"If they ask you why, you tell them our firm is better than those corporate elephants." "If they want a guarantee, you give them a guarantee." "If they say it's their last dollar, you tell them they can't afford not to do it." "What are you doing?" "Watch." "Learn." "Clear." "My father always told me, if they're not smart enough to hold onto their money, then they don't deserve it." "I really wish Taggert could be here to finally nail this guy." " How long's he out?" " Not sure." "Mrs. Emmers..." "Sheila." "They say the swelling should go down in a couple weeks." "Who knew ferrets were so aggressive?" "Ferrets?" "I commend you for your hesitation." "That's why I'm giving you my personal guarantee that you will triple your money in six months." "The school put their trust in you." "Don't let them down." "Don't let those kids down." "You won't regret it." "She gave me everything!" "That is how you do it, gentlemen!" "That is how you do it!" "Go, go!" "FBI!" "Nobody move!" "Clear!" "There's nobody here!" "The rich and powerful take what they want." "We steal it back for you." "Leverage Season 4, Episode 8 The Boiler Room Job Original Air Date:" "August 14, 2011" "Sometimes, bad guys make the best good guys." "We provide..." "Leverage" "I called the police, but they told me that it was a life lesson, that I should have gone to a legitimate broker." "I mean, I didn't know the difference." "All right." "Well, the thing is, by the time the victims realize what's happened, it's way too late." "Now I think con men or grifters... whatever they're called... are the worst people in the world." "I wouldn't necessarily say that this guy was a grifter." "I mean, it sounds like he's more like a common criminal." "Well, what's the difference?" "A con, or a grift, when it's performed properly, it combines elegance and style with a... with a classical imitation of legitimate enterprise, parody..." "What she's trying to say is that it's not your fault." "No, but it is." "Most special-needs schools are private and charge huge tuitions." "Our school runs on grants and donations." "We started the investment fund as a way to get out of the red." "Bake sales just aren't cutting it these days." "Without any money, our doors will close in three months." "And those kids are gonna have nowhere to go." "Where's- whe- are we waiting on Parker?" "Oh, man." "She's at that damn chocolate festival." "It's like sending a crack addict to a cocaine convention." "Girl texted me about an hour ago, misspelled every damn word." "Look." "Probably got chocolate all over the buttons." "All right." "Let's get started." "Well, you picked a good one for us this time," "Nate." "Real good one." "This Greg Sherman... he's not just any old con man." "He is a direct descendant of the Yellow Kid." "Who's the Yellow Kid?" "Quite possibly the greatest grifter of all time." "Between 1900 and 1940, he swindled people out of more than $10 million." "Which is like a gazillion in today's market." "Look." "Some of my people know Sherman." "They say the boy works without scruples and without conscience." "His new scam is something called the inverted pyramid." "Inverted pyramid is where you call 20 people and tell 10 the stock's going up, tell the other 10 it's going down." "Whichever one you get right, you call those 10 people back and do it all over again, and you've just convinced five people you can predict the market." "Yeah, except he's not calling 10 people." "In every city, he sets up a boiler room and hires a bunch of hot shots, and they're calling a thousand people at a time." "Nate, this guy probably knows every con in the book." "How are we gonna nail him?" "I'm thinking the Peruvian Slide." "No, you need two old people and a banana peel for that." "Unh-unh." "That's the Boca Backlash." "Boca Backlash is a roper with a glass eye." "That's the Oklahoma Little Chucky, and it's not a glass eye," " it's a cue ball." " The Oklahoma Little Chucky" " is a Rottweiler with some fireworks" " No." "No, guys." "No, no." "Here's the thing." "Here's the problem, though." "You know, of course you can't con a con artist." "We're just gonna have to steal from