“Vitaly Ruined My Life!” Akash Breaks Silence On Being Falsely Accused & Doxxed On Livestream

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Vitaly Ruined My Life!" Akash Breaks Silence On Being Falsely Accused & Doxxed On Livestream

Podcast: The Iced Coffee Hour
Hosts: Graham Stephan & Jack Selby
Guest: Akash
Date: April 24, 2026

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Episode Overview

This emotionally-charged episode of The Iced Coffee Hour features Akash, who was recently and falsely accused of predatory behavior by internet personality Vitaly, live in front of tens of thousands—an event that quickly went viral. Akash shares the full story of how the accusation upended his life, how social media amplified the crisis, and the harrowing process of proving his innocence. He reflects on the psychological toll, the aftermath of public doxxing, the role of law enforcement, and the broader consequences of such public misidentification.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background & Choice of Platform

• Akash expresses gratitude for joining The Iced Coffee Hour, choosing it over mainstream media due to his trust in the hosts:

  "I've been fans for over six plus years now. ... You've earned my intellectual and ethical trust and I feel very comfortable sharing my story with you."
  (01:51)

2. The Incident: Live Accusation and Immediate Fallout

• The Setup: Akash, after chatting with a woman on a dating app, is ambushed by Vitaly and a group with cameras, accused live of predatory behavior in front of ~35,000 viewers.

  "Within 30 seconds of me exiting my car, there’s just like nine people with five cameras shoved in my face saying the craziest stuff." (07:03)

• The Spread: Accusations immediately go viral, reaching Akash’s family, friends, business associates, even relatives in India within hours.
• Doxxing: Sensitive details—including business and identity—exposed publicly, resulting in mass harassment, including to his family and business partners.

  "Underneath their like social media pages, there were comments saying, like, falsely accusing me and people repeating the same messaging that Vitaly was like, falsely promoting online and just harassing me..." (04:10)

3. Police Involvement & Exoneration

• Instant Response: Knowing his innocence, Akash calls the police to establish a record and protect himself.
• Police Procedure: Surrenders his phone; officers review evidence from both parties.
• Outcome: After a thorough review, officers apologize, declare Akash innocent, and instruct Vitaly’s team to take down the defamatory content.

  "The female cop... called the woman and she told her, this guy's innocent. You have the wrong guy. We're letting him go. He's completely innocent. You need to take down the videos. Otherwise..." (10:48)

• Timeline: The entire process — from ambush to exoneration — takes roughly 3.5 to 4 hours.

  "To my memory, around three and a half hours." (14:12)

4. Emotional & Social Impact

• Fear & Anxiety: Akash describes the agony of losing control, the impact on his privacy, and his concern for how his family would perceive and be affected by the ordeal.

  "I had never felt less control over anything in my life..." (14:26)

• Gratitude for Law Enforcement and Family Support:

  "I was talking to my parents, and they were just like, we love you. We support you. We know you didn't do anything wrong." (22:25)

• Lasting Reputational Damage:

  "If I were to Google a girl's name and it said wrongfully accused... I'm not getting anywhere near this girl." (45:04)

• Safety Concerns: Akash and family hire security due to persistent threats after doxxing and public exposure.

  "Okay, we hired security. Even though it's super expensive. We were just scared, really scared..." (31:40)

5. Nature of the "Mistake"

• Misidentification & Decoy Error: The woman working as a decoy mistakenly matched evidence and identities, messaging multiple people at once, leading to Akash's wrongful accusation:

  "...She mixed up. Apparently she, like, thought that she was talking to me when she was talking to... one of the other [guys]." (19:12)

6. The Power and Risk of Virality

• The hosts and Akash discuss how clips, especially “delete the video” apologies, are instantly and massively amplified, making retraction or damage control almost impossible.

  "[Apology] did have an effect on the virality of it... It's everywhere. I think, like, 200, 250 million different people have seen this entire thing." (28:16)

7. Public Reaction—Support and Hate

• After Exoneration: Public skepticism remains, with some accusing Akash of staging the event or bribing police, despite clear evidence and apologies from accusers:

  "They don't believe me. Even though all parties involved have fully cleared me and said, this is a mistake on the Tali side..." (30:35)

• Racism and Threats: Akash receives ongoing hate and racist abuse, compounding the trauma.

8. Reflection on “Predator-Hunting” Content

• Critique of Online Vigilantism: The group scrutinizes “predator-catcher” channels, noting their methods often undermine justice and prioritize clicks over due process.

  "If you map this out across the timeline of his career, he is clearly not shown any form of moral... standard with what he's done. Like, he's Just chased whatever most outrageous thing that he can do for views." (41:22)

• Discussion of Proper Documentation: Emphasis on the need for proper evidence and legal procedure, referencing more responsible creators like “Anxiety War”, and concerns over exploitation, blackmail, or ineffective “sting” tactics.

9. Long-Term Effects & Moving Forward

• Lasting Digital Footprint: Akash worries about the incident shadowing his reputation for years; future relationships (business or personal) could be affected by search engine results.
• Support and Solidarity: Akash reports a flood of support, especially from parents and strangers empathizing with his ordeal.
• Future Actions: Weighing potential legal action; immediate priority is mental health and family well-being.

  "I'm keeping all my options open. Right now. My number one concern is the mental health of myself, my family and the people around me. He has to be held accountable." (32:57)

10. Key Lessons and Appeal for Change

• Faith and Perspective: Akash credits spirituality for his resilience, expressing hope that some good can emerge from the ordeal.

