All language subtitles for American Greed s10e19 Family Fortune Feud

In this episode of American Greed, a
family at war.

Michael Scripps, heir to a multi
-million dollar media empire, is charged

stealing millions from his mother,
Melissa.

So he gets up in the morning, yawns,
picks out, I think I will send myself

,383.

But for years, Melissa does not even
notice.

She has her own issues.

Melissa looks at me and goes, hi.

I'm Melissa.

Would you like to smoke some opium?

And in this family, money is no object.

There was talk about chartering private
jets for their pets.

And $90 ,000 goes to one night with high
-priced strippers.

She goes, I want tits on a platter.

Half an hour later, here comes a
stripper with a silver platter with

cream all over her breasts.

But when the money is spent, everyone
gets desperate.

He pointed the gun on himself.

And he told me to call his mother. He
was going to kill himself and make her

listen.

I'm going to call Melissa Scripture.

In the spring of 2013, in the
Philadelphia Federal Courthouse, Melissa

heiress to one of America's great family
fortunes, takes the stand.

She

is here

to testify against her only son,
Michael.

You see your son in the courtroom here
today?

Yes.

She says he stole millions of dollars of
her money over five years.

On May 2, 2002, did you authorize $3
,000 to be transferred from your

account to your son Michael's?

No. What about $9 ,100 on seven
penalties?

No.

He says she knew that he was taking the
money. And his college friend says that

this family fight... has no place in a
criminal court.

That is like the most despicable thing
in the world that a mother can do, is

turn her child, her only son, over to
the authorities.

How does a family sink this low,
especially a family that once stood so

Melissa Scripps is the great
-granddaughter of James E. Scripps, who

century ago started a newspaper that is
wildly popular.

His newspaper began as the Evening News,
which had a broad circulation that

would give you all the news of the day
in sort of layman's speak.

And it worked, and it worked well.

His son, William, carries on that
success, starting his own car company

launching the first news radio station
in the U .S.

And a fortune is made.

By the 1920s, the family is living the
mansion life outside of Detroit.

This is the world that Melissa Scripps
grows up in.

Her parents lived the lifestyle of very
privileged people. They

were one of the most prominent families
in Detroit.

But what is important today is what the
Scripps did with the money they made.

When people think of the Scripps family,
they don't necessarily think of how the

money was created.

how the money was given away.

Scripps' money goes to start the Detroit
Institute of Arts, to support the

Detroit Conservatory, and to create an
internationally respected school and art

center called Cranford.

And so, as the fourth generation of
Scripps become adults, there is much at

stake. They had a legacy to protect, in
a sense, a very positive legacy to

protect.

And by the 1970s, responsibility for
protecting the Scripps family name in

Detroit, in part, falls to Melissa
Scripps.

Well, I think a big name can be
complicated because it's big shoes.

Karen Weisgerber is a psychologist with
Cambium Consulting and works with high

net worth families just like the
Scripps.

It's like walking onto a stage that's
already been set, but you can really

it and live it large.

Joining Melissa Scripps on that stage is
her older brother, David.

David has a mental disability.

I don't know that it was ever diagnosed.
I would most closely describe it as

like an autism situation.

David is a kind, sweet man.

He's a happy guy.

Melissa Scripps permitted her attorney,
Chris Pixley, to speak on her behalf.

Melissa, by virtue of being a woman, At
the time that she was born, wasn't

expected necessarily to hold a job.

She had no formal education beyond high
school.

And that leaves Melissa in a tough
position.

What you're essentially being told is
there's no expectation of you at all.

It's a real question as to what you're
going to find in your life to get

attached to and to pull you forward in
your life.

As a young woman, Melissa lives the life
of a socialite.

She marries at age 23, divorces and
remarries at age 25.

Her son Michael is born in 1976.

And then in 1986, Melissa and David get
access to seriously big money when the

Gannett Company takes over the Scripps
family business.

I believe the two of them before taxes
got about $100 million.

$100 million turned over to a woman who
has virtually no preparation for what to

do with it.

