Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Frank Amodeo Takes Over the Bank of Africa | FRANK AMODEO

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Frank Amodeo Takes Over the Bank of Africa | FRANK AMODEO

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. They come in, they immediately take over and arrest all of tactical guys. Frank is currently trying to figure out how to get them out. These guys have tens of millions of dollars in hostage insurance, and these insurance. insurance companies, they don't want to pay $10 million for some CEO that gets kidnap somewhere in Africa.

And he's being told that this is a CIA plot. And they've got credentials that say Secret Service. Like, it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good. Hey, this is Matt Cox. And we're going to be talking about the Frank Amadeo story. It's Insanity, which is based on the book that I wrote, It's Insanity. and at this point, Frank's got a good chunk of money set aside.

I mean, I think he's probably close to $180 million of money that he has kind of set aside for money that was supposed to have been sent to the IRS for payroll withholding taxes. So he's got $180 million. And according to Frank, now I've heard other people say, different things, but according to Frank, his company was approached, which is basically tactical, the military company that Frank had founded. Tactical was approached by Dr. Oscar Kashala's campaign director, I think, I think was campaign director. So they approached tactical and part of the part of why they were approached were was that that the director

wanted tactical to provide private security for for um dr kashala now dr kashala was a congol was a congolese born citizen right so he was born in the kongo which is the democratic republic of the Congo is what I'm talking about. It's a country in Africa, if you don't know. The DRC, or Congo, whatever, the DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo, they were hold, they were about a year away from holding their elections. And the current president, who was, I forget his name, I'll mention it, I'll look it up in a second. He was president. He had been president for several terms. he had taken over the presidency from his father, which I'm pretty sure he murdered. Like, that's, that's Congolese politics.

We're really African politics. Like, this guy had, like, killed his father and taken over something along those lines. And then he had, it had, the Congo had become a democracy. And he kept winning the elections. So this was the first time that the Congo was about to happen. was in 2006, the Congo was about to have a real democratic election. NATO had come in and was kind of helping conduct these elections. And Dr. Kashala, who had been born in the Congo, but had moved to the United States and was a Harvard-educated doctor. So this is a, this is a, you know,

But this is a Western educated person who has the right to run for president in the Congo. So, like, this is the guy that the U.S. wants to become president of the Congo. Maybe. Anyway, and sometimes they just want a dictator guy that's just brutal that will back up anything the U.S. wants. What happens is campaign director comes too tactical. Frank, they come to Frank. This is Frank's kind of version. I've heard that actually Frank had also kind of

maybe possibly could have reached out to Dr. Kashala, but since I wasn't able to talk to Dr. Kashala, I don't know. Regardless, they came in, they sat down, they had a meeting, and Frank said, listen, we'll not only provide security, we'll back your campaign. And we will run your campaign

for you. All I'm asking you to do is base the new economy in the Congo off of capital genesis. Now, Frank had a plan where he was going to go in and he was going to, so there's the bank of, I want to say it's the Bank of Africa. It was like the Bank of Africa, which is in many of the countries in Africa, which is actually owned by, I believe, the Belgians. And it's actually owned by like a family in the Belgium. And honestly, it's completely unstable. So what Frank was going to do, his plan, and how far he got with his plan, I don't know. He had some meetings.

I'm not sure. But his plan was to come in and try and take over the Bank of Africa. The way he wanted to do that was, it was, there was multiple layers to it. but let me explain first what is frank's interest in the Congo like why would you want to go into what is essentially a poor country in Africa okay here's the problem the thing about the Congo is that it's actually a poor country but not because they don't have natural resources it's actually got the highest concentration of natural resources in the world actually of coal bolt uranium titanium magnesium gold silver you get the picture and they've got it's like

four trillion dollars worth of of these minerals that are located in the Congo the problem is that the political situation because of multiple tribes fighting the Congolese government and these constant appeasals or rebellions that they have, no country wants to come in and dump a ton of money into the area to build the infrastructure to go in and get to these minerals. It's just too unstable. Well, what Frank figured out was this. And here's a problem in Africa in general.