  "God gives the most difficult battles to his strongest warriors. I pray that I am a vessel to do something good." (47:44)

• Advocacy: Urges listeners to donate not to him, but to The Innocence Project, which supports those wrongfully accused.

  "...if you want to help in any type of way possible, the falsely accused, please consider donating to the Innocence Project." (47:44 & 50:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Nightmarish Experience:

  "I felt like the most unlucky person in the entire world... And then towards the end of all this, like a couple hours later, I felt like the like lucky, unluckiest man. And then the luckiest man within the same night." (35:03)

• Policing & Due Process:

  "If there were any other cops who were there, who knows if they would have taken the time to properly go through your case and listen to you... I'm very filled with gratitude to all the cops that worked with me and took their time to fully investigate what happened." (11:16)

• To Vitaly (Hypothetically):

  "You tried to ruin my life. And there was no care for due process or verification..." (36:28)

• On the Virality Trap:

  "Him saying delete the video is enough for a lot of people to be like, let me find the video... It's like the Streisand effect. It makes it worse." (28:15)

• On the Impact of False Accusations:

  "Proper verification and like, proper procedure to make sure that you have the right person is so, so incredibly important. This can ruin lives..." (32:57)

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Important Timestamps

• Akash’s Introduction and Reason for Sharing His Story: 01:51
• Details of the Incident and Initial Ambush: 03:52 – 07:03
• Police Involvement & Evidence Review: 09:13 – 12:49
• Emotional Toll and Family Support: 14:26 – 22:25
• Error in the Decoy Sting Operation: 19:12
• Public Fallout, Doxxing & Threats: 24:05 – 31:40
• Reflection on Online Vigilantism & Predator Content: 38:02 – 43:44
• Long-Term Reputational Impact: 45:04 – 47:42
• Lessons, Faith, and Advocacy for Innocence Project: 47:44 – 50:27
• Akash’s Desired Legacy and Passions: 50:33

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Closing Thoughts

Akash’s story is a raw exploration into the destructive speed of social media, the dangers of public vigilantism, and the importance of due process. His ordeal is a sobering reminder that viral justice too often trades accuracy for spectacle, with consequences that linger long after apologies. He closes with hope that his experience will spur support for the falsely accused, promote responsible content creation, and reaffirm the value of family, faith, and proper legal redress.

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Support the Innocence Project:
Link to organization discussed by Akash
(Mentioned at 50:01)

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

we made in one of our last streams.

[A]

I was falsely accused by Vitali live in front of millions of people. I swear to God she never told me. Wait, really? My bad bro. The racism, the bullying, the threatening of physical harm all the time. While I'm completely and fully innocent. Don't look at me. My I'll you up bro. They didn't care about the truth. I'm the one who called the cops. I'm the one who gave them my phone. And within a few hours, the police proved that I was completely innocent. We were completely, completely wrong and we

[B]

made a terrible mistake.

[A]

By then it was too late.

[C]

How did that ruin your life?

[A]

One of the reasons why I wasn't leaving the house was because holy sorry to your family, friends, your co workers

[B]

and I feel really terrible. Are you suing Vitali? Akash, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

[A]

Thank you so much for having me guys. It's such an honor to be here. I'm filled with so much gratitude that we were able to have this conversation. A lot of people have reached out to me and podcast reporters, mainstream media, institutional media, and I specifically chose to talk to you guys because I've been fans for over six plus years now. I love your content. I really relate to it and through watching you guys for so long, you've earned my intellectual and ethical trust and I feel very comfortable sharing my story with you.

[B]

Wow. Well that's. Thank you so much for coming the podcast. Honestly, it's such an honor because I imagine how crazy your life has been over the past 72 hours over the past week. Like I imagine everything's moving a mile a minute, but for you to take the time to come on the show, that means a lot.

[A]

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, life has been a nightmare recently. Things have been so crazy and so hectic and the support has been amazing from the online community and support from my family and friends and. How do you even, how do you even explain this, guys?

[C]

You know, I mean, we'll start with the beginning. Vitality accused you of being a predator in front of millions of people.

[A]

How did that live as well, right?

[C]

How did that ruin your life?

[A]

It's like you can't even pick one thing to focus on because, like, not only was there the false accusation, not only was there the harassment, the bullying, calling out my business before, during, and after meeting me, the fans reaching out to my family during the live stream, calling them, saying, your son is in trouble. He's going to go to jail, going to go to prison. And this was all during the live stream when my family couldn't contact me at all.

[C]

How many people were watching the live stream, do you know?

[A]

To my knowledge, it was around 35, 000 people live.

[B]

Holy.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And then immediately it was getting clipped by everyone. Getting clipped by people in India, spread across India within the same night.

[C]

So this was like instantaneous. Like as soon as you're on camera, people are already like clipping and sharing.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like all like, my friends found out, my family found out, cousins in India found out. Business, business partners were being reached out to immediately. And underneath their like social media pages, there were comments saying, like, falsely accusing me and people repeating the same messaging that Vitaly was like, falsely promoting online and just harassing me, like dms, all within the same night.

[C]

Did you know who Vitali was?

