Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, the ringleaders of A &O Resource Management

are putting an old twist on a new scam.

The insurance company will always pay the death benefit to your client.

The A &O management were incredibly bold, brazen, and creative in the

and quality of lives that they devised.

They take a legitimate business and pervert it into a $100 million life

insurance fraud.

They believe that they can outsmart the authorities, and they certainly believe

they can outsmart investors.

But A &O is just a lie that grows, devouring the guilty and the innocent.

They're swimming in a tank of sharks. When that happens, people in the

surrounding areas, they're the ones that get bitten.

In the fall of 2004, 33 -year -old Christian Allmendinger and 30 -year -old

Brent Unkow decide they're ready for a career change.

The investment consultants have toiled for the Houston branch of Hibernia Bank

long enough.

They came from this banking background, which is generally something that's, you

know, it's a pretty conservative industry.

But they took a very different approach.

Houston Chronicle reporter Lauren Steffi says that they also share a taste for a

flashier life than most mid -level bankers can aspire to.

They seem to be very interested in all the trappings of success, if you will.

They like the fast cars.

They like the beautiful women. They wanted to show that they had hit the big

time.

They've discovered that Texas is becoming the epicenter for a little

investment that's exploding in popularity called life settlements. The

premise is that an investor buys a life insurance policy and continues to make

the premiums, and then when the person dies, they collect the benefit.

It might seem morbid, but life settlements allow people to sell their

insurance policies for cash before they die.

They get the money up front. Maybe they have a terminal illness, for example, or

something, and they want to use that money to pay their medical bills.

Investors then hold on to the policies, waiting to collect their payout when the

insured dies.

Life settlements are an investment in death, and by 2007, they become a nearly

$12 billion industry.

IRS Special Agent Rick Raven says life settlements can be an attractive but

risky investment.

The key to a life settlement investment is that the premiums be paid. I can't

stress that enough. If they lapse, the life insurance policy is worthless.

But another problem is longevity risk.

Because if the insured lives past their life expectancy, the investor loses

money paying their premiums until they die.

Allmendinger and Oncow see opportunity and a market to exploit.

They resign from Hibernia Bank in November 2004 and immediately open A &O

Resource Management as equal partners and co -vice presidents.

Investigators say Allmendinger was the brains of the operation.

And as excerpts from this A &O sales tape show, he was never shy about

exaggerating A &O's successes to lure in money.

We normally keep about $100 million of the policies that we warehouse just

waiting for clients.

Currently, this industry is about a $15 billion industry as of this year, and we

only see it growing.

That was all smoke and mirrors to entice investors to invest in this company.

They offer higher than average returns.

But to collect, investors must be patient, says U .S. Attorney Neil

You need to wait four to seven years, which is the lifespan of the insurance

policy, before you're going to start seeing any money. But once you do, it's

going to be 10, 12, 15 percent.

Allmendinger and Oncow purchased life insurance policies from a clearinghouse,

and we sell them as bonded life settlements.

To entice investors, they offer two guarantees.

What A &O was promising investors was that those premiums would be paid up

front, or those premiums would be placed in escrow, and they wouldn't have to

worry about those premiums not being paid because that was the number one

A &O's bonded life settlements offer a unique protection from longevity risk,

those policyholders who live too long.

Re -insurance bonds that pay out the full policy on a predetermined date.

even if the insured is still alive.

If the insured should outlive the policy's expiration date, it's not going

matter to your client because the bond's going to pay out the entire death

benefit on that date.

In 2005, A &O sets up shop in this office building just outside downtown

Houston. Until now, they've been relying on their own bank contacts and word of

mouth to grow the company.

But the Houston market is exploding for them.

The two of them could not sell these things quickly enough to grow the

the way they wanted to, and so they started looking for people that could

in to essentially be distributors, to be sales guys.

Thirty -year -old marketing whiz Adly Abdul -Wahab lives in nearby Spring,

Texas, and he's got just the connections they need.

He was the jet fuel that was poured on the fire, basically, because he had a

company that had a network that had, you know, sort of the distribution system

already there. He took these products, and that's when things really began to

take off.

