Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: Aaron Burnett yells, so and so, I.
Speaker 2: Love seeing the smile on your face when you walk
Speaker 2: in the door. Sometimes, thanks, I mean all the time.
Speaker 2: I like seeing it. But like sometimes you walk in
Speaker 2: with a smile. You don't always walk in with a smile,
Speaker 2: but I always like it when you do.
Speaker 3: It's drugs.
Speaker 2: Well keep doing it because I've been hitting this.
Speaker 3: New street drug called Adville. Oh yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 2: Do you like that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: The kid's pushing it on you nice.
Speaker 3: I like to ride the vill.
Speaker 2: I got a question for you. Yes, do you know
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I do know it's ridiculous. Let me give you a
Speaker 3: little backstory. This isn't going to take a whole long.
Speaker 3: I officiated a friend's wedding a few years back, and
Speaker 3: another friend of mine Lisa, Lisa, if you're listening, I'm
Speaker 3: about to tell the story. We're talking the night before,
Speaker 3: and I told her that when I was doing the
Speaker 3: you know, officiating, I was gonna before I got up,
Speaker 3: rub chocolate pudding across my teeth and do the whole
Speaker 3: ceremony like that. And then she was calling me old
Speaker 3: pudden tooth and we oh, we laughed, Saren, Saren, we laughed.
Speaker 3: We still talk about it occasionally this day, Old Pudden Tooth,
Speaker 3: So keeping that in mind, there's a toothcare brand called
Speaker 3: His Smile, And I think I've talked about them before
Speaker 3: doing stuff probably, And so you think, like, well, if
Speaker 3: I was old Pudden tooth, I need to use toothpaste
Speaker 3: to get the pudding off my teeth before I officiated
Speaker 3: a wedding.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm so praying this is not a mashup.
Speaker 3: Well, the Lord doesn't always answer her boy's prayers because
Speaker 3: His Smile has teamed up with Reeses to offer Reese's
Speaker 3: like peanut butter cup toothpaste, so.
Speaker 2: To be like a cadberry egg Easter thing.
Speaker 3: No, it's just peanut butter cup toothpaste, so you too
Speaker 3: can be old put in tooth? Do you put it?
Speaker 3: It tastes like recy cups, but with a cool finish,
Speaker 3: as they say, so it's it's sugar free, don't worry
Speaker 3: about it has floride in it. Sorry RFK parents, It
Speaker 3: says it delivers the signature Reese's flavor, although I prefer
Speaker 3: the Southern pronunciation of recy cups up front before finishing
Speaker 3: with his smiles cooling after feel it's only his.
Speaker 2: Smile is just interesting branding.
Speaker 3: There's a lot going on there, like yeah, but also
Speaker 3: it reminds me of those ads like during football season
Speaker 3: where it's like, oh, we got to be nice to
Speaker 3: each other and it's like an ad for Jesus. Well,
Speaker 3: his smile sounds like Jesus toothpaste, like because it's capital.
Speaker 2: H okay, like the Lord's smile.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but not in this case because it looks like
Speaker 3: it looks like lot when you put it on there.
Speaker 3: And so here's the thing. You can only get it
Speaker 3: in Australia and New Zealand via his smile website. So
Speaker 3: they're attacking the Southern hemisphere first before they.
Speaker 2: Move north, doing some test marketing down there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So if you want to be put in tooth jones,
Speaker 3: this is a way to do it and clean your
Speaker 3: teeth at the same time. And for anyone listening in
Speaker 3: New Zealand and Australia, do not spend the money to
Speaker 3: send this to us. I love when you guys do
Speaker 3: stuff like that, but please don't give them any money.
Speaker 3: Don't encourage this, and that, my friends, is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: It is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Put in tooth Jesus toothpaste.
Speaker 2: Do you know then what hell is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Ridiculous?
Speaker 2: The price of a new home in America, Oh God
Speaker 2: tell me right. And some people, Elizabeth will do anything,
Speaker 2: and I mean anything to own their dream home. I
Speaker 2: mean anything. Oh no, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Crime A podcast about absurd and outrages, capers, heists, and cons.
Speaker 4: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
Speaker 4: percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yes, Elizabeth Sara.
Speaker 2: Today, I want to tell you a story about a
Speaker 2: dream home. Okay, not like a Barbie dream home, like
Speaker 2: a real.
Speaker 3: Dream actual Like I have dreams about it.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess you might call it a castle a dreams. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and what one man was willing to do to afford
Speaker 2: his dream castle. Now, I know you have frequent flyer
Speaker 2: mileage on that website Zillow. Like you love zillo right,
Speaker 2: do I love it?
Speaker 3: It's so good If you're nosy.
Speaker 2: I know, right, you show me you send me text
Speaker 2: messages about it, and I'm like, yeah, sometimes I look
Speaker 2: not always sometimes I do like if if you sell
Speaker 2: it well enough, yeah, Like I just don't find the
Speaker 2: same delight you do. But I respect your game, right,
Speaker 2: So I went to Zillo for this story. Nice, and
Speaker 2: I want to show you something.
Speaker 3: You've never been walking down the street and looked at
Speaker 3: the house and then like, I wonder what the story
Speaker 3: is there?
Speaker 2: What do you mean the story? Like the cost or
Speaker 2: like how many bedrooms they have inside?
Speaker 3: The history? What are you paying in Texas? When was
Speaker 3: it last purchase?
Speaker 2: What would be your mortgage payment?
Speaker 3: Did you not have the realtor scrub it so that
Speaker 3: the listing descriptions are still in there in all forty pictures?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, good call. You know so, I know that
Speaker 2: this is not a visual medium per se, but here
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 3: I'm gone.
Speaker 2: I'm going to call up a page on because you
Speaker 2: need to see this dream house, I mean dreamcastle. I'm
Speaker 2: going to show you some picks and if you don't mind,
Speaker 2: if you could describe what you see. And now, if
Speaker 2: you want to play along, you can go to Zillo
Speaker 2: and check out the address. The dream Castle is located
Speaker 2: at fifty six fifty Canyon Woods. That's canyon woods like
Speaker 2: trees all one word canyon Woods drive in Billings, Montana. Yeah,
Speaker 2: zip code five nine one zero six. Okay, No, this
Speaker 2: home was built in twenty fourteen, so keep that in mind. Okay,
Speaker 2: Now away we go.
Speaker 3: M Dreamcastle sounds like it's nineteen eighty six and like
Speaker 3: you're a junior high kid who's all into like fantasy
Speaker 3: heavy metal, and that's the name of your band, Dreamcastle,
Speaker 3: dream Castle.
Speaker 2: So there you go. There's the opening slide. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: now go to slide the second slide, and Elizabeth, can
Speaker 2: you describe what you're looking at this?
Speaker 3: This looks like a ski resort that like Cosner invested
Speaker 3: in and then forgot about. It's like, wait a second,
Speaker 3: what is Is it all hand hewn from the rocks
Speaker 3: around it? It's kind of it's all it's stone work
Speaker 3: on the outside, all.
Speaker 2: Stone work on the It's a castle. It has like
Speaker 2: a whole stone tower. It has a mode.
Speaker 3: You could say that.
Speaker 2: So check a few other slides and but stop whatever
Speaker 2: one catches your eye. But tell me when you get
Speaker 2: to the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Looks like, you know, I've never been in a Great
Speaker 3: Wolf lodge, but if this is a Great Wolf, looks
Speaker 3: like a ski resort like outside of Tahoe.
Speaker 2: Right to the laundry room.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's a good laundry room. These people do their
Speaker 3: own laundry.
Speaker 2: You'll notice it has three side by side washing machines
Speaker 2: and dryers.
Speaker 3: There's so many kitchens.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we'll come back to.
Speaker 3: That, and like everything's beige.
Speaker 2: Have you gotten to the three side by side.
Speaker 3: Washing I'm looking at like the you know, the the
Speaker 3: office with all the empty shelving where books would be.
Speaker 3: But these probably don't own books, are.
Speaker 5: There?
Speaker 2: It is? Yeah? There you go.
Speaker 3: Okay, So there's everything by the way, is like pre
Speaker 3: manufactured cabinetry, and then like marble floors, marble counters, and
Speaker 3: then three washer dryer systems like stacks sacked okay, and
Speaker 3: I love that they have to illustrate folded towels on
Speaker 3: the table. Man, you can't put books on the bookshelves.
Speaker 2: Keep going and tell me when you get to the
Speaker 2: bowling alley.
Speaker 3: No, okay, yeah, now this.
Speaker 2: Double bowling alley.
Speaker 3: Actually, this must be just riveting for people.
Speaker 2: That doesn't it look like somewhere you'd bowl if you're
Speaker 2: in the home of like a Las Vegas casino owner.
Speaker 3: Very much so, because it's part of it is like
Speaker 3: what I'm trying to describe to people here is that
Speaker 3: it's not so much like an organic decor of like
Speaker 3: you build a house. This looks like the inside of
Speaker 3: like you're saying, like a casino. So it has like
Speaker 3: plank wood walls that are artificially distressed, and so you're there.
Speaker 3: They run lengthwise on the wall, so it's like you're
Speaker 3: in an old barn, but you're also bowling. And then
Speaker 3: there's acoustic ceilings like I don't know what's happening here.
Speaker 2: Slide a couple of more frames ahead and see, tell
Speaker 2: me when you get to the shooting ring.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm at the shooting ring.
Speaker 2: That's a legit indoor shooting rang. Okay, can you go
Speaker 2: full John Wick in there?
Speaker 3: It's terrifying, yes, But also on the walls, it looks
Speaker 3: like that there's nothing in those racks. But I swear
Speaker 3: to god, those look like wine wracks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they took all the shooting ring. They took all
Speaker 2: the guns out.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to pretend that's a shooting range. Slash sell.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 2: Slide a couple ahead and tell me when you get
Speaker 2: to the screening room.
Speaker 3: Well there's okay, yeah, because I see there's one that's
Speaker 3: like has Oh there's a golf room with like the
Speaker 3: screening because God forbid you go outside.
Speaker 2: I wait till we get out.
