Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Dissecting A Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme | Infamous Ghost Money

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

Bay Area Rapper Kafani Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme Breakdown With @Infamous Ghost Money

But I notice from a lot of the cases that I look at, yeah, the more confident fraud says they go in, especially if you bring in a fake ID that's from a different state. You see the shit on it, but unless you're going and you're looking at the high D guys and all that, you don't really know what the fuck you're looking at. A lot of times they were coming in and as you will see with this case, that was pretty much what they were doing. They were going in and getting the things cleared. If they do their things right, there's a high probability that the bank will release that money. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I'm going to be, I'm not really going to be interviewing, but I'm going to be taking part in a discussion with infamous ghost money. He's got a YouTube channel where he dissects different types of frauds that are going on.

He contacted me and asked me, said, hey, look, here's a scam that's happening. And I'm trying to kind of dissect it what these guys were doing, you know, in this scam. and these guys end up getting arrested and I don't know what kind of time they got. So check this out. All right, y'all. So today we're going to be talking about a recent case that came up late September

involving a hip-hop artist known as Kafani. To be honest, I never heard of this dude. I tried to listen to like one or two of his songs. It wasn't my thing. So I kind of turned that off ASAP. But with that being said, this man is a all the way fraudster. And I say that respectfully,

his resume speaks for itself and you soon will see. But this gentleman's method of doing fraud involve mortgage fraud. You know, the ghost knows about a lot of different methods, but for this, I had to reach out to Mr. Matthew Cox because if I'm not mistaken, Matthew, that was your thing, right? Absolutely. All right. So if you want to just tell to the people who don't know who you are, you want to explain to them why you are a qualified individual to speak on mortgage fraud? What? Let's see. I owned a, so you want, you want a five minute version or you want, what do you want? We're just Jones and Matt. Okay. I basically, I own a mortgage company for about five years. I was a mortgage broker for about six years. And I was on the run for three years. Plus I committed fraud in Tampa additional. So basically 10 years I was committing mortgage fraud. I, I owned a, a, I owned a, brokerage business. I was a FHA approved lender and a VA approved lender, subprime broker and a

conventional broker. And I committed roughly 55, well, my company committed roughly about 40 to $55 million in fraud. I personally committed $15 million in mortgage fraud as a fraudster or a con man, whatever you want to call it. And I was number one on the Secret Services Most Wanted. list. I was eventually captured. I was given 26 years. I served 13 years for fraud for for bank fraud. And so that's basically I've, that's that is essentially what I guess my, you know, my qualifications are that I know underwriting guidelines and I know mortgage scams inside now. In fact, one of the ways that I reduced my federal sentence was I wrote what's called an ethics and fraud course for the U.S. government that is used to teach ethics and fraud to the

nation's loan officers and mortgage officers under the Dodd-Frank Act. So I ain't even got to say anything after that. It's expensive. Yeah, I have extensive experience in bank fraud, mortgage fraud. Absolutely. And there's just two things I want to add to what you said before we jump into this. That is crazy. I didn't know that you created a course that they're using around ethics and fraud. Like you said, that's to teach loan officers. Is that who you said it was? Yeah. You know, it's it's basically goes over there's there's like seven or eight different types of mortgage scams. And there's different variations of all of them obviously. But also it's basically just about ethics and fraud and just or ethics where it just kind of explains like, look, you know, you're you know, people. people basically convince themselves. Brokers will often convince themselves that by lying on an application or changing a document, that they're really helping their client. And this is not true. You know, and so it's more than just me explaining like, this is a fraud and that's a fraud and this

is a fraud. It's more than just that. It's also like, look, don't get, don't get, don't get sucked into this trap by telling yourself that you're helping your client. because that's not what's happening at all. So, you know, it's more than just broad. But yeah, yeah, go ahead. Sorry. You know, just along those lines, which you said, something you said really resonated me. And sometimes people could convince themselves that they think that they're helping somebody, but really you're not.

And this is something I kind of wanted to get into my channel, but speaking specifically in some of the communities I grew up in, sometimes people view those things as a hookup. You know what I'm saying? Like even if you think about the PPP loans and everything. that was happening. People that didn't know any better that was being put on to these scams, they didn't know all the way that, hey, this is illegal and what comes behind it because they see the person that's putting them on, like, this person's hooking me up. And a lot of the a lot of communities that's seen as a positive thing. Same thing with tax returns and all these different things. And just like you said, with loans, because I spent a little bit of my

professional career, you could say, working closely with someone who did mortgages, and this guy was a beast. But some of the tactics that he did in just the cold calling alone, it's like, it was a little dirty. But like you said, at the end of it, it was funny how a lot of these people ended up feeling like this was a good thing. And many times it was a good thing, but I can only assume a lot of those people, they couldn't really afford those homes. And after a matter of time, I can only imagine where those people is at now. But, hey, it is what it is. The way I view a lot of those things is, and some people might not agree with me on it, there's so much information out there that if you get caught up in something, it's kind of unfortunate that you didn't do your research

prior because there's so much information, but people are just so quick to believe what they want to believe and not want to take the time to try and look into like, what's the other side of it. But anyways. All right. So there you have it, guys, Mr. Matt. And also, I wanted to say another funny thing, like I told you when we first spoke. If you ever are watching TV like at four or five in the morning, there's a chance you might see Mr. Matt on the screen because he's, you was part of like some commercial around identity theft or something like that. It's a title theft, which is one of the things that I did, which was title fraud. It's committing title fraud on people's, on people's homes.

People's actually very similar to what this guy does. Like the case we're about to talk to, very similar. That's why I really feel like, yeah, I'm positive what this guy did. In fact, what he did actually, there was a Nigerian guy. Shout out to the Nigerians. The Nigerian team, really. It was led by the main guy with a Nigerian. I feel like so many scams start with just that.

They called him the king of the king of the helix. And he, I forget what it was like $80 million. He was believed to have done in helot loans on other people's properties, just like this guy. Just like this guy. But let's go ahead. Let's get into it. What's up? Yeah, man.

You see, this is what I want. I want to enjoy the conversation. Now we're vibrant. So, but yeah, you know, those Nigerians, I don't mean to say those Nigerians. I am, we talked about ancestry. I got a large part of Nigerian in me. Pause. But yeah, like so many scams. Like there was one I was looking into. I wanted to look into it. But for some reason, it's so hard to find information on the people who's in Nigeria. You always got the people they use in the United States as mules to kind of like funnel the money. But to get the people who, who are actually running the shit, it's, it's kind of hard. Like, there was one, a big criminal enterprise out of Ghana, I believe. But they were doing business email compromise scams, romance scams, trust. They were doing all sorts of things and just funneling it, funneling the money through individuals in the United States.

So when you look through the paperwork, it's not, not too interesting because it doesn't really give any details around how they were doing the business email compromise scams, which is certain a lot of my people have been wanting to look into. But, all right, anyway, let's get into this case, y'all. All right, so who is Khaffani? Like I said, he's a rapper. Bling, bling, bling. Kofani is a rapper out of Oakland, I believe.

And please, y'all, don't come at me if I say the wrong thing. I am not a hip-hop channel. I know a lot of people say I'm kind of similar to academics. Shout out to him. But I am not a hip-hop channel. I never listened to this dude before with all due respect. but he's out of Oakland and

based on his Wikipedia page his name is Amir Rashid but in the paperwork his name is Mark Hicks his stage name is Kaffani and he's an American rapper from the Funk Town section of San Antonio, California.

San Antonio, Oakland, California. He graduated from Oakland High School in 1998 where he played varsity basketball and he eventually signed to Fizz nation a subdivision of the late mac dray's label fizz entertainment are you into hip hop matt no i listen to country music oh i was born and raised in tampa florida you know i got a funny story about Tampa a couple years ago i was in Tampa right and i'm used to living in big cities like

LA New York you know sections in Texas but anyways um I was, it's like, I was, it was like not really much to do. So when I walked out, all I saw was a bunch of alligators and cons. So I'm like, this is crazy. So, and I didn't have a car. So I took a lift to a mall. So I'm just like, all right, I'll walk around the mall and see what's going on out here thinking I'm going to see something interesting. It was nothing interesting. So I'm like, all right, let me, let me walk outside. And then when you walk outside, it's nothing but highways. So I'm just walking in between a bunch of people's cars. And imagine a black dude just walking in between a bunch of people's cars. It wasn't a comfortable situation to say the least.