him." "How many of you have degrees in business or finance?" "Get out of here." "I mean it." "Get out!" "I don't want any finance guys." "I don't want any business chumps." "What I want are the nastiest, hungriest, willing-to-tear-the-flesh off-a-baby-seal, carnivores." "How many of you think that applies to you?" "Oh, you do?" "'Cause this ain't the kiddie pool." "You're swimming with the sharks, and I'm a freaking Mako." "That's what they call me, because I'm always moving." "If I stop moving, I die." "I'm at the top of the food chain, and every mark is a meal." "You read me?" "So, what if it's your grandma on the line, huh?" "What are you gonna do?" "Get her to buy." "What if it's my grandma?" "I..." "Get out of here!" "Go on!" "Get out!" "He reads people very well." "He's thinning the herd, searching for signs of weakness." "You need to show some so he notices you." "Blink, then scratch your nose." "What about you, Mr. uh...?" "Beeshore." "Steve Beeshore, from the Bronx." "What's good?" "What would you do with my Nana?" "I'll take her for every cent she got, and I'll come back next week and take her walker, her Depends, her Bengay, moth balls... all that." "Don't look away, but keep your eyes soft." "You need to project strength but without challenging him." "Grab a desk, Steve." "Yeah." "No, no." "Look, look, look." "I told you it would go up." "It went up." "I told you silver was gonna go down." "Look what happened, right?" "I give you my word as a member of the S.E.C., the B.B.B., and the J.L.A." "that we got a foolproof way of predicting the market." "No, you can't afford not to do this." "A'ight?" "All right." "Real smart man, Mr. Calupny." "I'm about to make you a real rich man." "Parker:" "Nate." "Nate." " Nate!" " Parker." "What else did I miss in the briefing?" "Nothing." "Nothing at all." "I told you." "Oh, would you please just stop that hammering?" "Why'd Eliot go home?" "Because he doesn't need to be here, just like you don't need to be here." "I don't mind." "I'm still energized from Le Festival Du Chocolat!" "Oh, my God!" "Sophie, you should've been there." " Sophie." "Sophie." "Sophie!" " What?" "!" "What?" "!" "What?" "!" "I tasted like 12 different kinds of chocolates." "They had a white chocolate mocha espresso." "I could not stop drinking it!" "So good!" "Nate." "Hardison." " Nate." " Hardison." "Okay." "Did you find it?" "No." "It's probably offshore." "Isle of Man or one of those new joints, like Timor." "Look, man, once he starts moving the money, I can find it, but right now it's like looking for a needle in the Grand Canyon." "Hi, Hardison!" "Uh..." "Hello?" "Nate won't tell me what the name of the job is." "Parker, not now." "Please?" "Yeah, but what are we stealing?" "Is it "let's go steal a mountain"" "or a potato or a funeral or a panda or...?" "I told y'all not to let her go to that festival unsupervised." "Well." "Uh, what's..." "what's happening, Greg?" "I'm just burning the night oil." "You know what I mean?" "I figured you'd be the one" "I'd find working later than anyone else." "Yeah, yeah, man." "It's all in a day's." "I'd expect nothing less from Alec Hardison, hacker extraordinaire, when he's trying to pull a cyber heist." "I figured you'd be the one" "I'd find working later than anyone else." "Yeah, yeah, man." "It's all in a day's." "I'd expect nothing less from Alec Hardison, hacker extraordinaire, when he's trying to pull a cyber heist." "Okay, okay." "Just... just stay cool." "Tell him you're not stealing, first of all." "Look, I'm not stealing." "You're kind of strong, ain't you?" "Who is it you think you're bumping?" "I'm Greg Sherman, the Mako." "My father was the Springfield Wonder." "My grandfather was the Yellow Kid." "Titanic Thompson, Wildfire John..." "I knew them all." "My family invented most every con that you've ever heard of." "Tell him you're parking proxies in his accounts." "I was hired to park proxies inside of your accounts." "What kind?" " Commodities." " What's the angle?" "Angle?" "Repeating the question to buy time to think of a lie?" "I was doing that in the second grade." "I was hired by a commodities mogul." "What