1705: Hockey Dad Poses as Delta Force Agent to Scam Parents part 2

Speaker: Previously on Pretend, we learned about St. Jovite Coda Youngblood, a hockey dad claiming to be part of the U. S. Delta Force Unit. Delta Force operators, by the way, are the most highly trained elite forces in the US military. Everything they do is classified. However, we know that they're involved in counterterrorism, hostage negotiations, and reconnaissance missions. And they take orders directly from the President. But Coda Youngblood? He's no Delta Force agent. He's a con man. Today, we're going to listen in on Koda Youngblood's detention hearing. It's two hours long, but I will do my best to pare it down for you. This episode is going to frustrate the hell out of you. You're going to learn more details about this case. And the more you learn, the more questions you will have. It is maddening. But trust me, it is a wild ride. The world Koda Youngblood created is baffling, and the amount of money he stole from his victims is staggering. I'm Javier Leyva and this is Pretend. Stories about real people pretending to be someone else. Good morning to you, Mr. Youngblood. We're here on the government's obligations with regard to the preliminary detention hearing. Are you ready to proceed? We are your honor. Call your first witness. The government's witness is FBI agent Lindsey Wilkinson. COTA Youngblood is accused of scamming dozens of families out of their life savings. But today, the entire hearing is focused on just one of Youngblood's victims, Eric Perardi. Here's Matt Harding with the U. S. Attorney's Office. What exactly the story Mr. priority was told that led him to give money to Mr. Yes. So, Mr. and Mr. Youngblood had known each other for about 6 years. Their sons played hockey together. And at some point, Mr. Priority's son was on a trip and he gets a call from one of his friends saying, Mr. Youngblood needs to speak with you immediately. There's a situation going on with your family. And shortly after that, Mr. Youngblood and Mr. Priority connect back in Austin, Texas. And that's when Mr. Youngblood Makes representations to Mr. Priority that Mr. Priority's in grave danger from the cartel because of his ex wife had been affiliated with the cartel, had taken out a hit on his family because she was a beneficiary of an insurance policy for Mr. Priority. And as a result of that, he needed protection and that Mr. Youngblood could provide that protection to him. Based on your investigation, have multiple folks told you that Mr. Youngblood does not own a phone or does not prefer to talk on the phone or text? Yes. And you also discovered through your investigation that Mr. Youngblood prefers to work through intermediaries when possible? Yes. Okay, so Mr. Youngblood tells Mr. Perardi, in essence, your family is in danger because your ex wife owes money to a drug cartel. I can protect you. Why would Mr. Youngblood be in a position to stop a drug cartel from killing Mr. Perardi's family? Mr. Youngblood claimed to be paramilitary, special forces, he said he had direct information from government sources. Were you able to confirm whether or not Mr. Youngblood has ever served in the United States military? He has not. And do you have any record of Mr. Youngblood ever being employed by the United States government? There is no record. In Mr. Perardi's case or any other case, did you determine that there was any actual legitimate threat by a drug cartel or any other source to these folks? No. So that's sort of the extortion side of things. Yes. Give me money, I can protect you from the drug cartel. You said there's also kind of an investment fraud scheme. Can you describe that for the court? So from Mr. Perardi's, for his specific situation, It was extortion primarily, but also had an investment fraud nexus that all of the money he sent would then be an investment in clocks, or he would receive money in return for gold bars and would receive an exorbitant return at the end, and it would also protect his family in the short term. Was this sort of weird mixture of extortion and investment fraud also sort of a signature of Mr. Youngblood that he committed against? Multiple victims. Yes, we either saw it was extortion and investment, investment, then extortion, some combination or one or one of the other. Coda Youngblood didn't just demand money for his schemes. He promised he would get the money back with interest. As a sign of good faith, Coda Youngblood would offer his victim something of value as collateral. He offered a bat, which he said was once the famous baseball player, Luke Gehrig's, and had his DNA on it. And he also offered a very old Civil War flag, which he represented to be, to Mr. Priority as being almost two and a half million dollars. We'll talk about the bat more in a minute. But let's stick with the flag for a moment. He claimed it was worth about two and a half million dollars. Yes, sir. Did Mr. Perardi and later you follow up on that claim? Yes, we did. What did you learn? Mr. Perardi had reached out to an antique flag dealer. I reached out to the same individual. The individual actually said he sold that flag to Mr. Youngblood and that the flag itself was worth 85, 000. He said they had sold it to Mr. Youngblood for 75, 000 but had not been