July 29, 2024 • 40 mins
Gary sits down with Manny and asks him to answer the questions that have plagued him his entire life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Previously on Number one.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Dad.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
One day I got a phone call from Rich who
was with Manny in the basement, and the marshals came storming.
Speaker 4 (00:08):
In good morning, calling the case of AT and T
Corp versus Manny veter defendant.
Speaker 5 (00:16):
Veter impersonated a New York Telephone company employee stole two
night TAEL telephone enclosures and was prosecuted for a class
eve felony.
Speaker 6 (00:25):
And then down the road as I'd speaking, I say, hey,
did this ever get resolved? And I remember one discussion
where he said, you wouldn't believe what happened. I had
it in a warehouse and somehow the warehouse was broken
into and a whole bunch of stuff was taken.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
If you had to guess how that evidence became missing,
would you put it?
Speaker 7 (00:45):
Pat?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Yeah, it's a hard thing to speculate if he was
involved in it, but it was just a very good
piece of luck for him that they couldn't bring the
case forward.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I want to show you something, Give me two seconds
of your time.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, I got a guy.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Since she's assistant.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
What I expected meeting my father to have a surprise
or two, but I definitely did not see this coming.
I have another sister who's half my age, and she's French.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Lying, stealing.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
I got in trouble a little bit in different ways.
Everything I had was just street smarts.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Right now, I'm sitting down with my father, Manny Veeter,
in my old living room on Long Island, asking him
everything I ever wanted to know. Hopefully I'll get the truth,
but who knows. I mean, he is a con man.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
I went to Baru College during nineteen seventy to nineteen
seventy three.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
When you're doing well in college in school.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yeah, I cheated my way through college.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How could you not do well? If you're a bad cheater,
then you suck. Yeah, you had to be the best,
and I was the best.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
A lot of people say colleges where they figured out
their path in life, and it turns out my father
is one of those people. That's whereas days as a
con artist began. Would it have been easier to actually
have studied for some people?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Yes, for me, that's not the way it worked out.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Tell me how you cheated in college?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
By the way, you know, everything I'm saying is all
bullshit and lies, right, Yeah, exactly, good say that to me.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Everything you're saying is all bullshit in lines right, none
of the trick right. This is number one, dad?
Speaker 7 (02:41):
So how would you go about cheating in college?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
I decided that if I wanted to get good marks,
logically get a copy of the exam before the exam began.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I figured out how I.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Could do that, and then I would disperse the exam
amongst friends of mine who collected money. They made money
selling the exams. We had pretty small kids graduating from
that school.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
How much would you sell the exams for?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Oh, put a price tag on it for three to
four hundred dollars an exam.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
What I didn't tell my father in that moment is
I also stole exams in college, which is crazy. I
had no idea we had this in common, but I
didn't want to give them the satisfaction in knowing it.
Speaker 7 (03:30):
How would you get them?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Like?
Speaker 7 (03:32):
How would be access to them?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I knew where the exams were being kept.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Any major classes you were taking, whether it was the
law accounting, had a department accounting department, law department, and.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I figured out.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
That those departments somehow had to get the exams printed.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Back then, they called them mimeograph machines.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
And I knew that mistakes are made. And what happens
to the mimeograph machines when they make a mistake, They
take them back copy throw in a garbage. So I said, okay,
I'll pick the garbage. And I took two really smart
kids gave it to them so they could get an.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A plus rather than just an A.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
They would have to give me all the answers, and
I told them they had to be perfect or they'd
never see another example.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And I got it.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
And it's not like both of us, me sitting here
and the guy who's sitting there.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
How the hell do we have the same answers? You know?
And if anybody questioned.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
Who did you say I cheated from?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We don't even sit next to each other. What are
you talking about? Right?
Speaker 8 (04:55):
You're able to deny, deny, deny, deny because you can't
take back guilty.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Was this successful?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I mean it's very successful. I was making more money
than a professor was there.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I asked my father about one of his earliest jobs
out of college. We're out of all the departments he
was hired to work in security.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
I got offered a job with Pan American Airlines. I
don't know if you ever heard of them. There were
big airlines. They were like twa Luftanza. There were one
of the big four in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
They put me in.
Speaker 7 (05:29):
Charge of security. Ordit in security And how long did
you work at pan.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Am for until they fired me?
Speaker 7 (05:38):
So what led to you getting fired?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Back then?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
You didn't come up to the desk and they type
in your name, take your credit card?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Okay. They didn't have that technology.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
The ticket was handwritten by the woman behind the desk okay.
And the fraud was were fraudulent tickets that were being
handwritten to get on a plane. See, they didn't even
know exactly how many seats were sold till they manually
counted the tickets and I slipped into shit, let's put
(06:14):
it that way.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
Yeah, And they got that's it. They could just fire
you for that.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
They could remember I'm the guy in ordered to in
security and.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm fucking lion.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And then so, but now you don't have a Tanam job?
What are you thinking about doing for a career.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
I needed something to do, so I said, Hey, my
fall was in a furniture business. I loved selling and
bullshitting and putting those two things together.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I asked my father about his fime furniture store Designer's Gallery.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
After dozens of buyers claimed they were cheated, the State
Attorney General's Office filed suit yesterday against Veter Sales Inc.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
What was Designer's Gallery.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Designer's Gallery was the name of a medium to high
end furniture business that I started. I did have help
in getting into the furniture industry through my father in law,
Ben Wolf, at that point, in order to gain more credibility,
(07:16):
and this is where a lot of my scams began.
I said, well, Manny Veeder in the furniture bill, who
the hell is he? But Manny Wolf was the son
of Ben Wolf, who had a store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
at two seventy five Broadway. I wanted something that was catchy,
(07:37):
that could basically identify with young people and middle aged
people who could buy furniture and spend more money.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Did you start off in the furniture business as being
an honest businessman?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Absolutely? Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Now that brings me into the next step which got
me into trouble. I became a transshipper. I invented that
word transshipper. Now people came through me and they go, oh,
I want Ethan Allen or Drexel Heritage.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
These were big.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Names in the furniture industry, but they wouldn't sell to me.
They sold only to authorize dealers, like you can't buy
a Vovo at a BMW guy unless you have two dealerships.
So I went ahead and I said, how the fuck
am I going to get these big names to sell me?
(08:33):
So I needed another scam because everybody already knew who
I was as a designers gallery, and they knew me
in New York.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So I said, screw this.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
I'll set up an address in Boston and I'll set
up an address in Maryland.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But I needed a good name. So what was that name?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Armed Forces Sales and Services. What is Enforces Sales and
Services do? When I went to introduce myself to these
guys who didn't know who I was, I said, well,
we are the ones that furnished all the embassies in
France in Italy.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's how the furniture gets there.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
You send it to me, I put it in the container,
and I send it overseas.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You should never left the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I've never known about any of this before, but I
got to admit, this is another brilliant scheme by my
dad for his entire life. Using quick thinking and deception,
he's been able to come up with a solution to
get him ahead.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
If I could think it, I could make it work. Okay,
it's all about delusion. Like a magician. I was a
magician in the furniture business. They were figuring schmucks embassies
all over the world. Right, But what they didn't realize
how many times are they going to change their furniture?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Right? Exactly?
