I Beg Your Pardon part 1
PRETEND
03/10/26
•38m
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Jerry Bush was a plumber from Virginia with fourteen employees, a wife battling cancer, and a business his father built from nothing. When a big construction job left him waiting on $350,000 he'd already earned, he did what you'd probably do. He looked for a loan.
The man who picked up the phone was named Jonathan Braun.
Before Braun found Jerry, he was running a half-billion dollar international drug smuggling operation. After he found Jerry, he froze his bank account, drained his father's retirement, took money from his 16-year-old son, and told Jerry his only way out was to win the lottery or die.
And then things got worse.
By the time it was over, Jerry Bush had lost his business, his savings, and nearly his life. Jonathan Braun had a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a personal butler, and a very powerful friend.
What happens next will make you question everything you think you know about who the justice system is actually designed to protect and who it leaves behind.
I Beg Your Pardon is a new investigative series from PRETEND.
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Previous Episode
Who's Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey Revisited
March 3
•42m
CONTENT WARNING: Graphic content. Listener discretion is advised.
Who’s Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey — Revisited
A lot of people ask: where should I start if I just discovered PRETEND? The answer is always LaDonna.
It’s been almost two years since the first episode of Who’s Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey dropped — and this one is still mind-blowing. Whether you’re a first-time listener or coming back to revisit, this is the place to start.
In this episode, we’re replaying Part One. It’s a hell of an introduction.
🎧 Want the full series? We’ve put together a Spotify playlist with all the episodes and updates, tidied up in one place. Check it out below.
➡️ Listen to the full LaDonna Humphrey playlist on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2LOnqAGe8D4JQ4bAwjGn9P?si=54f21cbedfb640f8
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Next Episode
I Beg Your Pardon part 2
March 17
•40m
Twelve days. That’s how long David Gentile spent in federal prison for a $1.8 billion fraud that wiped out the retirement savings of 17,000 people.
On Thanksgiving 2025, President Trump signed a one-page clemency grant, commuting Gentile’s seven-year sentence to time served and erasing a $15 million restitution order in the process.
In this episode, we talk to one of those 17,000 victims, CarolAnn Tutera, a 70-year-old still working because she can’t afford not to. We also talk to securities fraud attorney Adam Gana and Ponzi Playbook co-host Neal McTighe about how the scheme worked, what the pardon means, and what it says about the current climate for white collar crime.
CarolAnn Tutera
GPB Capital investor and CEO of Tutera Medical
Adam Gana
Securities fraud attorney, Gana LLP
Neal McTighe
Co-host, Ponzi Playbook podcast
The Conviction and Sentencing
DOJ Press Release
The Blueprint of the Fraud
SEC Civil Complaint
The White House Response
Forbes Breaking News — search: “Karoline Leavitt Asked About Trump’s Commutation Of Private Equity CEO’s Fraud Sentence”
00:00 CarolAnn’s Story
04:06 David Gentile’s Promise
04:38 I Beg Your Pardon
07:02 How a Ponzi Scheme Works
14:21 The Smoking Gun Emails
15:47 CarolAnn’s $400K
16:42 The Takedown
18:38 The Verdict
19:22 The Pardon
20:06 The White House Response
23:12 Restitution Wiped Out
29:51 The Pay-to-Play Pattern
33:41 The Perfect Storm
GuestsResourcesChapters36:44 Ponzi Playbook Returns
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