Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, for nearly four years, a mysterious computer

hacker quietly steals millions from the IRS.

I'm just kind of blown away. This guy really does know what he's doing. But

he gets too greedy planning his next score, federal agents realize he wants

money at any cost.

Threats of shooting, innocent people being taken out, law enforcement being

at.

And later, murder, mobsters, and misdeeds.

A self -styled wise guy, Domenico Domrabuffo is making investors offers

can't refuse.

Everybody was going to win. Make your dreams come true.

But to pull off a $49 million real estate scam deep in the mountains of

Carolina, he's going to have to keep everyone in line.

I think he liked the idea that people would be a bit afraid of him.

Federal investigators simply call him the hacker.

They don't know his name or where he's hiding.

IRS Special Agent Denise Medrano does know one thing for certain.

The hacker is behind a complex tax return scheme to rip off nearly $5

from American taxpayers.

It was over 1 ,900 tax returns that we had identified that were associated with

him. It's very possible that he had done much more than that.

But in May 2008, Medrano and U .S. Postal Inspector James Wilson catch a

break. One of the hacker's accomplices has betrayed him, and he's told the

agents where they might be able to find him.

This is where the rubber meets the road, because the government was losing

millions.

Now, agents wait anxiously for the hacker to show, hoping to finally lure

from the shadows.

We didn't know if he was even in the country. We didn't know if he was

European or somewhere in China or something.

The hacker could be anyone and anywhere, but he's a lot closer than

investigators realize.

He's Daniel Rigmaden, a reclusive 27 -year -old who spent his life in the sun

-drenched hills of Northern California.

But if you're looking for an easy answer to what makes the hacker tick, Think

again, says Arizona Republic reporter Dennis Wagner.

It was just almost as if he came out of a cave and there was just not that much

history. People wouldn't talk about him. So it's hard to get into his head and

figure out what was motivating him.

Wagner's been an investigative reporter for three decades, but even he hit a

brick wall trying to decipher Rig Maiden.

I tried to find family members who would talk to me about him, and none of them

would even call me back or respond to emails. I tried to find friends from

school that would talk about him, and I never found one.

What is known is Rick Maiden grows up in Monterey County, California, south of

San Francisco.

By the time he graduates high school, he's already sinking into trouble with

computer.

In 1998, Internet posters accuse him of selling grossly overpriced Beanie Baby

stuffed animals and of hijacking their computers to spam others.

One complainant warns he's a computer whiz and really needs to be stopped.

He's pretty brilliant. And you're just shaking your head going, how does all

this fit together?

Rick Maiden takes a pass on college.

On his Web page, he admits instead.

He begins creating fake IDs, and eventually he's jailed six months for

theft. In a rare radio interview, Rick Maiden says he always felt like an

outsider. Sometimes society gets overwhelming for someone who doesn't

agree with participating.

Rick Maiden says he gave up on the trappings of modern society.

Using stolen identities to mask his whereabouts, he packs up his computer

disappears into the wilderness.

Here in the Las Padres National Forest, Daniel Rigmaiden plots his next move.

It was just kind of a way to get away from a system that I didn't agree with,

suppose. And I was just kind of taking a break from society at that point.

But when Rigmaiden does come down from the mountains, he has more on his mind

than restocking his camping supplies.

Now he's trying to steal millions from the government's least popular

institution, the IRS.

Rick Maiden holds up in hotel rooms, scouring websites like the California

Index.

There, he collects the personal records of nearly 700 deceased individuals.

Then he begins churning out hundreds of bogus tax returns using an intricate

computer system he's designed.

He was very sophisticated in the fact that he automated the process so that

returns were filed within minutes of each other at a very high volume.

He conceals his actions using malware programs called bots.

These bots spread viruses that allow him to secretly and untraceably take remote

control of random computers around the country.

This was all done with individuals not knowing that their computers had been

compromised. He has the refunds routed to prepaid debit cards that he hopes to

cash before the IRS catches on.

Debit cards can receive funds.

So on a tax return, it's easy to put an account number and a routing number and

it not be a traditional bank account that you walk in and withdraw money

This debit card can be used anywhere.

The hacker's on his way to a $5 million payday.

But he has to be quick.

I basically had to go out to the ATM machine every day. I mean, got to a

where there was a lot of time spent just kind of walking the ATM machines to get

money pulled out.

