The Nigerian Ne’er-do-well w/ Jonathan Braylock (Fraud Friday)

In this week’s Fraud Friday, we visit episode 10. Laci is joined by comedian, writer, and actorJonathan Braylock (Astronomy Club, Black Men Can't Jump Podcast) to discuss a legend from the birthplace of fraud, Nigeria’s own Emmanuel Nwude! Yup, he sold Nigeria's biggest airport that didn't exist for a whopping US $242 million. Stay Schemin’! (Originally Released 12/02/2019) Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci Jonathan Braylock: @jonbraylock Research by Sharilyn Vera SOURCES: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Nwude https://www.bosshunting.com.au/hustle/nigerian-fake-airport-scam https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/nigerian-scammer-sold-fake-airport-to-international-bank.html https://www.ladbible.com/community/interesting-emmanuel-nwude-carried-out-the-biggest-scam-in-nigeria-20180825

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  What do you do when things get tough? You don't give up. You stand your ground. If you've been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and have tried hormone therapy, ask your doctor about Pluvicto. Lutetium Lu 177 Vipetide Tetraxitan. Pluvicto is not chemotherapy. It's a different treatment that targets PSMA-positive cells. Pluvicto can be used before chemotherapy for some people. Pluvicto is a prescription treatment used to treat adults with prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or PSMA-positive MCRPC, who have already been treated with hormone therapy and are considered appropriate to delay chemotherapy. Pluvicto involves contact with radioactivity, which may increase the risk for cancer and cause fetal harm.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Drink plenty of fluids, urinate often, use contraception, and talk to your doctor about ways to reduce the risk of exposing others to radiation during and after treatment. Pluvicto can cause low levels of blood cell counts, kidney problems, and infertility. Tell your doctor if you have weakness, pale skin, shortness of breath, bleeding or bruising more easily, an infection or changes in urination. Side effects include decreased blood cell counts, tiredness, dry mouth, nausea, appetite loss, joint or back pain, and constipation. Ask your doctor about Pluvicto, because every day without cancer progression is a victory. Visit pluvicto.com to learn more.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  This January, bare-knuckle fighting championship takes over the ocean. The inaugural Brew's Cruise sails from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Jewel. Three straight days with pool-deck bare-knuckle fights in the Caribbean. Mess of parties, beach events, DJs, cigars, tequila tastings, and non-stop action. The lineup reveals coming soon. Cabins are disappearing fast, and the prices won't stay this low. Reserve your spot with just $200 down at BKFSEA.com.

• 2:15Laci Mosley?

  What's poppin', congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Welcome to an episode of Fraud Fridays, where we release older episodes from the Scam Goddess Vault. That's right, Fraud Fridays is where we bring back your favorite episodes from behind the paywall. Enjoy this episode from behind the paywall, and as always, stay schemin'.

• 2:57Laci Mosley?

  What's up, congregation? It's your girl, Scam Goddess, back for another installment of, yes, Scam Goddess, I named the show after me. I'm Lacey Mosley, and I'm so excited to have our amazing guest here. He is bi-coastal, and thank goodness was here filming his new Netflix show that he's also producing with his comedy group, Astronomy Club. Astronomy Club on Netflix, y'all. He's also one of the three amazing hosts of Black Man Can't Jump in Hollywood, which is one of my favorite podcasts, which I recently got to do, and it was so fun. Everybody, Jonathan Braylock.

• 3:32Speaker 04

  What's up?

• 3:35Laci Mosley?

  Hey, I love that. I love the extra.

• 3:38Speaker 04

  I had to come in hot.

• 3:40Laci Mosley?

  And I need it, and I truly need it. Truly, the people who listen to this, our congregation, they're always like, you guys are really wired. Why are you yelling directly into the microphone? Just turn your sound down.

• 3:51Speaker 04

  Just turn it down. You know what it is already.

• 3:53Laci Mosley?

  Quit playing with me.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  You've been listening to this for a while now. You know you gotta turn this down when you start listening to it.

• 3:57Laci Mosley?

  You know I'm gonna be raggedy. Deal with it. Oh, gosh, so wait, Jonathan, what's your relationship with scams?

• 4:03Speaker 04

  Oh, man, I was trying, I was thinking about this on the way over here. I was like, because here's the thing. I'm definitely a person who makes sure I'm not getting scammed. You know what I mean?

• 4:13Laci Mosley?

  I mean, you live in New York, right?

• 4:15Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 4:15Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, so that's a home for a lot of scams.

• 4:17Speaker 04

  Yes, I have, yes. I was born in New York. I grew up there. I also grew up in Jersey and then went back. And like, I was like, you know, I'm always looking for the scams. I don't think I scam people, but I definitely look for shortcuts sometimes. You know what I mean?

• 4:31Laci Mosley?

  Look for shortcuts. What a rebrand.

• 4:35Laci Mosley?

  Look, I'm not necessarily breaking the law. I'm just looking for a shortcut around the law.

• 4:39Speaker 04

  Listen, you know, I like, you know, it's in the bylaws or something, you know? If it's not there in black and white, you know, maybe there's a way to skirt around it. And I'm like, hey, you know what I mean?

• 4:48Laci Mosley?

  You sound like a scammer, John. Those are the, those are the words.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  I'm not, I don't cheat people out of money.

• 4:54Laci Mosley?

  Okay, yeah, I don't do that either.

• 4:55Speaker 04

  That's what I don't do.

• 4:55Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I don't do that either. Maybe the government, but everyone else, no, no, just kidding, government, I know you're listening. I'm paying y'all every penny that you deserve, I hope you know, okay? And happily, don't Lauryn Hill me.

• 5:07Speaker 04

  Truly, the richest people in America are scamming the government constantly.

• 5:12Laci Mosley?

  Constantly, it's so deeply unfair.

• 5:14Speaker 04

  Let's be real about it.

• 5:15Laci Mosley?

  It's the middle class who's actually out here doing the work, but then our billionaires, like, your money is in some fucking island, like, you fucking assholes.

• 5:21Speaker 04

  When you get a little, when you get some money and you, like, if you, if you have your own business or you become like an S corp, like, a lot of us people have to do in the entertainment business, you realize how much of a scam it all is. It's like, you can just start writing things off, like, left and right.

• 5:36Laci Mosley?

  Everything, we write off every single thing.

• 5:38Speaker 04

  Everything that you were using before, but you ain't getting no tax return for that. It's like, oh, all of a sudden, my cellphone bill is a business expense.

• 5:46Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yeah, it is, and these earrings, and this gym membership, and this last shit.

• 5:51Speaker 04

  My Netflix subscription, all of it.

• 5:53Laci Mosley?

  Everything. I, the only thing that I'm a little mad about right now, and I'm probably gonna leave my account, um, is that he's like not shady enough, like, I feel like he's lazy as fuck. Like, not only is he not getting me returns on shit, like, he told me when I went to Georgia to shoot my show, that they were gonna take 6% of my income, 6%.

• 6:09Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 6:09Laci Mosley?

  My lawyers get 5, right? Georgia's taking 6.

• 6:13Speaker 04

  Okay, yeah.

• 6:13Laci Mosley?

  Bro, I'm like, y'all ain't even helped me with this shit, for y'all taking 6%? Y'all about to do some paperwork or something, bitch, you better come out here and put on a motherfucking swimsuit, Georgia, Florida girls.

• 6:22Speaker 04

  The funniest thing about that is 6% is, is low compared to what some states try to take from you, like, New York City.

• 6:28Laci Mosley?

  But I don't live in Georgia.

• 6:30Speaker 04

  No, I, yeah.

• 6:30Laci Mosley?

  So it's like Cali getting theirs, Georgia gonna pull up to the function.

• 6:33Speaker 04

  Cali should be getting it really if you're working the, you know what I mean? You're not even working, I don't even understand.

• 6:38Laci Mosley?

  Well, so I was talking to him about it, and I was like, yeah, so what can we do about this? And he said, what you mean, what can we do, you gonna pay it? I said, Nick, what? I gotta get rid of your ass. The fuck, I want a Better Call Saul ass lawyer. Are you fucking kidding me? I want you in cheap shoes, cheap suits. I want you constantly sweating.

• 6:54Speaker 04

  That's right, that's right.

• 6:54Laci Mosley?

  I need to know I'm getting the best stretch of the law.

• 6:57Speaker 04

  Absolutely. Tax accountants should always be looking at ways to scam the government.

• 7:00Laci Mosley?

  Literally.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  That's what we pay you for.

• 7:01Laci Mosley?

  I was like, this is lazy as fuck. I can go just pay them what I owe them. That's not why I called you.

• 7:06Speaker 04

  Honestly, sometimes I like with the first tax account I had, uh, we had it for Black. Well, I shouldn't say this, but anyway. I won't, I won't put anybody on Black.

• 7:16Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you had it.