[A]

Any kid who grew up my age, Vitaly was one of the most popular YouTubers at that time. So like, of course I knew him and I've watched his content and I knew who he was. And in the beginning, obviously, like the first 30 seconds, I was just really confused and I was like looking like this, pointing, because I was just, what is going on? I was like shocked, confused, curious. And there were so many things happening at the same time. Not only were they like being really racist. 16 year old. Not only were they like falsely accusing me of some of the most horrible things you could ever like accuse someone of, they were also like threatening me with physical violence. Don't look at me in my eye, bitch. I'll fucking fuck you up, bro. Harassing me completely. And then right after That I was like, okay, I need to call the cops.

[C]

How did all of this start? Like, how did you even come in contact with this person to begin with?

[A]

Yeah, great, great question. So, like, millions of people every single day. I was talking to a woman online on a dating app. Legally and consensually, of course. And we talked for a couple of hours and we made plans to meet. And I had no reason whatsoever to assume anything was Focus Features in Blumhouse present Obsession. When I have a crush on a guy no one knows, be careful. I wish Nikki loved me more than anyone in the entire world. Who you wish for? Obsession is 96% fresh on rotten tomatoes. I love you so, so, so, so much. It's blood soaked nightmare fuel, Brooke. Horse blood you put on her. You have been warned. Obsession. Rated R under 17 on a minute without parent. Only in theaters May 15 with special engagements in Dolby. Like, wrong.

[C]

So nothing stood out. There were no red flags.

[A]

Absolutely not.

[C]

Yeah, just seemed like a normal conversation. And this happened hours. So, like, you woke up that morning, started talking to someone, met up and like this, it was like, pretty quick.

[A]

Yes, yes.

[B]

So it was the same day.

[A]

Yes, yes. And after I agree to meet up with her, within 30 seconds of me exiting my car, there's just like nine people with like five cameras shoved in my face saying the craziest stuff. I had no idea what was going on. I mean, in my head I was just like, is this a fucking prank? Like, what is going on in my head? And I think I even said this in the video. Like, is this a prank? Because I knew I was completely innocent and I knew that, like, I had done nothing wrong. And so in my head I was like, maybe they're just doing this, like, for views or whatever. Because I knew I did nothing wrong. And then I tried to talk to them. I tried to tell them, look, like, this wasn't me. I didn't do anything wrong. I wanted to show them all the texts and everything. I wanted to get to the bottom of this. And the woman started talking about a second Snapchat. And I was like, I only have one Snapchat. I don't have two Snapchats. And that's not me. You're talking to someone else. That's a completely different person. I didn't know if it was a completely different person. I don't know if she made up the Snapchat, if if like, this was something done by them on purpose. I had no idea. And I asked to look at the Snapchat and, like, this is all on the video that's released online, even the six minute video. I asked to look at the Snapchat and they, they wouldn't show me. And then right after that, I'm pretty sure is when I was like, okay, I need to call the cops immediately because I want all the evidence to be documented. Like, I, I don't feel safe right now. And most importantly, all the evidence to exonerate me and clear my name fully, because I'm fully innocent needs to be documented immediately. Immediately. And the only solution towards documenting that evidence properly, in my opinion, was the cops. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to call the cops immediately. Then they came and I was like, take my phone, look through everything, go through everything. I waved my. Like any normal person, if you've watched any type of Laurie TV show or

[C]

they all say, don't say anything.

[A]

Exactly, don't say anything without the presence of counsel. Like, you should know your rights, protect your rights. Anything you can say can and will be used against you.

[C]

Like, so they read you the Miranda rights was like, hey, man, anything you say can and will be used against you. It's like you want to speak. They went through that entire thing with you.

[A]

Yeah. So in the beginning, I was, I was trying to get them to go through all the evidence in the very beginning, the moment that I met up with them. But they said, you need to wait until we read you your Miranda rights. And so I had to wait before, you know, I could talk to them about anything. And then I, like, waived my rights and I told them, look through my phone, look through everything. I have nothing to hide. I want to figure this out with you. At this point in time, everything was like a puzzle in my head where the pieces didn't fit. It was like a mystery that needed to be solved. And so it was like, it was actually like me and four of the officers worked together, primarily three different officers, we worked together in conjunction to comb through all the evidence from both sides. And I wasn't able to comb through some of the evidence from the other side, but they did it. And they found me fully innocent and completely clear of doing all wrongdoing to. To the point where these officers inside the interrogation room were profusely apologizing.

[C]

So they checked Vitale's phone and all of their stuff. Right. Cause what's to prevent Vitale from saying, no, I'm not giving anything.

[A]

You gotta get a lawyer. Yeah. So it was the woman who gave all the evidence to the cops from her side and after combing through all of her evidence on call, the female cop who you can see in the video, she called the woman and she told her, this guy's innocent. You have the wrong guy. We're letting him go. He's completely innocent. You need to take down the videos. Otherwise. Wow.

[C]

So she complied, but she must have genuinely thought she was, like, correct by complying, or do you think that she was confused too?

[A]

Well, so in the video itself, you'll hear a girl saying, maybe we made a mistake. She was saying that I blocked her when I was on video. What? Like, I was showing my phone to everyone. When did I have time to do something like that? Why would I want to get rid of any evidence to support my name? I have nothing to hide. Well, basically, what happened was inside the interrogation room, after I'd given all my evidence to the cops, I told the cops, please ask her for her evidence if you don't have it yet. And then they called her, and they, like, were on call with her for an hour, and she gave them all the evidence, and they were like, this guy's completely innocent. To the point where, like, they were like, they were telling her, he's completely innocent. He did nothing wrong. You guys got the wrong guy. You guys got the wrong guy. We're letting him go. Yeah. They were all just profusely apologizing, saying, we've never seen anything like this. Like, we're so sorry that this happened to you. This is like, a one in a million chance for this to happen. If there were any other cops who were there, who knows if they would have taken the time to properly go through your case and listen to you and that. I'm very filled with gratitude to all the cops that worked with me and took their time to fully investigate what happened and clear me within the same night.

