July 1, 2024 • 26 mins
Gary’s search for his father is becoming more difficult than he expected. In the meantime, after recounting the raid on his childhood home by the US Marshals, Gary dives deep into the court case between AT&T and his father.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on number one Dad.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Watching him maneuver. That was where I thought that the
sort of mentoring came in, even though it's not exactly
how I would.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Go about things, some of the locations he would take
me too, and he'd have me wearing like this shirt
that said AT and T and it had the logo
on it, not knowing that you can't do that. You
can't just use a company's logo.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
There's no doubt in my mind that many could have
been anything he wanted.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
I got a call from him one day saying, this
has been a bad week. He had been getting notices
I believe from AT and T which will basically stopping
desist orders.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Then on October seventeenth, nineteen ninety four, I woke up
at six in the morning to someone pounding on our
front door. The next thing I knew, our house was
being raided by the US Marshals. Do you remember talking
(01:01):
to my dad after the US Marshals raided our house.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
I remember him saying that, oh, this one is bad.
They came over. They took pretty much everything from his office, files, computers,
boxes to be used in a legal case against them
AT and T. Following the proper legal route had gotten
the court order and because he had refused who knows
(01:26):
how many ceased assist orders and judge okay, that to happen.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I remember they came in and my dad being me
come down the stairs in a hat that had at
and t on it, and he told me to say this.
He goes, where are you taking my daddy's stuff? So
that's something that I had to say as a ten
year old.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
I'm relieved that he didn't have you say yes, I'm
many veeter, how can I help you?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, it's my fault.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm sorry. Guys. I was there that morning. I was
like just sitting in the basement, like, man it was
just like stay here. I'm like really, He's like yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Only the marshals came and they started, you know, packing
things up, putting into boxes. I felt, you know, sad
for him because I knew he had to face a
man on this.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And we were like still worried, like, oh my goodness,
are we going to be in trouble too.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
One day I got a phone call from rich who
was with Manny in the basement, and the marshals came
storming in and that became our little season of legal eaese,
we would be prepping for deposition because rich and I
were part of this, you know, we're clearly witnesses and involved.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Not surprisingly, the raid came up in my last therapy session.
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Gary, how did you feel when you saw the federal
agents coming in to raige your home.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I mean it might sound weird, but I remember not
being worried at all. My dad always felt like he
could get out of any situation, so I didn't think
that he would be in trouble. If anything, I thought that,
you know, the people that were coming in the house,
the cops, that they were in the wrong. So I
was just taking it as like these guys are screwing up,
and my dad's going to be able to get out
(03:19):
of whatever problem this is, and that it's their fault
that this happened. And then I just left for school.
This is number one Dad. So what's the latest, Gary
in tracking down your father. Well, I went and saw
(03:42):
my child at home from the outside, and I'm not
exactly sure if he lives there. All I saw was
a kid's bicycle and one of those little kid radio
flyer wagons, and I checked the mailbox. It was empty.
I have no idea if that's his home or not.
So I'm kind of in a position where at one
(04:05):
point I was scared to talk to him, but now
I don't even know if I'm going to get the chance.
Speaker 7 (04:17):
All Right, I'm.
Speaker 8 (04:19):
Going good, So I know this is like a weird question.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I was wondering if you get help.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
So I have a number for my father, who I
haven't spoken to in like twenty four years, and I'm
not sure if it's his phone number, and I was
wondering if there's a way to like look it up
to see if it's his number, because I tried calling
and I got disconnected, so I'm not sure if it's
like his number.
Speaker 9 (04:40):
It's a landline, okay, So as far as like the
landline numbers, the only thing that I can do it
as is we can pay a bill. If you're not
the account holder, I can't give any information about the bill,
like as to who the account holder is, anything else
about it. So no, yes, just for like security purposes, okay.
(05:04):
So I wouldn't be able to tell you the name,
so called it.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
It didn't well, So what happened was I called the
number and then an automated message picked up and but
it sounds. It was like a robotic automated message, so
it's not like my dad's voice. And then I'm leaving
a message and then it just got like cut off,
like halfway through the message.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Okay, and then so I don't know if it was received.
Speaker 9 (05:26):
Okay, what's actually I think with a laydland on, hold on?
What's the phone number?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So it's six ' three one. What's what's his name,
Manny Veeder?
Speaker 9 (05:38):
I mean that's the number that is showing on here.
Speaker 8 (05:40):
Uh huh, that's associated with him.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So got it.
Speaker 9 (05:46):
This was the last subject in the twenty twenty though.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So yeah, Well, trying to figure out my next move
and tracking my father down, I caught up with my
cousin Mason.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Manny was smart.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He never went to law school, but he learned the
court system.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
My father's years of legal battles in court preparing would
go up against one of the biggest companies in the
world at and T.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
He seemed to understand that the longer you delay any
legal work, push off court dates, push off everything you
possibly can, the more exhausted people get, and the more
likely that something will be dismissed or the punishment will
be less severe.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
My dad's employees at the time were Rich Petrick and
Mark Palmery, and they found themselves right in the middle
of my father's problems.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I remember me going to court with him.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
The courthouse in Manhattan was always funny because we had
to go there a couple of times. He was confident
when he got in there and he didn't care at all.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
He was familiar with these court run ins, and he
would go in and ask for an extension or a
delay where some people weren't happy for something and they
felt lied to, and it was always this kind of
petty sounding complaint, so like something wasn't returned, something was broken,
maybe he was dishonest, you know, or whatever. But it
was not that big a deal. But the eighteen and
T lawyers were a little scary. They were they were
(07:03):
fired up, and they were saying some crazy stuff that
we had never seen.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
Good Morning calling. The case of AT and T Corp.
