Latest / Local Legends with Jess: Arizona Edition / From Wrestling to Wall Street, The Wild Journey of Chris Janish

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From Wrestling to Wall Street, The Wild Journey of Chris Janish · Local Legends with Jess: Arizona Edition

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Local Legends with Jess, the Arizona Edition.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jessica Benevento, your mortgage matchmaker, opening doors with ease and bringing you the stories behind Arizona's most inspiring people.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: From best-selling authors and elite athletes to business badasses making moves across the valley.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: These are the local legends shaping our communities.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Get the inside scoop, real talk, and powerful conversations you won't hear anywhere else.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Local Legends with Jess, where Arizona's stories connect.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Local Legends here with Jess and my co-host Jason Kakuza.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here, Jay.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me, Jason.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think we're equal now.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, still.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 0:40
  unknown: Okay.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we have Mr.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Chris.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have such a special guest.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: We actually have our first guest who has flown in from New Jersey.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is wild.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is very spe this is we're big time now.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: We are.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: And this is a big guest.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is big.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to read this because it's a lot.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would normally just introduce you as just a stud that I had a crush on like 20 years ago, but I'm not going there.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to professionalize this episode.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And today's guest went from Wall Street in the 90s to dealing with mafia connected environments to Rikers Island to making one of the largest bail bonds in New York history, which is wild.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's largest.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's insane.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I remember this.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's building companies and pitching a TV series.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome, Chris Janish.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's so great that you're here.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to figure out what you guys are trying to do with this thing.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started thinking about, well, what could it do for me?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought there was a great fit here.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I was very excited.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I'm like Scottsdale's favorite son from my years of being out here.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: My friends from home call me that.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it's actually on the website here in Scottsdale.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: It gave me a reason to come out here.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Spend some time with you.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to bring you a copy.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm so excited.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you actually named it.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: You should name it.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a little message and signature in there, but you don't have to look at it.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is great picture.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: You did this.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's my first book, yes.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's jump into it because there's a lot to unpack.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is so exciting.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we don't have that much time.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So Chris.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: We might have to do a part two with Chris.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: He'll love the fly out.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's a great idea.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: But let's start out with your early days, right?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: You grew up in New Jersey, but you actually grew up in Norc, New Jersey, correct?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, started, my my family did.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, which all of our families did, and that's part of the story is but originally grew up in Union, which is right near Newark and you know, Valesburg and the Irvington border, and there was some, you know, there was there was some crime coming in there, and then we moved up to the West Essex communities, um, which Essex County is part of Newark, Jersey's largest city.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, it was in the burbs.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was a you know, kind of escaped the crime like a lot of people, and there was a lot of common people there that grew up in Newark, and even though we weren't in the city, we had that same upbringing out in the suburbs.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Call it down neck, right?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, down neck on the hands, yeah, you know.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm sure you met and heard some really interesting stories about some of the people down there.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what was interesting, you know, I'm a kid, this is in the in the early 70s, and I had a profound moment.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: I had saw mugging on my street um of an old woman, uh, old lady.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was like five years old.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting interrogated.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was a little scary.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so we moved out, and you know, at that time, and and we would walk everywhere, and and it was now it's a bad neighborhood, right?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of turning then.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so we got to this place where I thought was safe.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: We got woods, you know, it's a big blah, everybody's playing outside.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's this prevailing um theme going on about this mob and the mafia, and you know somebody was murdered at the end of the block at this house.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, what the hell's going on?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm a kid, I but I remember this.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and that was the first influence of what the mafia was in the underworld, which originated out of Newark and obviously New York City, and it just became commonplace very early on.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: The people we were growing up with our friends, our family, cousins, and it would all just became normal, you know, just kind of like the way the sopranos hit.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my first introduction into what was organized crime.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: How old are you then?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Five years old.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when you moved.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's when you moved out of North.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was more the mob scene.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there was a there was a notorious murder on my block.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a hit that was detailed in a story that you might remember, um, called To Drop a Dime.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Which was, you know, kind of an infiltration of the Campese family.