May 8, 2025 • 54 mins
Two con men. Each masters of financial fraud. Each on the run from the law, using aliases and wild maneuvers to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Until they weren't. And it was only then that they crossed paths, with ridiculous result. Get ready to throw a couple more tomes into the Ridiculous Crime library!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio zeren How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're doing pretty good? Fun to see you, I know it.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
It's so fun to see me too.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I know everybody says it. I love to see Elizabeth.
Do you know what's articulous? I do my jazz album collection,
not that because I start that wrong, not the album
collection itself, but I was going through it, and I
don't mean like, well, I'll put it this way. The covers, yeah,
And I was like, these covers are amazing. Some of
these covers are. I mean I'm not just like the
cool ones. I mean some of have iconic photography, Blue
(00:30):
Note records. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking like
even Later. And also I don't mean like Herb Alpert's
Whoped Cream and other Delights, right, I don't mean like, oh,
vaguely sexualized imagery. I'm talking about like Count Basie just
dropping an album cover that is an atomic bomb going off.
I got that one right. But then there's other ones.
There's like Mingus dressed like a Chinese emperor. Right, He's
(00:53):
just got a flowing gold robes dress against the dragon
wall that's also gold. But you can take like old
Man Coleman Hawkins the Hawks still tough, right, and he's
I'm blowing so tough, I blow smoke and the photo
him just blowing plumes of smoke like an angry dragon
out of his nose or one of my favorites Eddie
(01:13):
Harris and producer to be on this one. The reason
why I'm talking and that's the name of the album.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is in the street.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That's his broken saxophone case he smashed down. He just
got his saxophone left and he's like coming at the
camera like sures.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
You've got to make sure we put all of this
on Instagram. They put the what's ridiculous stuff in the stories.
It's not on the regular posts. So that's why you
got to check the posts and the stories on inst.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
There you go the hard way. Yeah, so boom, isn't
that ridiculous? I was like this album collect I should
put these on my wall facing each other.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The freak flex open it up exactly. Do you want
to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Please?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Going to jail and writing about other people's crimes.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Oh, that's a spin.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Heis and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, oh that was good.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Did that hurt a little?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
No? No, I felt good. I was releasing something nice.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I have two Volgo financial scammers for you today.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, they have somewhat parallel storylines that then intersect. Wow,
look at you, I know, look at me, so creative
and along the ways erin Yes, ridiculousness.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh my god, the adventure awaits.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So I'm going to start us off with Marcus Schrenker.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And he was born in nineteen seventy in Warsaw, Indiana.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yay, nice, a little fake out.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I amost threw me.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
He's a good Midwestern boy, thank you so much. Good
one Midwestern by, very ambitious and driven. He went to
Purdue he got a uh business degree. Yeah, and then
while he was there he added another interest to his retinue,
aviation light.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So like he gets out of college, he marries a
former cheerleader. They get they live in this suburb of Indianapolis.
He's this successful business like investment consultant guy, all the
trappings of that lifestyle. So this is giant house, fancy cars,
expensive suits. He's got boats, planes, a plane he can
(03:47):
fly all by himself.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Are you kidding me? And this is all like Indiana
late nineties percent?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah. So, according to CBS News quote, at thirty eight,
he controlled an impressive slate of business through his Heritage
Wealth Management Incorporated, Heritage Insurance Services Incorporated, and Icon Wealth Management.
He was responsible for providing financial advice and managing portfolios
(04:13):
worth millions. Look at him, Look at him. He told
his clients that he would take the standard one percent
management fee and he would only make money if they
made money.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Is that the standard? I don't have the money manager.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Who knows? Perhaps I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
My money manager is gravity.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
My money manage. My money manager is my wallet in
my pocket book. There you go, and the ATM card.
So here's here's what he really did.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Though.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
He put their money into annuities and he took huge
commissions from that. So then if they wanted to cash
out and get their money back, they owed these massive
surrender fees on the annuities. Or if Schranker took the
money out as the broker, they'd still be on the
hook for the surrender fees and for cashing that policy out. Early,
(04:59):
because this is this is how annuities work, right.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I don't quite know.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It's a neither do I. It's a contract that's issued
and distributed by an insurance company, so the insurance company
pays out income to the purchaser of the contract. So
it's like life insurance, but the payout isn't after you die,
So annuities they're generally used for retirement income. Like you
pay in and then you get the payments regularly when
(05:23):
you retire, and that makes sure you don't run out
of money.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, okay, I've heard of these.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
They advertise these on my old radio shows like for
Back in the Day like I've started in nineteen twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
There are two things I need to say about my
complete ignorance surance. One, I would like for my mother
not to call and berate me on the fact that
I have financial illiteracy and she teaches business law. She's
a formidable business lawyer. Yeah, sorry, mom, I don't know
what an annuity is. And also, anyone listening in on
(05:57):
this conversation, I honestly don't care, so don't try and
explain the.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Know lottery winners they try to like flip them to
get them to take the annuity, right. And then also
people who get big settlements, they try to take their
settlements and get them like we'll give you ye scheme.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It seems like you get this lump sum like that
you hand over and you're basically investing it. It's locked in.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, they're taking that those payments at whatever rate they
get up.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
When people explained financial stuff to me, it's like when
they explain board game directions or card game, I'm like, okay, whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well you ever heard like when things just like flat out,
like on the sound thing, it just turns into white noise, Like, yes,
that's what happens. People start talking about money.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I don't know. So most of his clients, though, right,
they're like us, They have no idea what they're buying.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Good suckers like us.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, they thought they were doing straight up market investments,
which I understand that foreign currency investments. Sometimes he called
them insurance products. It was vague enough so it to
sound good to like those like me.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You don't that term out there. I don't really know.
It's not that I know that derived from other.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I think you're like betting, got a bet basically.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Or we're gonna give you a PI that mom.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I'm so sorry. Sorry, You're not the failure. I'm the failure. Okay,
so Shrinker he picked up most of his clients via
word of mouth. Okay, this one guy, Joe Mazzone from Alabama.
He told CNN quote, when you're a pilot, you trust,
that's what you do and what you're used to doing.
His modus operendi is he flies into your city dressed
(07:30):
up in a thousand dollars suit and sits down with you,
buys you lunch, and the next thing you know, he
has you on his side and you move your money
to his Heritage Wealth Management. He's a schmoozer.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Another enclassic con artist.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah yeah, Charles Kinney he befriended Shranker in nineteen ninety six,
and then he bought in with him in like two
thousand and three, and then he got his parents to
buy in to the tune of two million dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I know.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
He told CNN quote, this guy was family to me.
He's a fantastic nice guy. He's well spoken. His customer
service was impeccable. You call the guy on the phone,
you would get him. He told my parents that they
were investing in various insurance products, but they didn't really
know what that meant.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I didn't really know either.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
We trusted him. He said, this is a safe place
to put money to avoid all the world's dangers like
terrorism and impending doom and gloom associated with it in
that climate. Back then, you bought it. You believed him
that he would protect your money.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You think it's also leaving out tax shelters.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Two thousand and three, He's like, look after the towers
phone to protect your money.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I thought they were going to hit banks with planes and.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
To just quickly give me everything.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Planes get it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, there's this Delta pilot and investor Dave Smith. He
told CNBC quote, there's nothing more scary than having seven
figures of money and not knowing what to do with it. Like, okay,
I'll be scared. What kind There's so many, so many
more than that, Like I come here, I'll show you.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Like like it's literally that there are fewer things scarier than.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
That seven figures. So much the other side, like, yeah,
he's new here.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I could take up a billionaires giving him. They're scarier
than that. It's like a bubba gump ship thing or
just naming things.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
He goes on. So I started asking around, Hey, do
you guys have a guy that's doing your money? Like,
let's let's ask.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Our friends that's doing your money. They're like printing it.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And one of my favorite co pilots said, I would
trust him with my kids. That's how much I trust
this guy. And I said, who was that guy? It
was Marcus Shrinker?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
What that mask?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Because the man that you trust with your kids, I
feel sorry for your kids. The kids are all as
a measure of your trust. So Smith he put all
of his savings into to investment with Shrinker, but then
he found out that he was locked into a twenty
five year annuity and that Schranker had withdrawn thirty percent
(10:07):
of his money twenty year. Yeah, so he gets charged.
Smith gets charged a sixty six thousand dollars surrender fee
for early withdrawal. And on top of that, it turns
out that Schranker was moving Smith's money from one annuity
to the next, and every time he did it, he
made a thirteen percent commission on it, and then it
incurred more surrender fees for the clients. It's like shedding
(10:30):
bits on that, but then what the hell? Yeah, so
complaints started coming into authorities where these investments were based,
like Indiana, Georgia. But then he'd switch his licensing to
new states, and that would create confusion about who was
supposed to monitor him. According to CNBC quote, Georgia's insurance
department worked with five people who filed complaints over Schrenker's
(10:51):
handling of annuities. The department eventually obtained two point five
million dollars in refunds for the investors working with insurance
companies that issued those annuities. By the time Georgia officials
notified Indiana about Shranker in April two thousand and seven,
he had already withdrawn his Georgia insurance license. A group
of relatives and friends led by Kenny Next, raised concerns
(11:14):
in Kentucky, where Shranker withdrew his license in December two
thousand and seven. Indiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Alderholtz said Schranker,
who had obtained an Indiana license in the interim, created
confusion by pulling the out of state licenses. Please note
it was a group of relatives and friends, so he
was bilking his own family.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, he got nine clients, including a friend of ten
years and his own aunt, out of about one point
five million. And that's just a fraction of the scheme.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, everything starts to fall apart when the economy tanks. Though.
Investors were like, look, I want to put my money
somewhere safer. Hey, pal, I trust you with my kids.
Watch my kids while I'll get my money back. So
in two thousand and eight, Shrinker he lost five hundred
thousand dollars in judgment against one of his companies. That
(12:08):
was against one of his companies when he missed a
court hearing. What Yeah, so this triggers and investigators. They
go to search his home and his office and look
into possible securities violations. He starts spinning out. This is
an email he sent to one of his clients quote,
I walked out on my job about thirty minutes ago.
My career is over over one letter in a trade error.
(12:31):
One letter. I've had so many people yelling at me
today that I couldn't figure out what was up or down.
I still can't figure it out. Okay. So his wife
files for divorce. She said that it was because he
was cheating on her, not the criming.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Oh ca see do we believe her?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well? Yeah, because when their house was being searched, he
wasn't home, but she was. And then she found out
that where was he. Oh he's in Florida with his girlfriend.
Oh girl, She's like yeah, hold, what a devastation for her.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I know, this is everything all around.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So he had to get out of this, and as
a true coward, he couldn't own up to what he'd done.
He crafted a plan. Saren close as.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Picture.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It's January eleventh, two thousand and nine. You are an
Air Force pilot. You fly an F fifteen fighter jet
and your call sign is Dizzy. You and a fellow pilot, Viper,
have been scrambled into action. Seems there's a Piper PA
forty six near Birmingham, Alabama that's in distress, causing a danger.
