The Phantom Gold Mine Fallout w/ Johnny Pemberton

Summary

Scam Goddess – “The Phantom Gold Mine Fallout” w/ Johnny Pemberton

Release Date: April 7, 2026
Host: Laci Mosley
Guest: Johnny Pemberton (comedian; actor on Amazon’s Fallout, Superstore, voice work on Bob’s Burgers, Adventure Time)

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Episode Overview

This lively episode dives into the wild true story of the Bre-X mining scandal—one of the world’s biggest gold mining scams, which rocked the 1990s and left a wake of investors ruined and reputations shattered. Host Laci Mosley, with guest Johnny Pemberton, delivers a hilarious and sharp look at how a supposed $6 billion gold discovery in the jungles of Indonesia turned out to be total fiction, dissecting the greed, absurdities, and human drama along the way.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Scam Confessions & “Everyday” Schemes

• Scams as a way of life:
  • Johnny shares low-key scams, like parking at broken meters (“If it’s broken and they can’t give you a ticket, it’s a great scam. I’ve been doing it for years.” – Johnny, 03:23).
  • Discussion of disguising as city workers to avoid citations—“If you drive an old American-built white truck… you can park wherever you want pretty much” (05:03).
• Pimp My Ride: Both recall the infamous car show’s scammy contracts and impractical car modifications (“How you gonna drive with a fish tank in your car?” – Laci, 06:10).

The Allure of Animal Afterlives

• Playful banter about reincarnation: Laci wants to return as “a rich woman’s dog,” while Johnny entertains being a “special rat” (08:00–08:32).
• Memorable quote:
  • “Not a New York City rat. I want to be like a special rat that can live a long time…” – Johnny (08:27)

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Main Scam Story: The Bre-X Mining Scandal

Setup – The “Modern Gold Rush” (13:03)

• Laci introduces the tale: The largest mining scam in history happened in the 1990s—not the Old West.
• Bre-X, a Canadian mining penny stock company, claims discovery of a massive gold mine in Borneo, Indonesia.

Building the Scam (16:09–23:10)

• Bre-X is desperate; its head, David Walsh, had recently gone bankrupt.
• Walsh teams up with geologist John Felderhof, known as “the Indiana Jones of geologists.”
  • “He doesn’t even look like he ever been around no rocks or no dirt.” – Laci, (20:15)
  • “He’s killed. He has killed. He’s buried someone who was still breathing.” – Johnny, (20:47)
• Enter Michael de Guzman, a flamboyant Filipino prospector (“born on Valentine’s Day and definitely acted like it” – Laci, 24:59), who brings “gold-laced” soil core samples to the investors.

Hype Grows, Fortunes Rise (24:20–36:44)

• Reports suggest ever-increasing amounts of gold: from 136,000 lbs (first estimate) to 2 million, to 5 million, then 13 million pounds.
  • “In 3 years since the gold had been discovered, a bustling mining town had even sprung up on the site with its own church and school.” – Laci, (36:44)
• Bre-X stock rockets from $0.30 to $250/share, fueled by 40,000+ investors and Wall Street giants like Lehman Brothers hyping it as “the gold discovery of a century.”

Anatomy of the Fraud: SALTING (46:41)

• The big reveal: Michael was “salting” the core samples—mixing in gold shavings from wedding rings and panned gold to fake the find.
  • “He got his dust gold. At first, he used shavings from his own wedding ring.” – Laci, (45:53)
• Other geologists noticed suspiciously rounded gold particles—a telltale sign of fraud.

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Fallout: Collapse, Death & Aftermath

The House of Cards Tumbles (47:57–56:27)

• Freeport, a larger mining company, steps in with a real survey and finds no gold.
• Key evidence is destroyed in a “mysterious fire” at Bre-X’s records room.
  • “A mysterious fire… I don’t know how fires be mysterious.” – Laci, (48:18)
• Michael de Guzman dies under suspicious circumstances (falls or is pushed from a helicopter), his body identified only by a molar. Many suspect he faked his death to escape.
  • “Maybe he dropped that molar in the jungle. Little Tupac situation.” – Johnny, (55:24)
• Bre-X collapses, shares become worthless, investors lose billions.

Aftershocks & Justice? (57:07–59:37)

• Walsh dies of a brain aneurysm, possibly from stress.
• Only Felderhof is prosecuted, but acquitted. Only $5.2M is recovered from $5B in lawsuits.
• Laci: “Financial crimes get some of the harshest sentences… the government’s all connected.” (58:14)

---

Notable Quotes & Fun Moments

• Johnny on acting dumb as a scam:
  “Technically been scamming the whole world for a long time pretending to be stupid. That’s the ultimate scam. Just act stupid, yo.” (18:54)
• On karaoke, wings, and strip clubs:
  “This man is not doing that. This man is… busy with four wives and nine kids and wearing lots of gold and also being at the strip club and doing karaoke…” – Laci, (34:19)
  “I love karaoke. Karaoke’s the best.” – Johnny, (34:33)
• On the ephemeral thrill of scams:
  “What does it feel like to wonder every day if it’s gonna fall apart?” – Laci, (57:37)
  “That’s probably so stressful, to wake up every day and wonder if people are gonna catch you.” – Johnny, (57:45)

---

Scam Takeaways & Moral

• Johnny argues the scam was ultimately “not that smart—there was no gold at all. The best scams start with some truth and then exaggerate.”
• Laci counters that the scale, audacity, and weird characters make it a classic:
  “Michael the gay with four wives trying to get five jumping out of helicopter… I think they did some things.” (61:41)
• Both agree: greed makes people believe impossible things, and financial scams devastate more lives than people realize.

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Where to Find the Hosts

• Johnny Pemberton:
  • Website: johnnypemberton.dog (“Dot dog is better than dot com!” – 63:30)
  • On Amazon’s Fallout & upcoming film “Mermaid.”
• Laci Mosley:
  • Watch Scam Goddess (TV) on Hulu
  • Live Nation mini-tour (pre-sale code: GODDESS). See Laci’s Instagram for dates.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:23 | Everyday parking scams (Johnny) | | 13:03 | Intro to the Bre-X mining scandal | | 20:15 | First appearance of geologist John Felderhof | | 24:20 | Michael de Guzman enters, “Casanova” angle | | 36:44 | The mining town, church, and school spring up | | 46:41 | Gold core sample “salting” exposed | | 47:57 | “Mysterious fire” destroys records | | 52:17 | Michael’s suspicious helicopter death | | 56:06 | Freeport finds “no gold”, the jig is up | | 59:37 | Final wrap-up / prosecution & class action suit | | 61:09 | Laci and Johnny reflect: scam lessons & moral |

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Tone and Noteworthy Vibes

• Humorous, incisive, irreverent: Laci and Johnny riff on everything from reincarnation to strip club wings, but always return to a pointed critique of greed, gullibility, and how power fuels the world’s biggest scams.
• Memorable one-liners & playful asides keep the absurdity of the story front and center—without ever losing sight of its impact.

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Recommended for: Anyone who loves true crime with a comedic twist, financial scandal deep-dives, or just wants to learn how not to lose billions on a cup of salted dirt.

As always, stay schemin’, Congregation!

Transcript

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Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra default [e-mail] scams cause robbery and fraud.

[Lacey Mosley]

Scam cause robbery and fraud. What's poppin Congregation? It's your girl Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess coming back to you with the podcast all about comedy, robbery, fraud and those who practice it. Sometimes we love them. Sometimes. Sometimes we hate them. We will see in this show and if you are a longtime listener, you already know I am. What? Yes, Excited, Elated. Today we have an amazing actor, standup comedian and writer on the show. You've seen him as Thaddeus, the Brotherhood's most unlikely squire on Amazon's critically acclaimed TV series Fallout. You've also seen him in Superstore 21 Jump street, and you've also heard his voice work in Adventure Time, Pickle and Peanut, and. And y' all know my fave, Bob's Burgers. Yes. Congregation, please welcome Johnny Pemberton to the show. Hi, Johnny.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Hi. Welcome. Me great to be. Love being here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Super.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Great cough button. Yes. Yes. I have to do that. I have to do it at least once.

