Sam Israel: Greed Is Good Part 2 | 228

This is part two of our series about Sam Israel – a wealthy hedge fund manager whose company starts quickly hemorrhaging money. Rather than admit defeat, Sam lies to his clients, and when they start asking questions, he bets everything on a conspiracy theorist named Roberth Booth Nichols. What follows is stranger than fiction, involving buried treasure, fake identities, a plot involving the President of the United States – and a con man who's about to discover what it feels like to be conned. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:00Sarah Hagi?

  Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

• 0:08Scaachi Koul?

  A note for our listeners. This episode contains mention of suicide and drug abuse. Please listen with care.

• 0:23Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, how conspiracy-minded do you think you are?

• 0:26Sarah Hagi?

  Great question. I mean, here's my take on conspiracy theories. The stuff that's actually happening in real life that is the worst stuff you can imagine does sound like a conspiracy theory, but conspiracy theories are kind of a distraction from real-life things that people can actually change in the world.

• 0:43Scaachi Koul?

  Oh, that's a good way to put it. Spooky.

• 0:46Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, so that's the real conspiracy is conspiracies.

• 0:49Scaachi Koul?

  Right. Okay, very meta.

• 0:51Sarah Hagi?

  It goes all the way to the top.

• 0:52Scaachi Koul?

  It goes all the way to the top. Well, today, we're going to finish up the tall, winding tale of Sam Israel in the second part of our series on the scamming hedge fund manager. Sam got tripped up on conspiracy theories and paranoid delusions, all to avoid facing the truth. He's a big fat failure who owes a lot of people a lot of money. It's late one night in spring 2004, and Sam Israel is following a mysterious man down a street in central London. Sam is in his mid-40s, balding, with big, bulging eyes. When we last left him, he was in a dark place.

• 1:35Scaachi Koul?

  Sam's addicted to drugs and alcohol, and his firm, Bayou Hedge Fund Group, is deep in the red. But he's been misleading his clients by creating false statements showing that Bayou is making them tons of money. Now, Sam needs cash, fast. Enter this mysterious man, his white knight, Robert Booth Nichols. Robert is in his early 60s, tall, with silver hair. And if you believe the rumors, Robert has led a remarkable life, as a black ops secret agent, a member of the CIA, and an assassin with ties to organized crime. Some even say he was involved in secret government projects, including Iran-Contra and MKUltra.

• 2:17Scaachi Koul?

  It's unclear what parts of Robert's history are actually true, but Sam believes all of it. A few months ago, Sam wired Robert $150 million, nearly everything Bayou had left. Robert promised he'd turn it into enough to cover Sam's debts and make things right with his investors. And now, Sam is in London, following Robert up Lombard Street to see that promise through. According to Robert, there's a secret trading program called the Shadow Market that runs the world's finances, and the returns are huge. But only a few people are chosen to participate. Sam is all in. But Robert warns him that this world is extremely dangerous.

• 3:01Scaachi Koul?

  Rival factions will kill to control these assets, so Sam needs to keep Robert close by at all times for protection.

• 3:07Sarah Hagi?

  Wow. It sounds like, at this point, Sam is really in deep with whatever this conspiracy could be. And in a way, he thinks he's playing Robert because he wants that technology so that he could see what investors are doing in hedge funds. But then also, it's clear Robert is scamming him to some extent, so they kind of need to be very close to each other to keep an eye on one another?

• 3:33Scaachi Koul?

  Yep, this is some real scam symbiosis. It's close to midnight as Robert leads Sam into a Barclays bank. This, he tells Sam, is where the Shadow Market trades take place after hours. They pass through a trading room crammed with computers into a back room. The ceilings are high, and the room is decorated with dark wood furniture. Bonds stamped with the Federal Reserve mark are stacked on a desk. Sam looks around, soaking it all in. And then, he sits down at a desk and starts making trades while Robert watches. Although the place is virtually empty, Sam sees other traders online. These must be the other members of the Shadow Market.

• 4:16Scaachi Koul?

  As Sam's money gets traded, he quickly generates strong returns.

• 4:20Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, God.

• 4:21Scaachi Koul?

  These aren't normal trading increases. They are astronomical gains, like in the millions. Sam is ecstatic. He's not just going to save Bayou from ruin, he's going to turn it into one of the most successful hedge funds in the world. The clients he's been misleading will never know how close they came to ruin, and it's all thanks to Robert. Sam comes back to trade the next night and the night after that. In just one week, he racks up $942 million in trades. After everyone else takes their cut, Sam's entitled to a third, more than enough to save Bayou.

• 4:59Sarah Hagi?

  I am very, very skeptical of this. I mean, once again, it seems like something that is just too good-to-be-true happening that will save Sam.

• 5:09Scaachi Koul?

  Well, when Sam's ready to collect his portion, the money isn't there. In fact, the only thing in his account is the $150 million he started with. Sam is confused, and so is Robert. All they're able to figure out is that the person who was supposed to transfer the funds into Sam's account has simply disappeared. Robert tells Sam not to freak out. This happens sometimes in the Shadow Market, but not to worry, he has other ways to make the money. What Sam doesn't know is he's just been played big time. Because not only is the Shadow Market total BS, but the bank they're in is actually an elaborate set.

• 5:53Scaachi Koul?

  According to journalist Guy Lawson, who spent years investigating the story, the Barclays on Lombard Street was no longer operational at this time. Robert just made it look like it was. He bought props and hired fake security guards to make Sam believe it was the secret headquarters of the Shadow Market. And this is a con tactic known as the big store. You don't just tell someone a story, you build them an entire fake world. Fake offices, fake employees, fake operations, all staged to make one person believe that what they're seeing is real. Sam thinks Robert is his guiding light, here to protect him. But in reality, Sam has just given himself over to a master manipulator, one who's about

• 6:35Scaachi Koul?

  to take him on the wildest and most dangerous ride of his life.