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um it was chronicled in a book, which was to drop a dime is what we call a rat, you know.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, and and you know, I just got that.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and when you when you look at this, at the if you actually try to buy the book, it's like$1,500 because there's not enough copies.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, so it's an interesting story, but that was kind of the feel in the 70s and into the 80s, and and through my high school years, and you know, knowing these people and they're friends of mine and their kids and their wives, and you know, and it just all became normal.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was just all normal.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does that look like?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like we hear it and we see the sopranos, and we obviously all grew up around it.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I what does that really look like?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, were you involved in that?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can I ask you that?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you can ask me whatever you want.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I told you.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's no no Okay, okay.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're an open fucker.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I just have to say, I I always wished my father's family was in the mob.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know we No, you that's just what's on TV.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was I wanted something cool, and I got nothing.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Look, there's this sensationalism, it's hard to ignore.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I came from a broken home.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Parents were divorced young, almost probably a year after I moved to the West Essex communities.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I had five kids.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I I came pretty much was on my own.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I I came accustomed to hustling at a very young age.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so this all was kind of normal.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I knew very early on that I didn't want to be involved in a life of, you know, drugs.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of drugs back then, okay, 80s, um, crime, whatever it was.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people were, even though it was a nice era, people were doing fucked up shit.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I kind of wanted to be a good kid and just kind of stay out of problems with my parents.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the way I stayed away from that, it wasn't anything that I aspired to, but I did have respect for these guys and how they hustled and how they dressed and the cars, no different than you see in the movies, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're a young kid, you're impressed.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't, I it it cost my family a lot to get$20 sneakers.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: These guys had beautiful sweatsuits, beautiful cars, beautiful jewelry.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it's hard not to be impressionable.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: But where I kind of found my groove was in sports and athletics.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I was gonna say.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Segway to that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel that, and you were a very good wrestler in high school.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: So do you feel that that discipline that it took to be a good wrestler helped you stay away from that because you just wanted to stay honed in?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, 100%.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was, you know, now everybody goes to college.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: You can get a grant, you can do this.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: It it was a privilege to go away to school.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody in my family went away to school.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: You were the first one.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: The first one.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I could have gone to college and stayed in New Jersey commuted, but I'm gonna go away.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the only way I was realistically gonna do that, being the fourth out of five, was to earn my way there.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my only goal was doing enough in athletics.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wrestling ultimately took me there.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I got a JMU, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Division one scholarship that's JMU and wasn't fully paid.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: You don't get full scholarships, but it was enough for me to get there.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh had a great experience.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, still talk to my wrestling coach this day, Peanut Boyer, Hall of Famer.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, after five years, was actually a political science major, loved the law.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: When you're at James Madison, who's you know the father or the co-author of the Constitution, you really they have a focus and a respect for the constitution.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I was thinking about going to law school, but after five years, you know, it's done with school.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Done.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, they're getting to go to Wall Street.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Matt Lasher, who's a friend of ours, he interviewed for a job and he he was already out.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, he goes, I this isn't for me.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, I got a guy graduate, might be perfect for him.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, I interview in April of 1993.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: I graduate, and after three weeks later, I'm starting on Wall Street just like that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Boom.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: So explain let's talk about that because people see that movie, Wolf of Wall Street, and they look at it and crazy times.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first off, what were you doing?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: What'd you get hired on Wall Street to do?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: You were a broker, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was a broker, so you know, and it's the typical kind of boiler room, Wolf of Wall Street story.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody starts at the bottom.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was making 200 bucks a week, calling, two phones a night, 500 calls a day, and just hustling.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, you could see, I could see right away, even on the interview, that there was money.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I could smell yeah, right.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: And just like back in the day with the uh wise guys.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was the same thing, yeah, but it was legitimate.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so naive because I wasn't a finance major.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I didn't know what an IPO was.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know the difference between Goldman Sachs and A.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: S.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Goldman in my book, there's a funny story.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I was a naive kid.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was in I was in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia for five years, and within three weeks, I'm on Wall Street.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you're talking about a New York Minute.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, stuff is moving so quick.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you're on this floor, and you got these 20-year-olds to maybe 40-year-old guys, they're all dressed in suits.