[Lacey Mosley]

You totally can do whatever you want, right?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay, I'll do it again then.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's your studio. You can do whatever you want.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I mean, is it, though, okay?

[Lacey Mosley]

There's pictures of me everywhere, but I

[Johnny Pemberton]

do feel like I'm in your den. This is not.

[Lacey Mosley]

Not a den.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm visiting. I'm visiting the. This is your nest.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Well, in my nest, I always ask my guests, what's your relationship with scams? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Has something happened to you? Have you happened to someone and has passed the statute of limitations, and we could talk about it. It could be anything.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I think I kind of obsessed with scams, actually. Scams. A good scam is you can park at any meter. If it's broken and they can't give you a ticket, it's a great scam. I've been doing it for years.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's been working for you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm doing it right now.

[Lacey Mosley]

I've been towed 12 times.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Towed?

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

At a broken meter?

[Lacey Mosley]

No, on my street when I first moved here. But Hollywood Tow knows my name. Like, I would go in there, they would pull up my file. Like, I would go in, they'd be like, hey, Lacey.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Mosley]

At the time, it was like, 283 per toe.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Jesus.

[Lacey Mosley]

$40 a day. If you leave it overnight, it's like 500 bucks. Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's so expensive.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. It was horrible.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. I've only had it happen one time, and I was, like, convinced. I'll never, ever let that happen again.

[Lacey Mosley]

So how do you, like, distinguish a broken parking meter?

[Johnny Pemberton]

If you look at it and you're trying to pay if there's something lodged in there where you can't put the card in, if it's like, the screen is broken and you can't read it, it's broken, and you don't have to pay for it because it's not your fault that the meter's broken, but the spot is empty, you can park there.

[Lacey Mosley]

But I haven't ticketed that way. How are you getting away with this?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I mean, I took a picture of it just now so I can show it if I do get a ticket because it's broken. I might be eating my words as we speak right now for parking there, but I've done it a bunch. That's a scam I used to do with parking. Another great one is if you drive like an old American built white truck and you have a bunch of stuff in the back, like dirt or rakes or something like that, you can park wherever you want pretty much. Because they think you're like a city truck.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, that's like a clipboard scam. Like where you walk anywhere and you got a clipboard or you got like a reflective vest, then people will.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They just think you're like, there to do like city landscaping. And as long as you. As long as the truck is a certain age, it's American made and it's white and it's like the lowest trim model. And you have like. I mean, there's a bunch of stuff you can do to make it more likely that it's a government truck. But for the most part, I think you won't get a ticket. You can park in like loading zones. You can park places where typically you would get ticketed. Oh, yeah. You do have to drive that truck, though.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

So everything comes with, you know, there's like a. Everything comes with a. Yeah, you go

[Lacey Mosley]

on ahead and you got to pick them up in that truck.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. But maybe you have the inside super nice. I don't know. You could have it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, you could have it souped up in the inside. That was a big scam. I talked about that on this show. Pimp My Ride.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, my God. It's a huge scam. Massive scam.

[Lacey Mosley]

They wouldn't even let you sell the cars after you did the show. Like there was like a whole contract.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Everything they did back then, all. All those whole makeover shows, total scams. Same thing.

[Lacey Mosley]

How you gonna drive with a fish tank in your car?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. How? Gotta keep the fish alive.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's crazy.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You have to pay like $100 a month for special car fish food.

[Lacey Mosley]

And fish smell crazy.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They smell the worst. That smell is smell. That's like the worst smell.

[Lacey Mosley]

I've said this a bunch of times on this show. If you've listened for six years, but you already know that. What? People who own fish. I think they're murderers.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like murderers?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Why do you want to own fish?

[Lacey Mosley]

Why don't you want a pet you can't touch? Why do you want to own a pet that you put in a little jar and you be like, yeah, little pet. Yeah. I give you food. You're like, what?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, so how does it make him a murder?

[Lacey Mosley]

Because they want control. Like they don't want.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You don't want any control.

[Lacey Mosley]

I do, but I want reciprocation.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

I want the dog to. My dog Shelby saved my life one time.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I used to have a dog named Shelby.

[Lacey Mosley]

Really?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. My first dog growing up was named Shelby. For real? Yep. When I was a kid, Shelby, mine

[Lacey Mosley]

was a shih Tzu. What was yours?

[Johnny Pemberton]

She was a springer spaniel.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cute dog.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Very cute. Saved your life. What's a scam? The dog? Yeah, I guess so. I mean, they kind of are expensive.

[Lacey Mosley]

They're expensive. They have health needs. They got. You gotta take em to the vet, you gotta take em everywhere.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like so expensive.

[Lacey Mosley]

But they're worth it.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, I love dogs. I love my dog. They help out immensely and they saves my life.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, saves your life.

[Johnny Pemberton]

My therapist is the dog. I feel like, you know what I mean? Cause like the dogs are always there for you and you can kinda like they always know when you're feeling really different or bad or shitty that always come up and they're like, hey, what's going on, man? Hey, remember, this is. Everything's fine, everything's chill.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's my hope is that in reincarnation I come back as a rich woman's dog.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, really? You want to go down carnation?

[Lacey Mosley]

What's up past human?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Nothing. We're at the top. We're at the top. This is it.

[Lacey Mosley]

We apex predators.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, we're at the top. This is as good as it gets. Even like the worst human you've ever met is still technically in reincarnation term better than like the best animal. Like they did something better before.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, I'm not trying to come back as like a roach or something, some type like that. Like, you know, I want to like a rich woman's dog. A rat.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. Be kind of fun to be a rat.

[Lacey Mosley]

You want to be like a New York City rat.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Not a New York City rat. I want to be like a special rat that can live a long time, that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Can you be Ratatouille?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yes, I want to be ratatouille. Okay, I could do that. But that's, you know, that's.

[Lacey Mosley]

I can see that for you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's a down carnation, not an up Shawni.

[Lacey Mosley]

I can see that for you. I don't know. Rats don't have as much responsibilities as us. We could.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's exactly what I want.

[Lacey Mosley]

We don't have to pay no bills.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I want nothing. I want no responsibilities. I want nothing. That's what I want. It's just to not have to think about anything.

[Lacey Mosley]

I think I'm the subway. I think I could. I could handle that.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, you could live down there. All your friends are down there.

[Lacey Mosley]

All my homies. It's a party every day.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You don't mind being dirty. It's just awesome being dirty.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't like being dirty, but you

[Johnny Pemberton]

don't like being dirty. But if you were a rat, maybe you would maybe be like, oh, this is great.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ooh, okay. Maybe it might be some freedom in there.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like, just like, fuck it.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's what I'm saying. We out here, it's not the best, but we don't know.

[Lacey Mosley]

We don't know if it's bad scams. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. It's when the weather has decided to stop scamming us. It's not too hot, it's not too cold, and it's the perfect time to wear all of your favorite pieces. Which is why I love quince. Quince has quality pieces that work all throughout every single season. They're versatile, and y' all know the things that I'm obsessed with. I was in Paris and nobody side eyed me once because I looked amazing in my quints. And their spring pieces are lightweight, breathable, and effortless. The kind of things you can throw on and instantly look put together in. Which is my favorite scam. Okay. Because I can always be a fashionista, which is why I need quints. And for me, refresh your spring wardrobe with quints. Go to quince.com Goddess for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to quincy.com Goddess for free shipping and 360 five day returns. Quince.com Goddess sometimes I become a creature of habit because I don't want to be scammed by trying new things. But you know what? It's finally time for me to say goodbye to dry with hellofresh. With Hellofresh, savoring new flavors from around the world isn't just delicious. It's simple and wholesome. You can choose from more than 80 global recipes every single month, including Vietnamese, Moroccan, Caribbean and more. Cravings shouldn't just wait for takeout. Get international ingredients straight to you. I love it so much because I feel like I'm impressing my friends. Like, I don't Typically have like cream of chowder mushroom with couscous. When's the last time you just made couscous at your house? And eating at home is just so much better. I know what's inside of it. I can pronounce all the ingredients. And that's why I love hellofresh. Go to hellofresh.com goddess10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free NutriBullet Ultra plus two in one compact kitchen system. A 189. 99 value on your third box. Free meals applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. Must order the third box by May 31, 2026. Mm. For those of you who are unjobbed or looking to job people, did you know that the average employer has to sort through roughly 250 resumes per job opening? Talk about time consuming. Well, if you're hiring, here's good news. You can now review all of these resumes and applications faster than thanks to ZipRecruiter. And today, you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com Goddess ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds qualified candidates quickly. And with ZipRecruiter's new feature, qualified candidates who are very interested in your job show up at the top of your list. And candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. Cut through the standard and get to the standouts with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employees who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com goddess that's ziprecruiter.com goddess meet your match on ZipRecruiter. So we're going into historic hoodwinks. This is where I will regale Johnny with a famous con caper group of criminals we don't know yet. This one's a little detailed, which I'm glad that you're such a great listener. So thank you. So today we're talking about the gold rush.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Ooh, this is a good one.

