Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Diamond Thief Finds Unlimited Money Glitch

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Matt Cox interviews Cory Smith, a former fraudster that exploited a lucrative loophole in the jewelry supply chain.⁣ ⁣ Cory's links⁣ https://www.instagram.com/mula_fnf/⁣ https://linktr.ee/Mulafnf?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=6e023161-1291-4d71-859a-4cc37427976b⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://www.insidetruecrimepodcast.com/apply-to-be-a-guest⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Go to https://hometitlelock.com/mattcox and use promo code MATT to get a FREE title history report and a FREE TRIAL of their Triple Lock Protection! For details visit https://hometitlelock.com/warranty⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ 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

You didn't start a business just to keep the lights on. You're here to sell more today than yesterday. You're here to win. Lucky for you, Shopify built the best converting checkout on the planet. Like the just one tapping, ridiculously fast acting, sky high sales stacking, championed at checkouts. That's the good stuff right there. So if your business is in it to win it, win with Shopify. Start your free trial today at Shopify.com slash win.

Looking to grow your investing skills and make smarter decisions with your money in 2026, join Her Money's Investing Fix, the twice-monthly Women's Only Investment Club, where expert stock pickers pitch ideas and you help build the portfolio. Since launching four years ago, our member-driven picks have outperformed the S&P thanks to smart, collaborative choices. We've got a strong track record and a community that's learning and winning. together. So go to investingfix.com. That's Fix with two X's and join us. Forcare, it's going to be 25,000. He had no idea that was stokes. I'm spending money so fast. I'm not even really keeping track of what I'm making. A lot of my earlier crimes were just epic, like, failures. I would say the epic failures because I made no money. But I took a very high risk. And when I was in the county, a lot of times I was seeing people getting sentenced

10 to 20 years for armed. So I seen early on that selling drugs and doing robberies and burgers of the things wasn't something that I was good at. So what I ended up doing was, is I taught myself pretty much how to do, you know, different types of fraud, different types of scams. Mostly credit card, fraud, you know, identity theft things of that nature. And honestly God truth, I just started like mailboxes, like hidden mailboxes. That's how I really kind of like got information to commit identity theft. I started hitting. How did you know how to do with those?

you talk to some people that were doing that? No, no. I just taught myself. Like, honestly, I started hitting mailboxes, and a lot of times, whatever information I can get out to your mailbox, I'm going to try to utilize it. Like, I'm a person that, for one, I have a photographic memory, so I'm very good with numbers.

Once I see something one time, I lock it in. So I got a lot of, you know, information from mailboxes of things of that nature. and I would call in play that I was actually, you know, impersonate the person that I was, you know, information I was using. And I would usually, you know, reorganize their whole account. I would reorganize their whole account to whereas all their mail and any information that had regards to their account was being sent to wherever I wanted sent to. And once I would get their call, their replacement card, I would open up a whole new account with the information. And I would just basically, you know, it was basically identity theft. You know, it was a small crime, but I basically, I basically, I basically,

trend i i just see like transition from doing the stuff as far as like armed dealing with drugs into fraud because i seen that i wasn't good at basically doing these things in the streets or illegally so i like let me try this but i really tried it just nobody taught me i just tried it like let me try to see if i can be good at this and i tried it i just you know i got the information i started just doing small things buying small things clothes of that nature, you know, jewelry, little small things basically that I was just, I was young. So I'm just buying, you know, just things just to be like wear or have fun or anything I could utilize just to be, you know, say I did something. Yeah. So I caught a case for that. I was staying with my

un at the time. They came in and kicked the door in because I wouldn't come to the door. They came to the door and playing closed. You know, a lot of times you see playing clothes officers, you're like, I'm not answering the door. Like, you got to come in here and get to come in here and get me and exactly what they did. They kicked the door down, ran in and then I had some mail and stuff that was placed around the house when I was stayed with my aunt. They found that I had 14 counts so I didn't eat theft. So I ended up doing 32 months altogether, you know, this is in the county and state. That was, like I say, my introduction as far as into crime and things of that nature. But I say I learned a lot during that time where I was incarcerated. I met a lot of people.

I know you've been incarcerated before, so you know you meet a lot of people while you like the... Of course. And they're constantly, they're constantly coming and going, coming and going. Right. And the thing about it is, it's like, you might get somebody's information, right? Like, hey, man, staying touch with me. You know, I'm around this way or I do this. So I met a guy when I was incarcerated, right?

And I got this information. We were cool. This was when I was in the county. And I was in my, you know, I was thinking to myself like, you know, I'll probably never do see, do it again. but I got his information. Yeah. So when I got out from doing those three years, I seen him. I was at, like, a festival, like downtown in Atlanta.

So I seen him. He's like, what's up, bro? Like, no long time, no C. Like, take my number down. You need to call me. Like, it's important. I need you to call me, like, hit me up. Like, you know, we need to talk.

So I'm like, all right. So I got his number. And a lot of times I do this, I'm going to have him doing this. I'll put a number in my phone, but I won't save it. It'll be in my call log. but after a certain amount of time, it'll get erased because I never saved it. So that's kind of what I did that day.

I doubt his number in my call log, but I never actually locked his number in. So I say this was like, that's why I say everything, it was like, just like fate in the sense because I say no less than probably like three weeks later, I see him again. I see him again at the grocery store.

And like, he like, bro, why you didn't call me? I'm like, bro, I ain't like, I forgot to save your number. I was like, let me get your number again. Like, bro, you need to hit me. Like, we need to talk. So I'm like, all right. So he's got something going on. He got something going on.

He thinks he can work you into it. Right. So I finally hit him and I'm like, what's going on? He's like, well, listen, I got the credit card information if you need it. So I'm like, okay. I'm like, so he's basically he's selling it. So he has credit card information, basically, you know, info that you could use, utilize it forever you want to do. So he's selling it to me.

I started doing business with him. So I started doing business with me and my cousin, we're basically, you know, buying his information from him. doing, you know, whatever we see fit with it. I mean, we're doing all types of things with, honestly, like in-store pickups, whatever, or stuff online. So it's just credit card information. You know, where I'm from, we call it like, we call it Punchy's. So it's punchies, basically, you can punch this information in,

whether you can punch it in online or you can punch it in over the phone. It's all somebody's credit card information. Where do you order, if you order a bunch of stuff, you order $200 worth of stuff, where do you just have it mailed to a house near you? I would do it multiple ways. I would do in-store pickups. I would send it to what we call bandos. That's basically like places like, basically like abandoned house.

But I would be there when the actual FedEx driver, UPS driver, would be there to drop it off. So, you know, during this time, that's what we were doing. I would do in-store pickups and, you know, place my name as a, you know, receiver or the person or recipient to go pick it up. Or I would just say, you know, mail it to the abandoned house. And you're sitting there in your car. He pulls up. You get out, start to walk into the house. It was like you live there.

Oh, is that for, yeah, I'll take it. Right, right. So, like, and that's kind of like, later on, you'll see why, like, the stuff that I learned early on, I just basically transitioning to bigger things. But I'll explain it to you later on as far as, like, you know, the bandos, what we call abandoning of houses or things of that nature. So basically, I'm using the credit card information. I'm doing good business with him. Like, I'm buying info probably, like, two to three times a week.

You know, he's selling me basically one piece of information, two or three pieces of information. You know, I'm buying a lot of it per week. What are you getting with the information? Is it just stuff like, is it stuff to live or are you buying stuff that you can resell? So this is what we were doing at first. Me and my cousin, he knew a guy that owned a construction company. So he knew a guy that owner construction company. So the construction company owner basically telling us, listen, whatever you get from home deep or low,

I'll give you half off. So he's placing orders with us. I'm doing in-store pickups. I'm doing in-store pickups. I'm basically going inside at Home Depot lows and picking up whatever that he places in his order. He's giving us half off. He's cashing us out.

I mean, is it like DeWalt drills? He's getting anything. It could be faucets. He didn't care because he could go back and return it? Is that what? He's using, he has a construction company. He's getting John Deer riding lawnmores and refrigerator. These are big, okay.

Yeah. Yeah, so he's getting anything, like whatever he puts in that order, I'm finding it and I'm going to pick it up in the store. Okay, so he's making orders. Right. I thought you were saying anything. No, no, no, no. He's not anything in the store. You're saying, he's saying, I need a John Deere lawnmower, I need two DeWalt drills, I need.

Right. And then you're making an attempt to get all of it. Right, right, right. So that's basically like, you know, what I started doing as far as with information that it was giving me. So as I continue doing business with, you know, with a guy that I'm at prison, you know what I'm saying? He basically came to me one day. He's like, listen, do you want to make some real money? Like, I see that what you're doing, you know, I'm pretty sure you're making a little bit of money.

And one day he pretty much asked me for an order. Like, I know you're doing a lot of stuff at home deep on lows. Listen, I need you to get me something. So he had just got a new apartment. Like, I need some stuff for my new apartment. Can you get it for me? I said, yeah. So I do it.

and basically it kind of like established a different level of trust with him because he had been, you know, I did it for him, I did it for free. I mean, I used the information he gave me, but it kind of like stronger. It strengthened our relationship. So he's like, listen, do you want to make some real money? Do you want to make some real money? Because I see what you're doing, but he's like, that's petty in a sense. Like if you want to make some real money, I said, I say, yeah.

He's well, listen, I'm going to introduce you to something that's a little bit different, but I'm going to show you how to do it and I just want to cut from the proceeds of you doing it. So I said, okay. So what we started doing is there's a lot of people are not familiar with this but it's dental gold. So he worked for a guy that actually made

like, you know, like dental gold, like grills and stuff of that nature. And in the dental industry, they use gold, you know to make caps, fillings, whatever it may be. And he knew how to get this gold basically from the distributors and manufacturers, and he knew how to order it basically without any credit card or anything. So basically what it is is gold. And it comes in ingots.

Ingis is like little small little grains, right? So, all right, let's do the math on this right quick. So 28 grams is one ounce. So it'd be like these little small grains, little small pellets, be 20 of those. And it'd be mostly majority pure gold, like 18 to 24, 24 karat. So I'm getting ounces at a time. Now, mind you during this time, this is probably like the time frame of like, you know, 2013, 14, 15. An ounce of gold is like $1,000.

