Matthew Cox: Former mortgage broker and con man who served 13 years in federal prison for bank fraud, mortgage fraud, identity theft, and passport fraud; now hosts the YouTube true-crime channel Inside True Crime.
What this episode covers
Matthew Cox walks Lex Fridman through his entire criminal career, beginning with a single act of white-out fraud on a mortgage file and escalating into manufacturing 'synthetic identities,' fake banks, fake appraisals, and forged documents to drain millions from lenders. He explains the mechanics of his scams in granular detail, including buying cheap houses, inflating their recorded values, and selling them to invented borrowers before letting them go into foreclosure. After violating federal probation, he fled across the country for three years, getting plastic surgery, stealing the identities of homeless men, and repeatedly talking his way out of near-arrests before the Secret Service finally caught him. The conversation closes with his 26-year sentence, his cynical philosophy on snitching and loyalty, and how he eventually got 12 years cut off his sentence and rebuilt his life as a writer and podcaster.
The guest's own work
Insanity
Matthew Cox
“I wrote a son is and I turned that into a book what's the name of the book oh it's Insanity it's Insanity”— Matthew Cox
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino
“do you remember the movie Reservoir Dogs so I started naming the characters after guys in the reservoir dog”— Matthew Cox
The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola
“I'm not going to cooperate I'm not going to you know I'd seen The Godfather you're not supposed to cooperate”— Matthew Cox
The Shawshank Redemption
Frank Darabont
“I can't go to prison I'm adorable bro like you know I can't I saw Shaw Shank Redemption I know what's gonna happen”— Matthew Cox
The Simpsons
Matt Groening
“I sign it as SE Montgomery Burns which is the Aging tycoon in the the the guy that owns the power plant in The Simpsons TV show”— Matthew Cox
Casino Royale
Martin Campbell
“Casina Royale was coming out on Friday yeah it was the first Daniel Craig as James Bond and the whole week I'd been telling Amanda I'm want to go see Casina Royale”— Matthew Cox
War Dogs
Todd Phillips
“efim Dey was played by Jo Hill in the movie uh wogs”— Matthew Cox
The Hangover
Todd Phillips
“it was sold to the guys from The Hangover movie and I was like so the guys from The Hangover movie are going to make a movie about you”— Matthew Cox
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Amy Heckerling
“you're going to be thei from fast time at richmont high like you're going to be a joke”— Matthew Cox
Nine Days in the Congo
Ben Lawrence
“I mean l it tried to take over the Congo I mean there's a a documentary about it there's it's called nine days in the Congo”— Matthew Cox
Big reveals from this episode
- Cox explains there is no 'gray area' in fraud: anytime you misrepresent something to a bank, you have committed fraud, full stop.
- He describes inventing 'synthetic identities' (Phantom borrowers) by obtaining Social Security numbers and building real credit profiles for people who do not exist.
- Each fully built synthetic identity, leveraged against inflated property values, was worth a few million dollars to him.
- To stop collection letters, he forged a newspaper article and a fake sister's letter claiming a borrower was in a coma from a car accident.
- Cox argues 90-plus percent of criminals cooperate with the government, and that nearly all of them lie about having snitched.
- He admits to surveying homeless men with fake Salvation Army forms to steal their identities for new IDs.
- He is sentenced to 26 years and four months; he cried 'like a small child' at sentencing.
- With help from a delusional jailhouse lawyer named Frank Amadeo, Cox gets a total of 12 years cut from his sentence.
Worth remembering
- His first fraud was instructed by his own manager, Gretchen Zaas, who told him to white-out a 30-day-late payment and copy the file.
- A client had unknowingly built perfect credit using her young child's Social Security number, which inspired his synthetic-identity scheme.
- He paid an extra ~$700 in doc stamps to record cheap houses at inflated sale prices so they would appear as high-value comparable sales.
- He named synthetic identities after Reservoir Dogs characters (Mr. White, Mr. Black, Mr. Green), which later helped police map his entire scam.
- He used a handyman, Eric Tamargo, to impersonate a fake borrower at a closing for just $500, having used Tamargo's own mug shot on the fake ID.
- On the run he got plastic surgery including a nose job, a mini facelift, neck liposuction, two hair transplants, and dental work.
- He once answered a bank's verification call as 'Michael Shanahan' while physically sitting in the bank posing as 'Scott Cugno' to clear his own fraudulent check.
- He was at one point number one on the Secret Service's Most Wanted list.
- He was charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, passport fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering, facing 32 years to life.
- Cox has never smoked, drunk alcohol, or used drugs, reacting against his alcoholic, pill-addicted father; he now hunts alligators on date nights with his wife, whom he met in a halfway house.