Versus Manny Vider.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
My Father's Child began November seventh, nineteen ninety four, on
Long Island. The voices you're about to hear are actors,
but the words were all recorded by a court stenographer.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
Good Morning, your honor.
Speaker 10 (07:28):
The defendant many Veder is engaged in a continuing scheme
of passing themselves off as an AT and T personnel
using counterfeit AT and T logos in order to install
pay telephones at local retail stores and to foice the
defendant's version of pay telephone service on the public. The
defendant has used various aliases, including Many wolf Mark, wolf
(07:50):
m Wolfman, Milton Wolfman, Menachem Vider, among others. The scheme
has been so successful that the defendant has acquired over
two hundred customers in a few year span.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I don't know if I still have it.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Like a sweatshirt that was from Manny, Like he had
these blue sweatshirts sprinted up and had a little AT
and T logo on it, and we would wear them
and it was like, you know, we were just absolutely
representing that we were AT and T. When you start
this thing and you're working for somebody, you don't know,
like what's going on.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know, twenty years old, naive, you don't know like.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
If he really works for ATT, he's a subcontractor The
thing with your dad is like he just was trying
to hustle and make a buck.
Speaker 11 (08:27):
Mister Burke, this case is not about counterfeiting, while the
defendant has used plaintiff's trademarks a practice witch immediately terminated
by the defendant. After receiving notice of this action, mister
Veeder took affirmative steps to avoid confusion between his company
(08:49):
and plaintiff AT and T.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
Mister Burke, I do have a check here, which I
believe is September ninth, is it? I'm looking at Exhibit.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
B, your honor.
Speaker 11 (08:58):
If you look at that check, you'll see that it
states that Payphone Plus is a provider of AT and
T service, and it says that AT and T the
right choice of trademarks of American Telephone and Telegraph.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
I think what I'm saying to you, however, mister Burke,
is why does the check have the logo of the Globeonet.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Your honor?
Speaker 11 (09:21):
These checks are no longer in use.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We have new checks.
Speaker 11 (09:27):
Yes, indeed, there is a dispute.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
But that joinder is that it was used I believe
after the temporary restraining order, wasn't it.
Speaker 10 (09:37):
We discovered that he never seesoned assistant and in fact
expanded his network, even using checks as recently as two
weeks ago after the order telling him not to say
AT and T.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
At this point in the trial, the court entered a
preliminary injunction as a result of the items discovered at
the seizure. When my house was raided by the US marshals,
my father was ordered to immediately stop identifying himself as
a represent of AT and T. But things were also
just getting started. The AT and T lawyers were trying
to turn my father's life upside down. They subpoened my mom,
(10:09):
my uncle, and my grandparents, anyone they could get to
mess with my dad. But if you make things difficult
for him, he's going to make it twice as difficult
for you.
Speaker 10 (10:19):
Mister Veter has been talking to witnesses and telling them
of different dates for depositions, so that after we subpoena
someone for a date, we called them to confirm they're
coming and they say, oh, mister Veto told us it's
a different day. In addition, mister Palmieri testified yesterday that
mister Veter spoke to him when they heard he was
being subpoened and told him if he avoids the subpoena,
he doesn't have to come.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
So both Rich and I did. Eventually we had to
give testimony the AT and T lawyers were literally making
faces they hated Manny. It looks like it looked like
they wanted to kill him. Snarling, sneering, you know, these leering,
threatening eyes, and you know, twists of the lips and
just like almost like they want to at him or
(11:00):
split their tongue out at him.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Do you remember how my dad was responding to the
AT and T lawyers.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I distinctly remember Manny just looking back at them with
this small smile, with a toughness, a charm, even like
dog tough man. There was something street right there about
that he had in him that was not backing down.
You know, they've said that Manny deliberately damaged other AT
and T phones that were in the area so that
(11:28):
people would use.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
His lawyers for AT and T brought up Manny's criminal past,
some of which was news to me.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
Defendant veter impersonated a New York telephone company employee by
wearing a hard hat with a Nightail logo, stole two
night Tail telephone enclosures, and had in his possession night
Tel traffic cones, and was prosecuted for a Class E
felony in connection with such stolen property. In Suffolk County,
resulting in criminal conviction. Defendant Veter is also the subject
(11:55):
of a proceeding brought by the Attorney General of the
State of New York arising out of Concers One were
complaints of fraud in excess of one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Between my father's criminal past and the insurmountable amount of
evidence against him, things did not look good, but his
lawyer began saying that the entire seizure at my house
was unlawful and never should have happened. If he could
prove it, it would get the case thrown out.
Speaker 12 (12:24):
They had no basis to seek a seizure order. A
seizure order is reserved for counterfeiters. This case has no
counterfeit goods. They knew that mister Veder had been purchasing
equipment directly from AT and T for many years.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
The law is very clear, I'm very familiar with it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Unfortunately for my father, the judge found the seizure to
be completely compliant with the law and declared all the
evidence admissible. Meanwhile, the whole time this trial was going on,
my father's payphone business, Payphone Plus, was still operational. He
was running all over New York, installing payphones and making collections.
