Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio zern A.
Speaker 2: So glad you showed up today.
Speaker 3: I know, I found parking and everything nice.
Speaker 2: Uh do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Yes, sit down on the actor Ving Rams. Okay, he's
Speaker 3: a little he's not ridiculous, aut Elizabeth, don't go for that.
Speaker 3: He got his dope ass nickname from his college roommate.
Speaker 3: His government name is Irving Rams. Yeah, it's Sunny Purchase,
Speaker 3: like a state University of New York. Purchase was told
Speaker 3: him he ought to shorten his name to Ving because
Speaker 3: he's more like a Ving than an Irv Irving. He's like, oh,
Speaker 3: think of Ving Rams. I mean, boom. Do you know
Speaker 3: who that roommate was, Stanley Tucci? Right, that's amazing. But
Speaker 3: that's not what's ridiculous. That's just kind of cool. You
Speaker 3: know what's ridiculous. Stanley Tucci and Christopher Juicy Booty Maloney
Speaker 3: have never played brothers in a movie or TV show.
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, that's ridiculous. That is absolutely ridiculous. O,
Speaker 2: good one, nice work. Do you want to know what
Speaker 2: else is ridiculous? Do you promising someone one trillion dollars?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: This is ridiculous crime A how do you say? Podcast
Speaker 2: about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons it's always
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent what
Speaker 2: is it ridiculous?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: You damn right? Con men? Am I right? Oh?
Speaker 3: Tell me about his sister.
Speaker 2: I will never stop being fascinated by fraudsters and their
Speaker 2: ability to get people to believe things.
Speaker 3: I don't know how they do it.
Speaker 2: I'm jealous, I get I guess they're so confident in
Speaker 2: their con that they don't show that weakness that sows doubt.
Speaker 3: I think that is actually a very big part of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And as I was reading about the guy that
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you about today, I kept thinking,
Speaker 2: like trying to imagine if I were the one trying
Speaker 2: to pull these things off. Oh really, Yeah, I would
Speaker 2: have been like laughed out of the room or forcibly
Speaker 2: ejected or like arrested every single time.
Speaker 3: Actually, I don't know about that, Elizabeth. I think you
Speaker 3: could pull it off if you were convinced that, like
Speaker 3: you needed to do this to save like a boatload
Speaker 3: of like bunnies. You're like, Elizabeth, that guy over there.
Speaker 2: If you do not con these three people.
Speaker 3: They're gonna hurt all these lovely if you'd figure out
Speaker 3: a way you would do it. You go over, you
Speaker 3: charm them, you get them to believe your lives, and
Speaker 3: then they would con them because you'd have the confidence
Speaker 3: of you have to do it. The thing is you
Speaker 3: couldn't do it for yourself because then you know you're
Speaker 3: just conning someone to get some money to you know,
Speaker 3: thicken your wallet. Yeah, which ain't your style.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it's the act like you know, like
Speaker 2: if you're put into that position, perhaps so con man,
Speaker 2: they act like I know, they act like they're supposed
Speaker 2: to be here, which is what I would do if
Speaker 2: I had to save a boatload of bunnies. Yes, the
Speaker 2: guy that I want to tell you about, like he
Speaker 2: acts like he knows, but he doesn't exactly look like
Speaker 2: he should be there.
Speaker 3: Hmm.
Speaker 2: So it's like and that also fascinates me. He's a
Speaker 2: little sloppy and like he wears ill fitting suits okay,
Speaker 2: and so but he's this like excellent con man.
Speaker 3: Is that to make people like Another part of being
Speaker 3: a con artist is to kind of distract where they
Speaker 3: think the thing is. Be it like, oh, I'm going
Speaker 3: to get this score right. They think I'm getting over
Speaker 3: on somebody, so they stop thinking about themselves. This guy's
Speaker 3: supposed to think he couldn't because he's.
Speaker 2: Supposed to run with big money folks. And then the
Speaker 2: whole thing is the impression of this and it's just interesting,
Speaker 2: like especially later in his career. He there's like a
Speaker 2: British documentary that runs into him. Ah and like you
Speaker 2: see him and you're just like, oh that guy is he.
Speaker 3: Makes sloppy work for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of, I don't know. It's interest. So he's
Speaker 2: an excellent con man. He's like a mega con man,
Speaker 2: a con man sometimes called the trillion dollar con man
Speaker 2: with a tea?
Speaker 3: Is this cat?
Speaker 2: Russell King is his name? Never heard of him? He's
Speaker 2: a mysterious figure. I've been trying to get biographical information
Speaker 2: on him, and I've completely come up empty, over and
Speaker 2: over again. Really, all I know he was born in
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty nine, but I don't know where. I don't
Speaker 2: know anything about his upbringing, so like who knows? And
Speaker 2: I would say who cares? But it would be helpful
Speaker 2: to know much more about his background to better understand
Speaker 2: like his motivations. Sure, the angles he.
Speaker 3: Works his compulsions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the first time he bubbles up is in the
Speaker 2: early eighties, and he was known then as this entrepreneur
Speaker 2: with a really extravagant lifestyle.
Speaker 3: It was early twenties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he loved fast cars, high life. He was chairman
Speaker 2: of a company that owned media publications. It was called
Speaker 2: Celebrity Group Holdings, and at one point they wanted to
Speaker 2: buy the world's oldest toy store, Hamley's in London. Okay,
Speaker 2: that didn't pan out, so they went after Zodiac Toys,
Speaker 2: not associated with the Killer Ah, okay, more the inflatable watercraft.
Speaker 2: It was the UK's biggest toy store at the time,
Speaker 2: Zodiac Zodiac Toys, not the Killer. No, they just sold
Speaker 2: a lot of hoods and decoder sets. It was exactly.
Speaker 2: It was just like chain of shops. They'd been in
Speaker 2: business from the sixties and they had been purchased two
Speaker 2: years prior by this other retail group who tried like
Speaker 2: new merchandising methods that didn't really translate to toysure and
Speaker 2: so king he bought it up and then it quickly folded,
Speaker 2: so more than ninety shops closed. Oh when this all
Speaker 2: fell apart down, But around that time nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 2: he reported his Aston Martin stolen and it was worth
Speaker 2: And this is what I couldn't believe. I checked multiple
Speaker 2: sources for this number. It was worth six hundred thousand pounds. Okay, well,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a new one, right, it must have been
Speaker 3: like a customer.
Speaker 2: I don't know. There was one article called it some name,
Speaker 2: and I don't recall off the top of my head something.
Speaker 2: But when I looked it up, that was a car
Speaker 2: from the two thousands, So it wasn't this.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't the James Bond one from the sixties, to.
Speaker 2: Say, but a six hundred thousand pound car is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: In the fifties.
Speaker 2: I think that one's absolutely ridiculous. But anyway, I mean,
Speaker 2: So he contacts his insurance company, yes, and they, of
Speaker 2: course they do some digging, not a whole lot, because
Speaker 2: they found the car in his garage. This d Jesus whoops.
