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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: ZI what Elizabeth does?

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Speaker 3: See a ro Zeren nice to see.

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Speaker 2: I'm not spelling your name.

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Speaker 3: Don't do it this minute. You know it's ridiculous. Oh

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Speaker 3: my god, I do yes, tell me.

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Speaker 2: Okay, there's this crazy relationship or ratio. So I can

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Speaker 2: hold my air underwater. I can hold my breath underwater

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Speaker 2: for about two minutes, okay, right, Like I can easily

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Speaker 2: do two minutes. I try to get past that. It's

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Speaker 2: really hard to get like up to like three minutes.

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Speaker 2: But I can do two minutes guaranteed. Do you know

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Speaker 2: that dolphins can hold their breath four times as long

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Speaker 2: as I can about eight minutes underwater? Really, we're both mammals.

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Speaker 2: We're both required to sam I need to take a breath.

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Speaker 2: They can do it eight eight minutes, eight to ten

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Speaker 2: sometimes that's about the average. Do you know what other

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Speaker 2: mammal can do four times as long as a dolphin.

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Speaker 3: Can four times as long as a dog?

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Speaker 2: Huh that's what I just said. Oh dang, do you

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Speaker 2: know who sloths? What the tree mammal sloss? The one

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Speaker 2: slow moving trying to cross it. You gotta cark and

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Speaker 2: wait while they cry.

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Speaker 3: The correct then in half an hour.

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Speaker 2: Forty minutes they can hold their breath underwater. What yes,

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Speaker 2: forty minutes four times longer than a dolphin, four times

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Speaker 2: longer than a dolphin. Wow, that's nuts. Which is four

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Speaker 2: times longer than me, So sixteen times longer than me.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth does work.

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Speaker 3: But you know what I'm saying, ten times twenty times

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Speaker 3: the actual math.

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Speaker 2: But but my whole thing is, you know how, No,

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Speaker 2: by being super slots, they're saying they can slow down,

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Speaker 2: that they can go into water and slow down their metabolism,

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Speaker 2: slow down their wreathings, slow down all their their heartbeat,

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Speaker 2: all of it to a third of its normals.

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Speaker 3: Great, it's a slots of shoe money in a toilet,

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Speaker 3: a collector waiting animal before it starts to slowly.

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Speaker 2: I hope you brought a book.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Wow, that's ridiculous, right, that's super ridiculous. Do you

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Speaker 3: want to know what else is ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: That's what I came here for.

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Speaker 3: Deserving to be broke? What this is? Ridiculous? Crime a

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Speaker 3: podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, ice and cons. It's

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Speaker 3: always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent

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Speaker 3: ridiculous heard that.

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Speaker 2: I know you did, ha ha.

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Speaker 3: You're familiar with the Vietnamese boat people.

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Speaker 2: Correct, Yes, I am familiar with the Vietnamese boat paper

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Speaker 2: for me to.

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Speaker 3: Make that transision, ha ha, Vietnamese people familiar, So you are.

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Speaker 3: I'm talking about refugees. They to leave Vietnam. It's so

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Speaker 3: hard to come off.

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Speaker 2: Of the Oh yeah, no, I understand that. Yeah, how

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Speaker 2: do you get out of the It's a casey case

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Speaker 2: in moment.

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Speaker 3: Oh my, it were like those newscasters like, yes, you

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Speaker 3: know anyway, US refugees leave Vietnam end of the war

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Speaker 3: nineteen seventy five, terribly terrible wature humanitarian crisises. So when

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Speaker 3: I say major, I'm talking hundreds of thousands of people.

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Speaker 3: Between nineteen seventy five and nineteen ninety five, eight hundred

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Speaker 3: thousand people who fled Vietnam by boat arrived safely in

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Speaker 3: another country, and a lot of others left by other means.

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Speaker 3: But we're talking about those who left on boat, specifically

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Speaker 3: barrowing journey. So they went up against these wild storms

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Speaker 3: in the South China Sea and beyond oh Indian Ocean,

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Speaker 3: Philippines seas. Those are intense disease was rampant. They encountered pirates.

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Speaker 2: Of course, yeah, because they never stopped, right.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, It's not like they're own cruise ships. And these

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Speaker 3: small boats crammed with people running for their lives. Somewhere

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Speaker 3: between two hundred thousand and four hundred thousand did not

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Speaker 3: survive the journey. So what's your ridiculous takeaway? Now? So

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Speaker 3: over order a million people made this trip, but like

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Speaker 3: a quarter of them didn't make it, so trailer of

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Speaker 3: tiers over the ocean completely. First the people went to

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Speaker 3: like Hong Kong or other areas in Southeast Asia, and

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Speaker 3: then from there a lot of them were sent to

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Speaker 3: resettle in other countries Canada, Italy, Australia, France, UK, West Germany,

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Speaker 3: which was a thing at the time, and the United States. So,

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Speaker 3: like I said, this was a humanitarian crisis, and you

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Speaker 3: had people who'd until then had led really normal everyday.

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Speaker 2: Live taken away from them. And yeah, yeah, they had.

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Speaker 3: Good jobs, they owned businesses, homes, land, and then all

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Speaker 3: of a sudden they got nothing. They're out on the

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Speaker 3: ocean praying to at least reach dry land.

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Speaker 2: Hold in luggage.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. One of those people was a kid named twan

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Speaker 3: On Vu and Twan was seventeen years old. He was

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Speaker 3: the oldest of ten kids in this upper class family.

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Speaker 3: Me too, Twan. His dad military man, but he also

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Speaker 3: had a real estate business and he owned some land.

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Speaker 3: And so they got all.

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Speaker 2: This pretty well. Oh yeah, they do it really well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, total in the upper classes. Twan gets sent to

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Speaker 3: Catholic school. He's this good kid, yeah, super super smart

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Speaker 3: kid and he so he has this lovely life, one

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Speaker 3: of privilege until April nineteen seventy five, and so that's

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Speaker 3: when he and his family they had to flee Vietnam

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Speaker 3: by boat. Two months later, they found themselves in the

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Speaker 3: Florida Panhandle at the refugee camp at Eglin Air Force Base.

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Speaker 2: Other than the temperature and humidity, what a culture show.

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Speaker 3: A lot of culture sucks. And they had nothing. They

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Speaker 3: had to start from scratch. They don't speak the language,

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Speaker 3: like this is rough business. They made their way toward Orlando,

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Speaker 3: and Twan got a job as a busboy in a

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Speaker 3: town called a Popka. He had other jobs concurrently other

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Speaker 3: than bus boy. He was a grocery bagger, did some dishwashing.

