Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - WILL DJ ENVY GO TO JAIL | $40M PONZI SCHEME EXPOSED

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

WILL DJ ENVY GO TO JAIL | $40M PONZI SCHEME EXPOSED

This multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme started in 2017. He is one of three hosts of an extremely popular urban podcast, The Breakfast Club. I've never seen that ever in my history of being a financial advisor of a multi-millionaire doing someone a favor of making them rich. That's not how it works. It's a very good chance that DJ Envy already went and has already worked his deal. And what's what people don't understand.

There's red flags everywhere throughout this entire story. Throughout the entire story, there's red flags, things that would make you say there's no reason, no real reason why I should hand over my money to this person. But the road is paved with someone who's covering for him. And that would be, in my estimation, DJ envy. this extremely popular DJ slash podcast host who is bringing credibility to a man who otherwise would have no credibility. Right. So how did this? I'm sorry. So how did this start? One is a Caesar went to prison or was convicted. I don't know if he went to prison, but did he go to prison? Yeah. Oh,

oh, absolutely he went to prison. So this is a man who is a, who is a, convicted criminal who claims that while he was in prison, he learned how to invest in real estate. Now, I'm not sure if he took the course that you created. Maybe. I wonder where he was. Right. I may have contributed to this. Right. But he claims that he was in jail and he learned how to invest in real estate by another prisoner. Now, this man, Caesar Humberto C. I, Pena. This man is a self-admitted drug dealer, but he claims he did not go to jail for drugs. He went to jail for fraud, all right? He went to jail for fraud. And he's claiming that, you know, while he was in jail, he learned how to invest in real estate. And according to the United States

government, this multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme started in 2017. Then, in 2018, he ends up partnering with Rashon Casey, aka DJNV. For those people out there who have no idea who DJNV is, he is one of three hosts of an extremely popular urban radio show, but most people know it in its podcast form online, on YouTube, and the podcast of The Breakfast Club. Popular show, they bring on a bunch of different type of guests. They bring on, you know, movie stars. They bring on pop stars and they even bring on politicians. Like people who run for the president of the United States will pop up on this show. So they have some clout. It's not just a regular podcast. It's backed by a corporation by IHeart Media. And this man brings him on in

2018 okay and this man talks about how he is a 50 million dollar real estate mogul 50 million dollar real estate mogul and they talk about how they want to give back to the community once again to me red flag they're going to give back to the community and dj envy caesar pinia they're partnering up to host real estate investing seminars targeting the low income community now that you have no idea why that makes no sense give me a second right real estate is not something that low income people normally invested right real estate actually takes some capital you get into so it doesn't quite make sense why they are hosting they weren't free but they were extremely low-cost real estate investing seminars all around the country, but mainly focused in

low-income communities. Now, they claim it was for charitable reasons. They want to help people learn how to build generational wealth. Another red flag, when people start talking about helping you build generational wealth, that's normally a lead-in to a scam. But other people are saying that these real estate investing seminars was a sales funnel to get qualified people in the door to lead them to this so-called Ponzi scheme because there are many people that are saying yes there's everyday victims of this Ponzi scheme who were everyday mailman regular job people but there are also many people claiming that drug dealers and people with dirty money saw this also as an opportunity to invest. And there's a lot of paperwork behind

what they were doing. But this guy is promoting him to millions and millions of people in basically legitimizing him to the point where people are giving him multiples of millions of dollars to get a ridiculous return. We're talking about 30% in five months. 30% in five months, for some people who are only investing $60,000, some people who are investing $200,000, there's some people who invested a million dollars with this man. And they explicitly say they invested because he was partnered with DJ Envy. DJ Envy is a part of a huge corporation, I Heart Music, and they figured someone else did the due diligence. How was he able to get to this stage and no one do due diligence so when you get to the mailman or the uh you know the guy

working a regular nine to five he believes dj mb did some due diligence i heart radio did some due diligence so they're just thinking okay this guy is legit when all along the whole path there's no way it can be done there's no way they can be done there's if you look at the the paperwork I think, honestly, this was never legitimate. I don't think it was like, oh, we're really going to invest in stuff and give people returns. Because we see case after case after case. He has multiple people investing in the same property, not knowing that there's other people on it. We're talking about a property that they bought for, let's say, $150,000.

And they end up raising almost. like two or three million dollars to buy a property that they already own now you can say yes you got to renovate the property but a property that was bought for about 150,000 dollars and eventually sold for what you would think is a pretty good uh markup about 500,000 dollars but when you have five million dollars worth of investors money in it you're never going to turn a profit out of that because it's mathematically impossible to be able to turn a profit when you're overly collecting money for properties and you're not telling other people what's going on. It's ridiculous. Right. So was he prior to raising that money, right, prior to getting connected with DJ Envy, is there any proof

that Caesar Pena got out and what was flipping properties at all? I don't see a whole lot of history of that, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt, right? I'll give him the benefit of doubt. And let's say he did buy a few properties. Let's say he did do some fix and flips and stuff like that. But to sit up there, I think it was like October the 15th, 2018 was the very first appearance on the Breakfast Club,

on this huge podcast slash radio show. He sat up there and claimed that he was a $50 million real estate mogul. It's virtually, and it's like, it's just ridiculous to even make that claim that he's a $50 million real estate mogul, but he needs micro investors of $60,000. Those two things don't work well together. Right. Right. It's impossible. Well, so when did he get out of prison?

Do you know that? Oh, no. At the top of my head, I'm not sure when he got out. I believe it was in the 2000s, though, right? I think he probably got in prison, like the early. 2000s and probably got out in the mid 2000s when he got out so we're not talking about a lot of time we're not talking about in the 90s he's not he's not that old he's heavy and you know weight kind of makes you look older than what you are but he's not that old he didn't go to jail in the early

90s and he had like a 10 15 20 year run to be able to become this 50 million dollar mogul the U.S. government is claiming that this starting in 2017, he didn't have really enough time to amass a $50 million empire. And then all of a sudden has the time to travel around the country with a DJ and host real estate investing seminars for people who are low income. I don't think people understand the target audience that they have and that they're dealing with the average income of these people are sub 50,000 dollars a year like right people who live paycheck to paycheck but they're telling them that they can become rich wealthy generational wealth off of investing and then here's the here's the thing that i think is going to sink dj envy because

there's so much there's so much recordings and videos on this i don't i don't think these clowns understand that in the world that we live in now, everything is recorded. Like your promotions, all the social media, it doesn't go away because you delete it off your Instagram. Someone still has a recording of it. Someone retweeted it or something like that. There's a recording of this.

Back in the day, when you do these seminars or you make these claims and it's face to face, yeah, maybe you can deny it. It's going to be extremely hard for them to deny this stuff. But there was a promotional video that is still online to this day. With DJ Envy, he is saying, listen, I know you guys are busy. It's hard for you to travel around the country and find these deals. Because remember, the funnel, based on what people are saying, the funnel is getting these people to the

seminars, getting them hype about how much money you can make in real estate. But they're not real estate professionals. They don't have the time to vet the deals. They don't have the time to be the landlords. Here's the solution. The solution, is you can partner with us. We'll find the deals. We'll be the landlords. All you have to do is invest and then you get money by the mail. You sit back by your mailbox and you'll get money by the mail. And that right there is the telltale sign that DJ Envy does not understand the role that he's planned. He in my estimation, he's a person that is using his level of influence to monetize that influence, in a sense, in a form of payover.