[Lacey Mosley]

The gold rush didn't end with the Old west. And the largest mining scam in history actually happened in the 90s.

[Johnny Pemberton]

90s, yeah, the 1990s. Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

And this took place when, like, a prospector in the darkest jungles of Indonesia faked the existence of $6 billion worth of, like, of a mine. So a $6 billion, mine six.

[Johnny Pemberton]

This man just like to find choose none.

[Lacey Mosley]

He pretended he had it. And who's going to check him? I'm not going to Indonesia. Like, if you come to me, you like, hey, hey, buddy. Hey, Scott.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Scott.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a white guy name, right?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's pretty. Scott. Hey, Matt.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Hey, Brian.

[Lacey Mosley]

Brian, I got a new mine for you. Like, we got money coming in. I'll be like, yeah, sure. I'm not going to go look. So that's what they did. The gold rush ended almost like 200 years ago. Right. But new gold mines are still being found in some areas of the world. It's just a lot harder to do it, obviously, than it used to be.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Hard to get it. You got to dig.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. And they don't want to dig. They just want to steal land and get somebody else to dig. So in the 90s, Indonesia seemed like a land of opportunity for prospectors. It might have had a lot of natural resources hiding in the jungles and hadn't been, like, exploited by the west, you know, that's what we do. So obviously it's a place of injuries. Yeah. Like Venezuela.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, yeah, I heard we're not over there for oil.

[Lacey Mosley]

We're trying to help stop in the

[Johnny Pemberton]

drug and trying to stop people from

[Lacey Mosley]

getting hurt so bad.

[Johnny Pemberton]

The drugs are just so terrible.

[Lacey Mosley]

We're not stealing things.

[Johnny Pemberton]

No. Why would we do that? That would make sense.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's so funny to watch the US Government get frustrated with the old tactics that they used to use. Not working anymore.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, but they are working.

[Lacey Mosley]

We have Twitter, we have TikTok. We know what you're doing. Like, it's not some of us.

[Johnny Pemberton]

The rest of them, like, oh, that's fake. That's a fake lie. That's not real. That's a real thing. They really did that drug boat. It's drug boats.

[Lacey Mosley]

Also, like, okay, if you selling a little drugs, that mean you need to get exploded. Like, can we have some due process? Like get them out the water and talk to them.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

What you mean you get exploded for? Even if they were right, even if

[Johnny Pemberton]

it was true, due process is gone.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's been gone.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. It's real rocks. It's done. No more yikes. Now let's just process. No more do.

[Lacey Mosley]

No more do.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's just straight up process. It's just what we do. It's due process. Instead of due process spelled D O. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Not D U E anymore.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's the process we do.

[Lacey Mosley]

We doing it to you. We doing our process.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's the Process we do. We just blow them up.

[Lacey Mosley]

We decided this is the process and we're doing it.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Shoot first, ask no questions at all.

[Lacey Mosley]

At all. At all.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Bomb first, no questions and don't ask

[Lacey Mosley]

me and don't repeat it. Forget everybody forget. So in 1993, a Canadian penny stock mining company called Bre X acquired the rights to a piece of land situated in the heart of the vast rugged island of Borneo. The Asian island is shared between three countries. Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. So now we're looking at Bre X.

[Johnny Pemberton]

There it is. That's a great logo.

[Lacey Mosley]

They're the official building.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Brex.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, Brex is something about an ex that. Fuck you, Elon. Yeah, I'll never call that a website. I call it what my mama named it. My mom named it Twitter. It's Twitter. I'm never gonna call it X.

[Johnny Pemberton]

But that's one of the dumbest things anyone's ever done is change.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, that's such a scammer tactic. You just throw an X on there and it's like, ooh, high tech.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. Like everything's that way. It's like, this isn't space. This is space. X. This is like Gen X. This is model X. This X.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's sex.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Something about the X. X. It's just two lines that are crossed.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's very sexy.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I mean, the letter is self.

[Lacey Mosley]

Sex, Sex, sex, sex. Ooh, X. You see how your mouth forms? It is like sex. Sex.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Let's say it that way. Sex, sex, sex. Y' all Wan.

[Lacey Mosley]

The worst way we can say sex.

[Johnny Pemberton]

The Midwestern. Oh, God. We're going to have sex.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, I'm going to go Pittsburgh. Let's see. Oh, we're going to. Oh, that's not it.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I can't do it. I can't do pit.

[Lacey Mosley]

I can do pit. I came from Pittsburgh.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You did?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. I. Well, not came from Pittsburgh. I'm from Texas, but I went to college there.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

So it's like the O's are really hard. Like the O. We're going to the O. Yin, guys. Yin. Saks. Sax. Sacks. Yeah, sacks. That's terrible.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Sounds like a. How many sacks of it? Oh, no, sacks.

[Lacey Mosley]

Sacks. Sack sounds bad. Yeah, yeah. So the isolated site was positioned in Rivershead where several large mining companies had previously subvert the area and concluded it lacked valuable minerals. So basically they put the shit in the bum fuck of nowhere where everybody was like, we should not be here. Like, this is not good land. And they were like sacks. Like, they were like, the X is enough.

[Johnny Pemberton]

There's sacks of gold here. There's sacks of it. There's just tons of sacks of gold here. Come get it.

[Lacey Mosley]

I believe you, Johnny. That made me believe you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. If you're bumpkin enough, people believe you because they think you don't know how to lie. Yeah, that's an old trick. That's an old scam, man.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a scam that's working on us right now.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I mean, I technically been scamming the whole world for a long time pretending to be stupid. That's the ultimate scam. Just act stupid, yo.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's one of my favorite scams.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's the ultimate.

[Lacey Mosley]

So overland.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What's that?

[Lacey Mosley]

It's a place.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

The journey to the site takes five hours and ends at a small village where the second leg starts by boat. So we ain't even there yet.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Never get on a. Never do that.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't like multiple locations. Why do we have to get on different.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Different modes of transportation. Plane to jeep to boat. When you get on the boat, that's

[Lacey Mosley]

when you're like, club another. But no, I'm out. So then it takes another six hours upriver and then two hour hike to get to the potential mine.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Wow, that's a great place to hide. Nothing.

[Lacey Mosley]

Honestly, strategic. Like, I'm kind of proud. But Brie X Minerals CEO David Walsh needed a break. He had declared personal bankruptcy in 1992 and his company was basically a shell, barely surviving. He looked up an acquaintance he'd met 10 years earlier in Australia, a Dutch explorer who was known as the Indiana Jones of geologists, which I'm sure he called himself that. He did.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Sure. It's like, so I'm Indiana Jones.

[Lacey Mosley]

He spread it around. He spread it around. People are called, this is him. This is the Indiana Jones of geolog. First of all, he don't even look like he ever been around no rocks or no dirt. Okay? This man looks like.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He looks like he sleeps in rocks and dirt.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know. He look like he's seen something.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's smoking marbleites. He's got his shirt open.

[Lacey Mosley]

Them rocks popped out and scared him. Like he's terrified.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's a crusty man right there.

[Lacey Mosley]

But look at his eyes and the red underneath. Like he's seen something.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's killed. He is killed.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, for sure.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's buried someone who was still breathing.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, man. He's definitely a murderer.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's got a reversible shirt on too.

[Lacey Mosley]

Allegedly. But yeah, he doesn't see too much. Them eyes ain't you Can't. You can't hide.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I love how this is the photo of him. Like, what is this picture? This is definitely taken from far away. Like, the worst photo of a human.

[Lacey Mosley]

It looks like a private investigator took it. Yeah, like. Like, a woman was like, is my husband cheating on me? And then they took that picture.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay, he's just mining.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's when he's posed for. And he's still.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Same guy on the right, huh? A little younger, A little more eyebrows.

[Lacey Mosley]

Is he a redhead?

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's the guy on the right, though, isn't it?

[Lacey Mosley]

It's the guy on the right.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay. The guy with the bushy eyebrows. John Feldorov.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, Walsh reached out to John Feldoroff and asked Feldoroff if he knew any potential mining projects. A month later, Walsh spent his last $10,000 on a trip to Indonesia to visit him.

[Johnny Pemberton]

So there they are.

[Lacey Mosley]

This is Walsh's last 10K. And he was like, I gotta. I gotta make a bid. I gotta make a play. Like, I need money. Like, we gotta. We gotta go up. So, I mean, Walsh looks like he's trying to make something happen. He got his tie on. He got his suit on. He, like, come on, like, let's get

[Johnny Pemberton]

a coin to try and appear presentable.

[Lacey Mosley]

So John believed the remote site was a gold mine waiting to be exploited. He had already discovered a massive gold and copper mine in Papua New Guinea. And prospectors and developers, like the association of Canada, named him Prospector of the Year. So they were like, you finding all the money, John? We gonna name you Prospect of the Year for finding money and stealing resources from people.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What a great award.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, it's a very American award. Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Prospector of the Year.

[Lacey Mosley]

You went and found stuff to steal from people. Good for you. So people in the mineral business assumed he knew, like, what he was talking about. He said he made the same magic happen in Borneo. He just needed, like, some startup funds. So now he's like, I need some coin. I'm gonna do the same thing I did at the other place.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's the ultimate scam, right? Is you need money to help you get more money.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like, I've got a bunch of money over here, but I need some money to get it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Damn. That's a Nigerian scam.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I mean, it's like. It's the original scam, right, Johnny?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, it's one of the scam meccas.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's the Dutch East India Trading Company.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Okay, you spin. Well, Walsh agreed to have Brie X. That's the company with the X fund John's expedition by selling the promise of the mine to potential investors. So now they're going to dinners, now they have a steak and they're like, hey, hey, hey, John, buddy. Okay, now that the wives are in the bathroom, let's talk.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Let's talk about hawk to a coin. That's all this is, right? It's the same thing. It's the same as hop to a coin.

[Lacey Mosley]

It is. Oh, that's so revelatory, Jon. God. And so he sold Bre X's North American mineral interest and they pulled together like $150,000 to pay for the acquisition of Borneo site. And they began to do this like exploration work. Right. So this is a new site. This is where they're setting up.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, they're getting the coins ready.

[Lacey Mosley]

So in a newspaper interview, Walsh said, I'm looking for the bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Hmm.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, rainbows aren't real, so. I mean, they are real, but they're no leprechauns. Gold or leprechaun.

[Johnny Pemberton]

There's no leprechauns. Just Cillian Murphy.

[Lacey Mosley]

So two months after the small operation began drilling, project manager and Filipino mining prospector Michael De Guzman reported that they had hit the jack hot. Michael had been born on Valentine's Day and definitely acted like it. This is Michael.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What does that mean? To act like you're born on Valentine's Day?

[Lacey Mosley]

He's a Casanova.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Ah, this guy. Okay. He's a.

[Lacey Mosley]

Look at that mustache, that mustachio. You have a mustache?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I do, yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Are you a Casanova?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I don't know. I mean, I don't know if that qualifies.

[Lacey Mosley]

You said I don't know. It feels like you might be.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, I don't think it's for me to judge. How about that? I think a self proclaimed Casanova is about as bad as it gets.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, no, I feel like you. You've had some people end up in some situations where they wanted to key your car, haven't you?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, maybe a long time ago. Long time ago. Yeah. No carry Underwood hands. Yes. Married. So.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Long time ago.

[Lacey Mosley]

So. Okay. But casting over to your wife still.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Sure. Yeah, I think she would agree with that. She would.

[Lacey Mosley]

You better go Casa Hoo.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like Casa Hova. I'm gonna Casa Hova right now.

[Lacey Mosley]

You better go Casa Hova her tonight.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, I will.

[Lacey Mosley]

Period.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Why? Because it didn't say I'm a Casanova. Yeah, I don't know if that. I'm sorry, but we live in different worlds, I guess. I don't think that qualifies. I'm definitely not gonna say I'm a Casanova. That's like saying you're like, no.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, you can't. Because this guy, this guy, this guy, I feel like he has. We'll post this on the Instagram. No, no, no, no. I think he has ultimate game. Like, ain't nothing about him physically attractive.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

But I bet you if you met him in person, the Riz, like, might take you over maybe. And the next thing you know, you land up next to him in the morning. Like, how did I get here? Like, I don't know. I feel like he got that. I'm getting Bruno Mars energy from him.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. I don't know much about Bruno Mars, except that I know he's. He likes to gamble.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, he does. He loves to gamble. So he got that Vegas residency, and he's trying to make it.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I don't know if he got that Vegas residency as much. They're like, hey, you're doing a Vegas residency because we owe us a lot of money. I say that as a joke, but I think that's true.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why did you think he's singing and dancing for the Pops Casino? He ain't even.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Absolutely. I think he's in debt up to his eyeballs. And they're like, okay, so you're gonna be here for the next six years, bitch. You're gonna be doing this whether you like it or not, because you are in debt.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, he lost his plate.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's fine.

[Lacey Mosley]

It was like, don't believe it. Just watch. Like, no.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, don't believe me. Just watch. He's like, oh, don't. He bet on red and it was black. And he's like, okay, well, I guess you don't believe me. And now it's time to watch.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's time to watch.

[Johnny Pemberton]

This is what happens to all those guys. It's like, you. Soon as you get super rich, you just end up spending more than you have because you don't know how much you have. The next thing you know, you're, like, in debt in a way you didn't know was even possible.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Especially if you're, like, tangential to any mafia at all, you know, because they pick up on that, and they know that you've got money and they're gonna, like, befriend you and make you.

[Lacey Mosley]

And if you're reckless with it, because a lot of times, like, when you're really rich like, that, the money comes in very Quickly, Very fast.

[Johnny Pemberton]

And it amounts. You don't understand.

[Lacey Mosley]

No.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. The best way to stay rich is not make any money.

[Lacey Mosley]

Also to keep your money.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Keep your money to be anonymous. I mean, it happened.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'd be like one of those new balance rich people in a $5,000 T shirt, and nobody knows who I am or what I do.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like, every billionaire, basically, no one knows who you are. There's, like, only a few billionaires people actually know about.

[Lacey Mosley]

But if I become a billionaire, I have to kill someone. Some people. That's, like, a part of it, I think.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You definitely do. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

And, like, even if people are like, oh, well, I didn't actually kill him. I'm like that on your watch. Like, you. You were involved.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. A little touch of blood on you, Speckles.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Oh, I don't want that. So maybe not. I don't want to go to Congress. I want to just be successful and.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, you're doing it, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, I am.

[Johnny Pemberton]

So there you go. You already did it. There you go.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, but I don't want to tell people about it.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Too late. Just.

[Lacey Mosley]

This is our secret. Like, don't talk about me either. I know what you got going on.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Do you really?

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't think you do, Casanova with a wife and all your monies. Yeah, I know what you got going.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I got my money hidden really good.

[Lacey Mosley]

I've been snooping.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I don't. I don't. I have my money. I had it real good. I'm undercover, offshore. I don't even know if it's short.

[Lacey Mosley]

How do you know if it's on a shore?

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's in space.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Okay. Mercury money. Let's go.

[Pharmaceutical Information Voice]

Low profile.

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[Pharmaceutical Information Voice]

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[Lacey Mosley]

We're getting back into this. So to refresh y', all, because we have, we've jumped. So remember, we got this project going.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's criminals.

[Lacey Mosley]

John thinks it's a gold mine, right? He hires these people. He's got this small operation. Michael de Guzman, the Filipino man, he thinks he hit the jackpot.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's running the mining operations.