commodity?" "Chocolate!" "Chocolate." "Cocoa futures." "That's a very volatile market." "No, it's crazy, is what it is." "What's the play?" "I'll tell you the... play." "The play is supply and demand, you know?" "If you control or predict supply and demand, you corner the market." "So he's a hedge fund manager?" "They're a dime a dozen in the commodities world." "No, but this guy, he's only focused on one commodity... cocoa." "Some people even call him "Count Chocula."" "Seriously, Hardison?" ""Count Chocula"?" ""Count Chocula"?" "That's a stupid moniker." "It is stupid... real stupid but he didn't choose it." "He's not one of those guys who gives himself a dumb nickname, you know?" "I want to meet this count." "No." "No." "I meet him, or you don't leave this building." "Do you read me?" "I'm... reading you, yeah." "Let me think about it." "I can probably set something up for you this... this weekend." "You're trying to run a stall on the Mako?" "Look, there is no con, no play, no action that you can pull that I haven't done a thousand times." "Tomorrow, 9:00 A.M., his office." "Okay." "Okay, we're gonna have to call Eliot, uh, and secure some office somehow." "We're gonna need signage, propage, everything." "Hardison, stay with the keyboard for now." "No shortcuts here." "Mr. Travers, of Travers Global?" "Yes." "Who are you?" "Mr. Travers, I'm agent Loynd" " with the Internal Revenue Service." " What?" "Loynd." "Like "loin" with a "d."" "This is Anna Goodwin," "Controller General of the U.K." "Yes." "We're here about that spot audit." "You know, the Desmond Amsterdam Fund." "The Desmond Fund was closed nine months ago." "Yes, but, uh, you know, the folks over in the U.K., they have different accounting methods than the good old, you know, American I.R.S." "So, we're here to give an assist to Ms. Goodwin and our friends across the shore." "Pond." "Pond." "It's... it's "across the pond."" ""Pond." I always get that wrong." "I own this whole building." "You can't come in here without my authority." " Oh, no, that's right." " Well, uh, there were two documents that you uh, signed off on." "I never received any such thing." "Oh, yes, you did." "I'm sorry." "Look." "That's your signature there." "I think that's you..." "I think." "But I don't remember signing anything." "The I.R.S. has your back on this one, okay?" "You know, why don't you take an early lunch?" "And it'll be like three or four hours, and we should be okay." "Yeah." "It's gonna be fine." "Y-yeah, yeah." "Yeah, yeah." "Yeah, great." "That looks amazing on you." "Don't be surprised." "You picked it out." "I, um..." "I better get undressed." "I think you mean "changed," Nate." "Yeah." "Hey." "Hurry up." "They just pulled in." "Yeah, why don't you stall them in the lobby for a second?" "Oh, sorry." "Let me get this out of your way." "You got to go..." "Sorry." "What are you doing, man?" "You want to help?" "Hey." "You want to help, grab a mop." "I could use all the help I can get." "Now, because I need arbitrage before the convergence, yeah." "No." "I-I don't care about the derivatives." "I'm not speculating." "No, no, no." "You just go along until I say otherwise, yeah." "It'll all be good." "Yeah." "Hol..." "I got to go." "What are you doing here?" "I told you, he wanted to meet you." "And I told you never to come here!" "Look, man." "He caught me red-handed." "Okay, look... he said the only way to complete the business transaction was for you two to meet." "Well, look, there are dozens of chop shops" "I can park my contracts at..." "I don't need his." "Tell me about your scam." "I am not gonna tell you squat." "Now, you get him out of here." "She's on her way." "You don't mean..." "Yes." "Yeah." "And if she sees you two, she will spook." "Go." "Let's go." "Take the back stairs." "Hardison, you're fired." "You still owe me 200k." "You'll get paid." "Go." "He's paying you 200 large just to park proxies?" "Yeah, it must be worth it to him." "Who is she?" "That's the Chocolate Whisperer." "Okay." "Sophie, you're doing great." "Sherman's still on your tail." "I want you to head for the chocolate festival." "Parker, everything ready there?" " Parker?" " I'm working on it." "Okay, Nate." "Sophie's good to go for the tasting." "You know what, man?" "I really think she can win this." "What do you mean?" "She's gonna have to win this." "It's our only way to sell Sherman." "Okay, everybody, we're gonna have to be at our absolute best." "This guy is looking for a tell, any sign that we might be conning him." "Look, it's the Chocolate Whisperer!" "All right, Sophie, I got all your business on the web, so people should start recognizing you any second." " Hi." "Would you mind..." " Oh, me?" " You look great." " How lovely." "Thank you." "Me too, please." " Thank you so much." " Thank you." "Thank you." "You're very kind." " I'm a big fan." " I'm flattered." "Thank you." "Can we take your picture?" "Thanks!" "Can I get your autograph?" "Yes, of course." "I've never heard of her." "Ms. Dubois, we've got you all set up over there." "They're ready for you." "Hi." "Oh." "Frame me on the assistant." "Thank you." "Thanks." "Poppy, you're a dear." "Thank you." "Oh, one more." "There you go." "I just saw your website." "I love your work." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Parker?" "Parker, let it go." "We need him to check us out." "No, no." "Par..." "Parker, no." "You can't... no..." "Too late, man." "It's in her DNA." "Put it back, Parker." "Hello." "Would you care for some?" "Here we go." "We are thrilled to have two of the greatest chocolate connoisseurs with us today." "Our first connoisseur is a three-time tasting champion and the author of the new book" ""Dark Orgasms:" "My love Affair With Chocolate."" "Please welcome Laverne Webber!" "And a last-minute addition today, an elusive genius making her first-ever U.S. appearance and participating in her first-ever competition." "She is the woman that the London Examiner says single-handedly changed the world of chocolate." "The Queen of Cocoa, the one and only Chocolate Whisperer herself," "Clarissa Dubois." "I got all the origins on these chocolates, but there's no way to tell which ones they're tasting." "That's okay." "Now, S-Sophie, this is no different than Belgium in '99." "Remember that?" "You did great then." "You're gonna do great now." "Connoisseurs, eat your chocolate." "Strong personality but not too aggressive, like a man ruggedly handsome yet refined, wearing a pin-striped suit, who offers to share his umbrella with... a plus-sized woman in the rain." "This is obviously from Madagascar." "I would say it's 70% pure." "An outstanding bean." "Well, Madagascar is correct." "But it is 78%." "78%." "Ooh." "All right." "Ms. Dubois." "Trinidad." "Well, yes, Trinidad." "We expected nothing less." "Correct." "She didn't say why." "She just guessed." "Pulling up all the special characteristics on Trinidad cocoa beans." "No." "She's good." "She's fine." "Ms. Dubois?" "Most would say Ecuador, due to the hint of Jasmine, but if one looks beyond that, one will sense the slightest layer of cinnamon, which, of course, could only mean..." "Trinidad." "What about the bean?" "Trinitario?" "Forastero?" "Neither." "This could only be the Criollo bean, unlike that thing you put in your mouth, Laverne, which I could smell from here, was an Arriba, the most overrated bean in the world, the one you called "outstanding."" "Oh, and..." "Just under 85%." "Whoa, whoa, and whoa!" "84%!" "Let's hear it for the Chocolate Whisperer," "Clarissa Dubois!" "Just from a piece of chocolate?" "That's my girl." "She's scary." "Wow." "Look at that." "Isn't that something?" "Ms. Dubois, that was very impressive." "Well, I didn't mean to make Laverne cry." "My name's Greg Sherman." " I'm working with..." " Excuse us, Craig." "We have a meeting." "It's Greg, the Mako." "Tell me what they're saying." ""It's our honor, Ms. Dubois." ""Hong Kong and Shanghai, they're ready." ""Your cafes will be the Starbucks of chocolate."" "She's opening chocolate cafes in China?" "That's why that idiot" "Count Chocula is buying cocoa futures." "Demand is gonna skyrocket." ""That is a nice dress you're wearing."" "Just the relevant stuff." ""88 this year, 120 in the next two years."" "We need to talk." "I have nothing to