Zadeh Kicks: The Greatest Sneakerhead Swindle LIVE! w/ Wayne Brady, Carl Tart, & Oscar Montoya

Summary

Scam Goddess Podcast Summary: "Zadeh Kicks: The Greatest Sneakerhead Swindle LIVE!"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Scam Goddess
• Host: Laci Mosley (Scam Goddess)
• Guests: Wayne Brady, Carl Tart, Oscar Montoya
• Episode Title: Zadeh Kicks: The Greatest Sneakerhead Swindle LIVE!
• Release Date: June 24, 2025

---

1. Introduction of Guests (00:00 - 04:31)

Laci Mosley kicks off the episode by welcoming her special guests:

• Oscar Montoya: Known for his roles in Minx, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and viral podcast episodes.
• Carl Tart: Recognized for his appearances on Grand 2 History of the World, Part 2, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and current work on SNL.
• Wayne Brady: Celebrated for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Let's Make a Deal, and his podcast Wayne Brady's What If with John Magnum.

Laci humorously sets the tone, mentioning their presence is essential to "fill the room up" and prepares the audience for a lively discussion.

Notable Quote:

• Laci Mosley (04:31): "Welcome to my Tiny Desk concert."

2. Personal Experiences with Scams (04:34 - 24:40)

Laci delves into the guests' personal encounters with scams and fraudulent activities:

• Carl Tart: Shares his teenage years working at an arcade where he subtly pocketed tokens to extend his gaming time, rationalizing it as "taxing the system" rather than outright theft. Later, he recounts being scammed at the Greyhound terminal during his first audition trip to Atlanta, losing $60 but still securing the role.

  Notable Quote:

  • Carl Tart (05:55): "I scammed. When I was a teenager... So I wasn't stealing money, right? I was taxing the system."

• Wayne Brady: Discusses his experiences working at Rite Aid, where he observed a coworker's intricate coupon fraud, leading to her dismissal. He also recounts being scammed by "Environment California," a fraudulent job offer promising high earnings, resulting in lost money and a critical lesson in trust.

  Notable Quote:

  • Wayne Brady (09:38): "They would ring themselves up and use coupons, and she would just swipe these coupons, and she would get, like, $200 worth of stuff... and she got fired."

• Oscar Montoya: Unlike his guests, Oscar admits never having scammed anyone but has been a frequent victim of scams, including manipulative interactions while working at Blockbuster.

  Notable Quote:

  • Oscar Montoya (18:47): "I've never scammed anybody because I'm too stupid to do that. But I've been scammed my entire life."

The segment emphasizes that everyone is susceptible to scams, highlighting common vulnerabilities and the importance of awareness.

3. The Zadeh Kicks Scam (24:49 - 87:15)

The heart of the episode focuses on Zadeh Kicks, an online sneaker resale company led by Michael (last name withheld for privacy). Zadeh Kicks enticed sneaker enthusiasts with promises of limited-edition releases at below-market prices.

Key Points:

• Founding and Operation:

  • Michael's Background: Born in Eugene, Oregon, Michael studied footwear design but dropped out to pursue sneaker reselling.
  • Zadeh Kicks Launch (2013): Started with a $20,000 loan from his father, leveraging employee discounts from Nike stores to acquire limited-edition sneakers.
  • Business Model: Utilized backdoor arrangements with retailers, securing new releases before official availability. Customers placed bulk pre-orders, anticipating resale profits post-release.

  Notable Quote:

  • Laci Mosley (66:54): "So let's find out a little bit about who Zeta is. So Michael was born in Eugene, Oregon... In 2013, Mike made sneaker reselling his career."

• Growth and Deception:

  • Rapid Expansion: By 2020, Zadeh Kicks was among the top 1% of Shopify merchants, attracting customers with promises of exclusive releases.
  • COVID-19 Impact: The pandemic disrupted supply chains, leading to shipping delays. Michael began taking pre-orders for shoes he couldn't fulfill, misrepresenting inventory availability.
  • Financial Mismanagement: Funds from pre-orders were diverted to luxury purchases, including Ferraris, furs, and high-end handbags, rather than fulfilling shoe orders.

  Notable Quote:

  • Laci Mosley (86:14): "Mike was only able to get 6,000 pairs of this shoe. Remember, 600,000 pairs is what he told the girls he was giving them."

• Customer Exploitation:

  • Refund Policies: Initially imposed a 20% cancellation fee, later increasing it to 50%, discouraging customers from seeking refunds.
  • Communication Tactics: Threatened customers with bans if they voiced dissatisfaction, echoing the "Soup Nazi" scenario from Seinfeld.

  Notable Quote:

  • Carl Tart (81:05): "Is it this moment, or was it a couple of moments ago? Because I know that I... It would take me a while."

• Legal Consequences:

  • Wire Fraud Charges: Michael and his partner Bethany faced charges for wire fraud and falsifying information on 15 bank loan applications.
  • Financial Debts: The company amassed over $65 million in unfulfilled orders and an additional $20 million from bogus business loans.
  • Asset Seizure: Authorities recovered approximately 60,000 pairs of shoes from Zadeh Kicks' warehouse, including personal collections belonging to Michael.

  Notable Quote:

  • Laci Mosley (90:11): "Can you imagine getting 15 chances from the bank? If something hit before your check, they charge you $35.15 loan applications? This is crazy."

4. Analysis and Reflections (87:15 - 95:49)

The discussion shifts to analyzing the broader implications of the Zadeh Kicks scam:

• Psychology of Scamming: Guests reflect on how trust is exploited, the allure of exclusive deals, and the desperation that drives customers to engage in scams.

  Notable Quote:

  • Oscar Montoya (22:27): "I feel like that is my fault. I think that the big thing with scammers is that you are able as a scammer, you have an innate ability to clock and lock into a scammy."

• Impact on Communities: The scam disproportionately affected younger consumers and marginalized groups, exacerbating financial vulnerabilities.

  Notable Quote:

  • Laci Mosley (34:19): "Young people are using Klarna and they've also seen a rise in black and Hispanic women using Klarna."

• Regulatory Oversight: The episode critiques insufficient federal regulation and enforcement, highlighting the need for greater consumer protections against fraudulent financial practices.

  Notable Quote:

  • Carl Tart (34:50): "But also, I love the irony of a company that's putting people in debt being in debt. Good, don't pay them back. Klarna gonna close before y' all gotta pay em back."

5. Closing Remarks and Takeaways (95:49 - End)

Laci wraps up the episode by reiterating the severity of the Zadeh Kicks scam and its ramifications:

• Lessons Learned: Emphasizes vigilance in financial dealings, skepticism towards too-good-to-be-true offers, and the importance of regulatory frameworks to protect consumers.

  Notable Quote:

  • Laci Mosley (85:59): "So if you have to wait a little while longer, because it really is an addiction. A sneaker head. That's crack."

• Future Episodes: Teases upcoming content and encourages listeners to stay informed and cautious.

• Guest Promotions: Each guest promotes their respective projects and social media platforms, maintaining the show's engaging and community-driven spirit.

Final Notable Quote:

• Laci Mosley (97:01): "Thank you all so much for coming. Before we go, I do have to ask all of you beautiful gentlemen, where would you like to be found?"

---

Conclusion

This episode of Scam Goddess provides a compelling exploration of one of the most significant sneaker scams in history, weaving personal anecdotes with in-depth analysis of fraudulent schemes. Through engaging dialogue and insightful reflections, Laci Mosley and her guests shed light on the mechanics of scamming, its impact on individuals and communities, and the urgent need for better consumer protection measures.

Stay tuned for more episodes every Tuesday, and don't forget to join the Scam Goddess "Con-gregation" for a humorous yet enlightening take on the world of fraud.

Transcript

[Lacey Mosley]

There's a new psychological thriller from Audible you've got to check out Sacrilege Curse of Mbiri. It stars Caleb McLachlan from Stranger Things and was written and directed by Naisha Hatendi and presented in spectacular Dolby atmos. Here's the setup. The Wallace family's vacation at a luxury game reserve in Zimbabwe unravels when Deshawn Wallace, played by McLoughlin, unwittingly desecrates hallowed ground and unleashes the Mbiri, a vengeful entity born from cent of colonial oppression. Listen to Sacrilege Curse of the Mbiri by going to audible.com sacrilege. Y' all know when your hair kind of gets, like, greasy and. And you need to wash it, but you don't have time to wash it? Enter Batiste Light. Batiste Light blends in seamlessly with your hair, leaving none of that white residue. And your hair looks clean and it feels clean. Okay. I like Batiste Light because whenever my hair is feeling, like, greasy or oily, you know, when I've wrapped it too many times or what, I can put that in my hair and it kind of wakes it back up, you know what I mean? Without it looking white or powdery or, you know, like I just put a bunch of baby powder in my hair or something, you know what I mean? Buy Batiste Light Dry shampoo online or in store at your nearest retailer. Hi, welcome to my Tiny Desk concert.

[Wayne Brady]

Comes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Robberies and frost scams. Come on. I'm gonna need that one again because y' all was shy. I'm gonna get an intel. Robbery and fraud. Still got it. There we go. Come on. It's only like 50 of y' all in. We gotta fill the room up. Thank you. So tonight we'll be joined by some very special guests that I adore. The first one, you might recognize him as Richie in the series Minx, Dropout, TV Wizards, Beyond Waverly Place, and Dick's the Musical. Or you might recognize him from my podcast. In a very viral New York Times episode about Hilaria Baldwin. Please give it up for Oscar Montoya. Next up, you might know him from the hilarious show Grand 2. History of the World, Part 2, Brooklyn 9 9. Or maybe you've seen him writing and also appearing on SNL currently. Please give it up for the hilarious King Carl Todd. And last but still, certainly not least at all, a personal comedy and improv hero of mine that I'm so excited to have here tonight. You may know him from Whose Line Is It Anyway? Which taught me that I could do make em Ups. And I was like, oh, a negro doing make em ups. They're paying him. Do they know he's black? And he's so fantastic and hilarious. You might also know him from let's Make a Deal or the Wayne Brady Show. That gives it away. And you can catch his new podcast as Wayne Brady's what if with John Magnum. Please give it up. Get up out of your damn seat for Wayne Brady. Get up. Yes, hello. Okay, let's get this show started. Let's see if I'm gonna pop this mic in successfully the first time I practiced. Oh, no, I love it. Let's see. Put the mic in.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yay.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, so I have to start by asking all of you gentlemen, and this is kind of a boy show, you'll see why later. But I have to ask you and anyone can go first. What is your relationship with scams right now? Have you been scammed? Do you know anybody who's run any scams? If you've run any scams that are beyond the statute of limitations, you can tell us.

[Carl Tart]

I've been scammed and I did scam once.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, I need to know both.

[Carl Tart]

I scammed. When I was a teenager, one of the jobs that I had pre show business was I worked at this video game arcade, Malibu Fun center down in Orlando, Florida. And I was in charge of, I mean, all the stuff I made the burgers and I cleaned up the miniature golf stuff. I cleaned the poo in the trash can. All I wanted to do was play video games. So I figured that if you're gonna make me clean poo, then I can game the system a little bit. So when people would come and they would say, oh, I put three quarters in. Zaxon, that's an old ass game. I put three quarters in. Can you give me the quarters? Oh, yeah. So we give them the tokens, three for you and you mark them down. Be like, they really lost four. Then I would take one. And it adds up over time.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's called taxes.

[Carl Tart]

So I wasn't stealing money, right? I was taxing the system. Wasn't stealing. I was stealing video game time. So at least I didn't steal money because that's where I drew my line. Yes, it was theft, but I'm not gonna steal your money. And then I was scammed. When I went to Atlanta for an audition when I was 18, I was very trusting and this dude, it was my first time on a bus. It was my first time on a bus from Orlando.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, so you met the bus to Atlanta.

[Carl Tart]

I didn't know it was a thing. I got off.

[Oscar Montoya]

You got your mountain people, then you got your bus.

[Lacey Mosley]

The bus people shout out to Jan. She said, the bus people on planes now.

[Carl Tart]

He got me good.

[Lacey Mosley]

She's right.

[Carl Tart]

No, nobody told me about the bus people. So this dude, he somehow gets out of me, that my. That I was there for an audition, and he's like, young, young blood. Young blood. Let me talk to you, man. You know what, man? Brother, it is unsafe out here in Atlanta. You gotta come. Come over here, man. I'm gonna keep you safe. Now, where you from? I'm from. From Orlando. What you. So what you do? Oh, I'm an actor. Oh, you an actor. All right, all right, all right. So, first time in Atlanta? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So. So. So what you going to do? You gonna get something to eat? Yes, sir. So how much money you got to eat? Well. Well, I mean, my mom gave me. You know, I've got about $60 because. Oh, you got $60? I said, all right. Okay. Well, you know what? It's kind of tough out here, so you should let me. You know what? I'm gonna hip you something real quick. You should let me hold that money for you. Oh, so that sona. You just stop it. You should let me hold that money for you. Needless to say, he held it. I never did again. I got robbed right in the Greyhound terminal and still had to go to my audition. And I asked the casting director if they gave me a quarter to make a phone call.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, wow.

[Oscar Montoya]

Did they?

[Carl Tart]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Oscar Montoya]

Okay.

[Carl Tart]

And I got the role, but I still. But I still got my money taken.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, listen, first of all, I love your mantra of like, I ain't steal no money. I just took the tokens. Like, I love how you reframe that in your mind, because technically, the tokens cost money. So then the money. It's like, if you think about a cryptocurrency, it does turn into monies at some time. But I love being like, well, I didn't steal no actual cash.

[Carl Tart]

And that's how I still think of it.

[Lacey Mosley]

And honestly, you should. I don't think they were paying you enough. And honestly, they should have given you access to free games. That should be a perk of the job, that part. Yeah.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's why you work in these places.

[Carl Tart]

That's why you work. And then you go home smelling like burgers and child vomit and failure. So all I wanted to do was play Donkey Kong. Let me play Donkey Kong.

[Lacey Mosley]

They should Have. They should have. That was wrong. I'm glad that the robbery story ended with you getting a job. I think you would have got that job anyway because you're so incredibly talented. But, yeah, letting a stranger who. I'm sorry. When he said young blood. Young blood, that really tipped it for me. I was like, this man is unserious.

[Carl Tart]

Like, I thought he was looking after my best interest.

[Lacey Mosley]

Nobody has ever said young blood to me. And then something smart came after. That's why I shut it off. I'm like, nah. What else? What are your relationships with scams, Carl Usara?

[Wayne Brady]

Well, I'm glad you asked, Young blood. You see, so my relationship scamming, kind of a similar story to Wayne's. My second job. I'm gonna tell you about my first job, too, because that was a scam. But my second job and my first kind of real job was at Rite Aid, the drugstore.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wow.

[Wayne Brady]

My homeboys had got a job there when I was away at college the first year. And I came home and saw all them working there was like, I gots to be up in here. And the manager was like, yeah, you get hired. Like, you want to work load night and lose on the register. And they have an ice cream. If anybody's local from la, they got the thrifty ice cream. Yeah. Y know, it's about to go. It's about to be going, y' all.

[Oscar Montoya]

This is an ice cream crowd.

[Wayne Brady]

Okay, well, this is a special.

[Oscar Montoya]

If you from la, anybody meow.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y brewing frozen yuri.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's crazy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all ain't been to Frog Town. That's crazy.

[Wayne Brady]

Nobody talking about frozen yogurt. We talking about thrifty ice cream. Thrifty ice cream is a specialty in Los Angeles. And it's about. Rite Aid is shutting down. So it's. And don't nobody know where it's going to be at after.

[Lacey Mosley]

So there was it only located in Rite Aid.

[Wayne Brady]

It used to be Thrifty and Savon back in the day when I was a kid. But now and then Rite Aid took it over. Took. Took over. Savon, the history of drugstores is complicated.

[Lacey Mosley]

You know a lot about it.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, yeah. But we used to go run through that ice cream. Just constant little spoons all day. I'm just getting a sample. And then they was like, y' all have to stop eating out of the ice cream. Y' all have to stop. It's like, we're not stealing the ice cream. We just getting little samples. But one lady that was scamming there was this Tiny Indian lady. She was an older lady, and she was very nice. She was, like, motherly to everybody. And we never knew what she was doing there. She would always just be in the aisle stacking up stuff. I guess it's her job to just make sure everything is stacked up right. And she would ring herself up. She would, like, bring a shopping cart up and would ring herself up and use coupons, and she would just swipe these coupons, and she would get, like 200 worth of stuff, like hair products and all that type of stuff, and pay like $3 for it. And she got fired. She was out of there. She was trying to scam my relationship to scamming. I'll tell you my. The first scam, or this probably isn't the first. I probably was a gullible. I was a gullible kid. But when I was 16, me and my boy saw this ad in the newspaper. I was like, want to make twelve hundred dollars a week? Come to this job. It's called Environment California. And Environment California was. If y' all ever go to Trader Joe's and they have signs up that are like, don't talk to those people. We are those people. The Environment California people are those people that they tell you not to talk to to. Do you have time for the environment? Do you have a second for the environment? And you trying to sell stuff? And I was like, $1,200 a week to do this. This doesn't feel right. And I remember they put us all in these vans, and they sent. They separated me and my two friends and, like, just jumped when you said.

[Lacey Mosley]

They put us in the vans.

[Carl Tart]

Okay. Yeah. Unlock the memory, please. Go ahead.

[Wayne Brady]

They.

[Carl Tart]

They said, one black man feels. We all feel it.

[Wayne Brady]

We all feel it. We all feel it. They separated me and my two other friends. They sent one of my. They sent me to Pasadena. They sent one of my friends to Manhattan beach, and they sent one to, like, Mid City. And we all were supposed to knock on people's doors and try to sell. Now I'm in Pasadena, like, South Pass. I'm not knocking on nobody's door. I'm just not. Despite a couple pounds that I've put on since high school. I was this height in high school, so I look like an adult. I am not knocking on these people's doors. And I remember when we. They, like, took us to Baja Fresh before, and, you know, I'd eaten my food and I was kind of finished, and I wiped my mouth while I put the napkin on the plate. And one of the dudes who was working with them was like, you gonna finish that? And I was like, ha, ha. I know, right? Like, thinking. He was like, no, are you gonna finish that? And I said, there's no way they're making $1,200 a week. If he's asking me to finish my Baja Fresh that I done already, put the paper towel in. It's like, that's the symbol. And he asked me for that. We only worked that job one day. That was a scam of a job. And most recently. Cause most of my job is just keeping my mom away from scams now, but. And she's not that old. My mom had me really young. And I'm just like, how do you not. You are still. You have all your agency. That's not the word I was thinking about. But the DMV got me a fake dmv.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh.

[Wayne Brady]

It was like, your registration's due. And the website was exactly the same as the dmv. And I was like, yeah, let me pay that. And I paid, like, 2. DMV.

[Carl Tart]

Net.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, it was. And I felt so stupid. Wayne.

[Oscar Montoya]

Dvm.

[Wayne Brady]

Dvm. Dvm biz.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah.

[Wayne Brady]

Dvm.netscape.com.

[Carl Tart]

You got got?

[Wayne Brady]

I got got. I got got. I mean, it worked. It did make it to my registration, but I paid extra.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wow.

[Wayne Brady]

So watch out for that.

[Carl Tart]

Can. Can I. Yes. And you, please. You just. I thought that was just that when I was God, I don't even know how old I was in Orlando, there was this guy named John. John and his wife. They would. They. They looked like they had a cult. Now that I'm old enough to look back and know it was the white dude with a beard and khakis, and his wife had on the flower shirt, and her name was. Was Moon. Oh, cult adjacent. They came into my neighborhood, Tangelo Park. They were looking for young kids to take into other neighborhoods, and they were selling things. So we weren't doing that thing. But it felt like the same thing. But I didn't quit after one. I did this because they didn't promise us $1,200 a week. But basically they said, look, we want to help you guys. We come into lower income neighborhoods, and we want to help you because God. God gave us this mission, and God has touched my heart to help you. And I thought, okay, I'm just trying to save up money to help mom and to get a Nintendo. Great. So we had to sell stuff. I said, okay, I've got the gift of gab. Great, Great. I'LL sell. They gave us a script. And basically what the script was was any variation. And then this is where I learned to start to do the make em ups. Hi, my name is Wayne, and I'm with the Young Black Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow association. And we're trying to build a recreational facility close to my neighborhood to help myself and the other disadvantaged young black youths. Oh, look at him. He talks so nicely. William. And I would sell them that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well spoken.

[Carl Tart]

And I'm like, oh, I hate you. Fuck. But then. Okay. And I sold coloring kits, car wash kits, all these things that they had in these boxes marked up. And you were responsible for the list. And I saw after a second, they promised us all this money, but. And I was selling my behind off. I would sell the whole box. And let's say the box you would. 250. I would get $10.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh. Hmm.

[Carl Tart]

I may not be an adult, but I know that I'm being robbed. So I got your ass. So when they would hand out the boxes, I smoothly slid and I got another box. So I had two boxes. They didn't know that I had the second box.

[Lacey Mosley]

I know that's right.

[Carl Tart]

So I would sell the other box.

[Oscar Montoya]

And keep the money.

[Carl Tart]

And keep the money because. And then John would take us to McDonald's and think that that was. Look, I'm taking you to McDonald's. Eat, black man, eat. It's like, okay, so. So that was a pretty good job for the three weeks that I did it.

[Oscar Montoya]

Wow.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, look, I love you scamming back. They were like, we come to these lower income neighborhoods that we created with redlining and putting. We stole all your resources and we gave all the business loans to Asian people and. But we coming. We coming back to help. We coming back to help. I love that. I hope you got some free meals, black man. Along with selling your car wash kits.

[Carl Tart]

Oh, yeah. Folks don't know. When I was a kid, I was playing video games and selling stuff. Just that was my life. So I scammed a little bit.

[Lacey Mosley]

I love that. That's beautiful. And Carl, not you being like, all my homies work at Rite A, so I work at Rite A.

[Wayne Brady]

I was.

[Oscar Montoya]

Like, damn, they got everybody up in here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Blue polo. And you joined the gang.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, I walked in the right ain't.

[Lacey Mosley]

Put that pin in my chest.

[Wayne Brady]

Johnny, Isaiah, everybody was up in there. I got to be up in here.

[Carl Tart]

Let's pour one up for Rite Aid.

[Lacey Mosley]

And also, I want to say that the tiny Indian woman to me, like, she's an innovator because before extreme couponing, there was her.

[Oscar Montoya]

Okay, that's true.

[Lacey Mosley]

She said, I'm leaving with something.

[Wayne Brady]

They got her right up out of there, too.

[Lacey Mosley]

And you left with scoops of ice cream. I'm proud of both of you. And, Oscar, that leaves you.

[Oscar Montoya]

Well, I've never scammed anybody because I'm too stupid to do that. But I've been scammed my entire life. My very first job was at Blockbuster Video. RIP what is with y' all in these.

[Wayne Brady]

Defunct companies?

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, My first job was selling Balfour rings. I never sold a ring. I just set up a Facebook page, and they gave me a free ring that I lost. So, okay, fine, fair. We all had a shady first job.

[Oscar Montoya]

And this was at a time where Netflix was popping off, and Blockbuster said, oh, we got to do the same thing. So they were doing, like, the. Okay, you. You rent all these videos, and you just pay a monthly fee. Yeah. And so that was one of the perks that I got as someone who worked at Blockbuster. And I was living my best life. You know, there was someone at the store that used to come who was very flirtatious with me, and I fell into it, and he was like, yeah, so I want to take out this dvd. And there was always, like, the most pretentious foreign films, which I was like, game on.

[Wayne Brady]

You're.

[Oscar Montoya]

You're married to me now. You know what I mean? I got like. I was like, okay.

[Lacey Mosley]

And, Oscar, I have to give a little context about you. Oscar and I are dear friends, and he is the gay who will be like, let's hang out. And now we're watching YouTube videos of everything in pop culture.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's right. I have no personal. No kidding. But he would be very much like, oh, yeah. Oh, we should. We should hang out. I don't have a membership, but you do, right? I'd be like, yeah, yeah, okay, sure. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This will be under my name. But it's. It's yours now. And he, like, rented because, you know, it's part. It's like, unlimited rentals. You can return them however you want, whenever you want. And I think he, like, took 10 DVDs and I never saw him again.

[Lacey Mosley]

He didn't even want to fuck the DVD man for DVDs.

[Carl Tart]

Wait, but how many times did you hang out?

[Oscar Montoya]

Just one.

[Carl Tart]

He got you for two.

[Oscar Montoya]

Okay, when he said. When I say he was flirting with me, what I meant to say, he gave me eye contact, and that'll do it for me. Okay, that's enough for me. You're Looking at me. We're married now, right? But then, yeah, we. He never showed up. And like, I kept being like, okay, one day, one day he'll come and show up and he'll bring back the DVDs and he'll bring an engagement ring too. Unfortunately, Blockbuster closed down before any of that happened. So, yes, he's out there somewhere. Hey, Victor, wherever you are, enjoy your pretentious foreign films.

[Carl Tart]

The English Patient.

[Oscar Montoya]

They had to have subtitles. There's like some French weird movie that I've never heard of before. And that's why I was like, oh my God, this is incredible. In black and white too. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, just take comfort in knowing that his broke ass never saw Parasite. And we got to enjoy that. Okay, watch it again with that in mind. Like he never saw this translation squid game. Never saw it.

[Carl Tart]

Never.

[Oscar Montoya]

Never.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, damn. He should have at least put out a little bit before he stole.

[Oscar Montoya]

No, but see, that's okay. But see that. I feel like that is my fault.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm just saying, like, he could have kept the train rolling a little bit.

[Oscar Montoya]

I just feel like. I think the. The big thing with scammers is that you are able as a scammer. You have an innate ability to clock and lock into a scammy. You know, And I am a billboard for being scammed. I'm like, life is be. I'm like such a. Like a Pollyanna person that like, scammers are like moths to a flame with me. You know what I mean? Like, it is a miracle that I have a house, a job, money, because it's crazy. I'd be walking here with a barrel over my whole body, you know, otherwise.

[Lacey Mosley]

But yeah, I don't think that you're that scamble. I think that we all are scammable because we all have needs. So sometimes a scammer will find that need. And when you were working in Blockbuster Video, which has the harshest fluorescent lighting and like the saddest people coming in, it's all just like dads who are divorced and they have their kids for the weekends.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

And they're like, go out, pick up some Mike and Ike's and your favorite movie and tell mom how much fun we had. This is depressing.

[Oscar Montoya]

That is t, though. That is like literally everyone that showed up.

[Lacey Mosley]

Someone looked you in your eyes. I know. Cuz I was there with my real dad. I hope he doesn't hear this.

[Oscar Montoya]

But.

[Lacey Mosley]

I remember going to Blockbuster so much as a kid, like too much too many times.

[Carl Tart]

Blockbuster was the babysitter.

[Lacey Mosley]

He was like that. And go see all of your relatives so they can see that I'm a dad. Like those were the things. It was like, go to Blockbuster and everyone see that I'm a dad. That's what we did.

[Oscar Montoya]

He goes to your family. Hey, I'm Dad. Hey, look me, I'm Daddy. I'm dadding.

[Wayne Brady]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, we gotta go with my child and looking after her. Everybody look. Turn the music off. Everybody look.

[Oscar Montoya]

Turn the music off.

[Lacey Mosley]

I loved all of your scams and your frauds. He really tickled me. Scaaaaaams.

[Unknown]

Change is always happening. But no matter what changes in five years, there's one thing that will stay the same. The price of your Internet. With the Xfinity five year price guarantee, you get five years of the most reliable WI fi with our best equipment included for a price that stays exactly the same. Restrictions apply. New residential customers only. Taxes and fees extra. And subject to change. Most reliable WI fi Based on Open Signal Awards USA Fixed Broadband Experience Report August 2024.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all know how Amazon was just previously used to, you know, go on and get something very specific. Like you want some earrings that look like Michelle Obama or something like just very specific that you can't buy in a store. Well now Amazon is a great place to get all your essential. You can get your toiletries, you can have them scheduled to deliver your toiletries, which I do because I'd be running out of toilet paper and that's very embarrassing. Like to be on the toilet and you don't have no paper. Like that's. That's very sad and embarrassing. Can't believe I told y' all that. But next time you run out of coffee or realize you out of light bulbs, don't be in the dark. Amazon has you covered. Save every day with deals from Amazon. Let's get into it. Our first stop on the show is what's hot in fraud? Oh my God, I feel like Oprah. Love this. So what's hot and fraud? Keep it up. I love the clapping. So what's hot and fraud? We're gonna start with Klarna. Klarna needs layaway, AKA lay away. So people are saying Klarna to paying the company that has led this basically has led to $136 million in debt for the first quarter of 2025. So we're talking about now everybody's being financially impacted and they are no longer paying back Klarna. So more Klarna customers have had trouble repaying their buy Now Pay later loans and like, short term lender, right? This is like a short term lender. I don't know if you've heard about Klarna, but if you haven't, it's a system that basically allows you to purchase things that you can't afford, and you make four payments and then you.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's online layaway.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, someone's like layaway.com.

[Oscar Montoya]

It'S Swedish layaway. Okay, we get it. Cool.

[Lacey Mosley]

So shoppers using Buy Now, Pay later services tend to be younger than the average consumer, which always reminds me of, like, being in college. And you know when you're in college and those companies, like credit card companies show up and they're like, get an American Eagle card, the bitch. The fuck I need that for. Like, Discover made all day money at colleges.

[Oscar Montoya]

Literally. Literally.

[Lacey Mosley]

They're like, discover debt. Discover more debt. While Buy Now, Pay later provides credit to financial, like, people who are vulnerable, right? They're vulnerable consumers. The consumers are usually overextending themselves. Consumers spend more when Buy Now, Pay later is offered and use this to basically dodge payments, which leads to them having an increase in overdraft fees and credit card interest payments and fees. The loans are typically marketed as zero interest and most require no credit check or a soft credit check.

[Carl Tart]

Young blood.

[Oscar Montoya]

Damn young blood. What if Klarna is run by that man?

[Carl Tart]

Young blood. Let me tell you what it is online.

[Lacey Mosley]

Not even what?

[Carl Tart]

Klarna. That's my mama name. Klarna. Pay you later. Zero inches down. I promise you, zero inches down. In fact, don't pay for six months. I got you.

[Lacey Mosley]

Not let me hold $60 as Clara.

[Carl Tart]

It's a let me hold $60 program.

[Lacey Mosley]

That makes it official when you have a program. Now I want to sign up. Can I sign up now?

[Carl Tart]

We got something new.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, that's cute. So when Klarna announced its partnership with Doordash in March.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, no, that's something different.

[Lacey Mosley]

So when Clara announced their partnership with Doordash in March, online comments were about Americans taking out loans to buy takeout food.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Mosley]

Similar skepticism emerged when Billboard revealed that more than half of Coachella attendees used installment plans to finance their tickets to the music festival. Oh, Lady Gaga was headlining at Coachella.

[Wayne Brady]

Eating Popeyes that you ain't paid for.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, what's worse? Going, okay, listen, if it was Bachella and I had to go into debt, look, I'm gonna do that. That lady. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. The hive is here. That LA takes all my money like she really does, and it's like, bitch, we are broke. And she's like, come get these hair products. You know what I got in my hair today? Some sacred. Did I want to buy it?

[Oscar Montoya]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

Did she force me? Yes. Do I love it? Yes. That lady always got her hand out. And I'm mad, but I'm like, here. Damn. But do I go into debt if I want Like. Like Chipotle, But I don't want to leave my house.

[Carl Tart]

That's not worth it.

[Lacey Mosley]

You need food to live.

[Wayne Brady]

I feel like the original layaway was you had to pay it all the way down before you got it, right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yeah.

[Wayne Brady]

And so now Klarna is messed up because they let you have it first.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah, that's.

[Wayne Brady]

And expect people to finish paying. Why?

[Oscar Montoya]

That's true.

[Wayne Brady]

Why would anybody do that?

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Damn that.

[Oscar Montoya]

They're like, I'm at Coachella. I'm not paying the rest of this money.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, I'm here. I synced it.

[Carl Tart]

You can't take my memories.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah, what are you gonna do? Make me delete Lady Gaga's performance?

[Carl Tart]

See, that's some sci fi shit right there. That's right where you could do something on Layway, but if you don't pay, I'm taking the memory back. It never happened.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why you black mirroring us?

[Carl Tart]

That is black ass mirror.

[Lacey Mosley]

That is.

[Oscar Montoya]

Blacker mirror.

[Carl Tart]

Blacker Mirror.

[Lacey Mosley]

Tyler Perry presents.

[Carl Tart]

Black Mirror.

[Lacey Mosley]

Mirror.

[Carl Tart]

I just saw Beyonce click.

[Oscar Montoya]

Madea plays a scientist responsible for the.

[Lacey Mosley]

And you know what? How she. She would make people lose their memories. She would throw hot grits on them.

[Carl Tart]

You can't make me put.

[Wayne Brady]

It's a real mirror with toothpaste stains on it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, no.

[Oscar Montoya]

Tyler Perry, we are writing this for.

[Lacey Mosley]

You, and we know you'll take it. Okay?

[Wayne Brady]

And please pay us. We accept Klarna.

[Carl Tart]

Hey, don't say that out loud. That's. So that's gonna happen in showbiz soon.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know. It's Four easy payments. 1, 2, 3, 4.

[Carl Tart]

Let's go.

[Lacey Mosley]

We all get ours. I don't know.

[Carl Tart]

Let's go.

[Lacey Mosley]

We do it. I don't know. You know how it's only gonna take Tyler Perry 45 minutes to write it? Okay, so we gonna get our money faster than normal. Okay. The length of a Coachella festival ain't. Tyler Perry don't need all that to make a series. Okay, so Biden did try to regulate this. He made the Truth in Lending act, requiring disclosures, refund processing, a formal dispute process, and other protections. The Trump administration, they aren't enforcing that. Oh, my God, I'm gagged. Let me get up.

[Carl Tart]

I'm leaving.

[Lacey Mosley]

They said that in quotes in interest of focusing resources on supporting hard working American taxpayers. So instead they're more focused on keeping like the enforcement and supervision resources focused on pressing threats to consumers because Clar Klarna is not one, particularly servicemen and veterans. And so now I will tell you, young people are using Klarna and they've also seen a rise in black and Hispanic women using Klarna. So of course the Trump administration is like, put all of them in debt. They want young people to join the workforce that's not making them any money. And they definitely don't want black or brown women getting up to do anything else. So, I mean, are we shocked?

[Oscar Montoya]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

No. So consumer advocates maintain that without federal oversight, customers seeking refunds or in search of clear information about buy now, pay later fee structures and interest rates will have less legal recourse, which basically means you can't sue because they didn't tell you what they was going to do.

[Carl Tart]

And Klarna is operating out of a digital van. That's what that sounds like to me.

[Lacey Mosley]

But also, I love the irony of a company that's putting people in debt being in debt. Good, don't pay them back. Klarna gonna close before y' all gotta pay em back.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's like not having to return the DVDs and having blockbuster shut down.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oscar's story is an inspirational one.

[Carl Tart]

What if Victor was gonna come back but the blockbuster closed and he didn't know where to find you?

[Oscar Montoya]

And he's looking for me somewhere and he's wandering.

[Carl Tart]

He's just wandering.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oscar. Oscar, where are you?

[Carl Tart]

I've got the English Patient and Lof Neuf Zez Voir for Sous Je too.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, my God, this is like a Hugh Grant movie.

[Carl Tart]

He's just a boy with a DVD looking for another bo. That's it.

[Wayne Brady]

I'm sorry I couldn't come back, Oscar. I went to war. These movies helped me through the war. I watched them all on my portable dvd.

[Oscar Montoya]

I got drafted while I was watching.

[Wayne Brady]

You won't believe it, I got drafted.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wait, okay, so this, he'll come here.

[Oscar Montoya]

In like a military uniform and I'll be like, yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

This reminds me, I can't get too tangible, but when I was in school, I learned Spanish from just speaking it as a child. And when I was in school, I took Spanish because it's like you already know it. Like, take the. You know, it's like taking English.

[Oscar Montoya]

Which is a class.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. And very Hard. They're both hard. But I remember I had this one. I was going to call him a professor. Child, this was high school. He was not a professor. Senor Corey.

[Oscar Montoya]

Senor Corey.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cory was not of any Spanish speaking descent.

[Oscar Montoya]

Not even Cory. No, Cory, you ain't putting vanilla.

[Carl Tart]

Classe. Yo soy maestro Cory.

[Lacey Mosley]

See, that's too much accent.

[Oscar Montoya]

Hey, what's up? This is Spanish class. I'm Mr. Corey.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, he was still speaking Spanish, but it was like, benavinitos. Yo soy senor Cor. And so he mostly played soap operas. And he was like, this is the best way to learn. And then sometimes he would play these small, like, short films, like Spanish short films that were like, artistic. And he played this one called Adios Mama. And maybe I fell in love with scams and Adios Mama. I don't know if he read my book. It was probably when I was five. But he played this, this short film. And. And in the short film, there's this old lady, like, shopping for groceries. And then there is a young man who is in front of her in the checkout line. And she looks at him and her eyes start to well with tears. And she says, you look just like my son who died. And he goes, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. He checks out. And then when he's checking out, oh, I fucked it up.

[Oscar Montoya]

You had me wrapped, Lacey. I was in.

[Lacey Mosley]

There's one detail that matters.

[Carl Tart]

E2, Tombie.

[Lacey Mosley]

She was in front of him in the checkout line. It just matters. So she says this to him, and then she's ringing her groceries through. She goes through the checkout line. She's going to leave. And she just, just waves goodbye to him. And he goes, adios, Mama. And then he rings up his loaf of bread and eggs. And the cashier's like, it's $200. And he was like, what? I only got bread and eggs. And the cashier's like, your mom said you were paying for it.

[Wayne Brady]

He's like, I was just trying to.

[Carl Tart]

Make some toad in the hole.

[Wayne Brady]

All I wanted was a little toad in the hole that cost $200. Now y' all take Klarna.

[Oscar Montoya]

It was a Klarna commercial. That wasn't no short film. That was a Klarna commercial.

[Lacey Mosley]

They're like, figure out how to pay us back whatever it takes. So next in what's Hot and fraud, you're on top peak. Chris Lee knows Trump. Oh, I know. So Todd Chrisley was serving a 12 year prison sentence in Pensacola when Julie Chrisley had been Sentenced to seven years at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky. The couple is now headed home to Nashville. Shout out to Nashville. I will be there June 24 for the global Fraud Conference. But. But now they're going back to Nashville. According to cnn, the Chrisley Knows Best couple was sentenced for conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million. And also found guilty of several tax crimes, including attempting to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. How do we feel?

[Wayne Brady]

Lock their asses up.

[Carl Tart]

All I know is we didn't get another Blade movie for years where.

[Oscar Montoya]

What?

[Carl Tart]

Because.

[Lacey Mosley]

Let him cook.

[Carl Tart]

Let him cook. Because Wesley Snipes got tax advice that said, oh, Wesley thought that he was being. Wesley's a very intelligent man. He was given advice that he thought. Because if you read. And I'm by no means. Trust me, I pay my taxes. Taxes. Because even if there was a big loophole, I'm not going to take chances because you will not see me on third Street Promenade going, no, I'm going to keep my house. But he thought that there was a loophole about the taxes being unconstitutional. He got advice from somebody, he protested taxes and they threw him under the jail. We didn't get any Blade until Dead Deadpool, we got that Blade. If he had to stay in jail for that amount of time he needs and she needs to be in jail. I don't know them personally. I have nothing against them, but I do say if you are trying to, especially the defrauding the irs, the infrastructure that is in place, then you need to still be in jail. What's the upside? Like when you get a pardon, it's supposed to be something about, oh, you're going to add something to society. But now you're just letting them out of jail. I'm sorry, I just got mad because I really like Blade.

[Oscar Montoya]

As you should stay mad. Stay mad for Blade.

[Carl Tart]

And we could have had a major league three.

[Wayne Brady]

Oh, we did have one. It was terrible.

[Carl Tart]

Oh, damn. Well, never mind.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, Four. Four. We could have had a four.

[Oscar Montoya]

What's the movie where he was on.

[Wayne Brady]

A plane that was sent me on Con Air.

[Oscar Montoya]

No, that's not the plane. You know which one I'm talking about?

[Carl Tart]

US market chose because I was his passenger 57.

[Oscar Montoya]

Passenger 57. We could have had a passenger 58 and a 59 and a 60.

[Carl Tart]

But we didn't.

[Oscar Montoya]

But we didn't.

[Carl Tart]

Thanks.

[Oscar Montoya]

Shaking my damn hand.

[Carl Tart]

I mean, shake, shake.

[Oscar Montoya]

I'm of.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm of two minds. One, the Internal Revenue Service is criminally underfunded. And I know we're always like, the irs, we shouldn't fund them. We actually should because they can't go after the big fishes because they're underfunded. So they go after everyday Americans and don't start paying them more than five. Figure. Then they're like, oh, you got it. We just randomly gonna charge you for stuff. And they don't have receipts. We have to have so many receipts, and they have none. And then if you need a refund, oh, baby, I've been waiting almost two years for the refund, and the IRS keeps asking me for money, and I'm like, can you dip into what you owe me or no, we can't do that. Okay, bet that. But then my other mind is, I am a Southern belle, and there's just something about a Southern draw and meeting a man who, you know is definitely homosexual, but he loves the Lord.

[Oscar Montoya]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Lacey Mosley]

And they're like, come sit on my porch. Have some sweet tea. What's your Social Security number? And they're also like, you know, we don't like black people, but you're. You're one of the good ones. And you know it's wrong, and you know you should say something, and then they grab you, oh, your hair's so pretty. I know they got a handful of it, but I'm like, you're too old to be teached. That's not even the word it's taught. I can't even come up with it. But I just know too many Southern white people like this. And I was like, I don't know. Let him be free.

[Carl Tart]

Doesn't he have a black grandkid?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, he does. But see, that's one of the good ones. The black grandkid, one of the goods. You think they still don't hate Negroes? They hate us bad. But don't you, my grandson, get up here on my lap. You're papa's baby.

[Wayne Brady]

He did get up and use his press conference today to say that black men in prison are treated unfairly.

[Carl Tart]

He did say that.

[Lacey Mosley]

Say he be having. He be. He be having some.

[Carl Tart]

That's worth two years off of the sentence. Good for you. Two years off your sentence.

[Lacey Mosley]

He used his power for good. Now, look, everybody who gets released by Trump gotta say, thank you, Daddy. Trump.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

You got to. That's what you have to do. Otherwise he gonna lock your ass back up again. I'm sorry. If I was in prison right now, would y' all not want me to just be like, oh, my God, Trump, so cool. So I can Be free. How much y' all love this podcast. Y' all know I'm lying, but come on.

[Wayne Brady]

My Instagram post would be like, thank you.

[Oscar Montoya]

Your Instagram post?

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, that's how you. That's what NBA YoungBoy. NBA YoungBoy posted on Instagram. Yeah, he posted like a long thank you to President Trump for letting me out. And if I got out at the hands of Trump, I would just be like, thanks so much.

[Lacey Mosley]

Trump was like, free all my homies. I don't care what they did. And then he went into office and literally started freeing all the homies. Now they're evil homies, but he's an evil guy.

[Wayne Brady]

It's interesting who he chooses, too. Today somebody asked him like, are you going to free Dick Diddy? And he was like, well, Diddy used to like me a lot. He doesn't. He doesn't quite like me as much anymore as I got into politics. He doesn't like me anymore, but.

[Oscar Montoya]

And I was like, that's a good Trump.

[Wayne Brady]

Diddy ain't getting free.

[Carl Tart]

It's because he also said that he has to look at the evidence.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, I haven't been paying attention. I have to look at the evidence. But Diddy used to like me a lot. That's what he said.

[Carl Tart]

Well, there's a picture.

[Wayne Brady]

Oh, Trump was at the free call, 100%.

[Lacey Mosley]

Although I think that Trump is a sexual guy. I think he was like, I have a lot of weird friends. They like creepy things. I'll be a creepy guy for them. I don't think he actually, like, enjoys. It was all like. It's like, why he and his baby hands are still.

[Oscar Montoya]

Wait, you think Donald Trump is asexual? Do you think he identifies as Ace?

[Lacey Mosley]

Look at that man.

[Carl Tart]

That's a pretty sexual picture right there. He's like, I don't know. This one, this one.

[Oscar Montoya]

I have a condom in one hand.

[Carl Tart]

I'm playing 50 50.

[Wayne Brady]

Todd Chrisley, NBA young boy.

[Carl Tart]

Thank you.

[Lacey Mosley]

Robbery.

[Unknown]

Change is always happening. But no matter what changes in five years, there's one thing that will stay the price of your Internet. With the Xfinity five year price guarantee, you get five years of the most reliable WI fi with our best equipment included for a price that stays exactly the same. Restrictions apply. New residential customers only. Taxes and fees extra and subject to change. Most reliable WI fi based on Open Signal Awards USA Fixed Broadband Experience Report August 2024.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all know how Amazon was just previously used to, you know, go on and get something very specific, like you want some earrings that look like Michelle Obama or something like, just very specific that you can't buy in a store. Well, now, Amazon is a great place to get all your essentials. You can get your toiletries. You can have them scheduled to deliver your toiletries, which I do, because I'd be running out of toilet paper. And that's very embarrassing. Like, to be on the toilet and you don't have no paper. Like, that's. That's very sad and embarrassing. Can't believe I told y' all that. But next time you run out of coffee or realize you out of light bulbs, don't be in the dark. Amazon has you covered. Save every day with deals from Amazon on. So our last what's Hot and fraud before we show this. I chose this because it's a Texas story. I am from Texas, I think.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

Thank you. Yes, From Texas. See, we know what's up. You better be the loudest in the room. I know. That's right. And I also think that Carl in particular will enjoy this story. So I'm gonna take you on a little bit of a ride here.

[Oscar Montoya]

Are you from Texas?

[Wayne Brady]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

Mississippi. No, he's just gonna. He's from Mississippi, and he's gonna understand.

[Carl Tart]

Y' all are from the real South.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yes.

[Carl Tart]

Because I'm from. From Orlando. So that's like the.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm so glad you got out of Florida. Cause you told two scary stories about Florida, and I was like, I am so glad.

[Carl Tart]

But you from Texas and Mississippi. Those are scarier than Florida. No. Really pretty. No. You know what? I take it back.

[Lacey Mosley]

Did you not have white people who thought you were the good one?

[Carl Tart]

That's why I take it back. I take it back. I've got so many more stories you don't even know. Yes. Okay. Please go on.

[Lacey Mosley]

So we're moving on to Turkey leg Beef.

[Wayne Brady]

Oh, yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

Lindell Leroy Price is accused of arson. I want to say first. That is the blackest name.

[Carl Tart]

Now, you know he says young blood.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah, very much says young blood. So he's got the Turkey leg Hut. And he is accused of arson. Show of hands. Who thinks that he burned down his restaurant? Okay, we've got some strong. Okay. Oh, this one was reluctant. You were right there in the glasses. You were like. It was like this. Okay. Okay. Well, I can show you better than I can tell you. So we're gonna watch a little bit of a news segment.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, my God.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's a video.

[F]

Price paid $1,400 to have his ex business partners bar 5015 blown up nearly five years ago. This is surveillance video from that early morning in June of 2020 when masked men poured gasoline all over the patio before that fire that then caused an explosion and destroyed the building. An indictment unsealed last week alleges that Lynn Price orchestrated this plan. The owner of that bar, I don't.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like the organization of the gas pouring.

[F]

They're going to catch on fire not to figure it. Cash. Lynn Price brought him to be part of the ownership team.

[Lacey Mosley]

Like, did y' all take shots before y' all did this?

[F]

Like, why started selling crawfish? Apparently using the Turkey Leg Hut supplier. The owner said Lynn Price called screaming and hollering and threatened to blow the place up. So in the past, Lynn Price went to federal prison on tax fraud related charges once he got out on supervised release.

[Oscar Montoya]

I love that lady.

[F]

Allege that he's been involved in other criminal activity, including paying a co defendant in this arson case to steal vehicles and heavy machinery. The FBI agent testified under oath that same co defendant admitted to bringing truckloads of hydro marijuana from California that would be stored at the Turkey Leg Hut and then got sold at the restaurant in custom branded packaging, smoked turkey.

[Lacey Mosley]

So I might have talked over this moment, so I do want to clarify. Lindell Price had a former business partner, his former business partner. He was trying to get involved, right? So he brings him a box of cash and says, do you want to be a partner in the Turkey Leg Hut? The former business partner is like, please take your box of cash away. I don't need it. And Lindell and them, this is fine for a little while. The other co founder, writer, whatever, he ends up making a bar that is across the street from the Turkey Leg Hut. And then one day, Lindell finds out that his former business partner is selling crawfish using similar seasonings and the exact same supplier. And so Lindell thought, well, I have to blow up his book. It's the only rat.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's not even burn it down. It's blowing it up.

[Carl Tart]

It's very Shakespearean.

[Lacey Mosley]

Do we think Lindell was right or wrong?

[Carl Tart]

What if one of us really was? Like, I can see his point.

[Wayne Brady]

I got. I get it.

[Oscar Montoya]

Somebody's like, I would do that.

[Wayne Brady]

I mean, what would you rather have, a big old bowl of crawfish or a turkey leg?

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah. Does he only sell Turkey leg at the Turkey Leg Hut?

[Lacey Mosley]

No, he sells weed.

[Carl Tart]

Duh.

[Oscar Montoya]

So then what's the seasoning here?

[Carl Tart]

It's under. It's under fixings.

[Lacey Mosley]

Crawfish. See, this is why I'm saying If he's selling weed. I don't understand. We are from the south off.

[Oscar Montoya]

No, if he's selling weed, what's the seasoning that he's putting on the weed?

[Lacey Mosley]

Then the turkey legs with the crawfish and stuff. You can get Alfredo in there. Oh, listen. Okay, hold on, hold on. I'm gonna take my mic off because I need you to say that so everybody can understand. What can you put up in a craw, a turkey leg or a crawfish? You can get shrimp Alfredo, crawfish. Like, he stuff it with all the stuff you want in there. It's a little Southern. Little Southern food. Mm. What's your name, dear? Jasmine. Thank you, Jasmine. Jasmine is absolutely right.

[Oscar Montoya]

Okay, Jasmine, knowing what you know now, would you still go to the turkey leg hut?

[Lacey Mosley]

Nah, nah. I mean, I feel okay. First of all, black people love an Alfredo Woo. And for a while, I knew a salmon hated to see us coming. But we have moved on to stuff and other things with things. But, Carl, I know you know about a mud bug.

[Wayne Brady]

Yes, absolutely.

[Lacey Mosley]

And how they get seasoned. I'm gonna let you take the floor.

[Wayne Brady]

You boil it. You boil the seasoning in it. So you probably have gone to, like, shrimp lover or something out here. And they give you crawfish. If y' all have gotten that. And they put all the seasoning on the outside. That's Vietnamese style. That's not how we do it in the South. Okay. Except for, like, Houston, Texas, they do it like that. Cause a lot of Vietnamese people moved there in the 70s after their revolution.

[Carl Tart]

Anyway, you are the hood Ken Burn.

[Oscar Montoya]

I told you he was gonna know history. That's what is in anthropology.

[Lacey Mosley]

I didn't talk to him about this beforehand. He had no idea this was coming. I just knew he was gonna know.

[Wayne Brady]

But in New Orleans, in the Gulf coast area, you boil the sea, you boil the crawfish in the seasoning. And there are special blends, and you can taste the differences. And I know he got his and was like, that's mine. Oh, this place needs.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wayne. Your thoughts?

[Carl Tart]

No, just thinking about it. That. Is it that thing that. Did he get so mad? Because the packets of seasonings like you say that, it's almost like they've got street names like drugs. Like, this is Caribbean Gold and this is Frosty, and it's his. It's a proprietary blend.

[Wayne Brady]

I mean, it probably wasn't that serious. I think he probably just saw a competition.

[Carl Tart]

It wasn't that serious. He be blue.

[Wayne Brady]

No, it definitely was not that serious. It was.

[Oscar Montoya]

Could you imagine if it was that serious?

[Carl Tart]

Because I was thinking that it had to have been that serious.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah. He would have blew up the whole block if it was this.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's jar. It's so insane to me because the picture that you showed, it was a man in a. It wasn't even a hut like the turkey leg hut. It's a. It's a. It's. It's turkey leg tent.

[Carl Tart]

Everybody's my turkey leg pop up.

[Wayne Brady]

He did have a restaurant, though.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, he did have a restaurant.

[Lacey Mosley]

He had a brick and mortar.

[Carl Tart]

This is the auxiliary.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, I see. It's a satellite. It's a satellite. I see. I see. I mean, I'm just taking a look at him, and I'm like, I can't. He's scary to me. Those arms. He don't have to blow anybody up. He could just crush me.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know, Wayne. I know you were joking, but I do think it's a little Shakespearean. What if this is old Verona? You know, I was thinking Montagues and the Capulets.

[Oscar Montoya]

What the hell are you saying?

[Lacey Mosley]

The crawfish.

[Carl Tart]

The two food sellers of Verona. One made of turkey leg, the other of the sea bug. Two gentlemen. Two opposing forces equally fighting over the Lord's seasonings.

[Oscar Montoya]

Listen, I see that you have prepared not in the Vietnamese style.

[Carl Tart]

Nay, not I. For mine are prepared deeply and blended so that they are intrinsically bonded like that of the lords.

[Lacey Mosley]

But wait. What soft smoke from yonder window breaks. Is that hookah?

[Carl Tart]

Verily. Tis the good shit. We should write this now, Tyler Perry.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, goodness. Well, I'm gonna say quickly that I can see his point.

[Oscar Montoya]

Lacey. Lacey.

[Lacey Mosley]

He offered him a shoebox of money, and that man turned him down. And then he started using his supplies. Fire. And biting off all his. Y' all ain't ever watched Modern Family when it was closets, closets, closets, closets against Jay Pritchard's business that I can't remember the name of. This is serious.

[Wayne Brady]

He also said the threat. Like, it'd be a shame if this place got blown up.

[Carl Tart]

Why do people do that? Don't. Don't threaten the thing you're gonna do. Like, do. Yeah, do your dirt, but don't say.

[Wayne Brady]

You going to do something else. I'll shoot you, man, and then blow the place.

[Carl Tart]

He threatened me, but I said I was going to shoot you.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah, okay. You're right. I forgive you.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know. I don't think it's fun to blow a place up if nobody knows, like, I Feel like I could be like, yeah, I don't know. Around 5:00, I got two drunk dudes who are going to come in here full on Hennessy and turkey Legs.

[Oscar Montoya]

I also love that he. He didn't hire arsonist to do the job. Those were family members.

[Wayne Brady]

Those are his cousins.

[Oscar Montoya]

Those were co workers at the Turkey Leg Hut. They're saying, fuck, I gotta. I gotta work overtime. I gotta blow up a competitor's.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yo, what if it was a fry cook? He was literally God. And he paid them only $1,400. And it didn't say each.

[Oscar Montoya]

So it might have been. That's 700 each.

[Carl Tart]

It could have been. Maybe it was 700. Who knows? If the one took adv of the other one, he's like, I'll take 800, you take the rest. We don't know any of those details.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, no.

[Oscar Montoya]

I brought the gasoline. Listen, I think I bought the COVID mask.

[Wayne Brady]

I got the mask. We'll be caught if we don't have these co masks on.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, hell.

[Carl Tart]

I drove.

[Lacey Mosley]

I went to the gas station and got the little red cans. Okay? We can't do it without the red cans. And also that, you know, that was from. They was literally. They were literally at the Sunco filling up red cans of gasoline to burn down an establishment. You know what?

[Wayne Brady]

You know, he called him out hilarious.

[Carl Tart]

Did y' all get it done?

[Wayne Brady]

As if he was a mob boss or something. Is it done?

[Oscar Montoya]

Hey, get it done or else I blow up your business. Wait, I work for you. I'll blow it up anyway.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, goodness. Well, now it's time to get into the main event. Historic hoodwinks. So in perhaps the biggest sneaker scam in history, a hotshot on. Oh. Somebody said, oh. Oh, no. You bought from this man. You know him? A hotshot online reseller made sneaker heads an offer they couldn't it refuse and that he couldn't back up. Now he owes customers 65 million for shoes he never delivered. He promised them Jordans and all he gave them was air. So this is Michael, y' all are saying?

[Wayne Brady]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

Honestly, I'm a garble that last name. So I'm not even. You're a sticker head. Malexade is the CEO of Zeta Kicks. And honestly, I thought that sounded like Jadakiss. And as someone who has been mistaken for his girlfriend on an airplane.

[Carl Tart]

Who's Jadakiss's girlfriend?

[Lacey Mosley]

I. I was Jadakiss's girlfriend on a flight to New York.

[Carl Tart]

Wow.

[Lacey Mosley]

Apparently, I just turned around and was Like, I gotta turn this air off. You cool with that? And I was like, is that Jadakiss? And then I just turned back around. And then they were like, oh, I. They didn't serve my food because I fell asleep. If you fall asleep on a red eye, you're not getting shit. And I was like, damn. Hey, y' all, can I give my food? And they were like, oh, my God, we're so sorry. You Jada kiss his girlfriend. I've also been mistaken for being Kid Cudi's girlfriend. That happened at Sony. I was sitting in a green room waiting for a meeting, and they came in and they were like, oh, it's time to go. And I was still sitting because Kid Cudi and his entourage got up. I was like, that's not my meeting. And they were like, no, you too? And I was like, oh, they're taking us to both of our meetings. So I was walking and they were like, you can't cut his girlfriend, right? No. Do you think these men date black looking women? Like, I'm visibly black, sweetheart. Go find a Latina looking woman, child. Okay. When you get rich, you gotta stop dating dark skinned people. So if you're a man anyway, so you gotta stop.

[Oscar Montoya]

Who's giving these people that? These. This advice?

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen, my dream couple is Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance. And they hold us strong. I love that. Thank you. The black woman. Yes, we get it. So anyway, this is Matt. Michael. I'm not saying that last name. Kyle. Kyle did it for you. He's the CEO of Zeta Kicks. And this is a photo that he actually posted where the building's on fire.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah. Is that. Is that wallpaper or is that just like a photoshopped picture?

[Wayne Brady]

Turkey Leg Hut didn't get his shoes.

[Carl Tart]

They shared a wall.

[Lacey Mosley]

The Turkey led Hut was selling sneakers and weed. Okay, okay, fair enough. So let's find out a little bit about who Zeta is. So Michael, not saying his last name, was born in Eugene, Oregon, where the Nike company is also founded and graduated from the University of Oregon. In 2005, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Portland to study footwear design, but dropped out. Oh, my gosh. Isn't that like the rich white man fantasy? I went to college, but I dropped out because I knew everybody, everything. I love it. In 2010, he worked for a Nike store in the Portland area and was fired for reselling items that he was buying with an employee discounts. I mean, I'm not really against that. He was hooking up the homies. I'm not mad yet. So in 2013, Mike made sneaker reselling his career. He borrowed about $20,000 from his father, as we all do. Because, you know, you guys don't do that. You never know that.

[Carl Tart]

That's funny.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, I'm alone. Oh, I didn't ever tell you guys I was a good Nepo baby. Yikes. But so he did this to start an online sneaker resale company called Zeta Kicks. Carl, have you ever been on this website?

[Wayne Brady]

No.

[Lacey Mosley]

I'm looking at your shoes and they're telling me you're lying.

[Wayne Brady]

No, I keep it traditional. StockX is the. Is the farthest I get into this.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay. We had one person yell out yes when they heard stock X. Okay, so this is his boo thing right here. Okay. So the same year that he started like his business, he started dating Bethany Mocker. Men. She needed a last name change. Who?

[Carl Tart]

You know, at that point, just keep hers and hyphenated.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, that's a mouthful.

[Carl Tart]

Mess everybody up.

[Oscar Montoya]

She's like Rumpelstiltskin. Say my name. I'll give you your money if you say my name.

[Lacey Mosley]

She gotta become a troll bridge. She gotta be under a bridge and survive. Ruby's three. If her name is gonna be Bethany Mockerman Mal. It's the only way to vanquish her. So she ended up becoming Zadaya's chief financial officer. The company made it to the top 1% of all Shopify merchants. Like merchants. By 2020, Mike sold high sought after like limited edition sneakers from brands like Jordan, Nike and Yeezy. Sneaker resale is now $6 billion. Like that industry is like making $6 billion now per year. So it's very. Y' all really love shoes. You know, they always be like, women be shopping.

[Carl Tart]

When men do it. It's not shopping. It's investing.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's called the hobby. When men do.

[Carl Tart]

Yes.

[Lacey Mosley]

So on Instagram, the 39 year old showed off his Ferraris. And this is him with his expensive cars. Remember, this is Portland, Oregon. So it's constantly overcast. So you're really not gonna get the best lighting. What do we think of the. You know, I had to just do it to him. Pose. What. What do we do? We like.

[Oscar Montoya]

I thought it was like, are you. Did you get into a car accident?

[Lacey Mosley]

What.

[Oscar Montoya]

What's happening here?

[Lacey Mosley]

There he being fresh. Oh, no, no. Y.

[Carl Tart]

He's one squat away from a prison pose. All he has to do is just go a little lower.

[Lacey Mosley]

And. What would be wrong with that?

[Carl Tart]

Nothing. Nothing.

[Oscar Montoya]

I don't under. What is. What is he Do. What is this? What is this?

[Lacey Mosley]

Like you can't see me. You can't see me.

[Carl Tart]

I can't see you. So you. You can't see me.

[Lacey Mosley]

He got his foot on their necks. Y' all think he got his foot on their necks? Okay, maybe this will do it for you. He has, like, very expensive watches and he poses next to food with them.

[Oscar Montoya]

What the heck? We've got box doesn't look like it's finished.

[Wayne Brady]

That's the most expensive one.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's a gr. Pierre gold.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, Pierre. No, it does not look finished. Put a face on it and then I'll buy it.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why don't you? Impractical.

[Oscar Montoya]

Why are there so many circles on a watch?

[Lacey Mosley]

Because you don't use it to tell time. You use it to put your foot on their neck.

[Oscar Montoya]

All right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Of course you know what time it is. It's time that I'm better than you.

[Carl Tart]

Duh.

[Lacey Mosley]

That ass. Okay, well, how about a $29,000 Louis Vuitton bicycle? Do we like this?

[Carl Tart]

No, but nobody's talking about the giraffe.

[Oscar Montoya]

And that's. And that's a real giraffe. That's a real giraffe encased in gold. It's a baby giraffe. It survived the mold process being kept alive Y. Y.

[Carl Tart]

With a special cooling system. Oh, that's where we draw the line. That's where.

[Lacey Mosley]

No, I'm with you, Wayne. If your giraffe can't move, is it even.

[Carl Tart]

Come on, man, we rich.

[Lacey Mosley]

Okay, this is so.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's like.

[Lacey Mosley]

I wouldn't even know that's a Louis Vuitton bike. That's. That looks like a seven year old girl's bike. I. Where are the LVs? Where's the drip? Where's the.

[Oscar Montoya]

Also, what shirt is he wearing? Me. Thinks it's a Katy Perry shir for some reason.

[Lacey Mosley]

I don't know.

[Oscar Montoya]

Isn't it giving Katy Perry.

[Lacey Mosley]

It is. I don't know, but it's probably $3,000.

[Carl Tart]

Most likely they're too rich for taste.

[Oscar Montoya]

I mean, look at the two confusing geometric shapes stacked on top of each other.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's how you know you rich. You gotta get stuff like that, okay?

[Carl Tart]

To confuse with a random massage chair in the middle of the room.

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen, I'm just saying you got to have, like, things to talk about other than being rich, because all your friends are going to be rich. So you can't just. What are y' all gonna talk about? Being rich? That's boring. So you got to be like, I got this book on this. This Die.

[Oscar Montoya]

Hey, hey. Why don't you come over and watch me play on my bike?

[Lacey Mosley]

I saw a Yahtzee die, and I was like, make it bigger. Put a book on it. I don't know. It's classy to me. Seems very classy. So this is just some information for those of you who don't know. Obviously, someone yelled out StockX, and someone else was like. So some of you are very informed, but the backdoor arrangements. So before starting his own company, Mike purchased older stock from retail stores and sold them on ebay. By developing, like, relationships with these stores that he purchased them from, he was able to secure newly released products, including Jordans and bulk, before sneaker stores had them in the shelves. People in this business call it a backdoor arrangement because footwear brands are not supposed to do this. They carefully control the products that the retailers are able to order and only authorize a few people to sell stuff online. So since Zeta Kicks relied on retail stores to supply them through the backdoor arrangements, customers didn't get their shoes ahead of the official release date, but usually received them not too long afterwards. And if you placed a bulk pre order, you would still make a profit since prices tend to go up after a product's release. So basically, if he. Zeta Kicks was like, oh, y' all get this new shoe that's coming out. You have to wait a little longer for it, but we're gonna give you a disappointment discount. So people would do that, and they would be locked in. And he had a good relationship with all of these sellers who weren't really supposed to be doing this.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, yeah. So this is an educational podcast.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

I know. I had to get into Mother Goose. It kills me. I'm trying to keep it cute. No, I love it.

[Oscar Montoya]

This is. Yeah. Any who's from, like, who knew this stuff before Floor shoe people. One shoe person. Only one person wears shoes here. Work.

[Lacey Mosley]

Y' all not. Y' all not ordering shoes like this. You got some nice Nikes on. Those are cute. Yes.

[Carl Tart]

See, I didn't know all the stuff, but I order mine, mine, mine from StockX.

[Lacey Mosley]

You do? Okay. That's a reseller.

[Wayne Brady]

It's a reseller.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, yes.

[Oscar Montoya]

Okay. Somebody works for StockX.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's giving. I'm employed at StockX because we said StockX, and they were like. And then Dwayne said, I only buy from StockX. And they were. They're verified.

[Wayne Brady]

You know what else StockX takes Klarna.

[Lacey Mosley]

Klarna takes StockX. And look, we all know you don't have to pay them back. Okay? Maybe use them one time just for kicks, because they're gonna go out of business when they file Chapter 11 bankruptcy seat, that shoe will be free. Okay, I'm just saying, you heard it here first.

[Oscar Montoya]

And this is news.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes, very much news. Okay? Very, very much so. Around, like, January of 2020, Mike and Bethany, that's the couple, the, you know, Zeta Kicks and his boo, they started taking orders for unreleased shoes at or near msrp, which is manufacturers suggested adjusted retail price regardless of whether they could fill those orders or no, at prices that were not financially feasible for resale. And they did this because retail stores were closing due to Covid. Right. It's 2020, and we all remember the day that Tom Hanks got Corona and the NBA shut down in the same day. And we knew it was over.

[Oscar Montoya]

That that was. That was the beginning of the end for you. When Tom Hanks got Covid and his.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wife Rita, I was destroyed.

[Carl Tart]

When it touched the Hanks family, that's when we knew it could touch up. Nobody was safe from COVID No, except Ch Lord. Me ain't got no Covid. Step right up in of you front fun, cold and face no more.

[Oscar Montoya]

Fire.

