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In 1992, something eerie was going on at the VA hospital in Columbia, Missouri. More patients than usual are dying. They're dying on the same wing, often on the night shift. Is this coincidence or something far darker? From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Witnessed Night Shift, coming September 1st. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey folks, it's Josh and Vanessa. It's been a bit. So Gobin's behind bars and probably on his way to the U.S. to stand trial pretty soon.
The series is called Chameleon because it's about all kinds of shapeshifters, imposters, and con artists. People who hide in plain sight as they execute their schemes. Last season, the good guys got the bad guy. But, as you know, life isn't always so simple. So this time, for season two of Chameleon, we're tackling a story where it's pretty hard to tell the bad guys apart. We're also passing the mic.
You won't hear me or Vanessa telling the story this time. We have a new host, and he's great. His name is Trevor Aronson. He's one of the top journalists in the country.
He spent a lot of his career covering law enforcement, especially studying undercover sting operations. Hey, Trevor. Hey, Josh. Hi, Vanessa. Hey, Trevor. So this season's a story about a sting that takes place in Las Vegas. And like last season, it's a wild one. It's about all these outrageous characters who are bodybuilders or they run diet clinics. They party and they hang out in majorly expensive Vegas steakhouses. I'm going to stop you right there.
The story takes place in Las Vegas, but it actually starts on the East Coast, right after 9-11. Wait, that doesn't sound so fun. Yeah, well, I promise it's going to get into all sorts of weirdness. But first, we need to go to a little insurance company office in New England, where a woman named Margarita is watching 9-11 as it happens.
Margarita, the woman who I just said was watching 9/11 at her insurance company office in New England, isn't the main character in our story. But what she did ties into everything that would happen in Vegas later.
After 9/11, Margarita and a friend at work read in the news something crazy: that one of the 9/11 hijackers had car insurance with the company where they worked. The hijacker's name was Muhammad Atta. When Muhammad Atta took control of American Airlines Flight 11, he addressed the passengers and flight crew over the loudspeaker.
Now, back in New England, when Margarita realized that Muhammad Atta might have had car insurance with her company, she did a search in the company's database. No big deal. Except that search got back to our country's top cops, the elite guys, the ones you see in all those movies and TV shows, the FBI. So, as you might expect, the FBI showed up at Margarita's office.
And they asked her co-worker so many questions that he felt like he was in the hot seat, like he needed to tell the FBI something just to get them to go away. So this co-worker did something really, really weird. He told the agents they should look into Margarita's ex-husband, Amil Bouhari, because, well, Amil is Lebanese. So look, after 9-11, this guy might have thought that saying he knew a Middle Eastern guy would just get him out of a hard conversation.
Now, when the FBI asked Margarita about these claims, she knocked them all down and honestly found the whole thing laughable. Her ex-husband, Emil Bouhari, a terrorist? Despite this, FBI agents wrote down that Emil was involved in child pornography, that he was committing credit card fraud, and that he had been involved in a Christian militia in Lebanon where he, and now I'm quoting from the FBI file, killed 17 people for $300.
In case you didn't know, in their computer databases, the FBI keeps files on Americans. Not every American. Not even on the majority of Americans. But if someone has given the FBI information about you, or you've associated with someone else under FBI investigation, or committed a certain kind of crime, or perhaps even if you've attended protests, there's a good chance the FBI has a file on you, filled with information they haven't necessarily confirmed.
As it turned out, Margarita says that she never actually said any of those things about Emil. But honestly, if you have an FBI file and there's bad information in there about you, it's probably not a big deal. But one day, let's say someone comes to the FBI and says you're up to no good. An agent takes that claim seriously. And then he goes into your file and sees that bad information. That might make him think you're worth investigating.
Maybe he wants to think that. And then, well, then you're fucked. Because wait until you hear what happens to Emil Buari and everyone who is close to him. I'm Trevor Aronson. From Campside Media, this is High Rollers, Season 2 of Chameleon. What exactly happened to Emil Buari, the ex-husband of Margarita, the one with the bad FBI file? That's one of the main questions in this podcast.
