YouSaid · the spoken record

Matthew Cox

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500
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2024-01-17
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2024-01-17
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1
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podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “And he told you, then you know where to say, absolutely. And I can tell you exactly. And she goes, okay, okay, okay. She goes, let me look into this. I go, okay. So a week later, a CO comes to me and goes, hey, Cox. And I go, what's up? He goes, he goes, he goes The next move because you know they have controlled moves. All the doors are locked and they open them up for 10 minutes so you can run to the chow hall or you can run to the, you can't run though. Then no running on the compound. But you can walk fast.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “So I was trying to get my lawyer to mail me my transcripts. And she hadn't done it. So I called her and I said, listen, you said, she's like, oh, God, man, I'm so sorry. I'm so busy. I'll do it. I'll do it. And then she went, this is Esther. She goes, so what else is going on in there? And she never wanted to talk to me. She didn't, you know, when they were paying her, she didn't want to talk to me. And I was like, what do you mean? Nothing. I just need my transcription. She's like, nothing's happening. There's nothing you want to talk about. And I was like, And I went, you know what You know what There's something weird happened. Listen to this. And I told her about Ron Wilson. And she goes, Hold on. She looks them up on the computer, she goes, Oh, wow, this is a bad guy. This is a bad guy.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “That's not enough. It's nothing. That's not even $200,000 And they didn't want to give me a reduction. My prosecutor was pissed that I got seven years off. She wanted me to get 30 months She's not going to give me anything. Up to her. She's not going to do it. So I go, I lay down. I go to bed like a month later, I'm on the phone with my lawyer because I had written, remember I wrote a manuscript for my book. And I wanted to put some of the stuff that was said in my sentencing in the book.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “We're going to get a divorce, and she hates me. And I think she'll turn that money in just to make sure that I don't get a reduction If you lie to the FBI, it doesn't matter what you've done for them, they won't give you anything. And so he's blate, I mean, I'm sorry, Secret Service or anybody is clearly lied to the Secret Service at this point. If she goes and says, this is what he gave me. So he's like, I was like, oh, wow. And he's like, and I gave my brother's holding him maybe $30,000 for me. At that moment, I was like, wow. Like this poor guy. No, that's not what I thought at all. What I thought was is that enough to get me a sentence reduction?”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Literally buried in aluminum ammunition canisters. Super interesting guy. So he actually went and dug them up and gave them to him. And I'm like, well, you gave him all the money. You didn't hide anything. Relax. It's not a big deal. They're not going to find anything. Don't worry about it. And so he mentions it a couple weeks later, a couple weeks later. And then one day I go, bro, why do you keep bringing this up? What are you concerned about? It's not going to happen. And he said. Can I trust you? And I went, probably not. And he goes Did hide some money Was like, okay. I said, you bury it in a can somewhere. And he's like, no, I, um. Gave my wife like $150,000 in cash. I said, okay, well, she's not going to say anything. She's using it. He said, no, you don't understand. Since then, she found out I was having an affair.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “First of all, well, probably because you stole a bunch of money from pension funds and churches, that didn't help your case, but I don't say that. So I say, oh, they have to, bro. They'll have to. If you cooperate, they're going to have to. And if they don't, we'll have Frank file a 2255. And he's like, that crazy. So he says, okay, he's like, yeah, yeah, you don't understand. You don't understand. So this goes on for months. And I'm like, what is the problem? And he says, you know, they think I hid Ponzi scheme money. And he'd actually dug up like five or six million dollars in Ponzi scheme proceeds that he dug. He buried in these.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I could start writing for them and I could option those. Maybe I could walk out of here with something. So, right, right, right. So Ron was, who'd only been locked up like a year or so? He was cooperating with the Secret Service in his case against some of his co-defendants. He's already been debriefed and he's cooperating. He's actually thinking he might get brought back to have to testify at a trial. We're talking and we're walking. And he keeps saying, you know, even if they charge those guys and even if this happens, they're not going to reduce my sentence. They're not going to cut my sentence.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “If you look in the newspaper, it says it's like a hundred million dollar Ponzi scheme, but really it was $57 million. So he had lost $57 million. So it says $100, you know, they, you know, they always exaggerate because 57 is not enough. Ron ended up getting 19 and a half years. Ron was an old con man. Early 60s, 62, 61. I don't know. And Ron, and I liked Ron. Walking around the compound, and he's like, So, what are you going to do? I mean, like eight or nine more years to go. And I was like, you know, I'm going to keep writing. And when I get out of here, maybe I'll have a huge body of work and maybe I'll be able to sell it or maybe I'll be able to option some more stuff. And if I could get together with Rolling Stone or get some of these magazines.