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Umforces sales and services. I may have some business cards
still left over. I'll give you nice furniture. However, I
got a little greedy guys in my area said, Manny,
how the hell did you get Drexel? How did you
get this? How did you get that? I said, well,
I have a contact. You couldn't get it. Who could
(10:15):
get it?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Man? He wolf could get it. So they would call me.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
I'd have these things shipped to a bogus address or
warehouse where I was doing my trucking with, sent it there,
and then take it and send it to the guy
who wanted it.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
But he got to the point where the.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Guy at the warehouse was also delivering furniture for other companies.
So he'd asked me could you do a favor for
so and so do it for me? Okay, he's helping
me out. I open it and the furniture would come
in and I've got four thousand dollars of inventory for
Joe Piazza that he ordered from me, and he said,
could you send it to me. I'll pay you as
(10:57):
soon as I get paid. Well that's where I was stupid,
because I got to wait for him to get paid. Fuck,
you pay me now if you want the furniture. And
that's when they started to threaten me. And I had
a family. I didn't want to get threatened. They figured,
what am.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I gonna do?
Speaker 5 (11:14):
My goodness, I'm not gonna go after them legally, So
I called Anthony, and Anthony got involved and basically had
to go down, pay a visit to these people.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And make sure we got paid.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
So who is Anthony?
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Anthony came from a family of the good old boys,
and you wanted to be on the right side of
Anthony because if you didn't and you crossed him, he
would follow you to work.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And wait for you to get to your job, and
then when you'd get into that big elevator that took
you up to the forty fourth floor.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
He'd step in, punch in the face, walk out the elevator,
and the doors were closed.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Nobody could get them.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You're gonna meet Anthony sounds like he's going to kick
the shit out of me.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Not unless you deserve it.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
And one of my very famous customers was lat Trapeze.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Now you've probably never heard of that.
Speaker 7 (12:13):
You kids.
Speaker 9 (12:17):
Latra Pee is located at seventeen East twenty seventh Street
is a unique club open to freethinking adult couper. We
offer a relaxing, nope pressure environment, complete repeated swimming pools
and that same dyscopi. Latru Peeze may not be for everyone,
but you won't know until.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
You try it.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
In the nineteen eighties, Latrapeze was the mecca of sex
clubs in New York and my father was responsible for
supplying them with their mattresses.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Gross the Jersey Mob opened up latrap Pees. Well, they
came to me and they say, come down to our place,
which was off Park Avenue and twenty something Street.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I walk in.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
It's like what you would refer to maybe as madam
who is the manager there.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
It was like a big empty almost warehouse.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
But with lights, you know, he goes, well, we're going
to need carpeting, and we're going to need mattresses. I said,
what kind of mattresses you're going to put in here?
Ones I go on the floor.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That are waterproof or sperm proof. I said, what are
they going? They're going to fuck here?
Speaker 5 (13:29):
She said to me here, I am listen to this
woman who was like twenty years older than me. Yeah,
this is going to be a fuck house. Most of
these girls were like cookers, and when it came time
to get paid, they told me, go fuck yourself, Anthony,
you better get a hold of your dad.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Who is Anthony's father, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
He was a tough guy.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I don't know if my father is telling the truth here,
but I am loving this story. So you told Anthony Jr.
That you have an issue that you're getting paid up.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
And he said, don't worry about it. I'll hold my father.
He'll take care of it. His father sent some people
down there, which, from my understanding was that day two
men walked into the Latrapeze and.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
The guy who told me to fuss myself was there
with a couple of his buddies.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
And the story, Anthony calls me my father just took
care of everything. He wants us to go down there
tomorrow to pick up our money.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So I meet with Anthony.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
We go down there, and I told your mother, I'm
walking in now. That was I had the first cell phone,
which was a motor flip phone. I said, if I
don't call you back for bullshit in five minutes, donal
nine one wanted to tell him to come to that thinkers,
I'm getting locked in a freezer somewhere.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I have to pause here to say how insane it
is that my father would put my mother through this
kind of stress all because of, in his words, greed.
Plenty of people have legitimate furniture businesses that provide for
their family, but legitimate was never enough for my father.
He needed more, even if it put him, my mother,
(15:17):
and his kids in danger.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
So we get there and the guy who refused to
pay me is now wearing big sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Like he's a movie star.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
The reason why I had the sunglasses while he took
off this, he says, you didn't have to call anybody.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Just look what they did to me.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
You know, he had a big black eye and nose
was cut up here. They made sure I got my
money on top of that, they took an extra fifty
percent added to that. Okay, so now I had another
two thousand dollars which I had to give to Anthony
to give to those guys collection fee.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
What did my mom say when you call her to
tell her? I mean, you're a guy who's in the
furniture business. You're telling her, if you don't hear from
me in five minutes, call the police.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
She just went along with it.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
And if I told this is what we got to
do with, this is what we got to do because
I got to collect that money.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
We need it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Hearing this really made me feel for my mother because
she clearly didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
She was a stay at home mom raising three kids
and relied on her husband to provide. But unfortunately that
husband was a crook.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
She was trapped.
Speaker 7 (16:42):
What was the downfall of Designers.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Gallery New York State Attorney General.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
They had enough complaints where they needed to put a
stop to me legally, and that's how they do it.
They do it through their legal machine that they have
and trying to fight The Attorney General is trying to
fight New York State because their resources, to a.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Certain point are unlimited.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
But I found out that the Attorney General has a
budget and they got to make things pay. So the
longer I can fuck them over and drag them out,
they're going to realize that they're not getting any bang
for their dollar.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And that's what I did.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
So they were going to wear me down by me
having to pay for a lawyer to come and represent me.
But I never went to law school, and I became
a lawyer overnight.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And your mother can tell you that she saw how
I worked.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
And I went to court and I sat in on
different things in court, and I listened and I made
notes terms that I would use, and things that other
attorneys were doing to fuck other attorneys, and I picked
up on it, and I knew the way I was
going to get around this was to drag this out
as long as I could.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
For loopholes my father used against the Attorney General managed
to keep him out of jail, but eventually he was
forced to close up shop.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
They put a order in on me that I can
never be in a furniture business again.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
They're even allowed to sit in a chair like you're
doing right now, only.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
If it's a toilet seat. Well, let's put it this
way somebody like yourself. I would never try to scam.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
And I never went after the poor people who didn't
have money. I went after the big companies. But it
wasn't something I intentionally did. I unfortunately got into a
situation where the money wasn't coming in and I couldn't
pay my bills, and they pulled the rug from underneath me.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
It was a business decision by a lot of these companies,
and word got around, don't do business with manny.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Here's how I know my father is a great con artist.
In the moment when he was saying all this, I
was completely convinced by his justification for all the lies
and schemes. But hearing it back, it's clear he's simply
a man painting himself as the victim. He didn't unfortunately
get into a situation. He put himself there. It was
(19:16):
his choice to become a transshipper, to lie about furnishing embassies,
and to get involved with the mob. My father isn't
a man bound by some moral code. He's simply a
victim of his own hubris who assumed his house of
cards would never fall.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Would you have done anything different?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I would have.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Robbed the bank taken more money on a one shot deal. Yeah,
but you know, everything was a learning game for me.