Already from a point where you didn't
have much of an anchor point, you can be

totally disoriented. Like your compass
loses magnetic north. You just don't

which directions to go.

Melissa Scripps can choose from three
directions.

She can carry on the family legacy of
philanthropy, or she can invest the

in ways to preserve it for future
generations.

Or she can simply spend it.

Once this big money came in in the mid
-80s, the stock sale, as Michael would

say, that's when the partying really
began.

Next on American Greed.

Melissa Scripps likes to play the cool
mom, but is there money going up in

smoke? I smoked my first joint with
Melissa Scripps.

Oh, I think everybody did.

Imagine a childhood where your mother
takes you out of school for months to

travel around the world on the luxury
ocean liner, the Queen Elizabeth II,

as the QE2.

That's the life that Melissa Scripps
offers her son and daughter in 1986.

Well, Melissa at that point in time
really didn't have a care in the world.

had plenty of money. David had plenty of
money. They were able to do anything

they wanted to do and not have to worry
about it.

But Thomas Rutherford, Michael's good
friend from college, knows that there is

another side to life with all that
money.

He and I were actually in the Beverly
Hills Hotel at one point in the pole

lounge. And I was talking about how cool
it was. And he's like, it's cool as an

adult. It's like when you're living here
and you're eight years old and your mom

takes off to Morocco for two weeks and
leaves you with a servant and you're

bored all day long. This place sucks.

When the family is at home, they live in
a beautiful house in Bloomfield Hills,

Michigan, where no expense is spared.

There is art and antiques and jewelry.

Melissa Scripps has told me as her
counsel on more than one occasion that

had a trust advisor that told her that
she could never in her lifetime spend

amount of money that she had.

And Melissa puts that advice to a
dangerous test.

She amasses a collection of teddy bears,
rumored to be worth tens of thousands

of dollars.

And she appears to have an obsession
with all things royal.

She buys Queen Victoria's nightgown and
Elizabeth II's coronation chair.

And Melissa is exceedingly generous with
her children, giving them so much.

Michael cultivates an expensive interest
in military history.

Michael collected war memorabilia and
different swords from the Revolutionary

time, swords and different items and
artifacts from the Civil War.

These items were worth tens of thousands
of dollars.

He is allowed to live like everyone else
in the family, as if the money will

never run out.

That's what you're raised in, and that's
the role modeling you have.

You really don't have much other way to
think about it. So it will seem like

that's your normal.

And also normal for the Scripps
household is the smell of marijuana.

You know, by Melissa's own testimony,
she had a healthy, you know, marijuana

habit, and she did smoke marijuana every
day.

By the time Michael is a teenager, his
house is known as the fun house.

Jill Spencer is one of Michael's first
girlfriends.

Stepping into the Scripps house was like
stepping into freedom for a

kid. I mean, you could do anything, say
anything, act any way you wanted to.

And his friends know that Michael's
mother is the cool mom who likes to get

high.

I smoked my first joint with Melissa's
first.

Oh, I think everybody did.

My exposure to it.

And Melissa is not only cool, she is
generous, which to Jill feels like too

too young.

I think it was Valentine's Day. I was 14
years old, and Michael gave me a pearl

necklace with diamonds in between the
front three pearls.

And I was standing in the kitchen, and
Melissa said, do you like your necklace?

And I said, I love it. It's gorgeous.
And she said, it's real.

But Melissa is also unpredictable.

One day, she catches Spencer in
Michael's room and drags her out.

By the hair.

By my hair.

It was very traumatizing.

I think it was maybe three or four days
I finally went over there and she acted

like nothing happened and that's when
she gave me my first pair of diamond

earrings.

Now on her fourth husband, a bartender
from the QE2, Melissa often leaves him

home to care for her two children.

According to Michael, When he is 16 and
his mother is gone, he and a few friends

head to Chicago and check into a luxury
hotel with Melissa's Centurion American

Express card.

Years later, Michael tells his friend
Ben DeHaven that he was generous with

mother's money.

