Ray Trapani: How I Lost $800,000,000 in Crypto and Survived Prison | DSH #1585

Summary

Podcast Summary: Digital Social Hour – Ray Trapani: How I Lost $800,000,000 in Crypto and Survived Prison (DSH #1585)

Date: October 24, 2025
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Ray Trapani

---

Overview

In this unfiltered, candid episode, Sean Kelly sits down with Ray Trapani: notorious for his role in the Centra Tech crypto case, subject of the hit Netflix documentary, and self-titled survivor of both federal prison and the collapse of a multi-hundred-million-dollar crypto venture. The conversation dives deep into Ray’s upbringing, the Centra Tech saga, lessons from addiction, the inner workings of crypto’s wildest cycles, and reflections on morality, family, and the meaning of authenticity.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Life After Probation & Openness (00:30–02:00)

• Post-Probation Freedom: Ray shares he’s only recently off probation, after eight difficult years.
  • Quote: “It’s crazy. I still feel like I’m on probation… it was just like, you know, having someone view every single thing you do is just an awful situation.” (01:19–01:53)

How the Netflix Documentary Happened (02:00–05:20)

• Documentary Origin: Started as book-writing during COVID; agent connected him to Netflix.
  • Raw Honesty: Ray explains he could be radically open because he’d already cooperated with authorities and admitted everything.
  • On Editing: The first documentary cut lionized (“Wolf of Wall Street style”) but the final release was harsher, showing a more demonizing lens, leaving out “fun” or redemptive angles.
  • Quote: “It was like, they lionized me, like Wolf of Wall Street. Then it came out, and it was just like fully demonizing… They didn’t paint, like, the true story.” (04:05–05:20)

The Rise and Fall of Centra Tech (06:21–17:00)

• How the ICO Exploded:

  • Raised over 200,000 Ethereum, plus Bitcoin, Litecoin—well over $800 million at peak valuations (06:31–07:59)
  • Initial fundraising was slow, then an AI-media mistake caused a flood of investment.

• Genesis of the Crypto Card Idea: Conceived amidst a desire to build a “crypto debit card” before such things were mainstream. Planned for a full-stack crypto ecosystem (09:08–09:31).

• Comparisons to Current Crypto Climate: Ray observes that Centra would be “one of the most legitimate projects” now, compared to rampant modern-day “rug pulls.”

  • Quote: “Centra was way more legit than all these coins.” (10:52–11:13)

• Key “Crimes”:

  • Lied about having Visa/Mastercard deals.
  • Misrepresented raised funds.
  • Compared to competitors like crypto.com who settled instead of fighting.
  • The project did build its tech, but indictment focused on misleading the public/investors, not post-raise actions.
    • Quote: “The indictment is all about how we raised the money... not how we tried to clean it up or do the right thing after.” (04:44–05:21)

• Falling Out & Betrayal:

  • Internal theft of funds (co-founder moving ETH), failed hiding of private keys, and even an alleged hit attempt during legal fallout.
    • Notable: “He tried to put a hit on me.” (16:08–16:16)

Ray’s Early Life, Trauma, and the Roots of Crime (17:44–23:06)

• Addiction Roots: Sexual abuse at age 8-12 led to early drug use and distrust of family. Car accident at 17 triggered opiate prescription; began selling pills, running prescription fraud schemes.

  • Quote: “Like really where the origin story of drugs start for me is, like, at 12, like I was getting, like, sexually abused by my stepbrother… He started giving me Xanax at, like, 12…” (17:54–18:13)
  • Quote: “My first fraud was basically one doctor… someone stole a pad from him…” (20:55–21:13)

• Escalation to Crime: Describes drug dealing, gambling, and early criminal entrepreneurship.

Redemption, Sobriety, and Prison (22:39–25:38)

• Prison Was a “Blessing” — Arrest and probation forced him to get sober. He attributes surviving addiction & possibly his life to being caught.

  • Quote: “Getting arrested this time was, like, truly life saving.” (22:54–23:06)

• On Sentencing & Cooperation: Deep dive into legal strategies—why he got off “lighter” than others, importance of good lawyers, and how full transparency was both demanded and tactically advantageous.

  • Quote: “If you lie once, you’re done right? … They know the answers already… In my indictment, it’s eleven felonies, everything from when I was 17, 18…” (28:32–29:04)

Life in Crypto: Scams, Security, and Current Trends (31:34–45:17)

• Celebrity Endorsements: Early user of celebrity marketing in crypto (Floyd Mayweather, DJ Khaled). Used paid press releases to trigger investment FOMO.

  • Quote: “The real… best move I noticed was doing like paid press releases. You can do a paid press release in all these big publications. No one reads at the bottom that it says paid press release…” (33:05–33:34)

• Fraud Evolution: Discusses today’s rampant scams (SIM swaps, Zoom phishing, insider trading, AI-driven rug pulls), and how meme coins and pump cycles now eclipse what Centra did.

  • Example security tips: use separate devices for trading/Zoom, never keep primary wallets online.
  • Quote: “If you hold it overnight, you’re waking up to zero every 0.99.” (42:17–42:22)

• U.S. Regulation and Law: From SEC regulation (or lack thereof) to the inability to even prosecute many meme coin scams under the current administration.

  • Quote: “They removed the whole SEC task force… there’s no charge to even, like, you’re legally or essentially are allowed to rug people.” (43:47–43:58)

Commentary on XRP & Industry Hype (44:16–45:17)

• On XRP: Harshly critical, calls it useless and a meme, with no real banking adoption and most tokens owned by a small group.
  • Quote: “Why do you guys care about xrp? Like, I don’t get it. It’s literally a meme coin… there’s no proof of concept at all.” (44:21–44:54)

Independent Thinking, Social Programming, and Morality (46:01–48:05)

• Skepticism of Institutions: Ray expresses agnosticism towards religion, skepticism towards “original thoughts” in society, and warns against tribal/ideological thinking.

  • Quote: “My favorite person is like Socrates… if you really just realize that none of us really know and you just, like, question everything, you’re kind of better off.” (46:22–46:38)

• Cultural Diet Fads: Critiques one-size-fits-all mindsets (carnivore, vegan, etc.).

Health, Wellness & Pop Culture (48:10–49:01)

• Peptide Advocacy: Says injectable peptides like BPC-157 and TB500 have been game-changers for feeling young and joint health.

Politics & Social Change (49:04–52:47)

• On American Politics: Finds little practical difference in his life regardless of who’s president. Expresses nuanced views on progressive vs. conservative shifts, polarization, the significance of youth in politics, and culture wars (especially in schools).
  • Quote: “I’ve done well under every president. Nothing has changed for me, ever.” (50:58–51:02)

Irish Mafia, Family Legacy, and Personal Philosophy (53:09–57:58)

• Roots in the Criminal World: Describes idolizing his grandfather, who was deeply connected in New York’s Irish mob, and details ways that world influenced his path.

  • Quote: “I always looked up to my grandfather because my dad left before I was born… he was basically, like, a connected guy… seeing a guy with gold jewelry, a lot of cash, I was just always super intrigued…” (53:25–54:06)

• Comparison of Mafia Ethics: Contrasts mob-run casinos (higher customer respect, tight-knit community) with soulless corporate ownership.

• Humor & Humanity: Ray reflects on the quirks of Irish mob life, banana republic roots, and a humorous appreciation for his grandmother’s hardiness (“She drinks Jameson and smoke cigarettes every day. She just kills it.”) (57:49–57:58)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• On post-probation life:
  • "It’s crazy, I still feel like I’m on probation...because it was eight years of probation." (01:19–01:25)
• On Netflix editing his life:
  • “They lionized me...like Wolf of Wall Street...then when it came out, it was just fully demonizing.” (04:05–05:20)
• ICO and Centra’s explosive growth:
  • "Like out of nowhere, I did see 100k, 500k, 200...people start, like, because this guy said motion..." (07:59–08:21)
• On fraud in crypto:
  • “We said we had Visa/Mastercard before we had Visa/Mastercard—that was our main fraud...but they also did that, but were based overseas.” (14:14–14:38)
• On today's meme coin scams:
  • "Anybody...just launching coins, rugging coins...Pump Farm and all these new launch pads...none of that is...all decentralized.” (10:25–10:40)
• On Floyd Mayweather and celebrity tokens:
  • "Floyd, we paid him, like, 200k plus 800k in Centra tokens. Then, like, 10 million came in." (32:13–33:05)
• On getting sober in prison:
  • "Getting arrested this time was truly lifesaving...that eight years of probation...being away from drugs really did actually help me." (22:54–23:06)
• On good and bad in the mafia:
  • “There’s always, like, the bad and the good side, right? Like, the danger aspect of it is what’s the bad part.” (54:51–54:59)

---

Major Episode Segments & Timestamps

• 0:30–2:00: Post-probation freedom and wariness
• 2:05–5:21: Documentary origin and narrative control
• 6:21–17:00: Deep dive into Centra Tech—funding, fraud, collapse, and prison
• 17:44–23:06: Upbringing, trauma, and formative criminal acts
• 23:06–25:38: Surviving prison, legal strategies, and lessons
• 31:34–35:00: Inside the celebrity-crypto-press fraud machine
• 35:12–42:22: Modern-day digital scams, security, and insider trading in crypto
• 46:01–48:05: Societal programming, original thought, and skepticism
• 49:04–52:47: U.S. politics, social change, and philosophical views
• 53:09–57:58: Irish mafia stories, legacy, and family influence

---

Language and Tone

Ray is raw, remarkably honest, and self-aware, veering between streetwise humor and philosophical insight. The tone is fast-paced, peppered with cynicism and no-holds-barred anecdotes—ranging from crime to childhood trauma to crypto rabbit holes.