(13:07):
One of the places he had business was at a
mobbed up strip club in Rego Park, Queen's named Wiggles.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
These are made mafia guys, and every time we would enter,
Manny was greeted warmly. He would hang out, they would
catch up, they would talk, they would joke.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
It made me uncomfortable with the owner. There was like
his owner guys, and he was real. He was just
like Sketchy.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
That sketchy owner was Vinnie Palermo, also known as Vinnie Ocean,
who at the time was the boss of the New
Jersey Decavalcanti crime family. It said that Vinnie was the
inspiration for Tony Soprano. In nineteen ninety nine, Vinnie Palermo
became a government witness after confessing to two murders and
(13:48):
implicating several Decavalcanti family members of various crimes. He's currently
in the witness protection program living under an assumed name.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Manny had said that those guys had offer to find
the lawyers for AT and T and put them in
their fridge, their walk in fridge, and Manny had turned
them down. And so as we're talking to you, know
we're laughing, but also like, oh my god, something bad's
going to happen. This is dangerous. And he went on
to say that they have like an eternal devotion to
him because one time he was putting in a payphone
(14:21):
plus payphone in one of their establishments and that he
found taps. He found that they were actually being spied
on in their office, and he was able to take
those out and also inform them that they were wire taps.
And so he's like a hero in this circle.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Knowing my father, he put those wiretaps on the phone
himself and then told those guys he found them. That's
exactly how his brain works. Meanwhile, around the same time,
the AT and T lawyers started to complain to the
judge about getting harassed outside of the courtroom.
Speaker 10 (14:54):
There has been a harassment of counsel in the manner
of hang up type phone calls. They still pick sure
he took of me because somebody was talking me when
I was in a supermarket having nothing to do with
this case. This is all part and parcel we believe
on the defendant's tactic, which started with removing.
Speaker 11 (15:09):
The valve of my tire from the word go, they
continued to hurrow accusations at mister Veeder without a single
shred of evidence.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Mister Burke, as I tell some criminal defendants when they
are before me, sometimes the suspicion keeps growing and growing
about an activity of somebody and harassment of witnesses or obstruction.
Speaker 11 (15:34):
You're drawing an analogy between the defendant who's had his
house invaded and a bunch of other baseless.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
I'm tired of hearing that as an excuse for your
client's alleged conduct. If he didn't do it, then there's
no need to make an excuse, is there There is
no excuse? Good.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It wasn't only my father who was playing dirty. So
were the AT and T lawyers. They began talking to
his customers, making sure they all knew he was a fraud.
Speaker 11 (16:00):
I've been informed that certain customers, due to contacts from
AT and T, are just shutting down mister Veeter's phones.
They're putting out of order signs on them. They would
love to drag this case out for a few more months,
because by then mister Veeter will probably be out.
Speaker 10 (16:16):
Of business, Your honor, He doesn't abide by his own agreement,
and he does not listen.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
To the court order.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Things were getting pretty serious for my father and he
was hoping to gain some leniency. I know this because
inside the massive stack of court documents I found a
letter he sent to the judge. Dear Judge Platt, I
write this letter to you on behalf of my wife,
Sherry and myself, Manny Veter. Since the onslaught of this case,
which began to unfold in your courtroom in October nineteen
(16:44):
ninety four, our lives have been turned inside out, not
by chance, but by the design of one of America's
largest corporations. Their actions have taken an extreme financial, mental,
and physical toll on my family as well as myself.
To date, we have spent twenty thousand dollars defending this suit.
(17:05):
The money has been borrowed to pay our attorneys in
hope of a speedy resolution, but our combined family income
for the year was less than fifty five thousand dollars.
I have to support a family of five. My attorney
has advised me that he would like me to release
him at this point from this litigation because I have
not been able to borrow or come up with any
additional money at this time to continue to pay for
(17:28):
legal costs. Chief Judge Platt, I must see you as
soon as possible. It is of the utmost urgency that
you were made aware of certain pressures that are being
put to us by certain parties. Sign Manny Veter, did
you talk with my dad while the trial was going on,
specifically about the things they took during the raid?
Speaker 5 (17:48):
I said, you know where it went or something's that
effect we were talking about. I'm sure they have it
in some warehouse somewhere. They're going through the files. I
think he mentioned, ooh, they took all sorts of sports memory,
which I guess had to have been related because the
timing is right for I believe your your fake Sports
Illustrated Kids reporter.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, it was the exact same time we were pretending
to work for Sports Illustrated for Kids that the Marshalls
raided our house.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Right, So when your dad was sharing that this happened,
I could tell that he was kind of taken aback.
I think he truly was sorry, not necessarily about what
he'd done, but how far he'd carried it, because I
think he saw that there was real potential for significant
either financial loss or criminal charges. But I could tell
(18:35):
he was vulnerable at the time. And then down the
road as I'd speaking, I say, hey, did this ever
get resolved? And I remember one discussion where he said,
you wouldn't believe what happened. You know, I told you
that they took all this personal stuff from me.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I said yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
He says, well, I had it in a warehouse, and
somehow the warehouse was broken into and a whole bunch
of stuff was taken, including everything that I had, and
now I can't get back my personal stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Improved my innocence, that's right. Mysteriously, a large amount of
evidence that was seized from my house and was set
to be used against my father and court went missing.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
During the overnight period. It is my understanding that some
of this material disappeared.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
That is correct, your honor.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
Mister Veda broke into the secured AT and T facility
and stole twenty boxes of documents.