(13:32):
You are scurrying across the runway to your jet, fastening
your helmet, saying a silent prayer to Saint Christopher for
protection like you always do. Viper is alongside you, shouting
out the lyrics to Party in the USA and skipping
high into the air. The Piper took off from Anderson, Indiana,
headed for destined, Florida. It had contacted air traffic Control,
(13:52):
saying that the windshield had imploded and the pilot was
injured and bleeding profusely. He said he wasn't going to
make it. Right After that transmission, the Piper leveled off
and remained at thirty five hundred feet. You and your
jet buddy are now screaming through the air, headed to
intercept the Piper. You see it up ahead, Fox Trot fifteen.
I have visual contact round piper, Viper, responds Roger. That
(14:16):
Eagle three approaching on the left. Be aware, he answers
you confirm, I'll take right. You surround the Piper. As
you look over, you see that the plane's windshield is intact,
Plus the door is open. Negative for pilot. Talk to me, Dizzy, Viper,
says Roger. Duck. You radio air traffic Control, Dizzy.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
To Range Control.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Entering Point Alpha Range. You tell them about what you've seen,
and the craft appears to be on autopilot. They advise
you to continue following the Piper until the fuel runs
out and you side. Then near the Blackwater River in
East Milk, Florida, the plane crashes just shore to some
houses by seventy five yards. You and Viper look down
(14:57):
at the wreckage, then turn back and head for bait.
Let's go play some dog site football. Vicker Roger bed, Yes,
thank you, You're so welcome. So the authorities showed up
on the ground, check out the record.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I've bend to Deston and Milton, Florida. I know these towns.
I know, I know Florabama.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
You do well? Do you have you have you crashed
a plane there?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Not yet, I'm waiting, give me time.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
So the authorities they show up, They check out the wreckage.
Plane smashed up, but the windshield and the wind screens
were not damaged and there was no blood inside. Inside
the wreckage of the plane, though, they found handwritten notes
on the inside back cover of a campground book, and
it said stuff like windshield is spider cracking, doors open,
(15:45):
bleeding very bad and graying out. They're like script notes.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So was he planning unlike that, not getting caught That
wasn't supposed to be like his notes of like, oh
I'm leaving what notes I can going down his notes
for the radio.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, they start to piece everything together. See obviously he
jumped from the plane.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, and he expected the plane to crash, no doubt, exactly,
and it's landed.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And he bag exactly so near Childersburg, Alabama Coast Guard
Investigative Service, they recovered cut parachute lines from tree branches
and then the actual parachute with a serial number they
get traced a shrinker. He later admits to dumping a
bag containing more than fourteen hundred ounces of gold worth
(16:29):
around two million dollars in the Kusa River when he
floated down to earth.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Wait by mistake, No, like on purpose.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Oh, and it looks like he was hoping he thought
the plane would make it to the Gulf of Mexico.
Oh man, and that they would be surprised that they
wouldn't find a body like Oh, he's claimed by Davy
Jones's locker.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But he should have had a plan to bail from
the plane over the Gulf of Mexico and someone pick
him up in a go fast boat.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Otherwise and want someone he's got to do it alone.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Well, well, so he lands in Alabama. Yeah, walks across
this river.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There's a lot of bad places of land there so many.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Bad places, goes into a house and tells them that
he's had a canoe accident, and so the cops. The
cops come take them to a nearby hotel. And then
the cops they hear about the crash investigation, and so
they scooted back to the hotel. Sorry, dudes, he was
long gone. He paid for his room in cash and
(17:24):
then ran off into the woods. Next Yeah, so he
had parked a motorcycle with saddle bags that were like
fully packed in a storage unit seven miles away from
the hotel, and so so he wasn't bad in his
landing bad authorities trace the storage unit to him. A
few days later. The motorcycle's gone, but his jeans that
(17:47):
were like still wet, and his socks are still wet,
hiking boots, t shirt, all in a nearby trash camp.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
So he takes the motors, some details and others.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
He rides to a campground in Florida, and he pays
for a night at the campground. Caudah gathers up some firewood,
buys a six pack of bud light.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Good place to hide up by the way.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I guess. According to the New York Times, not really
a quote. In the midst of the manhunt, mister Shrinker
had sent an email message to a friend Tom Britt
back in Indiana, asking him to straighten out the facts
being reported nationwide about the case. In the message, which
mister Britt turned over to the authorities, mister Shrinker insisted
that the windshield had really shattered, causing a loss of
(18:31):
cabin pressure and a condition known as hypoxia, which can
quote cause people to.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Make terrible decisions lack of oxygen.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, so federal marshalls, they took only one day to
catch him thanks to a tip. Two dozen officers showed
up and found that he'd cut himself at the campground.
So they patch him up. He's airlifted to the nearest hospital,
and so they search his computer. They take him the
hospital's fine, he's like I said, he's not good at it.
When they search his computer, they found Google searches for
(19:01):
stuff like how to jump from airplanes and how to
open a pair of food. Can I just say, Can
I say? I am so toast If authorities ever go
through my search history like ridiculous crime research will be
my downfall.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Oh not only that, they would just be they have
so many leads to be so confused. Impossible.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah. June two thousand and nine, Strand.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Now your shopping history.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Oh, that's a big problem to shrinker. He pleads guilty
to charges of destruction of an aircraft and causing the
coast Guard to respond when no help was needed. For that,
he gets sentenced.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
To the crime of hassling the coast Guard. Total.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, and it's the coast Guard in there, but it
was like a air force anyway. He gets sentenced to
fifty one months in prison. Then he got another ten
years for all the securities fraud.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Don't forget about that. I forget that.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
The originals he was ordered to pay the coast Guard
more than thirty four thousand dollars in restitution, and Harley
Davenston Credit Corporation, who held the lean on the plane
more than eight hundred and seventy one thousand dollars then.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Had he like leveraged the plane to get the motorcycle.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
On the idea. He had to pay restitution to the
victim and is sentencing. He told the judge quote, I.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Mean his family and friends, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Quote. He wanted to repay investors and rebuild his relationship
with the three children he's seen only once since his arrest.
He said he has bipolar disorder and he got caught
in a downward spiral of stress after becoming addicted to painkillers.
Like he's an excuse factory.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, he's just everything.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Let's take a break. When we return, I have the
other fraudster. I want to tell you about.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Oh yeah, zaren Yo.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Okay, so I told you about Marcus Schrinker. Now meet
Matthew cox Hi.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Matthew Hehi alias.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Joseph Carter, alias Gary Sullivan, alias Michael Eckert, alias Charles R.
Bauer h Yeah, a lot of other names. He was
born in Florida in nineteen sixty nine, one year before Shrinker. Interesting,
he struggled.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Something about the lead back, then the food.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Well, he struggled with dyslexia as my kid. Yeah, and
as a result, school was tough for him and he
felt really alienated. So he got really bad grades, made
him feel like a failure. But it's worth mentioning now
that you're not your grades. We forced kids to put
so much on grades and GPAs and it's all garbage.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, I am my grades because i'm everybody else's good grades.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
But like, grades are a metric of your ability to
take a test or like fit into an average yeah,
or follow.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Some weird protocols that are arbitrary.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And it's not a measurement of intelligence or curiosity or
like value as a human. I'm sorry for the rant.
I've just seen a lot lately about kids suffering over
grades and pressure. He's too short.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah, and I unlike to take a real measure of intelligence,
like magic the gathering.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yep, exactly, thank you, the real genius measurements. So dyslexia, right,
that's in no way a roadblock. It's just something to
work around, you know. It's like so he demonstrates that
by getting a degree in art illustration from the University
of South Florida. Guy's really smart. After he graduated, he
worked for a little bit of time in the insurance
(22:35):
industry and then later as a mortgage broker.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Okay, so Cox.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
He saw this world, all the paperwork and the deals
and like the really shaky regulation as prime hunting ground
was ripe for fraud, and he figured he was just
the person to pull this.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Fraud, go to it.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Like, while he's working as a mortgage broker, he wrote
an unpublished three hundred and seventeen page book, The Associates
and the novel's main character, who seemed a lot like him,
goes all over the country committing mortgage fraud, and he
would like regale his coworkers with details about the book,
(23:14):
and like sometimes he would send the whole manuscript to
people to see if they could like verify the details
or whether or not the cons inside revival. This is
like a nightmare coworker totally. You've got someone who writes
themselves as the protagonist in the novel, which is so obnoxious,
and then they won't shut up about it the pass
and then it turns out, oh no, he's just outlining.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
The best part though, is that he is confessing on.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Himself and he's getting a lot of witnesses to read it.
And if you're just emailing it, okay, now you've got
this digit. Anyway, his early cons were relatively small scale,
so he like would falsify loan applications or inflate property values,
forge documentation to get unqualified buyers into homes.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
He's on the scam and.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
He was early too. Yeah, he was, you know, a
decade ahead of time, and all of this was to
make big commissions. But he got caught and he lost
his job. He got convicted of mortgage fraud in two
thousand and two on early. He was early to the game,
and had he waited that the banks would have taken
the phone, he only got not a one. He got probation. Undeterred,
(24:22):
he went harder. So after his conviction he got prohibited
from working in the mortgage industry.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, not going to get stopped.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
He just is expanding the craft. So first he faked
up a good credit score, and then he created fake
identities using fake social Security numbers and drivers like Yeah,
and he'd like steal. He'd steal the identities of Toddler's
homeless people, vulnerable women, and he would cook up top notch,
(24:50):
cooked up phony W two's reference letters, bank statements like titles, heads.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Appear, created a job for himself.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, employment records, he really did liberally. Then he bought
a bunch of rundown houses and condos with fake appraisal
values okay, sometimes like double or triple what they were
actually worth. And then he'd go like sometimes four to
five times the valume. He'd get loans, take the money,
and then let the properties go into foreclosure. Yeah, but
(25:19):
it did this thing called shotgunning, where he'd get a
bunch of different lenders to loan against the same property
within a short timeframe, and none of them are aware
of the others. And so he used forged satisfactions of
mortgage to make it look like the property didn't have
any leans when it did.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So he worked in this industry just long enough to
learn how exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
He's like, I see the issues, I'm going to write
a novel about it, and now I'm going to carry it. Yeah.
So he pulled this fraud in a bunch of places
at Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas. Yeah, and then he like
it was through this he amassed millions in fraudulent loans
from lenders who did not suspect a thing.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
The South is really about on like the keeping track
of these million dollars scams like this, just ask Brett Farv.
I mean, like it's very clear that if you're in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
they're just if you steal big, we applauded.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, yeah, but you know what, you got a great arm.
