Money Hungry | American Greed

[Music] it was fine when I started I left Shot Town in 99 I departed in the late '90s rapper Tony Hayes AKA Four Eyes is looking to make a move in the hipop scene I had the privilege of growing up with a world renowned entrepreneur uh ludicrous um and you know we grew up together we started rapping a freshman year high school 1991 Hayes follows his good friend Chris Bridges AKA ludicrous to Atlanta as ludicrous career is on the verge of exploding it seemingly couldn't have worked out better for four eyes I was featured on his first solo uh album and I was also featured on his ludicrous second album uh word of mouth on some pretty pretty hip-hop classic beatbox type of tracks both albums go triple platinum but for eyes isn't content being featured on another star's tracks he wants his own solo career unfortunately he's having trouble breaking out on his own oh 3 million people heard you on this album 3 million people heard you on this album It's it was starting to slip away as you know Jan Jackson said what have you done for me lately it is from this purgatory that for eyes finds himself ascending to the pet house condominium of Ferrari Mike Banuelos where Banuelos is hosting a party very fast guy had Ferraris but moved faster than probably logically recommended a lot of times a lot of times there are several stories about how Banuelos came to be known as Ferrari Mike but it's a name and an image he Embraces the uh first car I had and my guy was really excited this over here is U it's a 360 Spider Mr B Whos always portrayed the trappings of success he would drive Hummer a Bentley a Ferrari a Maserati when Hayes meets Banuelos and sees the lavish display of wealth it seems like vuelos could be his ticket to the big time Ferrari Mike was interested in investing in the music industry but him hearing my story knowing how I was featured on ludicrous albums I had a good relation with ludicrous it made sense to me and to him to work together to help get me to the next level gr For Eyes has shown on ludicrous his first two albums that he can talk the talk The Next Step according to Ben Whos is to show he can walk the walk one of the biggest rules in the music industry is you got to fake to make it as much as I don't like the rule it it works Faking It is Ferrari Mike's specialty he wants to show Four Eyes rubbing elbows with the biggest stars in hip-hop and there just so happens to be an event where they can find them all what's good in the hood people it's your boy Fantastico eyes.com checking in Atlanta Georgia on our way to the 2007 NBA Allstar game Las Vegas Nevada so we go to Vegas but when we go to Vegas we don't just go to Vegas we went to Vegas and I mean it was no reason for us to rent Luda Chris's private plane to fly to Vegas Chris didn't even take his own private plane to Vegas when he went but we did because Ferrari Mike was the the the showman it's all about you know keeping up with the big dogs you ready for us I'm Bor ready man this man is going to be the next Superstar by the time this gets out every going to know who he is this is for eyes it's not clear how effectively they network with the big dogs but from for eyes' own video of the trip they certainly give the appearance of living the life yeah [Music] baby ready to go wey crew and this is how we do it baby but it turns out Banuelos may have ulterior motives for the trip besides getting four eyes' face out there Ben Whos wants to show that he can run with the big dogs lios private parties that's okay cuz that's what we do a few months after the Vegas trip banuelo starts a music promotion company called Revo media and shows videos like these to investors to see if they want to catch a ride on his Rising Star the investors were persuaded that you need to spend some money to make some money and Mr Ben Whos was very very good at persuading them that this would be a lucrative investment unknown to Four Eyes Danos claims to have business relationships with such Mega stars as ludicrous Usher and Chris Brown but it's a past that doesn't check out we have no evidence that he had anything to do with ludicrous success or helped him come up in the industry in any way and we have no information whatsoever that he knew Usher Chris Brown the other artists nevertheless he raises hundreds of thousands of dollars supposedly for four eyes' benefit but the only image awareness he raises is his own this appears to have been a fraudulent scheme from day one there was never an effort to turn these people into music stars in July 2007 Ferrari Mike Banuelos is throwing a blow out party to announce the release of four eyes' new album Fantastic Four Eyes Vanos has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to supposedly promote four eyes' career and he brings several investors along to see the show big baby but once again the business plan is all Flash no [Music] substance for we were faking it too hard we were faking it too hard as opposed to making it I had an album release party for an album that nobody heard I had an ice sculpture I had like 20 models but we should have put more DJs in a comfortable position to play our record so that the spins would have translated into iTunes sales record sales paid gigs all the things that artist now that the independent of doing the project seems to go nowhere no album sales no tour dates no attention but it seems that