Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - How This Con Man Reduced His Prison Sentence

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

How This Con Man Reduced His Prison Sentence

Oh, I don't want to seem like, I don't want to see it unappreciative. I said, but I was just hoping for more. And I said, I'm sorry that I feel this way. And he said, you know, I was hoping for more too. He said, but the thing is, he said, I think that we're just going to have to eat this elephant one spoonful at a time. Something else will come out. I think you'll get some more time knocked off. Something else will come up.

something will happen. And he just looked at me and I went, okay, okay. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and this is part eight of my prison journey. No, of my story as far as, you know, when I went to prison, I think the last video I had mentioned that I'd written Ephraim Devoroli's book, which was a book called Once a Gun Runner. It had been published.

And the problem with that, finishing that story is that story drags out over the course of like several, a couple of years all the way up to me leaving. So what I want to do now is I want to kind of jump back and explain that at this point in time, I'm at the low security prison. I've been there for, I want to say a few years. years, a few years, maybe two years, going on three years. And there was a guy that showed up at Coleman named Frank Amadeo. Now, this is important. The way he worked, he kind of is weaved into my story. It's hard to tell all of these stories chronologically because it's such a long period of time that by the time you get to part eight or nine or ten or eleven you're going to say wait a second who is you talking about now well that's somebody that I talked about in

part three so I'm trying to kind of do an anecdotal type story where I kind of wrap up as much as possible in one sitting so a guy by the name of Frank Amadeo showed up at the prison Frank Amadeo was a he was a he's a lawyer well he has a law degree and he's a disbarred lawyer now he came into the prison system and he started doing legal work for other inmates so I'm at the low and I remember I was I was in the lunch room or not lunch room they call it the the chow hall whatever the cafeteria so it was in the chow hall and I remember somebody had pointed to him and he was still kind of drugged up at the because when he first got there for like a year or so he was on he was on a lot of medication

because Frank Amadeo is a rapid cycling bipolar with features of schizophrenia so he when he's in the a manic mode right like when he's manic what Amadeo is because obviously bipolar. They have extreme lows and extreme high. So when he becomes manic, Amadeo becomes semi-schizophrenic, delusional, in an extreme way. Not that he's not always a little, a little bit off, but in an extreme way. And during some course of this rapid cycling that he goes through, he believes that he's hearing the voice of God tell him that he's preordained to be emperor of the world. So you could imagine how strange that is. And I mean, I was locked up, you know, it was locked up basically almost 13, 13 years. I always say just rounded up at 13.

So roughly 13 years. And the thing about being locked up that long is I've seen a lot of different types of criminals. And I have never met a guy that was committing crimes specifically because he wanted to take over the world. Like that's, that's James Bond. shit like that that's that's that's a james bond villain well anyway he was in the in the chow hall and i remember i sitting you know standing in line and one of we were some of the guys are talking and one of the guys like you see that dude over there that that guy's a fucking lawyer was like really he's like yeah he was in the newspaper he got like 22 years and i was like really and they said yeah bro he thinks that he's like he's gonna be like he's gonna take over the world or something

like he he's got an amazing case and i was like oh okay i was like that's he like what? And he's like, yeah, he thinks he's going to take over the world. Like, not like, yeah, I'm going to take over the world, but like he truly believes that it's his destiny, that God is telling him he's going to be the emperor of the world, which in and of itself is an odd thing to even say emperor. Who the fuck says emperor? So, anyway, you would say ruler, right? Like, the ruler of the world. Like, is that even possible? I don't know. I doubt it. So, anyway, so I see Amadeo, no big deal. over the course of several months, maybe a year or so, he ends up getting off of the medication,

and he starts fighting his case. But he starts fighting other inmates' cases. Now, in my own case, I was supposed to get a sentence reduction. I had pled guilty with the, I'm going to say, use the word promise. You know, with the promise, they don't really promise you. They say this is what we're going to do. And they'll say, you know, they'll actually say, we can't promise you. you, but if you do this, we're going to do this. And you're like, okay, but you can't, well,

we can't put anything writing, but that's how it's going to work. And so then you do what the government tells you to do. And then they suddenly say, yeah, that's just not enough. We're just not going to do anything for you. And that's, that's really where I was in my case. I had been interviewed by Dateline to do an episode. I'd been interviewed by American Greed. I did an episode. and I had actually written a course. I'm not sure if I got into the course, but did I mention the course that I wrote, the ethics and fraud course? Oh, okay.

