Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, the Romano brothers of Long Island are

working the phones, selling $75 million worth of coins to eager and naive

investors. The salesmen knew who they could trick and confuse, and they kept

going back to the well. But when the family's arrested for mail and wire

Joseph Romano wants payback from the ones who put him away.

A total of $40 ,000 would be paid for the killing of the judge and the

prosecutor.

Prison cameras catch Romano plotting with a hired

killer.

But murder is only part of the gruesome plan.

For the first time, Romano's chosen hitman tells the whole story.

His hatred towards these two people was so great.

He wants her in a 35 -gallon drop. Not a 50, but a 35 -gallon drop.

That's a little freaky.

In Levittown, Long Island, 18 -year -old Michael Romano is an entrepreneur with

a plan.

He's recently graduated from Division Avenue High School, and now he's selling

collectible coins for a local telemarketing company.

He knows nothing about coins, but he's a strong -willed salesman, says Assistant

U .S. Attorney Lara Gatz.

He enjoyed the power that he had over people, and he enjoyed manipulating them

and pulling their strings.

and getting them to do what he wanted them to do.

Romano quickly decides he's learned enough to run his own company.

He lives in this suburban home where he's already planting the seeds of a

criminal empire.

The Romanos were from a middle -class family on Long Island.

From a business purpose, they were not very that sophisticated. I don't think

they were highly educated, but yet their plan was ingenious, what they did.

In 1988, Romano sets up shop in this storefront in nearby Massapequa and

it Wall Street Rare Coins.

He hires a small sales staff to work his phones, including his oldest brother,

Joseph, who has recently left the Navy.

None of these people had any experience in the coin industry. None of them

collected coins themselves. None of them even liked coins from what we

understand. It was just a quick way to make money.

Joseph, weighing in at nearly 300 pounds and well over six feet tall, is loud

and imposing.

He's the sales manager running the shop with an iron fist.

They're hawking a variety of coins, but Ben Franklin half dollars are

particularly easy to move.

Investors like them because they are 90 % silver and because they can be very

cheap. at the ground level with their starting, can't go wrong. So they'll

on, and for $110 or $120 or $150, they'll buy a couple of rounds of Ben

half dollars.

Real coin experts, known as numismatists, carefully grade coins on a

to 70.

Coins falling between 60 and 70 are the most prized.

Romano salesmen are claiming they've landed a windfall.

Near -perfect coins recently discovered at estate sales.

And they came across the hundred rolls of Benjamin Franklin half dollars that

hadn't seen the light of day in 40 years.

All day long, salesmen worked the phones, targeting mostly retired and

amateur collectors with once -in -a -lifetime deals.

So the idea was start people small with silver coins, tell them they're going to

increase in value, get them to buy more and more coins, and ultimately steal

their life savings. And that's really their business model.

The pitch snares anyone willing to listen, especially those new to buying

If you were a savvy coin collector, you would never have bought coins from

Michael or Joe Romano because you would have known right away that something was

up.

What's up is that the Romanos aren't selling rare mint condition coins

discovered at estate sales.

They were buying the coins locally.

They had wholesalers located throughout Long Island. One of them was in Queens.

And Michael is grading the coins himself, giving them arbitrary numbers

inflate their value.

Michael Romano decided what he wanted to sell that coin for and then slapped the

grade on as an afterthought, frankly.

So Michael Romano...

Only job in his life was defrauding people, selling them bogus coins.

And he's good at it.

Michael Romano is on his way to pocketing nearly $7 million.

But that success leads to serious sibling rivalry.

And in 2001, Joseph quits to start his own company.

It's been described as a falling out over money. It's been described as a

falling out over sales practices.

Joe Romano doesn't leave empty -handed.

He takes his brothers Salvatore and Vincent with him.

Joe had an amazing ability to get people across the board to do what he wanted

them to do. Things they knew were wrong, things that they didn't even want to

do. But he had an incredible way of convincing people to do his bidding.

He opens Last Quarter Coin, Inc. in nearby Copeg, using all the tricks he's

learned from his kid brother.

They were running identical scams.

into two different locations on Long Island.

