rant · moment 14 of 18
Howie the Mortgage Scammer and Forex Russian Mafia Ties
from Built To Win · #43
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
7 minTim tells an extended story about Howie, a wild ex-coworker from his Long Island mortgage days who threatened to kill his office manager, dabbled in shady online directories, did tons of bad coke, and had worked for a currency trading firm allegedly tied to Russian mafia money.
- 42:54Mike was the legit older guy trying to keep order; Howie and Mike got into beef over a deal or payout that escalated quickly.
- 43:05Howie would walk around the office threatening people, bragging about his connections to rich gangsters and slimy people.
- 43:27Tim explains why people kept Howie around despite his instability—he's the type with no limits, willing to do anything.
- 44:14Everything Howie did was a scam, but it was always the right scam or the wrong scam depending on the angle.
- 44:49On the night he got fired, Howie was coked out of his face in his apartment talking about moving to Santo Domingo to live in a palace.
- 45:36Tim describes sitting in Howie's apartment sniffing bad coke that Howie kept cutting and trying to flip for profit.
- 46:08Howie worked at a currency trading firm on Wall Street that was actually a front for Russian Mafia private bank accounts.
- 46:53After leaving that world, Howie ended up in Long Island mortgages like many others from that scene, and some of those guys now sell solar panels.
- 47:24Tim says Howie was a guy where legitimately nothing would surprise him—not many people are that far off the ideological grid.
- 49:34Howie's sales tactic was to talk extremely fast and throw in as many words and financial terms as possible to confuse people on the phone.
- 49:51Howie would claim he was on Wall Street looking out over the stock exchange while calling people in North Carolina about refinancing modular homes.
HowieRussian MafiaKim Jong UnMikeLong IslandWall StreetFranklin FirstSanta DomingoSuffolk CountyNorth CarolinaBriarcliff