Austin con man steals millions

[CooterBrown 18,028]

I don't get the logic of these victims.  Some dude tells you the cartel is after you and you need to pay them off.  Why don't you go straight to the police/FBI?  AAS doesn't ask the right question: what shady shit were these victims involved with that it made sense not to immediately contact to law enforcement?

 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/02/09/wealthy-austin-tx-residents-scam-millions-alleged-con-man-saint-jovite-kota-youngblood-feds-say/72399667007/

'It almost felt like you could trust him.' How feds say an Austin con man stole millions
Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman

Eric Perardi rolled over from a night of fitful sleep, waiting for the phone call from a friend that finally came at 6:15 a.m.

Perardi, an Austin real estate developer, had been warned the night before that the call from Saint Jovite Youngblood would arrive from a blocked number. Youngblood, whom Perardi had known for five years, told the developer that he’d be there within the hour with urgent, troubling news that had to be delivered in person.

Clad in his signature all-black cargo pants, dark-colored T-shirt and Crocs, Youngblood bounded into Perardi’s Steiner Ranch home. Against the chirping of the birds, the two men paced back and forth on Perardi’s balcony that June 2022 morning against the backdrop of a majestic Hill Country overlook.

“Look, I found out a really frightening piece of information,” said Youngblood, who Perardi believed was a top-secret federal agent with high-level CIA clearance.

He explained that Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel known for its viciousness and even beheading rivals, had put out a hit on Perardi and his children — that they could be kidnapped and killed as soon as that day. Perardi, whose projects include the Crossover in Cedar Park and medical office parks, sank in a chair, still in his pajamas, with head-to-toe terror.

“They believe I had all this money from projects I’ve done,” he remembers Youngblood telling him. He also said the cartel knew that Perardi had a multimillion-dollar life insurance policy.

Eric Perardi, a developer of the Crossover, a sports and entertainment facility in Cedar Park, sits in its lobby. Federal investigators say Perardi funneled Saint Jovite Youngblood $900,000 that Youngblood claimed he used to fend off cartel threats. Federal documents say it was an epic fraud, and that Youngblood used the false threats as a ruse to get money he squandered at posh Las Vegas casinos.
In further describing the encounter, Perardi said Youngblood offered instant protection: Perardi could give him $70,000 that he’d use to pay off the cartel. Perardi wrote him a check right then and there. And over the next several months, Perardi and federal investigators say, he funneled Youngblood up to $900,000 that he had believed Youngblood used to satisfy cartel demands.

Federal documents say it was an epic fraud — a magistrate judge called the crimes “the most massive pattern of intimidation of threats and violence and death I have ever seen” — that ensnared at least 20 victims in Austin and across the nation.

FBI agents say in court documents that Youngblood — a 51-year-old husband and father living in a 4,000-square-foot Manor home with no documented employment — scammed millions of dollars in recent years, including from victims who believed their safety depended on high-dollar payoffs. They say Youngblood used the threats as a ruse to get money that he squandered at posh Las Vegas casinos.

“All I can say is, ‘wow,’” U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Lane told Youngblood in an August detention hearing. “The number of lies, the depth of those lies, is beyond anything I have ever heard. Absolutely incredible. ... The weight of the evidence is absolutely against you, Mr. Youngblood.”

Saint Jovite Youngblood, 51, appears in court in August. A federal magistrate judge has described Youngblood's case as “the most massive pattern of intimidation of threats and violence and death I have ever seen.”
In the hearing, FBI special agent Lindsey Wilkinson rattled off a sprawling range of victims — old and young, wealthy and middle-class: A manager and bartender at the ShadowGlen golf course. A seatmate on a Vegas-bound flight. A fellow estate sale customer, and a man who sold exotic fish for Youngblood’s aquarium. “Friends of friends” and others he met from his children’s extracurricular activities, Wilkinson added.

Ricky and Rebecca Kumar of Cedar Park are among them. They say they wanted to help their friend — they called him “Kota” — twice with loans to pay for family heirlooms, settling an estate dispute, and to handle blackmail involving his wife. They gave him $200,000 — a fraction of which he returned, they said.

“It kind of sounds unbelievable that we would do that,” Rebecca Kumar said. “You have to understand how he molds his relationships with people and how he just tries to continue to build this trust. He is a master storyteller and a fantastic con man."

