Original subtitles

♪♪

Ian: It was a bad period of time.

Like, I just wanted to die.

And I'm just thinking there, like,

"Wow, how did I get to this point?"

And I guess that goes back to middle school.

♪♪

I was just really trying to fit in,

be with the popular and cool kids.

Attention was a very big thing for me.

One day, I came up with this idea --

If I want popularity and the attention,

I can start throwing parties.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Dance music plays ]

He packed this place out at 1,000 people!

Ian is a kid at 17 years old.

He's amazing.

Where's this money coming from?

I don't know who he got the money from.

McGarry: Ian Bick is a con man.

To steal half a million dollars is a significant crime.

I was thinking Ian might die because of this.

Ian: I was on the track to being filthy fucking rich.

♪♪

[ Indistinct shouting, crowd cheering ]

♪♪

[ Siren wailing ]

♪♪

♪♪

Lake Waubeeka.

This house is where I grew up.

I live right on the lake over here.

We swam. We had kayaks, canoes, rowboats.

This is where it all started, right here on this very yard.

These parties at their prime, there was 300, 400 people.

Girls naked up in the lake, taking the boats out drunk.

It was party after party after party.

I was honestly shocked I got away with it for so long.

So, I'm the first one you're doing? Plamondon: Yeah.

I feel honored. I mean, really.

Good. Yeah, that's it.

[ Laughs ] Alright.

What should I do with my hands? Whatever's comfortable.

Just what's comfortable? Okay. Yeah.

When he would tell me, "There's gonna be 25 or 30 people,"

I'd say, "No, there isn't. [ Scoffs ] That's a joke, Ian."

We were always of the mind, Valerie and I,

that it was better to have him

where we can see him 'cause he would be safe.

Ian: Growing up, when I was really young,

I got picked on a lot.

I was chubby. I was called Twinkie.

Around, like, third, fourth grade

I started doing summer theater camp.

I loved being on stage, loved getting attention.

Ian and I met at a young age,

and we were in theater camp together.

He was very silly and fun all the time.

Whenever we did one of our shows,

he'd put on the high heels, he'd put on a dress,

and he'd wear makeup and walk right out on there.

And everybody loved it. He was hilarious.

He was a very funny little kid.

Michael: Being around my catering business,

Ian grew up around parties,

but for him, making the party was the most exciting.

One day when he was 14, we were in a crunch,

and I asked him if he could set up this party.

And he said, "Sure, I could do that."

I said, "So you know how to set up the bar and everything?"

He said, "Dad, I watched you all the time.

I know how you do it."

And the place was flowing perfectly.

He's amazing. He did this amazing job.

He'd be the first one to show up,

the last one to leave, an amazing work ethic.

Michael: He knows how to direct people,

and he had self-confidence that was unlike other kids.

He looks at the overall picture.

That's what his mind works like.

I've never been a rule follower.

Kind of, sort of runs on my side of the family.

I think that's the part Ian found fascinating --

that you could be successful and not always follow the rules.

So the irony in the whole thing is that his entertainment career

started with breaking the law.

I forgot, like, the rules for the show.

Is it okay if I swear?

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Our nickname back in the day was the Black Sheep.

We stuck out.

Yeah, we loved fireworks.

Oh, crap. [ Fireworks whistling ]

Bottle rockets in mailboxes.

Roman candle fights on the beach.

I was as bad as it gets.

Total shitheads growing up.

The president and vice president

of the community of Lake Waubeeka,

they'd come out with rules about no dirt biking,

no paintballing -- all things I were doing.

Every time something happened in the neighborhood,

whether there was a fire, something getting blown up,

a goose took a shit, I would be blamed for it.

Alright, what are we gonna do?

How are we gonna get back at these people?

My best friend, Stephen O'Connor, he says,

"Alright, let's get insulation foam."

You know, you spray it on something, and it expands,

and then it dries.

Spray it on the car handles,

and it'll lock their cars.

We've got masks over our face, go to the president's house,

and we foam his brand-new Jeep Wrangler,

and then to the vice president's house,

and he has a brand-new BMW.

We were successful.

Everything went well, and I was like,

"Ha ha, this is awesome."

Waking up the next morning, a police officer stopped by.

I instantly knew why he was there.

Then he started feeding me all this stuff

about how they have video footage of me,

pictures of us doing it.

Dumbass 17-year-old me believed all of it, and I confessed.

I'd never seen my dad that disappointed in me.

I said, "How stupid are you?

How could you do this?"

And it led to Ian getting in trouble.

Absolutely, I had problems with authority at an early age.

I went through a lot of different phases.

You know, I was a kid trying to find himself.

We each get sentenced community service hours.

I felt bad.

And I'm like, "Okay, I know what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna start a charity to raise money

for the local homeless shelter."