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Speaker 3: This is a very common story from that era. So

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Speaker 3: the Vietnamese and the Cambodians and the monk who had

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Speaker 3: to flee after the war. They came here and they

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Speaker 3: like busted out serious hustle culture.

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Speaker 2: Total, especially down there the Delta, the whole, yeah, the Gulf,

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Speaker 2: that region in the Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Panhandle exactly.

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Speaker 3: There's a really great documentary about a Cambodian refugee who

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Speaker 3: kicked off a donut empire in the Yeah, it's called

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Speaker 3: Donut King. I highly recommend it. There's another documentary called

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Speaker 3: Nailed It about how Vietnamese immigrants took over the nail

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Speaker 3: salon Dope and you can trace that to the actress

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Speaker 3: Tippy Hedron. So she was heavily evolved, Yeah, heavily involved

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Speaker 3: in humanitarian work with Vietnamese refugees in nineteen seventy five.

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Speaker 3: Some of the women that she met complimented her manicure,

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Speaker 3: and so she came up with this brilliant idea. She

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Speaker 3: brought her manicurist to one of the refugee camps in

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Speaker 3: northern California to teach the women there how to do

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Speaker 3: nails just like they did them in Beverly Hills. And

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Speaker 3: so it didn't require a lot of startup money. You

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Speaker 3: could work absolutely anywhere. You didn't have to speak a

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Speaker 3: whole lot of English because like conversations and exchanges could

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Speaker 3: be done with pictures or holding stuff up. So the

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Speaker 3: refugees they got licensed for nails and then for hair,

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Speaker 3: and then they took over the nail businesses, and I

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Speaker 3: love that so much. So back to Twine, Yes he's hustling.

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Speaker 3: It's in nineteen eighty. He'd been in the US for

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Speaker 3: five years. In those five years, he learned how to

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Speaker 3: speak English. He worked a bunch of jobs, still managed

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Speaker 3: to go to the University of Central Florida and get

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Speaker 3: a bachelor's in General Business administration. Business degrees they're great

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Speaker 3: if you think you're going to have trouble getting hired

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Speaker 3: by someone. So when I taught in the prison, that's

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Speaker 3: the degree we offered associates in business because like there

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Speaker 3: are other prison programs that offer all sorts of degrees.

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Speaker 3: But you know, we did business because you could be

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Speaker 3: your own boss. No one's going to ask if you've

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Speaker 3: been convicted of a felony if you're your own boss,

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Speaker 3: which in California they can't ask that anymore. The Fair

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Speaker 3: Chance Act called Ban the Box, so Anyway, if you're

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Speaker 3: a refugee without a work history, it's really tough to

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Speaker 3: get a job. And so for Twan, getting a business

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Speaker 3: degree fit in perfectly with that hustle culture attitude that

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Speaker 3: he had. So we talk a lot about hustle culture these.

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Speaker 2: Days, not you and I, the culture does general.

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Speaker 3: And I think you know, having lots of side gigs

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Speaker 3: that you try and grow in order to survive and

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Speaker 3: then thrive, that's what you know hustle culture. I think

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Speaker 3: that for the most part, though, it's just a way

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Speaker 3: to exploit labor completely.

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Speaker 2: It's like it used to be the immigrant culture when

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Speaker 2: I was a boy, they called immigant culture, when you

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Speaker 2: had to have multiple jobs to survive. In American capitalism,

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Speaker 2: now it was just everybody has to do this because you're.

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Speaker 3: Not full time. You don't get benefits exactly. You have

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Speaker 3: to put in your own capital for supplies or like

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Speaker 3: a car or whatever, and you don't have any ownership

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Speaker 3: stakes in it.

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Speaker 2: And also you're likely to compete against your fellow coworkers

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Speaker 2: basically because now each of you is your own little boss,

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Speaker 2: your own little running enterprise.

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Speaker 3: And so you look at like the Cambodian families who

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Speaker 3: worked just like crazy at these donut shops. I'm talking

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Speaker 3: like eighteen to twenty hour work days for the whole family. Kids.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, kids, we're up in there. But they had

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Speaker 3: an investment, you know, they had a franchise that they could.

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Speaker 2: Grow, and they're investing in their family.

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Speaker 3: Essentially, there's some ownership to it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 3: So the work like that is worth it if you're

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Speaker 3: going to work really hard, but you have ownership in it. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: you getting are hustle.

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Speaker 2: Culture white equity for your own life.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you're hustling for someone else. That's exploitation. Yes, so

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Speaker 3: I get I get really frustrated watching old movies and

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Speaker 3: TV shows where you see like a taxi driver or

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Speaker 3: a garbage man or a teacher is the sole breadwinner

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Speaker 3: in a family and they can afford a home and

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Speaker 3: a car and food on the table.

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Speaker 2: True, basically true till Reagan.

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Speaker 3: Yeah it's not now, but not for decades has that

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Speaker 3: been true. Anyway, We've entered the winter of darker. I'm

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Speaker 3: sorry about that. I don't call the shots. I just

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Speaker 3: worked there.

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Speaker 2: It's the hustle. The culture is bringing it out.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it is so, Yeah, twe I like that name

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Speaker 3: t U A N T one. He's killing it.

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Speaker 2: Oh good on him.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so he he has a degree, he has a

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Speaker 3: desire to make it and what he's hustling towards is

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Speaker 3: an ownership in something. Oh great, you know it's his own.

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Speaker 2: He realizes that's the secret to America owned some games.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So within two years he was leading real estate seminars.

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Speaker 3: He's teaching people how to build a real estate empire

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Speaker 3: that he has not built. No, that he's at twenty

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Speaker 3: four by this point, he's he's building it.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so he does have enough that would qualify as

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Speaker 2: an empire. Okay, I did to know if he's like,

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Speaker 2: I got two houses, here's out of building.

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Speaker 3: He's already like he's cracking this stuff up. And by

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Speaker 3: this time he's calling himself Tom Tom Vu.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, that name.

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Speaker 3: Yes, so he started picking people's brains. He met a

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Speaker 3: woman who worked at a title company, and he asked

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Speaker 3: her all about the real estate business, and she shared

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Speaker 3: everything she knew, gave him like little pointers that she developed.

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Speaker 3: He's working at a restaurant and he brought a glass

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Speaker 3: of water to this man, like this rich guy. He

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Speaker 3: goes up to him He's like, tell me all your secrets,

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Speaker 3: like how do I become rich? And the guy just

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Speaker 3: loved him because he was so magnetic. Yeah, so he's like,

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Speaker 3: I'll tell you the secret to my fortune. And Tom

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Speaker 3: he condensed the secret into three words, three words, three words. Now,

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, it's a secret. I can't share it with

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Speaker 3: you right now, Zarin, But are you for real? I'm

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Speaker 3: dead serious. So Tom he used that secret and he

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Speaker 3: ran with it.