Investigators say Youngblood left a trail of financial devastation and monetary ruin. In an FBI victims’ meeting, Perardi recounted, some tearfully admitted surrendering their life savings and homes to Youngblood. Wilkinson testified that one victim was so terrified of a cartel hit that he and his family abandoned their home and lives in the middle of the night and secluded themselves in an extended stay in Florida for months, all the while paying Youngblood. Perardi sold his home, unable to pay the mortgage. The Kumars — Ricky is an engineer, and Rebecca operates a small gym in Cedar Park — gave Youngblood their son’s college tuition savings. 

Youngblood remains in a federal detention facility near Waco charged with wire fraud, aiding and abetting and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property — crimes for which he faces up to 40 years in prison. A trial is set for April. His court-appointed attorney, Charlotte Herring, declined to comment.

In the end, Perardi and court documents say Perardi relied on internet sleuthing and a series of phone calls to break through the deception. 

In a made-for-TV moment, federal investigators teamed up with Perardi to set up an undercover operation at a North Austin Carrabba's Italian Grill. They wired him with a hidden microphone that let the feds record Youngblood perpetuating the cartel threat and monetary demands, documents say.

With $18,000 in his front pocket that he told investigators was from a casino win, Youngblood was nabbed by agents two months later boarding a flight on his latest Las Vegas junket.

“Call it a higher power — somebody put me in this position to bring him down,” Perardi said.

The Delta Force, hockey and friendships 
Perardi, 52, moved to Austin in 2006 after playing college ice hockey and working in the Hollywood entertainment industry. He thought it would be a family-friendly area to raise his children.

Over the past 15 years, he founded and built Perardi Development, constructing 12 medical office buildings regionwide. His most ambitious and prized project is the Crossover, a 240,000-square-foot entertainment, sports and wellness expanse off U.S. 183. 

Beginning in 2010, when his son was 4, Perardi served as a volunteer coach for his son’s ice hockey league. That’s how he met Youngblood and his family in 2018. Youngblood’s son joined Perardi’s son’s team. Perardi saw immediate talent. 

“I took the kid under my wing and just tried to help teach him the game and skate better,” he said.

Eric Perardi watches his son's hockey game at the Crossover sports and entertainment facility in Cedar Park. Perardi first met Saint Jovite Youngblood and his family in 2018 while serving as a volunteer ice hockey league coach after Youngblood’s son joined Perardi’s son’s team.
The Kumars' son also played hockey. The families cheered together in the stands, passed practice time at the Pond Hockey Club and the Chaparral Ice rink, and traveled to regional competitions.

Saint Jovite Youngblood became a constant — and captivating — presence. 

Perardi and the Kumars recall how he told fellow parents he had served in the Army, describing daring adventures as part of the elite Delta Force. He said he spoke multiple languages and had lived in Japan and Russia. He drew sympathy with a story that his parents had been killed when he was a child — and intellectual intrigue by claiming he had a master’s degree in quantum physics.

He kept his work intensely confidential, they recalled, insisting secrecy was required for his classified government job. He seldom carried a cellphone and resoundingly rejected being photographed.

"He was extremely generous, and he would throw a bunch of money at purchasing dinners and doing events with people and giving fancy gifts to whoever would accept something like that from him," Rebecca Kumar said. 

"He seemed very loving, very attentive, and you just feel like he's going to protect you," she said. “You almost felt like you could trust him with anything.”

"He would rent out a whole movie theater and take you and your family to the movies,” Perardi added. “Always paying for things on road trips. Buying the team dinner for kids. He was an extremely likable person, always talking about geopolitical things.”

But looking back, Rebecca Kumar says she had a back-of-mind suspicion that she never allowed herself to voice. At times, Youngblood was almost overly friendly. She said he encroached on personal space during conversations, talking too closely face-to-face. Kumar added that he seemed manic — always. 

“I have a really strong gut feeling, and something about him threw me off,” she said.

The alleged scams 
On the witness stand in the summer detention hearing, Wilkinson, the FBI agent who spent months uncovering his alleged crimes, unfurled what she described as Youngblood’s multilayered, sometimes difficult-to-follow patterns of deceit.