Speaker 3: Get is Kevin Costner going to pop out of one
Speaker 3: of these things? Okay?
Speaker 2: What do you think about those shiny leather high back recliners.
Speaker 2: Huh Now, personally I would have couches. You know, that's
Speaker 2: something company to say, like leather recliners.
Speaker 3: I mean it goes with the fake stars on the ceiling.
Speaker 2: But what do I know? I don't have a screening room.
Speaker 3: The gym. There you go the gym the comedy like
Speaker 3: twenty People.
Speaker 2: It looks like something that you find in an upscale
Speaker 2: business hotel.
Speaker 3: It does right at it, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: It's like it's the kind of it's the sort of
Speaker 2: gym equipment that you would use when you're about to
Speaker 2: be harassed by the sales manager for like some company.
Speaker 3: Or I imagine it. Outside the door, there's like a plaque
Speaker 3: on the wall that's like, yes, you know, gym equipment
Speaker 3: by Equinox. Like it's like a spinoff.
Speaker 2: Now, how about that cave dining area? Did you get
Speaker 2: to that yet?
Speaker 3: The little grotto?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like somewhere you'd eat a meal just before
Speaker 2: you get killed by Benicio del Toro.
Speaker 3: I wish right, go to the.
Speaker 2: Tennis courts and the private three hole golf range.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the outside. God, this place. It totally
Speaker 3: looks like a like a resort where you go for
Speaker 3: like a corporate retreat. You find out the rooms are
Speaker 3: supposed to be like eight hundred dollars a night, but
Speaker 3: your events person was like, don't worry, we got it
Speaker 3: for like one hundred and fifty. I kind of see
Speaker 3: why it's off season. It smells a little mill. Do
Speaker 3: you over in the sense of the building. Okay, I
Speaker 3: see like the ground do.
Speaker 2: You see yeah? Do you get outside yet? You're outside?
Speaker 3: I'm outside.
Speaker 2: Do you see that the tennis the double tennis courts
Speaker 2: and the three hole ball?
Speaker 3: You know that's pickleball. That's not These people don't play tennis,
Speaker 3: no offense, pickleball.
Speaker 2: This is kind of set up you get if you
Speaker 2: sell missiles by the billions to the US government, you
Speaker 2: get this house.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: You haven't defense contractor money.
Speaker 3: I mean, this whole thing, it's just so it's so
Speaker 3: bland and yet like ostentatious but bland.
Speaker 2: Yes, it somehow strikes you're a big balance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're going to be the eccentric multi millionaire
Speaker 3: and have this enormous place which I don't even know.
Speaker 3: You're gonna have to tell me how many square feet this?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I got all that for you. I know
Speaker 2: you care about.
Speaker 3: All I think is like, well, what's your electricity?
Speaker 2: You have? You have a whole step You're not thinking
Speaker 2: about the electricity.
Speaker 3: I know. But it's like, if you're going to do that,
Speaker 3: then like go for it. I like when people have
Speaker 3: the wacky houses where it's like it looks really crazy,
Speaker 3: like it looks nice and and we'll put together outside
Speaker 3: and you go in and then there's one room that's
Speaker 3: just like bright red and gold and terrifying.
Speaker 2: I want people to like do what Elvis did at Graceland,
Speaker 2: which is just make it your own, like have a.
Speaker 3: Jungle room exactly.
Speaker 2: Now, now that you've seen the dream House, Dreamcastle, Elizabeth, how.
Speaker 3: Many garages this place? And what cars are outside?
Speaker 2: If you had to guess, how much would you say
Speaker 2: this house is worked?
Speaker 3: And you said it's in Boise Billings Billings? Okay, so
Speaker 3: they have a higher market out there because of people
Speaker 3: like Kevin Costner. Yeah, here, how many acres is it?
Speaker 2: I'll break it down for you, because here's a quick
Speaker 2: rundown of the specs. That place boasts ten bedrooms, nineteen bathrooms.
Speaker 2: There's fifteen full bathrooms, four houses, Like.
Speaker 3: You could have nine friends over ten and b pooping
Speaker 3: everyone everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone poops to the same peak.
Speaker 3: Have you could serve something that makes everyone sick from
Speaker 3: one of your fifteen kitchens? No, No, they'll run. You're like,
Speaker 3: don't worry, we've each got her up.
Speaker 2: Everyone take a bathroom. Your names are outside of your bathroom,
Speaker 2: so we have This place has a personal and commercial elevators,
Speaker 2: like for your deliveries, I suppose, or maybe for your staff.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So some of the features you've looked at right, there's
Speaker 2: three pools, two outdoors, one indoor pool. Okay, there's the
Speaker 2: two lane bowling alley, the private theater, screening room, the
Speaker 2: golf simulator, the indoor shooting range. Of course, there's the
Speaker 2: wine cellar. There's a full gym with locker rooms. Mind
Speaker 2: you and Elizabeth, as you noted, since you love to cook,
Speaker 2: there are multiple kitchens, both indoor and outdoor kitchens laural.
Speaker 2: There's the three horrile golf course and the tennis courts,
Speaker 2: along with some private hiking trails if you'd like to
Speaker 2: get around that way. All in all, this dreamcastle is
Speaker 2: thirty and forty three square feet seventy acre plot of.
Speaker 3: Land, all right, seventy acres.
Speaker 2: Somehow this place is listed as a single family residence,
Speaker 2: which I find hilarious. So, now with all that info, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: what would you expect to pay for this bad boy?
Speaker 2: I was so hard to keep I had.
Speaker 3: Keep thinking about, like, put it where it is? How
Speaker 3: many acres seventy seventy acre plutty thousand square thirty thousand
Speaker 3: square foot montana.
Speaker 2: Yeah, multiple elevators, just own shooting range.
Speaker 3: Twenty five million.
Speaker 2: Wow, you're good. Twenty six point nine million dollars. And
Speaker 2: that's ten million more than it was listed for when
Speaker 2: it was originally built.
Speaker 3: And purchased twelve years ago.
Speaker 2: Now, if you wanted to do an estimated mortgage payment,
Speaker 2: I looked into this. I love that one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty nine and eighty dollars a month. A month, yes,
Speaker 2: a month, an insane amount of money for like, oh,
Speaker 2: I have a salary, I would be happy with that
Speaker 2: as my salary.
Speaker 3: It would take me multiple years to pay one month.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And I forgot to know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a little short one.
Speaker 2: You mentioned your man, Kevin Costner. Okay, my man in
Speaker 2: that place is located in Yellowstone County, Montana. Is it
Speaker 2: in the city of Billings, Yeah, so Yellowstone Elizabeth Dutton.
Speaker 3: Dude, I told you. I told you what happened the
Speaker 3: other day. I was, actually I was. My mom was
Speaker 3: visiting and I was at the airport with her and
Speaker 3: someone was like, oh, Dutton is Yellowstone Totton And my
Speaker 3: Mom's just like I was like, oh, dude, no, I
Speaker 3: don't say that to her, got in front of her
Speaker 3: and she and she said no, but her name's Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: And the guy was like, oh, I'm screwed. I was like,
Speaker 3: I've never seen the show get stuffed.
Speaker 2: Speaking of crime in Minnesota or Montana rather, well, we
Speaker 2: could talk about both. How much crime would you be
Speaker 2: willing to do to own this dream castle in Yellowstone County, Montana?
Speaker 3: I would say approximately zero.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't really expect you ever really answer.
Speaker 3: It's not my joint, that's not my thing. But there
Speaker 3: are people I could see how people would covet such at.
Speaker 2: Right, But that was the question for our Man of
Speaker 2: the hour. How much crime do you do.
Speaker 3: There's going to be a lot of crime, because okay,
Speaker 3: so it's let's say you get what is it, twenty
Speaker 3: six nine, twenty twenty seven million dollars And then as
Speaker 3: I said, okay, so now you got the upkeep.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh yeah, so it's.
Speaker 3: One hundred and fifty something, just sixty grand.
Speaker 2: But for your three whole golf course.
Speaker 3: All the maintenance outside, the cleaning crews you'd have to
Speaker 3: inside just to constantly the windows circulating, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Just to clean the windows would be then thousands of months.
Speaker 2: And then the water bill, no, forget about the water.
Speaker 2: But you don't even want to see that h VAC.
Speaker 3: All those giant rooms and are like three story rooms
Speaker 3: and it's cold as bajeebers outside when it's snowing. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and you're trapped in there too, like.
Speaker 2: The Overlook Hotel, like the shining like in there, Like I.
Speaker 3: Have so much respect for people who can live in
Speaker 3: snowy places, and I am just not one of them.
Speaker 2: No, you were not so. Our man of the hour,
Speaker 2: he decided the answer to the question of how much
Speaker 2: crime would he do? All of it, all.
Speaker 3: Of the could It's like, give me more.
Speaker 2: Now at present, Elizabeth this dreamcastle is still for sale.
Speaker 2: The listing is not moving.
Speaker 3: That's a live listing with all those pictures.
Speaker 2: He has been on the market for two hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty six days as of today.
Speaker 3: All those high end properties, it's hard to move them.
Speaker 2: You know, Like if especially a Curt's like me and.
Speaker 3: You like to poke around, you see that, like the
Speaker 3: like crazy properties in like Wine Country or like San
Speaker 3: Francisco Pacific Nights. They stay on the market for really long.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sometimes like and then like they don't even
Speaker 2: have like the decency to take it off after like
Speaker 2: a year, they're like, oh, we're still hopeful, so about it.
Speaker 3: Probably wants to look at this listing again. She's bored.
Speaker 2: So if you do change your mind and you decide
Speaker 2: to go full Beth Dutton and do crime in Montana, sure,
Speaker 2: if you're willing to embezzel, say twenty million dollars, you
Speaker 2: could make an offer on this rare, one of a
Speaker 2: kind dreamcastle. Okay, I'm just saying. So that's what our
Speaker 2: Man of the hour day who I keep referring to
Speaker 2: is our Man of the hour is.
Speaker 3: Who is man?
Speaker 2: His name is Larry Wayne Price Junior.
Speaker 3: Is it Larry Wayne one word.
Speaker 2: No, it's not like Mark Wayne Old Marquaine. That's how
Speaker 2: I say it.
Speaker 3: It's Mark Wain.
Speaker 2: That's your mama named Mark Wayne. He pronounced it Markwain,
Speaker 2: So Larry Wayne. He was a forty two year old
Speaker 2: father of six at the time of his criming. He
Speaker 2: was a businessman who worked in the extractive industries that
Speaker 2: run rampant in Montana. In particular, he ran surface operations
Speaker 2: for an underground coal mine near round Up, Montana.
Speaker 3: Right, this is the mineral rights and that totally extraction,
Speaker 3: like clearing people's pores.
Speaker 2: No, is that what they call that? I think so,
Speaker 2: I'd figure like tooth extraction. Its only distraction.
Speaker 3: He's just a tooth guy.
Speaker 2: Bigger, big, big in the dentistry. So, Larry Wayne Price Junior,
Speaker 2: it was more than any like simple description might convey.
Speaker 2: Like the man, he contained multitudes, Elizabeth. For instance, he
Speaker 2: was the owner operator of hog Pit Cycles. That's hog
Speaker 2: h a w G. Hog Pit Cycles. There's a motorcycle shop,
Speaker 2: Harley David's.
Speaker 3: For weekend Warriors. It's like he sells the Harley Fat
Speaker 3: Boys to like total you know, insurance salesman exactly. I
Speaker 3: know the tight so.
Speaker 2: That's our man of the day. Real estate appreciator, motorcycle salesman,
Speaker 2: hog rider, corrupt mining entrepreneur, and business partner to Vladimir
Speaker 2: Putin's inner circle.
Speaker 3: Whoah, yeah, that came.
Speaker 2: Out that right, and I forgot. He's also a man
Speaker 2: who decided maybe I should try to fake my own
Speaker 2: death or at least his own kidnapping. He's a fun one.
Speaker 2: This story is about again, all kinds of while, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: But first it's like a little break now that I've
Speaker 2: broken the ice. And when we're back, we'll hear all
Speaker 2: about how Larry Wayne Price Junior like to get down.
Speaker 3: I cannot wait.
Speaker 2: We're back, Elizabeth, we are back. You're ready to get
Speaker 2: down and dirty with Larry Wayne.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, totally young again.
Speaker 2: I guess we should start with the coal industry of Montana.
Speaker 3: Right, are we going to go back to Memo sec
Speaker 3: You're not going to go back to go back to
Speaker 3: like prehistoric times?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no. I won't take you back to
Speaker 2: the fifteenth century or to the Neolithic period of the
Speaker 2: Paleolithic or any of that. No, right, we will stay
Speaker 2: in this age. Okay, Elizabeth, what do you know about
Speaker 2: coal mining in Montana? There is no wrong answer because personally,
Speaker 2: my answer is it happens.
Speaker 3: That's why I didn't know that Montana was like a
Speaker 3: coal mining.
Speaker 2: I didn't know. I think in West Virginia, I think, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have Yeah, I mean there are plenty of
Speaker 3: other places, Montana not one of them. But you know,
Speaker 3: for a quick case I know they find dinosaur stuff there,
Speaker 3: dinosaur country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're always did in the dirty.
Speaker 3: S down the dinosaurs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very active place, you guysers.
Speaker 3: And one fuel. That's no, it's not, it's science.
Speaker 2: For a quick case study. Let's get to know Signal
Speaker 2: Peak Energy. Okay, according to coal Age Magazine.
Speaker 3: Oh I love that magazine.
Speaker 2: It's a trade publication that covers the coal industry. As
Speaker 2: you well know as a subscriber.
Speaker 3: The centerfolds. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: You've seen those rocks? Did you do that kind of
Speaker 2: hurt that way? Did you like the new tote bag
Speaker 2: for this year's subscriber?
Speaker 3: Totally so?
Speaker 2: From coal Age Magazine, we learned that quote Signal Peak
Speaker 2: Energy operates the Bowl Mountain's mine near round Up, Montana. Okay,
Speaker 2: what else coal Age Magazine, Well, back to their coverage
Speaker 2: last year twenty twenty three, Signal Peak Energy produced seven
Speaker 2: point six million tons and they were ranked the highest
Speaker 2: in the US as far as tons per man hour.
Speaker 2: Isn't this exciting?
Speaker 3: Well, all of the names of stuff are so aggressively masculine.
Speaker 3: Two of like hog rack and the Signal Peak exactly
Speaker 3: target FeAs round up. Everyone's got cancer.
Speaker 2: I have to I have no idea what most of
Speaker 2: this means.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter. It sounds great. So for some context,
Speaker 3: now you know what it's like to be me to
Speaker 3: go through the day.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what I recognize.
Speaker 3: They're reading it. It's allowed and it sounds fabulous.
Speaker 2: So for some context, here's Parker Phipps, president and CEO
Speaker 2: of Signal Peak Energy. According to old Parker quote, what
Speaker 2: makes these stats remarkable is that we did it while
Speaker 2: mining in three different long wall panels. It was a
Speaker 2: busy year for us. Normally we have a long wall
Speaker 2: move every eighteen months. To know what that means, a
Speaker 2: strip of coal that's like, you know, a few feet
Speaker 2: and it's usually like you know, underground until they cut
Speaker 2: down till they find this like like vein and it's like.
Speaker 3: A mother load very kind of so kind of like
Speaker 3: when you're eating ice cream and you get to like
Speaker 3: the fudge ribbon.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: So and then what is this guy's name?
Speaker 2: Flipper Parker Phipps.
Speaker 3: Parker Phipps. I feel like if I ever met him,
Speaker 3: was like introduced to him, I would want to just
Speaker 3: start pulling my hair and screaming, just like at the
Speaker 3: top of my lungs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, since I know you want to know more about
Speaker 2: long walls, I do, and why they had to move
Speaker 2: Daddy moved the long walls. This was due to environmental
Speaker 2: impact studies that are required to access federally controlled coal,
Speaker 2: because they were not anymore they're drilling on federally controlled lands.
Speaker 2: This is all important because the reason why this was
Speaker 2: disappointing for Signal Peak Energy back to coal Age magazine
Speaker 2: and I quote the restriction on mining federal coal within
Speaker 2: their mind plan was a setback for a company that
Speaker 2: was turning the page on legacy management issues several years ago.
Speaker 2: Management at the mine was clearly heading in the wrong direction. Now,
Speaker 2: this Elizabeth is what we call a sly reference to
Speaker 2: Larry Wayne Price Junior. Oh yes, and how he nearly
Speaker 2: ruined the repute and business prospects of Signal Peak Energy
Speaker 2: with his legal shenanigans. Now, to be fair to Signal
Speaker 2: Peak Energy, it seems to be the sort of business
Speaker 2: that attracts some nefarious characters. And I'm talking coal mining
Speaker 2: and the extractive industries. For instance, he was doing business
Speaker 2: with a man who the Treasury Department claims is a
Speaker 2: member of Vladimir Putin's inner circle. This requires a little
Speaker 2: context though, So back to old Parker Phipps, CEO.
Speaker 3: Signal Peak Energy, He's just spilling it.
Speaker 2: In a New York Times story, he was quick to
Speaker 2: point out to the quote tremendous amount of litigation that
Speaker 2: was filed against the energy company, which was tricky to
Speaker 2: pursue in court since the company was owned by two
Speaker 2: shell companies, not one, but two that acted as an
Speaker 2: umbrella for many out of state and by out of state,
Speaker 2: I mean foreign co owners. So you see Elizabeth. Back
Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight, there was this Ohio based billionaire,
Speaker 2: Wayne Boych, owner of Boyitch Companies. He partnered with First
Speaker 2: Energy Corporation to buy a coal mine in the Bowl
Speaker 2: Mountains in Montana, which we're discussing. They named their joint
Speaker 2: venture your Signal Peak Energy. Now, two years into operation.
Speaker 2: They brought on another co owner, the Gunver Group. I
Speaker 2: always want to say governor gun For gun Vo r
Speaker 2: gun For Group. That company is a foreign oil commodities
Speaker 2: trading firm that's registered in Cyprus, so you know they're.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The Gunver Group was co owned by a man named
Speaker 2: Jenndy Timchenko. He's interesting because he's a Russian Ola gark
Speaker 2: a billionaire who's a close confident of Vladimir Putin. He
Speaker 2: was also instrumental partner for Signal Peak Energy.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that is Aaron. I'm putting the red thread
Speaker 3: on the wall right now. It's all ties too.
Speaker 2: So this was all going great right up until the
Speaker 2: US State Department placed sanctions on Putin linked Russian Ola
Speaker 2: garcs like tim Chenko. Yeah, and thus he had to
Speaker 2: distance himself from the Gunver Group, and the US Treasury
Speaker 2: Department reported the quote Putin has investments in Gunver and
Speaker 2: may have access to gun For funds. So this may
Speaker 2: literally be money that Putin was pulling out of Montana.
Speaker 2: I'm personally benefiting from. That's not me saying, that's US
Speaker 2: Treasury Department right. Anyway, Soon enough, the Gunver Group claimed
Speaker 2: that tim Chenko absolutely zero involvement with gunviter in any way.
Speaker 2: That's their direct quote now at that. And they also
Speaker 2: had there was reported connections between Gunver Group, Timchenko and Putin,
Speaker 2: and they claimed that those are old and entirely baseless.
Speaker 2: So deal with that what you will.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, have you seen this window lease step forward?
Speaker 2: Do you know what defenis street means? No, you're about
Speaker 2: to learn. So, meanwhile, there's the American owners, the First Energy,
Speaker 2: in the Boych group. They were also considered hinky as hell.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one, First Energy admitted that the company
Speaker 2: had been paying millions in bribes to state legislators as
Speaker 2: well as regulators in order to get approval for a
Speaker 2: one billion dollar bailout intended for nuclear and coal fired
Speaker 2: power plants that were aging and needed upgrades. So they're like, hey,
Speaker 2: we've been bribing the regulators and the legislators to get
Speaker 2: ourselves this. Now, with a company admitted to this culture
Speaker 2: of corruption, the the prior Department of Justice, not the
Speaker 2: one that's currently operating under that same name, fine First
Speaker 2: Energy two hundred and thirty million dollars for their bribery case. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was the fine. Two hundred and thirty million dollars.
