SNEAKO - July 28, 2022


SNEAKO Reacts to Jeffrey Epstein


Episode Stats

Length

18 minutes

Words per Minute

173.1158

Word Count

3,169

Sentence Count

253

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is just one of those questions presented in a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk named
00:00:17.040 Fight Club.
00:00:18.200 The film version of Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Edward
00:00:22.960 Norton and Helena Bonham Carter, could be considered one of the best and most impactful
00:00:28.100 movies ever made.
00:00:29.600 When looking at its reception and ongoing popularity, Fight Club isn't shy of over-the-top violence,
00:00:36.440 contains a fair amount of explicit language and, of course, the obnoxious behavior of its
00:00:42.100 characters.
00:00:43.100 However, it's definitely more profound than just men coming together to beat each other
00:00:48.480 up.
00:00:49.600 The story is built on several thoughtful concepts that are interesting and possibly applicable
00:00:55.280 to our own lives.
00:00:57.220 It tells a story about a generation of people, without a clear purpose, without hope, raised
00:01:02.480 with false expectations and repressed by ever-tightening social norms.
00:01:07.820 What if our existence is pointless?
00:01:10.320 What if God doesn't like us?
00:01:12.700 What if we're nothing more than a compost heap?
00:01:15.620 How do we find meaning in a meaningless existence?
00:01:18.660 My best advice for this is to start thinking for yourself because it's so easy to get brainwashed and
00:01:23.500 believe in the same nonsense that everybody else believes in.
00:01:25.500 It's difficult, but try to develop your own opinions.
00:01:29.340 Don't just believe the first thing you read on Instagram.
00:01:32.000 It's hard.
00:01:33.000 Most people don't ever do it.
00:01:34.000 And that's why everyone echoes the same shit, but try to think for yourself.
00:01:39.760 This video explores several philosophical ideas that Fight Club presents us.
00:01:45.160 For those who aren't familiar with the story, this analysis explains and reveals the plot.
00:01:59.520 The story of Fight Club revolves around three main characters.
00:02:03.260 It's told from a first-person perspective by a nameless character that's commonly called
00:02:08.580 the narrator, who has a dead-end white-collar job at a major car company and has fallen prey
00:02:14.480 to what he calls the IKEA nesting instinct.
00:02:17.660 Dictated by social norms, he walks perfectly in line like a docile sheep, which translates
00:02:23.820 into an inauthentic repetitive.
00:02:25.820 This is kind of the same thing.
00:02:26.880 We already saw this video two days ago.
00:02:28.740 We don't need to watch this.
00:02:29.740 We don't need to watch this.
00:02:33.260 In 1987, a man you never heard of named Steven Hoffenberg met with everyone's favorite person,
00:02:44.600 the infamous Jeffrey Epstein.
00:02:46.380 Their plan?
00:02:47.380 To build the biggest Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen.
00:02:50.080 This was before Epstein had a private island and probably before his operation with underage
00:02:54.500 girls began.
00:02:55.500 In the way these two were introduced?
00:02:57.460 By a British arms dealer and intelligence assets, Sir Douglas Lease.
00:03:01.540 Almost immediately, Epstein and Hoffenberg hit it off.
00:03:04.080 They shared an obsession with making money at all cost.
00:03:06.980 And to Hoffenberg, Epstein was a genius with, quote, no moral compass, end quote.
00:03:12.600 Exactly the guy he was looking for.
00:03:14.880 The dynamic duo joined forces in the Hoffenberg's company called Towers Financial Corporation,
00:03:22.700 a very unassuming name that doesn't make you think twice.
00:03:25.340 And they turned it into a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
00:03:28.280 They traveled the world together, wanting and dining investors, selling bonds, and doing
00:03:32.660 everything respectable businessmen are expected to do.
00:03:35.440 Outside, the company was marketed as a debt collection agency.
00:03:38.500 But on the inside, it was a classic Ponzi scheme.
00:03:41.240 By 1993, Hoffenberg and Epstein had scammed over 200,000 investors out of $450 million.
00:03:48.280 I mean, W, good businessman.
00:03:49.980 I ain't gonna lie, like, yeah, he flew out to the islands, but W businessman.
00:03:53.320 Almost a billion dollars in today's money.
