Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Insane Stock Market Scam Turns Into a Twisted Double Murder

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

Insane Stock Market Scam Turns Into a Twisted Double Murder

The silver Lamborghini flies around the corner. From that point on, I was hooked. He walked me around the office. He's like, hey, Zoni, what did you make this month? 150 grand. You know, hey, Jay, what did you make last year? 3.4 million. These are guys in their 20s.

This is really messed up how this whole thing went down. She comes by my office and she pitches me. Everything seems legit. I start raising capital. Your guys are calling investors saying, hey, we got a new company. Here's what we need. Put in 100,000, 200,000. Something is definitely wrong.

I drive to the bank. And she had spent 350 grand out of that $400,000. This is a criminal situation here. And our name's all over it. Royce started partying too much. You know, he stopped coming in. You know, out of the first round, that $5 million, we raised, Royce raised $12,500.

At this point, I keep hearing it for more people that he's going to have me killed. So I'm driving over there. I call him, meet me around the house, going in the back by the dock, he says. I start thinking to myself, like, that was odd. I call my girlfriend and I said, Do you think that this guy would really kill me? Yeah, what are you stupid? Turn around right now.

I get a phone call. He says, whatever you do, don't come to the office. There's like 40 FBI agents here. So I booked a flight to Ecuador. I remember when I was indicted, I thought time for a trip. We go to the airport and they close in on me. He said, excuse me, can I see you pass before? Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I'm going to be doing an interview with Joseph Vitaly.

This is very possibly one of the best interviews and stories I've ever heard. You absolutely need to watch this video. It's got a bunch of double crosses, twists, turns, murders, several scams. It's genuinely going to be one of the better videos you will ever watch. Check it out. I grew up on Long Island. Okay. No.

Yeah. Middle class family, right? And I ended up going to FAU down here in Florida. Right. And made it through about a year and a half. And one night I met a guy driving a Lamborghini. That's how I got into the whole stock thing. Right.

Well, you were dating? Just go to Alicia. Yeah, you were dating? We were hanging out. You know, she was from, I knew her from high school, back up in New York. And she was down here for, you know, for. like a two-week vacation. We were hanging out. And we went out to a restaurant, I think it was Jay Alexander's in Fort Waterdale. And she's like, come here. I want you to meet my friend,

Erica. And then she starts telling me about her boyfriend. And she starts bragging about this guy. She's like so impressed. And, you know, so I go over, I meet them. And he's like, how are you doing? My name is Isaac Grossman. He puts his hand out and I'm Joe Vitale. right these guys like old formal so we uh we had drinks you know for uh two three hours at the restaurant and then we went out to some club when we walked out of the restaurant they're like follow us the guy's car comes flying out of uh valet and mind you i'm like you know 19 year old kid uh from new york you don't see cars like this you know every day down here they're a dime a dozen right so i'm like since this lambagini you know the silver Lamborghini fly

around the corner and I'm look at this guy he's like probably 29 30 years old they get in I follow them and then what are you driving and like a bullswagon like be a bullswagon basat the thing had like like like tint peeling off of it right I was like potting behind them this guy's like cutting in and out of traffic so so we follow them to a club and I mean I was just I was just blowing away I'm like how's this young guy usually see you know old people driving, nice cars, living in, you know, lavish lives. So this guy was, you know, like I said, 2930. So I started asking him about what he does for a living. He explains to me the whole brokerage industry, what he does. At that time, I really didn't even understand how stocks work.

Never bought a stock. Right. Never looked into stocks. Never really, you know. You were an art school, right? You wanted to be an artist. Yeah, correct. Yeah, I was going to school for graphic design. And so he gives me his card. call me on Monday and you know and you know we'll give you an interview and if you have what it takes you know maybe you can be a part of the team so I go down there on a Monday I was working like two jobs at the time I went down on a lunch break he sat me in the waiting room for about 45 minutes my entire lunch break and the reception she brings me back into his office he had this huge corner glass office I walk in and I'll never forget it he was sitting there on the phone and he

says something along the lines of you know this is is isa glosman your favorite broker have you been and then he goes into this conversation and maybe four or five minutes on this call he looks over at me he winks and then he hangs his phone up and he says i just made $16,000 on that phone call he's like what do you make today yeah i think it was i told him i told him like 50 bucks yeah so uh and i just lost my job for fuck because you yeah exactly right 45 minutes yeah So, from that point on, you know, he, I mean, I was, I was hooked. You know, I told myself, I can either go back to my job, go back to FAU, try to figure out a way to build a career in graphic design and which, you know, I mean, I had confidence in myself in that field, but I knew and know that, you know, that things take time. when he walked me around the office and he pointed out all the broker you're never going to make

$16,000 on a phone call yeah yeah right he's good he walked me around the office he's like hey zoni would you make this month uh the zoni was like 150 grand you know hey j would you make last year and you're like uh 3.4 million these are guys in the 20s right so i basically told them i said listen bring me on board i'll do whatever it takes i mean i'll work to learn what it is you have to say do or no and uh you know i'm at your disposal so um that was basically it then i started you know working in the training program with them for a couple of months and then i got licensed was the training program though how how did that work the training program was like you worked it was i mean i'm sorry i remember because you were like it was like the whole boiler room type

like you worked for a guy under a guy for so long and then at some point when you get licensed and you've done you've made so many accounts for them then they give you right a certain amount of so yeah so the program worked where they would give you two hundred dollars a week you know like beer money yeah and uh you would have to work under their license you know which is obviously it's a violation a lot of firms did it at that time you know tier two brokerage firms where they wouldn't have like uh you know any sort of analysts they wouldn't have marketing These were firms that were specifically, you know, outbound coal-calling type firms. So the training program was $200 a week.

You work under my license. You know, we would make phone calls as our senior broker. And at the end of the day, we would bring them on board for a small amount of money, maybe, you know, $10,000, $15,000. Excuse me. And once they were in for that amount, right, and they had paperwork out of the way, then they would go into the hands of the senior broker or the senior broker's partner

and then they would raise capital from the guy, trade the guy, and, you know, and develop the relationship. So we had to get 50 accounts before they even scheduled our test for our Series 7. And the plan was once we passed our test, then we'd get 20 accounts back so we would, you know, hit the ground running.

Right. But they never gave any back. Right. So how long did it take? for you to raise the 50 to get the 50 account. I did it in like, it was like less than a month. I spent, I'd say from 9 a.m. to 11, maybe midnight, Monday through Friday, Saturday I would go in the office and I would work from 10 to 4 or 5 Sundays you weren't supposed to make

calls, but, you know, we would tell them obviously that the scenario was that important that, you rather than being home with our wife and our newborn that we were here on the phone with them because the market still opens tomorrow morning. Was there a wife and a newborn? No. No. So yeah, we embellished. I mean, that's the way we were taught.

I mean, they, you know, it was nothing, there weren't any materialized to me. You don't have to tell me. I'm with you. Listen, when I started as a mortgage broker, I was there like 80 hours a week. I practically slept in the office. You could call there at 10 o'clock at night, I asked phone. Boom. Eagle lending.

Yeah, right. As a matter of fact, the boss, they would have meetings, and they would call the offices. And I would, they'd call like 20 of them, and I'd be the only one there, 1030 at night. Yeah, same one way, what's up? And I remember one time the guy, the owner of the company, goes, what are you doing there at 1030 at night on a Friday night? And I go, I'm working. Are you the only one there? Of course, I'm the only one here.

I said, do you know why I'm the only one here? I remember he goes, he goes, why? I go, because they're weak, bro. They're all weak. I was just so, I was so into it. Yeah, right? It's like you don't feel like you're working. Yeah. I used to tell my client, I take two six-month vacations a year because I love what I do.

But, yeah, I mean, you get it. It was just, it's like a rush. And when you start loving the craft, it just becomes easy. It doesn't become tiresome. You know, you just like the energy is just, it's just, it doesn't push. When you're the top guy, when you're the top one in the office and everybody's asking you questions, then it's, you thought I was working 60 hours. Now I'm bumping at the 80.

Yeah. Like now I may get a little caught in the back. I love it so much being here. Yeah. No, I mean, any relationship I've ever been in since that day has always been strained because, I mean, I wouldn't take vacations. I would hate going on vacation. I mean, I'd bring my laptop.

I'd bring my work with me. I'd be on the phone half the time. I mean, it was like an addiction. And, you know, I called it a healthy addiction. But, you know. So, so. So you got the accounts, you passed your, what was it, your series what? We had to take a Series 7 for stocks, bonds, options, and then Series 63, which was like Blue Sky,

so you could operate in every state. Okay. And how long did you, what happened at that firm? Did you stay at that firm? I stayed, that firm was Emmett A. Larkin, and this was, I believe, in June of, I think, 05 and then I stayed at Emmett Lark in for probably maybe six, seven, eight months, max. And then I left. I left that firm.

I went to intercapital wealth management. With Grossman? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you went with Grossman. Did you guys team up and go there or what? Yeah.

He, uh, Erica, right? Erica, his, uh, his mistress. Right. She blew up his marriage. So the girlfriend that you met that you guys had lunch, had lunch with was actually Grossman's girlfriend on the side, his mistress and his whole, his whole white, she melted down the entire relationship with the. Yeah, it's like all the partners of the firm, they lived right next door to each other, built houses next to each other, they were super close. And when that happened, you know, the wives were, you know, they were getting in the ears of all the other partners and they were, it was just stupid. And then they fought and, you know, they're just big egos.

So he ends up blowing up one day in the office walking out. He says, you know, Vitali, come with me. So I walk with him. And then he basically made me a proposal. And he said, I'm going somewhere and I'm going to do something big. And you're the best account opener I've ever seen. You know, because by that point, the brokers, they never taught me how to raise capital in a big way or trade. stocks or I didn't even know how to write a ticket. I was just literally a trainee that got licensed

and then was just a prolific account opener. So I, you know, I had the ability to make call calls and, you know, lure in new investors with relatively small dollar figures, you know, with the promise that, you know, obviously judging me on a small dollar figure, you know, let that dictate the kind of performance, you know, in the kind of account that we develop or whatever. And then they would take over so so they kind of kept you there like why why why let you right why move you up this guy's fucking bring in it yeah they hold you they hold you down right with a promise that correct if you keep doing well we're gonna right exactly it's all bullshit yeah yeah so they hold you down there and then uh when isaac walked out and he pulled me with him

he said listen there's two parts of the business obviously you have the bloodline of that business bringing in new relationships, and then, you know, the second part, which is developing those relationships. So, you know, you always kind of need a team in some sense. And him and I made a great team. So he said, come with me. We'll be 50, 50 on everything. I'll bring my existing book of clients. We'll go over. We'll get a fat sign on bonus somewhere. And then, you know, and the rest is history. I'll teach you how to trade, how to raise. I'll teach you how to, you know, utilize analysts, the right analysts going forward. And so we went to. We went to. to several different interviews. We ended up at a company called Intercap Wealth Management,

which was in the same city, you know, just made three, four miles from, you know, that first office. And this is Palm Beach or? No, Broward County. Broward County. Yeah. Okay. And, and there was, there was, there was like theatrical, the whole thing that went down, uh, of onboarding us because Isaac was just, uh, he was one of the most colorful people I haven't met my life. And, uh, you know, he was magnetic. And a lot of people like being around. him but uh he was like he was kind of like pit bull too because he would be your best friend and then out of nowhere he would just snap at you and uh and he did this several times in negotiation with with intercap so they went back and forth and then finally we came to an agreement

we started working at intercap and uh you know we did pretty well pretty quickly and uh and you know what happened after that yeah that well eventually he he walks again right yeah he gets to do it he's basically he's he's hard to get along with like he's very volatile but i mean lots of guys are like that like well i think the problem is is what you know i mean what i notice is that you you don't really succeed without having some kind of personality defect you know what i'm saying like most most CEOs are narcissists you know they so it's like the same thing that makes them a horrible a horrible individual to be in a relationship with makes them a dynamic leader in an industry you know what I'm saying so it's like you it's such a hard balance you know you look at

Trump like you know he's you know he's a narcissist you know what I'm saying he's so I'm sure he's a nightmare to have a relationship with but let's face it he's also winning and winning and you know you'm saying so it's like it's a balancing act it's it's uh and same thing with a lot of guys a lot of sales people I notice like like they'll go up and talk to anybody yeah and he would dominate he would dominate conversations right right right conversations and next you know you're giving them money you're signing over stuff you're like I love this guy he's yeah you would feel stupid not right but then again if things don't go his way he could snap on you like that yeah yeah and stab you in the back and sabotage you right you know very uh he was he had psychological issues

uh but you know but and then also there's a lot of drugs you know yeah a lot of drugs in the industry in general i mean yeah yeah at that time there wasn't much of that going around at that time okay but then uh after that you know when his marriage deteriorated then he became pretty pretty heavy in that stuff so So what happened? You eventually start your own company or you went, yeah, I know you went somewhere else. I know you went to New York for a while, right? Didn't you go back to New York?

Yeah. That was when our first month at Intercap, he negotiated like a $200,000 sign-on bonus, I believe it was. And then that was really the first money I made in stocks, believe it or not, sign-on bonus. because those seven or eight months at Emmett Larkin were not profitable at all. I was opening accounts for people, building books of business. I'd walk into the office and, you know, my senior broker at that time, whoever adopted me because I had no money, so they had to provide leads to me. And then I had to partner up with someone that knew how to actually develop, you know,

investors and relationship. So I'd walk in the office and, you know, one day I remember my senior broker, his door was shut all day. And, you know, he never came out to give me leads. and I'm sitting in a boardroom. I'm 19 years old, 20 years old. And, you know, I'm sitting there waiting all day, knocking on his door. You know, Don, are you going to come out here? I need some leads.

And they just sat in it all day. Never came out. So then I went home that day. Like, you know, what the hell was that? The next day I go back into the office, and it was the same thing. So he was in there just working. You know, his secretary was coming in and has his office. Joe, he's busy.

So I start realizing, like, this guy's screwing me over. right so i come to find out that i opened an account with some really big guy he was some board member of some publicly traded company he sent a bunch of money and you know the guy didn't want to share in the commissions so that happened three four times in the course of the first seven eight months in the industry and then when isaac had bolted i went with him and uh i hadn't made any money to that point and you know i was struggling i was i mean literally got evicted from my apartment within that time uh had too much pride to go back to my family and I told Colby you said you were like you were like actually living in your car

sleeping at the fucking gym the whole thing yeah that 200 a week paid for my dry cleaning it put gas in the car and and basically peanut butter and jelly so I was willing you know I made those sacrifices yeah I was actually I was actually going through the motions and succeeding in doing what it took to make money but these other senior brokers just weren't sharing it with me yeah when i started working at this place eagle lending i was two car payments behind i used to park my car down i used to park it like like a couple of buildings away from where my apartment was because i thought they're coming to get it at some point ford's going to want their truck back did they get it did you know they didn't because i

ended up closing a loan but i mean the pressure to close that loan you know i closed a loan i got the money i caught it up i you know and it was but there were there were months yeah it was you a month and the your my mortgage payment listen by the time i got to a position where i was making some money i couldn't do anything with it nobody would lend me any money i've been late on my mortgage payment laid on my car payment my credit cards are behind you know so i mean i know i didn't stay in my car but i'm damn sure wasn't far from it yeah no they uh a lot of the senior brokers in that industry what i notice is they try to force younger guys into debt right because you know it puts pressure on you to show up you know those extra hours or on that saturday and you know they did

that and you know I followed suit and I got into debt I got the nice car and you know the nice apartment at that time and I was you know 21 years old with like 10 grand a month in debt quickly so there was it was a lot of pressure to perform and it was hard to do that with Isaac right but but we did eventually you know we got it together for about a year um sorry making some money yeah we uh you know we he had he heard his back at I believe his daughter's soccer game he was coaching the team i think she was like i don't know like six seven years old and uh he got hooked on my pain pills and he just totally stopped coming into work and that's what actually forced me to learn how to raise capital

how to actually have conversations with these investors you know not just uh plow through them and and uh you know and and beat him up for a check so uh you know i had heard him enough times to start to do it on my own and it was odd because he was a little bitter about it but I mean that was literally making us money and he was just sitting home and you know he got

a little burnt out on that whole thing and then eventually the firm the management came to us and they had issues with him not showing up and you know it was really on the 24

the principal of the firm him and I had a good relationship and he's like he kept coming to me like, you know, why are you doing this? Like, you know, half these tickets are, they're, they're his name on it. Right. Like his rep number. And I said, you know, he's working from home.

