Swindling the Nations w/ Dewayne Perkins

On today’s episode, Laci is joined by stand-up writer, actor, and comedian Dewayne Perkins (The Blackening, One of Them Days) to dive into the con of the century, unraveling the web of lies and false promises spun by John Ackah Blay-Miezah. In a story so wild it could be straight out of a movie—one that Dewayne himself might have written—they also discover how Shirley Temple got caught up in the chaos. Plus, Laci shares a surprising encounter with a cop who asked her out while on duty. Stay schemin'! CON-gregation, catch Laci's new TV Show Scam Goddess, now on Freeform and Hulu! Make sure to catch Dewayne's new TV Show, THE STUDIO on Apple TV + Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci Dewayne Perkins: @dewayneperkins Research by Kathryn Doyle SOURCES https://www.nowherebookshop.com/book/9781635574739?srsltid=AfmBOooPXVErUx3va3mNR1juGoL13-DNqvNPZ4Hhlr70mZr7QcRrxUHT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbZ2TlRVqNA https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/03/con-artist-global-scam-ghana-anansis-gold/ https://www.npr.org/2013/05/22/186048342/how-that-nigerian-email-scam-got-started https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-conman-who-duped-thousands-with-a-patently-absurd-story/ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/18/yepoka-yeebo-anansis-gold-ghanaian-conman

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:19Laci Mosley?

  What's poppin', congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, aka Scam Goddess, back with the podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. I'm gonna say it again, this is a comedy show as well. Sometimes I just have to tell people that when they're new, you know, to church. This is their first time. Stand up if this is your first time at service. All right? Yes, welcome, welcome, welcomes. Yes, y'all already know I'm very what? Yes, excited, elated, melanated as well. Today, we have an amazing guest on the show, a homie of mine. He's an American comedian, writer, actor, and so much more. Also beautiful with great hair. I'm just adding that in. He can be seen starring in the highly anticipated Seth Rogen comedy series, The Studio,

• 2:04Laci Mosley?

  set to premiere on Apple TV+ on March 26, 2025.

• 2:10Laci Mosley?

  Born and raised in Chicago, he received improv training at The Second City and also worked for I O Theater. His stand-up comedy was recommended by Variety Magazine and Just for Last Comedy Festival. He's a primetime Emmy Award nominee. He's a co-writer and star of the horror comedy film, The Blackening, which was so good. Congregation, please welcome Dwayne Perkins to the show.

• 2:35Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, what an intro.

• 2:37Laci Mosley?

  Come on, Dwayne.

• 2:38Speaker 03

  Come on, hello, hello, hello. Thank you for having me back.

• 2:42Laci Mosley?

  We love a returning guest, okay? This is you moving up. Now you handing out programs at church, okay? You in the congregation, okay?

• 2:50Speaker 03

  I love that. I have my white gloves, I'm ready.

• 2:54Laci Mosley?

  You got your white gloves on. You sending people to overflow when we packed. And you also will have to hand out those fans with the popsicle sticks and the photo of Martin Luther King and the advertisement for the funeral home.

• 3:06Speaker 03

  Hmm, I have so many duties. Thank you, I'm honored, honored.

• 3:11Laci Mosley?

  Now, when you come back, you gonna have to hand out the collection plate.

• 3:14Speaker 03

  You know, and I'm ready to praise dance a little, too.

• 3:16Laci Mosley?

  Okay, you know what?

• 3:17Speaker 03

  I've been practicing.

• 3:18Laci Mosley?

  You are a great dancer. You're a phenomenal dancer. I love watching your dance videos when you post them on Instagram sometimes.

• 3:24Speaker 03

  Thank you, I really love dancing. It's a great hobby. It was a profession at one point, but then I said, girl, y'all asking too much of me.

• 3:34Laci Mosley?

  Shout out to the dancers.

• 3:35Speaker 03

  Hello, they do not get enough love.

• 3:37Laci Mosley?

  That's a hustle.

• 3:38Speaker 03

  It really is.

• 3:39Laci Mosley?

  You really have to hustle hard to be dancing.

• 3:41Speaker 03

  Too hard, that's why I quit.

• 3:43Laci Mosley?

  Okay, I couldn't be at Millennium, like, throwing it back every day.

• 3:48Speaker 03

  I tore my ACL just dancing for fun. Can you imagine if that was my job? Crazy, crazy times.

• 3:54Laci Mosley?

  But you know what? Shout out to y'all. Also, like, it's hard for me to do a profession where I know that there's a, like, physical lifespan on it.

• 4:03Speaker 03

  That was the whole thing. I'd be like, oh, I know I can't do this forever.

• 4:06Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  So let me find something I can do, which is be a clown.

• 4:10Laci Mosley?

  Right. We can be old clowns. We can be the oldest clowns and people still be... I would be the Dame Judi Dench of clowns.

• 4:17Speaker 03

  I say, you know, clowning is forever. Dancing is whatever.

• 4:21Laci Mosley?

  For now.

• 4:24Laci Mosley?

  But you know, if you could get out there and chant and tate a middle, you know, get in the.

• 4:27Speaker 03

  You know, I'm trying to make a step up seventeen. Why not?

• 4:31Laci Mosley?

  We need to bring back dance movies.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  I'm trying.

• 4:34Laci Mosley?

  Okay, we were talking about that on Twitter.

• 4:36Speaker 03

  That is a goal of mine. Like, I really think that like, I can do it in like an elevated fun way.

• 4:41Laci Mosley?

  You wrote an excellent hilarious movie. The black ending is so fun. I loved it so much. We were all cracking up in the theater. It was such a fun experience watching it.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  Thank you so much.

• 4:50Laci Mosley?

  Yes. So you could definitely give us a movie where we danced in the rain so we can save the community center or Little Saint or whatever.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  I'm trying to be Jessica Alba in Honey.

• 5:02Laci Mosley?

  Yo, Jessica Alba's acting in Honey is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen.

• 5:07Speaker 03

  It's truly my favorite.

• 5:08Laci Mosley?

  Mama was beautiful. She said, "If y'all want me to act, then I'mma act."

• 5:11Speaker 03

  And she said, "And I'mma bring the urban flavor."

• 5:15Laci Mosley?

  What's up? That's whack.

• 5:18Speaker 03

  Obsessed.

• 5:19Laci Mosley?

  Wiggity whack.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  You gotta do it soon because the knees are giving out.

• 5:24Laci Mosley?

  Yo, Honey was hilarious. It's honestly a comedy. They just didn't know it was a comedy?

• 5:28Speaker 03

  No, it one hundred percent was.

• 5:31Laci Mosley?

  Did they know it was a comedy?

• 5:33Speaker 03

  No. But the world did. The world did. Absolutely.

• 5:37Laci Mosley?

  We're like, "Y'all are being funny."

• 5:38Speaker 03

  We said, "Oh, this is hilarious. This is cute."

• 5:41Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 5:41Speaker 03

  We love the circumstances of this.

• 5:43Laci Mosley?

  Of all of it.

• 5:44Speaker 03

  Of this, yes.

• 5:44Laci Mosley?

  Of this, of what you're doing, okay? Hilarious. And now she got the Honest Company. She was like, "Let me pivot to selling these diapers for the girls." Because I don't have time for this.

• 5:53Speaker 03

  Any plot that saved the community center, joke.

• 5:59Laci Mosley?

  Okay, well, she was trying to do music videos with the kids. Okay, so I guess it was a little community center adjacent.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  But at the end, it was like, we still, these kids ain't got no way to dance. We gotta give them hope.

• 6:10Laci Mosley?

  You're right. They needed hope. Otherwise, they were gonna be on the street doing robberies and shoot them up.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Harlem shaking with Little Romeo.

• 6:18Laci Mosley?

  Instead of Harlem shaking, they were gonna be shaking people down.

• 6:21Speaker 03

  Exactly. She saved them. She saved them. It was the blind side, but just what they said.

• 6:28Speaker 03

  Honestly, you should have been nominated for an Oscar.

• 6:32Laci Mosley?

  Cinema.

• 6:32Speaker 03

  She did her big one.

• 6:33Laci Mosley?

  She really did. So, Dwayne, we always ask on this podcast, what is your relationship with scams? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Have you been scammed recently? Is there any scam you're interested in? It could be absolutely anything.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  Uh, you know, I love a scam when it's a scam that's like Robin Hood-y. Like very much like taken from the power, the powers that be, given to the people that don't have it. I don't like scams when it's aimed at me, because why would you do that? That's crazy.

• 6:58Laci Mosley?

  I think everyone will agree with you on that. No one likes scams when they're aimed at them.

• 7:01Speaker 03

  That's crazy, because I'm nice. Um, but I have been scammed before. I think I'm scammed less than the people in my life, because I have a general distrust for people and systems. So it was like, that's gonna be harder to get me, because like, who are you? What you doing? What's going on here? Uh, but one of the last times I got scammed, it almost led to a physical altercation. Because it was like on the streets. You know that thing where like people like offered help? Like, there was like a dent in my car, and this man was like, I can pop this dent out real, real quick. But then they came with like some men in a van and tried to charge me a lot more than they said. But they didn't know that like, I will fight y'all. So it really took a turn.

• 7:43Laci Mosley?

  Also, they came with some men in a van? How many people do you need to pop out a dent? I don't think you need a van worth a man.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  They came after they popped the dent. It was one man that popped the dent, but then he asked for money. And then more men came. And I said, where the hell these men come from? But then they didn't know that I had a man too. So I had a man. So it was two of us, and I was like, we might have to fight these men.

• 8:04Laci Mosley?

  Y'all got a y'all karate stand? Y'all got, y'all got a y'all?

• 8:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, because it very much gave like, oh, let's help this homosexual man. And I was very much giving soft. I said, yeah, please help me. I love help.

• 8:14Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  And then when it turned, they didn't know that I can make a turn as well.

• 8:18Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  And so then they were like,

• 8:19Laci Mosley?

  Don't let the gay fool you.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, I said, oh, no, baby. We, and also, we were in Chicago. I said, do you not know where I grew up?

• 8:25Laci Mosley?

  Like, these hands might be manicured, but they also,

• 8:28Speaker 03

  They can take you down. Uh, and so that's really where it went. They're like, hey, intimidation. And I said, same. I could reciprocate it.

• 8:39Laci Mosley?

  Okay, I'll match that energy.

• 8:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:40Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, the Chicago jumped out.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  It did, and they said, oh, cool, cool, cool. We didn't know what we were getting into. And I said, no, the fuck you didn't. Uh, and then they went away.

