The Binge Cases: U R NEXT - Catch Me If You Ken I 5. The Wallet

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Ken allegedly scams his way through Europe under a different name. But when a musician in Italy finds out, things get confrontational—and personal. Binge all episodes of Catch Me If You Ken, ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Crimes on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access.  The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit the binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The binge, feed your true crime obsession. The binge. We've heard from Rita the housekeeper, the Sables in Ohio, and Sophie, Ken's ex-girlfriend, all people who met Ken in real life. And that, to me, is one of the most interesting things about Ken. Something makes him feel the need to cozy up to potential targets in the flesh,

unlike so many scammers today who hide behind a digital veil. Maybe it's because seeing Ken in person help sell his story. He has this baby face and a sort of unassuming demeanor. No one ever says he's threatening. He appears benign, and perhaps that makes him more convincing. Or maybe, for Ken, there's a psychological reason. A need Ken has to feel close to people, both physically and emotionally. Because over in Italy, in a stylish apartment,

in a major city, a man we're calling Antonio is making a new friend. It's still the pandemic, spring 2022, so Antonio has been spending a lot of time online in a Discord group, talking to people around the world. Discord is a messaging app, sort of like Slack, but organized around different topics. Two or 300 people signed up to this group, but only 30 were usually online.

Antonio is a classical musician with a bohemian flair and speaks English with a thick Italian accent. I'm an artistic sort of personality and I like to learn and I like to take challenges in new territories of knowledge. When live music disappeared during the pandemic, Antonio got into day trading and cryptocurrency. That's what this Discord group is all about, people sharing their tips and tricks for making money via stocks. One guy, in particular, seems to be an investing genius. He posted logs of incredible trades, you know, like he established himself as a reputation in this group.

This guy seems to get it right all the time. He apparently works at Google X, the tech giant's super secret experimental arm. Antonio thinks, no wonder he's so good at day. trading. He's a tech genius. One day I decided to text in private this guy. Can you give me a few hints or suggestion how to learn trading? They start talking. Antonio doesn't know it yet,

but that conversation would lead to a life-changing friendship, a door-busting police raid, and a revelation that would turn everything Antonio thought he knew on its head. From Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media, this is Catch Me If You Can. Episode 5, The Wallet. I'm Natalie Robamed.

Last episode, we followed Sophie's attempts to get her money back from Ken, tracking him down in Switzerland using his IP address, and ultimately managing to recoup about $50,000. This episode, we dive into how Ken's apparent need for human connection brings him face-to-face with a new sort of victim. a man who claims that Ken manipulates him into a friendship with devastating consequences.

So when Antonio joined this day trading Discord group, it was still COVID era. Like a lot of us, he was desperate for connection. So after Antonio messages the superstar investor in Discord, the two strike up a friendship online. They start messaging all the time. Because I was living a very isolated life at the time, at the time. Meeting this guy was liberating, you know.

Their relationship blossoms virtually. Because this guy works at Google X, he tells Antonio he has to keep his identity secret. But they get close. He starts calling Antonio brother. Antonio feels a connection that goes deeper than just two guys chatting online about money. I don't know if it's a bit new age and some sort of man community. Whatever it is, Antonio's into it. He's enamored with the smart guy

and with day trading and crypto in general. He feels a sense of possibility for the first time in years. Right in the moment when you feel more vulnerable, you seem to have found a tool to overcome the adversity. For Antonio, day trading is that tool. I mean, he's a classical musician, not exactly making money hand over fist, especially in a pandemic,

but he's had some incredible luck with investing. He took $20,000 in savings and turned it into $100,000, just by buying crypto at the right time. I invested the right moment. And so in less than one year, I five-xed my investment. I made out like $100,000 and more. For him, investing is empowering. And this discord seems like a secret manual. Antonio's friend seems to be hacking the system, making money out of third.

He told me you will be my spiritual brother and I will be your financial savior, something like that. You know, he told me you are an artist. I don't want you to worry about money for the rest of your life. So when this guy in the Discord tells him he's founding a crypto startup, Antonio is interested. I said, yes, I'm going to be part of your first investors. And he started sending me blogs of amazing profits. So I sent him the first $2,000. Then the guy tells him something else.