She told the judge that Youngblood relied on a combination of investment schemes and extortion, sometimes offering purported antique clocks, a Confederate flag and sports memorabilia, including baseball bats he claimed belonged to Lou Gehrig or Babe Ruth, as investment collateral. 

“Among other claims, Youngblood told investors that he had access to a large number of gold bars and that Youngblood was going to then sell and share profits with the investor,” a six-page federal complaint said.

Saint Jovite Youngblood remains in a federal detention facility near Waco, and his trial is set for April.
In Wilkinson's testimony, she traced victims back more than a dozen years, including cases that the Los Angeles-area media reported in 2011. Police in California arrested Youngblood on theft charges after investigators said he wrote a fraudulent check for $94,000 in gold coins, sold them and gambled the money, according to published reports. At the time, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that other victims said Youngblood told them that he had earned a Purple Heart in the war on terror, that he had served as a U.S. Navy SEAL, and that a drunken driver had killed his wife and children. Federal officials said in court that he was convicted, and records show he was sentenced to the time he had already served.

Wilkinson said that, as in Perardi’s case, Youngblood often used fears of cartels.

Perardi said that, at first, Youngblood did not ask for money, only mentioning in April 2022 that his family might be under threat based on preliminary covert intelligence he said he had received.

“He was just, ‘Be careful; watch where you are going,’” Perardi said. 

Two months later, Perardi got the alarming call from a mutual friend traveling with Youngblood in Las Vegas. The friend said Youngblood was extremely concerned about Perardi’s safety and was urgently flying back to Austin to meet with Perardi.

After the initial $70,000 that day, Perardi’s payments to Youngblood continued over the next six months. Perardi said he faced growing pressure from Youngblood. The indictment lists two transactions of a combined $86,000 in July and August 2022 “for payment to provide protection against threats to E.P. and his family.”

Wilkinson testified that Youngblood also told Perardi he would receive an “exorbitant” return on the money and offered him a tattered Civil War flag, supposedly valued at $2.5 million, as collateral. 

In the following months, Perardi said he was the victim of several property crimes and social media harassment that Youngblood told him were the cartel’s work. An online Nov. 6, 2022, review of the Crossover said it is a haven for “a few folks that are creepy and say they know the owner … sad that the owner, Mr. Perardi, can’t get his ‘friends’ in line.” 

Perardi said, and Wilkinson testified, that the posts coincided with Youngblood’s increasingly urgent demands for more money. Perardi said he sold business entities, took out lines of credit and borrowed money from friends and family — some of whom met with Youngblood and were also convinced Perardi and his family were in danger.

Eric Perardi orders from a food truck at the Crossover in Cedar Park. After internet sleuthing helped confirm some of Perardi's suspicions about Saint Jovite Youngblood, he went to the FBI. The FBI then set up an operation at a North Austin restaurant with Perardi, Youngblood and an undercover agent.
The first time Youngblood asked for a loan, the Kumars said he told them that a family friend needed money to pay for nostalgic items that belonged to his father to prevent other family members from selling them at an estate sale. Months later, they gave Youngblood $100,000 after he told them his wife was being accused of arson, but a person had a recording that vindicated her, and he needed the money to purchase the recording, the Kumars recalled.

“We are grateful that is all it was, because the other victims lost more, and that’s heartbreaking,” Rebecca Kumar said. “And we are grateful we were not led by fear because other victims were — for their lives and for their families’ lives.”

Last summer, Perardi and the Kumars independently grew suspicious.

Perardi reached out in April 2023 to an out-of-state antique flag dealer. Perardi said the dealer told him the supposedly $2.5 million flag was actually valued at $85,000 — and coincidentally, that he had recently sold it to Youngblood for $75,000 but had not been paid in full. 

That revelation prompted him to hire Austin attorney Steve Toland. Together, they went to the FBI.

Rebecca Kumar decided to investigate Youngblood’s background and paid $30 for an online criminal history search.

“What I found was shocking,” she said.

The search showed the previous arrest in San Bernardino, Calif., and related newspaper articles. She found through those articles that Youngblood had allegedly told victims a decade earlier the same stories about himself.

“Every word out of his mouth was a lie,” she said. “Every word.”