---

Memorable Finale

On upcoming plans:
“I just send everybody to my Instagram…sooner or later I’ll probably try to do a podcast on my own…I just kind of do these to, like, just keep growing and, you know, seeing where it goes.” (58:07–58:19)

---

For listeners looking for authentic insight into crypto's original wild west, American crime, and the redemptive arc of a self-professed former villain, this episode is must-listen.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

This episode is brought to you by Rumchata, a delicious, creamy blend of horchata with rum. It's best enjoyed over ice or in your coffee. Rumchata. Delivering vacation vibes anyway, or anywhere you drink it. Find out [e-mail] Drink responsibly. Caribbean rum with real dairy cream, natural and artificial flavors. Alcohol 13.75% by volume 27.5 proof. Copyright 2025, Agave Loco Brands, Pojoaquee, Wisconsin. All rights reserved.

[Ray Trapani]

If Centra happened under Trump, we would have never got arrested. They removed the whole crypto. SEC regulation force. They removed it right now. Central would be like, if anything, one of the most legitimate projects in the space. Centra was way more legit than all these coins.

[Interviewer]

Trump would have probably invited you to the White House. Okay, guys, we got Ray out here in Las Vegas. He's from the bitcon documentary. I'm sure you guys might have seen it or at least heard of it. It was number one on Netflix for a while. Thanks for making the trip finally, man.

[Ray Trapani]

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I know you were dealing. We were trying to set this up. But you were on probation still, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And, like, while on probation, like, I just didn't want to, like, talk about, like, the full picture of everything and, you know, I just didn't want to, like, upset. Like, you always worry that you, like, upset the PO and somehow it comes back to you.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. But now you're free, huh?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You can say whatever you want.

[Ray Trapani]

A couple months. A couple months off probation. It's crazy. Like, I still feel like I'm on probation because it was eight years of probation.

[Interviewer]

Eight years?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So you had to tell him every time you left the house, right?

[Ray Trapani]

No, I was like, the first two years, basically, I was on house arrest, and then they give you curfew, but then I had that off, and I was. It was only like, if I traveled out of state, but still, like, everything was monitored. Like, I'd have to explain, like, any single. Like, if I went to. I took my kids to Disney, I would have to tell them how I paid for Disney.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, so like, any single little thing, I would have to tell them exactly how I did it, how I afforded it, you know, so, like, it just.

[Interviewer]

Holy crap.

[Ray Trapani]

It was just like, you know, having someone view every single thing you do is just an awful situation.

[Interviewer]

That's nuts. How did the documentary come about? When you first got approached for that, were you pretty hesitant to share that story and everything?

[Ray Trapani]

No, like, realistically, it was During COVID what happened was, during COVID I was so bored, and then, like, my boy hit me up because everybody was just laid off and, like, doing nothing. And then, like, we started writing a book. So I just started going to this house every day, one of my best friends, and we were just like, basically, like, we would record for, like, an hour and a half. Like, tried, like, chapter by chapter, and then we'd, like, just write out exactly what we recorded and then just, like, move on to the next chapter. Then through trying to sell the book, basically, we had. We got an agent. And then that agent just, like, randomly was like, oh, this, you know, person wants to interview you. They're connected to Netflix. I did that. Like, and it was funny. Like, I did it, like, I dressed.

[Interviewer]

Up, like, real proper suit and tie and everything.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, pretty much like, like, like. Yeah. Like a reformed criminal, you know?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And then, like, right away, like, within weeks, they were, like, reaching out to do a deal and.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Trapani]

Try to, like, you know, figure out how to do a documentary. And then, like, it was. It was crazy because, like, they liked it so much that they, like, a lot of documentaries are done by other production companies and sold to Netflix. This was like, that, like, fully funded by Netflix.

[Interviewer]

Wow. That's pretty rare.

[Ray Trapani]

So they push it harder, you know? Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Holy crap. So. Oh, so you wanted this to come out? You were ready to share everything?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, yeah. Like, I was like. Because, like, the thing is, is when you. When you get, like, in trouble, like, how I got in trouble, like, I cooperated. So you admit to all your crimes already?

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

So there wasn't, like, anything I had to hold back as far as crimes go. You know what I mean? Like, that makes sense. I was just able to, like, kind of say every single crime I ever did. And, like, I knew that in all reality, like, I was saying it was a scam on tv.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

It wasn't like I was, like, denouncing the scam. It was the same thing that I said, like, you know, in court and everything like that. So I. I knew that, like, it wasn't going to hurt me. And I knew it was, like, kind of at that time, like, I was struggling. Like, I had. They basically had seized all my assets. So, like, I was trying to, like, just make my way back. And it. It really did work out for me. Helped me out a lot.

[Interviewer]

Nice. How did you feel about the reception, of how it. How the viewers took it? What.

[Ray Trapani]

What was crazy about the documentary was, like, the first cut they send me sent me and it was like very Wolf of Wall Street. Like, they put in the party stories, like, the orgies, the crazy stories, like that. And like, that was fun. Like, it was like they lionized me in a way. Like, wolf Wall street. Like, he's still lionized. He's not even look at, like a bad guy 100%. And then like, they send it to like a group of like 100 people that Netflix picks. And when they send that, like, to the 100 people, basically they rate it and they say like, whatever they. How they feel. And then they never showed me like a second cup before they put it out. So, like, I was just waiting to see it come out. And then when it came out, it was just like fully demonizing. Like, they took out, like all the fun parts. They took out the part that, like, we actually finished building the tech. Like, all, like, the finalized part. Like, people don't realize that, but, like, we put 50 million into the development even though, like, we raised the money illegally and we lied when we were raising the money. So the indictment, people don't realize the indictment is all about, like, how we raised the money. It wasn't like what we did after the fact and how we tried to clean it up and do the right thing after the fact. It was all about how we raised the money and rightfully so. Like, you know, so, like, they. They didn't paint, like, the true story. They painted it just to, like, old. If you watch.

[Podcast Host]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Ray Trapani]

Learn [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by Indeed. When your computer breaks, you don't wait for it to magically start working again. You fixed the problem. So why wait to hire the people your company desperately needs? Use Indeed sponsored jobs to hire top talent fast. And even better, you only pay for results. There's no need to wait. Speed up your hiring with a $75 sponsored job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Any documentary about crypto on Netflix? It's all about, like, trying to make it look like a scam.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, because that's what the nar. The mainstream narrative is, right? With crypto, it's like a scammy kind of thing. Yeah. Damn. So this was for Centra Card you're talking about where you put in the fifth million?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, we had raised 200,000 Ethereum, like a bunch of bitcoin, bunch of litecoin. We raised like a lot of OTC Ethereum as well.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

So like more than 200,000. And then we raised it at $200. And then the market boomed right after that to like $1,300. Went from basically having like, you know, we had 100 million central coins made, which like, at the start we raised them at like a dollar a piece. And then it went to like, like six to eight dollars a piece. So that was like an 800 million dollar market cap. And then plus we had 200, 000 Ethereum, 200,000, which, you know, at 1300 is 260, I guess, like roughly around there. And then, you know, bitcoin and litecoin and all that type of. So it was crazy. Like, we went from having like. Like when we first started raising money, we were raised like probably like 100k over two months. And then like out of nowhere, some guy like made a mistake with like, he was like, AI to put out articles and his AI messed up and like combined us with the bank and then basically said that we like put out this article and then 2 million. Like, I was just literally on my balcony smoking a joint. And then like out of nowhere, like, I was always just like sitting just like updating Ether scan for anybody that knows crypto. Like, I was just like checking how much money was coming into the ICO wallet. And then like out of nowhere, I did see like 100k, 500k, 200, like these huge amounts. Like, people start, like, because this guy said motion. His name was Cliff High.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And like, it was just a total mistake on his part. And then like 2 million came in, like over the course of a couple hours. And then like from there we like kind of took that money. And then just like, we're like, all right, where do we go from here? Because now like, we have like all this pressure because at first we're like, we didn't know. Like, it was just a general idea. And like, the idea was like, all right, what's. Like, like what happened was my partner at the time in car rental business was he was trading and he basically like just got like liquidated on a. On a long. And he. He felt like he got scammed because it's like one of those scam wicks where they just flush everybody.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And he was Trying to find like a class action suit against Coinbase or whatever it was. And through that on Reddit, he found ICOs and seen like all these young kids raising a crazy amount of capital. So we're like, all right, so like, let's try to create our own ICO and we'll just hire people from upwork and make a website and whatnot. And like, like the best concept in our, like still to this day. And now everybody's doing it. But like, this is way before, like, everybody doing it. Like it was just like a crypto debit card to make it like easy for anybody to use their crypto in real time.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Then we were going to create like an exchange and create like a. We had also like a thing called CBay, which is going to be like you'd buy basically ebay with, you know, century ebay, like where you can buy anything with crypto. And you know, like, we just wanted to have like the full picture, like all in one place so that like, it can make it easy. And then like, ideally down the line we'd make C chain, which would be just like central chain.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And then like we'd have like a chain that essentially is for normies. Right. Like, there's something similar right now in the space that they're trying to develop is like keita. I don't know if you've heard of it all kta, but like they're basically making it. It's like a Google developer that created it's like on layer one. It's in test now right now. But like he's basically making. Where it's like quantum resistance. So it's good for normies where they have like a digital passport. It's going to be kyc, though. So like that, that, that's like the only thing that's like kind of I can see like onboarding actual people that are like, don't trust the, you know, the regular networks.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah. Kyc, I feel like, sucks, sucks. But being a US citizen, you almost have to go that route, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Not really.

