December 7, 2023 • 44 mins
This episode has it all: internet scammers, Instagram, Gucci, North Korea, ATMs, Zaron getting Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" stuck in your head. You're welcome, thanks for asking.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Burnett, Elizabeth Clyde Dutton.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
You know it's ridiculous. I do okay, hit me.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Jerry Orbach go on, Yes, rip to the man, the myth,
the legend.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Love him.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I know you love him. So I found this fun
fact out. I wanted to lay it on you. You know,
he was a Broadway actor right before he was on
Law and Order. Yes, okay, and so do you ever
hear that he was? He played kid Sally Palombo and
the play The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight? No, it
was nineteen seventy one. It was interesting because the role
was based on a real gangster named Joseph Crazy Joey Gallo. Hm, No,
(00:39):
Joseph Crazy Joey gallow was actually a friend of Jerry Orbo's. Really,
oh yeah, like Jerry Orbach's like, it's interesting that he
plays a cop because he was friends with this mobster.
But not only was he friends with him, he was
so tight with this guy. They were out together on
the night that Joey Gallo was whacked in nineteen seventy two.
Oh no, And not only that, but when asked about it,
(01:01):
Jerry Arbuck refused to cooperate with the police and give
them any eyewitness details or anything helpful.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, because he wants to live too.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Not only that, when asked about it, when the all
of the risks to his safety were gone, the statute
of limitations are gone, all the mobsters are dead and gone,
he took this secret to his grave. Wow. So apparently
he was tight with a real live mobster, crazy Joey,
(01:29):
and he held his secrets to his deathbed.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I love that. That is ridiculous, right. Do you want
to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'm here for it, doing it all for the gram
and then losing it all because of the Grams. This
(02:02):
is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Damn right you are, Saren, Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I have for you an artist. Really No, I'm not
doing another art crime. Thank you for asking. You're welcome. No,
this is a con artist.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Ah, my kind of artist, raisin.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Con artists who's part of a much larger net of
con artists and criminals. I'm talking about Internet scammers. Oh yeah,
there's a lot of scamming on the Internet.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
No, I've heard this. Yeah, I mean I've never come
across it personally, but I've heard.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That it's perfect for scamming. Yes, because you got the anonymity,
the distance involved, the levels of experience and comfort online.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yes, some people know and some people do not know.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Right, And if you have savvy criminals and naive newly
digital folks, yes, yeah, got crime.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It'd be like if you're on the freeway and you
could just put a stick out and take something for
someone's car, exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And like, you know all about the Nigerian prince scams.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I'm familiar, man, Yes, you're familiar of them. So
I fell victory of that scam twice. Why are you
bringing this up?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I didn't want to hash up.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I should have given you nobody scams there, and I
try to play it off and act like I've heard
of them. Elizabeth. Then you're like Nigerian print scams.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm like, yeah, okay, you know how terrible my memory is.
I think one of us probably you talked about the
Nigerian romance scammers.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I've brought it up, I think during the year
the year.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And yeah, so anyway, these are common, Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Very common, in fact, so much so that they become
a trope.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yes. And then in what I want to tell you
about today, there's a nice influencer overlap as well.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh I love this.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I know you know. I can't stand influencers.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yes, I know this.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I refuse to be influenced is basically what it comes
down to. I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
See you are stubborn and charlish and you were refused
to listen.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
No, I don't want to see when prants are around then,
like pricey vacation spots with their rump hanging out fuzzy.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's not for me a pricey vacation spot.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
No, I don't want to do any part of that.
I don't want to see him. Like carrying a sh
an l bag mid skip in front of a posh
London townhouse.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You just want to see the small animal that's inside
the bag.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yes, I want to liberate the small animal. Everything is
always in that like oversaturated tone in these pictures. When
I see the Instagram photos like that, all I can
think of is what it looked like when they were
trying to get that shot. Oh yeah, it's kind of
like how when I hear a jingle on the radio
or TV, Like if I watch TV, all I can
do is imagine someone in the studio recording it, like
(04:26):
grab your keys, come on, let's go. Yeah that's great, Steve,
but can we take that again?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And he notes, Yeah, give me a little more of
the growl on the grab make it come alive. Get
some I want to feel the burn of gunning a
Toyota Corolla on the open highway. You got it, grab keys?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I did.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
That's see, that's it. We got it. So anyway back
to influence.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The news people, we got it.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
The multiple takes. Seriously, if you ever want, like listen
to the radio, all I can think of is someone
sitting in a studio.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I want baby, you've seen that, right, they showed the
recording of that. People that are like, we to see
the buddy.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
But so when you have the influencers online with the pictures,
they have the multiple takes, like you got like the
beleaguered friend or assistant trying to direct them.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay, I've got a friend who is basically this an
Instagram influencer and I'm not gonna name names, and hopefully
they won't figure out who I'm talking about, but I'll
take the chance. And I've had to take photos for
them in public places, and the thing that they do
that always kills me is that we'll be sitting They're like, oh,
I guess you could take this photo, and I'm like,
I know you're disappointed that I'm the one taking this photo,
so let's see if we can do this. I'll take
like nine or twelve. I know none of them are
(05:29):
gonna be good. Maybe you'll get one you like. So
I'm trying to lean into the thing that you hate.
I'm willing to give it a go. But then they
throw me off because they will fake a moment. I'm like, no,
just like, just be, I'll take photos of you being Yeah.
They're like no, no, here ready, and then the lact
like they're talking to someone off screen, like Nathan Fielder,
and I'm like, what the hell is this? Like, just be,
I could do a candid shot, but no, they're like, no,
(05:50):
I'm going to do fake candid here. I think this
is my good angle.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
See the fake laugh and there's no one. Yeah. I
like when the little skinny gals pose with some like
crazy in coction that's like cake and syrups and ice
cream and like somehow coffee and sprinkles and candy bars,
and it's in that appealing color palette and it's like
nine thousand calories and then they look like they're about
to take a big bite, but in reality they just
take the picture and then throw it in the trash.
(06:14):
Even though it costs like thirty five bucks, it probably
tastes like sugar.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't even give it to like a teenage route sime.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
No, they just jump in and keep moving. Yeah, So
there's like the multiple attempts to get a shot of
someone jumping in the surf, oh abandoned tropical paradise, trying
not to look like a drowned rat. There's also like
the guys in the ill fitting suits, Like what's up
with like the clam digger suits, Like that's what, like
you hulked out and grew out of a suit?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, that is a bad American attempt to do the
European suit right, but.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It's always like to tight across.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You've noticed that their suits ride high on the ankle bone,
So we're like, okay, everything needs to ride high, the leaves,
the collar.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You know, it is really bad about that and who
I really want to eventually do an episode on. It's
probably gonna be like a year or two. Tell me
George Santo's Oh yeah, like he's got like this. He
thinks skinny jeans or suit slacks, Like, yeah, don't do that.
I'm going on record.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know who also used to do this, John Wayne.
He was known for making Edith head and whatever other
designers put his clothing a little bit smaller than it
would be appropriate for man his size because it made
him look bigger. I'm just hulking out, erupting. Also, he
rode smaller horses, so he looked bigger than other people
on a horse.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Did not know that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Oh yeah, oh god, there's a history.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
So here we are. I promise you I'm getting somewhere
with it. Let's talk about Ray. Hushpuppy.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
What the hell? Ray?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
That's a hushpuppy with an eye.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
By the way, do not tell me the hushpuppy is
a name of it. It's not like Ray. Oh, we
took a word and we said hush.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
No, no, Ray, and then hushpuppy all one word. But yeah,
why is not there? It's an eye?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
He did not found the shoe company Hushpuppies.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
No he did not.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
He was born God, I was going to lose my
mind if he's founded Hush Puppies.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
No, he was born Raymond A Boss in nineteen eighty
two in Nigeria, ok And he was known as a
Yahoo boy. Oh. And that's the Nigerian term for men
who commit those romance scams by stealing identities and then
they swindle their none the wiser lovers.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So his street name in the online world was hushpupp.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Is Ray Hushpuppy Okay, and then he just went by Hushpuppy.
And so there have a name for this, the Yahoo
boys who knew apparently people people knew so a boss.
Of course, he had an Instagram account. In the bio,
he said he was a real estate developer. I mean,
aren't we all. Aren't we all just developing the real
estate of our hopes and dreams, our futures and vibes.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I'm just really trying to dress up the curb appeal
of my future.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So he was all about that influencer life, like once
he'd fleeced the lovelorn. Sure, so his account was full
of shots of him living the good life. He's hanging
out with Nigerian sports stars and celebrities. Did you know
there's a BBC news pigeon. What Yeah, what.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Are you saying to me right now?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
P I D G I N oh yeah, okay, I.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Wish you would hit that d a little harder.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
It's the online news service of West Africa. Yes, I'm familiar,
phenomenal like I didn't know this and so it's all
written in that and then anyway, so hush puppy, hush
puppy with an eye. His Instagram isn't up anymore.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
By the way, Oh all right, well yeah, usually when
there's criminal activity.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah so but when it was, yes, you'd catch him
striking poses in front of or inside jets.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh yes, a lot of private jets.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
A lot of private jets. That's a very popular influencer.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You know they rent them out for photos.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh they do.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah. In La you can go down to the airport
like Burbank Airport and you can take a photo inside
a for like fifty bucks.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
See that's all I'm imagining now is anytime I see
a picture like that, I'm gonna imagine someone like going
and sitting and then posing and.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Okay, Now do you remember when people would want to
get like rent a limo to go to like a prom.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Right, And so some comedian I remember said it. They're like, oh,
you rented a limo. I have one hundred dollars too, Right,
that's all I ever seen. When I see a photos
of lyric jets, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, don't get it. I don't get it. So like
or like he'd be all mid stride into a helicopter
and he do like the whole cupcake hands you know
that is.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
No you put your hands down face word or.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, it's a it's a child pageant thing. He didn't
do that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Wait is it really?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
It's called cupcake hands for children. Yeah, when the like
kittie pageant girls, they put their hands like parallel to
the floor, their arms straight down, hands parallel.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Cupcake like, so you have a cupcake you can't touch,
Like this is a cupcake that's forbidden.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
But the flat that's weird.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, I don't know, but it's called cupcake Hans and
I said it, and then it's not in this okay,
but whatever. So he's posing in front of fancy cars
like Ferrari's Bentley's, McLaren's, Yeah, Boattis Rolls, Royce Maybax. He
bragged about shopping at Versace, Gucci, Gucci, Louis Louis Fendy, Fendi, Prada.
