carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i am carol massar. jason: and i am jason kelly. we are here at bloomberg headquarters in new york. carol: this week, more from our special takeover issue, "this is a heist." it's filled with true crime stories on robbery, bribery, and fraud. jason: including king of the snitches. how one man outfoxed drug wars

and the dea. carol: how to buy your kids way into college legally. jason: joel weber joined us earlier on taking over this issue. joel: we set out to steal your summer with heists. everybody loves heists stories. you can't stop reading them. because we are business people, these are business stories. carol: there is one story you described as cinematic. that is so true. it's about addiction. joel: it's about a guy in seattle went on an unbelievable bank robbery spree. over the course of a year, he hit 30 banks. the bigger story here is that it was about his drug addiction. he went from oxycontin to heroin, and to feel that addiction, he turned to robbing banks. jason: and he did that so scientifically and methodically. one of the things is how powerfully his self-analysis and self-awareness of what went wrong. joel: that's why he was so good at it and why he talks to us, he

becomes this sympathetic character. he's a very persistent bank robber. he was very good at it, and it was a perfect addition and a real cornerstone of the heist issue. jason: we go down the coast into the forest. the next story, you can't steal a redwood, but you can steal a girl. joel: that's what sarah mcbride talks about. the story of the heist is about the mice who try to get away with it and the cats trying to get them. this is about the cats, the law enforcement in the national parks trying to confront this problem of coming into parks and walking out with burrows from redwoods or cacti, and turning to technology to help enforce that so that maybe you get away with it but they will find you. carol: let's get more on plant poachers. jason: sarah mcbride joins us from san francisco.

sarah: redwood i learned was two different times. old-growth takes hundreds and hundreds of years to develop. sometimes a thousand years or more. then there's a second growth redwood, which grows up much more quickly in its younger trees. and so, a lot of the redwood that is legally for sale is this newer redwood, and it's perfectly legal to cut down redwood on private property. where you run into problems is if it's this type of redwood that has taken hundreds of years to develop, that has the type of majesty and dimension that you can't find in the newer trees. and really, the only place where a lot of that is left is our parks, our national and state parks. so people who really want this older type of redwood can be tempted to go to remote areas in national and state parks, mostly in california, and simply chop down pieces of tree, or in this

case, the more valuable burl , , when they think nobody is looking, which is against the law. carol: what's interesting, too, if they are doing that, they're breaking the law, one of the thing that was interesting is that they are going after people breaking the law. sarah: this is a problem for all sorts of plants. it particularly has played a role in several of thefts in state parks, these small succulents. in particular, a type of

succulent called dudleyas. those have become wildly popular in asia. and people see people sending out posts and instagram of their collection. and they want them. and 20 years ago, nobody in many parts of the world had even heard of it. and now, people prize them. they really only grow on the coast of california, mexico, basically what we would think of as the west coast. and people have been flying here from asia, just gathering thousands of these and shipping them back to asia, where they might survive six months or a year, and then probably die , because the climate isn't ideal for them there. and the bust in the past couple of years have generally involved natives from korea, china, japan, and thousands and and thousands of these dudleyas. and i think it's similar with redwood. people might see a facebook post of something nice, a nice slab of burl, and they perhaps might want that themselves.

jason: so on the front lines of all this are the park rangers, and not park rangers like we would think of and say yogi bear cartoon. these guys, really, these men and women have a tough job. they're law enforcement in a lot of ways. tell us about them. sarah: that's another thing i learned. i thought of park rangers just as you describe them. as it turns out, there are several different types of park ranger. there are some who still specialize in showing people around the parks and giving talks about what you might see in the park. and then there is a totally different level of park ranger, a park ranger who may train at the same facility as the fbi does in georgia, that is armed to the teeth, and basically goes out and enforces the law in these parks. so they are the ones who are in charge of apprehending criminals in the park. i learned that one park, even yosemite has a jail on-site.

