All language subtitles for American Greed s08e09 Lights Camera Fraud

In this episode of American Greed,
making movies and making money.

It was good money, and I didn't think it
was ever going to end.

Mac Parker lives and works in Vermont,
but his money -making mojo is straight

out of Hollywood.

I would sometimes raise as much as $150
,000 a week.

There's just one problem. If his movie
costs less than $1 million to make, Why

is Parker raising $28 million?

It was discovered that less than a
nickel of every dollar that was being

invested was actually spent towards the
creation of the movie.

I put everything I had, every penny I
had into the film, which really put me

a real jam.

So where's the cash going?

And what's the secret that will enrage
investors?

I wanted to strangle him because he
didn't tell her.

In Vermont, in the fall of 2013, a

56 -year -old man named Mac Parker
enjoys his last few days of freedom

reporting to federal prison.

Though he prefers flannel shirts to
French cuffs, this white -collar

orchestrated a $28 million fraud,
betraying friends and neighbors.

Part of the pain for me and for so many
of the people who trusted me in this,

there was just a sense of how could you
do this?

You know, we know you. You know, we
thought we knew you.

Hi, my name is Mac.

Welcome to Elgin Spring Farm.

Have you ever been in a dairy barn
before?

He made children's videos about going to
the farm and farm stories, and they

were sort of semi -educational but also
amusing.

Mack was a storyteller, which in a small
rural state like Vermont really makes

him almost like a Garrison Keillor type
figure.

He would perform at venues large and
small. We have a first night event in

Burlington on New Year's Eve every year,
and he would perform in front of big

crowds.

Pigs, pigs, I love them swine. I never
met a pig who weren't a friend of mine.

Well, I've known Mac for about 25 years.

And probably from the beginning of his
storytelling career.

Clark Hinsdale is the president of the
Vermont Farm Bureau and has hired Mac

Parker to perform at conventions and
banquets.

Often you can see tears in the audience
because he can tell a farmer's story

better than you can tell it yourself.

I hope you enjoyed the stories.

Storytelling was my way.

of both being a part of and giving back
to this community and culture that I

loved.

But by 1999,

Mac Parker is ready for a change.

He plans to make a movie he calls The
Birth of Innocence.

I'd ask Mac, I would be curious.

I'd say, where'd you get the idea for
this, you know?

And his response was, oh, something just
took me by the collar and I just had to

do it.

Horace Williams will later work on the
film as an editor and composer.

This was so different from his other
body of work.

This was completely new territory for
Mac, which I admired because, you know,

here's a guy, he's got this thing down,
he's got a brand.

He's the Mark Twain of the state of
Vermont.

And he also said he was discarding it.

He was throwing it away. He was moving
in a different place in his life. And

this movie was his move into a
completely different creative territory.

And I admired that.

As he gathers his thoughts for the film,
Parker writes, The Birth of Innocence

is a film about the deeper truth of who
we are.

It is a simple reminder that each and
every one of us has an unlimited power

creative potential.

And in the year 1999, Mac Parker begins
to meet with potential investors.

So I started talking to these people.
What was my community? My community was

farmers. You know, I grew up around
farmers. I'd been telling farm stories

15 years.

These were the people that I knew. I
loved these people.

There was no sort of prospectus offered
to people, nor did they ask.

But his credibility with people was so
strong that people would sort of say,

yeah, I give this guy a shot.

You know, he's such a genuine, honest
person.

I know my money's, you know, safe with
him.

Armand Bryson is a dairy farmer who
lives down the road from Matt Parker.

Have any of you heard this before?

His wife, P .D. O 'Brien, is a
schoolteacher.

Both are familiar with Parker's work.

So our grandchildren, about eight of
them, grew up on this video.

And it was wonderful.

They loved it. And the kids would just
sit there mesmerized by it.

He was like a pillar of society.

Why would we not trust someone like
that?

Daddy!

There's a spider in the bathtub.

You know, we just felt very comfortable
around him.