O'Connor: So he basically organized a party at the Matrix Center,

invited all these kids from our high school.

I think it was $20 per head, I want to say.

Ian: The News-Times does an article on it.

Michael: Ian wound up raising $2,000 as his community service.

It was amazing to me, and I was -- Yes, as a parent,

I was proud of my kid

because he was able to throw off a party like this.

It certainly made me proud to see that.

Ian: I felt really good.

And I was just a few months shy of being 16.

♪♪

The night of the Matrix dance, I'm looking at the crowd.

And I'm on such an adrenaline rush right now.

I love throwing events.

I fell in love with the process.

Like, this is my passion.

That success sparked the idea

of doing something bigger and bigger and bigger.

[ School bell rings ]

♪♪

[ Indistinct conversations ]

The next day, he had newspaper articles put out about him.

He's gonna be the next young entrepreneur.

Ian: It sparked a new sense of popularity.

Like, I felt unstoppable.

I was like, "This is the coolest thing ever."

I was like, "Alright, I got to throw the next party now."

Like, I was on a high. Like, I needed more.

I was like a drug addict that wanted to get his next fix.

I'm hooked. I'm sold.

Let's do this.

Tepper: So Ian approached me,

he was like, "We're gonna throw a party.

Let's do it a little bigger."

When he's sitting there and he's telling you what he wants to do,

you believe. Like, the way he gets -- he talks to you,

it just makes you feel like you're a part of it.

I was just basically, you know, "What do you have in mind?"

And that's when he brought up the idea of Tuxedo Junction.

I don't know when you're filming. [ Laughs ]

Ian came in, and when I met him,

he looked like this little nerdy accountant.

He had a certain poise about him for a 16-year-old.

He wanted to do a teen night in just one of our smaller rooms.

Now, a smaller room could handle about 180 kids,

but it wasn't the big room in the back.

He just said, "I feel I can do this."

I'm like, "Okay, whiz kid." [ Laughs ]

Ian: All I did was send out texts

and made a little Facebook invite.

Tuxedo Junction, bitch!

So he had a huge network of people promoting for him.

350 kids show up that night.

[ Crowd cheering ]

He packed that room out.

Tepper: Yeah, no, it was a lot of kids.

We realized how much fun we had,

and we saw how much money we made.

I think I made, like, 1,000 or 1,500 bucks.

My sight was set on the big room.

I wanted the whole space.

So when Ian said, "Look, I want to take a shot at the big room,"

I'll take the shot. You proved yourself.

Why not?

He packed out the whole entire building.

Ian: They'd get bigger and bigger every time.

The Christmas rave.

♪♪

The intensity paint party.

We had foam parties.

I don't know if you know what that is.

It's like a washing machine on steroids.

It was a huge mess.

They loved it. [ Laughs ]

And it gets to the point where it's like

I'm making $10,000 a month cash profit

after everyone's paid out, after all expenses.

I figured if this is where our parties were gonna be,

where it was at for the night, why not make it a play on words?

This is Where It's At Productions.

And once he was able to brand his name,

and people knew that it was an Ian Bick party...

"I went to that Ian Bick party. It was off the hook."

"Gotta go to the Ian Bick party,"

or whatever brand he had put on it.

It means something.

Yeah, there was a big buzz, but it wasn't just in Danbury.

And that was really when I realized

Ian had a flair for these kinds of things

and he had a bug about it and there was no stopping.

♪♪

Get in the fucking car, bro. Get in the car.

You're making me mad now.

Ian: My friend Mike Squires came up with the idea.

He said, "Ian, we should document this. Like, this

is gonna be big one day," and we're like, "Okay, awesome."

Hold on to your heigh-hos.

Squires: Alright, Ian, look here for a second.

I think we should do, like, some life questions, too.

Just in general. Like, comparing me to other kids.

Like your background?

Like, where'd you come from? Yeah.

We want the audience to have an emotional stick to it, too.

Miller: Okay, are you good?

Now, that's when you change the music and it starts to --

Yeah. Yeah.

Tepper: Driving home one day from high school,

Ian's like, "Alright, we need an office space

where we can sit and we can meet."

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do for the people, right?

So that's when he got the Matrix spot for us.

Ian: So the owner of the Matrix saw the success of the charity.

The owner gives me an office space dirt cheap.

And we're just like, "Wow, you know, I made it.

Like, this is success."

We had put out a survey on Facebook --

"Who would you rather see?" It was, like, three options.

It blew out of the water for Wiz Khalifa.

This is the obvious choice.

Ian: We do all the numbers.

We figure the show's gonna cost us about $120,000

to do at the O'Neill Center

at Western Connecticut State University.

Holds about 5,000 people.