They had a rivalry amongst themselves of who's making more money, who's the

smarter one, and who could outdo the other one.

Soon, millions will be flowing into Joseph Romano's pockets as well.

Next on American Greed, we go inside the Romano brothers' boiler room fraud to

see just how well it pays.

Over the course of the time, I think I made over $3 million.

Brothers Michael and Joseph Romano will each perfect separate coin telemarketing

frauds on Long Island between 2001 and 2008.

But Washington State AARP director Doug Shadel says the real maestros are their

salesmen who work the phones tirelessly.

It's like going one -on -one with Michael Jordan, you know. You're not

win. These guys are really good on the phone. That's all they do all day long.

Michael likes to hire fronters, young men that he can easily control.

He would select people to work for him who he knew he could manipulate, people

with drug problems, people with emotional problems, people with family

Artie, who asks that his identity not be revealed, begins working for Michael

Romano in 2006.

He's 25 years old and addicted to the club drug GHB.

Although he knows nothing about coins, he's offered a job on the spot.

They originally didn't describe the job to me. They kind of did a very good job

of showing me all their beautiful cars and boats and houses and money and

watches and jewelry.

For a drug addict with no money, seeing Michael's lifestyle is the only pitch

Artie needs to hear.

I want that. I want money. I want a boat. I want a house. I want a nice car.

Soon, Artie's making a straight 17 % commission selling collectible coins.

His office is a textbook boiler room, a high -pressure cooker designed to make

money fast.

No windows, no light, just desks, phones, and edges.

Artie works the phone all day long, selling coins to anyone he can keep on

line. This coin has... been trending for upwards of $500.

Today, you can get it for $350.

Out of 100 leads, I would say maybe once or twice, somebody would actually say

yes.

Each pitch is carefully scripted. Every word is written down.

Incredible condition.

Beautiful luster.

Lowest price in years.

Very limited supply.

We just got back into town from a great coin show, and something very exciting

came in.

You know, we're trying to create a sense of urgency to purchase something.

Artie, the 25 -year -old drug addict, will make $250 ,000 during his two -and

-half years working for Michael Romano.

He admits that kind of money takes the sting out of ripping people off.

When you're getting a job that's paying you $2 ,000 a week, your conscience

really isn't playing a factor in it.

Drugs are prohibited in the office.

But after work, anything goes, says attorney Mateen Emuna, who represents

another Romano salesman.

After work, a lot of these salesmen would go do lines together, go to strip

clubs, go to bars, and spend a lot of money.

Emuna says Michael Romano routinely partied and did drugs with employees

hours.

He had that godfather mentality.

He's the one that called the shot.

He wanted to pretty much say, not only do I control your life during business

hours, I control your life after business hours as well.

Joseph Romano runs his job differently.

His closers are top salesmen that won't take no for an answer.

These were guys that weren't kids, and they knew every angle.

38 -year -old Tom Arnold is Joe Romano's top closer.

His trick is to befriend his clients so that he can get into their wallets.

You would keep in touch with them. They would become your new best friend.

The nicer you spoke to people, the better results you would get.

Arnold works the phones with precision, earning 25 % commission on everything he

sells. Tom Arnold would inevitably close the deal because Tom Arnold knew how to

get people to buy coin. He was excellent at it. He's an excellent lawyer.

This video of Arnold and Romano brother Salvatore shows the men talking and

enjoying smoke breaks outside the company.

But these images, recorded by Joe Romano himself, provide a rare look behind the

scenes of a working boiler room.

He's installed ten security cameras in the office to make sure his employees

sticking to the script.

It was like Oz pulling the strings.

Joe's idea was, no matter where I am, I can check on them and see what they're

doing at any time.

In these videos, the salesmen are relentless.

Repeat customers with deep pockets are called whales.

Arnold's job is to get those whales to keep spending money.

He does that by offering deals on increasingly expensive coins.

You want to sell them as much as you can.

It escalated from the Ben Franklin's.

up to extremely rare sets of coins that were $50 ,000, $100 ,000 each.

Under the watchful gaze of his boss, Arnold keeps closing sales.