• 6:45Speaker 02

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• 7:28Speaker 02

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• 7:31Speaker 03

  I'm Gemma Whelan, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we tell the story of the original femme fatale, The Spy Who Was Mata Hari. A famous dancer turned World War I secret agent, accused of seducing Allied officers to uncover their plans. But was she a temptress or a scapegoat for French failures? Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Was Mata Hari early and ad-free on Audible.

• 8:04Scaachi Koul?

  From Audible Originals, I'm Sachi Cole.

• 8:06Sarah Hagi?

  And I'm Sarah Haggy.

• 8:08Scaachi Koul?

  And this is Scamfluencers. This is part two in our series about Sam Israel, a wealthy hedge fund manager who started his own company and almost immediately started losing millions. Sam couldn't admit failure, so he lied to his clients for years. Now, they're starting to ask questions, and Sam has bet everything, his company's money and his faith, on a conspiracy theorist named Robert Booth Nichols. What comes next is stranger than fiction. We're talking buried treasure, fake identities, a plot involving the President of the United States, and a con man who's about to become the Con.

• 8:53Scaachi Koul?

  This is Sam Israel: Greed is Good, Part Two.

• 9:01Scaachi Koul?

  It's spring 2004, and Dan Marino is in Bayou's offices in Connecticut. It's a beautiful two-story building that looks out onto the water, the kind of place that projects an image of success. Dan has been Bayou's accountant since day one, and with Sam off in Europe chasing potential deals with Robert, Dan has been left to keep the lights on back home. Earlier that spring, Sam asked Dan to fly to London to help him with some business for Bayou. But he wouldn't say what it was about, just that the phone line might be bugged and it was too dangerous to talk about remotely. Dan hopped on a plane and met Sam for lunch at the Grosvenor Hotel in central London. There, Sam told him all about Robert and the shadow market and how they're going to save

• 9:45Scaachi Koul?

  Bayou. Now, from the start, Dan sensed that something was off with Sam. But he liked the idea of huge returns, and Sam assured him that Robert could fix their money problems within 60 days. All they'd have to do is wire him the $150 million remaining in Bayou's accounts. Dan, the ultimate yes-man, agreed and then flew back home. But things don't go according to plan. The huge returns Robert promised don't appear, and now Dan is feeling the heat. He starts binge eating to cope with the stress, and he gains over 50 pounds. He also indulges in some serious retail therapy, using client money.

• 10:27Scaachi Koul?

  For instance, he buys an 8,000-square-foot mansion in Connecticut for $2.9 million in cash.

• 10:36Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like this is the point where Dan is kind of breaking in a way that Sam already has, because he was kind of the, quote, "honest" one of the two that was supposed to, like, fix things. And I think it's hitting him that he is in way too deep, and what else should he be doing except for binge eating?

• 10:54Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Dan keeps pouring Bayou's money into one investment after another, and the losses pile up. Eventually, it reaches the point where he can no longer sleep at night, and he starts passing out at work. What Dan needs is for Sam to come home and save the company. Unfortunately, Sam is off living his best 007 life in Europe with Robert. And while things may be bad in America, it's nothing compared to the damage Sam is doing overseas.

• 11:24Scaachi Koul?

  It's May 2004, and Deborah Ryan is about to turn 41. For her birthday, Sam has flown her out to meet him in Switzerland. They've been together for about six months now, and the relationship is getting serious. Deborah has even been fantasizing about getting married and having kids with him. Life with Sam is fun. He's always cracking her up with practical jokes, like the time he snuck up on her while wearing nothing but a pair of glasses on his penis.

• 11:53Sarah Hagi?

  Um, to each their own.

• 11:56Scaachi Koul?

  Are you laughing? You didn't find that funny?

• 11:58Sarah Hagi?

  I'm not laughing. I'm disgusted. Well, I don't think there's anything at this point Sam could do that would charm me, and putting glasses on your penis is probably the last thing he would do that I'd find charming, so.

• 12:09Scaachi Koul?

  Unfortunately, I do find that funny.

• 12:11Sarah Hagi?

  Uh, not for Sam, though.

• 12:13Scaachi Koul?

  No, no. For any other penis, I would find that funny.

• 12:17Scaachi Koul?

  Well, lately, Sam hasn't been around much. He's always off traveling internationally for Bayou. He tells Deborah it's because he's working with the CIA on top-secret money-making opportunities. She doesn't really know what that means, but it sounds important, so she's thrilled when he suggests this romantic getaway. He'll be taking care of some business as well, but they'll still get the chance to spend some quality time together.

• 12:43Scaachi Koul?

  But then, Deborah gets to the hotel. After a long day of travel, she must have been looking forward to some one-on-one time with her boyfriend. But when she opens the door, she finds that Sam is there with two other people. He introduces her to his friends, Robert Booth Nichols and his wife, Ellen. Robert is sitting by an open window, smoking a cigarette. Ellen, a pretty blonde woman in her 50s, is typing away at a computer. Sam's already told Deborah all about his friends, that Robert is ex-CIA and up to his ears in top-secret money-making ventures, and that Ellen is his partner and a weapons expert. As wild as this all sounds, Deborah believes him.

• 13:25Scaachi Koul?

  Remember, Deborah is open to persuasion. This is the woman who hooked Sam up with her psychic. But still, she must have felt a little awkward breaking up this threesome. They keep discussing mysterious business like Deborah isn't even there. Deborah doesn't like the effect Robert has on Sam. He stokes Sam's anxiety, making even the most mundane errands feel like covert operations.

• 13:50Sarah Hagi?

  You know, I don't think Deborah is maybe the most intuitive when it comes to the kind of stuff Sam is doing, and clearly she's benefiting from a lot of it. But I do think she, one, loves Sam enough to know that these people are bringing out his worst tendencies, and I think she could just sense that something is pretty off about these two.

