- 5 weeks ago
Owen Hanson is a former college athlete who ran an illegal sports betting company and later expanded into international cartel-backed money laundering and drug trafficking.
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00:00My name is Owen Hanson. I was a football star at USC and then ran one of the biggest
00:04illegal sports betting businesses in America. This is how crime works.
00:10I was in illegal sports betting back in the early 2007 all the way to my arrest in 2015.
00:17In the illegal gambling industry there's close to 673 billion dollars a year that's
00:22gambled. The biggest wager I took was a quarter million dollars on a Super Bowl bet
00:26and eventually once I started taking bets from the cartel the bets became bigger and bigger.
00:33It took me to sober up to realize like wow what the was I doing.
00:43I was recruited by USC in 1999-2000 for volleyball and I got offered a volleyball scholarship two
00:50years later walking onto the USC football team. I was a tight end for the 2003 and 2004 national
00:56championship team and I was on special teams as well. My first job interview I had and it was for
01:02a big real estate developer out of Los Angeles. I showed up with my national championship ring and
01:07he hired me on the spot. He said man I want you part of my team. So you know right out of college
01:122004-2005 I'm you know making almost six figures and I'm getting paid commissions on any deals I bring
01:18in and life was good right you that's what you go to school for you go to USC for the networking and
01:24that's what I did. I networked with everybody. I had this Rolodex and I would keep their phone number
01:28keep their email and always put it in my mind. Dad's proud mom's proud everyone's looking at me
01:34like wow the golden boy the SC golden boy if he graduated he's working for a developer he's
01:40he's going to be the man one day and then that recession hit 2007. And I remember I was like the
01:46first one or two guys to go. And obviously growing up as a kid you you watch you know the great movies like
01:52Goodfellas and Casino and Scarface so I was like man what if I could be a bookie. I went to my
01:58Rolodex and I remember my dad had a friend that was Italian that was a bookmaker. I was like man
02:04maybe if my dad will understand the situation that I lost my job maybe he'll introduce me to his friend.
02:09I kept begging my dad and finally I think after like the 15th time my pops is like all right one
02:14one meet up with Tony and that's it. We met at this this underground bar and it was like a basement I
02:20walked in and I gave Uncle Tony an Italian kiss on each side and I said I got the perfect network
02:26man let me utilize it. He says man listen I'll see what you can do. I'm going to my friends that are
02:31now in the NFL. I'm going to my friends that are you know working on Wall Street and uh everyone's
02:37starting to bet with me and uh the first six months like on one player this big this big big contractor
02:43commercial contractor he lost a million dollars in cash. I got paid two hundred thousand dollars
02:48commission and I went back to Uncle Tony I said Tony man I'm doing all the work man you guys are
02:52taking 80 percent I said you got to let me these are my customers let me let me get a little more
02:58man he goes I can't do it and that day forward I said okay you can't do it no problem I'm going to
03:03figure out a way to do it myself. Jan Portacarero you know was my mentor in the sports betting he was
03:09the boss of Uncle Tony he was with Mantra Sports. I got my hands dirty I flew offshore I'm watching
03:15uh and I'm learning and everything that happens I'm paying attention to because I'm putting in my
03:22mind okay this is how I'm going to build mine when I when I go to Costa Rica and build my own you got
03:26this guy moving the lines you got this guy answering the phones for VIP customers you got Debbie and Tina
03:33answering the phones okay I get it now I understand what I need to build and they got busted I believe
03:38in 2013 and under a Macho Sports Rico indictment for illegal bookmaking and as soon as they got taken
03:45down my network expanded tenfold you know I went to every customer he had and said hey Macho Sports is
03:54no longer in town but Beto Dog is and that's when my my company blew up. I flew to Costa Rica which
03:59was the mecca of sports betting and I went to every office in San Jose and and I said hey I know you guys
04:07do call centers down here for sports betting what do I got to do and you know I went to 20 different
04:12offices and I found one that was in a town called Playa Hermosa I started to pay a service where I
04:19pay like ten dollars for each customer that gambled with me I started my website called betodog.com my
04:26nickname was O-Dog in college so you get to basically create your own domain you get a 800 phone number and
04:32you can start acting as a bookie so one outfit can manage you know hundreds of different bookies
04:40so I started started my business like that where I'm paying a weekly fee and now I'm the book so I'm
04:48collecting all the money I'm only taking little bets like thousand dollars here thousand hundred dollars
04:53here two hundred here I was like okay I got to figure out a better strategy so I went back to Costa Rica we
05:00ended up setting up our own office where I had my own people that were under my payroll that moved
05:05the lines specifically to Las Vegas and I had my managers that had all my VIP customers that would
05:11answer the phone directly hey this is beto dog how can I help you oh hi Mr. Drew what's your password
05:16okay well how can I help you Mr. Drew so it was more of a custom feeling and they weren't betting with
05:22this this per headcount site I was able to start recruiting all over the United States and I started
05:30to become one of the biggest bookies throughout Los Angeles expanding to Texas to Florida North Carolina
05:39and and I got pretty much in every state
05:42I was in illegal sports betting back in the you know early 2007 all the way to my arrest in 2015
05:55sports betting became legal in 2018 it became legal on a state-by-state basis and it eliminated the
06:01federal ban the difference between legal sports betting and illegal sports betting is is very simple
06:06illegal bookmaker usually is offshore has a website that's ran through usually Costa Rica Panama and