paid in full for it. All right, so Mr priority is told give me money so I can fed your family. By the way, you'll get a big return on your investment. Here's some collateral to secure. You does Mr party. Yes, he does. Approximately how much money does Mr party pay at 1st? So I have a couple notes on that, but it was approximately 70, 000 dollars beginning July 8th, 2022, followed with a 86, 000 payment July 21st, 2022. An 83, 000 payment on July 27th, 2022. And was this money transferred directly from Mr. Priority to Mr. Youngblood? No, it wasn't. Let's talk about Kloppe Yeah, let's talk about the clocks because this was by far the strangest twist in this already bizarre story. Coda Youngblood told Eric Perardi that he needed money to protect his family. He instructed Eric to write a check, but not to Youngblood. He instructed Eric Perardi to write a check instead to an antique clock dealer named James Holloway. Mr. Youngblood directed Mr. Priority to send the money to James Holloway. He said to represent it as a, an investment in, in antique clocks. And since that was Mr. Holloway's business, and he often conducted business with large cash transactions that would not raise suspicion at the bank. So he said this was the best way to send money to him. Mr. Priority made these payments to Mr. Holloway, Mr. Holloway, then. Yes. And provide that cash to Mr. Youngblood. In other words, money laundering. Youngblood assured Perardi that he would receive a 30 percent return on his investment. In approximately October of 22, Mr. Priority tells Mr. Youngblood, listen, I've given you all the money I can. Yes. What happens then between the two of them? Mr. Youngblood expresses that they need to find more money and asks Priority, Mr. Priority, if there's any way he can find more money, asks him to ask others for more money. So Mr. Priority starts reaching out to family and friends for help. And in some cases, at least do those family and friends make additional payments to Mr. Youngblood to help out Mr. Perot. Yes, they do. Believing that Mr. Perot's family was in debt. Yes. Or they spoke with Mr. Youngblood and heard. That danger themselves. Approximately how much money did they give to Mr. Youngblood? Approximately 900, 000. But here's another twist. According to this FBI agent, James Holloway is just another victim of Coda Youngblood. Have you identified Mr. Holloway as a person who has also given money to Mr. Youngblood under false pretenses? Yes, I have. Can you describe what you know of the relationship between Mr. James Holloway and Mr. Youngblood? So James Holloway seemed to have met him under some sort of business interaction, dealing with clocks. And from that, Mr. Youngblood started asking him if he'd like to make investments. At some point is Mr. Youngblood asked Mr. Holloway, Mr. James Holloway for a loan to pay for a certain expense. Yes, he asked him for a 20, 000 loan, I believe, to pay for his sister's funeral. Is Mr. Youngblood's sister dead? No, she's not. Mr. Holloway had been told. After some of the investment regarding the extortion claims that his family was his son Lane Holloway was in danger from the cartel that they had been having some kind of dealings with the cartel and now his family at one point was kidnapped the Lane Holloway's family that his daughters were possibly one was going to be sold, I believe, to the cartel or to pay off a debt to the cartel. And then at some point they had been murdered by the cartel. So, Mr. Youngblood, at some point along the way, tells Mr. James Holloway, your son, Lane Holloway, and their family, his family are dead. Yes. Murdered by the guards. Yes. Is that true? No, it's not. Is Mr. Lane Holloway sitting here in the courtroom? He is sitting here in the courtroom. You can't make this shit up. How in the world do you convince someone that their son is dead and still manage to believe them after you find out the kid is not dead? Approximately how much money did Mr. James Holloway pay to Mr. Youngblood? Approximately over two million dollars. At some point along the way, just like with Mr. Priority, Mr. Youngblood, uh, Mr. James Holloway runs out of money, correct? Yes. When Mr. James Holloway tells Mr. Youngblood, I'm out of money, what does Mr. Youngblood say? He suggests he finds other individuals. At some point he suggests that he sell his home to get some finances out of it. And does Mr. James Holloway find other individuals to give money to Mr. Youngblood? Yes, he does. Does he in fact sell his home so that he can give money to Mr. Youngblood? He does. This story is about to get even stranger. As part of his extortion campaign against Eric Perardy, Koda Youngblood needed to create the illusion that Eric Perardy's family was in danger. During that time span, did there start to be prerogatory or defamatory posts being made about him and others? Yes, we saw a large number of posts, um, online made regarding Mr. Perardi and many of his associates or family members. You know, I, I know a lot of these were, uh, pretty graphic. One review reads, quote, Eric Perardi over at the crossroad in Cedar Park will be the next closest hookup for hockey sacks and drugs, unquote. So, 1 in the complaint mentions that eludes to Mr priority and his flunkies hitting on underage girls and offering