Pod Insights The Binge Cases: Doctor Billions Catch Me If You Ken I 2. Cleaning House About this episode Ken convinces his housekeeper to invest in a luxury rental company. Then he disappears. But she has a sharp memory, a good heart, and a box full of secrets he left behind.
Binge all episodes of Catch Me If You Ken, ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Crimes on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access.
The Binge – feed your true crime obsession.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript 5,895 words · 11 speakers
0:01 Speaker 00 Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones. Like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then, sometimes you make great ones. Like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.
0:31 Speaker 01 Listen to all episodes of Catch Me If You Can ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge: Feed your true crime obsession.
0:55 Speaker 01 Campsite Media.
0:59 Speaker 01 It's a beautiful spring day in L.A. The morning dew still heavy on grass. We're in the Hollywood Hills, a ritzy neighborhood of winding streets and epic mansions, where buses filled with tourists stop to gawk at celebrity homes. Rita, the house cleaner, has been tidying up Ken and Becca's home here for a while now. Rita pushes open the gate to Ken and Becca's house. She's excited because she recently got a text from Ken.
1:27 Speaker 02 He said, "I have this great opportunity." Basically, he respects me and loves me as a friend and wants to see me not work so hard and do good. But, you know, at the same time, he's not the kind of person that just hands out money. He needs people to prove that they would take a chance with him to make it big.
1:51 Speaker 01 And that's when Ken tells her about a business opportunity that's going to change her life. It's that same luxury Airbnb he would soon tell the Sables about in Ohio. The one with the name Your Sky Investments. Ken tells her, if he lets her in on this deal, she'll never have to clean houses again.
2:10 Speaker 02 He did say things like, oh, by this time next year, you should be a millionaire.
2:14 Speaker 01 Rita says he asks her to invest a lot of money.
2:17 Speaker 02 100K. 50 to 100 to be exact.
2:21 Speaker 01 Rita makes $225 per session of housekeeping. So that's a lot of money for her. But she wants a better life. She grew up poor and never had much of an opportunity. Ken and Becca are the closest to wealth she's ever gotten. She wants this.
2:37 Speaker 02 I asked some more questions and he said, okay, we'll go with my attorney tomorrow when you get here. But the thing is, it has to be cash.
2:48 Speaker 01 Rita eases the front door open and steps onto the gray granite floor. She walks into the living room. Floor-to-ceiling windows show off the LA skyline. A big, modern steel fireplace sits in the middle. Everything is angular and mid-century, like a Danish furniture designer redid a corporate hotel lobby. Ken and Becca are inside. When she arrives, something strange is happening. Becca, all 5'11" of her lithe Kendall Jenner-like form, is doing dishes.
3:19 Speaker 02 And that shocked me when I remember, like, and I said to her, why are you doing dishes? We knew I was coming today. And then she was like, oh, I just needed a distraction.
3:32 Speaker 01 Becca steps away from the sink, and Rita says they all sit down together and have breakfast. The view from the house is amazing. LA spread out beneath them, all the little canyons and big houses with their horizontal heft and tiny blue squares of pools. Rita almost feels like she's on a plane up here. They discuss the business.
3:52 Speaker 02 That the launch was going to be this day and that day and what the projections were and that I should be like a millionaire by next year.
4:06 Speaker 01 According to Rita, Becca tells her, her dad has invested. He pooled money out of his 401K, that's how much he believed in it. Plus, two other guys Rita works with, from a property management company, have also invested in YourSky. And they're smart business people, way more experienced in all of this than she is. As far as Rita's concerned, this investment has been vetted by people she trusts. Everything sounds good. So after breakfast, she hands over the money. Sixty thousand dollars.
4:40 Speaker 02 In cash? Yep. Oh my goodness. Dollar bills, just in bands.
4:46 Speaker 01 Ken takes her cash and promises Rita her life is about to change. And it will, just not in the way she imagined.
5:03 Speaker 01 From Sony Music Entertainment and Campsite Media, this is Catch Me If You Can. Episode 2, Cleaning House. I'm Natalie Robamed.