Okay? I did a video on my YouTube channel called Podcast Paola. And in this video, I show evidence of how many of these fake gurus they are paying the podcast hosts to get on their shows to be able to promote their seminars, their masterminds, and all that type of stuff. Well, DJ Envy is caught up in an issue with podcast. Paiola in this way. He had another individual

who he partnered with. This individual he sells credit repair. And he basically told him this. He was already doing the seminars with him. He said, listen, I like what you're doing at the seminars, teaching people how to fix your credit.

I want to bring you in and bring you on the show. The Breakfast Club. This is going to make your business pop. You get on the Breakfast Club. All of a sudden, you have exposure to millions and millions of people. So the guy's excited. Here's the catch.

Allegedly, DJ Envy wants 25% of this man's business. 25% equity position in another man's business. And what is, you know, what is DJNV going to give him? Is he going to give him like, you know, let's say the company's worth, you know, $100,000 what he gets to, no, no, no. his buy-in to the company is the exposure is the come on the show i bring you on the show i post you on my instagram i want 25% of the business and the guy goes for it he goes for the deal so he cannot claim dj mb he cannot claim that hey i'm just bringing these guys on uh i was unaware of their

business practices i was unaware of what was going on when he's literally the business partner of these guys and he's not disclosing it that's another issue he's not disclosing to the audience that he is having a financial incentive of the of the audience working with these people he's making money but when the shit hits the fan when these guys get arrested when everyone is finding out that these properties are way over leveraged you got millions and millions of dollars so-called invested in these properties he wants to throw up his hands and say, hey, I was just interviewing people. And that will never turn out good for him because there's too much of a paper trail showing that he was intimately involved in a lot of the stuff that was going on.

He was in, these guys have the same office. Let's be clear, like people would come in, these potential investors would come in and they would be greeted by DJ Envy before they walk into the room in hand Caesar Pena allegedly thousands of dollars hundreds of thousands of dollars one guy million of dollars there's no way that he can divorce himself from this situation even though of course to his audience he's trying to claim I didn't know what was going on initially he said that Cesar Pena did nothing wrong but let's be clear on the timeline here a lot of stuff happened when the allegations that his business partner was scamming people, he claimed it's a

misunderstanding, miscommunication. Maybe we need to find out what's going on. I know lots. I met lots of guys in prison that were there on a, it was a, it was a misunderstanding. It was a misunderstanding. Right. Yeah. It's a miscommunication. But ultimately, when more evidence started coming out he was trying to i guess protect his reputation right he out of his ego he goes on live so he he gets interviewed by someone on instagram live this uh individual his name is tony robinson goes by tony the closer robinson this guy is a real estate investor himself So he's the one who started getting this information from the alleged victims. The alleged victims are sending messages to a man named Tony Roberson.

And Tony Robinson is trying to figure out what's going on. He basically repeats what the victims are telling them. He says, hey, DJ Envy and Caesar Pena, they have people claiming to be victims of an alleged Ponzi scheme. What's going on? Because Tony Robinson's following is big enough, he has over like 300, 400,000 followers on Instagram. This now alerts DJ Envy to have to respond. Because before, based on the victims,

they're saying he ignored all of our outcries to do something. But when a big enough influencer in his saying space, in the real estate space said something, now it's time to respond. So they go on live together, which, listen, grifters, don't go on live. If you're not prepared, don't do it. And you're going to tie yourself down to a narrative that you're going to have to try to walk back later. Well, especially with someone that does know what they're talking about.

You know what I'm saying? Like you can with real estate, listen, in real estate, you can talk around somebody who doesn't have any clue. Yeah. You know, in finance, if this, if I'm talking to a guy has no idea, you can talk around. him very quickly and get him confused and he doesn't you only have to have a little bit of knowledge on a subject to make somebody else think that you're a you know you're an absolute you know master at it yeah um but so but if the guy the other guy like listen i start talking about mortgages to another mortgage broker you know or finance or something along those lines and he he you know and he knows it

then you also immediately know when you're talking to somebody in that industry the moment you start talking to another financial advisor or, you know, you're a financial advisor, right? Yeah, I'm a certified financial plan. Yes. Right. Sorry, certified finance. No, no, no. It's a type. Financial advisor is a broad term because sometimes, you know, people who sell insurance say that financial advisors. Stockbrokers say that financial advisors. I'm a certified financial plan. And that means I am literally certified to give people financial advice. Okay. So at the moment you talk to another guy in your industry, you don't have to talk to him for, he doesn't have the same thing. You talk to him for three minutes and

you immediately know he knows what he's talking about like he absolutely he's got I don't have to explain to him with you know DTI I don't have to explain to him any of the terms I'm talking about I don't have to break it down you know immediately and the other thing I was going to say I wanted to mention and then I'll let you keep talking is that uh DJ envy listen I don't have the platform he's got and I can tell you right now I'll do a podcast on somebody and five or six people If it gets 50,000 views, I got five, 10 people reaching out to me telling me, yo, bro, what that guy said was a lie. He this, he that.

I grew up with him. That's bullshit. That's not what I have. He didn't shoot that guy. So, and so, you know, he's in prison right now. Immediately. Yeah. So the idea that you're on the breakfast club and you're promoting this guy and people are losing

money hand over fist and there. And you never, I didn't hear anybody complaining the hell you didn't. You knew way before. people must have definitely been and the problem is the feds the feds are going to go pull all those records yep and if you say oh i didn't see those really because we're also got your phone you know what it's that that's matt that's exactly what happens he goes on this live stream with tony who is a real estate investor he starts telling this narrative about yes you know we've invested in different projects together and you know i've made money with him and then tony

stops him and says listen we had a phone call last night before you agreed to come on you told me he owes you money you told me he owes you a half a million dollars and there's a problem dj mb start to stuttering all of a sudden the whole environment changes and he says no he doesn't owe me a half a million dollars we invested in a property together and i just haven't got my money back yet so we kind of he tries to walk it back but what he doesn't realize is tony records all phone conversations all phone conversations are recorded when you talk to tony so later on tony plays a recording of him clearly stating that he knows something is wrong then remember the guy that i I talked about earlier. The guy who owns the credit repair company, who DJ envy in my mind,

he kind of strong arms them for 25% of its company. He is a victim of Cesar Pena. And they have DMs, they have several communications of him admitting the guy owes me money. And here's the crazy thing. In the communications, DJ MB tells him, I told you not to invest your money with Caesar. Yeah, if he knew he was a good investment, he wouldn't be telling people don't invest. He said, I told you not to invest another person, apparently based on reports, another big YouTuber by the name of Omie and the Hellcat. Now, Omie and the Hellcat is in jail right now for another fraud that was committed based on pirating TV broadcast, but before he went to jail, Ome and the Hellcat said that he was going to invest with, to invest with Caesar.

All these names is tripping me up. Omey and the Hellcat, based on reports, told another YouTuber he was going to invest with Caesar Pena. But DJMB told him not to. Here's the problem that Eli, from what happened in common sense, this is what he kind of brought to me that I wouldn't even thinking about. DJ Envy is claiming he knew nothing of the investment issues, but we have case at the case of him steering people. People who's close to him, he's saying don't invest with Caesar, right? If they're close to him, he'll tell you don't invest with him.

but he's constantly doing seminars, and he's on his own podcast and radio show claiming that he is a great opportunity to invest with. You can partner with us. It's all of this stuff where he's steering his friends away. But everyday people who are claiming that they are victims of this so-called Ponzi scheme, he let them get in. To me, if he's not already trying to work out some plea deal, I think he's going to be behind bars.

