All language subtitles for American Greed s01e05 Religious Prey-Medical Scams

In this episode of American Greed, they
thought they were giving to God. If you

can't trust the Baptist, who can you
trust?

Instead, they were taken on faith. I
didn't understand it. I didn't.

How could this happen? Thousands of
investors out hundreds of millions in an

elaborate deception.

As the debt grew and grew, more and more
people had to be lied to. It must have

been a nightmare.

And later, when the feds find a
podiatrist bilking Medicare for more

million. Just glaring fraud. A doctor
banks on his patients to lie for him.

doesn't. That was her mission, is to
stand up. Then turns up dead. A 54 -year

-old woman is found murdered inside a
church basement.

What, a doctor killed for cash?

For thousands in Arizona, the Southern
Baptist Church is an oasis in the

Sin will kill us as Christians.

Where they find righteousness.

Or without falsehood and speak
truthfully.

And joy.

You can invite Jesus into your life to
forgive you of your sins.

It gave us an inner feeling of love and
faith.

It's a calling that retired plant
manager Bill Anderson and wife Pat hear

in life.

Three years after Pat is diagnosed with
a life -threatening brain aneurysm, they

find peace and meaning in the church.

We were totally engrossed in the church.
We were baptized.

Car salesman Robert Shaw also finds God
during a crisis time.

At the time, I was mid -30s, got into
drinking and such things as that.

I was having a lot of problems with
myself.

And when we started going to church, it
made my life a whole lot easier.

The Southern Baptist Church becomes the
core of their lives. But their

unflinching faith will have a colossal
cost.

Phoenix, 1982.

A devout and ambitious attorney named
Bill Kratz takes over the Baptist

Foundation of Arizona.

a 34 -year -old nonprofit that raises
funds for Baptist causes.

A lifelong Southern Baptist, Kratz has a
vision.

He felt he had a calling to build this
foundation into a

magnificent money machine for God and
that one day would

create massive profits that would then
go to Southern Baptist causes.

The plan was to do...

for the people that needed it the most.
Low -income housing, senior citizen

housing, donations to food, a wide
variety of both denominational

and non -denominational charitable
activity.

Like its namesake mythical figure,
Phoenix is rising.

Crott sees opportunities in Arizona real
estate, raw land and commercial

property, and grows BFA's investment
fund for the faithful.

Essentially, the way it worked was the
church member would loan the foundation

money, and the foundation would then
supposedly reinvest that money, and the

profits from the money that was
reinvested would go to Southern Baptist

and the investor would earn a very high
rate of interest.

The profit that we earn off the
reinvestment of investors' dollars

further the Lord's work. When
churchgoers hear of the BFA's investment

opportunities, they're enticed.

The salesmen and some of the people on
their staff came into the

churches and gave talks on what the
Baptist Foundation could do for you.

We were lucky to get 6 % or 7 %
interest. They were paying 10%. The BFA

paying a lot of interest compared to
what we could make in a CD or at

the bank.

But also, the money was supposedly used
for Baptist causes.

And we felt good about that because we
were not only building a retirement for

us, we were building the kingdom.

The foundation has offices in churches
across the state.

Their Bible -quoting salesmen visit
congregations, houses, and nursing

always preaching the same message. Do
good while doing good by earning an

excellent rate of interest and
benefiting Southern Baptist ministries

same time.

It's wise stewardship in action.

One word that was repeatedly used in the
sales pitches was stewardship.

This was a trusted, almost sacred word,
and it had a biblical root. So when you

use a biblical word, that makes the
investment program all the more

Established by the Arizona Southern
Baptist Convention, the foundation has a

of credibility.

So does Bill Kratz. He was revered. He
was considered a

financial genius.

Bill Kratz was one.

if not the most important person in the
Southern Baptist Convention.

When he walked into any church, he was
greeted like you'd have thought the Pope

showed up. For investors, it's not just
blind faith.

Sales material boasts that the BFA is
always profitable.