5:19 Speaker 01 We may be talking a lot about money in this series, but money represents freedom for a lot of people. The ability to live in a nicer nursing home, or not spend your days working a backbreaking job. And that's the real thing it feels like Ken wants to take from these people. Freedom. Last episode, he allegedly took money from Becca's grandfather and dad. Becca's aunt and uncle, Steve and Crystal Sable, watched as Ken convinced members of the Sable family to invest as much as a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in Ken's company. It was a heart-wrenching decision for their grandfather, who took the gamble in order to help pay for his wife's dementia care. This episode, Ken keeps weaving his web,
6:01 Speaker 01 ensnaring his housekeeper, and a beautiful blonde with a big bite.
6:11 Speaker 01 After Rita makes her investment, she's feeling on top of the world. It's like she's struck gold. This rich couple she works for has given her a chance to change her life forever. All of a sudden, all those daily worries about money start to dissipate. She's not going to have to worry about budgeting out the weekly grocery shop or ordering the cheapest item on the menu or how she's going to get to work if her car breaks down for good. She's going to be able to take care of her family, stop coming home at the end of the day smelling like bleach, skin rubbed raw from cleaning chemicals, her lower back sore from vacuuming other people's dust. No more scrubbing toilet bowls. A few months later, Ken tells Rita that she should be getting $10,000 in dividends by the end of the year,
6:55 Speaker 01 that this venture will absolutely make it. Rita's life is on the verge of cataclysmic change. For her, her fiance, her two dogs, it's all looking up. But over in Ohio, things are taking a turn for the worse. A few months after the Sables invest in Your Sky in the fall of 2018, Steve's parents, Becca's grandparents, die within four days of each other. Steve is the executor of the estate, so he starts trying to get the lay of the land, figuring out what's what. He's drowning in all kinds of paperwork to settle his dad's accounts, and he needs to figure out what's going on with Your Sky. Here's Steve Sable again.
7:37 Speaker 03 I communicated with Ken and Becca, and I was asking about the investments. And apparently, they informed my dad that it switched from Your Sky investment into a weed farm in California. I was like, Dad would not invest in a weed farm, and if he did, he would have told me because we were...
8:03 Speaker 03 So integrated with their financial situation. And I was like, Dad would have definitely told me that your sky became a weed farm. And I go, Dad does not want anything to do with the weed farm. Yeah. It's just not my dad. He's definitely not a weed farm guy. That's when the fires hit.
8:23 Speaker 01 Ken tells Steve that a series of fires have destroyed the weed farm. This is California after all. Fires do happen. So Steve gives Ken some more time, but no money appears. Steve keeps following up, trying to figure out what's going on.
8:38 Speaker 03 He was supposed to send out a disbursement from the now weed farm investment.
8:46 Speaker 01 Steve sends Ken a text saying, any update on the info I requested? I texted my address over a month ago. Ken replies, and this is a voice actor reading Ken's message, by the way.
8:58 Speaker 04 Hi, Steve. I checked and it will be sent from here on Wednesday. We were extremely busy these two weeks with the fires in California with protecting crops, and that was important.
9:08 Speaker 01 Then Ken writes.
9:09 Speaker 04 Was sent out from the office on Friday. You should see it this week in your post.
9:15 Speaker 01 But guess what? Steve never gets a check. And then Ken tells him.
9:20 Speaker 03 It was only going to be sent during nighttime. And then Ken said a text message saying that it was not deliverable. I go, well, we were home during that time for this delivery. And he said, well, it'll be sent out again in another three days.
9:38 Speaker 01 So Steve waits and waits and waits. Meanwhile, Rita, the house cleaner turned friend, doesn't know about any of this yet.
9:55 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.
10:21 Speaker 05 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
10:34 Speaker 06 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
10:39 Speaker 01 It's Thanksgiving 2018. Rita is at an outlet mall in Commerce, California, about 20 minutes southeast of LA. She's with her fiance browsing the Black Friday deals at Nike when her phone rings. It's a friend of hers, one of the friends who invested in your Sky.
10:57 Speaker 02 He's like, hey, have you talked to Ken? Trying to reach him. He owes me a bunch of money.
