Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wall Street’s Biggest Hustler? Meet the Real Wolf
Mon, 10 Mar 2025
JOSEPH VITALE IS A HANDSOME, charismatic, high pressure broker who works in South Florida’s private equity market. Vitale becomes entangled in multiple scams, two murders, and a federal indictment.Follow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrimeDo you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [email protected] you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: Who is Joseph Vitale and what is his story?
The silver Lamborghini flies around the corner. From that point on, I was hooked. He walked me around the office. He's like, hey, Zony, what'd you make this month? 150 grand. You know, hey, Jay, what'd you make last year? 3.4 million. These are guys in their 20s. This is really messed up how this whole thing went down. She comes by my office and she pitches me. Everything seems legit.
I start raising capital. Your guys are calling investors saying, hey, we got a new company. Here's what we need. Put in $100,000, $200,000. Something's definitely wrong.
I drive to the bank and she had spent $350,000 out of that $400,000. This is a criminal situation here. And our name's all over it. Royce started partying too much. He stopped coming in. Out of the first round, that $5 million we raised, Royce raised $12,500. At this point, I keep hearing it from more people that he's going to have me killed. So I'm driving over there.
I call him, meet me around the house, go in the back by the dock, he says. I start thinking to myself, like, that was odd. I call my girlfriend and I said, do you think that this guy would really kill me? Yeah, what are you, stupid? Turn around right now. I get a phone call. He says, whatever you do, don't come to the office. There's like 40 FBI agents here. So I booked a flight to Ecuador.
I remember when I was indicted, I thought, time for a trip.
We go to the airport and they close in on me. They say, excuse me, can I see your passport?
Hey, this is Matt Cox and I'm going to be doing an interview with Joseph Vitale. This is very possibly one of the best interviews and stories I've ever heard. You absolutely need to watch this video. It's got a bunch of double crosses, twists, turns, murders, several scams. It's genuinely going to be one of the better videos you will ever watch.
check it out i grew up on uh on long island okay and now uh yeah middle class family right and uh i ended up uh going to fau down here in florida right and made it through about a year and a half and i i one night i met a guy driving a lamborghini uh that's how i got into the whole stock thing right well you were date you were dating
This girl, Alicia. Yeah, you were dating?
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Chapter 2: What events led to Joseph Vitale's federal indictment?
So they kind of kept you there. like why why why let you right why move you up this guy's bringing in yeah they hold you down right with the promise that if you keep doing well we're gonna right exactly it's all yeah so they hold you down there and then uh when isaac walked out and he pulled me with him he said listen
There's two parts of the business, obviously. You have the bloodline of that business, bringing in new relationships, and then the second part, which is developing those relationships. So you always kind of need a team in some sense. And him and I made a great team. So he said, come with me. We'll be 50-50 on everything. I'll bring my existing book of clients. We'll go over it.
We'll get a fat sign on bonus somewhere. And then, uh, you know, and the rest is history. I'll teach you how to trade, how to raise. I'll teach you how to, you know, utilize analysts, the right analysts, uh, going forward. And, uh, and so we, we went to several different interviews.
We, um, we ended up at a company called Intercap Wealth Management, which was in the same city, you know, just, uh, maybe three, four miles from, you know, that first office. And this is Palm Beach or? No, Broward County. Broward County. Yeah. Okay. And, uh,
And there was like theatrical, the whole thing that went down of onboarding us because Isaac was just... He was one of the most colorful people I ever met in my life. And he was magnetic. And a lot of people liked being around him. But he was kind of like Pitbull too because... He would be your best friend. And then out of nowhere, he would just snap at you.
And he did this several times in the negotiation with Intercap. So they went back and forth. And then finally, we came to an agreement. We started working at Intercap. And we did pretty well pretty quickly. And you know what happened after that.
Yeah, eventually he walks again, right? Yeah. Basically, he's hard to get along with. Yeah, very volatile. But I mean, lots of guys are like that. I think the problem is what I notice is that you don't really succeed without having some kind of personality defect. You know what I'm saying? Like most CEOs are narcissists.
So it's like the same thing that makes them a horrible individual to be in a relationship with makes them a dynamic leader. in an industry, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's such a hard balance. You know, you look at Trump, like, you know, he's, you know, he's a narcissist, you know what I'm saying?
He's, so I'm sure he's a nightmare to have a relationship with, but let's face it, he's also winning and winning and you know, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's a balancing act. It's, it's a, and same thing with a lot of guys, a lot of salespeople. I noticed like, like they'll go up and talk to anybody.
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Chapter 3: How did Joseph Vitale raise capital for his ventures?
Chapter 4: What was the role of Michelle Braun in Joseph Vitale's life?
Well, I raised $430,000 for your company. That's gone.
So I tell him everything. And he's like, you got to be kidding me. He's like, listen. He's like, kid, you have nothing to do with me. He's like, you're on your own. He's like, I never signed anything. I said, I have your name notarized on a contract. with Michelle Braun, the blonde woman. And he said, I never saw her after that day. How the hell could I have it notarized with her?
I was never in the same room with her. So then, obviously, instantly I realized- What about a CFO? Right, so I said, I just sent money to your CFO. He said, I don't have a CFO. I said, wait, what? So he said that he doesn't have a CFO and he's right now currently the president and interim CEO and CFO, right? He's wearing many hats. So I said, I met your CFO in that meeting.
He was sitting next to you when I walked in the room. You know what he tells me? He said, he was with you. He just got to the meeting early and sat next to me, kid. So when he walked in, he's sitting at the table. Right. Is that like so? So I realized I was on my own with it.
