Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1585: 17-Year-Old Ponzi Scheme Mastermind & Ex-Con Ian Bick

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

In this fascinating episode Sal, Adam & Justin speak with HBO Max’s Generation Hustle star, Ian Bick, about how he, at age 17, conned $500,000 and ultimately ended up in prison.  How does a 17-year-old kid get three years in prison?! (1:50) Why he wasn't driven by money as a kid. (8:00) The dangers and consequences of chasing popularity and likes. (8:43) Blame me, not my parents. (12:00) Why he liked the buildup to the parties, not the actual parties. (15:29) From house parties to nightclubs, the next evolution of his business. (18:15) Feeling like the King of Danbury High School. (22:47) The next steps to getting attention and building his likeness. (28:55) The critical moments leading to the unraveling of his legitimate business. (32:11) The point when things start to get shady. (55:43) The series of unfortunate events leading to being caught. (1:08:19) When the law becomes aware of the situation. (1:21:33) His focus now post-prison sentence. (1:25:46) What was the ultimate high and low of this experience? (1:30:59) Why prison is everything you hear about on TV, but it's not. (1:38:19) What opportunities does he foresee post documentary? (1:45:14) Featured Guest/People Mentioned Ian Bick (@ian_bick)  Instagram Big Sean (@bigsean)  Instagram WK (@wizkhalifa)  Instagram Chief Keef (@chieffkeeffsossa)  Instagram The Chainsmokers (@thechainsmokers)  Instagram Steve Aoki (@steveaoki)  Instagram Related Links/Products Mentioned June Promotion: MAPS Prime, Prime Pro, and the Prime Bundle 50% off!  **Promo code “JUNEPRIME” at checkout** Visit Felix Gray for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Generation Hustle | HBO Max Originals Orange Is the New Black | Netflix Official Site Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump, right? In today's episode, we interviewed a very interesting individual. Now we found Ian Beck from the documentary series on HBO Max called Generation Hustle. Now this guy, I wanna say kid, he's an adult,

but he's young, has a very remarkable, interesting story. Now he definitely swindled people out of a lot of money, but it's it's hard to hate the guy He did some pretty remarkable things and in the way he explains it. It's very very interesting It's very entertaining. I promised you'll enjoy this episode By the way, you can find Ian Bick on Instagram at Ian underscore Bick B.I.C.K. Now this episode is brought to you by Felix Gray. Felix Gray makes some of the best blue light blocking glasses you'll find anywhere.

The best part is that these blue light blocking glasses don't change the color of everything around you. So they're not orange or red lenses, they're clear, but they're still effective and they're very stylish. Go check them out, head over to FelixGrayGlasses.com. That's F-E-L-I-X-G-R-A-Y glasses.com, forward slash mind pump. Also, there's only 72 hours left for our big maps prime, maps prime pro,

and prime bundle sale. All of them 50% off, again, there's only 72 hours left for this promotion. Go check them out, head over to mapsfitinusproducts.com, just use the code June Prime with no space for the discount. So Ian, my man, what I wanna do for the audience that doesn't subscribe to HBO Max, first of all, get out from underneath a rock

and subscribe to him. Yeah, no, I'm, and I know you're paid to say that. I just really think it's one of the best streaming services out there, but I do't get paid to say that. I just really think it's one of the best streaming service out there. But I do want you to kind of tell our audience, and I'm gonna start it off by saying this, and you can respond how you want. So, you know, we con 27 people out of a half a million dollars,

you get what, six, you get charged with six wire fraud, and then one, something else, you end up three years in prison is what you do at the age of 19, correct? Yeah, it started when I was 17, but I was indicted at 19. Okay, 19 is when you were indicted. And then you didn't quite serve all three years you got out in good behavior, imagine?

It comes out to you do like 80% and then you do some halfway house time which is like an intermediate step, kind of like a rehab facility, you could call it. And then I did a year on home confinement as a part of my conditions of supervised release. And so you gotta tell the audience how a 17 year old boy that comes from, it looks like a pretty good, healthy family. It looks like you have a good relationship with mom and dad

and I'm just assuming, but if it's not true, tell me. But how does a 17 year old kid end up getting three years of prison time and indicted for almost a half a million dollars of conning people out of money? I think it really start, like the whole story really starts when I'm this young kid who is in theater camp. I like being on the stage. I like being well liked and that popular center of attention person.

But at the same time, I also had a knack for standing out and kind of like booking authority. In middle school, they said don't wear flip flops at school. Of course, I was the kid that was wearing flip flops. I had the shirt from Hollister that said, this is what happens when you party naked. And I was wearing that around. I'd always get suspended over silly things. And that turned into one night my friend, Steven,

he's featured in the documentary. We go and take this insulating foam and foam the president and vice president of our communities cars, because they made this rule that said no golf carts. And I was this kid driving around with a golf cart, throwing firecrackers off at people's mailboxes, putting dog poop on a door and lighting it on fire.

Like I was that trouble kid. We were having like Roman candle wars, shooting bottle rockets at each other. And so we do that and we get caught. And ultimately that triggers a domino effect of me getting into this community service, doing this charity for community service hours, which triggers into me throwing house parties

and then doing these club nights and that just escalates and escalates and escalates. Well, isn't the first thing that you did was you actually part of your charity or the community service, that's the word I was looking for, your community service was you throw, you organize this party and you're donating it, right? You donate the money and you charge like $20 ahead and isn't that the first big one you throw? Is that right?

Yeah, so it started with wristbands, kind of like the live strong wristbands. We did it called Fight for the Homeless and they were a dollar a piece and I sell them, we raise a couple thousand dollars and I said, okay, I want to do a school dance. So I was 15 at the time and I get a meeting with the principal and I said, listen, I want to do a school dance. So I'm this, you know, I was 15 at the time and I get a meeting with the principal

and I said, listen, I want to do a dance that wasn't on the books for the year because I had like the prom, they had the snowball, homecoming, so they didn't want any other dances. I convinced the guy, he says yes. And from there, I do this night at the Matrix Dance at the Matrix Corporate Center in Danbury, which is like this big elaborate

building which just underwent like 20 million dollars of renovations and I do the dance. I execute it all on my own. I Plan it get about 300 kids to come and raise two thousand dollars Now did you get them to give you the place for free because you were donating it? How did you work that all out? So they gave me a really reduced price and they were at the point where they had no access to other schools because they wanted to get everyone's prom and school dance. So they looked at me as an intermediary to, you know, be like that show off person to say this is a really cool spot, which later leads to them offering me a job and I'm 16 at the time getting them

these big proms because proms are a big business. It's like $100,000 with a revenue per prom. And I was that person stealing it from other venues to bring it to the matrix. Oh, well, that story's not told in the documentary. So you actually end up getting a job with the matrix and part of your job is to go out and get these proms. So how'd that go? were you successful at it? How long did you do that? So the night of the dance, the owner, his name was Glenn Nelson, who had passed away a couple of years later, unfortunately. He says, how old are you? And I said, I'm 15. And he's like,

when do you turn 16? And I said, uh, and two months. And he said, well, listen, when you're 16, you're working for me. Like, no ifs, ands, or butts, like, you have a job here. Um, and then I start working there as a houseman, which was like setting up the conference rooms for these big companies, uh, you know, like Prax Air and, um, all these big companies that had stuff there. I had office space, their GM had office space. And, um, I set up meeting rooms. I, I helped with their banquets and weddings. And then they said, well, can you help us, you know, book dances? So I would go, I was vice president of my class. So I was able to take that prom. And then I would go to different

schools and I would take their proms. And they'd give me a 10% commission. And I was making probably like $10,000 a month just in commission. I mean, it's not every month because it's only prom season, but for like two to three months, that year and the next year, I was making really good money. Well, I mean, 20 to 30,000 dollars as a kid. I mean, what do you feel like at that point?

I mean, you've got to be on top of the world. So to me, money was never really like a driving factor back then. Oh, really? It was never about money, like any money I had was always like being spent on my friends. So after a night, I didn't really drink or smoke or anything. I would always be the DD. So we would pile in my dad's SUV, we'd go to like Wendy's

and I was a kid picking up like the $300 tab at Wendy's because everyone's broke, no one has jobs, you know, their parents might give them like 10 bucks to go out. So I was that person. When I threw a house party, I was the only one that threw a party where there was a whole display of chips, a buffet, food, wings, sodas, everything else.

You went to another house party and there was nothing there. It was just like an empty space. So it was always about the experience for me. Now, okay, you serve time. So you've obviously been able to sit down and like reflect. Like, do you know why this is? Like why are you not money-driven?

Why is it just something that why do you want the attention? What have you, have you reflected in all this stuff and during that time? So I think, you know, in prison, and even in the months when I got out of prison, I didn't really learn anything. Like I had time to reflect and I needed to go to prison to definitely remove myself from the situation

of running the club otherwise, you know, I'd still probably be doing it now. But it wasn't until like months after when you know HBO approached me where I really got to look at everything and kind of see the bigger picture because when I got out of prison, I was like, okay, I wanna get back into the business.. I want to open a nightclub. I want to do this

I want to do that and clearly you have like that same even though I'm older. I was like 24 25 at the time when I got out Person the young adult that hadn't really learned yet if I'm still trying to get back into the same thing right So months later and when I did that, it was a 10 or 12 hour interview with HBO, that's when things kind of hit me, seeing that bigger picture. And then even more recently, diving in to some of the causes, the root causes,

me being that kid in high school that wanted to be Mr. Popular. A lot of what happened to me was driven by me chasing popularity and that really relates to like what's going on now, you know, with kids and influencers driving up their social media likes and wanting to do this and do that, you know, there's definitely a danger there like if when you're chasing those likes and trying to do certain things, it has consequences and you look at a story like mine

where it could have, well, it did go very wrong all because I wanted to be that popular cool kid. So that's why you were buying all the lunches and dinners and spending your money. It's because you felt like you wanted to earn their friendship or admiration. Absolutely. I wanted to be liked. I was already liked at the time. I was a likable person. I was throwing the parties and stuff. So when it came down to business, and I'm at a point where I'm losing money, I didn't want to be that person to tell my friends,

hey, I lost your money, and then it becomes, okay, I'm not going to be liked at that point. So there was a point in the documentary where you said like, I think it was like, I needed three years to really reflect on what exactly I did. Have you been able to kind of really look into that and look at how you view rules in general and like, but the whole bucking authority thing, like, what do you think that is? You know, I think that had to do with, it goes back to the like park about, you know, them not liking me off the bat.

So at that point, like, I'm like, okay, you don't like me. I'm not gonna try to win you over. I'm just gonna, you know, like screw you, whatever. And there was just something, I was just, I think I didn't really, I was immature. I didn't grow up. Like now, if I have a rule, I follow it. And there's a lot of rules like at work or anywhere in life. There's rules and there's gonna be times in life where there's rules where it's a lot of great line where you're gonna follow and you're not gonna follow. And that's kinda like up to you as an adult to figure out. And that's kinda how my dad raised me. Okay, so you're planning these problems.

You're making commission off them. Obviously, the owner of this place recognizes that you have a skill for getting things set up. You're learning the ropes. Now, where do you go from this position? What does that lead to? So, from the dance that went immediately into throwing these house parties at my parents' house. And your parents were cool with this. Or like, yeah, go ahead, use the house. And your parents were cool with this or like, yeah, go ahead, use the house. Well, so what happened was I would say, guys, there's 15 to 20 people coming over. And

they're like, okay, you know, they'd rather me be at the house than me go somewhere else and they're possible drunk driving or whatever, they'd be in control. And, you know, the first couple parties, it was 15 to 20 people. But then once I had that dance and I started connecting with like the upper classmen, the seniors and juniors, and I was just a sophomore at the time. Everyone started showing up and they're coming in carloads of people like two, three hundred kids at our house. We live on the lake and they're bringing bottles and bottles of alcohol. The neighbors loved you. Oh, actually, it's a Jewish community. So they all left during the winter months to go down south or into the city.