But we have to show them proof of funds.

At this point in time, I didn't know how you could walk up

to someone and ask for that much money.

And Ian was just like, "You know, I'll figure it out."

To me, it was just another goal that I was just gonna smash.

My mind definitely thinks differently than other people's.

I'm the kind of person where when I have

my sights set up on something and when I want something,

then I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get that.

I print the contracts out off of one of these sites,

LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer.

I come up with the idea to add in the line

saying that we'll guarantee the money back,

plus a percentage of the show if it makes money.

I said, "Okay, I'm just gonna put this in."

I never consulted anyone. I just did it.

I bring it to my friends, and the money starts flowing in.

Kids from Danbury High School

putting anywhere from $500 to $5,000.

There wasn't really any parents

at the time that were putting in money.

It was mostly all the kids.

O'Connor: He's a great persuader.

He's a great salesperson, and he's really good

at convincing people to give him money.

We're in Western Connecticut with all these rich families,

and some of these kids just had

a lot of disposable money lying around.

Tepper: I don't know how he did it.

I don't know who he got the money from,

but we're impressed.

So we're like, "Alright, let's just start

putting this in motion."

Ian: I told my partner to call Wiz Khalifa's agent right now.

We're ready to book the show.

Finally, he breaks down, comes up with some bullshit excuse.

We can't get Wiz.

He can't do it.

16, 17 years old, and I'm sitting on $120,000 cash.

We didn't tell any investor yet.

We're trying to figure out what to do.

Well, few days later, Dave Osei calls me.

And he saw what I was doing with Tuxedo's

and how I was successful.

Dave, I knew from a long time ago.

Dave and I went to high school together.

He started his own company, Platinum Entertainment Group.

We figured, "Why not work together?"

Ian: And he says, "Listen, Ian,

we're gonna do a bunch of shows this coming winter,

beginning of 2013 in Connecticut."

And we're like, "Okay. This could work."

We set up a meeting with all the investors.

We call them all to my house.

15 of us, all kids in the room.

We said, "Listen, guys, Wiz show's off the table.

It fell apart. It is what it is.

But if you want to keep your money in

for another five to six months,

we're gonna have a string of shows lined up,

and we'll give you a percentage based off of that."

About 1/2 took their money out.

And it left us with about $50,000.

And we booked all the shows with Dave Osei.

That's part of Ian's charm.

Like, people just listened to what he had to say,

and they believed him, and, "This is your idea.

Let's put it into action."

Ian: So the shows we booked consisted of EDM and hip-hop.

We did Rusko. We did Crizzly.

I'm Huey Mack!

Ian: Huey Mac, OCD: Moosh and Twist,

all hip-hop stars.

But we did a lot of our stuff online.

This is what's happening, this is when it's happening,

this is how much it's gonna cost you.

Ian: The first one, Rusko, was an arena show.

I thought we'd made it.

I was like, "We got a celebrity, we got a famous artist."

So I was like, "This is kind of cool."

"Wow, Ian. You're, like, really killing it, man."

Ian: And I'm sitting in the back, just admiring.

This is great.

One of Dave's partners comes up to me and says,

"Man, we took a fucking beating tonight."

I'm looking at him. I'm like, "What are you talking about, dude?

It's a huge success. We're making money."

"Dude, there's only 1,200 people here.

We needed, like, 2,000 to break even."

It was a tank.

What I'd come to learn later is that looks are deceiving

and everything's an image.

It's part of show business.

And that's how it would come out for every show

we did that series.

Rusko -- total loss.

Huey Mack -- Snowstorm hits.

Didn't even happen.

Crizzly show -- not enough people.

Loses 8 grand.

And it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks.

I'm in the hole 30, 40 grand to investors.

So then I had to make the decision --

Am I gonna go back and tell them the truth and say,

"Guys, we lost money"?

But I was so eager to chase that success.

I knew I shouldn't, but I said,

"Guys, it's profitable."

And I came up with an imaginary profit.

"Oh, the show was packed.

Amazing. It grossed, like, 40K that night."

This is kind of cool.

I'd make fake spreadsheets with the numbers.

It was a profitable business.

Everyone was impressed. -Lying even more.

"It's gonna be real good. We're making money.

I don't know how much money yet.

Ticket sales are up. We're gonna make a ton of money.

It's looking great." This and that.

"It's profitable."

That's the first lie. That's where the lies starts.

♪♪

Once the lies started, I was at a crossroad.

It's like, do I tell them after they're excited

that they made money and then they didn't?

I didn't know what to do.

So all I could do was keep it to myself and continue to lie.

And once a lie starts, it's hard to go back

unless you're man enough to admit that it was a lie,

and I was never able to get to that point at that age.