And if his marks claim that they are out of money, he always has a helpful

solution. He would encourage them to take out an equity loan or any type of

to get the money for the coins.

Big sales mean big paydays.

In five years, Arnold says those 25 % commissions add up quickly.

Over the course of the time, I think I made over $3 million.

But the problem with the Romano boiler rooms is no matter how smooth the

promises, how polished the lies, sooner or later customers realize they're not

getting what they paid for.

Criminals have a way of knowing.

when the House of Cards is about to fall. And Michael and Joe both knew when

was time to move on.

For the Romanos, that's part of the business plan.

Between 2001 and 2008, both Joseph and Michael Romano will each own three coin

fraud companies on Long Island.

And they are all the same.

Nondescript storefronts designed to hide the past.

If someone says to you, at the new company, well, aren't you part of that

company? They can say, well, no, that company's gone. This is a new company.

Next on American Greed, it doesn't matter who the Romanos have to destroy

keep the good times going.

He was just devastated.

And later, when his back is against the wall, Joseph Romano plots a grisly

revenge.

Joseph, good morning.

Judge Bianco.

and prosecutor Gatz killed.

In the summer of 2008, Tina Morton is making a heartbreaking discovery in San

Diego.

Her uncle, Ray Gibbons, has been caught in the Romano's coin fraud snare.

Ray mortgaged his house.

He sold anything of value, emptied his bank account. He had nothing by the time

it was over.

Gibbons has been secretly giving the Romanos nearly $370 ,000, practically

bankrupting himself in the process.

These common are experts. They know what to say, how to prey on them, and they

just have no scruples whatsoever.

Born in 1923, Ray Gibbons has survived the Great Depression and World War II,

where he served in the Navy aboard the USS Warhawk.

After the war, Gibbons becomes a design engineer, settles in Texas, and

eventually retires from Lockheed Aircraft in 1991.

He worked his whole life, lived very frugally, and was looking forward to

a nice life in retirement.

But when Romano's salesmen targeted him in 2007, Ray Gibbons isn't a war hero.

He's just a source of easy cash.

They're very smart.

He's a sports aficionado, so they would talk baseball, football, basketball with

him, gain his trust.

So he called them his most trusted friend.

2 ,600 miles away in Virginia, John is a recently retired federal parole officer

who spent 30 years dealing with bad guys.

But that experience won't protect him either when the Romanos come calling in

2004.

I feel that I should have been wise in terms of how this thing went down, but

these guys, they had it down pat.

Because his family and friends don't know the full story, he's asked that his

identity be kept secret.

When Joe Romano's top salesman Tom Arnold calls with a deal on rolls of Ben

Franklin coins for $390, he jumps on it. So I thought, well, this must be a good

investment, and I would make some money, and needless to say, that point didn't

work out.

To keep John buying more coins, Tom Arnold sweetens the deal.

He says he's found a wealthy and mysterious third -party investor who

purchase all of John's coins for a hefty profit.

They would explain that the large investor was a very rich

that he didn't want to go through the trouble of buying individual rolls.

Ray Gibbons is also hearing the same promise.

His so -called benefactor is a Japanese businessman named Mr.

Ahita. Mr. Ahita represented his payday. He never met him, but he talked

about him like he knew him. I mean, he'd say, oh, he has a private plane, he has

all these things.

But to complete the sale, John and Ray Gibbons are told they must buy more

coins, $10 ,000.

$12 ,000, $30 ,000, even a $44 ,000 roll of coins.

The idea was, again, to move the finish line. The investor that was going to buy

their coins didn't only want rolls now. That investor wanted gold coins. That

investor wanted silver coins.

But each time Romano investors are scheduled to buy John and Ray Gibbons

the deals fall apart.

Well, the investor decided that he wanted to buy a couple additional rolls.

was always...

There's a good reason these deals never happened, admits salesman Tom Arnold.

But John and Ray Gibbons don't know that.

They both borrow money from friends and family, digging themselves in deeper and

deeper.

life insurance policy that I had.

I basically cleaned out a good part of my savings account.

It was almost the never -ending scheme because once they got involved, they

they couldn't extricate themselves until they got their money, and they were

never going to get their money.