There was a bar tab that people were
dumping Louis Trey shots out, and almost

every person who walked in got sent a
bottle of Dom P or Cristal or, you know,

whatever.

After a few days, the bill is up to $35
,000.

American Express contacts Melissa to see
if the charges are permissible.

And she said, I'm very well aware that
my son has my credit card.

He has permission to use it. And she
told the manager then, she said, I'd be

glad to pay that entire bill as soon as
you can have someone on your team

explain to me.

how four 16 -year -old boys ran up a
bill and not once did anyone in your

establishment ask for an ID.

And so she had to pay for the room, but
that was it.

But according to Melissa, Michael's
reckless behavior is sometimes far more

threatening.

Michael had a fascination with guns.

Michael liked to...

walk around the house with loaded guns.
Michael liked to point loaded guns at

people.

There are many references made by the
family that Michael terrorized them as

was growing up.

Michael denies that, but he does run
into trouble.

He attends Cranbrook, the school started
by his great -great aunt and uncle.

But his status as a member of the
Founders' family doesn't save him from

expelled.

I think Michael just pushed the limit. I
think he tested authority. I think he,

you know, wanted to see how far he could
get.

By the time Michael is 18, his
stepfather files for divorce, writing

been dealing with Michael's aberrational
and violent behavior.

And that Melissa is back on the QE2,
where she is having an affair with a 28

-year -old crew member.

When his divorce is final, he leaves
behind a household in chaos, where the

family members, by all appearances, are
set on a course for mutual destruction.

Next on American Greed, Scripps family
night at the club.

Strip club, that is.

And there was some question about what
the actual cost was, at which point poor

Michael disclosed to his mother that he
thought it was somewhere upwards of...

$80 ,000?

If anyone is ever on the lookout for a
prominent old money family, one of the

last places they may expect to find one
is at a strip club in Atlanta.

But in 1999, that is where Michael
Stripp, now a college senior, his mother

Melissa, and his Uncle David are having
a night out.

Thomas Rutherford is with him tonight.

It wasn't seedy and weird. I mean, it
sounds weird to go to a strip club with

one's mother.

And I thought it was weird, too, on some
level. But it was fine.

At one point, one of the strippers asks
Melissa what she would like.

And she goes, I want tits on a platter.

And that's all she said in a jocular
manner. So, of course, Half an hour

here comes a stripper with a silver
platter with whipped cream all over her

breasts.

It's just a fun Strip's family night.

David Strip also enjoys himself, as he
always does on nights out with Michael.

He adored Michael. He looked up to
Michael. I mean, Michael was his

to the outside world.

So where David did not have the ability
to drive, Michael would say, hey, I'm

just going to wait for a while.

The bill at the Atlanta strip club
totals an astounding $90 ,000.

And it is David who pays.

He has the largest trust fund in the
family.

And with Melissa guiding his life, he is
living large.

They have been on the QE2 cruise ship
several times.

They now own several houses on the
island of St. Martin.

The excessive spending is in evidence
everywhere.

It might be an amazing special occasion
to have a bottle of Lafitte Rothschild.

A $700 to $1 ,600 bottle of wine is not
generally in my normal Friday night

wheelhouse. There were cases of that
stuff sitting around, just sitting

There was talk about chartering private
jets for their pets, dogs that were

being flown down to their ocean -flight
villas in St. Martin.

I believe that there was a request for a
chartered jet to fly a family turtle, a

tortoise, down to St. Martin.

It was like a race to get rid of your
money.

That's the best way I could describe it.

And not surprisingly, the never -ending
supply of money is running low.

Across the board, Melissa's financial
advisors were telling her the money was

going to run out, that she needs to
control her spending.

She was just dismissive, according to
what they testified to. She just

listen. She would get angry.