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “And that wasn't so bad. That wasn't the worst. The worst of it was 90% of the article that he published was taken directly from what I sent him. Like, I mean sick to my stomach, bro. Just sick over it. But they option the life rights for that. And I got a piece of that. So there's like $7,000. I get a check for that. So I'm thrilled I can keep writing because you have to understand writing on the computer there. They charge you. So I start writing. Oh, they charge you for phone calls, writing comments. Every single thing costs money. So I start writing all these guys' stories. I start writing books. I just come back from, went back to Atlanta, got seven years knocked off my sentence, come back. And I'm walking around the compound. Now there was a guy that was there named Ron Wilson. Ron Wilson ran”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Couple of weeks before the article is going to be published, he tells me Rolling Stone doesn't want my name on the article because I'm in federal prison and it doesn't look good. But don't worry, he's going to put my name in the article. And that's just as good. And I argue it's not just as good. It's not. I'm like, I would be a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. Like, you understand I'm trying to come up with something here that I can rebuild my life as a true crime writer. That's no good.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Writing a synopsis of a guy's story, and I got him in Rolling Stone magazine, and I got a book deal for that, like I got in advance. It's like $3,500 for being in prison, a prisoner to get a $3,500 advance. Like, I'm a millionaire. There's a lot of money. And then we optioned the film rights, basically the synopsis that I wrote for this reporter, journalist for Rolling Stone. He goes to Rolling Stone with my with what I wrote and gives it to them and they okay it they say yeah this is great we want you to write an article based on this okay he writes the article he tells me The article will be from him, his name, Guy Lawson, Douglas Dodd, which is the name of the kid I wrote the memoir about Anne Matthew Cox.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Said, keep your ears open, something will happen. I said, okay. And, you know, honestly, by that point, I'd done, you know, I'd done eight years. And I remember like if I got a year off of the drug program in good time and this and I had about eight or eight years left to go or something, nine years left. And I was like, you know, I can do that. I'll write. You know, I'd been writing. By that point, Actually, written a story I got a book deal for Deboroli And I ended up”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “No, I'm sorry. He's at three levels. I'm going to go with three levels, which is seven years, which she said for somebody who has no arrest associated with his case, he said, I think it's pretty good. And that's the judgment. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he hammered the gavel down and walks off. That's it. It's over, I guess, seven years. I was hoping for more. So I get moves back to Coleman. I get moved back to Coleman and I go up to Frank and I said, Frank, I got seven years off. And he's like, I don't mean to sound unappreciative. I said, I just. I was hoping for more because I was too. He said, It looks like we're going to have to eat this elephant one spoonful at a time. And he goes, something will come out. Something's going to happen.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “So the judge goes, you know, listen, I think we were asking for like nine levels or something outrageous. Prosecutor starts arguing for one level. And he said, listen, one level is not nearly enough for what Mr. Cox has done. He said, Mr. Cox, I know you're arguing for nine levels off your sentence. He goes, that was never going to happen. And he said, So I'm going to go with six levels.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I said, they're giving me one level. Let me talk to Frank. I'll let you know what we're going to do. So I leave, I call her a couple days later. I tell her, and I talk to Frank. Frank said, go back, go back and argue for more. He said, I think the judge is going to give you more. He's going to give you at least, you know, between whatever. He said like six or seven levels or something. So I get moved all the way back to Atlanta. FBI agent comes to talk on my behalf. The guy that multiple people show up to talk on my behalf. They say Millie, who I filed the 2255 against. So I'm basically saying you're ineffective. You're incompetent. But she knows the game. She's like, I get it. She gets on the stand and testifies for me.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Person do your legal work. And I was like, yeah, because all the competent attorneys wouldn't do it. They said, I didn't have a prayer. Your people said I didn't have a prayer. And I said, Frank said he was going to he could get this done. And she's like, well, I mean Know, you don't like, I don't even know why they're offering you one level. I was like, well, Frank said, you know, and I'm like, Frank this, Frank that. And so I ended up saying, she's like, you're taking advice from a legally and incompetent person. I said, yeah. And she said, You know, you really don't have a prayer. I said, Then why are you here I said, if they could crush me so easily, why are you here?”