Okay. So I'm getting four, five, six ounces at a time. And basically, I'm ordering it. And we have dental labs. that ordered this gold. So these dental labs that are ordered this gold, we basically impersonate that we're these dental labs, and we order from their distributors and manufacturers

that they place these orders for this gold. And there's not a lot of security because nobody, this is not like a, this is not a crime that's on the radar. No, it's not. And basically, if you're familiar with business, a lot of business owners, you're not,

you're familiar with the transaction called a net 30 or net 30 account. So a net 30 account basically allows you to order stuff. It's almost like financing without, you have 30 days to pay it back. So a lot of these people that these dental labs that I'm ordering these from these manufacturers or these gold have a net 30 account set up with these particular manufacturer distributors. So I will order these ounces of a goal and I would get them sent. Like a lot of times I would call the distributor manufacturer. I would add an address to their existing account and it would be an abandoned apartment or abandoned house. or I would call and place an order, and with FedEx or UPS, I would call them and reroute the actual

package that it was originally going to and send it to where I wanted to send to. And I would be there at the time where it would be dropped off. So that was what I was doing, like I say, during the time of like when I transitioned from basically doing the credit card fraud to doing the goal. Going online without using ExpressVPN is like going to the bathroom without locking the door. Even if you think you have nothing to hide, why give a random creep a chance to invade your privacy? In the U.S., your internet service provider knows every single website you visit, and they can legally sell that information to advertisers. ExpressVPN reroutes 100% of your

traffic through secured, encrypted servers so they can't spy on you. Here's why I like ExpressVPN. It hides your IP address so third parties can't track you. It works on all devices. phones, laptops, tablets, you name it. And it's dead simple. Open the app, tap one button, and you're protected. I use ExpressVPN every time I go on a hotel or airport Wi-Fi. Those networks are wide open. And it's important for me to keep my private stuff secure.

Once somebody gets into your personal stuff, it's hard to undo. That's why I lock mine down online. Secure your online data today by visiting expressVPN.com slash ITC. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-V-P-N dot com slash ITC to find out how you can get up to four extra months free. ExpressVPN.com slash ITC. And when I was doing the goal, it was a little bit more money being made. I would probably make anywhere from four to five, maybe $6,000 a day because I would order, like, anywhere for 46 ounces. And it would come overnight.

Like I could call on Monday morning. Like I called before like 4 o'clock p.m., let's say Eastern time, it would be there the next day. Early a.m. delivery, you know, basically by 10.30 a.m. You just have to hang out in the, in your car. I had to hang out of my car. And that ended really being my downfall because of the simple fact that one day it was a sting operation and they were waiting on me.

And the UPS driver basically ID me. But I had a funny feeling that particular day. I was sitting in front of an apartment. I was parked in, I mean, he was sitting in front of the house. I was parked in front of the house. and when I was sitting in front of the house, I was basically, I seen an unmarked car pulling into the neighborhood.

Now, like I say, I've been in prison and for it. I already did like 32 months. I'm kind of familiar with the judicial system and how, you know, operations and things that work. So when I seen the unmarked car, the reason why I knew was the unmarked car, I see the tag. It has GOVT on the tag.

So automatically, I know this is a government-issue vehicle because I see the tag. So I'm parked like to the side of the house. automatic when I see the car come into the neighborhood, I said, I need to go. Because this is, obviously this doesn't feel right. So I pull off, immediately as I pull off, like, I get flipped coming out of the neighborhood. This is not even an unmarked car. This is an actual real police patrol car. So he pulls me over. So when he pulls me over, he comes to the side of my window. I'm like, hey, what's going on? Like, what am I getting pulled over for? It'd be like,

hold on, just wait right here. So they asked me to step out the car. As I'm stepping out the car, the UPS driver, he's coming down the street. When he comes down the street, he passes by me. I hear him on the radio. He's like, yeah, that's him. Like, he IDed me. So he dropped off to me previously before. Okay.

So he's basically letting the police know, like, I've seen him before. I've done, dropped out to him before. This is the guy that I've basically been, you know, dealing with these last couple days. So I got incarcerated for that. So when I got incarcerated for that, I ended up, I hired an attorney could have been a lot worse, but I ended up doing 26 months for that particular crime. What was the dollar amount?

And this is state. Yeah, this is state. And what's the dollar amount they hit you with? It was close to $100,000. Okay. And it was, like I say, it was pretty much gold. Like I say, a lot of people, if they're familiar with, like I say, dental gold or dental labs or dentists, they're familiar with the actual gold that I'm referring to.

But I say I end up getting a lot. serving 26 months on that particular sentence. And when I came home, I just had a son while I was incarcerated. I missed a birth of my son due to me being incarcerated. This is, like I said, just during the time I was like 2013. So I come home, it's 2015. So 2015, I came home and basically I was staying with my family. mom, my son's mother, we were all staying with my mom under one roof.

And how old are you at this point? At this time, I'm probably like mid-20s during this time. I come home. I basically made up in my mind, like, I'm going to start all the way over. Like, I didn't been in prison twice. I did three years. I go do two years. I don't want to like go back to prison anymore.

So when I come home, my plug or the guy that. that, you know, that put me on to the actual credit card information that introduced me to the gold. He's like, listen, I'm glad you're home. But it's crazy because when I come home, he gives me a stack of, like, a phone book, probably a paper. And he's like, here, this is yours. It's all credit card information.

So I'm looking at him like, he's like, listen, I want you to get to. Helping you out. Yeah. He's like, you kept a solid. I want you to get back on your feet. You don't owe me anything. He said, when you get back on your feet, like, you know, throw me something, but this is you.

So I'm like, all right, you know what I'm saying? But it's like, what, you know what I'm saying? Like, I had no intentions of doing anything of that nature like ever again. I really want to come home, get a job. This is my firstborn son. You know what I'm saying? At the time, he's probably like two years old. So I'm like, I really don't want to get back into the streets.

I really don't want to get back into that lifestyle. But he comes home. I guess he just gives me like, it's literally like a Kroger grocery bag full of papers. it took me probably like two weeks to just basically like break everything down, find out what the limits on each card was. And basically, you know, before I touch anything, I always want to figure out where I stand with this particular information. Figure out, you know, when the bill is due.

What's the credit limit? Like everything, the bill and I want to make sure everything lined up before I touch anything. So he gave me information. So for, probably I'd say probably like a week or two, it took me to, like I said, to get everything broken down. I took my notes on everything. I started, you know,

you know, dealing with it for the most part after those two weeks. And I'm fresh out of prison, so I'm really trying to get, you know, my wardrobe together. I'm trying to basically get back on my feet. And I'm using to do different things or whatnot. And I'm making a little bit of money off of it. But, you know, it's helpful because at the time I don't have a job. So, you know, the gold was always profitable to me. So one day I called one of the gold.

distributors and many factors, I say, I want to see if I could, you know, still, you know, possibly accomplish it. So I call the goal, one of the distributors, right? And I'm on the, you know, it's an automated system on the phone with them. And I hear them say, hey, for the diamond department, you know, press 5. A diamond apartment, I'm like, ain't no way they got diamonds. So I'm thinking in my head, like, let me just try my luck. So I press, I'm not, press 5.

So they transfer me to the customer service representative. Once they transfer me to the customer service representative, she's like, how can I help you? So I give them the information, you know, one of the companies. I just, I'm Googling on my phone. I just throw out a company, like, you know, that I possibly think that, you know, they possibly have relations with. So she's like, okay, how can I help you?

I got your account pulled up. This is a jewelry store. And like I said, in the minute of me, me, a matter of probably 30 seconds, it transpired for me to just, let me look up a jewelry store in my area. Right. And possibly, they might possibly have an account with these people so maybe they can pull it up because, like I said, this is one of the distributors, one of their manufacturers that distribute,

you know, diamonds to this particular jewelry store. So she's like, hey, I got your account pulled up. How can I help you? So I'm like, well, hey, I'm looking for, you know, I just throw something out there, like a two-carried diamond round, this particular, you know, this particular thing. And she's like, okay, well, this is what we have. She gave me some options. I said, well, give me that one.

You know, so in my mind, I'm just trying to see if this will even work. I'm just trying it, you know. And it's really, like I say, at the end of the day, I was really calling it for gold. But when I heard on the automated system that they actually had diamonds, I'm like, let me try it. So I placed the order. Now, mind you like I told you before, like how I transitioned from doing, learning from different things. When I placed the order, she gives me the FedEx tracking number. I told you, like I said, a lot of times before with the dime, I mean, with the gold,

I would reroute packages to an abandoned apartment, to an abandoned house. If you're a homeowner in America, you need to listen to this. The FBI has been warning about a type of real estate fraud on the rise called title theft, and your equity is the target. Here's how it works. Criminals forge your signature on a single document, use a fake notary stamp, and file it with the county. And just like that, on record, they own your home.

Using your ownership, they can take out loans against your equity or even sell your property. And you won't know about it until foreclosure or collections start showing up in the mail. That's why I've partnered with Home Title Lock. So you can protect your equity and find out today if you've already been a victim. Use my promo code Matt at HomeTitallock.com. And you'll get a free title history report. and a free trial of their million-dollar triple lock protection. That's 24-7 monitoring of your title's records.

Urgent alerts to any changes, and if fraud occurs, their U.S.-based restoration team will spend up to $1 million to fix it. Don't be a victim. Protect your equity today. Once again, that's hometidallock.com promo code Matt, or use the link below. Wherever that I could get my hands on it, Because when they send stuff a package or things of that nature, anything, when they send anything, they're sending it to the actual address that's on file for that company.

But when they send off the package for that company, I'm calling FedEx or UPS with that tracking number, and I'm calling UPS or FedEx and I'm rerouting that. So I will call FedEx and UPS and say, hey, this is such and such calling from such as jewelers. I'm not going to be at my establishment or my business today. So can I reroute the package to this particular address? Let's say, sure, where's the address that you need to send to? So I would rewrite it to that particular address. And this is an overnight package because a lot of times I would never deal with anything that's going to be, have a delay on it. Because a company, a lot of times, they get emails, they get notifications saying, hey, you have a package on the way.

So I always want to do for early AM delivery by 1030 because most jewelry stores and most of these places open up at 10. I need the package to me by 1030 because I don't want them to log in or see anything information seeing they have a package on the way that they didn't authorize or they did not order. Do they get the notification that your package has been rerouted? No. They have no clue that this is coming. Nice. So when it comes the next day, like I say, I order the packages. Like I say, at this particular time, it's like a two-carried diamond.

So I order it. And I honestly got truth, I rerouted it to a house that for, for, for six. sell. All right. So I rewouted it to me. I had my son with me. I never forget. I had my son with me. At the time, I was, yeah, I had my son with me. He was probably like two going on three years old. But during the day, I wasn't working. My son's mother would go to work, and I would be at home with my son all day. You know what I said? I've been away from my son for like two years. So basically, I told him we're not doing daycare. Like, I'm staying at home with my son. I'm watching him every day. You go to work. I'll take care of him. So I never thought a package

is going to actually come. So when it came, I got out of my son. It's probably two or three years old. You know, get his bag together, put him in the back seat, put him in his car seat. I ride off. So the package ends up getting delivered before I can get to the house. So in my mind, I'm like, it's no possible way that they just dropped a diamond off at an abandoned.