So Cox was something of a ladies man.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
He's a coxman.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
He's a Coxsman Coxswain. He'd been married to a woman
named Kayla Burgos, Okay, and when they divorced. Then he
dated a bunch of other women that he would include
in his criming.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
What did they know that?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, one was Alison Arnold. She had she was married
and had a kid. She didn't want to leave her
life behind and join him on the criming, which he
had discussed with her in detail and.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
In which she yea, so she's like his part time binding.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, but she like he took her to like Ocean's
Eleven and like other crime movies.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
It was like them, Yeah, we can do this, this
is we're studying.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
So they split up. He started seeing Rebecca Hawk, a
sing mom with one kid. A U C K.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I'm sure you're right, sorry becks.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So she she had moved from Las Vegas to Tampajo
after getting a bunch of debt and like going bankrupt
in Vegas. She lost her job in Vegas because she
forged her employer's name on checks. So they're like a
you know, peace and a pods the checks.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
For like plastic surgery, really easy to try.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
But she's like, hey, look gruesome twosome. She hooked up
with them on a dating app. They they're doing their
fraud thing together, raking in the cash. But then they
found out that Jeff Testament, a reporter for the Saint
Petersburg Times.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Was investigating both of them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Cox So how ditched her kid and went on the
run with Cox.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
What Yeah, that was the move.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That was the move. So the story that Testament's writing
comes out in the paper. It explains how Cox started
a company called Urban Equities Incorporated. Kayla Burgos, the ex wife,
and this other business partner were the shareholders and over
six years the company bought and sold nearly sixty homes.
Kayla and the business partner, though, they couldn't keep the
company going and it gets put into receivership. Cox pulled
(28:14):
all the money out from underneath them and they lost everything.
So around the same time, Tampa Pedee they're opening an
investigation into Cocks and then the FBI gets involved. So
basically we say zoins. And when they looked into the details,
they saw that his houses seem to always be valued
way above the comps in the neighborhood, Like his would
(28:36):
be almost two hundred thousand dollars, but similar homes on
the block were like fifty thousands.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So do you have an appraiser on his side? Like,
how is he about faking appraise.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
No one's even going out and doing.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
No one ever goes to check. He just has it
on paper for me, where's the seals?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And what's hilarious is that when the Feds looked into
the paperwork on the homes, they saw a lot of
the fake names and were like, aren't those the characters
from Reservoir Dogs?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
It was like Pink Brown, Yeah, so Cox and how
they skipped town. Don't forget he's still on probation and
now he's missing his meetings with his probation officer. They
first they went to Atlanta and they hit out, but
like not really. He made a run to Mobile, Alabama
and used the identity of a former coworker to get
(29:23):
credit cards and establish a good credit history. Then back
in Atlanta, he cooked up some phony documents like he'd
done before, rented a house. Then he cooked up more
phony documents and went to banks asking for loans on
the house he was renting. He was saying he owned it.
Hundreds and thousands of dollars in loans. The man loved
(29:43):
pop cultures like Reservoir Dog stuff. One of the loans
that he took out was in the name of Sea
Montgomery Burns, the old guy from the Central God bless.
So he did this a bunch of times, and then
they picked up and they moved to Tallahassee, Florida.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
They're hitting spots, they really are.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
But the authorities in Atlanta they were onto him. So
they tracked mister Burns and whatever other film and TV
character names he'd used back to his real identity busted.
So August sixth, two thousand and four, the Secret Service
issued arrest warrants for Cox for conspiracy, identity, theft, mail
and wire fraud, money laundering, and Social Security number fraud.
(30:21):
But he's still a fugitive. They're like, I don't know
where he is. I know he did it, but who
knows where he is? Eighteen months after skipping town in
Tampa and more than six months after the Secret Service
warrant Alison Arnold were surfaced. She's married, right, Yeah, she'd
been a part of these early fraud schemes. She always
felt bad about it. And then she saw Cocks on
(30:42):
TV in a plea for information about a fugitive with
the reward, So she called the FBI and told them
everything for a reward. Well, what did it? Get her right,
I would hope a clean conscience. But it also got
her two years in prison for identity theft and conspiracy
to commit bank.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Fraud because she called the FBI told on herself.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, and she had to pay three hundred thousand dollars
in restitution to her victims.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Thank you for helping us find a criminal. The criminal
is you?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Thank you for the hot tip.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, we're going to come over and bust you right now.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Cox still on the road. So she did that. She
couldn't tell where he was. Yeah, she couldn't be like, oh,
I know where he is. She's like, I know him.
I crimed with him. Here's what we did. They're like,
that's fantastic. Where is he now? I have no idea.
I haven't seen him.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
He's not a new gut. We'll stick with you for
a while.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, let's let's let's circle back then.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So then the we of doing the crimes, you do
you hear that you did the.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Crimes, but you know what it was like confession? So, uh,
he's still out there. He goes to Columbia, South Carolina. Wait, yeah,
shotgun in two houses there racks up almost nine hundred
thousand dollars in phony mortgages in just a few days.
A data analyst at one of the lenders, though, thought
that was fishy.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I saw that someone's analyzing this data seriously saw.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
The duplicate loans and that they happened in such short succession,
So they flagged the accounts for fraud shut down the
bank accounts Cox, once again undeterred, he goes to the
bank to straighten things out. As soon as he got there,
so did the cops. So they arrested him and they
took him to the station and he identified himself as
Gary Lee Sullivan. Gary Lee Sullivan didn't have any warrants,
(32:23):
and he convinced the cops that this was all a
clerical mix up the fraud flag. They let him go.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
No? So then Cox and Hawk they take off and
go to Houston, and she.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
She's like a tour of like bands like Rat and Warrant,
Like they were gonna go from town. Then he went
to Houston, They're were gonna be in Mobile.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, it's a pretty amazing, pretty amazing. So how she's like,
you know what, I can't do this anymore. She gets
herself a fake name and is like I'm going to
live under the radar. You go on without me. He's like, great,
happy to do. So goes to Nashville. And she was
not successful at staying under the radar and hiding out,
because within a year the Secret Service found her and
(33:06):
arrested her. So she got convicted of all manner of
fraud theft. She gets sentenced to six years in prison
with five years of supervisor release. Mane Cox, Well, he
made it to the big time. He was now on
the Secret Service Most Wanted Fugitives list. So Nashville living
his best life as a guy named Joseph Carter. Has
(33:28):
a new girlfriend, Amanda Gardner, another single mom. Yeah, a
names single moms. She didn't know he was a fugitive
or that his name wasn't really Joseph Carter. She thought
that he was just a contractor who specialized in upscale
renovations and he lived in a nice little house. He
like drove an ice car. Said he came from money.
(33:49):
They went on a cruise in Greece together then passport
of course was fake, but the fun they had was
reels there.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I would never question that.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Never back home. The babysitter Patsy Taylor thought something seemed
off about Joseph Carter was a woman after my own heart.
She was suspicious, she got bad vibes, so she did
some research, got blessed. Blessed, so he mentioned that he
was originally from Florida, So she's like, okay, that's my
jumping off point. And eventually he was able to connect
(34:22):
him to his true identity, Matthew Cox, major fugitive. Wow,
could you imagine that moment. He's sharp though, like because
she's she's worried about her safety and that of Amanda
Gardner's son. Yeah, so she wasn't She wasn't sure the
cops would take a sixty year old nosey babysitter seriously,
(34:43):
so she went to the real source of power and justice,
local press. So she got in touch with Jeff Testerman
Petersburg Times.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Got a fresh scoop, wrote the initials. Yeah, I'm going
to forget that name.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
It needs stayed on the case for three years, this
on him. Determined to help catch the guy.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
We need local Germali.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
I love that. So Testament gave Patsy the babysitter the
contact information for Rebecca Hawk's lawyer. Hawke's family paid Patsy
for Cox's address. They wanted to use this as leverage
to chip some time off her sentence, and it worked.
The Feds reduced her sentence from seventy to forty two months.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Wow, bad year.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah, now the Feds have that address. November sixteenth, two
thousand and six, Cox gets arrested. Finally. Prosecutors described him
as a master manipulator who exploited loopholes in the mortgage
industry and caused financial devastation for lenders innocent victims. He
gets convicted and sentenced to twenty six years in federal
(35:46):
prison for charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated
identity theft, bank fraud, money.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Laundering, wirefrog going to get you every time, every time.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
So off to prison, he went, let's pause here. When
we return, I'm going to tell you about how Marcus
Schrenker and Matthew Cox crosspaths.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Zarin, I'm loving this, Elizabeth, and now I can't wait
till they crossed.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
We got two guys with federal crimes on their on
their backs.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Were roughly the same agearage, rough crimes.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah. So after his two thousand and seven conviction, Cox
he got sent to a couple different medium security federal
prisons over the years Florida, Georgia. I can tell you
that entertainment and educational materials are in short supply in
the federal pen. Yes, inmates are super hungry for any distraction,
and they read every single line in newspapers or magazines
(36:59):
that they get. They analyze everything because there's so much
time to think. I think I've mentioned to you that
when we'd drop off their textbooks at the start of
the semester, they'd have read them all at least once
in their entirety before the first class met. Its awesome.
I loved it. Oh yeah, they're like totally prepared. They
have a question about chapter eleven when you're first like
(37:20):
writing your name on the board. Oh okay, hold on.
We'd have classroom discussions and if something came up that
I didn't know an answer to in a regular classroom,
I'd look it up on the computer there and we'd
talk about it. There's no internet in a federal facility,
and so one time this student asked me how exactly
they were able to draw maps hundreds and hundreds of
years ago, Like how did they get the coastlines so exact?
(37:44):
And it was a it was a non sequitor. It
was just like a random question after seeing a map
in the textbook. And I wasn't really sure, Like I mean,
I had like an idea, but I was curious too.
So when I got back to my office, I found
a bunch of articles about the process, and I made
little readers for the class, like twenty five pages or
so of information, one for everybody. Yeah, well they lost.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Their mind, if anyone ever.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Did, because didn't have anything to do with with like
what we were talking about in class. And I was like,
just read these and now you know, we'll talk about
it later after everyone's read it.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
It's rare someone takes your curiosity that serious. That's remarkable.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
But I mean, like I as a curious person, My god,
I'm like stoked when anyone else.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
I mustay my curiosity recognizes your curiosity.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Buy one. Get ones there. I could get this stuff
into them as class materialsted you know where. Yeah, so
we had this thing where at the end of the week,
they'd agree on one interesting like niche non controversial topic
or like something I sometimes I'd get to pick, and
then I'd make the little information packs for them for
the next week. And so one of the times I
(38:44):
got to pick, I brought them a pack that included
your article about black cowboys and that love. It was
a huge hit. FYI.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, that's flattering.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
You're very well. Thank you anyway, Cox smart guy, and
he had a lot of time I'm on his hands.
So he had a college education, he had a background
in art and communications, a flair for storytelling that he'd
honed while creating fake identities and fabricating entire life stories.
So once he's behind bars, he starts to channel that
(39:15):
creative energy into something else, the written word.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Oh I thought he started like, you know, a theater group.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
No, he starts writing, baby. So he said that there
are a lot of reasons why he began writing in prison.
For one, he said it's a matter of redemption in Catharsis.
In interviews, he described writing as a way to process
everything and then he'd done and like reflect on the consequences.
It allowed him to explore themes of deceit, manipulation, moral collapse.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
See things from multiple perspectives.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, it gave him narrative control because like someone who
lived by lies and false personas, writing is this way
to regain control of the narrative, the authority. Yeah, it's
a business opportunity. He knows how to make a buck,
and he knows what people want. He saw that there's
a market for true crime stories, especially insider perspectives, and
(40:05):
he's sitting on a gold mine of material from his
own life and from the inmates.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Every run around him, everybody allers.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
So yeah, so he gets to writing. His first major
manuscript wasn't about his own life. It was the biography
of a fellow inmate, John Thomas Ambrose, a former gun trafficker.