Parker begins his pitch by talking about
his vision for the movie.

It's a film about that sweet and
precious and deeper place that

we all have inside of us. It's a film
about that deeper truth, and it's a

reflection. It's a mirror that holds
that up to you and says,

I know you're in there. I did say to
him, are you religious?

Because I said, I'm not really
interested in doing this if this is for

religious reason.

And he said, oh, no, no, it's not
religious.

The conversation then turns to money.

Parker offers 15 % annual returns on
investment.

That was very, very good money. So I
invested right off quick with him. I

geez.

I can't do better than that.

We just thought that this was a great
project and a great idea, and let's take

advantage of it.

In 2003, Bryson and O 'Brien write their
first check to Mac Parker for $50 ,000.

Bryson is quick to remind Mac that he
earned his money the hard way.

I farmed their milk cows for over 40
years.

That was seven days a week.

365 days a year. It doesn't matter if
it's Christmas, New Year's, a wedding,

funeral.

You had to be out there in your family
at least 12 hours a day.

And I used to say to him all the time,
Matt, I cannot lose this money. This is

my retirement.

Make damn sure I don't lose it. Oh, you
will never lose your money.

I promise you will never lose your
money.

I promise people.

that they would be repaid, not because I
was trying to swindle them.

I genuinely believed that they would be
repaid.

Eventually, Bryson and O 'Brien will
trust Parker enough to put $257 ,000

the birth of innocence.

We weren't concerned because he had such
a good reputation.

He was such a nice, soft -spoken person.

Next on American Greed.

See how a homegrown film spins out of
control into a $28 million fraud.

In retrospect, the question becomes, how
could you do this?

Such strange, destructive things.

And later, we go behind the curtain and
discover the film's silent partner, a

man who believes he can walk through
walls and time travel into the future.

It kept getting crazier and crazier and
crazier as time went on.

I'm on my way to town, you see. I got
some place I got to be.

Mac Parker has parlayed his sterling
reputation as a folksy storyteller into

new career as an independent filmmaker.

But unlike many small -budget
filmmakers, Parker discovered he has a

fundraising.

I went to farmers. I went to my
neighbors.

I went to people who just trusted me
inherently because

they knew me.

It was all, you know, face to face.

Mac would come by your house, tell you
the story of what he's trying to do and

how he wants to make this film.

I would make a point of looking lenders
directly in

the eye and saying, I promise you, that
this money will be repaid.

Mac tells a story once about being short
of money, going to a farmer and going

out to his tractor. He's got farmers out
in the field on a tractor.

And he asked the guy, can you help me
out?

He got off his tractor. He said, just go
in and have my wife write you a check.

Just like that.

Where did that trust capital come from?

It came from that body of work.

Because those people felt like he spoke
for them like nobody else ever had.

Well, if you're really sold on the old
pig's charm, come pay a little visit to

the Piggy Farm.

As the money rolls in, Parker begins
filming The Birth of Innocence with a

production crew in 2002.

In his letters to investors, he uses
seductive language to talk about the

of filmmaking.

Remember, he is a storyteller. The
letters to the investors would start off

saying, everything's going great, we're
getting there.

In June 2004, Parker writes, there is a
grace, a power, and a momentum behind

the project that is unmistakable and a
joy to experience.

It was sort of like, yes, the power is
there, you know, it's happening. There's

a force behind us and we're all being
moved along by this force that's going

make this such a wonderful movie. And
we're capturing the magic and we're

getting it on film.

Flowery as his language is, to
investors, the halo effect seems real

they're getting paid.

And the 15 % returns are steady.

And soon, word spreads beyond Mac's fan
base of farmers.

There was a former mayor. There was a
judge's wife.

There were lawyers who invested in this.

Mac called me one year in 2002, and I
said I was interested.

But there were architects.

There were all sorts of people.

I would sometimes raise as much as $100
,000 or $150 ,000 a week.

Even Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's
Ice Cream invests, believing it's a good

works film.