06:13you you call an 800 number or you place your bet through an app that's offshore illegal sports betting
06:20website is you know you put your credit card down there's a know your customers form you have to fill
06:27out and everything's monitored and you pay taxes on that money the sports betting world that I was
06:36in you know was obviously illegal it was offshore I would give a line of credit meaning that if you
06:43wanted to play with me it was like an American Express credit card you know I give you say a $10,000
06:48line of credit that's week to week and come Monday once the last Sunday night football game is
06:55is graded you pay me you know Monday Tuesday or Wednesday the following week and if you don't pay me
07:01then you know we obviously have to go to other matters whether it's you know making phone calls or
07:08sending someone to pick up the money and and that's what's different from today's you know legal sports
07:13betting when you you're gambling through like the bet MGM or FanDuel any of the big outfits you now you
07:21you put a credit card up or you deposit cash and that makes it you legitimate so the casinos or the
07:29sports books nowadays never have to worry they give so much more credit as far as like free play so if
07:35you deposit a million dollars then you get a hundred thousand dollars in free play as a as a bookie you
07:41know we offered the same thing but we're giving you a line of credit so you have to basically lose the
07:46money before we collect
07:53I played on two national championship football teams so when I would go to a sports fan whether
07:58you know most people in the sports betting industry always bet on football so I'd be like hey I was
08:02part of the last two national championships at USC I'd show them the ring I'd show them a picture of
08:07Reggie Bush and I Matt Leinart and I Carson Palmer Troy Palomalu and they'd be like wow and I would use that
08:15that network because everybody that that gambled had some kind of liking to sports and it was mostly
08:21football so it was very easy to pull that card yeah you know the clientele business was always a referral
08:27basis I it always would start small you know one guy would say hey you should bet with O-Dog I bet O-Dog
08:33he played at USC and sometimes you you'd get these guys called whales and they'd come in and they're like
08:39man I was a big line art fan I'm like oh you're a line art fan you know well listen who do you gamble
08:45with oh you bet with five dimes I said well you bet with bet O-Dog I'll introduce your line art and I'll
08:51get you a signed football how's that so I'd call Matt up and hey I need a signed football and hey where
08:57are you at next week so I'd call my customer my future customer and be like hey I'm gonna introduce
09:02you should align her and we'd go meet him at the bar or at a restaurant and just these guys would be
09:08blown away because I had that kind of relationship and it was so easy for me and get people to switch
09:13over to my site my first whale that I pulled in was a general contractor he was extremely large in
09:31the commercial construction space when I was working at the real estate developers office that
09:36this contractor would always step outside and I would hear him betting on sports I went back to him
09:42and I told him hey I know you gamble I said what if I gave you 10% off your losses and 20% free play
09:50and I didn't care at the time because I just wanted his business and from there it just was referral
09:55basis you know I ended up getting three guys that were project managers underneath him at the office
10:01that were making a quarter million a year in construction and giving me about half of that in
10:06their paychecks the bets started getting big right after mantra sports got busted and uh the biggest
10:12wager I took was a quarter million dollars on a super bowl bet in the beginning when I first started
10:16this operation I was like man I'm gonna lose my whole my whole nest egg right and then eventually you
10:22realize the house doesn't lose I've never had a losing year you know a lot of athletes and celebrities
10:27chose me because I was very discreet right you you when you're betting in your professional athlete you
10:33you don't want to be known that you're betting with me it was like you could go to the country club
10:37have a round of golf with me and if you beat me the week before I'd be there with you know a bag of
10:42cash to give you and you you wouldn't have to have a wire you wouldn't have to have your wife know
10:48you want to have a text message saying hey you know here's here's what you owe it would just be I
10:53was very discreet and and I made it so it was comfortable for them you know college athletes you got to
10:59remember I went to USC so they had daddy's credit card that America Express black card I always tell
11:05people we we can use that for anything I would have these guys you know put a hundred thousand dollars
11:11that they owed me on a Home Depot um charge that would be you know a hundred thousand dollars in
11:18in material I have for a real estate project I'm doing so I would never turn down a method so if a guy
11:25couldn't pay me in cash I would say pay me in gold or pay me with the watch you know I can't remember
11:30how many watches I got paid whether it was a Rolex or AP I've even got paid in in a sailboat you know
11:37one guy owed me 120,000 and he ended up paying me in a catamaran sailboat
11:47yeah you know as a as a bookmaker you're always trying to get an edge whether you know you get inside
11:53information on on a team let's just say for instance that UNLV's quarterback's going to be out
12:00because he let's just say he had a cold and no one knew but if I knew the wide receiver and he came and
12:06told me that information I would be like okay let's change the odds real fast here let's let's put the
12:13odds in our favor now because we know the quarterback's not going to play so you get an edge and anytime you
12:18have an edge in in in sports betting it's it's huge as a bookmaker uh at a very young age my my mentor
12:28told me hey why don't you see if you know your your old quarterback will throw the game we'll offer
12:33him a hundred thousand dollars so it happens you know it's just whether it can be played out because
12:40it when you're when you're gambling in the division one sports you got a lot of eyes on you now if it was