While John, Ray Gibbons, and thousands of other Romano clients are buying

themselves into bankruptcy, Michael and Joseph are basking in the fruits of

their spoils.

They lived in a middle -class residential area. They didn't do

extravagant, but yet their bank accounts work for themselves.

Michael puts much of the $7 million he's raking in straight into savings.

He put his money in a checking account like every average person because he has

convinced himself over the years that he did nothing wrong.

But he does like to splurge, says former employee Artie.

He had a Range Rover, had a nice BMW, nice boat, and a nice house.

He parties it up in his West Islip bachelor pad, and when he hits the town,

money flows freely.

He was definitely a single guy, trying to bring home different women every

night, and, you know, rocking the nice cars, you know, the nice watches, and

nice clothes.

Oldest brother Joseph Romano still lives down the street from the Levittown

house he grew up in. But the suburban facade he's created for himself on Long

Island doesn't tell the full story.

Over a five or six year period, Joseph Romano made over $13 .5 million.

Joe Romano spends his money on Florida real estate.

He dumps more than a million dollars into a Palm Beach mansion he's built in

this gated community.

The children were in private school.

His wife didn't work.

He was able to, with the coins for proceeds, live a very nice lifestyle.

One of Joe's passions is collecting antique cars.

He spends tens of thousands of dollars rebuilding his prizes from scratch.

He came to New York regularly, took people out. He liked to be the big man

the bar, so to speak.

He was really a very flashy, flamboyant person.

And it's all built on proceeds from a coin fraud draining thousands of victims

dry, so long as they don't fight back.

Next on American Greed.

The Romanos are about to

meet their 78 -year -old match.

I called him a lot. I called him what he was.

I should have called him a whole lot worse.

By the fall of 2008, 78 -year -old Walt Shepard is furious with the Romano

salesman who hound him constantly, particularly top closer Tom Arnold.

Shepard spent $141 ,000 on coins he's bought over the phone.

Now he's out of money.

At first I was paying $300 or so for the first roll of coins, but by the time I

got to the end, it was something like $30 ,000.

Shepard's begun secretly taping the conversations he's having with Tom

I knew that somebody ought to do something about it.

The tapes gave me the proof, you know, and it was perfectly evident what had

happened.

Shepard lives deep in the oak -covered hills of North Carolina, and he's never

been afraid to fight for what he believes.

In 1944, 14 -year -old Shepard lies about his age and enlists in the Army

Force, where he sees action in the Pacific.

A year later, he's already a sergeant at Iwo Jima, when his captain discovers

his age and threatens to ship him back home.

I said, no, I'm not going anywhere.

I'm going to stay right here.

After the war, Shepard spends his life selling life insurance, designing mobile

homes, and patenting four inventions.

But none of that matters once Tom Arnold gets his number.

Arnold's always got good news.

He says Shepard's coins are worth ten times what he's paid for them.

Okay, let me get your portfolio up on the screen over here.

I've got $1 ,431 ,000.

Arnold's even found an investor to buy Shepard coins.

but the deal never quite works out.

There was always an excuse that something happened or they couldn't

and there'd be a few more days and they'd drag it out.

And then after that had time to kind of cool off, then

they'd hit you back for another roll of coins.

They never left you alone. They called and called and called.

Now, all Shepard has to show for $141 ,000 is a pile of unopened coins that he

can't sell.

On tape, he eventually loses patience with Tom Arnold.

Well, I called him a liar. I called him what he was.

I should have called him a whole lot worse.

Thanks to Arnold's lies, Shepard hopes his coins are worth seven figures.

But a local appraiser is less optimistic.

So he's being told they're worth $1 .4 million, and they're really worth $20

,000. That's how egregious the lies were here. He just confirmed what I probably

already knew.

In 2008, Shepard hands over his recordings to state investigators.

He's not the only one filing complaints about the Romano brothers' coin ring,

says Assistant U .S. Attorney Lara Gatz.

If it was one or two complaints, it wouldn't have called for a full federal

investigation. But there were dozens and dozens and dozens of complaints.

Gatz and Postal Inspector Bill Hessel begin surveillance on the Romano

operations.

They interview victims and examine thousands of bank transactions.

Hessel even goes undercover, using a hidden camera to capture Tom Arnold hard

work.

The evidence they collect is astounding.

3 ,000 victims across the country have lost more than $60 million to Romano

telemarketers.

On November 24th, federal agents swoop in on the boiler rooms run by Michael

Joseph Romano.

Salesmen were arrested.

Coins were seized.

People were confessing. It certainly was a good day for the Coins Board

investigation.

Among those arrested are salesmen Artie and Tom Arnold.

When he meets with Prosecutor Gatz, Artie is offered a sobering choice.

I'm either going to quit the business, accept the responsibility, straighten

my life, or I'm going to jail, 100%.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

So I chose creating out my life.

Artie's not the only one to turn on his former boss.

Tom Arnold and several of the other salesmen will rat out the Romanos to

plea deals.

We had videos, we had the audios, we had the victims.

But to have the salesman come up and say, I was wrong and I know I was lying,

that's the icing on the cake.

Both Artie and Tom Arnold plead guilty and are currently awaiting sentencing.

All four Romano brothers, Michael, Joseph, Salvatore, and Vincent, will be

charged with mail and wire fraud.

Their cases are overseen by federal judge Joseph Bianco. Judge Bianco was a

former prosecutor.

He's known as being a very competent judge and a tough judge.

Judge Bianco allows the brothers to post bail, so long as they promise no more

telemarketing operations.

But Joseph's already made $12 million, and when he gets back to his Florida

mansion, he starts a new operation with the help of a friend named David

Merkovic.

Merkovic was a car salesman in Florida, which is how Joe and he met as neighbors

and through the car business.

Murkovic, a six -and -a -half -foot -tall, 240 -pound former Marine, has

Joseph Romano living large in Florida. And now he wants a taste, too.

Remember, David Murkovic was selling cars.

He knew nothing about coins, either. This fraud doesn't require anything more

than the ability to lie and manipulate.

In 2009, they opened Collectible Coins in Palm Beach County.

Murkovic will run the operation.

while Joe sits quietly in the background collecting more money.

It turns out to be a boiler room coin company very similar to the one that was

established in New York.

David Merkovic was the store operator of that company.

Romano is able to pad his bank account nicely for almost a year until the feds

figure out what he's up to.

When we got wind of what was going on... The financial records we obtained

indicated that Joe had earned over a million dollars during that time.

In March 2010, Joseph Romano's bail is revoked, and soon after, Judge Joseph

Bianco sentences him to 15 years in federal prison.

Romano is shocked.

He's been expecting a slap on the wrist. Not serious prison time.

Former salesman Tom Arnold says Joseph Romano made it clear he holds Judge

Joseph Bianco and prosecutor Lara Gatz personally responsible.

Joe said if they give me 20 years, I'll kill them.

And I thought he was kidding.

And then there was history.

People say, I'm going to kill that person. I'm going to break his legs.

I'm going to beat him up.

Usually it stops right there.

Mr. Romano didn't stop there.

Next on American Greed.

An exclusive interview

with the hitman Romano hires to commit murder.

He says he has lists of people he needs taken care of.

Go inside a boiler room at cnbcprime .com slash American Greed.

Feeling greedy?

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

Follow us at AmericanGreedTV on Twitter.

We'll be right back.

In the spring of 2012, Joseph Romano is behind bars, sentenced to 15 years in

prison for his share of a $60 million series of telemarketing coin scams.

Now he's thirsty for revenge, says Lara Gatz, the assistant U .S. attorney who

put him and his three brothers away.

He was the one that stole from people, but ultimately it came to light that he

blamed me personally for his predicament.

Gatz isn't allowed to talk about what happens next, but FBI Special Agent

Ronaldo Terici says Romano begins plotting a gruesome way to reduce his

sentence. He felt that if he was able to eliminate the judge and prosecutor on

this case, that somehow another prosecutor and judge would see his

differently and thus reduce his time in prison.