It's a great song, wasn't it. He always used the
(10:40):
hashtag hashtag allmine, oh God when flaunting the luxury goods.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So all lies, all all lies.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And so he'd be dashing off from his waterfront apartment
at the ritzy Palazzo versace in Dubai.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Palazzo at this point is just always a BS word.
Do you see palazzo? Do just know that you're paying
to see that word.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
This place is the tackiest of the Takia Palazzo versace. Yes,
Like I would recount the whole John Mulaney thing about
what a hobo imagines a rich person to be, not
the whole horse in the hospital thing, but I won't.
And it's that. So one time on Instagram he posted
a video where he tossed around rolls of cash like confetti.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Rolls, like like bankrolls.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, you know, y'all on the Graham holding money to
your ear, there's a disconnect. We don't call that money
over here.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
How to quote the great Sean Carter, it's still the
coldest insult.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
That use it, Like, we don't call that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Money over here. So a boss aka hushpuppy, hush puppy
with an eye. His Instagram account had two point four
million followers, kind of like.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Me, yeah, I'm sure you bought some though.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, we don't call those numbers over I'm running a
dozens baby. So let me give you a sample of
an Instagram caption on his account.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh I was. I was afraid I would have to ask.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
It's so like chat GPT give me a really obnoxious
Instagram yes. Quote started out my day having sushi down
at Nobu in Monte Carlo, Monaco, then decided to book
a helicopter to have facials at the Christian Diorspa in Paris.
Then ended my day having champagne in Gucci.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
See I think a caption like this but you don't
recognize is is it's kind of actually like a like
a BS filter where he's saying like, if you are
moved by this, you're a perfect mark. Oh clear, not
I don't want any business with you because you'll be
on my stuff and I don't need that. I need
people who were dumb and they go, oh, really, you're
a nobel.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And he didn't limit himself to Instagram. He was on Snapchat.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Already, was on everything with a little weird emoji exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So over on Snapchat he called himself billionaire Gucci Master.
The man loves the gucc Of.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Course he's got good taste. I mean, I can't fallo
that Gucci's I like Gucci, well for men's stuff. I
don't know what it does for women's stuff, but for men' stuff,
Gucci's al right.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So keep in mind, though, paying for this are women
who think that they're in a serious relationship with a
misunderstood guy who's just trying to get himself on his feet,
like only if he had a little money to fund
his startup or whatever. So all of this lifestyle is
funded by these lonely hearts. Yes, he had all these posts,
and that was great for the clout or what have you,
(13:18):
but it was also great for the authorities. Yeah, it
was a receipt bank totally. So his posts and the
records from his phone created a robust digital trail of
evidence that allowed investigators to link him to many, many,
many crimes.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
He had literally filmed his crimes completely.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So, for example, a birthday post that showed off a
cake with the Fendi logo on it, as well as
a miniature of him surrounded by shopping bags, helped investigators
figure out his true date of birth on a previously
made visa application.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Right like one of those little like plastic grooms on
top of a wedding and then shopping plastic bag total.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And you know how like Instagram lets you log in
with either your email, your phone numb. Well, the FEDS
came calling and meta handed those over. Oh yeah, yeah,
so federal officials they linked that information to transfers and
financial transactions with co conspirators. Oh wow, huge dollar values.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
So, in June of twenty twenty, thirty seven year old
boss got pinched in the United Arab Emirates by law
enforcement officials. Is home was rated by local police?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Oh? Is he only like an Interpol red list?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yes? So authorities seized thirteen luxury cars worth six point
eight million dollars forty one million in cash in cash,
this is twenty twenty. I don't have to do a conversion.
There's forty one billion dollars in cash. Phones, computers. They
all had materials on them with more than one hundred
thousand fraud files and the addresses of almost two million
(14:46):
possible victims. Yeah, that means it's a wide net two million.
The two million is like if he had scammed all
of Slovenia.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Well, yeah, dude, that's just his It's like a leads list.
It's not really wod and contacted these people.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You feel like one man couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, that's your industrial scale to that. This is like
always be closing, right.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So he was extradited to the US on July second,
twenty twenty, and after he got arrested, his Instagram account
gained five hundred thousand more followers, gained gained, he got
more followers. He didn't see it coming. Just two weeks
before his arrest, he posted on Instagram, thank you Lord
for the many blessings in my life. Continue to shame
(15:26):
those waiting for me to be shamed. Well, the weight
is over.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So I like the idea that God's super petty is
a fan of the petty and keeping score. I get on.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Boss and God's like watch this, so Gal Pozzetsky is
a Hushpuppi's attorney sure hushpuppy with an eye, refused to
share how his client earns a living good. He told
CNN that a boss makes money. How he makes his
money is going to be quote one of the main
points of contention here, Yes, it will be. And he
the attorney said that the arrest was actually kidnapping.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Daha, he was kidnapped by the authority because he.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Said that Dubai handed a boss over to the US
with no legal proceedings.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Get you a new lawyer sign Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
So, since social media the fatal talksin of our time
is sitting front row center here, let's take a look
at the Dubai Police Facebook page because that's where we
get news now. Apparently, so they stated on Facebook that
they arrested eleven other people during the raids. Wasn't just him,
Dubai police had a whole operation going on working with
the US called Operation fox Hunt two. Not sure what
(16:32):
happened in one, but Operation fox Hunt two. So a
boss when he was arrested, there was another man arrested
to this Nigerian guy by the name of Lalako Jacob
Pondle aka Woodberry Woodberry Woodberry. So according to prosecutors. A
boss quote funded his luxurious lifestyle by laundering illicit proceeds
(16:55):
generated by con artists who use increasingly sophisticated means.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know, hush up Woodberry and their coconspirat or corn
bread were often known to that's corn.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Bread with a qu puppy with an eye. It was
just the visible tip of the iceberg. Let's take a break,
we'll do it for the gram. We come back, I'll
let you know what's under the water on this iceberg. Welcome, hey, Zarin.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
The Dubai police, Elizabeth, do you know about their supercar collection?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Is that not ridiculous? They have, like you name a supercar.
They have one and they race it in the desert
because they have to catch people who drive supercar.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And they have this guy and they have the supercar graveyards,
right have all the people who just like go belly
up or whatever?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Oh yeah, definitely, they wrote They ruin their McLarens and
whatnots and Ferrari and.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yes, amazing. Oh wealth. So when we left off Ramon,
a boss known as Hushpuppy, hush puppy with an eye.
He'd been arrested in the UAE the same month he
was busted, a criminal complaint was filed alleging that he
worked with a co conspirator to launder funds from a
fourteen point seven million dollar heist of a foreign financial
(18:20):
institution in twenty nineteen. We'll hear more about that later, okay.
He sent his co conspirator the account details for a
Romanian bank account and said it could be used for quote,
large amounts. He set up bank accounts in Dubai as
a repository for all the dough that they'd stolen from
US victims.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
And On July third, twenty twenty, he appeared in federal
court in Chicago, Illinois, accused of conspiring to launder hundreds
of millions of dollars via schemes involving cybercrime.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's just about to say, it sounds like he's the
money man for all these things, more so than anybody.
That's why they had the crazy numbers. Could you send
forty one million? I'm like, that cannot be just his.
That has to be like a group, and that has
to be their their vault.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Well, because that's the thing is that prosecutors are like,
he's not just the bilker of lonelys. He's the banker
Gucci and Sip and Dom. He was one of the
leaders of a global network using what are called computer intrusions.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
But also he's like the stringer bell, he's the money
person of this criminal.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
No you'll see. So he's part of this you know
group doing the computer intrusions, sure, or hackings as we say,
on the street and buy on the streets, I mean
my driveway. There was money laundering business email compromise schemes
of BECs to steal hundreds of millions of dollars. Elizabeth,
what are b ecs? Thanks for asking? Gang. BC schemes
(19:39):
involved business email communications being re routed to intercept wire transfers.
So all the cars and clothes and jets and jewelry
and posh apartments were funded by these hacking schemes that
ripped off millions of dollars from major US and European companies.
That's where the big money was coming from, not the
just like chumps.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You know, nous I didn't think that the money was
coming from the romance jumps. But I was thinking that
he is the banker for those big money moves, and
that he's also the clearing house for the smaller money
moves kind of yeah, if you have forty one million dollars, yeah, guessing.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, it ain't just all you are. Yeah, So, US
attorney Nick Hannas said, quote, BC schemes are one of
the most difficult cyber crimes we encounter, as they typically
involve a coordinated group of con artists scattered around the
world who have experience with computer hacking and exploiting the
international financial system. So in twenty nineteen, Paul Delacort of
the FBI said that they recorded one point seven billion
(20:35):
in losses by companies and individuals who are victims of
BC scams. Dude, so all together, now, d it's a
lot of point seven billion. That's a huge This is
where all the.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Big stuff is, like, I mean the denial, like when
they go out and they do the ransom attacks that
you don't know how many billions are getting on those
ransoms exactly, like do you want your stuff back? It's
not just counties and hospitals. They're doing it to everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
They came exactly, so a boss. He also got accused
of conspiring to be part of a scheme to steal
one hundred and twenty four million dollars from an English
Premier League soccer club Sadly, the complaint didn't say which
team was the target.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It also didn't say whether or not the theft attempt
was successful, So maybe maybe not.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
But it's one of the man's.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I'm kind of hoping it was Newcastle, I really yeah,
but and I really liked the name Crystal Palace, so
I hope it wasn't them anyway. According to a federal affidavit,
a client of a New York based law firm is
one of the victims, and the client lost nearly a
million dollars. In twenty nineteen, the FBI said that a boss,
hushpuppy with an eye and others tricked a paralegal at
(21:37):
the firm into wiring money meant for a real estate
refinance to an account a boss and his co conspirators
were using, so they sent fraudulent wire instructions to this
paralegal in an email that appeared to be coming from
a legitimate bank. It was, however, what we in the
BIS call spoofed a boss. He sent his co conspirator
an image of the wire transfer confirmation for the transaction
(21:59):
that was made. US attorney Nick Canna said, quote, this
case targets a key player in a large transnational conspiracy
who is living an opulent lifestyle in another country while
allegedly providing safe havens for stolen money around the world.
As this case demonstrates, my office will continue to hold
such criminals accountable no matter where they live. See this
is exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Here's the bank.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah. US attorney Martin Estrada said, quote, money laundering and
business email compromise scams are a massive international crime problem,
and we will continue to work with our law enforcement
and international partners to identify and prosecute those involved wherever
they may be.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I'm kind of surprised that these guys got caught.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Well. Instagram, so hush puppy. He faced up to twenty
years for these crimes. November of twenty twenty, one of
his co conspirators, Galeb Alomari of Ontario, Canada, he agreed
to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit
money laundering in two cases, one of which was filed
in La he caught to it. He admitted to being
a high level money launderer for multiple criminal enterprises and
(23:00):
included ATM cash out operations? Elizabeth, what are ATMs?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Elizabeth? I got a question for you. What's an ATM
cash out operation?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Thanks for asking, late Senator Ted Stevens. In the Great
State of Alaska. An ATM cash out operation is an
elaborate and choreographed dance routine involving the music of Lou Bega,
specifically the song Mambo number five Get out Now I'm kidding.
An ATM cash out is an elaborate and choreographed attack
where criminals crack into bank or card processing centers and
(23:32):
then mess with fraud detection controls and alter customer accounts.
So this makes it so there are no withdrawal limits
on a bunch of ATMs in a short period of time.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's fun.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, So al Mauri he organized recruits to withdraw stolen
cash from ATMs by providing bank accounts that had received
funds from fraud schemes and cyber heist and once the
funds were in the accounts controlled by Alomari, he would
further launder the money through wire transfers, cash withdrawals, and
exchanging the money for cryptocurrency crypto.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That was going to come in.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You knew it was bound up up sooner or later.
So the funds laundered included those that came out of
crimes committed in North Korea. Wow, yeah, which crime?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Which crimes? Elizabeth in North Korea?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
For example, we'll have crimes in North Korea. There was
a twenty eighteen ATM cash out theft from Bankislami in Pakistan.
He also conspired with others to send spoofed emails to
a Canadian university in twenty seventeen, and the emails looked
like they were sent from a construction company trying to
get paid for a building project. So the university wired
(24:37):
eleven point eight million Canadian dollars that's nine point four
million US sure to a bank account controlled by Alu
Mariri and his co conspirators, thinking that they were paying
the construction company. That wow, you wire eleven point eight
million Canadian.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Well yeah, I mean this is the thing I was thinking,
is that we are shocked by it. But not on
their budget. I mean they're budgets billions of dollars, so
eree million dollars is not that much of their budget.
So I bet didn't even have that much oversight. I
bet it was like one or two people who handled that.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, he was also accused of having co conspirators in
the US make multiple trips to Texas to impersonate wealthy
bank customers. All how did partners.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Had on with a thick Nigeria? Actually they had all.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
These stolen identities. September eighth, twenty twenty one is part
of his sentence that covers both cases. Alamari was sentenced
to eleven years and ordered to pay thirty million dollars
in restitution. So let's wind it back a little. That's
twenty September twenty twenty one. Le's go back to February seventeenth,
twenty twenty one and go back to the North Koreans. So,
three North Korean computer programmers were charged for participation in
(25:40):
a huge criminal conspiracy to pull off cyber attacks and
steal and extort more than one point three billion with
a b in cash and crypto. So they then made
and carried out a bunch of malicious cryptocurrency applications and
it was all a part of a scheme to develop
and fraudulently market a blockchain platform. Really, yeah, Acting US
(26:00):
Attorney Tracy Wilkinson said, quote, the scope of the criminal
conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long running,
and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering.
The conduct detailed in the indictment are the acts of
a criminal nation state that has stopped at nothing to
extract revenge and obtain money to prop up its regime.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I saw recently the bitcoin is once again trending, like
it's the prices going back up, and I was like,
how do they get enough fools to back together? Like,
how do they get the band back together to get
the price they're all excited again. I was like, whoa.
I mean, I understand what North Korea. North Korea looks
at this and they're like, oh, yes, let's just run
shop on these capitalists. But how can you continue this?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I don't know clearly. Let me tell you, let me
tell you more about what you know. Law enforcement in
the US had to say, sure so. Assistant Attorney General
Don Demmers of the Justice Department's National Security Division said
he chimed in on this all quote. As laid out
in today's indictment, North Korea is opered using keyboards rather
than masks and guns. Are the world's leading twenty first
century nation state bank robbers. The Department will continue to
(27:07):
confront malicious nation state cyberactivity with our unique tools and
work with our fellow agencies and the family of norms
abiding nations to do the same. What the Assistant Director
in charge of the FBI's LA Field Office don all
I have to say about this there, And I'm sure
you were wondering what you said? He said, A boss
leveraged his social media platforms to gain notoriety and to
(27:28):
brag about the immense wealth he acquired by conducting business,
email compromise scams, online bank heis and other cyber enabled
fraud that financially ruined scores of victims and provided assistance
to the North Korean regime. So they all start all
tying it together. They alleged that John Chang Chok, Kim Ill,
and Park Jinchok were members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau RGB,
(27:51):
a military intelligence agency of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea North Korea Sure Army. Their government hackers with a
z SO North Korean military hacking units. They go by
a grip of names.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
What are some of these names?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Elizabeth Lazarus Group Advanced Persistent Threat thirty eight WOW APT
thirty eight Okay, yeah, whatever, So it was alleged that
these groups engaged in a single conspiracy to steal data
and money, cause damage, you know, otherwise further the strategic
and financial interests of the North Korean government and its leader.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, carrying down the capitalist pigs, which pretty straightforward.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
The indictment described all of the criminal cyber activities undertaken
by the conspiracy, both in the US and abroad, that
were conducted either for revenge or financial gain. Okay, do
you want to hear them all?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Sure? On me?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
You totally.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You got to look at me. I'm the kind of guy.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
The cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Twenty fourteen, we need to cover that.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
In retaliation for the Interview the Seth Rogan James Franco
movie about journalists who set up an interview with North
Korean leader Kim Jong un, only to be recruited by
the CIA to assassinate him. Plus, on top of that,
the December twenty fourteenth iber attack on AMC theaters which
had scheduled to screen the film.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yes, oh yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Then we go the twenty fifteen intrusion of Mammoth Screen,
which was producing a fictional series about a British nuclear
scientist taken prisoner in North Korea.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You know that the North Koreans have a very special
place for American cinema, so to be to have it
turn on them and say, oh, we're going to have
these two bozos kill the premiere of North Korea. Yeah,
and when he's like, my father taught me to love
and respect film, how dare he is a betraying I'm
going to bring you to your knees. I get it.
I can see you like, why start with that hornet's mess?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
So twenty fifteen through twenty nineteen, they made attempts to
steal over one point two billion from banks in Africa, Bangladesh, Malta, Mexico, Taiwan,
and Vietnam by hacking the bank's computer networks and sending
fraudulent Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications swift messages.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
They did the cash out scams, the ATM cash out scams,
the government was calling them fast cash was in October
of twenty eighteen six point one million from Bank Islami
and Pakistan as I said. They created want to cry
two point zero ransomware. Oh that was them in May
of twenty seventeen, which is the also the extortion and
(30:14):
attempted extortion of victim companies from twenty seventeen through twenty
twenty because they were using it to steal sensitive data
and ipoy other ransomware that was a nuts one. They
developed several malicious cryptocurrency applications from March of twenty eighteen
through at least September of twenty twenty. These included sell
us Trade, pro World, bitbot I Crypto, fx Union Crypto Trader,
(30:37):
Coupe Wallet, Coino Trade, Drusio Crypto, Neurotrader, and ants two
whale and that gave North Korean hackers a backdoor into
victims computers. So rude, dudes, if you have any of those,
you're screwed.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
So wait, they didn't just like take the people's money.
They just wanted to get into their computer.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Okay, so if it is free, you are the product
completely completely.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
So they tre targeted hundreds of cryptocurrency companies and the
theft of tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto,
including seventy five million from a Slovenian cryptocurrency company in
December of twenty seventeen, twenty four point nine from an
Indonesian crypto company in September of twenty eighteen, eleven point
eight million from a financial services company in New York
(31:20):
in August of twenty twenty, in which the hackers used
crypto Neurotrader application as a backdoor. So the quantities are insane.
Do you know what spearfishing is? Fishing with a pH?
Just like hushpuppy with an eye?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yes, but please tell me, Elizabeth, what is spearfishing with
a pH?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Thank you for asking. It's a type of phishing campaign
pH fishing that targets a specific person or group and
includes information known to be of interest to the target,
such as current events or financial documents. So the North
Koreans pulled off a ton of these from March of
twenty sixteen through February twenty twenty that targeted employees of
the US Cleared Defense Contractors, energy company, these aerospace companies,
(32:01):
technology companies, US Department of State, Department of Defense. They
did with like Kim Kardashian updates, Oh yeah, totally, they
like want to see the video click here?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Then we never believe this dress.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Then there was the development and marketing in twenty seventeen
and twenty eighteen of the Marine chain token to enable
investors to purchase fractional ownership interests in marine shipping vessels
what supported by a blockchain, which would allow North Korea
to obtain funds from investors, secretly control interests in marine
shipping vessels and evade US sanctions. Wow, right, there's quite
(32:35):
a list.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Where there's a will, there's a North Korea.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I'm gonna let you digest that listes. Let's take a break.
When we come back, we'll check back in with our
main attraction. Hushpuppy. That's hushpuppy with an eye, Zaren Elizabeth,
(33:07):
close your eyes.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Wow, you just came right at me with it.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I know, no warm up. I want you to picture it. Yes,
it's February of twenty nineteen, and you are a vice
president at the Maltese Bank of Valletta, in where else Malta.
Things just haven't gone well for you. Today. You slept
through your alarm and you had to race out the door,
only to find that the neighbor's dog had tipped over
your garbage can and strewn your trash all over the block.