say to you." "I gave you the chance to do this easy." "You passed." "I know about China." "Nate, Eliot's in position." "Just say the word, Nate, and I'll come in there and tear their lungs out." "Not necessary." "Oh, it's necessary, all right." "Your whole plan depends on it." "200 nouveau riche chocolate cafes where a billion Chinese consume less chocolate than 7 million Swiss?" "That's like going long on DVDs in 1994." "So now you know why I hired Hardison." "Well, that's what you want me to think." "But you can't run a grift on the Mako." "Who's the Mako?" "I'm the Mako..." "And I want to know what the action is, or my man here is gonna go Paso Doble on your skull." "The, uh... the crop report is gonna come out on Friday." "It's gonna say that supply is normal, average." "Yes, but demand is gonna jump." "No, no." "The crop report is wrong." "Who told you this, your chocolate whisperer?" "No, no." "She's legit." "She has nothing to do with this." "That's funny, 'cause you're sleeping with her." "I see it." "It's in your body language when you're together." "It's in your eyes when you look at her." "You two have a carnal relationship." "See, he... he... he's just trying to rattle Nate." "You did say he reads people better than anyone you know." "Y'all nasty." "I..." "Listen to me." "It's not her, okay?" "I have a guy." "A guy in the C.F.T.C.?" "No." "It's... it's a guy who..." "knows things." "When the crop report comes out, everyone's gonna think it's business as usual." "I continue buying futures." "Then, in a month or so, the world finds out supply is in the toilet." "That's when I, with controlling interest in nearly all cocoa futures, announce China." "You're talking 100 million." "How's that?" "Yeah." "Okay." "Why didn't you say anything?" "Parker." "Hey, Nate, she's just saying, man." "Look, we'll discuss it later." "Okay, right now we've got to worry about Sherman." "He's clever." "He's too clever to fall for the big store." "He knows every shill, every player in the country." "We've got nobody we can call." "That's why we're gonna use civilians." "Trust me." "We got the guy on the dangle." "He's just about to bite." "We just got to keep him off balance and just keep pushing him and pushing him until he's out of his comfort zone." "How far out you trying to push him?" "Nate, how many monitors do we need?" "As many as you can." "Wow!" "You've actually done some acting." "Oh, yes." "I performed "Equus."" "Theater in the round." "I love that play." "It's one of my..." "Who did you play, Alan or..." "or Dr. Dysart?" "I was Nugget." "The horse?" "Yes." "But I was the front end." "Go over to the other side, then unload what's in there." "Then that is the thing... yeah?" "Mr. Ford." "Yes, Ms...?" "Cox, with an "x."" "Of course." "Yeah, that Sophie woman..." "I don't think her crackers are quite toasted." "She wants me to moonwalk with a bear." "No, no." "See, we're doing a version of the moonwalking bear." "I.B., inattentional blindness." "Basically, what it is, is if a person is so focused on something that, you know, they don't..." "They can't see the obvious thing right in front of them, like..." "like a moonwalking bear." "But what if the bear eats me?" "Can we..." "can we just stop a minute?" "In the bush, you stop moving, you die." "Like a..." "like a shark!" "That's what they call me, "the Mako."" "Are you making fun of me?" "No." "No." "No, it's my nickname, my moniker." "All the greats had one." "Great what?" "Never mind." "Look..." "So you work for this Count Chocula." "I don't work for anybody." "Yeah, but he hired you to take me out here and show me the cocoa fields." "It's not about the cocoa fields." "It's about the nature." "Nature, yeah." "All right." "Not "nature."" ""The Nature."" "The nature of a man." "The nature of darkness." "Aah!" "See the snake?" "You eat a snake heart, you consume its soul." "Okay." "All right." "That's more like it." "Where'd you get all these, Parker?" "Huh?" "You know." "Put it back, Parker." "Uh, Hardison, what do you got?" "Nothing yet, Nate." "I might have to change locations to make sure I get it in real time." "Well, do what you got to