So I'll be your guide into both law enforcement stings and the bizarre, neon-lit world of Emil, plus a bunch of other interesting characters you'll soon meet. They all come together in one of the strangest FBI cases you'll ever hear about. I've been talking to Emil for a long time, but last year, I went to meet him in Las Vegas.
I flew overnight, and then the next morning, I drove a rental car to meet him in a recording studio. It's a couple of blocks off the Strip. Test 1, 2, 3, test 1, 2, 3. While we're sitting in the recording studio today in Vegas, I observe him. He's drinking a protein shake. He leans back in his chair, his hands thrown up behind his neck. Emil is obsessed with his appearance, and it shows. He's wearing tight blue jeans and a T-shirt that's probably a bit too small. The shirt sleeves are straining to contain Emil's biceps.
So what were you doing today, Emil? I was at the gym and then I went to my clinic, which is in Summerlin. I had to meet a client there. And here we are. I came right here. And so obviously I'm here to talk to you about a lot of things, but among them is this... Operation Coincidence. Right. FBI sting operations always have a name. This one isn't Operation Coincidence, but that's the name Emil prefers. Unbelievable Coincidence.
When I first started reporting this story three years ago, I wanted to believe that the sting that targeted Emil was a coincidence as well. Because, well, that's actually more comforting than the alternative. So let's talk about Emil and his essential character for a little while. Before we get into how everything went off the rails, the easiest way to label Emil is that he's the consummate salesman. A man with very, very sharp elbows. Put simply, Emil's a scrapper.
He has a very American brand hustle to him. But he wasn't born here. His mom was Austrian, and his dad was Lebanese. I was born in Salzburg, Austria, July 12, 1970. I stayed there until I was about six months old, and then we went to Lagos, Nigeria. Emil's father built and ran factories in Nigeria. When Emil was six years old, his father and his mother separated, and he was sent off to boarding school. And that shaped him. He was off on his own, very young. Emil's brother is named Gus.
Here's what he has to say about Emil: Gus lived with his father and mother while Emil was off at boarding school in Europe. So the brothers barely knew each other, just saw each other once in a while.
I can't imagine putting my kid today. I have a five-year-old kid, my son, Sean. I can't imagine putting him in boarding school. Like, I would never do that. I would never, never do that. Emile later lived in Lebanon, and it was the 80s, when there were a lot of bombings going on. And this, along with his challenging upbringing, shaped him too. Yeah, bombings, and there was kidnappings, and there was shootings on the street. It was chaos. It was chaos, and, you know, it's a civil war, and there's no rules in that area.
I escaped to Greece. I started working in a Chinese restaurant as a waiter. He started feeling like the name of the game in life was that it's every man for himself, that you were either the hustler or the hustled. I went to Ghana and I was in the gold industry over there. I started working with gold. I was buying gold from the miners and selling it to a Tunisian fellow who would take the gold to...
I believe it was Belgium or Amsterdam, somewhere like that, yeah. He came to America in the 90s, got a degree from Boston University, worked at a car dealership in Florida. And then 9-11 happened. That is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed... And when 9-11 happened, Emil was so upset that he felt he had to take action. It was a turning point for him. I went to the Marine Corps.
recruiting center and I wanted to join. I said I wanted to join, I'm half Lebanese, Christian, I'd like to join and fight basically. Then later on I ended up joining the Army Guard because the Marines, I mean I was, that time I was 31 years old. I mean it's, Marines are tough, it's physically tough so even though I passed all the tests to join, because I actually passed everything to join the Marines, I decided to join the Army Guard instead.
I love the United States and for something like that, something so brash to happen against the United States by that means they're becoming extremely brave. And those were the same people who basically fought in Lebanon. And Islamic fundamentalism, probably any fundamentalism is a theory or philosophy that you just can't talk to. You have to fight. There's no dialogue. It's all-out war with that type of people. So that's why I joined.
Emil served in the Army Guard for three years, but he was never deployed overseas. His final station was in Las Vegas. Emil liked it there. So he stayed and became a U.S. citizen. And like a lot of U.S. citizens in Vegas, he also became what some people might call a hustler and a really good one. More after the break. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media.