(33:33):
No time for that you'll take care of it when
you get home. You stop at the cafe next to
the bank and are almost hit by a bike as
you enter at the shop. As you walk out, cappuccino
in hand, another bike almost hits you, and you spill
your drink all over your new swedge shoes. You head
into the bank's enormous headquarters, hoping for a calm day
to counter your terrible morning. All is quiet, and you
cross the large lobby and head for the elevators. You
(33:55):
get to your desk and your assistant is already there,
clicking through the reconciliations of international transactions that went through overnight.
There's a pause as he stops to check something on
the screen. He sighs loudly and keeps clicking. Just then
the phones begin to ring, not just yours, but everybody's.
You answer your line and listen intently at the stern
voice on the other end. You gasp, No, it seems
(34:19):
your bank has been the victim of a cyber attack.
International payments went to banks in Britain, the Czech Republic,
the United States, and Hong Kong, but there were discrepancies.
The money went out, but there wasn't enough money in
there in the first place to send it is chaos
in the office, phones ring, fax machines, were papers, fly, keyboards, black.
(34:39):
Eleven payments totaling thirteen million euros went out, and now
the bank is trying to get it all back. You
watch helplessly as the Bank of Valletta suspends its operations
and closes branches all over Malta, closes ATMs all over
the world. It shuts down its website, sending customers and
other countries into a panic because they can't use their
(35:00):
predator ATM cards. The funds would eventually be charged back
and everything would be fixed, except for your suede shoes. Shoes,
no fix in those. So the FBI and the US
Attorney's Office they got seizure warrants authorizing the FBI to
seize cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers from a victim
in the indictment of financial services company in New York
(35:22):
held it to cryptocurrency exchanges. The seizures included cryptocurrencies in
amounts that like came up to about one point nine
million dollars, which would be returned to the victim. So
John Kim and Park they were all charged with one
count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse and
that carried a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison,
(35:42):
and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and
bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of thirty years
in prison.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
They're being all this is taking place in absentia. They're
still in North Korea.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, okay, so the charges don't stop there. July twenty ninth,
twenty twenty one, a boss aka Hushpuppy with an I,
admit being involved in a conspiracy to defraud a Katari
businessman of more than a million dollars. He admitted to
money laundering quote through bank accounts around the world that
included several other cyber and business email compromise schemes that
(36:13):
cumulatively caused more than twenty four million dollars in losses.
So that was in a released statement. A boss pleaded
guilty to the charges. April twentieth, twenty twenty one. For
twenty bro a boss identified a Deputy Commissioner of Police
in Nigeria, Abbi Kiari, as an accomplice in his one
million dollar Katari scam deal. The next day, the FBI
(36:35):
arrested Kiari, who was further implicated after a conversation that
took place between him and a boss was released. So
what's the Katari scam? A boss and the other defendants
faked financing a school by posing as bank officials, and
they made a fake website in order to convince this
Katari businessman to relinquish the requested funds. And according to Wilkinson,
(36:56):
the scammers also quote bribe to foreign official to keep
the elaborate pretois it's going after the victim was tipped off.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Wow. Yeah, So one thing I'm noticing is that they
go for a lot of like high dollar targets.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
So obviously you know institutions and stuff that have the money,
banks and so forth, but also individuals. And from what
I understand, at least, what Hollywood makes people believe is
that if you go after enough of them, they'll hire
a hitman from one of the various hitman agencies that
are out there for the ultra rich, and then they
would just take these people down with like former military people.
Apparently Hollywood has been misleading me. I think how easy
(37:32):
it is for these rich people to hire one of
these ultra elite assassins to take out somebody who's taken
a million dollars from them.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Well, I think so. Well these scammers they got one
point one million from the Katar, I know.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
But I'm saying, but none of them are hiring the No.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
No, he just sat there and cried while they turned around.
And they used that money to quote purchase of Richard
Neil r M eleven three watch, which was hand delivered
to a boss in Dubai and subsequently appeared in Hushpuppies.
Social media hosts ah busted by the ground watches. Yeah,
always so. Official documents said that a boss also used
(38:08):
some of the money to allegedly obtain quote Saint Christopher
and Nevis citizenship, as well as a passport for a boss,
obtained by creating a false marriage certificate and then bribing
a government official in Saint Kitts.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Are there like any legitimate citizens of Nevis and the
Saint Kits or Antigua or any of those. Feels sure
there are. I'm sure there's a lot of local but
I mean the people who want to go becose incomers,
That's what I mean. Like where it's like, Hey, a
recent citizen who's like oh yeah, Oh that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
They're all shady and and I won't apologize for that
broad statement. So a boss, though, hush puppy. He had
his defenders, hushpuppy loyalists. A Lagos driver described him as
quote generous, further saying he used to buy beer for
everyone around. Well, then hey, I'm.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Sorry, let him go. I take it back, man, that
generous he bought beer for everyone around.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
They get too and moms to write a letter for
him appealing for leniency, saying that he helped out widows
and orphans on a regular basis and that he made
donations to food programs.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Look, if you're buying beer for widows and orphans, I don't.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Care who you're doing the lord's work. So oh well,
too bad, So sad A boss get sentenced to eleven
years in prison, and he was ordered to pay one
point seven million in restitution to two different fraud victims.
Yeah so, September ninth, twenty twenty, you must have seized
I think so. He hand wrote a three page letter
to the judge telling him all about his two years
(39:32):
in detention. Like he did two years, He writes this letter,
rible and our researcher Andrea wanted it noted that he
has really cool handwriting, so in the letter he wrote
good note, he wrote quote, since I have been incarcerated,
I have had enough time to reflect on the past,
and I regret letting greed ruin the good name of
my family, my blessing, and my name, your honor. I
(39:54):
make no excuse for my actions, and I take full
responsibility for what I've done. If I could turn back
the ha end of time, I would make an entirely
different decision and be more careful in the choices and
friends I make.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
If I could turn back time like he.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Wasn't just apologizing in this three page letter, that was good.
Do it again.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I can't. I don't know how I did that.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Do you give it like I'll do it like it's
a car commercial, all right? Give it to me a
little bit, put a little more emphasis, more moove.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
If I could turn back time.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
That's great, that's great. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Takes a job.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
You totally got your hired. So this letter, it also
explained in detail how his co conspirators would reach out
to him to decide which business to scam, or to
request bank information to transfer illegally obtain funds. So he's
already busted, but he's like, you know what, I gotta
tell you more.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
You guys asked the right questions.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
So hush Puppy's life is like something out of Hollywood,
not just the Instagram glamour of it, but the criming.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
But yeah, so you know.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
What that means. The cameras came calling. There are documentaries
about Hush Puppy from both Bloomberg and BBC Africa, and
Curtis James Jackson the Third aka fifty Cent, has entered
the chat. He announced on Instagram in November of twenty
two that he intends to shoot a series about the
life of a boss.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Wow, like, are one of the power series?
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I guess so instead of getting Richard Die trying, Hushpuppy
got rich and then tried lying, Hey, do you know
how much Hushpuppy with and I made off the various
scams and cyber attacks that like what was his take home?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Well, I don't understand the question. Do you mean how
much he pulled or how much was in his house?
Speaker 3 (41:33):
How much of like his NOTT was even in his house,
because some of that had to be But like how
much did he spent of all the stuff that he
how much did he get to spend four million dollars?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I was gonna say twenty four million dollars? Nice?
Speaker 3 (41:46):
What is your ridiculous takeaways? Aaron? Thank you for asking that.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You just totally believe I said twenty four million dollars
right after you did, and you thought I said that.
I didn't think that at all. Now my ridiculous takeaway
is I can't believe that the found under of Hush
Puppy we go and do all this stuff. I mean,
like Sara, you brought us these wonderful shoes. Your families
can be so disappointed. I mean, a soft soled shoeman
should not be involved in these types of crime.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Can.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
In all honesty, I can't believe is how prolifically successful
these people are doing like stuff that, Like, in all honesty,
I wish I understood better because I'm like, you know,
I hear this stuff, and I have a lot of
friends who are like really high level, like like hacker types,
and they start saying stuff and I'm just like in
my head, it's like is that spelled with a pH
or with an F? Like that's what I'm doing. I'm like, honestly,
(42:36):
I'll be real about it.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
I just am in the constant panic that I'm going
to accidentally click on something. Thanks for asking that.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
I think I'm pretty savvy, but I don't know. They
get more and more clever.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Oh I don't click on anything. Yeah, no, I've been
like that for seven years now. Like I i'd be
also about all the hacker friends taught me. So, like
my passwords are like twenty one letters long, because like
twelve letters were whatever was the number that I needed
to get better.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
I have like hyphens and all sorts.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
I have all that stuff, but it's all super long
and all the stuff that they have me doing, they're
basically like the one person showed me this. This is
when I say, seven years ago, like fifteen years ago,
I watched someone take over someone else's computer from the distance,
and they had no idea that they could do it,
and they just they're like, oh, I'll take over your computer,
and so they'd send some email while the person's talking,
they're clicking through their emails, and I guess that was
(43:25):
what allowed them to get in. And I couldn't believe it.
I was way back in the day. I know. Now
it's got to be like, oh, you looked at your
phone and I can see your eye and that allowed
me to use facial recognition on an app I have.
And now I've given all your money.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Well, so my feeling is like, fine, take whatever I have.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yeah, I just make sure you don't have anything. I
put in lots of different accounts that it's all over
the place. I'm like, look, take from this one, just
leave me the other one. That's that's my pork chop money.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
That's all I have for today. You can find us
online at ridiculous crime dot com. We're also at ridiculous
Crime on tw or on Instagram. Email us at ridiculous
Crime at gmail dot com, leave us a talkback on
the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Elizabeth Duttman's Aaren Burnette, produced and edited by Dave I
(44:15):
met Pimento Cheese with a Z on Instagram. Kusten Research
is by Marissa Chicken and Dumplins Brown and Andrea Hopin
John Song Sharpened Hear the theme song is by Thomas
Tamato pie Lee and Travis sweet Potato. Dutton post Wardrobe
is provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben
Redbeans Bowin and Noel Rice Brown.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
If I can turn back times Crime, say it one
more times
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more
podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Burnett, Elizabeth Clyde Dutton.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
You know it's ridiculous. I do okay, hit me.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Jerry Orbach go on, Yes, rip to the man, the myth,
the legend.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Love him.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I know you love him. So I found this fun
fact out. I wanted to lay it on you. You know,
he was a Broadway actor right before he was on
Law and Order. Yes, okay, and so do you ever
hear that he was? He played kid Sally Palombo and
the play The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight? No, it
was nineteen seventy one. It was interesting because the role
was based on a real gangster named Joseph Crazy Joey Gallo. Hm, No,
(00:39):
Joseph Crazy Joey gallow was actually a friend of Jerry Orbo's. Really,
oh yeah, like Jerry Orbach's like, it's interesting that he
plays a cop because he was friends with this mobster.
