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United Kingdom Venture Capitalist indicted by USA: The Ron Bauer Story · Nightmare Success In and Out

0:01
What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
0:04
Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy, welcome to the Nightmare Success In and
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Out podcast where we explore how to overcome your fears and
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nightmares that set yourself free.
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We're going to be exploring this topic with guys that was in
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Leavenworth with and others who survived their own nightmare.
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These stories can be inspiring, sometimes sad.
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of something that'll help you knock down some of the prisons
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you built up in your own mind. All right, welcome back.
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I'm our success in and out listeners.
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That's where you come from. What happens when your worst
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That helps the show. It's a great get it out there.
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So I wanted to tell you guys this is and I was just telling
0:57
Ron Bauer, who's my guest today. This is the first episode out of
1:01
100 and 56789 episodes that I've done.
1:07
I have never had someone on the show that he Ron is a dual
1:13
citizen from Canada and the United Kingdom.
1:17
And he's, he's actually gone through this whole process.
1:23
You know, it's an international situation.
1:26
He's and give you a little bit of background on, on Ron.
1:30
He's he's a venture capitalist entrepreneur, he's an author.
1:34
And you know, he's his background is supporting
1:38
entrepreneurs and scientists. He'll take him from the early
1:41
stages of seed funding all the way to IP OS.
1:45
One of the things that really caught my eye was he was the Co
1:47
founder of I think it's Turkania.
1:50
I might be spelling that or saying that wrong.
1:52
Turkania Energy, which merged with Africa oil back in in 2009.
1:57
That company went on to have a peak value of over $3 billion.
2:00
It sounds like a big, big company.
2:03
Ron's been in the business of, of being a venture capitalist
2:08
and, and working around the world, Obviously Africa and and
2:13
other countries, but he got all tied up into what's the United
2:20
States was saying was a stock manipulation and he fought it
2:24
and ended up pleading guilty to one kind of securities fraud.
2:29
But I think it's a it's going to be an interesting story here,
2:32
folks on how this all came about.
2:35
You know, my first thought of this thing is what in the world
2:39
would I have thought if I forgot this family in one country and
2:43
I'm and I'm getting investigated by a whole other country and
2:48
then I have to go over to the other country to defend myself?
2:50
Can I get back? You know, I've got kids, I've
2:53
got a wife. You know, I want to get into all
2:55
that and how he got through it. Before we do that, I want to
2:59
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success sent you all right Ron Bauer welcome in.
3:42
Thank you. So, so we're recording it's
3:45
10:00, yeah, 10:30 in the morning here in the central part
3:51
of the United States and it's about 4:30 over in the United
3:55
Kingdom. So we're a little different in
3:58
time, but here we are morning and afternoon.
4:02
How are you, Ron? I'm.
4:04
Good, you know, doing good, you know, granted my with, you know,
4:07
my current situation and doing this as good as can be, I guess.
4:11
Yeah. And you've got a crazy
4:12
situation. You've you've.
4:13
How long is this situation going on?
4:15
It's been going on now for, I would say since April 2022, so.
4:23
Couple of years, months. Now, yeah, almost three years.
4:27
In April would be three years. That's a long time you.
4:31
Know went on for I I would say that I fought you know it
4:36
started in April I was flying do you want to hear do you want me
4:40
to tell you sort of the background of.
4:42
Well, yeah. Well, let's, let's sort of get
4:44
to know you a little bit. Take us back a little bit
4:47
further Ron into because I'm, I'm interested in how you ended
4:53
up, you know, you're you're a dual citizen.
4:56
You grew up in Canada. What?
4:59
How? Tell us how that all started as
5:02
a kid. Were you in?
5:03
You? Did you?
5:04
Were you born in Canada? Born.
5:05
And raised in Toronto, like, you know, grew up in a, you know,
5:09
middle class family in Toronto, Canada, very, you know, suburban
5:14
upbringing, you know, grew up in a, my parents were, were married
5:19
for 58 years. My father passed away a little
5:22
over a year ago, but my parents were married for almost 60
5:24
years. Wow.
5:25
That's that's something. That is something, you know, and
5:28
grew up in a great family. I can't say, you know, I can't
5:30
give any story saying that I had, you know, a terrible
5:33
childhood and difficulties and bad family or bad parents.
5:37
My parents were well educated, well spoken, you know, they were
5:40
immigrants to Canada. You know, I grew up with with a
5:45
brother, you know, two brothers. My older brother passed away
5:48
when he when he was 16 and I was 10.
5:50
So we had a little bit of, you know, family trauma.
5:54
And, you know, I had a adopted sister who, you know, she also
6:00
passed away. She had Ms. And so, you know, a
6:02
little bit of family tragedy as well.
6:03
But my parents, you know, with the family tragedy of, you know,
6:06
losing two children, kept the family together and, and kept us
6:10
together and and, you know, pushed on us education.
6:13
And so grew up in Toronto, was always interested in the stock
6:17
market from an age of, you know, when I was 1516 and my friends
6:21
were, you know, reading Playboy and Sports Illustrated.
6:24
I was reading, you know, Northern Minor, which was a
6:26
Canadian, you know, oil and gas and mining Penny stock magazine.
6:30
And I was reading Barrens and I was reading the financial posts.
6:33
What got you into that? Because I always wonder, like my
6:35
dad was like, he grew up on a farm and was reading the Wall
6:38
Street Journal, you know, and looking at the stocks when he
6:41
was a teenager and then going out and feeding the cows.
6:43
And he became a, you know, an attorney and a trader.
6:46
But how did, how did you get into that?
6:49
Because your your, your dad wasn't, was he?
6:51
No, my father was not. My father was an engineer and he
6:53
worked in in construction and development his whole life.
6:56
And my mother was. She started as a social worker
6:59
and then she had a restaurant business and bar business.
7:02
So none of my parents were involved in the financial
7:04
markets or anything to do with the stock market.
7:06
And I was just interested from a young age, you know, when I was
7:09
in high school and I'd say grade 10 there, you know, I was doing
7:14
an economics course, like an A piece level economics and the
7:19
local, you know, a local newspaper and stock brokers.
7:23
There was, you know, TD Bank, which is, you know, big bank in
7:25
the US right now. It's a Canadian bank.
7:27
So it was the TD Globe and Mail Stock Challenge.
7:30
It was our big newspaper in Canada, national newspaper.
7:34
Together with one of the brokers, they gave students in
7:38
high school in, in my province in Ontario, a fictitious trading
7:43
portfolio. This is before the Internet and
7:45
before you didn't have a cell phones or or Internet or e-mail.
7:49
So they gave you a fictitious trading portfolio and whoever
7:52
grew the portfolio the highest would win a prize and.
7:57
What a great idea. It was great.
7:59
And you would have to call a broker in from a phone.
8:01
So you'd have to go to like a payphone.
8:03
I remember going to like a payphone at school, reading the
8:06
paper or reading stock tips from magazines and, and newsletters
8:10
and calling the broker and, you know, putting in my buy and sell
8:13
orders. And then, you know, going to the
8:15
library and taking out books and buying, you know, from book
8:18
shops, books on sophisticated on trading options and futures.
8:23
And you know, I just got really into it and I grew this
8:26
portfolio of 50,000 to like, I think some, at some one point I
8:30
was like 600,000. I was like #3 in the, in the
8:34
contest. And then I I made a few stupid
8:36
bets and and dropped down, but I still finished like 350,000 on
8:42
like a 50,000. So that's how you got the taste
8:44
of. It quite at 7 times in like, I
8:46
think like four months because you get a short period of time.
8:48
And then my grandfather said, wow, look at, you know what you
8:51
did? And my dad said that.
8:53
So I started trading my dad's retirement account.
8:55
You what you would call an America, an IRA.
8:57
So we had in Canada, they're called, you know, RSP.
9:01
It's like a Canadian version of an IRA.
9:02
So I started trading my father's account for him, giving him
9:05
stock tips. Then my grandfather gave me some
9:07
money and I started trading that and, you know, made a a bunch of
9:11
money and ended up buying a car when I was 16.
9:13
And and yeah, just I always knew I was going to get into the
9:17
market and that was sort of going to be my calling.
9:19
And, you know, people say to me now I'm like touching 50 in a
9:23
few weeks and people would say to me, you know, when did you
9:26
know you were going to do what you wanted to do?
9:28
What how did you get into it? And you know, I'm one of those
9:30
annoying people that my whole life I knew that I wanted to be
9:33
involved in the markets at some point.
9:35
And so the bug, it hit me at like 1516 and then, you know, I
9:40
had a period where I was, you know, studying and doing
9:44
different things. But then in my 20s, I came back
9:47
into the market. So I had probably like a 7-8
9:50
year pause where, you know, school and university and other
9:54
stuff and life and different businesses.
9:55
And then I found my way back in my 20s back into the markets,
9:59
and you know, I've been doing this.
10:02
I'd say so. Did you, did you stay Ron in
10:05
Canada and go to school, college and and Canada or did you go
10:09
somewhere else? No, so I moved to Israel when I
10:12
was 17. My father got a job.
10:14
You know, we I was never brought.
10:16
I was brought up always like traditional Jewish, but I was
10:19
not really like, it wasn't like I was religious or, or super
10:23
patriotic and I moved to Israel out of, you know, religion or
10:26
patriotism. My father got a job.
10:28
I went to Israel. I wasn't supposed to stay there
10:30
or live there. I went there for a summer for a
10:32
month and it was like a free for all Brent.
10:37
Going to Israel, what, what years, what years would that
10:39
have been We're. Talking 1992 you know, when they
10:42
moved there 92 Jerusalem was a Reformed city.
10:46
It wasn't a religious city. You had peace in the air.
10:49
You had, you know, Arabs, Jews and Christians living in
10:51
harmony. You know, there were problems, a
10:53
few problems here and there, but nothing like you see today in
10:56
the media or the news. And, you know, Arafat had just
10:59
come back, but they would just do it was just around, you know,
11:02
the, the peace agreement with Rabin and with Clinton.
11:06
And Bill Clinton. Arafat and, you know, so the
11:09
Palestinian Authority was formed and, you know, they took control
11:12
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and it was like boom time in
11:17
Israel. It was peace.
11:18
There was, you know, prosperity, lots of people coming there.
11:22
Business was booming. My parents were there.
11:24
I had a, you know, a great gig. I was living, you know, like a
11:27
rock star life. I was like, you know, my dad had
11:29
a great job. He was building the Jerusalem
11:31
City Hall project, and it was a huge project.
11:34
And then, you know, my parents left a couple years later and I
11:37
ended up staying there. I said to my parents, look, I
11:40
don't want to leave. This is home now for me.
11:43
And, you know, I actually became, I think I became less
11:47
Jewish living in Israel than when I lived in Canada.
11:49
I know. That's why.
11:52
You know, because you don't have to prove your Jewish identity
11:55
whenever in the country's Jewish.
11:57
They're Jewish, right? When?
11:58
You grow up in Toronto, you know, Toronto has a big
12:00
community, like, you know, 3-4 hundred thousand Jews, but
12:03
you're there. It's like you're, you're in the
12:06
community, you're active in Israel.
12:08
You just don't feel like you need to be because everyone's
12:10
Jewish. It's like being American in
12:12
America, you know, you're like you're, it's, it's, it's a
12:15
difficult thing. So, so I, I stayed there, you
12:19
know, I spent close to 8 years in Israel.
12:23
I was, I did my undergraduate, I started like university studies.
12:26
I went to Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is, you know, I
12:28
started in English, then I finished my studies in Hebrew
12:31
and I was in the in the military as well, just for a short period
12:36
of time because, you know, I immigrated when I was a bit
12:38
older and it was interesting, interesting period of time in
12:41
the military. Then it was, it was a very
12:43
peaceful time. So it.
12:44
Wasn't going to happen. Ron, am I wrong about this?
12:46
Are they still? Does Israel still have it where
12:50
every citizen spends? Is it one year?
12:53
Three years for two years and two years for girls and so.
12:58
And if you immigrate after the age of 18 and upwards, then it
13:01
takes time off. So you do less time.
13:04
And so I did the military and then I worked in the Israeli
13:07
parliament. I worked for a member of a
13:09
member of the Knesset who became a minister under Netanyahu.
13:12
Like, imagine when I worked in the Israeli parliament in, you
13:16
know, mid 90s, like 9495. Netanyahu was Prime Minister the
13:20
first time and he's still Prime Minister now like 30 years
13:23
later. Yeah, it's amazing.
13:24
You know, he's coming, He's been in and out of the role a few
13:27
times, but it just shows you how the country is.
13:31
And so, and then I moved to the UK in 2000.
13:34
I came here when I was 25. I moved here my first time and
13:39
met my wife here. And you know, we moved to the
13:42
States first. We moved to New York and then to
13:45
Miami. Work took me there and that's
13:48
when I sort of started really getting into when I was first in
13:51
London in 2000, I got back in the markets and then I moved to
13:54
the States. I was in New York and then
13:56
Miami. I'm curious.
13:58
I'm curious Ron, when you when you moved to the States, being
14:02
in Toronto, did you venture down into New York and all that
14:07
because of the proximity or were you mostly in Canada?
14:10
I was always in Canada when I was young and growing up because
14:13
you know, I was like in high school and the student I wasn't,
14:16
you know, I was young then and, and lived in a family.
14:19
So I was, it was a different lifestyle, you know, but, but
14:24
afterwards being in the UK and then being here just became very
14:28
international. My business was U.S.
14:29
Markets in US And so I moved to the States and then 2003 I moved
14:34
to, I moved back to Canada, I moved to Vancouver, this time to
14:39
the West Coast. I love Vancouver, it's
14:42
beautiful. People I was doing business with
14:44
and I moved there in 2003 and then I spent seven years in
14:51
Vancouver. You could write a book on all
14:54
the different places you lived I.
14:56
Lived all over. Honestly, I moved around a lot,
14:58
but I mean, it sounds like I moved around a lot more than I
15:00
did. I spent seven years there.
15:02
I had great seven years. And then when I had that exit,
15:06
you know, I sold that business for tax reasons.
15:08
I moved to the UK in 2010, in February 2010.
15:12
And I've been here now for almost 15 years now in the UK,
15:16
just, you know, living here. And, you know, I've got two kids
15:20
and my kids have grown up here. One of my older son was born in
15:23
Vancouver, but we moved here when he was one.
15:25
And my younger son, who's now, you know, is 13, he was born and
15:29
raised here. This is all he knows.
15:31
But I've always moved the kids around.
15:33
I've taken them to the States, I've taken them to Canada.
15:35
They've travelled. They're they're well travelled
15:37
and they've been all around. So their citizenship would be
15:41
the United Kingdom. They've got UK.
15:43
My son, my older son was born in Canada.
15:45
So he has Canadian citizenship by birth and UK citizenship
15:49
through his mother. And because he's been here,
15:51
obviously he lives here. And my younger son has UK
15:55
citizenship by birth and Canadian citizenship through my
15:59
my wife and I, which we're both Canadian British too.
16:02
Wow. And I have British citizenship
16:04
through marrying a British citizen, my wife.
16:08
Yeah. And then how long have you guys
16:10
been married? 20 years.
16:13
Yeah, 20 years, Yeah. OK, so you go into this thing
16:17
and you're going all around and and you're, you're, I mean, from
16:22
what I can read, Ron, you had a lot going on.
16:25
You were good at and, and continue to be good at what you
16:28
do. And I was, I was interested.
16:33
I was interested in like that 2009 deal with the African oil
16:38
thing. Did you spend time in Africa
16:42
when you were doing that, investing in that company and
16:46
growing that company? I've been all over Africa.
16:48
I've spent a lot of time on the continent.
16:50
And you know, we started that company and my partner and I, we
16:54
put that company together, you know, around 2007, 2008, that's
17:01
when the opportunity came to us. We were in the deal for a couple
17:04
of years. We were, you know, I'd say even
17:07
like the latter part of 2006, we were in it for a couple of
17:10
years. We had big plans to take that
17:12
company public in Canada, do a big IPO, and then the financial
17:16
crisis came along and, you know, destroyed everybody's plans.
17:19
Oil got shattered and the whole stock market got destroyed.
17:23
And then in 2009, there was this company, you know, right next to
17:28
us. They had a block next to us
17:29
there. We had one oil concession.
17:31
They were next door to US, Africa oil.
17:33
They went from a billion market cap to 220 million in the
17:36
financial crisis. But they were public already on
17:39
the TSX, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
17:42
The founder behind that company was a guy named Lucas Landini,
17:45
passed away a couple years ago. But he was, if there are 100
17:48
entrepreneurs in Canada, he was like #1 by a long shot.
17:52
And my partner and I were probably somewhere between 50 to
17:55
60. We were like halfway down and we
17:57
were comfortable, you know, we were guys, we were hitting
18:00
singles and double S consistently every year.
18:02
We were prolific entrepreneurs doing like, you know, four or
18:05
five deals a year, constantly hitting singles and double S.
18:08
We carved out a great living. We are making decent money.
18:11
You know, you can still hit 405 hundred back 4500 with singles
18:16
and double S consistently. And but, you know, we weren't
18:20
like knocking out of the park where you know, and, and then
18:23
you know what they say. It's like the more you, you know
18:26
what Gary Player used to say. I don't know if you're a, you're
18:27
a golfer. I think Gary Player was playing
18:30
in the PNC Championship yesterday.
18:32
He's 89 years old. So, you know, Gary Player used
18:34
to say, the more I practice, the better my luck gets.
18:37
So, you know, we practiced a lot.
18:39
So if you do 4050 deals, you're bound to have, you know, one or
18:43
two home runs. So you know, our bases loaded
18:46
situation was this, you know, Turkana Energy deal, the bases
18:50
were loaded and we hit a Grand Slam.
18:52
You know, we merged with, we were about a $16,000,000 valued
18:56
company. We merged with Africa Oil.
18:59
They gave us a 24,000,000 merger value.
19:02
So like a 50% bump in the value. But they were, they already
19:06
looked at themselves as heavily discounted because they were
19:09
from a billion to 220, they went down like 78%.
19:12
So we were coming in like at rock bottom for them.
19:15
And you know, they had the best entrepreneur in Canada.
19:18
And as part of the merger, the guy's like, we're going to raise
19:21
25,000,000, we're going to raise 20 and you're going to raise 5.
19:26
We managed to raise four of the five.
19:28
We couldn't come up with the rest of the money.
19:30
And the guy said, look, if you don't raise the rest of the
19:31
money, the deal's off. So I remember we had to put our
19:35
hand in our pocket. I had to sell.
19:36
I remember selling an asset. I had this, this house, I built
19:41
this ranch. I thought I was going to be, you
19:42
know, one of the one of the things you do when you make too
19:45
much money and it's a bull market.
19:46
You do bull market, you do the stupidest purchases ever.
19:49
And and I built this stupid ranch.
19:51
Of course, real estate's not a bad.
19:53
Real estate's not a bad thing to fall into.
19:55
Can you? I know.
19:55
But can you see me riding a horse?
19:57
I had like cowboy boots and hats and pickup truck and everything.
20:00
And it's almost comical now. And I look back at old pictures
20:03
and I think about the stupid stuff I did with the money that
20:06
I made. You know what I could have done?
20:08
I could have put that money in like, sure, Microsoft.
20:11
Forgot about it, you know. It'd be worth like 20 million
20:14
now. Right, right, right.
20:16
So I built this stupid ranch. I had to sell it at a huge
20:19
discount to finance this deal. We did the deal by the skin of
20:22
our teeth. Stock was $1.23 on the day of
20:25
the merger. I remember Brent and then it
20:27
just it just halved right out the gate.
20:29
It went down to like 50-60 cents.
20:32
Everywhere I went in town, everywhere I went out, people
20:35
would say to me, you're a piece of shit.
20:37
You ripped us off, you're a scammer, you're a fraudster.
20:40
I know I shouldn't have given you money and did this deal with
20:43
you. And we're like, guys, what are
20:45
you talking about? It's like the deals with like
20:46
Lundin. Lundin is like the biggest
20:48
entrepreneur. This guy is like the equivalent
20:50
of like Elon Musk of Canada. He was like, he had like the, he
20:53
was the biggest, one of the biggest billionaires in the
20:55
space. So we did the deal.
