The Effing of F1, or Flavio Briatore Can’t Lose

What does it take to become so rich that you’re wholly unafraid of the criminal justice system? Eventual clothing magnate Flavio Briatore found a winning combination in great hair, a distaste for hard work, a few card tricks, and the uncanny ability to sell anything to anyone. With Elizabeth out on assignment, Producer Dave explains how Briatore fixed one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Who's Aaron?

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Yo? Dave? What is up? My man? Saren?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Do you know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (00:08):
I'm so glad you asked me that. Did you know
that sharks are older than the Atlantic Ocean?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
How could that be?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Now? That doesn't make any sense because there was oceans, right,
and Pangaea was a big super continent, and then when
the continent broke apart, sharks already existed. They existed before
there was an Atlantic Ocean. Oh, you want something that's crazier.
Sharks are older than the rings of Saturn? What? Yes,
you want to know something is even crazier. I would

(00:38):
be into it. Sharks are older than the are than
older than the North Star Polaris.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Sharks are really old?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Huh? Right exactly? I mean like I knew that they're
older than trees, but they're older than the North Star.
And I blew my mind when I heard someone reference that,
I was like, that can't be right. I looked it up.
It's totally right. And not only that, they're older than
the rings of Saturn too. I was like, when did
we get the rings of sad? What the hell? I thought?
That was like it kind of came with the planet. No,
it was only a little while ago.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
That is ridiculous thereon, Yes, so there you go. That's
allah in that same vein. It's believed that dolphins had legs. Ridiculous, right, Yes, have.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
I ever seen them in the in utero? Pigs dolphins
in humans almost look identical in the in in the womb.
So it can if you go like up to like
you know, I forget what month or you know what trimester,
or somewhere in the second trimester, but like around like
eight weeks, nine weeks, ten weeks, eleven weeks, well, like
you know, in the first trimester, totally identical, and then
somewhere in the second trimester they diverge enough you're like, oh,

(01:38):
that's a pig. That's not a person tall, that's a dolphin. Yeah, totally.
But they have hair, if they have fingernubs, the whole bit. Huh.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
No. Wonder that those researchers in the seventies got so
into them that they decided to, you know, form a
relationship with a dolphin.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, one of these ones that nature doesn't smile upon.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, I'll give you that. Sharks being older than everything
is pretty ridiculous, right, But do you know what else
is ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
No, I'm here for it though.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Going from running the franchising operation of one of the
most iconic clothing brands of the eighties to rigging the
second biggest sporting event in the world.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Wait, what.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
This is?

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and
cons It is always ninety nine percent murder free, and
it is always one hundred percent ridiculous. You damn right, Sarah.
Do you notice anything different about me? You're not Elizabeth? Yeah,
you know, like I got a haircut and I'm holding it.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Out typically about you? Yes, No, I mean yes, you're
white goose the haircut. Yeah, you look fantastic. Yeah, it's
not normal either.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Okay, So truth be told. Did want to draw your
attention to the fact that, in fact, I'm not Elizabeth Dutton.
But I did spend the last week doing all the
things I could find in body switching movies to try
to make this happen. See that glass box you're leaning against, Yes,
that's a Zultar machine WHOA had into headquarters.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
That's not It didn't work.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I tried to get a fortune and chant at nothing.
So then like, I'm rummaging around my neighbor's trash and
I found this mysterious skull looking thing, you know, and
I put it on. I thought a lot about Judge Reinhold,
rest in power King, also unsuccessful. Didn't nothing happen, So finally, Aaron,
I was getting pretty frustrated. But I had one more idea.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
All right, lay it on me.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I got a Don Knott's mask, which wasn't easy to
find I had not. Then I hit my head so
hard that I went into concussion protocol. Okay, and then
I jumped into a lake while chanting, I wish I wish,
I wish I were a fish. Now that didn't turn
me into Elizabeth. It did turn me into a limpet.
But that was no good. So I had to fight,

(04:02):
you know, fight my way out back to that.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
So being an animated fish, How long did that last
for you? It was heaven.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Nobody bothered me. I could read, I could smoke my
pipe under there. Oh it was so good. All right,
truth be told. Elizabeth got called away on a case
and asked me to put on her ceremonial purple wig.
Don her Wiener Straw and her crocks.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Perfect. You look amazing, Thank you. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
So if you and the rud dudes will indulge me,
here we go, all right, please. So we've gone through
a lot of criminal origin stories in the last year
and a half or so, wouldn't you say, oh, completely, Yeah,
it's our thing there and they are like, there are
lots of different patterns. You're probably thinking patterns, Dave, Yeah, patterns, Dave.
What kind of patterns have you noticed?

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Great question?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, you know, like patterns of how our protagonists found
themselves as crime doers. Totally, at the risk of being
overly reductivist, I would love for us to catalog these
one day. It's just human, right, Like, our brains are
built for pattern matching.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Totally, and we do a lot of this work. We
could have do the groundwork of cataloging at.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
All, exactly. It'd be a service to society.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Now I won't go in too far to that today
because it would take a lot more persistent in diligence,
and frankly, I'm lazy and I'm imprecise. I'm more of
a Pisces Sarin.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
But you know yourself, which is the most important, that's right.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
So, but here are a few like one. We've talked
about people who had rough upbringings and irresponsible parents who
taught them at an early age to do whatever they
can to survive, and they took that and ran with
it and they became.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Criminals, right, totally completely.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Second group, we've had people who get into a pickle,
maybe it's money trouble, and then some kind of illegal
behavior turns out to be the most direct path out
of there. Yes, yes, often doesn't work if they're on
the show, right. And then there's another category. This is
people who try the straight life. They go to school,
they get their first job, maybe they get another job,
something like that, and then when they're faced with what

(05:50):
that looks like, they peer down that long tunnel and
they shake their heads in disgust. Not for me to this,
to that too boring, too much work. Yes, definitely, we
have a lot of Now I don't begrudge anyone their
choices across all these categories, but purely in terms of
their entertainment value. I think you're like me, I really
like that Third category, Yes, yes I do too, And