[Interviewer]

Like, when you start a coin.

[Ray Trapani]

I mean, nowadays. No, like really, like on Salon, you don't have to do any kyc.

[Interviewer]

Oh, wow.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, you can just launch a coin. Like there's people right now, the market is insane because like anybody. Everybody's just launching coins, rugging coins. Yeah. Because Pump Farm and all these new launch pads that came out like, it's, it's none of that, like, is. It's all decentralized.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And the current administration seems Pretty pro crypto too.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, if Centra happened under Trump, we would have never got arrested. Really.

[Interviewer]

They.

[Ray Trapani]

The whole crypto, like SEC regulation force, they removed it.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

So, like, right now, Century would be like, if anything, like one of the most, like, legitimate projects in the space, which is crazy to say, like, how we got arrested for fraud. But, like, compared to like, what's going on now with all these AI coins, like, just like rugging and, you know, making like tens of millions of dollars like in a couple of days, it's. We were central. Was way more legit than all these coins.

[Interviewer]

Trump would have probably invited you to the White House because him and Vance, I know Vance especially, is very pro crypto. They had a crypto ball in D.C. when they got inaugurated.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, I think it's smart for them to be. I don't know how much they actually care. I feel like it's like somewhat of a.

[Interviewer]

Could be an optics thing, but they have a fund, they have companies involved.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, I don't know if you've seen recently though, like, World Liberty five.

[Interviewer]

I saw that. Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

It's just crashing.

[Interviewer]

Oh, it's crashing?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What happened?

[Ray Trapani]

It went live yesterday.

[Interviewer]

Oh, the stock, you're saying, well, World.

[Ray Trapani]

Liberty is a crypto, like on eth. Basically, they had Trump coin. Now they have World Liberty, which is like, led by one of like the brothers Trump Jr.

[Interviewer]

Right, Trump. Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

I think it's. I think it's Eric Trump.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ray Trapani]

But they're all on the board and. But that guy Justin sun, who owns Tron, is like a big holder of it, and he put it on the hcx and supposedly he's the one that's just like, straight nuking his, like, allocation. He put in like, a lot of the people that put in crazy money pre sale. Like, they raised like billions of dollars pre sale, and they're just basically nuking because they. They're up like 10x.

[Interviewer]

I've heard a lot of negative things about that guy, to be honest.

[Ray Trapani]

The Tron guy, his story is nuts.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like the stuff that, like, if you read through, like, I. I don't know the exact thing. I was just reading it the other. He's just escaped like, like getting in trouble so many times. And then like, he's worked his way to being a multi billionaire and just like, kind of not like. And he's still always involved in like, every big thing in the space.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, well, that's the thing with crypto. If you keep it in the right spots, you can Use it allegedly to, like, bribe people, pay people off with no trail. You know what I mean?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like, who knows what's actually going on there? But it seems like everyone that started an exchange was a target of some sort of government. Like, if you look at the Binance guy, cz, he got arrested, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yep.

[Interviewer]

They were giving us company exchange owners a lot of shit for a while under Biden administration, everyone started moving overseas. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see if it goes mainstream. You think crypto has potential to go mainstream?

[Ray Trapani]

I think bitcoin will forever. Like, I think bitcoin goes to a million plus.

[Interviewer]

Damn.

[Ray Trapani]

For real? Yeah. I think it, like, really has come to a time where, like, governments are buying it, you know, basically, like, everybody's buying it up, like, to a point like, where sailors buying so much through MicroStrategy that he'll be able to lend to governments. I think it's becoming, like, very institutionalized, but I think a lot of the times, like, the people that actually been holding it forever, like, the. The people that got in early, they're selling right now, you know, so, like, sooner or later, it'll become almost like a institutionalized token where, like, I think it only makes sense. Like, I don't know why anybody would trade, like, overseas. Like, why send money through a bank or through a bank wire when you can just send, like, $100 million to somebody in one second?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

It makes no sense not to use crypto.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. International wires take, like, five days, and there's a huge fee.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And sometimes it doesn't even go through.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it's. It's like, it makes no sense to not use crypto.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Yeah. You were too early, man. Now we got all these crypto credit cards. I have the Gemini one.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I applied for the Coinbase one, but. But you were, like, 10 years ahead of. Ahead of them.

[Ray Trapani]

I guess the crazy thing was crypto.com, like, they were our main competitor back then. They were MCO back then. And they also lied about having Visa MasterCard. That was, like, our main fraud was that we said we had Visa MasterCard before we had Visa MasterCard, but they also did that, but they were based overseas. And then when it came to, like, getting in trouble, they settled with the SEC and paid their fines. And then, like, I had left the company, like, a few months early.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, my co founder basically, like, lied about how much money we raised because obviously he wanted to just, like, keep as much as possible.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And because of that, that's what made it become criminal.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Ray Trapani]

We could have paid a fine and been owned stapled center. Like, if we just paid the fine and just gave them, like, the crypto that we raised, we could have. We had the tech people, customers had cards, working cards. We were the first one. Like, our wallet was beautiful. It was in iOS and Android stores.

[Interviewer]

Damn.

[Ray Trapani]

So it's like, a shame in a way, you know, like, what if moment, right? Yeah, it's such a what if moment, seeing them on Stable Center. Like, we were first, we developed the tech before them.

[Interviewer]

Is that why they got time and you didn't? Because they lied about the numbers?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And then at the very end, like, he basically, like, stole all the eth. And then, like, there was supposed to be, like, a lawyer holding it, and half of it was supposed to be on, like, a safe deposit box. And then when the FBI came, basically, like, they got those two things, and then it wasn't the right address.

[Interviewer]

No way.

[Ray Trapani]

He was. They had. They had locked him up, and then the other kid up, and the other kids started cooperating, and he got a.

[Interviewer]

Year, another eight years.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And then, like, so, like, he basically started cooperating and other. The. The main kids, Sorby, he was like the Indian kid, he was, like, not telling them where, like, the code, like, the password was or the private keys were. Right. And. And then they just raided his house and they found it literally, like, under. Like, where you put your silverware, bro.

[Interviewer]

If you're gonna hide that, why would you hide it at your house?

[Ray Trapani]

Terrible.

[Interviewer]

That's, like, the dumbest spot. So he's still in. Is he out yet or.

[Ray Trapani]

He's out in, like, a year.

[Interviewer]

Oh, wow. You think he'll hit you up?

[Ray Trapani]

He. You know, like, during the. The whole criminal report, like, while we were getting sentencing, he tried to put a hit on me.

[Interviewer]

No.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know that for a fact?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Holy crap. Like, someone, like, basically, like, because we went to high school together.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

So, like, people from my town called me. Like, there's offerings. Like, wow.

[Interviewer]

So you were close with them growing up?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. No, I wasn't close with him. Like, we hated each other in high school, but then there was a mutual friend in the car rental business that he went into business with in selling cars. Then when I moved to Miami, my friend was like, yo, bring him in. He's very good with, like, the finance aspect of. Of getting cars and stuff.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Trapani]

That's how we got, like, rekindled. And then, like, back in high school, like, even in, like, CeeLo one time, like, I, like, lost, like. Like, my. Actually, my friend lost the big pot to him in CeeLo, like, a couple thousand at the time in high school was a lot. And, like, I just, like, took the p. Was like, you.

[Interviewer]

And so you had beef ever since.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was funny. Like, when he first came to Florida, that was the first thing he said. He's like, yo, you got that 3,000?

[Interviewer]

That's funny. Was that in the documentary that he put a hit on you?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, I think it's mentioned. I don't know. They cut so much out of it. Like, I filmed for 100 hours. Holy 100 hours of film, like, all over Miami and New York. Like, so, like, there's even parts that, like, they cut sentences together to make it seem like I'm, like, stashing money, you know? Like, and then they asked every single person that they interviewed, they asked, like, do you think Rachel Brownie still holds money? Like, still has.