Ferrari Mike isn't worried as long as investor money keeps rolling in beno's plan is right on schedule David Derek sees all the signs of B Whos success firsthand he lives in Banuelos home as a personal chef and house manager in fact he's both an aspiring musician and a hopeful restaurant tour upon first meeting Derek Vanos instinctively reprises a familiar pitch I can make you a star he quickly let me know he was very wealthy and was very impressed with me and wanted to invest in my music career and also wanted to um help me open a restaurant Ben Whos tells d break the same story he tells investors that he has relationships with some of the biggest names in hipop manuo says his own start in the business was quite different Mike had explained to me that he used to work for the LA County Sheriff's apartment and that he had been shot in the chest and in the back and was pretty much taken care of for Life manuelo says he takes the opportunity to move to Atlanta where he claims to find his true calling promoting music the truth of why Banuelos moves out of La is far less glamorous in 1997 he had been fired as a sheriff's deputy and we learned we read reports that he had been fired from that job because he had also def defrauded his fellow sheriff's deputies Vanos worked as a jail guard for LA County but he tells his fellow deputies it's merely a hobby his real career is investing and he has a great opportunity for everyone to invest in an office building in New York but there is no investment opportunity and Banuelos is convicted of defrauding his fellow deputies of more than $100,000 nevertheless Derek sees the money and the lifestyle and believes there must be something behind it in fact he wishes he could get in on it I said man if I had the money I would invest in this and he said well I mean do you have family you talked about your dad would you be willing to invest in this and I said I don't know I mean I could talk to him as a retired surgeon Derek's father Bob has built a nice nest egg over the years with his eyes on his six children's Futures but he's not a multi-millionaire my dad has always been very open and honest with me saying look this this is our this is the family inheritance we have to move forward and make money out of this somehow Banuelos provides Bob Derek with business plans for concert tours album promotions and potential collaborations with world famous artists such as Kanye West Alicia Keys Eminem and Snoop Dog [Music] [Music] in 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump makes waves promising to clean up American politics we are going to Washington DC and we are going to drain the swamp that spring to help secure his party's nomination The Outsider candidate turns to a big-time Washington Insider Paul manfor there's a lot of irony in the Trump maniford connection not the least of which is a candidate who is running as a primary part of his platform on draining the swamp has just hired to run his campaign the ultimate swamp creature Mana for's path to the Trump campaign begins years earlier in an industrial Town not far from Hartford Connecticut Paul Manor first became anamor with politics at his father's knee his dad ran for and won the mayorality of New Britain Connecticut their Hometown his dad was a was a guy who practiced a very hard style of politics but New Britain was also a place that was filled with corruption Paul man for's father was accused and even charged with perjury but never convicted and had a road named after him was kind of a hero in his hometown so certainly possible that the sun would conclude that you can walk right up to the edge of the line without paying the penalty in the late 1960s manaport leaves New Britain for Washington DC where he attends Georgetown University while many members of his generation celebrate peace and love he's pictured in the school yearbook flashing a V for victory sign an apparent celebration of the 1968 election victory of Richard Nixon after Nixon's resignation in 1974 manfor then a lawyer serves in the White House under his successor President Gerald Ford Paul maniford even in those early days showed signs of becoming the master strategist that he would have eventually fully realize he was just this shrewd operator who understood how to get in the head of somebody and to figure out what they wanted and how he could deliver it to them after helping Ford defeat Ronald Reagan for the GOP nomination in 1976 manaport works on Reagan's presidential campaign four years later the South will be targeted it will it will get specialized media we will carry uh the Reagan record to the South particularly uh he kind of went where he saw an opening and by the time he was first getting involved professionally around Reagan that was the hot thing in American politics it turns out to be a good bet in this present crisis government is not the solution to our problem government is the problem out of Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign Washington was suddenly flooded with Republicans who'd been out of power for uh several years and they had this new power in town but nobody had figured out how to really capitalize on that power manaport will lead the charge on K Street DC's lobbying Center in 1980 he teams up with two other Reagan campaign veterans Charlie black and Roger Stone who will later work for the Trump Campaign together the three men form a political firm with an Innovative two-part business model they were electing people who they established intimate relationships with and then they would turn around and ask them for favors on behalf of corporate clients and this was an incredible advantage and it made them a fortune the firm's principles bring in six figure salaries representing bigname domestic clients including a high-powered New York real estate developer named Donald Trump maniford ran a firm that blew up based on a reputation for getting things done if you're a lobbyist you're going to be effective some of the time you're going to be effective maybe not all of the time but the important thing is to create the perception of power and manafort was a master of that the way he creates this perception is partially spelled out in a company pitch obtained by NBC News in 1988 the document list the close political ties that key members of The Firm had in the Reagan Administration and it promised that personal relationships with Department of State officials would be utilized to upgrade a back Channel relationship though what they're doing is legal some consider it questionable some of the old guard in Washington DC turned up their noses at what Blackstone and manafort were doing and they saw it as really unseemly they were breaking all sorts of norms they were creating all sorts of new conventions for Washington and I think it's even possible to say that through their firm uh Paul manfor and his crew did a lot to create the swamp if you will as we know it over the decades that he works in Washington Paul maniford becomes a behindth scenes master of crafting politicians images when you set up here with all this gadgetry do you see yourself in the role of The Wizard of Oz no because if we were we'd have curtains on the front of the window but in this world of power and money it's not just American politicians and American lobbying clients who turned to him for help there were definitely instances before Paul maniff for of lobbyists working on behalf of scuzzy foreign governments but nobody had made it a cottage industry in quite the same way that Paul Mani for did he basically went out and found all manner of folks with unsavory reputations who were willing to pay huge sums in order to try to buff their reputations and improve their standing in Washington the work is not without controversy the Prime Minister of the Bahamas Lyndon pinley and key officials of his government have long been described in reports of American Drug agents as receiving huge payoffs from big-time Colombian and American Drug bosses but in 1984 a Washington lobbying firm run by these men all of whom are now key advisers in the Bush campaign went to work for the pining government at $800,000 a year when these reports first surface maniff for's partner Charlie black denies any wrongdoing saying the firm would never work for a foreigner whose interests are at odds with those of the United States but other bad press will follow in 1992 Mani for's firm then called Black maniford Stone and Kelly features heavily in the torturers lobby published by the Center for Public Integrity this report outlines the company's work on behalf of questionable foreign CL sence said to receive us Aid and abuse human rights there's certainly an argument to be made that manafort was kind of the angel on the shoulder of some of these arguably very bad people uh that he was trying to get them to embrace Democratic tactics and strategies but also democracy that's certainly the way manif for and his allies saw it manif for's detractors say that's a bunch of bull it's possible to know who Mani for's firm works for who they Lobby and how much they make because of a law called the foreign agents registration act or Farah created in the 1930s and where do you think this is right in Madison Square Garden USA and this is Fritz cun leader of a German American Bo hiding behind the American flag but taking his orders from Berlin the foreign agents registration Act was enacted in 1938 in response to Congressional concerns about Nazi subversive activities in the United States in particular clandestine propaganda being disseminated throughout the United States now a partner at the law firm of Wigan and Dana David lofman once served as chief of the department of Justice's Counter Intelligence and Export control section there he was responsible for enforcement of phah the law that requires people like manior to disclose their lobbying and public relations work performed in the US on behalf of a foreign power the whole point of the statute is not to suppress or regulate the content of speech but when that speech is propagated by people in the United States acting on behalf of a foreign government a foreign political party to require registration with the government and periodic disclosure so that the American people or us lawmakers can be properly put on notice of who's behind that content so they can weigh what credit or weight uh to attach to it [Music] in September 2014 a notorious reality TV bad boy heads to court former Jersey Shore reality star Mike The Situation Santino is out on bail after his arrest on federal tax fraud charges the situation and his older brother pled not guilty in federal court today for filing bogus Tax Returns on nearly 9 million Dollar in income he made a lot of money and apparently Uncle Sam wants his cut Mike The Situation