(06:11):
maybe it's you know, maybe it's because it's so different
from me, and yet I totally get it. And as
an adult, sure, I've had those kind of fantasies.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, the outlaw fantasy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
And you know, there's kind of a big piece of
this in like Chuck Polani's Fight Club, or at least
the movie version. Yeah, and yeah, totally even also in
the book version I read, I read it.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
It's it's there. Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
So the person I came to talk to you about.
His name is Flavio Briato.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Oh I like that name.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
He belongs in that third number. He is now a mega,
mega rich playboy, but he didn't start out that way. Okay,
So let me talk you about Flavio. He was born
in nineteen fifty in a small town in Italy called Vertsuolo.
This is in the Piedmont region, in the foothills of
the Alps, just south of Turin or Tori.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
You know, okay, okay, so far in north Italy.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
I had about four years of high school Italian and
like two two and a half years of college Italian.
So get used to a lot of obnoxious Italian pronunciations.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
It gets still.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I love it, people, It'll make up for all my
terrible pronunciations. It's so much fun. So so Flavia's parents.
They were elementary school teachers. But he failed out of
public high school twice and finally just barely passed in
a private school.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
He has said he just didn't care much about school
and he looked for the easiest classes to get by,
and even much later, he told interviewers that he had
zero interest in reading books. Quote first, I'll do the
Italian uh, non piace and no, no temple. So I
don't like it and I don't have toime as he's
literally never read a book.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
In his life. It's like al Michael's never eating a vegetable.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
That's right, And as he says, from a very early
age he knew he was meant for this different path.
I can't help but love the way this guy talks,
and all the more so to the Italian air. But
it holds up pretty well in translation too.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Here's another quote.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
If you were born in the middle of the Congo,
you will not say that you have been lucky. I
was not born in the Congo, but in those mountains.
As a child, I felt a certain malaise. I felt
that I was one without roots. When asked what I
wanted to do when I was older, if the fireman,
the lawyer, or the notary. I replied that I wanted
to get out of there first of all, from those roughnesses,

(08:17):
from those labors, from those sacrifices. And you can hear
him saying like, not for me, No, thanks too hard,
I don't want to do work per se.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, I'm against this whole labor thing.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
He wanted lots and lots of money, not the poultry
rewards that come from hard.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Work and giving of yourself. Of course, zaren. Can you
feel him on this? Oh? I mean I'm relating deeply.
I'm like, oh, man, I feel you. I also want
to roll down hill.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
So he falls into a series of starter jobs. One
as a ski instructor. One is a restaurant manager. He
opens up his own restaurant, he called it.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
And this is this.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Weird dialect, so I'm probably gonna murder this one. It's
got an umlad in it. It's like tribu la tri
bu la with an ah.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, we're German and Italian meat.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
In Alsatian or yeah yeah huh so. And I found
a couple of translations for it. Either someone who never
sits still and gets into everywhere, or someone who will
do whatever it takes to get what he wants.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Oh okay, they's both fit for him.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, and that ends up being his nickname. That's what
like what he's known as early in life Tribula. The
restaurant didn't last long. He racked up too much debt
and it folded. So next up, he got a job
as an insurance salesman and he actually, relatively speaking, made
a bunch of money.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Doing that as it an insurance salesman.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, yeah, enough to buy his first car, which was
a Fiat six hundred. But you know, he found that
that too was too much work, so it was on
to the next Okay, here's how he described it there
and quote, everybody in Italy was selling insurance. It was
an easy way to make money. You didn't need any background.
You just had to talk nice. And I was fantastic
at that. The company wanted to keep me because I

(09:57):
was considered one of the best, but I just felt.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
It was not my job. So he's somebody who's charming.
He gets people to buy into him. They like him,
and he's like, you should give me some of your money.
Don't give you this thing. It works great. They're like, oh,
I love this guy. I'm going to do it. And
he's like, I could take this bigger than this, Like
this is this insurance is too small for my talents.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, he realized he could be selling grit subscriptions, he
could be selling cocaine. It didn't really matter. People are
going to buy whatever it is. He puts it exactly
and to his credit. You know, you know, you'll see
some pictures on Instagram and I'll share some after this.
Like he is a handsome son of a gun. He's
got the flowing Italian hair.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh wow, yeah, that helps always.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
And like it starts black and then over time it
becomes like salt and pepper, like that cool Italian gray.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, he looks like he could be in maybe an
F one driver maybe.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Okay, So he skips the the insurance job. He's done
with that. He takes his talents to Kunail, which is
the biggest city near him and capital of the region.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Okay, yeah, familiar. You know.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
He goes knocking on doors. He finds a job at
the Potamatti Vernici paint company.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
His job there is assistant to the owner. This guy
named Attilio dutto not like not like Dutton without the end.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Huh okay.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Needless to say, this is probably Flavio's first real brush
with what we in the import expert business call professionals.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Ah nice.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
The previous owner of this paint company a cat named
Mikela Sindona. He was a friend of ours, as they say, right,
though not a friend of mine because I'm not in
the biz.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yes, I know. Yeah, it's when you say that Cosinostra
is our thing and you are a friend of ours,
that's the same group exactly.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
So this guy's business, Mikaelay Sindona, former owner of the
paint company, was laundering money for the Gambino crime family.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yes, they make a lot of shows up in our
in this show, they really do.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
They're like the thread that weave through the whole thing.
Sindona was unfortunately convicted and sentenced for life for quote
contracting the assassination of the lawyer appointed to liquidate his
failed Italian banks. Ooh, he sent to prison. He dies
of cyanide poisoning, which you know probably is and that's
just a strange coincidence, right yeah, I mean you know
that happens often in prison. You're like, I mean there's

(12:05):
cyanide everywhere in prison. Yeah, I mean it's everybody knows.
If you want to buy free sign or cheap cyanide,
you go to someone in prison, you go, how much
is it for the boys?

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
That's right, Like do you want that? You want some
Pruno with it?