By 2002, in just 16 years, David and
Melissa's $100 million fortune is

now down to a little more than $9
million.

and her trust officers at Bank One are
putting pressure on her to control her

spending. Sometime around that same time
frame, one of Michael's college friends

became a broker with Merrill Lynch, and
he knew that the Scripps family had a

lot of money and that they were of
extreme wealth, and he wanted to bring

accounts to Merrill Lynch.

The college friend is Richard Gleason,
known as Duke.

He's a sad sack.

You know, he really is. He's had
drinking problems, like gambling

His personnel file shows reprimand after
reprimand. And I think he just needed

this one home run to solidify him, you
know, in this organization.

That home run is landing the Scripps
family accounts.

And so in 2002, Legion traveled to St.
Martin.

smokes marijuana with Melissa, and
eventually persuades her to move her

and David's money into his care at
Merrill Lynch.

Just over $2 million from Melissa and $7
million from David.

That means that all the family money is
in the care of Michael's good friend.

And in the coming years, Michael's
relationship with Melissa, which has

been difficult, begins to run especially
hot and cold.

Some friends see moments of great care.

He said, Michael, I love you and I miss
you, but I will buy you a Learjet if you

will just come see me more. Your mother
misses you.

So, absolutely, man, she loved that kid.

But there are also moments of hideous
anger.

I don't know what hit her, if it was too
much wine or the pot or what, but I saw

it. It was like her eyes went blank.

And it was like... full -on anger.

The thing that popped out of my mind was
something I've heard her repeat, which

is, I wish I would have had an abortion.

Next on American Greed, Michael's script
brings home his new girlfriend.

To me, I'm an all -around entertainer. I
just happen to use sex as a medium in a

lot of ways.

The Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston is one
of the most elegant hotels in town.

And it is here in November 2003 that
Michael Scripps, now 27, meets his

future girlfriend.

The woman he is meeting is an escort.
Her price?

$500 for the night.

Her name is Jenna Bearden.

Later, she changes it legally to Jenna
Scripps.

Even at that first meeting, Michael was
very obviously

someone that came from money. I mean,
how many

20 -somethings are driving a $90 ,000
Jaguar, you know?

The night goes well.

And just as he did as a 14 -year -old
boy, he gives his new girlfriend

The next day, he showed up with a
Cartier necklace

with a pavé diamond and platinum pendant
with the two seeds on it.

That was kind of the beginning of the
romance.

As a regular at strip clubs, Michael is
drawn to sex workers.

In choosing Jenna, he is dating not just
an escort, but a porn star.

Her stage name is Kiki Dare.

To me, I'm an all -around entertainer. I
just happen to use sex as a medium in a

lot of ways.

Shortly after Michael meets Jenna, he
invites her to Michigan to meet his

mother. Everyone's upstairs in Melissa's
room.

And there's Michael, hammered.

Had been drinking red wine and eating
pain pills.

And I kid you not, I wish I could make
this up.

Melissa looks at me and goes, hi, I'm
Melissa.

Would you like to smoke some opium?

So that was my introduction to the
Scripps family.

But if Jenna has a low opinion of
Melissa, it is not hard to imagine what

Melissa thinks of Jenna.

Oh, a Scripps has no business being
anywhere near Kiki Dare.

A Scripps is above all other people. I
mean, in Melissa's mind, she was

At one point, the ill will between
Melissa and Jenna literally comes to

after a dinner out in St. Martin.

We're walking towards the car, and next
thing I know, Melissa walks up, and

she literally does this.

You little whore. And slaps me in the
face three times.

And I didn't even think.

I just... I didn't mean to, but I

gave her a black eye.

Dating a porn star may not be the
typical route to domestic tranquility.

Michael tells friends that all he wants
is a simple life.

Michael's ambition, insofar as he
disclosed it to me, consisted of to have

family that he could give some structure
to and have a loving family, be in one

place, have a child, and the child not
grow up the way he did.

But his friends are skeptical about his
choice of Kiki Dare for that kind of

life.

I said, you know, are you dating this
person, like, just to agitate your

You know, and of course, he said, oh,
no, you know, I love her.

You know, name one quality that makes
her a good wife or a mother. One, just

give me one. And of course, he couldn't.