I could see what I could do and where I
wouldn't be noticed.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I learned that was part of my technique, which I
still use to this very day.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I knew my father went from the furniture business to payphones,
but I never really knew how it all started. I
couldn't wait to get the full story on payphone Plus.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Somehow I read about an article that payphones were going
to be available on the retail market. This has got
to be about maybe nineteen eighty nine. I threw ten
thousand dollars into that business, and each phone at that
time cost me eleven hundred dollars, and I bought six phones,
(20:23):
now all my payphones. I bought the best payphone on
the market, and mine looked identical Toma Bell New York
Telephone Company, because AT and T was manufacturing it for them,
So it was the perception people already knew this got
to be a good phone.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Just to give people an idea of the scope of
how large payphone Plus was, can you name different types
of businesses that you had accounts in.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I had phones in the tri state area, which included
Long Island, five boroughs, Upper New Jersey, Westchester, Rockland County areas,
about two hundred phones total. I had phones in Macy's,
Jack Laane Sabarro's, Costco Gold Nugget Casino in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I had phones everywhere.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Take me to acquiring an account and the perception you
would give off of who you were.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Okay, Well, first thing I went out and did was
I had a couple of shirts.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Embroidered AT and T.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
I have a truck outside that's painted the same color
as an AT and T truck, and I.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Have an AT and T logo and business cards.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
In fact, I got a helmet for you kids, helmet
and I put an AT and T sticker on it.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
A few you remember that I do.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, yeah, you embroidered these AT and T shirts. Right,
Are you going into a place and telling people you
work for AT and T or No?
Speaker 5 (21:53):
No, no, no, that's just smoking mirrors. They made the assumption. Hey,
if I went to Night in the Game and bought
an Island New Jersey? Am I a goalie for the Islanders?
Am I defenseman? Whatever you want to think is okay
with me as long as it doesn't come out of
my mouth.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Aside from making people think he worked for AT and T. Apparently,
another way my dad was able to grow his pay
phone business was by paying out larger commissions than his competitors.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
In fact, I taught your cousin Mason, I started him
in the phone business. So I took Mason with me
and we went and there was a phone in front
of this store, and I told the owner, I'm going
to pay you a higher commission than you're getting. Now, well,
we're putting our phone up here.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
You offered to pay them a better commission. How could
you afford to do that?
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Very simply knowing that in four or five months from
now they are going to cut my line the phone
company for non payment. So you wouldn't pay the phone bill,
all right, that I'd have a six hundred dollars phone bill,
and they threatened to cut it off. But I was
opening up different accounts under different names all the time.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Now they cut the phone line, that phone, now, what
happens to that at that establishment?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
You just take it out.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
What I did was I was two steps in front
of them all the time. I would call up the
phone company and I would tell the phone company. I'm
now transferring this to this and this company. Okay, Now
they changed the name from payphone plus XYZ, so a
new lease on life, a new lease on life, and
you continue.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So why not just pay your bill?
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Because I was a greedy fuck and I wanted the
money and I wanted it.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Now, I'm sure a lot of my dad's answers to
my questions have been filled with lies, but this time
I know he's telling the truth. Yes, he's a swindler,
a schemer, a con man, but at his core, he's
simply a greedy fuck. Do you ever remember going around
with me and sing a headset for a payphone?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Did I do that with you? Holy shit?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
I must have been really fucking crazy. I don't remember
vandalyzing somebody's phone or anything.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I really don't, and be a stupid thing for me
to do that with you?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
There, Yeah, well I remember that, so I went down.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
I don't know what to tell Listen, if you remember that,
and I don't take your word on it.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it would be something that
you would do.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I probably do worse, but yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Once we were on the topic of payphones. I had
to ask my father about a certain mobbed up strip
club in Queen's that was mentioned by his former employees
Mark and Rich.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
These are made mafia guys, and every time we would enter,
Nanny was greeted warmly. He would hang out, they would
catch up, they would talk, they would joke.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It made me uncomfortable with to the owner. There was
like his owner guys.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And he was real. He was just like Sketchy. Tell
me about Wiggles.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Wiggles was a topless and bottomless strip club located on
Queens Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
He has sixty third Drive and.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
I always made sure I put a phone right next
to the dressing.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Room for the women.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Who owned it.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
A fella I knew by the name of Vinnie.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Vinnie. What gumbats?
Speaker 7 (25:29):
Could you say his name?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Do we have to You're walking on dangerous ground here.
Speaker 7 (25:36):
Any We're fine, We're fine.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
What are in? We're fine, We're fine.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
If the only people that listened to this or the
FBI and the police.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
All right, we'll leave it. We'll leave his name, we'll
call it, We'll call him Vinnie. My father was hesitant
for good reason. The Vinnie. I'm asking him to talk
about was the former head of the de Cavalcanti crime family.
Speaker 7 (25:59):
So how'd you meet him?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Well, I was there one night and who comes in
but Vinnie. We started talking and he asked me what
am I doing here? I told I'm the guy who
does the telephone and he had a problem with his
phones and I fixed it and we started chatting, and
what was.
Speaker 7 (26:17):
This situation with his phone?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
The guy who hooked it up before I ever looked
at it, didn't do such a good job. He was
very sloppy and wires were not properly punched on as
they used the term to the block. And I just
redid it and things were working fine.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
When I spoke with Mark, he told me my father
found a tap in Vinnie's phone.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
He found taps and he was able to take those
out and also inform them that they were actually being
spied on, and so he's like a hero in this circle.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
I had to ask my father if this actually happened,
Was there anything ever that you noticed in his phones,
like say, anything that was ever like bugged or you.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Wouldn't see a bug because the bugs were not bugged
directly in the location, although sometimes that may have been
the preferred way to do it. But a few miles
away is where the Queen's district attorney had his offices,
and usually when they were bugging somebody, they would bug
(27:22):
it in that particular building, which was across the street
from the courthouses, and this way nobody would ever see
what was going on, and nobody would be suspicious. But yeah,
there are ways to tell if a line is bugged.
You need sophisticated electronics to see what's going on.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So how would you know? Just curious, how would you
know that that's where a district attorney would bug a phone?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Like I watched a lot of movies.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Did you ever help Vinnie out?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Let's put it this way.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
If Annie would ask me to help him out, or
I would have no problem doing it. I don't think
you'd want to be on his bad side.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
My father may be a great liar, but sometimes you
have to look at what he's not saying. He doesn't
say that he never found a bug in Vinnie's phone,
and he doesn't flat out say he never helped Vinnie out.
I kept pressing him for more information, but that was
all he was willing to give me. I'm trying to
(28:29):
remember as much as I can from when I was
a kid. I'm only between probably like eight to eleven
at this time, while you were doing the payphone plus business.
What eventually happened where you eventually had to stop?
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well, I had to stop because AIGHTE and T sent
me a letter saying that I shouldn't be walking around
what a AIGHTE and T had on or a logo
since I'm not an employee, and I basically told the guy,
the vice president from AT and T who called I
told him to go fuck himself.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I guess word got around that you were wearing this
stuff or accounts were under the assumption that they were
dealing with AT and T rightly.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
And then you know they were probably filming me and
taking pictures of me walking around like that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
So you get this vice president who called you up,
you tell him to go fuck himself, and what happens
after that?
Speaker 5 (29:29):
I get served with papers to cease and desist otherwise
they'll take further action. And me, being the prick I
am and the hard ass, I told them I thought
I told you to go fuck yourself last time.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
What happened next?