• 14:11Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I mean, it feels kind of obvious now. As they tour the old city, Robert tells Deborah to be careful. Assassins could be waiting for them around every corner. Plus, their food could be poisoned, and their conversation's recorded. Deborah's gut is telling her not to trust Robert and Ellen. Before she leaves to fly back to the States, she warns Sam that if he continues hanging around them, he'll either wind up in jail or dead. Deborah must have hoped she could snap Sam out of Robert's spell, but as she stares out the window of her plane, she feels a mounting sense of unease, because it's clear Sam is no longer the man she fell in love with. And this new, vulnerable version is a sitting duck for anyone who might want to take advantage of him.

• 15:00Scaachi Koul?

  It's June 2004, and Robert Booth Nichols is flying from London to New York with his wife, Ellen. He must be feeling on top of the world. He's finally found a cash cow in the form of Sam Israel. And now, he's gonna kick back and enjoy a little R&R at a mansion upstate, because Sam has invited him and Ellen to stay at his home. Robert was born in 1943. In the late '60s, he moved to Hawaii, where he started working odd jobs, including for a vending machine dealer who was connected to organized crime. At some point, he met a guy named Ken, who allegedly worked for the CIA. Robert's actual role was never fully defined, but at one point, the FBI was looking into

• 15:42Scaachi Koul?

  him and labeled him as armed and dangerous. Despite the shadiness of his actual job, one thing is certain: Robert is a talker who can get himself into any room he wants. People gravitate towards him. He even became friends with Steven Seagal and landed a part in one of his movies.

• 16:02Sarah Hagi?

  Okay, I understand Robert is highly influential, but I think the Steven Seagal thing just proves to me that there's a certain type of idiot that he's really, really good at manipulating, and I think he's smart enough to know his marks. Steven Seagal, Sam, you know?

• 16:18Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, the Seagal really tells you all you need to know. Well, when Robert and Ellen arrive at Sam's mansion, Sam tells the couple to make themselves at home. And over the next few months, they do. They practically take over the entire second floor. Sam and Robert have a bit of a twisted father-son relationship, which tracks, considering Sam's bad blood with his own dad. Robert likes to stay up, getting drunk and telling Sam stories from his life. He also teaches Sam martial arts moves, like how to rip out a man's throat with his bare hands or gouge out an enemy's eyes. Just fun, cute, boy stuff, you know?

• 16:56Sarah Hagi?

  I do appreciate that Robert's manipulation takes form of, like, bromance.

• 17:02Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's kind of beautiful.

• 17:04Sarah Hagi?

  He's really making Sam feel important and respected, in a way.

• 17:08Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, he sees him clearly.

• 17:09Sarah Hagi?

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:11Scaachi Koul?

  And then, there's Ellen, who fawns over Sam, calling him "my Sam" and gushing about what a brilliant trader he is. All of this is going on while Robert is supposed to be helping Sam trade his $150 million in the shadow market. Eventually, Robert can tell that Sam is getting antsy, so he tells Sam he's gonna let him in on a secret, one he's never shared with anyone. As Guy lost in details in his book, Octopus, Robert had been obsessed with this story for years. Sarah, have you ever heard about the legend of Yamashita's gold?

• 17:46Sarah Hagi?

  No, I haven't. And do I want to know? I guess I have to know now.

• 17:50Scaachi Koul?

  You simply have no choice but to know.

• 17:53Sarah Hagi?

  Ugh.

• 17:54Scaachi Koul?

  So the story goes like this. Years before World War II, the Roosevelt administration was deeply concerned about the rise of fascism. But the American public didn't want to see their government entangled in foreign affairs. So, in order to help their allies, FDR secretly issued billions of dollars' worth of Federal Reserve bonds to the Chinese so they could purchase arms. But the bonds were lost to the Japanese during the war, and the Japanese allegedly buried them in secret, hidden tunnels. Robert claimed to have intel about the location, and if found, the bonds could be worth more than $700 billion.

• 18:32Sarah Hagi?

  I do love a tale of lost treasure. It really does scratch an itch for a lot of people, and I feel like for someone who is as desperate as Sam, this is, like, life-changing.

• 18:45Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's a lot of money, and it's a crazy story, so it's like his two favorite things. But here's the thing, Sarah: at least part of this legend is true. The Japanese did loot and pillage China during the war and bury billions of dollars' worth of valuable goods in elaborate tunnels. Like so many conspiracy theories, this story is rooted in the truth, but can be exaggerated or exploited for any savvy schemer looking to profit off other people's greed. Maybe someone like Robert. Robert tells Sam that there's a catch. The only way to get these bonds back to the US is through the highest levels of the United States government. That's when Sam gives his mentor a big smile and reminds him, it just so happens his best

• 19:29Scaachi Koul?

  friend is first cousins with the President of the United States of America.

• 19:37Scaachi Koul?

  It's the summer of 2004, and 51-year-old John Prescott Ellis is pulling up to his good friend Sam Israel's house. He's been invited for dinner and to meet some of Sam's associates. John is tall, with light brown, receding hair, and degrees from Harvard and Yale. And he also really is first cousins with President George W. Bush. Sam orders Chinese food and tells John all about the legend of Yamashita's gold. John finds the whole story pretty hard to believe, but what's even harder to believe is Sam's request, that John talk to the president about helping them bring the bonds back to the United States.

• 20:18Sarah Hagi?

  Even if this was true, it's 2004. America is at war. The war on terror is in full swing. I don't think George Bush is gonna be like, gotta do something about that gold. Like, he's on his ranch and being like, he's doing a Bushism about the Yamashita gold? Like, what the hell is this?

• 20:35Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I think he had other things to do. Well, John must be thinking that this isn't the usual goofy Sam he knows. This Sam is acting manic. Does he really think billions of dollars in bonds are buried in some sort of treasure chest, and that President Bush would want to get involved? Sam's always been a prankster, so maybe he's pranking him now? But Sam is dead serious. And that's when his associate, Robert, leans in and tells John that if he helps them out with the gold, he can help Bush win reelection. He says it's all about capturing Osama bin Laden, and Robert claims to know where he is. He says he can arrange to have bin Laden killed for a fee.