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Speaker 2: Why do you do this to me?

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Speaker 3: You know? He later said, quote, one day a thought

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Speaker 3: go through my head. It almost like a command, go

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Speaker 3: teach people how to do this. So he's like, I

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Speaker 3: have the secret, is there in voices? Now now now

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Speaker 3: the voices are telling me to share it. So, just

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Speaker 3: like his dad before him, he got into real estate naturally.

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Speaker 3: He worked and worked and he saved money and then

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Speaker 3: he bought his first house in Orlando for twenty thousand dollars.

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Speaker 3: Two years later, that's eighty one. Two years later, he's

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Speaker 3: leading seminars teaching people how to get rich by investing

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Speaker 3: in real estate. How do people like? How did he

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Speaker 3: get people through the door? Like to hear his.

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Speaker 2: I'd be curious to commercials, oh like late night commercials.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so do you remember those commercials of his? Like,

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Speaker 3: I have vague memories. I think they ran late at night.

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Speaker 3: Oh yes, yeah, I watched a bunch of them recently

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Speaker 3: on the YouTube.

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Speaker 2: You want me to tell you what I remember?

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Speaker 3: Were incredible? Hit me?

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Speaker 2: Okay, telling me this is accurate because I had not

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Speaker 2: seen one since they were like way back then. He's

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Speaker 2: on a boat, like a like a white like bayliner,

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Speaker 2: like some kind of like you know, small yacht, and

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Speaker 2: then'll be like two girls on either side of him

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Speaker 2: while he's sitting on the back of the boat, and

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Speaker 2: they're both in bikinis, and he's wearing like a like

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Speaker 2: a Don Johnson Miamivice style like color combination, and he's

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Speaker 2: always like, look at these babes, and he's like all excited,

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Speaker 2: like he's like gonna sell you the secret, but the

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Speaker 2: secret is how to get close to these babes exactly.

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Speaker 3: Here's here's how the Orlando Sentinel described the commercials, super

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Speaker 3: in line with what you're saying. Quote, here's Tom on

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Speaker 3: a yacht surrounded by bikini clad women of geographically proportioned cleavage.

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Speaker 3: Here's Tom and his mansion. Here's Tom with a scarf

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Speaker 3: around his neck, bouncing a tennis ball on his private court.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he is by his swimming pool. And here's

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Speaker 3: Tom riding in his Rolls Royce convertible at a party.

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Speaker 3: And again with the bikini clad women. When the camera

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Speaker 3: zooms in for a close up of Tom's face, we

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Speaker 3: get some cleavage just north of his ear lobe. Do

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Speaker 3: you like my toy, he says, grinning smugly, referring not

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Speaker 3: to the women but to the roles. It's one of

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Speaker 3: the many toys I have. I'm talking about toy cars

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Speaker 3: to the Mercedes, BMW's, all sorts of things in my garage.

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Speaker 3: You want to be wealthy like this like I am. Well,

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Speaker 3: you need to come to my seminar.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, Yes, when you started describing that, I was

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Speaker 2: getting the mental images like the car, the definitely the tennis.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, Dennis, he's got all the signifiers.

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Speaker 2: He's like the Robin Leech style of that early eighties.

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Speaker 3: Well, oh, completely yes. And so the commercials they're pretty

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Speaker 3: much Tom giving like a pep talk and pumping up

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Speaker 3: the viewer, all with bodacious babes landing around. Yeah, and

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Speaker 3: so like there are some that start with photos of

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Speaker 3: his family in the refugee camp.

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Speaker 2: How does that work with the question he talks about.

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Speaker 3: No, it's funny because it just certainly cuts over. He's

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Speaker 3: talking about how Hardy works and how much they needed,

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Speaker 3: and then all.

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Speaker 2: Of a sudden, him on the boat. Yeah, with the boobs.

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Speaker 3: And the seminars, they're there, you know. He says, like,

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Speaker 3: I'll teach you the secret in three little words, but

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Speaker 3: you have to attend the seminar to learn those three words.

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Speaker 3: And then the seminars are copyrighted. So he said, no

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Speaker 3: one else can teach this stuff. Okay, So he shows

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Speaker 3: off a waterfall outside his mansion. He rolls up in

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Speaker 3: a Rolls Royce. He barks, if you're not willing to

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Speaker 3: come to my free ninety minute seminar, you deserve to

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Speaker 3: be broke.

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Speaker 2: The seminar's free.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, free ninety minute seminars.

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Speaker 2: He was charging to get into the room.

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Speaker 3: No, you'll see. So there are testimonials in some of these,

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Speaker 3: and many of the folks they speak with distinct accents,

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Speaker 3: which kind of adds to like anyone can do this,

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Speaker 3: and no one who kept out.

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Speaker 2: That was very much part of the cell. It was

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Speaker 2: he would have people who's like this plantation and look

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Speaker 2: at what he's done, you.

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Speaker 3: Know, Yes, And then the testimonials, people hold up checks

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Speaker 3: showing like how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they've

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Speaker 3: made from selling distressed property.

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Speaker 2: Totally I bought three homes.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and then it goes back to Tom. He's giving

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Speaker 3: his like wealth affirmations, you only live once, don't let

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Speaker 3: your life slip away. One that I loved there's an

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Speaker 3: old American saying, get off your button, do it like

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Speaker 3: that's on the back of the declary one to say

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Speaker 3: that he's like there are doers in there, talkers, So

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Speaker 3: you know, he's just he's so confident and positive that

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Speaker 3: you can see how people get roped in. And he

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Speaker 3: talks about how he's not smarter than anyone else. He's

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Speaker 3: just got motivation drive. Anyone can have it if they want.

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Speaker 3: And so these they're ninety second commercials. They're also like

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Speaker 3: thirty and sixty minute infomercials. Yes again, Yeah it's Babes Mansions,

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Speaker 3: Rolls Royce, just.

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Speaker 2: A shorter, truncated version of the same thing.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And there were there were in Living Color and Saturday

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Speaker 3: Night Live sketches that parodied the ads okay, because they're

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Speaker 3: ridiculous and they're.

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Speaker 2: So memorable too. It's late night and you know who's

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Speaker 2: upstated late at night shows exactly.

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Speaker 3: But the ads are genius because they tapped in the

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Speaker 3: people's desire for riches, or at least like better circumstances.

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Speaker 2: And accessibility to the riches, and they just gassed people

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Speaker 2: off like you can do, this, can be you.

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Speaker 3: It was so such motivational speech, but then like really

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Speaker 3: plain talk.