Not one investor has ever lost a penny
of their investment.

And they claim they have proof.

Each year, an independent audit is
conducted by one of the leading

firms in the nation.

Every year from 1984 into the 90s, the
foundation is given a clean bill of

health from a major accounting firm,
Arthur Anderson.

In a pre -Enron era, that's a comfort.

This is not some 25 -cent company, you
know. This is a big, big concern and

very, very prestigious.

We knew it was secure because it's a
Southern Baptist.

But it also was audited by Arthur
Anderson, and that really made it even

secure to us.

With all of that in mind, some 11 ,000
investors will take a leap of faith. We

wound up with total investments of close
to $200 ,000.

I put everything, everything that I had,
about $250 ,000.

A quarter of a million.

We had a senior in high school.

$60 ,000 set aside for her education. I
thought the BFA was the safest place in

the world to put her school money.

It's now the mid -90s, and many
investors think they are set for life.

don't know that all they've ever worked
for will soon be gone.

It's time bomb.

It's time bomb.

Sometimes in the desert heat, there's a
mirage. What appears to be true with a

closer look is just a trick of the eye.

Investors in the Baptist Foundation of
Arizona think their futures are secure.

But like water on the sand, it's all an
illusion.

It was simply a circular flow of money
that was keeping all the balls in the

air.

By 1996, thousands of people nationwide
have invested $340 million in the

Baptist Foundation of Arizona.

It's wise stewardship in action.

President Bill Crott boasts the BFA has
never lost a dime. And annual audits by

accounting firm Arthur Anderson prove
it. All seems fine.

We were living on the interest income
from our investments, and it allowed us

do a whole lot of things.

Bill Kratz was a wizard with money.

Every year it got better and better and
better, always positive, and everybody

gave him a lot of credit for being able
to buy these pieces of land and turning

a profit with them every year.

But inside the Baptist Foundation's posh
Phoenix headquarters, a few employees

are starting to have suspicions.

Attorney Kyle Tresh is a preacher's son,
a devout young Baptist who in 1994

moved to Arizona from Tulsa just to work
for the Baptist Foundation.

That seemed like a great way to take my
professional skills and translate them

into something that did something good
for other people.

The office morale was wonderful.

It seemed by all appearances to be an
incredibly successful organization.

But once on the inside, Tresch uncovers
a secret that will turn him from an

idealist into a whistleblower.

The picture they were painting was that
every year the foundation was spinning

off, you know, hundreds of millions of
dollars of profit when that was not

It was being manufactured.

Economic dominoes may be tumbling in
Arizona.

The real estate industry is in trouble.

When the Arizona real estate bubble
burst back in the late 1980s and early

the Baptist Foundation's investments
plummeted in value.

Tresh learns that rather than admit the
losses, Bill Crott secretly concealed

them through sham sales to an off -book
company, a bad bank called ALO.

Kresch and four staff accountants will
later tell investigators that for years,

Kratz has been lying about profits to
solicit funds and using investor dollars

to pay mounting debt.

Instead of stepping up in the early 90s
and saying we've got a workout situation

here, he instead chose to hide the
reality of the situation

and raise more money from the investing
public in order to keep all the balls in

the air.

The BFA has become nothing more than a
complex Ponzi scheme, a fraud that needs

an incessant stream of new investor
dollars to pay off existing investors.

There needed to be constant money coming
in to the foundation in order for it to

stay afloat because the assets weren't
generating the profit.

It's a time bomb.

It's a time bomb.

In April 1996, Kresch and the
accountants confront Kratz and his right

man, in -house counsel Tom Grabinski.

Kratz is adamant that it's a long -term
investment strategy and the properties

held by ALO will eventually mature and
make profits.

The question was never about whether it
was going to work out in the end. In my

mind, the question was always about just
disclosing the honest truth.

Kresch feels he has no choice but to
quit.

In his resignation letter, he accuses
Kratz and Grabinski of fraud.

It'll be a while before he and the
accountants talk to the state, but the

fall from grace is set in motion.

In early 1998, the Phoenix New Times
publishes an in -depth series that

the possibility that the Baptist
Foundation is cooking the books.

The deals were way, way, way too
complicated for...

a Christian foundation that was just
doing the work of the Lord.

After a tip from a confidential source,
investigative reporter Terry Green

Sterling spends six months poring
through public records, piecing together

money trail.

They were telling investors they were in
great financial shape when, in fact,

they were tanking abysmally.

BFA is quickly on the offensive.

In a letter to investors, Kratz writes,
these are wonderful days of blessing.

But they have not come without attacks
from Satan, our spiritual enemy.

Certainly if investors believed that I
was Satan and they had every reason to

believe Arthur Anderson and they had
every reason to believe Bill Kratz, who

sang hymns with them in church,
certainly they would leave their money

it worked. I would take the newspaper
into the pastor's office.

But the evidence in Sterling's articles
amps up an investigation by the Attorney

General's Office and the Corporation
Commission, who get Kyle Trash and the

accountants as key witnesses.

There was a significant, long -running
securities and accounting fraud that had

been perpetrated on the public.

In August 1999,

The state of Arizona forces the Baptist
Foundation to stop selling investments.

We can't let the fraud continue, but we
fully understood what the possible

ramifications were.

A Ponzi scheme will always collapse at
some point in time. The only question is

when. Three months later, the Baptist
Foundation crumbles in bankruptcy.

It owes its some 11 ,000 investors
nearly $600 million.

The foundation's assets are estimated at
about $250 million.

It just scared the heck out of all of
us. I didn't understand it. I didn't,

could this happen? It made me feel
really angry.

I'd worked hard for that money, so had
my husband, and I was entitled to it.

The first thing we thought was, what are
we going to do without this money? So

we both got jobs.

After their $200 ,000 vanishes, 70 -year
-old Pat Anderson works as a caretaker.

Former plant manager Bill is a handyman
who carves Uncle Sam lawn ornaments for

extra cash.

He couldn't sleep.

He would be going out in the garage and
working half the night, trying to make

some money, just driving himself.

It's overwhelming.

I had two heart attacks two weeks apart.

He was working too hard and worrying too
much.

Robert Shaw is worried about his
daughter's tuition.

She's about to start college, and he's
lost $250 ,000.

I didn't tell my wife about it for about
two weeks, partly because I didn't know

how to tell her, and I was embarrassed.

I didn't tell my daughter. When we drove
her down there to put her in school, I

didn't know if she was really going to
stay or not. She would have been

devastated if they wouldn't have let her
stay.

Shaw gets financing, but he has to sell
his house and go back to work.

I went to one of the rental car places,
and I washed cars for them.

I worked there about six months washing
cars.

We had a lot of little side jobs. We
just did dog walking. We did dog

Anything we could do and everything. I
didn't envision my retirement as that at

all. The investors are left feeling
betrayed and baffled.

I just couldn't imagine using the church
if it had been.

Any other kind of investment, I wouldn't
have felt so bad.

But it's not just the church that they
trusted.

Each year, an independent audit is
conducted by one of the leading

firms in the nation.

They'd also put their faith in the
watchful eye of Arthur Anderson.

I'd like to take the next few minutes to
share with you important information

about the secure investment products
backed by the full faith and credit of

Baptist Foundation of Arizona.

The 1999 fall of the Baptist Foundation
of Arizona looks a lot like the coming

collapse of Enron.

Accounting tricks, losses hidden in off
-balance sheet companies, and one common

bad fellow, Arthur Anderson.

Investors had a right to rely upon the
certified audit, and they did. And as a

result, they lost a lot of their
investment.

I blame Arthur Anderson to a certain
extent because they were giving them

a pass on something that they shouldn't
have.

In January 2001, the state of Arizona
sued the accounting firm for aiding and

abetting a securities fraud.

There were significant red flags that
should have indicated to Anderson that

there was a problem that they should
have followed up on. And instead of

following up on it effectively, they
issued another clean opinion.

Among the many warning signs, a detailed
road map given to Anderson by a former

BFA staff accountant in 1997.

and the 1998 New Times articles.

But even without those hints, one
Phoenix area CPA says Anderson could

should have figured out the fraud.

In my opinion, had I been writing that
audit letter, I would have said this is

company that probably is going to go
bankrupt.

Back in January 1998, Dee Grebel began
her own investigation into the BFA after

the call from a worried investor.

An individual called me.

and said, they want me to borrow money
on my house, and you can use the

from the mortgage to invest in the
Baptist Foundation of Arizona.

Buy more.

When going through Anderson's most
recent audit, Grebel sees one of the

foundation's largest so -called assets,
almost $70 million, is a collection of

notes receivable, IOUs, from a
mysterious benefactor B.

She heads to the BFA and asks President
Bill Krause.

Who's benefactor be?

And I remember Mr. Crott, the president,
very calmly said, oh, that's ALO Inc.

ALO, BFA's bad bank.

Weaver wants to know if ALO is good for
the IOUs, it's written. So she goes to

the Arizona Corporation Commission to
get ALO's financial report, a public

record.

ALO has a negative net worth of more
than $100 million.

That's when I fell out of my chair. This
company was stone broke.

And that was the largest receivable that
the Baptist Foundation had.

So the first asset I look is a complete,
total, worthless investment.

Well, I go running down the hallway,
tell a friend of mine, they're broke.

They are totally broke.

This whole thing's got to be a fraud.

Grebel calls Arthur Anderson not once,
but three times with this message.

You must immediately withdraw your audit
opinion on the Baptist Foundation of

Arizona. They're broke.

Give me a call.

She says her calls went unreturned. From
the end of 1996 to BFA's collapse in

1999, the foundation raised almost $200
million from investors.

Arthur Anderson, had they done their job
as we alleged in our complaint that

they did not do, the collapse would have
happened a lot sooner.

Anderson said it, too, was a victim of a
complex fraud by BFA senior management

and that other parties, including state
regulators, failed to catch it as well.

Anderson never admits or denies
wrongdoing.

But in 2002... Anderson has agreed to
pay some $217 million, meanwhile, to

settle all pending litigation stemming
from its audits of the Baptist

of Arizona.

That settlement, in part, helps
investors recoup up to 70 % of losses.

Still, some victims can't rest until
those at the Baptist Foundation are

to justice.

I wanted him to go to jail, and I would
like to have been the one to turn the

key.

September 2005.

the start of the longest criminal trial
in Arizona history.

Former BFA President William Kratz and
General Counsel Thomas Grabinski face

charges of fraud, illegally conducting
an enterprise, and theft.

But Kratz and Grabinski are not your
typical swindlers.

They weren't out there buying fancy cars
and living in fancy houses.

The state says pride, not profit, drove
the defendants to defraud investors with

false claims of real estate earnings
while burying loss after loss in phantom

companies and using investor funds to
pay off debt.

Prosecutors contended Bill Kratz was a
man who could not admit failure to his

church peers because his church life,
his Christian life, was his whole life.

Not one investor has ever lost a penny
of their investment.

I think within the community, they did
not want to admit that they made bad

decisions, and cumulative, multiple bad
decisions.

A small lie became a much bigger and
much bigger lie.

For the state to say that BFA's
financial statements were not accurate

preposterous. It is outrageous.

The defense blames the state for the
collapse.

Lawyers for Kratz and Grabinski say, had
BFA not been forced into bankruptcy in

1999, properties held by the foundation
and its affiliates in time would have

made millions.

If BFA had not been shut down, no one
would have lost a penny.

BFA would still be here. What had hoped
would have happened, would have

happened. The hue and cry of the
disgruntleds and the tabloid reports

evened. they would have evaporated.

From 1999 up through 2006,

the Phoenix real estate market has been
one of the highest markets in the

country, and the assets that the Baptist
Foundation and the other related

entities owned could have paid back
every investor.

When BFA went bankrupt, those properties
were liquidated at fire sale prices,

they claim.

The legs were cut out of the Baptist
Foundation.

right at the beginning of the biggest
real estate market increase in the

of the state of Arizona.

But that doesn't excuse deception, says
the state.

It is irrelevant in terms of the
criminal prosecution whether eventually

a sleeper that turned out to be pretty
good in the fullness of time.

Every financial report has to be
accurate as to the moment that that

report was made.

And in this case, there's no question
that it was not.

After ten long months of testimony and
more than one million pages of

documentary evidence, the jury finds
William Kratz and Thomas Grabinski

of fraud and illegally conducting an
enterprise.

They lied to the investors on how their
money was being used.

But not guilty on 23 counts of theft.

I didn't think they were personally
profiting from any kind of deals that

were doing.

So, therefore, no theft.

Kratz and Grabinski's conviction brings
some of the closure that many victims

have been waiting for.

They made our lives a living hell for
about 10 years, and I'd like

to return the favor.

But there's a schism among investors.

I do not believe Bill Kratz is the kind
of man who would defraud anyone.

I have faith in Bill. I just cannot
believe that he has a dishonest bone in

body. Kratz is now serving eight years
in prison.

Grabinski, six.

They're both appealing.

Am I angry with Bill Kratz and Tom
Grabinski? You bet.

I think they're getting a little bit of
what they deserve. They'll get the rest

later. The collapse of the Baptist
Foundation is an extreme example.

But crime in the name of God has become
all too common.

We've had numerous cases here at the
commission over the eight years that I

been here, and we're continuing to see
it.

The old story goes, you live and learn.
So it's a shame that you have to learn

it with your retirement money.

For many victims, getting taken on faith
means losing a lot more than

money. I sure lost my faith in Southern
Baptist, and I won't go back to a

Southern Baptist church, whether it's
here or in Kentucky or Georgia or

wherever.

Now, every Sunday morning, Katie Moss is
in a non -denominational church in

Scottsdale. Robert Shaw is still
struggling with the sense of betrayal.

I want to get over this anger, and I
want to get back into a Christian

relationship with God.

The Baptist Foundation took away a lot
of our faith in the church.

I was a Christian for a long time.

When we return, a doctor gets busted in
a million -dollar scam.

We believe, just based upon our
interviews, that not a single surgery

performed. One patient refuses to cover
for the doctor. She told him, you should

have thought about that before you did
this. This is wrong.

Then turns of death.

A suspect is charged and connected with
the killing of a church secretary. Next

on American Greed, a doctor turns to
murder.

Chicago, the town where Midwestern charm
meets big city green.

It's where Dr. Ronald Mikos puts down
his roots.

He was Dr.

Ronald Mikos, and podiatry was very
important to him.

Mikos runs a lucrative podiatry practice
with a long list of patients, most of

them elderly.

Dr. Mikos came to your home, is that
correct?

Oh, yes.

Would you sometimes give him a sandwich
and a cup of tea?

House calls are routine business for
this doctor with the sterling bedside

manner. He would come to their houses,
they would put out cookies or give him

sandwiches, and they trusted him.

But beneath the charisma lies a con
artist, a doctor playing the system,

off with more than a million dollars.

In 1998, Dr. Michaels pops up on the
radar screen of investigator Pete Tyler.

After the patient complains he is
charged for a tendon surgery, Mikos

performed. A beneficiary sent us an
explanation of benefits, informing us

they did not receive a service.

His suspicions heightened.

Tyler digs in and examines billing
records for more than 100 of Mikos'

I found that Dr. Mikos was billing for
several surgeries on a patient at a

separate date when, in fact, it would be
almost impossible.

Dozens of Micos' patients have bills for
multiple foot surgeries, often several

within a month.

One patient's bills alone total $90
,000.

It seems impossible, and it looks like
fraud.

He kept on doing the same thing. He kept
on billing for surgeries when they

weren't rendered.

Tyler turns it over to Health and Human
Services.

Agent Rene Reyes follows Micos' money
trail.

He was averaging well over $250 ,000 a
year, and in one year he had made well

over $400 ,000 a year. He was the
highest paid podiatrist in the state.

So that, of course, was a huge flag for
us.

In fact, Medicare paid Michaels more
than $1 .7 million over seven years.

Reyes looks closer and sees other
curiosities.

Typically, patients see the podiatrist a
few times a year.

Michaels sees his patients monthly and
all those surgeries.

One patient had more than 350.

Ideally, patients would have one, maybe
two operations on their feet in a

lifetime. Dr. Donald Aronson, a Chicago
area podiatrist, is brought in to look

at Mikos' billing.

He would send a bill to Medicare for a
particular surgical procedure, and then

week later send a similar bill to
Medicare for another procedure, say

the next toe, and then a week later, the
toe next to it. And this would continue

for months. But at no time was there a
bona fide patient record.

There would be no records of any
medications, prescriptions, just glaring

Tyler writes Michaels, suspending
Medicare payments until each case is

Michaels calls Tyler.

He's very upset, you know, irate, you
know, saying, you know, how could you do

this to me?

Health and Human Services enlists the
help of the FBI, and the patient profile

emerges.

The patients that Dr.

Michaels preyed upon were very elderly,
and they were very sick. They did not

have much family in the area.

Still, it's unusually hard to get
witnesses to talk about Dr. Michaels,

investigators discover why Michaels
befriends them.

It was a true friendship that he had
with them, and as a result, they didn't

want to do anything to harm that
relationship.

Unlike these patients, many face
terminal cancer, making it hard for them

come to testify. Others have dementia,
which reduces their credibility as

witnesses. In fact, nearly half of
Michaels' patients die of natural causes

before the investigation even starts.

We did tape depositions of many patients
because we were concerned that many of

them who were great witnesses now, maybe
a year down the road, would not be

available. Would he ever give you a
shot?

No, no shots.

Would he ever do an incision into your
toes?

Only the toenails.

Just the toenails?

Yes, only.

Would you ever get any stitches from any
of the work that he did?

No. From patient to patient.

The stories are similar.

Did the defendant perform over 100
surgeries on your feet?

Surgery? Yes. No.

Did the defendant perform any surgeries
on your feet? No. We believe, just based

upon our interviews, that not a single
surgery was ever performed.

Investigators learn Michaels is telling
his patients he's been set up by the

feds and urges them not to cooperate.

In fact, Michaels hands out scripts
offering responses to investigators.

He described in the scripts that he made
very tiny incisions, which is why

authorities wouldn't see scars from all
of these surgeries.

The script reads, if they get too
specific, you can tell them you do not

remember. Tell them he is a good doctor
and that you are very satisfied and you

have no complaints.

Many had signed these affidavits
swearing that he had, in fact, performed

unbelievable number of surgeries on
their feet.

As investigators pour through the files,
they discover another patient, 54 -year

-old Joyce Brannon.

On September 26, 2001, they pay a visit
to the former intensive care unit nurse

who lives in the basement of a church on
Chicago's north side where she works as

a caretaker.

She was very honest and very kind. She
cared about telling the truth. She

to do what was right.

Unlike many of Michaels' patients,
Brannon is mentally alert.

We had explained to her about the foot
surgeries, and I remember she had raised

her hand and she said, Honey, I know
what a foot surgery is. I'm a former ICU

nurse. There was over 70 foot surgeries
that were billed, and she said she knew

that not a single one of them was done.

Meanwhile, Michaels' lawyers requested
interview with the feds to clear up this

billing issue.

He denied having done anything wrong.

He explained that he had, in fact,
performed these procedures.

We knew he was lying to us.

Investigators aren't buying a word of
Michaels' story.

With Joyce Brannan on their side, their
case is coming together.

She was going to be one of the best
witnesses that we had.

But four days before Brannan is set to
testify before the grand jury, their

witness turns up dead.

Joyce Brandon's body was found in the
Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Is Michaels desperate enough to graduate
from medical fraud to murder?

Find out when American Greed returns.

For more information and special web
exclusives, log on to americangreed

.com.

A 54 -year -old woman is found murdered
inside a church basement in the

Edgewater community. The victim, the
caretaker of that church.

On the Monday before the grand jury is
set to hear the case of Dr.

Ronald Mikos, Assistant U .S. Attorney
Sean Berkowitz receives a call from the

Chicago Police Department.

They told me that they had found Ms.
Brannon dead in her apartment.

To get into Joyce Brannon's...

living space, there's a number of right
and left -hand turns that an individual

has to make before they're actually able
to get into the living quarters.

The way that the Chicago Police
Department found her was in a sitting

facing the windows.

She had her right arm pinned behind her
back, like so.

Joyce Brannon was shot in the back and
head six times with a .22, once point

-blank, just hours after attending
services upstairs.

Our beloved departed sister, Joyce
Brennan. We had a service.

We had a big church service.

I just remember it as an extremely
painful day.

Berkowitz and his team are stunned.

The fact that this was three days before
she was scheduled to testify,

certainly, at least for a prosecutor,
raised a red flag that we ought to look

into it.

Team works furiously on two tracks.

There was still work to be done to
prepare the white -collar case, but now

had a murder case on our hands.

The team makes a rare move for a health
care fraud case.

They look into the suspect's weapons
history.

He did not have a record, but he had
been arrested with firearms, and so that

set off at least some more warning
bells.

They look further into Michaels the man,
once a prominent doctor with a

comfortable life.

He did have a prescription drug problem
that was kind of persistent throughout

our investigation.

Towards the very end, he also resorted
to alcohol.

After a divorce, Michaels has children
with various girlfriends.

Without Medicare, his cash flow dries
up. He writes in a letter, I have lost

income, the Lincolnwood house, my dog,
I've gotten fat, my alcoholism and

depression have reared their ugly heads.

I am at the lowest and weakest point
that I have ever been at in my life. I

become worthless to people in particular
and society in general.

With no income to pay rent, he is forced
to live in his car.

It's a fall from grace for the doctor
who had billed more than $1 .7 million

over seven years.

He would get, you know, large, huge sums
of money from Medicare, sometimes a $60

,000, $70 ,000, $80 ,000 check, and that
would have been completely withdrawn

within five to seven days.

Some of his money is sent to an 80 -year
-old man named Charles Labosco.

Charles Labosco was an elderly gentleman
who had a daughter who was also on

Medicare. On closer look, they see
Labosco is Michaels' patient.

And his bills show he's had more
surgeries than anyone else, a shocking

fact.

Investigators wonder, is Labosco in for
a percentage of the action?

With ample suspicions, the feds tap
Michaels' cell phone.

After days of working with little sleep,
Berkowitz dials a number on a message

pad on his desk.

I inadvertently called Mr.

Labosco, and as soon as he asked me who
it was on the phone, he told me who he

was, and I told him that I inadvertently
dialed his number and hung up.

Almost immediately, the wiretap picks up
a chilling call from Lebosco.

American Greed obtained access to the
tape.

There's a very nervous call between the

two about the fact that I continue to
look into these issues and so forth.

The puzzle starts coming together.

Plenty of paperwork connects Michaels to
the fraud.

But tying him to Joyce Brannan's murder
remains the missing piece.

We had no eyewitnesses to the murder.

There was no murder weapon at the scene.

Nobody in the world had any motive to
kill Joyce Brandon except for Ron Mykos.

Investigators need to know more about
this devoted church caretaker to

understand why Mykos would kill her.

She was born and raised a Lutheran.

She knew that her purpose in the world
was to take care of people.