Speaker 11 (19:22):
Mister Veet denies any involvement in the alleged theft, Your honor,
This is another baseless allegation. This alleged theft took place
at a secured AT and T facility surrounded by gates
guarded by armed security personnel. Twenty four hours a day
and is monitored by security cameras.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
Must have looked like a real Hollywood scene. I think
it's very fitting after the Academy Awards last night.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Amazingly enough, on this day, March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety five,
as my dad sat in court being accused of masterminding
a break in to steal evidence compiled against him, is
also the same day he and I would be going
to Madison Square Garden to meet Michael Jordan.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
He hadn't work. Let me take it one step further.
I think AT and T's violation of the seizure order
is so egregious here that I'm going to have to
order an immediate return of everything everything that was seized.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
This was huge. What the judge said was regardless of
how the evidence went missing, AT and T mishandled it
when it was in their possession. So because someone broke
into the evidence locker, the judge ruled all the remaining
evidence to be inadmissible and had to be returned to
my father, which essentially meant the prosecution now had nothing
to go on. So the judge ordered that AT and
(20:47):
T's entire case be dropped. If you had a guess
how that evidence became missing. Would you put it past them?
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I can tell you with eighty percent certainty, you took it.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's It's one of those things where it's not out
of the ordinary for him to figure out a way
to get himself out of a situation. I mean, he
drove a Caprice, an undercover cop car. He always was
very familiar with the police department.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
It's a hard thing to speculate if he was involved
in it, but it was just a very good piece
of luck for him that they couldn't bring the case
forward because the stuff was missing, and now there was,
from what he told me, a countersuit that he had initiated.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's right, Mandy could have said, I won, this is over.
I can now go on with my life. But that's
not my father's style. Instead, he filed a countersuit against
AT and T for failing to keep a detailed inventory
of the item seized. My father claimed he was now
missing World War Two medals belonging to my grandfather and
(21:57):
an autograph collection belonging to me. Now I don't know
about those medals, but as for those autographs, I know
for a fact that was a lie, because all the
sports memorabilia was kept in my bedroom, and everything was
still there in the end, regardless of what was true
or not. On April eighteenth, nineteen ninety five, AT and
(22:19):
T settled the countersuit with my father for an undisclosed amount.
So in one way, my father won, but he also
lost because his battle in court with AT and T
was a breaking point for my family, especially me. After
years of sneaking into games at MSG, dodging calls from
furniture customers he'd ripped off, wrecking competitors' payphones, I had enough.
(22:44):
Every interaction with my father was wrapped up in schemes
and lies, and I was done. The last time I
saw him, I was fifteen, My parents were separated, and
he'd come to one of my hockey games with my dog, Kobe.
I asked when I could have my dog back, and
he said, when your mother gives me what I need
in the divorce. That was twenty four years ago. It's
(23:06):
the last time I saw my dog or my father.
Do you know where he lives or where you think
he lives.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
No idea where he lives. Don't have a phone number,
an email address, and I haven't even been tempted to
google him.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
What do you think my dad's reaction would be to
me reaching out?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Honestly, your dad would welcome your reaching out. But it's
my bias that's telling you this. It's my bias as
a father, saying that I know things have been bad.
I know I've screwed up. I wish I could somewhat
get things back. If you were to reach out, he
could respond in any number of ways. He might feel
(23:49):
vindicated and then slam the door, say ha, he finally
realized what a good guy was, but no interest any longer.
Or he might say, hmm, this is an opportunity for me.
What I can see is that he used to love
taking you to games. Now how he got you to
(24:10):
those games might have been different than how you'll take
Sullivan to see NHL games or NBA games, or go
to the mayor's mansion. But the joy that you're gonna
have with Sullivan is the joy he had with you.
This is your story, and you're going to have to
decide what the next path is, what the direction you're
(24:31):
gonna take is.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
On the next episode of Number One, Dad in.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
One thousand Feet turn right onto Darlington Avenue.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I am on my way to Long Island once again.
And the reason is because it's been two weeks since
I started this thing and I still haven't heard back
from my dad after leaving a message on what may
or may not be his answer machine. I guess you
could add that to the twenty four years he and
I haven't spoken. So, using my best judgment, I've decided
(25:04):
I'm going to do a stake out of my child
at home. Number one Dad is a production of Radio Point,
Big Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts, created and hosted
by Gary Veter. Executive producers are Gary Veeter, Adam Lowett,
Alex Bach, Daniel Powell, Huston Snyder, Kenneth Slotnik, and Brian Stern.
(25:29):
Written by Gary Veeter and Adam Lowett, Produced by Bernie Kaminsky.
Co producer is Taylor Kowalski, Edited and mix by Ian
Sorrentino at Little Bear Audio Recording Engineer is kat Iosa.
Original music by Andrew Gross Special thanks to Charlotte DeAnda.