He's smart enough to know using the same local ATMs over and over will

eventually lead the IRS right to his door.

He was adamant about not being exposed, so he had to rely on other people to get

his money back to him.

The hacker needs a new plan to grab the cash.

But he's about to choose the wrong partners in crime to help him out.

Next on American Greed, paranoid and desperate, the hacker says he'll do

anything to get his cash.

If something went wrong, people might die.

Daniel Rigmaiden, a .k .a. the hacker, is living two lives.

He's hiding off the grid at a Los Padres campsite.

But the reclusive computer genius is also slipping in and out of California

hotel rooms, flooding the IRS with bogus tax returns.

If his plan works, he should collect nearly $5 million.

Rigmaiden had mastered filing the returns. They were filed quickly. They

filed in high volume.

The problem was getting his money.

Rigmaiden wants to stay hidden.

Achieving that goal means he can't simply route the money into a nearby

account.

That exposes him to being identified. It was clear that every step that Daniel

Rigmaiden took, it was to insulate himself from being detected.

So Rigmaiden reaches out anonymously on websites and in chat rooms.

looking for anyone in cyberspace willing to commit a felony crime with him.

No names are shared, no identity is revealed, but Rigmaiden quickly builds a

network of like -minded accomplices to help him with his scheme.

They would keep their share of it, and they would then send by FedEx or some

other means the remainder in cash to Rigmaiden, so there was no paper trail

him.

One person who answers the call is 41 -year -old Ransom Marion Carter III in

Phoenix, Arizona.

Carter's got a rap sheet for a variety of crimes, and now he's about to add tax

fraud to the list.

He was willing to open up a bank account. He was willing to walk into the

and make that cash withdrawal to ultimately, we believe, then send the

back to Rick Maiden.

Carter rents a mailbox in Phoenix to help move the money.

But he's not nearly as clever as the hacker.

And in early 2007, a store manager alerts Postal Inspector James Wilson

there's a problem.

She'd received numerous pieces of mail, what appeared to be envelopes that had

credit cards that I'm going to this one particular subject's mailbox and

different people's names to that address.

26 envelopes with 26 different names on them, all addressed to Ransom Carter's

mailbox.

Wilson soon discovers the envelopes all contain empty prepaid debit cards.

There was no money on them at the time.

And that's what arose my suspicion, like, all right, well, where is the

coming from?

Meanwhile, IRS Special Agent Denise Medrano has her own puzzle to solve.

She's been reviewing a large number of first -time tax returns.

all filed by elderly California residents.

It didn't make sense to us how an elderly individual would have filed a

return for the very first time over a course of a lifetime.

Many returns should be filed by a taxpayer.

It turns out the filers are all deceased, and that's why they no longer

in IRS databases.

Digging further, Medrano discovers that $340 ,000 from 200 fraudulent returns

are being sent to Ransom Marion Carter III in Phoenix.

So that's how we put two and two together, and that's how Agent Medrano

began to work together.

Suspecting that the hacker recruits money mules such as Ransom Marion Carter

online, agents devise an undercover ruse.

They pretend to be cyber criminals eager to help him.

So we did exactly what Ransom Carter did, but using our own accounts, using a

bank of our choosing to conduct the undercover operation.

Their efforts lead them to the arrest of an accomplice in Utah who is more than

eager to cooperate to save his own skin.

This confidential informant walks the agents through how the hacker moves the

money around to escape detection.

Our confidential informant was an intermediary from the hacker to low

participants. The low -level participants would set up the accounts.

The hacker would fund the account.

They would make withdrawals on the accounts, and keeping their end of the

bargain, they would bring money back to our confidential informant. He would

give the hacker his cut of the money.

If only it were that easy.

Although money is pouring into his network of accomplices, only a small

has trickled back to the hacker.

Instead of millions, he's only collected thousands.

And Agent Wilson believes he's feeling impatient.

I'm not yielding the return I want. I'm doing the brunt of all the work here.

You're just mediating things. I want my hit.

The hacker tells the confidential informant he needs $68 ,000 immediately.

And he's willing to leave his campsite to get it.

Using a stolen identity, he rents an apartment in Santa Clara, California.

and sends the informant very specific instructions for how he wants the money

delivered. We were to wash the cash in Coleman lantern fuel. We were supposed

package it in airtight packaging.

Then he wanted to put it into a child's toy in some kind of box, wrapped up for

like a gift, and then into a bigger box.

The card on it was to be a birthday card with a message to a child who was dying

of cancer.

The hacker instructs the informant to mail the package to a FedEx in Palo

California. But it's also very clear he's desperate, and if anything goes

there will be hell to pay.

Next on American Greed.

If there was any surveillance or law enforcement, people were going to die at

the FedEx office.

5 a .m., May 7, 2008.

Federal agents watch closely as a mysterious man enters a Palo Alto FedEx

collect $68 ,000 in cash stolen from the IRS.

Is this finally the mysterious hacker they've been chasing? If so, he's taking

no chances.

The individual that had entered had a hoodie. He couldn't really see his face.

When he had to sign for the package, he held the pen in a very particular manner

so that there weren't fingerprints left anywhere.

He picked up the parcel, ducks into an alley, rips open the box, takes out the

toy that had the money in it, shoves it in a backpack, takes all the packaging

and dumps it in a dumpster so no one could find it.

The agents are being extremely careful.

The hacker's email rants have made it clear he's willing to kill if anything

goes wrong.

He was going to have a counter -surveillance team set up on him with

weapons, and he was specific that if anything was to happen, there would be

kind of violent confrontation.

Not sure this is really their man, and unwilling to put civilians' lives in

danger, agents watch as the suspect climbs aboard a commuter train and

disappears.

$68 ,000 was a lot of money for us.

But we had made the determination that we would let the money walk rather than

jeopardize the investigation.

The hacker thinks he's finally on a roll.

Soon, he's demanding another $352 ,000 from his accomplices. But he doesn't

there.

His simmering anger and paranoid threats of violence take a sudden and

disturbing turn, says Arizona Republic reporter Dennis Wagner.

He had an idea for using drones to assassinate politicians.

And then he also had an idea for using missiles to deliver biological or

chemical warfare.

The hacker's email suggests a man on the verge of cracking once and for all.

I'm probably the biggest single threat to the U .S. government, and they don't

even know it. I can do things that will make all terrorist organizations look

like sewing circles.

But this bluster leads to Rig Mayden's undoing.

Federal agents track an IP address on some of his e -mails to a computer

in Santa Clara, California, less than 20 miles from where the $68 ,000

disappeared.

Now things started to mesh, and we were able to put things closer together and

maybe say, are these two people related?

But even better, agents discover he's been using a Verizon Air card to log on

the Internet.

Air cards connect to nearby cell towers the same way a cell phone does, opening

the door for federal agents to finally turn technology against the hacker.

It's a secret surveillance device called Stingray. They're about the size of a

shoebox.

Stingrays are cell site simulators, forcing all cellular devices in their

vicinity, including the hacker's Verizon Air card, to share location and

personal data.

Federal agents are able to take this device and they can call a computer card

a cell phone and replace its operating system with their own so that they're

able to ping on it and locate it.

A stingray leads agents directly to an apartment complex in Santa Clara. A

record search confirms they are closing in.

All the personal identifiers on the rental agreement were all phony.

They're all fake.

So that's what we were able to get us to secure a warrant for that apartment

complex in that unit.

As agents wait to make their move, the hacker demands $352 ,000 be shipped to

him the same way the first package was.

The money was packaged in a toy.

It was wrapped as a gift, had a card for a kid, and it was sent to the same

location as the original one.

Agents wait four long days for the hacker to make his move.

When he finally does, this time they are ready.

The hacker describes what happened next in a radio interview.

I saw this guy kind of coming after me, so I started walking faster and he

started speeding up.

He tries to evade his pursuers, but this time his luck has run out.

The instant I was getting arrested, when I was laying on the sidewalk getting

handcuffs put on me, I instantly knew that they had tracked the air card down.

It was the only...

weak link in the whole operation.

Cuffed and out of options, the suspect still refuses to identify himself.

The only thing in his pockets were a set of keys. There was no identification on

him. Again, we still didn't know who this individual was.

And when agents enter his apartment looking for answers, they find only more

questions. He basically had a hammock in there and a desk lamp and a laptop

computer. The very simple existence.

But agents also find what they are looking for, gold and silver coins, and

,000 in cash with matching serial numbers to the $68 ,000 that the hacker

grabbed from the FedEx store in Palo Alto.