But, you know, the driver, he doesn't know. There's no idea what's a thing. So I'll drive by the house. I don't see it at first. Like, I'm looking at the house. I'm looking. I ride by it. don't see it so I get out I park I get out the car is literally sitting on the first step

while you're going up to the actual like like little patio area it's like in a little small little envelope I grab it come back to the car open it it's like a two and a half care diamond like sitting right here solitaire diamonds you know what I'm saying so I grab it I call one of I call my brother at the time I say hey where you at so he's like I'm at home I listen I got to come to you I got to show you something like I'm coming to your house right now it's all right Come on. I'm out the house. So I get over there, go to the house. I got my son with me. I show it to him. He was like, bro, how did you get this? I said, honestly, it was like, what we call, like I say in the street. It's like, it was a humbug. Like, I had no idea that this was going to actually work, but it actually did.

But prior to me doing all the stuff, I knew that once it was ordered, how could I get it into my hands? So like I say, I got the diamond. I told my, I told my brother, I said, I need help actually selling it. because I don't know what it's settled to. I knew at a time when I was selling the gold, I had a cash out that somebody was paying for the gold. It was a jeweler as well, but I didn't think I could go to him with actual diamonds. You know what I'm saying?

Because a lot of jewelers, they would take the gold and they would melt it down and make whatever they want with it. But this is the actual diamond we're talking about. So I reached out to a couple of associates and friends of mine at the time. I said, listen, I'll give you a cut. I just need to find a buyer.

I got this diamond. If you can find a buyer, I will give you a cut of it. So they're like, okay, it took them probably by like maybe a week or so, and they found the buyer. So I gave them a diamond. They go basically make the sale for the diamond. While they're there. What's a two-carat, two-and-a-half-carat diamond go for?

On a low end, probably $10,000. Okay. So when I actually sold it, while I never would be there, When any time a transaction is going on, I would never put my face on the scene. So while I, one of my associates, while he was there, the buyer basically told him, like, listen, this diamond is nice, but this is what I'm actually looking for. I'm looking for, you know, with diamonds, they call it the three Cs. It's cut clarity and color. So when it comes to diamonds, like any jewelry will tell you that those three Cs, that those three Cs,

that they make up, they can bring your high price range from high to low, depending on the color, depending on the clarity, depending on the cut. So he basically told me what type of cut he was looking for, which is most jewelry's want to go

for round cut because that's just, you know, the ideal cut that most people want. They want high color, meaning like, colors are based off the alphabet. So it's A, B, C, D, E, F.

So they want something higher in the alphabet. Not nothing on the, on the back end, which is like, STUV. They want something to high end. A, B, C, D,

somewhere around that ranch. And as far as, like, clarity, VS1, VS2, VVS, you know, it goes all the way to, it's a chart.

Right. So he basically said, I only want something VS1 or VS2 and up. And I was like, okay, I can do that. So he said,

if you give me this, if y'all can bring me these type of diamonds, like we can continue to do business. He gave me a price range. Basically, like three carrots,

I'm going to 15,000, 4Karres, I'm give you 20,000. Anything bigger than the 4Kar is going to be 25,000 or 30,000 or more. You know what I'm saying? Depending on, like I say, the clarity and the, you know, and the color. So I said, okay.

So at the time, like I say, I just tried something and I didn't think it was going to actually work. But I went, when I got the information that probably the next probably week and a half or so, I just did research. I really did my homework and I learned basically

how the jewelry game works. I taught myself basically, basically, I used to be up to three, four in the morning, literally on my phone. If you go on Google, you can pretty much find anything you know. You just got to know how to search for things. So what I did was I started researching jewelry stores, start researching who's in charge of these jewelry stores, the actual general managers or the owners, who makes the sales and the purchases. I go on their page, I go find out who runs, who's, who's the boss? And I'm looking at these Jewish stores. The Jews. Yeah. I'm looking at, I'm looking at, Right? They own a ton of them. You're exactly right. And the thing about it is a lot of the Jews do run a jewelry industry. And later on that, a lot of it's funny because they would get to speaking to me in their language just to see if I was who I was. And a lot of times I would hang up because I'm like, I can't impersonate this person because they get to speak in Arabic and all these other languages that I'm not familiar with. But the Jews, you are correct? A lot of them do run a jewelry industry.

Hebrew. Right. Right. So they're speaking. Yeah, not Arabic. It's Hebrew. You're exactly right. So they would get to speak to me in that language just to see cross-reference.

Hold on. This is who he say he is. So I did my research, and it took me a little while, like I say. And basically how the jewelry industry works is everything is basically like almost like a, like you said, they're Jews. So it's like a faith-based system. And it's also based on consignment. And a lot of jury industry is very, very small. It's a lot of jurors, but they're all familiar with each other.

So basically, once you learn the, they're like that. language on how to talk to these distributors and manufacturers, they will give you whatever you want. But you have to actually know how to talk to these people without, you know, sounding like you're just, you're not such and such. So what I learned how to do is after I did my research, I researched the companies and I would research the distributors and manufacturers that have these diamonds, these solitaire diamonds. And I also, you know, watches or things of that nature, anything I'm watching, you can think

a Rolex, anything you can think of. Any type of watch you can think of, I would try to find which one of these stores own these particular Rolex watches or automob watches or whatever may be.

You know what I'm saying? So a lot of times when I would take the time to actually do my research, I will look for the companies like in my sense, I would say like the LeBron James of the industry.

I want the big names because the big names have the credit to take on these consignment basic packages and they have a reputable name with these people to whereas if I was to say, hey, I need you to send me a four-carried diamond. I have a customer coming in tomorrow. You're going to send it without any questions asked. And so like I said, a lot of times when I would order these packages,

I would know who I'm impersonating and I would know what I'm looking for and I would know exactly like, hey, I would dress up a story. customer coming in tomorrow. They're looking for a three, four, a care engagement ring. What do you have available? Oh, who am I speaking with?

Oh, this is such and such. So, and like, in a sense, I would always tell people like, basically if I call, like, it's saying the drug industry or whatnot, if I call your plug and I'm in person that I'm you, you're a plug like, hey, how are you doing?

What do you need? I confront it to you, like, well, send me this. Same address? Yeah, send it to the same address, but it's not going to make it to the address because I'm going to reroute this package. Or I might even tell you

before you even send a package, hey, don't send it there. I got a new address. So send it here instead. But your plug or your manufacturer or your distributor has no idea that I'm not you. You know what I'm saying? Like I say, because at the end of the day, they deal with you, but a lot of stuff they deal with is through email. So they're not familiar with the voice on their phone.

They're familiar with the name and the company or the representative for that company, but a lot of times a lot of stuff is done through email. So when I call in, they basically, you know, they're like, this must be important because this is such as as actually calling on the phone. So that's what I would do. So I would call in and I would call these particular companies.

And a lot of times, like I say, when I call the companies and they would send the actual package through the actual mail, I would rewrite the package. Whether it be to the band department or a lot of times that's what I started doing, I would get this into like a FedEx store or a UPS store. And through the FedEx store or the UPS store,

I would actually have, I got out how I would make IDs. I would need an actual state ID, a government-issued ID, and an employee ID. Because after a while, the apartments and abandoned houses, it was getting, like, it was too hot. Like, I can't keep sending these packages there because at any given time, like I said, Mustang occupation, and then one of my people end up getting, you know, incaucreterated or locked up for these packages. So what I started doing is I started sending to like the FedEx or UPS locations. Like let's say for instance, you get a package sent to your house, right? And you know they leave the little tag on the door and say, say, sorry, you missed you, you can pick up your package at this location.

Those little hold locations, those little UPS stores or FedEx stores, I would call UPS and say, hey, can you hold this package there. So I have them hold the package there. I will call in and call FedEx or UPS, have them hold the package there. And when I had them hold the package there, I was seeing one of my runners in there to actually pick the package up. Does he give him his ID? Because he doesn't have a clue. Everything's fake. Everything's fake.

Everything's fake. I was going to say if it's a regular runner, he doesn't know what's going on. No, he don't know what he's going on. But you still don't want him to bring it to your location. Right. Because when he gets questioned, he'll tell the cops. So, basically, he or she would go in there within a made-up employee ID and the made-up state ID. go in there.

I've already told Felix's the UPSA, this is such and such coming there to pick up the package. So once they show them, they need two forms of ID. Anytime you order something or you send something in the mail that's on a business address,

you need two forms of ID. If it's residential, you just need state ID. But if it's a business address, you need two forms of ID. So they would need an employee ID saying they work for that company and they would need a state ID saying, hey, I work,

this is my actual identification. And they would go into the store and pick it up. So that's what I started actually doing because, like I said, A lot of times the abandoned, you know, they would look up the address that I'm, you know, trying to send it to.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it wasn't working. Like if I try to add it to their account, they'll look it up and see, hey, this is a abandoned house. Yeah, it's a residential house. Right. And also, it would take too long for me to reroute it because if I reroute a package, it might not

get there next day. They have to reroute it, so it might be there next day after that. And by that time, the company might catch on. So I just started doing hold for pickups. To hold for pickups would basically allow me to, you. It'll come in that next day. It'll hold at the FedEx store or UPS location. I could pick it up that morning.

Basically, it would be available for pickup by like 8 o'clock that morning. You know what I'm saying? So, like I said, that worked for a while. It worked for a while. And it's between, like I said, the years of this is like early 2016. Like I said, I came home in 2015. This is early like 2016 when it really started to kind of like starting to take off. I'm assuming it's kind of like a trial and air in the beginning.

like you're calling these people? Like, did you have some, like, calls gone wrong where, you know... I've had plenty of calls gone wrong. I've had plenty of calls gone wrong. Like I said, like you said, they could speak in Hebrew. And, like, I have no idea what you're saying. And like I say, after a while, it was like... I seen an article.

It was like on one of these juror websites. They sent out an article, like, almost like a mass email. Like, hey, this is what's going on. And, like, I said, it's a small industry. I don't know if you're familiar like with jewelry, but it's a diamond district in New York. It's a diamond district in L.A. And those are where majority distributes

and manufacturers that distribute these diamonds from. So, you know, it doesn't take long for them to say, hey, you need to be aware of these calls that are going around. Right. But by the time that they kind of caught on, I started switching up the jewelry stores. So I wouldn't say I'm calling from this store no way.

I'm saying I'm calling from this store. And I would just like, I just kept evolving with it. So it went from diamonds to watches to necklaces to where I just kept like, if I can't get a distributed for diamonds, I'm going to try to find a watch dealer. Well, if I can't find a watch dealer, I'm going to try to find somebody that has rings. That's basically how it started. So, you know, a lot of times, like I say, with diamonds, a lot of stuff is what they call like GIA or EGL certified.