Speaker 2: So he gets busted for insurance fraud. He did two
Speaker 2: years in prison for it, and Celebrity Group went into
Speaker 2: liquidation while he was inside. Okay, and then Credit Corps
Speaker 2: sued the company for six hundred and eighty four thousand
Speaker 2: pounds alleging fraud by the celebrity group Boarded and so
Speaker 2: then like so that bubbles up in the press, and
Speaker 2: then it's about ten years before King pops up again.
Speaker 2: I don't know what he's doing in those ten.
Speaker 3: Years in the UK.
Speaker 2: He's in the UK. So this time it's around like
Speaker 2: the mid two thousands. He's part of a company called
Speaker 2: Belgravia Financial Services Group, okay, which just you know, sound
Speaker 2: well it's a neighborhood in London and it's trying to
Speaker 2: be sort of posish. But the company based in Jersey
Speaker 2: is I'm sure you know, as an island between England
Speaker 2: and France. It's the biggest of the Channel Islands. And
Speaker 2: it's a self governing British Crown dependency and that means
Speaker 2: it has its own financial, legal and judicial systems, and
Speaker 2: it also it should come in as absolutely no surprise
Speaker 2: to you that I Google street viewed the place and
Speaker 2: I am desperate to go there really, to Jersey. Oh yeah, completely,
Speaker 2: Oh man, it's a blend of English and French and
Speaker 2: it's beautiful. I'd go and like drop the little map
Speaker 2: guy and random and be like, oh are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: To my empty office over and over and over again.
Speaker 2: So financial services makes up forty of the goods and
Speaker 2: services produced by this thing.
Speaker 3: I know about what they do. Yeah, basically money laundering
Speaker 3: type stuff that seems like.
Speaker 2: And that that's why it wasn't weird that Belgravia Financial
Speaker 2: Services Group was located on this like relative smell kind
Speaker 2: of a red flag. Yeah. So two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: this guy named Duncan Hickman set up Belgravia, as we'll
Speaker 2: call it, and at some point Russell King came on board. Okay,
Speaker 2: and he and his wife lived in Jersey too, so
Speaker 2: that's where he's living at that point. I guess he'd
Speaker 2: moved there from England. Two thousand and five Belgravia Belgravia
Speaker 2: made a move to buy Newcastle United the soccer Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that did not go through, but it sets the stage
Speaker 2: and hints at what's to come. So the next year,
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, King he had a property in
Speaker 2: Hampshire and the place was like so big that he
Speaker 2: employed domestic staff there.
Speaker 3: Can we call it old Hampshire? So I know which
Speaker 3: one is.
Speaker 2: It's Old Hampshire and Old Jersey. This is just helping
Speaker 2: me so he has like this huge manse So I
Speaker 2: don't know what exactly he's doing that. He's like, he's
Speaker 2: in quote financial services. Who's to say.
Speaker 3: I think he's one of those people in the British
Speaker 3: finance world who just kind of moves paperwork for people
Speaker 3: who are actually money laundering through the British territories exactly
Speaker 3: Cayman Islands.
Speaker 2: Kind that's what's happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like, oh, mon sac fons sake, I know
Speaker 3: all about that.
Speaker 2: One of his workers, Nicolette McAvoy, she's married to a
Speaker 2: man who was injured on the job at a construction
Speaker 2: site legitimately legitimately, and King and his wife they connected
Speaker 2: the husband with a lawyer for him to get like
Speaker 2: the absolute most he could out of his claim, because
Speaker 2: he was originally set to get seventy five thousand pounds,
Speaker 2: but he wound up getting two hundred and sixty eight
Speaker 2: thousand pounds after working with the lawyer. So King and
Speaker 2: his wife they're living in their place in Jersey and
Speaker 2: these guys are working up in Hampshire and they offer
Speaker 2: the McAvoy's jobs down in Jersey and they accepted and
Speaker 2: they moved to the island. So missus McAvoy, she made
Speaker 2: one and fifty pounds a month as a housekeeper. Okay, sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: the reason that's good, you know, like in the early aughts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't hired a housekeeper in y forever.
Speaker 2: Well here it gets sweeter though, because the husband works
Speaker 2: there too. In this compensation. King rented a four bedroom
Speaker 2: place for them one hundred yards from the giant farmhouse,
Speaker 2: and so he pays it.
Speaker 3: Is making them caretakers, right, so to speak.
Speaker 2: So they have this this, this place that he's rented
Speaker 2: for them in his name, so they're not paying any
Speaker 2: any rent. So the twelve to fifty a month that's income.
Speaker 2: That's just income. And it seems like everything's going to
Speaker 2: be okay for them at this point. So after all
Speaker 2: of mister McAvoy's claim money came in, King and then
Speaker 2: that guy Dunk and Hickman who started Belgravia, they convinced
Speaker 2: the couple to put their money in a fund controlled
Speaker 2: by Belgravia. Yeah, why not. They've hurdle the money.
Speaker 3: They've already gotten them a bigger payout.
Speaker 2: They're good with their money. So they invested two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand pounds and McAvoy said quote, I was promised a
Speaker 2: rate of interest between twenty and twenty five percent, the
Speaker 2: sort of money that sets you up for life or
Speaker 2: should be a or should be a giant red flag.
Speaker 2: Please everybody know that you don't get returns like that,
Speaker 2: and it's.
Speaker 3: Too good to be true, as they say it most
Speaker 3: likely really.
Speaker 2: So McAvoy he wanted to enjoy some of the money
Speaker 2: he'd been generating, and so he and his family they
Speaker 2: wanted to buy a house. And he was told that
Speaker 2: he had four hundred and twenty thousand pounds in the account.
Speaker 2: But King was like, you know what, leave alone, leave alone,
Speaker 2: don't touch it. Growing take out a mortgage. Do the mortgage.
Speaker 2: But McAvoy's like, no, I want the money. So they
Speaker 2: start having this like back and forth, and that's when
Speaker 2: the trouble started. This is what macavoy said. Quote. I said,
Speaker 2: I wanted to close the fund and get my money.
Speaker 2: King responded with total hostility. I was treated really badly.
Speaker 2: I left the job straight away. In the week that happened,
Speaker 2: I got a letter from the landlord's solicitors saying that
Speaker 2: the rent had not been paid on the property over
Speaker 2: the last year. King was meant to have been paying it.
Speaker 3: Oh his name isn't on the lease though, right, only
Speaker 3: King's only Kings.
Speaker 2: But he's about to get the boot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he just finds out that he would have
Speaker 3: been getting this news.