Speaker 5 (29:44):
AT and T got an order from the federal judge
the US Marshal and some AT and T employees arrived
at the home at about five thirty am in the morning.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
And demanded entrance, and I let them in.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
They started gathering things along with their attorneys. They started
gathering a lot of my personal stuff and anything that
might incriminate me, anything that might be evidence to show
that I was acting as an AT and T employee,
(30:22):
which meant anything with an eight and T logo. And
they basically ransacked my office and the downstairs area of
the house, taking items that would put me out of business,
wouldn't let me operate anymore. And they had a truck
pull up and they were loading up the truck. And
(30:42):
to say the least, it was very embarrassing for my family.
Neighbors saw something was going on. They had no idea
that thought I was probably the biggest drug dealer in
dick Shills. I felt shame and putting my family through this.
I've got my son downstairs looking at what's going on
(31:05):
with eyes that look like, hey, Dad, I want to
help you, I want to protect you. And my ex
wife went upstairs, and you know, it was not a
good situation to be in. I caused a lot of
heurd for everyone, and I don't want to use the
excuse that, look, I had to make a living, I
(31:27):
had to sustain them. And here you are a single
breadwinner in the family, living in Dick's Hills, and you're
trying to keep up with the Schwartzes and the Cohens,
and it's not really that easy.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I think one of the most crucial elements to being
a great con artist is the ability to ignore all
the possible consequences of your actions. Most people can't do it,
but my father was the master. All the switching of
names on accounts and fake at and t gear. You
have to ignore it, the very real possibility that it
(32:03):
all might blow up in your face. Like my dad said,
he's a greedy fuck. He wants the big house in
the nice neighborhood, the extravagant vocations to California and Europe. Frankly,
we all do. But most people think about the price
they'd have to pay to get those things. My dad
(32:23):
is not one of those people. I do remember being
in that situation and thinking that it's awkward that this
is happening, that federal marshals are in the house. At
any point, did I know that we never talked about it.
But why didn't we ever talk about, like, Hey, this
is a tough thing that I got involved in and
that I never should have done. You never really brought
(32:45):
up the fact that this was an embarrassing thing to
the family. I mean, you're saying it now, but not
back then. Why not?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Well, because it was a very hurtful time and which
led up to other things later on in life shortly after,
and I wanted to forget about it as quickly as
I could put that behind me. Which it didn't go
behind me because I was dragged into court and I
(33:14):
told your mother, if you don't come to court and
fight this with me, they had your name on the papers.
You got to be cleared. What happens to me doesn't matter,
but you have to be cleared.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
So what ended up happening with AT and T?
Speaker 7 (33:30):
What was the end result?
Speaker 5 (33:32):
The end result with AT and T was that the
case was dismissed. Oh and the other thing that happened
was the evidence that they took. They came back with
a story that the truck that they used was broken
into in the night and a lot of their evidence
was taken out of the truck, which the judge said,
(33:57):
who drove that truck and they said it was eighteen
T employees. Okay, so where was the truck? They said
it was brought to a secure AT and T facility.
So what are you saying. We're saying that it was
mister Veda that broke into the truck.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Do you believe something like that?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Can you believe something like that?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
How the fuck am I going to break into a truck?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
What do you believe happened to that evidence?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
How to funck? Should I know?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Would you say you took it?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Never? That's important?
Speaker 5 (34:32):
How the fuck am I going to get on a
secured facility that had cameras all around? How could I
have possibly have done it? I mean the truck left
with us marshals.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I guess the only way to get into a secured
AT and T facility with maybe being looking like somebody.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Who worked for AT and T.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Sure, do you think you would have been screwed if
that eviden instant to go missing?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Absolutely?
Speaker 5 (35:03):
Hey, on my deathbed, you can ask me the question
and my memory may come back to me.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
What was I expecting my father say yes, I stole
the evidence. If I learned anything from him, it.
Speaker 8 (35:17):
Was deny, deny, deny because you can't take back guilty.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
So you're stealing exams in college, you're moving money around.
When it comes to the furniture business, you know, not
even delivering furniture to people. Then you get involved in
the phone business and you have AT and T logos
on your sweatshirt, you're passing up business cards. At any
(35:43):
point where you're like, why don't I just do a
legit business, make this payphone business legit and see where
that goes.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
Well, everything started out legit. It's just unforeseen reasons. I
may have made a left turn instead of a right turn.
And you know, when money's good and it's coming in,
you just don't want it to stop, you know. Yeah,
I had money okay, until we were spending it, you know,
(36:17):
quicker than we could make it. So that's just just
the way. When it was poor planning on my side.
Sure I made mistakes, but for some reason I was
able to rectify things and move on with my life.
(36:40):
A lot of things happened that were worse than that,
and you know, that's it.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
So things are winding down at the house and we
headed back outside, and then something unexpected happened. My father
out of the blue face times. My half sister Miriam,
who lives in Paris and who I've never met.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
That's a You're going to say hi to your sister.
She wants to say hi to you.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Actually, hey, somebody wants to say hello to you.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You look pretty. Don't bite your nails please, honey. Okay,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Hey, how's it going. You know what I am? You
know who that is?
Speaker 7 (37:22):
I am your half brother.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Very nice, right, I heard a lot about you, and
I know this is like the first time I'm talking
to you, but I just wanted to say hi and
introduce myself and then if you ever come to the
United States, I'd be happy to, you know, meet up
with you. And I have Instagram and stuff, and you know,
you could always message me on there and stuff if
(37:48):
you want to know anything or anything like that. I'm
super you know you're you're my half sister, but you're
my sister. You know, I don't mean say half you're
my sister. And I think it's really cool nice. It
was very nice meeting Miriam, and I do hope that
(38:09):
I meet you one day in person.
Speaker 7 (38:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Thanks for doing that.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
Yes, you're very sweet.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
As I stood on the front lawn of my childhood home.
I couldn't believe I spoke to my sister, Miriam. Miriam
and I may not know each other, but even over FaceTime,
I could tell she had a million questions she wanted
to ask me about our father, probably a lot of
the same questions I had when I was her age,
and we couldn't talk about any of it because Manny
was hovering inches away over my shoulder. So, Miriam, if
(38:43):
you're listening, I hope this podcast helps clear up a
lot of the things you want to know.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I care for.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Thanks great. On the next episode of Number One Dad,
I am on my way to New York City to
Madison Square Garden. I'm gonna be seeing a Rangers game
with my dad. I can't believe I just said that
(39:17):
we have actual access. We don't need to jump lines,
jump ropes. Everything's good. We got legitimate tickets with fun.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, but it's no phone when you come in legally.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Number One Dad is a production of Radio Point, Big
Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts, created and hosted by
Gary Veeter. Executive producers are Gary Veeter, Adam Lowett, Alex Bach,
Daniel Powell, Houston Snyder Kenneth Slotnik and Brian Stern. Written
by Gary Veeter and Adam Lowett, Produced by Bernie Minsky.
(40:00):
Co producer is Taylor Kowalski, Edited and mixed by Ian
Sorrentino at Little Bear Audio. Recording Engineer is kat Iosa.
Original music by Andrew Gross. Special thanks to Charlotte DeAnda.
Jonathan karsh Is creative consultant. Executive producers for Big Money
Players Network and iHeart Podcasts are Will Farrell, Hans Sonni
(40:21):
and Olivia Aguilar. Sound services were provided by Great City Posts.
Previously on Number one.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Dad.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
One day I got a phone call from Rich who
was with Manny in the basement, and the marshals came storming.
Speaker 4 (00:08):
In good morning, calling the case of AT and T
Corp versus Manny veter defendant.
Speaker 5 (00:16):
Veter impersonated a New York Telephone company employee stole two
night TAEL telephone enclosures and was prosecuted for a class
eve felony.
Speaker 6 (00:25):
And then down the road as I'd speaking, I say, hey,
did this ever get resolved? And I remember one discussion
where he said, you wouldn't believe what happened. I had
it in a warehouse and somehow the warehouse was broken
into and a whole bunch of stuff was taken.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
If you had to guess how that evidence became missing,
would you put it?
Speaker 7 (00:45):
Pat?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Yeah, it's a hard thing to speculate if he was
involved in it, but it was just a very good
piece of luck for him that they couldn't bring the
case forward.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I want to show you something, Give me two seconds
of your time.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, I got a guy.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Since she's assistant.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
What I expected meeting my father to have a surprise
or two, but I definitely did not see this coming.
I have another sister who's half my age, and she's French.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Lying, stealing.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
I got in trouble a little bit in different ways.
Everything I had was just street smarts.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Right now, I'm sitting down with my father, Manny Veeter,
in my old living room on Long Island, asking him
everything I ever wanted to know. Hopefully I'll get the truth,
but who knows. I mean, he is a con man.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
I went to Baru College during nineteen seventy to nineteen
seventy three.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
When you're doing well in college in school.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yeah, I cheated my way through college.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How could you not do well? If you're a bad cheater,
then you suck. Yeah, you had to be the best,
and I was the best.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
A lot of people say colleges where they figured out
their path in life, and it turns out my father
is one of those people. That's whereas days as a
con artist began. Would it have been easier to actually
have studied for some people?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Yes, for me, that's not the way it worked out.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Tell me how you cheated in college?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
By the way, you know, everything I'm saying is all
bullshit and lies, right, Yeah, exactly, good say that to me.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Everything you're saying is all bullshit in lines right, none
of the trick right. This is number one, dad?
Speaker 7 (02:41):
So how would you go about cheating in college?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
I decided that if I wanted to get good marks,
logically get a copy of the exam before the exam began.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I figured out how I.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Could do that, and then I would disperse the exam
amongst friends of mine who collected money. They made money
selling the exams. We had pretty small kids graduating from
that school.
Speaker 7 (03:10):
How much would you sell the exams for?
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Oh, put a price tag on it for three to
four hundred dollars an exam.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
What I didn't tell my father in that moment is
I also stole exams in college, which is crazy. I
had no idea we had this in common, but I
didn't want to give them the satisfaction in knowing it.
Speaker 7 (03:30):
How would you get them?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Like?
Speaker 7 (03:32):
How would be access to them?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I knew where the exams were being kept.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Any major classes you were taking, whether it was the
law accounting, had a department accounting department, law department, and.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I figured out.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
That those departments somehow had to get the exams printed.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Back then, they called them mimeograph machines.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
And I knew that mistakes are made. And what happens
to the mimeograph machines when they make a mistake, They
take them back copy throw in a garbage. So I said, okay,
I'll pick the garbage. And I took two really smart
kids gave it to them so they could get an.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A plus rather than just an A.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
They would have to give me all the answers, and
I told them they had to be perfect or they'd
never see another example.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And I got it.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
And it's not like both of us, me sitting here
and the guy who's sitting there.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
How the hell do we have the same answers? You know?
And if anybody questioned.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
Who did you say I cheated from?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We don't even sit next to each other. What are
you talking about? Right?
Speaker 8 (04:55):
You're able to deny, deny, deny, deny because you can't
take back guilty.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Was this successful?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I mean it's very successful. I was making more money
than a professor was there.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I asked my father about one of his earliest jobs
out of college. We're out of all the departments he
was hired to work in security.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
I got offered a job with Pan American Airlines. I
don't know if you ever heard of them. There were
big airlines. They were like twa Luftanza. There were one
of the big four in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
They put me in.
Speaker 7 (05:29):
Charge of security. Ordit in security And how long did
you work at pan.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Am for until they fired me?
Speaker 7 (05:38):
So what led to you getting fired?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Back then?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
You didn't come up to the desk and they type
in your name, take your credit card?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Okay. They didn't have that technology.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
The ticket was handwritten by the woman behind the desk okay.
And the fraud was were fraudulent tickets that were being
handwritten to get on a plane. See, they didn't even
know exactly how many seats were sold till they manually
counted the tickets and I slipped into shit, let's put
(06:14):
it that way.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
Yeah, And they got that's it. They could just fire
you for that.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
They could remember I'm the guy in ordered to in
security and.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm fucking lion.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And then so, but now you don't have a Tanam job?
What are you thinking about doing for a career.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
I needed something to do, so I said, Hey, my
fall was in a furniture business. I loved selling and
bullshitting and putting those two things together.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I asked my father about his fime furniture store Designer's Gallery.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
After dozens of buyers claimed they were cheated, the State
Attorney General's Office filed suit yesterday against Veter Sales Inc.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
What was Designer's Gallery.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Designer's Gallery was the name of a medium to high
end furniture business that I started. I did have help
in getting into the furniture industry through my father in law,
Ben Wolf, at that point, in order to gain more credibility,
(07:16):
and this is where a lot of my scams began.
I said, well, Manny Veeder in the furniture bill, who
the hell is he? But Manny Wolf was the son
of Ben Wolf, who had a store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
at two seventy five Broadway. I wanted something that was catchy,
(07:37):
that could basically identify with young people and middle aged
people who could buy furniture and spend more money.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Did you start off in the furniture business as being
an honest businessman?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Absolutely? Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Now that brings me into the next step which got
me into trouble. I became a transshipper. I invented that
word transshipper. Now people came through me and they go, oh,
I want Ethan Allen or Drexel Heritage.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
These were big.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Names in the furniture industry, but they wouldn't sell to me.
They sold only to authorize dealers, like you can't buy
a Vovo at a BMW guy unless you have two dealerships.
So I went ahead and I said, how the fuck
am I going to get these big names to sell me?
(08:33):
So I needed another scam because everybody already knew who
I was as a designers gallery, and they knew me
in New York.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So I said, screw this.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
I'll set up an address in Boston and I'll set
up an address in Maryland.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But I needed a good name. So what was that name?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Armed Forces Sales and Services. What is Enforces Sales and
Services do? When I went to introduce myself to these
guys who didn't know who I was, I said, well,
we are the ones that furnished all the embassies in
France in Italy.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's how the furniture gets there.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
You send it to me, I put it in the container,
and I send it overseas.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You should never left the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I've never known about any of this before, but I
got to admit, this is another brilliant scheme by my
dad for his entire life. Using quick thinking and deception,
he's been able to come up with a solution to
get him ahead.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
If I could think it, I could make it work. Okay,
it's all about delusion. Like a magician. I was a
magician in the furniture business. They were figuring schmucks embassies
all over the world. Right, But what they didn't realize
how many times are they going to change their furniture?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Right? Exactly?
