Live from Hot Docs: The Fast and the Fugitive 44:55

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple Podcasts. Sarah, we did it. We survived our biggest live show ever at Hot Dogs Festival in Toronto. What do you remember the most about that show? I do remember trying to not look at our friends' faces in the audience because then I would just be taken out completely. Right. Right.

I really enjoyed hearing everybody groan with us. That was really comforting because you and I are always sort of reacting very audibly to what we're reading and talking about. But to listen to everybody moan with displeasure, I found comfort in that, you know? Yeah. Well, if you weren't able to make it to the show in Toronto, don't even worry about it. We recorded the whole thing just for you. It's a story we've never covered before, and it hits very close to home.

Hi. Look at all of these people. Yeah. Well, I'm going to start with a question like we do with almost every episode. And Sarah, I want to know, have you ever gotten so deep into a really niche, expensive hobby that it basically took over your life? Sachi, I don't, I'm not someone who can do an expensive hobby. Like I can, I can't do the things we're paid to do.

I would like you to not say that so loud that our payroll department hears it. Because I would like to keep getting paid.

But the story I am going to tell all of you is about a Toronto man who got so into race cars, yeah, race cars, that he did the dumbest, scammiest things in order to drive them. And he arguably even backstabbed the two people closest to him, his own brothers. So Sarah and everybody here, buckle your seatbelts. Oh, shut up. We're going to the racetrack. Woo!

Well, it starts with a sunny day in June 2014, and rowdy car enthusiasts have turned the streets of Edinburgh into a massive auto show. They rev the engines of their souped-up sports cars while fans take photos and videos from behind a barricade. And they're all here for the Gumball 3000, a week-long rally that takes place every summer.

And it's not exactly a race. It's more like an international 3,000-mile joyride. It's a chance for a bunch of super wealthy dorks to drive really fast and party their asses off and do some really reckless stunts on public streets. The rally draws in a lot of celebrities, you know, Sarah's favorites like David Hasselhoff. Love him. Exhibit. My guy. And her close personal friend Tony Hawk. Oh, Tony. Yeah.

First name basis, Tonya. Wow, Tone. And then there are the pseudo-celebrities, or as we like to call them, influencers. People like Josh Cartu. So Josh is 33. He has sandy blonde hair and a stubbly beard. He wears aviator glasses and those high-neck jackets that race car drivers wear. And he kind of looks like a squished Bradley Cooper, you know? Yeah.

And this is actually all really fitting because his driving crew is called, I swear to God, the Wolfpack. I feel like that's the most generic thing you can come up with for a bunch of guys. And also the actual name of the group of guys in The Hangover. Yeah, that is correct. Men love to be animals and they have no creativity.

Well, the members of the Wolfpack include Josh's brothers, David and Jonathan, and their father, Lazar. It's a family affair. And all of them drive Ferraris and Rolls Royces. And Josh is really into his crew. He's wearing a black baseball cap that says the Wolfpack on it. And he's even wrapped his Ferrari F12 with the Wolfpack logo. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Well, it makes sense that he wants to show off because being in this rally is a really big deal. It's Josh's second time participating and it's proof that he's made it in the world of elite supercar drivers. And it also means that he has so much money to blow. The entry fee alone costs almost 70,000 American dollars, which, you know, as we all know, is like the cost of an abandoned treehouse in Toronto. Yeah.

But this fee doesn't even include the money you have to spend on the car itself. Yeah, I feel like you can't just like go there in like a Toyota Tercel or something. Well, Josh stops for an interview with a YouTuber named Shmi150, very cool name. So cool. Who makes videos about sports cars. And Josh smiles from ear to ear when he talks about what he is most looking forward to.

So I know it's kind of hard to hear what anybody is saying over the roaring of all these engines behind them. But Josh is saying that he can't wait for the end of the route because that is when the real parties start.

Josh has dreamed of driving Ferraris his whole life, and now he's finally living out his fantasies. He's got adoring fans, international acclaim, and a whole lot of money to support his super-fast lifestyle. But behind their fast cars and really, really stupid outfits is a mountain of deception, and it's all about to catch up with them.

From Wondery, I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And this is Scamfluencers Live.

