Scamfluencers - Intercontinental Con Man

Episode Date: November 21, 2022

 When a Colombian teenager survives an hours-long trip inside the wheel well of a plane, he becomes an instant celebrity. A local family in Miami decides to adopt him, in the hopes of giving him a better life in America. But they quickly realize he’s not who he says he is, and he’s not even a teenager at all. In fact, this is just the start of his journey into becoming one of the world’s most charming, cunning, and completely untraceable identity thieves. His speciality? Sophisticated hotel heists all over the globe.Please support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, Prime members, you can listen to scam fluncers add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Haggy is there? Anyone in the world who you would like to pull a talent in Mr. Ripley on and a follow-up question is that person me? I would never want to steal your identity. Oh. You have too much baggage. Hey! You know what though, fair and true.

There actually isn't anyone whose identity I'd want to steal. My life is boring and nice. Oh God, that is true. Actually, you know what? I was gonna say, I don't think there's a lot of people whose identity I would steal because I know with my own life what I'm getting into, but I might steal yours, actually, boring and nice sounds good.

Hey, what's mine as yours, baby? Aw. Well, you know how scammers are? Or at least the ones we talk about, they sure do love to live in another life, even if just for a little while. even if just for a little while. It's around 3 a.m. on a muggy June night in 1993. A mechanic at Miami International Airport walks around a cargo plane and conducts a routine

security check. He opens the wheel well. When the hatch opens, the body of a teenage boy rolls out onto the runway. He has shaggy brown hair and he's wearing cut off shorts, a t-shirt, and no shoes. He's covered in frost. When the paramedics show up, one of them declares the boy dead. There's just no chance that he survived being jammed at the tiny compartment during frigid temperatures and a lack of oxygen. But when the other paramedic puts their hand on the boy's wrist, they feel a faint pulse. So they hoist him onto the ambulance and floor it to the hospital.

When he regains consciousness, the boy says that his name is Guillermo Rosales. He says that he's a 13-year-old orphan who's been working at the airport in his home country of Colombia, and that he's been eating from garbage cans for months, dreaming of ways to escape to the U.S. for a better life. When the news breaks, the media goes wild. It's the kind of feel-good story that everybody gets obsessed with. No one can believe that Guillermo survived. He's an instant media darling.

Newspapers cover his first all-American meal at McDonald's, Dateline runs a feature on him, he gets adoption offers from all over the country, and one woman in Texas opens a college fund for him. The local Colombian community rallies around him, a member of Congress grants him a temporary visa, and a lawyer offers to take on his case pro bono while a judge investigates. I know a scam is coming and I already know this is going to be kind of brilliant because this is the exact type of thing people just fall for so easily. Like this feel good, better life story. I know, it's catnip.

And this boy who put his life on the line to make it to Miami is finally getting to live out his dream. And it all seems too good to be true. And Sarah, it turns out that it is. Oh, beautiful. Because Guillermo isn't who he says he is. In fact, almost nothing he said since landing in Miami is true. This precocious little fraudster is actually named Juan Carlos Guzman-Bettincor.

And he's already spinning a web of lies that will lead him to build a reputation as one of the world's most skilled and slippery identity thieves. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondry's podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. I love my kid, but is a new comedy parenting podcast from Wendry that shares a refreshingly

honest and insightful take on parenting. Each week, the host will share a parenting story that'll have you laughing and thinking, yes, I have absolutely been there. Listen to, I love my kid, but on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wondry, I'm Sachi Cole, and I'm Sarah Haggi. And this is ScanFluencers. Sarah, today I'm going to tell you a story about a good old-fashioned con artist. As in, someone who is amazing at crime, mostly because of sheer confidence. This guy wanted to be wealthy and important, so he just acted like he was.

And for the most part, people were happy to go along with him. Actually, even I'm charmed by this guy, and you know how rarely I say that. The authorities who tracked him down all over the world admit that they're super impressed with him too. And he got so good at grifting that he managed to keep it up for decades. In Sarah, the juiciest part, he's still on the lamb. No, I'm calling this one Intercontinental Conman. Our story starts in Colombia in the late 1980s. Juan Carlos Guzman Batancourt is a teenager in a small town in the Calca Valley. The country is in its second decade of civil conflict,

and guerrilla groups are a constant threat where Juan Carlos lives. And things are scary for Juan Carlos at home, too. He's the youngest of three boys, with a single mom struggling to make ends meet. She brings her boyfriends around, and Juan Carlos later says that some of those relationships were abusive. Juan Carlos has also been hiding a big secret. He's gay. But he feels that within the machismo culture where he was raised, there's no way he can be open about who he is.