11:04 Speaker 01 Rita freaks out and texts Ken. Remember, she's given him $60,000.
11:09 Speaker 02 So I texted him and let him know, hey, what's up? He answered me right away and he's just like, you can believe whatever you want, whatever they say, pretty much, but he hasn't been keeping his end of the bargain. He's been billing me for things that he shouldn't. I'm being taken advantage of.
11:26 Speaker 01 In other words, Ken tries to turn it around on Rita's friend. But this makes Rita suspicious. She calls her friend back.
11:34 Speaker 02 I'm like, am I fucked? You know? He's just like, still, like, no, I don't think so. He keeps telling us that he's traveling and that his money is tied up.
11:43 Speaker 01 Rita thinks maybe this is all a misunderstanding. Maybe her friend hadn't held up his end of the bargain. Still, just to be safe, she texts Ken, asking for her money back.
11:54 Speaker 02 Don't remember exactly what I said, but I tried to keep it firm but nice. I changed my mind about all of this. You verbally told me that if at any time I wanted out, you would reimburse me my initial investment. And so I'm just asking for that back. Please, like, I don't want to have a drawn out thing, but let me know when you can pay me back. And he's like, yeah, sure. As soon as I get back in town, I'll have the cash for you. No worries. I understand. No hard feelings.
12:25 Speaker 01 But when Ken and Becca get back into town, Ken doesn't have a check for her. Not only that, but more than usual, something seems off with Ken.
12:33 Speaker 02 Ken was very noticeably stressed out. He had like... This issue with his eyes where he could not stop blinking. And I was like, something's wrong with your eyes, you know? And then he was in severe pain in his back. And I go, what happened? Like, what's wrong? You need to go to the doctor. And he's just like, oh, I can't even tell you the half, but like, everything's getting screwed up right now. And I just thought it was stress of the business, the launch.
13:06 Speaker 01 And then, one morning.
13:08 Speaker 02 I woke up to a text saying, we packed up the house, everything that's left, can you just trash it? And I'm like, what? You didn't even tell me you were moving? Or like, I just feel like they would have asked me to help them pack.
13:21 Speaker 01 Rita's confused and worried. She can feel adrenaline starting to course through her body. Like, she's walking down a dark street in downtown L.A. at night, not sure who might be around the corner waiting to mug her. She's frightened. Why didn't they tell her they were moving? Where have Ken and Becca gone? She texts Becca back, but Becca doesn't respond. So she calls her friend, the guy who says Ken owes him money.
13:47 Speaker 02 So I tell him, hey, they moved. I don't know where they are at. I feel like something's up because they definitely would have let me know. And like, Becca didn't text me back. And like, what's up?
13:58 Speaker 01 The friend tells her, Ken and Becca's landlord, the guy who owns the modern Hollywood Hills place they've been living in, hasn't been paid rent in two months.
14:08 Speaker 02 I'm just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, like, what is going on?
14:12 Speaker 01 Rita starts calling and texting Becca nonstop, trying to get to the bottom of what's going on.
14:17 Speaker 02 I'm trying to reach out to Becca. She's not reaching out to me.
14:25 Speaker 01 Eventually, Rita would find herself standing in the parking lot of a Walmart outside of L.A. She's nervous. It's been a while since her clients, Ken and Becca, suddenly moved out of their house with no notice. Rita wants to know what's going on with Becca and with Rita's money. Becca's been flaky, hard to pin down. Rita doesn't know whether Becca is aware that Ken is racking up debts, or if she's been lied to as well. But Rita has finally gotten Becca to agree to meet her. Rita looks left and right. And then, a black Range Rover pulls up. And Becca gets out.
15:02 Speaker 02 She was really skinny. When I saw her, I was like, oh, my God. Like, you really need to eat.
15:09 Speaker 01 Rita's shocked by Becca's appearance. Becca's always been skinny, but now Rita thinks she looks unhealthy. Becca comes up and gives Rita a big hug. She starts crying. Rita asks her, what's going on?
15:22 Speaker 02 Becca said, hey, you know, we're pretty broke. Like, I barely have money to feed the dogs.
