Oh My Fraud

Warning: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you for your understanding.

Caleb: Listen to this, Greg. There's a point in the conversation where he says, I know he was mad at us because he didn't offer me any Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. Okay. Granted, I don't have any personal experience with this, so maybe it's just me. But if you're sitting in a Colombian jail cell with a drug lord who's super pissed at you, I don't know if guilting him into sharing his Chips Ahoy cookies is going to get you back on his good side.

Earmark: If [00:00:30] you'd like to earn CPE credit for listening to this episode, visit earmark Cpcomm. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate. Continuing education has never been so easy. And now on to the episode.

Caleb: This is Oh My Fraud, a true crime podcast where the accountant goes to jail instead of into witness protection. I'm Caleb Newquist and I'm Greg Kyte. Time for another listener review. Greg. [00:01:00] Uh, only if I can pour myself a bourbon. And only if it's not a one star review. I need a little more, uh, need a little more positivity right now. I think I have the I have the perfect review. Nice. Yeah. So here goes on the earmark app, Andrew C gave us five stars and writes, quote, I wish Greg and Caleb would learn the difference between a forward slash and back slash. Otherwise, this is a consistently great podcast. [00:01:30] Okay, now that pisses me off. Uh, so listen up, Andrew. Goddamn it. Uh, sure. We. I admit we must have been saying it wrong this whole time. Otherwise you wouldn't have said that. But nobody cares. Everybody. Everybody knows what kind of slash we're talking about. We're talking about the one that's under the question mark, not the one that you have to go looking for. There's only I mean, we only use one slash, okay? It's the one part [00:02:00] of the part of both of those slashes is forward is at the top. That's forward to the bottom of this forward. I don't fucking know. It's a slash. Let me just be the first to offer our sincerest apologies to the back slash community and to the forward slash community.

Caleb: I don't know, maybe it's just the slash community or is it the solidus? I don't know, is that a term we can use? I don't know what's the right terms these days. Whatever your preferred nomenclature, I think is, what I'm trying to say is that we are sorry. And we we [00:02:30] are we're we're just trying to please everybody, okay? I just want to know. No. Not okay. Oh, listen, I'm. I will learn where Corsicana, Texas is in relation to Dallas before I figure out which kind of slash is the forward one or which kind of slashes the back one. However, Andrew, thank you for the five stars. Yeah, it was five star now. And thank you for listening to our podcast and thanks for listening. And now for a moment of shameless self promotion. We do live [00:03:00] fraud and ethics presentations. If you want a fun, informative and engaging keynote address on fraud and ethics, we can do that. And just FYI, we don't give live presentations on the nuanced differences between forward slashes and back slashes. Just fraud and ethics. Andrew. So if anyone besides Andrew wants more information, we'd love to. We'd love to give you more information. Send us an email at fraud at earmark Cpcomm.

Earmark: Is it time [00:03:30] to move on? I think it's time to move on.

Caleb: I think. I think that's what time it is right now. It's move on time. Okay, so here's a question, Greg. What's your idea of adventure?

Earmark: Jumping out of planes, swimming with sharks. Russian roulette. You know what gets your juices flowing?

Caleb: Well, Russian roulette would definitely get my juices flowing, but it's not like it's not a bucket list thing or anything like that. I tell you, Caleb, I'm actually not very into adventure in the in this phase of life right now. [00:04:00] Maybe I'm too. Which phase is which phase is that? If I may ask, it's the both my shoulders hurt and my hip also hurts phase. Okay. Got it. Uh, which indicates that possibly I'm just too old for adventure shit. Or maybe I'm just on a lower level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maybe, maybe, maybe adventure is more on a on a self-actualization kind of thing. And I'm just down here going, hey, can [00:04:30] I maintain some basic mental health? So maybe that's maybe that's a problem for me and adventure or, or alternately, maybe the rush that I get every time I get on stage to perform stand up comedy sufficiently scratches the adventure itch in my soul. Yeah, yeah.

Earmark: That's fair. I mean, I always definitely get a jolt when I before I don't get on stage regularly, but when I do, that's always like, you know, your body is telling you that you're going to do something. Yeah.

Caleb: It's a it's [00:05:00] a risk. There's a, there's there is failure. Failure is looming over your shoulder whenever you get on stage for anything.

Earmark: So yeah. And that's, that's a, that's a little adventurous for sure. Yeah. So so danger is not your middle name though, correct.

Caleb: Yeah. No middle name is Michael. Um, and but but it's not that I haven't been adventurous. Sure. And this is so dumb because most people just think this is the lamest.

Earmark: But let let let's hear it. [00:05:30]

Caleb: Okay. The. So back in college, this was back in my years of being an arguably overly zealous evangelical Christian, I so I was I was 19 years old, and I transferred from the University of Washington to Brigham Young University to convert all the Mormons to the real Jesus. Right. I remember hearing about this. That was a huge that was a huge adventure. I knew exactly one person at BYU and not to give too much away, but she was trying to convert [00:06:00] me from evangelical Christianity to the real Jesus. Wow. But I'll tell you, that was a hell of a adventure. I was, I was the.

Earmark: Sex must have been good, though. Oh.

Caleb: The. Yeah, well, you mean the repressed sexuality that we we couldn't let out of the box? That was. That's. Yeah. Yeah, that was, that was you had the you had to double double duct tape that shoe box. Uh, but but yeah that but but that was a hell of an adventure. Yeah. You know, a lot of people [00:06:30] thought I was crazy and and arguably now, looking back, I was, too, but also, uh, I can't it's hard. You'd be. I would be hard pressed to find another time in my life when I felt more engaged and felt like I had a more concrete, laser focused purpose in my life. And that is huge. And then also, you know, the last 21 years doing stand up comedy have been an adventure, just like I was saying before. Yeah. And and sometimes, you know, looking at both of those things when I decided to [00:07:00] go for it with stand up comedy or when I decided to make that that big, the move from Washington to Utah to do, to try to change the world. I sometimes I do long for the next thing like that, you know, what's the next big move, the next adventure. But you can't you can't go off half cocked. I feel like that sort of stuff finds you more than you find it. And I haven't found the next one yet, but I am always looking.