Hey, chameleon listeners. It's Josh Dean here, your host of season one, Hollywood con queen. And I'm here today to talk to you about food, a thing I love. I also love to cook, but I rarely have time, which is why I love factors. No prep, no mess meals. These fresh, never frozen meals are dietitian approved and ready to eat in just two minutes, which is about as long as it takes me to do this ad twice.
We'll be right back.
Head to factormeals.com slash chameleon50 and use code chameleon50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off the next month. That's code chameleon50 at factormeals.com slash chameleon50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. In 1992, something eerie was going on at the VA hospital in Columbia, Missouri. More patients than usual are dying.
They're dying on the same wing, often on the night shift. Is this coincidence or something far darker? From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Witnessed Night Shift, coming September 1st. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Camellia from Campside Media. The thing is, the Emil that I meet today in Vegas is not exactly a fresh-faced, patriotic Army Guard recruit.
And he's not the guy written about in those FBI files, a depraved lunatic. He's a third type of person entirely. Emil is a salesman at heart, just like he's always been. And like all salesmen, Emil spins and talks up whatever it is he's selling. After he settled in Las Vegas, Emil got into something very different from the army. He got into the weight loss industry. Want to lose up to 13 pounds your first month? Then just say yes to Nutrisystem.
You've heard these kinds of commercials before, right? This is your year. The year you wear cool clothes. The year you feel good at the beach. They're everywhere. 30 days of eating food you love with no prepping or cooking. The people who are on these kinds of weight loss programs, they aren't always very open about it. And so it's easy to underestimate the size of the industry in the United States. So I went and looked it up and guess what?
Weight loss in the United States is about a $70 billion industry. That's huge. Even, dare I say it, oversized. The entire national television advertising industry, the commercials for life insurance and political candidates and erectile dysfunction drugs, everything. That's also a $70 billion industry. So there's a lot of money to be made helping Americans get rid of their mom and dad bods. Emil wasn't a big player in the industry, not even close.
But he set out to get a piece of the weight loss action. Right now, I have several people that are looking to invest in this company because it's a high profit. It's a very sexy business. It's a great business. It's a futuristic business. Here's one of Emile's ads featuring a woman describing her rapid weight loss success. Have you heard of the new Buhari Weight Loss Clinic? They get real results fast. I lost 25 pounds in 30 days. It's not drug surgery or even exercise. It really works. And here's Emile on TV.
Hi Emil, how are you today? Hi, fantastic. That's great. This was on television in Nevada shortly after Emil started his business. It's a news clip from a small TV station. So tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to be here. I actually got involved in this business because I lost 39 pounds in 40 days four years ago. Previous to that, I had tried everything under the sun to try to lose weight and I'd lose three, four pounds and then quit because it was too difficult.
But the way that Emil was going about helping people lose weight, it's a bit of a cheat. A bit like the speed in diet pills. At least, that's what many experts will tell you. But not Emil. So the thinking behind it is the HCG, human coronary gonadotropin, triggers the brain into releasing fat off the body. Emil sold what's known as the HCG diet. That's a hormone that women produce when they're pregnant.
So as the fat comes off the body, the nutrition goes back to feed you. Hence, you're being fed 2,000 calories from your own fat. Now you can go on this low-calorie diet without going into starvation mode. And it worked for me, and it worked for thousands and thousands of people. Is it a placebo effect? I highly doubt it. But even if it is, who cares? It works. Now, to be clear...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not approve of HCG for weight loss. And peer-reviewed medical studies say there is no evidence that HCG helps people shed unwanted pounds. But a lot of people swear by the HCG diet. They say it just works. People were into it. Emil told me he had $1 million in sales the first year. And then a new opportunity came through. It was from an unlikely person, a straight-laced businessman named Kevin D. Romney.
Here's Kevin on a podcast about real estate. So I've been an entrepreneur most of my life, graduated with a degree in accounting and worked for one of the big eight CPA firms that dates me a little bit. Unlike Emil, Kevin isn't a guy who puts forward an image of someone who hangs out at expensive bars or flashy nightclubs on the strip. Kevin is khakis and Oxfords, not tight jeans and designer T-shirts. But Kevin saw something in Emil's weight loss business, and he wanted Emil to think bigger. So Kevin asked Emil if he'd ever thought of creating a franchise.