But not only was he friends with him, he was
so tight with this guy. They were out together on
the night that Joey Gallo was whacked in nineteen seventy two.
Oh no, And not only that, but when asked about it,
(01:01):
Jerry Arbuck refused to cooperate with the police and give
them any eyewitness details or anything helpful.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well, because he wants to live too.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Not only that, when asked about it, when the all
of the risks to his safety were gone, the statute
of limitations are gone, all the mobsters are dead and gone,
he took this secret to his grave. Wow. So apparently
he was tight with a real live mobster, crazy Joey,
(01:29):
and he held his secrets to his deathbed.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I love that. That is ridiculous, right. Do you want
to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'm here for it, doing it all for the gram
and then losing it all because of the Grams. This
(02:02):
is ridiculous crime. A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Damn right you are, Saren, Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I have for you an artist. Really No, I'm not
doing another art crime. Thank you for asking. You're welcome. No,
this is a con artist.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Ah, my kind of artist, raisin.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Con artists who's part of a much larger net of
con artists and criminals. I'm talking about Internet scammers. Oh yeah,
there's a lot of scamming on the Internet.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
No, I've heard this. Yeah, I mean I've never come
across it personally, but I've heard.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That it's perfect for scamming. Yes, because you got the anonymity,
the distance involved, the levels of experience and comfort online.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yes, some people know and some people do not know.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Right, And if you have savvy criminals and naive newly
digital folks, yes, yeah, got crime.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It'd be like if you're on the freeway and you
could just put a stick out and take something for
someone's car, exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And like, you know all about the Nigerian prince scams.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I'm familiar, man, Yes, you're familiar of them. So
I fell victory of that scam twice. Why are you
bringing this up?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I didn't want to hash up.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I should have given you nobody scams there, and I
try to play it off and act like I've heard
of them. Elizabeth. Then you're like Nigerian print scams.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm like, yeah, okay, you know how terrible my memory is.
I think one of us probably you talked about the
Nigerian romance scammers.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I've brought it up, I think during the year
the year.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And yeah, so anyway, these are common, Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Very common, in fact, so much so that they become
a trope.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yes. And then in what I want to tell you
about today, there's a nice influencer overlap as well.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh I love this.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I know you know. I can't stand influencers.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yes, I know this.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I refuse to be influenced is basically what it comes
down to. I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
See you are stubborn and charlish and you were refused
to listen.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
No, I don't want to see when prants are around then,
like pricey vacation spots with their rump hanging out fuzzy.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's not for me a pricey vacation spot.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
No, I don't want to do any part of that.
I don't want to see him. Like carrying a sh
an l bag mid skip in front of a posh
London townhouse.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You just want to see the small animal that's inside
the bag.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yes, I want to liberate the small animal. Everything is
always in that like oversaturated tone in these pictures. When
I see the Instagram photos like that, all I can
think of is what it looked like when they were
trying to get that shot. Oh yeah, it's kind of
like how when I hear a jingle on the radio
or TV, Like if I watch TV, all I can
do is imagine someone in the studio recording it, like
(04:26):
grab your keys, come on, let's go. Yeah that's great, Steve,
but can we take that again?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And he notes, Yeah, give me a little more of
the growl on the grab make it come alive. Get
some I want to feel the burn of gunning a
Toyota Corolla on the open highway. You got it, grab keys?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I did.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
That's see, that's it. We got it. So anyway back
to influence.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The news people, we got it.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
The multiple takes. Seriously, if you ever want, like listen
to the radio, all I can think of is someone
sitting in a studio.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I want baby, you've seen that, right, they showed the
recording of that. People that are like, we to see
the buddy.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
But so when you have the influencers online with the pictures,
they have the multiple takes, like you got like the
beleaguered friend or assistant trying to direct them.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay, I've got a friend who is basically this an
Instagram influencer and I'm not gonna name names, and hopefully
they won't figure out who I'm talking about, but I'll
take the chance. And I've had to take photos for
them in public places, and the thing that they do
that always kills me is that we'll be sitting They're like, oh,
I guess you could take this photo, and I'm like,
I know you're disappointed that I'm the one taking this photo,
so let's see if we can do this. I'll take
like nine or twelve. I know none of them are
(05:29):
gonna be good. Maybe you'll get one you like. So
I'm trying to lean into the thing that you hate.
I'm willing to give it a go. But then they
throw me off because they will fake a moment. I'm like, no,
just like, just be, I'll take photos of you being Yeah.
They're like no, no, here ready, and then the lact
like they're talking to someone off screen, like Nathan Fielder,
and I'm like, what the hell is this? Like, just be,
I could do a candid shot, but no, they're like, no,
(05:50):
I'm going to do fake candid here. I think this
is my good angle.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
See the fake laugh and there's no one. Yeah. I
like when the little skinny gals pose with some like
crazy in coction that's like cake and syrups and ice
cream and like somehow coffee and sprinkles and candy bars,
and it's in that appealing color palette and it's like
nine thousand calories and then they look like they're about
to take a big bite, but in reality they just
take the picture and then throw it in the trash.
(06:14):
Even though it costs like thirty five bucks, it probably
tastes like sugar.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't even give it to like a teenage route sime.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
No, they just jump in and keep moving. Yeah, So
there's like the multiple attempts to get a shot of
someone jumping in the surf, oh abandoned tropical paradise, trying
not to look like a drowned rat. There's also like
the guys in the ill fitting suits, Like what's up
with like the clam digger suits, Like that's what, like
you hulked out and grew out of a suit?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, that is a bad American attempt to do the
European suit right, but.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It's always like to tight across.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You've noticed that their suits ride high on the ankle bone,
So we're like, okay, everything needs to ride high, the leaves,
the collar.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You know, it is really bad about that and who
I really want to eventually do an episode on. It's
probably gonna be like a year or two. Tell me
George Santo's Oh yeah, like he's got like this. He
thinks skinny jeans or suit slacks, Like, yeah, don't do that.
I'm going on record.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know who also used to do this, John Wayne.
He was known for making Edith head and whatever other
designers put his clothing a little bit smaller than it
would be appropriate for man his size because it made
him look bigger. I'm just hulking out, erupting. Also, he
rode smaller horses, so he looked bigger than other people
on a horse.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Did not know that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Oh yeah, oh god, there's a history.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
So here we are. I promise you I'm getting somewhere
with it. Let's talk about Ray. Hushpuppy.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
What the hell? Ray?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
That's a hushpuppy with an eye.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
By the way, do not tell me the hushpuppy is
a name of it. It's not like Ray. Oh, we
took a word and we said hush.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
No, no, Ray, and then hushpuppy all one word. But yeah,
why is not there? It's an eye?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
He did not found the shoe company Hushpuppies.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
No he did not.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
He was born God, I was going to lose my
mind if he's founded Hush Puppies.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
No, he was born Raymond A Boss in nineteen eighty
two in Nigeria, ok And he was known as a
Yahoo boy. Oh. And that's the Nigerian term for men
who commit those romance scams by stealing identities and then
they swindle their none the wiser lovers.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So his street name in the online world was hushpupp.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Is Ray Hushpuppy Okay, and then he just went by Hushpuppy.
And so there have a name for this, the Yahoo
boys who knew apparently people people knew so a boss.
Of course, he had an Instagram account. In the bio,
he said he was a real estate developer. I mean,
aren't we all. Aren't we all just developing the real
estate of our hopes and dreams, our futures and vibes.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I'm just really trying to dress up the curb appeal
of my future.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So he was all about that influencer life, like once
he'd fleeced the lovelorn. Sure, so his account was full
of shots of him living the good life. He's hanging
out with Nigerian sports stars and celebrities. Did you know
there's a BBC news pigeon. What Yeah, what.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Are you saying to me right now?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
P I D G I N oh yeah, okay, I.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Wish you would hit that d a little harder.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
It's the online news service of West Africa. Yes, I'm familiar,
phenomenal like I didn't know this and so it's all
written in that and then anyway, so hush puppy, hush
puppy with an eye. His Instagram isn't up anymore.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
By the way, Oh all right, well yeah, usually when
there's criminal activity.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah so but when it was, yes, you'd catch him
striking poses in front of or inside jets.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh yes, a lot of private jets.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
A lot of private jets. That's a very popular influencer.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
You know they rent them out for photos.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh they do.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah. In La you can go down to the airport
like Burbank Airport and you can take a photo inside
a for like fifty bucks.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
See that's all I'm imagining now is anytime I see
a picture like that, I'm gonna imagine someone like going
and sitting and then posing and.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Okay, Now do you remember when people would want to
get like rent a limo to go to like a prom.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Right, And so some comedian I remember said it. They're like, oh,
you rented a limo. I have one hundred dollars too, Right,
that's all I ever seen. When I see a photos
of lyric jets, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, don't get it. I don't get it. So like
or like he'd be all mid stride into a helicopter
and he do like the whole cupcake hands you know
that is.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
No you put your hands down face word or.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, it's a it's a child pageant thing. He didn't
do that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Wait is it really?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
It's called cupcake hands for children. Yeah, when the like
kittie pageant girls, they put their hands like parallel to
the floor, their arms straight down, hands parallel.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Cupcake like, so you have a cupcake you can't touch,
Like this is a cupcake that's forbidden.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
But the flat that's weird.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, I don't know, but it's called cupcake Hans and
I said it, and then it's not in this okay,
but whatever. So he's posing in front of fancy cars
like Ferrari's Bentley's, McLaren's, Yeah, Boattis Rolls, Royce Maybax. He
bragged about shopping at Versace, Gucci, Gucci, Louis Louis Fendy, Fendi, Prada.
