Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - FBI's Most Wanted Man Confronts His Judge...

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

FBI's Most Wanted Man Confronts His Judge...

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And everybody's like, what's going on? What's going on? And he goes, it doesn't exist. And he goes, and I looked at him and I go, it's all an illusion. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I'm continuing my story, my second, the second series or second, I don't know. Anyway, I think this is part, part two of whatever the series is. Anyway, so of me going to prison, and I think I talked about last time I had just been arrested, and the U.S. Marshals had finally moved me to,

They'd finally moved me to, I think I was in Atlanta City, a detention center, and my lawyer, I had agreed to cooperate and meet with the Secret Service and the FBI and do an interview with Dateline, NBC News. So I think pretty, I'm not sure exactly chronologically where it was, but I'm going to go ahead and do the Secret Service first. So Secret Service, I was moved to the U.S. Marshals, I was moved to the U.S. Attorney's Office to be interviewed by the Secret Service. And there was the main Secret Service agent that had been investigating me. Her name was Andrea Peacock. And she was out of Atlanta. The other guy that had actually, so Peacock had been, had been, she. She'd been investigating me, but the guy that the U.S.

the U.S. Secret Service agent that arrested me, his name was Dan Bronskouts, Bronskowski. It was a ridiculous name, Dan. So it was Andrea Peacock and Dan. They were there and the U.S. attorney was there. Her name was Gail McKenzie. So, Gail McKenzie was, she despised me. To be honest, they, they, they, they, um, Andrew. of Peacock. It's actually, injury of peacock was extremely nice and polite. But Gail McKenzie

was just horrible. She was just, she was really, really just a rude person. And she took white collar crime very seriously. I want to say that after I had met with her the first time, I remember my lawyer, I asked her, like, what's wrong with this woman? And she had told me, if I got the story right, that 15 or 20 years earlier, that Gail McKenzie had been investigating mortgage fraud or some kind of a fraud, and there were Russians involved, and they actually poisoned her during the investigation, and she ended up in the hospital and almost died. So to her, she was like white collar crime was violent. Like to her, it was like, It was a horrible crime committed by horrible people that would do horrible things and would turn to violence.

Like, I'm not a violent person. I'm not going to poison anybody. But because some guy 15 years ago poisoned this woman, now she wanted to slam every single person out of the gate that committed any type of white collar crime. So I end up going to the U.S. Attorney's Office where I met with the Secret Service and my law. lawyer and Gail McKenzie and I sit down and I remember when I got there, I sat down and in my mind I was actually thinking like, what do they know? You know, like I wonder how much they know. And Gail McKenzie walked in and sat down. We all introduced one another and her assistant came in with Starbucks coffee, and she handed me a vinty vanilla latte with eight raw sugars in it.

And I, and she goes, she, and she handed it to me and said, that's a vinty vanilla latte with eight raw sugars. And she looked at me and I thought, and I go, wow. I said, how, you know, like, how did you know that? And she went, well, we, we've interviewed Becky, Rebecca Howl, extensively. She says, we know everything. And I just was like, I mean, this chick knew. the kind of drink that I drink.

And I thought, oh, man, this is, this is so bad. Like, they know everything. One of the things my lawyer had told me was, no matter what happens during these meetings, don't lie, don't lie to the FBI or the Secret Service or the U.S. Attorney's Office, because they'll use that lie to not give you any type of a reduction. So you could, you can cooperate. with the authorities and let's say they got they arrested 10 people those people all got five or 10 years apiece well if you lied in any significant way then the u.s attorney would immediately say yeah

your honor he did all this but guess what he lied about this one thing we don't think he deserves anything and then they give you nothing even though they got the benefit of your cooperation so she told me don't lie about anything i was like all right i totally got it so i sat down and they started asking questions, you know, when did you leave, you know, when did you leave Florida? How did you know the FBI was coming to arrest you? You know, where did you go first? Why did you go there? How did you get this ID? How did you get this? How did you get that? So I explained to them all the various ways I'd gotten identities. I explained to them where I'd gone. I explained to them the bank account. They knew everything because Becky had already told them everything.

So they'd also talk to Amanda by this point. Amanda had cooperated, which was one of the girls, the girl that I had been dating when I got caught. So she knew who I was. So she had cooperated. They interviewed several other people that knew me that knew I was doing fraudulent things to a degree, but may or may not have known who I was. You know, they may have known me as Joseph Carter. So I remember as when I, so I remember when I first got into.

the meeting and sat down the first thing one of the first things that the that dan bronskoutski or whatever his name is said to me was we need to talk about the money that you know that you took and i was like okay i said well you guys have already got the money like they'd already subpoenaed all my bank accounts they'd already taken all the money they'd already they'd already done everything. They already gotten a ton of money. And I said, you already have the money. And they went, no, no, we know you have money hidden. And I went, I don't have any money hidden. I don't know what you're talking about. And remember my lawyer leaned in and she, Millie goes, she said, do we need to talk about this? And I went, no, there's nothing to talk about. I gave them all the money. You have the money from

Bank of America. You have the money from SunTrust. You have the money from here. You have the money from, you know, Bank of Tennessee, from Bank of Nashville, from, you know, all these different banks. You've got them all. And he said, look, we know you. have money. He goes, you understand that you're going to get hit with an obstruction charge. And I remember thinking they think I'm lying about this, but I'm not. So he pulls out several bank statements and he puts him on the table. Boom. He goes, we know you've got money hidden in the name of Walter Holcomb in the name of Southern Exchange Bank of Clarksville. Southern Exchange Bank of Clarkswell was a fictitious bank that I'd made up.

It was completely fictitious. So I looked at it and I was like I could not believe. Like I had a website. I had a phone service. I had everything to cover the bank. And so he looked at the bank and he was like, we know you've got this bank. We know you've got money in this name. And I just looked at it and he was so irritated and upset and serious.

He was, you're going to get hit with an obstruction charge. And I said, wow, I said, have you called the bank? And he goes, yeah, we've called. I left several messages. He said, we just subpoenaed them. And I was like, really? And he goes, yeah, we just subpoenaed him. We're going to get the money anyway.

You might as well just be honest. And I went, did you go to the website? And he was like, yeah, we went to the website. And I like, what did you think of it? And he goes, what do you mean? It was a website. I go, yeah, but it was, it's professional. And he goes, it's a bank website.

I go, yeah, but it's professional. I go, it's convincing. And he looked at me and he goes, oh, fuck. He goes, oh, man. And everybody's like, what's going on? What's going on? And he goes, it doesn't exist. And he goes, and I looked at him and I go, it's all an illusion.

And he said, are you serious? I said, bro, I made this bank. Like, I made these bank statements. Like, all of this is fake. Bank statements are fake. And, you know, he had canceled checks. And he was like, but it's registered with the bank registry. I said, right, there was a Southern Exchange Bank, but it had been bought by someone like South Trust or somebody.

And so I actually had a bank there. So I re-kind and branded it as Southern Exchange Bank of Clarksville. And I made a website called Southern Exchange Bank of Clarksville. And I made, you know, colored bank statements like they were in full color and you could print them out and everything. And he thought I had like, I don't know, $100,000 or $200,000 in this bank in the name of Walter Holcomb. So anyway, the U.S. attorney was like, well, what do you even have that for? And I said, banks are great for everything. They're great for verifying.

payments. They're great for verifying reserves. They're great for verifying canceled checks. They're great for verifying employment. Like there's lots of things you would do with the bank. And so she just kind of like, you know, sugarhead and shrugged it off. She goes, okay, fine, fine. And he goes, well, we think you're still money out there. I go, well, there's no money out there. So, you know, and you, if this is the best you've got, you know, like, you know, I'm not, I'm not too concerned about it. And I was like, you really believe this was a bank. I said, did you, who did you subpoena and he said we subpoenaed the the bank it's there's actually a an address in in florida so we subpoenaed the address and i said i don't know who have you left messages with like i haven't

paid the phone service in like months and months because i've been locked up and he goes he's all right i left a a voicemail a like a few weeks ago so we pick up the phone and he actually called the phone number and it went do do do and it had been shut off as i told you and he was like wow he And I went, you really believe this was a real bank? And he goes, yeah. And I went, wow. I said, you're the secret service, bro. And it was like the first time, like, I was embarrassed that they caught me.

It was just, I was like, I can't believe that you guys caught me. So they'd had this information for four or five months, and they still thought it was a real bank. Anyway, I talked to them. I tell them the things that I'd done. And essentially, what I told them was that, of course, it was, you know, it was just Becky and I. Becky and I had run these scams. Amanda kind of knew what I was doing at some point. She figured it out.

