The True Story of Owen Hanson: USC Walk-On, Drug Kingpin, Prison & Redemption | E189

20:36And I was like, can I borrow one of those sandwich bags? And she's like, here. So I'm dumping the pills in the sandwich bag and I'm taking the vials and I'm literally creating this like a banana, right? And I'm like, can I get your medical tape? And she's like, yeah, yeah, here, here. She's just cool. And then I'm like, can I use your bathroom? She's like, yeah, yeah, go ahead. So I go in the bathroom, I'm taping all this up and I'm just trying to create this perfect banana. And I was like, okay, I have my compressor shorts on. And I know if I leave it in my pocket, it's going to stick out. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to put it in the crack, Randy.

21:06Not the hole, the crack. So I put it literally in the crack. I put my compressor shorts back on. And like the whole time I'm squeezing my cheeks together, right? And I'm like, okay, I just got to hold this. We're going to go to Papa's and Beer. We're going to enjoy some tacos and beer for Spanky because I promised them that. And then we're going to the border. I spent$500 and I had$500 strapped to my ass. I taped it up real good. My compressor shorts held it nice. I went out and I said, Spanx, you notice anything? He goes, notice what? And I said, perfect. I'm right where I need to be. So I take him to Papa's and beer.

21:37We have a couple tacos. He has his beer, some shots. And we get out of there. And I remember we get dropped off to the line where you walk from Mexico into the United States. And we're just, I'm sweating. I'm like fucking nervous. Remember, I've had this strict father my whole life. At this point, I haven't even done a drug. And two hours goes by and we finally get to that customs agent. And he takes my passport and he says, Mr. Hanson, are you bringing anything back to America? And for the first time ever, I've lied in my life. I said, no, no, officer, I'm not. He says, welcome back to America.

22:11And that second I stepped over the U.S. side, that rush I had was the rush I chased for the rest of my life until I eventually got caught smuggling a ton of cocaine into Australia.

22:23Randall Kaplan:You've got$500, tons of pills in a bag, shaped like a banana, to be parallel with your butt crack. You come across the border. You have in your compression shorts. You've never lied. You're now essentially committing a felony. On a scale of 1 to 1 ,000, how nervous were you and how much anxiety did you have that you were going to get caught? I was 1 ,000, no doubt. Like, you have no sense unless you've ever been in that situation. And just to know as a young kid that the United States government's on the other side of this. And you're like, holy shit, like, I'm breaking the law. I'm going to lose my scholarship.

23:04I'm going to lose. I'm going to have a felony on my record. I'm probably going to get put in a Mexican jail because I'm still not even in. I don't know what's going through my mind. But all I care about is getting back onto that volleyball team. And I'm willing to do anything for it.

23:16Randall Kaplan:Okay, so just to fast forward, you start taking the Royce. You, in a very short amount of time, you beef up. You try for the football team because the strength coach said, hey, just really go out for the football team. You run a 4-6-40. You do 26 reps at 2-25. There's 85 scholarships at USC, and you're the only non-scholarship person to make the team. Correct. And Pete Carroll, Coach Pete says, Pistol Pete says, wow, you know, you're on the team. Yeah. He has no clue by the way, right? Redemption. Yeah. They have no clue that he calls me his opposite hitter. You know, we're stretching, we're getting warmed up and he's like, how's my opposite hitter doing?

23:58And he just knows I'm the surfer kid from Redonda beach. Cause he's bought a house in Hermosa beach. So it's like, he has some love for me. He, he, I remember he, he wrote a skateboard into the surf shop. I worked at as a kid called spider surf in the pier. And this is when I was on the volleyball team. So he's seen me. I remember I sold him his first skateboard and, and he was just like, cool. He like thought I was just this surfer kid from, from the beach. And he would just like, how's the beach, man? Like, you've been surfing lately, playing volleyball? Cause his daughter was a volleyball player and we were just, we were cool.

24:30It was awesome. It was just a real feeling, right? Never playing the sport in my life.

24:33Randall Kaplan:It's intoxicating to come from a town where there's really no celebs hanging out on a regular basis. Now you're on the USC football team on a team that won two national back-to-back championships. Matt Leiner, your buddy, became your buddy, wins the Heisman Trophy. You're going to nightclubs. I mean, Snoop and Will Ferrell... Denzel Washington. ...are hanging out at practice with you guys because it's cool. Yeah, they loved us. And so that's intoxicating as well. You want to be part of that life. I mean, nightclubs, black hearts, booze at the table, tons of chicks, I'm assuming. Everywhere. I remember Matt was dating Paris Hilton at the time.

25:14And we didn't pay for anything. You've got to remember, we had that red carpet rolled out for us because we were the professional team of L.A. The Rams weren't there. The Raiders weren't there. We were the team that everyone wanted to see. Like you said, Snoop Dogg would dress out in pads to come practice with us just to rally us up. Will Ferrell, same thing. Stevo from Jackass would come and just get his ass kicked. It was awesome.

25:35Randall Kaplan:You have, like you said, this insecurity-inferiority complex, And then you start guys on the team, they get injured. They want certain things. You become Dr. O. Dr. O. And I said, if you need to make a play, go to Dr. O. And then eventually you turn that into you're selling now cocaine, Xanax, to fraternities, sororities. You're in beta, theta, pi, I think. And you're making at some point$2 ,000 a week at 19 years old, maybe more than that. Yeah. So the cash starts flowing in. You're Mr. Social on campus. Is your ego now kind of getting big and saying like, I'm the man and this is just something I keep wanting to do?

26:15Randall Kaplan:Yeah, you're chasing that. Or are you motivated by money at this point? I wouldn't say motivated by money, but, you know, I never had money. So I would say it felt good. But I think what I liked is I liked having the people around me, like needing me. Like I remember having that bag and the girls were like, gosh, I want to be part of the bag, right? Like every girl likes the bag in college. Man, I'm getting chicks left and right. I don't even have the money these other guys do, but I have the bag, right? And that, for me, became my power and something that the USC kids obviously would never have the balls to do.

26:48Randall Kaplan:Are you aware that there were three fentanyl deaths the year that you were dealing all those drugs on the USC campus? Were you kind of thinking, gosh, you know, my drugs could kill somebody? I wouldn't say that. I would have to disagree because I don't believe fentanyl was even around back then. I mean, this is what the research showed. Yeah. So it's possible that Gemini was wrong because I, you know, drug use is very common on campus as, you know, I mean, my kids, just two of my kids graduated college a year and a half ago. I have a son, a senior in college and cocaine use is just rampant everywhere.

27:23Randall Kaplan:I agree on that. Shocking. I agree on that. But like, I remember the fentanyls came in in 2015 when I was arrested. I remember everyone started coming into prison on these fentanyl charges. I didn't even know what it was. And it was the synthetic heroin. And they started lacing it with cocaine, Vicodin, Oxycontin, even Xanax, right? Yeah. So I would say maybe there was some overdoses on maybe some harder drugs like the opiates. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, I did sell opiates. But I can tell you the people that were getting my stuff were getting pharmaceutical grade. And I wasn't getting it from the street.

28:00I was getting the stuff from the pharmacy in Tijuana.

28:03Randall Kaplan:Is it fair to say that all the guys on the football team knew that you were dealing drugs and steroids? And then the penultimate question is, if that's the case, how could Coach Carroll not know? I wouldn't say they all knew, but I would say a majority would. And I think I would say the coaches would be turning a blind eye. So meaning they may know of something, like they see these guys bulking up a little too much, but they're not going to ask questions because they don't want to know the answer. That, and you've got to remember, to this day, I can honestly say no one ever tested positive for steroids when I was on the football team.

28:41Why? Because we knew how to get off of it once season started or once summer ball started. And I had it down to a science where you're going to take this up to this day, and once you take it from this day, that's it, you're off. And I got drug tested many times, and I was obviously on the sauce before, and once the season started, I was clean. And that was my prescription to all my teammates. So you come out of school.

29:07Randall Kaplan:USC is known for the amazing alumni network, right? The connections are massive. There's tons and tons of rich kids everywhere. And you have a great network. And now you're pursuing a legitimate career as a real estate guy. You're doing well. You're making six figures back in the day. That's like a shit ton of money, six figures. Still is today coming out of college. Then we have the 2007-2008 implosion. Yes. And it basically snaps your career. It's over pretty quickly. So talk to us about kind of what you were thinking there. Were you thinking, okay, now I really need money. Was it a lifestyle?

29:40Randall Kaplan:And then what was that transition into macho sports? Tell us about that. Yeah, you know, you feel like you're missing something, right? When you go get that 9 to 5, you're not going to the red carpet events. You're not hanging out with these celebrities anymore. You're wearing a suit and tie and going into an office right here off of San Vicente. And I remember that was my first job right there, you know, down the street. To lease office? No, no. We were a real estate development company, mixed-use lifestyle. And we would do, like, shopping centers, kind of like The Grove, right? Right. Was this Rick Caruso's company?

30:15No, it was actually a USC alum named Paul Orfala, who was the founder of Kinko's. And he sold Kinko's to FedEx for a billion. But he started a real estate development company. him and his cousin Gary Safity. And, you know, they created me this job as this project engineer, but I remember I'd go into these meetings and they'd make me wear my national championship ring. And I'd go into these meetings and shake hands with these city guys that are big fans of USC football. And, you know, they'd utilize me to close deals and I enjoyed it. But at the same time, it just wasn't that same, that same feeling as I felt in college being the man, right?

30:51And when I lost that job, I was like, okay, I lost my job. I've had this feeling before. I got kicked off the football or kicked off the volleyball team. My mom left me. Okay. Like I'm scrambling again. What do I do? As long as I'm abandoned. Yeah. Right. And you're like, man, what do I do now? Like I was making everyone in my family so proud. I got that, that job. I was making more money than my dad ever made in his career. Right. Like, what do you do now? Like, how do you, how are you going to break this one to your parents? And I remember going back to my father and I said, dad, I lost my job.

31:23Don't worry. We're going to make something work. But for the meantime, let me speak to uncle Tony. He's like, son, you're not speaking to uncle Tony. I'm like, dad, come on. I lost my job. What am I going to do? I got, I still got student loans and I begged him and he finally gave me a meeting with uncle Tony and uncle Tony was his friend from this fly fishing club. My dad joined uncle Tony was a bookie. He worked as a bookie and he was a school teacher on, he was a school teacher full-time but a bookie on the side and he you know he had probably maybe 20 or 30 clients and he was working like you said for the company macho sports it's obviously all public records so i can talk about it he's like hey you got to meet the owners he says they they're in peru he says we got to go there first before i get you on board so let's do it right so i fly literally the first time i've ever flown out of the country i've obviously gone to mexico but i've never gone to south america so i get on this plane with uncle tony i remember they got his first class tickets.

