- Speaker #0
Welcome to True Crime, Authors and Extraordinary People, the podcast where we bring two passions together. The show that gives new meaning to the old adage, truth is stranger than fiction. And reminding you that there is an extraordinary person in all of us. Here is your host, David McClam.
- Speaker #1
What's going on everybody and welcome to another episode of True Crime, Authors and Extraordinary People. Of course, I'm your man, David McClam. Hey, if you guys haven't already, make sure you follow us on all of our social media. One link to a link tree will get you every place you need to go pertaining to the show. And as I always remind you, if you are someone or you know someone who wants to hurt yourself or someone else, please leave this episode down 988. It is the suicide prevention hotline. It will get you the help that you need. And just in case no one else has told you this today, let me be the first to tell you. I do care and I do need you to be here. There is nothing worth your life. All right, guys. So today's guest could go either direction. We're going to have him on as an author today because he's here to talk about his book. You're going to hear me say this. I've never said this before in front of an episode. But this is, I think, how important this episode is. So. Sit down, listen to this. When you're not driving, pay attention to what's going to be said, because a lot of things that are going to be said here sounds like they came out of a Hollywood movie. But I promise you, they are true. I've done my due diligence. I have actually researched the stuff that I'm going to talk about today. But you want to pay attention, because if you are in a situation in your life where you feel like you are just stopped and can't get out, I think my guest today can prove that you can get out of anything if he can. Let me introduce to you who our guest is. He was born in England and was raised as a foster kid shuttling between two worlds. He has turned life's challenges into stepping stones for success. For 26 years, he has navigated the highs and lows of the stock market, building a career defined by resilience and savvy financial insight. In 2008, he embraced a new chapter as a proud US citizen, seizing opportunities with the same bold spirit that has driven him throughout his journey. His entrepreneurial drive led him to establish a Jeep company and endeavor his son Benji, effectively named Skullcrushers, reflecting his family's fierce determination and unique legacy. But before that company and while on Wall Street, he has lived a life that sounds like a Hollywood movie. Drugs, the mob, women, and millions of dollars found him living such a fast lane that he should not be alive today. Here's the author of the upcoming book, Wall Street Mafia, Absolute Power Corrupts, releasing August 29th, 2025. Please welcome Ben Skull. Hey, Ben, welcome to the show.
- Speaker #2
David, thanks for having me. I really appreciate you.
- Speaker #1
Hey, man, thanks for reaching out. I know this is going to be an intriguing episode, and I'm glad that you've chosen me to handle this. I really appreciate it. I'm very humbled.
- Speaker #2
Thank you.
- Speaker #1
Before we begin, I ask everyone this question. Is there anything else about Ben's goal that we should know that we don't know here in this intro?
- Speaker #2
I think I pretty much covered a bunch of stuff in the book. I think there were so many stories that might have got left out. But yeah, the book pretty much encompasses everything.
- Speaker #1
So the first thing I'll say is I do know that you are a very devoted family man. You have a wife. You have five boys. Life must be busy. How do you find time to write a book, run a company? How's your time with that?
- Speaker #2
It's crazy. So I work on Wall Street from like six in the morning to about two in the afternoon, pick up my kids. I'm like Uber dad. And then I run a Jeep company in the evenings and I started writing the book when I couldn't sleep. And I just started writing chapters because I'd go to meetings and I'd tell my story and people were like, dude, you got to write a book. And I finally took the time to do it. It was mostly when I couldn't sleep at night and stories just kept on coming at me.
- Speaker #1
I've written lots of books. Well, before I say that, as you know, I'm a father of six. I have two that still remains at home. So I totally do understand the grind of trying to get stuff done with kids. My 15-year-old just went back to school, and I feel like I had a break, and now my life is back to chaos again.
- Speaker #2
Correct. Me too. Yeah, exactly.
- Speaker #1
So you just pretty much told us why you wrote this book. The one intriguing thing about this book to me is this. I read a lot of books. I've read a lot of people who wrote books about themselves. But sometimes in these books, they try to sugarcoat the things that they did, or they try to make themselves seem more innocent than what they were. In this book, you come straight out with everything that you did, the good, the bad, the ugly. Why did you decide to do that?
- Speaker #2
Honestly, it was kind of like God's calling. I felt like this book and my story might help other people. I did live a very crazy life. And I'm like one of those guys, I'm a magnet to crazy maybe. But every time I'd tell my story, people were like, man, you got to write a book. And I just wanted to get the story out there. And enough time had passed where it was time to write the book, I felt like.
- Speaker #1
So I think... the first part here is the most intriguing part. When you left me the voicemail, I think one of the first things you said is that you came from no family, no name, and you were a foster kid. How did we become a foster kid?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, my mom was like Eminem's mom. She was married like five times, just not a very good mother, not a very loving mother. And I moved to the States when I was two, grew up in a little house in Lake Tahoe. And she was married a bunch of times. And I would just always tell her, I want to go to foster care. I didn't even know what foster care was. And then my grandmother in England passed away from breast cancer. So the next thing I know, I was a nine-year-old kid going to, jumping on an airline, heading to England. And then after the funeral, she dropped me off at foster care. Didn't even say goodbye. Just like, I remember looking out at the window and seeing her walk away. And I was just like, damn, this shit just got real.
