Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Convicted Bookie Exposes Shohei Ohtanis 40m Gambling Operation Days Before Prison

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Matt Bowyer tells how he rose from teenage poker hustles to running a multimillion-dollar, nationwide illegal sports-betting/bookmaking operation. ⁣ ⁣ Matt's links⁣ https://www.instagram.com/mathewbowyer5/⁣ https://mathewbowyer.com/⁣ Check out his book here - https://a.co/d/crL04gD⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://www.insidetruecrimepodcast.com/apply-to-be-a-guest⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Go to https://OmahaSteaks.com to get 50% off sitewide during their Red-Hot Sale Event. And use Promo Code INSIDE at checkout for an extra $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply. See site for details. A big thanks to our advertiser, Omaha Steaks!⁣ ⁣ Secure your online data today by visiting https://ExpressVPN.com/ITC. Find out how you can get up to four extra months FREE. ⁣ ⁣ Get started NOW while you still have time. Go to https://donewithdebt.com and talk with one of their specialists, FOR FREE. ⁣ ⁣ 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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drinker and et cetera. We had a jukebox, a pool table, and a bar, and a poker table. So I said, you know, maybe I could start a poker game. Why not? So I was 15, 14, and now I was running a poker ring upstairs in my home. And that progressed to where it was like every day after school. And I started making like 400, 500, 500 bucks a day in a poker game. So I bought a truck at 16. My mom was kind of dumbfounded how I could afford it. She ended up getting a call from one of the kids' mothers that we played baseball with and whatnot and said, hey, we need to sit down and have a little chat.

So the chat was one of the kids had an IOU in his pocket. And when she, the mom did the laundry, it said I owed Matt like $340. And so obviously she knew there was a poker ring problem. And so that's when the poker ring got busted, an intervention with like four moms. I never forget I walk into the house.

And there's four moms that I grew up with that I love. And, you know, I was like, yeah, playing cards, yeah. You know, it was a gambling thing. So that got shut down. So long story short, at 16, I had to find new hustles. And, you know, the sports betting thing started kind of growing.

And even though it wasn't poker and it wasn't legit with the moms in the neighborhood, I figured I could expand my little operation to start taking bets from, you know, all the kids in the high school. But it was a deadly combo. I love sports and I love gambling. So I got to, I was selling programs at the racetrack. I just did any form of hustling because I saw my mom was really struggling more because I could feel the pressure. Back then, I remember my parents had a second on her home at 12 percent.

The interest rates were really high. And so the payment was just way too high for her. So we ended up losing the house, but she didn't lose it until I think I was graduating high school. And at that time, I already got kicked out of the house because she caught me with a scale and some bud and whatnot. So that ended that. And so she had to do some sort of discipline. So she kicked me out. I was tail into my high school career.

I went out and got an apartment with my then high school sweetheart. All on the spare time, I'm sports betting through bookmakers because I love gambling. And I'm going to the racetrack and blowing all the rest of my money. So I'm a total degenerate. And I'm basically barely paying my bills and living in this dump apartment and going nowhere. And then something happens that changes the course of my life. my girlfriend gets pregnant. So here I am 18.

What was she thinking? It's her fault. She got pregnant. Would you have that happen? I mean, it is her fault. How did that happen? I don't even know. I mean, did we even have sex?

So long story short, she's pregnant. And I'm like, I can't even take care of myself. So I have to grow up, become a man. So we decided to, in the lease, after I think six-month lease, we moved into my mom. She let me back in now that I'm having a baby and grow up. growing up. We moved into, now my mom lost her home and moved into a mobile home park, which was very demoralizing for me. So it was me and my high school sweetheart who ended up marrying are sleeping on the couch and she's pregnant and I don't even really have a real job.

So there's a local area, and this is in Dana Point, California, which is a very nice area in Orange County. And they're opening like a brand new shopping center and there's a restaurant that's opening. So I say, you know what? 18 year old kid, a waiter makes pretty good money. for an 18-year-old kid. Well, even some adults, like if you work at Mastros or what, you make pretty good money. So I said, I'm going to go get a job, which to be a waiter. That's going to help me raise a kid, getting my life started to a degree. And so I go on this restaurant and the GM interviews me and says, all right, I can give you a job as a bus boy.

You have no waiting experience. And I'm like, bus boy, chips and salsa. And he's like, yeah, you got to start somewhere. I can move you up quickly depending on your work ethic, et cetera. I said, all right. So I take this job and I'm serving chips and salsa and water for customers. I see a lot of these customers coming in and they have money because it's a nice area. You can see by the watches and just the way they're dressed.

And so I'm like, I think I can find my way to a better career here, you know, just by talking to people. I'm charismatic, so I was working the crowd and ended up building a relationship with a lot of the customers. Well, this one particular customer, him and his wife kept coming in and they were asking to sit in my section. and the restaurant GM or the manager is like, well, he doesn't have a section. He's a bus boy. So they started noticing that I was obviously doing a good job. Fast forward about maybe five, six months, probably even less than that, actually. The owner or the gentleman I'm talking about, Mickey is his name, and his wife come in and they say, hey, listen, we'd like to give you an opportunity to come down for an interview.

And I said, I'm in, let's go. And they're like, you don't even know what it is. I said, I don't care. I'm a bus boy. Yeah, I'll sweep. assuming it's going to be a leg out. I'll sweep the floors. I can tell by the way they're dressed.

Yeah. So anyway, I get in my hoopty and I go to marshals and get a cheap tie and I drive down to this Irvine, California. And I pull into this beautiful parking lot and there's Ferraris and Mercedes and every dream car, 18-year-old kid can imagine. And I'm just like, wow, this is awesome. I don't even know what this is, but I can't wait. I get in there and I get in his first interview.

And he just grills me. I mean, he literally belittles me for an hour, hour and a half. It's like, why didn't you go to college? How did you, why did you knock up your girlfriend? You clearly are making great decisions. Whatever you've done with your life? And I'm just like baffled. Like, there's a whole totally different person than what I met in the restaurant.

It was kind and tipping me. But I respected that he's all business. So, but what I did see was the wolf of a Wall Street atmosphere that was going on from the walk to the conference room for the interview. Right. And these young guys and ties just had this. vibe that you would imagine of like money you know and they were just like smiling ear to year to year and you could just tell they're living their best life so that's all i wanted you know i didn't care what it was so after the interview i felt like i bombed it because i clearly brought

nothing to the table as far as pedigree yeah and uh he luckily calls me back another week later i didn't think he would and says hey we have another interview for you okay i come in another like 40 minutes of belittling and just, you know, telling me how, how much of a loser I am. And after about 30, 40 minutes, I stood up and I said, I didn't stand up, but I just stood up to him. I said, listen, I understand, you know, looking at this cheap resume that I have, there's not much on there. Let's be real.

I'm 18-year-old kid. I said, but you don't need to go to college and have a degree to have a work ethic and a grind that I have. You don't need to go to college to be somebody who could sponge and learn and be one of your best employees but I can promise you this there's nobody here that's going to work harder than me I guarantee you that I said so if you're willing to give a young kid an opportunity who's hungry who has a child coming to the world to be successful and show you what he's got I'm your guy otherwise we can talk about what I haven't done my whole life that's fine and he respected that right

so he hired me right so yeah what do you keep calling me back here for yeah but he was testing me yeah and I I could feel in it being this to this day the smartest man I've ever met and he was 28 years old I was 18 he had this big home is worth six seven million back then which is hell of a lot more now and you know he's had a lot of money and but the way he carried himself and the way he ran his business was something I've to this day I've learned and and sponged so I get a job I don't know what the job is I'm in the mailroom and in the mailroom is you know what I deemed to be just this mailroom job was not it was $1,200 a month 60 hours a week and that was a lot of money to me then. So it was definitely a big raise. And I was, I had my foot in the door

something big. Didn't know what it was, didn't care. So I come in. Of course, I work my tail off. I fine-tune this mailroom operation. And what I realized is I'm the first contact to everyone that calls this company. And it was a commodity brokerage firm, you know, and they were trading soybeans and crude oil and gold and silver and Japanese yen, all these things that I didn't even know what they were. So when the phone call would come in, I was the kid that would direct the call to the broker of the day. In that process, we had headsets. I would hit mute after I sent the call through. And if the other calls weren't coming in, I would just listen and learn. And so I got this sales training that was invaluable because these guys were really good at their job. They're making a lot

of money. And this is what I wanted to do. I didn't care. So I would just do that all day long for six months straight. Meanwhile, the best part of this job was I worked as his Mickey, his personal assistant. I was my mentor. I didn't realize that. So I literally fielded everything for him from ordering supplies or anything he needed. I was doing it. So we just built this bond and relationship. And I showed him my work ethic. And because of that, we just got closer. And so about six months into the job, I started studying for the Series 3 exam, unannounced. I took a copy. from one of the kids that were training as an assistant broker, and I went and copied it, and I started studying it.

So here's a guy who I've never really taken any form of college test, SATs, anything, and I'm going to go take this exam. So I get these flashcards, and I go to Mickey, and I hand them to him, and I say, hey, I'd like to take the serious for exam. And he says, this is funny. No, really. I said, no, I want to take it. He's like, well, you don't even understand it.

Number one, you have to be an assistant. broker first. You got to learn their job. And then you got to study. And I said, I've done all that. Aside from the assistant broker part, that's what you need to do first. I said, I'll tell you what, I'll make you a deal. Here's the flashcards. Ask me some questions. He grabs them, asks me, funnels a few. Of course, I'm ready for it. He says, well, that's great, but cost us money to sponsor you, number one. Number two, you still need to learn the job. I said, I'll learn the job. Don't worry about it. I said, I'll make you deal. If I don't pass the exam, you could fire me or I'll quit.

He's like, you're going to risk your entire career. You're so excited to work here. My career at the Melro? Right. Like, oh, I'll never replace that. Yeah, right? But, I mean, he knew where I was going with us, right? And I said to him, I said, I'll take that risk.

Yeah. He's like, you are a gambler, aren't you a kid? And I said, yeah. So gave me an opportunity. I went over and passed the exam. I got a 72 and an 83. You have to pass both parts of it. Rules and regulations, I barely passed.

And it was one of the first real taste of success in my life. Right. You know, I had this, you know, in the government test, you have a camera on you. It's a computer. You can't cheat, obviously. And, you know, I've cheated my whole way through high school. The shortcut was everything I've ever done in life. And this one I couldn't shortcut.

So for me, it was like the most, to this day, the most amazing experience because I passed this exam that I probably should have failed. A lot of these kids that were in there, the resistance, they took it three, four times, couldn't pass it. So that experience. A guy that graduates last in medical school, still a doctor. And sometimes are the best doctors. Yeah. You know? I think Patton graduated like almost last in his class.

You know what I mean? Well, you could be good at certain things, but not good in school and that, you know, or maybe just don't care. So I specifically came back, handed him the exam and I said, I'm ready when you are. And it's like, all right, you prove yourself. Let me get a replacement. You're going to train someone and I'll move you on up. So that's exactly what occurred. So now instead of moving me to just any broker, he puts me with the top broker.

So I get this really good training on top of the training I've already kind of learned just by listening. And we were number one in the company for a year straight. He already was number one most of time, but we were definitely number one every month. And after a year goes by, this another opportunity rises. Mickey comes to me and says, all right, you put in your time, I'm opening a discount brokerage firm. We're losing a lot of customers because our commissions were so high. It was 95 bucks a trade, which now it's like $2. And he says, we're going to open a, we're losing a lot of business.

We're going to open a discount firm and I want you to run it. And I'm just, I'm 20 years old. This is amazing, of course. So I go, we open this firm and I'm the first broker. And basically we start hiring brokers. And I'm now building my own book, book of business. I become the number one retail commodity trader for 11 years straight. I broke every record in the industry throughout the country.

I ended up having nine assistants. I ran a company for them. We sold it for $88 million. What's your wife saying at this point? Are you married by this point? No, so I got married at 23. Right. I had my, let me give you the best part of this story.

At 21 years old, I was making $700,000 a year. And my parents' home in Cyprus, 11602 Rubal Drive, comes up for sale, and I buy it. This is the old home? The home I grew up in. Oh, okay. My mom lost it. And I purchased. It was ironic.

It came up for sale and I bought it. I probably paid too much for it, but I didn't care. There was no, I was one of the house for pride purposes. So at 21 years old, I had a Mercedes. I had my two-year-old daughter, my girlfriend at the time, or fiancé, let's call it, because we got married at 23. We move into this house and I'm sleeping in my parents' bedroom. It was very eerie, actually.

It was just crazy. The bedroom next to the right was where I was, my little girl's in there. And I'm like, wow, I'm 21 years old. I get this house, I got this car, you got everything. I got my ex-wife was, to this day, we're great friends. She's just an amazing woman. And I just have this perfect life that I'm building in my mind, you know? And meanwhile, guess what?

I love to gamble. And now I have an office of guys that like to gamble. So I started taking bets throughout the office because now I have real money. These guys are betting $5,000, $8,000 a game because now I can afford it. And so I start building what I deemed to be a business. I didn't even realize it was more of a hobby. It was more for fun. And to be honest, I was losing money to bookmakers my whole life, you know, from 16 all the way to 21.

But small money because I didn't have money. But when I was 20, 21, I started making real money. Of course, my gambling appetite starts increasing. So I'm losing to bookies, you know, and I realize I have something here. Because what happened is I gave a couple of these guys in the office to a bookie. and they were just blowing like $40, $60,000. And I was like, I don't know. Like a month?

No, like a year. Oh, okay. But, you know, it adds up. You have two or three guys. It's a couple hundred grand a year, right? And I'm like, why don't I just take these bets? You know, I love the action. Well, because you're running the office and I feel like it puts you in a bad position.

Well, you would think that. But the reality is, I mean, their view was, I'd rather give Matt the money. Right. Then some guy named John down the street they don't care about. Yeah. And not that they want to lose, but if they're going to lose, I'm just saying I'm thinking from your employer's perspective. Oh, definitely.

He would have been like, I'd have been like, what are you doing? Like that's, it's like a conflict of interest. First of all, it's illegal. Well, if you knew the atmosphere we're in, which I'm going to describe to you, it was Wolf of Wall Street. Yeah, yeah, like the boiler rooms. Yeah, they're, but legal. Yeah.