[Interviewer]

And they all said yes, probably.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Because they. You know what it was is that, like, I think I was a better villain than the kid that was in jail.

[Interviewer]

And, like, you were moving smarter.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it was just like. Yeah, like, because, like, after I got arrested, like, I. I got married, I had kids. I. I literally became, like, a. I got sober.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

I was doing, like, hard drugs for, like.

[Interviewer]

Like, my heroin, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. At, like, 17, 18, I was doing heroin. I was addicted to opiates since I was, like, 16.

[Interviewer]

Geez.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, really? Where, like, the origin story of drugs start for me is, like, at, like, 12, like, 8 to 12, I was getting, like, like, sexually abused by my stepbrother. And, like, this is, like, what made me, like, into, like, a criminal in a way, besides, like, my grandfather. Looking up to my grandfather, who was, like, kind of like a mafia involved type of guy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

But, like, I was getting sexually abused from, like, 8 to 12. And then, like, he started giving me xanax at, like, 12. So, like, I just started, like, from 12 on. I was doing, like, pills. And then, like, 16, 17, I got in a bad car accident. Car flipped like, 30 times, got chopped off. I still, like, to this day. I've had plastic surgery on this, like, three times. There's still more glass in it.

[Interviewer]

Dude, I can't even tell that you have facial reconstruction.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, just like. Just like, this eye is really bad, you know, and, like, there's still glass. Like, now it's to a point where, like, I can pop it out, but it doesn't show. Like, it kept resurfacing like, every time they do it, it kept resurfacing.

[Interviewer]

But, yeah, that was like. What was that company called? There was a documentary about them. The opiate Pfizer, was it? No, someone else. They went out of business. Everyone sued them. I forget the name, but yeah. Yeah, it was peak opioid time around then.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So, like, 16, 17 was pico opium at the epidemic. And so, like, I went to the doctor just, like, for like, what was going on my face, and I was like, yeah, my back's killing me. And they just gave me 120 Oxy, 30s. And I was like, this is crazy. And, like, at that time, I was already, like, selling pot. I was. I started selling coke a little bit because, like, I got, like, a settlement from that lawsuit. I mean, from that car accident. So, like, I started. I was selling drugs, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Did you make a lot off that accident?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, I got. Well, I got 70k.

[Interviewer]

Okay. That's a good amount.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Nothing crazy, but it, like, 16, 17.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

At that age, that's a lot. Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So, like. And I was already gambling, like, playing poker. Like, I. I probably lost a lot of it. Like, honestly, sports betting at that time. Yeah, I was just, like, firing away. Just always, like, full speed ahead. That was, like, kind of always.

[Interviewer]

My, you have an addictive personality, it sounds like.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Adrenaline junkie. Would you label yourself?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, Especially as, like, a young kid, for sure.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Now I'm more, like, reserved, but I still, like, love, like, the. The gamble, the rush.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were gambling last night. Damn, that's crazy.

[Ray Trapani]

But, yeah, so, like, I got that, and then, like, I. I found out the street value of, like, the. The opiates, you know, so, like, I had already taken them and paid for them, but, like, I seen, like, the. Like, everybody was feeding for them because, like, the older kids were already addicted to them. And through that, like, I started selling the pills and, like, I was getting 120from the doctor every month. He just kept me on it. And then I, like, my first fraud was, like, basically one doctor. Basically, someone stole a pad from him, and then they basically brought the pad to me, and they were like, yo, just give me a couple rocks for this pad. I'm like, it. Like, I'll just, like, let me see what I can do with it. And then I got this, like, orthodox get to write out a script. Like, he was, like, a handwriting, like, specialist. Yeah. So I got someone to get, like, a prescription of Tylenol, and then this kid matched the. The handwriting, and then basically Just left out the name part. So, like, I had, like, every single kid I knew that was, like, addicted to opiates, go fill prescriptions. And, like, that was like, a money.

[Interviewer]

Wow. So you were just selling scripts.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, basically. And then. Well, like, I'd have them fill the scripts. Like, everybody was complicit in. In the opiate epidemic. Like, Walgreens would literally have a line of us of 50 kids or like 20 kids. And they'd just be filling the same doctor. Same. Just filling script after script. Like, they had to know something was up.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, if you're looking at a bunch of, like, cracked out little kids, like 18 to 25, and just like, filling the same prescription from the same doctor, you think you'd, like, do something about it. But, you know, everybody was getting kickbacks.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. They printed money off those.

[Ray Trapani]

So like, and then, like, what I would do is I would give them like, 20 of the pills for free for filling it, and then I would take 100. Like, I was getting, like, that times 100. So, like, my fridge at the time was just filled with, like, all different. You know, like, as maximum amount of oxy's at all were selling for like, 20, 30 a pill.

[Interviewer]

Holy crap. People were paying 20 bucks for one pill.

[Ray Trapani]

Now it's like 50.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my God. That's insane. That's. That might be the most expensive drug right now.

[Ray Trapani]

That's like the hardest thing was that, like, for me at the time, I was doing like, 20 a day.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my God.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. My habit, like, my drug habit was crazy. Like, even Xanax, when I was doing, like, during Centra, during, like, the crypto times, I was doing 20 Xanax a day, like 22 milligrams.

[Interviewer]

Cause you were so stressed or.

[Ray Trapani]

No, I wasn't. I was just like. Like, my tolerance for drugs has just always been through the roof. That, like. Like, it just builds quickly. Like where, like, I was doing 20 and I was still going. I was still the first guy at the office.

[Interviewer]

That's insane.

[Ray Trapani]

I had, like, a fridge full of Red Bulls. I'd balance it out, you know.

[Interviewer]

So you must have had some nasty withdrawal when you got sober.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. What was crazy is, like, when I got arrested, it was like a weird moment where, like, I. I knew it was like I was going to be facing, like, 100 plus years.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

I think because of that, it helped with the withdrawals because I knew I was actually gonna quit, you know, Like.

[Interviewer]

I was like, you had no choice.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And like, it was life saving for me in a Way. Right. Like, getting arrested this time was, like, truly life saving. Like, that eight years of probation. Like, being away from drugs really did, like, actually help me.

[Interviewer]

Blessing in disguise almost. Right.

[Ray Trapani]

I would have died for sure. Because, like, what happened was they got arrested a few months before me. And because they got arrested a few months before me, I knew that sooner or later I was going to get arrested.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

So, like, I was just, like, basically trying to run out, like, spend all my money. I was at the casino every day. I was playing, like, you know, like 200k cash. You know, cash games.

[Interviewer]

Jeez.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, you know, 50k hands at back ride every day, like, all day.

[Interviewer]

Holy crap.

[Ray Trapani]

That's how I met, like, the Rulo.

[Interviewer]

Wow. At the casino. Was that in Vegas or somewhere?

[Ray Trapani]

It was in. In Hard Rock. In. In my. In Florida.

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah, in Florida.

[Ray Trapani]

Wow.

[Interviewer]

So why did they get arrested way before you think?

[Ray Trapani]

Like, I. Because I had left the company months before them, and I think they were trying to get me to, like, cooperate because they knew, like, my involvement was less than, like, in any crime. I've noticed they always. The main kid is always, like, they're never going to let that person cooperate unless they have, like, some higher evidence on some big guy. But, like, if they're focusing just on the case, you're always better off being the second guy because they'll give you a lifeline.

[Interviewer]

Right. I thought it was the opposite. I thought that usually they go up, so, like, they arrest the lower guys first and then they save the. The main guy for the end. Is that not the case, though? Because I feel like in the movies, that's how it is.

[Ray Trapani]

I think, like, it depends if they don't have a strong enough case already. Like, I think in this situation, they already knew they would win the case. But, like, it helps having somebody on their side that's from the inside.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

So they didn't even need me, really. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

They already had so much evidence, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What evidence did they have before public?

[Ray Trapani]

Right. Like, we were, like, publicly doxed, like, telling everybody. And there was, like, proof that we didn't have Visa, MasterCard at the time, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

It was proof that this guy that we said was a CEO was like this, like, old white guy that we found off the Internet. Just went to his house, found him in Canada, and he had no idea he was a professor. You know, he literally, like, went to his house and, like, the guy's like, the sweetest guy. He's in the documentary.

[Interviewer]

He had no idea.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And it's funny, like, in the documentary, like, he introduces himself like, I'm Michael Edwards, the CEO of Sentra. And then, like, he, like, laughs, like, they. They did very well, like, on the editing. That's funny, that type.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that was before you could just AI someone, so you had to use someone. Yeah, someone real, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it was like the actual guy. And. And he had a good, like, sense of humor about it. Like, I should, like, I still sometimes, like, I'm like, yo, should I just hit this guy up and, like, just say, I hope you're well? You know, like, I hit up the guy who wrote, like, the new. The New York Times guy who was like. Like the main guy that, like, kind of got us, like, caught up. Yeah, I hit him up and I was just like, you know, good reporting, you know, like, it realistically, like, we were lying and.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Everything you said was true. So I can't hate.