- Speaker #1
Over the years, you know, after all that, have you ever seen your biological mom again?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, I have. She kind of, she remarried to this Christian man. And that's the reason why I'm in California is he, he wanted to get me out of foster care. They came over to England and they, and he said, he was a Christian guy. And he just said, you want to try California for 30 days? And I really loved my foster parents. They wanted to adopt me. I came to California and as a kid, as a, you know, 13, 14 year old kid. I just knew that there was more I could do better in the States than in England. I feel like in England, you're either rich or poor. And I think in the U.S., you can make yourself anything you want. And as a young kid, I knew that. And I just decided to stay. I'm glad I did.
- Speaker #1
So the next part of this is even more intriguing. So a kid, foster care, had nothing. Mom drops off, abandons. How do you, I mean, you have no connections, no silver spoons, no nothing. How do you end up on Wall Street?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, so I moved back to the States when I was 14. Caused a bunch of trouble in high school and college. And I was bouncing at a bar. And these two older ladies, I call them the Cougars, they told me, they were like, you should be a businessman. We see you in a suit, this and that. And it put it in my head. And then one day when I was working at this gym, I literally took out the San Diego Reader. And there was a job in there and it said, learn wall street. And so I literally borrowed a shirt and a tie and I bullshit it. I came up with this resume that, um, that I wrote up and made up. I go to the interview and there's these two brothers. One looks like George Hamilton, all tan and Gucci out. And the other brother was like kind of the nerdy brother. And it just closed them to hire me. I never even picked up a phone and called anybody before, but I said, you know, my resume looked great. So they hired me. And then it was straight like that movie Boiler Room, like, you know, row of columns and guys on the phones. No computers back then. It was like 1999. Just we had a bunch of sheets in there told me, call these CEOs and try to close them. And then I just got really good on the phone, started closing deals. And then as a young kid, I realized that they weren't doing the right thing and they were kind of robbing their clients. And I was good on the phone to build a rapport with these CEOs. And that's kind of how I got into the game.
- Speaker #1
So I have to ask this question, and maybe for Cease as well, but I have to ask. You've seen the movie Trading Places with Eddie Murphy?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, yeah.
- Speaker #1
Is that what the actual Wall Street Room looks like when you see in that movie?
- Speaker #2
A little bit, yeah. So these guys had a nice office in La Jolla here in California, suit and ties, and it looked legit. They were just literally doing these crazy pump and dumps or just taking stock from companies and not doing anything. You know, I was about to have a kid. My first kid I had when I was 24. I had a kid on the way. I went and worked for their old business partner and made him a bunch of money. Like I said, I had the kid on the way. I closed this guy a huge deal. This deal had FDA approval. Stock went nuts. He cuts me a check for $17,000. And I literally made him a few million bucks at least. So I was like, what the heck?
- Speaker #1
All right. So anybody who's on Wall Street, listen to this next point. Because. this was shocking to me. So Ben, I'll call you a disruptor because you actually walked into Wall Street. You figured out this system without ripping somebody off in your early twenties. I mean, you're a young kid. You make your first six figure trade in a minute. Can you tell us about that trade and how did you feel that day when you did that?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, it was crazy. So basically this company had got FDA approval. They were a client of ours. I had just signed them up. And I don't know if you remember those liquid Band-Aids back in the day. It was the first liquid Band-Aid company. It got FDA approval. The stock went from like 20-something cents up to a few dollars. And it was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. It was like millions were made in a matter of seconds. And at that point, I was hooked. I was like, oh my God, this is possible.
- Speaker #1
So I'm going to read an excerpt from your book, if you don't mind, because this goes along with this. So you make your first six figure deal in a minute, money comes in. I'm assuming at this point you're addicted to it because you're like, hey, if I can make this in a minute, what can I do in an hour? Right? That's the one I'm going to assume. So here's the excerpt that intrigued me the most. And my daughter was sitting next to me and I read this and she's like, is this real? Says the money came fast and I spent it even faster. Why wouldn't I? I was just in my 20s, earning the sort of money most could only fantasize about. Money that didn't just open doors, it knocked them off their hinges. Private jets flew me to Panama, where I sipped rum on the deck of a luxury villa overlooking the ocean, the warm Caribbean breeze mingling with the scent of expensive cigars. There were yacht parties in the Bahamas that lasted for days. A blur of music, tanned bodies, and top-shelf liquor flowing like water. I stayed in suites at the Ritz Carlton where the concierge addressed me by name and always made sure a ball of Cristal was chilled and waiting in the room. Unlike others, I had never bothered asking for the price of anything. The moment I desired something, I would buy it. Folks, that is an actual excerpt from chapter one in his book. To read the rest of that, you got to go get the book. So Ben, can you tell us, if you can, what would you say your net worth was at the time that all of these things is happening to you?