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah? Exactly So.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
In another strange coincidence, in nineteen seventy nine, Flavio's boss
and that and the new owner of the paint company,
Attilio Dutto, he gets assassinated in a car bombings Aron
what and no one knows who did it? No one
has any clue what criminal organization active in the nineteen
seventies in Italy and abroad. Wou's done such a thing?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Now? Just a mystery?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I mean you know, they couldn't even pull up
a suspects together because there's just you know, we're starting
from square one. We got nothing, boss. Yeah, it could
be just a bad engine. Who knows, that's right now,
since Flavio had nothing to do. But did they ask
anyone is this a British car? Because maybe it's the
maybe it's a Jaguar.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Now, since Flavio had nothing to do with this. I
don't think we need to count it as a one percent.
This is just kind of a thing that happened out
in the world, right, totally, just loosely connected. This happened
to happen nearer so at any rate. After Duto dies,
the paint company collapses and files for bankruptcy. And when
the courts open the books, sure enough, things look dirtier
than a white T shirt after three bowls of mom

(13:20):
spaghetti and a Detroit hip hop cipher. Yes, who's left
holding the bag Flavio briatore O Flavio, his fingertips are
all over the cookbooks. So he catches a fraudulent bankruptcy charge.
And I'll say, you know, so this was his first

(13:40):
brush with professionals. It's also like the first waypoint in
the escalating criminal career of Flavio Briatore.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
See, he's graduating pretty quick.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, He's like, all right, I got my ski instructor badge. Done,
I got my restaurant badge. Now I got my bankruptcy badge.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah. And Italy the ski instructor is like the American lifeguard.
It's just like something handsome men do for a living
when they're young. It's like, you know, being like a.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Like what like a waters boat or water ski instructor
in the Caribbean or you know, it's say something you
find handsome people from doing You're like, okay, of course.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And he's like, yo, how do I make this pay?
I'll go be a restaurant manager. I'm Italian. And then
he's like, oh, how do I go get into business?
Then he finds himself attached all of this. My question
is where else can he go from here? Dave?

Speaker 2 (14:23):
It keeps coming up. Let me tell you, it keeps
coming up. So while the charges are brewing, he moves
to Milan, the big city, right to work on a
stock exchange. He's like, yes, so I've got the gift
of gab.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
I want to work register. So I want to go to.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
The stock exchange. Yeah, I mean that's the big money town.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Now in Milan, he crosses paths with a guy whose
name you may recognize, Ricardo lisportsak no no no, Luciano Benetton. Okay,
a little bit of history. Benett On the clothing brand
was founded in nineteen sixty five, but it didn't really
become a worldwide phenomenon until the eighties.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, and I honest he did not know that there
was a guy named Benetton. I always assumed it was
like hagenhass is just a made up name.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, sure enough. He's been you know, he's been
at it for years and years, and finally it hits
in the eighties.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
So, as of nineteen seventy nine, Benetton had opened five
stores in the US.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Okay, he sees.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Flavio, He's like, I like the cut of your jib.
He makes Flavio the head of US operations enfranchising in
nineteen eighty two. Okay, nice, come up. So while he's
in Milan, he's got that going. He's got the sock exchange.
He also gets to his own criming. Flavio picks up
a side gig as a card player. Zaren, did you
know that Flavio Briatori is one of the greatest poker
players of all time? No, I've never even heard his

(15:38):
name in the in the poker community, not that I'm
a big member of the poker community. But still that's
because it's not true. Ah, there we go, No, Zaren,
the kind of card playing Flavio Excel then involved lies
a team of accomplices, elaborate schemes and probably muscle and guns.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
Ah okay, that kind of card billing.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah. So his accomplices included number one, a real count
who provided his villa as a location. Oh smart, A
lawyer and his wife who had lots of social connections.
That's where the marks come from. Okay, good, a fake
marquis who was actually a very skilled card player. Okay,
TV journalist for credibility, huh smart. And finally you've got Flavio,

(16:19):
who's something of a front of the house guy slash producer.
He made sure the events were very opulent, lots of waiters, rolls, Royce's, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Women, et cetera. Totally.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
So here's how it went down. The team of heavy
hitters would identify a rich person to target, invite them
to an exclusive dinner party where they were told there
may be very good business deals available as well as
very good connections to make okay to the marks. That
look pretty legit, right, Oh, look at that. There's a count,
there's a marquee, there's like a TV journalist I recognize,
and sometimes a guest who was quote an Egyptian general

(16:51):
I wonder if that's like Cadaffi.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
I imagine if you're really rich in Italian at this point,
this is way better than going to like a Silvio
Berlisconi bunk Go bungo party. Wher, It's like, oh, at
least this one is a good conversation. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
So uh so Briatore would play a famous record producer
with connections to lots of Italian pop stars, just giving
his looks.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, he could totally believe it off.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
So then you know, at some point in the middle
of the party, maybe a lull in conversation, someone would
pipe up with I just got the most wild idea,
how about a game of cards? And of course everyone
would be.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Like, yeah, oh I love that. I love cards.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Uh and if and if, the if the mark didn't
go for it, the pressure would just keep ratching it up,
like come on, what kind of a you know, anti
Italian person are you? You don't play cards? So eventually
they got them into the game. The game is fixed
in multiple ways. They used rigged card dealing devices, like
a lot of things.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
That they used to distribute the cards. Yeah, the shoe, okay,
the not to shoe, but the actual.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's called like a sabot or a sabo Okay, okay, yes,
the dealings. Yeah, they use special lacquer on the cards
that told them what card was.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
What. Oh wow, if you wore glasses it would you
be able to see something on the back of the card?

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, or maybe like bumps on the card Okay okay.
And then plus they wouldn't have the same person just
run the table all night. That would be kind of amateurish. Yeah,
they would have different people win and at the end,
after the guy left, they would split the take. Ah.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Nice, So multiple shills sitting at the table with the mark.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah. And I think this is what's referred to as
the salami move, where you steal a large sum of
money by splitting it up into lots of tiny slices. Yes, exactly,
it's exactly what it's called. And it's very Italian.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
So they're so good at this that sometimes marks would
get cleaned out and then ask to come back and
play again.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Can you imagine they.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Want to get their money, give me another shout of
my cash. Eventually they get caught, they get brought to trial,
they get convicted. This is all going on between say,
like nineteen eighty four and nineteen eighty seven. Briatore gets
four point five years in prison between twenty charges relating
to this scam and then the previous fraudulent bankruptcy charges

(18:57):
that have been brewing all this time.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
Okay, okay, those are still over his head.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
I'm twenty charges, but those get knocked down to fourteen
months on appeal.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Okay, a little better.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
So he's facing over a year of jail time, and
he's not a guy who believes in things like putting
in work or doing time.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
So what do you think he did, Saren? I'm guessing
he goes on the run.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
You are correct, Yeah, I love this, hops on a
plane and heads to the Virgin Islands. Lovely Saint Thomas.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
Oh, very loose extradiction treaties. Yes, good call.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
So let's let a series of ads be our invisible
plane as we join him on a spiritual journey of
our own. Right, we'll see in two and two, Zaren,

(19:53):
take the cucumber slices out of your eyes. Put down
a coconut.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Sorry, I was just trying to rest for a second.
I didn't realize I was fast. Two and two, you
said to and too, I should have cast look alive.
We're back. Yeah, it's okay, I'm ready. Okay, let's do this.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
So where were we? Flavio Briatore, head of a Bunco
crew and a recognized business fraud specialist, was sentenced to
fourteen months in prison, and instead of surrendering to the state,
he had high tailed it for the beach.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah. So he's on the run to Virgin Islands US
Virgin Islands?