[Interviewer]

Well done. Right. You got to give them props where it's due.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know, when it's objective and you're in the wrong, you got to admit it and own it sometimes.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. That's also what happened, I think, at sentencing, too. Like, when, like, the main kid got sentenced, Sorby, he was like, yeah, I know we did what we do was wrong, but, like, you know, I tried to take the Silicon Valley approach and, like, you know, figured until you make it and, like, then build after the fact. Like, I went up there, I was like, I'm sorry. Like, I know what we did was wrong. I'm going to try to make everybody as whole as possible. Like, you know, and that's it. That's literally, like, all I said. I was like, I'm sober. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm sorry I didn't say anything about, like, trying to, like, oh, but, you know, you can't throw butt in there and try to, like, defend yourself in a speech to the judge last minute before you get sentenced. Yeah, they just. They want you to just say you're. You're remorseful and that's it.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, like, if you start trying to, like, explain yourself away, you're cooked.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. People started losing faith in you. Now, you said you were facing up to 100 years. What were your lawyers kind of predicting for your sentencing? Did they give you, like, a ballpark?

[Ray Trapani]

I kind of had belief. Like, I had a really good lawyer. They had shitty lawyers. I don't know why they hired, like.

[Interviewer]

Why would you cheap out on a lawyer?

[Ray Trapani]

The crazy thing is they hired, like, some, like, Italian lawyers. And I hired, like, the best New York lawyer possible.

[Interviewer]

I mean, why, if you're facing so many years, would you cheap out on a lawyer?

[Ray Trapani]

And they had. And they had way more money than me to do it with.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Like, it's a pay to play system. Everyone knows that.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. What happens is, like, he had been in Trouble before, like, DWIs, and he always was able to, like, kind of, like, figure out a way to, like, manipulate lawyers. Like, even, like, during Century I, he got me to lie on the stand for him for a DWI case.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And, like, I got a perjury charge. Like, he was just, like, always thought he was above, you know, like, ego.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, ego. Once you start making crazy money like that, sometimes the ego gets in the way. Right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So, like, he had a good lawyer at first, and then he fired him. And then I hired another one fired him. And then, like, by the time he got to, like, actually facing the. The charges, his lawyer sucked. The guy, like, couldn't even speak. He was like, just, like, talking, like, Like a New York Italian guy. I was like. Then my, like, guy comes in. He was like, explaining me like, you're a beautiful butterfly. Like, like. But, like, you always go to slur that. There's just like. That's, like, the one thing in. In the world that, like, people, you know, may hate, but lawyers, if you're gonna. If you get in trouble, find a lawyer.

[Interviewer]

I mean, hate them or love them. I know there's a lot of hate right now towards Jewish people, but they are connected, they are smart, and they win in court for sure. You know what I mean?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Yeah. That's like the biggest thing is, like, their connections. Like, they. There was a point, like, they didn't want me to cooperate. They didn't. They said they didn't need it. And he just got me right in the door.

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah. Oh. So they didn't even want cooperators. They had so much evidence.

[Ray Trapani]

They already had the first kid. But then what happened was he lied and then they. They shut him down. And then basically, like, it opened the door for my lawyer to, like, he wiggled his way in there and, like, somehow he, you know, he obviously, like, they all have connections to the judges, to the prosecutors, the good lawyers.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And. Yeah. And it got me in there. Then, like, once I, like, met with them, and they were just like, all right, if you lie once, you're done, Right? And then they tell you, like, tell every. Tell us every single crime you ever committed, and they know the answers already. Right. So, like, if you lie. You're. You're.

[Interviewer]

Damn. You can't hide anything.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So, like, they literally went back to, like, my childhood, like, admitting that, like, I sold kilos of heroin.

[Interviewer]

They went all the way back to your childhood, literally.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, in my indictment, it's 11 felonies. It's everything from, like, stuff when I was 17, 18, all the way to, like, you know, holy crap, 28 when I got arrested or whatever.

[Interviewer]

But what relevance do the childhood crimes have in this, though?

[Ray Trapani]

Because if it goes to trial, their lawyers can on. In the defense of you on the stand, can use that stuff against you and say, like, oh, didn't you do this? And, like, I'm gonna sign him. It's you just basically, like, those charges, basically, you don't get any time for them. Like, you're not like, facing time for statute of limitations.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

Not even just that it's not statutory statute of limitations. It's more so about, like, they. They tell you that, like, those charges won't be added to, like, your account of, like, one year sentencing, but you have to admit to guilt to them and. And plead out to them, even though, like, you won't be. They won't be used against you, like, as far as. But they could if you break your cooperation agreement and do something like where you lie or anything like that. So you, like, pleaded, plead guilty with all this risk, you add like, an extra 100 years to your sentence, possibly, if you up.

[Interviewer]

Jeez.

[Ray Trapani]

But then, like, they also, like, kind of like, by being so truthful, like, really get you off the hook if you do the right thing.

[Interviewer]

Damn. That is nuts. This must have been the most stressful time for you, I'd imagine.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

The trial days, it lasted like a year or two, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yep. Well, yeah. Like, I. I never actually had to go. Like, he ended up just pleading guilty at the end. Like, I never had to go on the stand. Thank God.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Trapani]

That would have sucked.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. That would have been awful. I heard it's a whole. I just had the guy that testified at Diddy's trial.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And he said it was like, insane. Like, the psycho. The psychology behind the whole court. Like, they lay it out in a specific way to make you intimidated.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, they were. We were doing, like. Like test runs.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, Test trials. Right? Yeah, yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Which was crazy.

[Interviewer]

Crazy, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. I was like, this is so weird.

[Interviewer]

No, it's. People don't know because it's. They just see it on tv. But it's a. It's a pretty. Like they try to break you down mentally, you know? Yeah, yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like their lawyers would have definitely. Even though, like, they weren't the best lawyers, they definitely would have tried to say some sort of weird thing that like, would have put me like, like, you know, who knows what they would have dug up on me.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. You know. Did you have any contact with either of the two people, the other two co founders, during this time or. No.

[Ray Trapani]

I knew it was best not to like, my lawyers, like completely cut them out. Don't reach out to anybody.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Because they were probably trying to turn on each other too.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Well, the thing was is that the third kid that got one year, he was the. The main kids fiance's brother.

[Interviewer]

Oh, that's complicated.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So like they basically couldn't.

[Interviewer]

They were like super tight with each other.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And like he still to this day, that kid, like Defend Central, like, it was like a legitimate company. Like, that's the one thing is like, yes, I get that we went legitimate, but we still lied in the beginning.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

You know what I mean? It's like, at least admit that part.

[Interviewer]

So the big lies with the Visa, MasterCard and the amount of money you raised.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. It's sad too, because we probably would have raised the money anyways without lying.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, and like, we could have killed it, like, either way.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like we. Once we raise the money, like once you raise that first 2 million, that's like when we introduced like the celebrity aspect of it, which we were like one of the first crypto people to. To introduce celebrities. So, like, we first paid like, we got Floyd because we knew him through, like, we had an exotic car rental business before this, and we got Floyd and we ended up taking like 800,000 in century tokens and then 200,000 in cash, which is crazy that it took 800,000 in central.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

That's insane because you print those, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Cost you nothing.

[Ray Trapani]

I never sold them.

[Interviewer]

What?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Wow.

[Interviewer]

Well, he probably would have gotten more trouble if he sold them, to be fair.

[Ray Trapani]

Oh. Like, even before, like, you think he would have just nuked him, you know.

[Interviewer]

He probably didn't know how to. To be honest. It's pretty complicated selling an altcoin.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it was, it was funny, like, guiding someone like Floyd, because he is very like. Like, he's just not smart at all.

[Interviewer]

He's all about the money and the looks and the flash. Yeah. He. There's different types of intelligence. He's like a street smart, I'd say.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

But yeah, you got Floyd, you got DJ Khaled. How'd you get him through the car business?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, and, like, we also knew a lot of people through, like, Miami clubs. Like, we were like the. Like, the big Spanners. And, like, everybody got their cars from us, though. So, like, we kind of knew everybody. Yeah, but yeah, like. Like, we. Floyd, we paid him, like, 200k plus 800k in century tokens. Then, like, 10 million came in. So, like, from 2 million, we went to 12 million. And then, like, we got C. A couple million came in.

[Interviewer]

Holy.

[Ray Trapani]

And then, like, we, like, the real. The best move I noticed was doing, like, paid press releases. You can do, like, a paid press release in, like, all these big publications, and no one reads at the bottom that it says paid press release. They just read the article.

[Interviewer]

They read the headline.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, yeah, they just read the headline. And even if they read the article, they don't read that we paid and wrote that article. You know what I mean? We were saying we had Visa, MasterCard, and, like, Big companies would, like, publish it with doing. No. To do it due diligence.

[Interviewer]

It's like saying you got on Forbes and then you scroll down to the bottom. It's like, this is a contributor.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Forbes reach out, like, every day. They reach out to, like, me or whoever. Like, they. I'm sure they reach out to you too.

[Interviewer]

They do, but they don't have the same, like, meaning anymore.

[Ray Trapani]

It's, like, completely phony.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Like, I know if it's a Forbes article, 99% of them are paid.