• 7:16Speaker 04

  We had it, you know, for a business and I was just like,

• 7:20Laci Mosley?

  So scammy sounding.

• 7:20Speaker 04

  What is this person doing for us at all? Cause I'm doing all the work. I'm plugging in all the expenses. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm doing all the write offs. And then I just give it to this person. They're like, great.

• 7:34Speaker 04

  And then they send it in. I was like, wait, what did I just pay you for?

• 7:37Laci Mosley?

  That'll be eighteen hundred dollars.

• 7:40Speaker 04

  I was like, wait, what did I pay you for? He's like, I emailed it to them. I'm like, nigga, I can do that with TurboTax.

• 7:46Laci Mosley?

  Like, right? I was like, I'm going back to the block.

• 7:48Speaker 04

  Wait.

• 7:49Laci Mosley?

  Fuck this. I'm about to be at H and R Block like, alright y'all, this is my LLC. This is my, Tammy? Tammy, is that your name? What do you do for the non-tax months? Oh, okay, you work at a craft store. Wonderful. Now get down on these things.

• 8:02Laci Mosley?

  Cause I'm sick of this shit. Oh, man.

• 8:04Speaker 04

  Also, full transparency, my wife is the spokesperson for H and R Block.

• 8:07Laci Mosley?

  Hell, yeah. See, and I love them. I would also like to be the spokesperson. Y'all hear that?

• 8:14Laci Mosley?

  I'm trying to get everybody's taxes lit. Alright, let's get into it. So the first segment of the show is called was Hot and Fraud. So we like to prevent our congregation from getting scammed. Unless it's by me. If it's a scam that I'm offering, I fully need everyone to participate. You will have a good time.

• 8:29Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 8:30Laci Mosley?

  Yeah?

• 8:31Speaker 04

  That's right, we don't cheat people. We don't, we don't cheat people. But we get, we get the money.

• 8:34Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, exactly. You see, Jonathan came in here trying to be all coy, talking about, I thought about this on my way over here. Like, hmm, scam, something I'm not familiar with. Never, never done it. He is a full-blown scammer. Full-blown, I'm calling it. So we also have people sending little messages. Guys, if you've retired a scam or scams been run on you and you want to share to our podcast audience, please [email protected]. Uh, and today we have a listener who wrote in. I never say the listeners' names, but you'll know who you are. I'mma call you, uh... Shandy.

• 9:06Speaker 04

  Okay, Shandy.

• 9:07Laci Mosley?

  All right.

• 9:07Speaker 04

  What'd you say?

• 9:08Laci Mosley?

  Shandy. So she says, "When I was a little girl, we didn't have a lot of money growing up. So my parents couldn't afford to send me to fancy dance classes. But I was able to join the dance team at my church for free. Hallelujah.

• 9:19Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:20Laci Mosley?

  We were called Daughters of Zion."

• 9:22Speaker 04

  Okay. I know all about it.

• 9:26Laci Mosley?

  Come on, Daughters of Zion.

• 9:27Speaker 04

  I know all about that.

• 9:29Laci Mosley?

  Wait, what do you know about that?

• 9:30Speaker 04

  Not that I know specifically about Daughters of Zion, but I know about the church lingo. I'll just say that.

• 9:35Laci Mosley?

  Wait, how do you know?

• 9:36Speaker 04

  We were deep in it.

• 9:37Laci Mosley?

  You were deep in it?

• 9:38Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, I was deep in it.

• 9:39Laci Mosley?

  Did you do any performances at church?

• 9:40Speaker 04

  Um, I was, uh, si- since I was in fifth grade, I was acting in the church. Doing pla- and I, I went to, uh, Times Square Church, which is a, uh, I mean, I don't, they don't call themselves a mega church. They don't have other locations, but there's about 8,000 people that go to that church.

• 9:54Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so it's a pretty large congregation.

• 9:54Speaker 04

  It's a really large, and it, they actually, um, the church is inside what used to be a Broadway theater. So it's like a full Broadway theater.

• 10:01Laci Mosley?

  Oh, wow.

• 10:02Speaker 04

  So like-

• 10:03Laci Mosley?

  So you're getting that experience. There's a church out here like that, that's in like an old performance place. It had like, uh, old timey like, uh, Greek kind of pictures of, like, painted on the walls.

• 10:12Speaker 04

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 10:13Laci Mosley?

  And so they never, instead of just painting the walls of the church, they had somebody put clothes on the people. Like, they hung drapery and like stapled it over the naked bodies. I was like, this shit. And that church is a mega church.

• 10:25Speaker 04

  Right.

• 10:26Laci Mosley?

  I was like, if y'all don't paint these damn walls with this money I done gave y'all? I'm waiting. I go in there every week. Like, where's my, where my benevolence go? Cause it didn't go to Sherman Williams, like I asked it to.

• 10:36Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 10:37Laci Mosley?

  So wait, but I actually know a little bit, cause, uh, uh, Draw told me that you are like big on the church.

• 10:42Speaker 04

  Yes, yes, yes. I mean, I had a whole faith journey that happened and, um, I'm not, I, I've, I've learned to separate Christian culture from like the principles of Christianity that I respect.

• 10:54Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you have to.

• 10:54Speaker 04

  Reno, you got to do that. Uh, but it's hard, it's a hard process, especially if you just go to, if you go to church every Sunday. Sometimes on the Tuesday night prayer session or the Friday night youth service, you know, you're in it.

• 11:06Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's a lot.

• 11:07Speaker 04

  You're in it.

• 11:07Laci Mosley?

  I try not to get to know people at church, cause I wanna have everyone stay pure in my heart.

• 11:11Speaker 04

  Right.

• 11:11Laci Mosley?

  You know, I don't wanna be in the gossip in the church and be like, you know, I saw her count in the- The offering, okay? It was the love offering. I thought she she put some in the pocket. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to be so deep in it that I know pastors gossip. But yeah, okay, so you performed at the church?

• 11:26Speaker 04

  I performed. I performed at the church.

• 11:27Laci Mosley?

  What kind of plays? Were you baby Jesus?

• 11:29Speaker 04

  Oh, they, I mean, I was never baby Jesus, but I wa- wait. I definitely was Jesus at one point.

• 11:35Laci Mosley?

  Okay, bet, bet.

• 11:36Speaker 04

  I played, um, uh, I played the devil once.

• 11:41Speaker 04

  I was, in fact,

• 11:42Laci Mosley?

  What's a devil's line?

• 11:43Speaker 04

  Wait, hold on now. Let me explain this now. It was actually a play where it was like, I guess because the devil's advocate had come out recently. So it was like a play, it was kind of like that where it was, a person was on trial. And the person who was on trial was a Christian. And God was the judge and Jesus, and I was the prosecutor.

• 12:03Laci Mosley?

  The devil's the prosecutor? He not the witness?

• 12:05Speaker 04

  No, no, he the prosecutor. He's like, this person's guilty. You got sent to hell. And Jesus was the defender.

• 12:10Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 12:11Speaker 04

  You understand?

• 12:14Laci Mosley?

  Yes, no, I fully understand.

• 12:15Speaker 04

  I was in high school. I was in high school. Oh, no. Was I in high school? Mm-mm. I think I was in middle school.

• 12:20Laci Mosley?

  Oh, even better.

• 12:22Speaker 04

  And, uh, yeah, it was this huge before, like, and, you know, I had to be like, I had to be like, yeah, this person did this and this person did that and this person did this.

• 12:30Laci Mosley?

  What kind of stuff were they doing that you were like?

• 12:32Speaker 04

  Oh, you know, like they were having sex and they were married.

• 12:36Laci Mosley?

  Sex up in the church? Oh, this is a spicy play.

• 12:39Speaker 04

  And, you know, they, uh, they cursed out their mom. You know what I mean?

• 12:45Laci Mosley?

  Well, in that case, all the white kids are going to hell. Shut up, mom, you bitch.

• 12:49Speaker 04

  And then the, of course, the end of the play is like, the person's like, wait, but you got saved? Then you good, bro.

• 12:56Laci Mosley?

  Oh, I love that. That's the, that's what I'm banking on, is that like, when I get older, or at least that I'll have like a couple of seconds before I die, where I can be like, I'm so sorry.

• 13:04Speaker 04

  Purified.

• 13:05Laci Mosley?

  You know? Got to get it, got to get it. So this girl, she shandying. She was in The Daughters of Zion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a tangent, guys. We're back. So, Shandy, The Daughters of Zion. And this was like a conservative church in the South in the 1990s. So I have a full picture of this.

• 13:22Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 13:23Laci Mosley?

  This is the kind of church I went to. At one point, two families showed up to our church who said that they were Ukrainian refugees. There were two moms, sisters or old friends, I think, and their daughters. The two of them were about 15 or 16, and the other two were my age, seven or eight. The girls, who were all very legitimate gymnasts and dancers, joined our rinky-dink little church dance group. These women would take their daughters around to local churches, put on a dance performance. Ribbon dance was all the rage at the time. Yes, it was very lit in the 90s.