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Who's getting their shoes signed?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, these beautiful women working there, and it's just like chaos.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, whoa, this is great.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just, I, I just, I, I was all in.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And uh And you always had an amazing work ethic.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why they were hiring the athletes because the work and and listen, I was making no money, but like, and I was paying attention to everything.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I got really lucky, I got hooked up with this guy, Joe Donahue, who was my mentor.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we had a ton of respect for him.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, we were in a private office, so we weren't on the floor.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And but the same thing, you're smiling, dialing, calling people all day long.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then I would say, like, oh, that guy sounds pretty good on the phone.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they would tell me, Oh, he's a he's a piker broker.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: What what's a they would say pika?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because they had the broker on that.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, what's a pika?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, it's not piker, it's piker, right?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And stuff.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you say, Oh, he's a piker.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: He he makes like 30,000 a month.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, 30.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: What about that guy?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like 56.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: What about the guys in the office?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: 100, 200 a month.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, is this real?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is it like this is real?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: I had guys leaving from January, these top finance guys going to DC and getting$40,000 a year jobs.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And now I'm sitting here and these guys are making$40,000,$50,000 a month.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I said, if I'm the worst guy, I'm gonna be rich.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's all that's all I needed to tell myself.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So how how long did it take to move up the ranks of of Wall Street?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So this this is really fascinating.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, talk about the New York Minute again.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I I get there in May of '93.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm licensed in October of '93.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm now right away.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm opening accounts under my boss's name.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now, how many accounts do you have to give him before you're on your own?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was 30, but with IPO accounts, but I I opened up accounts my first two weeks.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I I blew past that before I was even licensed.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he made me, he ended up making me a partner.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: So things changed.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: People are moving, they're going in and out.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so how quick does it go?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: So by that was May of 93, I get licensed, I'm a broker.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: A bunch of guys leave.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: By April of 1994, I now am running my own crew.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like a branch manager.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: How old are you?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 23 years old.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And and in the year 1994, my first full year on Wall Street, I made f 491,000 on my W-2.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: That wasn't even included in all the side deals.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how quick it happens.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's how quick it happens.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And there was guys, kids younger than me, that were even ahead of that, you know.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And but I also could tell very quickly this wasn't real.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of volatility.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: People were in and out, like I said.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, but I had to pick up your sonar went up.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: My sonar went up.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I I had built the name very quickly.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I had built the following.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I had a love for the business.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: The problem was, I I was, you know, I would I always say, like, you know, there was a guy, older guy that kind of schooled me in the business.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: He says, you know, I'm too smart to make a lot of money in this business.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I said, What do you mean?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Standard radar.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, he knew that what we were doing was shit.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And he couldn't get himself to buy in.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas the young guys, we just want to make money.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I believed, I believed everything I was selling.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't realize this was kind of like the underbelly of the street.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: This wasn't the top tier.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: These were smaller stocks, and they would, you know, eventually, most of them not work out.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them did.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I can't say they all didn't, but it was churn and burn, churn and burn.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just try to make money.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it it was it wasn't something that I felt good about.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So are you calling people like you call me, I come up as a lead.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: You call me and you say, Jess, listen, I'm a broker.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have some stocks that I know are gonna just kick ass.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: You need to buy shares.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, All right, I have a hundred thousand in my 401k.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna give it to you, Chris.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then it goes up, I cash out, or it goes down, I you never get out.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: You never get out.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I always call those like the Hotel California, you know?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: You could check out, but you can never leave.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: We there wasn't like liquidity for these stocks.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say I put you in a stock and went up two bucks.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Jess, I got another one for you.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take that money, I'm gonna put you into something else, because I really can't get you out, right?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's no real liquidity in it.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're creating the market, right?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is the penny stock world.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um you trying to make a money on the other deal?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so now I'm trying to make a money.