Anyways, let's keep it going. So a little bit more about Kaffani. On September 28, 2013, Kaffani was shot several times in East Oakland after shooting a music video. He was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. And on October 18, 2013, he spoke for the first time since the shooting in which he said, took five shots. They say, might not walk again, but I'm on God's team, so I know I'm going to win. Holla back. Kofani has launched a crowdfunding campaign with a concert on September 12, 2014 to acquire an assistive robotic device to walk again.

And it almost seems as if you got it, because I found these pictures here. And this is not funny. I mean, you know, with hip-hop, they do a lot to appear real. and in the in the you know let me not even say that because a lot of these people they do come from rough backgrounds but unfortunately this gentleman he got shot five times could never walk again and this happened in 2013 i think that's when he was his hip-hop career was actually doing well but it does seem as if he got those legs because look at that that's pretty interesting um all right so that's a little bit about him i wanted to talk about him before we just jump into the fraud but this is what we were here for and this is why i put bookmarks in the comments for y'all that say, oh, you talk to, go to the bookmark. Simple as that. Let's talk about his career in fraud. Mark Hicks' criminal history dates back to his juvenile days. At 20, he was arrested for bank fraud and sentenced to six months in jail. Less than two years later, he was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 32 months in prison for Yit credit, use others' IDs. He was on

probation for that offense when he was again arrested. time for false information to law enforcement. One year later, in 2008, he was arrested yet again, this time charged with being a violent felon in possession of a firearm. Matt, I kind of have an idea of what Get Credit Use Others IDs is, but do you have any, you want to talk a little bit about what that is? He was arrested for bank fraud and sentences. six months less than two years arrested for a get credit use okay I don't know maybe it's a

what do you what do you think it is get credit use I mean it is using someone's ID to get to get like a credit line or something I mean that doesn't that's what I assume like maybe just get credit like I don't know that I've never seen this as a federal term yeah that's why it was a little weird to me but I assumed it was probably using stolen identities to get credit because that kind of seemed to be this guy's thing as we go on. Or is he like to me that that would fall under. He would have been hit with 24 months for

aggravated identity theft. This may actually be where he's getting other people. Using other people like a straw man scam to get them credit. Ah, get credit used. So maybe he's

charging people to acquire credit for them and then they get the credit card and then he gets paid through the credit card or some system or something i'm not sure this might might have to look into that in another episode i don't know a little vague um all right but let's let's keep it moving uh none of the arrest or convictions deterred hicks because from 2018 to november 2012 hicks participated oh wow from 2008 through 2012 right hicks participated in oh go ahead i'm gonna start that over because you just like exposed me for i can't read

Anyways, none of the artists or convictions deterred Hicks, and from 2008 through November 2012, Hicks participated in a complex, multi-defendant scheme to defraud MoneyGram and USAA Federal Savings, employing the same modus apparendi he would use, in this case, in the USAA and MoneyGram fraud, Hicks and his co-conspirators, obtained personal identifying information of his victims, made telephone, calls to the bank impersonating them and working with co-conspirators obtain fraudulent proceeds from the victims. He was arrested in 2013 and despite this arrest, Hicks continued to engage in a sophisticated, insophisticated fraud schemes. In 2014, he was arrested and charged with grand theft and felon addict possessing a firearm. And according to the PSR, Hicks would hack into the Federal Express package tracking system and was rerouting packages where he, he had co-conspirators picked them up. He was observed picking up one of these packages from his co-conspirators in April 2015,

the Honorable Phyllis J. Hamilton sentenced Hicks to 39 months in prison for the MoneyGram and USAA fraud and ordered restitution of $258,400. And in 2016, he was sentenced to three years in prison on state charges. So a lot. This man has done a lot of fraud in and out of prison for doing fraud, and his modus apparendi seems to be using people's identities to then apply for some sort of credit and the different variations of cashing out. Right.

So to me, in this one, you know, the quick version is he's obtaining people's information. Sounds like he's calling from a cell phone, but he's probably using like the spoof app. So the bank thinks they're calling from their home phone number and he's then applying online and getting some kind of a getting them to issue him a check. And then when they overnight the check, he's having the checks, which the bank thinks they're overnighting the check to this person's home address when in fact he's having those checks rerouted to another address. So they get a hold of the checks. And then they could deposit those checks. Because it doesn't say that he's acquiring identification in those people's names. He's got their information.

So he's just calling on the phone saying, yeah, my name is this. My date of birth is this. My social security number. I work here, you know, and I'm applying for a whatever, a $5,000 cash or a $5,000, you know, personal loan or a payday loan. of some type and he's saying USAA so he's actually probably getting um it looks like he's he's getting a a personal loan could be 10 5 000 they go up to like i think you can get them like 20 25 000 for a personal loan and he probably is providing some kind of a pay sub to verify their their um you know like they're two weeks or sometimes they ask for like a month's worth

of pay stuff so you get providing two pay subs and And, you know, and they'll lend you, most banks will lend you double whatever you make in a month up to like $25,000. When I used to do this, it was up to $15,000. I think they go up to $25 now. But anyway, so then he's getting the checks sent, you know, oh, well, send it to my house, which they verify on his on their, when they pull the credit there, they see this is his home address. So they don't have a problem overnighting it to that address. And then they, he somehow or another has it rerouted. not sure how he's rerouting you know they're saying he hacked in hacked in could have

simply been him just simply having the the password to their account and having it rerouted yeah and also i would imagine during this time if you had like the address and just basic information on someone in the routing and i'm saying the routing the tracking number you probably go in there and just switch it up if you had that information right yeah so it's not like they act like it's hacking like he you know he hacked in and you know how to rewrite the code and everything he probably just made a phone call or went online and you had the correct information but yeah so that's that's what i think he probably got in trouble here for and uh you know this this happened like like it said 2008 2012 uh from what i understand it seems like now people are more aware of how spoofing

works so i can imagine during this time you know you get a number uh a phone call from a number that you think you could trust, they would probably pick it up and go for it immediately. Because I know as of like the past two, three years, it seems like more awareness has been raised around spoofing and more people are aware just because if you see that number, doesn't mean it's necessarily that person. But that's a big part of how he did a lot of his thing as we, as we're going to see. All right. So with that, his most recent scheme that he has have, that he has had to spend some time in for. So Bay Area rapper Mark Kofani Hicks and two co-conspirators sentenced to prison for multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme. The Bay Area

rapper Mark Kofani Hicks, aka Amir Rashid, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in orchestrating a complex fraud, loan fraud, and identity theft conspiracy. So loan fraud, identity theft a lot of what he did in the past you know what I'm saying he was a one-trick pony in different variations so I guess he was riding different ponies yeah well he's he's up to his game when he moved to the mortgages it's way it's big money yeah yeah but still pause I said he was yeah whatever anyway um these are the individuals involved in the case and he has an interest because he goes by Amir Rashid but then Mark Hicks and of course kafani his stage name but his name is Mark the Django, Hicks.