He called it Once a Gun Runner. And the book
was ghost written by Cox and served as a pilot
for a series of inmate biographies that he envisioned producing
from prison. So the.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Inmates exactly.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
And this is like how it showed how talented he
was with the long form narrative that he had, like
this really dramatic, engaging style. It was journalistic but literary.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
At some time, creative nonfiction.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Yeah, and so he gets that project going and then
he turns the pen toward his own life. So he
starts working on this like memoir like manuscript tentatively titled Bent,
and he did a deep dive into his early forays
into mortgage fraud, like he investigated the psychological dynamics of
white collar crime, the mechanics of identity theft and forged documents.
(41:13):
He talked about his years on.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
The run, so it's a kind of a guide book.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
And diary, and also like all the manipulative relationships that
he fostered. I'm very honest about it. He wrote it
like a novel, and he layered all this detail and
dialogue and narrative arc. He said that he wanted a
story to quote read like fiction, but be all true.
But he didn't stop an autobiography. He started writing crime
(41:39):
thrillers based on real life cases of other white collar
criminals and scam artists that he met in prison. Some
of those were later adapted or used for his post
prison podcast Inside True Crime. So he wrote these works
longhand on legal pads and then later type them on
prison typewriters common obviously because like they don't have the Internet,
(42:03):
so they had the computer uses what are you going
to use it for? They had like word process. I
had students who were writing books. They'd asked me to
read their stuff and like workshop it. And there was
one guy who was writing a real corker of a
book is really really good about a Crooked Cop, which
I later found out.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
He was there.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
You got what you good stuff. I had another student,
Carlos Walker. He's an artist and a writer. He's out
and he's doing great work. So Carlos Walker. There's incredible
talent definitely, you know, out in the world, and that
includes in the prison system. So Cox he's writing all
these big books. Sometimes he'd have friends or supporters outside
(42:44):
the prison transcribe his work for him, so he's just
sending them a hand you know, they're they're typing it up.
There are hurdles other than like no internet and technology
in lock up, they can't really it's hard to get
it's hard to get a true workshop. Yeah, it's really
aggressive in the workshop is inmates can't really profit from
(43:06):
work produced in prison.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Of course, not because it's considered part of their crimes,
because if they're writing about.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
What they know, right, And then also I think you
just can't have like a venture that makes money. I
don't know, you.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Could have a cookbook. Somebody's clearly untied to the he can't.
Maybe I'm wrong, who knows.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
There are restrictions on contact though with like publishers or agents.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, I figured this, just sending.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
An email will cost them money. And a lot of
times the emails don't make it through, but they still
get charged. Yeah, I had. I had students. I'd come
to come to class and they'd be like, I tried
to send you an email, and like, don't ever ever
do that because number one, I didn't get it. Number
two it costs you like three bucks.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, you have to put money in their accounts sometimes
if they want to email you.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
It's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
So to get around these challenges, Cox relied on third
parties to help them submit the manuscripts or to post
content to a website, and then at least one case,
he had an outside contact start a blog or like
would arrange media interviews. So in the summer of twenty thirteen,
Marcus Schrenker came into the picture. So he was going
(44:09):
to get out in about a year. When he sat
down with Cox at a prison dining table at FCI Coleman, Florida,
he tells Cox, boy, do I have a story for you?
And so like, the thing is, it's like we've talked
about this before. As a writer, people come up to
you and like, I have a great story book. My
(44:30):
life would make a great book. And I always want
to say, no, it wouldn't. I love you to death,
but no, it wouldn't anyway. So that's like this poor
like Cox is like he's got to take people's offers
because he's sitting there in like just incredible material.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Oh and you never know what gold is underneath the rock.
You may have read, I could.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Just feel it, like have I got a story for
you to know?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
You don't most of the time.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
So Shranker he didn't like how his story was being
told out in the world. He wanted someone to set
the record Street.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
He wanted narrative control.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yeah, and Cox, he's the writer, storyteller, the one to
set the record. Cox said, quote, the guy told me
that he shouldn't even be in prison. And Cox, you know,
wonders if that's true, Honey, you're going to hear that.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
So Schrenker tells Cox that he hadn't built anyone, that
the investments just didn't land. And he told Cox, quote,
I'd sold a bunch of index annuities that ended up
underperforming and that wasn't my fault. I can't be blamed
for the market. So Shanker said that while he was
trying to get the insurance companies to refund his clients,
his wife found out about his affair, and that she
(45:33):
got her revenge by opening up an offshore currency account,
committing all sorts of fraud and pinning it on him.
So she's a woman scoring he's a patsy, my baby.
So in order to avoid prison, Shranker said, I'm going
to fake my own death with the plane thing. Cox
(45:54):
told Forbes magazine quote, it was obviously a very sensational story,
but still I want to believe it. I wondered if
there was an angle to the story that the media
had missed. So remember, no Internet in the clink, so
Cox he couldn't do it deep bead. He could, though,
ask his literary agent, who was not in prison, to
do the digging for him. I don't like, Hey, give
(46:15):
me some dossier's basically, so the agent mailed him newspaper articles,
court transcripts, and those sources did not match up at
all with what Schranker was trying to tell him. So,
determined to get to the truth, Cox filed a Freedom
of Information Act request. H huh, and that confirmed that
Schenker's ex wife wasn't in on any of it. Fraud,
(46:37):
not the plane crash. That's all him. Cox told Forbes
quote What was clear was that everyone from the prosecutors
to his victims were calling Shrinker an habitual liar. He
alone had built multiple clients and companies out of millions.
So it turns out that Schranker had approached a bunch
of writers outside of prison, like shopping his story about
(46:59):
being framed by his ex, and each one had looked
into this history and found him to be totally lying
in his version of things, like, no one's going to
sink time into something that will be blown up before
it's even published.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah, you know, especially with just a little bit of research,
you can confirm that.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Here's the thing thoughs Aaron Cox is a storyteller, and
he knew there was actually a story in all this
after all, He told Forbes again, quote, I saw Shrinker
as a puzzle. Unlike an author on the street. Outside
of prison, I had plenty of time, unfettered access to Shrinker, and,
according to my prosecutor, an uncannyability to discover a Marx
(47:39):
of vulnerability. Oh, it's like spy versus biogra Yeah, it's
tables are being turned Zaren. So Cox is like, you
know what, Shrinker, Yeah, let's do this. I'm going to
interview you for your book. And he's like getting him
to go deep dive on the details of his story
and then like on his life outside of the fraud,
like he's inner working. He wasn't writing an expos about
(48:02):
a man done wrong by society and serving time for
a crime he didn't commit. He was writing a profile
of a pathological liar. Yes, And so at last, finally
the book Bailout the Life and Lies of Marcus Schrenker.
So Schranker reads it loses it. He's so mad. Is
(48:23):
not how he saw this going. And that's a brave
thing for Cox to have done show it to them
while they're still in lock up together, because like Schranker
had what a year left hold off, but not long
after Schranker got out. And the thing is, though, when
you think about it, it's like, based on what I've
read about their personalities, I feel like Shrinker probably irritated
(48:46):
the ever loving issues out of everybody and if he
threw pitches a fit, and Cox probably arrowed himself with
everyone because he's entertained, so I'm sure that he was.
You know, Schranker's just and everyone's ignoring him. So he
gets out. He goes to a halfway house. The manuscript
stayed with Cox in prison, but when Cox got out
(49:07):
in twenty nineteen, he had like this tight, thrilling manuscript
that was just ready for him to publish. So he
had all of his true crime writing. He wanted to
get it out there, so he started an online magazine
inside truecrime dot com, and there's also the podcast inside
true Crime. There's YouTube stuff. He self published his books
and he posted what I think is an abridged version
(49:30):
of Bailout on the website. Schranker found it, lost it again.
He filed a complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
and then he reached out to the DJ the Department. Yeah,
tells the Department of Justice that he had not participated
in the story and the story is a complete fabrication,
that Cox is harassing him. My dude, this is all
(49:53):
carefully researched like story. Your story makes you look like crap,
But that was your life choice.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Maybe you shouldn't have lived it.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Maybe don't do that. Let this be a lesson to
all of those who meet a writer and say I
have a great story for you, or like my life
would make a great book. Be careful what you wish for.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yeah, maybe it will be a great book, but you
hate so.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Cox he was able to back everything up that he had.
Everything that was thrown in him was just dropped, and
then Cox he's now a fixture in the true crime
storytelling space for him as Zaren, what's your takeaway.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Oh man, but you kind of already said it, which
is the be careful what you wish for with a writer? Yeah,
Like people always think like, oh, could you tell my story?
And I'm like, I can.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
I don't know if you want.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Their audience and may like it, you may hate it or.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
People who I don't know. I used to think like
people who cross you and you're.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
Like, oh, you're a screwed the writer.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna light you and.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
If I got strong enough, lawyer, I'll put your own
name on it, right.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
But like you can light someone up so bad and
like it's you know, name is not the same, but
like little things, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
So there I think that would be mine? Is that
like never go to a writer with the idea that
you can control that process.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Very true, Very true, my ridiculous takeaway. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
I guess I want to hear it. I guess.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
I was thinking about how we've had the authorities tell
these criminals a bunch of times it's like, you're so
talented if you just put your efforts toward. But then
and I was thinking, oh, yeah, like Matthew Cox is
so talented, but like it's so hard to make a
living as a writer. Yeah, exactly, And so it's kind
of like, you know, I don't blame.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Him, no crime is always tempting.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
Do the crimes. And then like that was that. Now
it's the springboard. Now he can run with it.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
He's an expert in a field.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
There. It is so good. I Dave, I think I
need a talk back.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
I think we both do. Oh my god, I.
Speaker 5 (52:02):
Hey, ridiculous crime. This is art in San Antonio, and
I wanted to share my ridiculous sea monkey story. When
I was younger, I went to a summer day camp
and one time they had a bring your pet day.
Unfortunately I didn't have a pet, so my quit thinking
mom got me some sea monkeys and the good news
is they won the camp Award for most Unique Pet.
The bad news is that on the way home they
(52:23):
spilled in the back of my mom's wood paneled station wagon.
And yes, Elizabeth, sea monkeys do smell awful, especially when
they're in a car's interior.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
That was awesome.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
It is so good. The wood paneled station wagon is
how many dead sea monkeys do you think you're in
the interior of wood But that's rad you got their ward. Awesome.
I love that. That's it for today. You can find
us online at ridiculous Crime dot com, which is on
(52:56):
the most wanted list as a fugitive. Did you know that? Yeah,
don't tell you, buddy. We're at Ridiculous Crime on blue
Sky and Instagram. You can email ridiculous Crime at gmail
dot com. You can go to YouTube We're Ridiculous Crime
pod and you can check us out there, leave a
talkback on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is
(53:24):
hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarren Burnett, produced and edited
by Jailhouse Publishing Magnet Dave Cousten, starring Annals Rutger as Judith.
Research is by Aircraft windshield salesperson Maurice Brown. The theme
song is by war Fighters Thomas Lee and Travis Dutt.
Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair
and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are
(53:47):
literary agents to the stars and those behind bars, Ben
Boleen and Noel Brown. Well say It one more Time.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
Riudiquious Crime.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio zeren How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You're doing pretty good? Fun to see you, I know it.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
It's so fun to see me too.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I know everybody says it. I love to see Elizabeth.
Do you know what's articulous? I do my jazz album collection,
not that because I start that wrong, not the album
collection itself, but I was going through it, and I
don't mean like, well, I'll put it this way. The covers, yeah,
And I was like, these covers are amazing. Some of
these covers are. I mean I'm not just like the
cool ones. I mean some of have iconic photography, Blue
(00:30):
Note records. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking like
even Later. And also I don't mean like Herb Alpert's
Whoped Cream and other Delights, right, I don't mean like, oh,
vaguely sexualized imagery. I'm talking about like Count Basie just
dropping an album cover that is an atomic bomb going off.
I got that one right. But then there's other ones.
There's like Mingus dressed like a Chinese emperor. Right, He's
(00:53):
just got a flowing gold robes dress against the dragon
wall that's also gold. But you can take like old
Man Coleman Hawkins the Hawks still tough, right, and he's
I'm blowing so tough, I blow smoke and the photo
him just blowing plumes of smoke like an angry dragon
out of his nose or one of my favorites Eddie
(01:13):
Harris and producer to be on this one. The reason
why I'm talking and that's the name of the album.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is in the street.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That's his broken saxophone case he smashed down. He just
got his saxophone left and he's like coming at the
camera like sures.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
You've got to make sure we put all of this
on Instagram. They put the what's ridiculous stuff in the stories.
It's not on the regular posts. So that's why you
got to check the posts and the stories on inst.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
There you go the hard way. Yeah, so boom, isn't
that ridiculous? I was like this album collect I should
put these on my wall facing each other.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The freak flex open it up exactly. Do you want
to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Please?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Going to jail and writing about other people's crimes.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Oh, that's a spin.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Heis and cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, oh that was good.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Did that hurt a little?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
No? No, I felt good. I was releasing something nice.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I have two Volgo financial scammers for you today.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, they have somewhat parallel storylines that then intersect. Wow,
look at you, I know, look at me, so creative
and along the ways erin Yes, ridiculousness.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Oh my god, the adventure awaits.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So I'm going to start us off with Marcus Schrenker.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And he was born in nineteen seventy in Warsaw, Indiana.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yay, nice, a little fake out.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I amost threw me.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
He's a good Midwestern boy, thank you so much. Good
one Midwestern by, very ambitious and driven. He went to
Purdue he got a uh business degree. Yeah, and then
while he was there he added another interest to his retinue,
aviation light.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So like he gets out of college, he marries a
former cheerleader. They get they live in this suburb of Indianapolis.
He's this successful business like investment consultant guy, all the
trappings of that lifestyle. So this is giant house, fancy cars,
expensive suits. He's got boats, planes, a plane he can
(03:47):
fly all by himself.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Are you kidding me? And this is all like Indiana
late nineties percent?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah. So, according to CBS News quote, at thirty eight,
he controlled an impressive slate of business through his Heritage
Wealth Management Incorporated, Heritage Insurance Services Incorporated, and Icon Wealth Management.
He was responsible for providing financial advice and managing portfolios
(04:13):
worth millions. Look at him, Look at him. He told
his clients that he would take the standard one percent
management fee and he would only make money if they
made money.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Is that the standard? I don't have the money manager.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Who knows? Perhaps I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
My money manager is gravity.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
My money manage. My money manager is my wallet in
my pocket book. There you go, and the ATM card.
So here's here's what he really did.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Though.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
He put their money into annuities and he took huge
commissions from that. So then if they wanted to cash
out and get their money back, they owed these massive
surrender fees on the annuities. Or if Schranker took the
money out as the broker, they'd still be on the
hook for the surrender fees and for cashing that policy out. Early,
(04:59):
because this is this is how annuities work, right.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I don't quite know.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It's a neither do I. It's a contract that's issued
and distributed by an insurance company, so the insurance company
pays out income to the purchaser of the contract. So
it's like life insurance, but the payout isn't after you die,
So annuities they're generally used for retirement income. Like you
pay in and then you get the payments regularly when
(05:23):
you retire, and that makes sure you don't run out
of money.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, okay, I've heard of these.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
They advertise these on my old radio shows like for
Back in the Day like I've started in nineteen twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
There are two things I need to say about my
complete ignorance surance. One, I would like for my mother
not to call and berate me on the fact that
I have financial illiteracy and she teaches business law. She's
a formidable business lawyer. Yeah, sorry, mom, I don't know
what an annuity is. And also, anyone listening in on
(05:57):
this conversation, I honestly don't care, so don't try and
explain the.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Know lottery winners they try to like flip them to
get them to take the annuity, right. And then also
people who get big settlements, they try to take their
settlements and get them like we'll give you ye scheme.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
It seems like you get this lump sum like that
you hand over and you're basically investing it. It's locked in.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, they're taking that those payments at whatever rate they
get up.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
When people explained financial stuff to me, it's like when
they explain board game directions or card game, I'm like, okay, whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well you ever heard like when things just like flat out,
like on the sound thing, it just turns into white noise, Like, yes,
that's what happens. People start talking about money.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I don't know. So most of his clients, though, right,
they're like us, They have no idea what they're buying.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Good suckers like us.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah, they thought they were doing straight up market investments,
which I understand that foreign currency investments. Sometimes he called
them insurance products. It was vague enough so it to
sound good to like those like me.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You don't that term out there. I don't really know.
It's not that I know that derived from other.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I think you're like betting, got a bet basically.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Or we're gonna give you a PI that mom.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I'm so sorry. Sorry, You're not the failure. I'm the failure. Okay,
so Shrinker he picked up most of his clients via
word of mouth. Okay, this one guy, Joe Mazzone from Alabama.
He told CNN quote, when you're a pilot, you trust,
that's what you do and what you're used to doing.
His modus operendi is he flies into your city dressed
(07:30):
up in a thousand dollars suit and sits down with you,
buys you lunch, and the next thing you know, he
has you on his side and you move your money
to his Heritage Wealth Management. He's a schmoozer.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Another enclassic con artist.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah yeah, Charles Kinney he befriended Shranker in nineteen ninety six,
and then he bought in with him in like two
thousand and three, and then he got his parents to
buy in to the tune of two million dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I know.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
He told CNN quote, this guy was family to me.
He's a fantastic nice guy. He's well spoken. His customer
service was impeccable. You call the guy on the phone,
you would get him. He told my parents that they
were investing in various insurance products, but they didn't really
know what that meant.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I didn't really know either.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
We trusted him. He said, this is a safe place
to put money to avoid all the world's dangers like
terrorism and impending doom and gloom associated with it in
that climate. Back then, you bought it. You believed him
that he would protect your money.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You think it's also leaving out tax shelters.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Two thousand and three, He's like, look after the towers
phone to protect your money.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I thought they were going to hit banks with planes and.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
To just quickly give me everything.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Planes get it.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, there's this Delta pilot and investor Dave Smith. He
told CNBC quote, there's nothing more scary than having seven
figures of money and not knowing what to do with it. Like, okay,
I'll be scared. What kind There's so many, so many
more than that, Like I come here, I'll show you.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Like like it's literally that there are fewer things scarier than.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
That seven figures. So much the other side, like, yeah,
he's new here.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I could take up a billionaires giving him. They're scarier
than that. It's like a bubba gump ship thing or
just naming things.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
He goes on. So I started asking around, Hey, do
you guys have a guy that's doing your money? Like,
let's let's ask.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Our friends that's doing your money. They're like printing it.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And one of my favorite co pilots said, I would
trust him with my kids. That's how much I trust
this guy. And I said, who was that guy? It
was Marcus Shrinker?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
What that mask?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Because the man that you trust with your kids, I
feel sorry for your kids. The kids are all as
a measure of your trust. So Smith he put all
of his savings into to investment with Shrinker, but then
he found out that he was locked into a twenty
five year annuity and that Schranker had withdrawn thirty percent
(10:07):
of his money twenty year. Yeah, so he gets charged.
Smith gets charged a sixty six thousand dollars surrender fee
for early withdrawal. And on top of that, it turns
out that Schranker was moving Smith's money from one annuity
to the next, and every time he did it, he
made a thirteen percent commission on it, and then it
incurred more surrender fees for the clients. It's like shedding
(10:30):
bits on that, but then what the hell? Yeah, so
complaints started coming into authorities where these investments were based,
like Indiana, Georgia. But then he'd switch his licensing to
new states, and that would create confusion about who was
supposed to monitor him. According to CNBC quote, Georgia's insurance
department worked with five people who filed complaints over Schrenker's
(10:51):
handling of annuities. The department eventually obtained two point five
million dollars in refunds for the investors working with insurance
companies that issued those annuities. By the time Georgia officials
notified Indiana about Shranker in April two thousand and seven,
he had already withdrawn his Georgia insurance license. A group
of relatives and friends led by Kenny Next, raised concerns
(11:14):
in Kentucky, where Shranker withdrew his license in December two
thousand and seven. Indiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Alderholtz said Schranker,
who had obtained an Indiana license in the interim, created
confusion by pulling the out of state licenses. Please note
it was a group of relatives and friends, so he
was bilking his own family.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, he got nine clients, including a friend of ten
years and his own aunt, out of about one point
five million. And that's just a fraction of the scheme.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, everything starts to fall apart when the economy tanks. Though.
Investors were like, look, I want to put my money
somewhere safer. Hey, pal, I trust you with my kids.
Watch my kids while I'll get my money back. So
in two thousand and eight, Shrinker he lost five hundred
thousand dollars in judgment against one of his companies. That
(12:08):
was against one of his companies when he missed a
court hearing. What Yeah, so this triggers and investigators. They
go to search his home and his office and look
into possible securities violations. He starts spinning out. This is
an email he sent to one of his clients quote,
I walked out on my job about thirty minutes ago.
My career is over over one letter in a trade error.
(12:31):
One letter. I've had so many people yelling at me
today that I couldn't figure out what was up or down.
I still can't figure it out. Okay. So his wife
files for divorce. She said that it was because he
was cheating on her, not the criming.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Oh ca see do we believe her?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well? Yeah, because when their house was being searched, he
wasn't home, but she was. And then she found out
that where was he. Oh he's in Florida with his girlfriend.
Oh girl, She's like yeah, hold, what a devastation for her.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I know, this is everything all around.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So he had to get out of this, and as
a true coward, he couldn't own up to what he'd done.
He crafted a plan. Saren close as.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Picture.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It's January eleventh, two thousand and nine. You are an
Air Force pilot. You fly an F fifteen fighter jet
and your call sign is Dizzy. You and a fellow pilot, Viper,
have been scrambled into action. Seems there's a Piper PA
forty six near Birmingham, Alabama that's in distress, causing a danger.
