May 20, 2025 • 48 mins
There's the big leagues of insider trading, like what we see from both sides of the aisle in Washington DC. And when we think of Wall St. crimes taking place it's in boardrooms, backrooms, and out on golf courses. But what about in the Tampa Bay Rays farm system? That's where a roster of struggling minor leaguers tried to grab a big league pay day off of Del Taco stock options. Ridiculous crimes followed.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth Zaren, Hey, how you doing good?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Good good?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I got another question for you while you got your
game face on. You know, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
He too. It's more ridiculous, I think than cocaine bearing
to me by a lot of people. But first and
foremost number one in my heart producer Dave sent me
this that this this lady. She's driving in Ohio. She
got pulled over and when the cops looked in the
(00:32):
driver's seat, there was Chewy. Chewy Chewy not the pet
supply website and not Chewa and not my favorite Star
Wars entity, well one of my favorite Chewy. No, this
was a raccoon named Chewy, and Chewy what's special about
Chewy Chewy had a glass meth pipe in its.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Vag in the car.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sitting in the driver's seat that the cops had just
pulled over. And so this woman, I'm not going to
share her name. She's shamed enough. She gets busted right
like drug possession.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Where she seated in the car, it's not entirely.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Clear like is she well that's something like was Chewy
on her lap or did she be like, you know,
the classic like, oh, I got warrants, you drive, and
so like they they they stop this car, right, and
I guess because like whatever pipe you can only imagine,
(01:30):
like with the stuff that they found, they found meth
crack three other pipes aside from the one in Chewie's
mom okay, and they pulled him over because like the
there was an active warrant of course suspended drivers. Yeah,
for the driver, she gets cited for drug possession, three
counts of drug paraphernalia, driving under suspension. She could face
(01:56):
more charges of crack possession depending on the outcome of
some results. The raccoon fine safe, not not hooked, not Johnson's.
But they they made sure that the raccoon had proper paperwork,
which Chewy did. This woman is riding around in a
(02:19):
methmobile with like a bunch of trash and all sorts
of other stuff, but she had all the paper and
documentation necessary to own a pet raccoon in Ohio. So
all the rest of her life is spinning out, going crazy.
But you ain't taken a round scatter permits down for
Chewy because Chewy's legal, right, and that's why she's like
(02:41):
I have Lawrence Chewy, you got papers you're driving?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Turns out her phone and her rent also in Chewy's name.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
What else? Oh my god, what's Chewy's credit score?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Is my question? That Saren, Chewey's seen some stuff, Saren,
that little trash panda. He knows things that.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
He shouldn't know, Little Opposi. Yeah, that's ridiculous, Yeah it is,
That's what I'm saying, Zaren, It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But meth Raccoon. You got Coke Bear? Yeah, now we
got meth Raccoon.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I can't wait to see the movie they make out
of this one.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah, goodbye, We're done the end.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I really don't know where to go from there, so
just just pretend that this is like anywhere near as
entertaining for the next forty minutes. You got it. I
love baseball, me too. Oh I was wondering about that, right,
because I know you've had some recent updates in your
love life with baseball. Yes, I have lost your team.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I did well. I lost a team. I gained a team. Oh,
how so the Oakland A's, who will always be the
Oakland A's. They're off playing in some crap box, kitty
litter box and at Sacramento in like nine thousand degree heat.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh wait for July.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I I know one.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Hundred and twenty degrees maybe, like they can press it.
Like I'm talking on the field, like one hundred and
eighteen hundred fourteen coming they get.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
That's what you get when you cross us. I am
now into the Oakland Ballers, oh, which is like a
minor minor minor league team. That's super fun.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
They just signed an extension at ten year lease on
the park where they play in Oakland and West Oakland,
and it's like kind of we're all the cool people.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Okay. Oh, like I'm glad you're not becoming a San
Francisco Giants fan. You to the minor league, you know what.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
To heck with MLB? Oh yeah, I like the sport
and apparently, like you know, so to a bunch of
other people who just want to see people play cool baseball.
So Oakland Ballers roll credits.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Now, Well you're in luck because I have a story
for you about minor league criminals. Oh yeah, it's a
humorous distraction from the travails.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Humorous.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, these guys.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Can I tell you something, I got that new Pope glow.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Oh, I noticed, that's what that is. It's coming off. Yeah,
it's nice, pretty good. Well, these guys, Elizabeth, they take
their turning it about, so to speak. They go play
in the big leagues a financial fraud and insider trading.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Wait, so there's no actual baseball.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Maybe this is ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and
(05:32):
outrageous capers, heights and cons. It's always ninety nine percent
murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous nutrageous, Elizabeth, Our
story today begins with the Tampa Bay Rays minor league
farm system. Okay, what do you know about the Tampa
Bay Rays farm clubs?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Not a thing?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, you are in luck if I happen to have
everything you'd ever want to know or need to know
about the Tampa Bay Rays farm teams. They the system.
It's a loose constellation of teams in different leagues and
even different countries. For instance, there's a team in the
Florida Complex Leagues, the Florida Complex League Rays, which sounds
like a club in the Florida State penal system.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
But yeah, there are also two teams in the Dominican
Summer League. They are there. That's they're the DSL Rays
and the DSL Tampa sounds kind of kinky.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
There's also the famous minor league club, the Durham Bulls.
They started out as the Durham Tobacconists. That's an old
school name, right, That's like the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. Yes,
now we'll come back to the Durham Bulls in a second.
But there's my favorite, the Montgomery Biscuits in the Southern League.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Oh yeah, they have a good like hat or logo,
because I'm all about those weird Southern leagues, Like I
like the I used to go to some of them
when I live down there, and they've got it's just
like Savannah Bananas. Their their big showtime showbiz guys.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This is their mascot.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Oh wow, okay, I need something that Montgomery.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Isn't that nice? Yeah. So you've got like a biscuit
that's like, it looks like it's talking to you. Its
mouth is open.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
But biscuit that didn't talk to you in SAE.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
That is very is that just like when you're on PCP.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Either one the Biscuits be talking. There's also the Charleston
River Dogs, the infamous Carolina League. Yeah, you never see
one of their games.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
You, I think, so, I think, is that where the
Florence Swamp Foxes?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Perhaps after.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Francis Mary is Mary?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, thank you?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, but like Savannah Bananas, like when I was living
down there, they were just sort of coming up, and
now they're the media darlings for all their dance.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh that's right, yeah, well they do all the day
stand there on the pictures Mound.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I was on their mailing list for a long time,
and I know, isn't that cool for me? And I
kept competing unsubscribed and it wouldn't really, they would not
stop button. I keep a tight rein on my inbox.
I unsubscribe from everything.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Really, that's why you don't respond my email.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yes, I unsubscribed from you. But like if I buy
something and they immediately send me a newsletter, I go
through and I unsubscribe really immediately, and then I keep
a mental list of who doesn't participate in that.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Boy, do I have a weekend task for you I'd
love for you to do in my email inbox?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
How many unread emails do you have in your inbox
right now? What?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah? I don't. They just grow each day because I
just let some of them go and I mark some
and I keep some that I want to refer to later.
How many do you think, dating back over all the
years and now it's I think it's forty three.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
And read how many do you think I have?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Two?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Zero?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Zero, of course zero since the show started, maybe in my.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
All my email accounts.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I'm proud as you should be.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I should be so, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, I really, I mean, I'm patting you on the back,
but your hangout in the way. So there's also let's
see a club, the Bowling Green Hot Rods. That's another
they're in the Midwest League. Yeah, they're mascots. It's like
an uninspired rip off of the New Jersey Devil. So
we won't look into that. But anyway, Elizabeth, speaking of
minor league baseball, Bold Durham. That movie do you know
(09:13):
that one? Right? The cost Yes, the eighties baseball rom
com classic and it's about the Durham Bulls, but they
flip it and make a Bull Durham. And yeah, Kevin
Costner is the star. He's crashed Davis and he's this
catcher who's this veteran who gets knocked about in the league.
Now he's back in the Minors, Tim Robbins. Yeah, Susan
(09:34):
Sarandon is like the minor league, very sophisticated groupie. Yes,
quite the story. She plays any Savoy, Right, there's nuper Lush,
Andy Savoy and Crash Davis and so they all have
their little minaja twaba of like spirits. I don't know,
it's it's.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's a different edition of the movie totally.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well it's eighties. It's avery eighties. But Sports Illustrated called
it the number one greatest sports movie of all time. Yeah,
what you think about has some real strong competition. There's
like the Natural, there's Hoosers.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Well, there's the other cost Field a dream field a
dreams and my favorite.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Longest yard, longest yard, major League Major's yard, and then.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
The Sids a playbook. But aside from.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That, mine, thanks for asking, is Bones Brigade for the
Search for Anibal Chin.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Oh my god, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What about what about Freedom? Starring two of your favorite people,
Sylvester Stallone and Pele Wait. I'm not I'm not familiar
with Freedom. It is Uh yeah, you gotta go out
and rent that. It is a wh shared the screen.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Okay, we're on it.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Oh my goodness, you.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Brought in, you know, like extreme sports of skateboarding. Well,
then we've got thrashing totally cut.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Oh my gosh, well.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Are you ready to bicycle book?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You're ready to meet today's purpse?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yes, I pray it has nothing to do with baseball,
nothing to do with bulderham that all of this was
just a oh yeah, side quest.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Totally, the side quest just to set. This is setting
the table and then we're gonna now clear the table.
These appetizers get into the meal. It's next door. So
today's purse real life minor league ballplayers though, so they
do have that. Okay, Okay, I like these guys, a
bunch of California guys. One dude's from Colorado, but like
they're most of them California guys forgiven, and I'm rude
for them at every point in this story. I just
(11:26):
want to make that clear. These are my dudes, unless
they later like milkshake duck, and in that case, no,
they never knew. These dudes did know what dudes who
as my But for now.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
My maneld that man.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So Elizabeth first up is the mastermind. Jordan Kassar twenty
eight and twenty twenty four. I only I don't know
their exact birthdates, so I'm going to tell you their
birth their age according to their charging documents. Twenty eight
and twenty four, so late of alcohol in California alcohol.
He was a bright ball prospect back when he started
for Pepperdine University in a malibuu.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, right on the water.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Totally beautiful. Yeah, he finessed that into a spot in
the Tampa Bay Rays farm system. Thus our discussion of
the Tampa Bay Rays. Then there's Grant Witherspoon, aged twenty
seven in twenty twenty four. He's from the Denver suburb
of Littleton, Colorado. He played ball with Jordan Kassar in
the Rays farm club system. Apparently he's still playing ball
in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Oh, there's also Austin Bernard. He was twenty seven in
twenty twenty four. He's from San Diego suburb of Oceanside, California.