Perardi began asking other mutual friends if they had loaned or given Youngblood money. When the Kumars confirmed they had, he asked them to speak to an FBI agent as quickly as possible. 

On May 1, the FBI set up the Carrabba’s operation with Perardi, Youngblood and a third man whom investigators staged as Perardi's wealthy friend who could loan him more money. Instead, the man was an undercover FBI agent. At a round table outside, and over a shared meal of green salad and pasta with shrimp that Youngblood ordered, Youngblood told the men that the cartel was becoming impatient and needed $77,000 immediately.

“There are agents inside the building, agents outside the building, just like you would see in a movie,” Perardi said.

What’s next?
With the incriminating audio in hand, the FBI stepped up its investigation into Youngblood. They searched his home, where they found five guns and a note in his wife’s purse that included a script to law enforcement if they showed up, Wilkinson testified. Youngblood’s wife, Gloria, declined an interview with the American-Statesman. It is not clear what she knew about Saint Jovite Youngblood’s alleged crimes.

Wilkinson also set out to perform months of forensic accounting, poring over transaction logs from the Aria Casino & Resort in Las Vegas showing Youngblood lost more than $700,000 in 2023 alone and gained only about $200,000 through winnings, she said.

She said she traced the $18,000 Youngblood had with him during his arrest to several victims — one of whom had taken out a loan to pay him.

Some of the alleged victims packed the courtroom to hear the prosecutors' case, with several of them in tears.

“It was such a mixed reaction,” Perardi said of the crowd. “You feel foolish, like ‘How did I let this person dominate my life for so long?’ But then I was just disgusted. Just the lies and destruction.”

“You feel foolish, like ‘How did I let this person dominate my life for so long?’ But then I was just disgusted. Just the lies and destruction,” Eric Perardi says of the alleged fraud schemes he and many other people in the Austin area got caught up in with Saint Jovite Youngblood.
By then, they said they had learned nearly everything about Youngblood was untrue. His birth name was Dennis Schuler Jr., and he was born and raised outside Cleveland. His parents were not killed in an accident but were alive and well. “I spoke with them last week at least,” Wilkinson testified. (A woman with the same name as his mother told the Statesman that the two have been estranged for 30 years before ending the call.)

Wilkinson told the court Youngblood had never served in the military — much less in the Delta Force or 82nd Airborne Division. The only international destination he had visited was Mexico. Investigators said the only documented employment Youngblood ever had was as a used car salesman. His highest level of education was a high school diploma, not a master’s degree in physics, Wilkinson said.

“I was astonished,” Perardi said. “To be able to construct that level of detail about his life, and the way he knew things to the level of detail, yet he had never done any of those things.”

Perardi said he is trying to rebuild his life and finances. 

“I just think to myself, I am financially devastated right now, but I am still hopefully young enough to make it back,” he said.

The Kumars said they have slashed their spending, and their son might need to take out student loans.

They also are healing emotionally — that a man they once thought was a trusted friend utterly betrayed them.

“There are some days I don’t think about it, and others when I am extremely angry,” Rebecca Kumar said, tears forming in her eyes. “We are hurt in so many ways.”

[52-80 19,246]

Quote

Clad in his signature all-black cargo pants, dark-colored T-shirt and Crocs,

If you give money to a dude in cargo pants and Crocs, thats on you

[Sandman 3,412]

Just now, 52-80 said:

If you give money to a dude in cargo pants and Crocs, thats on you

I would go further and say you deserve to be swindled for everything you own. 

[miguelito 11,309]

So, this wasn't about Mack Brown?

[UTexasFight 9,528]

26 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

I don't get the logic of these victims.  Some dude tells you the cartel is after you and you need to pay them off.  Why don't you go straight to the police/FBI?  AAS doesn't ask the right question: what shady shit were these victims involved with that it made sense not to immediately contact to law enforcement?

I’m guessing it had something to do with whatever made them think this:

”Youngblood, who Perardi believed was a top-secret federal agent with high-level CIA clearance.”

[UTPhil2006 3,812]

16 minutes ago, miguelito said:

So, this wasn't about Mack Brown?

Strong 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

9 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

I’m guessing it had something to do with whatever made them think this:

”Youngblood, who Perardi believed was a top-secret federal agent with high-level CIA clearance.”