• 8:50Laci Mosley?

  I'm, I'm glad that they realized that they caught the right one.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  Me too.

• 8:53Laci Mosley?

  And the wrong one.

• 8:54Speaker 03

  Cause in the back of my mind, I was like, Lord, don't shoot me.

• 8:58Laci Mosley?

  Not the pew pew, you know?

• 8:59Speaker 03

  I said, amen, God, thank you for being on my side. Love being one of your favorites.

• 9:02Laci Mosley?

  Right, also, like, don't shoot me over no car dent situation.

• 9:06Speaker 03

  I said, if it gets there, I will just give you the money.

• 9:08Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 9:10Speaker 03

  It's not that deep.

• 9:10Laci Mosley?

  It's not that deep.

• 9:11Speaker 03

  Uh, but please don't let it get there.

• 9:12Laci Mosley?

  Right, now, did they pop the dent out good?

• 9:14Speaker 03

  They did.

• 9:17Speaker 03

  Great work, great work.

• 9:18Laci Mosley?

  Okay, great work, excellent craftsmanship.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  Recommend the work, the people, no, but the work, I said, wow. Y'all could do this legit.

• 9:24Laci Mosley?

  How many stars on yep would you give them?

• 9:26Speaker 03

  Honestly, just for the work, five. It was quick, it was efficient, but then.

• 9:30Laci Mosley?

  Now, you gonna give them five, but then you gotta tell them about the potential murder.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  The shakedown after lowers it to negative five, cause wouldn't mean you shaking me down. I, I would've gave you five stars, I would've recommended.

• 9:39Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 9:40Speaker 03

  Uh, cause I didn't have to go nowhere, I was just outside of I O in a Whole Foods. So they thought, cause I was in a white neighborhood.

• 9:46Laci Mosley?

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:47Speaker 03

  That I was like, within that neighborhood. And I said, no, I'm a visitor to this neighborhood, as so are you.

• 9:52Laci Mosley?

  The I O in L A?

• 9:53Speaker 03

  Uh, in Chicago.

• 9:54Laci Mosley?

  Oh, okay.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  Yes, um, but it was quick and efficient, I would say. And that dent gone.

• 10:01Laci Mosley?

  I feel like maybe you gotta give it two stars then, and then be like, I would've gave it five because the, the quality of the service was amazing. However, when the goons came, when the goons came afterwards, that really gave me.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  I feel like any service where at any point I'm like, am I about to die? You don't get a star. I'm so sorry. There's no stars involved. If the star, which is me, could possibly die, no, no, no.

• 10:28Laci Mosley?

  Okay, fair, fair enough. That's good, well, I'm glad that you survived because we need you and we need all of your talents.

• 10:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, and that was like pre-anything that I did. That would've been such a young, dark ending.

• 10:44Laci Mosley?

  I recently got shook shook down by some car scammers.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  Really?

• 10:49Laci Mosley?

  Yes, uh, I was pulling into a parking spot and this like car like whipped in like from behind, like tried to back in really fast. And then I was like, okay, well, are you trying to steal my spot? So I just stopped and then they kept coming and I was like, okay, are we gonna tap? I don't know, so I'm gonna back up. So then we ended up tapping each other, but it was like a love tap, like so light. So I'm thinking like, okay, we'll get out, we'll look and see if there's any damage. We'll exchange insurance information. Tell me why these two white women opened their doors real fast, jumped out of the car. And now I know that one, they're white Latinas, because I have their identification, jumped out of the car and ran. And I was like, oh, okay. And then three men surrounded my car immediately after. And one was on my driver's side.

• 11:33Laci Mosley?

  He was like, I'm filming you, I'm filming you and had a camera like in my window. And then one stepped in the front of my car and was like, you can't leave, you can't go anywhere. And he's like standing in front of my car. And then the other one is on my right side and he's like trying to be like fake nice. He's like, roll down your window, like, let's just get your insurance information. And I'm thinking, okay, so I'm scared and I was like, I started to write down my phone number and stuff. And then I thought to myself, I was like, wait a minute, where are the two women that I had the collision with? And why are these the Samaritans? Who are these, who are these niggas?

• 12:03Speaker 03

  Truly, who, who are these niggas?

• 12:05Laci Mosley?

  Who are these, who are these? And like, also, how did y'all come out like y'all the Avengers, like y'all the Power Rangers? Y'all just assimilated?

• 12:13Speaker 03

  Like, how is this coordinated?

• 12:14Laci Mosley?

  This was so coordinated, everybody had a job.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  Mm-mm, hate that.

• 12:17Laci Mosley?

  That's why I was like, this can't just be good Samaritans, because why does everybody have a job?

• 12:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, and why do these two white women need y'all?

• 12:23Laci Mosley?

  And like, they were kind of angry with me and I'm like, the one that was filming was like, I'm filming you, I'm filming you. And the one in front's like, you can't leave. And he's got his hands on the front of my car and then the other one's like trying to be fake nice. He's the nice one, I guess. I was like, it's too coordinated.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  I love that, though, that they had their parts.

• 12:38Laci Mosley?

  They did.

• 12:39Speaker 03

  They rehearsed.

• 12:40Laci Mosley?

  It was theatrical.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  You're the mean one, I'm the nice one, it's getting three little pigs.

• 12:44Laci Mosley?

  Right, it's getting good cop, bad cop. But also, like, where are the two women?

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Which is the crazy part.

• 12:50Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 12:51Speaker 03

  Because y'all weren't in this car.

• 12:52Laci Mosley?

  Like, where did they go?

• 12:54Speaker 03

  I love that they just ran away.

• 12:55Laci Mosley?

  I was like, why did they run? That's not what happens in a collision. And like, I got out of my car, walked around, there was no damage to my car, there was no damage to the back of their car. So I was like, okay, well, we can still exchange information. But I'm like, where, where did they go? So I waited for them. And then, finally, like, I get the nice man, I was about to give him my information, and I was like, wait a minute. And so I was like, hey, just give me, write down your information. And then, you give, like, them your number, and I'mma call you, and you get their number, and then, and then, we'll exchange information.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Even that conversation, like, who is this man? And what, and like, why are we exchanging information, sir? Who are you? Are you gonna pass it on to the ladies? Like, are you?

• 13:36Laci Mosley?

  I just took his number, and I was like, I'll call you, you get the info from the ladies.

• 13:41Speaker 03

  Don't call me, I'll call you.

• 13:42Laci Mosley?

  And then, we'll exchange info. Because after that, I was so scared, I backed up, and I just,

• 13:49Laci Mosley?

  and I, I then went to the police station and gave my information. And I was like, oh, okay, well, this is a weird situation. And so I just looked, and they were like, why didn't you call the police? And I was like, I don't call the LAPD, honey, I'm black. I've called them twice before to help me, and they turned on my black ass.

• 14:05Speaker 03

  He said, not again? I, I learned.

• 14:07Laci Mosley?

  I'm not calling my hitman.

• 14:08Speaker 03

  That's insane. Why would I call my ops? To assist my other ops?

• 14:12Laci Mosley?

  Right, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'mma call more haters.

• 14:17Speaker 03

  So I can get jumped?

• 14:18Laci Mosley?

  Right, I'm gonna call the van of goons. That are gonna intimidate me? No, thank you. So, um, then he shows me a photo, and he was like, they said that you hit them on the side of their car. So now they got a kicked inside passenger door, or driver's side door. And I was like, now where the hell did that come from? Because we had, the collision was in the back with the men and the, and the stuff. I'm like, where, where did this come from? And they were like, you hit him on the side when you drove away, and they said you hit several parked cars. I'm like, there's no way.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  He said, babe, come look at my car.

• 14:49Laci Mosley?

  No, literally, I took the cop outside, and I was like, come look at my car. And then he walked around my car, but at first he didn't want to do it. But then when I slammed the name down, in my paper, because he was like, the lady called me a hysterics, and I was there within five minutes, so I know you left the scene. And I was like, I slammed that paper, that's more my momma said. So I slammed that paper down, and I was like, why would I have this if I, if I was not waiting at the scene for these women?

• 15:12Speaker 03

  Boom.

• 15:12Laci Mosley?

  Boom, boom bap bam. Had him with the Kendrick. Boom bap bam.

• 15:19Laci Mosley?

  And so then he's like, okay, I'll come look at your car. So he comes, walks around my car. This is in the rain. I'm fucking up my hair and I had just got it laid.

• 15:26Speaker 03

  In the rain, that really added a layer.

• 15:28Laci Mosley?

  A level. And I said that, I was like, I'm a black girl, I'm about to mess up my hair for this, I want you to know. And then I was like, we can lift traffic cam footage, like you lift, like, we can do all this. And he was like, it's a traffic collision, we are not about to do all of this.

• 15:39Speaker 03

  Check the cams, check the cams.

• 15:41Laci Mosley?

  That ass.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Use LA tax money.

• 15:45Laci Mosley?

  Open the case.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  Hello?

• 15:46Laci Mosley?

  Call Olivia, okay?

• 15:49Speaker 03

  Cause what?

• 15:49Laci Mosley?

  And call.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  No.

• 15:51Laci Mosley?

  Call Benson, okay? Like, get the girls on it. And so then he was like, okay, well, it's just a traffic collision, so we're not gonna do all that. But here's her, you know, driver's license, and then here's, you know, this information. And he was like, okay, well, you should just get over it. It's just a small traffic collision. And you know, once you get over this, I'll take you out on a date.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  Oh, whoa, wait, this took turn.

• 16:14Speaker 03

  That was planned the whole time.

• 16:16Laci Mosley?

  I was like, what?

• 16:17Speaker 03

  He said, you know, babe, the way you can get over this is by getting under me. That's crazy. Revoke his police license. Do police have licenses? It don't seem like it, cause.

• 16:29Laci Mosley?

  Clearly.

• 16:31Speaker 03

  And did you ask him, um, who was them niggas? Cause the mystery still ain't solved.

• 16:37Laci Mosley?

  Cause when I slammed that piece of paper down with that, with that man's name and the phone number, you looked a little too familiarly at it.

• 16:42Speaker 03

  Damn, she got my brother's info.

• 16:44Laci Mosley?

  She was like, damn, he was like, damn, why you write his real name and number?

• 16:49Laci Mosley?

  He ain't trained them well enough.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  I love that you are smart.

• 16:51Laci Mosley?