Earmark: All right, well, for this episode, we're focusing on a colorful guy who wound up on, in his words, the wildest adventure [00:07:30] in the universe. If you lived in Central Texas, that is in and around Austin or San Antonio in the last 25 years or so, and found yourself on the wrong side of the law with a charge of driving while intoxicated or marijuana possession you probably hired, or at the very least considered hiring. James Morris Bellagio, aka Jami aka [00:08:00] the DWI dude aka the 420 dude aka The Dude to get you out of trouble. I don't like.

Caleb: Any of those nicknames at all.

Earmark: I don't like any of them either, but you know.

Caleb: But good for.

Earmark: Him. We'll get into it. Let's let's get into it. Okay, now, for example, I do not know when he started referring himself to referring to himself as the dude. He says he came up with a nickname because a friend always called him dude, [00:08:30] which is so dumb because all kinds of people call each other dude.

Caleb: Absolutely.

Earmark: And they don't end up with a nickname dude, right?

Caleb: I remember him saying that part of it too, was that no one knew how to spell. If you just heard his name, Bellagio, nobody knew how to spell it.

Earmark: They couldn't Google it.

Caleb: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Earmark: So he needed something and okay, fine. But I have to I have to confess he does resemble the dude, as in Jeff Bridges [00:09:00] character, the dude from the Coen brothers movie The Big Lebowski. If the movie was based in Texas instead of Los Angeles.

Caleb: Yeah, right. Yeah. No, I see it just from having read the case and seen some stuff. Yeah, I'm. I'm there with you.

Earmark: Yeah. Long beard, long hair. He wore bolo ties instead of a bathrobe, but you know, but. Yeah. And you see him and you kind of want to go, who's this dude? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's kind of the first thing that pops into your head. [00:09:30] But anyway, Bellagio was a local. He was born and raised in Austin. He attended Southwest Texas State University. He got a degree in criminal justice, and he joined the Austin Police Department in 1979. Nice. Yeah. Now he eventually joined that department's vice unit. But vices being vices, he got turned in for using cocaine and marijuana after someone saw his BMW at a drug dealer's house in Houston.

Caleb: Yeah, so maybe [00:10:00] the vice unit was the wrong choice.

Earmark: Right? Yeah. And maybe, maybe a maybe a detective. A police detective driving a BMW that's maybe suspicious. Yeah, yeah, it's very conspicuous, right? If nothing else. Right? Anyway, he got clean. Malaysia got clean. And then. But he did get demoted on the police force. He was working it. He was. He was working an impound.

Caleb: Lot, which is weird. I [00:10:30] would think if you did cocaine and marijuana, you just wouldn't have a job. You wouldn't be a force anymore.

Earmark: You wouldn't be a cop anymore.

Caleb: My knee jerk. But I guess in Austin, they're very they're very forgiving.

Earmark: Texas is a strange place, as it is. It's the it's.

Caleb: The Bible belt. They're all about forgiveness and second chances.

Earmark: Is that what they're about?

Caleb: Nope.

Earmark: No, I think I think they're about guns and and controlling women's bodies, but I don't know. Anyway, he was working in an impound lot and he didn't [00:11:00] want to do that forever. So he opted for law school, and he went to the law school at University of Texas, Austin. And in 1993, Belleza was featured in an article in the Austin American-Statesman. And that article that, you know, that little, you know, bit of marketing brought in a lot of new clients. And he soon decided that he wanted to specifically focus on people charged with DWI and marijuana possession.

Caleb: Right. And I think part of that story was [00:11:30] because he was actually repulsed by violent criminals. Yes. So he was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to I'm going to deal with just people who, you know, they sure they commit manslaughter, but it's like it's unintentional. So. Right, right. Violent but not like you're not you're not trying to be violent, right? Not premeditation. Not not not just an asshole violent. You're just. Well, you're still an asshole. Wrong place.

Earmark: Wrong time, wrong wrong time, wrong place, wrong time. Kind [00:12:00] of violence.

Caleb: Right?

Earmark: Malaysia had a kitschy approach to marketing. He had company vehicles with his face, name, number and marijuana plants plastered all over it. There are pictures in the show notes. Check them out. It's good the pictures aren't in the show notes. There are links to articles that have pictures of the car and there's bad as you would expect. He had a TV and radio ads running constantly. He created a YouTube channel with tips [00:12:30] instructing people to decline breathalyzers and blood alcohol tests. He would go to bars and let people blow into his own breathalyzer machine, and then get them to put his number into their phones. He would hand out kind of.

Caleb: Like, kind of like, you're going to need this later. Yeah, right.

Earmark: Like in two hours. Call me because you're right. Yeah. And he also would hand out a multitude of DWI dude tchotchkes, including t shirts, lighters, rolling papers, koozies, poker chips. And now, [00:13:00] you know, you're you're probably hearing all this and you're thinking, oh, okay. He was basically Saul Goodman before Jimmy McGill was Saul Goodman. And you would be right. Yeah. Mean people eat this stuff up, right? Yeah. Like you listen, you know, you read the, you know, read the stuff we have in the show notes or listen to the podcast in the show notes. And like, people just eat this stuff up and as hate as much as we probably hate to admit it, kitschy marketing fucking works, man, right? It just [00:13:30] works. And Jamie Bulaga's kitschy marketing was a big reason why his law practice started to take off.

Caleb: By the mid to late 2000, Bellagio was a local celebrity and well connected within the local criminal justice system. He knew cops, he knew judges, he knew prosecutors, and he knew scores of other lawyers. Of course, he had one office in Austin that was his original [00:14:00] office. And then he opened a second office in in San Antonio. In total, he had about 20 employees, and he claimed that his firm was pulling in about 3 million bucks of revenue every year. And it will come as no surprise that Bellagio was very much digging his pseudo celebrity status and the success that he was finding with professionally. Yeah.

Earmark: Why wouldn't you mean you're the dude.

Caleb: Right? Everybody.

Earmark: Everybody knows.

Caleb: You. Yeah. [00:14:30] And the guy, the guy was super gregarious. Clearly, like some of the accounts I read said that he liked. He liked it when people noticed him, like, like recognized him out in the wild, like if he was at the store or something like that.

