Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, safe money specialist Paul Cruz promises big

returns while stealing his client's life savings. He was arrogant, he was

greedy, he was evil. Money starts flowing.

400 ,000 in, 400 ,000 out. And Cruz lives large.

He was dating an exotic dancer and actually was paying for breast

Out of these people's hard -earned money.

His assistant says he makes an indecent proposal to her teenage daughter.

I'll buy you a BMW if you would show me your boobs.

And she's left with only one choice.

Taking his ass out. You want me to put that more mildly?

I'd rather not.

And even from jail, Cruz proves he's no average white -collar crook. I sometimes

like to call it.

my breaking bad case. It takes a really big leap for most people to go from

financial crime to wanting to kill people.

Hey, is there any problem with having these people grieving?

A once successful financial pro named Paul Cruz sits locked up here at the

County Correctional Facility outside Jacksonville, Florida.

He's facing charges that with the help of his brother John, he's taken the life

savings of former clients, friends, and even family members.

Though Cruz has already signed a confession, he's now decided he's not

down so easy.

He went from zero to 60.

And I think it showed his true colors.

He did not want to be held responsible for what he had done.

For weeks, Cruz has been angrily plotting revenge and meticulously

murder of the woman who turned him in.

Today, he's eager to hear the news that will mean his freedom.

What's happening, man? Tell me the good news.

Well, you sure you want to stop them, right?

Yep.

All right. Here's the news. Sit down.

Yeah, I am.

All right.

Lisa's in the trunk of my car right now as I'm driving down the interstate,

okay? Okay.

What do you think of that, buddy?

I think that's awesome.

Paul Cruz has come a long way from his youth.

He's the son of a traveling pastor who built churches by hand.

To Cruz and his seven brothers and sisters, luxury was a stranger, hunger a

constant companion.

Always we were cramped into one - and two -bedroom houses.

At Christmastime, there was no money for gifts.

There seemed to be a virtue with my father and mother of being

poor. Dave Cruz says that his younger brother Paul doesn't buy into the virtue

of being poor.

I think he was obsessed with fine things, even from the very beginning.

After studying theology in college, Paul works as a youth minister for a short

stretch. But the paper he likes isn't inscribed with the good word.

It's the kind you fold up and put in your wallet.

Eventually, Paul leaves the church. Dave says that he then works for the time as

a developer in Nebraska.

He uses his silver tongue to bring in investors.

He was very convincing and could lure anybody in.

Dave says his brother's construction deal goes bust, leaving investors

angry and ripped off.

The investors put contracts out on his life.

This one guy was so angry that he wanted to kill him.

Cruz heads west, and in the early 1980s, he joins his older brother John at a

company selling mutual funds and insurance to military families.

There, both brothers build trusting relationships with numerous clients.

Court filings and co -workers reveal that Paul is successful.

And his brother Dave says that he gets used to living the good life.

He was going to expensive ski resorts and drove the latest model Mercedes.

Usually it was over $100 ,000 cars that he was driving.

But this first taste of real wealth won't last forever.

In 2001, after 20 years at the firm, Cruz is fired, cutting him off from the

luxuries he's grown to enjoy.

He was really lost then and was selling shoes for a while, just enough money to

exist.

Cruz makes his way to Jacksonville, Florida, where he scrapes by for the

few years working as a financial advisor.

Among the clients he brings in is Darlene Mae Jones, a Cruz family friend.

She and her then -husband first go to Paul for investment help in 2003.

When we first invested, we had, I think, about $28 ,000.

And within two years, we had about $46 ,000.

At that point in time, we really felt like Paul had done what we wanted him to

do. And he was just there for us.

Then, in 2010, Cruz sets up Yorkshire Financial Services, a company that will

his ticket back to the good life.

Calling himself a safe money specialist, Cruz goes looking for clients.

When Jones retires from her job as a general manager at Pizza Hut, she saved

more than $100 ,000.

Once again, Cruz says he can help.