Music. Alright. [ Laughs ]

Continue to kill it, Ian.

Thank you.

We lost about 40,000 by May of 2013,

plus about $10,000 to $12,000

in imaginary profits that I created.

I owed investors $50,000.

I hated lying to my friends,

but also I hated the thought of them

knowing they lost money and how they would feel towards me.

Because I liked being liked,

and I didn't want to lose the relationship with them.

Either way I looked at it, I was screwed.

Either they were gonna be upset that they lost money,

or they were gonna be upset that I lied to cover it up.

There was no going back.

John Wrobel came into my life in the beginning of senior year,

which was 2012.

He was my best friend.

John saw I was clearly stressed.

Every day, I was trying to figure out

how I can make the money back.

And I tell him the truth. I tell him what happened.

He says, "Well, I might have something that I can do to help.

Have you ever heard of Beats by Dre?"

And he said, "I can get them and iPhones from 20 to 50 bucks,

and you can sell them for $300 to $400."

I thought these were just items falling off the truck

or from China, which is why they were so cheap,

but he said, "Listen, get some money together.

We'll buy some electronics.

We can get you out of debt fast."

And then Ian called me. He was like,

"Hey, I got, like, this idea, something I want to do."

All the contracts were 50% guaranteed return

within a month of the initial signing date.

"Here's the money. Here's 1,000 bucks."

"Like, hey, do you want to be part of something big

and make money at the same time?"

"Oh, yeah."

Ian: Now, the first round went great.

"Cool. Do it again."

And then I did it with a little bit more money and a little bit more.

I think that's kind of what all of our friends really did.

And I'm slowly chipping away at that debt I'm in.

But I wasn't getting enough out of it.

I was being pressed.

I mean, everyone wants to get their money back

from the concerts,

and I'm thinking, "How can I speed this up?"

My only thought was, "How can I get this money?"

So this is when this kid Henry Scozzafava comes in.

So, Henry and I grew up together, wrestling.

Henry lost his eye at the sports club.

One of the equipment malfunctioned

while he was in there.

So, it snapped, I think it was, his right eye.

And won, I think, $1.5 million, $1 million in the lawsuit.

Dude, the guy just got a million dollars.

I needed just some capital to start fresh.

If I get Henry to give me money,

I'll pay everyone off.

Everything would be forgiven.

At this point, I wanted just the pain to stop.

I wanted to be out of debt.

So I go over to Henry's house, and he's smoking pot.

I knew Henry's point was that he was interested

in the big EDM acts.

So that's the basis of which I pitched to him.

It was based on artists that Henry liked.

Artists like Chief Keef, Wale.

Kid Ink was getting really hot at the time.

And Henry doesn't even look at me.

Henry says, "Ian, I know you were successful

with that stuff with Tuxedo's. Let's do this."

I'm like, "Holy shit. Are you kidding me?"

Henry was the big one that allowed me to clear up

everything, and I pay everyone back.

So I cover up the first lie, but the day

I pay off the last people we had to pay off,

my phone would not stop ringing off the hook.

Everyone's talking about how I proved I was successful

with the concerts, and they said they wanted

to start sending me money for the electronics business.

Josh Tepper brought his dad, Scott Tepper, in to invest.

You know, my dad was -- As much as he was investing in Ian

and in what Ian was saying,

I felt like my dad was investing in me.

He was like, "This is something you're a part of.

I'm gonna put the money into it because I believe in you."

Ian hyped me up to the point where he was like,

"We're gonna be multi-millionaires,

flying on our own private jets, 25 sitting on 25 mil."

And we were like, "That's gonna be us."

And I remember leaving our meeting

just being pumped up and listening to music

and being like, "We're gonna do this."

Ian: And I took the money.

And by the end of July of 2013,

I'm 18 years old, and I have over 600K in the bank.

The electronics business seemed like it

was a legitimate enterprise.

Valerie and I, we'd say things and ask him what was going on.

Ian was not particularly open with me at that --

at that time in his life.

He really didn't need his mom putting any 2 cents in.

Looking back, maybe I should have been more involved.

Maybe I should have given him more guidance at that point.

But he was headstrong, and this is what he wanted to do.

Ian: I was so cocky. So confident.

Like, I felt unstoppable, unbeatable.

And I was on the track to being filthy fucking rich.

♪ I got diamonds on my wrist ♪

That was the best summer of my life.

I figured I was already successful.

So I was living as if I was successful.

♪ How you think I got so motherfucking rich? Yeah ♪

♪ I got diamonds on my wrist ♪

I had bought a Mustang convertible,

a car I always wanted.

♪ How you think I got so motherfucking rich? Yeah ♪

Valerie: I see a limousine pull up.

Ian says, "Bye, Mom. Going on the trip now."