All right, so we have home court advantage in this episode, so we're bringing you a homegrown scammer. And you guys know, like, everybody in Toronto knows a Toronto man who just, like, he just sucks. A few in this audience. He just sucks. He's just rotted from the core, you know? He thinks he's better than everybody. He's always bragging about his wealth and his cars, and he is the dumbest person in your zip code.

Well, today I have three of this kind of Toronto man. And these Canadian brothers take fast cars and illegitimate income to the extreme to create unimaginably layered networks of international schemes. And this is... No. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. The Fast and the Fugitive. Oh. Before Josh becomes the leader of the Wolfpack, a super normal friend group name...

He is a middle class kid growing up in St. Catharines. And you guys know that that is a small town in Ontario, which is about an hour from Toronto. And I will point out, no one clapped. Well, Josh has had a bit of a tough life. You know, his mom died when he was just six years old, which left his dad, Lazar, to care for him and his two younger brothers.

And by the time he's in high school in the early 90s, he struggles to fit in. He's socially awkward and he's frustrated by his lack of clout. And according to an article in Toronto Life, Josh once said about his adolescence, quote, I wasn't a cool kid. I had terrible grades. I wasn't getting girls. I wasn't having fun. I was just this shy guy who was kind of invisible at school.

How many fucking times have we heard this origin story? The classic scammer origin story was, I couldn't get bitches, no one liked me, that's why I'm allowed to scam. Correct. Well, Josh probably feels alone in tiny St. Catharines, Ontario, but there is one thing that makes him feel alive. Cars. Cars.

His dad runs a dealership and drives a Mercedes. And Josh has a poster of a Ferrari 355 Spyder on his bedroom wall. That's a car. That is a car. Yeah, I learned that in the course of researching this episode. And he daydreams about a bigger, flashier life, maybe as a race car driver or a fighter pilot.

But school isn't going to get him there, so he drops out and he gets a job washing cars at his dad's dealership. And eventually, he scrapes together enough money to get his very own ride, a Honda Prelude that he buys for $2,500.

It's in terrible condition, but it's all his. He completely tricks it out, and it seems to be like a big part of his identity. And Sarah, can you read what Josh later says to the Huffington Post about his first car? Yeah, he goes,

I was driving around with my windows down in the city thinking I was cool. Nowadays, I look at people doing the same thing and at first I get annoyed and a second later I think, fuck, I can't be annoyed. I used to do the same thing. So profound. Isn't it crazy when men in real time are like, ooh, empathy. Yeah, and he is in his Tracy Chapman era, if you ask me.

You don't need to ruin fast car for me. You have ruined plenty of things for me. Well, now that Josh has his own set of wheels, he's about to take his first step into the exciting big life that he wants. He seeks out local street racing groups and starts going to their meetups in the middle of the night. And he pulls up in his Honda Prelude, blasting music out of the custom subwoofer he's installed. And he's ready to race where we all went from boys to men first.

in the Tim Hortons parking lot. Oh my God. You know, being from Ottawa, that is Ottawa behavior. But by his early 20s, he's drifting, both literally and figuratively. He needs to get some real cash. And Josh knows he can't drive around in a Tim Hortons parking lot forever. He needs to make a decision. Leave St. Catharines or live and die this way. I knew you were going to put fast car lyrics in there. I don't know what you're talking about. I wrote that myself this morning.

By the mid-2000s, Josh has settled into a new life on the other side of the globe. He's living in Cyprus, which is a small island just off the coast of Turkey, and he's landed a job working for a gaming startup called Playtech.

Now Playtech designs online versions of popular games like poker, bingo, and sports racing. This is the wild west of internet gaming, and a lot of the internet feels like a bit of a casino. It's thrilling, it's a little risky, and there's a lot of money to be made very quickly. Well, Josh strikes out on his own for a little while, running a company that licenses software to gambling sites, and it's called Sandstorm.

We don't know much about this company, but it seems like business is pretty good. And it's around this time that he reportedly starts referring to himself as a tycoon. I feel like the way everyone would know you're a tycoon is if you told them. Like you have to go up to people and tell them, I'm a tycoon. And that's how they know. Well, that's how, you know, like how every time I walk into a room, I announce it by saying, I am very beautiful. And everyone calls you beautiful. And everybody agrees. Don't test it. Don't test the theory. Right.