So what happened is this is about the same period of time that I, you know, I done all these things for the government and they hadn't done anything for me. So I was about to file what's called, actually I did end up filing one. I ended up filing a, it's called a motion to compel. It's a motion to compel the government to do something that they said they do. Like in this case, it would be a motion to compel you to, you know, a motion to compel the government to reduce my sentence based on the fact that I had been interviewed. by two different agencies or sorry two different um by two different uh whatever tv shows and they said

they cut my sentence i'd also been interviewed by the fbi and the secret service the problem is nobody had ever been arrested as a result of my cooperation so the government was saying well nobody was ever co-op nobody was ever arrested and my lawyer of course was saying yeah but he was interviewed it's not his fault you guys didn't you didn't those those interviews didn't end up panning out and you guys were able to arrest anybody that's not mr cox's fault it's all you know and you also asked him to do be interviewed by two need to two news tabloid news programs which you were interviewed i was interviewed by you said you'd give them something for that too and they were just like yeah well it just didn't work out it's just not going to happen so there wasn't much i could do well what i did

was at the same time i filed the motion to compel i ended up getting a letter from a guy named jim I didn't mention Jim Montram and that I wrote a course in ethics and fraud course. So Jim Montram ends up, it ends up that Jim Montram is a guy that I had gone to, he actually teaches the course which mortgage brokers have to take in order to get licensed in Florida. It's called the Jim Montram, a Jim Montram National Mortgage Brokers origination course or something. It's pretty long. I end up, so I had gone there and that's how I, I, I, studied under Jim Montram and I took my test and I ended up getting a becoming a mortgage broker. Well, Jim Montram writes me a letter and says, listen, based on the new Dodd-Frank Act, all the

mortgage brokers in the country have to be, they have to take continuing education courses. So all mortgage brokers have to take like nine hours of continuing education in the state of Florida. Three hours of that is on ethics and fraud. He said, I want to write a course on ethics and fraud with you to be taught to the nation's mortgage brokers to help them with ethics and fraud to fulfill their continuing education portion of their of their licensing so i end up writing jim and saying look i'm i'm interested in doing this but can you do me a favor and contact my lawyer so jim montram and my lawyer jim montram flies up to atlanta he and my lawyer go to the u.s. attorney sit down with her and explain what he wants to do.

She tells him, if Mr. Cox agrees to do this, she tells my lawyer, if Mr. Cox agrees to do this and you use the course, I will reduce his sentence. I will consider that substantial assistance and I'll reduce his sentence. And she's told me this many times. But once again, what choice do I have? So I end up writing the course with Jim Montram.

It's 9,500 words. I end up writing the entire course. He ends up using the course. He writes a glowing letter to the judge, to my U.S. attorney, I'm sorry, to the U.S. attorney explaining that I'd written the course and it's being used and how amazing it is and goes to the U.S. attorney. And my attorney goes to the U.S. attorney and she ends up saying, what's going on? When are we going to reduce Mr. Cox's sentence? and she says, I'm sorry, Millie, Millie's the name of my lawyer. She says, I'm sorry, Millie, it's just not enough.

Now, at this point, I'm doomed. Sorry, you had to hear that. So, at this point, I'm completely screwed. I've contacted lawyers on the street. One, I couldn't pay them, but I contact her. like I could pay them, and I contact them. Well, one thing I thought maybe I would get some money for the thing I had done with Devere Roli, I figured he would sell the book and I'd get a chunk of money or maybe they'd get

a movie made. I didn't know, but I figured I'd get some money and I could use that money to help get myself out of prison, get a lawyer, a real lawyer on the street. So I contacted several lawyers and it's funny because I ended up contacting a T.I.'s lawyer. Do you know who T.I. is? He was a famous rapper, and he had cooperated and got his sentence knocked way down. So I actually contacted his lawyer, talked to him on the phone, and he said, yeah, basically he said, there's nothing you can do. Like, you're screwed. I ended up talking to, I ended up talking to like two or three, I think it was three lawyers, and all three of them said, there's just nothing you can do to force the government to, to reduce your sentence. So I'm in a bad spot

I filed the motion to compel And But Jim Montram had written me that letter And I'd ended up Removing the motion to compel So I withdrew the motion to compel from the court Did the course, wrote the course And after writing the course was told

They weren't going to do anything for me And all the lawyers said you're not going to We're not going to be able to do anything for you I'm sorry, you just fucked And it's like the government lied to me the government fuck me over I'm screwed

and everybody said yes you're screwed and that's just the way it is so I end up a friend of mine named

we call them Turk because he's Turkish Turk ends up saying you need to talk to Frank and I said

Frank who and they go he was Frank Amadeo and I go the emperor because everybody started calling Frank the emperor

and I was like the emperor and he's like he had the emperor. I said, that's nuts. Forget that. I'm not going to talk to that guy. He's crazy. Like, I don't want him touching my legal work. I'm in enough trouble. And he says, no, bro, I'm telling you, you need to talk to him. He said he's actually getting a lot of people's sentences reduced. And he's getting people's sentences, their cases overturned. He's getting people knocked off. He's getting people released. And I'm like, and I had heard that he was getting better and better. Keep in mind, this is something that happened six or, this was now. a year or so from when Amadeo had gotten there. So he was starting to do people's cases and he was having remarkable success. So I saw, and he was actually, it's funny too. So I go, okay, so I go and I, I start looking into him. I talked to a couple of guys he worked with, talked to, Turk. And it turns out that, excuse me, so it turns out.

that Frank actually started teaching a course, which was called the legal research course. And so he ended up, he'd have like 20 or 30 people in this course. So as an inmate, you can teach. 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 restaurant. Fresh excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. Book club on Monday.

Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers, you'll know just how healthy they are.

Visit Spexavers.cavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. They ask you to teach courses. And if you volunteer, you supposedly get programming points or something. But I've never seen. I don't think that's, I think that's bullshit. The point is, is that he basically had like 20 or 30 people that would go to his course and he would teach them on how to research, how to use the legal computers in the prison to research your case, which is much more difficult than you think. but he also taught guys how to write motions through the process of this he ends up making a lot of people a lot of friends with people and he gives out a lot of good advice and because he's manic he almost never sleeps and he works all the time and he's also extremely intelligent and he reads all the time and so what ends up happening is he he starts putting together what is essentially a law

firm within the prison like he would have someone if you had a problem with you wanted to get a divorce he had somebody that just did divorces if you had child custody issues with your your ex-wife and she wouldn't bring your kids to come see you he had somebody that dealt with family law and they would file paperwork to make your ex-wife or your baby's mom or whatever bring your kid to see you i mean he was doing you know and of course just your regular legal the regular legal stuff he's fighting guys cases getting him over turn

getting their sentences cut so I go to Frank and he's got like a moderate size he has he probably has four people that typed for him full time he had at least

six people that did legal research for him and he had three or four guys that he called his associates which were guys that they're like they're like prison lawyers

You know, you've heard the term. He's a, oh, he's a prison lawyer, which is basically just an inmate that teaches himself the law and does legal work for other inmates. But he doesn't actually have a degree. And he's not a real, he's never passed the bar. He just learned how to do it in prison. So he's a prison lawyer. So he had a bunch of associates that he, that were, he didn't call him prison lawyers, but they were all associates. And, you know, we knew what they were.

They were guys that had been doing it. But we're now under Frank's umbrella. And Frank was now using them. as, as, like, legal, you know, counsel for the inmates. He, it, listen, to be honest with you, it's, that, that alone, that aspect of Frank Amadeo's story is amazing. But here's, so here's, here's where I'm at. I go to Amadeo with, with Turk, and I say, look, my name's Matt Cox, and I say, here's what's

happened. Well, here, do you have some, a few minutes? He goes, yeah, yeah, he said, I blocked off an hour. I said, okay. So, I mean, and legally, but, I'm not sorry. legally. And interestingly enough, by the way, he would schedule appointments like a lawyer. He would, it was amazing. Guys would line up. He had, what did he have? Was it Spanish Tuesday? He had like Spanish Tuesday where the Spanish guys would come see him. He had two interpreters that

would sit with him while Spanish speaking inmates would explain their case to him. And he would then you know get the information with the Spanish speaking legal guys and he would communicate with them and then he would tell them what they needed to do or he would take on their case because he didn't take on everybody's case you had to had to actually have a case and a lot of guys he'd hear the whole case he'd research it he'd look over the whole thing and he'd say you don't have a case like listen you you know you were caught with 40 kilos of heroin you pled guilty to 20 years and that's you're going to get 20 that's what you got like that's it you don't have a case so you're going to have to do your time like join a softball team you know go to take some classes

you know um you know go to you know sign up for horticulture and put in for a two-man cube like or two-man sell because you're going to be here a while anyway i go to frank we go to his office he had his own office the staff actually gave him an office so we go to frank's office and uh i sit down and i explained the whole thing like i thoroughly just and he's like just go through it tell me what happened so i i tell him everything that happened in my case and when i'm done i'm expecting to get the same the same spiel that the lawyers on the street gave me and he said, Frank said, no. Now, I'm not going to let this happen. I refuse to allow them to do this. I'm going to fix this. I'm going to fix this. We're going to make them give you that sent

introduction. This is unfair. I won't stand for it. He goes through a little manic moment. And it was nuts. And he just gets all kind of like a little bit crazy. And he starts going on this little manic, has this manic moment. And in the middle of it, he says, He said, this is what's wrong with the legal system. He goes, and when my, he was, when, what do you say my, uh, minions? He goes, no, he didn't say minions. He said, troops or something like that. He goes, when my troops march on Washington, he said, and the president kneels at my feet.

He said, I'm, he said, I burn the, he said, I'm going to burn the constitution and I'm going to rewrite this entire system. He said, and this is the reason why. things like this and I remember looking over at Turk thinking what the fuck of you got me into this dude's nuts he's off his rocker

so and then Frank kind of came back down and he went okay here's what we're going to do we're going to have to follow what's called the 2255 he said I'm sure you would know what that is that's a habeas motion to vacate your sentence based on the fact that your lawyer was ineffective

however he said your lawyer really wasn't ineffective as much as your lawyer just didn't understand the law and so what what i need is i need a copy of your transcripts i'm going to need a copy of your and he starts listing off all the things that he needs and you know i say okay okay frank i'll get to work on all that i'll order all those that stuff and he said all right let me know and when you get that stuff he said bring it to me and i'll start working on the case i said okay no problem and i leave so i leave with turk and turk is okay well bro yeah you get the turks like writing all this stuff down because he's working with frank he's like writing and and then he says um uh okay get this get this i'm not give this i'm not give it

that guy. My stuff, he's insane, bro. Did you hear the little rant? I know he does that sometimes. And by the way, I've heard that same speech of his. I don't know, 40 times. Anyway, so Turk tells me, look, get the stuff.