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, Like can he just do that?

Speaker 3 (20:21):
Like?

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Can anyone just do that? How do you think this
all shook out?

Speaker 3 (20:25):
It depends on how much money he has as like,
you know, get free money. He's going to need to
bribe a lot of people. And then he's also going
to need to not have so much on him that
he looks like somebody just to hit and kill. You know,
He's got to be on that real sweet spot of
having just the right amount of money. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
So looking at the history of books, it seems easier
than that. Like it turns out, yeah, yeah, he can
do all this total. Eventually he's granted amnesty and allowed
to return to Europe as a freeman.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Oh, he had plenty of get free money then.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
And eventually. Eventually, as of twenty ten, he was cleared
of any residual responsibility or is the court's in turns,
he was ordered rehabilitated, resulting in the extinction of quote
of any criminal effect of the conviction. Oh wow, he
has like fu money then that is Scott free. Scott free.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yes wow.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
But he wasn't sitting idly on a beach in Saint Thomas.
Well maybe he was, but his money, Zarin, his money
was working hard on his behalf.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
What was his money doing, David.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
You see, by nineteen eighty nine, there were eight hundred
Benetton franchise stores in the US, and as they had
a US franchising mister Flavio Briatorio owned a piece of every.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
One of them. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
So at this point he's as good as made thanks
to his old pal Lucciano Benetton. And now he's swimming
in cash.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yes, Oh my god, dude, he's almost I had to
be a billionaire. By then.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
There were so many Benetton stores in the US that
the franchisees started to complain about the competition from other
Benetton stores. I bet, I bet that around that heavy saturation,
I remembered the eighties. Yeah, it's like all the Starbucks
jokes about like Starbucks opens the Starbucks in the in
the restroom of a Starbucks.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yes, totally. And the other thing.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
That's going on around that time is the health of
the brand and the business actually took a dive, so
like by the end of the eighties, nobody had really
was really into Benetton anymore.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, they watered down the brand and they had to
rely on that cool like look at all the multicultural
people we can put into an ad campaign. That's what
they are all they were known for.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, which is also kind of interesting, like it's the
first like really brand that decides they're going to do
what you now call is like woke, but it's really
like the first multicultural brand for the US that's not
US centric totally.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
The United Colors of Benetton was actually really important moment
in like if you want to talk about like the
progress of diversity and the inclusion of lots of different
ideas of what beauty is all of a sudden, that
was the first time it wasn't just like you know
this the nineteen seventies and early eighties type of like
feathered hair white blonde models.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
And it's like helping to lead American teens out of
thinking that like it's all about us.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
America is the best.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
It was like totally, oh no, there are other great
places too, and other great people all over the world.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Totally we became a more international minded people thanks to
Benetton no.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Lie so so yeah, so we got that Flavio had
what he wanted. He was loaded, and he's looking for
his next opportunity.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh wait, everyone else is doing the work for him. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
So in nineteen eighty nine, when you know he's now
eight hundred franchise stores strong, Luciano Bennettson says like, hey,
you did great with that. Why don't you be the
head of merchandising for our Formula one team? Who shortly
thereafter he's made team principle.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
So I knew he had Formula one energy. He totally
has Formula one energy.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah. Well, so like he goes from like I'm designing
and selling the hats to running the entire freaking team.
So to be clear, this is a guy who knew
absolutely nothing about cars and racing and the technology under
the hood and war that proudly and he's now in
charge of a very expensive team in one of the
biggest sports in the world.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Wow, this is why it's like crazy, Like do you
have like rich people, they make some of the dumbest decisions.
Like I was just seeing something recently about the money
that was spent in the u K on COVID tracking,
and it went through like this list of peeriods. It
was like, oh, this person who ran this racehorse company.
It was nobody who was there were no one was qualified.

(24:09):
It was just who did you know? And then they
were like, why don't you run this thing that's super important?

Speaker 2 (24:14):
I just yeah, just like money flowing out of taps. Yeah,
it's like to me, it's like if Ted Lasso was
an extremely cool, extremely rich Italian guy with great hair
and no folks at homespun wisdom and believes in making
money the easy way, not through hard work and perseverance,
and a guy who dated Heidi Klum, had kids with her,
dated Naomi Campbell and married supermodels, then it would be like.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Ted Lasso, Okay, there you go.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Well now let me stop here, please, is there what
do you know about Formula one? Are you into it
or do you know anyone who's really into it?

Speaker 3 (24:45):
I used to be really into it, like there was
I'm big into open wheel racing, and I liked it
a lot. But then somewhere, like you know, as I
became an adult, like I just didn't have the time
to follow it so like devotedly, and then I kind
of fell away. And so it's much like hockey for
me now, where I have a strong feeling about the sport,
but I could I probably don't know any of the

(25:07):
best racers already of the best hockey players. But if
you sit me down and have me watch a race
or watch a hockey game, I'm gonna be fully into
it and want to know who's doing what.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
And I'm like, oh, who's that guy? Because so I
still love the sport, but I've checked out for a while.
So is it I did a little research because I
don't know anything about Formula one? Is it like what
what draws you to it? Is it like the strategy
and the storylines?

