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In this episode of American Greed, game on.
Investment managers Joel David Salinas and Brian Bjork make millions selling
bonds in Houston.
In this business, trust me, the smoother talkers, they raise a lot of money.
They net an all -star roster of clients, including basketball coaches from major
universities across the country.
You saw these prominent figures, and if they're happy, then why aren't you
happy? Jump in and join the fun.
But now the feds are crying foul because this $39 million bond game is
rigged. And later, fact and fiction blur when 26 -year -old rapper Eric
Chicago Blaxigan Jaglisik says he's producing a Hollywood movie.
I mean, $100 bills ain't, to me, I mean, it grows on trees. Now Jaglisik tells
his story to American Greed.
I got a half a million dollar house. I'm making a movie at a young age and I
don't work a day in my life.
And I have the American dream.
But when the deal falls apart, investors lose a fortune.
The guy was just a pathological liar. He just lied about everything.
July 15th, 2011.
Joel David Salinas, a 60 -year -old investment manager from Houston, Texas,
been missing for days.
He's finally located on a jet ski 30 miles away in Galveston Bay.
Mr. Salinas actually takes his jet ski out into Galveston Bay and rams it into
pylon in the middle of the bay.
seemingly attempting to do harm to himself in some capacity.
Ultimately, the Coast Guard rescues him and brings him back to shore, and he's
voluntarily admitted into a hospital for examination on that Friday.
Salinas is desperate.
He's darting a federal investigation into a $39 million scam he's accused of
running for more than 20 years, and the feds are closing in.
Scott Eden writes about Salinas for ESPN the magazine.
You can see him doing good, and you can see him doing very bad, and obviously
the one side won out.
Salinas grows up in Houston.
In his 20s, he turns to the greed side.
He's arrested for credit card fraud and served six months for forging his
mother's name on checks.
Hoping for a fresh start, he moves to Corpus Christi and opens an insurance
company. He finds success there. He works with local advocacy groups and
considers a run at politics.
He was a rising star.
People thought he might be a mayoral candidate, eventually a congressman.
But plans to run for city council in 1983 crumble as his past comes to light.
He's also accused of misappropriating $92 ,000 from the local Big Brothers Big
Sisters program.
And his public career was ruined, but he somehow struck a deal with the local
authorities, and the charges were dropped, and he just agreed to pay back
portion of what he had allegedly misappropriated.
Disgraced again, Salinas packs up and moves 200 miles northeast to the Houston
suburb of Friendswood.
hoping for yet another chance to wipe his slate clean.
In 1987, Salinas creates a series of businesses he ambitiously names the J.
David Group of Companies.
It sounds like it's, you know, this white shoe, old money, you know, firm.
In reality, it's a storefront in Friendswood, tiny staff, basically a
neighborhood kid that he hired to staff it with him, relatives.
Salinas is an avid college sports fan, and with the J. David Group, he can
indulge that passion.
He begins selling insurance policies to the athletic departments of local
universities. He winds up creating a business that sells type of liability
insurance to universities that protect them from those liabilities that might
occur when kids maybe get hurt.
But Salinas has bigger plans than selling insurance, says Assistant U .S.
Attorney Jason Varnado.
Despite having no credentials to do so, he simply marketed himself as a
financial advisor.
Salinas targets his existing roster of contacts, offering stocks and other
investments. But his calling card is long -term corporate bonds.
He would say...
I am able to procure corporate bonds at discounted rates because I buy so many
in bulk.
Because of that discount rate, you're going to get an even better rate of
than you might otherwise get.
Salinas slowly builds a loyal base of investors with steady 6 % to 8 %
says Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Timothy McColl.
Nice, safe, conservative.
He didn't promise above market rate.
But what he did promise was consistency. In other words, when the market goes
down, you're going to be fine. When the market goes up, you're going to be fine.
Salinas has a strong personality and a passion for college sports.
That and his athletic insurance connections will propel him to new
he meets men's basketball coaches Scott Thompson and Gray Giovanni at nearby
Rice University.
He was their friend first, they thought.
And then second, they said, oh, he's a money manager, so why don't I go, why
don't I put my money with this person that I can, he's already my friend, so I
can trust him.
When they become clients, it opens a door for Salinas into a very private
Coaches are moving from school to school, and as each guy would move from
to a different school, they would introduce Salinas to these new coaches
new staff, and his circle just widened over the years.
None of the coaches American Greed contacted who knew Salinas would speak
record. But Scott Eden discovers that Salinas used their trust and friendship
line his pockets.
Over the next two decades, more than a dozen of the biggest names in college
coaching will invest millions with the J. David Group.
Billy Gillespie, Mark Few, Scott Drew, Doc Sadler, Lou Dolson, of course.
Those are just some of the guys that became clients of Salinas.
Flush with success, Salinas becomes heavily active in the Houston community.
He forms a youth basketball league in 1992.
And five years later, he helps create the not -for -profit Houston Athletics
Foundation. Houston Athletics Foundation played a fairly large role in
supplementing the athletic budget at the University of Houston.
And keep in mind, as he did that and as that was set up, he gained access to a
growing number of, again, prominent Houston businesspersons and people in
athletic community here locally.
Salinas' business is booming, mostly because of the steady returns from the
corporate bonds he's offering and the famous coaches he's rubbing shoulders
with. He had nice homes. He drove a Bentley.
He owned a Porsche.
And he was living well off of other people's hard -earned money.
Next on American Greed, investors have a confrontation and learn there's a dark
secret behind the Midas touch.
I was getting pretty livid with him.
I just knew for a fact that he was lying to my face.
J. David Salinas has spent almost 10 years selling corporate bonds to a
roster of college coaches and clients with deep pockets.
Each year, he throws lavish final four parties that further cement his
relationships and reputation with coaches across the country.
He wanted to be a mover and a shaker in the college athletic community, and he
liked to be seen as the big man on campus.
But Salinas has been hiding a problem he can't ignore forever.
Mr. Salinas was not registered with the commission.
He was not registered. He was not a registered representative of a
broker dealer.
To stay out of trouble, Salinas needs someone with the right qualifications.
And in 1995, he finds Brian Bjork.
He hires Mr. Bjork, who actually does become a registered investment advisor.
Unlike Mr. Salinas, who never was a registered investment advisor, never had
credentials to do so.
Bjork also shares his boss's love of college basketball, and soon he's become
integral part of the J. David Group.
He started at the bottom, and fairly soon thereafter, he continued to rise to
become vice president and really Mr. Salinas' right -hand man.
Eleven years later, in 2006,
Salinas consolidates much of the J. David Group into a new company he calls
Select Asset Management.
He promotes Brian Bjork to chief executive officer.
The company moves into a Houston office complex, promising clients they'll have
a better variety of investment opportunities.
They offered the bonds. They offered stocks.
And they also offered securities or investments in these two private funds
they held within select asset management.
Salinas uses his starting lineup of coaches to aggressively sell the new
venture. It's potent advertising.
He unequivocally utilized and used to his advantage his relationships with the
basketball coaches to secure other investors.
Scott Jackson is a Houston -based portfolio manager.
He's never worked with Salinas or Bjork, but his 89 -year -old grandmother has
known them for years.
She's invested nearly a million dollars with J. David Group and Select Asset
Management, most of it in their conservative corporate bond program.
They were doing fixed income investing and, you know, trying to generate that 6
% to 7 % return was what they were telling her.
She trusts Salinas and Bjork completely and has never had a reason to doubt
them. If she needed $50 ,000, they'd send her $50 ,000.
I mean, they were extremely nice to her, and she loved calling them.
And when the economy collapses in 2007, her family is happy to see those
accounts continue to grow.
But after three years of steady gains, despite the economic downturns, Scott
Jackson begins to have doubts.
I was skeptical on that whole.
how he bought that, how he was getting those nice returns.
Jackson doesn't manage his grandmother's finances, but he is curious what Brian
Bjork's secret is.
In November 2010, he calls a meeting with Bjork. The money manager explains
they are acquiring the corporate bonds at substantial discounts of as much as
40%. You know, I was like, okay, but no one will ever...
Be selling a bond that's currently trading, you know, say 140 and sell it
at 100.
No bank institution would be that dumb to make that type of transaction.
Tempered flair as Jackson realizes that Bjork is evading his questions.
I was telling him, Brian, I don't believe you. I just don't see how this
And I believe you're a liar. You are lying to my face right now.
After the meeting, Jackson begs his family to get his grandmother's money
from Select Asset Management.
But his family trusts their old friends, Salinas and Bjork.
They decide to stay put.
I wish I was a little more forceful on getting their money out, but hindsight's
20 -20, and it's a lot easier said than done.
Scott Jackson isn't the only one asking questions about these too -good -to -be
-true bonds.
In June 2010, a routine Securities and Exchange Commission exam reveals some
troubling inconsistencies at select asset management.
Our examiners uncovered some red flags, commingling of investor money into a
common bank account, using investor money to make loans to close associates.
Investigators will discover that nearly $2 million are being moved around the J.
David companies disguised as loans.
Mr. Bjork was loaning that money to companies that were controlled by Mr.
Salinas, a very close associate of his and someone who you would expect would
get a sweetheart deal.
Bjork tries to hold off the SEC for a year.
But in July 2011, he turns on his boss to save his own skin.
His lawyer calls the SEC to say Bjork's had a change of heart and is willing to
play ball and give up explosive information about J.
David Salinas.
Well, guess what?
There's been this bond program started by Mr. Salinas.
And Mr. Bjork has some suspicions that these bonds don't even exist.
Those corporate bonds Salinas has been selling, the backbone of his 20 -year
-old investment companies, aren't real.
The bonds he was supposedly buying were fake. He wasn't buying any bonds. He was
just telling people that. And when people expected a return on that
he would use somebody else's money to pay them.
Despite what he's been offering for years to coaches and other investors,
Salinas has never bought a single corporate bond.
It was at that point that events began to move very, very quickly.
In a flash, it's all gone.
Friends, money, his reputation, and the college coaches who meant so much.
Devastated, Salinas disappears to his Galveston beach house just steps ahead
a federal investigation.
Next on American Greed, Salinas finds himself on a jet ski in Galveston Bay.
contemplating the unthinkable.
July 15, 2011.
Joel David Salinas is ducking federal investigators.
But when he's found on his jet ski, he's run out of options, says Secret Service
Undercover Special Agent Michael.
We figured he was desperate, he needed somebody to talk to, and who better to
talk to than law enforcement officers?
Investigators are eager to confirm suspicions that Salinas has created a
million investment fraud centered around the sale of non -existent corporate
bonds. Salinas essentially was guilty of running a massive corporate bond Ponzi
scheme that victimized a lot of people and ultimately lost a lot of people
life savings.
Salinas has taken his jet ski out to end his problems once and for all.
But at the last moment, he gets cold feet.
He admits that he tried to commit suicide the night before by trying to
the sea dew into a pylon or a portion of the ridge.
Uninjured, he's taken to a hospital for evaluation.
But hours later, he checks out and rushes back to his friend's woodhouse.
where investors are already waiting for him.
So there's like this posse of angry clients waiting to confront the guy and
out what's going on.
Salinas dodges them and hides in his house until Sunday morning.
So he's alone in the house, and that's when it happens.
This time, Salinas is resigned to his fate.
He goes to his backyard pool.
slips into the deep end and fatally shoots himself underwater.
The only reason you would do that would be to muffle the sounds and no one would
hear it. And no one did.
Salinas' body is discovered within hours.
His abrupt death changes the focus of the investigation immediately, says FBI
Special Agent Kendall Hopper.
It appeared from all the evidence we had at that time that Mr. Salinas was the
main person behind the corporate bond.
But we wanted to see if anyone else was also involved in his fraud.
They turned their attention to right -hand man Ryan Bjork, the person who had
originally clued them in to the fake bonds.
But Bjork has shared another surprise.
a note he claims he found before the suicide that was written by Salinas.
In the note, Mr. Salinas accepted responsibility for everything to do with
corporate bonds and exonerated Mr. Bjork and others.
The note is authentic, but is it true?
Agents Hopper and Michael will spend a year pouring through records seized from
Salinas' companies and home to find that answer.
It took a lot of time to go through everything and put together the pieces.
At no point in time was Mr. Bjork forthcoming in our investigation.
Of particular interest are records from the University of Houston booster
organization Salinas helped create called the Houston Athletic Foundation.
They discover Brian Bjork has been treasurer since 2004 and has enjoyed
limitless access to its accounts.
H .A .F. has more than $2 million invested in Salinas' companies.
But their accounting records don't make sense.
The files were not kept in a logical manner.
Their bookkeeping was poor at best.
One day, Agent Michael is in his office and Agent Hopper is in hers.
Over the phone, they try once more to reconcile the Houston Athletic
books. We were both on the same date.
for the consolidated statement, and our numbers weren't jiving.
We noticed that the total dollar amounts were different.
And then it dawned on us that there was actually two sets of books.
While Joel David Salinas has been selling fake bonds, his trusted
Brian Bjork, has been running his own scam within a scam.
We discovered that Mr. Bjork had been taking checks that investors had made
to J. David Financial Group and then using those bonds for his own.
personal expenses.
He's raided $550 ,000 from HAF's accounts and stolen nearly another
dollars from a very personal list of clients.
It's included his mother, his grandmother, other family members.
You had David Salinas sitting in one office running a Ponzi scheme, and you
Brian Bjork sitting right next door in his office running his own Ponzi scheme.
neither of which individual knew what the other was up to.
In 2013, faced with this evidence, Brian Bjork agrees to plead guilty to wire
fraud and is sentenced to four years, four months in prison.
We knew we had him dead to right.
There was no weasel on his way out of it.
Today, the Selena scandal is best known for rocking the NCAA and costing more
than a dozen coaches millions of dollars.
But at least 100 other investors saw more than $30 million of their life
disappear as well.
In addition to the prominent figures, you know, we had the everyday citizens
that just invested their entire life savings and trusted Mr. Salinas and
up being victimized and lost everything.
Scott Jackson is still furious that Joel David Salinas and Brian Bjork stole
nearly a million dollars from his grandmother.
I look at Brian Bjork and David Salinas, and I find them to be scums of the
earth. But Brian Bjork thinks about that every day he's in prison, and David
Salinas took the easy way out.
Weeks after Joel David Salinas' suicide, a court -appointed receiver is assigned
to recover whatever assets remain for investors.
The biggest surprise is that Salinas stockpiled $18 million worth of life
insurance policies since at least 2010.
The receiver is able to recover most of this money despite suicide exclusion
provisions.
And as a result, the receivership estate had a source of funds to pay back
victims. It may be upwards of even 40 cents on the dollar, which in my
experience is an extremely...
Good recovery in these cases.
Turns out, Joel David Salinas, the man who began his career as an insurance
salesman, planned ahead for the end.
Freedom of speech!
Next on American Green, Eric Jaglisik is an aspiring suburban rap star.
You better take me seriously.
You better play my shit before my city comes out.
With Hollywood Green.
A rapper needs a basketball court.
I need a pool.
Girls like pool.
Agent Bill Harmoning with the Illinois Securities Department has spent more
20 years chasing financial predators.
But in October 2006, he lands a case like no other when a frantic investor
him about a $1 .5 million movie deal gone sour in Chicago's southwest
I knew within 10 minutes of talking to him that he'd been defrauded, had all
red flags.
The story was just complete silliness.
The alleged mastermind, Eric Jaglisik, has recently posted this video online.
This is my recording studio. This is where I make all my beats on my track.
Jaglisik's calling himself Chicago Blaxican, and he's been trying to
rap career.
Gangster? I'm the one doing things. I'm staying straight up.
Jiglicic admits he's never worked a steady job, but he claims rapping and
producing beats makes him enough money to fill this video with all the toys
showing off.
See, a lot of people don't realize this. I'm pretty good at music.
I'm pretty good at producing.
I'm pretty good at the engineering.
But Harmony says the video is actually key evidence in the ambitious fraud
Jaglisik executes. He ended up with over a million dollars in a very short
amount of time, and he spent it in a very short amount of time, and he lived
that lifestyle that he dreamed of living.
I mean, $100 bills ain't, to me, I mean, it grows on trees.
Months earlier, Jaglisik has made an unlikely new friend, 44 -year -old Brian
Palatowicz.
He owned an audiovisual equipment company.
Jiglicic would come into his business to have copies of his CDs made, and that's
where this plan was hatched.
According to Faletovich's attorney, James McGurk, Jiglicic's not talking
Instead, he says he's producing a movie called The Record Deal with the help of
a major Hollywood star.
The story that Eric presented to Brian was that Eric Jaglisik was purportedly
involved in the movie deal with Adam Sandler. It's unclear whether Sandler is
supposedly starring in or co -producing the film, but Jaglisik says the story is
about Chicago Blaxican.
The whole movie took place about me. It's about a rapper and a producer who
great songs, but he doesn't want to sign to a record label.
The problem is, Jaglisik needs money to keep the film in production.
No special stuntmen.
No great background. No cars crashing.
No need to shut down a city.
Just follow me around. Follow my life.
Balotovich buys the story. He gives Jaglisik more than $150 ,000.
and hands him keys to a new Cadillac Escalade as well.
We're not quite sure why Palatovich agreed to do this. He seems to be a
relatively intelligent man. He's a business owner.
But for some reason, he fell into this, and Eric just had him on a hook like a
fish.
Jaglisik says the video he soon creates is a key scene from this film.
People think I'm crazy for having sharks in my living room, but...
Now that, again, people work 40 hours a week for a little measly paycheck, so
what do they know?
But a Cadillac, sharks, and a house full of electronics soon eat through the
money Faletovich has provided.
McGurk says within weeks, Chicago Blaxican begins pressuring his client
money to complete the film.
Eric. Got everything he could out of Brian.
He had no more credit, he had no more cash, and so he had to get more, so he
to get Brian to bring in other people.
Balotovich turns to his family and friends, asking them to invest in this
Sandler movie.
He doesn't mention Eric Chicago Blacksican Jaglisik's name, but he does
a short -term investment, the payout will be incredible.
They would get their money back plus anywhere from 200 % to 400 % interest.
One of the people Falotovich hits up in the summer of 2006 is his lifelong
friend, Alan Bruce.
Bruce soon pulls together $28 ,000 to invest in the deal.
I've just seen the chance to double it. You know, that was what the theory was,
is double it or maybe even more.
I said, this can't get any better than this.
Bruce has known Valatovic since they were kids.
He says he had no reason to doubt him, even if the story sounded unlikely.
He's an honest guy. I know that.
I never had any problems with him.
Soon, Bruce is delivering the money in cash to Valatovic.
It was everything I had. I mean, I never had that much money ever.
I pretty much lived check to check all the time.
I'm not here for a long time. I'm here for a good time, is my theory.
The deal is based completely on trust in Ryan Falatovich.
This is a case where there were no contracts. There was no prospectus
the investment. There was absolutely no paperwork that I know of. It was all
done word of mouth on a handshake.
But Eric Jiglicic is the only one who will benefit from this unshakable faith.
Next on American Green.
Chicago Blaxican dives into a million -dollar home makeover.
I tricked that house. I pimped it out. I had to get it all ready for the movie.
Want to live the life of a rapper?
See more clips of Chicago Blaxican's video at americangreed .cnbc .com.
Feeling greedy?
Want more than your share of behind -the -scenes dirt?
Follow us at American Greed TV on Twitter.
We'll be right back. Thank you.
A friendly game of cards in 2006 turns business when Al Bruce mentions another
high stake game he's playing.
It's an Adam Sandler movie called The Record Deal that he says is currently
being financed in the Chicago suburbs.
We just started talking about it and everyone kind of got caught up in the
nonsense of thinking we were going to get rich quick.
Bruce has entrusted his lifelong friend, Ryan Faletovich, with $28 ,000.
And that's enough incentive to convince at least two others to jump in as well.
There was no paperwork.
I mean, nothing.
We just trusted him, and that was, you know, it was that simple. I trusted him.
In just a few weeks, Faletovich will collect nearly $1 .2 million from 18
friends and family members.
The investors were investing $25 ,000 at a time, $50 ,000.
We had one investor that invested almost a quarter of a million dollars.
Al Bruce's younger brother, Brad, hears about the deal.
I didn't want to miss out on it. He told me I could triple my money within a
month's time or less than a month's time.
Brad Bruce is looking to grow his plumbing business, and he's hoping a
return here will help pave the way.
He gives Palatovich $100 ,000.
It was a crazy amount of money for me to invest.
It was more than half of what my house was worth.
Bruce thinks the investment is safe.
His friend Palatovich has promised everyone their money will sit untouched
his bank account for a couple of weeks until the big payout.
And that was the one thing he promised me. Money will never leave the account.
But on June 15th, Falatovich changes his story and withdraws $442 ,000
that he promptly delivers to Eric Chicago Blaxican Jaglisik.
That's when the thing all fell apart.
Jaglisik says the money was a gift and that he used it to buy this house in
suburban Orland Park.
What got me in trouble was that house right there.
It wasn't about no movie.
It was about no evidence.
It was about me not living in that house.
It's not a mansion, but for a rapper without a record deal or a day job, it's
pretty nice pad.
And Jaglisik quickly sets to filling it, thanks to Brian Palatowicz.
He would literally hand him bags of cash, and Jaglisik would turn right
and spend the money.
Like right when you walk in, you see two big posters.
Of me.
Of my face.
And it was on my album.
It's cool.
It's like this is my house. This is where I live.
Come on in.
This is Blaxican time.
The $1 .2 million Palachowicz has collected will quickly disappear.
His attorney says Chicago Blacksigan played gangster and threatened the deal
would collapse if he didn't hand over the cash.
Basically, whatever Blacksigan had to say to get Brian to part with money, he
would say.
Including, if you don't give it to me, then everybody loses everything,
including all the money that you had put in before.
Bill Harmoning says Chicago Blaxigan took that money and literally made
at home with it.
He spent approximately $14 ,000 to do the build -out in the basement for the
recording studio, and then he actually equipped it with a 48 -channel mixer
board.
Thousands of dollars worth of speakers. It was a very nice studio that he
installed.
Chickalistic sharks take the plunge.
into a new 650 -gallon tank that costs $5 ,000.
And the sharks aren't the only exotic pets he keeps.
Meet Danger and Dangerous.
Two alligators.
They were about six inches long, but they were American alligators that would
have been eight feet at some point.
He indicated that he was going to raise them in his crawl space.
When you see Happy Gilmore, the movie with Adam Sadler, he had alligators in
movie. So I said, well, I could do this too.
In his small backyard, Jaglisik puts in a hot tub, a basketball court, and even
commissions the installation of a swimming pool.
They said that he had walked in with a bag of cash and asked how much to
an in -ground pool.
They asked him how much he had, and he said $24 ,000, and they said that's how
much it's going to cost.
Can't have an empty yard. A rapper needs a basketball court.
I need a pool.
Girls like pool.
But his most ambitious plans run afoul of city ordinances.
He tried to get a zoning variance to build a sniper tower up on top of his
house and a high security fence around the front yard with his name on it, with
Blaxican on it. And, of course, the zoning board turned him down on both.
Jaglisik says his biggest triumph as a film producer occurs on July 30th when
hires musician Ice -T to fly into town to rap with him at a local strip club.
I gave Ice -T six grand through a Western union.
I paid for his first class plane tickets, which was $2 ,700
I paid for his limo, food, things like that.
Special agent Harmoning will later testify.
Jiglicic actually spends $80 ,000 for a party that only amounts to a few minutes
of grainy footage.
The money was all investor money.
Eric opened up, sang a few songs, and then Ice -T came up, sang a few songs,
that was the end of it.
Jiglicic claims it is a key scene for the movie, but Ice -T is only visible
during a few flashes of light, and there is no footage of him performing.
What the f***? Man, what do you want it to be of?
It's iced tea. That's us walking in. That's part of the movie. Now you want
judge my movie.
I don't give a crap.
It's my movie.
While Chicago Blaxigan is filming in strip clubs, investors have no idea how
their money is being spent.
And they anxiously press Brian Falatovich for when their big payday is
Under growing pressure, Falatovich finally admits who his partner is.
A 26 -year -old aspiring rapper.
The news catches investors like Brad Bruce by surprise.
Take a good look at me.
Do I look like the type of guy to invest in somebody like that, a rapper?
No. That was the most comical thing I've ever heard.
In August, several investors track Chicago Blacksican down.
They don't like what they hear.
Eric provided a lot of information about the movie.
He tried to explain to them how Hollywood worked, how these deals
think they knew that they'd been defrauded, that he was making this stuff
When they call Adam Sandler's production company, their fears are confirmed.
Sandler has never heard of the movie.
Next. I'm sorry they lost their money.
Sorry. But it ain't got nothing to do with me.
Chicago Blaxigan's not about to give up the money without a fight.
I got this check, I got this house, and that's that.
October 2006.
Concerned investors tell Illinois securities agent Bill Harmoning about a
million movie -making scam in the Chicago suburbs.
Harmoning turns to Eric Jaglisik and Brian Falotovich for answers.
Most of the cases we work, people will take steps to hide what they're doing.
These guys took no steps whatsoever.
Everything in this house is pretty much stolen.
Thanks to videos Eric, Chicago Blacksic, and Jaglisik has created, Harmoning has
no trouble tracking him down.
Over the phone, Deglesig denies he's producing a movie with actor Adam
He told me he had never told anyone about a movie deal, didn't know what I
talking about, denied any knowledge of it.
But Harmoning's seen and heard enough to believe otherwise.
He prepares to execute a seizure warrant at Deglesig's house.
To motivate his officers, Harmoning plays tracks from Chicago Blaxican's
album, Suburban Police Are Nerds Who Became Cops.
Is it just me, or is it a big coincidence that every suburban cop is
short, fat, ugly, or got a $10 haircut?
I made sure that about 15 suburban cops went with me, and I let them listen to
that CD before we went. So they had a good time.
Helping out that day.
Once inside, they seized almost everything Jeklisik owns.
We seized a number of televisions. We seized some very high -end recording
equipment and stereo equipment.
We seized in the garage a number of arcade games, pool table.
The house, hot tub, sauna, Hummer, even the pet sharks are all taken to pay back
investors.
And at the end of that day, he ended where he began. He had his clothes and
dog, and that was about it.
And Blacksican's two baby alligators that he once dreamed of displaying in
crawl space?
Alligators are contraband, so you can't legally have them in Illinois.
They were eventually released in Florida.
Right now, every time I see someone dies in Florida from alligators, that could
be that.
Confronted by Harmoning, the rapper and his partner, Brian Falatovich, turn on
each other.
Falatovich, through his lawyer, says he's only guilty of trusting the wrong
person. Eric misled Brian Falatovich, and Brian Falatovich so believed
everything that he heard that he sold this bill of goods to
his friends, family, everybody he knew.
Teglesek says he never promised investors any returns from the movie,
200 to 400 percent.
That was all Falatovich.
Who deposited the money?
Not me.
Who withdrew the money?
Not me. Who promised all these people that this money is not going to go
anywhere?
Not me.
There are no contracts or paperwork to support either's claims.
But Jaglisik does offer one document he says definitively clears him of blame. A
four -sentence paper he says Faletovich signed the day after Jaglisik's house
was seized in November 2006.
Eric Jaglisik has nothing.
Big, black, bold letters and brackets.
Nothing to do with any securities fraud whatsoever.
I gave him this check out of my own money.
Signed.
Notarized.
Signature. This is my proof.
Brian Falatovich's name is misspelled. And when the letter is found, they're
charged with perjury.
Eric Chicago Blaxican -Diglesik and Brian Palatovich are indicted in June
on 27 counts of theft and securities fraud.
In March 2008, Chicago Blaxican pleads guilty and serves two and a half years
state prison for a short time getting what he wanted all along, a house with a
sniper tower.
When he was going to prison, I said the good news is you're going to have some
street cred now because you're going to have prison time. I said the bad news is
it's for security's fraud.
In November 2008, Brian Palatovich also pleads guilty and serves 19 months in
prison.
Today, friends like Al and Brad Bruce say they've forgiven him for his role in
stealing their money.
At the end of the day, I don't think he set out to steal from me.
I think it's just he got carried away with some bad decisions.
The only thing he was guilty of was being naive.
He just, he got caught up in it, and he didn't investigate it more himself.
But Harmoning is less forgiving.
He says Faletovich played the key role of luring investors in. I think without
him, this never could have happened, because I don't think anyone would have
believed Eric Jiglicic for a minute.
Do you believe incarceration really leads to rehabilitation?
And Eric Chicago Blaxican Jaglicic? Now out of prison, he hopes to file a
clemency petition and clear his name.
He's still chasing his rap dreams, but for now, his options are limited.
I tried to get a job at Menards, Home Depot,
Party City, McDonald's, just for kicks.
They all said, no, you have a felon.
So what do you want me to do now? Make another movie?
I might as well.
I'm stressed the fuck out.
Vegas sports betting expert Steve Stevens has a whale on the line. I will
him Mr. B for billion.
And VIP's best agent gets reeled into the worst of Vegas.
Are you kidding me?
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