A New York oil baron by the name of Robert Belfer has
lost billions of dollars getting scammed not once,
not twice, but three times, three times.
>> Third time is a charm.
>> Three times, okay, so,
we hear all these myths about most ultra wealthy individuals, but
they took all this risk, they work so hard, they're the job creators,
but above all, they're just smarter than you, they're geniuses.
Well, let me tell you more about Mr.
Robert Belfer, and you tell me if you think he's a genius.
So first he lost billions in the Enron collapse.
And look, I'll be fair, this didn't really have anything to do with
him because he inherited his father's oil drilling business.
[LAUGH] So, but here's how it all worked out.
Okay, so, apparently, the company was that his father founded,
the oil company that his father founded was eventually bought by Enron,
but the Belfer family was the largest stakeholder.
And so when Enron collapsed, they lost a lot, billions of dollars.
Okay, so that's point number one.
The documents show that Belfer Investment Partners and Lime Partners LLC,
two firms linked to the family business, held shares in FTX.
So that's the most recent issue and its US subsidiary, FTX US.
The two entities held a combined stake of $34.5 million as of early
last year when they participated in an equity fundraising round,
according to court documents cited by Financial Times.
And the other time that he was scammed was by Bernie Madoff.
>> Of course.
>> Billions of dollars.
>> Overall, so look, there's a couple of fun things here.
And all the stories today are about things that are in my book, but
I have a section called the myth of meritocracy.
So I want meritocracy to be real, I love the idea, right?
But is it real?
Well, let me give you some facts,
of the people that are on the Forbes 400 list of billionaires,
30% of them inherited at least $50 million, okay?
If my parents left me $50 million allof a sudden I would have a lot of merit too.
Okay, [LAUGH] so but in our world they really,
people go yeah,yeah, no,no, they, merit, okay?
So 20% of the list inherited, all of their money.
Okay, and did nothing with it.
[LAUGH] They they didn't have a penny to the money.
Okay, so about half the list just flat out was given the money.
But we need the myth of meritocracy so that you can dress up the injustice of
economic inequality in the disguise of justice.
Hey, the rich earned it, they deserve it.
And if you're poor or
middle class, you didn't deserve it because we have a meritocracy.
So then wait a minute,
the income inequality makes it seem like, that's a fair thing.
>> Right. >> The rich should dominate because they
had all this merit.
And you should be at the bottom because you don't have any merit,
you weren't even born rich [LAUGH], okay.
>> But like the worst part about that myth is the feeling you get when
you're approaching 30.
It's the same feeling I got when I was approaching 30,
where you realize that all that hard work actually didn't matter that much, right?
[LAUGH] Like it mattered to some extent, I'm doing what I love for work.
What I love most days to be fair, it's an incredibly difficult job,
that's oftentimes very depressing.
But nonetheless, the idea I had of, my God,
all you have to do is get an education work really, really hard and
you're gonna be set stay financially stable.
You're not gonna have to worry about money ever again.
And that's just not true, that's just not true, the hardest working people
in the country or oftentimes the poorest, let's just keep it real.
>> Yeah, and look guys, it doesn't mean you can't possibly make it.
So for example.
>> You just have to rob people, that's it.
>> Yeah. >> Legally, through legal means.
No, no, no and honest.
>> Yes. >> People have made it,
including people in our families, and, but.
>> Did they?
[LAUGH] >> Well, I think so, so
look here, let me give you two quick examples.
You know what I'm talking about, including somebody in my family that had dealt with
something along the lines of the Belfer.
Okay, interesting, so my dad's side, dirt poor, no money at all.
Never had a toy, didn't have electricity in their homes.
I mean old school poor, right?
My mom's side of the family actually did relatively well for
the small town in Turkey, that they came from.
There was money that was left over from like 500 years ago but
my grandfather had some of it still left 500 years later, right?
Cause they had land and land is easy [CROSSTALK], but when they moved from
the little town Kilis near the Syrian border to the big city Istanbul,
they taken in the form of money.
And my grandfather grew up wealthy, right, within the context of that town.
So he was always looking to get rich by not working.
Okay, so I'm not saying he was lazy, he was a dentist, he had.
>> No but. >> A real profession.
But Gyn, do you understand that he had the right mentality [CROSSTALK] no,
no but hold on.
>> Well, he did and he didn't, he didn't know.
>> But seriously, because I feel like the richest people have that thought process,
how can I make the most amount of money by doing as little as possible?
Whereas everyone else was conditioned to think in order to get to that place,
you gotta work really, really hard, just work really hard.
First one in last one out.
>> Yeah, but the problem with folks who don't wanna work for it,
is that oftentimes they'll take too much risk because they just,
when they see the money, they get too excited, right?
So my grandfather fell for a lot of those tricks and
it looks like this guy does too.
When you got your whole life is easy money and somebody says,
hey I've got easy money for you.
He thinks, yeah that's normal, right?
And he's not thinking that's a scam.
There's no way that that money is that easy.
>> Think about how you treat money that was just given to you versus how
you treat money that you had to earn through the hard work,right?
>> Yeah, yeah for sure.
>> I mean I can see myself getting real careless with money I didn't earn,
money that was handed to me.
And I would know because I was a teenager once that got an allowance and
I spent that money like it was nothing.
>> Yeah. >> Right, didn't care, so
yeah I mean this guy has been perpetually trained, it'll never end,
of course he's gonna invest it in stupid things like FTX and Cryptocurrency, right?
>> Yeah, now, you are absolutely right on the other,
my dad basically lived the American dream.
He went from being that poor right to running a company here in America,
running a company in Turkey and did okay, did pretty good.
We had a nice house in New Jersey, we got a good education,
feel terrific about it now by the way, do you wanna know why?
Because my dad got a free college education in Turkey.
If he had not gotten a free college education,
we'd still be on the farm in SouthEastern Turkey.
It was progressive principles in Turkey in the 1960s,
which apparently they could afford.
But the richest nation on earth can't afford, right?
That propelled that possibility of meritocracy,
which unfortunately in America has been cut off a lot.
And Anna you're absolutely, right, since my dad earned it,
every dollar was precious to him.
>> Yeah.
>> But he wouldn't do like normal investors because he's like, stock market.
>> My God. >> They're going to rob you.
My God. >> No way.
>> My God, we have the same dad.
It's crazy, because same thing with my dad, my dad, he refused to invest
in the stock market because he said he doesn't trust the stock market.
He even used the word evil ones when he was.
>> Yeah. >> Talking to me about it and.
>> All Turkish immigrant parents were like stock market terrible.
>> Yeah, my dad said.
>> You go up, you go down, you're gonna lose all the money.
>> No, but that's the thing about parents, right?
Because you're this little snotty nosed kid who just really
underestimates the intelligence of your parents.
And then you grow up and you realize how incredibly enlightened and
smart your parents are.
So my dad, he understood how the whole system works, how providing returns for
investors ends up screwing over workers and all that stuff.
So he's, I don't, but he knew he needed to retire, right?
And so we had to invest in something.
So he invested in an apartment building,
which is about to lose because the moratorium is never ending.
And mom and pop landlords get zero help.
And I know the left likes to equate corporate landlords with mom and
pop landlords accept that's his retirement and he's screwed.
So when you say he's made it, I don't think so.
>> It's all relative, of course, yeah, because folks who made it on their own,
oftentimes are one mistake away from or
one bad occurrence away from losing it all and.
>> Yeap.
>> But that's what gives them caution.
Whereas guys like Belfer don't have that caution
because they've been swimming in money their whole lives.
That's why it's not an accident that he was involved in three different scams
cause he can't recognize a scam.
Because to him everything's easy money, right?
So every time he surprised, I don't know, I got easy money from my parents,
I got billions of dollars for doing nothing.
>> Look at this. >> I thought I
was gonna get billions of dollars for doing nothing again.
>> Yeah.
>> He looks happy though.
>> Yeah. >> He looks happy.
There's one last thing that's part of this, how we covered the story the other
day of a woman that was involved in three different mass shootings, right?
>> Yeah. >> There was one that was in two and
then there was another one that was in three, right?
Because there's so many mass shootings.
Well this guy is kind of the equivalent of that with scams,
because now there's nonstop scams.
>> But also imagine being so wealthy that you could lose billions,
you can lose a ton of money three separate occasions and
not be destroyed for the rest of your life.
>> Yeah, you know why?
Cause he had a lot of merit [LAUGH] >> Yet,
the merit saved him at the end of the day.
>> His parents gave him a lot of merit when they passed away.