You know, I love that town. It's one of those
blue collar beach towns and like, yeah, I need to
go take a weekend down there. Anyway, we get back
to I'm aa drive the lane like I was. Evan Bernard, sorry,
Austin Bernard. So he was also on that same Pepperdine
(12:42):
team with Jordan Kassar. After that, he also managed to
get a spot in the farm system and he bounced
around the miners for a while. He's still knocking about
in baseball currently. Most recently he signed to play for
a team in India.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
India India Baseball.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah yeah, And last day there's Chase Lambert. He was
twenty twenty twenty four. He's from Malibu, which is also
where Pepperdine is located, so hometown. He played ball there
with Jordan Kassar and he's out of baseball now. He's
an electrician in Malibu and he coaches baseball.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
He's making way more than ballplayers.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, minor league ballplayers for real, So those are our
main players now. To be clear, Jordan Kassar and Grant
Witherspoon were the ones who were drafted by the Tampa
Bay Rays in twenty eighteen. They're the real goers. They're
the ballplayers professional griding right. Witherspoon was apparently the better prospect.
He went in the fourth round. Chase Lambert was also
then drafted later on by the Pittsburgh Pirates, so he's
also in the the minor league Major League farm system.
(13:36):
Now he knew Kassar and Bernard from their days at Pepperdine. Now, anyway,
Jordan Kassar Witherspoon, they joined the Tampa Bay Rays farm
system together. They become roommates on the road, they become
close friends. Later they become co conspirators. But that's lately,
you know. So what did my guys do? Great question, Elizabeth,
thank you. What were their crimes? It was financial fraud.
That was their swinging the big leagues of insider trading.
(13:59):
So at the moment they're facing twenty years in prison
and five million dollars in fines, and their cases are undecided,
all four of them still in the Southern District of
California federal court system. So at every point of today's story,
please imagine I'm saying allegedly.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah, but a lot of is documentary.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
A lot of is documented, but in any case, it's not allegedly.
So quick question, what do we know about the financial
life of a professional minor league ballplayer?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Oh it's tough, It's brutal, really actually tough.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I did a little reading up on life in the
minor leagues in twenty nineteen eighty six, percent of minor
league ball players live below the American poverty line, which
at the time was twelve four hundred and ninety dollars
a year. That means eighty six percent of minor leaguers
made less than twelve grand a year.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And they're like, think about it, these dudes are down
in like southern California totally.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They have to pay rent. Some of them are parents,
they got childcare, and they're making in the right. They're
a salary Bayscood ranch between six grand and fifteen grand
and else. Keep in mind, they get paid for six
months of work, but they have to do in the
rest of the year. Keep in shapes. They got to
pay trainers or at least a gym membership, all sorts
of things, right growth exactly, you gotta get your HDAs.
(15:10):
So minor leagues have pushed for a pay raise, and
they cite the number of sixty grand. That's what they
would like to ask for the reasonable living wage for them. Now,
Major League Baseball, it ain't hurting. In twenty nineteen, will
have some actual strong data. MLB brought in ten point
seven billion dollars in revenue.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I think they can break some off for them to give.
It's why, this is why not a big MLB fan,
I get it now.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It would cost each team about fifteen million dollars to
pay their minor leaguers a livable salary of sixty grand.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
They've got that now.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Also keep in mind, twenty four out of the thirty
Major league teams the owners are billionaires. Yeah, so there's
that as well. It's not they're hurting, you know. It's
all they're like, this is how I gotta feed my kids
with the baseball team. You probably it's not happening now.
The US Congress did step into this pray to pass
new legislation. Only trouble was US Congress legislated on the
behalf of the billionaire owners. In twenty eighteen, US Congress
(16:02):
passed this thing called Save America's Pastime Act. The new
bill exempted minor league players from protections under federal labor laws.
Then that new law also allowed Major league understack. Like
minor leagues, are are contract players without a union or
collective bargaining, which means the owners they don't have to
pay them appropriately because they're just lucky to be pro athletes.
They got the dream, they got hope. That's what they
(16:22):
should be happy with.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I don't save the America's pastime.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah so they Yeah, no, anyway, Now, to be fair,
in twenty twenty one, Major League Baseball did improve the
living standards for minor leaguers after the issue bubbled up
to the point that it was in the press.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah during COVID, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So minor leaguer Cam Cursey, who's the infielder for Hillsboro Hops.
He told the outlet perfect union quote. So my housing
last year, I was living in a town home garage
and so I was on the bottom level living in
a garage. It was like eighty five square feet no heat. Nowhere.
Fast forward to this year. The Diamondbacks didn't out standing job.
They put all of us up in apartments for an
(17:00):
Wi Fi, own bedrooms, TV, anything you could need. They
got their own bedrooms, Elizabeth Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And running water.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
No. But I mean I joke, but I mean they
are making some concessions. But there's so much more room to.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Go and being with professional athletes, and they did it.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Mostly, as you point out, because of COVID.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah, everyone saw it. But like you, with professional athletes,
I know that they're overpaid and like to an obscene extreme,
but they do need to make a lot of money
each season because their careers are so short as well.
You know, it's like not like if you're just in
the workforce and you got like, however many and proportional
to the value they create, the value they create, the
(17:37):
damage that they do to their bodies. For our entertain
they need to be compensated.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And they should be gloried a bit. I mean, we
all want them as heroes. That involves some compensation, right exactly.
There's that ancient gladiator who made like billions.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, yeah, let's get back to that.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So, uh, the big change, as I said, was housing,
but they still earn poverty wages. So there you go.
This which now brings us to our league ball players
who turned ridiculous criminals. So after these messages, I'll tell
you how they tried to improve their material conditions pull
themselves out of poverty with some old fashioned crime insider trading.
(18:11):
Yes back in two and two, Elizabeth, we're back. So
(18:35):
you're ready to talk minor league financial crimes, of course,
So first we need to get to hear some terms.
Since I know that neither of us have the skill
to well anyone would call financial literacy good zero right,
like I am financially illiterate. Like first up? Do you
know how the stock market has a ticker?
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, we're both good there, Buch. The companies they get
symbols that represent them on the ticker. You know about that, right,
and they get to pick their symbols as long as
nobody else has it. So today we have a couple
of companies, Del Taco, they had a stock market tick
or symbol. Do you know what theirs was? No Taco
Taco four letters taco because it's gotta be short. Yeah,
(19:11):
Taco is short, and Dell's lame because Dell already took
it computer company, I think. Anyway, but those days were
gone because in twenty twenty two, Jack in the Box
purchased Del Taco and turned it into a subsidiary, wiping
off them off the stock market. You want to guess
what the stock market symbol for Jack in the Boxes jack?
Yep is Jack four letters jack, which means Jack replaced
(19:31):
Taco on the stock market, which just seems like a
blow against whimsy.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Anyway, San Diego based fast food chain Jack in the
Box is now one of the biggest Burger chains.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
It's space in San Diego. It was, Yeah, it's not good.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Shame on the state Diego. Nowhere else from love. So
it's the corporate culture of San Diego and Jack in
the Boxes where our story takes place. So you're gonna
love this, Elizabeth. The story is about, as I said,
southern California boys. But Austori also involves Del Taco, southern
California icon of food, and of course, insider trading, a
(20:07):
California tradition. So, according to the federal indictment documents, minor
league ballplayer Jordan Kasar was home in San Diego. It
was October twenty twenty one, and while he was home,
he went out with some friends for some drinks. One
of his friends was an old college friend from his
days back at Pepperdine. The old friend was now a
corporate executive. Specifically he worked at Jack in the Box. Okay,
but back at Pepperdine, the old friend was also on
(20:27):
the baseball team. So these are like jock buddies.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And then but his dreams of being a pro athlete
didn't like wither and die there. He went on to
go play minor league baseball two for a while, but
eventually he put down his batting gloves and he picked
up a tie, and he went to work for Corporate America.
And so these two, though, they remained friends and now
they're hanging out. And according to the SECED indictment, the
friend is always referred to as finance employee, which to
(20:50):
tell you he's a cooperating witness. Yeah, yeah, what changed
between friendly drinks in October twenty one and cooperating witness
and federal court in twenty twenty five? Great question, Elizabeth,
thank you. So the deal was Jack in the Box
was planning on buying Deltaco. Yeah, No, one outside of
Jack in the Box Corporate was supposed to know that.
But the finance employee knew about it. He was the
(21:12):
financial analyst department for Jack in the Box, so he
was aware of the company's plans to acquire Deltaco. And
according to the sec complaint quote, the finance employee had
knowledge of the acquisition was responsible for, among other things,
tasks related to the acquisition due diligence process. Oh so, now,
normally when the old friends would get together for drinks,
they talk about the usual suspects, romantic hookups, travel, relationships
(21:36):
and how their personal money was affecting their lives. But
that October they talked about m and A, MNA and
finance talk. M and A stands for mergers and acquisitions. Yes,
and the finance employee let Jordan Kassar know about the
impending deal for Deltaca that he was all involved up in,
and how once Wall Street found out about this planned acquisition,
(21:56):
Deltaco's stock would skyrocketing value as soon it would be
Jack in the box stock. So, anyway, we need to
pause and discuss a few more financial terms. Do you
know what a stock option is.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, it's when you're given the like the option you
will be getting these stocks. Generally, it's like either your
employment or you know, part of that kind of package
or retirement. You know, I don't know if.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I'm right, You're basically right. I had to I did
not know how to define this well, so I'm going
to lean on the sec charging documents. Quote. A stock
option gives its purchase holder the right, but not the obligation,
to buy or sell shares of an underlying stock at
a specified price per share the strike price, but then
a specific period of time prior to the expiration date
(22:44):
the expiration. Now, if you want to buy an option,
they're sold as contracts switch. According to the SEC Charging documents,
the contract quote is, gives the option holder the opportunity
to buy or sell one hundred shares of an underlying stock.
This is on average. Now, there's also something called a
call option. Back to the SEC charging documents for our definitions. Quote.
A call option gives a purchase holder of the option
(23:06):
the right to purchase a security at a specified strike
price prior to expiration. A call option is out of
the money when the strike price is above the current
market price of the underlying security, and in the money
when the strike price is below the market price. Sure
is this all making sense so far?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yes? Sure?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Okay. The idea is a buyer is out of the
money on their call option, then they anticipate a move
on the market and positions themselves relative to what they
believe is an undervalued price, or if there's insider trading,
what they know is an undervalued price because there's about
to be big news which will drive the price up
and drive it up before the option expires, or adversely
drive it down because there's about to be bad news.
(23:47):
But if you know some news. It's about a dramatically
effective price of a stock. You can get an option
ahead of time, or a bunch of them that are
set for a price. Okay, all right, so the options
are Lastly, options are listed in series, which means the
options on the stock have the same price and expiration date.
So you get a series of these options and they
all package together. All right. So that's all the finance
talk for now. Okay, back to Jordan Kassar and the
(24:09):
finance employee, now finance employee. He's a senior associate and
strategic finance for Jack in the Box. He's high up,
muckety muck. He's got the big title, long one.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
He's like in the airport. He's got his blue tooth
in and he's talking so loud.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh, you recognized the type.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And then you know he's like, I'm just gonna have
a cocktail. It's five o'clock somewhere.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, it's eleven am on a Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
In the airport.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Before September twenty twenty one, he learned about the finance employee.