them drugs for sexual favors. Others mentioned there, Mr priority, or his family's involvement in the cartel made references to associates being either having homophobic tendencies or homosexual tendencies or just for being a pedophile in some way. What was Mr. Youngblood telling Mr. Priority about these posts and what was Mr. Priority's reaction to these posts? Mr. Youngblood was telling Mr. Priority this was the cartel's way of, of increasing pressure on him. Mr. Priority has expressed that he felt certainly threatened, it certainly increased his payment or expedited his payments when he would see numerous posts about his business and his family. And then did Mr. Youngblood create fake online personas for himself or modify? He did. He instructed someone to create a number of fake online articles about him, kind of showing different personas. He also instructed someone to redact court articles and other online articles about his true persona. And now's as good a time as any. Who was that person? That person was Lane Holloway, who is the son of James Holloway. Excuse me? The anti clock dealer's son was in cahoots with Coda Youngblood? He also, um, directed Lane Holloway to spread flyers around the neighborhood, which these were kind of negative, nasty, defamatory flyers. Let's talk about Lane Holloway, the son of James Holloway. You've identified Mr. Lane Holloway as also A person who has been victimized by Mr. Youngblood, correct? Yes. Can you describe, again, general level, as best you can, what Mr. Youngblood told Mr. Lane Holloway to victimize him? Lane Holloway was told by Mr. Youngblood that Lane's wife's family had connections to the cartel. They were of Hispanic descent and that individuals in their family were involved with the cartel. And as a result, him and his family were in grave danger, including his daughter. I want to stop you right there. The story that Mr. Youngblood tells to Lane Holloway is a real story. Almost word for word repeat of what he tells Eric priority about his threat from the cartel. It's extremely similar. Well, based on this information, what does Lane Holloway do? Lane Holloway at some point decides to flee his home in the middle of the night. Why is that? Because he was afraid and he was directed by Mr Youngboat to leave, told that he was in grave danger. And picked up and left. Mr. Youngblood told Mr. Blaine Holloway that essentially he was in imminent danger In imminent danger, he needed to get out of the house almost immediately. And so, what does Blaine Holloway and his family do? They pick up and leave their house immediately. Be honest, is this not the craziest damn court audio you've ever listened to? Let me sum this up. At some point, Koda Youngblood convinces an antique clock dealer's son that he too is in danger of getting killed or kidnapped by the cartel. So scared that he and his family just picked up and left in the middle of the night. Could you describe for the court the state of that house and how it was left? The house appeared to me to be completely abandoned. There were cobwebs, you know, cockroaches. It looked like no one had lived in it. Uh, we didn't dare open the fridge for the smell, but it was clearly, looked like it had been abandoned. After Lane and his family leave town, what do they do? They To hide their identity? To hide their identity, they changed their names. Well, first of all, why did they change their names? Uh, Mr. Youngblood told them they needed to change their names for their safety, and he in fact encouraged, uh, Mr. Lane Holloway to get a tattoo of this new name on himself to really prove this new identity so that he couldn't be mistaken for his former identity. Does Lane get to that tattoo? He does. Ultimately, where do you find Lane Holloway and his family? FBI agent finds them in Florida in an extended stay hotel. Going back to the derogatory posts made against Mr. Priority and his associates, as well as the threatening phone calls, were you able to determine who made those posts and calls? We were. And who did that? That was Mr. Lane Holloway at Mr. Youngblood's direction. And according to Mr. Lane Holloway, did Lane come up with the wording? Mr. Lane Holloway told us that Mr. Youngblood would dictate this information over the phone. He had numerous handwritten notes that appeared to be jotted down by him. These, again, going back sort of for preliminary hearing purposes, these derogatory posts, uh, and threatening phone calls were made while Mr. Lane Holloway and his family were in Florida. Yes. And so those would all be interstate communications, but from Florida to Texas, both the derogatory posts as well as the phone calls. And they were made in furtherance of the scheme, as you described earlier, to force, or to raise the pressure on Mr. Parodi to pay. Yes. At this point, when you found Mr. Lane Holloway and his family in Florida, what does James Holloway believe about Lane? He believed him to be dead. Still? Yes. What did you tell James Holloway? We told him that his son was alive. What was his response to you? He didn't believe us and asked for proof. I want to jump to May 1st of 2023 and an undercover operation that was conducted by the FBI. The purpose of that operation was to confirm Mr. Priority's claims that Mr. Youngblood had