The Journal. - A Master Conman in His Own Words

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Over the phone, Paul Regan offered prospective clients something that sounded too good to be true: investments with guaranteed returns of 10-15%. It was all part of a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. WSJ’s Jason Zweig obtained hours of recorded phone calls, in which Regan seduced his victims, who were often older and needed help. Ryan Knutson hosts. Further Listening: - An Influencer’s False Promise to Make His Followers Rich  - Pig Butchering: A Texting Scam With a Crypto Twist Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Paul Regan. I'm the CEO and founder of Next Level Holdings. How are you? This is the voice of Paul Regan. This is Paul Regan, chairman and co-founder of Yield Bank. How are you? Regan ran two investment firms, and he spent a lot of time on the phone, pitching prospective clients. This is Paul Regan with Next Level Holdings. How are you? Hello? Yes, good morning. My name is Paul Regan with Next Level Holdings. How are you? I'm good.

Okay. So, we're going to... We have a callbook today to go over your retirement income protection. What does he try to get these people to do? Trust him. I'm here to see if I can clear up any questions you have or answer any questions you have and give you comfort, explain the product. If you have a couple of minutes, I'd like to do that. What Paul Regan had to offer sounded pretty amazing.

An investment with a guaranteed return of 10 to 50, And not only were the returns really high, he said there was no downside. Let me be very clear. There is zero risk of loss here. We're the guarantee of annuity that pays up to 15% per annum. Okay, sounds good. That's a pretty high percentage, isn't it? It is.

Our colleague Jason Zweig has been writing about investments for decades. When he caught wind of Paul Regan and what he was selling, Jason wanted to know how Regan got people to fall for this pitch. Offerings like this are very common. The reason it's a cliche to say if it's too good to be true, it probably is, is because there are a lot of offerings in the financial industry that sound too good to be true and are too good to be true. And this was one of them.

Jason says that Regan's clients were often in dire straits. They had health problems. They were retired or getting ready to be. to retire, and Regan was really good at building trust with them. These people were ripe for the picking. I've also started to become a bit cynical in my old age, but I think no matter how cynical you are about the financial industry, maybe you're not cynical enough.

Jason has covered many scams and frauds in his career, but not one like this, because as Jason investigated Regan's scheme, he obtained dozens of recordings that gave him a rare look at how this scam actually played out. A portrait of a con man and his victims. He's listening for people's points of vulnerability. Let's give you the benefit and the blessing of feeling that security,

feeling that security at the moment the first payment comes. And once they started to talk, he would pick up immediately on whatever made them potentially vulnerable. This product was built for someone that did not want to ever consider the possibility of risk. And that was what he then would talk about, and that's how he got them on the hook. I've got to tell you, you've touched my heart with the use and with the news. and with the need, I can't think of anybody more deserving. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudsen.

It's Monday, July 13th. Coming up on the show, a portrait of a master con man, in his own words, and how he was eventually brought down. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working. together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time

spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. This episode is presented by SAP. Your company's ambitions can't be held back by long implementation, surprise costs, or empty AI promises. SAP Grow AI Cloud ERP gets you live fast, keeps pricing predictable, and delivers built-in AI that gets results the first day, not someday, all on a single platform that's easy to manage, industry-ready, and designed to scale with your business. Bring it with SAP Grow. AICloud ERP for any size business. SAP.com slash grow. Jason started looking into Paul Regan in 2024. It started with a very simple tip. Someone had heard about this investment he was offering and suggested Jason look into it. So he started poking around.

The first story we ran, which was in August of 2024, essentially just asked a bunch of questions like, huh? Really? What's going on here? Uh-huh. And, you know, the extremely high returns didn't make sense to me. The guarantees and the insurance didn't really make sense. That article opened a door. agents who sold investments for Regan started reaching out to Jason.

One of the people who contacted me after my first article ran was a salesperson who had recorded a video of one of his calls with his sales force, sort of the equivalent of a Zoom call. And said, there's a lot more of this out there. The salesperson told Jason that Regan also recorded his calls, a lot of them, and he often shared them with the agents that sold his products. With that lead, Jason was able to find other sources who had more recordings. And those recordings, along with conversations with people involved, helped Jason get to the bottom of what happened. It's unclear when exactly Regan started this scheme,

but Jason learned that he was running it from outside the country. Regan lived in Columbia. So tell me about the story of this investing scheme. How did it get off the ground? So Regan promoted himself online extensively as a financial expert. If you visit the website again, I don't know how long you spent perusing the website looking through it, but I've got some pretty impressive credentials. On his website, Regan flaunted the supposed awards he'd won. And on the phone, he told prospective clients about his deep years of experience.

