YouSaid · the spoken record

Brett Johnson

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306
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2022-03-27
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2022-03-27
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  1. “I had $30 to my name at that point. $30. The agent had to pay for my hotel room that first night. So he drops me off after paying for the hotel room, buys me something to eat. As soon as he drops me off, I take that $30, walk a half mile to Walmart, buy a prepaid debit card, so I can start back in tax fraud. As soon as I get back to the hotel room, call Elizabeth, beggar to come see me. She comes to see me and we talk most of the night and convince her to give me a chance. I tell her that everything's going to be all right. They're going to hire me. I'm going to be this big consultant. Lies, lies, just so she gets back with me. And she's like, okay. So we moved from Charleston, the field office is in Columbia, South Carolina. And I'm breaking the law.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Get me out. My sister, they have the bond reduced to $1,000. My sister pays the $1,000 bond. By this point, she's just owned me because I'm dating the stripper Denise bonds me out. The person that I call immediately is Elizabeth. I'm out, and she's like I'll be there. So this is like 11 o'clock at night. I'm in the parking lot of the Charleston County Jail. Me and a secret service agent standing there, and Elizabeth had a friend that owned a limbo company, so she pulls up in a limo. Gets out, pops the trunk, gets these two plastic containers out that have my clothes in them. Drops on the pavement comes over, hugs me, call me later. Gets in the car, drives off. I'm sitting there crying like a baby. Agent looks at me, is that your fiance? I'm like Yadie's like, I am so sorry. And I'm like, yeah.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Now I understand why. The girl loved me too. She found out I was this piece of shit After a week in County Jail, two agents fly in from New Jersey, two secret service guys, pull me out of cell. Looked at me and they were like, We got your laptop. And I was like, Yeah. And he's like, well, if you got anything on your laptop. I was like, yeah. He's like, you're going to be charged for it. I was like, I figured. And then he looks at me, he's like, Can you do anything for us? And I told him my exact words were look, you let me get back with Elizabeth, I'll do whatever you want me to do. He looks at me, he's like, We're going to get you out. I was like, all right. So they let me sit there for three months to get a taste of it.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I tell her, I was like, look, they're going to arraign me tomorrow. Don't come. Don't come. I said, See what's going on, but don't show up. Of course, she's there the next morning. Her and her dad, and she's back in the back crying. They're reading off the charges. I'm under $300,000. Bond, everything else. And that's it. They throw me in a cell. Meanwhile, more charges keep coming in. You know, and Like 10, 12 charges a day at that point. And I'm trying to call her to make sure she's all right. And So I spent three months in jail. And during that three months, she visits twice, I get like three or four phone calls to her Looking back now, I understand why. You know, back then it was like I'm the victim. Why doesn't she talk to me?”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I was trying to tell her, and at the same time they take a watch off her wrist, they let her keep the ring. They're telling her, I'm this guy. What's my real name? Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang across the board.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “It was dark and they had me walk up and they're all behind me. I knock on the door and tell her the police are there and she needs to put the dog up. So she does, and they come in and just start ransacking them to put me in cuffs, set me down, start berating her with questions. She had no idea what the hell was going on.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Course, I wanted to call her, you know, and FBI got me. It turns out it was controlled delivery. There were like 30 agents in the parking lot. FBI got me in Charleston PD got me. Within 45 minutes, the Secret Service comes in, takes over that investigation. They knew exactly who they had. About seven o'clock at night Like, we want to search your house. And I was like, look, I'll sign off on the search if you let me go with you so I can see her. We were like, okay, so I got to see my phone at that point. Had like 140 calls that where she had been trying to call all that time. So they load me up and hell. I mean, you talk about 10, 12 cars, you know, 40 agents, everything else. She's got a dog at that point. I'm scared they're going to shoot the dog.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “The engagement ring we were scheduled to be married Our wedding date was february twenty sixth, two thousand five. february eighth, two thousand five. I've got a Tiffany wedding band, a couple of them coming in. And I get arrested. In Charleston, South Carolina. And she didn't know. I told her I said, I've got to go pick up those rings. She thought I was just having them sent in. I said, I got to go get those rings. And I said, we'll go out to dinner after that. And I left at like eight o'clock in the morning. And I was arrested at, I think, 11:30, something like that.