He just said he was going to take a break from work and do some holiday in Italy. And he started saying, I'm going to go to Sicily. Maybe I can't find you. So in July 2022, two months after they first connected online, Antonio goes down to the train station to meet his new friend. It's hot and dry, his shirt just beginning to stick to his bag. Announcements for platforms and departures swirl in Italian. Tourists dragging wheelie suitcases dart this way and that.

Antonio stands there, waiting. And then he sees his friend. This very gentle-looking ashen guy with a baby face. His name was Kai. K-A-I-B-B-E-E-E-E-E. K-N-T-Yung. Kai, spelling K-A-I, Bent, Young. Kai and Antonio greet each other.

And then Kai hands him something. He brought a gift. It's a crystal bracelet. Which at first I found strange, but then fluttered me. Kind of cool as an object, and he must have costed quite some money. Antonio is impressed. Sure, he thinks it's a little odd that a man is giving him jewelry, but Antonio's kind of a free spirit.

He's into meditation, and Kai says he is too. It's just one of the many things they share in common. So a crystal bracelet? Sure, why not? Kai is hungry, so they go to a cafe for cappuccino and focaccia. This snack leads to more meals, more hangs. Over the next few days, they see each other repeatedly. You met my family, my friends.

We hang out, we dinner on the beach, playing music. They get even closer, sharing more about their personal lives. From time to time, he was talking to this girlfriend of him, who he said that he met in America. Meanwhile, Kai's showing Antonio profit logs that give him a picture of how rich Antonio is becoming thanks to these new investments. It looks so great, Antonio decides to double down.

A week into the trip, Antonio gives him more money, bringing his total investment to $20,000. Then, Kai tells him about another project, an eco-friendly resort in Costa Rica. The idea is he's going to take the profits from the crypto project and set up this hotel. He presented a few documents, a few contracts, and there were mentioned a few investors. He was saying they were the first investors, and I was going to be part of the first investors. first group. Kai just needs a bit more money first. So he starts asking Antonio's friends and family for money.

Antonio says he sends him some more. And some more. And some more. All in all, he says he gives Kai $108,000, everything he made from his crypto investment. Not only that. And he also took money from my debt, actually. Meanwhile, Antonio and Kai decide to take a little mini-break together.

They go down to Puglia in the south. If you're looking at a map of Italy, it's the heel part on the boot. Puglia's got great beaches, gorgeous little historic towns, very picturesque. They're staying in a place right by the water. I was doing my thing, I was playing my instrument. He was doing this stuff. Antonio gets a text. It's from a friend of his.

And the text says, there's no one with the name Kai Bent Young working at Google. Antonio's blood runs cold. Yeah, and then I said, oh-oh, this is creepy, and I started being really nervous. This is a friend Antonio trusts, who he's known for a while. And this friend had already apparently lost money to a different scammy investment. So he'd looked into Kai on Antonio's behalf. And now he's telling Antonio, Kai isn't who he says he is. Antonio walks out of the apartment.

I went down to the reception and I asked for the copy of the documents which we have left. They'd left copies of their ID to check in. The person at reception hands it over. I checked the ID and the ID was another name. The name was Ken Yanai. Antonio's new friend, Kami, I Bent Young is actually a complete stranger to him. Now Antonio has to figure out what to do about, allegedly, the talented Mr. Yonai.

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Antonio says when he discovers Kai's name is actually Ken, he freezes. And reminder, we are relying on Antonio's version of this story here. I was in what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. You know, like it cannot be, but he's completely in the same moment. That night, Antonio stays up Googling Kai Bent Young's name, and Ken's name, trying to find out more about this guy he's sharing a roof with, a guy he says he's given over $100,000 to.

And I found out Nancy's page. The Ken and I scammed me Instagram account. The page filled with posts about Ken being an alleged scammer. The same page Ken's ex-girlfriend, Sophie, learned about on the street in Marbeah. And I were nuts. Antonio scrolls through the Instagram page, his long hair flopping forward in his face.