Because there's no way that he can walk back all of the digital footprints that he's made in this case when it comes to a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme that he's claiming he knew nothing about. So let's talk about this for a second. The indictment, is DJ, is DJ Envy named in the indictment or is he like an unnamed co-conspirator? He's unnamed in the indictment, but we clearly can see. who they're referencing, but he's not referenced as a victim. I think this is important because he's claiming now that he's a victim, that he invested money and he didn't get money back. But he's, let me pull it up. I have it right here. Yeah, I was wondering, how do they, do they, do they just call

them like to buy his initials? Sometimes they'll just give you initials. Sometimes they'll call it somebody, you know, unnamed co-conspirator, you know, B, you know, A, B, C. This is how he's named. He says, Pena and his business partner, a well-known disc jockey and radio personality, individual one. That's how he's right. Business partner in individual one. So here's the thing. When this whole thing's going down? Because I don't know if you realize this because I've seen lots of indictments.

And sometimes they'll give them initial. Sometimes it's like individual one, individual two. You know, sometimes a, B, C. It depends on how the prosecutor wants to write it up. Right. And they'll list them as like an unnamed co. That's what an unnamed co-conspirator is, right? So a lot of people don't realize, like, for instance, if DJ Envy, who's clearly got money, he sees this going down.

If he at some point got concerned and told a few people and reached out to a criminal defense attorney, that criminal defense attorney is going to go to the U.S. He's going to say, you're going to be indicted. So your best bet is to go in now and cooperate. If you go in now, we can probably, we may be able to work it out so you're not indicted so that you're not held responsible. You'll testify in front of a grand jury. You'll help them acquire the indictment. You'll be a key witness.

If it goes that far, hopefully for just because of the urban community, he obviously doesn't want to cooperate. Like he doesn't want to be on the stand. He didn't even want his name on it, you know, you don't want to be a snitch. Right, right. But his lawyer, if he's smart, went to a lawyer is going to say, look, you would rather go in and be the person that is the, is the person who's a complaintant or a cooperating witness as a, you know, as opposed to being, you know, listed right along with him. Right. Right.

Right. So what happens is those people, a lot of times, they don't name. I don't understand why they didn't name this person, 95% or 90% of the time, it's because is, 90% of the time, if they didn't name them, it's because they've already decided to cooperate. So they've already gone in. They cooperated. They went in front of the grand jury. They helped you get. And usually, a lot of times that will, sometimes they'll, they'll work out a deal with you where it's like, look, we won't charge you. It's called pre-trial intervention. So sometimes they'll go in and they'll say, look,

you pay back five million you know we looked at it you explained everything what was happening you helped us and it doesn't it looks like you really only made this much money and you weren't that you know the prosecution of course the us government they'll either they could be you could be the same person same exact thing and it this is the difference between cooperating and not cooperating you don't cooperate you're a scumbag you are 100% guilty just as guilty as him you owe half the money you owe all the money you owe us jointly and separately you owe this you know you're a horrible person. You, you guided people. You robbed little old ladies. And then if you go, but if you go in first and you talk to them, then it's like, you know, you weren't that involved. You didn't really know. You know, and we're going to let you pay. If you've just quite, the way we figure you maybe made a couple million. So, and you may be contributed to a couple million. We're going to let you pay back a couple million. And we'll list you as an unnamed co-conspirator. You testify and crime the grand jury. And if he goes to trial, most likely he won't. If he goes to trial, if he goes to trial, then we're going to have you testify. But we're going to try hard so that that doesn't

happen. And we'll try and keep your name out of it. And you're like, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Because if your defense attorney did the right thing, he scared the shit out of you and let you know, you're about to do 15 years. Because I'll tell you one thing after, you know, I know one of the victims is a guy that son died and he got like. Oh, it's a horrible. Yeah. It's a horrible story. Yeah. It's got like three kids. So you my sons, my grandchildren are now living with me. My we got a couple hundred thousand dollars which i was trying to invest for my grandkids i gave it to pinia he took all the money it's gone now i got these three kids how am i going to raise them i work as a garbage man you know or i work at walmart or i work as whatever he does yeah i mean

it's the type of story that you don't want people to hear on the news right this guy this guy invested money then dies but before he dies he's trying to get the money back Like he, this guy is trying to get, oh, okay, I didn't know that was. I thought he died and they got like a settlement and his, his father invested it for him for his grandkids. What I remember, that could very well be. What I remember from the case was the guy who died invested the money was trying to get the money back. Then died before he got the money back. And now the grandfather is stepping in trying to keep trying to get the money.

the money back still from Cesar P. Listen, you don't want to be in front of a judge at sentencing and have that guy stand up and explain that situation. Listen, I had, and even, even someone like, like, DJ Inve who's like who might be like, I'd ever met this guy. I don't know anything. It doesn't matter. Listen, I refinanced someone's house that they owner finance the house to me. Uh-huh. I convinced him to owner finance the house to me.

um gave them 10% down like 25 grand or something they owner finance the house i satisfy the loan on the house i borrow a bunch of mortgages against them against the house i pull out whatever half of them or no like seven 800 thousand whatever um i walk away with you know i try and get away with money actually didn't get away with all of it but whatever i was close um and by the way just so that everybody understands they didn't lose their house they you know they they filed some paperwork with the insurance companies, they got the, they didn't, you know, I think I owe them. They're part of my restitution. It's like 11 grand. They paid not because I sold 11 grand from them. I cost them 11,000 to attorney's fees. Oh. They had to pay an attorney and I owe the money

for the attorney fees. You know, and by the way, these are not poor people. This is a rich doctor. Whatever. I'm not trying to justify. Well, maybe a little. But, you know, it sounds worse than it is. But it's still, it's bad. It's still horrible. Here's the thing. Basically, these people end up getting the house back, but they had to pay an attorney like $10 or $11,000. Right. And, you know, they actually resold the house and, you know, so it's fine. But when I get in front of the, I get in front of the judge, suddenly they had a sick child that needed surgery, that Mr. Cox knew this. I didn't know that.

I never heard about a sick child. What are you talking about? Like, I mean, when I got in front of the judge, people are saying stuff that I'm like, what is going? going on? Like, you know, this person was in a wheelchair. What? Who was in a wheelchair? I, you know, I never met that that person. I don't, you know, get the, and these are, it's, you can imagine. Oh. Like, you can't get in front of a judge and have people saying stuff like that. It's, it's the absolute, like, you're already a scumbag. Right. Now you're just a scumbag of like the fourth magnitude or something. Like, it's, it's going to be horrific. And I'm

sure his attorney told him that. And there's a very good chance that, you know, that you know dj envy already went and and has already worked out his deal yeah you know for him to now say you know i'm a victim like his lawyer needs to explain to him like shut your mouth stop talking like you don't if you so you can get a deal there's where people don't understand you can get a deal and they think oh i already got my deal oh don't think the feds won't yank it out from underneath you if you irritate them you go around talking about the case talking about how you didn't do anything and doing like stop stop that like that's a bad idea bro if your lawyer said don't talk like maybe not talk

you already got a deal ruin it that's the key his business is talking right his business and his business isn't just talking but it's talking about messy stuff in urban culture so it's extremely hard for him to avoid the conversation because if this would happen to one of the many urban celebrities that when stuff like this pops up, he's laughing and he's making fun of it on his show. How can he now avoid the uncomfortable conversations of allegations of scamming in his life?

Because you can name any big celebrity in urban culture. Anytime they had a scandal, that scandal was highly featured on his show. So I know his lawyer is probably telling them, don't talk but that that's that will hurt his brand just as much as being a snitch to not talk about it because now he has every enemy that he made in the industry that he's in now they get to do to him what they what he's been doing the others for decades listen listen it's no fun when the rabbit has a gun you know what I mean he's this is a perfect example of that oh man

Well, I was going to, so let's talk about, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, Pena for a second here. So, you know, and, um, I'm going to mention, I'll mention this is that, you know, when I first got out, right, like, like I, I, you know, I, I taught the real estate class and did all that. Like when I first got out after I was on, um, I went on concrete and I got a bunch of views. And, you know, I wasn't was thinking about starting a channel and was kind of, you know, really the same time you and I start talking. So I remember, so I had a buddy and I had a couple of buddies. I actually know multiple people that sounds so horrible.

I know multiple people that have Lamborghinis for some reason. Not that I have any money, but I know guys that have money. And one of the guys was like, listen, well, one of the guys was like, look, you know, we can get a bunch of pictures of you in my car, drive in my car, put it on social media. And then I had another guy who lives, there are these two buildings in downtown Tampa that are like super tall. Like way high skyscrapers. It's all residential living. Long bendy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going.

Keep the fun going. going and one of these guys lives on not the top floor but the second to the top floor and he was like bro we bring we come in here take pictures of here you on the balcony like we could really set you up to do seminars and do this do that and I was just like I feel like that's the kind of thing that got me in prison like it wasn't seminars but it was it's it's lying and I kind of promised myself in prison, it wasn't going to do that kind of stuff. And here's an, and so I was like, yeah, I'm okay. I'm good. I'm not, you know, no, you know, sometimes you got to fake it till you make it. No, you don't really have to. Like, I don't have a problem with that. But I mean, if you have

nine lives, if you have two lives, if you have a second chance, whatever, I burn those. It's over. You know, if you're smart, you go to prison, you realize, you know what, I'm better off living in someone's spare room and working at McDonald's than coming back here or even coming close right i don't even i don't even have the conversations with people that i think could get me coming close so even if some i have guys that reach out to me and say bro like i'll give you money if you'll just talk to me about this and about and they're like they're scams like you start to realize oh you're talking about me hoping you do a scam now bro i would never tell stop it because i'll tell they want the game they want the sauce oh yeah yeah yeah yeah the uh you're saying no sauce

Yeah, yeah. I thought she said salt. Yeah, they want the sauce. What is it? The bandman, uh, Kevo or whatever his name is. Um, that. Oh, yeah, he's the worst. But so these guys, they called me up. Listen, I had one guy. And I know anybody listening to her has heard me say this before. But I would tell people like, I text, you know, they hit me up on a Instagram. And I'm like, yeah, bro, I'm not interested. Thanks. I had one guy that hit me up. And basically kind of started up a conversation. You probably have these kind of fans that they, they end up saying, asking you a question or two. And you answer them. And you answer them. and you can almost kind of become friendly okay and then and then one day there the guy was from new york and one day he said listen like he's asking me like advice and i'm giving him dad advice you know um you know nothing you know the very the very the vanilla the advice that i got as a as a as a dad that honestly 80 percent of the people that reach out to me like didn't have dads or anybody so i give him the very basic work hard save your money live under you know this guy ends up and he tells me look i went to prison

You know, I've been to prison. This is what happened. And, you know, whatever. And he went to prison, got out. He's kind of restarted his life. He's got like a hair. He got a couple salons that he owns. And one's like in Manhattan.

It does really well. Anyway, he, so we're going back and forth. And one day he says, hey, man, by the way. And this is after six months. I'm coming to Tampa. Okay. So he says, so he comes to, I said, okay. He said, man, I'd love to buy you coffee.

I'm like, okay. Now he is, I said, what do you? he's coming to Tampa for. He's like, oh, my girlfriend lives in Tampa. And I, I'd never heard that in six months. I've never heard that. I was like, oh, okay. But I'm also talking in this guy once or once a week, maybe every two weeks. And these are very brief, you know, very, um, uh, cursory conversations, most of them. So, so he, he comes to Tampa. I drive out, listen, I drove like 30 minutes to go have coffee with this guy. Just to do it just to be nice guy. So I go to Starbucks. He buys me a cup of coffee. We sit down. He's like, okay, and we talk for a couple

minutes and in the middle of talking he says um look man i i came out here because i wanted you to know know that i was i'm for real and i went oh okay about what and he goes you know i wanted to let you know like i'm a real dude like this isn't some bullshit like i'm i'm a stand-up guy we've been talking we're friendly and i wanted to ask you some advice but i wanted to fly down here and ask you in person because you know i'm that kind of guy and i thought i don't know what that means but i was like okay well i go well what's the advice like what do you mean he says listen if you could help me run a scam i just need like half a million dollars he's like we could get like a half a million or get like a million he said i'll split i'll split it with you

and i went okay okay i said so what is it you want me to do he's like like you know you can show me like how to run that the real estate scam help me kind of walk me through it i said all right all right i said listen i own a mortgage company for three or four years and i had years of experience prior to that couple years through so it's like five years experience committing fraud on a fairly regular basis and i said you think i can sit down and have a conversation with you and explained you within an hour or two how i did what i was doing and you're going to be able to pull it off i said the skill set that i have would take an exhausted amount of time to to convince you of or sorry to educate you on right and even then it's still trial and error you're going to fuck up a few times of course

I said, when you fuck up, that's going back to prison. So I said, so it take years. And he's like, well, what if I, and if you just help me, like, line it up? Like, I'll go in the bank. And, and like, I was like, yeah, but you'll get caught. Something will happen. I said, you'll tell somebody. You'll tell a friend.

You'll suddenly have this money and you'll tell this person or tell that person. No, I wouldn't do that. He said, bro. I said, even if I got called, bro, like I didn't tell on nobody when I went to prison last time. I ain't going to tell on you. I said, yeah, but this is the feds. and you're going to be doing time like you can't believe you can't believe the numbers they'll give out you'll tell and he's like no i wouldn't do that bro i said the real problem is this i said that you think

that you have to tell and he was what do you mean i said i'm already on your indictment he is what do you mean i said when they grab you for running this scam right said they're going to grab your phone not that they need your phone you know they can they can get it off the cloud or whatever but let's say they grab your phone i said they're going to go into your phone phone. They're going to run all the numbers. And they're going to see that one of the numbers that one of those numbers is a number to a guy who ran the same scam that you just got caught for. I said, that guy's Matt Cox. He's currently on probation. This would be his third conviction for the same scam. And they know that I'm on conviction. And they know the first time I was on

I was on probation. I stole 11.5 million. Then when I took off on one, I sold another fucking three or four million. I said, they're going to believe I'm definitely capable of it. absolutely they're going to add me to the indictment they're not even going to have a conversation with me because they don't have to they can just walk into the to the grand jury and say hey by the way but this number came up on his phone even talking to the guy six months i said they're going to know you bought a ticket you flew down here they're going to know that we text when you were down here you texted me several times because we arranged this meeting and at this point we believe that clocks talked to him and told him how to run the scam i said i said do you understand i said they're just going to explain the they're going to pull out some sheets of paper