It's a great song, wasn't it. He always used the
(10:40):
hashtag hashtag allmine, oh God when flaunting the luxury goods.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So all lies, all all lies.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And so he'd be dashing off from his waterfront apartment
at the ritzy Palazzo versace in Dubai.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Palazzo at this point is just always a BS word.
Do you see palazzo? Do just know that you're paying
to see that word.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
This place is the tackiest of the Takia Palazzo versace. Yes,
Like I would recount the whole John Mulaney thing about
what a hobo imagines a rich person to be, not
the whole horse in the hospital thing, but I won't.
And it's that. So one time on Instagram he posted
a video where he tossed around rolls of cash like confetti.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Rolls, like like bankrolls.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, you know, y'all on the Graham holding money to
your ear, there's a disconnect. We don't call that money
over here.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
How to quote the great Sean Carter, it's still the
coldest insult.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
That use it, Like, we don't call that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Money over here. So a boss aka hushpuppy, hush puppy
with an eye. His Instagram account had two point four
million followers, kind of like.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Me, yeah, I'm sure you bought some though.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, we don't call those numbers over I'm running a
dozens baby. So let me give you a sample of
an Instagram caption on his account.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh I was. I was afraid I would have to ask.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
It's so like chat GPT give me a really obnoxious
Instagram yes. Quote started out my day having sushi down
at Nobu in Monte Carlo, Monaco, then decided to book
a helicopter to have facials at the Christian Diorspa in Paris.
Then ended my day having champagne in Gucci.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
See I think a caption like this but you don't
recognize is is it's kind of actually like a like
a BS filter where he's saying like, if you are
moved by this, you're a perfect mark. Oh clear, not
I don't want any business with you because you'll be
on my stuff and I don't need that. I need
people who were dumb and they go, oh, really, you're
a nobel.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And he didn't limit himself to Instagram. He was on Snapchat.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Already, was on everything with a little weird emoji exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So over on Snapchat he called himself billionaire Gucci Master.
The man loves the gucc Of.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Course he's got good taste. I mean, I can't fallo
that Gucci's I like Gucci, well for men's stuff. I
don't know what it does for women's stuff, but for men' stuff,
Gucci's al right.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So keep in mind, though, paying for this are women
who think that they're in a serious relationship with a
misunderstood guy who's just trying to get himself on his feet,
like only if he had a little money to fund
his startup or whatever. So all of this lifestyle is
funded by these lonely hearts. Yes, he had all these posts,
and that was great for the clout or what have you,
(13:18):
but it was also great for the authorities. Yeah, it
was a receipt bank totally. So his posts and the
records from his phone created a robust digital trail of
evidence that allowed investigators to link him to many, many,
many crimes.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
He had literally filmed his crimes completely.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So, for example, a birthday post that showed off a
cake with the Fendi logo on it, as well as
a miniature of him surrounded by shopping bags, helped investigators
figure out his true date of birth on a previously
made visa application.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Right like one of those little like plastic grooms on
top of a wedding and then shopping plastic bag total.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And you know how like Instagram lets you log in
with either your email, your phone numb. Well, the FEDS
came calling and meta handed those over. Oh yeah, yeah,
so federal officials they linked that information to transfers and
financial transactions with co conspirators. Oh wow, huge dollar values.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
So, in June of twenty twenty, thirty seven year old
boss got pinched in the United Arab Emirates by law
enforcement officials. Is home was rated by local police?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Oh? Is he only like an Interpol red list?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yes? So authorities seized thirteen luxury cars worth six point
eight million dollars forty one million in cash in cash,
this is twenty twenty. I don't have to do a conversion.
There's forty one billion dollars in cash. Phones, computers. They
all had materials on them with more than one hundred
thousand fraud files and the addresses of almost two million
(14:46):
possible victims. Yeah, that means it's a wide net two million.
The two million is like if he had scammed all
of Slovenia.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Well, yeah, dude, that's just his It's like a leads list.
It's not really wod and contacted these people.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You feel like one man couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, that's your industrial scale to that. This is like
always be closing, right.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So he was extradited to the US on July second,
twenty twenty, and after he got arrested, his Instagram account
gained five hundred thousand more followers, gained gained, he got
more followers. He didn't see it coming. Just two weeks
before his arrest, he posted on Instagram, thank you Lord
for the many blessings in my life. Continue to shame
(15:26):
those waiting for me to be shamed. Well, the weight
is over.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So I like the idea that God's super petty is
a fan of the petty and keeping score. I get on.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Boss and God's like watch this, so Gal Pozzetsky is
a Hushpuppi's attorney sure hushpuppy with an eye, refused to
share how his client earns a living good. He told
CNN that a boss makes money. How he makes his
money is going to be quote one of the main
points of contention here, Yes, it will be. And he
the attorney said that the arrest was actually kidnapping.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Daha, he was kidnapped by the authority because he.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Said that Dubai handed a boss over to the US
with no legal proceedings.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Get you a new lawyer sign Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
So, since social media the fatal talksin of our time
is sitting front row center here, let's take a look
at the Dubai Police Facebook page because that's where we
get news now. Apparently, so they stated on Facebook that
they arrested eleven other people during the raids. Wasn't just him,
Dubai police had a whole operation going on working with
the US called Operation fox Hunt two. Not sure what
(16:32):
happened in one, but Operation fox Hunt two. So a
boss when he was arrested, there was another man arrested
to this Nigerian guy by the name of Lalako Jacob
Pondle aka Woodberry Woodberry Woodberry. So according to prosecutors. A
boss quote funded his luxurious lifestyle by laundering illicit proceeds
(16:55):
generated by con artists who use increasingly sophisticated means.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know, hush up Woodberry and their coconspirat or corn
bread were often known to that's corn.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Bread with a qu puppy with an eye. It was
just the visible tip of the iceberg. Let's take a break,
we'll do it for the gram. We come back, I'll
let you know what's under the water on this iceberg. Welcome, hey, Zarin.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
The Dubai police, Elizabeth, do you know about their supercar collection?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Is that not ridiculous? They have, like you name a supercar.
They have one and they race it in the desert
because they have to catch people who drive supercar.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And they have this guy and they have the supercar graveyards,
right have all the people who just like go belly
up or whatever?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Oh yeah, definitely, they wrote They ruin their McLarens and
whatnots and Ferrari and.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yes, amazing. Oh wealth. So when we left off Ramon,
a boss known as Hushpuppy, hush puppy with an eye.
He'd been arrested in the UAE the same month he
was busted, a criminal complaint was filed alleging that he
worked with a co conspirator to launder funds from a
fourteen point seven million dollar heist of a foreign financial
(18:20):
institution in twenty nineteen. We'll hear more about that later, okay.
He sent his co conspirator the account details for a
Romanian bank account and said it could be used for quote,
large amounts. He set up bank accounts in Dubai as
a repository for all the dough that they'd stolen from
US victims.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
And On July third, twenty twenty, he appeared in federal
court in Chicago, Illinois, accused of conspiring to launder hundreds
of millions of dollars via schemes involving cybercrime.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's just about to say, it sounds like he's the
money man for all these things, more so than anybody.
That's why they had the crazy numbers. Could you send
forty one million? I'm like, that cannot be just his.
That has to be like a group, and that has
to be their their vault.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Well, because that's the thing is that prosecutors are like,
he's not just the bilker of lonelys. He's the banker
Gucci and Sip and Dom. He was one of the
leaders of a global network using what are called computer intrusions.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
But also he's like the stringer bell, he's the money
person of this criminal.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
No you'll see. So he's part of this you know
group doing the computer intrusions, sure, or hackings as we say,
on the street and buy on the streets, I mean
my driveway. There was money laundering business email compromise schemes
of BECs to steal hundreds of millions of dollars. Elizabeth,
what are b ecs? Thanks for asking? Gang. BC schemes
(19:39):
involved business email communications being re routed to intercept wire transfers.
So all the cars and clothes and jets and jewelry
and posh apartments were funded by these hacking schemes that
ripped off millions of dollars from major US and European companies.
That's where the big money was coming from, not the
just like chumps.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
You know, nous I didn't think that the money was
coming from the romance jumps. But I was thinking that
he is the banker for those big money moves, and
that he's also the clearing house for the smaller money
moves kind of yeah, if you have forty one million dollars, yeah, guessing.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, it ain't just all you are. Yeah, So, US
attorney Nick Hannas said, quote, BC schemes are one of
the most difficult cyber crimes we encounter, as they typically
involve a coordinated group of con artists scattered around the
world who have experience with computer hacking and exploiting the
international financial system. So in twenty nineteen, Paul Delacort of
the FBI said that they recorded one point seven billion
(20:35):
in losses by companies and individuals who are victims of
BC scams. Dude, so all together, now, d it's a
lot of point seven billion. That's a huge This is
where all the.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Big stuff is, like, I mean the denial, like when
they go out and they do the ransom attacks that
you don't know how many billions are getting on those
ransoms exactly, like do you want your stuff back? It's
not just counties and hospitals. They're doing it to everybody.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
They came exactly, so a boss. He also got accused
of conspiring to be part of a scheme to steal
one hundred and twenty four million dollars from an English
Premier League soccer club Sadly, the complaint didn't say which
team was the target.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It also didn't say whether or not the theft attempt
was successful, So maybe maybe not.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
But it's one of the man's.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I'm kind of hoping it was Newcastle, I really yeah,
but and I really liked the name Crystal Palace, so
I hope it wasn't them anyway. According to a federal affidavit,
a client of a New York based law firm is
one of the victims, and the client lost nearly a
million dollars. In twenty nineteen, the FBI said that a boss,
hushpuppy with an eye and others tricked a paralegal at
(21:37):
the firm into wiring money meant for a real estate
refinance to an account a boss and his co conspirators
were using, so they sent fraudulent wire instructions to this
paralegal in an email that appeared to be coming from
a legitimate bank. It was, however, what we in the
BIS call spoofed a boss. He sent his co conspirator
an image of the wire transfer confirmation for the transaction
(21:59):
that was made. US attorney Nick Canna said, quote, this
case targets a key player in a large transnational conspiracy
who is living an opulent lifestyle in another country while
allegedly providing safe havens for stolen money around the world.
