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Paper Castles: Scams, Frauds & Collapses

Paper Castles: Scams, Frauds & Collapses

By: Talking Labs
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Scams, frauds, and collapses — from Ponzi's original 45 days to crypto's biggest failures — told dry, from the court record. Victor Hale narrates. Weekly.

Episodes are produced with AI narration and scripting, with human editorial review. A Talking Labs production.© Talking Labs Economics True Crime
Episodes
  • The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice.

    The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice.
    12 Sep 2026
    Paris, the mid-1920s. Five scrap-metal dealers receive confidential letters on government stationery, inviting them to a hotel to bid on seven thousand tonnes of wrought iron: the Eiffel Tower is coming down. Victor Hale on Victor Lustig — the liner cons, the Rumanian money-printing box that worked on a timer, why asking for a bribe is what proved he was genuine, and why the most famous confidence trick of the century is the one piece of his career nobody can document.

    The counterfeiting conviction is court record. The Eiffel Tower sale and the Capone story survive chiefly on Lustig's own telling and are flagged as such.

    This episode was produced with AI narration and scripting, with human editorial review.
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    26 mins
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