- Speaker #2
You know, it was crazy. I had probably seven to nine million bucks in a brokerage account. And it was just like, like I said, I came from nothing, you know, so I barely finished high school. All of a sudden, you're this kid with very little education, balling, and I was just having the time of my life. If money would come in, I was on a jet, I'd be in the Bahamas or Panama, Colombia. and I was just living this crazy life and I got used to it. And, uh, it was, you know, now looking back, it was like a movie and I, I just didn't know any better. I just got addicted to the money and addicted to that fast life, you know, and God took a back seat during that time too. And I was just focused. All I cared about was making money.
- Speaker #1
If you did the same thing today at the current age that you are right now, would you have done anything differently that you did by when you were in your twenties? Oh,
- Speaker #2
for sure. I wouldn't do cocaine. I wouldn't buy all the hookers I bought, bought a ton of cars. I was that guy that I bought it. Me and my buddy bought a limo and had it pimped out. And I was the guy I'd pick up all my buddies, go buy bottles at the club. And I was like that guy. And I would never do that again. Now I look back, I'm like, man, I was such an idiot. But the good thing is what the blessing is, is I went through all this stuff in my youth. And now as a 48 year old father of five, God took everything away from me. And I lost everything. And without losing everything, it would have humbled me and put me in the situation where I'm at now. And I'm rebuilding my career on Wall Street, doing everything differently. And now I'm humble.
- Speaker #1
I want to talk about that a little bit because the fact that when you do look at people, especially young folks, I think of NBA all the time, right? Magic Johnson started a program for young people that was coming into the NBA at 19 because he didn't want them to blow all their money. But drugs and women. always seems to come with that territory. No matter what you look like or what your body type is, if you got the right amount of money, you can have anything you want. Well, according to your book, you was doing cocaine very often, frequently. There'd be a line here, I'm sure with the money you had, you could have top shelf stuff. How did you get into cocaine? And being that it's so addictive, how did you finally get out of it?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, so the first... like I said, when I first started that first firm, uh, you know, I was a 20 year old kid. Uh, I was naive. And the, one of the owners, the tan guy at the, at the, my first firm, he, he had all this cocaine in his office. I didn't even know what it was. And he had all these hookers coming in. And that was my first like glimpse of that fast life. And then of course, as I started making money, I started falling into that same pattern. And I was literally, you know, I was in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua. You name it. I was there and I was partying hookers and everything else really what changed my life was The crash and that was I call it my Britney Spears breakdown. I My wife had broken down at Costco and I had two babies at the time and I took two Xanax and two Theraflues and I my wife called me she goes I broke down at Costco I threw on some sweats I said I'll be right there by the time the tow truck got there I was looped I was hanging off the front of the car I was like whoa so we get to the Beamer dealership and my buddy's the manager he throws me the keys to a brand new X5. and he goes, Ben, you look high as hell. And I said, no, dude, I took two Xanax, two TheraFoods. I'm late for a meeting. So I go to my meeting, have a glass of wine, have a great meeting. And then I'm driving back home in this brand new X5. Like I stole it. It was beautiful. It was, you know, brand new, state of the art. And that song going up on a Tuesday was on and I'm driving, we lived on a hill. So I'm driving down the hill into my neighborhood, trying to turn on my street and I'm going probably 60 or 80. and all I heard was a Boom, I hit the curb and I flew 60 feet into my neighbor's roof. And I was so out of it that I tried to reverse and I thought I was in some bushes. And then I kind of sobered up. I realized I was in somebody's house. So I literally took off my shirt. I wiped the steering wheel down. I grabbed as many cell phones as I could. I left the rental agreement in there. And when you Google the crash, you'll see I was parked in the top of his garage, literally. And so my big ass jumped down. I caught a nail on the side of my butt that I call the tiger scratch. And, um, and then, you know, we lived on a hill. So I guess I could see the cops coming from everywhere. I saw the helicopter coming and I'm so stupid. I walked out to the lot next to me just to see what the commotion, you know, and right then 10 cops were like, freeze, like had me at the helicopters light was on me. And the cops were cool. I was really respectful. The cops were like, man, your house is sick. What do you do? And they're like, you don't want to tell us what happened down the street. And I said, I want to talk to my attorney. Like, you know, all these wise guys I worked with told me never talk to cops. So I just always took the fifth and never talked to cops. And so I'm in jail. They couldn't know what to charge me with. And other than being drunk in public. So that happened. My buddy picked me up that I worked with and he goes. He shows me the phone. He goes, you're all over the news. I go, what do you mean? I totally didn't remember. I just knew I had my ass hurt from that scratch. So he shows me a CNN clip and he goes, you're worldwide news. I had everybody calling me seeing if you're okay. And I was like, what? I was like, oh my gosh. So that whole thing, that whole crash, that whole situation changed the projection of my life. And at the time I had a bunch of buddies going to jail, get arrested. So I was just super stressed out and like escaping my reality, I guess.
