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- [00:02]
Lowe's Announcer
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- [00:25]
Ian Bick
Visit your nearby Lowes
- [00:30]
Sofi Loan Advertiser
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- [01:00]
Shopify Advertiser
You didn't start a business just to keep the lights on. You're here to sell more today than yesterday. You're here to win. Lucky for you, Shopify built the best converting checkout on the planet. Like the just one tapping ridiculously fast acting sky high sales stacking champion at checkouts. That's the good stuff right there. So if your business is in it to win it, win with Shopify. Start your free trial today@shopify.com win to
- [01:29]
Steve Fishman
listen all at once Ad free. Subscribe to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. Welcome to Lives of Crime. True Crime from True Criminals. I'm Steve Fishman from Orbit Media. Today's Criminal Ian Bick was trying to be a businessman. Well actually a business kid. Ian was 16 when the Roots of his criminal enterprise were set. You might say he led a double life. A teenager sleeping in a twin bed in his parents suburban house under his favorite music poster. And also according to the FBI, a cunning criminal conducting a nefarious Ponzi scheme. Though Ian maintains he didn't even know what a Ponzi scheme was until the FBI charged him with running one. We call this episode bad business kid.
- [02:40]
Ian Bick
I was bullied in elementary school. I was the kid that was called Chubby and I was just always an outcast. I was just like a little nerdy chubby kid. They would do crazy things like pick me up against the wall and like punch me in the stomach. I think that was like one of the most impactful things because I wanted to be liked so much. Everyone in that time period, seventh, eighth grade was a skater and so I walked around with a skateboard, heely sneakers on, like with the. The rollerblade on the bottom and wearing these baggy clothes and a hat. And I dyed my hair with blonde highlights. But I couldn't skate. I would just pretend like that because I wanted to fit in. I wanted to. To be one of the cool kids. When they all had those cool phones. I had to get a cool phone. And that, that's just what I did. That was my whole Persona. I just felt like every time I wasn't the center of attention, like, I was always, like, thinking, how can I become the center of attention? Do I tell a joke? Do I do something silly, Pull the fire alarm, do whatever. Whenever I wasn't in the center spotlight, I had to find a way to get into that spotlight. So I get the idea to do a school dance. So I went to the school board of governors and they said no. Everyone said no. The teachers said no. I got us a meeting with the principal and I brought my dad, Me, the board of governor, like, advisor was forced to go into this. And I sit us all down in the principal's office and I do a whole presentation of why we should do this and the benefits and security. I had everything planned out. It was so organized. And he said yes, and he overruled all of them. They essentially said, you could have the dance at the cafeteria. And I said, no, I don't want it in the cafeteria. I want to do it at a place that had to be a place that no one's ever done it before. And the night of the dance, I'm looking at 300 kids in this thing that I put together, and everyone's having a great time. And all the upperclassmen are like, praising me and they're enjoying me. They invite me to their after party. And that's when I really got in with everyone. I wanted to sustain that. Like, you don't just do cocaine one night, get addicted to it and not do it. And so I get this idea to monetize this brand. I guess I'm essentially building this popularity. And I called myself this is where it's At Productions. And I rent this theater out and I turn it into a nightclub for the night. I hire security, I hire police. I. I have a dance floor, I have speaker systems, lighting systems, marketing, everything. You name it, that's what I did at 16 years old. And we got like five or six hundred kids to come with the upsell being that this is a dance that wasn't going to be monitored by the school officials so you could booty grind, you could dance, there could be explicit music, and there was no liquor. But everyone pregamed, and people loved that.
- [05:56]
Superhuman Podcast Narrator
Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.
- [06:13]
Jordan Adonno
Within probably 10 days, I put on 10 pounds.
- [06:16]
Ian Bick
I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.
- [06:19]
Superhuman Podcast Narrator
Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [06:25]
Jordan Sillers
Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.
- [06:37]
Ian Bick
I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleepy thing, and there was a pool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.
- [06:46]
Jordan Sillers
I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [06:56]
Jordan Adonno
Hey, I'm Jordan Adonno. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out help on the Internet.
- [07:01]
Ian Bick
Help. Somebody, please.