15:28 Speaker 01 Through her tears, Becca tells Rita this whole thing is a big hiccup to do with Ken's immigration status. Rita thinks, Becca doesn't seem like she's lying. She believes what she's saying. And Becca's physical appearance lends credence to the fact that she's going through something. I mean, Becca tells Rita she's surviving off one chocolate bar a day.
15:49 Speaker 02 I was like, I'll bring you food. Like, I meal prep once a week. I'll bring you guys food.
15:54 Speaker 01 That's just who Rita is. The sort of kind person who worries about people's well-being. Who offers to feed someone, even if they're the wife of someone Rita's given $60,000 to. A woman still driving a Range Rover.
16:09 Speaker 02 She's like, thank you so much, but for right now, if you, if you could just give us back the stuff we left at the house. And I told her, sure.
16:18 Speaker 01 Rita had gone back to Ken and Becca's house after they'd moved to clear it out for them.
16:23 Speaker 02 One of the things that they left at their house was Becca's memento box.
16:28 Speaker 01 Right away, Rita could tell it was important. She texted Ken. He told her to keep it safe and to grab the stool in the bathroom while she was at it. So now, in this parking lot at Walmart, Rita takes the stool and the memento box and hands them over to Becca. Along with everything else she cleared out of the house. And Becca gives her something in return.
16:52 Speaker 02 She gave me one of her Katsu jackets.
16:56 Speaker 01 One of the sample jackets from Becca's clothing line, Shop Katsu.
17:00 Speaker 02 She made a jacket for each kind of style, sporty, posh, chic. So she gave me the sporty one. It was like a, kind of like swishy material. But yeah, I guess you can call it like a bomber, a lightweight bomber cargo jacket. It's really cute. And she said, I want to give this to you just as like a peace offering and a promise that you are going to get paid back.
17:22 Speaker 01 Rita takes the jacket and Becca gets back in her car. Rita tries to make a joke.
17:27 Speaker 02 I was like, so, but you still have your Range Rover. You know, I expect you to pull up in a Pinto or something. And she laughed and she's like, no, well, the lease is paid already. So it's not like I have a payment on it or anything. And I was like, oh, it's a lease. I thought it was yours. You know, I was being sarcastic.
17:45 Speaker 01 Because much like Becca with her rented car, Rita has been keeping up appearances too, playing a part. Becca doesn't know it yet, but Rita has a trick up her sleeve. Actually, she has three. And the way she's going to play them will make Ken realize he underestimated her.
18:05 Speaker 01 Back in the Walmart parking lot, Becca pulls out in her Range Rover and Rita kicks into detective mode because Rita actually didn't come to this meeting alone.
18:15 Speaker 02 I had one of my girlfriends tag along so we could follow her.
18:20 Speaker 01 As Becca pulls out of the Walmart parking lot, Rita and her friend do too. Their car is staying a safe distance back as they follow the Range Rover. If you were hovering overhead, you'd see the cars spaced a bit as they head north on the coast.
18:34 Speaker 02 We followed her back to Marina Del Rey and that's how I knew where she was living.
18:39 Speaker 01 Now Rita knows where they live, information that could become useful if Ken doesn't pay her back. And it also turns out that Rita hasn't given Becca everything from the house.
18:50 Speaker 02 I didn't give her back the jewelry. I gave her everything else except jewelry.
18:55 Speaker 01 Rita kept Becca's jewelry as collateral, just in case she needs another bargaining chip. But most importantly of all, before she gave back the memento box, Rita looked inside it. And she found something. A piece of paper with Ken's personal information on it.
19:14 Speaker 02 It was a declaration paper that you fill out when you travel internationally.
19:18 Speaker 01 This is such a dumb thing to leave in a box. Rita scans the customs declaration for Kenrik Yonai, the Japanese guy she's been working for for the last two years. The guy she's house-sat and dog-sat for week in and week out. The guy who isn't actually named Kenrik Yonai.
19:38 Speaker 02 I found his real name on there.