And they're going to, they're going to say, and by the way, he's done this multiple times, I'm on the indictment. I said, because I've been on the indict, I've been indicted and I've, because I've, I've, I've been convicted of multiple felonies exactly like this. I said, I cannot even go to trial and get on the stand and defend myself because the moment I do, they can bring up all those charges. So I said, I have to sit there and let the U.S. attorney explain through documentation how he believes I'm involved. I said, honestly, I said, if I was sitting on that jury knowing what I know right now, I said, I convict me, knowing I didn't do anything based on what they're going to tell them. I said, and that's before they go to you and say, listen, you stole a million dollars. You got caught. We got some of the money back. You can do, you can plead guilty and take and say nothing and take it on the chin. You've got a criminal record. You've been in prison. You've been on probation several times. You got a criminal record. You're on. You're on. You're on. You're on. you're like a level four you're going to get 10 years for that million or you can testify against Matt Cox who we desperately want and you'll do you'll do two years and that guys and then they're and then you're going to say no I ain't going to do that man I'm not like that and then

they're going to say do you love your children who's going to take care of your children who's going to take care of your mother and father who he was taking care of by the way who's going to what about your business do you think that somebody's going to run your business do you think that I said they're going to say all that they're going to say you're going to do all this for some scumbag that's going to prison no matter what we've already got him indicted he he's already cox is already trying to get a fucking deal for five years and we know he didn't do nothing you know what I'm saying like it's like he's going to test him like I said you don't have to I said because I'm going to take a plea as soon as they get me in the room

and they show me all their evidence that they have and I know how the feds work I said I'm going to say can I get a plea I'm not going to trial I'm going to ask to get to please. Because I think I'm guilty. And he just was like, damn, bro, like, I didn't, I didn't think about, well, I won't get caught. I said, oh, oh, that's, that's what I was waiting for. I just needed your personal guarantee that you won't get caught. Right. What's wrong with people? Like, but I've had multiple, that was the worst one, because the guy actually flew down. Flew down. And I've had multiple conversations. with these guys. And that conversation went on and on. He's like, well, what if I gave you like a like if I gave you 10 grand? No. Well, what if I gave you? No. No. But I've had so many of those. So to me, some people go to prison, they realize they're in a horrible position. They just never be in that position again. And that's me. Some of the guys go in. They learn a little bit. Right. They get out and they try something. So I could see, um, you know, I could see Pena getting out, having some knowledge, flipping

a couple of houses, getting the lingo down. Yep. The buzzwords, the things that he needs to convince people who have no idea about real estate investing, he's going to sound like an expert to them. Listen, if I talked to somebody for 20 minutes about real estate, even now, you know I just got out of federal prison. You know it was for bank vault. You know it was related to real estate. I got people that are like, yo, bro, if you want to go into business, we put everything in my name, like I'll put up the money. Well, this and I'm thinking, what are you doing? I'm a convicted fraudster, not once, multiple times. So, you know, my advice is it was in the cabinet.

Why? So, sorry, that's my wife. Was it yours? Oh, yeah, it was there. I guess I'd drink her camomile. Um, see, so, uh, the judgment, the judgment, bro, the, with the box. Um, so, yeah, so it's like people, like you would think going to prison, he would be smart enough to know, all of this will come back. I mean, so at some point, he had to think when he started asking for money that he knew he couldn't invest.

And look, if he has flipped houses, then he knows how hard it is. Right. Right. Right. These shows are bullshit. Yeah, I was about to say the TV shows make it look like, oh, you buy a house for $50,000. You put $25,000 in it. Then now you're selling it for a half a million. They don't even give real numbers. They give projected numbers.

They don't talk about all the other crap that happened in the house. I mean, they really have a large group of people who are addicted to watching those shows. They really have them confused of thinking that, oh, I just need $20,000 to get started and I can be a multi-millionaire. That's not how it works. No, no, no. Listen, so many things go wrong every time I've done a rehab. First of all, every time I've done a rehab, you know, you buy it for 50,000.

You think, okay, it needs $25,000 and work. I'm going to make $25,000. That never happened one time. And I mean, I've made money. I have made $100,000. But with you made $100,000, I thought I was going to make $1,000. 50. Right. If you made 15, you thought you were going to make 25. You know, if you thought it was 25,000 in renovations, it was 35. It's always, if you thought like there's so many. And if you

thought you were going to have this thing renovated in a month back on the market and sold within three, it was going to be a turnaround time of 90 days. You're fucking delusional. That's not that never happened. Listen, committing fraud. Like I can get anybody in that. Anybody qualified. It doesn't happen in 90 days. Right. Like, you don't need your down. a job, credit, nothing. I need a warm body to show up. It's still more than that. Still takes down.

But the thing that I've written. You can be a fake person. You can be a fake person. It's not more than 90 days. I'm always amazed. And it's weird thing. I've seen it for so long. I'm always amazed by people's desire to be wealthy.

Their desire to be wealthy blocks all logic that they, that they demonstrate in other parts of their lives. I try to tell people that being a victim of a scam is not an intelligence test. You know, being a victim of a scam doesn't mean you're done. Now, let's be clear. There's a lot of marks

that, you know, you can tell they're not that high on the scale, but you can become a victim based solely on your desire to be wealthy. That's it. And that desire to be wealthy

clouds your judgment because we look at wealth. And I say this a lot. In the United States, people believe in wealth the same way that a 15-year-old boy who's addicted to porn believes in intimacy, right? A porn addict believes that money shots and rough sex is what intimacy is. In the U.S., especially in urban culture,

we think wealth is flying in a jet, throwing money in the air. Like, that's what being wealthy is. In reality, that's fake wealth. Like, real wealthy people don't do that. But our desire to be wealthy like that will let you block out all logic in your mind. It'll let you mortgage your home to give to a convicted felon to flip for you a couple of times because you want a piece of the American dream that does not. exist and that drive to be a part of something that doesn't exist leads many people to be in a

victim well what their version of the american dream because i think the american dream does exist the problem with the american dream is is it's it's working 40 or 50 hours a week it's living below your means it's putting money aside it's buying a house and it's having that house paid off by the time you're 60 or 65 so you can retire on what little pension you have if you're lucky and social security. Because if you don't own a house, if your house isn't owned outright by the time you collect social security,

you're kind of fucked. Yeah, you can't carry the weight of a mortgage. I tell all my clients, the plan is to have that mortgage paid off by the time you retire because the weight of that is going to have you greeting people at Walmart if you still have a mortgage in your 60-something years old.

It's not going to happen to you. So yeah, that's a great point. The American dream in most people's mind is a perverse thing. They don't understand what reality is. They don't understand how you can live a good life and not be bawling out of control. That's the problem.

Being a convicted felon, and having a YouTube channel, you get approached by people to say, hey, I'll pay you this much if you'll advertise this or advertise that. So I've been multiple times, and this was a couple years ago, we would get approached by cryptocurrency guys. They're starting a cryptocurrency.

Yep. And, and, you know, and at there, at one point, typically it's just a standard email and we ignore it. Or I would forward it to Colby, my editor. And he would review it and look at it and come back. And he'd say, hey, they're offering this, offering this. But honestly, I think it's probably a scam and it'll go under in six months. So I don't know if we want to be involved in that. It's up to you.

I was like, no, I don't want to do that. So we had one guy that really. hounded me like he was really Instagram everything like look if I just talked to you I really you know and I was like no I don't know enough about it it seems like a scam no it's not a scam I could put you get I want to do have a meeting with you so we we actually had a meeting with him I think it was Colby I think Colby was on it he was me Colby him and two other guys so we had multiple um we had a meeting with like four or five people on it and they're going through the scam or going the scam going through the the crypto thing

how they're, you know, what it's based on and all this stuff and they have this huge thing. It was long thing. But in the end, when it was finally said and done, I said, well, Colby and I will talk about it. And look, they were, once again, you don't have to have much knowledge to make somebody else think you're an expert. Right. So Colby and I got off and I was like, it sounds really legit. And it sounds like this. And he's like, it does, it does.

And Colby goes, I said, well, how much do you know about it? He's man, I don't know anything about it. Like, it sounds good. And I, he was, but it's up to you. And I went. I said, my problem is, I don't think I would know if it was a scam or not. And I feel like it could be a scam. And I think crypto in general is a scam in a way.