32:15And I was like, Oh, this is awesome. I'm liking my, you know, like I've never been on first class. I'm like, this is great. And I get there and I meet these guys and they got private security guards, bulletproof vehicles. I'm like, okay, this is the life. Right. And, and we're going out to restaurants and I'm starting to feel that same way I felt with these, you know, athletes, you know, these guys are the men, they got women all around them. They got security guards. They got a ton of money. I go into this office and you feel like you're in wall street. You know, they got VIP guys that are moving the lines.

32:47They call them line managers that move the lines for the spreads of the football games, basketball games. And then they have people that answer the phones down below. And they're answering the phones for their VIP clients, their regular clients. And then you got the two bosses that have their own glass office above everyone. And I'm like, wow, this is life. I want to be part of this. And I remember bringing my old fullback, Brandon Hancock, with me. And I, you know, he just finished playing SC literally like a year before. And so these guys obviously knew him. They're big sports guys, right? And they're like, oh my God, Brandon Hancock.

33:19He's a legend. And we're going out. We go out to their private club and we go out to a hotel they own on the beach and their sports bars. I mean, they got the life. I remember we're in these right range rovers, these bulletproof range rovers, and we're going like 130 miles an hour and the cops are coming to pull us over and their security guards just like cut them off and stop them. And we just keep going. I'm like, wow, these guys are powerful, right? Brandon Hancock and I are scratching our head like, did that just really happen? You've got to remember, you're in a third world country. Anything's possible.

33:48And I start to learn the business through these guys. And they offer me 20 % commission. They said, we'll give you 20%. Uncle Tony's brought you. And Uncle Tony will get 10%. But we'll give you 20%. And I said, OK, great. I didn't know anything about the business. But within the first six months, I had a whale lose a million dollars cash. Cash. and I'm giving them a million dollars and I'm getting my 20%. I'm making 200 grand. And I'm like, this is my customer. I feel like my percentage should be higher. So I approached him again and I said, Hey, can you bump me up? I said, I just brought a guy that lost a million cash.

34:20I said, I got 20 more of those clients from USC that are, they want to do the same thing. Like we can't do it. I'm sorry. That's what we pay. I'm like, that's ridiculous. And they're looking at me like I'm just some punk kid. I'm like, okay, well, if you don't want to pay me, I'm going to figure out how to do this myself. And that's when I said, fuck it. I flew to Costa Rica, which at the time, Costa Rica was the mech of sports betting. And I remember going down there and I would go to like five different offices to figure out like, how is this going to work? And I finally found an office that was willing to rent me phone lines, a server, my own website, which I called Beto Dog.

34:55And I set up my operation down there. And I remember I started with that, that basically 200 grand. And I started small, I started taking like a thousand dollar bets at a time. And I grew my, my betting website eventually grew to 2000 customers. You know, we had Wales, we had Paris Hilton gambling. We had, you know, many friends, Matt Mosco's friend, Doug Reiner, who's now a billionaire. We had everyone gambling with us. And I was like, man, this is really blowing up. Like I got like 20 guys that work underneath me as, you know, sub bookies. I have, you know, 30 people in the office working full time, answering phones for this.

35:29And I'm just like, well, I did it. I've done it. Like, where do you go from here? And that's when I decided to take this thing international. I want to.

35:36Randall Kaplan:Right. So there's, there's so many key moments in our careers. That's a, that's a progression to the next thing. So now you've got your first major legal operation. You're doing well. You go off on your own. Now you have your own company. One of the elements of success, I have a clock on my desk that's black and it says on the 12, three, six, and nine hands, it just says the word now. And do it now is such an important part of our success. Don't let things wait, let it sit there. So talk about this five-leg parlay that turned into$220 ,000 and how that got you into the cartel. That was the first step with El Jefe betting with you.

36:20Randall Kaplan:I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, And I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google, Lyft and Seagate. And I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than$15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey. And at this stage of my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals.

36:52Randall Kaplan:I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions. And if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video.

37:16yeah i think you know you just with me my my obviously i hit that parlay big once i i turned beto dog into what it became and i was like okay like where do you bring this next okay we we've already got pretty much every state in the u.s uh with agents that are handling customers gambling with you i'm like okay let's just let's keep going north america let's go canada let's let's fucking go to mexico and i told my my sub bookies i i told them hey let's we're expanding the business. We have the platform to take bets internationally. You know, at the time we, we had ways to move money from Canada into the U S Mexico, vice versa.

37:48And, um, I remember one of my, my sub agents, he, he started to accept bets from Mexico and he was good. He was like, he's, I got a whale. I'm like, great. Let's keep them happy. And I remember the first week the guy lost 250 ,000 and the guy brought a duffel bag of cash and paid me like that. I'm like, okay, you got a great customer. No one ever pays on a Monday, let alone in cash, right? They usually find some excuse. Oh, can I give you a check? Can I give you wire? I'm like, awesome. Next week loses another, I think 240, right? A third week, another, I want to say in three weeks, this guy lost 750 ,000 and we're getting cash, pegs of cash.

38:25Like this is a bookie's dream. And my rule in this business is we always keep the customer that's a whale happy. And the way we treat it, we treat them to, you know, Laker games, floor seats, trips to Vegas, trips to Costa Rica, you know, stay at the mansion, stay at the golf course, whatever they want, we give to them because we just look at how much money we've made. We can fly in private to Costa Rica, costs us 10 grand, but it's just a dent, right? It's, it's just giving back and keeping them with us. And that was my motto. I treated it like I was a casino host and that they, they come to me and I treat them to whatever they want.

38:59I remember I had no communication with this customer because it wasn't my customer. It was my sub bookies customer. I just told him, keep him happy, whatever he wants. Let him know we're here for him. If he wants to come to the US, we'll take him out to dinner. We'll take him to Greystone Manor, whatever. And finally week four, he finally is going to hit. It's a Sunday night. He has a five team parlay that's going to hit. He needs the Raiders. And the Raiders hit and he wins 260 grand. And I'll never forget. I called him that day. Right when I saw he's going to hit, I called the sub bookie. I said, you need to get over to my house right now.

39:29He said, for what? I said, your customer's finally going to win. I said, I need you at his house at 8 a.m. sharp. I said, no questions. He goes, why? I said, get over here. I said, you don't understand. Our business is based off of our reputation. I said, my reputation is I pay on Mondays. Every other bookie in the world pays on Thursdays. You know why? Because they collect from the losers and they have their money. And then by Thursday, they can pay the winner. And that's not how you do business. They need to get paid right away because then they're never going to change bookies. So that was my motto.

39:58So Monday morning, 8am, he dropped off the bag of cash. Next day, he comes back with an encrypted phone, a Blackberry. And he says, this is from my client who is also my uncle. Like, okay, what is it? He says, he gives me a post-it. He says, there's three passwords to get in this thing. I'm like, okay, this is interesting. I am entering entering these three passwords and says, Weto, I like the way you do business. I'm like, what's this about? He says, we'll just talk to him. So I'm like, okay, anything you need, sir, I got you. We appreciate your business, appreciate you paying us on time, and we return the favor.

40:32Another day goes by, he says, Weto, I need a favor from you. I'm like, whatever you need, sir, what do you need? He says, I need money in the United States, and I'm willing to pay you 10 % on the dollar. I'm like, okay, that's a no brainer. Where do you need it? He says, can you drop off $100 ,000 to Vista, Vista San Diego. No problem. Call one of my agents in San Diego. 20 minutes later, he drops off a hundred grand. I get an email on this encrypted phone. It says, Wado, thank you. Where do you want the 110 ,000? I just made 10 % of a hundred thousand. I'm like, oh, this is perfect. I said, wire it to Costa Rica, right?

41:04I already got my office there. I'm banking there. I need to pay the staff of 30 people I have, right? Yeah. So I'm like, this is perfect. So the next day I get the wire. I'm like, okay, this is awesome. This is going to save because before we used to bring cash to, we used to literally bring like 10 friends down to Costa Rica and I'd strap everyone with$9 ,900 because that's the legal limit. And I would pay everyone 5 % and I let them stay at the mansion, right? That was my rule. So now I just solved all that. I no longer had to buy my friends plane tickets. I no longer had to pay him five points and I no longer had to keep them at the house.

41:42I just solved it all. And the next day he's like, hey, can you do it in North Carolina? No problem. Call one of my sub bookies in North Carolina, a hundred grand dropped off. I'm not caring, right? I'm just making this guy happy because he's a whale. I like the way you do business. Sends the 110 to Costa Rica. I'm like, okay, this is awesome. I'm cleaning all this money off the streets and I'm getting it offshore now. A couple of weeks go by. He says, I need you to pick up money. I need you to pick up a million dollars. I'm like, wait a minute. I just sent money. What am I, why am I picking it up?

42:10And then he says, this is an area we're not allowed in. And then I'm starting to scratch my head now, Randy. I'm like, we're not allowed in. He's like, this is rival territory. And now I'm really going, okay, I'm in deep now, but you know what? I'm thinking that 10%. I'm doing the math. Okay. A million dollars is 10%. That's a hundred grand, right? You got to remember I'm 25 at the time, like a hundred grand in a day. So it's pretty damn good. Right? So I was like, okay, if I'm going to pick up a million dollars, I'm going to need to get a private plane. So I remember I hire a guy that pays, he charges me, I think$2 ,500 an hour.

42:41And we take a turboprop and I'm like, okay, I need security. So I call my buddy Tank. He grabs his friend, that's a UFC fighter. And I pay him each$2 ,000 to ride with me. We get on this private plane. We fly to Brownsville, Texas, and we get to Brownsville, Texas, and I'm on the encrypted phone. And I tell El Jefe, hey, we're here. He says, give me five minutes. So I get off the plane. I'm walking, I'm looking around. I'm like rival territory is all I'm thinking about. I'm looking around. He's like, there's a pickup truck coming right now. So I get to the parking lot of this private airport and there's a guy that comes out in overalls.

43:11He's a gardener. And he hands me the stuffle bag of a million dollars. And he says, Este para el jefe. This is for the boss. And I take the bag, literally Randy, I'm so nervous now because he said el jefe. I'm like, shit, the boss. I've taken that bag and I'm just getting back on that plane and I'm wanting to get the hell out of here. Like all I and think of his rival territory. Guys are going to come shooting guns at me. And we get on that plane. I'm like, we're good to go. And my tank looks at me. He says, that's it. I said, that's it. We're out of here. And he didn't know at the time how much was in the bag, but I obviously told him later.