Then we also have Tyrone, Alex Xander Jones, Suzanne Ariola Martin, and I had to laugh when I read that name a couple of times. Christopher Poole, DeMarcus Hicks, A.K.A. Smurf, Dion Seas, Donnie, Costello, and Leif Scrochard. And a whole list of violations there. I am not going to go through all of that, but clearly they was going in. all the way in um all right so i'm gonna break this down because i'm not about to read all of this

but this was the conspiracy beginning at a date unknown to the grand jury but no later than in or about may 2018 and continuing through a date unknown but at least in or about february 2020 the way they write these things is just like i know i know you could have wrote this in a way that was much more simpler to just well you know they want to cover like like like they don't want to get they don't want to indict them or write them up on a on the motion and not cover everything so it ends up being even if they said well your honor that's not true because this happened six months they then they say they say we said around or about we said it's like gee but it's it's a nightmare to read it really is and that's why you subscribe to my channel because

i make it interesting for you there you go but anyway their their scheme had several layers in it All right? So the objective of the scheme was to defraud were among other objectives. First, A, to obtain stolen personal identifying information from identity theft victims. B, to use that stolen information to open bank accounts in the identity theft victim's names. From there, they would establish emails using the identity theft's victims names to use the identity theft's victims' identities to use the identity theft's victims' identities to obtain refinanced loans using the identity thefts victim's property as collateral. Then they would direct the loan companies to wire the loan proceeds to the bank accounts that they opened earlier in the victim's name, and they would cash out or extract the money from ATM withdrawals, doing store purchases for high-end goods, and they also purchased a ton of gold. And then they would resell a lot of that goal for cash for personal use. So several layers to this scheme, but Matt, please correct me if I'm wrong. It seems like it was

just gaining, getting their hands on people's information, opening bank accounts, establishing emails and phone numbers. Then they apply for these refinance loans, get the money sent to their account, and then they have these various ways of cashing out, which included ATM withdrawals, store purchases, and purchasing gold. Yeah, I mean, I absolutely. What I'm wondering about, is how, you know, the, listen, the hardest thing is for, unfortunately, this is, you know, this, this wouldn't be hard at all for me, any of this, but the hardest part for a typical person, other than if they had access to the information, right, which there's various ways to get that information, you know, the problem is opening the bank account, right?

Like, like, now maybe if you have the person's credit card, I'm sorry, you have the person's, a copy of their driver's license and you have their date of birth and their social security number. And then you could probably open it up online. But if you get a large transaction on a new bank account, then they'll usually freeze that bank account, a lot of them. But I also notice that, you know, they're getting that, like where are they getting the ATM card mailed? to pull the money out online where they they're either getting those ATM cards rerouted or and I know I know a guy that used to do this he used to get like he'd get he'd apply for a credit he'd use a spoof app get your information apply for a credit card and then get like a 30 40 150 or a 50 thousand dollar credit card and they would overnight it to you he would go and sit

in front of the person's house and wait for the wait for the UPS guy or FedEx guy to show up and then he'd get out of his he had a nice car like a brand new Lincoln he would on this is like a million dollar house two million dollar house he'd parked in front and when the eight when the um UPS guy pulled up he'd get out of his car and start walking towards the house like he was about to walk in his house and so you know keep in mind that the actual owner of the house is at work and so he'd start walking he'd turn around and see the UPS driver he'd be like oh hey Are you looking for, you know, John Smith?

And he'd go, yeah, are you, Mr. Smith? Yes, I am. He'd go, okay, here I have a delivery. He'd give him the card. And then he'd open it up and the guy, a UPS guy would get in the truck drive off. He'd get in his car drive off. And he'd call with a spoof app and he'd activate the card. And he'd start using the card.

So these guys, but opening the bank account is probably the hardest thing because you're going to need a real ID. Unless you want to do it online, I guess you can open them online. but if you get a you start getting large wires sent to that account a brand new account it's going to be a problem hmm you know first with the gentleman that you spoke of did you have him on your channel once was he the black dude with the glasses no no that's uh that Zach's boy Zach is brilliant he's he could be an you guys you guys were classic together man he's great that that video was really he it's funny for as brilliant as he is as brilliant as brilliant is he and funny super funny but as brilliant as he is with his scams he would have this amazing

intricate scam that would make millions and then he'd do something completely stupid like use a a stolen credit card to buy or to rent a room that he's staying in or rent a rental car it's like you've got four million dollars you can't pay for your own rental car what are you doing or you buy it with you buy a ticket a $400 ticket with a stolen and it's like you're going to be on that plane you just paid $400 for a plane ticket with a stolen credit card now you're attached to that stolen ticket for the next three hours while you're flying across the country you're going to land and they're going to grab you it's that easy like why would you do that and you know that's what I love about my channel because a lot of these cases and a lot of what you said

you're already catching on to where they fucked up yeah it's just really it's really it's You already catch it out to where they fucked up. You put all this thought into it. And the problem is I think you get cocky. Absolutely. And you're just these guys make mistakes. And it's like they don't run, especially when they don't run it as a business. Like they don't, like they don't want to invest a dollar into their scam.

That always upsets me. It's like you don't want to put a dollar into your scam. You're about to make half a million dollars, but you don't want to spend $2,000. But how are they going to, how am I going to get icy? though, Matt. I got to get the bling, bling in the nice car and post it on Instagram. What are you talking about? You have $498,000 left. Chill. No. So this looks to me like, yeah, it looks to me like they're opening accounts. Maybe they're seasoning those accounts for a certain period of time, or maybe they're getting a fake ID, but I don't say anything about fake IDs. Without jumping too

far, I do want to kind of challenge one thing you said. It's very easy to open bank accounts. with fake ID because social engineering like even what your boy did that's just like flat out social engineering and just someone thinking all this is all right and if you think about a lot of these employees I don't know if you're familiar with that Wells Fargo scandal but a lot of these banking employees apparently they get paid for every account that they open and they have sales quotas and different things like that so someone comes in and they're telling you I'm going to open an account and it's going to soon have $300,000 wired into it that's dollar signs for whoever's service in that person and they'll turn a blind eye. But they would put

extra scrutiny on someone else who's coming in like a teenager or a younger person, for example, just opening a basic account. They would not trust that person more than the person who's coming in and appears a certain way and may, you know, come off a certain way. And they will believe it and turn a blind eye to a lot of things. And that's a lot of what happened in this case. It's just a lot of people who didn't catch clear red flags or they decided to just just not pay attention to it. Right. Okay. Well, let me, let me give you an example. When I say, you know, look, opening and I opening it with a fake ID is easy. You're right. How did you get the fake ID? Well, we can't talk about that on the video. And that's the problem. Getting the fake

ID, then you have to go and have all their information and a fake ID that will pass mustard. That's not hard. The bank employees don't give it. They're not checking. Opening that account. But here's the other thing is that that bank employee isn't seeing the wires that come in. This is an automatic algorithm that detects that this this account was open three weeks ago and they just got a $250,000 wire sent in from another bank. It will shut it off automatically. A lot of times they'll shut it off. And I know this because I've had bank accounts where I had a real ID. I opened the bank count and then the bank account had been open for six or eight months. And but I was putting in like 3,000, 5,000, 20,000, 10,000. Then one day I got a 250,000 wire. And they immediately closed off

my bank and said, you have to come in the bank. Now, because it was me and because I had a real ID in someone else's name issued by the DMV, I actually went into the bank. Now, my girlfriend was freaking out. Oh my God, don't get. I'm like, you don't understand. This person is a homeless person that lives under a bridge. He didn't complain. I have credit cards in his name. I have a car in his name. Like all of this. There's nothing. There's no way they're going to catch me. And I actually went into the bank and they said, and I asked them what happened? What's the problem? You shut off my account or you froze my account. They said, well, look, the problem is you've, it's less than a year. You just had $250,000 wired into your account. Like, money's going in your account. You're draining it.

Money's going in your account. You're draining it. I'm like, no. And I explain. I owned a development company and this and this. And we had just that was a loan from a refinance and blah. And of course, they turned it right back on. They apologized, but they only did that because I was willing to walk in the bank. I'm pretty sure these guys would be terrified to walk into a bank,

especially if they had a fake ID. They had a real ID from the DMV, but these guys have real victims. My victim was a homeless person that I knew wasn't going to complain. these guys are stealing like doctors fucking driver's licenses and cops and CPAs and like you know um uh insurance salesman like their fear is if the bank suddenly said you need to come in the bank they'd be like oh jesus he might have figured it out i'm not going that's why i'm saying the bank is a crucial issue for these guys because everything else they did although it takes brains most people could figure that out The ballsy part is how did you open the bank account, you know, was, did you have a real ID? Do you have a fake ID? Do you do it online?

But I also see that, you know, obviously they're draining the accounts using, you know, ATM car. You know, like where was that card mail? Matt, you, you, we're going to get to that point, man. You're like, go ahead. I'm excited. I like to build. I see. I love it.