What, you know, like, you know, what do you have to lose? You're doomed, bro. You're fucked. And I was just like, I was fucked.

Like, I was screwed. Like, everybody, when you've got lawyers on the famous lawyers, accomplished lawyers on the street telling you, do your time, bro, you're not getting out of this. You've got a problem, man. I had a major problem. So I get all my stuff together.

I give it to Frank. A few weeks go by. Frank comes back and he says, okay I and I explained to him you know I'm time I'm what's called time barred like you only have one year you've got one year to file a 2255 which is to say I was basically my lawyer was ineffective I wasn't represented by a competent attorney and you have one year so I was way past that one one year from your sentencing and I was way past the one year That one year mark had come and gone.

And there's no appeal. When you sign your plea agreement, you waive your right to appeal. You only get to appeal things when you go to sentencing. I'm sorry. You only get to appeal your conviction when you go to trial. When you take a plea, you waive that right. So my only real option was to file a 2255 or a motion to compel, neither which are really worth much. So, Frank says, we're going to file a 2255, and I said, yeah, but I'm time-barred, bro.

Like, I only had one year, and I'm way past the one year. And he said, no, no. He said there's equitable tolling is involved. And equitable tolling means that every time a certain action happens, your time is told. So it's continually told over and over again. So let's say you have one year to do something, but then the government comes back and they say, oh, wait a minute, we need to do this. And we're going to give you this. Okay. So every time the, or we need you to do this, or the court says, wait a second, you have to do this. Every time there's another action involved, it gives you another year. It's one year from the moment that your sentence is finalized. So if you're sentenced, and then let's say six months later something occurs and they have to re-sentence you, well, then you have another year. Or let's say six months later, the government says, we want you to do this for us.

And you do that, you then get an additional year. Because your sentence is never quite set. It's never completed in stone. Now, Frank took that to the extreme. and what Frank said was every time the government asked you to do something and you did it that means that your sentence

was not finalized and therefore you get equitable tolling and therefore the clock starts over again I'll tell you right now that's not how it works but that was his inn that gets around the time bar

now pretty much the government should just have swiped that not that's government but the judge should have been like yeah that's not that's not how it works um the other thing is and then of course even if you can get around equitable even if you can get around the one year time bar you still have to prove the court that your attorney is ineffective or basically incompetent and and i honestly you know although i'm not i don't think that my lawyer did everything correctly. I think that I didn't give her much to work with, and she did the best she could with as bad of a position as I'd put herself and myself in. So, in my opinion, my lawyer did the best she really could. But Frank said that my lawyer didn't understand the law, and had she understood that I could not get my sentence reduced simply for writing a course and being interviewed by some tabloid TV shows, then I would have most likely not pled guilty and gone to trial. And that may or may not be true. We don't know. But what we do know is that I was given bad

advice. And she gave that advice because she was being misled by the government. And so she didn't understand the law. She didn't understand she was being misled. And as a result of that, he believed I could get my sentence overturned or or forcibly recent be allowed me to be resentenced in which case we could now bring in all of the things I had done and we could mention those things in front of the judge I'm sorry that this is so complicated and that's why I hate telling this story because I know that most people would have been like bro this is insane I'm just forget it I'm not even listening but it's got to get more streamlined here soon so what ends up happening is Frank puts together this motion and he sends it to the court. And so he sends

it to the court. And my, um, I'm basically, I file something with the court that says my lawyer's ineffective. And so I call my lawyer. I'm basically saying you're incompetent. And I call my lawyer a couple like it had been filed and like a week had gone by and I was like I don't even know if it was filed because you know I'm in prison like I just put it in the mail and we mail it off you don't know like did they get it they file it what's happening so I'm freaking out so I'm like fuck you know what and I told Frank I'm going to call my lawyer and he goes she's not going to talk to you she's been motion by now she's been notified she's not going to talk to you I went ugh I'm going to call her anyway I think she will she always answers my phone and by the way that's very rare like most public defenders Once you're sentenced, you never hear from these people again. They don't talk to you. Millie always answered my phone calls. Very professional, very polite, just the nicest person. Like, you really couldn't pick a better advocate, just a great lawyer in general.

Because most people, if you talk to any of my buddies, they'll tell you, yeah, yeah, I never hear. You never hear from your fucking lawyer after a public defender after your sentence. So I end up calling her and she answered the phone and she's like, Matt, what's going on? I said, hey, how are you doing? She says, pretty good, pretty good. How are you? I said, no, I'm good. I said, everything's good. I said, I just want to check on you, see how you're doing. And she is, oh, I thought maybe you were calling because you filed a 2255 where you said I was, I was ineffective. I go, you know, on July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure.

I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited. Sorry. Smurfs. Only dinner's July 18th. Hey, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with the TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs.