made these statements to him. We introduced an undercover. In the same way that since Mr. Priority had been introducing other individuals in his life, we introduced an undercover as another individual in Mr. Priority's life that could provide money to help him out. So this was another source of cash, as far as Mr. Youngblood. Yes. Another source of cash to protect Mr. Priority. Eric Priority, Coda Youngblood, and the undercover agent meet at a Carrabba's in Austin, Texas. And the whole thing was being recorded and monitored by FBI surveillance. Mr. Youngblood is completely controlling the conversation. What did Mr. Youngblood say to our undercover about his military experience? He said that he had been in the military for over a decade. That he had served in, he was special forces previously. And what was Mr. Youngblood's ask of our undercover and what was the purported purpose of this ask? He asked our undercover for 76, 000 to help pay or protect Mr. Perardi and his family from the cartel. So that's the extortion side. Did Mr Youngblood pitch sort of an investment scheme to the undercover? He did. He said that, uh, he had gold that basically if the undercover gave the 76, 000, he could expect to double his money in a short amount of time and that he would be able to split a quarter of the gold that Mr. Uh, Youngblood would be able to access and Mr. Youngblood's story was that through his Unidentified government contacts this money would allow him to get gold out of Mexico or some other South American, uh, Central American area And it would be split between Between himself, Mr. Priority, our undercover and then one of the other individuals, Mr. Priority. What collateral did he offer? He offered him the Lou Gehrig, uh bat and that was Excuse me, were you done? Uh, he, he offered, he told him it was a million dollar bat, and it was Lou Gehrig's. And this was the bat that he had previously told us to priority, had Lou Gehrig's DNA on it. Here's another detail about the case that's gonna make you scream. What did Mr. Youngblood tell our undercover about his son Heine? He told him that he had been killed, uh, approximately six months ago. And what was the reason that Mr. His son Heine had been murdered? That he had been involved with a cartel and had been murdered as a result. That's the. Son who's sitting here in the courtroom now? Yes, sir. Mr. Youngblood claims to have paid a substantial portion of his own money to pay off Mr. ARDI's family's alleged drug debt, correct? He did. He told our undercover he paid over $4 million to pay off Mr. ARDI's debt out of his own money. Youngblood told the undercover agents that his son was killed six months ago. Doesn't his son play hockey with Eric's son? Who lies about that? Yet, the FBI agent and the prosecutors just move on. Again, so many questions. What did he tell the undercover about what happened to Eric, He told the undercover that his, uh, parents had been killed, uh, in a car accident sometime ago when he was, uh, when he was younger. Is that true? No, they are alive today. I spoke with them last week at least. What was the plan? So Mr. Youngblood tells the undercover, give me 76 grand. I'll protect Mr. Ferrari. You'll also get a bunch of money back, including a quarter of the money. Some gold I'm going to smuggle into the United States. The plan is that the undercover will bring the 76, 000 in cash the following day to Mr. Youngblood. Directly to Mr. Youngblood? Yes, sir. The next day, you set up surveillance at that location? Yes. Obviously, the undercover does not show up and give 76, 000 to Mr. Youngblood, correct? Um, the undercover makes an excuse and that's the end of that. and it does not appear, yeah. So that's the scheme in a nutshell. This next part is interesting because the FBI agent sheds some light into Koda Youngblood's past relationship with his parents. Here's the FBI agent talking about young Koda and his father, Dennis Shuler. You had a chance to speak to Mr. Dennis Shuler Sr. about Mr. Youngblood, correct? Yes. What did Mr. Dennis Shuler Sr. have to say about Mr. Youngblood? Please. character. Essentially, he said that he had been a perpetual liar most of his life, that he had told so many lies that in high school at some point he took out credit cards and Mr Dennis Shuler senior's name over 10 credit cards. I think I took out a 20, 000 debt. He said that he has the rest of his life has watched his credit reports out of fear that his his name and credit would be abused by Mr Youngblood. Um, he told his father that he, I think I mentioned was in the Marines. He also told him that at one point that he needed money because the Russian Mafia was after him and that his finger had been cut off by the Russian Mafia. When told that Mr. Youngblood had been charged with fraud, was his father surprised? No, he said he wasn't surprised that his son was charged. Mr. Youngblood has paddled with the various people over the years. They typically involved sports memorabilia such as the baseball bats. We've heard about ones from Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and others, um, also Star Wars memorabilia. Was famous artwork. I think Rembrandt's been mentioned and also other collectible items gold gold coins often came up The way I understand your testimony and