You may have a different, you know, but to me, look, if I buy stock in Ford, I've got something. So that's what I understand. And maybe that's old fashioned. So anyway. It's not, it's real. So to me, crypto, crypto is basically a public. public leisure, a public database where you incentivize people all around the world to keep record of this public database by giving them that same crypto. But ultimately, what is it worth?

What business problem does it solve for the marketplace? And when you have so many people getting hype over it and you can become a millionaire overnight, it is the greatest breeding ground for grifters it's the great opportunity to come into an unregulated market where you have a bunch of people thinking that they can become millionaires if they get involved there's no way you're going to be able to reel in all the hustlers that are going to take advantage of that opportunity right well so what it ended up happening is you know colby and i like to let that one that was really they were really pushing and they were serious and they had their you know whatever they're scam laid out or whatever it was. I went, I said, you know, my fear is Colby. I said, I think

they're probably, they're probably honest about it. Like, they seem honest and they seem, and Colby was like, right, right. Like they seem, he's like, no, they did seem genuine. I said, I agree. I said, but, but in the end, I can't jeopardize my freedom. Because even if they had good intentions, if it goes bad, completely not their fault. Let's say it goes bad. And one person calls my probation officer or files something with the court or goes to the U.S. attorney. I said, I'm going to be in front of a judge. And I, what am I going to say? No, no, your honor, what happened? Wasn't they're going to be like, yeah, let's play the tape. And I'm sitting there going, this is a great opportunity to you guys and I'm doing the whole

thing. And I'm like, I said like, I'm going to look bad. And that judge is going to throw me in jail. And I can't give him that opportunity. That's what is the interesting. thing is like i don't know why pinia didn't at least take that into consideration like and i kind of get it in a way because i can tell you right now if you get away with something once to to a normal people person they're like who right did it once got away with it thank god don't do that again but to a criminal you become emboldened right i'm just that good got away with it I know what I'm doing. Oh, I got away with that.

I can get away with this. Oh, I got away with that. Damn, I'm good. Right. And I think that's what I'd be. He probably borrowed some money from somebody, you know, and then invested it. Maybe even paid them back. Who knows?

And then, you know what I'm saying? Like maybe he had invested and did something and maybe they gave him 50 grand and he gave him back, you know, 55 or 60. And then somebody said, we should start borrowing money or you should think about that. And he said, yeah, you're right. And then the next thing you know, people were giving them money and he bought a car and he bought a house and he bought this and he thought now I need to borrow and it just spiraled out of control to the point where it's like

you know like we talked about like you don't want to start telling people I fucked up right I can't make the return every Ponzi schemer that I have ever witnessed I had an opportunity to talk to the worst thing to them was not failing the worst thing to them is having to give the money back, which would have been the easiest way to walk away and just say, you know what? I thought I was going to be able to make X return when I promised it to you.

I wasn't. I started losing money. Let me just give you 60% of your money back. Let me give you 50% of your money back. They're like, no, they believe so much into the hype of themselves and they like the lifestyle that they created for themselves that they decide to keep going.

Here's another point, I know a little bit of your history. I watch a lot of your interviews. You actually lived the life and had the money prior to going to prison, right? You were able to get some cars and live a nice lifestyle. You were around with pretty girls and stuff like that. So after going to jail, it's not like, oh, you know, now you're like, I don't want to risk it anymore. Based on what I'm seeing from Caesar Pena, he went to jail on like some petty credit card.

fraud stuff he wasn't like a guy who ever lived the lifestyle that he was able to live according to the indictment based on this scam i mean he wasn't in fancy cars or living in many mansions and stuff like that and then went to jail and was able to say i don't want to come back he was a petty grifter goes to jail and then now he has an opportunity to work with a national figure to meet celebrities. Oh, if you go to his Instagram, it's a who's who of people he's taking pictures with. And I'm also being told that many of these celebrities like Snoop Dog and stuff like that, they also were investors in different projects because like we were talking about with crypto, they also had an element of crypto in the scam as well. It wasn't just, it wasn't just real

estate because crypto was so big during the pandemic they created they created a crypto thing so they called it the original company was like flip house or flipped something that he was in flipping in j so they created this company called flip to dow for the crypto bros out there who are going to say j t you don't know what you're talking about i agree i don't know crypto like that i know investments i don't no crypto like that. But a Dow is supposed to be like this decentralized autonomous organization, which basically is you give people fractional shares of something, and now they are kind of like shareholders where you vote on stuff. Well, he created like this real estate crypto thing where people would come in. They'll be able to get courses. All these grifters have a course. They'd learn

how to invest in real estate from the course, but there'll also be investors in real estate projects through this crypto thing. And DJ Envy is listed as a co-founder in this company before they scrubbed it. But of course, we got the wayback machine and we can see where he's listed as a co-founder of this flip the Dow crypto slash real estate investing BS. And the way that they were promoting it, they was like, this is your. opportunity to invest in real estate but own fractional shares to not have to invest in actually buying the property yourself but you can own fractional shares i feel you don't know how stupid that sounds i think that's called a real estate investment trust that i was going to say you can be

licensed you have to be licensed to do that all of this is unregulated that's why a lot of grifters love the crypto space. It's unregulated. It's the Wild Wild West. So you can invest in crypto, but what they're saying is the money that you're using to invest in crypto, we're going to use it to invest in real estate and then you get a fractional share of the rental property and the flips. Well, why don't you just do a real estate investment trust? Because with that, you have to register with the security boards, either with the state or the SEC, and it's hard to do the grift so these guys i mean i see why clearly it happened to you you're going to protect your uh you know freedom at all costs but what was he protected prior to this grift

what life did he have to protect this is an opportunity for him to rub elbows with celebrities that i'm sure he's looked up to all his life we're talking about hip-hop stars movie stars, TV personalities. He's now being treated as if he's on the level of these people because he's doing the podcast. He even, 50 cent. So, you know, the rapper and multimedia mogul 50 cent. He was, I believe, projected to be an executive producer on a TV show

that would have featured DJ envy and Caesar Pena doing. like flipping houses like an HG TV show. So there was nothing but upside in his mind with this grip. Like going back to prison is not the worst thing. The worst thing is missing out on this opportunity.

When his wife, get this, when his wife is interviewed by the news in New Jersey about this grip, because at this point Caesar Pena is, you know, he's been arrested and everything, she walks out there and the woman is asking about where's the money the victims want to know where the money is she looks dead into the camera and says we don't know where the money is wearing a Chanel sweater that costs $1,200 right like how tone depth could you be to walk out there and say I don't know where the money is wearing a $1,200 sweater right it's like getting out of a Lamborghini we're wearing a mink with your diamonds

your diamonds on all your ring are all your fingers I was going to say how much money are we talking about multiple millions multiple millions based on what Tony Robinson has calculated based on

a lot of the victims showing receipts showing canceled checks and stuff like that he calculated somewhere near $50 million $50 million. It's hard. hard to piss away $50 million. Oh, it's extremely. I mean, I know a lot of people that can throw

money around, but to get rid of that much money is hard. Now, you still have to have bought something because you can't consume that much. So it has to be in diamonds or it has to be in jewelry, has to be in real estate, it has to be in vehicles, has to be like, it's got to be somewhere because it just doesn't keep that cost that much money. Vacations, I still can't. I don't see how you can spend $50 million. Like, five to six years, $50 million is extremely, extremely hard. I mean, it's not as if he was paying taxes on this money, right? Right.