Earmark: Yeah, yeah. You see the dude in the, in the prototile at, uh, at the, at the Winn-Dixie. The Winn-Dixie in.

Caleb: Texas. They do now.

Earmark: They certainly do. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he probably I you can't blame [00:15:00] him because then he probably is like, you want to be. Are you my next client?

Caleb: Right, right. Well, and it said that people would love taking selfies of themselves with him. Yeah, yeah. His weird weed Winnebago and that even even people with like, they'd, they'd like take selfies of him while they were smoking weed illegally in Texas. So so wonderful. Exactly. So so and.

Earmark: So. Yeah, that kind.

Caleb: Of knew his people. Yeah. That endeared.

Earmark: Folks [00:15:30] to him.

Caleb: Didn't it? Of course. Absolutely. And it helped that he was pretty good. Pretty damn good at his job. Yeah. He told he told Texas Monthly, quote, I was getting not guilty verdicts in cases where everybody said, there's no way you can win this case. So Bellagio was taken on 40 to 60 new cases every month. Most of them were misdemeanor cases that earned him about 6000 bucks each. He genuinely wanted to help people who were [00:16:00] in trouble. He was a he was a giver. So he wanted to help people like his peers in the legal community. He wanted to help folks at his church. Although I do have to wonder how his fellow churchgoers felt about him rolling up on a Sunday morning in his DWI dude weed plastered Winnebago. I don't think that would have gone well at my church. Yeah, when I was going.

Earmark: Kind of an odd that would that would kind of look weird in a church parking lot. That's right.

Caleb: Even a Catholic church, [00:16:30] you go to a Catholic church if. Yeah, I mean, it would look weird anywhere, I guess, especially in a church, no matter what the church was.

Earmark: There is, I have to say, there is a there is a church of marijuana here in the Denver metro area. Yeah. And, uh, I don't know what to make of it, to be honest.

Caleb: So he'd fit right in there with his with his mode of transportation? Yeah, as a matter of fact, that's where he should go to just network. Yeah. [00:17:00] So it was this success that he was finding that we've been describing that led people like Anthony Felsing to become one of Malaysia's clients. So here's a little about Felsing. He's struggled with alcoholism and he had been charged with his third DUI. And that's when he reached out to Bellagio. The DWI dude facing a long prison sentence, I think he was facing 12 years. Uh felsing was very worried. [00:17:30] But Bellagio reassured him that his connections and legal tactics would make it so that Felsing would be just fine. Uh, which which also. I don't know how you read that, Caleb, but to me, that sounded a little suspect.

Earmark: Yeah, there was something about that particular account, the Felsing account that, you know, he was he was in he was in heaps of trouble. And, you know, [00:18:00] Bellagio was promising that he was he was like, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. And I don't know, sometimes when people are telling you to don't worry telling you don't worry sometimes that's when you need to be worrying, right?

Caleb: Well, the thing that seemed weird to me is that it again, from reading the accounts of him with Felsing particularly, it it sounded like Bellagio was saying, I've got these judges in my back pocket. I can't get them to rule the way I want them to rule, [00:18:30] which is. Yeah, which that's what that's what, you know, that's that's all the red flags for me for sure.

Earmark: And that is I think. At the very least giving your guess. If you're a lawyer and you're giving your client the impression that you have, that you have some kind of like, magic isn't the right word. But like as a layperson, I suppose you're just like, well, yeah, if he's got a good relationship [00:19:00] with the judge, then this is the guy I want, right? Not really. Not until. And we'll get into this later, but not really fully understanding that. You shouldn't be giving anyone the impression that there might be something untoward going on, right? Right.

Caleb: Well, and I know there's ethical requirements of CPAs that we can't we can't market ourselves as going, hey, we know how to. We've got an inside with the IRS. Like that's that. That's just [00:19:30] we you can lose your license for making.

Earmark: The IRS.

Caleb: Claims like.

Earmark: That because the IRS will will come out and say, no, you don't. Right.

Caleb: Whenever I hear an ad like that where it's like, are you in deep trouble with the IRS? Well, we can get you out I go, well, these guys clearly aren't CPAs, right? Because that's because they would get busted immediately, right? Right. Yeah. So so all this is happening as as the 2000 were coming to a close. Bellagio did start to have some concerns [00:20:00] about about his business going into the future, because at that time, Texas was considering what's called a no refusal law that had actually already been adopted in other states. And these no refusal laws were were what what they did is they made it so that you couldn't refuse a breathalyzer or a blood alcohol test, which if you can't do that, that's [00:20:30] going to undermine one of Malaysia's primary strategies to winning cases, because like we said before, he would tell people, just don't take the breathalyzer test when you get pulled over. And as Malaysia told Katy Vine of Texas Monthly, quote, we were looking at the end of our golden goose.

Earmark: Through a mutual friend who Bellagio had helped. When he was down on his luck, he met Chuck Morgan, a private investigator who had a history of working [00:21:00] undercover for the Drug Enforcement Agency, also known as the DEA. Morgan regaled Bellagio with stories of his work, most of which took place in Colombia, Colombia, and in close proximity to some of the world's most notorious narco traffickers, including Pablo Escobar.

Caleb: So, yeah. And and those stories, Danger Zone. Yeah. But those stories also sounded like bullshit to me.

Earmark: Yeah, some of them did.

Caleb: Yeah, I yeah, they were [00:21:30] again, at best, highly suspect.

Earmark: Yeah. I mean, there were some accounts, though, that said that, you know, there were pictures of Morgan with these guys and with Colombian government officials and things like that. So there was, um, it was it was probably kind of difficult to separate the truth from fiction, right? Yeah. And even Bellagio said even Bellagio said that he wasn't sure what to make of all of these stories. Right. But he he did like the stories, you know, like [00:22:00] he was kind of enthralled with this guy Morgan, for sure.

Caleb: And it clearly, I mean, some of it had to be at least near the truth, because clearly, as we'll get into Morgan did have some connections with some pretty seedy groups.