As this case demonstrates, my office will continue to hold
such criminals accountable no matter where they live. See this
is exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Here's the bank.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah. US attorney Martin Estrada said, quote, money laundering and
business email compromise scams are a massive international crime problem,
and we will continue to work with our law enforcement
and international partners to identify and prosecute those involved wherever
they may be.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I'm kind of surprised that these guys got caught.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Well. Instagram, so hush puppy. He faced up to twenty
years for these crimes. November of twenty twenty, one of
his co conspirators, Galeb Alomari of Ontario, Canada, he agreed
to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit
money laundering in two cases, one of which was filed
in La he caught to it. He admitted to being
a high level money launderer for multiple criminal enterprises and
(23:00):
included ATM cash out operations? Elizabeth, what are ATMs?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Elizabeth? I got a question for you. What's an ATM
cash out operation?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Thanks for asking, late Senator Ted Stevens. In the Great
State of Alaska. An ATM cash out operation is an
elaborate and choreographed dance routine involving the music of Lou Bega,
specifically the song Mambo number five Get out Now I'm kidding.
An ATM cash out is an elaborate and choreographed attack
where criminals crack into bank or card processing centers and
(23:32):
then mess with fraud detection controls and alter customer accounts.
So this makes it so there are no withdrawal limits
on a bunch of ATMs in a short period of time.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's fun.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, So al Mauri he organized recruits to withdraw stolen
cash from ATMs by providing bank accounts that had received
funds from fraud schemes and cyber heist and once the
funds were in the accounts controlled by Alomari, he would
further launder the money through wire transfers, cash withdrawals, and
exchanging the money for cryptocurrency crypto.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That was going to come in.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You knew it was bound up up sooner or later.
So the funds laundered included those that came out of
crimes committed in North Korea. Wow, yeah, which crime?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Which crimes? Elizabeth in North Korea?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
For example, we'll have crimes in North Korea. There was
a twenty eighteen ATM cash out theft from Bankislami in Pakistan.
He also conspired with others to send spoofed emails to
a Canadian university in twenty seventeen, and the emails looked
like they were sent from a construction company trying to
get paid for a building project. So the university wired
(24:37):
eleven point eight million Canadian dollars that's nine point four
million US sure to a bank account controlled by Alu
Mariri and his co conspirators, thinking that they were paying
the construction company. That wow, you wire eleven point eight
million Canadian.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Well yeah, I mean this is the thing I was thinking,
is that we are shocked by it. But not on
their budget. I mean they're budgets billions of dollars, so
eree million dollars is not that much of their budget.
So I bet didn't even have that much oversight. I
bet it was like one or two people who handled that.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, he was also accused of having co conspirators in
the US make multiple trips to Texas to impersonate wealthy
bank customers. All how did partners.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Had on with a thick Nigeria? Actually they had all.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
These stolen identities. September eighth, twenty twenty one is part
of his sentence that covers both cases. Alamari was sentenced
to eleven years and ordered to pay thirty million dollars
in restitution. So let's wind it back a little. That's
twenty September twenty twenty one. Le's go back to February seventeenth,
twenty twenty one and go back to the North Koreans. So,
three North Korean computer programmers were charged for participation in
(25:40):
a huge criminal conspiracy to pull off cyber attacks and
steal and extort more than one point three billion with
a b in cash and crypto. So they then made
and carried out a bunch of malicious cryptocurrency applications and
it was all a part of a scheme to develop
and fraudulently market a blockchain platform. Really, yeah, Acting US
(26:00):
Attorney Tracy Wilkinson said, quote, the scope of the criminal
conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long running,
and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering.
The conduct detailed in the indictment are the acts of
a criminal nation state that has stopped at nothing to
extract revenge and obtain money to prop up its regime.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I saw recently the bitcoin is once again trending, like
it's the prices going back up, and I was like,
how do they get enough fools to back together? Like,
how do they get the band back together to get
the price they're all excited again. I was like, whoa.
I mean, I understand what North Korea. North Korea looks
at this and they're like, oh, yes, let's just run
shop on these capitalists. But how can you continue this?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I don't know clearly. Let me tell you, let me
tell you more about what you know. Law enforcement in
the US had to say, sure so. Assistant Attorney General
Don Demmers of the Justice Department's National Security Division said
he chimed in on this all quote. As laid out
in today's indictment, North Korea is opered using keyboards rather
than masks and guns. Are the world's leading twenty first
century nation state bank robbers. The Department will continue to
(27:07):
confront malicious nation state cyberactivity with our unique tools and
work with our fellow agencies and the family of norms
abiding nations to do the same. What the Assistant Director
in charge of the FBI's LA Field Office don all
I have to say about this there, And I'm sure
you were wondering what you said? He said, A boss
leveraged his social media platforms to gain notoriety and to
(27:28):
brag about the immense wealth he acquired by conducting business,
email compromise scams, online bank heis and other cyber enabled
fraud that financially ruined scores of victims and provided assistance
to the North Korean regime. So they all start all
tying it together. They alleged that John Chang Chok, Kim Ill,
and Park Jinchok were members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau RGB,
(27:51):
a military intelligence agency of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea North Korea Sure Army. Their government hackers with a
z SO North Korean military hacking units. They go by
a grip of names.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
What are some of these names?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Elizabeth Lazarus Group Advanced Persistent Threat thirty eight WOW APT
thirty eight Okay, yeah, whatever, So it was alleged that
these groups engaged in a single conspiracy to steal data
and money, cause damage, you know, otherwise further the strategic
and financial interests of the North Korean government and its leader.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, carrying down the capitalist pigs, which pretty straightforward.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
The indictment described all of the criminal cyber activities undertaken
by the conspiracy, both in the US and abroad, that
were conducted either for revenge or financial gain. Okay, do
you want to hear them all?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Sure? On me?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
You totally.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You got to look at me. I'm the kind of guy.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
The cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Twenty fourteen, we need to cover that.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
In retaliation for the Interview the Seth Rogan James Franco
movie about journalists who set up an interview with North
Korean leader Kim Jong un, only to be recruited by
the CIA to assassinate him. Plus, on top of that,
the December twenty fourteenth iber attack on AMC theaters which
had scheduled to screen the film.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yes, oh yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Then we go the twenty fifteen intrusion of Mammoth Screen,
which was producing a fictional series about a British nuclear
scientist taken prisoner in North Korea.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You know that the North Koreans have a very special
place for American cinema, so to be to have it
turn on them and say, oh, we're going to have
these two bozos kill the premiere of North Korea. Yeah,
and when he's like, my father taught me to love
and respect film, how dare he is a betraying I'm
going to bring you to your knees. I get it.
I can see you like, why start with that hornet's mess?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
So twenty fifteen through twenty nineteen, they made attempts to
steal over one point two billion from banks in Africa, Bangladesh, Malta, Mexico, Taiwan,
and Vietnam by hacking the bank's computer networks and sending
fraudulent Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications swift messages.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
They did the cash out scams, the ATM cash out scams,
the government was calling them fast cash was in October
of twenty eighteen six point one million from Bank Islami
and Pakistan as I said. They created want to cry
two point zero ransomware. Oh that was them in May
of twenty seventeen, which is the also the extortion and
(30:14):
attempted extortion of victim companies from twenty seventeen through twenty
twenty because they were using it to steal sensitive data
and ipoy other ransomware that was a nuts one. They
developed several malicious cryptocurrency applications from March of twenty eighteen
through at least September of twenty twenty. These included sell
us Trade, pro World, bitbot I Crypto, fx Union Crypto Trader,
(30:37):
Coupe Wallet, Coino Trade, Drusio Crypto, Neurotrader, and ants two
whale and that gave North Korean hackers a backdoor into
victims computers. So rude, dudes, if you have any of those,
you're screwed.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
So wait, they didn't just like take the people's money.
They just wanted to get into their computer.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Okay, so if it is free, you are the product
completely completely.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
So they tre targeted hundreds of cryptocurrency companies and the
theft of tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto,
including seventy five million from a Slovenian cryptocurrency company in
December of twenty seventeen, twenty four point nine from an
Indonesian crypto company in September of twenty eighteen, eleven point
eight million from a financial services company in New York
(31:20):
in August of twenty twenty, in which the hackers used
crypto Neurotrader application as a backdoor. So the quantities are insane.
Do you know what spearfishing is? Fishing with a pH?
Just like hushpuppy with an eye?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yes, but please tell me, Elizabeth, what is spearfishing with
a pH?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Thank you for asking. It's a type of phishing campaign
pH fishing that targets a specific person or group and
includes information known to be of interest to the target,
such as current events or financial documents. So the North
Koreans pulled off a ton of these from March of
twenty sixteen through February twenty twenty that targeted employees of
the US Cleared Defense Contractors, energy company, these aerospace companies,
(32:01):
technology companies, US Department of State, Department of Defense. They
did with like Kim Kardashian updates, Oh yeah, totally, they
like want to see the video click here?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Then we never believe this dress.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Then there was the development and marketing in twenty seventeen
and twenty eighteen of the Marine chain token to enable
investors to purchase fractional ownership interests in marine shipping vessels
what supported by a blockchain, which would allow North Korea
to obtain funds from investors, secretly control interests in marine
shipping vessels and evade US sanctions. Wow, right, there's quite
(32:35):
a list.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Where there's a will, there's a North Korea.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
I'm gonna let you digest that listes. Let's take a break.
When we come back, we'll check back in with our
main attraction. Hushpuppy. That's hushpuppy with an eye, Zaren Elizabeth,
(33:07):
close your eyes.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Wow, you just came right at me with it.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I know, no warm up. I want you to picture it. Yes,
it's February of twenty nineteen, and you are a vice
president at the Maltese Bank of Valletta, in where else Malta.
Things just haven't gone well for you. Today. You slept
through your alarm and you had to race out the door,
only to find that the neighbor's dog had tipped over
your garbage can and strewn your trash all over the block.
