Case File
Case 1: Driven By Greed
- Best Friends
- James Nichols and Robert Gomez are friends. They work security together at a local office complex and dream of finding the fast track out of their poor L.A. County neighborhood. A lucrative opportunity emerges.
- Miracle Car Club
- Gomez claims he's the sole heir to a $411 million estate left by his adoptive father who wants to donate his assets to Christian people. The plan is simple. For $1,000 you can buy one of the estate's cars. Sounds like a steal. The faithful believe.
- The Scam
- Thousands of buyers, many from churches around the country, send their hard-earned cash to Nichols and Gomez. During the next four years, they take in more than $21 million! It's a story of American Greed.
Case 2: Conned in the Caribbean
- An Offer Too Good To Be True
- The First Int'l Bank of Grenada offers certificates of deposits with annual returns of more than 250%! Thousands buy into the plan. But, there's a catch...FIBG isn't worth the paper its shiny brochures are printed on.
- The Mastermind
- Con artist Van Brink and others used FIBG investor money as their personal piggy-bank account, buying luxury cars, expensive homes, private Learjet trips, an organic tomato farm and a yacht named "Off Shore Funs".
- The Scam
- FIBG's guaranteed high rates of return are nothing more than a fantasy. Investors lose more than $170 million. The FIBG con was the biggest Ponzi scheme in Oregon history.