the evidence in this case is that mr Youngblood is claiming this that is extraordinarily valuable Because it has the DNA. Can you describe for the court how this was packaged and stored? As far as you are aware, the undercover bat specifically was wrapped in plastic. And a number of the other victims bats reported to be wrapped in plastic. You talked about this Lou Gehrig played in the 30s, correct? Yes. So let's just use 1940 as a date, 80, 80 plus years. Does the lab have an opinion? Or did they give you any insight about how likely it is DNA would survive 80 years in those conditions? My conversation with the lab, they told me it's highly unlikely that DNA could survive on that surface. They described that wood was a difficult surface to keep DNA on in the best of conditions, and that certainly plastic, um, could actually, uh, increase bacterial growth on the bat, and would therefore kind of contaminate any DNA on it. Mr. Youngblood would defraud and attempt to defraud random people. Yes. Could you give some examples to the court? Yeah, some examples is, uh, the woman that he knew from, uh, doing, going to estate sales. Um, he also went to a golf course. So the, uh, owners or managers of the golf course, also an individual he met on an airplane, the man he bought fish from for his aquarium and, uh, the bartender at the golf course as well. Let's talk about the man he met on the airplane. They traveled to Las Vegas for work frequently and would frequently see Mr. Youngblood on the flight to Vegas from Austin. At some point, they sat next to each other on the plane, correct? Yes. Mr. Youngblood asked him to give money and the individual declined to do so. So when I went to the golf course, I introduced myself as a special agent and asked to speak to a manager and the individual said, Are you here about CODA? You hadn't mentioned Mr. Youngblood? I hadn't mentioned anything. On July 13th, 2023, we execute a search warrant at both Mr. Youngblood's house and Mr. Holloway's house, as well as a couple other locations, right? Yes. Did you find anything of significance in Mr. Youngblood's safe? Uh, we found a note, it was a, printout, um, of a kind of text message and a timeline of events that Mr. Perardi has, has said that was written by him. And it more or less shows a timeline of Mr. Perardi's entire. No, the scheme that he's kind of suffered from. So essentially the story he's saying, I'm giving you this money for this. You've told me this, that kind of thing. On the date of the search warrant, we found at least five guns in the home. You're arresting at the airport, correct? Yes. Where was Mr. Youngblood traveling or intending to travel, uh, when you arrested him? To Las Vegas. How much cash did he have on him approximately when you arrested him? A little over 18, 000. Where you believe that money came from. Yeah, so between the search warrant and, and right before the arrests have identified that a thousand of it came from one identified victim, about 12, 000 of it came from another individual that, uh, took out a loan for Mr. Youngblood and gave him the cash. Since Mr. Youngblood mentioned his gambling, uh, he told you the 18, 000 in his wallet came from a jackpot he won. Yes. You obtained records from that casino, correct? And in fairness to Mr. Youngblood, he did win about 200, 000 in gambling in May of 2023 from that casino. He did. In June of 23, he lost 280, 000 at that casino. That's correct. According to their record. And in the year of 2023, all told, from that one casino, he has lost net over 700, 000. Yes. So that was the government's case against St. Jovite Coda Youngblood. When we come back, we're going to hear from the defense, and I have to say, they bring up some good points. That's after the break. Agent, I'm not going to go into as much detail as we've already gone through, but I'll try to just, um, signal the topics they want to talk about. Yes, ma'am. You just ask a few follow up questions. So you said that your work on this case started in April of this year? Yes, ma'am. This is Coda Youngblood's defense attorney, Charlotte Herring. You described this as both an extortion scheme and an investment scheme. In Mr. Priority's case, specifically. And in your experience, this is sort of an unusual Scheme, is that fair? Yes, extortion. Generally, when you hear about concern about extortion, it's they're being asked to pay money to make a threat go away. Right? I think that's fair to say. That's what extortion is. It's most basic. Right? And here, uh, it sounds like in your investigation, what individuals believe is that they were being asked to continue to pay money, but this threats would never. Went away. New components of that threat continued to arise. And in this case, people were making payments for threats to go away, but also many of them believe they would receive. Returns on their investment in some of the victim situations. Yes. Many of the main victims, if you will, right? Yes. Have you ever seen a scheme in which collateral is put up as an extortion payment personally? I have not in your work as the as an FBI agent. You've not seen a scheme like this before. I have not. If a cartel is wanting money, why would they agree That that money could be invested in collateral. I don't believe the money was to