It's not as if all of a sudden he's got tax returns shown because these are investors, right? That's not taxable income when someone invest in your company. So it's not, you know, it's not something that we report as taxable income. But here's the other side of it. Right before he was arrested for the alleged Ponzi scheme. him and his wife filed for bankruptcy. And there's issues right now, I believe, yeah, in a few days, I believe February to 29th, so it's a leap year.

On February to 29th, he's actually doing court because he's not complying with the bankruptcy court by giving all the documents that they're requesting. And I believe a judge issued that if he does not, he will be going back to jail. So yeah, the money somewhere, And the reason, I'm thinking that's the reason why he's not being up front and open with the bankruptcy court. Because the money, $50 million is hard.

But I will say this, I was privileged enough to see some bank statements. Now, remember that Flip the Dow company that I talked about, which was these investors that's supposed to be like this whole crypto BS? Right. I was able to see a bank statement for that company. And I'm seeing deposits, right? this is supposedly deposits from investors giving them money immediately after a deposit from an alleged investor goes into this business bank account they're supposed to be for fractional ownership shares and some sort of real estate thing we see debits of taco bell

door dash like immediately like as soon as money comes in this man goes to taco bell can you believe a man goes to taco bell more than one time a day Talk about three times in one day, he went to Taco Bell. He hit it big every time somebody invested. He was like, yeah, Taco Bell. I guess that was like the reward that he gave himself. Like stuff like that is so clear that there was no real long-term game, right? There's no end game.

Like he didn't have some sort of master plan that kind of wrap this thing up. I believe he was going and running as fast and giving. as much money as he could till he got to this point. I believe he knew this point was going to come because at the bare minimum, can we make a transfer from the business account to your personal account before you buy Taco Bell? You're buying Taco Bell the moment that the money comes in the account. I mean, that's the signs of a person that is not thinking in the long term. He's only thinking the short term of what I can get.

And then when you compound that with allegations of money laundering with drug money, this guy knew he was living on borrowed time with this scheme. Yeah. Yeah. So I wrote a story about a guy who ran a Ponzi scheme, by the way. It wasn't really a Ponzi scheme. We never gave anybody their money back. It was just a straight theft.

But literally, it's funny. You could see the bank accounts. Like, you know, I got all the, I got all of his discovery. And like someone would come and they would deposit $11,000. And immediately, $6,000 for insurance for his, his airplane, you know, $3,000 to his kid's school, $4,000 to pay for his kids', like, summer camp, like immediately. Then two weeks later, somebody gives him $29,000. Immediately he pays back, you know, he, his mortgage company gets a check for $8,000.

His, I mean, immediately all of his private, you know, personal bill straight out of the business account, you know, or sometimes he might deposit money into his personal account because there were debits that were coming out. So $2,000 in that account, who just made it. You know, it's like, yeah, I, it's funny because like, I was going to say Caesar Pena, like, if he isn't already cooperating, which he'd be a complete idiot to think he could just, you could just deny this away. then he's probably getting arrested very soon. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, my biggest beef with this, you know, when you set aside the fact that you have a bunch of people who are investing their life savings with a convicted criminal who went to jail for fraud, which is absurd. One of my biggest issues is the abuse of influence. During the pandemic, many, many many many so-called podcast hosts and online influencers use their influence to manipulate their audience to enrich themselves to the point of insanity you have big guys you have Floyd mayweather

who did a bunch of Ponzi things and he promoted different cryptocurrencies you have a lot of guys who when it comes down to it you ask yourself the question like at what point is enough enough because we're not talking about people who are broke you know these are supposed to be like high level celebrities and people who have you know good paying jobs and status dj mb should be a millionaire based purely on being a dj and hosting that show at what point does he say i need to partner with a convicted felon to bring people into a real estate ponzi scheme Like, what's the point other than vanity? Why just survive back to school when you can thrive

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People literally went on that show to DJ Envy's face and said, well, you're just an employee. You're not a boss. And I think that kind of hurt his pride to the point where he's like, I'm going to show y'all, I can make money outside of this show. And now he finds himself, you know, being partnered with a man who's indicted

by the U.S. government for a Ponzi scheme. You've got to say, you know, it doesn't matter what other people think. And a Ponzi scheme. I'm secure myself. And a Ponzi scheme that's targeting lower income, you know, blacks, that that that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, instead of saying, wow, I'm in a great position and being humble and thankful, you know, being appreciative of the position that he has, right? It's, no, no, how can I take advantage of this? Yeah. it's that competitiveness right it's the concept of you know now he's doing car shows he has this

like ridiculous uh car collection because he's competing with other celebrities like rick ross like rick ross has a car show where he shows off his car collection DJ envy has a car show where he's showing off his car collection and they're literally online beeping with each other over the whose whose car show is better like this is what you're going to risk your reputation and your freedom over a vanity play with other celebrities I don't get it

well you know it's funny I mean and you know we can wrap it up I know you're you give me plenty of time I appreciate it um what I was going to say is it's the same thing I think we you know we talked about earlier as like and it's it's the same thing that you and Eli

I said, was that like, look, you know, people that are genuinely, genuinely legitimate people that are helping you invest are not running around in Lamborghinis, flashing a bunch of diamonds, acting like jackasses, you know, throwing, you know, embedded in hip hop. Like every, like, how many people do you have to see that just, you know, they drive 200 miles straight into the wall after acting like a fool to raise. a bunch of money and convince you they're going to make you rich and but really they're they're they're rich because because of the scam that they're running on you you know real people people that really make money and really understand you know investing are geeks you know what I'm saying like they're not flashy they're not the cool kid they don't they're not driving a fucking Lamborghini they're driving a decent reliable and listen I used to borrow money from guys all the time like hard money lenders Okay. I'd have a hard money lender that he's got a couple million dollars of his own money.

He's got another couple million dollar credit line with the bank because that's typically what they do. They use some of their money and then if they if they need additional money, they go to the bank because when you borrow from the bank, if you use your own money, you're making 20, maybe 20% on your money because they charge 12% plus 2% for the loan. Then they charge every time they have to come out and release more money for for draws to do renovation. So it ends up if they flip that enough that same money enough times a year they make 20 22 percent because they're not that 12 percent and those two points right they flips over every four months so you start adding that up to the 12 it's 22 percent 23 percent so those guys come in but that's their money

like if they if they include the bank in that they got to pay the bank three or four percent that's not part of that that's not part of the plan we don't want to do that but we have the credit line right so these guys would show up I shit you not in 10 year or old volvos like they like your your car is 10 years old you're a multi multi millionaire you live in a million and a half dollar house like and that's in like Tennessee but a nice house that's not California you know a million and a half dollar house or two million dollar house and in in Tampa or Tennessee or Alabama is a mansion yeah and this was 20 years ago like these guys every

guy I knew that did this guys that owned they ran the pension fund for the law firm they were a part of and they one of the things they did was they invested in real estate hard money did hard money lending you guys been a lawyer for 30 years runs the pension fund he shows up in a 10 year old mercedes like it's 10 years old and it's not we're not talking about a big body bins we're talking about this thing's like a there's something your mom would drive like this is a low low grade and it's just like base model right but he lives in two million dollar house like he's investing in his house but he doesn't invest in things that depreciate right not the watch not the car because that that that that Lamborghini is super cool

that you bought for four hundred thousand dollars but if you turn around and need to borrow against it or turn it in it's worth 250 yeah six months later it's worth 250 yeah you're an idiot you know what I'm saying like if that was your like if you're telling me yeah man I'm a I'm a good investor you're driving a fucking Lamborghini bro right that thing's worth stupid man i paid 400 000 six months ago you can't get 250 for it now um but yeah they don't they don't think like oh my watch is a hundred thousand dollar watch we're trying sell it for a hundred yeah good luck yeah it's not worth a hundred bro it's not it's worth maybe 50 now and that's if you find another sucker like you so you know and they just don't you know