• 21:22Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, take your time. For a fee.

• 21:25Sarah Hagi?

  Okay. You know what? Sure. Go ahead, kill Osama bin Laden for the fee. Go for it. Get the gold. Sure, I believe all this now. I have nothing else to say. This is now what happened in history.

• 21:37Scaachi Koul?

  I mean, why not?

• 21:38Sarah Hagi?

  Why not?

• 21:39Scaachi Koul?

  If they could do it, why wouldn't he help, then?

• 21:41Sarah Hagi?

  Hey, we never saw the body. Didn't we? Nope, we never saw the body.

• 21:46Scaachi Koul?

  Famously didn't.

• 21:47Sarah Hagi?

  Famously never saw the body, so who knows?

• 21:49Scaachi Koul?

  I was thinking of Saddam Hussein's little burial.

• 21:51Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, no, no, we saw that one. We saw that one.

• 21:52Scaachi Koul?

  We saw that one, yeah, okay. Well, much like you, John must be gobsmacked. But before he can even react, Robert shows him photos of the Federal Reserve boxes, and tells him what he'll need: the full support of the president, anonymity for the mission, and diplomatic immunity by executive order. Oh, and a black passport, which is basically a diplomatic passport, one of the most exclusive travel documents in the world. John leaves the house that night with one thought: he needs to get this con artist away from Sam. Once he's back home, John makes some calls to get intel on Robert, and he discovers that Robert really does seem to be a kind of mythical figure in the world of secret

• 22:37Scaachi Koul?

  black ops. But he's also, to quote one senior military official, "all hat and no cattle." Others are less diplomatic, and a former special forces commander says that going after the lost federal bonds would be a fool's errand. John isn't sure what to do. He's definitely not gonna tell the president anything about this, whatever this even is, but he's worried about Sam, so he writes him a letter. Sarah, can you read part of it?

• 23:05Sarah Hagi?

  Yes. He says, "I can't help you on the project we discussed. Legal counsel has informed me that the project may violate federal law, and thus I am duty-bound not to discuss it with my cousin, the president. I am very concerned that by your association with Robert Booth Nichols, you are putting yourself and your family in significant risk. As a friend and someone who cares about you and your family, break off your relationship with Mr. Nichols and return to your normal business activities." Someone is finally trying to reach Sam in a very sensible, normal way, like, listen, stay away from this guy, he's dangerous, I have intel.

• 23:43Sarah Hagi?

  This is also someone that Sam admires and trusts, but also, at this point, Sam is so in deep that he could disregard any rational thought by saying, well, it's a part of the bigger conspiracy, they don't want us to find this treasure. Like, there's no real reasoning at this point.

• 24:03Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. Unfortunately, Sam is in way too deep to stop. So he ignores John and keeps traveling further down the Robert Booth Nichols rabbit hole. But now, the FBI is on his trail, and they're closing in.

• 24:22Speaker 04

  On January 24, 2023, in Duxbury, Massachusetts, Patrick Clancy called 911. He had found his wife Lindsay badly injured, and his three children dead and dying. What followed would become one of the most searing and complicated cases in recent memory, raising hard questions about motherhood, mental illness, and how far our justice system will go to understand what really happened. I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psyche. In our latest episode, we take you inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis defense, the courtroom battle, and the trial that just ended in a stunning mistrial.

• 25:05Speaker 04

  Follow Killer Psyche wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche one week early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 25:22Speaker 05

  You stepped out for your morning jog, except it's not your usual morning jog. You started listening to an epic sci-fi book on Audible. 30 chapters later, you've accidentally run a half marathon. You lost track of how far you've run, somewhere just past the city limits. You can't stop. You have to find out what happens next. Then it's over. The universe seems bigger. You feel different. You feel like you have no idea where you are. Audible, stories that speak to you.

• 26:01Scaachi Koul?

  It's the fall of 2004, and Carl Cataro and Kevin Walsh are knocking on Sam's door at his house in upstate New York. Both men are FBI agents with salt-and-pepper hair, the type of guys who button their shirts to the very top. They're here about a suspicious wire transfer, $120 million that Sam recently sent to a German bank in Hamburg. They're worried that Sam and Bayou are being scammed.

• 26:26Sarah Hagi?

  They are just at the tip of the iceberg, and I can't wait until they find out how much more there is to just Sam being scammed.

• 26:34Scaachi Koul?

  Well, I think we have to take a moment to let this settle in. Sam has been defrauding his investors for years, and the FBI finally have him on their radar because they think he is the victim. Sam tells the officers it's all a big misunderstanding. Yes, he moved his money to a bank in Germany, but it's completely under his control, and he's working to make big money for his clients. He even tells them he's trading in the shadow market in Europe, and that he's expecting to make huge figures, like billions. But the agents have never heard of it. Sam shrugs and says only people at the highest levels of government would know about it, so it's totally understandable that they don't.

• 27:15Sarah Hagi?

  You know, as much as Sam really believes in the shadow market, he is willing to tell anyone about it. Like, imagine truly believing this shadow market exists, and being like, yeah, so I'm actually invested in the shadow market, it's really secret, you actually aren't important enough to know about it, but I'm telling you anyway. What is that?

• 27:34Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. He wants credit for knowing a secret.

• 27:39Scaachi Koul?

  Well, by the time the agents leave Sam's home, they're more confused than when they arrived. Sam seems completely off his rocker, but it's their job to investigate his claims and figure out what the hell is going on. So they keep digging, and by the end, they're sure of one thing: Sam is either a victim or a criminal. The problem is that Sam is both, but his biggest victims are about to wake up to the scam, and they aren't happy.

• 28:07Scaachi Koul?