Well, then in February of 2008, he gets named CEO of a gaming company called Rome Partners. And he's just 29 years old. And Rome Partners is an exciting startup. It was founded just two years earlier. It's based in Tel Aviv, but it's registered in Panama.

Well, about a year after Josh starts, Rome Partners announces that it's expanding with a new brand called Dice Partners. And in a press release, Josh talks up the company and its relationship with its customers. Sarah, can you read his quote? Yeah, it goes, Rome Casino was founded on the idea that if you treat customers well and provide a rich, entertaining experience,

They'll continue to return. So the idea is that this casino is supposed to suck people in and make them never want to leave, come back, keep spending money, which is literally what a casino is. Like that's, that is foundationally a casino. Yeah. It's, you know, there's proof of concept. It's very revolutionary. Yeah.

Well, in the same press release, he says that the brand expansion is a win-win for Rome's affiliates and its customers. Because you know how casinos are like notoriously win-win businesses, right? But in reality, Rome turns out to be even more like a normal casino than Josh lets on. Because the house always wins.

And over the next few years, Rome's customers and affiliates grow increasingly fed up with the company. On message boards, they accuse Rome partners of cheating them out of money, being slow to pay out winnings, and sometimes failing to pay them at all. According to Toronto Life, some players accuse Josh specifically of refusing their jackpots and stealing their winnings. That's tycoon behavior, if you ask me.

Listen, bitch, you're not a tycoon until someone accuses you of fraud. Well, Josh and Rome's software provider ends up issuing an apology online, but they maintain that they've done nothing wrong. They say it's a technical issue, and that's what's caused all these problems. But the apology is too little, too late. Rome gets blacklisted from several industry ranking sites, tarnishing them as frauds.

And Josh sees that it's time to move on. He doesn't necessarily leave Rome Partners on the best of terms, but it doesn't matter. He's gotten everything he needs from the place, and now he's ready to start his own venture. And Sarah, this time, it's about family. Oh, hell yeah. Cars and family. Same thing. Yeah.

It's 2010, and Josh, now 31, looks out the window at the Mediterranean Sea. He's perched up on the 46th floor of the tallest building in Israel, Moshe Aviv Tower, which is this metallic, dick-like structure. But it's in the heart of Tel Aviv's burgeoning tech industry. And Josh is thousands of miles from where he grew up. But he's actually a dual citizen in Israel, so this is like a second home to him.

It's also the headquarters of his new company. And Sarah, we've come across a lot of really stupid company names on this show. Dumbest names you've ever heard. Well, this company is called Sandbox Media, which sounds like an MLM for cats. But it's a family-run operation. Josh recruited his 25-year-old brother, David, a CFO, because a CFO should be 25. Yeah.

And he got his cousin to come on as the company's accountant. And together, they bill Sandbox as an umbrella for a host of service providers, including call centers, stock trading platforms, and software firms. Josh registers Sandbox all over the world, including in Budapest, the Virgin Islands, Berlin, Belize, and Dublin.

I understand a lot of companies do stuff like this to not pay taxes, but I mean, it obviously is strategic for them to be based all over the world, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, two years after starting the company, Josh convinces his brother, Jonathan, to join him and David at Sandbox. And they task him with helping manage the company's workforce. So now all three Cartu brothers are working together at Sandbox. It's just like succession. Yeah.

Well, the brothers start calling themselves, I swear to God, House Cartu. And they even design a coat of arms that features two lions, a pair of wings, floral designs, and a stylized letter C.

Sandbox continues to grow and attract young international talent. By this point, the company is employing more than three dozen people, mostly 20-somethings from North America, and they're lured in by a raucous party environment. A former employee described the call center to Toronto Life as, quote, a boisterous boiler room full of machismo and one-upmanship. It honestly sounds like the Wolfpack is doing some Wolf of Wall Street cosplay. Yeah.

Yeah, well, you know, that's another stupid movie that men love for the wrong reasons, so I'll add it to the list.

But the inner workings of Sandbox were still really opaque, even to some employees. And that's partly because Sandbox operates a bunch of different companies, all with their own separate generic sounding names and branding. All these companies all focus on something called binary options. Sarah, do you know what binary options are? You know I don't. I know you don't. There's no reason for me to know that. No. Just like tell me. Okay. I will tell you because I knew you didn't know. I can't figure that out.

