Cheat!

Hey folks, happy holidays! We're taking a week off. We'll be back next Tuesday with another episode for you. In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you. 

It could be a specific cheat you want to hear about or you might just want to say hi! Email [email protected]

A Somethin' Else production.

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When $242 million dollars went missing from a bank in Dubai and the bank manager swore that something supernatural was going on, journalist Brigitte Scheffer was intrigued. She followed the story in disbelief as the bank manager pointed the blame at one man, Foutanga Sissoko. Sissoko had a reputation for splashing millions of dollars like it was nothing - he would buy cars as gifts and on Thursdays he would drive around giving money to the homeless. But now he was at the centre of a major fraud investigation… and he was nowhere to be found. 

Go to cheatpodcast.com to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you want to hear on the show! 

A Somethin’ Else production.

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Bernard Tapie was a star in France. He had his own TV show ‘Ambition’. He was a brilliant business man. And his soccer team, Marseille, were dominating the French national league, year after year. Everything Tapie touched turned to gold. That was until 1993, when his win at all cost mentality got the better of him. And he made a decision that would eventually tarnish the glory of his players, his team and the country. 

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Ex-FBI officer Allen Ezell had been investigating the trade in fake educational qualifications for decades. But when he got tipped off about a so-called degree mill operating out of Pakistan, he couldn’t believe the scale of it. 

The operation was making hundreds of millions of dollars. Their degrees were bought by doctors, lawyers, pilots—and even politicians. And the whole scam was operating in plain sight—run by a company called Axact, which claimed to be the world’s largest IT company. Allen, together with a bunch of investigative journalists, were eventually able to unmask the world’s largest ever diploma scam. But was that the end of Axact’s activities? 

A Somethin’ Else production.

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In the aftermath of the Cold War, the US was considered the naval superpower of the world. The country continued to look to its navy as a tool to maintain its influence, finding new ports across the globe. 

And there was one man who facilitated the movements of US ships throughout Asia: Leonard Francis Glenn…AKA Fat Leonard. He worked as a husbanding agent through his firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia. He handled the logistics—or the dirty work—that was part of docking and servicing these ships. 

And Fat Leonard did more. He personally made sure that US officers aboard had everything and anything they wanted. There were just a few things he wanted in exchange for his services…starting with confidential naval ship schedules. In 2013, Fat Leonard was arrested in a sting operation orchestrated by US authorities for his central role in of one of the US military’s largest scandals to date. 

A Somethin’ Else production.

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One of America’s earliest cheats has evolved into the sugar-coated story of Thanksgiving that many of us know today. In this episode, we revisit the story of how English colonists cheated Native Americans out of their land. Alzo speaks to author David J Silverman and Wampanoag member Kisha James to find out what really happened when the English arrived in America, and the result of their cheat today.

Go to cheatpodcast.com to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you want to hear on the show!

A Somethin’ Else production.

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At the beginning of spring 2003 a young journalist by the name of Jayson Blair seemingly had it all. In five years, he had gone from summer intern to staff reporter at one of the world's most respected news organisations, The New York Times. He had the keys to the kingdom. Until something happened that led us to discover the truth about Jayson and his reporting. As Jayson himself says in an exclusive interview with Alzo - 'I had the world's best feedback session'.

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The NFL’s 2013 class-action settlement with retired players over claims that the League concealed a connection between game-related hits to the head and long-term cognitive damage was the first of its kind in sports history. 

Players experiencing head trauma would finally have some recourse and support. 

However, the process for evaluating players’ claims incorporated a controversial scoring system called race-norming. 

And it turns out these race norms made it harder for Black players to qualify for awards. 

A Somethin’ Else Production

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In 1995, a sting operation was put into action that resulted in the arrest of a smuggler less than 24 hours after he’d set foot on American soil. The sting had taken over a year to devise. The target had been Indonesian national, Harto Kolopaking and his smuggled loot: wild orchids flowers. Harto became the first person to ever face prison time in the U.S. for smuggling Orchids but his prosecution isn’t all that it seems. 

This is a story of the fight for survival, the critical world of conservation and begs the question, is there ever a right time to partner with the ones breaking the rules? Go to cheatpodcast.com to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you want to hear on the show!

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Who was Hugh Hefner? Centerfold models, Playboy Bunnies, and other women from the Playboy founder’s inner circle, like TV personality and author Holly Madison, tell journalist Amy Rose Spiegel their side of his story. We hear how Playboy changed their lives, for better and for worse. Beyond the bunny tails are darker questions: What actually went on at the notorious Playboy Mansion? How can we square Hefner's progressive legacy with his abuse of vulnerable people? What can the Playboy saga tell us about sex and power—then and now?

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