Earmark: Yeah. For example, he had an opportunity for the DWI dude that could make for a big score, an extradition case for Narcos that would be charged with crimes in the United States. So now. [00:22:30] Right away. That raises a question for me, Greg. Did Jamie Belaja, aka the DWI dude have any experience with extradition cases? Cases. Cases.

Caleb: United States of.

Earmark: America. Oh, man. Right away. This raises a question. Did he? Jamie Belaja, the DWI dude, have [00:23:00] any experience taking on incredibly rich, incredibly dangerous Colombian drug lords as clients? Did he have any idea whatsoever what he was getting himself into? No, no, he did not.

Caleb: Despite Bilharzia having precisely zero experience with high level extradition cases, Morgan's plan seems [00:23:30] straightforward enough. He would set up alleged drug traffickers with Bilharzia as their US attorney. Morgan would then obtain information on those drug traffickers, coconspirators, and offer those coconspirators to the DEA to get a reduced sentence for the drug traffickers that Bellagio represented. And if the feds ended up indicting the Coconspirators. Then Morgan would set them up with Bellagio as their [00:24:00] lawyer, and so on and so forth, with a apparently never ending line of cases, which seems like the dumbest idea and a risky oh my god, a little risky. Their business model was to literally narc out drug lords, and then when they got in trouble, go to them. It's like I'm the one who put you on the the US [00:24:30] ideas radar and now. But do you need some representation? Because I can do that for you too, just like I did with your friend. It always struck.

Earmark: Me like reading through these stories. It always struck me as incredibly strange that, you know, you get hooked up with somebody and you're like, you're managing. So if you're working to extradite this person in the US, they'd be like, hey, look, if you give them some names, it's going to go a [00:25:00] little bit better, right? And they'd be like, okay, si, si, si. And they would give them the names and then Morgan would get the names and be like, hey, do you need an extradition attorney? Because I know a guy, right? And they're like, si, si. And eventually.

Caleb: Eventually the.

Earmark: Word gonna get out.

Caleb: You would think so.

Earmark: I don't.

Caleb: Know, this whole thing is bonkers to me. Yeah. Who who signs up to be I mean, [00:25:30] why don't know. Why would this why would this knucklehead from Texas be like, you know what I really want to do? I really want to die by representing some Colombian drug lords. It's the weirdest thing. But like we said at the top of the show, the dude wanted some adventure. Yeah.

Earmark: And I think the next, the next part of the story that you are going to tell us about Greg may also factor in to his reasoning. [00:26:00]

Caleb: Right? Right. Well, I don't know if the part you're talking about is that Bellagio himself told Texas Monthly that the high end clients for these extradition cases were paying $2 million for their plea deals, so there's a pretty good payout, even though he was doing pretty good at his, you know, as the DWI dude in the 420. Dude, 2 million bucks a case. That's a that's a pretty big carrot. With the opportunity for a big score, Bellagio traveled to Colombia with Morgan [00:26:30] and Morgan's wife, Adriana, and the mutual friend who introduced Morgan to Bellagio. That guy's name was Jack Patel. There was one meeting with a potential client, but since Bellagio didn't speak Spanish, he wasn't even sure how well the meeting went. It basically turned out.

Earmark: Just just great.

Caleb: Right? Well, I'm going to I mean, again, and maybe it's just because I'm too much of a wuss to ride a motorcycle, but I'm thinking every time you [00:27:00] meet with a Colombian drug lord and don't leave the meeting dead. It went well. Yeah. That's. Yeah, that's that's my it's a very low bar, but I'm going to say that was a great meeting. Good meeting. He got to go home. Uh, but so so this because of that meeting didn't amount to anything. The whole trip to Colombia basically turned out to be a narco tourism vacation in Medellin, Colombia. But even though no work came out of the trip, Morgan [00:27:30] assured Bellagio that if a Texas client ever came his way, that he would be given Bellagio a call.

Earmark: Fast forward to 2014 and Bellagio is running for Texas Attorney General as a libertarian. Yes, the DWI dude ran to be the chief law enforcement officer of. The Lone Star State. A San Antonio Express News article described Malaysia as, quote, a cross between a z.z. Top [00:28:00] roadie and a contestant in a late period Howard Hughes look alike contest. Now which if you don't know what that is, if you don't know what that looks like, do yourself a favor. Pause the podcast. Google that. Yeah, exactly. And then come back to the podcast. Okay, Google.

Caleb: This is what I did. I googled old, old Howard Hughes. Yeah. And then and then find the weirdest picture and you go, that's exactly Jamie Malaysia.

Earmark: Uh, [00:28:30] that same Express News article noted that Bellezas Canesi didn't make a ton of sense. Here's an excerpt from that one. One of his campaign catchphrases is potheads for potholes. Based on his notion that revenue generated from marijuana legalization could go to road repairs, but as attorney general, he would have no power to push forward legalization or allocate any revenue that would come from it.

Caleb: Nice politician [00:29:00] to the core. Yeah, making promises that there's no way he could keep.

Earmark: Right. So I would just like to point out that Jamie Belleza is not the first, nor will he be the last candidate for office who, despite holding a law degree, has either a virtually no understanding of how laws get made or B is an unapologetic bullshit artist.

Caleb: Well, clearly he's got an advanced degree in [00:29:30] bullshit artistry. See, see.

Earmark: And oh, also, for the record, Greg does have a schoolhouse Rock t shirt with, uh, with the bill on it.

Caleb: Oh, so I.

Earmark: Know, I know, Greg knows.

Caleb: How.

Earmark: How a bill becomes a law.

Caleb: Yeah, goddamn right I do.

Earmark: Anyway, it was during this doomed political campaign. Belleza would only get 2% of the vote [00:30:00] that Chuck Morgan came calling. He had a potential client for Belleza. Erm, Alirio Casanova Ordonez, aka megatron aka megatron Co, which I just love. Yeah.

Caleb: That's good.

Earmark: Now I don't, I don't really remember much like I was into Transformers as a kid, but I don't really remember anything from it. But there is something about the nickname Megatron that causes me to think [00:30:30] that anyone who is in close proximity to that person should probably be careful.