Speaker 2: Otherwise, exactly exactly, so he said quote. I confronted him
Speaker 2: on the phone, and he said it was none of
Speaker 2: my business. I said he had to sort it out
Speaker 2: straight away, and he said he would deal with it
Speaker 2: in his own time. The next day, my wife was dismissed.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he can't pay a check, are Yeah, so
Speaker 2: they're just they're twisted in the wind. Two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: Hickman died and it was it was sudden that it
Speaker 2: was unexpected. It was a blood clod. It wasn't anything nefarious,
Speaker 2: yea right, But Russell King took it as an opportunity
Speaker 2: to make his move. So he starts just selling off
Speaker 2: Hickman's stuff, like unbeknownst to Hickman's wife.
Speaker 3: Oh so it's not even like does he have like
Speaker 3: next of kin.
Speaker 2: He's got a wife sitting collectibles, all of his humble figurine,
Speaker 2: selling them off, all of his cut crystal. And then
Speaker 2: he turns around and he just bleeds Belgravia Financial Services
Speaker 2: Group Dry just drains it. So in the course of
Speaker 2: three months he managed to pull out six hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy one thousand pounds and hide it in Swiss bank accounts.
Speaker 2: Belgravia obviously goes under the Macavoys. They're still trying to
Speaker 2: get their money back, but at this point that's just
Speaker 2: never going to happen. Meanwhile, King he's living it up,
Speaker 2: first class airfare everywhere. He stays at the Ritz Carlton,
Speaker 2: he dines at fine restaurants and all those fast cars
Speaker 2: that he loves, and he's also acting like he has
Speaker 2: absolutely nothing to do with this whole mess. So he
Speaker 2: became known for never being a sonociated on paper with
Speaker 2: any of his cons so like he wasn't on the
Speaker 2: on the lease, Belgrave, somebody else, Belgravia, Belgravia, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Let's say it both ways, Belgravia. He's never on paper,
Speaker 2: and then when he was, he'd deny it. His famous
Speaker 2: response to everything was quote, I have never been a shareholder, director, trustee,
Speaker 2: or beneficiary like and then of whatever operation he was
Speaker 2: being questioned about, so it was just always I've never
Speaker 2: been a shareholder, director, trustee or beneficiary like just overcially exactly.
Speaker 2: So his lawyers told the press that quote King acted
Speaker 2: as a spokesman for Belgravia, which collapsed last year, but
Speaker 2: deny he had any formal connection to the group. Mister
Speaker 2: King's family was a declared investor in Belgravia, and consider
Speaker 2: that it is owed a substantial amount of money, said
Speaker 2: a spokesman. So they're victim too. Yeah, but mister King
Speaker 2: never worked for, nor was he a director of BFSG,
Speaker 2: which is the entity being investigated, and would like to
Speaker 2: put on the record that it was he who called
Speaker 2: in City of London police. So yeah, he's trying to
Speaker 2: be the victim here.
Speaker 3: Trying to be a spokesmodel and event and a victim.
Speaker 2: I love that he's the spokesman. Two thousand and eight
Speaker 2: busy year for him. He somehow managed to get a
Speaker 2: forty nine percent share of First London Bank and like
Speaker 2: this somehow is that? He said he was managing billions
Speaker 2: of dollars for the Bahraini royal family.
Speaker 3: So sweat equity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I managed billions with a bee. They bought this,
Speaker 2: The people bought a First London Bank bought this. That
Speaker 2: wasn't all, he said he had a huge international mining
Speaker 2: company and that the mining company had a deal with
Speaker 2: the country to be able to mine all of their coal,
Speaker 2: gold and minerals.
Speaker 3: You know, cobalt and stuff.
Speaker 2: North Korea. Yeah, so he goes around telling everyone that
Speaker 2: it's one of the biggest mining companies in the world. Huh,
Speaker 2: and that the assets were worth nearly two trillion dollars.
Speaker 2: It's with a tea, yes, And oh, by the way,
Speaker 2: they're about to go public soon and then watch out
Speaker 2: because there's gonna be even more money.
Speaker 3: North Korea loves capitalism.
Speaker 2: That's one thing they always say about. Everyone's going to
Speaker 2: want to get a piece of it. You want to
Speaker 2: get in on that market. Like, hey, had anyone in
Speaker 2: the mining industry heard of this company?
Speaker 3: No, of course not, does the country company even exist?
Speaker 2: But first London Bank was like, oh my god, you're amazing.
Speaker 3: Did he have like really fancy PaperWorks with the seal.
Speaker 2: And like golden Boss.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like, look at that seal.
Speaker 2: With the first London deal set, he really did take
Speaker 2: on forty nine percent of the shares and that was
Speaker 2: based solely young false confirmations from the Royal family of Rain.
Speaker 2: So then he sets his sights on a new target.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break, we come back. I'm going to
Speaker 2: introduce you to that target, Zara Elizabeth Zaren. Can I
Speaker 2: introduce you to the Bahraini royal family.
Speaker 3: Before we get there? This guy's this King that you've
Speaker 3: been telling me about. He's of no relation to the
Speaker 3: American grifter Sean King. Right, just happened to be similar
Speaker 3: last names.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're cousins. I just wanted to I was like,
Speaker 2: family resemblance. I'm noticing it.
Speaker 3: But as you were saying, go ahead, I'd like to
Speaker 3: meet this Bahraini royal family.
Speaker 2: Well, we're not going to meet them just yet. What
Speaker 2: I wanted I want to do is is talk about
Speaker 2: some other stuff. Other stuff. Oh my god, you like
Speaker 2: that show Ted Lasso, right?
Speaker 3: Oh, but the soccer and then the coach and the
Speaker 3: mustache and I do I enjoy that?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about it because I don't watch teev.
Speaker 3: I like Roy, I don't have to hear you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Go no, I'm not. I watched it and I loved it.
Speaker 2: It's funny, it's poignant, it's insightful. My goodness, the characters,
Speaker 2: like you said, Roy, those writers created like really fantastic, nuanced,
Speaker 2: layered characters, yes, and fun love stories. Yeah. And then
Speaker 2: and they kept surprising as they evolved, not like an oh,
Speaker 2: it's an evil twin way, but like it was never cheap. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Then there's the football or the soccer angle. We got
Speaker 2: ted fish out of water learning the nuance of the
Speaker 2: beautiful game is pale called and we're just starting to
Speaker 2: get hep to that in the US. So like Major
Speaker 2: League Soccer as it's called here is really growing and
Speaker 2: they're great teams with huge talent. And then we have
Speaker 2: our own little team here, Oakland Roots. Yes, Marshan Lynch
Speaker 2: is one of the owners, as am I. I too
Speaker 2: am an owner, Yes, and so is producer Dave. So
Speaker 2: is producer Dave. It's a fan collective, but I really
Speaker 2: do like preferring to myself as a team owner. It's
Speaker 2: fun and especially with like the departure of the A's
Speaker 2: may I spit on their grave, people have really gravitated
Speaker 2: towards the room. I've noticed that. Yeah, the games are
Speaker 2: super fun. It's like a really collegial atmosphere. I enjoyed
Speaker 2: the game, Yes, it's yeah, you had a good time.
Speaker 3: It took me to that one that was as an owner.