He convinces her to invest her money in the stock market through his new

company.

I had utmost confidence that it was going to be okay.

I felt like, since I'd worked with Paul before, that he was honest with me.

and that he was going to do what was best for me and that my money would grow

and I would be well set for my future.

When Joan signs up, Cruz tells her that she's made the right decision by

investing with the company he just started.

Dear Darlene, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the family of

Yorkshire Financial Services Group, LLC.

Yorkshire Financial Services has over 30 years of continuous operation, making

us one of the oldest financial services in the United States.

Additionally, we have investors from all over the globe. Thank you for giving us

your confidence. With warmest regards, Paul S. Cruz, President.

Jones isn't the only one to hear Cruz's pitch about Yorkshire Financial.

He tells others that the company consists of a team of sophisticated

with the skills to beat the market. They thought the money would be traded in

stocks, bonds, and securities that would be relatively safe and appropriate for

a retirement investment.

Cruz guarantees that investors' principle will remain safe and that

range between a robust 10 and 15 percent.

It's a comforting pitch tailored toward people who don't have extra money to

throw around.

People that worked hard their whole lives. Good people, good, honest

individuals.

Just trying to make it.

And he just stole from them.

Next on American Greed, Paul Cruz learns the hard way. Never cross an assistant

who has the power to ruin you.

He was going down one way or the other. If it wasn't going to be on finding out

how he's spending this money, it was going to go a whole different route.

Paul Cruz runs Yorkshire Financial Services from his home office in a quiet

suburban neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida.

Eventually, he invites a mother of six named Amy Weatherford to live with him

here. Cruz knows her sister, and when he learns Weatherford has fallen on hard

times, he makes her a deal.

Paul was lonely, and he said, you know what, why don't you just move in my

house? Rent free, buy some groceries, clean up, do a couple of personal

for me. I really thought I was with a good Christian man as a friend, just

helping me out, and I'm helping him out at the same time.

Eventually, Weatherford and two of her children move in.

She says that at first, she knows little about Cruz's business, beyond the fact

that he's very disorganized.

But it's not hard to notice that he's burning through cash.

It's like he would have money, big money, and then he'd be broke at the end

the month and, of course, borrow money off of me.

That's not the only strange thing she sees at Cruz's home.

I went into his bedroom because he had papers all over everything, and he was

signing their names.

I said, what are you doing? And he goes, I'm signing the client's names. I said,

you got a power of attorney for that?

And he goes, of course I do.

Weatherford keeps her mouth shut.

For now.

A few months after he begins bringing in investors, Paul's brother John joins

him at Yorkshire.

A seasoned broker in the small town of Oak Harbor, Washington, John has long

-standing relationships with many clients.

Some of these people come from the nearby naval base, and he set up their

retirement accounts.

Now he has a new place where they should put their money.

Yorkshire Financial.

Most of the investors were brought in by Jonathan, and Jonathan going back and

recontacting his clients and telling them that his brother Paul had something

new that was better with higher returns.

It was guaranteed.

You won't lose your money. And just really selling it as something that was

and high return.

In an email exchange, one investor pushes John, asking if this is truly a

place to invest his life savings.

Jonathan responds very quickly with, this is 100 % safe. You know, this is

something I would put my own money in. I would never take your money and risk it

in that way because I know this is your retirement money.

Paul Cruz does make two initial investments, but returns are nowhere

% to 15 % he's promised.

After this, he makes no further efforts to invest his clients' savings.

Yorkshire Financial is an illusion.

There were no traders. There was no staff.

It wasn't trading in stocks or bonds. It was all lie.

So where is investors' money going?

Prosecutors say that for his recruiting efforts, John receives $100 ,000.

The rest of the money remains with Paul.

Months after moving in with Cruz, Amy Weatherford notices he's kicked his

spending into overdrive.

He bought a Jaguar. He bought a Mercedes.

He had his whole 1994 BMW revamped into gator colors, so it looked like a gator

BMW.