[B]

So how much time passed between you stepping out of the car, immediately getting bombarded with Vitaly and his entire crew, and then being exonerated by the cops? Our guest on this episode was probably seen hundreds of millions of times this week, which is just absolutely insane because his story broke on X, and within hours, clips were everywhere. And that's just the world that we're in now. The right clip at the right moment spreads faster than anything. Clipping is, without a doubt, the most popular way that information is being received right now. It's really how stories spread, how people get discovered, and how businesses get exposure they could have never gotten otherwise. And that's why we've partnered with Opus Clip. Opus Clip finds the best moments from your video and generates multiple clips that are instantly ready for social media. Really guys, it's never been this easy to consistently post short form videos. Opus Clip can write captions to save you even more time, and it automatically reframes and optimizes your videos, making them ready for any platform. And now with a mobile app, you can clip anywhere at any time. Seriously, guys, Opus Clip has just been a huge help clipping up literally all of our content for the iced coffee hour. So if you're ready to streamline your business, Opus Clip is absolutely perfect for you. Check out Opus Clip at Opus Pro Ich. That is Opus Pro Ich. Thanks again so much to Opus Clip for supporting the show. And back to the episode. So how much time passed between you stepping out of the car, immediately getting bombarded with Vitali and his entire crew, and then being exonerated by the cops?

[A]

To my memory, around three and a half hours.

[B]

So walk me through this three and a half, four hours. Then I'm curious, like, where was your mind going? Was your family calling you? What did you experience in those four hours?

[A]

So the moment I first met the cops, I. They had my phone, they took my phone and in the car I was just, I had never felt less control over anything in my life. Up, like, up until this point, I just felt the least in control. And I ended up turning like, to like spirituality in my faith. And I was just like, God, please help me. I did nothing wrong. Please, like, make sure all the evidence stays and like, please make like, just please help me. Please help me. I did nothing wrong. And I was just, I was like, the whole world is gonna, you know, think something about me that's completely false and like a lie and just my like, intimate life. No one would want their intimate conversations that they have in the bedroom with their partner to be put out to the entire world. Like it was some. Like, this is something. I'm a very private person, you know. And now all of a sudden the whole world has their eyes on me, like tens of thousands of DMs, even though, like, I haven't even shown my face in any of my posts or anything purposely. I was, I was really scared. I was scared for whether or not like in the moment, right after it happened, I was like, what could have happened if I wasn't found fully innocent and cleared within the same night? Like, if it was any other different cops or anything. Yeah. In the beginning I didn't know if, you know, the cops are going to fully investigate everything or if they were going to look through all the evidence I had. No, this was my first time ever, like, you know, stepping foot inside of a police station, you know, much less in the back of a police car. The most that I've ever gotten. I'm a very risk averse person in everything in my life. I'm just very risk averse. Like, I would never, like, go skydiving, for example. I don't speed on when I'm driving because, like, I don't want to use up my luck on the road. And so the max I've ever gotten was like a speeding ticket like five years ago. And now, you know, I'm fighting for my life in the moment. Like, even though there was so much like, racism, like, crazy racism, like, it

[C]

was like, yeah, what was, what was that like? Like, have you, have you had comments ever, like, directed at you like that before?

[A]

Oh, my gosh. Like, there's always some experiences like, as like, you know, like a minority. You'll, like, just, you'll. You'll have some type of experience. It might not be like really big or anything like that, but like, nothing at all compared to like, what was going on then. I mean, the moment he pulls up, he's just being so, so, so racist, which was like, astonishing and absurd to me. I was like, like, what are you doing? You know? And in the moment, honestly, even though all of these injustices were happening, like, crazy things were happening, my main thought was like, my main, like, priority and my main focus in my mind was like, what is going on? What is going on? I was so confused. I was, I was just trying to understand the situation and then, like, get all the evidence and then, like, prove that I just didn't do anything wrong at all. I was like, okay, like, the first thing that I need to do is just focus on, like, proving my innocence.

[C]

So when they proved you innocent, did anybody in your life still believe that? Like, hey, maybe, maybe he's not innocent or did everyone come around?

[A]

When I first released a statement, before I released the audio, everyone was still in doubt. Even though Vitaly had a video and written statement saying that, you know, I didn't do anything wrong. And even though I put out a statement saying that, you know, like, even the cops fully cleared me and proved me innocent, people were still thinking that maybe we paid them off or like, there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute me or whatever. But in reality, the truth is they found evidence that it was a full 100% mistake on Vitaly's team. Guys, like, this was a complete blunder and mistake by his team. I did nothing wrong. Like, there's evidence that this was a mistake on Vitaly's team and Vitaly's side.

[C]

What was the mistake?