- Speaker #1
For all you guys' knowledge, when Ben contacted me, he actually sent me the article of that actual crash before I even read it in the book. And I say to my wife, I said, yeah, this guy's coming on the show. And I says, look, this is a crash he had. And she goes, wasn't that like all over the news? Because I remember when they're talking. So she even knew who it was.
- Speaker #2
Everybody. I was literally, I was up in a meeting in Montreal a few months ago and we were telling the story and this kid, he's like, you know, in his thirties or, and he goes, that was you. He goes, we were all talking about it up here. Literally. Like you said, I had, I had clients in Hong Kong and Switzerland call me and they're like, Ben, I heard you're a crash test dummy. It was, it was worldwide embarrassment. My poor wife couldn't leave the, our, our gated house for like a week. Cause there was news cameras outside our gate. It was all bad.
- Speaker #1
Now, you did mention the wise guys. We're going to get into that. But before I do, I want to segue into another piece that I think is very important. If I have her name right, I believe your wife's name is Emily.
- Speaker #2
Yeah, that's her middle name. That's her alias in the book. God bless her.
- Speaker #1
Maybe early to talk about her, but I want to talk about Emily because I feel like she plays a huge part, especially when it comes to changing your life. So let's just take a few moments to talk about her. Can you tell us how you and Emily met?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, for sure. So. I was like a meathead in my twenties working, managing a gym and she, and they were right next door to the gym. This was at Pacific beach. Uh, at the time there's powerhouse gym and then Hooters next door. And so me and my boys would always go Fridays, grab beers. And she was our waitress or we'd have another waitress. And I always had like a little chemistry with her, a little crush. She had a boyfriend. I was whoring around town and doing my thing. And, uh, we just always had a connection. And then, uh, After she broke up with her boyfriend, I think a few years later, and then she started cutting my hair. So she was like my barber. And every time I got a new car, I would pull up in my new car, kind of showing off. And she'd cut my hair and I'd tell her my crazy stories about the hookers and the traveling and all my trouble I'd get into. And she never once judged me. You know, she's a Christian woman. She definitely saved my life for sure, without a doubt. This book is not just about gangsters. It's also kind of a love story in between of that. because God bless her. I always tell people she can kill like 100 people and become a serial killer, and God is still going to let her go to heaven because of dealing with me.
- Speaker #1
Now, I don't know if it's this way in the white community, but in the black community, the barbershop has always been many things, right? It's been a place to get your hair cut. It's been a gossip shop. It's been a counseling spot. So usually, if you can trust anybody in the world, it's your barber.
- Speaker #2
And they're therapists.
- Speaker #1
Right, right. So you're pulling up with all these fancy cars to impress her, but you're telling her all these stories about all these women you've been with. Why do you think that she didn't shy away from that when you told her these stories?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, you know, she just never judged. She was like one of those only people I could tell all my crazy stories to, and she never judged. And I just loved her more and more because of that. She accepted like who I was. And the... The poor woman, the first two days she moved into my house was crazy. Like we had undercover cops the first day illegally searched my house and pulled me over in my house at Martin. And then the second day, these goons came to the house because the market had crashed. And these Middle Eastern guys in L.A. thought that I had screwed them over. And so we went through the craziest stories where I thought she would leave for sure. And she stuck around. and Literally saved my life. And here we are four kids later, married 15 years. And she's the rock of our family. She's definitely going to heaven.
- Speaker #1
So would you say that Emily saved your life?
- Speaker #2
Oh, a thousand percent. Absolutely. Without her, I would have OD'd in a hotel in Panama or something for sure.
- Speaker #1
Reminds me a lot of the Jelly Roll story. Jelly Roll is the brand new hot up and coming country star now at WWE. we But he says his wife, Bunny, is what saved his life, got him on the straight and narrow. And now we see where he's at, right? So I just wanted to shout out to Emily. She's definitely doing God's work for people like us, because you and I figured out that there's some parallels we have in our lives, too, as far as, you know, abuse and things of that nature. I always said this when I tell my story, people like us is very complicated people. There's moods that we go through. There's things that we deal with. And it takes a very special woman to be able to put up with that, no matter what the ups and downs are. I've been married to my current wife now 23 years in October, I'm sorry, on August 23rd, after a few marriages. She's been the only one that's been able to put that puzzle together and stick with me through all the craziness. So I just wanted to give the big shout out to Emily.
- Speaker #2
And your missus, God bless them. As men, we are lost without a good woman behind us, I feel like.
- Speaker #1
I would definitely agree. Now, after that, let's send way back into the wise guys, because now that you this big up and coming name on Wall Street, you're making all this money. You figure out that you kind of crossed the mob unintentionally. So won't you tell us about how you got connected up with the mob and what took place?
- Speaker #2
Yeah. So I go to this poker, this high end poker game in Manhattan. My buddy introduced me to and he goes, yeah, there's a stock guy there you should meet. He's got a lot of of business he's heard about you so i go and uh i meet this guy and he was the most um cool collected guy very methodical and almost i was never really scared of anybody but this guy he was so chill so demeaning that uh i knew he was you know somebody not to mess with and basically he wanted me to do his his deals um And basically what I did in the stock market is I owned investor relations firms. So what I did is I was essentially the marketing arm for OTC companies, kind of like the movie Wolf of Wall Street. But I didn't do anything criminal or anything else. I was just marketing these OTC companies for investors. And what you wouldn't believe in the OTC world is that there's a lot of organized crime and a lot of crazy things that go happen. I saw guys doing pump and dumps and you name it. It's just so... a crazy world back then.
- Speaker #1
So once I guess this guy got ahold of you, you know, you thought you was going to be in and be out. Did you get deeper into the mob to what you wanted to, because you felt like you had to be there? Cause this guy sounded like, Hey, you don't do what we want you to do. That's going to be it.
- Speaker #2
Yeah. You know, and as a kid, not having a father, um, this guy, I call him Sal in the book. He kind of took me on as, uh, as a mentor, really. And, you know, he's always nice to me and like, hey, you know, building me up and and wanting me on his team. And so we kind of started a friendship like that. It was like a mentor kind of friendship. And, you know, I learned a lot from him, but they definitely wanted to keep me doing their deals and working with them for sure.
- Speaker #1
Now, besides the mob, I think you also had connections with the Hells Angels. How did that take place?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, so I was a 22-year-old kid working at Powerhouse Gym on the beach in Pacific Beach. My neighbor was this big, tatted-out dude. I call him Big X in the book. He lived across the street from me, so we'd always say what's up. I didn't even know at the time he was president of the Hells Angels. We just became cool. Him and his boys, the Hells Angels, would want to come to the gym. I just let them work out for free. I'm like, dude, let's go. and I let him I let him work out for free. They became my boys. And I almost like wanted to prospect because I loved, I loved the sense of community they had and the brother, the brother ship they had was, was amazing. And I respected it. And then one of the brothers I was close with passed away. So I showed up to his memorial and I was like the only civilian there. And it got, it got me a lot of respect with the members. And I just love the club, you know, especially from coming from a broken home or like foster care. It was the only sense of family I'd had in my twenties. And I really loved the club. I was not good at riding motorcycles though. And, and then, you know, my path took a different turn because I got onto wall street in 1999. And so I left the gym and kind of left that life behind. And then I find out I go into wall street and here I am kind of back dealing with wise guys again. And, and I got used to it. And it was weird because I used to like dealing with wise guys better than guys on Wall Street, because guys on Wall Street will stab you in the back. Whereas, you know, the Hells Angels or the mob, they have rules and they have an organization. And if you cross those rules, there's there's implications. And for me, I was always an honest guy and I always did what I said I would do. And and so that got me the wrong people wanted to hire me, I guess you could say.
- Speaker #1
So you've come across two. of the most dangerous groups that there is in the world. Hells Angels has been labeled the most dangerous motorcycle club that there is. I live in California, so do you. I live in Palmdale. We start getting nervous because over the last couple months, for whatever reason, the Vagos has started coming into the area. They did a crime up here where they shot somebody on the freeway in 2014. So we're like, where the hell's Angels are going to show up? After dealing with them, though,
- Speaker #0
Did you ever feel scared that, you know, we're making these trades and man, if I do this wrong and something goes haywire, they lose money. They may come and kill me. Did you ever feel like your life was in danger? Yeah.