Speaker 2: That's kind of high.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, I bring all this up to provide context for
Speaker 2: why are crimer of the day thought he could maybe
Speaker 2: wet his beacon, embezzle some millions upon millions in order
Speaker 2: to buy himself a dreamcastle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're all doing it right, I mean, so let's
Speaker 3: get back.
Speaker 2: To Larry Wayne Price Junior. Yes, Now, he'd gotten his
Speaker 2: start in the extractive industries when he worked in the
Speaker 2: coal fields of southwest Virginia. Not West Virginia, but Southwest.
Speaker 3: Virginia region, southern western Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, then in two thousand and nine, when Signal Peak
Speaker 2: Energy was formed, he took a job with the company
Speaker 2: and he moved out to Montana. He's like, oh, that's
Speaker 2: where the action is, right, So he distinguishes himself as
Speaker 2: his real go getter. He eventually ascends to the executive
Speaker 2: suite and he's like, hey, I got my own key
Speaker 2: to the washroom.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he's promoted to be a vice president of surface operations.
Speaker 2: So they don't trust him, like where the money is
Speaker 2: happening underground He's like moving trucks around and put that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So his career, it gets him close in with the
Speaker 2: Then CEO of Signal Peak Energy, a man named Bradley Hanson.
Speaker 2: Bradley Hansen who this gave him, Larry Wayne Price Junior
Speaker 2: lucrative opportunities to cut side deals with Signal Peak Energy
Speaker 2: because he's in good with the CEO.
Speaker 3: He's like, oh yeah, So Larry Wayne like goes like
Speaker 3: for business traveling like flies spirit and like sits down.
Speaker 2: Like tosses his his cole age magazine, his.
Speaker 3: Cole fancy magazine down and is like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: like trying to like flex.
Speaker 2: Out on everybody. Everyone knows he's got one.
Speaker 3: Of those giant bluetooth things there.
Speaker 2: But one second, guys, I'm telling you it's gonna be great.
Speaker 2: You want to come out to my john Wick gun range.
Speaker 2: So Larry Wayne, here's wine. He starts the side business
Speaker 2: called three and then the number three three Solutions, and
Speaker 2: that company struck deals with you guessed it, Signal Peak Energy.
Speaker 2: He promised to sell the mining company industrial grade chemicals
Speaker 2: that were used in the mining process. So basically the
Speaker 2: CEO is like, you know, we got this company, but
Speaker 2: if you started a company and offered us you know
Speaker 2: wherever they're getting better, Yeah, you'd be a vendor for
Speaker 2: the company, we could kick you down right, so price
Speaker 2: he does this starts three solutions. Meanwhile, Larry Wayne grew
Speaker 2: increasingly integral to Signal Peak Energy as an executive because
Speaker 2: he also becomes privy to industry secrets, like how a
Speaker 2: fellow Signal Peak vice president in charge of underground operations
Speaker 2: the VP. So he's this is the guys like, actually,
Speaker 2: you know hitting the call with him? You pick this
Speaker 2: is a guy named Dale Lee Musgrave. I was saying
Speaker 2: all their full names, like they're like presidential assassins. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: so Dale Lee musk Grave.
Speaker 3: Because you don't want like Dale John Muskgrave to hear
Speaker 3: this and be like, that's not me true dude, I'm
Speaker 3: just innocently listening while I go to rob a bank,
Speaker 3: so they'll leave.
Speaker 2: Musgrave. He was forcing employees to falsify reports about MIND
Speaker 2: safety because he was in charge of the underground operations,
Speaker 2: right were all the danger was and the raves. So
Speaker 2: he relied on a time tested mix of threats and
Speaker 2: bribes to ensure the Mind's operations had quote the veneer
Speaker 2: of an outstanding safety.
Speaker 3: Recordar and it takes money to make money.
Speaker 2: Now that's not me saying that that's the Department of Justice.
Speaker 3: The veneer.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: So back in twenty eighteen, while Larry Wayne Price Junior
Speaker 2: was still with the company, the DOJ discovered that Musgrave
Speaker 2: had gone so far as to bribe an employee not
Speaker 2: to report that the employee's finger had been crushed while
Speaker 2: he was loading mining materials.
Speaker 3: I shouldn't laugh at that, but I'm laughing.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you won't laugh now because the finger had
Speaker 2: to be amputated. To keep things hush hush, Musgrave gave
Speaker 2: the man two thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: In cash, only two thousand dollars price for a time
Speaker 3: they were talking about a million dollars prebes million dollar.
Speaker 3: Which finger was let me.
Speaker 2: Break you off. I don't know which finger. It was
Speaker 2: one of the ten who was his middle finger.
Speaker 3: And you can't flip peak off anymore.
Speaker 2: You can no longer cuss with his fingers.
Speaker 3: Remember his kids say flick people.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know why, but it just bothered me.
Speaker 3: If you lose your index finger, that's big, that's big,
Speaker 3: bet thumb.
Speaker 2: That's the real bad one to lose, because.
Speaker 3: Well, what if he loses his pink and then when
Speaker 3: he goes to drink tea get can't let people know
Speaker 3: he's come and then he looks like a brute.
Speaker 2: Anyway, So anyway, what this wasn't the only trouble musk
Speaker 2: Grave got into while a VP at Signal Peak Energy.
Speaker 3: I'm going to get you a Signal Peak you see.
Speaker 2: Well, the federal investigators are doing their due diligence to
Speaker 2: investigate the mine and its hinky operations. They spotted FedEx
Speaker 2: delivery drivers dropping off a suspiciously large number of packages
Speaker 2: at Musgrave's house. And I'm talking like, according to the DOJ,
Speaker 2: twenty seven deliveries over a few months. And I know, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: you may be hearing that number thinking that's not a
Speaker 2: lot of packages Amazons drop for me in one month period.
Speaker 3: Just because you saw my front stoop was box number of.
Speaker 2: Boxes and then it came back a week later.
Speaker 3: It's it's stuff for my house, it's for my dogs,
Speaker 3: it's dog treats.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say nothing.
Speaker 3: It's maybe a paint by Numbers kit that I ordered.
Speaker 2: You know, girls, you're a woman of mystery. The feds
Speaker 2: they thought twenty seven packages over a few months was
Speaker 2: a lot. Back off.
Speaker 3: Worry about yourself.
Speaker 2: The Feds never see your stoop, you're getting an investigation
Speaker 2: right away. So the twenty seven package from FedEx, they
Speaker 2: seem sussed. So one day the Feds they grabbed one
Speaker 2: of the packages, you know, just to see what sort
Speaker 2: of stuff musk Grave was having delivered to his house.
Speaker 2: Turns out, in the package they nabbed, the federal investigators
Speaker 2: found baggies of cocaine. Baggy cocaine.
Speaker 3: No, I don't have that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it turns out the executive was engaging in some
Speaker 2: light cocaine trafficking.
Speaker 3: When having it like ups, drop it off in the door.
Speaker 2: If you live out in the middle of nowhere, the
Speaker 2: rural places, you can't like pop into the city. They're like,
Speaker 2: just send it to my house, just me the coke exactly.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, also, to defend myself a little bit further,
Speaker 3: I need a lot of that cardboard for my garden.
Speaker 3: This is true, So okay, back off, buddy, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I take it all back.
Speaker 3: Turned to eat a lot of chicken jerkey human grade,
Speaker 3: as it says, And I also have a bag of
Speaker 3: chicken hearts and anyway, you know.
Speaker 2: What, You're only doing good.
Speaker 3: But there's no cocaine in any of your packages.
Speaker 2: There's that. Now I bring all this up as evidence that.
Speaker 3: For minute, we delivered cocaine.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, maybe dug cocaine just like numbing teeth.
Speaker 2: That's like, yeah, so I bring all this up, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: there's evidence that many folks involved with signal peak energy
Speaker 2: were on the hanky side, do you think? And uh,
Speaker 2: you know, but appearances can be deceiving, right, and then
Speaker 2: they were good at keeping their crimes swept under the
Speaker 2: rug right up until found the baggies of cocaine. So
Speaker 2: you know, obviously this also included big ticket items that
Speaker 2: they were covering up, you know, like overseas the money laundering.
Speaker 2: There was medium sized crimes that they were covering up,
Speaker 2: like a little light cocaine trafficking, and then there are
Speaker 2: smaller crimes like mining safety infractions and lost fingers.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I still two thousand dollars for a finger
Speaker 3: I would have pulled aside.
Speaker 2: And then like, look, how much would you want for
Speaker 2: a finger? A finger, not your thumb?
Speaker 3: Like if if I lost my let's say I lost
Speaker 3: my index index index. Yeah, doing this show, I go
Speaker 3: to Admiral iHeart.
Speaker 2: Yes, what would you demand?
Speaker 3: And I would hold a knife to his throat.
Speaker 2: With your good hand, I could still do it.
Speaker 3: And then I think I would want, like, at a
Speaker 3: minimum a million dollars.
Speaker 2: Wow, you really value your digits.
Speaker 3: I have a magic fingers. You know what if I
Speaker 3: want a No, not in the slightest my hands are
Speaker 3: pretty beat up. But what if I learned to play
Speaker 3: the piano. What is Malcolm Gladwell's like at ten thousand
Speaker 3: hours in your genius myth No? Anyway, so I could
Speaker 3: And then what if I could have gone on to
Speaker 3: like write the greatest piece of piano work and perform
Speaker 3: it and then bring peace to the planet because everyone
Speaker 3: hears it and they're like, that's the most beautiful thing.
Speaker 3: It's missing some of the notes because Homegirl doesn't have
Speaker 3: one of her fingers fingers, but it was his middle finger.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm not telling you, I'm not there all one finger.
Speaker 3: It was like the only part of it. Anyway, Listen
Speaker 3: to me like I would be. I would be yelling
Speaker 3: at Admiral iHeart and like putting my thumb to gouge
Speaker 3: out his eyeball, run my check and be like I
Speaker 3: want a million dollars from my miss or you do what?