He learned about the upcoming Del Taco deal, right, and
he's responsible for coordinating due diligence, as we said, So
it means he's going to do analysis and for this acquisition,
which means importantly, he knows the timing of the deal structure.
He knew when a potential sale would become news, and
he knew that if anyone knew what he knew, they
(24:56):
could buy a stock option and it would skyrocket when
the news broke and they'd be very, very well, much
wealthier than they were before. Now, Elizabeth, they call that
insider trading. Yes, they did all the rage today, you
see it all the time, but when some minor leaguers
try to get in on the action, suddenly it's a crime.
Al So, anyway, Jordan Kassar, he goes out drinking with
(25:17):
the old friend, finance employee. He hears about this upcoming
deal and his friend's bragging about it. And remember he's
making poverty wages. So what does he do with his
rare chance for a come up? You guessed it. He
buys Del Taco options.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
At the time, Del Taco stock was trading at eight
dollars and seventy four cents a share right, which was
inexpensive enough for an impoverished minor leaguer, he could get
into the stock market, get himself a series of options. Sure,
he's big balling it now, right only Jordan Kassar also
tried to hook up his friends, his fellow impoverished minor leaguers. Yeah,
so he tells his buddy and former Pepperdine teammate, Grant Witherspoon,
(25:51):
And he told a couple other minor league teammates. And
in October of twenty twenty one, Jordan Kassar, Grant Witherspoon,
they report back for baseball training camp. Right, so they're
down in Florida. So they talked to Taco and Jack
and how they could use that to make some easy
money from insider trading. Right. The trouble was they were
new to financial crimes in insider trading. They didn't know
how the action really goes down, so, or rather where
(26:13):
it goes down. Like there's a reason why CEOs do
business on the golf course. Yeah, you know what that
reason is. No microphones, no paper trail, no microphone, nothing
gets generated by a conversation at the tea box on
the sixteenth hole. Yeah, exactly, So they go out there
the conduct business where no one can hear them or
document it unless you're like wired. Right now, Kasar and
his fellow minor leaguers they don't know about golf and
(26:34):
insider trading because they decided to text about it. So
in their initial text they talk about potential insider trading,
and they talked about how from going forward this is
non public information, it could be considered illegal. So if
they act on this, So they text about how they
can create a convincing scrim like a beard if you will,
to hide their true intentions of insider trading.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Now, not only did they document their crimes in text messages,
they also documented how they plan to hide their crimes
as well. Oh no, so that confirms for any federal
court that they were fully aware that they were doing crimes. Now,
the plan was they'd start texting about how good Del
Taco looked as a stock purchase. These minor leaguers suddenly
just took an interest in Del Tako.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Wait, so they're like texting back and forth. Here's how
we're going to establish a paper trail. As they're establishing
the wrong kind.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Then they like wait like a week and they're.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Like, okay, group chat exactly, Hey, guys, they's.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Need to discovery. They'll just start once we say Del
Taco and move forward. I guess so went back to
the Copper. They're on the baseball team. The Munch minor
leaguers now all over the country, start a text threat
about how hungry they are for Del Taco socks now,
(27:48):
despite the fact they'd never text about the stock market prior.
They thought this sudden interest in Del Taco would cover
them for their insider trading. Now. But do you remember
the Budweiser commercials where they are on a on a
group phone call and when new dudes would join, they say,
what's up right?
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yes, you do what.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
I want you to keep that energy in mind as
I tell you about the minor leakers text thread. But
rather than just tell you about their text thread, Elizabeth,
I'd like you to close your eyes. I'd like you
to picture Elizabeth. It's October fifth, twenty twenty one. You
are in an apartment in San Diego, California. A breeze
is blowing in the window. You can hear kids playing
(28:25):
whiffleball outside, and you can also hear the distant notes
of someone playing Sublime. Just loud enough, you can faintly
hear Bradley Knowles's voice as he sings about how he
don't practice Santaia. He ain't got no crystal ball. Now.
At this moment in the culture, the world is in
a weird place. At the box office, No Time to
Die is earning millions, so is the sequel venom Let
(28:47):
There Be Carnage. But in the culture, COVID nineteen is
still raging, So those numbers are rather impressive for a
box office in a pandemic. Now, Elizabeth, I'd tell you
the top selling albums, but I doubt you know any
of their names. It's a strange moment in the culture.
At the moment, you are just chilling because you are
Jordan Kassar's cell phone. Your lock screen is a photo
of the Del Taco signage, not your favorite, but you
(29:08):
get it. It's a joke because it seems that's all
Jordan Kassar is texting about these days, the stock price
at Del Taco. Your chill is interrupted, and you feel
Jordan's fingers wrap around you and lift you off the couch.
He's texting again, his fingers fly. A moment later, you
buzz with a responding text. It's his buddy Grant Weatherspoon.
You recognize his phone number. He texts often, and seemingly
(29:31):
also always about Tuttle Taco. So Witherspoon writes, check out
the stock guys, Del Taco start is looking bullish to me.
Might try to gamble on some options or something I'd
love to eat at Del Taco now. Jordan Kassar laughs
as he reads the text, and he quickly responds. You
feel his fingers punch out a response. He texts, I'm
(29:51):
thinking about it too. Chart looks prime to boom once
it's fifty two week high. A moment later, you vibrate again.
Witherspoon response, eleven ninety nine, could see it hitting ten
dollars easy, and then you feel Jordan Kassar finger out
his response. He writes back, if we break ten new
fifty two week eyes could follow. The payoff could be
(30:13):
ridiculous if we buy the January twenty twenty two call.
You wonder to yourself if he thinks this tissue paper
thin act will trick anyone. But mostly you're just glad
he's not asking you to play his normal playlist, which
sounds like the soundtrack for bottle Service for Douchebags out
Vegas casino, Elizabeth. After the text thread you just witnessed
(30:34):
and sent, everyone on the thread started to purchase Del
Taco call options. And this is my favorite part. Jordan
Kassar wrote in a text message to his future co
conspirators that quote every dollar I earned hustle and is
going to Taco as in the stock symbol for Del Taco.
And then one of his co conspirators texted back, might
take everything out of savings and go all in two witch.
(30:56):
Jordan Gisar texted back, yeah, and catch you case. Oh
very aware, no maybe line. So they're even talking about
catching cases in their cover scram in their little like story.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
They can't totally go to jail for this, and that
would be terrible because there's no Dell Tako there man.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So Juring Kasar he buys.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
He want sponsorships too. Is that the other angle don't get?
They're hoping Dell talk. I wants the back some minor
leaguers exactly. So Jordan Kasar he buys four hundred and
sixty five dollars worth of Dell Taco call options.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
They don't need a lot of money. Four hundred and
sixty five that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Free starts now, great, with thispoon, he had a little
more money saved up. He bought three thousand, six hundred
and eighty three dollars worth of stock options, like a
billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Scam deals going on as you and I see.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
At the presidential level, at the top level.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Multi national, and these guys are getting pinched.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Oh on, yeah, So they get their stock options. They're
set to expire in January twenty.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Twenty twenty eight bucks.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
They got free dealt Taco until the next week they
buy some more options and then so they did others.
Jordan Kassar starts telling others about this upcoming acquisition. As
autumn rolls on, the minor leaguers who were in their
off season, they keep playing at the stock market. Right,
they're all texting each other about Taco stock option prices
and how they crept up to eleven or ten or whatever.
(32:21):
Now the real price of the stock is nowhere near
it's like staying around eight dollars eight to fifty. So
they're talking to early future markets, right. So the minor
leaguers need to get right is the expiration date on
their options. They need to be holding the options when
the merger is announced, and they keep expiring, and so
they're trying to go we have to time, that's right,
and they don't have the money to keep buying, so
it becomes a question, right they need to know when
(32:43):
will the merger be announced? As the best is he
could figure it. Jordan Kassar, I believe the deal was
thing to go down in late twenty twenty one from
what finance employee told him. He's got probably before the
end of the year, So that's what he's telling everybody
in the text, right or maybe early twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
They want to buy it at it's lowest. What do
you mean, like if it's eight dollars when they're talking.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
They just want to be holding a price. They want
to be holding the stock options in the future, and
the then the the sooner the closer to right this
moment they can get them, the price will stay low.
The further in the in the future, the price will
start creeping up for the options because more and more
of this news will start.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Why wouldn't they just buy it all then?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Because they don't. They don't have the money to do that.
And also trying to buy options in a hundred in
groups one hundred or less, you know, the hundred is
the most they can do. Yeah, so or you know,
in a series. So at this point, Jordan Kassar he
texts his friend, the finance employee, and then they start,
you know, chatting. Turns out finance employe is gonna be
(33:39):
taking a long drive to La George's like, hey, i'll
ride with you. So he rides with him. He's like,
I don't know, man, I mean, I'm gonna be talking
on a zoom call most of the call. He's like,
i'll drive you just do the zoom call. So he
texts the others to let them know, Okay, I'll ask
about the taco deal. Well for the zoom call drive,
So he texts the group threat He texts them while
he's on the call, giving them updates and driving. Yeah, well,
(34:00):
I guess he's getting gas, you know whatever was just
say he's getting gas anyway, So he'll be like texting
four hour call, all right, and Witherspoon's responding, that's incredible, right,
And now Jordan Kassar is responding hopefully about the good
good four.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Hour zoom calls.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Four hour zoom calls about m and A. Yeah, So
so he texts, oh, have a full report on Saturday
for you guys, and Witherspoon responds, better be good because
I think they're getting financially stretched. He's like, I'm out
three thousand dollars, man, I can't afford that because that's
like half my salary.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Taco stuck.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
And the trouble is, as I pointed out, Jordan Kassar
does not know when the deal's going down, and he's
hoping that he's gonna hear about it in this call, right,
So the minor leaguers, as they said, they don't want
to be holding worthless paper and expires in January. Now
it's clear he needs to pump finance employee for more
in from the insider trading, specifically when's the deal going
to go down? But after the four hour calls over,
Jordan Cassar doesn't know. He cannot tell from the call
(34:56):
because the date, no dates were mentioned. They were talking
about other aspects of du diligence. So he just straight
up has to ask about the impending timing of the acquisition.
So like, hey, man, when's this all gonna get announced?
So you want me to change the station? So the
finance employee he tells them what he knows, like, he
tells him more non public information. Yeah, and he explains that, Kassar,
(35:17):
you know you overheard some of this in the zoom call, right,
So he's like, he explains what he overheard, then explains
how that affects the timing, and he tells him when
the timing will probably go down for the announcement. So
after that, Jordan Kassar bought more Del Taco stock options.
He went big time at this point. He bought four
ninety nine dollars of Del Taco stock options. I'm thinking
he borrowed money.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
As they say in hip hop, once again, it's on.