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “She wanted a couple of Tiffany engagement rings. So I said, we can get married. I figured if marriage, sure that I love her, sure, it's going to be all right. So I was like, let's get married. She's like, wow, I've always wanted a Tiffany ring. Shit, I didn't have money to buy the Tiffany ring because all my money was overseas. So here I am. I defraud counterfeit cashiers. I find a three carat ring on eBay for 20 grand and pay for it with a counterfeit cashier's check. At the same time, because she doesn't want me to leave, she needs me there. Typically, if you're doing that type of crime, you need to be traveling. You can't do it in one central area because you're going to be identified pretty quickly. I knew that, but I didn't have much choice. Start running counterfeit cashier's checks to get the money to live and everything, get the”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So She couldn't be intimate unless she was stone cold drunk And I, shit, I didn't mind her drinking alcohol. I'd rather have that than cocaine. Was the intimacy there, and I kept, I had this. I kept thinking if I continue to invest It would work out. Just keep going. She'll be all right Will be all right And what happens is, like I said, she thought I had money. She thought I had money.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Not up, not up. She thinks I've got a shitload of money and she's got expensive tastes. And at the same time. She couldn't be intimate I mean, the girl loved me. That's the first time I've really said that.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “All right. She wanted me there all the time. I guess that was that connection. I guess she was scared she might go back to something. So Shadow Crew gets busted. I go through basically all my US funds. Can't get anything from overseas. Shadow crew gets busted October, I can't go into committing tax fraud because season's over. Can't go back into credit fraud because Shadow Crew's been busted. I don't know who to trust online. I'm left with running counterfeit cashier's checks to get money in trying to make it until, you know, I can start back with some other fraud and lying to her the entire time.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I'd be back that night. Told her she had a letter when she woke up. I woke up. And the letter was basically, you know, I love you. If you can't stop this, don't be here when I get back. I went to Columbia that day. Came back that night. And, uh... She quit drugs that night. Really I got it in my head. I needed to do whatever I needed to do Make sure she didn't go back to that. That became To me, because of my background, that meant spending a lot of money. So every night was three to six hundred dollars for dinner. It was Thousand dollar shoes every week, two thousand dollar purse every week, all that. I had most of my money laundered out to Estonia. And Elizabeth, at the same time, she had... She quit She didn't want me to go anywhere”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Oh man. Yeah So went and I could, I didn't have the heart to tell her that I knew she was prostituted. But I went to her and I was like, she's. I can't have that. And she's like, Well, you think I'm prostituting? I was like, No, no, I don't think that. I knew it, but I didn't mention it to her. I was like, I can't have that. Well, I don't do that. It's just a one-time thing. I was like, all right. So she went back to work and continued to do it for a couple more weeks. And then finally, I was like, I can't. So I picked her up one morning as she was. Couldn't drive home. Before I picked her up, I'd written her note, left it on the pillow. So I brought her home, tucked her in the bed, and”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Found cocaine and the straw cut off straws and all that stuff. And I'm like, broke my heart. I just sat there and started crying. Got online, and I'm the guy that can find information. So I started looking for forums on strip clubs, found a forum. Found that one found where it was talking about her, prostituting herself to support the habit. That got me, ma'am. That got me talking about everything she was doing to, uh, Do that broke your”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yeah, we got along really well, really well. So I ended up moving her in with me. She hadn't quit her job. What was happening was she was working weekends and the club would close at three or four. She wouldn't come home until 10 or 11 in the morning. And most of the time it would be a phone call saying come and pick me up I can't drive home and I never used drugs, had never been around and my mom, valium and pot and things like that but as far as interacting with her I'd never done anything like that. This point in time, I'm kind of getting head over heels with her. I've moved her in with me and everything. I had never, I was thirty four, I had never went through a woman's purse in my entire life. And so she comes in, passes out. And I'm like, I got to know what the fuck's going on. Went over and went through a purse.