Speaker 3: Poke your eyes? Out to you and then stick this
Speaker 3: knife where the sun don't shine energy hypifically, Admiral. I
Speaker 3: say this with with love and respect, and you know,
Speaker 3: I'm just joshing.
Speaker 2: But God, I don't know about you. But whenever I
Speaker 2: hear about like oil and gas or coal or you
Speaker 2: seem really any mining, I tend to think of corruption
Speaker 2: and crime. It's kind of historically associated with chemical Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, like it's just like we're talking about like
Speaker 2: President Grant's problems with like or like the Rockefeller family.
Speaker 2: It's make you name one. You're like, oh, that's something, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: But setting aside the historical examples, all right, I can
Speaker 2: say that the extractive industries are not a business where
Speaker 2: I expect to find the best folks with good morals.
Speaker 2: I'll believe that, right, No, no, And you know, once
Speaker 2: again because of the industry's long history of flagrant criminality.
Speaker 2: But keeping true of tradition at signal peak, energy crime
Speaker 2: was the standard of the day. That is, if an
Speaker 2: executive was creative enough and willing enough to see it through.
Speaker 2: And that was the lesson that this ambitious striver and
Speaker 2: corporate climber Larry Wayne Price Junior took to heart, this
Speaker 2: time as an executive at Signal Pig Energy. Wayne. He
Speaker 2: was like, if they can do it, why can't they
Speaker 2: Just a boy from Virginia do with the dreams. I
Speaker 2: also want to get rich, and I'm willing to do
Speaker 2: crime to get there.
Speaker 3: Dance spelt in the tube of chapstick.
Speaker 2: Price he starts at the company in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: as we covered, by twenty fourteen, he was already building
Speaker 2: his dream castle.
Speaker 3: Oh he built that, Yes, built it?
Speaker 2: No wonder right, Yes, Now we don't know exactly getting Yeah,
Speaker 2: he was covering that. I don't know. I gotta stick
Speaker 2: to the facts. I do know in this case, we
Speaker 2: can speculate.
Speaker 3: I just like to make We don't know.
Speaker 2: Exactly what all crimes he was involved when before, say
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, But because of the Department of Justice, I
Speaker 2: can tell you after twenty sixteen, the crimes that he
Speaker 2: wasn't definitely size. Yeah. Between October twenty sixteen and April
Speaker 2: of twenty eighteen, we do know that Price managed to
Speaker 2: embezzle twenty million dollars from three coal related companies.
Speaker 3: Twenty million dollars and the house.
Speaker 2: Costs a lot, so I think it got more than that,
Speaker 2: but they could just nail him on the twenty million.
Speaker 3: That's every finger for two people exact.
Speaker 2: So one of the companies had this fun wink wink
Speaker 2: name of three Blind Mice LLC.
Speaker 3: Oh, get out of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was another company called ninety m LLC. And
Speaker 2: of course there was Signal Peak Energy. So the story
Speaker 2: goes based on his role as a KEYVP in charge
Speaker 2: of surface operations and owner of Three Solutions. Don't forget that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: his company was able to supply industrial chemicals to his employer,
Speaker 2: so he could embezzle from that end, which means he
Speaker 2: was robbing Signal Peak Energy and Trice Paul. He developed
Speaker 2: his reputation around billings that he was a coal mining expert,
Speaker 2: an insider's insider because.
Speaker 3: He's close with the CEO and a coal miner's daughter.
Speaker 2: True enough, right, No, he leveraged his reputation to convince
Speaker 2: three Blind Mice to lend him seven point five million dollars. Now,
Speaker 2: if you asked him, Price would say that his company,
Speaker 2: Three Solutions had won a contract with a Pennsylvania coal
Speaker 2: company to install coal mining equipment, and in order to
Speaker 2: finish that project, he just needed seven point five million dollars,
Speaker 2: which three Blind Mice was only too happy to loan him. Sure,
Speaker 2: and they were going to be paid back with interest
Speaker 2: in you know, extra amounts, so he would have to
Speaker 2: pay them back eleven million dollars.
Speaker 3: Eleven million.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Amus planned to make money on this deal, and
Speaker 2: he's like, I'll cut you in sure. Now. If you
Speaker 2: ask three Blind Mice what happened, they would say Price
Speaker 2: stole the money outright. Now, we know that three Blind
Speaker 2: Mice signed an unsecured promissory note and wired seven point
Speaker 2: five million dollars to Three Solutions.
Speaker 3: Okay, Larry Wayne's company, that's an idiot moved yes, with
Speaker 3: a payback date.
Speaker 2: Of January thirty first, twenty eighteen. And when that date
Speaker 2: came and went, I did not and had not paid
Speaker 2: the promise eleven million dollars. When the FEDS looked into this,
Speaker 2: they found that there was no deal with the Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: Coal Operation for Three Solutions to install coal mining operations.
Speaker 2: What had happened was Price spent the seven point five
Speaker 2: million dollars probably on a bowling lane, maybe a three.
Speaker 3: Hole goal course exactly.
Speaker 2: Now, as for ninety m LLC, the investors in that
Speaker 2: company appointed Price is a representative of ninety M. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: tell them you work with us, you work for us,
Speaker 2: So that he could go out and help them purchase
Speaker 2: a coal mine in Virginia where Larry Wayne is from,
Speaker 2: and help them develop into a cash making operation. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: get us rich on what you know. You're an insided
Speaker 2: inside man.
Speaker 3: You're connected.
Speaker 2: So as well, they also had some other business ventures
Speaker 2: that they had cooking. So all in all, Price helped
Speaker 2: them with five business deals worth roughly thirteen point five
Speaker 2: million dollars for Price. Now how they exist? Yeah, Now
Speaker 2: these were good kind of because when investigators looked into it,
Speaker 2: they found that ten point four to seventy five million
Speaker 2: of that thirteen point five was quote fraudulently obtained. Oh
Speaker 2: so it wasn't all hanky Elizabeth whole linked ten point
Speaker 2: four million of it. Oops. And then there was his
Speaker 2: day to day employer, Signal Peak Energy, where Price worked
Speaker 2: as a VP of Service Operations. Now he stole from
Speaker 2: his main job too, because that house ain't going to
Speaker 2: build itself. He did this by initiating fraudulent deals to
Speaker 2: purchase coal mining equipment from a vendor that he knew
Speaker 2: could not provide said coal mining equipment. So the firm
Speaker 2: he selected for the deal, they kicked him back two
Speaker 2: point four million dollars to Prices company three Solutions. Real
Speaker 2: simple paper trail, but there it was. Yeah, all of
Speaker 2: his shady dealings came to a head in April twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: When the investors from ninety MLLC checked the deals. They
Speaker 2: began to question the transactions with Price in his company
Speaker 2: three Solutions. So what do they do. They call a
Speaker 2: Price and they're like, hey, man, where's money. You're like
Speaker 2: months behind on your remember January thirty first second, so
Speaker 2: they're like, it's April man. So by this point, Price
Speaker 2: was no longer in Montana. He was living in Virginia.
Speaker 2: He'd return to his home state, but it wasn't impossible
Speaker 2: to find where he was living. The folks from ninety
Speaker 2: M did. They were able to find him, and they
Speaker 2: sent representatives to get their money back from Price. Right,
Speaker 2: if this was street crime, the amount of money he
Speaker 2: would have been talking we're talking about is enough to
Speaker 2: get a man killed. Oh yeah, when we're sending our representatives.
Speaker 2: The fact they even told him meant that they kind
Speaker 2: of expected to get someone as opposed to just like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: So I don't know how it goes in the coal industry.
Speaker 2: I won't speculate, but I imagine they also start getting
Speaker 2: murderous notions in their minds when they get robbed for
Speaker 2: millions of dollars. However, as I said, a dead man
Speaker 2: can't pay you back. So these coal investors, they still
Speaker 2: had plans to get their money back before they did
Speaker 2: need grievous harm to Larry Wayne. Now, the Larry Wayne
Speaker 2: Price junior may have had different read of things because
Speaker 2: he has a woman he knew in Virginia. If he
Speaker 2: could hide out at her place, can she agreed? Now,
Speaker 2: that's when Price came up with this big, beautiful plan
Speaker 2: to skate out on the investors that he had robbed
Speaker 2: and to keep all the money he'd embezzled from the
Speaker 2: various coal mining operations back in Montana.
Speaker 3: Was he just hoping they were crooked enough to not
Speaker 3: like go to the Feds.
Speaker 2: I don't think he thought this through, but you'll figure
Speaker 2: that out.
Speaker 3: Real question, Okay, So I mean.
Speaker 2: Like my question was, you know, was cocaine involved in
Speaker 2: this decision making? Because it But anyway, his next plan, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: I tell you is a certified hum danger. So let's
Speaker 2: take a little break, listen to some ads, and after
Speaker 2: these messages from Signal Peak Energy, we will get into
Speaker 2: Larry Wayne Price Junior's plan to get free. Nice we're back, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: Yes we are. So we've got coal mining insider Larry
Speaker 2: Wayne Junior who tried to pull off some big boy
Speaker 2: in bezzling. But he was sloppy about it. Investors or marks,
Speaker 2: how if you want to looked at it, they get robbed.
Speaker 2: They started asking questions. Not liking the answers that they
Speaker 2: weren't getting, they sent representatives out to either confront Price
Speaker 2: in Virginia or get their money back wherever, or find
Speaker 2: out where he'd fled to in order to get back
Speaker 2: their stolen millions. Sure, but Larry Wayne had a plan.
Speaker 2: What was his plan? Great question for it. I haven't
Speaker 2: mentioned her yet, but Price was married. Okay, this matters
Speaker 2: because he was also making moves to avoid his spurned
Speaker 2: investors with another That's what I wondered when you.
Speaker 3: Say a woman in Virginia building this thirty thousand square
Speaker 3: foot home, and I don't think it's a bachelor pass. No, No,
Speaker 3: he is a group of kids too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't look too far into that. He did
Speaker 2: have some but I think I mentioned up top now
Speaker 2: someone whom he rented a house from in Virginia. While
Speaker 2: he was like, on the lamb, if you will, that's
Speaker 2: who he decided. The woman, He's like, oh, I'm working
Speaker 2: with her. I remember. It's like, hey, can I hide now. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: he called his wife and was like, yeah, I really
Speaker 2: need you to help me. I'm in trouble. I'm in
Speaker 2: a bad way, and he asked her to help him
Speaker 2: out and she was like okay, baby or whatever she said.
Speaker 2: So on April fourteenth, twenty eighteen, Price's wife called the Bluefield,
Speaker 2: Virginia Police Department at one fifty eight in the morning
Speaker 2: and she reported her husband missing. The local PD sprang
Speaker 2: into action along with the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office and thesewell.
Speaker 2: It so the two law enforcement agencies. They initiate a
Speaker 2: missing person's investigation as one does, and this soon expands
Speaker 2: to include the Virginia State Police because we're like, we
Speaker 2: got time, so le me bringing in a health after
Speaker 2: search and rescue teams. They also bring in canine search
Speaker 2: units like you know, like they make this a real priority.
Speaker 2: We're gonna find Larry Wayne.
Speaker 3: I wish they would have done it like they would
Speaker 3: treat most people like, well, did he have a history
Speaker 3: running away?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Exactly.
Speaker 3: Well let's just see if he shows up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Have you called all the hospitals so they bring
Speaker 2: in the bloodhounds, Elizabeth, And it shouldn't have been too
Speaker 2: hard to find this missing man since Bluefield, Virginia is located. Uh,
Speaker 2: it's like right there in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a town of less than ten thousand people. Okay,
Speaker 2: but somehow all these you know, state police, local sheriffs,
Speaker 2: and local police, they couldn't find Larry Wayne.
Speaker 3: He got gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he'd done run off?
Speaker 3: Are you n n oft through.
Speaker 2: Using modern methods of pinging cell phone towers and as
Speaker 2: opposed to just relying on the bloodhounds like yelping into
Speaker 2: the forest? Then the multi industry, Yeah exactly, these are fresh.
Speaker 3: You could tell, and then licking in and then hold
Speaker 3: their finger to the air. That's how you find people, Zarren.
Speaker 2: You look for snap branches and stuff. Yes, so the
Speaker 2: multi age.
Speaker 3: Yes, you've obviously been doing this a long time, as
Speaker 3: have I. Did he leave hair on the branches as
Speaker 3: he walked by. Is he a yetti, Yes, give me
Speaker 3: the bloodhound.
Speaker 2: So this multi agency task force they find Prices white
Speaker 2: Mercedes with Montana plates. It had been abandoned in a
Speaker 2: parking lot.
Speaker 3: Oh, telling Pablo SENTI is white.
Speaker 2: Yeah, naturally this was concerning for the law enforcement task
Speaker 2: with finding this missing coal mining executive. But then they
Speaker 2: received some good news. A driver noticed a man standing
Speaker 2: on the side of the road in the dark of night,
Speaker 2: and he was near this town of Gratton or Grato, Virginia.
Speaker 2: I think it's Gratton.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think I've heard of that there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, law enforcement they rush out to the reported sighting
Speaker 2: and they find Larry Wayne Price Junior. He's alone and
Speaker 2: he looks like he's been through it. In his pockets
Speaker 2: though he has three thousand, seven and forty four dollars,
Speaker 2: so he hadn't been like robbed or mugged or something.
Speaker 2: But you know, they take Price to the local hospital
Speaker 2: because he looks a little roughed up, and that's where
Speaker 2: officers from the Bluefield PD interview him. They were not
Speaker 2: alone because the FBI also wanted to interview you. Oh boy, yes,
Speaker 2: and then the irs. But we'll get to that first first,
Speaker 2: the FBI. But rather than me just tell you about
Speaker 2: this FBI investigation, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your
Speaker 2: eyes as I'd like you to picture it. Elizabeth. It's
Speaker 2: a quiet day in an FBI interrogation room, and at
Speaker 2: the moment you are busy because you are Larry Wayne
Speaker 2: Price Junior's concept of shame. Now, as the overhead fluorescent
Speaker 2: lights buzz with the insistent home, you flit about the room,
Speaker 2: hoping to find a place to land and do what
Speaker 2: you do, which is inspire a person to feel shame. However,
Speaker 2: in this instant, as in many moments in the past,
Speaker 2: you cannot find and a welcome home in the consciousness
Speaker 2: of the man being interrogated by the FBI. The purp
Speaker 2: seated across from the field agents is unwilling to allow
Speaker 2: you to find purchase, and so you continue to beat
Speaker 2: your tiny wings as you flit about, guided by the
Speaker 2: hope that perhaps at some point in his interrogation, Larry
Speaker 2: Wayne Price Junior will allow you to whisper your message
Speaker 2: such that he might listen to your urgings and experience
Speaker 2: what any other human being would recognize as shame. You
Speaker 2: hear Price as he answers the field agent's questions. You
Speaker 2: hope that he'd know better than to lie to the FBI,
Speaker 2: but clearly he does not. Despite the circular nature of
Speaker 2: the FBI's questions making him repeat himself over and over again,
Speaker 2: Price sticks to his ludicrous story. He repeats that he
Speaker 2: was abducted by two members of an outlaw biker gang.
Speaker 2: He describes how they held a rag to his face
Speaker 2: and as he inhaled, he began to feel kind of funny.
Speaker 2: You cast an eye towards the FBI agents. They don't
Speaker 2: seem to be this story. You flip closer to see
Speaker 2: if perhaps you can now convince him to experience a
Speaker 2: moment of shame and finally come clean. But he waves
Speaker 2: you away and you flit about frustrated. A field agent
Speaker 2: takes a sip of coffee that's growing colder by the minute.
Speaker 2: They've been at it a while. The FBI guy asks
Speaker 2: Price to go back to the moment when he first
Speaker 2: saw the outlaw bikers. Price sighs, annoyed, and then he
Speaker 2: launches into his cover story. He says that he was
Speaker 2: looking to sew a motorcycle. He was contacted by a
Speaker 2: man who was previously unknown to him. The prospective buyer
Speaker 2: asked to meet Price so that he could see the
Speaker 2: bike and maybe take it for a test drive. Price
Speaker 2: says that he agreed to the meet up. He says
Speaker 2: they planned to meet at a local park and then
Speaker 2: the buyer could take the motorcycle for a ride. When
Speaker 2: he arrived at the park, he rode up on the motorcycle.
Speaker 2: Then he saw the prospective buyer pull into the parking lot.
Speaker 2: The buyer arrived in a windowless cargo van, and he
Speaker 2: wasn't alone. Another man was with him. Both men were
Speaker 2: white and looked like outlaw bikers. You roll your eyes
Speaker 2: at all the details Price adds to his story. Even
Speaker 2: if he won't or cannot, you experience shame for him,
Speaker 2: a sort of secondhand embarrassment. Price goes on with his story.
Speaker 2: He tells the FBI investigators that the passenger in the
Speaker 2: windowless cargo van had a gun and he aimed it
Speaker 2: at Price. In response, he froze in place that allowed
Speaker 2: the two men to hop out of the van and
Speaker 2: approach it where he was seated on the hog aka
Speaker 2: his motorcycle for sale. You draw closer again, hoping that
Speaker 2: now perhaps you can whisper something in his ear and
Speaker 2: inspire him to feel the sweet release of shame that
Speaker 2: might free him from his obvious lives. But again he
Speaker 2: waves his hand as if to wave away a mosquito.
Speaker 2: You retreat. Price goes on with his story. He says
Speaker 2: that the second man, the one with the gun, held
Speaker 2: a rag to his face. It was clearly soaked with
Speaker 2: some sort of chemical one that made him feel disoriented
Speaker 2: and drowsy, and then he sort of blacked him. When
Speaker 2: he comes to, he's in some unknown location. It's a
Speaker 2: darkened room and he was seated on the floor. Apparently
Speaker 2: the two outlaw bikers didn't want him conscious yet, so
Speaker 2: they put the rag to his face again, and again
Speaker 2: he felt disoriented and dizzy, and then he blacked out again.
Speaker 2: When he awoke a second time, he was in a
Speaker 2: familiar place. He was in the bike shop he owned
Speaker 2: in West Virginia. He proudly says the name of his
Speaker 2: bike shop, hog Pit Cycles, as if that'll impress the
Speaker 2: FBI agents. It does not. When you check their faces,
Speaker 2: it does not seem to impress them in the least. Instead,
Speaker 2: they asked Price what happened next? Price says he wasn't sure,
Speaker 2: but apparently the two outlaw bikers had taken his keys
Speaker 2: to the shop, because they opened up the place and
Speaker 2: they dragged him inside. Once inside, they opened the store safe.
Speaker 2: You roll your eyes so hard that you risk bruising
Speaker 2: them or perhaps having them fall out of your fairy head.
Speaker 2: You wonder to yourself if this man is capable of
Speaker 2: feeling shame at all? You think that as you hear
Speaker 2: Price describe for the FBI agent with great detail, how
Speaker 2: the two outlaw bikers searched his pockets and they took
Speaker 2: his pocket knife. They also stole his nine millimeter sig firearm.
Speaker 2: The FBI agents play along, and you hear one say okay,
Speaker 2: what happened. Next, Price acts like the FBI agents might
Speaker 2: finally be believing him, So he goes on and describes
Speaker 2: how the two outlaw bikers threatened him. Then they dragged
Speaker 2: him out of his bike shop and threw him back
Speaker 2: into the widowless cargo van. Then the two outlaw bikers
Speaker 2: drove him out into the country, back across the border
Speaker 2: between West Virginia and Virginia. When they were in the
Speaker 2: middle of nowhere, they pulled over and they made him
Speaker 2: get out you've given up on introducing any sense of
Speaker 2: shame to Price. Clearly he has no ability to experience
Speaker 2: such emotions. You hear the FBI agents ask him what
Speaker 2: the outlaw bikers did next. Price is quick to answer.