I've taken companies public. I've made large deals with large insurance carriers. And that's why, you know, I was successful in doing this. This year, I'm actually an investment advisor of the year by Wealth and Finance magazine. I'm a Wall Street veteran with industry, you know, inside secrets. His story about his impressive resume was just a job. generally consistent, but the details sometimes varied. I head up the Alternative Investment Division.

I had Citigroup for six years. I had 218 guys under me. I had 264 guys under me at Citigroup. I ran the alternative asset division. You know, I worked at Citigroup. I had 247 guys underneath me. City Group told Jason that it had no record of Rican working there. Reagan ran two financial firms, next-level holdings and yield wealth.

And he had an army of insurance agents who worked on his behalf. These agents primarily sold annuities, financial products that are generally targeted at older people. He offered extremely high commissions, and that was how he built a sales force. And these people were independent. They weren't employees of his, but they worked for him, and eventually many of them sold very little other than. his products because they were so lucrative. Once these agents were on the hook, enticed by the potential for high commissions,

they then introduced Regan to their existing clients. And many of these people were introduced to Paul Regan through an insurance agent or other financial salesperson. They already knew and trusted. And most of those insurance agents and salespeople trusted Paul Regan because he had won their trust. Who were Regan's targets for these investments? So the ideal demographic for him was somebody who was older, typically 55 and up,

who had at least $100,000 in assets. So you're older, you do have some accumulated assets. You're not wealthy, and you might have some major health issues. and the phone rings. And it's a friendly agent, or it's Paul Regan himself, describing this insured, riskless, guaranteed return of 10% or more. I mean, there aren't too many opportunities to earn a 10.5% yield with full insurance protection. So, you know, it's a smart play, especially now.

And if you're struggling to make ends meet or you would like a little extra income that isn't risky. It was like a dream come true. What did he say that these investments were in? Like, what was actually supposedly doing with this money? So his explanations of what he was doing were extremely complicated and very difficult, I think, for anybody without a financial background to understand, which I think was part of the point. Reagan explained that there were two elements to his investment strategy.

The first was gold. He told clients that he owned, or sometimes even operated, gold mines in Colombia. We're actually trading the tangible bars of gold. So we have relationships with mining operations, mostly through Latin America, specifically Colombia. Regan said that he was able to buy that gold wholesale below market price and then sell it at a markup. Every gram, every kilo of gold that they're able to. to pull out of the earth, they have to sell it to us at a discount of 2% below London fixed price or spot price.

The other piece of his investment strategy had something to do with buying and selling health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act. His explanations of this, if you listened carefully, would have been extremely hard to follow. So, using small numbers, for $50,000, we're able to acquire 208 policies. 208 policies will make net about 25 bucks per month. Now, that money is paid to us through United Health Care. When I called the Department of Health and Human Services, they couldn't even understand what exactly he was claiming to do.

But for people who didn't know that much about the insurance market, it sounded plausible. On the phone, Regan was really convincing. He has a very soothing, deep, soft voice. All right, so we could do a Q&A format or I could just talk. I'd rather do Q&A. That way I know exactly what information you're trying to lean from the call and I can answer all the questions one by one.

So his tone is that he's your friend? And you say you don't have the faith. You've got the faith, brother. You've got to believe it. He values that you've been a hard worker your whole life, and sometimes you struggle to make ends meet, and he's here to help. Well, I can tell you this. Not only will you not lose your money,

but in recognition of how hard you worked for it, I want you to remember something. Your money is going to work twice as hard for you as you ever did for it. So if a client was hesitant, what kinds of things would he say to try to close the deal? he would reassure people in very creative ways. Reagan explained that his investments were completely safe because they were insured.