43:42And he's like, fuck, that's incredible. And I remember paying the pilot in cash and I paid obviously tank and his partner. And I think I profited$80 ,000 that day. And I was like, okay, this is awesome, right? This was eight hours of work. It's$10 ,000 an hour I just made. I was like, Like, okay, I've found my calling. Like I'm able to move this guy's money and I'm running my sports book now. And now I have no worries in the world about backing bets or anything because I'm making so much a day just moving money for this guy. And then fast forward a couple more weeks. He says, hey, imagine what you're doing now in the United States, but doing it in another country and making a million dollars a day.

44:19And what does your mind think? At a million dollars a day, you just think about the son of a construction worker, right? You're just like, okay, a million dollars. My dad's never made a million dollars and I'm going to make it a day. I'm like, okay, where do I sign up? And you don't care at this point. I think anybody in my shoes would probably figure out how to make a million dollars a day. He says, I need you to get to Australia and do exactly what you're doing now. Move money around for me. But he says, there's a catch. He says, I have product over there. And he says, you don't have to handle it personally, but you need someone to move the product for me.

44:50So I'm like, okay. I dealt with grams in college, ounces at the most. I've never dealt with kilos, right? So I'm like, just go into that Rolodex. I'm like, okay, where am I going to find someone that knows how to move this? I don't know anyone in Australia. I have an aunt that lives in Perth, but I don't know anybody that's in the drug game. And I went to that Rolodex and I remember I had a kid at USC that was on the baseball team. And he told me one day in study hall, his brother was in the weed business. And he was in the international weed business. And my mind remembers everything, little pieces.

45:19And I was like, okay, who was that? Okay, it was this guy. I looked him up and he was assistant coach at the time. He was at USC and he wasn't getting paid. He was getting his master's degree. So he was able to be a coach. And I went back to USC. I said, Hey man, I know you're going to think this is weird, but can I speak to your brother? He's like, why? I said, I just want to speak to him about what you told me years ago that he was in the weed business. He says, yeah, he's in San Diego. So I get in my car and now I'm driving a Mercedes Benz, right? I get in my Mercedes. I drive down to San Diego.

45:51I meet his brother and I tell him, Hey, I need help. I said, I have somebody that's in the international business that wants to move the white. He says, I don't do the white. He said, I only deal with the green. He says, but my partner over here that I'm playing racquetball with, he's from Italy. He's, he's, he probably could help you. Like I need to talk to him. This old Italian gangster, probably 60 years old at the time. We get there, I get to him and I tell him who I am. And I tell him, I start to talk to him about, hey, I got product over in Australia. He says, hey, stop right now. He says, don't talk about anything illegal to me in the United States.

46:25He says, if you want to talk to me about anything illegal, you need to come to where I live in Naples, Italy. I mean, you got to remember, I didn't know why. I didn't know what a federal indictment was, but he had gotten in trouble in the past. So he was obviously scared to speak in the U.S. All I'm thinking about is a million dollars. So I said, shit, I'm going to fucking, I'm going to Italy, right? And I remember two weeks later, I get to Naples, Italy and he picks me up in this Fiat and he takes me to his house. He has this beautiful home with two villas and a beautiful winery down the middle.

46:54And I tell him, I'm like, listen, I got someone that's been gambling with me that has product in Australia. He's like, listen here. He called me nephew. He says, nephew, I'll tell you right now, there's no way in hell this man has product in Australia. It's the hardest, it's the hardest part of the world to get product into. He says, it's the furthest island from anything. He says, there's no way. He said, stop wasting my time. I was devastated. I was like, man, what am I going to do now? He's like, listen, if you really have the product, when you get there, you can message me and I'll fly over.

47:24I'm like, okay. So I left. And now El Jefe is messaging me. Are you ready to go? I'm like, okay, I got to get to Australia. I'm like, yeah, I'm ready. I'm flying over. So I get to Australia and now I got to lie. I got to lie to El Jefe saying I'm ready. And I got to tell the Italian that I've seen the product. Cause remember he said, when you see it, message me. So I'm over here on my encrypted phone and I'm telling him, we'll call him Uncle Louie, right? Uncle Louie. I say, hey, Uncle Louie, I've seen it with my own eyes. Get over here. El Jefe's messaging me, hey, when do you want me to drop this off?

47:53I'm like, hang on, hang on, hang on. Give me a day. Uncle Louie finally flies over two days later. And El Jefe messaged me. He says, get a hotel room. He says, I want you to get a room at the Four Seasons in Sydney, Australia. And the reason the Four Seasons, because none of the hallways have cameras in it. So I get to this Four Seasons hotel. It's like$600 a night. and I bring Uncle Louie with me and I say, okay, Uncle Louie, I'm going to get a room and you get the room right next to me. Because I remember Randy, I don't want to touch this stuff. And I get in my room. It was room 428. No, my room was 426 and Uncle Louie's room was 428 at the Four Seasons Hotel.

48:25And I get in there and I tell El Jefe on the encrypted phone, I say, hey, I'm in 426. Within 30 minutes, I get a knock on the door and a guy in a DHL outfit gives me a box. And I take that box and it's fucking heavy. I'm like, holy shit. And I know what it is. And I'm like, I'm scared now. I'm banging on the wall, having Uncle Louie. I said, get over here now. So he comes over, we cut it open and he opens it up. He goes, holy shit, nephew, you were not lying. I said, well, get it out of here. I was scared. I was like, I don't want anything to do with it. Get it out of here. So our agreement was I was going to give him wholesale price at$100 ,000.

48:58I was going to keep$50 ,000 a key for me and$50 ,000 a key for El Jefe. Uncle Louie could charge whatever he wanted. It wasn't our business. So within 30 minutes, there was 10 kilos in there. Within 30 minutes, Uncle Louie brought a million dollars cash. This was our test run. $500 for El Jefe,$500 for me. And I found out later that Uncle Louie charged$50 ,000 per key on top of it. So he made$500. So we all made$500 ,000. I was like, okay, what am I going to do with the cash? And I messaged El Jefe, what do you want me to do? He goes, hold on to it. Just hold on to the cash. And now Uncle Louie's saying, hey, when can we go again?

49:33I messaged El Jefe, hey, when can we go again? He goes, tomorrow you're going to have$20 dropped off. Same place, same time. This was a Tuesday. 20 come. Now Uncle Louie drops off 2 million. So now I made my million dollars a day, right? Million for me. Million for El Jefe. I'm like, holy shit. When are we going again? We work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We take off on the weekends. We do it again next Monday. I'm like, holy shit. So now, Randy, I have$10 million at this point in my Sydney apartment. It's a studio apartment. Probably no bigger than this area. It's small. It has a kitchenette and a toilet and a bed that's part of the living room.

50:06and I'm literally like looking in the cupboards. I'm putting cash in the cupboards. I'm opening up the dishwasher, throwing in the cash in there, putting money in the microwave, the freezer. I'm going above the toilet and there's an attic. I'm putting cash up there and I still have cash. I'm stuffing it under the bed in suitcases, like$10 million is a lot. And these are$50 bills. And I'm starting to panic. You know, I even have Uncle Louie starting to panic because it's coming in so fast and we don't have anywhere to put it. So I remember messaging El Jefe. I'm like, okay, hey, when are you going to pick up your half?

50:38You know, half of it's yours, right? He's like, what? Do you remember why I pay you a million dollars a day? He says, that's your job to figure out. And I was like, holy shit, what have I gotten myself into? And that's where we had to get creative.

50:51Randall Kaplan:One of the favorite movies of all time by people is The Godfather. And so at some point, you're named Don Corleone. And The Godfather is about a mob boss who's ruthless, kills people, does whatever it takes to further his criminal enterprise. eyes. So innovation is so important to our success. So now you've got all this money. You don't know what to do with it. You got to launder it and get it out of Australia. So talk to us about the gold bars and the Ugg boots and this genius invention that you made up in order to wash all this money. So I had to get creative, right? I'm sitting there with$10 million in my apartment and I'm like, like, okay, I'm scratching my head.

51:33Like who can help me? I'm going to call my accountant. My accountant lives in San Diego. I'm like, you know what? If anybody could help me, it's my accountant. But now I can't tell my accountant. I just moved cocaine for the cartel, right? So I got to tell him what he knows. He knows I'm a bookie. He knows it's a gray area in the US, but in Australia it's legal. So I call him. I said, Hey man, I just had this customer of mine lose a lot of money. He's gambling in the US. He gambles with me. He has money in Australia, but he gambles with me through my service in Costa Rica, but he wanted to pay me in Australia.

52:02So I lied. I said, I have all this cash and I do not know how to get it back. He's like, well, let's, let's figure it out. So he puts together a team. He grabs his brother. Who's my, one of my best friends from college, one of the best volleyball players at USC, Eli Fairfield. And he, he grabs his brother or his father-in-law, who's a fucking fire captain. And I just lied. And I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe he's going to get these people involved. Right. And we're literally in Australia. And I said, they show up and I'm like, okay, guys, look at all this cash. And I'm opening the cupboards and they're like, their jaws are dropping.

52:30They're like, holy shit. And And it was so bad. I feel so bad, Randy, because these are my good friends. And I feel bad. But I'm like, I got to lie. Like, I got to go watch a fucking game on the TV. Like, I'm sweating a game. So they really think the customer's gambling. And I remember I was like, it was like a Dodger game. Like, fuck, dude, if he hits this bet, he's going to win fucking a million dollars. I'm going to have to take a million back. And I'm lying to my friends just to make them feel like this is legit.

52:55Randall Kaplan:Because you're worried at that point, if you don't get the money back, you're going to get killed. Yeah. Well, this is my responsibility, right? And that's why I was getting a million dollars a day. I wasn't even thinking about getting killed at that point. That came later. No, that came later. At that point, I wasn't even thinking about that. I just wanted to get this shit out of there. And we started thinking, okay, what's Australia known for? And we're sitting down there. We're like, okay, ACDC. We're thinking like kangaroos, Crocodile Dundee. And then we're like, Ugg boots. Remember, Ugg boots were so classic back then.

53:24Everyone had them. And I was like, okay, that's what we're going to do. Ugg boots. And then my accountant says, okay, what can we buy in order to start laundering this cash? And he's like, let's just start buying bullion. And at the time, bullion was like$1 ,500 an ounce. And we could get these one ounce rounds that had a kangaroo on them. And so we would literally, we'd team up where all four of us would go out with 100 grand in cash. And there was like six bullion stores, gold stores all throughout Sydney. And we would literally go and buy like$9 ,900 worth of gold. and we'd had these fanny packs and we'd just start stuffing these coins in there and we would pretend like we didn't even know each other and sometimes we'd run into each other at the gold stores and be like oh like oh look at you he's here like you know because we don't want to be known and then we're like okay we got all this gold now let's take these these one ounce rounds and we're going to go buy Ugg boots now in Australia Ugg boots are very cheap like you can buy a pair of Ugg boots for like 30 bucks but in in America at the time they're like 200 bucks and every corner has a different Ugg boot they're all named Ugg but could be like Ugg Sydney Ugg Bondi Beach, you know, there's different kinds.