So let's take a little break and after these messages,
I'll tell you about how Taco hit the fan. Elizabeth Saron,
(36:07):
we're back, ready to talk more about stock options and
strike prices.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Yes, sir, how would you.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Be handling all of this if you were one of
the ballplayers.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
If I knew about this, Yes I would. I'd take
a trusted relative to lunch somewhere and very quietly explain
the whole thing and tell them they had to go
buy a bunch of stock. Hmm.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It's interesting. I have bad news for you that would
have probably gotten them on a list. Once insider trading
comes out, everyone who bought stock options in that period
of time, he becomes suspect.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, so, but it's not me.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
You would not be. Now, before we get back to
the story, there's something I wanted to bring up, something
that bothered me. In the SEC charging documents, there's this
interesting narrative that's at work threaded all throughout and I quote,
the finance employee expected that Kazar would keep his additional
information confidential, and Kazar was aware that the finance employee
expected him to maintain confidentiality. Nevertheless, in breach of his
(37:02):
duty of trust and confidence to the finance employee, Kassar
divulged the additional information shared with him. Now, in case
you missed it, the SEC's point is, which they later
repeat to make sure it's clear and well. Here and
I quote, the finance employee trusted Khazar to maintain those confidences,
and Kassar knew that the finance employee expected him to
maintain those confidences and not to misappropriate information shared with
(37:24):
Kazar for his own benefit. So they're blaming Kasar for
this breach of trusts Right now, I refer back to
the SEC charging documents, where in earlier the Security Exchange
Commission wrote that in connection with his employment, the finance
employees signed a confidentiality agreement and understood that information he
received related to the exisition was confidential.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
My question is finance employee signed a document contract whatever,
How did he not violate that trust by sharing non
public information with his friend Jordan Kassar.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Duty of care, duty of trust, like all of the.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Due diligence was literally his job.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Yeah, but it's just like he has like these fiduciary
duties totally and he's violated everything.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
In the SEC shifts the responsibility to Jordan Kassar and
says that quote the finance employee expected the Kasar would
keep his additional information confidential, and Kassar was aware that
the finance employee expected him to maintain its confidentiality. Nevertheless,
in breach of his duty of trust, how is that
his duty of trust? Kassar is not employee, he's no
duty of trust his friend in a bar in San Diego.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Oh man, I'm telling you, like.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
The finance employee is the one who breaches Jack in
the Boxes trust. There's the trust that was bridged the
minor League ballplayer. Was he an informant, would know nothing.
He's a cover operating witness. That's why they've changed this
narrative to make it where he's like a hero in
this where he's the actual one. The minor leaguer would
know nothing about the Del Taco deal if finance employee
had been like, hey, I'll get the next round. Oh,
(38:54):
by the way, I gotta tell you what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Did finance employee give the government something on someone else?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
No? I think he just helped bust these minor leaguers.
And there's a lot of them guys compared to the
one of him. I don't know. It doesn't make sense
to me. It really bothered me when I was reading.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
So the SEC argue forty grand total is what we're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I'll tell you that number in a second. I have
to assume that he chose also to testify against his
old college teammates and drinking buddy because he got pissed
that his buddy jeopardized his corporate career while he goes
out and gets to play baseball professionally. While the old
Pepperdin teammate is a former minor leger taking four hour
long Zoom calls about buying Del Taco.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
They all say to each other, not cool broah, Like,
there was a lot of that flying around.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Not cool bro usually But what I know, I mean,
what I okay? Here's why I do know. I know
what happened next. In November, Witherspoon Grant. Wetherspoon bought more
call options after his first series expired, which explains why
he wanted the good news from Kasar. He was getting stretched.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Now, by the end of November, Witherspoon was holding a
fresh batch of two hundred and four call options, all
set to expire on January twenty first, twenty twenty two.
Kasar had on similarly. Now the minor leaguers wait for
the big news that Jack in the Box is gonna
buy Del Taca, and wait for Wall Street fat cats
to hear about it because they're on the inside. Here's
the big news at IF Teased Monday, December sixth, twenty
(40:14):
twenty one, Jack in the Box announces the corporation plans
to buy Del Taco. Wall Street goes nuts. Stock price
of Taco jumps to the tune of sixty six percent.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Between October and December, when the deal was first announced,
the price of Deltaco was never higher than eight sixty seven.
When the jack in the box the deal goes through,
the stock shoots up to twelve fifty one.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Okay, see it's some good amount, especially so you ask
how much the text thread all the minor leaguers, they
made a combined one hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars
in profit between them.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Kasar made fifty six thousand, five hundred. Grant Witherspoon made
forty two thousand, eight hundred. So yes, they didn't make
a lot. They made enough to buy like a good
used car, maybe a little bit better than that.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
But Pete, we have at the highest side us truck
these billions of dollars, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars
in crypto insider training, and these guys.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Go find like und this is the SEC is going after.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
That's great, that's a great use of our read So.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Jordan Kasar, by the way, didn't just hook up his
homies with the insider trading before the deal went down.
He also spread the legal risk to his family. He
told his dad about the Del Taco deal, and his
father bought some Del Taco act.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Why didn't they all like, you get the Del Taco stock,
but then like buy a bunch of other fast food stock,
and then that's your cover. And you're like, listen, man,
that's pandemic. And people are they they want to go
to drive throughs. They can't sit in a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Let me do the what you mafia accountant?
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Oh wait, did you just tell her you do?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
So some of the other miner they goes on that
text said they told their family and friends as well
about the Del Taco money tree, and many of them
bought Del Taco options before the deal was announced. You
can see where this is going.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
The price up themselves.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Basically, there was so many people aware of this deal
that were buying stock options before the Del Taco announcement
that the trading volume became suspicious, so the SEC launched
an investigation. A list was generated of all the folks
who were purchasing stock options and sold them when the
deal was announced. Yea, And the list was passed around
at Jack in the Box headquarters, going, is any of
(42:22):
your friends or family on this list?
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (42:24):
No, and yes. So the implication was that there was
insider trading. So when the finance employee was shown the list,
he recognized He recognized two names his old teammates from Pepperdine,
Jordan Gisar and Grant Witherspoon, And so then he got
apparently got mad. Apparently that's when he decided to become
a cooperating witness for the SEC. And maybe it was
to protect himself from the scrutiny, you know, once they'd
figure out like, wait a minute, they both know you.
(42:46):
Or maybe because he was just genuinely embarrassed and angry
and didn't expect Kassar to pull insider trading. I don't know.
Perhaps he knew that they might do this because they
knew that they were impoverished minor leaguers, and that's why
he got out of being a minor leaguer and joined
Corporate America. And he just got pissed when it circled
back to threaten his life in Corporate America. He's like, no,
you boys of Summer don't get it. Do this, you know.
(43:06):
I don't know, but I'm just speculating. I don't know
what the dude was thinking a feeling. I just know
his testimony will likely be key to busting sold teammates. Now,
December fifth, two one twenty four, three years and four
days after the announcement of the Del Taco news hit
Wall Street, the SEC had the big announcement of their own.
The Commission obtained a final judgment against Jordan Kassar, Grant Witherspoon,
(43:28):
their co defendant, Austin Bernard. Kassar was ordered to pay
back the fifty six thousand, four hundred and seventy dollars
in profits, but not only that, he also had to
pay a nine nine hundred and eighty six dollars in
pre judgment interest. He had to pay sixty three thousand,
one hundred and ninety four dollars in civil penalties. So
that's a grand total of one hundred and twenty nine thousand,
(43:48):
six hundred and fifty dollars. The other co defenders had
to do the same, return the profits and pay civil
fees and interest. But that wasn't all, because in March
of twenty twenty four, the US Attorney's Office for the
Southern District of California decided to file criminal charges against
the minor league inside traders. So now Jordan Kassar Grant,
whether it's been Austin Bernard and Chase Lambert are all
(44:09):
having to face these charges criminally. Thus I say, allegedly
they did these things.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
What's wild to me is how they all have baseball
sounding names totally right, you know, like they all sound
like ballplayers.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, Chase Lambert space like.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Austin Bernard, that's on more basketball because of how he
keeps saying it. But Jordan Casar, they're all ballplayer names.
Their case is in still in federal court, so I
don't know I'm pulling for them. I'm pouring for you guys.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Unless they're terrible people.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
They're in twenty years in federal prison. That's the maximums
the same thing that the President calls a golf outing.
They're looking at It just doesn't seem fair to me.
I mean, sure about ever six months in minimum security
federal facility. I get it, we need to like slap
them on their wrist, but twenty years is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
The ain't get a heads up on a tariff carve.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Out, No, they don't have enough to buy one now,
So I'd say that's all I got for you, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
So what's our ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 3 (45:04):
You've got to think of your cover man, like, don't
do it on options, just going on a buying spree
of a bunch of fast food and then just hold
it and it's not you. It's like you know your
cousin that you trust.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Options is you don't have to buy it. You know.
That was they went a little cheap on the.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
They cheaped out. You know, it takes money to make money, baby,
what's your takeaway?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
They should remember that they were not players. They were
ball players, Like you know, you're not big money players.
Come on now, like they're talking about like strike crisis
and stuff like, come on, like you got to stay
in your lane, you know, like drive that lane.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yeah, I talk big, I'm not I'm not buying all
these things. No, I know up from down. No, I
don't have the money for it.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
There's that as well. Yeah, you the move for a talkback?
Yes a d Can you favor us with one? Hell get.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Hello?
Speaker 5 (46:07):
Ridiculous Crime Central. M Allen reporting from the field in
regards to your recent EPI about David O.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Russell.
Speaker 5 (46:17):
It recalled for me the time in college when I
was assigned to watch that film and report on the
experience that film being spanking the monkey. Now I had
purchased nachos, not knowing what kind of film it was.
I was crunching nachos when it was very awkward.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Many were leaving.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
That's amazing for taking us back to that awkward, awkward moment. Yeah, yeah,
the theater eating the natchos when the bad thing starts
happening on screen, and then the old couple gets up
and walks out, and the middle aged couple gets up
and walks out.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Why do they sell nachos for the theater so loud?
Speaker 2 (46:59):
That is a good point.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Thank you. Yeah, I don't know, I'll take it up
with management.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
That's always you find us online Ridiculous Crime on the
social media's We also we have a Ridiculous Crime pod
on YouTube. Go check that out and recommend people and
you know, go, you know, listen to it. We also
have our website, ridiculous Crime dot com and we obviously
love your talkback, so please go to the iHeart app,
download it and leave a talkback. Maybe we get to
(47:25):
be favored by your voice, wouldn't that be nice? Also,
you can email us if you like at ridiculous Crime
at gmail dot com. Please start the email Dear producer
d Well, that's all I got for you. Thank you.
We'll catch you next time and next crime. Ridiculous Crime
is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton, m Zennie Brinette produce an
(47:46):
edited by the Ivan Bosky to our Enron Accounting Department
Dave Gustin and starring Analy's Rutger as Judid. Research is
by the inventor of the credit default swap versus Brown.
Our theme song is by Thomas who wants to buy
derivative us at Lee An Travis who were all these
corporate welfare queens Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany
(48:07):
five hundred, guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and the
miss Andre. Executive producers are Ben I've always preferred Del
Taco to Taco Bell boldin Panol. Yeah, Well, I prefer
Jim Boys Tacos Brown.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
We cry say it one more time, Geek Cry.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.