In a nearby storage locker, agents discover another $70 ,000, more gold

and a stack of debit cards and fake IDs.

That was a location that no one would ever find, and that was the place he can

revert back to. If it got really hot, he can go to that place and pick that up

and disappear.

The hacker holds out to the end, refusing to identify himself.

It will be days before his fingerprints are finally matched, and he is at last

identified as Daniel Rigmaiden.

Behind bars, Rigmaiden opts to defend himself against wire and mail fraud

charges.

He spends the next six years in jail fighting to get his case tossed.

He argues that the stingray technology used to track him down violated his

Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.

But his judge doesn't agree.

This person who they were going after was not a person.

He was an alias. He was a false name and somebody using a false identity.

doesn't have a privacy right for that false identity.

Therefore, Daniel Rigmaiden didn't have normal privacy rights.

In 2014, Rigmaiden accepts a plea deal for his crimes and is sentenced to six

years' time served.

Today, Daniel Rigmaiden still argues that the stingray surveillance

that took him down is a civil rights violation.

He's also working on an autobiography that may finally shine some light on

made the hacker tick and what his endgame truly was.

What was he doing with all the money? Where was it going? And the only person

that could answer that question is Daniel Rigman.

Next on American Greed, a New Yorker with a wild past is about to make a big

splash in a small town.

There's a mobster up there on the map.

And a brutal murder is just the first chapter of a $49 million bank fraud

Glenville, North Carolina.

An unincorporated blip on the map nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Population, 110, according to a 2000 census.

The nearest traffic light is five miles away.

It's the kind of community that if you run out of sugar, you don't run to the

nearest supermarket. It's at least ten miles before you get there. So you tend

to know your neighbors fairly well.

Towering high above Glenville is the Big Ridge.

Lucy Morgan's been escaping to her second home here for 25 years.

But Morgan's not your typical vacationer relaxing in the cool mountain breezes.

She's a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist.

And one day in 2007, she stumbles upon a most unlikely tiff when she walks into

her local beauty shop.

The hairdresser said, Lucy, there's a mobster up there on the mountain.

And I said, well, how do you know he's a mobster?

And she says, well, he's from New York and he wears gold chains all the time.

And I said, well, you know, I need a little more than that.

She doesn't know it yet.

But Lucy Morgan's about to uncover a $49 million fraud that begins 20 years

earlier and 750 miles away.

August 8th, 1987.

Erwin Schiff is just finishing dinner at Bravo Sergio, an Italian bistro on

Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Erwin Schiff was a bigger -than -life individual. I mean, literally. He was

about 6 '3 and weighed 400 pounds.

He was a bit of a shadowy individual who had contacts with a lot of unsavory

individuals, including members of organized crime.

Tonight, his past is about to catch up with him when a door behind him quietly

opens.

It was what you'd call a Hollywood script hit. I mean, he's eating dinner

Italian restaurant.

An identified man steps in the side door that's usually locked and puts two

bullets in his head while he's eating dinner.

Schiff is an associate of the Genovese crime family, but he's also closely tied

to a big -time local electrical contractor named Domenico Dom Rebuffo.

Rebuffo was a very, very good electrician.

He was a very, very good construction manager.

he would be able to manage very, very large projects.

Robuffo, married and the stepfather of four, is currently running one of the

largest electrical companies in Manhattan.

But to be this successful, Robuffo's no stranger to the mobsters Irwin Schiff

runs with.

They played a very big role in the economy in New York, and not in a good

Even big -time, legitimate developers had to deal with them.

It's just business.

Robuffo himself is no mobster, but he is an imposing figure.

And he's happy to let people believe whatever they want if it helps close a

deal. If he thought it was to his benefit that somebody he was negotiating

thought that he was connected and he could get a better price or a better

he wasn't going to dissuade them.

But Dom Robuffo's hands are hardly clean.

While investigating Irwin Schiff's murder, John LaPerla uncovers a series

money scams that Robuffo and Schiff are running together.

The biggest by far is occurring on the rooftops high above Manhattan.

There, Robuffo is making a hefty profit financing huge electrical backup

generators.

The generators cost maybe $50 ,000, $60 ,000. He inflated the amount

to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Robuffo and Schiff take the scam even further, tricking several separate banks

into providing duplicate financing for the same overpriced generators.

It's called double -hocking. There were times, you know, there'd be three

generators on a roof, and they would be guys from eight banks up there.