12:45like a smaller school like a division three school then it would be a lot easier to to pay someone off
12:50a prop bet is a proposition wager so it would be let's give an example if kansas city's playing the
12:57philadelphia eagles in the super bowl the proposition bet would be who's going to score the first touchdown
13:03would it be kansas city chiefs or the philadelphia eagles or another prop bet could be
13:10will the quarterback throw over or under two and a half touchdowns so prop bets make the game more
13:18exciting so you you can have it for specific players you can have it for teams you can have
13:22it for for anything basically you can even have a proposition who will become president of the united
13:28states will it be obama or will be president trump so that's what the prop bet is a proposition wager
13:36once the system was in place i realized that i had so many gamblers betting on sports i decided to
13:44expand my gambling empire and i started to realize there was a niche for a live dealer so i would offer
13:52my clients that were betting on sports now to bet on table games in costa rica i set up a live dealer
13:58where i would have a blackjack table and i would have the cameras on the dealer so now i have my dealer in
14:03costa rica on camera basically dealing the cards and now as as a customer you feel like you're not
14:09getting cheated because you're playing against a real dealer that's live so once i expanded that i
14:15had a lot more clientele coming to me now because now they didn't even have to go to las vegas nfl star
14:21who got indicted on my case won three super bowls derrick lavel was was a gambling customer of mine
14:26paris hilton was one of my a-list celebrities that bet with me there's definitely a lot more but i'm not
14:32going to go into detail i had a manager that acted as like my my cfo and he would call literally
14:44every every sunday he would send out an email if you lost he would send out an email sunday night
14:49so monday morning when they get to their office they'd have an email if they lost it would be an
14:54email that says you lost 26 hundred dollars and 52 cents and you can pay any of these three options
15:03i had a gold business called the goldfellas and i would give them three options they could pay by
15:08paypal they could pay on a credit card through the goldfellas or they could pay through a banking
15:13system and we had shell companies so the way i did it back then you know you had bank of america chase
15:19and wells fargo those are the three top banks so i had these shell companies for each bank the guy
15:24would get to his office monday morning and he could he could literally pay any way he wanted he could
15:28pay right there on paypal or he could run his credit card and it would be charged to goldfellas
15:33we'd send out a receipt saying that he purchased you know x amount of dollars of gold and that was our
15:39strategy now if a guy won we would send the same exact email to the winner and we'd say you won
15:4632 000 how would you like to be paid this was before the deposits of cash was a big deal you know
15:53so we we would allow ninety nine hundred dollars we could deposit in cash into your account so if a
15:59guy hit me for let's say twenty nine thousand dollars he could give me three accounts so i could
16:04go ninety nine ninety nine ninety nine and pay through the banking system which made it easier
16:10a lot of people would want to meet up in in person i would send a runner and my runners would make a
16:15hundred dollars a drop so if a guy like i said won thirty thousand dollars i'd say hey runner a go ahead and
16:21take it to tony p over there and give him thirty thousand and we would pay on monday and that's
16:26what blew us up because most bookies what they do is they go collect from the losers and then they pay
16:32the winners but they don't pay the winners till like thursday friday but i had a big enough bank roll at
16:37the time that i was able to pay my my winning customers on monday because the reason i paid
16:42them on a monday is i want them to have the money in the hand when someone has the money in hand
16:47they're more likely to gamble it away and lose it faster
16:55once the bets were in and i've collected the winnings the way i hid the money was gold and silver
17:00my credit system was all based on how how fast and and how well you paid me so if if you were
17:08on a credit line of twenty thousand and in the first week you lost ten thousand and you paid me
17:14you know right away without any excuses i would bump that credit line up to fifty thousand
17:18if you gave me any kind of reason that you couldn't pay like if you were a slow pay like it took you
17:22a month to pay me a five thousand dollar marker then i would i would drop your line of credit you know i
17:28try to minimize the credit card transactions because i like i said you don't want much of a
17:33paper trail towards the end you know some people couldn't pay me with cash and that's when i set
17:37up the the gold company and i offered a gold service where i had you know private vaults in beverly hills
17:44and if you purchase gold from me i would store your your gold and silver there and if if you if you
17:50needed to be paid in cash or gold i i offered that option so it made it simple for me because a lot of
17:56guys say in north carolina that would be let's say fifty thousand i'd just say hey uh hey timmy i'm
18:02going to run your credit card for for five days for right around nine thousand and i'm just going to
18:08send you an invoice for for some gold that you purchased for me and that would legitimize the
18:12transaction gold was the key to to the laundering system because you could purchase gold with cash
18:19and then you could take that gold and go to a gold store and and you can give them any kind of
18:25bullion whether it's one ounce or a hundred pounds and the bullion company will give you
18:31the spot value so if gold is trading at whatever that value is the gold company will collect it
18:35and then they'll send the wire anywhere in the world so that's how i would launder it one of the
18:40ways i had to get money out of of a country was was through bullion i was in australia and one of the
18:48ways that i was going to get the gold out of australia was to research what's the most popular thing
18:54and i did some homework and i found out that ugg boots are the most sold items in australia and
18:59so i purchased you know thousands and thousands of pairs of ugg boots and i'd have the one ounce
19:04rounds and i would take four one ounce rounds and i'd put it in the sole of the ugg boot
19:11and i would tape it underneath the sole at the time i want to say it was you know fifteen hundred dollars
19:18so you're looking at uh six thousand dollars per ugg boot there's two ugg boots that's twelve thousand
19:24dollars and i was you know sending ten pairs of ugg boots every week so that's 120 grand
19:30i'm laundering through ugg boots and gold weekly you have to move money offshore because you want to
19:37protect yourself from the u.s government and when you're offshore you you uh you avoid the u.s government
19:43finding the the money obviously so anytime you can get somewhere where that's that country doesn't
19:52associate with the government or cooperate with um any kind of illegal activity with the government
19:58then that's the the best place to to launder it offshore atms was key for my business because
20:04when someone goes into a bank they're not going to have issues pulling out the cash if they're
20:08owner of an atm business so the guys that are working for me own the atm companies you know for
20:13tb for instance i can talk about him he was indicted on my case when he would go in and pull out let's
20:19say eighty thousand dollars on a monday and a hundred thousand on a tuesday the the teller is not looking
20:25at him like he's some some drug dealer right the teller is looking at this business that says atm unlimited
20:30and he knows right away like that teller knows okay this guy's in the the atm business this is this
20:35cash is going into atm machines that's servicing people throughout the united states when they
20:39use their atm machine it made it really easy to to launder the money through the atm business because
20:47he was benefiting by making three percent and now i'm getting bags of cash without any um eyes being
20:53raised in the beginning you know it was it was like a million dollars a week and then towards the end of
20:58my my downfall i would say you know we were taking in between 10 and 20 million dollars of bets in a week
21:08man the most sophisticated money i was moving was was the bank of china the bank of china in australia
21:15allowed you to deposit cash at any given time they would transfer the money anywhere in the world you
21:19wanted it so i would come into the bank of china with different ids and i had you know 10 different
21:26aliases between me and four other guys and and the bank of china would look at us it wouldn't be our
21:31name but they wouldn't know because they had no clue and they would wire anywhere in in the world for us
21:38and that that was the the key to my moving my money the fastest besides the casinos you know the casinos
21:46are the best and fastest way to launder money because there's never any any question because when you're
21:52dealing with these high roller um these clients that gamble in the casino it's very common for them
21:57to have money either wired into the cage or cash brought in um through through gambling gambling methods
22:09i was the boss so you know i didn't really keep track of what i was paying myself but you know i was
22:15i was spending you know two hundred thousand dollars a month in in my uh my parting and
22:22and traveling the world and my my big thing was watches you know i i i was probably one of the first
22:27guys to to have a richard malay watch back in in 20 uh 2011 no one even knew what a richard malay was
22:34i had mansions in costa rica mexico peru um hollywood hills that that was my uh my advice was was that that
22:43luxury lifestyle fast cars and and it was ended up being my downfall i never gambled because i
22:50was the book what affected me the most was using drugs i was i was a party animal i would go through
22:56an eight ball of cocaine a day i do you know a half of uh perel hannah sanitizer which a hand sanitizer is
23:05two ounces i would do one of those every day of ghb um which is you know terrible for you i would drink
23:11alcohol on a daily basis and uh not one day went by where i wasn't wasn't partying gambling and drugs
23:19overlap for vip better is because every vip better likes to party so when i would take a one of my you
23:25know whale customers on a private jet and i'd fly him to costa rica what's the first thing he wants to
23:29do he wants to do an eight ball of you know colombian cocaine you know colombia is only an hour from
23:34from costa rica so obviously we have the you know probably the best cocaine in the world there so
23:41when i bring a vip customer to costa rica you know and i give him you know the best colombian
23:48cocaine he's ever had and then we we take him to a a sports bar and i just gave him the best vip
23:54service of his life so it went hand in hand with my business when i think of betting and organized crime
23:59i kind of kind of intertwined together because the the the betting world you know started with
24:04organized crime back in the mafia days right the mob the italian mob for me they really intertwined in
24:09in the organized crime world when i started taking bets for the most infamous cartel in the world
24:15and obviously i can't speak on who it was but i started taking bets and next thing you know i'm not
24:21only taking bets now i'm helping them launder money through their illegal activity as well and that's
24:27where my business intertwined and i started you know working in the international drug trade
24:38i had a bookie out of newport beach that worked underneath me and he was hispanic
24:44and one day he he started to have this this customer bet large amounts on on football and
24:52he started paying me every week and it was it was like bags of cash like quarter million dollars at
24:56a time in duffel bags and i remember telling this this sub bookie i said man you got a you got a whale
25:02on your hands he goes yeah i got i got a guy out of mexico that bets with me and i said well man keep
25:06him happy whatever we need to do keep that man happy because i said these are like once in a lifetime
25:12customers so i'm getting these duffel bags dropped off like man whatever this guy wants you just let him
25:17know we give him the vip treatment he's no reason for him to go to vegas he bets with beto dog
25:23the sub bookie i said hey whatever that guy needs if if he needs you know laker tickets if he needs
25:29dodger tickets whatever he wants if he wants to stay at the four seasons and and have dinner on me let
25:34him know and didn't think anything of it and then finally this this customer of of my my my sub bookie
25:42he finally hit he he hit for close to a quarter million dollars and as a bookie you always want your
25:47customer to win i tell people if your customer loses every day every game every week every month
25:53guess what he's going to quit he's not going to keep doing it because it's not fun you can't you
25:58can't be greedy you you want to be able to give him some because when you give him something then
26:01guess what he's going to lose that back plus some so i said monday morning you're going to be there
26:058 a.m sharp i said i want you to go give him the stuff a bag of his money because he's going to he's
26:11going to be expecting it and you know a couple days ago by my sub bookie says hey my uncle really
26:19liked how you handled that payment that was my uncle that's been gambling he gambles he lives in
26:23mexico and he says by the way he wants to talk to you and he slaps this encrypted phone on the table
26:29we're at javier's mexican restaurant in newport beach and he gives me that encrypted phone i'm like
26:34what the is this and he's like there's there's no microphone there's no gps he says you can't call
26:42on it he says all you can do is email he says there's three passwords to get into that encrypted
26:46phone i'm like and he he writes me a message and i read it after i got in three three passwords deep
26:52and i get in there and he says weto i like the way you do business thanks for paying me i wrote him
26:59back and then he responded back he goes i know as a bookmaker you probably have cash throughout the
27:06united states do you think you can help me move some some money around and i'll pay you and then
27:12he told me i need a hundred thousand dollars dropped off in san diego he goes every time you
27:17train every time you drop off money for me i will give you ten percent fee so i'm making ten percent to
27:23drop off a hundred thousand dollars that's two hours away hundred thousand ten percent that's ten
27:27thousand dollars for a two-hour drive that's easy so for me i just called tony my bookie or ryan my
27:32bookie or robert or matt i say hey matt can you drop off a hundred grand in san diego at national
27:38city boom he drops off a hundred grand this guy sends me an encrypted message saying hey where do you
27:44want the hundred and ten thousand dollars so now i just dropped off a hundred i dropped off a hundred
27:49thousand cash and now this guy we'll call him el jefe is taking 110 and putting it anywhere in the world
27:55well guess what i'm running this big operation in costa rica where i have a 20 000 square foot
28:00building so it'd be really easy if he sends me that 110 000 to a costa rica bank account now i can pay
28:08my employees and i have money to pay for my rent pay for my house i'm building so now i'm helping this
28:15this this member that lives in mexico clean his money and and he needs things done in north carolina he
28:22needed a couple hundred thousand same thing so now we're working hand in hand he's paying me a fee
28:27but unbeknownst to me i still don't know that what kind of trade he's in and it gets bigger and bigger
28:32and it starts to snowball and next thing you know i'm moving all i'm moving money all over the world
28:37for him now at this point because i was uh making so much money with the cartel and working for them
28:43this this whale customer of mine became you know my number one focus so once i started working for the
28:50cartel the gambling was just like a an add-on to my business you know i had the cartels backing
28:56as far as betting wise they gave me any kind of money i needed to take bets when you're dealing
29:02with the cartel you know you can be killed at any time because they have an army of guys that work for
29:07them they have these things these guys called sicarios that are basically their hitmen so obviously
29:13i didn't have to stress when i was dealing with you know these celebrities or these professional
29:17athletes but when i'm dealing with the cartel you obviously got to stress and look over your
29:22shoulder all the time i ship drugs internationally for obviously the cartel i worked for to australia
29:28to canada to italy to amsterdam obviously this is all public record so i can talk about it
29:37and throughout the united states my big focus was cocaine and obviously we did deal with ecstasy
29:44um mdma and towards the end they were shipping kilos of china white heroin i tell people not one
29:52day did i not fall asleep with my eye open like i would always have one eye open when i slept and
29:59any time i traveled with my my my security guards or my sicarios later when i started working for the
30:04cartel you're always on on pins and needles you're you're always thinking that something bad could happen
30:11and yes i obviously regret it um but it's it's the path that i chose and i i have to live with it
30:20forever and i'm glad what happened happened and i went to federal prison because i told people going
30:24to prison is the best thing that happened to me it saved my life i can't really discuss a business on
30:30the cartel because that would be considered a cooperation and that would end up probably costing me
30:37my life obviously the the fbi gave me the opportunity to cooperate against the cartel
30:41and i i refused just just to save my life and my family's life so i can't really talk about that on
30:47but but i think anybody that knows anything the cartel obviously runs off of illegal drugs
30:52and that's how they make their money common sense
31:00for me as a as a bookmaker obviously you never want to put hands on a customer to collect the money
31:06because that's when things that's when i say it's the fan right so i tell people
31:11it's all about intimidation you want to put the fear of god in them i had collectors that were six
31:16six samolans that weighed three 350 pounds that that's all their job was to do was to intimidate
31:22i would show up to breakfast with with him and i would meet my customer let's say in in newport beach
31:27and my my customer would be sitting at that breakfast table waiting and i would show up with this
31:31you know 350 pound samoan guy with tattoos on his face and right away my customer would be like
31:37okay how do i pay you if that didn't work i used to take that id and that id would have the address
31:43so with that id and that address i would be able to give that to my private investigator that was on my
31:49payroll and he was able to take access that idea and give me everybody in the family's name that lived
31:54that that that location so with that information i would take the wife's name and i'd have my private
32:01investigator run the wife's name and the wife's information would be where she works um what kind
32:08of car she drives and now it makes it easier for my team to do a little more homework and you know send
32:15a bouquet of flowers so one of my tactics was if the husband was refusing to pay me and just blowing me
32:23off i would say let's locate where the wife works we'll send a bouquet of flowers to her work and
32:31we'll leave just a simple message and the message would read tell your husband it's time to pay up
32:37and once they got the bouquet of flowers and they read it's time to pay up they would freak out like
32:42what's this mean they'd call their husband i just got a bouquet of flowers and it says it's time to pay up
32:46and the husband will get on the phone and call me and say hey don't ever send flowers to my wife
32:50again where do i pay i said well i'm glad you got the message and that's how i use my tactics you know
32:56i i i definitely say i regret um scaring people i do regret sending one of my collectors
33:07that was supposed to specifically put the intimidation factor into this client i do regret
33:12him going to that house and his only purpose was just to basically scare the person because the person
33:20would never guess that i would actually have someone collect the money and show up to his doorstep
33:24in minnesota you know no one ever thought i would i would send someone for a guy that owed me two
33:31thousand dollars and send a collector knowing i'm in los angeles and send a collector to minnesota
33:36but it was principal because the guy had won you know ten thousand dollars a week before
33:41and now all of a sudden he loses two thousand dollars and he told me to me and he's not paying me so
33:46to me that's insulting because now you're stealing you stole the ten thousand that i paid you and now
33:50you're not paying me the two so i do regret that i sent a collector to the guy's door and the guy had
33:57some balls and he opened the door and he he he made a threat to my collector and my my collector ended up
34:03hitting him and that got got me an enhancement for you know violent activity uh for illegal bookmaking
34:11which in the federal guidelines it raises your points and when you get more points you get more
34:16time you know i got 21 and a half years for illegal bookmaking and distribution of cocaine now if that
34:22violence wasn't there on my record you know the time would have been a lot less but i do regret that
34:26for sure because i never wanted anybody to get hurt in this business you know 95 the the threats the the
34:33verbal threats or the the bouquet of flowers or you know calling sometimes i had customers that
34:40that were in their 20s and they didn't want to pay i'd call their fathers and tell their fathers hey
34:45your son has a gambling problem he doesn't want to pay do you want to pay or do you you how do you want
34:50me to handle this and usually like i said 95 of the time the family member or the father would pay the
34:56debt that five percent chance that they didn't you know things got ugly you know i can't i can't stop what my
35:03collectors are doing i'm remorseful for what i've done you know i put all these bad things on the
35:08streets and ruined thousands of people's lives and honestly you know it took it took me to sober up
35:17to realize like wow what the was i doing going to the university of southern california or university of
35:29spoiled children raised from a father that was a construction worker my mother was a librarian
35:34you you realize that you need to figure out how you're going to survive being sidelined at as a
35:41volleyball player with an injury my coach pulled me over and called me in the office and he said hey
35:46hansen i need you to work on your arm strength because it's not as strong as it used to be and
35:49your vertical jump and when he told me that he says i'm going to redshirt you and in college when
35:55someone tells you you're going to be registered it's basically saying you're you're put on the
35:58bench you're kicked off until you get better or until you recover your your injury recovers so
36:05that day i i just remember like i was so bummed out i came to usc to play sports
36:10and i said to myself man what am i going to do to speed up this recovery and i decided to go to gold's
36:18gym talk to the biggest bodybuilder there and he said uh you want to do it illegally i said yeah i want
36:22to do it illegally he says you got to get steroids and he starts writing down these these names for
36:28me and he goes they're really expensive and he says well i suggest if you don't have money you
36:33can go to the veterinarian in tijuana i had my grandfather's car 1989 toyota camry and i got in
36:39that car and i drove to the tijuana border pull up to the pharmacy and i i knew i was at the right spot
36:45because there's like six bodybuilders in there just big dudes and i was like okay this is the spot
36:51and i go in there and i slapped the the list of names on there and the lady's just marking it off
36:55we got that we got that and i'll never forget she gives it to me and i'm thinking to myself okay
37:01how am i going to get these things back you know i got all these steroids i can't just walk across
37:06the border back with them they're going to stop me i saw there was some some gauze and some medical
37:12tape that was near the bathroom and i said do you mind if i use your restroom she's like yeah yeah go
37:17ahead i said can i purchase some of the gauze and medical tape and she's like yeah yeah go ahead
37:22so i go in the bathroom and i i drop my drawers and i got my compressor shorts on from from my usc
37:27volleyball days and i dropped those and i just start taping up all these steroids and the vials and
37:33making it you know long and i'm like okay how am i going to fit it i'm going to have to fit it in my
37:39crack okay and then the pills okay i'm going to wrap those around my legs and i wanted to everything to
37:44look as small and compact as possible and i remember putting my compressor shorts on and
37:49going all right let's go i walked across the bridge back to the u.s side and you get stopped by customs
37:56and they ask you are you bringing anything back they said what were you doing in mexico and my heart
38:01dropped like i'm about to lie to this guy right i'm like i was um at papa's and beer we were we're having
38:08some some drinks and tacos he says welcome back to america and he went like this my heart just was
38:15like wow what a rush and i to this day every time i tell the story i still get goosebumps thinking about
38:20that that feeling you have that you just broke the law and you just beat the system and from that day
38:25forward i was like okay i'm going to do this for the rest of my life because that rush was what i kept
38:31chasing and chasing and chasing until it got bigger and bigger and bigger which led to my downfall
38:41my first official hustle became once i got back to usc from smuggling those steroids i just started
38:47taking them and people saw me blowing up and they're like wow what are you taking i had guys on the
38:51football team asking me and i said i'm taking deca dura ball and i'm taking sustenon 250 i'm taking winstrel
38:57i'm taking annavar i'm just listening these names they're like man we want to look like you like
39:01okay well i got this bottle for 300 i got these pills for 400 i got this hgh for a thousand i said
39:07what do you guys want and that was started to become my hustle and i would i would go down to mexico
39:13every week and smuggle more steroids back and provide it to the athletes that were all throughout
39:18the usc campus and that was that was my motivation to keep up with the joneses be able to afford
39:25you know dinner out with some cute sorority girls and and and live life like everyone else is living
39:30there the demand was high you know it was it was a thing where every week i was i was taking that
39:36toyota camry and driving to the tijuana border parking that jock in the box and walking across and
39:43the bigger i got the more baggy clothes i had to wear because i had to cover up the size i had and i
39:48i remember i up one one summer i had uh i had this quicksilver sweatshirt on it was summertime and
39:55it was like a double xl but it covered my muscles because at this point i was i was big i was like
39:59240 pounds and the same question was asked what were you doing in mexico and he passed and he waved
40:07me forward to pass me but there was another officer that came around he goes let me pat you down
40:12because he saw i was wearing a sweatshirt and it was 100 degrees out so it looked weird he's like why
40:17are you wearing a sweatshirt in this heat and my heart dropped because i was like okay is he going
40:23to strip me out because he's patting my body down i'm like because if he goes any lower he's going
40:27to feel the bulge and the bulge was down down below in the private section so he's like all right
40:33you're good and he sent me on my way and after that i was like okay i got to figure out a better way
40:37i started to use my my network of women that i was you know friends with and dating and offer them
40:43drinks and on our way back we'd start we stop at the pharmacy and i say hey can you girls do me a
40:48favor i'll give you 100 bucks and they'd put them in their bras and in their underwear and that that
40:53started this my my smuggling tactics so when i was at sc i realized that there was a more more of a
40:58demand not only for the steroids but there's now i'm in the fraternity and i notice all these kids are
41:03staying up late just to you know complete their midterms or they have finals or papers to write and i
41:10notice a lot of these kids are taking what is adderall and they're buying it from like a local
41:16dealer and they're paying twenty dollars a pill and then i noticed when they fell asleep they would
41:20take xanax to help them fall asleep because they were so wired from the adderall so i was like okay i
41:24know i can probably get that down there so i started to drive to mexico and start picking up the adderall
41:31the xanax the valiums the somas and now i became this this black market concierge where i was providing
41:38everything from from performance enhancing drugs for the athletes to xanax and adderall for for the
41:46guys that were in the fraternity or the sorority girls that are staying up and that became my my
41:52new hustle and it was the markup was ridiculous i was paying i believe a 50 cents for a xanax two
41:58milligram and we were selling them for five dollars so it's a thousand percent markup and it's it's
42:03something small and compact and i can easily transport it across the border and it's only a two-hour
42:08drive from usc so it worked well
42:16the moment i thought i went too far was the day
42:21i knew that i was working for the cartel but i continued to work for them because i was making
42:27a million dollars a day in cash when i lost cartel money it changed my life forever because now i became
42:33indebted to the cartel and that's where you have to watch the documentary to see what happens i nearly
42:40spent 10 years in federal prison i was sentenced to 21 and a half years for racketeering and illegal drug
42:49distribution i served my federal prison time fci at lompoc victorville fci and fci inglewood colorado
42:58the united states government forfeited an asset forfeiture of five million dollars including
43:04millions of dollars of bullion four homes three range rovers a porsche panamera and a catamaran
43:11sailboat you know i have the next 10 years under federal probation and every month i'm checking in
43:16doing a urine analysis a ua i have to meet up with my probation officer
43:23weekly and give them reports for every kind of transaction i do for banking any kind of money
43:28i spend so it's it's it's difficult but you know what we're going to get through it because
43:32it's a lot easier when you're not doing anything illegal and it feels good for once
43:37you know i was cutting corners because i wanted to make that fast cash and that fast cash
43:43ended up costing me you know 10 years of my life you decide you you want to go down that path
43:48and you want to be some some quote unquote gangster well guess what gangsters belong in prison and
43:53you're you're going to end up in prison one day if you go down that path of organized crime my future
43:57goals is is uh to to create something that's the opposite what i was doing in the past right i was
44:05putting these bad things on the streets and my new goal is to put healthy treats on the streets
44:10and the way i'm doing that is i've created this brand called california ice protein
44:15and it's a it's a protein ice cream i wrote my book the california kid while i was in federal prison
44:20and now that's been released and that's out and for the last six years i've been working on the
44:25documentary called the cocaine quarterback and that's with mark walberg's company unrealistic ideas
44:31i had a great relationship with my father my father was my best friend he still is my best friend
44:36to this day and uh you know the relationship obviously was was was damaged when i went to federal
44:43prison because your your parents don't know that you were involved in organized crime and uh you
44:49know i remember looking at my mother and she was very disappointed and my father as well but
44:54i think they've accepted uh the fact that i made the mistakes and i believe they see that i'm not going
45:01down that path again and and i've changed my life for the better and uh i hope everybody you know
45:07believes in a second chance because i'm a prime example of of a redemption story
45:18before an old bookmaker used to do everything pen and pencil so when you would you would want to
45:23bet on a game you'd call your bookie and and you'd say hey i want to bet on the lakers and the book
45:28maker would say okay you got the lakers at minus 10 over under is 202 so the player would would bet
45:35it based off the line the the bookmaker would give you off the phone and write it down on the paper
45:40that was the old school way and eventually people started betting through the app online which
45:46technology has grown where it started with www now people have betting apps where they can just bet
45:52directly off the app and now it's gotten so big you can it's called live wagering so if you're
45:59watching a basketball game and and you bet the the game for let's just say the total was you know over
46:07202 and all of a sudden you're watching the game and you're like man my total is not going to hit so
46:12now you can you can literally place a wager at the time of the game so it could be the fourth quarter
46:18with two minutes left and you can still place a wager to chase and hopefully catch up to your bet
46:22that you're going to lose this day and era i think bitcoin is obviously the the number one
46:28currency used for this illegal activity of sports betting and i remember man i i kicked myself for
46:36this one my my manager at the time was calling me and saying hey this guy wants to take he wants to
46:41pay us in bitcoin this was like 2015 and i think bitcoin was like 50 a coin at the time i'm like man i
46:48don't want anything to do with that cryptocurrency stuff man i don't trust it tell him to go himself
46:53he's got to pay us in cash if i truly believe that there's always going to be a niche for illegal
46:59bookmakers but i feel the future will have uh legal sports betting eventually people will be able to
47:06bet at all sporting event arenas throughout the united states sports betting is a vice it's uh it's an
47:13addiction now that sports gambling is legal you see a you know promotions everywhere you know um
47:19everyone's getting into it from clothing companies to um alcohol companies and they're all collaborating
47:25together to create a a larger betting atmosphere for for people that are involved with um sports i mean
47:33nowadays now when you you're watching a football game and you see a fan duel commercial or bet mgm it's
47:39it's it's obviously used to be taboo right and now you see you're you're watching a football game and
47:44and you're watching a bet mgm ad with jamie fox and you're like wow i'm gonna bet with them you know
47:51i want to bet with with bet mgm because jamie fox bets with them and i think it's so much easier now for
47:57these these bigger brands to get exposure with all the celebrity base of people they have that are you
48:03know the forefront of the commercials and it just generates a lot more activity for for people to
48:09gamble the offshore bookies the illegal bookies are still thriving because they're giving the line of
48:14credit and and the fan duels and the draft kings are no longer able to give a line of credit they have
48:19to take a credit card or some form of payment and and there's always going to be that that illegal
48:25bookmaker because he's the one that gives you a line of credit college football has changed drastically
48:30since since my days now we have the nil and guys are getting paid you know who had ever thought
48:36college players are getting paid millions of dollars to to play the game i mean uh if legal betting and nil
48:43existed when i was playing it would have been a whole another path for sure no doubt i would have
48:50needed to be a illegal bookmaker and obviously if we were paid college athletes i wouldn't have needed to
48:56to start the hustle right the art of the hustle started in college so definitely my life would
49:02have been extremely different even though the the guys riding the bench like like myself right would
49:08still get a paycheck and that would definitely have helped i remember reading somewhere that
49:13a third string offensive line guy was paid like eighty thousand dollars through through nil deals
49:19so just imagine if if i would have had that kind of money back then
49:24to be able to you know take a girl to dinner or drive a nicer car you know i wouldn't be trying
49:29to fit in like i was you know don't make that right turn because this could happen to anyone
49:34you know you you could come from that same family i came from working class and you you're trying to
49:40fit in with the rich kids and next thing you know you're doing illegal activity and uh you know i wouldn't
49:46want to see anyone serve time in jail or prison because it's it's no place anybody wants to be it's
49:54it's the bottom of the earth it's hell you're in a six by eight prison cell and you don't see the
50:00sunlight for more than an hour a day and it's it's a place that you never want to go to
50:16so
50:21you
50:23you
50:25you
50:27You
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