[Lacey Mosley]

Mm. And Michael, you know, was born on Valentine's Day. We saw his Casanova. He had four wives.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Mosley]

Nine children at all, the same time across different countries who did not know about each other. He was known for wearing lots of gold, drinking beer, hanging out at strip clubs, doing karaoke, and as well for being an experienced geologist.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, my God. This is the guy. The reason he's an experienced geologist is because he has to make enough money to pay for all those kids. He was A philanderer first. Then he became a geologist to pay for everything.

[Lacey Mosley]

He was like, how am I support my four wives and nine kids? God, Geology.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That sounds like the worst life ever, Casanova.

[Lacey Mosley]

And also, like, how do you have time to be at the strip club? Like, they have excellent wings. They do have great wings, but, like, well, Magic City. Yeah, they got some good wings down there.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Where is that?

[Lacey Mosley]

One time I was at the strip club in Houston, and I was with a football player who was, like, playing for a professional team. I'm not going to say.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Tell me later. I gotta know. But.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, but he was like, hey, I'm gonna get y' all some ones. The stripper who's coming over to our section. We went to high school together, so y' all make sure y' all temper well.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like, some people just be hanging out in the strip club. Yeah, and the wings were real good. And she was shaking that ass, and we was. I was. I was eating on some flats, and it was.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It was a time with dry, dry rubber. What are we talking about here? What kind of wings? Okay, so I'm a wing aficionado. I make my own wings. I make the best wings.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, you make wings?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I make, like, I think the best wings I've ever had, personally.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ooh. Okay. I want some of your wings. Because, like, I'm more of an Asian style. Like, I like a sweet and spicy.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

But this was like buffalo and lemon pepper.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Lemon pepper. I do a cilantro lime, which is, like lemon pepper.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love cilantro.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, my God, I love it.

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel so bad for the people who tasted.

[Johnny Pemberton]

And you know what? More for us.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, more cilantro.

[Johnny Pemberton]

More cilantro for us. I'll take it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, it's so good.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I can eat so much cilantro. It's ridiculous.

[Lacey Mosley]

I can, too. I just be buying it by the bushel.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I love it. You should grow. It's easy to grow at a certain time of the year. It's easy to grow. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Just chop it down fresh.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, this man.

[Johnny Pemberton]

This man is not doing that. This man is.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, he doesn't have time to grow cilantro because he's busy with four wives and nine kids and wearing lots of gold and also being at the strip club and doing karaoke, which I think is whimsical. I like that he's.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I love karaoke. Karaoke's the best.

[Lacey Mosley]

So I. I like. I like this guy's vibes so far. Like, Michael, you on my team a little bit. So in 1994, Michael brought John. Remember, John is the investor who wants to make the money. And Bre x businessman. Like some crushed core samples, basically, like centrical samples of soil and rock in the area and. And the river with enough little bits of gold in them that indicated that Bri x may have just purchased one of the largest gold deposits ever discovered. So this man, I love him for his whimsy because he literally brought them some dirt. He was like, here's some dirt, and look, there's some shiny stuff in there.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He ground up a bracelet and put some gold in there.

[Lacey Mosley]

But he was like, look at the dirt, though. I got this from the land, y'.

[Johnny Pemberton]

All.

[Lacey Mosley]

Look at the dirt. First estimates based on Michael's example said that there might be over 136,000 pounds of gold buried deep, deep in the jungle.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's a lot of gold.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a lot of gold.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's a million dollars, probably. Yeah, it's probably a million dollars. It might be.

[Lacey Mosley]

And depending on 2 million, gold fluctuates with the economy, so. So a year later, Michael's core sample estimates had gone up to £2 million. Now, you know, the pound is stronger than the dollar. And in 1997, they more than doubled, reaching almost 5 million pounds of rumored gold hiding just beneath the surface of this Borneo mine.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's right there in Borneo. You can get it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Go get it. It's right. Come on. In a final estimate given during a conference call with investors from JPMorgan, John Federhoff, he suggested that there could be over £13 million of gold waiting to be dug up. So remember, we went from £136,000 to 13 million to 2 million to 5 million.

[Johnny Pemberton]

My God. So 13 million insane amounts of gold. And as of right now, a pound of gold is worth, like, $80,000. So that's over a million dollars worth of gold.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, wait, wait.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I think it's more than a million.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, way.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's probably. It's a million dollars.

[Lacey Mosley]

And then, in three years since the gold had been discovered, a bustling mining town had even sprung up on the site with its own church and school. You know, when you get a church and a school involved, you really gotta tell, because the children yearn for the mines.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, kids love working in mines. That's a scam, too. Kids love working in mines.

[Lacey Mosley]

Kids love working mines.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They love it. It's so much fun.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like, what is a playground but a mine that we created for children to remember how they love Working in mines.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Just an above ground mine. What's a sandbox? It's just a kind of a mine.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's a mine. We gotta get them back in the mines.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Cats.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's where they wanna be.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Mines. So do kids.

[Lacey Mosley]

And they're small. They can get in the cracks and the crevices. Like we need them back in the mines.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They love crev.

[Lacey Mosley]

Kids love crevices.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Kids love crevices. That's my new nonprofit.

[Lacey Mosley]

Kids love crevices.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Kids in crevices. Kids for crevices. We're sponsoring Trump's third term.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. We're doing a fun walk.

[Johnny Pemberton]

We're doing a fun crevice walk for kids. That's more of a crawl.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's more of a crawl. It's a crevice crawl. It is a crevice crawl. So when Bree X. Remember our company here, they first purchased the Borneo land, their stocks were selling around 30 cents apiece. But as the tales of their insane discovery grew, their nearly worthless stock rose to around $250 a share.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What?

[Lacey Mosley]

Thanks to 40,000 new investors.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's a huge increase.

[Lacey Mosley]

Damn.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Time to sell it.

[Lacey Mosley]

And this brought the value of the company to what would be $6 billion in today's money. Damn. At the time, Lehman Brothers.

[Johnny Pemberton]

My favorite of all the brothers.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, my God. I love the Lehman Brothers.

[Johnny Pemberton]

One of my favorite banks. It's definitely still around today.

[Lacey Mosley]

Lehman Brothers.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Isn't Lehman Brothers the reason we had the 2008 financial crisis?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. And we love them for that.

[Johnny Pemberton]

We love them. Thank you guys so much for making my rent go down.

[Lacey Mosley]

The coolest guys will never be able to own anything. That's so cool. Thank you so much.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Subprime.

[Lacey Mosley]

So much.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Subprime.

[Lacey Mosley]

Subprime. Bab. So the global financial firm whose bankruptcy sped up the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. Johnny. Yes.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

They called Bre X. They called it the gold discovery of the century. They strongly recommended their investors buy BRE X stock because this sounds like Gary

[Johnny Pemberton]

Glen Ross kind of thing.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You gotta buy this. It's a hot property.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ooh, God. And Michael de Guzman, our Filipino Casanova.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Four wives.

[Lacey Mosley]

With the four wives and the nine kids, he became a millionaire four times over, having cashed in stock options. So he knew when to get in and get out. And I'm not mad at that. You got kids to take care of. You got nine of them.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

You got nine. Go. Go take care of them babies.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm sure he did not.

[Lacey Mosley]

You got Nick Cannon of the scamming gold Mining world. Like, you gotta go take care of your kids.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Do you think those kids got taken care of, though?

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I bet they do.

[Lacey Mosley]

They may not get, like, physical parent love, but they at least get some money. They get some coin.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I bet he spent it all.

[Lacey Mosley]

I think he gave some back to his babies. Cause he feels a little arrogant enough that he's, like, wants to take care of him. Well, he needs the legacy to continue.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I don't know. That guy strikes me as a real piece of shit.

[Lacey Mosley]

Do you have kids?

[Johnny Pemberton]

No kids. No.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't have no kids either.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yep. No kids.

[Lacey Mosley]

No kids. Are you gonna get some?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm gonna get some. I'm gonna. Once I get my gold. Once I.

[Lacey Mosley]

Once you get your gold?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Once my goldmine goes online.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Then I can get some kids working. Cause I have kids to work there.