  It's the fall of 2004, and Sam is on the phone with Eric Dillon, the co-founder of Silver Creek, one of Bayou's biggest investors. And Sam is sweating. He's trying to convince Eric that everything is fine at Bayou, but Eric isn't buying it. Rumors about Sam's instability have started to spread. A background check unearthed his drug use and some minor infractions from his youth, including owing 12 grand in back rent, lying about graduating from Tulane, and getting a DUI, which is all enough to make Eric concerned. Sam tries to downplay the report. Sure, he screwed around when he was a kid, but who didn't? And lying about a college degree doesn't make him a bad traitor.

• 28:50Scaachi Koul?

  When they hang up, Sam feels like he convinced Eric that he is in control. But the truth is, he's not. The mounting pressure of Bayou's debt continues to haunt him. New investments in Bayou have ground to a halt, and Sam hasn't traded in months. But even as his confidence crumbles, Sam remains unwavering in his belief that Robert will come through for him. After all, the guy owes him. Sam recently did Robert a solid by loaning him $10 million. In exchange, Robert gave him collateral in the form of a secret box stored in a vault in London. Sarah, want to guess what was in that box?

• 29:30Sarah Hagi?

  Okay, I'm gonna have two guesses. One is what Sam thinks it is, and the second will be what's really in the box. Sam believes it is a treasure that no one on earth has ever seen before that is worth more than anything has ever been worth on earth. And in reality, I think the box is full of maybe some buttons and gravel, maybe some sand, something to give it a bit of weight, but is worthless.

• 29:59Scaachi Koul?

  Okay, are you ready for me to tell you?

• 30:01Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, I guess so.

• 30:02Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Sarah, Robert claims it was one of the boxes from the Yamashita horde, meaning it would contain $100 million in Federal Reserve bonds. Sam hasn't looked inside, so we don't know yet whether your guess about what's really in it is right. But in the meantime, Sam thinks he's golden. And in true Sam fashion, he refuses to let the outside world see any cracks. In March 2005, he and Dan released their end-of-year audit, claiming that Bayou is valued at more than $400 million. And they continue to spend money like it's going out of style. Five grand a month on limousines, four grand on restaurants, $100,000 to lease a private jet,

• 30:44Scaachi Koul?

  and $20,000 on a counter espionage consultant.

• 30:49Sarah Hagi?

  Truly, what can you even say at this point? Nothing matters. Nothing is anything. Money is nothing. What is up and down? The sky is green. Go on.

• 30:57Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Sarah, tragedy is coming. Because just weeks later, he and Robert have a falling out. Sam feels like Robert deliberately picked a fight. Maybe it was an excuse to cut ties after getting the $10 million out of him. But either way, the fight resulted in Robert leaving and refusing to talk to Sam anymore. Everything is unraveling. Robert is gone, the shadow market hasn't delivered, and the tidal wave of his debt is about to crash over him. Sam still hopes he can trade his way out of the wreckage, but he's about to discover that the most dangerous threat to his empire isn't a CIA operative or an FBI agent. It's the man who's been keeping his books for the last decade.

• 31:41Scaachi Koul?

  It's July 2005, and Dan Marino is at Bayou's offices on the waterfront of the Long Island Sound. He's been acting as the boss while Sam works remotely from Europe. But these days, being boss isn't all it's cracked up to be, because there's not much left to be the boss of. Things have gotten so bad at Bayou that Dan stops paying rent on their offices, and then he stops paying their bills altogether. Sam and Dan are finally gonna have to admit that they've run out of options. So Sam sends Bayou's investors a shocking letter. Sarah, can you read some of it?

• 32:16Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, it says, "It is with great regret, but with an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment in a job done to the best of our abilities that I announce the closing of the Bayou family of funds at the end of July 2005." I mean, sure, but like, why? Does he have any reason?

• 32:36Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Sam blames the closure of Bayou on his divorce, claiming he wants to spend more time with his kids. He also promises that all of Bayou's investors will get their money back in about a month. But soon after the letter goes out, Sam and Dan stop communicating with investors entirely. As you can imagine, this does not go over well. When investors don't receive the check Sam promised, Bayou's phones start ringing off the hook. But no one picks up. Their offices seem to be abandoned. Investors are understandably confused and pissed off. Unbeknownst to them, Dan and Sam have let their staff go. They didn't have enough money to pay their salaries, let alone the huge bonuses they'd all been promised.

• 33:21Scaachi Koul?

  It's easy to forget that in all of this bluster, there are real people who lost a lot of money. Here's what one victim had to say on the podcast, "American Greed."

• 33:30Speaker 06

  Literally, within the space of minutes, I had lost $336,000. I mean, I woke up, and that was part of my net worth. And by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the best anybody could tell me was that it was gone.

• 33:47Sarah Hagi?

  I do feel like I've been very focused on Sam's individual level of insanity. Yeah, these are real people who invested their money. And not all these people have money to lose. And also, Sam comes from a reputable family, so I do feel like there was a level of trust in him where no one knew what could have been happening behind the scenes.

• 34:05Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, very tragic. Well, by this point, Eric Dillon, the Silver Creek co-founder who was raising red flags a year ago, has had enough. He tells Dan that Bayou has 15 days to turn over Silver Creek's investments and submit to a review of their books. Dan refuses the review, which would immediately expose their fraud, but it doesn't matter. Eric makes it clear that they are gathering evidence to prove that Bayou's auditing firm is bunk. Sam tells Dan to write them a check for $53 million, but to date it for a few days later, because Sam says he still believes he can make back the money from the shadow market by Monday. But Dan is not so deluded.

• 34:49Scaachi Koul?

  As he writes the check, he also writes a confession. Over the course of six pages, Dan spells out exactly how Bayou really worked. Though he puts his own spin on things, he blames Sam and a man named Jim Marquez, who co-founded Bayou with Sam but left after a few years. Sarah, can you read some of it?