So binary options trading around this time in 2012 is sort of like what crypto is now. They're novel, they're risky, and they're seen by a lot of people as a get-rich-quick scheme, which means they're also ripe for scammers to exploit and make money off of, especially in countries like Israel, where they're essentially unregulated.

And a big reason why binary options trading is so risky is because it involves high stakes betting. So basically an investor bets on whether a particular binary option goes up or if it goes down.

If they guess right, they make a fixed profit. But if they guess wrong, they lose their entire investment. So how is this different than like regular stock market stuff? So this isn't that typical. It's not really the kind of trading most people are familiar with. And the binary bets are sometimes manipulated so that no one wins. It's kind of like a casino. See, it all comes back around. It's full circle. That's what we call writing.

But companies like Glenridge Capital are promoting them as an exciting new financial instrument. And they use a barrage of digital ads to attract new clients. And at one point, they allegedly create one that falsely claims that Trevor Noah made his fortune trading binary options. Sarah, what celebrity endorsement would convince you to start engaging in binary trading? I feel like you think you know what I'm going to say, but you don't.

Because I think it would be James Cromwell from Babe, the farmer from Babe. And I'm saying that because I was watching Babe recently and there's like such a nice like safety to him. Like if he told me to, I would do it because I trust his face. Well, I mean, I don't have much of a leg to stand on because as you know, mine is Wilford Brimley. So you're looking at me like that for James Cromwell? I'll follow him into the dark, man.

Anyway, so a former employee of Glenridge Capital later alleges in court that employees were coached to pressure clients into signing up for their trading service. And they were even trained to lie. They told possible clients that they were experts in financial options. And a lot of them did not have any of that expertise. But there's also a kind of theater to the whole thing, you know? Employees allegedly use software to hide their real phone numbers to make it look like their calls are coming from the U.S.,

And apparently, they sometimes even take on fake names that sound suave and British. So Jonathan Cartu, for example, Josh's brother, apparently introduces himself as John Cartier. I feel like this is a beautiful way to cover your tracks. Yeah. I associate that with money. Yeah. Well, the adrenaline is pumping and so is the money. Glenridge Capital is raking it in for Josh and his brothers, or should I call them the Cartiers?

They're living like kings, hanging out in luxury apartments, gallivanting around Tel Aviv. And Josh is finally living out his fantasy of owning luxury cars and driving them as fast as he possibly can. But he's about to hit a major speed bump. Sarah, do you remember what Josh was up to right before he founded Sandbox? Yeah, the semi-fake gambling.

Yeah, yeah. The gambling website, yeah. He was the CEO of this online gaming company called Rome Partners. And right before he left, the company was embroiled in some online controversy. Customers accused the site of withholding their earnings and basically going rogue.

Well, it turns out that the customers weren't the only ones who were upset with Josh about how everything went down. Two investors who owned a controlling interest in one of Rome Partners' brands were apparently pretty pissed off too. Because in January of 2013, they file a hefty civil suit against him. And in it, they accuse him of fraud, embezzlement, and cyber piracy. I mean, who amongst us, you know?

And the investors allege that Josh fraudulently gained access to the logins for the company's domain names by lying to employees about his reasons for needing them.

And the lawsuit alleges that once Josh got the information, he changed it so that only he had access to log in. And then he fraudulently registered himself as the owner of RomeCasino.com and RomePartners.com. But here's where things really heat up. Because according to the complaint, Josh then allegedly diverted all of the company's revenue and profit to his own personal bank account. Did you just woo the fraud?

Is there a cartoon brother here? Stand up. Jesus Christ.

Well, the two men who filed the lawsuit don't actually know how much money he stole from the company, but they estimate that it is more than $10 million. This is real classic scammer behavior where they put money directly into their own bank accounts. They just take it. I'm just going to direct deposit into mine. It's not even an impressive scam. They're like a cartoon robber creeping away with a bag of coins. Mm-hmm.

Well, the two investors who filed this suit want Josh to return all corporate assets and all revenue generated by all three domain names. And to be clear, there's no evidence that Josh actually did any of these things that they're accusing him of, or at least not yet.