Ready to press play? Get up to $2,700 when you open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business. Visit TD.com slash small business match to learn more. apply. Philly, it was a tough case. You know, I'm not saying, I mean, it was, you know, it was a lot going on. It was a tough situation. She was, you said I didn't know what I was doing. I said, I, you know, I think that what's important is that, you know, it was, it was a tough situation. I think, you know, you were in a bad spot and she's like okay well listen they filed the motion the government has the court gave them

60 days to respond it's fine it'll i hope i wish you the best don't and i went okay well i appreciate it she's okay all right bye hang up the phone so the government comes back and uh the government says well the the court the judge says tells the government they have 60 days, then close to the 60 days, they asked for another 30-day extension. And the judge gives them 30 more days. And then they come back and they say, Your Honor, there's no equitable tolling here. Yes, Mr. Cox was asked to do certain things, but that doesn't qualify him for equitable tolling. You know, this circuit court said this and this circuit court. And there's all these things that they mention. Like, this has been argued in this court and this one. So then, you know, and even if

he isn't if equitable tolling applied he still you know he still was never promised anything in writing and he this and he that and it's all you know so they go back and board then amadeo comes in and he argues with them and then they argue back and then he comes in with what's called a retort so it's it's like their reply then he replies that he retorts to their reply i mean it's it goes on this goes on for six months So finally, just be, like, I'm sitting there like, like, it's this bad. This is bad. Like, and this is the thing.

They know no matter what I'm going to, you can appeal that decision. Like, I will appeal when if the judge, I'm just waiting for the judge to say, yeah, equitable tolling doesn't apply. Like, I don't know what you're doing. And what ends up happening is just before I'm assuming I'm going to get that, I get a letter in the mail. and the government has filed a motion with the court saying, Your Honor, we would like to stay all of the, we'd like to stay all the proceedings. So we'd like to stop everything.

And we'd like the court to appoint an attorney for Mr. Cox to discuss with Mr. Cox whether he wants to continue forward with his bullshit motion or if he wants to accept a sentence reduction in order to essentially drop everything. So, you know, that was, you know, I mean, I can't convey what a huge victory that was, which meant they were willing to reduce my sentence. So they've already said they're willing to do that, but it's how, by how much?

So I go to Frank with the letter, and Frank's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you'd have to see Frank. Frank's a little guy, he's like 535, 5, 4, he's chunky, he's got kind of a squat body, very, very Napoleon looking. And he's like, and the, the eerie thing about him is that on every step of the way, every step of this process, Frank told me what was going to happen. Well, I was like, so they have 60 days. He's like, well, they'll ask for an extension. They ask for an extension. You know, well, they're going to come back and say this and this. And then I'm going to say this and this.

And then they're going to say this and this. And then at that point, they will most likely offer you something. or we will probably get turned down by the judge and we'll appeal that. And then at that appeal, at that point, they will probably offer you something. Or like, he had it all laid out, like what was going to happen. Keep in mind, I've seen people file motions and get just turned down, turn down, turn down. And so what ended up happening was I end up getting this letter. And he had told me one of the things he was most likely you'll get a letter from then.

They will offer you something. Sure enough, I get a letter. we want to we want the court to give him mr cox a lawyer to discuss a sentence reduction so they pay for an attorney her name was um oh man it doesn't really matter but it's esther panich oh can't believe i remember it esther esther it's funny too because if you look up Esther, like, she'd been on CNN, Fox News, she'd been on all these programs. Like, she was, like a big-time lawyer. You know, she was like a talking head wherever they have to, whenever Fox News needs

somebody to come in and talk about something. Or CNN needs somebody to talk about some trials. They have her on at that point. So she comes in and she gets on a plane and she flies down to Coleman and I go in the room with her. the attorney client whatever attorney client visitation room

it's in visitation so I go and then I sit down on and I say hey what's up and she sits down and she says okay hey so she said they appointed me to try and get a reduction she said listen kudos to you she's like this never

happens like this very seldomly happens I was like oh I know I know and she says um as far as you're 2255 and you going forward with it continuing to fight it in the court she said honestly I don't see it. I don't see it going anywhere. She said, it's well written. She said, but your legal argument, I don't think is going to get you. I don't think ultimately you're going to win at the

district level. And I don't think at the appellate level, you'll win either. And she said, so you really just don't have a case here. And I went, well, and yet, you're here. And she was like, what do you mean? I went, well, I mean, if you're saying that I have no case, she's like, no, I don't. She's like, they're going to win. I said, then why not just win? Like, why wouldn't they just crush me? Like, I'm having to force them to give me something. You're saying I can't force them, and yet you're here. And she goes, okay, well, I see your point, but they probably feel they owe you something. And I went, but they don't. They've told my former lawyer, Millie, over and over again, that I haven't, I don't deserve anything. She's, well, I'm, you've painted

them into a corner. I'm like, yeah, but it's a corner that they can, They can win. Like, it's a fight they can win, you're saying, so why not win? And she went, yeah, I see your point. I said, so as far as me rolling over, because what they were offering me was that the government was offering me a one-level reduction. Now, one level, at that point, was 40 months off my sentence. So you have to think, I was sentenced to 360 months. 60?