I love the conversation because I can't even get past this slide because as you say things, things are coming to mind but the last thing I'll say on on everything you said pause real quick your connection was breaking up a little bit just want to let you know that oh was it? Yeah

I don't know if it was me but I pay a lot of money for my internet I'm just kidding but I'm pretty confident in my internet I don't know but I'm just saying it could be on either of our sides but it did break up a little bit okay well I mean let me know if it happens again got you and I'll repeat whatever it is

just tell me to repeat that got you But what I was going to say is exactly the way that you walked into the bank. A lot of banks don't want to take on that reputational risk. So if you have all the necessary papers and you're a thorough enough fraudster to take the time to make the paper, the paperwork and go in, it's just the fronters who do not have the skill don't take that next step. So once the account is locked, it's an L. They're not going in. They're not doing anything. But I notice from a lot of the cases that I look at, the more.

more higher class or more uh what's confident yeah the more confident uh frauds says they go in and there's some really good fake IDs especially if you bring in a fake ID that's from a different state a lot of times it's hard for them if you get in an ID from your same state that's one thing you're you're used to see in this year your same ID looks this exact same way but when you get an ID from a different state and you're not exactly sure how it looks. And even if you put it underneath the thing, you see the shit on it. But unless you're going and you're looking at the ID guys and all that, you don't really know what the fuck you're looking at. So I can imagine a lot of times they were coming in. And as you will see with this case, that was pretty much what they were

doing. They were going in and getting the things cleared. And if everything is what it is, the bank is not going to take on that risk to deny you the money if you bought. everything that they're asking for to get it cleared. So even if the account was open 30 days or whatever, if they, if they do their things right, there's a high probability that the bank will release that money. If you're willing to walk in and everything passes mustard, they're going to get, they got to give you that money. Absolutely. I'm just saying that a lot of times they'll call you and they won't. Me, I would go in because my DM, my passport, sorry, my driver's license or ID had been issued from the state DMV.

It's a real ID. It's not me, but it's a real idea. It was my picture. I went in the DMV. I sat in the line. I gave them the documents. They took a picture of me. So I'm willing to go in the bank.

Most people, they order something offline. They're like, geez. Like to me, I'd be concerned. You know, but if these guys weren't, they walked in and passed scrutiny, more power to them. let's go let's do it yes yes yes law enforcement often questions him not because he's suspected of a crime but because they find him fascinating he is the most interesting man in the world

i don't typically commit crime but when i do it's bank fraud stay greedy my friends support the channel join matthew cox's patreon all right so there were nine victims that kofani and his crew victimized. That's the right word in this scheme. And all of them came out of California and a key theme that I noticed with a lot of these individuals, they were elderly. So they were elderly or had different people taking care of their affairs. So, you know, they weren't all the way caught up in their finances. But these are all of the nine victims here. And it's funny, even one of these victims lived on like the same block as him apparently, which was pretty interesting. So how did they do it? How did they do their thing? Let's find out. This is one of the first victims that Mr. Mark Hicks orchestrated this scheme on. So on May 14th, 2018, between May 14, 2018 and June 2018, Hicks orchestrated the scheme to defraud by using the personal information of victim one to obtain a refinance loan. Specifically, on May 14,

Hicks contacted Individual One, an employee at Selective Motors. This is very important. Shortly thereafter, Individual One acts Nowcom to run a full credit history report for identity theft victim one without the victim's authorization, obviously. Within days of the credit report run, victim one's personal identifying information was used to set up a fraudulent Google email. address and to apply for an unauthorized American Express card. And on or about June 18, 2018, Hicks falsely purporting to be identity theft victim one

applied for a $785,000 refinanced loan using as collateral the identity theft victim's property in Palo Alto, California. So with this, the thing that I found very interesting and the reason I put this here is because he used this same method, and this is just a concise way of breaking down how he did his thing. After he got the information, it seems as if he had an insider that worked for a car dealership, selective motors, and this individual that worked at the car dealership had the ability to get people's credit report through the now-com system. And when I looked that up, you probably know more about that than me, but it seems to be some kind of system that's around pulling credit history and things of that

nature. And like I told you when I reached out to you, I feel the main reason they were doing that was to see what kind of assets that these people had, specifically real estate. And from that credit report, you'll see what their mortgage balance is, or if they had a mortgage in the past, and you can easily look up the property values of someone's property. And from there, get an idea of what the equity is in that person's property, which allowed them to now go for the refinance loans. What do you think about that, Matt? No, I mean, that's, that's exactly, you know, I'm not saying it's exactly what happened. But it sure sounds like it's exactly what happened. You know, it's funny. The other case I was telling you about the guy actually would draw just, he would like drive through the neighborhood and find houses and look. And then he would he would use Lexis Nexus and order Lexus Nexus reports and slowly kind of dismantle these people. entire lives until he and he'd eventually figure out what they get their social security numbers like

he was he was amazing but these guys were being given all the hard stuff to get he was he was being handed all of that stuff and then he was going out pulling their credit and finding out hey these people lived in this house for 15 years you know that means that half the mortgage is paid off and that how well look close to half let's say and the house has been in increasing by 3% a year for the past, you know, 15 years. So this million dollar house that they live in, they now owe roughly $600,000. And that house is worth, you know, worth $1.5 million. So there's easily $750,000 worth of, or $785,000 worth of equity there.

Mm-hmm. So they go online, they apply. They say, hey, they know how long the guy's been on his job because when you pull your credit report and that's what that system does they it pulls a tri merger it pulls all three credit reports and lays them all out so they know they know the house the address they know how long the guy's been on his job they know you know they know all that and how hard is it even just if you called they could just call and say hey call his job hey is he here or is he there i'm sorry i'm calling to verify his loan application has how long he's been there and the receptionist will tell you

Oh, 11 years. Mm-hmm. So, I mean, I think all of that's very easy. The only problem is, is when they apply for that, that 785,000 refi, they're going to ask for, most likely they're going to ask for his last two years, W-2s and pay stubs. Now, that's not hard to do. You can generate those very easy using QuickBooks or TurboTax or any of those software. programs that are used to run businesses and of course do your taxes too but they also run business programs they'll they'll you can easily print out w-2s and paystubs using those programs so once they get

those they don't even have to be accurate they just have to be enough money to cover your ability to make that payment that's not hard to figure out so then they have to mail that to the bank and all of this is done over the computer these people don't even have to walk in the bank it doesn't out, you know. Most of that's not over the computer. You're not even walking in until the closing. In some states, you can do mobile closings. They just, you just meet a, you can meet a, um, a notary anywhere at a Barnes and Nobles, at a Starbucks coffee shop. You can meet them anywhere to sign those documents. You don't have to go into the, the bank or the title company. mm-hmm and uh i think that's what they played on because if you think about it you're leaving

a random notary and they're supposed to be thorough and verifying who they're dealing with but at the end of the day you're working with a random notary if you're probably getting paid like 50 or i don't know how much they get paid to do these things uh to verify all these documents and then it's just sent off so you know a lot of lot of room once again social engineering it's like a common thing all these things is different variations all right so um this is another victim and i put this here just so you can see it's the same method uh between august 7th 2018 and august 21st 2018 hicks once again using the identifying information this time of victim 3 to obtain a loan same method he had this insider get the credit report uh then from there they used that information to open bank

accounts and then on August 21st they received the wire of $713,000 and some change so you see from wow that was less than what is that like three weeks that's efficient first off because I know when I was dealing with mortgages it seemed like the average turnaround time for a refi he lock whatever depending on how fast everyone got the documents over it sometimes it'll be like two months these guys are efficient this is crazy um but there you go you see that fast seven 700 grand just like that one two three oh wait you're this is a um hold on uh how long did it take them to do this from august 7th to August 21st they opened the account on August 9th and they received the wire on the 21st you're right that is fast that's that's and that shows because I know a lot of these brokers, they get paid, obviously, they get paid off of these loans that they give out. So I know when I work with this mortgage brokerage, you really, like the big thing that the guy taught me was you always want to make sure that the individual, before you even get the process started, they have all their docs ready. So you could just submit everything.

You got everything you need. So if any hiccups come up, you already have whatever is needed to get it cleared. Yeah. So, you want to, you don't want to have a whole bunch of stipulations. You want to have everything. You want a perfect package going in. It's almost like these guys. But then again, honestly, these are, there's, these houses are probably worth and are obviously in the millions. It's in California, I can imagine. The, it's funny because the, the LTV, the loan to value on these homes is probably so low that the bank is desperate to close as quick as possible. And these people aren't complaining. Like, if they're getting a 12% interest rate, they're probably not bitching a moan and what do I do whatever make it.