We are not limo-, frills-type people.

I guess my mouth dropped.

♪ ...I give you propers ♪

♪ Mama ♪

Ian: We took Henry on a celebratory trip to California.

Figured if we were taking Henry and all of them,

said, "Hey, it's a business expense, you know."

We just lived large.

First time in a strip club for me.

Henry spent, like, 50 grand that week.

I had never worn fancy clothing in my life,

and then I find myself with Henry spending $5,000

on a Gucci outfit, sipping champagne

at 18 years old on Rodeo Drive

like we're some fucking celebrities.

♪ I just hope I give you propers ♪

♪ I got diamonds on my wrist ♪

My good friends from high school,

we decided just to take a Key West trip

our last summer together before they go off to college.

Ian paid for the whole trip.

Ian: And we go on these Jet Skis.

And I just fell in love.

This is the coolest thing ever.

I get off the Jet Skis, and I call Danbury Powersports --

"I'll be home in two days.

Have two brand-new Jet Skis waiting for me."

♪ I knew that it was worth it ♪

♪ I just hope I give you propers ♪

One day, a pair of Jet Skis showed up at the house.

"You're crazy. What are you doing with these Jet Skis?"

"Why in the world would you need them?"

I asked him. I said, "Where'd you get the money?

If people are investing in you and you're making this money,

you know, use it to build your business.

Not Jet Skis."

He said, "It's an investment to take the investors around."

And he just took off.

I couldn't force him to say, "Tell me what's involved."

You know, maybe I could have.

At that particular point in time,

I just said, "Okay, you're doing your thing.

Do your thing."

Tepper: He puts a photo online

of two new Jet Skis that he just bought.

I'm like, "Jet Skis are, like, $10,000 each.

Like, you just blew $20,000?

Where'd you get $20,000?"

Not making money yet.

It's all projected money down the road, so we're just --

I looked at it as just taking one loan

to pay off another loan.

We didn't do any accounting. We didn't do anything.

It was just, we'd get money into the bank account.

Checks would get written.

It was a free-for-all shit show.

Plamondon: Can you introduce yourself?

Sure. My name's Mike McGarry.

I'm an assistant United States attorney

in the District of Connecticut.

And the last 20 years,

I've focused primarily on financial fraud crimes.

The first time I heard Ian Bick's name was late spring,

early summer of 2014.

FBI agents and IRS agents

brought me a snippet of his bank records.

It's pretty clear to us there's a Ponzi scheme going on.

A Ponzi scheme is when you're able to obtain money from people

and then use one investor money

to repay back other people's monies,

and not investing it in what you said

you were gonna invest it in.

Ian Bick is an interesting case study

because I think he used his young age

and his high-school friends and their parents as his con.

And then when he has their trust,

he'll take their money.

Typically in these schemes,

people want to have the optics that they're successful.

They have lavish things -- fancy cars,

you know, Jet Skis, things of that nature.

He had an office located in Danbury at the Matrix.

So to an investor, if they wanted to determine

if it was a legitimate business,

he had all the optics of it being legitimate.

So at this point, I've invested $5,000 into Ian's business.

I left Ian's office with three headphones.

My brother, he was like,

"Are these heavier than they're supposed to be?"

And I was like, "I don't think so."

When I ended up testing out the headphones,

the buttons on it were very loud.

You'd hear "click" as you do it.

So I went online -- "fake Beats versus real Beats."

If you can hear the click, it's fake,

because the real one's supposed to be very subtle.

I ask Ian about it.

He was just like, "No, they're fine.

They're good. They're real.

I know, because I know where I got them from."

That was another lie. The product's really fake.

You look up a bar code,

and it doesn't even come up on the Beats by Dre website.

At first, we didn't know that they were counterfeit,

and I felt terrible because I had already told the investors

that they made money.

I wish I had gone to my dad for advice.

I just hoped that the shows in the fall of that year,

they were gonna all make money.

I'll pay everyone off, and then we could do a new round,

start fresh, everything would be great.

In the entertainment business, you don't know

if it's gonna snow the night of the event,

or there's gonna be a hurricane, or the artist is gonna get sick.

This is a high-risk business.

People lose all the time.

Ian: We booked Chief Keef. The show sold out.

An hour before doors open,

I get a call from a local promoter from Danbury.

Calls me and says, "Listen, Ian, Chief Keef's people

are saying they can't find him.

We gotta cancel the show."

I'm like, "What do you mean, we gotta fucking cancel the show?

We got a sold-out show.

We got banking tonight. The show has to happen.

Where the hell is Chief Keef?"

Never hear from then again.

Wale canceled because of snow.

Every show that was supposed to make money, it all crumbled.

So out of the $250,000 of Henry's money,

I had $13,000 to show for it.