She planned accordingly. Yeah, so it's like a summer community. So my whole street was pretty much empty. And there's actually, it's funny, there's a synagogue across the street too. So there was a big parking lot and everything. Oh, wow. Like the perfect situation. So there was like a big parking lot and everything. Oh my God. It would be like the perfect situation.

Yeah, so it would be lined up and down. It's this private community that's surrounded by a lake. So that's such a good question, Jess, because I was wondering, how did cops not get caught in this? No, that was my concern. Cops, no, we got the cops called once, and they just had turned down the music. A lot of it was, I had my dad there,

so my dad was like the protector of the cops came. They just wanted to see there was an adult present. So 200, 300 kids show up, your parents aren't like, hey, you said there was 15 kids. How's it going on? Nobody said anything? Oh, they were fuming, but at that point, they didn't know what to do.

They're upstairs, I'm bringing them dinner upstairs, trying to accommodate them like someone. I'm saying guys it's under control. Some of the seniors... I think I could see the root cause now. Because I know what I would have done if my kid did that. No, and that's part of it. I had a lot of leeway. And I know like it's very like a lot of people look at my dad.

They look at, you know, in the doc they're like, well, you know, this is partially his fault. And I'm like, well, you know, I developed into a good person now because of all that. So I don't know if I would necessarily go back and put the blame on him because the blame is on me. You know, regardless, it's all on me. Everything that happened, that's me, 100%. Well, it seems like you idolized your dad quite a bit. He was successful in his business that he was running. And you were actually working for him

for quite some time and pick things up, right? And what were those things that you picked up from the way he does business? So I never really understood like that business business aspect of it. Like he, yeah. Yeah. And I really needed that.

Like I needed an adult to sit down and say, listen, this is how you do accounting. This is how you do this. This is how you deal with banks. And I didn't needed that. Like, I needed an adult to sit down and say, listen, this is how you do accounting. This is how you do this. This is how you deal with banks. And I didn't have that. But with him, I learned like execution, the planning, the organizing, people skills, how to run a team, how to be a team leader,

because I was running these weddings and of like 30 weight staff at a young age. I knew how to set things up. I always saw the bigger picture. So he taught me that. So when you're throwing these big parties, you're starting off, you're throwing these big house parties with kids at your high school. You're charging money for these parties?

How does this being organized? So the house parties we never charged money. If anything, we would set up a bar on the patio to hide it from my parents because if they found out about the bar, it would be over. I'd be off to a detention center or something, but it would be five bucks ahead, to drink all night and that would cover the cost of the lighter.

So you're your parent, I mean, come on. They have to know you're drinking, right? They knew they were drinking. They knew kids were bringing alcohol. I don't know if they necessarily knew I was supplying it. I know my dad was furious at the prom one night because was just, I was just, I was just, I didn't want kids drinking he knew that was a part of it But he didn't know that we were drinking we try to conceal it We'd be going through the party saying hey don't have that bottle open

Because you know there's a lot of things in local towns of drunk driving Accidents a death and that's you know goes back to when you're chasing popularity trying to like throw one of those parties And something happens that could change your life forever, you, if you're one of the kids hosting the party. Well, that's that was another one of my questions. There wasn't any major incident that happened as a result of those house parties. Well, there was. It was me going to federal prison years later. Well, that's what you're running. We're kidding. We're kidding. We're kidding. We're getting there. Yeah, this is the stepping stone. But there was no fights, no drunk driving. Now I was gonna say, we've had many incidences,

like I've gone to house parties and things is in high school, and there was a major disaster that happened. One of our friends crashed a new tree, killed a couple of people in the car, like the whole community was shattered by it. But it's amazing that you made it out of that situation at least. So right now, breaking even, you're not making any money,

it's just you enjoy doing this and you're really enjoying it. You like being this person that can throw these parties. So I loved the planning of it. I love the build up. And I mean, we'll talk about it with the big shows, but I didn't like the actual party. Stressed me out like I was babysitting. I never had a fun time at my parties. I just like that build up. Everyone texting me saying,

hey, what's up for tonight? Can I have the address? This and that. So it was all about the build up and the planning and that goes back to me learning that planning and execution from my dad's company. The actual party, I'm thinking, okay, one's the next one. And I kind of use that concept to be a successful networker and promoter later on when I get into these teen club nights. Okay, so now what's the next step? So you got these house parties breaking even,

what's the next progression from there? So the next step is my parents finally figure out that every time I say 20 people, it's ridiculous, there's not 20 people. It got to the point where I was like, bring them a list of everyone's name that was invited, and then they just didn't believe it at that point. So they said no more parties. So that's when I came across the Palace Theatre in Dambarry.

The owner of it, he owns a lot of real estate downtown, and we did the Connecticut Film Festival through my dad and on Main Street at that venue and my dad was friends with the owner. So the owner says, yeah, you could rent it out and he charges me a thousand bucks for it and it's this old prehistoric venue theater and I turned the lobby into a nightclub for the night

and I call it the end of the year blowout. This was June 2011, I just turned 16. Okay and at this point now you're you're you've kind of got a name for yourself in the high school. So it's not hard to get people to show up for this party. Are you now how are you turning this into a profit or are you still thinking? Yeah are you charging at this point? How much are you making for here? Yeah we charged it was $12 ahead. I think it was like $10 in advance, $12 at the door. I printed flyers. And I got like the logistics of how to market event. Because I took that same concept of a school dance. But now this is outside the school dance. Outside the school, you don't have the school to market.

So it's like, okay, how do I get these kids to come without that network of being able to use like the school's PA system and whatnot. And there was also a real market for something outside of a school dance because kids wanted to dance, you know, but the like the school would monitor like you couldn't be within a couple feet of each other, no inappropriate dancing. It was very strict. So how do you monetize that? How do you make it a thing that kids want to go to? Because they'll go to the house parties, but how do you get them to charge for it? Yeah, you can grind at this party.

Yeah, no rules here. So what do you do? How do you make out? How do you get kids to show up to this? So I kind of marketed it like it was a school dance without authority, because kids loved dressing up for the dances They love taking the photos and they hate authority

Yeah, it was great. They really liked that concept They like they knew I could through a throw a party and they liked like that club Environment so I said I was I branded it as a nightclub for the night and I rented a dance floor A DJ booth. We had bars non-alcoholic, we were doing like mixed, non-alcoholic drinks, we had bar tenders, we had Danbury Police Department, we had like bounties with the earpieces in and shirts that said security, and walkie talkies.

It looked like a legit like maybe a New York City or a Los Angeles nightclub for these teenagers. And I started passing these flyers out. Facebook was just getting really big. It was gonna ask you about the social media, like how you've really been able to capture that now for marketing purposes. So it was all Facebook at the time.

Instagram was just beginning. No one really used it. I don't think Snapchat was out then. It was all Facebook and Twitter. And Facebook events was the thing that was the party invite. Between that and my phone, of course, I would send out, back then, you could like hit select all on your invites for friends and I could have 5,000 invitations sent out like

that and a snap of a finger and everyone would get it and back then people were more interactive. Like if they said they were going, that would be an accurate account. Did you unselect certain people? No, I didn't buy everyone, even the haters like the kids. Because there were certain kids at the high school that would absolutely despise the events, they despise the drinking, they despise the business. Right, you had to have some haters along the way. Um, you know, great marketing, because every person that says they don't like something that just triggers

another person to look into it to form an opinion themselves. Okay, so are you now the first, you make money? Did you make money? I was just gonna say, you had the bouncers, you have all this stuff, did you were you profitable or something? Yeah, I made about 2000 cash for myself.

It was definitely profitable. Cause we did like over a thousand kids, so you gross 12,000, then you made the concessions. So after everything was paid out, and I should have made more, but my expenses were very high, because I didn't really know the workings everything. I paid like 1,500 bucks for flyers, which never should have been a thing. I ordered on one of those online printing sites. And that was just, and for like 1,000 flyers, yeah, it was like a dollar of flyers, ridiculous.

Okay, so from there, now what's next? When does it start getting a little shady? So that night there was like a couple ambulance runs because people pregame they come drunk, then when they get their 10 minutes in, they're throwing up in the bathroom. You have to call the ambulance. So the owner didn't really want to have that again.

He didn't want that to have that again. He didn't want that with the building, and I understood that. So I reach out to this kid, Lewis, who went to my school, who DJed at the local clubs, like downtown. That's Tuxedo Junction, and this place called Club Crystal, or Club Plasma. And there used to be this thing called T-Nights when I was in middle school because we had DJ skate at the ice arena and then we had T-Nights at Tuxedos

which I never really went to. But we'd always see the flyers all around the school like. So it's mostly a 21 and over club but then it would have this one night that's for T-Nights. So Tuxedos was an 18 and over club. Dan dambury has like a a weird law with that with the 18 and over 18 a party 21 to drink uh... and then they would close the liquor on once a month to do these teen parties the market then became very oversaturated the mayor kind of banned them and teen parties became mute uh... for like that first couple years uh... between my eighth grade and and you know uh... going into sophomore year it's funny i i remember when i was in uh... illinois there was a club like that first couple of years between my eighth grade and going into sophomore year. It's funny, I remember when I was in Illinois,

there was a club like that that had 18 and under and it was like fenced off. But then the rest was like 21 and over and you'd end up seeing people in the 21 and over given beer and alcohol to that group. So that's interesting. That wasn't the case though with that club. Well, I mean, there was a ton of underage drinking

not at the teen parties. That was very strict, but at clip. Well, I mean, there was a ton of underage drinking, not at the teen parties. That was very strict, but at the 18 and over college night, it was a known thing. I mean, to make money at a college, you have to serve illegally to minors at every college bar does it. Okay. So you move to this different venue and you're trying to set up a new party. Any changes? So I went to, first I went to plasma

and the owner looks at me and I'm the 16 year old and he says absolutely not, like we're booked for the next six months. So then I walk across the street to Al at Tuxedos. And Al's great, this really old school Italian guy. And at that point, I'm wearing like a suit and tie to work because I'm into school because I felt like I was like this business person.

I had this charity, I had business cards, it's like Ian Bick executive director of this. And I called myself, this is where it's at productions, it's like brand it, formed an LLC. And you know, I go to him in the suit and tie in a brief case and I say, listen, I wanna take the place, you know, I wanna run it and do events. I want to laugh a little bit.

Oh, he's cracking up. He's not taking me seriously. And I'm like, okay, I want the big room which could hold like 1,500 kids. And he said, no, I'll give you the small room. And it has to be like a weeknight. So he gives me this room for 750 bucks. It was called Streets and that's the front part of it.

And it could hold a legal capacity was like 100, but you could really fit like two to 300. And I didn't even promote it. I just sent out an invite to my friends. It was just Amber at high school kids charged like eight bucks to get in. And we did like 300 people. Wow.

And that was just like one night at the club. Like it was great. On a weeknight too. It was a summer. But yeah, but even still like someone like Al would never get that meant that was extra business for him. Right, right. Now what was the profit on that one?

Are you starting to scale up with the business? I think I dropped this one. Oh yeah, that was fine. Did it disconnect and you still hear yourself? No, I'm good. Okay, that's fine. So the profit I made I think like 500 to a thousand bucks Oh, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Disconnected, you still hear yourself? No, I'm good. Okay, that's fine. So, the profit I made, I think like 500 to a thousand bucks,

because there was no expenses. With that rental fee, he paid for the security. He paid for essentially everything. The music was in there. So I realized the place like this could be very, very profitable. So now you're doing these in each one, you're making a profit, you're a kid, right? You're 16 years old or whatever. How's your ego? How big is your ego getting?