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Speaker 2: And this is still new that kind of yeah, because

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Speaker 2: we're coming out of the seventies idea of like personality

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Speaker 2: st and all this, like you can be and maximize

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Speaker 2: who you are. They like Dale Carnegie, how to win

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Speaker 2: friends and influence people all that, but it's also also

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Speaker 2: very focused on you being charming, and this was like

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Speaker 2: you getting rich, and that's what the eighties switched. It

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Speaker 2: was like, forget all that soul stuff. You want money

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Speaker 2: now here in this world.

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Speaker 3: Believe in yourself because like Tom already believes exactly. So

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Speaker 3: let's take a break and we come back. We're going

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Speaker 3: to look into some of these seminars.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, all right, sarenes So Tom.

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Speaker 2: Vu say that without knowing at all what's about to occur.

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Speaker 3: He's kind of yeah, we'll find out. He makes a

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Speaker 3: ton of money on real estate. Most of his fortune, though,

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Speaker 3: came from the seminars. He'd advertise these free seminars, like

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Speaker 3: you said, generally in like Florida or California, and they

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Speaker 3: took place in hotel ballrooms. You know the drill. There's

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Speaker 3: like rows of chairs ac making the room freeze, and

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Speaker 3: they'd be like up to like a thousand people in

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Speaker 3: these rooms, and you know what, like, let's go to

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Speaker 3: a freeze saren, close your eyes a picture. You are

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Speaker 3: a young man standing in the ballroom of the Marriott

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Speaker 3: Hotel on a Friday evening. There's a seminar going on,

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Speaker 3: and you are there because you work for events services

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Speaker 3: at the hotel. You run the sound system and sit

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Speaker 3: at a table at the back of the room, making

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Speaker 3: sure the MIC's work and the sound stays clear. You're

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Speaker 3: also in charge of the gentle background music that plays

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00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:12,800
Speaker 3: between presentations. For this one, you've been told to play

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Speaker 3: some cool synth music like you'd hear in an episode

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Speaker 3: of night Rider favorite show. You keep it nice and low,

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Speaker 3: and the beat seems to be getting some people kind

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Speaker 3: of excited and maybe a little fired up for this

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Speaker 3: thing you saw on the signs. That's for that guy,

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Speaker 3: Tom Vu. He has those infomercials about making a ton

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Speaker 3: of money on real estate, but you really remember the

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Speaker 3: hot ladies and bikinis, hubba and the hubba. Tom Voo's

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Speaker 3: sister has been coordinating the whole event with the hotel staff.

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Speaker 3: She's really nice. She runs a tight ship and has

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Speaker 3: high standards. That works for you. You're really proud of what

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Speaker 3: you do and you take it very seriously. She loves you.

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Speaker 3: She's standing off to the side of the room as

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Speaker 3: people file in, chat over paper cups of coffee and

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Speaker 3: sit in the upholstered straight back event chair. You keep

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00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:03,439
Speaker 3: an eye on her so you'll be ready when she

381
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,440
Speaker 3: gives the signal, which she does. She nods your way

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00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,880
Speaker 3: and you dim the lights, quiet the music. You raise

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00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 3: the volume on the wireless mic you supplied mister Voo earlier.

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00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:17,400
Speaker 3: Hi Tom Voo comes bounding into the room and takes

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Speaker 3: his place up at the front of sympodium. The crowd

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00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:25,040
Speaker 3: goes nuts. You ready to bake big money. Everyone cheers.

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Speaker 3: Motivating folks is in my blood. You want to be

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Speaker 3: rich don't you. Well, if you make no money with me,

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Speaker 3: you're a loser. Keep wo holler, clap and whistle. You

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Speaker 3: have to admit this is kind of exciting. Tom vo

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Speaker 3: continues his platitudes and basically says the same stuff that's

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Speaker 3: in his ads. You're getting into this and kind of

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Speaker 3: hoping that maybe he'll pick up some tips, but no.

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Speaker 3: Tom Voo now moves on to the next level. He

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Speaker 3: tells the crowd that if they want to lock in

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Speaker 3: and get rich, they need to sign up for the

397
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Speaker 3: full class that weekend. As people walk through the room,

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Speaker 3: circular a pamphlet for the course. You take one and

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Speaker 3: read it just like you. The brochure says, I want

400
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:10,040
Speaker 3: it now, all caps, fifteen hundred dollars for the class.

401
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 3: Some of the people in the room just get up

402
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:14,399
Speaker 3: and leave. They don't want to spend that money, but

403
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 3: others start pulling out check books and scribbling away, hoping

404
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Speaker 3: for a chance to be the one to sit on

405
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Speaker 3: a yacht. Soon the ones surrounded by hot babes. Tom

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00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 3: Voo's sister gives you the signal and you bring the

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00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:29,679
Speaker 3: music and lights back up. People line up at tables

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Speaker 3: along the side of the room, waiting to hand over

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Speaker 3: fifteen hundred dollars in exchange for the dream. You fold

410
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:37,399
Speaker 3: up the pamphlet and set it next to the audio

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Speaker 3: mixer on the table in front of you. No such

412
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Speaker 3: thing as easy money, you think, wow, So sarin yea.

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Speaker 3: For those who put in fifteen hundred dollars for the class,

414
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Speaker 3: they were met with another offer. First thing in the morning,

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Speaker 3: Tom would ask if anyone had sixteen thousand dollars cash available,

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Speaker 3: And I feel like if you did, you wouldn't be

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Speaker 3: in the class. But whatever, So if people did have

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Speaker 3: sixteen grand, they'd be taken into another room, and that

419
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Speaker 3: money could pay for a five day class. A class.

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Speaker 2: You don't even get a property. I thought you were

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Speaker 2: getting like like a foreclosed property for that.

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Speaker 3: No, the class, they're like the class. We'll give it

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Speaker 3: to you for fifteen hundred dollars. You sign up now,

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00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,720
Speaker 3: we'll give you a one thousand dollars discount for signing

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00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:26,960
Speaker 3: up immediately. So from the Orlando Sentinel quote, Hello, darling,

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Speaker 3: he says, extending a limp hand and demure smile. Would

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00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,440
Speaker 3: you like some tea? Tom Voo stands in a hallway

428
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:38,840
Speaker 3: of a downtown Orlando Ratison, looking slight and mildly stooped shouldered,

429
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,040
Speaker 3: far from the cocky, champagne swilling playboy he seems on

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00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 3: his late night TV infomercials. He wears a black pinstriped suit,

431
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,800
Speaker 3: a red silk tie, burgundy wing tip loafers, and a

432
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Speaker 3: thin air of distraction. Dude, the Orlando Sentinel is like

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00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,159
Speaker 3: hitting it out of the park with this writing. So

434
00:22:57,560 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 3: why would anyone pay that much for a class?