19:40 Speaker 01 The man Rita thought was called Kenrik Yonai actually has a different name. The first name, Kenrik, is the same, but the last name is different. On this document, his name is Kenrik Chu Wen Long. Rita keeps reading, and she notices something else. Kenrik's nationality is not Japanese. He's from a different country in Asia. Singapore. A small island known for its pink dolphins, banking industry, and gum-free streets. A place a million miles away from the L.A. Rita grew up in and 3,000 miles from Japan. When she first reads this, Rita starts shaking.
20:24 Speaker 01 Her hands grip the paper tighter. The guy she thought she knew has been using a different last name. Not only that, but he isn't even Japanese. It all starts to come into focus. This guy lied to her about two of the most important, basic things about a person. Which means, he probably also lied to her about the business. Yours, guy. Her stomach drops. The pit in it becomes a cavernous hole. As Rita realizes she gave $60,000 to a guy she doesn't even know.
21:06 Speaker 01 For Rita, her whole world comes crashing down. Just a few months ago, she thought she was never going to have to clean houses again. Now all Rita cares about is getting her money back. That's why she met Becker in the parking lot, why she offered to feed her, why she didn't tell Becca everything she knew at that time. She was playing nice, hoping that if she kept Becca sweet, Becca would take pity on her and get Ken to pay her back. So at first, Rita keeps being nice to Becca. They stay in touch.
21:38 Speaker 02 After I met Becca at Walmart, we were in communication maybe once a week with updates on me getting paid.
21:46 Speaker 01 She's hopeful. Okay, Ken may have lied about his name and his nationality and where they lived, but Becca's still responding. But as the weeks drag into months and no money appears, she starts sending Becca angrier messages, revealing the stuff she found out about Ken.
22:05 Speaker 02 I sent her all these things that I found out about Ken, that he's not even Japanese, this is his real name.
22:12 Speaker 01 And Becca, in the texts I've seen, responds defensively. Though, to be clear, Becca did not respond to our inquiries for this podcast, so we don't have her point of view. Listen to this message from Becca in February 2019.
22:26 Speaker 07 About that joke you made about Ken never stepping foot in Japan, I have photos of us in Japan together. I honestly can't make that shit up.
22:33 Speaker 01 Not only that, she's taking responsibility for Ken's failings.
22:37 Speaker 07 At the end of the day, the reason we are in this position right now is because I put everything we had into my business, but was in way over my head. I screwed up. Ken did the best he could, given the situation. If you should fault anyone, it should be me. Please understand that all I want to do is settle this with you.
22:55 Speaker 01 But in this correspondence, Becca does say something else.
22:58 Speaker 02 She asked me if Ken paid me back half of what he owes me. And I said, no, he didn't. And she's like, wow, because he told me that he did? I'm like, no, sure didn't.
23:12 Speaker 01 Ken told Becca he'd paid Rita back half. So has Ken been lying to Becca this whole time too? Rita doesn't know, and she doesn't get a chance to ask.
23:23 Speaker 02 Then that was it, they ghosted me.
23:32 Speaker 08 You're listening to a quick ad. You know what else is quick? Selling your car on Carvana. Just put in your vehicle information and we'll give you an offer. Done. No hassle, no negotiation, no guy from an online listing lowballing you. Which means by the time I'm done explaining this, you could have basically done it.
23:56 Speaker 08 Still haven't started? Hey, better late than never. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.
24:04 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive, save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.
24:33 Speaker 01 So Ken and Becca are lost in the wind. They could be anywhere. But I want to take you, and I know this is a bit of a jump, to Spain, the coastal city of Marbella. Blue sea, white houses with terracotta roofs, lots of sunburnt British people and palm trees. We're in a big apartment on vacation with a German woman we're calling Sophie and her new boyfriend. Sophie's blond-haired, blue-eyed, and at this point in time, she's just turned 21 years old. She's so conventionally attractive, she seems AI-generated. She's actually a student who met her boyfriend while studying abroad at Columbia University in New York.
25:13 Speaker 09 I actually met him over a dating platform. I just moved to New York to do a semester abroad at a business school there and was trying to meet new people in the city because I didn't know anyone there. It was probably just a month after I moved there that I met him. He seemed really nice when we were messaging and he suggested that we would meet for dinner.
25:39 Speaker 01 On that first date, he was a little strange.
25:42 Speaker 09 He didn't really hold eye contact much. He was kind of looking around a lot, so that threw me off at first. I was trying to make sense of him. He was also kind of always scanning his surroundings and he felt a bit socially awkward. But then, as the conversation went on, he told me more about himself. He said that he was working for Google as a programmer. He said that he started programming at a very young age, at five years old. So that was really impressive to me because I actually love nerds and I like smart people.
26:24 Speaker 09 So for me, that kind of made sense of his behavior because sometimes people like that can be socially awkward. And later, he also told me that he was autistic. So he was talking a lot about that, such that he was like an ethical hacker also. These people who do things that are beneficial. So it's not like hacking to steal people's money, but trying to, for example, expose data breaches or expose other things. So it's actually someone who is, yeah, ethical hacking.
27:06 Speaker 01 Sophie's really into all of this. She's super interested in tech and likes to be around people she can learn from. This guy seems like someone she can learn a lot from, especially when it comes to cryptocurrency. He's a big crypto investor and she's into it too.
27:21 Speaker 09 I had actually been in crypto for a while back then because my first relationship, my first boyfriend, when I was 18 years old, he was very big in crypto. And he was the one who pushed me and said, "Look, you should definitely buy Bitcoin. You should definitely get those like large, more established currencies." And so I started investing in that, like Bitcoin and Ethereum when I was like very young, like 18 years old.
27:57 Speaker 09 And I made some money with that. A good amount that made me more financially independent from my parents also.
28:03 Speaker 01 Sophie grew up pretty well off, but try not to hold that against her. She's got more get up and go than a lot of people in her situation.
28:10 Speaker 09 If I needed anything, my parents would support me, but I'm also someone that I've wanted to be financially independent from an early age. I didn't want to ask my parents for things. They're kind of very frugal people. So they would never support any luxury purchases. So that's why I was very motivated to start with this like social media influencing stuff.
28:35 Speaker 01 Sophie actually started making money quite young, using her good looks in a way very of our time.
28:41 Speaker 09 I started doing Instagram and kind of like even food content was probably one of the first things I did. And then I started getting gifts from different brands and promoting those like candles or whatever. And so I did that pretty early on, just to kind of have my own source of income. At some point I created like online shops where I was selling stuff.
29:09 Speaker 01 And she was successful at it.
29:10 Speaker 09 I was really funding, I'd say 90% of my life, so I was just myself.
29:16 Speaker 01 Now, this guy seems like someone with overlapping interests who could help her take her life to the next level.
29:22 Speaker 09 I'm also a vegetarian, love animals. And he would mention that he has a farm and he has his horses and I love riding. I've done that my whole life. And he would talk about that he wants to set up an animal rescue of all these things. So he was saying all the right things that are exactly my interest. It seemed like this was the perfect guy because he and I had exactly the same vision for the future. I also wanted to have a farm at some point, so I was like, okay, perfect. This is the one for me.
29:56 Speaker 01 They've been having fun, jet setting and traveling the world. He recently paid for them to take a birthday trip to Tulum. He met Sophie's parents for the first time over Christmas and they spent New Year's at a luxurious Alpine resort. And now they're in Marbella soaking up some winter sunshine. Sophie's doing her classes online and her boyfriend's working remotely in this gorgeous apartment. But on one of these sunny days in Marbella, something terrible happens.
30:23 Speaker 09 He was going out and I gave him my card, I think for some grocery shopping. And he was also supposed to get some cash from the ATM for me. And so I gave him this card. He went out and, I mean, he came back. He was completely distraught. He said, "You don't believe what just happened? I got robbed."
30:46 Speaker 01 Her boyfriend just got robbed. A 500 euros in cash. Sophie freaks out.
30:51 Speaker 09 I'm like, "Shouldn't we file a report for these guys? Like, you just got robbed. You should definitely go to the police or something."
30:59 Speaker 01 But her boyfriend doesn't want to. She lets it go. But internally...