54:25So we're calling our girlfriends, our wives, our ex-wives, everybody's calling friends. They're like, Hey, what color Ugg boots do you want? You know? And we're like, one girl wants green. One girl wants pink, bland. Like we don't care. We're just buying Uggs. My condos, this studio apartment's filled with Ugg boots. And now we're going to the Ugg stores and say, Hey, we want the soles. Do you guys have the soles, the extra soles? So they had these thick soles. So what we did was we take out the original skull, sole, and we glue four one ounce rounds. So four ounces of gold in each shoe. And then we put the stuffing on the new sole on top.

54:58So if anyone looked, they wouldn't see it. And we package them up and we have PO boxes set up in America now where we can just send these Ugg boots to these PO boxes. So we don't have to worry about people accepting them. The PO box gets it and they're there. We start shipping out probably like a hundred thousand dollars a week in Ugg boots, but it's not even putting a dent. And we're like, man, what are we going to do now? So then we start buying the Euro notes. At the time, there was a$500 Euro note that was equivalent to$750 US dollars. So we start taking all our cash and we start buying the Euro notes at all the exchange places.

55:32So we start putting them in comic books. And then we have these vacuum sealers in my apartment and we'd vacuum seal these comic books. And then we'd put them in an eBay envelope. It looks like someone bought something from eBay, right? And we'd send them home into the PO boxes and we just started stackpiling this money. But like I said, it's not, it's not even putting a dent. So I'm, I'm, I'm panicking. I'm like, man, this is like, we've probably moved a half a million dollars and we got four guys. I'm like, we're starting to buy watches, Hublot's Rolexes, Yachtmasters, like, like anything and everything, right.

56:01I'm buying my friends, whatever they want. We're going to steak dinners and they're buying Chanel bags for their wives and like anything we could think of like we're buying. And then I'm, I'm dating this girl at the time. And I'm like, man, I need help. I said, this, this gambler, he's lost all this money. I have no way to get it out of here. And she's like, you know, why don't you, why don't you try to launder it through the casinos? I was like, what do you mean? She's like, why don't you have like a, like a high roller come in, in over there and start playing with the money and, and launder it that way.

56:29I'm like, do you have anyone? And she's like, yeah, I got a friend that's a high roller in Las Vegas. His name's RJ Sipirani, also known as Robin Hood. Like, okay, well, can I meet him? She's like, yeah. So I remember she, she called him and she says, Hey, I have a business man in Australia and he wants to meet you. He wants to learn about what you do. And I remember I flew from Australia into LAX and I met this guy at the Fairmount in Santa Monica. And I sit down there and I have a conversation with him and I tell him, Hey, I got this gambling money in Australia. I said, this customer, he was paying me over there, but I can't get it back to the U S I said, I need help.

57:06He's like, okay. He's thinking, he's like, listen, this is what I do. He goes, I'm a high roller. I'm a blackjack paler. He says, I'm considered a whale. He said, what I plan to do is this. He says, I plan to take your cash. You give me cash in Australia. He says, but first I'm going to have my host in Las Vegas call. They're going to call the casino in Las Vegas. The host in Las Vegas is going to call the casino in Australia, which is the star casino. And they're going to let them know I'm coming into town to play blackjack and that I'm this whale from Las Vegas. So they're already going to know I'm coming.

57:35They're going to have my room comped and everything. I'm like, cool, let's do it. Said, what's my fee? He says, I'm going to charge you 25 points. and he says, I'm going to, I'm going to need a first class ticket to Australia. I'm like, okay, cool. The guy sounded so professional. I was like, this guy knows what he's doing. So I get him the first class ticket. It was a Qantas hairline. I get him there. He has his comp room that's at the star. And then he gets a four seasons penthouse. And, uh, I say, okay, at this point I'm so fucking paranoid. I don't, I don't want to move money. So I'm like, here, come to my, come to my suite, come to my apartment.

58:05So I meet him downstairs in my apartment. I give him$1.5 million in a suitcase. He gets in a taxi and he goes to the Star Casino. He shows up to the Star Casino and they already know who he is. Hello, Mr. Cipirani. Welcome. Second playing blackjack today. And he takes his cash and he stacks it. They don't ask questions. He's a high roller. They take that cash and they turn it into casino chips. So he's playing, playing like 30 ,000 a hand. He's got like a couple of hands playing and he plays for like two to three hours. And he's like, you know what? He tells the pit boss, he goes, hey, I'm not feeling it.

58:36He says, cash me out. You know, he's a high roller. He can do whatever he wants. Cash me out. I'm just not feeling it. So when he says that, they give him a check, a cashier's check, because they're not going to give him cash. They're going to give him a cashier's check. So now he has a cashier's check in the casino's name, and he can take that check now to Las Vegas, where he's already a high roller. So he takes that check. Let's say, I don't know what the amount was, but let's just say it was 1.5 million if he did it evenly, but I don't know what it was. I can't answer that because he did it.

59:00So he goes back to Las Vegas and he gets to the Venetian where he's this high roller. And he tells his host, hey, I got 1.5 million. I'm going to play a little and I need some cash. So he plays some hands. He gets some cash because they'll give him whatever he wants. And eventually he wins a little, he loses a little. And I think 24 hours later, he calls me and he says, hey, we're good to go. I have your 1.5 million minus my fee, which at the time was 25%, which I think was 375 ,000. And he had like right around a million dollars. I said, drop it off, dropped it off to my, my girl at the time.

59:33And my father, actually, I said, dad, I got a customer that owes me some money. Cause I was back in Australia now. So my dad's involved, he's picking up like 500 grand. My, my girlfriend's picking up like 450 grand. And, uh, I'm in Australia. I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm still working, right? I'm still moving. And two weeks later, he calls again, he goes, let's do it again. I'm like, fuck yeah. I got two and a half million sitting for right here for you. Right. I'm starting to put some, some, some dent into this, the stack, right? I'm telling El Jefe, we've, we've got our guy, man. Where do you want this, this million I clean dropped off?

1:00:05And I remember having it dropped off and he's like, man, keep it going. Like he was happy. And, uh, I, I go and I, I, he comes back and I give him two suitcases now of 2.5 million. Keep in mind, we're still, you know, we're still trying to buy Euro notes and gold coins slow as possible. And it's taken forever still. I'm like 2.5 million. This is going to put a dent in this thing. Three hours later, he calls me. I'm like, holy shit. I'm in the gym with my personal trainer. And he goes, Hey, we got a problem. I said, what do you mean we got a problem? He said, I lost all the money. He goes, actually, I have 300 grand left at my hotel room.

1:00:37And I said, what? Now all I'm thinking is this guy just robbed me. That's all my mind's thinking. So I tell my personal trainer, he says, come on, we'll go to the casino. I have a pit boss there that I know. We're going to figure it out ourselves. So Randy, I remember putting on this three-piece suit. This is where that Don Corleone came into effect. And I put on the suit and I had my personal trainer put on a suit and we went in there into this casino and we meant business. Like there's no way this guy's going to take me for 2.5 million of the cartel's money, right? And I get there and he's just like shaking.

1:01:07Yeah. I lost it, man. I lost everything, but I can win it back. Just give me some more money. I have 300 at the hotel. Please help me. I'll get it back. He's panicking. I'm like, there's no way. So I have Sean, my personal trainer. He goes, talks to the pit boss and he says, dude, the guy was playing like$60 ,000 a hand, three at a time. He lost it. He really lost it. I'm like, holy shit. So now we're like, okay, what are we going to do? We can't have this guy leave. We need to figure this out. I said, you know what we're going to do? I said, you're going to get your 300 grand. That's at the hotel room.

1:01:33I said, and you're going to get your passport. You're not leaving this country until you do that. He's scared. He's like, yeah, whatever you need. Okay, I'll go get the 300. I'll go get my passport. And Sean tells him, my personal trainer says, we're going to get a hotel room at the Hilton off of George Street. And we're going to call you as soon as we get there with the room number. And your job is to meet us there with your passport and your 300 grand. He's like, yeah, whatever you want, I'll do it. We drive to George Street. We get the room. 1326 is the room number. We call him and say, hey, 1326, come on, get your ass over here.

1:02:04He goes, okay, I'm on my way. I'm on my way. We wait four hours. Randy doesn't show up. We're like, oh, fuck, this guy got us. So I said, fuck it. Let's go back to my studio. Let's get out of here. We're not going to wait around. So we go to my studio. We're literally drinking white wine. I'm popping Xanax. I'm so stressed out. And I'm just thinking like, man, what am I going to do? How am I going to tell El Jefe I'm just drinking this wine? And he calls. He says, I got your 300. I'm coming over. I'm like, oh, fuck yeah. And I'm at this point, Randy, I'm so paranoid. I'm like, okay, what do I do?

1:02:31You know what? I'm going to take some of this cash and give it to Sean. You know, I'm going to give him 700 grand because he's going to pick up 300. Then he's going to have a million cash. And I'm so paranoid at this time because you've got to remember, I'm like, this guy knows where I live. He's already playing games. So I tell Sean, hey, I'm going to give you the suitcase of 700 grand. As soon as you meet the guy at the hotel, take his 300, put it in the suitcase and go to your house. And he lived on the farm. I said, just go hide this million for me, please. Because I'm just want to get cash out of there.

1:02:58So he shows up to the four seas or excuse me, he shows up to the Hilton hotel. And as soon as he get there, there's four new South Wales police there. And they said, hello, we just got a call from, no, we got a call from American man that said, you have a gun in your room. He's like a gun in my room. It's like, I don't have no gun in my room. They said, well, we need to check your suitcase first. They open up the suitcase and they find the 700 ,000. They detain them. They take them to jail. And like, at this point, I don't know what's going on. I told him as soon as he picks up the money, call me so I know he's okay.

1:03:31Three, four hours go by, he hasn't called me. So I'm like, okay, my personal trainer just robbed me. That's all I'm thinking. I'm calling him. He's not answering. And finally, like five hours later at like two in the morning, I get a call from this lady from the police department. She's like, this is Junior, Junior DeLuca, because that was my alias over there. She said, Junior, we're calling about the 700 grand we just found on Sean Carolyn. Can you come into the station? I'm like, oh my gosh. I said, I don't know what you're talking about. And I said, I'm not coming into any station because I'm in Coogee Beach.

