White Collars, Red Hands

It's the season 21 finale as we delve into another murder committed by the ultra wealthy. This week we talk about pathological liar Christian Gerhartsreiter, who killed a couple in the 80s but continued a reign of terror under many identities. His most famous was that of Clark Rockefeller, yes of those Rockefellers. A name under which he got married, had a child, swindled many, and finally got...

After wiring more than a million dollars to her husband, Anthony Strangis, Sarma Melngailis watches her once-thriving restaurant spiral into missed payroll, employee walkouts, and investor panic. While Anthony gambles away the money, the couple goes on the run, only to be caught in the most ironic way possible. We break down the manipulation, the unraveling, and how a celebrated vegan empire ended...

This week we embark on a two week journey through the life of potential investment banker turned raw vegan food restaurateur Sarma Melngailis, whose life became more difficult than her name is to pronounce. Learn about how she met a wolf in sheep's clothing through a popular online game, and how he slowly started to ruin her life.

This week we bring you the conclusion of our revisit to Michele Sindona. Find out how the ruins of bodies, and families were left behind as Michele's banking empire fell across multiple countries, and the lengths he would go to to try and avoid facing his just punishment.

Five years ago, with one mic and a dream we started this podcast. And we were a lot worse at putting a story to mic if you'd believe it, because we didn't write scripts. One of our favorite stories has been the mystery of Michele Sindona, confidant to the bank of the Vatican that worked in the shadows with both God's men and the mafia. Join us on a two part series as we revisit how one...

It's part two of our Cola Wars double feature! This week we discuss the history of Coke's little bro Pepsi. We talk about the interesting reason it was first created and numerous scandals involving them over the last century from marketing mishaps to suspicious substances in their cans.

So it turns out that making sugar water can entitle you to some great power throughout the world. No one knows that better than Coca Cola, a Fortune 500 company that started by selling the stuff you can get under a bridge for $120/g nowadays, and saying it helped in the bedroom. Join us for this two part series where we talk about the largest cola makers in the world, how they rose to prominence a...

We hope you all had a great Holiday Season! After a week off we come back with a story about Dina Wein Reiss, who went through a surprising amount of effort to scam companies into giving her truckloads of merchandise at cost which she then turned around and sold, stealing all of their profit margin. Find out how a fake store and actors on the payroll setup the scheme, and how one disgruntled emplo...

Hey Everyone! Nina and Kishan are both travelling for the holidays so we are dropping this gift of an episode updating what has happened since we posted our episode on ten different stories. Hope you enjoy finding out whose been naughty and who turned nice, and we will see you in a couple of weeks!

This week we discuss the absolute food giant in Kraft Heinz. Starting as two lonely multinational food corporations, they decided they would be better together when they merged in 2015. Unfortunately the relationship turned out toxic as the new couple immediately started some lengthy accounting fraud that was uncovered in 2019 and now they are on the verge of divorce.

Anglo Irish Bank had one motto: if you can’t afford it, lend it anyway. With Sean FitzPatrick at the helm, the bank inflated Ireland’s boom and then helped detonate its bust. After billions vanished and investigators uncovered hidden loans, the whole thing unraveled into a courtroom saga that become one of the longest in Irish history. Join us as we unpack the rise and fall of Anglo Irish, and how...

On the season 20 finale we discuss Texas oil tycoon T. Cullen Davis who was once the richest man in the state until his life exploded into a double murder case, a bitter divorce, and a dramatic courtroom drama. After his stepdaughter and his ex-wife’s boyfriend were killed, Priscilla Davis identified Cullen as the gunman, but with immense wealth and a powerhouse legal team, he walked free not once...

While the financial crisis was unfolding and ruining the economies of the world, China had a little more to contend with. In 2008 babies began to contract kidney stones, and all of them were fed with the same baby formula produced by Sanlu Group. Join us this week as we discuss how milk in China became contaminated, how it affected the world's dairy trade, and how it led to the deaths of multi...

This week we discuss Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli ye Gon, who operated one of the largest drug manufacturing plants in Mexico. The only problem is that the drugs he was manufacturing were less than legal. Join us on the journey that pseudoephedrine took from China, to Mexico, to the meth pipes of America all transported in Zhenli's back seat

This week we discuss master art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi, who created paintings to fill the holes of lost work by great artists. Holes that had largely been left after the Nazis destroyed many pieces of artwork during WWII. Find out if he was a genius, or just an egotist, on this week's episode.

This week we discuss one of the craziest stock market manipulations in history. This time we travel to India where Harshad Mehta is the king of the world in the early 90's, and he is trading at ridiculous volumes and has a stranglehold on the market. But his methods are not just unconventional, they're illegal. Listen to discover how it all unfolded.

This week we discuss Bill Mastro, who helped build the multi-million dollar industry of sports memorabilia trading with his auction site Mastro Auctions. However, he also helped to build the massive corruption that lurked behind these sites by cheating the buyers and hawking fake merchandise before eventually striking out.

This week we give you vignettes of healthcare fraud that was uncovered in a sweeping shift by the DOJ to root out these kinds of scams earlier this year. Join as as we discuss unnecessary skin grafts, improper billing codes and so many more things that I swear are more interesting than they sound.

This week we dive into the backstory of one of the lesser talked about US presidents Warren G Harding. We talk about his humble beginnings in journalism, his rise to the presidency, and the scandals that left his legacy tarnished including what was widely considered the worst US political corruption scandal... that is until Richard Nixon set the bar even higher.

This week we discuss the madam at the center of a prostitution ring that serviced the most powerful men of Washington D.C. Learn Jean Palfrey's story about how she built an escort service that prided itself on fulfilling fantasies, and how she was maybe unfairly targeted when the ivory tower dwellers her service catered to got jumpy.

We are so back baby! Did you miss us? We know you did. But life trudges, and one of our hosts moved multiple states so our hiatus between seasons was a little longer than we hoped. Oops. But to make it up to you we have our Season 20 finale all about one of the largest douche bags to profit off of the fallout of 9/11 David H Brooks. Who milked PointBlank Industries, a company who exclusively made...

For the season 19 finale we once again talk murder committed by the wealthy. This time we travel to the years leading up to the American Civil War when a congressman shot a man in public, admitted to the crime, showed no remorse, and still lived a long life. How did Daniel Sickles get away with murder? And he introduced who to the queen of England?! All answered in this episode!

This week we sit down to discuss how a broken printer led to a huge hit on a nation's economy when the Bank of Bangladesh was hacked to the tune of $81MM, but it could have been a lot more than that. Find out the circumstances that led to the hack and how the money was cleaned before being shipped to one of the craziest countries out there.

Although not in the top ten data breaches by people affected, the 2017 Equifax Data Breach showed us just how bad data leaking online can be when it comes because a huge corporation pays absolutely zero attention to cybersecurity. Join us this week as we discuss just how royally Equifax messed up, and also a little about the history of credit reporting in general.

This week we discuss disgraced former mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin, who for years (encompassing the disaster of Hurricane Katrina) funneled money through backdoor deals into his... rock business. How boring. The rocks... not today's episode... please still listen.