No, that's not right. 16 I was sentenced to 316 months and they were offering 40 months off 40 months off 40 that's not even three and a half years no so it's like you gave me they gave me over 26 years and they're offering me three years off so she she was saying she was saying, but you don't have a choice. You have no choice. And she said, she's a bit, you know, you did a good job writing. The brief, or the, the 255, you had a good job, did you great job writing. I said, well, I didn't write it. And she goes, who wrote it? And I went, Frank Amadeo. And she goes, Frank Amadeo, and she goes, who's Frank Amadeo? And I went, Frank Amadeo is a guy who's in here.

He's a former lawyer. He's disbarred. And I said he's, he's crazy. And she goes, he's crazy. And she goes, he's crazy. what do you mean i go no i mean he's like certifiably crazy like like he has a guardian like he he's he's actually got um he's like they've mentally like incompetent as far as the law is concerned like he's he's lost all of his rights um he has an actual guardian like he's he's crazy and she goes that's who's doing your legal work a crazy i go and i went yeah he says he's bipolar he's got schizophrenia and she was like, you've got a bipolar schizophrenic doing your legal work? And I went, yeah, well, it doesn't seem to affect his legal work. He does think he's going to take over the world. He hears God talking to him. And he got himself 22 years because he sold like $180 million from the

government. So I'll get into that in a minute or maybe another video. I could probably do it. How much time? Another video? Oh, God. Okay. Damn, I really wanted to get to it in this video too because It's such a, is gnarly still a word, gnarly stories, such an amazing story. But what ends up happening is she's like, you're letting a guy who, who's crazy, do your legal work. I said, yes. And she went, that's the most bizarre thing I think I've ever heard. And I said, yeah, he's crazy. I said, he's also cutting people loose left and right.

And I said, and you're here. You're here. Every legally sane lawyer on the street told me this couldn't be done. And yet he got the government to offer to reduce my sentence. So I'm going to spin this up a little bit. What ends up happening, because this is in the process of a lot of other things happening. So I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up, kind of do an anecdotal kind of thing on this video. What are we at?

Okay, I'm going to wrap it up. Here's what happens. She goes, she basically says, here's what the government's saying. They'll give you a one level reduction, but that's just to get you back to court. Once you're in front of the judge, you can argue that all of these other things come into play and you want, you believe you deserve more. She says, and I think we'll be able to get Judge Batten, which is my judge. Well, I think we'll be able to get Judge Batten. to give you more time off of your sentence.

And I went, okay, I said, you know, I said, well, let me, you know, let me talk to Frank. And I'll let you know. And she was like, okay, you want to talk to Frank. She's like, I'm your lawyer. I'm like, yeah, I know, but, you know, I said, Frank, like, like, amazing. And God's talking to him. So if God, if you have God's ear, if you have God's ear, I got, I got. I got to talk to that dude before I talk to you.

Like, you're just some chick that jump on a plane. This, Frank's like homies with God. So I got to see what Frank says. So she says, okay, let me know. So anyway, I go back. I explain to Frank. Here's what's going on. Because we thought the government was going to come and say three levels off or two levels.

And you have to understand that every level gets progressively larger and larger. So if you have, if you were sentenced and you calculated, let's say, 10 levels, well, that might be, let's say, five years. And every level at that point is maybe roughly, you know, one level might be six months. Well, the next level, the next level would be worth seven months. And the next one might be worth nine months. And the next one might be 11. And the next level up. So the more levels you get, it's not like every level is worth like seven months. months by the time i had so many levels in my case by the time i got to my sentence each the last level was worth 40 months they start off at like three months so it was that many levels in my case i got that many enhancements um and what ended up happening was i said i'll take the 40 40 but i want to go back in front of the court in front of the judge she said of course of course so i talked to Frank and Frank says, yeah, I think she should argue for six levels. I think six or seven level. I think that's, that's reasonable. He said, that's what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping to get 10 to 15 years

knocked off your sentence. I think that's something that's doable. So I think you need to have her argue that. And I said, okay, he said, but take it so that you can get back in front of the judge because they said, your judge based on the motions. Like to him, in the motions, the judge was talking to us. Now, I don't know, I didn't hear the judge in there, and I don't understand, but Frank was able to kind of read these things. And as a lawyer, if you talk to a lawyer, he'll kind of say, yeah, that is kind of like you get a read for judges as they kind of go along, how quickly they file something, how

long their briefs are, things that they say in the briefs, things they say in court, like you can get a read on them. Frank felt he got to read, and he was saying that, look, your judge, he, he knows he gave you too much time. Like, he gave you that time expecting you were going to get, he was going to be able to bring you back and knock time off your sentence. He knows that's what should have happened. It didn't happen. Trust me, you need to get in front of them. Give them an opportunity.

So I go back a few, so I tell, I tell Esther that, and I go back to court. I go back to court, I go in front of the judge, we argue, oh, this is what's interesting, is that when I go back, Jim Montram comes and he gets on the witness stand and he's, you know, not deposed, but he's a witness for me. So he's a witness for me, and the U.S. attorney talks to him and my lawyer talks to him. Millie, my former lawyer, the one that I'm saying was ineffective, she gets on the stand, she testifies for me. The FBI agent, because I had also worked with an FBI agent that had come to see me, I don't think I've gotten into that yet. I may not get into that.