So a lot of these diamonds that I would get would be, you know, they would be, certified. And if you want to think I want people to know about diamonds, a lot of these diamonds just have a, like a car has a VIN number. Diamond has an ID number. But you might not never notice

because you might get the paperwork for it. But how they trace diamonds is laser inscribed on what they call the girdle of the diamond. And it's a GIA number, which is basically GIA is a company that certifies diamonds. And you have EGL, they certify diamonds. and they laser inscribed on the gird of that diamond

a particular number, and that's how they trace date. It's registered. It's registered. It's like a Rolex watch. Right. So you can call up Rolex and say, hey, who owns this Rolex watch? Or they go, whoa, whoa, that's been stolen. Right.

So a lot of times, like, as how when I would sell the diamonds to the particular cashout, it's how he would know that these are certified diamonds. Without even putting diamond tester on there or anything, he's going to run that GIA, that EGL number that's on laser-inscribing that diamond. And once he runs that number, he's going to know like, hey, this is a certified diamond. So a lot of times... Doesn't he also know, hey, this is stolen? It wouldn't come back stolen.

No, never? Later on, it did. Okay. But they don't even know it's been stolen for a while, right? Because it's not registered in the system because it hasn't been bought yet. Okay, well, I was going to say, and plus they have, like you said, they've got a certain period of time to pay them. Right.

Or if it's on consignment, it may not have been sold for, it may sit there for 18 months. Exactly. It hasn't been, it's registered in the system as certified, but it doesn't have an owner's name attached to it. It's just basically like it's like, it's just floating in the system. It like, until somebody actually purchased it, it has, it doesn't have a, you know what saying? Yeah, yeah.

It doesn't have a name attached to it. So these distributors, there's no red flags being raised to them. No. You know, immediately or seven days. days, 30 days. By that time, I already got the diamond. I wouldn't even honestly know. But would you use different distributors, or would you use the same people?

I would use different distributors. It's probably like, in the diamond shit, it's probably at least like 20 to 30 of them. So the guy that your fence, the guy's buying him, he knows these are stolen, right? No, he has no idea. How does he have no idea? How long does this go on? So it went on for, it went on for a while. And I'm going to tell you exactly how, like, my main cash out, would I say that my main, this is, this is my main person who I was dealing with from the beginning.

And he had no idea they were stolen. But one day, I get a particular diamond, and he runs the numbers on it. And it comes back as shown that it's owned by somebody already. So I call him. I always, you know, deal with, like, on a burner phone or, you know, a little throwaway phone or whatnot. out and one day it comes back as like, hey, this diamond comes back. He's like, he said, I'm on the phone. Well, my friend's on the phone with him.

He said, this is odd. He said, this number is, this diamond is coming back as it registered to such and such. He's like, I know them. And let me give them a call and see why. Wait, wait, right. Why is it coming back to such a says, I immediately hang up the phone. I turned on the phone. We changed the phone number to the phone.

And I lost my cat. And this guy literally paying like he's paying like top dollar. Like I say, he's paying like, I get a three-carad dime. He's paying me like $15,000. I get a $4KK and he's paying me like $20,000. You know, all cash, same day. And at this point, what have you made? At this point, I say probably like close to probably $150,000,000 million dollars

at this particular time. I'm spending money so fast, I'm not even really keeping track of what I'm making, but I know I'm anywhere from the one thing. 50 to 250 range. You know, a quarter of a million dollars because, like I say, like, I'm paying the runners. Like I say, my whole situation, the organization consists of a cash out, my ID person,

the person that finds my runners, and the actual runner itself. So I have a small, like, kind of like, organization in a sense, but I'm not paying so much as far as for their actual runners and the person to find the runners. And like I say, my cash, I don't have to pay them anything. Later on down the line, I started having people that would,

they start seeing me making money, they want to invest into it. They would give me money just like, hey, can you flip my $1,500? Or can you flip my $2,000? I just want to make some money. So I would take their money and I would use it for flight. So I would use it for, to buy the IDs that were getting made. Because I would send people anywhere across the U.S. They could go to you.

Charlotte, Virginia, Texas, L.A. These packages at one point in time, like I said, when they get picked up for FredX or UPS, they're going to that particular jewelry store wherever state and city that's in. So I have to fly these people out to these particular cities and states for this UPS store or this FedEx location.

It's being held in that particular city. So they will fly out, let's say today's Monday. They will fly out Monday night. The packages available, pick up Tuesday morning. I will fly them out basically early Tuesday morning. They will say say for answer, let's say we use Charlotte example. They'll fly out Tuesday morning. Early Tuesday morning. I need you there by at least 8 o'clock no later than 9 because the package is available by 9 o'clock. Joy store opens at 10, but the package is available at 9. We have a small window

about an hour before the joy store opens up. Because when the joy store opens up, mind you, They can get a notification. FedEx and UPS can call them. Hey, you know you have a package available for pickup here at a store. Can you send somebody pick it up? So I got by 60 minutes to basically get this person inside this particular store, pick this package up before the joy store opens up at 10 o'clock a.m. When most joy stores open up at 10 a.m., I don't know why, but they always open at 10 a.m.

This is across the country. So I will fly this person out. They will fly out, let's say whatever, from Atlanta. They could go anywhere. Dallas, Charlotte, Virginia, New York. New York, L.A., and they would pick the package up early that morning. If it was a far, far distance, I would try to get them out there the night before, put them in the hotel, and then had them pick up the package up that next morning.

So that's what I had to start doing because when the abandoned apartments, when I couldn't do stuff in Atlanta anymore, and it started being too hot in Atlanta, and it was just too, it was too much going on, I had to start flying people out. And I would send a package, like I said, to that particular store, but I would call FedEx in that particular evening when I ordered the package of that day and I'll tell them, hey, I need this hell for pickup at your store location. So it'd be a FedEx store or UPS store. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. Right. Like what kind of vehicles are you driving? What kind of are you going on vacation? Are you just consumed by this, this little money-making machine?

Honestly, I spent a lot of my times like, I did music at the time. So I spend a lot of times investing to my music, going out to clubs. I vacationed a lot. I invest in to other people that were around me also. You know, like I say, about a studio. I had like two apartments, one I used to record at, one I was living at, you know, different just like women. I had a lot of things going on, you know what I'm saying? But I actually, me, myself, I bought a car from my child's mom, and I bought a car from my mom. And that's about, that was. my two biggest investments that I made. When I came home for prison, my mom didn't have a car. So I bought her car for Christmas, bought my child's mom a car, and I pretty much, like I said,

spend a lot of money on jewelry, clothes. I was younger at the time. Like I said, I'm in like mid to late 20s. I'm just pretty much just spending my money as it comes. It wasn't until like later on the line when I actually started to actually like take the time to like save money. But like I said, I took a lot of losses. I always think about like it was a good side of it, but it was a lot of losses. people were run off. I was saying people to go get a package, they run off. And...

What you say run up? You mean? They land, they get three diamonds, and they're gone. They're gone. They're gone. So,

I can speak, I'll give you like three situations. Okay. One of them, it was in Naples, Florida. Okay, so it was a situation. A lot of money in Naples. Yes, a lot of money in Naples.

Right. So, and that's another thing. I always research neighborhoods that I know that is flu. You know what I'm saying? It has a lot of money or whatnot and that nature. So it was in Naples and I had a package

that was ordered for down there in that location. It had a man's name attached to the package for who should be picking up. So I sent the girl down there to go pick up the package. When I sent the girl down

and pick up the package, they wouldn't give her the package because it had attention to a man's name. So they're like, she gets down there and she drives all right from Atlanta to Naples.

She gets down there and they're like, hey, we can't give her the package. It's a man's name attached to the pickup person for this package. It was ordered up on a business name, but it says attention to Mr. Such and Such. So they wouldn't get there to package. So I'm like, listen, I need to get this package because, like I say, it's been sitting down there probably like two or three days now,

but it's still available for pickup. So I call one of my, a friend of mine who was a friend at the time. I say, listen, I need somebody to go down here and get this package for me. It's all the way in Naples. I would even give you my car. At the time was my ex-girlfriend's car, I would give you a car to go down there and pick the package up.

I just need you to go down there and pick it up and bring it back. I'll even give you the keys to a vehicle. I just need you go to pick it up. Like, all right, cool. So I give him the keys to go down and pick it up. He drives all the way from Atlanta to Naples, Florida.

Mind you, he's in my ex-girlfriend's car. He drives the way down there. He gets down there, picks a package up. Probably 10 minutes after picking the package up, he stopped answering the phone. Like, stop answering the phone. Did he get arrested?

I would think he might have got arrested. No, he didn't get arrested. He basically leaves the car stranded. To this day, I don't know how he got away from Naples, like how he left, but he left the car down there. He tells my ex-girlfriend, hey, your car is parked here. I left the keys in the car. No, he didn't tell me they left the keys in the car.

He just basically your car is parked here. I, like, runs off with the actual diamond. Mind you, this is like a yellow diamond. It's a canary diamond. Like, you know colors of diamonds, like, that's a very rare diamond. So he runs off with it. And I'm basically like, at this time, like, because I'm not a good man. I'm not managing my money like I'm supposed to be.

I'm really low. Like, I'm almost flat broke at this time. And it's really a bad time for me doing this because my license is suspended. Like, I'm in a down situation at this particular time. And he runs off, leaves the car down there. So in my mind, I'm like, listen, I have to go down here and get her car because her car is out here stranded. And I'm also almost broke, so I don't have any money.

So I need to make some money. So I end up putting a move together for down there in that particular area. So I'm going to go get the car, but I'm going down here and get some money, too, because I don't need to just be going down here for no reason. So I put a basically play together in my, Miami. And you know you're familiar with Florida. Like basically Naples and Miami on opposite sides. It's basically from left to right. So I said, I'm going to go down here to Naples and get the car. But I'm going to also go to Miami and see if I can make some money by putting this play together. So I fly down to Naples, fly all the way down to Naples. Mind you, my license is suspended. He leaves a location where the car is at.

The car is parked in like this grocery store, public's parking lot just by itself. I never forget I was on the phone. My mom. I get in the car, I'm like, I don't even see the keys. My mom's like, listen, just calm down, just pray. Like, you'll find the keys. Just look around. I grabbed, like, the little sun vizier, the keys fall right in my hand. Like, okay, finally, like, I got the keys. Leagues the car on empty.

There's no gas in the car. There's no gas in the car. I'm like, I'm really, like I said, I don't even have the money to even really be getting the gas. So I finally get to the gas station, put the little bit of money I had in the car. This is at like 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night. I literally had a move that next morning in Miami. Had one of my friends flying down from Atlanta to Miami as well. So I drive from Naples, Florida to Miami overnight, basically from one side of Florida to other side of Florida.

