- In my career as a defense attorney,
I've handled some of new York's biggest white collar crimes,
including defending those accused
of insider trading and political corruption.
- [Narrator] Today, Vinoo is going
to review financial crimes and TV and movies
to determine what Hollywood gets right and wrong.
[upbeat sleuth music] [coffee pouring]
[fan whirring]
[TV dial clicking] [electric humming]
As you're watching these clips,
bear in mind that anyone can be a victim
of financial crime, not some little old lady
but also the college-educated person who thinks he
or she knows what he's doing when it comes to money.
[TV static buzzing] [upbeat sleuth music]
First step, "Catch Me If You Can."
- [Frank] Most trusted name in the sky.
- [Vinoo] In this scene, young Leo playing Frank Abagnale
is forging checks.
- [Frank] I have to earn my wings real soon.
Please get in touch with Joanna Carlton from the 10th grade.
Tell her I'm sorry that I could
not take her to the junior prom.
Love, your son, Frank.
[bright pleasant instrumental music]
- So a lot of fun facts here about Frank Abagnale.
In 1967, he was able to pass the Louisiana bar exam
without ever having gone to law school.
There's so much about this guy.
Ultimately, he became an FBI informant,
and now he runs a consulting company.
[pleasant instrumental music] [water sloshing]
In this scene, he is creating a fake check,
and he does that by using the actual logo
by putting it in a tub and pasting it
onto this piece of paper.
Today, you could do all of this in 15 minutes.
Didn't have to go through the whole rigamarole
that he went through back during the movie
back in those days.
So it's a lot easier today, but of course,
very few people use checks, and therefore, [laughs]
it makes it these checks are scrutinized more
when they're actually put into a bank.
[pleasant instrumental music] [muffled chatter]
- Hello, how are ya? - Fine, thanks.
- So bank tellers or people that work
at check cashing places are trained
to look out for imperfections in a check.
Check fraud is actually monitored by the banks.
So check kiting is the crime.
They'll see a check, they'll see something off,
and they will actually call the authorities
from there while they're processing these checks.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Next up, "Terminator 2."
In this scene, you see a young John Connor
using an Atari laptop machine to steal money from an ATM.
[electric trilling and clicking]
- [Boy] Will you hurry up? This is taking too long.
- [John] Go baby, go baby, go baby.
All right, pin number.
- Computers, ATMs, they've gotten more sophisticated.
They're a lot more protection,
so some of these things will shut down
and not allow you an opportunity to use
and get multiple numbers wrong.
So in essence, is this accurate from today's standards?
Not really.
This was something that, back then years ago,
that you could do which was try
to randomize numbers to figure out the pin.
But today it's unlikely that something like this would work.
- Where'd you learn this stuff from anyway?
- From my mom, my real mom, I mean.
Withdraw 3-0-0 bucks. Come on baby.
Come on, come on, come on, yes!
- [Boy] Hey, it worked.
- All right. Easy money.
- So young John Connor has an accomplice with him.
So that kid who's with him telling him
to hurry up clearly is somebody that, in New York,
would be called acting in concert with him,
where at the federal level,
it would be called a co-conspirator
'cause they worked together
to get an illegal means accomplished,
in this case, stealing money.
- Come on, let's go spend some money.
- So in 1991 when James Cameron released this movie,
it would've been a lot more difficult
to capture John Connor.
But in 2020, it's gonna be pretty easy
for the cops and the bags to chase somebody
because they'll have cameras inside
and cameras outside, and they can go
after these people retracing their your steps.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Next up, "Mr. Robot.
In this scene, the main character has found a way
to transfer money from a Chinese hacker group
back into the accounts of the people
who originally had their money stolen.
- I don't get it. What's going on?
- All of the money Whiterose and her cronies
has been stealing for decades just went back to the people.
- So in the scene, you see the main character,
in essence, acting like a Robin Hood
and taking money from the thieves or the rich
and giving it back to the poor,
or in this case, the ones who were defrauded.
It's a great concept morally, and in reality,
something like this could happen.
But you can't do what she's trying to do
or no individual can do what she's trying to do
because it does involve fraud over the wires,
and the US government likes
to charge everyone with wire fraud.
[bright futuristic music]
- How?
- We found a way to evenly disperse
and anonymously into everyone's E-coin wallets.
[muffled chatter]
- Everyone got this much?
- Yep, and due to E Corp's insistence
that E-coin remain independent from the US dollar,
it is completely impossible for them
to reverse the transactions.
- So you're actually viewing the scene,
in essence, hacking, right?
Which is ultimately just stealing.
Now it is a crime.
Ultimately, if this actually ever happened,
the US government be in a tough position
because do they punish the person
who is actually making people whole?
It's a tough one. I'm not sure which way they would go.
- This is illegal. This is stealing.
- After what the Dark Army did to you?
Fuck, after what they did to everyone,
you really wanna start defending them?
- This isn't what justice is supposed to look like.
We have laws for a reason.
- And they were so powerful,
they wrote the laws to benefit themselves.
They got away with everything because they banked on us.
- So let me add this.
In terms of how easy this for the United States government
to prosecute someone who's involved in Bitcoin fraud,
it's not, you know why?
'Cause US government doesn't understand this space.
They are really operating in the dark
and making guesses and trying to use their knowledge
of traditional wire fraud and try to apply it here.
But it doesn't really work,
so you can expect to see a lot of change in the laws
and the government try to catch up over the next few years.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Next up, "Wolf of Wall Street."
[muffled chatter]
- In this scene, you're gonna be watching DiCaprio
teach his underlings how to run a pump
and dump scheme involving penny stocks.
- First, we pitch 'em Disney, AT&T, IBM,
blue chip stocks exclusively, companies these people know.
Once we've suckered them in, we unload the dog shit,
the pink sheets, the penny stocks,
where we make the money, 50% commission, baby.
- In the scene, Belfort is teaching his underlings
how to do a classic pump and dump scheme
by ultimately selling penny stocks.
These brokers are gonna get 50% commission.
This was very profitable
until the [laughs] FBI shut this down.
In a pump and dump scheme, a brokerage house
would buy large quantities of some very cheap stock,
of penny stock, and hold it, a bunch of it, for themselves
and then designate somebody to move the stocks.
And what they do is that they pitch this to clients
by paying the brokers a high commission
to motivate them to move it.
Once the demand peaks,
the [indistinct] dumpers dump their stock [laughs]
on the open market at the high price and make it killing.
This causes a free fall in the stock prices as they sell.
It's technically not illegal
to sell an over-the-counter stock like they were doing,
and even the commission amount is not illegal,
but no one's gonna buy something
if they know the broker's got a 50% commission.
That's a huge red flag.
So what's illegal is not being honest
and open about the actual price and the fact
that there is a nominee there to dump the stock
once it hits a certain price.
- You finally found a broker
on Wall Street that you can trust.
- [Man On Phone] Sorry, I appreciate the call.
I really have to give this some thought
and talk to my wife about it.
Can I call you back?
- They don't know, right? They gotta think about it.
They got talk to the fuckin' wives
or the fucking tooth fairy.
Point is, doesn't matter what the fuck they say.
The only real objection that they have
is that hey don't trust you guys.
- So when Leonardo DiCaprio says,
"You finally found a broker on Wall Street
who you can trust and consistently make you money,"
but you watch him and you see what he's doing,
and he's mocking the person on the other line,
this is actually what happened.
The movie is very real.
Jordan ended up pleading guilty to stock fraud manipulation,
and his whole company was shut down.
So what you're seeing here is really how these people
in these rooms, these boiler rooms,
and that was another movie, similar concept,
in these boiler rooms behave.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Next up, "Identity Theft."
In this scene, Melissa McCarthy, a con artist,
albeit a funny one, is making a cold call
to steal someone's identity.
- [Melissa] From the fraud protection department
of Identivold Credit Monitoring Service.
We're calling today because, unfortunately, it appears
that someone has attempted to steal your identity.
- Are you kidding me?
- This is a type of identity theft.
There's many different types. This is one.
And in the movie, it's funny because it's Melissa McCarthy,
but this is actually realistic.
Stuff like this happens.
Stuff like this happens when people call elderly people,
call immigrants, or send them emails like this.
And then they answer their emails
and end up giving up their personal information,
including social security numbers,
that leads to people opening up credit cards in their names
and losing lots and lots of money.