  He's not giving them enough of the cut. So he, he hiring dumb people because he not gonna give them enough of the cut.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  Criminals hiring worse criminals. It's not gonna work.

• 17:00Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it's not gonna work.

• 17:01Speaker 03

  The hierarchy is failing.

• 17:02Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it really was. Also, the two women running away was really what just gave me away for me.

• 17:07Speaker 03

  Beginning of the end.

• 17:09Speaker 03

  Cause where are they going?

• 17:10Laci Mosley?

  Where are they going? Also, like, I'm just one woman in a car. Like, why, why are you running away? I didn't run nowhere.

• 17:17Speaker 03

  Also, the, the internet exists. I feel like there's enough videos of like insurance scams where people like be running into people. That I don't know why they thought that you would just be like, yes, let me give you your info.

• 17:29Laci Mosley?

  They were doing the swoop and squat.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Three men, uh, who was not involved in the situation.

• 17:34Laci Mosley?

  I learned about that from the black president from 24, when he was doing them Allstate commercials, the swoop and squat, that's what they were doing to me. So anyway.

• 17:41Speaker 03

  I'm glad you got through it. How was the date?

• 17:45Laci Mosley?

  I won't lie, at that point, I was trying to entrap him. So I was like, okay, yeah, we can hang out. So we talked, like, every time I would text, he would call me. And I was like, mm, suspect.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Don't want a paper trail.

• 17:56Laci Mosley?

  So then he was like, oh, let's hang out between like eight and nine, but I'm going to San Diego tomorrow for military. I was like, you a cop and you in the military? What's going on? And then-

• 18:04Speaker 03

  Loves violence.

• 18:05Laci Mosley?

  Literally, loves it, lives for it. So I was like, oh, he was, I was like, oh, we can meet wherever. And he, oh, you can just come to my place? I'm not gonna do it, but I'm like, trying to see what's going on. He was like, I can't leave Burbank. And I was like, oh, okay. So I was like, oh, I booked this hotel at this Burbank hotel. And he was like, oh, well, I can't go in there because I'm in uniform. And I was like, oh, well, we just wait till you get off work and then you can just come in. And he was like, no, how about you just come to the police station at 11:45 PM because I get off at midnight? And I was like, what?

• 18:32Speaker 03

  Girl, huh?

• 18:34Laci Mosley?

  He was like, we could just hang out in your car. And I was like, what? Nothing makes sense. I was like, hmm, so many excuses. And then he was like, let's go to meet at the police station.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  You know, I love that you were like, entrapment.

• 18:45Laci Mosley?

  I couldn't let it go.

• 18:46Speaker 03

  I love the reverse. You said, uno reverse.

• 18:50Laci Mosley?

  I was like, I couldn't let it go. And then when I was telling people about it,

• 18:56Laci Mosley?

  they were like, Lizzie, why did you continue? And I was like, because I, I, at that point, I needed to know. So then when I told my mom, she was like, obviously like, what the hell is wrong with you? And then she was like, I think maybe a cop is in on it. So then, once I thought about it some more and I did my entrapments, and he was like, playing. Then I was like, I texted him, I was like, you know what? I think you might be in on this. And he never spoke to me again.

• 19:20Speaker 03

  Wow. Yes, that, that means he was in on it. Sorry, you, you had to go through it, but great story, great story.

• 19:27Laci Mosley?

  Do it for the-

• 19:29Speaker 03

  Do it for the content.

• 19:31Laci Mosley?

  I need to stop doing stuff for content. This is bad for my life.

• 19:40Speaker 00

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• 20:08Speaker 01

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• 20:40Laci Mosley?

  So, let's get into our next segment here. Historic hoodwink. This is where I will regale Dwayne with a famous con caper group of criminals. We'll see how he feels all throughout. I want to note at the top, because we do not scam our journalists, most of the reporting for this story comes from the 2023 book, I'm gonna say this right, Anasi's Gold: The Man Who Luded the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World, by Yapoka Yebo.

• 21:09Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 21:10Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, so he wrote that book.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  That's like a spider god, right? Anasi?

• 21:16Laci Mosley?

  Is it?

• 21:17Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 21:18Laci Mosley?

  Anasi?

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's like certain African folklore, and I think he's like a spider.

• 21:23Laci Mosley?

  That would make sense. Because...

• 21:25Speaker 03

  And I think he's like a trickster of some sort.

• 21:27Laci Mosley?

  You know what? That makes so much sense because we are talking about an African.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  There we go.

• 21:35Laci Mosley?

  You know what?

• 21:36Speaker 03

  I'm done.

• 21:36Laci Mosley?

  You be reading. Oh, look, look up here. Thank you, Cody.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 21:40Laci Mosley?

  African, okay, you, okay.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  I be reading.

• 21:43Laci Mosley?

  You be reading.

• 21:44Speaker 03

  That's because I'm a writer. I be having to do research about stuff.

• 21:46Laci Mosley?

  Yes. So, the greatest Ghana artist in African history used a colonial lie about Ghana's past to swindle the Western world out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, I do want to point out that the last episode of Scam Goddess this season is about a fake Ghanaian prince in Dayton, Ohio, and you can stream that now on Hulu. Look at the synergy.

• 22:06Speaker 03

  Wow, we'll be watching.

• 22:07Laci Mosley?

  Okay, it's lit. But this particular prince, he came before the Ghanaian prince that I'm talking about. So, he was setting the stage.

• 22:15Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 22:15Laci Mosley?

  So, he also, this man, he also created the blueprint for one of the most successful scams in the modern world, the Nigerian prince email.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. I honestly, I can't.

• 22:27Laci Mosley?

  Innovator, innovator.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  Wow. Whoa.

• 22:30Laci Mosley?

  You know what I mean? He was like.

• 22:32Speaker 03

  The Plato of his time.

• 22:35Laci Mosley?

  Socrates.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  No.

• 22:36Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, declared independence from Britain in 1957. They were the first colony in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain freedom from colonial rule and set an example for dozens of other West African nations who were like, oh, y'all getting out from under the colony? Okay, us too. We leaving too.

• 22:55Speaker 03

  Same, same.

• 22:56Laci Mosley?

  Say less. It was like Ghana started running and all the other countries were like, where y'all running? We'll find out when we get there. We run it too. Love that for everyone. The new country was led by President Kwame Nkrumah, a political theorist, revolutionary, and inspiring figure. He was an advocate of Pan-Africanism and founding member of the Organization of African Unity. As president, he funded industrial and energy projects, developed strong national education system. You know, he was really hooking it up. Obviously, the powers that be in Britain and the US didn't like where this was going because they're like, uh, hold on, where are all this, our stolen resources going? Where y'all going?

• 23:31Speaker 03

  They said, simmer down, Negro, simmer down.

• 23:33Laci Mosley?

  Simmer down.

• 23:34Speaker 03

  Simmer down.

• 23:34Laci Mosley?

  We still have things to steal from you.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  We are trying to pillage.

• 23:38Laci Mosley?

  Right. Y'all are getting in the way of our pillaging and we don't like that.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  And you're inspiring others as well. Thumbs down.

• 23:43Laci Mosley?

  No, no, simmer down. So one internal US memo said, "Intensive efforts should be made through psychological warfare and other means to diminish support for Nkrumah within Ghana."

• 23:57Speaker 03

  Oh, no, not psychological warfare.

• 23:59Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it sounds a little familiar, like what Russia's doing to us.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Nuts, wow. It's crazy how life is so cyclical.

• 24:07Laci Mosley?

  It's so weird, so weird.

• 24:09Speaker 03

  Sounds familiar.

• 24:10Laci Mosley?

  It's so familiar. I don't know, it's kind of like Putin, I don't know. So, the coup and the lie. In 1966, while President Nkrumah was on a diplomatic visit to China, a CIA-funded military coup overthrew the government of Ghana. So they had the CIA pull up, as they do.

• 24:29Laci Mosley?

  You know the CIA loves-

• 24:30Speaker 03

  They're so messy and nosey, like, get out of these people's country.

• 24:34Laci Mosley?

  I think the CIA made Sexy Red, so you know.

• 24:38Laci Mosley?

  It was made in a CIA lab.

• 24:39Speaker 03

  Wait, what?

• 24:41Laci Mosley?

  To destroy the black community.

• 24:42Speaker 03

  I mean, I would say, that's what my mother said when she came out with her lip gloss. I don't think you're far off.

• 24:48Laci Mosley?

  When you make lip gloss flavors, or like, lip gloss like colors that are named after-

• 24:53Speaker 03

  Discharge, I really-

• 24:55Laci Mosley?

  That are named after STDs and like, what are you doing?

• 24:58Speaker 03

  She does feel like a plant, very much giving Reagan and crack.

• 25:01Laci Mosley?

  Giving Reagan and crack. They put Sexy Red in our communities like crack, okay? We're not falling for it, we know what it is, okay? Keshav Kumar is like combating Sexy Red, I feel like that's going-

• 25:13Speaker 03

  The psychological warfare.

• 25:14Laci Mosley?

  Psychological warfare.

• 25:16Speaker 03

  And it's crazy because I am buying into it, because I do be, I love you to Sexy Red.

• 25:20Laci Mosley?

  Listen, should we have some box?

• 25:22Speaker 03

  The propaganda is working.

• 25:25Laci Mosley?

  It's not working on me, but I am enjoying it.

• 25:28Speaker 03

  Because I'm a J, if that juicy and wet is not-

• 25:31Laci Mosley?

  Oh my god, no, not that juicy and wet.

• 25:35Speaker 03

  Sounds like same, girl, same.

• 25:36Laci Mosley?

  Maybe throw up, no, no.

• 25:40Laci Mosley?

  And I'm like throwing out my gang sign. Oh, oh, oh.

• 25:42Speaker 03

  Oh, God, the CIA is effective.

• 25:45Laci Mosley?

  They're very good at their jobs. We're making their jobs easier, too.

• 25:48Speaker 03

  And, uh, we're part of the problem.

• 25:50Laci Mosley?

  The US had encouraged Nkrumah to go on the trip and even promised, and I'm saying his name wrong. It's Nkrumba, Nkruma. There we go. Sorry, y'all. Nkruma. You know, I'm just gonna say Kwame from here on out.

• 26:03Speaker 03

  Kwame.

• 26:03Laci Mosley?

