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♪♪
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Ian: It was a bad period of time.
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Like, I just wanted to die.
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And I'm just thinking there, like,
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"Wow, how did I get to this point?"
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And I guess that goes back to middle school.
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♪♪
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I was just really trying to fit in,
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be with the popular and cool kids.
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Attention was a very big thing for me.
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One day, I came up with this idea --
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If I want popularity and the attention,
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I can start throwing parties.
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♪♪
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♪♪
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[ Dance music plays ]
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He packed this place out at 1,000 people!
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Ian is a kid at 17 years old.
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He's amazing.
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Where's this money coming from?
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I don't know who he got the money from.
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McGarry: Ian Bick is a con man.
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To steal half a million dollars is a significant crime.
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I was thinking Ian might die because of this.
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Ian: I was on the track to being filthy fucking rich.
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♪♪
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[ Indistinct shouting, crowd cheering ]
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♪♪
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[ Siren wailing ]
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♪♪
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♪♪
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Lake Waubeeka.
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This house is where I grew up.
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I live right on the lake over here.
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We swam. We had kayaks, canoes, rowboats.
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This is where it all started, right here on this very yard.
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These parties at their prime, there was 300, 400 people.
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Girls naked up in the lake, taking the boats out drunk.
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It was party after party after party.
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I was honestly shocked I got away with it for so long.
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So, I'm the first one you're doing? Plamondon: Yeah.
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I feel honored. I mean, really.
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Good. Yeah, that's it.
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[ Laughs ] Alright.
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What should I do with my hands? Whatever's comfortable.
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Just what's comfortable? Okay. Yeah.
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When he would tell me, "There's gonna be 25 or 30 people,"
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I'd say, "No, there isn't. [ Scoffs ] That's a joke, Ian."
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We were always of the mind, Valerie and I,
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that it was better to have him
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where we can see him 'cause he would be safe.
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Ian: Growing up, when I was really young,
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I got picked on a lot.
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I was chubby. I was called Twinkie.
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Around, like, third, fourth grade
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I started doing summer theater camp.
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I loved being on stage, loved getting attention.
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Ian and I met at a young age,
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and we were in theater camp together.
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He was very silly and fun all the time.
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Whenever we did one of our shows,
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he'd put on the high heels, he'd put on a dress,
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and he'd wear makeup and walk right out on there.
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And everybody loved it. He was hilarious.
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He was a very funny little kid.
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Michael: Being around my catering business,
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Ian grew up around parties,
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but for him, making the party was the most exciting.
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One day when he was 14, we were in a crunch,
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and I asked him if he could set up this party.
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And he said, "Sure, I could do that."
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I said, "So you know how to set up the bar and everything?"
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He said, "Dad, I watched you all the time.
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I know how you do it."
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And the place was flowing perfectly.
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He's amazing. He did this amazing job.
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He'd be the first one to show up,
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the last one to leave, an amazing work ethic.
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Michael: He knows how to direct people,
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and he had self-confidence that was unlike other kids.
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He looks at the overall picture.
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That's what his mind works like.
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I've never been a rule follower.
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Kind of, sort of runs on my side of the family.
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I think that's the part Ian found fascinating --
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that you could be successful and not always follow the rules.
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So the irony in the whole thing is that his entertainment career
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started with breaking the law.
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I forgot, like, the rules for the show.
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Is it okay if I swear?
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Oh, yeah. Okay.
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Our nickname back in the day was the Black Sheep.
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We stuck out.
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Yeah, we loved fireworks.
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Oh, crap. [ Fireworks whistling ]
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Bottle rockets in mailboxes.
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Roman candle fights on the beach.
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I was as bad as it gets.
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Total shitheads growing up.
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The president and vice president
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of the community of Lake Waubeeka,
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they'd come out with rules about no dirt biking,
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no paintballing -- all things I were doing.
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Every time something happened in the neighborhood,
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whether there was a fire, something getting blown up,
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a goose took a shit, I would be blamed for it.
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Alright, what are we gonna do?
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How are we gonna get back at these people?
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My best friend, Stephen O'Connor, he says,
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"Alright, let's get insulation foam."
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You know, you spray it on something, and it expands,
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and then it dries.
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Spray it on the car handles,
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and it'll lock their cars.
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We've got masks over our face, go to the president's house,
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and we foam his brand-new Jeep Wrangler,
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and then to the vice president's house,
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and he has a brand-new BMW.
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We were successful.
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Everything went well, and I was like,
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"Ha ha, this is awesome."
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Waking up the next morning, a police officer stopped by.
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I instantly knew why he was there.
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Then he started feeding me all this stuff
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about how they have video footage of me,
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pictures of us doing it.
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Dumbass 17-year-old me believed all of it, and I confessed.
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I'd never seen my dad that disappointed in me.
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I said, "How stupid are you?
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How could you do this?"
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And it led to Ian getting in trouble.
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Absolutely, I had problems with authority at an early age.
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I went through a lot of different phases.
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You know, I was a kid trying to find himself.
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We each get sentenced community service hours.
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I felt bad.
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And I'm like, "Okay, I know what I'm gonna do.
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I'm gonna start a charity to raise money
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for the local homeless shelter."
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O'Connor: So he basically organized a party at the Matrix Center,
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invited all these kids from our high school.
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I think it was $20 per head, I want to say.
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Ian: The News-Times does an article on it.
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Michael: Ian wound up raising $2,000 as his community service.
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It was amazing to me, and I was -- Yes, as a parent,
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I was proud of my kid
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because he was able to throw off a party like this.
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It certainly made me proud to see that.
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Ian: I felt really good.
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And I was just a few months shy of being 16.
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♪♪
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The night of the Matrix dance, I'm looking at the crowd.
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And I'm on such an adrenaline rush right now.
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I love throwing events.
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I fell in love with the process.
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Like, this is my passion.
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That success sparked the idea
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of doing something bigger and bigger and bigger.
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[ School bell rings ]
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♪♪
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[ Indistinct conversations ]
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The next day, he had newspaper articles put out about him.
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He's gonna be the next young entrepreneur.
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Ian: It sparked a new sense of popularity.
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Like, I felt unstoppable.
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I was like, "This is the coolest thing ever."
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I was like, "Alright, I got to throw the next party now."
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Like, I was on a high. Like, I needed more.
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I was like a drug addict that wanted to get his next fix.