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who did more commission, we would foot races in the parking lot. we had a at morton steakhouse we had a you know guys of ties there's 50 of us and we have these two big guys and they did an arm wrestling match for 20,000 and the guy's arm snapped in the middle of the literally and it was actually shaking like a fish because I don't know if you ever seen it the person's bone it snapped right here and these are big dudes they were going at it for a while and when it snapped he's like he was like oh he's making some weird noises and the arm was like dangling so the paramex came into mortons this is a true story and they obviously had to have surgery They wheeled them out in a wheelchair, and this is a big dude. He's probably 250 pounds. And his arm was, and then we were making fun of him because this is what type of atmosphere we're in. We're trying to feed him shrimp and his arms sitting there like this. And we're just, I mean, you felt bad for him.

But we don't care. We're 22-year-old kids and just talking shit. Right. And anyway, so we were betting everything and anything moving. So my boss, Mickey did not care. In fact, he thought it was great because it was more morale and more just action. And then we were gambling on, I mean, I'm going to tell you some stories. We had, if you didn't open a certain amount of counts,

you would have to write something down that you didn't want to do. Right. Okay, so then if you didn't think of what you wanted to do, we'd create it for you. So one guy had to run around a pink G string at 5 in the morning around a building, and he was not the most attractive dude. You know, very overweight, you know, disgusting, and he's running around the building.

So you have to drink a gallon of milk, which is impossible for most people. When you throw up, sentiment challenge. I mean, whatever you can think of, these are things we would force to do is all would not pass. code today. But that's how we grew up and that's the environment we were you know raising money in. So sports betting for me was just another window of opportunity, but I wasn't really doing it as a business. I was doing because I loved to gamble

and these guys were just dumping money. A lot of them were doing hookers and blow and all kinds of things. I was a family guy and I loved to gamble. That was my advice. So I didn't do all those other things. So I just kind of took advantage of the gambling side. Now, meanwhile, you fast forward, my business started as a trader, was doing great. Of course, I was building, building, building. But at the same time, I was building this little business I didn't realize. And then all of a sudden, the Internet comes along. And I'm like, because I used to take the bets, tape record, old school stuff.

And when the Internet came along, I said, I can scale this. This is a very scalable business. That's exactly what I did. I went to Costa Rica. That was one of the forefront bookmakers to go down when they operate in Costa Rica as a per head shop. So for those listening, a per head shop is where they don't actually have any financial interest in your business. They just service and facilitate all the action. So it's all online through a server, and they have 450 clerks that answer the phone, taking bets.

And then that server will be a hub for you, and you pay them per account per week to service your action. And in that process It's like Bradley with the courses. Yeah, but they do everything for you, right? Right, right. Bradley, they'll do everything for you, answer the phones, call people back, take the money, they help facilitate the whole thing, but you're really the one who's running. You're the house.

You're the course. You're running it. That's correct. And I was the casino. I was a sports book. And so now I don't have to do all the work. I mean, I just have to take the risk and pay the service, right? So now I could scale it because I can only take so many phone calls myself, right?

And during halftime, you got, you know, 50. 60 people calling you, it's very difficult to talk to 50, 60 people in a four-minute window before the game goes off because at halftime, you're limited. And that is a very hard process, but now that process is eliminated. So I just started scaling my business dramatically, giving people referral fees, finding ways to, you know, how do I enhance this tree, this olive branch I need to, you know, make it grow? And it started growing. And then I got this opportunity at 25. The owner of my company, Mickey, says, look, we were just, in the process of selling to Refco, which was a big company, and they had some trouble with

the law as well, ironically. But they were purchasing a company called Lind Waldock, which is a discount firm in Chicago, the biggest in the world. So we were purchasing them. In that process, the gentleman that owned it, his name was Barry Lind, probably about a maybe 65, 70-year-old man. We flew out there, and I'll never forget, he looked at me in the eyes and said, listen, kid, because the owner now is having me go run this company. He says, listen, I built this thing for the last umpteen years. Don't ruin it. You know, he could tell you had a lot of pride in his business.

And so I walk into this company. There are 600 employees, six floors. They have a private chef. It was very corporate, complete opposite of what we were. We were like boiler room, just like you said. We didn't have freaking a chef. We just grinded and work, and we were driving Ferraris and just live in the life. We didn't care about all that corporate stuff.

just like make money. And this environment was more older dinosaur brokers. They were 60 years old. They've been doing it for 35, 40 years. Obviously very successful, but just very old school, old fashioned, kind of lazy. And they were blessed to have this big corporation, the company that provided a great lead source. So Mickey wanted to come in there and shake it up, get rid of the riffraff, the lazy guys

have been there forever, bring in a new blood, and make a good. come real salespeople who are actually making 300, 400 dials a day, not 60, 30 calls or just sitting at their desk waiting for the phone ring. So that's a, that's a tough task. You've got to literally take a guisement there for 30, 40 years and tell them now, this 25-year-old kid's going to tell them what to do and how to do his job. Not an easy one. So I said, Mickey, let me handle this. This approach, I got to do this. What do you want to do? I said, just put them all in the meeting, put the whole company in a board room and bring me in. introduce me and I'll take care of it. And he had that faith in me. So I walk in this meeting and I said,

listen. Do you throw your Ferrari keys? No, that's a good one though. Ben Affleck. That's great. That's a great scene. I didn't have quite the same moxie he did, but mine was different. Mine was always lead by example. So I walked in this boardroom. I said, listen, none of you are going to respect me. I'm literally younger than some of your children. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to tell you what I'm good at, I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you why you can learn for me. I want you to go to your desk. I want you to grab 10 of the worst dog shit leads you've ever had in the business. And I want you to bring them in. This is a Friday on Saturday morning. And I'm going to call on a Saturday. And I'm going to put the calls on intercom because it's a big

company. And there's no way I could get all these people in one room to listen to a phone call. We'd all be sitting on each other's laps. And you can listen to me sell. And these will be the worst lead you have. You could not close them. And let me show you what I can do. And then when I'm done, you can make a decision if you want to learn from me or not. There's the only way I can get their respect. Proofs in the pudding, right? Saturday comes in. I have this stack of dog shit leads that you can tell on the leads, by the way, they're hung up on one answer, left message 45 times. Excuse me. And basically, I just knew I was calling a bunch of, this is going to be a grind. So I started calling. And of course, I get hung up on, fuck you, why you, why you guys?

guys keep calling me. I'm tired of this. Take me off your list. You know, because back, the do not call list, it's a little different then. Uh, you know, but this is many years ago. So in that process, what I would do was I would take a guy that I normally maybe wouldn't spend time on the phone with and I would extend it just to show them that you can't, because time is management is, is the key, but I want to show them that every lead meant something. So I get this guy on the phone from, I'll never forget, Green Bay, Wisconsin. And I say to him, I said, he starts saying with, oh, you know, you guys keep calling me. What's, what's the deal here?

And I'll give you an example. This is, hey, John, I just talked to you five weeks ago. Remember, we had a great conversation. Obviously, I didn't even speak to him five weeks ago. Yeah. And it actually drops their guard a little bit because they start to feel bad. Like, they should have nice to remember you. Yeah.

You know, so I say, you know, no problem. I'm sure you talked to many people. But is Brett Farr playing this weekend? because remember, you know, he kind of hurt his ankle last week. And, you know, I know you're a Packers fan. You're just throwing something out there hoping. And most people in Green Bay are. And, oh, yeah, yeah, he's playing.

Yeah, you start talking bullshit about football. And the reason you do that, obviously, is drop their guard. And people do business with people they like. You know, at the end of the day, you could sell if you can just get people to like you, if the product is reasonable. So I use that as an example just to drop the guard. before I went to selling them. And then when I went to selling,

the difference that I would use that other people didn't understand was is obviously I would build excitement over something. Did you know, John, that there's a soybean report coming out this Thursday? And I can't tell you what it's going to say. I can tell you this. I have some indications that the soybeans are,

you know, there's a drought in Argentina and whatever story I have to say. And I can tell you right now, we have something that maybe other firms don't offer you, which is information. It's not inside information. It's not illegal. But this information, I'm going to send you it.

Can I get your fax number? Because back then it was fax machines. Yeah, sure. Okay. I'll take a look at it. So now all of a sudden, the guy who wants to hang up on you is not interested is now giving me his fax number so I can send up a chart or a soybean report.

And then I'm going to call you in three minutes right after I send it to you. I want you to look at it. I just want to explain it to you. Now you got the excitement. So you call him back and get him. Now he's on the phone. He's looking at the street. chart or whatever you sent them and you explain it to him here's the here's what I'm looking at

here's what I think it's going to do I'm not asking you for a large investment just just send in 10,000 we'll start small let me show you what I can do once you see what we're doing you can send more money down the road and by the way 10,000 may seem like a small number but in the commodity world that's decent size I count back then so I'll throw out a number that I'm acting like it's small but to him it's really big yeah so he might say well I could send you five yeah and not you So here I am. I got a $5,000 account off some dead lead that nobody would ever close. These guys had the ultimate respect for me because they just saw I turn lemons and eliminate

and they gave up on this particular lead. Well, I closed six deals that day, $180,000 in equity. The whole firm was, there was no doubt I was the best in the business of doing this job. Right. And I approved it. So now I run this company for six months. We triple their numbers. I didn't want to be there.

Chicago is a great city, but my head of daughter, another one coming. I wanted to get home and be with my family, and I love California. But I enjoyed it. I went to Wrigley Field. I made the best of every situation. And I got out of there as fast as I could because he wanted me to be there a year. I was flying home every two weeks to see my family, but it was just not my lifestyle I wanted. So I did it quick.

We dealt with triple the numbers. I got out of there and got home and went back to work. But in that process of being with these guys, I have a whole new setup. people that gamble. Yeah. And so I built my business in Chicago now. So what I realized is I can get agents throughout the country. And then, you know, an agent to explain that to someone who doesn't understand,

if I go to you and say, Matt, if you bring me customers, I'll house it, I'll bank it, I'll be the casino, you have zero risk. But every customer you bring on my platform, you'll have your own login, you'll be able to see exactly what they're betting. All you have to do is facilitate bringing me the business. and I'll give you 20, 30, 40, depending on what you do, how involved you are, up to 50% of the proceeds. So you go get your little nest egg of customers.

So maybe your brother plays or your cousin, you sign him up. And then he refers you his cousin or his brother. Next thing you have 20 people under your little tree, let's call it. And guess what? This is the house's proceeds, right? Like if you're making $1,000, you're giving him $100 or $200 bucks, depending on. Yeah, whatever the net is. So let's say those 20 customers that week,

Not what the customer is betting. Correct. Well, percentage of what they lose. Okay. Okay, so they're all going to lose. Betting sports, you got no shot. Yeah. It's less than 1%.

Literally, I'm not joking. Less than 1%. Right. And the only people that beat it nowadays are sharp professionals that are running AI robots and algorithms and their MIT nerds that don't even watch sports. That's pretty factual. It's gotten a little better, though. Like the average bear nowadays hangs in there a lot more because of AI and there's so much

more information. But if you go back to when I'm talking about this, back in 2000, nobody won. I mean, zero. And Billy Walter is the only one that would ever win. Okay. And when he came into my shop, I would just cut him off real quick and get rid of him because he would come in through beards and which we get, that's a whole other conversation. But the moral of the story is you get me customers.

We're making money. Right. And I guarantee you that. So you go get 20 guys and they lose, let's just say for the week, $40,000. I give you 30%. Well, guess what? That's 12 grand in your pocket. with zero risk.

Yeah. If they win $60,000, I'm going to give you the $60,000, you're going to pay the customers, and you have a makeup. You just got to wait to lose $60,000 before you get paid again. It's the best business in the world

because you have no risk. Right. And for a guy who has no risk, you just sign up people and make sure they're decent, you know, human beings that pay. That being said, I started doing that throughout the country.

So at the end of my career here in October 5th, 2012, when I was rated by the feds, I had 48 agents across the country. And of those 48 agents, they were everywhere, Texas, Wyoming, you name it. And they would have a batch of 10 guys, 20 guys, 50, 100. And that's how I built my business. I scaled it because I can only do so much.

I can only talk to so many people. So at 25 years old, I learned after the Internet, that was my first scale operation. And then at 25-ish, I started spreading my wings and getting agents all throughout the country. So fast forward at 28, we started. sell the entire company. We're completely out of the business. Now I could be, I really wanted to start my own operation as a commodity trader a long time ago.

Yeah, the commodities business got sold, not the, yes, correct. Not the game or the book banking. Correct. So we sold the commodity firm, and I went to Mickey and I said, hey, I want to start my own company. You know, I've been loyal to you. I made sure I wouldn't do that until you sold. And it's funny, he's such a businessman.

He's like, yeah, we should do that. Right. Well, I love you. but I don't want it to be a we thing. And he's like, well. Do you tell him you start him in the mailroom? I told them everything. You know, and I said, you just sold your company for $88 million.

All right. And, but he's a grinder. So he says, I'll make you deal because the lead source that I had was because of his company. And so he had some value. He's like, I can, I would, but he had a non-compete. So he says, why don't you pick me up a nice watch? I said, oh, what kind of watch? He's like, I like, I'd like rich.

your meal. I said, I'm sure you do. So I had to purchase some loyalty going away gift. Of course, he's wealthier than anyone in the world, but it's just funny, the grind that he, and I respected it. So I bought him a watch, and then my brother and I went and started our own commodity brokerage firm. Okay. So at 28 years old, I have a firm called Eliso Trading Group. I'm probably making a million bucks a month. I mean, literally, between the brokerage firm and the sportsbook business. Right. And I'm blowing it and spending money like no other. Now I'm going to Vegas and gambling on a big scale. If you go backwards to the story at 21, I started going to Vegas, of course, and started gambling on a pretty high level for a 21-year-old kid. And I had my first

taste of success at New York, New York. I won $28,000 my very first trip. And it sucked me in. The dopamine rush of Vegas and winning money and easy money, I call it, just grabbed me. The most, I would say intense moment of my life where I was put myself in a pickle making some really poor choices was when I had to go to Costa Rica. So I had a situation where I was booking these guys and they beat me for $5.7 million over basically a season. And I was 20, I'm going to say, I think 25 years old. And I had money, but not, that's a lot of money. And so I ran out of money. So I took all the equity out of my house. I paid every day. every penny, but I was $440,000 short, so I finally had to cut them off. Because I learned at this time,

I believed at the time nobody could lose. And in truth, they ended up losing it all back to somebody else, sadly. But I didn't have the bank roll. You have to have the bank roll to sustain the action that you're taking. I was definitely not doing that. So plus I had my own gambling issues. So I was losing in Vegas, et cetera. So long story short, I had to cut them off. And in that process, I still owed $4.40. I had to keep my reputation attacked. So I made a deal with this bookmaking operation in Costa Rica, and they were a very big outfit, had a lot of money. And I said, look, I will move over my entire business to you.