Although investigators say Abdul Wahab, who calls himself Wahab, is a relentless

salesman, he also brings something else to the table.

He brings sort of what you might say is the traditional con man background to

the whole thing. You get the sense that he was the guy that really knew how to

make this thing work.

Abdul Wahab claims he's graduated from Louisiana State University, but that's a

lie. He also fails to mention that he's recently pled guilty to felony forgery

charges for trying to pass fake money orders at a local Neiman Marcus.

But Abdul Wahab's not going to let a criminal pass slow him down, and he

at the chance to aggressively market A &O, even if it means selling a lie.

Up next on American Greed.

The money and the greed take over, and they lose sight of what's right, what's

wrong.

Faced with a choice, the A &O partners must make a decision.

Walk away from millions or start covering their track.

They were lying about what they were delivering. They were lying about who

were. They were lying about their background.

Paula Whitaker Hancock has taught high school classes in Houston for 23 years.

She's also earned two master's degrees, started a couple of private schools, and

more recently opened a crisis and counseling center.

I did a lot of counseling in my private schools, helping families, helping

children, and that was my love, was helping people.

The true center of her universe, though, like any single mom, is her 25 -year

-old son, Ryan.

He was my only child.

I worked like a dog.

For all those years.

And so I wanted my son to have a good future.

Paula's determined efforts pay off.

To her delight, she somehow saved a million dollars.

Her estate planner suggests she invest this money with a new company he's

representing called A &O.

She agrees to meet the two A &O principals, Christian Allmendinger and

Unkell.

When they come to visit, she's impressed by their presentation.

Both of them driving up in twin Hummers.

So they looked very prosperous.

Italian suit.

Young men in their late 20s, early 30s.

Over the course of four months and repeated visits, Allmendinger and Ancal

her down.

They ask her to invest $1 million, and they offer to personally match her money

with $1 million of their own.

And so I thought, well, maybe something that they invest in would be more

secure than other types of policies. Because if this loses, they're going to

lose. They promised her a 100 % return on her investment, adding up to $2

million after six years.

They also tell Paula the investment is completely guaranteed by a Costa Rican

reinsurance company called Provident Capital Indemnity.

PCI will pay on the maturity date, even if the woman named on the policy is

still alive.

It was a guarantee. You had insurance.

And so this was a win -win. If she passed away, the $2 million came.

Even if she didn't pass away at the end of the six years, you would still get

the $2 million.

In January 2006, she takes money from her savings, her retirement, and her

business, investing $1 million with A &O.

Of course, when you're dealing with thieves and criminals, they don't follow

what they thought.

Paula Whitaker Hancock's million dollars seems like a lot, but it's just the

beginning of what A &O is taking in.

Most of their initial success is based on word of mouth and a marketing

that doesn't let the truth get in the way of a sale.

By July 2005, less than six months after they've opened shop at a Houston office

building, A &O's website falsely claims to have satellite offices in San

Antonio, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

All lies, says IRS Special Agent Rick Raven.

You read further on this website, and it talks about the 150 people nationwide

that A &O employed, including CPAs, insurance and security attorneys.

A &O had four employees who did mostly clerical work in the Houston office.

But even if their marketing materials are a lie, their ambitions aren't.

To expand the operation, they've begun aggressively training a growing

nationwide sales staff composed primarily of independent insurance

As part of the training for the agents were included all of these lies about

success of A &O to essentially brainwash their agents to help them then go out

and spread more falsehoods about A &O's success.

These deceptions quickly bring A &O to the attention of Letha Sparks. She's an

investigator for the Texas State Securities Board.

Fifteen years of tenacious financial detective work has earned her an

affectionate office nickname, Lethal Letha.

Lethal Letha realizes there's a big problem.

Under Texas law, A &O's bonded life settlements are considered securities

than life insurance. But most of A &O's sales force are insurance agents, not

licensed securities brokers.

If you have an insurance license in Texas, you can sell a life insurance

to somebody. You can sell health insurance to that person. Or you can

a fixed annuity.

That's all you're permitted to sell.