• 35:08Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, it says, "The cause lies with Jim Marquez at the beginning and Sam Israel at the end. They both lied to me and never did their job at all. They browbeat me into submission, and in turn, I did the same to the employees and anyone else who came too close." And he also says, "I'm sorry for the destruction I caused. I know God will have no mercy on my soul." And he added, "If there is a hell, I will be there for eternity." Okay, a lot happening here. First, reading this, you're kind of like, okay, but Dan, like, you also were a part of this. But what he says later, I do feel like Dan was in a world he had nothing to do with and did go a little crazy himself.

• 35:53Sarah Hagi?

  It's scary to hear someone say, "If there's a hell, I will be there for eternity."

• 35:57Scaachi Koul?

  It's scary to hold yourself accountable. Well, Dan leaves the letter on his desk. When Silver Creek tries to cash the $53 million check a few days later, it bounces. Furious, Eric flies from Seattle to Bayou's offices. But instead of finding Sam or Dan, he just finds Dan's letter, which he thinks might be a suicide note. So he calls the cops. And luckily, they find Dan unharmed and bring him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. For Dan, the game is over. But Sam is cut from a different cloth. It's August 2005, and Deborah is trying to make sense of what happened to her life.

• 36:40Scaachi Koul?

  Her fun, quirky relationship with Sam has taken a drastic turn. A couple of days ago, she walked into the bathroom and found Sam sitting naked on the toilet, mumbling that his life was over. He finally came clean to her and explained that his lawyer had just called to tell him that a bank in Arizona had frozen his most important account. The money was gone, all of it. Deb had never known the ins and outs of Sam's work. She'd never been all that interested in it. But now, she has no choice but to catch up. Because soon, reporters and angry Bayou clients start swarming the house. Deborah frantically tries to protect Sam, even placing giant urns in front of the driveway in the hopes of keeping reporters away. But as more articles come out,

• 37:25Scaachi Koul?

  she learns more and more incriminating information about her boyfriend. She girls him, asking about each accusation. But he has an answer for everything. He tells her he's been framed, that it's the fault of the CIA and a secret underworld, anyone's fault but his. And Deborah chooses to believe him.

• 37:45Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, Deborah, Deborah, Deborah, Deborah. I always want to understand the psychology around someone like her. I don't think she's, quote, "bad" the way Sam is, but her level of belief in him and willful ignorance is so alarming and, I guess, makes her complicit.

• 38:05Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, and Sarah, it gets worse. Because then they get another update from Donald Trump. Sam has fallen behind on his rent for his mansion, and Trump wants him out in four days. To Deb's horror, Sam's reaction is to completely dissociate. He sits cross-legged in the main bedroom and resorts to his favorite coping ritual, watching marathon episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants. So Deborah does what women have been doing since time immemorial. She takes care of everything. She rents a three-bedroom place nearby. Sam's accounts are frozen, and Deborah isn't exactly rich, so she gets their friends to help them move. When it comes time to get in the car and leave the house for good,

• 38:50Scaachi Koul?

  Deborah has to literally walk Sam to the car and physically buckle him in.

• 38:56Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like Deborah is doing what she believes is her role as like a wife and partner, and also someone who benefited off Sam's lies. But also, she's still young. She's 41 years old. She has so much life ahead of her. She needs to abandon him and not try and save him, which I guess is easier said than done. But it's like, at this point, she can make a true break away from him and leave him to watch his SpongeBob.

• 39:22Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, Deborah deserves so much more, Sarah. Well, eventually, Sam pleads guilty to fraud charges. And now, he and Deborah have to wait for his sentence, but she's not mad about it. Sam finally drops all the CIA talk. He isn't traveling or taking phone calls at all hours of the day. Their life gets simpler, calmer. Deborah has sacrificed a lot to make life work with Sam. Now, he's facing the biggest consequence of all: a prison sentence. And Deborah is ready to make one final show of ultimate devotion.

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• 41:29Scaachi Koul?

  It's April 2008, more than two years since Sam came clean to the authorities. He's standing in a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, sweating. He's hoping he can score some sympathy points with Judge Colleen McMahon, who's presiding over his sentencing. She's 57, with a short, no-nonsense Auburn bob, and has been a judge for over a decade. As a part of Sam's earlier guilty plea, he wrote a letter to the court. Sarah, can you read part of this letter?

• 41:57Sarah Hagi?

  Yes. It says, "My name is Sam Israel, and I am a criminal. I'm a liar and a cheat. I would like to believe that is not what I am, but it is certainly what I have become." I guess this is the most sober Sam has ever really spoken about himself.

• 42:16Scaachi Koul?

  It's honest. Well, Sam being Sam, he still couldn't resist making one last-ditch effort to get a hold of some money. Remember the Federal Reserve bonds? The ones Robert gave him as collateral for the $10 million loan? Well, Sam told the US Attorney that they're sitting in a safe deposit box in the Queen's Vault in London. "The only problem," said Sam, "is that the box is booby-trapped. Robert told him that if it wasn't opened at precisely the right angle, it would explode and release a lethal toxin."

• 42:48Sarah Hagi?

  Wow. Would a child believe this? Probably. Could an adult honestly believe this? That in the Queen's Vault, there's a lethal toxin in a box? Like, I hate that I see this with so much logic, because I feel like it'd be so fun to believe in this reality.

• 43:05Scaachi Koul?

  Yes. Well, despite this all sounding completely bananas, the FBI actually did get in touch with their colleagues in London to retrieve the box. To no one's surprise, the box was not actually booby-trapped, but when they clicked it open, they did find the bonds. They were printed on authentic Federal Reserve paper with real-looking signatures, just like Robert promised. But when they looked closer, they found typos and weird misspellings. And then, the investigators discovered that the Federal Reserve doesn't actually issue bonds. They issue notes, which means these are as fake as Monopoly money.

• 43:45Sarah Hagi?

  I'm a bit surprised by the effort involved with the fake bonds. I really did think it was going to be full of loose material. But I guess Robert was thinking that maybe there would be a moment where someone would open this and the scam could continue.