If you loan me the 440, which is what I need to pay to this customer, I'll give you all of my business, and I'll take 50% of all the proceeds, which was very pride-swallowing, but I had no choice. And you guys run the outfit. I'll deal with all the customers here in the United States. and obviously the first 880 that is made, 440 will go to you, and my 440, my portion will pay you back. And then after that, we'll split everything 50-50.

So we made that agreement. They came and brought me the 4-40. I paid my debt. I'm basically broke, but I have my house still and, you know, I'm able to live, and I know I'm going to earn with my business still, but it's going to be half as much as I used to make. When you're buried in credit card and loan debt, It's human nature to put it off and say, I'll deal with this later.

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Week one goes by. We do business. I don't even remember what the package did, but it lost a little bit. So they made a little bit of money. And I received zero of it because I owed them 440. Yeah. Second week comes up and I'm like disgusted because I'm jonesing for action. I'm broke.

I now have realized that I just gave up my business. or half of it and I I'm kind of a control guy I built this over time and I was embarrassed that I chose to put myself in these shoes so I came up with this notion and this idea to start betting on the accounts myself right well I'm betting on the accounts of the story of the same guys that beat me there were these three brothers they were they're almost billionaires as a family and they were betting huge hundred thousand a game well with me they're betting three four hundred thousand a game but the limits I set up with this book and making operation were $100,000 a game.

So I jump on the account and I start betting. Well obviously I don't have the money to pay, number one. So that's the first problem. Second problem is if I lose, I'm going to completely fuck up this operation that I now needed. And thirdly, it's hard to win when you need money. So I have all these things to overcome. Well, I get lucky. I catch a heater. I start betting like 40, 60 a game. I win 1.6 million dollars betting through their website in one week i completely just caught fire so sunday night comes around i'm up one point it's like one point whatever i think it was actually one point five just under under that and i i get a phone call on sunday night and the guy's name of skip he says hey um we got a problem i need you to get out to costa rica i'm like well what's the problem he's like it doesn't sound good

no he says i just need you i need you to get out here and mind you i've only been to their operation one time. That was to set up the shop and meet them. And their operation is in the middle of the jungle. There's a big city in San Jose, but they're off kind of on their own. And it's just like, when I say in the jungle, I mean, it's beautiful, but it's literally in a jungle. And so I'm like, okay, that's not good. And obviously I knew I was doing something wrong anyway. So of course, I jump on the plane. It's talking about a large amount of money. And I fly to Costa Rica. I land their driver picks me up, drive me straight to their sports book.

When you pull in, there's armed guards because Costa Rica is not safe for Americans who are bookmakers, because they can get robbed very easily because there's poverty there. And so they all know who the bookmakers are in that country. They pull me in. I sit me down in this, I'm going to call it a lunch room,

let's call it. And there's three owners. And they sit me down and they're pissed. like just tell us what the fuck's going on here. I said, well, what do you mean? Like, we know it was you betting on these counts. And I said, well, it wasn't me betting. Of course, I'm lying through my teeth.

Right. And they said, well, so you're going to fucking sit here and lie to us? I'm there scolding me, right? And they have a guy standing there with a gun, one of the rifles. But he's their protection, but it was more of a statement. Yeah. And they said to me, they said, well, here's the situation. they're arguing amongst each other

because I'm obviously denying it. And they're like, one guy's saying, this fucking kid's lying. The other guy's like, I don't know. Maybe he really did. And they said, well, we ran the IP address is coming from California. These guys are from Nevada.

How are they flying to California? I said, listen, they were at the game, they called me, and I put some bets in for him. So now I'm making a blise as I go. All right. But I'm answering the questions to where it's kind of like, hey, they have to go with this because it's at least makes sense.

and I said, they're friends of mine. I mean, they've been betting with me, and I hang out with these guys. You know, like, they call me because they can't get online, and I put it in a few bets that you're telling me you're not going to pay. So we started arguing. So finally, one guy's like, just pay the fucking kid. Let's be down with them. The other guys, I'm not paying this fucking kid a quarter.

They're literally arguing. And I finally, I just said, listen, you have three options. One, you could take me back in the fucking field and just shoot me. It's obviously one in the middle of nowhere. Two, you can pay. Or three, you cannot pay me. I'll go back home and I'll just tell every person in the United States of America that you guys don't pay and you're stiffs. And then we'll just go our separate ways.

Those are your three options. I don't give a fuck what you do anymore. I'm done with this shit. And I was very aggressive when I was younger. So that was it. So the guy Skip says, just give us a minute. So they argue whatever I'm standing out there. They drive me back to the hotel I had for one night.

I stayed the night there. They said, Skip drives me on the way back. He's trying to like, he's the nicer one. He's kind of, come on, man, just tell me. I know you bet on the account, you know? And of course I'm sticking with story. Now that's just you and I. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm like, look, he even tried to say this. I'll still make sure you get paid. Just tell me because he wants me to tell him. I said, listen, man, it wasn't me. I didn't have any money. I can't bet that kind of money. I mean, you know that. He's like, it's just too obvious.

Every bet was from California, da-da-da. And I said, I'm just telling you, man. Just don't put me in this predicament because it's going to be a bad situation for me when I get home. I got to be responsible for this debt is mine. You add to your sports book and everyone's going to know you didn't pay, but these are my clients. So he says, all right, well, we're going to talk to him.

Let me talk to these guys and get on your flight. When you land, just call this number. So I land L.A. the next day. I literally get off my flight. I get picked up from two of my friends. I call the number and the number says, all right, you landed. All right, I'll meet right off of this Hawthorne Bowler.

over to exit in this parking lot in 20 minutes. So we drive literally about eight exits and I get off. I'm waiting in a parking lot. Some guy pulls up, hands me a duffel bag with like $986,000 in cash. Says, we're done with you, kid. Take your fucking players back.

We want nothing to do with you. So it was like the message was bad because I ended up, it worked out and I got away with something I shouldn't have. But it was fantastic for me because I got my entire business back. and I got not only that I had money to operate right and I cleaned up everything I didn't owe them a dollar they took out their 440 and I was back in action and it was like one of those moments in life where it could have gone fucking sideways really quick I mean Costa Rica it could easily just buried me I mean a lot of things could have happened right so at that moment I told myself I can never put myself in a predicament like this again and of course I did because it's gambling for you but that story in that exact situation was my starting point to building back my operation to where it ended up being. That was like the lowest low and then the moment, the pivotal moment of me going back to where, of course, I ended up with the federal agents in October 5th, but that's the moment that got me there.

So from 21 to 30, I was gambling pretty high level to the point I lost $3 million at the tables over that nine-year period, which sounds like a lot, but as many times I was going, it wasn't because $3 million. I shouldn't say nowadays. I don't gamble anymore, but two years ago, I would lose that in one trip sometimes or win that in one trip. But the first nine years of my life,

I was younger. I didn't, you know, money wasn't as easy as it became between, let's call it, 30 and 50. So $3 million loss, I couldn't believe it was that much. I looked at, you know, they give you like a player breakdown.

I was like, damn, I lost a lot more than I thought. But when you're having fun and you're, you know, party, with your friends going to nightclubs and being a young kid you're just spending money and you're making it you know i didn't really care because i've made so much long story short at 30 i decided to sell my commodity broker's firm because i was over the business which is what i was telling you early the moral side the moral compass of the commodity business was terrible and i didn't really realize that the first i would say four or five years because i was so motivated in making money and it was legal

that I kind of took the moral compass side out of it and said, you know what, I'm making a lot of money, I'm doing things right. And I didn't really realize that everybody was losing money. I mean, if I lined up 100 clients, 90 of them lost. And the 10 that won didn't even win that much. And it's a business that was so tough to overcome. It wasn't like stocks.

So I got really tired of selling it to the point at 30, I was making so much as a bookmaker. I just said, I'm just done with this. and I'm not trying to put myself as an angel. Believe me, I love money, and I knew it wasn't the best business in the world. But here I am leaving a legal business that I felt was morally terrible to do something illegal, which a lot of people view is very morally bad as well. Right.

Because you're praying on gamblers or whatnot. But I didn't view it that way. I still don't to this day because every customer that came to me, they came willingly and wanted to gamble as I did. and they were going to gamble, whether it was with me or Draft Kings or Fandul or another bookie, they were going to bat. So I facilitated a service. And most of my clients, up until the day I was raided by the feds, enjoyed every minute of it.

Like, no one likes to lose, but it was entertainment. If it's controlled properly, it's adding flavor to a game. It's just making it more exciting. At 30 years old, here I am. You know, I sold my commodity firm. I'm now, at this point, I've realized I am a illegal bookmaker. my world, this is my business. And of course, with that, you got to look over your shoulder because the government could come anytime. Yeah, I was just going to ask you that.

One, like, were you worried? Two, are people, are you seeing people you work with get, get arrested? But that's not I feel like that's a thing. And then two, or then the other thing is what is your wife thinking about this whole thing, right? Like, is she like, on board? Or she married a guy who can who's a bus boy, you know, who's who's selling, selling, you know, he's selling bud and he's busboying and she's pregnant. And now you're, you went just straight up. Like, I mean, what does she, did she think she feel like, is she acting like I hit the lottery or she like worried? I mean, listen, back then bookmakers weren't really getting busted unless there were mafia or hurting people. and I paid taxes a lot of millions of dollars in taxes legally.

What are you claiming your taxes as other than... Well, at that time, commodities only. But eventually, I became a professional gambler on my tax return. Okay. And I was paying a lot in taxes, which is funny because we'll get to my case in a minute when I'll explain that tax problem. But the reality was I wasn't worried really about the government coming in and busting me, per se, because I wasn't busted kneecaps, I was paying taxes, it wasn't violent.

I would definitely threaten people and put pressure on people to pay, but I never really physically hurt anyone or did any of that. I was a father, and at the end of the day, I had to have a reputation. My name was called Tattoo Matt, kind of for that little time period. And that's, I was actually, when I was like 25 to 35, I thought, that was back when Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell were fighting the UFC, and, you know, I trained Jiu-Jitsu, and I kind of thought I was invincible, like all 25-year-old punks do.

So I would definitely go to your door if you owe me money and I have a knock on the door and I would look you right in the eyes and say, Matt, we have a problem. And I'm here to work it out with you. And you owe whatever the dollar amount is, 80,000. And we all get jammed up. I've been jammed up myself. But I would like to leave here today with some resolution

that's reasonable that you can handle five grand a week for the next umpteen weeks until the debt is cleared. And there's going to mean no headaches here. Right. And that's a reason. reasonable way to try to handle debt. And that's what I did. But most bookmakers don't personally knock on the door. They'll either send someone. This is back then. It's really, nowadays, it's

really non-existent for obvious reasons. But going to someone's door, when you knock on the door and you look at the eyes yourself, it does make them a little more comfortable because, A, you have balls to do that, and then B, you're at their house. They have a wife and kids. I mean, there's a lot of explanations that are going to have to do. So just pushing that envelope a little bit was really stupid, though, because I ended up having a gun pointed to me by a guy in Fresno and, you know, still didn't wake me up. I told him, you better fucking pull the trigger, motherfucker.

And that's really not something you say with a guy with a gun, especially when you have children. But as I got older and I made more and more money, I got a little bit wiser. And I started steering away from that shit. To the point to answer your question, my ex-wife knew what I was doing. was totally fine with it, was living a great lifestyle, and we didn't really look at it as a business until I left her,

which was right around 30 years old. I divorced her because I was basically living a double life. You know, I was going out to Vegas every little, almost every week, gambling, and I was trying to be a father and raise kids, and I knew that was the right move, and I married her because she was my high school sweetheart at 23 years old, but we were more like a partnership.

you know, I wasn't like madly in love with her. I wasn't being a great husband. So I felt like a douchebag. Because, you know, when you're leaving your wife and kids at home and going to Vegas to party and have fun and gamble, is that really what a father is supposed to be doing? Not really. So I decided to end the marriage. And we're great friends and it was a great decision.

But I still took care of her, of course, financially and still always been a father to my kids. But that juggle was tough for me because I was being. being pulled by the dopamine rush of, you know, the, of my choice, which was gambling. Right. And I was developing getting worse because the numbers were getting higher to the point where I was betting, you know, $500,000 on a football game in a three-hour window. That's, that's, you know, which translates later to even bigger. And so my appetite was just getting worse for that and for that lifestyle and for the

dopamine rush and for the fun. So as I developed that, I leaned into it even more. And I just realized I can build this to the point where I started envisioning being one of the biggest bookmakers in the country, whereas before it was a hobby, it was fun. So now I'm like, this is an actual business. And then I met a girl who was a cabana girl at the Mirage, who was attractive and 22 years old, and I was 30, and I was now single. And we hit it off and started dating her and then moved her from Vegas to California. Cardinal Sin for a 30-year-old guy who's a bookmaker, you know, trying to make a, you know, a girl who he met a cabana to his girlfriend.

Right. And fast forward that a little bit further. So we start dating and next to you know, she moves in with me. And I get her pregnant. And we were together almost nine years. And that lasted for a while until I was about 39. And during that process from meeting 30 and 39, even though I had another baby, this is now my fourth child, believe it or not.

So I'm raising four kids. And I'm trying. You understand the process, right? I mean, this is on purpose. Yeah, I know. Wow. Yeah. And here's the thing, right?

I love being a father. It's one of the best thing I've ever done in my life. But when you're in a lifestyle that's not really conducive to that, that juggle is something that I was doing since I was 19 years old, having my first child. And she's now 30. And, you know, amazing child. She's married herself. In fact, having a baby. So I'll be a grandpa here in about a year.

So that's an interesting process where you're being pulled. And I say being pulled, I'm not a victim. I chose to gamble and do all these things. But I'm still being pulled to do something I love, which is gamble and the addiction of gambling and the high lifestyle and the luxuries and all the things that came with it. But you're also trying to be in the stands watching volleyball games or cheerleading competitions and be a normal dad. And then I'm driving them to school and a Rolls-Royce and I'm 30 years old.

You know, it's just, it's an interesting dynamic. And, of course, everyone in our neighborhood, we had one of the nicer homes in Orange County. And I was very young. And they saw the fancy cars and kind of wondering what the hell is this guy do. And my kids, I've always been transparent with them. And to them, that was the lifestyle they grew up in. They always knew it was a bookmaker. They just didn't view it as something illegal because I didn't make it a big deal, you know, even though it was.

They're telling their, they said, what's your dad? My dad's a bookmaker. Yeah, well, they were smart enough to say that he was a commodity trader. Right. And kind of what I used to do. But, you know, I own many businesses. I own a boat dealership. I own a jujitsu studio today.