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now I flip you into another and I get you to send more money because you're hot, right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're making money off that money that I'm investing.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're hot and horny.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, not like sexually.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so you're new here.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you're like, hey, now I want you to send me another$100,000.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't have it, go find it.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where the aggression is.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: These are the conversations that are literally happening.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what you see in the movies where everyone is on phones next to each other, and this is what you're doing.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're hard pressing people, like, listen.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: I got a quick story.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I I just graduated high school and I'm going out with Chris for the first time.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's me, Gary, and maybe Chuck, maybe not.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: But we stop at his condo in West Orange, and I have like$50 on me.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: And Chris is like, yo, do me a favor, go in my closet in the shoeboxes, just grab money for tonight.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: And in the shoe boxes, there was like 10 of them.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: There was just 20 tens and fives and singles.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I would just dip my hand in there, like$273.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it was like crazy.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: But he would pick up the meal anyway.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'm going out.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, Chris, I have$270 from the end of the night.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, just keep it.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I just went out tonight, had probably one of the best nights of my life, and I made$270.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, this is amazing.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Special thank you to Justin Lis from State Farm.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Justin is our sponsor here at Local Legends with Jess and Jay.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: His mission is simple.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: He treats customers like family, provides real solutions, ensures every client feels confident, supported, and genuinely cared for.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: That level of intention and service is exactly why he's considered one of our favorite local legends here in Arizona.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for the support and proud to highlight Justin and his team for truly making a difference in our community.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: So go ahead from there, you crushed it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm crushing it.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then so what happens is uh Joe Donnie was so This is the mentor.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is the mentor.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: He was really what happened was the market crashed in in '87.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there was this awesome Lehman Brothers office, and and it was very aggressive.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty much the Lehman Brothers on Water Street was known as the original cold calling, you know.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And what, but after the crash, they started to migrate, start to go to smaller firms.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of the guys that trained me were actually at what we call white shoe firms, yeah, big firms.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And Joe was there, and Joe was like, this is bullshit.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: All these stocks are bullshit.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're not worth, you know, the the you know, the they're they're wallpaper.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Stock certificates are wall.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we start a new firm called the Boston Group with a guy, Robert Dominico, quite remember the name.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very impressive guy, old ex-lehman guy, um, builds this incredible firm out on um in LA on 1999 Avenue the Stars, and we have an office on Wall Street.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 24 years old, I'm a partner, right?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, and I'm going to LA and he's he's living in Dean Martin's house.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we're we're hanging in the backyard, and he's like, yeah, the rap pack used to hang out here.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's not even real, right?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we we we bring a company public called Jerry's Famous Deli.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody that's from LA knows Jerry's.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a deli, it's a restaurant chain.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we're we we moved, we left the firm, and it was gonna be a hard transition.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: There was uh mob mob extortions going on, both deedle came into the pictures, craziness, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And but we get settled and we're gonna build this firm the right way.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Something we're gonna be proud of for the rest of our lives.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just so pumped.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I got my team of guys where and we we didn't make any money money for three or four months, but I'm gonna have a million dollar month.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: One million.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: No joke.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's all set up, and Jerry's Deli comes out and basically Robert Domenico, you know, typical Wall Street screws us, screws his partners.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he keeps all the money for himself.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Very little money.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I maybe made three, four hundred thousand.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that was nothing back then.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, that was a failure.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: That was like, what did I come here for?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: I invested in this company.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a partner, and I know what's going on.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where the wedge between me and Joe Donney occurs.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think you met Joe.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's a salt of the earth guy.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're still friends with him now, aren't you?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've we've we've had some ups and downs, but but I always have a lot of respect for him.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And his wife, Kathy, worked for his great, great family, great, great people.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he he shouldn't have been involved in it, and he should have gotten me out of it too.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: So so now um things where it goes south.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So now it starts to go south because what happens is I decide fuck this.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I just I could have had a million-dollar payday.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, all these other firms are going on, there's just craziness.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: So this is where the post-Jordan Belfort error starts because Jordan gets arrested.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Jordan's story's out in Long Island.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: Long Island, right?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And everything shifts to lower Manhattan.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a million Jordan Belfords.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he was a big name, but you know, there's Al Palagonia, there's Ian Hosang, there's there's there's there's these guys at Hanover Sterling.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Guys are making three, five hundred thousand dollars a month.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Palagonia was doing a million a month.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um who's the guy with the garbage bag full of cash?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we we go to this firm, kind of um lose my way, and go to this firm, Toluca Pacific.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: And there was one goal to get that million dollars that I didn't make.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I meet this guy, Al Chalem, who is connected to several mob families at the time.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he actually was uh instrumental with getting us out of the other firm because at that time every firm had to have a connection to a mafia family.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And if you didn't, you had a problem.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you were gonna, there was things that they were gonna do to your stocks, to your people.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: There was, there was, yeah, it was real.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was a real threat.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: No different than a bookmaker trying to open up a shop on Bloomfield that way.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you wouldn't especially you wouldn't think of that on Wall Street.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: You you would not.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: And this is why they were smart, too.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Beneath the Street, just the title.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I go out there and make a we make a ton of money.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: We have great, and there's craziness going on in there.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I remember already gunning.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, there's sex in the office, there's smoking weed, there's guys walking on cliffs, betting each other.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was just it was like a three-ring circus, right?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I'm not gonna go through all, but it we knew we had to get out of there, and getting out of there was trying to escape the mob.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that created a whole firestorm where I had to make some alignment to get out of there, pay a lot of money to get out of there.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: But the guy is this real.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: So the guy I'm working for is a guy by the name of Al Chalum.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and so as we go into, you know, they call it a sit-down.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it that's what it was.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to This is when you're supposed to crush your leg like this.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um I was told, don't talk unless you're asked the question.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: But when you How old are you at this point?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm uh twenty five.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Twenty-five.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So much is happening.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: I got a black bed and it's I mean I got a town, I got uh boxes of cash.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of side deals you're making on Wall Street, too.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's a whole like an element to it, right?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: So So um, you know, we we work everything out, and but but going into it, the the person who was advocating for me, and I'm not gonna mention names, but he said, tell me, tell me what's up.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm gonna tell you, this guy is the worst human being.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: He fucks everybody over.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't pay the the the the um the rent, yeah, he doesn't pay the phone bill, he doesn't pay this.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna find him shot dead one day, and they're never gonna find the killer.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's how bad he is, right?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I never say that about anybody.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we end up parting ways.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: I actually end up owing this guy out, chale him a lot of money um to exit, but I just wanted to start over.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: I want to want a fresh start.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I was going legit, you know, like Johnny Dangerous.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, yeah and uh I get out of there, and uh that was uh 1997 now, and the market's money wise.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You you paid you paid the mob off whatever they needed, yeah, and now you paid this guy.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: Are you square one with money or are you okay at this time?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm on the balls of my ass.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because you're spending and you know, and you now have money coming in.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, once the money stops coming in and you're starting to spend, and I got a house now, and I got bills, and you know, so but I had hope.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have hope, you know, I remember sitting there with one of our brokers, and he's like, I I've never been so broke, but you know, we're going into the new year.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: This was 1997, it was the new year.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I never felt so positive about what we're doing because it was it was just us, and I was the franchise president of a firm, and it but I was running my own thing.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's where I I legitimately said, I'm gonna do things the right way.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm only gonna buy the companies that I believe in.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not gonna be about profit, it's gonna be about you know respect and relationships, relationships and building clients that we have um loyalty to.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's the path I took from from that point on.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And now, along with all this, I was very blessed because I get into the market in '93, '94, it starts to go up.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: 95, it's the greatest year in the SP 500.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: It lasts till 99.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have the greatest run in the stock market anyone could ever have coming in, kind of like it is today.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: And would your past catch up to you?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I build this huge company.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and now there's the Business Week article comes out, which was kind of like the mob on Wall Street.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Business Week was the preemptive Wall Street publication back then before the internet, and they do a two-part series, and it's all the people that I was doing business with.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And like a memorandum comes down from the mob.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like for real, that no more Wall Street business.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: They knew that they were coming after them.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because once it becomes public, there's congressional hearings.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: So this is much more.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is a lot of it did start from Jordan Belford, the book Beneath the Street.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: So much research that went into this that I found out it's all connected.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And there's, you know, you talk about like I always compare it to the movie Casino, and the everybody gets arrested.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: There was hundreds of people.