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like you would be good with some unemployed roommates. Like, yeah, yeah. They're just gonna be sucking off your resources. And then eventually they'll, like, get weird and smelly and ugly, and then they'll get cute again, but they'll be mean to you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

This sounds like you have experience with this. Whatever you're telling, that story sounds like. Like it's ripped from your life, not mine.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, it's called being the oldest sister.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay. I'm the oldest brother, so same thing.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, yeah. You gotta stand in the gap. And then you're like, what are you doing, bro?

[Johnny Pemberton]

You're the experiment for your parents.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, fuck. Absolutely. The experiment.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. So back to this Guzman guy. He sells his stock. He makes a bunch of money.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, he makes a bunch of money. David Walsh. Remember David Walsh with the 10k?

[Johnny Pemberton]

But now he's got a nice place to go.

[Lacey Mosley]

Now things are, like, going his way. So his personal fortune reached $250 million. This David Walsh, Brie X was trading on the Alberta Stock exchange more than $155 per share. It was worth as little as 12 cents per share in 1993. So they big up. Damn. Indonesian President Suharto took an interest in the massive windfall that had been discovered in his country. First, he revoked Brie X's approval to exploit the land. He said the company was too small to mine the area by itself. Honestly, I'm not mad at that. Cause, like, y' all coming into my country, and look at him. He's standing on business. He was like, y' all coming to my country and steal all my shit? Like, what? No. If there's some wealth here, it's for us. Which.

[Johnny Pemberton]

But there Isn't any, is there?

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, eventually, Suhur Harto and Bre X worked out a deal for shares of the mine to be split between Bre X and the government of Indonesia and a more established US mining company, Freeport McRorain Copper and Gold. This meant that Freeport would need to independently verify that there was gold at the site. Okay, so now they were like, all right, sir. Harto was like, bro, y' all can't come in here and just drill on my shit. I own this land like the fuck. And the US Was like, are you kidding me? Like, we're the colonizer of the world. We go where the money is and we take it. Like, what do you mean, give it to us? Don't make us do a war to you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like, we're the best at it.

[Lacey Mosley]

We're the best at it. You want us to have all of your things?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Let us help you.

[Lacey Mosley]

Let us help you by taking everything that you have of value. And he was like, I'm not playing that game. He was like, okay, let's come to a deal. We're gonna split this and let's get another company involved. So the company that they got involved, Freeport McLaren and Copper and Gold, they're an independent contractor. Uh oh. Because now they go and they survey the land.

[Johnny Pemberton]

There's nothing there. Yes, just a bunch of monkey shit, like some pandas. And like, there's like, orangutans, right? Aren't there orangutans in Borneo? Just a bunch of orangutans. Those are pretty cool, though.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ain't shit there.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Nothing?

[Lacey Mosley]

Nothing. No things. So, Michael, our Casanova, right? Much like you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Sure, if you say so.

[Lacey Mosley]

Married Casanova.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'll take it.

[Lacey Mosley]

You better still be a Casanova while you marry. You gotta keep it up. Gotta go on dates. You gotta keep the spark alive.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay, I will.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right. John.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Geez. I've been traveling a lot. Okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, well, you better get you some. Some outfits or something and then. And have a little candlelight dinner.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I know. I was out of town for a long time. I was out of town working on a movie. I was.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, now you back in town.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm back, but I. Okay, I'll make dinner tonight. I will. I'll make dinner.

[Lacey Mosley]

Spaghetti is easy. You can make some spaghetti. And. And here's the trick.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What if she doesn't want spaghetti?

[Lacey Mosley]

Here's a trick for me. And get some Italian sausage instead of the regular ground beef. Do Italian sausage saus.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Just like, you know.

[Lacey Mosley]

Clearly she likes some sausage.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, yeah, Some for Sure. It's not Italian, though. It's like something else. American sausage. Mixed American sausage.

[Lacey Mosley]

Michael has been sprinkling his core examples with gold dust.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I knew it. Called it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yup. And, like, also, like, why would y' all just be believing somebody who just came in and was like, here's a cup of dirt is from that place? Like, what? What?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Be serious.

[Lacey Mosley]

Everybody be serious.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You never believe a guy who has currently more than one wife. You cannot believe that guy.

[Lacey Mosley]

So Michael, you know, he had his gold dust and dirt, which honestly goal of mine to just show up with some dirt and be like, hey, this is from where I said it's from y'. All. Y' all gonna invest.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They'll believe you.

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like I could make them believe me.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. But you do host a podcast called Scam Goddess.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That might sort of be worse than having multiple wives in different countries. As far as, like, you think? I think it's gonna be. They're gonna be like, okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

I warn people against scams, though. It's a very out in the open. Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What is it? Take someone to know one kind of thing.

[Lacey Mosley]

Damn. You're not wrong.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

You don't gotta be so loud. So Michael, he got his dust gold. At first, he used shavings from his own wedding ring. Whoa.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I called it. I said bracelet, but that's still a cylindrical thing. Goes on a hand. Also a wedding ring.

[Lacey Mosley]

Over here with me. Come over here with me. A wedding ring. You with me? You with me?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I'm over here. Yeah, a wedding ring that's completely like. That's such a thing for him to do, too. What a bastard, right? How can the wedding ring.

[Lacey Mosley]

Which wedding is this ring for?

[Johnny Pemberton]

He probably has one that he tells each of the wives. That's the only one he has.

[Lacey Mosley]

Crazy. And how much gold is on your wedding ring that you could do this? Like, what? Later, he used $61,000 worth of locally planned, like, panned gold. He used it in realistic ratios of gold to rock to not set off alarm bells. That's kind of smart. Yep. And to keep the project going forward, sprinkling value metals, gemstones, particularly like gold or diamonds into the core samples from a mine to inflate the apparent value of the deposit. It's called salting.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Ooh, that's a good scam. It's fraud, I guess, right? It's the biggest fraud you can pull in mineral exploration.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, but this sounds so cute.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Salting. I'm just salting.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm just salting.

[Johnny Pemberton]

We're just doing A little salting, no big deal.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all want flavor, right? I'm not doing crime. Just a little.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Just salting.

[Lacey Mosley]

You gotta do, like, the salt bay. Just a little. Mmm.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Wow.

[Lacey Mosley]

And it's the biggest fraud you can pull in mineral exploration. Other geologists have taken a look at the samples and raised suspicions. The gold flecks in the soil were rounded, which usually only happens to gold in an aquatic environment where water current. Like the water current erodes the shape.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Interesting. Yes?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Not in the soil.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Right, Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

So it should be more jagged.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. Like a rock. Like beach rock.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like what a gold rock is. But their reservations didn't stop Brie X from becoming a $6 billion company and from their executives becoming millionaires overnight. That was beautiful.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. We harmonized.

[Lacey Mosley]

The Freeport partnership was finalized in February of 1997. And shortly after that, the record keeping room where the core samples were stored at the BRE X headquarters in Borneo,

[Johnny Pemberton]

it burned down in a mysterious fire. Oh, that's weird. A mysterious fire. Weird. A mysterious fire. I've never heard of that ever happening.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know how fires be mysterious.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, all fires are so mysterious, especially when they happen in a convenient place

[Lacey Mosley]

and a convenient time. It was time for a fire.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, what they call Greek lightning. You ever heard that term? Or Italian lightning. It's like what they'd say when, like, the mob would burn down a business so they could cash in on the insurance. It's called Greek lightning.

[Lacey Mosley]

Greek lightning.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That might be a derogatory term, but I just said it.

[Lacey Mosley]

No. I mean, no, no. It's. It's. I'm sure we're looking at it anthropologically.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, the Greeks can handle it. They've been around long enough.

[Lacey Mosley]

They'll be fine. So they had their Greek lightning.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Mm.

[Lacey Mosley]

And as the deal was finalized, Michael, our sexy guy, John, our desperate guy who put in the 10k but then became a millionaire, and other Bre X executives attended a mining conference in Toronto. The weeks leading up to the Canadian trip, Michael, our lover boy, called his mother several times, saying evil spirits were invading him.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, that sucked. I hate when that happens. When evil spirits invade me. It's one of the worst. It's one of the worst things I always call my mom.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's so inconvenient. Yeah. I call my mom to be like, I need to get gas. Evil spirits. Why y' all invading me right now?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, some evil spirits. They forgot to pay the child support. The evil spirits did that.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm on a date. Evil spirits. Y' all gonna Invade me right now?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. Oh, I have diarrhea. What's evil spirits again?