You know, I'm involved in a turf company. So I've always had my hands in many things. But let's be honest, it was bookmaking was my business. Right. And so I'm going to give you a story that in 2014 was my first wake-up call in life, which you've been through. when I had 14 federal agents at my home, and they came in and they let me know that I could have a state or federal charge. And they gave me an opportunity to sign what they call an abandonment form, which states that. So what happened?

I understand. They come and they knock at the front door and say, hey, could you sign this paperwork? Well, they don't really knock at the front door. Is that? I was fortunate. I had a different experience. Yeah, I was fortunate. I wasn't home.

Oh, okay. So my daughter was. And rather than the old bowl down the door deal, they knew I wasn't home. So they actually just grabbed her, held her on the driveway because she was 18, and they waited until I arrived. And then when I pulled them through the gates, well, let me restructure that. I didn't pull them through the gates. I landed.

I'm going to tell you exactly how this occurred. I landed on a plane from Las Vegas, surprisingly, and I just lost $800,000. And I had about $80,000 in the car because I had a discount for my losses. and my ex, Rachel, and my little two-year-old daughter, Sage, as I'm driving home, I get a phone call from my neighbor from the airport. It's about 20-minute drive. And he says, you have a little problem. It's World War, World War 5 at your house. There's about 14 cars, clearly FBI, and you're definitely coming into a barricade. I said, oh, okay. So I dropped off my car at an Escalade and I had 80 grand in it. And I took off my jewelry, which is a dummy move because you will

know they don't take your jewelry if they're wearing it. I took off my jewelry. I gave it to Rachel and dropped them off at a pull you loco and I said, hey, I'm going to run to the house physically because I don't want to give away this cash because I know they're going to scoop it. And I definitely don't want to give away my jewelry. You just chill here. It's going to be a problem. I may get arrested, but just stay here for a few hours and see what happens. So I run. home literally down this hill knowing I'm running into the FBI and I get through the gated community and as I get through it it feels like the movie Braveheart or he's coming on on the horse I mean they literally start coming out from everywhere and obviously cuff me and throw me in

and we open the door of the house and you know sit you down and as you've you've seen it they're just berating through the whole house and grabbing cash from different areas and I opened a safe. And as they got everything together, there was four of them. They wanted to be to speak about pictures and people. And I wasn't willing to do that. I didn't hire an attorney. I just said, listen, I'm a bookmaker. I'm not denying anything I do. If you're arresting me, it's fine. If you're not, there's nothing to talk about. And they said, well, we're going to take, after some time, they laid out all the money. And they said, we're going to take this money. And you can sign a ban on him for him. And we won't charge you.

any crime, you'll be released. You cannot hire an attorney and this money is basically gone. And I said, where do I sign? You cannot hire an attorney? I cannot. And I can show you the right. So they're saying the paperwork says you're not going to hire an attorney. You're not going to question this. You're not going to appeal this. You're not going to file a suit. You're abandoning this money. It's ours. That's correct. And then in exchange for this, we're not going to rush it. Correct. And they took all of my electronics and they said they'll have a back to be within two days. Okay. And that's exactly what happened. You're electronic, so you're laptops and everything. So they make copies of everything. They take it to their, their hub, as you know,

and they plug it in. And then they get whatever information out of there that leads to other problems for other people, which that's what they're looking for. And of course, anything you're up to that maybe they don't know about. And then they return your items to you two days later. I drove down to the Orange County Federal Building, picked up my items. They may be an offer at that time if I'd like to work for them and be a federal informant. Right. And I chose not to. And they said, that's your choice. I wonder what a bookmaker federal informant would, because you just have people coming to you betting. Well, you also know a lot of other bookmakers. And you know a lot of people that

are betting that are doing things that are in the illegal area. No question. There's some spillage. And there's also tax people that are not paying a lot of taxes. You know more than you want to know. Right. But that license to steal right there. It is. And they offered me 10% of all proceeds of whatever they received. And I clearly. And I know that was a thing.

Yeah. If you're a, at least this is in 2014. If you're a federal informant and you bring them problems, you can receive 10% of all proceeds. Might be a second. Might be a second. A new job for you. It might be a second act here.

The YouTube thing doesn't work out. I just said, no, thank you, and I went on my way. And I took that as an opportunity to, to be honest with you, I had two choices. Choice one, the smart choice would be, why don't you just go back and do something legal? You kind of got away with quite a bit and didn't get charged. Or you can do what I did, which is, why don't you go make this the biggest business that you could possibly make it and be the biggest bookmaker in the country? Were you thinking, like, if this is the worst that's going to happen? Yes.

Is that what you're thinking? And so if they come back again, I'll just hand them over everything again and I'm good. As long as I got stuff stashed away into first ball. They clearly, when they came in and grabbed your stuff, they obviously didn't wipe you out. Like, I can't make my mortgage payment this month. What am I going to do? Correct. It was just a matter of they got this one little piece of a much larger puzzle.

Scale. And I'm 39 years old, a father of four. Right. Let's be real. It's a little difficult to go make even remotely close to what I was making in a legal entity at that time of my life. I mean, it's possible, but you can't just go start a mortgage company at 39 with zero employees and zero license and then feed four kids. Have you heard this one? I always love this one when people say this.

You heard this one? Well, if you just put that energy and that on your brains to something legal, you would have made a lot more money. Stop. Stop it. I've heard that many, many times. It's not the case. It's a lie. And you know what the truth is when you're making that kind of money and you're enjoying it?

it. Let's be real. I love sports. I love gambling. So that's what my passion was. Right. And you know this. If you work for a living and you do something you enjoy, you're already rich in life with that alone. But never mind how much you make. And if you make a lot of money doing that, then it's a deadly combo. And I was. Yeah. My wife thinks I work 80 hours a week because she'll wake up in the middle of the night. I'm answering comments and I'm, you know, doing something. Checking this. And to her, she's like, God, you work all the time. It's like talking about some guy said this and this. He said,

I'm just commenting. You know what I'm doing the same thing everybody else is doing for free, right? Of course. Yeah. But you enjoy it. Yeah, of course. Yeah. You love it.

That's not work. I mean, that's life. Right. So that was me. I was having a blast and enjoying life and, you know, feeding my addiction, which is really kind of the biggest thing in this whole thing is like, no matter what people say, I own it.

I have a huge gambling addiction. I love the rush. I love, I love Las Vegas. I love betting on sports. I love all of that stuff. And I had a way to finance that. And it was being the house and being the casino, which is what I developed. I developed my online casino also was a sports book,

but I had cameras on a live dealers in Las Vegas, not in Las Vegas, in Costa Rica that was similar to Las Vegas, where if you had an account with me, you could log in and play live. And that way you know there's no one cheating. You can see the dealer. You can talk to her. You can tip her and you can see six tables that you can join and actually, you know, play the live casino games too.

So I had everything and I had this great business. I had, you know, for 20 year relationships that I had with customers that, you know, enjoyed betting through my website. I provided a service. They enjoyed it. And of course, the negative side of that is, yeah, there was people with gambling addictions as well that that lost more than they should have and, you know, ended up having a problem with their own financial world. I'm not saying that my platform didn't have that. It did. It's no different than Las Vegas, no different than Atlantic City, no different than Fandu or Draft Kings.

That's happening everywhere. So a lot of people like to attack me and say, oh, you're praying on gambling and people. It's like, no, I wasn't praying on anyone. They were coming to me and using my platform. Do I look for something to do now that I'm past that life and do something that is more of a win-win situation where I'm not having, you know, the problem with my life is the first 48 years until I was raided by the feds, I've been making money off other people losing. And this is the first time of my life, or like you, I'll be doing something in a different

platform where people get something out of it and I make money without them having to lose. Right. That's a great feeling. So I have a question. How did they, did you ever find out how they got to you? No, because I didn't have a case and there was no, you know. It's not like Tommy and. And Jimmy and Paul got busted and they were currently incarcerated or they were currently in the Marshall's holdover and talking to the FBI.

Nothing like that was happening. No. You were just like, Yeah, I had no idea. Just came across to you somehow during some bust. And I was completely shocked. Truly, even though I was running an illegal business. In fact, I got raided in March 25th.

Right. And in my bank account, they noticed two weeks before that I just paid my taxes. So as a professional gambler, as you asked earlier, so I didn't have any other job at the time. and so clearly I was paying taxes on my income, clearly not the right amount, but I was paying a lot of money in taxes. It's funny, I did a loan for a guy that was a professional gambler. And when he handed me his 1040s, I was like,

that didn't make sense. He's like, no, I was like, this is not a son of thing. Yeah. He was like, yeah, it is a thing. And I was like, are you serious? He's like, yeah. He's like, what do you think if you're a gambler and you're making money? I was like, to me, I thought gamblers don't make money.

They really don't. But rarely, but he was one of the few. And he, you know, I think he claimed like 80 or $100,000 a year and was paying taxes on it. I was just like, that's, I'd never heard of that. Sure. It's so rare. But, you know, if you sell drugs and you can get busted by the feds or whatever, but IRS-wise, if you claim drug dealer on your return and you pay taxes.

And you bought a house with it, you're keeping the house. Yeah. Okay. Right. It's wild. People don't realize that. I mean, the IRS does not care what you do. Good strategy.

No, it's definitely a red flag. Yeah, definitely. Why do you think I'm a drug? Why are you saying I'm a drug dealer? Well, your last 4W2, or your 1040s say drug dealers. Yeah. It's pretty obvious you're doing something wrong here. But reality is IRS is probably, as you know, most people's downfall when it comes to these cases.

It's a tax issue. I mean, of course, they're committing another crime. Well, I was going to say that it's the fallback position, right? Like you can't get Al Capone for what he's doing. But you know what we can get you for? You know, is the fallback position? Tax evasion. because there's no fucking way you're living like this.

Heidi Fleece. Yeah, you're not doing anything. Yeah. And that's the reality. And nobody wants to also put on their tax return back to your point what they're doing illegally. So you're in a box. Like you don't want to say it, but you also, you want to pay taxes to avoid the problem. You open a, and then what's the problem is you open a legitimate business and you funneled the money through there.

And now you got, now you got money laundering. Yes. Right. That's what I'm saying. They got you no matter what. Yeah. You know, and I got charged for all three. money laundering, tax evasion or falsified tax return, and then, of course, bookmaking,

which is the lowest charge, you know, 10 years, five years, three years. I mean, so really the bookmaking was the, I would have did probation. Instead, I'm doing a year and a day, but the reality is it was all about money laundering and taxes. And my judge harped on the taxes, to be honest. And we had an answer for that, but my attorney didn't even argue it because it wasn't a legitimate answer. And the answer was that I was, I lost $4 million in the casino in 2000. 2022 and I claimed 600 I paid $680,000 in taxes that year so it wasn't like I paid zero or I was trying to right and because of my losses we tried to offset it against my business they wouldn't allow that

because it's an illegal business right so I really was filing a actually my mind a correct return but they don't accept that so so that's where my falsified tax return comes in which is the five-year charge which is why I'm doing time right so we were I think we got we got we I've pulled you off topic. Yeah, what's wrong with you? I'm curious. So you're running the business.

Can you explain, like, logistically, how does the business run? Are you taking all your bets on Friday? You know, how are you paying these guys? Good point. Yeah,

and how's the money moving around? Because you don't, you're not, this is going to be, this is going to be such a red flag. Even if you had six banks, they're going to be like, the hell,

you have to have some kind of cover. Oh, for sure. So one of the issues of running an illegal operation at this level is I was debanked from every single bank in the country. I had a account of Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Union Bank, you name it, every bank. I got thrown out of Comerica, farmers and merchants. Now I'm currently at a credit union. But the point in that is the challenge of moving, I was moving roughly $5 to $7 million every Monday. And of my 1,200 players, it was about 800 when I was rated by the first.

feds, but 1,200 was my peak. On Monday morning, I should say Sunday night when the last game ended, I would start working from, call it 8 p.m. Pacific time until about one in the morning, and then I'd wake up the next morning at like 5 or 6, and then I'd work all the way until 6 p.m. And that process was really most of my work. That was the finite issue of being a bookmaker that most people don't understand. And I'm going to give an example. Let's say, Matt, you were gambling with me and you won $8,000.

You're here in Tampa. I'm in California. I got to get $8,000 to Matt Cox in Tampa Bay, right? Right. So how do I do that? Does Matt want Venmo? Does he want cash app? Does he want crypto?

Does he want cash? Does you want a wire? I got to figure out, I got to reach out to you and figure out how you want it. And once you know your customers, you know exactly how they like to be paid. So I would focus on the winners first because my reputation in paying the winners

is what kept my business alive and why I built it to where it was. So let's say for that particular week, I had 800 players. Let's say that 240 of them won. Okay. So I'm going to contact all 240. I'm going to figure out how they want to be paid. What format?

I'm going to make note of all of that, right? In this example, let's say you want $8,000. You want Venmo. Okay. Now I'm going to go to the other group of customers. Let's say for that week, 260 of them lost. I'm going to contact all 260. I'm going to say, listen, John, can you Venmo $8,000?

You owe $10,000. Can you Venmo $8,000 to this phone number for me? If you do, I'll carry the other 2,000 over. You don't have to pay it this week. We'll just let it float in your account. You send $8,000 today. I'll even give you a little free play bonus because I want to pay my people on Mondays.

So that $8,000 would be shifted to this gentleman being you. You don't care. You're getting exactly how you wanted it. If you want it in crypto or cash, or if you want a FedEx, I would FedEx do the money. You have it the next day. Or if you live in California, I run or drive to your physical office,

literally knock on the door and hand it to you. However you wanted it. That process was the most T-DX, and the hardest part, and actually were people found me the way I ran my business to be the best. Because most bookmakers don't do that. What they do is they wait to pay everybody on Fridays. I'm paying everybody on Monday, which is hard enough to win. So if you could win and get paid on a Monday, you love your bookmaker.