435
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:01,199
Speaker 2: I have no, they're a sucker.

436
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 3: Well, part of the pitch is that the fifteen thousand's

437
00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 3: going to get you a financial backer. Tom, So you're

438
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 3: buying in and if students, if they found a good property,

439
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 3: one that was basically ready to flip, Tom would buy

440
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 3: the property and then when he sold it for a profit,

441
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 3: he'd split that profit with student. Basically kind of like

442
00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 3: a find a San Diego real estate agent named Kathleen Smith.

443
00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:31,159
Speaker 3: She fell for it quote. That's the primary reason I

444
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 3: signed up. I was told in no uncertain terms that

445
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 3: VU was looking for regional partners. Among students who took

446
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 3: his five day class, they could be set up with

447
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,200
Speaker 3: a five hundred thousand dollars line of credit. What do

448
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 3: you feel like you're buying into that and this isn't it.

449
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 2: In the eighties eighties, that's a lot of money.

450
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,399
Speaker 3: So these weren't like chilbro classes. They were hellish boiler rooms.

451
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 3: He'd make people sit through hours and hours of lectures

452
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 3: on both real estate and self help motivation. The rooms

453
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 3: were freezing, you know that. They always do that in

454
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 3: those ballrooms. No meals were served. Yeah, and then if

455
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:12,359
Speaker 3: you had to go to the bathroom, where's the bagsy?

456
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 3: Bathroom breaks were like super rushed, highly regulated, like I'm sorry.

457
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:19,920
Speaker 2: Oh really, yeah, I'd like to see him trash.

458
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 3: I know, right, I just go to the corner.

459
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:23,880
Speaker 2: Man, man, that is not a.

460
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 3: Man, stand up? Okay. So then Tom he makes them

461
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 3: hit the phones as part of it, so he'd have yeah, well,

462
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,679
Speaker 3: he'd have students like scanning real estate listings and then

463
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 3: making offers. They had to call local real estate agents

464
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,199
Speaker 3: about bargain properties. And so these are houses where like

465
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 3: there's been a divorce or someone dull, bankrupt or something,

466
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:47,000
Speaker 3: or they just couldn't meet the mortgage payments and.

467
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 2: Turned into a boiler room's island.

468
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:57,359
Speaker 3: Yes, Tony Martin, ABC, Baby Tony Martin.

469
00:24:58,160 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 2: His widows are motivated cellar.

470
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:06,240
Speaker 3: This is like a Florida real estate agent and a

471
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 3: marketing director. He told the Orlando Sentinel quote, we always

472
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 3: knew when there was a seminar in town, there'd be

473
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:14,679
Speaker 3: a lobby full of students and they'd tie up the

474
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 3: whole office making absolutely the most unbelievable, ridiculous low ball offers.

475
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 3: Here's the thing, So Tony has him offering twenty five

476
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 3: to fifty percent below market value, and they're supposed to

477
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 3: offer a ten dollars deposit. Yes, ten dollars.

478
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 2: That's his standard business. That's a signature.

479
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 3: The law was that agents had to present any and

480
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 3: all offers received to sellers, no matter how ridiculous. So

481
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,600
Speaker 3: Tony Martin told the Sentinel quote, the agents would scattered

482
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 3: to the corners of the earth to get away from

483
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 3: these students. I don't know if a single deal that resulted.

484
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 3: It was an absolute joke. And so there were times

485
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,199
Speaker 3: when Tom would actually do a deal with students, and

486
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:05,440
Speaker 3: he did, like maybe one per seminar, and he saw

487
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,719
Speaker 3: it as like doing him a favor and likely like

488
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:10,120
Speaker 3: making it sort of truthful when he would talk about

489
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,879
Speaker 3: these things being possible. So it wasn't the deal that

490
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 3: the students thought they were going to get that. No. No,

491
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 3: So let's say, okay, let's say a student gets a

492
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 3: deal to buy a seventy five thousand dollars house for

493
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:22,679
Speaker 3: only fifty thousand.

494
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 2: Okay, a student gets a deal to buy a seventy

495
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars house, Right, you're going to do it together.

496
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 3: Job. So then the student turns around, sells the contract

497
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 3: to Tom and they get paid two grand for this.

498
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:39,200
Speaker 3: So Tom flips the house either like rents it out

499
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:42,760
Speaker 3: or sells it, sells it for seventy five k what

500
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:46,640
Speaker 3: it's actually worth. Tom has made twenty three thousand dollars

501
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,479
Speaker 3: on this, and the student comes away with just two grand.

502
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 3: How he's coming up with the two grand instead of

503
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 3: let's split the profits. It's not split evenly, it's split partially.

504
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 3: And Tom didn't lead all the courses.

505
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 2: I didn't imagine he was there at all.

506
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 3: Well, he would show up late and then he would

507
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 3: like yam or until super late, like dawn, and the

508
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,479
Speaker 3: people are paying to hear him, so they stick around.

509
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 3: They're like, he's going to drop the delicious knowledge. He's

510
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 3: going to say the three words.

511
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, the real gold comes at the end, right.

512
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:19,880
Speaker 3: And they're living on like six hours of.

513
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 2: Sleep in a week and they're famished.

514
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 3: Maybe according to the Sentinel quote, they also said instruction

515
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 3: typically ran toward midnight, when Vu himself would come in

516
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 3: and lead quote mind training sessions at midnight at midnight.

517
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 3: To Vu, they were aimed at relaxation so students would

518
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,959
Speaker 3: feel better, learn better, and be driven to succeed. To

519
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:42,640
Speaker 3: his critics, it was mind control, a way to break

520
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 3: them down.

521
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 2: It's cult stuff. That's here. I was about to say,

522
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:46,840
Speaker 2: that's pure calls out of midnight. Our leader is going

523
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 2: to come in and he's going to chill all you

524
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 2: out and give you the magic words.

525
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 3: Well, and at the end of that absolute terrible week,

526
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 3: Tom would make another offer. He would tell the students

527
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 3: that if they invested fifty thousand or like sixty five

528
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 3: thousand somewhere in there, they could join the quote elite

529
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:06,320
Speaker 3: inner circle.

530
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 2: The gold Star Club or what everyone.

531
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,479
Speaker 3: Wants to be in an elite inner circ course, and

532
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 3: that would let them work directly with Tom like you

533
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 3: got handshake. But working with Tom directly didn't bring money

534
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 3: directly or otherwise, of course, so and Tom's advice is

535
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 3: guidance It sounded really great in the ballroom, but it's

536
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:26,400
Speaker 3: falling flat in real life.