stino is a character viewers love to hate so the shot in Freud is laid on thicker than his hair gel when the situation was asked about the case he responded quote the situation will sort itself out he's always on he's always he's good the seeds of Santino's downfall are sown long before any any one has ever heard of the situation Seaside Heights New Jersey is a classic American Beach town with a boardwalk a ferris wheel and giant fiberglass statues that seem Eerie once the crowds are gone one store stays open on the boardwalk year round it's a t-shirt shop run by Danny MK whose life is about to change with an unexpected did visit some big guy knocked on my door early in the morning and said would you be interested in renting out your house for a reality TV show they said there was going to be a reality show about uh bunch of Italian kids they're going to rent a house for the Jersy Shore for the summertime they said could you get all your stuff out in a span of uh 24 hours and gave me a check and I was like no problem and TV history was made the premise for Jersey Shore is simple take 82s somethings who love to party rent them this beach house and encourage them to let loose their animal instincts I always considered a a a Jersey Shore kind of like what it would be if you had humans in a zoo Robert Thompson is a distinguished professor of television history at Syracuse University today he is hosting a luncheon screening of Jersey Shore 10 years after its premiere I'm starting with I what with what I consider the definitive Jersey Shore scene situation goes out to a club that's pretty much what they do all the time he uh finds a um attractive young woman and it's like you know you coming home with me he takes her home to the house he situates her in his bed in his bedroom he leaves her there and he goes and has a full meal and then when they're done having sex he says I ordered you a cab and he kicks her to the curb and then he does a fist bump pump kind of thing when he comes back up what's so fascinating is we're seeing people who don't let the constraints of civilization determine what they can and can't do it's like we've taken human life and we've stripped it of all those rules and when you think of it that way it's kind of fascinating to watch when the first episode of J Jersey Shore premieres on December 3rd 2009 it draws in an impressive 1.3 million viewers and also a Maelstrom of controversy much of it from italian-americans offended by the use of the term Guido Guido applications accepted over here it's we're either mafioso or with this we're bimbos and buffoons despite the blowback within a few weeks MTV has a Bonafide hit and raiding swore after the toria's fifth episode in which Nicole snooky poy gets punched in the face I don't mean to downplay people hitting each other but you also notice the manipulative dramaturgy going on here how many times have we heard the word blood and I've not just bleeding and blood was all over me there's all this Blood there's all this Blood how much blood have you actually seen so far like none ratings grow and by the next episode 3.2 million viewers tune in for a basic cable show that's a big big audience there are a couple things going on in the world there's like you know the war in the Middle East you know there's there's the economy and then there's Jersey Shore you know what I'm saying like it's it's fascinating it is a pop culture phenomenon it really is there were two ways people generally responded to it they made fun of it and they embraced it with an ironic kitchy Delight the other way was to respond to it was to uh be outraged that this was a Mark that we were truly at the end of civilization as we knew it but in both cases audience members were watching there was a certain pleasure in watching something so outrageously idiotic Mike The Situation Santino becomes one of Jersey Shore's breakout Stars though born on Staten Island New York Santino is raised in the Garden State after graduating from Manalapan High Santino goes to work in a gym Santino will later tell his humble origin story to NBC's Today show I started sending in pictures to New York City pretty much uh in my underwear uh and uh eventually eventually I got a call eventually I got a call back for a pilot and I got that pilot role and uh we did the pilot and I actually had to wait six or eight months for that pilot to even get approved so imagine imagine hanging on to like a dream for 6 to 8 months and and you don't even you don't even know you don't even know if once that once you actually get that show for it to even be popular this was the kitchen where all the partying happened to everyone pregame here Mike was actually a good cook Danny MK plays the boss at the T-shirt shop where the Jersey Shore cast members work this is where everyone would square off and also argue you know Sammy and Jenny had their big fight here he also owns the house they stay in during the show well I met Mike by accident beforehand Mike thought I was a producer and he leaned over to me and says I want you to call me the situation I was like who is this guy he wants to be called the situ what a dumb thing to be called but honestly what genius he branded himself marketed himself and he's been known as a situation forever Santino claims his nickname comes from his chiseled abdominal muscles one summer day he says a woman is so mesmerized by his