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Get to where I really like her. I was 34, she was 23 and got along really well, listened, you know, had common interest in music and arts and stuff like that. She had, I mean, a stereotypical, she had graduated college with a degree in religious studies. Yeah. So I was like, all right.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And she was like, Yeah. I was like, where would you like to go? So she says, Rue to John. And I was like, don't know what it is. That's where we'll go. So I go back and I had a theater buddy at that point in time because I was trying to get my life. Yeah, trying to get my life together. JC was his name. And I was like, I got a date. He's like, he got a date. I was like, yeah, man, I got a date. And he's like, okay, where are you going? I was like, Rudajan. And he's like, take your wallet. I'm like, yeah. And he's like, take your wallet. It's like, all right. So we start doing the lunch and the dinner thing.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “No dancing Yeah, so just talk, just got along pretty good. I'm like, I like her. I like her. So come back in a week later. Walk in and call her over and I was like, look, I said, I'm not my first time to strip club. I said, don't know you. I like you. I like you to know you more. Would you like to go out to dinner?”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “I'm like, all right. And again, that bravado disappears pretty quickly. I get back there and we talk for two hours. And, you know, nowadays I understand that most men who go to strip clubs, the strippers are their therapist most of the time, all right? So I'm sitting there talking. We're talking. Of course, she's sizing me up. She's looking at the watch. She's like, what kind of car you drive? Everything else. And I'm like telling her and talking. So at the end of the night, I'm like, really nice meeting. She's like, it's so nice meeting you too. So I leave”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yeah, real classy. So I walked in and I'm literally that guy, man, that fell in love with the first, the first stripper that he sees. She walks by, I'm like, that one. So I didn't know the strip club game. Again, criminal, naive as hell. So belly up at the bar, order the beer. I'm sitting there drinking it. She comes over to me. We start talking, and she's like, Would you like to get a bottle of champagne? I was like, does that mean going in back or what? She's like, well, yeah, you need to do the bottle going back. And I was like, sure, let's buy a bottle of champagne. $400 bottle of Corbel.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Saw her for about four months, and I joke about, but it's true she was trying to get me to stop breaking the law and to go into real estate. And I remember telling her, is there a difference She was like, Yes, there's a difference. So sorry for about four months. I was 34. I didn't start drinking until I was 34. Had never done drugs, anything else like that because my mom was an addict as well. So this guy I always wanted to be in control, didn't want to lose control of myself. And had never been to a strip club. So one night I was getting lonely. So I walked into the strip club. Actually, I researched this strip club and it was Joe's Roundup in Charleston, South Carolina. Joe's roundup. Little bitty hole in the wall stuff.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “About a week of both of us crying and arguing and everything else. And she finally left. And I went through this depression. I was in Charleston, South Carolina. I would just walk around the house kind of stumbling into daze. Realized I was getting suicidal and was smart enough to do something about it and picked up the phone book. And that's where there's always this sense of humor. So I picked up the phone book. I'm going through the yellow pages. I'm like, psychologist, criminal psychologist because I need that. Called the psychologist crying to her. I mean, crying on the phone, told her everything. I'm this criminal. This is what's happened. She's like, come in now. So I go in, spill my guts”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “I justify it. So I found out she's cheating on me. She was asleep when I found it out, and I sat there looking at it, and I was like, well, shit. So got up, walked in the bedroom, opened up the wardrobe, got a suitcase out, started putting her clothes in it. And she wakes up. She's like, where are you going? I'm like, I'm not. You are. Well, my bravado disappeared pretty quickly.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “All their movements, all their types. Exactly. Like I said, I was the control freak too I found out she had been cheating on me.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Like I said, I get from my dad, I get that fear of being abandoned. I lied to my wife for nine years until she leaves. And I was in Charleston, South Carolina. And what happened was, uh, I noticed that Susan. She was not coming to bed like she used to, and she'd stay up all night long, and sometimes she'd go and be gone a few hours and everything else. And I'm like, well, something's going on. And I'd pass by her computer and she would minimize the screens. And I'm like, well, got to figure out what the hell is going on. So put a key logger on her system.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “That, I mean, just truly a despicable human being, when you get to the point, you're destroying people's retirement accounts, you're stealing money from a woman that simply wants to do something good for her family. When you become that individual and you're okay with that, my God, man, it got to the point I had one guy I ripped off. It's like for nine hundred dollars since when I first started cybercrime stuff, it's when I was becoming competent. And I ripped them off for like nine hundred dollars, and he sent me an email. He was like, the email said something like. I guess you needed the money, and it's okay. You keep it. And I'm getting chills right now thinking about it, but it's that. Where you become that individual”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “They were going to blame him. He was the only competent individual. So this kid gets up one day. He wasn't in prison yet. He gets up one day, goes in his dad's bedroom, gets out his forty-five, walks in the bathroom, and blows his brains out. You know, you've got things like that. Or you're going to rip somebody off and you're going to end up quite scripted with that guy. The guy who hit, who ran evolution marketplace. No one knew who two people ran that, guy and a girl. No wonder who they were. He ends up stealing about $24 million, a lot of it from Ukrainian mob, and they found him about a year later on a beach without his head and hands. But, you know, it always goes south. But more than anything, to me, the negative thing is you really become somebody.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “You get the higher ups are usually arrested. They are. But you've got millions of cyber criminals these days. So most guys are not going to be arrested. So you may be arrested. You may be like freaking Jonathan James. He was a minor, a very talented individual, very competent. He had, as a kid, he had broken into NASA, the OD, Pentagon. He shut the NASA computers down for six weeks. This is that kid. Then he decides he wants to go into credit card theft, partners with Albert. He's arrested with Albert. Law enforcement.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “So, you know, I went to prison, of course. One of the things that I've learned in prison, because cybercrime as a whole, if you're a criminal, it's an addiction, all right? If you're addicted to something, whether it be drugs, crime, gambling, what have you. If you're addicted to something, you cannot love anything else except the addiction. The addiction comes first. All right. And, you know, you pointed out some of those. Truly despicable things. Script, for example, tortures that guy. You get to the point where it's like, okay, this is the business. And I tried to convince myself that, you know, I'm a businessman, but I'm a good guy on the other end. And you're not. You're not. So those lies become part of it and everything else.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “You don't trust anybody. You don't trust anybody. I had my wife, I was married for nine years. I lied to her every single day of those nine years, and it took her nine years to give up on me, to realize that I was that piece of shit. And she leaves at that point. Then from there I started dating a stripper and lied to her. I thought I had friends, I lied to all those people that I knew that thought they were my friends. I lied to them the entire time. You become that individual. I don't think a lot of people really understand How bad that is. You know, you talked about you pointed out that woman ripped off. She was trying to put a roof on her house for friggin' kids, man. You're that person. You're that person.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “So, I don't want to say that's because you're going to be arrested, because honestly, very few people are arrested, all right? But it doesn't end well because of the type of person that you become. You quoted me earlier. You lie. To everybody around you. You lie to yourself, you lie to your friends, you lie to your family. Of course, you lie to your victims. You don't have any friends. You know, I went 20 years without friends. I had associates. I didn't have friends.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Yeah, exactly. But he went by the screen named Tron. He had access, almost unfettered access to Bank of America. So, what happens is they identified the guy, secret services in the air, to go get him. They call the Ukrainian police. Hey, we're coming down to arrest this guy. Ukrainian cops are like, oh, come on down. So as soon as they got off the phone, Ukrainian cops get in the car, go down and tell Tron, hey, they're coming to get you. So he bugs out down to South America and they don't catch him, I think, for six or seven years after that.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “I'm the one public. There were a couple other guys that got away that they didn't publicly mention. One, his name was Tron. He was in the...”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Shadow crew makes the front cover of Forbes august two thousand four headline Who's Stealing Your Identity October 26, 2004, United States Secret Service arrest thirty-three people, six countries, six hours. I was in Charleston, South Carolina when I saw it happen, and I'm like...”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Him gets these guys arrested. So by this point in time, I'm exasperated. I just want to throw my hands up in the air and walk away. So my retirement's coming up at the same time. So I'm like, fuck it. I'm done. So I tell everybody at the rest of the admins and the mods there. I'm like, this is what's going on. You guys need to watch out for this. We need to ban Kim, not let him back in. Be careful what's going on. I walk away. At the same time, I walk away. Comeba Johnny, Albert Gonzalez, comes back into play. He sees everything that's going on. He uses that to his advantage. He starts banning everyone that's suspicious of him. Sets up the VPN at the same time, and says, hey, to make sure we're all secure, I need all transactions to go through this VPN. VPNs ran by the Secret Service. Secret Service ends up, I think they ended up cataloging like $7 million worth of transactions over the next four or five months.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “He's got to go. I'm like, what's going on? He's like, well, the only thing he's doing is popping ecstasy tablets every day all day. And I'm like, seriously? He's like, yeah. I was like, okay, he's got to go. So we kick him out of there. By this point, I've got another crew that's coming through. I mean, I had all these crews running. Had another crew that's coming through Denver. Send Kim back to Denver to partner up with these guys.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “So David Thomas had outstanding warrants out of Nebraska. We couldn't bond him out. Kim Taylor didn't have any warrants, so we bonded him out. My third in charge, Kidd, Seth Sanders was his name. He bonds him out, uses his girlfriend's account to bond him out. And I get merry. I get Kim Taylor to go to Utah. Another friend of mine agrees to house him, him and his wife. So, I think everything's fine and all that Three weeks later, this guy in Utah gets me on the phone. Hey.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Kim Taylor's in the passenger seat, David Thomas's girlfriends in the back seat. As they pull into the complex going through the parking lot, Mariachi just happens to glance over and he sees a van with a guy sitting sideways in the van, and he looks at Kim Taylor and he's like, That's an undercover. And Kim's like It's fine So they pull up to the office complex. Kim's like I'll go in and get the packages So he walks in, looks at the guy behind the counter. I believe you have some packages for us guys like one second So he disappears around the wall out pops this qua PD arrest Kim David Thomas is in the car watching all this happen he bugs out I may arrest him on the interstate where he has three fake driver's licenses in his wallet along with his real driver's license another no but they get him”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Mariachi and my second in charge are partying. So they're supposed to contact Big Buyer late ons. Meanwhile, Big Buyer is raising hell, getting up with me like hey. Where are the guys? I can't find them. They don't need to pick up this product. So I can't get in touch with them. They go down to pick up the thing. So Mariachi's got a Cadillac old 70s Cadillac. He's got a Cadillac. Pulls into the complex. Now, Mariachi's driving”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “They party all night long because they've never met each other. They're just celebrating party and drinking everything else like that. Meanwhile, big buyer has placed another order. Withoutpost.com seventeen thousand dollars The second largest order outpost dot com had ever received at that point in time. By this point in time, Outpost knows the first order was fraudulent. Guess where it's going? The exact same address the first order goes. So Outpost picks up the phone, calls Isaqua PD, hey, we got a fraudster. Issquaw is like, Would you mind sending some empty boxes? Outpost is like, be happy to. So the rule was on credit card fraud, if you've got full account access, you place the order. The morning that's supposed to arrive, you sign into the bank account or the credit card account. If you can sign in, you go pick up your product. If you can't sign in, you go back to sleep that day. All right. Well, big buyer was the guy who placed the order.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Mariachi comes back, tells me, tells my second in charge, Kim Taylor. Kim Taylor, at this point, I'm 33, 34. Kim Taylor's 46. He works at the tattered cover bookstore in Denver, Colorado. That's where he works at this point. And he fancies himself Jason Bourne. He's even got one of the screen names of Jason Bourne. So I'm like, all right, so Mariashi's telling us how much money he's making and everything else. I'm like, well, that's good. I'm glad you're all right. Kim contacts me and he's like, I want to go to Isakwa. And I was like, why? And he's like, to make some money, I'm like, you're making money. He's like, I want to go to Issaqua. I was like, all right, go. Be careful. So he gets in the car. Saturn is what he's driving. He drives his little piece of Saturn all the way up to Issaqua, gets there, you know, midnight.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Thomas goes up there, rents his office space, him and his girlfriend, rents an office space, and the plan is this big buyer is going to place an order, get product sent. Mariachi is going to get the product listed on eBay, cash out 50-50. Easy enough, all right? So Big Buyer places an order. First order is outpost.com $18,000. Largest order outpost.com had ever received at that point in time. Order goes through Goes through. He gets the product. All right”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “So El Mariachi, real named David Thomas, he's on the run out of Nebraska for check fraud. He comes to us on Shadow Crew telling us this sad story. We take up a collection for this guy. Send it to him, all right? I get him a job working with a low level carter trying to make him some money, all right? Thomas does this for a few weeks, comes to me one day, and he's like, Man, I'm not making any money. I'm like, okay, let me see what I can do. Well, I had a Ukrainian guy by the name of Big Bayer. Real friend of mine, and I contacted him. I was like, look, man, I got a guy that wants to do some work. Can you help the guy out? And he's like, I got him. I was like, okay. So he sends Thomas enough money to go, Thomas is in Texas at that point, sends Thomas enough money to go from Texas to Issequa, Washington and rent an office space, all right?”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “So the pressure is building. It's not going to end up. Man, this is not going to end well This is going to be bad. So I announced my retirement of February 15th, I'm sorry, April 15th, 2004 is my retirement. I think that's 2004. And I quit. I walk away. Well, Albert had been arrested. They cut him loose. No one knows he's been arrested. He comes back into Shadow Crew. I leave Kim Taylor at the same time. He's kind of on the run, which, if you want to know that story, that's a nightmare story in and of itself. So my second in-charge, Kim Taylor, this guy. There was this guy named David. Now what was his name? Was El Mariachi's name. David Thomas. David, yeah. Yeah, he was a film guy.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “No clue. No clue. The way that Albert tells them how to catch us because they looked at him how. I'm serious. I'm serious So Albert's like, well, you could try a VPN. What's a VPN So he explains it to him. That's a good idea. So I quit Shadow Crew. I was worried about all the news that was coming in and everything like that. I'm still in 160K a week. I didn't know Albert had been arrested. I'm worried about being arrested. I know the writing's on the wall, and I'm like, I'm quitting.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Meanwhile, just across the street, a couple cops just happened to be there. And they start noticing. This kid just standing there. So 40 minutes they watch this kid, 40 minutes. Finally, one cop looks at the other. Let me see what's going on there. Walks over across the street. Albert's wearing a wig. He's got the disguise on, everything else like that. Asking, kid, what are you doing? Albert falls apart We didn't know Albert had been arrested. So Albert immediately goes in. I want to work for the Secret Service. That point in time, Secret Service. I refer to, and I want to make sure I don't say it's not like that anymore, but back then they were fucking idiots. All right. They had no clue what was going on.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “We needed somebody to take care of our tech aspects of the forum. So associate of mine by the name of Kim Taylor, we were looking for a forum techie. He comes to me one night and he's like founder forum techie. I was like, who's that? And he's like, what's this kid? And I was like, is he good? He's like, well, he knows the software. And I was like, okay, we just signed his ass on. He went by the screen name of Kumba Johnny was his screen name. And he starts selling credit cards after a while under a screen name of Scarface. That CVB1 breach where you're cashing out the track twos at ATMs, $40,000 a day. So Albertson, New Jersey one day, broad daylight, and stands at an ATM for forty minutes, just standing there, feeding in one ATM card after another, point out cash, taking the twenties out, stuff them in that backpack.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Right. I mean, maybe. I will see how it pans out. Shadow crew. We had this guy Albert Gonzalez, his kid's name. We had, we were growing so big that. I had to start farming things out. So the first thing I started farming, I instituted this review system. Kind of establishing that trust mechanism even further for criminals use.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “There's an argument, and let's be fair. I want to be fair with it. Did he change the world? We do have this whole thing called cryptocurrency.”

    2022-03-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #272 – Brett Johnson: US Most Wanted Cybercriminal · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source