Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, brazen con man John Bravado welcomes

investors into BBC Equities, a real estate fund that some insiders call the

Billionaire Boys Club.

I got to tell you that, and this is a bold statement, we'll back it up, not

of our clients ever lost a dollar.

Bravado's Bravado guarantees investors he can make them rich with no risk to

their life savings.

The philosophy that we have and what we use is very simple. Never put your

principal dollars at risk.

Never put your principal dollars at risk.

He brings in over $50 million, saying that all the other financial pros are

crooks. But he's different.

We believe if we can make the investor money, we deserve to make money. And if

we can't, we don't deserve to get paid.

But when the billionaire boys club crumbles, investors learn that Bravada

regrets about doing exactly what his book title says.

Stealing the wealth of America.

There's not anything that I have done that I look at and say, God damn, I wish

didn't do that again.

And many victims are left wishing they'd listen to one piece of this con man's

advice.

I don't want you to believe anything that I say.

What you must do is say, prove it to me.

In the suburbs outside Detroit, Michigan, con man John Bravada has been

an investment scam that has brought in more than $50 million.

In 2011, with the feds closing in, he's working out a possible escape plan.

Mail fraud and wire fraud, if those are the charges, don't even carry criminal

jail time in Italy.

There's never been a case in Italy that they can find where... Italy actually

allowed an extradition in a case that's greater punishment than their own.

Thinking he can avoid justice overseas, Bravada rents an apartment in Milan and

begins researching how to become an Italian citizen.

To the FBI, his actions mean only one thing.

I truly believe John Bravada was looking to go to Italy and never return.

John Bravada grew up modestly, raised alone by his widowed mother in

Michigan.

Though he says he dreams of working for the CIA, he never finishes college.

In his 20s, Bravada works as a cop in his hometown, noting on his application

that he likes being in the middle of attention.

Though he will later claim to work for the Drug Enforcement Agency, it's out on

patrol in Kalamazoo that he first gets a view of the good life.

John, while he was working in law enforcement, while he was driving

would observe some of the nicer communities, nicer homes that he would

And that was the type of lifestyle that he wanted to have for himself and his

family.

Bravada gets his shot at riches when he hands in his badge and begins selling

life insurance, first for John Hancock and later at New York Life.

He was a solid salesman, and his book of business grew appreciably in

not a long period of time.

But Bravada sets his sights higher.

Eventually, he moves to Brighton, Michigan.

a small town about 40 miles northwest of Detroit.

It's here, in 2003, that John opens the Bravada Financial Group, running it out

of this unassuming building on a busy commercial strip.

Three years later, he launches BBC Equities, a real estate investment fund.

Bravada partners with Richard R .J.

Trabulsi. who he had previously hired at New York Life.

To R .J., Mr. Bravado was a father figure, and he was a young,

individual who looked up to John Bravado.

John pulled all the strings at BBC.

He was the figure that was larger than life. He projected himself as larger

life, and I think R .J. bought into that.

From the very start, Bravada is out in front, making the right impression the

moment he walks in the door.

When you first look at John Bravada, John comes across as very polished.

Salt -and -pepper gray hair, mustache, custom suit, cusslings, monogrammed

shirts.

He's a huge guy.

He's tall.

He's muscular.

He has these form -fitting suits, and he stands out in a crowd. I mean, he

steals all the oxygen in a room.

Driving a $90 ,000 Ferrari, Robata knows the importance of projecting wealth.

John Robata's thing was that... This is the only industry where people will

drive up in their Mercedes or their BMWs and hand over all their money to their

financial advisor who rents an apartment and drives a Yugo.

The point that he was making was that that's crazy and you should invest with

someone like me because that would guarantee that their investment would be

successful as his was.

So what's the secret of his success?

Not long after starting BBC Equities, Bravada is at the Ritz -Carlton Hotel

giving a presentation to a few dozen people.

At first, it's not even obvious that Bravada is actually selling anything.

A John Bravada sales pitch would last almost exactly an hour.

He never mentioned BBC equities for the first 50 minutes. What he did for the

first 50 minutes was instill terror in the audience about the dangers of

investing. For most people out in this room, you sat and watched your wealth

disappear.

And you did it because your financial planners, the media, said do what?

Stay still. By the end of that 50 minutes, you were terrified and you

know what to do with your money?

The last 10 minutes?

Basically, it was John Bravada saying, I alone can help you.