But she never really helped me with the scam. She never really did anything. She hadn't done anything. And she'd already cooperated against me and told them everything she had done. So there was just nobody that that I really could give up or help myself with. There was a company that I had been getting mortgages through, and the loan officer there knew that I was multiple people. I don't ever go into this. But so that loan officer, they had actually, they were running a scam where they had set up a fake down payment assistance program.

still you know I explained about that and the US attorney didn't seem they didn't seem all that interested even though to me it was a massive scam all they did with that was they contacted them and told them to shut it down stop doing stop doing that like you're committing fraud stop doing that and they were like oh okay and they closed the whole thing down they stopped running their fraud they never indicted them like I didn't really do much other than just bury myself based on what they already knew in that in that particular in that particular uh debriefing hey if you guys didn't know i also do i do paintings and uh if you're interested in a painting i'm going to leave my contact information in the description beneath the video back to the video so that went on for a

couple days i think i was debriefed by them for like maybe maybe two days or three days so So I go back to you, I go back to, uh, uh, uh, uh, ACDC, the, the, the Marshall's holdover where I was being held. And maybe a month later, I go to the FBI. So I go get interviewed by the FBI. I'm interviewed by the FBI. They, of course, come out. They've got boxes and boxes that they bring. And they only bring a few boxes. Like they literally said they had a small room. filled up with documents from my mortgage company and documents that they had collected from just all the various loans I'd done over the years. And they were saying it was like 11.5.

At that point, they were saying it was $15 million or $11.5 million or something, I forget. So, okay, so I, they sit down and the first thing they wanted to know was about a politician that I had actually bribed. It was a guy named Kevin White. He was a city council member. He was running for city council, and I had bribed him. We had met, and he had solicited, like, campaign contributions, which I'd given him. And then at some point, he came back for more contributions.

And I said, look, how much would it cost to actually win the election? And he said, man, the whole thing, maybe 20 grand, maybe 15, maybe 20 grand. And I think he had told me, and I already have like five grand in my election account. I said, so if I give you 15 grand and you win this, I said, I want you to rezone all the vacant lots that I have that are single family. I want you to rezone them multi-family. No problem. He said, that's a done deal. So I go and I get him a bunch of cash at first.

And he says he can't take all the cash. So then I turn around and I go and I get all of my friends, family, my employees, everybody to write him checks for like 500. bucks. And so I give him a bunch of checks for 500 bucks and he deposits it. Some of those accounts went to people that didn't exist, like James Red, Brandon Green, Lee Black, like they have a bank accounts, but they don't actually have. They're not actual people. So during the course of their investigation, the FBI realized that I had a bunch of my fake people's checks had gone to this political candidate who ended up winning. I gave him a total of $22,000. I think 7,000 was in cash, 15,000 was in checks.

So they wanted to know what happened here. Like we've investigated several people. They had talked to this one guy that what my business partner was named Dave Walker. They said, we talked to Dave Walker. Dave Walker said that you had bribed this politician. And they talked to several other people that had all agreed, yeah, Matt bribed him, Matt got him elected to city council. Well, I said, yeah, that's what happened.

I mean, they already have the, they have everything. They've got all the evidence. They've got people saying. And I was like, yeah, absolutely. That's what happened. I remember when they asked me about that. I was shocked because I hadn't even thought about that guy. Like there was so much fraud going on that there are things that have happened that people will mention to me now that I'm out of prison that I've never thought.

I'm like, oh my God. I totally forgot about it. I completely forget about it. forgot about it. That was one of them. Until the FBI mentioned it, I had completely forgotten that I'd gotten this guy elected to city council. He ended up parlaying that city council seat and becoming a county commissioner. What's funny about that is he ultimately gets indicted for bribery.

Now, there were all these articles that, anyway, I'll get into it later. But there was a bunch of articles that had said, hey, this guy Cox just implicated Kevin White. Kevin White comes out like, he's just a jailhouse snitch. he's lying like he gave some money to my campaign i haven't done anything wrong of course a couple years later he got he gets indicted for bribery goes to trial and loses so he goes to trial and loses for bribery anyway not that i'm not you know a jailhouse snitch i'm just saying in general he he was also a liar so here's what happens I go to the FBI. They start questioning me. I remember Candace Calderon. I met Candice Calderon. And this was one of the FBI agents. This is the FBI agent that I called several times when I was on the run. I tried to turn myself in, got into kind of an argument with her. And I remember when I, when she first saw me, she walked up to me. So this woman's like 511, maybe 5.10 or 6 foot tall. She's in that range. And she wears heels. She's got fake tits, dark tan.

and just towers over me. And she remembers she got close to me and looked down at me. And she goes, I told you we were going to meet someday. I told you they were going to catch you. And I was just like, oh my God. She was just like a law enforcement zealot. Like just hated my guts. Anyway, we sit down for our debriefing.