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Umforces sales and services. I may have some business cards
still left over. I'll give you nice furniture. However, I
got a little greedy guys in my area said, Manny,
how the hell did you get Drexel? How did you
get this? How did you get that? I said, well,
I have a contact. You couldn't get it. Who could
(10:15):
get it?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Man? He wolf could get it. So they would call me.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
I'd have these things shipped to a bogus address or
warehouse where I was doing my trucking with, sent it there,
and then take it and send it to the guy
who wanted it.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
But he got to the point where the.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Guy at the warehouse was also delivering furniture for other companies.
So he'd asked me could you do a favor for
so and so do it for me? Okay, he's helping
me out. I open it and the furniture would come
in and I've got four thousand dollars of inventory for
Joe Piazza that he ordered from me, and he said,
could you send it to me. I'll pay you as
(10:57):
soon as I get paid. Well that's where I was stupid,
because I got to wait for him to get paid. Fuck,
you pay me now if you want the furniture. And
that's when they started to threaten me. And I had
a family. I didn't want to get threatened. They figured,
what am.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I gonna do?
Speaker 5 (11:14):
My goodness, I'm not gonna go after them legally, So
I called Anthony, and Anthony got involved and basically had
to go down, pay a visit to these people.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And make sure we got paid.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
So who is Anthony?
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Anthony came from a family of the good old boys,
and you wanted to be on the right side of
Anthony because if you didn't and you crossed him, he
would follow you to work.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And wait for you to get to your job, and
then when you'd get into that big elevator that took
you up to the forty fourth floor.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
He'd step in, punch in the face, walk out the elevator,
and the doors were closed.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Nobody could get them.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You're gonna meet Anthony sounds like he's going to kick
the shit out of me.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Not unless you deserve it.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
And one of my very famous customers was lat Trapeze.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Now you've probably never heard of that.
Speaker 7 (12:13):
You kids.
Speaker 9 (12:17):
Latra Pee is located at seventeen East twenty seventh Street
is a unique club open to freethinking adult couper. We
offer a relaxing, nope pressure environment, complete repeated swimming pools
and that same dyscopi. Latru Peeze may not be for everyone,
but you won't know until.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
You try it.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
In the nineteen eighties, Latrapeze was the mecca of sex
clubs in New York and my father was responsible for
supplying them with their mattresses.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Gross the Jersey Mob opened up latrap Pees. Well, they
came to me and they say, come down to our place,
which was off Park Avenue and twenty something Street.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I walk in.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
It's like what you would refer to maybe as madam
who is the manager there.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
It was like a big empty almost warehouse.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
But with lights, you know, he goes, well, we're going
to need carpeting, and we're going to need mattresses. I said,
what kind of mattresses you're going to put in here?
Ones I go on the floor.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That are waterproof or sperm proof. I said, what are
they going? They're going to fuck here?
Speaker 5 (13:29):
She said to me here, I am listen to this
woman who was like twenty years older than me. Yeah,
this is going to be a fuck house. Most of
these girls were like cookers, and when it came time
to get paid, they told me, go fuck yourself, Anthony,
you better get a hold of your dad.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Who is Anthony's father, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
He was a tough guy.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I don't know if my father is telling the truth here,
but I am loving this story. So you told Anthony Jr.
That you have an issue that you're getting paid up.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
And he said, don't worry about it. I'll hold my father.
He'll take care of it. His father sent some people
down there, which, from my understanding was that day two
men walked into the Latrapeze and.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
The guy who told me to fuss myself was there
with a couple of his buddies.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
And the story, Anthony calls me my father just took
care of everything. He wants us to go down there
tomorrow to pick up our money.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So I meet with Anthony.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
We go down there, and I told your mother, I'm
walking in now. That was I had the first cell phone,
which was a motor flip phone. I said, if I
don't call you back for bullshit in five minutes, donal
nine one wanted to tell him to come to that thinkers,
I'm getting locked in a freezer somewhere.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I have to pause here to say how insane it
is that my father would put my mother through this
kind of stress all because of, in his words, greed.
Plenty of people have legitimate furniture businesses that provide for
their family, but legitimate was never enough for my father.
He needed more, even if it put him, my mother,
(15:17):
and his kids in danger.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
So we get there and the guy who refused to
pay me is now wearing big sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Like he's a movie star.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
The reason why I had the sunglasses while he took
off this, he says, you didn't have to call anybody.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Just look what they did to me.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
You know, he had a big black eye and nose
was cut up here. They made sure I got my
money on top of that, they took an extra fifty
percent added to that. Okay, so now I had another
two thousand dollars which I had to give to Anthony
to give to those guys collection fee.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
What did my mom say when you call her to
tell her? I mean, you're a guy who's in the
furniture business. You're telling her, if you don't hear from
me in five minutes, call the police.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
She just went along with it.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
And if I told this is what we got to
do with, this is what we got to do because
I got to collect that money.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
We need it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Hearing this really made me feel for my mother because
she clearly didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
She was a stay at home mom raising three kids
and relied on her husband to provide. But unfortunately that
husband was a crook.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
She was trapped.
Speaker 7 (16:42):
What was the downfall of Designers.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Gallery New York State Attorney General.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
They had enough complaints where they needed to put a
stop to me legally, and that's how they do it.
They do it through their legal machine that they have
and trying to fight The Attorney General is trying to
fight New York State because their resources, to a.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Certain point are unlimited.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
But I found out that the Attorney General has a
budget and they got to make things pay. So the
longer I can fuck them over and drag them out,
they're going to realize that they're not getting any bang
for their dollar.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And that's what I did.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
So they were going to wear me down by me
having to pay for a lawyer to come and represent me.
But I never went to law school, and I became
a lawyer overnight.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And your mother can tell you that she saw how
I worked.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
And I went to court and I sat in on
different things in court, and I listened and I made
notes terms that I would use, and things that other
attorneys were doing to fuck other attorneys, and I picked
up on it, and I knew the way I was
going to get around this was to drag this out
as long as I could.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
For loopholes my father used against the Attorney General managed
to keep him out of jail, but eventually he was
forced to close up shop.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
They put a order in on me that I can
never be in a furniture business again.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
They're even allowed to sit in a chair like you're
doing right now, only.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
If it's a toilet seat. Well, let's put it this
way somebody like yourself. I would never try to scam.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
And I never went after the poor people who didn't
have money. I went after the big companies. But it
wasn't something I intentionally did. I unfortunately got into a
situation where the money wasn't coming in and I couldn't
pay my bills, and they pulled the rug from underneath me.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
It was a business decision by a lot of these companies,
and word got around, don't do business with manny.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Here's how I know my father is a great con artist.
In the moment when he was saying all this, I
was completely convinced by his justification for all the lies
and schemes. But hearing it back, it's clear he's simply
a man painting himself as the victim. He didn't unfortunately
get into a situation. He put himself there. It was
(19:16):
his choice to become a transshipper, to lie about furnishing embassies,
and to get involved with the mob. My father isn't
a man bound by some moral code. He's simply a
victim of his own hubris who assumed his house of
cards would never fall.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Would you have done anything different?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I would have.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Robbed the bank taken more money on a one shot deal. Yeah,
but you know, everything was a learning game for me.