But the film production drags on for
years.

Investor Petey O 'Brien Bryson grows
tired of hearing that the film is in

-production.

Well, to me, post -production meant
that...

You know, it's been produced. We're just
putting it together and editing it, and

that's it. It'll be done. But we kept
getting that every year. It's in post

-production. It's in post -production.

Eventually, O 'Brien Bryson sees the
film at a work -in -progress screening.

I was really trying to understand what
the film was all about, first of all.

message did not get through to me.

Return to Innocence.

return to you.

And all of the people, this is another
thing I noticed, all except for one

picture of any of the people that were
in it, looked like they were no smiles,

nothing. They had like blank faces.

So I didn't know what to think.

I just didn't know what to think.

Film editor Horace Williams is often
present at investor screenings.

Well, people would ask him, you know,
how much have you spent on this? Because

they had their money into it, right?

And they'd ask, how much did you spend
on production? Or how long is it going

take to finish this? Those kind of
questions.

And I'm sitting in the back of the room
listening.

I remember the $800 ,000 for production.

$800 ,000 is way off the mark.

Investors don't know it yet, but will
later learn that by 2009, Mac Parker has

taken in a staggering $28 million from
about 700 people.

I suppose when he's just talking to you,
you know, you think it's just you and a

few other people he's talked to. But,
you know, as we know now, he's spent

thousands and thousands of hours talking
to hundreds and hundreds, if not.

a thousand or more people.

We just assumed it was a small number of
people. You should never assume things

like that, but that's what we did.

Yeah.

I think we all had a little bit of greed
in us.

You know, 15 % is pretty damn nice.

And you just want to say, well, keep it
coming.

Next on American Greed, 28 million?

Where's it all going?

During Mac's interviews, he said, you
know, like he was an abused spouse and

had this control over him.

Lou is the great and powerful figure
calling the shots behind the scenes.

And I'm just sitting there thinking,
holy, right?

How am I going to get this film done?

What's going on?

For eight years, Mac Parker's film
project, The Birth of Innocence, has had

wind at its back.

But in the fall of 2008, the wind
shifts.

Wall Street in panic mode this morning.
Worst days on record.

And a financial storm makes landfall.
Some of the biggest names in American

business are tonight gone, along with a
lot of money and a lot of jobs.

Parker's investors are understandably
worried.

We are faced with the prospect of a
global meltdown.

He not only reassures them that their
money is safe, he doubles down,

to Assistant U .S. Attorney Michael
Drescher.

In an investor update dated December
2008, Mack wrote to his investors, So, I

raising more money from both new and
current investors.

Do you have additional money you would
like to invest?

Do you know other people who might be
interested?

A lot of people are thinking differently
about their money right now, looking

for investments that are safe and
lucrative.

Birth of Innocence is both.

He's a storyteller.

He could tell you anything you wanted to
hear and convince you that it was the

truth.

I think that most of them were, like,
swept up by this. I have never talked to

an investor who, in the middle of all of
this, before things went bad.

That they said, oh, wait a minute, this
is a bunch of hooey, you know, I want my

money, I'm getting out of this guy's,
like, come on.

Everybody, I think, pretty much, I never
had any sense that anybody was very

skeptical. You know, we just didn't ask
enough questions, for one thing.

Because we had that full trust in him.

Armand Bryson even refers friends to Mac
Parker.

People like Jerry Rule, a man who
started a garbage hauling business right

of high school.

I went out door to door and got 200
people to sign up and put an ad in the

and the phone rang off the hook.

Nearly two decades later, Rule's
business is thriving.

But when he first meets Mac Parker in
2008, Rule is trying to bounce back from

an epic run of bad luck.

It begins with a fateful ride on a
motorcycle.

Front tire blew out, and my left femur
took the blow.

I went a 50 -foot drop over the bridge.

I was in intensive care for four days.

I lost 42 % of my blood.

I almost died.

