Join hosts Neal McTighe and Javier Leiva as they dive into the seedy world of financial fraud, unpacking the twisted minds and bold lies behind history’s most audacious Ponzi schemes. The Ponzi Playbook blends sharp wit, dark truths, and a touch of humor—offering a gripping ride for anyone who craves stories of true crime, deception, and the relentless pursuit of easy money.
Every episode plays right here on the site. Prefer your own app? The show is on all the usual platforms.
Meet Janet Yamanaka Mello—better known as the "Gucci Goddess." She wasn’t your typical fraudster. Dripping in designer labels, driving luxury cars, and amassing a…
This is an Interview with a man convicted of a Ponzi scheme. It originally aired on the PRETEND podcast. Bill Livolsi says he was just trying to help his wife, …
What happens after the feds kick in your door? In this special bonus episode of The Ponzi Playbook, we sit down with white-collar defense attorney Elliot Sol Abr…
What if you could create thousands of songs using AI… and make millions off them without a single fan? That’s exactly what prosecutors say Michael Smith did. In …
When the FBI raided financial advisor Dawn Bennett’s luxury penthouse in 2017, they expected to find evidence of fraud. What they didn’t expect? Freezers packed w…
The feed below pulls directly from DOJ, SEC, CFTC, and FTC press and litigation releases, refreshed automatically. It's one input among several we use to find and verify cases. We also track news coverage, state securities filings, and court records by hand.
Open the case wire →A running list of federal fraud filings, pulled straight from the agencies that issue them. Not the whole story on any case, but a starting point for the research we do by hand.
Neal McTighe is a business expert, researcher, and storyteller with a sharp eye for fraud and a deep love of the con. He founded and ran his own company for a decade, has advised hundreds of entrepreneurs over the past six years, whether in finance, strategy, or sales.
Armed with a PhD, Neal’s rigorous research skills have fueled his forthcoming nonfiction book, Big Time: The American Dream, a Ponzi Scheme, and the Lies That Led to Forty Years in Federal Prison. A passionate storyteller and educator, Neal wants to make you laugh, and make you cry, while showing you how the fraudsters get away with it.
Javier Leiva is an investigative storyteller and gifted keynote speaker who has traveled the world sharing stories about deception and human behavior. He’s the creator and host of Pretend, a chart-topping true crime podcast that explores the minds of con artists, cult leaders, and criminals.
With over 500,000 downloads each month, Pretend consistently ranks among the top true crime podcasts in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. The show has been featured in The New York Times, the BBC, Discovery+, and Netflix. On The Ponzi Playbook, Javier brings his signature blend of curiosity and skepticism to expose the boldest financial frauds in America.
The American Dream, a Ponzi Scheme, and the Lies That Led to Forty Years in Federal Prison.
Neal's forthcoming nonfiction book tells the full story behind the show's standalone Vision Quest episode: Stephen Condon Peters and VisionQuest Wealth Management, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
More about the book →