And, you know, and he knew that wasn't the case. So it became an issue. And, and then again, they wanted to let us go because, you know, he just, he wasn't showing up and living up to his, you know, what they call fiduciary responsibility. Right. And I was running everything. I was recruiting brokers. I was training them.

I was opening accounts. I'd run back into the private office and, you know, I'd call the investors. You know, I'd trade. I'd try to put strategies together for them. It just was like an 18-hour-a-day job. So, yeah, he did it again. All right. So at some point you go to New York and...

Yeah, so they fire both of us and, you know, I had enough of Isaac. I told him, I said, listen, this is the third place. that we're at and you just seem to piss everybody off it's impossible to work with you so i went back to the owner of that firm who uh i called him up one day he was in brooklyn in new york they had a branch up there and i negotiated my job back uh with the uh with the idea that i would be under his supervision because when when you work at any brokerage firm typically the investors or the clientele they're the property of the firm and they didn't even wouldn't want to let one guy go and then have one guy here in fear of me just kind of funneling

out property of the firm yeah he goes and starts his own place right he starts sending up people until eventually you've got a big a large enough pick of business to leave yourself exactly so so i went up to new york uh on probation he said uh just come up here stay up here for you know 30 60 90 days whatever we'll see how it goes and you know you can learn a few things uh it'll be good for you and uh you know you'll be uh you know one of the guys up here so So I go up there and he's like, he told me that I could stay with his cousin, this guy, Dmitri. And I remember, I get out, so I bring one of my co-cullers with me, okay, this guy met. And we walk out from the airport and we're getting picked up by James' cousin Dmitri.

And we get into the car and he had like one of the supercharged X-5s. And if you've ever been on the BQE, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, it's super tight. like the lanes are like probably like I mean it's like the like the width of this right everything like you're almost like side swiping cars when you're driving so he drove us to his uh he had like a brownstone in bayridge brooklyn he drives us there at probably like 150 miles an hour this guy and he doesn't say one word in the car and then this is the guy that we're staying with for you know one two or three months right so you know we got in we got settled in and uh and you know that was my home for about probably the whole 90 days

I stayed up there on probation how did you do there I did well that was when the whole financial crisis was settling in so surprisingly I did I did those were my best months

2008 I think it was November okay so you were there for what happened why so you come back to come back to Florida yeah start your own place start another place or go to work

someplace else or do you just stay at the same place. No, no, I, uh, so I had maybe about a six-month stretch or a seven-month stretch working without Isaac. And I mean, I had some of my best months. So just that now you're now you're on your feet. Right. Yeah, we were hitting like, you know, more than six figures a month every month. Uh, I think we hit like a half one month. And then, uh, you know, it was, it was interesting because I met a group of guys that they were involved in, in startup companies. And, you know, a friend of mine introduced me to a group.

And as well as I was doing when I met these guys, they were doing one, two, three million dollars a month. Right. Right. So just for context, like after 2008, like the financial crisis, right, like the stock market, like everything, a lot of stuff's going to shit. Yeah. But one of the big things, so one of the things was that a lot of companies were going under, but a lot of companies are starting. And somebody has to get that money. So somebody has to come up with the money. If I got a startup and I need $5 million, who do I go to to get that money?

Where do I raise that money? And that's what these guys were doing. Right. Yeah. And liquidity, I mean, it wasn't there. It was, I mean, extremely difficult for a company to get money. And the banks, obviously, you know, the banks, they were almost like non-existent. Yeah, they were going under left and right.

They're being bought up. Exactly. So, you know, there was an opportunity there. And I saw that opportunity. And I went for it. And luckily enough, in I think it was November. of 08, like I said, I had taken all my client's assets and started, I started playing the ultra shorts like EEV against the emerging markets and FXP, I believe it was against the

financials and, you know, it was like three times inverse. And when they would go down, these things were fly. And I was buying it like 90, selling it at like 180 at the end of the day and then doing it again and again and again. So I built up a lot of, you know, trust in those months and then I figured it was a good time for me to kind of segue into something that could potentially perform because nobody I mean people were just really holding what they had there was no new money going on the market so I had access to to capital at that point and then when I moved into the private space I mean I enjoyed it it was it was kind of difficult for me because it was hard for me to generate urgency because there's nothing opening or closing or

or trading or moving. So, you know, it was a whole other animal for me. But I figured out how to make it work. Yeah. So now you have to come up with the proposals, the pitch. You have to get them to give you money. And then they have to wait. You have to wait.

The companies, they're doing this. They're doing this. They're releasing a place. They're doing this. Now it's a long-term strategy that you may not be getting money back for years. Like SpaceX. Right. They were founded in 2002.

Yeah. It's just more and more money getting dumped in, dumped in, dumped in, but if it does it, yeah, yeah, then the windfall is massive. yeah um so did you start so you started your own company at that point yeah okay and you're you get a group of guys where did you start it uh right in fort water uh we had a couple of different locations because i mean a lot of brokers were i mean they left the industry you know just like i did they were looking for other opportunity that was when like the whole precious metal thing kind of emerged because you know gold was uh you know preservation of capital so to say or a hedge

against inflation yeah uh everybody's buying playing precious metals right um so all right so you move in there you hire a bunch guys what happened is this where michelle is this michelle brawn or or is that a little later she came probably six seven eight months into that whole private world are you still you're still driving the Volkswagen no definitely what are you driving now i mean i had a couple nice cars what kind of cars i was a little over the top what did you have i mean yeah i mean i mean i've got the picture i got pictures on the on the website

like i've seen the cars would you have a Lamborghini a Ferrari it's weird because those those kinds of things they they kind of in they don't like like now now now they're embarrassed you now but it was but at 20 at 19 years old it impressed you enough yeah that that you dropped everything, moved into your car and hung out for four months to make that happen. But now you look back.

But I think it's like, and I get into this all the time. I don't know, I'm sure you never watch any of myself, but I get in this all the time. But like, you know, it's what was so important, you know, in my 20s and 30s. And then, you know, then I just, I do equate it to go into prison. Then I go to prison and you're living on nothing

for years and you're okay you know even there's it sucks for the first three months it's like you're trying i'm just trying to think about how to kill myself but you know like how can i do it so when does the guard come what will i use you know but three four months then you start you know your expectations of life hit rock bottom yep and then you start enjoying just little things adapt and then you also enjoy not having the stresses right so now looking back seeing how i behave 50 grand a month in bills are some stupid thing like looking back 20 years 20 years ago and seeing how I behaved I'm like it is it's embarrassing I'm like fuck right what are you thinking like the things you were doing the risk you were taking to live or or give off a certain

appearance right like optics were everything at that point it's it's crazy but the people that watch this want to know so you're driving a Lamborghini you're driving a Ferrari you're dating I had like a lot. I mean, a lot of cars. I was a car guy. I got pictures. I got pictures on the internet. Pitchers of the house.

I got pictures. I got a picture of him. Colby. I got a picture of him in front of, I want to say it's either one lane, a Lamborghini or is it two Ferraris or something like that or and you're like, you're in front of your house and you're like this. You're like, and they're both behind him with like the four car garage or something. It's like a Mediterranean, two story, huge Mediterranean.

He picked up on the cheap. He's like. like oh i got that cheap for like two and a half million like cheap for two and a yeah yeah the guy was going under and i swooped in and i was like and he's sitting there like yeah like this was a couple of Lamborghini's behind him but now he's like it was it was doing okay i was so i was doing all right i was getting by so you open the place to michel broad is there something it's nothing about it's basically moves in i mean i know you had like a year or a few years before michel brawn came in yeah yeah and that whole thing so what happened with that

so who who is michel brown oh you can google her matter of fact she had a tattoo on her ass it said google me bitch no it didn't yeah and it's probably still there today unless she got it removed so hi Heidi flies just for anybody who's watching there was a chick because colby didn't know yeah and people to watch this aren't old like me um well they are some of them getting old but so there was a chick named Heidi flies yeah she was like a lemonade stand compared to michel Yeah. So Heidi Fleiss was like the madam to the stars in Hollywood. And when she went under, that was just as the internet was kind of like taking root, right? Like people started using the internet. And so Michelle Braun came in as Heidi Fleiss went to prison. Michelle Braun came in and started all these websites and took over the clientele and then some of Heidi Fleiss's, you know, the, the vacuum that Heidi Fleiss left. And so Michelle Braun was,

was huge. She took it to the next level. Yeah, she definitely. She had like, Saudi princes and, uh, Russian oligarchs and,

uh, you know, and she would cater to like their, their fantasies, the Hollywood crushes and all that stuff. Yeah, I got up and I got all these, I got pictures of her on the site with,

she's with, uh, is it Charlie Sheen? She's with, I have her with, um, is it Nicholas Cage? Like,

she's got all his photos with like all kinds of people. Like, Rourke when he was, you know, when he had a career, you know, I'm sure he's a nice guy. So anyway, so what happened? So anyway. So, I mean, life was like charmed. I mean, life was, I was living a good life. Right.

I was 23, maybe turning 24. Yeah, I was 23 turning 24 because the address to that, that ridiculously big house that I bought was 23, 24. Okay. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. So I was, 23 years old, turning 24. And I would frequent the gentleman club down the block from my office. And, you know, I'd create different quotas for guys because apparently, you know,

these strip clubs are pretty motivating, you know, for stockbrokers, right? Right. So we were at, they had, what was it called? Solid Gold. and they had a grill in their restaurant called the palms the palms grill was a place we'd go eat at a lot you know they had great food there and uh we'd be at the they had like a long dinner table that seated maybe i don't know like 15 people right so you know i'd take all the guys there that that did well for the day and we just get some food or whatever and then i either you know

i'd either go home or whatever sometimes you know we get a little wild and hang out so we're eating one night and this woman walks up to me with long blonde hair, you know, big fake boobs and, you know, like over-injected lips, no offense. But she walks up to me and she says, are you Joe Vitale? And, you know, I look at her like, yeah, honestly, I thought she was a stripper. Right. And she was trying to like give me a lap dance or something.

So I tell yes and she says, I'm Michelle Braun. I'm John Boyle's girlfriend. and I say okay nice to meet you and then she tries like pitching me some deal John Boyles was he was like a well-known guy he was he was the son of I believe Jack Boyle I never met his father but I guess they opened up

but built the restaurant J.Bs on the ocean over there so it's kind of like a family name in the area yeah yeah they were like I guess they had a big development company but the guy was always around town driving his phantom you know party and hanging out and stuff And so she tries to pitch me this deal in the middle of, you know, this club, restaurant, or whatever. And, you know, right away, I was like, listen, you know, just, yeah, come to the office tomorrow or whatever. And, you know, if you want some food or some drinks, you know, just hang out with us.

So she did that. She spent, you know, a couple of hours just bullshit. And she told me a little bit about herself. She never mentioned anything about, you know, like the whole madam stuff. Right. But she was well spoken. and, you know, real respectful. So when she left, I walked her outside to a car, you know,

just to make sure she got out all right. And she was driving John Boyle's Phantom at that time. So, you know, I knew the connection was obviously real. And that was that. I gave her my card. She ended up calling me, I think, the next day or the day after that. And she comes by my office and she pitches me. What was the pitch?

It was about a company called Agro Energy, and it was an alternative energy company, but they turned algae into biodiesel fuel. And it was led by a guy named Dr. Jacob Gitman, and he was some scientist out of Russia. And the scientist had been working into this operation over here and trying to get it out there for like the last two, three years. And what he was looking for was $5 million to build a facility in homestead. And in this facility, I guess they would grow the algae, and then they'd have the process and the technology to convert that algae into biodiesel fuel. So, I mean, that was pretty much the whole pitch. And she, you know, she was, I mean, she went all out on courting me and trying to get me

involved in that. So, you know, she believed in it. Right. Her conviction led me to agree to go down to Miami and, you know, sit down through this presentation and meet, you know, the scientist. Meanwhile, I mean, at that time, honestly, I really didn't even take any more deal. I was doing several deals and, you know, we didn't have enough bandwidth. Right. So you go down there?

Yeah, so we go down there. And this is really messed up how this whole thing went down. It was slick. I mean, it was going to say it, it, so like from your perspective, I, I mean, like from your perspective, I get that you're, you know, that it's like this fucking, you know, but from looking at it from the outside, like it is slick. It is good. When you explained it to me, like I got like goosebumps. I was like, wow. Yeah, she out did you, Matt. Yeah, that was. I was like, wow, like I didn't see that coming. I couldn't believe it, man. I was like, when I thought back on everything, I wasn't even, I mean, I wasn't even ashamed to myself for like being ignorant. Oh yeah. Anybody would have fallen for it. Yeah, like I went through all the right protocols, I mean, to make sure that everything was okay. I mean, the problem is she was in the machine, in the machinery, you know what I'm saying? Like the ghost and the, you know, she's in the machinery debunking everything that you should, you know.

My life changed after that. Like my entire life, it took a different direction after meeting that woman. And it's funny because right now she opened up that, that, that. that reseller of Hermes Birkin bags in Miami. Did you read about what happened? Yeah, yeah. It was all like Chinese fakes or shit, right? Like crazy.

Counterfeits. Yeah, she was selling bags to like Chris Jenner. Listen, based on her history, you should just know. I know anything she's involved in is going to be. I know it the whole time. I mean, when I was, somebody told me they said they don't even have availability like that. Like they don't produce them in abundance like that, like how she was selling them. So you go to Miami to meet with the doctor.

So I go to Miami. I walk into this guy's office. Now, he's sitting at the end of a conference table next to this gentleman, Mark, Yagala, who's his name? So Michelle and I walk in, we walk over to them and, you know, I extend my hand. I introduce myself, and he's like, hi, I'm Dr. Jacob Gittman. I shake the other guy's hand, Mark Yagala. and then we sit down and Dr. Gitman, you know, he has this whole presentation.

He, I mean, he gave him a really, really good presentation. Just everything was so detailed and articulate and I was impressed. So Mark the guy next to him, I mean, he said very little. But when we had left that day, Michelle and I went back to my office and we talked about it. And I said, you know, it's pretty cool. so she said I mean they need five million what do you what would you do it for so her and I spoke about that right we went back and forth and you know decided on a figure that we felt you know could be pushed through right right she goes back she allegedly negotiated everything right

and then she comes back to my office the next day and she has things notarized signed and all that with between her and him right and then she says just just add your signature wrong with me whatever we'll open up a separate company we'll raise the money for them and we'll we'll open up somewhat of a fund right and then we'll send it to them in tranches and half million dollar tranches in lieu of stock right right so now mind you I'm still I think at this point maybe I'm 24 so I agree and I sign and I go with there we always open up this business. It was called Sterling Capital Trust.