Are you just getting cocky as hell now at this point? Ego is through the roof, man. I mean, I just felt like I was like the king of damber high school. For parties, like I was running everything. You know, I was involved in, I was VP in my class, I was involved in the proms, I was involved in homecoming. They came to me and said, can, I was involved in homecoming, they came to me and said, can you help us reboot our homecoming dance because no one would show up. It was in the cafeteria, they didn't want to spend any money.

And I turned the cafeteria into this elaborate nightclub using like party rental companies, we put up pipe and drape, a dance floor, up lighting, and it was a big success, they raised like $12,000 for this veterans charity and that's something that had never been done before. Now at this point with your ego just blowing up and looking back, are you treating people a little differently? Are you acting like your ego's real big at this point?

So referring to back then or now? Back then. So I didn't realize it until I saw the old footage, some like squires who took all the old footage of tuxedos that you see in the documentary. And I'm like, wow, I'm an asshole. Like I'm just looking at it. Like I was just, I was not like nice to people. Like I was always on my phone.

They'd ask me a question. I'm just like, ah, whatever. Like constantly glued on my phone, they'd ask me a question, I'm just like, ah, whatever, like constantly glued to my phone. And, you know, I was always raised to be nice to everyone treat everyone with equal respect. But I just looking back on it, I think I definitely strayed from being very nice in high school to then going into a period of time where, you know, I was, and also I was going through a lot, not that that's an excuse, but I was putting on a lot of weight, I was dealing with a lot of stress,

but I was just not nice to people. Yeah, there's a real danger when a kid gains that much attention because you're young, you're not, you don't have any wisdom yet, right? And so you get all this attention. This is one of the reasons why I think child celebrities just have such a challenge. Is your ego gets so big, you just don't have any wisdom yet, right? And so you get all this attention. This is one of the reasons why I think child celebrities just have such a challenge. Is your ego gets so big you just don't know

until much later when you're old and you look back and like, oh shit, like what was I doing? So from there, you did that, you made a little bit of a profit, Ego's exploding, where are you going from there? So from there, Al lets me book like three or four dates right in a row, because at that point I understood marketing. At each event, I needed to have the next one set up. So if I did one event, I needed to have the next one ready with flyers by the end of the night

to market the next one to get kids to go. So the first one, the Halloween rave, I do 750 kids, and that's marketing to schools all over Connecticut and the New York border. There are like 10 minutes away local towns and that's bringing in everyone we're doing. A lot of flyers at different schools. You would get like a massive engine out even further. Yep, and people became familiar with this. This is where it's at productions name and my name.

We'd have like our Twitter handles on the flyer, like at Ian underscore Bick, and then what happens is at the time EDM electronic dance music was starting to make like a comeback or return these mashups and stuff, and at the high school proms and dances, it was always just one genre like that pop music. There wasn't that mix. So I was the first one to bring to Dambury, like that mix, you have like the regatone or you have this and this mashed up together with the hip hop and it attracted all types of people,

all music genres and they loved it, the kids loved it. And we did 750 people, then the Christmas rave. I dressed up as Santa. I was flinging like a candy and stuff from the stage. We did 1,000 people, and then we did a paint party that did 1,200, and then another one did 1,500, and it was just crazy in the amount of money I was making. I'd go to Al at the end of the night,

and I'd have like $20,000 cash just sitting on the table, and I was taking away like anywhere from an eight to $20,000 cash just sitting on the table and I was taking away like anywhere from an eight to $10,000 profit. Wow, so now at this point, everything's legit, right? You're not really breaking any laws, you're not scamming, but you have a legit business and you're making money in legitimate ways, is this correct? Except for tax evasion.

I was a kid that didn't know anything about taxes. That's okay. I mean, a full calendar year hasn't even passed though yet, so you don't even know about taxes. Yeah, this is like six month period of time where I'm making all this money. I buy a new car. I really just spend the money on my friends too.

Like we're all just hanging out having a good time. Now, at this point is your dad like, hey, look at my kid, he's an entrepreneur, he's making good money. Are they encouraging you at this point? I don't think my mom really knew much about what money I was making, she was very out of it. She didn't know what I was doing with the team club nights

or whatever, she knew I was getting local press from the charity. My dad definitely took an interest to the club nights and stuff, but they weren't really guiding me, I didn't go to them, I was just like, to me, I had a business, but they weren't really guiding me. I didn't go to them. I was just like, to me, I had a business, but I didn't at the same time. There was no structure. There was no long-term thinking.

To me, it was just what's the next step to getting famous or to building, to getting more people, to like me or to be attracted to it. Had I just done those teen nights, we'd probably not be having this conversation. I could have stuck with that, made good money, gotten like a legitimate business, and that would have been the end of it. All right, so how does it start to go in the wrong direction from there?

I mean, you're making a lot of money for a young kid, very short period of time. You're getting the attention that you're seeking. How does it start to go in the wrong direction? So two defining moments happen at that time. One is kids are seeing like concerts. There's a lot of touring acts. So when you're getting to be like that junior or senior

in high school, your parents are starting to let you bring or go out to concerts and do things like that. So Mac Miller had came to Dan Berry and kids went and they're like Ian why can't you bring someone like him to to a show at tuxedos or wherever we want to go to concerts Kids were getting bored with the t-nites and also the market was getting oversaturated I was renting out the club to every Kid that wanted to be like me and it was good for him because he wanted to get that rental fee, but it was bad for my business because there was no way to differentiate the two brands. Anyone could throw my name on it. There was not like, I'm going to get a lawyer and sue you

for using my brand. So that kind of deteriorated it and I was losing control over that. So with everyone saying, Ian, you should do this. There goes the popularity thing again. You know, I'm chasing that wanting to be like, let me try now to book an act. And so what do you do? How do you, who do you will after and what does that look like? So my idea was to book Big Sean in Danbury. And I would be huge if you did that. Which would be massive if I could pull that off. And this guy, Davos, say, who graduated in 2011, a couple years older than me, had went to Rhode Island for college and Rhode Island was blowing up with these big EDM shows and hip-hop shows because it's a big college school, big party school, and Dave had immersed

himself into that whole production aspect with the college and doing the shows and frat parties. And he had got wind of what I was doing with the teen parties in Danbury. So he sets up a meeting with me and we talk and I kind of tell him my idea. And at this point, I had a couple other partners involved from other towns who didn't make it into the documentary. Josh Topper was one of them that you see in the doc. And Dave actually steals my idea to bring Big Sean to Danbury. He cuts me out and takes Josh and this kid's act and Matt. Oh, wow, that's not in the documentary.

Oh, there's so much. That's why it's got to be a TV series. Wow. Yeah, okay. So let's why we're here, because I had a question around Dave, because he opted not to be in the documentary. I'm assuming this is why. Dave was a big part. As in the document, the government always said, okay, I took over $500,000, but their big point was the jet skis.

The jet skis, yes, it was a bad decision, but that only amounts to $20,000. Where does all the money go? Most of this money I was the middleman to investing into Dave's company and that was with the concerts. These concerts aren't free. How do I afford acts like Tyga, Big Sean, any act, you know, these acts are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where does that money come from? So money was essentially getting, I was like the hedge fund company that would then invest into Dave's production company and all that money just got lost. So let's back up, right? Because there's some steps in between that, right? So he takes your idea and he runs with it and you're like, piss. Yeah. Oh, I'm pissed. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. I wanted to invest in it. I had money to invest my own

money from the teen nights. And they come to me like a couple days before they announced the show. And they're like, you know, we need you to promote it. Cause they never thought about how they were gonna promote it and outreach it in Danbury, the surrounding towns. So we worked out a deal where I could throw my name on it and say that I booked Big Sean in Danbury

with having no risk to do it, which was great exposure for me. And I got to meet his manager and get that whole aspect of how a big tour works and really learn about that. And they cut you in on the deal or did they pay you outright for that? I didn't get any money, it was just the exposure.

Okay, so you did it for free just to get your name and get the connections or whatever. Exactly. And how does it go? Does he put this together and does it go well? He puts it together but the show's a flop. They only had three weeks to promote this arena-sized show and my network's only like 1,500 people.

So I get 1,500 people to go, but we needed 2,000 just to break even, two or 3,000 to break even. The place holds five thousand. But it was Big Sean in Danbury, which was great, and it was a huge act, Grammy nominated. And what happened was the video, well, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the production aspect.

It's like these LED 4x4 things. And they cost like 10 to $15,000 a panel. And we looked at the artist rider the day before. and they cost like 10 to 15 thousand dollars a panel. And we looked at the artist rider the day before and it says, oh, we need this video wall. And everyone's like, well, we overlooked this. So we got charged like 20 thousand dollars. So they expect you to have that.

It's not like they brought that with their... This is a common thing, correct me if I'm wrong. Like with, especially big name people, they're like, oh, it has to be a certain type of... I just wanna show up. It has to be a certain type of piano. I want certain lighting, so like that, and you gotta handle that shit, right?

Yeah, so like, tours like Justin Bieber, whatever they're bringing, a lot of their own gear, like, and they're getting the money from the tour, but a promoter booking a one-off is responsible for all the production. We're responsible for everything, down to like sorting through their M&Ms or their signals.

How do you get profit in that situation? It's like Al says, it's a very high-risk business. I mean, you're putting up 100 grand for a show that can make 100 grand profit, or you could lose everything. Must they don't show up sometimes, right? Yeah, I only had that instant one-tall chief key that had to deal with us going not through an agent when you go through the agency

There's never an issue. It's when it's with the manager and you're doing shady deals to try to save money That's when you know there's a lot of issues So you didn't have to put any money into this So you didn't really lose any money even though it was a flop. No, but now you're connected to a different network Yep, okay, so now where do you go from here? So, Matt and Zach each lose like $5,000. And they come to me and they're like, oh, let's get rid of Dave. Let's cut them out.

You know, we don't need Dave. Let's go book our own show. Let's raise the money. Because at that point, Dave had had like the spreadsheet. So I kind of had an understanding of what the cost of a show would be. The only thing we were missing is event insurance, which I didn't come to learn about, like, till years later, which would have been helpful to know at the time. But, so we decide, okay, we want to bring Wiz Khalifa to Danbury.

We put up a poll. It was like Wiz, ASAP Rocky, ASAP Ferg, and a couple other people. And everyone voted for Wiz Khalifa. So we estimated that if Wiz was like $60,000 the book, because Matt, one of our partners, said he could book Wiz. He had booked Ashir Roth for us at the time. So we figured, OK, he could book Wiz. So we figured 60 grand for the act.

Then with the venue, the lights, everything would be about $125,000 for the show. And they'd look at me, okay, how are we going to get $125,000? So I start going around to my friends at the high school and I said, do you guys want to throw in money? Because at the time, they would give me like $500 or $1,000 to go into the teen nights and I would take like some legal zoom contract and I'd give them like 2% and they would make a few hundred bucks on their money. That way we were all in the middle of it.

So, the gave you or 2% of the profits? 2% of the profits, 2% to 5% of whatever like $10,000 was, so they were making a couple hundred bucks on their 500 bucks. So, it's a good return, yeah. That way everyone felt involved, and it also, they all played sports, whereas I didn't. So they had that network to other schools through sports to get these kids to come. So what happens is I start reaching out to kids that said, hey, we're booking whiz. Would you like to throw in money? And a lot of it, and I was asking for a lot of money. I was asking for a thousand to $5,000. I figured I needed like 20 people

or whatever I needed to put in money. And a lot of them was like, okay, let me talk to my parents, let me do this. And it was slow rolling. And we only had, like this was November at the time of 2012. And we only had, we wanted to do the show in January. So we were pressed for time. We need to get the show announced.

So what happens is, I said, this isn't going fast enough. Let me think of another way. So I edit the contract on legal zoom, and I say I'm gonna guarantee their money back. Oh, wow. So this is where the shit gets settled. This is where it gets shady.

Yeah, this is where it gets shady. It's all legitimate at this point, the shit gets settled. This is where it gets shady. Yeah, this is where it gets shady. It's all legitimate at this point, and I'll explain, but the money starts flowing in. I raised $120,000 in like a week or two. Wow. Well, I mean, who wouldn't, right? You're gonna put money in, you're guaranteed to get your money back plus percentage, I mean obviously.

And you've paid them back before this, with their small investments. So I had paid them back with like that the little t-nites, and I didn't guarantee them a profit. There was no rate of return. It was a potential profit if the show was profitable. You already gained trust. Yep.

And they wanted to meet with Califa. So that was part of the deal. They got some backstage passes. So we raised the money, my aunt and uncle put in money. All of our parents put in money, and then all these uncle put in money all of our parents put in money and then all these kids put in money ranging from a thousand to ten thousand dollars. Wow.

And what was the guarantee return do you remember? There was zero. It was just the profit, a potential profit. No, I'm talking about later. Oh, he guaranteed to get their money back and then a percentage if it was. Oh, okay. So like if they put in ten thousand on a hundred thousand dollar show, they would get ten percent whatever the math is on.

I see. I see. So they're going to get no matter what, they're getting their money back basically with the contract. So you put this together, you got the money, everybody's guaranteed to get their money back. What happens? Well, my logic is, you know, the show's going to at least break even. It's Wiz Khalifa. Sure. I got to put 2000 people in. It was a big name. So it wasn't like a fraudulent intent. It was just like, okay, I'm gonna get the money back. So I could guarantee the money. We bring it to Matt and we needed, he said we needed proof of funds for the artist. And that was believable, you know, we were kids

and they'd want a legit show. And we give him the bank stub and Matt's like a ghost. He doesn't know what to do. And it comes out that he lied and he didn't have the connection to book was Khalifa. So it's like the week before Thanksgiving and Zach and Josh and I are yelling at Matt were throwing papers around the office. The matrix had given us this office.

An exchange for me helping out with everything. And we had this nice office with the secretary and all this stuff. And we're like, what the hell do we do? Yeah, did you say I just should just give everybody their money back, what were you like? Now we're gonna see what we can squeeze. Well, we are gonna give everyone their money back. You gave the option, didn't you guys all meet

and then give them the option? So what happens was Matt feels bad and he reaches out to Dave Ose to try to fix it because he knew Dave got a big shawn, so Dave could probably fix this situation. It turns out Wiz wanted like $150,000 at the time, so we weren't gonna pull it off. We weren't even close. We weren't even close.

And it wasn't even feasible with the numbers. So Dave comes Dustin, says, listen, we've learned from our mistakes at Big Sean. We have the connections. Let's do this whole string of shows at URI and in Connecticut, and let's break the money apart. So then I bring that idea to the investors. We have this meeting at my parents' house

in the living room, it was quite a scene where I'll like huddled around. And I said, listen, you guys totally honest up front, you guys could take your money out or you can be invested in it. And it's just gonna take you longer to get your money back another six months because we're spreading the show out. About half pulled out, some left some money in,

some took some money out, some took all of it out. And we're left with like $60,000. Okay, so now what, you got your money, now we're gonna break up the, you got $60,000, now you're gonna break up the shows. What happens from there? So Dave books like a mix of like five to six shows with artists like Mike Stud, Huey Mack,

a couple EDM artists that weren't really well known at the time, and then that settled it, but then in February of 2013, he had this opportunity, because we had like a buffer of $20, $25,000 left that we were just using operating expenses and anything came up. And he calls me three weeks before. And he says, Ian, you know, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this show with Rusco. It was an EDM show at URI, which had seen huge success with like these tours of

life and color, day glow, the big paint parties, and EDM was just a bubble that was bursting there. Thousands of kids were going. I had no idea really what EDM was besides from the mashup stuff that I was doing. And he says this guy, Rusco, who was like a European act would be a major success. I could double the money on it.

So we give them the $25,000, and this is where everything goes wrong from that point forward. So what happens? So I'm told up until the night of the show, it's making money, it's profitable because they had other partners involved too. So it's a whole cluster mess of partners.

There's my investors giving to me, I'm giving to Dave, Dave's giving to someone else, all these people involved. But I'm getting like these daily emails or reports at how many tickets sold. This is interesting because I feel like this, the documentary doesn't kind of share it this way. There's, I mean, there's so much to it that they couldn't really, you know, bring in Dave wasn't really that much a big part.

Yeah, you got it for the audience, so they know too, because I know a lot of people will probably go watch it afterwards, and there's gonna be some things that don't line up. So when you go over something that doesn't like, because I'm hearing some of this stuff and I'm gonna wait a second, they really pinned all of that on you in the documentary.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think they really pinned it in like a negative way. I think they told like the overall of it, like this show happened, and I'm pretty clear in the documentary, I thought it was a success. But the night of, I'm looking at the whole show happening and I'm like, okay, this is great. I brought my friends, the investors in a limo. We got hotels for the night and it looked packed, you know.

And his partner comes up to me, Dave's partner and says, wow, this was a total loss. And I was like, what do you mean it's a loss? He's like, dude, we need like 2000 people to break even or whatever. And there was only a thousand or 1200 people there. So it was just that was happening. And at that point, I was already telling my investors they made money. So here comes that defining point where in my head, am I telling them they lost money or am I keeping it going? Do I have to lie now to cover it up and say that they made money when they didn't?

Or do I go back and be honest with them and say, hey guys, you lost money, but in their eyes too, I think that maybe they would think that I'm lying to them about losing. Oh, I just wanted to keep the profits to yourself. Exactly, because I'm a kid too, and I'm thinking, okay, wow, this show looks packed. They're thinking the same thing too. So they are all there, and they're having a great time in this.

Exactly. So had they not been there, then maybe I would have told them. Oh, interesting. That's another thing they don't really talk about in the documentary, because that is a different predicament right there of going like, because they're like pumped on it. Yeah, you take them in the limbo see all these people now they're like all right tell us how much money we made so how do I do that you know how how do I then tell them you Guys lost so now you're still a kid like how stressed out is this making you at this point because this is a bit of a dilemma

It's like do I tell them do I lie then what does that look like like how are you dealing with the stress of this at that point I wasn't totally stressed. I just made the decision to cover it up because I figured, okay, the other shows, we had like four other shows planned. I could just sacrifice my profits at what I would make because they would do well.

I figured, my logic was, everything was always gonna work out. And that got me into a crap load of trouble. But I always assumed there was something that was gonna happen next that would work out. I was very over the top optimistic. And I just had no understanding that things can actually go wrong.

Well, in your defense, that's not that unreasonable considering how much success you kinda had up into that point. Ego's massive because of how much success you had. You probably think you could work your way out of this. Yeah, you're thinking you could figure out a way to make it profitable, right? Maybe the next time is gonna work out.

But the difference was I was in in control. And I think that's where I go wrong too. I was in in control of it. Two people involved. Too many people involved. It's big leagues now. And I had no control over anything. So the first show loses, you lie to them and tell them

that hey, we're having success. Where's the number of money-wise? So we've got a hundred, is there a 120 grand in the pot? No, it went down to 60. Okay, so you lose, you lose 60,000 on the first show. No, the 120,000, we had to give some back. Oh, that's right. So it went down to 60 because people pulled their money out.

So you're working with 60, you do that show, how much do you lose on that first show? So because I'm trying to do the math on how you're dipping into this 60. I got back about like $10,000. So the 25 to 30, so which was a big chunk of money we lost. Okay. So I came up with a number that they made like, because each, I looked at it to show like each person

made like 500 bucks on there like a thousand or 15. So not only did I lose twenty thousand dollars of say that thirty-k investment, but then I was also in the whole of the imaginary profit. What you're telling them they're making two. So figure another five grand. Oh, this has got to be what really fucks you too, right? Because you document all this and you create these fake spreadsheets to show people that they made money. Well, yeah, I sent them that, the electronic aspect, that's where the real fraud stuff is, the concerts were very legitimate.

The way I went about things weren't legitimate, but the concert, if you gave money for a concert, we got the show. It wasn't like fire fest where the show didn't happen. This was, I was a legitimate promoter. The show's happened. It's just the way I went about business was not ethical, and then the electronics business was not ethical

and then the electronics business was the fraudulent part of it. Okay, so you're taking the leftover money and you're gonna get into it. And you're putting it into the next party or are you trying to get more money because you need more than that little bit that's left. So at that point, all the parties were funded.

Like that 60 grand got paid for all at once, minus maybe like last minute expenses or the other half of the artist's event. So that 10 grand that came back to me went right to pay out dividends or whatever. I would start stalling at that point because that 10 grand wouldn't cover everyone's investors money on the 30. So I'd stall, I'd say money was taking longer to get checks in, which part of it was true because I didn't get that 10 grand for like a month and a half until after the show.

It was always something with money. When it was time to pay, it would take months and months. People are gonna drag their feet. Now you're not sweating at this point. If this point you're like, all right, the next one's gonna crush. All right, the next one's gonna, when you start sweating.

After the last one. When you, when that was it, you were done. But that, what I was done, that's what I was doing. No, no, it's not working. So the whole time you're optimistic about this, you get the whole time you think you're gonna pull it you were done. What that what I was done that's what's not working. Yeah, so the whole time you're optimistic about this you get the whole time you think you're going to pull yourself out. Yeah. So what's show number two?

What goes down on show number two? So okay, that one's your fuck you're telling people don't worry I'll get your money out there's your money you're probably just itching to get to the next show to get your opportunity what happens? Show number two was a snowstorm with Huey Mack so that just got canceled. But we had paid him in full, we had a good faith we were these new guys in the industry, so we paid him in full.

I paid the club and for the show is 10 grand. I didn't get a single dollar back. I think he still owes us a show maybe to this day. I don't even know. But it was like a nine or 10 grand show, not a single dollar, so BAM, another 10 just white. We paid for all the hotels. I transferred like one of the flights. I went to Florida for the weekend with a single dollar. So, bam, another tender white. We paid for all the hotels. I transferred

like one of the flights. I went to Florida for the weekend with a couple of friends. But that was it. Now, none of the investors are going, this show totally got canceled. We lost money with the hell. So at the time, I was being told that we would at least get a make-up date. And then we would get the venue would let us, because the venue, you know, they want to keep their revenue. They don't want wanna give the money back, they'll say you can have a new date. Only that never happened.

We never got the artist date, we never got rescheduled nothing. Wow, so now the third, not even to the third one. What's happening there? So the third one, that was crisly at the same club that Huey Mack was supposed to be at, and it was just poorly promoted. Like we paid five grand for this act or six grand

plus the venue plus everything was like 10 grand on a college night. Kids weren't spending you know 20 bucks when they could go to that night anyways so we were just giving out free tickets at that point just to pack it. They figured okay the college night does a thousand people every Thursday we could do a thousand Yeah, they're doing a thousand people at a dollar entry no one these college kids don't want to pay twenty dollars to get in So just total white loss. I think I got a couple grand back on our investment Okay, now get into the last show what's happening there? So now you're like screw Well, there's stuff now there's stuff that happens when at what point does the the headphones get involved here?

Oh further later. Oh, that's later. Okay. All point does the headphones get involved here? Oh, further later. Oh, that's later. All right, so keep walking us through here. So much to the story. I know, I know, there is. I know. So there was actually two more shows. One was in Connecticut, which I had control over of.

That, and I marketed and everything, was at Toads Place, which is a historic rock venue in Connecticut. And that lost $2,000. It came close to breaking even. That was our best ran one, but I had no network with college kids. Social media still wasn't really this huge thing. There was no Facebook ads, there was no Instagram ads, there was no way to network. I wasn't really drive.

I was lazy at that point. I wasn't that same hustler that was on the campus. Did you look for anybody to partner with or anything that had connections like that? I was banking on Dave. Dave's company. He was the partner. He was getting half of our share. So out of 100% the investors had 50, we had 25.

Dave had 25. And we figured, okay, Dave would market it. He had that college connections. He was the older person. I'm still in high school. I don't have access to these college kids at New Haven or Yale or any of these areas. And I mean, we did all right, because of the artist,

the artist heavily promoted it, which isn't the case with every artist. You have to really reach out and paltete to get artist promotions. And we lost two grand on that. So I was able to get that show cost 12 and I was able to get the money back on that too. So that's the last one.

There was one more that we put up a little bit of separate money for. We put 10 grand into this foam show at UMass Amherst in Massachusetts and the guys scammed us. They did the show. It looked good, our partner's act went, looked absolutely packed, and then they give us this bullshit, PNL report, that didn't even make any sense,

like inflating all the operating expenses and everything, and saying they had less people, when we could clearly tell there was more people than that. And- You think they're doing this because your kids, do you think they're like, what? Well, they were kids too. I think they made a lot of money in that sense, and they didn't want to give us our share.

So we lost another 10 grand there. We tried to sue them. It costed more money. We spent five grand on a lawyer and still didn't get anything back. So this is the fourth one. Now you're, you're fucked. We're done. That's it.

So what do you do from here now, are you like, all right? Well, now at this point, you've completely used all the money that you had that people had given you. So you've wiped out the 60 grand and you've done all these shows. You're not at now. You're probably scrambling to figure out how am I going to get some of this money back. I'm in the whole like 30 grand. I think the numbers come out too.

Like with getting money back from shows and then everything. Because you do still get some of the money back on those other shows that we did get back. So I'm in about 30 or 40 grand. And so then I start going to like shady people just for loans. A couple of guys I worked with at the Matrix I said, do you have it?

I knew they're like, he dealt weed. So I was like, do you know anyone that can, you know, loan me money? Cause now I'm just thinking, okay, how do I make these payments? So he links me up with these guys in New York and they're giving me like, do you know anyone that can, you know, loan me money? Because now I'm just thinking, okay, how do I make these payments? So he links me up with these guys in New York and they're giving me like 5,000 cash. Bro, at one point you're not scared of death

even though you're not scared of death? You're dead before you're dead. I should have won to my dad. I had no concept of how much money he made at the time. Right. So it wasn't even a thought. To me, I'd be like a screw up if I went to my dad, saying I needed money.

I could have owned things. Yeah, that's good. Had I went to my dad, we could have fixed everything. If I went to him, and I think this goes back to my ego too, about wanting to do it on my own, because that would have been an easy fix, just to fix. You know, he could have gotten involved with the parents.

We could have just. To talk to you some things. Yeah, we could have came clean and said, listen, the show's actually lost money. Here's all the proof. We'll give you this money back. This is what it is. Maybe it's a civil suit because he guaranteed you

the money back, but there was no collateral. It was an uncollateral investment. So this is what it is, but I didn't do that. And I borrow from the shady people, like 5 5, 10 grand just to stop the bleeding. People are blowing up my phone. I'm 17 at the time. What kind of drug dealer gives you 5 to 10 grand? And what do they say that, hey, what are the interest rates?

I'm not going to pay this back. What are they going to do? Break your fingers? What's the deal? These are just like some... These weren't like, I didn't have the jetskis yet, but no, these weren't like that type of drug dealer. These were like, stoners that made some money selling weed

and they weren't like a threat. So I didn't really look at it as a threat. I promised them like, one person, I promised a piece of like that may foam show, which didn't end up happening, which screwed me to. That was a one in UMass, but I'm just taking this money in just to stop the bleeding. I was tired. My phone was blowing up, everyone's like, because it's May now, they gave their money

in November. All the shows happen, where's the money? And I said everyone was successful. So now I'm, you know, I have a real situation on my hand. So you're taking loans to pay people back. Is what you're doing? Correct, yeah. Okay, now how are you feeling able to do that?

Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean, with the drug dealers, it's not like I went to them and said, hey, you're an investor in this and then I took your money and paid off someone else. I just said, hey, I need a loan. It's a personal loan. I could pay you off with a personal loan. If I went to a bank and said, I need money to pay off a credit card, I just said, hey, I need a loan, it's a personal loan. I could pay you off with a personal loan.

If I went to a bank and said, I need money to pay off a credit card, I could do that. Right, now you're stressing, yeah, are you at this point you shitting your pants on your pants? I was stressed, yeah, I was under a lot of pressure because I worked with people, I went to school with them. You know, so I'm just delaying, you know, I'm stalling, I'm saying there's problems with the bank,

there's problems with getting the money, this and that. But it was a very, very stressful time. That like April, May of 2013. Now, I'm assuming though, at still at this point, though, you don't even probably know what a Ponzi scheme is or know what you're doing is illegal yet. Do you? Or you just think you're just doing ever it takes to get back? Or do you know? I didn't know what a Ponzi scheme was until I went to that reverse proffer with the federal government. We were never taught about Bernie made-off. That was still too recent.

There was no Bernie made-off. There was nothing. The first time I heard the name Bernie made-off was months after and someone said, oh, as a joke, you're the next Bernie made-off. And I was like, who's Bernie made-off? Then I start googling it and I'm like, oh shit. This could kind of be compared to what I was doing

essentially, but it wasn't, there was no intent of, okay, I'm gonna set up this Ponzi scheme, steal from everyone, do this, do that, and you know, it's just, it's just, it's just, I'm just trying to patch holes. It was just stop the bleeding, put a band-aid on. So you're digging a hole for yourself. How do you, what do you do next that makes the hole even deeper?

Cause you're taking loans, paying people back, but it doesn't stop there, right? So my friend introduces me to this guy named Henry Scazofaba, and he had just got this big settlement from a gym because he had lost vision in his eye from equipment, malfunctioning and breaking. So he gets like a million bucks. And this kid Ryan introduces me to him and brings me to him.

And I'm sitting in their basement and I'm telling him, at this point, this is when we're starting to get into electronics. I meet this kid John Robel, where we become business partners and he brings me these like beats by Dre and says, listen, I can get these for 50 bucks and we could sell them for 400 bucks. Now, if I brought that to you,

you're gonna, as adults, you're gonna say, well, why is it only 50 bucks? Right. To me, I kinda asked it, I said, well, where do they come from? They said it's off the truck product. You'd like to, like, it fell off the truck. Like, it's from China, it fell off the truck,

and it's dented, damaged goods. I didn't really know much about fake, I didn't use beats, I wasn't into that, I wasn't into flashy clothes, I wore the same thing all the time, it wasn't anything fancy, I had a cheap suit and tie that I was wearing around and that wasn't about clothes. And so we get these electronics and that's when I start this,

it's called WB and wholesale, LLC for Robo and Bick. So you actually started an LLC to sell fucking illegal beats by trade. Didn't think they were illegal at the time, but yes, we're selling these beats, we're selling autobox phone cases, which looked very real. We're selling these.

I feel like your lawyer should have been able to use that to your advantage though, to show just how naive you were in the situation versus the intinkers. I'm sure the FBI is trying to paint you as this guy who has this mastermind. Yeah, a mastermind. Yeah, a mastermind. But if you know it's illegal and you know you're doing some shady shit, that's as dumb as a drug dealer selling dope and keeping spreadsheets on his dope that he's selling.

Like this doesn't make sense. And, you know, here's the thing. We went to a lawyer who drafted those contracts. He's loan agreements with the rate of return. And he said, yeah, this is totally legit as long as you're waiving the right to useery. Like the userious rates of the interest because what do you, what do you can't go above 20%

or whatever it was? And he is the one that structured. I went to him and I said, listen, I want to give a 50% rate of return. The only thing he asks is, where are the profits come from? I said, well, I get that 50% number, not because I'm trying to get people to give their money, but because I'm looking at the potential profits from these electronics. That's where that figure comes from.

It wasn't to loop people in. It was because if we can make a hundred or 200% return on electronics, we can give, we can afford to give 50%. Of course. If you're buying headphones for 50 and selling for 400, there's no reason we can't give you 50% of that. So you were getting investors to invest in this business as well? Yeah, at that point, the concert business was on hold. I'm just trying to get out of it, and I'm starting WB wholesale. I'm going to like people at the matrix that didn't invest in concerts to give five or ten grand. I'm

giving that to my partner John and we're making some money. It's legit at that point. We could pay out that 50% rate. It was legit for about a month or two. Well, it's kind of legit. Yeah, besides the fact that they're a fake, but we did get a lawyer to draft a contract with this guy. At this point, you think it's completely where are you selling these beats by a drake? So John had this other guy from Bethel, who I eventually meet him and he pulls up to the meeting in a burberry suit, driving a golf cart. So imagine this kid who's like our age, come into a meeting. He has him like, in his back.

And he sits at these restaurants racking up tabs all day. Like we'd get in, we'd offer to pay. And the owner was like, you don't want to pay. It's at a thousand bucks already. Just like drinking wine. And he ends up getting charged for fraud later on separate from mine.

All right. So it's just like a whole mess of kids with all this money doing all this. But we draft a contract with him saying the product's 100% legit, he's getting it from a legitimate source because that was one of my concerns. It soon comes to find out,

like the beats weren't registering on their website, they were falling apart, like you'd be listening, like the ear thing or the word- Yeah, you just kind of brought that up. He was concerned and he brought that to you and said, you were very concerned about it.

Yeah, I figured I was good because to me, a contract was everything. Like I looked at if you sign the contract, we were good, but what I'd learn later on, the contract's only really as good as the person signing the contract to and putting their word behind it. Because if it's not guaranteed with some type of plan. So you didn't think you were liable?

No, I didn't think I was liable. I thought it was good if there was an issue with fake product. So you're getting money from people to buy these electronics, to sell them. You're offering them a profit. Now that, what happens there? That goes belly up and you still owe me, now you owe people money again.

So the contract started helping me, the electronics helped me bury out of like that 30, 40 grand hole. I'm in paying back the drug dealers from this first initial round of concerts. And then I meet Henry, and I'm just trying to clear everything up. And I say, Henry, I need a loan for $30,000. That's a figure, pay everything off, get a clean slate.

And he wasn't interested about, why are the money was going, what it was doing, he had invested into, I mean, to this kid Alex, who were getting a little electronics at the time, and he just said, well, what's your interest rate? And I said, I'll give you 50%. And he said that's not enough. So he charged me on 30 grand, he wanted 50 grand back.

Wow. So. And you said okay. Yeah, I had three weeks to give him 50 grand back on his 30K, so it was 50 grand total. And at that point, one where else was I gonna get the money? You can take what you can get. I'm gonna take what I could get, I'll figure it out

because that was my mentality, you know? Figure it out later, do it now, I'll figure it out, maybe whatever it was, you know. So I consolidated all the debt and I took his money, paid everyone off, and I had a fresh start. Except you own now 50 grand. Oh, I'm 50 grand, yes. So what was your plan on how are you going to get his money back? So the plan was I was going to keep the electronics business going And you know, really get another investor because everyone would have been paid back,

go deep in the electronics, Dave gets wind of the electronics business and in URI and he feels bad about this string of concerts. So he starts bringing me his fraternity brothers and their parents who are investing like 20, 30, 40, 50 grand. And we still have this 50% rate of return and I'm giving him a cut of like every investor he brings. Wow.

So now at this point, you're generating some serious stuff. So like that month, yeah, that month of June, we bring in like $100,000 in like investors. And I'm like, John, you know, we could do the electronics, but the electronics never took off. And you know, we could do it small scale, a couple grand, but you couldn't do it. One, you couldn't do it in the 21 days I was promising people, you know, their money had,

I said, okay, six months. But then at the same time that was me setting that days to, you know, it kinda enticed people to give their money. Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing. Give you, you know, 50, I get 50% I get my money back guaranteed plus 50% in 21 days. And in 21 days. And it's like one of the best and best. But you know what, two, who are these adults that are not really skeptical of that? I mean that is crazy.