Pick my friend up from the airport at Miami, at the airport, drive to the abandoned location. Like, meet the FedEx driver that morning, grab a dime and drive all the way back from Miami. me all the way back up to Atlanta. I probably made like $15,000, but it was worth it though. You know what I'm saying? But I literally did it like overnight. You know what I'm saying? Like I say, so it's like I would have people like I said run off all the time. I would tell people do not open a package. You don't get paid if you open a package, but people are curious. You know, and a lot of times they see the name on the package. They would see some of they say jewelers. Sometimes it would be discreet, but a lot of times it would. And they would just get curious and want to open the package. And next to you know, they're not answering.

of all. One of my favorite, I have a buddy named Zach. Yeah. That I've interviewed a few times. One of my favorite is that he did check cashing. Right. And he and his wife are sitting in a vehicle one time. Because we're sitting there and they, and they've got a guy, they got a fake ID.

The guy's going to cash like 20 checks. And the checks are, let's say, let's say there's $6,000. There's 20 of them. He's like, we're literally, it's going to take us about four hours. but it's $6,000. He's getting $2,000 per check. I don't remember the exact number. But he's getting $2,000 a check.

It's $6,000. They're going to make four. He gets two. They gave him a fake ID. We're driving him from place to place. But by the end of the day, this guy's going to have like $40,000. He's in his lap, right? The very first check, he cashes it.

He walks outside with $6,000, looks up. They're sitting there in the car like, get in the car. And he goes, and just takes off running. And he goes, he's taking off with our money. And his wife goes, run him over. He's like, I'm not running him over for $6,000. But it's like, he's like, that would happen all the time.

He'd send guys off to do stuff. He said, they'd be good the first time sometimes. He said, then the second time, he's like, they'd either fuck it up or they try and steal the money or they, it's too much money. Yeah. He's too much money. Like, I learned that a lot of people can't be trust when he comes that type of money.

So, like I said, I have people. People, you know, run off a lot of times. And it would always be when I feel like I want to be done with this whole situation and be like, hey, you know, I want to be out the game. I don't really want to do this no more. I'm about to do this last little run, and I'm just going to, you know, I'm retired. I'm done with this. Somebody will run off.

Did you ever, like, somebody went somewhere and the guy got arrested? Yeah, yeah. But did they lead back to you? Like, do they know who you are? So I'm going to tell you this. Like I say, the fed started investigating probably in 2016. My investigation from 2016 to 2018. I had a situation in Charlotte where a girl went to go pick up a package.

And when she went in there, she had an air feeling. She said, she said, she seen like a guy sitting by the door who just kept watching her. And I was like, well, you know, how do you feel about it? Like, use your better judgment. Like, do you feel like, like this is wrong? Like, she's like, I don't know. She's like, I went to the counter. I gave him the tracking number, but I was one number off.

She said they couldn't find a package. So I threw them off because the guy at the front door just kept watching me. I said, if you have a bad feeling about it, just leave. She's like, no, maybe I'm just being paranoid. Maybe I'm tripping. So I'm like, listen, if you got a bad feeling about this, just leave. It's like, no, I think I'm just paranoid. I'm about to go back in there.

So she goes back in there. She gives them the right tracking number, right? When she gives them the right tracking number, number. I forgot. They tell it something like, basically like, hey, it's not available pickup no more or it's been returned back. She comes out of the location. She gets in her car. She has somebody driving her around. They swarm the car. Like, police swarm the car. Mind you this, like I said, this is in Charlotte. So when she gets sworn from the car, they basically swam the car. They lock her up. They let the other two people go that's in the car. They lock her up.

So when they lock her up, I basically, you know, I pay for her to get attorney or whatnot. And That didn't lead back to me, but later on down the line, she ended up being my co-defendant, you know, because she was one of the few people that actually didn't tell when it came to my federal case. But they used that, you know, the feds used multiple cases to create one big investigation. Yeah. So they used that particular situation. Like I say, I didn't bond to her out. She ended up getting a bond on her own, but I paid for her attorney. and it end up linking like that particular case.

Like you got multiple similar cases that are going on throughout the U.S. Yeah, yeah. This is an ongoing criminal enterprise. Right. Yeah. Right. So that kind of linked it to me. But I say one of the biggest things, like I say, I have people run off all the time.

I have a person run off with me and they still towed on me. So it was like, you ran off and stole and you still told. Right. But I had a particular situation. where I was, it was in Virginia. And I never forget, I would always tell people, like, when you pull up to the FedEx, they were, you know, they were always getting an Uber or a Lyft. And I will use that Uber and a Lyft with a stolen credit card.

It would be linked to a dummy account. Like, I was very meticulous and very, very strategic about how I did it because I didn't want to pay with Treel. This is in my, you know, I didn't been in prison two times already. I learned I would always, like, study my discovery, like, to the T. So, like, where did I go wrong? So I always know, like, every investigator would always tell me, like, you left a paper trail. You left a paper trail.

Like, you think you're going to get away. You got a trail right here. So I started thinking to myself, like, how can I not leave a trail? I got fake IDs. You don't know who's going into this store. And then I will use an Uber Lyft for my transportation because if you go look up this Uber Lyft account, it's to a fake account and it's to a stolen credit card. So I would tell people, though, do not pull up in front in the store.

And the Uber Lyfts, I would take you to go pick up this package at store. Do not pull up in front of the store. Even though the account might be a fraudulent account, I don't want you pulling up in front of the store so I can get the license plate. I never want nobody to pull up in the front of the store. No matter if you was, you know, what kind of car are you saying? You could always track it back to where they picked you up, which could be in your apartment. Right.

They show your face to four people in the apartment complex. They go, yeah, that's Jimmy. He lives over there. Right. So a lot of times people will listen. But this particular day, I'd never forget. This girl was going to Virginia and she was going to Virginia and she had a layover flight. She was leaving from Atlanta and she was going to Virginia. She had a labor flight in Charlotte. And I always tell people, be on time. I told you, like I was saying earlier, we had a small window from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. because that jewelry store opens at 10. So we got a small window. It's available to picket up at 9. But the jewelry store that we all. or this particular package on opens at 10, this could really hit the fan at any given time after 10 o'clock. Right. So we have a small window to get this package picked up.

But if you get there on time, you get it in the Uber, go to the FedEx location or the UPS location, we can get this package. And you can get, you're flying right back the same day. The same hour, I'm booking your flight. You're at the airport. But this particular girl, she missed her particular connecting flight in Charlotte. Now she's running behind.

So now as she's running behind, she's you know people don't think when they're rushing so she's running behind she missed her connected flight from Charlotte to to to to Virginia and she gets to sharp I mean she gets to Virginia and next to you know she's pulling up in the Uber right in front of the store I like I say why I always say have the driver drop you off a little bit down the street take a little walk. It's having wait for you. Like, hey, I got to go down the street right quick. Can you wait right here for me? A lot of times the drivers will wait. But she pulls up right in front of the store. Why you pull up in front of the store? I guess because you're rushing. You're not thinking clearly.

She pulls up right in front of the store. When the store, you know, she gets out the car, basically, and the camera captures the license plate. This particular day, one of my people that I had, working with me, I always had a request to Uber or, you know, to lift for the runner that's going to go pick the package. This day, he couldn't, like, he couldn't access it. He couldn't authorize Uber or the Lyft on his account. So I called another guy, you know, one of my associates and said, hey, listen, I need you to get this Uber or Lyft from me.

She's back. She's stranded here. He's invested into this particular move as well. So I called him like, listen, can you get this Uber or this lift for her? She's stranded at the airport. she needs to get there. So he's like, okay. So mind you, this is on his particular

legitimate account. She goes and pulls up in front of the store. She gets a package. She flies all the way back. I pick her up back from the airport. I get the package. Open the package. I'm like, okay, it's two diamonds here.

I take the diamonds to a jewelry store come to find out these are cuba zikoni diamonds. They're not real. She swapped them? No, she didn't swap. They gave them to her because they were tracking them. They're tracking her. You see me?

I don't know this at the time. I just think like, okay, they probably caught on. They're just going to give her some dummy diamonds. So I'm like, mind you, I didn't pay her like $4,000 just to do the situation. Like, I'm going to pay her on the front end because I see the diamonds. I'm like, oh, okay, here you go. I'm going to go ahead and just pay you, get you out the way. So that way I don't have to deal with you, you know, later on.

So I pay her and a person that put me on to her. I gave him like $4,000. Like, here you go. So kind of find out. I get my man that, I get my man's the diamonds. Tell them to take it to the cash out. Cash out like, listen, these are not real. I don't know where you got these from, but these are not.

I said, hey, it's no way. It's no. In my mind, I'm like, there's no way. These are fake. So I take it to a jury store myself, like, you know, these are Cubies a conian. So I not only that I lost $4,000, but I didn't create a trail without me even knowing it.

So this is when the feds get involved. Mind you, I've already been, they've been investigating the situation for about a year now. It's like 2017. We're going on, 2017. So it's like, they tell me, like, you know, they get the information basically from the license plate. When they get the license plate from her pulling up in front of the store, they tracked that to the actual owner of the Lyft account or the Uber account that was.

It was a Lyft account, I believe. And that's the guy who I had requests to, you know, Lyft for the particular grant. I picked up the package that day. Right. They call him. they call them and say, hey, we're calling you, we're calling you, question you, this is a Feds we're talking about. We're calling you, questioning about this particular package, I mean, not a package, but this particular Uber lift that you requested out in Virginia. Soon as he hears feds and here's, like, we're calling you in regards to this Uber that you requested, he basically screams my name.

Like, I have nothing to do with that. You need to talk and such and such. I had nothing to do with that. He screams my name. So that's like, who? So he gives us in my name. that's the opening of the whole situation on how my case particular start it was already an ongoing investigation but they had no particular suspects they're still looking for you they can't find you

right they didn't know who i was they just knew that this was an ongoing crime and it originated like it started basing in alana but they knew nothing about like who is behind it until this particular day so when it the uber ellipticom got linked to his from the license page got linked to his from the license page got linked to him, he automatically gave him my name. So now they're looking into me. So as they're looking into me, they run down on the girl. The girl that particular package that day,

she doesn't really know me. I got put onto her through a friend of mine, but they show her picture of me. And she's like, yeah, this is a guy that picked me up from the airport. I don't know his name, but that's him. So now they got two people basically like, ID me You know

So At the time I was on probation I get locked up I remember I think I caught like a DUI or something at that time So I was serving a probation violation

For catching a DUI So I get locked up at the probation office I had no idea I was going to get locked up that day But I got like at the probation office My probation officer is like Hey you didn't tell me anything about catching this DUI

I'm out on buying for I haven't been convicted of it But you're still going to jail because you caught a new charge on probation So I ended up going to jail. But while I'm in jail, I'm talking to my son's mother, and, you know, she basically told me and Cole, like, hey, you do know, like, the feds have gotten involved with what you got going on. So I'm like, I'm like, it's no way.

You know what I'm saying? So come to find out later on that the guy who requested the Uber and Lyft, he started cooperating. I found that out when I was, like I say, in the county. I get out, you know, a friend of mine basically tells me like, hey, you need to be careful. Such and such as, such is cooperating. He gave him your information, gave me your name, he's cooperating. So immediately, like, I shut everything down. I got rid of all my phones, got cleaned up everything I had around my house at the time.

I just, like, I went, like, basically, like, if I was a drug guy, I basically went cold turkey for a whole, like, nine months. Like, no, I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. Like, I knew I was in the investigation. I would be, like, you know, paranoid, up late at night, just basically, like, I don't know when they're going to come. I know he's giving them that information. It's been verified.

Like, this guy's telling on you, he's basically cooperated. They still need something to connect you. They need to find something that could, could just be some guy who picked a random name out of. Yeah. And obviously, he knows the chick. Right. That maybe they decided together.

This is something they're doing and they're just blaming it on you. Right. They need to connect you. you somehow. So, so at the end of day, like, it was, it was, it was crazy because they got him and they got her, but they can't come get me yet. I don't know this, though, but I learned this later on. Like you said, they still need more information. So, like I said, I stopped for, like, I probably stopped for like six to nine months. I wouldn't got a job. I went got a job. I was very low-key. I knew I was in an investigation from people telling me, but I basically

just, I just stopped completely because I, at the time, I knew I was in an investigation. So I told myself, like, I need to make myself look as legitimate as possible. Even though, you know, when the feds, one thing I learned is like, when they want you, there's like nothing you could do. You get y'all to dress it up and make it look like you're, you know, a law-bying citizen, but they don't care. They want you. They're going to come get you.

So I did that for probably like six, nine months, just worked a job. And they finally, they never came. I used to always say, like, they're going to because I'm, like, the moves. They're going to come in the middle of night. I'm going to be asleep. They're going to be banging out. door. I'm going to jump out the window, but they never came. So at the time, you know, I had a family, so I was thinking to myself, like, I don't want to leave, you know, my kids or the mother

of my kids or my family out here without anything. I know I'm on an investigation. Let me put some money up, some funds up, just in case if that day does come. So I decided to like start get back into it. And I probably did it probably two or three times. And I put enough money up, I'd say, to, like, you know, feel comfortable. Like, if that day does come, then I know they'll be good. You know what I'm saying? So I did probably like two or three moves.

And I could say I was doing, you know, at the time I was doing music, I was, you know, in the music industry or whatnot. And I didn't necessarily want to take the money I had put up to invest in my music career and take away from my kids. So I said, you know what, let me bust one more move. Let me do one more play. And, you know, it's like, they always say that's how you read a book. Like, when you think it's your lad time, it really is your lad time.

But your lad time, you probably end up getting locked up. And, you know, this was one of them situations where, like, I really was like, I had money, but I didn't want to spend the money because, like I said, I knew it was an investigation. So I really want to put up what I have away for my kids because if I do go away, least they got something. So I decided to do this one move, and to this day, I mean,

it was a bad decision, but at the same time, I learned a lot from it. So I decided to do this move in Knoxville. Knoxville is probably like three hours from Atlanta. And I never go on moves. Like, I'm always the person I told you. Like, I would have runners. I would have people.

You know, I was designated people to where it's like, you know, for one, what I'm doing, requires like, you know, to have a good face car. So if you're meeting a cash out, you don't mean, no offense, but like you don't want to have somebody coming with a whole bunch of tattoos, and he's talking about saying he got diamonds for sale. I would never be there when it comes to cash and not diamonds. I would never, like, be on the scene when it comes to picking up a diamond.

I was just always behind the scenes. And I learned that that was best for me because not only it kept, like, me from being in trouble, but a lot of people were stereotyped if they seen a person like me trying to complete these type of transactions. Yeah, you want someone who looks clean cut. Right. And every party that I would pick up a dime. I always would dress them accordingly. I would

always critique what they're wearing that morning to the tee like hey, I need you to dress like you're in this particular field of work. You know what I'm saying? Collar, sir, or you know, always casual dressing but, you know, always to fit the business attire

because we're in the business where I would even get them like a little lanyard, like a little ID badge. It looked like I dress these people up because you're going in here. The person at this store doesn't necessarily know what you're coming to pick up, but I know what you're going to pick up. And what you've got going to pick up is worth $20,000, $30,000. So I need you to dress the part. So this particular move or whatnot, the girl was, she was young and she was nervous and she was uncomfortable. So I said, listen, I'll go with you. I'll go with you. I, you know what I'm saying? When it gets my better judgment, I never do this. So, but it's three.

from Atlanta. I don't have to get on the plane. So I'll like, I'll go with you and, you know, I'll make sure everything go smoothly. So I go with her. So it's me, her, and two other people. We drive from Atlanta to Knoxville. The packages are going to be available for pickup, basically. Let's say Wednesday morning. We drive Tuesday night. Get a hotel out there in Knoxville. And then, you know, Wednesday morning package is going to be available for pickup. I ordered it like Tuesday morning. So we go out there, stay in the hotel. Tuesday night, we're in the hotel or not. Wednesday morning, we wake up.

I send her and another girl in the Uber to pick up the package from the UPS, or the FedEx store or whatnot. And she had another girl go with her because she's like, I feel uncomfortable. Can she go with me? Like, I'm just nervous. I just want somebody to come with me. I'm like, all right, she can go with you. Like, I have no problem with that.

So I get them with Uber. And I knew this day, like, it's so crazy. Like, when you're doing things, especially, like, in this particular, like, field, you always see signs. Like, you're going to see something that's going to tell you. Like, me, I always trust my intuition. The moment they got in the Uber to go pick up the actual package, I see a police car get behind him. But I see the police car get behind them. But in my mind, I'm like, you know, like, your greed outweighs your common sense.

So a lot of times, you're usually. thinking about the money, but you're not really thinking like, oh, this is not right. But I see the car get behind him, but he gets behind him and he kind of like veers off. So in my mind, I'm like, why that police car just get behind him like that? And my mind, I'm like, let me go get this money. Like, go ahead. So they go to the location. When they get to the FedEx store location and where you can pick up the package at,

I'm looking at. I'll track the packages on my other phone, like online. You know, I can see everything. I would call the store if it was any problems. She gets to the location. They're telling her, like, it's already been picked up. How it's been picked up already, I've been seeing here watching it for my... I've been refreshing my phone every five minutes.

They're telling her, it's already been picked up. It's not available to pick up anymore. I'm looking at my phone. It's not even saying that. So I'm like, how is it not available for pickup? And it was just available on my phone. And so she's like, were they telling me? I can't pick it up.

Like, it's no, basically it's a no-go. You know what? Don't even worry about it. I'm going to get your Uber back to, you know what I'm saying? Basically, back to the gas station where they got picked up from. And we're just going to go back on the road and go home. So my ex, who came with me at the time on this particular move, she was sleeping in bed. So I didn't have a license.

So I wake her up. I'm like, listen, hey, wake up. We need to go pick them back up because, like, basically it didn't go right. So I need you to drive because my license was spending at the time. So I wake her up. She's like, oh. Okay, okay, okay. You know, I'm going to get ready.

So she gets up. We get in the car. The Uber drops and back off at, you know, at the gas station where they got picked up originally from. So the two of them get back into the car. When they get back in the car, like, we're just going to go back home. You know, like, basically it didn't work out. So we get in the car. We're about to pull off from the parking lot of the gas station.

And all of a sudden it's just like a nightmare. Like, it's like a big black suburban just comes in and out nowhere. So when it comes in out of nowhere, I had my head down. I was on my phone. My ex just screams like at the top of her lungs. I'm thinking like she might get into an accident. I look up. It's like a big black suburban just sitting in front of it.

So I look up. I'm like, yo, you, why is it suburban in our lane? Right. You know, so I look up and I kind of look and I see like police lights in the windshield. So I'm like, oh, no, that's the police. Like, that's 12. Like, I need to get up out of there. So immediately, I open the door.

I take off running. So I take off running. When I take out running, like, she gets out the car and she just screams at the top of her lungs. And I'm like, I'm like, like, just, like, I got to go. So it's like a little cement wall right there, like, right when I run out the car. I grab on top of the wall, I try to clown the wall. Like, one of the officers trying to grab my leg. I shake off of them, get over the wall.

I'm running like through this waffle house. parking lot. I never forget it was a while for I was parking lot. So I'm running. One of my phones falls out my pocket. I get away though. I get away. So I get away. I run back to the hotel that we had been staying at previously that night before. So I get to the hotel. I always had a habit of like when I'm in the car like I put my phone in the seat because if I get out the car, my phone is in my left. It will always fall and hit the ground. So my phone was in the actual seat. I left my phone in the seat. My other phone that I had was in my pocket. It felt like my pocket when I was running. I have no phone. I run back to the hotel. I get on the hotel phone.

I call my child's mom. I'm like, listen, I need an Uber or Lyft immediately because I have no way to get up out of here and I'm stuck. Like they just ran down as, it's like six cars deep. Like all black suburbanages from the front of the car to the back of the car, they basically took up the whole street. So she's like, hold on, hold on. She doesn't have the app uploaded on her phone. She has to download the app. in her waiting at the hotel. She finally downloads the app. When she downloads the app, she's like, okay, the driver's on the way. So I leave out the hotel room.

I go look out the window. It's police cars everywhere. It didn't swarm the whole hotel. So I go back to her to the room. I'm like, listen, I can't go nowhere. She's like, I already know. I just talked to the Uber driver. She's like, like, they basically telling me, like, you can't, you know what I'm saying?

Like, it's police everywhere. If you're going to come, you need to hurry up. Like, hurry up. It's police everywhere. I said, listen, I can't get up making it to that car. They're going to see me if I get in that car. So basically, I tell her, like, listen, I'm just going to wait it out. I'm trying to wait it out.

Maybe they'll, you know what I'm saying? Five minutes later, no less than probably five minutes later. They're at the door. Right. They're at my door, like, banging on the door. So I tell her, like, listen, you know where I'm at. Once I make bond, like, come buy me out. Just use the money, like, make mine, right?

You're not getting bond. Yeah, not getting bond. It's not going to be a bond. So I had a bond, but it was extremely high and had a probation hold. So it didn't even matter at the end of the end of the end. So I go to open the door like, because I'm like, let me open the door because I don't want it to go left if they kicked this door down. I open the door. I literally cracked the door.

They kicked the door a little bit. They kicked the door down, throw me on the ground. They put me in hand because next thing I know, like I said, we all go back to the precinct. And, you know, one of the officers he's talking to me, like, where's your phone? I'm like, I don't know. He's like, well, we got, it was four of y'all. Three phones in the car that we already got. It's a fourth phone that nobody's owned up to.