Jonathan karsh Is creative consultant. Executive producers for Big Money
(25:50):
Players Network and iHeart Podcasts are Will Farrell, Hans Sonni
and Olivia Aguilar. Sound services were provided by Great City
posts
Previously on number one Dad.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Watching him maneuver. That was where I thought that the
sort of mentoring came in, even though it's not exactly
how I would.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Go about things, some of the locations he would take
me too, and he'd have me wearing like this shirt
that said AT and T and it had the logo
on it, not knowing that you can't do that. You
can't just use a company's logo.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
There's no doubt in my mind that many could have
been anything he wanted.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
I got a call from him one day saying, this
has been a bad week. He had been getting notices
I believe from AT and T which will basically stopping
desist orders.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Then on October seventeenth, nineteen ninety four, I woke up
at six in the morning to someone pounding on our
front door. The next thing I knew, our house was
being raided by the US Marshals. Do you remember talking
(01:01):
to my dad after the US Marshals raided our house.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
I remember him saying that, oh, this one is bad.
They came over. They took pretty much everything from his office, files, computers,
boxes to be used in a legal case against them
AT and T. Following the proper legal route had gotten
the court order and because he had refused who knows
(01:26):
how many ceased assist orders and judge okay, that to happen.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I remember they came in and my dad being me
come down the stairs in a hat that had at
and t on it, and he told me to say this.
He goes, where are you taking my daddy's stuff? So
that's something that I had to say as a ten
year old.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
I'm relieved that he didn't have you say yes, I'm
many veeter, how can I help you?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, it's my fault.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm sorry. Guys. I was there that morning. I was
like just sitting in the basement, like, man it was
just like stay here. I'm like really, He's like yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Only the marshals came and they started, you know, packing
things up, putting into boxes. I felt, you know, sad
for him because I knew he had to face a
man on this.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And we were like still worried, like, oh my goodness,
are we going to be in trouble too.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
One day I got a phone call from rich who
was with Manny in the basement, and the marshals came
storming in and that became our little season of legal eaese,
we would be prepping for deposition because rich and I
were part of this, you know, we're clearly witnesses and involved.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Not surprisingly, the raid came up in my last therapy session.
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Gary, how did you feel when you saw the federal
agents coming in to raige your home.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I mean it might sound weird, but I remember not
being worried at all. My dad always felt like he
could get out of any situation, so I didn't think
that he would be in trouble. If anything, I thought that,
you know, the people that were coming in the house,
the cops, that they were in the wrong. So I
was just taking it as like these guys are screwing up,
and my dad's going to be able to get out
(03:19):
of whatever problem this is, and that it's their fault
that this happened. And then I just left for school.
This is number one Dad. So what's the latest, Gary
in tracking down your father. Well, I went and saw
(03:42):
my child at home from the outside, and I'm not
exactly sure if he lives there. All I saw was
a kid's bicycle and one of those little kid radio
flyer wagons, and I checked the mailbox. It was empty.
I have no idea if that's his home or not.
So I'm kind of in a position where at one
(04:05):
point I was scared to talk to him, but now
I don't even know if I'm going to get the chance.
Speaker 7 (04:17):
All Right, I'm.
Speaker 8 (04:19):
Going good, So I know this is like a weird question.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I was wondering if you get help.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
So I have a number for my father, who I
haven't spoken to in like twenty four years, and I'm
not sure if it's his phone number, and I was
wondering if there's a way to like look it up
to see if it's his number, because I tried calling
and I got disconnected, so I'm not sure if it's
like his number.
Speaker 9 (04:40):
It's a landline, okay, So as far as like the
landline numbers, the only thing that I can do it
as is we can pay a bill. If you're not
the account holder, I can't give any information about the bill,
like as to who the account holder is, anything else
about it. So no, yes, just for like security purposes, okay.
(05:04):
So I wouldn't be able to tell you the name,
so called it.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
It didn't well, So what happened was I called the
number and then an automated message picked up and but
it sounds. It was like a robotic automated message, so
it's not like my dad's voice. And then I'm leaving
a message and then it just got like cut off,
like halfway through the message.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Okay, and then so I don't know if it was received.
Speaker 9 (05:26):
Okay, what's actually I think with a laydland on, hold on?
What's the phone number?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So it's six ' three one. What's what's his name,
Manny Veeder?
Speaker 9 (05:38):
I mean that's the number that is showing on here.
Speaker 8 (05:40):
Uh huh, that's associated with him.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So got it.
Speaker 9 (05:46):
This was the last subject in the twenty twenty though.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So yeah, Well, trying to figure out my next move
and tracking my father down, I caught up with my
cousin Mason.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Manny was smart.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
He never went to law school, but he learned the
court system.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
My father's years of legal battles in court preparing would
go up against one of the biggest companies in the
world at and T.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
He seemed to understand that the longer you delay any
legal work, push off court dates, push off everything you
possibly can, the more exhausted people get, and the more
likely that something will be dismissed or the punishment will
be less severe.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
My dad's employees at the time were Rich Petrick and
Mark Palmery, and they found themselves right in the middle
of my father's problems.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I remember me going to court with him.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
The courthouse in Manhattan was always funny because we had
to go there a couple of times. He was confident
when he got in there and he didn't care at all.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
He was familiar with these court run ins, and he
would go in and ask for an extension or a
delay where some people weren't happy for something and they
felt lied to, and it was always this kind of
petty sounding complaint, so like something wasn't returned, something was broken,
maybe he was dishonest, you know, or whatever. But it
was not that big a deal. But the eighteen and
T lawyers were a little scary. They were they were
(07:03):
fired up, and they were saying some crazy stuff that
we had never seen.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
Good Morning calling. The case of AT and T Corp.
