October 24, 2025 • 7 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
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A self-proclaimed “socially conscious” digital bank, Aspiration, promised investors they could save the planet while padding their portfolios—but it all turned out to be a $248 million fraud. In this fiery commentary, the host compares modern “woke capitalism” to Mad Men–era marketing manipulation, arguing that today’s DEI and ESG branding is just the new way to sell self-righteousness. From carbon credit swag bags to fake green audits, this latest collapse shows what happens when virtue signaling replaces due diligence.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
A self-proclaimed “socially conscious” digital bank, Aspiration, promised investors they could save the planet while padding their portfolios—but it all turned out to be a $248 million fraud. In this fiery commentary, the host compares modern “woke capitalism” to Mad Men–era marketing manipulation, arguing that today’s DEI and ESG branding is just the new way to sell self-righteousness. From carbon credit swag bags to fake green audits, this latest collapse shows what happens when virtue signaling replaces due diligence.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Another Dei bank disaster, and I was thinking, I love
that television show mad Men and the advertising agencies through
late nineteen fifties, sixties into the early seventies. I'm trying
to remember the genius there, Don Draper. Did he ever
come up with a advertising campaign that was designed to
(00:45):
basically go after a certain mentality where they would buy
a product because it would make them feel good about themselves,
like that they were bettering the world. I'm trying to
remember if they did anything like that on the show.
I can't recall. But let me tell you something over
the past several years, as far as a marketing strategy,
(01:08):
to go out and you reach out and get people
to become a customer client buy your product, making them
feel like that they're actually making the planet better, making
themselves holier than now. Yeah, you know, the whole Dei cramp.
This is again I call it. It's like liberal porn.
(01:31):
You know, they say like sex cells. You know, you
go back to the old beer commercials, you know, back in
the day, and you know the girls and bikinis and
all that. We get all that. You know, what else
sells to to liberals is anything that will make them
feel better about themselves, justify their meaning for existence. These
(01:52):
are the type of people that you know, they're always
wearing a ribbon or they're they're posting their you know,
various different flags or whatever, you know, symbols up on
their social media pages. Anyway, the co founder of the
now bankrupt environmentally conscious digital bank Aspiration, Look at that name.
(02:17):
He plead guilty to conspire to fleece investors out of
two hundred and forty eight million dollars. Now this uh,
this firm, this bank put itself out there, has socially
conscious online banking. Oh my god, you're gonna be able
(02:38):
to do your banking, and you're gonna be able to
exercis and demons. Yeah remember that at the church, lady, Yeah,
Data Carvey exercise and demon liberals are you got? They've
got a lot, you know, Oh my god, oh my god,
you know, I know I got to exercise my carbon demon.
(03:00):
There's just so much racism in the world. I've got it.
I mean, whatever it may be, Okay, you get them
to think that they are going to do business with
you or spend money with you, it's going to you know,
make them a better human being. They're going to do it.
They're going to do it. They offered investments focusing on
the climate crisis. It also again generated and sold carbon
(03:27):
credits meant to help offset the greenhouse gas emissions. Again,
this is literally how how ridiculous these people are. I
remember this when this first happened. You know how they
have those those swag bags. They have swag bags that
they give to the elites when they show up to
(03:50):
various different events, the Oscars, the Golden Globes, Grammys, and again,
these are businesses out there that are looking to say, oh,
try our product. Maybe they'll be holding our product and
someone will see it and be caught on it and
we can help sell it. So they get these bags
of stuff all free. I remember years and years and
(04:11):
years ago they were sticking carbon credits. Yeah, they were
given carbon credits inside swag bags so the liberals who
were taking private jets wouldn't feel so bad. Again, it
was an actual episode of the Sopranos, Remember that when
they were they were out in La was it? Who
(04:31):
is it that day? Jacked? Was Ben Kingsley and some
I forget who it was. They they took their swag bags.
There was Christopher Molta Santi from the Sopranos, and what
was it the other guy from Miami. But anyway, neither
neither here nor there. Okay, garbage, garbage. Hey again, I
(04:52):
know I've told this story before, but it's worth telling again.
It's a classic. The was it the concert to save
the Planet? I can't remember what year this was, I
really can't. That was al Gore's concert and they had
various different places around the country. Al Gore was in
full swing at this point in time. And again it
(05:14):
was all these rock stars flying by private jet Holton's,
these various different concerts around the globe to save the planet.
And they had a website and they invited people to
go to the website and you would and I did
it because I thought it was kind of funny. So
I went on there and they asked a series of questions,
you know, side how many square feet your houses, cars
(05:35):
you drive, how many people are living in your house
and they're asking all these questions. I didn't give any
personal information. I just want to see what they came
up with. And at the end they congratulated me and
said that I need to send al Gore. I forget
what it was, three four thousand bucks to exercise my
carbon demons or pay a certain amount of money a month.
(05:58):
You know, people actually did that. They actually just sent
Alcore a check. Anyway, this guy back to our story here.
According to the Department of Justice, this guy, Joe Sandberg
defrauded lenders and investors with fraudulent materials describing Aspirations financial condition.
(06:18):
First and foremost, Okay, you can show me whatever books
you got. I see what you're doing for a living.
I know you're full of shit. I know it's bullshit
from the get go. Okay, Anyway, fabricated letter from Aspirations
audit committee that falsely stated Aspiration had two hundred and
(06:40):
fifty million in available cash and equivalents at a time
the company had less than one million, one million. Yeah, yeah,
And he used these fraudulent financial materials to obtain millions
of dollars in additional loans and investments in Aspiration Security.