Okay, there is a lot going on with poor Juan Carlos. Yeah. Well, then, when Juan Carlos is 13, he goes to see the touring show of Disney's world on ice. And Sarah, he is dazzled. He tells one of the show's organizers how much he loved the show. And the man offers to take him along for their next stop by smuggling him into the show's equipment, man offers to take him along for their next stop by smuggling him into the show's equipment which gets loaded onto a cargo plane. The plane takes off and

Juan Carlos is freaking out, but he's also so excited. He's been desperate to escape, and now he's off to parts unknown. Pre-9-11 air travel was really something else. You could do anything back in the day. You could do whatever you wanted. Nobody was going to stop you. I'm surprised people weren't doing this every day. Well, finally, the plane lands in Caracas, Venezuela. The Disneyland ice crew finds Juan Carlos when they're unloading at the venue and they alert authorities. They want to return Juan Carlos to his family,

but it takes a while to find them, like months. So one Carlos goes to school in Caracas in the meantime. And by the time he's deported eight months later, one Carlos is not psyched to be going back to Columbia. He's gotten a taste of a completely different life and he liked it. So after he was sent home, he packs his bags and without telling anyone, he takes off, it starts living on the street. He hitchhikes all

over Colombia and he resorts to eating out of the trash to survive. He lives like that for three years and later when talking about this time, Juan Carlos mentions a moment where he saw a well-off family eating at a restaurant. One of the kids had barely touched their plate, so Juan Carlos asked the server for the leftover food. When the server tried to pass in the plate, the rich woman screamed, THROW THAT IN THE TRASH! Moments like that stick in Juan Carlos' memory for years. At 16, after living on the streets, Juan Carlos gets a gig working at an airport, and he

notices something. Just before accelerating for takeoff, every plane rests for a few minutes on the tarmac. Not for long, but just long enough for a last minute passenger to climb inside the wheel well. And on a brisk June night, he decides it's time to go. He doesn't care where he's going. He knows he might die, but he's willing to risk it all. He sees a plane roll onto the tarmac and he just runs for it.

Because if he makes it, he can start over somewhere else. He can be whoever he wants to be. So he decides to take on a completely new idea. Let's go back to when Miami officials find a frozen boy near death on an airport tarmac. That boy is Juan Carlos. But when he's discovered, he claims to be Guillermo Rosales, and his story is covered all over the US. Bertha Soto Aguilar hears about Guillermo, and it hits her heart.

Bertha and her husband Hyro are both Colombian immigrants who came to Miami for a better life. And even though they have three kids on their own, they decide to take Guillermo in, at least temporarily, while his case gets figured out. And when Guillermo walks into their house for the first time, Bertha notices that his eyes are like the size of dinner plates. Here's Bertha describing that moment, years later, for a TV series called Impostors. He was looking around and without those big eyes and asking, and asking, this is your house. My house at that time was normal, you know, medium class house.

But for him was a mention. Despite being so surprised, Guillermo adjusts pretty quickly. Bearthal loves it when he starts calling her mamita. He gets along with their kids and he's picking up English really fast. But it's not all smooth sailing. Not long after they take Gérmo in, he asks Bertha if she keeps jewelry in the house. And then she notices that some of her earrings are missing.