  Kwame, okay? So, the US had encouraged Kwame, AKA Nkrumba. I'm gonna say Kwame, because I don't want to mess up this man's name no more. They had encouraged him to go on the trip and even promised to pause bombing in North Vietnam in order to ensure his safety. They said, "We gonna stop the bombing, just for a little bit, in North Vietnam, so you can go on this trip."

• 26:24Speaker 03

  So you can feel good. So you can feel good and safe.

• 26:26Laci Mosley?

  Because that's how much we care about you. We'll stop bombing a country.

• 26:30Speaker 03

  And then we gonna see really. Get up in your country and mess it up.

• 26:34Laci Mosley?

  So Kwame never returned to Ghana, living in exile until his death in Romania in 1972.

• 26:39Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 26:40Laci Mosley?

  So they took him out.

• 26:41Speaker 03

  I didn't think that was gonna be the end.

• 26:43Laci Mosley?

  Yes, so the CIA, they got him up out of there.

• 26:46Speaker 03

  Ugh, MLK number two.

• 26:48Laci Mosley?

  That's why you can't listen to the CIA when they tell you anything.

• 26:51Speaker 03

  No.

• 26:52Laci Mosley?

  They don't try to help people, especially black people. They're not trying to help us.

• 26:55Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what they were made for.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  And that was, that's what Kwame was saying. When he was in Romania, living out the rest of his life.

• 27:06Laci Mosley?

  Everyone in Ghana was like, "How did you get here, CIA?"

• 27:09Speaker 03

  He's like, "Girl, they tricked me."

• 27:11Laci Mosley?

  So, to help the coup go over easier with Ghanaians who loved Kwame, the new military leaders and the countries who backed them did some character assassinations on Kwame, falsely accusing him of hiding the Gold Coast's famous gold overseas. So they're like, "He was a thief, y'all, so don't, this is why the white man had to come in and save y'all, because he was stealing."

• 27:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, he stole the gold, so like, y'all shouldn't like him.

• 27:36Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, don't, don't look into it further.

• 27:39Speaker 03

  That's nuts.

• 27:40Laci Mosley?

  But trust us, the people who took over the government.

• 27:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, the people that are not from here, who took over.

• 27:45Laci Mosley?

  Who took over, that we're trying to help you. That's all the West has ever tried to do, is like...

• 27:49Speaker 03

  We just thinking about you.

• 27:50Laci Mosley?

  You, we just care.

• 27:52Speaker 03

  Trust us.

• 27:53Laci Mosley?

  Trust us. So, the lie being that the resource-rich nation of Ghana could have been so much more wealthier and more powerful if only the alleged corrupt leader hadn't stolen it all from them.

• 28:07Speaker 03

  Right.

• 28:10Speaker 03

  They said, "It's all this man's." Kwame was just bad. He was bad for Ghana.

• 28:14Laci Mosley?

  We ain't never stole nothing, the West.

• 28:17Speaker 03

  Not at all. We did not trick this man to leave.

• 28:19Laci Mosley?

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 28:21Speaker 03

  That was all him.

• 28:22Laci Mosley?

  That was all him. He was like, "I want to take all my gold and leave." And we were like, "No, Kwame, don't do that."

• 28:31Laci Mosley?

  We said, "Stop, Kwame, no." And he was like, "No, I got to steal from Ghana."

• 28:34Speaker 03

  And he said, "I must be exiled and remain in Romania."

• 28:37Laci Mosley?

  Also, one man, this one man took all the country's wealth. How does one man lift up a whole country of wealth? Like, how do you transport a whole country of wealth?

• 28:47Speaker 03

  Honestly, to be honest, after watching your show on Hulu, I could believe it. People really just be doing anything out here.

• 28:55Speaker 03

  And people don't ask enough questions.

• 28:56Laci Mosley?

  Okay, Rita Credwell did steal a whole town. But she stole a town. She ain't steal the whole US's wealth.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  You know, from Illinois, I did, and I've been to Dixon. I said, "You know what? I can see how this happens." So honestly, if Kwame just had the right

• 29:12Laci Mosley?

  The vehicle.

• 29:13Speaker 03

  Resources, he could do it.

• 29:15Laci Mosley?

  Maybe he did.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  But I don't believe it.

• 29:18Laci Mosley?

  I don't believe it because it's not true, but, but you're like, "It's plausible."

• 29:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm like, you know, niggas really be crafty.

• 29:27Laci Mosley?

  So this lie about hidden treasure set the stage for one of the greatest con men of all time to cash in. So let's speed forward to John. I'm just gonna call him John. His name is John Colorable. I'm not saying any of that anymore. I'm just gonna call him John. So John later added the name Akka, the title Doctor, and many other flourishes to his made-up identity, which would become John Akka Bla Miza. That's the last time I'm saying that. Maybe if I say it with the accent, John Akka Bla Miza.

• 30:06Speaker 03

  Ooh, sound French.

• 30:07Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 30:07Speaker 03

  Ooh, they're like, it's like a French African, I love that.

• 30:09Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. He claimed to be a confidant of President Kwame, and said the president had told him an insane secret on his deathbed in Romania. According to John, Kwame had hid 27 billion dollars worth of cash, gold, and diamonds in a Swiss vault, claiming that Kwame stole more gold from Ghana than anyone else ever had, including the Portuguese, the Danes, the Dutch, and the British put together.

• 30:38Speaker 03

  I'm actually obsessed. He said, "You thought the whites were bad." Look at what Kwame did.

• 30:42Laci Mosley?

  Look at what Kwame did, okay? You thought the colonizers were bad.

• 30:47Speaker 03

  No, no, no.

• 30:48Laci Mosley?

  It'd be your own people.

• 30:49Speaker 03

  The call's coming from inside the house.

• 30:53Speaker 03

  27 billion in-

• 30:55Laci Mosley?

  27 billion?

• 30:56Speaker 03

  Just in a vault, just-

• 30:57Laci Mosley?

  And you know what? This is a smart scheme because the CIA has already laid the foundation by being like, Kwame stole everything from y'all, and it wasn't even us white people, it was Kwame.

• 31:08Speaker 03

  And John said, "Let me piggyback."

• 31:11Laci Mosley?

  And he was like, "I was Kwame's homie, and if he wasn't dead, he will tell you."

• 31:15Speaker 03

  He said, "The CIA, correct."

• 31:17Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  Kwame had secrets, he told me as he was dying.

• 31:21Laci Mosley?

  He was like, it was his last breath, actually. He was like, "I got 27 billion in Swiss mega cash." And he died.

• 31:29Speaker 03

  And then John said, "And that was my time in Romania."

• 31:32Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, and then I left Romania.

• 31:37Laci Mosley?

  Us two black people, and then there was one, and then I was like, "Let me get out of here."

• 31:40Speaker 03

  And now I'm looking for the gold.

• 31:43Laci Mosley?

  So of course, Kwame had only told one person, John. He ain't told nobody else where the riches were stashed and how to access them. And John would need help with the administrative costs of getting it out. So he says, "I know where it is, I know how to access it, I'm the only one who knows because Kwame did."

• 32:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:01Laci Mosley?

  So you gotta trust me to know where everything is. He used a combination of half remembered news bulletins, propaganda, and prison yard gossip to construct one of the most lucrative cons of the 20th century. And he called it the Oman Ghana Trust Fund.

• 32:19Speaker 03

  I'm obsessed with the prison yard gossip part. Who you talking to in jail?

• 32:24Speaker 03

  What?

• 32:24Laci Mosley?

  Listen, people in jail be knowing things.

• 32:26Speaker 03

  They do, cuz.

• 32:27Laci Mosley?

  And especially about crime, okay?

• 32:29Speaker 03

  I mean, that's, that is where it feels like you would get a lot of information.

• 32:33Laci Mosley?

  Like, how many times on any, like, cop, like, you know, serial, you know, like Law and Orders or whatever, how many times do they go to the jail? Because they're like, we need more info, let's go to the prison.

• 32:43Speaker 03

  They love an informant, love an informant. And when you in jail, I guess you ain't got a lot of time to do nothing but.

• 32:49Laci Mosley?

  And they're like, look, you want some time off? You want a parole early? You want commissary? You better tell us cops what we want to know.

• 32:55Speaker 03

  And they do be talking.

• 32:57Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, they be like, all right, what you gonna do for me, though?

• 33:01Speaker 03

  I mean, those stakes are kind of high.

• 33:02Laci Mosley?

  I feel like if I was in jail, I would want to be like the little finger of jail.

• 33:06Speaker 03

  Same, I would love to be the instigator, like, I know everything, I know everyone.

• 33:12Laci Mosley?

  Right, I have everyone's secrets.

• 33:13Speaker 03

  I'm protected because I know all the secrets. I know what the 20s had in a billion dollars is.

• 33:19Laci Mosley?

  Or wait, who was that one, the other, the eunuch?

• 33:22Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, that little bald man.

• 33:23Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 33:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, the spider.

• 33:26Laci Mosley?

  The spider.

• 33:27Speaker 03

  A Nazi, you see, full circle.

• 33:30Laci Mosley?

  What was his name? Varys, Varys, the spider, see another spider. See, you gotta be a spider in life, I guess. Okay, we all gotta be arachnids, I ain't even know that.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  Game of Thrones was stealing from African folklore.

• 33:41Laci Mosley?

  Wow, wow.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  You see?

• 33:44Laci Mosley?

  It's deep, that's deep, that's deep.

• 33:46Speaker 03

  Black people are the blue player for everything.

• 33:47Laci Mosley?

  The CIA told me that Game of Thrones was before African folklore, so I don't know what to tell you.

• 33:52Speaker 03

  Babe, you can't believe the CIA.

• 33:56Laci Mosley?

  What are you talking about? I read their blotter every day. That's where I get my news.

• 34:00Speaker 03

  They text me all the time.

• 34:03Laci Mosley?

  They're like, can you tag these people? And I'm like, for sure CIA. Absolutely.

• 34:07Speaker 03

  You're my girl.

• 34:08Laci Mosley?

  Whatever you need.

• 34:09Speaker 03

  Why not?

• 34:10Laci Mosley?

  Okay, I call her Kaia.

• 34:16Laci Mosley?

  That's how it's actually pronounced.

• 34:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, like, people don't know, because they're not as close, but...

• 34:20Laci Mosley?

  As me. But I'm like, I'm like, Kaia. What's good, girl?

• 34:25Speaker 03

  Hey, girl. What's going on?

• 34:26Laci Mosley?

  What's tea?

• 34:28Speaker 03

  She's been around for a lot, lots of lived experience.