And the day we opened it, I, you know, I had a conversation with her on how things will be run. And, you know, we each had our roles because she wanted to be actively involved. And to take on that extra deal, I needed it. So she was going to handle some things on the admin end. And she did that. She did it well for the time, you know, that we did it together. all right um but i asked her could dr gipman come into the office and give that same presentation

to my guys and she said yeah sure you know i'll call and you know we'll see if you can come in so he was supposed to show up to the office i think two days after that um he didn't come though the the gentleman that was sitting next to him mark right his cfo uh would come and mark came he gave a decent presentation right but it wasn't the same and uh You know, I went with it and, you know, my brokers were somewhat excited. It was another deal, right? Something else to bring to their clients. And, you know, we negotiated a nice equity stake in the company.

And when he left, I was convinced that he was, you know, who he said he was. Yeah, yeah. This is a real deal. This is the CFO showed up. He pitched. I brought everything to my attorney on Dr. Gittman. He was a real scientist. I mean, he had some, you know, accolades or whatever, and he had never been, you know, he didn't have a check or pass or anything.

So I started raising capital, you know, we're putting some of our guys into the deal. And when we hit just over 400,000, and this isn't a matter of like, I don't even know, like two weeks, you know, we were slowly piecing into it. At that point, Michelle's role was to make sure that the capital. right got transferred over to agro energy in the low of the stock certs right and she had to make sure that the investors received their stock search right so so the process is your guys your your guys are calling investors saying hey we got a new company here's what we need put in 100,000 200,000 so guys are given 20,000 50,000 5,000 100,000 you guys you and then they're going to get stock in the company in exchange for that right of course hopefully this the company and

up becoming huge and your stock becomes worth it way more than what you invested right right and we didn't want any one guy to have any too large of the position because you know it's an early stage venture and obviously you know there's a lot of risk associated with it so you know we were kind of just building like little portfolios in these startups so two weeks later you got about 400,000 and she the money goes into the bank account and she's supposed to send the money to him I changed the plan it was supposed to be every half a million right we sent over so I told her it was dragging out a little longer than expected so some of the guys that initially got in you know it was like like i said about two weeks in you know they were like you know where's my

stock shirt right so i told her listen every quarter million at this pace because i had so many other deals going on right every quarter million just you know exchange it and um so she was supposed to do that so some of my first guys in they kept that you know badgering me they're like listen, what's going on? Like, where, where's my stock? So I would go to Michelle and I pressure her to get it done. So one day I go into the office and Michelle doesn't show up. I call her, she doesn't answer. And I'm thinking maybe she's sick. Maybe she has something going on. So then this happened the second day. And then again, the third day, and by the third day, I'm like, there's something wrong here. So I drive to her house in Boca and she's not there. Right. And I'm trying

Look at the windows. I'm calling her. Her phone's off. And, you know, it was then I said to myself, something's definitely wrong. So I get in my car and I drive to the bank. And, you know, I was ignorant for not looking sooner, I think. But again, I mean, everyone had their role. And I was, I mean, just overwhelmed by the amount of, you know, work that I took on in the first place.

So I see the account. And she had spent. like I know 350 grand out of that 400,000 yeah yeah on like stupid shit like like at nightclubs you know at like uh sacks 5th Avenue um wasn't there one for like the dog doggy puppy palace yeah like it was just petty shit like I never honestly I never expected anyone to try to do something like that because I know it's possible I know how much you know Plus, you'd been to this guy's, his lab, you've met the doctor. Like, everything seems, everything's legit.

Yeah. Like, why was you doing? She's dating this successful guy in town. She's driving his car. You know, where she lives. Yeah, and she had a beautiful house of her own. I mean. Right.

She's clearly successful. Right. So I'm thinking, why would she, you know, why would she use this as a piggy bank? You never even crossed my mind until I saw that. And, I mean, she had like, she spent like 15 grand at, like, live nightclub. I mean, it was just ridiculous. stuff. So I pick up the phone. I call my point of contact in the company, which was Mark Aguala, right? The CFO. I say, Mark, Michelle, she spent the money. He's like, what do you

mean? I'm like, Michelle, she spent the money that we were raising for Agro Energy. And he said, she told me that you guys hadn't started to raise yet. So, I mean, I just turned white at this point I think I knew at that point I'm like this is all fucked up right you know this is I didn't know who was who at that point but I just wanted to fix it so I said mark listen to me I don't know what the situation is what who told who what but the fact is I have clients and I think there was like I don't know not that many of them but there was probably in that like 400 and change it was probably about 18 25 20 clients I don't know, like just five, 10 grand, whatever.

And I said, we have to have a solution for this because this is absolutely going to go criminal. Right. I mean, forget about regulatory. I mean, this is a criminal situation here. And our name's all over it. So we need to either get these guys stock or give their money back.

Right. And so I ask him, I mean, you have stock in the company? He said, yeah, yeah, I have shares. I have a position in the company. I said, okay, do you have $400,000? of stock he said yes i do and he said what do you want me to do give my stock to them i said well give it to them now and we'll figure this out later right i'll help you out with it whatever you know just let's just put this thing to bed so he so he agrees then he says uh she spent all the

money i said no there's like i don't i think there was 80 000 left actually so i said no there's there's 80 grand in the account that's it and we raised on like 400 and something so He said, if I'm giving $400 grand of stock, at least send me to $80,000. Right. So, yeah, so I agree. You know, and looking back, it's so stupid the way I was doing things.

I was doing things on the fly. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's just like thinking that people saw the world the way I saw it. And so I send him to $80,000. I pick up the phone to confirm you got it. And now Mark is ghost. Right?

He's gone. He won't answer the phone. So. Oh, my God. I remember the feeling still. It was like, I felt like I was in a prison cell right there, actually. So now I'm like, wow, I'm on my own with this shit. Right.

So then... Are you realizing he's a part of the whole thing now? Or you just... Yeah, and now I'm thinking the whole, all of them are bullshit. So now I call up... And when I spoke to Mark originally, what he had told me, he's like, no, no, don't say anything to Dr. Gitman. Right.

He's like, he'll probably contact you at the... He thought that you didn't start either, and he's going to freak out because you're going to give the company a bad name and get it wrapped up and all this BS. So I said, okay, if you can solve the issue, then it stays between us. I just want these guys to either have their money back or what they're paid for. So when he vanishes, now I have to call Gitman. Right. Right.

At that time, I didn't have 400,000 cash, right? I probably had like 200, I don't know, close to 300,000 cash, which I was always. was ready to pay to give to the investors right uh dr gitman answers the phone and i say hey dr gittman it's joe vitali how you doing he said jo who i said joe vitali and he said i'm okay uh what's this calling regards to i said our business that we have together right the raise that i was doing for you he said he said no one's raising money for my company i'm like doc do you remember me me he said not really uh and i said i'm the guy that walked in your office with that tall blonde woman right a couple of weeks ago he said oh yes yes yes so now i'm like thank god you know what

i mean thank god right we're getting this part so we got yeah this part at least this is legit he's a real doctor this is a real company okay at least that's a legit so far yep so so he says um so he says yeah i remember you i do i do i do right with the blonde woman you guys you guys came in yeah she's like so have you been i'm like uh not good so i raised 300 or 430 000 for your company that's gone so i tell him everything and he's like you got to be kidding me he's like he's like kid you have nothing to do with me he's like you're on your own right he's like i never signed anything i said i have your name notarized on a contract with Michelle Braun, the blonde woman.

And he said, I never saw her after that day. How the hell could I have it know what I was never in the same room with her? So then obviously instantly I realized. Right. So I said, I just sent money to your CFO. He said, I don't have a CFO. I said, wait, what? So he said that he doesn't have a CFO and he's right now currently the

president and an interim CEO and CFO, right? He's, you know, wearing many hats. So I said, I met your CFO in that meeting. He was sitting next to you when I walked in the room. You know what he tells me? He said, he was with you. He just got to the meeting early and sat next to me, kid. So when he walked in, he's sitting at the table. Right. Is that like? So I realized I was on my own with it So I go back home And I think I had like a couple of shots of a blue

And then I sat there and I was like I gotta give the money back, right? Yeah So I started going one by one And I'm writing checks to these guys And I went through And I think I paid like 220 grand back And I had some more money

And then I was just like Just getting liquid on different things that I had out there to cover the whole nut, right? And I did and I had it. I had the amount, right? So when I hit like just under a quarter million and the whole payback process, I realized I didn't have every investor because I was like I paid everyone back and it's only like it was like 220 grand. Right. So I'm like, holy shit. The process that we had was so faulted because Michelle Braun, she would get the.

get the data on the investor, some of which were new that we, you know, freshly onboarded and the lead would get shredded so, you know, there would never be a dupe file or somebody calling internally an existing client. And so she would do that

and then she would put them, she would obviously have that all that info in her computer. But she don't have. Right. She was gone with her laptop and that's what she worked. off of which is another lesson i learned that you know people can never work on their own computers or devices when they come to the old so now you know it's it's uh it's like a uh i mean i'll never break

that rule like i will always you have to work on the company devices so so she uh she had the last like two hundred and ten thousand dollars of clients in her computer that i i didn't even know i went By the time I went to the bank, they had subpoenaed, they had gotten wind or whatever. They shut the account down because complaints started coming in. And it was just a mess. I couldn't, I started calling or leaving a voicemail. I'm not trying to trap you here. I'm going to pay back the investors.

I need your laptop. Give me your laptop. I'll take care of it. Your name's all over this. You should be concerned. And I never got a call back. so that was that I went to my attorney

and I told him what happened and he said to me I got the worst legal advice ever he said to me you don't want to go to the authorities because if you do then you're likely to incriminate yourself he said how do they know

that you weren't in on it or that you weren't there at Live Nightclub or there at Puppy Palace and I'm like I definitely wasn't there at Planned Parenthood. It was a charge from Planned Parenthood. one of the girls

um oh my god so well which was horrible uh because literally if you had gone into the the feds or even the state you could have gone in and they would have done like a pre-trial intervention where they would have said look you just make it good right and we won't charge you like that happened i could have gotten the data from them and paid it right yeah like anybody that shows up or just look anybody that you know they yeah of course

they have the subpoenaed from the records they would have subpoenaed exactly the um the bank Where did these wires come from? Let's track them back. Let's get these people paid. But it didn't work out. Instead, your lawyer, listen, the amount of, the amount of bad information and advice that lawyers give is ridiculous. You know why he gave that to me? Because he gave me a price.

If it does go criminal. No, right away, I didn't pay my 50 grand just to talk to the guy. He was a pretty high profile guy around town. Everybody said great things about him. So I give him like $50,000. And he said that was going to be. yet and then maybe like another 20 or something if we ended up going to trial right eventually but he kept doing continuance after because eventually that you know they came for me so I sat

there like a duck following his orders they come for me and you know the U.S. Marshal they they whatever forget that whole thing the point is I took his advice and you know the whole process of continuances and continuance after continuance, it put the guy in a position, the attorney, in a position to say, you know, we need more money. So I'm like, you know, you told me $50,000. Right. And then maybe another $20,000 if we went to trial.

So throughout that course, they're like getting $50,000, $50,000, $50,000, all the way through these continuances. I'm like, you're not even doing anything. You're finding, you know, you're finding like a piece of paper. Right. So every time he'd look at me and say, let me ask you a question. he said, what's your freedom worth, Joe? Dick!

So I'm like, I just got scammed. Yeah, you're scamming. Yeah. So, I don't know. Yeah, I paid $75,000 for an attorney to plead me guilty. To take a plea. Yeah, that's what they do. No, I mean, we need them, and there's some good ones.

And Frank Meester is an amazing attorney. He is. That's my guy. So you end up getting charged. with running a boy for conspiracy to run a boiler room yeah yeah and but you pay you pay the money back yeah so half of it was already like paid back obviously so so we i got charged with the same thing that michelle brown got charged with i fucking amazing amazing so we had to pay like 110 000 the balance right because that's all they got affidavits for because the rest were paid um so the

$110,000 each up front to stay out of jail. Right. And then they give me a year of house arrest with five years probation. So here's the part, and I remember we were right in the store, I remember saying this to you, is that here's the part that kills me. She only got 400 and some odd thousand. If she had just issued the fake certificates, if she'd issued fake certificates, she could have got half,

Two million? Five million? Yeah, I never would have known. Right. If the investors had gotten these fake certificates, they would have kept, he would have kept raising money. She would have kept issuing the,

um, the certificates till she got the five million. And then she could have disappeared with the five million. And then, of course, he would have figured out one day, somebody would have wanted to go buy the company or go take a tour or talk to the doctor or something. At some point,

it would have, all falling apart but she could have got five million instead she you know like an idiot just immediately just started like woohoo and started running running around puppy palace and buying you know collars for her dog or whatever like just ridiculous so yeah so so you were on probation yeah i did uh i did the one year home confinement just miserable and then uh five years four years four years probation and yeah what did the one guy get

what was the one guy that actually went to jail oh my god man so that was so sad that was like a really sad moment because you know he was like he was basically a partner like he was he was working his way into a partnership

with me and you know it was a great guy and he for some weird reason right because you know we had to turn ourselves in right and then bond out and um and you know I had a private attorney right defending me he had a public defender and uh he took an open plea with the judge and for that for what Michelle did right and they gave him 15 years in prison for that and he didn't do a goddamn thing right he's just he's just one of the guys raising the money

Right. But think about it. All this happening is, I work for somebody, I cold call, I raise money, and they come in, they say, hey, they give a presentation, hey, there's this agro, you know, agro, what was it called? Agro energy. Here's what we do. Blah, blah, blah.

They give them some glossy brochures. They show them a website. They say, we're raising money. Here's how much you get. He's like, okay, okay. Just like any other company that came in, a light company, a doorbell company, a, you company that makes risk watches whatever they're raising money for they come in they give a pitch they go oh okay they start making cold calls they raise the money and then a few weeks later he finds out he's being

indicted like like what do you mean there's an arrest war what do what did i do gets a doesn't have the money to get a private attorney gets a public defender public defender says he's saying i didn't do anything wrong all i did was what i was told to do with i they came in it's just like anything i didn't do I didn't know that these people were spending the money. And the public defender says, well, you can go in front of the judge and do what's called an open plea. But you're at the mercy of the judge. You can explain to the judge what happened. I didn't know anything.

I didn't do anything. Here's what happened. And the judge may take pity on you. Instead, they give him 15 years. Yeah. I heard he fell to his knees. And he was just. He went in front of the judge and said, Your Honor, this is what happened.

He explains, I worked for this company. They came in. We do cold calls. We raise money. I didn't know it was a scam. Judge gave him 15 years. And everybody else got... Probation.