- Speaker #1
You know, I had a really good relationship with the HAs and I never really felt a danger. But I'll tell you, there was definitely some instances where deals went wrong, like I was talking about earlier. And these guys sent people to my house and I was just a normal guy at that point. And basically in 2008, when the stock market crashed, I did a deal for these guys in LA and I met them down here in San Diego. They're all tatted out. They look kind of sketchy. They paid me cash. I did the deal. It was a day. I can't even make this up. It was a day that 2008 when the market crashed, these guys weren't educated in the stock market at all. So they assume that I burned their deal and it was like the whole market crashed. So the next day, uh, I'm at the gym and I'm getting my ass to Martin. and I had this black. beautiful Aston Martin at the time. And in my window, I saw a reflection of a dude in an SUV and I just knew something was up. And so I get in my ass and it's super low to the ground. And this big, he looked like a football player. He was big, tatted out black dude. And he goes, and he goes, are you, are you Ben? And I go, no, I go, my name's Doug Stevens. He goes, you sure? I go, I know my fucking name, motherfucker. Excuse my language. And he says, okay. And then right then I called my wife and that was my girlfriend. She'd moved in. a day before, mind you, I called her. I said, if some guys come by the house, don't answer the door. She goes, there was two guys here just looking for you. So I literally called the, I called my local police department, scared shitless. And, um, I called the police department and they came out and they're like, Ben, you live so far here that you got to get a gun because by the time we get out here, you could be dead. I'd never even picked up a firearm in my life. So I go, you know, and I'm balling at the time. So I buy this nine millimeter Kimber for like 1200 bucks. I put a laser on it. Never even shot the thing. Uh, I just kept it by the front door and I, and I, and a video camera. And one of my buddies was a detective. He goes, put a video camera there. That way, if you, if anything happens, you've got it all on video. So literally two weeks later, I come home from the gym. I'm in the shower. I got this big wooden door and my wife, she comes right upstairs. She says they're back. and I go I just lost it I really I threw on some Adidas pants I freaking grabbed my gun loaded it hit play on the record swung the door open scared out of my mind mind you my hand was shaking and I freaking put this gun up on it I had the guy I had the drop on him he literally when we pulled the video and we you know screenshot it like watched it slowly he was pulling a strap out while I had the laser on him. And I was so scared. And then after they left, like I walked them out with the gun in my waistband and I walked out to their car. They had no plates on there. They're clearly there to rough me up or whatever. So I literally got into my Porsche at that time and I had the gun on my lap and I'm driving to my neighborhood looking for them because I lost it. I was so mad. And thank God I never found them because I probably would have shot the car up, to be honest. I was so angry because of that situation. Those guys went back and told the Middle Eastern guys that I had shot. I had shot at them. So I went from this like normal guy in the OTC world to all of a sudden I'm like a quote unquote gangster because I shot at people. And the rumor got out that I had like shot at these guys when I didn't. So it was kind of accidental good marketing, I guess, because people wouldn't screw me over. but It never happened. I didn't shoot at anybody.
- Speaker #0
So I'm being very deliberate in the questions I'm asking because I can go real deep. I've read all 17 chapters of the book just to let the audience know how good this is. I've been podcasting nine years. I've done this show now three. So this is the only show I've ever had where I've had to sit down and read books that people's written. Out of all the books I've read, that has been very intriguing. And there's been a lot of them, right, that I probably could have polished off in that day. Your book is the only one that I started reading and didn't put it down. I think I was like, what, two hours? And I'm like, I'm at the 17th chapter. It was a page turner. And I thought at some point my daughter would just say, shut up. Right. Because she all the time, let me read you this book. And it bounces off you. And pretty soon she's like, okay, dad, don't you got something else to do? But she was sitting here going, okay, next chapter. Okay. So that's why I'm being deliberate because I want everybody to go and read this book. I think at this point you're you're out. You're starting to change your life around. You end up taking a little vacation with Emily over to Mexico over in Cabo San Lucas, which I've been there. Very beautiful place to be. Somehow you guys befriend a woman whose husband is like part of the head of the similar cartel. Can you tell us about that?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, and like I always say you cannot make up my life So we moved to Mexico after my crash through the through my neighbor's roof first out of the Nicaragua And that's a whole nother story and I left Nicaragua because I'm so crazy and I got a lot of trouble there But we end up in Cabo. I know nobody there. I shaved my head like I said is my Britney Spears breakdown So I literally shaved my head and we're in Cabo. We put our kids in private school I knew nobody there at the time. This was 2014 And my wife is raving about this friend she met at school, this beautiful Venezuelan lady. You got to meet her husband. He's got an off-road racing team. You guys will hit it off. So I call him Carlos in my book. And I go out. Carlos invites me. He goes, let's go have some wine together. So he tells me the address. I show up. And this place is closed. But they opened it up just for me and him, which was kind of weird, right? I go in there, I'm showing him my car crash, telling him my crazy stories. He feels comfortable enough at that point to tell me what he really does. And then he goes into the city and goes, look, listen, Ben, I'm from Sinaloa. I got these routes, you know, basically he tells me his whole routes and what he does for a living. And he goes, he goes, Ben, do you want a part of this enterprise? And I said, I said, Carlos, I like my head where it's at. And that was kind of our joke. And he started laughing. I said, dude, no, I'm good, bro. Like, you know, he offered me a position. And then what happened is we were working out together. I got to tell you, I've been around HAs. I've been around mobsters. This guy, Carlos, had some bullet holes. He was, one, the most soft-spoken, like, calm man, which was really crazy. And we hit it off. We'd go out to double dates all the time. And then what happened was I, my wife was over Cabo. She's like, I can't do it anymore. I'm a California girl. They, we, we got our house here in San Diego. Her, her dad did. And, um, I, I still had kind of heat. Like a lot of my friends were still getting arrested. So I wanted to be in Mexico, but close enough to the family. So I got a beach house, uh, just outside Tijuana and I would, I would cross the border every freaking few days to go see the family. and My buddy Carlos, he left Cabo and moved up into TJ, one of those high-rises right there. And it was funny. I had an attorney down there that was also in the stock business, and that's another story about him. But he saw my buddy and goes, dude, you better be careful. That's a made guy. And he was really freaked out by him. After El Chapo had got arrested... Uh, they sent for my buddy Carlos up to Mexico city for a meeting and he never came home. His wife sent them money, his watches liquidated stuff, and we never heard from him again. And he had five kids like I do. We were, you know, we were boys.