But even still, you might think that getting hit with such a serious lawsuit would make Josh slow down. It does not. He's determined to become the cool guy he's always dreamed of, racing fast cars and raking in serious cash. Sarah, he's come a long way from hanging out in that Tim Hortons parking lot. Why would he stop now?

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Just use the code SCAMPOD. That's happymammoth.com, M-A-M-M-O-T-H, with the code SCAMPOD to get 15% off your entire first order. All right, Sarah, what do you think you would do if you were sued, probably by me, for $10 million? I would fake my own death and then I would...

Probably do like the face-off surgery. With me? Yeah, sure. With me. Yeah, I would do face-off. I would love to face-off with you. Well, Josh doesn't do the face-off surgery. In fact, just a few months after he gets hit with the fraud lawsuit, he throws a 1930s gangster-themed party to celebrate his 34th birthday. About a month after the bash, he enters the Gumball 3000 rally for the first time.

And Shmi, the car YouTuber with the super cool name, catches up with Josh along the route where he's bought three cars with him. A Ferrari F12, a Rolls Royce, and a 458 Spyder. You don't know what those are. You keep listing cars and you don't know what they are. I know what a Rolls Royce is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, right? It's the same... Shut up.

But while Josh is racing through the streets of Monaco in his Ferrari F12, the SEC issues a warning to investors. They say they've gotten a ton of complaints about online trading platforms.

And Josh isn't concerned by this at all. Is he showing any signs of being thrown by this? Not really. Josh isn't slowing down his lifestyle one bit. In October 2013, about four months after his first gumball, Josh files a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against him. And all the while, he keeps expanding his business.

In early 2014, Josh and his brother set up yet another company all the way in Dublin. And this one is called Grey Mountain, and it's a payment processor for other companies. And that summer, Josh enters the gumball again. And Sarah, this is where we started our episode from. When Josh and his wolf pack make it to the end of the route in Ibiza...

They gather for an awards ceremony, and Shmi uploads a video to his YouTube channel featuring the founder of the gumball, who I have two important tidbits about him. First, his name is Maximilian Cooper. Incredible name. Yeah. And two, he's married to Eve.

That's the white guy Eve's married to. Okay. I was like, because you see pictures and you're like, who is this guy? And like, how is he so rich? Because he... Okay. Okay. So Maximilian. I understand now. I understand. Now you're on board? Okay. Cool. So Maximilian, who I assume goes by Million for short. Not Max. Yeah, yeah. Million. Is that wrong? I don't care to learn.

But he announces the Wolfpack as the winners of the newly invented Gumball Best Team Award. I don't really need to say too much more about this one because I think you're going to agree that the Best Team Award this year has to go to none other than the Wolfpack. Oh, look at their light up shirts. It's like they're all going to go to laser tag. Um...

I feel like best team is a participation trophy, first of all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. And you'd never know from this video that this guy's in a world of legal trouble for all this crazy shit. Yeah. Well, then a court dismisses the $10 million lawsuit against him. And basically, the court agrees with a motion that Josh filed. His argument is that he's never lived or done business or paid taxes or owned property in Wyoming, which is the state where the suit was filed.

And Josh still has to pay his attorney's fees, but this is a huge victory. And that night, he goes out on the town in his Rolls Royce, you know, the wienermobile. And he captions his Instagram post from that night, proper night out with my boys. Oh, my God. Well, Sarah, Josh is on cruise control, and he doesn't know it yet, but he's headed for a crash.

All right, well, I'm going to take you to October 2015. A 71-year-old woman named Elaine Hoffman scrolls the internet at her home in Indiana. She's about to close her computer, but then she sees a banner ad promising that she can make money from home. And she clicks the ad and watches the video that pops up. And it's two young men musing about how easily they had made boatloads of money. Elaine is a retired financial planner, so she's simultaneously suspicious and intrigued.

And she has some money set aside, but not nearly as much as the guys in the video seem to. So she dials the phone number that pops up at the end of the video, and she speaks with a man who tells her that his name is Brian, and that he's an account manager for Glenridge Capital. So that's one of like the 10,000 generic sounding companies that Josh has. Yeah. Okay. And he tells her that the secret to this amazing investment opportunity is binary options.

For just a few hundred dollars, she can set up an account that will let her make bets on the value of everything from gold to oil to currency. Elaine later tells Toronto Life, Brian explains to her that binary options, well, they're simple. If she's right, she can earn hundreds of dollars in mere minutes. But if she's wrong, she'll lose everything.