[Lacey Mosley]

No, that's when they leaving you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, yeah, or it could be, you know, I have spirits go all ways. I get invaded by spirits in many different ways.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm tired of getting invaded by evil spirits. Honestly, I'm with Michael on this. Like, this could be total sense to me. So his mother later told investigators, look at my body. They're using black magic on me.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, cool. Yeah, the investigators will definitely pray for me.

[Lacey Mosley]

Mom, they want to kill me.

[Johnny Pemberton]

These guys all got busted, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

So while contemplating now, remember, right, Michael, the lover boy, calls his mama and he says, I'm in danger, girl. I feel like they trying to kill me. They trying to kill your favorite bitch. Pray for me, Mom.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's desperation right there.

[Lacey Mosley]

So while contemplating death, probably because he knew his scheme would be soon to be found out, he was living it up in Toronto almost every night. He went to a local strip club. You know, he loves a strip club. You know, he a lover boy. He went to the strip club called for your eyes only. Now let's look at this. It's a brick and mortar building. It don't look like nobody need to be naked up in there. Like, I'm sorry, this is not an establishment where I'm gonna take my clothes off.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Does not look like a very fun place.

[Lacey Mosley]

And sex. Work is work. I'm not saying probably no wings. No wings now. No wings.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

No. Yeah. No, I'm not getting booty naked up in there. Like, something is off. So Michael is drowning his sorrows in this strip club. Brick and mortar, for your eyes only. And he made a friendship with an exotic dancer.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. He took her flowers and proposed unsuccessfully, trying to make her his fifth wife. Now, you know he got four wives already. And he was like, I need another wife. I feel like this man has an existential crisis and gets a wife.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

He's like, oh, God, everything's going bad. I need a wife. I need to go get another wife.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like, someone El buys a bunch of donuts. This guy gets a wife.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Someone cuts in front of him in line, and he's like, I need another wife.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I need a new wife.

[Lacey Mosley]

I can't live like this. God, that's definitely what he doing.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He's stacking his problems. He's exponentially creating problems for himself.

[Lacey Mosley]

I need another wife. I got nine kids, four wives. I need a fifth wife. So we have a content warning here.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Ooh, I love a content warning.

[Lacey Mosley]

As we reach the conclusion. So a month later, on March 19, it gets a little dark.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay. I like dark.

[Lacey Mosley]

Michael fell or was pushed, right? We don't know from a helicopter.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, people always fall out of helicopters all the time.

[Lacey Mosley]

Trip and fall out of helicopters. Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's one of the most common deaths, actually.

[Lacey Mosley]

So while flying over Borneo. Thank you.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Fred got pulled out by an orangutan flying over. They're strong.

[Lacey Mosley]

The Borneo jungle. On the way to a due diligence meeting with the Freeport officials. So the mineral people. His body was reportedly identified by a molar.

[Johnny Pemberton]

A molar? What's that?

[Lacey Mosley]

A tooth.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, a tooth. I thought it was a guy. Like, I'm a molar, you know?

[Lacey Mosley]

A molar. A tooth.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay. By a tooth. Jesus.

[Lacey Mosley]

It was like this him and it was a tooth.

[Johnny Pemberton]

The last gold one he had.

[Lacey Mosley]

Honestly, I love humans in that way. Because how did we figure out that we could just have one tooth and be like, oh, I know who this is. It's Michael. This one tooth is Michael. We know who he is. No, this his tooth. Remember when he had that tooth in his mouth?

[Johnny Pemberton]

So I gotta take the teeth out and cut the hands off before he dispose of a body, Period. That's what I always do.

[Lacey Mosley]

Same.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, no. I can never kill anybody. That's too much work.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well, you have someone else do the work, and then you have, like a.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, then it's a liability. Cause somebody know you was in cahoots.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

You can't be in cahoots.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I hate being in cahoots.

[Lacey Mosley]

I hate being a cahoots. This is ghetto.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like, that's a good bar name. Cahoots.

[Lacey Mosley]

Maybe like a lesbian bar. Cahoots.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, Cahoots.

[Lacey Mosley]

That could be cute.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Cahoots.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ironic. This guy died and they found a thumbprint. After wild animals had ravaged the rest of his buddy, they mined him.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They mined him for his gold.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why would you say that?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Because that's what animals do. You know, Flesh is gold.

[Lacey Mosley]

Mined. Mine is crazy. Why would you say that?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Well.

[Lacey Mosley]

Daddy.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah? Content warning. Oh, I gotta take it and use it. Use the content warning for all it's worth.

[Lacey Mosley]

In the back of the helicopter, police found a plastic shopping bag. Containing two sets of handwritten notes. One addressed to Bernard Liode, a BRE X accountant whom Guzman barely knew. It's giving lover. Cause you got four wives. You wanted five. Sir, are you gay? Are you gay? It's giving gay. I know. When you're a part of the community. I know. That's why you ain't Wanted all them wives. You wanted a husband, baby.

[Johnny Pemberton]

He needed one.

[Lacey Mosley]

So Michael indicated that he killed himself to escape the suffering of hepatitis B, even though he had just contracted the virus. And medical documents suggested it wasn't serious. Indonesian police ruled his death a suicide, but many questioned that conclusion. And some questioned whether he was actually dead.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, so maybe he dropped that molar in the jungle.

[Lacey Mosley]

Little Tupac situation.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, he stole that probably.

[Lacey Mosley]

I heard he on the islands.

[Johnny Pemberton]

What islands?

[Lacey Mosley]

Don't ask me which.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay. Wouldn't he still be with Jada, though?

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yeah, that would.

[Johnny Pemberton]

She wouldn't let him go.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. But for all we know, they might be keeping stuff from us. We don't know.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I think they're definitely keeping stuff from us. I mean,

[Lacey Mosley]

so maybe Michael is still alive. We don't know. Days after Michael suicide, Freeport reported that they had discovered no gold at the site. Taking samples just over a meter from where Brie X had drilled the jig. It was up.

[Johnny Pemberton]

No gold. None gold.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I think Michael was like, he knew it. He was the one who brought the cup of dirt.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

And he was like, damn, y' all gonna go look at the dirt that I made the cup of dirt with. And now y' all gonna know the dirt, and then you gonna know the dirt on the dirt. He couldn't take it here. Honestly. One molar and nobody is giving. You took a 2000 and you took your money and you ran.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Maybe. It's hard to do.

[Lacey Mosley]

I think Michael might be alive.

[Johnny Pemberton]

That's a hard thing to do to stay. Stay hidden. That's, like, super difficult. Especially if you like strip clubs that much. That's hard to stay low key. You could probably last, like two weeks and just like, sweating in the corner, oh, I gotta go to the strip club. He goes popped immediately.

[Lacey Mosley]

The strip club might be his demise. You're right.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's hard to be in the run. It's like the hardest thing to do.

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, I think it can be pretty easy. But the strip club allure of it all, like, no. Cause you need wings and booty.

[Johnny Pemberton]

This guy needs wings, Booty and. Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Can't do it. So the aftermath. We're wrapping up here. Bre X collapsed. Duh.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Surprise.

[Lacey Mosley]

And its shares became worthless in one of the biggest stock scandals in Canadian history. And the biggest mining scandal of all time.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Wow.

[Lacey Mosley]

David Walsh, former president of BRE X, died of a brain aneurysm in the Bahamas in 1998. Yeah. Cause you're stressed out.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. All these guys end up dying of stress because they're just.

