Kath tells Pat about a man who's rise as a South American drug kingpin was stunted by - but possibly also originated from - his childhood dream of being a soccer star.

series exploring the industries that sell men on masculine identity. This first episode covers the phenomenon of oversized trucks that have ballooned in size over the decades…to the detriment of roads, pedestrians, and the environment. For two more episodes every month, join our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!…

Kath tells Pat about a Boston area woman who pulled a real life version of Billy Madison - posing as a high school student at public schools while living a double life. A lot of the stuff in this episode comes from reporting in the Boston Globe by Patricia Wen. Read her first article about Hewitt here. To hear this full episode and get access to al…

Kath tells Pat about Vlad Artamonov, the Harvard Business School graduate who used his prestigious alumni network to scam other high powered finance guys out of millions of dollars.

Since Rita Crundwell is back in the news after being pardoned by Joe Biden, we thought we'd rerelease this episode from way back in 2017 when we first covered the story of the woman who stole millions from a small town government to fund her ambitions as a horse breeder.

Since it's topical, we decided to drop this episode a day early. Pat dives into the sordid history of United Healthcare, which helps explain why the shooting of Brian Thompson had about 100 million suspects. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Our pal Jack Frazee comes by to offer a legal perspective on some of Texas History's wildest bribery scandals, and how they've shaped the state's modern laws.

Kath tells Pat about an unlikely duo who pulled off a scam raking in hunreds of millions of dollars: a polygamist Mormon and an Armenian gangster team up to scam the heavily subsidized renewable energy market. Much of the info in this episode was taken from a 2021 Wired Article called "The Lion, The Polygamist, ad the Biofuel Scam" by Vince Beiser.…

Pat's laptop got stolen so we're wheeling the VCR into the classroom for another roundup of recent tales of liars, frauds, thieves, and bullshitters.

Pat tells Kath about the Besa Mafia, an organization purporting to offer kill-for-hire services on the dark web, who were discovered by tech journalist Carl Miller of "The Kill List" podcast. check out The Kill List for more in depth reporting on this story.

Kath tells Pat about Dave Pelzer, author of a Child Called It, and his potentially dubious history. This episode is unusual because we're not quite sure what Pelzer has lied about, but we know at least a few things seem off.

Kath tells Pat about a miracle gadget that piqued the interest of crowdfunding investors on kickstarter and indiegogo, despite no evidence that a single prototype was ever produced.

Pat tells Kath about one of the messiest people we've ever discussed - Robert Konashewych, a Toronto cop who resorted to drastic measures to get out of debt while trying to hide an affair.

Kath tells Pat about Albert Rosenberg, a man who had many of Toronto's elite fooled into believing he was a fellow power broker in the city's wealthiest neighborhood. Be sure to check out the documentary, The Talented Mr Rosenberg, produced by Courtney Shea, who wrote the Toronto Life article from which much of this story comes.…

Kath tells Pat about coaching, an industry undergoing a surge of popularity, and the pyramid scheme-like ways that opportunistic "coaches" take advantage of it. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat tells Kath about a crematory operator in the rural south who offered deep discounts to funeral homes to burn their bodies - how'd he do it so cheaply? he never burned them at all.

A lot has been going on in the scam world lately so we are back with another roundup! Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal.

Kath tells Pat about a recent story involving a community of disability advocates working in video games, several of whom may not exist.

Kath tells Pat about how a small school dedicated to training artists for the ad industry metastasized into one of San Francisco's largest landowners and bilked aspiring artists out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pat and Kath talk upcoming vacations, near death experiences, and a roundup of recent stories from the world of liars, frauds, thieves and bullshitters.

Kath tells Pat about a Canadian woman who scammed dozens of doulas with a fake pregnancy sob story. Hear the full episode on our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Kath tells Pat about the Mirai Botnet, supercharged form malware that caused such disastrous denial of service attacks that it managed to bring down internet service for the entire US eastern seaboard in 2016. Was this the work of a foreign actor, hoping to influence a crucial US election? The truth is even weirder.…

Kath tells Pat about airbnb scams, and we explore a former real estate broker's illegal airbnb empire in New York City that netted tens of millions of dollars before getting busted.

Pat tells Kath about Carl Rinsch, a rookie director hired by netflix during the peak of the streaming wars to make a sci fi blockbuster series. What happened next is a wild ride involving cryptocurrency, vyvanse, Keanu Reeves, and 60 million dollars down the drain.

We're back! Pat brings us the rise and fall of a proposed libertarian, bitcoin-run, agrarian utopia in Chile called Galt's Gulch.

Kath tells Pat the strange tale of Arlan Galbraith, a Canadian farmer and pigeon racer who enlisted the Amish and Mennonite communities in a pigeon breeding ponzi scheme that resulted not just in exorbitant sums of money, but also in tens of thousands of pigeons.

Kath tells Pat about Bill Benter, the man who used math to successfully bet on a game that was previously considered to be impossible to statistically predict: horse racing. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat tells Kath the frustrating saga of Red Lobster, the universally beloved seafood franchise restaurant that fell prey to venture capital and is suffering the consequences.

Pat tells Kath about the world of counterfeit currency, and brings us a historical counterfeiting case that ensnared Sir Isaac Newton. Listen to the full episode at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

Pat and Kath discuss The Cut's recent article about Matthew Bergwall, a Miami college student who briefly became an incredibly prolific refund scammer - a brand new form of scamming enabled by internet retailers' lax return policies.

Kath tells Pat about the rise and fall of moviepass - a company that began with modest aims made an investment deal with the devil that eventually led to disaster - but not before we all got some free movie tickets out of it. To hear the rest of this episode as well as ad-free versions of our free episodes, check out our patreon at patreon.com/liec…

Pat tells Kath about the history of Boeing's shady practices that led to the grounding of their 737 Max planes and the Alaska airlines incident earlier this year.

Kath tells Pat about a recent case of identity theft that spanned over 30 years, and in which law enforcement prosecuted the victim as the perpetrator. Listen to the full version of this episode, as well as 100+ other bonus episodes and ad free versions of our show on our patreon! www.patreon.com/liecheatandsteal…

Our special guest, professional freak and carnival performer Erik Sprague (aka The Lizardman), tells Pat and Kath all about the scams and tricks the carnival uses to take our money and keep us entertained, from an insider's point of view.

While researching cash heists, Pat stumbles across the long legacy of lying, fraud, thievery and bullshit at GardaWorld, a company to which many American banks have outsourced their securities storage. Listen to the full version of this episode, as well as 100+ other bonus episodes and ad free versions of our show on our patreon! www.patreon.com/li…

Kath tells Pat about the various scandals of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including its connections to art thieves and traffickers, and its history of displaying counterfeit artifacts.

Kath tells Pat about social media self help superstar Jay Shetty, who's amazing life story took him from an ashram to the white house.... maybe.

Kath tells Pat about Brian Molony, on whom the Philip Seymour Hoffman movie Owning Mahowny is based. Brian is a Canadian gambling addict who lost so much money he managed to get the biggest casino in Atlantic City shut down for a day.

Pat tells Kath about how an auto mechanic with a checkered past capitalized on environmental tax incentives to perpetrate one of the biggest ponzi schemes in American history.

Pat brings us another scam roundup, including updates on Chiefsaholic, George Santos, the Kia Boys, and a number of new up and coming scammers.

Kath tells Pat about Jalisco New Generation, a Mexican drug cartel with a new line of revenue: scamming timeshare owners over the phone. For the full episode, check out our patreon at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal!

This episode was originally recorded in summer of 2020 for our patreon feed (patreon.com/liecheatandsteal), but we thought we should repost it publicly since Shaun King is up to his old tricks again, this time in the name of Palestine rather than in the name of Black Lives Matter. This episode isn't updated with all of his recent antics, and the so…

Kath and Pat talk about sobriety (don't worry, we won't try to convert you) and then about Charlie Morse, a man who leveraged his Maine upbringing into a monopoly on a precious commodity in a pre-refrigeration world: ice.

This is a preview of our patreon only episode this week, about a country that went from being one of the richest on earth per capita to one of the poorest. To access the rest of this episode as well as an advertising free feed, sign up at patreon.com/liecheatandsteal.

After some gambling talk, Pat tells Kath about an enterprising pickleball player who scammed his fellow enthusaists (don't worry, he also explains what pickleball is). Check out our patreon for two more episodes a month! www.patreon.com/liecheatandsteal

At an episode recorded in person (!) in Austin, Kath tells Pat about Lord Gordon Gordon, a would-be Scottish noble who nearly caused an international incident between the US and Canada in the 1870s.

Pat and Zac conclude our series on Texas gamblers with the tale of Benny Binion. Check out our youtube page to watch the dice game! Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@liecheatstealpodcast

Kath tells Pat about the extremely profitable world of animal smuggling. The judicial penalties are low, but don't try this at home - the criminal organizations involved in this industry might come after you for muscling in on their territory.

Our pal Zac Brooks is back to tell us about the life and times of another legendary Texas outlaw gambler, Amarillo Slim.

Pat and Kath discuss how to win on "baited hook" scratch tickets, using an algorithmic disovery made in 2003 by Canadian statistician Mohan Srivastava, and possibly many others around North America. Much of the information in this episode comes from the 2011 Wired Article by Jonah Lehrer about Srivastava's discovery: https://www.wired.com/2011/01/c…