That was pretty cool, though.

Nearly $300 ,000 comes out of Cruz's bank accounts as cash withdrawals.

He starts dating a stripper.

showering her with jewelry, clothes, trips, and a certain medical

He bought her a boob job for five grand.

We got a $5 ,000 bill that he paid out of these people's hard -earned money.

I mean, I think that's pretty despicable.

Cruz also spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy part of a stone

in Jacksonville.

And he spends more than $100 ,000 turning this somewhat average home in a

-class neighborhood into a middle -aged bachelor pad.

The centerpiece is the yard, which he tricks out with a $7 ,500 grill and a

large fountain that Weatherford calls the ugliest thing I ever saw in my life.

Though they don't know it, Cruz's hard -working investors are footing the bill.

I mean, this was their nest egg to supplement their life.

So he's actually looking people straight in the eyes and saying, I'm going to

take care of your future. And he knows at the same time, in his heart of

that he's stealing their future.

Oddly, it's not Cruz's wild spending that will be his undoing.

A few months after meeting him, Weatherford confronts Cruz.

She says she's caught him sending inappropriate text messages to her 17

-old daughter.

I'll buy you a BMW if you would show me your boobs.

You don't have to tell your mother.

Stuff like that.

I mean, lewd and lascivious in this county.

I just, I was so mad at him, okay? Because this was my kid and we were

to be friends. How dare you, right? I told him.

They won't find your body parts if you ever make a pass at my kid again. How

dare you? That's about the bottom line.

When asked about this by American Greed, Cruz did not deny the story.

After Weatherford first discovers the texts, she decides she wants revenge.

She has an inkling that something is fishy at Yorkshire and feels there's

one option.

Taking his ass out.

You want me to put that more mildly?

I'd rather not. He was going down one way or the other. If it wasn't going to

on the paperwork and finding out how he's spending this money, it was going

go a whole different route.

It didn't matter, you know, but this guy was gone.

To take him down, she needs more information.

She knows Cruz needs help getting organized and goes to him with a

I said, look, Paul, if you need to get these promissory notes out or whatever

you need to get done, let me do it for you as a part -time job and we'll be

to go.

He was all for it. It was like he trusted me completely.

What a fool.

What a fool.

Coming up on American Greed, Paul Cruz's plans turn deadly.

I sometimes like to call it my breaking bad faith.

It takes a really big leap to go from financial crime to wanting to kill

After allegedly trying to seduce her teenage daughter, Paul Cruz agreed to

Amy Weatherford help him with his fraudulent company's books.

He thinks she's there to help, but she's not.

Looking at Cruz's bank records for a single month, what she sees is shocking.

$400 ,000 in, $400 ,000 out.

How do you spend that in a month?

I don't know.

I don't know what he was spending it on. All I saw was cars, jewelry, trips.

But she's doing more than just sneaking a glance.

I copied everything because I knew something was wrong.

How can he do this and I'm not seeing investment?

There is nothing in any of the files for stocks, bonds, anything.

So I emailed the FBI.

And I swear to God, the very next day I got a call from Byron Thompson.

At the end of March 2011, Paul Cruz takes a trip to China, and Weatherford

brings agent Byron Thompson this huge box of papers from Yorkshire Financial.

It's not long before he realizes that Cruz's operation is a scam.

What's not so clear to him is how and why Cruz turned bad.

He's a confusing individual.

I looked a lot at his background, and I learned about two different people.

The early Paul Cruz was a licensed securities broker who legitimately

people's money.

And then at some point, not knowing how it happened, he came up with this scheme

that to me was just so callous and brazen because he knew these people

well. And he knew the money that he was taking from them was all they had and in

some instances all they were ever going to have.

In July, Agent Thompson heads from Florida to Washington State, where John

has recruited the bulk of the scam's victims.

When I went out to greet some of these people for the first time who were their

long -term friends, associates, and knew them well, some of them it was pretty

difficult to convince that there was a scam at all.