- Are you kidding me? - Gosh, I wish I were.
We did catch this in time, however,
but I do suggest you taking advantage
of our free total protection plan,
which safeguards your credit rating against theft and fraud.
- Yes please., if it's free. Absolutely.
- [Melissa] Just terrific. I went for this plan myself.
- So one of the things that Melissa McCarthy does
in this movie, or the writers have done,
is actually take something
that these swindlers do quite well,
which is personalizing it so they will say,
Melissa McCarthy says to Jason Bateman,
"I've taken this myself," and does it in a sweet voice.
This is a move designed to build trust, build rapport,
and create a false sense of empathy.
"Oh man, this guy. She knows what I've gone through.
So of course I'm gonna trust her.
Of course, I'm gonna give her my social security number."
- Mr. Patterson, I'm gonna need
to verify some information from you.
I'm going to need your full name,
date of birth, and social security number, please.
- Sure, understood. Here it comes.
- Things like date of birth, social security number,
even a cell phone number is often enough to get information.
So if somebody has your cell phone number and has your name
and if they have access to a database,
they can then figure out a way to get other information
like your date of birth, like your social security number,
even if they don't get that from you on the phone.
So if somebody says, "I'm not comfortable
giving you my social security number,"
"No worries, just give us your date of birth,"
feel like you're giving something.
"Okay, okay, that's safe," and boom, they can get you.
- what can I get for you?
- I'm gonna have a melon ball and some tequila,
and let's start a tab.
- Look in reality, a swindler as sophisticated as McCarthy
is is probably not gonna use that money at a bar,
will probably use that money to go to a Best Buy,
a Home Depot, and buy different things
and keep using that card until somebody figures it out,
and then they move on to the next card.
We had a client who went on a three-state
or four-state spending spree,
but he did it in small amounts at a Foot Locker here,
a Foot Locker in the Bronx,
a Foot Locker in Westchester, Foot Locker in Connecticut,
a Foot Locker in Massachusetts, and ultimately,
it took over a year, and about 30 people
were swindled and a total of $250,000.
And this was a state prosecution out of New York
in Westchester County and not a federal prosecution
because the feds weren't interested because the amounts
weren't large enough for their interests.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Next up, "Billions."
- Given your circumstances.
- In this scene of "Billions," you will see Bobby Axelrod,
one of the main characters, get inside information
about the father of his nemesis.
But he's not interested in the inside information
to so much make money as to destroy his nemesis.
- I got word from the boys at Spartan Ives.
Chuck Rhoades, Senior has taken a significant stake
in a company that's going public.
Ice Juice. - No shit.
- And insofar as you hate the Rhoades family
almost as much as I do-
- That could be pleasant.
Be fun if you could find a way
to lob a turd in the punchbowl.
- Yeah, real fun.
In this scene, you see Bobby Axelrod get inside information
about the activities of the father
of his nemesis, the United States attorney.
In the show, the United States attorney,
played by Paul Giamatti, has a very rich father.
And so Bobby wants to destroy the US attorney,
and he can do that by hurting the father.
So he gets inside information about what the father
is gonna do, but what he does or he attempts to do
could never happen in real life. [laughs]
- I make sure to take a sizeable allocation.
- So you'd have cover.
- Yeah, take the free money up front,
throw it into reverse,
ad I'd short every tick on the way down.
- An IPO's an initial public offering,
and so, for example, in most recent years,
companies like Uber went public.
That means it went from being a closed company
with private owners to allowing the general public
to buy stocks and benefit.
So in this scene, Bobby Axelrod is taking
what they call, he calls a sizeable allocation.
Then he plans to dump that allocation all
at once on the market while the IPO is hot.
This scene is ludicrous because, in reality,
no one would be able to get that kind
of information on a company going public,
and there are safeguards in place to prevent a person doing
what he intends or is trying to do in this scene.
It's great theater for Hollywood
but just not at all realistic.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Next up, "Office Space."
Ron Livingston's character is describing his plan
to steal money from his company through a cyber scheme.
- All right, so when the sub routine
compounds the interest, right,
it uses all these all these extra decimal places
that just get rounded off.
So we simplify the whole thing,
and we just round 'em all down
and just drop the remainder into an account that we own.
- So this is a case of literally transferring funds
from the bankers' accounts into his own.
This is just theft.
This same scheme was used by Richard Pryor's character
in "Superman III" and in the movie "Hackers."
This was actually a real thing,
and this was a problem with users of Excel
that eventually, later on, people figured out
or Microsoft figured out how to fix this problem.
- So you're stealing.
- No, no, you understand, It's very complicated.
It's aggregate, so I'm talking about fractions
of a penny here, and over time they add up to a lot.
- Oh, okay.
- So in the scene, it's very funny
because his girlfriend figures it out right away,
and he's caught.
He thinks it's not stealing 'cause all he's doing
is taking fractions of pennies.
But once you start doing it in the millions of transactions,
it leads to millions of dollars of losses.
Then you're gonna bite off more than you can chew.
- Oh, okay. So you're gonna make a lot of money, right?
- Yeah. - Right.
That's not yours?
- Well, it becomes ours.
- How's that not stealing?
- So in reality, if you're caught doing something
like this and you're the amount you steal
exceeds a couple million dollars,
you could be looking at significant jail time
from at least 10 years and up.
[TV static buzzing] [intense sleuth music]
Last up, "Arbitrage."
In this scene, what you're gonna see
is the unraveling of a Ponzi scheme.
[tense music]
- Dad, are you listening to me?
- Yeah, of course I'm listening.
[sighs] Okay, those trades are in the special book.
They don't get audited on the same balance sheets.
- Wait, but look at the sheet.
There's a $400 million hole here.
I mean, that can't be right.
- In the scene, you see Richard Gere's daughter catching him
and I'm pointing out a huge discrepancy.
Half of the funds are missing, and he's like,
"Oh, that's ridiculous.
I'll look into it," he tells her
and tries to push her off.
And at the same time,
you see a detective coming into the workplace.
The point is that it's unlikely a detective
is going to be the one investigating this, why?
'Cause it's not the state.
It's gonna be the feds that come in for $400 million.
You bet the feds are gonna be interested
in something like this.
- Well, Peter, listen,
I'm looking at some statements right now.
How much did you book last quarter?
- [Peter] Why? [chuckles] What do you care? [chuckles]
- Peter? I'm really just asking you.
- [Peter] Allright, 35.
- 35 million for your whole group?
- [Peter] Yes, 35 million for my entire group.
- You sure it wasn't 68?
- [Peter] What, 35 million
isn't a big enough number for you?
- So what you're seeing in this scene
is somewhat actually realistic because what's happened
is that the fraud is being perpetrated with the knowledge
or with the assistance of somebody who controls the numbers.
So the daughter, Richard Gere's daughter,
figures out that a number was dramatically misrepresented.
She calls a guy who only says he made 35 million,
but the number says something in excess of 60 million.
So she catches him and realizes now
that there was internal fraud.
[slow tense music]
- what are you doing in my office? Hello?
- Can you explain these?
- Explain what? - Old Hill,
all the numbers you falsified.
- What this means in reality is that,
at these companies that are not publicly traded
where you have external audits mandated by SEC regulations,
here, you have a essence, what's a fraud,
what's a conspiracy between multiple people
at the same company to cook the books
to attract more investors to make up
for the losses that that have incurred.
- All the numbers you falsified?
[tense music]
- You don't know what you're saying.
[body thuds]
- Get out of my way.
- Look- - You're hurting my arm.
- Can't you just leave it alone?
- You're fired, Ben. - You can't fire me.
- Oh, I just did.
- Who do you think asked me to make those changes?
- You tell me.
- In this clip, you see the daughter,
who obviously is in a position of power in this company,
fire the employee, but then the employee tells her,
"Who do you think I was covering for," meaning her dad.
Well, in reality, that employee would probably
not be fired initially but would be working [chuckles]
with the father to try to cover this up.
He is your classic co-conspirator who worked
with the person to make the fraudulent entries
to give the false prospectuses
which they send out to investors.
I hope you'll take away from this
that Hollywood sometimes has it right
but sometimes has it wrong.
And what they've done, and this is the biggest sin
of Hollywood, is that there's no gray area.
They portray people as either completely evil
or completely good,
and the world just doesn't work that way.
[up-tempo sleuth music]