I think they looked at my early success with the concerts. You know what I was doing and everyone thought these other concerts were successful. So you know, what I was doing. And everyone thought these other concerts were successful. So, you know, you were actually getting things printed about you in the newspaper too, right? There was press. And people just knew, like of me, and they figured my dad was successful. So maybe he would be back.

Plus they signed a contract, and they're like, it's legal. It's all here. So if I... Exactly. So just taking a... I mean, some people brought the contract to their attorneys And these are all local attorneys. They're not dealing with anything this scale

You know had they brought it to like a real big law firm. They'd say what the hell are you guys doing? So that was kind of like the basis of where this starts so you get a hundred thousand in June I know he keeps going so what happens next? So I I mean, then Henry invests a quarter million in early July, because Dave comes to me and says Ian, I was never gonna take Henry's quarter million. We didn't need it, everything was good. Like we were at even with everyone, like right at this point, I was still,

Henry, I was still investing in like the electronics on the side, which was kinda not kicking off and kinda turning into like that Ponzi scheme aspect, just floating it, but it still could have been a manageable, you know, problem to solve. It was when Dave comes to me and says, Ian, you know, we screwed up this last batch. Let's do concerts in the fall. And you know, there's me, I have no interest in electronics. I hated the electronics.

It wasn't my passion. You know, my passion was throwing events and Dave brings me this whole. So you just light up right because of the opportunities there now. Yeah Dave brings me this presentation and it's all these acts. It's two big tiger shows It's the chief kief show. It's three kidding shows. It's a wallay all these big acts. Massive. Massive, like, if this was successful, the gross was like $700,000 on like a 250K investment. And I was so naive thinking every single show would sell out. And so I'm like, Dave, you know what, we just lost,

but at the same time, I was listening like all these motivational stuff, very into like motivation, inspirational stuff. Yeah, don't give up. Yeah. Go. Exactly. don't give up. Yeah. Go exactly. Gotta believe it yourself. Keep the dream alive.

Exactly. You asked any of my friends that say, oh, Ian was a kid posting quotes on Instagram every day. So I figured, okay, everyone like failed to get where they were. You know, I was trying to be like that next Mark Zuckerberg or every entrepreneur story. Yeah, everyone failed.

And I would Google, like, do you have to fail to succeed this and that? So I said, okay, I'm going to give David Chant. I bring Henry, his friend Elliott, me, Zach, Josh, and Dave to this meeting at the Matrix we get the conference room, have a whole spread, like this big executive board room, and we're looking at this presentation for shows. And Henry wanted to do concerts, so that kind of, you know, piece together, getting these ideas to do it. And I figured I could get back into what I like doing.

We have this big investor, and I could have done a million other things with this money. Like, I could have gotten a real estate, could have got, I could have even bought tuxedos, and it would have been super successful. We could have did it locally, but instead bought Tuxedos and it would have been super successful. We could have did it locally, but instead I go into the most high-risk business ever and, and, you know, roll the dice, yeah. And we did, but you loved it, that's your passion.

I loved it, man. I was just driving for it. I believed in it, but at the same time, I was super, super lazy because my ego was so big that I had already made it. I had the office, I had the car, you know, the bank account, we had the business cards, and I trusted, you know, other people to do it. And that blames on me. It's not like I could sit here and say, oh, well, he lost all the money.

It's his fault. It's still started with me, so it ends with me. Okay. So these shows now, do they not happen? So the shows are super successful on paper, like actually legitimately making money, like we're seeing the ticket master reports, we're seeing the venue reports.

Like I said, Dave, you got to be clear with me from the start, because I knew what happened the first time. So these shows, like Chief Keif was going to double our money on a 30 grand investment. It was grossing like 70 or 80K. And what happens is it's like a series of unfortunate events after each one. The Kitting shows, the one in Connecticut was a bomb because of lack of promotion, but we didn't, that was just a plus one.

It was basically like a freebie, so that was like a one off. But the one in your, your eyes, so basically, like up and coming rappers want to pay you to get on their stage, kind of like a sponsor for your podcast or whatever they pay you to get out there. So they would pay like $5,000 to go and perform and be an opener for Kiddink. They all perform and we're like, Dave, where's the money?

Someone forgot to collect the money for all these people. Because they don't pay you until the day of the show. So they got on stage and these are all drug dealing type like people, no good ethics or anything and because they're just trying to get their rap career off and they leave. They didn't pay, no one collected it. Because it was looking good.

We were gonna be super profit. We were gonna make like 20 grand that night a profit on top of getting our money back And it was just a complete you know the systems there to grant that money first Systems didn't happen and then the venue bounces to check on our our ticketing money because the venues hold the money So that took like four or five months to get back Yeah, they they bounce a check of money we had in their ticketing. Oh my God.

So technically you could have pulled it off if some of these things didn't occur. Oh, that one would have, that would have literally eliminated all the debt that was incurring from like these, these like WB wholesale money, like that aspect of it. And at this point, I transitioned to calling it WB

investments, because I wanted to be like this hedge fund that was doing multiple things. A big thing that was left out in the documentary was I took, Tuxedo's had closed, and I took over their front room and invested a hundred grand into calling it Skybar. And it was an 18-nolder 21-to-drink event, or a club, and it was like the first luxurylder 21-to-drink event or a club.

And it was like the first luxury nightclub. It was really beautiful, like nice deck and everything. It just wasn't meant for downtown Dambari. The marketing was there and everything. It could just never turn a profit. Got taken advantage of from the contractors, everything. And you know, I was like, oh, you know, you don't need to put this money in.

And I was just stubborn because I was like, oh, you know, you don't need to put this money in and I was just stubborn because I was like, Al, you know, we got to make the place look nice. It was like, okay, you know, do what you got to do. He was a one on the liquor license. This and that that was kind of our arrangement. He was a consultant But you know, you really don't need to renovate. I said, Al, I'm trying to go for a new image and I just $100,000 on this ticket taking the painter charged me like six grand to paint this little, it was ridiculous. Now looking back, be honest, okay. Looking back, do you think to yourself,

a man it would have worked if it just wasn't for those people that didn't pay me to do the act or if it would have worked if these people that it ripped me off, or do you look back and say, man, I'm responsible for all those actions and I should have just stopped. I think when you look at the whole story and you hear everything, I think there's multiple

people that are involved and contribute to it, but overall, it's on me because I was the one that put it together. I was the one that really should have been out there promoting certain events too. I had this thing in my mind that I was already successful. I had this image of success But I wasn't successful really. I was just this image everyone commenting on my social media saying You know, you're gonna grow up to be a millionaire. You're you're gonna be famous one day or this and that so I that was driving it But yet to answer your question it was on me. I know it was my fault. I mean, I think about what I could have done differently to kind of like change certain things. A big thing is how I'd, you know, taken that money at one point

I had 600 K in the bank. So why didn't I go to the bank and say, Hey, I want a credit line on this money or whatever, you know, could I do anything to do this? Should I have went into real estate? What could I have done differently? Well, it seems like, I mean, you work as frivolous with when you had the money, except for the one that they showed in the documentary when you kind of went,

what was it to LA with your friend? And then you guys, you know, started to really spend the money because he just got acquired that million dollar amount, right? And then you bought the Jetski. Tell us about the Jetski part. So out of all in all, I probably took in like 700K or 800K of investments. Probably like 100,000 of it was like misappropriated to like personal stuff.

And in my mind, I was looking at, okay, we are paying our own salaries that we would make up on these concerts down the road. I was looking at, okay, that's how I would get paid, and I would just take it out of the concert profit, like counting my chickens before the eggs before they hatched. So we go on these trips, I figured it could be written off, like, because I would always hear my dad talking about write-offs and stuff with his business, but I'd never, I know it's funny, but I never really asked or anything. I had no sense, like there was no accounting.

I didn't have books set up. There was nothing. It was just money in, money out. It wasn't until later where I tried to like do the books and get it done. So we take these trips, go on investor trips, every dinner I'm looking at as a write-off for investor meeting. We go out to Habatchi. It's like a thousand dollars, I'm picking up every tab, we go and buy clothes and I realize that wasn't really for me, so John got to keep them all,

it was just like open spending all on the company debit cards. And so we're in Florida and I ride jet skis for the first time. And I'm like, wow, this is awesome, I love jet skis for the first time. And I'm like, wow, this is awesome. Like I love jet skis. And so I call the guy from Danbury Power Sports because I've gotten a motorcycle from him a couple months prior. So listen dude, I have two jet skis waiting for me to mar with a pickup.

And he's like, what are you looking at for price? And there's cocky and saying, I don't care about the price. Just have them. And I get ripped off so bad, I get these two basic wave runners, like no modifications on it, nothing, for like $23,000. So they're like, oh, we'll throw in the trailer too.

Now you could get two basic ones for like five or six grand each. And they're charging me $23,000 for these Jetskies. Oh my god. I know. And I was just, I went and got a bank check. Had I paid in cash, it would have been different. But it's clearly on, you know, the bank account

that money and the government's eyes, because they're very like analytical, you know, they're looking at money coming in and then going out to this person. So there's that Ponzi scheme. But in my eyes, it's a totally different version, you know, this could have been like if money was coming in for this person, then that money went to a concert or whatever.

It was just so confusing to really look at. So that's got to be one of the few things that started to kind of raise some red flags for the investors involved. The concerns with the electronics, with the headphones and then now they see like jet ski purchases like what were some other things uh... what they got their cackels up that they brought to your attention actually that didn't raise any concerns with them they loved it they kept their own me more money they could i'd say hey and this work to my benefit they would say

uh... leave your money uh... leave don't give me my return, here's five more thousand dollars. They would just add money into it. Wow. I want your friends. That's what I want. So they would just, you know,

they would add money into it, they would do a lot of different things and. Well, the reason why it worked is because there's been a couple of times already where he's paid them back, right? So you've had a couple of times where they've gotten their back, so they're like, okay,

you do that two or three times. You're doing well now. Yeah, yeah, you're starting a couple times where they've gotten their backs. They're like, okay, you do that two or three times. You're doing well now. Yeah, yeah, you're starting to feel confident and they've seen the lifestyle. When does it start to unravel? You know, when does this shit starts to hit the fan? So the fall is when, during the summer, I'm just paying everyone's payments with other people's money

that's like that Ponzi scheme aspect of it. But in my eyes, I'm looking okay, one loan to pay another loan because it's structured as a loan in the contract, saying they're giving the money as a loan and can use it for any business expense. So loan payoff to me was a business expense at the time. So then in the fall, when all the concerts are bombing, there's no money coming in from that. Concert business is shot.

Electronic business is folded in the club, which I put a hundred grand in too, which there was me thinking, okay, I was gonna bring in 10 grand a month from that, was dead too. So I have zero income coming in. I had also invested in like a kid shoe startup company and a website and this and that. And there was just, there was zero money coming in,

and all these payments were becoming due. Everyone was coming home for the holidays, everyone's wanting their money. A big part that was left out of the documentary too, was the gambling aspect. It was a big gambler, went to empire, and that was ultimately my downfall, which is why my bond got revoked in the end.

But I would go to empire, city, and yonkers, because the one in Connecticut was 21 and over, and I'd went to the one in New York and I would turn $500 into $20,000 at the back or at table. So and that goes to pay off like when I get into Tuxedo's, I'm paying off artists like I would roll the dice out for like the chain smokers. I owe them like 25 grand for three months because you you know, I figured I'd have the money. It was just like a whole mess.

And why did they leave that? No, that's not interesting. That's a joke. There's just so much that they like. There's too much. They're like, we only have an hour. Yeah. You did so much shit.

We just got to pick the craziest thing. I thought they did a great job telling the story. They were the first ones to really, you know, piece a story together. Whereas like the news times or local news never really was able to tell the whole story. And the feedback I've gotten from the doc is just amazing, like, out pouring support for the doc. Now, okay, so when does the log get involved?