be invested in collateral, but the collateral would serve as an object they could keep to ensure that they would later receive the, the windfall that they could expect in, in some victim cases. If the money is going to a collateral, it's some kind of object, right? How is it going to the cartel? I believe that the collateral was given after money of you can, you can rest assured that you will get money back because you're holding this valuable item if there is an issue. So, if you get threatened, you can also make a 30 percent return on your investment. Is it unusual in your experience that individuals who receive threats like this? don't call any form of law enforcement for a long time. I haven't had experience with a case with these factors. In general, if someone's going to get, has an immediate threat, which in this case, it sounds like threats on the lives of family members, it's these. It's pretty common that people call, whether it's 9 1 1 or walk in an FBI, call the FBI, right? The FBI would advise that if you felt in danger, if you felt like it, eminently. What was your understanding as to why the individuals had not sought police assistance? My understanding would be that Mr. Youngblood, you know, in some way instructed them not to go to the police or directed them that it would cause additional harm to their family. So when he comes to the FBI, The story he told you, or the threat that he told you about, as best I can have pieced it together, is something about his second ex wife was using drugs and was involved with the cartel, so the cartel was going to go after him and his family. And possibly kill him so that she would get his life insurance money, right? His ex wife and, uh, a family member of hers were connected to the cartel or were involved in money laundering. Why would Mr. Priority find it plausible? that the cartel was after him and his family. I'm not sure I could speak to how he would believe it, but, you know, we've heard multiple narratives, and it was clear that he believed it and that that story had been told to other individuals as well. Why didn't he call or contact the FBI back in, uh, What the summer of 2022 when he said this, these kinds of statements by Mr. Youngblood started. Mr. Priority reported that the reason he contacted us was after the incident with the flag owner. He said when he reached out to the flag owner and realized that the flag was a fake, it started unraveling the story in his mind that this, that there were too many lies and that's when he brought it to the FBI. I believe before that he didn't bring it because he believed the story. Why in your understanding would. Mr. Priority had believed that his second ex wife had any connection to the cartel. Mr. Youngblood had told him he was taking out a hit on his family, or she had taken out a hit on him because of the insurance policy. He had also later made indications that Mr. Priority's ex wife's, a relative of hers, had been laundering money for the cartel through her business. Why hadn't he changed the beneficiary of his, Life insurance policy, if he was divorced. I don't know when he when he did or do not. I couldn't speak to that. Some point or kind of before approaching the FBI, Mr party thought he was going to make money on. This investment in these collateral objects, right? On a number of the recordings, he mentions that it's, it's, the reason he's doing this is to keep his kids safe. But, but he also, but he has money. Yes, he got paid money back as well. The defense is questioning the victim's motivations. Were they genuinely scared for their lives? Or was this just another investment opportunity gone wrong? Mr. Perardi, you said he did receive some money back on his investment. Other individuals also received. Some payments back for their investment. Yes, some portion of the victims did. Youngblood's attorney also alluded to Eric Perardi's involvement in recruiting friends and family members into this scheme. She also points out that the payments were never made to CODA Youngblood directly. No checks were written, made payable to Mr. Youngblood. I don't recall any checks being made payable to Mr. Youngblood. The checks were made to James Holloway, the antique clock dealer. Went to Mr. Holloway first. You pulled his bank record. Yes. Saw that. Yes. And he deposited those checks into his bank account. Yes. And up until I think very recently, I mean, you believed he was a co conspirator with Mr. Youngblood in this case, right? Yes. By the way, according to court records, James Holloway has not been charged with any crimes, but he is currently being investigated. It was your understanding over the course of your investigation that individuals were led to believe that if they didn't pay the cartel, they would receive bad Yelp reviews. Is that right? That wasn't my understanding. I think the Yelp reviews continued to come and that made them feel this pressure that the cartel was continuing to target their family. So the cartel is somehow connected to the Yelp reviews. in these individuals minds? The individuals reported that they, they felt that these, that Mr. Youngblood had told them these Yelp reviews were being made in some way in connection to the cartel. Have you, in your experience as an FBI agent, heard of the cartels