(33:33):
No time for that you'll take care of it when
you get home. You stop at the cafe next to
the bank and are almost hit by a bike as
you enter at the shop. As you walk out, cappuccino
in hand, another bike almost hits you, and you spill
your drink all over your new swedge shoes. You head
into the bank's enormous headquarters, hoping for a calm day
to counter your terrible morning. All is quiet, and you
cross the large lobby and head for the elevators. You
(33:55):
get to your desk and your assistant is already there,
clicking through the reconciliations of international transactions that went through overnight.
There's a pause as he stops to check something on
the screen. He sighs loudly and keeps clicking. Just then
the phones begin to ring, not just yours, but everybody's.
You answer your line and listen intently at the stern
voice on the other end. You gasp, No, it seems
(34:19):
your bank has been the victim of a cyber attack.
International payments went to banks in Britain, the Czech Republic,
the United States, and Hong Kong, but there were discrepancies.
The money went out, but there wasn't enough money in
there in the first place to send it is chaos
in the office, phones ring, fax machines, were papers, fly, keyboards, black.
(34:39):
Eleven payments totaling thirteen million euros went out, and now
the bank is trying to get it all back. You
watch helplessly as the Bank of Valletta suspends its operations
and closes branches all over Malta, closes ATMs all over
the world. It shuts down its website, sending customers and
other countries into a panic because they can't use their
(35:00):
predator ATM cards. The funds would eventually be charged back
and everything would be fixed, except for your suede shoes. Shoes,
no fix in those. So the FBI and the US
Attorney's Office they got seizure warrants authorizing the FBI to
seize cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers from a victim
in the indictment of financial services company in New York
(35:22):
held it to cryptocurrency exchanges. The seizures included cryptocurrencies in
amounts that like came up to about one point nine
million dollars, which would be returned to the victim. So
John Kim and Park they were all charged with one
count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse and
that carried a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison,
(35:42):
and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and
bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of thirty years
in prison.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
They're being all this is taking place in absentia. They're
still in North Korea.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, okay, so the charges don't stop there. July twenty ninth,
twenty twenty one, a boss aka Hushpuppy with an I,
admit being involved in a conspiracy to defraud a Katari
businessman of more than a million dollars. He admitted to
money laundering quote through bank accounts around the world that
included several other cyber and business email compromise schemes that
(36:13):
cumulatively caused more than twenty four million dollars in losses.
So that was in a released statement. A boss pleaded
guilty to the charges. April twentieth, twenty twenty one. For
twenty bro a boss identified a Deputy Commissioner of Police
in Nigeria, Abbi Kiari, as an accomplice in his one
million dollar Katari scam deal. The next day, the FBI
(36:35):
arrested Kiari, who was further implicated after a conversation that
took place between him and a boss was released. So
what's the Katari scam? A boss and the other defendants
faked financing a school by posing as bank officials, and
they made a fake website in order to convince this
Katari businessman to relinquish the requested funds. And according to Wilkinson,
(36:56):
the scammers also quote bribe to foreign official to keep
the elaborate pretois it's going after the victim was tipped off.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Wow. Yeah, So one thing I'm noticing is that they
go for a lot of like high dollar targets.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
So obviously you know institutions and stuff that have the money,
banks and so forth, but also individuals. And from what
I understand, at least, what Hollywood makes people believe is
that if you go after enough of them, they'll hire
a hitman from one of the various hitman agencies that
are out there for the ultra rich, and then they
would just take these people down with like former military people.
Apparently Hollywood has been misleading me. I think how easy
(37:32):
it is for these rich people to hire one of
these ultra elite assassins to take out somebody who's taken
a million dollars from them.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Well, I think so. Well these scammers they got one
point one million from the Katar, I know.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
But I'm saying, but none of them are hiring the No.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
No, he just sat there and cried while they turned around.
And they used that money to quote purchase of Richard
Neil r M eleven three watch, which was hand delivered
to a boss in Dubai and subsequently appeared in Hushpuppies.
Social media hosts ah busted by the ground watches. Yeah,
always so. Official documents said that a boss also used
(38:08):
some of the money to allegedly obtain quote Saint Christopher
and Nevis citizenship, as well as a passport for a boss,
obtained by creating a false marriage certificate and then bribing
a government official in Saint Kitts.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Are there like any legitimate citizens of Nevis and the
Saint Kits or Antigua or any of those. Feels sure
there are. I'm sure there's a lot of local but
I mean the people who want to go becose incomers,
That's what I mean. Like where it's like, Hey, a
recent citizen who's like oh yeah, Oh that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
They're all shady and and I won't apologize for that
broad statement. So a boss, though, hush puppy. He had
his defenders, hushpuppy loyalists. A Lagos driver described him as
quote generous, further saying he used to buy beer for
everyone around. Well, then hey, I'm.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Sorry, let him go. I take it back, man, that
generous he bought beer for everyone around.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
They get too and moms to write a letter for
him appealing for leniency, saying that he helped out widows
and orphans on a regular basis and that he made
donations to food programs.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Look, if you're buying beer for widows and orphans, I don't.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Care who you're doing the lord's work. So oh well,
too bad, So sad A boss get sentenced to eleven
years in prison, and he was ordered to pay one
point seven million in restitution to two different fraud victims.
Yeah so, September ninth, twenty twenty, you must have seized
I think so. He hand wrote a three page letter
to the judge telling him all about his two years
(39:32):
in detention. Like he did two years, He writes this letter,
rible and our researcher Andrea wanted it noted that he
has really cool handwriting, so in the letter he wrote
good note, he wrote quote, since I have been incarcerated,
I have had enough time to reflect on the past,
and I regret letting greed ruin the good name of
my family, my blessing, and my name, your honor. I
(39:54):
make no excuse for my actions, and I take full
responsibility for what I've done. If I could turn back
the ha end of time, I would make an entirely
different decision and be more careful in the choices and
friends I make.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
If I could turn back time like he.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Wasn't just apologizing in this three page letter, that was good.
Do it again.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I can't. I don't know how I did that.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Do you give it like I'll do it like it's
a car commercial, all right? Give it to me a
little bit, put a little more emphasis, more moove.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
If I could turn back time.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
That's great, that's great. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Takes a job.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
You totally got your hired. So this letter, it also
explained in detail how his co conspirators would reach out
to him to decide which business to scam, or to
request bank information to transfer illegally obtain funds. So he's
already busted, but he's like, you know what, I gotta
tell you more.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
You guys asked the right questions.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
So hush Puppy's life is like something out of Hollywood,
not just the Instagram glamour of it, but the criming.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
But yeah, so you know.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
What that means. The cameras came calling. There are documentaries
about Hush Puppy from both Bloomberg and BBC Africa, and
Curtis James Jackson the Third aka fifty Cent, has entered
the chat. He announced on Instagram in November of twenty
two that he intends to shoot a series about the
life of a boss.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Wow, like, are one of the power series?
Speaker 3 (41:15):
I guess so instead of getting Richard Die trying, Hushpuppy
got rich and then tried lying, Hey, do you know
how much Hushpuppy with and I made off the various
scams and cyber attacks that like what was his take home?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Well, I don't understand the question. Do you mean how
much he pulled or how much was in his house?
Speaker 3 (41:33):
How much of like his NOTT was even in his house,
because some of that had to be But like how
much did he spent of all the stuff that he
how much did he get to spend four million dollars?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I was gonna say twenty four million dollars? Nice?
Speaker 3 (41:46):
What is your ridiculous takeaways? Aaron? Thank you for asking that.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You just totally believe I said twenty four million dollars
right after you did, and you thought I said that.
I didn't think that at all. Now my ridiculous takeaway
is I can't believe that the found under of Hush
Puppy we go and do all this stuff. I mean,
like Sara, you brought us these wonderful shoes. Your families
can be so disappointed. I mean, a soft soled shoeman
should not be involved in these types of crime.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Can.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
In all honesty, I can't believe is how prolifically successful
these people are doing like stuff that, Like, in all honesty,
I wish I understood better because I'm like, you know,
I hear this stuff, and I have a lot of
friends who are like really high level, like like hacker types,
and they start saying stuff and I'm just like in
my head, it's like is that spelled with a pH
or with an F? Like that's what I'm doing. I'm like, honestly,
(42:36):
I'll be real about it.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
I just am in the constant panic that I'm going
to accidentally click on something. Thanks for asking that.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
I think I'm pretty savvy, but I don't know. They
get more and more clever.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Oh I don't click on anything. Yeah, no, I've been
like that for seven years now. Like I i'd be
also about all the hacker friends taught me. So, like
my passwords are like twenty one letters long, because like
twelve letters were whatever was the number that I needed
to get better.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
I have like hyphens and all sorts.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
I have all that stuff, but it's all super long
and all the stuff that they have me doing, they're
basically like the one person showed me this. This is
when I say, seven years ago, like fifteen years ago,
I watched someone take over someone else's computer from the distance,
and they had no idea that they could do it,
and they just they're like, oh, I'll take over your computer,
and so they'd send some email while the person's talking,
they're clicking through their emails, and I guess that was
(43:25):
what allowed them to get in. And I couldn't believe it.
I was way back in the day. I know. Now
it's got to be like, oh, you looked at your
phone and I can see your eye and that allowed
me to use facial recognition on an app I have.
And now I've given all your money.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Well, so my feeling is like, fine, take whatever I have.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yeah, I just make sure you don't have anything. I
put in lots of different accounts that it's all over
the place. I'm like, look, take from this one, just
leave me the other one. That's that's my pork chop money.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
That's all I have for today. You can find us
online at ridiculous crime dot com. We're also at ridiculous
Crime on tw or on Instagram. Email us at ridiculous
Crime at gmail dot com, leave us a talkback on
the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Elizabeth Duttman's Aaren Burnette, produced and edited by Dave I
(44:15):
met Pimento Cheese with a Z on Instagram. Kusten Research
is by Marissa Chicken and Dumplins Brown and Andrea Hopin
John Song Sharpened Hear the theme song is by Thomas
Tamato pie Lee and Travis sweet Potato. Dutton post Wardrobe
is provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben
Redbeans Bowin and Noel Rice Brown.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
If I can turn back times Crime, say it one
more times
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Crime Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more
podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
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