When, when you get a phone call, like, hey, we're, uh, we're calling you in. Even though I was in that much debt by the end of 2013, like at that point, or about, that $500,000 in the whole, but on paper, it's over a million, like with the interest rates and everything. And this is another big move that I messed up on. I could have went to my dad and said, Dad, this is a situation. And said I go to the shady lawyer in Danbury, like this ambulance chaser who was friends with my dad that had offered, like for the club, his full legal back. And he said, oh, Ian's got my full support because he was good friends with my dad that had offered like for the club his full legal back and he said oh

Ian's got my full support because he was good friends with my dad. He's got a million dollar law firm backing him. So instead of telling the truth to my dad, I tell the truth to Alan and we sit down I show him all the reports because I kept the detailed spreadsheet of like every money person that was owed money and I said Alan this is the deal because at that point I was getting in a hot water with drug dealers and shady people. And I said, Alan, here's the deal. This is what we're out. And his advice is, okay, he handles it

in like a lawyer way he sends letters out to everyone, saying, we're taking over this case, the company's folding, they're bankrupt, and we're gonna get back to you. So, you know, if you're a kid that thinks he's owed like $15,000 with the interest and you're getting a letter from a lawyer, you know, red flags start to go up there.

They're like, they're blowing up my phone. I'm not answering. Terrible communication skills on my part, not reaching out. I turn off my phone, I'm dodging everyone. Alan reviews everything, then sends another letter to everyone saying to some people who had technically made money, but think they're owed money, that you're not getting any money back, because if they had gotten those payments, interest payments, and it came out to more than they had put in, or there was some people that thought they were at 100,000, he's saying you're only 26,000.

Because everyone was upset about that interest number. So they are figuring, well, you know, I own the club and the concerts, they're in screwing us out of all the money. Henry said every concert happened, where's the money from it? So people start going to the local cops. Henry went first, a couple other kids,

started with the kids, the parents never went to the local cops. Henry went first, a couple other kids, started with the kids. The parents never went to the cops first. Oh, interesting. Had I, you know, talked to the parents, sat down with my dad, a lawyer, talked to them, faced a face, but I just didn't have the confidence or the guts to, you know, like tell them how it was. We could have avoided a lot.

But instead, Allen's taking the lead on it. Kids are going to the cops. The cops are, their eyes are shooting up because if they figure okay, there's one kid that's out $250,000, there must be a hundred others, and this must be in the millions. And it starts there, this is January of 2014, and it increases, it gets to the federal level

because a state prosecution had turned it down. They didn't really, they looked it as like a civil case and then the fed grabbed it and they really went very gun hoe about it. Well, yeah, they kind of made an example of you. At what point did you realize you could go to jail? Because I'm assuming at this point you think worst case scenario, people are going to be pissed off. You have to pay a bunch of people. I got to pay people back.

My dad's going to be angry. At what point were you like, oh shit, I could go to jail. So even on the day I went, like I got questioned by postal inspectors who I had no idea who they, that we even had postal inspectors, it wasn't up until the day I actually went to jail that I thought I was gonna go to jail.

Like even throughout the trial, I thought I was gonna win a trial and we did win some counts. You're dangerously optimistic, you know that? Yeah, it's not. See, I have like a lot of ambition, a lot of drive, which is why I excel at Whole Foods because I can see the bigger picture

and drive like in, I know what the end goal is. So when I have like guided, or like if I had someone guiding all my ambition back then, I think it would have came out a lot different But it wasn't guided and it was it was just letting me run ramp at the do whatever Yeah, I'll be honest with you, you know, I'm obviously a lot older than you I see a lot of tremendous potential and talent But it's just it's like you went totally misguided. Yeah, totally the wrong way. Are you now that you've paid your dues,

you're out, obviously. Are you thinking that way? Like, okay, I'm gonna move this in the right direction, be honest, because I think I could do things. Yeah, I'm kinda really like, I'm analyzing everything. So after the dock of a ton of people have reached out,

a lot of positive support from people all over the country. A lot of job offers for like sales, which in itself, you see all like the stock thing. Listen, anyone that has on their bio, they're making six figures, it's not making six figures, like six figure earner. So I got a lot of those reaching out and that goes back to like me seeing a similar situation

of me and them from when I went through all that. Now I'm kind of just, you know, I'm waiting for the right opportunity. I really love working for whole foods. I'm growing with it. It's a really good job. What do you do with them? So right now I'm an assistant manager getting ready to go for manager of prepared foods. I mean a store manager makes six figures

so that there's an end goal for me. I can get to that level. Al owns peach waves now, so I help him with the marketing and stuff, so that gives me that entrepreneurial sense that keeps me alive. I was very strong about not getting into concert to the club again like between

HBO and then the doc and then the doc comes out and everyone's like get back into the party is this and that There's got to be some pool there. Yeah, so there was like there was two days where I'm like, okay I'm quitting whole foods and I'm going to open a club and then you know But here we go back to that guy to an ambition. I've talked to like And then, but here we go back to that guy in an ambition. I've talked to podcasters or guys in the industry or whatever, and they're like, listen, dude, you have a real chance here to be one of those success stories where you're not doing what you did before.

You're coming out on top of this, and you're turning this into a positive. And it really has to come down to you how you're telling it like if I came here, and I said, guys, I'm working on another night club, you know, that's not what I need to be doing. So that image is gone. I had that like guidance to stay away from that.

And, you know, right now I'm really focused on selling the story for like a TV series. I think it needs to be a TV series. We have the right people behind it. And that will eliminate the debt, make everyone whole. Yeah, I don't think the, you know, just my opinion, I don't think the issue is the concerts. I think the issue is, you know, how you went about it,

and I think that that'll follow you, no matter what you do, as long as you get excited about something. That's right. So it's not the concerts aren't the issue. Now I know what you, it sounds like you're just being self-aware and like, that space gets me thinking in ways that are probably not good. But you're going to run into other spaces that are going to do that to you. You know, so my advice to you is, is, the ambitions great.

You're a hustler, obviously, in a good way, but you got to be honest the whole time. And you're going to, you're going to get your ass kicked a lot. It's just what happens when you're honest. But you got to be honest the whole time. And you're gonna get your ass kicked a lot. It's just what happens when you're on the broom. But you gotta be honest the whole time. You gotta face those hard encounters. You gotta be very transparent with people. Yeah, and everybody learns this as a kid. You just learned it the hard, like really hard way.

But I learned this as a teenager. Like one lie turns into other lies that turn into much bigger. Every single one gets bigger and bigger. Well speaking of that, you also, a lot of the people that you hurt or burned were friends. Are you friends with anybody still or did you lose all your friends?

So a lot of like the kid investors, they were never really, when it all was sudden done, they weren't necessarily owed money. It turns out they had made money because they were early on like with a Ponzi scheme, you know, those early investors when they get paid out, it was more of the adults that had lost money or people that came on later on.

I'm in touch with, you know, a lot of them actually ran into Josh, I worked at wedding for my dad last weekend and Josh was there. And I think, so during the trial and everything, I was like the most hated person in town, even though I was running tuxedos like during this whole trial booking all these major acts because tuxedos is a whole another side to this whole story. But I was hated the news was just saying

damn very kid defraud this and that even up until the doc came out. But I think now there's some closure with the doc because they see kind of what my intentions were and they see, you know, for the first time my side of the story, which didn't really come out of trial because you can't tell it in that way at a trial. And you know, I think some people, you know, they look at the whole thing. I think they know like some of them have reached out to say, listen, you messed up, but that, you know, they get their perspective. Yeah. Some of their dollar amounts were smaller. and shout out to say, listen, you messed up, but they get their perspective. Some of their dollar amounts were smaller, so it's not like they had lost their whole life

because of that. I think there's a lot of things to look at. Everyone's gonna form an opinion, but I also think now ultimately, they're looking at the balls in my court, so what am I gonna do with that next? So everything I said in the doc is only true if I actually see it through. So now it's on me, I have to run with this, I have to turn it into something, pay everyone

back, and then they could see the intentions behind it. So looking back, what do you, can you recall, or do you remember like, you know, the most ultimate high moment of the whole story and the most ultimate low moment of the, or scariest moment of the whole story? I think the high moments were definitely, you know, that last, obviously when I was first starting out, that was high, but that was small scale. So the, the highest moments, you know, were at Tuxedo Junction, which is like that period of time when I was being investigated up until the day I went to jail

where I'm this 1920-year-old kid running this, you know, growing EDM venue, booking the largest acts in the world, you know, Steve Ioki, the chain smoker's adventure club, and I think a lot of, like now I'm looking at to see how big it actually was back then, I was just like, it was just, you know, me doing what I knew how to do. And that showed me going back to my roots,

booking these parties, Tuxedo's was super successful. I know I feel like there's huge opportunity, just right. I mean, even when you tell the story and I'm listening to it, I mean, that was the beginning you were already showing profits early early on before big names like that. It would be hard for me not to want to venture with you into something like that. I think the thing, and like you were saying before,

the concerts and the party promotion, I'm good at, that's not the bad part. But it's associating like that high risk. Like if I'm still in debt now, how do you, like obviously I could have faith and know I'm gonna do it right. But from the onlookers perspective, they don't necessarily know. So I think I have to build that trust and that would entail, you know, paying everyone back and then getting into that.

That's a great way to go. Yeah, I liked that. So what about the low moment? What was the ultimate low moment during the lower scariest? Low moment. I mean, there was so many, like, even with the drug dealers getting beat up or like Guns pointed at you or you think you're saying,

you didn't talk about that. You got your answer. That wasn't a doc. Well, I know, but I want to hear about this. Okay, so I got two really good stories for you. So the first story was, I had gotten 150 grand loan from this drug dealer and he throws all the money at the table and it was stacks like wrapped in 20s and I was 150 grand cash like this is crazy. So I took the money and he was you know I kept coming up with excuses

about not paying it back this and that because I owed like 30 grand interest on this 150K and Eventually sends his cousin down to see me and I'm in the basement of tuxedos and one of you know these guys are grabbing my wrist and They take like the end of the screwdriver like what, what are you going to do with that? And he's like, oh, you'll see. And he takes my hand, puts it out. And he's just like whacking each finger with the end of the screwdriver. And you wouldn't think it would hurt.

But then, because he had a hammer right next to him. But he wasn't using the hammer. I thought, shit, I'm done. He's going to grab the hammer. And then there's a staple gun next to that. But he grabs a screwdriver. And he's just whacking my fingers and it was very unpleasant.

I got the message. You paid him back? So a deal was worked out with my dad and you know, there's a lot to it, but I didn't end up dead from the whole experience. It sounds good. You know, I really learned about like pushing people to their limits and kind of like you know how to read people and you kind of see like people who you think are bad or vice versa or whatever, you know, like you learn to read and adapt to your surroundings.

Yeah, nothing like that. So that's one story. Is that was that too? So the second story is not related. It has to do with like the high moment. It has to do with the fire marshal. I think you guys are gonna love this one. So Steve Ioki, it was like this hyperglow show. The mayor cancels at the west con, the university, and says they didn't want a hyperglow show. And at this point, we had a lot of problems with the town. The town was extorting me to use their ambulance service. They were blackmailing me, making me pay thousands of dollars a night

because they were in cahoots with the government trying to get my boundary vote. They didn't want me on social media, they didn't want this, they didn't want that. And what happens is from there, they're sending the fire marshal out every night to look at capacity. So one night the guy comes out.

He sees we're advertising a seven o'clock start time. So he comes right at seven o'clock and he's with a clicker, a capacity clicker, because they rated our capacity at like 600. Really the place could fit 2000, but they were screwing me pretty hard. And lucky for me, you know, we had sold 2500 tickets to the event,

but I opened doors two hours early So the guy comes to the door this fire marshal and he says Ian how many people do you have inside? I said we're at about five inside we just opened doors. There was already 700 in the place So had he walked inside like he normally does he would have said, you know No more people and the lines are already around the corner. So he starts clicking at five I have a team on the roof with walkie talkies down the street where directing kids in through the back door and he's at the front door clicking these other people in.