First thing she wants to talk about is Kevin White. I tell her about Kevin White. then she wants to talk about like basically my mortgage company she says it's something like 40 million dollars in fraudulent mortgages that she estimates have gone through there she had been working with a bunch of my of the my co-conspirators something like 12 people had been indicted on that case and but none of them had ever been actually arrested so they were indicted as what's called an unknown co-conspirators so it's like This person is, like they would say, D.W.

Well, that's Dave Walker, but they don't name the person. They're an unnamed co-conspirator. They call them D.W. So they know we've indicted them, but we're not releasing the name. Anyway, a bunch of people had been indicted. They hadn't been arrested yet. So I sit down. They pull out documents.

I say, yes, this is fraudulent. Yes, this is fraudulent. Yes, that's fraud. They're like, how did you figure out this? I did this. I did this. Well, where did the money go here? There was this much money. I was like, no, no, look, this money I brought $40,000, but I got back, $56,000 that went to this construction company. If you go to that construction company, I had a bank account there. That money went to the bank account. That bank account then turned around and wrote a check back to me, or I got it out

in cash, or I got whatever. So I break it all down. I'm interviewed by them for at least three or four days. And, you know, and Candace was just snide the entire time. It was ridiculous. They pulled out all kinds of documents. I was able to verify stuff for them and, you know, and explain. It's so funny because there were some people that had completely buried me. There was like half those people, more than half the people had buried me, but all said they didn't know anything. It's like, it's clear that you did this loan. It's clear that you got the money for this loan. It's clear that you were involved. Everybody's saying, and what's so funny is like, one person goes in and says, Matt did this and so and so and so and so did this and so and so

did this, but I didn't do anything. I didn't know what was happening. But then the next person comes in and so and so and so did this, so and so did this, so and so did this. Matt did this and then points at the other person and says, he did this, but I didn't do anything. Somebody else comes in and says so-and-so did this, so-and-so did this, and this person and this person were involved, but I didn't do anything. So by the time it's done, you've got every one of these people has five or six or eight people pointing at them saying they were involved. And if you follow the money, you realize very quickly they were all involved. We even had an investor. I even had an investor out of Atlanta that had invested like, I don't know, $200,000 at a time where he was

funding loans and then getting money back and we were flipping properties for him and he was acting as a hard what's called a hard money lender so we even had this investor that knew the whole thing was a scam and when and he's also was indicted he's indicted on my indictment he's one of my co-conspirators he actually went to the u.s attorney's office and said when you add up Cox's restitution add like $20,000 for my legal fees because he was saying he didn't do anything. He didn't realize he was indicted already. And the U.S. Attorney Act actually added that $20,000 or $30,000, whatever he paid. They added his legal fees to my restitution because he had been named as an unnamed co-conspirator not actually named and was saying

he didn't know anything about it he was innocent he had made a few hundred thousand dollars of fraudulent money during a conspiracy that he knew about and actively participated in he made a couple hundred thousand and then hit me for 40 or 30 grand 20 or 30 grand for his legal fees but i mean that's just how the fed works like it's completely fucked up um i give you so you know like that's literally like one of the people that would say like I'm a victim you're not a victim you're a criminal I don't owe you any money anyway um so during the course of this whole thing I'm interviewed by the FBI and eventually you know they're they're they're coming up with all kinds of numbers and I'm saying that this is a loan this isn't fraudulent this is fraudulent that's a legitimate loan like anything my name was attached to they wanted to say was fraud eventually that ends up that whole thing ends up uh wrapping up i go back to you know a cdc to the detention center and maybe a few weeks later it may have actually been during the process during the time that i was being interviewed or during these two interviews i'm

the u.s attorney comes to my lawyer and says we want him mr cox to be interviewed by Dateline. The reason I think she wanted me to be interviewed by Dateline was because if they interviewed me, they would interview her. So, Colgate Total is more than just your favorite toothpaste. It's dedicated to advancing oral health. The new Colgate Total Active Prevention System features a reformulated toothpaste, innovative toothbrush, and a refreshing antibacterial mouthwash, all designed to work together to fight the root cause of common oral health issues, such as gingivitis, plaque, and tartar. Use the full routine twice Daily and B Dentist Ready.