He says that she can expect up to a 40% return on her initial investment in as little as three months. Okay, obviously knowing what we know, this is too good to be true. I mean, even not knowing what we know, this is too good to be true. Yeah, well, Elaine doesn't know that yet. And even though she and her husband are already financially secure, she does like the idea of shoring up her nest egg and leaving some money behind for her kids and her grandkids, and she signs up.

Over the next eight months, she transfers $150,000 into her Glenridge account. She signs more agreements, she places more wagers, and she collects more of the so-called bonuses that the company offers. She loses money too, but she's already familiar with the stock market, so she doesn't get emotional about wins or losses. And Brian wants her to take bigger risks and get serious about depositing even more money.

Sarah, can you read this one quote from Toronto Life? Yes. We've got to get on the ball here, Glenridge managers told Elaine, because when you get rich, I get rich. So that's a pyramid scheme. It is shaped like one. Yeah. Well, finally, she reads the fine print of the contract that she signed with Glenridge. And Elaine discovers that there is a clause saying that she needs to make more than 1,000 high-risk trades in order to access her bonuses.

So she emails the manager asking to withdraw her funds. And around the time that Elaine Hoffman is trying to get her money back, the Glenridge website goes down. Her manager explains that it's just a temporary service disruption, but then Glenridge just stops taking her calls entirely.

For about a year, Elaine works to track down Glenridge. I think this is the point of, like, you don't mess with a retired person who has nothing but time on their hands. Yeah. And I feel like people would underestimate someone like Elaine because she obviously invested initially, but she's a former financial manager. Yes. Okay. Well, in a stroke of luck, Elaine remembers that her investment manager at the company had once sent her an email accidentally CCing a number of other clients.

So she emails them and finds out that actually she isn't the only one feeling ripped off. There are victims all over the world who have lost tens of thousands of dollars to this company. And those people have been investigating too. So everyone kind of comes together and they're like sharing all the information they have. It's like on Vanderpump Rules where they're all trying to figure out like what did Tom know? When did it start? Like what happened at Sheena's wedding? I'm trying to make this approachable. How did you get back to Vanderpump Rules?

All roads lead back to Vanderpump Rules. And they figure out that their credit cards were all charged by the same firm, Gray Mountain Management, and its offices are listed as being in Dublin. So the Cartus at this point have spent years trying to avoid leaving any trace of their scheme. But now Elaine and the Cartus' other victims are hot on their trail.

In July of 2017, the Sunday Times publishes an interview with Josh. And he's 38 now. He's living in Budapest. And he's marketing himself as a tech entrepreneur and a real estate magnate with a very expensive racing habit. And the headline on the article is literally, I'm burning through cash on the racetrack.

Okay, this sounds like it's a brag, and it shouldn't be. It's a very cool flex. It's not a good flex. Well, when asked about how much money he made the previous year, he says, quote, last year was pretty quiet, so about 5 million euro.

And he's been doing a lot of press lately, but this one really sticks out. And the reporter asks what Josh's most lucrative work has been. And there are two words that don't appear in any of his answers or in any of the interviews that Josh does around this time with Forbes or the Huffington Post or the Financial Times. He doesn't say anything about binary options. In

Instead, Josh hints that he's making more money from real estate or that he has investments in crypto or that he gets dividends from owning blue chip stocks. Yeah, these are all really classic streams of income that like no one can really question. Right. You know, but it's also not that surprising that Josh is going this far to distance himself from binary options.

Israel has been looking to seriously crack down on the industry. A lot of the criticism started a little over a year earlier when the Times of Israel published an expose on widespread fraud within the industry.

Employees of at least one of these firms said that they were told to simply ignore clients and stop taking their calls instead of giving anybody their money back. Okay, and because they're registered in so many different countries, it's like, it's not possible to find them. It's tough, and it gets scammier because brokers allegedly made up fake names and backstories for themselves, and they used software to reroute all phone calls so that they appear to be coming from the client's area code.