• 13:51Speaker 04

  Ribbon dancing, yep.

• 13:52Laci Mosley?

  Tell a harrowing story of a fleeing violence and collect an offering from the congregation. She said she got really close to these girls, and they attended her birthday parties. We had sleepovers, and they were my friends. And one day, they just disappeared. They left town with no explanation. About a year ago, I asked my mom, "Whatever happened to the Ukrainian girls?" And she told me this. "They would go around the whole country, dancing at churches and collecting cash offerings, then move on to the next. They weren't refugees, and those girls," my parents later learned, "that they weren't even their daughters, and none of them were related."

• 14:23Speaker 04

  Oh, damn.

• 14:26Laci Mosley?

  You love to see it.

• 14:28Speaker 04

  That's...

• 14:29Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 14:30Speaker 04

  That hurts, that hurts. Because, you know, those people were just, those people were trying to help somebody else.

• 14:35Laci Mosley?

  But they did help them!

• 14:36Speaker 04

  I guess you're right, you're right.

• 14:37Laci Mosley?

  Okay, look, yeah.

• 14:38Speaker 04

  They did, they did.

• 14:39Laci Mosley?

  Maybe the story wasn't the actual story. Maybe these women are from Wisconsin. Maybe they're just great actors and dancers from New York who realized they could take their show on the road. But did they not anoint y'all with a ribbon dance in his name?

• 14:52Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 14:53Laci Mosley?

  You know? Isn't that worth?

• 14:54Speaker 04

  That's a good point.

• 14:55Laci Mosley?

  A love offering?

• 14:56Speaker 04

  Right. I mean, they became frie- like, you know, they, it sounds like they befriended some people.

• 15:02Laci Mosley?

  Exactly.

• 15:02Speaker 04

  Made some relationships.

• 15:03Laci Mosley?

  Right, y'all was having sleepovers. Those sleepovers were fun. You got to learn dance moves from trained gymnasts. They probably went to the Olympics after that. That's how they make their money on the off season.

• 15:13Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 15:13Laci Mosley?

  They go do traveling.

• 15:15Speaker 04

  I guess if you think about it, like, if they just were living off that money, and just, for whatever reason, they're like, "This is the work, this is our work. Our job is this." Is it really that bad?

• 15:24Laci Mosley?

  I mean, what's the difference between that and what we do? We're entertainers, and we're like, "Hey, I'll entertain you. Give me money, please, and I will give you entertainment."

• 15:31Speaker 04

  Right.

• 15:32Laci Mosley?

  I think that's what happened here.

• 15:33Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 15:34Laci Mosley?

  But I'm sorry you lost your friends like that girl, cuz they just packed up in the middle of the night.

• 15:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's sad cuz you were, you were just a kid and you just wanted to hang out with your friends.

• 15:42Laci Mosley?

  You're like, whatever.

• 15:43Speaker 04

  She just called for a sleepover and they're like, nah.

• 15:45Laci Mosley?

  It's like, hey, is Svetlana over here? We was supposed to go see Barney live. Oh. Svetlana? All the windows are open, all the doors are open. They just gone.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  Never to be seen again.

• 15:58Laci Mosley?

  Really? You probably never even knew their real names. Oh, I wonder if she knew their real names. That's exciting, just hanging out with somebody who got a different identity.

• 16:05Speaker 04

  Right.

• 16:06Laci Mosley?

  That's the kinda stuff I'm into.

• 16:09Laci Mosley?

  Honestly, that's dating in L.A. You don't know who the fuck you're dating. They just tell you whatever. Actually, especially in New York, you don't know who the fuck you're dating cuz everybody got thirty-seven thousand jobs. Everybody walks everywhere, so you really not seeing anybody get out of any vehicles. You don't really know what anybody's life is.

• 16:23Speaker 04

  Oh, interesting. That's right. Cuz you can't, you can judge somebody based off what the vehicle they're driving.

• 16:28Laci Mosley?

  Now, you can't. I will say that. You, like, a lot of people drive around their mortgages. And I went on a date once with this guy who was driving like an S-Class Mercedes-Benz, and it was really nice. And, um, we started talking, and he had mentioned something about a payday loan. He's like, years ago, I took out a payday loan. And I said, oh, my god, you took out a payday loan? I said, so, is your credit, like, really shot now? Cuz those are predatory. And he was like, yeah, I'm working on rebuilding it. I said, are you leasing that vehicle? He goes, yeah, yeah, I'm leasing. I was like, oh, I bet that payment's really high, huh? He was like, yeah, it's pretty high. I was like, where do you live right now? He's like, oh, I'm living with my friend. He's with his wife and his baby, but I'm about to move out and get my own spot. I was like, oh, okay, so you have three roommates, and one of them is a child, and you're driving a Benz that you can't afford and your credit is shot? Yeah.

• 17:14Speaker 04

  Data boo.

• 17:15Laci Mosley?

  I'm basically Annalise Keaton. I'm Annalise Keaton of dating broke niggas. I come in with my briefcase and I wobble walk over. And I find out if that nigga's broke, okay? Like I said, you ride clean, but your gas tank is on me.

• 17:34Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 17:35Laci Mosley?

  No, that was amazing. Oh wait, I was, okay, you were doing, um, who is that? Who sings that song?

• 17:40Speaker 04

  Uh, of course, of course, I blanked on the name immediately when you asked me. Stay Fly, Bye, It's Gonna Come To Us.

• 17:50Laci Mosley?

  Birdman? It's Birdman. Birdman, Stay Fly, I stay fly. And I was singing Chicken Head. You ride clean, but your gas tank is on me.

• 17:58Speaker 04

  Right.

• 17:58Laci Mosley?

  Show up in a club, no decent shoes on your feet. Hey, listen, you gotta listen to those lyrics, ladies. Though, though. Don't say I never gave you anything. Scams. Cones. All right, guys, and we're back with my favorite segment of the show, as I say every week, Historic Hood Wings. So this is when I'm gonna regale John with an infamous con and we'll just get his thoughts. Obviously, I love this guy. He's from one of the countries that really just perfected scamming in such a magnificent way, Nigeria. You know, when you think about the origin, when you think about ground zero for fraud, you know, two places come in mind for me.

• 18:43Laci Mosley?

  One is Brooklyn, New York, and the other one is Nigeria, the country.

• 18:47Speaker 04

  It's true. It's true.

• 18:50Laci Mosley?

  And look, a shout out to all my Nigerians, Omo Nijah, I love y'all so much. It's no shade, it's just, we know, we know.

• 18:56Speaker 04

  We get it.

• 18:57Laci Mosley?

  And also, we're proud, and I'm proud of this man. And I think by the end, you'll be proud of him, too. So this is Nigerian scammer Emmanuel Wude. So he has an N in front of the last name, Wude. It's N W U D E, but I have so many Nigerian friends, so I know that you don't pronounce the N. It's Wude.

• 19:13Speaker 04

  You're cultured.

• 19:13Laci Mosley?

  Like, what? You know what I mean?

• 19:15Speaker 04

  You are so.

• 19:16Laci Mosley?

  I am foo foo. Also, I'm black, I need to say that every show, if you don't know yet. I am black. So I'm allowed to say all these things because I don't know where I'm from in Africa, okay? Probably somewhere where they could dock a boat, you know? That could be anywhere on the West. So this is my culture.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  Right.

• 19:35Laci Mosley?

  So this is Nigerian scammer Emmanuel Nood. Love is, why, oh my god, I said the N. No! Nood!

• 19:42Speaker 04

  You set yourself up for it.

• 19:44Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 19:44Speaker 04

  Oh my god.

• 19:45Laci Mosley?

  So Emmanuel is a fraud artist. Fraud artist.

• 19:48Speaker 04

  Wow, that's, look at that. Fraud artist.

• 19:51Laci Mosley?

  Put some respect on that man's name. And former director of Union Bank of Nigeria. He's also known for defrauding Nelson Skaguchi, a director at Brazil's Banco Noreste, based in Sao Paulo, of 242 million

• 20:09Speaker 04

  Whoa!

• 20:09Laci Mosley?

  of them thangs.

• 20:11Speaker 04

  Holy crap. I did not think that was gonna be million, like, I was like, woo, 242,000, that's respectable. Million?

• 20:19Laci Mosley?

  Oh, did you not hear fraud artist? Okay.

• 20:22Speaker 04

  Honestly, my bad. My bad.

• 20:25Laci Mosley?

  You thought we were playing? Okay?

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Okay, let's go.

• 20:29Laci Mosley?

  Right, let's get it, okay?

• 20:35Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 20:36Speaker 04

  This is, this is the Hall of Fame right here.

• 20:38Laci Mosley?