Shop the Colgate Total Active Prevention System now at walmart.ca. Gail McKenzie was like a media whore. Like she loved the media. And so I, my lawyer said, so Gail actually told my lawyer, Millie, she said, listen, let Mr. Cox know that if he does this interview with Dateline, we'll consider it substantial assistance. and we'll reduce his sentence, you know, for it. So I was like, absolutely, I'll be interviewed. So I go to be interviewed.

Dateline, they show up. I forget the name of that guy of the guy. He's got white hair. He's got like a long face. He does dateline. Oh, gosh, everybody knows him. You would know his voice immediately. So I do this, I do the interview.

He comes in and he, interviews me and he was like, what did you, did you see the old, the other episode? Because they had already had one episode. He goes, did you see that episode? I said, yes, I did. And he said, what did you think of it? And I went, I thought it was horrible. I think you guys misrepresented what happened. I think you painted me out to be like these women were all victims when in fact I had, we were just dating like they wanted to be involved in it. So I, he was, well, that's, that's why we're interviewing you. So you can set it straight. So then he starts interviewing me. And you can, you can tell from the beginning, like he's just trying to just make me look as bad as possible. He's asking all kinds of

fucked up questions. I remember one of the questions was he said, what did he say? One of the questions that he said was, you've hurt a lot of people. And I went, well, I don't think I've hurt anybody. I mean, I financially inconvenienced a lot of people, but, you know, nobody claimed bankruptcy. And he goes, nobody lost a ton of money. Like, I mean, and he goes, you've hurt a lot of people. I said, well, once again, I said, I think I've inconvenienced some people. I've caused some people to lose money, but I've never physically harmed anybody. You've hurt a lot of people.

And I'm looking around. I went, you seem to be stuck on hurt. And I went, so, yeah, okay. So I said, if you want me to say I hurt people. said, yeah, I hurt people. I mean, what, what are you getting at? What, why are, you know, he goes, and then they, he just kept going. So when they go back, they take the film and he says, you've hurt a lot of people. And they edit it so that he says, you've hurt a lot of people. And I say, what are you getting at? Yeah, okay, so I've hurt some people. I mean, what are you getting at? I mean, it sounds so callous. And everything about, like, he would say something and then they would cut it so that I would like smile or kind of laugh. When I never actually laughed. And I mean, it was just so such a blatant hatchet job. Not that what I did wasn't bad enough. It's like, like if you, if you, you know, if you slam somebody for something that they honestly did and you just portray it accurately, like I get that. That's, you know, the guy's a

scumbag. But if you go out of your way to also say like, he targeted single women, single mothers, he forced them to get boob jobs, leave their children, commit fraud, and send them to jail. I said, whoa, whoa, no of that happened. But that's the kind of, you know, slash and burn tactics that a tabloid news program like Dateline does. And they really just gutted me. What's so funny about that is that when they played that episode, I was still at ACDC. And I was, and I knew it was coming on. and I remember saying, look, I want to watch this, because I didn't know how editing worked.

So I go, hey, you guys, I want to watch this TV show. I'm going to be on Dateline. They're doing like a one hour special. And so everybody was like, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, Cox will watch it. There's like 150 guys around three different TVs in this pod with their seats up, pulled up to the TV, and they play this episode. And, of course, from a criminal perspective, me take. advantage of single mothers and me robbing people or ripping people off and me like all these things that didn't happen these guys are dying laughing they're like yo bro like dang Cox and

they're laughing and I'm like that's not what happened that's not what happened that's not and they're just like loving it like I was like a celebrity after that they just thought I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And it was in the horror, if you watched, if I've never watched it since, but it was, I just remember watching it at the time

and thinking it was horrible. So, anyway, looking back, I guess it's actually comical because in my opinion now, it's like saying, you murdered 14 people.

And I'm going, I only murdered 10. What does it matter? You're still murdered 10 people. Like, you're still a piece of shit, you know? So like,

I'm still a piece of garbage. So the program doesn't really matter. But it is, funny because it was the first time I really understood the power of the media and how much they twisted things. There were definitely things that I absolutely didn't do that. They were saying I did. And it was like, wow, like that makes it sound, the way they made it sound 100% credible. And that's why I just don't believe the media anymore. So everything they say, I think, eh, maybe. So what happens is at some point, my lawyer comes to me and she says,

we got what's called your pre-sentence report. And I go, okay. And she goes, here's your pre-sentence report. And she gives it to me. And my pre-sentence report, the calculation, says that my sentence is going to be 32 years to life. I actually have a pre-sentence report. I actually still have it. It literally says 32 years of life.