House arrest and probation. Because they... Because they had private attorneys that made a made... Or even if they had a public defender, they took a plea bargain. They admitted guilt and took probation or admitted guilt and paid a fund. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

So everybody else had private attorneys. But they made their agreement up front. He felt like... Yeah. I can explain this I can explain this to the judge he'll understand he didn't

he can't really claim ignorance in anything any any sort of criminal activity they don't want to hear it no you can't say I didn't know right ignorance is no excuse for the law I think that's the term

and yeah 15 years I mean you know here's I still speak to him he's out now oh yeah he didn't do 15 years right he got it no no no he did I think seven seven years

something like that seven years yeah well listen i'd be bitter i'd be a bitter bitter pissed off person like that would that would that would that would ruin my good nature oh man because i have a good nature i'm a nice person i feel you know i'm a pretty pretty happy go lucky guy i'm not better at all but i'm also very guilty yeah you did it like if i had gone to if i went to prison because that i wasn't guilty I come out burn that place down oh man I'd be pissed oh I'd be well I can't imagine that like seven years or something you didn't do really didn't really didn't have any part in you know I interviewed a guy the other day did 16 years for a rape and a murder at 16 years old didn't do it and wow got released 16 years later what he did

16 years and then after 16 years how they figure it out what like an old No, the what is it? The Innocence Project came in and found out, retested the DNA and found out who the DNA went to was a 29-year-old guy. And since when this guy was in prison for the rape and murder, he didn't commit. The guy that did commit it killed a school teacher. Cops totally frightened him. Why did they put him in prison? At that time, they didn't have the technology?

They had DNA, but they didn't have the codis, the database where you could test it. So they tested it against him. they knew it wasn't his DNA, they said, oh, she's promiscuous. It's some other high school student. Well, then 15 years later, he gets the Innocence Project to test it again against it, to put it into CODIS. Let's see if we can find the guy, the real guy. They find the real guy.

They release him. He gets out. He sues. Yeah, but they didn't make a case to say, oh, that was just the guy that was with him before him. No, no, because they had pinpointed an actual student. They had said, oh, it's this student. Keep mind, he had a public defender who did nothing, who's basically, like, like, oh, take a plea, take a plea.

Like, he did nothing to do than trial. I mean, it's just complete. And the cops, listen, it's, you got to watch the video. You'd have to watch the whole interview. It's, it's fucking horrific. But still, same thing. It's like, what's going on? Like, it's horrible.

The more of these I do, like, I'm actually a big proponent of, of law and order. Like, I'm, I'm, like, I don't have a problem. Right. You need it. Right. So, you know, I'm not like a, I don't have a bad taste of my mouth from the police. is how how the authorities or investigators or whatever you want to call it right i feel like their performance is somewhat competitive in a way i mean maybe i'm wrong but i feel like it's just another

notch in their belt right it's about getting a it's about indictments yeah it's about let's get the indictment let's get the arrest let's be rewarded on accuracy right but they're not really concerned about justice and that's what i'm as i do more and more of these i'm like are you serious Like you hear that you hear it and you're like that's like there's no way the cops didn't know and sometimes the cops are even just completely faking the information like like like they're they're creating information they're lying they're blatantly lying I mean I feel like this they're fearful of wasting the government's resources that's like the greatest fear if they conduct an 18-month investigation to come up at the end they're like on these guys I didn't do anything and if a 16-year-old kid has to get a life sentence well then that's fine I need the promotion he has to do life that's problem like that's literally that was like how they were That was like, almost like Rossini, right? Yeah, well, yeah, but at least Rossini was doing anything, doing something. He was actually, Rucini was actually making methamphetamine. Like, he was actually a drug dealer.

At least you were, you were in the, you were in the position to be, to be framed. Right. But this is just a high school kid who happens to live a mile away from where they found the body. Oh, that was this guy? That was the scenario? Yeah. Yeah, and he, and he was a student. They were also, he was a, he was a student at school.

They were in some of the same classes. Somebody brought up... A 16-year-old. Somebody brought up his name. He went in for an interview. They said, hey, let's do a polygraph. He does the polygraph. They tell him he failed.

They questioned him for seven hours straight. Tell him these the cops are going to hurt you. I'm trying to help you. Just go ahead. Tell him a story. Just admit that what you did this and I can get you. You won't be arrested. I got to get you out of here.

You just got to tell him something. So he says, okay, okay, I did it. I did it. And he's crying. You see the stuff where they wear you down and they keep you in the room for like a day. seven hours you're 16 years old two days and you get so tired you just want to like oh you can have a nice warm bed buddy don't worry here's a pillow you know we'll give you a bed just admit it they're so tired you see these things that they're like all right fine i did it let me go sleep well and he's 16 years old you're 16 years old you've never had a grown adult especially a police officer yell at you pound the death get in your face threaten you they're scared him he's terrified and he eventually just says okay okay i did it can i go home now you're under arrest but anyway so so eventually well i have a question about yes yeah sorry sorry oh no well that that's not the scam

well i know how how did they target you how do they know like what michel brawn yeah just she just needed a stock broker she needed somebody raised in capital at that time there was like only a few guys in town that were uh at the time there was only a few guys in town that were uh at the time there was only a few guys in town that were, I guess, successful at, like, raising money for, you know, to say the $5 to $10 million range startup companies, there was really only just a few of us that were kind of out there about it and doing it in that way. John Boyle, you know, he knew me and he just, he dropped my name and told her, you know, where my office was and where, you know, where my crew hangs out and everything. And then, uh, and then social.

she pulled up on me you know but uh i definitely wasn't quiet i mean it's pretty loud around town so yeah it's a good question i figured i shouldn't yeah but i already but i already knew that because i knew that because you had told me before so yeah um okay so what's up with the what that happened with the bouncy house you know the bouncy house you know i seen that did i send you you the video there's a video you probably thought i was making that up for a second no no i was trying no i was trying to pinpoint the actual like the date memorial day yeah and and i remember when i read the story i was like i wonder if there's a video and there is there's a video of the bousy house the whole thing do i remember correctly there was five with six kids in it there was a bunch

of kids someone broke an arm yeah they fell out and yeah tornado picked up a bouncy house at the beach right he's still on probation by the way so he still i'm sorry this is when yeah you were at the beach you were at the beach and on probation not interested in raising money behind me i'm like i'm never messing with any i don't ever want to touch o pm right i don't go near you know i'm like uh i don't go near stocks i don't want to enjoy my life right you know and go work at walmart or something yeah yeah and you're you're you're at the beach yeah one day yeah i'm there with uh with my girlfriend and We're hanging out on the sand, relaxing. It was Memorial Day, and she has a son.

He was, I don't know, three years old. And they had a bunch of these bouncy houses on the beach from Memorial Day, whatever. The city, you know, provided them. And I see something coming in from the ocean. Like, it was like a cloud, and it looked like it was falling into the ocean, right? So I'm like, well, look at that over there. And it was a tornado.

So a tornado comes onto land, and it swoops. up one of the bouncy houses with kids in it. It takes it like 90 feet in the air. Are you watching it right now? No. We should play it, bro. Like it's like they show like the people are screaming. Like there's a bouncy house. It picks throws it over there. Doesn't it throw it over like the street or something? Yeah, it landed I think in the road or something like that. And her son was just in that fancy house. So anyway, the so that happens. So now, I was like, I don't want to go in the water. So then I put my shoes on and I'm like, let's just go to the restaurant, you know,

get something to eat. I want to get the hell away from that ocean. It's like popping out white squalls and shit. So we do that. We leave in the beach and we start walking up A1A. And when we get to a restaurant, I think it was Cafe Del Mar right there on Fort Laudette Beach, I hear my name called. so you know I look around and I see an old friend of mine

this guy Royce Teets and he was sitting there with two ladies one was his girlfriend one was his girlfriend's friend nice people you know they're you know young professionals and I've known for

five six years prior to that we met but mind you I mean I just got out of that whole thing like house arrest I haven't seen a lot of people you know it's kind of you know off the grid for a little while so i say what's up how you doing i was in great shape at the time like because that's what you do when you have you know money problems you work out every day all day and then you start making a little money and then you get fat and start eating lobster all day right i know i'm going to lose 15 pounds minimum go ahead so uh so i see voice and you know we start talking how you been how you doing um he tells me about

a project that he'd working on and obviously it was I mean it had to do with the whole raising capital right private equity startup stuff and so we talked for a half hour 45 minutes come down by the office Joe come check it out man I'm like listen I don't want to you know I don't be part of anything like that right now I just I don't trust anyone I mean I lost faith in everything You know, I felt like I went through all the, you know, the proper channels and proper protocol to know if something's bullshit or real. And I failed, right? So I don't have confidence in myself at that point to work in that space. So I'm like, all right, you know, whatever.

Give me an number and, you know, we'll go get lunch one day. So we do that. We get lunch at the cheesecake factory on my solace. and he then takes me over to his office and I swear if it was like a drug like I walked in the office with him and I see guys

like writing deals I see people on the phone laughing with their clients having like you know great conversations and I just felt like I just bumped into like the one that got away you know and I just like everything just went out the window I swear like all my like strength to abstain getting involved in that industry because I felt like you know

the industry had just put me through that and chewed me up right it went out the window and we started instantly we were like negotiating we're like sitting in his office okay so so how does the deal work you know what's the valuation you know who put that evaluation on it. You know, what's your role? What's your cut? And then for the time I went home, I had my whole plan. I had everything planned out, mapped out in my head. And so I showed up the next day. And then we started working together from that point forward. Okay, so you had your plan. What was the plan? The plan that I made with voice or the plan that I made with myself? What were both plans?

What were the plans? Royce's plan was to have me get back into the industry and work for him. Right. Right. He's like, I just got a power broker involved. So, you know, he figured I would go in there. He'd sit me down and, you know, wherever I fit in. And I'd basically, you know, make a living and put a bunch of money in his pocket.

But my plan was to basically, you know, get my beak wet again, you know, shake off the rust, and then show out and then renegotiate and say, you know, what am I doing here? Because, I mean, you know, I know what I'm capable of. And I didn't want to, I definitely hadn't worked for anyone since I was 23, 22. I wasn't ready to go sit in a cubicle and, you know what I mean? Right. So it was just a, it was like a kind of a, you know, a foundation that I needed to get back in. Okay.

So what happens? So, so I start working in there and he had been involved in a, it was really, it was a medical deal. And not to get too into that, the details aren't important, but bottom line. is I got in and I worked alongside, you know, all the employees. And about two weeks in, I open up a ton of accounts, right? I tracked a bunch of new accounts. And then I was there one day when Royce brings in a friend of his with two other people. And I believe their names were Lex, Anthony, and David.

And these guys had a couple of different projects they were working on. They were pretty cool projects. One was like a wind turbine, right? Which I never, I mean, I saw like a million of those deals. So I was like, whatever. You know, I'm not interested in that. Not that it was my say at the time, right? Right.

These were deals that were brought to Royce. But one of them was a deal that involved the lottery. Okay. And that the idea was to create a mobile. app or a web app, as they call it, you know, both a web presence, but obviously, you know, corresponding mobile application, iOS and Android. And it would be a lottery concierge service where if you wanted to play the lottery, you wouldn't have to walk into a store and wait in line and buy a ticket. And especially if you lived in one of the 16th or so states that

don't have lottery, you wouldn't have to drive over state lines to buy a ticket or not buy a ticket. You would always have access. So we would facilitate the purchase or lot on it was called which facilitate the order and actually conduct the transaction, safeguard the ticket and then make a marketing opportunity out of any winnings. If someone won, they would create a spectacle out of it and deliver the winnings and promote lot on it. So it would collect like a 50 cent concierge fee if a user bought up to five tickets in any one particular lottery. That deal was presented that day. And, you know, the founder of that, David Gray, David Gray. David Gray. Right. He basically said, he basically said, he showed me a demo and he looked

around like, how do you guys do this? Like what? You literally can generate a following and generate awareness and investment interest over the phone. I said, yeah. And so a lot of the business is done. And he was almost, he almost didn't buy in. I think I, so I said, watch this. So I picked up the phone and I called one of the guys that I had opened like a week or two prior. And I think it was like 50 grand or something. So I got him committed the first investment for that idea and startup.

And he was just like, holy shit. I mean, this is possible. And incredibly talented. guy. That's what I was interested in. So when that came around, this is like two weeks into working with voice, when that deal came into the office along with David, I didn't pay much attention to the other guys. I started getting invoices here. I said, listen, you have to do this deal. And I want to do it with you. Right. You know, I'm not going to sit here in a cubicle for long. You know that. I'm either going to go my own way and get my own deal or you and I do

this together and you know what I'm capable of right you know whatever deal I take on you know I completed I finish it and you know do it pretty efficiently so he was a little opposed to it you know he didn't want to lose control and you know he wanted to keep me keep me down like like usual in that industry but he accepted and we agreed made an agreement to go 50-50 and that meant both in you know as far as working towards the deal and accomplishing the deal, recruiting, training, managing, and obviously, you know, raising capital because we knew we had to grow to take down, you know, several rounds that, you know,

were planned for the company. So what was the first round? The A round was 5 million, and then the B round was going to be another 5. And then we knew that, you know, obviously the C would probably be like 25 at least. or more once you know the company had some traction but right now he was just on the five million so yeah okay so you know we ought to do we ought to play the heat there's a tape are they um there's a little video that they use to pitch investors right like it's a little lottery net we should put that at the end of the or we could either put the link in yeah put the link in

and it's a cute little demo of you know them you know explaining like you know about the tickets and everything but it's like a little um it's an animation yeah it's like an animated pitch deck kind of yeah it doesn't talk about like really it talks a little bit about financials but not about the actual investment opportunity to breakdown and anything like that but it's super but it's it's good it's like you right yeah yeah it is it's good Dave did an incredible job when I and he did so fast you know when I met you David, because I was never like a high-tech guy. When he watched us work, he said to me, something along the lines of, he's like,

I can't believe how effective you are. I mean, when you're working like a caveman. And I was like, where the hell is this guy? Pick it up the phones. Yeah, you know, writing notes like on paper. Right. I just, I never adopted the whole like CRM idea. at that time right yeah this is like probably 2015 or something which i was kind of late to the game

and now you know i'm like the opposite right right but uh you know i had my little index card box with my index cards in it and like with uh sharpie i have a pipeline and these were like you know interested party so um so it was pretty generous and uh and i was excited about the fact that David offered to help build a CRM, okay, which is, you know, a customer relationship management software, and it's basically something that would help us with our workflow and the entire sales process to work more effectively and produce more so we can knock down the raises quicker. Right.

So obviously, I'm like, yeah, that'd be awesome. So he started off with a process where at the end of every lead, you know, he created a a button where we would just have to fill in the email and then convert it to a prospect. And at that point, an investor kit would be sent out automatically. Okay. And then we started adding in features like read receipts. So then we would get notified when a prospect was actually, you know, engaging with the documents, which was, which was huge and different for me at that time.

Now it's, you know, it's like typically in every CRM. But I was so intrigued by it and started. started using it. I mean, like really adopting it. And, uh, and I was fully bought in. So Royce and myself, we, we went and got another location. At that point, we start knocking down the raise, you know, getting guys involved. Royce had an old book of clients, obviously, because, you know, he, he never had had any time away from the industry. So he had his, you know, his preferred clients. And, um, and we just went at it, you know. Uh, We raised a fair amount of money in the first month.

We went down and got a big office with like a warehouse in the back. And, you know, we had this whole idea that we would make the office a place that nobody would ever want to leave. Right. You know? Stripper pole. Let's leave that out. It was my idea. I was told nobody was more upset about the stripper pole than me.

It was degrading. It was degrading to women. It was wrong. I just wanted a comfortable, safe place for people, a safe space. Right. I did make a requirement, though, that the poll is removable. Okay. So it was like a standard fixture in the office.

It was like, yeah. But there was a hydraulic system. You pushed a button and it came up through the floor. Bring them on. There was a vote on it, man. You lost. I did. Okay.

I believe you. So, all right. So the office is cool. Yeah. So we got two spaces right next to each other in this building. And the warehouse in the back, you know, we blew the wall out and made a conjoining door. And on one side, we had the tech team. On the other side, we had, you know, the sales and, you know, the finance end, right?