1:03:58I lied to her. Coogee Beach is like two hours away. I said, I'm in Coogee Beach. It's two in the morning. I said, I'll come in the morning. I'm not coming right now. So now I'm panicking. I'm like, oh my God. So not only did I lose$2.5 million of El Jefe's money, but I just lost another$700 ,000. And so in three, I lost within 24 hours,$3.2 million of the cartel's money. I'm like, holy shit. I am fucked. And Sean Carolyn, the personal trainer, gets out the next day and he's like, mate, we got a problem. He says, that American guy, he's telling him we threatened him. He's telling him that he was laundering money for us.

1:04:34He says, you got to get out of here. He says, but the 700 grand, don't worry. He says, I told him that you were a businessman and that you gave me that money to invest in my rejuvenation clinic. He had a rejuvenation center. I said, okay, I can go with that. I'm good with that. He says, we'll get that back. don't worry. He says, I got a dodgy attorney. He says, this attorney is great. You might take a percentage, but who cares? You'll get it back. So I'm like, at this point, I don't care. I'll take anything back, right? You just lost 3.2. You'll take a dollar back and be happy. But now I know I'm hot.

1:05:07So I say, you know, I got to get out. I got to get out of Australia. He says, don't worry. We'll talk to the lawyer. We'll get it resolved. I fly back to America. And as soon as I touched down in the United States, I get a message. Guess who it's from? El Jefe. He says, say, hey, Weto, I need$3 million dropped off in San Diego. I'm like, oh, shit. I got on the encrypted phone. I'm like, hey, I need to see you in person. I need to talk to you about this. I don't want to tell him I lost his money or he's going to think I'm lying. All I can think about is if I tell him that, he's going to have me killed.

1:05:35So, Randy, the only thing I was thinking about is if I get this man in front of me and I'm talking to him like I'm talking to you, he's going to know I'm not lying. I got to tell him the truth. And that's what I told myself I have to do. I was like, okay, do I run and have to look over my shoulder and be worried about getting killed or or do I just face the music? And I remember it was a Saturday and he says, meet me in Tijuana on Monday. And he flew in from wherever he flew in. And he says, at 1 p.m., I need you to be at the McDonald's on the Tijuana side. He says, I'm gonna have my Sicarios pick you up.

1:06:05For people that don't know, Sicario's a Mexican hitman. And I'm at McDonald's, I'm waiting, I'm at 1255, I message, hey, I'm here. One o 'clock sharp, boom. Suburban pulls up, rolls down the window and the glass is this thick because it's bulletproof. And they say, Weto, get in the car. And I get in the car. I'm literally looking at the driver and he has a pistol right here. And then I turn around and there's two Sicarios in the back with AK-47s. And I'm like, holy shit. All I'm thinking about is they're going to fucking kill me right there and it's over. Like, this is what they're going to do.

1:06:38They're just going to kill me. And we get out and we get on the toll road. And next thing you know, we pull behind a Hummer, a black Hummer. And then right in front of the Hummer is another Suburban. And I don't know at the time, but this is El Jefe. We take this entourage, and it's probably 20 minutes later, we're in this town called Puerto Nuevo, which is Lobster Town. I'll never forget the day, this Puerto Nuevo number one, which is the most famous lobster restaurant probably there, it's right on the corner, was shut down. I've never seen this place shut down. It usually has a line out the door.

1:07:08And he had the whole place shut down for him. He's now sitting at the table. He has six Sicarias around him. I sit at the table across from him. I got the two cigars that were in the Suburban behind me. And I sit down there and I tell him. I tell him who I am. He obviously knows. I tell him, hey, it went great. The 1.5, remember I gave you the money? I said, then we asked the 2.5. And he says, well, I know. I've been reading the papers. It's all in the news. He says, well, we got good news and we got bad news. He says, you know what we say in Spanish? It's a famous cartel saying, plata or plomo.

1:07:41meaning we either kill you plata which means silver you either pay us or plomo means lead you get killed and i knew the saying it was an old escobar saying right i've heard it before and he says uh you don't owe me 3.2 million dollars anymore he says you now owe me four million dollars i'm charging interest and he says you now work for the cartel i was like oh fuck hey we're ready all i'm thinking about is i'm alive right now i don't have to worry about this guy's behind me because he just told me that I own four million and I'm working for him and I was like okay at least I'm going to leave this place alive and that's all that went through my mind that day I was like okay I've I've been the underdog my whole life I can get out of this situation as long as I'm alive and I remember that day I he he's like okay now let's drink and I remember I took that margarita fucking and I juggled that thing so fucking I was like this is I was now talk about a rush right that was a different rush than coming across with some steroids.

1:08:38That was a whole other rush, knowing that you're now working for the most infamous cartel in the world.

1:08:43Randall Kaplan:Going back to The Godfather, Don Corleone, the powerful head of the mob, who, very violent, will kill people to get whatever he wants, said, make me an offer I can't refuse. In so many parts of our life, that happens to us. We say, okay, are we going to go to left road or the right road? What's your advice to people, even in a non-criminal fashion? When that happens, is it too good to be true? Most of the time it is, but my advice to anybody that's on the border, I tell them to do a background check on that person. You know, if I would have maybe done a background check on my customer that was betting through my agent and found out that, you know, he was working as a cartel member, I would have probably said, you know what, let's pass on this customer.

1:09:25This is not all money is good money, right? You know, I tell people I had a private investigator on my payroll just for things like this. And a prime example is the guy that lost the 2.5 million. You know, if I would have done a background check and realized that he was a fugazi, I probably wouldn't have went into business with him. But I was so desperate at the time to get this money out of Australia, I just went with it. And that's the advice I give people. Don't, you know, look who you're doing business with before you get into bed with them.

1:09:51Randall Kaplan:That's such a great point. Part of extreme preparation is doing the research and the background check on the people that you are doing business with. Many years ago, I was looking to buy an electronics distributor. I went through all the due diligence. It wasn't on a computer back then. So there are all these note cards. I asked the owner of the company in writing, do you have any legal problems? You ever been accused of crime? No, no, no. And then I asked in person, face to face, and he said, no, hire a private investigator, which is fair game in a business. And it came up with a guy had pleaded no contest for conspiracy to commit fraud.

1:10:21Randall Kaplan:And I said to him, you know, over, done, not truthful. Your books are not clean. And you know what he said to me? He said, this is 20 years ago and you're not allowed to go back. It's not legal for you to count that against me. I said, you know what? Sue me because I would never do business with a liar. Do your homework, do the background check. Could save you tremendous amount of heartache later on. I think that's very important in life. You know, I'm an open book. Like I'm not hiding my past. And I come forward and I tell you the story. You can either love me or hate me. And 90 % of the people are going, man, you're honest and you speak the truth and you're transparent.

1:10:58He goes, I want to do business with you. And that's very important, honesty and integrity.

1:11:02Randall Kaplan:So now you're working with Al Jaffe. You're now an official cartel employee, essentially. And there was a two-year cooling off period at some point now, right? You're still doing the same thing that you're doing. Are you laundering the money in Australia? You're going back there now? Or are you now in the United States trying to figure out how to bring money in? I'm no longer going back to Australia. Obviously, I'm a wanted man. I have this lawyer in Australia trying to figure out how he's going to recover the 700 grand. And he comes up with a story where he's going to have a concert promoter come forward and say that I was a silent investor for the ZZ Top Fleetwood Mac concert that was in Melbourne, Australia.

1:11:41And I, as this investor, gave ZZ Top's manager in LA 700 grand cash in order to be the down payment for their concert that they are playing. Cause this really did happen. They really played in Australia. And this concert promoter really did hire them. Obviously we lied. I didn't give anybody 700 grand, but this guy was going to come forward and say this, and he was going to make a percentage. And then the lawyer was going to make a percentage. And I was just taking my, my lawyer's advice. And he's like, and then after that happens, after this guy come forward, he says, now you need to go forward and go into the Beverly Hills playstation and confirm all this happened.

1:12:16I was like, man, we do not talk to the police. I'm not doing that. You're crazy. He says, mate, it's not a U S matter. And that's stuck with me. I said, okay, you're my lawyer. I'm going to take your advice. I went into the police station and I told him this fucking make-believe story. And that story will save my life. We'll come back around. Yeah. But just have that in the back of your mind.

1:12:35Randall Kaplan:A lot of things that work for criminals are actually work for legitimate people, right? Some of the things that make us successful criminals, you could turn around to be successful in the real world. And we'll talk about what you're doing now that you're out of prison with to a new company in a little bit, but I want to talk about one of the things that's made me successful. It's my brand. I'm writing a book called Extreme Preparation. That is when someone prepares one hour for a podcast, I'll do 14. I just want to be the most prepared person in the room, which just leads to extraordinary success in whatever that we're doing.

1:13:04Randall Kaplan:How important has extreme preparation been in your success? And then on a scale of one to a thousand, how important is it? On a scale of one to a thousand, how important is extreme preparation to be a successful criminal? I would say at least 900, right? You have to prepare for these moments and you have to be able to, you know, what's the word? I'm drawing a blank. You have to be able to know how to pivot, right? And be resilient. and like you said preparation can can be for someone that's a fortune 500 company or someone that's working for the cartel and i i had to prepare and figure out like you said i had to take two years off and in that two years guess what i prepared what i was going to do every day to make him back his money and the reason i took off two years was because he knew that the guy was cooperating with the government because it was all over the news he told the story that he was laundering money so he said you take off two years let stuff die down the heat will die down run your sports book business.

1:13:59Don't do anything with drugs. Don't do anything with money laundering. Run your sports book business like you did before you met me. And that's what I did. But the whole time, Randy, I was thinking about that debt, that$4 million debt. And I started using drugs heavily. I started drinking heavily. I was so stressed out and knowing that I owed them$4 million. And I just started to prepare and figure out a way I was going to pay them back. And Hefe said, when the two years is up, it's your job to figure out how to get the drugs into Australia. You're no longer using my routes because I don't want you to burn them.

1:14:33He says, you have to figure out how to get my product over there.

1:14:36Randall Kaplan:Is this when you went with the Everclear and you're stirring it in the bathtub with an oar of a canoe? Yeah, it was a stand up paddle board. Never forget it. So tell us about that. What was the innovation? Which again, it's the same things that can make us successful in the real world. Yeah. The innovation was like, okay, you're getting something, you need to get something into a country that's impossible to get it into. And like people have used every route, whether it's, you know, boats, planes, humans. And I was like, okay, I can't use humans. I can't use boats. I, you know, I have a limited budget here.