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Well, it's the opposite of Nascar for me in a
lot of ways. Nascar there's a lot of like strategy
about position and like speed on turns and coming out
of turns, whereas Formula One it's I find much more
of a dance between the drivers. I mean NASCAR is
that too, don't get me wrong, And I maybe that's
not the best comparison, but it is like much more
akin to flying and air races for me, where it's

(25:50):
it's like you're moving through space through and not just
like on the track, but you know your float as well,
like so coming over a rise or whatever. So you're
moving in like a ford of my race. So you
have time, you have space, and you're doing all this.
So these guys are managing all this stuff. But then
also it's they're so fast. It's the gutsiness of it.
I love that these guys. I mean they're making decisions

(26:12):
that it'll take hundreds of feet but before they could
like see the result of that decisions, or they're having
to anticipate hundreds of feet ahead of them, you know,
Like that's amazing to me. So imagine being imagine doing
something that is split second timing, but the split second
is over hundreds of feet or we are with thousands
of feet in some instances. So that's thank you. Yeah,

(26:33):
now that's beautiful, Like I totally get it now.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
So just for the for the rud dudes, Uh, let
me give you a few stats just to give you
a sense of just how popular Formula one is around
the world. Take like, the last season of Game of
Thrones averaged forty four million people watching every episode. Okay,
the twenty twenty three Super Bowl was watched by fifty
six million people globally. The cumulative TV audience for the

(27:00):
twenty twenty two Formula one season was one point five
to four billion, and the average viewership for each race
was seventy million.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, that's it's huge. It's the biggest sport in the world.
There's a reason for that. It's the most impressive in
terms of like what people think about sports with winning
and tradition and stories and brave performances. But then you
add in all the engineering, and then you add in
all the technical innovations. Then you add in just the
like the fact you can die so easily. I mean,
like you're not dying on a baseball field. Usually you're

(27:31):
not dying on a like on a football field. It's
like these guys can die every race.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
So back to Flavio, right, he's now head of the team. Benetton,
he had some successes early on. He is the one
who brought in a driver whose name you might recognize,
Michael Schumacher.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Oh my god, one of the greatest ever other than
like Orienton Senna.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
So he brings him in a nine to ninety one
for someone who doesn't know Formula one. Can you compare
Schumacher's rep to another athlete, like maybe the intimidator Dale Earnhardt.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah, for racing in tim day to day Larnard, it's
a good one. For the competitiveness, like the steeliness of Jordan.
I mean, we're just that single minded. I'm gonna beat
you and I'm gonna like it. So, yeah, this is
Flavio's guy. Schumacher won a bunch of races and two drivers'
championships under Flavio in the early nineties. Nice and as
much as it brought Laurels, this also brought some scrutiny

(28:19):
to the Benetton team, because remember, this is a sport
that's all about fiddling with really small things to get
as many advantages as you can. Totally.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
In this case, there was suspicion that Benetton was messing
with the fuel tank filters. Oh so, in nineteen ninety four,
the Benetton team was caught removing what's called the anti
fire filter. This is a filter that prevents the engine
from catching fire, from getting too much fuel at once.
And as you can imagine, getting rid of that there filter,
now you just got yourself a much faster fuel feed,
which means a faster car. Soeverybody you wanted to do

(28:48):
it totally. How did the Formula one officials know something
was up? Well, during a pit stop, a Benetton car
caught fire. That was a pretty strong clue. And this
is an outrage. Are they going to get away with this?
How are they going to get away with this? So
at the hearing, Flavio Briatore employed what we in the
litigation business call the Cranberry's defense.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Ooh, what is the Cranberry's defense?

Speaker 2 (29:11):
The pop group of the Cranberries came out with an
album in nineteen ninety three titled Everybody else is doing it,
So why can't we?

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Flavio b claimed that the entire field had also removed
their anti fire filters, and also he threw in for
good measure that it's really the fault of the fuel
tank manufacturer. I don't know if that was like a
forbidden fruit thing or what, but that was enough. That
was enough for the Formula one organization to find Flaviu
and the Benenton team guilty, but with no punishment levied
at all. Hum which starts to be kind of a

(29:40):
pattern for Flavio. I'm noticing that same year Benenton was
also found guilty of hiding an illegal traction control system
in one of their cars, and he admitted it existed
when they asked for the specs. This is like the
governing board of the Formula one. They asked them for
the specs and he said, eh, I asked them any
for it, but they said it was proprietary, so they

(30:02):
wouldn't given.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
It to me. Can't blame me, you know what. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Ultimately, again he's found guilty, but he's not punished. So
in nineteen ninety six he loses his golden his goose
with the golden egg. Schumacher leaves Benetton for Ferrari, and
shortly thereafter, in ninety seven, Flavio's fired from the Benetton
racing team. They're like, you're not producing anymore.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, if you lose Shomacher. And when he went to Ferrari,
he becomes known as for this Ferrari. Most people ask
him who does shoemaker drive for It's gonna be Ferrari.
So you lost not only a golden goose, but the
legacy and everything.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
So but that was just the beginnings thereon of the deep,
flaming crater like impact he would have on the sport.
Oh really, yeah, I'll let me give you a quote
to give you a little sense please, oh pining. After
the next stretch of Flavio's Formula one career, which we're
going to talk about now, Richard Williams and The Guardian wrote, quote,
Formula one had never seen anything like Flavio Briatore, with

(30:56):
his almost buffoonishly exaggerated version of the typical Italian player
boys bella figura and his self proclaimed total ignorance of
anything to do with the history of the workings of
Grand Prix racing. He could hardly have presented more of
a contrast with the unglamorous collection of enthusiasts, many of
them former drivers or engineers, who ran the sport and
its teams before his arrival in their midst twenty years ago. Now,

(31:19):
Flavio stuck around after being fired from Benetton, working for Renault,
heading up the group that supplied engines for other teams.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Are you kidding me? That's right?

Speaker 2 (31:28):
He also managed some drivers individually who are so drawn
to his cult of personality that they're like, oh yeah,
make me Michael Schumacher.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Now, in a stroke of luck, Renault bought the Benetton
team in two thousand and installed ourman Flavio back at
the lead.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Again, are you kidding me? That's right? Now? The Rnau
family's insane? What the hell? Okay, fine, go on, there's
one more minor bump in the road. Sure.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Flavio got caught up in a scandal called Spygate in
two thousand and seven. This related to Renault under Flavio,
getting information about a rival driver car illegally. Now, if
you've been paying attention at all over the last eight hours,
I mean thirty minutes or so, you know what comes next? Right?

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yes, to be fair, he was only tangentially involved with
this one. But yes he was found culpable but not punished.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
It's good to be rich, seriously, it's the best way
to be Okay.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
So, now we're in two thousand and eight, heading into
the Singapore Grand Prix, Team Flavio has hit a dry spell.
They haven't won a race in two years. Renault is
so down on the whole thing they are thinking about
pulling out a Formula one.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Oh damn.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Imagine the feels from Flavio. Right, I'm a winner. I
am only about winning. To quote the great philosopher poet
Louis Mario Freeze, I ain't going out like that. I
ain't going out like that. Yes, it's be real gow now, Zaren,
let me see if I can put all of this

(32:52):
in front of you. You're a very rich, very famous
clothing magnate with supermodels on your arm at all times.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yes, you've been found guilty and multiple criminal and civil
courts and private organizations, but you've never really been punished. Ah. Yes,
you've been caught bending the rules so hard they crumble
in your manicured hands on more than two occasions.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
Like I said, it's the best life.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
And now the team you run may close up shop
if you don't win soon.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
But what are you gonna do?

Speaker 2 (33:20):
What are you gonna do? Do you pick up what
I'm putting down here?

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Oh? Yeah, I think I'm gonna run. That's my guess.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Okay, well wait, Zaren. Beeboo baboo beep, pick up the phone.
Oh hello, Hello, hey Saren, is this a good time?
Actually I'm recording for right now, but go on, okay, great,
close your eyes. I want you to picture it.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Oh yes, I's closed.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
It's the day before the Singapore Grand Prix. Your name
is Giuseppe your Landese Irish Joe from Naples. Knapple it on,
Giuseppe your Lundas. You are a master mechanic who recently
transferred from a high paying desk job at Renault Corp.
To work with the Formula one team. This is the
thrill of a lifetime for you. Your mechanic skills are

(34:06):
a bit rusty, won't want as you've been more of
a spreadsheet jockey for the last eight years. You can't
wait to be baptized by Formula one engine grease. Your
coveralls are pristine. Your wife brought you a brand new
set of tools, and your mom, who you and your
wife and your two children still live with, pack you
a lunch with a special slice of pantone the good kinds,

(34:26):
wrapped up with a boat night. You see, Saron, you're
what the Italians call a mammone, a mama's boy.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
What was it?

Speaker 2 (34:35):
It sounds better than Italian you're looking forward to your
afternoon break when you can go home, hug your wife
and kids, kiss your mom on the forehead, then quickly
pay a visit to your mistress before heading back to work. Zaren,
you have an engine deconstructed on a table in front
of you. You're lazily fitting various pieces together, trying to
look busy. There's no food or drink alow in the

(34:56):
engine staging area, but you take the occasional surreptitious swig
from an Erlin flask filled with barolo that you've hidden
under the shelf under the table.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yes, smote the moon.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
There's a large plate glass window separating the executive offices
from the shop floor. Sometimes they have the blinds drawn,
but today they're open. You can't hear anything but muffled sounds,
but you can see everything going on in there. Your hero,
Flavio Briatore has been in there all morning, sipping espresso,
chainsmoking unfiltered lucky strikes, and flipping through the Gazzetta Dello Sports,

(35:27):
the pink newspaper. You see Renault chief engineer Pat Simons,
dressed in his gleaming white coveralls with his name embroidered
about the pocket.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
It's like a chef's coat.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
He opens the door to the executive office and takes
a seat on the stylish yellow leather sofa in front
of Flavio pat Simon's hands are holding his hair back
as he leans over, avoiding eye contact, and he has
a pained expression, sort of a grimace on his face.
Flavio looks completely calm as he puts the pink newspaper down.
It almost looks like he has a smile forming out
of the corners of his mouth. You see him pick

(35:57):
up a landscape sheet of paper. Maybe it's a root map.
It's hard to out. Simons doesn't look up. You see
Flavio clap once, and this startles Simons. He snaps to attention.
Now he's looking at the sheet of paper.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Two.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Flavio points with his dangling cigarette to one spot. Simons
shakes his head no. He raises his eyebrows and points
to another place. Simons holds up his hands palms to
the sky in the classic expression we Americans understand as
meh or maybe, but to Italians this means boh. Flavio
claps again, this time it's an excited clap. But wait,

(36:30):
Flavio is looking around self consciously, he shoots a glance
in your direction.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
You're worried.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Did he notice you staring at them all this time?
You swallow hard and quickly avert your eyes, reaching for
a ratchet and going to work on any engine bolt
you can find, as if it's the most important fault
in the world. Now to your right, you see one
of the team's superstar drivers, Nelson P. K Junior, stride
by you and head for the executive office. In his
eyes you see fear and anxiety. You can't help but

(36:57):
let your eyes wander back to the big plate glass window.
But as the driver reaches the door of the nation
blinds draw.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Show's over.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Now what you just witnessed was the leaders of the
Renault Racing team asking one of their top drivers to
strategically crash his car and throw the race to make
sure their other driver, Fernando Alonso, can win. Oh damn now, Zaren,
when we get back, I'll tell you all about crash Gate,
the biggest scandal in Formula One history, and how it

(37:26):
went down. Oh yes, Zaron, we're back.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Hey, look at us. Now.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
When we left off, we were about to get into
Flavio Briatore's biggest jack move.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Of all time, crash gates. Yeah, I'm so looking forward
to this. Here's what we know so far.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Flavio is very rich, very cool looking, very morally bankrupt
Italian businessman.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
He made a fortune franchising Benetton stores after fleecing the
rich in Italy and by a series of rig card games.
He's been convicted in court and by private organizations, but
never actually punished. Now he's in his second stint running
a Formula One racing team. His current team is Renaul,
but it was formed from the ashes of his previous racing.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Team, Benetton. Yes.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Team Renall had hit on hard times and desperately needed
a wind to stay relevant. The day before the Singapore
Grand Prix, Flavio and the chief engineer convinced one of
their drivers, Nelson Pika Junior, to deliberately crash his car
during the race to give Fernando Alonso the win. Alonzo
is also managed by the same two guys. Later, according
to p K Junior quote, Simons took me aside to

(38:45):
a quiet corner and using a map, pointed me to
the exact corner on the track where I should crash
because quote, it did not have any cranes that would
allow a damaged car to be swiftly lifted off the track,
nor did it have any side entrances to the track
end quote, which would allow a damage to be rolled
off the track crashing where Simon's indicated quote would thus
necessitate the deployment of a safety car. Alonso, the other driver,

(39:09):
wasn't in on any of this and had no idea
what was going on around him, giving him plausible deniability.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Oh that's nice, brilliant, it's smart, and this.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Is all likely to work out because I didn't know this.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Maybe you know this.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
The Singapore track is known to be very very narrow
and in that kind of an environment, kind of like NASCAR,
your position before the race means everything. Yeah, the whole
race is kind of bottled up and it's really hard
to make major moves against the field.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, I could totally say that.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
So one thing that has to happen for all this
to work is Pique has to agree to do his part.
Flavio had this in the bag because he'd been working
PK for months. He told him his contract was up
in the air and he may or may not bring
him back. He also repeatedly pressured PK to extend his option,
which is what keeps him from talking to other teams
while his status is.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Up in the air. Totally, he kept him on a
short leash.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, and he's got him totally tenderized by the time
he makes this big request. So now it's race day.
It's September twenty eight, two thousand and eight. I thought
about making this the picture it, but we've done really
cool car races before and I didn't want to just
kind of be swimming in your wake. So that's why
I kind of pushed it earlier. Okay, but i'll tell
you about it please. So Piquet starts the race in
sixteenth place. He crashes right where he's supposed to at

(40:19):
the seventeenth turn on the fourteenth lap.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
He basically the way he does it is like he
presses hard on the throttle during a right left turn.
He deliberately causes his car to drift out underneath him,
and then he just keeps feeding a gas so it
just drifts and hits the wall. Okay, and there's no
crane nearby, so the only way to clear the track
is to call out the safety car, which basically slows
the race at that point, and.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
He didn't crash into anybody else. He didn't risk anybody
else in his crash. That's right, just the wall. Yeah. Perfect.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Now there's one other wrinkle that made this whole thing work,
which is that the other driver, Fernando Alonso, he had
taken a pit stop two laps prior, and he was
the only leading driver in the field who had taken
a pit stop at that point in the race.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Oh, so it's time perfectly.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, so after the stop, after the safety stop, he's
the only one who doesn't need a pit stop.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
He's done. Yeah, huge, huge advantage, huge advantage.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
So he had started the race Alonso in fifteenth place,
just ahead of Pique. He ends up winning the race,
and the guy who was leading at the time of
the crash, who was a driver named Felipe Masa, he
finished thirteenth.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Ooh.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
At the time afterwards, Pique is telling everyone, Oh, it
was an honest mistake, I just screwed up.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Now, this was a huge deal in Formula One. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
At the end of the year, Felipe Masa was almost
the champion. He fell short of the championship by a
single point and he in one Singapore, which he should have.
He would have easily won the championship.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Oh my god, I'd been furious if I was him.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Right, So Alonzo's ill gotten victory was all probably gonna
hold until Flavio made one real dumbass mistake. He fired
Pique from the Renault Racing team in July two thousand
and nine. No, you can't fire your bag man, after
all he had done for the team. Yes, Piquet was
a little upset, of course, so after his firing he

(42:08):
wrote quote as a beginner in F one, I could
only expect from my team a lot of support and
preparation to help me in getting up to the task. Instead,
I was relegated as someone who drives the other car
with no attention at all. In addition, on numerous occasions,
fifteen minutes before qualifying in races, my manager and team boss,
whose Briatore, would threaten me, telling me if I didn't

(42:30):
get a good result, he had another driver ready to
put in my place. A manager is supposed to encourage you,
support you, and provide you with opportunities. In my case
it was the opposite. Flavio Briatore was my executioner. But
that's not all he did, Zarin. Behind the scenes, he's
singing like a canary to the Formula one governing body. Yes,

(42:50):
you know, I'm not normally for snitches, but snitch on brother.
I mean, can you imagine, like this is Italy, home
of the famous organization that tends not to take chances
when it comes to even innocent eyewitnesses who could later
cause problems.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
I'm surprised he's breathing. I mean, honestly, based on what
happened to Breetorre's first boss back in the day when
he first started out, and now he's like, oh, everything
he just happened to die. Like, I'm surprised that if
you're going to ask a driver to do this now
they know too much. And we know what happens when
you know too much, you either get paid off or
you get you know, pushed off.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, like, don't fire him, make him a king for life,
like you've got the money, just say.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Just let him have a career forever and then he
will be as complicit. He can't ever speak against you
because it speaks against everything he has totally.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
So the Formula one Governing Body gave Piquet immunity for
his cooperation and testimony. Initially, Briatore and Simons denied everything.
They even tried to blame PK for the idea, which
is just the habit exactly. Eventually, the parent company, Renault,
came over the top and accepted responsibility. They said they
wouldn't contest the charges and they said they had accepted

(43:55):
the resignations of Briatore and Simon's Formula one turns around
and as Briatore for life and also refused to license
any drivers he had been involved with Renel. The team
gets banned for two years, but that wasn't the end
of the controversy. Briatore being such a proud you know
Fadre la Bella Figura guy, he maintains his innocence and

(44:17):
he says he only resigned for the good of the team.
So after getting the Formula one death penalty, he says, quote,
I've been betrayed by my own world.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
In the end, I will win and you'll.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
See we'll have a great party.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
God. The most Italian answer ever. Now, did he get next?
Get involved in FIFA? I mean, like, what's he going
to do next? Wait? Let me go on.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
So we'll have a great party. It will be organized
well and will invite all those people who have stayed
close to me during these tough times. I feel like
it's like the spirit of Rodney Dangerfield. Basically, yes, totally so.
Sure enough, Flavio appealed the ruling to a French court.
Not only did he ask for the Formula one ruling
to be overturned, he also asked for a million euros
in damages.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Oh, his reputation has been besmirched, of course.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
He declares the penalty against him quote a legal absurdity
and said the FIA had made a quote break of
the rules of natural justice.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
At least he wasn't getting grand with it.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Now's Aaron, I'll give you one guess as to how
this alterned out for him.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
He gets reinstated and is now the head of everyone.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Pretty close. The French court's order of the ruling reversed.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
They award Flavio not the whole one million euros, but
a much smaller sum of fifteen thousand euros for his troubles.
There's no word on whether the victory party he threw
was actually well organized, but he did say quote I'm calm.
I did my duty as chief commander of a ship
that was risking sinking. By resigning, I took moral responsibility
for the scandal. But the real story has yet to