Versus Manny Vider.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
My Father's Child began November seventh, nineteen ninety four, on
Long Island. The voices you're about to hear are actors,
but the words were all recorded by a court stenographer.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
Good Morning, your honor.
Speaker 10 (07:28):
The defendant many Veder is engaged in a continuing scheme
of passing themselves off as an AT and T personnel
using counterfeit AT and T logos in order to install
pay telephones at local retail stores and to foice the
defendant's version of pay telephone service on the public. The
defendant has used various aliases, including Many wolf Mark, wolf
(07:50):
m Wolfman, Milton Wolfman, Menachem Vider, among others. The scheme
has been so successful that the defendant has acquired over
two hundred customers in a few year span.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I don't know if I still have it.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Like a sweatshirt that was from Manny, Like he had
these blue sweatshirts sprinted up and had a little AT
and T logo on it, and we would wear them
and it was like, you know, we were just absolutely
representing that we were AT and T. When you start
this thing and you're working for somebody, you don't know,
like what's going on.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
You know, twenty years old, naive, you don't know like.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
If he really works for ATT, he's a subcontractor The
thing with your dad is like he just was trying
to hustle and make a buck.
Speaker 11 (08:27):
Mister Burke, this case is not about counterfeiting, while the
defendant has used plaintiff's trademarks a practice witch immediately terminated
by the defendant. After receiving notice of this action, mister
Veeder took affirmative steps to avoid confusion between his company
(08:49):
and plaintiff AT and T.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
Mister Burke, I do have a check here, which I
believe is September ninth, is it? I'm looking at Exhibit.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
B, your honor.
Speaker 11 (08:58):
If you look at that check, you'll see that it
states that Payphone Plus is a provider of AT and
T service, and it says that AT and T the
right choice of trademarks of American Telephone and Telegraph.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
I think what I'm saying to you, however, mister Burke,
is why does the check have the logo of the Globeonet.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Your honor?
Speaker 11 (09:21):
These checks are no longer in use.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We have new checks.
Speaker 11 (09:27):
Yes, indeed, there is a dispute.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
But that joinder is that it was used I believe
after the temporary restraining order, wasn't it.
Speaker 10 (09:37):
We discovered that he never seesoned assistant and in fact
expanded his network, even using checks as recently as two
weeks ago after the order telling him not to say
AT and T.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
At this point in the trial, the court entered a
preliminary injunction as a result of the items discovered at
the seizure. When my house was raided by the US marshals,
my father was ordered to immediately stop identifying himself as
a represent of AT and T. But things were also
just getting started. The AT and T lawyers were trying
to turn my father's life upside down. They subpoened my mom,
(10:09):
my uncle, and my grandparents, anyone they could get to
mess with my dad. But if you make things difficult
for him, he's going to make it twice as difficult
for you.
Speaker 10 (10:19):
Mister Veter has been talking to witnesses and telling them
of different dates for depositions, so that after we subpoena
someone for a date, we called them to confirm they're
coming and they say, oh, mister Veto told us it's
a different day. In addition, mister Palmieri testified yesterday that
mister Veter spoke to him when they heard he was
being subpoened and told him if he avoids the subpoena,
he doesn't have to come.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
So both Rich and I did. Eventually we had to
give testimony the AT and T lawyers were literally making
faces they hated Manny. It looks like it looked like
they wanted to kill him. Snarling, sneering, you know, these leering,
threatening eyes, and you know, twists of the lips and
just like almost like they want to at him or
(11:00):
split their tongue out at him.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Do you remember how my dad was responding to the
AT and T lawyers.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I distinctly remember Manny just looking back at them with
this small smile, with a toughness, a charm, even like
dog tough man. There was something street right there about
that he had in him that was not backing down.
You know, they've said that Manny deliberately damaged other AT
and T phones that were in the area so that
(11:28):
people would use.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
His lawyers for AT and T brought up Manny's criminal past,
some of which was news to me.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
Defendant veter impersonated a New York telephone company employee by
wearing a hard hat with a Nightail logo, stole two
night Tail telephone enclosures, and had in his possession night
Tel traffic cones, and was prosecuted for a Class E
felony in connection with such stolen property. In Suffolk County,
resulting in criminal conviction. Defendant Veter is also the subject
(11:55):
of a proceeding brought by the Attorney General of the
State of New York arising out of Concers One were
complaints of fraud in excess of one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Between my father's criminal past and the insurmountable amount of
evidence against him, things did not look good, but his
lawyer began saying that the entire seizure at my house
was unlawful and never should have happened. If he could
prove it, it would get the case thrown out.
Speaker 12 (12:24):
They had no basis to seek a seizure order. A
seizure order is reserved for counterfeiters. This case has no
counterfeit goods. They knew that mister Veder had been purchasing
equipment directly from AT and T for many years.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
The law is very clear, I'm very familiar with it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Unfortunately for my father, the judge found the seizure to
be completely compliant with the law and declared all the
evidence admissible. Meanwhile, the whole time this trial was going on,
my father's payphone business, Payphone Plus, was still operational. He
was running all over New York, installing payphones and making collections.