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “And they're offering you a one-level reduction Is 30 months. And I That's not enough. And she said, Well, I don't know what to tell you. She said they're willing to bring you back. And I was like, well, you know, I mean, I don't know. I got to talk to Frank. Frank said I deserve this many levels, and we're going back for. She's, who's Frank? And I go, Frank's the guy that's doing all my legal work. She goes, he didn't write all this. And I was like, no. And I explained it to her. And she's like, he's an inmate. And I was like, yeah. And she goes, why is he here? And I tell her, well, because he stole a bunch of money from the federal government because he's trying to take over the world. So I tell her that whole thing. And she's like, you're letting a... Mentally incompetent.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And at some point, I go to mail call and they call my name and they hand me this thing and I open it up and it says the government's filed a motion for a stay so that they can They want the court to appoint me a lawyer. And to discuss filing a Rule 35, reducing my sentence. I read it, but I couldn't even understand. So, I mean, I rushed to go find Frank. I show it to Frank. And he says, yeah, they're staying it. They're going to send you a lawyer. And you're going to negotiate. How much they're going to reduce your sentence. He says it's perfect. So they fly this woman down. Her name was Esther Panich. She flies down, comes through the visitation room. They bring me there, the lawyer's room, whatever they call it. And so we're sitting there. And I remember talking and she says, listen, your motion, your 2255.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “That's where at this point I go to Frank, I tell Frank what's happening. Frank says, yeah, this is, he goes, every time they asked you to do something, it reset the time bar. You have a year from that time to file a 2255. Now, he insists that that was a viable argument. Nobody else does. But he said, I'm not going to let them do this. I'm going to take care of this. I'm going to get your sentence reduced. Okay. Emperor. Okay, Emperor. He was a character. Anyway, so he files a 2255. The government comes back, they say he's time barred. Frank comes back. They answer his motion. He files a retort. They file, you know, it just goes back and forth. This goes on for six months to a year.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “That she didn't understand the law. She had me plead to something because she thought I could get a reduction simply for doing dateline. Oh, by the way, when I was in the medium, the government came to me and asked me to be interviewed by American greed. I do that. I'm interviewed. They get me on the phone. They talk to me, everything. The prosecutor wants me to do it. She's reinterviewed. Everybody's reinterviewed. It airs. Millie goes to them, to the government and says, look, reduce the sentence. They go, no, Millie, it's not enough. Then they come to me and they ask me to write an ethics and fraud course. I write an ethics and fraud course. The guy I write the course with, he flies up to Atlanta. He talks with, I think he drove up. But he goes up to Atlanta. He talks with the U.S. attorney. He talks to Millie. She insists if he does this, I will reduce his sentence. I will definitely consider this.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yes. I won't let this happen. He's like, I'm going to need your transcripts. I'm going to need you to get this. I need to see your indictment. I'm going to need your percentage reward. He's like, okay. And I turned to my buddy. He's like, bro, I know. I know what you're thinking. It's fine. It's fucking crazy. And he's like, I understand. Let's just, what choice you have? I was like, fuck. So Frank files a 2255 motion on my behalf stating that I'm not time barred that Millie was... We file it against Millie, stating that she was ineffective.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “My buddy says, Go talk to Frank. I said, Well, why wouldn't I? I got nothing else to lose. So I go talk to Frank. He actually has a little manic moment. That little thing that I just showed you, that's exactly what he said the first time I talked to him.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “What choice do I have? I called three different lawyers on the street and said, this is what happened. What can I do? What can I do? They had me, they told me to do this and this and this and I worked with them and then they decided not to proceed. And what can I do? And they said, you're hit, bro. There's nothing you can do. You cannot in the middle in the 11th circuit, you cannot force them. To file a reduction on your behalf. You cannot do it. It's impossible. You're hit. You're done. It's over. I'd love to take your money, Mr. Cox, but it's not going to happen. I'm just going to take your money. You're going to lose. Three different lawyers. I talk to TI's lawyer told me, bro, it's not going to happen. It's over.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “So at some point, one of my buddies comes to me and says, Look, you got to go talk to Frank. Here's the other thing. Over the course of a year or two that he starts doing legal work for guys, he starts just taking on guys' cases. I'll do the motion. I'll do your legal work. I'll do this. Keeps them busy. But suddenly you start hearing people get released. You know, Jimmy just got 10 years knocked off his sentence. He's going to halfway house next month. Tom got an immediate release. Frank's walking people up to R&D, shaking their hands. Guys are walking up to him in tears crying. And so, you know, crazy or not.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Listen, it's going to get worse. It's going to get worse because here's what happens at this point, I don't talk to him for probably a year or so because everybody's saying he's crazy. And for like a year, he gets there. He's drooling out of the side of his mouth. They got him on a ton of medication. It takes them about a year to get them to take him off the medication. So he gets them to take him off the medication. And then he starts kind of stabilizing his mood by drinking Pepsi. I know. It's crazy. I know it's crazy. I know how I see you looking at me like this guy's delusion. I know.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Any of your transcripts, I'm going to need a 2255 form. We're going to file a, you know, and it would just, and everybody would sit there and be like, okay, Frank, I'll get to this and I'll get. It was insane. It was the most insane. He was basically running a medium-sized law firm from inside of the prison. He was training people. He taught the legal research class and was training people on how to do legal research in prison, how to put together motions, how to fight their cases, how to do the research, how to type them up, everything. He's teaching a law. It's like a law school, right? He's teaching these guys. They made such a mistake locking this guy up.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “He's trust me. I mean, it's not me. It's like the transcripts, the lawyers, the doctors, the, you know. There's a ton of And then if you saw him in action, you'd be like, oh, wow. He would be completely normal. He would be having a completely normal conversation. And somebody would say something and he was, that makes me so angry. I'm not going to let them do that. When my lesions march on Washington. We are going to burn the Constitution and the president will kneel at my feet. And he goes”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “So Just constant, right? And so there are moments in his manic state where he, his reoccurring psychosis, I guess, is that he believes, and since he was in his early teens. He's a lawyer, dispard, stole close to $200 million from the federal government. They gave him 22 years and they sent him to Coleman. But it This is the part I love. The delusions don't affect his legal work. Don't say a ton for legal community, but”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “I knew I liked it, but yeah, I think I got better and better at it. I mean, as you're writing, and they had creative writing classes, you know, in prison at the low, the low was a much different Breed of animal, you know, like it, you know, it was, you could very easily get, you could get hurt either place, but There were guys that have life sentences that have been working out for 20 years and were just super angry At the medium. And if you got hurt at the medium, it was probably really go bad. As opposed to you get hurt at the low, it's more like a Fistfight in high school. Knives. So, anyway, so I'm there, I'm writing, I'm doing that. There was a guy on the compound that came on the compound about that same time. His name was Frank Amadeo. Frank Amadeo is a rapid cycling bipolar with features of schizophrenia.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Kind of written a manuscript prior to even taking off on the run. I used to listen to John Grisham books. I'd listen to him in the car. Like I liked John Grisham books and I'd actually written a manuscript about a mortgage broker. You know, he writes about lawyers and it's like, lawyer being a lawyer is not exciting. If you can make that sound exciting, I can make being a mortgage broker. And I wrote a book, put it at my desk. And the FBI found it and they said, oh, it's a blueprint to the fraud that he's going to commit. It wasn't stop. It's as much that character was as much me as John Grisham's characters are him.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “So he asked me if I'll write his book. I write his book. We work out a deal. We do that, and I'm saying all this because I basically settle in. I'm done. I'm going to do 26 years.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Get your version out there. And he was like, Holy shit. So I end up writing an outline for him. We work together. And then he asked that, can I read your book? And I was like, sure. And I give it to him. And he reads it. And he comes back and he said, bro, this is the best thing I've ever read in my life. And to be honest, I later found out he'd read about three books in his entire life, which still was.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “So a few months later, he comes to me and says, you know, hey, they sold the movie rights. I was like, oh, wow, that's great. And I'm like, and you don't want to write a memoir. And he's like, yeah, man, it was sold to the guys from the Hangover movie. And I was like, so the guys from the hangover movie are going to make a movie about you. I said, you understand they're going to call it like, dude, where's my hand grenade? And you're going to be spicoli from fast time at Richmont High. Like you're going to be a joke, all because you don't want to write a memoir.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “And there had been an article in Rolling Stone magazine about him. And I'd read it. And somebody points him out and says, hey, that's that guy. And I went up to him and said, hey, bro, you just got here. He's like, yeah. And I said, look, if you want to write a memoir or anything, I'm finishing my memoir. I can always help you. I can help you write an outline. You can get a professional writer, whatever you need help. He's like, yeah, all right. Ephraim Devaroley was played by Jonah Hill in the movie Wardogs.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “And what I do is I start writing a book, right? I write a memoir, my memoir. And this is not a shameless plug for my memoir, by the way, which is amazing. But so what happens is I actually write it. I write it and then I have to rewrite it, right? Couldn't really know what I'm doing. And I've been reading true crime and that sort of thing. And I've always liked true crime. I get a literary agent, comes to see me, tells me I have to rewrite some stuff. We rewrite it. As I'm finishing up my memoir, there's a guy that comes on the compound and his name is Ephraim Devaroli. Ephraim Devaroi. And his business partner, a guy named David Packows, were selling munitions, ak-47 rounds, really tons of munitions, but they got in trouble with this. And they were selling them to the U.S. government for the Afghani security forces.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Great letter. It says Mr. Cox has worked blah, blah, blah. He's done this. This is great. And even said, you know, he deserves a reduction, in my opinion, blah, blah, blah. But there's nobody was arrested. Nobody was arrested. So I call my public defender. I call Millie. I explain it to her. And, you know, she starts, you know, she starts crying and she's sorry. Well, what are we going to do? Well, there's nothing you can do. You're time barred. Like you have one year to file a 2255, which is to say that you're a lawyer is ineffective or that the court has made a mistake in some way. And it had been over a year. It had been years. It had been like four years. And she's like, Yeah, I mean, you're just, there's nothing you can do. And she's in tears. And I kind of feel like I'm done at that point. I'm done.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “No matter what happens, I need you to write me a letter if they don't indict these people. I need you to write me a letter that I can present to the U.S. attorney on my behalf that I did everything I could. And she goes, I'll do that. That's not going to happen. We're going to get the indictments and everything. I was okay. So, of course, a year later, she shows up after nothing happens and they've dropped the case. She shows up and she tells me what happened and he's not going to do it. I was, I go, do you remember that you? She goes, I got the letter right now, gave me the letter. She was like, that's it.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “The agent I was working with, her name was Leslie Nelson, very nice person. She came, actually didn't have to do this, came to the prison to tell me this is what happened. And when she'd first come to see me, I told her, listen, I want to do all this, but”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “And so they're still kind of working it. Well, at the same time, I end up getting moved to the low security prison. I get to low security prison. They show up over and over again. But at some point, they come to me and they say, look, We went to the U.S. attorney, we presented everything we have it, I have enough for an investor, I have enough to indict all of these guys. I think it was whittled down to maybe eight instead of 12. And they said, look, the entire economy is melting down. At this point, some of these are four or five years old. We've got banks that are melting down right now. We got 100, 200, 300 million, 500, half a billion dollar banks that we're investigating. We don't have time to deal with this. We're not going to indict those people. So they get away.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Never had a conversation with him. So that went on. But I mean, when I say that went on, I mean, like literally like that's a couple of times. He said the same thing to a guy in line one time. Guy came up to me later and said, look, man, I'm sorry, Matt. He was standing next to me in line. Baba said something to him. He went like 10 or 15 people back and stood in line. Later on, he came up to me, Man, I'm sorry, bro, but you know, but I said, bro, I said, look, I get it. We're not friends. Don't worry about it. And here's the thing. At some point there, I ended up getting, well, the FBI started showing up there at the prison, questioning me about my files in Tampa. One of the 12 guys that were indicted, they show up and they start asking me about it.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “I would go and I'd be sitting at a table, and Bubba would walk up and tell the other guys at the table. I want to let you guys know he didn't even call me a snitch. He said, you're sitting with a cooperating witness. He said, he said, that's how you want to roll. He said, you ain't going to be rolling with us if there's any trouble. And then they all kind of looked at me and they got their plate and they moved off. He didn't tell me to move. And he could have walked up and said, this is a snitch motherfucker. He didn't do that. Bubba was very respectful. So as respectful as he could be, whatever you want to do.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “So I'm going to be there, and if that happens, then that happens. And he looked at me and he goes, Man, I don't give a fuck what you do. That's what Bubba told me to tell you. He said, I told you. I don't give a shit what you do. And he walked off. I went out there that night with a buddy of mine named Zach, a guy named John Gordon, with my cousin and a couple of his buddies. We walked the track for about an hour. Bubba and a group of his guys stood there and looked at us. And as we walked probably closest we got to him was 30 or 40 feet. That went on for 30 minutes, and then they kind of broke up and went their separate ways. And there was a couple of times where I would go to the chow hall.