Royce and I were 50-50 on the finance end, and, you know, and David ran the whole tech side. And he ran it, I mean, incredibly well. It was a tight ship. You know, we had like 40 to 50 guys there plugging away. Quality assurance. As opposed to the sales team side, which they're having, they're having Friday night meeting. They bring in midgets and throw them through, through and through goals. And, yeah.

I see. It was a little wild. Stripper Tuesdays. In that warehouse, we built a bar, you know, we had pool tables, we put barber chairs in there. I never wanted guys to leave and go get a haircut on Friday. I'm like, just stay here. We'll cut your hair, right? We had barbers come in, you know, across the street, there was a guy that had, he owns the tent team, Fahad.

He would bring over like a water reclaimed system because I wanted to wash the cars too. So we took care of our guys, you know. We literally on Friday nights, we watched. their cars, you know, gave them haircuts, I helped them look sharp. You know, we had the tailors come in and, you know, measure them, you know, get them nice suits. They'd go meet with clients, you know, and we supported all that. We had everything catered, lunch, dinner. And this is such a vanilla version of what I got when we were in prison. There was a whole bunch of other stuff involved. But anyway, I hear you. It was important to us. You know, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we,

We ironed their clothes, we make sure everybody used, we had a curse jar. We had a milk and cookies. But it was a nice operation and it was a successful operation because I ended up realizing after the beta test that Dave ran where he actually launched and executed on some affiliate marketing. You know, the mobile app was live. You could go on there. We set up relationships with different vendors throughout the country that would install a high-speed laser printer. They'd print out right on the lot of scantron when an order would come in.

So they were partners of ours. And then they would package everything up and they'd send it off the lot on that. We'd take possession of everything. So once we had some traction, I had done some gold deals in Columbia. So I had these attorneys over there. And in conversation with one, he said, that the lottery was privately owned in Colombia. I think it was called Balado.

Bilato. And I was shocked. I was like private. Because, you know, in the U.S., you have state lotteries, like Florida lotto, like California lot, and then you have federal lotos, like Powerball Mega Millions, which are the bigger ones. And in South and Central America,

a lot of the different lotteries are privately owned. So you could start a business, and if you obtain a gaming license, you can launch a lottery. Right. As long as you follow the different, you know, requirements, like how much money you have in the bank, the bond and all that stuff. So as a little pet project in the background, I start pushing.

I started funding these attorneys to go down there and poke around. And we come to find out that he ended up having a contact in, within the Gaming Commission in Peru, the Peruvian Gaming Commission. so I tried to force him or promote some sort of engagement between them and once they started speaking I mean they were really open to the idea of of us being a part of something down there they put us in touch with the existing lottery called Latinka and throughout all this and I'll tell you about about the whole model And then, you know, I think it's important to share with you obviously, you know,

how Anthony comes into the fold. Yeah. But all this was going on grace, the whole, how Royce, that whole relationship deteriorates. Right, right, right. So, so we're at this stage now where we're starting to poke around down in South America and we start thinking, well, we can be a lottery concierge service or help these lotteries down there go digital. because down there they sell lottery in such a primitive way they have like these ropes and strings

i don't if you've ever seen it at like stoplights they have like like lottery tickets on like strings or something it's insane they have like reps that go out there and sell lottery right and they do good numbers in lima they were doing 10 million a day right in lottery 50% goes in the jackpot and builds it up and the other 50% goes in the company's pocket right so we're at this we're at this stage where We're prospecting different gaming commissions. And I call a prospect one day that was put on my desk from one of my callers by the name of Thomas Jacobson. And he's a, I think he ran some sort of ranch in Texas, I believe. And Thomas Jacobson says to me, you know, your proposal looks great.

It's interesting. But I don't do anything unless my broker, my money manager, gives me a green light. So he wanted to run it by his money manager. He goes in and does that. And I get a phone call one day. And on my voicemail, I hear someone by the name of Anthony Calabope asking me to call him back and, you know, give him some more information. He had a couple of questions in regards a lot on it. And typically there's so many fishing to sea and so many interested parties at this stage of things that, you know,

I mean, I'd never really, I'm like, all right. I mean, the guy wants to do it. Yeah, lots of phone calls, lots of emails. Yeah, like, you know, time management's important, right? So I was like, I mean, typically I won't call these people back. It's like, you know, I'm like, I have an argument with your broker. I mean, if you try to bring another guy, it's like asking your wife if your mistress is pretty. Right.

I know what the guy's going to say, right? So for some reason, I called them back. I don't know why. It was something he said, I guess, that, or the mood I was in. And I called this gentleman back. and we he asked me a few questions and obviously what are you calling what are you asking my client to do what are you asking me to invest in what are you guys who are you so so I explain everything we end up on the phone for I kid you not maybe three or four hours going back and

forth about just all these random things right all industry related and towards the end of the conversation, long story short, we end up coming to an agreement of not only getting his client involved, but then rolling his whole book into owning a piece of this. And we negotiated his payout, you know, his commission structure, finder fees, or whatever we want to call it. And he became a representative of Ladernet, right? So we worked together for the next three, maybe four months uh you know remote he he was out of uh los vegas and uh and i don't know how in depth you got and all that in uh in the story but he ended you guys he's funneling some of his customers to buy to invest and then eventually he comes in to uh to the the u.s and you pick him up at

don't you pick him up at the airport something like yeah yeah yeah so he uh he was engaged with a local girl from Florida and they moved out to Las Vegas because, you know, he had a drug problem and, you know, he had gotten clean and was a part of like, you know, the 12-step program, like hearing into it. And he just wanted to get away from Florida. So he moved out to Las Vegas. He was happy over there. And we really built up a solid friendship over the phone, never met each other because he was just, I'd never met anybody like him. You know, he, he focused a lot of his energy on the same things. He was extremely talented at what he did. And I mean, we were finishing each other sentences. You know,

I know sounds corny, but, you know, we would do conference calls with clients and investors. And we were just really, the synergy was there, right? So I was trying to do everything in my power to get him to move back here because I wanted his energy in there. Right. Okay. Because, you know, we're always pushing for growth. So he was opposed to the idea. He kept telling me, listen, Florida is bad for me. Right. And, you know, just leave it at that.

So being as persistent as I am, right, I kept pushing. And I didn't really know that he had a problem at that point. I just figured, I don't know, he just didn't want to live here, right? Right. He ends up telling me, and by this point, mind you, three, four months into this, We had raised like probably $2 million, I mean, effortlessly. So he was an asset. So I tell him, I basically bribe him to come.

I'm like, listen, I'll get you this, I'll get you that, I'll buy you, you know, whatever you want. You want a car, you want this. I mean, I knew the guy's a huge asset. Right. You do well together. So eventually he flies in. I go and I pick him up at the airport. And the minute this guy walks out of the terminal with his fiancé, he wants.

say, I spot him and I was like, I know this guy. I was sure of it. Like, I've seen him before. I've met him before. And it's, you know, obviously, industries become small the longer you're in them, right? Right. And when he was getting his bag and loading it in the car, I just, at the weirdest feeling. What I did, yeah, I snapped a picture of him because I wanted to ask around, you know, what I went through with Michelle Braun made me extremely. Right. hypersensitive to things going on and you know whatever I got involved in so I wanted to get people's opinion or just know if they knew who he was so he loads his bags up nice to meet you finally you know put a face to the name so and so forth they jump in you know we're talking

we're you know catching up we're making plans and and that's all fine right he had a house already he was renting out, I think, in the Del Rey area. And it just so happens that a tenant of his had moved out. So it was a perfect opportunity for me to kind of push him into not getting another tenant and just moving his life here so we could build together. So I dropped him off at that house. And he's repairing things, fixing things with contractors and whatnot. The next day, our plan.

was to meet into the office at, I don't know, 9 o'clock, say. When I left him, I went and met up with Royce, okay, my partner. Right. And I sat down with Royce and he's like, okay, did you pick the broker up, you know, the guy from Vegas? I said, yeah. And I show him the picture. I said, let me ask you a question, Royce. Do you recognize this guy?

And I'm staring at him. And I remember if he was yesterday, he, like, they literally looked like he was going to be. throw up or something and then he stares at me and he's like he's like what is this is this a fucking joke and I'm like yeah I was like laughing and like what are you talking about? I thought he was like joking

around and anyway I come to find out that this guy was Royce's mentor and I think 16 17 years prior to this he had brought Royce into the industry and his name wasn't Anthony Calabope

right his name was Frank Nuzzo. So in my mind, I'm like, I'm like, here we go again, but this crazy shit. Right. So, uh, so he's using an alias. Correct. Right. At this point, though, like, you're using an alias, right? Like, because you're, you're not supposed to be working in this industry. Right. I was very scared of, of, uh, of getting in trouble, right? And now I'm not doing anything egregious at this point. It's a, I mean, Latonet is a real company. the money is going where it's supposed to go you're raising the money you're doing everything by the books but technically you don't have a license so you're using an alias yeah and and you didn't need a license

for the structure we had however in my first running with you know yeah that whole situation with michel ron i was banned um from the industry right right for life which is like so aggressive in my opinion because i mean it was one thing that happened and whatever it is anyway well so Here's what, here's Colby. So here's, here's what's interesting. Is that he's using an alias and Anthony's using an alias. They both know they're using aliases. They never address it.

They just continue on addressing each other as that. And even though he knows that he knows and he knows and he knows, they never say anything. They just continue on. I was thought that was like professional, courtesy like I just uh and I wasn't using an alias to to run away from anything but the fact that I was branded as a as a bad actor yeah yeah which sucks because I never intended to screw anyone over I never intended for anything you know anything uh to hurt anybody yeah

but no I don't think that's what I don't think that's the case I just think it's I mean I know that's not the case I know you're using it because I had a license I lost my license I'm not technically supposed to be you know doing this so I don't want it to come up I'm not planning on it's not like out you're you're setting up a scam you know right right right so so but I I couldn't understand

why he used an alias and I just figured maybe it was a similar situation right right but in any case I never asked right but I knew who he was I knew he was real talented and I mean Royce had ranted and raved about his talent before I ever even met the guy because you know we had conversations obviously about

how we got into the industry you know who taught us and uh and i always knew that name frank nuzzle because voice would talk about him and he knew the name isa grossman right because you know we share stories or whatever so so i was like this is crazy i'm like this guy so now this guy had a falling out with royce a long time ago and apparently they were like enemies because they had disagreements anytime that happens in the broker's industry or um and you talk about splitting up clients one's always going to say that the other one robbed him right right and he'd shown you uh royce had shown you his photograph before that's why you that's why you that's why he looked

familiar exactly yep so uh after that um I was already I mean I started getting like I just started getting what's already an issue wasn't he already being yeah okay yeah he started uh we were making a lot of money and he started He started just partying too much, going out, taking vacations. You know, he stopped coming in frequently. You know, he had no schedule, right? He would pop in whenever he wanted to. And I was the one there opening up at 8 a.m.

leaving at like 11 at night every single day. Right. I've become like obsessive when I do things. And it kind of made me, you know, obviously I was a little angry about the fact that we're 50-50 on this and I'm doing every ounce of the work. Like, you know, out of the first round, that $5 million, we raised, Royce raised $12,500. And we raise the rest, right?

So Anthony has no idea that his enemy is my partner. Right. And Royce now knows that Anthony is Frank. So I tell Royce, listen, this is not planned, Royce. I said, you saw how it happened. the guy from Texas, Tom Jacobson, this is Tom Jacobson's broker, you know. It's like, what are the odds? I get it, but I have nothing. It's not a fucking plan voice. So he says, I don't want anything to do with him. He said, I don't want him near me. He's like, just tell him to go back

to Vegas. So I'm a good partner, right? And I make a deal with someone I'm going to see it through. And had he really wanted that and had he been persistent, I would, I would have agreed. I would have said, no problem, right? We'll cut him off. But I told him, I said, Royce, you, uh, you haven't done much, you know, I'm killing myself over here. Right. And this guy's bringing in in money. Yeah.

Yeah, forget it. I mean, Royce, he probably made six figures that last month off the guy, right? Or if his production alone, you know, he rolled millions of dollars in, and there were other things, too, that we were doing and that he contributed to. So, you know, I express myself and I said, you know, I'm killing myself over here in this office, giving it everything I got. And, you know, I didn't plan for this. I have a partner that's absent right now. And that's the first time that we exchange words about his lack of effort. So he, you know, he says, you guys such an egomaniac.

I could see it in his face, like, you know, anyone who says anything negative, like you can't give him constructive criticism, right? Right. He thinks there's a personal attack. so he says I don't know man he's like I don't know I really he's like he's the devil he's evil I'm like right you know I kept pushing he finally says okay

I say voice do not come in tomorrow though please like let me talk to him okay first before you come barging in the office and you got to start you know throwing fists so he says fine do what you got to do because he didn't want to stop his vacation either you know right now and I'm getting on him a little bit about not working so hard So the next day, we walk into the office and, you know, I'm waiting. I usually got there first.

I'm waiting for everyone to get in. And Anthony shows up. I'm like, how are you doing? I show him around. He's all excited. We have a gorgeous office. And everyone loved the lounge area, right? It was super cool.

And we're talking. And then who comes stumbling in, Royce? Right. After he promised me that he wouldn't come in. so they immediately start like brawling in the office okay like right at each other and it was a mess yelling but not fighting right yeah no like even like getting like physical and everything like and then um but you know how guys are like an hour later we're all at the bar having a drink right and they're like oh man i love you you know whatever so

Royce from that point on just got worse and worse and worse because he put himself in a state of mind where he wasn't producing and um and whatever it was the substance abuse uh you know uh the fact that he had a couple of guys around him that were actually i mean just a lot more talented it really it like shattered his ego and his confidence and um and we like saw it happen you know uh he started because of his lack of performance he actually started bashing the deal and saying that's why I'm not contributing like I don't like this and I don't like that and there was I mean it was a beautiful deal right it really was we actually went as far as to get our agreements with Latinka in Peru were to become a partner of Latinka

the gaming commission down there said that we can't have part or take part in the purchase of lot of tickets or facilitate the purchase if we don't have our own gaming license. So, let's take us say, we'll buy you out. And nobody wanted to sell because I don't get 10, 20 million. I mean, what was, you know, what was possible was way greater than that. And we were all patient enough to wait. So they said, okay, fine. The other option is, because we do want to do this because in Peru, you have 50 million people.

Okay. and the vast majority of them have smartphones. A company, Vietel, they built a 50,000 mile fiber optic cable through the whole country, and they were dialed in, right? They all had Wi-Fi. So they end up making a meeting with us

to the Gaming Commission. And now, we're now in a position right now, right, with all this going on with Royce and Anthony or Frank, where we're in line now to potentially get a gaming license over there. Roy saw all of this, and he knew what was going on, and everyone knew what was going on. And he started just getting really bad, right?

And he started feeling, I guess, jealous of the fact that, you know, Anthony and I were just crushing it. You know, we were doing some cool things and funding a lot of projects. At this point, he starts telling people that I'm stealing from him. okay and by a very good friend of mine he approached me he said listen are you are you schooling your partner over and i'm like no i mean every penny i get he gets right and uh so we get to the point where i kept hearing this thing so i tell uh royce one day i say royce i keep hearing that you're saying that i'm screwing you over he's like no i would never no i never say that so then it gets to the point where he says you're screwing me over right this guy was a maniac and then uh as things

go on the next couple of weeks after that i keep hearing it for more people that not only i'm screwing him over but he's going to have me killed and in my mind i'm like this guy's not going to do anything like this he's out of his mind right because first of all i'm not screwing him over second ball he thinks he's like some sort of gangster or something and i mean like you're a broker right you know relax you're still cutting him checks every week he's just is even coming in the office at all he's just collecting checks yeah and uh and a lot of people ask me well why would you even do that but despite how i looked on paper at the time my reputation locally was important to me because i had a lot of guys that believed in me and that came and work with me and uh i don't care if i make a bad

deal right you got to see it through and then just tell yourself i'm never going to do another deal with this guy right what was his beef with this guy yeah is that coming up oh they just felt yeah go ahead sorry they well the story behind that was frank and uh this is his real name frank nozo frank and royce they worked together uh royce was his junior broker and when uh when royce left frank royce actually He took some clients with him. And I believe he took clients and did a separate deal without his senior broker's knowledge. And then he comes up one day and he drops some money on the table.

Like, here's your share. It's just a dumb thing to do. And he went and did a deal without his partner. And then his partner was supposed to believe that that was his share or why would you call it clients without me? You know, just a bunch of drama. So then they broke up the partnership and they both attacked the client book. And, you know, and I don't know how many millions they had on the management. but it just ended bad, you know, and that's the whole backstory from it.

But now... So are we going to call them Frank, or we're going to call them Anthony? I'm still confused. Which one do you want to stick with? Anthony. Anthony. Okay. So Anthony is continuing to work with us.

Everything's great there. We're now approaching the point where we're about to close out the A round. Right. And Royce's threat, he's telling people who's going to have you killed. Right. And he's also, he starts becoming a cancer. He would show up in the office from time to time, and he would actually start saying negative things about the company. Like how, like it's BS that we had, that we were in line to get a gaming license in Peru.

He was so uninvolved that these things, to him, they didn't sound possible maybe. So we thought that they weren't real, maybe. And who knows what he thought. But the fact is, is he was bashing the company. not only are you now not contributing but now you're making it my job harder right but you and you still expect to get a check cut right so that's when we actually did cut him off okay because now you're you're you're an enemy right to the company so once that happened then I started really hearing this that he's going to have me killed right right and what I then did I called him one

night because I'm not going to let that linger right you're going to try to solve the issue or come to some sort of understanding and I was ready to go over his house one night so I call him he sounded just like out of it that whole day I remember thinking to myself like we might get to do a fist fight with this guy like you know we might get to a fight at some point and I'm on my way to over there and that night I remember he just sounded off he really sounded like just so fucked up when I was pulling down the road I called him and I said hey voice I'm down the block just give him a heads up you know like open the door or whatever and and he said

to me he said don't go to the front door he said meet me around in the back by the dock so I'm walking around... But this whole time, during the day, he knew you were coming that night. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he, okay, so he kind of had a plan.

Yeah, I mean, in retrospect, yes. Okay. At the time, I just, I figured we were going to talk it out and figure something out and, I mean, whatever. But, um, so I'm driving over there. I call him, Royce him down the block, meet me around the house, going in the back by the dock, he says. Right.

I say, okay. I hang up. I start thinking to myself. like that was odd he said it like he just again he sounded weird he sounded he almost sounded like he was crying or something right like just destroy it so as I'm pulling up I call my girlfriend at the time and I said do you think that this guy would really do some crazy shit like do you think he would try to actually kill me I mean what do you think and she instantly she's like yeah what do you

stupid did you tell her he said come around the back yeah yeah yeah explained it and she said that's shady she's like what do you she's like turn around right now or go meet him somewhere at a public place at least right so i said yeah you're right i hang up the phone and i call him back and now i'm driving like real slow on the street trying to manage the situation i say hey boys meet me at the l house down the block i'm gonna go grab a beer so he says i have beer he's like i have beer here he's like just just come here he's like uh yeah he's like i'm in my pajamas all right i'm like okay i said hey uh is ter what's up with terry i said she wanted to see these these pictures from the fourth july party i'm like uh what's she up to he's like terry sleeping he said just just come in the

back all right so by now uh i was like terry's girlfriend yeah terry's his girlfriend well actually fiancee so now i'm like that's cool bro i'm like you know what just meet me at the L house. And he said, he's like, bro, he's like, just come in the back. Come. He's come in the back. Well, I'm back here now. I'm in my pajamas. He said, I would never hurt you. He's like, Terry loves you. You like family to us. Who's that you think about hurting? Exactly. So it struck me as odd. And I said, listen, Royce, I'm going to go to the L house. Come meet me at the L house. I'll buy you a drink. Right, put some clothes on.

Better yet, come in your pajamas, whatever. All right. So he responded and said something like, something along the lines of, come in the back by the dark. He starts, he starts, like, blowing up, right? Just like a madman scream. Right.

That you just, like, you know, like, what the fuck is going on here? This guy's losing his shit. Right. So, uh, I would put, at this point, I'm pulling in the driveway, right? And I had, my exhaust was allowed on my car. And, uh, I'm pulling in the driveway. I hang up the phone.

And I throw it in reverse. And I'm pulling out. I pull away. And I see him run out in the street, right? With, with his boxers on. Right. And he's like flailing. And I'm like, what the fuck?

guys gone so it's the whole thing was creepy right the next day i get a phone call and the way it all happened was so fucked up too i mean i get a phone call the next day from a mutual friend of ours uh this individual by the name of angel and angel calls me and says joe he's like did you hear what happened last night i said no what he's like voice he killed your sister i'm like my sister what? I'm like, what are you talking about? So I hang up on them. I take my phone and I call my sister who lives in Boca. Right. She answers the phone. I'm like, Jess, she's like, yeah.

I'm like, are you okay? She's like, yeah, I'm fine. Why? I'm here with mom. And I'm like, I was, I mean, I was bugging out. I hang up on her. I called back angel. I'm like, what kind of sick joke are you playing? He's like, no, no, I'm sorry. No, not your real sister. He killed Terry. okay now terry's his fiancee and she used to always call herself my sister right because me and voice you know at one point you know we had a real close friendship we were like brothers right right and uh before everything started you know getting going south so uh i was just

i mean i was in disbelief right and i mean immediately i was thinking he so he explains everything to me he's like he killed her he there's yellow tape in front of the whole house right now you can't get over there. I'm like, how did you find out? He said, I was blowing him up. I was calling him, calling him, calling him. He didn't answer the phone. So then he called another mutual friend of ours. And this guy happened to be on the phone with her, right, when she was shot. Oh, okay. Okay. And he told him everything. He told him, like how it went down. It was such a sad day because, I mean, she was an amazing human being. I mean, the woman, she, you know, she had some hardship early in life,

and she came up and built a business, a single mother, I think 11 and 9 were the age of her kids from a previous marriage. And she had an incredible business, beautiful house. She was living, you know, the American dream. And now she's dead, right? So, you know, just creep me out, the whole thing. So the police report, right, and the news that night, like after you left, they got to an argument. And he shot her a couple of times, right?

It was a once or twice with an AK-47. Yeah. So the neighbors call. No, no, no. The neighbors didn't call. No, but I think he called. Yeah. I don't think anybody called.

Did you hear the recording online? No, I haven't heard that. I don't know if it's still there, but I heard it once. So, oh, I heard it was part of the, part of the news, right? Is it a news clip? I don't know. I don't even know how somebody found it. So he called whether or not she was already dead before you came or after.

I don't know exactly what the time. I think it might have been shortly after you didn't show up. I think it was before maybe. You think maybe? I don't know. He sounded so desperate. But, I mean, I've always thought, since that happened, I've had the thought that maybe he was trying to get me there so desperately to say that I killed her. Right, right.

Come around the back. Right. Terry's sleeping? Yeah, she's. Yeah. So you come around the back. There was an argument. You were breaking in.

You were going to kill him. Whatever. She got shot in the scumple. Who knows? But the point is, is that he calls this 911 call and says that she ended up, she pulled a gun on him. they fought over the gun it went off then when they get him downtown and they see by this point they've got him downtown they can see the blood splatter they can see the um the gun the gun powder residue everything they realized she was about six feet away so he he was holding the gun he shoots her

so then he changes his story again you know uh the gun went off she was coming at me she had a knife If, you know, it changes like three or four different times until he eventually breaks down and says. Right. Then what happened was that he shot him. Yeah. He said that there was, excuse me, he said that there was, he was cleaning the gun, didn't know that there was one in the chamber.

Then when they found the gun, there was one in the chamber. Right. So he said that it reloaded, which means the clip was in it. Right. He said he was cleaning it and there was one in the chamber or didn't know it, the clip wasn't in it. Well, if it went off, then it wouldn't reload the chamber. So that's when they caught him in the lab. Right. It was just multiple lies and eventually he breaks down and says that he, you know, there was whatever.

It went off. You know, she got it. He got it away from her. He was holding it. It went off. You know, I never talked. I've seen the individual that was on the phone with her. Right. When she died. But I never brought it up just out of like respect. I didn't, I'm sure. I heard he went through some things like after that because he was close with her. Right. But I've always been curious. You know, I never asked him. But, you know, he, knows he's probably the only president knows what happened so so voice the voice gets grabbed he's not getting out like you're not getting bond right right right you're in jail for first jury murder so what what happened as far as you know at that point yeah so i was i was not supposed to be in in in that industry that i was operating in right and uh you know the securities industry right anything to do with stocks and you know all that stuff anyway at that point i had a feeling that he was going to start making it known uh for what reason i don't know to get like a bit of mattress

maybe uh but he's trying to get out of a life sentence i'm sure he's trying anything at this point like once they've got you now he's he's scrambling yeah i mean but to think that that would get you out of like it's i mean you know anyway i mean they did what he did and uh so i mean i mean i kind of knew that that something was coming down the pipe i didn't think it would be i thought it would be like regulatory right so he tells the authorities he tells the authorities that you guys are raising money you're involved you're not licensed they're doing raises they're bringing in money but he lies then he end up saying like oh it's the Ponzi scheme like he's it's it's bullshit like he starts saying they're not they don't even

have a license right they don't like all the things that he's kind of been saying it but but it aren't true yeah he just starts playing all that up and starts yeah just just to try and get you should put the link up to the gaming commission still act right actually it's actually still active right now I check from time to time just right I have it I guess but um but yeah all that was uh he made it out like everything was you know not true like a Everything was a scam. And I guess they fed into it. I mean, he was a great salesman when he sobered up and he had no choice.

He was sober in there and he was probably selling the shit out of him. Right. So, I mean, I knew that I probably would lose the ability to be involved. But I never expected what happened. Right. You know, I never in a million years expected to see that happen, you know, what happened. So what happened? I wasn't in the office one day, and I get a phone call from the same friend that told me

that that Royce was trying or planning or was going to kill me, right? Right. And he says, whatever you do, he's like, don't come to the office. And I said, why? What's going on? He said there's like 40 FBI agents here, right? wearing their windbreakers running through the office chaining up everything taking phones taking computers taking laptops shutting everything down i'm like why he said i have no idea so so i have

a lot of strokes i didn't go in the office right i call um my my other partner right at that time uh so we had become partners right through you know different deals that we had made um at that time and he was leading the development a lot on it and this is data right yeah yeah okay and he says these guys they got the wrong place man he's like this is he's like they took they took my phone they took everything um honestly i don't even remember how i called him but i was on the phone but everyone's phone was gone i guess he got to a phone called me probably at that time and um so we met up and and it's weird I had a feeling that something like that could happen because I mean I've seen how I've seen how law enforcement operates sometimes and it's you know if they feel that something's going on it's almost like something will be created like Warren Buffett says if you put a cop on someone's tail for 500 miles they're bound to get a ticket right so I knew something was going to happen I just didn't I never expected that but uh it that happened and then i went to my attorney and i said tell me the deal like

what's going on you know where do we stand and he he said give me some time because they dropped a stack of papers like this big like the SEC it was regulatory at that point and um you give me some time my guys will go through it and we'll tell you know what everything looks like so people that don't understand when you say regulatory what do you mean so right now it's not criminal right So you have two, so you basically have the criminal justice system and then you have the regulatory bodies that regulate different industries, this one, right, being the SEC, the Security Exchange Commission. So they regulate anything that has to do with securities, you know, the equity markets and whether you're licensed or unlicensed or registered stock or unregistered securities. Anyway, the regulatory issues, you can never go to jail. for. Right. It's a fine. Right. Company gets shut down. Right. You can lose licenses and things like that. Criminal. I mean, obviously everyone knows what criminal is. Right. And typically on a situation like that, the regulatory will lead because then I'm guessing it saves a lot of work for the criminal justice system because typically they'll review that file and say, yeah, there's criminal activity in here. Yeah. I was going to say, plus if you go to court on that, they get to go on. They get to go.

in the depositions and do all these things that basically just builds more you know most of the time these guys are trying to get out of it so they're they're doing the depositions they're providing this trying to satisfy the the regulatory investigation and in the meantime they're openly incriminating themselves so then when the FBI says okay guess what it's criminal and we're going to use all that yeah all your depositions all of these you know you're still under your Miranda anything you say or do even in there right you're done yeah yeah So maybe a day goes by and I contact him again. And at this point, I'm like off the grid.

I'm like, this is crazy. Right. You're not going home. I'm staying with my stomach. Yeah, I was like sick to my stomach. And I get back with my lawyer and he says, he's like, this is like, this whole thing is like criminal. I'm like, really? And he says, yeah.

And I read through it myself, right? I just didn't want to believe it. I'm like, let me wait to hear the good news, hopefully. Or here, this is a bunch of BS. But there was no getting out of it because their indictment, what they, I mean, allegedly, it was all fake, right? What they had written in that discovery was just completely inaccurate. They said that we didn't have a gaming license. They said that all the money was spent and misappropriated on.

personal things and luxury lifestyles not even the case I mean look half the things that that the people around in and around that deal have the things that those that people had was from previous deal right I mean anyway it was just like it was frustrating because I know that when you know when the feds go for someone they have I think it's like a 98% is it 98% point right 98.5 percent success conviction right right so whatever they thought and you're not supposed to be there exactly and that's why I didn't have a leg to stand on right so I knew right then and there I'm like I'm going to have to take a plea on this again on something that I didn't do right something that

it's like it was the most frustrating situation because here I'm just trying to do business right And I keep getting involved with the wrong guys. And as a result, you know, I'm having to defend myself. And, you know, at that point, I had to make a decision. I was like, you know, we technically, right, we're on the verge of taking over the entire lottery in Peru. Okay, because now going back just a little bit from that point, After Royce had killed Terry, there was a, we had gotten the license, right?

Yeah, I was going to say there's a newspaper article in Peru about how they gave you the license. Like there was a whole thing. Yeah, El Peru, I don't know, newspaper. So when, as I mentioned before, Latinka, the lottery there, Latinka gave us a foot in the door with the Gaming Commission because we refused to be bought out. So they gave us a foot in the door and they set us up with the whole commission to have a meeting to then get our own independent license to then work with them to, you know, digitize the lottery, right? Right. They were only selling tickets to like Lima, 10 million people in Lima and they were doing about 10 million a day. Right.