[Ray Trapani]

Everybody's like, yeah, I was on Forbes. 30 under 30.

[Interviewer]

You can pay to get on that.

[Ray Trapani]

Literally, they text me. Like, I have the text right now. They just text me the other day, like, oh, we're doing another Forbes thing. You want to be on this list? Let me know.

[Interviewer]

20K. You could get on, like, top 10 lists. If you're a restaurant owner, you could get on a top 10 restaurant list just by paying. It's all pay to play, dude. It's all optics. That's what social media is for. Sure. I did want to ask you about this kid Malone. So there's Netflix documented about him stealing $260 million. Did you ever hear about his name through the grapevine when you were coming up?

[Ray Trapani]

So, no, he was, like, a young, very young. When I was coming up especially. He wasn't even in crypto. He was playing. Like, he got his start in Minecraft and, like, back in, like, back in the days, these kids, like, they were born on the Internet. They used to, like, basically sell usernames in Video games. Like, so, like, to be like. Like, you know, just that $1 sign is, like, worth, like, actual money. Because, you know, like, it's still, like.

[Interviewer]

Honest people do that on Instagram. Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, if you want to buy your exact name on Instagram, you'd pay for it.

[Interviewer]

Sean would cost, like, 50, 100K.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, I' get it on Twitter right now. Ran. I have it on Instagram. Tik Tok. But Rachel Penny on Twitter is, like, you know, 20K.

[Interviewer]

Damn. That's not even a common name, though.

[Ray Trapani]

And crazy thing, it's my old account. I just don't know the past. It.

[Interviewer]

Damn.

[Ray Trapani]

It has no followers, nothing. Like, I just want the name.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

So that it's, like, the same across everything, you know?

[Interviewer]

So that's how this Malone kid started. He was selling Minecraft usernames.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So he was just, like, a Minecraft. He's not even. The crazy thing is. Is, like, that story, like, so focused on my, like, Malone. And, like, it's because he was, like, the extravagant party guy. But there's still two guys in Dubai that made majority of that money.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Ray Trapani]

And they're, like. They were, like, the guys who, like, called him and, like, did, like, the real social. Social engineering part of it. Malone was just the guy that, like, found them and, like, got him on basically, like, the whole, like, where you get a text that your accounts are getting hacked.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Supposedly it was the guy that launched the coin who's one of the founders of Venmo.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Ray Trapani]

That's, like, supposedly who it is. They're, like, still trying to, like, prove that it is that guy, but he launched Quinn quit Jelly Jelly, and supposedly that's, like, who Malone actually got.

[Interviewer]

No way.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Trapani]

They basically just, like, got, like, remote access to his computer. They. And they saw he had, like, money in his account, but they also saw that, like, in his Coinbase, like, all his receipts. And he had all that money on Coinbase. Jeez. So, like, they were like, really? Just, like. All right, let's focus on trying to, like, social engineer getting all that money, because we can get this other money from this wallet anytime we want. Was just, like, sitting on, like, an Exodus wallet or whatnot.

[Interviewer]

Did they ever find the money that he stole?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, well, like, they cashed out a ton through, like, this shady crypto exchange.

[Interviewer]

Oh, what's that exchange called? I know what you're talking about.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, I. I don't know the name of it. Honestly, I've never used it.

[Interviewer]

I know you send money to it and then it like, disperses it everywhere. Right.

[Ray Trapani]

Well, they. They had that like. Like a. Like they were doing Tornado Cash.

[Interviewer]

Tornado cash.

[Ray Trapani]

That was Tornado cash. Like, they would do Tornado Cash first, send it to like, Monroe, send it to this. But somehow they were so. They were so young and like, kind of dumb about it that sooner or later, like, they would send little back to their own wallets and then like, they were cashing it. Like that exchange that. There's an actual exchange that's like for money laundering.

[Interviewer]

Oh, really?

[Ray Trapani]

And basically, like it was going from like 20 million volume and then out of nowhere, just had like hundreds of millions in volume out of nowhere. Because Malone supposedly was making like 2 million a day. Like outside of this thing. He was like, supposedly like scamming people. Price, you know, sim swapping, all this type. Like, this is a ton of those guys that just like all they do all day is just try to scam people.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, sim swapping was hot a few years ago.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it still is.

[Interviewer]

Does it still work? I know it's a bit harder now, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, I think it's harder now. But like, they just find new things. Like this whole Zoom Zoom thing.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that one's scary.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Because I hop on Zoom Calls for business. You know what I mean? Like, fuck, I might have to stop doing that.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, I had a guy reach out to me and he was like, I'll pay you, like, whatever, 5K if you can just teach me how to trade crypto. And he like, showed me a picture, like, of his notes. I could download Phantom, you know, download Photon, all this type of stuff. And then like, he was like, all right, I'm going to. I'll pay you in, you know, ahead of time. And then you just basically like, we'll jump on a Zoom call and we'll go over. Go over everything. And he had some sort of thing where like, if you copied on there, it would copy like a specific link that was like his Zoom link. And if you open that Zoom link, he was able to get like remote access to your computer.

[Interviewer]

Cheese.

[Ray Trapani]

And like, he was just draining, like.

[Interviewer]

Send the money to himself.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, I don't. There's so many of those, like, right now. Like, the whole timeline is like, people, either they're trying to evade taxes or they're getting drained, dude.

[Interviewer]

So basically you can't even have your wallet on your computer anymore.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, like. Like what I have is like, I have. I have a comp. Two. Two computers. I have, like, my laptop, my computer, like my PC that's in my office. And Then I have like two phones. Right. So, like, I just don't keep, like. Like, if I'm ever going to go on a zoom call, it's on my laptop. Smart. Nothing.

[Interviewer]

Keep it separate.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like hack it. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like a personal and a business device, right?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. What are you going to get off there? Like pictures of me?

[Interviewer]

Your dick pics? Yeah, yeah, that's. That's smart, man. I've always considered two phones because I do a lot of business and personal stuff, so I kind of want to keep it separate sometimes.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like you can also, like just have a second phone and just throw it like in a safe somewhere, you know, like, and just leave. Like, especially if you're not like actively trading with that wallet.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, you don't really need to have that phone even if you have it like on a Photon or a trading platform. You can have used a trading platform with ever having the phone actually on you.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like you're already logged in on a computer and they. And like the only way to cash out, like on Photon, for instance, is. Is from Photon back to like the main signup wallet. So, like, you're safe having your Photon on your computer and even if you get hacked, they can't do shit because it's just going to send it to the phone that no one can get access to.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah, that's smart.

[Ray Trapani]

There's just like offset things. Like I've been in the game since 2017 and I've never once been like drained hacked, you know, God forbid.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Knock on wood. Which is impressive though, because I feel like a lot of people will fall for like an email scam or click the wrong link and get fudged.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. I hear every day.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Every day someone crypto Twitter. Every day I scroll on there.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

It's not smart. So you're still pretty active in Twitter though. Like that's. Is that still the main focus for you? Like crypto?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, like. Like I'm. I'm basically just like a lot of the. For like the beginning part of the cycle. I was just trading mainly.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

But like, yeah, I've always done like the. Like after. Basically what happened was like, I got back in because mutual friend we have Islam reached out to me after the documentary. The first day he hit me up and I was like, you know, I didn't know who he was. He just hit me up and like, I was like trying to. Because I had never had any social presence. So like, I was like doing like live streams just like show like, hey, what's up trying to figure out where I'm going to go, like, direction wise. After a document came out, I should have, like, probably, like, pre recorded a bunch of stuff and had content like.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you should have did what the Tinder swindler did. Yeah, just going off.

[Ray Trapani]

But he also bought, like, most of his followers no one really cares about.

[Interviewer]

He fell off now. Yeah, yeah, there's. There's a difference between, like, building a following and then maintaining it.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know what I mean?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, I didn't want to, like, keep swindling. Right. I was, like, trying to, like, actually go legit and build a brand. Build a brand. Yeah. So, like, it's a. It's a slow cook in a way, you know, like, where I'm still just like, like. But through him, he basically, like, introduced me back into crypto. And then, like, very early on, like, I started doing well in trades and whatnot. And then, like, Jason Derulo happened, like, where, like, he got scammed by Sahil. And then, like, I helped run his coin. And then from doing that, like, I did, we. You know, I did really well on his coin. Made good money. And then because I ran that coin, like, once you have like a call channel and a Twitter presence and you post any sort of other coin, people just, like, pay, you know, like, people, like, other projects will pay you crazy money to, like. Yeah, promote their coins. But, like, where I went wrong, I realized early because, like, I was like, I missed the whole last cycle. So, like, I was, like, trying to figure out this whole Kol game, which is like.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that was the last cycle. The celebrity Kol coins.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

But it's now still. There's like, big Kol, you know, now.

[Interviewer]

It'S more like a pump fund cycle. Right. Like, it's more like. It's a quicker cycle.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it's a weird cycle.

[Interviewer]

Like, before, the coins would last weeks, and then before the previous cycle, the coins would last months. Now they last days, if sometimes hours.