At the time he's recovering, Rule is
divorcing his wife, raising four

and struggling to keep up with work.

I was having a difficult time trying to
run the business from a cell phone in my

bed, and they really needed me there. I
was the heartbeat of that business.

A month and a half after the accident,
Jerry's wife dies suddenly from an

infection. I had a lot on my mind at
that time.

I was dealing with my kids, you know,
and the death of their mother and

arrangements, and I was busted up.

and my kids are, like I said, taking
care of me.

My competitor came in and offered me to
buy my business, and I just figured I

had to.

Rule sells the business and pockets $2
million.

Around this time, Mac Parker hears that
Rule has come into significant money and

meets with him to talk about his film.

Rule is suspicious of the high rate of
return Mack promises, 20%. But

ultimately, that 20 % proves
irresistible.

Because I am disabled now, my main
purpose was to take the money that I had

and get it to make as much as I could to
get me through as long as I could.

With the $2 million from the sale of his
business, Rule buys this motel in

upstate New York.

And the rest?

I put everything I had, every penny I
had that was left into the film with Mac

Parker, which really put me in a real
jam.

For five years, Horace Williams has
worked as the editor and composer for

Birth of Innocence.

He works for a fee and knows nothing
about the film's financing.

In the fall of 2009, Parker tells
Williams that a financier is about to

major investment in the film, and he's
coming into town, driving from Oregon to

Vermont.

I'm thinking to myself, this doesn't
make sense because who's this guy, Arlo

Guthrie? You know.

In a Volkswagen or something?

What's he doing driving across the
country?

That's the first red flag for me.

Then I get a phone call in which Mac
tells me, by the way, the film was this

guy's idea.

He called me up in 1999 and said, you're
making a film. It's going to be called

Birth of Innocence, and it's about this.

And by then, I'd been working on it for
five years.

And also, by the way, this guy is very
spiritually enlightened. He's almost to

the point where he can walk through a
wall.

And I'm thinking, huh, Mac, knock,
knock.

Red flags are going off like mad.
They're flying off, you know, they're

out of the bag.

A short time later, Mac's savior arrives
at Horace's film studio.

Mac introduces him as Lou Sotario, his
spiritual advisor and the inspiration

behind the birth of innocence.

And in the midst of it all, he's
gesturing wildly, strutting around the

quoting from script that must have been
his.

If you can imagine along the lines of,
the greatest act of love is to love

yourself into forever.

And I'm just sitting there thinking,
holy, right?

How am I going to get this film done?

What's going on?

Horace Williams isn't the only one
beginning to doubt Mac Parker.

A longtime investor is growing
suspicious.

Somebody once asked me about halfway
through the 10 years if this was a Ponzi

scheme, and I said, no, it's not a Ponzi
scheme. I didn't even know what a Ponzi

scheme was.

Next on American Greed, federal agents
expose a decade of lies and deception.

On October 1st, 2009, acting on a tip
from a concerned investor, Vermont's

Department of Financial Regulation calls
Mac Parker in for some questioning

about the birth of innocence.

During that meeting, they advised Mac
that they had serious concerns about the

legality of the project and how he was
raising money for the project.

They told him that it wouldn't be a
smart idea to continue to raise money

they kind of had a handle on things.

He continued to raise money.

I met the Parkers through this bird,
this beautiful bird.

Meet Marigold, a 10 -year -old macaw.

Sharon Goodwin adopts the bird from Mac
Parker and his family and eventually

becomes friends with the Parkers.

In establishing the relationship I had
with him and his family, I mean, this

family was super nice, sweet.

But in the fall of 2009, Parker makes a
business call to Goodwin, who owns a

successful chain of physical rehab
centers.

Parker says he needs finishing funds.

As a business person myself, who, when I
started the business, didn't have...

an opportunity to get funds. Getting
funds is difficult from commercial

So if I could help support him in his
dream, it was in essence like supporting

what would have been my dream and other
entrepreneurs or people with a dream.