Josh and his brothers can probably see the writings on the wall. The salad days of binary options are coming to an end. And the same month that the Sunday Times publishes that interview with Josh, his brother, David, petitions an Irish court to put Grey Mountain into insolvency. In the filing, he admits that dozens of customers over the globe have been demanding their money back. Two months later, Israel passes a law banning the binary options industry entirely.

The walls are closing in and the Cartus need an escape hatch. The Cartu brothers once raced through the streets of Ibiza together. It was the wolf pack against the world. But now, as they race to Shudder, their companies, their tight bonds are fraying. And you might even say, Sarah, you might even say that they're drifting apart. Would you say that? You can't do that three times in one episode. I don't see anybody stopping me.

Well, like you mentioned earlier, all of their businesses are registered all over the world. And at the time, that probably seemed smart because it shielded their businesses from various tax laws and regulations. But now they're under investigation and the plan seems to have backfired. It means that the Cartus have regulators, whistleblowers and angry customers from multiple countries breathing down their necks.

And around this time, an employee at the Cartooz's Grey Mountain Satellite office in Ireland puts together a bombshell whistleblower report. In it, it's alleged the Cartooz created fake companies in order to disguise transactions on victims' credit card statements. And one of the companies, according to the report, operated a website made to look like it sold Star Wars merchandise.

So when a customer like Elaine made a transaction through Glenridge Capital, it was processed through Grey Mountain, but it showed up on bank statements as merchandise purchased from SithTrader.com. So this is like when a drug dealer hides merchandise in like couch cushions, but for them it's paperwork. Yeah. Well then, in the fall of 2018, a group of investors from multiple continents sue the four directors of Grey Mountain while the company is in liquidation.

But here's the thing. Sarah, only two of the Cartu brothers are listed as directors, David and Jonathan.

I do think it's a bit ironic that he tried to establish ownership, like Josh tried to establish ownership by breaking into RomeCasino.com and now it's kind of like he's saying he doesn't own anything at all. I mean, I thought family was everything for this guy. Well, the investors allege that Grey Mountain convinced them to open binary options accounts by telling them, hey, listen, you're going to make a really big profit.

And then, they allege, the company manipulated the trading software to make sure that customers lost money to the tune of about 4 million euros in total. Josh might have set himself up to avoid this particular set of legal consequences, but he's also putting himself in an even worse position. One where he has to sacrifice the one thing Fast and Furious taught us is the most important. Family. Family.

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In April of 2019, FinTelegram publishes a series of articles based on the whistleblower report. The articles break down the nuts and bolts of the Cartus' scheme and draw explicit connections between their shady web of companies. And now, the brothers don't even have the plausible deniability from back when binary options industry was in general just under scrutiny.

This is a relatively quiet time for them. But Sarah, as you know, I consider myself a pretty good Instagram sleuth. She is. She can find anyone. But I think there's some real insight to be gleaned from Josh's account. No. Like there's one photo that he posted in November 2019 and it had the caption, in life, you never get what you're owed, only what you negotiate for. Make sure the people around you know what you're worth and don't waste time with those who don't.

A month later, he posts a heartwarming photo over the holidays. And the caption reads, it's always better to spend this time of year with friends and family, especially those we see just once in a while. And then he does a heart emoji and the prayer emoji. But Sarah, I have to tell you, this photo is not with his father Lazar or with his brothers David and Jonathan. It is with the Dutch DJ Afrojack. Ha ha ha!

It's very funny to post a picture bragging that you're close to Afrojack in any context. But doing that in 2019 where it's like, you know, almost a decade past his prime is especially good. Yeah. Well, in May 2020, Josh finally speaks up. He emails FinTelegram to clarify things about the business once and for all. Sarah, can you read what he said? Yeah, he goes...

Guys, come on. I have absolutely nothing to do with the business of binary options or payment processing. This is entirely my brother's business and I have absolutely zero to do with it. I'm asking you to please stop writing my name into these terrible articles. I'm not responsible. I believe him. Like, he's saying he's not responsible. Yeah. I don't even know if he knows what a binary option is. If he's saying it, it must be true, you know? That is how it works. Free Josh. Yeah.

Well, after all this focus on his pack, it turns out that Josh is the lone wolf after all. But at least one member of the family isn't about to go down without a fight. It's 2021. The Ontario Securities Commission brings a civil enforcement action against the brothers, estimating that 700 Ontario residents had lost 1.4 million Canadian dollars trading with them. And remember how Josh told FinTelegram that he had nothing to do with binary options business at all?