They thought their money was still safe, and they hadn't experienced a problem

out of it.

Thompson says that for some, the conversations are difficult.

Some people, you know, the light comes on and they realize, oh my goodness, you

know, this person I've trusted for all these years that knew, you know, I'm not

a wealthy person, this is my life savings, they've stolen our money.

That fall, hoping they can stop the bleeding, the feds begin seizing Cruz's

assets.

Agent Thompson meets with Paul Cruz, but he says he won't talk.

By the end of 2011, investor Darlene Jones has begun to notice that her safe

investment might not be so safe.

She's having trouble getting money from Cruz.

Paul kept telling me, he said, you don't understand what's going on.

That's all he would tell me.

He said, there's some things going on and you don't understand.

And I said, no, Paul, I don't. I don't know what's going on. I said, am I going

to get a check? He said, I'm not sure.

We'll have to see what happens.

What happens is that one month later, FBI agent Thompson's phone rings.

It's Paul Cruz.

He called me and said that he was tired of fighting the case, that I knew he was

guilty and he knew he was guilty, and he wanted to come in and just face what he

had done.

Two days later, Cruz comes to the federal building in Jacksonville where

signs a written confession.

A portion of that statement read, investors were not told the truth about

investments. Sometimes I solicited investors, and sometimes they were

by my brother, Jonathan Cruz.

I am remorseful for what I've done. I've hurt a lot of people by stealing their

retirement savings.

It is my desire today to take full responsibility for what I've done. It

like a Ponzi scheme, and I'm admitting I'm guilty because I am guilty.

And it was signed, Paul S. Cruz.

For Thompson, it feels like it's time to close the book on Cruz.

I thought that was the end of the case.

It just seemed like all of the fight had gone out of him.

He wanted to admit what he had done wrong, and he told his attorney, in

your advice, this is what I want to do. I want this case over with. I want to

plead guilty because I am guilty.

But the odyssey of Paul Cruz is far from over.

Shortly after Cruz confesses to FBI agents in Florida, his brother John is

behind bars in Washington State.

But his situation has nothing to do with preying on financial victims.

He's been arrested at this gas station picnic table trying to meet a girl who

thinks is just 13 years old.

Jonathan Cruz had been arrested in connection with a catch -a -predator

investigation by the local authorities there in Washington State.

He had gone to have sex with a minor child.

In fact, his criminal history had shown that that wasn't the first time.

Court records say that John Cruz has an extensive history of sexual deviance

dating back years, and the judge sentences him to serve at least four

ten months in state prison.

Then in March 2012, a grand jury in Florida looking at the Yorkshire case

indicts both Cruz brothers on one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

A few months later, John is brought to the East Coast and locked up in the same

facility as Paul.

Apparently, this, coupled with his sex crime arrest, is too much for John to

handle. He ended up hanging himself.

He didn't leave a note. He left no reason why.

But I think we can just put things together. He was 65.

He had had a troubled past with children.

And then he's looking at probably somewhere around close to 10 years on a

federal charge.

And he just apparently could not live with himself and took his own life.

Paul Cruz has already confessed to running the Yorkshire investment scheme

got his brother in trouble with the feds. But after John's suicide, he's

blaming himself.

He didn't take any responsibility whatsoever for getting his brother

in his plan to defraud his friends and family.

He put it on somebody else.

Next on American Greed, Paul Cruz devises a murderous plan to get out of

and get revenge.

Hey, is there any problem with having these people cremated?

It's just days after his brother's suicide.

And on July 31, 2012, authorities move Paul Cruz to the Baker County Detention

Center. Inside, he shares a cell with a man named Dre, who was locked up facing

federal drug charges.

Dre seems like a guy who knows how to make bad things happen.

And Cruz asks him for the name of someone who can do a couple of jobs.

Paul Cruz.

trusted his cellmate.

It may be because he thought that the cellmate had what we call street cred

that he believed that he, the cellmate, could help him out and get him somebody

that was an enforcer.

