Shownotes Transcript
Hi, I'm Su Lin Wong. A couple of years ago, I made a podcast about China's leader, Xi Jinping, called The Prince. I've been reporting a news story over the past year. And though it started in Asia, it took me about as far away from my usual beat as I could imagine.
to a small town in rural Kansas, where $47 million went missing from the local bank. What do you mean? Something's wrong with the bank. We never have problems. Over several months, the bank's CEO had quietly put most of the bank's money into some sort of cryptocurrency investment, until the board called him in to explain himself. He gave us a scenario of what had happened, and it made little to no sense. Shane Haynes, the CEO, told them that to get the money back, he needed more.
The final board member was asked their position. And he simply said, you know, I'm just not comfortable betting the farm. Shane Haynes leaned across the table and said, David, I've already bet it for you. But Shane had been duped. He had bet the farm and a whole lot more on a scam. The bank collapsed. What is there back there? What hole? What chasm? What's missing that would...
Allow somebody like that with that experience to succumb to this type of scam. This wasn't your classic Nigerian Prince Khan. It was something new, sophisticated and ruthless. I mean, those scammers are going to go down as legends. I'll tell you right now. Who was behind it? My investigation has taken me from Kansas to the Philippines and from London to Singapore. I found that I wasn't even asking the right question.
This wasn't the work of one mastermind fraudster or a single organised crime group. It was a global industry. And it's much bigger, more powerful and darker than I ever imagined. Well, in there, people are sold. You are slaves in there. What really disturbed me was how systematised it was, the brutality.
Oh my goodness. This predatory industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and it's growing fast. It's probably bigger than the illegal drug trade. Behind it is a dystopian criminal underworld of forced labour, corruption and intrigue. Three girls were there just to feed us fruit, hand us cigarettes and pour us drinks. It's that kind of hellhole.
They had these slogans that would always chant before we'd start to work every day. And it was something like, cripple the U.S. and the European economy. They're essentially the law enforcement. They're the government. This isn't just happening in faraway places to other people. It's also coming for you and for me. No one in America is going to have any money left.
That's what it feels like sometimes. You can listen to all episodes of Scam Inc from February 2025 with a subscription to The Economist. To start listening to all our award-winning podcasts right now, just search Economist Podcasts Plus.