[A]

Great question from your perspective. So, yeah, so, I mean, like, this is the clear cut mistake that they made. The decoy who? Her job is to talk to as many guys as possible on dating apps and then move them over to Snapchat, tell them her fake age, and, like, get them to meet up. That never happened. She never told me anything. Like, if you check the video, I added her on Snapchat and I sent three messages and never got a response back. And so then we kept texting on the dating app and she was texting a bunch of guys at the same time because, like, that's what she was being incentivized to do. And she mixed up. Apparently she, like, thought that she was talking to me when she was talking to, like, one of the other. Who knows how many guys she was currently talking to at the same time. And then, like, apparently she thought it was me and it wasn't. She was talking to someone completely different, a real guy. She was talking to them, and that's who she had the conversation with on Snapchat. And it was never me. Her. And I never, ever talked off the dating app because she never responded. And the police saw that.

[C]

What was the hardest part for you, mentally? Was it like, fear? Anger? How do you keep your composure?

[A]

I keep my circle close and very tight. The biggest emotion that I had was just my family. I didn't know if. I didn't know what was gonna happen. I didn't know if they were going to, like, I don't know. I didn't know what they were gonna think. I didn't know whether they would believe me. Like, in the beginning, I was just really, they're my strength. They're my rock, my foundation. I didn't know what they were gonna think. And that was probably the most scariest thing of all. And, like, surprisingly enough, like, the second biggest feeling that I had was, like, gratitude for my parents. The first time that I called them and got to talk to them, because I wasn't allowed to, you know, talk to anyone because I didn't have my phone until after I got fully proven innocent because they were using my phone as a source of, like, evidence to look at. And combed through my entire phone right after the cop talked to. On the audio, you can see I'm going to give the. The cop says, I'm going to give the phone to your son, so you can speak to him now. And so I was calling, like, I was talking to my parents, and they were just like, we love you. We support you. We know you didn't do anything wrong. Like, we're here for you. And like that. Like, the first time I cried was when I heard the cop say I was innocent for the first time, determined

[C]

that he was not the right suspect

[A]

we were looking for. So your son was perfectly compliant. He was cool with us, and he. He just happened to be wrong place, wrong time. And then the second time, like, I choked up and started crying was when, like, I heard that from my parents, and I was just, like, choking up, saying, like, thank you guys so much. Like, I don't know how many, like, parents would really stick up for their kids in a situation like that when private details are getting exposed. Like, they just. All they cared about was supporting me. They said, like, we just. We love you. We're here for you no matter what. That, like, you're our son. Like, we're so proud of you. Good job for calling the cops. We're really, really proud of you for calling.

[C]

That could have gone so differently had you just said nothing.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Or just left or left or. I'm gonna retain an attorney because I'm gonna tell you, man, had you done that, it would have taken months.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And if you left, like, they could have just said, you deleted evidence.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And, I mean, I. I knew that I didn't do anything wrong. And so in the beginning, I tried to explain that to them. Like, I was. I was trying to explain it to them, and I was. I was trying to, like, work out what happened. Like, where was. Like, was this a prank? Is this, like, miscommunication? What's going on? And they didn't care about that in any way, shape, or form. We had no choice. Like, I had no choice, but I had no choice. Like, at first, I tried to, you know, talk to them sort of calmly and explain what was going on. And then, like, when they started physically threatening me, at least I'd already called the cops at this point.

[C]

I'm curious, the viewers of this live stream, how do they find out, like, your name and, like, try to find your family? Like, how do they do that?

[A]

Yeah. So even in the beginning, before I had met her in person, they were calling out my business, and then during the live stream, when I was calling the cops and I was giving them my information, they didn't mute it. Mute the mic.

[C]

Oh, so they were filming you basically saying, here's like my info.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And then they muted it with the cross streets.

[A]

Yeah, like the, the, the moment when they muted it was when I was giving out the address. But before that they filmed the whole thing. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

They never stopped recording.

[A]

Yeah, I mean they knew I was gonna give my information because they heard the cop asking me what's all my information? They didn't mute the mic or anything like that. And then, even then, like I, I said I was saying my name and they said, oh, like you made a mistake. Now everyone's gonna know who you are or whatever. And then, I mean, but even then after that, they called out my LinkedIn, my business. They, they told people to go cancel me and my business. And so before, during. And after this entire thing, they told people to go after my business.

[B]

And what about your family during that four hour window before the public statement was made that you were not guilty of what they were accusing you of and your own phone, I imagine. Like, like what were the messages, the outreach, what did all of that look like during those four hours?

[A]

I was getting a lot of phone calls and like my father was like calling my phone but I didn't know because I didn't have access to my phone. And then they were like, my parents believed that I did nothing wrong because I called the cops immediately. And like they were very proud of that. They were like, okay, like when you call the cops, that's when we knew for sure without a doubt in our mind, he didn't do anything. Like you didn't do anything, Akash, what

[B]

about friends, acquaintances, people you used to know, your parents, phones. Were other people calling your parents, like I don't know, childhood friends, parents or something.

[A]

Yeah. So like after, like even, even up until today, everyone is like talking to my business partners and family, friends and like my close friends and extended friends and just people who know me through other people, et cetera. Like people who know, oh like this guy's a cautious friend reaching out to all of us, saying oh like what happened? Everyone wants to know more details. Like the video and me being innocent. It's not enough. Everyone's reaching out and saying, oh like we want to know more what happened?

[C]

What do you think they want to know?

[A]

I don't. I mean I guess they just want to know like more like how I guess how I felt. I don't even know. And like they're all, a lot of them are offering their condolences, etc. Like the support has been really amazing in terms of like the outreach from family and Friends and everything after I was proven completely, fully innocent.