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: There was one arrest, the largest securities fraud had over a hundred people.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there was a several of them, but I kind of escaped because I'm doing the right thing.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm staying under the radar.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I I broke I broke off.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And well, at the time, Al Shalem, my ex-boss, he's in the center of it.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very possible I would have gotten indicted at that firm when I left.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well then there was a big event that happened in 1999 after after that article and the investigation.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it's more detailed in the book, but um Al Shalem in late 1999 was brutally murdered in his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: It was a high profile event.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was all over CNBC and they still haven't found the killer.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Come on.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it was over a stock deal, and they had and I get into it in the book.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think they know who did it.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um it did not it wasn't a fruit, it wasn't a need for a fruitful prosecution, but it's been 25 years.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Asbury Park Press still writes articles about it.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: They never found the killer, and um he was brutally shot in his eyes, and his mouth, and his ears, and there was a message because he was a rat.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it sent shock waves through Wall Street for like normal people.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you cooperate, yeah, you could die.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: You could die.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: So when did when did things go bad for you?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: So everything it starts, the market crashes.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: The the dot-com buzz happens in early 2000s.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, it it it we were riding high, everything was great, and then that starts, and almost every penny stockbroker, because they're living high in the hog, are pretty much kind of falling out of business because they're going bankrupt.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot of um opportunities to make money.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden, as we're getting out of it, 9-11 comes.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: We think, you know, we're seeing the the light at the end of the tunnel, it's a train coming back and it hits us again, 9-11, 2001.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we go into what we call a double dip recession.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: And now there's really not anybody else standing in the penny stock world.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: But somehow we are.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we stay very nimble.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you know me, I'm resourceful.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, I didn't overspend, and I pivot to this hedge fund.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, Joe Donahue got me back into uh an institutional product that was kind of uncorrelated to stocks, and we pivot and I start coming out here and doing more business on the West Coast, and that's in 2002, and things are going swimmingly.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like reinventing myself.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you say swimmingly?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, going swimmingly.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there are though, but I was like, hey, here, you know, I I've we went through this horrible period, and here we are, and now um 2004, we get raided, we get a knock on the door, my office, my house, and um there's a start of an investigation.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that's it.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: That was in 04.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was uh living out here.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you get arrested.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so the funny thing is um, not the funny thing, we were very much prepared.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was very compliant oriented.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: I always said I knew the securities laws better than anybody.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, up until this point, I never had a blemish on my securities license at all.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: There was SEC audits at NASD back then, Finra Now, um, state, and everything was totally clean.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of the guys that had gotten arrested and got convicted, and they were doing a lot of time.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: My ex-boss, Tony Marciano from AS Goldman, got 10 to 30 years.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they basically had the prosecutor come in and look at everybody that was connected to those firms, and they said, Who's left?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a lot of us.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was sticking out like a sore thumb, and they said, I have to go after him.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, you know.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So they go after you.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: You get put in Rikers Island.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: I get no bail, I get put on Rikers Island.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all my assets are frozen.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not found guilty of anything yet.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: My whole life is over within like 24 hours.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: How long are you in Rikers Island?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: The first time, so we go in for the bail hearing, and the judge, the DA has all these documents, they're talking.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Come in, there's these lights like we have here, and I'm like, what's going on?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like, this is this big of a deal.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: And they're sketching the pictures of us for the paper in the morning.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the judge goes, Um, they asked for$10 million bail, and my bail bondsman is there, and I think I'm going home.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, My judge, my lawyer's like, Don't, don't worry about it.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So he starts to give the bail argument, and the judge says, I'm gonna cut you off right there.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm remanding Janish and my co-defender at the time, Joe Barrill, and I'm remanding Barrill.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there was just like a gasp in the whole courtroom.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, it's never happened before.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: No bail.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: No bail.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: And my the Barrill's lawyer says, Judge, how dare you remand my client, even give a bail order?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, Like, oh yeah, you're right.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: He lets him talk, he goes, Janish is remanding Barrill 10 million.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: That was it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm next thing you know, I'm going on a bus to Raker's Honor.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, how?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: What like this is the twilight zone.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you this question, and I know how you are, but I've never asked this.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you're wondering as you're driving you're on that bus, and you're saying to yourself, how did this happen?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: But at what point do you say it's happening and I gotta change my mindset?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, did you ever have that conversation to yourself?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: No, yeah, immediately.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're in you're in a jungle.
• 30:58
  unknown: Right.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was in a building with 3,000 inmates, and there was three white people in there.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's gang, you know, it's infested with gangs.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: And but you know what, and that was the whole point.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: I always say the higher the bail, the weaker the case.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: We were prepared.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: We had a compliance team.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: We did not have the hallmarks of those other cases.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: I intended to go to trial, right?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: But there was 260 boxes of evidence.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: There was no way they didn't, they weren't ever gonna let me go to trial.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, I get a bail, it's five million.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And my family works to get this done.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm on there for 120 days.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: I bail out, and it's in my bail bondsman, Ira Juttelson's book.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: He's the bail bondsman to the stars, and he writes in his book that uh they asked him what was the largest bail, and he said, Stockbroker Chris Janish, they never wrote a bigger insurance bond for a criminal state proceeding in history than my bond in 2006.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: The largest.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Insane.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, John Gotti got tried in New York too, like you know, got you know, arrested in New York, not only federal.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Federal's a little different, they had higher bails, but you can sign your it's easy, but never before in New York State, any state criminal history was it ever posted that big.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this book is about this whole story, obviously.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, this is a totally different fictional story.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: So total fictional story.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: Beneath the street is the real story.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: So what happens is I do get bailed out.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: You'll remember the story I have a house in Arizona.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're trying to sell it just to get the markets falling here.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: I tell my lawyer, make sure you let the DA know about the house.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: He does.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: They say, No, you're trying to flee.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: They throw me back in.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's when my life was over.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, it was such a sham.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you knew what what the corruption was.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: The judge told me, Mr.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Janish, you know, if you're found guilty, I'm giving you 10 to 30 years.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, you haven't even got the evidence yet.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's awful.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and but you you learn quickly.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: So to answer your question, you learn quickly, like, this is the game.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just have to play the game.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're gonna die.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what the miscellaneous, and they were trying to punish me, they were trying to get me to cooperate to all these things.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, I never cooperated my case, took a high peak plea, yeah, high restitution, five million dollars restitution.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know first off, you're battling in Rikers and you're battling your case.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: And my co-defendant kills himself, another that's right.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: He should have never been in there.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it was just wild, you know.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you were never in Rikers, I the the explanation will never be satisfactory.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the people that were there, they they saw it, they know what it's like.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh So how long were you there?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: It ended up being uh two years pretrial, and uh, because we couldn't fight the case.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, we couldn't try the case.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was a joke, you know, and I just knew and I just laid up and I just, you know, I I I just became accustomed to being a jailer, yeah, you know, and adapting.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: But the the interesting thing is, so the the DA would take me to uh, you know, the investigators to look at evidence, they're like, well, how you handling handling there, they thought like I was gonna get beat up or I was gonna go running back to them.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, please, you know, help me.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: What I'll tell you whatever I want to tell.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I actually got along with all the inmates that was on the street.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: And what was funny was when this was in the news and the papers, like, oh, you guys were on the news.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you're on the papers, and there's guys bringing me in your newspapers, they want me to sign it.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: What the DA didn't realize was they created this notoriety when I had street cred when I walked in.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like, they wanted to know me, they gravitate to me.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, and some of them looked out for me.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I got schooled by some great guys, and you know, after two years, it was like, okay, I did two years, I only got a little bit more time.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was all a strategy on their part and my part.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then you go upstate, and it's a whole different vibe up there, but it's over.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're looking at going home, and vindication comes about at the very end.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I have this crazy dream.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, Jules, Jules divorces me.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: She hates that part of it.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I start this new life, and the dreams are so wild because you know, you never want to be in prison as like a sex offender.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it was like a fear, like I'll come back, but never as a sex offender.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the dream is pure fiction.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I I wrote it in the last 40 days, handwritten.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I produced it.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, it's a it's a it was a passion project for me.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: It rose to number six new releases on Amazon, right?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Vindication.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, beneath the streets, because we don't have we we already're done.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Beneath the streets, plug it.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do we think?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds more like a series than an actual like novel.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: So are we pitching Beneath the Streets?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're pitching.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we're pitching, it's done.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Can I be in this?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you're so pretty good on camera.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: Beneath the show, maybe that's part two, right?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a co-author, Christina Horrh, she's an amazing writer.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I she I said, You gotta do this book for me.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: She was writes a lot of dark stuff, and she just got so involved.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: I did the research, and you know, it's my writing, but it's her style.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's it's it's kind of it's not another Wall Street story.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's kind of segues after the Jordan Bell for Wolf of Wall Street.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: That genre, though, the people that follow that Sopranos crowd, but it's it's a 1990s, early 2000 New York City pop culture story.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's about what the city was about.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I call it, I call it uh the era of sexy.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was ecstasy and sex and and you know, like the 70s were sex, drugs, rock and roll.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: The 70s and then 80s had the AIDS, and it was it was just a great time in the city.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: The Yankees were winning.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: 1994, I think, was the greatest year of the Knicks were doing well.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Knicks Rangers had 50 playoff games.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: The brokers are fuel mine.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: You got 19, 20-year-old kids driving, you know, Mercedes-Benz are parked outside, and you know, you could smoke still in bars.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm going to Morton's with Joe Donahue almost every night, other night, and we're having steaks and cigars, and then we're sitting courtside at the next team.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like doesn't exist anymore.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then the uniqueness I think of beneath the street is what happened to me with the bail, and that's like the gritty dark side.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really when I got in there, I was like, man, this is like Wall Street.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: They fucking manipulate us.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we're just, you know, we're just like cattle.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: They're moving big money in prison.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: We're pawns.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're pawns.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I go, the the corruption on Wall Street isn't any different than in the criminal justice.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's a big element of the book.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sick.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I feel like, you know, and it's so the pitching process sucks.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is an age of content.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: So people want content, but there's so much.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we've been very selective about what agents we've gone to that we think it's going to fit.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's taking a bite.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: We still have a couple out there.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I want people to hear it as opposed to reading it.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think they're missing the boat.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, one of my, you know, I'm the type of person is like, even though I'm old school, I'm also new school where I want to fuck the agents.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: You don't, you don't see the score.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, except for myself.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like you did here, right?
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: I get my own website.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's do it.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: I get my own personal.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do it beneath the streets.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: You're and when people hear your story, Jeff's in.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: I got a question for you.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Elisa's in.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just say this went to Netflix, right?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a Netflix series.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say the first episode would have been like?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a great question.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think the bail, we start the book with the bail, the reman, because it was just so crazy.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, now there's no bail, right?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think from what I'm learning is this, so it's a 200-word novel, 200,000 word novel.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: It needs to get cut down, but it's built like a series.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the murder of Al Shalom is a bombastic story.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I know, I don't know specifics.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't there, but I read so much.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: I know how it went down, and Al was dupe.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: That Al was very sharp.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: He he let people in his house, he trusted.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that story was really the hallmark.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of other high-profile names and events that happened.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Christine and I, I believe nobody's connected the story.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's not really about me.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's about the error.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's about me.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's about connecting the dots.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: Connecting the dots, and nobody's connected it.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you if you think about, hey, did you and I I I reached out to um Joel Gottler, who is the agent for Wolf of Wall Street.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: I got him and to look at it, and I said, if you liked Wolf of Wall Street, you'll love this.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: You'll love Beneath the Street.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a different story, though.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: And but that's really, I would say, the first episode would be that murder scene.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get you're gonna get something.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is gonna really help.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm taking credit for this shit.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be in this.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: Paint a picture, right?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: You painted it.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: You were phenomenal.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: See, you didn't need me to lead or anyway.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: We kept it under two hours and 30 minutes.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's over.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I could have done a 15.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I only drank one final final.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Chris, I love you.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being on here.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: We need a part two with you.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: But um I think I think you're gonna have a series.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're gonna have a series.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think people are gonna hear the passion and understand your knowledge.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I think somebody is gonna see the benefit of that and get in contact with you with this.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: I I hope so.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm here and to support you guys.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're a star.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: The analytics are.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: He is.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: So um support you guys.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: I've been sponsored um and yeah, I mean, this is the start of it, and we're gonna see where it goes.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I do feel the story needs to be told.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've been hesitant because, you know, I never cooperated, I never implicated anybody in a crime.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of good friends.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: I've waited a long time, make sure that nobody can get in trouble by the story.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really just about that history.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's history.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell the story, and I'm gonna do it one way or the other.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just don't know which way.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the start of it, right?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: Chris, you're awesome.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: One thing before you go, hold on, real quick.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a new brand that's coming out, old school.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's so old.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: Before you leave, if you don't mind, giving us an old school memory.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: An old school memory.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, oh God, there's so many of them.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I would going back to the 90s and that ever, I I I remember when well, I had I had the the parade.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was you know, I had a corner office in the parade, the Rangers Parades coming off my up my office, and I'm like, man, I'm 20, 23 at the time.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on a corner office on Wall Street, and here's the parade.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I I would say the 1996 World Series when the Yankees won, and Wade Boggs was on the horse going around the field, and that the city was alive, and you know, that that's an old school that I remember.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, being there with my friends and seeing them win and the the horses on the field and the city just alive and energetic.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we don't see anymore.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I want the story to be about.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: The the good times, the fun times of what New York City was in our generation.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: That energy, right?
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hey, listen, I don't think you can end something like that any better.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: He's the best, guys.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, guys.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a wrap with uh our local legend, Chris Janish.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.