Speaker 2: He says, they left him there on the side of
Speaker 2: the road alone, and they drove off. The FBI agents nod,
Speaker 2: and then they say, okay, let's start again. At the beginning,
Speaker 2: you decide you can't listen to any lies anymore. You
Speaker 2: flipped right out of the room, hoping to find someone
Speaker 2: else who might actually benefit from you and the gift
Speaker 2: of experiencing a moment of shame.
Speaker 3: I'm so beautiful.
Speaker 2: So there you know, Elizabeth, that was the ordeal as
Speaker 2: Price reported it. Now, remember the investors he robbed did
Speaker 2: send representatives to confront Price and to get back the
Speaker 2: money they ripped off? Did they send two outlaw bikers
Speaker 2: to get their money back?
Speaker 3: Did they send the cast of Sons of van?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 3: Like rolling up in a van Like he's just basically
Speaker 3: detailing an episode totally.
Speaker 2: It's like the last thing he watched. So, Elizabeth, this
Speaker 2: could have been true? Who knows? I mean, I highly
Speaker 2: doubt it.
Speaker 3: You're very, very generous man, mostly.
Speaker 2: Because over time Price's story tended to change that intend
Speaker 2: it did, it just flat out change like a child
Speaker 2: who's lying. He kept adding more and more wild new
Speaker 2: details and colorful embellishments.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: At first he told the detectives from Bluefield that he'd
Speaker 2: been kidnapped by the two unknown assailants and they drugged
Speaker 2: him and taken him. It was motorcycle shop and presumably
Speaker 2: his abduction may have been related, to quote a debtiode.
Speaker 2: Later he added the details with the FBI about the
Speaker 2: two men were outlaw bikers, but not just any old
Speaker 2: outlaw bikers. Oh, soon enough, they were members of the Pagans,
Speaker 2: the outlaw biker gang that's in a turf war with
Speaker 2: the Hell's Angel Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then like all of those guys are under constant
Speaker 3: surveillance like this, So it was.
Speaker 2: A sort of detail that someone who likes to read
Speaker 2: about outlaw biker news stories like me, Yeah, was like
Speaker 2: what at this point? By also, by including the Pagans,
Speaker 2: as you point out, they would have been under surveillance
Speaker 2: most likely, but he thought it might help explain why
Speaker 2: he was taken to his motorcycle shop after he had
Speaker 2: the rag held to his face and all that he
Speaker 2: was drug with whatever they applied to the rag. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but there was one problem with his new wrinkle in
Speaker 2: his story. While his storefront Hog Pit Cycles did not
Speaker 2: have security cameras, it was not the only business in
Speaker 2: that block, and so the other this is did not
Speaker 2: show members of the Pagans forcing him to do anything
Speaker 2: because obviously they couldn't. He couldn't have the footage of
Speaker 2: him unlocking a safe and giving them whatever was inside
Speaker 2: because he doesn't have surveillance cameras inside his business going
Speaker 2: but showing up to the business. Yeah, right, So the
Speaker 2: other businesses did have security cameras, and the footage they
Speaker 2: recorded did not corroborate his story. Oops. Oops oops. Now
Speaker 2: guess old Larry Wayne Price Junior didn't think this far
Speaker 2: into his story. Yeah, so when he was confronted with
Speaker 2: the security footage from other businesses, Price changed his story again.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, did I say Pagan?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: No, I meant that I am a Pagan, that's my religion.
Speaker 3: He did, hear me correctly.
Speaker 2: He claimed that he really wanted to help the FBI
Speaker 2: with their investigation. He wanted to help find the real
Speaker 2: criminals who'd.
Speaker 3: Done this killers.
Speaker 2: So to do that, he provided a motive for the
Speaker 2: outlaw bikers. So, according to Price, he had connections with
Speaker 2: a railroad line. Wait, and the outlaw of bikers, the
Speaker 2: alleged Pagans. They wanted to use his railroad connections so
Speaker 2: they could transport meth by rail.
Speaker 3: Well, that's you know, that's the next frontier ect people
Speaker 3: who have highly portable means of transportation.
Speaker 2: Can we put this on it?
Speaker 3: No, I'd like to put it on a fixed track
Speaker 3: that is in a highly regulated industry.
Speaker 2: I'm moving a lot of meth. I needed something like
Speaker 2: a box car.
Speaker 3: I mean, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: So they demanded, according to him, that he give them
Speaker 2: schedules for the coal trains so that they could use
Speaker 2: those to traffic their meth. Like, can we just put
Speaker 2: it underneath the coal? No, one looks past the top
Speaker 2: of the coal, right, he wants.
Speaker 3: Okay, I see what they're saying.
Speaker 2: Wow, you see now it all makes sense, totally legit. Yeah, Sam,
Speaker 2: very overly complicated plan for drug smugglers or whatever. Maybe
Speaker 2: something the FBI would bite on. He was so pleased
Speaker 2: with this new story he repeated it to the I R. S.
Speaker 3: Well, you know there's something like in the back of
Speaker 3: his mind, he's like, how can I cut down on
Speaker 3: the CPS bill? But it got you know what, what
Speaker 3: if I had people send me coke on the trains underneath.
Speaker 2: The because we mind coal, of course we'd have.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, but the coal wouldn't be coming to you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, all right, the equipment put it in the excavator.
Speaker 2: And Elizabeth, what do we always say about lying to
Speaker 2: the FBI?
Speaker 3: Do not do it, don't do it. Don't lie to it, buddy, don't.
Speaker 2: All by itself in there too. So it turns out
Speaker 2: there were no outlaw biker gangs, no pagans who are
Speaker 2: involved in the making of this lie. Mean while we
Speaker 2: know this because, according to news outlet k r t V,
Speaker 2: FBI investigators did find someone to help corroborate his story,
Speaker 2: a local Virginia woman who worked at a restaurant, and
Speaker 2: she told him that she and Larry Wayne Price Junior
Speaker 2: had been intimate and they were all like all booed up,
Speaker 2: loved it. Yeah, And so while they would be like
Speaker 2: kissing and canoodle and sometimes talk would turn to how
Speaker 2: Larry Wayne could disappear And I don't mean like I
Speaker 2: mean disappear like fake is death and run off with
Speaker 2: her and all the money he'd stolen from the coal industry.
Speaker 3: Like I just I feel like if someone says like
Speaker 3: I think I can fake my death and run off.
Speaker 2: With you, Yeah, with millions of dollars I stole.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you right now, is as enticing as
Speaker 3: that may be anyone within earshot.
Speaker 2: Before he started picking out your shoes, swear to god.
Speaker 3: It's just not it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna work,
Speaker 3: and then we're gonna be yucking it up about you.
Speaker 3: Always keep that in the back of my mind. Am
Speaker 3: I going to do something that these two goose balls
Speaker 3: are going to make fun of me for?
Speaker 2: You don't want to do?
Speaker 3: Don't do it?
Speaker 2: So, according to this local waitress, around the same time
Speaker 2: the price was reported missing, the waitress popped over to Walmart,
Speaker 2: where she bought some red Bulls some cokes, along with
Speaker 2: some chips, as well as underwear, socks, and towels.
Speaker 3: That sounds about right. That is good everything, a road
Speaker 3: tripp value.
Speaker 2: Perhaps a prolonged stay, and cheap motels that don't have
Speaker 2: good towels.
Speaker 3: She wants. She wants some fresh honey, pants.
Speaker 2: Once they gathered up their bug out supplies from Walmart.
Speaker 2: She also went purchased and the bag of Fritos, some.
Speaker 3: Clean underwear ven I.
Speaker 2: Don't want to have any Hershey Highway home when I'm
Speaker 2: on the run, only clean boxers from He's gonna be
Speaker 2: CROs So she went out. Also purchased a new burner
Speaker 2: cell phone so you know, they could contact people to
Speaker 2: start their new.
Speaker 3: Life together on the lamb excellent, and probably bought it
Speaker 3: with a credit card orbit cards.
Speaker 2: Well, she definitely bought it with a surveillance.
Speaker 3: Because we know about it. Hello, we're talking about it.
Speaker 2: So then she went and she waited for Price at
Speaker 2: her father's house in Tazewell County, which was unoccupied at
Speaker 2: the time, not the county her father's house that interestingly
Speaker 2: prices emptied for it. Price was spotted on the side
Speaker 2: of the road that night that she went to her
Speaker 2: father's house to wait for him, and he was discovered
Speaker 2: just two miles away from that same home. He might
Speaker 2: have been walking there and just happened to be spotted
Speaker 2: by somebody who was driving the old country road. Wow, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: he was so close, so close, just two miles between
Speaker 2: him and freedom and a bunch of Fredo's.
Speaker 3: Red Bulls and wearing her underpants.
Speaker 2: And then some pain in the neck in his bystander
Speaker 2: gets in the wings. So once the law had the
Speaker 2: evidence of his plans to cut and run with the
Speaker 2: local waitress, Price was no longer seen as the victim
Speaker 2: of a crime and rather he was the purpy. So
Speaker 2: he was arrested on May tenth, twenty eighteen, charged with
Speaker 2: federal crimes, and he was bonded out at a half
Speaker 2: million dollars on a secured bond. He was given a
Speaker 2: GPS ankle monitor because he was a flight risk. And
Speaker 2: in the meantime, the federal investigators looked into what all
Speaker 2: was going down at Signal Peak Energy that resulted in
Speaker 2: more federal charges exactly because if you included Larry Wayne,
Speaker 2: there were nine executives at Signal Peak Energy who and
Speaker 2: along with their associates, who were charged with federal crimes
Speaker 2: thanks to this guy getting us.
Speaker 3: This is why when you get your your PG and
Speaker 3: EVE your electrical bill, and do you see it like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: this is what I'm paying for As you're hanging out,
Speaker 3: various criminals in the energy sector.
Speaker 2: Totally totally their hankiness is why your bill goes up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that and the AI data center. So this group is
Speaker 2: den of bad, greedy men.
Speaker 3: Right, they unbelievable nine executive How big was this company
Speaker 3: and their associates?
Speaker 2: I just said nine executives from Signal Peak Energy from other.