20:57
It sat idle for like a year or two.
21:00
I remember that my wife and I couldn't take it anymore.
21:03
I'd made money on another deal. We moved to London for tax
21:06
reasons, forgot about this deal. You know, a year later, I get a
21:10
phone call from the CEO telling me, look, we're drilling this.
21:13
Well, we're going to come out with results.
21:16
Don't trade the stock. If anybody calls you and asks
21:18
you don't say anything. You know, they halted the stock
21:21
because in Canada, when it's not like the US, when you have big
21:24
news, you, you halt the stock, you can't trade it.
21:27
It's not like America where it could trade freely.
21:29
Like, you know, you have these GameStop situations where it
21:32
becomes a meme stock and trades 100 times.
21:34
You know, in Canada, they halt it.
21:35
And so they don't have that crazy fluctuation day one.
21:39
So they halted it and then they came out with the news.
21:42
The stock was bid. It went up like 15 times.
21:44
It was like $13 a share. The company was now like from
21:48
100 million something. It was like a 2 billion two and
21:51
a bit billion. And then they raised like
21:53
775,000,000 another billion. It raised like $2 billion.
21:57
It went over 3 billion market cap was a huge success, honestly
22:01
a success. And it wasn't, you know, I mean,
22:03
we handed it, we handed our asset to this guy.
22:06
And it was the first time psychologically where I said,
22:09
wow, I can make more money by being a smaller player in in a
22:13
bigger. Smaller piece of the pie.
22:16
Handing over my opportunity and you know, it was great for me
22:20
that deal because it it gave me some, you know, amazing
22:24
credibility St. cred, you know, for you know, here I was, I made
22:28
people a lot of money. It was a great company.
22:30
You know, I was in bed with, you know, the number one
22:32
entrepreneur in in Canada, you know, if not globally in the oil
22:37
space, which $5 billion of investment total the French
22:41
national oil company is operating the block the company
22:45
well, I mean it still exists today, so it almost sets.
22:47
Oh, it really. I mean, it caught my attention.
22:48
I went back and looked at it. You know, once I read that and I
22:51
went back and looked at it, Yeah, it's a big, it's a big
22:53
deal. It's a big TSX company, trades
22:56
at a billion yeah, producing oil Totalis, their partner Telo,
23:00
which is one of EU KS biggest companies.
23:01
So it's very real and what happened was is, you know, I
23:04
made a bunch of money on that deal.
23:06
I got a lot of opportunities stored in my way.
23:08
And, you know, what happens is people think it's very easy to
23:11
replicate success. And so I went out and took
23:15
really good money and threw it after really bad opportunities
23:18
and, you know, thought I could replicate the success.
23:22
And I just, you know, made a whole bunch of mistakes and
23:24
travelled all over Africa. And finally one of my investors
23:28
sat me down over lunch and said, look, you know, you've been very
23:31
fortunate. You've had a couple exits, that
23:33
you've made a bunch of money. Why don't you just change what
23:36
you're doing, Do something different?
23:38
So I always wanted to go back to school.
23:41
You know, I never finished my bachelor degree, my first
23:43
degree, because I left university.
23:45
You know, in Israel, you go to university after the military.
23:48
You're older. And I was impatient.
23:51
I was alone in the country. I wanted to make money.
23:53
I wanted to get into business. I didn't think, you know,
23:56
education was important then. And now I realize how important
23:59
it is. And, you know, I was stupid when
24:01
I was younger and made mistakes. But so I wanted to go back to
24:03
school and so I ended up going to Cambridge and doing my MBA.
24:09
It was a 27 month program. I did my MBA.
24:12
And while I was at Cambridge, you know, I got introduced to
24:19
some opportunities in the science space and biotech space
24:23
and I started mentoring academics and PhD students and,
24:27
and grad students and specifically 2 PhD students that
24:31
were, you know, my first deal I did with Cambridge was a, a Med
24:33
tech diagnostic deal. And I'd say over the last 15
24:38
years, I built a business at working with scientists and
24:41
academics, you know, creating these IP LED, you know,
24:45
university spin out companies based around intellectual
24:48
property and inventions. And, you know, I've done loads
24:52
of deals with, you know, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, Cornell,
24:56
Harvard, Vanderbilt, USC, McGill, Wash U, Carnegie Mellon,
25:00
loads of these deals, you know, and straight IP OS.
25:04
I've done, you know, SPAC deals. I've been involved in three SPAC
25:06
transactions that have raised, you know, a lot of money of
25:09
being involved in a number of IP OS and yeah, you know, and
25:13
raised, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars for these
25:15
companies. Well, it's and I, I and I want
25:19
to, I want to take a break here because I want when, when we get
25:21
back, I want to talk about how when somebody gets on a ride
25:25
like this, because you were you, you were networking, you were,
25:28
you were putting together deals, you were raising money and all
25:31
of a sudden you get hit. And I want to, I want to talk
25:34
about how someone gets that news and how they deal with it.
25:40
And, and the other thing that I hope you can kind of educate the
25:43
audience a little bit, because I have a hard time, Ron, I don't
25:47
play the market. I read about the market and, you
25:51
know, stock manipulation is something that is done more or
25:54
less. If you read about it, it's, it's
25:57
part of the market. So I, I, I, I, I would like to
26:01
kind of understand how a person gets in, in, in wrapped up and
26:07
to be charged with stock manipulation.
26:09
Because for me, somebody who's a novice reading about the market,
26:13
reading the Wall Street Journal, I don't understand how that even
26:15
happens, how they pick somebody out of that and says that's the
26:18
person that's manipulating, that's the person that's taking
26:21
stocks and make him go up and down.
26:23
But before we do that, I want to recognize discoverability
26:27
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26:30
like how they look online. And for many individuals, they
26:34
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26:36
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26:40
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26:43
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26:46
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26:49
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26:52
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26:55
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And just to remind everybody, Nimer Success Podcast is
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27:50
OK, so, Rod, everything's going the way you want it to go.
27:55
You've kind of gotten into a new groove.
27:57
They you took the advice from your mentor, said, hey, do
28:00
something different. You go back, you get, you get an
28:03
MBA. You, you, you start working with
28:05
the universities, you get with the scientists.
28:06
These. Penny stocks, I mean, I'm
28:08
dealing in like NASDAQ New York, Yeah, Companies raising hundreds
28:11
of millions. Everything was like.
28:15
So what happens? How?
28:16
How does it happen? What, how do you get notified
28:18
when you're riding this wave? Like how does it go down?
28:23
Some flying I was, I flew in I, I was coming back to the UK
28:28
April 2022. It was Easter holiday.
28:32
My kids will break from school. They wanted to go to Iceland.
28:35
I took them on this beautiful holiday to Iceland.
28:37
You know, I was flying high. You know, I honestly, I had
28:41
like, you know, that year 2021-2022, I had like, you know,
28:45
3 IPOs come out. I was making money and I had
28:48
like a trajectory. I had like 10 deals.
28:50
And feeling good. I was flying, honestly, I was
28:53
going to make you know. Good money set.
28:57
To make 50 to $100 million over the next few years, you know,
29:00
and flying. I'm dealing with huge banks.
29:03
I'm dealing with big law firms and dealing with auditors.
29:06
You know, everyone knows who I am.
29:08
I've got like a great background, great history, and
29:10
then thank you so much. And then got like a delivery
29:14
service here. Brandon, that's good.
29:15
Well, the first one I think was hot chocolate.
29:17
I don't know what this one is. I've got some, some tea coming.
29:20
I've got some good delivery service.
29:22
I was riding a riding a high wave.
29:25
Life was looking great, you know, and, and you know, my
29:27
partner used to always say comfort kills you and you're the
29:30
most comfortable. That's when it kills you and.
29:32
It's when you get the most blindsided.
29:34
Yeah, sure. I was, but I was cautious.
29:36
I wasn't even like doing, I was doing nothing like the conduct
29:40
that they got. The conduct that I plead guilty
29:43
to was old conduct. We're talking from like, you
29:47
know, five to seven years ago, seven years ago really from when
29:50
I was indicted old conduct. And it was not, you know, it was
29:54
not around, you know, there's, it was around old conduct.
29:58
And it was, you know, when I will get into it in a second.
30:00
But I was basically, I was flying in from this holiday from
30:03
Iceland with my family. I landed Heathrow.
30:05
My son, it's his first time that he could use his passport in the
30:08
electronic, you know, gateway passport, put it on the scanner.
30:11
So I walk with my with my older son who at the time was like 13
30:15
and my younger son was 11 and my wife goes through the regular
30:19
lineup with my younger son. I go through the passport
30:21
control. I put my passport down and it
30:23
doesn't work the first time ever.
30:25
I mean, listen, I've flown in and out of the UK at that .20
30:29
something years. Yeah, flown all around the
30:31
world. Now, I've never been arrested
30:32
ever. Like to this point in April
30:34
2022, never been arrested, never seen the inside of a police
30:38
station, No DUI, no issues with the police.
30:41
The police were like my friends. I was, you know, I've had zero
30:45
issues and all of a sudden it doesn't work.
30:50
My son's passport doesn't work. I go to my wife.
30:53
My wife's just about to get to the beginning of the line.
30:55
I come in and meet her and I say, look, take my older son
30:58
with you and here's like my stuff.
31:00
I have a really bad feeling. I said, I just have a bad
31:02
feeling, you know, And she's like, what do you mean?
31:05
I said, look, you know, go out if you don't hear from me, call
31:08
the this is the lawyer's number. I give her his number.
31:10
Call him up In the States. I didn't even know who to call
31:12
because like I've never, I didn't have AI had a lawyer in
31:15
the States because you know, I've had in the past some like,
31:18
you know, SEC regulatory. Right.
31:20
You're doing deals in the States.
31:21
Years ago I had an SEC settlement from 2004, 2005,
31:25
we're talking 18 years earlier, OK, not like something that I
31:29
had a settlement a year ago, right?
31:31
So I had a lawyer. I said to my wife, here's a
31:33
lawyer. I called the lawyer up and I
31:35
said I think I'm, you know, something bad's about to happen.
31:37
I go to the passport control. Passport control says to me
31:40
right away, do you have another passport?
31:42
I gave my British passport. They said you have another
31:44
passport. I'm like, yeah, but why would
31:46
you ask me that question? It's a very odd question to ask.