My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth Zaren, Hey, how you doing good?
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Good good?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I got another question for you while you got your
game face on. You know, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
He too. It's more ridiculous, I think than cocaine bearing
to me by a lot of people. But first and
foremost number one in my heart producer Dave sent me
this that this this lady. She's driving in Ohio. She
got pulled over and when the cops looked in the
(00:32):
driver's seat, there was Chewy. Chewy Chewy not the pet
supply website and not Chewa and not my favorite Star
Wars entity, well one of my favorite Chewy. No, this
was a raccoon named Chewy, and Chewy what's special about
Chewy Chewy had a glass meth pipe in its.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Vag in the car.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sitting in the driver's seat that the cops had just
pulled over. And so this woman, I'm not going to
share her name. She's shamed enough. She gets busted right
like drug possession.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Where she seated in the car, it's not entirely.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Clear like is she well that's something like was Chewy
on her lap or did she be like, you know,
the classic like, oh, I got warrants, you drive, and
so like they they they stop this car, right, and
I guess because like whatever pipe you can only imagine,
(01:30):
like with the stuff that they found, they found meth
crack three other pipes aside from the one in Chewie's
mom okay, and they pulled him over because like the
there was an active warrant of course suspended drivers. Yeah,
for the driver, she gets cited for drug possession, three
counts of drug paraphernalia, driving under suspension. She could face
(01:56):
more charges of crack possession depending on the outcome of
some results. The raccoon fine safe, not not hooked, not Johnson's.
But they they made sure that the raccoon had proper paperwork,
which Chewy did. This woman is riding around in a
(02:19):
methmobile with like a bunch of trash and all sorts
of other stuff, but she had all the paper and
documentation necessary to own a pet raccoon in Ohio. So
all the rest of her life is spinning out, going crazy.
But you ain't taken a round scatter permits down for
Chewy because Chewy's legal, right, and that's why she's like
(02:41):
I have Lawrence Chewy, you got papers you're driving?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Turns out her phone and her rent also in Chewy's name.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
What else? Oh my god, what's Chewy's credit score?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Is my question? That Saren, Chewey's seen some stuff, Saren,
that little trash panda. He knows things that.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
He shouldn't know, Little Opposi. Yeah, that's ridiculous, Yeah it is,
That's what I'm saying, Zaren, It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But meth Raccoon. You got Coke Bear? Yeah, now we
got meth Raccoon.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I can't wait to see the movie they make out
of this one.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah, goodbye, We're done the end.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I really don't know where to go from there, so
just just pretend that this is like anywhere near as
entertaining for the next forty minutes. You got it. I
love baseball, me too. Oh I was wondering about that, right,
because I know you've had some recent updates in your
love life with baseball. Yes, I have lost your team.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I did well. I lost a team. I gained a team. Oh,
how so the Oakland A's, who will always be the
Oakland A's. They're off playing in some crap box, kitty
litter box and at Sacramento in like nine thousand degree heat.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh wait for July.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I I know one.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Hundred and twenty degrees maybe, like they can press it.
Like I'm talking on the field, like one hundred and
eighteen hundred fourteen coming they get.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
That's what you get when you cross us. I am
now into the Oakland Ballers, oh, which is like a
minor minor minor league team. That's super fun.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
They just signed an extension at ten year lease on
the park where they play in Oakland and West Oakland,
and it's like kind of we're all the cool people.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Okay. Oh, like I'm glad you're not becoming a San
Francisco Giants fan. You to the minor league, you know what.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
To heck with MLB? Oh yeah, I like the sport
and apparently, like you know, so to a bunch of
other people who just want to see people play cool baseball.
So Oakland Ballers roll credits.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Now, Well you're in luck because I have a story
for you about minor league criminals. Oh yeah, it's a
humorous distraction from the travails.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Humorous.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, these guys.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Can I tell you something, I got that new Pope glow.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Oh, I noticed, that's what that is. It's coming off. Yeah,
it's nice, pretty good. Well, these guys, Elizabeth, they take
their turning it about, so to speak. They go play
in the big leagues a financial fraud and insider trading.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Wait, so there's no actual baseball.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Maybe this is ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and
(05:32):
outrageous capers, heights and cons. It's always ninety nine percent
murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous nutrageous, Elizabeth, Our
story today begins with the Tampa Bay Rays minor league
farm system. Okay, what do you know about the Tampa
Bay Rays farm clubs?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Not a thing?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, you are in luck if I happen to have
everything you'd ever want to know or need to know
about the Tampa Bay Rays farm teams. They the system.
It's a loose constellation of teams in different leagues and
even different countries. For instance, there's a team in the
Florida Complex Leagues, the Florida Complex League Rays, which sounds
like a club in the Florida State penal system.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
But yeah, there are also two teams in the Dominican
Summer League. They are there. That's they're the DSL Rays
and the DSL Tampa sounds kind of kinky.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
There's also the famous minor league club, the Durham Bulls.
They started out as the Durham Tobacconists. That's an old
school name, right, That's like the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. Yes,
now we'll come back to the Durham Bulls in a second.
But there's my favorite, the Montgomery Biscuits in the Southern League.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Oh yeah, they have a good like hat or logo,
because I'm all about those weird Southern leagues, Like I
like the I used to go to some of them
when I live down there, and they've got it's just
like Savannah Bananas. Their their big showtime showbiz guys.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This is their mascot.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Oh wow, okay, I need something that Montgomery.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Isn't that nice? Yeah. So you've got like a biscuit
that's like, it looks like it's talking to you. Its
mouth is open.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
But biscuit that didn't talk to you in SAE.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
That is very is that just like when you're on PCP.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Either one the Biscuits be talking. There's also the Charleston
River Dogs, the infamous Carolina League. Yeah, you never see
one of their games.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
You, I think, so, I think, is that where the
Florence Swamp Foxes?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Perhaps after.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Francis Mary is Mary?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, thank you?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, but like Savannah Bananas, like when I was living
down there, they were just sort of coming up, and
now they're the media darlings for all their dance.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh that's right, yeah, well they do all the day
stand there on the pictures Mound.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I was on their mailing list for a long time,
and I know, isn't that cool for me? And I
kept competing unsubscribed and it wouldn't really, they would not
stop button. I keep a tight rein on my inbox.
I unsubscribe from everything.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Really, that's why you don't respond my email.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yes, I unsubscribed from you. But like if I buy
something and they immediately send me a newsletter, I go
through and I unsubscribe really immediately, and then I keep
a mental list of who doesn't participate in that.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Boy, do I have a weekend task for you I'd
love for you to do in my email inbox?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
How many unread emails do you have in your inbox
right now? What?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah? I don't. They just grow each day because I
just let some of them go and I mark some
and I keep some that I want to refer to later.
How many do you think, dating back over all the
years and now it's I think it's forty three.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
And read how many do you think I have?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Two?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Zero?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Zero, of course zero since the show started, maybe in my.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
All my email accounts.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I'm proud as you should be.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I should be so, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, I really, I mean, I'm patting you on the back,
but your hangout in the way. So there's also let's
see a club, the Bowling Green Hot Rods. That's another
they're in the Midwest League. Yeah, they're mascots. It's like
an uninspired rip off of the New Jersey Devil. So
we won't look into that. But anyway, Elizabeth, speaking of
minor league baseball, Bold Durham. That movie do you know
(09:13):
that one? Right? The cost Yes, the eighties baseball rom
com classic and it's about the Durham Bulls, but they
flip it and make a Bull Durham. And yeah, Kevin
Costner is the star. He's crashed Davis and he's this
catcher who's this veteran who gets knocked about in the league.
Now he's back in the Minors, Tim Robbins. Yeah, Susan
(09:34):
Sarandon is like the minor league, very sophisticated groupie. Yes,
quite the story. She plays any Savoy, Right, there's nuper Lush,
Andy Savoy and Crash Davis and so they all have
their little minaja twaba of like spirits. I don't know,
it's it's.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's a different edition of the movie totally.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well it's eighties. It's avery eighties. But Sports Illustrated called
it the number one greatest sports movie of all time. Yeah,
what you think about has some real strong competition. There's
like the Natural, there's Hoosers.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Well, there's the other cost Field a dream field a
dreams and my favorite.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Longest yard, longest yard, major League Major's yard, and then.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
The Sids a playbook. But aside from.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That, mine, thanks for asking, is Bones Brigade for the
Search for Anibal Chin.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Oh my god, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
What about what about Freedom? Starring two of your favorite people,
Sylvester Stallone and Pele Wait. I'm not I'm not familiar
with Freedom. It is Uh yeah, you gotta go out
and rent that. It is a wh shared the screen.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Okay, we're on it.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Oh my goodness, you.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Brought in, you know, like extreme sports of skateboarding. Well,
then we've got thrashing totally cut.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Oh my gosh, well.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Are you ready to bicycle book?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You're ready to meet today's purpse?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yes, I pray it has nothing to do with baseball,
nothing to do with bulderham that all of this was
just a oh yeah, side quest.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Totally, the side quest just to set. This is setting
the table and then we're gonna now clear the table.
These appetizers get into the meal. It's next door. So
today's purse real life minor league ballplayers though, so they
do have that. Okay, Okay, I like these guys, a
bunch of California guys. One dude's from Colorado, but like
they're most of them California guys forgiven, and I'm rude
for them at every point in this story. I just
(11:26):
want to make that clear. These are my dudes, unless
they later like milkshake duck, and in that case, no,
they never knew. These dudes did know what dudes who
as my But for now.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
My maneld that man.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So Elizabeth first up is the mastermind. Jordan Kassar twenty
eight and twenty twenty four. I only I don't know
their exact birthdates, so I'm going to tell you their
birth their age according to their charging documents. Twenty eight
and twenty four, so late of alcohol in California alcohol.
He was a bright ball prospect back when he started
for Pepperdine University in a malibuu.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, right on the water.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Totally beautiful. Yeah, he finessed that into a spot in
the Tampa Bay Rays farm system. Thus our discussion of
the Tampa Bay Rays. Then there's Grant Witherspoon, aged twenty
seven in twenty twenty four. He's from the Denver suburb
of Littleton, Colorado. He played ball with Jordan Kassar in
the Rays farm club system. Apparently he's still playing ball
in Mexico.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Oh, there's also Austin Bernard. He was twenty seven in
twenty twenty four. He's from San Diego suburb of Oceanside, California.