Like, it was like, I had an FBI agent that was, they were coming to see me after I got to Coleman, they would come to see me and talk to me about cases. But the thing is, I would talk to them about cases, and we would go over the cases and the files, and I'd explain, this is fraud. and this looks wrong and this isn't right and that and on mine my my stuff too and but nothing ever happened but she came and she testified for me so i have all these people testifying for me and then the judge gets up and you know i i testified for myself i couldn't even hold it together and connor connor knows i cry like a baby like a small child over for pretty much anything

um and so i get on the stand and i'm i'm crying like uh like a like like like like a like probably like a four or five year old little girl who you've like taken away like a puppy like maybe you gave her a puppy for three days and then one day you just take her puppy and she's just inconsolably crying like snot rolling down my nose like tea i'm it was it was a it was a i couldn't even hold it together row it was so bad it was such a a a non west watson moment let's say like not a tough guy in mate yeah not not what it was going on at that time so um you know i tell the judge that i feel like i had fundamentally changed that the the senate changed me that i i realized what i did was wrong and that you know listen no danger here i'm all good i hear you i was like listen i hear you i see what when you gave me the 26 years i hear what you were going for i got you i'm all good we don't need to this sentence? Message received, buddy. Anyway, so I sit down and I'm sitting there and I, the judge, listen, when I was talking to him, at one point when I was, you know, um, testifying or whatever we want to say, just being interviewed by my lawyer and talking. I remember at one point I looked over at him and he looked over at me and the look on his face was, wrap it up. I want, I want, I. I don't want to get caught in traffic.

Like, I mean, it was just, like, wrap it up, bro. Like, fuck you. I mean, he just looked at me like, like, he was so, like, give me a fucking break. And the thing is, I was genuinely sincere with everything I was saying, but he could have cared less. Like, I was like, oh, wow. And I remember immediately thinking he's already made up his mind. Nothing we're saying here is going to change his mind. So I wrapped it up, went and sat down, and the judge went.

And I was absolutely right because he rambled off what he was going to say so quickly that it was, I barely caught it. Like I remember he said there and said, okay, well, I've heard, you know, I've heard from the prosecution. I've heard from the defense. And I believe that what Mr. Cox is done is, he's done. Now, whether or not he's, what he's never, the things that he's done, he said, to get a sentence reduction, he said, I have no idea if he did those things because he genuinely has changed or whether. or not, he only did those things because he wanted to send his reduction. He was regardless, it's irrelevant. It's not within my scope or my ability to look into his soul and see those things. He said, so he said, here's the thing. He said, the government

is asking for a one level reduction. He goes, that's not nearly enough of a reduction for what this man has done. He said, he has helped you. He's been interviewed. He's done all these things. He wrote an ethics and fraud course. He's met with FBI agents. He's met with Secret service agent. He's done everything within his power. He said, and I believe that one level isn't nearly enough for what he's done. He says, Mr. Cox, he said, your lawyer's asking for a nine level reduction, which would be a, it was like a 15 year reduction. She's asking for a nine level reduction, which would be 15 years. He said, that was never going to happen. And I was just like, oh my God. And he goes, that was never going to happen. He said, so I've thought about it.

He said, and based on the sentencing guidelines on what's fair in the law and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, he just rambled it off. He said, I'm going to go ahead and reduce Mr. Cox's sentence by three levels. He said, and that is, it's basically seven years. So it's actually like a month under seven years or something like that. So he said, which is a blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, this many. He said, essentially, he said basically seven years off your sentence. he said, and he said, for someone who's cooperation didn't lead to the arrest or indictment of anyone, he said, as a result of that, he said, I think it's fair. And he said, that's the ruling of the court. And he said, you know, that's it. Boom, got up. Bam, hit his gavel and bolted. He was gone. And I was like, holy shit. Like seven years? Like, I got 26 years. Like seven years. Like initially I felt like I'd been shafted. but you know like they handcuffed me and then they took me out you know I had to wait in a little holding cell for a little bit and then they walked me outside it's funny because this the court hit the courtroom was being redone and so they had me at like an auxiliary or an annexed courtroom in another small town not in downtown Atlanta and so I really didn't there was no sally port or anything like I literally got walked out of the courthouse in front of traffic traffic and in front of people

walking down the sidewalk like literally the marshals like stop people and you know they've got shotguns and shit and i'm walking you know with my in my little orange jumpsuit and i've got my handcuffs and chains and people are like ah it's hannibal lector so i i'm walking and as i'm walking to the van to be brought back to the u.s marshals holdover as i'm walking i look across the street and I can see Millie, you know, my original lawyer, and I can see her in her car and she looks up at me. I just remember she looked so sad, like it's so sad that, you know, he only got seven years. And I remember looking at her and I went, eh, like that. And she just went and just kind of grin. And I said, eh. So I got in the fucking van. By the time I got back to the Marshall's

holdover, I had had a good long talk with my. myself. Sometimes I have to have talks with myself to get my head right because I was extremely disappointed. And then I kind of thought about it and I thought, you know, you just got seven years knocked off your sentence. Like if you do the drug program, which is ARDAP, I could get another year knocked off. Plus with gain time, plus if you get a year halfway house, like you, you you really only have about seven years to go, which wasn't true, by the way. I had eight or nine. It was basically eight or nine, about nine more years to go.