Dre is more than happy to help Cruz find an enforcer. And on September 4th, he

places a call to a man on the outside named John O 'Leary.

Hello? Hello, this is a free call from... Dre.

An inmate at... Baker County Detention Center.

Once he's got John on the line, Dre hands the phone to Cruz, who isn't

get right down to business.

Hey, John.

Hey, what's up, man?

Uh, hey, I'm, um, a friend of Dre's, and I asked him to,

you know, give me a couple enforcers and do a couple jobs.

Okay. And so he gave me you.

Okay. And so I'm going to court tomorrow.

And Amy Weatherford is the star witness to the case.

And if there's no Amy Weatherford, there's no case.

I understand.

It's hard not to understand the meaning of this call.

Cruz thinks that making Amy Weatherford disappear will make the case against Tim

disappear as well.

It turns out Cruz is hardly stopping here.

He went from zero to 60, and I think it showed his true colors. He did not

want to be held responsible for what he had done.

Cruz takes meticulous notes on how he wants his murderous plans carried out.

And when he talked to John a week later, His list of people to kill has grown.

Still in?

Yeah. I've got three jobs that's worth a hundred grand to you, man.

I'm on, man. This is game on, buddy.

Okay. I mean, it's on like Donkey Kong, so.

All right.

Cruz wants John to kill Weatherford and two former business associates.

He claims they stole money from him. Now Cruz says he wants his money back and

his associates dead.

Now, let me ask you this. You want it all freaked out with the same light?

Yep. Okay.

You sure now?

Yep. I'm positive.

Once we get the green light, it's on.

Yep. Okay.

What's the time frame you're looking at?

As soon as we can move on it.

John and Paul decide to talk in code, calling each murder digging a hole.

But Cruz makes one thing clear.

It's all about Amy Weatherford.

Hole number one.

The thing that I've got to express, we've got to concentrate 110 % on

the first hole.

Yeah, okay, that's no problem.

If I can't get my ass out of jail, you know, I can't accomplish anything.

Days later, John sends this man, his co -worker, a tough guy named Richie, to

actually meet with Cruz.

When they talk on the jail's video phone system, Cruz details what he wants done

with Amy Weatherford in order to guarantee his release.

To Mark Devereaux, an assistant U .S. attorney working the case, Cruz's

intentions are clear.

He wanted to have her murdered, tortured, leave a note with her, a

note making her sign a document saying that she's the one that came up with the

plan, that she's the one that stole the money, putting all the blame on her.

Before his visitor leaves, Cruz says that if this plan doesn't work, he's got

backup that's sure to win him his freedom.

It sounds like it will.

Since his brother's death, Cruz has morphed from a white -collar schemer to

man who wants to kill a key witness, two business associates, and the prosecutor

in his case. But there's a problem with Cruz's plan.

Hitmen cost money, and he has none.

Well, what does a schemester do?

He uses another scam.

At the very time he's trying to get the hitman to get out of some lies because

he had stolen money from his friends and family and clients, he ends up lying to

the hitman.

In this document, Cruz writes down the big dollar figures that each of his

victims can pony up.

Before digging each hole, he wants John to take them to their banks and have

them withdraw this money.

As payment, John is to keep a portion and pass the rest on to Cruz.

Of course, hitmen don't work on consignment.

They want a down payment.

So Cruz calls his brother Dave to tell him about his plans and make a request.

He was under the illusion that I owed him $10 ,000.

And I was supposed to come down there and make contact with the killers.

and pay him. But Dave doesn't have $10 ,000 just sitting around.

And even if he did, he wouldn't use it to help his brother with his get -out

-jail scheme.

I told him, I said, this is insane for you to think that you're going to get by

with any of this.

Paul does not take his brother's denial well.

As I recall, he just hung up.

And I never heard from him again.

Cruz desperately needs Dave's money to get his operation going.

And when he talks to hitman John, he has an idea of how to get it. I know he's

got the money.