You know, I love that town. It's one of those
blue collar beach towns and like, yeah, I need to
go take a weekend down there. Anyway, we get back
to I'm aa drive the lane like I was. Evan Bernard, sorry,
Austin Bernard. So he was also on that same Pepperdine
(12:42):
team with Jordan Kassar. After that, he also managed to
get a spot in the farm system and he bounced
around the miners for a while. He's still knocking about
in baseball currently. Most recently he signed to play for
a team in India.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
India India Baseball.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah yeah, And last day there's Chase Lambert. He was
twenty twenty twenty four. He's from Malibu, which is also
where Pepperdine is located, so hometown. He played ball there
with Jordan Kassar and he's out of baseball now. He's
an electrician in Malibu and he coaches baseball.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
He's making way more than ballplayers.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, minor league ballplayers for real, So those are our
main players now. To be clear, Jordan Kassar and Grant
Witherspoon were the ones who were drafted by the Tampa
Bay Rays in twenty eighteen. They're the real goers. They're
the ballplayers professional griding right. Witherspoon was apparently the better prospect.
He went in the fourth round. Chase Lambert was also
then drafted later on by the Pittsburgh Pirates, so he's
also in the the minor league Major League farm system.
(13:36):
Now he knew Kassar and Bernard from their days at Pepperdine. Now, anyway,
Jordan Kassar Witherspoon, they joined the Tampa Bay Rays farm
system together. They become roommates on the road, they become
close friends. Later they become co conspirators. But that's lately,
you know. So what did my guys do? Great question, Elizabeth,
thank you. What were their crimes? It was financial fraud.
That was their swinging the big leagues of insider trading.
(13:59):
So at the moment they're facing twenty years in prison
and five million dollars in fines, and their cases are undecided,
all four of them still in the Southern District of
California federal court system. So at every point of today's story,
please imagine I'm saying allegedly.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, yeah, but a lot of is documentary.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
A lot of is documented, but in any case, it's not allegedly.
So quick question, what do we know about the financial
life of a professional minor league ballplayer?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Oh it's tough, It's brutal, really actually tough.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I did a little reading up on life in the
minor leagues in twenty nineteen eighty six, percent of minor
league ball players live below the American poverty line, which
at the time was twelve four hundred and ninety dollars
a year. That means eighty six percent of minor leaguers
made less than twelve grand a year.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
And they're like, think about it, these dudes are down
in like southern California totally.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
They have to pay rent. Some of them are parents,
they got childcare, and they're making in the right. They're
a salary Bayscood ranch between six grand and fifteen grand
and else. Keep in mind, they get paid for six
months of work, but they have to do in the
rest of the year. Keep in shapes. They got to
pay trainers or at least a gym membership, all sorts
of things, right growth exactly, you gotta get your HDAs.
(15:10):
So minor leagues have pushed for a pay raise, and
they cite the number of sixty grand. That's what they
would like to ask for the reasonable living wage for them. Now,
Major League Baseball, it ain't hurting. In twenty nineteen, will
have some actual strong data. MLB brought in ten point
seven billion dollars in revenue.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I think they can break some off for them to give.
It's why, this is why not a big MLB fan,
I get it now.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It would cost each team about fifteen million dollars to
pay their minor leaguers a livable salary of sixty grand.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
They've got that now.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Also keep in mind, twenty four out of the thirty
Major league teams the owners are billionaires. Yeah, so there's
that as well. It's not they're hurting, you know. It's
all they're like, this is how I gotta feed my kids
with the baseball team. You probably it's not happening now.
The US Congress did step into this pray to pass
new legislation. Only trouble was US Congress legislated on the
behalf of the billionaire owners. In twenty eighteen, US Congress
(16:02):
passed this thing called Save America's Pastime Act. The new
bill exempted minor league players from protections under federal labor laws.
Then that new law also allowed Major league understack. Like
minor leagues, are are contract players without a union or
collective bargaining, which means the owners they don't have to
pay them appropriately because they're just lucky to be pro athletes.
They got the dream, they got hope. That's what they
(16:22):
should be happy with.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I don't save the America's pastime.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah so they Yeah, no, anyway, Now, to be fair,
in twenty twenty one, Major League Baseball did improve the
living standards for minor leaguers after the issue bubbled up
to the point that it was in the press.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah during COVID, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So minor leaguer Cam Cursey, who's the infielder for Hillsboro Hops.
He told the outlet perfect union quote. So my housing
last year, I was living in a town home garage
and so I was on the bottom level living in
a garage. It was like eighty five square feet no heat. Nowhere.
Fast forward to this year. The Diamondbacks didn't out standing job.
They put all of us up in apartments for an
(17:00):
Wi Fi, own bedrooms, TV, anything you could need. They
got their own bedrooms, Elizabeth Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And running water.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
No. But I mean I joke, but I mean they
are making some concessions. But there's so much more room to.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Go and being with professional athletes, and they did it.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Mostly, as you point out, because of COVID.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Yeah, everyone saw it. But like you, with professional athletes,
I know that they're overpaid and like to an obscene extreme,
but they do need to make a lot of money
each season because their careers are so short as well.
You know, it's like not like if you're just in
the workforce and you got like, however many and proportional
to the value they create, the value they create, the
(17:37):
damage that they do to their bodies. For our entertain
they need to be compensated.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And they should be gloried a bit. I mean, we
all want them as heroes. That involves some compensation, right exactly.
There's that ancient gladiator who made like billions.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, yeah, let's get back to that.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So, uh, the big change, as I said, was housing,
but they still earn poverty wages. So there you go.
This which now brings us to our league ball players
who turned ridiculous criminals. So after these messages, I'll tell
you how they tried to improve their material conditions pull
themselves out of poverty with some old fashioned crime insider trading.
(18:11):
Yes back in two and two, Elizabeth, we're back. So
(18:35):
you're ready to talk minor league financial crimes, of course,
So first we need to get to hear some terms.
Since I know that neither of us have the skill
to well anyone would call financial literacy good zero right,
like I am financially illiterate. Like first up? Do you
know how the stock market has a ticker?
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, we're both good there, Buch. The companies they get
symbols that represent them on the ticker. You know about that, right,
and they get to pick their symbols as long as
nobody else has it. So today we have a couple
of companies, Del Taco, they had a stock market tick
or symbol. Do you know what theirs was? No Taco
Taco four letters taco because it's gotta be short. Yeah,
(19:11):
Taco is short, and Dell's lame because Dell already took
it computer company, I think. Anyway, but those days were
gone because in twenty twenty two, Jack in the Box
purchased Del Taco and turned it into a subsidiary, wiping
off them off the stock market. You want to guess
what the stock market symbol for Jack in the Boxes jack?
Yep is Jack four letters jack, which means Jack replaced
(19:31):
Taco on the stock market, which just seems like a
blow against whimsy.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Anyway, San Diego based fast food chain Jack in the
Box is now one of the biggest Burger chains.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
It's space in San Diego. It was, Yeah, it's not good.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Shame on the state Diego. Nowhere else from love. So
it's the corporate culture of San Diego and Jack in
the Boxes where our story takes place. So you're gonna
love this, Elizabeth. The story is about, as I said,
southern California boys. But Austori also involves Del Taco, southern
California icon of food, and of course, insider trading, a
(20:07):
California tradition. So, according to the federal indictment documents, minor
league ballplayer Jordan Kasar was home in San Diego. It
was October twenty twenty one, and while he was home,
he went out with some friends for some drinks. One
of his friends was an old college friend from his
days back at Pepperdine. The old friend was now a
corporate executive. Specifically he worked at Jack in the Box. Okay,
but back at Pepperdine, the old friend was also on
(20:27):
the baseball team. So these are like jock buddies.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And then but his dreams of being a pro athlete
didn't like wither and die there. He went on to
go play minor league baseball two for a while, but
eventually he put down his batting gloves and he picked
up a tie, and he went to work for Corporate America.
And so these two, though, they remained friends and now
they're hanging out. And according to the SECED indictment, the
friend is always referred to as finance employee, which to
(20:50):
tell you he's a cooperating witness. Yeah, yeah, what changed
between friendly drinks in October twenty one and cooperating witness
and federal court in twenty twenty five? Great question, Elizabeth,
thank you. So the deal was Jack in the Box
was planning on buying Deltaco. Yeah, No, one outside of
Jack in the Box Corporate was supposed to know that.
But the finance employee knew about it. He was the
(21:12):
financial analyst department for Jack in the Box, so he
was aware of the company's plans to acquire Deltaco. And
according to the sec complaint quote, the finance employee had
knowledge of the acquisition was responsible for, among other things,
tasks related to the acquisition due diligence process. Oh so, now,
normally when the old friends would get together for drinks,
they talk about the usual suspects, romantic hookups, travel, relationships
(21:36):
and how their personal money was affecting their lives. But
that October they talked about m and A, MNA and
finance talk. M and A stands for mergers and acquisitions. Yes,
and the finance employee let Jordan Kassar know about the
impending deal for Deltaca that he was all involved up in,
and how once Wall Street found out about this planned acquisition,
(21:56):
Deltaco's stock would skyrocketing value as soon it would be
Jack in the box stock. So, anyway, we need to
pause and discuss a few more financial terms. Do you
know what a stock option is.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, it's when you're given the like the option you
will be getting these stocks. Generally, it's like either your
employment or you know, part of that kind of package
or retirement. You know, I don't know if.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I'm right, You're basically right. I had to I did
not know how to define this well, so I'm going
to lean on the sec charging documents. Quote. A stock
option gives its purchase holder the right, but not the obligation,
to buy or sell shares of an underlying stock at
a specified price per share the strike price, but then
a specific period of time prior to the expiration date
(22:44):
the expiration. Now, if you want to buy an option,
they're sold as contracts switch. According to the SEC Charging documents,
the contract quote is, gives the option holder the opportunity
to buy or sell one hundred shares of an underlying stock.
This is on average. Now, there's also something called a
call option. Back to the SEC charging documents for our definitions. Quote.
A call option gives a purchase holder of the option
(23:06):
the right to purchase a security at a specified strike
price prior to expiration. A call option is out of
the money when the strike price is above the current
market price of the underlying security, and in the money
when the strike price is below the market price. Sure
is this all making sense so far?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yes? Sure?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Okay. The idea is a buyer is out of the
money on their call option, then they anticipate a move
on the market and positions themselves relative to what they
believe is an undervalued price, or if there's insider trading,
what they know is an undervalued price because there's about
to be big news which will drive the price up
and drive it up before the option expires, or adversely
drive it down because there's about to be bad news.
(23:47):
But if you know some news. It's about a dramatically
effective price of a stock. You can get an option
ahead of time, or a bunch of them that are
set for a price. Okay, all right, so the options
are Lastly, options are listed in series, which means the
options on the stock have the same price and expiration date.
So you get a series of these options and they
all package together. All right. So that's all the finance
talk for now. Okay, back to Jordan Kassar and the
(24:09):
finance employee, now finance employee. He's a senior associate and
strategic finance for Jack in the Box. He's high up,
muckety muck. He's got the big title, long one.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
He's like in the airport. He's got his blue tooth
in and he's talking so loud.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh, you recognized the type.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And then you know he's like, I'm just gonna have
a cocktail. It's five o'clock somewhere.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, it's eleven am on a Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
In the airport.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Before September twenty twenty one, he learned about the finance employee.
He learned about the upcoming Del Taco deal, right, and
he's responsible for coordinating due diligence, as we said, So
it means he's going to do analysis and for this acquisition,
which means importantly, he knows the timing of the deal structure.