1:15:09And I was like, Everclear is the way. And, and I went, I went to Fiji. I went to Fiji because I couldn't come to Australia. And I met someone from Australia over to Fiji. And I told him my situation. I said, hey, I have to sell it to you, but I can't come in Australia. I can't get it there. I'm gonna have to figure it out. And we were drinking wine. This is how it happened. We were drinking wine and we cheers. And as soon as I looked up the clear wine, this white wine we were drinking, I was like, that's it. I said, what if we brought in wine? And I said, do you have someone that could take liquid and turn it back to cocaine?

1:15:44And he's like, yeah, we got the scientists for that. You think you could do that? I said, yeah, I'm going to figure it out. And I remember going back to America. And I had my contractor who, you know, we were building many homes. And he was very creative. And I told him I had to break it to him. I said, man, I'm in debt to the cartel of$4 million. I said, I got to figure out a way to turn this cocaine into liquid. Do you have any ideas? And he says, yeah, Everclear. He says, it's 150 proof. It'll break down anything. He says, it'll turn that powder into liquid. And then he says, then the sky's the limit.

1:16:12And he didn't know I already had the wine idea. So I remember I said, hey, I need a favor. $1 ,000 every one we turn into liquid, I'm paying you. I remember Ojefe had his runners drop off 10 kilos. And we were in this bathtub. We had these bathtubs for these construction sites because we were building homes. And we were in this Kohler bathtub. And I'm in there. And I take every bottle of wine. We had two cases of wine from Napa Valley. We bought it at BevMo. And we poured out all the white wine and we had the darkest bottle possible. And we're dumping them out. And my contractor's a wino. He's like, God, I can't believe you're wasting this.

1:16:52I said, well, so take some, you know. He's like filling it up with those big water bottles that you put on, you know. He's like filling it up so he can have the wine after. And he's like, okay. And he's placing these kilos in the bathtub. And I'm standing in the bathtub and he's dumping the Everclear. And I'm in there with my stand-up paddleboard oar. And I'm literally just creating this. This cocaine's turning into paste. And then eventually the more alcohol we add, it turns into liquid. And now we have funnels. And we're funneling the wine, the cocaine wine, back into the bottles. And we're wiping down the bottles.

1:17:23And we bought this corking kit online. And you put the cork in. And it corks, goes down. And then they have this red wax that you put on. And you melt it on top of the bottle. And we put them back in the case. And I remember calling one of my runners. I said, you're driving to Napa Valley today. He says, for what? I said, don't ask questions. take the wine, go to the winery where this wine came from. And I want you to find the closest FedEx or DHL, whatever you find, write the return address for the same address as this wine company and put samples. And we sent it to a, they call it bottle shops in Australia.

1:17:56And they sell wine and alcohol and beers. And we had this bottle shop that was set up through my mate over there. And I remember six days later, I gave him the tracking number and six days later, he messaged me on the encrypted phone. He goes, mate, you're a fucking genius. It made it. I was like, fuck yeah. So I just took 10 kilos and I turned it into liquid. And eventually they brought that back and it came out to, after they brought it back to pure cocaine, it came out to a 9.5 kilos. So it was, you know, you know, 95%. And I said, okay, we figured it out. And I eventually started to pay back the cartel this way until people in Australia got greedy.

1:18:39And they started to ask, the guys that were turning it back into cocaine started to ask for half. And I said, do you guys want a job or do you really want to get greedy? And I said, I'm not paying half. You know, once we pay half, we already got to pay for the product. We got to pay for the exchange. There's too many people involved. And I said, hey, I'm not paying half. So you either keep doing what you're doing or I'm going to find another way.

1:19:03Randall Kaplan:You're still pissed at Cipriani because he's now fucked you by essentially calling the Australian police to show up at Sean, your trainer's Hilton room and you still want the money back. So yeah, 2.5, right? Right. So, you know, you're still, you're making the money back, but fuck him because he still owes you the money essentially at the end of the day. So when we're desperate, We're mad. We want to get even. We want to get back. So want your money back. Tell us about some of the crazy things that you did. You ensnared other people, a PI, and talk about how you Photoshop something and then showed things to his wife and you desecrated his mother's grave.

1:19:44Yeah. I would say in the collection game, it's all about tactics, scare tactics, right? And as a bookie, you know, every story. I've been doing it forever. I know how to collect money and you always start with the family. And you try to keep the, obviously there's no violence because the violence puts you away forever, but you try to put this fear of God in them. And we go usually toward the wife or the dad or the mom and obviously his parents were deceased. So we started with the wife and we figured out where they lived and we sent her a bouquet of flowers and just let her know like, hey, just wishing you a happy day and tell your husband we say hello and we signed it, you know, junior, right?

1:20:24And then I remember we sent a pizza man to deliver a pizza at his condo off of Ocean Avenue. And the pizza man opened the door and he said, this is from Junior, you know. So we put this fear of God in. I'm like, okay, wow, he knows where I live. But it wasn't working. Like, he's like, man, you can't be doing that. I said, well, we need to get paid. And he started to literally insult me by putting like$1 ,000 in my accounts. I had these shell corporations. He'd deposit like$1 ,000 once a month. I'm like, dude, this is insulting. And then I was like, okay, what's next? And I hired this private eye.

1:20:57One of the things that my girlfriend at the time told me was he was really in love with his mother. Like his mother passed away and he put this big sign on the freeway that said, you know, rest in peace, mom. So I knew that was his soft spot, right? So it's like, okay, what can we do? I called this PI and I said, is there any way we can figure out where the mother was buried? He's like, yeah, we can figure that out. So the PI figured out that the mother was buried in a Pennsylvania cemetery. And I was like, okay, this is what I need you to do. I'm going to pay you$2 ,000. I said, all I need you to do is go to that cemetery and give me the headstone.

1:21:30He said, what do you want that for? I said, don't worry, I'm paying you. Just bring it back to me. So my idea, Randy, was to use that headstone as collateral. Hey, you owe me money. I got fucking Regina's headstone here. I need to get paid back. If you want it, you pay me. That's the whole mentality I was going to use. My PI gets there and he realizes this headstone is like six feet tall. And he's like, dude, I cannot. He's like, there's no way. This thing's probably 2 ,500 pounds. And I'm like, okay, what do we do next? He says, well, there's plan B. I said, well, what's plan B? He says, I could throw some red paint on the headstone.

1:22:00And then he says, what we could do is we'll, when I get back to California, we'll Photoshop you with a shovel and we'll put you in front of the, like you're bearing, like you're, you're digging the grave and we'll have like blood running down the back of the headstone. I'm like, all right, let's fuck it. We've, you're already out there come on he's in Pennsylvania he drove there I said okay just do it so he buys some oil-based paint he splatters it and he takes some pictures and he comes back to America or comes back to California and I remember we go to La Brea Tar Pits and we're out there and he put this not natural libre mask on and he's got me out there with a shovel and I'm like come on man hurry up and take the picture you know he got all these kids around I look like I'm gonna rob a bank and he takes the pictures and he he screenshots me and he photoshops me inside this this cemetery area like i'm digging this grave and that was definitely the biggest mistake i made for sure you know if i could take it all back i would take back what i did there because that's that's what got him to take it to the fbi to that got him so upset and he took the fbi and showed him this and told him basically everything how he he laundered my money yeah you know there's a huge lesson there

1:23:08Randall Kaplan:at the end of the day, which is revenge and the desire for revenge, you can take it too far. And so a lot of people just won't cut their losses. Life's not fair. This person fucked me. I'm going to fuck them. It's not working. You're almost obsessed with it. Oh, yeah. It's a sickness. And you can't stop. You can't stop. It's a total sickness. Sickness. And that was a sickness. But in hindsight, at the end of the day, people have to learn to accept things aren't fair. People have to accept that someone fucked you. And there's nothing you can really do about it. But as a competitive person, it's extremely hard to do.

1:23:39Randall Kaplan:Yeah. And especially someone that's never came from money and losing, like, all that that you earned, right? For me, that was, like, the hardest part. Because it wasn't like I can just go back to my Sydney apartment and get that cash and pay the cartel back. You know, that's the thing people don't realize. Like, the Australian attorney went to the apartment and took the rest of my money. And obviously, you'll see I get my get back eventually later on in life with him. You want to be judge and jury at the same time. Yeah. and it's not a good place to be. So eventually all good things must end when you're a criminal.

1:24:12Randall Kaplan:I mean, most criminals are just not going to get away with it, whatever they're doing, most. I mean, and the bigger you get, the bigger the target you become because the fall guys, the less important guys at the bottom, are going to sing to save themselves to go after the big guy. And you eventually got caught. Talk to us about your Al Wilson and the Ag Meg Muffin moment and your black matted Porsche and the white Ford F350 truck in an empty parking lot at the country club. So eventually, you know, we get these guys paid back. We get the cartel paid back. And during this payback, we're utilizing a guy that my contact in Australia, Craig Hauser, he met these guys that were in the money laundering business.

1:24:58And he met them on this yacht party in Australia. and a guy by the name of Al Wilson was one of these guys. And Al Wilson was in Australia and they were just shooting shit. And he's like, what do you do for a living? And Craig's telling him what he does and they're drinking. He's like, hey, I clean money. I'm in the game. And Al Wilson's telling him, feeding him what he wants to hear. And he's like, dude, you should meet my mate in America. He always needs money clean. He's in the gambling business. And he's like, well, let's try it out. What do you charge? and he charged 12 and a half points, which was half of the industry standard.

1:25:31I remember Craig gave him like$10 ,000 that day. And he says, here, why don't you take this to Owen and schedule, why don't you schedule a round of golf with him? He likes golf. Fast forward a week and I meet Al Wilson and a couple of his banker friends at this golf course in San Diego.

1:25:46Randall Kaplan:The Aviara. Yeah. Which had a four-season. Yes. Yep. The first was Aviara. Then eventually we played at Rancho Mirage and La Costa Canyon. We played everywhere, right? For this first one, we did a transaction of this$10 ,000 just to see if it would work. He took his percentage and he gave it. And we went golfing. You know, he had this Swiss banker, a Hong Kong banker in himself, and then a guy that had a boat that transferred money through the boat. And I was like, sold. I was like, OK, these guys are legit. And the thing that sold me the most, Randy, was they had encrypted phones. When I saw that encrypted phone, I was like, OK, these guys are in the business.

1:26:18And I told Craig, my friend from Australia, I said, mate, these guys are great. I think we've found somebody to help us. every week we're literally dropping off like a quarter million dollars cash in australia and these al wilson's giving it to me in the u.s and cash minus his fee and it's it's like this and we're we're utilizing these guys you know eventually laundering you know millions of dollars back to to pay back el jefe and obviously we start to get ahead and and start our own profit and uh we we get to uh a point where you know we've probably golfed you know six times and we've taken each other out to dinner and we've gone on a cigarette boat and I've seen his stash bots.