So they're like, yeah, the house is worth $2 million, $3 million, and I only want $700,000, and I don't care what my interest rate. So the bank thinks, yeah, well, if it's, this is great, close this as fast as possible. Not realizing they're just being, they're being, they think they're taking the customer and the customer's taking them. At the end of the day, it's not like they're going out of business. So tis what it is. Well, listen, I guarantee, I guarantee you that, you know who really? really got screwed is old republic title okay why do you say that because they're the title company they don't really understand the titles and everything they insure against fraud so you just

you guys were in charge of making sure that the person that showed up is the correct person the ID matches and to sign all the documents so a lot of times in my own case let's say I stole a $200,000 from Bank of America a lot of times Bank of America made a claim against the title company the title company paid them back now sometimes they would put up a fight and they'd split it so Bank of America would get hit with 100,000 and the title company would get hit with 100,000 but in this case they may just cut those checks and that's why I wanted you on this, those little areas. That's that. So, good to know. Good to know. All right. So this is where we got how they did their thing, boom, bada bang, get the information, open the account, refi, get the money.

But we're going to dive into how they did their thing a little bit more. And a lot of what they did required using people to go in and sign off on these documents as part of the closing for the loans they applied for. And that's where they did a lot of impersonations. And for example, on May 1st, and with this part here, this shows how after someone already got scammed, how they were able to realize, like, hold up, there's a refinance on my property that I have no idea about. So one of the victims received an unexpected bill for $360 from their attorney for services rendered in connection with a loan letter she prepared.

Victim 1 had not asked for the attorney to prepare any loan letters. Victim 1 immediately contacted their attorney and they determined victim 1 was a victim of identity theft and fraud. So boom. Oh shit. What happened? I did what? Not me.

Not me. It wasn't me. All right. So according to the victim's attorney in late October 2018, unbeknownst to the victim, an individual who identified himself as the victim's son contacted the attorney by email

from a telephone number to request a copy of his mother's trust. The attorney compiled and gave him a copy of the victim's trust. Based on the investigation, including a review of text

messages obtained via a search warrant for a Google account tied to the number, they determined that the phone number, was associated with Mr. Hicks and was you, and he used it to perpetrate fraud on victim one. What I found the most appalling out of all this was that point number 14, that attorney should be fired like ASAP. Like, how do you just have someone call you over the phone? And I just felt the way that they verified or tried to confirm they were speaking with the white person, they should have took a little bit more. But just like that, they called social engineering and got all this

information sent over to them. But like you also said, Matt, where a lot of these guys threw it up, he was using a Google phone number that was associated with his real identity. So he doesn't seem as if he took the time to even try and cover that part up. No. Well, you know, it's funny. Here's the other question you should, you want to ask yourself as this. Why is it that they contacted this person's attorney?

to get a copy of their trust. So how do they know they have a trust? How do they know that they have an attorney? And I know the answer to that, by the way. These people's house, when they pulled, they pulled the title to the house, obviously, and they found out that the house was in a trust. On the trust, it says, who prepared the trust.

So they then contacted the attorney for the trust and got the attorney to write a letter saying, that they were allowed to place a lien on the title for the trust. So they needed that letter. Why they didn't move on to another victim, like that's guts. That's that to me, this is gutsy. As soon as I saw that, I was like, man, I don't want to get an attorney involved. This attorney might make a phone call.

They might call the victim. They may call, like, this guy calls up as his son. The attorney may have said, listen, I can't talk to you about your mother's trust or your father's trust. That's what you should be. Or they may have said, before they even called them back or it took the phone call, they may have called them and said, listen, your son is on the phone. He wants a copy of the trust. Are you okay with that? Mm-hmm.

It would have been over right there. But they didn't. Just like you said, the attorney, what are you doing? Why would you send him this? Is he the trustee? and if he is a trustee you've probably spoken with him before exactly exactly and that's why i said at the start of this this whole scheme was successful because it was so many people who were just not doing their job correctly if you asked me yeah because it's like the social engineering and it's like

at the easiest and i didn't put all of the parts in it but he did a lot of fake calls and like changing up his voice and stuff it's it's hilarious but even with that his first slip up was the phone number uh but let's move on so with this same victim december 2018 the individual claiming to be the victim's son which was hicks again contacted the attorney by email and said the mother was trying to get a refinance loan as part of the approval process the son said the loan broker needed a letter from the attorney's office stating that the month, that his mother was capable of handling her financial affairs. Did I call it? I didn't even see this and I knew that's what happened.

And that's why I said, Matt, at the beginning, you were jumping the gun like, nice. Give you a boy a chance. And that's why you're on this. Oh, wow. I'm, I'm impressing myself. You kind of spoiled the whole video from the first fucking slide. I just want to let you know that. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Sorry. But let me, let me read through this. And I just want to tell you the part that really was just like, Wow. But the mother was capable of handling her financial affairs and understood the loan was a high-cost loan, like you said as well. The number he provided was Hicks phone number and said he could be reached at that number. The victim's attorney sent an email to the victim's son with the letter that he requested. So just like that. So what stood out to me? You're a whole attorney. You're like a whole attorney, right? And someone calls you saying they need a letter stating they're mother is capable of handling their financial affairs. I don't know the exact regulations behind it. I think it's taking advantage of vulnerabilities or whatever the hell it is. But right there,

that's a red flag. That is a huge red flag where they should have been like, hold up. This is a little weird, just letter to ask to me. And then it says for a high cost loan. This attorney was just collecting whatever fee they collect. And I don't think they really were doing their job thorough. And I don't know, that's a little crazy. The son is saying he needs a letter saying that my, I need you to write a letter saying that my mother or whoever is, is capable of making their own financial decisions for the broker, well, here's the thing, like, why didn't she, why didn't this attorney call the victim? Or maybe, I guess maybe they knew who the victim was and it's like, oh, yeah, I know you're

mother? Yeah, no, she's perfectly capable, but still, why not make that call? Yeah, if you able to handle your own affairs, why didn't she call on her own? First of all, you don't know who the son is. Like, I don't, I know your mother, but I don't know, and she is capable of making her own financial decisions, but I don't know you. Let me call your mother. And if she is capable of making her own financial decisions, then why am I talking to you? but listen in my case i i can tell you right now in my case there were many times when people would see things that were clearly wrong that they should have done things and they just kind of were like yeah yeah that makes sense that they just kept going it's like you could

have picked up the phone um and you know a lot of my viewers i have a wide uh variety of viewers some seem to be scammers some interested but also have a lot of professionals fraud professionals who watch my videos guys we got to do something about this we got to like have a class for these attorneys on how to spot red flags and mortgage fraud because clearly there's an up you know what hire matt i wrote i wrote i wrote a red flags course when i was locked up actually a federal head flags court i'm going to put this on lincoln and we'll split whatever you make 50 50 deal. No, just kidding, but I am going to put it on LinkedIn because, like, this is ridiculous. All right, let's keep it moving because it gets crazy and that. And I highlighted it here because

I ain't trying to read all of this. As part of the scheme, Hicks began recruiting co-conspirators with one of the co-defendants, Deontes called Costello, who recruited co-defendants Suzanne Aereola Martin and Leaf Crochode, who were both homeless at the time and addicted to heroin. and methamphetamine to impersonate victims and sign and notarized fraudulent loan documents. Ariola Martin impersonated victim two's wife. Hicks admits that he obtained a fraudulent driver's license in the name of victim two and victim three, but with Schroeder and Ariola Martin's pictures and using the IDs along with the fraudulent email, Google voice, and bank account he and others had created, applied for a $250,000 loan in the victim's name.

So that's who he used, Matt, to go in and sign these documents. He, you know, I was wondering that how did a bunch of young black guys walk go in as older, you know, as old people, but apparently it's some of the homeless people. And there's a lot of cases that I see involving homeless people. And sometimes they're being manipulated in a way where it's, it's clear that they're not aware of what's going on, but, but these two folks here, they was all the way with the shits because he used them multiple times. He had to clean them up.