But the big commissions A &O pays are enough to make many sales agents ignore

the law, including that estate planner who connected Paula Whitaker Hancock

A &O.

He did not have the license I found out later.

$10 ,000 went to him as commission, so dollar signs in someone's eyes are the

things that make you maybe turn your head.

Fudging the truth pays off for A &O.

Between 2004 and 2007, they would take in nearly $80 million from more than 600

investor contracts.

And much of that money is just sitting around in A &O's accounts to keep the

policies going.

It's a perfect storm of opportunity and temptation.

In reality, that money just passed through those escrow accounts or went

directly to the pockets of the principals of A &O.

Chris Allmendinger will siphon nearly $8 million for himself.

He buys a fleet of sports cars, including a Lamborghini, Bentley, and a

Maserati.

He spends more than a million buying this 14 -room mansion less than three

from A &O's office.

There's an infinity pool and hot tub overlooking the terrace backyard.

Houston is a strange city in that it has a lot of residential areas that are...

Very exclusive, but right in the heart of the city. And that's where this is.

He fills it with a $100 ,000 Steinway Baby Grand piano and a bar with a pool

table. And he jumps into Houston's social scene, lavishly spending on

fundraisers and charity benefits like this costume party.

It was important to him to appear to be wealthy and to have the trappings of

wealth and to flaunt that wealth.

That's what he did.

Partner Brent Oncal is no slouch himself when it comes to raiding A &O's

accounts.

He buys this nearly 7 ,000 -square -foot mansion, complete with nine bathrooms,

in another exclusive area of Houston near A &O's headquarters.

Not a shabby place at all.

It's a nice area. It's a secluded area.

It's near downtown, but it's one of the tonier.

Addresses in Houston.

The neighborhood comes with an exotic appeal.

Wild peacocks roam freely through the yards.

Almendinger and Ancal finally have the life they've dreamed of. But to keep it,

they need to find more money.

Fast.

The more you work the scam, the more money you start getting, the more you

to keep it going. And that's where they always get into trouble.

Next on American Greed.

One of A &O's top salesmen can't sell his policies fast enough.

And we're going to maximize our assets, and we're going to be our own bank.

But ripping off a former federal agent is never a good plan.

I look at them like a mad dog.

They've committed a crime, and they could be put down.

One of ANO's top sales reps is Richmond, Virginia -based Tommy Bromseth.

Leverage is really important, but you know what's important also about

You've got to have the right tool.

He's a 66 -year -old insurance agent and a former pastor still heavily involved

in his church.

Recently, he's been preaching a new path to financial salvation in marketing

videos touting ANO's life settlements.

I'm looking forward to sharing with you.

Some great idea of a strategy that will help you double your net worth, double

your IRAs, double your 401ks, all without incurring any risk.

Bromseth may not live quite as nicely as his A &O bosses, but he's quickly

become an important part of their operation.

10 % guaranteed.

Between July 2006 and November 2007, Bromseth will sell more than $3 million

worth of ANO products to area investors.

Get up on the couch. Give us a call. It'll be the best time you've ever

One of Bromseth's friends and clients is Philip Kersey, not the sort of person

who's going to fall for any old story.

He spent 28 years as an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and

During that time, we worked moonshine.

We worked gun trafficking, explosives, a lot of different things.

Over the years, he's seen his share of smooth talkers and heard enough tall

tales to keep his eyes open.

I did get a good experience in law enforcement and reading people, and I

shouldn't be.

considered a gullible person.

In 2006, Kersey's living just outside Richmond, Virginia.

He's unhappy with his annuities and looking for better returns.

I had gone through two years with a zero growth, both years, and we were

talking about other opportunities, other options, and that's when the life

annuities came up.

Tommy Bromseth jumps on the chance to push A &O. He talks about the bonded

settlements being zero risk, guaranteed, will double your money in seven years

or less.

Kersey examines A &O's website carefully. He likes what he sees.

Everything that I checked, everything that I looked for, came back positive.

The better this thing got, the more guaranteed it got.

the more I should have been afraid of it.

Philip Kersey finally pulled the trigger and invests $105 ,000 at the

end of 2006.

The maturity date for my contract with that policy was May 1, 2010.

And on that date, they promised to pay $145 ,990.

That's a return of 10 % per year.

It sounds great.

But Kersey doesn't know Tommy Bromseth is only a local insurance sales agent.

And legally, he's not allowed to sell securities like A &O's bonded life

settlements. I don't think there's any question that Tommy knew what he was

doing was wrong.

He was making way too much money doing it. I think he just led me down a path.

Back in Texas.

Regulators like Lethal Letha Sparks are wise to what's going on.

They've been dogging ANO partners Chris Armendinger and Brent Oncow for months,

trying to force them to clean up their act.

They were targeting mostly senior citizens.

They were targeting retirement accounts, targeting in some cases teachers,

retired state and federal employees.

Under pressure, the partners decide it's time for some changes.

They shut down their Texas operation and reincorporate in Illinois, at least on

paper. It was really a cynical, shameful ploy to try and suggest that somehow

they were bringing, you know, order to the criminal chaos when in fact they

not.

The new A &O address isn't in Illinois, though. It's in a gleaming high -rise in

Houston's Galleria District.

just around the corner from their previous office building.

They also changed their bonded life settlements to a new product.

They moved on to what they call the capital appreciation bond, where they

a portfolio of life insurance policies, and investors would actually invest in

the securities that came out of that.

They continue to aggressively inflate their track record and marketing

materials.

This website also talks about their past track record of leveraging $375 million

into $800 million in less than five years with a rate of return of 16%. Just

made up money to show unwitting investors how successful their company

This is almost eye -popping and drew a lot of investors in.

Their marketing efforts became more and more reckless and more and more alluring

as time went on.

But their most important move is a personnel change.

When Allmendinger and OnCal promote top salesman Adly Abduwahab to full partner

in the fall of 2006.

It's a marriage of inconvenience for Allmendinger. He and Abduwahab don't

each other. But they do have 80 million reasons to work together.

This case is all about greed. It really is about these principles trying to draw

in as much illegal, illicit money through whatever means from innocent,

unsuspecting investors.

Next on American Greed, as the innocent get caught deeper in A &O's web.

Everybody could have been a winner in this, but the greed overtook it, and

that's what ruined it.

The con men turn on each other.

And that's where we get a level of creativity here that borders almost on

Paula Whitaker Hancock has invested $1 million with A &O, hoping to create a

nest egg for her only child, Ryan.

But 12 months after she sends her check, the unspeakable happens.

On January the 29th, 2007, my son died.

My life was over because he had been the center of my life.

It's like going over the cliff.

You see no future. My future was him.

Ryan was 25.

in the prime of his life, but his breathing stopped prior to routine back

surgery.

Determined to make something good from her tragedy, Paula creates a nursing

scholarship in his name at nearby Lone Star College.

That gave me a vision, gave me a direction of something that I

could do with my life.

It was continuation to help people, but the legacy.

What's the most important thing?

She also starts a foundation in his memory.

I made up my mind to set up the Ryan Paul Whitaker Memorial Foundation

and to do what Ryan wanted to do, and that was to help people.

And the A &O money was to be used for that foundation.

But Paula doesn't know that A &O owners Chris Allmendinger, Brenton Cowell, and

Adly Abduwalhab have been using her money and that of hundreds of other

investors for their own pleasure.

As soon as the checks cleared, they were sent to A &O, and A &O could do

whatever they wanted to with the money, and they did.

By the summer of 2007, constant pressure from state regulators convinces

Allmendinger it's a good time to unload A &O.

and let someone else worry about the never -ending questions.

Allmendinger decides he's done, he's out, and he's going to sell his stake in

the company.

On call says, yeah, I'm out too, I'm selling my stake, but that's not what he

did.

Liars and thieves typically come to a disagreement, and we saw that to a

here.

OnCal and Abdulwalhab decide they aren't ready to walk away from A &O's millions

just yet.

Together, they hire an attorney named Russell Mackert to handle a different

than the one Allmendinger expects.