abs that she leaves her boyfriend for him creating a situation on the beach I don't know if this his show and inside he's insecure or something like that cuz you know he's he's working out all time he got big arms a six-pack you know he always say looks like Rambo and stuff so you know maybe he's insecure inside but he was very self-confident and very uh full of himself all the time and thought every girl loved him the most important part of his personality was that he was a narcissist you can hate on me all you want to but what can you possibly say to somebody that looks like Rambo pretty much with a shtle I mean he was like narcissist the Greek god in that he absolutely was in love with his own uh image and millions of Americans are in love with the show season 1's final episode reels in nearly 5 million viewers and it's clear that Jersey Shore is more than just a hit show I couldn't believe it you know it was Unreal people were like crawling at the doors clawing at it trying to get inside the house knocking screaming thinking that the cast still lived at the house I couldn't live there anymore it was doors sh rattling all the time people banging on the windows it penetrated the culture in major ways most people knew about Jersey Shore whether or not they'd ever seen it um the cultural penetration of that show way outweighed the actual number of people watching it nothing says Fame like the president giving a shout out at the White House Correspondents Dinner pretending he's announcing a break on a new tax on tanning salons the following individual shall be excluded from the indoor tanning tax within this bill Snookie J Wow the situation in season 1 Jersey Shore cast members reportedly are paid peanuts they make about $200 a week from working at the shore store in season two each cast member gets a raise to 10,000 an episode and by season 3 the real money comes in the number is reportedly $30,000 per episode and it Soares to the $100,000 report episode range by the final season it's very interesting to watch them also progress you know their attitudes change from also you know Mike begging to bum 10 bucks off me for cigarettes and then all of a sudden now he's buying new Rolex every day you know just things change real [Music] quick Mike Santino sees an opportunity to make money not just through Jersey Shore but by seizing the day and turning his 15 minutes of fame into a brand I think the wise thing for all eight of them would be to say this is not going to last forever and however I can uh monetize it and uh you know do it while I can would be a wise thing to do and uh I think that's certainly what uh the situation did up next on American Greed from Jim rat to millionaire but where is the Situation's money going or more importantly not going [Music] retka Illinois one of Chicago's wealthiest suburbs most mornings here are quiet but in the second floor offices of one world Capital group a foreign current currency exchange the atmosphere on June 15th 2007 is anything but calm investors have heard unsettling rumors and they're flooding the company with requests to pull their money every 5 minutes the fact machine would ring and spit out a new Redemption request and people would call and they' ask you know when's this going to be processed just a crazy day it is Jared borer second week at one world today the results of a routine audit have set off a panic and the staff is anxious people were just scared 70% of the business all walking out the door at once um scary times but when Boer pays a visit to the firm's accountant his worst fears are realized I walked into her office and she looked really pale and she says I just don't have enough money to pay all these people a Forex dealer like one world should never have a problem repaying its customers accounts are held in trust until a customer authorizes a trade customer's money isn't supposed to be touched it should always be there this shouldn't be an issue at all but client funds are missing and one world is on the verge of a $16 million collapse I'd been working there for two weeks at that point and I started really to wonder what I've gotten myself into in 2005 One World Capital group is just a dream of 40-year-old Charles Martin Martin Works in Chicago's renowned Futures Trading industry at the time computers are taking over the jobs once held by humans on a trading floor as positions become scarce Martin decides to reinvent his career in the Forex or Foreign Exchange Market du Herrera Financial journalist and co-anchor of cnbc's power lunch knows this Market well the Foreign Exchange Market is the biggest Market in the world it's bigger than the stock market it's bigger than What's called the Futures Market it's also one of the most volatile markets in the world and with great risk comes great rewards each day major Banks and brokerage firms trade upwards of $3 trillion betting at all on the rise and fall of currencies around the globe with a brokerage of his own Martin could take a small piece of this very big pie you want a piece of what's the most lucrative and at times the Foreign Exchange Market is incredibly lucrative but the National Futures Association or NFA requires $250,000 in capital to start a Forex brokerage so Martin approaches Jack wall a cooworker 17 years his senior about partnering up the two couldn't be more different Charles was the most overbearing boisterous just