Right. So by offering deals and discounts to these players to pay on Monday, then I can facilitate all this movement. And the ones who don't, no problem. you want to pay James on Friday that's fine I'll wait till Friday no big deal but I had the bank roll to where whatever I had to lay out whether it's two million that week or three million I can lay it out on the streets and I know I'm going to get it back by Friday from most of the customers that pay so it's funny when I was watching one of the other videos I must have skim through it or something because I missed that part and I was I had heard that you had said you were

you had like it was like cash it dropping off cash or something this and that I thought how the hell is he moving that much cash? Like who could, but that's brilliant. The whole, you owe me 10, I owe this guy eight, send him eight. You can continue to owe me the 10. And you just, really, it's just logistics and bookkeeping. It is. And to be honest with you, I have such a big annuity balance, I call it, because everybody

owed me money. Everybody who won, I paid, they always want to be paid in full. Right. I mean, there's a few that'd be like, I'm out of town, roll it over. But almost everybody wants to get paid. And the reason for that is it's hard to win. Right. And they need to taste the wins,

otherwise they won't play. But the ones who lost, if I gave them a little bit of a deal or let them carry some of it over, I was their best friend. Because they lost 12 grand that week. And they only got to pay eight. Great.

I don't have to, I can hide it from my wife. I don't need to, you know, it's only eight grand to pull from a bank account or Venmo or whatever they're doing. They're happy. And so I was very easy to work with

because this annuity balance just accrued. So he's carrying four grand. He doesn't mind, owe and you eight six grand or four grand or two grand. He doesn't mind that. He minds it if you don't pay him the eight grand, you owe him. Of course. But guess what? Next week, he has to win that back before he gets paid, and he's probably going to lose again. And then I'm going to hit him up and then now he might pay the whole thing. Or maybe the same thing. Just pay another four grand. To me, I didn't really care about collecting every penny that was owed because having those

balances gave me the liberty to make sure I could pay all the winners. That's all I cared about. Right. You know, at the end of the day, you pay all the winners. Anything left over is my money. money for my agents or whatever and then all these agents i had throughout the country were all holding cash for me or venmos or cash apps or both so that i knew that on a monday i could call john and chicago and say hey your players won 18 000 this week you're holding 60k of mine pay them the 18 grand now you're holding 42 000 and that's our new new balance and then all this was the logistics that i had on my website so when you got rated and you decided i'm I'm going to scale the, I'm just going to go ahead and scale everything up.

What did your wife say? Was she, I mean, was there a good discussion where she was like, listen, this is, we got to do something else? You got to. Well, I got raided in 2014. And basically that relationship ended not because of the raid, but we just went our separate ways. So when I met Nicole in 2015, late 2015, I was 40. She was 28 years old. Beautiful, beautiful woman.

I thought to myself, she's 12 years younger and me, I have four kids. There's no way this woman's going to date me. I'm just going to try to sleep with her because she's beautiful. As you should. Right? As every man.

You're not wrong. No, not at all. In fact, the only thing you should be thinking about when you're 40 and you have four kids is, you're not thinking about marriage again or more kids. But when I met her, truly is the most amazing human being I've ever met in my life. And 28 years old, but like,

so grounded and mature and balanced that I couldn't believe it. So I never plan on getting married again. So my wife and I were not married yet. And we were scouting out places to go for our bachelor, bachelor, bachelorette party. And Baja Mar casino in the Bahamas opened. We used to always go to Atlantis. I love the Alantis, beautiful place.

And the Baja Mar was, it's a combination of three hotels, Rosewood, SLS, and the Hyatt. And they're beautiful. It's the replica of the wind in the Bahamas. So I established a credit line there. and I go there. My wife and I scouted out. We're like, this is where we want to come.

I had a great trip. Just three days. I went 165,000. And because I was an illegal bookmaker and the federal government had me flagged, I never went through the airport and showed cash because they would just scoop it and make you come claim it, which you can't. So I won the money. And in the Bahamas, unlike most countries, you go through customs there, not when you land in LAX or wherever you're coming back home.

So I go to the airport. It's Sunday morning at like 5.30, you know, early flight. You get there, I go through the customs, and you fill out the form. $10,000 more in currency, no. Do you have any fruits, vegetables, whatever? No. Hit the button. Red, not green.

Oh, fuck. So the guy says, you have additional screening. Surprise, surprise. I mean, my wife go over additional screening. He asked the same questions. You look at the form. I said, oh, no, no, I have more than 10,000 in U.S. currency. You know, it's not to get you there.

Yeah, yeah. And he's like, well, you check no. What do you mean? I said, oh, it's six in the morning. I'm fucking hungover. I'm sorry. My wife and I had a great time. A little groggy.

And he's like, well, that's a problem. So how much do you have? I said, I don't know, like 150, 160,000? He's like, where's that at? And I said, it's in the luggage. because I put it there for a reason. We spread it out throughout the load. So it's very obvious.

We're hiding it. It's in fucking toiletry bags, socks. I mean, the batches are everywhere. And he says, you put $165,000 or whatever, $150,000 in your luggage? Don't you think it's a little strange? I said, officer, honestly, I just didn't want to carry it. I mean, I'm a fucking line out of my ass now. And he's like, okay, well, come over here.

So they all the luggage comes up, pull it all out, put it all on the table. counted out, it's like 165. They said, well, this is a felony. It's failure to declare. I said, what is failure to declare? I understand, but what does that really mean? Why is it a felony? He's like, that's a felony in the United States,

and you're trying to avoid taxes. And I said, in my mind, I'm not really trying to avoid taxes. I just don't want them to take it. So he says, I said, officer, you can verify it. You can call right now, the casino, and they'll verify I won this money. I'm not doing anything shady. It'll drugs or anything. I was a legal bookmaker.

I didn't mention that. And he says, well, we're going to turn you over to the Bohemian government now. That doesn't seem like a good idea. So in my mind, no,

it wasn't. In my mind, he says, I've heard that they just take the money. They confiscate the money and they let you go. So I wasn't really worried at all. So he turns me over the government

and they drive us to the local station. We already missed our flight, obviously. My wife and I'm like, it's all right, babe. Well, we weren't married yet, but I'm like,

everything's fine. they're going to probably take the money, but I'm going to try to get back, you know, because I'm cool. We get to the station, and I'm arguing, not arguing, I'm arbitrating to try to get the money back.

Little do I know that money is not only long gone. I'm now being read my rights, and I have one phone call to make the U.S. embassy to talk to them, and we are going to be admitted to jail. I'm like, huh? And he's like, no, you're both under arrest. And my wife starts,

hyperventilating. I mean, it was really bad. So I'm on the phone with the U.S. Embassy. I'm telling them, and I'm pleading. If you want to put me in jail, fine. But this poor girl, she's just fucking along for the ride. Like, she had nothing to do with this. Like, you guys are on the same form because we felt the form together.

And it doesn't matter. Part of being on the ride, sweetie. He's going to be okay. Well, I didn't know she's going to be okay. She took it like a champ. No, she was hyperventilitar. editing, okay? So they take us to, they cuff us and they take us to the local jail. And there's three cells and three cells. Is this your current wife? Your, your wife, okay. She's going to

marry me and going back there for the, for the, for the bachelor, bachelor, bachelor at 40. And so they threw me in a cell with a Canadian guy who just grabbed the waitress's ass at the casino. So he was there. They threw her in with a woman who was on crap. It was like quivering. And then across of us was some bohemian guys that were uh let's just say checking out my wife and being very um you know traumatic with her words to the point where i was fucking saying fucking relaxed to have some respect motherfucker and so that was happening and you know she i can't see her because the jail sales there were brick walls and then you could see across but you can't see you know to the side so she's hyper crying i mean hysterical and i'm like guards you know i'm trying to get their attention they don't

care. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I don't know what to do. But she is not calm me down. So I said, you know what, babe, fuck it. I'm just going to cause a fucking scene. I'm just going to beat the fuck out of this kid right next to me. And this guy looks at me and he goes, what the hell did I do, man? And I said, victim of circumstances. Because I wanted to make chaos to get the guards over there because my wife was literally, it sounded like she's in convulsions and I can't console her. And I felt so shitty that I put her in this predicament. So she stopped crying. and says no no baby relax relax so obviously that worked so i'm like okay thank god and uh about two hours go by and they finally come over and they put us in a van and they drive us to now the prison and i'm looking

at her and i don't even what to say i mean i can't even explain what's going on i'm i'm in a fucking twilight zone but i'm trying to be calm and because it's her i feel so bad so we're driving to the and i'm the warden is the one driving the van this is in the bahamas It's a little different than here. Yeah. And I'm like, listen, sir, I'm sucking him off every which way. Please do not take my wife. Right.

Like, I'll spend a month here if I have to. She did nothing wrong. And he's like, you have no control over that. That's just the operation. And now she's like getting pretty fucking hysterical. So the drive's about 10 minutes. And I'm trying to console her. We're in handcuffs.

It's just a disaster. We get to the prison and they walk us in. then they had to open one of the prison cells to take three guys out of a cell because clearly she's a woman. Yeah. Put her in there, right? And when they pull them out, they're shackled hands and feet. So that was just even more dramatic, right?

So she just starts fucking, I'm talking like, she looked like she was on drugs. She's in convulsions, right? And the warden says, are you all right? And she's like, you know, crying, yeah. And I said, no, no, no, she's not. She's not okay. He's like, are you going to harm yourself? And she's like, no.

And I'm like, oh, yes, she is. You know, so I'm trying everything. So he felt so bad that she truly was having a problem that he allowed her to go back to the other holding cell. And then they left me there. So they threw me in a prison cell. And the cell was a two-man cell. I say two-man because there was two-block brick beds. And there was a kid there that just committed murder.

He was 19. another guy who was smuggling drugs through Florida and then another guy who was on crack who was sitting in the corner just quivering and then I get in the cell and they're like what's up cracker I'm like oh boy here we here we go and I was just ready I thought I thought we're going to get down I mean it's a tiny cell but they were cool but they said all right here's the rules the toilet doesn't work number one see those water bottles they had like 10 water bottles and they were disgusting full of urine yeah and there's

feces everywhere. I mean, it's disgusting. It smelled and it was dirty. And they said, this is your spot because there was no bed. They were laying in the bed. So I just stood in the corner and said, all right, you know, I wasn't throwing up any contest. And they said, if you need to pee, you just grab one of those water bottles and piss in there. I'm like, okay. So that was Sunday about by the time we're there was maybe one o'clock, 1 p.m. And then because the courts were closed, we had to wait all the way until Monday to go see judge. I have no idea where my wife is. I don't know if she's being raped, murdered. I have no idea what's going on. And I have no answers. Nobody will tell us anything. I don't even know

that's why they're waiting until Monday because the court's closed. I don't, they don't tell me anything. Yeah. So I'm just sitting there. That was the weakest moment of, if I ever had in my entire life, because there's the unknown is obviously the worst, right? And so Monday morning comes around, no guards, nothing. No food, no water, by the way. Never got fed one thing. There was zero water. nothing. I don't think they cared. Monday about, I'm going to say 11 a.m.ish, maybe noon. Guard comes and grabs me. I get in a van. I drive to the courthouse. I come in, I'm dirty. Even though I'm there one day. I'm not rolling in this shit, but it's like, it's somehow the sweat and I'm like literally dirty. And I walk in and my wife comes from the other side and we were cuffed and we're sitting in front of the judge and she was not nice.

and she's like, you think you Americans think you can come over here and not pay taxes and smuggle money through here and da-da-da-da-da. So they kept the money. And then she says to me, it's $5,000 fine. And you need to hire an attorney. And we happen to have two attorneys, one for each of you, right in the back of the courtroom. Oh, how convenient. So we have to hire these two attorneys. No problem.

But our money's all gone. They don't take American Express. They don't take debit cards. So I said, well, the fuck do you think I'm going to get money? That's what I said, right? And these two attorneys we spoke to said, to me, they said, can you get any money here? And I said, the only way I can get any money is if I go back to the casino, grabs the mic, your honor. Would you allow our client to go back to the casino to receive the funds to pay for the fines?

She says, yes, I'll allow that with a police escort. So my wife goes over to a holding cell that's attached to the court. while I get in a police car and I drive about 20 minutes in traffic to the Bahamara casino. Did you ask your wife where she was going to get her $5,000? No. I wasn't asking her anything. I got the eye from her that it was like, we probably aren't going to be together much longer, which I don't know why she's still with me. So I get in a police car, they put the siren on, and they drive to the Bahamara.

And mind you, I'm a big customer there. I have a million-dollar credit line. I just want $165,000. and I'm coming back for my honeymoon or our bachelor bachelor's at party. And so I walk in the casino and I go right to the cage and say, I'd like to withdraw $12,000.

10 to pay and two to put in my pocket. I have no money. So I have a pocket change. And the cashier says, you know the rules, Mr. Boyer. We can't give you, you have a credit line. You can't just withdraw funds.

You have to gamble or that's the only way you can receive the money. And I said, I don't think you understand. My wife's in jail. We went through this, da-da-da, called the president. My host was already on the phone.

I tried everything with him. Nobody could do anything. So the officer is about 12 feet behind me, one of them from the car, and he's obviously making sure I don't flee or whatever. I said, so you're telling me I have to go to the tables to gamble to get my wife out of jail so we can get out of the situation.

I say, I can't tell you what to do. So I turn around, I look at the officer, and I said, I just need to go over there real quick. Not telling what I'm doing. I walked to a Baccarat table. I bet 20,000. What do you think happens?

I actually bet 12. What do you think happens? Did you win? Of course not. I lost. Okay. I thought I was thinking how you won? No.

So what do you do next? You bet 24,000. So you're just... Loser. 48,000. Loser. I am never been... In my whole life, I've been gambling since I was 16.

Never been this nervous. ever in a sporting event. I bet $4.6 million on a Super Bowl game. This bet was $48,000 bet that I just lost now has accumulated to the point where I can't bet enough to win it back in one hand. And thank God, the president of the casino comes running down to my table,

and I look like a dirty scumback because I'm just dirty. And he says, Mr. Boy, Mr. Boy, I heard what happened. I can help you. Stop, stop. You don't have to gamble. Let's go. So he walks to me over the cage.

I would draw the $12,000. and I get in a police car and we drive back to the courthouse. I pay the attorneys and we were forced to immediately make a flight out. Otherwise, we're going to be held in contempt in jail again because we are now being deported out of the country and their immigration. It's funny because they're all wearing like safari outfits, literally green armies. They drove us to the airport and walked us all the way onto the plane. And we were there early because our flight.

So for two hours we were sitting in there, we were just dumbfounded what just occurred. They sat with us, like, you know, from a table away to make sure that we don't stay in their country, I guess, which I thought was really funny. And so we left, and we landed in Miami, paid a tremendous amount of money for this flight because it was the last one. And we stayed at the fountain blue. And when we walked into that hotel, it was the best night of sleep and best shower I've ever had in my life. Right. And to this day, that money that was taken, of course, is long gone. and then I had to convince her to go back there for the bachelor,

bachelor's battechrette party, which is like 30, 40 days later, which we did, but I promised my wife from that moment I will never, ever travel with over $10,000 in currency the rest of my life, which I haven't. So that story is not only wild, but it was the worst moment in my life. But you fast forward in 2018, we got married, and she's been the blessing. But she knew what I did from day one. And she accepted it. She was a very hardworking woman.