Okay. And the only way that I think that you're going to be able to get the

money... is if you have to kill them.

Really? You may have to get to that point.

Okay. And you're good with that?

I'm good with that.

It's not up to me.

No, I understand.

Here's the thing.

After we hung up, we called you right back.

Okay.

And you brought us, look, I don't have 10 ,000. If you guys want to come up and

beat me and kill me, you can... I guess we'll find

out, huh?

Next on American Greed, prosecutors find something belonging to Cruz that's

unlike anything they've ever seen before.

Not in a trial. I don't even think in a horror movie. This just shows a window

into his mind and what he was thinking about.

He was going to stop at nothing to try to get away with this crime.

Listen to more of Paul Cruz's conversations with hitman John at

.CNBCPrime .com.

Feeling greedy?

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

Follow us at AmericanGreedTV on Twitter.

We'll be right back.

For weeks, confessed con artist Paul Cruz has been talking to a hitman. He

to take out Amy Weatherford, the whistleblower who brought down his scam.

On September 27, 2012, Cruz gets the call he's been waiting for.

John.

What's up, man?

What's happening, man? Tell me the good news.

Well, you sure you want us to stop them, right?

Yep.

All right. Here's the news. You sitting down?

Yeah, I am.

All right.

Lisa's in the trunk of my car right now as I'm driving down the interstate,

okay? Okay.

What do you think of that, buddy?

I think that's awesome.

In the excitement of the moment, John O 'Leary misspeaks, calling Amy

Weatherford Lisa.

But the message is clear.

Cruz thinks Weatherford is about to die, and now he wants the confession that

will set him free.

Sit tight. Richie's right now. We'll get the information.

Okay.

All right. So we'll have it.

So we'll finish your off.

You want to make it look like a suicide, you said, right?

Yep. Right. And then we'll whack her and cremate her. You want her cremated,

right? Yep. I want her cremated, yeah.

No problem, man. It's done.

Well, hopefully, Dan, we'll get all this money. Hopefully you'll be out soon,

brother. It'll be party time.

Yeah. I'm ready for it.

Where do you want to go for our first meal?

Down to probably the Capitol Grill.

Cruz has big plans.

But before he's eating a steak at a fancy restaurant, he has one more thing

his hitmen to tell Weatherford.

Let her know that she's dying because I'm avenging my brother's suicide.

Okay. I understand.

I'll stick the muzzle in her throat and I'll tell her that, okay? All right.

Let's see, buddy. Peace.

Yep.

Cruz believes his freedom is within sight.

In the hours after the call, he sits down and pens a letter to his brother

In it, he writes that Amy Weatherford has confessed to stealing his investors'

money. She's admitted that she was the one who put the scam together.

And that she couldn't handle all the lies anymore and decided to kill

Paul is clearly giddy about the fact that he now thinks that Amy

dead. Paul's going to get away with murder of her. He's also going to get

with the entire Ponzi scheme.

And he's going to get away with it in front of the eyes of his family, too,

because Amy Weatherford, in Paul's mind, caused the death of his brother.

In Cruz's cold -blooded mind, it all seems to make sense.

But there are a few hitches in this plan.

Amy Weatherford isn't really dead.

His cellmate, Gray, isn't really his friend.

And John O 'Leary isn't really a hitman.

Mr. Cruz thought my name was John O 'Leary, but in fact my name is John

special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and

At this point, the only hitman Cruz has actually seen is Richie, a .k .a.

ATF agent Rick Samples.

And the day after the last phone call, ATF agent John Leahy comes to the jail

introduce himself and let Cruz in on the secret.

Leahy says he senses no remorse from the man whose voice he now knows all too

well. I mean, I never saw him face to face to the day in the cell, but...

Just the way he laughed.

He gives that laugh. It's like, man, it's like the devil laughing.

After he's caught, guards move Cruz to solitary confinement.

When they do, they search his belongings and find a document he's written, a

sick recipe for how to get Weatherford to confess.

Mr. Cruz wanted Amy Weatherford tortured and then killed. And he actually wrote

out a list.

of step -by -step how the hitman should do it.

The first step is knock on the door.

When she opens it, hit her.

Knock her unconscious.

Step three, strip her.

Step four, sit her up in a chair with arms.

Step five, duct tape her legs and arms to the chair and put tape over her

Step six, put a hood over her head.

Step seven, shove a curling iron

Up inside her.

Former Justice Department attorney Ryan Rolfson says that in all his years as a

federal prosecutor, he's never seen something like this before.

Not in a trial. I don't even think in a horror movie.

This just shows a window into his mind and what he was thinking about. And

really, he was going to stop at nothing to try to get away with this crime.

And even after learning the truth about hitman John.

Cruz isn't about to stop scheming.

Authorities have not yet told him that his cellmate, Dre, was the one who set

him up. And Cruz attempts to slip him notes, warning him that now they are

in grave danger.

Let me put this straight.

John O 'Leary is an ATF agent.

He duped you and me.

He needs to go before he can testify against us, or we will be in prison for

rest of our lives.

You need to get his ass.

Period. End of story.

These notes are intercepted. So he was actually willing to kill Amy

two business associates, a federal prosecutor, his own brother, and then

he learned that Special Agent Leahy wasn't the hitman, he wanted to have

Agent Leahy murdered.

So now it's thick.

And that's the mentality.

Every time he gets caught, every time he gets caught with committing another

crime, instead of taking responsibility for it or saying, okay, you win, he

keeps trying to cover it up. He keeps trying to commit more crimes. It just

further down into that hole of greed and crime that he just doesn't seem to be

able to come out of.

Next on American Greed, it's the hour of reckoning.

And Paul Cruz is still looking for a way out. He thought of himself as an

amazing salesman, so he kept trying to sell and sell and sell.

One month after his murder -for -hire plot falls apart, Paul Cruz is indicted

new charges related to these failed efforts.

He goes on trial in February 2013.

Darlene Jones is one of the many victims present to testify against a once

-trusted financial advisor and friend.

In the courtroom, Paul could not even look at me.

He held his head down the whole time I was there.

and would not even look up at all.

Also there to testify are three people Cruz wanted dead, ATF agent John Leahy,

Amy Weatherford, and his own brother Dave.

I didn't feel angry, but I was willing to cooperate fully because I

thought he was truly a danger to society.

If he could kill a brother for nothing.

I think that he deserves to be where he is.

There to present the case are prosecutors Ryan Rolfson and one more of

intended victims, Mark Devereaux.

A jury takes less than two hours to find Cruz guilty on multiple charges of mail

-and -wire fraud, conspiracy, and attempting to kill a witness.

But even after the verdict is read, He's still looking for a way out.

When he returns to court for sentencing months later, he presents the judge with

an audacious plan.

He asked the judge to release him from custody so that he could start working

again and trying to pay back some of the money he had taken from the victims. Of

course, the judge did not go for that.

Instead, he sentences Paul Cruz to 30 years in prison.

It seems all his murderous plotting has backfired.

Had he been convicted at trial of only the financial fraud scheme, you know,

jail sentence would have likely been a minimum security assignment for a few

years. He then just went for broke and tried to get away with all of it.

In the scam he ran, Paul Cruz was no Bernie Madoff. He didn't steal billions.

But to victims like Darlene Jones, the money he stole was all the money they

had. I've already lost my home.

I had to file bankruptcy, and I'm not going to be able to enjoy the things

I thought I was going to be able to enjoy.

At this point, there's not that much money.

To those who stopped Cruz's scheme, there is a small upside in knowing that

prevented him from ensnaring even more victims.

Cruz's downfall is due in no small part to one woman, his former assistant, Amy

Weatherford. She seems glad to have helped out.

That man got exactly what he deserved.

And I've never had the chance to send him a card in prison to say, Ha ha, I

you I'd get your ass.

Gotcha.