do." "Those are the top-producing cocoa fields on the entire continent." "So?" "They're just mowing down trees." "Do you know what the most dangerous thing is to cocoa?" "Sunlight." "Too much sun, and the crops won't yield." "Well, there are thousands of acres of cocoa." "The farmers are not gonna cut down all the trees." "Those aren't farmers." "That's the local government." "They're in the timbers business." "They're cutting down every tree in the square 100-mile radius." "Off the record." "That's why he knows the crop report will be wrong." "They don't know." "You two, go long on timber, 100,000 shares, at least two dozen accounts." "The rest of you, stay on the flood." "Every network..." "financial, social media..." "I want it to be like when Noah built his boat!" "I cannot wait to make this call." "I'm still not sure." "Sherman's been doing this a lot longer than I have." "No, listen, it's working." "He's hooked." "Hardison's been monitoring his accounts." "Said he went long on timber." "Hardison found his money?" "Well, those buys were from the company account, but he's gonna have to go into his personals if he wants to get enough cash to go into the big store." "Oh." "Hmm." "Yeah." "It's the Mako." "The what?" "Greg Sherman." "Oh." "Oh, yeah." "I want in." "Listen, the payout is "boxcar," all right?" "If you want a piece of this," " it's $10 million in cash." " When do you need it?" "Well, the crop report comes out in 12 hours, so, uh, you know, I'll need the cash on my trading-room floor if you want to be a part of this." "Otherwise, I'm gonna have to, you know, move on without you." "I'm in." "He's in." "Okay." "We're gonna run it again." "All right." "Everybody..." "Places." "Back to one!" "This... this is a disaster." "Well, maybe we'll get lucky and he won't show up." "Oh, he's gonna show." "Okay, people." "Once again." "Parker, lovely blonde here, is Greg Sherman." "Boo!" "Boo!" "Boo!" "Boo!" "Eliot is his driver." "Now, once they've entered, it's too late to begin your moves." "You need to be moving and doing everything that you're doing before they enter." "Before." "So when we say "action,"" "it has to be happening then." "Think of it as a dance, all right?" "One, two, three." "One, two, three." "You two..." "you're yelling out orders." "You three..." "you're on the phones." "You... that's when you cross with your file cart." "Well, where's the bear?" "There is no bear, Mrs. Cox." "No, no." "There's no bear." "Think of it as a dance." "Nugget, the moment you see the screens move into cocoa futures, that's when you cross in front of the mark and say your line!" "Okay, um, Sophie, what is my motivation for going over there?" "Your motivation is to get to the other side of the room." "Oh." "Gotcha." "Okay." "And, people, please, do not stare at the mark." "Golden... golden rule..." "Do not stare at the mark." "Okay." "Now, uh, Parker, Eliot... wait for action." "You hear action, a couple of beats, then you come back in the room." "Now listen, everybody." "We're gonna do it again from the top." "We only have a few minutes before we go live." "So, let's make this a good one, okay?" "This is for us, okay?" "Let's do it." "Let's do it." "Go for us." "All right." "Focus." "Come on." "Lots of activity." "Busy, busy." "Come on." "Buy, buy." "Sell, sell." "Stay busy." "Stay busy." "And action!" "Buy, buy!" "Sell, sell!" "Uh, sorry." "Sell!" "Cut!" "Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut!" "Hold on, hold on!" "Nugget, what happened?" "I'm s-sorry." "I tripped." "You tripped?" " Back to one." " She's staring at me, right here." "You guys, back outside." " Did you look at the mark?" " Yeah, I know." "Back outside." "Back to one." "Hardison, you got anything?" "Um, nothing, man." "Just a tired, overworked hacker who's actually sick of orange soda." "I think we lost him, Nate." "No, no, no." "This is- this is- this is gonna work." "This is gonna work." "Okay." "Uh, we're gonna reset everything." "Okay, guys, guys, come in." "We got to talk." "Now he's here right now." "Okay." "He's here!" "He's here." "We're going live." "This is not a rehearsal anymore." "This is it." "This is