Speaker 3: I gott to sit in the owner's box.
Speaker 2: That was awesome. Yeah. I think one of the benefits
Speaker 2: is there aren't really ever any away team fans there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's just all roots fans singing songs and like rocking,
Speaker 2: all the cool merch.
Speaker 3: And all the good Oakland A's vibe has translated really
Speaker 3: well for that kind yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so other parts of the world have that, but
Speaker 2: like in a more intense manner. And I mentioned ted Lasso,
Speaker 2: So let's talk English football Premier League kind of like
Speaker 2: with the NFL or college football. Here fans are serious
Speaker 2: and they're rabbit they oh yeah, And it's very location specific,
Speaker 2: so like people in the US, they'll cheer for college
Speaker 2: teams like that they didn't attend the institution. Always point
Speaker 2: that out. It drives you nuts. Never been to that place.
Speaker 3: That's not what it's about you. I've never been Tribbeth.
Speaker 3: They're just saying, I'm a member of this tribe. You
Speaker 3: don't have to go to the college to be a
Speaker 3: member of the tribe.
Speaker 2: That's how you viewed, or at least set foot on
Speaker 2: the campus is showing. I'm just telling me Oh my god,
Speaker 2: my snob shows all day every day. I have friends
Speaker 2: who cheer for teams in like Alabama, like you've ever
Speaker 2: been there? No, no, never set foot in the state,
Speaker 2: but roll tide it so like they haven't ever been
Speaker 2: in the same state, let alone. Okay, So how it
Speaker 2: works a.
Speaker 3: Football Yeah, definitely, Baseball, basketball, almost every American sport.
Speaker 2: Which is your addition, Buffalo fan?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Buffalo bells. Yeah, yeah, so I've been to Buffalo though,
Speaker 3: that's true.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I'll allow it, as I always like to say,
Speaker 2: I'll allow it.
Speaker 3: And I turned my nephew onto the team and he
Speaker 3: now goes to Buffalo Bill's game. So so how about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you started it. That's deep. In England, there's some
Speaker 2: blurring of the boundaries, but buy and large people support
Speaker 2: their locals.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, it's much more of like pride of their area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there are rivalries like Sunderland and Newcastle comes
Speaker 2: to mind. They hate each other. Up in Glasgow, my
Speaker 2: dear green place, there's Celtic and Rangers. And that's the
Speaker 2: straight up blood fuel because you've it's in the same city,
Speaker 2: different sides of the river, but it's sectarian. So that's
Speaker 2: like a whole other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a whole like Protestants first, Catholics, right, and
Speaker 3: then like they get out their colors.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, tribalism, tribalism. Anyway, people feel great loyalty to
Speaker 2: their teams and families go to matches and cheer the
Speaker 2: team through generations. It's all very ted Lasso and like
Speaker 2: with the Oakland Roots, some of the teams are fan owned,
Speaker 2: keeping it real.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's true. I forget about this. One of
Speaker 3: the summer owned by Hollywood people.
Speaker 2: Too, right, right, and you see't yeah, something like that,
Speaker 2: and there's the Goddess the Middle Eastern like interests coming
Speaker 2: in and buying big teams. One of the fan owned
Speaker 2: teams was Nots County FC in Nottingham was founded in
Speaker 2: eighteen sixty two, the oldest professional football club in the world,
Speaker 2: famous for their forest, yes and the sheriff. They're there.
Speaker 2: Their first f A Cup was in eighteen seventy seven. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're like they're the older they were there when they
Speaker 2: founded the league, yes, and so they certainly have had
Speaker 2: their ups and downs through that year. In the early
Speaker 2: two thousands, they were really struggling, like especially financially.
Speaker 3: Where are they relegated to even know they had fallen
Speaker 3: out the premiere?
Speaker 2: Definitely premiere, but I don't know. Yeah, but they were
Speaker 2: they were like they were struggling, and the fans like
Speaker 2: they still supported them and when and they were fan
Speaker 2: outs by the packers, yeah, kream Bay exactly. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: the fans are supporting them, and then when a takeover
Speaker 2: offer appeared, it was like a gift from heaven. Take
Speaker 2: this team. Now there's money, Oh that way, for God's sake.
Speaker 2: So please, you know, we have such heart if only
Speaker 2: someone would put money into it, much like you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they won the investment. They're hoping with a
Speaker 3: new ownership life blood.
Speaker 2: So they get approached by a representative of Munto Finance.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, I'm starting to get worried again.
Speaker 2: M U n t O Monto. I know I'd let
Speaker 2: you send it drift on memory. Monto is a subsidiary
Speaker 2: of cod Back q A d b a K Investments
Speaker 2: to be a spellingst and that representative of Monto Finance
Speaker 2: none other than Russell kings King Rust King. So he
Speaker 2: had driven Bill Gravia into the ground and taken on
Speaker 2: almost half of First London Bank by saying that he
Speaker 2: managed the wealth fund of the Bahrain royal family. And
Speaker 2: then now he's out to buy up Notts County.
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 2: Why not? Why nots County? So he showed them a
Speaker 2: bank guarantee from First London, saying that Monto Finance had
Speaker 2: the cash and the intention of buying the football club
Speaker 2: more fancy paperwork. Oh yeah, he said he was the
Speaker 2: go between. He was a representative of Monto. Monto, the
Speaker 2: subsidiary of cod Back, was supposed to be like this
Speaker 2: Swiss based trust of the Shafee and Hyatt families referred
Speaker 2: to as quote Middle Eastern and European based families. Okay,
Speaker 2: spreads that spreads. So in truth, Russell King is Monto,
Speaker 2: and he had that guarantee from First London, but it
Speaker 2: was totally worthless and it was cooked up and made
Speaker 2: from a department that didn't even exist anymore in the bank,
Speaker 2: so it's just completely stationary, Like.
Speaker 3: Give me that gold pen, I'm going to put some
Speaker 3: fancy stuff on here.
Speaker 2: So King bought the club for one pound yea, and
Speaker 2: he promised to just flood him with Middle Eastern and
Speaker 2: they get the best players and the best coach. That
Speaker 2: coach former England national team manager Sven Goren Erickson, whoa yeah.
Speaker 2: So in June of two thousand and nine, King and
Speaker 2: this guy Nathan Willett, who's another Jersey based pronuncier. He
Speaker 2: approached Ericson through a third party. They wanted to make
Speaker 2: him an incredible offer, money he hopefully could not refuse.
Speaker 2: So King at the time he's living in the Dorchester
Speaker 2: Hotel and so they decided to meet up there. Zaren
Speaker 2: closed your eyes. I want you to picture it. Yes,
Speaker 2: you are a London Society matron, an aging Sloane ranger.
Speaker 2: Your full name is Rowena Stonebridge, Forester, or blythe Manchester.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows you as Toppy. And when I say everybody
Speaker 2: knows you, that's everybody who's anybody. It's June two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine. You're meeting a friend for afternoon tea at
Speaker 2: the Promenade, a charming restaurant located inside the Orchester Hotel.
Speaker 2: The gentlest of classical chamber music pieces plays in the background.
Speaker 2: Guests sip tea and eat delightful petaphores and finger sandwiches.
Speaker 2: You adjust your airmese scarf and catch a glimpse of
Speaker 2: yourself in the deco mirror next to the tufted, oversized
Speaker 2: banquette in which you sit surrounded by silk chintz pillows.
Speaker 2: Your friend is running slightly late, but that's to be expected.
Speaker 2: She's ninety two years old and hard of hearing. She
Speaker 2: does at least wear a hearing aid. Years of raising
Speaker 2: your voice and conversation with her are blessedly over. It
Speaker 2: takes a while for her to navigate here with her driver. Oh,
Speaker 2: you've been told that she used to throw the most
Speaker 2: elaborate and scandalous parties at her country estate. You were
Speaker 2: too young to have been there, but you struck up
Speaker 2: a friendship years back. She's dreadfully funny, darling and sharp
Speaker 2: as attack. A group is seated at the table. Next
Speaker 2: year's three men. One looks like any other London banker,
Speaker 2: slick and besuited. Then there's a dapper man with preceding
Speaker 2: white hair and wire glasses, another impeccable suit, bringing up
Speaker 2: the rear as a mountain of a man. He sports
Speaker 2: a mustache and goateee, and his eyes they're like those
Speaker 2: of a snake hunting not to be trusted. Oh, perhaps
Speaker 2: you've been watching too many of those detective shows. The cozies,
Speaker 2: Miss Marble and the like. You aren't sure how or
Speaker 2: why you've gotten into them, but when you have a
Speaker 2: moment at home, say after tennis, you indulge in watch
Speaker 2: an episode or two. Following right behind the group is
Speaker 2: your friend, Lady Margaret Bettington Gigglethorpe Hughes, also known as Bunny.
Speaker 2: She's being led to your table by the h D.
Speaker 2: She delicately places her bird like bones in the chair
Speaker 2: on the outside of the banquette. Oh, I don't like
Speaker 2: sitting in those things, the scooching and the inching over
Speaker 2: not ladylike. Her attention is taken by the three men
Speaker 2: at the next table. You know who that is, don't you,
Speaker 2: she whispers. You have no idea. The one with the
Speaker 2: white hair, she says, that's Sven Goren Erickson. He used
Speaker 2: to be manager of the England national team. Uh, you say,
Speaker 2: you never much followed the sport, and that always seems
Speaker 2: to make you the odd man out. You ask about
Speaker 2: her day, chat about new gallery openings and the ascot,
Speaker 2: but her attention keeps getting pulled to the other table.
Speaker 2: My dear, she says, all those years of my hearing
Speaker 2: slowly drifting away from me like so much a canoe
Speaker 2: untethered on a pond. Did provide me with one benefit?
Speaker 2: What's that, Bunny? You say? I can read lips and
Speaker 2: those men are having an absolute corker of a conversation. No,
Speaker 2: you tell her to spill it. She fills you in.
Speaker 2: Those two men want to hire Erickson to Notts County. Ooh,
Speaker 2: that's a reach. They say they want to take the
Speaker 2: team to the Premier League and even further stretch. But
Speaker 2: they send something about fixing up the stadium, an academy
Speaker 2: and buying feeder clubs. Oh, it's all very exciting. Bunny
Speaker 2: is loving this. You know that Ericson could put a
Speaker 2: log on my fire anytime, Bunny says with a smirk, Bunny,
Speaker 2: you gasp. Oh he's no Jose Mourinho, but I do
Speaker 2: like the cut of his Chit wait, wait Ericson just
Speaker 2: reached out and shook their hands. He said he'd take
Speaker 2: the offer. Well, my stars, I think we just saw
Speaker 2: a very big deal go down. And you did Saren did,
Speaker 2: I did, Toy and Bunny copy, and Bunny witnessed the
Speaker 2: whole thing. So king makes Ericson the club director of
Speaker 2: football His contract included a clause entitling him to eleven
Speaker 2: million euros worth of shares in a little known company
Speaker 2: called Swiss Commodity Holding SCCH.
Speaker 3: There the company is going to be owning the team.
Speaker 3: So he's going to be an owner.
Speaker 2: Now it's just it's not they're not owning the team.
Speaker 2: It's another company.
Speaker 3: Oh, just something else. He's like, oh, you'll be part
Speaker 3: of this other thing we got, man, that's where the
Speaker 3: real money.
Speaker 2: That's where the real money is. And they asked him,
Speaker 2: could you please be an ambassador for the company's overseas interests.
Speaker 3: Oh, so you be the spokesmodel now.
Speaker 2: So they told him that SCH had a total portfolio
Speaker 2: value more than one hundred and sixty billion Swiss francs.
Speaker 3: I think that's a lot, Elizabeth, that's.
Speaker 2: A lot of money. Yeah, And he's they say, you know,
Speaker 2: they focus on natural resources, infrastructure, industry, all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. So news, well people's stuff.
Speaker 3: It's like gold or shiny. We probably like it.
Speaker 2: So news like spreads that Notts County has been taken
Speaker 2: over by this mysterious consortium Monto Finance, and that Saven
Speaker 2: Goren Erickson is the new director of Football.
Speaker 3: People are losing it, yeahs.
Speaker 2: And then the team starts signing great players goalie, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Casper Schmeichel was signed for a five year deal at
Speaker 2: one point five million pounds a year. Okay. There were
Speaker 2: even rumblings that the David Beckham, who was playing in
Speaker 2: LA at the time, could be signed up, like they're
Speaker 2: going to bring the bender back. So everything was getting
Speaker 2: very exciting for not can.
Speaker 3: You imagine being one of them in that little town.
Speaker 3: You've had this crappy.
Speaker 2: Football tape forever.
Speaker 3: Now suddenly they're talking about the David foot, David Beckham's left.
Speaker 2: Foot, and it's such a study my left foot. It's
Speaker 2: such a story. Now I'm just imagining Daniel day Lewis
Speaker 2: taking the pitch and being like, I'm it's method. I'm
Speaker 2: just going to learn this. No, it's just like this
Speaker 2: is this oldest storied team with like all this history.
Speaker 2: Exactly the rejuven nation. I mean, they wanted this for
Speaker 2: so long. September two thousand is I telling them.
Speaker 3: They're going to open the factories back up, Like we're
Speaker 3: going to start building the ships again or whatever.
Speaker 2: Was the industry of their grandfathers. We're doing it again. Oh,
Speaker 2: We're going to have an a stadium at Howard Terminal.
Speaker 4: That's what that is.
Speaker 2: So September two thousand and nine, the Sun newspaper does
Speaker 2: a piece naming Russell King as the man at the
Speaker 2: center of the Notts County takeover. Everybody like that, and
Speaker 2: they told the story of his Aston Martin insurance fraud,
Speaker 2: prison time. Oh wow. And the club was like, you know, so,
Speaker 2: I think he's just a quote strategic consultant. And he
Speaker 2: negotiated the contracts on the club's behalf. Nothing right, as
Speaker 2: King always said, I have never been a shareholder, director,
Speaker 2: trustee or beneficiari. My name is I do not own
Speaker 2: a mansion or a yacht. The thing is at Notts County.
Speaker 2: He had people call him Lord Voldemort. What after the
Speaker 2: Harry Potter book familiar He must he who must not
Speaker 2: be named. I don't know, I never read that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he must he who must not be named? And so
Speaker 2: they weren't like supposed to see and he's naming him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's like the guy Voldemort. Don't say Russell King, say
Speaker 2: the name you're not supposed to I'm him, call me Spartacus.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break and let's ruminate on this. Whole
Speaker 2: Voldemort thing. When we get back, I'm going to let
Speaker 2: you know how this whole Knots County thing shakes out.
Speaker 6: Please all right, Zarah Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: So we got Sven Goran ericson, Yeah we do. Is
Speaker 2: he here?
Speaker 3: He's right here now the lobby, David Beckham, But just
Speaker 3: his left foot.
Speaker 2: He's in the lobby too.
Speaker 4: Just as.
Speaker 2: Keep David Beckham's foot in a jar.
Speaker 3: Don't tell anything, but Daniel David Lewis, why do you
Speaker 3: have his foot because he's not left foot.
Speaker 2: I saw the movie. It's my left foot, not his.
Speaker 2: I paid for the ticket. I just have a whole
Speaker 2: wall of left feet in jars.
Speaker 3: You know that Daniel day Lewis started becoming a cobbler.
Speaker 3: He could make you some shoes from all your left feet.
Speaker 2: I heard he's coming out, so true. I heard he's
Speaker 2: coming out of retirement.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he did for his son. He's going to be direct, fast, imperious,
Speaker 3: a love than his son's directing. Perfect family Elizabeth family, family.
Speaker 2: Family, So Goren, Eric sven Goren, Detective Bobby, Detective. No,
Speaker 2: this is making it so much better, Detective sven Goren.
Speaker 2: He's all in. He's making serious money. Under the promise
Speaker 2: that he'll be given all the resources he needs to
Speaker 2: take the team to glory, no expense spared. So this
Speaker 2: is September two thousand and nine. By the next month,
Speaker 2: Russell King, the man behind, winto finance. He convinces Ericson
Speaker 2: to go with him to another country on a junkt.
Speaker 3: Ox spokesmodel stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's this is the spokesmodel part of it. I
Speaker 2: told you. He says, we're going to go to talk
Speaker 2: to the leaders of this country about setting up their
Speaker 2: team for the following year's World Cup. That country, yes,
Speaker 2: North Korea.
Speaker 3: On the plane he's like.
Speaker 2: Reading always goes back to North Korea with this, how
Speaker 2: did you read your ticket? Wall? So Erickson later told
Speaker 2: The Guardian quote, I went on the nineteenth of October
Speaker 2: to North Korea together with Russell King and Nathan Willett.
Speaker 2: He said, when I went home from there, I started
Speaker 2: to have doubts because of what I saw in that
Speaker 2: country and what happened after that. So Ericson King will
Speaker 2: it and then this rep from the Shaffee and Hyatt
Speaker 2: families made the trek. So remember those were the families
Speaker 2: that were the money behind I.
Speaker 3: Thought that was lbs I just assumed that was there
Speaker 3: actually was a rep for the the problem.
Speaker 2: The Guardian tracked down the big money guy from those families,
Speaker 2: an war Shafee. Yes, he's really the head of the
Speaker 2: family consortium, the rep that went on the trip, not
Speaker 2: from the family. In fact, family has nothing to do
Speaker 2: with this. I know it comes as a shot, but.
Speaker 3: It spelled really close. It's really chef d So people
Speaker 3: make this mistake all the time.
Speaker 2: It was like with your ab scam where they just
Speaker 2: like got an Italian guy training ex so Ericson goes
Speaker 2: there fully believing that he's going to like drum up
Speaker 2: some goodwill football for help, help the North Koreans get
Speaker 2: on the pitch and give it a shot. And he did.
Speaker 2: He met with football folks there, like the president of
Speaker 2: the football Association, the coaches of the national team. He
Speaker 2: even watched like games and trainings, so this was all
Speaker 2: really going This is really happening. And they asked for
Speaker 2: how did they get on this? I don't know. I
Speaker 2: feel like if I knew more about his origin story,
Speaker 2: this would click more for me.
Speaker 3: There's so many things happening in international hotels around the
Speaker 3: world we just do not know about and this is
Speaker 3: one of those things.
Speaker 2: At some point, multiple times, I stayed at a hotel
Speaker 2: in another country where you're like, yes, something weird.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I think I told you about the one.
Speaker 3: I was like, I was in a progue. I was like,
Speaker 3: it's only me, and like this other business guy in
Speaker 3: this hotel, and like I don't think he's a hit man,
Speaker 3: but he ain't a businessman.
Speaker 2: I was in a hotel and nice, and there was
Speaker 2: a guy who had like a locked briefcase that he
Speaker 2: took to the diners in this hotel and then he'd
Speaker 2: just been carried it. He had dinner with it, and
Speaker 2: then he went back to it. I suppose his room
Speaker 2: to like take aim at. It was outside of his window,
Speaker 2: but it was like a nice hotel. Anyway, it's going down.
Speaker 2: There's stuff going on in the European hotels, International finance.
Speaker 2: So like Eric's is there. They're trotting him out and
Speaker 2: they're like the North Koreans are asking him for stuff
Speaker 2: like year shoes, shoes, literally, can I get a pair
Speaker 2: of shoes? You got some extra shoes Adidas?
Speaker 3: How about some balls?
Speaker 2: And then they're like can you send us coaches? Coaches?
Speaker 2: People actual not buses like people, and then like can
Speaker 2: you make connections for us? And like King was like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, pay for all that stuff. So Ericson's promising
Speaker 2: them all sorts of stuff. I'm totally going to hook
Speaker 2: this up for you. So Erickson gets back and he
Speaker 2: has no way to contact the North Koreans. King is
Speaker 2: brushing him off. So like Ericson's going around setting stuff
Speaker 2: up on his end, like Okay, I'm going to need
Speaker 2: like eight pallets oft.
Speaker 3: He's like if you guys get some shoes, Like.
Speaker 2: He's like, when you're not shipping shoes to Elizabeth, United
Speaker 2: States can from that? I have serious Adidas probably, I know.
Speaker 2: And so Ericson's like setting everything up, but he's basically
Speaker 2: forced to ghost the North Koreans because King and Willett
Speaker 2: kept just like putting it off like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll get.
Speaker 3: To that, and they're contacting him. Can North Koreans contact him?