(13:32):
You are scurrying across the runway to your jet, fastening
your helmet, saying a silent prayer to Saint Christopher for
protection like you always do. Viper is alongside you, shouting
out the lyrics to Party in the USA and skipping
high into the air. The Piper took off from Anderson, Indiana,
headed for destined, Florida. It had contacted air traffic Control,
(13:52):
saying that the windshield had imploded and the pilot was
injured and bleeding profusely. He said he wasn't going to
make it. Right After that transmission, the Piper leveled off
and remained at thirty five hundred feet. You and your
jet buddy are now screaming through the air, headed to
intercept the Piper. You see it up ahead, Fox Trot fifteen.
I have visual contact round piper, Viper, responds Roger. That
(14:16):
Eagle three approaching on the left. Be aware, he answers
you confirm, I'll take right. You surround the Piper. As
you look over, you see that the plane's windshield is intact,
Plus the door is open. Negative for pilot. Talk to me, Dizzy, Viper,
says Roger. Duck. You radio air traffic Control, Dizzy.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
To Range Control.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Entering Point Alpha Range. You tell them about what you've seen,
and the craft appears to be on autopilot. They advise
you to continue following the Piper until the fuel runs
out and you side. Then near the Blackwater River in
East Milk, Florida, the plane crashes just shore to some
houses by seventy five yards. You and Viper look down
(14:57):
at the wreckage, then turn back and head for bait.
Let's go play some dog site football. Vicker Roger bed, Yes,
thank you, You're so welcome. So the authorities showed up
on the ground, check out the record.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I've bend to Deston and Milton, Florida. I know these towns.
I know, I know Florabama.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
You do well? Do you have you have you crashed
a plane there?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Not yet, I'm waiting, give me time.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
So the authorities they show up, They check out the wreckage.
Plane smashed up, but the windshield and the wind screens
were not damaged and there was no blood inside. Inside
the wreckage of the plane, though, they found handwritten notes
on the inside back cover of a campground book, and
it said stuff like windshield is spider cracking, doors open,
(15:45):
bleeding very bad and graying out. They're like script notes.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So was he planning unlike that, not getting caught That
wasn't supposed to be like his notes of like, oh
I'm leaving what notes I can going down his notes
for the radio.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, they start to piece everything together. See obviously he
jumped from the plane.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, and he expected the plane to crash, no doubt, exactly,
and it's landed.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And he bag exactly so near Childersburg, Alabama Coast Guard
Investigative Service, they recovered cut parachute lines from tree branches
and then the actual parachute with a serial number they
get traced a shrinker. He later admits to dumping a
bag containing more than fourteen hundred ounces of gold worth
(16:29):
around two million dollars in the Kusa River when he
floated down to earth.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Wait by mistake, No, like on purpose.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Oh, and it looks like he was hoping he thought
the plane would make it to the Gulf of Mexico.
Oh man, and that they would be surprised that they
wouldn't find a body like Oh, he's claimed by Davy
Jones's locker.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But he should have had a plan to bail from
the plane over the Gulf of Mexico and someone pick
him up in a go fast boat.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Otherwise and want someone he's got to do it alone.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Well, well, so he lands in Alabama. Yeah, walks across
this river.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There's a lot of bad places of land there so many.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Bad places, goes into a house and tells them that
he's had a canoe accident, and so the cops. The
cops come take them to a nearby hotel. And then
the cops they hear about the crash investigation, and so
they scooted back to the hotel. Sorry, dudes, he was
long gone. He paid for his room in cash and
(17:24):
then ran off into the woods. Next Yeah, so he
had parked a motorcycle with saddle bags that were like
fully packed in a storage unit seven miles away from
the hotel, and so so he wasn't bad in his
landing bad authorities trace the storage unit to him. A
few days later. The motorcycle's gone, but his jeans that
(17:47):
were like still wet, and his socks are still wet,
hiking boots, t shirt, all in a nearby trash camp.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
So he takes the motors, some details and others.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
He rides to a campground in Florida, and he pays
for a night at the campground. Caudah gathers up some firewood,
buys a six pack of bud light.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Good place to hide up by the way.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I guess. According to the New York Times, not really
a quote. In the midst of the manhunt, mister Shrinker
had sent an email message to a friend Tom Britt
back in Indiana, asking him to straighten out the facts
being reported nationwide about the case. In the message, which
mister Britt turned over to the authorities, mister Shrinker insisted
that the windshield had really shattered, causing a loss of
(18:31):
cabin pressure and a condition known as hypoxia, which can
quote cause people to.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Make terrible decisions lack of oxygen.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, so federal marshalls, they took only one day to
catch him thanks to a tip. Two dozen officers showed
up and found that he'd cut himself at the campground.
So they patch him up. He's airlifted to the nearest hospital,
and so they search his computer. They take him the
hospital's fine, he's like I said, he's not good at it.
When they search his computer, they found Google searches for
(19:01):
stuff like how to jump from airplanes and how to
open a pair of food. Can I just say, Can
I say? I am so toast If authorities ever go
through my search history like ridiculous crime research will be
my downfall.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Oh not only that, they would just be they have
so many leads to be so confused. Impossible.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah. June two thousand and nine, Strand.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Now your shopping history.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Oh, that's a big problem to shrinker. He pleads guilty
to charges of destruction of an aircraft and causing the
coast Guard to respond when no help was needed. For that,
he gets sentenced.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
To the crime of hassling the coast Guard. Total.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, and it's the coast Guard in there, but it
was like a air force anyway. He gets sentenced to
fifty one months in prison. Then he got another ten
years for all the securities fraud.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Don't forget about that. I forget that.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
The originals he was ordered to pay the coast Guard
more than thirty four thousand dollars in restitution, and Harley
Davenston Credit Corporation, who held the lean on the plane
more than eight hundred and seventy one thousand dollars then.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Had he like leveraged the plane to get the motorcycle.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
On the idea. He had to pay restitution to the
victim and is sentencing. He told the judge quote, I.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Mean his family and friends, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Quote. He wanted to repay investors and rebuild his relationship
with the three children he's seen only once since his arrest.
He said he has bipolar disorder and he got caught
in a downward spiral of stress after becoming addicted to painkillers.
Like he's an excuse factory.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, he's just everything.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Let's take a break. When we return, I have the
other fraudster. I want to tell you about.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Oh yeah, zaren Yo.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Okay, so I told you about Marcus Schrinker. Now meet
Matthew cox Hi.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Matthew Hehi alias.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Joseph Carter, alias Gary Sullivan, alias Michael Eckert, alias Charles R.
Bauer h Yeah, a lot of other names. He was
born in Florida in nineteen sixty nine, one year before Shrinker. Interesting,
he struggled.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Something about the lead back, then the food.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Well, he struggled with dyslexia as my kid. Yeah, and
as a result, school was tough for him and he
felt really alienated. So he got really bad grades, made
him feel like a failure. But it's worth mentioning now
that you're not your grades. We forced kids to put
so much on grades and GPAs and it's all garbage.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, I am my grades because i'm everybody else's good grades.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
But like, grades are a metric of your ability to
take a test or like fit into an average yeah,
or follow.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Some weird protocols that are arbitrary.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And it's not a measurement of intelligence or curiosity or
like value as a human. I'm sorry for the rant.
I've just seen a lot lately about kids suffering over
grades and pressure. He's too short.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah, and I unlike to take a real measure of intelligence,
like magic the gathering.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yep, exactly, thank you, the real genius measurements. So dyslexia, right,
that's in no way a roadblock. It's just something to
work around, you know. It's like so he demonstrates that
by getting a degree in art illustration from the University
of South Florida. Guy's really smart. After he graduated, he
worked for a little bit of time in the insurance
(22:35):
industry and then later as a mortgage broker.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Okay, so Cox.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
He saw this world, all the paperwork and the deals
and like the really shaky regulation as prime hunting ground
was ripe for fraud, and he figured he was just
the person to pull this.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Fraud, go to it.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Like, while he's working as a mortgage broker, he wrote
an unpublished three hundred and seventeen page book, The Associates
and the novel's main character, who seemed a lot like him,
goes all over the country committing mortgage fraud, and he
would like regale his coworkers with details about the book,
(23:14):
and like sometimes he would send the whole manuscript to
people to see if they could like verify the details
or whether or not the cons inside revival. This is
like a nightmare coworker totally. You've got someone who writes
themselves as the protagonist in the novel, which is so obnoxious,
and then they won't shut up about it the pass
and then it turns out, oh no, he's just outlining.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
The best part though, is that he is confessing on.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Himself and he's getting a lot of witnesses to read it.
And if you're just emailing it, okay, now you've got
this digit. Anyway, his early cons were relatively small scale,
so he like would falsify loan applications or inflate property values,
forge documentation to get unqualified buyers into homes.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
He's on the scam and.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
He was early too. Yeah, he was, you know, a
decade ahead of time, and all of this was to
make big commissions. But he got caught and he lost
his job. He got convicted of mortgage fraud in two
thousand and two on early. He was early to the game,
and had he waited that the banks would have taken
the phone, he only got not a one. He got probation. Undeterred,
(24:22):
he went harder. So after his conviction he got prohibited
from working in the mortgage industry.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah, not going to get stopped.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
He just is expanding the craft. So first he faked
up a good credit score, and then he created fake
identities using fake social Security numbers and drivers like Yeah,
and he'd like steal. He'd steal the identities of Toddler's
homeless people, vulnerable women, and he would cook up top notch,
(24:50):
cooked up phony W two's reference letters, bank statements like titles, heads.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Appear, created a job for himself.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, employment records, he really did liberally. Then he bought
a bunch of rundown houses and condos with fake appraisal
values okay, sometimes like double or triple what they were
actually worth. And then he'd go like sometimes four to
five times the valume. He'd get loans, take the money,
and then let the properties go into foreclosure. Yeah, but
(25:19):
it did this thing called shotgunning, where he'd get a
bunch of different lenders to loan against the same property
within a short timeframe, and none of them are aware
of the others. And so he used forged satisfactions of
mortgage to make it look like the property didn't have
any leans when it did.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So he worked in this industry just long enough to
learn how exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
He's like, I see the issues, I'm going to write
a novel about it, and now I'm going to carry it. Yeah.
So he pulled this fraud in a bunch of places
at Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas. Yeah, and then he like
it was through this he amassed millions in fraudulent loans
from lenders who did not suspect a thing.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
The South is really about on like the keeping track
of these million dollars scams like this, just ask Brett Farv.
I mean, like it's very clear that if you're in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
they're just if you steal big, we applauded.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, yeah, but you know what, you got a great arm.
So Cox was something of a ladies man.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
He's a coxman.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
He's a Coxsman Coxswain. He'd been married to a woman
named Kayla Burgos, Okay, and when they divorced. Then he
dated a bunch of other women that he would include
in his criming.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
What did they know that?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, one was Alison Arnold. She had she was married
and had a kid. She didn't want to leave her
life behind and join him on the criming, which he
had discussed with her in detail and.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
In which she yea, so she's like his part time binding.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, but she like he took her to like Ocean's
Eleven and like other crime movies.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
It was like them, Yeah, we can do this, this
is we're studying.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
So they split up. He started seeing Rebecca Hawk, a
sing mom with one kid. A U C K.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I'm sure you're right, sorry becks.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So she she had moved from Las Vegas to Tampajo
after getting a bunch of debt and like going bankrupt
in Vegas. She lost her job in Vegas because she
forged her employer's name on checks. So they're like a
you know, peace and a pods the checks.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
For like plastic surgery, really easy to try.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
But she's like, hey, look gruesome twosome. She hooked up
with them on a dating app. They they're doing their
fraud thing together, raking in the cash. But then they
found out that Jeff Testament, a reporter for the Saint
Petersburg Times.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Was investigating both of them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Cox So how ditched her kid and went on the
run with Cox.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
What Yeah, that was the move.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
That was the move. So the story that Testament's writing
comes out in the paper. It explains how Cox started
a company called Urban Equities Incorporated. Kayla Burgos, the ex wife,
and this other business partner were the shareholders and over
six years the company bought and sold nearly sixty homes.