it." "We got one shot at this, everybody." "We're gonna make it work." "Places!" "Focus." "Focus!" "Break a leg." "You're gonna be great." "Okay, thanks." "You're gonna be great." "Okay, okay." "Ms. Dubois and the Count are expecting you, Mr. Sherlock." "It's "Sherman."" "I" " I want everything you got, absolutely everything you got." "Can you believe this?" "We haven't had a day this exciting since we s-shorted soy beans in '99." "Welcome, Mr. um- um...?" "Sherman." "So when do you announce China?" "Oh, next month or the month after." "The count has to acquire more futures, and then when everybody sees that the crop report is wrong and panic sets in, we announce China." "Hey, Marco, yeah, hey." "Where's your money, huh?" "I mean, I got to log it in before the report gets here." "It's "Mako."" "And everything I have to give you is right here." "Okay, beautiful." "You want to count it?" "I had trouble keeping a straight face." "Oh!" "And you..." ""The Chocolate Whisperer."" "That is rich." "I was onto you guys the whole time." "Which is not to say that you didn't have some nice flourishes." "Flying me to Ecuador?" "Wow!" "Oh, hey." "There he is." "I love this guy." "The thing with the snake - oh!" "And then you decided to run the big store on me." "A little historical note..." "My grandfather invented the big store." "And with such rank amateurs I mean, losers..." "I can't count how many tells I saw walking in." "They're wearing trading jackets?" "What is this, 1990?" "And this guy..." "this guy forgot his line." "Yeah, okay." "So you weren't fooled." "I get it." "But, also, you didn't make any money, did you?" "Oh, yes, I did." "Your little Starbucks of China action..." "That story was so good," "I had my boys flood the market with it." "Complete B. S., and I leaked it to the world." "Cocoa prices are going to explode." "And then I did what you pretended to do." "I committed over $30 million in cocoa futures." "By the time people realize the China thing is false," "I'll have cleared $100 million and be living in a non-extradition country." "It will be the greatest con of all time." "Better than anything Wildfire John or the Yellow Kid ever did." "And you know what?" "I have you to thank." "I've watched your every move, every eye twitch, every scratch of your head." "I was so focused on you and your team, you couldn't have conned me with 100 of the best shills." "You forgot the first rule of the confidence game... can't con a con man." "You're right." "And that's why we didn't." "You see, we knew that you would be so aware of even the slightest tell that we couldn't risk a con." "Your attention was so focused and intense that you saw every move we made." "Yes, I did." "But you missed the moonwalking bear." "The what?" "Plan "A," Hardison's cyber heist." "Remember that?" "You know, when you decided that we were gonna run a con on you?" "You forgot about everything else." "It doesn't matter, because I had my men move all my money today." "It's all in cocoa futures." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "About that..." "Call your office." "Hello." "This is the Mako." "My money get moved yet?" "Yes, sir, every cent." "FBI!" "Hands over your head!" "What's that noise?" "That would be the FBI, sir." "Hands where I can see 'em!" " Greg Sherman, A.K.A. The..." " let's go." "What is it again?" "The Blowfish, I think." "A.K.A. "The Blowfish"..." "You're being charged with 47 counts of security fraud, conspiracy, and market manipulation." "If y..." "Hello?" "Hung up the phone." "Rude." "I hate guys that give themselves their own nickname." "Church, brother." "Church." "Church." "Sorry." "Thanks, man." "That's awesome." "I hadn't hit anybody in over two weeks." "Greg Sherman, A.K.A...." "What is it again?" "Crappie." "Beluga." "Gefilte fish." "You're under arrest." "Come on." "Wait a minute." "Wait a minute." "Who are all these people?" "They're not shills." "Oh, these people- they are your victims." "Meet Mr. and Mrs. Wang." "You stole $68,000 from Mr. Wang's father." "It was all the money he had." "You stole from every single person in this room." "Every single one of them is a