this is something you don't think of when you go to visit a national park. you're there for a good time and to see nature, maybe hike a little. but, unfortunately, there are a lot of people who get into a lot of trouble in these parks. carol: up next, more from the heist issue. we have story of a forrester who beats the clock. jason: king of the stitches outfoxing drug lords and the dea at the same time. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. jason: i'm jason kelly. join carol and me for "businessweek" on the radio. carol: you can also find us online at businessweek.com and on our mobile app. one feature in this week's special heist issue, security

fraud made to look easy. charles misappropriated tens of millions of dollars from shareholders. jason: the feds caught him, but he kept the money. what happened? here's matt robinson. matt: he started some funds back in the mid-80's, even early 1990's, he raised small amounts from 21000 and investors. and they basically got back with nothing over that time period, the dot com bust obliterated. it was sort of the next big thing, and he had all these, everything kind of just lost value. but in that time, what they showed in trial was he kept up a lavish lifestyle. you know, he used funds he

shouldn't have for his own personal uses. jason: and importing polo ponies, cowboy style shooting competition. at one point, he creates his own private boot making shop. matt: he actually went to boot camp. i didn't know it was a thing. you make cowboy boots. a lot of cowboy hobbies. carol: how did this guy come to your attention? is he one of many people scamming investors? is it allegedly? or, i mean, a court actually found -- jason: he was convicted. matt: yeah, so a jury found he violated securities laws. what interested me about this, for lawyers, kokesh is a legal term. this went to the supreme court. it's the case, not the person. it's something the sec has been talking about ever since. they left $900 million, $800 million on the table, because not only does he not have to

give the money back, everyone else in that same period doesn't have to give it back. jason: explain what happened. this went to the supreme court , and there was a fundamental legal argument, as it happens, over whether he essentially had to pay the money. matt: right. it all comes down to statute of limitations. for the agency, it's five years. so they said, ok, kokesh, you owe us $3 million penalty. the sec said we want the $35 million, plus interest, of the misappropriation. and kokesh argued well, they're the same. the penalty is $3 million, and you want this other money. he kept appealing and it went to the supreme court,, and the rain t, and the supreme court voted 9-0 kokesh right. this is a penalty. jason: so the penalty was sufficient. the $3 million was sufficient. matt: that was in the window of the statute of limitations. these funds were started so many years ago. carol: interesting, so investors have given him money get nothing. matt: yes. there were four funds. one got pennies on the dollar, the other just nothing. jason: what was the legal argument?

all about statute of limitations? matt: right. right. and congress does have a few bills in the house and senate to sort of close that loophole to say well, actually, we want you to go beyond that time period. for most -- bernie madoff lasted for so long. carol: correct. matt: all of these cases go on. right now, we've been in a 10-year bull market. who knows what else is going on? carol: from running out the clock to running several different circles, a dea informant living a double life as a fashion photographer. jason: and his attempt to scam two of the world's most dangerous groups. colombian drug lords and the u.s. government. here is the reporter did dick fox.

dick: he is one of the most successful fashion photographers in miami. millennium, and he's got a penthouse in miami beach. he's a regular at all the hottest restaurants, always surrounded by the models he photographs. he's got his own jet. he seems like he's on top of the world. but what all his fashion friends and family don't know is that he is secretly working for the u.s. government as a kind of freelance spy. carol: but that's not it, right? he's doing that, but he's also friendly with the drug cartels and kingpins. zeke: right. so his job with the government was to infiltrate the drug cartels, into their social circles, and then gather information and hopefully bring them in to become informants. carol: ok. zeke: but what the government didn't know is that vega, while he was meeting with these guys, while the government was watching him closely, was

convincing them that he could take care of all their legal problems, fix their cases, if they would just pay him millions of dollars in bribe money. the crazy thing was, they did it. and it seems like it worked. like, once they paid him, they would be able to travel to miami. they would go to disney world. one of them threw a big party on a yacht. guys who were wanted for murder waved through customs. jason: one of the things that happen fairly early on is that he was dearly working with law clearly working with law enforcement officials. they were endorsing at least some of what he was doing. zeke: vega would meet with these criminals. he'd give them his pitch. he'd say, pay me this money, but you're still going to have to meet with the dea, and you're going to have to sign a standard cooperation agreement. so these guys would have paid vega.