In October 2009, after state regulators
warned him to stop, Parker takes $100

,000 from Goodwin.

Though the contract is signed in
October,

Parker dates it September 30th, one day
before he got the warning.

He sells it as a benefit. This way,
Goodwin will earn an extra month of

interest.

At the time, I thought that that was
just a nice gesture on his part because

that was when we were intending to have
the transfer of money. I suspect that

the true reason that he backdated it was
to protect himself against the state

regulators.

The state catches wind of what he's
doing and freezes Parker's bank

I immediately called up Mac and asked
all those questions I should have asked

prior to giving him money.

How much money are we talking about? How
many people are we talking about? And I

was aghast at his inability to know off
the top of his head.

The feds pick up the case.

Special Agent Danny Raycheck of the FBI.

and John Schroeder of the IRS, subpoena
Parker's financial records, and

painstakingly recreate the money flow.

It was discovered that less than a
nickel of every dollar that was being

invested was actually spent towards the
creation of the movie. We're watching

the money flow, trying to find out where
things were going, and Luciferio was

obviously a person that was getting a
lot of money.

Over the 10 -year period, $28 million
was raised.

And of that $28 million, there was
approximately $3 .5 million, a little

than $3 .5 million that actually went to
Louis Sotirio.

So he was our first lead, really.

We wanted to find out who he was and
what his role was in this matter.

From behind the scenes of the birth of
innocence, a silent partner has been

calling the shots.

I was just shocked. A silent partner?

You know, he never had told us about a
silent partner.

We had no idea. If we'd had an idea that
he had that, you know, a silent

partner, hell, no one would have
invested with him.

In 1989, Mac's wife, Juliana, suffers
from chronic fatigue syndrome, and

conventional doctors have been unable to
give her relief.

A friend of hers told her about the
amazing healer in Connecticut.

whose name turned out was Lou Sotirio.

Sotirio is a chiropractor, but his
practice includes nutrition and New Age

work, or energy work.

Almost instantly, there's some success.

Julianne is doing better.

Mac also starts to get treatments from
Lou Sotirio, and they periodically keep

going down. And Lou...

At a fairly early stage, starts talking
about, you know, I'm not just doing

chiropractic adjustment here. I'm doing
sort of spiritual adjustment.

Lou is a very intense and dynamic and
sort of supremely

confident person.

If you want to understand the spiritual
world, the laws of God, these higher

potentials that all of us have, I can
teach you this.

And there was something in me that was
very drawn to this.

And he really ascribed to Lou, and Lou,
I think, encouraged this, that Lou did

have godlike features. It starts with
healing Juliana, who no one else could

heal.

In 1999, Lou suggests they both go to
the Ramtha School of Enlightenment.

a New Age religious movement based in a
small town near Tacoma, Washington.

But as a condition of going, Mac had to
raise $150 ,000 and give it to Lou as a

sort of a proof that he was committed.

He says, this is your final challenge.

The train is leaving the station.

Are you going to be on that train with
me?

Parker raises the money by selling the
rights to his children's videos.

And sadly, Mac did go on that train with
Lucitario.

In the fall of 1999, Mac Parker, his
family, and Lucitario make a pilgrimage

to the Ramtha School of Enlightenment.

They camp with hundreds of other
followers on the palatial grounds of Jay

Night. I am Ramtha, the enlightened one.

A woman who claims she can channel the
spirit of Ramtha, a 35 ,000 -year -old

warrior. During that time, it was when
Lou said, Mac,

there is this movie.

It's called The Birth of Innocence, and
we shall do it together.

And that's how this all started in the
fall of 1999.

When he gets back home to Vermont, Mac
begins raising money.

keeping Lou's existence a secret.

And from the get -go, from the very
first conversation, he said, do not

about the money. He said, everybody who
invests in the film will absolutely

be repaid.

But Sotirio exerts tremendous influence
over the film and its fundraising.

When American Greed returns.

Voicemails from Sotirio to Parker reveal
a twisted scheme and bizarre beliefs.