[Wayne Brady]

Bundy, jab. We're not getting no jab.

[Lacey Mosley]

We don't need no job. Poom, poom. Our Jamaican king never got Covid.

[Oscar Montoya]

Our Jamaican king, Jet Hanks.

[Carl Tart]

Lord have mercy.

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen, I don't know if y' all watched that Kate Hudson basketball show on Netflix, but he kind of ate. He kind of snacked on it. I'm glad there's like, cultural rehabilitation like that. I'm like, if I fuck up, I just need to do one good project. Everybody Forget. So it's 2020. The stores are down bad, and the sources for shoes are now dwindling. So he started to buy more shoes on StockX, paying for many in demand sneakers at a significant markup. Because that's what STOCKX does, right? Except for the one employee of StockX. Their shoes are so cheap, we can't.

[Oscar Montoya]

Comment on that at this present.

[Carl Tart]

She's doing different voices. Stockx is great. I concur. I get all that at StockX.

[Oscar Montoya]

Say only shop at shop. Whatever. StockX.

[Lacey Mosley]

StockX sponsor the show. We'll talk, we'll talk. Whoever works here for Stockx, we'll talk after. Okay? Meet me in the parking lot. Okay. So obviously this is not sustainable because now the price is higher than the deals that he was getting when he was back dorm. So Zeta Kicks become Stockx's back Biggest buyer registered under the same username used on Instagram by Bethany Mockerman. The Instagram name is Bethany83. I'm gonna guess she was born in 1983.

[Oscar Montoya]

Or maybe that's her lucky number.

[Carl Tart]

She's a criminal genius.

[Lacey Mosley]

So on LinkedIn, she described herself as a financial coordinator, financial manager, and CFO of Zadeh Kicks. Girl, why are you attaching yourself to a man? Very ghetto. Okay, don't tell nobody you weren't there. Be like them CEOs for the other health insurance companies after they saw the one get popped. Take your name off the website.

[Oscar Montoya]

You're not wrong.

[Carl Tart]

Oh, my God, she's not wrong.

[Lacey Mosley]

There were people on Twitter. Twitter who were like. There was like, some, like, Blue Cross. First of all, at the Blue Cross Blue Shield. I feel like I've said this on the show, but, like, they. It might have been them or may not remember me different if it's not them. But there was an insurance company basically trying to cut off anesthesia during procedures at. And then the day before, they had been pushing this into legislation. People were protesting, but it wasn't getting much motion. And then Luigi Mangioni, allegedly, very alleged. It was a setup. It was a scheme. The tide. That's a very deep Real Housewives cut. If you know, you know. But the day that Brian Evil man got popped, I don't remember his last name. Evil man is good. He got popped the next day. This insurance company was like, you know what? Y' all can have as much anesthesia as y' all want.

[Oscar Montoya]

They listen.

[Lacey Mosley]

They were like, we take. We take it back. You know what? We having an anesthesia palooza. A whole festival. Y' all come over here, get a tank.

[Carl Tart]

We listened to feedback.

[Oscar Montoya]

We finally got around to reading those letters.

[Lacey Mosley]

Why feedback? Gotta be bullets.

[Carl Tart]

I hate it here.

[Oscar Montoya]

That part. They disappeared so fast. They vanished faster than the closing credits of America's Exoplane model with the model disappearing, disappearing.

[Lacey Mosley]

And you know what was funny? They didn't disappear immediately. They thought the girls were going to be on their side. So they were like, oh, my God, we're all so mad about this, right? And everybody on the Internet was like, well, we don't believe he did it, but if he did. Anyways. Anyways, Chad, what I having for dinner? Like, let's take our names up. There's also someone on Twitter who. There was someone, like, who was talking about how their insurance dropped them when they needed, like, emergency care. It was like, on their flight to get a transplant, their insurance dropped them. And then someone Retweeted it with all the photos of the board of that insurance company and was like, y' all get to work. And after that, after that, every CEO was like, let's take our page, our pictures off the page.

[Oscar Montoya]

Talk to the people. People from the Turkey Leg Hut. They will get it done. They will do it messily and sloppily, but they will get it done.

[Carl Tart]

The Turkey Leg HUD Hutch Assassination Squad. That's what they do.

[Oscar Montoya]

Oh, my gosh. It's a sleeper cell institute.

[Carl Tart]

It is. If you have a problem, they'll be there. Turkey legs.

[Oscar Montoya]

And the secret word is Alfredo.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, my God. No. But I think the turkey leg hook is who we need right now. I think y' all are absolutely right about this. Okay, we just got to get them a few red cans again. They'll get it done. They might catch flame while doing so.

[Carl Tart]

They'll get it done.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's fine. That's fine.

[Lacey Mosley]

But don't worry, there's plenty of cousins to come. Okay, like we're going to. Good. So let's get to when this dream team husband and wife got a little desperate. So when Mike didn't have shoes to sell, he pre sold. And Mike bought time with shipping delays. So they paid some customers back with a combination of cash and gift cards. Other customers got nada. Throughout 2020, shipping delays got progressively worse. Numerous times, Zadeh Kick sold shoes based solely on a Photoshop markup of a colorway that never came to market. He didn't tolerate customers badmouthing the company over unfilled orders and delays and threatened to ban them from buying his shoes altogether. And now I'm gonna need one of. Add two of these. You maybe three. I think there's a third person in there. Everybody take a line here and do start at the ending line that I cropped because I cropped it on purpose. So we're in a. We're in a Reddit thread about Zeta kicks right now. Anybody can go.

[Wayne Brady]

I'll do this first one because I can see that's the only way I can see moving. Probably a stupid question, but anyone here pre order or bulk order the fragment ts highs and receive their pairs yet?

[Carl Tart]

H. I'm still waiting for my Just extremely dumbfounded on how he can leave begging customers taking thousands of dollars just hanging off a cliff with no emails or any Updates in sight?

[Oscar Montoya]

Data1984 says worst part is that if you ask for any clarification, you get banned from ordering again. Lol.

[Carl Tart]

Well, that's not funny.

[Lacey Mosley]

So let's get to when they got sh. Shady online. Mike would talk up his huge numbers while offering endless excuses for shipment and payment delays, charging policies with no explanation, and vague promises of future improvements. So he basically got online, was like, look, we working on it. You know, with the shipping, it's like they defunded USPS Hillary's emails. Does that do something for y' all?

[Oscar Montoya]

I'm still reeling from the news that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got Covid.

[Lacey Mosley]

That was very stressful for me.

[Carl Tart]

Bear with me. Bear with me.

[Lacey Mosley]

So at first, customers were charged a 20% fee if they canceled a pre order according to policies shown on their website. Later in, it was 50%.

[Wayne Brady]

That's crazy.

[Lacey Mosley]

So if I cancel my order, I gotta pay for half my order. Klarna would never do this to me.

[Wayne Brady]

Klarna wouldn't do that.

[Lacey Mosley]

It would never hurt me like that. It wouldn't do that.

[Oscar Montoya]

Nah. Klarna's like the Statue of Liberty. Gimme your poor black and brown.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's all she wants. She wants us. It does feel good to feel wanted. So refund rules change, too. In 2018, the company told customers they had to wait as long as 10 months past their order date to cancel without penalty. Instead of cash refunds to every customer, Mike also offered store credit and gift cards.

[Oscar Montoya]

So, you know, it's like, at which moment do you realize you're getting scammed? Is it this moment, or was it a couple of moments ago? Because I know that I. It would take me a while.

[Lacey Mosley]

You said this.

[Oscar Montoya]

It's coming. I promise it'll be here.

[Lacey Mosley]

Honestly, if I got a few emails that were like, hey, friend, it's your boy Mike, and, like, a picture with him in the Ferrari covers, I mean, like, I'm covering my eyes because I'm so ashamed. You don't have your shoes yet, I might hold out. You're right about that.

[Oscar Montoya]

He's ashamed.

[Lacey Mosley]

This is a shoe addiction. And so if I would think of, like, loving, like, something so much like shoe news, like, I guess it would be, like, my love for Beyonce. Like, I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on Beyonce concerts. And thank you so much for your support and my delusion. Thank you for supporting my delusion, I would be like, oh, Beyonce said she gonna come back. She said, wait at the stadium for her. I might camp out.

[Oscar Montoya]

She sends a picture of her writing that Louis Vuitton bike.

[Wayne Brady]

I'm on my way back.

[Lacey Mosley]

I know I said I wasn't coming, but I'm on my way back. I Be like, yes, I'll wait here. Like, I don't know. So I'm trying to just empathize with y' all, cuz this is. To me, it is feeling like you should have known. The flags are very red, babes. We're at the Grand Prix. But okay, I'mma try to go with y' all. Obviously, the gift cards allow them to, to keep the money.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah.

[Lacey Mosley]

And also when he was saying that, and also the Reddit thread, like when they were saying that if you were to complain, he would basically cut off your supply or access to buying the shoes. It was very much put in my mind, like that moment in Seinfeld where there was like the Soup Nazi and he was like, no soup for you. So if you did anything impolite, he was like, no soup for you. So everybody just like basically sucked him off and took whatever they could get because the soup was so good. Sometimes he wouldn't even give you the flavor you asked for. It's giving that. Like, y' all need shoes that bad? I'm judging.

[Carl Tart]

But it's the promise, because the language that, that he would use, it's coming. It'll be right there. So if you have to wait a little while longer, because it really is an addiction. Addiction. A. A sneaker head. That's. That's crack.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. Especially the ones who wrap them in plastic and never wear them. I'm like, put the shoe on. Damn. You just want to look at it. Okay, I guess, you know, crazy, man.

[Wayne Brady]

Crazy how people do that.

[Lacey Mosley]

I made this whole episode to attack you. Carl.

[Oscar Montoya]

Carl, how many Seekers do you have?

[Lacey Mosley]

How many Seekers?

[Wayne Brady]

You don't ask me that in front of a crowd of strangers.

[Lacey Mosley]

You know what, Carl?

[Wayne Brady]

Let's just say I'm a single man who lives in a two bedroom apartment.

[Carl Tart]

Say no more.

[Lacey Mosley]

So and let's get to when they started straight up scamming. Can you believe it's been this long? We. We're just getting to the scam. So this is when they started straight up scamming. So he took all these orders. Right. And he took these orders before the shoe, like the shoes hit the stores. And he made over $70 million.

[Oscar Montoya]

Damn.

[Lacey Mosley]

And he was pricing these between 115 to $200 a pair, which is cheaper than the expected price, which is like 225. Right. So. Right. I'm saying right to Carl. He knows. He's over here, like, keeping his composure, but I know he fudgeing knows about these shoes.

[Wayne Brady]

I mean, selling these for 115. I would. I would take a second look, 115. But I also would know in that moment, I'm like, that can't be right.

[Lacey Mosley]

Well, I mean, like, some of these people trusted him. Because imagine, like, back when he had the actual hookup with his, like, you know, stores, he was delivering the shoes.

[Carl Tart]

Which is the basis of a good scam, Right?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Carl Tart]

You build credibility so that, of course, your. Your word can't be questioned because you've delivered in the past.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah. You say, young bl.

[Carl Tart]

Young blood. Young blood. I was getting these shoes to you. Right.

[Lacey Mosley]

Ask a few questions. How's your life? How much money do you have? Exactly?

[Carl Tart]

And the next thing you know, you're not eating and you don't have any shoes.

