Trailer: Scam Inc
Babbage from The Economist
The Economist
4.8 • 807 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2025
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful.
The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank in rural Kansas to uncover a global, underground scam economy built around human trafficking, corruption and money laundering. Can it be stopped?
Coming soon.
To listen to the full series subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Su Lin-Wong. |
| 0:05.0 | A couple of years ago, I made a podcast about China's leader, Xi Jinping, called The Prince. |
| 0:10.8 | I've been reporting a new story over the past year. |
| 0:14.3 | And though it started in Asia, it took me about as far away from my usual beat as I could imagine. |
| 0:20.3 | To a small town in rural Kansas, |
| 0:23.4 | where $47 million went missing from the local bank. |
| 0:27.2 | What do you mean? Something's wrong with the bank. We never have problems. |
| 0:30.2 | Over several months, the bank's CEO had quietly put most of the bank's money into some sort |
| 0:34.6 | of cryptocurrency investment, until the board called him in to explain himself. |
| 0:39.8 | He gave us a scenario of what had happened, |
| 0:42.1 | and it made little to no sense. |
| 0:45.5 | Shane Haynes, the CEO, told them that to get the money back, he needed more. |
| 0:50.7 | The final board member was asked their position. |
| 0:55.0 | And he simply said, you know, I'm just not comfortable betting the farm. |
| 1:01.0 | Shane Haines leaned across the table and said, David, I've already bet it for you. |
| 1:06.0 | But Shane had been duped. |
| 1:09.0 | He had bet the farm and a whole lot more on a scam. |
| 1:14.4 | The bank collapsed. |
| 1:21.0 | What is there back there, what hole, what chasm, what's missing, |
| 1:25.4 | that would allow somebody like that with that experience to |
| 1:30.0 | succumb to this type of scam. |
| 1:35.0 | This wasn't your classic Nigerian Prince Con. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Economist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Economist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.