Trailer: Scam Inc

**Sue-Lin Wong** (0:03)
Hi, I'm Sue-Lin Wong. A couple of years ago, I made a podcast about China's leader Xi Jinping called The Prince. I've been reporting a new story over the past year. And though it started in Asia, it took me about as far away from my usual beat as I could imagine. To a small town in rural Kansas, where $47 million went missing from the local bank.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:27)
What do you mean something's wrong with the bank? We never have problems.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (0:30)
Over several months, the bank's CEO had quietly put most of the bank's money into some sort of cryptocurrency investment, until the board called him in to explain himself.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:39)
He gave us a scenario of what had happened, and it made little to no sense.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (0:45)
Shane Haynes, the CEO, told them that to get the money back, he needed more.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:51)
The final board member was asked their position. And he simply said, you know, I'm just not comfortable bedding the farm. Shane Haynes leaned across the table and said, David, I've already bedded for you.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (1:06)
But Shane had been duped. He had bet the farm and a whole lot more on a scam. The bank collapsed.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:21)
What is there back there, what whole, what chasm, what's missing, that would allow somebody like that with that experience to succumb to this type of scam?

**Sue-Lin Wong** (1:35)
This wasn't your classic Nigerian Prince Khan. It was something new, sophisticated, and ruthless.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:42)
I mean, those scammers are gonna go down as legends. I'll tell you right now.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (1:47)
Who was behind it? My investigation has taken me from Kansas to the Philippines and from London to Singapore. I found that I wasn't even asking the right question. This wasn't the work of one mastermind fraudster or a single organized crime group. It was a global industry. And it's much bigger, more powerful, and darker than I ever imagined.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:13)
Well, in there, people are sold. You are slaves in there.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:17)
What really disturbed me was how systematized it was, the brutality.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (2:23)
Oh my goodness. This predatory industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And it's growing fast. It's probably bigger than the illegal drug trade. Behind it is a dystopian criminal underworld, of forced labor, corruption and intrigue.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:42)
Three girls were there just to feed us fruit, hand us cigarettes and pour us drinks. It's that kind of hellhole.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:51)
They had these slogans that would always chant before we'd start to work every day, and it was something like cripple the US and the European economy.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (3:01)
They're essentially the law enforcement.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:04)
They're the government.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (3:06)
This isn't just happening in faraway places to other people. It's also coming for you and for me.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:13)
No one in America is going to have any money left.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:17)
That's what it feels like sometimes.

**Sue-Lin Wong** (3:19)
You can listen to all episodes of Scam Inc from February 2025 with a subscription to The Economist. To start listening to all our award-winning podcasts right now, just search Economist Podcasts Plus.