  Absolutely. So, his accomplice, he's had some accomplices. Uh, I don't need to read off their names, but you know I can pronounce them.

• 20:44Speaker 04

  We just need to know they're handsome.

• 20:47Laci Mosley?

  Handsome and wealthy. Okay. So, once upon a time, before he carried out the largest, or excuse me, the third largest banking scam in history. Top three?

• 20:58Speaker 04

  Top three?

• 20:58Laci Mosley?

  Yes. Top two and I'm not number two would have been better. Emmanuel, you should have scammed a little higher. So, he was an average guy who worked as a director of the Union Bank of Nigeria. In addition to regular income that his job gave him, it also gave him access to a lot of classified documents and information.

• 21:17Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm, information is key.

• 21:18Laci Mosley?

  Information is paramount. And opportunity. We all know scammers, when you start to really work inside a business, you always learn what the cracks are. You know what I mean? You know if they're gonna notice if you take 12 staplers home or not. And you start to figure that stuff out, and then it starts with the staplers. And you're like, oh, maybe I'll take home these forms. You know, I'm gonna take a whole filing cabinet home to my house. You know what I mean? Like...

• 21:40Speaker 04

  Why you need a filing cabinet?

• 21:43Laci Mosley?

  Why don't, why don't I?

• 21:44Speaker 04

  For all these files that I'm stealing.

• 21:47Laci Mosley?

  Look, I gotta get organized, okay? I started stealing a couple files.

• 21:50Speaker 04

  I don't know if this is a scam artist or a clout.

• 21:55Laci Mosley?

  I have an office depot that I run out of my home.

• 21:59Laci Mosley?

  So, in 1995, after he quits his job as director of the Union Bank of Nigeria, Wood used information from his former job to pretend to be Paul Oguma. Oguma. Paul. So, so Paul, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Then, the fake governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, so this is Emmanuel pretending to be Paul, convinced Nelson Skaguchi, a director of Brazil's Banco Neste, to buy stake in Nigeria's newest airport.

• 22:32Speaker 04

  I love the accent at the end.

• 22:33Laci Mosley?

  Nigeria is going to have a new airport eh, and it is going to be so nice eh, you want to put your plane there.

• 22:39Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 22:39Laci Mosley?

  Yes, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get cancelled by the Nigerian community. Fight me! No, don't, please, you're fastidious.

• 22:48Laci Mosley?

  If the Brazilian bank director got in on the ground floor when the airport was being built, he would get about a $10 million commission as well as dividends on his airport investment.

• 22:56Speaker 04

  There you go.

• 22:57Laci Mosley?

  So it's like, listen, I know that there are no contracts. I know I cannot show you actual contracts of the building. We, but the building is going to be there, and if you get in on the ground floor, then you will make so much money.

• 23:09Laci Mosley?

  I cannot actually provide you with any forms.

• 23:12Speaker 04

  Okay, so no forms?

• 23:13Laci Mosley?

  Oh no, I do not have any forms for you today, but listen to me eh.

• 23:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:17Laci Mosley?

  $10 million.

• 23:19Speaker 04

  That's a lot of money.

• 23:20Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I want you to give me 242 million.

• 23:23Speaker 04

  Right, okay, wait, hold on.

• 23:26Speaker 04

  So my investment, my investment is 24 times the amount that I'm gonna get back?

• 23:34Laci Mosley?

  Yes, but you are not thinking about the money that you stand to gain.

• 23:36Speaker 04

  Ah, got you, got you, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 23:38Laci Mosley?

  Don't miss this opportunity, there is someone calling me right now, hold on.

• 23:41Speaker 04

  I gotta be honest, you're so handsome. I don't know, I don't know if it's because you're handsome, but I think we gotta do business together.

• 23:49Laci Mosley?

  Listen, has a handsome man ever afforded you out of 242 million dollars?

• 23:53Speaker 04

  Never. Never, and this will not be the first day that it happens.

• 23:59Laci Mosley?

  So eager to cash in on this sweet deal, just like Jonathan just showed us. Horny Skaguchi.

• 24:08Laci Mosley?

  Paid wood, $191 million in cash, and $51 million in outstanding interest. Despite the lack of a physical airport, which was promised would take several years to approve because of construction. In 1997, the money trail started to chirp up. So two years later, they're like, hmm.

• 24:27Speaker 04

  The money trail. That's what got him. Not the fact that this airport didn't exist and there was no construction crews or nothing.

• 24:34Laci Mosley?

  Oh, Skaguchi, my friends, why are you calling me today?

• 24:37Speaker 04

  Hey, uh, yeah, I drove by that lot that you said we were gonna start building that airport in. There's nothing there.

• 24:45Laci Mosley?

  What?

• 24:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, no.

• 24:46Laci Mosley?

  Oh, no. You must not look closely enough. There is a sign on the ground that says airports coming soon.

• 24:51Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm. No, actually, I did see that sign. It was written in crayon.

• 24:56Laci Mosley?

  What?

• 24:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, red crayon. And it feels not as legitimate.

• 25:02Laci Mosley?

  Oh, did you see the picture of the airplane on the sign?

• 25:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, I just thought, you know, it's, it has been two years now, so.

• 25:10Laci Mosley?

  Airports take time. Have you ever built an airport?

• 25:12Speaker 04

  I have not.

• 25:13Laci Mosley?

  These sexy hands that I have have built at airports before.

• 25:16Speaker 04

  Sexy hands, okay. You know what? I'm gonna give you some more time.

• 25:23Laci Mosley?

  Exactly how it happened. That was actually the phone call, guys.

• 25:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was.

• 25:26Laci Mosley?

  So lucky to have those transcripts. So that year, Spanish bank Santander just happened to make a move to acquire Banco Noreste. That's Skaguchi's bank. But during a deep dive on their books, which I hope was like a deep Secession-style dive. Do you watch Secession?

• 25:42Speaker 04

  Of course I do.

• 25:43Laci Mosley?

  Oh, I love Secession. It's just like Empire, but with like a little bit better research. Like, cause on Empire, they have to keep everything vague. I always talk about this, like, I think that instead of like Lee Daniels going out and like getting information on how businesses are run, they just stick with like very vague first.

• 25:59Speaker 04

  Right.

• 26:00Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, right? We've talked about this, like, the company. But on Secession, they're like, the quarterly reports are down. And like Kendall's doing cocaine and being sad. Oh, so good. So I hope it was like that. I hope this was like a succession style deep dive. But in this deep dive, they found out that two fifths of the bank's capital was registered to undisclosed accounts in the Cayman Islands. This, of course, was Woo's colossal taking of now $330 million.

• 26:28Speaker 04

  Wow. Also, can we talk about the fact that the Cayman Islands are pretty much only known for like embezzling money?

• 26:37Laci Mosley?

  I mean, that's their brand.

• 26:38Speaker 04

  That's their brand.

• 26:38Laci Mosley?

  And I've been there so many times. And the funny thing is, is like, when you go to lots of islands, especially in the Caribbean, everyone is like super duper friendly because tourism is just such a huge export for them. So they're trying to get your money from the gate, you know, all the way back to before you leave, right? But in the Cayman Islands, they're not like that. Cause they don't need your fucking money. Cause all they do is launder money. It's like, bitch, like, why are you over here? Welcome to the Caymans. Go to fuck home. Are you a millionaire? No, to get the fuck out, raised out, bitch. No, you can't have no plantains, holdies, not sale to you. Get your ass back on that Carnival cruise ship, you raggedy bitch.

• 27:18Laci Mosley?

  Cause they're like, we don't have to be.

• 27:19Speaker 04

  Oh, my God. It's so real. It's so real.

• 27:23Laci Mosley?

  Cause the banking industry is like keeping them completely afloat. They're like, are you a rich white billionaire? They raise the fuck up, Sandra. We're not braiding your daughter's hair. They are mean. Um, sorry if you're from the Cayman Islands. Wait, if you're from the Cayman Islands, tweet me, tweet me and tell me if I'm right.

• 27:38Speaker 04

  That would be incredible.

• 27:39Laci Mosley?

  I heard y'all don't like tourists and I've experienced it as well. I was also, I'm black. Y'all don't know if I'm from here. They knew immediately. They knew immediately. Also, I could be from there. Again, the diaspora. I will reiterate this throughout the show to legitimize my horrible accents. Okay? So the fraud was, oh, oh, this is the other thing that I want to point out. Two fifths of the bank's capital, my guy. Scargucci. You invested and they let you.

• 28:08Speaker 04

  And they let you do this.

• 28:10Laci Mosley?

  Two fifths of all your bank's money.

• 28:13Speaker 04

  That's wild.

• 28:14Laci Mosley?

  In an airport you've never seen. Did you even visit the lot where the airport was supposed to be at?

• 28:20Speaker 04

  No, he definitely didn't.

• 28:21Laci Mosley?

  This is like.

• 28:22Speaker 04

  The other thing that I think about with these stuff, with these kind of things is like, people have way too much money. When I drop five dollars, I open my wallet and I'm like, where my five dollars come? I start tracing my steps. I start asking people, hey, man, you see five dollars on the street? I start, I, I, I turn over couch cushions. You know, I'm in the car looking, looking in the cracks. How they, how they just gonna let three hundred million dollars just, and then it, two years? Two, after two years, then they go, wait a minute, where?

• 28:58Laci Mosley?

  There's literal smoke coming out of John's.

• 29:01Speaker 04

  They're missing some money.

• 29:04Laci Mosley?

  We missed a little bit of money, right?

• 29:05Speaker 04

  A little bit of money.

• 29:07Laci Mosley?

  Wait, Scargucci, can you come here?

• 29:08Speaker 04

  Yo, man.

• 29:09Laci Mosley?

  Hey fam, so we were just digging through these, these books. I'm, me, it's something there. Uh, I'm from a Spanish accent. Uh, the people of something there were digging through the books and, um, we just have a, a couple of preguntas for you. Um, donde está la dinero? Where is the money?

• 29:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, you had over a trillion dollars and now it's three. It's only, uh, it's only nine hundred million.

• 29:29Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's not what we were promised when we saw, okay. Oh, you gave it to a sexy African. Okay.

• 29:35Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 29:35Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 29:36Speaker 04

  That's okay.

• 29:38Laci Mosley?

  It's also nineteen ninety-five, so I imagine technology is just so trash. Like, whenever I think of nineteen ninety-five, I think of the movie Ghost.

• 29:44Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 29:45Laci Mosley?

  And people typing on computers, and for some reason there was like green letters.

• 29:47Speaker 04

  Damn, that's, man, nineteen ninety-five, this was in nineteen ninety-five?

• 29:51Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 29:52Speaker 04

  That means that money was even more than it is now.

• 29:54Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 29:54Speaker 04

  Oh my god.

• 29:55Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 29:55Speaker 04

  Wow. Why did they make a movie about this dude?

• 29:58Laci Mosley?

  I think they are going to.

• 29:59Speaker 04

  Okay, they better. They made a movie about some white dude who just scammed a couple of banks. Like, wait, right, like, that dude, Leonardo DiCaprio, like, how much money did he steal?

• 30:09Laci Mosley?

  I don't know.

• 30:10Speaker 04

  Definitely not two hundred and forty-two million.

• 30:11Laci Mosley?

  Exactly. Not a flex like this. He's not number two.

• 30:13Speaker 04

  He ain't number two.

• 30:14Laci Mosley?

  So, the fraud was uncovered after the December nineteen ninety-seven joint board meeting. So they had a meeting. Everybody pulled up to the meeting. What a, what a uncomfortable meeting. Yeah, you might not just get some water first. Yeah, yeah, you can have a little water. Let's get to it. Bitch, where is all our money?

• 30:32Laci Mosley?

  So this led to a criminal investigation in Brazil, Britain, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United States. I mean, if the US ain't getting parts, then are you really even doing crimes?

• 30:41Speaker 04

  Right, of course, yeah.

• 30:42Laci Mosley?

  Come on now.

• 30:43Speaker 04

  You know, we're police.

• 30:44Laci Mosley?

  World police and world criminal.

• 30:45Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 30:46Laci Mosley?

  We do, we're the good cop and the bad cop.

• 30:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's right. Hey, nobody can police your crime if you the police.

• 30:55Laci Mosley?

  We our own police, god, it's a huge problem. A laugh to keep from crying. Unfortunately for the Brazilian bank director, the Abuja Airport, Abuja, that was the name.

• 31:05Speaker 04

  Abuja.

• 31:06Laci Mosley?

  That sounds like a nice airport.

• 31:08Speaker 04

  It does.

• 31:09Laci Mosley?

  Where you flying to, Abuja?

• 31:09Speaker 04

  Abuja.

• 31:10Laci Mosley?

  Abuja at 10 a.m.? Yes. It was a complete fiction. Ta-da. But by the time he figured it out, Wooed and his accomplices had already fled with the money. Duh.

• 31:21Speaker 04

  Well, of course.

• 31:23Laci Mosley?

  I don't even know why y'all waited looking for them.

• 31:24Speaker 04

  Really got a two-year head start.

• 31:27Laci Mosley?

  No, we only, listen, listen, we are only two years behind. We will find them.

• 31:31Speaker 04

  We gonna find them, okay?

• 31:33Laci Mosley?

  Like Liam Neeson hopped on a plane five minutes after his daughter was taken. Y'all waited two years. Y'all ain't getting that shit back. I don't care how many people you neck chop. You're not getting that money back. So Wooed got away with it until 2004.

• 31:47Speaker 04

  Woo.

• 31:48Laci Mosley?

  So just to do that quick math, yeah, that's seven years.

• 31:50Speaker 04

  Seven years.

• 31:51Laci Mosley?

  Of just...

• 31:52Speaker 04

  After they found out about it.

• 31:53Laci Mosley?

  Luxury. Woo. When he was brought before Abuja High Court and charged with 86 counts of fraudulently seeking advanced fees and 16 counts of bribery. We gonna get into these bribery counts, because they are fun.

• 32:08Speaker 04

  16 counts.

• 32:10Laci Mosley?

  So however, after rumors that Wooed handsomely bribed the court staff that also charged him with bribery, the case was thrown out.

• 32:19Speaker 04

  Of course was.

• 32:23Speaker 04

  My man got 242 million dollars.

• 32:27Laci Mosley?

  You ain't locking nobody up who got that kind of money.

• 32:29Speaker 04

  We already know this. People who are rich, they don't, they don't go to prison.

• 32:34Laci Mosley?

  And, but you know, it's always white people who are rich who don't go to prison.

• 32:36Speaker 04

  Right, exactly. That's true.

• 32:37Laci Mosley?

  So I love to see, you love to see a black man.

• 32:39Speaker 04

  You do love to see it.

• 32:39Laci Mosley?

  Skate away like this. You truly do.

• 32:41Speaker 04

  But he was in, so he was bribing in Nigeria, right.

• 32:44Laci Mosley?

  That's another thing, right?

• 32:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:46Laci Mosley?

  So he's in his home country.

• 32:47Speaker 04

  He's in his home country.

• 32:47Laci Mosley?

  They were just like...

• 32:48Speaker 04

  And everybody like, amen.

• 32:49Laci Mosley?

  Wooed, what you did is so wrong. Is that money you are putting on my table? You know I cannot take that. Okay, turn around.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  Just gonna leave this $100,000 here on the table.

• 33:04Laci Mosley?

  I am going to have to charge you with one more count of bribery for trying to bribe me, but then I will throw all the charges out.

• 33:12Laci Mosley?

  I'll charge you and then I'll throw out the charges.

• 33:14Speaker 04

  I'll throw out those charges.

• 33:15Laci Mosley?

  So, according to Nija, the group pleaded not guilty and were warned not to bribe court officials after the alleged money was going around. So basically, they went to court and they were like, "Hey."

• 33:28Speaker 04

  Hey, you don't bribe anybody.

• 33:31Laci Mosley?

  Don't bribe me. Don't you come into my chambers and give me a suitcase full of money. Don't you do it.

• 33:40Speaker 04

  If you try to give me $250,000, that would be wrong, especially if you left it at 3, 2, 1, maple wood dry.

• 33:55Laci Mosley?

  In unmarked bills that were clean, but don't do that.

• 34:00Speaker 04

  Don't do that.

• 34:01Laci Mosley?

  So in July 2004, Judge Lawgumi threw out the case again, claiming that since the crime did not take place in Abuja, he had no jurisdiction, and said that the proper place would be Lagos High Court. So he got bribed, probably.

• 34:17Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 34:17Laci Mosley?

  And was like, "You know what? Actually, this ain't none of my damn business. I need to mind my business. You know, as a officer of the court, I need to mind my business."

• 34:27Speaker 04

  I need to mind my business. My mom always told me, "Mind your own business." So this ain't my business.

• 34:33Laci Mosley?

  An African proverb.

• 34:38Laci Mosley?

  So as soon as they are let out and they assume they're, you know, free, the defendants were immediately rearrested as soon as they stepped outside of the courthouse. So they didn't get much freedom.

• 34:47Speaker 04

  Damn, okay.

• 34:48Laci Mosley?

  So in the Lagos trial, Wood attempted to bribe.

• 34:53Speaker 04

  Why not?

• 34:54Laci Mosley?

  Woo, didn't we tell you to stop bribing people?

• 34:56Speaker 04

  He got endless money. What like, what else is he about to do?

• 34:59Laci Mosley?

  We told you, don't bribe nobody else. Damn.

