Lie, Cheat, & Steal

Pat explains how our new "technofeudalist" economy, where increasingly, goods and services are rented rather than paid for outright (our podcast subscription is the exception of course).

Kath tells Pat about the King of Bougainville, Noah Musingku, who turned a ponzi scheme borne of an economic crisis into a would-be monarchy in the emerging island nation of Bougainville. Much of the information in this episode comes from the Harper's article The Island King by Sean Williams, which you can read here: https://harpers.org/archive/2024/11/the-island-king-sean-williams-bougainville/ To hear the rest of this episode, navigate on your browser to patreon.com/liecheatandsteal and subscribe to our patreon :)

Kath tells Pat the story of Alan Todd May, who turned an engaging personality and a small inherited oil claim into a Ponzi scheme that had him living large across the country with a series of young boyfriends. Much of the info in this episode comes from Charles Bethea's article on May in the New Yorker, "The Fake Oilman", which you can read here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-fake-oilman

Pat and Kath talk some topical scams, frauds, and thefts. We cover some pope-related shenanigans, Fyre Fest 2, a Looney Tunes-style break-in, and more in this roundup episode.For the full episode (and 100+ more subscriber-only eps), check out our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

In this episode, recorded in person in Austin, Pat tells Kath about the reason behind the modern scourge of fake job listings, wasting applicants' time and inflating economic indicators.

Kath tells Pat about a would-be communication breakthrough for nonverbal and autistic people that maintains popularity, despite being labeled a pseudoscience. To listen to the rest of this episode, navigate to patreon.com/liecheatandsteal on your browser and sign up today!

Kath tells Pat credit repair agencies, an industry which take the scam that is the credit score an adds another scam on top of it. We talk about the conditions that allowed this industry to flourish, and recent attempts to protect consumers from its manipulations.Much of the info in this podcast is available in Maddy Crowell's recent article "The Big, Empty Promises of the Ballooning Credit Repair Industry", available here: https://newrepublic.com/article/192064/big-empty-promises-ballooning-credit-repair-industry

Pat tells Kath about Shawn Bolz, a Charismatic Christian who combines two classic forms of scamming: "psychic" cold reading and prophetic ministry. To listen to the rest of this episode, navigate to patreon.com/liecheatandsteal on your browser and sign up today!

On this dual-subject episode, Pat tells Kath about the history of Deadwood, South Dakota, a town filled with liars, frauds, thieves and bullshitters, and gives us an update on a bullshitter he knew personally back in his pawn shop days.

Kath tells Pat about a classic scammer archetype: the gambler who's convinced he has a system, and gets in over his head. Viktor Gjonaj was a successful real estate mogul in Michigan before roping an innocent, down-on-his-luck friend into a multi million dollar ponzi scheme that involved the bulk purchasing of lottery tickets, as Gjonaj was convinced he'd discovered a pattern in the numbers.To hear the rest of the episode, sign up for our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Kath tells Pat about Anthony William, The Medical Medium, a health guru who claims to have the ability to commune with the spirit world about his clients' health. Despite ringing endorsements from a whole host of celebrities and a cushy appointment writing for GOOP, not all of William's clients have been so fortunate.

Pat and Kath talk about the many sorts of scams they've been victim of in the stand up comedy world, where it's easy for would-be bookers, show producers, and other showbiz hangers-on to make a buck off an aspiring comic's desire for fame and success.

Have you ever talked to an o***f**s model? Well, we have some news for you: that was, to quote everyone in the media, "some guy in the Philippines". Kath tells Pat about the surprisingly competitive world of professional onlyfans chatters, and the class action lawsuit that may put an end to the industry.

Pat tells Kath about an idea somewhere between a vanity project and a utopian vision from Akon, the rnb singer who's songs we love, but who's ideas about city building, cryptocurrency, and how babies are made are pretty suspect.To listen to the full episode, check out our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Do you want to become an alpha male? Pat runs through a list of fellow alphas who want to teach you how to be more masculine - for a price.

Pat and Kath discuss the Small Venue Operators' Grant, a well intentioned program meant for small performance venues (like the ones we perform in) that were shuttered by covid, but abused by millionaire musicians like Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and Alice in Chains. Much of this info comes from this article from Business Insider: ⁠https://www.businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chris-brown-covid-relief-funds-svog-grant-2024-12⁠  to hear the rest of this episode, sign up for our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Kath tells Pat about a man who's rise as a South American drug kingpin was stunted by - but possibly also originated from - his childhood dream of being a soccer star.

series exploring the industries that sell men on masculine identity. This first episode covers the phenomenon of oversized trucks that have ballooned in size over the decades…to the detriment of roads, pedestrians, and the environment. For two more episodes every month, join our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Kath tells Pat about a Boston area woman who pulled a real life version of Billy Madison - posing as a high school student at public schools while living a double life. A lot of the stuff in this episode comes from reporting in the Boston Globe by Patricia Wen. Read her first article about Hewitt here. To hear this full episode and get access to all of our 100+ bonus episodes, visit patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Kath tells Pat about Vlad Artamonov, the Harvard Business School graduate who used his prestigious alumni network to scam other high powered finance guys out of millions of dollars.

Since Rita Crundwell is back in the news after being pardoned by Joe Biden, we thought we'd rerelease this episode from way back in 2017 when we first covered the story of the woman who stole millions from a small town government to fund her ambitions as a horse breeder.