they don't it's not smart it's not the guy that's driving the 10 year old vehicle and looks like he's wearing he's looks like he wears those jeans five times a week and you know that guy and he and he's got a he's got a time x or he's wearing an iron man you know he like that's the guy you know what I was like that's the guy that's that's the guy that's the guy I want to invest with and you're right you know and he's got he's got credentials or he's been in the business for 10 or 20 years and he can tell you 20 people that will tell you this guy's amazing bro yeah no he's solid and he's not promising something outrageous it's reasonable it's doable that's why Bernie Madoff went

so long the returns were a little bit higher than most they were a little bit higher than most yeah it was just it was steady steady right it was reasonable those guys to say oh 30 percent in three months or 20 percent and three are you out the man that 20 30 percent and three like that's a hundred and 20 percent you're making over 100 percent a year that's not compounded the the thing that kills me about that is that some people think that they're extremely special and i'm not i i don't want to be that guy to say hey you know but why for the love of god why would someone who's a multi-millionaire come to you and take your life savings of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars and pay you 30 percent over a few months why

does he need you like i don't understand why people don't ask themselves that question why does the multi-millionaire, the guy with everything I want. Why does he need me? Oh, he's doing me a favor. He's doing me a favor to make me rich. I've never seen that ever in my history of being a financial advisor of a multi-millionaire doing someone a favor of making them rich. That's that's not how it works. It's funny too. Because that the same, you know, people don't realize like it's like somebody's worth you know, $50 million and they're pissed because they lost $2,000 and people are like, what's he pissed for? He's got $50 million.

Nobody wants to lose any money. It may not have financially hurt him, but I promise you, he's pissed about that $2,000. Nobody wants to get fucked. It doesn't matter how much it hurts you. And people don't realize, oh, if I had $50 million, yeah, okay, you wouldn't care about $2,000. If you had struggled to get $50 million. you'd be pissed about the $2,000. Good.

So, yeah, I mean, obviously there's, at some point, there is a point where you, you start spending ridiculous money. But that's, these are the billionaires. These are the guys that are worth $200 billion. And they know no matter how much I, I, no matter how many stupid things I can get, you know, Jeff Bezos can spend $80 million on a yacht because he's Jeff Bezos and he could just never blow enough money at this point. He knows he's good.

It's not going to happen. Yeah. It's not going to happen. But I, yeah, listen, I, I appreciate you talking with me about this. Oh, no, thank you. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and it's funny too, because real quick, like when we first met a few years ago, right, like three years ago, right? Because I hadn't even, had I even started my channel?

I don't think I even started it. You might have had it, but I doubt you had more than a thousand subs. It was mainly your interviews that you did on other podcasts. Right. So that would have been a little over three years ago, we spoke for the first time. Yeah, because it was before, it was before the pandemic. Right. Oh, okay. Cool. What, you know what? Then yeah, definitely. And I do remember that I was living, I was staying in someone's spare room. Like I, I, I had put up started putting up videos

while I was living in this person's spare room. And I had just, I just started putting up some videos. Um, because I remember the first time I spoke with you. I remember for some reason, I remember talking to the woman's house I lived in about you, you know, because I was telling her the story about the guy that you called me about. I remember her going, what? And I was like, yeah, this guy was a complete psychopath. Like it was disturbing how, what a, what a, what a, what a psychopath he was. But anyway, and then you started your channel. Yeah. Just how long after that during the pandemic? Yeah, it was, I think I probably waited towards the end of, uh, 20, So my first video I uploaded was like November of 2020.

And I got to thank you. And I want to thank you publicly because the advice that you gave me about that potential podcast that I was going to do, it helped create the blueprint of what pocket watching with JT is now. And now I'm at like, you know, 118,000 subs. And, you know, it really created a lane for how I can do my. show so i i want to say thank you i appreciate yeah no i appreciate it i mean it's super unique you know your your show is you you've got it you've definitely got a niche um and uh yeah um

i was going somewhere with this yeah it oh how did you name the channel it's pocket watching yes pocket watching with j t all right so for those people out there who's like why would you name it that all right so i am an actual financial advisor i am licensed to get people tax and financial advice in my world i have clients and they watch social media just like everybody else and they see these grifters just like everybody else but they'll call me up and they'll say hey j t check out this video and i i like what i'm hearing but i want to see if we can add it to my financial plan 99% of the time it's the grifters right 99% of the time the stuff that they're talking about is not only bad financial advice

is potentially illegal to do and I would give them my reaction I would draft up a letter explaining why what they want to do is stupid and I bill them for the hour but I thought to myself it might be cool if I make reaction videos to this online and I immediately I was thinking like I was going to name the show like financial fact checking with JT and someone told me they was like they're going to call they're going to say your pocket watch and pocket watch is a bad term in the culture. Pocket watching is someone who is not paying attention to their own business. They're minding your business and they're doing something bad.

And I said to myself, well, if they're going to say that I'm pocket watching, I'm going to beat them to the punch. I'm going to name the show Pocket Watching with JT. So anyone who says, oh, he's pocket watching. Like, yeah, Jackass. He named the show Pocket Watching with JT. I took that insult away from it. So that's why it's-

Yeah, you're going to lean into it. Right. And believe it or not, I mean, a lot of people were interested in the show just because of that name. I mean, I've had some people who are in Hollywood who like reached out to me and said, man, that was an interesting name. And they started watching the show just based on that pocket watching with JT. So yeah, absolutely. I leaned into it because I said, no one is trying to label themselves a pocketwatching. So I get to own this term on the internet.

Yeah, I was going to say the first person I think I ever heard do that was a Rush Limbaugh with a ditto heads. Do you remember Rush Limbaugh? Yeah. And they were insulting. Yes, I absolutely remember Rush Limbaugh. So they were these people, you know, he's like for anybody to know Rush Limbaugh was like a conservative talk show host. And and all liberals were were saying, oh, well, all of his followers, they're ditto heads. They just say they they just regurgitate anything he says.

And so they were trying to make it an insult. And so he started referring to all of his, to all those ditto heads out there. Here's what we're talking about today. So he made it a thing. And before you know it, guys, you would have t-shirts that would say ditto head on it. It's like, you know, you're taking, I'm taking your insult away. Right. I'm going to take your insult and make it my own.

So, yeah, I like that. Okay, well, cool. Listen, let me, let me, I'm going to do a, send me the link to the description. send me your link to your TV show when I'm so tired bro you say I go to bed at like 830 like I'm an old man we already had this conversation before the show but I'm an old man like I'm 54 years old I'm exhausted I can't sleep through the night anymore oh like if I just lay my head down boom I go to sleep remember you were younger and you would like laying tossed and it could never really go to take me 30 minutes to go to sleep an hour to go to sleep now as soon as i lay down clothes wide boom i'm like an old man and but i can't sleep through the night so i have to wake up for an hour and a half walk around come downstairs go back upstairs go to the bathroom lay back down try and go to sleep it's just a fucking world

hey you guys i appreciate you watching the video do me a favor if you liked it hit the subscribe button hit the bell so you get notified videos just like this and also we are going to leave um we're going to leave the link to pocket watching uh in the in the description box and we're going to leave any social media uh links also please check out the channel he's got a bunch of super cool uh super cool um videos and the channel's growing and i really appreciate you guys watching and leave me a subscribe leave me a comment and please consider joining my patreon thank you very much see you Thank you.