I would hope so. I mean, they're homeless. He's got to probably take them, get a, get a motel room, clean them up, get them better clothes, like, you know, scrub them down and get them presentable. I mean, and then they have to walk. They get all this money. They're going to just get more drugs. It's like a vicious cycle.

Oh, they're not getting it. They didn't get $250. They got $1,000, $500. I had a guy signed, listen, I had a guy one time. He signed for probably $400,000 worth of mortgages. I paid him $1,500. Wow. Wow.

Same thing. Fake ID. He was a drug addict. Fake ID walked into, first closing, he did it for $500. The second one, using a fake ID, knew what he was doing. Second time he did it for $1,000. He saw the, and he saw the money that I was. getting he saw it he saw a hundred thousand dollars minimum of checks going to different people

so the next time he said i'm not doing it for 500 bucks bro i said i understand he goes this time i want a thousand oh oh hey whoa whoa big shot caller hey moving on up i said that's excessive but okay oh boy all right let's let's keep it going because you you got to see how he used these individuals so back to the story so the same individual now on December 13th 2018 a notary was contacted by a mobile notary service just like you said Matt oh you you like you're looking like you're looking like Kobe in the fourth quarter man you can't miss I'm so shocked that I'm I mean you know I like to think I know what I'm doing obviously but it's always This is why I wanted to do this video with you, and it's going great.

All right. So boom. So contacted a mobile notary service and asked victim one to schedule a document. Schedule a document notarization. Once again, the email included Hicks phone number and an investigator from the ACDAO. I don't know what that is. Interviewed the notary who stated that the first time the notary called this number, it was answered by a fee. email. On the second occasion, it was answered by a mail. On December 13th, 2018, Notary 1 telephoned Hicks phone number, and the number was once again answered by a male, who said he was driving his mother to meet the notary. Later that day, Notary 1 met with the woman claiming to be the victim and notarized loan documents for her. Notary 1 stated that she

obtained two fingerprints from the individual claiming to be the victim for her notary journal and took a photo of the individual's driver's license. This investigator examined the driver's license and identified the picture on it was the individual that he recruited Ms. Suzanne Ariola Martin and the fingerprints from the notary book were submitted. And at the point of when they wrote this paperwork, it was pending, but I can only assume that it ended up being a match. So there you go, Matt. They're sending this person in. And even though, this, once again, this notary saw some red flags, they ran with it. And it's clearly a fake ID because it had the picture on it. So I don't, either the ID was really good or this notary ain't shit at checking IDs. I don't know. But in my experience, I know a lot of notaries aren't doing things correctly. Like they, it's crazy. Sometimes you give them a document to already sign like, hey, notarize this. And it's like, are you going to ask for my ID? Oh, yeah, here, let me get your ID. seen it multiple times. But let's keep on moving. This is another occasion where he used

these individuals. On March 8th, 2019, a second notary met with a woman claiming to be victim one to notarized documents related to a North Coast financial loan. Notary 2's husband went with her. Notary 2 and her husband were interviewed and they both stated that, and they both met the woman identifying herself to be victim one. So her and her husband both went in, and they met this person that they were doing the notaries for. At the time of doing the notaries, notary two said that she had, that she was suspicious that victim one's ID was fake. But her husband told her, you always worrying about stuff. Don't worry about it. Just notarize the documents. I'm trying to go watch the game, lady. Just kidding. But her husband

told her not to worry about it, and they notarized the loan documents. Notary two and her husband were separately shown double blind photo lineups and both identified Ariel LeBarton as the individual who signed a notary documents and showed them the ID for victim one and showed the thumbprints and that was submitted and um but they were unable to find a match on the thumbprints but the pictures matched they felt the ID was fake and clearly it turned out that it clearly was a scam but once again an example of how easy it was, despite them feeling nervous and seeing different red flags, they just went with it anyway. And I'm sure there's something in the notary handbook that says you shouldn't have another

person that's not related to the transaction in it, like for security purposes or something like. But her husband's just sitting there like, come on, lady, let's go. But yeah, what do you think of that I met? I wonder why she felt it like it was a fake ID. I wonder what the issue was but keep in mind that you know i don't i don't it's banks and notary's it's funny because like it's not like they have like extensive classes on how to spot a fake and honestly a lot of the fakes like there are some shitty websites out there that they provide really crappy um fake IDs but there are some that are amazing the quality that you can provide you can get from a fake ID online is amazing so you know i don't know i i know i know

I know one time I had somebody go into a bank to sign for a loan and the person at the title company looked at her ID and it was her picture on the ID. And she looked at the ID and looked at the picture and said, this picture is not you. It doesn't look like you. But it was her. It was genuinely her picture. But the person said wouldn't refuse to give her her check. It was like a $200,000 dollar check. refused to give her the check, said, I'm going to make some phone calls.

Let her sign the papers, had the check there, but wouldn't give it to her. And I'll call you when I look into this a little bit more. And she left. But everything, like, it wasn't that it was a bad fake idea. It was even her picture. She just got suspicious. And the fact that this woman was suspicious, she probably should have just said, hey, listen, something's wrong.

I'm not doing this and gone somewhere else. Or what I would think is, like, if you're suspicious, but you don't want to make that call like I understand you don't want to offend anybody maybe ask for additional sources of ID like hey do you have a secondary something else because that's even a better idea do you have a driver's license or not sorry do you have a do you have a credit card with your name on it your social security card the problem with you had done that with me is I would have been like yeah I got my credit cards I got this I got my voters registration like I never went in with one I was when I call it what they call it pocket litter where you have other little pieces of

literally of documents other documents that also have um so but yeah i i i hear you that's it that's probably a really good idea you know sometimes i just don't feel comfortable so the problem is is what you know look what if she said i don't feel comfortable making that call and then said i'm not going to do this and left and then they called another notary the other notary went in the other notary signed it wasn't a problem so next time the mortgage broker or the lender orders a notary They end up saying, we're not going to use this one woman. She gave us a hard time before. And it was a legit person.

It was a legit. So I can see her kind of being like, I'll go ahead. Well, my husband says it's her. I'm going to sign. And that extra part that you said, I would imagine a lot of these notaries, because I know people who do notaries that you're not getting paid a lot of money to do these notaries. So it's usually like people who just want to get some extra money. And if you're pairing with this brokerage,

or whichever company that's sending you out, they don't want you giving their clients a hard time. So it's like, hey, look, they have everything. We verified everything, do the notary. So just like you said, it's a lot of pressure that they were getting. Yeah, she's got a driver's license. What are you doing? Exactly.

Exactly. Because at the end of the day, everyone just wants this loan to close because that's when everyone gets paid. Correct. All right. So nice, nice. Okay. So here, just wanted to call out how many times he used these victims,

these uh not victims these co-conspirators to pose as different victims so you got victim seven and victim eight they were a couple and uh they were sent in same game plan notary scanned the doc stamp the documents and this time it was for a wire for three hundred thousand dollars that was sent to a bank account that they recently opened so that scam went from september 11th to october 1st still and all their things are like within three weeks wow and you know what's funny too look we look look Look at how divert. You understand, do you understand that every bank has different procedures? So this guy is hitting banks across the spectrum.

It's not like he figured out Bank of America's underwriting guidelines and stuck with screwing over Bank of America. He's hitting city. Look, what is this? Was it city group? CIT. I don't think that's city. Oh, of course. CIT.

And he's hitting, is this? Oh, coast to coast. The other one was some other. Every one of these is a different bank. And isn't that crazy each time he's more or less doing the same play? And like you said, we're getting the accounts opened, sending in these drug addicts that he was sending in. And these employees were falling for it. $470,000 on that one.

$785 on the other one, or over $750,000. over 700 on the other one these are these aren't little licks bro yep yep and i just want to say if you have and i'm i'm going to be honest i'm not the most knowledgeable person on fraud like i learn a lot of stuff from just reading and speaking to people like you but um and i mean that the most respectful way that kind of sound yeah yeah but um this shows it's very easy to do fraud if you just know what to do but as easy as it is as you can see with this you're gonna slip up somewhere because something's gonna be tied back to you that's that's a common theme i notice in a lot of these things and these folks get greedy because i would imagine if you

probably did one or two licks he probably probably no one would know about it but you keep doing it over and over and like you said you get cocky and um you know nothing lasts forever and it's like what the hell were you doing with that well we're gonna find out what the hell he was doing with that money let's let's keep going and going so how they cashed out dollar dollar Oh, wow. I didn't notice that wasn't U.S. currency in the back. Oh, it's not. That's a blooper. But how did they cash out?