- [07:03]
Jordan Adonno
But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions.
- [07:20]
Steve Fishman
Psych.
- [07:20]
Jordan Adonno
I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Cream of chicken soup.
- [07:39]
Steve Fishman
Hey, Cream. Cream of chicken soup.
- [07:42]
Jordan Adonno
This is help from a hypocrite. The worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Kultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [07:59]
Ian Bick
For whatever reason it pictured in my mind, you needed business cards, so I got business cards printed. And it's an Ian Bick, you know, managing partner. I turned my bedroom into, like, an office. I had a bed, and then I, like, had this nice desk, and I had a computer screen. I have files. And I started wearing a suit and tie to school. I would have my dad tie my tie. I would wear this cheap, you know, suit and blazer and this tie, and I bought this briefcase, and that was just the image. I was a teenage businessman. And that's when this kid that was a couple years older called us and said, listen, I know it's short notice, but EDM is exploding right now, which it was at these college campuses. Roscoe is going to be the next Avicii. And Avicii was selling out all of these arenas. I had no idea who Roscoe was, but I didn't even really know Avicii that well. I didn't care. I just, like. I was like, okay, is it gonna make us money? And they were like, listen, we're just short 15 grand. That's it. And me and my partners, we looked at each other like, this seems like a win. I gave him the money, and that was it. And people are like, wow, he got Rusco. It's a big deal. And our name's on the. It says, you know, university of Rhode island presents Rusko. So I'm like, okay, let's get the hotels. Let's get the limo. We go down there with some of the investors on the show, and this is awesome. Like, we're pulling up to this. This is my first time ever stepping onto a college campus. The girls are hot. Everything's great. We got these backstage passes. I'm 17 at this time, not 18 yet. And it's awesome. I just felt like I was on top of the world. Like, this is it. This is successful.
- [09:41]
Steve Fishman
S.
- [09:43]
Ian Bick
I remember, you know, very distinctly just staying in the back of the room, like, my friends were partying, having fun, and I'm just standing in the back, like, taking this all in. Like, wow, this is great. We pulled this off. And that's when Dave's partner taps me on the shoulders, like, buddy, man, what a night. And I'm like, yeah, this is great. He's like, dude, we took a beating. And that's when he explains to me how the show did not sell enough tickets. They gave away a lot of tickets. And I was just like. I was shocked. That was in disbelief. And instead of making money on that event, I got $2,500 back, and I was now at the cross point. Do I tell the investors what happened? Two things are in my mind. One, if I tell them the truth, they're going to think that I'm lying to them because it looked like it was busy and that I'm just trying to steal the profits. The other aspect was, well, you know, if I tell them the truth, I'm going to lose popularity because I'M now branded as this whiz, successful entrepreneur kid. And then the other thing that outweighed it was there's five other shows that will make up for this, so no one's going to notice. And I decide to tell them that the show made money. I said, hey, the show's that show made money and you're gonna get X amount of dollars back from it. And every show tanks drastic losses, just nothing. I'm stalling the best I can. Hey, we're waiting on the concert money, we're waiting on ticketing money. Any lie I could come up with, making fake emails, whatever I have to do just to stall people so I can work on getting them their money. I start borrowing from local drug dealers that I knew, like borrow five grand from them for a couple weeks for a couple grand interest on top just to move things around, borrowing from one to pay another. And they're just pressing like my phone's ringing every day, hey, where's the money? Where's the money? And they're thinking they made the profit. So I'm trying to deliver this. Word is now getting out that I'm making people money. So this kid comes to me and he says, listen, I can introduce you to this kid. He was always like the fighter, always getting into fights. At school. He had lost vision in his eye after an accident. He sued and got the money, like a million dollars. I go in through the back door of his parents house in the basement. It's him and his friend and he's just playing video games the whole time. They're smoking weed, playing video games. And he's like, pitch us. I said, I have this investment opportunity, you give me X amount of dollars and I will give you 50% in profit, guaranteed, no risk, nothing, back within 30 days. So if you gimme 50 grand, I'll give you 75 grand back in 30 days. Got the checks, he split it up, he did a hundred thousand dollar check and $120,000 check bank checks. And then the word around town is Ian's offering 50% rate of returns. And it didn't take long before I had half a million dollars in the bank from everyone, parents, kids calling, wanting to invest because people saw these returns. I had parents, I had fraternity parents in Rhode island calling me and they were wiring me $50,000. I would go to a Chipotle in Danbury and meet up to get 20,000 in cash from people. Everyone's coming out of the woodwork with money and all this money is going into this Wells Fargo Business account. And the bankers are looking at me like, who the fuck is this kid? Like it's crazy. Like it was just all this money was coming in. It's all 50% rate of returns. And Dave from the old company comes back to the table and he says, listen, we screwed up. We learned from our mistakes. I was hesitant. I was like, I don't know. But they sold me on it. Like, these are some big names they're throwing at me. Chief Keef, Tyga, two Tyga shows, Ace, Hood, like all these big names. These are like big leagues now. Like, let's get into this. We're talking serious money. Quarter million dollars in concerts. That's live nation money. That's, you know, that's serious. It's not just like some little team club night. This is high end production. So on a sellout on every show, we were going to gross like $1.2 million and that's a $600,000 profit. This is July. The concerts aren't slated till September. I'm promising people 50% rates of return every 30 days. So there's no cash flow in between. I was 18, I couldn't get a credit card, had no credit. So I'm borrowing from one person to pay another person because that was my business. So the only cash flow that we have coming in is other lenders money. And we're spending it too because we're thinking, okay, the concert profits, we're gonna have a pretty good share. So let's go buy jet skis. That'll come out of our back end. We need to pay ourself for doing this work. Buy jet skis, go to dinners. We figured, hey, it's a write off, it's a business expense. And we're like, let's take a trip to California. We're excited, you know, cash is rolling in. And that week was just insane. We're all 18. We go into this strip club. And I knew at that time you had to get singles. So we went to the bank before and we got a bunch of singles and we were in there. That's when I fell in love first with a stripper. Her stripper name was Susie. I don't know what her real name was. We start talking. She's asking me what we're here for. I'm explaining that like, I'm a teenage businessman and we're here on a business trip. And then she was just interested and we were talking and we just like hit it off and she's like dancing on me. And I paid for A couple more dances. I was convinced I was gonna marry this girl. Like, I was gonna date this girl. And then I was like, what are you doing? Do you wanna, like, come back with us? And that's when I invited her back. And she's like, well, can I bring a friend? And I was like, yeah, of course you can bring a friend. We go back the Embassy Suites. And I was like, I can't have them in our room. I'm gonna go get a second room. And I bring these women to this other room, and they're just, like, on top of me. And I'm throwing singles all over the hotel bed. And I remember our other friend knocked on the door, and he comes in. He's like, dude, all the cops are outside. And that's when we look out the window. And it's like dea, FBI, and the Crown Vicks. And they're lined up and down the street, and they got, like, a SWAT team. And I'm thinking they're coming after for me with these girls, the strippers. Thinking I'm doing something wrong. I was scared. I thought they were coming for us. Thought we were. So I'm like, you guys gotta get the out of here. You guys gotta go. You gotta go. So they throw their trench coats on. They're still in their stripper clothes. And then my other friend goes on the balcony and he's like, they're not here for us. Had nothing to do with us. I didn't even get laid that night. My stripper bride to be never saw her again. Meanwhile, we were selling tickets and these shows. I believed, okay, we failed the first time. We lost money. This is our big hit. On paper, it was looking great. We had all these tickets sold. We were going to make, like 100 grand profit. I got a wire transfer the following Monday for $17,000 out of my $120,000 investment. I didn't know how bad of debt I was in until I finally put everything together. And the spreadsheet said I owed $1.3 million with interest. And that 1.3 doesn't even include drug dealers I owed at the time or gangs or this or that. It's crazy. I felt like I was drunk and I was sobering up, and I was just trying to stay drunk. Like, I was in, like, limbo. It was so bad. Like, the anxiety, the stress of everything. I started lying in the beginning because I wanted to be liked and popular. And I still saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Now I don't