Speaker 2: No, So he's just how they're all supposed to. They
Speaker 2: don't have his contact and he's just like m yeah.
Speaker 2: And then the truth though, is that King trotted Erickson
Speaker 2: out to North Korea in order to juice up the
Speaker 2: deal they were trying to make with that phony mineral custy.
Speaker 3: That's what I was figuring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Ericson said, quote, I was in the palace
Speaker 2: and they were handing over to the North Korean government
Speaker 2: so called shares. I asked them how much that was,
Speaker 2: because at the same time, we couldn't pay the milk
Speaker 2: bill at Notts County. And what they told me was
Speaker 2: not millions, it was billions of dollars. They used my
Speaker 2: name at the end. It became a big, big mistake.
Speaker 3: So he knows that they can't pay the milk bi.
Speaker 2: They literally they could not pay. Someone came into Ericson's
Speaker 2: office and we need and he's like, we don't have that.
Speaker 2: So while in North Korea, king made a deal. The
Speaker 2: communist leadership signed a contract to give that fake mineral
Speaker 2: company the rights to mine the country's gold, oil and
Speaker 2: iron ore Sure, why not? And then in return for
Speaker 2: a billion dollars from Bahrain. Okay, So he's like again
Speaker 2: I'm just the go between here. Oh yeah, And it
Speaker 2: should be noted that the Kingdom of Bahrain had no
Speaker 2: idea about any of this. I was guessing that.
Speaker 3: And also I don't understand why North Korea would want
Speaker 3: a billion dollars from Bahrain and not actual other resources.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's just so by the end of the year,
Speaker 2: everything in Notts County is starting to fall apart. Thank god,
Speaker 2: the press all over it. The details about how King
Speaker 2: had duped a lot of big names and companies and
Speaker 2: organizations is coming to light. It's making a lot of
Speaker 2: people look bad.
Speaker 3: The son is selling papers, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: Hot ones, and then King he ran off to Bahrain.
Speaker 2: Really so that part was some contact. So by the
Speaker 2: beginning of the next year twenty ten, Bahrain they're like
Speaker 2: not too pleased with their new residents, making us look
Speaker 2: like a joke. Because like a Jersey based company called
Speaker 2: Close Finance reached out to the Kingdom and asked them
Speaker 2: to like get in information on King because he owed
Speaker 2: two million pounds to them. And then you know, the
Speaker 2: Jersey government like they they order King's assets frozen for
Speaker 2: that two million Bahrain. They're happy to help.
Speaker 3: They're like, we don't pay him.
Speaker 2: Well, so they're like, okay, we'll set up a travel
Speaker 2: ban so he can't leave Bahrain. And then they know
Speaker 2: he's there. They know he's there and they'm go, this guy,
Speaker 2: we can't give him. They want to keep them I
Speaker 2: don't know, so he can't leave, and they freeze his
Speaker 2: assets so that, you know, to get that two million.
Speaker 2: And so remember he had the posh estate on Jersey.
Speaker 2: If we had sold it, it would pay off that debt.
Speaker 2: But he never had his name on anything, and the
Speaker 2: house was owned by a trust of which he's the beneficiary.
Speaker 2: The trust was managed by Barclays and they were pushing
Speaker 2: back on selling the house to resolve the debt. So
Speaker 2: King couldn't leave Bahrain, but it didn't stop him from
Speaker 2: crafting new cons, this time in publishing, the lucrative world
Speaker 2: of pub He wanted to get into publishing, so he
Speaker 2: started something called Golf Digital. And this is all under
Speaker 2: an alias of course. The first title that he had
Speaker 2: was Food and Travel Arabia.
Speaker 3: Oh but wait, this is like the too early twenty teens.
Speaker 3: This is like peak BuzzFeed years. Like, oh, I've got
Speaker 3: a digital empire. People are like, oh, yeah, we throw
Speaker 3: money at that. We're gonna do one for the Golf
Speaker 3: States or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's not journalism, yeah okay, yeah, it's basically advertising.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the first title, Food and Travel Arabia. King starts
Speaker 2: getting these like huge ad contracts and then free stuff
Speaker 2: by massively inflating the circulation numbers. That was the play
Speaker 2: that I was working for a while before they pivoted
Speaker 2: the video. That was the move. So for a while
Speaker 2: he tried to peddle a fake Middle Eastern version of
Speaker 2: the Financial Time.
Speaker 3: Okay, I figured that was something he tried.
Speaker 2: He uses the prestige of the name Financial Times to
Speaker 2: get big advertising contracts and then making all these deals
Speaker 2: with UAE based luxury retail brands. He's a part owner
Speaker 2: of a bank, and then like all these hospitality groups
Speaker 2: for free stuff. They only released one issue of Financial
Speaker 2: Times Arabia.
Speaker 3: He's basically making an in flight magazine.
Speaker 2: Yes, a scam completely on the internet. Yes, July twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: That's the one issue. None of the staff or the
Speaker 2: freelancers ever got paid. And of course Financial Times had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with Financial Times Business Arabia. This went
Speaker 2: on for years his magazine scams. In March of twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: Food and Travel Arabia hosted the Food and Travel GCC
Speaker 2: Awards at a five star hotel in Dubai. It was
Speaker 2: this like lavish affair. All these top industry professionals are there,
Speaker 2: Junket City, Russell King's wife, and I don't have a
Speaker 2: lot of info on her either.
Speaker 3: Did.
Speaker 2: She attended the gala, introduced herself as Francesca Jackson phenomenal
Speaker 2: fake names. Jessica Jackson's great. It sounds like it's near money. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the King, he was usually like, his aliases at this
Speaker 2: point are Barry Appleby wow, yeah, or John Taylor, not
Speaker 2: John Taylor of Duran Durant.
Speaker 3: Or John Taylor of the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 2: Right, so we each have our own John Taylor, our
Speaker 2: personal John Taylor. That's not it, not Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Speaker 2: of what actually was? He was like, hello, Jonathan Taylor Thomas,
Speaker 2: But Jonathan Taylor's one of those you're just striking a deal.
Speaker 2: Sounds like, oh, yes.
Speaker 3: He once again is near money, comes from money, but
Speaker 3: also is not really memorable. You're like, it's John Taylor Thompson.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's it is, it's it's not memorable.
Speaker 2: But also when you put the three names, I start
Speaker 2: thinking serial killer.
Speaker 3: That's true, there's that too, but he means the two, right,
Speaker 3: Jonathan John Taylor.
Speaker 2: John Taylor, Yeah, he is Barry Applebee, which is also great.
Speaker 2: So when we go on junkets, you have to check
Speaker 2: into hotels. Is Barry Applebee and I'll be Francesca Jackson.
Speaker 2: All right, that's the deal, deal Apple and then producer
Speaker 2: Dave's John Taylor, not of Duran Duran. So the hotel
Speaker 2: loved Francesca Jackson. They just fantastic, seems fun. Oh she was.