(07:05):
But are he gonna check, but you know they don't
want to check because he's doing the right thing. It's
green and he's DEI, so you're not gonna check to
make sure the money is actually in the account. Really, anyway,
seeing plenty of these, and we're gonna see plenty more.
(07:25):
Stupid is as stupid does. Thanks for us Gump watch
Dog on Wall Street dot Com.
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Another Dei bank disaster, and I was thinking, I love
that television show mad Men and the advertising agencies through
late nineteen fifties, sixties into the early seventies. I'm trying
to remember the genius there, Don Draper. Did he ever
come up with a advertising campaign that was designed to
(00:45):
basically go after a certain mentality where they would buy
a product because it would make them feel good about themselves,
like that they were bettering the world. I'm trying to
remember if they did anything like that on the show.
I can't recall. But let me tell you something over
the past several years, as far as a marketing strategy,
(01:08):
to go out and you reach out and get people
to become a customer client buy your product, making them
feel like that they're actually making the planet better, making
themselves holier than now. Yeah, you know, the whole Dei cramp.
This is again I call it. It's like liberal porn.
(01:31):
You know, they say like sex cells. You know, you
go back to the old beer commercials, you know, back in
the day, and you know the girls and bikinis and
all that. We get all that. You know, what else
sells to to liberals is anything that will make them
feel better about themselves, justify their meaning for existence. These
(01:52):
are the type of people that you know, they're always
wearing a ribbon or they're they're posting their you know,
various different flags or whatever, you know, symbols up on
their social media pages. Anyway, the co founder of the
now bankrupt environmentally conscious digital bank Aspiration, Look at that name.
(02:17):
He plead guilty to conspire to fleece investors out of
two hundred and forty eight million dollars. Now this uh,
this firm, this bank put itself out there, has socially
conscious online banking. Oh my god, you're gonna be able
(02:38):
to do your banking, and you're gonna be able to
exercis and demons. Yeah remember that at the church, lady, Yeah,
Data Carvey exercise and demon liberals are you got? They've
got a lot, you know, Oh my god, oh my god,
you know, I know I got to exercise my carbon demon.
(03:00):
There's just so much racism in the world. I've got it.
I mean, whatever it may be, Okay, you get them
to think that they are going to do business with
you or spend money with you, it's going to you know,
make them a better human being. They're going to do it.
They're going to do it. They offered investments focusing on
the climate crisis. It also again generated and sold carbon
(03:27):
credits meant to help offset the greenhouse gas emissions. Again,
this is literally how how ridiculous these people are. I
remember this when this first happened. You know how they
have those those swag bags. They have swag bags that
they give to the elites when they show up to
(03:50):
various different events, the Oscars, the Golden Globes, Grammys, and again,
these are businesses out there that are looking to say, oh,
try our product. Maybe they'll be holding our product and
someone will see it and be caught on it and
we can help sell it. So they get these bags
of stuff all free. I remember years and years and
(04:11):
years ago they were sticking carbon credits. Yeah, they were
given carbon credits inside swag bags so the liberals who
were taking private jets wouldn't feel so bad. Again, it
was an actual episode of the Sopranos, Remember that when
they were they were out in La was it? Who
(04:31):
is it that day? Jacked? Was Ben Kingsley and some
I forget who it was. They they took their swag bags.
There was Christopher Molta Santi from the Sopranos, and what
was it the other guy from Miami. But anyway, neither
neither here nor there. Okay, garbage, garbage. Hey again, I
(04:52):
know I've told this story before, but it's worth telling again.
It's a classic. The was it the concert to save
the Planet? I can't remember what year this was, I
really can't. That was al Gore's concert and they had
various different places around the country. Al Gore was in
full swing at this point in time. And again it
(05:14):
was all these rock stars flying by private jet Holton's,
these various different concerts around the globe to save the planet.
And they had a website and they invited people to
go to the website and you would and I did
it because I thought it was kind of funny. So
I went on there and they asked a series of questions,
you know, side how many square feet your houses, cars
(05:35):
you drive, how many people are living in your house
and they're asking all these questions. I didn't give any
personal information. I just want to see what they came
up with. And at the end they congratulated me and
said that I need to send al Gore. I forget
what it was, three four thousand bucks to exercise my
carbon demons or pay a certain amount of money a month.
(05:58):
You know, people actually did that. They actually just sent
Alcore a check. Anyway, this guy back to our story here.
According to the Department of Justice, this guy, Joe Sandberg
defrauded lenders and investors with fraudulent materials describing Aspirations financial condition.
(06:18):
First and foremost, Okay, you can show me whatever books
you got. I see what you're doing for a living.
I know you're full of shit. I know it's bullshit
from the get go. Okay, Anyway, fabricated letter from Aspirations
audit committee that falsely stated Aspiration had two hundred and
(06:40):
fifty million in available cash and equivalents at a time
the company had less than one million, one million. Yeah, yeah,
And he used these fraudulent financial materials to obtain millions
of dollars in additional loans and investments in Aspiration Security.
(07:05):
But are he gonna check, but you know they don't
want to check because he's doing the right thing. It's
green and he's DEI, so you're not gonna check to
make sure the money is actually in the account. Really, anyway,
seeing plenty of these, and we're gonna see plenty more.
(07:25):
Stupid is as stupid does. Thanks for us Gump watch
Dog on Wall Street dot Com.
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