really see a light. And I'm just lying to stall so I could figure this out. And I'm ducking one of the larger shady figures I have taken money from. I owed him like, 80 grand with interest. They were a local biker gang, and they gave me the money at a high interest rate and I didn't pay them. My job is to figure out how to stay alive and how to give them what they want without the physical money being there. So we're at the club one day before we're about to open. It was the daytime. The lights are on. There's big windows, so the sun's coming through, it's getting cold. So he comes in, storms in the club. And I'm like, hey, how you been? Like, pretending like I haven't been ducking his calls for the last couple days. Then he pulls out a gun. And that's when he's like, shut the up. He's just like. He's like, why are you ducking my calls, Ian? Why are you ducking my calls? And he's like, ian, come downstairs. And he like, takes me downstairs to this basement of the club. And there's like this door that leads downstairs to an unfinished basement. Guy went first. And it's a quick flight. It's like, you know, 10 second walk to the bottom. And it's a low ceiling, no taller than me. And the only lights are like this one, like, light bulb that you flick on. And then like the little lamp over the desk. And he's like going through the desk and, and looking for something. And there's a staple gun on the, on the table. And I'm thinking, like, he's gonna staple gun my fingers. And I'm like, come on, man, you don't have to do this. I'm gonna start. I was just saying whatever I could to get myself out of the situation. I'm gonna get your money. She's like, yeah, but it's principle now. Gotta answer your phone. And I'm just like, apologizing. I'm like, I'm not trying to fuck you. Like, I'm just like. I'm just, you know, saying whatever I have to say. And he doesn't grab the staple gun and he grabs a screwdriver. And I'm like, what is he. Is he gonna stab me? Like, what's he gonna do? He's like, put out your hand. He has my hand out. He's holding it with the other hand, and he just takes the end of the screwdriver and he just starts whacking each finger. He's like, are you understanding what I'm saying? And my, like, fingers are throbbing and. And they're just, like, turning black and blue. Just get the fucking money and answer your phone. And then they left. I wanted to live to fight another day. That was my priority. I just remember, like, hearing the loud banging, and I, like, woke up really fast. And I look outside my blinds, and that house is just surrounded. There was, like, someone in the bushes right outside my window. And the cars are lined up and down the street and that the house was surrounded with cops and bulletproof vests and guns. There were so many agencies involved. The irs, the FBI, the postal inspectors, local police, state police, the banking commission. And the staircase is right up above my room. So my mom's rushing down the stairs. She opens the door, and they're like, step back, ma'. Am. Where is he? Then they rush into my room, and I'm in just boxers. Literally just boxers. And they put me on the bed. I'm handcuffed. And then they help put jeans on. They go through my closet and give me cowboy boots. They throw a shirt on, like, can I brush my teeth? They're like, no. And they escort me out of the house. And my dad and mom were standing in the kitchen. They're really confused. My mother is crying. And as the cops are leading me out, I'm just like, fuck. I didn't know it until, like, the agent said, you were running a Ponzi scheme. I had no idea. I didn't think what I was doing was illegal. I was just taking time. The very first night in prison, it was at the detention center in Rhode Island. Honestly, that first night, it was a relief because I was in a stressful. For two or three years, I had lived at the edge of a cliff, hanging on by a pinky every single day. And when I got to prison, there was no more threats. There was no, where's the money? Transfer this money. It was peace, finally. Peace.
- [24:10]
Steve Fishman
Ian Bick did almost two years in a federal prison, which he says wasn't all that bad. The once chubby kid got into the best shape of his life, and when he came out, he started Wait for It, a successful podcast Locked in with Ian Bick. Lots of true crime from true criminals in that one. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. The creator and host of Lives of Crime is Steve Fishman. Executive producers Steve Fishman and Kevin Wardes. Senior producer Michael Epstein. Producer and engineer Austin Smith. Story editor Dan Bobkoff. Our sound designer is Bianca Salinas. Assistant producer Eric Axelrod. Special thanks to the inimitable Fisher Stevens, the glamorous Rhea Julian and our agents at wme. Evan Krasek, Marissa Hurwitz, Ben Davis. Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Company Number One. Follow us @orbitmediafm on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.