Since it's topical, we decided to drop this episode a day early. Pat dives into the sordid history of United Healthcare, which helps explain why the shooting of Brian Thompson had about 100 million suspects.  For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Our pal Jack Frazee comes by to offer a legal perspective on some of Texas History's wildest bribery scandals, and how they've shaped the state's modern laws.

Kath tells Pat about an unlikely duo who pulled off a scam raking in hunreds of millions of dollars: a polygamist Mormon and an Armenian gangster team up to scam the heavily subsidized renewable energy market. Much of the info in this episode was taken from a 2021 Wired Article called "The Lion, The Polygamist, ad the Biofuel Scam" by Vince Beiser. You can read it here: https://www.wired.com/story/lion-polygamist-and-biofuel-scam/ 

Pat's laptop got stolen so we're wheeling the VCR into the classroom for another roundup of recent tales of liars, frauds, thieves, and bullshitters.

Pat tells Kath about the Besa Mafia, an organization purporting to offer kill-for-hire services on the dark web, who were discovered by tech journalist Carl Miller of "The Kill List" podcast. check out The Kill List for more in depth reporting on this story.

Kath tells Pat about Dave Pelzer, author of a Child Called It, and his potentially dubious history. This episode is unusual because we're not quite sure what Pelzer has lied about, but we know at least a few things seem off.

Kath tells Pat about a miracle gadget that piqued the interest of crowdfunding investors on kickstarter and indiegogo, despite no evidence that a single prototype was ever produced.

Pat tells Kath about one of the messiest people we've ever discussed - Robert Konashewych, a Toronto cop who resorted to drastic measures to get out of debt while trying to hide an affair.

Kath tells Pat about Albert Rosenberg, a man who had many of Toronto's elite fooled into believing he was a fellow power broker in the city's wealthiest neighborhood. Be sure to check out the documentary, The Talented Mr Rosenberg, produced by Courtney Shea, who wrote the Toronto Life article from which much of this story comes.

Kath tells Pat about coaching, an industry undergoing a surge of popularity, and the pyramid scheme-like ways that opportunistic "coaches" take advantage of it. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat tells Kath about a crematory operator in the rural south who offered deep discounts to funeral homes to burn their bodies - how'd he do it so cheaply? he never burned them at all.

A lot has been going on in the scam world lately so we are back with another roundup! Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal.

Kath tells Pat about a recent story involving a community of disability advocates working in video games, several of whom may not exist.

Kath tells Pat about how a small school dedicated to training artists for the ad industry metastasized into one of San Francisco's largest landowners and bilked aspiring artists out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pat and Kath talk upcoming vacations, near death experiences, and a roundup of recent stories from the world of liars, frauds, thieves and bullshitters.

Kath tells Pat about a Canadian woman who scammed dozens of doulas with a fake pregnancy sob story. Hear the full episode on our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Kath tells Pat about the Mirai Botnet, supercharged form malware that caused such disastrous denial of service attacks that it managed to bring down internet service for the entire US eastern seaboard in 2016. Was this the work of a foreign actor, hoping to influence a crucial US election? The truth is even weirder.

Kath tells Pat about airbnb scams, and we explore a former real estate broker's illegal airbnb empire in New York City that netted tens of millions of dollars before getting busted.

Pat tells Kath about Carl Rinsch, a rookie director hired by netflix during the peak of the streaming wars to make a sci fi blockbuster series. What happened next is a wild ride involving cryptocurrency, vyvanse, Keanu Reeves, and 60 million dollars down the drain.

We're back! Pat brings us the rise and fall of a proposed libertarian, bitcoin-run, agrarian utopia in Chile called Galt's Gulch.

Kath tells Pat the strange tale of Arlan Galbraith, a Canadian farmer and pigeon racer who enlisted the Amish and Mennonite communities in a pigeon breeding ponzi scheme that resulted not just in exorbitant sums of money, but also in tens of thousands of pigeons.

Kath tells Pat about Bill Benter, the man who used math to successfully bet on a game that was previously considered to be impossible to statistically predict: horse racing. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat tells Kath the frustrating saga of Red Lobster, the universally beloved seafood franchise restaurant that fell prey to venture capital and is suffering the consequences.

Pat tells Kath about the world of counterfeit currency, and brings us a historical counterfeiting case that ensnared Sir Isaac Newton. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat and Kath discuss The Cut's recent article about Matthew Bergwall, a Miami college student who briefly became an incredibly prolific refund scammer - a brand new form of scamming enabled by internet retailers' lax return policies.

Kath tells Pat about the rise and fall of moviepass - a company that began with modest aims made an investment deal with the devil that eventually led to disaster - but not before we all got some free movie tickets out of it. To hear the rest of this episode as well as ad-free versions of our free episodes, check out our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat tells Kath about the history of Boeing's shady practices that led to the grounding of their 737 Max planes and the Alaska airlines incident earlier this year.

Kath tells Pat about a recent case of identity theft that spanned over 30 years, and in which law enforcement prosecuted the victim as the perpetrator. Listen to the full version of this episode, as well as 100+ other bonus episodes and ad free versions of our show on our patreon! www.patreon.com/liecheatandsteal

Our special guest, professional freak and carnival performer Erik Sprague (aka The Lizardman), tells Pat and Kath all about the scams and tricks the carnival uses to take our money and keep us entertained, from an insider's point of view.

While researching cash heists, Pat stumbles across the long legacy of lying, fraud, thievery and bullshit at GardaWorld, a company to which many American banks have outsourced their securities storage. Listen to the full version of this episode, as well as 100+ other bonus episodes and ad free versions of our show on our patreon! www.patreon.com/liecheatandsteal