Lie, Cheat, & Steal

Kath tells Pat about a Boston area woman who pulled a real life version of Billy Madison - posing as a high school student at public schools while living a double life.

A lot of the stuff in this episode comes from reporting in the Boston Globe by Patricia Wen. Read her first article about Hewitt here.

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Kath tells Pat about Vlad Artamonov, the Harvard Business School graduate who used his prestigious alumni network to scam other high powered finance guys out of millions of dollars.

Since Rita Crundwell is back in the news after being pardoned by Joe Biden, we thought we'd rerelease this episode from way back in 2017 when we first covered the story of the woman who stole millions from a small town government to fund her ambitions as a horse breeder.

Since it's topical, we decided to drop this episode a day early. Pat dives into the sordid history of United Healthcare, which helps explain why the shooting of Brian Thompson had about 100 million suspects. 

For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Our pal Jack Frazee comes by to offer a legal perspective on some of Texas History's wildest bribery scandals, and how they've shaped the state's modern laws.

Kath tells Pat about an unlikely duo who pulled off a scam raking in hunreds of millions of dollars: a polygamist Mormon and an Armenian gangster team up to scam the heavily subsidized renewable energy market.

Much of the info in this episode was taken from a 2021 Wired Article called "The Lion, The Polygamist, ad the Biofuel Scam" by Vince Beiser. You can read it here: https://www.wired.com/story/lion-polygamist-and-biofuel-scam/ 

Pat's laptop got stolen so we're wheeling the VCR into the classroom for another roundup of recent tales of liars, frauds, thieves, and bullshitters.

Pat tells Kath about the Besa Mafia, an organization purporting to offer kill-for-hire services on the dark web, who were discovered by tech journalist Carl Miller of "The Kill List" podcast. check out The Kill List for more in depth reporting on this story.

Kath tells Pat about Dave Pelzer, author of a Child Called It, and his potentially dubious history. This episode is unusual because we're not quite sure what Pelzer has lied about, but we know at least a few things seem off.

Kath tells Pat about a miracle gadget that piqued the interest of crowdfunding investors on kickstarter and indiegogo, despite no evidence that a single prototype was ever produced.