He says, "How much money do you make? How much profit?" I said, "Okay, I'll tell you." And I showed him my bank accounts and he went crazy. He says, "These profits are crazy. These sales are crazy. I've never seen anything like it." I said, "Well, if it's that good, then why don't you invest the $100,000 that it is to become a national franchise? It costs about $80,000 to $100,000 with attorney fees and the FDD and basic advertising and marketing. And I'll give you 10% of the franchise company." And he actually said, "Yes, let's do that deal."
Things soon took off, with franchises opening all over the country. In the next few minutes, we're going to introduce you to one of the fastest-growing in-demand business opportunities on the market. This is a Buhari Clinic franchise ad. The Buhari Clinic is the perfect business at the perfect time. But actually, it wasn't the perfect time for the Buhari Clinic. Emile is popular with the ladies. That's something that can't be denied. And just as the franchise was getting off the ground...
Emile's second marriage was ending very badly. This wasn't a margarita. Margarita was his first wife. Emile's second wife actually owned the diet clinics with him. And, unbelievably enough, Emile says she would call franchisees, people who'd poured tens of thousands of dollars into starting up their franchise, and just complain. This is Emile's brother, Gus.
Gus ran Buhari Clinic franchises in the Philadelphia area. She was only interested in her and Emil, how Emil was cheating on her. She wasn't talking business. And this guy in Texas, he had told me, she just wants to talk about her and Emil. I don't care. What I care about is how am I going to make money? And I was like, you know, he's right. Emil's second wife, with whom he owned the diet clinic, wouldn't talk to me for this podcast.
Several franchisees filed a lawsuit against Emil, his second wife, and the franchise. They alleged that they were lied to about revenue figures, and they claimed they were led to believe that the Buhari Clinic's HCG diet regimen was proprietary, when, well, it wasn't. So Emil responded to the lawsuit in a particularly hostile way, which, as you're going to find out, that's trademark Emil. He did something nuts.
He put up billboards near those people's franchises, offering the same weight loss products, but cheaper. Enormous billboards, like the ones you would see advertising Verizon Wireless. Imagine driving to your business and seeing the guy you were once in business with, with an enormous sign trying to take away your business. The more I learned about Emil, the more I realized this guy is hardly a saint. Here's his brother Gus again. Emil...
reacted very, very aggressively. And he reacted in a way they didn't see coming. I actually saw it coming because I knew that Emil is not going to fight in the way you expect him to fight. He's not going to... Like, if you sue him, he's not just going to sue you back. Yeah, he's going to hire a lawyer because you have to hire a lawyer, but he's going to do something else. This hostile response, it worked. They dropped the lawsuit against Emil personally.
though they won a judgment against the Buhari Clinic franchise and Emile's second wife. And Emile and his second wife divorced. These were tectonic shifts in Emile's life. And then Emile got involved with a new woman. Emile's new relationship is the event that seems to trigger everything, even more than his weird FBI file, the one that claimed, wrongly, that his first wife had said he was a fraud artist and a killer who was into child porn. So stick with me here, because I'm going to tell you a long story. It's quite a soap opera.
Emile's new girlfriend is named Kim Milko. Kim is a tall blonde with a sunny disposition, like Hailey Bieber. I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that a guy who owns weight loss clinics wants a pretty girlfriend. But Kim's not just pretty. She's ripped. She's entered bodybuilding contests. There are pictures. Her oiled muscles barely constrained by her skimpy bikini. Emile and Kim met at the gym because, of course,
Kim and I would look at each other all the time at Lifetime Fitness. And then one day, right in January, she just comes up to me and says, "Happy New Year." And I said, "Same as you." And then I said, "Listen, I think you're smashing." And she said, "I think you're hot or good-looking or whatever." And then we trade phone numbers. And then a couple days later, she texts me, "Do you want to go out with me?" And we did go out. And we had a couple of drinks.