And it says that I owe in restitution after they sold everything. I owe $9.5 million. $9.5 million, $32 years of life. Like, they're saying the judge can give him life. I mean, if you listen to the other series of videos that I did, you should realize I've done nothing to get a life sentence. Really, I didn't give anything to get 30. years.

So I freak out. And what's so funny is my lawyer is like, that's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. She's like, you can't even get a life sentence. The most you can get is 32 years. And I'm like, that's hardly what I want to hear. I'm like, you said, like she had, at that point, she had been telling me something like 13 to 15 years on the high side, 12 to 13 years.

You're probably looking at 10, but 12, 12 to 13 years plus you're going to get your sentence reduced. you're right i met with the fbi i met with the secret service i did dateline you're right i'm probably i i'm supposed to get my sentence reduced so she said so and then we go over the sentencing the we go over the uh psi um and she starts saying look they've got a bunch of enhancements that just don't apply to you this did you ever do this i'm like no that doesn't imply she's right exactly what about this was so we start i'm like they gave me enhancements that just didn't apply i felt they didn't apply she felt they didn't apply so i felt pretty good So, she says, don't worry, we're going to get in front of the judge, we're going to argue, you know, we're going to get them down.

In the meantime, I'm telling her, I just want to remove my plea. I'd rather go to trial because if I can get, at least at trial, I can lay out the truth of what I did. And you also retain a lot of rights of the right to appeal, that sort of thing. When you sign a plea agreement, you remove all your rights, your rights to appeal. And so I said I wanted to remove my plea. So she calls the U.S. attorney and says, this is what's going on. He's freaking out. So they send the Secret Service agent comes down there and meets with me and meets with my attorney.

And we basically argue about how much these enhancements don't apply. And I get it down to 26 years and four months. My lawyer says, don't worry, Matt, we're going to win these other enhancements, which I know we can win. we're going to get you down to around 14 years. If we had won those enhancements, it would have been 14 years. So then we go to trial, I'd be sorry, then we go to sentencing. I get in front of the judge. My judge's name is Judge Batten.

His name is Timothy Batten in Atlanta. And he was newly appointed. He'd been on the bench maybe a few months, maybe five or six, maybe six months or something. Not that long. So I get in front of the judge. The U.S. Attorney makes her argument. We make our argument about each enhancement. And as my lawyer mentions every enhancement, like, Your Honor, this enhancement says that Mr. Cox used a government body to further his crime or a, he used, you know, to use the government, or a charitable institution to further his crime by, you know, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by,

tending to be them. And the example says that that's like, the example they give is like if you say that you're with the federal government or you're with the cancer society and you go knocking door to door collecting money for the cancer society. Well, I didn't do that. I did say Salvation Army, I had a little badge and I, but I was giving people money. And they have multiple examples and every example is saying your whatever, you know, the Cancer Society and collecting money.

collecting money, collecting money. I'm actually just getting money from people, or I'm actually giving money for surveys. So I'm not actually costing them anything. So she's saying that doesn't apply. Well, the judge, here's the argument and goes, yeah, but I think he soiled their reputation. I'm going to let that stand. Bam. Two point enhancement.

I lost it. You know, I lose that argument. The next one, same thing. Whatever it was. I disagree. I'm going to let that stand. Listen, overruled every single objection we had right down the line. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Then, of course, the U.S. attorneys yelling and screaming, saying I deserve 26 years and four months. And the judge says, I agree. And he gives me 26 years and four months. You know what's a funny thing about that is that they have one person, one victim that shows, no, they have two, two, two. victims that show up. One is Michael Shanahanan. He shows up and says that I cost him $4,000 because

he had to pay a lawyer $4,000. The lawyer had to talk to these two hard money lender or three hard money lenders. So to correspond with the hard money lenders, it cost him $4,000. So I owe him $4,000. That's one of my victims. Everything else is banks. Second person I owe is someone named Dr. Smith, I'm not Dr. Smith, Dr. Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Brown, I owe him, I want to say it was like $10,000 or $15,000, something like that. Now, the thing about that was that I had bought their house, gave him $25,000 down. Then they got their house back because they paid a lawyer, $15,000. Then they resold the house and made another $25,000. So they technically made $10,000 on my fraud.

The U.S. attorney refused to take that into consideration and said that I owe the Dr. Brown $15,000. That's fine. My lawyer said, don't argue. Okay, fine. So I don't feel like I really owe him $15,000, but that's fine. So then the other lender that got up or the other person that got up there was a victim, he got up and said, Mr. Cox, I'm a hard money lender. Mr. Cox borrowed $150,000 from me.

And the U.S. attorney was like, you're not a big faceless bank. Mr. Cox, that was your money, your personal money. And he was like, yeah, it's, yeah, it was, well, he said, yes, yes. It's, it's, it's based on credit lines and things of that nature. But yes, it's basically I'm responsible for the money. Okay. So she says, so she goes back and forth. And, and you lost all that money.

You haven't received any of that money back, have you? You've lost all that. Mr. Cox robbed you for 150, or. stole $150,000 from you. And he went, sat there for me and he goes, well, actually, actually, no, I actually got paid back. And she goes, what? Now, this is a conversation they're having right there in front of the judge and the courtroom and the reporters. She goes, what do you mean?

And he says, yeah, I actually got the title company paid me back. She was, you got all the money back? Yeah. And she goes, what about the payments? And he goes, no, I got all the payments to. They paid me the payments and the late payment, everything. I got all my money back. She goes, well, you didn't lose anything?

He goes, no. She said, did you have to hire a lawyer at all? Anything? And he goes, oh, no, no. He's, I did, I did hire a lawyer and that was about $1,500. She says, well, that's $1,500. That's a lot of money. Mr. Cox owes you $1,500.

And he goes, right, no, no. And she said, and you couldn't afford to lose $1,500, could you? And he goes, no, no, no, no, I, that was, I couldn't afford to lose $1,500. That was a lot of money. It was like so, it was just so stupid. It was like, it was just like, what are you doing? Like, okay, it's $1,500. Like, I get it.

You know, if it had been $30, she would have said, well, that's a lot of money. Mr. Cox should have to go to jail for 20 years for that. That's all you, you couldn't afford to lose that, could you? I mean, she was just so, it was just ridiculous. Anyway, not that I don't know the money, not that I'm not a scumback. I'm just saying whatever. You know, it's just, it was just ridiculous. It was such a dog and pony show.

Hey, I wanted to let you guys know that I have a Patreon account. If you're interested in joining the Patreon account, it's got three tiers. The top tier, you actually get a different con man painting every single month. If you're already joined and you're already supporting me, I really appreciate that. If you haven't joined yet and you're interested in joining, I'm going to leave the contact information for Patreon in the description. Thank you very much for watching the video. Back to the video. So they get up there, they talk, the judge is glaring at me.

I remember he kind of calls me, says what I did was a sociopathic in nature. And it was a complete disregard for my victims. And keep in mind, they're saying I have over 50 victims, but there's only four individuals that I owe money to. they so the total if you add up all the money that I owe them it's not more than 30 grand it doesn't even come to 30 grand not that that's not a lot of money not that I don't owe it anyway so what ends up happening is as far as that's concerned is the judge you know the judge basically says I'm a piece of garbage and that I need to go to jail for 26 years and the U.S. Attorney tells him, you know, she tells him, you know, before he sentences me, he's like,

she says, listen, Mr. Cox has cooperated, but there's these ongoing investigations and he will be coming back here, most likely, or he'll be, he should be coming back to get time knocked off of his sentence. Now, the other thing is, we asked to have time knocked off for Dateline, because she said, I will consider it substantial assistance and, and reduce your sentence. When my lawyer said, what about Dateline, the U.S. attorney, Gail McKenzie, said, well, I said I'd consider it substantial assistance. I've considered it. It's not.

So substantial assistance means cooperation. So she said, I've considered it. No, it's not cooperation. And she didn't give me anything. met with the FBI, met with the Secret Service, gave them information. Not good enough. They haven't actually arrested anybody. So I don't get anything.

There's ongoing investigations, is what they said. Fine. So I'm thinking my lawyer's like, don't worry, they're going to, when they arrest people, after they go out and they get these arrests, they'll reduce your sentence. Okay, that's fine. So go to prison, you'll be fine. That's fine. So I got 26 years and four months.

