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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 1: My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They call

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Speaker 1: me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer

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Speaker 1: Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you.

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Speaker 1: You are here, and that makes this the stuff they

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Speaker 1: don't want you to know. Folks. I'm recording from a

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Speaker 1: very remote location this week, but I didn't want to

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Speaker 1: miss the opportunity to speak with everyone today. We are

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Speaker 1: recording today's Strange News segment on Monday, August, and some

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Speaker 1: deeply troubling things are happening across the globe. Wherever you live,

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Speaker 1: you have probably already heard about the chaos sweeping Afghanistan

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Speaker 1: as U S forces make a hasty retreat and city

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Speaker 1: after city after city falls to the Taliban. The recent

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Speaker 1: footage of massive crowds mobbing the airport to escape Kabul

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Speaker 1: bears a shocking similarity to the fall of Saigon in nine.

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Speaker 1: Our thoughts, as individuals and as the show, are with

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Speaker 1: the citizens of Afghanistan, many of whom were born after

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Speaker 1: the events of September eleven, which sparked the US his

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Speaker 1: most recent twenty year period of activities in a country

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Speaker 1: historically under siege from one foreign government to the next.

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Speaker 1: It seems the Graveyard of Empires has once again proven

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Speaker 1: its nicknamed true and as we record, the Taliban is

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Speaker 1: re implementing draconian bands on music, he woman rights, especially

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Speaker 1: those of women, and much much more. We'll have a

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Speaker 1: full episode on the way, but for now, please be

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Speaker 1: aware that this is a profoundly complex situation with a

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Speaker 1: lot of history that isn't often mentioned. It's a complexity

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Speaker 1: that isn't being fully explored in most Western media. So

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Speaker 1: if you are listening and have personal experience in this region,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. Uh please write directly

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Speaker 1: Conspiracy iHeart radio dot com or give us a call

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Speaker 1: one eight three three s T d W y t K.

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Speaker 1: But for now, something different. It's often said that the

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Speaker 1: course of true love never did run true, and it

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Speaker 1: seems this observation is just as relevant beneath the waves

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Speaker 1: as it is on the shore. As we've discussed at

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Speaker 1: length in the past, the world's oceans are in a

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Speaker 1: state of crisis and she and pollution has created an

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Speaker 1: existential threat to an enormous chunk of the world sea life,

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Speaker 1: rising temperatures, oil spills, plastic everywhere, you name it. You know,

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Speaker 1: living in the ocean was never easy, and now the

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Speaker 1: creatures beneath those waves are essentially playing the game of

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Speaker 1: life on hard mode. Scientists still don't understand the full

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Speaker 1: spectrum of long tail effects and consequences that come from

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Speaker 1: dumping so much junk into the water. And this goes

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Speaker 1: far beyond the harrowing photos of turtles caught in plastic

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Speaker 1: six pack rings or you know, fish whose bodies are

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Speaker 1: riddled with microplastics. Yet this isn't the typical story about waste.

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Speaker 1: It is a striking one, and for context, it's important

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Speaker 1: to say that, according to the International Union for Conservation

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Speaker 1: of Nature, at least eight million tons of plastic end

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Speaker 1: up in the ocean every single year. Furthermore, plastics in

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Speaker 1: general make up eight percent of what's called marine debris

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Speaker 1: from the surface waters all the way down through the

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Speaker 1: abyssal plane to deep sea sediments. It is literally affecting

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Speaker 1: every single kind of maritime organism. There's no real exception

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Speaker 1: to this rule. But the humble hermit crab and a

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Speaker 1: couple of other crustaceans are having a weirder time than

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Speaker 1: most because you see the hermit crab and some of

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Speaker 1: these other organisms may actually be uh into plastic. Doc

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Speaker 1: can we get some kind of like sexy R and

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Speaker 1: B music ratans I mean into plastic, like into plastic,

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Speaker 1: quiet storm level into plastic. Here's what happened. A research

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Speaker 1: team at the University of Hull has found an additive

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Speaker 1: and plastic named olamide is causing hermit crabs to get

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Speaker 1: kind of how I'm bothered, as well as some kinds

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Speaker 1: of shrimp. When they're exposed to this chemical, their respiration

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Speaker 1: rate increases, which indicates some sort of excitement. What kind

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Speaker 1: of excitement, Well, it depends on who you ask. Some

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Speaker 1: people claim it's a kind of attraction my record skip

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Speaker 1: what No, Seriously, it's true. Olyamide is known to be

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Speaker 1: what's called a sex pheromone or info chemical. This acts

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Speaker 1: as a stimulant for some marine species, including things like

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Speaker 1: hermit crabs and shrimp. The researchers specifically found that quote

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Speaker 1: olyamide also has a striking resemblance to oleic acid, a

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Speaker 1: chemical released by arthropods during decomposition, and since hermit crabs

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Speaker 1: are scavengers, they might misidentify polyamide as a food source,

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Speaker 1: which creates a trap. Fullamide, which most people probably haven't

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Speaker 1: heard of, is a combon plastic additive. It's used as

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Speaker 1: what's called a slip agent. That's a lubricant that's put

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Speaker 1: on plastics that need to be released from molds after

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Speaker 1: they've been shaped. This stuff fullamide also helps the internal

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Speaker 1: structure of plastics flow smoothly, and it's used in polypropylene,

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Speaker 1: which is in a ton of things like food containers.

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Speaker 1: But it's also an organic molecule that is found naturally

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Speaker 1: its human blood plasma and animal pheromones in something called

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Speaker 1: the cleaner shrimp. This stuff pull amide has been found

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Speaker 1: to help catalyze a mating response in sexual old partners

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Speaker 1: because they sense this pheromone, and this pheromone signals to

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Speaker 1: them that it's time for, you know, a little adult

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Speaker 1: shrimp swim. So some pop science news sites focused purely

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Speaker 1: on the sexual angle here, but researchers and experts like

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Speaker 1: chemical ecologist Paula Schermacher are quick to note this chemical

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Speaker 1: may trigger different responses in different animals. So yes, leam

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Speaker 1: I could help trigger that mating response in cleaner shrimp,

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Speaker 1: but in hermit crabs, Schermacher says, the substance seems to

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Speaker 1: trigger something a little more like what we will call

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Speaker 1: food attraction. It's a feeding stimulant. I mean, maybe it's

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Speaker 1: best to think of how excited you might be if

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Speaker 1: you've been craving pizza all weekend or all day and

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Speaker 1: then you happen to pass by a pizzeria and you

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Speaker 1: smell the fresh baked pizza aroma, you know, and you

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Speaker 1: can you know, you can smell the garlic, and your

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Speaker 1: stomach is rebelling and trying to steer you towards this place.