It's so light.

It's so awesome.

My brain's about to explode. My body's
starting to just dissolve more and more.

But it's okay. Everything's cool.

Hear more of Lou Sotirio's voicemails at
AmericanGreed .CNBC .com.

On the morning of August 3rd, 2010, a
team of federal agents executes a search

warrant at the home of Matt Parker.

And there were like 20 of them coming
into our house. They had boxes, and

all of them had these FBI flak jackets
on it, and they were just...

You know, every agency in the world,
there was the Vermont State Police,

was Homeland Security, there was the
FBI, there was the IRS.

It was like, my God, what is this?

Parker invokes his right to remain
silent.

But agents discover evidence that sheds
more light on the scheme.

It turns out Mac Parker was so blindly
following his spiritual guru that he

Lucitario signed blank checks tied to a
bank account funded by investors.

Mac would give these signed checks to
Lou so that Lou can take out what money

wanted. And then he would tell Mac how
much he took.

In this voicemail obtained by American

Greed, Lou is heard helping himself to
investor funds.

You can hear Lucitario.

Telling Mac that he was going to be
putting in for 10, meaning that he was

to be making a deposit of $10 ,000 using
one of the blank checks that Mac had

provided him to fill out and deposit.

Tell Mac to put in 10 for this Friday.

Okay, thank you. Bye -bye.

But Lou's central preoccupation is his
own spiritual development.

During these voicemails, you can hear
Lucitario describing where he is and how

he is coming along in his quest to reach
this spiritual state by which he could

leave his physical body.

He calls it dissolving.

Oh, the Parker family.

Oh, I remember them.

Grab one square of toilet paper and you
raise that sucker.

And that sucker is heavy compared to
just raising my hand.

It's so light.

It's so awesome.

My brain's about to explode. My body's
starting to just dissolve more and more.

But it's okay. Everything's cool.

Is he high?

He may be, literally.

Because Telluride, Colorado is a
favorite destination.

Lou spent more than $100 ,000 on luxury
hotels.

He spent tens of thousands of dollars on
skin care products.

He spent about $5 ,000 a month on
vitamins and food.

Sotirio's tab totals $4 million.

Matt Parker lives much more humbly in a
sparsely furnished house with no

television. But over the course of the
fraud, he too spends nearly $1 million

investor money on mortgage payments and
other household expenses.

So certainly Mack and his family were
benefiting materially from their fear of

the fraud proceeds as well.

But Lou Cetario has a plan to pay back
investors.

He called it popping.

Once he could pop and be somewhere else
instantaneously, he would be able to

know the numbers on lottery tickets
before they were drawn.

by being able to go forward in time to
identify winning lottery numbers and

going back in time to play those
numbers.

And in that way, they would have access
to essentially unlimited funds.

Who in the hell would believe that
you're going to leave your body and go

find the lottery numbers and come back
and tell Mac so he can buy a ticket?

And we're going to win millions.

What's going on here? And which one's
crazy?

Is it Mac or is it Sotirio? Is it both
of them? Are they telling the truth?

I wanted to strangle him. Mac, that is.
Because he didn't tell us.

For investors, the disillusionment is
devastating.

Perhaps no one is more affected than
Jerry Ruh, who put up $400 ,000, some of

the last money in.

I believe that he knew he was in trouble
and he sat there and completely lied to

me. And to know that my kids had just
lost their mother and I was busted up

I was selling my business, he knew that
I was in a very poor spot. So he

knew and he completely took full
advantage of me.

Parker claims that he too was conned.

by a false prophet who has no special
powers and no money.

I genuinely did believe that this film
was going to be completed. I genuinely

did believe that Lou was going to repay
these people.

It is a fraud to take money from people
without telling them the truth.

And the law is clear that even if you
believe in your heart of hearts that

you're going to be able to come up with
money to repay people.

If you are persuading people to give you
their property by telling them lies,

that's a crime.