537
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 2: It's not working.

538
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 4: No.

539
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 3: I mean, as you said, the low ball offers like

540
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:31,119
Speaker 3: way below market value or.

541
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 2: Rejected, but he doesn't have any good stuff.

542
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 3: No, no, So he's not like the.

543
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 2: Whole would you have dinner with jay Z? Or would

544
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 2: you take a million dollars or whatever?

545
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 3: This is just like would you cleaned jay Z's dishes

546
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 3: st the restaurant where he was? When the students, when

547
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,600
Speaker 3: they did get someone to bite on the offers, Tom

548
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 3: would usually pass on the deal. They're like, okay, look

549
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 3: they said they do this, and so no sale, no

550
00:28:54,760 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 3: finder's fee. They finally get one of Tom's old employees

551
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 3: said quote, he would run from them. He'd avoid the

552
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:05,840
Speaker 3: five day students at all costs.

553
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 2: Wow, this guy John, he is your life. You're Tom Vu.

554
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 2: You're just going around like hustling, and then when people

555
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 2: actually get your stuff to work, you're like, what do

556
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:16,479
Speaker 2: we get out of here?

557
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 3: Yeah? This guy John Reid, he's a real estate investment

558
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 3: advisor in Danville, California.

559
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 2: I know where that is.

560
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 3: He told the La Times. Quote. The main problem with

561
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 3: the nothing down gurus like Vu is that when you

562
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 3: buy property with nothing down, the existing debt on the

563
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 3: property is a tremendous burden. The other problem is that

564
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 3: it's very hard to do a legitimate nothing down deal

565
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 3: in a legal and ethical way. You either end up

566
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 3: taking advantage of an unsophisticated seller or misleading an institutional

567
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 3: lender by not disclosing that you have no equity in

568
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:53,719
Speaker 3: the property. Ah, so the whole thing very shady.

569
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 2: Either you're a huckster or a slumlord.

570
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 3: Well, it's like all of this training that Tom's giving

571
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 3: about these press properties, that's not what he's actually doing

572
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 3: when it comes to real estate. Like he was investing

573
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 3: in twenty million dollars high rise office buildings, shopping malls,

574
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 3: that kind of.

575
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:12,760
Speaker 2: Stuff, of the classic eighty stuff, right, He not.

576
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 3: None of this fifty grand single family home. He went

577
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 3: the big stuff where the big money is, and so

578
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 3: he got his sports cars from those deals, not from

579
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 3: suburban fixtion.

580
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 2: He's buying the buildings in downtown Orlando, right.

581
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,240
Speaker 3: And he's making ten million on a deal, not ten thousand.

582
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 3: So obviously his whole thing, these seminars not sustainable. Let's

583
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 3: pause for ads and get that bread. Buy some bikinis

584
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 3: for some smoke shows. When we get back, we'll see

585
00:30:41,840 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 3: how things start to crumble, Zaren Elizabeth Tom Vu. He's

586
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 3: doing big deals. He's making a ton of cash, making

587
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 3: people believe that their little deals are going to make

588
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 3: them rich, lying to everybody, and that can only go

589
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:15,959
Speaker 3: on for so long.

590
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 2: Yes, he is no longer my man.

591
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 4: No.

592
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 3: So people sink money into this. When it doesn't deliver,

593
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 3: there's a problem. They get mad.

594
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 2: I'm kind of wondering if so.

595
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 3: Paul Divine, an LA public school teacher, he took out

596
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 3: a fifteen thousand dollars second mortgage to pay for one

597
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 3: of those five day seminars. Oh god, yeah. According to

598
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 3: the La Times, quote, Divine said he was unable to

599
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 3: interest Voo in assisting him in buying any real estate

600
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 3: during a year long search of potential investments from Los

601
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 3: Angeles to Nevada. Quote. I made dozens of calls to

602
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 3: Voo's office, and they would just put me on hold

603
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 3: or say the property I found wasn't worth acquiring, Divine said.

604
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 3: Out of forty people in my class, everyone that I

605
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,719
Speaker 3: know that took the core came up with zero properties.

606
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 2: Forty people fifteen k you get enough time, those things

607
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 2: are going to suss out.

608
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 3: Like how do they Well, they start the dupe students,

609
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 3: they start contacting the law.

610
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 2: Good.

611
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 3: So, one student who paid for that fifteen thousand dollars

612
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 3: seminar wrote to the Florida Attorney General, quote, the Tom

613
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 3: vous system does not work. I made over two hundred

614
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 3: offers on properties, some verbal, some on contracts. They clearly

615
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,400
Speaker 3: would not entertain offers as low as I was instructed

616
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 3: to make. And so like someone with like a bricked

617
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 3: and faulty cyber truck in their driveway, but still espousing

618
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:41,840
Speaker 3: their love of Elon Musk. Some students weren't successful, but

619
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 3: they didn't stop believing in Tom. This guy named Glenn Singers,

620
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 3: an engineer. He spent eighty eight hundred dollars to attend

621
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 3: one of Tom's weekend seminars.

622
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:53,120
Speaker 2: An engineer, an.

623
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 3: Engineer, and he thought Tom's advice was great. Did he

624
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 3: make money? No, not really. He did two deals and

625
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 3: then he had to move into the cheaper apartment and

626
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 3: go back to like full time work because there just

627
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,320
Speaker 3: wasn't money in what he was doing. Quote. I have

628
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 3: not made a million dollars, but there are deals out

629
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 3: there you just have to go out and hustle, said singer.

630
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 3: Hustle culture the seeds. Yeah, nineteen ninety fourteen students who'd

631
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 3: paid all that money to become members of the TOMVUU

632
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 3: elite inner circle. They hired an attorney, Randy Wells. And

633
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,880
Speaker 3: remember Tom said he'd become their financial backer at that level.

634
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:32,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly if they why they all wanted.

635
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,240
Speaker 3: They don't have the cash for deals. Fine, well Wells

636
00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:37,120
Speaker 3: wrote Tom a letter saying that he was going to

637
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 3: sue to get the student's money back. Sue me, sue you, Tom. Yeah.

638
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 3: Eight days after the letter, Tom had his lawyers file

639
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 3: a suit asking the US District Court in Orlando to

640
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 3: declare that he did nothing wrong and he also know

641
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 3: and he wanted the disgruntled students to cover his attorney's

642
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 3: fees and court costs. I was like one hundred dollars.

643
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 2: He's leveraging a lawyer at him exactly, Okay.

