#1912 - Steven Rinella

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

You know, and then when this FTX thing happened, I'm like, of course. Of course, you fucking scumbags.

Steven Rinella (0:20)

I've become obsessed with that shit, man.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

Oh my God.

Steven Rinella (0:22)

I just like, because I'm already imagining like the fucking, how many people are writing that fucking screenplay right now.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Are we up running? We're rolling good. Let's talk about this. Yeah, I'm fascinated by it. I'm fascinated by scammers.

You know, I knew a lot of scammers in my pool hall days. I knew a lot of, I knew a guy that was one of the first guys that ever was involved in credit card fraud back in like the early 80s. His name was International Sal. He was a fucking character, like a real character. Sal, International Sal, that's what they called him. Because he was like a mob guy, essentially. And what they would do is they would go to grocery store, or department stores, rather. And you know, they had those carbons when you would, in the old days with credit cards?

They would take those carbons and someone would sell him the carbons, and then they would print copies of credit cards, and then they would buy a bunch of shit, and then they would sell that shit, and they would come to him with bags of money to the pool hall, and then...

And he would blow it all. He would blow it all. It's like we always talked about it. It's like he had dirty money and he couldn't keep it. It's like he was, he couldn't win. Like he could not win. Like if the nine ball was four inches in front of the hole, he would find a way to dog it.

Steven Rinella (1:45)

Oh, like the Cosmos knew that the money was no good.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

Yeah, yeah, it was something. It was like, is it in his head?

He had the worst case of buck fever I've ever seen in my fucking life. It was just like...

Steven Rinella (1:56)

Yeah, it's like he's got like the devil and the angel on his shoulders, and the angel's giving them, like the angel's giving them advice. You know, as we lose this money.

Joe Rogan (2:04)

And he was a good guy. He was a good guy. He just came from a life of crime.

But he was a good guy. It's weird.

Steven Rinella (2:14)

I wonder what his last name was, because there's a, we're looking up people with our last name, and we found a Sal Rinella in Joliet Prison, and I liked how much it sounded like Sal Rinella.

Joe Rogan (2:28)

Yeah, I don't know. He died of cancer a few years back. And actually, a friend of mine's mom who worked in, you know, I guess it's a hospice, when they take care of people in their dying days. And he came into there, and my friend contacted me. He goes, guess who's in the hospice? It's International Sal.

It's sad when he's a good guy. I mean, I say he's a good guy. I obviously did terrible things. Robbed those fucking credit card companies blind. Made millions of dollars.

But he was a good guy. Like, he was always friendly. He was always a good guy.

Steven Rinella (3:04)

I had a friend get her credit card stolen recently, and they bought a bunch of stuff, electronics from Best Buy, and then made a charitable donation.

Joe Rogan (3:16)

Like, that'll cover it.

Steven Rinella (3:17)

They felt bad and made a charitable donation.

Joe Rogan (3:20)

Well, some people feel like if you steal...

Steven Rinella (3:21)

It's like a feed that, you know, it was like feed the children or something, you know. They're like, this will clean it out.

Joe Rogan (3:27)

That's the choice that's not a total sociopath.

Some people just, you know, they just do it, but they're like, wow, there's got to be a way to, like, balance this out. Did you hear the Target lost, what was it, Jamie? Like, $400 million last year from looting. $400 million.

Steven Rinella (3:45)

Really?

Joe Rogan (3:46)

Yeah, because all these people in the last year or so, during the pandemic, people were, like, stealing shit. You know, it became a thing, like, in some states...

Steven Rinella (3:55)

I had no idea it was that bad.

Joe Rogan (3:56)

It's bad. In some states, they've closed down all the Walgreens, they've closed down all these different... Because they made a law where if you steal less than $900 worth of stuff, they can't even arrest you. They don't even do anything about it.