• 35:03Speaker 04

  I love it because they couldn't find his money. So like, he's still able to bribe people.

• 35:07Laci Mosley?

  He's like showed up to court in like rose worsies and like a full gold suit.

• 35:11Speaker 04

  They're like, hey, where's your money at?

• 35:14Laci Mosley?

  He's like, I do not know, but I know I could find some of it for you. And I, oop. So, so then Woo attempts to bribe Nuha Ribadu. I'm probably not saying that right. I'm so sorry. Who was then the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the EFCC, with $75,000 cash. Okay, so here's my issue, Woo. 75K is enough.

• 35:38Speaker 04

  Came too low, man.

• 35:39Laci Mosley?

  You came in way too low. Your offer was offensive.

• 35:42Speaker 04

  That was offensive.

• 35:42Laci Mosley?

  And that's probably why it didn't work out. Like, you stole 242 million dollars.

• 35:47Speaker 04

  You can't be bribing 75,000. No, that's too low.

• 35:49Laci Mosley?

  That's like, that's trying to give me, like, it's gonna give me 75 dollars. Like, hey, make this go away.

• 35:54Speaker 04

  You're going to jail now.

• 35:56Laci Mosley?

  Just on pettiness. So he refused, obviously, because it wasn't enough money.

• 36:01Speaker 04

  Wasn't enough money.

• 36:01Laci Mosley?

  And Woo was charged with attempted bribery again, as well as an attempt to kidnap a prosecuting witness. So.

• 36:09Speaker 04

  Oh, wait, what? Where did that come from?

• 36:11Laci Mosley?

  Escalated quickly.

• 36:15Speaker 04

  Who he paying now?

• 36:17Laci Mosley?

  So, he was like, fine, you don't want to take my 75,000 dollars? I'm gonna pay that to somebody else who go kidnap me.

• 36:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, goddamn.

• 36:24Laci Mosley?

  75 is all I'm given. That's my final offer. Like, you can't play hardball when you're trying to go to jail. So, during the trial, there was a bomb scare that caused the courthouse to be evacuated. Curious.

• 36:39Speaker 04

  I don't know what the plan was with that one, though. You just.

• 36:43Laci Mosley?

  That's only gonna get you like two hours, most, with some bomb sniffing, dawg.

• 36:47Speaker 04

  What you trying to accomplish with it?

• 36:48Laci Mosley?

  That reminds me of that Dave Chappelle gif where he's playing the president and he sits down at the table and like tosses over the pitcher of water and runs. Like, this was Woo's like, Scooby Doo ass trying to escape. Like, that's not enough time, Woo. You thought you was gonna get to Canada by then? Like, what are you doing? You didn't build your fake airport, so you got to fly out the regular one. Like, what? So Emmanuel and Nazir, Nazir, Nazir B.

• 37:19Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 37:20Laci Mosley?

  Whew, Lord Jesus.

• 37:21Speaker 04

  You're doing really good. You're doing really well with Emmanuel.

• 37:23Laci Mosley?

  I'm not. I started, I put the N there. It's supposed to be Zirby.

• 37:26Speaker 04

  Oh, that's right.

• 37:26Laci Mosley?

  There we go. Fuck. So Emmanuel and Zirby, Okoli.

• 37:31Speaker 04

  Mmm, I like it.

• 37:31Laci Mosley?

  Ooh, we're gonna go with it, guys. Pleaded guilty after testimony in hopes of a more lenient sentence and were sentenced to 29 years in prison collectively with Woo receiving five concurrent sentences of five years totaling 25 years and Okoli receiving four. So Okoli only got four years. Woo got 25 years. I don't understand why the sentences are consecutive. I guess what they're trying to do is to make sure you can't plead out and not serve all of them.

• 38:02Speaker 04

  I, I think they just, because they want him to go to jail for a long time for what he did.

• 38:05Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but here's the thing. So, the entirety of Woo's assets were confiscated to be returned to the victim and $10 million fine was imposed to be paid to the Nigerian federal government.

• 38:17Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 38:17Laci Mosley?

  So.

• 38:18Speaker 04

  Oh wait, he got his 10 million.

• 38:21Laci Mosley?

  Now Nigeria, why, why he got to pay you? He didn't scam y'all. He didn't scam y'all. He scammed Brazil. They're like, and you know what? Give us 10 million as well because we know you got it.

• 38:32Speaker 04

  I mean, we had to put you on trial.

• 38:34Laci Mosley?

  That was expensive.

• 38:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, that cost 10 million dollars.

• 38:37Laci Mosley?

  And what about that bomb threat that we gave you the cellphone to call in for?

• 38:41Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That cost 10 million dollars.

• 38:44Laci Mosley?

  Canines are expensive. So Woo filed a lawsuit to recover his seized assets after they were released from prison, after he was released from prison. Do you want to guess what year he was released?

• 38:55Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, clearly it was not the 25 years sentence he was supposed to serve.

• 39:00Laci Mosley?

  I, I want you to give me a ballpark guess of how many years.

• 39:02Speaker 04

  Okay, so he went to prison, say, what, like 2005?

• 39:05Laci Mosley?

  2000, yeah, like 2004.

• 39:07Speaker 04

  2004. Uh, I mean, okay, you know, white collar crime, they probably get out in like three years, but I'mma add, I'mma add three more because he's black, so six?

• 39:17Laci Mosley?

  But he in a black country.

• 39:18Speaker 04

  Oh, that's true. So let me subtract two.

• 39:20Laci Mosley?

  I love this. I love the racism math. I love, okay, right, right, right. Everybody's black.

• 39:25Speaker 04

  Okay, four years.

• 39:26Laci Mosley?

  Wow, you're, you're close, but no cigar. He got out in 2006.

• 39:33Speaker 04

  Damn.

• 39:33Laci Mosley?

  My guy was in the clink for less than two years.

• 39:37Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 39:39Laci Mosley?

  Chao, a king. So, he filed a lawsuit after doing less than two years in jail to recover his seized assets once he was released from prison on the grounds that some of the assets were acquired before the crime was committed. He was like, okay, some of that money was mine. Is basically what he said.

• 39:55Speaker 04

  Interesting.

• 39:56Laci Mosley?

  He has already reclaimed at least 52 million dollars. The scam was the third largest banking fraud scam in the world.

• 40:06Laci Mosley?

  And it popularized advanced fee fraud syndrome, meaning that now when people want money upfront, which I've talked about on an episode with Lauren Lapkus, reimbursement, I don't do reimbursement. I want pre- reimbursements. I want my money upfront. But now, that's a nerve-wracking thing for people because they worry, like, what if I give you 300 million dollars for an airport and you never build it?

• 40:26Speaker 04

  Right, right, right.

• 40:28Laci Mosley?

  So, advanced fee fraud is a type of fraud in which businesses and individuals are required to pay an advance fee. It's pretty self-explanatory. The targets of the fraud, which include businesses and individuals, receive a solicitation with someone posing as a business or representative of the government, promising large sums of money will be deposited once they reach their target. To ensure this, the recipient of the letter is asked to pay a certain percentage of the total amount. And it's always like a wire or a transfer. Anytime somebody telling you they're gonna wire you money, like, immediately become afraid.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 40:58Laci Mosley?

  And this type of fraud is sometimes called 419 fraud after the relevant section of the Nigerian criminal code. So now, he has a crime named after him. I'm proud of him.

• 41:09Speaker 04

  Hall of Fame.

• 41:10Laci Mosley?

  Emmanuel, you have a crime named after you and you are full-on free and a full-on millionaire. Shout out to Emmanuel, a king.

• 41:19Speaker 04

  I mean, seriously. I'm just thinking about all of the, you know, not to make this about race, but like, seriously though, mad, like, movies made with, like, white people scamming people and they don't even come close to what this dude did.

• 41:34Laci Mosley?

  And he's free.

• 41:35Speaker 04

  And he's free. He got out in two years, just like, just like any other white person would. Man, that's amazing. That's truly, that's inspiring. I mean, he stole 52 million dollars, but honestly, those people probably shouldn't have had that much money to begin with.

• 41:49Laci Mosley?

  Right. They're hoarding it, to be honest.

• 41:51Speaker 04

  They are hoarding it.

• 41:52Laci Mosley?

  Is he not redistributing the wealth? He's out here paying every government employee.

• 41:58Laci Mosley?

  Everybody got a bonus.

• 41:58Speaker 04

  He bribing everybody.

• 42:00Laci Mosley?

  I want you to think about the little girl whose daddy is a judge and that Christmas, she got that doll that she wanted or that Beyonce tickets that she wanted. You know what I'm saying? Like, think about how many blessings Emmanuel created for the people in his life that he scammed.

• 42:16Speaker 04

  That's amazing.

• 42:16Laci Mosley?

  And that he bribed.

• 42:17Speaker 04

  I love it.

• 42:17Laci Mosley?