31:48
Like you go to passport control with an American passport in the
31:51
States and they say, do you have another passport?
31:53
It's like, I'm British. I always come into the UK
31:55
British passport. So they, they said, can you wait
31:59
there? They put me on the seat to wait.
32:01
You know, usually where they people coming from like Nigeria
32:03
or China or something, you know, and they don't have a visa for
32:06
the UK. They put them to wait there, not
32:08
people that are like from the North America or, or England.
32:11
So I'm waiting and then sure enough, you know, a few minutes
32:15
I called my lawyer while I'm waiting and I and he said, look,
32:17
here's a guy, I'm going to call him up.
32:19
He's a criminal lawyer in the UK.
32:21
He'll be able to help you. Sure enough, a few minutes later
32:24
the police come out, the Metropolitan Police, and they
32:27
say, are you Ron Bauer? Can I see your passport?
32:29
They take me somewhere quietly to the side and they say we have
32:32
an arrest warrant from the NCA. The NCA is the National Crime
32:36
Agency, so that's the UK version of the FBI.
32:40
They're in charge of extradition and foreign arrests.
32:43
And so they show me this paper. The paper is basically an arrest
32:47
warrant and an extradition request by the US government, by
32:50
the Department of Justice. And it originates from the
32:53
Southern District of New York. They have 8-9 counts there, but
32:58
it doesn't say exactly what they are.
33:00
OK. It says, like, because it's
33:01
sealed at this point, the indictment's sealed.
33:04
And I didn't understand why it was sealed.
33:06
I understood after, when I was in court why it was sealed.
33:10
And so they took me to a holding facility and, you know, booked
33:14
me in there. And it was like, all lights on.
33:16
I'm in a cell, I'm by myself. It's not a real prison.
33:19
It's like a facility where if you fly into Heathrow.
33:22
Yeah, or they hold somebody they.
33:24
Hold someone like at the airport or something, you know, it's
33:26
next to the airport. They took me there.
33:28
I got on the phone with my lawyer, my lawyer, the the
33:31
lawyer guy said look, they have to take you to a Magistrate
33:34
Court in the morning. So I'm going to meet you in the
33:37
Magistrate Court in the morning. I'm going to have a barrister.
33:40
So in the UK it's different. So a lawyer can't appear in
33:45
court. You have a barrister here.
33:47
So it's it's ridiculous and I think it's a system to charge
33:50
the client more money. Because it will definitely
33:53
charges more money, yeah. I got to pay AUS lawyer that I
33:56
was on the phone with, Yeah, then I got to pay a UK lawyer
34:00
and now I have to pay a UK barrister.
34:02
And of course, you're fighting for your life.
34:04
And what is the difference between the the UK lawyer and
34:07
the barrister? The barrister is allowed to
34:10
appear in court. They're a lawyer that goes to
34:12
court. They're a trial lawyer.
34:13
They're like a litigator. What you would call like a, a,
34:16
a, a, a trial lawyer in America. They don't negotiate in rooms
34:21
and stuff. They're the guy that comes to
34:23
trial, but they get a lot of the material and the work is done by
34:26
the lawyer with them. So so now I'm I make it now I've
34:30
got 3 lawyers I got to pay. For and and at this time, Ron,
34:34
what are you thinking? Like when it's not normal to be
34:38
in an airport? Your your passport doesn't work.
34:41
Your family is with you. You obviously are rattled and
34:47
you tell your wife to call, you know the attorney.
34:49
But when you get put into that room, what's going through your
34:52
mind? Oh, I think my life is over.
34:53
I think I'm fucking done. I think I'm they're pulling
34:56
putting me on a plane tomorrow to the US like Conair style.
35:00
You know, I've never seen I'm going to the US all my.
35:04
Not as AUS citizen. No, I'm going to be stuck in
35:07
like, you know, some, you know, Rikers or some.
35:10
And your family is in the United Kingdom?
35:13
Oh, I'm never. I'm not going to see my family
35:15
for years. I'm going to be thrown into
35:16
prison. They showed these charges, 20
35:19
years, 20 years, 20 years, 9 counts.
35:21
It looked like 200 years in in prison.
35:24
And I didn't even know what it meant, what it said, because it
35:26
was all sealed. I was, you know, shitting my
35:29
pants. I was freaked out.
35:31
I didn't know what to expect. I get to like court.
35:35
I was supposed to be there in the morning.
35:36
I get there in the afternoon because there was some problem,
35:39
you know, and delays At the court.
35:41
I meet this barrister and this lawyer.
35:44
First time I'm meeting my lawyer and barrister like is in on the
35:47
doorstep of the courtroom. I've got to go in in front of a
35:50
judge now for a bond hearing, OK, It's like a bail hearing.
35:54
They said I'm a Canadian citizen flying to the UK and I'm a
35:59
flight risk. OK, So I'm coming through Dubai.
36:03
They didn't say Iceland. I don't know why they knew I was
36:06
in Iceland. I mean, but they said I'm coming
36:08
through the UK from Dubai. I'm a flight risk and they need
36:12
to grab me for on an extradition order.
36:14
They didn't say I'm British and that, you know, I own my home
36:18
here with my wife at that point. I've I've owned it for, you
36:22
know, 12 years. It's my main residence.
36:24
I got two kids, my wife, myself, My kids were all British.
36:27
My kids go to school here. If you Google me on, you know,
36:32
corporate registry of companies, I show up on like dozens of
36:35
companies with my personal name and my home and my my home
36:39
address. So it's not like I'm some like
36:41
guy hiding by. Yeah, you're not a catch me if
36:44
you can guy. You know, I'm like, everything's
36:46
on my name. I own my home, my wife owns my
36:48
home. I'm like not, I'm in clear
36:50
sight. I'm not hiding from anything.
36:51
So the judge right away said this is BS, you know, and they
36:55
gave me bail. But of course the, the, the
36:59
Crown Prosecution Service, which is the UK version of the DOJ,
37:03
they represent the DOJ in extradition.
37:05
They rejected all bond. They said we don't even know how
37:08
big this case is. It could be $1,000,000, it could
37:11
be a billion dollars. We don't know because it's
37:13
sealed. So we, we have, we, we object to
37:17
like any bail. The judge said, I don't see this
37:21
guy being a flight risk. He's married, he's British, his
37:23
wife's British, his kids go to school.
37:25
But I don't know how big this case is.
37:26
So he set bail for me at, you know, very, for the UK purposes.
37:30
My bill was very high. It was £250,000.
37:34
And, and they put like a, a location monitor.
37:37
It's a it's a, it's A tag, but it's like a Fitbit on your
37:41
ankle, which basically it's like a curfew monitor.
37:43
OK, sure. So it's not AGPS, it's a curfew
37:46
monitor. It means, and they gave me a
37:47
curfew. I had to be at home between
37:49
midnight and six, which is almost like house arrest.
37:51
Yeah. And, you know, and I had that
37:53
for two years and then, and then I fought, I started fighting
37:56
extradition, you know, and then, and then of course, it's like
37:59
you're almost like it's like a free for all, you know.
38:03
And so I get home and I'm like, Oh my God, it's like, I'm so
38:07
happy to get home. First of all, I'm like, you
38:10
know, So what happened is first of all, sorry, it gets even
38:12
worse. So now I'm in court, they gave
38:14
me bond. I'm like relieved I got bond.
38:17
Sure. And my wife has the money ready
38:19
to go, but the the bank is closed for the court so late in
38:24
the day. So now, so Brent, now imagine
38:27
this. So now they send me, they send
38:29
me for the night to the worst prison ever in the UK.
38:33
It's a it's like the highest security.
38:36
It's that Wandsworth where, you know, that guy snuck out in the
38:39
in the, in the the laundry thing.
38:42
You remember that guy that they just put him in jail.
38:45
So they put me in wands with the worst prison.
38:47
It's a remand. It's what they call a remand
38:50
prison. So you're there.
38:51
You're there with white collar criminals, murderers, rapists,
38:55
pedophiles, drug. The whole world.
38:57
Everyone, people from like that have like are are going to get
39:01
probation to like. Somebody just murdered somebody,
39:04
right? And I remember they drove me
39:06
there and it's like I'm dressed up in like, like, so I'm dressed
39:10
up in like nice clothing. I just come back from holiday.
39:12
I've got like Louis Vuitton sneakers on.
39:14
I'm wearing like, you know, a nice, a nice jacket, a nice
39:18
clothing. And I'm walking into this
39:20
holding room. There's like 30 people there.
39:22
It looks like, I mean, like something out of like law and
39:25
order. Like I'm at Rikers, OK?
39:26
It's like I think I'm literally, you know, probably 7080% are
39:32
like, you know, black and and Asian and then 2030% are white
39:36
and like people tattoos everywhere and you know, scary
39:39
looking people. And I'm in there thinking what
39:42
the fuck? It's like I'm getting bail but
39:44
I'm going to get my ass handed to me.
39:46
I'm going to get a beat down session.
39:48
And it can't happen. I mean, in a situation like
39:50
that, that's that's the the worst place to be.
39:53
And we've talked about it on this show a lot.
39:56
Jail is the worst place to be and being locked up in the
40:01
system and I don't care where you are once you get like.
40:06
MDC, Brooklyn of the. Yeah, yeah.
40:07
And once you get to prison, it's not as transitory.
40:10
You don't have everybody in the world all in one general
40:14
population and, and bad things can't happen to you.
40:18
I mean bad things, people get stabbed, people, all kinds of
40:21
weird bad things happen. People want money.
40:23
There's all kinds of bad things. So are you there for a night?
40:26
So I'm there for a night. So they put me and I go through
40:28
the whole induction. They take my clothes, they give
40:31
me the prison garb, they took my fingerprints.
40:33
They take everything. They give me everything.
40:35
They say, look, I'm like I'm only here for a day, you know,
40:39
I've got bail. And they're like, whatever.
40:41
They don't care. They're like everyone has a
40:42
story there. Everyone's like, I'm only here
40:44
for a day, I'm leaving tomorrow. Not supposed to be here.
40:47
Everybody says that you're. Like that's what everyone.
