This week on The Perfect Scam.

He had about $20,000 on him and he was on a flight to Vegas.

This was his pattern that he would collect money, as much money as he could from victims, and go right to Vegas and gamble it.

He stole $12 million and it all went into a slot machine.

I would say of the $12 or $13 million that we found that he stole, he probably lost

half that at a casino and probably spent the rest of it.

Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. And this is part two of our story on Kote Youngblood. If you haven't heard

part one yet, I'd invite you to go back one episode and listen to that first. When we left our story,

a man named Kota Youngblood had persuaded dozens of neighbors in a small suburb of Austin, Texas,

that his life is in danger, or in some cases,

their lives are in danger, or their children's lives are in danger.

From a Mexican cartel with a debt to settle, and dozens of these neighbors have given him

thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, for protection.

Other victims lent Cota Money or invested in his weird collectibles business.

He claimed to have a Babe Ruth bat and a dinosaur head, among other things.

It was all based on a house of lies, but Cota Youngblood is an amazingly adept liar.

In one case, he persuaded a man who was a well-paid tech company executive that his whole

family was in danger.

And that man, Lane, moved his entire family across the country, changed their names,

and hid in a one-bedroom hotel room for a year.

As we pick up the story,

a victim named Eric has heard enough of these stories

...