[C]

How are you doing?

[A]

Taking it day by day, step by step. Like, trying to focus on gratitude for the cops, my family, the support of the online community. Being able to come, like, on a podcast like this, where I've been watching your content for years and been a fan of you guys, an honest, true fan, where I've learned so much as well and everything. It's still happening, right? It's not like this whole, like, ordeal isn't over yet. Clearly, um, people are still finding out.

[C]

Do you think it went more viral when Vitaly apologized? Because what's funny is that's how I found out about it, was when he said, delete the video. And then me being the idiot that I am, I'm like, what's the video?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And then I look it up, but just him saying delete the video is enough for a lot of people to be like, let me find the video.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And then everyone started reposting the video when he wants it taken down. It's like the Streisand effect. It makes it worse.

[A]

I mean, I haven't really taken a look at the numbers, but, I mean, what I. Like, I do think that, like, the apology did, like, have an effect on the virality of it, but I also think that no matter what he would have had, like, whether it's now or later, he would have had to apologize. But, yeah, it's just like. It's everywhere. I think, like, like 200, 250 million different people have seen this entire thing.

[B]

Have you got recognized in public yet?

[A]

No, but I haven't gone out in public. Really? Like, yeah.

[C]

I remember even saying, like, you're worried about going to the airport.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Just because we don't know what people are thinking, and we don't know what's going on. Who knows, right? And so this is, like, we're all very private. This is, you know, my first time in the spotlight, and it's something that I did not ask for and nor did I ever want. You and I were talking, like, offline, and I told you that, like. Like, I always wanted to be, like, a wealthy man, but be able to walk anywhere in the world and have nobody know, like, mine and my family's name. Like, I. I thought that was, like, peace. Like, that. That's what I wanted. That's what I envisioned. I never had any desire for fame at all. I know how that really takes away your right to apply private life at some. To some extent, because everyone's always looking at you. Like, I never wanted any of that, but here we are.

[C]

Has Vitali reached out to you privately?

[A]

Aside from right after the apology, asking what we were going to do legally? No, he has not reached out.

[B]

Even after having your innocence proven, have you received a lot of hate?

[A]

I have.

[B]

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Visit red bull.com brightsummerahead to learn more. See you this summer. That they don't believe me. Even though all parties involved have fully cleared me and said, this is a mistake on the Tali side, that, like, I'm a messed up person, that this is all staged. Can you believe that? Can you? Can you believe that?

[C]

That's crazy. People would think that what. That would be one of the worst things ever to stage.

[A]

What nonsense. And, like, in my head, like, honestly, like, all I could think of is, what nonsense. Yeah, it was just. It was crazy. Like, the hate, the. The racism. Like, there was a lot of racism after the fact, too. Um, there was a lot of. There's some physical violence. People were threatening. Like, they're going to, like, you know, come to my house or, you know, yada, yada, yada. That's got to be terrifying. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Do you. Do you take any security precautions on that? Like, if they say they're going to.

[A]

Okay, we hired security. Even though it's super expensive. We were just scared, really scared. Like, what's going to happen? Is anyone gonna, you know, they have my name, they have everything, my business. Are they gonna find out where I live? Are they gonna come? Like, one of the reasons why I wasn't leaving the house was because what if someone's waiting for me outside? I've never been in this position, you know, I. I've never had the whole world spotlight on me. And, like, who knows what people are gonna, you know, think and do, right?

[C]

People could be crazy.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

And all it takes is, like, out of millions, there's one.

[A]

One person, one bad actor, cuckoo.

[C]

But everyone else, you know, one.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It's not worth taking the risk on the one.

[A]

Exactly. Exactly. And so, like, we did have to take precaution in the aspect of, like, be really safe. Maybe consider, like, getting an Airbnb or something like that for the time Being luckily there's been no incidents, physical incidents or anything like that. But there has been a lot of threats made and just, you know, hate and racism and like the DMs, comments, whatever, you name it.

[B]

Are you suing Vitaly?

[A]

I'm keeping all my options open. Right now. My number one concern is the mental health of myself, my family and the people around me. He has to be held accountable. The injustice on so many levels. When a false accusation like this is made live in front of millions of people, especially when you add everything else on top of it. Proper verification and like, proper procedure to make sure that you have the right person is so, so incredibly important. This can ruin lives. Imagine if it was someone else that like, I don't know, like if this happened to almost any other person who know, who knows what could have happened. Like if my father didn't record the phone call, audio call with the police, then even like until now, like we're about to get like the police report, etc, but it takes it, it takes a week to get the police report. We wouldn't be able to prove my innocence until now. Yeah, but because we got the audio recording because all these things happened and I really believe that, you know, like God had my back where not only was I able to be proved completely innocent of any wrong doing the same night, but the whole world was able to find out. And like after the audio call, that's when, that's when everyone was like, oh, like, oh, how often guys, how often do you see a cop apologizing like that for like a mistake? Especially for how quick. Yeah.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You got very lucky. I mean, considering the circumstance.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Yeah. You're like the luckiest guy ever, man.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Think of how bad it could have been. Felt like in the beginning.

[A]

I felt like in the beginning, listen, it felt like a cosmic joke. Right in the beginning, I felt like the most unlucky person in the entire world. I felt like this was like. I felt like, like the devil was trying to ruin my life through the most like insane way possible. Because like who. You can't even make this up, man. Like if you were writing a story, you can't even make this up. And then towards the end of all this, like a couple hours later, I felt like the like lucky, unluckiest man. And then the luckiest man within the same night. Like I was feeling both ways at once, if that can make sense. Because the cops looked past like everything in terms of like they looked past all their assumptions about me or whatever to properly comb through all the evidence, investigate everything really thoroughly and prove my innocence. And then, like, my parents, the support of the online community, and then everyone, like, believing I'm innocent after, like, the audio call, for the most part, that being released and that being recorded, being born into, like, such a supportive family that I was born into, like, all of these factors all played, like, a huge pivotal role towards my innocence being proven within the same night.

[B]

If Vitaly was here right now, what would you tell him?

[A]

You tried to ruin my life. And there was no care for due process or verification, proper verification. Not only did you try to ruin my life, you were extremely racist. Called out my business before, during, and after, threatened physical harm. Just, like, why? Like, I, I get. I wholeheartedly support, you know, protecting the innocent and vulnerable from any type of wrongdoers whatsoever. But, Like, shouldn't you know how important this is? You've been in the, like, in this, you know, industry or business or whatever for so long. Like, who knows how many other people this happened to? If, like, if it did, I don't know. But if it happened to other people, like, who knows? Well, why didn't you care about that? Why didn't you check yourself? Why didn't you check all the evidence yourself before falsely accusing me and harassing me and bullying me?

[B]

Why do you think that this is a cause that Vitaly actually does care about?

[A]

After looking through all his videos? Not really. The day, right after, the day, right after all this happened, and he had already found out that I was innocent, he went on live stream and there was this other person who was rightfully accused. They caught the right guy and he was telling the world, let's run a poll in the chat, should we release him or should we turn him into the cops? And he was making that one guy go with them throughout the entire stream to catch other predators and turning it into content. And then at the end, like, the chat, like the chat and everything, had voted to release him. This was. This was when he knew I was innocent. The very next day. Then he. He was planning on letting this guy go. And he said this multiple times on stream the very next day, that, okay, I'm going to let him go. We're becoming friends with him. He's a chill guy, whatever. And this guy ended up running away or something. Who knows what happened. Even though they were planning on letting him go, this guy ended up running away. But if they really cared about this, if, like, if at all he really cared about this, and this is all, you know, my opinion, but if at all he really cared about this, then he would probably call the cops on this guy immediately.

[C]

What's interesting is that we. Jack and I were doing some research on this, and we came across someone who was doing something similar. And they said in the way that people go about catching these people, there's so many errors that actually prosecuting is next to impossible with the way that they do it. And that out of, like, a hundred cases where the cops have been called, I think they said only like, two or three.

[B]

Yeah. Out of, like, 100 cases, there have been two or three arrests. So it's like the people are getting publicly shamed, but it's not actually doing justice. Justice. It's. Well, not only that, but it's. It's not stopping it. Because if they're still out free to roam.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Then they're still free to do whatever. And I don't know if, like, if the public humiliation is as good as just keeping them away from public where they could continue to do harm. Like, if you humiliate someone who commits a violent crime, will that just, like, stop them from doing it again? Or is it a person that has, you know, a compulsive nature where they can get angry really quickly, or someone who has a compulsive nature in a different way, where they can feel a different way very quickly? So there are other people on YouTube that have done this effectively. I used to watch this guy. Anxiety war all the time. Anxiety made. Zach Sweers.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

2012-2014. YouTube.

[B]

He made phenomenal content, and he would have these conversations, and he would document. Every video was, like, a full documentary on the entire encounter, every exchange that was had. And he would even meet these people. There was one where he, like, shaved his beard and, like, tried to look like a. Like a little boy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He, like, met this. Like, it was the amount of research that he would do into this, and every single time, he would draft a perfect case and hand it off to the local authorities.

[C]

Didn't he blur their faces, too?

[B]

It would result. It would result in actual arrests. And he would do updates on the arrests.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Someone like Vitali, if you. In this isolated incident. And this is just my opinion, it's not a statement of fact. If you look at this as an isolated incident, you may be able to say, you know, maybe he does care about it. He does seem passionate. But if you map this out across the timeline of his career, he is clearly not shown any form of, like, moral. You know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Standard with what he's done. Like, he's Just chased whatever most outrageous thing that he can do for views. And another thing that I actually think is very twisted is a lot of the people that try to catch these predators, what they end up doing is basically like a form of like mini T O R T O R E where they basically get this person in a vulnerable state of like, hey, your life is screwed unless if you do this, you. And they just make content out of it. It's, it's, it's not actually about getting this person arrested and solving the problem. It's just about whatever, outrageous. How else can you get someone where you can get them to do whatever you want?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Aside from holding this over their head saying, hey, if you don't follow our rules, then we're going to, you know, and then.

[A]

Yeah, now that I think about it, isn't that like extortion and blackmail?

[B]

Yes. Which I think is probably what leads to. Well, let's say my opinion on the matter is yes, what leads to a lot of these people getting let off.

[A]

Really.

[C]

They could maybe also call it a honey pot where they were lured in. Oh, and they wouldn't have acted in this way.

[B]

Yeah, but there's also proper documentation. There's proper documentation that needs to be had. Like, with, like, there's probably a way that you need to have the conversations instead of just like having some random person with no credibility.