I got to tell you that, and this is a bold statement, we'll back it up. Not

of our clients ever lost a dollar.

The way Bravada can help is by offering investors a piece of his so -called real

estate empire.

Flipping through slides, Bravada shows off properties where tenants are paying

rent and generating big bucks for his investors.

He made it sound like his company had already acquired a huge real estate

portfolio that was already cash flowing. And he couldn't get to the bank fast

enough because they were producing so much cash.

In this pitch, recorded later, Rabada hits upon a point he hammers home time

time again.

BBC equities is not only lucrative, it's also safe.

Number one rule.

my money and principal of my dollars must be guaranteed.

I cannot risk losing my principal dollars.

Rule number two, I must get as high of interest rate I can get on my money

without violating rule number one.

Bravado says his fund is structured with safety in mind.

At BBC Equities...

Our fund's set up a little bit different.

BBC Equity guarantees principal dollars of money that goes into the fund. It's

backed by CDs at a bank, Comerica Bank. They're a trust company.

So principal's guaranteed.

Bravada claims that for every investor dollar stored safely at Comerica, the

bank will lend him $2 to make real estate purchases.

A six -year -old investor who has a modest nest egg, the notion of it being

protected, and kept safe in a certificate of deposit, but with the

large interest rate that you couldn't normally get in a certificate of

and on top of a large fixed interest rate, a profit dividend, that was

That was the best of all possible worlds.

On top of this guaranteed protection, Rabada promises investors between 8 %

12 % interest, as well as potential dividends.

You get 12 % as fixed, it's guaranteed, it's paid quarterly.

That money can be reinvested or taken out, whatever you decide to do.

Last year, we did pay a dividend. Our dividend was a 10 % dividend, which

our stockholders or our investors saw a 22 % rate of return.

Roboto lets investors know that the way he gets paid is different than most fund

managers.

Here's the deal I made. I went out to my people and said, I don't want a salary

from BBC Industries.

I don't want to get paid off management.

What I want to get paid off, if I can do what I say I'm going to do for this

fund, that is create profit, which is the dividend.

I deserve to get paid.

But if I can't do that, I don't deserve to get a paycheck.

And that's how this fund works.

Investors like what they hear.

And right away, his former insurance clients, friends, neighbors, and even

family begin to sign up.

I think.

The thing that hooked most investors was his promise that their nest egg would

be safe. No matter what, you will not lose your principal dollars.

And to a lot of these older investors, that was everything to them.

If they have doubts, many seem reassured by Bravado's claims about his law

enforcement days.

My dream was to get in the CIA. I worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency for

about three years. I think what that does, that builds trust amongst the

that he wanted to have invest with his company.

Others are hooked by Bravado's verbal jujitsu.

He said things like, don't ever trust a word I'm saying.

I don't want you to believe anything that I say.

I want you to research it yourself.

What you must do is say, prove it to me.

Well, ironically, if somebody tells you don't trust anything I'm saying, it

engenders credibility.

Between May 2006 and February 2007, BBC Equities received $3

.2 million from investors.

And things are just getting started.

Terry Makowski comes to Bravada's office in late 2007, seeking a job as a

marketing coordinator.

He's interviewed by one of John Bravada's employees, his son, a recent

school grad named Antonio.

He was asking the slighted questions for the typical interview, you know, where

do you see yourself in five years, ten years?

And so I asked him, I said, well, where do you see yourself by the time you're

30? And he said, I see myself being a billionaire.

Amazed by Antonio's pluck, Makowski then meets the head honcho.

John was interesting. He was very nice. He's very charismatic. I mean, he really

puts you at ease when you meet him.

And John had this way of when you're talking to him, like you're the only

in the room.

So this is the location, one of the locations that we held a seminar at,

actually several, Outback Steakhouse in Canton on Ford Road.

Working with a marketing company, she sends invites to Bravada's preferred

audience.

He said he wanted the 55 to 80 -year -olds because they were going into

retirement or have been in retirement and have access to lump sums of cash.

Next on American Greed.

After luring retirees with the promise of a free meal, John Bravada gets them

fork over millions.

He could have sold these people anything.

He was a good salesman. Yeah, he could have sold them anything.

John Bravada has a pitch that seems custom -tailored to his retirement -aged

audience.

I believe that your principal dollar is your life.

You must not, you cannot rip your personal dollar.

Okay? Because you can't afford to lose $34 ,000 and get it back.

It took your whole life to build it.

As Bravada brings in more and more money, he hires others to make the pitch

following the script he's perfected.

One of the first to take the job is John's son, Antonio, who tries his

to follow his dad's lead.

Last year we did pay a dividend. Our dividend was a 10 % dividend.

For 2007, we paid a 10 % dividend.

Which means our stockholders or our investors saw a 22 % rate of return.

If you had your money last year for 2007, you would have made 22%.

Antonio, in turn, helps bring in other pitchmen, including his former football

coach, Jeff Minock.

I said, I don't know nothing about the financial business.

And they go, oh, don't worry. We'll teach you everything you need to know.

We'll give you a script. You've got to memorize the script.

And they said, we'll have agents with you so you don't have to sell anything.

You just have to do the presentation.

For the bravadas, it seems that knowing what you're talking about is less

important than looking like you do.

The day they hired me, they asked me if I had any suits.

And I said, I got one. I said, I can get married and buried.

And they took me down to a men's clothing store where they make custom

suits. And they bought me two suits.

As a matter of fact, the suit I'm wearing right now.

the Bravada bought formula.

Once he's been made to look the part, Minock is ready to get out there and

pitching.

John Bravada used to have us talk a little bit about BBC equities.

He didn't want us to talk a lot about it. Just talking about the 8 % return

that your principal was safe and your money would go into a CD at Comerica

Terry Welsh gets the invite to a bravado seminar in 2008.

A workplace safety trainer from Lansing, Michigan, Welsh eats his free meal,

listens to the pitch, and likes what he hears.

There was probably two things. The first thing was the fact that they said that

they were guaranteeing that the investors would not lose money.

The second thing was it sounded like they had a very, very timely business

strategy that could be very profitable.

Welsh says he'd like to hear more.

And a few weeks later, Antonio Bravada visits him and his wife Janice at their

home.

Yeah, that was him in the picture, absolutely. And I remember when he sat

in that chair. I still remember him just sitting.

there and talking to us like he was a friend. We had a face -to -face

conversation with him.

And also I remember him having on a really fancy ring, a very, very nice

And when we looked out the window, he had an extremely expensive car.

Antonio lures the Welsh family with promises of an 8 % return.

But Terry still has questions.

He sends Tony a document asking him to confirm a number of promises he's made

about BBC equities.

It says, please fax back confirmation that the following statements regarding

BBC equities are accurate. First, in 2007, BBC equities earned

net distributable profits exceeding $50 million.

Tony even noted there, says not exact, but close.

In 2007, BBC Equities LLC purchased real estate exceeding $500 million

in value.

That figure was something Tony gave me previously.

And he said on here, he says, not exact, but close.

Let's go back to this. After receiving this signed assurance, Welsh and his

clean out their IRAs and invest $41 ,000 in late June 2008.

By this point, Bravada has brought in nearly $25 million.

Many of his employees buy into BBC equities, including pitchman Jeff

marketing coordinator Terry Makowski.

I was excited about it. I'm like, wow, this is a really great opportunity.

And I was really hopeful. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Coming up.

The truth behind BBC equities begins to emerge.

If you say you're going to do something with investors' money, you better do it.

If you say you're going to do one thing and do another, that's wrong.

All across Michigan, investors in BBC Equities are thrilled to see their money

grow.

There were a lot of investors who told us and who testified that they were so

delighted with BBC Equities that they told their friends and their friends

an investment.

Investors have been led to believe that their interest is generated by Bravada's

real estate empire.

But this is hardly the case.

BBC's real estate empire, in truth, was a couple of dozen homes and some

dilapidated car washes, mostly in Ohio.

How then does Bravada keep sending out checks?

While making big promises, he offers investors that thinly veiled warning.

I don't want you to believe anything that I say.

What you must do is say, prove it to me.

Buried deep inside investor paperwork that some people receive is an

BBC Equities is using investors' funds to make payments to other investors, not

storing it safely at Comerica Bank, as he promised.

And that is hardly Bravada's only lie.

John Bravada was not in the DEA. He was never a federal agent.

He was a public safety officer at the Kalamazoo Police Department for a little

over a year, and he was fired from that job when they found that he had lied on

his initial application.

His lies don't stop there.

Throughout the scheme, Rabada has made a simple promise.

So the first thing is that our fund is set up a little different. We don't

charge fees to our investors. I think we're the only fund that I know of that

doesn't do that. We have a philosophy that says if we don't make money, you

don't make money. So we have to make money for our investors in order to make

that happen.

In truth, however, Rabada pays millions in sales commissions and finder's fees

to his employees, who jokingly refer to BBC Equities as the Billionaire Boys

Club.

One of these salesmen, Bravado's son, Antonio, shows off his newfound wealth

this not -so -subtle video.

Not bad for a fresh -faced youngster.

And Antonio is not even the guy at the top of BBC equities.

John Bravado was the first person to belly up to the trough. He was getting

before anybody else.

and getting paid a lot right from the get -go. In 2007, he decided he should

start collecting a salary of $1 .2 million.

Now, understand, BBC Equities was never profitable.

Not in 2007, not in 2008, never.

Over the years, Bravada pockets more than $7 million worth of investor funds

he's promised to keep safe.

The money that he told people he would protect, he was spending.

on himself to finance his lifestyle and to project an image of success so that

he could get more investment dollars.

Days after bringing in his first investors, Rabada shells out $90 ,000

Ferrari.

Later, he buys an $85 ,000 Maserati for his wife.

And statements from his black Amex card are a catalog of greed gone wild.

Featuring enormous charges at the finest establishments for food, clothes,

cruises, travel, and anti -aging treatments.

According to employee Terry Makowski, Bravada is not shy about sharing his

spending habits.

He was driving his Ferrari in the summertime and driving his Cadillac

in the winter and, you know, talked very freely about, you know, oh, I have $500

shoes and, you know, a $1 ,000 shirt and a $3 ,000 suit, and I went on a $25

,000 hunting trip. I mean, he dropped price tags on everything.

Bravada lives in an impressive $1 .2 million home.

But it's not enough.

He begins building a 22 ,000 square foot lakefront mansion.

Though it's never completed, an architect's animation shows that Bravada

planning a palace of greed built on the backs of his hardworking investors.

In a call to American greed, Bravada insists there's nothing wrong with any

this. I was worth a lot of money before I started this company.

So prior to me starting this company, I lived in a million -dollar house. I

drove a Ferrari.

I had a vacation home in Naples, Florida with an $8 million home before I

started this company.

So the fact that in 2009 I'm going to now build a new home and have a new

it was my money.

So I had a right to buy a house that I want to buy or a car that I want to buy.

It didn't come from investors' money.

But court records show Bravado was nearly broke when he started BBC

And then almost all the money he brought in from 2006 to 2009 came from his

investors.

Up next, the economy takes a tumble and Bravado's real estate empire

comes crashing down.

He wanted to live that high life, and he just got carried away. He thought he'd

hit an artesian wall of money, and when it ran dry, he was in deep trouble.

While promising safety, John Bravada has paid himself millions

and frittered away millions more on...

Properties that include several shabby car washes and parking lots.

In August 2008, he hires a real estate consultant to help refinance some of

these investments.

After taking a close look at Bravada's so -called empire, this expert hits him

with a hard dose of reality.

This portfolio is hemorrhaging money.

All of these properties are underwater.

You might as well just mail the keys back to the bank. They are worthless.

They're less than worthless.

John Bravada looked at the consultants and said, this is a bad report. We're

screwed.

And things are only getting worse.

We begin our coverage tonight of what's been called the worst financial crisis

in modern times.

As the world economy goes into freefall in September 2008, John Bravada needs to

keep nervous investors from asking for their money back.

August of 2008, Bravada is given this report.

It says the property portfolio is worthless.

What does he do? He sends out a letter to all of his investors.

in September of 2008, one month later.

And he writes, there might be a crisis on Wall Street, but there's no crisis at

BBC Equities.

He says, we are sitting on cash, and our portfolio position is strong.

None of that was true.

Bravada needs to do more than just tell his investors everything is okay.

He needs to bring in new investors so he can keep paying out interest.

To do this, He tweaks his pitch to fit the times.

In the Depression, the richest people that came out of the Depression were

that bought real estate.

It'll be the same today.

So how do you participate in it?

His answer, of course, is by investing with DBC Equities.

It's an outstanding opportunity to buy real estate today.

Outstanding opportunity to buy real estate today. The greatest wealth

in our history is taking place today. The problem is most people in this room

out there in the public.

don't know about it, or don't know how to take advantage of it.

While rejiggering what he says, Bravada also embarks on a new marketing blitz to

carry his message out of local restaurants to a nationwide audience.

I'm Tiffany Tift reporting for America's premier experts. Today we are in

Orlando for a very special event. We are honoring America's top 20 experts, and

today we have with us John Bravada, who is an expert in financial services.

How are you doing today? Thank you very much. Thanks for having us. So you guys

kind of do a lot of everything, right? It may seem like Bravada is being asked

about his company by a top -notch journalist.

But this is actually one of two new paid ads Bravada uses to sing the same old

song. We get to put our philosophy to our investors. And the philosophy is

it's safety first of your principal. Never put the principal at risk. And

it's get the highest rate of return that we can get on it. Now, how we do that

is this. At BBC Equities, we secure your principal dollars. That is unheard of

in the marketplace today.

Bravada also pays to appear in Forbes magazine.

where he's pictured on a private jet and claims his net worth may soon exceed

$250 million.

He presented those to investors as these media outlets choosing him because of

his success and profiling him because of what he's achieved, when in fact they

were paid for by Bravada using investor dollars.

And this isn't Bravada's last piece of self -promotion.

The man who once told investors not to trust him uses $25 ,000 of their dollars

to hire a ghostwriter.

In return, he gets his name on a book that once again seems like a warning.

It's titled The Stealing of Wealth in America.

By 2009, John Bravada has stolen enough wealth To move from his old office

building to the 17th floor of a shining golden tower.

But the fun can't last forever.

By mid -2009, BBC Equities was in a death spiral.

It had $128 million of debt obligations on its real estate. It had

$45 million of investor obligations.

And on top of that...

it needed to find a way to pay 10 % to 12 % guaranteed interest annually

to its investors.

It was too much, and the money was drying up.

In March 2009, the state of Michigan ordered BBC Equities to cease

And before long, the U .S. Securities and Exchange Commission begins looking

into Bravado's company as well.

We had heard a report that an investor had tried to get out her $300 ,000

-plus investment in 2009, and no one was getting back to her, and she was

becoming increasingly concerned.

Based on that, the SEC began an investigation into the finances of BBC

But Bravada isn't about to throw in the towel.

Coming up.

As BBC equities crumbles, John Bravada continues to tell investors the same old

lies. I am a big believer that real estate today, there's been no better

invest than today. The greatest wealth transfer in history has taken place

before our eyes, and it's happening in the real estate industry.

Would you fall for John Bravada's lies?

Take a closer look at his pitch at AmericanGreed .CNBC .com.

Want inside information from the show?

Join the Greed social network.

Like us on American Greed's Facebook page.

We'll be right back.

By June 2009, it's becoming increasingly clear that something is very wrong at

BBC Equities.

Despite his current problems, the guy in charge is hardly slowing down.

John Bravado hastily convened conference calls where he doubled down on the lies

and said everything is going great.

I am a big believer that real estate today, there's been no better time to

invest than today.

We have a bunch of new irons in the fire. We're actually going to be

out into new and fantastic opportunities.

The benefit of you investing in a company like ours is that you have other

people and experts that are finding opportunities like this to help invest

dollars in areas that you may not even think of.

Stay with us. Things are going to be fantastic. They're going to get even

better.

Bravada launches a new fund called Phoenix Venture Capital, a name that

be one more admission of what Bravada is really up to.

It's ironic, again, because the image of a phoenix is a bird emerging from the

ashes, right? Well, that was very apt. The ashes were BBC equities.

And he decided phoenix, the story behind phoenix was going to keep them

interested and more importantly, keep them from trying to redeem their money

because BBC equities didn't have enough to give back to investors.

Terry Welsh is one of those people who doesn't yet know that all his family's

money is gone.

He hears about Phoenix from Antonio Bravado in the summer of 2009.

He said that this was an opportunity to take the money that was in the original

BBC Equities account.

put it into an account where they would be doing similar things but take

advantage of what they expected to be as a public offering, and

that those funds hopefully would go through a literal doubling in their

in the process of going public.

But there will be no IPO.

In July, the SEC obtains a court order shutting down Rivada and BBC Equities.

The company has now raised more than $50 million, but investigators find there's

almost nothing left.

In late July 2009, the SEC went into court to shut down BBC Equities.

We took a look at BBC Equities' books and records, and what did they have in

bank? $22 ,000.

The SEC's civil lawsuit isn't the only heat Bravada is feeling.

So creating wealth and preserving assets.

What's John trying to get at with that?

Soon, a criminal investigation gets underway.