[Lacey Mosley]

So what does it feel like to wonder every day if it's gonna fall apart?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. I think that's probably so stressful to

[Lacey Mosley]

wake up every day and wonder if people are gonna catch you. Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

And they wanna kill you. Cause you lost them tons and tons of money. Like, you lost their life savings. People care more about money than anything else.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's like Bernie Madoff. People wanna hang him. You know, he just like. Oh, that's right. He died. He died in prison, though, right? Yeah. But when he was alive, people were so angry at him when all he did was, like, scam people who knew they were being scammed. You know what I mean?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. He, like, misinvested people's fortunes. Misinvested by keeping it. But, you know. Yeah. They wanted his head. Financial crimes get some of the harshest sentencings because it's pretty sad. Everyone's so connected in the government, so they're like. Like, throw the book at them. Throw the library at them.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah. Because they want to draw focus from the financial crimes that are ongoing. It's like, you know, with Martha Stewart, I feel like that's why they put her away because, like, she can't do that.

[Lacey Mosley]

And they were like, insider trading. And I'm like, okay, we're not going to talk about the insider trading. That happens constantly, all the time. The beginning of January of 2020, when Covid was found out by the American government. And then y' all sold off a bunch of fucking stocks and bought stocks and then told us about COVID Like, y' all don't wanna.

[Johnny Pemberton]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. It's a mess. But we're here. We're breathing it in and living it. So Brie X finally folded in 2002. John Felderhoff, he sold over $80 million.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Wow. With the shares.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Of his stock just months before the reveal of the scam. Damn. He was the only Bre X executive ever prosecuted for the fraud. But he was acquitted of Insider trading in 2007. How lucky. How lucky, John.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Convenient.

[Lacey Mosley]

In 2013, Canadian courts ruled that $5.2 million dispersed to an untold number of shareholders from a class action lawsuit in Canada. And the US is far less than the 5 billion investors had sought from the bankrupt company and its key executives in lawsuits filed back as licensed. Like, as far as 1997, they've been suing these people five.

[Johnny Pemberton]

How much? How many billions? $5 billion.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's a lot of money.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. The true story was loosely Adapted into the 2016 movie Gold, in which Matthew McConaughey plays a character based on David Walsh.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I haven't seen that. Have you seen that? No, never heard of that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Neither have I.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Maybe it's not very good. Maybe we didn't see it. Cause it's. Maybe it's a stinker. Might be a stinker.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love Matthew McConaugh.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, yeah, he's the best.

[Lacey Mosley]

You saw that one car? That. The Lincoln? Yeah, the Lincoln Town.

[Johnny Pemberton]

The Lincoln Town. Gotta come out and try my Lincoln.

[Lacey Mosley]

So now you know why this man looks like this.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right, all right, all right. Lincoln Town Car. Now, yeah, we can go back to this guy and we see that this guy is stressed out. Cuz they were all stressed out, like for me. And I'll ask you, Johnny, what your moral of this story is. Obviously, it's the truth, so it's not a story. But this kind of greed, this kind of theft, it's so complicated. And you know that your life is gonna end if you're ever found out.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

And it sucks the life out of you. These people look empty and sad.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They're just full of gold. They just got a bunch of metal in their bodies.

[Lacey Mosley]

Is that your conclusion? What do you think about this scam? Do you think they at least. Were they smart scammers?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I think no, because they. The best scams, it's like the best lie has elements of truth. And this mining operation, there was no gold at all.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, but come on. The dirt, the faraway country.

[Johnny Pemberton]

But they added it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Michael the gay with four wives trying to get five jumping out of helicopter. I think they did some things.

[Johnny Pemberton]

They did some things. But the smart thing to do would be to find. Find an actual claim that has something and extrapolate that, inflate it like Hawk to a coin or some shit like that. You know, you just. You blow up.

[Lacey Mosley]

How much do you own of Hawk to a coin?

[Johnny Pemberton]

I own, thankfully zero. Gosh, that's such. That's one of the greatest scams of all time. I feel like, in terms of like just sheer brilliance to dummy ratio, you know what I mean?

[Lacey Mosley]

I mean, you gotta capitalize if you got a moment. And you know, a lot of people, they want a moment.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

And so she got her moment. And she, she.

[Johnny Pemberton]

She got her moment. But she, she. She's literally committing a crime, though. It's actually. It's a literal crime.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's not her fault. She didn't know.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Yeah, but that's. She said she's a patsy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, she is. I hope that she doesn't get in trouble. Because I think it's.

[Johnny Pemberton]

I don't know what's going on.

[Lacey Mosley]

I think she was just like, oh, I'm an influencer now. I signed the deal on the line. I don't think she. She knew that.

[Johnny Pemberton]

We'll never know. We'll never know.

[Lacey Mosley]

We will never know. Honestly, I kind of hope that she did know and that she's an evil genius.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Oh, that would be cool if she's just been playing us all. God, that'd be funny.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right, Johnny, I always ask at the end of this podcast, where can I find you? What do you want people to watch? Where do you want people to follow you? Online? Where do you want people to find you?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Okay, I'll be in Borneo for a couple of weeks. I'm working on this gold mine. I. You can find me. I am online. I have a website that I sell tickets to shows on. It's johnnyperton Dot. That's actually what it is, because someone stole my web address when it lapsed, and I'm not paying them the money. They want to get it back. They're holding it ransom. So I'm dot dog is better than dot com. So, Johnny Pen.

[Lacey Mosley]

That dog is cool. I didn't know there was a dog that you could dot.

[Johnny Pemberton]

You can get dot cat. You can get dot anything. Three letters. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my website. Otherwise, you know, I'm just like. You can watch me on Fallout.

[Lacey Mosley]

Fallout.

[Johnny Pemberton]

And I have a movie coming out in March called Mermaid. We'll have a bunch of dates for the premiere. It's a movie about a mermaid. I find a mermaid, you find a mermaid. Yeah, but it's like a creature mermaid. It's not like a pretty water creature.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, it looks like all like. Like a creature.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Like a scary creature. And it takes place in Florida. And there's lots of drugs and love things in Florida, criminals and all that kind of crap. Yeah, it's awesome.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cause it's Florida.

[Johnny Pemberton]

It's Florida. It's a very Florida movie.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ooh.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Very much.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. Mermaid in March. Y' all get into it. Johnny's got some projects coming up. Fallout. Y' all watch everything.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Watch it.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right, now, Going Dutch is streaming on Fox, so you can watch me there. You can watch the Scam Goddess television show on Hulu. You can get my book wherever books are sold. Or the audiobook, if you want that too. I'm going on. On a little mini tour with Live Nation. The pre sale code is Goddess for y'. All. And I'll be in Chicago in March. I'll be in Irving. I'll do the Punchline Theater in Grammercy in New York City. And what's the last one? Oh, and then San Francisco. Cops Theater. Nice Cops.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Great.

[Lacey Mosley]

Pull up if you're in those cities. Pull up. Show your ass. Don't embarrass me. Okay? Congregation, I want you guys to get out there and I want you to stay.

[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

Who.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why is Casanova ing? Go to that strip club. Get you some wings. Scam Goddess. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Cisnero and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.

[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

Eczema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with Epglis, a once monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four month or longer dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking ECGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

[Pharmaceutical Information Voice]

EBGLIS Lebricizumab, LBKZ, a 250mg injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Eglis. Before starting Epglis. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.

[Pharmaceutical Announcer]

Ask your doctor about eglis and visit eglis.lily.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Hey guys, it's Will from Smartless. And yes, this is a promo.

[Pharmaceutical Information Voice]

Okay, and so listen everybody.

[Johnny Pemberton]

We just recorded our 300th episode we with Stephen Colbert, which actually felt less

[Pharmaceutical Information Voice]

like booking a guest and more like

[Johnny Pemberton]

accidentally scheduling a performance review for ourselves. Yeah, then you know, that's why, because we we talked late night in the art of the monologue and spent a solid chunk of time realizing that he's actually funnier and smarter. And. And this is the one that really hurt. He's better at hosting our own podcast. Am I right, Sean?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, a little bit.

[Johnny Pemberton]

At one point, I'm pretty sure he could have just taken over and none of us would have noticed or stopped him.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's true.

[Pharmaceutical Information Voice]

That is true. That's true. Anyway, listen, episode 300 out now.

[Johnny Pemberton]

So please listen so that we can justify calling this work.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's right.

[Johnny Pemberton]

Listen to Smart List.

[Lacey Mosley]

And where, where, where can we listen to Smart List?

[Johnny Pemberton]

Wherever you get your podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Bye.