• 34:30Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 34:31Speaker 03

  And Kaia's the one.

• 34:32Laci Mosley?

  Always doing good. Philanthropy.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:36Laci Mosley?

  So, as a pioneer of advanced fee fraud, John harnessed the racism inherent in a colonial lie to scam everyone, from English millionaires to American politicians, to the government of his own country. He said, everybody can get it. Now, I hate that he went back to his own country.

• 34:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's where it really took a turn.

• 34:57Laci Mosley?

  Why you have to go to Canada?

• 34:58Speaker 03

  Because I very much was like, I'm on board, actually. Like, it's giving Robin Hood. But then, when you kind of count your own people, like...

• 35:04Laci Mosley?

  Come on, now.

• 35:05Speaker 03

  Pull it back.

• 35:06Laci Mosley?

  Pull back, he had to do all that.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  No, because then that is where the morals start to become decrepit.

• 35:11Laci Mosley?

  But at the same time, I understand why he had to go after the people in his own country, because they were fed the lie originally.

• 35:17Speaker 03

  Exactly, you got to normalize it. If he didn't, then I think he would have been like, well, then people are going to be suspicious, because the racist people are like... Hmm, so you got to, in order to be with the racists and trick the racists, you got to be enacting the racism as well. So, I get it.

• 35:32Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  I get it.

• 35:33Laci Mosley?

  And then that way, he could show the racists that he is... Well, actually, the racists wouldn't want the Ghanaians getting any money. But I think he was just getting greedy, because they were the ones who were fed the lie from the CIA directly.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, and so he had to kind of piggyback off of that to then feed that. So, he's like, for me to continue the lie that is built off this other lie, I got to keep the other lie going, so sorry, Ghanaians.

• 35:53Laci Mosley?

  And sorry, Ghanaians, because too many of y'all, I guess, believed the CIA at the time.

• 35:58Speaker 03

  And he needed that, like, that was part of the blueprint. Like, he needed that lie to stay strong, to support... The other lie.

• 36:05Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a, you got a foundation of lies. A good foundation.

• 36:10Speaker 03

  And if the foundation breaks, the top gonna crumble.

• 36:13Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, exactly. So the believers, for nearly two decades, over the seventies and eighties. Now, remember, this is like, we don't have computers in the seventies and eighties.

• 36:23Speaker 03

  Damn, you're right.

• 36:24Laci Mosley?

  You know what I mean, like?

• 36:25Speaker 03

  It's folks just talking.

• 36:26Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, home phones.

• 36:28Speaker 03

  Birds.

• 36:32Laci Mosley?

  Everyone sending a raven.

• 36:34Speaker 03

  Just sending messages. It is like, like the game telephone, people just talking, people hearing you. Okay.

• 36:39Laci Mosley?

  So John convinced thousands of investors all over the world that he had access to the gold, diamonds and cash in the fund. Once the money was freed, he was going to funnel funds back into Ghana. And anyone who helped him return the gold to the people of Ghana would earn ten dollars for every one dollar they put in.

• 37:00Speaker 03

  Hmm, like an MLM.

• 37:02Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but he's saying like, for every dollar you give me, you gonna get ten back.

• 37:07Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. And people were, were like, yeah, it's kind of like when people sell food stamps.

• 37:15Speaker 03

  Because it's like worth, like, you, you can get cash for the money, because it's like less taxes. Uh, and so that's what happened when I was younger, and my family would always be selling. You get food stamps, because you get more food stamps.

• 37:27Laci Mosley?

  Now, you can't be saying this right now, because you know that the racists are trying to say that everybody is just stealing.

• 37:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, but we all know who is the biggest perpetrator of that.

• 37:37Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, so I don't know why they're trying to get rid of food stamps, because.

• 37:39Speaker 03

  Y'all gonna struggle.

• 37:40Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's gonna.

• 37:42Speaker 03

  That's gonna hurt y'all. Uh, also, like, selling food stamps is not stealing, it's bartering. Because like.

• 37:46Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 37:47Speaker 03

  Where you stealing from?

• 37:48Laci Mosley?

  Barter system.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  You, you still getting the amount of food stamps that you are getting, and then you're bartering. That's like if I got a PS5 and was like, let me trade that for your car. If you want to trade that, how, I'm not stealing, you just value in what you value in.

• 38:00Laci Mosley?

  And also, why are you in my business?

• 38:01Speaker 03

  Mind your fucking business. That's, that's the main thing.

• 38:04Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 38:04Speaker 03

  Mind your business.

• 38:05Laci Mosley?

  They can't, because their business is so miserable. I always say, like, some people can't look in the mirror, so they look out the window.

• 38:13Speaker 03

  Put it on a fucking shirt. That gagged me. I was like, oh my god.

• 38:19Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  Cause there is a reflection, but you ain't gotta look at it. You could look right past it.

• 38:22Laci Mosley?

  Right. You can look at what else people do. You can snoop on them. Make sure everybody's miserable, just like you. Just like people like to spread joy. Other people like to spread misery.

• 38:31Speaker 03

  That's crazy, cause I be looking in the mirror all the time.

• 38:33Laci Mosley?

  People just want community. Some people want joyous community. Some people want like hater ass miserable community.

• 38:38Speaker 03

  And I know a couple, and I always am like, I wish I could be in your brain, cause what is happening? Like you really just spreading hay. And they're like, yeah, girl, that's, that's why I'm here.

• 38:46Laci Mosley?

  That's why I'm here. Okay, I'm spreading.

• 38:50Speaker 03

  And I'm good at it.

• 38:51Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. When I walk in the room, I suck the air out of it, okay? Everyone's like, oh damn.

• 38:58Speaker 03

  I don't read the room, I ruin the room.

• 39:03Speaker 03

  That would be my House White quote.

• 39:06Laci Mosley?

  You hold out your piece like, I don't read the room, I ruin the room.

• 39:13Speaker 03

  People are like, yeah, no, he's actually really terrible. His vibe is nasty.

• 39:17Laci Mosley?

  But he's our favorite?

• 39:18Speaker 03

  But he's so funny. He's so clever, so quick.

• 39:21Laci Mosley?

  So clever, so quick. Okay, yes, everyone's crying, but we love it.

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• 40:31Laci Mosley?

  So investors were told that they'd be paid the next day.

• 40:36Speaker 03

  That's a quick turnaround.

• 40:39Speaker 03

  God damn, that's where he messed up. The next, sure.

• 40:44Laci Mosley?

  The next day is crazy.

• 40:49Laci Mosley?

  Like as soon as I give you my fifty dollars.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  Next day.

• 40:53Laci Mosley?

  That's all you need for the taxes and fees is my fifty dollars?

• 40:56Speaker 03

  Huh, interesting.

• 40:58Laci Mosley?

  And then you go, and I'm gonna get paid the next day?

• 41:00Speaker 03

  The next day.

• 41:01Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 41:01Speaker 03

  Seems like he has quick access to this money then.

• 41:04Laci Mosley?

  Or maybe they would be paid next week, next month at the latest.

• 41:10Speaker 03

  The maybe, tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next month.

• 41:13Laci Mosley?

  Maybe next month.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  Trust me.

• 41:14Laci Mosley?

  Trust me.

• 41:15Speaker 03

  Trust me, I'm John.

• 41:16Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  Trust me.

• 41:18Laci Mosley?

  I'm John, cuz remember, I'm Kwame, he's dead.

• 41:21Speaker 03

  I'm his man.

• 41:22Laci Mosley?

  And I was, and I was his mans.

• 41:23Speaker 03

  Nobody else knows.

• 41:24Laci Mosley?

  If we, if we, if you had heard him when he was alive, you would know.

• 41:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:28Laci Mosley?

  What I heard.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  And you gotta do it quick, cuz if I die, the gold's gone forever.

• 41:32Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, the gold's gone forever, so we gotta really do this quick, so either tomorrow, or next week, or next month. At, at the latest. Right, a fortnight.

• 41:43Laci Mosley?

  Three years, sixty months. Start putting shit in court sentences.

• 41:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, seventy-two months.

• 41:51Laci Mosley?

  I love how court sentences are always in months, and then you gotta do the math in your head, like, how many years is that?

• 41:56Speaker 03

  And he's like, please stop.

• 41:59Laci Mosley?

  Like eighteen months, is that bad? They got three hundred months, is that?

• 42:03Speaker 03

  That's how I feel when people talk about their children's ages as well.

• 42:06Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  How old is your baby? Eighteen months, baby, that baby's seventeen.

• 42:11Laci Mosley?

  That baby is a year and a half, like, please be serious. Please not stop to with the months.

• 42:16Speaker 03

  Why are you using the metric system?

• 42:19Laci Mosley?

  This is America.

• 42:20Speaker 03

  This is America.

• 42:21Laci Mosley?

  This is America, okay, put that baby in feet, so he said that's how you're gonna pay him. But something always came up, someone had died, there had been some unrest, the bankers had balked, the government of Ghana had withdrawn its support, a new company had to be incorporated, the Americans interfere, he said the, the Kaya came.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  You know, Kaia is really

• 42:46Laci Mosley?

  Kaia interrupted.

• 42:46Speaker 03

  We are not on the same page.

• 42:48Laci Mosley?

  Okay, the whole vault was opening up. It was like and then Kaia was like

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Then Kaia came and turned it again.

• 42:53Laci Mosley?

  And turned it back. And so that's not my fault. But next time, definitely, the money will be released. All they needed was like one last push. So if you give me a little bit more money, because as I said, all these things are happening, unrest, Kaia, all these things, you know, that's why we don't have it. So John's love of world-class luxury hotels, where he racked up bills that he had no intention of paying, jewelry, cigars, and ever-present Rolls Royces, helped investors believe the lie he was selling. And here's how he sold it. Now, I do want to pause one second before we show this video. Why, John, you are stealing so many people's money. Why can't you pay for your hotel?

• 43:38Speaker 03

  Because it was the principle.

• 43:42Speaker 03

  I'm saying, I get it. John said, girl, I'm not paying these people that's giving me money. Why, why would I pay this hotel?

• 43:47Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 43:47Speaker 03

  I don't need to.

• 43:48Laci Mosley?

  Yes. He paying the jewelry man though for the jewelry.

• 43:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, he was pretty powerful. I feel like he was really internalizing what he was doing.

• 43:56Laci Mosley?

  And it was good.

• 43:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, he said, babes, I got a Rolls, a Rolls Royce.

• 44:01Laci Mosley?

  Like, give me a penthouse.