And though Bertha takes Gérmo to Kmart for new clothes, he's much more interested in rifling through her son's wardrobe and wearing his clothes instead. And then one afternoon, Giromo just leaves home, and he doesn't come back for days. Bertha and Hyro are totally thrown by this vanishing act. Giromo doesn't know anyone in Miami besides them. Where would he even go? So then when Giromo shows back up again, he acts like, hey, it's no big deal. And then one afternoon, they lay out by the pool at the historic Hotel Fountain Blue on Miami Beach, Sarah. Do you remember the Hotel Fountain Blue? Oh my god! Wow! So it is this like, gorgeous mid-century hotel right on the beach, and it's the location of movies like Scarface and Goldfinger

which were both partially filmed there. And for some reason, we already did two episodes that took place at this hotel. I feel like they should let us stay there for free. I mean, scammers really love the fun template. I'm literally going to this hotel. Okay, so Guillermo seems to be loving every minute of his luxurious pool day. Here's Bertagham. He study people, and he noticed that rich people, they are welcome everywhere. And he noticed that manners and smiling make people trust.

he noticed that the manners and smiling make people trust. The powers of observation are key here. And then, Bertha says that Guillermo disappears for hours. And when he comes back, he raves about the hotel's design and its marble floors. And then Bertha notices that Guillermo is wearing a gold chain, and he's got a fistful of credit cards. Guillermo, by the way, later denies that any of this ever happened. Bertha says that she lets him keep the necklace, but she makes him give her the credit cards, and when they get home, she slices the cards up and throws them in the trash. Guillermo's been through a lot, but this recent behavior is troubling.

Then, Bertha and Hyro get a call from the Colombian consulate in Miami. In Sarah, they're told that the young man they welcomed into their home is not who they think he is. His name is not Gehrimo, he is not an orphan, and he's not 13. He's 17-year-old Juan Carlos, and he's getting deported again. Wait, he's 17. He's 17. Oh.

This whole trip to Miami was just the first exploit by a burgeoning young scammer. Because now that he's seen the lifestyles of the rich and the fabulous, Juan Carlos is fixated, not just on the finer things in life, but on charming his way into having them all. One Carlos is sent back to Colombia, and when he steps off the plane in his home country, a swarm of media greets him. He hands it up for the cameras, declaring that there is no future in Colombia.

He says he's not happy to be back, and he brags about how rich he'd been in the US, with two houses, a car, and even a yacht, which isn't true, obviously. You know what? He's being aspirational. It's like coming back from summer camp and being like, I kissed five girls, and it's like, no, you didn't. But Juan Carlos is determined to get back to the US. It's like coming back from summer camp and being like, I kissed five girls and it's like, no, you didn't. But Juan Carlos is determined to get back to the US. So he sneaks back in over and over again.

He also starts pulling low-level cons and learning new ways to evade authorities while honing his English skills. In 1995, two years after he was sent back from Miami, he's discovered sneaking into the U.S. again through Houston, and he's thrown into a federal detention center. That's where he picks up tips from other inmates about falsifying documents. And a year after that, he successfully convinces Florida's Bureau of Prisons that he's actually German royalty. Okay, I mean, it's too wild to disprove, I guess.

Well, Sarah, as you are now seeing, this is no longer some impish kid with dreams of foreign riches. He's now an adult man looking to scam his way to success. Juan Carlos is ready to take his con to the next level, but to do that, he needs to get out of Colombia for good. But to do that, he needs to get out of Columbia for good. In 1997, Juan Carlos is in his 20s, and he starts working at an international airport in Venezuela. One day, he lingers at the gate for a flight to Madrid, and he starts talking to a passenger named Manolo.

When Manolo takes out his boarding pass, Juan Carlos memorizes every detail. When the plane starts boarding, Lon Carlos goes to the check-in counter and tells them that he lost his boarding pass. He doesn't have an ID, but he does have all of Manolo's flight information. The attendance seems skeptical, but she hands over the ticket and Lon Carlos makes it onto the plane. I mean, I feel like you'd still have to be incredibly charming

for this to work. Yeah, you can't just be like a shitty, difficult passenger and get this. You have to be very convincing. Yeah. Well, when he lands, Juan Carlos convinces authorities that he's an ex-currilla fighter from Colombia trying to start a new life in Spain.

And it works. He's granted temporary asylum. an ex-curilla fighter from Colombia trying to start a new life in Spain. And it works. He's granted temporary asylum, and after two years, his citizenship is approved. But now, he wants to move on to the next phase of the scam. And to do that, he needs to get close to his usual targets, the rich and the powerful. So he gets a job working the front desk at a hotel in Madrid. He learns the ins and the outs of the hospitality industry, and he starts picking up accents and phrases in multiple languages.