40:49
Says what the poor guy says in Shawshank and that didn't work
40:52
out well for him. They think I'm full of shit
40:54
friends. Yeah, like whatever, you know,
40:56
we don't care. We don't care what your story
40:57
is, just go through. And so I ended up this guy who
41:01
was like in his 60s was there for like VAT fraud, which is
41:05
like, you know, an IRS type type fraud.
41:08
He was going to be there for six months.
41:09
He's like, dude, come in my cell with me.
41:11
I don't want to have someone young, you know, and causing me
41:13
problems. I know you're going to be here
41:15
for a day or two only. So I was there for 24 hours.
41:17
You know, the prison was was not as bad as the holding.
41:21
So the holding the lights on 24 hours, you're in this cell, it's
41:24
bright here. I'm in this cell.
41:27
I'm with this older dude. He'd obviously known people that
41:30
were there. So there was like he had like
41:32
ATV put brought into his cell. There was like a kettle, a
41:35
toaster. He had food he'd organized.
41:37
There was a phone in there. It was like, I'm like, I
41:43
remember calling my wife up because they wouldn't give me a
41:46
phone code because I was only going to be there 24 hours.
41:48
So this guy registered my wife's cell number.
41:52
I remember calling my wife up and she's like, what's that
41:54
noise in the back? And there's like a horse races
41:56
going on here, you know, the guys watching the horse races.
42:00
So I was there for I'd say 30 hours.
42:02
I was in the prison and I mean I saw people getting like I saw
42:06
people fighting there. I saw everyone was on drugs
42:09
there. They they do this drug in the UK
42:11
called Spice. I don't know what you if you
42:13
have it in the US. Well, they got.
42:14
K2 that's kind of a synthetic, yeah.
42:17
It's synthetic canvas, but people look like zombies.
42:20
I mean, they like, it's like you're watching like the living
42:23
dead or something. Yeah.
42:25
And I could. And I'm like saying the guards
42:27
next to me and I'm like, what's going on?
42:30
I mean, do you not see all these people doing drugs going in and
42:33
out? And he's like, I prefer they're
42:35
doing drugs because they're less volatile.
42:36
They have no interest in bothering me.
42:40
And so, yeah, I was there for 30 hours.
42:42
And then they just, they said, you're out, You know, the bond
42:45
was made. And they let me go at night, the
42:47
following day, like late at night.
42:48
And I remember they opened up the prison.
42:51
I'm outside. I remember I'm in the shithole
42:53
neighborhood, Wandsworth. And I remember thinking to
42:56
myself, holy shit, I said, what if someone like mugs you here or
43:00
tries to stab you? Like I would have never walked
43:01
around that neighborhood. And then the irony hit me.
43:04
I'm like, dude, you were just in prison in the worst prison with
43:07
the worst, like the people. And you're worried about being
43:10
on the street outside, you know, in, in the normal world.
43:15
Belt it all out. You just I had no phone.
43:18
I had no phone. My phones were dead.
43:20
I had no phone, no way of communicating, no money,
43:23
nothing. I had to like flag a cab down
43:26
and take it home. I remember coming back to hope
43:28
my kids had no idea like my wife was out at some some event she
43:34
had to she couldn't get out of. And I remember my kids opening
43:37
the door for me and they're like why are you wearing the same
43:38
clothes from 2 days ago? I thought you were going on a on
43:42
a trip. My wife told the kids I'm going
43:44
on a work trip she gave us. That was a real work trip, all
43:46
right. So yeah, it was a huge shock,
43:50
honestly. And then, you know, then when it
43:52
came out, it was like so for the first week.
43:55
Did it hit the news? You know, nobody knew.
43:58
No one knew other than my lawyers about it.
44:00
Like people couldn't reach me for two days.
44:02
I told people I was travelling. It was like a holiday time.
44:05
You know, it was like Passover, Easter weekend.
44:08
So people didn't really care. And then for the first week it
44:12
was under seal because they were rounding up and wanted to arrest
44:16
other people in my case. And then I remember I was on a,
44:21
a Zoom call with bankers and lawyers and an auditor on a
44:24
deal. And then my phone just went off
44:27
the chart, off the hook, ringing, ringing, ringing,
44:30
beeping messages. And someone sent me a link and
44:33
said, Ron, is this true? And then that's when the DOJ and
44:37
SEC press release came out at the same time.
44:39
The the the SEC came out with their civil case, and the DOJ
44:43
came out with their. All in the same day.
44:46
And it was like someone opened my front door, threw a grenade
44:50
in and then held the door closed.
44:51
You know, my world just blew up. That was a week, 8 days later,
44:55
you know, when I got arrested, it just, my whole world blew up,
44:58
you know, literally. So walk us through that, Ron.
45:02
I mean, you're, you're, you, you go through you, you, you get out
45:07
of this awful jail. You're on a phone call.
45:11
And this is this is the way they do it too.
45:14
It's it's, you know, maximum event. $75 million, you know,
45:20
most complicated fraud SEC is $145,000,000 fraud.
45:23
They painted me out to be the ringleader and, you know, the
45:27
most sophisticated international manipulation.
45:30
I mean, just where are the victims?
45:33
There's not, you know, now I'm like three years later, not one
45:35
person has come out and sued me and everything.
45:37
And I mean, it's so it's just just crazy, you know, And it's
45:40
like. So I'm curious on on an
45:43
international thing like this, you're this is all in the United
45:46
States. OK, So you've got you've got to
45:50
deal with this is a Southern District of New York, which is a
45:55
the biggest office, you know, for the DOJ.
46:01
When and how is it negotiated with somebody who is not from
46:05
the United States to go into the United States to talk or defend
46:11
or meet with your attorney or anyone else?
46:13
How does that? Work.
46:15
So you don't get any discovery because, you know, I've not made
46:18
an appearance because technically.
46:20
So I was fighting extradition for a year and a half, a little
46:24
over a year and a half. So, you know.
46:28
And, and, and I guess I'll say for, for the people who are,
46:30
are, we're, we're learning about this as, as, because this is
46:33
somewhat, I mean, they explain it as a very complicated, A lot
46:37
more complicated international scheme of pump dump
46:44
manipulation. But I guess what for the people
46:48
who aren't usually in that world, it feels like that stocks
46:52
get manipulated all the time for I mean, even they say that like
46:58
influencers on TikTok and and you know, Instagram can
47:03
influence stocks. You don't get the but what what
47:07
exactly? What is it that they were they
47:10
were so after you for on charging you for securities
47:15
fraud? So they were after what they're
47:17
saying is, and you know what I plead guilty to and I'm not, you
47:20
know, I'm not saying here that I'm a victim.
47:24
And you know, I'm it's wrong and you know, I accept
47:28
responsibility here, Brent 100%. You know, no one forced me.
47:32
I, I hid my ownership. I hid that I was the beneficial
47:35
owner. And it stemmed back to the fact
47:38
that, you know, I had an SEC settlement.
47:40
I did in 2004 five and I always felt in my mind that if.
47:45
People would it was better for your business for you not to
47:48
expose the fact that. My business.
47:50
I didn't want to harm the company's ability to succeed by
47:52
disclosing my ownership, and whether I was involved or not
47:55
was irrelevant. And I didn't want to to harm the
47:59
company's ability and my partner's ability to raise
48:01
capital and grow a business because of my SEC settlement.
48:03
So I hid my ownership through nominees.
48:06
It's not right. I accept responsibility I
48:08
shouldn't have. Done it.
48:09
Is it illegal? Yeah, it's illegal.
48:12
It's definitely wrong. I didn't realize it was illegal
48:14
at the time, but now I know it's illegal and it's wrong and I
48:16
accept responsibility for, you know, not disclosing my
48:21
beneficial ownership. I was wrong.
48:23
I accept full responsibility. I I would.
48:25
If I could go back and turn back time I would have done things
48:27
differently and I did. I self corrected the conduct
48:31
myself. Years before.
48:33
Yeah, from around 2015, you know, seven years, like 9 years
48:37
from now, seven years before I was indicted, I started
48:40
disclosing everything, even the Africa oil deal that we did.
48:44
I put all those shares on mine and my wife's name, you know,
48:46
and I did loads of deals and 20, all my deals I was doing with
48:49
the universities, you know, 2011 onwards and 2015.
48:53
But really I just stopped 2015. I just stopped doing these over
48:57
the counter, you know, penny stock deals.
49:00
Everything I did was main market fully disclosing I had a bad
49:03
taste in my mouth. I didn't feel good about it.
49:06
I knew it was wrong and I change it.
49:08
And So what they're coming back for is they're coming back and
49:11
saying, you know, your old conduct was wrong.
49:15
You hid your ownership. You went then and financed the
49:18
promotional material. People did not know you were
49:20
paying for the promo material. It's almost like you're going
49:23
into a casino and you're playing with a deck of cards that's
49:27
loaded and you know, and it's wrong.
49:29
And if I could go back and it's not how I operated on all my
49:32
biggest successful deals that were done on my name and my
49:36
ownership. Most of my money that I've made
49:38
were deals that I disclosed everything and we never hid
49:41
anything. That's what's ironic.
49:42
What's? Ironic, that is, ironic it is.
49:44
There's that I, you know, I didn't even make most of my
49:47
money by doing that conduct. So most of my money I made by
49:50
doing everything by the book and by the rule of the law and, you
49:54
know, straight by the rule of the law.
49:56
And so, you know, I fucked up. I made a mistake.
49:59
I accept responsibility. And So what I pled guilty to and
50:03
what you know, my statement of facts was, is that, you know,
50:06
there were about six or seven companies that I hid my
50:09
ownership. I didn't disclose that I was a
50:11
beneficial owner. I didn't disclose that we were
50:14
paying for promo. We didn't disclose that we were
50:17
selling shares. You know, and we should have
50:20
disclosed, we should have just filed the 13D and disclosed our
50:22
beneficial ownership. We should have disclosed that we
50:24
were paying for the marketing. So it's all about transparency
50:27
really. And you know what?
50:28
It's I'm kind of stupid. And it's a, it's a stupid
50:31
mistake. It's an amateur mistake because
50:33
I don't know if those deals would have done worse or better
50:36
if I would have disclosed everything because I I was
50:39
already having huge success around the same time frame by
50:43
fully disclosing everything in other deals.
50:46
So I was I was running parallel. Right.
50:48
Who's to say? Who's to say?
50:50
I didn't have to do that, you know.
50:52
I didn't. What are all these fireworks
50:54
here? I have no idea.
50:57
I didn't, I didn't have to do any of that conduct.
51:02
You know, it was, it was unnecessary conduct.
51:05
So, you know, and I think people all day long are manipulating
51:09
the markets in other ways. And they're doing it in legal
51:12
ways too. It might be manipulation, but
51:15
they're doing it in legal ways. They're disclosing like
51:18
influencers, even people like Jake Paul and all these other
51:21
ones, they're getting paid. They're disclosing, they're
51:23
getting paid. But nonetheless, most of their
51:26
followers don't read the disclaimer.
51:29
So I mean, what you're saying is it's, it's right.
51:32
It's a transparency thing. So I, I get that.
51:35
And I, so in, in dealing with this, I, I think the, the thing
51:40
that scares everybody from this story is, is that you have a
51:44
wife and kids, you're being brought into a country that's,
51:49
that's wanting to put you in prison.
51:53
How are you dealing with that? How are your wife and kids and
51:56
you working through this in the last two years of you thinking
52:01
that maybe if I go over to the United States, they keep me, I
52:04
can't get back and your kids are there and your wife's there.
52:07
How did you guys work through all that it?
52:09
Was terrible and so I fought the extradition for almost 2 years
52:12
until finally it looked like I might win extradition, you know,
52:18
and be, but even if I win extradition, it's, it's not
52:22
winning the case. I mean, so for example, I'm not,
52:25
I had, I have, I wasn't arraigned until that point.
52:28
My case is still an open case. I've not seen any discovery.
52:31
I've not been arraigned in the US.
52:34
So I have an extradition hearing in the UK that I'm fighting the
52:38
I make all these arguments around, you know, breaches of my
52:42
rights and this and everything and, and a whole bunch of issues
52:44
and family and health issues. My extradition was going in my
52:47
favor. The DOJ came knocking on my door
52:50
and said, look, we don't want this thing.
52:51
Whether they felt weaker or stronger around their cases,
52:54
irrelevant. They just did not want this
52:56
thing to drag on. There were elections coming up
52:58
there. Who knows what their basis or
53:00
reasonings were, but they came to my lawyer and said, look,
53:03
what is your client actually want to come in and, you know,
53:07
come to the US and give up extradition.
53:09
And so I always said, look, I'm going to fight this case.
53:12
I felt I had a real good basis to fight this case.
53:17
And so my lawyer and I said, look, if you're going to allow
53:20
him to go back to the UK, you know, I have health issues in my
53:23
family and young kids. They said if you allow him to go
53:26
to come to, he'll come to the US, he'll be arraigned, he'll
53:29
plead not guilty, we'll set a trial date, you'll give us
53:32
discovery and let him go back to the UK.
53:36
Before my extradition trial commenced in the UK, they were
53:39
always against. They said, we'll give him bail,
53:42
he can come to the US, plead not guilty, We'll let him remain
53:47
free on bond with a, you know, monitor and everything he can.
53:51
He'll be confined to certain States and districts, but he's
53:54
not going to be in jail. He'll be free on bond in the US
53:57
And I said, how does that help me?
53:59
I've got a wife and two kids. Right in another country.
54:01
I have no status. I've got my kids in school.
54:03
So what now? I'm not going to see my kids for
54:05
years while I'm waiting for a trial to happen.
54:07
It's almost like, you know, killing time, like a death
54:09
sentence. Then I've got to pay for two
54:11
homes now, so my kids are going to have to fly back and forth to
54:14
visit me. So.
54:14
So I said I'll take my chances with the extradition.
54:17
And you know, I could have delayed it for 3-4 years with
54:20
the extradition. I delayed it two years.
54:22
And so finally they caved and said, OK, so I flew, you know,
54:26
end of March this year, 2024 to the USI plead not guilty.
54:31
And of course I came. So now I go to Heathrow, they
54:34
cut my tag. the US Marshals meet me.
54:37
And now I'm like the US Marshals say, look, I've heard you're
54:40
like you honored your, your bond and your, and your house arrest
54:44
bail conditions to the tee. So we're not going to handcuff
54:47
you and shackle you on the plane, but you know, you're
54:50
going to be sitting with us, you know, in between us here.
54:52
And you know, we'll we'll take you once you land in, in, in
54:57
Newark. We're going to have to once you
55:00
land in in the US, we're going to have to arrest you there, you
55:03
know, and so I flew on the plane and, you know, I had my phone
55:06
and I was watching movies and they were super nice. the US
55:09
Marshall and I landed and he said, look, I'm going to take
55:12
you to the side here because I don't want to embarrass you.
55:14
He says, usually I would have shackled you and handcuffed you
55:17
on the plane. And we do like the walk and
55:19
embarrassed you and that's what we do.
55:21
But you've been like easy to deal with and no, not
55:24
complicated in any way. So they took me to the side,
55:28
read me my rights, arrested me, handcuffed me, put my jacket
55:31
over my handcuffs so no one would see They were fine.
55:34
They took me to, you know, passport control in the back.
55:37
And then, you know, they took me to holding.
55:40
They told me, don't worry, you're going to go to this
55:41
holding place. I ended up going to Jersey City
55:43
to Hudson and where where the US Marshall has that beds and I had
55:49
to spend the night there. And it was like, you know, I
55:52
think I was the only white person there.
55:53
I'm not exaggerating. And like people were coming to
55:55
talk to me saying, are you are you Like, I didn't even know
55:59
what a child molester. What is it?
56:00
Yeah. Or something like I didn't even
56:02
know that term. That's.
56:02
Probably what they thought you were, yeah.
56:05
They thought they said you must be a pedophile.
56:07
And I'm like, what do you mean why?
56:09
And they said like you're, you're middle-aged white, you're
56:11
wearing a blazer and you're in a prison.
56:13
Everyone here is Latino or black.
56:14
You know, you're the only white person here and you're, you look
56:16
like you're 50 years old. You know, you have to be, you
56:18
must be. I'm like, no, it's like white
56:20
collar crime. And they're like, So what are
56:21
you? Are you the wolf of Wall Street?
56:22
I'm like, not really like so So I was there for a night.
56:27
Then they took me to the Magistrate Court and right away,
56:29
you know, we had pre arranged bail.
56:30
They, they honored it. And I was in New York, you know,
56:33
and I hadn't been in New York now at that point for five
56:36
years, almost four years since COVID, like four years.
56:39
And, you know, had a nice burger, stayed in a nice hotel.
56:44
And I was, you know, I couldn't leave the US until the rest of
56:46
the things were satisfied. And then I had a week later, my
56:51
first hearing in front of the judge on my case.
56:54
And, you know, the judge was, you know, gracious and very, you
56:58
know, I can't say he was, he was, he was, you know, mean or
57:03
bad in any way. I mean, you know, he's been
57:05
very, very. So sounds like everything went
57:08
as as well as it could have in a very awkward, weird situation.
57:12
No, very weird. And the DOJ and I have to say
57:14
like, you know, a lot of people say stories, the FBI agent on my
57:17
case was stand up, OK. He was very good to me.
57:20
When I got there, I was in a room alone with them waiting for
57:22
my magistrate and my lawyer because my lawyer was late.
57:25
The guys at the DOJ, you know, in a difficult, you know, I'm
57:29
just a defendant to them. You know, they don't want to
57:32
make personalizes, but they were fine with me too.
57:35
And I can't say there's been any problem.
57:38
I didn't, you know, knock on wood.
57:39
I haven't had any, any issues with the, it's been a terrible
57:43
process for me and my life's been thrown upside down.
57:45
But you know, everyone was trying to be as civil as they
57:47
can and they're just doing their job.
57:49
I understand. Well, and one of the things that
57:50
you told me too, Ron, is that the, with your kids and the
57:54
schools and everything else, everybody's been very supportive
57:58
and, and has made it as good as it can be in a really tough
58:02
situation. So in as, as we Fast forward
58:07
through this, in November, you pled guilty to 1 count of
58:11
securities fraud. You're supposed to be sentenced
58:14
in May. And then you've got this kind of
58:18
weird purgatory theme of almost a year afterwards of whatever
58:26
they would give you. If you get prison time, a whole
58:29
year goes by because you've got some health issues with your
58:32
back and I think some health issues with your wife's
58:35
situation. So this is this is kind of the
58:39
beginning of the continued strangeness of of your of your
58:45
case. It's like I'm on borrowed time.
58:47
You know, I mean, it's bad enough that I'm a foreigner, so
58:49
I have to go through the whole extradition process and then
58:52
this complicated, you know, bail package so I could come into the
58:56
US and then leave and come back here.
58:58
But now, you know, when I plead guilty, you know, and people
59:01
would say to me like I was speaking to with people that you
59:04
know, and I know, you know, people like, you know, Jeff
59:06
Grant, who, you know, mutual friend and like, David Israel
59:08
and friends of mine and that are friends of yours.
59:11
And they said to me that out like you could, you don't know
59:14
what's in the judge's mind. The judge could.
59:16
Say no idea if you. Agreed with the DOJ.
59:18
Yeah, I'm not giving you Bond. You know, and you're stuck.
59:22
You could, you know, people said to me, I know situations where
59:25
people, they said now that you've pled guilty, you know,
59:28
you're going to go to prison eventually at some stage or
59:30
maybe not, but I'm going to remand you now until I sentence
59:33
you. And that happens a lot.
59:35
And that's, that's see the thing, the crazy thing about
59:38
what kind of flabbergasted me about this whole thing is, is
59:42
you're in the United Kingdom. They remand a lot of people that
59:46
that white collar or not that are, you know, they they plead
59:52
guilty and they take them immediately and remand them to
59:55
the county jail, which would be a nightmare for you because that
59:58
could be, you don't know how long it could be monster a year
1:00:03
or whatever it could be so. It's, it's, it's incredible that
1:00:08
this is a, an international case that you've been able to stay
1:00:12
out, you've been able to not be remanded to US custody and jail
1:00:17
to wait for sentencing. And I've got So what, what?
1:00:21
What is what is life like at this moment?
1:00:25
It's like I'm in limbo, honestly.
1:00:26
It's like I'm and, you know, it's like I'm living in the
1:00:28
Twilight zone. I'm on like borrowed time.
1:00:30
You know, some people look at me and I can see it in their face
1:00:33
that they feel sorry for me. And some people feel like, you
1:00:35
know, well, fuck you. You know, you, you know, where
1:00:38
there's smoke, there's fire. You must be guilty if they
1:00:40
indicted you and they don't indict innocent people.
1:00:44
And, you know, some people are, well, Trump's being charged on
1:00:47
so many cases and, and, and convicted and everything.
1:00:51
And, you know, he's now the new president.
1:00:53
So how bad is it? And then now that I've pled, you
1:00:56
know, guilty and the, and the plea deal I did with the DOJ is
1:00:59
like 1 count, the conspiracy count out of nine counts, they
1:01:02
dropped the other 8 counts. And also, you know, my
1:01:05
financial, my 4th, there's, you know, I agreed forfeiture is so
1:01:09
much less than the, than the, the case.
1:01:11
And there's no restitution and no penalty.
1:01:14
So that sends another message. And, you know, no one's come
1:01:17
forward. I'm sure there's victims.
1:01:18
Don't get me wrong, I know well there must be victims here.
1:01:21
I'm not saying no one lost money and there's no victims.
1:01:24
I accept responsibility for what I did.
1:01:26
I'm sure people lost money, but no one's come forward to sue me.
1:01:29
There's no one coming to sentence and saying I lost my
1:01:32
life savings because of Ron Bauer and his partners.
1:01:34
So, but still, it doesn't change the fact.
1:01:37
And so it's like I'm living in like a state of limbo.
1:01:40
I. Can't.
1:01:40
Well, I was. I was.
1:01:41
I was going to ask you, Ron. Difficult to do any business or
1:01:44
work. Well, that's what I was going to
1:01:45
ask you. What do you do business wise in
1:01:48
limbo? I try to consult people.
1:01:50
I try to help people. You know, I'm really dealing
1:01:52
with old historical stuff that I had, like, so in the very
1:01:56
beginning when I got indicted, everybody canceled deals on me,
1:01:59
you know, put me in the penalty box and basically tried to RIP
1:02:03
me off and squeeze me out of deals.
1:02:04
And the first few months, you know, I felt like I'm the
1:02:08
problem, you know? And you know, I met Jeff Grant
1:02:12
early in the process. I met him actually, not early.
1:02:14
I wish I would have met him. Founder of the white collar
1:02:16
support group. Fabulous Guy, and he's an
1:02:18
attorney. Yeah, nothing but praise for
1:02:20
Jeff Grant and for David Israel. I met Jeff Grant and David
1:02:23
Israel, and both of them went through what I'm going through
1:02:25
and what you went through, and they came out the other side,
1:02:28
you know, with success. Just like you, like you and like
1:02:30
David and like Jeff have done. And Jeff sort of changed my
1:02:34
whole minds and said you're not the problem, they're the
1:02:37
problem. You know, you didn't screw them
1:02:39
over or RIP them off. And these deals you're doing are
1:02:41
legitimate deals. And Jeff came in as a lawyer and
1:02:44
helped me negotiate deals. And, you know, some of those
1:02:47
companies ended up going public. Some of them are sold privately.
1:02:50
And so I've been dealing with historical residual stuff and,
1:02:54
you know, and I've had battles, you know, with my bank here and,
1:02:57
you know, mortgage lenders and banks and other stuff, people
1:03:00
trying to squeeze me out. And so I've been spending the
1:03:02
last 2 1/2 years cleaning up, you know, historical stuff and
1:03:06
masses and trying to do new stuff, but it's very difficult.
1:03:10
Because yeah, it's got to be people like.
1:03:12
I don't know if I can do a deal with you if you're going to go
1:03:14
first. People didn't want to do do a
1:03:15
deal with me because they didn't know whether I was going to go
1:03:17
to trial. Or.
1:03:18
Lose or do a deal. And then once I did the plea
1:03:21
deal, people are like, OK, great.
1:03:23
It's not so bad. And no one's coming after you
1:03:26
and taking away money from you and you've settled with the DOJ.
1:03:28
But you know. What if you go to when?
1:03:31
You get sentenced. Are you?
1:03:32
Yeah. Well, how long you get to be
1:03:33
gone away? For a year, for two years, For
1:03:36
five years. Yeah.
1:03:37
No. How can I do a deal with someone
1:03:39
you? Know it's just, you know, we
1:03:40
always talk we always talk about on this show Ron is, is the
1:03:44
unknowns or the worst it is so I'm in the twilight, you're in
1:03:47
the unknowns and, and as things become known, you, you can start
1:03:51
dealing with those things that are known, but you have so many
1:03:54
of the unknowns around you that you can really only deal with
1:03:57
the things you can control and you can't control the other
1:04:00
things that are the unknowns. And you just have to just have
1:04:02
to continue to walk through until they become known and then
1:04:06
you can deal with it. And your next real known is, is
1:04:08
to find out on your sentencing. You know what what you're going
1:04:13
to get and then you'll be able to deal with that and and work
1:04:16
through that. And you know, the great thing
1:04:18
about it is it sounds like that you've got great support, your
1:04:22
wife and your kids and the people around you and the
1:04:25
schools, that that's such a big deal, friends.
1:04:27
Too. My friends and family friends,
1:04:29
all those things that's such a big deal to be able to get
1:04:32
through your own nightmare. And then I wish you the best of
1:04:37
luck on, on whatever the sentencing is, because it sounds
1:04:39
like at this point that the judge has been very reasonable
1:04:45
and, and what he could have done to what he has done.
1:04:48
And and and maybe it's. Yeah.
1:04:50
He's been very good and I and I think that, you know, the DOJ
1:04:54
has also been very good in the fact that they understand my
1:04:57
health and family's health situation and family situation
1:05:00
and they've agreed to give me a delayed reporting, you know,
1:05:04
based. On.
1:05:04
I mean, that's all really. I get a sentence, so at least I
1:05:07
know then yeah, what the sentence is.
1:05:08
I can prepare for it. And, and I and I, I can't see
1:05:12
the judge going against at this stage.
1:05:13
He's gone with everything we've agreed so far, the DOJ, and I've
1:05:17
honored everything I've not given anyone.
1:05:18
Yeah, you've got a good track record I've.
1:05:20
Not fled. I've not been a flight risk in
1:05:23
any sense. I've always reported with
1:05:25
pretrial services. I've always honored my.
1:05:28
Bond that's a big and that's a big deal when they're looking at
1:05:31
what they're looking at now, because you have to have
1:05:33
somewhat of a trust fact built up goodwill because you're not
1:05:38
in this country and they're they're taking that as as
1:05:41
goodwill that you've you've abided by all the different
1:05:45
things that have happened in the last two years.
1:05:47
I know. But one of the most important
1:05:49
things here is what sets me apart, and this is going to be
1:05:51
where it's going to be. Really the worst situation for
1:05:54
me is that as a foreigner, even though I'm Canadian and British,
1:05:59
I'm treated as if I'm a foreigner, as if I'm like an
1:06:02
illegal alien and a foreigner in the US So any sentence I would
1:06:06
have got, I would have been going to.
1:06:08
A federal A camp. Like in Otisville or, or
1:06:11
something like that. And you know, now I have to go
1:06:15
to an FCI low. So instead of being in a camp
1:06:18
which has anywhere from, you know, 30-40 to 500 people, I'm
1:06:21
going to be in a, in a overpopulated prison camp now
1:06:24
that they've shut down, overpopulated low security,
1:06:27
right shut down. So I'll most likely be somewhere
1:06:30
like Allenwood Low or Danbury Low where there's 12113. 100
1:06:34
more security scheduled moves. Like, you know, high security
1:06:38
down on their way out. I'm there with loads of
1:06:41
foreigners, you know, we're talking drug dealers, cartel
1:06:43
members, gang members, you know, a whole bunch of people, you
1:06:46
know, And I don't qualify for home confinement or house arrest
1:06:51
because I'm not American. So I, I will have immediately an
1:06:55
ICE detainer and an ICE deportation order put on me.
1:06:58
So I don't qualify for, you know, most people with my
1:07:02
situation, even if they got, you know, two years, three years,
1:07:05
four years, they would qualify for, you know, first step back
1:07:08
right out the game. You know I.
1:07:10
And that that was one of the things that opened my eyes when
1:07:12
we were first talking is, is you don't qualify.
1:07:15
You get sentenced the same way that a citizen does, but you
1:07:18
don't have the benefits of being a citizen for the first step act
1:07:22
and other things that allow you to get out.
1:07:25
And this is what's important for your foreigners who are
1:07:27
listening, people that are not American.
1:07:29
So first of all, I would qualify.
1:07:31
I could attend our DAP, you know, drug.
1:07:34
Which allows you to a year off. I can attend it, but I'm getting
1:07:38
no credit for RDAP. OK, That's the first thing.
1:07:41
So most people could get, you know, like 10 or 15% off their
1:07:44
time for drug and alcohol. I get none of that.
1:07:47
OK. And I had major I was drinking
1:07:50
nonstop when I first got indicted and for the first
1:07:52
couple of years. And then I was hooked on opioids
1:07:55
because I had ruptured my disc and then had to have spine
1:07:58
surgery and was hooked on oxy. You would have qualified for
1:08:01
RDAP. Taking pain medication, you
1:08:03
know, in lower dose. So I would definitely qualify
1:08:06
for, for RDAP. So I, I get none of that.
1:08:09
I get no first step act because the minute you get an ICE
1:08:13
detainer and ICE deportation order on you, you basically lose
1:08:16
your first step back credit. So that would be another 50
1:08:19
close to a year. OK, on a sentence like what,
1:08:22
what I would get or wait like you had.
1:08:24
And then, you know, I don't qualify for house arrest or home
1:08:27
confinement or a camp because, you know, I'm a, I'm a risk
1:08:31
secure. I'm going to have a personal
1:08:32
safety factor on me with, with Bureau of prison.
1:08:36
So I'm literally, if I got like a, if I was American and I got
1:08:40
like a three-year sentence, I could be home in like, you know,
1:08:43
eight months to 10 months, you know, with a 2 year sentence, I
1:08:46
could be home in eight months, you know, but now you know.
1:08:50
You don't get any of those credits. 5% time on like a
1:08:52
three-year sentence. I'm doing like you know if I got
1:08:55
like a five year sentence, I'm doing 4 years.
1:08:57
If I get a four year sentence is 3 1/2 years, a three-year
1:08:59
sentence is 2 1/2 years. You know, even A2 year sentence
1:09:02
I'm doing a year and a half, it's like there's no real
1:09:05
discount for me. And that's what foreigners need
1:09:07
to understand, that you're treated.
1:09:09
You don't get the same benefits you're going to.
1:09:12
Oh, you're getting you're getting charged and convicted as
1:09:16
AUS citizen would be, but you don't get the benefits of what
1:09:20
the US citizen gets in the Bureau system.
1:09:23
And that's being. Punished.
1:09:24
It's a double punishment because I'm not America and why would I
1:09:27
leave a camp? I mean, think about it if I was.
1:09:30
No, you got more, you got more reasons of no, not leaving the
1:09:33
camp of. Course, what am I stupid?
1:09:35
I'm going to run away from a camp and now be put in a medium
1:09:37
or high security. Yeah, yeah.
1:09:40
And that's another charge. Also, I, I'm, I'm curious, you
1:09:44
know, Rod, going through everything that you've gone
1:09:46
through with all of this, what do you think's your biggest take
1:09:51
away from everything that you've been through?
1:09:56
My biggest take away is that, you know, don't cut corners in
1:10:02
life. You know, people want people are
1:10:05
rushed, you know, and you want you know, I was so rushed to
1:10:09
make you know a lot. I grew up in a middle class
1:10:10
family and I wanted to have, you know, more money and fancy this.
1:10:14
And, and I, I made so much money and bought all these crazy stuff
1:10:17
and just didn't have the time to even enjoy it.
1:10:19
And I was moving on to the next thing because I was busy doing
1:10:22
one deal to the next deal to the next.
1:10:23
I couldn't enjoy the, the rewards and the, and the, the
1:10:27
benefit of my hard work and my labor And I, and I cut corners,
1:10:31
you know, even though at at some stage I shifted back to doing
1:10:34
everything by the rule of the law, I was still cutting corners
1:10:37
when I didn't need to cut corners.
1:10:39
I was well educated, well spoken.
1:10:41
I had all the reasons in life and I cut corners, made
1:10:44
mistakes. And I think people are rushed.
1:10:47
They want they want to make, they want to achieve so much so
1:10:51
soon. You know, just sit back, take
1:10:54
your time. And I tell my kids the most
1:10:55
important thing I say to my wife and my kids, I say relax.
1:10:58
I said take your time. I said it doesn't matter, you
1:11:00
know, whether you're in school till you're 30 instead of 21.
1:11:04
You know, there's lots of time. Some of the biggest success
1:11:06
stories, like Sam Walton, his biggest success, didn't happen
1:11:09
until his 50. No Ray Kroc was 55 for
1:11:12
McDonald's. And even the gates, all these
1:11:16
people, I mean, you know, take your time.
1:11:18
There's no rush. I cut corners.
1:11:19
I could have done things properly.
1:11:22
I I would have succeeded. It might have taken me a little
1:11:24
longer, but, you know, I wouldn't be in the situation.
1:11:27
You know, I accept responsibility.
1:11:29
You know, it's easy for me to point fingers.
1:11:31
I could blame the banker that threw me under the bus and say,
1:11:35
you know, he's an asshole. He threw me under the bus.
1:11:38
He's wrong. I don't hold any grudges anymore
1:11:40
against anybody. You know, I'm not asking why me
1:11:43
at this stage. I know why it's happened.
1:11:45
You know, no one forced me to work with this banker.
1:11:47
No one forced me. I could have said, no, I'm going
1:11:50
to disclose everything When he said to me, I can't open a bank
1:11:53
account for you because you had an SEC settlement.
1:11:56
I could have said that's OK, I'll go work with someone else
1:11:59
who can open a bank account for me.
1:12:00
And it might have taken me a little bit longer.
1:12:02
I made those decisions. I accept responsibility for
1:12:05
those decisions, you know, I know they were wrong and I'm
1:12:08
never going to do them again. You know, now I'm going to have
1:12:11
to pay. I don't know what my, my penalty
1:12:13
is going to be. I've listen, as far as I'm
1:12:16
concerned, I've already been sentenced these past 3.
1:12:19
Years I. Mean.
1:12:20
I've been through so much these past three years, Brent.
1:12:22
I lost so much money. I lost respect.
1:12:25
The shame and the guilt goes with me.
1:12:27
I've missed so many, you know, I've had more time with my kids.
1:12:30
I've gotten closer to them, which is great.
1:12:32
But I couldn't say goodbye to my father died, you know, he was on
1:12:35
his deathbed. I couldn't travel because of my
1:12:37
extradition here. I was fighting, and I couldn't
1:12:39
travel to say goodbye to my father, who is one of my closest
1:12:42
friends. I couldn't bury him and be at
1:12:44
his funeral and mourn him, you know?
1:12:47
And I couldn't be there for my mom who's, you know, now a
1:12:49
widow, you know, it's all these things I lost that you can't put
1:12:53
a price on them. There's no amount of money that
1:12:56
and there's no punishment that this judge could give me to give
1:12:59
me back, You know, that final moment of saying goodbye to my
1:13:02
father, of burying him, of mourning him, of being there for
1:13:05
my mom. Those times, you know, holidays,
1:13:08
big deal. So I couldn't travel for three
1:13:10
years and I'm not going on a holiday or I'm not making money.
1:13:13
Money comes and goes. I've learned that, you know,
1:13:15
and, and I'm not worried about that so much.
1:13:17
What I'm, what I can't get back is those memories with my family
1:13:22
and the shame and the guilt. I worked all my life to build up
1:13:26
a reputation and it was destroyed in moments.
1:13:28
You know, those that indictment, you know that when it was
1:13:31
released, it just, it was like suicide on me.
1:13:35
And it's people, you know, and I know, and it happens every once
1:13:38
in a while. People say to me, I can't do any
1:13:40
business or I can't speak to you.
1:13:41
Or they asked me about the case or they, you know, I see like
1:13:45
they speak to my wife and, and you know, and I feel the most
1:13:47
sorry for my wife and my kids because really having the making
1:13:52
money and being successful is really being able to give your
1:13:55
family what you didn't have and give them the life that that I
1:13:58
want for them. And, and that's, you know, I
1:14:00
feel like that's been stolen from them that, you know, it's
1:14:03
going to be a lot harder for my kids going forward and my wife
1:14:05
going forward. But you know, we're still better
1:14:07
off than 99% of the people out there in the world.
1:14:10
And, and I don't regret that. But, you know, I think the
1:14:13
biggest take away is, you know, don't cut corners in life.
1:14:17
I think that's, and Ron, I think that's a great take away because
1:14:20
I think when you get, when you're, especially when you're
1:14:22
young, you, you think you've got to catch up and, and get ahead
1:14:25
and, and, and make that you read these books and, and you want to
1:14:29
be just like these people. And, and like you said, you with
1:14:35
what happened, you, you, you can see that you could have done it
1:14:38
both ways. But here's the one thing,
1:14:40
though. I know you're a smart guy.
1:14:44
I also know that you're a guy that will bounce back out of
1:14:48
this because it, it'll be something that you learn from
1:14:51
and you, you already seek out mentors and people is and it's
1:14:55
something that people have to do when you get into these things,
1:14:58
but people want to help and they didn't take your brain, you
1:15:03
know, Ron. So you'll be able to come back
1:15:06
in a different way, but you'll have all this experience of, of
1:15:11
what you, and, and like I said, you, you've got, you got to
1:15:16
support of, of people around you.
1:15:18
And it's such a big deal. And, and it's a good take away.
1:15:22
Don't, don't try to, don't try. You'll get there.
1:15:25
You don't have to cut a corner to get there, especially if
1:15:27
especially if you're smart enough to get there anyway.
1:15:30
Everybody thinks, you know, the cheap is the expensive in life.
1:15:32
I always say that to people. I say, you know, the shortcut is
1:15:35
always, you know, you know, the long path and the cheap is
1:15:38
always the expensive, you know and you know.
1:15:41
So true. Take your time and, and you
1:15:44
know, don't cut corners in life because you know, and I'm a
1:15:46
perfect example of, you know, I made that mistake and I'm paying
1:15:49
the price. It came back to bite me in the
1:15:50
ass, you know, years later, you know, nine years late, 7-9 years
1:15:54
later, you know, a stupid mistake that I didn't have to
1:15:56
do. Yeah, yeah.
1:15:58
And, and and like you said, you've you've you've been living
1:16:01
through all that. You've lived your own hell and
1:16:04
nightmare before you've ever gotten to the part of where how
1:16:07
long you think you're going to be sentenced.
1:16:09
But I I wish you the best of luck on that.
1:16:10
And, and for all of us here talking about, you know,
1:16:13
gratitude. I want to thank Homestead
1:16:14
financial home mortgage who lets me use this podcast studio with
1:16:20
all the fancy lights and equipment here.
1:16:22
If you got home mortgage need, Greg Aftyev is your guy.
1:16:25
He knows everything that you need to know about that.
1:16:28
Hey, if you're looking for a book out there, I've got one
1:16:31
nightmare success. Check it out on Amazon, Barnes
1:16:33
and Noble, and if you got time, leave me a review on Apple.
1:16:37
It really helps the show. Go to to your Apple podcast and
1:16:42
and just Scroll down and it says write a review.
1:16:44
Click there. If you want to know more about
1:16:46
me, go to brentcassidy.com. I spell it wrong.
1:16:49
I spell it with ATY, not a DY brentcassidy.com, as I used to
1:16:54
say when I was writing my emails back and forth from Leavenworth
1:16:57
to my people. Stay strong.
1:16:59
I'll do the same. Ron Bauer What a story, man.
1:17:02
And I wish you the best of luck. And I think as hard as
1:17:07
everything's been, you're going to be able to walk through
1:17:10
everything as it becomes known to you and, and you'll get
1:17:13
through it. You'll get through it.
1:17:14
I appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time.
1:17:16
I appreciate it. Nine more success, in and out.