The Gold Club was Atlanta's top strip club in the 1990s, a 20th century bacchanal for the rich and famous with patrons Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, Madonna, the king of Sweden, Donald Trump, people from all over the country and sports figures, politicians, everybody came to the Gold Club.

It was the spot to go to Gold Club, had it made. And they knew the formula to get filthy rich with the sexes entertainment in the south.

I would chain up a girl and drag her through the club, drag her across the stage and the guys loved it.

Loved it. But a March 19th, 1999. It all came crumbling down. Next thing I hear is a bunch of screaming. And that's when the FBI raided the club. This led to a 100 page indictment from the federal government, which read like a laundry list of scandals. There were charges of prostitution, extortion, credit card fraud, airline fraud, racketeering and an affiliation with the mob.

It was, you know, an objective of organized crime at the time to spread their influence. And, of course, it's an objective of the organized crime program during my time to stop. I'm journalist Christina Lee, and I'll be taking you behind the scenes at the Gold Club scandal from the beauty and bubbly to the deceit and courtroom drama, at some point I had these these moments of clarity where I'm like, this is like not normal.

Wrecking wreckage. Oh, my.

From School of Humans and I Heart Radio, this is a racket inside the Gold Club, listen to a racket on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.