So, you know, Peru has 50 million people. Yeah. And mountainous regions, farmland. Right. But they're not in a place to buy lottery tickets, but they all have cell phones. So they all have an iPhone. So now you've just opened it up to going from five times five million people in Peru to 50 million people throughout the entire country that could buy it using their phone even though they don't have a corner store to go to so they do have their iPhone so good and then all while this is happening we start putting together a global lotto right called lot of X and and we were actually going to we had marketing strategies to go into every to go into you know all the major countries you know all the healthy economies and we wanted to form a global jack. we were having a lot of fun with this whole thing right and um so needless to say we get we

end up getting the gaming license but when we got it um the gaming commission they start getting a little personal with us and they ask us how do you how did you get here right like who do you guys know in latinca had this whole thing come about you know they love the idea they wanted us to partner I mean, more money for them, right? The sales tax in Peru, I believe, is 18%. Wow. Yeah. And on that 18% figure, if they're doing $10 million a day in lot of ticket sales, that's

$1.8 million a day. Right. It's a lot of money for a country like Peru. So we end up telling them the whole story, you know, how I had an attorney in Colombia I did gold deals with and, you know, he had a contact there and so on and so forth. They're like, oh, okay, so there's no, like, family relation or anything like that. And I'm like, no, just we don't know these guys, right? Right.

So then they open up and they tell us that the lottery, Latinka, there, hadn't paid corporate tax in 11 years or something like that. That they'd get a lot of money on sales tax. And then at the end of the year, when it was time to pay corporate tax, they were basically like, you know, like, get out of here. Like, you guys may, we dare you to shut us down. and lose that almost two million a day right it was you know a significant stream of revenue for the government so you know they called their bluff and they were really the only game in town so the government basically pulled us aside and said now the gaming commission they basically said um why do you need latinca right i said well there's a lottery you said okay well now you have a

gaming license right they said latinca's due for renewal on their 10 year license in one year. They said, if we help nourish you guys and help facilitate growth in lotto net, what if we didn't renew Latinka's license next year? Right. So now we're like, sounds great, right?

I mean, now we're like jumping for joy because now we went from being a lottery technology to actually now considering to own a lottery. Right. And, you know, if you look at the numbers, If you're doing 10 million a day with 10 million people in Lima, let's just say you could do 50 million a day with 50 million people in the country, right? If you had to, you know, if you're in front of all of them.

So we start, the numbers are like mind boggings. We can make 25 million a day if we execute on this. So we start moving on all of that, right? And we pull away from Latinka, and these guys are all mad. They're all like ex-cartel guys, by the way, that own these things. and we got I believe we set up a storefront in Lima you know we got the machines where the balls would come up and everything right we had the newspaper there we had to we had to schedule a time with the news station where they could film the drawing you know you can't have a digital drawing obviously because then you could just choose numbers that weren't picked and you just keep building a jackpot anyway you know this was this was the point that we were at when this whole thing went down yeah and uh you know we had to open up accounts over there and you know whatever i'll just leave that for uh you know so so at this point you you go to the

FBI and you said here I am I know you guys are coming to indict me no didn't happen like no what happened so my focus was on launching this lottery right um at that point I I schedule a trip I asked my attorney if there was a warrant out for my rest he said no I said so I can travel he said I suppose so you don't have a warrant right you have a passport I'm like yeah so I booked a flight and I was flying to Ecuador your girlfriend's from Ecuador at the time right we were taking a trip that seems reasonable I mean I know when I I remember when I was indicted I thought time for a trip time for a trip it's the logical thing it's stress it's a lot of stress

it's a lot of stress I get it I get I'm with you I hear you so so we we we take a little shopping trip you know blow off some steam and run up the credit cards I get it I get it yeah we go to the airport empty out some accounts go ahead there's a guy uh that was we're sitting in the lounge and he was shitting in the lounge no sitting sitting sitting in the lounge oh my god i say that's and uh i feel like i'm back there right now it's weird i haven't talked about this since we sat on my yard right walking through the airport everything's good so i'm hanging out and uh I'm next to my girlfriend and I look over and I see a guy on the phone.

And I question myself at that point. I'm like, am I paranoid that that guy is talking to that guy on the other end of the airport? Because every time he speaks, he shuts up. Every time he speaks, he shuts up. I'm like, it's weird. And I'm watching to see if they stare at me and they never do. So I'm like, maybe I'm crazy. So I tell my girlfriend, listen, that guy's talking to that guy.

She's like, you're going crazy. So I said, I'll prove it. I'm going to get up and walk past them and go get a bottle of water over there at that little convenience store. And you watch them, and you tell me if they look at me. All right. So I get up, I walk there. I'm like, I'm going to catch these guys, right?

And then I grab a bottle of water I come back I'm walking back She's on a freaking phone I'm like I'm like she didn't look I know she didn't look right I'm like did they look at me she's like no You know you're crazy

Did I know for a fact she didn't look She's sitting there on like Instagram Like posting selfies probably So Just as I suspected I see both of them They're at the same time simultaneously Probably because they're like

close one and I thought you almost walked out right right they start coming converging and then they start walking right down the aisle towards me and they close in on me and they say excuse me can I see your passport I'm like yeah I gave it to him and they they said to my girlfriend they said you can get on that plane he's not getting on that plane and right then and there I know I'm like, this is going to be a long trip because what was in that indictment in that in the SEC discovery

it was not nice stuff and it was we didn't have a gaming license according to them and I want you to post that link because it pisses me off for me to say you know, yes, Your Honor I lied about the gaming license yes, it was all bullshit

yes it was this and the except, you know, uh, except responsibility to get that, yeah. Because the fear of going to trial and, and losing and then, I mean, doing 20 years. Yeah. Versus just taking five and saying, you know, yeah, I did it all. I'll never do it again. You know, so it is what it is. And, uh, they went, they brought me over.

They, um, they put me in handcuffs. And, and I never saw the light of day, actually, literally until like 30. 14 months later, 14 months later, because I didn't get to where I met you until, you know, I was in the holdover. Right. Over in FTC. And then when I got there, I just, I'd never enjoyed being in the sun more. And I somewhat, I felt free. But it was a shitty situation.

So, Anthony. Yeah. What's that? Huh? That was said. Yeah. So what happened with? Anthony and this was how how this was a few weeks before you got arrested or a

month it was like it was like probably a month okay yeah so a month before the FBI arrest you when we really knew it was we really understood Royce's vendetta right when he killed Anthony right okay you want to just make sure sorry yeah so we really understood Royce's vendetta when when when Anthony turned up dead okay okay he um I get a phone call from Anthony one day and uh Anthony wanted me to come by his house he had a movie theater and uh yeah they were watching some uh financial movie or whatever and uh you know this was after Terry's death so I went into like a little bit of like a hibernation after that because

I felt like it was like a close call with me too because I was like there and I just I've seen enough crazy shit that I just really toned everything down and I was concerned about what Royce was saying in there

to the authorities because I was like this guy's nuts right and I declined I told Anthony I'm good right I'm just gonna hang out here in my house just relax whatever I had actually set up a separate office for myself at the

time just to stay away from all the craziness and um two days later I get a phone call from his fiancee and she says to me she said Joe Anthony is dead and I'm like what the fuck are you talking about he's I'm like I just I couldn't even take it anymore I'm like there's too much shit going on I'm like I thought she was playing it right with me or something. What a sick joke, right? And then I said, what do you mean? And she tells me

that they found him in the bathtub of his upstairs bathroom. And she's like, I know they killed him. You know who killed him? She said there was a guy over there that I've never met before, but I named a Rico. And this guy knew he was bad news.

You know, they were hanging out with a couple of friends. And and she's like he stopped answering his phone and they had those like nest thermostats yeah so she said they were partying too hard he was hanging out with this girl and I knew something was going on I left I went to my family in Virginia

the day later he didn't answer his phone Joe she says I turned the nest thermostat all the way up to like 92 and then I knew if he was there and okay that she'd see that the temperature grow back down Right. She was like baking him out of the house. She's like, but it never went down. And when that stayed like that for like a day, she said, I called the neighbor and I told the neighbor that a spare key to go inside and please check on my fiancee. The neighbor goes inside. She walks up the steps and she finds Anthony dead in the bathtub, right, with a pillow under his legs, right, and a towel on his shoulder and his arms crossed like this, right? and apparently there was like a bruise or something apparently there was a bruise on his chest the neighbor takes a picture of this

and Kate tells me all this and she said I said why would she take a picture there? Kate's the fiancé right and Kate tells me because the neighbor said to me if my husband was found dead and I was in the estate I'd want to see how we last what how he was found it right so she asked Kate do you want me to send you the picture or do you want me to delete it right kate said send me the picture so then and she's crying when she's telling me all this and I'm in disbelief and me I mean we we built a really close relationship me

and Anthony I mean I really really genuinely like valued our friendship right you know for once it was a guy that he was extremely talented he had no ego right never hated on anyone and was happy for everybody when when when they actually you know did something good when you when you succeeded in something it was like you know you genuinely happy for you and you don't find that that often right there's always like a little bit of like a like a thorn in there like so so yeah it was like it was real hurtful to to see how that whole thing happened how some scumbags basically you know took this great guy out this incredible talent a great human being and what made me sick about

the whole thing was this guy was such a scumbag that he stole his clothing do you remember yeah yeah and like a headset stupid stuff like like some like bottom of the barrel guy right you also 30 thought it was like 30 grand or something too and he took like whatever cash he found right and the craziest part is that i heard afterwards that anthony he was actually embracing this individual bringing him into his home trying to help the guy

get his life on track teaching him things and you know he always wanted everyone around to do well right and that guy was Rico it's what I didn't know I didn't know who he was at the time

right Kate just described him I'd never and I had no friends named Rico right so all I said to Kate was listen, Kate, I don't even know what to say. I'm like, listen, this, this Rico guy, karma's a bitch, something, they'll get him, right? Like, eventually, you know, I promise you, Kate,

something will happen with him, and, you know, these guys, they don't care away forever, right? There's a lot of technology, and I'm reassuring her that, you know, justice will be served, right? So at this point, now I'm really like just disturbed by the whole thing right and uh I actually like really went into like you know a little hiatus where that's when I built I really started like building out the second office I'm like I'm going to stay here for a while right right after that happened

with Anthony but then as you know right fast forwarding a month I end up getting uh I end up getting detained right that day I got detained there in the airport and then they end up taking me to uh to county jail where i spent uh actually main jail for like a week county jail for a month fdc for another little over a year you know we have no outside time right you know so can i can i mention something that like so v right so you knew v there was a girl named v we'll just stick with v um so there's a chick name v um so there's a chick name v that knew you and a bunch of the brokers that worked for you

and knew Anthony and was partying she was partying with Anthony and Rico she's the one that introduced Rico kind of into the situation so she was she showed up after Anthony was found

or had died she shows up Rico's there Rico's torn the house apart rob it or who's robbed him yeah and um she shows up according to v yeah you know she tries to call the police yeah uh he won't let her he eventually basically drags her out of the house that throws her into her mercedes basically kidnapped yeah she has like a mercedes right yeah um throws her into you know the mercedes and then they leave there's there's log in or photographs or whatever of her coming and going in the Mercedes like you know because i got the police report right so

the police a day later two days later the homicide comes in and homicide calls her and tries to you know and she she won't talk to him she hangs up she's scared you know she's scared she knows she was there she knows they were all party and she knows she introduced this guy into the situation so she hangs up the phone right and um doesn't really cooperate operate at that time with the police at all she's probably scared of what this guy would do right yeah well this guy's a fucking maniac so riko is by the way rico actually had just gotten out of prison and was in a halfway house escaped or whatever absconded from the halfway house and was hanging out with v and then hooks up with um with anthony and then the whole anthony's situation

you know falls apart so he's in the middle of just pure insanity and he just got out of prison he's going nuts and then there's this you know what i think of what i think is you know a murder you know so that that's where we are right now like that's what's happening so when he by the time he gets arrested i'll take okay go ahead this is this is you know it's crazy the first of all it was an incredible coincidence that I even met Anthony. Right. We have to mention how you got to end up back there again, too. Right, right, right. And then, yeah, no, it's important. Yeah, I mean, you can explain how we got back there. Okay. I want to explain my whole, my whole take on how my experience, right, after that.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, absolutely. I just want to say that he. How far after the first murder was? Probably a couple of months. Yeah. They're dropping like flies. So, so, so Anthony's found. RICO grabs V, drags her into the Mercedes, her Mercedes. They take off a black Mercedes. In the meantime, now obviously he's on a rampage. Okay. Anthony's dead. He's robbed him. They're doing drugs. He's escaped from the halfway house or absconded from the halfway house. They're looking for him. He turned around. He starts robbing banks. in V's car so he's driving around this Mercedes robbing different banks at one point

he even robs like a grocery store and like the kid does like he's through an argument he tells the kid he's got a knife and he tells the kid I will fuck you know I'll shoot you motherfucker

I'll blow your head off but he's holding a knife kid's like no you won't and then he goes eh and he staves him that was a person that's right he did stab him

stabbed him like in the chest yeah the kid I mean he survived yeah so his cashier at a grocery store or the kid So he's a lunatic, right? But eventually there's a, is there a car chase?

And they chase him and they get him? He goes, what was it? He hides in a pickup tree. Oh, yeah. He does. He goes on the run. Like, they're chasing him through. They find him to really twist his knee or something.

That's right. I can't believe you remember this. That's right. He twist his knee or something. The cops pull up like he's trying to get himself out of the road or something. Like he's really hurt himself. I mean, he's not limping. He's hurt.

He can't stand up. Cops end up called because, oh, because the guy he was hiding the back of the pickup truck. Call the police. Yeah, calls the police. It's similar to that Boston thing, right? They went there heading like a boat or something? I don't know. But the cops grab him.

And so Anthony, I'm sorry, Anthony. So Rico gets caught by the police eventually and thrown in jail. About the same time that he ends up in jail. So they're both in the U.S. Holdover, right? That's the United States Marshal's Holdover. Matter of fact, my first night there that I get transferred from county over to FTC, which is the holdover for the, you know, Miami, for the, the, the federal prison system in Miami. I was waiting to go to trial, obviously. And the first night there, my, my cellmate, he's getting a haircut in the, in the cell. And, you know, I was like, hey, you know, what's your name? I'm like, my name's Joe. You just get here today?

I'm like, yeah. And, you know, my cellmate, he introduces himself, the guy cutting his hair. He says, he says, how did you know, my name's Joe, too. I'm like, oh, we're a coincidence or whatever. And he said, but my friends, they call me Rico, right? Right. And he shakes my hand, and I don't think anything of it at that point. But that's, he ends up telling me.

Everything. I mean, he, that was the RICO, okay, that actually killed my friend. And it's, it's an incredible coincidence the fact that I even met Anthony over a phone call from a broker, from an investor in Texas, right? And then, and then now you have the guy that killed my friend sitting in cell with me. And not only that, I mean, he goes on and says, well, what are you here for? I'm like, I was a stockbroker, you know, I was involved in some, you know, some private equity stuff and whatever, right, I explained. He says, I used to know a stockbroker. This guy, man, he had a, yeah, he had a really nice house. He had a movie theater, you know, he had nice cars, all that stuff.

He was like, yeah, we were pretty close. And, uh, like, are you starting to figure it out at this point? Yeah, I was like, what the fuck? I'm like, like, Rico? But I was like, no, this is impossible. Like, I, it was no fucking way. So as he starts, like, I mean, talking to me, he then, I just ignore it, right? I'm like, at this point, I'm just like, you know how it is when you get in there.

