An Ohio podcaster who said he had rebuilt his life after serving prison time for fraud is facing fresh scam allegations from the FBI.
Steven Comisar, 64, spent decades defrauding victims and has been convicted in federal court five times. His combined prison sentences exceeded 22 years.
In 2023, he launched a podcast called Scam Junkie, presenting himself as a reformed con man and fraud expert.
But on Wednesday, Comisar was charged in U.S. District Court in Cleveland over allegations that he carried out another fraud scheme—this time targeting an Ohio couple and involving at least $7 million, according to Cleveland.com.
Court records do not list an attorney for Comisar, and no initial court date had been set after his arrest in California.
Authorities allege that he spent the proceeds on gambling, hotel stays, food and other personal expenses.
Comisar first gained national attention as a con man in the 1990s. He later wrote America’s Guide to Fraud Prevention and made repeated television appearances as a fraud expert.
In the trailer for Scam Junkie, which began in 2023, Comisar calls himself the “Don of Con” and says he “perpetrated every scam known to man” before turning his life around.
Steven Comisar, 64, has previously been convicted five times and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison combined
Comisar launched Scam Junkie in 2023, portraying himself as a former con man who had changed his life
He also claimed that he helped people protect themselves from scams while teaching techniques to “legally make money and influence people.”
His criminal record includes a telemarketing scheme involving horse racing, fake oil-well investments and a case in which he defrauded an Iowa man of $125,000.
In 2003, Comisar received an eight-year prison sentence for defrauding an 84-year-old Minnesota man of $480,000.
While awaiting sentencing, he attempted to extort more than $50,000 from an attorney. Comisar falsely claimed he possessed information that could clear her brother, who had been convicted of murdering a government informant.
After the attorney refused to pay, Comisar allegedly threatened that mobsters would go to her home and mutilate her husband.
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FBI agents said that after his release from prison in 2018, Comisar resumed scamming within about a year, allegedly targeting a couple from Massillon, Ohio.
According to court records, he used emails to pose as company CEOs, investors, a wealth director, an attorney and an unnamed person described as being among the wealthiest people in the world. The couple was persuaded to invest in projects that Comisar promised would produce a “huge windfall.”
Comisar allegedly told the Massillon man to send cashier’s checks quickly to cover fees, taxes and government fines before he could receive the millions supposedly generated by the investments—projects authorities say were fake.
The FBI’s latest allegations accuse Comisar of defrauding an Ohio couple of at least $7 million
FBI agents said they identified Comisar’s location after he had parcels delivered to a hotel
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FBI agents linked Comisar to the scam using phone and email records, court records say.
Some text messages directed the man to send cashier’s checks to ‘S. Comisar’ at a room at the Beverly Hills, California, Marriott hotel, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Agents said they found out Comisar had lived there on and off for years and even had Amazon and FedEx packages delivered to the hotel.
The Massillon man sent 70 checks to Comisar from 2019 through July 2026, ranging in amounts from $7,000 to $300,000, according to court records.
While the total amount Comisar scammed out of the couple is still being investigated, an FBI agent wrote that it exceeds $7 million.
Bank records show that Comisar also made around $1.2 million in profit from a thoroughbred racetrack in California, where he bet about $4 million between January and May 2026.
The Daily Mail contacted Comisar for comment.
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