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Insulated me to a degree. I also made a few friends there, and I think they were probably also kind of putting out the words like, bro, cut this guy a break. So I'm walking across and I tell the guy, I said, look, man, I said, you know, and I wasn't rude to him. He wasn't even rude to me, really. He said, don't walk the yard anymore. Bubba, I didn't want you walking the yard. I said, well, listen, I'm going to go to Chow and then I'm going to go out there tonight and walk the yard. And if I get smashed, I get smashed. I go because I got 26 years and I cannot walk around for the next 26 years not going on the yard.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “I mean, I think I just got numb. Like, I'm not stupid, but I'm walking around. I was scared from the moment I got there on, if that makes sense. So you get to a point where you're just numb and you're waiting for it, especially when I got out of the shoe. Got out of the shoe, I went straight to my cell, laid down a couple minutes later it was locked down. They closed the doors. I wake up the next morning. I go to Chao. I go to my job. Like it starts all over again. So I had a very packed routine. So I didn't spend there, although there's guys everywhere. And I'm thinking at some point I might just be walking around a guy might walk up and just smash me in the head. But it didn't happen. And it's not the guys aren't getting stabbed, but they've got it coming. I didn't tell on anybody here. I didn't do anything. It's not that on other yards I might not have gotten smashed. But I didn't get smashed. And I'd been there a while and I taught the real estate class and everybody wanted to take real estate, take real estate. So I think that.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Hanging off as a bit. I did, but you know what? It was right in front of the guard shack, and so there's guards in the guard shack, you know.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “People are giving me the looking at me and what's up, but I don't have a lot of friends anyway. And I come there to make friends. And so at one point, this one guy comes to me. I'm walking the yard probably two days later after I get back on the compound. I'm walking. Guy comes to me. He has a goatee and he's got a, it comes down here and he's got a skull, like a little skull thing he had made, whittled out of wood or something. And, you know, definitely looks scary. So I'm walking and he's stopping. He goes, hey, Cox, I've never talked to these guys. I had been there for a year or so and never talked to any of these guys. They're all like bikers and, you know, Aryan brotherhood. And so, you know, I'm like, yeah, what's up? He said, Bubba, Bubba's their leader. He goes, Bubba told me to tell you not to walk the yard. He don't want to see you out in the yard. And I went, okay. I said, well, I'm going to walk the yard tonight. I said, and if I get the shit kicked out of me, then I get the shit kicked.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Actually, much higher percentage But he goes, but 90% of them are lying about it. He said, you just came out in the newspaper. I go, man, I'm not concerned if you are concerned. You got to come immediately to the lieutenant's office and tell us. We'll ship you. I said, okay. I get out there.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “They're still investigating things. So this article comes out, and I'm on the front page of the St. Petersburg Times. It was about the politician. Big article. And in the article, it says they interview Millie, my lawyer, and she says, well, when Mr. Cox was being interviewed by the FBI, one of the first things they wanted to know about was this politician. So she just said, Mr. Cox was being interviewed by the FBI. So I immediately get taken into custody and they put me in the shoe, the hole, right, for my own protection. And I'm there for like 45 days. And then after 45 days, they're like, Cox, what do you want us to do? You want us to ship you? I was like, no, put me back on the compound. I'm like half the guys here cooperated. And he goes, yeah, it's more than half. He said, but this is a guy from SIS, which is like their internal security.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “It's funny. I had more problems at the probably at the low than I did the medium. But at the medium, the only thing that happened was An article came out in the newspaper when I was at the medium. It came out and said”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “At this point, the FBI starts showing up asking me questions. They ask me questions about the politician I bribed, asked me questions about him. Statue of Limitations was up and they were trying to tie him into. Bank fraud because his name was Kevin White and one of my guys' name was Michael Kevin White. And so they were trying to tie him in, you know, did he know about it? Because if he knew about it, statue of limitations is 10 years. We could, no, he didn't know. Should have thrown him in there. But anyway, because like a couple years later, he gets indicted. He ends up going to jail anyway.”

    2024-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #409 – Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man – $55 Million in Bank Fraud · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source