The Long-Distance Con, Part 2

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2018

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is part two of a two-part series. Part one can be heard here. On the day that Maggie Robinson Katz learned that her father had only a few days to live, she also found out that her wealthy family couldn’t pay his hospital bills. Her father, Terry Robinson, had lost much of his money in the real-estate crash and the rest in a business relationship, of sorts, with a man named Jim Stuckey. A West Virginian based in Manila, Stuckey claimed that hidden in jungles and caves in the Philippines were huge caches of gold bullion, uncut U.S. currency, and Treasury bonds; if Robinson put up the money to pay the right people, Stuckey could get the treasures out. It seemed absurd to people around Robinson, and the Treasury Department warns of scams that sound just like this. But Robinson, a successful retired executive, sent Stuckey hundreds of thousands of dollars, until he was broke. His daughter Maggie struggles to understand why and how, and finally goes to Manila to confront the man who took the money.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of the New Yorker and WNYC Studios.
0:10.1	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:13.6	Today is part two of our story, The Long Distance Khan.
0:19.1	All right. Now, here's the deal, here's the problem.
0:23.7	Always this problem.
0:25.2	In order for us to go forward.
0:27.9	Now, there is a accumulated charge of $70,000.
0:36.5	We're listening here to a phone call recorded by a man named Terry Robinson in 2009 with his business partner.
0:43.5	Now, I want you to raise that $70,000.
0:47.2	You're going to raise hell and say you can't do it, but think about it just for a minute.
0:51.0	There's no way I can do it, Jim.
0:52.4	Listen, I just don't say that. Just listen for a minute. All right no way I can do it, Jim. Listen, I just don't say that.
0:54.2	Just listen for a minute.
0:55.8	All right.
0:56.7	Robinson's partner was a West Virginia man living in Manila named Jim Stuckey.
1:01.2	And some of the things Stuckey is telling Robinson are kind of extraordinary.
1:07.1	What this means is we can get the monies that we've been talking about taking out of it, plus $1 million.
1:16.1	All right.
1:16.7	Now, that is not the great advantage.
1:19.6	The great advantage is somewhere in the vicinity of $20 to $25 trillion, counting the value of the gold and diamonds and cash and all these other things.
1:34.8	If you can find, even through your friends or something like that...
1:38.9	You heard him right. He said trillions.
	...

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