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Speaker 1: That smell gets you on board, right, not smell probably

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Speaker 1: nudges you toward going to pizzeria or going to you know,

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Speaker 1: it could be barbecue, whatever you smell when you're hungry. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this this is the same reaction those hermit crabs maybe experiencing.

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Speaker 1: But the thing is, the smell of pizza probably doesn't

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Speaker 1: get people amorous. Well, I mean, most people, you know,

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Speaker 1: live your life as long as you're not hurting anyone.

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Speaker 1: But most people would just say pizza is delicious, not

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Speaker 1: like pizza. Yeah, so that's the long and short. There

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Speaker 1: is a substance in waste plastic that smells like awesome

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Speaker 1: food to submarine life, and it's the pheromone equivalent of

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Speaker 1: a booty call for some other marine life. Didn't see

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Speaker 1: that when coming. Cheers to anyone who had that on

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Speaker 1: their dystopian bingo card. Right. So, putting aside bad jokes

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Speaker 1: about being catfished, this research should be making a bigger splash.

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Speaker 1: It's profoundly frightening to realize just how much a single

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Speaker 1: substance can affect wildlife in such a specific set of ways.

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Speaker 1: Only am I, let's remember, is just one of many

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Speaker 1: many chemicals associated with plastic being dumped in the ocean

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Speaker 1: right now, So we have to ask ourselves, what about

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Speaker 1: all the other stuff going beneath the waves? How do

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Speaker 1: these chemicals affect wildlife? And how can humans know which

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Speaker 1: chemicals and which effects to research? The problem is vast.

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Speaker 1: It is mind boggling. And again, as we record right now,

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Speaker 1: as you're listening to this, civilization continues to pump stuff

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Speaker 1: into the world's oceans while hermit crabs and horny nous

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Speaker 1: or getting most of the headlines here. The reality is

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Speaker 1: that this is the tip of a large, looming iceberg

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Speaker 1: of unknown consequences. So what do you think, fellow conspiracy realist?

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Speaker 1: What else could be happening down there beneath the waves?

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Speaker 1: And what happens to humanity when these unforeseen consequences affect

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Speaker 1: life on land? What do we do when this bill

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Speaker 1: comes due? Signing off from an undisclosed location, Stay safe,

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Speaker 1: Let's talk soon. Oh man, that was a great story.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry that we weren't all together to discuss that more,

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Speaker 1: but I'm really glad that we learned about it. I

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Speaker 1: want to jump back really quickly, Noll, if that's okay

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Speaker 1: with you, to Afghanistan. I wanted to talk about that

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Speaker 1: today on the episode. But we we figure it's going

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Speaker 1: to be better if we compile all of our information

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Speaker 1: into you know, one major stuff they don't want you

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Speaker 1: to know. Well, it's an ongoing story obviously. I mean

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Speaker 1: we're gonna keep hearing more and more about what led

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Speaker 1: to this. I mean, you know what led to it, right,

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Speaker 1: But it seems like uh, no dumb moment where it's like,

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Speaker 1: of course this is going to happen. It wasn't the

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Speaker 1: whole point of like being there occupying Afghanistan for all

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Speaker 1: these years. Isn't this like exactly what we were trying

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Speaker 1: to keep from happening? The Taliban reoccupying Afghanistan, you know,

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Speaker 1: for all of these years, and yet the moment we uh,

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Speaker 1: we take off here, it is it seems like a

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Speaker 1: real um critique of of you know, all of this, uh,

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Speaker 1: this investment we've put into that country and all of

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Speaker 1: the time we spent there. It is a weird situation,

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Speaker 1: a tale of a quagmire as old as time, right.

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Speaker 1: And Ben was right on there when he referred to

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Speaker 1: it as the place where UH countries go to die

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Speaker 1: or or empires go to die, Afghanistan, UH. And I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about it further when we when all

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Speaker 1: three of us can be gathered to discuss. But I

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Speaker 1: want to point out just something really quickly, which is

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Speaker 1: the rapid nature of what occurred, how quickly this happened.

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Speaker 1: As Ben said, we're recording this on August sixteenth, that's

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Speaker 1: a Monday, and on the last Friday, as we record,

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Speaker 1: I want to read you this just a few things

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Speaker 1: from this article out of ABC News. It says Taliban

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Speaker 1: fighters executing surrendering troops, which could amount to war crimes.

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Speaker 1: US officials say the US Embassy and Kabul has also

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Speaker 1: urged Americans to evacuate Afghanistan. So that was happening on Friday. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there were a lot of alarms being raised because the

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Speaker 1: Taliban was on a a heavy offensive against many of

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Speaker 1: the cities in Afghanistan all as of last Friday, and

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Speaker 1: they had been doing so for not that long. But

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Speaker 1: the offensives have been tracked by Western news sites for

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Speaker 1: quite a while. I want to read two things from

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Speaker 1: that article quote. The U s Embassy in Kabul has

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Speaker 1: also urged Americans to evacuate Afghanistan immediately, amid fears that

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Speaker 1: the capital could fall into Taliban hands in a matter

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Speaker 1: of weeks. That was on Friday. A military analysis said

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Speaker 1: the city could be isolated in thirty to sixty days

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Speaker 1: and be captured in ninety days, a US official told

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Speaker 1: ABC News. But that timeline seemed even more accelerated Thursday,

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Speaker 1: as the Taliban claimed another another city, the third largest

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Speaker 1: in the country. So that happened on Friday, then on

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Speaker 1: Sunday yesterday, over the weekend. Here's uh, here's something from

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Speaker 1: the Daily Saba s A B A H. Here's the title.

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Speaker 1: Afghan President Ghani relinquishes power, Taliban form interim government um so.

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Speaker 1: And and in between those two stories, Also on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: they also took over Bogram Air Force Base, one of

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Speaker 1: the major I don't know icons I guess of American

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Speaker 1: and Western power within the country. They took that over. It. Well,

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Speaker 1: there's a prison within that air force base that housed

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Speaker 1: over five thousand people. Those are Taliban fighters, those are

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Speaker 1: ISIS fighters, those are all kinds of people there. The

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Speaker 1: Taliban took the whole thing over and began releasing prisoners

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Speaker 1: all over the weekend. Uh. It's just insane and I

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Speaker 1: cannot wait to discuss this further in a full episode.

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Speaker 1: Biden summed it up nicely and I'm like the most

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Speaker 1: again no dust statement of the year. The truth is,

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Speaker 1: this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. Um yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I get it. He's making a political maneuver. He

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Speaker 1: says he didn't want to pass this on to another administration.

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Speaker 1: This is he's been the fourth president to preside over

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Speaker 1: this decades long conflict that has always you know, the

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Speaker 1: quagmire is the word of the day. It seems like

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Speaker 1: it's always felt like that, and it was also complicated

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Speaker 1: initially what led to the invasion in the first place.

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Speaker 1: So it's kind of been a thing that's you know,

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Speaker 1: been inherited and kind of serviced over the years, and

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Speaker 1: like it's always felt like it's been one step forward,

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Speaker 1: three steps back. So maybe he just wanted to get

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Speaker 1: out of there, um and just be done with it.

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Speaker 1: But it's also like not a great look, uh, and

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Speaker 1: a lot to unpack because the history of it is

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Speaker 1: long and very complicated. That's right, And we're not doing

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Speaker 1: that now, no, but but we will soon. For now,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break here, a word from

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Speaker 1: our sponsor. Then we'll be right back with more strange news.

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Speaker 1: And we're back with more strange news, potentially another with

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Speaker 1: by the Biden administration. UM. This one a little lower profile,

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Speaker 1: but the ramifications could be equally as as distressing as

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Speaker 1: is what's happening over there in Afghanistan. UM probably seen

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Speaker 1: a lot in the news lately, or at least on

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Speaker 1: social media. UM. More so on social media, I would

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Speaker 1: say even then in the news that fentanyl, the synthetic

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Speaker 1: opioid um has really been wreaking havoc on people causing

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Speaker 1: tens of thousands of overdose deaths a year UM in

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Speaker 1: your local communities or in your local scenes or whatever.

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Speaker 1: You may have started to see people posting uh screenshots

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Speaker 1: or image macros or whatever talking about street drugs being

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Speaker 1: laced with fentanyl UM, which, as as we know, we've

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Speaker 1: talked about it before, especially in our Big Farma episode

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Speaker 1: and about Perdue Farma in particular, how little fentanyl it

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Speaker 1: takes to cause a deadly overdose. It's like it either's

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Speaker 1: images online where you can see a penny and then

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Speaker 1: you can see some crumbs of fenciel next to it,

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Speaker 1: and it's literally like one or two milligrams. It can

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Speaker 1: cause you to absolutely drop dead. And and to do

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Speaker 1: with what what type of fentanyl it is, because there's

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Speaker 1: so many different cousins like chemical cousin. Thank you Matt.

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Speaker 1: That's a big part of what today's story is about

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Speaker 1: as well. UM. It's sort of a two tiered story. UM.

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Speaker 1: But so again with those you know shares that you

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Speaker 1: might be seeing Instagram about, you know, it's about looking

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Speaker 1: out for your friends, if you know any addicts or

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Speaker 1: you know any users. I mean, plenty of people do

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Speaker 1: and you don't have to be an addict to be

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Speaker 1: a drug user, but um, cocaine, um M, d M

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Speaker 1: A things like that. There is or has been a

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Speaker 1: lot of concern about these street drugs that are laced

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Speaker 1: with this potentially deadly substance that can cause an instant

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Speaker 1: overdose if just by you know, in just in sufflating,

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Speaker 1: I believe is the words for snorting or injecting just

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Speaker 1: a few grains. Not Graham's minds, you grains um. And

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Speaker 1: so there's a lot of like information or called to

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Speaker 1: action on making sure you get this overdose deterrent called

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Speaker 1: narcan um, which is uh, it's like a little in hailer,

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Speaker 1: and you can literally save someone's life. It's apparently very

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Speaker 1: very very powerful um and relatively easy to get. You

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Speaker 1: can get them at pharmacies. There are places that are

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Speaker 1: passing them out for free and teaching classes on how

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Speaker 1: to use them. So it's a lot of the stuff

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Speaker 1: that I've been seeing is about like being prepared and

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Speaker 1: watching out for your friends and maybe carrying one of

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Speaker 1: these are round with you. But the story for today

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Speaker 1: is about a bit of a pr let's say, misstep.

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Speaker 1: The San Diego Police Department did because yes, while we

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Speaker 1: know this substance is very, very dangerous, it is still

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Speaker 1: possible to fearmonger about it in ways that could actually

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Speaker 1: do more damage than create positive outcomes. And this is

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Speaker 1: I think what is happening with this story out of

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Speaker 1: San Diego. Essentially, the San Diego Police merman did was

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Speaker 1: they released a video which essentially it almost looks like

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Speaker 1: you're watching a news package. Um, you've got stand ups

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Speaker 1: from these different officers. Um. But you have this bodycam

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Speaker 1: footage of a young officer handling something evidence of some

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Speaker 1: kind during a traffic stop in a in a trunk

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden passing out, just like

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Speaker 1: literally keeling over on his back. Then you have this

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Speaker 1: very heroic footage of the body cam, the perspective shot

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Speaker 1: of his partner unpacking one of these Narcanon hailers from

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Speaker 1: the blister pack and then administering it to his buddy. Um.

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Speaker 1: Then he's loaded onto Guerney and it's almost literally one

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Speaker 1: of those like sitting up with the two thumbs up.

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Speaker 1: It's like thanks for saving me, pal um. And then

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Speaker 1: it's got stand ups, you know, like talking heads of

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Speaker 1: the officer or his partner. Uh. And I believe one

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Speaker 1: other representative of the San Diego Police Department. But the

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Speaker 1: officer unequivalently says I overdosed, and his partners saying and

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Speaker 1: his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He

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Speaker 1: was clearly overdosing all the way to the hospital. Um.

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Speaker 1: And they released this and the news ran it as fact,

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Speaker 1: like the local news. There's are several examples of this

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Speaker 1: being picked up and just run as fact because amidst

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Speaker 1: this kind of you know, climate of fear that I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about, a very real fear that should be real

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Speaker 1: around this substance. UM. It was. It's the kind of

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Speaker 1: thing where, of course you're gonna like not question this,

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Speaker 1: You're gonna you're gonna run it. You're gonna be like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, it can you can. You can kill

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Speaker 1: you just by touching it, just by like looking at it,

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Speaker 1: you know. Um. And so then we have some folks

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Speaker 1: in the medical community coming out and saying, well, actually,

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Speaker 1: this isn't true at all. Um. You cannot overdose simply

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Speaker 1: by touching the substance. UM. It's just not biologically possible,

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Speaker 1: is what the experts are saying. So let's let's go

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Speaker 1: to the experts real quick. Before we do that, I

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Speaker 1: just want to say, this is really surprising to me.

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Speaker 1: And I think I fell victim to some of the

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Speaker 1: stories coming out about fentonyl and officers coming into contact

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Speaker 1: with it, not this particular one, but in the past,

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Speaker 1: other stories about an officer encountering fentanyl and getting it

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Speaker 1: on them and then needing narcan just in case. And

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Speaker 1: I think we even talked about it before. I think

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Speaker 1: we did too, Matt. I think we did too. And

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Speaker 1: and here's the thing. Um, they never released any toxicology

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Speaker 1: that the young man didn't die, the dude didn't die, um,

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Speaker 1: but they never actually confirmed that it was an overdose

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Speaker 1: with the hospital and the sheriff of the San Diego

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Speaker 1: Police Department admitted that he himself, not a doctor, is

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Speaker 1: the one who put this out to the public that

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Speaker 1: it was an overdose. And again, this video really is

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Speaker 1: what you would call a public serve announcement type video,

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Speaker 1: you know, or almost like a yeah, it's it's meant

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Speaker 1: to educate, but unfortunately it's just laced no pun intended

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Speaker 1: with within misinformation. And these experts they were talking about,

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Speaker 1: one of which is someone named Gretchen Bergman, who's the

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Speaker 1: executive director and co founder of an organization called a

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Speaker 1: New Path UM and a New path is meant to

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Speaker 1: reduce the stigma associated with drug abuse and disorders, to

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Speaker 1: treat it more like a psychological condition um that needs

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Speaker 1: to be treated therapeutically, rather than having people locked up.

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Speaker 1: And and she said, um, it just didn't feel right.

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Speaker 1: It didn't sound right. He had gloves on, But even

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Speaker 1: if he had gotten it on his skin, he would

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Speaker 1: have had to take his hand to his mouth or nose.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't seep into your pores um. And this is

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Speaker 1: backed up by numerous other medical professionals in various sources

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Speaker 1: that that we read or that that I read for this.

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Speaker 1: And you know, it's just interesting because the idea of

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Speaker 1: stigmatizing drug users is something that's always kind of gone

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Speaker 1: hand in hand with like the quote unquote war on drugs,

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Speaker 1: and you know the idea of mandatory minimums and treating

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Speaker 1: drug users as criminals rather than people that are in

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Speaker 1: need of counseling or you know, mental health issues right

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Speaker 1: or or are suffering for mental health issues. And that's

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Speaker 1: someone that Biden, as part of his campaign, was very

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Speaker 1: much about. You know, he's got a son that famously

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Speaker 1: struggled with drug addiction. UM. But apparently uh he is

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Speaker 1: also quietly done expanded legislation that does just that, imposes

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Speaker 1: mandatory minimums not on fentanyl itself, but on what's called

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Speaker 1: fentanyl analogs. And Matt, you hit the nail on the

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Speaker 1: head at the top of the segment. You were talking

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Speaker 1: about how many different flavors and styles and flavors is

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Speaker 1: some being joking, but you know different like slight variations

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Speaker 1: on the molecule that is fentonyl um that can be

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Speaker 1: considered fentyyl analogs. Uh. And you know, some of them

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Speaker 1: are way, way way stronger, and some of them are

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Speaker 1: completely and not qu us. Some of them are a

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Speaker 1: little weaker. But through this thing called class wide scheduling, UM,

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Speaker 1: they are all treated the same. And it essentially amounts to,

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Speaker 1: I read a really great article on the Marshall Project,

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Speaker 1: amounts to a similar treatment to what was done with

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Speaker 1: crack cocaine in the nineteen eighties versus powder cocaine. Essentially,

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Speaker 1: what was done with crack was crack was treated much

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Speaker 1: more harshly in terms of possession because it was seen

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Speaker 1: as this epidemic. But it was also I think we

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Speaker 1: could probably all agree seen as a way to harass

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Speaker 1: and jail and mess with members of minority communities, because

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Speaker 1: if there's more crack in minority communities and more powder

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Speaker 1: cocaine in affluent communities, well you're more likely to get

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Speaker 1: longer harsher sentences in minority communities. And you know, you

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Speaker 1: could argue the causation of that, but it seems to

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Speaker 1: me like it was done pretty conscious. And the same

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Speaker 1: thing is true with this when we're talking about drugs

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Speaker 1: laced with fentanyl. They can be laced with either fentanyl

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Speaker 1: proper fentanyl like you would get prescribed, you know, from

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Speaker 1: a doctor, which it is used to schedule to drug,

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Speaker 1: which means that it has high instances of addiction, but

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Speaker 1: also that it um is a drug that can be

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Speaker 1: used to treat It has like legitimate use to treat

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Speaker 1: conditions like cancer and pain from cancer. UM. But the

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Speaker 1: analogs MATT are actually receiving harsher penalties. So it requires

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Speaker 1: a much smaller amount of a fentanyl analog to be found, say,

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Speaker 1: laced inside of a batch of cocaine that someone is selling,

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Speaker 1: than actual fentanyl itself. And the argument is that this

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Speaker 1: is being done in a similar way targeting minority communities.

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Speaker 1: So what do you think? Uh, this is what I

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Speaker 1: would say. Very recently we started a show called Psychoactive

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Speaker 1: with host Ethan Nadalman, who founded the Drug Policy Alliance

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Speaker 1: and was the last week NOS. On August five, we

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Speaker 1: released an episode all about this, specifically about analogs of

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Speaker 1: fentanyl and what fentanyl is and why there are more

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Speaker 1: deaths from overdose than car accidents, gun shootings, drownings and

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Speaker 1: a couple other things combined, and just like why how

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Speaker 1: is that happening? Right? And it was all about this

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Speaker 1: specific thing, all of these different analogs because some of them,

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Speaker 1: at least from that interview, from to my understanding, it

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Speaker 1: has to do with the strength. Sometimes these analogs are

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Speaker 1: ten times more strong than regular fentanyl, which is already

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Speaker 1: like forty times more strong than heroin. Than some of

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Speaker 1: them are not as strong. But it's very difficult to

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Speaker 1: know what you're dealing with, especially if you're on the

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Speaker 1: user level. You have no idea, right unless the person

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Speaker 1: you're you know, whoever your dealer is, is a legit

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Speaker 1: chemist who's making the stuff, who can describe it perfectly

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Speaker 1: to you and you can understand it perfectly. It's a

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Speaker 1: dangerous situation, and I can see why. I can see

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Speaker 1: why maybe law enforcement would want to punish the use

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Speaker 1: of this stuff much much more because it is causing

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Speaker 1: so much death who you are, where you are. But

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Speaker 1: why wide treat the analog more harshly than the substance itself. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's it's hard. I can't recall this interview completely from Psychoactive,

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Speaker 1: but one of the major points is that the years

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Speaker 1: supply of fentanyl that comes from outside of the US,

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Speaker 1: if you imagine the shipping of shipping in of drugs,

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Speaker 1: there's all kinds of creative and weird ways that that

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Speaker 1: you know and other people do to get stuff in, right,

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Speaker 1: but also to reduce the weights and like have more

427
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: strength with less weight. One I I'm not going to

428
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 1: say it correctly. You have to listen to interview to

429
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 1: get it. But the the actual physical amount of fentanyl

430
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,920
Speaker 1: that is in circulation in the United States in any

431
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:59,679
Speaker 1: given year is very, very tiny. It was like to

432
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,679
Speaker 1: to small whatever the units were with two tiny amounts.

433
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,120
Speaker 1: Just talking about how difficult it is to police that, right,

434
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: if you imagine a smuggling operation when it's an analog,

435
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,439
Speaker 1: I think it's I don't know, I really don't know.

436
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,360
Speaker 1: I'm imagining if they're finding that it's being produced statewide somewhere,

437
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,359
Speaker 1: you know, in some labs. I I this is all

438
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,639
Speaker 1: speculation on my part because I have no idea. I

439
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:24,639
Speaker 1: have no idea why they would treat the analogs that

440
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,119
Speaker 1: differently besides the huge variance in effect. No, I'm totally

441
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:31,640
Speaker 1: with you, and I think UM legislation that would target

442
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: the manufacturers and the folks that are actually bringing this

443
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: in makes a lot of sense. But ultimately, what this

444
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 1: legislation does is it punishes the street level dealers UM

445
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: without really you know, having much in place to find

446
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 1: the root. Cause maybe that's just because it's it's too

447
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: difficult because it is such a small amount. But there's

448
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: a there's an article about this dude, Todd Coleman, who

449
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,240
Speaker 1: got sentenced to ten years in federal prison for selling

450
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 1: thirty grams of cocaine UM and the reason for that

451
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: is because the crime lab found that it was laced

452
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:09,679
Speaker 1: with three illegal fentanyl analogs, one was benzel fentanyl UM,

453
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:14,280
Speaker 1: and in fact they were incorrect. The prime lab made

454
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: a mistake. They none of the compounds were an a

455
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: fentanyl analog. Two of them weren't even controlled substances UM.

456
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: But the point is like, if they found this this

457
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: this fentanyl analog UM, it is a harsher penalty than

458
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: actual fentanyl UM. And we and that doesn't matter if

459
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: it's if it's one of the you know, molecules or

460
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: one of the variations that is absolutely innocuous, or if

461
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 1: it's something like car fentanyl, which is like I think

462
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 1: ten thousand times stronger than morphin um. So it's just

463
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 1: it's just interesting. And I'm not trying to be alarmist.

464
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: And I mean, the Marshall Project is a nonprofit journalism

465
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 1: organization that you know, deals with criminal justice stuff and

466
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,479
Speaker 1: possibly is you know, has an agenda. But I do

467
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: think it's interesting that the way you can look got

468
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: it similar to like crack versus cocaine. I think it's

469
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: an interesting thing because you are going to be more

470
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: likely to find UM some of these these fenel fentyl

471
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: analog or some of these laced drugs in uh, you know,

472
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: minority communities, not minority communities, but maybe from minority dealers.

473
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 1: It's it's hard to say. Look, here's the rough thing

474
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 1: for me, man somebody I loved. Somebody there was a

475
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 1: fan of this show, was really close to me. Um

476
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 1: got sold by some street level dealer cocaine that had

477
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 1: fenel in it and he died. And if I could

478
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 1: find that person, I would I'm not gonna say I

479
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: I would love for that person to be in prison

480
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: so that I can't get to them. Um. What I'm

481
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: saying is I understand why law enforcement has that view

482
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 1: of like this per somebody selling fentinyl laced anything should

483
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: go away, but it won't ever stop the problem because

484
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: someone will always be there to fill the position if

485
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: persone goes to prison. Right. Um, So it's just it's

486
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: a it's a terrible situation. I don't even know how

487
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 1: to put it. Man, It's just it really is terrible.

488
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 1: If there's injustice, there's injustice, and it needs to be

489
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: taken care of. Just the substance itself is so dangerous.

490
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: It is. But it's also and let's also talk about

491
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: the fact that many of these analogs, it's all it's

492
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 1: all a game that these like black market labs are

493
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: playing to keep from being prosecuted. Because if you change

494
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 1: a molecule of something and make it something that's not

495
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: technically scheduled, then um, you are in fact shirking the

496
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: law a little bit. But you know, again Devil's advocate here,

497
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to look at both sides. And there's

498
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 1: the crack cocaine, you know, um analogy, But then there's

499
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: also like, well, if you preschedule all fentonel analogs, even

500
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 1: ones that haven't been invented yet, then you are potentially

501
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: lowering the incentive for higher level manufacturers and dealers to

502
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: lace their stuff within in the first place. So that

503
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: could be seen as a as as a you know,

504
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,000
Speaker 1: a positive version of this. But I also don't understand

505
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: why there's so many other things to lace your drugs with.

506
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: Why would you lace your drugs with something that will

507
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:27,239
Speaker 1: literally kill your customers. I've never understood that you just

508
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 1: need so very little, right per whatever you're selling, per dose,

509
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: per use. So I mean, I think that's why it's

510
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 1: well I don't know, I'm not I'm not an expert,

511
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: but it certainly seems like that's why, because it's very

512
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: very strong and you need very very little. So let's

513
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: just say you could have pretty terrible cocaine, but a

514
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 1: little bit of fentyl goes a long way in that case.

515
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: I guess that's true. But it's also like, I mean,

516
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: fentanyl is a depressant and cocaine is a stimulants. Anyone

517
00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: that anyone that thinks, oh my gosh, this this coke

518
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: cane is great because a little bit of fentonyl is

519
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: in it probably doesn't know what the effects of cocaine

520
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:09,840
Speaker 1: feel like. Yeah, sure, like me, but but you know,

521
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: same with heroin's name, with whatever else people are buying

522
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:18,520
Speaker 1: and using. It's just, uh, it's gross. And just to

523
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 1: wrap it up with a statistic, six of drug overdoses

524
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 1: last year could be attributed to fentil and I bet

525
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: you this year because of the pandemic and because of

526
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 1: maybe maybe it's maybe it has to do with um

527
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: interruptions and supply chains to matt you know, and then

528
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: things like that, and just feeling like or someone even

529
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: pointed out, maybe they're just trying to put another addictive

530
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 1: substance into something to make you more addicted to it,

531
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 1: even if you don't clock the difference and the effects,

532
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So that could be part

533
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 1: of it too. There's a lot of reasons and uh,

534
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: and these are evil people and absolutely should be put away.

535
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:55,560
Speaker 1: But just then addition something to consider. It's weird, man,

536
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 1: It's weird because it's all just humans trying to experiment

537
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:04,040
Speaker 1: and get through something. I don't know. There's so many Uh,

538
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 1: it's so complicated, you know, right, the use of drugs,

539
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 1: the selling of drugs. Why you would maybe feel like

540
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 1: you need to do that? Um, Why some people do

541
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 1: need to do that. Why governments take advantage of that,

542
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 1: Why you know, corrupt police departments take advantage of that.

543
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: Why cartel's form and hold power. It's just God, I

544
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: really don't like drugs. Sorry, guys, I promise I'm not.

545
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: I'm not some nark or police officer. I've just experienced

546
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 1: some negative things in my life I associated with them.

547
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: So it literally, yeah, you go ahead and do the

548
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: bingo thing because I just don't like it. Well, um,

549
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: there's a lot not to like. It's not what to

550
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 1: like for sure. And we are going to take a

551
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 1: quick pause now for a word from our sponsor, and

552
00:33:51,640 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 1: then we'll be back with today's last strange news. All right,

553
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 1: and we're back. We are jumping to a weird story.

554
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 1: It's strange news. I would call it strange news for sure.

555
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:13,839
Speaker 1: It's a little bit stale, maybe because the original things

556
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 1: that occurred happened last year in November, and then we're

557
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 1: updated in June of this year. But the big news

558
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 1: is coming out right now, and I think we should

559
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:27,960
Speaker 1: talk about it. Let's do it. Uh. This story has

560
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,800
Speaker 1: to do with money people, people who manage budgets, people

561
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 1: who manage accounts, and what happens when someone with access

562
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: to the funnel of that cheese uh maybe funnel like

563
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:48,839
Speaker 1: a cheese fountain, like at at Golden Corral. Really, yeah,

564
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 1: they have a thing the thing. Please continue, Okay, what

565
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,840
Speaker 1: happens when somebody who has access to where that begins,

566
00:34:56,960 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 1: or at least uh an access point somewhere within the chain,

567
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: just I used to do something wrong? Well, here in

568
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 1: lies the story of Ralph boog Leasy, a fifty nine

569
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,040
Speaker 1: year old man now today as we record this, who

570
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: was working for the University Medical Service Association Incorporated. That's

571
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,279
Speaker 1: what he's working for. They are associated with the University

572
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 1: of South Florida, and he's one of these guys who's

573
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 1: kind of higher level manager on the money side of

574
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:32,160
Speaker 1: this organization. He just pled guilty to embezzling twelve point

575
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: eight million dollars. Yeah, that's a huge that's a huge

576
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 1: amount of money to embezzle. Uh. You know, I always,

577
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,440
Speaker 1: I always think back to a certain Mike Judge movie

578
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: when it comes to embezzling money, trying to take a

579
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: tiny bit of money off the top of every transaction

580
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: or something. Uh. In this case, it was very different.

581
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: In this case, Ralph was using company credit cards and

582
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: accounts to just make huge payments for things, payments that

583
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: were very odd in general. And what according to the

584
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Times, he would he would just try and

585
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:17,240
Speaker 1: mask some of these payments and invoices for large sums

586
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: of money, and he got away with it for a

587
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: long time. Kind of weird. I'm trying to imagine. Just

588
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 1: to give an example, Nolan, Ben and I, as a

589
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:31,800
Speaker 1: part of our duties, as you know, producers here, executive producers,

590
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:36,239
Speaker 1: we have to do a thing where we cite invoices.

591
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,239
Speaker 1: Right if we make a payment on behalf of the

592
00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:41,799
Speaker 1: company for some service, some good, some recording equipment, or

593
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,720
Speaker 1: some studio time, we have to go through and report

594
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: exactly what that is. Give her a seat, you know,

595
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: give a reason for spending that money. Well, Ralph had

596
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:52,280
Speaker 1: to do the same kind of thing, but the people

597
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 1: around him, the people you know who he reported to,

598
00:36:55,160 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: Apparently we're just not noticing or looking the other or

599
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 1: worse well, I mean, you know, as we know, being

600
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: part of a large organization like like we are. Uh,

601
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 1: this seemed to be a relatively small nonprofit corporation, I

602
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,280
Speaker 1: mean comparatively be like hier Ratio is a massive company.

603
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 1: And uh, I think we've all, you know, to varying degrees, um,

604
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:21,160
Speaker 1: been behind on those expense reports and usually only get

605
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: robo emails. Um. It's not like we have someone knocking

606
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:26,800
Speaker 1: down our door saying, hey, where are those expense reports?

607
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,759
Speaker 1: Where are those TPS reports? You know, nobody is really

608
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 1: doing that, So it's pretty common I think for things

609
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: like that to lapse. Uh, you know, And it's not

610
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,080
Speaker 1: like anything that we're not reporting is because we're doing

611
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 1: anything to various Um, it's usually because we're just underwater

612
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:43,719
Speaker 1: and haven't gotten a chance to get to it yet.

613
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: And it's usually very obvious based on what we're buying

614
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:48,840
Speaker 1: and it's going to somebody. You know, it's not like

615
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 1: we're stockpiling this stuff. But Matt, this is not what

616
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 1: was happening with this story, and this stuff was going

617
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,319
Speaker 1: to a very specific thing that seems like it would

618
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 1: have immediately raised the red flag if not just for

619
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 1: this reason alone. Well, agreed, agreed. Uh, we're not doing

620
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 1: anything wrong, and I'm just stressing that. But this, uh,

621
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,560
Speaker 1: this guy was and it was going to a weird place,

622
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,799
Speaker 1: going a couple of weird places. I'm gonna start on

623
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,879
Speaker 1: the lower end the stuff that's reported later in all

624
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 1: the articles that you can read about this before we

625
00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: get to the juicy thing. Noll If that's okay, it

626
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: didn't spoil it. This guy is accused, according to the

627
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:30,720
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Times, of making around six hundred fifty thousand

628
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,480
Speaker 1: dollars in payments to an LLC that was owned by

629
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: himself and his wife. Um like personal travel. Liked dollars

630
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: in personal travel? Can you imagine traveling that much? I cannot,

631
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:50,560
Speaker 1: and we travel a lot, and we know what those

632
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:55,319
Speaker 1: bills about too, and they ain't nowhere near that. Yeah,

633
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: how how about this? A hundred and ninety thousand dollars

634
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: in rent payments? Trying to think of how much I've

635
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:05,279
Speaker 1: paid in rent over the course of my life, and

636
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 1: it's a lot of houses, a lot of places that

637
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:10,799
Speaker 1: I've rented. I don't think I get anywhere near that,

638
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering. You know, there's no breaking down of

639
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: these numbers in these articles, but yes, in the corporate seedings,

640
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,960
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're doing that. Um, A hundred and twenty

641
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:24,359
Speaker 1: one dollars in house improvements. Oh no, how about this

642
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:31,360
Speaker 1: twenty one grand in cell phone bills? Why? What? What

643
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 1: a cell phone bills? Like a hundred? I mean, I

644
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:35,439
Speaker 1: have I pay for my and my mom's cell phone

645
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:38,279
Speaker 1: bill and it's two a month. It's not a lot

646
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 1: less like, what could possibly what? What are you doing? Well,

647
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 1: I don't it's a lot of roaming. He also sent

648
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars to his wife's pay Pal account, so

649
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 1: you know that was really the nail and the coffin there.

650
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:54,279
Speaker 1: But no, let's let's jump to the main reason why

651
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:58,360
Speaker 1: we're talking about this as strange news. This guy found

652
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,319
Speaker 1: a way somehow, and I think this is one of

653
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 1: the one of the main cruxes of why he agreed,

654
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 1: why he's pleading guilty, why he signed the plea agreement.

655
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 1: Back in June, he was funneling money to a website

656
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:19,720
Speaker 1: called my girl fund dot com. Now what we're gonna

657
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:22,440
Speaker 1: talk about here. If anyone's listening and their their children

658
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:28,040
Speaker 1: or younger people, maybe consider pausing or skipping forward. Um,

659
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:30,920
Speaker 1: I'll just say before we go any further, this is

660
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:35,360
Speaker 1: a This is an adult website for adult things that

661
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: we're going to discuss. Okay, Okay, well we'll continue. We're

662
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 1: talking like an only fans type sitch Man. We're talking

663
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 1: like porn hub premium, Like I just need any of

664
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,399
Speaker 1: the details. It's say, it's like a cam site, if

665
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 1: that makes sense, but it's also an adult like chat

666
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 1: cam site. I don't chatter bait. Probably is it chatter bait?

667
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: Is that what it is? Clearly I'm a porn officially not.

668
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,440
Speaker 1: I don't know what that Sorry, I'm sorry, really showing

669
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:03,879
Speaker 1: my head here. Kids all right, we'll stop. The kids

670
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 1: are gone. What is chatter bait? I don't even know

671
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: what that is. It's a cam It's just a campsite.

672
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 1: It's a camp site that involves communication back and form.

673
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: I don't use it. I'm just I'm keyed in to

674
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:15,239
Speaker 1: the Internet and the zeitgeist. You guys, I just know

675
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 1: about this stuff. But it's a yeah, it's something where

676
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,360
Speaker 1: you can have you know, direct communication, you can give gifts,

677
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:23,840
Speaker 1: you can give tips. You know, it's it's it involves

678
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,880
Speaker 1: chatting directly and you can have you know, the performers

679
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 1: do certain things depending on how much you tip. So

680
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: point being is it's not a subscription service, and it

681
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 1: could be at all bets are off thing where if

682
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: you're really have a problem and you're in some sort

683
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 1: of like porn addiction rabbit hole, you could be dropping

684
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:44,840
Speaker 1: mad cash on a particular performer of your choice. That

685
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 1: would be like outrageous. Well, you may think that that's

686
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 1: what Ralph was doing, but it seems like there's something

687
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: else at play as well. He according to the Tampa

688
00:41:56,040 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 1: Bay Times, uh we said twelve point eight six millionion

689
00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 1: dollars in total that he embezzled. Well, eleven and a

690
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:07,439
Speaker 1: half million of that went to my girl fund dot

691
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:12,319
Speaker 1: com eleven and a half million dollars. And before you know,

692
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 1: you think, wow, this guy just was yeah, like you said,

693
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,279
Speaker 1: really into a few people and gave them a lot

694
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,799
Speaker 1: of money. Um, he was actually embezzling this money with

695
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 1: they think authorities think with the help of a family

696
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:32,280
Speaker 1: or or a close family associate, let's say I believe

697
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:37,440
Speaker 1: they said it was his step son's fiancee. They reportedly

698
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:41,600
Speaker 1: found an Excel document that showed around seven hundred and

699
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars in profits that they had made through

700
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 1: somehow giving money to this website and buying credits with

701
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: that money. Because it's like a they've got a credit

702
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:56,239
Speaker 1: system where you use your your actual currency to buy

703
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:59,240
Speaker 1: the credits, then you donate those credits to the person.

704
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 1: The pay age of the person, I guess is a laundering,

705
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,319
Speaker 1: it's a cover up kind of kind of thing, or yeah,

706
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:05,839
Speaker 1: it's it's this is That's why I want to talk

707
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 1: about it. It's really it's just something that I don't

708
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 1: have a full understanding of, but I'm interested in because

709
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:14,359
Speaker 1: it reminds me of some of the scams you can

710
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:18,080
Speaker 1: do with a gift card that you would buy from

711
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: somewhere and then you put money that's kind of ill

712
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 1: gotten onto a onto a card like that. Then you

713
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:28,280
Speaker 1: can use that card or you can cash out that card. Um,

714
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 1: it's kind of like that, only they were funneling it

715
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:34,880
Speaker 1: through this particular website. So whatever they did, because we

716
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 1: don't know exactly, we know that they were funneling tons

717
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 1: and tons of money through this website. The question is

718
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: whether or not the people who run the website and

719
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: the finances of the website had any idea it was happening,

720
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:51,840
Speaker 1: because surely that was a large like those are large transactions,

721
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 1: I'm assuming, right, Or was it were just was it

722
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 1: just the two of them working together? How else were

723
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:02,560
Speaker 1: they funneling this money through? This is what we have

724
00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:06,240
Speaker 1: from the u m s A. According to the Tampa

725
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: Bay Times, UM, this full the full report that was

726
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:14,360
Speaker 1: generated found that the internal controls, you know, after all

727
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: of this stuff went down, right, uh, and several people

728
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: got fired, including Ralph. Ralph got fired his like an

729
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,360
Speaker 1: auditor got fired, and another superior got fired. This is

730
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 1: what they found. Their controls for preventing fraud were week.

731
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 1: The university's internal audit team identified numerous transactions where he

732
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:35,000
Speaker 1: was just processing entries in a way that concealed his actions.

733
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 1: And it says they have since quote implemented enhanced control structures,

734
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:45,320
Speaker 1: including upgrading financial reporting systems to better protect against criminal acts.

735
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,839
Speaker 1: Good good on them. I suppose that's great, right after

736
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:53,319
Speaker 1: a couple of you know, twelve dozen million dollars, Uh,

737
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 1: just goes out the door. I just feel like, I mean,

738
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:58,520
Speaker 1: my credit card company cuts me off if I spend

739
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:01,799
Speaker 1: too much money like a state, Like, how are there

740
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 1: not like obvious like red flag you know, like algorithms

741
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 1: built into these massive financial kind you know, I mean

742
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 1: he's saying with the I heart. Like for example, like

743
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:12,239
Speaker 1: we we have corporate cards that we have to use sometimes,

744
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 1: and we were just at a conference and I had

745
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:17,400
Speaker 1: to pay for a bunch of hotel rooms for other people.

746
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 1: I got a red flag email from you know, our

747
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:23,680
Speaker 1: finance department. Uh, I think it was auto generated, and

748
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:26,400
Speaker 1: then it was forwarded to me by an actual human

749
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,919
Speaker 1: making sure that these charges were legit, and I said, yes,

750
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 1: they're legit. But it was me, the potential fraud ster

751
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:37,120
Speaker 1: that was saying, yes, these charges are legit, uh, for reasons.

752
00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 1: So I suppose if that same thing happened with our

753
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:41,440
Speaker 1: guy here, it could have been a similar situation. But

754
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 1: it just all of these just seems so suspicious, every

755
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: single one. Yeah, it's it's some weird stuff. And we're

756
00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:51,080
Speaker 1: not even going into all the details here, but I'm

757
00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:54,880
Speaker 1: gonna read you, uh this last thing, which is, so

758
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:56,920
Speaker 1: where did this money come from? He's working for a

759
00:45:56,960 --> 00:46:02,280
Speaker 1: nonprofit associated with the Universe City of South Florida. They

760
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:06,200
Speaker 1: they seem to be involved, at least from my understanding,

761
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 1: with staffing. So staffing a lot of the organization's needs. Um,

762
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 1: there's medical really big medical schools there, it says a

763
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,359
Speaker 1: corney of this article. The stolen money quote came from

764
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 1: the funds generated by patient care and just wait for it,

765
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: no state philanthropic grant or research money was impacted. So,

766
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 1: you know, just the money that patients were going in

767
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 1: for procedures and for healthcare, that's all they was stolen.

768
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:41,400
Speaker 1: Uh But I guess from the company's standpoint, that means

769
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 1: that's basically their profits. It's not the you know, the

770
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: money they were holding for any other major reason. Freaking

771
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:52,600
Speaker 1: wild dude, really weird stuff. What's the stuff they don't

772
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 1: want you to know? Well, there are a lot of

773
00:46:55,200 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 1: people who are somewhat connected to the financial process is

774
00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: of companies across the world, And it makes me wonder

775
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:06,839
Speaker 1: how much of this stuff is happening on what kind

776
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:11,000
Speaker 1: of scale? Right? Is it really tiny stuff? Are we

777
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 1: are we thinking office space level here or are we

778
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 1: thinking what the office space guys actually did accidentally right,

779
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:22,759
Speaker 1: it stole millions and millions of dollars. It would be

780
00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: really cool to know if you've ever heard of anything

781
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 1: like this, if you've got an interesting account of something

782
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: like this occurring, or maybe even an historical example, we

783
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: would love to hear from you. Yes, And we'd also

784
00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,279
Speaker 1: love to hear from you about your thoughts on the

785
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,040
Speaker 1: treatment of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs and of you know,

786
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,640
Speaker 1: whether you think UM doing these kind of stunts well

787
00:47:42,719 --> 00:47:45,359
Speaker 1: intentioned or not, that the San Diego Police Department did

788
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:49,120
Speaker 1: um is a good idea or what Please write to us.

789
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:51,240
Speaker 1: You can find us online at all of the usual

790
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:54,400
Speaker 1: social media spots of note. Yes, you can find us

791
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 1: on Twitter and Facebook. We are conspiracy stuff. Also on YouTube,

792
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:03,279
Speaker 1: conspiracy stuff on Instagram, were conspiracy stuff show? Oh hey,

793
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 1: And by the way, if you know anything about hermit

794
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 1: crabs and other crustaceans and the whole thing with oceanic

795
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:13,920
Speaker 1: plastic waste that Ben was talking about, we definitely want

796
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:16,440
Speaker 1: to hear from you two, So don't forget that part. Please.

797
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:19,080
Speaker 1: If you don't want to find us on social media

798
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:20,920
Speaker 1: and you don't like the stuff, we do have a

799
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:23,840
Speaker 1: phone number, that's right. It's one s t d w

800
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,840
Speaker 1: y t K. You got three minutes to leave a message.

801
00:48:27,160 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 1: Please let us know what to call you. Give yourself

802
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 1: a nickname, we can call you anonymous, whatever you want

803
00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:33,759
Speaker 1: um and try to stay to that three minutes and

804
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,240
Speaker 1: we will potentially use it on one of our weekly

805
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:39,479
Speaker 1: listener mail episodes. Yes, yes, yes, And if you don't

806
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: want to do any of that stuff, but you still

807
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:44,319
Speaker 1: want to contact us, please send us a good old

808
00:48:44,320 --> 00:49:05,320
Speaker 1: fashioned email. We are conspiracy at iHeart radio dot com. Yeah.

809
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:08,640
Speaker 1: Stuff they don't want you to know. Is a production

810
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:11,800
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

811
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:14,800
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

812
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.