Caleb: Now I have here's the thing I because I, I had I got to the same conclusion. You got to okay but but but this is like having a nickname from a campy 1980s Saturday morning TV show. Bad guy. Yeah. Seems very not intimidating to me. It's like if somebody came up and said, hey, my name is Ermes [00:31:00] Ordonez, but my friends call me Skeletor would be like, I'd be like, you're cool. You're a fucking nerd, man. But but then here's what I said. But then if I was like a Colombian drug lord came up to me and said, hey, my name is Ermes Ordonez, but my friends call me Skeletor. I would be like, okay, that's terrifying because clearly you like have a desperate need for attention and you murder people all the time. [00:31:30] So now now I'm shitting my pants.

Earmark: Yeah. So Megatron needs a lawyer. Uh, he had recently been indicted and needed a lawyer. And according to Texas Monthly, his first choice was a Dallas attorney by the name of Don Bailey, who regularly handled extradition cases. But it didn't work out. When Bailey told Megatron that he couldn't make the case go away because, [00:32:00] you know, he couldn't take bribes. Or he couldn't or he couldn't pay bribes. You know, he couldn't.

Caleb: Yeah. He couldn't take him or give him rights. Bribes are kind of a they're kind of a sticking point. Can't do that in general. Yeah.

Earmark: So Megatron, he went looking for a new attorney. And with a little more flexibility, he eventually came to Beleza, who played up his connections in Texas. And [00:32:30] soon Morgan and Malaysia closed the deal with Megatron to handle this case for a $700,000 fee.

Caleb: Back in 2014, around the time Bellagio went to Columbia with Morgan for the first time, he had spoken to a US attorney who had advised him to get a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Why? Because that license would allow Bellagio to legally accept money from accused [00:33:00] drug dealers. Because otherwise, you know, you'd be accepting money from accused drug dealers. But listen, did he do this? No, he absolutely did not do it. He says this is what he says. He says I failed to do due diligence. I stepped in with a half assed approach. Well, that's putting it incredibly mildly. I, you [00:33:30] know, that's like saying, hey, I took a job, but I didn't do the thing I had to do in order to get paid for doing the job. It's like it's beyond not doing your due diligence. It's not even pulling your head out of your ass. So taking taking Megatron as a client eventually. Because. Because he he he broke the barrier. He got his first Colombian drug lord client, which was his goal. And [00:34:00] as everyone knows, once you get your first Colombian drug lord client, that's the hardest one. Yes. And after that, the just the Colombian drug lord clients just kept coming. So Morgan and Bellagio, they. They got another client. His name was Segundo Villota Segura, who agreed to pay Bellagio and Morgan $900,000 for their services. And what became clear relatively quickly, however, was [00:34:30] that these drug lords were absolutely going to be convicted, and making the charges just go away was not going to be possible.

Caleb: And when Villota was eventually arrested, he was not happy because he had paid top dollar but was still under arrest, and he was beginning to wonder if he'd been ripped off. So [00:35:00] the Oda demanded a meeting with Morgan and Bellagio to find out what the hell was going on, because he was suspicious about what the money had been used for. And like we said, Viota was in jail, so he was pretty sure the bribe money had not been used for bribes. So he set up a hidden camera in his Colombian prison cell where the meeting was going to take place. And in that [00:35:30] video, Viota asks Morgan and Bellagio directly about what they did with his goddamn money and Morgan in the video, because it's awesome. This video is out there in the video. Morgan's kind of talking in code about bribing officials while Bellagio is just shutting the fuck up. He is like, looking around, just like you're wondering how wet his pants are during this video. Yeah. [00:36:00] And and Bellagio later told Texas Monthly that that was the first time he'd heard anything about bribes. Bullshit. And he didn't say anything then because, well, he was in a Colombian prison cell with an accused drug lord. And, you know, the timing just didn't feel right to him.

Earmark: So. Yeah.

Caleb: So so which also bullshit. But after the meeting, Bellagio claims [00:36:30] that Morgan assured him that, like, he was going, hey, listen, we had to tell Viota that we were going to be paying some bribes on his behalf because that was the best way for them to get the work. And that's also what the Colombian clients expected and wanted. And so with that, they left Colombia and headed back to Texas.

Earmark: In November 2016. [00:37:00] The other two, brother Waldemar Villota Segura, wanted to retain Belleza for his services. He was being held in a nearby Texas jail and so Belleza, along with Morgan and Bellezas paralegal June Gonzalez, met with Waldemar and another woman who was an accountant and an interpreter. During the meeting, Waldemar agreed to pay a fee of $1.2 million, noting that it was drug money which Belleza said he could accept by [00:37:30] completing some paperwork. Now this is notable because it is false.

Caleb: And lies.

Earmark: Yes. Yes. And specifically it is in violation of the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986. And now that that comes out of that Texas Monthly article we keep referencing to, which is a fantastic read, and there's a lot more details in that story. But in any case, [00:38:00] what's important is that an Office of Foreign Assets Control license, that's that thing we talked about earlier, remember? Yeah. Yep. That allows an attorney to work with international drug traffickers on a who are, like on a designated list, right? Okay.

Caleb: But we're on the the official drug lord list, right?

Earmark: Right. The the drug kingpin list.

Caleb: You've done you've done such a great job as a drug lord. You are now on the designated [00:38:30] drug traffickers list with the Office of Foreign Asset. Yeah, I.

Earmark: Feel like it's, you know, I feel like it's college football rankings. It's kind of similar. Right. There you go. Yeah. Anyway, what's important is that even if you obtain one of those licenses, the fee that you receive. Is not supposed to come from the proceeds of drug sales.

Caleb: Right. Which, you know, because everybody knows that a good drug lord has a well diversified business [00:39:00] holdings. Yeah. It's like I'll pay for these out of my window washing business, not my drug manufacturing business.

Earmark: Right, right. Anyway, back to the meeting. Waldemar then brings up bribes, but then the group gets cagey and they don't commit to anything. So after the meeting, the accountant presses them about it and they want wants to confirm that they they understand what Waldemar wants. And per this accountant, Texas [00:39:30] Monthly Belleza kind of abruptly excused himself from the conversation. That's his that's his version of the account. And while Morgan said, quote, I don't have any problem with one word he said.

Caleb: More Belleza is like, I'm uncomfortable and Morgan's like, not me, bring on the bribe money.

Earmark: So they had a deal.

Caleb: Two weeks later.

Earmark: Belleza Morgan and June Gonzalez, that's the paralegal. They cruised [00:40:00] to a money pickup for Waldemar and the DWI dude. Mobile. Very discreet, super discreet. Uh, Morgan goes into a restaurant, which is the arranged location, and he meets the accountant, who, in case you haven't figured it out by this point, is an undercover agent. Perfect. Yeah. And as soon as Morgan takes the payment, he's arrested and taken off for questioning. Meanwhile, [00:40:30] our pal Jaime back in the car, you know, waiting. And I'm going to I'm going to quote from this Texas Monthly article because it's it's so good. A car driving by an FBI agent pulled in front of Bellagio, although the agent's instructions were just to block Malaysia's view of the arrest and help make sure the government got its $300,000 back, he misunderstood his assignment. He jumped out of his vehicle and aimed his gun at Bellagio. Don't move, don't move. [00:41:00] Hey man, Bellagio replied. I'm not doing nothing. Who are you? The agent asked. Bellagio pointed to the image of himself on his car.

Caleb: Didn't give him an ID, just pointed to his weed. Winnebago.

Earmark: The agent contacted his supervisor. The lead agent realized his mistake and cut Bellagio loose, giving no explanation for his action.

Caleb: Which is awesome. Just going. What the fuck just happened?

Earmark: Just a comedy [00:41:30] of errors right there. Yeah. Just lovely. So of course, Bellagio is freaking out right now, and he has no idea what has happened to Morgan. Two weeks later, when he's going to visit Megatron, who is in jail in Texas now, Bellagio finds out, quote, as soon as Malaysia's wife dropped him and Gonzales off at the Collin County Jail, two men came walking toward them. Are you James Morris? Bellagio? One officer asked. Bellagio [00:42:00] said. Yeah, that's me, and handed Gonzales his cell phone and wallet as he was handcuffed.

Caleb: Right. Because they because they did the James Morris Bellagio. You get over here right this instant. They they went full mom energy on him. I want he and he knew he was busted.

Earmark: I want I want my I want my someday. If I'm ever apprehended by federal agents, I want them to do the mom voice for sure. Yeah they.

Caleb: Should.

Earmark: That video that had been taken of Morgan and Bellagio in the Colombian [00:42:30] jail cell. It had ended up in the hands of the FBI. The FBI then wanted to corroborate that video by setting up a sting. And that's where Waldemar de Segura had come in. He had already been extradited. Obviously, he was sitting in that Texas jail, and while he was sitting in that Texas jail, the FBI went to see him and asked him for his cooperation. And because he had watched his brother get ripped off by these guys, he [00:43:00] was more than happy to help. After his arrest, things did not get better for Jamie Belleza. He was charged with money laundering, obstruction of justice, wire fraud and violation of the Kingpin Act.

Caleb: Oh yeah, the Kingpin Act. That's an act that we all knew existed.

Earmark: Yeah, it's the it's when you're quoting from kingpin.

Caleb: Oh, from from the from the movie with one of the.

Earmark: Farrelly brothers movie. Yeah.

Caleb: Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's. The about the [00:43:30] the one handed bowler.

Earmark: The one handed bowler. That's right. That's the one okay. Yeah, yeah. And in case you're wondering if Morgan and Malaysia ever bribed anyone at any point in time during this whole ordeal, which is what they told the world's largest producers of cocaine that they were going to do. Nah they didn't.

Caleb: Zero bribes, no bribes.

Earmark: Oh, man. During his trial in October 2019, Malaysia's attorneys tried to explain that Morgan was the [00:44:00] real mastermind while their client was a hippie and a hillbilly who drove a Scooby Doo van. Morgan Megatron both testified against DWI dude, but there was other evidence in the case that was very important. Number one, obviously, the video taken by Segundo Villota Segura that had been sent to the FBI, that's what kind of set the whole thing in motion. Right? Right.

Caleb: Which is which is weird because that seemed like [00:44:30] Viada was like getting he was he was building a case for in case he got double crossed where it's like, yeah, if you're going to screw me, I got, I got this tape and it's going straight to the FBI.

Earmark: Two can play at this game.

Caleb: Yeah, yeah.

Earmark: Second that. So the investigation gets kicked off by that video. That investigation eventually led them to issuing subpoenas for Malaysia's bank records and looking at the activity. Right? [00:45:00] Yep. In one case, they saw a long dormant account was starting to be used once again, just around the time that he was starting to take these extradition cases. The deposits were being made at ATMs all over the country, not just in Texas. And they were all less than $10,000, which is the threshold for cash deposits to be reported by banks to the IRS. Got it, I got it, got it. Okay. And finally, number three, the investigation [00:45:30] eventually led them to Anthony Felsing that down on his luck client of Malaysia's that we mentioned earlier in the show. In an interview with CNBC's American Greed, Felsing says he was facing a long prison sentence. We mentioned that, and he had been paying beleza large sums of money that he understood would help him get his sentence reduced significantly.

Caleb: Yeah, like like money that was going to like campaign contributions to the judges who were going to [00:46:00] be seeing his case.

Earmark: Right, that Belavia supposedly had close relationships with and would be hearing Felson's case, you know, and so by now, it's like he's insinuating like we kind of hinted at this earlier, but the insinuation being that this money was going to work in his favor, but they weren't going to legal fees, they weren't going to, you know, bellezas crafty legal tactics or research or whatever. It [00:46:30] was more of a.

Caleb: I don't know. It was that dark money.

Earmark: Yeah, right. There you go.

Caleb: Kinda. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Earmark: And if you watch that, if you if you listen to that interview, that's what Felsing says. He said he's like, I knew what he was talking about. Right. And so he's, he's you know, he says later, he's like, I thought I was getting probation. Right. But when he had paid him everything he could, Bellagio started changing his tune and he started focusing on these [00:47:00] new extradition cases. And he got super icy with Felsing. And Felsing tells this story about how Bellagio met him for lunch and told him blank. He told him point blank that the the leniency wasn't happening and he and he stuck him with the lunch bill, like threw the bill at him. Nice.

Caleb: That's awesome. When your when your attorney says, hey, let's go to lunch. And then after he's like, oh, by the way, you're paying for lunch. Yeah.

Earmark: You're going to you're going to.

Caleb: Pay for this. Oh right. I didn't do my job. Oh and you, you're paying you're paying for my burger right?

Earmark: Felson. [00:47:30] He testified to all this in court, and the FBI special agent in charge said that it was that testimony that turned the tide. Jamie Bolger was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in May 2021. Whew. Okay, Greg, did we learn anything here?

Caleb: Well, here's here's a couple things. First off, my brain's trying [00:48:00] to categorize this story into the types of frauds that we generally talk about. Um, it's not asset misappropriation. It's not financial statement fraud. Um, it's it is corruption ish. Uh, yeah, but but it's also. Is it corruption or is it just stupidity? I guess that that's where I'm that's where I get stuck. Because because corruption is, is giving or receiving of [00:48:30] bribes. I mean, that's that's obviously one, one type of corruption and and clearly bribes is a central thing in this whole story, except, as you mentioned, zero bribes. It was just no promises of bribes, which is so weird because what I mean, and so these guys, they were like, I don't feel like they intentionally did this, but what they ended up doing was working with the most dangerous people on earth, [00:49:00] and then and then screwing them out of their money, kind of going, yeah, we're going to pay some bribes for you. But but instead basically just taking that money for, just for themselves, which, again, you don't have to watch more than just one Mafia movie to know that you just wrote your own death sentence with that. So, yeah. So yeah, it's it's bribes, it's bribery, it's corruption. But it's also not it's just a it's [00:49:30] a fun case of, of of people who are really smart in one area, being complete imbeciles in another area and also getting incredibly lucky. The fact that Bellagio ended up getting caught by the FBI or DEA or whoever it was that took them down to that Asian fusion restaurant that he went to, I feel like that was the luckiest thing that happened to this dude, was that he got taken in by them and not by these [00:50:00] criminals that he double crossed. So yeah, crazy.

Earmark: There's that one point where one of the FBI agents is is basically puzzling out what you just described, which is, yeah, if you are saying that you're going to bribe a judge, or if you're going to bribe a prosecutor, or if you're going to bribe an FBI agent, that's a that's a that's a corruption issue, right? You're trying to you're trying to corrupt the law enforcement apparatus [00:50:30] of the of the United States. That's illegal. That's you can't you can't do that. Okay. So that's one thing. But if you're just taking money from these guys under the pretense that that's what you're going to do, then that then that's just you're just you're just that's just fraud.

Caleb: Well, but but also but that's the other reason my brain breaks is because it's like, okay, so you're so really so let's say that was the whole thing. It's like, hey, I got this great way that we can just steal a bunch of money [00:51:00] from some from some from some criminals, from some, you know, murderers and drug dealers. Right. And then I go, right, that sounds awesome. That sounds I mean, that sounds like Texas justice to me. That's that's the TV show I want to watch every week where it's it's, you know, the good guys ripping off bad guys out of there. Yeah. Out of there. But that's. But I don't think, I think that that's maybe how these guys in hindsight, they maybe that's [00:51:30] how they put their spin on it. I didn't see that anywhere. But if I was them, that's how I'd be like, hey, yeah, I stole a bunch of money from a bunch of really bad dudes. Um, that might be how I make myself feel better, and maybe how I make other people feel better about me, but also not not entirely the case. So that's one thing that I was thinking of, is it's it's very this case is very hard to, to put in a silo. I guess the other thing, it's one of.

Earmark: A kind, Greg. Yeah, definitely.

Caleb: The, the other thing though, like you were saying, I [00:52:00] think you kind of made me think about this, is that it? It was because, like, we know that giving bribes is corruption, and bribes were definitely being given. Just the bribes weren't getting to where they were supposed, like it was still very.

Earmark: Much the intended recipient.

Caleb: Yeah, that was 100%. What was happening was they were intending to bribe just the middle man couldn't couldn't get it done or didn't get it done. Um, so yeah. So I guess so I guess end of the day, clearly a corruption [00:52:30] case. The other thing that, that I, that I think is very interesting with this is um, it well, because these guys were stupid. They were, they were just in over their head.

Earmark: Certainly in over their heads.

Caleb: Yeah, yeah. Which is also your stupid. If you don't, you know, that's like that's like somebody who skis down a black diamond with moguls on their first time. [00:53:00] It's you were stupid, you got in over your head, but it's because you were being stupid. And and it's not just that they had no experience in extradition cases, but also just the fact that Bellagio had no Spanish language skills. They also have. Just like, what? What are you doing, you idiot? But. But what? The thing that's in stark contrast to that is that Jamie Bellagio clearly was an incredibly skilled lawyer and a [00:53:30] very good businessman because, like we said, he was he he was getting notoriety within the legal profession because there was these cases where everybody was saying, there's no way you can get this guy out of his DUI arrest. And Jamie Bellagio frickin did it. And he so he was great at what he did. And that's what I see as a theme that I didn't know this before when we started this podcast. But what I've seen over and over again is [00:54:00] that the people perpetrating the frauds often not always, but often have these incredibly rare and valuable skill sets. Like just a few examples. Rita Crundwell from episodes three and 20 was she was amazing as a comptroller for the city of Dixon, Illinois.

Caleb: Everybody was like, if you need information, if you need to know what's up with the money of the city. Rita knows everything. She she was great at what she did. Now, [00:54:30] obviously she also was stealing $53 million, but her doing the job of the comptroller, she was doing it great. Other than that one little thing, um, Nathan Mueller from episodes four and 28, we interviewed him and I, and you and I have we've commiserated about this since the the interview that it's like this guy was clearly amazing. He was a great accountant. He was amazing with the PeopleSoft software that they used [00:55:00] for their accounting. He was also he had these skills with foreign currency adjustments. That is this weird little branch of accounting that the vast, vast majority of accountants never even have to come close to. And that's where he lived his life. And that's how he pulled off his fraud, is because he was amazing at his job. I also think of Rudy Kurniawan, the guy who who counterfeited the wines. Yep. From episode 30. And that guy, it says [00:55:30] he had episode 43. Episode 43? Yeah. What did I.

Earmark: Say? 30?

Caleb: 30? Gosh, I am so amazing at numbers. Rudy Kurniawan, former math teacher.

Earmark: Ladies and gentlemen.

Caleb: From episode 30 plus 13. You didn't let me finish. I was given a little math problem for the accountants because they like that he had an uncanny palate. He had the he had a weird ability to identify because. Because. Do you remember that in the story he could identify the vineyard [00:56:00] and the vintage of wines in blind tastings? Bizarre. But it was that skill that allowed him to be able to to counterfeit wines. Right? The only case that sticks out to me as being pulled off by just a team of dumbshits was the group of idiots who stole all of the bourbon from the Buffalo Trace distillery that including Pappy Van Winkle. So it was called Pappy [00:56:30] Gate. That was episode eight. That's the only I mean, are there any other episodes, do you, that you remember just basically being like the Keystone Cops, but the bad guys?

Earmark: No, I agree with you that. In virtually every case that we've done for this show. Who comes to mind? Who I was thinking about was like Inigo Philbrick, the the young art dealer. Yeah, [00:57:00] really, like really good at his job, really good at what he did. And he made some bad choices. And all of a sudden he's in over his head and like, he tried to get himself out of it. And yeah, that's that's the other example that had come to mind for me. But you just you cited some good ones where. Yeah, you. Fraud is fraud is not for the lazy and it is not for the dumb. Right. And so and you have.

Caleb: To have some, some sort of skills to either [00:57:30] make people impressed or to make people trust you and and tell.

Earmark: Full, tell full.

Caleb: One of those things. Right. And yeah, exactly. Both is even best. So it's, it's the, it's your best and brightest people that you really need to be worried about. Like like legit you need to be worried about your best and brightest people.

Earmark: We've said this before, Greg. We've said this before. When you're hiring your accounting team.

Caleb: Two things very.

Earmark: Disagreeable and lazy. [00:58:00]

Caleb: Make sure they just hate each other and make sure they're incompetent. If those two things, those two things, you're nobody's ever perfect. Not you will. You will never be taken advantage of.

Earmark: Financial accounting team right there. Exactly. I think the biggest learning for me in this one was it was a quote from the special agent from the FBI who was leading the investigation. In the Texas Monthly article, he said, people's whole lives are on their credit cards and their banks and their phone records. You can put that in the timeline and you'll [00:58:30] know everything you ever wanted to know about somebody. And I think that's pretty consistent, too, with a lot of the stuff that we've talked about, a lot of the cases we've talked about. Yeah, yeah, it's like it's just all there. There's no place for it to hide. Like they can see they just. And and if you go back to the, the and it ties right into the wire fraud episode that we just did very recently where they, that they have wide latitude in terms of their investigation powers and then prosecution in terms [00:59:00] of how to prosecute people. They have a lot of flexibility. And it's it's just all right there. And it's just it's so it's it's so hard to hide it. And I want to say it's impossible because as you've said as we've said, it's like the, the the people who are good at fraud don't get caught. Right, right. And so, you know, it, it happens. But like if the FBI is snooping around your your comings and goings, [00:59:30] I sure hope you're not doing anything wrong.

Caleb: Right, right. Well, and that's absolutely that's absolutely true because you. Yeah. I mean, I try to think unless, unless you're off the grid and you're using only cash for everything, but you can't, you can't use only cash for everything nowadays. How many?

Earmark: Pretty hard. Pretty pretty tough.

Caleb: It's very interesting. Especially now. Like like it used to be that so many businesses would be like cash only businesses. And now [01:00:00] you see it the opposite way, where it's like, we don't we're no cash cashless business. Yeah, exactly. And that's and so what what they're saying here is becoming more and more true. And yeah, if you if you had if you had access to all of my bank accounts and to all of my text messages, you would have an exhaustive memoir of my life.

Earmark: And what would the story be?

Caleb: The story would be, uh, this guy, [01:00:30] he loves his family. And he made he made two great decisions in his life financially. So that, okay, the kind of the kind of compensated for, I mean, he's yeah, he's good with money, but there was a there was a couple of times he just nailed it. Yeah.

Earmark: Great. Yeah. That's it for this episode. And remember do not hire any lawyer who goes by dude or bro or Rudy Giuliani. [01:01:00]

Caleb: And also remember, if you take on alleged drug dealers as clients and they think you're ripping them off, you might end up dead, but you also might end up in jail with them, where you may also just end up being dead. So Jesus Christ, be careful. That's all. That's that's the biggest takeaway from today's episode.

Earmark: If you want to drop us a line, send us an email at Omar fraud at earmark Cpcomm Greg Kite. Where can people find you [01:01:30] on the internet?

Caleb: They can find me. You can try to find me on on Twitter at Greg Kite, but even better, find me on LinkedIn. That's LinkedIn backslash forward slash LinkedIn slash Greg Kite. How can people get a hold of you? Caleb?

Earmark: Uh, you know, I'm I'm I'm on I'm on Twitter, which is X now has been for a while. Still don't like it. Again. [01:02:00] Yeah. Like if you're having a bad day and you feel like some self-loathing and you and you go on to Twitter and I happen to be going through some self-loathing and I'm on Twitter, it's at C Newquist and LinkedIn is a slash. And then my name, it's a slash of some kind, I don't know, sound.

Caleb: You sound so depressed just talking about social media.

Earmark: Oh my God.

Caleb: Just social.

Earmark: Media. Yeah.

Caleb: I mean yeah.

Earmark: Social media. Yeah, yeah.

Caleb: Anyway, [01:02:30] oh My Fraud is written by Caleb Newquist and myself, our producer Zach Franc. Rate review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you listen to earmark CPE and you listen to the show through earmark, which you can do, you can earn free CPE if you're into that. So join us next time for more avarice, swindlers and scams from stories that will make you say. Oh my. Fraud!