But for years, Michael and Jenna stay
together, despite a sometimes brutally

destructive relationship.

New Orleans police reports show arrests
on both sides for domestic violence.

I'm not going to sit here and say that.

It was roses and Cinderella and
beautiful. No, it was chaotic and it was

And I'm not proud of certain things that
I did and said during that period.

By 2003, Michael has gotten an MBA.

He is running a business, Scripps
Properties, renovating run -down

selling them.

But it's clear that the income from his
business could not be supporting his

lifestyle. The Kentucky Derby is always
the first weekend of May, so it would be

that spring we went to the Derby.

We've been near the Afton.

There again, had a great time.

So, where is the money coming from?

From Merrill Lynch.

From the trust accounts of his mother
and his uncle.

It's easy. According to federal
prosecutors, he just contacts Duke

assistant and asks her to make a
transfer between accounts.

So he gets up in the morning, yawns,
picks out. I think I will send myself

,383. And literally, and that's what he
does.

That was the work for the day. I guess
you go and get lunch at that point. I

don't know how it worked.

There were days when there were three
and four and five transactions.

totaling tens of thousands of dollars
that were flowing out of these accounts

Michael's account.

It goes on for five years until August
2006.

It's Michael's birthday, and he puts in
a request for $40 ,000 from his uncle's

account.

Later in St. Martin, Melissa happens to
open one of David's Merrill Lynch

statements and sees the transfer.

She contacts Marilyn and eventually
learns that in five years, Michael has

transferred more than $2 million from
her and David's accounts to his own.

And she learns that the money that she
was told would never run out is nearly

gone.

As of the middle of 2006, the accounts
have been pretty much depleted.

There is not a lot of money left in the
Scripps accounts.

One day that fall, Jenna returns to the
apartment she shares with Michael.

He looked at me and he said, there's no
more money.

And I asked him what he meant.

He said, you don't understand. There's
no more money.

It's all gone.

Michael disputes her story. But Jenna
says she listens to the voicemail from

Melissa saying Michael has robbed her
and the family is broke.

He was really upset.

He always had lots and lots of guns.

And I remember him pointing the gun at
me.

I remember just feeling panic.

And next thing I know, he pointed the
gun on himself, and he had it like that

to his head.

And he told me to call his mother in St.
Martin.

And he was going to kill himself and
make her listen.

And it took a lot to get the gun from
him that night.

Up next, Melissa makes a bold move.

I mean, you might be pissed at him. You
might just shown him. You might hate him

for the rest of your life for stealing
all this money.

Seriously? The FBI?

Who does that?

Hear Melissa Scripps' testimony about
her dwindling finances at AmericanGreed

.CNBCPrime .com.

On the island of St. Martin at the end
of 2006, Melissa Scripps is reeling from

the news that her money is nearly gone.

And while she blames Michael for helping
himself to her money, she also blames

Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch certainly, you know, had
knowledge of all of the transfers that

were being placed between all of these
accounts.

And it all happened right in front of
the Merrill Lynch trust officers.

After searching for an attorney for more
than a year, she finds Chris Pixley in

Atlanta.

According to the FBI, Pixley finds a
smoking gun for the government's case, a

document that gives Michael Scripps
power of attorney over his Uncle David's

money.

The cornerstone of the Justice
Department's case was the power of

purportedly signed by David Scripps in
the state of Pennsylvania.

notarized by an assistant to the
financial advisor at Merrill Lynch at a

and time when David was in fact on the
island of St. Martin using his bank card

to make cash withdrawals and to go to
restaurants.

The Merrill Lynch notary later admits
she notarized the document without David

there, saying she acted on Michael's
instructions.

In late September 2008,

Pixley lays out his complaint to Merrill
Lynch and presents his demand for

damages, and a settlement is reached.

Under the terms of the settlement
agreement, Merrill Lynch is prepared to

Mrs. Script approximately $6 million of
money back.

