you're having trouble falling asleep, you're waking up sweating in the middle of

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You'll answer a few questions and get a personalized recommendation. Just visit ghostbed.com slash Cox and use Code Cox at the checkout. And I would just... I would get like breakfast, and you could eat, come in. You usually got in for dinner.

And then, you know, but I would go, I worked at a gym for like 10, 12 hours. was a day. It was a buddy might own the gym. Yeah, smart. And then eventually after a few months, we realized that I could leave. And if they called, he, or I would call and say, hey, he's got me going to pick up this equipment over here. I give him the address. And you do that a little bit slowly. And after about three months, they just don't give a fuck. They're like, stop calling me. Yeah, they're getting annoyed. Yeah, they're first. I would call them every time I'd do so, because I was working, you know, eventually they get upset. They're, they trust you. Yeah.

After three months, we're not doing anything bad. Yeah, just, just go. Yeah. Yeah, I'm doing And I go and visit my mother. Yeah. You know, not picking up equipment. Yeah, a lot of guys that were fuck-ups, they had them on the ankle monitors. Yeah, of course. But these are guys who were fucking their girlfriends in the parking lot next door to the halfway house. Like, what are you doing?

Exactly. Tell them they're at work and there's completely someplace else. They're in a drug neighborhood selling drugs. Come on. But yeah, I'm not doing anything wrong. Yeah, I was literally building. I was scared. I was terrified.

Oh, yeah. I can't go. I don't want to go back to. No one does. It sucks. No. So what happened? So you said you build up your brand?

I started building a brand in prison. Right. I was in prison. I was literally selling protein ice cream. I tell people, the story's awesome. You remember in your prison you had those guys? I said, literally, I used that mop bucket. And I would throw ice in there.

You lost me. So I used a mop bucket, and I would literally take my protein shakes every day, and I would shake them up. I'd had like slices of bananas in there, peanut butter. And I'd put them these mop buckets and keep them cold. So when I got back from my workout, I had a cold protein shake. Right. And then one day we literally, the ice machine broke.

You know, how many times did that happen? You know, broke? And in my cell, he's like, just throw some salt on there. I'll keep it cold. I go work out, come back four hours later, and my protein shake turns into ice cream. Right. Like, dude, it's rock hard. He goes, just eat it.

Who cares? I'm like, holy shit, we're on to something. I got a protein shake with 40 grams of protein and it's ice cream now. And that was my hustle in prison. I was like, I'm a hustler. I started selling them for $15 a jar. Right. And I was like, okay, this is lucrative.

I was making, I remember Super Bowl Sunday, I made 50 ice creams. And everyone's like, dude, you made more money in the prison guards today. I'm like, dude, I did, you're right. And I got out and I was literally in the halfway house going, man, what am I going to do now? I'm a convicted felon. And I'm sitting there. I was depressed. I'm trying to learn to walk again, right?

After doing, you know, nine years behind the fence, you're like, okay, what am I going to do? And everything's slow motion to me. I'm learning there's Bluetooth. I'm learning about Amazon, Uber Eats. There's all these new things. And I'm like, I call my buddy and... I'd never seen a fucking iPhone. You had it?

I did 13 years. Yeah, I didn't. There was no iPhone one. Dude, I was an iPhone 4 when I went in. Right. So I'm, Matt, I'm literally like freaking out. I call my buddy. That's a businessman in Miami.

And I, he's like, dude, how can I help you? I said, dude, I don't know how you can help me. I said, I start telling him the story about, the ice cream. He's like, dude, protein ice cream. He goes, there's nothing out here like that. He goes, why don't we build a brand? He goes, let's build it off your book, the California kid. And he was like, let's build

something. What's the book? Did you write a book? Yeah, I wrote a book at prison called The California Kid. It was published through Turner Publishing Amazon Bestseller. And it just talks about my story. From the rise and fall, right? From USC Golden Boy to International Drug Kingman. Yeah, it's, it sells, right?

And Mike Wahlberg did a documentary called Cocaine Quarterback, and it's a three-part series on Amazon Prime. That was all done inside. And I'm telling my buddy, he's like, dude, your story is so good. I read your book. I watched the docket series. Let's build you a brand off of your protein ice cream. And in the 20 months I was in the halfway house,

I would literally do R&D for like six hours a day on this protein ice cream. And I found a company that believed in my story. and they're my partners now they're my co-packer and we started a California ice protein it's 20 grams of protein on a stick it's like a shit it's like a shit

the macros are awesome six net carbs probiotics 20 grams of protein no added sugar I use monk fruit as a sweetener and we distribute nationwide we're in every state

as far as logistics goes we're in over 150 store and gyms. It was just going to ask, are you having this delivered, like a styrofoam package? Exactly. So I have it in 150 stores.

Jim's nutrition stores, mostly New York, Miami, Nevada, California, where I'm from, and Arizona. We're going to expand as much as we can

this coming year, but the logistics on ice cream is harder than my last logistic business. Right. It's harder, man. We used to keep it cool the whole from. Frozen, not cool, frozen.

Okay. Like you can't, like I send a pallet, from California where I manufacture to New York and Florida. And that palette cost me $1,500 to send because it's got to be frozen the whole time.

So it's not cheap. Can't you make a different manufacturer or small? Because the next one I'm going to manufacture now in Florida or somewhere on the East Coast, maybe Atlanta where it's cheaper. Right. Texas.

Like how much space do you need that? Manufacture. Yeah, cooling. I mean, you need frozen. You need freezers. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, listen.

Listen, I'm going to figure it out. If I can figure out. You can melt it down, have a chemist, make it back. I tell people, if I can figure out how to get this product I used to have into Australia, I'll figure out how to get ice cream throughout the United States. Like, that's, that's going to be, this is fun for me. Plastic bag, the bag, a vat of bag, just guzzle it in. Yeah, then they re-cool it and a little machine that makes the-

The machines, yeah. And I would have figured out, listen. You just figure out one, if it works in what, you have a pro, we know. It works here. Then it's going to work here. You already know. You can just do small names. It's not like I'm reinventing it.

They've already got it. It's just with unhealthy ice cream. Yeah. Now I'm making a healthier version. And eventually, I think, Matt, the goal is to, you know, have a company like Hers or She or Hoganas, buy us out. And we sail on the sunset. Nice. The great part about it is you have a story to promote it.

Yeah, yeah. People love it. People don't realize how important that is. Because if you don't have a story, how do you, how do you, how do you, how do you, get on podcast to talk about this and how do you because they're like, okay, well, I don't want to, I don't want to do a whole podcast based on your business. It's like, how do I leap on this podcast so that I can tell my story and how I got here because it's a redemption story, right?

It's a comeback, yeah. It's a comeback. Yeah, I like comeback better than redemption. Yeah, sounds better. Everyone's cheering for the comeback, right? Yeah, yeah. And I was on milk boys yesterday and there was huge in the space. And then we're eating my protein ice cream and like, oh, yeah, that's big.

Two, they're like, you are the man. Like, this is awesome. Like, they're tasting it. They're going to, how did you come up with this? Is the company profitable at this point? Listen, we're literally six months in. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, it's...

Don't they typically lose for years? No, we're going to lose probably for the first year. Okay. We're literally, I mean, we've almost turned a profit. I would say we'll probably be profitable to buy next summer for sure. I'm having so much problems right now as far as manufacturing enough. I've got like 10 pallets I'm behind on. 10 pallets is 50,000 ice cream bars.

So it's a good problem to have You gotta go on Shark Tank Yeah but they take such a big profit No you just go and pitch the end You just turn everybody's offer to Because you know that you're like no I'm doing this Well we'll give you this and say and you just That's when you go

Why wouldn't I just go to the bank and do it? Why wouldn't I get it like no that's too much? We actually sent them to Damon John And he organically had put it on a story He was eating it It's like this is the best protein ice cream I ever have Yeah And there's no one out there that has it

There's a halo top It's small amount of protein Right five grams Who wants five? I don't know if it needs to even, I mean, I don't know what it tastes like, but I'm saying, I think, like, diet popsicles all the time. They don't really have any taste at all. It's not that. It's, it's, in a way, it's kind of like it's something, it's like a smoker. When they stop smoking, they gain 15 fucking pounds. Because you're used to having that, you know, that, it's like you go. It's like you go out, if you hang out with your buddies, where do you go? You go to eat. There's always food, food, food, food, food. Well, this is food that's protein and low carbs, then people love it. Yeah, then that's, it's that replacement. You feel like eating ice can. You. you eat this and you're like, wow, that satisfied my ice cream craving. Yeah. Yeah.