had to be the center of attention at all times and Jack was a jeans and a collared shirt type of guy who enjoyed a scotch and really just hung out in the back of the scenes but The Odd Couple manages to put together the cash and in 2005 Walsh the quiet behind the scenes guy officially registers One World Capital group with the NFA oddly he leaves his boisterous partner Charles Martin's name out of the paperwork they set up shop in the Chicago suburb of WKA now they just need customers Freedom rocks would like to welcome you to the world of zero guesswork investing Mark vinet is the founder of Freedom rocks a multi-level marketing company based in Las Vegas in 2005 Freedom rocks purports to educate its subscribers about speculating in the Forex Market the idea is to make this complicated high-risk trading more accessible to retail investors there were thousands of people all over the world and we joined in together and uh we went through some of the ups and downs in the markets but we've had a pretty good time over the years as his members grow into the thousands vinet needs more Brokers to handle all the trades One World Capital seems legitimate and vinet recommends it to his subscribers according to Boer the influx of business puts One World on the map Freedom rocks was huge to One World they were easily you know 50 to 70% of all one world's accounts and without them one world wasn't much of a business one world is up and running within a year the broker amasses $34 million in customer deposits and it's not long before Charles Martin flaun his Newfound success Patrick O'Neal owns Little Ricky a bar just down the street from one world's office Charles would pulled up every day with a different car it be be the red Ferrari the black Bentley it would be the Denali the Escalade you had a fancy BMW an ongoing comedy basically along with customer Denny Niles and bar manager Marie alre O'Neal recalls Martin's lavish tipping at the restaurant pretty regularly he would throw the girls $100 and uh $100 were his standard standard yeah the carry out people as Marie said were tripping over each other trying to fight to get take care of them oh he's my tonight he's mine tonight take turns Martin's partner Jack Walsh also enjoys the Comforts of their new life he buys this $1.5 million house the Duo's outward success is comforting to potential clients this woman who we'll call Judy handles the trades for dozens of Forex investors in 2006 she gets a recommendation to move her client accounts to one world she appears in silhouette due to her role as an unnamed witness in the later investigation when you see lavish spending like that maybe it should be a red flag but it really wasn't to me it just said oh they're doing great Judy speaks with Jack Walsh about trading through one world he was very friendly he was very open I did not get the impression that he was a super expert in the Forex in particular but I really didn't care because he had a staff to handle all that comforted by Walsh's professionalism she migrates her client accounts i w up transferring somewhere between 80 and 100 accounts probably worth a million maybe a little bit more in addition she and her husband put a portion of their own savings some $125,000 in the new brokerage all the funds are deposited into what's called a margin account at one world and as long as Judy's trades are successful that money belongs to her not one world they should never have access to your funds unless you have given them explicit access to your funds it's Untouchable or at least it's supposed to be in early 2007 Charles Martin and Jack Walsh are riding high on the success of their Forex Trading brokerage One World Capital but Martin the much more flamboyant of the two apparently isn't satisfied with the life of of a Forex Trader he uses his Newfound Fortune to live a movie star lifestyle at Little Ricky's Martin's favorite bar his friends recall his outrageous stories about flying private jets to celebrity charity events he lived so large that every time he'd go out of town he'd come back and have stories about people he'd spent time with I think he liked to to think that he was part of that group as well I think that was his goal in life is to become a superstar yeah his voicemail on his phone was uh Sylvester Stallone saying uh Charles is not in please leave him a message and I thought that very funny in February he rents a Luxury Box to watch the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl 41 Fray Martin seen here at an evented New York invites Vanessa manilo and her future husband Nick Lee to join him in May Martin sponsors a charity event in Las Vegas according to Denny Niles who tags along it's a celebrity filled weekend Tiger Woods in that whole group and John Banji and his group and the bfish yeah I was there for four days and it was nonstop celebrities just next door to little Ricky Martin opens his own Film Production Company Charles's office was decadent he had $25,000 desks filled with expensive wine conac Johnny Walker Blue he wanted to impress and it was impressive [Music]

Channel: CNBC Ambition

Views: 183,077

Keywords: Money, cnbc, cnbc channel, cnbc television, business, cnbc business, cnbc ambition, shark tank, american greed, undercover boss, documentaries, cnbc documentaries

Id: N6NO3yhdUy0

Length: 41min 32sec (2492 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2024