And what he finds is post after post, accusing Ken of wrongdoing. And it's not just Nancy's alleged experience with Ken. There are screenshots on the page from other alleged victims. From Rita, his house cleaner. From the Sables, back in Ohio. For many of the other victims you've heard from,

in previous episodes. Antonio reads it all in shock. He and his dad have given nearly $120,000 to this guy. Antonio texts his friends and brother, asking them what to do, frantically trying to figure out how he should proceed, given what he now knows. Then, around 7 a.m., Antonio gets out of bed while Ken's still asleep,

and sneaks out of the apartment, trying desperately not to wake him. I locked him in the house and I went to the police. In the police station, he tells them everything. The police decide to come back to the Airbnb with Antonio and question Ken. The police pull up. They knocked on the door, he came out and he started yelling. Boy, what did you've done? You betrayed me.

Something like that, you know. Why? What's happening? I haven't done anything bad. I haven't done anything bad. And I went really, you know, got really angry at him. And I started a loud voice telling him, give me back my money. And, you know, you got all the money from me. Now you have to give me back your money.

And he said, I can't give you the money right now in front of the police. You know, they told me, why you have these fake profiles online? And there's several reports of you being a fraudster, you know. And so it wasn't replaced. lying directly to that question of mine. And he told me, I can give you only 5K right now, because the rest of the funds I've transferred to another wallet in Africa. And the usual excuses, the same ones he gave to Sophie when she first confronted him.

But right now, Antonio says Ken has a more immediate problem. According to Antonio, the police discover that Ken did. doesn't have a valid ID on him. When you travel within Europe by train, your passport usually isn't checked at the borders. Because Ken allegedly doesn't have his passport on him, the police question him. Antonio says they take him down to the station.

I've seen a picture of Ken in what looks like its waiting room. He's wearing blue shorts and new balance sneakers, and he's got a light blue medical mask pulled under his chin. It's still COVID time, after all. He's sitting in a blue plastic chair and a policeman wearing a navy shirt that says Polizia stands to the left of him. It's difficult to read Ken's facial expression. He seems relaxed, at least in his body language.

His legs are crossed and his arms lay loosely in his lap. But maybe he's just projecting calm. Or maybe he's quietly confident that everything will be okay. Because remember, Antonio and Ken are in a small town in Puglia, not a big city. And these local cops tell Antonio, there's a problem. According to Italian law, if someone is caught red-handed, there will be a direct judgment or an immediate trial. This is called Illuditso deritissimo, which means there's strong enough evidence of a defendant's culpability that the prosecutor can put the case in front of a judge in the next two days.

But according to Antonio, because Ken had allegedly already taken money from him, arresting and holding Ken was a lot hard. I found this difficult to believe, but I ran it by an Italian lawyer who told me Italian police can only detain someone briefly without a formal charge. According to Article 390 of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, police can only hold a person without formal charges for 48 hours. After that, they need a judge to validate the detention, otherwise the individual must be released. Crypto makes this all difficult. Because local police don't have the tools to investigate digital fraud on the spot, And unless a specialized unit gets involved, which usually doesn't happen quickly, there's not much anyone can do.

It seems like Ken knows it too. It was just repeating, it's my right to talk to a lawyer. What you're doing to me is not legal. So he knew that he was being detained for no reason. So the police was trying to find a legal reason to keep him. But they couldn't, you know. That was like one of the most painful days of my life. Even the police, even the policeman were sorry for me

because they realized that I was getting scammed, but they could not do anything. We tried to get in touch with the local Italian police to verify all of this, but received no comment. What we do know for sure is that Ken is, that Ken is let go again. He was telling me the last lie that you would make this right with me

and he would just call a lawyer in the main town nearby. You know, a lawyer who can sort out how to give me back the money and of course I didn't believe anything of that. Antonio doesn't know what to do. The police don't seem to. to really be able to help. Antonio feels as though he's on his own.

Luckily, Ken is still sharing his location with Antonio, so Antonio and his brother follow Ken to a hotel and take turns sitting in the lobby. They want to be there to track Ken if he goes anywhere. While he's in the lobby, Antonio gets a call. It's from Nancy, the woman who started the Instagram account. Nancy reached me on the phone and started asking me info.

and she started sharing the story. Antonio says Nancy tells him all about her experience with Ken and about Sophie, the ex-girlfriend you heard from the last two episodes. The girlfriend Ken claimed to still be dating, the one he was telling Antonio about when they were hanging out. Antonio stunned. He can't really comprehend the scope of this, but he doesn't want Ken to get away.