Kayla and the business partner, though, they couldn't keep the
company going and it gets put into receivership. Cox pulled
(28:14):
all the money out from underneath them and they lost everything.
So around the same time, Tampa Pedee they're opening an
investigation into Cocks and then the FBI gets involved. So
basically we say zoins. And when they looked into the details,
they saw that his houses seem to always be valued
way above the comps in the neighborhood, Like his would
(28:36):
be almost two hundred thousand dollars, but similar homes on
the block were like fifty thousands.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
So do you have an appraiser on his side? Like,
how is he about faking appraise.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
No one's even going out and doing.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
No one ever goes to check. He just has it
on paper for me, where's the seals?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And what's hilarious is that when the Feds looked into
the paperwork on the homes, they saw a lot of
the fake names and were like, aren't those the characters
from Reservoir Dogs?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
It was like Pink Brown, Yeah, so Cox and how
they skipped town. Don't forget he's still on probation and
now he's missing his meetings with his probation officer. They
first they went to Atlanta and they hit out, but
like not really. He made a run to Mobile, Alabama
and used the identity of a former coworker to get
(29:23):
credit cards and establish a good credit history. Then back
in Atlanta, he cooked up some phony documents like he'd
done before, rented a house. Then he cooked up more
phony documents and went to banks asking for loans on
the house he was renting. He was saying he owned it.
Hundreds and thousands of dollars in loans. The man loved
(29:43):
pop cultures like Reservoir Dog stuff. One of the loans
that he took out was in the name of Sea
Montgomery Burns, the old guy from the Central God bless.
So he did this a bunch of times, and then
they picked up and they moved to Tallahassee, Florida.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
They're hitting spots, they really are.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
But the authorities in Atlanta they were onto him. So
they tracked mister Burns and whatever other film and TV
character names he'd used back to his real identity busted.
So August sixth, two thousand and four, the Secret Service
issued arrest warrants for Cox for conspiracy, identity, theft, mail
and wire fraud, money laundering, and Social Security number fraud.
(30:21):
But he's still a fugitive. They're like, I don't know
where he is. I know he did it, but who
knows where he is? Eighteen months after skipping town in
Tampa and more than six months after the Secret Service
warrant Alison Arnold were surfaced. She's married, right, Yeah, she'd
been a part of these early fraud schemes. She always
felt bad about it. And then she saw Cocks on
(30:42):
TV in a plea for information about a fugitive with
the reward, So she called the FBI and told them
everything for a reward. Well, what did it? Get her right,
I would hope a clean conscience. But it also got
her two years in prison for identity theft and conspiracy
to commit bank.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Fraud because she called the FBI told on herself.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah, and she had to pay three hundred thousand dollars
in restitution to her victims.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Thank you for helping us find a criminal. The criminal
is you?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Thank you for the hot tip.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, we're going to come over and bust you right now.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Cox still on the road. So she did that. She
couldn't tell where he was. Yeah, she couldn't be like, oh,
I know where he is. She's like, I know him.
I crimed with him. Here's what we did. They're like,
that's fantastic. Where is he now? I have no idea.
I haven't seen him.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
He's not a new gut. We'll stick with you for
a while.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Okay, let's let's let's circle back then.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So then the we of doing the crimes, you do
you hear that you did the.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Crimes, but you know what it was like confession? So, uh,
he's still out there. He goes to Columbia, South Carolina. Wait, yeah,
shotgun in two houses there racks up almost nine hundred
thousand dollars in phony mortgages in just a few days.
A data analyst at one of the lenders, though, thought
that was fishy.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I saw that someone's analyzing this data seriously saw.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
The duplicate loans and that they happened in such short succession,
So they flagged the accounts for fraud shut down the
bank accounts Cox, once again undeterred, he goes to the
bank to straighten things out. As soon as he got there,
so did the cops. So they arrested him and they
took him to the station and he identified himself as
Gary Lee Sullivan. Gary Lee Sullivan didn't have any warrants,
(32:23):
and he convinced the cops that this was all a
clerical mix up the fraud flag. They let him go.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
No? So then Cox and Hawk they take off and
go to Houston, and she.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
She's like a tour of like bands like Rat and Warrant,
Like they were gonna go from town. Then he went
to Houston, They're were gonna be in Mobile.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, it's a pretty amazing, pretty amazing. So how she's like,
you know what, I can't do this anymore. She gets
herself a fake name and is like I'm going to
live under the radar. You go on without me. He's like, great,
happy to do. So goes to Nashville. And she was
not successful at staying under the radar and hiding out,
because within a year the Secret Service found her and
(33:06):
arrested her. So she got convicted of all manner of
fraud theft. She gets sentenced to six years in prison
with five years of supervisor release. Mane Cox, Well, he
made it to the big time. He was now on
the Secret Service Most Wanted Fugitives list. So Nashville living
his best life as a guy named Joseph Carter. Has
(33:28):
a new girlfriend, Amanda Gardner, another single mom. Yeah, a
names single moms. She didn't know he was a fugitive
or that his name wasn't really Joseph Carter. She thought
that he was just a contractor who specialized in upscale
renovations and he lived in a nice little house. He
like drove an ice car. Said he came from money.
(33:49):
They went on a cruise in Greece together then passport
of course was fake, but the fun they had was
reels there.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I would never question that.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Never back home. The babysitter Patsy Taylor thought something seemed
off about Joseph Carter was a woman after my own heart.
She was suspicious, she got bad vibes, so she did
some research, got blessed. Blessed, so he mentioned that he
was originally from Florida, So she's like, okay, that's my
jumping off point. And eventually he was able to connect
(34:22):
him to his true identity, Matthew Cox, major fugitive. Wow,
could you imagine that moment. He's sharp though, like because
she's she's worried about her safety and that of Amanda
Gardner's son. Yeah, so she wasn't She wasn't sure the
cops would take a sixty year old nosey babysitter seriously,
(34:43):
so she went to the real source of power and justice,
local press. So she got in touch with Jeff Testerman
Petersburg Times.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Got a fresh scoop, wrote the initials. Yeah, I'm going
to forget that name.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
It needs stayed on the case for three years, this
on him. Determined to help catch the guy.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
We need local Germali.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
I love that. So Testament gave Patsy the babysitter the
contact information for Rebecca Hawk's lawyer. Hawke's family paid Patsy
for Cox's address. They wanted to use this as leverage
to chip some time off her sentence, and it worked.
The Feds reduced her sentence from seventy to forty two months.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Wow, bad year.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah, now the Feds have that address. November sixteenth, two
thousand and six, Cox gets arrested. Finally. Prosecutors described him
as a master manipulator who exploited loopholes in the mortgage
industry and caused financial devastation for lenders innocent victims. He
gets convicted and sentenced to twenty six years in federal
(35:46):
prison for charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated
identity theft, bank fraud, money.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Laundering, wirefrog going to get you every time, every time.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
So off to prison, he went, let's pause here. When
we return, I'm going to tell you about how Marcus
Schrenker and Matthew Cox crosspaths.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Zarin, I'm loving this, Elizabeth, and now I can't wait
till they crossed.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
We got two guys with federal crimes on their on
their backs.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Were roughly the same agearage, rough crimes.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah. So after his two thousand and seven conviction, Cox
he got sent to a couple different medium security federal
prisons over the years Florida, Georgia. I can tell you
that entertainment and educational materials are in short supply in
the federal pen. Yes, inmates are super hungry for any distraction,
and they read every single line in newspapers or magazines
(36:59):
that they get. They analyze everything because there's so much
time to think. I think I've mentioned to you that
when we'd drop off their textbooks at the start of
the semester, they'd have read them all at least once
in their entirety before the first class met. Its awesome.
I loved it. Oh yeah, they're like totally prepared. They
have a question about chapter eleven when you're first like
(37:20):
writing your name on the board. Oh okay, hold on.
We'd have classroom discussions and if something came up that
I didn't know an answer to in a regular classroom,
I'd look it up on the computer there and we'd
talk about it. There's no internet in a federal facility,
and so one time this student asked me how exactly
they were able to draw maps hundreds and hundreds of
years ago, Like how did they get the coastlines so exact?
(37:44):
And it was a it was a non sequitor. It
was just like a random question after seeing a map
in the textbook. And I wasn't really sure, Like I mean,
I had like an idea, but I was curious too.
So when I got back to my office, I found
a bunch of articles about the process, and I made
little readers for the class, like twenty five pages or
so of information, one for everybody. Yeah, well they lost.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Their mind, if anyone ever.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Did, because didn't have anything to do with with like
what we were talking about in class. And I was like,
just read these and now you know, we'll talk about
it later after everyone's read it.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
It's rare someone takes your curiosity that serious. That's remarkable.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
But I mean, like I as a curious person, My god,
I'm like stoked when anyone else.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
I mustay my curiosity recognizes your curiosity.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Buy one. Get ones there. I could get this stuff
into them as class materialsted you know where. Yeah, so
we had this thing where at the end of the week,
they'd agree on one interesting like niche non controversial topic
or like something I sometimes I'd get to pick, and
then I'd make the little information packs for them for
the next week. And so one of the times I
(38:44):
got to pick, I brought them a pack that included
your article about black cowboys and that love. It was
a huge hit. FYI.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, that's flattering.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
You're very well. Thank you anyway, Cox smart guy, and
he had a lot of time I'm on his hands.
So he had a college education, he had a background
in art and communications, a flair for storytelling that he'd
honed while creating fake identities and fabricating entire life stories.
So once he's behind bars, he starts to channel that
(39:15):
creative energy into something else, the written word.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Oh I thought he started like, you know, a theater group.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
No, he starts writing, baby. So he said that there
are a lot of reasons why he began writing in prison.
For one, he said it's a matter of redemption in Catharsis.
In interviews, he described writing as a way to process
everything and then he'd done and like reflect on the consequences.
It allowed him to explore themes of deceit, manipulation, moral collapse.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
See things from multiple perspectives.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, it gave him narrative control because like someone who
lived by lies and false personas, writing is this way
to regain control of the narrative, the authority. Yeah, it's
a business opportunity. He knows how to make a buck,
and he knows what people want. He saw that there's
a market for true crime stories, especially insider perspectives, and
(40:05):
he's sitting on a gold mine of material from his
own life and from the inmates.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Every run around him, everybody allers.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
So yeah, so he gets to writing. His first major
manuscript wasn't about his own life. It was the biography
of a fellow inmate, John Thomas Ambrose, a former gun trafficker.