I could see what I could do and where I
wouldn't be noticed.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I learned that was part of my technique, which I
still use to this very day.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I knew my father went from the furniture business to payphones,
but I never really knew how it all started. I
couldn't wait to get the full story on payphone Plus.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Somehow I read about an article that payphones were going
to be available on the retail market. This has got
to be about maybe nineteen eighty nine. I threw ten
thousand dollars into that business, and each phone at that
time cost me eleven hundred dollars, and I bought six phones,
(20:23):
now all my payphones. I bought the best payphone on
the market, and mine looked identical Toma Bell New York
Telephone Company, because AT and T was manufacturing it for them,
So it was the perception people already knew this got
to be a good phone.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Just to give people an idea of the scope of
how large payphone Plus was, can you name different types
of businesses that you had accounts in.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I had phones in the tri state area, which included
Long Island, five boroughs, Upper New Jersey, Westchester, Rockland County areas,
about two hundred phones total. I had phones in Macy's,
Jack Laane Sabarro's, Costco Gold Nugget Casino in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I had phones everywhere.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Take me to acquiring an account and the perception you
would give off of who you were.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Okay, Well, first thing I went out and did was
I had a couple of shirts.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Embroidered AT and T.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
I have a truck outside that's painted the same color
as an AT and T truck, and I.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Have an AT and T logo and business cards.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
In fact, I got a helmet for you kids, helmet
and I put an AT and T sticker on it.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
A few you remember that I do.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, yeah, you embroidered these AT and T shirts. Right,
Are you going into a place and telling people you
work for AT and T or No?
Speaker 5 (21:53):
No, no, no, that's just smoking mirrors. They made the assumption. Hey,
if I went to Night in the Game and bought
an Island New Jersey? Am I a goalie for the Islanders?
Am I defenseman? Whatever you want to think is okay
with me as long as it doesn't come out of
my mouth.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Aside from making people think he worked for AT and T. Apparently,
another way my dad was able to grow his pay
phone business was by paying out larger commissions than his competitors.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
In fact, I taught your cousin Mason, I started him
in the phone business. So I took Mason with me
and we went and there was a phone in front
of this store, and I told the owner, I'm going
to pay you a higher commission than you're getting. Now, well,
we're putting our phone up here.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
You offered to pay them a better commission. How could
you afford to do that?
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Very simply knowing that in four or five months from
now they are going to cut my line the phone
company for non payment. So you wouldn't pay the phone bill,
all right, that I'd have a six hundred dollars phone bill,
and they threatened to cut it off. But I was
opening up different accounts under different names all the time.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Now they cut the phone line, that phone, now, what
happens to that at that establishment?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
You just take it out.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
What I did was I was two steps in front
of them all the time. I would call up the
phone company and I would tell the phone company. I'm
now transferring this to this and this company. Okay, Now
they changed the name from payphone plus XYZ, so a
new lease on life, a new lease on life, and
you continue.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So why not just pay your bill?
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Because I was a greedy fuck and I wanted the
money and I wanted it.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Now, I'm sure a lot of my dad's answers to
my questions have been filled with lies, but this time
I know he's telling the truth. Yes, he's a swindler,
a schemer, a con man, but at his core, he's
simply a greedy fuck. Do you ever remember going around
with me and sing a headset for a payphone?
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Did I do that with you? Holy shit?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
I must have been really fucking crazy. I don't remember
vandalyzing somebody's phone or anything.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I really don't, and be a stupid thing for me
to do that with you?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
There, Yeah, well I remember that, so I went down.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
I don't know what to tell Listen, if you remember that,
and I don't take your word on it.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it would be something that
you would do.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I probably do worse, but yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Once we were on the topic of payphones. I had
to ask my father about a certain mobbed up strip
club in Queen's that was mentioned by his former employees
Mark and Rich.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
These are made mafia guys, and every time we would enter,
Nanny was greeted warmly. He would hang out, they would
catch up, they would talk, they would joke.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It made me uncomfortable with to the owner. There was
like his owner guys.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And he was real. He was just like Sketchy. Tell
me about Wiggles.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Wiggles was a topless and bottomless strip club located on
Queens Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
He has sixty third Drive and.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
I always made sure I put a phone right next
to the dressing.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Room for the women.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Who owned it.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
A fella I knew by the name of Vinnie.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Vinnie. What gumbats?
Speaker 7 (25:29):
Could you say his name?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Do we have to You're walking on dangerous ground here.
Speaker 7 (25:36):
Any We're fine, We're fine.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
What are in? We're fine, We're fine.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
If the only people that listened to this or the
FBI and the police.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
All right, we'll leave it. We'll leave his name, we'll
call it, We'll call him Vinnie. My father was hesitant
for good reason. The Vinnie. I'm asking him to talk
about was the former head of the de Cavalcanti crime family.
Speaker 7 (25:59):
So how'd you meet him?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Well, I was there one night and who comes in
but Vinnie. We started talking and he asked me what
am I doing here? I told I'm the guy who
does the telephone and he had a problem with his
phones and I fixed it and we started chatting, and
what was.
Speaker 7 (26:17):
This situation with his phone?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
The guy who hooked it up before I ever looked
at it, didn't do such a good job. He was
very sloppy and wires were not properly punched on as
they used the term to the block. And I just
redid it and things were working fine.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
When I spoke with Mark, he told me my father
found a tap in Vinnie's phone.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
He found taps and he was able to take those
out and also inform them that they were actually being
spied on, and so he's like a hero in this circle.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
I had to ask my father if this actually happened,
Was there anything ever that you noticed in his phones,
like say, anything that was ever like bugged or you.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Wouldn't see a bug because the bugs were not bugged
directly in the location, although sometimes that may have been
the preferred way to do it. But a few miles
away is where the Queen's district attorney had his offices,
and usually when they were bugging somebody, they would bug
(27:22):
it in that particular building, which was across the street
from the courthouses, and this way nobody would ever see
what was going on, and nobody would be suspicious. But yeah,
there are ways to tell if a line is bugged.
You need sophisticated electronics to see what's going on.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So how would you know? Just curious, how would you
know that that's where a district attorney would bug a phone?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Like I watched a lot of movies.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Did you ever help Vinnie out?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Let's put it this way.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
If Annie would ask me to help him out, or
I would have no problem doing it. I don't think
you'd want to be on his bad side.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
My father may be a great liar, but sometimes you
have to look at what he's not saying. He doesn't
say that he never found a bug in Vinnie's phone,
and he doesn't flat out say he never helped Vinnie out.
I kept pressing him for more information, but that was
all he was willing to give me. I'm trying to
(28:29):
remember as much as I can from when I was
a kid. I'm only between probably like eight to eleven
at this time, while you were doing the payphone plus business.
What eventually happened where you eventually had to stop?
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well, I had to stop because AIGHTE and T sent
me a letter saying that I shouldn't be walking around
what a AIGHTE and T had on or a logo
since I'm not an employee, and I basically told the guy,
the vice president from AT and T who called I
told him to go fuck himself.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
I guess word got around that you were wearing this
stuff or accounts were under the assumption that they were
dealing with AT and T rightly.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
And then you know they were probably filming me and
taking pictures of me walking around like that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
So you get this vice president who called you up,
you tell him to go fuck himself, and what happens
after that?
Speaker 5 (29:29):
I get served with papers to cease and desist otherwise
they'll take further action. And me, being the prick I
am and the hard ass, I told them I thought
I told you to go fuck yourself last time.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
What happened next?