- Speaker #0
So do you think they, I mean, for those who don't know, whoever probably should, center law cartel is the biggest cartel in Mexico. Usually when things happen, people get kidnapped or whatever. The first thing they say is look at them. Do you think that they just turned on him or do you think that he crossed somebody he didn't know? What do you think happened?
- Speaker #1
I honestly would love to know. I miss him. He was a cool dude, but it's one of those things I think we'll probably never know. Here's the craziest story that I didn't put in my book is when I was in Cabo, you know, I had met this girl that was in real estate trying to help me look for an apartment. Well, she had a baby with my boy. We started telling stories. She goes, wait. are you talking about Carlos? And they had a, so other than his wife, he, he had a, he had a baby in Cabo and I randomly met her looking for an apartment. And it was just like how life is so weird.
- Speaker #0
So at that point, now you've become friends with Carlos, head of the similar cartel and all kinds of regards. He's offering you a piece of this action. You've come from that life now trying to put that behind you. Was it hard?
- Speaker #1
to say no did you give it a second thought or did you know that you were done and you thought maybe the cost of your life if you did yeah i was done i i mean i was i'd be his friend and i never judge any of my friends what they do for a living but i wouldn't cross that line i think the only people i'm scared of in this world is probably the sinaloa cartel and my wife those
- Speaker #0
are the two so i guess that leads to this out of all the money you've had more money in your 20s than most people see in a lifetime, women at your disposal, people putting Cristal on ice just because they hear you're coming, jet setting. One day you wake up and you, and to boot, a good wife who's sticking by you at this point. One day you wake up and just say you want to be done. How did you finally decide it was over for you in this type of lifestyle? And how did you get out?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, I think it was really, I think it was a combination of the BMW crash and then Nicaragua was a whole nother chapter and a whole crazy stuff. And then, you know, after the whole situation in Cabo, I moved back to the States. I started this Jeep company. I got out of the stock market for like at least four or five years. I started, when I was in Mexico, I had a Jeep shipped down and I just started taking my kids off roading every day. And so I was like, just got into that Jeep culture. Um, and I decided to, to, uh, start a Jeep company making parts. And I met a dude on Instagram that was going to be the CEO. I was just supposed to be the finance guy. So I asked Benji, my, my son was five at the time. I said, Benji, what's a good name for a Jeep company? And he just looked up at me and he goes, skull crushers. And I had chills. I was like, oh my gosh, that's it, my boy. And, uh, so I tried to buy skull crushers with a C and it was like 18,000 bucks. So I ended up putting a K for crushers and it was $11. And here we are, he's 13 now, the company's eight years old and we got parts all around the world and it, you know, the company blew up. And so I focused on that for about eight years. And then in the last three years, a good buddy of mine in Utah that I knew since 99 called me and says, Ben, you ready to get back in the business? You want to learn about doing stock loans? And he owned a firm called SLS Group. in Utah. And so I got back into wall street, but on my own terms and, and just not dealing with the craziness anymore. It's like, I'm dealing with NASDAQ companies, CEOs, and like, you know, I net individuals and I'm having a blast being back, but it didn't, it took all the stuff that I went through to get me to where I am now. And now I'm like a humble father. I'm still kind of crazy. My wife would probably tell you, but, um, I'm old and boring. I'm in bed by like 10 o'clock now watching Dateline.
- Speaker #0
So that brings to mind this question too. So being that you are back at Wall Street, you're doing different stuff now. Do you fear that the release of this book may cost people not to have trust in you? Or do you think it's going to work the opposite? Now you're putting your story out there. They know where you're coming from and they can trust you.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, I mean, I got such a good name in the business because I never screwed anybody over. So I have, you know, I've got colleagues that I've known for 25 years. or 30 years that bring me business. So I got a great name in the business. I think telling my story, that's a really good question. There might be some people that it rubs the wrong way. One of my partners did just get out of jail, or former friend. And I guess we'll see. But my goal is to turn this into a show like Entourage or Billions or a movie. And that's the end goal for the book. I really want to get my story out there. And if I help... one person, you know, with my, with my background or a foster kid or anything else, um, you know, I mean, I don't want them to follow my path for it by any means, but if it helps somebody know that you could do anything in this world, that's the whole point is I came from absolutely nothing, made a bunch of money, uh, humbled myself. And now I'm, you know, back on wall street and on my own terms, it's been a crazy journey.
- Speaker #0
In your own words. What would you say to someone if they popped up on the street and said, why should I read your book?
- Speaker #1
Well, it's pretty simple. If you like that movie, Wolf of Wall Street, or you love true crime, this is like Wolf of Wall Street, but add the mob. A lot of people that read it say it's kind of like Goodfellas meets Wolf of Wall Street. I can't even make this stuff up. So I pretty much will guarantee. anybody that reads this book is going to absolutely love it and be tripped out.