He called it Once a Gun Runner. And the book
was ghost written by Cox and served as a pilot
for a series of inmate biographies that he envisioned producing
from prison. So the.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Inmates exactly.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
And this is like how it showed how talented he
was with the long form narrative that he had, like
this really dramatic, engaging style. It was journalistic but literary.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
At some time, creative nonfiction.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Yeah, and so he gets that project going and then
he turns the pen toward his own life. So he
starts working on this like memoir like manuscript tentatively titled Bent,
and he did a deep dive into his early forays
into mortgage fraud, like he investigated the psychological dynamics of
white collar crime, the mechanics of identity theft and forged documents.
(41:13):
He talked about his years on.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
The run, so it's a kind of a guide book.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
And diary, and also like all the manipulative relationships that
he fostered. I'm very honest about it. He wrote it
like a novel, and he layered all this detail and
dialogue and narrative arc. He said that he wanted a
story to quote read like fiction, but be all true.
But he didn't stop an autobiography. He started writing crime
(41:39):
thrillers based on real life cases of other white collar
criminals and scam artists that he met in prison. Some
of those were later adapted or used for his post
prison podcast Inside True Crime. So he wrote these works
longhand on legal pads and then later type them on
prison typewriters common obviously because like they don't have the Internet,
(42:03):
so they had the computer uses what are you going
to use it for? They had like word process. I
had students who were writing books. They'd asked me to
read their stuff and like workshop it. And there was
one guy who was writing a real corker of a
book is really really good about a Crooked Cop, which
I later found out.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
He was there.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
You got what you good stuff. I had another student,
Carlos Walker. He's an artist and a writer. He's out
and he's doing great work. So Carlos Walker. There's incredible
talent definitely, you know, out in the world, and that
includes in the prison system. So Cox he's writing all
these big books. Sometimes he'd have friends or supporters outside
(42:44):
the prison transcribe his work for him, so he's just
sending them a hand you know, they're they're typing it up.
There are hurdles other than like no internet and technology
in lock up, they can't really it's hard to get
it's hard to get a true workshop. Yeah, it's really
aggressive in the workshop is inmates can't really profit from
(43:06):
work produced in prison.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Of course, not because it's considered part of their crimes,
because if they're writing about.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
What they know, right, And then also I think you
just can't have like a venture that makes money. I
don't know, you.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Could have a cookbook. Somebody's clearly untied to the he can't.
Maybe I'm wrong, who knows.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
There are restrictions on contact though with like publishers or agents.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, I figured this, just sending.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
An email will cost them money. And a lot of
times the emails don't make it through, but they still
get charged. Yeah, I had. I had students. I'd come
to come to class and they'd be like, I tried
to send you an email, and like, don't ever ever
do that because number one, I didn't get it. Number
two it costs you like three bucks.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, you have to put money in their accounts sometimes
if they want to email you.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
It's the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
So to get around these challenges, Cox relied on third
parties to help them submit the manuscripts or to post
content to a website, and then at least one case,
he had an outside contact start a blog or like
would arrange media interviews. So in the summer of twenty thirteen,
Marcus Schrenker came into the picture. So he was going
(44:09):
to get out in about a year. When he sat
down with Cox at a prison dining table at FCI Coleman, Florida,
he tells Cox, boy, do I have a story for you?
And so like, the thing is, it's like we've talked
about this before. As a writer, people come up to
you and like, I have a great story book. My
(44:30):
life would make a great book. And I always want
to say, no, it wouldn't. I love you to death,
but no, it wouldn't anyway. So that's like this poor
like Cox is like he's got to take people's offers
because he's sitting there in like just incredible material.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Oh and you never know what gold is underneath the rock.
You may have read, I could.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Just feel it, like have I got a story for
you to know?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
You don't most of the time.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
So Shranker he didn't like how his story was being
told out in the world. He wanted someone to set
the record Street.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
He wanted narrative control.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yeah, and Cox, he's the writer, storyteller, the one to
set the record. Cox said, quote, the guy told me
that he shouldn't even be in prison. And Cox, you know,
wonders if that's true, Honey, you're going to hear that.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
So Schrenker tells Cox that he hadn't built anyone, that
the investments just didn't land. And he told Cox, quote,
I'd sold a bunch of index annuities that ended up
underperforming and that wasn't my fault. I can't be blamed
for the market. So Shanker said that while he was
trying to get the insurance companies to refund his clients,
his wife found out about his affair, and that she
(45:33):
got her revenge by opening up an offshore currency account,
committing all sorts of fraud and pinning it on him.
So she's a woman scoring he's a patsy, my baby.
So in order to avoid prison, Shranker said, I'm going
to fake my own death with the plane thing. Cox
(45:54):
told Forbes magazine quote, it was obviously a very sensational story,
but still I want to believe it. I wondered if
there was an angle to the story that the media
had missed. So remember, no Internet in the clink, so
Cox he couldn't do it deep bead. He could, though,
ask his literary agent, who was not in prison, to
do the digging for him. I don't like, Hey, give
(46:15):
me some dossier's basically, so the agent mailed him newspaper articles,
court transcripts, and those sources did not match up at
all with what Schranker was trying to tell him. So,
determined to get to the truth, Cox filed a Freedom
of Information Act request. H huh, and that confirmed that
Schenker's ex wife wasn't in on any of it. Fraud,
(46:37):
not the plane crash. That's all him. Cox told Forbes
quote What was clear was that everyone from the prosecutors
to his victims were calling Shrinker an habitual liar. He
alone had built multiple clients and companies out of millions.
So it turns out that Schranker had approached a bunch
of writers outside of prison, like shopping his story about
(46:59):
being framed by his ex, and each one had looked
into this history and found him to be totally lying
in his version of things, like, no one's going to
sink time into something that will be blown up before
it's even published.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah, you know, especially with just a little bit of research,
you can confirm that.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Here's the thing thoughs Aaron Cox is a storyteller, and
he knew there was actually a story in all this
after all, He told Forbes again, quote, I saw Shrinker
as a puzzle. Unlike an author on the street. Outside
of prison, I had plenty of time, unfettered access to Shrinker, and,
according to my prosecutor, an uncannyability to discover a Marx
(47:39):
of vulnerability. Oh, it's like spy versus biogra Yeah, it's
tables are being turned Zaren. So Cox is like, you
know what, Shrinker, Yeah, let's do this. I'm going to
interview you for your book. And he's like getting him
to go deep dive on the details of his story
and then like on his life outside of the fraud,
like he's inner working. He wasn't writing an expos about
(48:02):
a man done wrong by society and serving time for
a crime he didn't commit. He was writing a profile
of a pathological liar. Yes, And so at last, finally
the book Bailout the Life and Lies of Marcus Schrenker.
So Schranker reads it loses it. He's so mad. Is
(48:23):
not how he saw this going. And that's a brave
thing for Cox to have done show it to them
while they're still in lock up together, because like Schranker
had what a year left hold off, but not long
after Schranker got out. And the thing is, though, when
you think about it, it's like, based on what I've
read about their personalities, I feel like Shrinker probably irritated
(48:46):
the ever loving issues out of everybody and if he
threw pitches a fit, and Cox probably arrowed himself with
everyone because he's entertained, so I'm sure that he was.
You know, Schranker's just and everyone's ignoring him. So he
gets out. He goes to a halfway house. The manuscript
stayed with Cox in prison, but when Cox got out
(49:07):
in twenty nineteen, he had like this tight, thrilling manuscript
that was just ready for him to publish. So he
had all of his true crime writing. He wanted to
get it out there, so he started an online magazine
inside truecrime dot com, and there's also the podcast inside
true Crime. There's YouTube stuff. He self published his books
and he posted what I think is an abridged version
(49:30):
of Bailout on the website. Schranker found it, lost it again.
He filed a complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
and then he reached out to the DJ the Department. Yeah,
tells the Department of Justice that he had not participated
in the story and the story is a complete fabrication,
that Cox is harassing him. My dude, this is all
(49:53):
carefully researched like story. Your story makes you look like crap,
But that was your life choice.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Maybe you shouldn't have lived it.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Maybe don't do that. Let this be a lesson to
all of those who meet a writer and say I
have a great story for you, or like my life
would make a great book. Be careful what you wish for.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yeah, maybe it will be a great book, but you
hate so.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Cox he was able to back everything up that he had.
Everything that was thrown in him was just dropped, and
then Cox he's now a fixture in the true crime
storytelling space for him as Zaren, what's your takeaway.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Oh man, but you kind of already said it, which
is the be careful what you wish for with a writer? Yeah,
Like people always think like, oh, could you tell my story?
And I'm like, I can.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
I don't know if you want.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Their audience and may like it, you may hate it or.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
People who I don't know. I used to think like
people who cross you and you're.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
Like, oh, you're a screwed the writer.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna light you and.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
If I got strong enough, lawyer, I'll put your own
name on it, right.
Speaker 3 (50:52):
But like you can light someone up so bad and
like it's you know, name is not the same, but
like little things, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
So there I think that would be mine? Is that
like never go to a writer with the idea that
you can control that process.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Very true, Very true, my ridiculous takeaway. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
I guess I want to hear it. I guess.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
I was thinking about how we've had the authorities tell
these criminals a bunch of times it's like, you're so
talented if you just put your efforts toward. But then
and I was thinking, oh, yeah, like Matthew Cox is
so talented, but like it's so hard to make a
living as a writer. Yeah, exactly, And so it's kind
of like, you know, I don't blame.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Him, no crime is always tempting.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
Do the crimes. And then like that was that. Now
it's the springboard. Now he can run with it.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
He's an expert in a field.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
There. It is so good. I Dave, I think I
need a talk back.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
I think we both do. Oh my god, I.
Speaker 5 (52:02):
Hey, ridiculous crime. This is art in San Antonio, and
I wanted to share my ridiculous sea monkey story. When
I was younger, I went to a summer day camp
and one time they had a bring your pet day.
Unfortunately I didn't have a pet, so my quit thinking
mom got me some sea monkeys and the good news
is they won the camp Award for most Unique Pet.
The bad news is that on the way home they
(52:23):
spilled in the back of my mom's wood paneled station wagon.
And yes, Elizabeth, sea monkeys do smell awful, especially when
they're in a car's interior.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
That was awesome.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
It is so good. The wood paneled station wagon is
how many dead sea monkeys do you think you're in
the interior of wood But that's rad you got their ward. Awesome.
I love that. That's it for today. You can find
us online at ridiculous Crime dot com, which is on
(52:56):
the most wanted list as a fugitive. Did you know that? Yeah,
don't tell you, buddy. We're at Ridiculous Crime on blue
Sky and Instagram. You can email ridiculous Crime at gmail
dot com. You can go to YouTube We're Ridiculous Crime
pod and you can check us out there, leave a
talkback on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is
(53:24):
hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarren Burnett, produced and edited
by Jailhouse Publishing Magnet Dave Cousten, starring Annals Rutger as Judith.
Research is by Aircraft windshield salesperson Maurice Brown. The theme
song is by war Fighters Thomas Lee and Travis Dutt.
Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair
and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are
(53:47):
literary agents to the stars and those behind bars, Ben
Boleen and Noel Brown. Well say It one more Time.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
Riudiquious Crime.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.