using Yelp reviews to enforce threats. That's not what you would generally think of when you fear cartel threat enforcement activity. I don't investigate the cartel, but I, but I don't. That's all I have your honor. Then it was time for judge Mark Lane to decide whether or not to detain Koda Youngblood until his trial. Based on the evidence that I've heard, Mr. Youngblood, you have an elaborate history of not telling the truth. After hearing the testimony, all I can say is, wow. The number of lies, the depth of those lies, is beyond anything I've ever heard. And I've been around a long time. Absolutely, uh, incredible. But the reality is, there are a number of victims, and there's a lot of money in the millions of dollars. And there may be a net, but the reality is, the money seems to flow one way. Primarily to Mr. Youngblood, and you found a number of people who were either foolish, ignorant, afraid, greedy, whatever it may be, whatever their motivation. The bottom line is, it was incumbent upon you, Mr. Youngblood, to do what you said you were going to do, buying through yourself or your intermediaries, before you were entitled to any money that you got from those victims, no matter what character trait you want to attribute them. The money always seemed to go one way. Went to a guy who doesn't work. There's nothing here that indicates any work whatsoever. If you had a work history, Ms. Herring would have shared it with me. You're a poor gambler. Frankly, you're like every gambler I've ever known. They have a great month and the other 11, they get hammered. Or it's just over and over. There's no such thing as a good gambler. They're all losing. And let's be real clear, the weight of the evidence, I don't know what's going to happen, but I know where this is going to end up one day. The weight of the evidence is overwhelming against you, Mr. Youngblood. I'm going to find that the government has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that you're a serious risk of flight. I'm also going to find that the government has established by clear and convincing evidence that, let me say this right, there is a serious risk that you will obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice or threaten or injure or intimidate or attempt to injure, threaten and intimidate prospective witnesses and even jurors in this eventual case if it goes to trial. If I were to set conditions in this case, I would have gone through them all with you, told you what they are, and at the very bottom I would have said you had to sign. And you would have signed right above an attestation that said, I promise to obey all conditions of release, to appear as directed, and surrender to serve any sentence imposed. Mr. Youngblood, I wouldn't trust you with 10 bucks. I wouldn't trust you with any important decision in my life, and I trust that most of the people in this courtroom wouldn't either. Your, your, your word is incapable of belief or value as it relates to a promise to abide by conditions. There are no conditions. that I can set that could provide for the safety of the community, prevent you from potentially obstructing or attempting to obstruct justice or fleeing, going somewhere else. Lastly, I always hope there's a special place for thieves one day. But for me, as the son of a career military officer, one who survived Vietnam, who raised a family and we were never rich, I have a particular disdain for anybody who steals the valor of the men and women. Who really earned it, earned it on a battlefield or earned it in uniform. And so good luck to you, sir. I'm going to order your detention. I'll put together a short written order that memorializes the findings that we've had today. I'm going to take a five minute break and then we're going to start with the next case. This didn't go so well for Koda Youngblood, and this was just the preliminary and detention hearing. We haven't even gotten to the trial yet. Unfortunately, I don't have the recordings of the actual trial, but we do know this. A jury reached their decision and convicted Youngblood on four counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Coda Youngblood is awaiting sentencing and faces up to 90 years in prison. That's it for today's episode. We'll be back soon. We're feverishly working on the new series. It's pretty crazy. I don't want to talk about it yet. Part of the reason why is because I am working on two really big investigations right now, and I'm not quite sure which one to lead with. So if you want to be the first to listen to it, Just sign up for my Patreon. Not only are you supporting an independent podcast, but you'll get access to early episodes, ad free, plus bonus content. Let me tell you guys, I'm running on fumes here. So, I got, I got people working around the clock on this. So, we'll pump out the episodes as soon as possible. But, you know, these are investigative journalism pieces and we want to make sure we get it right. The results of some of these investigations could lead to prosecution. And we just want to make sure we got everything buttoned up. All right. That's it for today. Today's episode was written and researched by me, Javier Leyva, and was edited by the talented Puneet Shanoi with the podcast pundits. All right. Talk to you soon.