But before the money is turned over,
Melissa and David must report in detail

alleged fraud to the U .S. Department of
Justice.

And they must also reasonably cooperate
with any criminal prosecution of

Michael. So essentially, Melissa Scripps
was not going to receive the $6 million

settlement without agreeing that she
would press charges, criminal charges,

against her son.

And so in December 2008, after signing
the settlement agreement, Melissa

takes what might be a family dispute
settled in civil court.

to an entirely different venue as she
meets with federal prosecutors and the

to turn over her son.

We did speak with Melissa and David to
make sure that they were saying, yes,

this was done, and this was done without
our knowledge and our consent.

Her attorney is adamant that Melissa did
not betray her son.

Where does the betrayal start? Does it
start with the person who clandestinely,

through forgeries and self -dealing,
steals millions of dollars?

Or is the betrayal on the part of the
person that says, stop, that's not going

to go on any longer?

But the timing of her meeting with the
feds leaves Melissa open to the

that she turned her son in to get the
settlement money.

She had never contacted any federal
prosecutors, even from the time that she

says she discovered the theft by her son
in 2006.

The first time she takes any step to do
so is after she enters into the

settlement agreement with Merrill Lynch.

And let's say you end up with $100
million.

Not only is there $100 million in the
pot, the pot is making quite a bit of

money. And when you reach the point of
desperation...

In your life, where you've gone through
all of it, all hundred, plus the

interest it was making, and it's time to
either be destitute and to hear her

tell it, go live under a bridge, or put
your child in federal prison, and you

think the more likable of those two
options is to watch your only son go

the wall with monsters and murderers,
that is the most morally bankrupt thing

can possibly imagine.

Meanwhile, Michael is rebuilding his
life.

He and Jenna end their relationship.

He goes to work for Smith Barney and
eventually marries. And in 2012, he

a father.

The woman that he's married to, she's
really supportive, and she had a job

they met. You know, like, she came from
a nice family, and, you know, she wasn't

the sex industry worker.

I mean, it's a pretty big step up.

But despite the turnaround in his life,
his mother's meeting with the FBI four

years earlier finally pays off.

In June 2012, Michael Scripps is
indicted on charges of wire fraud in a

in which it is alleged he stole more
than $3 million.

Duke Gleeson is also indicted on two
counts of wire fraud.

Up next.

The verdict is in.

I couldn't believe that a family
argument had gotten this far at hand.

April 2013 in Philadelphia, seven years
after Melissa Scripps called Michael to

accuse him of robbing her.

his criminal trial begins.

And on the fifth day, Melissa is called
to the stand.

Right away, she testifies to something
that Michael believes is a patent lie.

She says his scheme to steal her money
began in that strip club in Atlanta,

arguing it was a setup.

Michael told me that we'd go out to
dinner if he knew of a good restaurant.

What happened?

The limousine took us straight to a
gentleman's club, a strip club.

Thomas Rutherford says, no way.

I was there, and I am absolutely certain
there was no plot to blackmail Melissa.

The strip club idea came up.

Everybody blessed it. No one was coerced
into it. So that is completely untrue,

top to bottom.

And that is the nature of the trial.
Much of it revolves around Melissa's

against Michael.

Melissa says when trust officers at Bank
One question her spending, Michael

throws pictures of the $90 ,000 strip
club outing on the table, embarrassing

deeply.

And that, she says, is the reason she
turns her money over to Michael's friend

Duke Gleeson at Merrill Lynch.

Michael disagrees.

There was information that Mrs. Scripps
wanted to move her money from Bank One

because the trust officers were not
allowing the family to spend as much and

freely as what they wanted to.

Early on in the trial, Michael's former
girlfriend Jenna testifies about money

he spent on her.

As Michael glares.

It's not like there was any trace of the

person that I knew. I mean, his eyes
were so cold.

On day three, Duke Gleeson takes the
stand.

He is pleaded guilty and testifies with
the promise of a reduced sentence if all

goes well.

He says he was receiving kickbacks from
Michael for helping to grease the wheels

at Merrill Lynch.

I had nowhere else to turn for the
money.

I asked Michael for the money, and he
gave me $8 ,000.

Did you do whatever he told you in terms
of transferring this money after that?

Yes, I did.

And then there are documents.

like Michael's power of attorney over
David Scripps' account.

David never signed a power of attorney,
and the allegations are that Michael

forged David's signature on that power
of attorney.

But for Michael's defense team, the
documents prove nothing.

Michael admits he took the money.

There was no dispute that he had gotten
this money from his family and that he'd

spent it.

And the challenge was to prove that his
mother was aware of his spending habits

and that she acquiesced in that.

Michael says that some of the money was
used to cover costs of purchases he made

for his mother, like the coronation
chair.

But Michael's primary defense is that he
was living life as he had been taught

to live it, as they all lived it, and
that the never -ending pot was always

accessible to everyone in the family.

And, he says, Merrill Lynch documents
reflect that.

In this document, we have a wire
transfer from David to Melissa Scripps

,000. We have a standing letter of
authorization from Melissa Scripps to

Michael's sisters for $100 ,000.

But then we also have Michael Scripps to
David Scripps for $6 ,000.

So I think what this shows is just, you
know, it was Michael.

Michael's position had been that this
was one pot of money that was used by

of the family members for whatever they
wanted.

The never -ending supply of money seems
to have mattered only when it was gone.

What really changed was that the money
ran out, and there was never a problem

with the spending when there was money
to spend.

And all Melissa had to do to know what
Michael was doing was track down her

statements and David's.

and read them.

Every one of these transfers were
reflected on bank statements that had

sent to her over a number of years.

If you're trying to steal money from
someone and you're trying to hide it, it

seems a very strange way to do it by
having each and every one of these

transfers listed on bank statements that
are sent to the person from whom you're

allegedly stealing.

For almost five years, no one questioned
Michael's spending.

Until he had spent $3 .6 million.

But it was not his money to spend.

David makes that clear when he testifies
and says, very simply, he did not know

Michael was spending his money.

I think there was a lot of jury sympathy
for David.

And they felt like his money had been
spent.

And so, you know, somebody had to be
held responsible for the fact that his

money was gone.

The real victim was David.

And David could not fend for himself.
David did not have the wherewithal to go

out and make a living.

And, you know, that's pretty atrocious.

In the end, Michael is convicted on all
seven counts of wire fraud and is

sentenced to nine years in federal
prison.

I was speechless. I couldn't believe
that a family argument had gotten this

out of hand.

At some point, a parent has to think to
themselves, I have taught this child, if

not by instruction, then by example. I
have shown this child that it's okay to

piss away $97 million.

And now I actually have the temerity to
be offended and hurt that he pissed away

three?

Melissa and David Scripps are still
living on St. Martin.

Following his testimony, Duke Gleason
receives a sentence of one year and a

in prison.

And today, While Michael serves his time
in the federal pen, it is impossible

not to think back to where all this
began, with the entrepreneurial spirit

more than a century ago.

Somewhere along the line, the power of
the family story and the intention of

money and the purpose of it became
diluted, and other...

motivations began to overtake it. So the
motivation of self -gratification and

living large and overtook the original
sort of philanthropic intent of the

money. When money becomes decoupled of
any purpose or any sort of reason or

cause, it can unfortunately end up like
this.

Over time, the house in Bloomfield Hills
falls into disrepair and ends up in

foreclosure.

And even those who are wary of Melissa
Scripps are sorry for what greed has

to the family.

I feel bad that her money is gone, but I
feel bad that she's lost a son. And I

feel bad that Michael's lost a mother.

And they're not going to get that back.
And no amount of money is going to get

that back for them.

Next. When money is no object.

They had so much cash in these clinics,
they kept the cash in garbage bags.

The object is to get more.

There's not many people who were able to
scam as well as he did. Enter the dark

side. American Greed, next on CNBC.

From executive producer LeBron James,
Delan Hustle. Premiere episodes