31:04 Speaker 09 Something within me just started to become suspicious.
31:09 Speaker 09 Something felt off.
31:11 Speaker 01 Now that she thinks about it, her boyfriend seems to have a lot of bad luck. This robbery isn't the first thing that's gone wrong. There've been some credit card issues and lawyer mishaps, stuff she's dismissed. But now Sophie wants to find out what's going on. And she figures that the answer might be in his phone.
31:30 Speaker 09 So then I started to pay closer attention to his passcode. And I was trying to see what his passcode was. In general, he was very protective of his phone and his laptop. He would always take them with him, even in the shower. It was quite hard for me to get a moment. I was trying for a while. And then there was one point, and this was all my bear, where he did leave his phone out when he was going to the shower. And then I went on his phone. I was like, "Well, what can I do? What's the most useful thing I can do?" So I just go to his messages.
32:15 Speaker 09 And in general, I see a lot of girls on his phone. I see a lot of girls that he met on the same dating app that he was talking to at the same time.
32:27 Speaker 09 So at this point, I'm already disappointed. I'm already like, oh, what a pig, kind of. Like, he pretended to me that he was never really going on dates. He pretended actually that this was the first time that he had used this app. It was the first date he had. He has like, really, no girlfriends. He had like, one years ago. And so now I see him talking to all of like, 20 different girl contacts. So I'm already, I'm already at this point like, okay, he's not who he is. Uh, at least in this sense. He's definitely lying about something around him.
33:11 Speaker 09 So I'm already like mad, in a way. And I just start searching up terms. I start searching up terms like crypto, money, something like that. And then there was a message that popped up and said, "Why don't you give me my money back?" So I go on this chat, and it's with some girl. And I read through this chat, and there was just a couple sentences that said, "I know you're not working for Google. I know this is fake. You need to pay me back now." Something along those lines. And I think in that moment, my heart just dropped. Because I was like, oh my god, is this, is this true? Like, is this real?
33:55 Speaker 09 And so I just go on the contact. I take a picture of the number of this person. And I put his phone back. He's still in the shower, and I go outside for a walk. And I message that person. I say, "Hey, do you have time to talk?"
34:16 Speaker 01 And talk they would. Because in case you haven't guessed it yet, Sophie's new boyfriend is Ken Yuenai, or Ken Chuwenlong. And now Sophie is about to connect the dots on Ken's alleged crimes in a way no one else has, and finally get law enforcement on the case.
34:38 Speaker 09 Next time on Catch Me If You Can. I'm gonna manipulate him back, so I actually pretended to still like him. The police had like planned to set up. He gets thrown to the ground, like this whole dramatic arrest. He keeps yelling out, "What did I do?" He gets arrested again by the police in Switzerland.
35:03 Speaker 10 He said he was in Switzerland and he started saying, "I'm gonna go to Sicily, maybe they can come find you."
35:09 Speaker 09 Catch me if you can.
35:18 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive, save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.
35:47 Speaker 01 Catch Me If You Can is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media in association with Ish Entertainment. It's written and hosted by me, Natalie Robamed, and executive produced by myself and Vanessa Gregoriadis. Our senior producer is Abakar Adan. Our producer is Julia K. Saline. Our story editor is Michael Canyon Meyer, and our assistant editor is Emma Simonoff. We had help from Blake Rook and Lily Houston-Smith, who managed the production. Sound design, mix, and engineering by Mark McAdam. Voice acting for Ken by E. Nguyen Lai Trumien. Becca by Lily Houston-Smith. And Sophie by Madison Lanacy. The executive producers at Sony Music Entertainment are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch,
36:32 Speaker 01 Josh Dean, Adam Hoff, and Matt Scher at Campside Media, and Michael Herschorn at Ish Entertainment. Thanks to Jess Antonini, Joe Mancino, and Reagan Graham. And thanks to Campside's operations team, Doug Slaywin, Ashley Warren, and Sabina Mara. And thank you for listening.
36:55 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.
Previous Catch Me If You Ken I 1. Boyfriend in the Garage Next Catch Me If You Ken I 3. IG Hottie Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated