Popular podcaster with criminal past faces new $7 million fraud charges despite claims of reform
A California podcaster who built an audience by sharing his past as a convicted fraudster is now accused of running a seven-year scam that allegedly netted him more than $7 million from a single couple.
Steven Comisar, 64, was charged Wednesday in US District Court in Cleveland with wire fraud after FBI agents linked him to an elaborate scheme targeting a Massillon, Ohio couple. The arrest comes just three years after he launched Scam Junkie, a podcast where he branded himself the 'Don of Con' and claimed to help people avoid the very scams he once perpetrated.
Federal prosecutors allege that beginning in September 2019, barely one year after his release from prison, Comisar began targeting the couple through a sophisticated fraud operation. Court records show he impersonated CEOs, investors, a wealth director, an attorney, and even claimed to represent one of the world's wealthiest individuals in emails designed to lure victims into fake investment opportunities.
The alleged scheme followed a classic advance-fee fraud pattern. Prosecutors say Comisar promised the victims huge returns from purported investments in a bitcoin project, a casino and resort, and the Macau Group. He then convinced the Massillon man to send cashier's checks for what he claimed were fees, taxes, or government fines that had to be paid before the promised windfall could be released.
According to the FBI affidavit, the couple sent Comisar 70 separate cashier's checks between 2019 and July 2026, ranging from $7,000 to $300,000 each. Prosecutors allege the couple's money became Comisar's primary source of income during the alleged seven-year operation.
Federal agents tracked Comisar through phone and email records, as well as physical evidence. Some text messages directed the victim to send checks to 'S. Comisar' at a room in the Beverly Hills Marriott hotel in California, where investigators discovered he had lived on and off for years. Amazon and FedEx packages were regularly delivered to him at the hotel address.
Bank records reviewed by authorities paint a picture of lavish spending. The records show Comisar made approximately $1.2 million in profit from betting roughly $4 million at a California thoroughbred racetrack between January and May 2026 alone. Prosecutors say he used the alleged fraud proceeds for gambling, hotels, food, and other personal expenses.
A career built on deception
Comisar's latest charges add to an extensive criminal history spanning decades. He has been federally convicted five times on fraud-related charges, serving a combined total of more than 22 years in prison.
His convictions include a telemarketing scam involving horse racing, fake oil well investments, and bilking an Iowa man out of $125,000. In 2003, he received an eight-year sentence for defrauding an 84-year-old Minnesota man of $480,000.
While awaiting sentencing in that case, Comisar attempted to extort more than $50,000 from an attorney by falsely claiming he had information that could exonerate her brother, who had been convicted of murdering a government informant. When she refused to pay, he threatened that mobsters would come to her house and mutilate her husband.
Despite court orders prohibiting him from using the alias 'Brett Champion' and from referring to himself as a consumer fraud expert, Comisar continued trading on his criminal notoriety. In the 1990s, he gained public attention as a scam expert, wrote a book titled 'America's Guide to Fraud Prevention,' and made numerous television appearances discussing fraud tactics.
The book itself has become a piece of fraud history. It is now displayed at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners fraud museum as an example of a con artist's deception, rather than a legitimate fraud prevention guide.
Broader context of fraud schemes
Comisar's alleged activities fit within a growing national epidemic of advance-fee fraud. In 2024, the FBI received 17,910 reports of romance scams resulting in total losses of $672 million nationally. These schemes operate on similar principles: promise victims large sums in return for small upfront payments, then either invent additional fees or vanish entirely.
Research from the US Sentencing Commission shows that white-collar offenders with a criminal history experience recidivism rates exceeding 50 percent, comparable to rates for robbery and firearm offenders. Comisar's pattern appears to align with these troubling statistics.
Following his 2018 prison release, Comisar launched his podcast in 2023 with the stated mission of using his techniques to 'legally make money and influence people.' In the podcast trailer, he described himself as having 'perpetrated every scam known to man' but claimed to have turned his life around.
Comisar was arrested in California and has no attorney listed in court records. An initial court date has not yet been set. While the FBI continues investigating the full scope of the alleged fraud, agents say the total amount stolen from the Massillon couple exceeds $7 million.
