The New Untouchables
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Check out the series that inspired The New Untouchables here:

Two full seasons to binge!

Real Progressives and the creators of “The Con” present a new series, “The New Untouchables:  The Pecora Files,” meticulously detailing the rampant financial fraud that has been poisoning our economy for the last century, and what is to be done about it.  “The Con” took a simple but revolutionary approach to explaining the epidemic of elite fraud driving the great financial crisis of 2007-2008.

The New Untouchables presents the heroes, one at a time, who sought to prevent it and hold the elite predators accountable.  ”The Con” deconstructs the largest criminally engineered heist and cover up in history with no high level convictions of the Wall Street Execs. The system we’re experiencing has spun completely out of control. The Corruption is what is driving the USS Titanic. It must end before it ends us.

Grab some cool show merch while you’re here!

Patrick Lovell

Patrick S. Lovell

Patrick is a 30 year veteran of media production. He is producer and protagonist of the recent documentary limited series: THE CON.
Eric Vaughan

Eric S. Vaughan

Eric is an award-winning commercial director/producer with extensive experience in leading-edge media production from narrative films to VR/immersive experiences. Eric has recently completed his long-form documentary series directorial debut, THE CON.
Steve Grumbine

Steven D. Grumbine

Steve is the Founder, President and CEO of Real Progressives and Real Progress in Action, two non-profits dedicated to educating the public about Modern Monetary Theory.

The Latest - Season 2: Episode 14

Play Video

Steve Grumbine, Patrick Lovell, and Eric Vaughan join Paul Jay in a spirited discussion from Paul’s decades long insight that reveals the game of deception played by the powerful. What does he think? For one thing, he believes by 2007-2008 the power of finance got so big we might be past the point of no return, yet Jay applauds all efforts by those who work to curb the huge financial powers, and there is a convergence of the financial sector with organized crime.

Playlist - Seasons 1 & 2

Playlist
1/20 videos
1
Season 2 Episode 14   Why Doesn’t Media Understand Control Fraud
Season 2 Episode 14 Why Doesn’t Media Understand Control Fraud
01:03:51
2
S2 E13:  Ferdinand Pecora Where Are You Now?
S2 E13: Ferdinand Pecora Where Are You Now?
57:30
3
S2 E12 Populism Saved Us Before. Where is it Now? (Thomas Frank!)
S2 E12 Populism Saved Us Before. Where is it Now? (Thomas Frank!)
01:01:52
4
S2:E11 Systemic Corruption is the Point
S2:E11 Systemic Corruption is the Point
39:27
5
S2:E10 Justice is Coming
S2:E10 Justice is Coming
01:17:17
6
S2:E9 Ignore at Your Own Peril
S2:E9 Ignore at Your Own Peril
01:07:20
7
S2:E8 Insurance is the Point
S2:E8 Insurance is the Point
01:46:41
8
S2:E7 You Really Thought You Knew It All
S2:E7 You Really Thought You Knew It All
01:12:13
9
S2:E6 Smoking Gun
S2:E6 Smoking Gun
01:27:02
10
S2:E5 When the Foundation Rots, Systems Collapse
S2:E5 When the Foundation Rots, Systems Collapse
01:50
11
S2:E4 The Walls Cave In
S2:E4 The Walls Cave In
48:45
12
S2:E3 The Devil is in the Details
S2:E3 The Devil is in the Details
01:18:10
13
S2:E2 No One is Safe
S2:E2 No One is Safe
01:03:40
14
S2:E1 The American Nightmare
S2:E1 The American Nightmare
01:02:24
15
S1:E5 Those Who Would Have Drained the Swamp
S1:E5 Those Who Would Have Drained the Swamp
01:16:15
16
S1:E4 Inside the Belly of the Beast
S1:E4 Inside the Belly of the Beast
01:05:17
17
S1:E3 If You Can Fog a Mirror
S1:E3 If You Can Fog a Mirror
01:08:31
18
S1:E2 It's Theft
S1:E2 It's Theft
01:06:41
19
S1:E1 The Vaccine for Systematic Corruption
S1:E1 The Vaccine for Systematic Corruption
01:10:10
20
TNU: The Pecora Files [Series Trailer]
TNU: The Pecora Files [Series Trailer]
03:24

Listen to the Podcast

Steve, Patrick and Eric talk with two of the foremost experts on corruption within the financial system, William K. Black former OTS Regulator and Arthur Wilmarth, Professor of Law at George Washington University. Listen as they describe how banking was made safe and “boring,” and how the walls that made it so have been systematically demolished leading to the white-collar lawlessness of our current day.

Steve, Eric and Patrick connect with former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and retired detective Tom Murphy. They reflect on the lessons of their historic fraud investigation and RICO prosecution of Ohio-based predatory lenders in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, why they were the only cops on the beat, and what the government blueprint should be moving forward. 

Steve, Eric, and Patrick hear West Virginia real estate appraiser Lori Noble’s tales from the front lines as she talks about the Federal Government’s 1999 repeal of Glass-Stegall via passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley that was “sold” to appraisers to enhance privacy for information to cross state lines. What happened was carnage. Lenders like Countrywide inflicted devastation on communities, and Lori saw real death in the communities she served. It didn’t pay to be an honest appraiser because that meant you’d get no work. Yet, having an honest appraisal remains a crucial part of any mortgage application process. 

In the second part of this episode, Michael Winston, former Countrywide executive and whistleblower, discusses his education and grounding in ethical business practices, how his career took a giant U-turn at Countrywide, and the lonely, yet important nobility of being a whistleblower. 