1:26:56And, you know, eventually he's, he's like, Hey, can you help me with transportation? And he says he's in the business. Yeah. What do you need? You know, we sell him some cocaine. Some of my workers drop them off some cocaine. He pays us for it. I remember we, we set up this tea time to discuss the shipment of this, this cocaine he just purchased and our next transfer, we had some more coming, money coming back. And we had a 7, 10, 7, 10 AM tea time in, at the Aviar Country Club, which is in Carlsbad for the second time. We played there before. I remember I left my girl's house. I was in my, like you said, my matte black Porsche Panamera and I was in the carpool lane all by myself.

1:27:34And I was late and I was like, fuck it. I'm late. I got to get going. And I was flooring it, Randy. I was going like 110 and I'm passing cops and no one's stopping me. I'm like, okay, this is crazy. Like I'm late. I'm passing cops. I'm the only guy in the carpool lane and I'm going over the speed limit. I'm not being stopped. Like there's something wrong with this picture. And the whole time I'm just like, am I really, is this really going on? Because the night before El Jefe told me, and it's in court documents, he says, there's no way anybody's going to do what they're doing, cleaning money at half.

1:28:01He says, the people you're meeting with right now is the DEA. He says, you're going to be in prison the next 20 years. And I have that message still in my discovery. And I didn't, I didn't believe it. I don't want to believe it, but at the same time, I'm like, he's probably right. I'm like, fuck it. I'm going to this meeting and I'm flying and I get to the parking lot of this, this country club and there's no one in there. There's an F-350 and I'm looking, I'm like, okay, there's like six gardeners in there. I'm like, you know what? I'm out of here. I'm going to go to McDonald's. I'm going to have a breakfast.

1:28:27I'm going to have an egg muffin. I'm going to have an orange juice and I'm going to wait. And I get there and I'm like, okay, do I just, you know what? I don't feel like I'm thinking about El Jefe's message. I'm like, you know what? Maybe I just take my encrypted phone. I run over and I just go down to Mexico. I know I'm safe over there. I just paid the cartel back$4 million. the hoars, right? And I'm like, okay. And then I get the call. Al Wilson calls me and he goes, where are you at, mate? I'm like, what do you mean? I said, I went there and no one was there. He said, no, I'm in the clubhouse.

1:28:52Hurry back. So I get out of McDonald's parking lot and I get back into the clubhouse and sure enough, there's still nobody there. I'm like, okay, this is weird. Still see the car with the gardeners. I pull up, I park the car, I pop the trunk, I bring my bag of clubs out and my caddy shows up. And he says, Mr. Hanson, welcome to Aviara. And he's shaking. like fuck man why is he shaking this is not a good sign and i told him i said man where is everyone today like 710 there should be like cars out here he's like i don't know mr hanson and right when he told me that i said okay this is something's wrong and i look at the f-150 i'm like okay like there's something going on there's there's guys in the car and then i went to grab my man bag in my passenger seat where i had my encrypted phones and my gambling money and as soon as i grabbed that man bag i turned around and there was 16 fbi agents that came out of the bushes and then there was a helicopter with the FBI on it that was in the sky.

1:29:42And then there was this Australian man with this Australian accent. And right when I heard him say, do you remember me? It was the guy that I had that interview with from Beverly Hills. And when he said that, I knew my life was over, Andy, because all I was hoping was this, these guys, these FBI agents were here for the gambling because gambling in maybe two years. But if, as soon as I heard that Australian accent, I said, okay, I'm fucked. I'm going away for a long time because now I knew it was the drugs. And a lot of people ask me, were you scared? Randy, I'm not going to lie, I was relieved.

1:30:13It was finally over.

1:30:15Randall Kaplan:I mean, it's also crazy when you think about the story and, you know, you have insecurity, greed, fueling your whole life, and then fear of getting dead and killed and executed. you're at the Tijuana restaurant and relief can be a great thing at the end of the day because I'm sure you weren't sleeping you said you were popping the Xanax oh yeah right just uh just over my shoulders and yeah you call that the best day of your life the best day and I tell people this day I think prison's the best thing that could happen to me because two things happen in this this world you you end up dead the cartel would have killed me no doubt or you end up in prison and prison really saved my life I tell people I mean I we you and I wouldn't be here today if I didn't go to prison we wouldn't be telling the story about something that I just started from rock bottom.

1:31:05I wouldn't be speaking to kids like, you know, Chip Hale's wife who introduced us, you know, and telling them the dangers of what happens when you start with one bet.

1:31:15Randall Kaplan:Yeah. Shout out to Judy Hale, amazing person, big fan of my show. Thank you for being an amazing friend. When you get busted like that, the first thing that you have to think about is I'm still in business with a cartel. They have relationships in every prison. They could still kill you within minutes. And so to this day, you've never revealed the identity of El Jefe. Never. And are you worried today that there are things that, you know, I mean, you know, the documentary is very public. It's also very public that you're never going to do it. Are you worried today that someone as we sit here today is going to somehow say, okay, you know, I'm still worried about Owen Hanson.

1:31:56Randall Kaplan:They're going to come and whack you. No, no doubt. I can't, I, you got to remember, I went to prison. I was with the cartel that I worked for. I'll never say it. You You can say it, but I'm not going to confirm or deny. I went to prison with this cartel, and I was with the accountants. I was with Sicarius. I was with lieutenants. I was with captains. And they would come to me and say, Guido, good job. You paid us back, and you didn't squeal. I had the opportunity. I had the opportunity to get out and work with the FBI and bust El Jefe, but that wasn't an option. I told them I'm not signing death certificates.

1:32:25Randall Kaplan:You get into—well, let's go to the sentencing hearing. You get your RICO charge. You get, you know, you have to forfeit, I think,$5 million, your homes, your poor, the coins, everything. And then you have your sentencing here and your data's there. And, you know, the words that the judge used were that you were staggering and astounding in terms of the size. And it is difficult to understand how you got here other than greed. And then one of the other things that he said was that you turned gamblers into bookies, drug addicts into dealers, and friends into felons. Tough. Tough one. Tough pill to swallow because you start to realize like, fuck, I actually did that.

1:33:06Like that, that was my bad because I did turn my, you know, my gamblers into bookies because they were in debt with me. Right. And how are they going to get out of debt? Well, they're going to bring clients to lose money to get out of their debt. And I do feel bad. My, my, one of my best friends, Derek LaVelle, who's a three-time Superbowl champ, you know, he got addicted to gambling obviously, and he would lose. And how was he going to pay off his debt. Well, he, you know, I started giving him, you know, Oxycontins and he started using those Oxycontins because he was in pain from 10 years in prison and, or 10 years in the NFL.

1:33:38And then he realized that he had a market for it. And next thing you know, he's, he's paying off his gambling debt with these drugs I'm giving. I lied to my accountant about coming to Australia saying it was gambling money when it was cocaine money. And I, uh, every day I was in prison, I thought about I was definitely, it was part of me that I was like, man, I really fucked up. And I'd write every one of them and apologize for my mistakes.

1:34:04Randall Kaplan:One of the great things about this show is not only do I get to meet some of the most amazing people in the world and stories of amazing people, but I become good friends with some of the people on my show. Damon West was a upper middle class guy, grew up in Texas, he was a football player, became a meth dealer, one of the biggest. He had a robbery ring. He came out of prison after getting a life sentence. Now he's doing amazing things in public speaking. He's an amazing dude. He told me that the first piece of advice he got when you come to prison, you got to go into a fight. You're going to get the shit kicked out of you, but you have to establish who you are and tell everyone that you're not going to take shit from anyone, even if you get your ass kicked.

1:34:44Randall Kaplan:So did that happen to you? and tell us about the Bone Crusher and the advice he gave you and what he did. Yeah, shout out to Damon, a good friend of mine. He's someone I look up to, definitely. He's speaking in the NFL, call it prisons. I look up to him, no doubt. He's awesome. Stud. Stud. Love what he's doing. But yeah, you go to prison and you can't be disrespected. There's a few words you're not allowed to use in prison, and if those words are thrown at you, you have to do something about them. And there was the words punk, bitch, and lame. And I remember I was working out, and this was during before I was getting sentenced, and I was working out doing pull-ups in the day room.

1:35:25And some units can't come out because we're working out, so they ask the inmates if they can get them some hot water or get them a towel or a book to read. And I was finishing my workout, and the guy's like, hey, can you get me hot water? I said, let me finish my set. And he said, you're acting like a bitch. And this is literally a day before I was supposed to get sentenced, Randy. And that's all I could say. Everyone heard it. You got the Mexicans, the blacks, the Asians, they all heard it. This, this white man called me a bitch. And I was like, man, I got to do something now. I'm getting sentenced tomorrow.

1:35:56All I was thinking about if I go beat this guy up, I'm going to go be put in the shoe. I'm going to come to sentencing an orange jumpsuit. And the judge is going to look at me like a troublemaker. Right. And I was like, okay, but I can't be disrespected because everyone now thinks I'm the bitch. And for me, I was like, man, I was so stressed out, Randy. I told him, I said, you better have your shoes on because when this gate is open, I said, I'm coming after you. And everyone heard me say that, you know, as soon as they opened the gate, I went into the unit and the guy was in a cell and everyone's watching me.

1:36:24Right. And I shut the door. I'm like, I'm not going to beat this guy up. I just, I don't have it in me. So I slapped him. I slapped him so hard and he fell on his bed. You know, I didn't sock him, but I slapped him. I said, who's the bitch now? I said, don't you ever call someone a bitch. You said, I said, you know the rules. And he was on the bed, please don't hurt me. And everyone's looking and everyone's looking in the window. And after that, I never got fucked with the rest of my prison bed. And like Damon said, you have to. And then once I went to the penitentiary in Lompoc, the first day I got there, they gave me a bone crusher.

1:36:54And I remember the white rep saying, hey, this is yours. You protect yourself. And if we ever go to war, this is what you use. And I've never even seen a bone crusher. I was like, holy shit, what am I going to do with this? And that's prison. You got to survive. You got to survive.

1:37:11Randall Kaplan:You're in prison and you reset your life and you're getting the best shape of your career. You decided to get an MBA in prison. What motivated you to get an MBA? And I think it was from Golden Coast University. And then you were teaching inmates as well to get through GED. Did you just say to yourself, okay, this is my chance at the start of redemption and I'm going to improve myself for one, when I get out of college, I'm going to be better trained, better business person, and that you really wanted to help people? Yeah. You know what stuck, Randy, was when they said, the judge said, you have 21 years and three months to rehabilitate.