Because that's always, it's always one thing to do the scheme. You get the money. But just like you were saying at the start of this, like, how were they getting the money? So let's see. Proceeds for the fraud. And this is also where they slipped up a lot. On multiple occasions, Hicks would contact gold dealers by phone, altering his voice and impersonating the victims to order gold bars and gold coins, which he had delivered to a trailer home in Vallejo, California, owned by the sister of DeMarcus Hicks Spouse. So this is someone that he's related to.

That's stupid. But the gold laundering the money through gold, good idea. You know, and I'm going to kind of jump the gun a little bit because there's a couple of cases I looked over whenever it comes to gold. I notice the feds or whoever's investigating it, they always do the same thing when it comes to gold shipments. They get in contact with whoever's shipping the gold. They tell them send something different. They send them something. Then the people call and get all pissed off and say, oh, that's not what I ordered.

So then they send it back. And I always imagine why do they do that extra step? And I can only imagine it is to just like confirm for sure that this person is actually doing this. But I noticed they always do that. It's at least three, four cases I covered where they did some kind of thing like that. But anyway, so Hicks ordered $964,000 in gold bars and coins through the U.S. Gold Bureau and at least another $207,000 from Gold Line Inc. Hicks also admits to spending parts of the proceeds from the $241,000 loan from Victim 6 via ATM withdrawals and other ATM card purchases. Matt, most of what I cover on my things is a check fraud and a common thing that a lot of check frost is just like, like, why did you do that?

ATM withdrawals, ATM withdrawals, do you not know there's cameras around every single ATM in the ATM? It's all up in your face. Yeah. But, yeah. You should wear a, you got to wear a, a mask like you've got, like you've got, but that mask is actually, what's the name of the, the, the guy fox. Which one? That's a Guy Fox mask. Oh, the one I have on.

Yeah, Notorious uses Guy Fox. You know, I never knew the name. I always just called this the Zoro mask. Because I think in Zorro, that's when I first saw this mess. Look up Guy Fox. They actually have Guy Fox Day. He actually was a member of an organization that was going to blow up the building of parliament with parliament in it. All right.

Let me take this mask off. In the UK. In the UK, it's a great story. I mean, it's super interesting. They still have to this day, they have Guy Fox Day. And that mask is also used in the movie V for victory. that's i said zero that's where i saw it from but i also got the deadpool mask here and um to be honest the issue i have is i can't see three these shit yeah i like the guy fox one but

anyway go ahead sorry sorry yeah yeah yeah let me talk about a whole different thing um so also also the marcus hicks and co-defendant tyrone jones who remained a fugitive at the point of writing this i don't know if that's still accurate uh took at least some of the gold coins and bars and exchanged them for cash at a jewelry store. Some of that cash wrapped in distinctive colored rubber bands was then deposited into a safe deposit box in the name of Hicks, mother, and sister. Getting mom involved in his dirty work. Law enforcement later searched a safe deposit box and seized $484,920 in cash that Hicks

admitted was part of his fraud scheme. one thing I could say at least he tried to stash some money away at least you know maybe he was looking you know if things go south for my for his mother and sister at least they got something to go to but clearly they were able to track those gold purchases right back to what he did so it wasn't that effective um all right so oops and so here you see some of the transactions that he did wires in which he was purchasing gold you have one on December 2019, 280 ounces of gold coins for $400,000. Some ridiculous things. And you got more over here. Some of the big ones, 1217, $244,000, $56,000, $155,000. They were going all the way in.

And these were all transactions. And like you said, I don't know how the bank were allowing all these things to go through. And even with dealing with gold, I would imagine a lot of banks would find that as like a risky thing that they would want a new business to be dealing with or an individual, not even a business. I'm not even sure that the bank knows necessarily where those wires are going. But here's the thing about gold is that typically gold dealers charge between one and a half, around one and a half to two percent. So if you're buying $100,000 with a gold, you can buy bars. Usually bars have stamps on them, though. They'll have like a serial number.

Not that they're tracked. They're not tracked. But you can use that serial number to say, hey, you know, you did take a picture in case it's stolen. But it's not tracked by the federal government. So, but you can buy bullion. Bullion isn't, doesn't even have a serial number. So you can say I want $100,000 in bullion and they'll mail it to you through Federal Express or through a courier. They'll bring it to you, you sign for it.

You can then turn around. and go to another, another gold dealer and say, hey, by the way, I have this gold. I've been in my family for 10 or 15 years. My father gives us a couple pieces every single year. I'd like to sell it to you. Then they'll charge you 1.5 or 2% to buy that gold from you, and they'll cut you a check. so it's like for three three to four percent you've laundered your money like so i get the gold makes sense um you know selling it to a jewelry store i guess he didn't know where a i mean you would

think you did know where a gold bullion where our gold dealers were because he's buying them from gold dealers exactly exactly i guess maybe the jewelry store i don't maybe the jewelry store was willing to just give him cash. Exactly. Impatience. Yeah. Because you can, there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, cut, you know, you could go and give it to him, say, hey, cut me a check to my corporation.

Like your mother or somebody opens a corporation for you and you cut these checks to the corporation for the mom, you know, whatever. There's, there's ways to do it. They don't know that, obviously. They were getting somebody to buy it for cash. Who knows what they were giving them on the dollar. But so I can see the gold or any precious metals for that metal matter. Even diamonds.

Hmm. But as we will soon see, a common red flag was the accounts they were using to do these purchases were tied eventually right back to their actual identities with the phone numbers and the addresses. You're going to see. Let's keep it going. So their downfall. Whoop who's calling Nepal's downfall. Downfall, as always. And if you watch this far.

Girlfriend. What? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, not the girl. Well, you keep calling it out. But what I was going to say is, if you watch this far, Matt already done called out everywhere that they went wrong. But. Oh, just the stupid mistake of the phone, right? There's, there's several. But for the sake of just tying this all together. It started getting investigated on July 2019. The FBI began investigating a mortgage loan fraud conspiracy targeting individuals and sanctions. Francisco Bay and the LA areas. The investigation started with a referral that they received from the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and now involves the Secret Service in Los Angeles County's District Attorney. The evidence that they got from all the things that they found developed points to Hicks as the ringleader of this scheme. And as we mentioned, Hicks 40 is an Oakland rapper and musician with an extensive criminal record dating back to 1995. So a lot of the things that they investigated ended up going right back to Hicks. And with the way he was doing his thing,

as successful as he was, he made a lot of clear mistakes. So let's see. First, this investigator obtained and reviewed applications and bank statements for the accounts that were open. The documents used to open the accounts which victim won has confirmed she did not authorize included the actual social security number date of birth and mailing and a mailing address in richmond california remember that gold purchases were proceeds of this and other frauds being perpetrated by hicks and others were sent to this richmond address so there was a common link to this richmond address on february 2019 the mailing address of both the bank of america account in victim one's name, which changed to an address in Vallejo, California.

And if you remember earlier, that's where they had that trailer park home or whatever it was called, where multiple shipments of gold coins and bars were purchased. So once, and I find a job that a lot of these investigators do very interesting because this is the part that I liked, like, you know, just connecting the dots. And they're probably like, oh, shit, I can imagine them like laughing their ass off when they start making these connections. But proceeds from this fraud conspiracy have been shipped here and after, and then they gave their residents a name the gold delivery residence.