(45:49):
be written. However, the verdict has given me freedom and pride.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
And that's fine. Oh he is good at talking. You
can you get here? Yeah, it's like, oh, this guy's
gonna be charming. And if he has tossled hair too,
forget about now.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
The Formula one Association, obviously they're looking at this and
they're like, eh, okay, you've kind of gone over our heads. Yeah,
so they decide to settle with Priatorian Simons. They do
ban them from the big competitions for a few years
and also from minor competitions for a couple of years.
They said the two men had accepted responsibility, but if
you look at what Flavia was saying at the.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Time, not really. I've got another quote. Okay.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Although he may have formally accepted responsibility, he posted this
statement on the Formula one website. He had said, you know,
I accept quote without any admission of a personal guilt
in these events, and without any recognition of the fact
that the decision of the World Council rendered against him
would have been well founded.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
I accept that people have said I'm guilty.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, I accept that you told me to say the word.
I accept exactly. At that point, I guess he had
had enough of Formula one, and even though his lifetime
ban was lifted, he ended that chapter of his criming. Okay,
and there's more, of course, lots more, but Zaren, I'll
leave you with a couple of his recent and current
business ventures.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Okay please.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
After Crashgate, he started his own menswear label, Billionaire Couture,
which sold jeans with real gold buttons. And you mentioned
FIFA earlier. He did actually own the Queen's Park Rangers
for a little while. Of course, a very well respected
team ran it into the ground ultimately was forced to

(47:23):
sell it. Yeah, like that is going to be drawn
to FIFA. Like Moth to Flame. Oh yeah, yeah, it's
paid for him. He also bought a super yacht of course.
Oh yeah, another thing, Moth Flame super yacht totally is move.
It was eventually seesed for tax evasions.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
It was.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Sold to Bernie Eclestone in an assets auction. Who's come
up in the Tony tetrop?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Yes, I was just about to say Elizabeth Tony Tetro episode. Right,
this Ecclestone guy, we need to do something on him.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
And these guys were tight, like Bernie ecclestone and Briatore
were friends to the end.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
Oh, we're coming for you Eclestone.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah, there's more because he was also a he was
a co owner in the Queen's Park range.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Yeah. I detect a taint on this guy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Even in researching this one, uh, Marissa uncovered a lot
of stuff that's happened in the last two years to
that guy.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Okay, there we go.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Of course, a few years later that conviction for tax
evasion with a super yacht overturned on appeal. I want
his lawyers or one of the two just never gotten
his come up in And now he runs a company
called Majestas or Mayastas m A j E.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
S t A S. Well, you know why he's getting
away with all this. If he would have robbed the
equivalent of like Walgreens, then he would be in behind bars.
But you know, because he's doing all this, it's like, well,
come on, rich people ripping off a lot of Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Uh. The the mission statement of Mayastas is quote globally
known for iconic, top performing experiences in fine dining, elite entertainment,
and luxury hospitality. It includes four quote billionaire locations, which
are high end restaurant slash club slash theaters in Sardinia, Dubai,
Monte Carlo, and Riod. I was guessing taking the arms,

(49:06):
arms traders, hotspots total And then he's got Twiga beach
resorts in Italy, London, Monte Carlo and Doha for good measure.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Okay, dohas and a guessabitha one of the two.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
He also owns the Crazy Pizza brand, which has locations
in Italy, England, Monaco and the Middle East. Uh called
crazy maybe because the crust doesn't have any yeast in it.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
It's hard to know. Oh maybe it's just crazy because
like I'm a pretty crazy guy. And yeah, that beans
so Zarin. What's your ridiculous takeaway? Oh dude, you've just
given me another reminder. One you maybe want to go
back and start paying attention to f one, So good
on you about that. You reawakened my love for the speed.
But two and I always tell people in my family

(49:50):
this when they're like telling me something like, oh, did
you see such and such as in the news, they're
gonna get this person. I'm like, how rich is he?
Like what do you mean? I'm like, like, just tell
me how rich is this person? And I can tell
you the like that we're gonna get justice in this case.
They're like, well he's said. I'm like, okay, no justice,
he's too rich. There is this constant thing, and I
wish it bothered more people, but it's you know, it
just becomes like something that makes people the kind of

(50:10):
jaundice to the idea of justice. But we allow and
we know that rich people are gonna get away with
this stuff, and then they do, and then we're like,
well that's how it goes. So that way, when you're
getting bribed, the person getting bribe feels lucky.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
They're like, oh, I'm in the right spot to be
getting bribed because he's gonna bribe somebody.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
I just happen to be the one. You know. It's
that's what seems ridiculous to me. So there you go.
We know rich people are gonna do it, and they
still get away with it all the time because everybody
is I even I joked though, it's the best life
they have the just being able to kind of like
you know, paper over your mistakes or able to like
lay down a bunch of ball bearings over rough ground.

(50:46):
That's what that type of money is. And we joke
that it's few money, but it's more than that. It's
also f me money, do what I want.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
You know, and it's f one money exactly.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
It's well played. What's your ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Dave very Well said, I don't know how much more
I can add to that, other than by saying, you know,
this proves that people tell you crime doesn't pay.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Crime pays.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Oh yeah, absolutely pays. And this guy, like like you said,
he telegraphed it from the beginning. He's like, I don't
want to work. I want to make a lot of money,
and I don't care about breaking rules, breaking laws, breaking
morals whatever. I'm just going to go through life, you know,
making the money I want to make taking it.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
I think that they we should restate that old saying
instead of saying crime doesn't pay, getting caught doesn't pay.
I think that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
You got it, that's it.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
That's my story. That's right, every one. Thank you for
sharing that one. Elizabeth missed a dope one, so thank you,
d thank you.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime, on Twitter, Instagram,
et cetera, et cetera. You can email us at ridiculous
Crime at gmail dot com. We have a website which
honestly needs more attention at ridiculous crime dot com. I
think we have mugs for sale right now. Sometimes we
have limited run t shirts. You can also talk at
us by downloading the iHeart app and using the talkback
feature to leave us a thirty second message. As always,

(52:00):
thank you for listening, and don't do anything Zaren wouldn't do.
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Zarin il Re Deliorsi Burnett
and Elizabeth Kikoza Phi Dutton and hosted, produced and edited
by Dave Jovanolti Kusten. Research is by Marissa Maquae Brown

(52:26):
and Andrea Putropo. Song Sharpenteer our theme song is by
Thomas Alora Lee and Travis Michael Jackson. Host wardrobe provided
by a billionaire Couture. Executive producers are Ben leanke Sefonse
lu Bolin and no il So.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Brown d Why Say It one More Time?

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.