That was the worst thing that could ever happen.

Henry's beginning to be down my back,

we're late on loan payments on everyone,

all because of that one lie.

I can't stop lying.

That's the nature of the Ponzi scheme.

They thought that his lies were true,

but he can't make the payments.

And that's usually when the house of cards

comes tumbling down.

Ian: I'm 18 years old,

and, you know, I'm fucked.

♪♪

At that point in my life,

that was as stressed as I've ever been.

And I'm just trying to figure out what on earth to do.

And all I have is this idea to reopen Tuxedo Junction.

This is a last-ditch effort to be out of debt.

We start cleaning the place up.

My name is Amber Miller, and I worked for Ian Bick.

When I first met with Ian,

he had these great ideas of revitalizing Danbury

and starting with Tuxedo Junction.

And I was hooked.

O'Connor: People were really interested in the fact

that Ian was able to do all this as a 19-year-old.

Valerie: So all of a sudden, we see the paper,

Danbury News-Times, on the front page, and we see that

Ian is 10 most fascinating people to keep an eye on.

I felt proud of him.

I was just amazed.

Ian somehow was able to convince people that he was the whiz kid.

He had success prior. So he did have a rep.

So they were thrilled to get the "whiz kid,"

and they bought into it.

People would post on my Facebook about how they envied me,

how successful I was, but it wasn't really success.

You know, it was just -- It was like fake success.

It became more of an illusion and a facade.

A big part of it was the image thing.

So I just kept lying.

It's looking pretty good.

We're gonna put uplights all along here.

Miller: We spent every single day there.

We didn't leave until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.

Already feeling great in here.

Miller: Cleaned it all up.

I mean, that place was immaculate.

Nice, right?

Beautiful.

I reopened Tuxedo Junction

and turned it into a big concert venue.

My only priority was making all this money back that I owe.

Gonna call one of my investors real quick,

tell him the good news.

McGarry: When any con man goes and talks to people,

he promises, "I'm gonna pay you back."

That, in essence, just delayed the discovery of the scheme.

You know, a lot of times, Ian was constantly

picking up his phone to angry customers.

[ Cellphone buzzes ]

Yeah?

O'Connor: And I could hear them, like,

across the table shouting at him.

I had to ask, "What's going on, dude?

Like, is everything okay?

Why are all these people calling you?"

And he would just shrug it off.

Hello?

This was when he owed people a lot of money,

and he wasn't, you know, 100% honest

with everything that was going on.

I started to see that he was becoming increasingly stressed.

Like he was going through some tough times.

But he wouldn't let me in.

He would say, "I'm fine," but we could see that it wasn't.

We asked him, but we could see how upset he was.

That's the first time I got an idea that he was in trouble.

It just turned into a web,

a web of lies, and he's ignoring me,

and I heard he's ignoring other people.

Okay. I'm getting screwed out of something here.

I drove to Danbury.

And that's when I found him at Tuxedo Junction.

And I'm like, "Hey."

And he was very surprised to see me.

I was like, "Where's the money that you took

from all of us that you said we're getting back?"

He bought two Jet Skis. I was in college.

That's all the money I had.

I was like, "I need the money back so I can live."

And then he just grabbed his wallet, and he's like,

"Here's $300 in cash, and I'll get you the rest later."

I just -- I felt more betrayed.

And I just felt like after almost 20 years of friendship,

growing up together, working together,

starting this together, I figured there'd be a line.

I thought I would be that line.

And then I just shut up and walked away after that.

But that's when I stopped.

I stopped investing in him.

♪♪

♪♪

Ian: I mean, things are so bad at that point

that I start going to the shady, like, people through the club.

Loan sharks or drug dealers that would loan me $100,000

or $150,000

just so I can, like, try to pay off some loans

and try to pay for expenses at the club.

I got my fingers smashed in with a screwdriver one time.

I got beat up, guns pointed at me.

There were a lot of unsavory people

coming in and out of Tuxedo's on a daily basis.

♪♪

[ Lock disengages ]

[ Cellphone buzzes ]

Seeing Ian cry countless times because he got frustrated.

At that point, I was too concerned with my own safety,

so I got out.

That's also when I tried distancing myself

from his projects.

♪♪

Ian: Henry had went to the cops.

The police start investigating me.

I get subpoenaed to go

to the Connecticut Department of Banking.

They show me their badges, and it says,

"U.S. Postal Inspector," and I almost laugh

because I'm like, "What the hell is a U.S. Postal Inspector?"

"We're investigating for potential mail fraud."

"Oh, shit."

I'm sitting there, like, sweating bullets,

trying to figure out what I'm gonna do.

Like, I'm really like -- Like, I just wanted to die.

I type in "good federal attorneys, New Haven."