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I'm hooked. I'm sold.
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Let's do this.
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Tepper: So Ian approached me,
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he was like, "We're gonna throw a party.
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Let's do it a little bigger."
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When he's sitting there and he's telling you what he wants to do,
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you believe. Like, the way he gets -- he talks to you,
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it just makes you feel like you're a part of it.
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I was just basically, you know, "What do you have in mind?"
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And that's when he brought up the idea of Tuxedo Junction.
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I don't know when you're filming. [ Laughs ]
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Ian came in, and when I met him,
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he looked like this little nerdy accountant.
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He had a certain poise about him for a 16-year-old.
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He wanted to do a teen night in just one of our smaller rooms.
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Now, a smaller room could handle about 180 kids,
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but it wasn't the big room in the back.
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He just said, "I feel I can do this."
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I'm like, "Okay, whiz kid." [ Laughs ]
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Ian: All I did was send out texts
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and made a little Facebook invite.
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Tuxedo Junction, bitch!
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So he had a huge network of people promoting for him.
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350 kids show up that night.
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[ Crowd cheering ]
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He packed that room out.
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Tepper: Yeah, no, it was a lot of kids.
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We realized how much fun we had,
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and we saw how much money we made.
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I think I made, like, 1,000 or 1,500 bucks.
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My sight was set on the big room.
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I wanted the whole space.
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So when Ian said, "Look, I want to take a shot at the big room,"
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I'll take the shot. You proved yourself.
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Why not?
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He packed out the whole entire building.
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Ian: They'd get bigger and bigger every time.
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The Christmas rave.
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♪♪
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The intensity paint party.
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We had foam parties.
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I don't know if you know what that is.
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It's like a washing machine on steroids.
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It was a huge mess.
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They loved it. [ Laughs ]
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And it gets to the point where it's like
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I'm making $10,000 a month cash profit
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after everyone's paid out, after all expenses.
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I figured if this is where our parties were gonna be,
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where it was at for the night, why not make it a play on words?
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This is Where It's At Productions.
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And once he was able to brand his name,
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and people knew that it was an Ian Bick party...
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"I went to that Ian Bick party. It was off the hook."
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"Gotta go to the Ian Bick party,"
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or whatever brand he had put on it.
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It means something.
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Yeah, there was a big buzz, but it wasn't just in Danbury.
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And that was really when I realized
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Ian had a flair for these kinds of things
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and he had a bug about it and there was no stopping.
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♪♪
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Get in the fucking car, bro. Get in the car.
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You're making me mad now.
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Ian: My friend Mike Squires came up with the idea.
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He said, "Ian, we should document this. Like, this
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is gonna be big one day," and we're like, "Okay, awesome."
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Hold on to your heigh-hos.
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Squires: Alright, Ian, look here for a second.
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I think we should do, like, some life questions, too.
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Just in general. Like, comparing me to other kids.
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Like your background?
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Like, where'd you come from? Yeah.
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We want the audience to have an emotional stick to it, too.
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Miller: Okay, are you good?
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Now, that's when you change the music and it starts to --
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Tepper: Driving home one day from high school,
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Ian's like, "Alright, we need an office space
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where we can sit and we can meet."
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Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do for the people, right?
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So that's when he got the Matrix spot for us.
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Ian: So the owner of the Matrix saw the success of the charity.
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The owner gives me an office space dirt cheap.
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And we're just like, "Wow, you know, I made it.
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Like, this is success."
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We had put out a survey on Facebook --
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"Who would you rather see?" It was, like, three options.
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It blew out of the water for Wiz Khalifa.
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This is the obvious choice.
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Ian: We do all the numbers.
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We figure the show's gonna cost us about $120,000
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to do at the O'Neill Center
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at Western Connecticut State University.
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Holds about 5,000 people.
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But we have to show them proof of funds.
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At this point in time, I didn't know how you could walk up
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to someone and ask for that much money.
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And Ian was just like, "You know, I'll figure it out."
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To me, it was just another goal that I was just gonna smash.
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My mind definitely thinks differently than other people's.
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I'm the kind of person where when I have
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my sights set up on something and when I want something,
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then I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get that.
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I print the contracts out off of one of these sites,
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LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer.
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I come up with the idea to add in the line
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saying that we'll guarantee the money back,
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plus a percentage of the show if it makes money.
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I said, "Okay, I'm just gonna put this in."
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I never consulted anyone. I just did it.
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I bring it to my friends, and the money starts flowing in.
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Kids from Danbury High School
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putting anywhere from $500 to $5,000.
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There wasn't really any parents
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at the time that were putting in money.
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It was mostly all the kids.
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O'Connor: He's a great persuader.
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He's a great salesperson, and he's really good
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at convincing people to give him money.
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We're in Western Connecticut with all these rich families,
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and some of these kids just had
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a lot of disposable money lying around.
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Tepper: I don't know how he did it.
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I don't know who he got the money from,
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but we're impressed.
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So we're like, "Alright, let's just start
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putting this in motion."
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Ian: I told my partner to call Wiz Khalifa's agent right now.
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We're ready to book the show.
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Finally, he breaks down, comes up with some bullshit excuse.
301
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We can't get Wiz.
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He can't do it.
303
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16, 17 years old, and I'm sitting on $120,000 cash.
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We didn't tell any investor yet.
305
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,000
We're trying to figure out what to do.
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00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,000
Well, few days later, Dave Osei calls me.
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And he saw what I was doing with Tuxedo's
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and how I was successful.
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Dave, I knew from a long time ago.
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Dave and I went to high school together.
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He started his own company, Platinum Entertainment Group.
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We figured, "Why not work together?"
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Ian: And he says, "Listen, Ian,
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we're gonna do a bunch of shows this coming winter,
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beginning of 2013 in Connecticut."
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And we're like, "Okay. This could work."
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We set up a meeting with all the investors.
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We call them all to my house.
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15 of us, all kids in the room.
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We said, "Listen, guys, Wiz show's off the table.
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It fell apart. It is what it is.
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But if you want to keep your money in
323
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for another five to six months,
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we're gonna have a string of shows lined up,
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and we'll give you a percentage based off of that."
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About 1/2 took their money out.
327
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,000
And it left us with about $50,000.
328
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And we booked all the shows with Dave Osei.
329
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That's part of Ian's charm.
330
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Like, people just listened to what he had to say,
331
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and they believed him, and, "This is your idea.
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Let's put it into action."
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00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,000
Ian: So the shows we booked consisted of EDM and hip-hop.
334
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:22,000
We did Rusko. We did Crizzly.
335
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,000
I'm Huey Mack!
336
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Ian: Huey Mac, OCD: Moosh and Twist,
337
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all hip-hop stars.
338
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,000
But we did a lot of our stuff online.
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00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,000
This is what's happening, this is when it's happening,
340
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this is how much it's gonna cost you.
341
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,000
Ian: The first one, Rusko, was an arena show.
342
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I thought we'd made it.
343
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I was like, "We got a celebrity, we got a famous artist."
344
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,000
So I was like, "This is kind of cool."
345
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,000
"Wow, Ian. You're, like, really killing it, man."
346
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,000
Ian: And I'm sitting in the back, just admiring.
347
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,000
This is great.
348
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,000
One of Dave's partners comes up to me and says,
349
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,000
"Man, we took a fucking beating tonight."
350
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,000
I'm looking at him. I'm like, "What are you talking about, dude?
351
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,000
It's a huge success. We're making money."
352
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,000
"Dude, there's only 1,200 people here.
353
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,000
We needed, like, 2,000 to break even."
354
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,000
It was a tank.
355
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:15,000
What I'd come to learn later is that looks are deceiving
356
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and everything's an image.
357
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000
It's part of show business.
358
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000
And that's how it would come out for every show
359
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:23,000
we did that series.
360
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:26,000
Rusko -- total loss.
361
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,000
Huey Mack -- Snowstorm hits.
362
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:31,000
Didn't even happen.
363
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000
Crizzly show -- not enough people.
364
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,000
Loses 8 grand.
365
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,000
And it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks.
366
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:41,000
I'm in the hole 30, 40 grand to investors.
367
00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,000
So then I had to make the decision --
368
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,000
Am I gonna go back and tell them the truth and say,
369
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:48,000
"Guys, we lost money"?
370
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,000
But I was so eager to chase that success.
371
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:55,000
I knew I shouldn't, but I said,
372
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:59,000
"Guys, it's profitable."
373
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000
And I came up with an imaginary profit.
374
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,000
"Oh, the show was packed.
375
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,000
Amazing. It grossed, like, 40K that night."
376
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,000
This is kind of cool.
377
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,000
I'd make fake spreadsheets with the numbers.
378
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,000
It was a profitable business.
379
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,000
Everyone was impressed. -Lying even more.
380
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000
"It's gonna be real good. We're making money.
381
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:15,000
I don't know how much money yet.
382
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,000
Ticket sales are up. We're gonna make a ton of money.
383
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,000
It's looking great." This and that.
384
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:20,000
"It's profitable."
385
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000
That's the first lie. That's where the lies starts.
386
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:30,000
♪♪
387
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,000
Once the lies started, I was at a crossroad.
388
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,000
It's like, do I tell them after they're excited
389
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,000
that they made money and then they didn't?
390
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:50,000
I didn't know what to do.
391
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:55,000
So all I could do was keep it to myself and continue to lie.
392
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,000
And once a lie starts, it's hard to go back
393
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:01,000
unless you're man enough to admit that it was a lie,
394
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:05,000
and I was never able to get to that point at that age.
395
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,000
Music. Alright. [ Laughs ]
396
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,000
Continue to kill it, Ian.
397
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:12,000
Thank you.
398
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,000
We lost about 40,000 by May of 2013,
399
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,000
plus about $10,000 to $12,000
400
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,000
in imaginary profits that I created.
401
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,000
I owed investors $50,000.
402
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,000
I hated lying to my friends,
403
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,000
but also I hated the thought of them
404
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,000
knowing they lost money and how they would feel towards me.
405
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,000
Because I liked being liked,
406
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,000
and I didn't want to lose the relationship with them.
407
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,000
Either way I looked at it, I was screwed.
408
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,000
Either they were gonna be upset that they lost money,
409
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000
or they were gonna be upset that I lied to cover it up.
410
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,000
There was no going back.
411
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:49,000
John Wrobel came into my life in the beginning of senior year,
412
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,000
which was 2012.
413
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:51,000
He was my best friend.
414
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,000
John saw I was clearly stressed.
415
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:54,000
Every day, I was trying to figure out
416
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,000
how I can make the money back.
417
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,000
And I tell him the truth. I tell him what happened.
418
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:01,000
He says, "Well, I might have something that I can do to help.
419
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,000
Have you ever heard of Beats by Dre?"
420
00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:10,000
And he said, "I can get them and iPhones from 20 to 50 bucks,
421
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,000
and you can sell them for $300 to $400."
422
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,000
I thought these were just items falling off the truck
423
00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,000
or from China, which is why they were so cheap,
424
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000
but he said, "Listen, get some money together.
425
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,000
We'll buy some electronics.
426
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,000
We can get you out of debt fast."
427
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:27,000
And then Ian called me. He was like,
428
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,000
"Hey, I got, like, this idea, something I want to do."
429
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:32,000
All the contracts were 50% guaranteed return
430
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,000
within a month of the initial signing date.
431
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,000
"Here's the money. Here's 1,000 bucks."
432
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:40,000
"Like, hey, do you want to be part of something big
433
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,000
and make money at the same time?"
434
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,000
"Oh, yeah."
435
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,000
Ian: Now, the first round went great.
436
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,000
"Cool. Do it again."
437
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,000
And then I did it with a little bit more money and a little bit more.
438
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000
I think that's kind of what all of our friends really did.
439
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:59,000
And I'm slowly chipping away at that debt I'm in.
440
00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,000
But I wasn't getting enough out of it.
441
00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,000
I was being pressed.
442
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,000
I mean, everyone wants to get their money back
443
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:06,000
from the concerts,
444
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,000
and I'm thinking, "How can I speed this up?"
445
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,000
My only thought was, "How can I get this money?"
446
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,000
So this is when this kid Henry Scozzafava comes in.
447
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,000
So, Henry and I grew up together, wrestling.
448
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,000
Henry lost his eye at the sports club.
449
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000
One of the equipment malfunctioned
450
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,000
while he was in there.
451
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,000
So, it snapped, I think it was, his right eye.
452
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,000
And won, I think, $1.5 million, $1 million in the lawsuit.
453
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:36,000
Dude, the guy just got a million dollars.
454
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,000
I needed just some capital to start fresh.
455
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:41,000
If I get Henry to give me money,
456
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:43,000
I'll pay everyone off.
457
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,000
Everything would be forgiven.
458
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,000
At this point, I wanted just the pain to stop.
459
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:49,000
I wanted to be out of debt.
460
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,000
So I go over to Henry's house, and he's smoking pot.
461
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,000
I knew Henry's point was that he was interested
462
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:58,000
in the big EDM acts.
463
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,000
So that's the basis of which I pitched to him.
464
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,000
It was based on artists that Henry liked.
465
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,000
Artists like Chief Keef, Wale.
466
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,000
Kid Ink was getting really hot at the time.
467
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,000
And Henry doesn't even look at me.
468
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,000
Henry says, "Ian, I know you were successful
469
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000
with that stuff with Tuxedo's. Let's do this."
470
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,000
I'm like, "Holy shit. Are you kidding me?"
471
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000
Henry was the big one that allowed me to clear up
472
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,000
everything, and I pay everyone back.
473
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,000
So I cover up the first lie, but the day
474
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,000
I pay off the last people we had to pay off,
475
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,000
my phone would not stop ringing off the hook.
476
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,000
Everyone's talking about how I proved I was successful
477
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,000
with the concerts, and they said they wanted
478
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:47,000
to start sending me money for the electronics business.
479
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,000
Josh Tepper brought his dad, Scott Tepper, in to invest.
480
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,000
You know, my dad was -- As much as he was investing in Ian
481
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,000
and in what Ian was saying,
482
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,000
I felt like my dad was investing in me.
483
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,000
He was like, "This is something you're a part of.
484
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:02,000
I'm gonna put the money into it because I believe in you."
485
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:03,000
Ian hyped me up to the point where he was like,
486
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,000
"We're gonna be multi-millionaires,
487
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:10,000
flying on our own private jets, 25 sitting on 25 mil."
488
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:11,000
And we were like, "That's gonna be us."
489
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000
And I remember leaving our meeting
490
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:14,000
just being pumped up and listening to music
491
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:18,000
and being like, "We're gonna do this."
492
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,000
Ian: And I took the money.
493
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,000
And by the end of July of 2013,
494
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,000
I'm 18 years old, and I have over 600K in the bank.
495
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,000
The electronics business seemed like it
496
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,000
was a legitimate enterprise.
497
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,000
Valerie and I, we'd say things and ask him what was going on.
498
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,000
Ian was not particularly open with me at that --
499
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,000
at that time in his life.
500
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000
He really didn't need his mom putting any 2 cents in.
501
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:52,000
Looking back, maybe I should have been more involved.
502
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,000
Maybe I should have given him more guidance at that point.
503
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:58,000
But he was headstrong, and this is what he wanted to do.
504
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,000
Ian: I was so cocky. So confident.
505
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,000
Like, I felt unstoppable, unbeatable.
506
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,000
And I was on the track to being filthy fucking rich.
507
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,000
♪ I got diamonds on my wrist ♪
508
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,000
That was the best summer of my life.
509
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,000
I figured I was already successful.
510
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,000
So I was living as if I was successful.
511
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,000
♪ How you think I got so motherfucking rich? Yeah ♪
512
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,000
♪ I got diamonds on my wrist ♪
513
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,000
I had bought a Mustang convertible,
514
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
a car I always wanted.
515
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
♪ How you think I got so motherfucking rich? Yeah ♪
516
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,000
Valerie: I see a limousine pull up.
517
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,000
Ian says, "Bye, Mom. Going on the trip now."
518
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,000
We are not limo-, frills-type people.
519
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:46,000
I guess my mouth dropped.
520
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:48,000
♪ ...I give you propers ♪
521
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,000
♪ Mama ♪
522
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,000
Ian: We took Henry on a celebratory trip to California.
523
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,000
Figured if we were taking Henry and all of them,
524
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,000
said, "Hey, it's a business expense, you know."
525
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,000
We just lived large.
526
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,000
First time in a strip club for me.
527
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,000
Henry spent, like, 50 grand that week.
528
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,000
I had never worn fancy clothing in my life,
529
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,000
and then I find myself with Henry spending $5,000
530
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,000
on a Gucci outfit, sipping champagne
531
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,000
at 18 years old on Rodeo Drive
532
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:15,000
like we're some fucking celebrities.
533
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000
♪ I just hope I give you propers ♪
534
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,000
♪ I got diamonds on my wrist ♪
535
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:21,000
My good friends from high school,
536
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000
we decided just to take a Key West trip
537
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,000
our last summer together before they go off to college.
538
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,000
Ian paid for the whole trip.
539
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,000
Ian: And we go on these Jet Skis.
540
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,000
And I just fell in love.
541
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,000
This is the coolest thing ever.
542
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,000
I get off the Jet Skis, and I call Danbury Powersports --
543
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:38,000
"I'll be home in two days.
544
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,000
Have two brand-new Jet Skis waiting for me."
545
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:42,000
♪ I knew that it was worth it ♪
546
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:45,000
♪ I just hope I give you propers ♪
547
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,000
One day, a pair of Jet Skis showed up at the house.
548
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,000
"You're crazy. What are you doing with these Jet Skis?"
549
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:53,000
"Why in the world would you need them?"
550
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,000
I asked him. I said, "Where'd you get the money?
551
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:59,000
If people are investing in you and you're making this money,
552
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,000
you know, use it to build your business.
553
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:03,000
Not Jet Skis."
554
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,000
He said, "It's an investment to take the investors around."
555
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,000
And he just took off.
556
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,000
I couldn't force him to say, "Tell me what's involved."
557
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:16,000
You know, maybe I could have.
558
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,000
At that particular point in time,
559
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,000
I just said, "Okay, you're doing your thing.
560
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,000
Do your thing."
561
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:24,000
Tepper: He puts a photo online
562
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,000
of two new Jet Skis that he just bought.
563
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,000
I'm like, "Jet Skis are, like, $10,000 each.
564
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,000
Like, you just blew $20,000?
565
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:31,000
Where'd you get $20,000?"
566
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:32,000
Not making money yet.
567
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,000
It's all projected money down the road, so we're just --
568
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,000
I looked at it as just taking one loan
569
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,000
to pay off another loan.
570
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,000
We didn't do any accounting. We didn't do anything.
571
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,000
It was just, we'd get money into the bank account.