Speaker 2: She was a brassy lady. They loved her. So they
Speaker 2: loved her so much that they signed a barter agreement
Speaker 2: with Golf Digital for goods and services worth nearly eighty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, just like right there on the spot, and
Speaker 2: the hotel covered the costs of the award scala and
Speaker 2: the several VIP rooms, so like they didn't have to
Speaker 2: pay for anything food and travel. Arabia reciprocated by awarding
Speaker 2: them the best destination hotel and also best casual chic
Speaker 2: restaurant during the ceremony.
Speaker 3: I'm look confused that the whole gala event decided her
Speaker 3: presence was a gift and basically paid for everything for
Speaker 3: her and they went and won stuff too.
Speaker 2: Yeah okay, yeah, so King he lived in Bahrain for
Speaker 2: more than a decade and he was just being slippery
Speaker 2: and getting all sorts of money and gifts and special
Speaker 2: treatment for little or nothing. But then in twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: he gets extradited to the UK for that Jersey stuff.
Speaker 3: They don't mess with Jersey.
Speaker 2: So he was charged in the Jersey Royal Court with
Speaker 2: twenty five counts of fraud and larceny. And this is
Speaker 2: going back to the two thousand and eight stuff. Crown
Speaker 2: Advocate Matthew Jowett said the misappropriation was quote something in
Speaker 2: the order of sixteen million pounds. Oh, yeah, that's a misappropriation.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: April twenty nineteen, he pleaded guilty and got sentenced to
Speaker 2: six years imprisonment for stealing six hundred and seventy thousand
Speaker 2: pounds from Belgravia.
Speaker 4: So much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's how much they could track.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when he bled them out, you're saying right, so.
Speaker 2: Much money was taken out. The court heard that liquidators
Speaker 2: were left with just sixty four thousand pounds in the
Speaker 2: firm's accounts when all was said and done of sixteen million,
Speaker 2: and they were only able to pay creditors four point
Speaker 2: two pence for every pound they were owed. Yeah. Four
Speaker 2: months later he also got in order to pay back
Speaker 2: three hundred and twenty thousand pounds or get more jail time.
Speaker 2: He got out in twenty twenty one. Wow. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: important to note that he's only ever been arrested in
Speaker 2: charge for the Belgravia case, nothing else that I told
Speaker 2: you about.
Speaker 3: It's like they want to incentivize criminals to only go
Speaker 3: for this type of crime because you don't get punished
Speaker 3: for this type of crime. It's like, look, don't go
Speaker 3: in robbing banks with guns. Go up and rob my
Speaker 3: rich friends and we won't do anything about it.
Speaker 2: Exactly. There's a really good BBC documentary Panorama, you know that,
Speaker 2: Like that's like their sixty minutes, like their investigative reporting.
Speaker 2: That panorama there's like a thirty minute overview the whole
Speaker 2: thing called the Trillion Dollar con Man, and you get
Speaker 2: like they track him down and do the old school
Speaker 2: Mike Wallace door shove a camera in your Field's so good?
Speaker 2: But yeah, are you when the children were abandoned? That
Speaker 2: one's before he got he got arrested. But it's it's
Speaker 2: it's awesome. It's really good. Anyway.
Speaker 3: All I know is Path TV or Path films that
Speaker 3: the documentaries I know, Yes, British it's really old.
Speaker 2: It's good panorama, IM right in that panorama, Zaren, What
Speaker 2: is your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: I mean I kind of just like tripped into it
Speaker 3: a second their back which is basically still big. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's kind of ridiculous that that is the message from
Speaker 3: the world of jurisprudence and crime. But it's the only
Speaker 3: thing I garner from all these stories is well, if
Speaker 3: you're going to do it, rob the biggest company and
Speaker 3: then bleed it dry and then act like, well, what
Speaker 3: could I do? Talk to a lawyer, and they just
Speaker 3: keep doing that, and people are like, oh, what can
Speaker 3: we do? Yeah, because I mean like you might get
Speaker 3: eighteen months here or there. I mean you may have
Speaker 3: to do maybe some people don't want to talk to
Speaker 3: you at the next Derby Days, but other than that,
Speaker 3: it seems like you'll be fine.
Speaker 2: My ridiculous I'm really like fascinated by how you can
Speaker 2: throw out any kind of like mildly Middle Eastern thing
Speaker 2: and everyone's just like, oh, big money, they got money,
Speaker 2: I'll take it the sands. Yeah, And they don't think,
Speaker 2: they don't think to contact anyone.
Speaker 3: They buy into what they expect foolishness with the money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just yeah, exactly, just extravagant spending the money into
Speaker 2: a failing footbook.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Interesting, And so that's my takeaway. You know what else, though,
Speaker 2: help me? I U right now, I think we're on
Speaker 2: the same page. What is it, mister Applebee? Talk back?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I hi.
Speaker 7: I wanted to tell you guys about my coworker who
Speaker 7: has a Pokemon side hustle where he uses the ct
Speaker 7: X ray scanner to look at inside unopened Pokemon card
Speaker 7: packs and then he can maximize resale value by either
Speaker 7: selling the unopened packs with nothing good or opening up
Speaker 7: the ones with rare cards and selling those individually. And
Speaker 7: I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's amazing. That's pretty cool. Think about all
Speaker 2: the people who either a have to wait forever to
Speaker 2: get into a point where CT scan or get charged
Speaker 2: through the nose by their you know, it's not covered
Speaker 2: by insurance. And this guy's scanning Pokemon acts.
Speaker 3: I don't know for certain, but CT is the chromatomography
Speaker 3: right then, So it's like the three D and they're
Speaker 3: using positrons, which means they're using like antimatter they're using
Speaker 3: he's using antimatter to see through Pokemon cards.
Speaker 2: I love that. I both love it and hate it.
Speaker 3: I know you too.
Speaker 2: That's it for today. You can That was a great
Speaker 2: talk back. Though. You can find us online at ridiculous
Speaker 2: Crime dot com. We're also at Ridiculous I'm on Twitter,
Speaker 2: on Instagram, email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Leave
Speaker 2: us a talk back, Leave us some good ones. We
Speaker 2: love them. On the iHeart app, it's free. Download it.
Speaker 2: You got all sorts of other apps floating on your front?
Speaker 2: What's one more? Come on now reach out. Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 2: is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and
Speaker 2: edited by spokesman for the RC Royal Family Dave Cousten,
Speaker 2: starring Annale Rutger as Judith. Research is by Notts County
Speaker 2: Official Timekeeper Marisa Brown and Notts County Milk Delivery Gal
Speaker 2: Andrea Song Sharpened Hear. The theme song is by North
Speaker 2: Korean football stars Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe
Speaker 2: is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup
Speaker 2: by Sparkleshot and Mister Andrea. Executive producers are Bahrainy Advertiser,
Speaker 2: Ben Bollen and Aston Martin Ripoman, Noel Brown.
Speaker 5: Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time, Ridiqulious Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
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