Operating out of a nondescript Houston office, Mackert engineers the sale of A

&O to a company named Blue Diamond in Nevis, West Indies for $2 .2 million.

Allmendinger thinks they are all clearing $750 ,000 to walk away from A

But the sale is just a show.

And Abdulwalhab and Oncaller handed checks for just $750 to sell the sham.

Allmendinger was literally tricked out of his involvement in the corporation.

And that's where we get a level of creativity here that borders almost on

The sales contract is signed by a mysterious man named R .J. Stevenson.

only thing seen from Stevenson is a signature.

R .J. Stevenson is sort of like...

a character out of an Ian Fleming novel in the sense that this is a wholly

fictitious person who the fraudsters create his identity because they think

name sounds vaguely British.

The purpose of this sham sale is twofold. First, it allows Abdulwalhab

to kick Christian Allmendinger out of the company he started.

But it also further insulated...

Mr. Onkel and Mr. Abduwahab from the state regulators that were looking at A

They now were claiming that they sold the company, had nothing to do with it.

To bury their secret further, Abduwahab and Onkel have attorney Russell Mackert

sell Blue Diamond to another fake company named Physicians Trust, also

Nevis.

It's a lucrative series of transactions for Mackert. He'll eventually bill A &O

$250 ,000 for his services.

But it's a much better deal for Abdul Wahab. Between 2005 and 2008, he pockets

more than $8 million.

He moves from this exclusive gated community just north of Houston to a

-dollar mansion with seven bedrooms and a swimming pool surrounded by an acre of

landscaped property.

He was siphoning off his share of the proceeds to buy vehicles, a BMW, a Jeep,

very large custom -built estate.

Certainly fraud, waste, and abuse of investors' money.

He buys a Ferrari and BMW and drops $60 ,000 on watches and jewelry.

Ever the good son, he even gives $1 million to his family.

Unaware their funds are being looted, Investors like Philip Kersey are looking

forward to their payouts.

Kersey's money is scheduled to arrive in May 2010.

But in 2007, just months after investing $105 ,000, the former ATF

agent begins to smell a rat.

When he has trouble changing the beneficiary on his account, he calls the

headquarters in Houston.

I felt like I was talking to a storefront with one person in it.

answering phones.

It just didn't have the feel of a large company.

And I guess that's one of those things where being an investigator for 30

it piqued my interest.

Soon after, Kersey gets a call from Tommy Bromseth, the sales rep who sold

the investment.

He was very quick to come back to me after I called the office.

And basically what he let me know was, hey, if you need anything, call me.

Don't call the office.

And that was my second feeling that something wasn't quite right.

But Bromseth knows the right things to say to calm his fears.

We had a discussion about going out to visit A &O. But before we could go, he

told me one day that he had already been.

And he gave me this brilliant rendering of what A &O looked like.

Marble floors, big building, nice, great people.

I guess you could say being a fool, I believed him.

Despite his misgivings, Kersey decides to sit and wait, hoping his investment

will be secure until its 2010 maturity.

But the clock is ticking.

It was just a matter of time before A &O unraveled at that point. It was just a

few short months. But in those few short months, both Brent and Adley were able

to continue to stipend assets out of that company.

Coming up on American Greed. The A &O fraud was a mirage in the financial

that when you got up close, it just vanished.

The feds get wind of A &O, and now they're closing in.

None of these things can go on forever, and so they always collapse.

Would you fall for A &O's promises?

Listen to their sales pitch at AmericanGreed .CNBC .com.

Feeling greedy?

Want more than your share of behind -the -scenes dirt? Follow at AmericanGreedTV

on Twitter. We'll be right back.

Adly Abduwalhab and Brent Oncal have successfully kicked partner Chris

Allmendinger out of their life settlement scam.

And they've hidden their involvement by selling A &O to two West Indies shell

companies.

To throw off regulators, they've invented an imaginary Englishman named R

Stevenson to serve as the front.

Well, if somebody doesn't exist, they have no history, it makes it very hard

the regulators to find out who this person is, and so it became a convenient

field, if you will, for this reconstituted A &O.