(13:07):
One of the places he had business was at a
mobbed up strip club in Rego Park, Queen's named Wiggles.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
These are made mafia guys, and every time we would enter,
Manny was greeted warmly. He would hang out, they would
catch up, they would talk, they would joke.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
It made me uncomfortable with the owner. There was like
his owner guys, and he was real. He was just
like Sketchy.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
That sketchy owner was Vinnie Palermo, also known as Vinnie Ocean,
who at the time was the boss of the New
Jersey Decavalcanti crime family. It said that Vinnie was the
inspiration for Tony Soprano. In nineteen ninety nine, Vinnie Palermo
became a government witness after confessing to two murders and
(13:48):
implicating several Decavalcanti family members of various crimes. He's currently
in the witness protection program living under an assumed name.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Manny had said that those guys had offer to find
the lawyers for AT and T and put them in
their fridge, their walk in fridge, and Manny had turned
them down. And so as we're talking to you, know
we're laughing, but also like, oh my god, something bad's
going to happen. This is dangerous. And he went on
to say that they have like an eternal devotion to
him because one time he was putting in a payphone
(14:21):
plus payphone in one of their establishments and that he
found taps. He found that they were actually being spied
on in their office, and he was able to take
those out and also inform them that they were wire taps.
And so he's like a hero in this circle.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Knowing my father, he put those wiretaps on the phone
himself and then told those guys he found them. That's
exactly how his brain works. Meanwhile, around the same time,
the AT and T lawyers started to complain to the
judge about getting harassed outside of the courtroom.
Speaker 10 (14:54):
There has been a harassment of counsel in the manner
of hang up type phone calls. They still pick sure
he took of me because somebody was talking me when
I was in a supermarket having nothing to do with
this case. This is all part and parcel we believe
on the defendant's tactic, which started with removing.
Speaker 11 (15:09):
The valve of my tire from the word go, they
continued to hurrow accusations at mister Veeder without a single
shred of evidence.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Mister Burke, as I tell some criminal defendants when they
are before me, sometimes the suspicion keeps growing and growing
about an activity of somebody and harassment of witnesses or obstruction.
Speaker 11 (15:34):
You're drawing an analogy between the defendant who's had his
house invaded and a bunch of other baseless.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
I'm tired of hearing that as an excuse for your
client's alleged conduct. If he didn't do it, then there's
no need to make an excuse, is there There is
no excuse? Good.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It wasn't only my father who was playing dirty. So
were the AT and T lawyers. They began talking to
his customers, making sure they all knew he was a fraud.
Speaker 11 (16:00):
I've been informed that certain customers, due to contacts from
AT and T, are just shutting down mister Veeter's phones.
They're putting out of order signs on them. They would
love to drag this case out for a few more months,
because by then mister Veeter will probably be out.
Speaker 10 (16:16):
Of business, Your honor, He doesn't abide by his own agreement,
and he does not listen.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
To the court order.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Things were getting pretty serious for my father and he
was hoping to gain some leniency. I know this because
inside the massive stack of court documents I found a
letter he sent to the judge. Dear Judge Platt, I
write this letter to you on behalf of my wife,
Sherry and myself, Manny Veter. Since the onslaught of this case,
which began to unfold in your courtroom in October nineteen
(16:44):
ninety four, our lives have been turned inside out, not
by chance, but by the design of one of America's
largest corporations. Their actions have taken an extreme financial, mental,
and physical toll on my family as well as myself.
To date, we have spent twenty thousand dollars defending this suit.
(17:05):
The money has been borrowed to pay our attorneys in
hope of a speedy resolution, but our combined family income
for the year was less than fifty five thousand dollars.
I have to support a family of five. My attorney
has advised me that he would like me to release
him at this point from this litigation because I have
not been able to borrow or come up with any
additional money at this time to continue to pay for
(17:28):
legal costs. Chief Judge Platt, I must see you as
soon as possible. It is of the utmost urgency that
you were made aware of certain pressures that are being
put to us by certain parties. Sign Manny Veter, did
you talk with my dad while the trial was going on,
specifically about the things they took during the raid?
Speaker 5 (17:48):
I said, you know where it went or something's that
effect we were talking about. I'm sure they have it
in some warehouse somewhere. They're going through the files. I
think he mentioned, ooh, they took all sorts of sports memory,
which I guess had to have been related because the
timing is right for I believe your your fake Sports
Illustrated Kids reporter.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, it was the exact same time we were pretending
to work for Sports Illustrated for Kids that the Marshalls
raided our house.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Right, So when your dad was sharing that this happened,
I could tell that he was kind of taken aback.
I think he truly was sorry, not necessarily about what
he'd done, but how far he'd carried it, because I
think he saw that there was real potential for significant
either financial loss or criminal charges. But I could tell
(18:35):
he was vulnerable at the time. And then down the
road as I'd speaking, I say, hey, did this ever
get resolved? And I remember one discussion where he said,
you wouldn't believe what happened. You know, I told you
that they took all this personal stuff from me.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I said yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
He says, well, I had it in a warehouse, and
somehow the warehouse was broken into and a whole bunch
of stuff was taken, including everything that I had, and
now I can't get back my personal stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Improved my innocence, that's right. Mysteriously, a large amount of
evidence that was seized from my house and was set
to be used against my father and court went missing.