  Now, one person did get kidnapped, maybe.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, was it threatened to kidnap?

• 42:22Laci Mosley?

  I think it might have been threatened to kidnap, attempted kidnapping. Yeah, which is not even that bad. Like, as a woman who walks down the street, I'm pretty sure I've been that people have been attempted to kidnap me every day. And I'm doing OK.

• 42:36Laci Mosley?

  So what bad did this man really do? This went by really fast, Jonathan.

• 42:41Speaker 04

  I mean, so fast.

• 42:43Laci Mosley?

  We've reached the last segment of the show.

• 42:45Speaker 04

  I'm sad.

• 42:46Laci Mosley?

  Oh, I am too. So this is Scammer of the Week.

• 42:49Speaker 04

  OK.

• 42:49Laci Mosley?

  So this is when we pick like one honorary charlatan who's worthy of our praise. And we just, we just share their exploits with the world.

• 42:59Speaker 04

  I love it.

• 43:01Laci Mosley?

  So this year's Scammer of the Week is Jeffrey Wall of Freeport, a main concert promoter who raised over $3 million from investors allegedly falsely telling them that the money was going to be used to host Christian music festivals and that profits were guaranteed.

• 43:22Speaker 04

  OK, right back in the Christian world.

• 43:25Laci Mosley?

  Christian Coachella. Ooh.

• 43:28Speaker 04

  Christian Coachella. You know.

• 43:32Laci Mosley?

  You can be as problematic as regular Coachella. There's just like maybe no drugs and sex, but you can wear a flower crown and/or an Indian headdress.

• 43:43Speaker 04

  That's right. You can lift those praise hands in the air.

• 43:48Laci Mosley?

  Can we drink wine and call it communion?

• 43:51Speaker 04

  You can sip some. You can sip some communion wine.

• 43:52Laci Mosley?

  Have a sip of a, they probably could serve White Claws.

• 43:56Speaker 04

  Listen, you can get high on the Holy Ghost.

• 43:58Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. You heard it here first, Jonathan. So, The Lighthouse Events LLC, gotta have an LLC, founded by Jeffrey Wall, described itself as a Christian ministry that promotes, organizes, and hosts music concerts and festivals. Wall solicited investments from companies through emails. One which read, "Become a financial partner with our summer festivals. Help us spread the message of Christ. Plus, earn 20% on your investment."

• 44:28Speaker 04

  Wait, so I can save people and make this money?

• 44:31Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 44:32Speaker 04

  I can serve both masters?

• 44:37Laci Mosley?

  Oh, Kentucky. We getting sanctified and we getting dividends?

• 44:45Speaker 04

  Amazing.

• 44:47Laci Mosley?

  The 20% on your investment is trash. So, regulators say that Wall did not disclose his company's poor finances and growing dues. Instead of Christian concerts, investor funds were allegedly used to pay off his existing debt.

• 45:03Laci Mosley?

  So now I want to know what scam he was doing before this.

• 45:06Speaker 04

  I love that he just did a whole scam just to pay off some debt.

• 45:11Laci Mosley?

  Probably from his last scam.

• 45:13Speaker 04

  From his last scam.

• 45:14Laci Mosley?

  When you're like a career scammer, you're always looking for your next income fill.

• 45:18Speaker 04

  Right.

• 45:19Laci Mosley?

  So now he was like, "I'll just send out email, unsolicited emails? And this works for people?"

• 45:26Speaker 04

  It worked.

• 45:27Laci Mosley?

  So, the defendant's actions constitute what is known as affinity fraud, which refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities. In this case, the defendant defrauded investors who shared Wall's religious views. So, I guess he found, oh, wait, is this the guy? This is Wall. Oh, my God. Look at his bland-ass family. Oh, my God. If these people walked past me, even after staring at this photo, I'm like Kiki Palmer. I could stare at this for two hours and I'd be like, "I don't know this man."

• 46:03Speaker 04

  It's truly the most, like, generic-looking.

• 46:07Laci Mosley?

  I've never seen a more generic-looking family. They should all be scammers. I would never remember any of their faces.

• 46:14Speaker 04

  Wow. I'm forgetting them as I look at them.

• 46:20Speaker 04

  Like I'm staring at them and it's, I'm forgetting.

• 46:23Laci Mosley?

  It's like, I could be friends with them for years and then I could see them in a Starbucks while I'm waiting for coffee and I-

• 46:31Speaker 04

  I truly want to know the backstory of like what, what that debt was. You know what I mean?

• 46:36Laci Mosley?

  Right. He might be murdering people.

• 46:39Speaker 04

  Absolutely. Absolutely.

• 46:43Laci Mosley?

  I encourage you guys to look up Jeffrey Wall and just look at his face. Like these people, I can't.

• 46:48Speaker 04

  So he just emailed, he just emailed people and he got the money?

• 46:52Laci Mosley?

  Yes. He was sending out unsolicited emails promising Jesus and 20%. And you know, Jesus only asked for 10. I said, that's more than Jesus wanted for me.

• 47:06Laci Mosley?

  That's a steal. He said, look, I'm giving-

• 47:08Speaker 04

  I will multiply your loaves and fishes.

• 47:12Laci Mosley?

  Literally what the email said. With Christian Coachella.

• 47:15Speaker 04

  With Christian Coachella. All your favorite Christian artists.

• 47:18Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, who are our favorite Christian artists? I like, this is-

• 47:23Speaker 04

  So this is like Christian, like, this is like Christian rock?

• 47:25Laci Mosley?

  I'm assuming Christian rock.

• 47:27Speaker 04

  This is like Chris Tomlin. Okay, this is like-

• 47:30Laci Mosley?

  Sean McDonald, does he still make music?

• 47:33Speaker 04

  I don't know, but I think so.

• 47:34Laci Mosley?

  You know, I love, I do love that song, "Take My Hand" though. "Take my hand to the promised land, love you, wanna where I stand, but I cannot do it all on my own. I need you, you're what I need and I need to be, Lord, by your side, but I cannot hide, Lord, and I know that I need you." Listen, I'm from Texas, okay? So I had to listen to Christian rock.

• 47:53Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 47:54Laci Mosley?

  Forced upon my ears. But I loved it. I would totally like do Molly and uh-

• 48:01Laci Mosley?

  And wear a flower crown and just be out there like-

• 48:05Laci Mosley?

  I'm the only black person there.

• 48:09Laci Mosley?

  Somebody knows it's a scam.

• 48:12Laci Mosley?

  We knew it was a scam. We saw that one black lady on Molly in a headdress.

• 48:17Speaker 04

  Oh, man.

• 48:18Laci Mosley?

  Oh, man. But, OK, so this is something that happens a lot. And it happens with different groups. It happens with a lot of hate groups as well. Groups that kind of hate, like, gay people. Or, you know what I mean? Like, they get scammed by...

• 48:30Laci Mosley?

  Look, we also hate... Who do y'all hate? Who... Hold on. I'm sorry. Which... Who do you hate specifically?

• 48:37Speaker 04

  Uh, we... So, here's the thing. We're holding a rally, a Klan rally.

• 48:41Laci Mosley?

  Oh, OK.

• 48:42Speaker 04

  OK. We gonna take down all of these blacks and Jews and queers. And all we need is a small investment of $100, and you will get 20% off.

• 48:56Speaker 04

  You will get 20% return on your investments once the white race takes over.

• 49:01Laci Mosley?

  Has taken back supremacy. As soon as we get the supremacy back.

• 49:06Speaker 04

  As soon as we get the supremacy back.

• 49:07Laci Mosley?

  We gonna give you your 20% on your investment. I promise you. OK? Just wait for the day.

• 49:13Speaker 04

  I promise you.

• 49:14Laci Mosley?

  That, uh... What's his name? Duke something?

• 49:16Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm. David Duke.

• 49:18Laci Mosley?

  Wait till David Duke...

• 49:19Speaker 04

  Listen, we promise you 40 acres and a mule. That's right. White reparations. Just give us $100, and you gonna get your white reparations.

• 49:30Laci Mosley?

  I would love... We need to run this scam, John. White reparations. And we just hit up racist groups. And we're like, black people always said they needed the 40 acres and the mule, but we know we need it.

• 49:39Speaker 04

  We know we need it.

• 49:41Laci Mosley?

  Our email address is like, [email protected].

• 49:47Speaker 04

  [email protected].

• 49:48Laci Mosley?

  Definitely a white person at gmail.com. Caucasians. Oh, yes. But as soon as we do get the supremacy, we will give you a 20% return on your investment. OK?

• 49:59Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 50:00Laci Mosley?

  All right.

• 50:02Speaker 04

  All right.

• 50:02Laci Mosley?

  We've reached the end of the show.

• 50:05Speaker 04

  That's so...

• 50:06Laci Mosley?

  Is that crazy?

• 50:07Speaker 04

  That's so crazy.