But to sell the ruse, Ancal and Abdulwalhab need a real person to run

company and meet with nosy investigators.

Essentially, they were stealth owners, if you will, in this company, and so

needed a figurehead to be the public face of the new A &O.

In September 2007, they recruit Brent Oncow's former fraternity brother, David

White, to be president.

He really didn't know what was happening at the company at the time he came in.

He thought he was being asked to actually step in and help turn around a

legitimate enterprise.

White quickly realizes he's caught in a scam.

But when he meets with securities investigators, including lethal Letha

he does everything he can to protect his bosses.

He lied substantially, significantly when he came in, voluntarily.

And usually when people come in voluntarily, they're going to be

So it was one big lie after another.

The biggest lie he spread is that A &O is keeping enough money in the escrow

accounts to pay premiums when they come due.

Unbeknownst to them, that money that was supposed to be paying the premiums

continued to go into the pockets of Mr. Onkel and Abdul Wahab.

But he also assures them he is in contact with R .J. Stevenson, the

owner of A &O's new parent company.

physicians trust.

He claims to have spoken to Mr. Stephenson by phone, but when he's asked

telephone number, oh, my cell phone just died. I don't know it.

White's presidency is short -lived. After five months of questions and lies,

resigned from A &O.

Attorney Russell Mackert steps in to publicly run the company.

In 2008, the investigation into A &O picks up speed.

Letha Sparks sends investors, including Philip Kersey, a letter asking about

their A &O experience.

Basically, I sent them all the information I could.

I sent them everything they asked for.

Thanks to the hard detective work of Letha Sparks, A &O comes to the

of a whole different level of investigators, the federal government.

Civil regulators are often kind of the early warning system. Often they're the

canary in the coal mine that may catch wind of something before it ever comes

the attention of criminal investigators.

That's exactly what happened here.

The Financial Task Force is created in Virginia, bringing together the FBI, the

IRS, and the U .S. Postal Inspection Service to take down A &O. All this

us to...

do a deep dive, something that could have taken a whole lot longer that we

able to do in a series of months, and then stop the fraud in its tracks.

Double your money in seven years or less.

Amazing. One local A &O salesman comes to their attention almost immediately.

The video star, 66 -year -old Richmond resident Tommy Bromseth.

When we initially began speaking with Bromseth, there was some hesitancy

initially, but as we...

got more involved, he became more cooperative and began to reveal

that was usable in our investigation.

Peeling the layers, investigators realize Abdul Wahab and Ancal have been

running the operation from the shadows all along.

We quickly realized the scope and expanse of this and the impact that this

had on victims across the country.

More than $20 million has already been looted from A &O.

Now, Abdul Wahab and Oncal make a last series of money grabs, with Attorney

Russell Mackert helping them every step of the way.

$12 .6 million of A &O money was taken out of the A &O bank accounts and run

through Mr.

Mackert's attorney account.

And from that, Mr. Oncal got over $4 million.

plus a Ferrari that was over $400 ,000.

As A &O spirals out of control, the lawyer desperately tries to keep the

afloat. Mackard was left to take the calls from the concerned investors when

was readily apparent to them that this was a thinking ship and was in that role

as sort of the face of the corporation.

Mackard needs to pay $120 ,000 a month.

to keep A &O's life settlement policies active.

But most of the money in his escrow accounts has already been bled dry.

But the bigger problem is Provident Capital indemnity.

PCI is the Costa Rican company that guarantees to pay out policies even if

insured live past their maturation dates.

But now PCI is refusing to pay.

Mr. Mackert even sent a letter out to the investors telling them...

Looks like PCI is not going to pay off, so by December you're going to have to

be prepared to make premium payments because we don't have any money to pay

premiums.

Unknown to Mackert, PCI's owner has been running his own unrelated scam, and

he's about to be arrested for defrauding clients around the world.

Well, it turned out PCI had its own global fraud to the tune of a half

dollars. And so the poor investor...

essentially get screwed both ways.

Unable to pay the premiums, attorney Russell Mackert has run out of options.

In September 2009, he places A &O into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, forever

investors' hopes of recovering their money.

