Joe Hunt and other boys are on trial. Throughout the questioning and cross-examination the film flashes back to Joe Hunt being reunited with school friends and impressing upon them an idea of an investment firm called the BBC. Joe manages to win the boys over with two concepts: his idea that anything can be right through perspective and that the boys come from moneyed families who think they are too young or have insufficient mettle to access the family fortunes. The BBC acts and dresses like professional businessmen, but their actual operations seem largely "all hat no cattle"; spending investors' funds on personal expenses. They manage to woo a scientist into signing over the marketing rights to an energy machine and seek investor Ron Levin into a partnership. Levin is skeptical, but gives Hunt an account to prove himself. Hunt manages to make several million dollars with this, and purchases a condominium in which all members of the BBC will work and live with the expected commission. Hunt also is introduced to a man named Booker, who also becomes a BBC member due to his expertise in hand-to-hand combat and firearms. However, Hunt is aghast when he learns the money he made for Levin was only on paper, and that he was being used by Levin in order to convince another firm into underwriting a sizeable loan for him. Hunt hatches a scheme to get Levin to sign over the promised money, then murder him. Some time later, Hunt meets up with Dean Karny, his top employee of the BBC, and says that Levin is dead. Hunt recounts that he went to Levin for a business meeting, which was then broken up by Booker, pretending to be a debt collector for the Mafia who is after Hunt, to which the "debtor" Hunt would repay the "creditors" with the money owed him by Levin. After Levin writes a check to Hunt, he realizes too late both men intend to murder him. He is killed, then his corpse is dumped in a
canyon in the California backcountry. Soon friends and family of Ron Levin contact the police about his disappearance. When it is discovered Levin had served time in prison for credit card fraud and
wire fraud, the authorities chalk up Levin's missing status to fleeing those he flimflammed. At a BBC party, Hunt is introduced to Masud Nabouti, a friend of a BBC member seeking membership himself. Masud, who was born in Iran, says his father, Birjan Nabouti, was an opium kingpin who made enemies with
Ruhollah Khomeini, and seeks to take over his father's empire. Hunt recruits Booker and Karny in a plot to kidnap Birjan, torture him into signing over his assets to Masoud and the BBC, then murder him. Booker and Hunt impersonate delivery boys to gain access to the Nabouti residence, then lock Birjan in a steamer trunk and place it in a camper truck for transport to a safe house in upstate California. However, the kidnapping goes awry when Mr. Nabouti stops protesting and it is evident his oxygen is depleted in the trunk. Karny punches holes in the trunk for air, but seals them with
duct tape upon hearing shouting, as Hunt orders it silenced as he is fearful passing motorists may be alerted to the shouting. Karny later opens the trunk, and finds an unconscious man while the odor of urine escapes. Joe, who is driving, orders
CPR be given to Birjan Nabouti. Karny attempts this, but apparently fails and reports to Joe he is dead. While Joe is annoyed, he takes it in stride and, in a change of plans, dumps Birjan Nabouti's body in the same canyon he disposed of Ron Levin. Joe forges Birjan's signature in a
conservatorship for Masud. However, all is not well with Joe as investors are demanding to withdraw funds or close accounts. Some of the BBC members, disturbed by what they have done, start talking with each other about what Joe may do next. One boy tells his father, who immediately recommends legal help. Meanwhile, the authorities are trying to piece together Birjan's disappearance. When fraud is suspected, a last-minute injunction bars Masud from withdrawing any money from his father's Swiss accounts, most of which are closed or have low balances. When the police search the Levin residence for clues, they acquire a list detailing Joe's plans to murder Levin. In a meeting with outraged investors, Joe gets arrested, and the scene returns to the trial. ==Controversy==