1:37:46And it really stuck with me. I'm like, fuck. I was like, that's a long time, right? But you know what? There's two types of people in the feds. There's the guys that basically, I tell people, it's like getting in the ring with Mike Tyson. You're going to get knocked down, but you can either give up or you can get up. And it was a tough pill for me to swallow to see my father, you know, nearly in tears. And knowing 21 years would probably mean that I've never seen him again in the free world. I was like, fuck, man, what am I going to do? And I remember I told my mother, I said, you know what, I'm going to go back to school.

1:38:16You know, she was for school. She says, I'll help you pay for your school if you want to improve your education. And there was a college called California Coast University. And they were the only people that had offered a master's program and a doctor's program through correspondence. And it's obviously it was paid, but who cares? You know, my mom was willing to pay the$100 a month to help me pay for it. And I was like, okay, I'm teaching these kids how to get their GED, these guys that never got their GED, and I'm helping them. I'm like, okay, this is cool, but I want to do something for me. And I was like, you know what?

1:38:47I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to get my master's degree. And after my master's degree, I'm going to get my doctor's degree. I got 21 years, right? That's all I was thinking. Like, I'm going to become a doctor in here. I remember it took me four years to get my master's degree due to COVID. and I started in like 19 and I think I ended up finishing in 23 and I got it in business administration and I'm like okay I'm a convicted felon what the hell am I going to do with an MBA right?

1:39:12Randall Kaplan:You're listening to part one of my incredible interview with Owen Hanson a former USC walk-on football player who became a massive drug cocaine kingpin who worked for the Sinaloa cartel. This is a story about greed, adrenaline, near-death experiences and then ultimately redemption entrepreneurship. Be sure to tune in next week for part two of my incredible interview with Owen. Pretend I'm a shark on Shark Tank. You're giving me the product. Where should we start here? We're going to do a little taste test here. So, you know, we decided that we needed 20 grams of protein. And, you know, I felt like everybody was doing pints.

1:39:46So I said, you know, I wanted a protein shake on a stick. And I said to myself, you know, what would it be? What's the best bet? So I was thinking, you know, probiotics, 20 grams of protein, no sugar added, use monk fruit as sweetener. And I came up with, these are my three most popular flavors. I got the Coliseum cookies and cream named after, obviously, where I played football at. I got the have your cake and eat it too, for all the ex-girlfriends that used to tell me I want my cake and eat it too. And then I got the, one of my favorites, which I hope you try, is the strawberry swole cake. Everyone asks about strawberry swole cake.

1:40:23Where did the name come up? Well, Brandon Hancock used to visit me every month in prison. He was my old teammate. And his nickname was Swolecock on the football team. Well, obviously, I'm not going to call it Swolecock. No one's going to eat a Swolecock. So I called it Strawberry Swole Cake. Okay. Let's eat these things before the belt. But, you know, they got a little melted.

1:40:46Randall Kaplan:I loved when I was a kid, you know, the strawberry. Yeah. Strawberry Swole Cake was like that. Cheers. Cheers. So that's right there. so no added sugar delicious Greek yogurt based that one has inclusions of real strawberries really delicious we let it melt a little too much but we'll get over it Michigan beats USC in the in their game next year you know they're playing now each year the big 10 are you gonna make one for the big house as opposed to the Coliseum oh only if I get a collaboration and I get to speak to their football team. I could probably help you with that. My goal is to speak to any athletic department, whether it's baseball, football, anything that involves gambling.

1:41:33You know, like that's why I spoke to Chip Hale's team because gambling, people can bet on baseball, people can bet on basketball, people can bet on football. And that's something that needs to be talked about.

1:41:44Randall Kaplan:What I think is so crazy about so many people who get greedy, they do it for the small amounts. You know, you got these basketball players. I think the average good basketball player, I'm not sure what it is, they make an$8 million. I mean, it could be a scrub basketball player. I make$8 million a year,$10 million a year. And they're taking these illegal bets for$25 ,000. You know why, though, right? They're adrenaline junkies. And if they can guarantee themselves a win, they're going to take it. So my thing is this. If you're a star player and someone offers you, let's just say$100 ,000. Let's say$25 ,000, like you said.

1:42:16If you know that someone's giving you 25 grand and you can guarantee that you're not going to score 10 points or more, then guess what? You're going to take that 25 grand and in order not to score 10 points, you're going to stop playing at halftime. You're going to tell coach, hey, I got a stomachache. I can't play coach. And you're going to leave because you know you just guaranteed yourself this money and you won, right? And as an athlete, we like to win. And that's the problem with these athletes. And that's how it started with me. I was given the opportunity before, and no one knows this story, but I was given the opportunity to make$100 ,000 for myself and$100 ,000 for Matt Leiner.

1:42:53In this book, he came to me and he says, hey, you give$100 ,000 to Leiner and you keep$100 ,000 for yourself, but you need to make sure Leiner doesn't cover the spread. And I turned it down.

1:43:03Randall Kaplan:You didn't even go to Matt at that point? I didn't even go to the point because I already had that six-figure job and I already knew Matt. I wouldn't ever do that to my brother. That's like my integrity wouldn't allow me to do that because why would I cost Matt his NFL career? He was still in college. And so that's how this started. And that's when I go tell these college teams like, hey, this is how it started for me. And guess what? I didn't accept it, but I very easily could have. And I still went back to being a bookie. And I still ended up working for the cartel all because of one bet. And it could happen to you guys.

1:43:32You guys could accept that$100 ,000. It might get away with it the first time. But guess what happens? The second time you accept it, someone finds out. Then you get arrested. then you go to prison. Then you're shitting next to your friend that's sleeping on the bed right next to you because that's how it is. You have your toilet seat and you have your head right next to the bed and nobody wants that. And I explained it to them and they're looking at me like, wow, that's what happens? I said, yeah. And it can happen to anybody.

1:43:55Randall Kaplan:Yeah. And especially today, it's a different world, you know? Way easier now. You can essentially pay the players, the players, you know, players do go. Yeah. And it's really only the top guys that get paid. Yeah. The big guys. So if you're just, I mean. If you're a third string, you're going to take that money. You're going to take the money. Yeah. And if you can bet on your, you can bet on the NBA, guess what? Right underneath that is college basketball. So you can bet on your own team. Yeah. It's, it's a, it's, it's an epidemic right now. It's just the tip of the iceberg. It's even easier now than it used to be because there are all these websites now where you can place bets on what color shoes is he going to wear during the game.

1:44:32Propositions. Yeah. It's,

1:44:33Randall Kaplan:it's, you know, is, um, you know, someone was a friend of a friend of a friend was placing a bet on one of these websites, what's the likelihood that Trump is going to bomb Tehran in the next 12 hours? There are a bunch of trades because what happened is there's people in Israel and the army who somehow are getting messages out and people in the United States are getting messages out and people are making five grand, 10 grand to bet thinking that they're going to get away with this. This is essentially insider trading. Yeah, it's insider trading. Same with the bet. And there's no rules governing these websites right now, but a lot of people are eventually going to go to jail.

1:45:08Randall Kaplan:there's going to be a lot of regulation around this. And, you know, that one's just going to be so hard to kind of figure out. Yeah, they're entree, though. Look at the UFC. Dana White's pulled a couple fights just because of the FBI. Yeah. You know, Dana's an amazing person. He's become a friend. He was on my show, one of the best episodes ever. So if you haven't listened to my episode with Dana White, that was actually incredible as well. Yeah, I feel like the UFC needs a pep talk from me because they're being investigated right now with this gambling. Yeah. I mean, Dana's done amazing things for the UFC.

1:45:41Yeah, he's awesome.

1:45:41Randall Kaplan:Yeah, I love the flavor. It was really great. You know, the ice cream's amazing. Yeah, I'm glad you like it. You know, I got to send it to the University of Arizona. Chip Hale, the head baseball coach there, and, you know, Judy Hale's amazing, the one that actually introduced you and I. And she's been great. We've been in contact, and she's going to hopefully get me some speaking gigs with the MLB teams about, you know, gambling awareness because it's such a big problem right now. Fortunately, I was able to speak to the University of Arizona, and I told them the issues I had, obviously, as a college athlete and where it took me in life.

1:46:13And obviously, it all started with one bet. And at the end of the presentation, I brought the protein ice cream and they loved it.

1:46:20Randall Kaplan:Ice cream's great. Judy Hall is amazing. Shout out to Judy. She recommended that you be here. And one thing also that we should tell people is that you are happy and willing, eagerly, to speak to teams, to warn young kids, athletes, people about the dangers of gambling. Absolutely. You know, once you cross that path and you make a bet, you never know where it can take you. And I'm a prime example. It took me to the most dangerous cartel in the world. You have a new company today. And one of the hard parts about a consumer product is getting shelf space. What people don't realize is when you have a new consumer product, the shelves are full.

1:46:57Randall Kaplan:So you have to replace someone else. And the way that they measure it is a number of sales per skew per month. and the retailers all look at that and they say, okay, what is going well? And that's coming out and this is coming in. So talk to us about the hustle that you've done to get your amazing product into these stores. I had to think outside of the box, right? I'm creating a protein ice cream. Um, that's never been done. It's never had been on a stick, right? They, I tell people, it's like a protein shake on a stick. So I'm like, okay, who would want this product the most? And I was like, you know what?

1:47:31Gyms. Okay. Well, you go to a gym. Have you ever seen a freezer at a gym? You don't see it. You see refrigerators with, you know, Rex protein shakes and pre-workout drinks, isopiers, but you never see a freezer. So I'm like, okay, this is going to be costly, but I think it's going to be worth it. So I came up with this idea with my partners that we created this brand. I said, let's go buy those freezers and let's wrap them with our branding and let's go to the gyms. And we offer all the freezers for free to any gym that wants a freezer. And so what we do is we place that freezer there and now that's our real estate.

1:48:04And we're not paying a stocking fee. We're not paying a fee to keep our ice cream there like you would in a grocery store, right? So I go to these gyms and I'm like, we love a freezer. What a good idea. And I say, okay, all you got to do is buy the protein ice cream at wholesale. And, you know, you make 75 % on your money. And it's been great. I'm in 350 gyms right now spread throughout the United States, California, New York, Las Vegas, Arizona, and Miami. And our goal is just to keep putting these freezers in these gyms. And eventually, once we create enough brand awareness from people that are into their fitness, they're working out.

1:48:42Oh, that's that protein ice cream. They grab it. They taste it. oh, this is awesome. Where else can we get it? Eventually, once we have enough sales data, we're going to go to the big box, like the Target or the Walmart or the Costco. And we're just say, hey, we're in all these gyms. Can you guys start carrying our four packs or our six packs, whatever it may be. And then when people go to that Costco, they're going to be like, oh, that's that ice cream I always see in the gym. It has 20 grams of protein per bar. I'm going to grab some of that and that's our goal.