or dinner maybe or something like that. And then I told her the next morning, listen, I'm married and this is a problem. She's, you know, she's very possessive. And, but I am going to get a divorce. So Emil admits, as if it's no big deal, that he told Kim he was married only after they'd spent time together. To Emil, it's like, whatever. What's the big deal if I only told her the next morning? And Emil and Kim had, at times, a volatile relationship.
an on and off kind of thing. Here's Emil. What happened was Kim and I would have a fight. She'd go out on a couple of dates with Mr. Smith and then Mr. Jones and Mr. So-and-so-forth. And during one of their off periods, Kim struck up a flirtatious relationship with a local lawyer. In a city of lawyers, some walk ahead of the pack. This is a commercial for Las Vegas lawyer Paul Pata. He's inside a courtroom, standing up to address the judge. And then, quick scene cut. He's outside, surrounded by reporters asking him questions.
A former federal prosecutor, Paul Pata, will fight for you. When you've only got one call, you better call Paul. Paul's a really interesting looking guy. He gels his black hair into a large cement hard wave that falls over the top of his head. He does personal injury law, car accidents, slip and fall cases, that kind of thing. And he's proud of it. Here he is on local TV. Federal prosecutor now to personal injury. So why make the switch there? You know,
According to Kim, she met Paul through a group of friends a while back.
Here she is. Someone kind of arranged us to meet and we met at T-Bones. T-Bones is a steakhouse in the Red Rock Casino. It has a lounge with million-dollar interiors and really good mixed drinks. There's a fire pit on the outdoor patio.
It's very Las Vegas. And then we, you know, corresponded. You know, we were texting and talking and made arrangements to meet up a bunch more times, but it was always with groups. It was always like, "Hey, you know, we're all going to happy hour here. Are you gonna go?" Stuff like that. And then one time I went out, he asked me to go to lunch with him, meet him for lunch across the street from his work at the Palms, and we did that.
So we didn't do anything. I think the one time when we were out, we left together to go. I had to go feed a cat, so he came with me. Left to go feed the cat, and then we went back to the bar. So was it dating? Were we sleeping over at each other's houses and stuff like that? No. Were we communicating? Did we correspond? Yes.
Going to feed a cat doesn't sound romantic. And that's apparently really what they did. They went to feed a cat. And then they came back. So we're not talking a hot and heavy, can't keep the hands off romance here. But there was something going on. Something. What Kim means is...
Paul wasn't her usual type.
Because I've always really just been with Emil and, you know, I knew all of these guys and, you know, I've been approached quite often, you know, by various people to go out and do things. And I think when Paul kind of showed up, I showed interest and I think they boosted his ego and he thought he was really cool and, you know, and I'm sure he was like thinking his, you know, shit didn't stink, so to speak. And then, you know, when it ended pretty quick, you know, when I was like back with Emil,
You know, and I think his ego was hurt, too, in front of his friends, because they were probably like, ah, see, we knew it wouldn't go, you know, she wasn't interested in you. So Kim says she was seeing Emil and Paul to different degrees. And one evening, when she was at the Sedona Lounge, another Vegas hotspot, Emil was trying to find her so that she'd come and get her dog from him. First cats, now dogs. It's probably fitting in a story with this much fighting. But anyway, that's Emil's story. He didn't want to take care of Kim's dog.
Really? I think he was looking to make a scene. So, Emil goes to Sedona Lounge. And there she's there with Paul Patter and a couple of different people. I'm like, Kim, come get your dog. And she's like, why? I said, because it's pooping all over the place. Again, like feeding the cat, this isn't code. Emil says the dog really was pooping all over his house, and he was sick of it.
Anyway, let's get back to Sedona Lounge. Emil is confronting Kim. And I said, by the way, why don't you tell them about your herpes? Something like that. Just, I was just angry and it was just a joke. Whatever, I don't know what went through my head at that point, but that's what I said. Not a nice thing on Emil's part, and also not true. But still, not long after that, Emil and Kim got back together. Strange, I know. But that's just the kind of relationship Emil and Kim had.
Then, shortly after they got back together, Emil and Kim were out to dinner at a high-end restaurant in Las Vegas called Vintner Grill. That's where, they say, they ran into Paul Pata. It's a classy, yes, he's wearing a suit, I was wearing a suit, everyone's dressed nice, it's a classy restaurant, it's not a cheap restaurant. Okay, and let me be clear here. What happens next is disputed. Separately, Emil and Kim have told me the same story.
But Paul has told me, through his lawyer, that while he did know Kim, what you're about to hear, it isn't true.
Me and Kim are sitting at the bar and then all of a sudden I turn around and I see Paul Pata next to me and he was really angry and irate. He was like shaking and he ordered a drink and he was slamming his dollar bills down on the thing and I'm like, what's up with this guy? And he's right to my right and Kim is over to my left and then I turn around and say, Kim, isn't that the guy you went on those two days? He's like, oh yeah, it's Paul. He was obviously very intoxicated and he came right up to Emil and I and he started...
Again, according to Paul, this alleged encounter didn't happen. And Paul says he was never involved in any sort of love triangle involving Emil and Kim. In fact, Paul says he was a victim of Emil. Emil would have his revenge against Paul for his supposed role in the love triangle.
Remember how, when those Diet Clinic franchisees sued Emil, he put competing billboards around their businesses? Emil isn't one to take the high road. Emil is not going to fight in the way you expect him to fight. More after the break. You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media.
Hi, I'm Dan Jones, and This Is History: A Dynasty to Die For is back for a brand new season. This time, we meet Edward II, a larger-than-life character who starts out as the party boy prince and ends up... well, I don't want to give too much away. He's got one thing on his mind: not war, not ambition, but love. And it's a love that will get him in burning hot trouble with his barons, his family, and his queen.
The king's affection for his favourite knight kicks off a wild rollercoaster reign full of love and hate, war and grief, famine and just about all the horsemen of the apocalypse. Along the way we'll meet tiger mums, Scottish legends, murderous cousins, a herd of camels and one extremely hot iron poker. Listen to and follow This Is History A Dynasty To Die For, available wherever you get your podcasts.
You're listening to Chameleon from Campside Media. So Emil, the guy who isn't one to take the high road, went after Paul in a way the Las Vegas lawyer couldn't have anticipated. Emil started posting anonymous reviews about Paul all over the Internet. I'm going to take a minute to read some of them to you. They aren't true, and they're pretty outrageous. Here are just some of them. Pata is a terrible attorney. He loses most of the cases he takes on and gets his cases by lying to clients.
He has defended pedophiles before. He is a real sleazebag. Paul Pata runs around having sex with hookers. He is also an alcoholic. This guy, when he drinks, tells all of us how he rips people off. Pata got a woman drunk and tried to rape her a few years back because he is a low-life scum. As I said, these statements are all ridiculous and false. None of this is true about Paul Pata. But this probably doesn't seem like that big a deal, right? People write nasty shit all the time on the internet.
But these scurrilous reviews started showing up as top results when people searched for Paul Pata's name online. So Paul took all this seriously. If potential clients believe these reviews, his livelihood could be threatened. Paul filed a defamation lawsuit against Emil and Kim over those reviews, and he won a judgment against them. So there's the reported verbal scuffle at the restaurant, the I fucked your woman stuff, then come these negative reviews on the internet, and then there's a lawsuit. But it's all sort of petty, right?
Just a pissing contest between a couple of alpha males. Well, here's the thing. The situation starts spiraling down into a bizarre web of vengeance and deceit. Because a very powerful man, a guy with connections to Paul Pata, suddenly takes a keen interest in Emil. And not just an interest in Emil, he takes an interest in anyone Emil knows. Among those people was one more character I'm going to tell you about in this episode. Mary Green. She's an esthetician in Vegas.
That means she does facials, skin tightening, stuff like that. Mary, as you're going to find out, gets caught between Emil and the FBI. Mary's not completely innocent. She did some stuff wrong, at Emil's encouragement, but not enough to justify the hammer falling on her the way it did. In fact, when that hammer fell, Mary didn't even know what it was about. Think about that for a second. Who on earth gets in trouble with the FBI and doesn't know why? So,
As a way of foreshadowing the ending of this very weird story, I'm going to tell you about the evening Mary Green got arrested. Okay, so I'm getting these phone calls, and I'm at my new boyfriend's house because the next morning he has a cycling race up in Utah. Mary's describing how her phone is blowing up. It's driving her crazy. But it's not a robocall or a crazy ex-boyfriend. She's getting call after call after call from the FBI. So what do you want with me?
I'm here to arrest you and blah blah blah. I said, well I'm not home. He's like, you are and I'm gonna break down your door. Mary tells me she's not the kind of person who's scared of cops or even FBI agents. I said, I'm not at this house that you think I'm at. And I have dogs. I have two little Yorkies and my mom has a big dog and I don't want you shooting the big dog. Do not break down that door.
Mary isn't there. That's true. But she's not about to tell some FBI agents where she really is. I told them I was in Utah. I didn't know what was going on. So then my ex-boyfriend called me. He says, "Well, the FBI just left my house." I said, "What?" I just got a whole bunch of phone calls from somebody. And he says, "Well, they came in, guns loaded." And I'm like, "What? What?" He's like, "They're looking for you." So now I get a nervous stomach and now I'm on the toilet.
This is a little personal, but I haven't had my period at this moment for like two or three months because of my stress, because we broke up and whatever else. Well, for whatever reason this week, it was like back to normal with a vengeance, though. And I hear footsteps outside of the window. Yeah. Turns out that the ex-boyfriend, before he calls Mary, he tells the FBI where Mary's new boyfriend lives. He rolls on her. So federal agents come into the house where Mary is. They're looking for her.
and they head straight to the bathroom. They come in, and the gentleman comes and he points a gun to me while I'm on the toilet. And I said, I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be done in a minute. I'm not moving or whatever. I said, I need a tampon. He's like, get up. I said, I am not moving. I'm going to the bathroom. It's not pretty. And I need a tampon.
And the doors open, and then this girl comes, another FBI agent. She seemed new. She was seriously, had the gun on me, and she was a little shaky. And apparently, he tells her, okay, go ahead, fine. Where's your tampon? She says, in my purse. They take my purse and just dump it all over the place, all over, like scattered everywhere, to give me a tampon. And she gives it to me and stays there while I do my business with a gun on me. And
Yeah, what about a meal? What the hell did a meal do? This is the story of what can happen when personal vengeance goes way, way too far.
bringing together a hitman plot, fake diamonds, lawsuits, and happy ending massage parlors. It goes to different countries, like the Philippines, and involves strippers in Miami. Plus, more than 20 hours of secret recordings about how all this went down. Oh, and piles and piles of cash. This is High Rollers, season two of Chameleon. Coming up this season, I'm going to play the FBI's secret recordings for you.
When you hear them, you'll start to figure out how the bad guys came for Emil. You'll also learn exactly what Emil did wrong and what else went into his FBI file. Why Paul is so furious about Emil's internet reviews.
and so focused on hitting back. You know, it was very hard for my mom to read that and it was embarrassing. What kind of fun happens in Vegas? I'm trying two women at a time. I tried two guys at once. How it's hard to separate the good guys from the bad guys. Because I'm thinking like, hey man, these are the good guys here. Like, wait a minute, no, no. These are the good guys. You think I'm a bad guy, but no, no, no. You're not understanding. I'm a good guy too. And where all this ends up.
We went from being a Middle Eastern criminal enterprise, smuggling women, doing money laundering, killing U.S. attorneys, to dismissal. How is that possible? Chameleon Season 2 comes from Campside Media. It's hosted by me, Trevor Aronson. Our executive producers are Vanessa Grigoriadis and Adam Hoff. Alex Yablon fact-checked the series. Margo Williams also contributed to research. Mark McAdam composed the theme song. Doug Slaywin and Sam Leeds provided production support.
The executive producers at Campside Media are Josh Dean, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Adam Hoff, and Matt Scher. If you enjoyed High Rollers, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. It really does help other listeners like you find the show. And make sure to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Take me in Sin City Take me in Sin City
Sin City, I know you's confessing your sins.