And I come across the name Jonathan Einhorn.

And I sent him a message, saying,

"I'm being investigated, mail fraud, wire fraud.

Please respond ASAP. Need help."

And I tell him the whole thing.

He's like, "Don't talk to them. Don't say a word.

We'll try to figure everything out.

We'll see."

I go home, tell my parents.

"How much do you really owe?

Who loaned you all this money?"

And then that's when I started to become aware of how indebted

he was and how crazy the whole thing had gotten.

Ian: I had to tell my mom.

Like, everything.

I felt bad.

I just, like, felt defeated and like I let them down.

Um...

Valerie and I were extremely upset with the whole thing.

And I know Valerie was angry with me.

She thought it was my fault

because Ian was modeling in some respects after me.

It was a very tough period of time.

♪♪

Ian: July 2014, we go for a reverse proffer session.

So it was me; my dad; and John Einhorn, my attorney.

And I go in the room, I'm like, "Holy shit."

It's this huge table, like in the movies,

this big conference room.

There must be 30 federal people there.

There's four FBI agents,

two U.S. attorneys, IRS agents.

Across from me is this guy,

U.S. Attorney McGarry, the Silver Fox.

I knew from the second I met him I hated the guy.

So, you've got to picture this 19-year-old individual

in cargo shorts and a T-shirt.

And he's going on about this or, "Think

I'm worse than Bernie Madoff," and I'm laughing.

I'm like, "Who the hell is Bernie Madoff?

What are you even talking about?"

He was irreverent.

He was incorrigible, self-centered.

And I was just getting so worked up.

Like, I was boiling. I was so mad because anyone

that was accusing me of, like, a thief or a con artist or stuff,

it bothered me, because I wasn't that.

"This can go one of two ways.

One, plead guilty, and it will go towards sentencing,

or you can not admit what you've done,

and we can go to a grand jury,

we can indict you, and we can head towards trial."

Ian said, "I'm not guilty, Dad.

I'm not pleading guilty."

And I said, "I don't want you to plead guilty,

because it doesn't sound to me like any of those things

they're laying out, that you did."

And while we're explaining to him how we're gonna prove

that he's guilty of this fraud,

he's not paying attention, he's looking down, he's texting.

I'm texting on my phone, and Silver Fox

makes a stupid comment, saying, "Ah."

"You really should be paying attention

when the FBI agent is explaining to you

how you're gonna be proven guilty."

And I looked at him.

I said, "No, I actually got a sold-out show tomorrow night.

1,300 people at Tuxedo Junction."

"Really? Come on."

And he just -- The look on his face.

He wasn't happy about that.

[ Dance music plays ]

All while I'm under investigation, being pursued

by the FBI, the IRS,

and I'm this 19-, 20-year-old kid running this music venue

which is becoming more and more famous by the day.

What's up, Danbury? It's 3LAU.

I cannot wait for our show at Tuxedo Junction this weekend.

It's gonna be absolutely crazy.

[ Crowd cheering ]

♪♪

Man: Jump!

5, 4, 3, 2, jump!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It's called the success drug. I suffer from it.

Everybody thinks you're a genius,

and everything's going great.

And the artist thinks you're great,

and you're on top of the world.

But he wasn't making money.

$10,000 for an act, $5,000 for lights and sound.

How are you gonna make money? [ Laughs ]

♪♪

Man: ..."Ian," you say "Bick"!

Ian! -Bick!

-Ian! -Bick!

Man: When I say "Ian," you say "Bick"!

-Ian Bick!

-Ian! -Bick!

Ian: At that point, I'm thinking, "This is working."

I get home at, like, 5:00 a.m.

I just get into bed.

♪♪

[ Banging on door ]

Banging, loud banging on the door.

I'm like, "What the hell is that?

"Oh, my God." And I race down the stairs in my pajamas.

In my shorts and a T-shirt.

Opened up the door. They told me to step aside.

And all I heard was, "Step back, ma'am. Step aside."

We had Danbury Police, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service,

IRS Criminal Investigation, and the FBI have an arrest team.

Got M16s. Fully loaded tactical vests.

It was like, really, the scene from a drug bust.

They're knocking on my bedroom door now,

and they just barge open, and I, like, jump back on my bed.

They're like, "Ian Bick, put your hands behind your back."

He was woken up.

His parents were visibly upset.

I was terrified.

They handcuffed me behind my back.

They said, "Well, do you have any shoes without laces?"

I say, "No."

Then they give me these cowboy boots

that, like, I had in my closet

from one of the high-school musicals.

He appeared to smirk at times at what was happening.

I said, "My God, he doesn't even have his glasses."

They just hauled him away in handcuffs, out.

They're all over the street, and then they bring me outside.