The next day, he and his brother are watching Ken's phone location when they see him moving. We saw him living and we follow him. And I wrote him, where are you going? He said, no, I'm just going to shopping. Ken agrees to meet up with Antonio and his brother. And Antonio thinks, okay, he's not running away. So finally, we met in the afternoon again in a cafe.

And he told me, I'm going to make this right with you. He was saying, I'm going to get back to your investment to you. I've done wrong. I know. Antonio thinks maybe this will still all be made right. Yeah, I was still believing in some sense of humanity and, you know, believing in words. But they go away, broken heart. But still hopeful.

Ken assures Antonio, he just needs to find a lawyer, and then this whole mess will be sorted. So he kept writing me emails over the next few days. but he said I didn't find a lawyer in the town where we were. So he went to Rome and, of course, I realized he's going away. Antonio can feel Ken slipping through his fingers. The only chance I had besides letting him go was becoming a criminal myself. Antonio could either beat Ken up and potentially catch a charge himself or do nothing. So he watches as Ken's location.

moves further and further away. And what happened next for me was just a breakdown. Nearly $120,000, gone. I can only imagine how devastating that would be and how heartbroken Antonio must feel. This win was how Antonio rebuilt his confidence and identity in the wake of the pandemic and losing his livelihood. He saw the money he'd saved multiply before his eyes

because he hit the jackpot with crypto, only for it now all to go to zero because he trusted the wrong guy. It's gut-wrenching, an absolute sucker punch. Antonio figures this is probably the last he'll hear of Ken. And then he gets a text from Sophie. She got in touch with me as well, that he was in France. And surprisingly,

Ken keeps sending Antonio emails, saying the same old thing. Promising me, you will give me back your money. You've been my friend. You're the best person I've ever met. My brother, I'm going to make this right with you, I promise. And then the emails dry up. Ken ghosts him. Yeah, he blocked me and he changed from car every now and again.

Antonio feels like he's lost all hope. Except for one. Sophie. He's in contact with her, and he thinks, he hopes she's going to help him. There's something else here now. Something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scarious Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision calls it the best show streaming right now.

We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how. how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. So Antonio says his entire ordeal with Ken lost about three months, all told, for May 2022 until July 2022. In that period, Antonio says he sends Ken more than $100,000.

He credits COVID with his vulnerable mental state and thinks that has a lot to do with why he trusted Ken so quickly. I mean, psychologically, my mind was not performing. I sort of built another reality because the reality was sucking at the moment. I met this total stranger, which I projected on my desire for a friend, you know, to make that time. lighter. It's not just the money. It's believing in friendship.

The experience with Ken makes Antonio doubt his ability to read people and therefore doubt himself. It's destabilizing to realize you've been so wrong about someone you eagerly invited into your life. It makes you rethink everything. But after Ken ghosts him, Antonio finds solace in talking to other victims, Sophie in particular. The two stay in touch. Sophie gives him the contact of the German police that she was talking to,

and Antonio emails them. The German police call him back, but nothing ultimately comes of it. It just seems like because it was all via cryptocurrency and anonymous, it's too difficult to get the evidence necessary to prove Ken's behind it. Then, one day, Antonio says Sophie messages him, saying, that Ken was serious about paying her back, and had already gave her back, I don't know if 20 or 40K. Antonio feels hopeful for the first time in a long time.

If Ken is paying Sophie back, Antonio thinks, maybe there's a chance that he'll pay Antonio back. And Sophie seems to be trying to help Antonio's cause. Because a few months after Ken disappears, Antonio gets a notification. Ken has sent him $6,000. It's only a fraction of what Antonio allegedly lost, but he's still relieved.

He's gotten something back, and maybe there's more on the way. So Antonio crosses his fingers and waits and waits and waits. And as he waits, practicing his instruments and teaching his students over Zoom, his mind starts to whirl. There's a musical form, The Fug. It's a piece of music composed of interweaving melodies.