[Lacey Mosley]

That's. That's exactly how it happens. So Mike was only able to get 6,000 pairs of this shoe. Remember, 600,000 pairs is what he told the girls he was giving them. And he was like, I got 6,000. So Mike was taking pre orders for shoes he knew he was never going to be able to get. Right. And he spent more than $10 million on the proceeds of, like. He spent it on luxury good goods. On luxury goods. Including. See, that's. I don't buy expensive stuff. That's why it's luxury goods. Okay. How do you say that word? Nothing's ever been good in my life. So he was getting watches, furs, handbags. A fur in Oregon is crazy. It rains too much. There you go. Be wet, bro.

[Wayne Brady]

The fur gonna be.

[Oscar Montoya]

No, it's an indoor fur. You don't understand. It gets drafty in the house, so you gotta wear that fur.

[Wayne Brady]

Bingo.

[Carl Tart]

And that's why you have to hire somebody with an umbrella to walk around with the fur.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, like a Fonzworth.

[Carl Tart]

Like a Fonzworth.

[Lacey Mosley]

Oh, I bet Fonzworth knows so much.

[Carl Tart]

We haven't heard anything from him.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's true.

[Lacey Mosley]

And he ain't gonna say shit. I think he took that umbrella and said, up, up and away.

[Oscar Montoya]

He married Poppins.

[Carl Tart]

He did.

[Lacey Mosley]

Poppins. I gotta go. Bye, y' all. So. Yikes. He can't pay this back. Right. So the feds say that Mike and Beth also use customer money to help make a down payment on a house and complete about 600, 000 of work to remodel it. Okay. Classy, though. They gutted it. I hope they were on, like, this old house or something or like, you know. So According to the U.S. department of justice, is Mike owed more than 65 million in unfulfilled shoe orders? By April of 2022. That doesn't include the 20 million they collected in bogus business loans using fudged paperwork.

[Oscar Montoya]

Wow.

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like if I use a blue pen, the bank gonna decline me. That's right.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah. The audacity. I don't know. That's some Caucasian confidence, though. I. I do. I do have to.

[Carl Tart]

To say that goes back to the Christie thing of. Of. Of if you went to jail for that kind of fraud and. But. But you're released. And PE People have gone to jail for far less in this with money wise. I mean.

[Lacey Mosley]

Wait, we still know. You mad about Blade.

[Carl Tart]

I am.

[Lacey Mosley]

We know where this comes from. I love that you're clouding it in. In like racial justice. I know it's really about Blade.

[Carl Tart]

I'm doing this for all of our people, but mostly for Blade.

[Lacey Mosley]

That Crystal could never be a vampire. Well, he was a vampire, Blade. Right?

[Oscar Montoya]

Or he was a half vampire.

[Lacey Mosley]

He had a. He had a.

[Carl Tart]

He was the day walker.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's right. He was a day walker.

[Lacey Mosley]

Was it cuz he was dark skin. He. He can stay in the sun longer, Just a little bit longer than the other bed products.

[Carl Tart]

That's what we were told in Florida.

[Lacey Mosley]

And I know that's in your textbook of education.

[Carl Tart]

Yep.

[Lacey Mosley]

Cause they ain't teaching y' all nothing else.

[Carl Tart]

Nope.

[Wayne Brady]

I don't need sunscreen. Well, technically I do, but not necessarily.

[Carl Tart]

It's a choice.

[Lacey Mosley]

I feel like in like Orlando, Florida, like elementary school, they're like, what do you want to be when you grow up? And then a black kid raised their hand and no, no, no. You can only be Blade. Everyone else, what do you want to be? Do you want to be president?

[Carl Tart]

You can be president of the vampires because you're just going to be Blade. That's it.

[Lacey Mosley]

So wrapping this up, kicking it behind bars, Mike and Bethany. Oh, someone said, all right, you ready to see them go to jail? She was like, all right. I hope that all right was because you want to see them go to jail, not because you're ready to leave my damn show.

[Oscar Montoya]

About time.

[Lacey Mosley]

About time. Oh, your wife brought you here. Cause it was a man's voice. Mimi, in the parking lot. Let's talk tennis shoes. So Mike and Bethany. Oh, I hate to see a babish go down after a man. Honey, you ain't have to run these companies. Why did you put this on your LinkedIn, Bethany? I'm sorry. This gives me flashbacks to Orange is the New Black. And basically the whole storyline was like, dudes got us here. Like everybody Had a flashback, and it was like a man, like, hold this gun.

[Wayne Brady]

Like, what she could have left. Oh, see, now. Now the audience has turned on me, and I can really say what I really want to say.

[Lacey Mosley]

Carl is a men's right activist.

[Wayne Brady]

No, no, I'm just saying I'm a. I'm a Los Angeles Clippers fan. And the former. And. And the former owner of the team is Donald Sterling. And in the FX show Clipped, they made it seem like Shelly Sterling was just like, I just was following my man, when in actuality, she was the real slum lord. She talked him into being like, you got to charge these black people way more rent money. She's the reason why we have rent protections in Los Angeles right now.

[Carl Tart]

What?

[Lacey Mosley]

Yeah.

[Wayne Brady]

She was the evil one. Women can be evil too. That's equality.

[Oscar Montoya]

That's feminism right there. That's okay. Professor Tar class is in session today.

[Carl Tart]

He's on your side.

[Wayne Brady]

I'm on your side.

[Lacey Mosley]

Listen, I agree with you. Women can be evil too. Absolutely. That's why I love the Handmaid's Tale, which I call white Harriet Tubman. White women like, oh, my God. Cuz you imagine this happened to us, and black people are like, it happened to us. You did it. You know, But I mean, to us, you did it. Nobody mean to us.

[Oscar Montoya]

We were like, oh, there are some.

[Lacey Mosley]

White women who supported it and they're also getting harmed. And we're like, yeah, I hope y' all watch this. And if it helps, if it helps to see so many close up shots of Elizabeth Moss's face, like, please, whatever it takes to just, like, not vote against our best interest, I'll support it. I support women's rights. I support women's wrongs. Now someone saying yes, I don't support them that hard. I'm joking. So Mike and Bethany were charged with wire fraud and falsifying information on 15 bank loan applications. Can you imagine getting 15 chances from the bank? If something hit before your check, they charge you$35.15 loan applications? This is crazy. The company owed Oregon over $19 million in unpacking pay taxes in 2023. Oregon, y' all not gonna see that. As of March 2025, they are removed from the state's list of delinquent taxpayers. Hey, I get scrubbed off of that. Mike and Bethany filed for dissolution of the company in 2022, declaring itself insolvent and unable to pay millions of dollars worth of debt. Wow. Nike representatives have been working with the court appointed receiver in law enforcement. And close to 60,000 pairs of shoes were found at the company's ware house. So that's a little bit of a recovery. 48,000nike shoes, 8.500adidas, and about 1100 pairs of Mike's personal collection. They took his collection too. That's like someone going into Carl's second bedroom taking all this.

[Oscar Montoya]

Yeah, you. You like have us over and we see the Louis Vuitton bike in your second bed.

[Wayne Brady]

Tiny. I couldn't afford the big one.

[Lacey Mosley]

It's a miniature Louis Vuitton tricycle.

[Wayne Brady]

Yeah, I'm riding around like the dude from Saw.

[Lacey Mosley]

All right.

[Oscar Montoya]

Would you like to scam?

[Lacey Mosley]

Thank you all so much for coming. Before we go, I do have to ask all of you beautiful gentlemen, where would you like to be found? It could be anything to watch. It could be your social media profiles, any podcast, anything you have coming up up where you want to be found.

[Oscar Montoya]

You. You can follow me on social media. Ozzy Mo. Ozzy. Whoa. Oh, I spoke way too fast. Ozzy Mo on Instagram and Blue sky you can listen to Drag Her. It's a Drag Race podcast recap podcast.

[Lacey Mosley]

Drag Her. You're talking so fast.

[Oscar Montoya]

I do Drag Her. Drag Race podcast and also your evangelist which is a Eurovision Song Contest podcast podcast. And you can follow us at your evangelist on Instagram.

[Lacey Mosley]

Yes.

[Wayne Brady]

I'll go. You. You got to. You got to go last, brother.

[Carl Tart]

No, I'll go. You're on SNL, man. Come on, it's easy. I'm Mr. Brady baby. Mr. Brady baby on Instagram. Wayne Brady on the official Wayne Wayne Brady on Facebook. If anybody does does that. And check out my podcast way what if it's an improvised podcast with Wayne Brady and Jonathan Mangum. You can watch let's Make a Deal during the daytime. Whose Line Is It Anyway? Still on. It's on the CW and yeah, that's it.

[Wayne Brady]

My Instagram is. Damnit, Carl. D A M M I T C A R L And you can. I. I do a lot of podcasts and you can listen to them all if you want to patreon.com hollywood handbook. I have a basketball podcast called the Flagran ones. I have a baseball podcast called the Filthy Ones. It's all a part of a Hollywood handbook cinematic universe. And also me and my. Me and my good friend Lamar woods used to host a a podcast called XOXO Gossip Kings.

[Carl Tart]

Where.

[Wayne Brady]

Oh thank you so much. And now where we we were, I watched for the first time and he rewatched the series Gossip Girl all the way through and we just launched a new one where I'm watching Sopranos for the first time and that one's called Xoxo Bot of bangs. And so that's all that Patreon patreon.com Hollywood Handbook. You can still watch Grand Crew on on Peacock. Please, I need the money. I have shoes to buy and have shoes to buy and also watch Saturday Night Live Saturday night Saturday.

[Lacey Mosley]

And if you don't know where to find Saturday Night Live at the on NBC D I V A L A C I Diva Lacy on all platforms. Scam got us Pod if you want to see all these photos that we commented on and Scam Goddess pod on Twitter if you want to talk to me. All episodes of Scam Goddess are streaming now on Hulu. And the first thank you, thank you Spin you and all episodes of Going Dutch are also streaming now on Hulu. We did get renewed for a second season. So babes, we're going back to Ireland.

[Wayne Brady]

That's crazy.

[Lacey Mosley]

We're going to have a good crack. It's not actual crack yet. That's what they call fun. And you can pick up my book Scam Goddess at all retailers. You can also listen to it on audiobooks. And yes, if you spoke today, see if you wasn't being scary you would got a free copy with an un unhinged signature in it. I don't know what it says. I know there's one that's like where did Ricky Martin go? So 300 of them. So they get weird. But thank you all so much for coming and spending your time with us tonight. It means the absolute world. I hope you have a wonderful night and I hope you all get home very, very safely. And please congregation stay Kick it in. Scam Goddess. This has been an earwolf production in association with Team Coco. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Cisneros and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming. Prices keep going up. These days it feels like being on an elevator that only goes up, going up. But not at Metro. We're pushing the down button. Going down, we've lowered prices. Get one line of 5G data for $40 period. That's 20% lower. And you get a free Samsung 5G phone when you bring your number. Only at Metro. Five year guarantee on eligible plans. Exclusion supplies. See website for details. Not available Fat Metro with T Mobile in the past six months.

[Carl Tart]

Tax supplies.

[Unknown]

You know that feeling when someone shows up for you just when you need it most. Yeah, I mean, we all need that. That's what Uber is all about. Not just a ride or dinner at your door. It's how Uber helps you show up for the moments that matter. Because showing up can turn a tough day around. Or make a a good one even better. Whatever it is, big or small, Uber is on the way. So you can be on yours. Uber on our way.