Speaker 5 (29:44):
AT and T got an order from the federal judge
the US Marshal and some AT and T employees arrived
at the home at about five thirty am in the morning.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
And demanded entrance, and I let them in.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
They started gathering things along with their attorneys. They started
gathering a lot of my personal stuff and anything that
might incriminate me, anything that might be evidence to show
that I was acting as an AT and T employee,
(30:22):
which meant anything with an eight and T logo. And
they basically ransacked my office and the downstairs area of
the house, taking items that would put me out of business,
wouldn't let me operate anymore. And they had a truck
pull up and they were loading up the truck. And
(30:42):
to say the least, it was very embarrassing for my family.
Neighbors saw something was going on. They had no idea
that thought I was probably the biggest drug dealer in
dick Shills. I felt shame and putting my family through this.
I've got my son downstairs looking at what's going on
(31:05):
with eyes that look like, hey, Dad, I want to
help you, I want to protect you. And my ex
wife went upstairs, and you know, it was not a
good situation to be in. I caused a lot of
heurd for everyone, and I don't want to use the
excuse that, look, I had to make a living, I
(31:27):
had to sustain them. And here you are a single
breadwinner in the family, living in Dick's Hills, and you're
trying to keep up with the Schwartzes and the Cohens,
and it's not really that easy.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I think one of the most crucial elements to being
a great con artist is the ability to ignore all
the possible consequences of your actions. Most people can't do it,
but my father was the master. All the switching of
names on accounts and fake at and t gear. You
have to ignore it, the very real possibility that it
(32:03):
all might blow up in your face. Like my dad said,
he's a greedy fuck. He wants the big house in
the nice neighborhood, the extravagant vocations to California and Europe. Frankly,
we all do. But most people think about the price
they'd have to pay to get those things. My dad
(32:23):
is not one of those people. I do remember being
in that situation and thinking that it's awkward that this
is happening, that federal marshals are in the house. At
any point, did I know that we never talked about it.
But why didn't we ever talk about, like, Hey, this
is a tough thing that I got involved in and
that I never should have done. You never really brought
(32:45):
up the fact that this was an embarrassing thing to
the family. I mean, you're saying it now, but not
back then. Why not?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Well, because it was a very hurtful time and which
led up to other things later on in life shortly after,
and I wanted to forget about it as quickly as
I could put that behind me. Which it didn't go
behind me because I was dragged into court and I
(33:14):
told your mother, if you don't come to court and
fight this with me, they had your name on the papers.
You got to be cleared. What happens to me doesn't matter,
but you have to be cleared.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
So what ended up happening with AT and T?
Speaker 7 (33:30):
What was the end result?
Speaker 5 (33:32):
The end result with AT and T was that the
case was dismissed. Oh and the other thing that happened
was the evidence that they took. They came back with
a story that the truck that they used was broken
into in the night and a lot of their evidence
was taken out of the truck, which the judge said,
(33:57):
who drove that truck and they said it was eighteen
T employees. Okay, so where was the truck? They said
it was brought to a secure AT and T facility.
So what are you saying. We're saying that it was
mister Veda that broke into the truck.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Do you believe something like that?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Can you believe something like that?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
How the fuck am I going to break into a truck?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
What do you believe happened to that evidence?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
How to funck? Should I know?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Would you say you took it?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Never? That's important?
Speaker 5 (34:32):
How the fuck am I going to get on a
secured facility that had cameras all around? How could I
have possibly have done it? I mean the truck left
with us marshals.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I guess the only way to get into a secured
AT and T facility with maybe being looking like somebody.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Who worked for AT and T.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Sure, do you think you would have been screwed if
that eviden instant to go missing?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Absolutely?
Speaker 5 (35:03):
Hey, on my deathbed, you can ask me the question
and my memory may come back to me.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
What was I expecting my father say yes, I stole
the evidence. If I learned anything from him, it.
Speaker 8 (35:17):
Was deny, deny, deny because you can't take back guilty.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
So you're stealing exams in college, you're moving money around.
When it comes to the furniture business, you know, not
even delivering furniture to people. Then you get involved in
the phone business and you have AT and T logos
on your sweatshirt, you're passing up business cards. At any
(35:43):
point where you're like, why don't I just do a
legit business, make this payphone business legit and see where
that goes.
Speaker 5 (35:50):
Well, everything started out legit. It's just unforeseen reasons. I
may have made a left turn instead of a right turn.
And you know, when money's good and it's coming in,
you just don't want it to stop, you know. Yeah,
I had money okay, until we were spending it, you know,
(36:17):
quicker than we could make it. So that's just just
the way. When it was poor planning on my side.
Sure I made mistakes, but for some reason I was
able to rectify things and move on with my life.
(36:40):
A lot of things happened that were worse than that,
and you know, that's it.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
So things are winding down at the house and we
headed back outside, and then something unexpected happened. My father
out of the blue face times. My half sister Miriam,
who lives in Paris and who I've never met.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
That's a You're going to say hi to your sister.
She wants to say hi to you.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Actually, hey, somebody wants to say hello to you.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You look pretty. Don't bite your nails please, honey. Okay,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Hey, how's it going. You know what I am? You
know who that is?
Speaker 7 (37:22):
I am your half brother.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Very nice, right, I heard a lot about you, and
I know this is like the first time I'm talking
to you, but I just wanted to say hi and
introduce myself and then if you ever come to the
United States, I'd be happy to, you know, meet up
with you. And I have Instagram and stuff, and you know,
you could always message me on there and stuff if
(37:48):
you want to know anything or anything like that. I'm
super you know you're you're my half sister, but you're
my sister. You know, I don't mean say half you're
my sister. And I think it's really cool nice. It
was very nice meeting Miriam, and I do hope that
(38:09):
I meet you one day in person.
Speaker 7 (38:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Thanks for doing that.
Speaker 7 (38:17):
Yes, you're very sweet.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
As I stood on the front lawn of my childhood home.
I couldn't believe I spoke to my sister, Miriam. Miriam
and I may not know each other, but even over FaceTime,
I could tell she had a million questions she wanted
to ask me about our father, probably a lot of
the same questions I had when I was her age,
and we couldn't talk about any of it because Manny
was hovering inches away over my shoulder. So, Miriam, if
(38:43):
you're listening, I hope this podcast helps clear up a
lot of the things you want to know.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I care for.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Thanks great. On the next episode of Number One Dad,
I am on my way to New York City to
Madison Square Garden. I'm gonna be seeing a Rangers game
with my dad. I can't believe I just said that
(39:17):
we have actual access. We don't need to jump lines,
jump ropes. Everything's good. We got legitimate tickets with fun.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, but it's no phone when you come in legally.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Number One Dad is a production of Radio Point, Big
Money Players Network and iHeart Podcasts, created and hosted by
Gary Veeter. Executive producers are Gary Veeter, Adam Lowett, Alex Bach,
Daniel Powell, Houston Snyder Kenneth Slotnik and Brian Stern. Written
by Gary Veeter and Adam Lowett, Produced by Bernie Minsky.
(40:00):
Co producer is Taylor Kowalski, Edited and mixed by Ian
Sorrentino at Little Bear Audio. Recording Engineer is kat Iosa.
Original music by Andrew Gross. Special thanks to Charlotte DeAnda.
Jonathan karsh Is creative consultant. Executive producers for Big Money
Players Network and iHeart Podcasts are Will Farrell, Hans Sonni
(40:21):
and Olivia Aguilar. Sound services were provided by Great City Posts.
Host
Gary Vider
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.