[A]

So, like, credentials. All the proof that you need to have, honestly, is if you have like, you know, like text messages showing proof that the person was informed of the fake age. That's pretty actionable, at least from my understanding. And like, because there was, you know, there was no evidence that I did anything wrong in terms of, like, nothing was ever deleted or anything. And so, like. And they checked to see whether anything was deleted, by the way. Yeah, they did a full. This is a very serious deal. And so the investigation was very, very thorough. And

[B]

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[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, well, I recommend that justice is found one way or another. Whether that's through the courts or some other way. I hope that you're made whole because you're just living a normal life.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And of course, this meteor comes and completely throws you off of whatever course that you were on.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

One thing that I was curious about is let's. I. I try to think about this from my perspective. Let's say that I have a date planned out with a girl and I've never met this girl before. Let's say, like, I meet her online and then I just google her name. Because I know a lot of girls. Google whatever guy's name when you should do this. If you're going on a date with someone, Google their name. And I googled your name. And the first five pages of Google all have to do with this case. And even if it says that you are wrongfully accused of it, I don't think that matters, unfortunately. Like, I'm, I'm. I'm not saying this like, I'm just trying to be honest with you. I'm. I'm. If I were to Google a girl's name and it said wrongfully accused of, you know, her ex boyfriend, I'm like, I'm like, I'm not getting anywhere near this girl.

[A]

Yeah. Like, yeah.

[C]

Even though it's like, I'm 99. Sure. But that one.

[B]

Unless if she's really attractive. No, I'm kidding. I'm not getting anywhere near this girl.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. There's just no reason. Like, there are so many fish in the sea. Why would I take a chance? Even if it's like, there are five pages of wrongfully accused, I don't care. I'm not going to look into it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so I'm curious to see kind of how this plays out in the long run. Fortunately, a lot of people have rushed to your defense.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which is good.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Is that a concern of yours, like, or. I'm also curious. This is kind of twisted, but have you had people reaching out to girls specifically because of your composure in the video? You seemed very, like, cool and collected. Did anything like that happen?

[A]

Yeah. I mean, I've had a lot of support from everyone, male, female, like, even, like, parents. A lot of parents are reaching out, saying, if this was my son or, like, daughter, I couldn't imagine. Like, I have kids that are your age. We have your back. Thank your parents, thank your family. We're, like, very proud of you for the way you handled. Handled yourself. And it has, like, I am concerned that it will affect my life in other areas in terms of professional, personal relationships. Even if 99.99% of people will forget about this in two, three days, maybe after even 10 minutes, For any type of, you know, personal, professional relationship, if they look me up and this is what they see, who knows what they might think in five, ten years? Who knows? And it's just something that we are forced to deal with now.

[B]

What have you learned from this experience?

[A]

My friend reached out to me right after all this happened and told me God gives the most difficult battles to his strongest warriors. I pray that I am a vessel to do something good. I really hope that. And if this is a test or something like that, then I really hope that I have good faith and goodwill because it would be. It would make a lot more sense if maybe all of this happened for a reason for, you know, maybe some good to come out of it. That would really help a lot. I have, like, a. I have reached out already to everyone, and I told them that I'm not accepting any money or donations. Please, everyone, if you see any type of GoFundMe or cryptocurrency or anything in my name, please do not donate to it. And so if you want to help in any type of way possible, the falsely accused, please consider donating to the innocent projects, the Innocence Project. I know, like, this has been a nightmare, a complete and total nightmare, but I used to always tell this to all my friends before any of this ever happened. There's two types of people in life. The first person, something really bad happens to them, and they want the whole world to feel the way they did. The second person, something bad, really bad happens to them, and they never want anyone to go through what they did ever again. And I'm the second guy, I want to be the second guy. I'd like to be the second guy. And that's why after, like, a lot of thinking, if the most, like, the most horrible thing that happened to me in my life, the most difficult adversity I've ever gone through in my life, which I don't think I deserve to have happened to me, if that can help someone in any type of way, if we can use it to affect some type of good, if Even one person donates to the Innocence Project because of this, at least something good will have happened.

[C]

What's the Innocence Project?

[A]

So the Innocence Project is the topmost charity that supports any falsely accused innocent person that doesn't have the means to support themselves. The Innocence Project takes up their case and helps them, and they're doing a phenomenal job. Obviously, you guys can see why this matters to me very deeply.

[B]

We'll link to the Innocence Project down below.

[C]

Really appreciate you coming on. And I'm curious, what's something that you want everyone to know?

[A]

Thank you so much for having me. Everyone got to know a side of me that is completely private. And what I would want everyone to know is that I'm a normal guy. I'm a businessman with a passion for vending machines. The reason why I started it is I think it's the most resilient business against AI. And that's what I want to be known for. Businessman. Someone who loves what he does and cares for all the people around him. I'm a very private person. I never wanted to be in the spotlight. And now it seems like the whole world has their eyes on me. And if everyone wants to know me as like, if they want to get to know me, I would just say, look at my passions. Look at what I love to do. Business, family, faith. These are the core tenants that I live by, and that's what I would like to be known for.

[C]

I realized I think we need a vending machine in here.

[B]

That would not be a bad idea.

[C]

Well, we could split the profit.

[B]

High ticket sales.

[A]

I got you guys.

[B]

We completely forgot to film an outro. Thank you so much for watching. If you made it to the end, we appreciate it so, so much. We would not be here without you. As always, so grateful for you. Thank you to Akash, our guest. Thank you to Graham for being such a great guy. Thanks for watching. Till next time.

[A]

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