Speaker 7 (19:11):
During the overnight period. It is my understanding that some
of this material disappeared.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
That is correct, your honor.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
Mister Veda broke into the secured AT and T facility
and stole twenty boxes of documents.
Speaker 11 (19:22):
Mister Veet denies any involvement in the alleged theft, Your honor,
This is another baseless allegation. This alleged theft took place
at a secured AT and T facility surrounded by gates
guarded by armed security personnel. Twenty four hours a day
and is monitored by security cameras.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
Must have looked like a real Hollywood scene. I think
it's very fitting after the Academy Awards last night.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Amazingly enough, on this day, March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety five,
as my dad sat in court being accused of masterminding
a break in to steal evidence compiled against him, is
also the same day he and I would be going
to Madison Square Garden to meet Michael Jordan.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
He hadn't work. Let me take it one step further.
I think AT and T's violation of the seizure order
is so egregious here that I'm going to have to
order an immediate return of everything everything that was seized.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
This was huge. What the judge said was regardless of
how the evidence went missing, AT and T mishandled it
when it was in their possession. So because someone broke
into the evidence locker, the judge ruled all the remaining
evidence to be inadmissible and had to be returned to
my father, which essentially meant the prosecution now had nothing
to go on. So the judge ordered that AT and
(20:47):
T's entire case be dropped. If you had a guess
how that evidence became missing. Would you put it past them?
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I can tell you with eighty percent certainty, you took it.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
That's It's one of those things where it's not out
of the ordinary for him to figure out a way
to get himself out of a situation. I mean, he
drove a Caprice, an undercover cop car. He always was
very familiar with the police department.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
It's a hard thing to speculate if he was involved
in it, but it was just a very good piece
of luck for him that they couldn't bring the case
forward because the stuff was missing, and now there was,
from what he told me, a countersuit that he had initiated.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's right, Mandy could have said, I won, this is over.
I can now go on with my life. But that's
not my father's style. Instead, he filed a countersuit against
AT and T for failing to keep a detailed inventory
of the item seized. My father claimed he was now
missing World War Two medals belonging to my grandfather and
(21:57):
an autograph collection belonging to me. Now I don't know
about those medals, but as for those autographs, I know
for a fact that was a lie, because all the
sports memorabilia was kept in my bedroom, and everything was
still there in the end, regardless of what was true
or not. On April eighteenth, nineteen ninety five, AT and
(22:19):
T settled the countersuit with my father for an undisclosed amount.
So in one way, my father won, but he also
lost because his battle in court with AT and T
was a breaking point for my family, especially me. After
years of sneaking into games at MSG, dodging calls from
furniture customers he'd ripped off, wrecking competitors' payphones, I had enough.
(22:44):
Every interaction with my father was wrapped up in schemes
and lies, and I was done. The last time I
saw him, I was fifteen, My parents were separated, and
he'd come to one of my hockey games with my dog, Kobe.
I asked when I could have my dog back, and
he said, when your mother gives me what I need
in the divorce. That was twenty four years ago. It's
(23:06):
the last time I saw my dog or my father.
Do you know where he lives or where you think
he lives.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
No idea where he lives. Don't have a phone number,
an email address, and I haven't even been tempted to
google him.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
What do you think my dad's reaction would be to
me reaching out?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Honestly, your dad would welcome your reaching out. But it's
my bias that's telling you this. It's my bias as
a father, saying that I know things have been bad.
I know I've screwed up. I wish I could somewhat
get things back. If you were to reach out, he
could respond in any number of ways. He might feel
(23:49):
vindicated and then slam the door, say ha, he finally
realized what a good guy was, but no interest any longer.
Or he might say, hmm, this is an opportunity for me.
What I can see is that he used to love
taking you to games. Now how he got you to
(24:10):
those games might have been different than how you'll take
Sullivan to see NHL games or NBA games, or go
to the mayor's mansion. But the joy that you're gonna
have with Sullivan is the joy he had with you.
This is your story, and you're going to have to
decide what the next path is, what the direction you're
(24:31):
gonna take is.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
On the next episode of Number One, Dad in.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
One thousand Feet turn right onto Darlington Avenue.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I am on my way to Long Island once again.
And the reason is because it's been two weeks since
I started this thing and I still haven't heard back
from my dad after leaving a message on what may
or may not be his answer machine. I guess you
could add that to the twenty four years he and
I haven't spoken. So, using my best judgment, I've decided
(25:04):
I'm going to do a stake out of my child
at home. Number one Dad is a production of Radio Point,
Big Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts, created and hosted
by Gary Veter. Executive producers are Gary Veeter, Adam Lowett,
Alex Bach, Daniel Powell, Huston Snyder, Kenneth Slotnik, and Brian Stern.
(25:29):
Written by Gary Veeter and Adam Lowett, Produced by Bernie Kaminsky.
Co producer is Taylor Kowalski, Edited and mix by Ian
Sorrentino at Little Bear Audio Recording Engineer is kat Iosa.
Original music by Andrew Gross Special thanks to Charlotte DeAnda.
Jonathan karsh Is creative consultant. Executive producers for Big Money
(25:50):
Players Network and iHeart Podcasts are Will Farrell, Hans Sonni
and Olivia Aguilar. Sound services were provided by Great City
posts
Host
Gary Vider
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