then they would be meeting with dea agents and prosecutors, thinking their case had been fixed. now do the dea agents and prosecutors know that that's what they think? that's one of the things i was looking into. jason: to say the least, this is a high-wire act, where he's walking between law and some really bad people, and yet, i mean, hopefully this isn't a spoiler, he's still around. you talked to him. here he is all these years later, being like, "look what i did." zeke: right. when i would track down these retired law enforcement officials, a lot of them said, "vega's still alive? wow, that's pretty cool. good for him." [laughter]

zeke: because many of the informants who worked with him were assassinated. and at one point, vega heard from the fbi and his underworld connections that there was a price on his head, too. but that didn't stop him. he kept running the scheme, even after that. carol: right. until there was a sting operation, and he got caught and arrested and put in jail. zeke: right. so, the story opens with the vega just back from a photo shoot in cancún, i believe, partying with some of his photography and fashion friends, when his doorbell rings, and one of his drug trafficker clients is at the door. not too weird for him. he's used to that. but the guy seems to have a lot of questions about, hey, remember when i paid you that $7 million? who did you bribe with that? and vega says don't worry about it. the money's gone. i spent it. it's not a big deal. but this guy, sort of suspiciously, wants to keep talking about it. the drug trafficker leaves.

a new group of people show up. it's the fbi and they arrest him. vega says, hey, i did this all for the dea. talk to my guys there. this is all legal. they say no way, throw him in jail. carol: add to the mystery, the case is ultimately dropped, and he was set free. zeke: right, the case was dropped, and he was set free, but the prosecutors do not say they were wrong. they say we were right. he did do this. but we're not going to prosecute for this. jason: we sat down with crunch fitness ceo jim rowley. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

jason: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm jason kelly. carol: i'm carol massar. you can also listen to us on the radio and a.m.

1130 on in new york, 106.1 in boston, 99.1 fm in washington, d.c. jason: a.m. 960 in the bay area. in london on dab digital and on bloomberg in the business app. buying crunch fitness. carol: a little deal flow. here's crunch ceo jim rowley. jim: it's fantastic they identified crunch as an opportunity. i think by now is fitness has never been more popular. with the recent changes in the retail landscape, landlords are finally clambering to have fitness companies and clubs as part of their old mall set up, their new mall set up. it's been a fantastic time. with crunch, specifically, because we're celebrating a 30-year anniversary. we've proven a successful track record, both in new york and california, and i think there's a big interest in our platform , because of the intellectual property around our group

fitness classes, our personal training, and things like this, and we launched a franchise company that's been tremendous. carol: so, jim, talk to us about that property. it's the fitness base that's changed a lot from when you started toast up at the ip and why it makes you and interesting play. jim: the heart of crunch is group fitness. we're innovative in that respect. we take from broadway. we can take from hollywood. we can take from what's happening on the street. we also go out into europe, ando into hotspots in miami los angeles. we look for the alternative and with what is happening and the alternative with exercise. we come back and create classes around that are nuanced for crunch members. carol: why sell now? what opportunities does that provide for you? jim: first of all, angela gordon, who has been our partner

for 10 years, 10 years is a long time as a hold for them. they were receiving pressure, that the time was now for them. the sad part of that is that they were tremendous private equity partners. i would give them a glowing review. i can't say that about every p.e. partner we've had. it was time for them. that was the initiative that process forward. to have gpt growth, the ceo sat in on the presentations, met with mark and i directly, went through the entire presentation. when you get that blessing from that order and magnitude, and chris kelly, who runs the fund for him, it was tremendous. to have that level of tier one private equity enforce your company -- the timing couldn't have been better. carol: is going public at some point for consideration? jim: i think it's always a consideration. i've never run a public company.

you hear the horrors of what it's like. but when you see the values of what is placed, there's another public company in the fitness space doing tremendously well. i would say it is attractive. it is not necessarily a goal, right now, but it is a consideration. jason: when you think about tbg as a partner, life time fitness is another jewel. clearly, they are making a play on this lifestyle we're talking about. how have you come to understand that approach? jim: i think there's tpg and tpg there is tpg growth. an lifetime will be on the growth side. the biggest opportunity for us was access. they own or do own hundreds of companies. so imagine our little company getting access to the best ceo's they partnered with, to the analytics and support they provided, to marketing understanding, especially from a digital marketing standpoint. i'm most excited about access to their network and so forth are the. they have seen a lot and done a lot. to broaden our business experience is something i'm

looking forward to. carol: i do also wonder about kind of this landscape and the choices that are out there. we spent time with the folks at peloton. the fitness landscape has changed dramatically. how does that impact you? do you incorporate what they do? jim: great question. we have done enough studies to understand the majority of people who participate, they're actually health club members, as well, so it's something they do in addition to their health club membership. our biggest fear is the netflix binge watch. that is our biggest competitor. [laughter] couch?just sit on the jim: right! we live in a world where you can watch whatever you want for hours upon hours. you don't even have to get food. you call postmates or grubhub. carol: it is pretty bad, actually. jim: that is the life a lot of people are living. carol: what do you have to do? that's a challenge, right? we talk about all these

different facilities competing for your time. what do you do to get this people who would rather binge watch on netflix for a day? jim: we market like crazy to get their attention. we try to partner with postmates and the grubhubs of the world to offer free passes. carol: really? is that productive? jim: it can be. a lot of people made the decision that's not how they want to make their free time. we try to make crunch fun. they want to live a healthier lifestyle, crunch is the first thing they think of. jason: tell us about hiring labor, instructors. there are not enough quality instructors to fuel their expansion. how are you doing with the labor side? jim: that's a great question. so when the boutique expansion really kind of came to be three or four years ago, it was tough on us, because they recruited our top instructors. our top personal trainers, top our top ride instructors, were being recruited for much higher hourly wage or session fees and so forth.

and so it was a little bit difficult in the beginning. what we really tried to do is internalize our training program. so we have got an internal education program where we bring people that may be on the margin in terms of being appealing to be hired. maybe they don't have the experience or the certifications and education, but they've got the initiative. we'll bring them in, trained in train them in the crunch way, and put them into our clubs. that's helped us identify people that have the mindset, but not the resume yet, and they want to get involved with crunch. carol: check out our entire conversation. you can find that at our podcast. we talked a lot of stuff. jason: we did. he has been through a lot of history. anis big in fitness, ex-marine, some thoughts about where the fitness business is going. some surprises there. carol: lots more coming up, including a story about a man who could not stop robbing banks. jason: plus, how to fix a soccer

match. don't actually do it, but this is how you would. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

jason: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i am jason kelly. carol: i am carol massar. still ahead, the real husbands of the real housewives. we get a look at their rap sh eet. jason: plus, how to fix a soccer match. carol: it happens a lot. it is part of a special heist issue. and for more on how it came together, here is the editor

behind the takeover issue, max chafkin. max: the idea is to give people a different experience. the news cycle slows down while everyone is going to the beach or whatever around the fourth of july, so these are our true crime stories. last year's heist issue was very heist-y. it involved a lot of things getting stolen. this one is little more extensive. it includes scams, fraud, and other forms of skulduggery. we even have a service component to tell the reader how to pull off their own heist. jason: how to fix a soccer match, how to rob a train. carol: how to get into a college. max: there is a disclaimer, which is we are being tongue-in-cheek, but the idea is to show people how some of this bad stuff happens. jason: what is the thing you're looking for? max: i was looking for stories that are true and involve something nefarious. so basically true crime with a variety. so we have stuff that is serious and tragic.

jason: the bank robbery story i feel like is one of the multifaceted heist stories i have ever written, because it is a human story, it is about the opiate crisis at its core. also about a bank robbery. so you go into it and it is a bit of a head fake, in some sense. max: it is at addiction story, in both senses. he is addicted to opioids, as you say, but he sort of becomes addicted to robbing banks. and it has this amazing so of quality, where things are piling one on top of the other, and hopefully people won't be able to put it down. jason: meanwhile, we look at the

story of, i think you actually call him the snitch, at the center of the drug trade and the dea and the gray areas of law-enforcement and crime. max: yeah, that story is wonderful. it is as crazy as anything you will see in the netflix show "narcos." as you say, it kind of explores the gray areas in terms of what is legal and what isn't. if you are interested in business, those gray areas are interesting. because it is a way to see, it is entertaining to see people doing bad stuff, but it also shows you what are the bounds of morality and ethics. and when business breaks down, what happens? jason: that story about the man who could not stop robbing banks. it is about addictions on several levels. carol: it is indeed. here is a reporter josh dean. josh: when i reached out to this guy and made contact, it took a turn. it is about a very successful bank robber, but that is not what it is about. carol: so the guy is anthony hathaway. tell us his story. he was pretty successful at one point.

josh: he was an engineer in boeing who was formerly in charge of the biggest jets boeing makes. he was flying around the world in business class, meeting with airlines on every continent, flying around, and he got addicted to opioids. carol: how did that happen? josh: he hurt his back playing roller hockey. this is in the early 2000's. it is easy now to say, of course, everyone knows you can get hooked. but back then, his doctor said that, he said here's something that helps. and it really did help. it was the only thing that stopped the pain, and it was like "this is a miracle. i can go back to work." because there were times he could not get out of bed. what happens over time is your body gets addicted. the doctor is, i'm sure, aware of the problem. but once you are addicted, it is not a conversation to have openly. you are probably embarrassed about it, so then you become an addict trying to function. carol: he did at one point level with boeing. josh: they gave him a leave and more and more companies do this. he went to treatment and the when he got out of treatment, he

went and bought pills again. jason: so he comes upon this idea of essentially starting to rob banks. sort of incredible. josh: desperation at desperate times. in 2010, perdue pharma switches the formula for oxycontin. that is when the heroin epidemic starts, because the pills are no longer snortable or crushable. then he starts doing heroin, and his problem gets out of control. he ran out of money and lost his job. he robbed the first bank poorly and got arrested -- carol: with his son! josh: with his son, yes. i mean, there are a lot of sad elements to this story. he was not convicted and let go, and he's in bad shape. fired from his job . he says he needs money to support his habit and also his mother. lives with his mother, who is

also very. besides robbing banks, and because he is an engineer, he is very good at it. he does not want to carry a weapon. he says he knows they will give him the money if he asks for it, and if i am smart and fast enough, i should not get caught. jason: what is his mindset? what is he thinking? or is he not? josh: at the beginning, i think he is thinking i won't get caught. i have done a few stories, and they all tell me it is one of the best adrenaline rushes. i think he got somewhat addicted to that as well. but by the time the streak comes to an end, getting pretty desperate. he knew the end was near and he needed help. he did not want to get caught, but when he got caught, he thought, this is what needed to happen, so maybe subconsciously he was not trying as hard. carol: now he is on a mission to go after the drug companies. josh: the main thing he wants to do is get the back on his feet. he is 50 and needs to rebuild his life. i don't think he will probably

get a job at boeing. maybe it would be good pr for them, but he needs to get his life back, find a way to make money, get a house, but also, he is angry. he feels like i should be punished for what i did, i robbed banks, i've done my time. but i did not become an addict because i wanted to. i was not partying. i went to my doctor and asked for pills for pain. eventually, that is what got me addicted. so he thinks he wants to join the fight. jason: up next, you want to buy your kid into college? here is how you can do it the legal way. carol: legal. all right, just checking. plus, "the real housewives" husbands. they have perpetrated some interesting heists of their own. jason: that is all part of this week's special heist issue. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i am carol massar. jason: and i am jason kelly. join us for "bloomberg businessweek" every day on the radio from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. wall street time. carol: you can also find us

online at businesswe ek.com and on our mobile app. in this week's heist issue, buying your kid's way into college. jason: here is reporter janet warren on how you can legally game the system. janet: first of all, it is clear you really can't buy your kid into college, but there are ways to be spending a lot of money. so let's review the doors. the front door is that your kid is the real deal. real academic tops, top grades, top test scores. done something amazing, some real achievement. best oboe player in the state. found a cure for cancer, etc. that kid is going to get into a lot of places. so that is the front door. the back door is giving a lot of money.

, and that is what richards richard singer talked about. but, of course, there is no guarantee, and it could be a really expensive. there is no real assurance. carol: like a donation to the school? or something like that? janet: yeah, potentially tens of millions of dollars. but there is no guarantee because he has to be able to do the work. if the kid gets in and can't, it doesn't help anybody. so he created the side door by lying, cheating, and bribing. some of the more memorable stuff from the 204 page indictment, including photoshopping kid's s' face onto bodies of crew team members to pretend they were real athletes, he advised faking learning disabilities to get more time on tests. he had all these people in place, bribing sports coaches, and that was the side door. it is probably safe to say the side door is closed. so one way to get your kid an advantage is test prep. you could spend $50,000 on test prep. what does that mean?

are you sending your kid starting freshman year of high school starting two times a week, three times a week? chances are, the kid takes it seriously, does a lot of work, and he or she may be prepared, but there is no guarantee. jason: one of the things you talk about is parents out there are always looking for ways to game the system in a legal way. some going to extremes. one of the things you say is to go to a place that is not new york or l.a. or chicago, because folks are looking for geographic diversity. carol: right. janet: sure. and one college counselor said try states with only one congressional district, meaning it is a sparsely populated place. but the trick is you actually have to live there. so if you are from california, and you have a house in a ski town in montana, you have to live there. they will check that, you can't just put montana on your address. it has to be consistent. are your teacher recommendations from teachers in montana? are you helping that local community and doing volunteer work and doing amazing research and playing on a sports team in

montana? you don't want to fake that, they will check. carol: what about just being a great athlete? janet: if you are a legitimately great basketball player or football player, there will be a lot of people watching. there are a lot of people who rank and see how the kids are doing. they track it in leagues, so that is hard to fake, and there are a lot of kids who are very good. so you may want to stay away from sports that people are actually watching. we mentioned in the graphic, squash may not be the way to go. one college counselor told me a few decades ago, rich kids, that was their in, but now the really accomplished squash teams recruit from overseas. these kids are the real deal. carol: staying with gaming the system, how to fix a soccer match. last year, bookmakers took bets on about 75,000 soccer matches around the world. jason: for a match fixer, that is 75,000 plus chances to

profit, and, in theory, it is easy. all you have to do is arrange an outcome ahead of time and then bet on it. >> it is not the greatest betting sport. baseball is a great betting sport, because every pitch is a new opportunity and great opportunity for betting. there is not much flowing soccer, but there is a lot of ways to tilt a soccer match. you can bet on who will get the first corner kick, you can bet on the wins, the total score, all that stuff. and there are a lot of ways to influence it that are not 100% obvious right away and that is a , and that is a big key when trying to manage a match. carol: ok, so how do you start to do this? [laughter] carol: here is the playbook, everybody. jason: carol is like, ok, now i

need some actual instruction. carol: what do you do? so you decide you want to fix a match. ira: one of the ways i tried to split this up was, there's basically the old-fashioned thing, you groom a player. that is a long-term project , which is why it is frequently organized crime that does this. because you have got to get to know them, where they are. this company sports radar does classes in the italian leagues, where they talk to young players throughout the organization about how this will happen. one of the things they tell them is you will not know when you are being approached by a game fixer, because it will just be a guy at the club who wants to pay for your bottle service, maybe arrange a prostitute, whatever. they will do you favors and pay your debt. at some point, they will ask for things and a little bit more. it will come to a point where you have given them enough where if you say no, they will tell the world what you did. and then they own you, and when you are done, they say, go get me another guy. so they wonder how these guys who are so well paid, can wind up being manipulated, it's because it started when they were 17. when they were in the academy and so forth. carol: are big-name players part of this? ira: i think nobody knows for certain the extent of it. you can usually rely on the elite talents not be a part of this. because they have very little incentive. carol: and they have folks coming and looking for endorsements.

we want you to endorse our product. ira: right. it is more likely to be a defender at the second tier of some european league. it is the more likely mark. jason: and it is not just the players, the refs are a mark here, presumably. ira: right. that is the other thing, there are a lot of ways to go about this. players is one, but referees are great, because they earn less money. frequently, it is matches in parts of the world where the federations are not super well supported. there's not a lot of money or regulation on who gets to referee, so bribes can get you on the pitch, even if you are not good or have proven to be a little corrupt. referees are great window. people have security guards to who shut off lights halfway through the match to affect markets, people have gotten two teams to just fake the report of a match.

there was a case in belarus where two teams reported they had played, and one team won a match that never happened. carol: where are the officials in all of this? ira: that is the problem. it is a patchwork of regulation. you have to find the weak spot. jason: up next, keeping up with the real husbands of the real housewives. spoiler alert, they are not great dudes. carol: no. plus, eccentric autos from the 1980's hit the block at pebble beach. jason: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

jason: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i am jason kelly. carol: i am carol massar. you can also listen to us on the radio on sirius xm channel 119, and on a.m. 1130 in new york, 106.1 in boston, 99.1 f.m. in washington, d.c. jason: a.m. 960 in the bay area, in london on dab digital, and through the bloomberg business app.

carol: staying with this week's special heist issue, the real husbands of bravo's real housewives. jason: reporter zeke faux is a fan, and he has a rundown of the rap sheets. zeke: this has been on the show a lot, that joe giudice is going to be deported because of fraud. but it turns out his scam was pretty involved. first, he is not paying taxes. but he still wants to get some mortgages, so he makes up-fake tax returns, sends them to the bank, gets $4 million in mortgages, then does not pay the mortgage. he spends the money, files for bankruptcy, and in order to get your debt discharge in bankruptcy, you have to show you are broke, so they do not even mention that they are getting paid to be on real housewives. jason: that whole thing came crashing down. this is when i do know a little

bit about, because both of them went to jail. teresa, the housewife herself, went to jail, right? zeke: the husband said he was the mastermind, and she did not know what was going on with the paperwork, but apparently the court did not buy it. she had served a year in prison. carol: there are a couple of other couples like the erin brockovich lawyer. talk about him a little bit. zeke: oh, yes. so this lawyer, tom girardi, appears to be super successful. he brought the case that inspired the movie erin brockovich and has done other big cases since then. however, in the past year or so, he has been sued twice by lenders who say they advanced his firm millions and were not paid back. in the lawsuits, they said he took this money, saying it was

for some important legal purpose, but then you blew it to keep up with the other housewives. he denies this, but the cases are still pending. jason: back in new york, this phrase always raises an eyebrow. upscale dry-cleaning kingpin. this is john mahdessian. carol: i don't know this one. i don't watch the new york ones. [laughter] jason: you are like, please, that is trash. carol: anyway, tell us about that story. zeke: this guy is a real character. he first made the pages of new york's tabloids when there was a scandal, where p. diddy had an arrangement from his dry cleaner, and it was like, why would he have these connections? it turned out this had been arranged by his dry cleaner. he is like the dry to the stars. he has not been accused of running a high-class window, but has been sued a few times by his employees over paying them less than minimum wage. jason: are they going for these

types of people, shady people, to get controversy and viewers? or do they not do a good job screening them? zeke: i don't think they are going for these people on purpose. although, of course, they love drama. i think that it takes a certain kind of rich person to agree to go on a show like this. you are not going to get someone from goldman sachs. i mean, their employer would never agree to it. also, one of the guys i wrote about, apollo nida, said that he had to run a scam because he just felt so much pressure to appear to be rich because he was on the show. jason: we could not let you head into the summer weekend without checking in with our "pursuits" theme about a summer staple, the pebble beach auction. carol: an amazing car show, here is our car expert with a preview. hannah: it is a group of four cars that are going to be going for sale.

they are part of the group b rally series, which was part of a famous racing series across europe in the 1980's over mud, dirt, rocks, cross-country. it was really intense. these cars were developed to race in that series. it was so intense, it did not last very long. they canceled it, because people were dying. but a few of the cars have remained. carol: oh. hannah: they are very rare with a special history. and there is a growing interest by discerning collectors but also people who just like funky things from the 1980's. carol: it is perfect they will be in pebble beach, take a step back to remind everybody about this, because it is remarkable. hannah: it is great. monterey car week happens every year, and pebble beach is the climax happening on the sunday. it is a big car show. the most beautiful and most expensive cars in the world are shown here. it is in carmel, california, it is very beautiful. there are also auctions during the week, and these cars will be

sold at one of the auctions. again, they really stand out , because they look kind of ugly. carol: tell us about some of the cars. some of these are not household names. hannah: ok, so we have got the delta s-4, this probably the is probably the most known. we are talking insider baseball, but it is an italian car with a very distinctive clamshell body. and by clamshell, we mean that the back unlatches and lifts up completely so that mechanics could get to the mechanics of the car during a race and fix things as they needed to really quickly. this is probably the most expensive of the lot. a similar model sold for $1.2 million in germany in april. this one we will be seeing is probably going to go for half a million. jason: wow.

carol: tell us about the oddball. or you call it the oddball. hannah: i call it the oddball. the mg metro 6r-4. you might recognize the name, like geo metro? this is not that. [laughter] hannah: it might share the name, but this is a monster that was created. jason: spoiler on the front, spoiler on the back, gills -- hannah: huge, gaping gills on the side, two seats, two doors, tiny wheels. they were doing what they could to make a fast, and the thought was the spoilers would help downforce. they help aerodynamics. everything was for the purpose of speed, not aesthetics. jason: speaking of aesthetics, the interior is a little bit austere, shall we say? hannah: that is a very nice way to put it. minimal, bare-bones, everything is metal. no radios, no air-conditioning, of course. we are talking metal. the gas tanks were actually

located under the seats of the car, which, as we know, is not a safe place to put them. it is basically metal on metal and then the ground. carol: "bloomberg businessweek" is available on newsstands now. jason: also online at businessweek.com and on our mobile app. what is your must-read? carol: i love the story by josh dean. it is a tragic story, here is an a boeing engineer who becomes addicted to opioids. it is addiction on several notes. jason: and it does end on a bit of a hopeful note. the guy is very self-aware, and he wants to know what happens next. carol: your must-read? jason: mine is a bit of a must listen and must watch. i love catching up with the crunch fitness ceo. i love the issue, of course, but getting a chance for you and me to talk about something, that nexus we are so interested in, fitness and money, i loved it. carol: it is such a big industry, in terms of fitness. it is fascinating to see how they fit in. and of course, you can find more stories on businessweek.com. check that out over the weekend. jason: and check out our daily "businessweek" podcast, plus our extra podcasts with interviews

on itunes, soundcloud, or bloomberg.com. carol: more bloomberg television starts now. ♪

♪ caroline: i'm caroline hyde, in for emily chang. this is "the best of bloomberg technology," where we bring all our top interviews from this week in tech. coming up, tesla sets a new record for quarterly vehicle deliveries, easily beating analysts' average estimate. and the company's stock soars. we bring you the details. weine--