And you know, unbeknownst to him, we get 2,500 people in the place the most tuxedos has ever done. And he does a walk through like at the end of the night. He's like, looks like you got about 800 kids in here, but it's okay. 25 hundred kids in the building. And this guy is saying there's about 7 to 800 in there. And that's just what we were dealing with every night.

And the crazy part about it is, you know, one, my age, two, I'm up against the federal government, like on trial at the time when this is all happening. And three, just all the obstacles are running this business, which was completely legitimate. You know, that venue was ran legitimately, I kept accurate accounting. And there was no fraud involved with Tuxedo. So had the old stuff not happen, Tuxedo's could have been successful.

And the problem was when I'd make money on a show, I'd use it to pay off old debt, whether it was like the drug dealers or this, or I was still paying interest payments to other kids to try to make sure they didn't testify or whatever. Like I was trying to, in good faith, I wouldn't say don't testify, but like here's some money. So then when it came time to like say paint,

the chain smokers, I used, that show made a bunch of money that night, but I used the money to pay off other expenses. And I didn't pay them for like three months to chain smokers. They're agent, you know, from AM only or whatever or the CIA in California is blowing up my email every day. And I'm sitting there trying to sell off like coolers in tuxedos to pay off their fee. So it was just a lot of stuff I'd go to the casino and the landlords were like, we're gonna lock you out. I'd have a sold out show the next night.

They say we're locking you out at 6am. So I would take whatever money I'd have, drive to the casino, win the money, and get back at 6am. Because he would put bolts on the doors. They were just bolt the place up. It was just all these crazy stories. Not stressful at all.

Yeah. It was just nuts. And then the club getting rated, I'd get taken out in handcuffs like 10 times for liquor violations or this and that. Oh my goodness. And you just keep going. Yeah.

So something that documentary doesn't get into that I was really curious, I mean, you did almost two and a half years in prison. Yeah. What was that like for a kid, man? So prison is like, it's everything you hear about on TV, but at the same time, it's not. Have you guys ever watched Oranges in New Black?

Yeah. So it's kind of similar to, and I'll tell you my experience, when I first went to prison, I was in like a holdover in Rhode Island and that's like that stuff you see on 60 days in or whatever. It's very locked up. Certain movement, the metal tables, it's that prison vibe. But then when I went to a low security prison at Fort Dixon, New Jersey, it's just like this open compound. There's 5,000 people there. Everyone's different units at these old army barracks

and you would be surprised that the money people are making there. Everyone's got to have a liquor making business. They're making hooch. They'd put these bags of rotting fruit and the walls to make hooch. They were making these little sterno things out of electrical wires to make hooch. They were making like these little sterno things out of electrical wires to like make lightening vodka,

like melting down the honey or whatever. There was the cell phone business, guards would bring in phones and other inmates were selling the phones, like everyone had cell phones. It's absolutely, it's an enterprise in there. People are doing laundry, people are doing cleaning services. So it's just the dynamics. It's like high school, but for prisoners and that.

But then when I got to, I was moved around all over too. I was in Philadelphia. I was in New Jersey. I actually went to Dambury, which was right in my backyard. And I was in solitary confinement for six months because I had dated a guard's cousin. So it was a conflict of interest. What?

Yeah. So the girl I was dating throughout. Conjugal visits and everything. No, the girl I was dating throughout Tuxedos. Her cousin was a guard there. So as soon as I got on the compound, he reported, well, he liked me, but it was his job, I guess, to report it.

But meanwhile, I had other guards there that used to work security for me that didn't report our relationship. But with him, he was by the book reported it. So they threw me under investigation because they didn't want a guard being like influenced by an inmate. And so I'm in solitary for six months

and this old, think of like, those old alcatraz or whatever, with the bars or whatever was an old-style prison. And then they let me be the orderly, I was painting the cells and doing this. And my parents see me once a week because you get certain visits and very, very unpleasant, but that's how I lost all the weight.

Because I was 180 pounds and then when you're on a strict three meals a day at a certain time, your last dinner is at like 3.30 in the afternoon. It was very unpleasant. But then the last year of it, I was at a camp in Wisconsin and that's where you get that country club thing that people talk about like club fed or whatever. There was no fence, it was very open. Guys were literally running through the woods to meet their wives to go to a hotel. And then bringing back what? Duffle bags of protein powder. You guys would appreciate this. We were getting gym shoes. We had a whole Cinder Black weight set up.

We made out of Cinder blocks and it was just like a whole weight thing outside getting like the resistant bands in. Sounds actually pretty awesome. We were eating McDonald's every weekend, sushi, pizza, Chicago deep dish bowls. Everything, it was literally club fed. There was 130 inmates for, you know, one guard.

Everyone had a cell phone and you're in bed watching Netflix are doing this and doing that. And it was just absolutely wild. So it was like oranges is a new black on steroids with what was going on there. Holy shit I Case help but think the potential that you possess that

This is gonna have to be a choice that you're gonna have to make for the rest of your life Am I gonna do this the right way or the well even then I bet I mean with a hustler mentality It's got to be tempting you probably saw opportunity to make money in hustle and prison Did that cross your mind ever did you think about dabbling into some of the illegal shit that's going on inside of prison? So I did a couple of things. I did, I played dice because I had that gambling thing. So I was playing dice.

I was taught C-Low, which is like a street dice game. And I was making good money, but you don't play for cash. You play for a macro. Like it's these packs of fish. Absolutely gross, but it's called the chicken of the sea. And people would walk around with a laundry bag with like a hundred macro, which would be a hundred bucks or books of stamps.

Like a book of stamps was worth $10. So that was like the currency, and then you would send the books of stamps home. People would then Western Union, the money, like every day I'm calling my dad, dad, I need a Western Union 200 to this person or 100 to this person. He's like, you know, what the hell are you doing over there? And he was just like, he was genuinely worried,

because I was just like involved in all that, I had to be a part of it. And that got me into trouble at times because no one likes that, you know, young white kid that they thought was a sex offender. Because I was labeled when I went to the low and you're dealing with these adults, it's called the Chomo, a child molester. They're like, ah, he's a Chomo.

You have, they'll give you a notice. They'll say, hey, you know, you got a week to show your paperwork showing that, you know, what your charges are, that you didn't rat anyone out. So they don't fuck you up. So for a week, nobody knew. And then they would check you in, which would mean like they would make you go to solitary. If you turned out to be bad, after they, you know, they beat the shit out of you, but luckily that never happened to me because the guards, the guards tell them that too. Like if, if

your paperwork's not good or you're a sex offender, they're going to tell you, they'll tell whoever. Did you witness that happening? Did you witness some dudes getting fucked up? All the time, like you hear some crazy stuff. I mean, at Fort Dix, it's mostly a sex offender compound, so that doesn't really happen. But in other areas, like the old lock in the sock, like crazy stuff, people, you know, in the bathroom guys, like the real hardened guys that have been down for a while,

they would go to the shower with boots on, leave a chair in front of the shower and have their boots and a little shank in the boot, like ready to go, because they came from the higher up prisons. This stuff wouldn't happen in the lower prisons, of course, but they were always ready to go. You'd have guys walking around with these long rods

tucked into their shorts, just ready in case something happened. Wow. Holy shit. Yeah. All right, so I, ready in case something happened. Wow. Holy shit. Yeah. All right, so, yeah. I think we've covered a lot. Yeah, I'm very, very curious.

I see why this could be a series. Yeah, there's a lot more in there. I'm very curious to see how you end up in the next 10 years. I really think you got two paths here. You got a choice, man. We're rooting for you, man. I'm rooting for you. I hope you do.

What do you have to say to the mentors? I thought it was great. I mean, that's why you're here. I watched the documentary and I told these guys, I saw it first, right? Then I turned them on to it right away. And I said, you gotta watch this. First of all, I was a generation hustle in general.

I thought it was phenomenal what they're doing. I think what HBO Max is doing is great. And I thought your story was just so interesting. And I have a different background than you do, but I'm a bit of a hustler and I thought your story was just so interesting. And I have a different background than you do, but I'm a bit of a hustler and I came from my father, committed suicide when I was really young, my mom moved into it, had an abusive relationship out of that. So I kind of grew up kind of fining for myself

and figuring things out. And I too made a lot of bad decisions in my early teens. Just, my was more out of survival, though, figuring things out, doing whatever it took to get by. So when I see a kid like you, where I'm sure some people are, you know, fuck that kid or whatever, I have a little more empathy

because I can relate, I can go like, ah, you know, at that age, you start making that kind of money and stuff like that, and that's all you see as a kid. You don't really start to, you don't start questioning like, oh, is this ethical? Oh, every kid makes those mistakes, you just made them big league, oh, is this ethical? Oh, every, every kid makes those mistakes.

You just made them big league, you know what I mean? That's the difference. And then you got, you had to pay the price for it. But I swear you got some potential, but you're gonna have to do it the, the, the right way. Otherwise it's gonna. Does, does HBO actually tell you like how the documentary is doing as far as how it's trending?

Do you know numbers and stuff? I don't really know numbers. I know they'll like play with the episodes. Like they had moved me from two to 10 and they switched the orders of it. Oh, interesting. They do that to get viewers. Because if you think about it,

if someone's tweeting Go Watch Episode Two, and then it directs them to someone else to then watch that. So it's kind of like a smart marketing. Oh, interesting. Yeah, if you're putting up, hey, Go Watch Episode Three, but that turns out to really be another episode.

So they'll change the order. You can also judge by who's reaching out. Like if they're interested in saying, hey, we want to do a podcast series or this and that, you know, then that that shows kind of there, there's hype behind it. And the showrunner really loved my episode. I think my episode definitely stands out from the rest of them. Just in the sense of the way the story's told, we had that live footage, which was great from it. You got to see that young me actually in action, it wasn't a reenactment. And I think it really leaves that area where it's like, did he do it intentionally?

What happened? What went wrong? What's the learning experience? And it could leave a positive ending if things are able to turn around. So not your plans now. I know you said that even HBO was considering some kind of podcast or, I mean, obviously,

you're trying to wrap this into a TV series. And are you actively trying to kind of pitch this, put this together, get people behind it to help you with that? Are you getting investors? Yes. Yeah, you get investors? Yes, is there opportunity? I have no intents to take money from anyone, like ever. Like, I just want to use my, I'd rather work,

I'd McDonald's and, you know, raise my own money before I take someone else's money. But with the series, I have this producer who I've been with, who's been with me all the way, really understands the story, and she's put in a lot of work, like character development, and the stories and how episodes would look.

And someone, a big production company reached out the other day and said, you know, we're very interested in making this into a series, and we're meeting with them in Manhattan on Wednesday. So I think there's definitely a lot of interest. We kind of knew that this would come from the HBO doc because in the doc, there's no money in documentaries. They don't pay the subject.

I listened to Archie one. Yeah, he can tell the story. He hits that. So it's not like I could pay everyone back from the HBO documentary. What I needed from that was to get the exposure out there because no one in their right mind would want to work with us without, like Archie said, again, having, you have to have something, you have to bring something to the table.

So now we have this HBO doc, we have the storyline, you know, this has a lot of potential to turn into something. And we see it as definitely a TV series. All right. Well, I hope you're looking out for it. I hope you do well, man. Yeah, definitely. We're rooting for you. Thanks for coming on the show. It definitely a TV series. All right, well, I hope you're looking out for it. I hope you do well, man. Yeah, definitely. We're rooting for you.

Thanks for coming on the show. It was a fun conversation. Thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it. All right, off. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,

and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballac, maps performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having sour, animal, and Justin as your own personal trainer's butt at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money bag guarantee, and you can get

it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPump.