All language subtitles for American Greed s07e11 Greedy, Groovy Guru Doomsday Pr

In this episode of American Greed, New
Age evangelist Lydia Kladek says she can

awaken minds to untold riches.

But her promise of big returns buying up
auto loans isn't just mystical, it's

unlawful. When these investors are
really putting money in Lydia's pocket.

And even an army sniper can't defend
himself against this greedy guru.

The threat is right there, wears a
little dress.

wears a big smile, and that's the
thread.

And later, South Carolina silver dealer
Ron Wilson is sounding the alarm on the

U .S. economy.

Ron predicted essentially the end of the
world.

Nearly 8 million investors hear his call
and fork over $90 million to invest in

the red -hot metals market.

But when it comes time to collect, they
find that they're the ones who've been

burned.

This guy was a slick snake oil salesman,
except there was never even snake oil.

That's what makes it worse.

It's the spring of 2010 in St.
Augustine, Florida.

And Staff Sergeant Kevin Crowell wants
his money.

The Army sniper invested $50 ,000 with
Lydia Kladek, a local businesswoman

who says she makes big profits buying
auto loans.

But Kladek isn't making good on her
promises.

When Staff Sergeant Crowell shows up at
her office to demand his money in

person, he gets a cold welcome.

One gentleman after another came from
the accounting side of the house, and

stood there with their arms crossed, and
their most, I guess they were trying to

be opposing -looking.

If the accountants expect to intimidate
Crowell, they're talking to the wrong

war veteran.

I've spent my entire life in the
military dealing with tough guys all

world, so it's like this was fun.

As the exchange intensifies, the
receptionist threatens to call the

And I said, that's a brilliant idea.
Call the police.

Please call law enforcement and tell
them you won't give me my money.

And then the tough guy with his arms
crossed said in a very non -threatening

manner, no, no, no, that's not
necessary.

We don't need to involve the
authorities.

And I kind of wondered, I was like, why
wouldn't you?

Why wouldn't you? If you are worried
about me, why wouldn't you involve the

authorities?

By the time Staff Sergeant Crowell walks
into Kladek's office, she owes

$113 million to investors throughout the
United States. Her specialty auto

finance company has a collection of
savvy clients, including seasoned

mutual fund managers, and
multimillionaires.

But the cornerstone of her business is
laid in living rooms.

like this one just outside of St.
Augustine, Florida, where Jane Edney and

women's social group have biweekly
gatherings.

It's just the wives, no husbands
involved, and we sit around and have

and hors d 'oeuvres. That's it, every
other week.

In 2000, the group welcomes a new
resident to the club, Lydia Kladek.

I remember very well the first day I
ever saw her. She was brought to our

because she had moved into the
community.

She was a very quiet, unassuming lady,
tiny, very small, and she

just looked helpless.

So I went over and talked to her. She
was charming, just charming.

As Kladek integrates into the group, she
eventually mentions that she owns a

company named Lydia Kladek Incorporated.

that has a way of turning car loans into
gold.

She says that her company uses investor
money to buy high -interest -rate auto

loans from car lots and then collects
the payments on those loans.

According to Orlando attorney John Kane,
it's an established business model in

the finance industry.

There are businesses that do it very
successfully.

In fact, there are some major players
who, you know, some large banks who do

very successfully. If you manage it
right, I think that 10 % return is not

unreasonable.

Kladek says she can do better.

She says that by purchasing the loans
and then servicing them, the 29 %

rates being paid by the car buyers will
pay enough for her to earn a hefty

profit.

As well as pass along a 15 to 20 percent
interest rate to the investor.

A lot of money put into that.

With the women's social group, she
couldn't have found a more receptive

audience.

Here were 30 ladies, most of us either
retired

widows in many cases, all of us fairly
affluent, able to invest

money. And she made friends, and it was
just like hitting the jackpot.

Edney makes a comfortable living leasing
out a commercial property in Louisiana.

But in the late summer of 2005, a
natural disaster leads to a

financial one.

When Katrina hit, it kind of wiped out
some of my income because I had a

building in New Orleans, and it filled
up with mud. And I knew it was going to

take a long time to get anything back
from that building.

Edney takes $100 ,000 from her savings
and brings it to Lydia Kladek's humble

offices in this converted house in St.
Augustine, where Kladek promises her...

a 15 % annual return.

Her desk was two saw horses with a
wooden door on the top, an unfinished

door, covered with papers and a big cat
sleeping on one end of it.

Now, you've got to trust somebody that
has that kind of a situation.

Before long, more than a dozen women in
the neighborhood are invested with Lydia

Kladek Incorporated.

Every one of them is happy.

I got a beautiful check every month.

Didn't even think about it not being a
perfectly honest, safe, secure thing.

Because when you knew Lydia, you trusted
her. It was just that simple.

Lee Caesar agrees.

She is not a member of the neighborhood
women's group, but also lives in St.

Augustine, where she suffers from
emphysema.

She meets Kladek in the late 90s at a
local New Age church.

Caesar says that Kladek embodies the
church's message, that harmony with the

universe is the key to reaching each
person's highest potential.

I never heard a bad word said about her.
I never heard her say a bad word about

anyone. If something negative would
happen, she would always turn it into a

positive.

Caesar invests all her savings in
Kladek's business as she begins to

her retirement.

Then, in 2000, Kladek asks Caesar to
start working at her company.

For Caesar, it's as if the stars had
aligned.

I thought she was the best thing that
ever happened in my life.

She was a good friend.

She was making me all kinds of money.
She was very good to me.

I loved her dearly.

Soon after Caesar joins Lydia Claddock
Incorporated, the company explodes in

size. By 2007, Claddock has raised $58
million from investors.

As word spreads outside of her church
and women's groups to the movers and

shakers of St. Augustine, who in turn
have connections all over the country,

moves her office from a cluster of
converted houses to a new two -story

building.

It was an exquisitely done office, and
that made us feel good. When she made

money, we made money.

Unfortunately, that's not just positive
thinking, the way Klydeck runs her

business. It's wishful thinking.

In order to sustain the investment
scheme, she would have to pay back 15 to

percent a month.

Although those car loans are earning
interest at 29%, remember, it's not

into account the cost of repossession,
the cost of employees, the cost of

management.

So it wasn't reasonable to expect a
return of 15 % to 18%, and certainly not

guaranteed return of 15 % to 18%. There
are very few guarantees in life, and

there are even fewer guarantees in
investments.

But Kladek believes in turning negatives
into positives.

even if it means engaging in fraud to do
it.

When American Greed returns, Kladek's
lifestyle seems to affirm her philosophy

and even gets an Army sniper to let his
guard down.

In the military, we say you got the
warming fuzzy, you felt good with it,

that's how it happened with me.

Hello, my name is Lydia Kladek, and I am
the proud, happy, and grateful founder

of Lydia Kladek, Incorporated.

In St. Augustine, Florida, new age guru
Lydia Kladek is running a seemingly

successful auto financing company that
she built from the ground up. By the end

of 2009, she has more than 2 ,000
investors with over $100 million

And as this video she makes for her
employees shows, she credits her success

the same philosophy in which she lives
her life.

I wanted to have a company based on
principles and values of how we know

can be and what life can be like to work
together.

Unfortunately, Kladek's positive
thinking isn't matched by her positive

It takes a lot of work to make sure that
you know where those cars are at all

times, make sure your borrower doesn't
disappear, make sure the car doesn't get

destroyed. All of those things need to
be covered, and I think that's where the

business portion fell short.

Falling short is an understatement.

According to John Kane, who comes to
represent the investors of Lydia Kladek

Incorporated, by the end of 2009,

Kladek is running a $90 million deficit.

Nevertheless, as long as she can
convince new investors to have faith in

she can use their money to pay the
interest on previous investments.

Listen with an open heart and see where
your heart takes you.

Welcome to Lydia Kladek.

It even makes Kladek roll her eyes.

With her scam running at full force,
bringing in tens of millions of dollars

year, she's siphoning off a big chunk
all for herself.

It just seemed like there was a funnel
above her house with money flowing into

it to fill the house with things.

Heather Soffeld begins working for
Kladek as her personal assistant in

As Kladek moves into a new 5 ,700
-square -foot mansion in a gated

called Sea Colony.

It was beautiful. Arts and crafts style,
custom stained glass, chandelier hung

in the front hall.

The lap pool flowed into a regular
-sized pool. The highest -end things

I've ever seen.

Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent.

And I commended her. I said, how
wonderful.

I was looking around in awe, and I said,
how did you do this? And she just said,

one foot in front of the other.

That was her answer.

We have within ourselves the ability to
create the life that we desire.

It did kind of have a weird vibe because
it did make you wonder, how are these

people this happy? They're at work. That
was a bad day right there.

Kevin Kroll is the recipient of the
Purple Heart.

and two combat infantry badges as a
staff sergeant for the U .S. Army.

After serving a year as a sniper in
Iraq, where he was hit by roadside bombs

five separate occasions, he now lives in
St. Augustine, where he suffers from

post -traumatic stress disorder and
struggles to deal with everyday civilian

life.

It's the hardest thing ever. The
transition is unbelievable because

from In an environment where you have to
survive, you have to trust your buddies

to coming back to not so much focus on
how I'm going to get through today and

hopefully I'll see the sun come up
tomorrow, but how am I going to provide

my wife? How am I going to make ends
meet?

He thinks those questions may be
answered when his wife hears about a

investment opportunity called Lydia
Kladek Incorporated.

We met with Lydia.

We stressed to her how hard the money
that we had, you know, how we saved it

from being in the desert, saved it from
my deployment.

She confided in us that, you know, she
understood and she would take good care

of us.

He takes $30 ,000 he saved risking his
life in the deserts of the Middle East

and hands it over to Lydia Claddock.

With it, he hopes he can now have the
security he believes he's earned.

The way I looked at it was, I fought for
my life for that money, for that future

of a life that we could sleep well at
night knowing we had money in the bank.

For two years, Kroll and his wife get
their interest payments every month,

on time.

But in December of 2009,

Their payment comes in late.

The following month, it's even worse.

January rolled in, no interest payment.

And that's when I started questioning
things, and I got nervous.

And I called the company up again, and
they said it'll be there as soon as it

can.

It never happened.

When American Greed returns,

Lydia Kladek's business isn't the only
thing disintegrating. It appears her

mental state is as well.

She started to act very strange. She was
doing weird things.

She was chanting.

By

the

end of 2009, Lydia Kladek's fraud is
reaching its end.

She's been promising and delivering 15 %
interest on thousands of people's

investments over the past decade.

But she can't keep up with the payments
anymore.

It appears the pressure is taking its
toll.

She didn't act stressed.

What she did was act strange.

She had meetings that I was told five
minutes of business and the rest were...

If you asked her a question, she would
just fold her arms and smile at you

without any words.

If that was an act, I don't know. Or
maybe she was going off the deep end. I

don't know.

Yeah, that's right. She couldn't get out
of it. She was too far in debt.

Jane Edney has $100 ,000 invested with
Kladek for nearly four years.

In the fall of 2009, she and several
women from their group don't get the

monthly interest payment they've become
accustomed to.

Kladek comes to the group's next meeting
and urges patience.

Give her a chance. She'll build it back
up. See, we believed.

Boy, did she do a job on us. She was
just sitting there so timid, and

that was her way.

You just felt sorry for her.

You didn't know she was stealing you
blind when she was being so sweet.

Eventually, enough people don't receive
their payments, and they get law

enforcement involved.

In the spring of 2010, the FBI raids
Kladex offices, and most everyone

in St. Augustine knows about it.

I stood out there, and I cheered them
on. I cheered them on.

I think I even offered them if they
needed coffee, I'd go get it for them so

they could stay up late and work all
night.

But not all observers are so excited to
see the FBI.

Her supporters are out there, her people
that go to her church.

They're all defending her, saying she's
a wonderful person and we're evil, we're

mean for saying bad things about her.

I don't personally have any issue.

I don't care if she's spiritual, if
she's...

hung out with the Dalai Lama. I mean,
that's all fine, but I just wanted my

money back.

Despite her supporters' objections, on
November 19, 2010, Kladek is indicted

on 14 counts related to the fraud.

The case goes to trial, and on January
26, 2012, a jury finds her

guilty on all 14 counts.

As she prepares for sentencing, Her
faith in positive thinking crosses over

the delusional.

She actually puts together a very
detailed presentation as to how she can

the investors from jail.

It was a plan where she was taking her
$14 ,000 a year social security income

and she was able to convert that somehow
into $80 million over the next 10

years.

Seems kind of incredible to me, but that
was her plan.

The judge doesn't buy it, and neither do
the members of the women's social

group, who travel to Jacksonville to
observe the sentencing.

When Kladek addresses the court, they
see a side of her they've never seen

before.

They had to pull the microphone down.

And she came out with the most horrible
scream I have ever heard in my life.

I didn't do it. I didn't take the money.
You're liars.

I had never heard her raise her voice.

So we were in shock when she said that.

So that was the true Lydia Kladek.

The judge sentences Kladek to 30 years
in prison.

If she plans to earn back the millions
of dollars she owes to the investors

she is let out, she won't be able to
start until she is 98 years old.

Jane Etney eventually gets an insurance
payment for her commercial property that

was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina and
has enough money to live comfortably.

Many in her group are not as fortunate,
but they have managed to keep together.

It brought me closer to the ladies.

You know, I felt as though I'm not by
myself. At first, I didn't want to talk

about it.

Lee Caesar didn't just lose her
investment.

Her entire world is turned upside down.

I was a friend.

I was an investor. I was an employee.

And now I'm a victim.

Caesar continued to invest her savings
with Kladek through the years she worked

for her, even refinancing her house to
invest the equity with Kladek.

Now the money's gone, and her home is in
foreclosure.

At 78 years old and in poor health, she
needs to try to find work to pay back

her debts.

I'm on poverty -level Social Security
with food stamps.

So that's where I am.

And she's living in a cell.

Sure, she doesn't have freedom, but
she's got everything taken care of.

got three hearts in a cart, they say.

People like me are out here scrounging
around trying to make ends meet. It

doesn't make any sense.

So now I'm angry.

I'm angry that a friend did this to me.

Kladek isn't a friend to Kevin Crow.

But she is a U .S. citizen.

And for someone who has spent two
decades of his life defending the United

States, the betrayal back home cuts just
as deep.

You do come back, and you have a big
handshake, and someone says thanks for

service, and then they take your money.

And it's amazing how that works in our
country.

If a threat is right there, wears a
little dress, wears a big smile, and

the threat.

Next on American Greed, nearly 800
investors believe they're using their

to buy silver.

But in reality, Ronnie Gene Wilson's
alchemy has turned metal into thin air.

They were buying nothing. They were
buying a fiction.

In February 2012,

Ronnie Gene Wilson sits in the offices
of the South Carolina Securities

Division.

The 64 -year -old silver dealer has been
called before investigators after a

woman complains that Wilson has been
doctoring the investment statements of

92 -year -old father.

The daughter sent us the documents. We
reviewed these documents.

And we found that there were some
significant red flags that were popping

South Carolina Attorney General Alan
Wilson heads the State Securities

and is no relation to Ron Wilson.

In fact, he's a thorn in Ron Wilson's
side.

His Securities Division begins digging
into Ron Wilson's business and finds...

that Wilson has hundreds of investors
with supposedly tens of millions of

dollars invested in silver.

The Securities Division calls Wilson
into their offices to ask him where all

this silver is.

During the course of that interview, he
basically tells us that he has between

500 and 600 ,000 ounces of silver
basically stored in the depository in

Delaware.

Ron Wilson's made a career of placating
people's concerns with his word of

honor.

But this time, he may have pushed his
conceit too far.

I don't think he expected us to check.
Because at this point, he's so good at

getting people to believe him. He
doesn't think that people are even

the truth of what he's telling.

They've served this area extremely
effectively.

County Councilman.

South Carolina school board member.

Silver dealer.

Anderson County citizens know Ronnie
Gene Wilson as many things.

But more than anything, they know him as
a straight shooter.

The one thing I really thought about Ron
was that he was a very true, honest

person. He was very gruff.

When he said things, it was just like,
here I am, this is who I am, take me or

leave me. And I respected that about
him.

Candy Kern Fuller is an attorney in
Anderson County, South Carolina, who

Ron Wilson from his time as an elected
official on the Anderson County Council.

At first glance, they may not seem
likely allies.

She's a liberal.

He's an arch -conservative.

He was a member of the John Birch
Society, national commander of the Sons

Confederate Veterans.

Greetings and welcome you to Anderson.

And different things of that nature. He
was very, very politically conservative.

But Kern Fuller is willing to put aside
philosophical differences.

to attend a 2009 seminar Wilson is
giving for his precious metals company,

Atlantic Bullion and Coin.

She hears a pitch that Assistant U .S.
Attorney Bill Watkins says is a

of his business.

Ron predicted essentially the end of the
world. The dollar was going to crash.

It would be worthless.

And that hard money, silver and gold,
was where people should put their money.

Kern Fuller doesn't buy into the doom
and gloom.

But silver doesn't have politics.

And the prices are rising.

Kern Fuller agrees to invest $10 ,000
with Wilson.

What appealed to me was what silver and
gold were actually doing.

I mean, I can pick up a newspaper. I can
get on the Internet. And so at that

time, I see it. I see it go up.

Another person dazzled by Silver's rise
is Bill Strewing. He's worked in law

enforcement for more than 30 years.

And in 1996, he starts working for the
Anderson County government as chief of

public safety.

He passes through Councilman Ron
Wilson's offices enough in his official

that eventually his curiosity in
Wilson's metals business is piqued.

I mentioned one time to him, I said, I'm
interested in the silver thing that you

have. I said, I understand there's some
people that have it I've talked to, and

it's quite lucrative. And he said, oh,
yeah.

He said, I'll tell you what. He said,
I'll have my secretary send you an

invitation to one of our seminars.

At the seminar, he sees a number of well
-respected citizens of Anderson County

who have money invested with Ron Wilson.

So I thought, well, you know, if these
lawyers, and doctors and notable people

in the community are going for this. I'm
going to get in. I'll get it also.

In 2006, Strewing is ready to retire
from his job with Anderson County and

Wilson $10 ,000 that he receives from
unused vacation and sick pay.

Like approximately 800 other investors
in Wilson's company, Strewing believes

that Wilson is buying precious metals
with his money and then trading them in

the market.

Quarterly, I got reports of he bought
and sold, bought and sold. And, of

he bought when the market was low, and
then he sold when the market was high.

And I never took any money out of it. I
was going to leave it in there until it

got to a sizable amount, and then that
would have been for my eventually

retirement.

The only problem is that the statements
Strewing and other investors are getting

are complete fabrications.

No, it was all fictitious. The only real
numbers on the statement was the amount

of money the investor put in.

That number was correct. Then all the
trade, that was false.

There was no silver.

This guy was a slick snake oil salesman,
except there was never any snake oil.

That's what makes it worse. There was
nothing there.

According to South Carolina Attorney
General Alan Wilson, Ronnie Gene Wilson

walks into a perfect scenario for
running a precious metal scam.

The best fraudulent schemes always have
elements of truth to them that are

verifiable.

Silver was going up. The economy was
going down. He leveraged that.

It gives investors little reason to
doubt Wilson's ability to show positive

returns.

I saw what the silver was bringing.

I saw what the paper was saying.

I got my quarterly reports.

They didn't seem outlandish or anything
like that.

I see it go up, and I'm saying, wow, I
bought this at $10 an ounce, and it's

already now $15 an ounce.

And then it went up to $20, and then it
went up to $30.

and then it went up to 40, just like he
said it would. If he'd have taken our

money, and he would have bought silver
with it, and he would have been

legitimate about it and everything like
that, we would be well off right now,

okay?

Not well off enough for Ron Wilson's
taste.

He wants it all.

When American Greed returns, Ron Wilson
steals money by telling people the end

of days is near.

Is it just part of the image?

Or has he managed to even convince
himself?

He had stacked to the ceiling canned
goods, tents, firearms, ammunition,

everything that one would expect to see
if you were preparing for the government

to collapse.

Learn more about how Ron Wilson attracts
investors into his scheme at

AmericanGreed .CNBC .com.

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page.

We'll be right back.

In Anderson County, South Carolina,
Ronnie Gene Wilson tells investors that

.S. currency is about to collapse.

But in reality, it appears there's no
bigger fan of the almighty dollar than

Wilson.

Between 2009 and 2012, he takes in more
than $65 million from

investors throughout the country
intending to invest in precious metals.

But Wilson never actually buys bullion.

There was no silver, and he would take
that money.

and pay off older investors to keep them
in the scheme, to keep them, you know,

basically hooked in.

And it was just layers and layers of
fraud, each class of victim that came

And the money that is left over goes
mainly to himself.

He spent freely, and oftentimes he just
paid too much money. It wasn't his

money. He didn't care.

Beatty Ashmore is an area attorney who
becomes the trustee of Wilson's Holdings

on behalf of the victims.

One of the more remarkable assets that
Ashmore will liquidate is this farm 30

miles from Greenville.

The farm is a unique place.

It is designed to be totally self
-sustainable.

The farm is completely organic.

Wilson even sells the farm's meats,
cheeses, and produce from his own

store.

It's a progressive attitude, but don't
believe that the hardliner has gone

Wilson may have other motivations for a
self -sustainable refuge.

When the day came when the government
collapses, he wanted to be totally self

-sufficient. He's got $400 ,000 worth of
solar panels alone, so he could be off

the... the power grid.

There's more evidence of Wilson's
doomsday preparations in his offices.

In this room, he had stacked to the
ceiling canned goods, tents,

devices, a number of firearms,
ammunition, gunpowder, shells.

He had everything necessary to survive
in the event that the government would

collapse.

Ned Chamblee isn't worried about the end
of days so much as the end of his

working years.

That's a drill ship there.

He's spent 40 years working on ships
overseas, doing everything from

equipment for oil rigs to shipping
merchandise across the Atlantic.

By the end of 2010, he's eyeing
retirement and meets with Ron Wilson.

Well, he was talking about how bad the
economy is in the U .S. and what the

dollar's fixing to crash and the only
safe way of putting your money would be

metals, in precious metals.

And he said, it's not guaranteed, but in
the past I have been doubling people's

money over a two -year period.

Chamblee says he calls the Better
Business Bureau just to make sure and

Wilson has a AA rating.

Chamblee takes all of his money from his
401k, more than $500 ,000, and invests

in silver.

Into 2012, everything seems to be going
just as Wilson said it would.

According to the statements he was
sending out, I'd already doubled my

According to the paperwork, it was worth
over a million.

He's a roughneck -turned -millionaire.

It's a welcome development, and at just
the right time.

Chamblee's company wants to send him
back to work on a rig off the coast of

Nigeria.

But Chamblee doesn't want to go back
overseas.

At that time, I thought I had plenty of
money.

So I said, well, let's go ahead and
retire.

About two weeks after I retired, I found
out that it had all upon its skin.

When American Greed returns...

Wilson investors want to cash in on the
metals rush.

But they come to discover that their
plans for a lustrous future are just

gold.

Once we made a call on the money, he
closed shop. And when that happened, I

to myself, not there.

Don't know if it's ever been there.

By early 2011, Bill Strewing has upped
his investment in silver to $50 ,000

with Ronnie Gene Wilson.

Periodically, I looked in the paper, and
I knew what I had, how many, when I

looked at the quarterly report and saw
what it was and done a little figuring,

and it figured out pretty darn good.

Hundreds of Wilson's investors feel
exactly the same way.

It keeps the fraud rolling right along.

This scheme went over 26 states,
incorporated over 1 ,000 victims, and

million in money was defrauded out of
these victims. And in 15 years, not one

single complaint was filed by any one of
the thousands of people that were

invested in this enterprise.

He was good.

But in the fall of 2011, this con man's
15 -year streak comes to an end when

an investor suspects that Ron Wilson may
be falsifying documents.

Mr. Wilson, it appears, overreached a
bit with his scheme and was changing

statements to reflect that folks had not
bought as much silver as earlier

statements had shown.

On February 1, 2012, Wilson is summoned
to an interview with the South Carolina

Securities Division in Columbia to
explain the discrepancies.

He blames them on a simple error.

and the Securities Division lets him
walk out a free man.

But it appears that Wilson feels the
walls are closing in around him.

He knew that the end was near or
suspected it could be near.

The U .S. Secret Service not only
protects the president, but investigates

financial crimes as well.

When the South Carolina Securities
Division asked them to assist in the

investigation, Special Agent Jason
Durkin sees a desperate Ron Wilson put

fraud into overdrive.

He came and had a seminar presented to
the class. Bring all your money. If you

have a house paid off, take out another
mortgage on that house. Take a second

mortgage. If you have IRAs, dump all
your IRAs in and bring all your money to

invest.

The Secret Service continues its
investigation and calculates that if

business is legit, he should have an
extraordinary 8 million ounces of silver

under his control.

To figure that out in more something you
can grasp, if you take 8 million

ounces, that gives you 500 ,000 pounds.

So if you want to equate that to tons...

So that gives you 250 tons.

That's 125 Ford Explorers. That's a
large amount of silver to have under

one control.

Durgin has his doubts. He subpoenas
Wilson's depository and finds that

short by all 8 million ounces.

The depository is empty.

When the U .S. Attorney's Office
confronts Wilson with the records, they

remarkably submissive Ron Wilson.

It's hard to bluff at that point when
you've got no silver.

It was over.

On July 27, 2012, Wilson pleads guilty
to mail fraud.

Four months later, Ned Chamblee is in
the courtroom for Wilson's sentencing.

Chamblee has gone from a life of hard
labor to a retiree worth a million

dollars. But as he sits in court, it's
all gone.

He lets Ron Wilson know how he feels
about it when he's allowed to say a few

words before the judge.

I told him that I didn't think he should
serve a day in prison. I thought he

should be executed.

The judge sentences Wilson to 19 and a
half years in prison.

which the Secret Service says is more
than Wilson was expecting.

He felt that he was only going to get
sentenced to eight years in jail, so he

actually was already making plans of,
well, when I get out, I want to buy this

type of motorcycle.

I'm going to travel here. I'm going to
be a free spirit, which strikes me as

interesting.

Where is he going to get the funds to
have such a great retirement?

Even from jail, Ron Wilson may be
putting one over on his investors.

We are missing money. We're missing
cash. We're missing millions of dollars

worth of cash that are not on the books
and records. Unless Ron Wilson or

somebody else tells me where it is,
we'll never know.

I mean, you're dealing with crooks, and
they're hiding money from you.

And I am convinced that Ron Wilson is
one of those people.

And the federal government believes he
may not be the only crook.

Lankboy and Corwin was more beyond Ron
Wilson himself. He actually had

employees. He had a staff that he worked
with, and there's still quite a few

individuals, both within the company and
outside the company, that are still

actively being investigated.

Special Agent Durkin wants it to be
perfectly clear.

Anyone that is involved in this fraud
should expect a visit from the Secret

Service.