- Speaker #0
What do you hope readers take away from reading Wall Street Mafia?
- Speaker #1
Just that like, you know, one, that anything is possible. Two, you can fall multiple times in life and it's just about how you get up. I've had so many setbacks and I've been kicked down so many times, been screwed out of millions, you name it. And I always get back up and I keep fighting and He... uh, innovating, you know,
- Speaker #0
in closing, is there anything that you would like to say to your fans or readers that may be listening to this today?
- Speaker #1
Yeah. I'd love to give a shout out to all my, uh, Jeep people on Facebook. Uh, they helped me with the color of the book. I would ask them during my whole process of writing this book, what color I should have, how they like the, the, the, the book and this and that. And, um, it was super helpful. And I have such a loyal, are kind of like dead. I don't want to say fan base, but I have a loyal group of people in the Jeep community that have my back and follow all my crazy stories and starting skull crushers was, was crazy to have a bunch of stories about that as well. So, uh, yeah, shout out to everybody that's, uh, had my back.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, if you guys are definitely looking for G parts, skull crushers, go there, man. All that's going to be in the link. I've checked out the website. Very well put together. So yeah, man, I'm happy that you came out on the other end of that.
- Speaker #1
Thank you.
- Speaker #0
Up until your story, the most craziest story that I think I've ever had on my podcast was one called Among the Bros at Max Marshall. I actually recorded that back in April of 27th of 2024. Max Marshall was experienced. exposing Greek life in colleges. And that book went deep with drugs and rape and murder. And I was like, there is no other story that's going to be crazier than this until you showed up. I was going to tell the audience, I know some of the things you talked about today seems like it is totally ridiculous. I've vetted all of this. I've read all 17 chapters of his book. It's totally a hundred percent true. I thank you for putting this out here. You and I, Ben, we have some of the same wavelengths. I know you did research to me. You probably found a couple of podcasts that I've been on. I've always said that if I ever told my story, which I do all the time, is because I'm not doing it to hurt anyone or even to get gratification. But I want to help the next person not do the same things I did or made mistakes or how you get out of a domestic abusive relationship. and so I always tell everybody too whether you are a victim or a perpetrator in it, every time we tell these stories, we have to relive them in our own mind. And if it's something painful in that, we're doing that just because we care and we want people to be able to get out of the things that they're done. So I totally appreciate you. You are a complete, a hundred percent humble guy living the life that you've lived. You know, most of us talk to you like, man, you want my story because I've done this. You didn't come off like that. And that's one reason I called you back. Cause I'm like, if this dude been through all of this, he certainly is a humble guy. And you are. I've seen your Facebook. I've seen your interactions with people. They're very grateful and humble. So thank you for gracing my face today. This won't be the last time. I do want to have you come back after the book releases so we can get more deeper into some of the stories that's there. I also want you to come back and tell the story about skull crushers more than what we have here, because I want people to see that no matter what walk of life you in, you can always get out and do something positive.
- Speaker #1
That's it, dude. It's all about how you get up. When you get kicked down, you get right back up. And that's just like the whole premise of the book, as well as my wife being by my side and everything else we live through. It's just crazy.
- Speaker #0
Well, Ben, I thank you for coming on the show. You're always welcome to come back and we definitely will have you come back, man. So thank you for your time and I appreciate it.
- Speaker #1
Thank you, David. I appreciate you, man. God bless.
- Speaker #0
all right guys that was the incredible ben skull you can get your copy of wall street mafia absolute power corrupts exclusively at amazon and if you are listening to this before august 29th 2025 you can pre-order it right now if it's after his pub date of august 29th then you can purchase it and either way this book is going to cost you only 9.99 the story that he's telling easily 16 to $20 book. So 999, the link will be in the show notes of this episode.
- Speaker #1
Oh, David, you can also get signed copies and paperbacks on my website, wallstreammafia.com.
- Speaker #0
Signed copies, paperbacks. Go get those, and we'll put that link in the show notes to help Ben out. He's spreading good news. So thank you guys for joining us today. I know you have many choices in True Crime and Enemy podcast. I am grateful that I am one of your choices, that you have been listening to the only Three-faceted podcast of its kind. Be good to yourself and each other. And always remember, always stay humble. An act of kindness can make someone's day. A little love and compassion can go a long way. And remember that there is an extraordinary person in all of us. I'll catch you guys on the next one.
- Speaker #2
Don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe. Join us on social media. One link to the link tree has it all. Feel free to drop us a line at truecrimeandauthors at gmail.com. Cover art and logo designed by Arsliff. Sound mixing and editing by David MacLam. Intro script by Sophie Wild and David MacLam. Theme music, Legendary by New Alchemist. Introduction and ending credits by Jackie Voice. See you next time on True Crime, Authors, and Extraordinary People.
