The Con

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were once enormously successful at raising money for their televised religious programs. After its 1974 debut, their cable show became the highest-rated religious show in the country. In the 1980s, the Bakkers continued their success by building Heritage USA, a first-of-its-kind 2,200-acre Christian resort and amusement park, but the government would charge that Bakker had secured funding by defrauding his faithful viewers. In 1989, he was convicted and initially sentenced to 45 years in prison but ultimately only served five. In 2021, prosecutors claimed that Bakker was once again up to his old tricks but this time without Tammy Faye. They said he made promises on “The Jim Bakker Show” that his “Silver Solution” was a cure for the coronavirus; however, instead of a miracle, they said drinking silver could be toxic and even turn consumers permanently blue in the face if consumed in large quantities. The FDA immediately issued a cease-and-desist order while the states of Missouri and Arkansas sued him for his false claims. Bakker entered a settlement agreement promising not to sell the solution anymore but continued to deny wrongdoing.

In 2016, a young mom and entrepreneur in Virginia Beach took to couponing while on bed rest after having her third child. Lori Ann Talens began using coupons to maintain the household budget but soon found the rush of scoring deals to be addictive. Using her graphic design skills, she created new coupons to score free meals, household supplies and money. Talens started a counterfeit ring that grew bigger over time with carefully vetted members, one of which would ultimately be her downfall, alerting an industry watchdog of the fraud. The Coupon Information Corporation monitored the group, which led to an FBI stakeout, trash pulls, pole cameras and finally, a house raid. Police discovered coupons stuffed into every nook and cranny of the house. Talens was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, and prosecutors estimated the loss for retailers at $31.8 million making this the biggest coupon scam in U.S. history.

In 2009, a mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude. Authorities say that for over a decade, Jho Low, with the aid of high-powered investment banking companies, siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund right under the nose of industry watchdogs. Low’s brazen scheme posed the next great threat to the global financial system since the 2007-2009 recession and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

When 75-year-old retired naval officer Dick Olmstead hit it off with a beautiful woman more than half his age in a parking lot, he thought he was getting a second lease on life. Desiree Boltos, early 30s, confided that she was struggling financially because she had recently become widowed, and Olmstead was very happy to help. The lifelong bachelor had about $380,000 in his bank account after cashing out his longtime stock investments. When he unknowingly dropped $60,000 into Boltos’ casino cage account at the Bellagio, fraud investigators from his bank in Texas, and later the District Attorney’s office, stepped in to tell him the truth. Assistant District Attorney Lori Varnell soon exposed the truth: Olmstead was the victim of a love fraud. He ultimately had given Boltos the majority of his life savings. There’s more…the ADA went on to unravel a complex fraud that proved Boltos had love-scammed millions from seven victims across the United States.

In 2018, Zach Horowitz, a 28-year-old actor working under the stage name “Zach Avery,” unleashed a Ponzi scheme on the film industry. He raised more than $690 million from “five principal investors” using legally binding debt agreements in the form of promissory notes. Horowitz started soliciting money from investors on behalf of 1inMM Productions, his film production company, which was backed by fake distribution deals and the fake rights agreements. He borrowed money for six months to a year promising a return of up to 40 percent on the investment, telling investors the production intended to use their money to secure the distribution rights to various films in regional geographies and then sell those rights to streamers such as Netflix and HBO. The con was up when F.B.I. agents arrested Horowitz at his $5.7 million home in Beverlywood. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged him with securities fraud, seeking an immediate freeze of his assets and the return of “ill-gotten gains.”

In the series premiere, “The Faithful Investor,” Goldberg introduces viewers to Aubrey Lee Price, a once beloved Georgia pastor turned financial advisor. Price, who came to boast over 100 clients in his portfolio and millions of dollars in assets, turned his attention to a floundering small-town bank in need of funding. An opportunity that he thought would be his cash cow ended up being “the nail in his coffin.” He had no way to pay back his investors, most of whom were the faithful parishioners who trusted Price with their life savings when things did not go as planned. The father of four boarded a ferry from Key West to Fort Myers, Florida, after sending what amounted to suicide notes to friends and family. He disappeared in June 2012 while his victims were left to pick up the pieces of their lives and ruined retirements, but a routine traffic stop solved the mystery of what happened to Aubrey Lee Price. “The Faithful Investor” includes interviews with Price’s victims, attorneys and even the preacher himself, who takes a turn at confession.