Oh my God, he should just work in intelligence or something. I mean, he really does his research. And thanks to his European Union passport, he can easily travel to London, Paris, Geneva, and to the fanciest hotels in the world. Over the next few years, he'll use aliases, forged documents, and nerves of steel. To pull off some of the most audacious luxury hotel robberies, the world has adverbs. It's a hot August morning in Las Vegas in 2003. Juan Carlos walks across the marble floor of the four seasons hotel, heading for the

Concierge desk. He introduces himself as Daniel Gold. He flashes a knowing smile and asks for a list of his incidental charges. The concierge attendant is quick to oblige. This is all according to the online magazine, truly adventurous, but Juan Carlos' recollection of these events is a little different. In his telling of the story, he got the room number and last name of his mark from the hotel spa staff. But either way, this list of charges gives Juan Carlos the first key piece of information he needs for his scam.

Daniel's room number. It's on the 37th floor. It's one of those $4,000 a night sweets. What do you think you get for four grand a night? He did toilet seats? A bidet? Well, next, Juan Carlos goes up to his own room, which he's booked under one of his aliases. And this room looks like something out of a spy thriller.

It's got a photocopier, a printer, an illuminating machine. He takes a picture of himself, with his dark hair, his dimples, and his distinctive mole between his eyebrows, and paced it onto a fake ID with the name Daniel Gold. Then, he reportedly returns to the front desk and says he misplaced his room key. The concierge asks to see an ID, and he slides over the fake ID that he just made. It works, and the concierge gives him a key to Daniel's suite. One Carlos later refutes the sequence of events,

saying he was never asked to show an ID at all. Yeah, because he's a true scammer. He knows how to get what he wants without having to print out a fake ID. Yeah, he probably didn't need it. So we don't know why one Carlos picked Daniel and his family, but his typical move is to hang around hotel lobbies, enjoying coffee, and eavesdropping on the

guests. He picks up pertinent information about them, and what they're up to. And then he picks a mark and he makes his move. So he already knows that Daniel has a 10 a.m. spot appointment this morning, and the clock is ticking. He lets himself into Daniel's suite, but he quickly realizes that he's not alone. Daniel's kids and their nanny are in one of the connected rooms. Sarah, this isn't maybe the first time we've seen Juan Carlos under real pressure.

How do you think he handles it? I think he finds a way to belong. Wow, yes, correct. He does not panic. He steps into the hallway and he uses a hotel phone to call the nanny in the room. He pretends to be a staffer and tells her that Daniel wants his kids to meet him at the spa right away. So she packs up the kids and heads downstairs. Juan Carlos B lines it to the safe, and he tries several combinations. But alas, no dice. So he calls a concierge desk.

He tells him that he's forgotten his safe code and he's in a rush. Can someone come up and help? But alas, no dice. So he calls a concierge desk. He tells him that he's forgotten his safe code, and he's in a rush. Can someone come up and help? A hotel employee comes up and helps Juan Carlos open the safe. Oh my god, it's so easy. He ends up walking out of the room with more than $280,000 worth of jewelry, Rolex watches, designer shoes,

plane tickets, and passports. Once again, his scam works like a charm. One Carlos has been running this script at hotels in Paris, New York, London, Geneva, and of course, Toronto. With each successful job, he picks up more and more of the lifestyles of his wealthy marks.

He flies first class, eats at world-famous restaurants, and spends a small fortune at designer boutiques in Paris. Louis Vuitton is one of his favorites, actually. Sarah, during his Vegas trip, he allegedly gets a bartender with a $30,000 contact-fully watch. As a tip, I actually kind of love this part of the scam. Like, if you're gonna rip people off, it's nice to redistribute the wealth, you know?

Eat the rich. Yeah, I mean, that is actually pretty generous of him. He's like, whatever, I stole this anyway. Take it. So as his scams get bigger and more ambitious, Juan Carlos is getting a reputation with law enforcement agencies all over the world. He's managed to disappear after every successful job, but he can't evade the authorities forever.

It's a cold and drizzly day in late 2004, a year and a half after the Vegas incident. Detective Christian Plowman sits at his desk at a police station just blocks from hide part and bucking in palace. He's got slicked back hair and square glasses, and his district is home to some of the fanciest, most expensive hotels in the world. So one newspaper article catches his eye. It's about a grifter arrested in Paris for impersonating hotel guests and taking off with the contents of their saves. Christian jumps up and shows the article to his boss, detective Sergeant Andy

Swindles. Swindles eh? Yeah his name is literally Swindles can you believe it? That's a great name. I know God bless right? For Christian and Andy the story is all too familiar. Someone robbed the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the Lane's Barrow, and other posh hotels a few years back. The scammer impersonated hotel guests and stole jewels and tons of money. He used one stolen amix to hire a chauffeur

at Bentley to drive him to Heathrow, where he then bought a ticket to Paris, blew 8,000 pounds on designer clothes in the terminal, and disappeared yet again. The team investigated for months before figuring out that it wasn't a team of robbers. It was just one person. They had security footage and even a photo of the guy,

but he was never caught. OK, I do not condone his actions. There are bad things to do, but this is very remarkable. It's really impressive. Like he got away with so much. And how did he learn how to do this? He was just a genius. He just was paying attention.

It is crazy what you can accomplish by simply just being a good listener. Well, Andy starts pulling old files and they reach out to authorities in Paris right away. Here's Christian talking about it on Impostors. All we wanted at that stage was a photograph of their suspect. So we could compare it to the CCTV footage that we had. Eventually, we got a copy of a photograph from France, which was very exciting. It was very obvious to us that the guy that was arrested in Paris was the guy that we were looking for for our hotel crimes. But the Paris police don't keep Juan Carlos in custody for long.

And even worse for the London detectives, Juan Carlos gave the Paris police an alias. So once they release him, he just disappears. Now Christian and Andy just have to wait and see when and where he'll strike again. But they don't have to wait long before they get where that someone has robbed the door chester, one of London's most iconic hotels. A burrani businessman was staying there while going on a banana shopping spree, hitting our money, Valentino, and Dolce Incavana. And Juan Carlos has stolen all of it. Christian and Andy think that this sounds like their man, and surveillance footage from the hotel

confirms it. Juan Carlos, now 29 years old, still has shampoo commercial hair and that distinctive mole right between his eyebrows. Sarah, I have a photo of Juan Carlos around this time. He is my husband, and I want to know if you would like to admire him with me. Oh my God. Yeah. Okay, this explains everything. I know. He looks like a freaking model.

He can get away with anything. Are you kidding me? I would give him all my credit cards if he asked nicely. Oh my God, you should have mentioned that he was so handsome. Well, let me guess, is he 6'4 as well? Oh my god, this is a story about the power of being a good listener. Yeah, very observant, very handsome, and potentially quite tall. Wow, someone cast this movie just so we can watch it.

Well, now the detectives know that he's right here in their backyard. And in the next few days, several more bougie London hotels report robberies. From video footage, they know that this is their guy, on another hotel rampage. But they can't anticipate where he'll be or when. Christian and Andy just have to hope that this super calculated con man comes up against plain old bad luck. A couple of weeks later, Andy's out for a drink in a Ritsey district near the police station. And Sarah, it happens. He spots Juan Carlos walking into a grocery store. Okay, he just literally walks into a grocery store. I mean scammers have to

eat too. Andy calls Christian frantic. He tells him that their international mystery man just walked into a market. Christian bolts out of the police station and sprints a mile and a half to meet up with Andy. That's nearly two and a half kilometers. Sarah, you and I need that conversion. Okay, thank you. That is a long sprint. It's a long time. Christian walks through the grocery store to get a better look at him.

And he thinks that's definitely him. So he makes the arrest right there in the market. Here's Christian talking about it on Impostors. And I remember phoning the police station saying, oh it's DC Playham and can you send me a van? We arrested an international burglar, something ridiculous like that. The hard bizarre daydream had come true.

I mean he's kind of a celebrity to them. Yeah, he really evaded them for a long time. And a few days later, the police searched Juan Carlos's place. It's a cramped apartment in a not-great neighborhood of Northwest London. But it's packed with designer clothes, wads of cash, and passports from all over the world

with all kinds of different names, but all picturing the same man. Wow. Where it gets to detectives in Vegas where Juan Carlos is still wanted for robbing Daniel Gold at the same man. Wow. Word gets to detectives in Vegas, where Juan Carlos is still wanted for Robin Daniel Gold at the four seasons, and to other authorities in France, Russia, and Japan. And they discover that he's also been linked

to similar crimes in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and Thailand. Within a few months, the case goes to trial in England. And throughout the trial, the prosecutors and the cops can't agree on what his actual name is. And even though the judge says that Juan Carlos deserves, quote, a substantial sentence, he's only sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The prison, though, is kind of wild.

It's on this tiny island called Shepi in the UK. There's only one connection to the mainland via a bridge. And about two months into his sentence, something really unbelievable happened, Sarah. Oh no. One Carlos got to leave the island to go to the dentist. Some accounts say that he claimed he had a too fake, but one Carlos says it was actually the guards who made him go. he claimed he had a too thick, but one Carlos says it was actually the guards who made him go. Either way, one Carlos catches the train into town, by himself, and then he asks the attendant to exchange his ticket heading back to the prison for a ticket heading to London. And they just give it to him.

Oh my God. I'm telling you, being hot is a scam. Did he even escape? Like, I don't know, is it an escape if they send you the dentist and you just don't come back? It's like someone's like basically like, oh wait, let me hold the door open for you. Yeah. Like, he didn't have to build a freaking tunnel or anything. Oh my God. Well, when the guards eventually see that he's escaped, they start a full-on manhunt.

But it's too late. They can't find him. Juan Carlos has done what he does best. Vanish. Over the next few years, he's in and out of prisons in Dublin and Paris and charged with crimes in Nevada and Switzerland. But ultimately, it's a far more subtle stunt in a way less glamorous location

that almost puts an end to his grift for good. It's September 2009, and a man walks into a gas station in Derby line, a small town in Vermont near the Canada border. It's nighttime, and he needs help. He reportedly tells the gas station attendant that his car broke down across the border, and he is a college exam in the morning. Can he get the number for a cab company? At that exact moment, an off-duty customs officer walks in.

He's making a beer run, but his ears perk up at the exchange between the man and the gas station attendant. He senses something fishy. First of all, he knows this isn't a college town. And besides, this guy looks like he's in his mid-30s. The officer calls for backup, and when they check his pockets, they find a western union receipt. He'd sent money to Yolanda Betancourt, his mom back in Columbia. They also find a forged Spanish passport with Juan Carlos' picture. It's kind of heartbreaking that he was sending money to his mom still.

Yeah. And you're like, all these years later and he's still sending money back home, it's kind of endearing. I hate that. Yeah. Well, by this time, there are warrants out for him all over the world. And this misstep in the US is about to bring all the pieces together. With the walls closing in,

Juan Carlos decides to try a strategy he's never considered before. Honesty. I feel like a... It's December 2010, a little over a year after Juan Carlos' arrest at the gas station. He's sitting in a Vermont courtroom awaiting his sentencing for a legal entry into the US after being deported. And Juan Carlos seems different. This isn't the slick, confident man who can talk his way out of anything. Robert Samuels, a reporter covering the trial for the Miami Herald, described the scene on an episode of Impostors.

He seemed so lost that one point the judge asked, well, how old are you? And one Carlos could have answered the question. He had been lying about it for so long. I feel like in order for his scam to have worked for so long, he had to start just like living it. Yeah. And totally abandoning any truth in his life.

Yeah. Well, a few days before, Juan Carlos's lawyer had visited him in his tiny jail cell and delivered some bad news. The prosecution was seeking the maximum sentence of 10 years. The government claimed that his criminal history was, quote, truly remarkable. In court documents, Juan Carlos's lawyer refuted this, writing,

While Mr. Guzman has multiple convictions, the convictions are neither exceptionally repetitive, nor exceptionally noteworthy. Indeed, the convictions trend towards petty. He points out that the bulk of Juan Carlos' convictions are more than five years old, and that he's gone years at a time without any convictions at all. But now, Juan Carlos is facing a decade behind bars,

so he decides to make one last appeal. He stands before the court and reads from a piece of paper. Sarah, can you read this for me? I have committed many crimes, and I have no excuse for this. I've taken money, jewels, and other valuable property from very rich people, but I never harmed a person nor would I ever do it, as I believe the integrity

of a person's physical health is sacred. No lies there. Technically accurate. I don't know if that's the argument I'd make, but it is true. So he goes on saying, I had tried for the past 17 years to forget by telling false stories and making a different world for my own.

So I don't have to remember the nightmare that was and has been my life. All my life has been a great lie. Oh, I know. Honestly, this is why I can't be in charge of anyone's punishment. All they'd have to say is something like that and I'd be like, I was okay. We all make mistakes. Well, this is the first time Juan Carlos has publicly spoken about his tough upbringing.

Here's an exchange between the judge and Juan Carlos from the sentencing hearing. You know, I just want to say I'm sorry and I'm not coming back to this country. You sure? You've been here illegally and then out a number of times, and of course, as the government pointed out is, this will be the... This time, I think, that you will be deported, right? Yes, sir.

That means... So, what's changed? Why do you think you're not coming back? There's many reasons. Wow. I mean, has anyone been deported that many times? I mean, what's the... Probably. What is the world record of being deported from the United States?

Because that... It seems very excessive. Deported doesn't... It doesn't sound like it's something you just kind of go back to a country and you keep getting deported. Right. Well, there's one good reason that Juan Carlos has for not wanting to return to the US. And Sarah, it's that Juan Carlos is in love.

The guy's name is Alfredo. He's from Mexico. He has blue eyes and blonde hair. He's also very hot. He and Juan Carlos met at a club in the US. It isn't entirely clear when, but probably sometime in the early 2000s. And you know they're really in love because they have matching tattoos. One of them says property of Alfredo and the other one says property of Juan Carlos.

He used his real name. Okay, Sachi, you stand a bit too hard. There's too much glee in your voice. I think it's really sweet. Ha ha ha ha ha. Well, Juan Carlos later says that Alfredo had given him an ultimatum. Stop scamming or lose him forever. So he decides to choose love and accepts his fate.

And Juan Carlos' honesty and his plea for forgiveness seems to work. The judge sentences him to just 30 months in jail. And after serving time in Vermont, he pleads guilty to grand larceny in Las Vegas. He sentenced to a minimum of 19 months, but he ends up serving only six, getting the benefit of time served. When he's released in 2012, he's deported, again, to Columbia, to pick up his life with Alfredo, out of the grifting game for good. Supposedly. A few weeks later, Columbia journalist Andres Pachon is sitting at his desk in Bogota. He's a bald man with silver glasses, and he writes about cultural figures for outlets

like Rolling Stone, Latin America, and Gato Pardo. And just eight months earlier, he published El Suplantador, which means the impersonator in Spanish. It's a book all about Juan Carlos. He spent years researching Juan Carlos for the book, talking to law enforcement agents who are pursuing him and using reports and court records to document the 20-year saga of his life of crime.

But every time Andres reached out to Juan Carlos, he refused to speak with him. So when the phone rings, Andres is stunned to hear this voice on the other end. It's Juan Carlos. He's out of jail and he wants to meet to give his first tell-all interview. OK.

I mean, here's a thing about our guy, Juan Carlos. He doesn't want to scam anymore. I do believe that. But he needs a project. He needs to be known somehow. He loved the notoriety. There's literally no reason for him to do this.

Well, Andreas and Juan Carlos meet up in Bogota. They meet several times over 20 days, and one of these interviews is actually on YouTube. Sarah, can you take a look? This is a very serious and almost academic look for our guy, Juan Carlos. Like, you know, he's wearing a sweater with a button up under. He looks very serious and official, and it definitely is him trying to show the world like, oh, I'm not just some scammer. When Andre's asks Juan Carlos why he's choosing to speak publicly now, he seems almost amused.

He's saying, tell everyone I'm not the monster they say I am. And I want to point out that his accent sounds like he's from Spain. He doesn't speak with a Colombian accent from the region where he grew up. One Carlos doesn't deny anything, but he seems intent on setting the record straight. He may have committed crimes, but he's not a bad guy. He says the humiliation he lived through in Colombia made him, quote, through it straight. He may have committed crimes, but he's not a bad guy. He says the humiliation he lived through in Colombia made him, quote, want to become a better person than they were.

Andres follows up. Andres is saying, do you think you have become a better person than them? And Juan Carlos, without hesitation, says, yes. I don't think that's true. And I think there's a definite arrogance to Juan Carlos without hesitation says yes. I don't think that's true and I think it like I think there's a definite arrogance to Juan Carlos because you know even though he had been deported so many times and went to jail so many times like he did get away with so much and he did live large for quite a significant amount of time doing very low effort scams so I do think he definitely believes this.