Led at first by FBI agent Eric Newberg and later by agent Kelly Cease. This

website right here talks about... Before long, the feds have an ace up their

sleeve.

Realizing he could be headed to prison, Bravada's young partner, R .J. Trabulsi,

begins working with the FBI, recording phone conversations with his boss.

In one of these calls, Bravada reveals that he may have found a way out of his

current troubles.

Mail fraud and wire fraud, if those are the charges, don't even carry criminal

jail time in Italy.

There's never been a case in Italy that they can find where Italy actually

allowed an extradition in a case that's greater punishment than their own.

Bravada isn't just talking, though.

In February 2011, he purchases a ticket to head to Milan, Italy.

When the feds get word of his plans, they act quickly to stop him.

When we found out that...

John Bravado was leaving for Italy.

We wanted to make sure that he didn't leave the country because we were under

the impression with him that he might not come back.

So we did a complaint in order to get the arrest warrant.

We planned to arrest him before he got on his flight, which was scheduled for a

Tuesday, but he ended up leaving on a Sunday.

All of a sudden, RJ called me and said, John's already left.

Gosh darn it moment.

In Milan, Bravada rents an apartment, starts applying to become an Italian

citizen, opens a bank account, and gets to work.

John Bravada thought he could start a new fund.

I assume that it was going to be the same type of fund that he wanted to

in the United States.

Bravada will later say he was just there on a business trip.

and had no real intention of moving overseas.

The feds don't buy it.

I don't believe that. I think that he was probably planning to stay in Italy.

I don't know that for sure, but he certainly took a lot of steps for just

on a business trip.

Whatever his true plans are, Robada's visa expires, and he flies back to the U

.S. in May 2011.

Traveling on a round -trip ticket, he plans to return to Italy in less than

months. But when he lands in New York, he discovers that's not happening.

I was not present during the arrest, but I can only imagine that he did not

expect that when he got off the airplane.

I think John had a hard time coming to terms with it, and I think John thought

that he was untouchable and he wouldn't be held accountable.

that he could get back into the U .S. and get back out with nobody knowing.

Coming up, John Bravada remains unrepentant.

That's hard to say what goes on inside John Bravada's mind.

And victims struggle to pick up the pieces.

We were hurt.

We were hurt.

We were hurt by this.

Despite the fact that John Bravada's many lies are caught on tape, he and his

son Antonio decide to go to trial in 2013.

I think John Bravada decided to go to trial because he thinks he is larger

life, thought he could come to trial, take the stand, testify in front of the

jury and convince them of his lies, much like he convinced his investors.

At the end of an eight -week trial, Bravada testifies in his own defense for

four days.

From the outset, though, he gives the jury exactly what he's given his

investors. He lied within the first minute of taking the stand.

He had claimed to graduate from Grand Valley State University with an

associate's degree, and it turns out that Grand Valley State is a four -year

college and doesn't have associate's degrees.

Like?

He did when he was pitching prospective investors.

He did not let the truth stand in the way of a compelling narrative.

But angry investors offered a more compelling narrative.

The jury finds John Bravada guilty on 14 counts of wire fraud and one count of

conspiracy. He gets 20 years in prison.

His son, Antonio, is convicted of conspiracy and gets five years.

A key piece of evidence against him is the facts he sent to Terry Welch when he

put his lies in writing.

I think to some extent, Tony is a victim of his father.

But Tony also jumped in with both feet.

After cooperating with authorities...

R .J. Trabose pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and received just

four years in prison.

During the course of his scam, John Bravado made a simple pitch.

Get rich, but always keep your nest eggs safe.

You see, I believe we never put our principle at risk because I can't go

and make it up again.

If I'm retired, how do I go back and make up 30 -40 % of the money that I

lost, that I'm planning on living on, that I sat there and needed in my life?

How do I go back and make that money up again?

I can't go back to work.

Well, don't lose it in the first place.

In the end, over 400 investors gave more than $50 million to the man who

promised them safety, then lived large.

feel badly at all about people buying expensive cars and houses or anything

as long as it's honest profit but this was theft it was theft

and we were stolen from i can see at this point no way

that my wife or i will ever be able to retire at all

with typical bravado Authorities say Bravada has

tried to start a new fund from behind bars.

And in a call to American greed, Bravada says he's not to blame for the

financial ruin left in the wake of the billionaire boys club.

Instead, he points a finger at the salesman who pitched his product, the

investors who misinterpreted his words, and the government who shut him down

before he could hit it big.