These schemes net Robuffo, Schiff, and several New York businessmen a $49

million payday.

But when Irwin Schiff is murdered by Moth Associates...

Dom Robuffo has to wonder if he might be next.

Dominic didn't know exactly why Erwin had been killed, and he was wondering if

he would be considered a loose end here.

Robuffo's arrested and pleads guilty to bank and tax fraud.

To reduce, he rats on the people he's involved with.

Bankers, businessmen, loan brokers, several state tax enforcement agents.

Robuffo spends five months in prison.

and also divorces his wife, May, although it will hardly be the end of

relationship, says FBI Special Agent Mark Soucy. Some people have told us

they got divorced and remarried twice, that May was the second and fourth wife

of Mr. Rabuffo, but we do know that from individuals who know both of them, that

they kept a relationship.

And it won't be long before Dom Rabuffo resurfaces with a new plan to fleece the

banks, far from the mean streets of New York.

Next on American Greed, the residents of tiny Glenville, North Carolina are in

for a big shock when Don Rapopo struts into town.

I just knew that it wasn't right from the very beginning. There was something

wrong.

Read the smoking gun flyer that spells out Don Rapopo's scam at AmericanGreed

.CNBC .com.

Feeling greedy?

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

Like us on the American Greed Facebook page.

We'll be right back.

Electrical contractor Dom Robuffo's dodged a bullet, but his business

been murdered and the heat is on in New York.

So in 1994, Robuffo relocates to Florida for a fresh start.

Soon, he says he's a developer on several rich cotton projects along the

Coast. But his most high -profile success is in Miami's Tony Coconut

Was he the principal developer? I don't believe so, but I believe that he

certainly was able to leverage that experience in selling himself as a

legitimate big -time developer.

Things are going well for Dom Rebuffo.

He moves into a $2 million condo on the Coconut Grove property.

He also buys another house in a nearby upscale Miami neighborhood.

He's just very charismatic, and he had a way about it. He had people very

convinced that, you know, he was the guy.

Maybe that's how he reconnects with his ex -wife, May, and convinces her to join

him on a new project, out of sight and far away.

By 2004, Robuffo is quietly buying property on Big Ridge in Glenville,

Carolina. He hides his purchases behind shell companies in the name of his ex

-wife.

Real estate paralegal Emma, who has asked that her real name not be used,

Tom Robuffo took the area by storm.

He came in with a plan.

He was a loud -talking, fleshy Florida guy coming up here.

Robuffo says he wants to build an exclusive community called Hampton

top of Big Ridge.

Anchored by a Ritz -Carlton hotel, it will be full of mansions, villas,

clubhouses, and a spa, and worth $200 million when he's done.

But Dom Robuffo hasn't left his past or his implied connections to the New York

mafia far behind.

Soon, he's throwing money and attitude around freely.

There were big rings and gold chains and sort of flashy, much too flashy for

this area.

He's obviously a little bit out of his element here.

Before long, locals are whispering that the mob has come to their Sleepy

Mountain home.

I think he likes the idea that people would be a bit afraid of him, that they

would perceive him to be a mobster.

And the people who lived around that development almost immediately thought,

must have mob connections.

And Dom's not the only one who likes to make a big splash, says Emma.

In 2005, she learns that Robuffo's ex -wife May is flying into town on a

jet to sign papers on a $1 .6 million loan.

She was supposedly like the CEO or president, and it was by and through her

construction company.

that they were buying these lots.

Mae's private jet lands at the tiny local airport, and soon she's

storming into Emma's office.

She had on the loud Birds of Paradise jacket and all of the gold rings and

chains, and she had her little fluffy white puppy with her.

Emma is a dog lover herself, but if she's hoping to bond with Mae Rebuffo,

about to be disappointed.

She was not friendly.

She was obviously not happy to be there.

And to make absolutely sure there's no confusion, Mae Rebuffo has not traveled

alone.

She's sitting at the conference room table, and there are these two huge

bodyguards dressed all in black, a couple gold chains, and just sort of

there. You can see the bulge under one arm.

It's the only Hampton Springs closing Emma handles involving private jets and

bodyguards. But it doesn't take long for her to notice that all of the deals

feel wrong.

It was the prices of the property.

There's just no way those lots were valued at what they were getting loans

That's because Dom Robuffo's busily working another major bank fraud,

four financial institutions, Bank of America, Wachovia, Regions, and

to fund what will turn into a $49 million scam.

To get the cash, Robuffo's using a nationwide stable of straw borrowers

stellar credit ratings to trick the banks.

He coaches his straw borrowers to take out two loans, each for a $325 ,000

half -acre lot.

The timing of these loans is key.

Bank of America would fund one side of the parcel.

Wachovia would fund the other one. They would have simultaneous closings, so

Bank A wouldn't know about Bank B.

And Robuffo's making these straw borrowers an offer they can't refuse.

When they obtained a loan for Lot A, they would receive $6 ,250.

When they received a loan for Lot B, they would receive $6 ,250.

That's $12 ,500 just for two signatures.

Plus, to sweeten the pot, Robuffo also promises to pay all the closing costs

the monthly mortgages themselves.

All you need is your credit. You don't need any money down.

It didn't get any better than that.

But it does get better, says federal prosecutor Dwayne Williams.

He says Robuffo was promising an even better back -end deal if the borrowers

would apply for an additional construction loan to break ground as

After a year, you would take out a construction loan to build a house on

property, and you'd be paid $12 ,500 at that point. So if you were participating

in the scheme, you could expect to make $25 ,000 and not spend any of your own

money. Robuffo's not shy about the deal he's offering. He even hands out a

brochure which clearly spells out what he's doing in writing.

And this flyer pretty much laid it out, the solicitation for straw buyers.

I've never seen anything like it. I mean, mortgage fraud is not a sexy crime

investigate. This was the smoking gun for a bank fraud case.

Robuffo lays just enough concrete to make it look like a development might

eventually be built, but is mostly concerned with recruiting new borrowers

keep the loan money pouring in.

It's word of mouth.

I mean, someone in Miami knows someone in Tampa who's in real estate.

That person has friends and family that live in Pennsylvania. And the word kind

of, you know, gets rolling.

Few of these borrowers can actually afford such large loans.

But Robuffo has that base covered as well. He'll use shell companies to vouch

false employment records when the banks call.

And one of the borrowers was a handyman receiving hundreds of dollars a week.

But on his loan application.

It's stated he made $23 ,000 a month as a loan executive.

As long as new loans are coming in, Robuffo can keep paying off the earlier

loans with little fear of discovery.

Some of that money would be taken, siphoned off, and actually used to pay

monthly mortgage payment on that construction loan.

Some of the other money would just be taken and used by the perpetrators to

finance their lifestyles.

And he's living it up.

Splitting time between his Florida Ritz -Carlton address and a home on the top

of Big Ridge.

It's one of the most beautiful views in the area. It does have this absolutely

breathtaking view of the mountains.

It also has another feature, one that the FAA hasn't approved.

A black -topped helicopter landing pad, perfect for entertaining prospective

straw borrowers.

Bring them on the chopper over and take them to a luxurious restaurant or a nice

steak dinner. Show them a good time. Show them that you are this legitimate

FBI forensic accountant Adela Echeverria says Rapafo doesn't live life on the

cheap. I could see that millions of dollars were being spent.

Hotels, traveling, he's purchasing fancy cars.

He had jewelry, electronics.

She says that Robuffo traveled constantly to Las Vegas, Mexico, and the

Caribbean. And when he did, it was always in high style.

He had private planes, jet services, limo services. Everywhere he went was

services.

Ex -wife and business partner May Robuffo splits her time between homes in

York, Florida, and Big Ridge.

And for a divorced grandmother from Long Island, Mae Rebuffo does pretty well

herself. She'll pocket nearly $2 million laundering money for her ex -husband.

It's a great scam if Rebuffo can keep the banks lending money.

The bubble was going to burst eventually. It continued to get bigger

based on Paul's premises.

Next on American Greed, when a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist starts asking

questions, Dom Robopo better have the right answers.

He was trying to hold it together, but he couldn't do it. It was falling apart

too fast.

Dom Robuffo's been strutting around Glenville, North Carolina, saying he's

building a $200 million luxury development high in the mountains above

But none of it makes much sense to real estate paralegal Emma, who's been

handling many of the closings.

Loans kept getting higher and higher, and these straw companies kept getting

incorporated just one after the other and used to purchase these properties. I

knew something was wrong.

Emma meets with her boss to ask what the real deal is.

He listens to her concerns and fires her on the spot.