She was a waitress and started a clothing line and still runs it to this day, 10 years later. And she's never been about money. I've been more than money guy. You know, I've always been about money. I've loved money. Let me rephrase that. I'm not all about money, but I do love making money. And the sad thing is I don't make money truly.

I love material things, so I don't shy away from that. But I make money, I give most of it away. I spend it on my friends and family and I just enjoy life. And I've always made money because I love the challenge of just making it and running a business. She's more of a person that's more like save and let's do this, wait for rainy days, which is smart. I never worried about rainy days because I was living on the edge and knew that this could happen again. So we just lived it up. And she frankly thought I was nuts and I am.

Real quick, the debanking. Yes. why were the banks, not that they give you a reason, because I know they don't give you, they just close the account. Here's a cashier's check for what was in the balance, and you say, wait, why did this happen? They go, well, you can write a letter, you can talk to corporate, whatever, and corporate says, we just decided. They don't really tell you why.

They never do, and they never will. Right. Well, wait a minute. Oh, okay. And this is what I was going to mention to you, and I'm dying for somebody to do this, by the way. I've talked to a couple of guys who have been debanked who are like fraudsters. Okay.

They've been debanked. not you're being debanked for obviously for the it's suspicious activity is why you're being debanked but they also people get debanked for um reput that's called reputational debanking like basically the bank can they can just oh we decided not to work with you why oh because uh you're conservative or you're you know Andrew Tate uh-huh I mean and it goes both ways by the way so there's there's lots of people that get debanked Trump. was debanked. His kids are debanked. Wow. And in your case, I know that you were debanked, and at one point, your wife was debanked. Yeah. Just because why, you're associated. Correct.

So Trump side, and I don't know, do you know, have you heard this? No. So, you know, I don't know, I think it was an executive order. It was about three weeks ago. Okay. And I will send you the article and the, if you look it up on YouTube, there's a bunch of things about Trump talking about it. Okay. He talks about how they debanked him. He debanked him. Right. They debanked his kids. And he's like, I was going to, he said, if it weren't for small banks, I would not have the ability to pay my employees.

He's like, literally, they debanked like all of these, like his corporations started getting debanked everything. He's like, I can't pay my employees. Right. And so he signed, I want to believe, I believe it's either an executive order. I think it was an executive order recently, only a few weeks ago. Okay. Where he said it is illegal to debank someone. for reputational

reasons that you're no longer allowed to do it. And I've wondered, I'm waiting for it to happen to somebody. I actually have a buddy who I'm like, look, you need to go back in the bank right now, go to two or three large banks right now and apply. And when they debank you,

go get your lawyer and sue their living shit out. You just, you guys just, you just debank me and there's an executive order right now. You absolutely just, What am I looking for? You violated an executive order right now. That's it. And they're either going to be like, oh, my bad, or if they fight it, that's great.

You're going to lose. It's an executive order. You're done. I agree with you. I didn't know this is happening. Let me tell you my situation. But remind me, I will send you that. I love that.

Because I will do that. Because somebody needs to go in and do that. Yeah, push them a little bit. Like, do you have any, well, you, of course you do. It's fucking impossible to do anything. My wife cannot charge. she has a legitimate business, never been charged with a crime, always paid her taxes. Her business cannot receive a person to buy women, usually, buy leggings, unless you're into that, I'm not,

to buy leggings off her platform with American Express. Yeah, I mean, what the fuck are you doing? I mean, so here we are fighting for our lives, as you know, you've been through this. Financially, you know, you're already shaken every which way, right? And then I'm going to prison, and she's just trying to pay our bills and run a business legally and pay the government their taxes, and yet we can't because we can't receive, you know, she got thrown out of Chase Bank. I mean, American Express no longer will allow her to do business with them.

We have 800 plus credit scores. We've always paid our bills. It's just, it's crazy to me. It's not fair. I know a guy who's got a fraud charge, went to jail for like three years, got out, couldn't, didn't understand initially, couldn't get any bank out. They kept closing him, closing them, closing them. Either they wouldn't let it you in at all or he'd open them and three days later they closed them.

That's what they do usually. So he goes to his mother, to his mother's bank. She's like, you know, mom, come to their credit union. I got you. I got you. Goes there, talks to Sally. Sally, this is my son. They open up a checking account, no problem.

Three days later, they close his account. The mothers, they close the mothers. She's been there like 30-some odd years, 40 years. She's like 80 years old. I've met this woman. Yeah. closed everything she's ever had with him. Even like the retirement fund and everything said,

you have to find somewhere to transfer your IRA. And it's like, what the fuck are you talking about? I've been in 40 years. Yeah, but you're associated with this guy. This guy's got like a, he's got like a wire fraud charge. He did a few years. Like he's not, what are you talking about?

And he did his time. Right. Came out, you know. Straight fucking scumbags. Well, we'll listen to this. So the last, I'm going to say, I got thrown out. I was doing a lot of. cash transactions in my bank.

So I knew that SARS was clearly in effect, right? Yeah. So I stopped doing all that after I got debanked from Chase and B of A. So I started open regular accounts. In the last 10 years, I've done zero cash transactions, not $1 in cash. Everything I put through my bank account has been legit in the last 10 years. Truly. Yes, I was running a legal operation.

I'm not denying that. But all of that in cash and everything else, I did not put through my bank account. So I could keep the bank account, which is why I got a money laundering charge. because you are correct. I had to use other people. Not on purpose. I wasn't hiding it. I just had to. But the point is, the banks now have debanked me every which way, right? And I have legitimate income. I work, I sell artificial turf. I don't know, Jiu-Jitsu Studio. I do marketing for car dealerships. I actually do have legitimate work. When I put those checks in a bank, they debanked me as well. And so my argument is, I am doing everything by the books now. I'm doing everything legally, and you're still throwing me out.

So it's all reputational. I have proof of that. Yeah. So I would love to take this paperwork in and go to them and say, hey, lawsuit's coming if you don't allow me to bank here. And it's really simple. And even for my wife, I would love for to be able to accept American Express again. If we weren't making our payments or, you know, I paid my restitution in full before I even gone to prison. Who does that?

Right. Less than 1%. It's already been paid. I took a home loan off of my property, which I made legitimately. I mean, the equity I made was off, obviously, my commodities and. and all the legitimate business, too. So it wasn't like, you know, I was Al Capone and, you know, money laundering and buying these things with illegal proceeds.

Right. I mean, some of my lifestyle was illegal proceeds, but I did run a business, you know. I'll send you the articles, but I mean, I'm telling you right now, you can look it up on YouTube or anything. It's, there's a bunch of, I'm shocked that the problem is you haven't been interviewed by scumbags. See, scumbags know this stuff. See, I know that you've been legit.

I've seen your interviews. There are legitimate people. legitimate people don't know these problems exist. You have to come to someone like me to know. I don't think you're a scumbach, but I understand that we've all done some things wrong in life and you're rewriting your script. That's all you can do. That being said, I mean, we're viewed as scumbags because we're felons.

I'm okay with it. I'm embracing it. Yeah. It's the whole, it's the Joker. You know, I don't mind being the Joker. I like the Joker. Listen, the people that are judging us anyway are people that either A, didn't have any risk or balls to do anything to do something in life and they wish they had that

opportunity or they are doing something that just haven't been caught or, you know, hasn't been shown yet. You know, it's funny is like, and you'll get this. If you haven't already gotten it, like people will start walking away from you. And then you'll notice that there are people that don't want to, they don't not return your tax anymore, your phone calls. Oh, I went through that. Yeah, yeah.

And suddenly, and it's not, like, if it's because you're doing something illegal and you're protecting yourself and you're concerned, I get that. Right. But if it's just because you. you're an upstanding citizen and I don't want to be a, I don't want to be around someone like that, someone that's, but like, you're dirty. Once you've gone to prison, you're like dirty now. And like, that's never bothered me. Like, I've always, I've been okay with that because it just cut to the core of who you are. And I don't want you in my life. Like, I'm okay with that.

Sure. Like, I used to say when I was in prison, I was going to, I said, look, I said, when I get out, this is going to be two kinds of people. And the simple version is those that will put money on my books when I'm locked up and those that won't. And the longer version is, those are those people that know the person I was and the person I am today and those people that can go fuck themselves sure it's just very you know very simple right and it's great it's a great equalizer well what you love about is you weed out people that you don't have to invest in anymore right you know because i i'm sure you did i've really given a lot to my friends and i've been there for them especially when i was at my heyday and so if they're not going to be there in my downtime

then they're not my friends so at least i know now right not the and here's all the not that I was giving them because I expected something back, but it let me know where you stand. Where you stand. Like, you're not going to come see me in prison. You're not going to answer the phone when I call. You're not going to put a hundred bucks on my books. You know, like, you're not going to do any of those things that I would have done for you. Right.

And that's fine. Now I know. Sure. You know, good for you. You want to go do your thing. Like, it's fine. But I'm actually glad. For sure.

Like, thank God this allowed this cut through all that. The fork on the road can be great. You really do cut people in your life that you don't need to spend time on anymore. I have too many friends anyway. So it was great for me. I was like, perfect. I don't have to invest in these people anymore. And most of them, I'm going to tell you what's really funny about my situation,

the first year I just sat there like a duck, didn't say a damn thing. No social media, no fight back, no defending my character. And my attorneys were telling me to do that. I'm sure you understand why. But a year ago, I opened my first Instagram. and my social media I've never had in my life. Right. And I just started telling the truth, defending my character and giving my version of what's

really happening. And my version, by the way, is not making me look perfect. It's not like, oh, I'm just defending and I'm saying I'm an angel. My version is, yeah, I have a gambling problem. I was running a legal business. I definitely made some poor choices. I'm very accountable for my actions. That narrative is the truth.

Not just he prayed on people, the sensationalized media. You know, all the things that make you look bad, that's what they put out because it sells. So I started doing that and my attorney's like, you're stupid. She told me, you're actually stupid. And I said, I don't care. If it gives me more time, it adds to my situation. I would rather show my children that I can at least fight back and stand up for myself. And even though the media is the media and they're always going to judge you in a certain way,

I wanted to really show the world who I was and that I stand up to being accountable for my actions. And it's great because I got this little. following that, you know, you have a social media presence that I never even anticipated. And then they're buying my book. And now I'm getting all these messages. People are offering me money to send me money. I don't accept it because it's just a little weird, but random people are offering to help me pay my bills for no reason. They don't even know me. I mean, it shows you the humility in the world and how there's a lot of negative, but there's a lot of positive people out there that have your back. And I'm like, how is somebody who's never met me in their whole life doing more than

And some of the people I've bought four million dinners for, taken on my private jets and done all these things and they're just there for the free ride. But yet some random person in Iowa wants to send two grand of their own money just to help me and my kids or my family. I'm like dumbfounded by that. I had the same. I had the same issue when people wanted to send me money or buy my book or come meet me and have me sign. I had the same issue where I was like I didn't understand it. I felt very well. Like something was wrong.

Sure. And then, you know, eventually I just finally said, you know, stop being a douchebag. This person, you know, for some reason you move this person and they want to do something for you, you know, and you need it. Yeah, it's been great. The support. I mean, obviously selling books, you don't make a lot of money. You know that.

But it's great to get your story out. It's great to move somebody and inspire them in a positive light. Right. Maybe they learn from your mistake or my mistake. And they're a better human being. So everybody's winning here. Right. That's why I really like my next chapter.

I'm going to do what you're doing, motivational speaking, getting paid to be on a stage. And if I save someone's life from addiction, whether it's gambling, drinking, you know, drugs, whatever, or maybe they just suffer and they don't want to take any risk. At least you took some chance. I mean, you and I have made some poor choices, and we ended up doing time. Well, I'll be doing time for it. You did time for it. Those poor choices make you who you are today.

Right. And nobody's perfect. Yeah. So to me, I actually, I'm very, October 5th. 2023 was the best and worst day in my life. It was 9.30 in the morning. I'm walking out to my car with my son. He's two years old.

And I'm with my professor, who's my jiu-too partner, who beats the living shit out of me every day. I don't know why I go see him. But anyway, we were going to take my son to the park. And I was putting my son in his car seat. And I hear FBI freeze. And I literally thought I was a joke because I didn't anticipate this happening again. And I look over and I just seen literally eight guys with a.

and you can tell i mean you've been through this you can tell what they do is they send in i would call them the bad motherfuckers first yeah the ones who secure the premise and they're definitely in better shape and clearly uh enjoyed this process and um so they they obviously i had my son so they put the guns down and then i grabbed my son out of the car seat and they they didn't cuff me because i was holding them they cuffed francisco and they said who's in the house who's in the house and i said my wife and a handyman so they proceeded to this was the hard part i'm sitting on the driveway and you just hear the the pounding of the garage door because my garage was open and so they're about to go into the house and i'm just envisioning my wife i'm like oh my god this is going to be so scary for her

and uh the handyman's painting inside my living room so you hear that whole process and then she comes out handcuffed crying and then he comes out he doesn't speak much english so he probably thinks he's being deported and he comes out crying and now I have everyone scattered on their driveway and there's I'm counting on there's the dog goes in with the same eight guys who are more serious and uh that takes about 15 minutes my house is pretty big so it takes them a while to secure it all and then they come back out and they kind of hand the keys over to the FBI IRS agents that are still just sitting with me not asking too many questions yet and um that process I'm just looking over my wife and she's bawling. I can't console her. I'm trying to keep my son. He's smart. He's

two years old, but he doesn't understand what's going on, but definitely does there's something going on? And I start counting them. There's 29 of them, three women and 26 men and a dog. I'm like, wow, this is, I mean, am I Osama bin Laden here? This is a little over, overkill. So these eight or ten guys secure the premise, they leave. So now we are allowed to go. I go in the property with them, of course, and they have me open all the safety. and then they allow my wife to leave with my son. And I have a choice. I could stay with them for the raid or I can leave.

I chose to stay. So we go sit in the backyard while they're just ravaging the house. And they're not the kindest to the property. You know that. But they were actually pretty kind to me, to be honest, like in general, because I wasn't putting up much of an argument or admitted to what I was a bookmaker and there was nothing to hide there. And I wouldn't talk to them without an attorney.

So there was not much to talk about. So for eight hours, they raided my entire home. And then I just, they had a hub. Like my dining room table was where all the cash was being stacked up with the purses and the gold and casino chips and everything I had in there, which is probably about a million dollars with an inventory. It wasn't, I only had $270,000 in cash because they caught me on a Thursday. And if they would have been there on Monday, it would have been probably a million five. I just paid everybody a few days ago. So that was helpful.

That being said, the raid went down until. about maybe 4.30 p.m. And as they carried out the boxes of the evidence and computers and, you know, electronics and cash and everything, you just, you just feel violated because you are being violated. But I ran a legal business, so I knew this could happen. So finally, my wife comes back home. You know, we're definitely, I knew this time was very serious.

Yeah. I just, you just know. Nobody came out to you with the piece favor. There was no abandonment for him. So now, of course, you know, I got my attorneys and we're starting that whole process. But what happened that minute, to be honest with the mat, was when I just shifted my mind to becoming probably the strongest I've ever been in my life, mindset-wise, because I knew I had to not only transition my mind, but my families.

Because going through a federal raid and a federal indictment, anyone who's never been through it doesn't understand that it's not really even just about you. It's about everybody around you, as we discussed about friends and et cetera, but more importantly, your family, immediately the family, they all feel it as much as you do. Because they know you're probably going to prison. They know that the life has just changed dramatically. Let's be honest. I was making a million, million five a month. Now I just realized it's going to be zero instantly. And then they're going to take everything they can. So it's not like you have resources. I mean, any resources you have, unless it's hidden is going to be grabbed or throws or whatever. So you know your life

is, and here I am. I'm 48 years old at the time. It's not like I can go become a doctor. I don't have that much time. Right. You know, and we all know that you can't get a license when you're a felon. So I knew all these things were, so I just told myself, what are you got to do? You have to rebrand yourself. I've always envisioned having the wolf of Wall Street, you know, in my life as far as having a movie, because everyone's told me for the last 30 years, your life is chaotic. It's absolutely bananas. You have so many great stories. You should just write a book or do a movie. Everyone tells you that. You're just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm living my life, whatever.

But I didn't realize until I wrote my book how crazy my life really was. And now that I'm taken out of that equation and I'm looking back at the storm, it was like, wow, I was gambling so much money and so much exposure of risk and craziness. I didn't even realize it until I would say I'm taken out of it. Right. So that's what happened. And in that process, I started writing a book. And I started actually documenting, you know, my plan, my vision. And then when I started my social media,

everyone laughed at me like, you're fucking crazy. I said, yeah, I am crazy. I'm abnormal. But I'm okay with that. I'm not a sheep. I'm not going to be a guy or just does the normal thing.

Good, bad, or indifferent, I will be on top again. And I could tell people who are looking at me like you're seriously out of your mind. Like, you're fucked. Like, they thought my life was over. And maybe to this day, they still think I am because I'm going to prison.

It's just getting started. I will make more in the next 10 years that I've made in the first 50. 50 years of my life. I have no doubt of that. But it's going to be a harder road. It's going to take more of a grind, but I'm smarter about it. I have more experience. So that's my plan. But that raid was the best and worst day in my life. And I needed change because even though I was on a plane every two weeks for $2 million, flying higher than 99.9% of the world ever will, it wasn't, it was a little bit empty. I had the most amazing wife and I had a great family,

but I was chasing this dragon of dopamine that was only getting worse. I bet $4.6 million on the Kansas City Chiefs and the Super Bowl in 2003 in February. I was rated in October. If you fast forward another four months, I would have bet $6 million on the next game. And the next year it would have been $10 million.

Right. There's no stopping me. And good and bad. I mean, it was great the drive I had, but the bad is it was going nowhere. You know, it was empty. So now I have, as we spoke about earlier, or the win-win coming, and that's my plan.

But I thought when I was raided, I thought they were coming because of Shohei Otani. The Dodgers baseball player is the best baseball player in the planet who's ever walked the face of the earth. But come to find out, that's not why they came. They came because of the Las Vegas casinos and the money laundering and them allowing me to avoid the KYC rules

and all the things that were going on in Las Vegas because they wanted my business and my money. Because I lost $13 million, in Vegas over the last year and a half, which is a large amount of money. So they actually were raiding me because of going up the ladder. They wanted the casinos. And they still do to this day. I advance my sentencing.

My case is still going. And probably aren't going to be thrilled about me telling you all this, but I'm out of, I'm being a sentence and it's over. So I'm going to prison. My case for me is done. But that case is still ongoing. And I advance the sentencing because it's probably going to go on another two years, maybe longer.

I don't know. Some of these cases go on forever. I advance the sentence. What does that mean? Yeah, by advancing the sentencing, the government wanted me to continue to wait. Okay. Because the casinos are who they're having an argument with.

I'm going to call it an argument. Okay. A case against. And in that case, they want a settlement, right? They overlooked K.C. SARS, CTR, all these acts. And for those who don't understand what that is, KYC is know-your customer.

SARS is a suspect. activity reports. CTR is cash transaction reports. And they weren't following all those guidelines 100%. They were supposed to. Well, why weren't they?

Because they weren't allowed to allow an illegal bookmaker to come gamble on their casino and blow $13 million when his income shows he makes a million dollars a year and it's illegal. So they're not following all the rules.

They knew I was a bookmaker, but they, I don't blame them. They wanted to make money. The government's holding them accountable for that. So, So they come in and they grab you because they know you're betting all this money with the casinos,

but they also know that the casinos are not abiding by all of these regulations. So they grab you in the hopes that that will lead to an indictment of or a case against the casinos. That's correct. Okay. And that's what's currently happening right now. So when they grab you, then what happens? They bring you downtown and they explain this to you? Yeah, my lawyer, obviously, I hired my attorney.

Because you asked for a lawyer, so that it stopped talking to you. Correct. So I had no idea at the time. I just knew that it was serious, but I had no idea what it was about. And then my lawyer made a deal with him. Right. So he comes to you and says, this is what they want. Well, actually, this is what she said.

She said, you have to go talk to them. You got to tell them everything. And I said, Diane, and all due respect, I'm not doing that. Right. I'm not talking about the people underneath me. I'm not talking about people in my telephone. She says, well, they want the casinos. They're after the casinos.

And I said, I'm no problem talking about casinos. Right. No offense, I can care less about a casino. They wanted my money. I wanted their money. It's a war. They're not a friend of mine. So I said to her, I said, why don't you just tell the government that Mr.

Boyer is happy to sit down with you and discuss his transactions through the casino and nobody else, not his telephone, nothing. And she said that's not going to happen. And I said, well, that's what I'm willing to do. It's a bad idea. But she thought. Right. But guess what?

Depends on how bad they want them. They're okay with it. Yeah, yeah. Because I'll tell you why. They already had me by the balls. I was dead. I mean, I basically, my evidence was all on the phone. I wasn't denying what I was doing.

And anyone below me, you know, agents and stuff, they're not even a, it's beyond a low-hanging fruit. They're not even big, big money, you know? So, yeah, yeah. They wanted the casinos, and they still do. It's like arresting the drug dealer and then saying we want all of your, all of your, the guys that are buying drugs from you. That's correct. What are they? 100% are nobody there.

So they decided to proceed with that intact. And that's where we're at. Because of that, I had to wait until they prosecute, let's call it, maybe not be the right word, make a deal, a criminal complaint against the casinos. Okay. That criminal complaint is still ongoing to this minute. They kept advancing it. This is the third time advancing my sentencing, moving it, pushing it back. Yeah, but yeah, advancing.

That's the wrong word. They kept pushing it back. The third one, after they chose, they asked them move it back again. I told my attorney, I do not want to do that. I have the right to a speedy trial, and I'm advancing my sentencing. I'm moving it forward instead. I'd rather go in front of the judge and do my, so I forego my cooperation. Right.

That's what happened. So in that foregoing to cooperation, obviously, going to do time because I'm not cooperating with the government to a full extent now in regards to the casinos because they can't give me credit for something that hasn't happened. Does that make sense? It is. So they were going to give you a 5K1 and they said, well, we're removing it. And if we need you, we'll give you a Rule 35. But you'll have already done your time. That is correct. I'm surprised they didn't jack the time up to try and keep you there. They were kind. But in that process, which is where we're going with this, let me tell you why I did have to cooperate

against somebody. His name is Ipe Mizahara, interpreter. And I'm going to explain to you why. I would never go to the government and talk about him. I didn't, in fact. I was rated in October. But what happened was, in January, I had an ESPN reporter named Tisha Thompson come to my home flying in from Washington, D.C. with a report, or I should say she was going to put out a report that she has sources that say that Shohayatani was betting through my website, the famous baseball player. Right. So immediately, my attorney and I made a deal with her, that we would sit down and listen to what she had to say because we were concerned. I was very concerned that she had information because she said in a letter as she was flying out to me, that she had a lot of information

about me. And I didn't want that to come out, obviously. And so once she sat down on my couch in my house and told us that information, we immediately had to go tell the United States government this information, because it was much better coming from me than ESPN on sports. And then reading it on. That's correct. In that process, he would have been indicted anyway. Yeah, yeah. So, but I would rather have told them about it first. So because of that, I received credit for bringing Chohei Atani's interpreter, Ipe Mazarra, to the forefront of the United States government,

which, by the way, Matt, was the fastest FBI investigation in the history of the FBI, open and close, the fastest. So you can go look that if it's factual. From open to close to the fastest ever. What does that tell you? Well, obviously, they're smart.

MLB would like their golden boy and the most amazing baseball player in the world, which deservingly should be exonerated and be playing baseball and get on the field and keep the seats full and everybody's got to make money. And, you know, that's what became so high profile in my case. So what happened? Give us the, I mean, you've gone over to, you know, on a bunch of podcasts. What happened? How did that relationship develop?

Develop. Yeah. So I was friendly with a couple of baseball players for the Angels. We played golf and hang out and obviously gamble and whatnot. I even go to spring training games. And in that process, I started, you know, one guy might refer another, et cetera. Then I went to a Padres Angels game in San Diego, California. After the game, we went and hung out with the Angels team, some of them, not all of them.

And they were staying at the Hilton Hotel in San Diego. And we went and played poker there in a private poker game in a conference room. And there were about four baseball players, first and third base coach, I believe, and maybe eight other regular Joe's like myself. And we're just playing small poker, two, three thousand dollar buying, just messing around. In that process, E. Paa Mazzahara was there. And he was on his phone. He's the interpreter for Shohayatani, translator.

And he... And they're like good friends also, right? I would say beyond best friends. Okay. Like, I mean, attached to the hip. He was doing all his errands, running, you know, media, everything. And that relationship was so tight. We, we, me, my friend and I saw him betting on his phone, actual,

sports bets. So my friend said to him, you know, Matt does that, right? And you need an account, happy to, you know, connect you. And he's like, of course, that'd be great. So the account started really small, 1,000 a game, $8,000 credit line. It's a tiny. Normal account for an interpreter, that would be very sufficient. Within three weeks, it was 40,000. And a few weeks later, it was 300,000. And then I had to put a stop to it. I was like, okay, until you pay, I'm not going to give you any more credit. Then he wired the 300,000. I never looked get the wire because it wasn't going to my bank account. Right.

Because I'm debanked. Second, as soon as he wired it, he asked for more credit. $500,000. I give it to him. This guy paid me. Loses $500,000, he pays. Is this guy just losing and losing and losing? He's a really terrible gambler.

Okay. Truly, one of the worst. You know, and he was betting soccer, which, by the way, is very difficult to win at. Because in soccer, I'm not going to bore you with it, but the bottom line is if you bet a soccer game, and in 90 minutes, it's one to one, two to two, zero to zero to zero, you lose. But that team may go on in the added time and win. But you lose your bet.

Or there's a football game. If they play overtime and your team wins, you win. Or baseball. So soccer, because of that, they give you a little bit better odds, but it's very hard to win. So moral of the story is that's all he bet. 80% of his bets were soccer. He couldn't win.

So he loses another $500,000. And now it's $1.3 million. He wires it. This wire transfer, my friend calls me, and says, Matt, are you sitting down? I said,

yeah, why? The wire transfer I just received for you is from Shohei Otani. Oh shit. That's a problem. Good thing,

but a problem, right? I have these mutual feelings here. Good because I have one of the wealthiest players in the world who's just signed a $700 million contract.

He's making more money and endorsements. Can lose umpteen amount of millions and it won't affect him. Bad because we all know that it's the biggest player in the world and more eyes could be on this situation and you know that that's not good for me

either so but i'm already balls deep as i'm 1.3 million in the guy's already by the way at this point he moved his credit line to a million and has already almost tapped his whole credit line again so he asked for more credit of course i extend it i'm greedy i like money and you know he's i'm providing a service he doesn't seem to be having a problem with it and i extend them more credit do you think that Otani is behind the bets? Absolutely. At this point? That's what you believe. 100%. Because how can an interpreter lose $1.3 million?

Yeah, I was just wondering, like, you do understand what the going rate for an interpreter. Yeah. And he's the highest paid. Yeah. He's the highest paid interpreter. It was like $200,000,000 at the time. Yeah. That's, you know, ginormous for an interpreter anyway. But to me, I'm like, he's paying. And anonymity is something I provided as a service. That's one thing, one reason why people like illegal bookmakers. And also, he's not showing any signs of distray. And I don't care of a show he at Tony betting.

In fact, I prefer it. I'm not going to lie. He's got deep pockets. Yeah, and he's just gambling. I mean, he's not betting on baseball. There's no bets on baseball. That's the legal part that for him. My business is illegal.

But yes, for him, that's the big problem. So I'm like, you know what? Big deal. Fast forward. Now he goes to be $7 million, $8 million. And he's sending me wires every two weeks for like $500. $500,000. And I'm going to Vegas and I'm having a gay old time and enjoying my life. You know, I was already making great money, but now it's even more. And to be honest,

I see this as a vow that's never going to shut off. And you're feeding a dopamine rush that I love. And I'm just enjoying this. My business is even better than it's ever been, right? So I continue to just service the account until I get rated in October. October 5th. And then that's when Tisha Thompson comes to my house. And that's when I had to, you know, deal with this head on. And that's when the whole world will find out. So January, Tisha comes, we go speak to the government. And then in March is when it comes worldwide famous. And that's when the government comes out and addresses the media and does their... Press release.

Entire investigations already done, which is amazing. And they found that I obviously helped the United States government show, it was very important to me, that the public knew that Shohay Atani never bet on any baseball games. I didn't know if he bet at that time. I had no idea if it was still Shohay or Ipe. I presumed it was, I mean,

I had some evidence that Shohay was actually playing baseball on the mound and bets were coming in. So I either thought they were partners or he was betting for him. I didn't know. Frankly, I didn't care. Yeah. But I was really happy to see

that the government's investigation showed that he didn't gamble. because I didn't want the tarnished for his legacy to be for this, like a Pete Rose, who was my client, by the way. But IPE was clearly gambling, and here's the part that's still in question. Everybody asked me this. I mean, the only people that know the truth of what exactly occurred

is Shohi Yatani and Ipe Mizarra. Right. But I was the third closest person to this. Let's be real. I didn't have a lot of conversations with Ipe. He wasn't a man in many words. I only met him maybe three times in my whole life. we had a lot of text messaging, which the government released all of them.

And my last text message to him was, clearly, it says, it's all a cover-up. I say that. He says, finally, technically, I fucked up. But what does technically mean? To me, it means, yes, I fucked up and I used his money. This is my take. It's just clearly my assumption. but Shohei knew that some of the money was being taken from his bank account.

To what extent? To what dollar amount? How long? He just may know that I know that my best friend has a gambling problem, but fuck I'm worth 100 or shit. Almost a billion dollars. Almost a fucking billion. And he's losing some money, sure.

But we're not going to run out. And I feel bad for him. And I have a soft spot for him in my heart. Right. And he'll pay it back or make it back later or whatever. If it gets crazy, then I'll deal with it. Right. I think that's what occurred.

That's my opinion. Obviously, the whole world thinks Shohei Atani was betting and I understand the perception. I would too if I didn't really know the whole story. If anybody has a benefit to specifically say that, it's you. Yes. And you're not saying it.

I thought what happened. Listen, it would be easier for me to say. Yeah. I know it was Shohiataani betting. Right. I mean, it would be the easiest way for my case to be even, like, more, have more eyes on it. And I could sell more books and I could benefit personally more.

Right. But I'm not doing that because that's not what I know. Yeah, yeah. It's not the truth. It's not. I'm just going to go with the truth. I am because the truth always sets you free. And I'm living a very truth life at this moment.

I don't have to worry about government, illegal bookmaking, none of that. And it does feel free. But I don't think this poor guy deserves the tarnish that he's already dealing with. And by the way, he's overcome at times 10. He won the World Series. He got MVP. He had the best year of a baseball player on the planet last year. And he's doing it again this year.

So all the power to him, he's amazing. you know I wish I could meet him one day I mean I don't know how he feels about me I'm sure he doesn't love me but I love to meet the guy but the point is he wasn't gambling I firmly believe that I don't proof I didn't watch him with my own eyes I just don't think he gambled because when you gamble you gamble you gamble right you don't just all of a sudden never gamble your whole life no one's known him to gamble and then you create a 40 million dollar gambling debt and just go bananas and it's every day of your life especially when you're the best player in the planet and all you do is focus on that so I don't believe he did but something

people still think he did, whatever, they're entitled to their opinion. So that's, that's, I can't imagine that he would, he would, he would, or anybody would have a hard time, you know, or have hard feelings towards you when you, when you could have just cut his throat. I, like, I could have just cut your fucking throat, bro. And they wanted me to cut your throat. You know what I'm saying? Like, trust me, that's the government loves a good.

A story like that. Yeah. They, they, they loved, it's just like why they love to find a police officer to go after. Right. And, you know, it makes them look good. It's look, we're doing big things. we get a bunch of press. Sure.

But to say, yeah, I'm not going to say that. Right. You know what I'm saying? For sure. That's, you know, so fuck all. What's going on? Your wife called you too, I think. Oh, she called me? Yeah.

Okay. That's all right. What time you have now? It is 12.11. Yeah, we're good. Let's just keep running. So what, I think it's, you know, for someone who doesn't follow baseball, like, this guy is the number one guy. In the history of the sport.

Yeah. Ever. I mean, imagine this. Tiger Woods is a great example. Yeah. I think everyone knows, like him and Jack Nicholas are one of the best ever. Yeah, our era, Tiger Woods, right? He is, to me, better than Tiger Woods as far as being the most dominant athlete in baseball.

Not even close. No. It's not even close. It's like when guys are like Joe Rogan, they're like, do you understand the amount of the market share that Joe Rogan has? Like you say, well, who's second? Second doesn't even, you can't even pretend that the guy is second. Because there's that far. It's like everybody else is fighting it out down here and here's where he is.

That's correct. That's a great example. Joe Rogan is the ultimate podcast in the world and everyone knows that. Yeah. Matt Cox, sorry, you're not Joe Rogan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Matt Cox, the Joe Rogan of True Crime. There you go.

So what was his public perception before this? And I know you said like, you know, what is the perception now? Because I don't follow baseball. So I'm not sure exactly kind of how it's. So, Shohei Otani's perception. in the world before this case was probably the best perception you could ever have of a human being as clean as he's never even been seen having a sip of alcohol he's never been seen of being out in a nightclub with a girl never even seen with a woman actually until this case happened

and then he's now married but the point is his perception even though he's been through this hasn't really changed much at all because he's that amazing of a person from what I see and from what the world has seen. He has zero flaws. I mean, everybody has a flaw, but that has been seen. And he truly has this little, tiny little taboo tarnish, but it's not even, I believe it's not even his fault. No, it's the fact that my, it's just that I associate with a guy that I really like and he has an issue. And he, what, basically the money that was coming was he's taken some money out of, out of his bank account. So he's, his best friend and interpreter is, What you know? I don't know if he's stealing the money or if he well he got charged for that he's in 57 months in prison

Yeah. You know did he did he just say that he stole it in to make this look better? Yeah to make it so that he didn't tarnish Correct. Correct. And I get that if that's what happened. I totally get it. Yeah. I do believe that he took way more money than probably Shohei was okay with where or aware of. But it's easier let's be honest. It's easier to say I didn't even know about that at all. I Yeah. Than to say, yeah, I helped him with a little bit because there is a problem with this. The player could have trouble, small amount of trouble, for knowingly sending money to an illegal operation. Right. And they're stolen.

He's good. Correct. So that part, I understand. I do think it's funny. I want to mention this that I, P.A. Mizahara had a 90-minute phone interview with Tisha Thompson the day before the Dodgers came in and he had to change that story and said, he lied. I think that's interesting that that 90 minute phone call was completely redacted into a lie once Dodgers came in and spoke to IPE and and of course this is the story you're going with.

Yeah. Yeah. So that makes me wonder. But I do know, let me restate that. I don't know. I do feel very strongly that Shohayatani never made any sports bets at all. And I don't think he's even gambled, period. That I actually believe 100%, but I don't have any proof of it. but I'm the closest to it with proof. Yeah. I have a question with your sentencing. Did you, do you know or did you know kind of what you were facing? Like, I know you read the charge.

She rattled off the charges earlier and it was over 10 years, it seems like. Yeah, 18. Yeah. So what, how did that quickly? How did that kind of process go? Did you know that you're only going to do? Yeah. He will understand this.

So I was facing a max of 18 years. obviously the max charge is never really what you're facing my sentencing guidelines were 37 to 51 months based on my charges and you know how the federal guideline system works they did they were very kind to me my judge and my prosecution prosecutor were very kind to me they after my pre-sentencing report investigation came back at 41 months from the probation officer they recommended 15 months because of the attempt to cooperate that I did, and it did assist them. And also, you know this. It helps when you, anyone who gets in trouble, and they immediately plead guilty and attest nothing. It saves the government a lot of resources and money and time. Right.

They appreciate that. I also have never been charged with a crime in my entire life. I've never set foot in prison, so I'm a first time an offender and all that stuff. So all of that being said, they recommended 15 months to the judge. So when I went into court, I was looking at probably, 15 months. Most judges kind of are in that range. Could it gave me three years, could it gave me four years. But I did feel very comfortable and confident that my attorney would do a good job. And I did a lot of mitigation. I did some nonprofit work with prison professors.org.

I worked with USC kids giving back, trying to teach them about addiction. I did a lot of community service. I tried to show the judge and my prosecution that, you know, that I'm reformed and I'm obviously remorseful, and I made a mistake, and all I could do is be better. And so you end up being sentenced to a year in a day, a year and a day. Which you know why that's helpful, right? Yeah, yeah, it knocks 15% off. Like, if it was, if they sentenced them to a year, he doesn't get any good time. Yeah, it has to do the full year.

A day, they're going to knock off, you know, they're going to knock off, whatever, 15% of that. And, of course, what the classes and all the other things, mitigation you can do, really, it could be six months. Yeah, I don't even know if you have enough time. I mean, to get much off. But anything, even a day, you know, anything to any, the, anything you get knocked off is worth it. What is it matter? You don't have anything to do in there anyway.

You're just, you know, you're going to walk the track. You're going to work out, walk the track. I don't even think they have weights. They do it, Lompoc. Do they? Yeah. Yeah. Fuckers.

I know. and communicate with your wife for whatever. I think they up the minutes. So I think you can talk maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day. It used to be like 10. You can talk 15 minutes each call, but you've very, you only had 300 minutes. So really, if you want to call every day, it's 10 minutes a day. But I'm pretty sure somebody told me or I saw somebody sent me an article. I'm always getting these articles. These guys are always reaching out to me. So I'm pretty sure they just upped it to like 400 or 450 minutes a month. Which I don't know why they wouldn't let you talk 450 minutes anyway. when you're paying for it.

Yeah, they make money off of it. And, you know, they don't listen, the BOP is not, like, they're not motivated by anything to make the inmates more comfortable. Right. Even though one of the things, if you look on their website, they'll be like, we strive our, or pride ourselves on helping the inmates stay communicated, or in communication with their families and to hold those bonds. And then you get into prison and you find out you're doing everything possible to keep me

from communicating with my family or speaking with them or doing anything at all. Sure. But it's getting, I guess it's getting, in some ways it's getting better. In some ways, it's getting worse. Right. It'll always be a give and take. Yeah. I think Donald Trump being president really helps.

Yeah. Let's be honest. But also Michael Santos and the prison professors, he's working with the Bureau of Prisons and really trying to white collar crime, trying to get people to get home as opposed to being a prison for white collar crimes. Right. And I think it's heading that way. Yeah.

So we'll see. And Justin. Justin Perperney. Yeah. Piperney. That's a tough one. Do you feel like that helped you mitigate your sentence by working with them? No question.

Okay. No doubt. Money well spent and friendship developed. But they held my attorney accountable, which I didn't need to. She was amazing, to be honest. But a lot of attorneys aren't. They sell you a bag of goods and then move on to the next client and push you aside. They do a really good job of helping you hold your attorney accountable.

They help you with character letters. help you with, you know, just navigating the whole process, really. I mean, there's so many steps that are unknown, especially for a person like me or in your case, you never been through this before. So you kind of learning on the fly, you know, federal indictment and what do I do? You know, it's a lot of unknowns. And they just really lay it out for you. Helps you a lot.

So, you know, as this case and as my, I'm going to call it, started my new life as occurred, because that's what happened as of October 5th, 2023. I really think people who watch this or listen to this need to understand that when you have adversity in front of you, it's your mindset that gets you through all of this at the end of the day. I mean, you know you've been in prison for 13 years, and that's a strong mindset. And to come out and rebuild as you have, I commend you for that. I started doing it the day that I was rated. I mean, literally, I had moments where, you know, you're just like, what in the world is going on in your life and everyone's questioning you. You're questioning yourself.

but I continue to dig deep in my mindset, which is why I wrote my book Recalibrate because I need people to understand that we all have a story and we all have these, you know, adversities that we have to overcome. And some are bigger than others, but it doesn't matter.

We all deal with it. You could be the best athlete in the world or the most successful person. They have dark hours. They have dark times. They have things that maybe you just don't see because they're better at pushing it aside and dealing with it.

And the ones you don't is the ones that come, you know, comes out more. That being said, my book is a great example. example because I tell everything. I tell the dark moments of my life. I tell things that I'm embarrassed of, not being able to pay people, borrowing money, you know, taking shots at bookmakers, you know, being in a position where, you know, doing things that are completely against the way I was raised and what's right. But I show that because I'm not perfect and I don't plan to be perfect. I don't want to be perfect. All I want to do is be better. I want to be a better father,

be a better person, be a better husband, but be a better human being. And in that process and what's developed in the last two years for me since I was rated was I've become the best version of myself. And I will make more money than I ever have in my life because of that. Because when you wake up every day and you know, you look in the mirror and you know that every part of you is a better human being every day and you got better from the day before, it's really hard to stop that. And I'm 25 days from setting foot in a federal prison. I'm the strongest I've ever been. And I'll come out even stronger. I'll use that six months to a year to just redevelop my mind even better. I'll write another book. I'll get in better shape. I'll do everything I can to mitigate and get

home to be a father and be with my wife. But that book, Recalibrate, which is on Amazon and my website, Matthew Boyer.com, is a great learning curve for anyone. Whether you're successful, you're broke, you're poor, you're rich, it doesn't matter because anyone could, you know, have some sort of, you know, it'll propel them in their life somehow, right? Well, everybody has crises at one level or another, you know? We do. Everyone does. Some people, it's much bigger than others. Sometimes they get into a car crash and they'll never walk again. You know, some people, it's just a matter of maybe it's just moving a family member and they're feeling extremely depressed.

Everybody's got different levels. And you could get something from my book. Yeah. And my plan now is, we're filming for my documentary as we speak. I'm very excited about that. And I do plan on a feature film. That's really my goal to get to that level and having some amazing movie like Wolf of Wall Street of my life story. And, you know, eventually public speaking and giving back.

and inspiring others because truly I've gotten more out of that than I ever thought I would. So this process has been really therapeutic for me. And most people come out of prison and they reinvent themselves. I started at the minute I got in trouble. So my Instagram and all my socials at Matthew Boyer 5 show all of this. They show the dark moments of going through a federal indictment. And what you feel like when you don't know the anxiety of the unknown, right? I have an unknown now.

I'm going to prison, but that's a lot different, the anxiety of not. knowing what your sentencing is. Yeah. You know, and you've been through all of this, so you get it. But most people who watch this have never been through any of these things. And if they have, they understand it. If they don't, at least we're giving them some, you know, some basis behind it. But I hope to inspire people.

I hope that they'll follow my journey, buy my book, you know, follow my website. I don't do it for money. You know, you know that. You don't make anything on books. But it's just great to give back and help people and motivate them in the right direction with their mindset. So thanks for having me on the show. Hey, you guys, I appreciate you watching.

Do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button, hit the bell so you get notified of videos just like this. So please share the video to any of your friends and family. Also, please go into the description box and click on. We're going to leave Matt's links for his website and for his the Amazon book. Also, if you're interested in being a guest, please go. We're going to leave our website link. So go to the website.

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