And he had a favorite metaphor to soothe nervous clients. I have to disclose risk. I mean, theoretically, could that happen? Sure. I mean, is it likely? I think you have a better chance of being stepped on by a dinosaur, if I'm being honest. For that to happen, you may have a better chance

being stepped on by a dinosaur. maybe a better chance of being stepped on by a dinosaur. Right. This product was built to be a guaranteed product. And if Regan ever sensed that a potential client was religious, he pounced on that, telling them that he was a man of God. It's beyond my fiduciary responsibility. It's my godly responsibility.

So, look, everything I've told you is true. And he would say things like bless you or... God bless you. Or I feel blessed to be able to help you. Honestly and truly, this is a blessing for me because having the knowledge of the fact that you need it, you know, makes it that much sweeter, that much more of a blessing for me, knowing that I can, you know, come through for you and be your deliverance. One of Regan's targets was a 75-year-old disabled Vietnam War veteran. Hello. He was hoping to invest his money with Regan so he could pay for the care of a family friend who had dementia.

My name is Paul Regan. I'm the CEO and founder of Next Level Holdings. How are you? I'm good. How about you? I'm good. This potential client had $600,000. But in my mind, is it too good to be true?

And it kind of scares me because it's a big responsibility for me to invest for $600,000. I understand. So to be able to pay for her nursing home, you know? I understand. Here's the reality. You're absolutely right. These concerns are well-founded. Anybody that doesn't take some form of, you know, pause and question something like this,

isn't really doing themselves, you know, any good. I mean, you're talking about, you know, making sure that some woman somewhere has, you know, what she needs in her return. retirement for nursing reasons. I assume this woman can't take care of herself and she needs assisted living. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I mean, first of all, the kind of person that would hear that and then put you in a situation where, you know, there's risk.

I mean, there's a special kind of hell for that person. There's a special place in hell for that person. And he said it so sincerely. Riegan made the investor feel more comfortable by sweetening the deal. because we're talking about generating income to pay for assisted living, let me see if I can pull a rabbit out of a hat. Let me see if I can get it instead of two years. Let me see if I can get it extended for five.

Regan explained that the monthly returns from his investment would go straight into his bank account. It's going to be direct deposited right into your account. Break deposit, and I can use a debit card to, to transfer it to her account and then monthly pay the monthly nursing home bill. Correct. The Vietnam veteran ended up investing all of his $600,000. Amazing, amazing.

And thank you for your service. I know Memorial Day was last week, but happy belated, Ben. All right, Paul. I'll talk to you soon. Okay, God bless. All right, bye. Take care. When Regan was on the phone with potential clients, he was charming and kind.

But he didn't sound that way when it came to those insurance agents who sold his investments. This f***ing prick, this sucker, this waste of human fucking skin. When he called, do you know what he said? He said that he was shocked to learn. That and how Regan was brought down is next. Original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus. Starring Emmy Rossum, Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur.

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make the 2026 trail seeker the most capable EV Subaru has ever built. Test drive it at your local Subaru dealer or visit Subaru.ca. Most of the people that worked for Regan were insurance agents and didn't have much of a background in investments.

This is actually why Regan recorded so many of his calls, so he could show them to his agents, and they could learn how to be persuasive like him. He was recording himself primarily to create training materials for his Salesforce. In fact, many of the agents knew very little about investing, which is what Regan wanted. Here he is talking about them with a colleague.

These people that aren't sophisticated, including my agents, that have, like, Some of them, 82 IQs, I'm not responsible for what they say. You know, you know what I'm talking about. We've laughed about how overwhelming it is to have to deal with this level of ignorance, this level of stupidity. Did Regan ever ask them to do anything illegal? He asked them to do things that were illegal without telling them that they were illegal. Regan had these agents selling what was theoretically a security,

which would technically be regulated by the SEC. Most of these insurance agents weren't licensed to sell securities, though, meaning they couldn't legally sell them. And because almost all of them were insurance agents who had never worked in the securities industry, they didn't realize that they were being asked to do something that was illegal. Reagan's sales chief was a man named Jonathan Guzman. I wouldn't like hide anything or twist anything.

In this recording, Guzman said agents didn't need a license to sell securities because of a loophole. This is not true, by the way. Do you have a securities license? No, why not? Because this is a referral. Right now, it's referral-based.