[Ray Trapani]

Hours. Yeah. It's awful.

[Interviewer]

It's terrible.

[Ray Trapani]

And. Because, like, the. The worst part about it is that, like, no average person can get in the game if they can't hold a coin overnight.

[Interviewer]

No, you're. You're cooked. If you hold it overnight, you're waking.

[Ray Trapani]

Up to 0 every 0.99.

[Interviewer]

And even really good traders get wrecked in this cycle because it's a lot of insider trading right now.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, like, Like, I noticed, like, back when it was like, at its peak, this cycle, it was easy to make money. Like, a lot of. I would say probably like 60 of people on Pump Fund were making money.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Now it's down to like the top like 50 traders that are really just like consistently printing. They found like just methods that other people don't have.

[Interviewer]

A lot of them snipe too, right? They use AIs snipe a little bit here.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. There's a guy, Cupsy that just murders it.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Like 30 million a month. And I saw that. Yeah, that guy's crazy.

[Interviewer]

And then Jake from State Farm or some. I heard. Have you heard of that Twitter account? You haven't heard of that one? Oh, that. That dude's a legend. He like snipes coins as soon as they launch.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Oh, there's a guy called Hard Snipe. I don't know if that's who you're talking.

[Interviewer]

Nah, there's a few of them, but.

[Ray Trapani]

He'S like a Newton. There's a guy, Hard Snipe. Now it's like a modern day Sahil.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

He's like doing like he did like Morocco coin, French Montana, but basically like the coin like will do like range, range, range. Then just like the personal post, they'll fly up and just like one clip, one click. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What happened to Sahil? Did he get in trouble?

[Ray Trapani]

Now he's in those countries, like don't get anybody.

[Interviewer]

Dubai. Right.

[Ray Trapani]

He's either in Dubai or India, one of those countries.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I've never heard of someone getting in trouble over there.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

For crypto.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. That's the thing. They just kind of very lenient on like crypto. They just.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Also rugging I. What charge would that be? Like has someone got in trouble in the US for that?

[Ray Trapani]

Well, the thing is with meme coins, they're not deemed securities.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

So like there is no charge.

[Interviewer]

There's no charge.

[Ray Trapani]

Especially on the Trump administration. They removed the whole SEC task force. So like there's no charge to even like you're legally or essentially are allowed to rug people.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Trapani]

The one thing that they could say is illegal is bundling coins.

[Interviewer]

What's up?

[Ray Trapani]

Like where you basically like buy up like 80% of the supply of the coin yourself. There's like rules to that. That's like why XRP got deemed security was because they owned like 90% of the coin.

[Interviewer]

Oh yeah. We need to hear the truth about xrp. So you've looked into this. Could you explain to people what's going on with xrp?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, XRP is literally like so useless. And then like all day long you'll like scroll, tick tock and you'll see like old 50 year old guys. Like even when I went to like buy like an AC at PC Richards one time, guys like yo, what do you think about xrp? I'm like, how do you guys like why do you guys care about xrp? Like I don't get it. Like it's literally a meme coin. No, like there's no, they're not doing anything like there, there's no use for like they say like oh like it's going to be used for like international transactions. No, they just use bitcoin. Why would they use like this network.

[Interviewer]

Banking they always associate with.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, they associate it but there's no proof of concept at all. They have no banking things that they're doing nothing. They might get a card or whatever. You know like where you can spend your xrp. But everybody has that now these days. Yeah, but like yeah, it's literally 90 owned by like like a bunch guys. And then like every single time it hits all times, all time highs it like just nukes. Right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

No typical move.

[Interviewer]

There's someone investigating the link with BlackRock and XRP. I don't know if you saw that but there's a lot of overlap.

[Ray Trapani]

It makes sense, you know.

[Interviewer]

You know, crazy times.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. With what the control is and it's not surprising.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Yeah. I try to not speak negatively about them too much.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, no, like, like I, I know a lot of great but like you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you're in New York.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, but like like I grew up with like in a very orthodox community. But even like growing up they basically like took all the funding from my school and just built a bunch of yeshivas.

[Interviewer]

Really.

[Ray Trapani]

You know.

[Interviewer]

So like they pay no interest on their loans. I heard.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like they're. I just disagree with their religion based, you know like any. Anybody who actually like believes like that a book tells them that they're better than others is just like a backwards way of believing.

[Interviewer]

I'm not a fan of modern day religion.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. I'm totally agnostic to religion. Like I believe there may be a God, but I don't believe like I don't have any sort of like. Like I wear a cross and like I baptize my kids.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

I don't really go to church at all, you know but I like, I believe there may be a God but I don't have like any sort of opinion on I feel you know.

[Interviewer]

You always been that way.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, kind of. Because like I think like, like my favorite person is like Socrates where like I just like, don't like, I think too many people think they know too much.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

Where like if you really just realize that like none of us really know and you just like question everything, it's. You're kind of better off, you know, these days.

[Interviewer]

You got to question everything. Yeah, literally everything. Every post you see, every news article, every person you talk to. Like, we're all so programmed when you think about it. We're not our original thoughts.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And then like you'll speak to like anybody on the Internet and they're just like literally pushing like propaganda or like they'll like talk about the Carnivore diet, for instance. Right. And it's literally like the same words that some guy on TikTok said over and over and over and they're in like a telegram group chat.

[Interviewer]

Like it's just regurgitated.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I've come to realize no matter how smart someone is, there's very few original thoughts these days.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like we're all just regurgitating other people's.

[Ray Trapani]

Beliefs and thoughts and mixing and mashing it into our own.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. It's pretty fascinating when you think about it. We're not as smart as you think. Even if your IQ is like 160. Yeah. You're still pretty programmed. We go through the public school education system. We have parents that tell us. You know what I mean? It's pretty scary.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it's. It's hard to know like what, you know, like, like I always try to just say like, like even diet wise, right. Like it's like Carnivore is probably good for the most part, you know, but I think like, you know, mixing. Mixing in some sort of like, like more Mediterranean aspects of it is probably good as well. Like I think both could be good. You know, there's that guy, never die guy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, he. Brian Johnson.

[Ray Trapani]

Full. Yeah, Brian Johnson. He does like full vegan.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, and he's like super healthy.

[Interviewer]

I think everyone's different.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know, and there's no one fit all diet.

[Ray Trapani]

And I think if you like try to push this like where like, you know, you're right that this is the best. You're just like ignorant.

[Interviewer]

It's dangerous, honestly, because some people might not. It could harm some people, you know what I mean? Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Doing all Carnivore is also like, like hard, you know, and then like if you're not doing like grass fed, it's like terrible for your actual heart and stuff like that.

[Interviewer]

The hormones that they inject in the cows these days. Right. You're pretty healthy these days.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, my big thing is peptides. I love peptides. Like PC. Yeah. BBC, like TB500, that type of stuff. Like, you would take that every day. You wake up, you feel like you're 20 years old.

[Interviewer]

Damn, I'm gonna have to try that. Is it oral or you inject?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, inject. Okay, you can. They have oral ones, but it doesn't.

[Interviewer]

Doesn't work the same.

[Ray Trapani]

And then like, also, like ghkcu, which is like copper peptide. They have it in a stack where it's only one injection, but that, like, just, like, maximizes your collagen production. And, you know, like, collagen just essentially just keeps you looking young. Right. And it also helps, like, your joints, your bones. Like, you'll even, like, heal faster from sickness. Like, you know, cuts will heal faster. Everything heals fast.

[Interviewer]

That's nuts. So you're a fan of rfk?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, I think, like, at first what he was saying, I just don't know if he's following through with anything he's saying.

[Interviewer]

I mean, it's hard to.

[Ray Trapani]

I don't track. That's the thing is, like, even Trump, right? Like. Like he was saying, like, he was going to do all these things and, like, Epstein list. Yeah, like, exactly, the Epstein list. So I think stuff.

[Interviewer]

I think part of it's, like, the approvals, and, like, there's just so much they have to go through, and the other half of it's. Obviously, they're just going to talk a big game to get elected.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know what I mean?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. But the thing is, is that, like, back last election cycle, like, he kind of did feel like he was more, like, brazen and, like, kind of saying what he thought. Now it seems like he's very much controlled.

[Interviewer]

It seems like he doesn't have as much power and influence. Yeah, go ahead. I agree. Like, I feel like he's. He's under some sort of control these days. That's what it seems like. You know what I mean?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You're in New York, though, so you're about to be under Mandani. You looking forward to that?

[Ray Trapani]

Honestly, like, I view Mandani getting elected as a. Almost a symptom of what's going on in the world as far as with, like, Israel controlling the United States. So I'm almost happy it's happening.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Ray Trapani]

Like. Like, as much as I disagree with his politics, I'm happy it's happening because, like, he's the first guy that ever stood against Israel. And, like, we need more young Paul he's my age. He's 34. Right. So, like, seeing someone 34 stand against Israel, not taking any funding from the same person that, like, same APAC that funds every single politician and win, that's a good sign, in my opinion. Like, as much as he might like, his policy, I hate, like, you know, but most of it is nonsense anyways. Like, who cares that he wants to build, like, a free supermarket in the hood? Yeah. Like, that's not affecting me. They're not gonna, like, take over, like, the supermarkets in my town.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, like a rich town. They're gonna just put them in the hood. No, no one's gonna go there. Besides, there's gonna be people, you know, and pissing in the hallways and, like, you know, the poor people will get free food. Good for them.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I don't think politics affects us as greatly as people think.