One voice starts it off, singing out the theme, then a second voice picks it up, changing it slightly. Then a third voice comes in. They build on each other, creating this interlocking mass of point and counterpoint, until the original melody is turned around on itself and transformed completely. And to me, these swirling voices seem to be what's happening in Antonio's head. He thinks he has an alliance with Sophie, because she's helped him get paid back. But he starts to think, why has she gotten hard?

half her money back, while he's only received a tiny fraction. He starts to feel like he's beneath her in some kind of pecking order. I think I realized if she writes me and she's interested in him paying me back, that must mean that she's got much more. His experience with Ken taught him that people are only out for themselves, and this distrusting voice starts to grow. He begins to think, maybe Sophie isn't that benevolent. As well, because having known her a bit, she was really into a certain lifestyle.

How did Sophie get paid back? Because Antonio starts to think there's an interesting wrinkle in the timeline. And he believes he got scammed, right around the time Sophie got paid back. It's a chain. It's a very crazy chain. In the US, we call it borrowers. from Peter to pay Paul, and maybe that's what Ken was doing, allegedly taking money from Antonio to pay back Sophie. Antonio wonders how else was Ken able to give Sophie back so much money?

Remember, Sophie got Ken to pay her back about $50,000, but she doesn't ask questions about where it's from. My lawyers advised me also like, don't even ask, because you don't want to be complicit in any crimes. Sophie received money from Ken roughly between the spring and summer of 2022. That's right around the time Ken was allegedly getting money from Antonio. Now, we don't have proof that Ken definitively took Antonio's money and gave it to Sophie. There's a timeline correlation, but that doesn't equal causation.

But the fact that Sophie and Antonio got paid back at all is very interesting to me. What kind of scammer cuts his victims a check? It makes me think Ken must feel something for these victims. Because why else would he pay back Sophie $50,000? Maybe the payback is self-serving. Perhaps he sends cash so they'll stop pursuing legal action against him. But if he really is taking money from Antonio to make Sophie whole, that's just so sad.

I don't begrudge Sophie getting some of her money back, and there's at least one other victim who allegedly got paid back from Kent too, even as they were telling Ken's victims that they needed to band together to destroy him. If you've ever seen the mystery movie Knives Out, it's a little like that. Some characters seem to be looking out for themselves, even as they claim to be part of a team.

It's a very strange place to be because on one side, you want to be friends with these people. On the other side, you know that probably there is no real solidarity, yeah. He never receives any more money from Ken. He says he and his father are still owed more than $110,000. But Antonio is the final link in our chain, because he's the last person we know of who saw Ken in real life.

And now Ken has vanished again. The victims can't find him. The cops in Italy, Germany, the U.S., aren't interested. So we're going on the chase, both to find Ken and to find out everything we can about the man known as Kenyonai. Next time, on the final episode of Catch Me If You Can, we chase Ken and all his aliases.

Kenyanai. Wen Long Chu. Kenrick Chi, C-H-E. K-A-I, Benz Young. Ken D-Rick. With a D. I'm the journalist investigating the story about Kenrick Chu. Unlock all episodes of Catch Me If You Can,

ad-free right now by subscribing to the Binge podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of other great true crime and investigative podcasts. All ad-free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series. That's all episodes all at once. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple? Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Catch Me If You Can is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media in association with Ish Entertainment. It's written and hosted by me, Nathly Robamed, and executive produced by myself and Vanessa Gregoriatis.

Our senior producer is Abacar Adan. Our producer is Julia Case Levine. Our story editor is Michael Canyon Meyer, and our assistant editor is Emma Semenoff. We had help from Blake Rook and Lily Houston Smith, who managed the production. Sound design, mix, and engineering by Mark McCadham. Voice acting for Ken by E. Wynne Lai Tremuyn.

Becca by Lily Houston Smith. And Sophie by Madison Lannissy. The executive producers at Sony Music Entertainment are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch. Josh Dean, Adam Hoff and Matt Cher at Campside Media. And Michael Hirschorn at Isch Entertainment. Thanks to Jess Antonini, Joe Mancino, and Reagan Graham. And thanks to Campside's operations team, Doug Slaywin, Ashley Warren, and Sabina Mara.

And thank you for listening.