On March 16, 2012, Mac Parker and
Lucitario are indicted on multiple

fraud.

Next, Judgment Day.

Will the masterminds behind the birth of
innocence be found guilty?

In the fall of 2010, Mac Parker accepts
a plea deal and begins to cooperate with

federal authorities.

He was quite candid, quite cooperative,
and spoke at length about the entire

process of the birth of innocence.

It was wrong for me not to tell
investors about Lou's involvement.

It was wrong for me to look people in
the eye and tell them they could trust

when I was not telling them fundamental
information that they deserve to have.

That was simply wrong. And that's a
crime. And I accept that.

Faced with the knowledge that his one
-time protege will testify against him,

Lucitario also pleads guilty.

And on August 19, 2013, he is sentenced
to seven years in prison.

At Matt Parker's sentencing hearing in
August of 2013, scores of investors have

the opportunity to address him directly
and tell him how the fraud has affected

their lives.

My husband's going to be 80 next month.

And, you know, when you're 80 years old
and you've worked on a farm all your

life, and then suddenly you don't have
two cents to your name, really, and

you have to continue working so that you
can keep your home.

You know, things like that really
bothers me.

Petey and Armand lost $257 ,000.

Petey now works part -time jobs, and
Armand now works as a rural mail

I intend to work at least another three,
four years.

Maybe longer.

That was my retirement, along with my
Social Security.

That's the fact of it.

All the way through.

For Jerry Rule, who endured a string of
misfortune beginning with a nearly fatal

motorcycle accident, investing with Mac
Parker was the last straw.

I'm lost. I'm a lost soul. I'm a shell.

My kids are suffering because of that,
but that's the only thing that holds me

together.

If I didn't have my kids and my family,
I don't know.

I don't know if I'd be here.

It's damaged me that much.

The U .S. Attorney's Office argues for a
three -year sentence, citing Parker's

cooperation with their investigation.

But Judge Christina Rice, after hearing
the victim's statements, decides the

prosecutor's recommendation isn't
enough.

The judge...

in her discretion, in her wisdom,
decided that to satisfy all of the

balancing factors, she reached a balance
that dictated a sentence that was

longer than the sentence we suggested.

Mack Parker is sentenced to four and a
half years in prison to be served at

federal facility near Lake Placid, New
York.

There's one enduring mystery of the
case.

Mac's an intelligent man.

Why would he believe something like
that?

How did a man who everyone believed was
the salt of the earth become so blinded

by greed for spiritual achievement that
he ripped off the people he professes to

love? For me, that's the greatest lesson
in the whole thing, is that I gave away

my own internal...

I gave away listening to my own
guidance, to my own sense of right and

to my own common sense.

Horace Williams is in negotiations to
buy the rights to The Birth of Innocence

with the backing of Martine Gigi, a
Hollywood producer with Vermont roots.

It's a strange beauty that the making of
this movie brought so much heartache.

and so much negativity and so much
tragedy, and yet the film itself is this

beautiful, innocent baby that needs to
be born.

Gigi says that if the film is released
and makes money, a portion of its

will be returned to investors.

And oddly enough, even Parker himself
continues to promise that his investors

will be repaid someday.

It's impossible for him to pay us back
now.

You can't do a movie. He hasn't got any
money. He hasn't got any credibility.

Was it the prosecutor said you can't get
blood out of a stone?

And the interesting thing is Mac was not
put in a minimum security prison. He

was put in a medium security prison, and
I'm sure he's having a really tough

time there.

And I hope he is.

In this interview, conducted less than
two hours before he reports to prison,

Parker says prison is part of his
spiritual growth, part of his journey.

There is something so real and so
powerful about having that sense of

what you thought was yourself, really
destroyed.

And then finding, oh my God, here I am.

what I was always looking for.

And here it is.

Next, greed goes west, where a schemer
runs wild. And even a secret thing is a

thing. I had no idea what I was going to
find.

American Greed, damn scoundrels and
suckers. Next on CNBC.

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