My mom's in the fucking courtroom crying her eyes out. My dad's in the courtroom shaking his head like I'm just a piece of fucking garbage that I am. I'm I don't know what to say. Like I'm completely crushed. I remember when I walked, was walked back to the U.S. Marshals holdover. it was this long hallway and the U.S. Marshall was walking me back

and he was just a chatty old guy like he was like wow so Jesus 26 years that's that's hard I don't usually see that especially white collar I never seen 26 years that may be one of the harshest that may be the harshest sentence I think I've ever seen heard of it being imposed

because at that time there was no Bernie made off there was those guys that was later like the white collar crime was you just not getting that kind of time but you have to think we were it was by this point is 2000 it's late 2007 and the entire housing market is starting to kind of implode and they needed somebody to blame and so you know they're kind of talking about how I'm the I'm the mortgage industry's worst nightmare and this and that and the truth is like it was it was not a billion dollar fraud this was this was a $6 million loss because that's one of the other things

I had done with the U.S. when we had argued with the Secret Service is I got them from $9.5 million down to $6 million. They agreed I only lost owed $6 million. So for $6 million,

if you look on the guidelines without all these ridiculous without all of these ridiculous enhancements, I should have gotten like six or seven years. Even if you added this, added together so maybe 10 at the worst 10 26 years and four a month so i remember walking listening to this this u.s. marshal i get all the way back to the marshal's the holdover and still

inside the federal building the federal court building and i i walk back and i remember this one guy there was a guy that was there that was like a gay guy and when people would come back everybody was sitting around there's like 10 guys in a cell and they were all like what'd you get And guys would be like, oh, I got three years. Oh, I got seven years. Oh, I got 37 months or, you know, whatever. And I went, I got over 26 years. And I remember the gay guy goes, oh, my God.

Like, the judge didn't, he didn't throw the book at you. He jumped over the bench and bludgeoned you with it. Oh, my God. I put his hand to his chest and started walking. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And I was just like, like, it wasn't making things better.

I then end up going back to, when they move us back to ACDC and I walk into the court, or into the unit, I had just been on TV. My sentence had just been read on TV. So when they walk me in in my shackles and 150 guys are, of course, everybody's just eaten, they've finished eating, they've just watched TV and they know I got this much time and I walk in the door. So you've got 150 guys staring. at me guys are walking out of the second tier um cells to walk and look down at me and i mean just

the all 150 guys staring at me at once and it just like hit me and i mean i just burst in a fucking day like tears just rolled down my face and i walk straight in my fucking cell like i just got in a hold of myself now i walk straight in my cell and lay down and i fucking slept for like two or three days it was just horrible like i had guys coming in the room saying cox man i'm so sorry bro you don't deserve that i'm sorry i know you can do something you're a smart guy you're going to figure this out you're going to get out of this you know but the truth is is i i i just overwhelmingly thought i was just was just doomed like i was never going to survive that with gain time with gain time my out date was 2030 that's with good time off means that if i serve that

sentence and i was good never lost a day of good time i was going to get out and 2030. If I lost gain time, which most inmates do, let's say I lost all my gain time, I would have been getting out when I was, it would be like, it would have been like, I think it would have been like 2035 or late 2034, I would have been 60. So at that point, a few days later, a guy, a few days later, they shipped me to Coleman. well actually a few days later they they shipped me to the atlanta city prison um uh u s pen which is where they have a holdover and from there they shipped me to coleman to the medium security prison

keep in mind i'm a white-collar criminal with no history of violence and they sent me to a medium security prison which is essentially it's a real prison like these are are prisons, there's riots, there's stabbing, there's violent guys, guys are there with life sentences, it's a fucking hellhole. And so that's where I went and I went to that prison. They marched me in and I went through, you go through what's called, you know, R&D, receiving and departure. And, uh, and I went in there and, you know, they fingerprint you and they, uh, yeah, I was in there. And that's, uh, so I think it was a good spot to end it. And, uh, and, uh, Yeah. So, all right. So I'm going to, I'll go over like my first day of prison and then what, the whole thing that happened. And listen, a guy got stabbed the first day of prison. I was there. So I'll go into prison and being in the medium and everything that happened and being interviewed by, fuck. American greed and just, just everything is just, just how fuck it up this prison was in the whole situation. So I appreciate you guys watching. Tell me if, like, you know, what you, why you came to what you like about the channel. Tell me.

about why you came and you watched the video. Tell me if you're here for the Cox. Guys are, fucking guys are hilarious guys are leaving comments in the comment section like, bro, I'm here for the Cox. Let me know if that's what you're here for. Yeah, give me feedback. Hit the subscribe button, hit the bell so you get notified. Share the video and I really appreciate it.

And yeah, see you.