Yeah, how he told the truth. Yeah, I do believe. I do remember. Yeah.

Well, this report is full of people saying otherwise. Former employees say that he had offices in the headquarters of various binary options businesses. He had regular meetings with his brothers about them, and he was listed on paperwork for some of their many, many companies. I do wonder if a family can recover from this. I mean, my brother was, like, vaguely dismissive of me once in 1995, and I'm still not really sure if I want to talk to him again. Okay, cool. I don't know.

But it does seem like the members of the Wolfpack have truly gone their separate ways. They've all been left to fend for themselves in the many, many cases pending against them. A law firm, which is acting pro bono, is helping 35 of the Cartuza's victims, including Elaine Hoffman. And together, they're seeking damages in excess of $4 million.

Now, David might have settled with the government, but he isn't off scot-free. In October of 2022, an Irish judge orders Jonathan and David to repay $124,000 USD in damages after finding that Grey Mountain made no trades.

They simply transferred money to the brothers. But that doesn't even begin to make the victims whole. Some of them remain heavily indebted to banks and to friends, and others have racked up large legal bills. Sarah, can you read what Elaine told Toronto Life? Yeah, she said, I'm 78 years old. I should have not fallen for this. I'm the person responsible. It upsets me. A lot of people are still suffering from this.

Oh, there's like so much shame I feel like associated with people who get scammed. But it's like, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. I feel really bad for Elaine. Well, Elaine also said that she's not convinced that there's, quote, any jurisdiction on earth that can right the wrongs of the cartoons. And it's easy to see why she's so resigned to this idea. I mean, she has seen the brothers skirt the law for years. Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to catch these people, but for there to be any consequences, like,

You know, I don't blame her for thinking it's impossible and that nothing's going to happen. Yeah, I mean, I don't think she's wrong. Because on one hand, David and Jonathan appear to still be on the run. But they have had to pay up a little. But Josh isn't even really in hiding. He's still living in Budapest. And apparently he is a national ambassador for the Special Olympics in Hungary. Ah!

And it's kind of unclear if this is a paid gig. It just seems to involve taking a lot of photos with kids in front of the Wienermobiles. It's crazy that he, like, can't stay away from cars. No. Like, after all he went through, you think there'd be, like, some associated trauma with even, like, looking at a car? No, it's his one true love. Well, even the U.S. government seems to be letting Josh off the hook. In March of this year, they dismissed fraud charges against David and Josh, alleging that Jonathan was the mastermind behind the whole scheme.

And it seems like after all this, Josh is driving off into the sunset. Sarah? Yes? Did you love this scam? I mean...

don't know if I loved it. Well, I think it's really wild that this guy who's like talked so much about family, like he's Caroline Manzo, would like be so quick to throw the people he was closest to under the bus just to make like a little bit of money. Can you believe that someone who like talked this much shit about his family would just let his brothers take the fall? Absolutely. I mean, he turned his back on his family, first of all. But

But yeah, because someone like that's all talk. They don't actually care about their family or anyone. Yikes, this is the most nihilistic I think you've ever been. I think I'm really rubbing off on you. Yeah, you are. I think the big lesson for me is that I don't need to learn anything about cars. It will not benefit me. Just get into any car. It will drive you somewhere. It'll take you somewhere. What else do you need? Well, that's our story about House of Cartoon, everybody. Woo!

This is The Fast and Fugitive, live from Hot Docs. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencersatwondery.com.

We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were the Ferrari fugitives by Brett Popowell in Toronto Life, reporting by FinTelegram News, and Josh's interviews with the Sunday Times, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. Emil Niazi wrote this episode and produced it for the live show. Additional writing by Jen Swan, Eric Thurm, and us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagee. Our senior producer is Jen Swan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peary.

Our story editor and producer is Sarah Eni. Our story editor is Eric Thurm. Sound design is by Sergio Enriquez. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze On Sync. Our senior managing producer is Ryan Lord.

Our managing producer is Matt Gant. Our coordinating producer is Desi Blaylock. Kate Young and Olivia Richard are our series producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our senior producer is Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, Jenny Lauer Beckman, and Marshall Louis for Wondery.

If you like Scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.