A week before the grand jury, Brandon
tells her friend that Dr. Mykos called

and asked her not to testify.

And he said, I have family at home.

Don't you care what happens to me? And
she told him, you should have thought

about that before you did this. This is
wrong.

Michaels' Palm Pilot records reveal he's
carefully following the entire

investigation. He notes which patients
have been contacted, when, and by whom.

And the detail is what stood out to us.

And by that I mean he would write down,
a description, physical description of

the agents who came, how they identified
themselves, and the questions that they

asked. Then he would rate the interview,
and by the interview going well, what

he meant was the patient did not talk to
us. If the patient did cooperate with

us, he wrote down in his palm pilot that
the interview went poorly.

The feds are just as thorough
investigating him to make sure there's

bring him down on fraud and murder.

In Chicago, the feds have enough
evidence to bring in Dr. Ronald Michaels

million -dollar fraud scheme.

Still, they struggle to find the murder
weapon proving he killed his patient,

Joyce Brannan. In the white -collar
case, Michaels' telephone records point

storage facility.

Investigators get a search warrant.

We found a whole cache of firearms and
ammunition in the storage locker.

But not a .22.

They do, however, find other items of
interest.

We also found a receipt sheet from the
Skokie Police Department.

This receipt details all the guns
Michaels owns, including a .22.

The call to the suburban police
department adds a new wrinkle.

Three weeks before Brannon's murder, a
domestic squabble brought the cops to

Michaels' girlfriend's apartment.

She told us that he was throwing guns.

in her storage unit in the basement of
the apartment building, and she didn't

feel safe to have him there and wanted
him removed.

But O 'Brien ran a check on Michaels'
firearms license.

It was expired.

He confiscated Michaels' cache of 11
weapons, including a .22 caliber

Michaels renewed his license, and on
January 24th, just three days before

Brannan's murder, he brought the guns,
including the .22, back home.

And that's what we believe was the
murder weapon.

The feds get a warrant to search
Michael's car.

And we found several pieces of evidence
that became significant in our trial. We

found a note in Ronald Michael's car.

It was a handwritten note that contained
the name of the church where Joyce

Brandon lived and also information about
the Sunday services and hours that the

church would have people present and
Joyce Brandon was killed.

We found in his car a shell casing for a
.22 caliber

bullet. We also found a partially used
box of .22 caliber ammunition that was

consistent in physical characteristics
with the bullets that were used to kill

Ms. Brannon. And with that, the case is
made. June 6, 2002, Michael is charged

with murder.

A suspect is charged and connected with
the killing of a church secretary, and

at this hour, federal authorities have
an Evanston doctor in custody.

On April 19, 2005, Mikos' trial begins.

The prosecution lays out the numbers
proving the fraud and builds a murder

based on circumstantial evidence that
puts Mikos at the murder scene and the

and the ammunition in his hands.

On May 5, 2005, Mikos is convicted.

He is sentenced to six and a half years
in prison for the Medicare fraud.

And for the murder of Joyce Brannan, his
sentence, death.

Michaels now sits on death row in a
federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

An appeal of his sentence is pending.

Charles Labosco, who was never a suspect
in the murder, pleads guilty to one

count of health care fraud for receiving
kickbacks.

He cooperates with authorities and does
not receive jail time.

He dies one year after Michaels' trial.

This case started as a relatively
routine white -collar case.

But by murdering Joyce Brandon, Dr.
Michaels committed a crime that strikes

the core of the justice system. She was
willing to do her job as a citizen.

That was her mission, is to stand up.

She went out representing everything she
believed in, representing this church,

doing no harm, only trying to do good.

And I can't help but think she's a hero.

In an upcoming episode of American
Greed, he was a master jewel thief.

I could make a million dollars one night
and start looking for another one the

next day. Bill Mason had a lust for
diamonds.

I loved the thrill of it, and I got
addicted to it. Now he's gone straight,

he wants to help you avoid being ripped
off. Next time on American Greed.