00:03:55.620 They had stolen from everyone.
00:03:57.240 Teachers, the elderly, businesses, you name it, they scammed it.
00:04:00.900 At the time,
00:04:01.460 Yeah, get to a bag.
00:04:02.540 Get to a bag.
00:04:03.220 I ain't gonna hate on it.
00:04:04.000 And it was the biggest Ponzi scheme.
00:04:05.280 They say a lot of stuff about Epstein, but, yo, he really got to it.
00:04:07.900 It wouldn't be for another 10 years until Bernie Madoff came along and took that title
00:04:12.780 away from them.
00:04:13.940 They made millions.
00:04:15.440 And when the scheme was finally exposed, Hoffenberg took the fall and went to prison.
00:04:19.500 But Epstein, he escaped without a single charge and up to $100 million in the bank.
00:04:24.400 The worst financial fraud in history at the time made Epstein a nine-figure millionaire,
00:04:29.160 and he got off without warning.
00:04:30.560 And many believe that this is where Epstein got his initial money.
00:04:34.360 That this Ponzi scheme was the seed money, the nest egg, that Epstein would use to fund
00:04:38.120 his most infamous business yet.
00:04:39.840 An international operation recording-
00:04:41.940 Wow, do people know about that?
00:04:44.460 How many of you are not aware of that?
00:04:45.700 A lot of people say they want Trump back, but, like, what do y'all think of this shit?
00:04:48.700 An inter-
00:04:49.280 Buddies, pals.
00:04:54.320 Just saying, like, I prefer Trump to buy the two, but I don't know if I can get you
00:04:58.460 definitely, like-
00:04:59.560 An international operation recording the most powerful people in the world committing some
00:05:04.380 of the most heinous crimes a man can commit.
00:05:06.860 If it wasn't for this Ponzi scheme, Epstein may never have gotten the initial boost he needed
00:05:10.920 to finagle his way into the upper echelons of society.
00:05:14.420 This is the Tower's financial Ponzi scheme.
00:05:29.560 Traditionally, if you were looking at getting access to the best investments or asset managers,
00:05:35.680 you had to be rich, famous, or the target of a Ponzi scheme.
00:05:39.120 The best guys on Wall Street have always ignored everyday investors because they just won't
00:05:43.100 make any money from you in fees.
00:05:44.840 Getting any sort of attention on Wall Street required you to already be ultra-wealthy.
00:05:48.780 And for a group of smart people, that didn't sit well, so they created Titan, the premier
00:05:53.280 investment manager for the rest of us.
00:05:55.340 It's the world's first direct-to-consumer investment platform for people who want their
00:05:58.900 money actively managed by an award-winning investment team.
00:06:02.140 And Titan already manages over $750 million.
00:06:04.660 Towers Financial Corporation was created in the 1970s by Hoffenberg as a debt collection
00:06:22.460 agency.
00:06:23.460 Here's what that means.
00:06:24.660 People would end up owing money to things like hospitals, phone companies, and banks,
00:06:28.300 but they wouldn't pay.
00:06:29.720 Hospitals, phone companies, and banks would try to chase them down for the money, but it
00:06:33.300 would be a lot of work.
00:06:34.780 And after a while, they would just give up on it.
00:06:36.900 So instead of just losing all the money, these companies would sell that debt to a debt collection
00:06:40.720 agency, like Towers Financial Corporation, for pennies on the dollar.
00:06:44.580 The debt collection agency would then work their magic to collect the money from those
00:06:48.020 people.
00:06:48.680 And since they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar,
00:06:51.020 Money's all a lie.
00:06:52.080 It's just numbers.
00:06:53.380 None of it's all a scam.
00:06:54.640 Any money they did collect would be very profitable.
00:06:56.640 Or at least that's what Towers Financial was doing on the outside.
00:07:00.320 To outsiders, Stephen Hoffenberg was the epitome of the American dream.
00:07:03.940 He started his business with just $2,000 and turned it into an almost $100 million business.
00:07:09.400 It looked like American entrepreneurship at its finest.
00:07:12.060 It even had a couple of subsidiaries also involved in the debt collection business.
00:07:16.500 Compared to other businesses in the same industry, Towers was generally an under-the-radar
00:07:20.580 small-time corporation that no one paid any attention to.
00:07:23.680 That was until our friend Epstein joined the team.
00:07:25.840 Then things went downhill fast.