• 50:08Laci Mosley?

  Well, I have to ask you, John. Where... Well, actually, there's one more thing.

• 50:12Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 50:13Laci Mosley?

  That... So, this was a two-parter. And I was gonna not read the other part. I was just gonna save it from, um, Shandy. But since we have a little bit of extra time, and I know you guys will be pissed at me if I leave early, I am gonna read this.

• 50:25Speaker 04

  Please do.

• 50:26Laci Mosley?

  So, this is also from Shandy. She said this is a scam that happened in her adult life. Uh, she says, "I once worked with a woman who faked having cancer for four full months. She stopped coming to work. She said she was undergoing chemo treatments. She started wearing a head wrap and even waxed off her eyebrows. Now that's commitment. The employer paid all of her insurance premiums, so somehow they were able to check up on her progress. And once they got suspicious and discovered that she wasn't sick at all. She was just sitting at home collecting her VP level paycheck and waxing off her eyebrows."

• 51:00Speaker 04

  She, so she pretended to have cancer just so she didn't have to go to work?

• 51:06Laci Mosley?

  Like, you know?

• 51:06Speaker 04

  Like, literally, just so she didn't have to go to work?

• 51:09Laci Mosley?

  First of all, people just call out sick. She's trying to call out dead.

• 51:16Speaker 04

  How, my question about a scam like that is like, how do you, where, what was the end? Where was the exit? You know what I mean? Like, how'd you think you were gonna get out of that?

• 51:24Laci Mosley?

  Like, were you just gonna come back and like, maybe like, have short hair wigs? And then like, eventually have a long hair wig?

• 51:30Speaker 04

  You have to keep up this story, literally, for the rest of your life.

• 51:34Laci Mosley?

  For the rest of your life, like?

• 51:35Speaker 04

  You have to keep telling people that you beat cancer and you never did.

• 51:38Laci Mosley?

  And this is a scam that I, I don't know if I commend this one. Just because there's so many people who have this disease and cannot afford treatment. So it is really fucked. And also, you're at a VP level position, which means that you've ascertained a certain amount of skills. If you don't like your job, just-

• 51:54Speaker 04

  Just quit.

• 51:55Laci Mosley?

  Get another one. But instead, you went and got you some nair. And you went down to the black hair care store and got you some scarves. You probably got it in the same place.

• 52:08Speaker 04

  It's also a lazy scam, too. It's just like, she just told people she had cancer and then waxed her eyebrows. Shaved her head.

• 52:16Laci Mosley?

  She didn't shave her head. I think she just put it in her eyebrows.

• 52:18Speaker 04

  She just waxed her eyebrows. They just put her head in a head wrap.

• 52:19Laci Mosley?

  So then what are you doing when you're not at work with your bald face?

• 52:24Speaker 04

  I don't know. I guess she's just living her life.

• 52:26Laci Mosley?

  How do-

• 52:29Speaker 04

  Man, what a boring person.

• 52:32Laci Mosley?

  This is trash. Like honestly, you know, I love scams, but I will have to condemn the scam. Just for being lazy, not inventive.

• 52:43Laci Mosley?

  There's a lack of ingenuity here. There's also, you know what I mean? There's a lack of forethought to the end goal. Like, what was gonna happen, sis?

• 52:52Speaker 04

  I also want, if you're gonna commit that hard to having cancer, like, you gotta milk that for more than just.

• 52:58Laci Mosley?

  For what? She must be milking it other places, because otherwise, how is she going out? Like, what if she's going to Bunko Night and they're like, hey, girl?

• 53:05Speaker 04

  Well, do you think she continued the scam outside of that life? Do you think she got, like, you know, people, like, buying her things, or just feeling sorry for her?

• 53:14Laci Mosley?

  She had to have.

• 53:15Speaker 04

  I mean, I don't, I don't know if she would need this, but you could.

• 53:18Laci Mosley?

  Not having eyebrows, if you're not like, I don't know, like a 19-year-old frat boy, like, why don't you have eyebrows, ma'am? Like, people are going to ask.

• 53:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:28Laci Mosley?

  I truly don't. Sis, I'm not here for this scam. I'm gonna condemn this scam. And maybe from here on out, maybe I will do one scam that I condemn. But this, this one is one that I definitely condemn.

• 53:38Speaker 04

  A scam that you condemn.

• 53:38Laci Mosley?

  Just to balance things out, because I am getting a lot of emails that are like, Lacey, you really motivated me to start doing fraud. And I'm like.

• 53:46Speaker 04

  Oh, no.

• 53:49Speaker 04

  Uh-oh, the opposite of the Lord's work.

• 53:54Laci Mosley?

  Listen, don't put that on me, okay? Because anything, a good scammer can manipulate any narrative to fit their own, okay?

• 54:02Speaker 04

  I'm distancing myself from this. I am, I'm not a scammer. I do not do these kinds of scams, okay? My scams are petty, man. My scams are small. I go to Chipotle. I, I order some chips. I walk away from the counter and I come back and I say, uh, can I get a side of salsa? And then they give it to me for free. But if I had a, if I ordered chips and salsa, I have to pay an extra dollar for that.

• 54:23Laci Mosley?

  That's beautiful.

• 54:24Speaker 04

  See, that's a little shortcut.

• 54:25Laci Mosley?

  Look at that, guys.

• 54:26Speaker 04

  For everybody to know. Go to Chipotle, you want chips and salsa, order chips, walk away from the counter.

• 54:32Laci Mosley?

  Walk away? Now, walk far away.

• 54:34Speaker 04

  You gotta walk away.

• 54:35Laci Mosley?

  Don't walk, don't walk where they can still see you and then turn around.

• 54:39Speaker 04

  And then, and then just come, then they come right back and say, actually, can I have a side of salsa? And they go, oh, yeah. And what kind? And then you tell them what kind, and they give you the side of salsa.

• 54:48Laci Mosley?

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna up the scam one. Get the chips, walk away, shave off your eyebrows.

• 54:58Laci Mosley?

  Come back. Get the salsa.

• 55:03Speaker 04

  And they go, what happened to your eyebrows? I have cancer. They just fell off.

• 55:09Speaker 04

  And then they give you a free burrito.

• 55:13Laci Mosley?

  I would appreciate that scam more than this woman's giving her job like this. But thank you so much, Shandy. You are a wealth of scam information. Guys, we've reached the end of the show. John, I just have one question.

• 55:22Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 55:23Laci Mosley?

  Where do you want to be found? And I'll ask where people can find you. I want to know where you want to be found.

• 55:28Speaker 04

  I like that because they could find me in places I don't want to be found.

• 55:31Laci Mosley?

  Exactly.

• 55:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, like my house.

• 55:35Speaker 04

  You can find me, or I would like you to find me on Twitter and Instagram, @johnbraylock, J-O-N-B-R-A-Y-L-O-C-K. My podcast, of course, Black Men Can't Jump in Hollywood. Please listen to that on

• 55:48Laci Mosley?

  Very fun.

• 55:49Speaker 04

  Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And of course, this show, Astronomy Club, on Netflix, which, depending on when this comes out, it comes out December 6. So if it's past then, go watch now. And if it's not past then, then December 6. Put it in your calendar, baby. All right.

• 56:09Laci Mosley?

  Oh, my God, that was such a good plug. I love that. Guys, as per usual, you can find me, Lacey Mosley, at D-I-V-A-L-A-C-I on all platforms. And if you'd like to contact the show, [email protected]. Only retired scam guys. I'm not trying to fuck up your bag. And if you want to follow us on the Instagram and the Twitter, it's scamgoddesspod. All right, congregation, stay scheming.

• 56:35Laci 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

• 56:48Speaker 02

  Engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.

• 56:55Speaker 02

  This January, bare-knuckle fighting championship takes over the ocean. The inaugural Brew's Cruise sails from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Jewel. Three straight days with pool-deck bare-knuckle fights in the Caribbean. Mess of parties, beach events, DJs, cigars, tequila tastings and non-stop action. The lineup reveals coming soon. Cabs are disappearing fast and the prices won't stay this low. Reserve your spot with just $200 down at B K F S E A dot com.

• 57:25Speaker 05

  Building with AI should feel simpler, not harder to navigate. The challenge is finding the right resources to move from exploring AI to building with it. The Microsoft AI Innovators Hub brings together code samples, guided labs, and practical guidance to help you move from exploring AI to building with it. Learn by building at the AI Innovators Hub. Visit AKA dot M S slash AI dash innovators. That's AKA dot M S slash AI dash innovators.

• 57:56Speaker 06

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolaire, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 58:09Speaker 02

  Zolaire 150 milligrams is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolaire, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolaire. Zolaire may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolaire should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolaire is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolaire.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolaire.

• 58:52Speaker 02

  This is an advertisement for Zolaire paid for by Genentech and Novartis.