Prison cameras catch him plotting with a sympathetic ear, a career criminal who

has also been sentenced by federal judge Joseph Bianco.

Joe proceeded to ask the other inmate

if... He knew somebody on the outside that could help eliminate the judge or

kill the prosecutor in the case, Lara Gatz.

Romano's new buddy has good news.

He knows a freelance killer named Bobby Russo who handles this type of work all

the time.

You get this guy to come in on Monday?

No, probably by the end of the week.

In an American Greed exclusive interview, Bobby Russo says he first

Romano on August 21st at the Nassau County Correctional Facility.

He's a big, big man. He's a mountain of a man. He's got to be 6 '6", and at the

time he must have been about 310 pounds.

He's definitely an imposing, intimidating guy.

Romano and Russo get straight to business.

Neither seems aware that prison security cameras are recording their

conversation.

Joe is vetting Bobby out. He's never met Bobby before, though

Joe is obviously being very careful in his first meeting with Bobby.

Romano starts off with small talk, but Russo's in no mood to chat.

And I said, I'm here for the other thing.

And when I said that, his eyes lit up and there was a little smile on his

It was a doubt in my mind that he knew what I was saying to him, and he wanted

me to do it.

Romano has a smaller job to test Russo first.

He wants him to beat up a Long Island mechanic who has repossessed two of his

prized classic cars and is demanding $70 ,000.

Romano will pay Russo $3 ,000 to teach the mechanic a lesson.

He wanted to see if I could follow through with that act of violent

And if I could, then we were off to the races.

Russo's contact on the outside will be Romano's partner, David Merkovic.

Russo's given a down payment of $1 ,500 and told to bring back proof after he

deals with the mechanic.

Upon the completion of the beating, Bobby was to call David and say the

was a success, and that's exactly what happened.

On September 25, 2012, Russo and Merkovic meet in the parking lot of a

Island Home Depot.

He shows Merkovic proof that the mechanic's been beaten.

This photo taken of the victim during the assault.

I show him the photograph of what we did to the mechanic, and he's thrilled. He

loves it.

It may be a little cheap, but I do the work.

Satisfied, Murkovic hands Russo the $1 ,500 he's owed.

When Murkovic calls his boss with the good news, Romano can't hide his joy.

I'm in my cell, dancing around and singing and stuff, you know?

And I just laugh at my balls off thinking about that.

Later that day, Murkovic calls Russo again and asks for another sit -down to

talk more business.

Russo is careful to record the meeting as it goes down.

We met.

And he sat in my car and he told me, Joseph wanted Judge Bianco and

Prosecutor Gatz killed.

What are we talking as far as money?

I got to go for $20 ,000.

I say $40 ,000, and he was fine with it.

He did not say a word about the price that I had wanted to charge.

But for that price, Murkovic says his boss isn't satisfied with just murder.

He's looking for revenge.

He wants both of her heads from now on.

David. instructs Bobby that Joe would like trophies to include decapitations

the heads retained in formaldehyde as well as mutilation of the prosecutor.

Gatsby, you've got to make this appear.

He wants her in a 35 -gallon drum. Not a 50, but a 35 -gallon drum.

Stop her in there. Yeah, yeah. She should fit.

It was so bizarre.

It didn't catch me off balance for a second.

Definitely not an equal plot.

Murkovic gives Russo $22 ,000 cash as a down payment, but it needs to happen

fast.

This needs to get done immediately within the next two weeks. Now

the clock is ticking, and two lives are on the line as this dangerous hitman

closes in.

I collected $22 ,000 to kill the judge and to kill the prosecutor.

Markovic's stressing, I have to by a certain date. I have a deadline. I have

due date.

Up next on American Greed, as Joseph Romano's murderous plot moves to the

stage. We got a plan together.

We saddled up. Will Bobby Russo be able to carry out his boss's orders?

Everything is going great for Joe, except for one thing.

October 2012.

Joe Romano sits behind bars, waiting for word that hitman Bobby Russo has killed

the judge and prosecutor who put him away.

Joe believes it's a plot to kill the judge, and the prosecutor's moving along

well. He believes that his scheme is working like a charm.