Well, Andre's gets enough new material from Juan Carlos to publish a new book about his life in 2014. It's called Aelius, and I haven't seen the details of it reported in any English language media outlet. Our producers got their hands on the book, and it's where we got some of the juicy details for the story. In it, Juan Carlos owns up to everything, even his guilty pleasure of flying first class.

It's an attitude that's likely kept him in the game for decades, and it's not over yet. After Andre's published his second book about Juan Carlos, guess what our favorite handsome grifter does? He disappears again. And then, in 2016, years after he sat down for that interview, a wealthy Saadi family gets back to their hotel suite at the hotel Disneyland in Shesie, France. But as soon as they walk in the door, they can tell something's wrong. A chest where they've been keeping their hundreds of thousands of euros hidden in the bathroom closet has been stolen. Juan Carlos is up to his old tricks

in personating people, getting into their hotel rooms and walking off with their money and jewels. But this time, he doesn't get far. Through surveillance footage, Juan Carlos is found on the premises and arrested. He serves time but is released sometime in 2020 early on in the pandemic. And since then, no one knows where he is.

Well Sarah, this might be our best scammer yet because he followed our advice. No social media, no bragging to randos about what you've done. And when Juan Carlos wants to disappear, he just does, and he spends his ill-gotten fortune in peace. Okay, so is he a scam flencer? Like, wealth, even stolen wealth, kind of begets its own influence. So he's not like a traditional scam flencer,

but it's kind of unavoidable that he would have had some influence wherever he went, right? Yeah, I mean, there's so much about his life that we just simply don't know during those scams, but I will say he definitely is a scam influencer because he went pre-internet viral and charmed an entire nation. No, he really knew how to work the media.

I think he really figured it out that if you land in America and you're like, I'm poor and sad and I need help. And also to show this reverence for America. Yes, they love that. This reverence for the American dream, for a better life, appreciating this country and not having anything bad to say. He used that to his advantage in such,

honestly, pretty genius way, in my opinion. Well, the other thing is Juan Carlos, he doesn't think genius way, in my opinion. Well, the other thing is Juan Carlos, like, he doesn't think of himself as a scammer. Like, he routinely refers to the scams as his work. Like, this is something he's honed, it's a skill he's worked at. Yeah, it's an art to him, he's an artist.

I do kind of appreciate that he never really bragged. He just, like, stole money and tipped well. Yeah, which is honestly kind of the smartest thing about him is that he didn't really draw that much attention to himself. He wasn't trying to show people like on this public level that he had this glitzy, glamorous life. Like of course he did definitely enjoy the notoriety

and attention to a certain extent towards the end. But I think he started off with real intentions of like, get the money, go. My feeling is that he would have been caught in a scam a lot sooner if he had sort of bragged about it more publicly, but his silence was a gift. Yeah, where do you think he is now? I think he's still scamming in Mexico.

Like he did one last heist. And he's living a beautiful quiet life in a giant mansion in the Mexican countryside. I just need to know if him and Alfredo made it. I just need to know that. I don't think they did. There's no way that this guy can't be held down. Like, he's a lone wolf.

You know, maybe he's back in Colombia with his family. Like, he's still clearly had an attachment to his mom at least. Well, Sarah, I think we learned a valuable lesson here today. If you have to scam, you better be hot. I mean, that's how you and I have been getting away with it all this time. Oh, you can get away with a lot if you are traditionally attractive and attractive. Don't I know it? Oh, shut up.

Hey, Prime members. You can listen to scam influencers ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. This is Intercontinental Conman. I'm Sachi Cole, and I'm Sarah Haggi. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Andres Pachon's book, Aelius, and Matthew Bremner's

piece, The Stowe Away, for Truly Adventurous. Paola Mejia wrote this episode, additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggi. Our senior producer is Gemswan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Tay Busby. Our story editors are Sarah, Ennie, and Allison, and Yntraub. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle.

Our fact checker is Anna Pugel, Mazzini. Sound design is by Kyle Randall. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapio. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze On Sing. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelot, Stephanie Gens, and Marshall Louis for Wondry. you