Scamfluencers - Sam Israel: Greed Is Good Part 2 | 228

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

This is part two of our series about Sam Israel – a wealthy hedge fund manager whose company starts quickly hemorrhaging money. Rather than admit defeat, Sam lies to his clients, and when they start asking questions, he bets everything on a conspiracy theorist named Roberth Booth Nichols. What follows is stranger than fiction, involving buried treasure, fake identities, a plot involving the President of the United States – and a con man who's about to discover what it feels like to be conned.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of scam influencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. A note for our listeners, this episode contains mention of suicide and drug abuse. Please listen with care. Sarah, how conspiracy-minded do you think you are? Great question. I mean, here's my take on conspiracy theories. The stuff that's actually happening in real life that is the worst stuff you can imagine

does sound like a conspiracy theory, but conspiracy theories are kind of a distraction from real life things that people can actually change in the world. Oh, that's a good way to put it. It's spooky. Yeah, so that's the real conspiracy is conspiracies. Right. Okay, very meta.

It goes all the way to the top. It goes all the way to the top. Well, today we're going to finish up the tall, winding tail of Sam Israel in the second part of our series on the scamming hedge fund manager. Sam got tripped up on conspiracy theories and paranoid delusions, all to avoid facing the truth. He's a big fat failure who owes a lot of people a lot of money.

It's late one night in spring 2004, and Sam Israel is following a mysterious man down a street in central London. Sam is in his mid-40s, balding with big, bulging eyes. When we last left him, he was in a dark place. Sam's addicted to drugs and alcohol, and his firm, Bayou Hedge Fund group, is deep in the red. But he's been misleading his clients

by creating false statements showing that Bayou is making them tons of money. Now, Sam needs cash fast. Enter this mysterious man, his white knight, Robert Booth Nichols. Robert is in his early 60s, tall with silver hair.

And if you believe the rumors, Robert has led a remarkable life. As a black op secret agent, a member of the CIA, and an assassin with ties to organization. organized crime. Some even say he was involved in secret government projects, including Iran-Contra and MK Ultra. It's unclear what parts of Robert's history are actually true, but Sam believes all of it. A few months ago, Sam wired Robert $150 million. Nearly everything Bayou had left. Robert promised he

turned it into enough to cover Sam's debts and make things right with his investors. And now, Sam is in London following Robert up Lombard Street to see that promise through. According to Robert, there's a secret trading program called the shadow market that runs the world's finances, and the returns are huge, but only a few people are chosen to participate. Sam is all in, but Robert warns him that this world is extremely dangerous. Rival factions will kill to control these assets, so Sam needs to keep Robert close by at all times for protection. Wow. It sounds like at this point, Sam is really in deep with whatever this conspiracy could be. And in a way, he thinks he's playing Robert because he wants that technology so that he

could see what investors are doing in like hedge funds. But then also, it's clear Robert is scamming him to some extent. So they kind of need to be very close to each other to keep an eye on one another? Yep, this is some real scam symbiosis. It's close to midnight as Robert leads Sam into a Barclays bank. This, he tells Sam, is where the shadow market trades take place after hours. They pass through a trading room crammed with computers into a back room. The ceilings are high and the room is decorated with dark wood furniture. Bonds stamped with a Federal Reserve mark are stacked on a desk. Sam looks around soaking it all in. Then he sits down at a desk and starts making trades while Robert watches.

Although the place is virtually empty, Sam sees other traders online. These must be the other members of the shadow market. As Sam's money gets traded, he quickly generates strong returns. These aren't normal trading increases. They are astronomical gains, like in the millions. Sam is ecstatic. He's not just going to save Bayou from ruin. he's going to turn it into one of the most successful hedge funds in the world.

The clients he's been misleading will never know how close they came to ruin, and it's all thanks to Robert. Sam comes back to trade the next night and the night after that. In just one week, he racks up $942 million in trades. After everyone else takes their cut, Sam's entitled to a third, more than enough to save Bayou. I am very, very skeptical of this. I mean, once again, it seems like something

that is just too good to be true happening that will save Sam. Well, when Sam's ready to collect his portion, the money isn't there. In fact, the only thing in his account is the $150 million he started with. Sam is confused, and so is Robert. All they're able to figure out

is that the person who was supposed to transfer the funds into Sam's account has simply disappeared. Robert tells Sam not to freak out. This happens sometimes in the shadow market, but not to worry, he has other ways to make them money. What Sam doesn't know is he's just been played big time, because not only is the shadow market total BS, but the bank they're in is actually an elaborate set.

According to journalist Guy Lawson, who spent years investigating the story, the Barclays on Lombard Street was no longer operational at this time. Robert just made it look like it was. He bought props and hired fake security guards to make Sam believe it was the secret headquarters of the shadow market. And this is a contactic known as the big store. You don't just tell someone a story, you build them an entire fake world.

Fake offices, fake employees, fake operations, all staged to make one person believe that what they're seeing is real. Sam thinks Robert is his guiding light here to protect him. But in reality, Sam has just given himself over to a master manipulator, one who's about to take him on the wildest and most dangerous ride of his life. Police in Irvine, California, are investigating the double murder of a young couple in the parking lot of their apartment complex. A double homicide grabs the public's attention by the throat.