644
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 3: And so it gets settled out of court a couple

645
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 3: of years later. The reasoning on Tom's part was that

646
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:10,920
Speaker 3: he needed to put his focus on fighting a civil

647
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,360
Speaker 3: suit that had been filed in California by one of

648
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 3: his students.

649
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 2: He knew he didn't get caught there.

650
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 3: He had his lawyer release this prepared statement where Vu said, quote,

651
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 3: a smart general does not choose to fight a war

652
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 3: on two fronts.

653
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,800
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, wow, he's quoting smart generals of myth and proverb.

654
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 3: Well, you know, get off your button to it. That

655
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 3: California lawsuit Darlene Harra, who a strawberry farmer who lived

656
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 3: in Castroville, California. Hell yeah, yeah, big up to Castroville.

657
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 3: So Darlene, she sued Tom, his sister, and three of

658
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 3: their corporations in financial in federal court. Yes, smile, the

659
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 3: whole family.

660
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 2: Was smart to big you know, spread the risk.

661
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 3: Well, there were allegations of violations of securities laws, fraud,

662
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 3: falsead tizing, unfair business practices. So Darlene apparently put up

663
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 3: forty four thousand dollars to learn Tom's secrets. Forty four Yeah,

664
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,839
Speaker 3: this is She's in the elite circle. It's pretty much

665
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,520
Speaker 3: all the money that she and her husband Melvin.

666
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,120
Speaker 2: Had put her hands on.

667
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:18,360
Speaker 3: She worked the phones in the technique for two months nothing,

668
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 3: and after a while she started to thinking, maybe I've

669
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 3: been duped, maybe this plan isn't fool proof, and maybe

670
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 3: I want to be rich, but it's just not possible.

671
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 3: So Tom's lawyer responded that maybe you should have worked

672
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 3: a little harder. Oh yeah, So, according to the lawsuit,

673
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 3: students were quote subjected to subliminal messages, hypnotists, chanting, and

674
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 3: various other psychological control methods. Yeah, and other coercive tactics

675
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 3: associated with brainwashing. Yeah yeah, I'm going to brainwash you

676
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 3: dummies basically, so pay me to do it to you.

677
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 3: So Darlene put in forty four k, but she and

678
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 3: other students were asking for one hundred million dollars in

679
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 3: compensation on behalf of several thousand investors throughout the country.

680
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 3: And so Tom's lawyer quotes said that VU never makes

681
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 3: a no strings promise to back anyone. He partners only

682
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 3: on the deals he likes. In the three years that

683
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 3: he's been running five day classes, it turns out that

684
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 3: he has liked only one, a fact that prospective students

685
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 3: aren't told. His lawyer said, quote. Students signed a document

686
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,279
Speaker 3: before they paid their money they might do a deal

687
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 3: with Tom VU, the document stated, but that does not

688
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 3: constitute a partnership or affiliation. The VU organization reserves the

689
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,040
Speaker 3: right to accept or reject any proposal from you or

690
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 3: anyone else. So here's the thing. The students did get

691
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,840
Speaker 3: a written guarantee that said that one year after graduation,

692
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:52,760
Speaker 3: their gross profit for real estate deals would at least

693
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 3: equal their tuition. And if that didn't happen, Tom VU

694
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 3: Wealth and Success Institute was going to pay the difference. Oh,

695
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,480
Speaker 3: they have that on paper, and that sounds good. But

696
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 3: in order to collect, you had to prove that you

697
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 3: spent ten hours a week on four specific tasks. You

698
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 3: also had to have at least three written offers accepted

699
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 3: or rejected by sellers each week.

700
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 2: Each week, these.

701
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,880
Speaker 3: Offers had to be documented and submitted, and that documentation

702
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 3: mailed to Tom and it certified registered mail. And after

703
00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 3: the third month, students had to send Tom weekly progress

704
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:32,480
Speaker 3: reports with all that documentation. They had to do this

705
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 3: for an entire year. So this is death by paperwork.

706
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,680
Speaker 2: One hun and fifty six.

707
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:39,840
Speaker 3: There's just noble.

708
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:41,320
Speaker 2: I've got offers I've got to do.

709
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:45,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's insane, not going to happen. January nineteen ninety two,

710
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:50,200
Speaker 3: the Florida Attorney General investigated claims from twenty students. They

711
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:53,839
Speaker 3: said that he engaged in deceptive trade practices by going

712
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,879
Speaker 3: back on promises to help students invest in real estate

713
00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 3: by becoming their financial partner. The Attorney General also looked

714
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,880
Speaker 3: into whether Tom violated Florida law by failing to register

715
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 3: his businesses with the state, and then in October of

716
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 3: that year, Tom was like, I gotta file a lawsuit.

717
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 3: Let's do this again, Yeah, but this time against Inside Edition.

718
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 3: Like he wanted seventy million dollars because he said the

719
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 3: show aired a false story about his real estate seminars

720
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 3: that messed with his business. He said their piece caused

721
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:28,959
Speaker 3: him shame and humiliation and.

722
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:30,080
Speaker 2: So stepped on money.

723
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 3: Looks like all of these lawsuits, including the investigation by

724
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,200
Speaker 3: the AG and Florida, seemed to have been like settled

725
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:38,759
Speaker 3: or gone away, and when all was said and done,

726
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,520
Speaker 3: he was never charged with a crime anything. Nope. By

727
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 3: ninety two, when all the suits went down, Tom and

728
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:49,840
Speaker 3: his family had forty seven corporations, including tom VU Wealth

729
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:54,880
Speaker 3: and Success Institute Profits Seminar Incorporated, Tom VO Wealth Creation,

730
00:38:55,120 --> 00:39:02,799
Speaker 3: University Incorporated, Intergalactic Productions, VU International Holdings, Sweetwater Travel, and

731
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 3: tom VU Worldwide Education. He had a video production house,

732
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,240
Speaker 3: he had a publishing group, and like any good slickster.

733
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 3: He wasn't attached as a corporate officer for any of

734
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:19,320
Speaker 3: them go. But he was a philanthropist. He made donations

735
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:21,920
Speaker 3: to police groups most of the time. He paid for

736
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:25,880
Speaker 3: bulletproof vests of course, and like paid for a funeral,

737
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 3: paid an officer's widow the mafia. Yeah, I'm just saying,

738
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 3: just putting that out there. He donated buildings to the

739
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:37,320
Speaker 3: Human Crisis Council and like homes for low income housing

740
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 3: talk Ride. He was big on sponsoring children's charities like

741
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 3: Save the Children, and I think that was probably close

742
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 3: to his heart. He could see he.

743
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:46,520
Speaker 2: Had personal experience.

744
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, and but today and some people.