And as long as this loophole exists, you do not have to get securities license to refer your deal over to the hedge fund. Simple. Guzman told our colleague Jason that he was just repeating what Regan had said about securities licenses. He said, quote,

I never did things against the law knowingly. A big way Regan cultivated loyalty from his agents was with those commissions. The money was really good. A lot of these insurance agents were making thousands of dollars at a time from selling Regan's offerings, and they all believed in him as well

in fact, many of them became his investors. Get paid and then get paid some more. I would describe him almost as like the king of the locker room in the gym. He was really like a man's man, you know, back slapping, bear hugging, high-fiving, hugging, hugging, calling people brother. At one point, Reagan even flew many of the sales agents out to Columbia for a big party. videos from the party that Jason was able to view showed fire dancers

and a boxing match between very short people but Regan also ruled over these agents with an iron fist he lashed out at them if they made mistakes or asked too many questions brother I just wanted to share an additional piece of information that I just uncovered and when one agent did a little preliminary investigation

by calling a firm that had signed a marketing deal with one of Regan's companies, Regan went ballistic. Wherever this sucker is, bro, I don't care who. Waste of human fucking skin, this is an act of treason. And not only do I want him fired, bro, I want his f***ing head on a platter. After Jason's first story, the one that asked all those questions, people started to get in touch with him to tell him about their experiences with Regan. Fairly early on in my reporting, I got an email that came from federal prison.

And it was from a man named Anthony Little, and he said, I read your story about Paul Regan, and I thought you'd like to know that he contacted me. Anthony Little had been expelled from the securities industry in 2022, and Regan wanted him to join his operation. Regan contacted him and said, and I'm paraphrasing, I like to hire people who've been thrown out of the securities industry. I'll pay you $300,000 a year plus a bonus. What do you say? And so...

What did he say? So Anthony Little said, well, I guess I'd like, like to hear what you have to say. And they had a conversation and Paul Regan sent him a bunch of marketing materials and other information. And Anthony Little shared this with investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission. And as he put it, then I don't know. Nothing seemed to happen. After talking with more agents, Jason was able to write a second story. And the second article about a month later was able to poke more holes in the official story of what was going on. And that's when the wheels really started to come off the wagon.

The custodial firm, which safe keeps the assets of investment companies, said it no longer wanted to do business with Regan. and very quickly the whole thing just unraveled. After Jason's investigation was published in the Wall Street Journal in late 2024, the authorities went after Regan. A couple of state governments and the U.S. Department of Justice through the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission all opened investigations. Authorities filed charges against Regan

and alleged that he was operating a pawn the investments weren't real. Any returns that investors got along the way just came from money given to him by new investors. In 2025, Regan turned himself in and later pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud. Regan's attorneys didn't respond to requests for comment. What's going to happen to him? He'll be sentenced in August and he presumably will spend some time in federal prison. All in all, Regan scammed about $60 million from his victims. Is there a chance that any of these people could get their money back? There is.

Typically, there is some recovery in situations like this. The problem is it varies enormously, and federal authorities have not said anything about the potential for recovery. Whatever he has can be for, forfeited for the benefit of his investment victims. It just isn't clear how much he has left at this point. $60 million may not sound like a lot in the pantheon of Great Ponzi schemes. Bernie Madoff stole $17 billion.

But Madoff mostly targeted the wealthy. Regan was scamming everyday people, the sick, the elderly, people like that Vietnam veteran, who lost the money he needed to pay for his friend's nursing home. These investors have crippling anxiety and worry about whether they'll ever get any of the money back. And, you know, I think this is the point where we should say that a lot of our listeners think I would never fall for a Ponzi scheme. I'm too smart to fall for that.

There's a sentiment that if something like this happens to you, you deserved it because you're either greedy or stupid. And I don't think that's true at all. I don't think these investors were greedy. I think they were needy. And I think someone came along and said, I can solve your problems for you. And they believed what they were motivated to believe in. And that's very human.

It's not greedy or stupid. It's just human. For me, I'd love to do what's right. I'd love to do what's best. I love helping my clients. That's why I enjoy whatever. I do. It's the gratification and it's the joy that I get from waking up each morning. I stay healthy. I try and treat the people around me, you know, good, my family and my clients. I mean, that's really

it. That's all for today, Monday, July 13th. The journal is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. on.