So I go back home and I think I had like a couple of shots of a blue and then I sat there and I was like, I got to give the money back. Right. Yeah. So I started going one by one.
and I'm writing checks to these guys and I went through and I think I paid like 220 grand back and I had some more money and then I was just like just getting liquid on different things that I had out there to cover the whole nut right and and I did and I had it I had the amount right so when I hit like just under a quarter million and the whole payback process
I realized I didn't have every investor. Cause I was like, I paid everyone back and it's only like, it was like 220 grand. So I'm like, holy shit. The process that we had was so faulted because Michelle Braun, she would get the data on the investor, some of which were new that we freshly onboarded.
And the lead would get shredded, so there would never be a dupe file or somebody calling internally an existing client. And so she would do that and then she would put them, she would obviously have all that info in her computer. And then she- But she don't have. Right.
She was gone with her laptop and that's what she worked off of, which is another lesson I learned that, you know, people can never work on their own computers or devices when they come to the office. So now, you know, it's like a, I mean, I'll never break that rule. Like I will always, you have to work on the company devices.
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Chapter 5: How did Joseph Vitale end up in legal trouble with investors?
And he was a student.
They were also... He was a student in the school. They were in some of the same classes.
Somebody brought up... A 16-year-old.
Somebody brought up his name. He went in for an interview. They said, hey, let's do a polygraph. He does the polygraph. They tell him he failed. They question him for seven hours straight. Tell him these... These other cops are going to hurt you. I'm trying to help you. Just go ahead. Tell them a story. Just admit you did this and I can get you. You won't be arrested. I got to get you out of here.
You just got to tell them something. So he says, okay, okay. I did it. I did it.
And he's crying. You see that stuff where they wear you down and they keep you in the room for like a day? Seven hours. You're 16 years old? Two days. And you get so tired. You can have a nice warm bed, buddy. Don't worry. Here's a pillow. Yeah. You know, we'll give you a bed. Just admit it. They're so tired. You see these things? That they're like, all right, fine. I did it. Let me go to sleep.
Well, and he's 16 years old. You're 16 years old. You've never had a grown adult, especially a police officer, yell at you, pound the desk, get in your face, threaten you. They're scaring him. He's terrified. And he eventually just says, okay, okay, I did it. Can I go home now? You're under arrest. But anyway, so...
So eventually... Well, I have a question about that scam.
Yeah, sorry. Well, that's not the scam.
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Chapter 6: What happened during Joseph Vitale's trial?
Bring them on. There was a vote on it, man.
You lost. I did. Okay. I believe you. All right. So the office is cool.
Yeah. So we got two spaces right next to each other in this building and the warehouse in the back. We blew the wall out and made a conjoining door. And on one side, we had the tech team. On the other side, we had the sales and the finance end, right? Royce and I were 50-50 on the finance end. And, you know, and David ran the whole tech side. And he ran it, I mean, incredibly well.
It was a tight ship. You know, we had like 40 to 50 guys there plugging away. Quality assurance.
As opposed to the sales team side, which is they're having a Friday night meeting. They bring in midgets and throw them through a... Through and through goals. I see.
It was a little wild. Stripper Tuesdays. In that warehouse, we built a bar. We had pool tables. We put barber chairs in there. I never wanted guys to leave and go get a haircut on Friday. I'm like, just stay here. We'll cut your hair. We had barbers come in. Across the street, there was a guy that had... He owns the tent team. Fahad. He...
he would bring over a water reclaim system because I wanted to wash their cars too. So we took care of our guys. We literally, on Friday nights, we washed their cars, gave them haircuts, helped them look sharp. We had the tailors come in and measure them, get them nice suits. They'd go meet with clients. And we supported all that. We had everything catered, lunch, dinner.
This is such a vanilla version of what I got when we were in prison. There was a whole bunch of other stuff involved. But anyway, I hear you.
It was important to us. We ironed their clothes.
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Chapter 7: What lessons did Joseph Vitale learn from his experiences?
Because we had conversations, obviously, about how we got into the industry, who taught us. And I always knew that name, Frank Nozzo, because Royce would talk about him. And he knew the name Isaac Grossman, right? Because we'd share stories or whatever. So I was like, this is crazy. I'm like, this guy. So now this guy had a falling out with Royce a long time ago.
Right?
Right. And he'd shown you – Royce had shown you his photograph before.
That's why he looked familiar.
That's why he looked familiar. Exactly. Yep.
So after that, I was already – I mean, I started getting like – I just started getting turned off. Wasn't Royce already an issue?
Wasn't he already being, okay.
Yeah, he started, we were making a lot of money. And he started just partying too much, going out, taking vacations. He stopped coming in frequently. He had no schedule, right? He would pop in whenever he wanted to. And I was the one there opening up at 8 a.m., leaving at like 11 at night, every single day.
Right.
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Chapter 8: How did Joseph Vitale rebuild his career after legal issues?
Yeah.
I don't think anybody, anybody called.
So did you hear the recording online?
No, I haven't heard that room. I don't know if it's still there, but I heard it once. Oh, I heard it was part of the news, right? Was it a news clip?
I don't know. I don't even know how. Somebody found it.
So he called whether or not she was already dead before you came or after. I don't know exactly what the time. I think it might have been shortly after you didn't show up.
I think it was before, maybe.
You think maybe? I don't know.
He sounded so desperate. I mean, I've always thought since that happened, I've had the thought that maybe he was trying to get me there so desperately to say that I killed her. Right, right. Come around the back. Right, right. Terry's sleeping? Yeah, she's.
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