• 44:03Speaker 03

  Why would I pay for these cashews in this minibar?

• 44:06Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  Get out of my face.

• 44:07Laci Mosley?

  So let's play this video of how he was convincing investors. So this is John.

• 44:12Speaker 04

  Mangana Fund is real.

• 44:14Speaker 05

  It is real. And they are paying.

• 44:17Speaker 04

  And it contains billions of dollars.

• 44:19Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 44:20Speaker 04

  And these people will be paid.

• 44:21Speaker 05

  Will be paid.

• 44:22Speaker 04

  Have you been able to give any of your, your, your supporters a guarantee?

• 44:27Speaker 05

  That they'll get their money? Oh, yes, they have the guarantee.

• 44:30Speaker 04

  What, what is the guarantee?

• 44:33Speaker 05

  Mr. Bradley, my word is better than my bond. When I promise you that after giving me a hundred thousand dollars, I'll give you a million dollars, I will never, never, never, never, this whole night.

• 44:45Speaker 04

  That's your word?

• 44:46Speaker 05

  That is my word.

• 44:46Speaker 04

  Better than your bond?

• 44:47Speaker 05

  Oh, yes.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  The way I'm gonna start using that. My word is better than my bond, hello?

• 44:51Laci Mosley?

  My word is better than my bond.

• 44:54Speaker 03

  If you give me a hundred thousand, I'll give you a million.

• 44:55Laci Mosley?

  I said I would do it. The guarantee is me.

• 45:00Laci Mosley?

  That's a word. He said, "What do you mean guarantee?" The guarantee is me.

• 45:03Speaker 03

  He said, "Babe, I'm right in front of you."

• 45:04Laci Mosley?

  I'm right in front of you. This is the guarantee.

• 45:06Speaker 03

  I'm telling you.

• 45:06Laci Mosley?

  Do you not see the accent? Do you not hear the accent? Do you not see the traditional?

• 45:11Speaker 03

  My shoulder is out.

• 45:12Laci Mosley?

  My shoulder is out.

• 45:14Speaker 03

  Clavicle, out.

• 45:15Laci Mosley?

  Out, okay?

• 45:16Speaker 03

  I am exposing myself. I am vulnerable.

• 45:18Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, what do you mean? So John set up satellite offices for the fund in Philadelphia and London and had investor meetings there. John invited chief investors to congregate at international retreats, where he would dole out the money they'd long waited for, only for a death of a business associate, illness, or new bureaucratic hurdle to present itself and render the gathering moot. So he was hosting these retreats and he was like, "Y'all come to this international retreat, that's where you're gonna get your money. You gotta show up in person."

• 45:49Speaker 03

  Can you imagine going to Philly? Being like, "I'm gonna get my money back." And then he'd be like, "Just kidding."

• 45:54Laci Mosley?

  You're probably gonna get robbed. Like, why are we on the outside?

• 45:57Speaker 03

  Robbed more than once.

• 46:00Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. And then he's like, "Oops, somebody died. I'm so sorry."

• 46:03Laci Mosley?

  I am so sorry.

• 46:03Speaker 03

  We gotta cancel it.

• 46:04Laci Mosley?

  Somebody died and Kaiya came back and we can't do it. I'm so sorry. You know, people are dying that never died before.

• 46:12Speaker 03

  There is unrest. I simply can't make it.

• 46:16Laci Mosley?

  Did y'all hear about the unrest? Y'all not reading the paper.

• 46:19Speaker 03

  See, y'all are not informed.

• 46:21Laci Mosley?

  Because the girls aren't resting right now.

• 46:23Speaker 03

  There's zero rest. They are tired.

• 46:25Laci Mosley?

  So he charmed wealthy businessmen in America, radical Episcopalian priests, industrialists in Ghana, and anyone else who would listen and had money to spare. Sometimes he would produce yellowed documents, embossed with a seal of the Office of the Prime Minister of Ghana, that were seemingly signed by the President Kwame himself. So these are the documents. They look like documents to me. And in the 70s, I would definitely be like, "This is a document."

• 46:53Speaker 03

  Definitely, that is a document. For sure.

• 46:55Laci Mosley?

  And it's got a seal on it. It's got big signatures.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  Signature's big and wild.

• 47:01Laci Mosley?

  Mm-hmm. What type font is that? That's official type font.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  It's given courier. It's given like typewriter. Like, that's official.

• 47:07Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's official. Mm-hmm. So he may have gotten as much as $200 million from American investors alone, including one man who sank $7 million into the scheme and still believed in it. Let's listen to his take. $7 million, you gotta just pretend you believe.

• 47:25Speaker 03

  You have to.

• 47:29Laci Mosley?

  You gotta come into the bit.

• 47:30Speaker 03

  You can't pull out no more.

• 47:31Laci Mosley?

  No.

• 47:32Speaker 05

  I've been called a fool. I've been called crazy. I've been called the fat man is boiling me in a pot, pouring salt in the, in the thing and he's gonna have me for dinner. What do you expect to get now? How, how much do you expect to get? Well, it's not the money, but the satisfaction. The satisfaction that I was right.

• 47:52Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 47:53Laci Mosley?

  He said it's not the money.

• 47:56Speaker 03

  It's the satisfaction that I am right.

• 47:58Laci Mosley?

  You have to say it's not the money.

• 48:00Speaker 03

  Cause if you do say the money, you're a fucking idiot. Like you have to like, at this point, it's only principle. It's concepts.

• 48:08Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 48:08Speaker 03

  Cause what do you mean? Seven million dollars?

• 48:11Laci Mosley?

  You have to be like, I have so much money that this is just, I know I'm right. So I'm just, that's all.

• 48:16Speaker 03

  To be that prideful, you, it's like, that is only a place that like, a very rich person has to be to be like, money shmoney.

• 48:24Laci Mosley?

  Alright.

• 48:24Speaker 03

  It's about opinion. I wanna be right.

• 48:28Laci Mosley?

  Meanwhile, you're home eating ramen.

• 48:30Speaker 03

  Crying, sad, being boozled by this man.

• 48:34Laci Mosley?

  His grandkids like beating up on him like.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  He said, people call him a fat man in a pot.

• 48:39Laci Mosley?

  A fat man in a pot that was salt was being poured on him.

• 48:42Speaker 03

  Being salted. Oh, you're, and he was being cooked.

• 48:45Laci Mosley?

  He was being cooked.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  Being cooked by everybody in his life.

• 48:48Laci Mosley?

  Damn. They have to go after his weight like that. That's rude.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  That is crazy. But seven mil, seven mil?

• 48:54Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, seven, you gotta stop after like.

• 48:56Speaker 03

  He didn't ask enough questions. I'm just like, and I'm curious if it was like all that once, if he just kept putting it in there.

• 49:02Laci Mosley?

  I feel like he kept putting, he was going to the retreats and then he was like, who died? And he's probably sending like bereavement flowers to the fake dead person.

• 49:10Speaker 03

  Just in Philly, just sad for this man who robbed him.

• 49:14Laci Mosley?

  I bet you Kwame or um, John could pull out some tears too. He was, he was probably at the retreat and he was like, it is time for you all to have your money. And he was like, oh.

• 49:23Speaker 03

  Wait, wait.

• 49:24Laci Mosley?

  I got, I got a telegraph. I got a telegraph. Oh, someone has died. I have to go.

• 49:34Speaker 03

  Gotta, gotta hop in my Roy's.

• 49:36Laci Mosley?

  Gotta hop in my Rolls Royce.

• 49:37Speaker 03

  And got, got to go. But he's like, eh.

• 49:41Laci Mosley?

  Right, he's like, meow.

• 49:43Speaker 03

  He's a sexy red of his time.

• 49:44Laci Mosley?

  He's a sexy red of his time. He was the opposite of sexy red. He was not a CIA plan. He was using the CIA. I love that for him. That's so funny. Hate that for y'all. Actually, not the colonizers, but Ghana, I hate that for y'all. So Richard Nixon's former Attorney General, John Mitchell, believed so strongly in the fund that he flew to Ghana and convinced the government to release John during one of his lockups. So John got locked up. Famously ethical Richard Nixon, his employee, his Attorney General, John Mitchell, flew over to Ghana and was like, let my people go.

• 50:19Speaker 03

  John, John has shooters.

• 50:23Laci Mosley?

  He was connected.

• 50:24Speaker 03

  He was connected.

• 50:26Laci Mosley?

  Okay, he called up Nixon on that phone. He was like, I know this is recording.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  He said, deep throat, come, I got a deep throat.

• 50:34Laci Mosley?

  He got a deep throat.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  Come help me.

• 50:35Laci Mosley?

  Literally. But not everyone fell for John's story. So there were some skeptics, obviously. While John was running his scam, former child star Shirley Temple, black. Now wait.

• 50:51Laci Mosley?

  Is this animal crackers in my soup? Because I thought her name was Shirley Temple. Where did black come from?

• 50:56Speaker 03

  Right, right. I was like, black? Was she black? Was she an actor and we didn't know about it?

• 51:03Laci Mosley?

  Her hair was very curly.

• 51:04Speaker 03

  It was very curly, very. Them coils were tight. Forcely.

• 51:09Laci Mosley?

  It's giving passing. It's giving passing.

• 51:12Speaker 03

  A little Ruth Nega.

• 51:17Laci Mosley?

  We can start spreading this false propaganda.

• 51:19Speaker 03

  I'm obsessed.

• 51:19Laci Mosley?

  Shirley Temple was black.

• 51:20Speaker 03

  Honestly, our, our, our black queen.

• 51:22Laci Mosley?

  Our black queen.

• 51:23Speaker 03

  Shirley Temple.

• 51:25Laci Mosley?

  So Shirley, Shirley Temple Black was serving as a US Ambassador in Ghana and had her doubts about the so-called Oman Ghana Trust Fund. Can we please pull up Shirley Temple Black? Because I need to know if we're talking about Shirley Temple or are we talking about a different Shirley Temple?

• 51:38Speaker 03

  We must know.

• 51:39Laci Mosley?

  Who had, who was black or not black? Whose last name, she married someone?

• 51:44Speaker 03

  Did she marry somebody? Oh, yeah.

• 51:46Laci Mosley?

  No, it is the Shirley Temple.

• 51:48Speaker 03

  It is, it's. He's Shirley Temple.

• 51:50Laci Mosley?

  So when she made her stage name, did she just cut off the black?

• 51:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, and then she refound it when she went to Ghana to tell that man, I don't believe you.