I said, well, why?

What's the problem?

And he just stood up and left the room.

Never spoke to him again. Never got any kind of explanation.

Nothing.

Because no one wants to tell the truth.

That Dom Robuffo and his ex -wife May...

have crafted an elaborate $49 million bank fraud far from prying eyes.

But in 2007, Robuffo's about to meet a new neighbor, and she's going to make

life really interesting.

Lucy Morgan, part -time Big Ridge resident, full -time investigative

And she has a lot of questions about Robuffo's Hampton Springs development.

Nothing about it seemed logical. We were in a...

economic slide at that moment that was only getting worse, and the surrounding

developers were not selling houses. So it was not logical that in the middle of

nowhere, they would suddenly have a viable developer.

Smelling a good story, Morgan drives out to the construction site.

There, she finds only empty trailers and a handful of half -finished houses.

In the summer of 2008, Lucy Morgan finally convinces Dom Robuffo to talk.

He spins the tale of a hardworking businessman just trying to make everyone

happy. And when Morgan asks about his colorful past of mobsters and murder,

Robuffo says, forget about it.

He refused to talk to me about his criminal background, the case in New

where he had been convicted of fraud.

Robuffo thought that he could tell me what a great guy he was and what he was

going to do there and that I would believe what he said was true.

But Robuffo's still playing the tough guy. At the end of the interview, he

in close to Lucy Morgan as if to share a secret.

He turned to me and he said, remember, Lucy, I know where you live.

Morgan's no stranger to a veiled threat.

And Robuffo is not about to deter her from getting to the bottom of what's

happening on the top of Big Ridge.

As she digs deeper, Morgan realizes there is something fishy about almost

loan for the Hampton Springs development.

I've seen appraisals done on land up here, and I've never seen an appraisal

would indicate the value of the land at more than $15 ,000 an acre. He was

listing the property as being sold for $650 ,000 an acre.

That alone should have signaled trouble to anybody who looked at it. When she

begins filing stories in Florida, the writing is on the wall for Domra Buffo.

Apparently, the story drew the attention of the U .S. attorney in Miami. Not

long after that first story, there was heat on them.

SunTrust, one of the bank's hit hardest, sends inspectors to check out the

construction sites.

They're not happy with what they find.

Water treatment sewer was never hooked up to the neighborhood. We've heard

rumors that electricity was rerouted from neighboring homes to maybe operate

or two of the homes to show them to potential buyers.

SunTrust immediately stops funding loans.

With no money coming in to keep the scam running, everything implodes around the

rebuffos. Once the money stops, then there's no money to continue paying the

mortgages.

Eventually, all the properties went into default, and after that, they went into

foreclosure.

Hiding behind their shell companies, the Robuffos have burned through nearly $50

million.

All the accounts were completely wiped out. There was no money left in any of

the accounts.

All the money was gone.

In January 2014,

Dom Robuffo and his wife May are charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire

fraud.

Mae Rebuffo argues that her ex -husband tricked her into participating in the

scheme. At trial, Ms. Rebuffo identified that she was a victim to the man she

loved for all these years, and he took advantage of her.

And Dom Rebuffo, who spent his life managing large construction sites, his

argument is he was simply a bad businessman.

The problem with that defense is that you were never going to get the

development off the ground, yet you still took the bank's money and

that you were developing.

On July 3, 2014, after an 11 -day trial, the jury finds them both

guilty. Mae Rebuffo is sentenced to 14 years in prison, and her ex -husband Dom

is sent away for 27 years.

None of the straw borrowers who helped the rebuffos rob the banks blind are

charged with crimes.

But they don't exactly get off scot -free, either.

Most of those borrowers, their credit was destroyed. Some of the borrowers

settled with the banks. Some of the borrowers still have big judgments

them today.

Now, all that remains of Hampton Springs are a handful of half -finished homes

that scar the side of Big Ridge.

The houses are mostly teardowns. Most of them will never be lived in by anyone.

It has destroyed a really pristine piece of land.

It's a painful and constant reminder of the time when a greedy wise guy came to

town.

The site of our nation's tragedy, now a symbol of America's resilience.

The bad guys would love to knock it down again.

Join Jim Cramer for an unprecedented look. Downtown is back.

Ground Zero Rising, Freedom vs. Fear, premieres next Thursday, 10 Eastern,