[Ray Trapani]

I've done well under every president. Same that. And nothing has changed for me, ever.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I've grown. I grew up in Jersey, super liberal. Now I'm in Vegas, a little more conservative. Nothing really changed. Yeah, to be honest.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, exactly.

[Interviewer]

Like, I'm still the same.

[Ray Trapani]

I'm exactly the same way. Like, where, like, I was. I go back and forth. Like, I used to be, like, more Republican. Then, like, I became more liberal because the guy I was writing the book with is very liberal. And, like, I was, like, hearing some of his takes and we debate a lot, and I was like, some of this kind of makes sense, you know, like, some of the hate towards, like, you know, whichever groups. And, like, through crypto, I became more, like, conservative again. Yeah, more conservative again. Like, more, like. Because, like, I don't know, like, some of the gay stuff went too far. You know, like, that type of, like, it just became, like, too much. Like. Like, my whole thing is with that is that, like, I. There's so many gay people that are great people, but, like, don't put it in the schools.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Hell, no.

[Ray Trapani]

Especially with when you have kids, you're like, just please, just, like, don't teach them about any sex at all.

[Interviewer]

I think NYU has the highest gay percentage, if I'm not mistaken.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

In New York.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. It's crazy. Just, like. I don't know. I got. I don't get why, like. Like, if they wouldn't allow, like, a straight pride or a white pride, there shouldn't be, like, any of this type of stuff, in my opinion.

[Interviewer]

Now there's a whole month. Yeah. Gay month or whatever.

[Ray Trapani]

Gay month, black month. You know, where's My month.

[Interviewer]

For real?

[Ray Trapani]

Dude, Asians don't even get a month.

[Interviewer]

Nah, no Asian month out here. Asians. I fuck with Asians because we just work hard and stick to ourselves. You never see Asians beefing with each other. Yeah, I feel like we're pretty united overall. We just respect the work ethic. You know what I mean?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, one of my close friends, Asian, he's like. He's. He's like, submissive in a way, in his personality, but he works his ass off, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah. We're definitely not alphas. We're definitely, like, submissive. We're not, like, loud mouthing and speaking up usually.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Which is good, I think. So. Work ethic is what got me to where I'm at, to be honest.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, there's. There's not many, like, people that, like, I appreciate that helped me in the business that I'm in now. And he just, like, no matter what, like, he gets the job done. He'll work more hours than everybody else where, like, other people would just, like, fade away or, like, you know, take forever to do something. He makes sure he gets the shit done.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. You know, let's end off with a couple Irish Mafia stories.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, so, like, if you want to lead into it with, like. Like, your grandfather. Well, the documentary, like, starts with, I always wanted to be a criminal.

[Interviewer]

Okay. So, yeah, when the documentary started, you mentioned you always wanted to be a criminal. Was that from your grandfather?

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. So, like, basically, like, as a kid, I. I always looked up to my grandfather because my dad left before I was born. And, like, he was basically, like, a connected guy. Started a few unions in New York City. He was, like, president, a few other unions. So, like, seeing, like, a guy, like, with, like, gold jewelry, a lot of cash, like, a lot of cash under his mattress. Like, I was just always, like, super intrigued by that as, like, a young kid. And then, like, I just saw, like, in moments, like, even if we went somewhere and, like, someone, like, said the wrong thing, he would just, like, spaz out and he would put them in their place. And, like, he just had this very dominant personality. And I, like, just always viewed him, like, as, like, my idol.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

And, like, who I'd, like, strive to be, like, as I grow up. Because he was, like, the only person that I saw, like, that was he was working from home. He was always making money. He had a lot of money. And he, like, you know, like, through his connections and, like, he really could just do damage to, like, in any aspect.

[Interviewer]

And, yeah, he had respect from people.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. And everybody respected him. Even, like, the town, like, if he wanted to put up trees or whatever, and, like, they would come say something, he would just curse at them, and then they would just leave.

[Interviewer]

They didn't want to mess with them. Vegas used to be run by the Italian mob. And actually a lot of. If you talk to a lot of locals here, they said they prefer when the casinos were run by mob versus now, where it's like private equity and stuff, because there was just more respect. They actually cared about their customers, believe it or not.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, no, I. I think that's. That's true. Like, there's always, like, the bad and the. The good side. Right. Like, the danger aspect of it is what's the bad part about?

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

Like, if you do something wrong, it may be more dangerous.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. You don't want to owe the money, that's for sure.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. Like, you don't want to take a marker then not pay.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you're screwed.

[Ray Trapani]

But, like, as far as actually, like, like, the fun and the good, like, they make sure that you get that aspect of it, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, like, they care about that.

[Interviewer]

No, they do, man. I buy all my Christmas trees from. From a mob guy out here. He runs, like, a whole thing. He also does a pumpkin patch during Halloween. Best customer service I've ever gotten, to be honest.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah. All right. I got. I've, Like, I. I know, like, a lot of people, even, like, in my neighborhood, like, they're. They're all mafia guys that, like, live near me, and they're all just super respectful, like, you know, like, unless you're trying to do something, like, under their nose or trying to hurt one of them.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

You know, like, they. They. Their businesses are the best businesses in town every time.

[Interviewer]

They usually just hurt each other for the most part.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like, they rarely involve civilians.

[Ray Trapani]

And a lot of times, it's like the wannabe mafia guys that are hurting each other.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. You know, the associates. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But so seeing that as a kid growing up around that, did you ever want to, like, become a made do they call it a made man in the Irish Mafia?

[Ray Trapani]

I mean, I don't even know, but, like, I definitely want to be, like, in the mafia. That was, like, my strive. Right. And then, like, between that and, like, the sexual abuse, making me, like, basically, like, distrust the rest of my family.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

I was like, all right, like, this is the route I'm going to go. I'm going to become a criminal. And then, like, I. My first friend was like, the Biggest pot dealer into. In town. His older brother was. And like so like I walked into his house and just saw like millions of dollars and hundreds of pounds. Damn. So like at 12, 13. So like I saw that. Plus my grandfather was like a, essentially a criminal in my eyes or like kind of portrayed in that way. Whatever he did, I don't know. Legal. Legal.

[Interviewer]

Did he ever tell you he would.

[Ray Trapani]

Never say, oh, respect. So like he would never be like, you know, he. But like if someone with him, he would be like, you know, you don't even know who I am. Like I can, you know, like that type of. Yeah, yeah. And people were intimidated of him. You know, he definitely was connected. So like we know that later on. But.

[Interviewer]

Well, respect for him for keeping it. Maybe he wanted you to keep you out of it almost, you know.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, yeah. He never like tried to push it on anybody. Yeah, you know, he like a lot of. I think that happens in like the Italian like their kids are like almost force fed 100.

[Interviewer]

Well that probably because your dad wasn't in it, he probably wanted you to stay out of it too, you know. Yeah, that makes sense.

[Ray Trapani]

Damn.

[Interviewer]

I need to look more into the Irish mob. They don't get the same spotlight as the Italian mob.

[Ray Trapani]

But yeah, the only movie is the Irishman with like, I've seen Robert De Niro like it and that's like about Jimmy Hoffa.

[Interviewer]

That was a long ass movie. It was a bit too long for me, but it was okay.

[Ray Trapani]

Yeah, it was okay.

[Interviewer]

There's better mob movies. Casinos fire.

[Ray Trapani]

All the Italian ones are way better because Italians were flamboyant.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Trapani]

The Irish were like quiet. Yeah, they just kind of did their crime and did their, you know, like.

[Interviewer]

Got drunk and called it a day. They love drinking, man. When I went to Ireland, they would be at the pubs for breakfast.

[Ray Trapani]

My grandma's 88. She drinks Jameson and smoke cigarettes like every day.

[Interviewer]

Good genetics.

[Ray Trapani]

She just kills it. She's just, she's still walking, laughing.

[Interviewer]

They don't make people like that anymore. Yeah, yeah, they don't. Well, dude, this has been awesome. Where can people follow you, support you and you know, talk to you and everything?

[Ray Trapani]

Pretty much like I just send everybody to my Instagram. It's just Ray Trapani go R A Y T R A P A N I. And just like, you know, sooner or later I'll, you know, I'll probably try to do a podcast on my own or something like that.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Trapani]

Because know you said I should. Yeah, I just, you know, I just kind of do these to, like, just keep growing and, you know, seeing where it goes.

[Interviewer]

Awesome. Check them out. My guys. Check out. Is the documentary still on Netflix or. Yeah, yeah, still on there.

[Ray Trapani]

It'll always be on there.

[Interviewer]

Cool. Yeah, check it out and stay tuned. We'll do a part 2 one of these days. Peace. I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm.

[Ray Trapani]

Thank you.