I said, I don't know where my phone at. He said, well, I did see you running with a phone. I seen the phone file at your pocket. Mind you, that's the phone that I do everything on. So I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. So he's like, we need to go back to the Wafel House parking line. We need to see what I can find this phone. So true enough, they go back to the Waffa House parking line.

They found the phone. Are you kidding? Nobody in Waffle, you can't rely on anybody to Waffle. How they pick up a fucking phone and sell it or throw it away or steal it? They found the phone. So when they found the phone, they're like, do you got anything that you want to talk about?

I said, no, I can't even talk to you while I'm an attorney. So he's like, okay, all right, we'll sign this paper right, so you agree not to talk. So basically, I signed a paper. I go back to Knoxville County Jail. Go back to Knoxville County Jail. I sat there for probably about two months. I hired an attorney.

When I hired an attorney, he's basically telling me, me like, listen, you do know the feds is more than like going to pick this case up. I don't know if you know already, but you're already in investigation. You're already under investigation. So, my amount of times that 10 of the feds are going to pick this case up. It's the best thing I can do for you is try to get this case thrown out in Knoxville, and that way you don't have to deal with this case after you finished with the feds. So this wasn't the feds?

This is the state of... This is Knoxville County. This is Tennessee? Yeah, Tennessee. Well, how was Tennessee even on you? They just caught the diamonds going in? No. I tried them before previously about a year out.

So they kind of had, when they got whipped at what was going on, they basically alerted the authorities like, hey, somebody tried this about a year ago. I tried it about a year ago, and it would have went smoothly, but the person I had to go pick of the package was running late, and they never got there in time. So I tried it again about a year later, thinking that it might be, you know, cool to do it. And they basically, once they got wind of what was having,

happening, they alerted authorities. And they basically set up a whole sting operation for that day. You know what I'm saying? So I went to court in Knoxville. I got a paid attorney. He basically got it thrown out. Like, he's like, listen, I'm going to talk to the prosecutor and investigators. If they want to proceed with this hearing today, we can. But you didn't take anything. You can do anything. The feds are going to pick your case up. So it's really no point of like, you know, like, it's no point of them trying to per- yeah because it's nothing so that's exactly what he did he got it thrown out that day

and literally like when he got thrown out that day like the feds were like in booking like right here like hey you're walking out the front door and they're waiting for you right exactly so um I walk like they basically greeted me in booking they took me to the federal courthouse I got booked on like what they call as a criminal complaint and a criminal complaint if you know you're familiar with the federal system

I'm like, they got 30 days to show up. They got evidence for an indictment. So in 30 days, like, I got transferred basically all the way through from Tennessee to Atlanta. I went to, like, two or three different, like, facilities. And by that time, it was like, this is like September of 2018. So I got transferred to Atlanta probably in November. And when I got there, they had enough for an indictment. Did they indict you or did you sign off on the criminal complaint?

Now, I signed off on a criminal complaint, like, basically saying like, hey, I got, you know. I admit you have enough. You probably have enough. Right. I'm not going to make you indict me. Right. But they ended up doing it anyway, like within us 30 days. And I went to Lovejoy, Bages and which is in Atlanta's a whole different facility.

And I was there for about a year. And during that time, as I was fighting my case, my first offer was 120 months. I told them, hell no, I'm not taking it. Like, there's no way I'm taking 120 months. So I took the time to kind of like, I went to a lot of library, start learning different things as far as like my case and what I could do in regards to like make it better for me. You know what I'm saying? So what I learned is like the financial loss amount that they accused me for, they were, they didn't have evidence for the full amount. So I got, I told my attorney, my attorney let the prosecutor know like, listen, y'all have evidence for this amount but not for this actual amount that you're accusing him for.

So they basically lowered me. What were they accusing you of? Okay, my charge was basically, it was basically NSA transportation of stolen property, basically taking stolen property across state lines. So it was basically like, how did they word? Like, yeah, NSA transportation and stolen property. Like, you basically commit a crime taking stolen property across state lines. Right.

But what was the dollar amount attached to it? 1.6. 1.6 million. Yeah. Yeah. And so you guys argued. Yeah. You were arguing for less.

Right, right. So basically this is how I worked. It was 1.6. What was the attempt? Okay. The actual amount. Potential loss. Right.

Yeah. Potential loss. Right. He could have made. He could have. Exactly. So that's what they grade you off of. You know what?

But the actual was like 600 and some thousand. Right. But 1.6 was the attempted law. You know what I'm saying? So, um, so they, that's what I, that's, my first offer was 120 months. And I didn't, I didn't, you know, I didn't agree to it. So once I showed them, they didn't have evidence for that particular amount. They lowered me on the guidelines for the financial loss amount.

And then they came back to me with 92 months. And I didn't want to agree to that. I was trying to get something around 60 months. But I end up, a lot of people, a lot of, people are familiar with the federal system, I ended up getting a lot of enhancements. I had a lot, I had a leadership role, enhancement was three points. I had sophisticated means, but it was two points. And I had ten of more victims of what was two points. Changing the jurisdiction to evade detection? No, I didn't get that. You were all over the place.

Yeah, I didn't get, definitely. I'd have given them, I didn't give you, I didn't give me invading detection. That's why you're going to all these different places. They got, I mean, I got seven points in enhancements. Right. And so. Nothing. Yeah. Yeah. It felt like something. I only one I didn't agree to was the leadership role. Because leadership role basically saying, but this is what they're saying.

This is what they're saying, right? You basically control two or more people to go commit a crime and you got more than half the proceeds. See, even though that I did, they had two more people saying that I told them what to go do. But it's like, how do you prove that I got to have more than half the proceeds? You have no proof or no evidence saying that I got more than half the proceeds. And the people involved don't have any idea what you were making. They just know they were making $1,000 or $500.

Right, right. So I tried to fight it at my sentencing hearing. Who is your judge? Judge Ray. Oh. Judge Ray. My judge was Judge Batten. Yeah, Judge Ray.

He was new. My prosecutor, my prosecutor, my victim came to court. and it was crazy because he came to court. It was like, it was about to be done. I got up there, you know, basically I wrote something. I spoke to the judge. My mom got up there. Did you say they were a good boy?

Yeah. He's a good boy. Yeah. All that good stuff. So it was like at the end, he was about to sentence me. And then the prosecutor was like, hold on. One of the victims is on the way he wants to say something, right? So I'm like, I'm like, it's no way.

Like, can we just recess for like 15, 20 minutes? This man drove all the way from Knoxville to be at my sentencing. He gets there. We took like a 15, 20 minute recess. He gets up there and he makes me look like the worst person ever. And I never forget. You didn't meet you. Yeah.

I never met you. Well, it wasn't, it was more or less like, he was basically like, like, I think he should get the maximum amount of time. He doesn't know how he's basically victimized me. and he's destroyed the reputation of my company and my business and... That's an enhancement.

Yeah. That could be an enhancement too, by the way. I got an enhancement for using a... Oh, no, you would have been okay because it was a court... This wasn't... I got an enhanced for using a charitable institution in furtherance of my crime.

I was surveying homeless people by saying I worked for the Salvation Army. And even though I was giving them money, they, which is not, you know how they have a paragraph explaining what each enhancement, like here's an example. Mine was, or the using a charitable institution,

was like me going and getting money on behalf of, let's say, the Cancer Society, asking for you to donate to the cancer society, you get an enhancement. I was paying people. You weren't getting money. He was giving money. And so we said that to the judge.

Your Honor, he wasn't, he was paying people. He wasn't asking for money for the institution. He was paying people on behalf of it. And he goes, I feel he soiled their name. And he said, so I'm going to let that enhancement. But yeah, it was charitable institution. Yours wasn't charitable institution. Yours was a business.

So, okay. You're right. You don't deserve a. You're good. Yeah. So I got, I ended up getting a sentence to 92 money. And What was that?

Is that all the guy said was? I mean, he basically said that like he's, he just really say he was traumatized. He said he couldn't sleep at night and he just, um, fucking victims. Yeah, he just went to talking about how his family has to like have extra precautions when it comes to all this. Nailing off diamonds? to people? Yeah, but maybe you should.

Yeah, so he, yeah, I really honestly think that maybe I probably could have got a little bit, like one of my hands was mighty guy took him off. Had he been not so, like, hard on his speech when he

spoke at my sentence. Does he feel bad? I felt a little bad, but it was more or less like, like my mom was there, my dad was there, and like, it was more or less like, I felt more bad for my family than his. Because it's like my mom's sitting here crying and it's just like,

when you know how the federal system is, everything is in months. So when you hear it automatically, it's just like you start doing the math. Like, how many years is that? And it's just like I told my attorney one thing, let's fight. And she got out there and told the opposite thing. Like I told her, before we sat down and talked, I said this is how we're going to fight the leadership role. She said something totally different when she got out there.

So it was just like at any of that, I accepted, you know, you get it. I did accept the responsibility for my actions, you know what I'm saying? And I realized what I did. Like I say, I learned a lot from it. I just felt like, you know, at the end of the day, what you know in any operation or any type of thing that you're doing is illegal, somebody's liable to tell. And that's what I really, really learned. I had, when I come to my case, I had six people that told them.

And ask me how to. What about the code? How asked me how many code defendants I had. Six? I had one. What do you mean? They didn't even get convicted of a crime because they told them. Oh, so it's like, I asked my attorney one day.

I said, I said, how do I have six people telling them to be? Nobody got charged with anything. All right. She's like, I don't know, but they're just, you know, that's what they do. I had one co-defendant. You know why I had one co-defendant? Because she didn't tell. And that's the one out.

And she didn't tell. And I guess for her not cooperating, and we're going to charge you two. Yeah. You know, and I literally had six, I had six people telling me. And it's crazy, I said, ain't there with one co-defendant.

And none of those people, six people ever got charged with anything. So, yeah, that's, you know, that's basically what I learned. And it's, you know, a lot of times,

I feel like I should have stopped ahead of time. I thought, I should have stopped ahead of time. I feel like that, you know, I started it was like a humbug. Like, I didn't expect for this to spiral out the way it did. And when it did, it just kind of got, it just kind of got just way out of hand.

I didn't even think it was going to go federal. Like, the first time I seen my name, like, I didn't see my name, but I seen an article, like I say, on one of jury websites. And when I seen it and it said, FBI agent such as such as looking, I said, oh, this is federal. And that's what kind of like open my eyes like, you know, like how serious it was. but by that time I was just, I was just too far in, honestly. Would you end up going to prison? I was in West Virginia. I was at SCI Beckley in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.

I did. Yeah, I did. I did all my time up there. I was locked up. Is it a medium or low? It's a medium. And I did all my time up there. Literally, I would say, is hell on the mountain.