He knew when a potential sale would become news, and
he knew that if anyone knew what he knew, they
(24:56):
could buy a stock option and it would skyrocket when
the news broke and they'd be very, very well, much
wealthier than they were before. Now, Elizabeth, they call that
insider trading. Yes, they did all the rage today, you
see it all the time, but when some minor leaguers
try to get in on the action, suddenly it's a crime.
Al So, anyway, Jordan Kassar, he goes out drinking with
(25:17):
the old friend, finance employee. He hears about this upcoming
deal and his friend's bragging about it. And remember he's
making poverty wages. So what does he do with his
rare chance for a come up? You guessed it. He
buys Del Taco options.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
At the time, Del Taco stock was trading at eight
dollars and seventy four cents a share right, which was
inexpensive enough for an impoverished minor leaguer, he could get
into the stock market, get himself a series of options. Sure,
he's big balling it now, right only Jordan Kassar also
tried to hook up his friends, his fellow impoverished minor leaguers. Yeah,
so he tells his buddy and former Pepperdine teammate, Grant Witherspoon,
(25:51):
And he told a couple other minor league teammates. And
in October of twenty twenty one, Jordan Kassar, Grant Witherspoon,
they report back for baseball training camp. Right, so they're
down in Florida. So they talked to Taco and Jack
and how they could use that to make some easy
money from insider trading. Right. The trouble was they were
new to financial crimes in insider trading. They didn't know
how the action really goes down, so, or rather where
(26:13):
it goes down. Like there's a reason why CEOs do
business on the golf course. Yeah, you know what that
reason is. No microphones, no paper trail, no microphone, nothing
gets generated by a conversation at the tea box on
the sixteenth hole. Yeah, exactly, So they go out there
the conduct business where no one can hear them or
document it unless you're like wired. Right now, Kasar and
his fellow minor leaguers they don't know about golf and
(26:34):
insider trading because they decided to text about it. So
in their initial text they talk about potential insider trading,
and they talked about how from going forward this is
non public information, it could be considered illegal. So if
they act on this, So they text about how they
can create a convincing scrim like a beard if you will,
to hide their true intentions of insider trading.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Now, not only did they document their crimes in text messages,
they also documented how they plan to hide their crimes
as well. Oh no, so that confirms for any federal
court that they were fully aware that they were doing crimes. Now,
the plan was they'd start texting about how good Del
Taco looked as a stock purchase. These minor leaguers suddenly
just took an interest in Del Tako.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Wait, so they're like texting back and forth. Here's how
we're going to establish a paper trail. As they're establishing
the wrong kind.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Then they like wait like a week and they're.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Like, okay, group chat exactly, Hey, guys, they's.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Need to discovery. They'll just start once we say Del
Taco and move forward. I guess so went back to
the Copper. They're on the baseball team. The Munch minor
leaguers now all over the country, start a text threat
about how hungry they are for Del Taco socks now,
(27:48):
despite the fact they'd never text about the stock market prior.
They thought this sudden interest in Del Taco would cover
them for their insider trading. Now. But do you remember
the Budweiser commercials where they are on a on a
group phone call and when new dudes would join, they say,
what's up right?
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Yes, you do what.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
I want you to keep that energy in mind as
I tell you about the minor leakers text thread. But
rather than just tell you about their text thread, Elizabeth,
I'd like you to close your eyes. I'd like you
to picture Elizabeth. It's October fifth, twenty twenty one. You
are in an apartment in San Diego, California. A breeze
is blowing in the window. You can hear kids playing
(28:25):
whiffleball outside, and you can also hear the distant notes
of someone playing Sublime. Just loud enough, you can faintly
hear Bradley Knowles's voice as he sings about how he
don't practice Santaia. He ain't got no crystal ball. Now.
At this moment in the culture, the world is in
a weird place. At the box office, No Time to
Die is earning millions, so is the sequel venom Let
(28:47):
There Be Carnage. But in the culture, COVID nineteen is
still raging, So those numbers are rather impressive for a
box office in a pandemic. Now, Elizabeth, I'd tell you
the top selling albums, but I doubt you know any
of their names. It's a strange moment in the culture.
At the moment, you are just chilling because you are
Jordan Kassar's cell phone. Your lock screen is a photo
of the Del Taco signage, not your favorite, but you
(29:08):
get it. It's a joke because it seems that's all
Jordan Kassar is texting about these days, the stock price
at Del Taco. Your chill is interrupted, and you feel
Jordan's fingers wrap around you and lift you off the couch.
He's texting again, his fingers fly. A moment later, you
buzz with a responding text. It's his buddy Grant Weatherspoon.
You recognize his phone number. He texts often, and seemingly
(29:31):
also always about Tuttle Taco. So Witherspoon writes, check out
the stock guys, Del Taco start is looking bullish to me.
Might try to gamble on some options or something I'd
love to eat at Del Taco now. Jordan Kassar laughs
as he reads the text, and he quickly responds. You
feel his fingers punch out a response. He texts, I'm
(29:51):
thinking about it too. Chart looks prime to boom once
it's fifty two week high. A moment later, you vibrate again.
Witherspoon response, eleven ninety nine, could see it hitting ten
dollars easy, and then you feel Jordan Kassar finger out
his response. He writes back, if we break ten new
fifty two week eyes could follow. The payoff could be
(30:13):
ridiculous if we buy the January twenty twenty two call.
You wonder to yourself if he thinks this tissue paper
thin act will trick anyone. But mostly you're just glad
he's not asking you to play his normal playlist, which
sounds like the soundtrack for bottle Service for Douchebags out
Vegas casino, Elizabeth. After the text thread you just witnessed
(30:34):
and sent, everyone on the thread started to purchase Del
Taco call options. And this is my favorite part. Jordan
Kassar wrote in a text message to his future co
conspirators that quote every dollar I earned hustle and is
going to Taco as in the stock symbol for Del Taco.
And then one of his co conspirators texted back, might
take everything out of savings and go all in two witch.
(30:56):
Jordan Gisar texted back, yeah, and catch you case. Oh
very aware, no maybe line. So they're even talking about
catching cases in their cover scram in their little like story.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
They can't totally go to jail for this, and that
would be terrible because there's no Dell Tako there man.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So Juring Kasar he buys.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
He want sponsorships too. Is that the other angle don't get?
They're hoping Dell talk. I wants the back some minor
leaguers exactly. So Jordan Kasar he buys four hundred and
sixty five dollars worth of Dell Taco call options.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
They don't need a lot of money. Four hundred and
sixty five that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Free starts now, great, with thispoon, he had a little
more money saved up. He bought three thousand, six hundred
and eighty three dollars worth of stock options, like a
billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Scam deals going on as you and I see.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
At the presidential level, at the top level.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Multi national, and these guys are getting pinched.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Oh on, yeah, So they get their stock options. They're
set to expire in January twenty.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Twenty twenty eight bucks.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
They got free dealt Taco until the next week they
buy some more options and then so they did others.
Jordan Kassar starts telling others about this upcoming acquisition. As
autumn rolls on, the minor leaguers who were in their
off season, they keep playing at the stock market. Right,
they're all texting each other about Taco stock option prices
and how they crept up to eleven or ten or whatever.
(32:21):
Now the real price of the stock is nowhere near
it's like staying around eight dollars eight to fifty. So
they're talking to early future markets, right. So the minor
leaguers need to get right is the expiration date on
their options. They need to be holding the options when
the merger is announced, and they keep expiring, and so
they're trying to go we have to time, that's right,
and they don't have the money to keep buying, so
it becomes a question, right they need to know when
(32:43):
will the merger be announced? As the best is he
could figure it. Jordan Kassar, I believe the deal was
thing to go down in late twenty twenty one from
what finance employee told him. He's got probably before the
end of the year, So that's what he's telling everybody
in the text, right or maybe early twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
They want to buy it at it's lowest. What do
you mean, like if it's eight dollars when they're talking.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
They just want to be holding a price. They want
to be holding the stock options in the future, and
the then the the sooner the closer to right this
moment they can get them, the price will stay low.
The further in the in the future, the price will
start creeping up for the options because more and more
of this news will start.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Why wouldn't they just buy it all then?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Because they don't. They don't have the money to do that.
And also trying to buy options in a hundred in
groups one hundred or less, you know, the hundred is
the most they can do. Yeah, so or you know,
in a series. So at this point, Jordan Kassar he
texts his friend, the finance employee, and then they start,
you know, chatting. Turns out finance employe is gonna be
(33:39):
taking a long drive to La George's like, hey, i'll
ride with you. So he rides with him. He's like,
I don't know, man, I mean, I'm gonna be talking
on a zoom call most of the call. He's like,
i'll drive you just do the zoom call. So he
texts the others to let them know, Okay, I'll ask
about the taco deal. Well for the zoom call drive,
So he texts the group threat He texts them while
he's on the call, giving them updates and driving. Yeah, well,
(34:00):
I guess he's getting gas, you know whatever was just
say he's getting gas anyway, So he'll be like texting
four hour call, all right, and Witherspoon's responding, that's incredible, right,
And now Jordan Kassar is responding hopefully about the good
good four.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Hour zoom calls.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Four hour zoom calls about m and A. Yeah, So
so he texts, oh, have a full report on Saturday
for you guys, and Witherspoon responds, better be good because
I think they're getting financially stretched. He's like, I'm out
three thousand dollars, man, I can't afford that because that's
like half my salary.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Taco stuck.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
And the trouble is, as I pointed out, Jordan Kassar
does not know when the deal's going down, and he's
hoping that he's gonna hear about it in this call, right,
So the minor leaguers, as they said, they don't want
to be holding worthless paper and expires in January. Now
it's clear he needs to pump finance employee for more
in from the insider trading, specifically when's the deal going
to go down? But after the four hour calls over,
Jordan Cassar doesn't know. He cannot tell from the call
(34:56):
because the date, no dates were mentioned. They were talking
about other aspects of du diligence. So he just straight
up has to ask about the impending timing of the acquisition.
So like, hey, man, when's this all gonna get announced?
So you want me to change the station? So the
finance employee he tells them what he knows, like, he
tells him more non public information. Yeah, and he explains that, Kassar,
(35:17):
you know you overheard some of this in the zoom call, right,
So he's like, he explains what he overheard, then explains
how that affects the timing, and he tells him when
the timing will probably go down for the announcement. So
after that, Jordan Kassar bought more Del Taco stock options.
He went big time at this point. He bought four
ninety nine dollars of Del Taco stock options. I'm thinking
he borrowed money.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
As they say in hip hop, once again, it's on.