• 44:02Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. This was Sam's big play to recover some money, and it's blown up in his face. And now, he's standing in front of a judge without much to offer. His attorneys try to paint a remorseful picture. They argue that Sam's drug addiction left him operating in an altered state for decades. They say he was crushed under the weight of upholding his family name. Sam's mom and brothers also wrote letters attesting to his good character, but the judge is not receptive. Can you read what she said in response to Sam's lawyers asking for a lighter sentence?

• 44:34Sarah Hagi?

  Yes. She says, "You were, in every meaning of the sense, a career criminal. You ruined lives. Financial fraud, white-collar crimes are every bit as heinous as every other type of crime, and they will be punished severely. Just because you wear a tie when you're committing a crime, it doesn't mean that you get any kind of a break." Okay. It does, in many cases. It actually does. But I do like that she's trying to uphold the idea that crime is crime. But the reason why someone like Sam does this is because there is usually leniency if you are wearing a tie.

• 45:09Scaachi Koul?

  Yes, exactly. But when Sam's lawyers asked for leniency because of his chronic back pain, Judge Colleen does not back down. She says, quote, "He suffered from these ailments while he did the crime. He can deal with them while he does the time." Colleen hands down one of the harshest sentences ever given to a white-collar criminal: 20 years in federal prison. She gives Dan Marino the same, and she requires the two of them to pay $300 million in restitution. But as tough as she is, Judge Colleen does give Sam eight weeks to get his affairs in order, and she allows him to show up to prison on his own. Sam is staring down 20 years behind bars. He's desperate and out of options.

• 45:54Scaachi Koul?

  But Sam has always had a flair for the dramatic, and he's not done yet.

• 46:01Scaachi Koul?

  It's June 2008, and we're finally back where we began this wild journey: on a high-suspension bridge in upstate New York where Sam fakes his own death. The night before he was supposed to head to prison, he and Deborah settled down for a last supper of Chinese food. But by midnight, Sam was restless. He left the house, saying he was going to get cigarettes. A few hours later, he came back, drenched in sweat, and woke Deborah up, saying he couldn't go to prison. He was completely freaking out. Sam filled his RV with clothes and other possessions and drove it to a rest stop near the Bear Mountain Bridge. Deborah followed in her car and brought him home. But Sam wasn't done.

• 46:42Scaachi Koul?

  Deborah says he sat down and wrote a suicide note and begged her to help him disappear. She refused, and sometime after that, Sam left without saying goodbye.

• 46:54Scaachi Koul?

  Now, it might not surprise you to hear that the police were not fooled by Sam's staged crime scene. It took them very little time to deduce that Sam was still very much alive. They just needed to find him. If Sam had been smarter, he might have gotten one of those black passports Robert used to talk about, hopped on a plane, and disappeared into a foreign country. Instead, he drove two hours north to the Prospect Mountain Campground in Granville, Massachusetts. So now, Sam is living out of his RV. Here's a witness talking about what he was like at the campground on the podcast, American Greed. There was nothing suspicious about him at all. Like, he was a very personal, very likable guy. Didn't look anything like the pictures. He looked a lot skinnier. He had a beard. He was...

• 47:39Sarah Hagi?

  Come back from running, who come in by Gatorade, by cigarettes, always made jokes about why was he buying cigarettes just coming back from a run, that it was kind of he should choose one or the other. There's something really interesting about Sam not really going all the way with this scheme. Like, it just shows how checked out of reality he is. He's only going a couple of hours north to try and fake his own death. Like, go far away. It's like he's not wholeheartedly putting in an effort this way, which is very confusing. And it just kind of shows that he's not all there. He's not right.

• 48:13Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, exactly. Sam hasn't even completely cut ties with his previous life. For example, he talks on the phone to his mom, a lot, and she tells him to be careful. The police are looking for him everywhere and have labeled him armed and dangerous. Sam's like, okay, sure, Mom. But then, one night, while watching TV, he's shocked to see his own face on America's Most Wanted. The manhunt is heating up, and Sam is making headlines. His business cards are even being sold on eBay. Then, Sam finds out that Deborah has been arrested for helping him escape. Sarah, can you read what he later said about this?

• 48:52Sarah Hagi?

  Yes. He said, "I have so many regrets, but my biggest is ruining this poor girl's life."

• 48:59Sarah Hagi?

  You know, too little, too late, Sam. You spent too long ruining her life, taking advantage of her kindness, and frankly, to be generous, naivete, perhaps? That it's hard to believe that he truly does regret that.

• 49:14Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's certainly not enough, but Sam is distraught. He talks to his mom again, and she tells him that she's scared for his life. She's worried that if police find him, they'll kill him. So after 23 days on the run, Sam listens to his mother and decides to turn himself in. But he does it in the most pathetic way possible. He rides to a police station on a motorized mobility scooter. He scoots to the Granville Police Department, only to find it closed. So he scoots his way to another, farther away, station in Southwick, where he finally succeeds. Because of this stunt, Sam gets two more years added to his

• 49:55Scaachi Koul?

  sentence, making it 22 years total. He's sent to the same North Carolina prison as Bernie Madoff. In February 2009, Robert died in Switzerland under what have been called mysterious circumstances. And of course, there are some who believe he faked his death and is still very much alive. Four months later, Deb was sentenced to three years of probation for helping Sam flee. Since then, she's been living a quiet life. In April of 2020, Dan died from heart disease while still in jail. But Sam is still alive and kicking. He turned 67 in July of this year. As of this recording, he's still incarcerated, but will be eligible for release on October 5, 2027.

• 50:40Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, how do you feel about finding out about this conspiratorial scam artist? Is there any schadenfreude in your heart that this person who was scamming all these other people then got scammed himself?

• 50:52Sarah Hagi?