But I was like, you know, you can get this knocked off and this and this. You basically are going to have to do about seven more years. Best case scenario, you're out of here in seven years. And I just done seven years. Like at this point in my tenure, my sentence, I'd done 10 years. Or I mean, I'd done seven years. So I was like, you just did seven years that you didn't think you could do. and you just did them you can do another seven years and at this point i had started to write all

of these guys stories and i thought you're gonna you know what's great is you have an opportunity here to write these guys true crime stories and get out with a wealth of of intellectual property and that's what you're going to do you're going to collect true crime stories for the next seven years. That's what you're going to do. This is a good thing. You're okay. It could have been worse. He could have given you 40 months. It could have been even worse. You could have never met been lucky enough to be in a prison with Amadeo and you could have just been getting out in 2030, which is when you're supposed to get out. So, you know, I thought, you know what, be thankful. Nobody had to do shit for you. Be thankful. And I, I,

So literally by the time I got off the van, got out of the van, I was in a great mood. Like, I just got seven years knocked off my sentence. And, yeah, so that was it. I got back. And I remember I went to Frank, first thing I did. Like, I mean, I got there just before four o'clock count. Four o'clock count happened. They let us out for Chow.

I immediately went to see Frank Amadeo. so he's the first person I went to go see other than the guys in my unit walk in to see to see Frank or walk I met him he was actually out by a Stonehenge so I go straight to Stonehenge I walk up to him and I said Frank and he goes hey he said I heard you got back he said I heard you got he was I heard you got seven years knocked off and I said I did I did I said I wanted to thank you for that and he goes you're welcome and he sat there and he looked at me and I said you know I I don't want to seem like, and I don't want to see it unappreciative. I said, but I was just hoping for more. And I said, I'm sorry that I feel this way. And he said, you know, I was hoping for more too. He said, but the thing is, he said, I think that we're just going to have to eat this elephant one spoonful at a time. Something else will come out.

I think you'll get some more time knocked off. Something else will come up. something will happen. And he just looked at me and I went, okay, okay. And he said, you know, you did good. And I was like, no, thank you. Thank you. You said, no problem.

And yeah, I was, I was really, you know, I was, it was a mixture of disappointment and real and just really. also being thankful at the same time. It was hard. It was like, okay, you got seven or seven, you got about eight or nine more years to go, really, to be honest. You really had, I really had nine more years to go, technically. But if I was lucky I could get off some time, get a little bit halfway house, because I might be able to get out seven. But at that moment, you know, I, it was, it was like, you know, like, it was really the term bittersweet. But yeah, he said, And we're going to have to eat this elephant one spoonful at a time. And I remember I went to chow and, you know, I went to chow.

That was it. So I am so sorry that I did not explain Frank's story. I will do that in the next video. And I really wanted to do it in this one. But we're coming up on, you know, we're over 40 minutes. So by the next video, I'm going to explain how Frank Amadeo ended up in prison. super interesting story and of course

I'm also going to I don't know if it's that one but I'm also going to explain how I got my sentence reduced again yeah yeah again

because if I hadn't I wouldn't be I wouldn't be talking to you right now I'd still be in prison so yeah okay because actually my out date at that point

was now like 20 It was like 20, 20, because with good time, because you lose good, it would have been 2024. So I would still be in prison. I would still be like, oh my God. Listen, anyway, I appreciate you watching the video. I appreciate you guys. If you subscribe and hit the bell, you'll get notified of videos like this.

And I appreciate just, you know, you guys in general. And more than anything, I appreciate being out of prison. So leave me a comment. Let me know what's up. I appreciate. Share the video. See you. Buried by the U.S. government and ignored by the national media, this is the story they don't want you to know. When Frank Amadeo met with President George W. Bush at the White House to discuss NATO operations in Afghanistan. No one knew that he'd already embezzled nearly $200 million from the federal government. Money he intended to use to bankroll his plan to take over the world.

From Amadeo's global headquarters in the shadow of Florida's Disney World with a nearly inexhaustible supply of the Internal Revenue Services funds, Amadeo acquired multiple businesses, amassing a mega conglomerate. Driven by his delusions of world conquest, he negotiated the purchase of a squadron of American fighter jets and the controlling interest in a former Soviet ICBM factory. He began working to build the largest private militia on the planet, over one million African strong. Simultaneously, Amadeo hired an international black ops force to orchestrate a coup in the Congo while plotting to take over several small Eastern European countries. The most disturbing part of it all is, had the U.S. government not thwarted his plans, he might have just pulled it off. It's insanity.

The bizarre, true story of a bipolar megalomaniac sense. insane plan for total world domination. Available now on Amazon and audible.