So let's take a little break and after these messages,
I'll tell you about how Taco hit the fan. Elizabeth Saron,
(36:07):
we're back, ready to talk more about stock options and
strike prices.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Yes, sir, how would you.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Be handling all of this if you were one of
the ballplayers.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
If I knew about this, Yes I would. I'd take
a trusted relative to lunch somewhere and very quietly explain
the whole thing and tell them they had to go
buy a bunch of stock. Hmm.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It's interesting. I have bad news for you that would
have probably gotten them on a list. Once insider trading
comes out, everyone who bought stock options in that period
of time, he becomes suspect.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, so, but it's not me.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
You would not be. Now, before we get back to
the story, there's something I wanted to bring up, something
that bothered me. In the SEC charging documents, there's this
interesting narrative that's at work threaded all throughout and I quote,
the finance employee expected that Kazar would keep his additional
information confidential, and Kazar was aware that the finance employee
expected him to maintain confidentiality. Nevertheless, in breach of his
(37:02):
duty of trust and confidence to the finance employee, Kassar
divulged the additional information shared with him. Now, in case
you missed it, the SEC's point is, which they later
repeat to make sure it's clear and well. Here and
I quote, the finance employee trusted Khazar to maintain those confidences,
and Kassar knew that the finance employee expected him to
maintain those confidences and not to misappropriate information shared with
(37:24):
Kazar for his own benefit. So they're blaming Kasar for
this breach of trusts Right now, I refer back to
the SEC charging documents, where in earlier the Security Exchange
Commission wrote that in connection with his employment, the finance
employees signed a confidentiality agreement and understood that information he
received related to the exisition was confidential.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
My question is finance employee signed a document contract whatever,
How did he not violate that trust by sharing non
public information with his friend Jordan Kassar.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Duty of care, duty of trust, like all of the.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Due diligence was literally his job.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Yeah, but it's just like he has like these fiduciary
duties totally and he's violated everything.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
In the SEC shifts the responsibility to Jordan Kassar and
says that quote the finance employee expected the Kasar would
keep his additional information confidential, and Kassar was aware that
the finance employee expected him to maintain its confidentiality. Nevertheless,
in breach of his duty of trust, how is that
his duty of trust? Kassar is not employee, he's no
duty of trust his friend in a bar in San Diego.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Oh man, I'm telling you, like.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
The finance employee is the one who breaches Jack in
the Boxes trust. There's the trust that was bridged the
minor League ballplayer. Was he an informant, would know nothing.
He's a cover operating witness. That's why they've changed this
narrative to make it where he's like a hero in
this where he's the actual one. The minor leaguer would
know nothing about the Del Taco deal if finance employee
had been like, hey, I'll get the next round. Oh,
(38:54):
by the way, I gotta tell you what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Did finance employee give the government something on someone else?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
No? I think he just helped bust these minor leaguers.
And there's a lot of them guys compared to the
one of him. I don't know. It doesn't make sense
to me. It really bothered me when I was reading.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
So the SEC argue forty grand total is what we're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I'll tell you that number in a second. I have
to assume that he chose also to testify against his
old college teammates and drinking buddy because he got pissed
that his buddy jeopardized his corporate career while he goes
out and gets to play baseball professionally. While the old
Pepperdin teammate is a former minor leger taking four hour
long Zoom calls about buying Del Taco.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
They all say to each other, not cool broah, Like,
there was a lot of that flying around.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Not cool bro usually But what I know, I mean,
what I okay? Here's why I do know. I know
what happened next. In November, Witherspoon Grant. Wetherspoon bought more
call options after his first series expired, which explains why
he wanted the good news from Kasar. He was getting stretched.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Now, by the end of November, Witherspoon was holding a
fresh batch of two hundred and four call options, all
set to expire on January twenty first, twenty twenty two.
Kasar had on similarly. Now the minor leaguers wait for
the big news that Jack in the Box is gonna
buy Del Taca, and wait for Wall Street fat cats
to hear about it because they're on the inside. Here's
the big news at IF Teased Monday, December sixth, twenty
(40:14):
twenty one, Jack in the Box announces the corporation plans
to buy Del Taco. Wall Street goes nuts. Stock price
of Taco jumps to the tune of sixty six percent.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Between October and December, when the deal was first announced,
the price of Deltaco was never higher than eight sixty seven.
When the jack in the box the deal goes through,
the stock shoots up to twelve fifty one.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Okay, see it's some good amount, especially so you ask
how much the text thread all the minor leaguers, they
made a combined one hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars
in profit between them.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Kasar made fifty six thousand, five hundred. Grant Witherspoon made
forty two thousand, eight hundred. So yes, they didn't make
a lot. They made enough to buy like a good
used car, maybe a little bit better than that.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
But Pete, we have at the highest side us truck
these billions of dollars, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars
in crypto insider training, and these guys.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Go find like und this is the SEC is going after.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
That's great, that's a great use of our read So.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Jordan Kasar, by the way, didn't just hook up his
homies with the insider trading before the deal went down.
He also spread the legal risk to his family. He
told his dad about the Del Taco deal, and his
father bought some Del Taco act.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Why didn't they all like, you get the Del Taco stock,
but then like buy a bunch of other fast food stock,
and then that's your cover. And you're like, listen, man,
that's pandemic. And people are they they want to go
to drive throughs. They can't sit in a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Let me do the what you mafia accountant?
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Oh wait, did you just tell her you do?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
So some of the other miner they goes on that
text said they told their family and friends as well
about the Del Taco money tree, and many of them
bought Del Taco options before the deal was announced. You
can see where this is going.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
The price up themselves.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Basically, there was so many people aware of this deal
that were buying stock options before the Del Taco announcement
that the trading volume became suspicious, so the SEC launched
an investigation. A list was generated of all the folks
who were purchasing stock options and sold them when the
deal was announced. Yea, And the list was passed around
at Jack in the Box headquarters, going, is any of
(42:22):
your friends or family on this list?
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (42:24):
No, and yes. So the implication was that there was
insider trading. So when the finance employee was shown the list,
he recognized He recognized two names his old teammates from Pepperdine,
Jordan Gisar and Grant Witherspoon, And so then he got
apparently got mad. Apparently that's when he decided to become
a cooperating witness for the SEC. And maybe it was
to protect himself from the scrutiny, you know, once they'd
figure out like, wait a minute, they both know you.
(42:46):
Or maybe because he was just genuinely embarrassed and angry
and didn't expect Kassar to pull insider trading. I don't know.
Perhaps he knew that they might do this because they
knew that they were impoverished minor leaguers, and that's why
he got out of being a minor leaguer and joined
Corporate America. And he just got pissed when it circled
back to threaten his life in Corporate America. He's like, no,
you boys of Summer don't get it. Do this, you know.
(43:06):
I don't know, but I'm just speculating. I don't know
what the dude was thinking a feeling. I just know
his testimony will likely be key to busting sold teammates. Now,
December fifth, two one twenty four, three years and four
days after the announcement of the Del Taco news hit
Wall Street, the SEC had the big announcement of their own.
The Commission obtained a final judgment against Jordan Kassar, Grant Witherspoon,
(43:28):
their co defendant, Austin Bernard. Kassar was ordered to pay
back the fifty six thousand, four hundred and seventy dollars
in profits, but not only that, he also had to
pay a nine nine hundred and eighty six dollars in
pre judgment interest. He had to pay sixty three thousand,
one hundred and ninety four dollars in civil penalties. So
that's a grand total of one hundred and twenty nine thousand,
(43:48):
six hundred and fifty dollars. The other co defenders had
to do the same, return the profits and pay civil
fees and interest. But that wasn't all, because in March
of twenty twenty four, the US Attorney's Office for the
Southern District of California decided to file criminal charges against
the minor league inside traders. So now Jordan Kassar Grant,
whether it's been Austin Bernard and Chase Lambert are all
(44:09):
having to face these charges criminally. Thus I say, allegedly
they did these things.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
What's wild to me is how they all have baseball
sounding names totally right, you know, like they all sound
like ballplayers.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, Chase Lambert space like.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Austin Bernard, that's on more basketball because of how he
keeps saying it. But Jordan Casar, they're all ballplayer names.
Their case is in still in federal court, so I
don't know I'm pulling for them. I'm pouring for you guys.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Unless they're terrible people.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
They're in twenty years in federal prison. That's the maximums
the same thing that the President calls a golf outing.
They're looking at It just doesn't seem fair to me.
I mean, sure about ever six months in minimum security
federal facility. I get it, we need to like slap
them on their wrist, but twenty years is ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
The ain't get a heads up on a tariff carve.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Out, No, they don't have enough to buy one now,
So I'd say that's all I got for you, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
So what's our ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 3 (45:04):
You've got to think of your cover man, like, don't
do it on options, just going on a buying spree
of a bunch of fast food and then just hold
it and it's not you. It's like you know your
cousin that you trust.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Options is you don't have to buy it. You know.
That was they went a little cheap on the.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
They cheaped out. You know, it takes money to make money, baby,
what's your takeaway?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
They should remember that they were not players. They were
ball players, Like you know, you're not big money players.
Come on now, like they're talking about like strike crisis
and stuff like, come on, like you got to stay
in your lane, you know, like drive that lane.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yeah, I talk big, I'm not I'm not buying all
these things. No, I know up from down. No, I
don't have the money for it.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
There's that as well. Yeah, you the move for a talkback?
Yes a d Can you favor us with one? Hell get.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Hello?
Speaker 5 (46:07):
Ridiculous Crime Central. M Allen reporting from the field in
regards to your recent EPI about David O.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Russell.
Speaker 5 (46:17):
It recalled for me the time in college when I
was assigned to watch that film and report on the
experience that film being spanking the monkey. Now I had
purchased nachos, not knowing what kind of film it was.
I was crunching nachos when it was very awkward.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Many were leaving.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
That's amazing for taking us back to that awkward, awkward moment. Yeah, yeah,
the theater eating the natchos when the bad thing starts
happening on screen, and then the old couple gets up
and walks out, and the middle aged couple gets up
and walks out.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Why do they sell nachos for the theater so loud?
Speaker 2 (46:59):
That is a good point.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Thank you. Yeah, I don't know, I'll take it up
with management.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
That's always you find us online Ridiculous Crime on the
social media's We also we have a Ridiculous Crime pod
on YouTube. Go check that out and recommend people and
you know, go, you know, listen to it. We also
have our website, ridiculous Crime dot com and we obviously
love your talkback, so please go to the iHeart app,
download it and leave a talkback. Maybe we get to
(47:25):
be favored by your voice, wouldn't that be nice? Also,
you can email us if you like at ridiculous Crime
at gmail dot com. Please start the email Dear producer
d Well, that's all I got for you. Thank you.
We'll catch you next time and next crime. Ridiculous Crime
is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton, m Zennie Brinette produce an
(47:46):
edited by the Ivan Bosky to our Enron Accounting Department
Dave Gustin and starring Analy's Rutger as Judid. Research is
by the inventor of the credit default swap versus Brown.
Our theme song is by Thomas who wants to buy
derivative us at Lee An Travis who were all these
corporate welfare queens Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany
(48:07):
five hundred, guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and the
miss Andre. Executive producers are Ben I've always preferred Del
Taco to Taco Bell boldin Panol. Yeah, Well, I prefer
Jim Boys Tacos Brown.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
We cry say it one more time, Geek Cry.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.
My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
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