  Yes and no, because it didn't really delay the scam or change that he was scamming. In fact, in many ways, it made it worse. But the fact that he wanted to be important so badly that he was willing to trust Robert and believe in his bullshit, to me, is really interesting.

• 51:09Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. I mean, the thing I always think about with like, any conspiracy theory-related story is there is a fascinating arrogance in believing that nobody knows about this thing, but I know about it. Like, you're so important that you would be the person to find out about these, like, Federal Reserve notes?

• 51:27Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah.

• 51:28Scaachi Koul?

  Or that you would be the person to find out about this secret shadow market. Like, you're not that important. You're just not.

• 51:34Sarah Hagi?

  I think that's kind of what confuses me the most about people who are really, really deep into conspiracy theories that are of that nature, where it's like, everyone's lying to us, and I'm the only person who's able to decode these messages and understand these things with this other group of people who are also disenfranchised. Like, you think you're the one? You think you are the one to understand this and figure it out and to be given this ancient knowledge and understanding of how everything freaking works? Give me a break. You're nobody. You're nothing. We're all nobodies and nothing.

• 52:10Scaachi Koul?

  It's also depressing to think about that these guys are thinking, okay, I have discovered this scary and fascinating echelon of society, and the only thing I'm going to do with it is get me rich. Like, the lack of creativity. You think that there is an oaky spooky government operation happening with, like, money on the table, and all you can think to do is, like, borrow Trump's mansion? That sucks. That sucks so much.

• 52:40Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah. And, you know, that's kind of what I think about a lot when it comes to these conspiracy-minded people. There are real bad things happening in the world right now that the government is a part of, that we find out how many years later, when things are uncovered, and there's like a whistleblower or whatever. It plays into this kind of like Sam's delusion in two different ways. On the one hand, so many insane things have happened, and the US government and governments all over the world have done so many crazy things that it's like, well, why couldn't that be real? What makes this harder to believe than something that, you know, we find out about 20, 30 years later after it happens? But I think it's just like, the nature of your involvement in it. It's like, so you're the one who's going to benefit from the conspiracy?

• 53:26Scaachi Koul?

  Do you feel like you learned anything on how to avoid getting sucked up by a conspiracy or by a hedge fund manager?

• 53:35Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, it's to not participate in either. I just think you have to understand you're not, you're probably not very special. I don't think that I'm ever going to figure something out that no one else has figured out, and that's just a fact of life. Like, I'm not out here getting unique and special information. It's never going to happen for me. And it's probably never going to happen to anyone that will ever hear this story.

• 53:58Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 54:00Sarah Hagi?

  Like, it's fine. We're not being bequeathed special information. Like, sure, I get really good gossip sometimes, and that's enough for me.

• 54:08Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. You know what? Stick to the rivers and the lakes of gossip that you're used to. Don't chase the waterfall of conspiracy. I mean, and also, like, the pure embarrassment of you, like, shirking your responsibilities until your mummy is like, can you get a scooter and report to the police station? Mortifying. You couldn't waterboard that information out of me.

• 54:27Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah. And also, Mom, where were you years ago?

• 54:31Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 54:32Sarah Hagi?

  Where were you years ago, Mom?

• 54:33Scaachi Koul?

  I mean, unsurprisingly, his boy mom is not going to really hold him accountable until it's, it's really getting to be too late.

• 54:41Sarah Hagi?

  True. I would love to know how this family talks about him now.

• 54:44Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 54:44Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, you know what? They don't talk about it at all.

• 54:46Scaachi Koul?

  I don't think they discuss it. Yeah.

• 54:48Sarah Hagi?

  He's not mentioned at all. These people are not discussing this man.

• 54:50Scaachi Koul?

  Exactly. I mean, I think in the story, too, is a tale of a woman's delusion. You know, Deb could probably sense that this wasn't passing the smell test, but God, she just stuck around, and she kept trying, and she kept trying. And then she tried to help him get out of it. Like, oh, Jesus, Deb, stand up.

• 55:09Sarah Hagi?

  She clearly has, like, a very generous heart and seemed to really love Sam for whatever reason. God knows. I'm sad that it took so long for her to understand how bad this was.

• 55:23Scaachi Koul?

  Well, as ever, perhaps the lesson is to never stand by your man. Do not stand by him. Run away. Let him stand on his own.

• 55:31Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 55:32Scaachi Koul?

  Flee.

• 55:33Sarah Hagi?

  One thing you'll never see me doing is taking a fall with a man. Like, no, thank you. I have a lot of self-preservation, let's just say that. Maybe too much, but you're not taking me down with you.

• 55:45Scaachi Koul?

  Amen, sister.

• 55:46Sarah Hagi?

  Danger is fun. Don't let yourself be taken down along with him.

• 55:50Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 55:50Sarah Hagi?

  Leave while it's still fun. It's like, you don't want to stay at a party till the very end. Men are a party. Leave while they're still fun.

• 55:58Scaachi Koul?

  Men are a party that you should leave early.

• 56:07Scaachi Koul?

  Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible. From Audible Originals, this is Sam Israel, Greed is Good, Part Two for Scamfluencers. I'm Sachi Cole.

• 56:23Sarah Hagi?

  And I'm Sarah Haggy. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at [email protected]. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Guy Lawson's book, Octopus: Sam Israel, The Secret Market, and Wall Street's Wildest Con, Beauty and the Bandit by Karen Weinreth from Marie Claire, as well as reporting from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg.

• 56:49Scaachi Koul?

  Alison Weintraub wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggy. Rachel Engelmann and Olivia Brierly are our story editors. Our senior producers are Sarah Enni and Ginny Bloom. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Fact checking by Gabrielle Jrolay. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Freeze on Sync. Our executive producer for Audible is Jenny Lauer-Beckman. The head of creative development at Audible is Kate Navin. The head of Audible Originals North America is Marsha Louis, and the chief content officer is Rachel Giatza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.

• 57:32Speaker 07

  by Audible Originals LLC. Latin.

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