You only have really two classes. You have the ultra rich and the ultra poor. That's a problem. So what Frank figured out was, listen, here's what we can do. We could go into the Congo. And here's why they don't have a middle class. They don't have a middle class because it's difficult to have ownership of land, right? Like to build houses and own a house and keep that.

house and get a mortgage because there's a large Muslim population in the Middle East and in Africa in general. And so the Bank of Africa, even if they wanted to lend mortgages, they can't securitize land and pay interest under Shiite law. So what Frank figured out a way where he could go in, build the houses and have you live in the houses and make payments on the houses for with no interest, but by charging additional money for the labor, um, wood, the land across the board, you could basically in a very, in a real way, mortgage those houses. without interest but with the payments built in now if the people did not do because of Shiite law if people didn't make the payments you can't kick them out you know you can't foreclose and

take their property but what you can do is you can recoup the property upon their death so what's the what's the worst that happens you simply have to wait you have a depreciating appreciating a piece of security that you have to wait for someone to be deceased. But the idea of that being an issue really wasn't a concern because of the amount of money you could charge. The other thing is by going in and getting this $4 trillion and the amount of money that these people would be paid and the middle class that it would create because they could now have home ownership. The wealth it would create within that country, Frank and his

analysts had determined would create a very large middle class society within a decade or so, but it would require a ton of a capital investment. So the first thing to do to get that investment from the Middle East, by the way, which is where he was going to get that money. He's going to get that money from the Middle East. The way he thought about doing that was the first thing he has to do is get is go in, get Kashala, get Kashala elected. Secondly, he has to build a large private military that is loyal to Kashala. Right now, there are generals inside of the Congo. And each general has its own army that's loyal to the general. So it's unlike the United States where if the president tells a general,

I'm going to need you to move your forces here or there or there. They say, yes, sir. It's there. They serve the president at his behest. Well, that's not exactly how it works in the Congo. it's a discussion really what needs you to do this and if the guy doesn't want to do it he just doesn't do it so it's a problem because you also have a police force that doesn't necessarily do what the president says it's all done on political threats and political negotiations and

it's extremely corrupt so if you get kashala who's an outsider elected and you build bring in your own private military, then you could probably clean that country up enough to get investors to come in and invest to get this $4 trillion worth of natural resources, that a ton of which would go back into the country. Now, they're going to lose some of it, obviously. But it would at least stabilize it and create a middle class. You could have roads. you could have electric electricity you could have clean water you could have sewers septic you know

you could have all the things that they don't have right now in abundance so frank had this whole plan first thing is get get dr kashala elected so he he gets uh kevin billings he gets Kevin Billing and Joe Robinson. Joe Robinson, by the way, ran, has run several mayor mayorial campaigns in Orlando. He also was, I believe he was the head of the SWAT department for the Orlando Police Department. And so he's got a lot of experience in running campaigns and in military, and that's, you really have to run a campaign in Africa, you got to have some military experience and you have to have political experience. It's not, it ain't the U.S. So they go in there, they go in with Kashala. And the first thing that they do is they start putting up billboards

everywhere. They enter him into the presidency. They put in billboards. And the first poll that comes out out of, I want to say, 50 or 100 people running initially, he ends up being I think 33rd, 32nd, 34, something like that. I forget what, Franks. It was in the low 30s. So they start really pumping the IRS's funds into this campaign. Like so and TV ads, radio ads, billboards, people passing out flyers. Like, they're putting money into this that African campaigns don't typically see. And very, very quickly, Kashala starts dropping. He goes from 30, 33 to 25 to 20 to 15 to 10.

I mean, the polls are, he's really gaining. Um, it's, it's interesting because when Billings and Robinson go in there, they set up several different camps. So they've got like a, I want to say it was the like a, they have like the, um, the DRC, it was like the DRC hired or Hilton. And they have, they take like the first couple floors of that. building and they put they've they're running their campaign out of that and they've got a couple dozen security forces living there protecting um dr kashala because you have to understand there there the rallies are getting bigger and bigger out of the 50 to 100 campaign uh candidates they're they're falling out left and right like they're dropping out left and right they realize

they don't have a prayer it's consolidated down to roughly 10 at this point after four to six months. And Kashala, by the time they had this one rally, I remember, it was like 40,000 potential voters in like a soccer stadium. It's massive. I mean, just this massive rally. And Kashala at that point in the polls was third. So he was third. The current president was number one.

And the guy in second position was actually. a general and that kind of lets you know what how how things are run in the the DRC they'll blow each other up they'll kill each other they'll they'll put car bombs political rivals get murdered all the time so think about this general let's take one of our former generals general shorts cough general shorts cough while acting as a general could have never run for president but the guy in the second position in the Congo at that time in second place he was a general he had his own military he had his own standing army and he's he's running for presidency and he's that's his current job as general so you can imagine how how tense the situation is anyway i i

always remember billings was at this this rally and there's whatever it was 30 40 000 Congolese, and they're screaming and they're chanting, they're chanting for Kashala. I mean, they're just like, it's just like, Kashala, Kashala, Kashala. And he's given this speech. And it's just, it's just insane. While that's happening, you've got their whole operation being run from the Hilton. They have a secondary location that Billings has set up with about 30 some odd guys in a, in like a compound that is four or five miles outside of the city, the city limits,

which is, you know, loose to say the least. And he's got this group of guys there. So the president, which is in first place, his name was Joseph Kabbalah. Now, the general I was talking about was Gene Pierre Bimba. I'm just going to go with General Bimba. General Bimba is upset because he can see the writing on the wall and he sees that Kachala has jumped from like number 33 all the way down to number three.

He's Harvard educated. He's extremely sharp. And he's making him look very bad. His fear is, the general fear is that this guy is going to win. So Bimba was concerned. Now, this is the way it played out, was Bimba's concern was that he says that Billings and Robinson were putting together a military coup and that they were secretly planning on stealing the country's wealth. Okay. And the reason for this is that Billings had gotten his hands on plans for Amadeo.

He'd gotten his hands on these mineral rights plans that had been done. So there's been extensive mineral rights surveys done. And Billings through the, according to Frank, through the correct channels, had actually gotten his hands on these plans. But apparently, you're not supposed to have them. And that foreigners shouldn't have them. They're for internal use. regardless. Billings and Robinson get their hands on them and they're flying them back to the

United States. Bimba had someone inside the hotel that learned that they had these plans, these these surveys. So Billings and Robinson get on the plane and I believe they got on the plane with the plans and they're on the plane. The plane's doors closing up. The plane starts to taxi, they're about to leave, they're very excited, and all of a sudden, the plane stops. They wheel the ramp back up. They see military vehicles stopping outside. Billings thinks, this ain't good. Robinson's like something's not right. And next thing you know, they open the door, some military officers come on with a clipboard, and they call out both of their names. you know they got Robinson Billings they walk up and they go outside someone wants to

talk to you so they both get up they go downstairs they go on the tarmac they tell them do we need your passport they take their passports they search them and I believe this is the point you keep in mind they you're talking about a dozen guys with with AK-47 that are not, that are soldiers. And they ask for, they search billings, and I believe they search them at that point, and they find his, either they found it on him or they found it in his suitcases. Regardless, they come up with his secret service credentials. so to them secret service

that's CIA like they don't they don't know the difference so they're saying hey you're CIA saying I'm not CIA like you've got these you've got these plans you've got our

these secret mineral rights and your CIA and he's saying absolutely not we got these legitimately regardless they take the passports they bring them downtown they hold them for a few hours and they say we're releasing you but we're not giving your passports so they can't leave they go back to the compound everybody is aware of what's going

on they've contact they've called back to frank's team frank's team is currently making phone calls they're trying to get them temporary passports so they can get on a plane and leave they're very concerned these are bimba's soldiers bimba soldiers just took your shit so they're upset I mean, they're concerned, they're trying to like, we got to get out of the country. They took, they took, they've got the, the surveys, they've got everything. They don't know what kind of charges they're going to trump up, but they left them. And so they're there with about 30 other guys, right? 30 of these, they're at the compound, just like I said, four or five miles outside of the city.

They've got, they have these, these guys that are mercenaries. These are, are South African mercenaries. and Nigerian mercenaries that are making up their contingent of security forces. And keep mind, they've got another couple dozen security guys at the hotel with Kishala. So they're there, no big deal, they're there. They're trying to get emergency passports issued to them so they can get out of the country. And they go to bed and it like, whatever it is, three or four o'clock in the morning after midnight. One of their private military guys, which are mercenaries, come to them and say, listen, there are soldiers jumping the fences.