572
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,000
Checks would get written.
573
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000
It was a free-for-all shit show.
574
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,000
Plamondon: Can you introduce yourself?
575
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,000
Sure. My name's Mike McGarry.
576
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,000
I'm an assistant United States attorney
577
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:56,000
in the District of Connecticut.
578
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,000
And the last 20 years,
579
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,000
I've focused primarily on financial fraud crimes.
580
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:04,000
The first time I heard Ian Bick's name was late spring,
581
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,000
early summer of 2014.
582
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,000
FBI agents and IRS agents
583
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,000
brought me a snippet of his bank records.
584
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:16,000
It's pretty clear to us there's a Ponzi scheme going on.
585
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:21,000
A Ponzi scheme is when you're able to obtain money from people
586
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,000
and then use one investor money
587
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,000
to repay back other people's monies,
588
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:27,000
and not investing it in what you said
589
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,000
you were gonna invest it in.
590
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,000
Ian Bick is an interesting case study
591
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:35,000
because I think he used his young age
592
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:41,000
and his high-school friends and their parents as his con.
593
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000
And then when he has their trust,
594
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:44,000
he'll take their money.
595
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,000
Typically in these schemes,
596
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,000
people want to have the optics that they're successful.
597
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,000
They have lavish things -- fancy cars,
598
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:56,000
you know, Jet Skis, things of that nature.
599
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,000
He had an office located in Danbury at the Matrix.
600
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,000
So to an investor, if they wanted to determine
601
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000
if it was a legitimate business,
602
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,000
he had all the optics of it being legitimate.
603
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:13,000
So at this point, I've invested $5,000 into Ian's business.
604
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,000
I left Ian's office with three headphones.
605
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,000
My brother, he was like,
606
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,000
"Are these heavier than they're supposed to be?"
607
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,000
And I was like, "I don't think so."
608
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,000
When I ended up testing out the headphones,
609
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:25,000
the buttons on it were very loud.
610
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,000
You'd hear "click" as you do it.
611
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,000
So I went online -- "fake Beats versus real Beats."
612
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:31,000
If you can hear the click, it's fake,
613
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,000
because the real one's supposed to be very subtle.
614
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:35,000
I ask Ian about it.
615
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,000
He was just like, "No, they're fine.
616
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:38,000
They're good. They're real.
617
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,000
I know, because I know where I got them from."
618
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,000
That was another lie. The product's really fake.
619
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:44,000
You look up a bar code,
620
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:48,000
and it doesn't even come up on the Beats by Dre website.
621
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,000
At first, we didn't know that they were counterfeit,
622
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,000
and I felt terrible because I had already told the investors
623
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,000
that they made money.
624
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,000
I wish I had gone to my dad for advice.
625
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,000
I just hoped that the shows in the fall of that year,
626
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,000
they were gonna all make money.
627
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,000
I'll pay everyone off, and then we could do a new round,
628
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,000
start fresh, everything would be great.
629
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,000
In the entertainment business, you don't know
630
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,000
if it's gonna snow the night of the event,
631
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:16,000
or there's gonna be a hurricane, or the artist is gonna get sick.
632
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,000
This is a high-risk business.
633
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,000
People lose all the time.
634
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,000
Ian: We booked Chief Keef. The show sold out.
635
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,000
An hour before doors open,
636
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,000
I get a call from a local promoter from Danbury.
637
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,000
Calls me and says, "Listen, Ian, Chief Keef's people
638
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,000
are saying they can't find him.
639
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,000
We gotta cancel the show."
640
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,000
I'm like, "What do you mean, we gotta fucking cancel the show?
641
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:37,000
We got a sold-out show.
642
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,000
We got banking tonight. The show has to happen.
643
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,000
Where the hell is Chief Keef?"
644
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000
Never hear from then again.
645
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:46,000
Wale canceled because of snow.
646
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:50,000
Every show that was supposed to make money, it all crumbled.
647
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,000
So out of the $250,000 of Henry's money,
648
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000
I had $13,000 to show for it.
649
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,000
That was the worst thing that could ever happen.
650
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:04,000
Henry's beginning to be down my back,
651
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,000
we're late on loan payments on everyone,
652
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,000
all because of that one lie.
653
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,000
I can't stop lying.
654
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,000
That's the nature of the Ponzi scheme.
655
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,000
They thought that his lies were true,
656
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,000
but he can't make the payments.
657
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,000
And that's usually when the house of cards
658
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,000
comes tumbling down.
659
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,000
Ian: I'm 18 years old,
660
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,000
and, you know, I'm fucked.
661
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,000
♪♪
662
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,000
At that point in my life,
663
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,000
that was as stressed as I've ever been.
664
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,000
And I'm just trying to figure out what on earth to do.
665
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,000
And all I have is this idea to reopen Tuxedo Junction.
666
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,000
This is a last-ditch effort to be out of debt.
667
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:49,000
We start cleaning the place up.
668
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,000
My name is Amber Miller, and I worked for Ian Bick.
669
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:53,000
When I first met with Ian,
670
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,000
he had these great ideas of revitalizing Danbury
671
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,000
and starting with Tuxedo Junction.
672
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,000
And I was hooked.
673
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,000
O'Connor: People were really interested in the fact
674
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000
that Ian was able to do all this as a 19-year-old.
675
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,000
Valerie: So all of a sudden, we see the paper,
676
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,000
Danbury News-Times, on the front page, and we see that
677
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,000
Ian is 10 most fascinating people to keep an eye on.
678
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,000
I felt proud of him.
679
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,000
I was just amazed.
680
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:28,000
Ian somehow was able to convince people that he was the whiz kid.
681
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,000
He had success prior. So he did have a rep.
682
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,000
So they were thrilled to get the "whiz kid,"
683
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,000
and they bought into it.
684
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,000
People would post on my Facebook about how they envied me,
685
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:42,000
how successful I was, but it wasn't really success.
686
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,000
You know, it was just -- It was like fake success.
687
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000
It became more of an illusion and a facade.
688
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,000
A big part of it was the image thing.
689
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:53,000
So I just kept lying.
690
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:56,000
It's looking pretty good.
691
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,000
We're gonna put uplights all along here.
692
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000
Miller: We spent every single day there.
693
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,000
We didn't leave until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.
694
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,000
Already feeling great in here.
695
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,000
Miller: Cleaned it all up.
696
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,000
I mean, that place was immaculate.
697
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,000
Nice, right?
698
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:19,000
Beautiful.
699
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,000
I reopened Tuxedo Junction
700
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,000
and turned it into a big concert venue.
701
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,000
My only priority was making all this money back that I owe.
702
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,000
Gonna call one of my investors real quick,
703
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:29,000
tell him the good news.
704
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:32,000
McGarry: When any con man goes and talks to people,
705
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,000
he promises, "I'm gonna pay you back."
706
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:40,000
That, in essence, just delayed the discovery of the scheme.
707
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:42,000
You know, a lot of times, Ian was constantly
708
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,000
picking up his phone to angry customers.
709
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,000
[ Cellphone buzzes ]
710
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,000
Yeah?
711
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:49,000
O'Connor: And I could hear them, like,
712
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,000
across the table shouting at him.
713
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,000
I had to ask, "What's going on, dude?
714
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,000
Like, is everything okay?
715
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:56,000
Why are all these people calling you?"
716
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,000
And he would just shrug it off.
717
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,000
Hello?
718
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,000
This was when he owed people a lot of money,
719
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,000
and he wasn't, you know, 100% honest
720
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,000
with everything that was going on.
721
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,000
I started to see that he was becoming increasingly stressed.
722
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,000
Like he was going through some tough times.
723
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,000
But he wouldn't let me in.
724
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,000
He would say, "I'm fine," but we could see that it wasn't.
725
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:23,000
We asked him, but we could see how upset he was.
726
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:27,000
That's the first time I got an idea that he was in trouble.
727
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:29,000
It just turned into a web,
728
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,000
a web of lies, and he's ignoring me,
729
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,000
and I heard he's ignoring other people.
730
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,000
Okay. I'm getting screwed out of something here.
731
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:37,000
I drove to Danbury.
732
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,000
And that's when I found him at Tuxedo Junction.
733
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,000
And I'm like, "Hey."
734
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,000
And he was very surprised to see me.
735
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,000
I was like, "Where's the money that you took
736
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,000
from all of us that you said we're getting back?"
737
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,000
He bought two Jet Skis. I was in college.
738
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:49,000
That's all the money I had.
739
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,000
I was like, "I need the money back so I can live."
740
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,000
And then he just grabbed his wallet, and he's like,
741
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,000
"Here's $300 in cash, and I'll get you the rest later."
742
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:01,000
I just -- I felt more betrayed.
743
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000
And I just felt like after almost 20 years of friendship,
744
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,000
growing up together, working together,
745
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:15,000
starting this together, I figured there'd be a line.
746
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:19,000
I thought I would be that line.
747
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,000
And then I just shut up and walked away after that.
748
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:22,000
But that's when I stopped.
749
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,000
I stopped investing in him.
750
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:30,000
♪♪
751
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:36,000
♪♪
752
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,000
Ian: I mean, things are so bad at that point
753
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,000
that I start going to the shady, like, people through the club.
754
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:46,000
Loan sharks or drug dealers that would loan me $100,000
755
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:47,000
or $150,000
756
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000
just so I can, like, try to pay off some loans
757
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,000
and try to pay for expenses at the club.
758
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,000
I got my fingers smashed in with a screwdriver one time.
759
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:00,000
I got beat up, guns pointed at me.
760
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,000
There were a lot of unsavory people
761
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,000
coming in and out of Tuxedo's on a daily basis.
762
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,000
♪♪
763
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,000
[ Lock disengages ]
764
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,000
[ Cellphone buzzes ]
765
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Seeing Ian cry countless times because he got frustrated.
766
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,000
At that point, I was too concerned with my own safety,
767
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,000
so I got out.
768
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,000
That's also when I tried distancing myself
769
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,000
from his projects.
770
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:35,000
♪♪
771
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,000
Ian: Henry had went to the cops.
772
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,000
The police start investigating me.
773
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:43,000
I get subpoenaed to go
774
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,000
to the Connecticut Department of Banking.
775
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:46,000
They show me their badges, and it says,
776
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,000
"U.S. Postal Inspector," and I almost laugh
777
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:51,000
because I'm like, "What the hell is a U.S. Postal Inspector?"
778
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:56,000
"We're investigating for potential mail fraud."
779
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,000
"Oh, shit."
780
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,000
I'm sitting there, like, sweating bullets,
781
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,000
trying to figure out what I'm gonna do.
782
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,000
Like, I'm really like -- Like, I just wanted to die.
783
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,000
I type in "good federal attorneys, New Haven."
784
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:10,000
And I come across the name Jonathan Einhorn.
785
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:12,000
And I sent him a message, saying,
786
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,000
"I'm being investigated, mail fraud, wire fraud.
787
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,000
Please respond ASAP. Need help."
788
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:17,000
And I tell him the whole thing.
789
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,000
He's like, "Don't talk to them. Don't say a word.
790
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,000
We'll try to figure everything out.
791
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:23,000
We'll see."
792
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,000
I go home, tell my parents.
793
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,000
"How much do you really owe?
794
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,000
Who loaned you all this money?"
795
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:41,000
And then that's when I started to become aware of how indebted
796
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,000
he was and how crazy the whole thing had gotten.
797
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,000
Ian: I had to tell my mom.
798
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,000
Like, everything.
799
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000
I felt bad.
800
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:59,000
I just, like, felt defeated and like I let them down.
801
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,000
Um...
802
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:07,000
Valerie and I were extremely upset with the whole thing.
803
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,000
And I know Valerie was angry with me.
804
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,000
She thought it was my fault
805
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:20,000
because Ian was modeling in some respects after me.
806
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,000
It was a very tough period of time.
807
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:32,000
♪♪
808
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000
Ian: July 2014, we go for a reverse proffer session.
809
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,000
So it was me; my dad; and John Einhorn, my attorney.
810
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,000
And I go in the room, I'm like, "Holy shit."
811
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,000
It's this huge table, like in the movies,
812
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,000
this big conference room.
813
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,000
There must be 30 federal people there.
814
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,000
There's four FBI agents,
815
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,000
two U.S. attorneys, IRS agents.
816
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:53,000
Across from me is this guy,
817
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:56,000
U.S. Attorney McGarry, the Silver Fox.
818
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:59,000
I knew from the second I met him I hated the guy.
819
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:04,000
So, you've got to picture this 19-year-old individual
820
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,000
in cargo shorts and a T-shirt.
821
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,000
And he's going on about this or, "Think
822
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,000
I'm worse than Bernie Madoff," and I'm laughing.
823
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:11,000
I'm like, "Who the hell is Bernie Madoff?
824
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,000
What are you even talking about?"
825
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,000
He was irreverent.
826
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,000
He was incorrigible, self-centered.
827
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:20,000
And I was just getting so worked up.
828
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,000
Like, I was boiling. I was so mad because anyone
829
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:26,000
that was accusing me of, like, a thief or a con artist or stuff,
830
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,000
it bothered me, because I wasn't that.
831
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,000
"This can go one of two ways.
832
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:35,000
One, plead guilty, and it will go towards sentencing,
833
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,000
or you can not admit what you've done,
834
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,000
and we can go to a grand jury,
835
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,000
we can indict you, and we can head towards trial."
836
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,000
Ian said, "I'm not guilty, Dad.
837
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:46,000
I'm not pleading guilty."
838
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,000
And I said, "I don't want you to plead guilty,
839
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:51,000
because it doesn't sound to me like any of those things
840
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,000
they're laying out, that you did."
841
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,000
And while we're explaining to him how we're gonna prove
842
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,000
that he's guilty of this fraud,
843
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,000
he's not paying attention, he's looking down, he's texting.
844
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,000
I'm texting on my phone, and Silver Fox
845
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,000
makes a stupid comment, saying, "Ah."
846
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:07,000
"You really should be paying attention
847
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,000
when the FBI agent is explaining to you
848
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,000
how you're gonna be proven guilty."
849
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:13,000
And I looked at him.
850
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,000
I said, "No, I actually got a sold-out show tomorrow night.
851
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,000
1,300 people at Tuxedo Junction."
852
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,000
"Really? Come on."
853
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,000
And he just -- The look on his face.
854
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,000
He wasn't happy about that.
855
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,000
[ Dance music plays ]
856
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,000
All while I'm under investigation, being pursued
857
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,000
by the FBI, the IRS,
858
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:39,000
and I'm this 19-, 20-year-old kid running this music venue
859
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,000
which is becoming more and more famous by the day.
860
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:42,000
What's up, Danbury? It's 3LAU.
861
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:44,000
I cannot wait for our show at Tuxedo Junction this weekend.
862
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,000
It's gonna be absolutely crazy.
863
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,000
[ Crowd cheering ]
864
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:50,000
♪♪
865
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,000
Man: Jump!
866
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:56,000
5, 4, 3, 2, jump!
867
00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:03,000
♪♪
868
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:10,000
♪♪
869
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:16,000
♪♪
870
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,000
It's called the success drug. I suffer from it.
871
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:21,000
Everybody thinks you're a genius,
872
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:23,000
and everything's going great.
873
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:24,000
And the artist thinks you're great,
874
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,000
and you're on top of the world.
875
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:27,000
But he wasn't making money.
876
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:32,000
$10,000 for an act, $5,000 for lights and sound.
877
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,000
How are you gonna make money? [ Laughs ]
878
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:36,000
♪♪
879
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,000
Man: ..."Ian," you say "Bick"!
880
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:39,000
Ian! -Bick!
881
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:40,000
-Ian! -Bick!
882
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,000
Man: When I say "Ian," you say "Bick"!
883
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:44,000
-Ian Bick!
884
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,000
-Ian! -Bick!
885
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000
Ian: At that point, I'm thinking, "This is working."
886
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,000
I get home at, like, 5:00 a.m.
887
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,000
I just get into bed.
888
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,000
♪♪
889
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:08,000
[ Banging on door ]
890
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,000
Banging, loud banging on the door.
891
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,000
I'm like, "What the hell is that?
892
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:16,000
"Oh, my God." And I race down the stairs in my pajamas.
893
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:17,000
In my shorts and a T-shirt.
894
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,000
Opened up the door. They told me to step aside.
895
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,000
And all I heard was, "Step back, ma'am. Step aside."
896
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:26,000
We had Danbury Police, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service,
897
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,000
IRS Criminal Investigation, and the FBI have an arrest team.
898
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,000
Got M16s. Fully loaded tactical vests.
899
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,000
It was like, really, the scene from a drug bust.
900
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,000
They're knocking on my bedroom door now,
901
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,000
and they just barge open, and I, like, jump back on my bed.
902
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,000
They're like, "Ian Bick, put your hands behind your back."
903
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:44,000
He was woken up.
904
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:45,000
His parents were visibly upset.
905
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,000
I was terrified.
906
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:48,000
They handcuffed me behind my back.
907
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:50,000
They said, "Well, do you have any shoes without laces?"
908
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:51,000
I say, "No."
909
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,000
Then they give me these cowboy boots
910
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:54,000
that, like, I had in my closet
911
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,000
from one of the high-school musicals.
912
00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:02,000
He appeared to smirk at times at what was happening.
913
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:04,000
I said, "My God, he doesn't even have his glasses."
914
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,000
They just hauled him away in handcuffs, out.
915
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,000
They're all over the street, and then they bring me outside.
916
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,000
And I saw the IRS lady
917
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:13,000
who was one of the IRS agents on the case,
918
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,000
and the head detective, too,
919
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:17,000
and they're like, "Mr. Bick, you remember me?"
920
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,000
Like it was a scene from a movie.
921
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:23,000
Like, this antagonist detective coming at the end of this movie
922
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,000
just to say, "Ah, you got caught."
923
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:31,000
♪♪
924
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:35,000
The trial starts 2015, first week of November.
925
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:40,000
Ian had claimed that they were buying
926
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,000
Beats by Dre, iPhones,
927
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,000
and that's how they were gonna make all this money.
928
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,000
Ian sent us these Excel spreadsheets.
929
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,000
McGarry: And it listed hundreds of iPhones,
930
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,000
and they presented to investors
931
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:57,000
as evidence that they were buying and selling the iPhones.
932
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,000
The spreadsheets were total fabrications.
933
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,000
There were no pallets of iPhones.
934
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,000
The numbers were all made up.
935
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,000
Just a total scam. A total sham.
936
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:14,000
So we can actually see inside Ian Bick's bank record.
937
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:19,000
A check comes in, money goes out to earlier investors.
938
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,000
♪♪
939
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:26,000
It dawned on me that there were adults
940
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:30,000
that were lending him $20,000, $30,000.
941
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:31,000
To a kid.
942
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,000
Why would they loan a kid that kind of money?
943
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:35,000
In the trial, it actually came to light
944
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:37,000
when my father testified --
945
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,000
The $10,000 he had invested with Ian,
946
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,000
and that's what Ian used to buy the Jet Skis.
947
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,000
Papageorgiou: Mr. Bick purchased two Jet Skis
948
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,000
for his own personal use.
949
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,000
Mr. Bick actually had the victim
950
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,000
use the very Jet Skis
951
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,000
that he purchased with the victim's money.
952
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:02,000
Long hours of testimony against my son was painful.
953
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,000
Ian: A lot of people testified.
954
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,000
For people to go on the stand and then say that I had set out
955
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,000
from the get-go to defraud people,
956
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:14,000
that it was my intention to scam my close friends,
957
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,000
like, that hurt. That killed me on the inside.
958
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:18,000
I think he knew exactly what he was doing.
959
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:21,000
Henry was not friends with Ian Bick.
960
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:26,000
However, after Henry came into this large amount of money,
961
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:30,000
Ian took it upon himself to befriend Henry.
962
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,000
Papageorgiou: Mr. Bick was indicted with multiple counts
963
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,000
of wire fraud and money laundering.
964
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,000
There were 27 investors.
965
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:40,000
The total loss was calculated at about half a million dollars.
966
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,000
I think a con artist is someone with just, like,
967
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:49,000
no concept of, like, friends,
968
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,000
like, really out there to steal and cheat.
969
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,000
I don't think I was a con artist.
970
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,000
I think that I made stupid decisions
971
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,000
that led to people losing money.
972
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:02,000
Yes, we took loans from one lender to pay off another loan.
973
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,000
I guess it's a Ponzi scheme,
974
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,000
depending on the way you look at it, and...
975
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:11,000
I don't know.
976
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,000
It wasn't an intentional Ponzi scheme.
977
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:19,000
O'Connor: Yeah, Ian told a lot of lies.
978
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:21,000
He told a lot of lies to get investors.
979
00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,000
Ian took advantage of everybody that ever walked past him.
980
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:29,000
The betrayal he made on my family and me.
981
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:32,000
How could you have done this to so many innocent friends?
982
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:34,000
We just got screwed.
983
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,000
Ian: I was guilty on one count of money laundering,
984
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,000
six counts of wire fraud,
985
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:45,000
and then the other three counts were not guilty.
986
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:52,000
The judge said to me, "Mr. Bick, the party's over."
987
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,000
End of October, 2016,
988
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:01,000
I got sentenced to 36 months in prison.
989
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:02,000
I just looked at my dad.
990
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:03,000
Like, I was just disappointed.
991
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,000
I could barely look at him.
992
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:11,000
All the blood felt like it rushed out of me.
993
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,000
[ Sighs ]
994
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,000
I was sitting right next to his mom.
995
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:18,000
She was crying. She was balling her eyes out.
996
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:23,000
It's mean to say, but I was happy he had to go to jail
997
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,000
and learn from his mistakes.
998
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:29,000
I don't have a lot of sympathy for white-collar criminals.
999
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:32,000
Ian Bick is a con man.
1000
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:38,000
Ian: That was the lowest point in my life.
1001
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:43,000
I just wish I could go back and just change that one lie.
1002
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:47,000
♪♪
1003
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:51,000
♪♪
1004
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,000
[ Keys clacking, cellphone whooshes ]
1005
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:58,000
I got out in January 2019.
1006
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:01,000
I mean, it makes me feel kind of sad,
1007
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:04,000
only because it took, like, three years for me
1008
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:08,000
to actually learn what I did.
1009
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,000
I'm always gonna, like, regret what I did personally,
1010
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:12,000
because people's lives were changed.
1011
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,000
People lost money.
1012
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:17,000
And I'm deeply sorry that people lost money,
1013
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,000
and it's my job to make it right.
1014
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:27,000
The total restitution is, like, $480,000.
1015
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,000
You know, I'm gonna pay everyone back.
1016
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,000
That was always the intention.
1017
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:33,000
Right now I'm working for Whole Foods,
1018
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,000
and I'm slowly working my way up the ladder.
1019
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:37,000
In my life, I can look can back and say,
1020
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,000
"I shouldn't have done certain things, too."
1021
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:41,000
As long as you learn from it.
1022
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:46,000
He seems to be moving in the right direction.
1023
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:50,000
Ian: This is where the whole story started,
1024
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:53,000
and this is where the story ends.
1025
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:54,000
I guess it's bittersweet
1026
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,000
because, like, even a few weeks ago,
1027
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:57,000
I'm walking by here and I'm like,
1028
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:01,000
"Wow, I wish this thing was still going.
1029
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:02,000
It was fun times."
1030
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:04,000
But there's not gonna be
1031
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,000
another Tuxedo Junction chapter in my life.
1032
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:12,000
♪♪
1033
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:13,000
Interviewer: Let's just start with
1034
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:14,000
some really basic questions.
1035
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,000
How old are you?
1036
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,000
I'm 19. You're 19?
1037
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:19,000
19.
1038
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,000
Why? How old did you think I was?
1039
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:23,000
Probably 21.
1040
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,000
19 years old.
1041
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:27,000
McGarry: While Ian was young, he was telling people
1042
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:28,000
that he's a whiz kid,
1043
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:31,000
so short of being young and naive,
1044
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,000
he was actually sophisticated enough
1045
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:38,000
to use his age to manipulate his victims.
1046
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:44,000
I hope he's a changed man, but I don't believe it.
1047
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:47,000
Ian: Listen, I'm a good person
1048
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:51,000
who made a fuck-ton of mistakes, who really fucked up,
1049
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:55,000
but it was with good intentions at the beginning.
1050
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:59,000
I'm happy with where I'm at in life.
1051
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:00,000
I want to be living proof
1052
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:04,000
that your past mistakes don't define you.
1053
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:07,000
So, where do you see yourself in five years?
1054
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,000
For right now, five years down the road,
1055
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,000
I don't know where I'm gonna be at.
1056
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:19,000
♪♪
1057
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:26,000
♪♪
1058
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:34,000
♪♪
1059
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:42,000
♪♪
1060
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:50,000
♪♪
1061
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:59,000
♪♪
1062
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:08,000
♪♪
77710
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