So now they got to confirm. This is a target location. On December 2018, a $300,000 mortgage loan was taken out through North Coast Financial with victim wants properties in Oakland as collateral. In March 2019, a second loan was taken out for $250,000 using their second residence as collateral. on the corresponding loan application used for both loans, the applicant's name was listed as victim one, which, or that's supposed to be with Hicks phone number as the number that was on the application and that same Richmond address. So even though everything was in this victim's

name, he put his phone number and his address on it. So, you know, that there's clearly a screw-up. Yeah. And once the loan closed, the loan proceeds were wire transferred to these bank accounts that were opened. So you see all the connections. You got the two addresses that they commonly used on the bank accounts that they opened and that they also had gold shipments sent to and the phone numbers, everything. So let's keep going because there's more to how they got caught slipping. Based on the investigation, including a review of text messages obtained from a search warrant, they determined that that 510 number belonged to Hicks, and we saw that earlier. Also, the Bank of America account, one of the Bank of America accounts that they opened had that phone number associated with it, and they obtained subscriber records for the phone number from AT&T, and they saw that that number is an active account associated with Hicks' mother. Once again, and it's so sad. You know, I could imagine your mom don't even know what, I could imagine his mom wasn't even aware, and she just wanted to see the best for her son, and look what he'd do.

Like, come on, y'all. Your moms love you so much. It's crazy. You know what kills me is that, let's say, so he's using his sister's, you know, brother-in-law's address or whatever. What cracks me up about that is that people are like, yeah, yeah, I would talk to these guys in prison. They go, yeah, yeah, I had the credit cards or whatever, mailed to this address. But it wasn't my address. I'm like, well, whose address was, oh, it was my sister's, you know, it was my sister's stepbrother or my

sisters, you know, whatever, you know, baby daddy, his sister. And it's like, okay, no, wait a minute, does that person know you? Yeah, yeah, they know me, but it's not me. So when the cop, when the FBI shows up and knocks on their door and shows them a picture of you and says, do you know this man? Do you know what? Most of these guys think that because this guy is a plumber and has never been in trouble, they think he's going to say, no, man, I I don't know who that is. The problem is that that guy, that plumber is a decent citizen. And a decent citizen when the FBI knocks on the door and asks, do you know who this person is?

They say, oh, wow, that's my sister's, or that's my, my, my, my, my, my, my kids, mother's brother. Yeah, I know him. That's, yeah, yeah, that's Hicks, because they don't think they're doing, they're doing, think I'm helping law enforcement. I'm not doing anything wrong. And oh, they must be looking for him for some reason. Like, the average citizen helps. So for you to think the average citizen is going to lie to law enforcement for you, you're crazy. Yep. Yep. You're better off using one of your co-defendants. You're better off. Right. You know what I'm saying? And you know, on the flip side of that, when you do have those, it's a couple of things. And there's a couple of things. And

is what I always wonder when when people use different individuals to cash out on it it puts that person in a position especially in a lot of a lot of the cultures that these people that these folks come from it's like is this person going to snitch now right because that's a common thing it's like oh is this but you're putting this person in a tight position so now if they don't snitch if the if the feds have a warrant on you and they're questioning you nine times out of ten they already know the answer yes already know the answer so now if you lie that's going to be held against you and i've seen it in many paperwork where they lied to in an investigation or whatever it is there's there's penalties that come with that so now you put in this person a position to get involved in your nonsense and they now have to are they going to snitch if you ask me say what you want if i had nothing to do with that like matt just said i'm talking that's it if i was in on it and this is what a lot of people who do fraud i wish i and ask them, it's one thing to do fraud, make money, get away with it, have fun, do whatever you got to do. But when that shit comes crashing down, what are you going to do? Are you going to

tell? Are you going to take the wreck? Listen, everybody says, I ain't saying nothing. But the truth is, when they tell you you're about to do six years, trust me, six or ten, first of all, they're not telling you six. They're going to tell you 15 or 20. You're going to be scared to death. You're going to get scared to death and you're going to say, yo, bro, look, I'll tell you the other guy because, you know, I didn't know it was going to be all this, man. I barely made any money at all. I can't. And your lawyer is going, man, you better tell them. You're about to do 15 years. The truth is, you're probably only facing six or seven, but it doesn't matter. Six or seven's too much for two hundred thousand for making two or three hundred thousand because this, this guy

Hicks, even though it ends up probably being a couple million dollars, it doesn't matter that it's a couple million dollars. He had to share that with a whole bunch of other people. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And just so I'll talk to move on from this. A common thing a lot of people in my comment section do or does part of me. I'm trying to fix my, you know, I'm saying a lot of my videos are scripted. The way I'll be talking is a little off the wall sometimes. But anyway, a common thing that a lot of people in my comment section do, and I blocked a lot of these fools because they were saying some wild shit is like, oh, that's nothing, four years, three years, five years. But I'm telling them, first of all, Well, if you do the math, just like Matt said, they didn't get all that money. They had to split it with multiple people. And then if you do the math, for the amount of years you spend in jail for the crime you did,

you probably didn't even get to spend all that money. A lot of it was probably seized, taken away. You might as well have got a job at Home Depot or McDonald's or something, because you would have made more money. Yeah. And you wouldn't be in legal trouble. But you want this fast life and y'all's is not thinking about it, right? Because you think, oh, they went to prison and they just have all this money when they come out.

No, it doesn't work. that way. Like you see this guy Hicks. He was in and out of prison for over like 10 years since 1995. That's that's ridiculous. I don't know if you noticed this or not, but they got the money that was in his mom's name. They got the money that was, trust me, all that money that you stick in your mom's name and those properties that you bought in your, in your step sister's name and your buddy's name. Listen, they're going to come and they're going to get all that. They're going to take it all. Well, no, no, it's in my mom's name. Shut up. You don't know what you talk about. They'll take that shit from your mother in a heartbeat. They don't care.

about your mom like you know and you're not first of all it as they're investigating you're about to plead guilty they're going to come to you and say you got to sign over this you got to sign over this oh i ain't signing over that okay well guess what you're not pleading guilty you're getting 15 years you're not getting seven they start going oh man oh man listen and then those guys oh four years that's nothing oh okay well you must not have kids or or a wife that loves you yes everybody's a gangster till they're sitting in that visitation room with their fucking wife and their three kids crying their eyes out going, how are we going to survive without you?

And two years into their four-year bid, which they didn't care about, somebody else's, your wife's banging somebody else. You got the divorce papers. She barely lets you talk to your kids. Your kids are calling somebody else daddy. Oh, hey, daddy.

My new daddy just brought us to Disney World. My new daddy. Oh. Yeah, they're all gangsters until that happens. Oh, man. You know, that was very real, and I'm happy you share that, Matt, because I'm a big fan of learning from your mistakes, but I'm an even bigger fan of learning from other people's mistakes. And I think what you just, what you just shared there, I think a lot, because let's be real, a lot of people watch my channel because they think I'm teaching them fraud. I'm teaching you how to end up in jail, prison.

Like, don't think I'm doing this and I'm a regular guy. I don't do none of this shit, but just like Matt said, you got to see what comes with it. And you might be a young person now and you're probably not thinking about your future that way, but you always learn from other people's experiences because you might not get as lucky. And if you could learn from where someone else screwed up for you to alter the way you live your life, you got to take that, you got to always take that into consideration and appreciate when people share things like that. Because you never know what you're going to go through, never say never. But if you could think back and be like, oh, I heard Matt said, no, it ain't worth it.

It ain't worth it. Listen, man, 50 years old, I got out at 50 years old starting my life over at 50. I walk out of the halfway house at 50, starting my life over with nothing at 50. And I'm, listen, honestly, I'm about as sharp as you can get. And I wasn't sharp enough. You're going to screw up. You're going to screw up. I know the banking industry inside now, real estate inside now.

and I still got grabbed multiple times. So if you think you're so sharp, do it, do it. You know, like, you know, I mean, put in, as soon as you get there, put in, put a cop out in, try and get a two-man, two-man sell, join the softball team. You're going to be here a while. Go ahead and sign up for vocational tech. Teach a GED class, you know, you're going to be here. Like, settle in. Start reading a book series that you like.

You're going to do some time. I'm getting like, I'm getting like, I don't even know the word, but just thinking about that, I don't want to spend a week in prison. I don't care. I don't care what nobody says. But, all right, let's let's get a little conversation. But yeah, one of the victims that was associated with the phone number that he was using on these applications and loans, the mailing address associated with the number was an address

of Hicks' mother once again, and the residence is on the same block as both the victim's residences. So pretty much his mom lived on the same block as one of the people that he did one of these fraudulent loans on. And when I was looking through the paperwork, I don't think I snip this exact part, but I think one of the, I think it might have been this victim. They knew he was doing this and he kind of tipped.