Matthew Cox: FBI Most Wanted Con Man - $55 Million in Bank Fraud | Lex Fridman Podcast #409

Lex, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It was an honor.

Hey Lex, love your show. I am a recently retired FBI agent with 22 years experience who has recruited and managed many cooperating witnesses during my career. I know the point of this particular episode was to gain a better understanding of human behavior, and I can see you struggling during this episode with the concept of human "loyalty" and "integrity" when it comes to relationships. So I wanted weigh-in to bring you a different perspective that you may not have considered. Disloyalty often does not happen in a vacuum, especially when you are talking about criminal behavior where someone puts themselves in a compromising position. Many times, such a person who appears to be acting disloyal, is actual doing so out of loyalty to another, i.e. their family. And when we are talking about family, often times the pull to cooperation is the one-two punch of loyalty + responsibility to those that depend on them at home. In other words, if a criminal puts loyalty to their co-conspirators first and as a result, becomes an absentee parent/spouse due to a lengthy prison sentence that could have been reduced or avoided by cooperating, isn't that simultaneously an act of disloyalty to their families and dependents? I am only pointing this out because if you are coming away from this discussion assessing that humans are inherently disloyal, I would caution you that you may be looking at this too one dimensionally. Don't get me wrong, many times people are disloyal just out of pure selfishness and lack of integrity, but often times its more complicated then that. I would assess that the vast majority of people I gained cooperation from did so out of loyalty to those that were more important to them. Just understand that sometimes being loyal to more than one person becomes a mutually exclusive circumstance in that an act of disloyalty to one is really an act of loyalty to another. Anyway, hope this helps.

Matt Cox is probably the only dude i could listen to for 6 hours straight.

Shortest 6 hour podcast I’ve ever listened to. Bravo Lex!

“So tell us a little bit about your self Matt.” Spills guts for 6 straight hours.

So far this is the best criminal interview had ever been recorded in history

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/matthew-cox-transcript 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - Freud's Last Session: see it in select theaters - Babbel: https://babbel.com/lexpod and use code Lexpod to get 55% off - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off - NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour - LMNT: https://drinkLMNT.com/lex to get free sample pack 1:59 - Mortgage fraud 16:47 - Creating fake people 50:33 - Arrested by FBI 1:07:24 - Omerta: Code of silence 1:29:41 - Fake ID's 1:59:03 - Getting caught 2:12:28 - Going on the run from FBI 2:24:09 - Identity theft 2:44:49 - More scams 2:56:38 - FBI Most Wanted 2:59:06 - Close calls 3:30:01 - Break up with Becky 3:34:42 - Calling parents 3:36:41 - Calling FBI 3:42:21 - Running from cops 4:04:11 - Getting arrested 4:19:36 - Snitching 4:35:51 - Prison 4:53:23 - War dogs 5:00:05 - Frank Amodeo 5:35:37 - Freedom 5:46:31 - Family 5:52:34 - Regret

Ive listened to probably thousands of hours of podcasts. 7 days a week, at least 8 hours a day, fixing surfboards and tuned into something. Just finished this one today and wow, hands down one of the best podcasts i've ever listened to. What a roller coaster of emotions and feelings, what a story, what a life. Unreal.

This guy’s story deserves a movie

I’ve never ever watched an episode of your pod in full, Lex. My boyfriend insisted I listen to this. We texted ALL day about this ep. This was fantastic. The storytelling here is impeccable!