It's like, your whole world's space. right so I'm like I can't even think about that right now and then the next day we you know they do like that pill line thing where they call you to you know people that take medication or whatever and we had like 15 minutes of like whatever it was computer time and then they would do the pill line call so they call you know the pill line and I just got off the computer and I'm watching like just a little TV that I have up there and I see him he goes on my the pill line and he comes off the pill line and he takes his medication he says next to me watching the TV and he uh he starts talking about how he had to collect money for somebody and he says yeah

I had to collect money one night for somebody from uh guys such an idiot he's like from some broker and he's like I had to collect money and I had to kill I had to off his ass he said he's like I took a needle he's like I gave him a hot dose right in the heart and like instantly I thought back to to this photo of the bruise or whatever on his chest and I remember Kate was asking me about it and and then it clicked I'm like it's the fucking scumbag you know this is the guy that that that did this

and then it went on and on to describe it about his movie theater and this and that and like he's just like bragging and bragging and bragging you know obviously not telling me the guy's name but

yeah you know that was Rico but he also knew V right didn't he mention that didn't you both end up saying oh I knew a chick named V or no yeah yeah yeah that's right because he's like you look familiar

and I'm like oh well you don't and then he said I said he actually he brought it up he said I used to hang out because I told him

I lived I lived in Fort Lauderdale he's like I used to hang out with this girl V I'm like oh my God definitely him right right

but that was it and he told me some crazy stories and like I knew the guy was just like a scumbag right away it's funny because when we were talking you know

I was writing the story and you told me that he had told you about how he grabbed the by the hair and dragged her down the beach and dragged her somewhere well then when she when I talked to her about the story

she told me that they were in Anthony's house and he had grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the house it's funny how the yeah the lies like yeah either she's either he's done it multiple times to her right like first he was the he was friends with the broker that had a movie theater

then he had to kill some broker right but it wasn't the friend with the movie theater right it was just a bunch of bullshit the guys uh obviously so you end up taking a plea yeah you get what was it was about five years sorry so so what was the real reason behind him killing the death guy okay so initially when when i was locked up yeah when i was locked up and we talked about it right we kind of figured that because he had said that the guy owed money so we you know i made the assumption that he owed he possibly owed the money right because he was getting drugs they were getting v was supplying drugs to all

them well not really no or what just doing drugs no no no yeah just she was partying with the brokers and like okay really that's about it like just just hanging out with everyone and um you know that whole thing but she wasn't really in that trade or anything okay so the collection but the collection was when when i was writing the story was that he was collecting now i guess i had always kind of assumed that he was collecting for v right and telling the truth huh yeah and you assume we assume that he was telling the truth yeah one we were assuming he was telling the truth the truth saying that he's collecting money because he stole 30 thousand dollars from the guy so we assumed or i assumed he had collected money for drugs or for V

killed Anthony and robbed them of $30,000 and whatever else he scrounged up but since then I've spoken with V and V is like that's not the case that she had gone off, come back and she believes he killed him now she has a whole theory on that Anthony killed

I'm sorry that RICO killed Anthony for his girlfriend, Kate. That Kate wanted, well, that's you know, that, she has a whole theory. He's a low-level scumbag dog that basically saw an opportunity and seized it and it has no fucking heart, no integrity,

no morals. I mean, I understand what you're saying. I agree. But also, I've spoken with Kate. And of course, Kate has a whole, like there's like four different theories swarming around. The real problem is that the police, even though, they've answered even though they have investigated the crime multiple times now they've reopened the investigation that v when she was called like didn't tell them what she knew she was scared so she didn't say anything and all they really have is that this guy died of an overdose like that's

all they've got now kate's saying he was robbed but nobody would talk and so it just kind of died out right like what do they do they don't have anybody to tell them what happened and by the time he's sentenced he actually uh jo actually says something to his attorney hey this is what i i just found out like this guy killed my friend and his attorney's like well don't say anything sorry your attorney's like oh don't say anything we want to put you involved it sounds like you're hanging out with guys that kill each other or murderers or something so he doesn't say anything. Not that he's trying to say something to get time off or anything, just that, hey, this guy murdered my friend. Yeah, like the coincidence was nuts. And at the same time,

for something else. Huh? When you, when you met him in prison, was he in there for? He was in there for several bank robbers. Remember, I told you he escaped the halfway house and started robbing banks. And not only that, but I thought that, and I mentioned it to my attorney because when he said you look familiar, I was thinking, you know, because V didn't visit voice. in prison and she started like i don't know i was shocked that she did but i mean you know friends a friend so i was i was also concerned that that he was contracted right that was another theory right so that's why i was like maybe i should be moved to a new unit right this like guys probably had a photo of me or something that's where he recognized me so i was like i think i

should be moved. This guy spent his whole life in prison. He's done nothing about, he wasn't out six. Rico wasn't out six months. He got out and within a month he walked out of the halfway house, hooks up with the complete animal, starched robin banks, murder,

kill somebody, ends up right back in prison, got 15, 14, 15 years? I don't know, I don't give guys like that, like life like, yeah. 14, 15 years. How long goes that? Oh, um, 2017.

Yeah. No, he's still. he's in the medium no he's not in the medium is he was in the medium yeah he was in the low and then when he went back he was in the low he was in the low with me yeah he'd actually met the guy he's actually met him yeah and where's royce he's doing like state prison yeah in state of florida i don't know what what prison but yeah he's so yeah it's it's like literally when he started talking about riko and we actually got you're like wait i know that guy i know that guy I know the guy.

He used to work out like crazy. Yeah, the big guy. You told me. Lunatic. I remember he did a tattoo for this kid in my unit, and the kid didn't pay him. Kept telling him he was going to pay him, but didn't pay him. I remember him, like, I remember him going, oh, what's the money, dude? And he's like, oh, I don't know.

I don't know what happened. She was supposed to send the money. Like, it was all bullshit. The kid was just tried to get a free tattoo. And he grabbed him. He just, bow. I mean, smacked the crap out of this kid. You know, he's a big guy.

You know, so. But anyway, he literally got. released shortly after that that's when all this happened and then he comes right back to prison a year later so you know i didn't know who he was at the time i was just some fucking guy i just remember the name riko but yeah so he comes back he goes to the medium got 15 got four i don't know if it's 13 14 years 12 i think was it 12 and ended up going ended up going to uh yeah going the medium i don't know where he is now to the medium coleman medium i don't know if he's still there probably look it up so yeah it's like it's like isn't it's like it's like it's like

like Joseph Rodriguez or Hernandez Martinez Martinez Joseph Martinez yeah but yeah anyway so you get how much time about five years five years well how much time to do about less than three right I got a year off for a adaptive drug program I got eight months good time seven months halfway else yeah it's not bad not that on five years three years yeah three years yeah And in your eyes, you didn't really do anything wrong. You just didn't want to risk 20 more years. Yeah.

No, you can't go to trial. Well, I mean, look, okay, what do you say now? I mean, like, kind of like, you know, I get what you're going to say, but I mean, technically, like, he's unlicensed. Imagine how this looks. I guess, are you going down for the company or for acting under your other alias? Right. Like, how does it look if he goes to trial, um, you're using. using an alias, I'm unlicensed, I've already been convicted of running a boiler room, I've already done...

Oh, yeah, I had not a leg of stand on. No, he can't, like, he can't get on the stand and defend him. So what happens is the prosecutor gets up, says all of these things about him, he can't say that's not true. He can't get on the stand. If he gets on the stand... I'm not credible. He's not credible. You're using a different thing.

name, you're collecting a ton of money. And keep mind, he is making a ton of money. The jury, these are people that work at Tire Kingdom and Walmart. Like, they hate him. He's driving a Lamborghini. He's got a Ferrari. He's living at a $3.5 million house. You know, he looks like a professional sports star. You know, he's using a fake name. He's lost his license. He's been convicted before. They hate his guts anyway. You can't go to trial. So it's like, what's the best deal I can get. Because any lawyer is going to tell you, look, look, I'm innocent. I don't give a fuck if you're

innocent or not. I'm telling you right now, you're found guilty. And I can prove you're innocent. They'll convict you just because you can't say, you can't even say your, because here's the thing, if he gets on the stand, they can then bring up all of that stuff. Convicted felon.

They gave me an idea. Yeah, you're done. I'd take a plea. Look, like I said, if right now the DEA came in and said, we've indicted you, for four kilos of cocaine and i've never seen cocaine and they don't even have the cocaine i wouldn't i wouldn't go to trial how much i'd say do before you went to trial probably probably i'd probably at 10 years i'd probably risk child i'd do 10 you're crazy i can they'd give me they'd get 20 10 i'd do 10 because well i get the drug program i get that halfway that's done

because they're going to be 25 years how much time is you i did 13 but the The first 10 years was the hardest. Those last three years, they sailed by. Fucking shit. Oh my God. He's like, yeah, if they give me a plea of like eight, he's like, I'd do it. Standing on my head. I mean, I'd be hoping for five, you know, but I've never seen, like, I've never seen.

So if you knew that they, they didn't have any evidence, but they're like, they're going to get three guys that are going to sit on the stand and say he was involved. I can't get on the stand. I go on the stand. They'd be like, Mr. Cox, how many times have you been in prison? How many homes did you steal? How many of this? We've got four of your victims that are ready to them. Four of my victims.

I'm here for fucking cocaine that I've never seen. He stole my house. Right. Hey, he did it. Yeah. He sold cocaine. It's over. It's over.

You just got to take a plea at this point. At this point, I'm at their mercy. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I totally get that. Oh, man. No, yeah. Reminiscence.

Good times, right? Good times. Good times. i hated that guy ricko man when i met him in there i was looking at him like uh man he was cutting hair one day right did i tell you about this what no i probably what is it so he kept like he was one of those guys he'd go around the you the cell i mean the unit and he'd be like if he saw you had support on the outside like you had books coming in and stuff like commissary or whatever he'd say to you hey uh i work in the chow hall or i cut hair

I'll cut your hair for free or I'll give you extra food or chicken or whatever. Can you tell your family to buy me a book? Right. And naturally, if it was someone that didn't kill one of my best friends, I'd say, yeah, no problem, buddy, I got you. Yeah. But I told him, yeah, I'll think about it. So then he sees a big book shipment come in one day. All right.

So he comes by my cell and he's like, yeah, it's like the books are here. He's like, did you get my book? and I'm like nah I'm sorry buddy and then I just like I kept reading so then he goes like this you liar

and he slams my door I didn't tell you this no oh man this is great listen to this so he slams my door so I'm thinking at my head you fucking piece of shit right you scumbbag

killing my best friend for a fucking pair of sneakers like you bum so then I'm like I'm like now I'm like angry at this guy so he's cutting hair out on the yard one day and like with actual clippers it wasn't like that that razor and a comb thing they do and so in this is like I don't even know it was like visitation was the next day or something and he's cutting hair on the yard and they do it like once a month I think right something

like that so there's a long line right it's it's my turn to get a haircut. And when I'm walking up to this chair, I just kept thinking how much I despise this guy, right? And I also kept thinking, this scumbag, he didn't clean the clippers like for 10 heads. And, you know, there's like Mercer in there and like all kinds of weird bacterial thing. You know, you got to spray the clippers. You're cutting, you're cutting people's hair, like mushing it against their head. I mean, spray the freaking things, right? Right. So when I sit down I turn over to me he puts the gown on me you know our acquaintance is like a little little it's a little strained right now because I didn't get him his book right so I turn around and I say

I'm like Rico can you do my favor I was like can you spray those clippers bro and he uh he looks at me and said I did and I know he didn't spray him I was watching him for like 10 11 haircuts so he goes like this he grabs like let's say like this is the spray he goes like this I say can I see you spray him right so he goes like this so now I'm thinking

this guy is a piece of shit like he almost doesn't he almost wants to give people some back like he's sick yeah I'm like there's no way he actually sprayed it so I'm like let me see You spray it, Rico, please. So you know what he does? He grabs the spray.

He unscrews the top, throws it on the ground, grabs the clippers, and he dumps the spray on the clippers. Like, out of anger, like, you're questioning my integrity? I'm like, if you only fucking knew, you stumbag.

So then I say to him, I'm like, let me answer your question, Rico. You're like a big baby, huh? I'm like, why are you such a baby? Really, like, why are you crying over this? I'm like, I just said you to simply spray the fucking clippers. So he says this, I'm not cutting your hair. So he takes the gown off me, right?

He rips it off me. And now I'm sitting there like, I'm like exploding inside. So I stand up, right? I like it. It's so funny. I stand up and I say, then you're not cutting anyone's hair. So I smack all the shit off the table, right? Clippers, like everything, like oil.

everything, bro, and I smacked all it all, like, whoo. And everybody on the line was like, hey, what the fuck? So he goes like this. He's like standing there. His leg was all fucked up. Right. I'm like, I'll kick, like, his one leg and fall down. I mean, he was a big dude, but so then, uh, everyone's yelling and then I'm just like,

fuck this, man. I go up to my cell and I'm like, I put my sneakers on, you know. Yeah, yeah. And then, uh, and then he just stayed down there. I see him picking everything up off the ground I'm like good you bum and it was the last time I spoke to him

and he never knew that you knew Anthony oh listen this the story was in this it was in um the Atlantic magazine like they reopened the investigation they called the detectives they've

you know fuck it I mean whatever happens happens you know I mean look I'm just speaking about things. I'm not like trying to, you know, get like directly involved. But whatever. Ready? Are we?

So you did your three, like what happens? Like, okay, you do your sentence and then. Yeah, oh, he, I mean, we met in ARDAP. We were both taking the drug program. We met. I wrote a story on him. It's on my website. And we're, well, we were.

we were in negotiations with a production company to do a documentary but that kind of fell through and um at this point you know you got he uh uh you got it would you get out a little bit before me it's like around the same time i think yeah yeah we were basically about the same like i i oh yeah and so yeah you got out the it later october no no you got out a little bit after me because you were still in the halfway house when the magazine are article came out right yes yeah so he got a few months well i got so i got out in uh early 2000 uh 2019 right when did you get out october oh okay so late 2009 okay so so he got out so um and then and then you started uh you started what you started flipping houses or something right

you got out and started flipping houses and and now you're um so doing some real estate stuff And now that I'm off probation, I started up a brokerage in cash advance. So it's a commercial financing where we fund businesses. But we do things a lot different. And I'm enjoying it because it's really, it's the capital formation process where I used to raise capital for companies and ask people for money to invest into them. Right. And now I lend money to companies. Right.

But it's all really capital formation. And at the end of the day, we're getting into a lot of different aspects of it, like borrowing or lending against intellectual property and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you know, we do the basic cash advance too, like same-day funding where someone doesn't matter if they own a barber, a restaurant or, you know, a law firm. we basically we base it all on their receivables nothing to do with their credit

score but you know we do other products too that rely on credit what happened to the app where the you were developing for the to check out companies you're going to do that? Which one? There was an app you showed me this

the app that researches companies oh with I'm not sure which one you're talking about. I mean, I had so many projects. I started getting into so many software projects after I raised money for a lot on it. But we have a couple of different things going on right now.

Like the mobile app for where you can get into lending and the compound growth is like incredible. So I want to be able to offer that to the general public. You know, where banks aren't the only ones that can lend and compound their, you know, their capital. So people get in for as little less $10. Just a cash app. You can buy a fraction of a share.

Right. You know, so, you know, people could syndicate, you know, through a mobile app. But I'm having fun. Hey, I appreciate you guys watching. If you like the video, do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so you get notified of videos like this.

Leave me a comment in the comment section. And, you know, share the video. because it absolutely helps. We're going to leave all the links to the lotto net. Well, to the license. We're going to leave another link to the actual promotional little video. It's kind of cool. It's super cool, actually.

If you're interested in being a guest on the show, we have a form that you can fill out. There's a link in the description. Also, if you want to read the story on Vitali, it's called Atonement, and it's on my website. inside truecrime.com. I really appreciate you guys watching. Thank you. See you.