00:07:28.460 When Epstein joined Towers in 1987, as Stephen Hoffenberg's right-hand man, the company started
00:07:33.220 making some big moves.
00:07:34.840 They bought two Illinois insurance companies, sold bonds for the companies to investors,
00:07:38.880 and used that money to try to take over an airline, Pan American Airways.
00:07:42.900 Ultimately, the deal failed, and a lot of money was lost.
00:07:45.800 But strangely enough, Hoffenberg and Epstein didn't face any real backlash.
00:07:49.640 The investors didn't complain too much.
00:07:51.220 And this got them thinking.
00:07:53.400 If they could get away with losing millions of their investors' money,
00:07:56.100 why couldn't they lose that money into their own pockets?
00:07:59.400 What?
00:08:00.020 If nothing happened after the Pan Am disaster,
00:08:02.440 what if they could continue losing money on failed business deals
00:08:05.700 while really pocketing that money for themselves?
00:08:08.660 They could make millions.
00:08:10.460 They could make millions losing money?
00:08:12.540 And with Towers Financial's long-standing reputation as a real debt collection agency,
00:08:16.480 it would be like taking candy from a baby.
00:08:18.560 So, a Ponzi scheme was born.
00:08:21.220 In order to get people interested in investing in a Ponzi scheme,
00:08:32.900 you need to make it look legit.
00:08:34.500 And that's exactly what Towers Financial appeared to be.
00:08:37.400 By 1987, the company had been around for 17 years.
00:08:41.140 It had a clean track record, minus the Pan Am disaster.
00:08:44.160 But overall, it looked like a perfectly trustworthy business.
00:08:47.240 One of the ways Towers made money was through bonds.
00:08:49.660 It would sell a bond to an investor, promising to pay them a certain amount of interest over a period of time.
00:08:55.540 Then on a specified date after paying all the interest, Towers would pay back the investors' original money.
00:09:00.840 It's a practice used by many companies all over the world to raise money to expand their business.
00:09:05.000 But according to Hoffenberg, he and Epstein saw an opportunity.
00:09:08.700 It's always a bird.
00:09:09.840 Always a Hoffenstein, Goldmanstein, Hoffenberg.
00:09:13.660 Like never before.
00:09:14.860 What if they could cook the books a little bit?
00:09:16.800 You know, fudge the numbers to make it seem like they were making more money than they actually did.
00:09:20.740 That would attract investors way more.
00:09:22.920 So that's exactly what they did.
00:09:24.640 From 1988, Towers Financial Corporation went on a bond selling spree.
00:09:28.600 Yo, the power of being a white guy on Wall Street, just like getting that trust initially is like, it's just being a white guy with a suit.
00:09:37.780 People just give you money.
00:09:39.480 And instead of showing investors the company's real finances, Epstein and Hoffenberg would use all the debt they bought for dirt cheap as their assets.
00:09:46.740 For example, they would buy a million dollars worth of debt from a hospital for $50,000.
00:09:51.180 But instead of listing the asset as $50,000 on their balance sheets, they would list it as the original $1 million.
00:09:58.180 All of a sudden, instead of having $50,000 in assets, the company now had a million dollars, at least in the eyes of investors.
00:10:05.060 And you really trust these people?
00:10:07.320 You really trust?
00:10:08.120 They could just turn $50,000 into a mill like that?
00:10:13.340 And you pay taxes?
00:10:14.940 Only poor people play by the rules.
00:10:17.580 The people really getting money scam this shit to the ground.
00:10:21.040 Come on, yo.
00:10:22.020 And they all work hand in hand.
00:10:23.440 The government gets a piece of the pie.
00:10:25.340 Big Pharma.
00:10:26.060 They all just do these deals.
00:10:27.300 They let it slide, man.
00:10:29.080 They want to stay rich.
00:10:30.180 Of course, they're going to keep each other rich.
00:10:31.920 It's all a game.
00:10:32.740 It was a stupidly easy way to make the company go from being worth a few million to a few billion on paper.
00:10:40.400 And let's face it, most of these debts were never going to be paid.
00:10:43.580 So in reality, the company was worth orders of magnitude less than what our two Posse schemers advertised.
00:10:49.240 And so they destroy the global economy.
00:10:52.440 They fuck up inflation.
00:10:54.940 Everything, the price of, everyone has to deal with the repercussions of this.
00:10:58.560 While these fucks get richer and richer.
00:11:00.940 But people fell for it.
00:11:03.940 Epstein was too charismatic, too cunning, too convincing.
00:11:06.860 And the reputation Hoffenberg had created for Towers meant everything looked very real.
00:11:11.340 It was a match made in heaven.
00:11:13.400 Using his Wall Street connections, Epstein sold Towers' financial bonds to anyone and everyone.
00:11:18.440 Over the course of six years, the company made over $450 million from duping investors in this manner.
00:11:24.420 And once the money started flowing in, the rest of the Posse scheme fell into place.
00:11:34.100 Someone said that's literally what China's doing to America right now.
00:11:37.900 Someone's always getting fucked.
00:11:39.240 One of the first indicators that something was off at Towers Financial was the fact that Stephen Hoffenberg was in charge of almost every position.
00:11:54.820 He was the founder, chairman, CEO, and the president of the company.
00:11:58.340 In fact, Towers didn't even have a financial manager because Hoffenberg was just that good.
00:12:03.180 This also meant that no one was there to oversee any of the financial decisions the company made.
00:12:07.560 Which meant that Hoffenberg and Epstein were free to pocket that money as they pleased.
00:12:11.360 They would continue selling bonds to investors based on those fake financial reports.
00:12:15.000 They claimed to be collecting 30% of the debt they bought.
00:12:17.320 You know what's fucked up is like people will get mad at the people who do PPP fraud and unemployment fraud to get like 50k, 20k.
00:12:26.980 That level of scamming, that's who they indict.
00:12:29.120 That's who they send a prison.
00:12:30.660 A little 20, 50k for unemployment.
00:12:32.900 Okay.
00:12:33.720 These dudes, bro, the government, the same people who are like, this needs to be stopped.
00:12:38.560 These hoodlums, these thugs are scamming good government money.
00:12:43.460 While the government, the same people are benefiting off of this shit.
00:12:48.000 It's all, you can't trust these people.
00:12:49.940 This is what they doing.
00:12:51.020 When the real number was closer to 3%, then they would use the money they made from selling more bonds to pay back earlier investors.
00:12:57.800 So the scheme kept going.
00:12:59.400 And while doing that, they would make sure that a good chunk of it disappeared into their own pockets.
00:13:04.320 Earlier investors were happy, they were happy, and new investors couldn't wait to get in.
00:13:08.120 It was an insanely lucrative business, and Hoffenberg would use that money to fund equally crazy spending sprees.
00:13:14.800 He bought houses in Manhattan, Florida.
00:13:17.140 He bought luxury cars, yachts, several planes.
00:13:20.400 The biggest scammers are balling, doing whatever they want, while we're like, here's 30% of my money, because I care about the government.
00:13:28.020 I'm gonna vote.
00:13:29.220 These are what the real people with money are doing.
00:13:31.320 I'm scamming the shit out of all of us, fucking up inflation, fucking up the economy, while they fly out to Miami, buy property, get yachts, and do whatever they want.
00:13:41.600 Man.
00:13:42.360 At one point, he even
00:13:43.480 It's the coolest evil world.
00:13:45.640 Tried to buy the New York Post newspaper.
00:13:47.700 Neither Epstein nor Hoffenberg
00:13:49.120 And they controlled the media too!
00:13:51.460 cared who they were stealing from.
00:13:53.000 It could be millionaires or 84-year-old retired teachers.
00:13:56.700 They worked hard for their money, and they were gonna spend it.
00:13:58.980 And it was all thanks to Epstein's planning and execution.
00:14:02.740 Epstein, Ep-Hein, Hoffenberg, Hoffenstein.
00:14:07.460 According to Hoffenberg, Epstein was the, quote, architect behind the scam, end quote.
00:14:11.740 And Epstein allegedly made off with $100 million of the money for himself.
00:14:15.540 But then the SEC got involved.
00:14:17.620 And without warning, just as the walls were starting to close in on Towers Financial, Epstein jumped ship, taking his cut with them.
00:14:28.980 Wow.
00:14:37.680 Steven Hoffenberg had gotten a little too confident, and he attracted a little too much attention by trying to buy and save the dying New York Post.
00:14:45.100 His knight in shiny armor act attracted too many eyeballs.
00:14:48.160 And one of those eyeballs was the SEC.