General Bembo's soldiers jump over the fences. They rush into the compound with armored personnel carriers and troop transports. They come in. They rush in. AK-47's drawn. They immediately take over and arrest. all of tactical's guys. Now, it's funny, Frank has always said that, you know, these guys weren't armed.

You know, Billings says they were armed. You know, Billings says these are nothing, they weren't soldiers so much as they were armed security guards. And they didn't put up a fight when you've got the soldiers rushing in. You've got, you know, you've got 100 soldiers rushing in. You've got 30 guys. Half of them are asleep. They're not going to, you know, they're not exactly going to put up a fight. so they all lay down they yank billings and robinson out of bed and they take all they load there's actually a kind of a skirmish that happens kind of in the courtyard they start beating up one of the afric or they start beating one of the um south africans i believe and billing steps in they almost shoot billings it's a tent situation like i write about the whole thing in the book they end up putting them all on like the in the transport truck and they move

move them to a to an to an uh to an army base where bimba is located they lock them up in in cells and hours later they start dragging them out one at a time according to billings and robinson they were very very harsh on the africans now these are nigerians that are armed and are in their country that they're being told are working with the CIA to, you know, pull off a coup in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So these soldiers are, these guys are upset. And you have to understand they're based on their limited understanding, like they don't know any better. They're being told by, by their general, this is a CIA plot to take over our country. These are armed, armed people working for the

CIA. They freak out. They're beating on these guys. they never really now billings and robinson said they never really were that harsh on them they did they were aggressive they slammed you know slap the desk they screamed they got in their face they did all that but they never they were like they never really beat them they said but they definitely beat the other guys and they're screaming the whole time you work for the CIA you work for the secret organization it's a secret service like can you imagine how that sounds to to to a to a guy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who's probably can't even read or can barely read.

And he's being told that this is a CIA plot. And they've got credentials that say Secret Service. Like, it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good. So anyway, they're interrogating them for an hour, two hours, three hours, throwing them back in the cell, interrogating them. I remember that they said they had,

basically they had like a bucket and they had a hole. so they could as of their toilet was in this little room where they got 30 guys piled in these rooms and they're all they're all shitting in a little in a hole in the corner guys are you know after a couple days they're barely feeding them they're giving them like old sardines you know you know scraps they're puking these guys are getting dysentery they're shitting on themselves they have diarrhea it's just it's the conditions are horrendous team back in Orlando, he sets up what he called the Situation Room. He sets up the Situation Room. They're calling the Catholic Church. They're calling the UN. They're calling NATO. They're calling everybody. They're calling everybody to try and get these guys released. And they're also, while doing that, he's also having to explain that he simply was running a political campaign. That's all he was doing. Now, of course, you've got the Congolese saying, hey, and you have to think, too their their media is issuing articles talking about how this is a this was a military coup so it

also looks good for the general i just thwarted a military coup i just saved the republic so it's just a bad situation all around and i think that's a great place for us to leave it with Billings and Robinson in the being held in a cell with there isn't up being there's a total of 32 of these guys all being held by Bimba and they're there so they've been there for four or five days at this point and I think that's a great place Frank is currently trying to figure out how to get them out which in Frank's mind he's one trying to negotiate. He's trying to get the State Department to help. But after a week or so, it's not looking good. And Frank actually reaches out to like a black ops, a private black ops company

that is known for going in and rescuing hostages. There are these companies, you have this hostage type insurance. And a lot of times these guys have tens of millions of dollars in hostage insurance. And these insurance companies, They don't want to pay $10 million for some CEO that gets kidnapped somewhere, you know, in, you know, in Africa. What they'd rather do is pay half a million dollars and have a bunch of guys going and try and rescue them. And if they get killed, they get killed. Then they don't have to pay the insurance. So they, he reaches out to these guys.

And I mean, these guys have, these guys have helicopters. They've got, typically these places are run by former, former special forces in South Africa. but listen we're going to get into all that in the next video i really appreciate you guys watching oh i would love to get into it right now i'm just time crunched oh it's good stuff so i really appreciate it do me a favor if you like the video hit the subscribe button hit the link so you get notified of videos just like this leave me a comment and think about please consider buying the book it's insanity and also joining my patreon i really appreciate you guys watching see you