• 51:59Laci Mosley?

  Then she was like, okay, I'm back with, I'm done acting, I'm back with my people.

• 52:02Speaker 03

  I'm with my people. I had to do what I needed to do for success. And now let me help my people side being scammed by John.

• 52:08Laci Mosley?

  Then she went back to her homeland.

• 52:10Speaker 03

  And said, free my people. Free my peeps.

• 52:12Laci Mosley?

  From the shackles of John.

• 52:14Speaker 03

  Get them shackles off their feet so they can dance.

• 52:17Laci Mosley?

  She wrote to the Secretary of State, Harry Kissinger. What was her accent? What was the old timey accent? Animal crackers in my soup. So she was like, those who believe.

• 52:34Laci Mosley?

  I need her to write it down like that. So she said, those who believe John, a fraud, are worried he might just have the money and then they would look extremely foolish. Victims reluctant to identify as suckers helped shield John and prolong his scam. So we talk about this a lot of times, like, there's so much shame when you're being scammed. You see the pride that Mr. Boylan Man had with his seven million. There is a lot of shame in being scammed because you start to think you're foolish or you're dumb. But like, people fall for scams all the time. I always say, I say it again. There's bait out there for everybody. I just hope you don't meet your fisherman, okay? Like, there's something that can get us all.

• 53:13Speaker 03

  That is unfortunate to feel the shame so strongly, being like, oh, if people know I'll be a fool, so I have to keep being a fool in order to people not to know that I'm a fool.

• 53:23Laci Mosley?

  Right, or just keep it a secret. And then that allows the scammer to continue because no one's bringing it to the light. So in reality, John wasn't at Prime Minister Kwame's side on his deathbed. Um, shocker.

• 53:39Laci Mosley?

  I can't believe it.

• 53:40Speaker 03

  What? He wasn't in Romania?

• 53:43Laci Mosley?

  Chilling with Kwame, his besties?

• 53:45Speaker 03

  Wow, that's crazy.

• 53:47Laci Mosley?

  Who was like, holding his hand, like, John, John, give me, give me your hand.

• 53:51Speaker 03

  I just knew it gave Thelma Louise.

• 53:53Speaker 06

  That is $27 billion in Swiss bank. Here are the numbers for the bank account, 42597329.

• 54:05Speaker 03

  And then he died and then came back and said, beware of Shirley Temple Black. She won't believe you.

• 54:14Speaker 06

  She doesn't dance anymore. Now she goes to Ghana.

• 54:18Speaker 03

  She will be your downfall.

• 54:21Speaker 06

  No more animal crackers in her soup.

• 54:25Speaker 03

  Her soup is justice.

• 54:33Laci Mosley?

  At that moment that he said that he was by Kwame when he was dying, he was actually serving a one to two year sentence for charges including defrauding an innkeeper at Gadeford State Correctional Institute in Pennsylvania. So defrauding an innkeeper sounds like, like, is an innkeeper is like, that's like hotel, right?

• 54:53Speaker 03

  That was like Hagrid in Harry Potter, right? It's just like, it's like, I hope this doesn't sound problematic. Is that part of like the, like the staff? Like, like, like janitorial?

• 55:04Laci Mosley?

  Can we Google innkeeper? Cause it's I N N K E. Yeah, it's someone who, it's someone who owns an inn. Yeah. That's what I thought, Cody. Thank you. I thought it was innkeeper like a hotel. And that traces back to him being at them luxury hotels and still doing the same.

• 55:20Speaker 03

  And that's how it started. He said, love rest, will not pay for it.

• 55:23Laci Mosley?

  Will not pay for it. Okay. I tell people about unrest, but I will get my rest for free.

• 55:29Speaker 03

  For the free.

• 55:30Laci Mosley?

  And he, and he continued that scam. I love that he was petty enough to go to prison for defrauding an innkeeper and then was like, no, I'm gonna keep defrauding the innkeepers.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  Oh, okay. So now it's all coming together.

• 55:38Laci Mosley?

  They're just gonna be luxury now.

• 55:39Speaker 03

  Cause he was hearing about the Kwame stuff with the, with the jail rumors.

• 55:42Laci Mosley?

  The jail rumors.

• 55:49Laci Mosley?

  So John had immigrated to Philadelphia claiming to be a diplomat, set himself up at the Belfour Stratford Hotel and stiffed them on the bill. Cause you know, he ain't never gonna pay a hotel bill, honey.

• 56:02Speaker 03

  Oh, and he was really deep in the Pennsylvania, Philly. He was really, uh, East Coast gal.

• 56:08Laci Mosley?

  Okay. He had also been in prison in Ghana in the sixties alongside many corrupt Ghanaian politicians whose mannerisms, credibility and contacts he adopted, becoming a full-fledged scammer. So you were right. And that's where he got his tips was in prison.

• 56:23Speaker 03

  See, he was acting. It was giving sing sing.

• 56:26Laci Mosley?

  Yes. He was next to the politicians, like you know how they have prison gangs? He was like in the political gang.

• 56:32Speaker 03

  Just like writing notes, being like, okay.

• 56:34Laci Mosley?

  We give the prison speeches.

• 56:36Speaker 03

  This is how you give gravatops.

• 56:37Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 56:38Speaker 03

  When your shoulders are out when you give interviews.

• 56:41Laci Mosley?

  I'm Correctional Institute president.

• 56:44Speaker 03

  Wow. He can use all this for good, but he really took a, took a turn.

• 56:48Laci Mosley?

  He did. So more than once, John pledged loyalty to a military dictator to get out of jail. Does that sound familiar? Lil Wayne?

• 56:59Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 57:02Laci Mosley?

  In 1982, John had promised the new military dictator that he could bring home Kwame's gold. So they released him from prison and issued him a diplomatic passport. It was a handsome red document. John's profession was listed as government official. Just, just government official.

• 57:18Speaker 03

  Just generally.

• 57:19Laci Mosley?

  General government official.

• 57:20Speaker 03

  Officially governmental.

• 57:21Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I'm here to officiate from the government. Y'all get it? A diplomatic passport means he couldn't be arrested in England or extradited to the US where there was a warrant for his arrest. Here's the Philadelphia Attorney General explaining what happened. Because yeah, you can't extradite diplomats. Like diplomats can kind of run them up.

• 57:39Speaker 03

  How do I become a diplomat?

• 57:41Laci Mosley?

  I know, there was a Law & Order SVU episode on that. That's how I learned. Thank you, Olivia Benson.

• 57:46Speaker 06

  A charge is a informed us economic crimes against the state, which in Ghana carries the death penalty, we were told. But he is such a confidence man that he was able to convince the Ghanaian authorities to let him out of Ghana once again and go to London to distribute this trust fund. The guy can talk himself out of, literally off of death row.

• 58:11Speaker 04

  Not only did Blay Miza talk himself off death row, he even brought the man who arrested him in Ghana back with him to London.

• 58:19Laci Mosley?

  So he brought the ops with him?

• 58:20Speaker 03

  Honestly, the more I learned about John, I caught, like, he really was moving in a way that was nuts, that confidence.

• 58:29Laci Mosley?

  First of all, you should not be killing people for financial crimes. That's extreme.

• 58:33Speaker 03

  It really is. They said death penalty.

• 58:35Laci Mosley?

  I said off with your head.

• 58:36Speaker 03

  He said play with our money, we play with your life.

• 58:39Laci Mosley?

  With your life, okay? Um, that's wild, but I love that he got out of prison and then he was like, let me call my ops. You know what? You were very good at arresting me. People normally can't do that. So now you work for me.

• 58:48Speaker 03

  He said ops linking up. And I'm sending the invite. Wow.

• 58:53Laci Mosley?

  In 1989, CBS Broadcast had an episode of 60 Minutes about John and the Oman Ghana Trust Fund while he was en route back to Ghana. John had hoped that the show would be a glossy advertisement for the trust fund. Instead, he was called the ultimate con man. It was like, this is gonna be my moment.

• 59:13Speaker 03

  Oh, I love that they con the con.

• 59:15Speaker 06

  Comes to scammers, Ed found a doozy in Dr. John Aka Blameza. No one was bigger, literally, or financially. He humbly billed himself as the richest man in the world, the sole beneficiary of the Oman Ghana Fund, a $27 billion trust. Trouble was, he said,

• 59:38Laci Mosley?

  He was into that music like, hmm, I'm robbing everybody in here.

• 59:41Speaker 06

  And promised them $10 for every dollar they gave him.

• 59:45Laci Mosley?

  So I love that he participated in this 60 Minutes. And he's thinking like, oh, this is really gonna get my money up.

• 59:51Speaker 03

  He said, I'm finna eat.

• 59:52Laci Mosley?

  Okay, I'm on television now, I'm a television star.

• 59:55Speaker 03

  Americans finna do, he was doing his big one. And then they said psych.

• 1:00:00Laci Mosley?

  Psych.

• 1:00:01Speaker 03

  TMZ.

• 1:00:02Laci Mosley?

  Catch it, catch it bitch. When John landed in Ghana, he was immediately put under house arrest. Many of his strongest supporters had died or were backing away from him. So some of them did die, maybe when he said it died, maybe.

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  I mean, maybe he wasn't lying the whole time.

• 1:00:17Laci Mosley?

  But his strongest supporters were gone. He was calling them up and they were like, he is dead. I'm like, damn. Ghana's current president was increasingly focused on laundering his reputation, and John had embarrassed him too many times, and 60 Minutes was the last straw. So 60 Minutes actually made his shit worse in Ghana too.

• 1:00:37Speaker 03

  Oh, no.

• 1:00:38Laci Mosley?

  So John died, still under house arrest, three years later in 1992. So I'm sure he had a nice house to be arrested in.

• 1:00:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:49Laci Mosley?

  So.

• 1:00:50Speaker 03

  House arrest, he probably was just chilling.

• 1:00:52Laci Mosley?

  It doesn't sound like they froze his assets.

• 1:00:53Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 1:00:54Laci Mosley?

  Doesn't sound like.

• 1:00:55Speaker 03

  It's crazy that like, what was that, three years after sixty minutes?

• 1:01:00Laci Mosley?

  Also, they didn't have ankle monitor. Well, maybe in the nineties, they had ankle monitors, but I don't know.

• 1:01:05Speaker 03

  Were there just people outside his house like, don't, don't you come out?

• 1:01:08Laci Mosley?

  Don't leave.

• 1:01:09Speaker 03

  We watching you, John.

• 1:01:11Laci Mosley?

  Like, they just had to have people just staked out in front of the door.

• 1:01:14Speaker 03

  You'd be like, hey?

• 1:01:15Laci Mosley?

  We at the front door and the back door and all the windows.

• 1:01:17Speaker 03

  Turn around.

• 1:01:18Laci Mosley?

  Stay at home. So, the legacy. The Oman Ghana Trust Fund did not die with John. Soon after his death, one of his investors, Gregory Frazier of Detroit, Michigan, bought a one-way ticket to Ghana and announced that he had formed the Friends of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund. And he spent years trying to convince successive Ghanaian governments to help him claim the money. So now he's saying, I was there when John died on house arrest. And he told me what Kwame had told him.

• 1:01:51Speaker 03

  Oh, my God. It's just like a reboot of a reboot.

• 1:01:55Laci Mosley?

  Isn't that what we do these days?

• 1:01:57Speaker 03

  I, yeah, it's very, very much giving cyclical.

• 1:02:00Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 1:02:00Speaker 03

  Nothing is history.

• 1:02:02Laci Mosley?

  In two thousand nine, the Friends of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund successfully petitioned the Ghanaian government to look into the trust fund. The commission formed to investigate it found no evidence that the trust fund existed. That didn't stop people from asking the next administration and the next. Because they're like, we have to find, like, John took too much. We have to find out if this gold exists. And remember, Kaia told them that it did.

• 1:02:27Speaker 03

  They did. They said, that lie has been invested, like, and that's the foundation of this.

• 1:02:33Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 1:02:33Speaker 03

  Kaia really started a whole thing.

• 1:02:36Laci Mosley?

  Kaia's very good at disrupting nations.

• 1:02:39Speaker 03

  God damn.

• 1:02:39Laci Mosley?

  This nation has been disrupted. The myth of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund lives on. For generations, people have wondered how a resource-rich country like Ghana could be so poor. Curious.

• 1:02:51Laci Mosley?

  We don't want to go to the obvious thing of.

• 1:02:54Speaker 03

  Maybe we should trace it back. No, no.

• 1:02:55Laci Mosley?

  No, no, no, no, no. I was hearing something about Colin.

• 1:03:00Speaker 03

  John.

• 1:03:01Laci Mosley?

  John.

• 1:03:01Speaker 03

  Kwame.

• 1:03:02Laci Mosley?

  Kwame took it.

• 1:03:03Speaker 03

  That was the friends of the group.

• 1:03:06Laci Mosley?

  It was not Portuguese. It wasn't the English. It wasn't the American.

• 1:03:12Speaker 03

  It was some shysty grenades.

• 1:03:15Laci Mosley?

  They stole their own money.

• 1:03:16Speaker 03

  It was their fault. It was self-induced.

• 1:03:18Laci Mosley?

  The real answer is that for centuries Ghana was a mine that other countries used to get rich. The concept is harder to accept than one greedy man hid our gold in Switzerland. I don't know why that concept is. I guess it's because it's like more convoluted because so many, you know, countries were colonizing kind of that. They're like, but which one took all of it? And they're like, no, everybody took a piece. Like everybody took a chunk. And they're like, no, it's easier to just say that Kwame took it all and put it in Switzerland.

• 1:03:45Speaker 03

  Just one man just moved it.

• 1:03:46Laci Mosley?

  Just one guy moved all the countries.

• 1:03:48Speaker 03

  Moved it all.

• 1:03:49Laci Mosley?

  Like he actually took a beach with him as well.

• 1:03:51Speaker 03

  27 billion.

• 1:03:52Laci Mosley?

  He took the gold coast. That's not there no more.

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  It's in a bank in Switzerland.

• 1:03:57Laci Mosley?

  In Switzerland. If you want to go to the beach, you need to go to the bank in Switzerland.

• 1:04:01Speaker 03

  How big is that bank?

• 1:04:03Laci Mosley?

  Huge, huge bank. In 2000, President Kwame was voted African Man of the Millennium by listeners to the BBC World Service. The BBC described him as a hero of independence and an international symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule. So in 2000, I love it's the BBC World Service because it's like British people being like, he was actually a great guy.

• 1:04:31Speaker 03

  Honestly, we stan him.

• 1:04:33Laci Mosley?

  Now, now we did steal all the country's stuff and he was mad about it. And you know, that was right of him.

• 1:04:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, like he deserved that point of view.

• 1:04:43Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, because we were stealing from him. And so it's very good that he stood up to us.

• 1:04:48Speaker 03

  It's kind of like a bully who's beating somebody up. And then when they stand up, it's like, you better stand up for yourself. You ain't that. Okay, okay, confidence. Okay, self-worth.

• 1:04:58Laci Mosley?

  It's like a bully and they're like horrible to you in high school and then you become like a millionaire billionaire. And they're like, you know what? I always admired you.

• 1:05:06Speaker 03

  I knew you was gonna

• 1:05:07Laci Mosley?

  I knew you were gonna do great things. That's why I was giving you up swirlies.

• 1:05:11Speaker 03

  Because I was jealous of the vibe of success that you always held.

• 1:05:15Laci Mosley?

  I was trying to motivate you. I thought if I beat you up every day and stole your lunch money, that you were gonna go get money and I see that you did it.

• 1:05:21Speaker 03

  You had to get out the hood because I was gonna make you. You had to. And honestly, congrats. Shout out to me for motivating you.

• 1:05:29Laci Mosley?

  Shout out to me because I made you leave the hood because you knew you were gonna get beat up every day.

• 1:05:33Speaker 03

  I am God's vessel.

• 1:05:34Laci Mosley?

  And he moved through me.

• 1:05:37Speaker 03

  Through my hands.

• 1:05:39Laci Mosley?

  Through my hands is crazy.

• 1:05:43Laci Mosley?

  Okay, I had to step on you to order your steps.

• 1:05:47Speaker 03

  Wow, put that on the shirt, put that on the back.

• 1:05:50Laci Mosley?

  That's for the Bible cuppers. If you know, you know.

• 1:05:53Speaker 03

  If you know.

• 1:05:54Laci Mosley?

  Oh, my goodness, Dwayne. That was such a fantastic episode. Thank you so much for being here.

• 1:06:00Speaker 03

  Thank you. What a journey we've been on.

• 1:06:01Laci Mosley?

  Yes, we've been on such a journey.

• 1:06:03Speaker 03

  Wow, I love this.

• 1:06:04Laci Mosley?

  I can't wait to read my CIA, my, my Kaia blotter after this. So I can catch up on real American news. That's true.

• 1:06:11Speaker 03

  She texted me while we were doing this.

• 1:06:13Laci Mosley?

  She did?

• 1:06:13Speaker 03

  I said, wow.

• 1:06:14Laci Mosley?

  Did she say she liked the episode?

• 1:06:16Speaker 03

  She did.

• 1:06:17Laci Mosley?

  Okay, good. Because we, we want to please her.

• 1:06:19Speaker 03

  She did. She also said, be careful, not too much.

• 1:06:25Speaker 03

  She said, I know what you say. And I said, you do.

• 1:06:27Laci Mosley?

  You do, you do, you do. And that's why I love you CIA.

• 1:06:31Speaker 03

  Always.

• 1:06:31Laci Mosley?

  Kaia.

• 1:06:32Speaker 03

  Bay.

• 1:06:33Laci Mosley?

  Bay.

• 1:06:33Speaker 03

  You're bay.

• 1:06:34Laci Mosley?

  Oh, my God, bay. Stay, get off my phone, babe. I'm trying to work right now.

• 1:06:39Speaker 03

  Stop. Oh, my God. She's so thirsty.

• 1:06:42Laci Mosley?

  Thirsty.

• 1:06:43Speaker 03

  Get off us.

• 1:06:44Laci Mosley?

  Always trying to steal our resources and stuff. I'm like, babe, please stop trying to destabilize my nation.

• 1:06:49Speaker 03

  But where was she that was trying to scam you? She'd be showing up all late.

• 1:06:53Laci Mosley?

  Literally. We always ask at the end of the show, where would you like to be found? Anything you'd like to plug?

• 1:06:59Speaker 03

  I would like to be found in joy and happiness.

• 1:07:02Laci Mosley?

  Yes, amen.

• 1:07:04Speaker 03

  You can find me on the internet, on, you know, the Instagrams or Twitter. It's all at Dewayne Perkins. That's D E W A Y N E. And look out for the studio that's coming out. I'm very excited for that. And then One of Them Days just came out. So if you haven't seen that yet, go watch that. A fantastic film.

• 1:07:22Laci Mosley?

  And television shows.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  TV, film, doing it all.

• 1:07:28Laci Mosley?

  Oh my goodness. Well, y'all, listen to... I was about to say, listen to the podcast. Like, you're already probably listening to the podcast.

• 1:07:35Speaker 03

  Listen to it.

• 1:07:36Laci Mosley?

  Listen to it. Tell a friend. Congregation, keep spreading the gospel. You can watch Scam Goddess, the television show. All episodes are streaming now on Hulu. You can pick up my book, Scam Goddess, wherever you purchase your books or audiobook. Okay, if you'd like to listen to me, read it, honey. And then Going Dutch is also streaming on Hulu. And congregation, y'all get out there. And I want y'all to stay...

• 1:08:03Speaker 03

  Stay vigilant.

• 1:08:05Laci Mosley?

  Mmm, no, no, no, I don't want you to be vigilant.

• 1:08:09Speaker 03

  Don't do that.

• 1:08:10Laci Mosley?

  Don't do that.

• 1:08:11Speaker 03

  Don't do that.

• 1:08:12Laci Mosley?

  Don't do that. I want you to get out there and I want you to stay Kwame.

• 1:08:20Speaker 03

  Oh, honestly, I love that.

• 1:08:22Laci Mosley?

  He's a good guy. He was a good guy. He was a good guy that John lied on.

• 1:08:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:35Laci Mosley?

  This has been an Earwolf production in association with Team Coco. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Cisneros and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.

• 1:08:58Speaker 00

  That sound? That's the National Squash League. Pro teams, the world's best players, and rallies so fast you'll forget to breathe. Season four is in full swing and every match streams free on YouTube. Big hits, bigger rivalries, and a front row seat from wherever you are. Watch every match for free on YouTube. Search National Squash League and hit subscribe or follow live updates on Instagram at NSL.Sport.

• 1:09:26Speaker 07

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