00:00Can you tell me a little bit about Phil Wilson?
00:04Philip Wilson was one of the most intelligent, charismatic, and fascinating characters I've ever met.
00:11I've met quite a few around the world.
00:13He was 5'3", a Jewish man from St. Louis, Missouri,
00:19and a man the FBI at the time dubbed the world's greatest con man.
00:24When I came to work for the government, I managed to infiltrate Philip Wilson.
00:30With the goal of fining some $500 million that the government publicly claimed he stole from banks and other financial institutions around the world.
00:40But based on conversations with prominent senators and a certain high-ranking Justice Department official,
00:48I was led to believe that the total was much, much more than that.
00:52It may have been well over a billion dollars.
00:54But because much of the money was stolen from the political hierarchy and their connections,
01:00which was at the time considered the good old boys club,
01:04they had kept a lot of what actually happened secret.
01:08During the three years that I hung around with Philip on an almost daily basis,
01:12he introduced me to a few cartel members and mafia figures in Florida.
01:17Although Philip was Jewish, he became a financial consigliere for prominent mafia members.
01:24He was brilliant financially and they really made use of his abilities.
01:29He even went over the admiration of some of the Senate subcommittee members
01:34while he taught them the art of paper crime after he was arrested.
01:38Because of a well-placed bribe, Phil only spent a year and a half in prison for stealing well over $500 million.
01:47That's kind of unheard of.
01:49The government official he paid off the amount will surprise the socks off people.
01:53All in all, Philip Wilson was like a shooting star, I'd say,
01:58whose spectacular tale burned across the financial sky for decades.
02:03600 Devils by Marian can be found on Amazon Books in paperback, ebook, or audiobook.