Ice cream's an issue for me. Yeah, I was going to say, like, I was thinking of the Ninja Creamy, but the whole thing about that, like, we've tried that with the, you know, pro- You gotta make it. Yeah, it's fucking a headache. I want the ease of access. I just want to grab it. This is a grab and go.

So we provide the freezer to all these gyms and nutrition stores because no one has freezers, right? So we provide the freezer. Right. And we say, hey, the freezer's on us. Right. Just fill it. 10 cases, 260 bars fit in there.

It's a $900 investment. You guys are going to, double your profit. And dude, everyone wants them now because we're buying the freezers. Like, oh, we couldn't have a nice freezer in our gym or nutrition store. You grab the bar. Instead of getting a shake, you just grab it and leave. You eat it in the car.

Do you have somebody making the freezers? Or you just buy it? We buy them in bulk from overseas. Yeah. Okay. He would buy like 300 at a time. Sounds like it could be a business opportunity. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. We just did a business opportunity scam. So they're mostly

in gyms. You need to get a hold of Alex Formosie. Yeah, he's big. He did that, he's got a franchise, right? Well, he did gym launch. Like, he came up in the gym space, and now he's just like huge business, influencer type of, you know.

Yeah, I would love to talk about. He's a great business, businessman. He's earned a lot of money. Yeah. Just, you know, people get scared of felons. You got to get them over that. But the more podcast you go on, the more people feel comfortable with you

because you're out there. Yeah. And I'm, listen, I'm at the end of the day. tell people I'm not some cartel member. I was a businessman and vicious kid at the time. There were no bodies. No bodies, no victims. I'm curious, did you have a choice?

When you paid off your $4 million debt, did you have a choice to be like, okay, I'm done? No, of course, you have that choice. But at the end of the day, I'm looking at this guy that just basically gave me a chance to live, right? He gave me a, he's like, basically, he could have killed me in Mexico that day. I'm like, you know what? Why would I stop? I figured out logistics into the hardest country in the world to get it into.

I'm like, okay, I don't want to just say no to this guy. I'm like, still, at that time, I already knew that FBI was watching me because, like, certain little things, like I would have a construction project going on and I would see, like, an 18D vehicle out there for five days. I'm like, okay, why is this guy here? Right. I'd have my private investigator run the license plates, and he'd be like, those are the feds. Like, I'm like, okay, I already, so these guys.

are on me. And it just had to end. Like, I tell people, when I got arrested, I was, it was the first time in, like, seven years, I felt relieved. It was all already, it was over. See, the relief. The relief. That was on the run for three years. So you know, I wasn't relieved. I was like, I wasn't really. I was like, when you got caught, you weren't relieved. No, I was like, I was, listen, I was a great time of my life. So, you know, but I was, because I, I just thought, in my mind, I thought I was just going to go forever. You know, it was delusional. I was delusional. Yeah, I knew. And they weren't around. I wasn't being watched. or anything. I was on the run, but they didn't know where I was, so I'd kind of rebuilt my life and I was feeling, I was feeling great. And so when they grabbed me, I was like, oh my God, I got to go to prison. Yeah, I didn't feel great. I listen, I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed, like, the high life. Right. But knowing your extreme stress. Yeah, stress. I was taking every day. I had to, I had to stop. And the only way I was going to stop is either dead or in the six by itself. And I took the ladder, and I'm blessed it happened, you know, I got healthy in there. I turn my life around and it's like, okay, now I can go live my second chance.

Hey, you guys, I appreciate you watching. Do me a favor if you want to follow Owen or you want to get some of the ice cream, which is, you know, amazing. We're going to leave a couple of links in the description box so that you can, one, order the book. You can follow him on his socials. And you can also get the ice cream delivered to you unless it's in a store near you. Also, I appreciate you guys watching. If you're interested in being a guest, we're going to leave a link for us to go to the website. You can fill out a be-a-guest sheet, leave a short video.

And I really appreciate you guys watching. Thank you very much. Please share the video. See you.