Russo's been given $22 ,000 and a deadline.

Now it's up to him to make a move.

I have duty.

I have to deliver.

I have to take care of these two people to collect my money.

But Russo has chosen not to share one key detail with Joseph Romano and his

partner David Merkovic until now.

There's only one problem.

I'm a psychiatrist.

And we have been on to Merkovic and Romano from day one.

And we've been recording every step of this investigation.

Bobby Russo is really 18 -year veteran Suffolk County undercover narcotics

detective Robert Strecker, and he's eager to take these men down.

Really, what Romano and Markovic were doing was striking at the foundation of

the judicial system. They were trying to undermine what keeps our society

together.

Strecker doesn't mind that his real name is used, but he does ask his face be

concealed to protect future undercover operations.

He says the entire murder -for -hire plot has been carefully monitored and

overseen by FBI Special Agent Ronaldo Terici.

The whole case was really a collaborative effort by all the agencies

Suffolk County Police, FBI, National County Police, the U .S. Attorney's

National County Corrections.

Federal Judge Joseph Bianco and Prosecutor Lara Getz.

have been carefully protected by U .S. Marshals since the plot was uncovered.

The prison buddy who connected Romano with Bobby Russo originally has been

wearing a wire for the FBI all along.

He felt that even in the world of criminals, that there was a line not to

crossed, and the line was being crossed by Joe Romano asking him to kill the

judge and the prosecutor.

And the photo of the beaten Long Island mechanic that sold Strecker's cover

story? It was faked, with the help of the mechanic.

So we basically asked him to lie down as if he had been beaten, and then took a

blurry picture as if somebody would be running away after having beaten the

mechanic. It worked great.

The entire plot has been carefully documented, and now Agent Torichi shuts

down.

FBI agents swarm Romano's cell.

After being Mirandized, he provided a full confession and a science warrant

statement about his hatching this plot to kill the judge and the prosecutor.

At the same time, Agent Terici is in Florida, arresting David Merkovic.

While at his house, we found in his safe $18 ,000 in two bundles of 9 ,000,

as well as a loaded pistol in that same safe.

Caught red -handed, David Merkovic pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit

and is sentenced to 24 years in August 2013.

Five months later in federal court, Joseph Romano claims the whole murder

has been blown out of proportion.

He had about an hour -long speech.

as to his view of this case, his view of the government, and also made

references to Moby Dick, and he felt targeted like Moby Dick was targeted.

The man who once referred to his coin scam victims as whales now compares

himself to the most famous whale of all.

He made an analogy to himself being the whale with harpoons plunging into him.

The judge doesn't buy his whale of a tale.

and Joseph Romano is sentenced to two life sentences on top of the 15 he is

currently serving.

He went from numbers to letters.

You never want letters in the federal system because it's L -I -F -E.

It's the end of the line for the Romano family.

Michael Romano is sentenced to 20 years in prison for mail and wire fraud.

Brothers Salvatore and Vincent plead guilty to mail and wire fraud as well

are sentenced to seven years.

I think their next family reunion is going to be paid for by the Department

Justice.

Today, 3 ,000 victims across the country struggle to recover.

The coins Walt Shepard spent $141 ,000 on have been appraised for less than $20

,000. He's swamped with taxes and struggles to survive on Social Security.

If I didn't own my home here and I had to rent somewhere, I couldn't do it.

You know, I couldn't live.

Ray Gibbons lost $370 ,000.

Today, he lives in an assisted care facility in California where the

of his day is playing dominoes with his niece, Tina Morton.

She says the one -time war hero suffers from dementia.

If there's one benefit to that, it's he doesn't remember the coin scam because

that's all he talked about for months and months and months.

It is just devastating.

Targeting the defenseless, the Romano brothers built a $60 million criminal

empire. They lived a life of lies and fraud, and ultimately they caught up

them. And when Joseph Romano flipped the coin from greed to murder...

He lost it all. Next, welcome to the Mile High Club.

You're at 32 ,000 feet in a Gulfstream jet with a stewardess feeding you

A $31 million con.

American Greed scams, scouts, and suckers. Next on CNBC.

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