[Samson's Wig 3,194]

Were all his victims real estate developers?  If so, this may be a Batman/vigilante justice type of thing that the feds should just mind their own fucking business about.

 

It would also explain why his victims would readily believe they did something to piss someone off enough to put a hit on them.

Edited February 9 by Samson's Wig

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

18 minutes ago, miguelito said:

So, this wasn't about Mack Brown?

Did it happen in one of our great casitas?

[Native Horn 3,515]

Not sure if it is the formatting or what, but that is a terribly written article.  And Tony Plohetski is a great journalist.  

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

1 minute ago, Native Horn said:

Not sure if it is the formatting or what, but that is a terribly written article.  And Tony Plohetski is a great journalist.  

Yeah, I had to have this high-ranking federal agent I know explain it to me.  He said he is totally legit, FWIW. 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

Threshold for canonization is a lot lower than I thought. 

[High Plains Drifter 11,052]

17 minutes ago, UTPhil2006 said:

Strong 

 

Its about Charlie Strong?

 

[Wally Fairway 5,586]

23 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

beat me to it

 

Also OP needs to post in a quote so the long-cat post isn't taking up the whole page - but awesome story

Edited February 9 by Wally Fairway

[bschoolprof 6,272]

Just goes to show you certainly don't have to be smart to be a successful real estate developer or oil catter/football team owner.  

[Pato del Muerto 52,598]

4 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Its about Charlie Strong?

 

Smart

[Billy Pilgrim 1,984]

I don’t like ANYBODY enough to loan them thousands of dollars to get their family heirlooms out of estate sales. I’d be curious to see how many people he has to approach with these stories before he gets a bite.

[YGIFS 19,452]

(Checks notes regarding Paul, Paxton, and PE real estate). I’m sorry sirs, I do not know anything about any money laundering. Would you like a subscription to Jet magazine?  
 

I have honestly got to stop setting people up like this.  I’m in recovery for fuck’s sakes. 

[MissingInAction 25,183]

[HenryJames 66,171]

1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

If you give money to a dude in cargo pants and Crocs, thats on you

[texasdago 7,579]

I know someone in that story and, man, that sucks.  Had NO idea any of that happened.

[Deej 76,918]

2 minutes ago, texasdago said:

I know someone in that story

Missed your chance.

[texasdago 7,579]

Just now, Deej said:

Missed your chance.

Feel terrible for them

[Samson's Wig 3,194]

Unless I glanced past it,  the article is missing the obvious part of him laundering the money in Vegas, not actually wasting it in the casinos.

 

 

[texasdago 7,579]

1 minute ago, Samson's Wig said:

Unless I glanced past it,  the article is missing the obvious part of him laundering the money in Vegas, not actually wasting it in the casinos.

 

 

or using it to buy condos in DT Austin

[Brian Fantana 6,690]

Yet another piece of evidence that a literal chimpanzee could be a "real estate developer"

[Surly Bevo 25,149]

Sounds sort of like a different angle on the Tinder Swindler.  Ambiguous stories about people out to get you leads to people forking over shitloads of money to help you out.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tinder_Swindler

[Exposition 93]

2 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Perardi and the Kumars recall how he told fellow parents he had served in the Army, describing daring adventures as part of the elite Delta Force. He said he spoke multiple languages and had lived in Japan and Russia. He drew sympathy with a story that his parents had been killed when he was a child — and intellectual intrigue by claiming he had a master’s degree in quantum physics.

He kept his work intensely confidential, they recalled, insisting secrecy was required for his classified government job. He seldom carried a cellphone and resoundingly rejected being photographed.

Reasons 1,2,3,4, and 5 why this guy should have been disqualified from any remote bit of trust. Any single one of these tall tales is automatically met with my assumption that it's 100% bullshit. People who can legitimately claim these things don't just casually throw it into conversations at hockey games. And in the case that these ARE true, and they are casually talking about it, they're not the type of person I'd trust anyway. 

[Brisketexan 105,334]

Huh.  I know the lawyer involved.  Hopefully will get some cool stories out of him.

[Pescado_Rojo 19,428]

27 minutes ago, Exposition said:

Reasons 1,2,3,4, and 5 why this guy should have been disqualified from any remote bit of trust. Any single one of these tall tales is automatically met with my assumption that it's 100% bullshit. People who can legitimately claim these things don't just casually throw it into conversations at hockey games. And in the case that these ARE true, and they are casually talking about it, they're not the type of person I'd trust anyway. 

Absolutely this. I would immediately place this person in my "This guy is a bullshitter that can't be trusted" file. 

[Brisketexan 105,334]

1 minute ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Absolutely this. I would immediately place this person in my "This guy is a bullshitter that can't be trusted" file. 

Sure.  But you are among the probably no more than 20% of Americans who aren't completely gullible suckers.  Amazingly, some people who you might think of as smart and successful fall in that "gullible sucker" group.  There's a reason that cons and con men are still a huge thing: because marks are still a huge thing.

I'm a cynic and untrusting literally by professional training.  A new name comes to may attention -- or at least, something materially new about someone who I knew but never had any reason to look into -- and I dig into them.  Google is your friend, and 95% of the time, it can give you enough of a picture to figure out who they really are and what they are up to.  Yet, it's amazing how many people buy con men's bullshit without doing ANY investigation.  This is a country still made up of the kind of people who would send you the FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD: email about Albanian drug cartels kidnapping your kids based on an elaborate set of signals hidden in the nutrition label of Lucky Charms....and it's also a country still made up of the "do the research!" crowd (which, ironically, studiously avoids looking at any information that would disagree with their preferred outcome, meaning that in fact, they do NOT do the research)...and then you realize the Venn diagram of those two groups is largely overlapping circles. Suckers.  All of them.

[gofuckyourself 8,383]

Quote

Investigators said the only documented employment Youngblood ever had was as a used car salesman.

I'm shocked at that revelation.

[Brisketexan 105,334]

3 minutes ago, gofuckyourself said:

I'm shocked at that revelation.

F you, it's an honorable profession!

[UTexasFight 9,528]

10 minutes ago, gofuckyourself said:

I'm shocked at that revelation.

But I bet he was really REALLY good at it 

Edited February 9 by UTexasFight

[gofuckyourself 8,383]

That was my thought. The guy obviously is skilled at selling. As Bugs might say, he just took the wrong turn at Albuquerque, ethically speaking.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,821]

3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

I think you’re confusing “cartel” with “cartoon”.  

[deadshank 24,653]

A $900K con, you say?  

[Armybrat 40,908]

1 hour ago, Exposition said:

Reasons 1,2,3,4, and 5 why this guy should have been disqualified from any remote bit of trust. Any single one of these tall tales is automatically met with my assumption that it's 100% bullshit. People who can legitimately claim these things don't just casually throw it into conversations at hockey games. And in the case that these ARE true, and they are casually talking about it, they're not the type of person I'd trust anyway. 

Hey, I just drove into town with my wife & kids on our way to Bumfuck, Alabama. 
But we’re broke and out of gas, so could you help us get back on the road?

[texasdago 7,579]

Found this...

https://news.yahoo.com/alleged-austin-con-mans-victim-120201637.html

[MissingInAction 25,183]

Dude at gas station: Man I'm just trying to get my kids some McDonald's. 

Me: Those kids getting into someone else's car right now? 

Dude: Oh that's their aunt

Me: I don't have any cash, sorry.

Dude: Just gimme a credit card and I'll bring it right back.

This bullshit probably actually works 60% of the time every time. 

[Blotto 23,575]

4 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

I don't get the logic of these victims.

Stupid people get scammed. Its been going on for thousands of years, and will continue to do so. Critical thinking is a skillset that eludes far too many. People hear what they want to hear, and that's enough for them. I have some sympathy for the elderly, as diminishing mental facilities can lead to exploitation. But for schmucks like this Perardi dude, if they have the misfortune of running into a conman, they will get fucked because they are hardwired to get scammed. 

I imagine this Youngblood guy just tries to meet as many people as he can and his most important skill is probably quickly identifying the "marks" from the skeptics. He goes out for beers with all the dads from the team and starts up with some of his Seal/CIA bullshit. The dipshits that are impressed, ask a lot of questions, and praise him for his service get a second date. He wont waste his time with the ones that rightfully think its all bullshit. But there's always plenty of that first group. 

[InkaUtexas 26,103]

1 minute ago, MissingInAction said:

Dude at gas station: Man I'm just trying to get my kids some McDonald's. 

Me: Those kids getting into someone else's car right now? 

Dude: Oh that's their aunt

Me: I don't have any cash, sorry.

Dude: Just gimme a credit card and I'll bring it right back.

This bullshit probably actually works 60% of the time every time. 

BS, you walked on our bar tab. SO you are a CIA agent.... I knew it.

1 minute ago, Blotto said:

Stupid people get scammed. Its been going on for thousands of years, and will continue to do so. Critical thinking is a skillset that eludes far too many. People hear what they want to hear, and that's enough for them. I have some sympathy for the elderly, as diminishing mental facilities can lead to exploitation. But for schmucks like this Perardi dude, if they have the misfortune of running into a conman, they will get fucked because they are hardwired to get scammed. 

I imagine this Youngblood guy just tries to meet as many people as he can and his most important skill is probably quickly identifying the "marks" from the skeptics. He goes out for beers with all the dads from the team and starts up with some of his Seal/CIA bullshit. The dipshits that are impressed, ask a lot of questions, and praise him for his service get a second date. He wont waste his time with the ones that rightfully think its all bullshit. But there's always plenty of that first group. 

The Vatican says hola. Ciao, whatever they are speaking these days.

[MissingInAction 25,183]

Just now, InkaUtexas said:

BS, you walked on our bar tab. SO you are a CIA agent.... I knew it.

[texasdago 7,579]

Hmmmm... this or that?

or

https://slides.com/saintjoviteyoungblood/saintjoviteyoungblood

Also: https://www.zola.com/wedding/cathleenandsaintjovite/faq but his wife's name Kat or is it Jennifer Jones? https://medium.com/@jenniferjoneswedding/kota-youngblood-ec49ac6941c0  .  Kat's only digital footprint are a few random pages that all say the same thing and only reference Saint Jovite - https://twitter.com/yanoscik63603

Apparently he was well-versed in ChatGPT... must have been building up a scam to get $ from people for precious metals...

https://metalsmanca.wordpress.com/

Edited February 9 by texasdago

[texasdago 7,579]

Con man was busted in 2010 - https://www.dailynews.com/2011/05/24/alleged-coin-con-man-charged/

[Wally Fairway 5,586]

1 hour ago, Exposition said:

Reasons 1,2,3,4, and 5 why this guy should have been disqualified from any remote bit of trust. Any single one of these tall tales is automatically met with my assumption that it's 100% bullshit. People who can legitimately claim these things don't just casually throw it into conversations at hockey games. And in the case that these ARE true, and they are casually talking about it, they're not the type of person I'd trust anyway. 

I don't know, I knew a guy (let's call him George) in the early 90's, worked as a consultant for an Environmental consulting firm I was at for about a year. He was hard to reach,  cell phones weren't really out and no home phone at his apartment, he said he was  Army Ranger who had served in Nam (red flag....just wait), son was a Navy Seal, George would stop in the office a couple of times a week to see if we needed him for any work, sometimes we did, sometimes not. But he did have a pager, so we asked him if we could page him when we had work for him. His answer was that it really wasn't his pager, after some badgering he said it was a DoD pager. A few months later George told us he wasn't available to work for a few months, that he had been called up to go back into the military. 
I saw him for the last time about mid-1991, he was just back from Desert Storm and his story was that he was part of an insertion team that went into Iraq (he wouldn't say where) and that their job was to laser paint targets for the bombs/missile that were coming in. I have not idea what ever became of George, but he'd have to be about 80+ by now, it could all been a hoax, but I believed him. Very interesting guy, very rough around the edges, but seemed like straight shooter if you were straight with him.

[Nicole44 22,078]

4 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

The story is crazy weird. New Dateline for sure. 

[Rip76 4,947]

5 hours ago, miguelito said:

So, this wasn't about Mack Brown?

Oh my

[texasdago 7,579]

31 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

he wouldn't say where

I have a friend who actually was a green beret... he really couldn't say where.  He would always tell he was "near X" or "near Y" but he left it at that.  He just kept his mouth shut about it really.

[YGIFS 19,452]

money laundering/pyramid scheme for real estate in Texas?  Hmmm, ladies and gentlemen---your next Attorney General.