Once you enter the bankruptcy process, one of the first things you have to do

state your assets and liabilities, and it became very clear that the money was

no longer there.

Up next.

The con men scramble to save themselves.

When a house charge comes down, it comes down quick.

And their victims are left to pick up the pieces.

There are days that I just want to lay down and not get up.

But I have to get up.

And I have to do this for my boy.

When A &O collapses in 2009, federal investigators are stunned by the scope

the scam.

In less than five years, prosecutors believe the company has stolen more than

$100 million from 800 investors.

If you're taking that money that's supposed to pay the premiums and you're

sticking it in your pocket and buying toys with it, that's a fraud.

Of the missing money, nearly $30 million has gone straight into the pockets of A

&O's management team.

The rest has been spent on sales commissions, paying into the escrow

and on an outside scam run by the reinsurance company Provident Capital

Indemnity. It is like a small cancer that starts, and then it spreads, and

it metastasizes and moves.

In September 2010, Adli Adewalhab and original partner Christian Allmendinger

are indicted on charges including securities fraud.

Although Christian Allmendinger was driven from A &O in 2007, nearly $80

disappeared while he was in charge.

He was forced out, but that didn't make him any less culpable, any less sort of

the genius behind this conspiracy.

was willing to acknowledge that role and his culpability.

Faced with overwhelming evidence, most of the conspirators quickly cooperate.

Brett Oncal has pocketed more than $13 million.

He pleads guilty to money laundering and mail fraud and is sentenced to 10 years

in federal prison.

Attorney Russell Mackert pleads guilty to bulk cash smuggling and mail fraud.

He didn't necessarily...

concoct the fraud or direct sales agents out into the field to market the risky

products, but he played a key role in it.

Mackert is sentenced to 15 years.

David White, the figurehead president, who spent less than six months at A &O,

pleads guilty to a single fraud count and receives a five -year term.

Salesman Tommy Bromseth also pleads and receives a three -year sentence.

He's released 14 months later.

Only Christian Allmendinger and Adly Abduwalhab decide to test their fate and

to trial.

Prosecutors are ready, and the evidence is overwhelming.

This was, in some respects, an incredibly sophisticated and complicated

But on the other hand, as we said to the jury, this case is ultimately about a

bunch of fraudsters who lied to old people and stole their money.

And at the end of the day, it was as simple as that and as sad as that.

After a trial that lasts only 10 days, Allmendinger is found guilty on all

counts and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Two and a half months later, a jury deliberates less than three hours before

convicting Adli Adewaham. He's sentenced to 60 years in prison.

These are effectively life sentences. These are white -collar criminals who

never going to...

walk free outside the walls of a federal prison.

They've lost everything, their families, reputations, and freedom, and destroyed

hundreds of victims' lives in the process.

It's enough to break your heart.

They went from having a reasonable income that was supposed to last for the

next 10, 15, 20, 30 years to having absolutely nothing.

Christian Allmendinger's mansion sits vacant, waiting to be auctioned by U .S.

Marshals. The property has been repeatedly vandalized, and now the scum

pool offers only a tantalizing hint of what once was.

The house will be sold through forfeiture, but investors have little

recovering much money.

Philip Kersey invested $105 ,000 in 2006.

and hoped to make another $41 ,000 six years later.

Instead... We went through the bankruptcy proceeding, and as a result,

July the 6th, 2012, they sent me a check for

$4 ,670 .86.

So that was the end result.

Paula Whitaker Hancock still struggles to pick up the pieces of her life.

She's lost $1 million, but she is determined that A &O won't tarnish the

of her son, Ryan.

I love coming here because I can feel my son's spirit, and this is his legacy.

It's not about stealing, and it's not about the awful things. It's the good

things that make, I think, our country wonderful and the blessings that we

It's all part of Paula's daily efforts to remind herself that the greed of A &O

can't destroy or define her life.

Every child is a gift, and he was my gift.

I didn't get to keep him as long as I wanted to, but I will continue to do

everything that I can to leave the legacy that he wanted, and that's

people. I won't let them steal that.

I will never let them steal that.