This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast More what You Hear weekday afternoons on the drive. He does not carry his guitar in a gunny sack, nor sit beneath the tree by the railroad track. This Johnny be Good got a degree in English and then set out to make his own mark on the literary world. Little did he know it would happen because of his
good friend, best friend. For a matter of fact, Ray Trepani and Johnny be Good and Ray Trapani now hosts a podcast that can be heard on the iHeartRadio app and it's the story of bitcoon creating a con is the name of the podcasts. Johnny, let's start with you and your relationship with Ray. How did it begin? Let's uh, yeah, So Ray's been my best friend since third fourth grade. We played Dot Kong sixty four together. I think that's how we met originally, and you know, you just grew
up together. It's been like a brother to me. We've been inseparable and then I think our lives kind of took drastically different paths, but we always kept that friendship going. I like to say I'm his best friend and I'm also his biggest critic. So it's funny you mentioned that whole thing because I talked to other people that I studied with, and they're like, oh, how did you get all like? How did you break in? How did you do all this? I was like, Oh, it's easy, just
have a criminal best friend. Ray. How did this type of work appeal
to you? And when did it begin? So since I was a little kid, I was always doing kind of like I was gambling at twelve, doing drugs at twelve, and that kind of just led me into a path of crime, and you know, from drug dealing into fraud essentially early on in my life, tried to get straight, tried to get sober, only lasted a little bit of time, and then I kind of moved to Miami, continued that and got into some bigger fraud down there, which led me
into CenTra, which was my biggest crime to date. And you know, that's where we created a cryptocurrency and raised tens of millions of dollars. They charged us with about a thirty million dollar fraud, but it was more in one hundred million dollar range. Creating a con is the name of the podcast. The story of bitcnned and the story is brought to you on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere you get podcasters by Johnny be Good and Ray Trapani. What
did you think Johnny when he brought this story to you? Well, I mean when I was when he first called me. It was actually when The New York Times came out with an article about him, and he called me kind of in like a fury. And at the time, I believe you were still on drugs. Yeah, you were still on drugs. And he was like, I'm suing them, I'm suing the New York Times. I was like, I don't know if this is going to work out that well
for you. You know, It's kind of it's funny growing up with Ray because I know where he's coming from with a lot of these things that he's doing. It's it's it's the natural progression, you know, for him and the environment he grew up in. So yeah, it's I have mixed feelings on everything. I think. I don't agree with what he did. I don't think it was right, but I also can I can understand where he's coming from. Johnny be Good, Ray Tripani. The podcast is the it's
called a bitcoined, does story a bitcoined? The creation of a creating a creating a calm the story of bitcoined? Ray, you were in Miami at the time all this came together. I can imagine that you didn't have to reach very far to find deep pockets. Yeah, I mean twenty four in Miami with millions of dollars was not a bad life at the time, I'll tell you that much. Well, just finding people out there. We were getting money worldwide, right, so money's coming from every country, you know,
everywhere in the United States. This cryptocurrency that you created, Ray, did you fully understand it when you did? I don't think anybody really needs to fully understand it. There's not like much to understand. It's just it's simpler than people try to make it out to be. In my opinion, it's always it's always because it's so intangible. That's the thing that's always puzzled me about it. Yeah, it's you know, all it is is just
basically just numbers on a Ledger where it can't be deleted. That's the simplest way to put it. Johnny be good, Ray Trapani, and the name of the podcast is creating a con the story of Bitconned. It is out now everywhere you get podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app. Johnny, did you realize how deep and how wide this went? I mean not at first.
No. And it's funny when you're talking to Ray because I think he's been through like so many crazy things in his life that when we were going over the entire story, there'd be moments where I'm like, oh, like, did anything crazy happen around this time? And He's like, I mean nothing, really like that crazy. I mean, I almost got killed in South Korea, but like and I'm like, wait, that sounds pretty crazy to me. It's like, oh, really you think people care about that?
It wasn't him, it was Scarby. But there was just a lot of moments where there were stories Ray didn't necessarily deemed too exciting. But I was like, dude, that's just because your threshold is way out of whack creating a con The story of bitcondon Ray, when did it all start? When? Did at what point did you realize, Okay, this is about to crash down. Well, once the SEC got involved, that's where it got really convoluted there. Did you ever think about scramming to Korea while it all
blown over it. I think people always say that in hindsight, I still wouldn't do it. I think, you know, you don't find one happy person that's running from the US government. TI, along with Johnny be Good and the podcasts is the Creating a Con. The story of Bitcon available every way Get podcast including the iHeartRadio app. Johnny, were you did this come to you while the story was breaking or had it already broken and Ray gone through the justice system. No, I was actually in court the day Ray
God's sentence. He was cool. When we first started kind of putting the story together. Ray was still on house arrest and he was still just cooperating, and we didn't you know, I was, you know, living with my roommates and we would just get on the phone every night and type things out. There was no real promise of anything to happen. And we did that for I would say a year before anyone really had any interest in the
story. It's a true crime podcast and the true sense of the word, because we're talking to the man who actually committed the crime, Ray Trapani. Johnny be Good is his best friend. Creating a con. The story bitcond is the podcast and Ray how long have you been clean and does it ever occur to you to appeal to that lifestyle again. No, I've been sober six years April twentieth, twenty eighteen. And when I'm off drugs, like,
I have no interest in doing crime. I mean sometimes I see loopholes and stuff and I'm like, ah, but I veer away from it, creating a con the story of bitcond It is a true crime story and available on the iHeartRadio app with the Life of Raytrapani and Johnny B. Good doesn't have to worry about his name being l liked because it's on this podcast.
Thanks for joining us, Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation