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Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast

Wall Street Insider Flee's The Country!

26 Dec 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What does comfort mean to Ben Port?

0.031 - 22.611 Unknown

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53.699 - 73.224 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

All my friends were getting arrested. I needed to get the hell out of town, and I fly 60 feet into my neighbor's roof. I take a one-way to Nicaragua, totally hiding in the jungle. What she did was stupid. It just happened to work. My mom was one of those... terrible mother. She was married like five guys. And, um, I was born in England.

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73.625 - 83.415 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Uh, she moved to the States with my, uh, sister's father, who's my father's, um, business partner. And so they moved to Tahoe. Yeah. Crazy.

83.455 - 84.976 Unknown

It'll make it hard to keep a marriage together.

84.996 - 104.925 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Yeah. Yeah. So then I stayed in England. Um, long story short, I moved, uh, over to the States when I was two. And then, um, she was just a terrible mom. I, uh, My grandmother passed away from breast cancer when I was nine and she was back in England. And I said, I always told my mom I wanted to go to foster care. I didn't even know what it was.

105.667 - 129.212 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

And next thing I know, I'm on a plane going to England and getting dropped off at foster care after the funeral. So that's kind of how that started. My childhood started and then I was in foster care until I was about 14. And then she married a Christian guy in California and he came to England and he said, why don't you come see California for 30 days, see if you like it and stay with us.

129.192 - 142.856 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

So I went to California. I knew California had way better opportunities than the States. In England, it's like you're either rich or poor, and the weather sucks there, too. So I moved to California at 14.

Chapter 2: What led Ben to leave the country?

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You could live outside. You basically don't even need a house, practically.

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152.192 - 174.943 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Yeah, exactly. So that's kind of how that started. Um, and, uh, I, I just can't even talk to her anymore. I turned 40, you know, eight years ago, cut her out of my life. It was the best thing I ever did. And when I turned 18, um, I was going to go to college, went to Chico for like a week, uh, cause there was hot girls in this one English class. And, uh,

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174.923 - 200.246 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

And I ended up just selling drugs in high school and steroids. And we went on one of those spring break trips down to Mexico. We stayed in San Diego. And I knew San Diego. I was moving there. So the next thing I knew, I packed up my car from Northern California. This was 1999. Moved to San Diego. and started working at a gym and, and, uh, bouncing at a club. And then I was selling steroids.

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200.266 - 205.051 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

I was going to TJ and bringing, uh, roids back over and shipping them to Northern California.

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And how are you getting them like across the border? Yeah. So we would usually, by the way, apparently we just interviewed a guy who was doing the same thing. Yeah. You know, apparently living that close to them. You're just, you're just going into a pharmacy and just giving them a list, right?

219.807 - 221.209 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Like, yeah, exactly.

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How do you get them back?

222.19 - 239.235 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Yeah, so I'd go with a group of friends, and we would go party for the night, and I'd tape them all around my balls and stuff, or we'd drive across. And then I'd just walk across the border drunk with a bunch of friends, and that's how that kind of little side business started for me for a little bit.

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That's almost the same thing he—

Chapter 3: How did Ben's childhood influence his decisions?

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So right now we're going to give you $30,000. And it's like, you owe me $110,000. You know what I'm saying? No, but the new split, you're going to make more money. But you owe me. And because you see people are making money, but they're really kind of fucking a lot of people over. It's like almost a business model with these guys, especially in – In palm beach.

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Yeah, that's their business model get a bunch of young kids that'll work their fucking asses off Promise them a bunch of money string them along string them along pay them a little bit a little bit a little bit and then just Fire them and give them nothing.

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475.605 - 488.605 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Yeah, that's exactly what happened I was getting really good and then these ceos were calling me and they're like They're like ben. What the hell are you guys doing to my stock and nothing's happening or this and that and I finally started realizing that they weren't doing anything for their clients.

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489.506 - 516.595 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

And then one day the Gucci out guy, he pulls up and his old business partner pulls up in this like beautiful red brand new Ferrari. And I'm like, I want to go work for that guy. So I got his number, went to go work for him. And he owned this, he was building this bar in La Jolla. I took all my business there. I closed him this deal that got FDA approval. Remember those liquid bandaid companies?

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516.575 - 540.616 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

yeah so there's a liquid bandy company this is stock gets fda approval we get a bunch of stock uh for the marketing campaign stock goes from like 20 cents up to like a buck 50 goes crazy this guy made millions of dollars i was working for he cuts me a check for 17 grand and i was like I just paid for your bar, you know. Did you not have an agreement beforehand?

540.656 - 560.858 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

No, we had an agreement like I would get 10%, but it was the same thing like you said, you know, they're just slow rolling. You're like, oh, I can't get money right now. Like I can only get this for you. How old are you at this point? I'm like 23 and I got a kid on the way. And I got literally the devil pregnant when I was 24. Her last name was Satam, like S-A-T-T-A-M.

560.838 - 577.48 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

And so I would write on her child support checks, I'd write Satan. And then the bank, I was like sending a credit union's biggest bank, you know, customer at that time. And they called me, they're like, Mr. Port, we can't take these checks anymore. And you'd put like, you know what it was for. I was like, for being a cunt, you know, something like that.

577.801 - 582.627 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

And, and so she was just terrible, you know, like made my life hell for 18 years.

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So, so let's, let's go. We can say it in a minute. Yeah.

Chapter 4: What experiences shaped Ben's Wall Street career?

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Black, you know, whatever. Red Triangle? Red Triangle, what's that? Right. Red Triangle Medical. They just came up with a new product? Hold on. Let me look. I'm going to do some research. Exactly. Red Triangle Medical. And, oh, shit, here's one in the Financial Tribune. Yes. Financial Tribune. Exactly. It looks legit. Right. They look at it. They read the article. Oh, shit.

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They talked with this guy from wherever, the SEG. Right. Who said it was whatever. It was a solid stock with a great company with a great track record. Right. Prone to do big things in the future. They read all that, and then they go, fuck. and I can get in for only 15 grand?

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1384.848 - 1404.146 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

Right. No, I got to tell you, the funniest deal that I ever did, that I ever did a promotion on was a gay guy resort in Palm Springs that went public. I'm all in. Gay guys have money. Yeah. So- So we did this deal. I guess they didn't even have land or they didn't have a resort, right? They were thinking about it.

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1404.186 - 1404.967 Unknown

They were thinking about it.

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1405.307 - 1413.717 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

So the stock actually did really well. It went crazy. We made good money. But it was just one of the funniest random deals I ever saw.

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So what happens when some guy who thinks of an idea, comes up with a company, does the whole thing, you market it. Yeah. The brokers sell a ton of the stock. Exactly. Well, but it's all really smoke and mirrors. There is no... These guys don't even have a... They don't even have a community at this point. Right. They're just raising the money.

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Is it legitimately... Are you telling these guys, we're raising the money to buy the community? Well, that was the thing.

1440.342 - 1455.742 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

So we... Like I was telling you, I always had a writer that would write reports for these companies and work with the CEO to get the story across. And they would tell us... The CEO. Yeah. These guys were like... Just total crooks, you know, or, you know, there was actually a lot of good companies I worked with, too.

1455.982 - 1461.311 Ben Port (Ben Skull)

But the majority of these guys back in the day, this was early 2000s, were just total scumballs.

Chapter 5: What happens during the FBI arrest in South Africa?

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They go in. One or two of them goes in, orders a couple of drinks. They order several things from her. She brings them. Oh, wow. Of course, they take the glasses. Fingerprints. Can I have a glass of warm water on a glass with no ice? Sure. She hands it to them. They dump out the water immediately. Put it in a bag. Yeah, we got the fucking – those are some clear prints. Right.

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She's bringing them food. They're taking everything. Wow. They get her prints. You know, whatever, the receipt, everything. They get it.

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Chapter 6: How did Nova Guthrie become involved in the crimes?

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They print her. Back then it was a long time. It takes a couple of days, maybe a week to come back. Or they get the thing or they look at it and they're like, oh, this is her. This is her. They follow her back to an apartment. And Scott Pritchard used to almost never leave the apartment. And he was day trading. Oh, wow. That's how he was making his money. Yeah. Did you find him? Craig Pritchard.

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Craig Pritchard. Okay. What was her name? Nova Guthrie. Nova Guthrie. Nova. It's hard not to remember Nova. Nova Guthrie and... Craig Pritchard? I know – I've known people that are – he's locked up in the feds. I don't know what he got, 40 years or something. Oh, jeez. Ridiculous. How much time did he get?

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3186.091 - 3191.841 Matthew Cox

I'll find out. But it says, yeah, like the article headlines are two U.S. fugitives captured in South Africa in 2003.

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Chapter 7: What led to the dramatic turn of events at Disneyland?

3191.861 - 3196.288 Matthew Cox

2003. That's wild. They were labeled the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.

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3196.488 - 3222.135 Unknown

They love Bonnie – Bonnie and Clyde, right? Any couples? Yeah, Bonnie and Clyde. But – so they watch them. And they – when you hear the story, how it plays out is they follow her. Once they get the okay, okay, arrest them. Right. Now, you're in South Africa. This is four FBI agents in South Africa. I don't know if they flew in. Maybe they flew in a few more. Yeah. You're in South Africa.

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3222.795 - 3235.387 Unknown

These are two U.S. citizens. There is no extradition. You have no problem being – there's – we do not – it's apartheid. We're not dealing with – they've got sanctions on them. Right. There's no – No relationship.

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3235.667 - 3236.509 Matthew Cox

No relationship.

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3236.529 - 3240.898 Unknown

No extradition. Nothing. This is a hostile issue at this point. Mandela is still in prison.

3241.519 - 3242.361 Matthew Cox

This is an issue.

Chapter 8: How did Ben Skull transition from Wall Street to a new life?

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Was that like late 90s?

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3243.824 - 3251.88 Matthew Cox

2000 and – 2003 was the article. They were in South Africa in 2003.

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3252.16 - 3274.057 Unknown

OK. So matter of fact, I wonder – I think Mandela – Maybe he had just – I don't know when, but right around this period, sometime around here, he becomes president. Maybe it's before. Maybe I'm going a little bit overboard on the apartheid. But I know that there was no extra day. So what happens is he – they follow her. They realize – they figure it out after a couple of times.

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They realize what room. Right. And so – One day they arrange it so there's two or three of them that are next to her or very close. They know when she's coming down. So one guy's in the hallway. Another two are kind of walking, following her. They're just in the distance. She opens the door. She goes to open the door, and boom, they all rush in. What?

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Grab her, slam the door, run in with fucking guns. Craig or whatever his name is, he's typing away on the computer or sitting on the couch or whatever. They grab him, throw him on the ground, handcuff him. That's wild. Throw both of them. Oh, and this is what happened. Just before they arrested them, they contacted the local police and they said, we are FBI.

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We are here to arrest two fugitives that are U.S. citizens. Wow. We're at this apartment complex. If you receive any phone calls about our presence, do not come into the apartment complex. We are arresting our people. We're bringing them to the airport. And they said – and the South African's police department said, cool, no problem.

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Didn't say – and they're getting 911 – I mean they're equivalent of 911 phone calls.

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Right.

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People are – they got some fucking – they got two people. They're dragging them away. They got black bags over their heads. They're handcuffed and thrown in the back of a van. Like these are – what's going – they throw them in the thing. They drive to the airport, throw them on an FBI jet, and they fly immediately to some country that does – some friendly company.

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