745
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:50,760
Speaker 2: Really do care even though they don't care in business

746
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,400
Speaker 2: like they can be a very charitable and it'd still

747
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:55,839
Speaker 2: be an absolute.

748
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 3: Today continues to live large.

749
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 2: He's still around, still Tom.

750
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 3: He retired from real estate and retired from.

751
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:04,680
Speaker 2: The seven forced out the industry.

752
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 3: Moved to Las Vegas, naturally, and I thought he was there.

753
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 3: It was there that he entered a new career. He

754
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 3: is now a tournament poker player.

755
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:14,720
Speaker 2: It is either that or crypto.

756
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 3: To date, who knows.

757
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 2: He's one way or another. This man is in crypto.

758
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 3: He wasn't dumb enough to fall for NFTs.

759
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:24,760
Speaker 2: But he's so in crypto, yeah, and also telling people

760
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:29,280
Speaker 2: how to own crypto. He's selling. He's not buying crypto,

761
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:31,440
Speaker 2: he's selling. Yeah, you know what I mean.

762
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:34,360
Speaker 3: To date, he's won more than two million dollars in

763
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:35,280
Speaker 3: poker tournaments.

764
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 2: Wow, it is he has like two babes next to

765
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 2: him when he plays poker, where.

766
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 3: He's just like sitting at the table with like a

767
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 3: big gulp and just like.

768
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:48,919
Speaker 2: In his most gentleman playing poker one.

769
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 3: He won twelve hundred dollars, his most recent one at

770
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:56,880
Speaker 3: the six hundred dollars No Limit Hold Him Poker News

771
00:40:57,200 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 3: Deep Stack Championship during the fifty fifth World Series of

772
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 3: Poker in twenty twenty four in Las Vegas.

773
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 2: I know what those words mean, but I have no

774
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:05,799
Speaker 2: idea what that.

775
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 3: Neither do I. But twelve hundred dollars. So that's the

776
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:10,839
Speaker 3: level he's working at right now. I mean. But in

777
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 3: April of two thousand and six, he finished ninth in

778
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,799
Speaker 3: the Season five World Poker Tour Championship event and he

779
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 3: won more than two hundred thousand dollars in that one.

780
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,440
Speaker 3: So Tom Voo's still out there. Playing poker, live in

781
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:29,200
Speaker 3: his best life. He's the embodiment of hustle culture and

782
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 3: he's a true survivor.

783
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and so he the culture totally.

784
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,400
Speaker 3: He may have been like slick about his seminars and

785
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 3: taken advantage of people, but you know they were all

786
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 3: at choice.

787
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 2: You really going to do that?

788
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 4: No?

789
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:43,919
Speaker 3: I mean they could have walked away at any time,

790
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 3: just like Tom does now at the tables, knows when

791
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,439
Speaker 3: to hold him, knows when to fold them. But yeah,

792
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 3: he did take advantage of a lot of people. So Zaren,

793
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 3: what's your ridiculous takeaway?

794
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 2: I can never root for these guys because they it's

795
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 2: the bottom feeding part that I don't respect. I'm like,

796
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 2: why can't you go and hustle the real wealth. I

797
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 2: go up there, get you some money from people richer

798
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 2: than you. Now I'm going to shout your name to

799
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 2: the stars. Yeah, but if you're going down and taking

800
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,839
Speaker 2: advantage of like widows and single mothers and guys who

801
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:19,000
Speaker 2: are like hoping this is their one chance leveraging their people.

802
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 3: In the seminar or the homeowners street.

803
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 2: Exactly, everybody's getting taken advantage of in this dynamic, and

804
00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 2: I just do not like that. I know, but I

805
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 2: don't mind a good criminal who's like working like this

806
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 2: if he would working.

807
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 3: You know, upstairs, punch up, don't always always punch up.

808
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:38,160
Speaker 2: What's your ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth?

809
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:43,319
Speaker 3: My ridiculous takeaway is that I cannot imagine sitting in

810
00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 3: one of those seminars in the first place, because I

811
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 3: am so lazy. Second place, I just when he says, oh, okay,

812
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:55,279
Speaker 3: you've heard me ramble for ninety minutes now fifteen, like

813
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 3: I'd be one of the ones getting up and walking out.

814
00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 3: But that's just me.

815
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 2: I gotta know the three words I never found that

816
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:04,400
Speaker 2: no one ever told you you couldn't find. No one

817
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:06,239
Speaker 2: ever said. By the way, the three words were this,

818
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:07,360
Speaker 2: screw him.

819
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:14,879
Speaker 3: Drink your ovaltine, listen to jazz. That's right, I'll tell

820
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:17,480
Speaker 3: you what I do. Need a talkback, Dave.

821
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:32,239
Speaker 6: Oh my god, I like you, Sarah and Elizabeth.

822
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 7: This is Alison, Lily's mom. You just played our talk

823
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 7: back about the Cuyahoga River.

824
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 6: Thank you.

825
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 7: It brought such joy just to hear us, and even

826
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,640
Speaker 7: more joy when Lily was slightly embarrassed when it was played.

827
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 7: But hey, I told her, no one knows who you are.

828
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 7: Side note, just went to a Guardians Indians game and

829
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:54,879
Speaker 7: it was two dollars beer night.

830
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:56,000
Speaker 3: Thought of you guys.

831
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 6: No brawls though, I love it.

832
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:00,719
Speaker 3: Lily, don't be Barrisley.

833
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 2: We're here for you, Lily, Lily.

834
00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 3: Your part, your net, You're an honorary intern.

835
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:04,760
Speaker 2: You're good people.

836
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 3: I love that. That was a good one. That's it

837
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:11,280
Speaker 3: for today. You can find us online at Ridiculouscrime dot com.

838
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:16,239
Speaker 3: We're also on Twitter, Instagram, blue Sky. Just look up

839
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime. Email us at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

840
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 3: Leave us a talk back on the iheartapp Lily reach Out.

841
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:34,000
Speaker 3: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,

842
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:38,880
Speaker 3: produced and edited by Fizbo King Dave Kusten, starring Aniles

843
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:43,240
Speaker 3: rutger Is Judah. Research is by Orlando's premier real estate broker,

844
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:46,640
Speaker 3: Marissa Brown. The theme song is by Tom Vu. Bikini

845
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:50,360
Speaker 3: models Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Host wardrobe is provided

846
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 3: by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot

847
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 3: and mister Andre. Executive producers are ten Dollars Down, Ben

848
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:01,000
Speaker 3: Bowlin and twenty thousand dollars under Noel.

849
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:12,160
Speaker 4: Brown Ridicous Crime, Say It one more Time Ridiquious Crime.

850
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

851
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:19,719
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

852
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.