They're literally stuck on them, like, and you're not on the mountain. You're in the middle of a mountain. They set a prison in the middle of a mountain, and that's just like, it snows in May. Like, I never, like, seen anything like that. But, yeah. That's why I did my job. I did basically six years. I got sent to nine, two months, and I did six years.

So you get halfway house or? I did six years. I did R-Dap. Oh, okay. Yeah, so. R-DAP saved me, honestly. See? People love people.

Right? I say shout out to R-Dap because R-Dap saved me. I probably would have been home like a year later, had it not been for R-Dap. Because you know R-Dap, you get a year off of his sentence. So it was an old, I remember it was an old-school guy. He told me like, listen, young blood, you're going to be good. Just take R-Dap. I came back from Sentencing and I was sick.

I'm like, ain't no way. I'm going to do all this time. So he's like, listen, just take R-Dap and you'll be fine. I'm like, what is that? He's like, when you go and do your PSI, tell him you got a drug problem. Yeah. Well, and you had, you had the DUIs too. Right. That was an easy.

Right. I have a drug problem. I have an alcohol problem. Right. So he's like, he's like, tell him, tell him you got a drug problem. I said, all right. And then, you know, during that time, that's when they kind of like brought in the first step back. I never got the first step back.

About time that it actually kicked in for me, I was like at the end of my sentence. But, you know, I took R that. Basically, you know, it's a drug program. It's a drug treatment program. And if you, you know, you finish it complete the program, you get a year off of your sentence. So that kind of like helped me in a sense of getting, you know, home a little earlier than I expected. So I took ARAP, completed it. It was like literally hell because at where I was at West Virginia at Beckley, like, you're literally locked down all the time.

We were locked down, like, all the time. Not even just for COVID, but it was just like anything, you just were always locked down. Any type of situation, any type of incident, the first thing they wanted to go to was lockdown. So I was there. Majority, I could say my whole bid. I left there. Went to the halfway house in Atlanta. I did four months at the halfway house at Atlanta.

And I was finally, this was in 2024. I left the halfway house in June. In June of, yeah, 2024. And basically, like I say, since I've been home from the halfway house, I started being my dad. We have an AXVAC business, so we do HVAC work. We do a lot of HVAC and refrigeration. I also continue doing my music as well.

That's something that I feel passionate about is doing my music. I was doing it before I went to prison. So like I say, basically, like, you know, the feds just, they open your eyes a lot. You know, they really make you want to actually legitimize, like, everything. And like I said, I didn't really, I don't feel like I learned my lesson when I was in the state. Like, it was just, it was, honestly, it was sweet. It was phones everywhere. It was, you know, you could just hang out.

And I still, you know what I'm saying? Georgia, like, it's just, it's not a place where you can actually learn from your, you know, from your actions. But when I went to the feds and had a lot of time to sit down and be locked down, like, it really opened my eyes, especially being on lockdown. I was in the feds during COVID. So it was like, it was locked down all the time. And I just, I took a lot of time to read. I took a lot of time to really, really just reflect on my actions, and they kind of like, it got my mind way, you know what I'm saying,

way better than where it's supposed to be. Well, and ARDAP, too. Yeah, yeah. I took ARDAP. Yeah, they got it at. That's where I wanted to take it at. I want to come down here and take it, but they wouldn't let me, I can get my security down low enough.

Yeah, yeah, you know, no way you go through ARDAP without learning. Even if you're trying to fake your way through it, you're going to learn yourself. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that's exactly. I tell everybody, like, because you've got to, like, participate. And even if you, like, in there not really want to be there, you're going to pick up on something from just being in there every day. You suffer from super optimism. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I think I can get away with anything. So that was one of my flaws. You're right. It was. I did struggle with it. I thought I could get away forever.

Yeah. Trying to think about the other ones for. You know, my wife took art out too. And she'll, every once else, she'll say something. She'll be like, oh, that's super optimism. Or she'll, you're struggling with something. You're struggling. You're struggling with such and such. I'd be like, don't, don't do that.

Don't. But that helps, though. I learned a lot, like, like, cognitive thinking. Yeah. How to, uh. You better do an RSA on that. Yeah, RSA. Exactly what it is.

Is it insane being in there, though? It is. After the first two months when you're using the vocabulary, that they're using and everybody else is using what's rsa a rational self-analysis yeah so it's it's the thing that someone that you colby do naturally that people with a criminal um thinking errors don't do like most criminals react immediately and where an average person they immediate they're instinctively do an rsa which is they they they think through like if i react this this way, this is what's going to happen, you know, here's a negative outcome.

What if I react this way, there would be a positive, but if I react in a different way, what would be the outcome? And so you immediately do it. Criminals don't really typically think about the outcome. They think about, here's how I want to react. You know, they're instinctively do it and they're not even thinking about how, and they don't even think about an alternative. No, that guy said this, or I want that, I'm going to do this and this and this to get it,

They don't even think. What if it goes wrong? No, it's not going to go wrong. But what if it does? It won't. No, what if it does? What else could you do to get that in another way? What else could you do maybe not?

Maybe you don't need that. Maybe, but it's a quick way to, they actually have you write it down real quick. And if you do it long enough, like anything, it takes what, two weeks to build a habit? If you do anything long enough, it becomes a habit and you start to just do it. And you start to see these guys, like, change. Like, it's, it's, it is, it's almost a form of brainwashing. And it's, it's frightening. Like, you, you'll see guys go in there.

It's frightening from the outside. If you're on the inside, you're like, you realize, like, now they're just getting these guys to think normally. Right. Like a normal, good, decent citizen should think. But you'll see some guys that'll go in there and they're kind of they're faking their way through it or they're still kind of douchebags. and then suddenly, I always have the, this is the one that makes me think, this is, I, I went in,

and you know, everybody's telling on each other. We had a guy, Pete, my buddy Pete, was there, and he wasn't in Ardap, right? So I used to make fun of Ardap. Right. And then even, of course, when I first got in, I'm making fun of it. And there was a guy that was there, I don't know, I'm going to call, I'm going to say his name is David, who David, we would make fun of Ardap. Right.

And so we sit out one day to chow, me, me and David, Pete sits down. And he goes, he goes, hey, what's going on? He said, uh, how's it going on? I said, ah, that's going right. And he said, um, and I used to tell Pete all the time, like, don't, don't joke around about Ardap, bro, because these guys will tell on you. If I start laughing with you about it, they'll fucking turn on me. I'll be standing up in the morning meeting the next morning.

Yeah, exactly. And, and, you know, they'll pull you up, pull you up. Yeah. And I sat down with David and we're sitting there and we're, he's like, hey, man, what's going on? He said, how's Ardap? I go, oh, it's good. I said, it's fine, it's fine. And he goes, hey, David, he said, how you doing?

He's got you brainwashed yet? Like that joke, he's joking around, but I told him to stop it. Right. And, and David goes, no, you know what? He goes, they got me thinking right. And he got up and picked his fucking food up and went to a another table and sat down. I go, what the fuck are you doing? Are you fucking, I'm going to be the morning meeting tomorrow.

He's going to pull up. He's going to pull me up tomorrow. He says, you didn't say anything. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm sitting with you.

I can be sitting with people that are outside the unit that are fucking joking around about the, you know what I'm saying? Then it'll be like who you're, Mr. Cox, yeah, your peers. You're choosing the wrong peers. I understand that David, you know, that David got up and went to the other, or Mr. Johnson, whatever's last name. They had to call it your last name, right, Cox Johnson.

Mr. Johnson got up and lived, but you sat there and ate the entire meal with your friend. And you're just like, you know, they'll pull you up. I saw guys get pulled up for fucking bringing salt into the chow hall because we weren't allowed to bring in anything in the chow hall and that's contraband or why are you bringing salt and the next thing you know you can have some mayonnaise yeah yeah next thing you know some guys standing up and they're two guys are fucking giving him shit and then he's like what's going on and you're sitting there watching this whole thing and then the next thing know that guy's going they're like well wait a minute who else where were you i was just sitting down with mr johnson and mr mr thomas well mr johnson's

your your big brother and mr thomas is he's he's a complete he's complete he's complete the program. Mr. Johnson stand up, Mr. Thomas stand up. Why didn't you bring this up? Why is Mr. So-and-so-good? I'm not accountable. I'm sitting there going, man, we got fucking four guys standing up right now over condiments. You brought a fucking condiment in the chowel. What's happening?

That was like the first day I was there. I was like, and these guys are terrified. They're about to lose a year. I mean, they didn't, but they could. Depending if they've been brought up other times and I'm thinking, this motherfucker's about to have to do another year in prison because he brought in

salt to the fucking jaw. That's insane. That's dead-ass serious, though. It's dead for real. And they don't play in Ardap at all, because they hold that year over your head. They know if you don't cooperate, your ass is going to get up out of there.

Yeah. And you can't, yeah. And if you sit there and say, oh, well, I'm just going to kind of ride it out. Then it's, you're not participating. You're not taking this seriously. And they don't kick you out. Yeah.

Like, I didn't even say anything. I didn't even do anything. But yeah, you're not participating. You're not... You got to participate. And then people do the fake pull-ups, right? They fake pull-up somebody. I did those all the time.

But they'll figure that out. It's terrifying, right? Some of these guys are terrified. Yeah. But, I mean, it's part of the process. You want to get home. No, listen, I always said... What?

I said, like, a couple days ago, I did one. And I said, listen, I don't think anybody should... I don't think anybody should leave prison without passing art, not Art Act. Well, let's face it, it's not really about drugs. It's about criminal thinking. But I don't think anybody should leave without passing, because I'll bet you the recidivism rate would drop dramatically. Right.

If you took Art Art Act? Yeah. At least you leave humble. You know, and I think leaving prison humble really helps you reintegrate into society because you're not going out with this. You know, this huge, ridiculous, you know, oh, I'm going to go. I'm going to start, I'm going to start, I'm going to start a car lot or I'm going to start a restaurant or I'm going to, you know, you can, you can want that, but you, they give you, they kind of give you a plan. Start here. Do this. Then, you know, be reasonable with your thinking. Because otherwise, you go out thinking, I'm going to go out and I'm going to go do this and you fail. Next thing you know, you're selling drugs again. You're robbing banks. You're, if you go out, humble and appreciative you got it you're building from a better place right I think yeah that is true because I know I didn't learn nothing my other two times now I

until I went to I went to Ardap hey you guys I appreciate you watching do me a favor hit the subscribe button the bell so you get notified I have videos just like this also we are going to leave all of Corey's link social media links in the description box his in his Instagram is Mula underscore F and F he's got his music on Instagram but he also has TikTok. Also, if you're interested in being a guest, we're going to leave a link to our website where you can go to the guest page and you can fill out an application and you can leave a short video and we will get in touch with you. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. See you.