Steve, Eric and Patrick are joined by William K. Black who reveals the curious case of Richard Bowen, former Citigroup VP and whistleblower, who blew the cover off the motherlode of fraudulent mortgages being sold through Citi. Bowen and Black engage in a trial examination-style conversation about why and to whom he reported Citi’s malfeasance, how the regulators teased him with their interest and despite the weight of his revelations, did nothing about it. Bowen also reveals why Robert Rubin deserves a special place in the history of financial crime.

Steve, Eric, and Patrick introduce Chris Swecker, former Chief Deputy in the FBI Criminal Division during the George W. Bush administration and Paul Pelletier, former prosecutor in the Department of Justice under Obama. 

Swecker reflects on how he built a national dragnet to reign in mortgage fraud and prosecute its biggest perpetrators, only to be scuttled by the high-profile political relationship between the targets and his elected bosses. Pelletier, similarly, weighs in on how a massive, national case was built against the biggest predatory lenders, only to be pushed aside by twin villains, the revolving door between the public and private sectors and the pernicious pro-bank ideology held by his appointed superiors.

A nightmare of unprecedented magnitude destroyed millions of Americans and tens of millions of people around the world caught in the web of deceit and no way out. No matter one’s race, gender, or even economic status, let alone personal achievement, if they got trapped in the machine of corruption, no one was immune to the inhuman betrayal of a judicial system that rewarded the criminals.  

Join Steve Grumbine and Patrick Lovell as they take you on a journey suffered by four victims: Margaret Carswell, Marina Read, Lynn Behrens, and Leslie James. This episode shows how the aftermath was insanely confusing, and for a reason. To this day very few understand what happened and we’re driving to change that.

Doug Boggs and Paris Dube join Steve Grumbine and Patrick Lovell to discuss their personal victimization engineered by liars and thieves. “It’s the same, old story,” Boggs says. Banks tell people who are current in their mortgage payments, “We can’t do anything until you stop making your payments for three months!” This is part of the scheme. The big lie. Then more lies. People trust banks and the court system, but when both are perpetrating financial terrorism, no one is safe.

Steve Grumbine, Patrick Lovell, and Eric Vaughan speak with Ilene Goldstein, a real estate agent, whose husband had been a Wall Street stockbroker before his disability, thought they were somewhat sophisticated in financial matters, but discovered the deceit and fraud was overwhelming.

O’Brien and Thigpen had the courage to do what was right in a world of a whole lot of wrong. This episode is monumentally bigger than Deep Throat and Watergate. Monumentally bigger than Oliver North and Contragate. It’s even monumentally larger than Trump and the Insurrection that will never be held accountable because we have become that corrupt.

In our next episode, you meet Lainey Hashorva, a woman who defines grit and determination to rise above the pollution of Wells Fargo criminality, but it didn’t come without exacting a pound of flesh. We will also introduce you to Beth Jacobson, who has an extraordinary story and is an expert witness in the foreclosure madness. What she reveals to us is quite literally the smoking gun of the murder weapon that killed the American Dream.

Steve Grumbine, Patrick Lovell, and Eric Vaughan are joined in this episode by attorneys Thomas Cox and Max Gardner who are legal professionals and experts in real estate and foreclosure law, making them invaluable “whistle-blowers” in the legal profession and judiciary as they expose the criminal rot within the system.

In this episode, co-hosts Patrick Lovell, Steve Grumbine and Eric Vaughan talk with Terrie Crowley, who fought her illegal foreclosure in the courts of Chicago for 12 years through 11 judges on her own against the legal fire power of one of the largest financial firms in the world. Enter Nicholas Kostopoulos, a former DOJ Prosecutor out of Miami who soon learned mortgage fraud wasn’t much different than the cocaine drug cases he was prosecuting in the 1980s.

In this episode our guests Kathleen Engel, research professor of law specializing in financial services at Suffolk University in Boston, and Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, former foreign exchange analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will transport viewers into the machine of corporate thievery that games malleable brokers to deceive the uninformed and most vulnerable.

Bruce Jacobs, a veteran prosecutor and defense attorney in Miami, joins Patrick Lovell, Steve Grumbine and Eric Vaughan for a discussion beginning with the concept of integrity.

Countless numbers of Americans believe all politicians are corrupt and there’s nothing they can do about it, but this episode’s guest, Dennis Kucinich, once the youngest Mayor of a major US City, Cleveland, Ohio in the early 70’s and later elected to Congressman, reveals the remarkable story of the “Boy Mayor” who stood up to corruption refusing to sell Cleveland Municipal Light and Power back to the banks during an era of potential bankruptcy.

Join Steve, Eric, and Patrick as they join Thomas Frank to discuss how a populism movement can rise to the challenge now, considering all the wrongs we have and continue to reveal.

Author Michael Perino joins us today to shine a light yet again on how and why Pecora was the right guy for the right time in history and why what we have achieved with The New Untouchables: The Pecora Files is exactly how this had to play out today.

Steve Grumbine, Patrick Lovell, and Eric Vaughan join Paul Jay in a spirited discussion from Paul’s decades long insight that reveals the game of deception played by the powerful. What does he think? For one thing, he believes by 2007-2008 the power of finance got so big we might be past the point of no return, yet Jay applauds all efforts by those who work to curb the huge financial powers, and there is a convergence of the financial sector with organized crime.

Backstory

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