We have identified Christopher Dorner as a suspect in this double homicide. A former cop, and still in the loose. Considered armed and extremely dangerous. And scariest of all, he left something behind. A particular interest is a multi-page manifesto. This manifesto on Facebook is 11 pages long. Trace, this manifesto from this suspect who's targeting cops, it's stunning. Listen to the show, The New Yorker calls one of the best podcasts of the summer.

Dan Tiberski's Manifesto. And I tell you, this manifesto, it's scared. a hell out of me. Listen to Dan Taberski's Manifesto, wherever you get your podcasts, or binge the entire series right now, only with Audible. From Audible originals, I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And this is scam influencers.

This is part two in our series about Sam Israel, a wealthy hedge fund manager who started his own company and almost immediately started losing millions. Sam couldn't admit failure, so he lied to his clients for years. Now they're starting to ask questions, and Sam has bet everything his company's money and his faith on a conspiracy theorist named Robert Booth Nichols. What comes next is stranger than fiction. We're talking buried treasure, fake identities, a plot involving the president of the United States,

and a con man who's about to become the conned. This is Sam Israel, Greed is Good, Part 2. It's spring 2004. and Dan Marino is in Bayou's offices in Connecticut. It's a beautiful two-story building that looks out onto the water, the kind of place that projects an image of success. Dan has been Bayou's accountant since day one, and with Sam off in Europe chasing potential deals with Robert,

Dan has been left to keep the lights on back home. Earlier that spring, Sam asked Dan to fly to London to help him with some business for Bayou. But he wouldn't say what it was about, just that the phone line might be bugged and it was too dangerous to talk about remotely. Dan hopped on a plane and met Sam for lunch at the Grosvenor Hotel in central London. There, Sam told him all about Robert and the shadow market

and how they're going to save Bayou. Now, from the start, Dan sensed that something was off with Sam. But he liked the idea of huge returns. And Sam assured him that Robert could fix their money problems within 60 days. All they'd have to do is wire him the $150 million, remaining in Bayou's accounts. Dan, the ultimate yes man, agreed, and then flew back home. But things don't go according to plan.

The huge returns Robert Promise don't appear, and now Dan is feeling the heat. He starts binge eating to cope with the stress, and he gains over 50 pounds. He also indulges in some serious retail therapy, using client money. For instance, he buys an 8,000-square-foot mansion in Connecticut for $2.9 million.

in cash. I feel like this is the point where Dan is kind of breaking in a way that Sam already has because he was kind of the, quote, honest one of the two that was supposed to like fix things. And I think it's hating him that he is in way too deep and what else should he be doing except for binge eating. Well, Dan keeps pouring Bayou's money into one investment after another and the losses pile up. Eventually, it reaches the point where he can no longer sleep at night and he starts passing out at work. What Dan needs is for Sam to come home and save the company.

Unfortunately, Sam is off-living his best 007 life in Europe with Robert. And while things may be bad in America, it's nothing compared to the damage Sam is doing overseas. It's May 2004, and Deborah Ryan is about to turn 41. For her birthday, Sam has flown her out to meet him. in Switzerland. They've been together for about six months now and the relationship

is getting serious. Deborah has even been fantasizing about getting married and having kids with him. Life with Sam is fun. He's always cracking her up with practical jokes

like the time he snuck up on her while wearing nothing but a pair of glasses on his penis. To each their own... Are you laughing? You didn't find that funny? I'm not laughing.

I'm disgusted. Well, I don't think there's anything at this point, Sam could do that would charm me. And putting glasses on your penis is probably like the last thing he would do that I'd find charming. Unfortunately, I do find that funny. Not for Sam, though. No, no.

For any other penis, I would find that funny. Well, lately, Sam hasn't been around much. He's always off traveling internationally for Bayou. He tells Deborah it's because he's working with the CIA on top secret money-making opportunities. She doesn't really know what that means, but it sounds important. so she's thrilled when he suggests this romantic getaway. He'll be taking care of some business as well, but they'll still get the chance to spend some quality time together.

But then, Deborah gets to the hotel. After a long day of travel, she must have been looking forward to some one-on-one time with her boyfriend. But when she opens the door, she finds that Sam is there with two other people. He introduces her to his friends, Robert Booth Nichols and his wife, Ellen. Robert is sitting by an open window, smoking a cigarette. Ellen, a pretty blonde woman in her 50s, is typing away at a computer. Sam's already told Deborah all about his friends,

that Robert is ex-CIA and up to his ears in top-secret money-making ventures, and that Ellen is his partner and a weapons expert. As wild as this all sounds, Deborah believes him. Remember, Deborah is open to persuasion. This is the woman who hooked Sam up with her sight. But still, she must have felt a little awkward breaking up this threesome. They keep discussing mysterious business like Deborah isn't even there. Deborah doesn't like the effect Robert has on Sam.

He stokes Sam's anxiety, making even the most mundane errands feel like covert operations. You know, I don't think Deborah is maybe the most intuitive when it comes to the kind of stuff Sam is doing, and clearly she's benefiting from a lot of it. But I do think she, one, loves Sam enough to know that these people are bringing out his worst tendencies. And I think she could just sense that something is pretty off about these two. Yeah, I mean, it feels kind of obvious now. As they tour the old city, Robert tells Deborah to be careful. Assassins could be waiting for them around every corner.