victim." "No." "I don't believe you." "This is a con." "How much money did Mr. Sherman steal from you?" "$202,000." "$16,400." "$72,000." "Are you Special Agent Hagen?" "Mm-hmm." "Agent McSweeten sends his best." "And he also sends a, uh haiku." " That's so nice." "Say "hi" back." " I will." "Special agent?" "Are you kidding me?" "That's right, genius." "She's an undercover FBI agent." "No, she is not." "She's a thief." "They're all thieves and and con men and grifters!" "Sure, Mr. Limpet." "We're all thieves and grifters and con men." " They are!" "They just..." " Get him out of here." "Who do you think you're helping out here?" "!" "They stole more money than I ever have!" "What is wrong with you?" "!" "I can't thank you enough." "But..." "What is it, Sheila?" "Well, when I checked the school account, the $72,000 wasn't there." "There was over a million in it." "I'd say your school's gonna be all right for a while." "Thank you." "So, w-who's gonna point out the big pink argyle elephant in the room?" "Listen, it's not that you're not two consenting adults." "But we need to be able to rely on each other." "And we need to be aware of each other's emotional states." "Our emotional states are- are fine." "It's not like we're having a real relationship." "No." "It's just s..." "Friends with bennies." " Well, I" " I'd say it's, uh..." " Yeah." " That's not a bad way of looking at it." " Okay." "Looks like you aren't the only two." "That is at the same time beautiful and very disturbing." "Guys, to the Big Store." "The Big Store." "Yeah, come in." "Nate." "You're not gonna believe this, man." "This is the guy that, uh... that bugged the apartment and phoned me." "Jack Latimer." "Farm boy." "Scholarship to the University of Chicago." "He started his own business back in '85 by mortgaging his house, and now..." "He runs an investment firm with assets totaling eight zeros." "Tracked him through his investment in Verd Agra." "Verd - the potato job?" "But we found the listening device before that." "He was also involved in Merced Financial, Dubertech," "Ernshell Pharmaceuticals." "Yeah, okay." "It's all companies that we burned." "So, basically, this guy had stock in all those companies, and we cost him a lot of money." "He wants revenge." "Uh, how much did he lose?" "Who said he lost money?" "Jack Latimer." "You run an investment fund worth half a billion dollars." "Marla out of town?" "Nate Ford." "You run a crew that ruins men like me." "Ain't we a pair of high-stakes sons of bitches." " Want a drink?" " I could use a drink." "So, for how long?" "Three years ago, my fund had money in Pierson Aviation." "I had the C.E.O., Steve Pierson, under surveillance." "Just standard background stuff." "Then when all this happened with Victor Dubenich screaming his head off about con men, nobody believed a word." "Except you had photos of a man handing Pierson a bag full of hard drives." "You never turned us in." "Bering Aerospace stole that research." "Their stock was valued on a lie." "That lie devalued other companies." "You took them down a peg, but you're... you're not a villain." "You were a..." "market correction." "You spent a lot of money chasing that single lead." "That young man, Hardison, he covers your tracks pretty damn well." "But after a while," "I had enough to figure out what your pattern was, figured out what your next move would be." "So you bet against our targets." "You made investments against Wakefield, Verd Agra..." "Dubertech." "To a one, you rained destruction down upon them, allowing me to profit in the wreckage you left behind." "You will get out of my business now." "But you haven't even heard my offer." "I don't want anything from you." "And the ones that got away with it?" "The companies that covered it up so well, the people they cheated or killed had no idea what happened to them." "I know secrets, sins it would take you a thousand years to find." "What's the price?" "24 hours." "But before you descend from heaven with blood-tipped wings and a flaming sword to wreak havoc on these men, you call..." "And give me 24 hours to make my move." "Your pride more important than helping people?"