00:14:50.300 And they got to wondering how he made his money.
00:14:52.640 It didn't take a genius to figure out something was wrong.
00:14:54.820 And from there, things came crashing down.
00:14:57.340 In February 1993, the SEC began civil action against Towers Financial Corporation.
00:15:02.200 And a month later, the company declared bankruptcy.
00:15:04.420 The feds were onto him.
00:15:05.700 But Epstein, he was long gone.
00:15:08.220 Hoffenberg was the fall guy.
00:15:09.660 Everything got pinned on him.
00:15:11.460 Epstein and I came in, won his trip.
00:15:13.520 W.E.P.C., man.
00:15:14.980 Like, yeah, he had a couple islands with some satanic rituals or whatever.
00:15:19.060 But Epstein was really bobbing and weaving.
00:15:21.200 Oh, how do you dodge the SEC, man?
00:15:23.800 W.E.P.C.E.W.
00:15:24.240 Trust used Hoffenberg's company for his own gain and left it as it was burning to the ground.
00:15:29.360 And for it, Hoffenberg got sentenced to 20 years in jail in 1997 when he was 52 years old.
00:15:34.380 He wouldn't see the outset of his cell for the next 18 years.
00:15:37.640 In 2013, Hoffenberg was released.
00:15:40.000 But up until today, he's still paying out the $462 million, or around three quarters of a billion dollars in today's money, he owes to his victims.
00:15:47.800 Back when the case against Towers Financial was still ongoing, two other high-level executives were sentenced to seven and nine years for their participation in the scheme.
00:15:59.480 But Epstein, the architect behind the scam, the genius with no moral compass, he wasn't one of them.
00:16:04.720 And somehow, he got away without a single charge.
00:16:11.160 From that point on, Epstein would use that Ponzi scheme money to slither his way into the most powerful circles in the world.
00:16:19.880 Eventually setting up his operation, where he would bring powerful, wealthy people to his properties to party, have underage girls there, and record all these powerful men with the girls via secret hidden cameras.
00:16:31.400 And every time he...
00:16:32.420 And that's how they get him to do whatever you want.
00:16:35.480 Look at you with the underage girl.
00:16:37.240 Now I got you in my pocket.
00:16:39.500 Sign these bills.
00:16:40.680 Elect this politician.
00:16:42.360 Do what I say.
00:16:43.540 Because I got the tapes.
00:16:45.480 Got in trouble with the law, the same pattern would play out.
00:16:48.460 He would be let free without any trouble.
00:16:51.720 It was almost as if he had a guardian angel looking over him to make sure he could keep doing what he was doing.
00:16:57.460 In 2006, Epstein would get arrested on charges of soliciting a prostitute and for procuring a minor for prostitution.
00:17:03.960 Magically, he ended up getting the deal of a lifetime.
00:17:06.620 But even the judge admitting that he was told Epstein, quote, belonged to intelligence, end quotes.
00:17:11.360 That Epstein's purpose was, quote, above his pay grade, end quotes.
00:17:14.940 And that he had to, quote, leave it alone, end quotes.
00:17:17.300 Belong to intelligence, huh?
00:17:19.700 It would make sense.
00:17:21.060 Hoffenberg did meet Epstein through a British arms dealer and intelligence assets.
00:17:24.800 Was Epstein really an undercover operative getting blackmail material on the rich and powerful for some intelligence agency?
00:17:30.500 That is exactly what we go over in our new feature-length documentary on Epstein called The Man That Didn't Kill Himself.
00:17:36.680 He didn't.
00:17:38.340 Chat, he did not.
00:17:40.180 That dude is probably still alive.
00:17:41.580 I'm jacking he's still alive somewhere.
00:17:43.300 There's just too much information.
00:17:45.800 Oh, the camera's turned off in the prison.
00:17:47.580 Get the fuck out of here.
00:17:48.360 That dude's alive.
00:17:48.960 Just out now.
00:17:49.980 And guys, I'm very proud of this one.
00:17:51.580 It's really good.
00:17:52.620 All you have to do is click the join button.
00:17:54.440 Yo, you definitely need to go watch the documentary.
00:17:56.980 Look up Epstein.
00:17:57.860 If you still trust the government, if you still, like, don't doubt, if you still doubt conspiracy theories and shit like that, look up Epstein.
00:18:03.820 And then everything will start to make sense because really all the most powerful people were involved with him, all of them, the Clintons, Trump, probably Elon, all the famous celebrities, they were all going to that island too.
00:18:17.400 Every single one.