Plus, their food could be poison and their conversations recorded. Deborah's gut is telling her not to trust Robert and Ellen. Before she leaves to fly back to the States, she warn Sam that if he continues hanging around them, he'll either wind up in jail or dead. Deborah must have hoped she could snap Sam out of Robert's spell, but as she stares out the window of her plane, she feels a mounting sense of unease.

Because it's clear Sam is no longer the man she fell in love with, and this new, vulnerable version is a sitting duck for anyone who might want to take advantage of him. It's June 2004, and Robert Booth Nichols is flying from London to New York with his wife, Ellen. He must be feeling on top of the world. He's finally found a cash cow in the form of Sam Israel. And now, he's going to kick back and enjoy a little R&R at a mansion upstate, because Sam has invited him and Ellen to stay at his home.

Robert was born in 1943. In the late 60s, he moved to Hawaii, where he started working odd jobs, including for a vending machine dealer who was connected to organized crime. At some point, he met a guy named Ken who allegedly worked for the CIA. Robert's actual role was never fully defined, but at one point, the FBI was looking into him and labeled him as armed and dangerous. Despite the shadiness of his actual job, one thing is certain. Robert is a talker who can get himself into any room he wants.

People gravitate towards him. He even became friends with Stephen Seagal, and landed a part in one of his movies. Okay, I understand Robert is highly influential, but I think the Steven Seagall thing just proves to me that there's a certain type of idiot that he's really, really good at manipulating, and I think he's smart enough to know his marks.

Steven Seagall, Sam, you know. Yeah, the Seagal really tells you all you need to know. Well, when Robert and Ellen arrive at Sam's mansion, Sam tells the couple to make themselves at home. And over the next few months, they do. They practically take over the entire second floor. Sam and Robert have a bit of a twisted father-son relationship, which tracks, considering Sam's bad blood with his own dad.

Robert likes to stay up, getting drunk, and telling Sam's stories from his life. He also teaches Sam martial arts moves, like how to rip out a man's throat with his bare hands or gouge out in enemy's eyes. Just fun, cute boy stuff, you know? I do appreciate that Robert's manipulation takes form of, like, romance. Yeah, it's kind of beautiful. He's really making Sam feel important and respected in a way.

Yeah, he sees him clearly. Mm-hmm. And then there's Ellen, who fawns over Sam, calling him, my Sam, and gushing about what a brilliant trader he is. All of this is going on while Robert is supposed to be helping Sam trade his $150 million in the shadow market. Eventually, Robert can tell that Sam is getting antsy, so he tells Sam he's going to let him in on a secret, one he's never shared with anyone.

As Guy lost in details in his book, Octopus, Robert had been obsessed with this story for years. Sarah, have you ever heard about the legend of Yamashita's gold? No, I haven't, and do I want to know? I guess I have to know now. You simply have no choice but to know. Ugh. So the story goes like this.

Years before World War II, the Roosevelt administration was deeply concerned about the rise of fascism. But the American public didn't want to see their government entangled in foreign affairs. So, in order to help their allies, FDR secretly issued billions of dollars worth of federal reserve bonds to the Chinese so they could purchase arms. But the bonds were lost to the Japanese during the war, and the Japanese allegedly buried them in secret, hidden tunnels. Robert claimed to have intel about the location. And if found, the bonds could be worth more than $700 billion. I do love a tale of lost treasure. It really does scratch an itch for a lot of people.

And I feel like for someone who is as desperate as Sam, this is like life-changing. Yeah, it's a lot of money and it's a crazy story. So it's like his two favorite things. But here's the thing, Sarah. At least part of this legend is true. The Japanese did loot and pillage China during the war and bury billions of dollars worth of valuable goods in elaborate tunnels. Like so many conspiracy theories, this story is rooted in the truth,

but can be exaggerated or exploited for any savvy schemer looking to profit off other people's greed. Maybe someone like Robert. Robert tells Sam that there's a catch. The only way to get these bonds back to the U.S. is through the highest levels of the United States government. That's when Sam gives his mentor a big smile and reminds him, it just so happens his best friend is first cousins with the president of the United States of America.

It's the summer of 2004, and 51-year-old John Prescott Ellis is pulling up to his good friend Sam Israel's house. He's been invited for dinner and to meet some of Sam's associates. John is tall, with light brown receding hair, and degrees from Harvard and Yale. And he also really is First Cousins with President George W. Bush. Sam orders Chinese food and tells John all about the legend of Yamashita's gold. John finds a whole story pretty hard to believe, but what's even harder to believe is Sam's request,

that John talk to the president about helping them bring the bonds back to the United States. Even if this was true, it's 2004. America is at war. The War on Terror is in full swing. I don't think George Bush is going to be like, got to do something about that gold. Like he's on his ranch and being like, he's doing a Bushism about the Yamashita gold.

Like, what the hell is this? Yeah, I think he had other things to do. Well, John must be thinking that this isn't the usual, goofy Sam he knows. This Sam is acting manic. Does he really think billions of dollars in bonds are buried in some sort of treasure chest and that President Bush would want to get involved? Sam's always been a prankster, so maybe he's pranking him now.

But Sam is dead serious. And that's when his associate Robert leans in and tells John that if he helps them out with the gold, he can help Bush win re-election. He says it's all about capturing Osama bin Laden. And Robert claims to know where he is. He says he can arrange to have bin Laden killed for a fee. Yeah, take your time. for a fee. Okay.

You know what? Sure. Go ahead. Kill Osama and Latin for the fee. Go for it. Get the gold. Sure, I believe all this now. I have nothing else to say.

This is now what happened in history. I mean, why not? Why not? If they could do it, why wouldn't he help then? Hey, we never saw the body. Didn't we? Nope. We never saw the body.

Famously, didn't it? Famously never saw the body. So who goes. I was thinking of Saddam Hussein's little burial thing. Oh, no, no. We saw that one. We saw that one. I saw that one, yeah, okay.

Well, much like you, John must be gobsmacked. But before he can even react, Robert shows him photos of the Federal Reserve boxes and tells him what he'll need, the full support of the president, anonymity for the mission, and diplomatic immunity by executive order. Oh, and a black passport, which is basically a diplomatic passport, one of the most exclusive travel documents in the world. John leaves the house that night with one thought. he needs to get this con artist away from Sam.

Once he's back home, John makes him calls to get intel on Robert. And he discovers that Robert really does seem to be a kind of mythical figure in the world of secret black ops. But he's also, to quote, one senior military official, all hat, and no cattle. Others are less diplomatic. And a former Special Forces commander says that going after the lost federal bonds would be a fool's errand. John isn't sure what to do. He's definitely not going to tell the president anything about this, whatever this even is,

but he's worried about Sam, so he writes him a letter. Sarah, can you read part of it? Yes, he says, I can't help you on the project we discussed. Legal counsel has informed me that the project may violate federal law and thus I am duty-bound not to discuss it with my cousin, the president. I am very concerned that by your association with Robert Booth-Nichols,

you are putting yourself and your family in significant risk. As a friend and someone who cares about you and your family, break off your relationship with Mr. Nichols and return to your normal business activities. Someone is finally trying to reach Sam in a very sensible, normal way. Like, listen, stay away from the sky, he's dangerous, I have Intel. This is also someone that Sam admires and trusts. But also at this point, Sam is so,

in deep that he could disregard any rational thought by saying well it's a part of the bigger conspiracy they don't want us to find this treasure like there's no real reasoning at this point yeah unfortunately Sam is in way too deep to stop

so he ignores John and keeps traveling further down the Robert Booth Nichols rabbit hole but now the FBI is on his trail and they're closing in imagine you're reading pride and prejudice except you're not reading it. Harris Dickinson and Marissa Abella are reading it to you on Audible. Her barb

sting you. His coldness sends a shiver up your spine. Your heart aches, your ears burn. You yearn for Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy to profess their undying love for one another. You can't bear it any longer. Well, maybe a chapter longer. Performance is so good, you'll give love a second chance. Audible. Stories that speak to you. You stepped out for your morning jog. Except it It's not your usual morning jog. You started listening to an epic sci-fi book on Audible. 30 chapters later, you've accidentally run a half marathon. You lost track of how far you've run, somewhere just past the city limits.

You can't stop. You have to find out what happens next. Then it's over. The universe seems bigger. You feel different. You feel like you have no idea where you are. Audible. Stories that speak to you.

It's the fall of 2004, and Carl Kataro and Kevin Walsh are knocking on Sam's door at his house in upstate New York. Both men are FBI agents with salt and pepper hair, the type of guys who buttoned their shirts to the very top. They're here about a suspicious wire transfer, $120 million that Sam recently sent to a German bank in Hamburg. They're worried that Sam and Bayou are being scammed. They are just at the tip of the iceberg, and I can't wait until they find out how much more there is to just Sam being scammed. Well, I think we have to take a moment to let this settle in.

Sam has been defrauding his investors for years, and the FBI finally have him on their radar because they think he is the victim. Sam tells the officers it's all a big misunderstanding. Yes, he moved his money to a bank in Germany, but it's completely under his control, and he's working to make big, big money for his clients.

He even tells them he's trading in the shadow market in Europe and that he's expecting to make huge figures, like billions. But the agents have never heard of it. Sam shrugs and says only people at the highest levels of government would know about it. So it's totally understandable that they don't. You know, as much as Sam really believes in the shadow market, he is willing to tell anyone about it. Like, imagine truly believing this shadow market exists.

And being like, yeah, so I'm actually invested in the shadow market. It's really secret. You actually aren't important enough to know about it. But I'm telling you anyway. What is that? Yeah. He wants credit for knowing a secret. Well, by the time the agents leave Sam's home, they're more confused than when they arrived.

Sam seems completely off his rocker. But it's their job to investigate his claims and figure out what the hell is going on. So they keep digging. And by the end, they're sure of one thing. Sam is either a victim or a criminal. The problem is that Sam is both, but his biggest victims are about to wake up to the scam, and they aren't happy.

It's the fall of 2004, and Sam is on the phone with Eric Dillon, the co-founder of Silver Creek, one of Bayou's biggest investors, and Sam is sweating. He's trying to convince Eric that everything is fine at Bayou, but Eric isn't buying it. Rumors about Sam's instability

have started to spread. A background check unearthed his drug use and some minor infractions from his youth, including owing 12 grand and back rent, lying about graduating from Tulane and getting a DUI, which is all enough to make Eric concerned. Sam tries to downplay the report. Sure, he screwed around when he was a kid, but who didn't?

And lying about a college degree doesn't make him a bad traitor. When they hang up, Sam feels like he convinced Eric that he is in control. But the truth is, he's not. The mounting pressure of Bayou's debt continues to haunt him. New investments in Bayou have ground to a halt, and Sam hasn't traded in months. But even as his confidence crumbles,

Sam remains unwavering in his belief that Robert will come through for him. After all, the guy owes him. Sam recently did Robert a solid by loaning him $10 million. In exchange, Robert gave him collateral in the form of a secret box stored in a vault in London. Sarah, want to guess what was in that box? Okay, I'm going to have two guesses.

One is what Sam thinks it is and the second will be what's really in the box. Sam believes it is a treasure that no one on Earth has ever seen before that is worth more than anything has ever been worth on Earth. And in reality, I think the box is full of maybe some buttons and grab

maybe some sand, something to give it a bit of weight. Uh-huh. But is worthless. Okay, are you ready for me to tell you? Yeah, I guess so. Well, Sarah, Robert claims it was one of the boxes from the Yamashita Horde,

meaning it would contain $100 million in Federal Reserve Bonds. Sam hasn't looked inside, so we don't know yet whether your guess about what's really in it is right. But in the meantime, Sam thinks he's golden. And in true, Sam Fassarck. he refuses to let the outside world see any cracks.

In March 2005, he and Dan released their end-of-year audit claiming that Bayou is valued at more than $400 million. And they continue to spend money like it's going out of style. Five grand a month on limousines, four grand on restaurants, $100,000 to lease a private jet, and $20,000 on a counter-espionage consultant. Truly, what can you even say at this point? Nothing matters, nothing is anything, money is nothing.

What is up and down? The sky is green. Go on. Well, Sarah, tragedy is coming because just weeks later, he and Robert have a falling out. Sam feels like Robert deliberately picked a fight. Maybe it was an excuse to cut ties after getting the $10 million out of him. But either way, the fight resulted in Robert leaving and refusing to talk to Sam anymore. Everything is unraveling. Robert is gone. The shadow market hasn't done.

delivered, and the tidal wave of his debt is about to crash over him. Sam still hopes he can trade his way out of the wreckage, but he's about to discover that the most dangerous threat to his empire isn't a CIA operative or an FBI agent. It's the man who's been keeping his books for the last decade. It's July 2005, and Dan Marino is at Bayou's offices on the waterfront of the Long Island Sound. He's been acting as the boss while Sam works remotely from Europe. But these days, being boss isn't all it's cracked up to be,

because there's not much left to be the boss of. Things have gotten so bad at Bayou that Dan stops paying rent on their offices, and then he stops paying their bills altogether. Sam and Dan are finally going to have to admit that they've run out of options. So Sam sends Bayou's investors a shocking letter. Sarah, can you read some of it? Yeah, it says, It is with great regret, but with an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment

in a job done to the best of our abilities that I announced the closing of the Bayou family of funds at the end of July 2005. I mean, sure, but, like, why? Does he have any reason? Well, Sam blames the closure of Bayou on his divorce, claiming he wants to spend more time with his kids. He also promises that all of Bayu's investors

will get their money back in about a month. But soon after the letter goes out, Sam and Dan stop communication. communicating with investors entirely. As you can imagine, this does not go over well. When investors don't receive the checks Sam promised, Bayou's phone start ringing off the hook. But no one picks up.

Their offices seem to be abandoned. Investors are understandably confused and pissed off. Unbeknownst to them, Dan and Sam have let their staff go. They didn't have enough money to pay their salaries, let alone the huge bonuses they'd all been promised. It's easy to forget that in all of this bluster, there are real people who lost a lot of money. Here's what one victim had to say on the podcast, American Greed. Literally within the space of minutes, I had lost $336,000.

I mean, I woke up, and that was part of my net worth. And by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the best anybody could tell me was it was gone. I do feel like I've been very focused on Sam's individual level of, of insanity. Yeah, these are real people who invested their money. And not all these people have money to lose. And also, Sam comes from a reputable family,

so I do feel like there was a level of trust in him where no one knew what could have been happening behind the scenes. Yeah, very tragic. Well, by this point, Eric Dillon, the Silver Creek co-founder who was raising red flags a year ago, has had enough. He tells Dan that Bayou has 15 days to turn over Silver Creek's investments and submit to a review of their book.

Dan refuses the review, which would immediately expose their fraud, but it doesn't matter. Eric makes it clear that they are gathering evidence to prove that Bayou's auditing firm is bunk. Sam tells Dan to write them a check for $53 million, but to date it for a few days later, because Sam says he still believes he can make back the money from the shadow market by Monday. But Dan is not so deluded. As he writes the check, he also writes a confession. Over the course of six pages, Dan spells out exactly how Bayou really worked. Though he puts his own spin on things, he blames Sam and a man named Jim Marquez,

who co-founded Bayou with Sam but left after a few years. Sarah, can you read some of it? Yeah, it says, The cause lies with Jim Marquez at the beginning and Sam Israel at the end. They both lied to me and never did their job at all. They brow beat me into submission, and in turn, I did the same to the employees and anyone else who came too close. And he also says, I'm sorry for the destruction I caused.

I know God will have no mercy on my soul. And he added, if there is a hell, I will be there for eternity. Okay, a lot happening here. First, reading this, you're kind of like, okay, but Dan, like you also were a part of this. But what he says later, I do feel like Dan was in a war. world he had nothing to do with and did go a little crazy himself. It's scary to hear someone say, if there's a hell, I will be there for eternity. It's scary to hold yourself accountable. Well, Dan leaves a letter on his desk. When Silver Creek tries to cash the $53 million check a few

days later, it bounces. Furious, Eric flies from Seattle to Bayou's offices. But instead of finding Sam or Dan, he just finds Dan's letter, which he thinks might be a suicide now. note. So he calls the cops. And luckily, they find Dan unharmed and bring him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. For Dan, the game is over. But Sam is cut from a different cloth. It's August 2005, and Deborah is trying to make sense of what happened to her life. Her fun, quirky relationship with Sam has taken a drastic turn. A couple of days ago, she walked into the bathroom and found Sam sitting naked on the toilet, mumbling that his life was over. He finally came clean to her and explained that his lawyer had just called to tell

him that a bank in Arizona had frozen his most important account. The money was gone. All of it. Deb had never known the ins and outs of Sam's work. She'd never been all that interested in it. But now, she has no choice but to catch up because soon, reporters and angry Bayou clients start swarming the house. Deborah frantically tries to protect Sam, even placing giant urns in front of driveway in the hopes of keeping reporters away. But as more articles come out, she learns more and more incriminating information about her boyfriend. She grills him asking about each accusation. But he has an answer for everything.

He tells her he's been framed, that it's the fault of the CIA in a secret underworld. Anyone's fault but his. And Deborah chooses to believe him. Oh, Deborah. Deborah, Deborah, Deborah. I always want to understand the psychology around someone like her. I don't think she's, quote, bad the way Sam is, but her level of belief in him and willful ignorance is so alarming and I guess makes her complicit.

Yeah, and Sarah, it gets worse because then they get another update from Donald Trump. Sam has fallen behind on his rent for his mansion and Trump wants him out in four days. To Deb's horror, Sam's reaction is to completely dissociate. He sits cross-legged in the main bedroom and resorts to his favorite coping ritual, watching marathon episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. So Deborah does what women have been doing since time immemorial. She takes care of everything. She rents a three-bedroom place nearby.

Sam's accounts are frozen and Deborah isn't exactly rich, so she gets their friends to help them move. When it comes time, to get in the car and leave the house for good, Deborah has to literally walk Sam to the car and physically buckle him in. I feel like Deborah is doing what she believes is her role as like a wife and partner

and also someone who benefited off Sam's lies, but also she's still young. She's 41 years old. She has so much life ahead of her. She needs to abandon him and not try and save him, which I guess is easier said than done, but it's like at this point she can make a tree, break away from him and leave him to watch his sponge bob.

Yeah, Deborah deserves so much more, Sarah. Well, eventually, Sam pleads guilty to fraud charges. And now he and Deborah have to wait for his sentence, but she's not mad about it. Sam finally drops all the CIA talk. He isn't traveling or taking phone calls at all hours of the day. Their life gets simpler, calmer. Deborah has sacrificed a lot to make life work with Sam.

Now he's facing the biggest consequence of all, a prison sentence. And Deborah is ready to make one final show of ultimate devotion. It's April 2008, more than two years since Sam came clean to the authorities. He's standing in a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, sweating. He's hoping he can score some sympathy points with Judge Colleen McMahon, who's presiding over his sentencing. She's 57 with a short, no-nonsense Auburn Bob and has been a judge for over a decade.

As a part of Sam's earlier guilty plea, he wrote a letter to the court. Sarah, can you read part of this letter? Yes, it says, My name is Sam Israel and I am a criminal. I'm a liar and a cheat. I would like to believe that is not what I am, but it is certainly what I have become.

I guess this is the most sober Sam has ever really spoken about himself. It's honest. Well, Sam being Sam, he still couldn't resist making one last ditch effort to get a hold of some money. Remember the Federal Reserve Bonds? The ones Robert gave him as collateral

for the $10 million loan? Well, Sam told the U.S. attorney that they're sitting in a safe deposit box in the Queen's Vault in London. The only problem, said Sam, is that the box is booby-trapped. Robert told him that if it wasn't opened at precisely the right angle, it would explode and release a lethal toxin.

Wow. Would a child believe this? Probably. Could an adult honestly believe this, that in the Queen's Vault there's a lethal toxin in a... Like, I hate that I see this with so much logic because I feel like it'd be so fun to believe in this reality. Yes. Well, despite this all sounding completely bananas, the FBI actually did get in touch with their colleagues in London to retrieve the box. To no one's surprise, the box was not actually booby-trapped, but when they clicked it open, they did find the bonds. They were printed on authentic Federal Reserve paper with real-looking signatures, just like Robert promised. But when they looked closer, they found typos and weird misspellings, and then the investigators discovered that the Federal

Reserve doesn't actually issue bonds. They issue notes, which means these are. are as fake as monopoly money. I'm a bit surprised by the effort involved with the fake bonds. I really did think it was going to be full of loose material. But I guess Robert was thinking that maybe there would be a moment where someone would open this and the scam could continue. Yeah, this was Sam's big play to recover some money and it's blown up in his face. And now he's standing in front of a judge without much to offer.

His attorneys try to paint a remorseful picture. They argue that Sam's drug addiction left him operating in an altered state for decades. They say he was crushed under the weight of upholding his family name. Sam's mom and brothers also wrote letters attesting to his good character, but the judge is not receptive. Can you read what she said in response to Sam's lawyers asking for a lighter sentence? Yes, she says, You were in every meaning of the sense a career criminal.

You ruined lives. Financial fraud, white-collar crimes are every bit as heinous as every other type of crime and they will be punished severely. Just because you wear a tie when you're committing a crime, it doesn't mean that you get any kind of a break. Okay, it does in many cases. It actually does, but I do like that she's trying to uphold

the idea that crime is crime. But the reason why someone like Sam does this is because there is usually leniency if you are wearing a tie. Yes, exactly. But when Sam's lawyers asked for leniency because of his chronic back pain, Judge Colleen does not back down. She says, quote, He suffered from these ailments while he did the crime.

He can deal with them while he does the time. Colleen hands down one of the harshest sentences ever given to a white-collar criminal. 20 years in federal prison. She gives Dan Marino the same, and she requires the two of them to pay $300 million in restitution. But as tough as she is, Judge Colleen does give Sam eight weeks to get his affairs in order, and she allows him to show up to prison on his own. Sam is staring down 20 years behind bars.

He's desperate and out of options. But Sam has always had a flare for the dramatic, and he's not done yet. It's June 2008, and we're finally back where we began this wild journey, on a high suspension bridge in upstate New York where Sam fakes his own death. The night before he was supposed to head to prison, he and Deborah settled down for a last supper of Chinese food. But by midnight, Sam was restless. He left the house, saying he was going to get cigarettes.

A few hours later, he came back, drenched in sweat, and woke Deborah up saying he couldn't go to prison. He was completely freaking out. Sam filled his RV with clothes and other possessions and drove it to a rest stop near the Bear Mountain Bridge. Deborah followed in her car and brought him home. But Sam wasn't done. Deborah says he sat down and wrote a suicide note

and begged her to help him disappear. She refused, and sometime after that, Sam left without saying goodbye. Now, it might not surprise you to hear that the police were not fooled by Sam's staged crime scene. It took them very little time to deduce that Sam was still very much alive. They just needed to find him. If Sam had been smarter,

he might have gotten one of those black passports, Robert used to talk about, hopped on a plane and disappeared into a foreign country. Instead, he drove two hours north to the Prospect Mountain Campground in Granville, Massachusetts. So now, Sam is living out of his RV. Here's a witness talking about what he was like at the campground on the podcast, American Greed. There was nothing suspicious about him at all. Like, he was a very personal, very likable guy. Didn't look anything like the pictures.

He looked a lot skinnier. He had a beard. He would come back from running. who come in by Gatorade, by cigarettes, always made jokes about why was he buying cigarettes just coming back from a run, that it was kind of he should choose one or the other. There's something really interesting about Sam not really going all the way with this scheme. Like, it just shows how checked out of reality he is. He's only going a couple of hours north to try and fake his own death.

Like, go far away. It's like he's not wholeheartedly putting in an effort this way, which is very confusing. And it just kind of shows that he's not all there. He's not right. Yeah, exactly. Sam hasn't even completely cut ties with his previous life. For example, he talks on the phone to his mom. A lot.

And she tells him to be careful. The police are looking for him everywhere and have labeled him armed and dangerous. Sam's like, okay, sure, mom. But then one night while watching TV, he's shocked to see his own face on America's Most Wanted. The manhunt is heating up and Sam is making headlines.

His business cards are even being sold on eBay. Then Sam finds out that Deborah has been arrested for helping him escape. Sarah, can you read what he later said about this? Yes, he said, I have so many regrets, but my biggest is ruining this poor girl's life. You know, too little too late, Sam.

You spent too long ruining her life, taking advantage of her kindness, and frankly, to be generous, naivete perhaps, that it's hard to believe that he truly does regret that. Yeah, it's certainly not enough, but Sam is distraught. He talks to his mom again, and she tells him that she's scared for his life. She's worried that if police find him, they'll kill him.

So after 23 days on the run, Sam listens to his mother and decides to turn himself in. But he does it in the most pathetic way possible. He rides to a police station, on a motorized mobility scooter. He scoots to the Granville Police Department only to find it closed. So he scoots his way to another farther away station

in Southwick where he finally succeeds. Because of this stunt, Sam gets two more years added to his sentence, making it 22 years total. He sent to the same North Carolina prison as Bernie Madoff. In February 2009, Robert died in Switzerland

under what have been called mysterious circumstances. And of course, there are some who believe he faked his death and is still very much alive. Four months later, Deb was sentenced to three years of probation for helping Sam flee. Since then, she's been living a quiet life. In April of 2020, Dan died from heart disease while still in jail. But Sam is still alive in kicking. He turned 67 in July of this year. As of this recording, he's still incarcerated, but will be able to be able to be alive.

be eligible for release on October 5th, 27. Sarah, how do you feel about finding out about this conspiratorial scam artist? Is there any schadenfreude in your heart that this person who was scamming all these other people then got scammed himself? Yes and no, because it didn't really delay the scam or change that he was scaming. In fact, in many ways, it made it worse. But the fact that he wanted to be important so badly that he was willing to trust Robert and believe in his bullshit to me is really interesting.

Yeah, I mean, the thing I always think about with, like, any conspiracy theory related story is there is a fascinating arrogance in believing that nobody knows about this thing, but I know about it. Like, you're so important that you would be the person to find out about these, like, Federal Reserve notes. Yeah. Or that you would be the person to find out about this secret shadow market. Like, you're not that important.

You're just not. I think that's kind of what confuses me the most about people who are really, really deep into conspiracy theories that are of that nature where it's like everyone's lying to us. And I'm the only person who's able to decode these messages and understand these things with this other group of people who are also disenfranchised. Like, you think you're the one? You think you are the one to understand this and figure it out and to be given this ancient knowledge and understanding of how, everything freaking works. Give me a break. You're nobody.

You're nothing. We're all nobody's and nothing. It's also depressing to think about that these guys are thinking, okay, I have discovered this scary and fascinating echelon of society. And the only thing I'm going to do with it is get me rich. Like the lack of creativity, you think that there's an uki, spooky government operation happening with like money on the table. and all you can think to do is like borrow Trump's mansion, that sucks.

That sucks so much. Yeah. And, you know, that's kind of what I think about a lot when it comes to these conspiracy-minded people. There are real bad things happening in the world right now that the government is a part of that we find out how many years later when things are uncovered and there's like a whistleblower or whatever. It plays into this kind of like Sam's delusion in two different ways.

On the one hand, so many insane things have happened. happened. And the U.S. government and governments all over the world have done so many crazy things that it's like, well, why couldn't that be real? What makes this harder to believe than something that, you know, we find out about 20, 30 years later after it happens? But I think it's just like the nature of your involvement in it. It's like, so you're the one who's going to benefit from the conspiracy. Do you feel like you learned anything on how to avoid getting sucked up by a conspiracy? or by a hedge fund manager. Yeah, it's to not participate in either.

I just think you have to understand you're probably not very special. I don't think that I'm ever going to figure something out that no one else has figured out, and that's just the fact of life. Like, I'm not out here getting unique and special information. It's never going to happen for me,

and it's probably never going to happen to anyone that will ever hear this story. Yeah. Like, it's fine. And we're not being bequeathed special information. Like, sure, I get really good gossip sometimes, and that's enough for me. Yeah, you know what? Stick to the rivers and the lakes of gossip that you're used to.

Don't chase the waterfall of conspiracy. I mean, and also, like, the pure embarrassment of you, like, shirking your responsibilities until your mummy is, like, can you get a scooter and report to the police station mortifying? You couldn't water bore that information out of me. Yeah, and also, mom, where were you years ago? Where were you years ago, mom? I mean, unsurprisingly, his boy mom is not going to really hold him accountable until it's really getting to be too late. True.

I would love to know how this family talks about him now. Yeah. Oh, you know what? They don't talk about it at all. I don't think they discuss it, yeah. He's not mentioned at all. These people are not discussing this man. Exactly.

I mean, I think in the story, too, is a tale of a woman's delusion. You know, Deb could probably sense that this wasn't passing the smell test, but, God, she just stopped. And she kept trying and she kept trying. And then she tried to help him get out of it. Like, oh, Jesus, Deb, stand up. She clearly has like a very generous heart and seem to really love Sam for whatever reason. God knows. I'm sad that it took so long for her to understand how bad this was. Well, as ever, perhaps the lesson is to never stand by your man. Do not stand by him. Run away. Let him stand on his own. Yeah, I agree.

Flea. One thing you'll never see me doing is taking a fall with a man. Like, no, thank you. I have a lot of self-preservation, let's just say that. Maybe too much, but you're not taking me down with you. Amen, sister. Dangerous fun. Don't let yourself be taken down along with him.

Yeah. Leave while it's still fun. It's like you don't want to stay at a party till the very end. Men are a party. Leave while they're still fun. Men are a party that you should leave early. Follow Scamphillencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamphillencers ad free by joining Audible.

From Audible originals, this is Sam Israel. Greed is Good, Part 2 for Scamfluencers. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggy. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at Scamfluencers ataudible.com. We use many sources in our research, a few that were particularly helpful. helpful were Guy Lawson's book, Octopus, Sam Israel, The Secret Market, and Wall Street's

Wildest Khan, Beauty and the Bandit by Karen Weinreb from Marie Claire, as well as reporting from the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. Alison Weintraub wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggy. Rachel Engleman and Olivia Briley are our story editors. Our senior producers are Sarah Eni and Ginny Bloom. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Fact-checking by Gabriel Droulet. Sound designed by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Falasquez for Frieson Sink. Our executive producer for Audible is Jenny Lauer Beckman. The head of creative development at

Audible is Cate Naven. The head of Audible Originals, North America, is Marshall Louis, and the chief content officer is Rachel Giazza. Copyright, 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording and copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.