And I saw the IRS lady

who was one of the IRS agents on the case,

and the head detective, too,

and they're like, "Mr. Bick, you remember me?"

Like it was a scene from a movie.

Like, this antagonist detective coming at the end of this movie

just to say, "Ah, you got caught."

♪♪

The trial starts 2015, first week of November.

Ian had claimed that they were buying

Beats by Dre, iPhones,

and that's how they were gonna make all this money.

Ian sent us these Excel spreadsheets.

McGarry: And it listed hundreds of iPhones,

and they presented to investors

as evidence that they were buying and selling the iPhones.

The spreadsheets were total fabrications.

There were no pallets of iPhones.

The numbers were all made up.

Just a total scam. A total sham.

So we can actually see inside Ian Bick's bank record.

A check comes in, money goes out to earlier investors.

♪♪

It dawned on me that there were adults

that were lending him $20,000, $30,000.

To a kid.

Why would they loan a kid that kind of money?

In the trial, it actually came to light

when my father testified --

The $10,000 he had invested with Ian,

and that's what Ian used to buy the Jet Skis.

Papageorgiou: Mr. Bick purchased two Jet Skis

for his own personal use.

Mr. Bick actually had the victim

use the very Jet Skis

that he purchased with the victim's money.

Long hours of testimony against my son was painful.

Ian: A lot of people testified.

For people to go on the stand and then say that I had set out

from the get-go to defraud people,

that it was my intention to scam my close friends,

like, that hurt. That killed me on the inside.

I think he knew exactly what he was doing.

Henry was not friends with Ian Bick.

However, after Henry came into this large amount of money,

Ian took it upon himself to befriend Henry.

Papageorgiou: Mr. Bick was indicted with multiple counts

of wire fraud and money laundering.

There were 27 investors.

The total loss was calculated at about half a million dollars.

I think a con artist is someone with just, like,

no concept of, like, friends,

like, really out there to steal and cheat.

I don't think I was a con artist.

I think that I made stupid decisions

that led to people losing money.

Yes, we took loans from one lender to pay off another loan.

I guess it's a Ponzi scheme,

depending on the way you look at it, and...

I don't know.

It wasn't an intentional Ponzi scheme.

O'Connor: Yeah, Ian told a lot of lies.

He told a lot of lies to get investors.

Ian took advantage of everybody that ever walked past him.

The betrayal he made on my family and me.

How could you have done this to so many innocent friends?

We just got screwed.

Ian: I was guilty on one count of money laundering,

six counts of wire fraud,

and then the other three counts were not guilty.

The judge said to me, "Mr. Bick, the party's over."

End of October, 2016,

I got sentenced to 36 months in prison.

I just looked at my dad.

Like, I was just disappointed.

I could barely look at him.

All the blood felt like it rushed out of me.

[ Sighs ]

I was sitting right next to his mom.

She was crying. She was balling her eyes out.

It's mean to say, but I was happy he had to go to jail

and learn from his mistakes.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for white-collar criminals.

Ian Bick is a con man.

Ian: That was the lowest point in my life.

I just wish I could go back and just change that one lie.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Keys clacking, cellphone whooshes ]

I got out in January 2019.

I mean, it makes me feel kind of sad,

only because it took, like, three years for me

to actually learn what I did.

I'm always gonna, like, regret what I did personally,

because people's lives were changed.

People lost money.

And I'm deeply sorry that people lost money,

and it's my job to make it right.

The total restitution is, like, $480,000.

You know, I'm gonna pay everyone back.

That was always the intention.

Right now I'm working for Whole Foods,

and I'm slowly working my way up the ladder.

In my life, I can look can back and say,

"I shouldn't have done certain things, too."

As long as you learn from it.

He seems to be moving in the right direction.

Ian: This is where the whole story started,

and this is where the story ends.

I guess it's bittersweet

because, like, even a few weeks ago,

I'm walking by here and I'm like,

"Wow, I wish this thing was still going.

It was fun times."

But there's not gonna be

another Tuxedo Junction chapter in my life.

♪♪

Interviewer: Let's just start with

some really basic questions.

How old are you?

I'm 19. You're 19?

19.

Why? How old did you think I was?

Probably 21.

19 years old.

McGarry: While Ian was young, he was telling people

that he's a whiz kid,

so short of being young and naive,

he was actually sophisticated enough

to use his age to manipulate his victims.

I hope he's a changed man, but I don't believe it.

Ian: Listen, I'm a good person

who made a fuck-ton of mistakes, who really fucked up,

but it was with good intentions at the beginning.

I'm happy with where I'm at in life.

I want to be living proof

that your past mistakes don't define you.

So, where do you see yourself in five years?

For right now, five years down the road,

I don't know where I'm gonna be at.

♪♪

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