Speaker 3: Companies to the impression Signal Peak wasn't enormous. It's basically
Speaker 3: and they're like, you know, the executive assistant, your executive
Speaker 3: will put you in that list too.
Speaker 2: So when Larry Wayne gets grilled by the Feds, he
Speaker 2: insists that he was just one bad apple and a
Speaker 2: bunch of rotten apples. So he claimed that his boss,
Speaker 2: the former president and CEO of Signal Peak Energy, old
Speaker 2: Brad Hanson, Yeah, who I mentioned earlier, was the real
Speaker 2: mastermind behind all of them do it, the embezzlement and
Speaker 2: the million dollar thefts from business partners. He taught me
Speaker 2: didn't want to do it, No, no, he was, and
Speaker 2: he told me you start, you start three solutions, and
Speaker 2: then you can just milk this place for them. Larry
Speaker 2: Wayne claimed that there was a culture of crime at
Speaker 2: Signal Peak Energy and that he was but one cog
Speaker 2: and a truly corrupt machine. Right, Unfortunately for him and
Speaker 2: for Justice, Hanson, the former CEO, died at his Florida
Speaker 2: home in twenty twenty before he could be questioned in
Speaker 2: stand trial to corroborate if any of this was true. Now,
Speaker 2: as for Signal Peak Energy, the company was fined for,
Speaker 2: according to the New York Times quote, failing to report
Speaker 2: worker injuries and for illegally dumping toxic slurry, chemicals and
Speaker 2: unprocessed soil containing heavy metals arsenic and lead into an
Speaker 2: abandoned section of the mine.
Speaker 3: But it stack fingers.
Speaker 2: There was also a bunch of lawsuits filed by locals
Speaker 2: and environmentalist because they had been basically breaking all of
Speaker 2: the regulations. So like the water was bad for the
Speaker 2: local the cows that the ranchers were like dealing with
Speaker 2: their dying.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but they drained the reservoir three feet of singers.
Speaker 3: That's where they're throwing.
Speaker 2: The fingers and a couple toes. Now. I don't know
Speaker 2: about you, may Elizabeth, but I don't think a million
Speaker 2: dollar fine is going to correct this sort of culture corruption,
Speaker 2: if anything, to kind of be priced in is just
Speaker 2: another cost of doing business.
Speaker 3: Exactly. It takes money to make money, I.
Speaker 2: Say, this because, as The New York Times noted, and
Speaker 2: I quote, industry experts say, the criminal activity points to
Speaker 2: a bigger mystery. Despite the embezzlement, and despite the coal
Speaker 2: industry's protracted decline, the company has been able to survive.
Speaker 2: Many of Signal Peak's better positioned industry peers lost money
Speaker 2: on call exports and went bankrupt. So what's Signal Peak Energy?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Big secret? Yeah, might it be international money laundering because
Speaker 2: remember the whole Putent inner circle thing. Yeah, keep that
Speaker 2: in mind. Now to point out one energy financial analyst
Speaker 2: from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a
Speaker 2: gentleman named Clark Williams Dairy. He told The Times quote
Speaker 2: never quite made sense to me. How did Signal Peak
Speaker 2: Energy even stay afloat? Now, like I said, I'm no
Speaker 2: energy sector insider, a normal I am some coal mining expert,
Speaker 2: but I do no crime. And may I suggest that
Speaker 2: the Putin crony as I just did the member of
Speaker 2: his inner circle. That's the big red flag for me that,
Speaker 2: Like you want to know how they stayed in business,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you. I got it for you. Check the
Speaker 2: Panama papers. Yeah, well, so basically transnational corruption. I mean,
Speaker 2: I saw it out in New York Times. But these folks,
Speaker 2: they have plenty of money to burn, right, all kinds
Speaker 2: of illegal flows of capital. What do they care about
Speaker 2: the economic health of the mining industry or even environmental laws?
Speaker 2: Oh at all. Once he was in court, Larry Wayne
Speaker 2: Price Junior confess that thanks to a scheme of over
Speaker 2: billing and fake equipment sales and whatnot, he was able
Speaker 2: to steal roughly forty million dollars in total. He was
Speaker 2: eventually convicted for his crimes, and in October twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: he was sentenced to five years in prison plus three
Speaker 2: years of probation after his prison sentence was complete. The
Speaker 2: question for me is will that prison sentence be enough
Speaker 2: to dissuade any future Larry Wayne's absolutely and you know
Speaker 2: from attempting similar schemes.
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. He won't do the full five No, he'll
Speaker 3: get a job coming out, because it's not like part
Speaker 3: of the sentence is that you're forbidden from working in
Speaker 3: the industry energy industry, So he'll just get another gig.
Speaker 2: Now, it seems like fines in prisons time, as I
Speaker 2: said earlier, just another cost to factor in as a
Speaker 2: price of doing business. Yeah, like oh, you got a
Speaker 2: five year sentence tool all right, because it's gonna be like,
Speaker 2: you know, low security prison and whatnot. So it's all
Speaker 2: he's gonna have to worry about getting stabbed up by
Speaker 2: anybody inside anyway. So also, if a person is able
Speaker 2: to successfully offshore, they're ill gotten gains. This is just
Speaker 2: like a five year vacation and they go off to
Speaker 2: get to be rich and wherever they want around the world. Now,
Speaker 2: if it weren't for his local waitress slash accomplice coming
Speaker 2: clean about her involvement, justice might never have happened because
Speaker 2: it was difficult to make this case until she came
Speaker 2: forward for her so you know. And also not all
Speaker 2: these guys are as dumb as old Larry Wayne, so
Speaker 2: like some of them don't have the wags getting them
Speaker 2: the clean shonies. Yeah, he's like, what our dream baby. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: there was that dream home, I'm sorry, dream castle, including
Speaker 2: the moat and the stone tower and whatnot, the indoor
Speaker 2: shooting range, the golf simulator, the bowling alley, the screening room,
Speaker 2: indoor outdoor kitchens. By the way, once again they pointed
Speaker 2: out still for sale. So if you're willing to get
Speaker 2: out there, to concoct some illicit international business and see,
Speaker 2: if you want to swing it, this could be yours. Perfect, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: I got to ask a question to you, Now, what's
Speaker 2: a ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 3: These people are crooked? And I say, and it's like
Speaker 3: I gesture wildly. People are cooked. What's yours?
Speaker 2: The the current administration might look favorably on someone who
Speaker 2: tries to pull off some crimes of this nation, as
Speaker 2: long as they're willing to kick a bribe up the ladder.
Speaker 2: So you know, like, if you're going to read the wind,
Speaker 2: now's the time to make these moves. There you go,
Speaker 2: so you moved for a talkback.
Speaker 3: To watch all. I always am, oh my god, I jet.
Speaker 5: Dark Becca here. I tell kids' stories almost weekly, and
Speaker 5: I always have them close their eyes to help them
Speaker 5: from being distracted. And no one day I was like,
Speaker 5: you know what Saren and Elizabeth would do. They'd say,
Speaker 5: close your eyes and the kids would say back, my
Speaker 5: eyes are closed, and then they'd say picture it. And
Speaker 5: so that's what I do now with the kids.
Speaker 3: Okay, so those are now the coolest kids because they're
Speaker 3: quoting us, quoting Dree. Oh my god, I love that.
Speaker 3: It's effective though, right, like to center yourself into Becca.
Speaker 3: I am so proud of you, hope.
Speaker 2: I hope you're enjoying a great summer of dark or
Speaker 2: I guess it's still spring Rebecca, though.
Speaker 3: I think you know, I don't want us to be
Speaker 3: Dark Rebecca and Dark Elizabeth forever.
Speaker 2: So you guys can like, you know, position in and
Speaker 2: out of it.
Speaker 3: You're doing good work though, Honestly, like telling stories to kids,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, doesn't like if you're not familiar, it might
Speaker 3: be like, okay, well what's that now? That is like
Speaker 3: some of the most serious, essential future building work anyone
Speaker 3: can do. And so Dark Becca hats off to you,
Speaker 3: thank you for that.
Speaker 2: Totally big salute. Well, as always, you can find us
Speaker 2: online Ridiculous Crime on Blue Sky and Instagram, and we
Speaker 2: also have Ridiculous Crime Pod pod on YouTube if you
Speaker 2: like to listen to your podcast while you also watch something.
Speaker 2: It's animation, it's not us, but you can watch them
Speaker 2: and uh, there's that, So go there, go to YouTube,
Speaker 2: go to Ridiculous Crime pod and check it out. And
Speaker 2: we have our website, Ridiculous Crime dot com, which you
Speaker 2: know they have. There's merch and there's gifts and there's
Speaker 2: all sorts of like. You can take a survey if
Speaker 2: you'd like. You can tell us about yourself if we'd
Speaker 2: love to hear about you. Oh, you can also email
Speaker 2: us if you want at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: If you do that, please start it, dear producer d
Speaker 2: oh in the talkbacks, obviously the talkbacks. We love the talkbacks.
Speaker 2: So go to the iHeart app downloaded, leave a talkback
Speaker 2: and maybe you get to hear your voice here. We'd
Speaker 2: love to hear it here. So there you go. As always,
Speaker 2: thank you for listening and we will catch you next crime.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Brunette,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by our resident Vice President in charge
Speaker 2: of subterranean Operations, Dave Houston, and starring Analys Rutger as Judith.
Speaker 2: Research is by the Shady Accountants in charge of cooking
Speaker 2: our books for Regulators and the Law, Marissa Brown and
Speaker 2: Jabari Davis. Our theme song is by our house band
Speaker 2: Drill Baby Drill and the Billion Dollar Scoundrels aka Thomas
Speaker 2: Lee and Travis Duty. The host wardrobe provided by Buddy
Speaker 2: five hundred Guess Harry, makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre.
Speaker 2: Executive producers are the inventors of the world's best golf
Speaker 2: simulator for up and coming corrupt executives, Ben Bolin and
Speaker 2: Noel Brown.
Speaker 3: Pudicus Crime, Say It One More Time.
Speaker 1: Piquious, cry Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.