Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, this story begins and ends with sex.

South Florida newlywed Dahlia DiPolito takes her husband's money.

Dahlia was the puppeteer. She manipulated everybody. She called the

did what she wanted. Then she plots to take his life.

She was talking about having me killed, like ordering, you know, a bologna

sandwich.

Didn't mean anything to her, you know, and that's the creepy part of it. It's a

real -life made -for -TV tale.

Okay, I'm sorry to tell you, ma 'am, he's been killed.

With a femme fatale you won't soon forget.

She's not a sweet, little, innocent girl.

I didn't do anything, and I didn't want anything.

She will manipulate.

But will she hire someone to kill?

On an early August morning, newlywed Dahlia DiPolito is at this Florida gym

she gets a life -changing call from the Boynton Beach Police Department.

Ma

'am,

I'll tell you everything you need to know when you get here. Okay? Thank you.

Married just six months,

Dahlia returns home, where cameras bear witness as she receives the news that

every spouse fears.

Mr. Pulido?

I'm Sergeant Ramsey. I'm the one that called you. Thank you for coming. I'm

sorry to call you. Listen, we had a report of a disturbance at your house,

there were shots fired.

Is your husband Michael?

Okay, I'm sorry to tell you, ma 'am, he's been killed.

He's been killed, ma 'am.

As the news sinks in, she appears inconsolable, and police escort her to a

waiting car.

At

the

police station, Danya is ushered into a small room where a detective comes to

greet her, and at first, to comfort her as well.

First of all, let me just tell you...

As questioning begins, the cops lean on her for help.

But a few minutes in, things take a turn.

Are you sure that you don't know anybody who'd want to kill your husband?

You wouldn't want to kill my husband.

Not at all.

We are fine. Like, there's nothing. There's no problems between you guys? No

financial problems?

No... I mean, with your family? You and him?

No, there's nothing.

What this grieving widow doesn't know is that her late husband of just half a

year isn't dead.

He's actually here at the station.

receiving some shocking news of his own.

The

unbelievable

story of these two star -crossed lovers begins less than a year earlier with an

unlikely encounter.

I can tell you I didn't meet her in church.

One fateful night, with his first wife out of town, Mike DiPolito goes looking

for extramarital action and finds Dahlia.

Mike contacted Dahlia through an escort website.

He sees a nice, curvy, dusky, exotic woman for like 300 bucks.

And he's like, wow, why not?

He paid her for her services that day, but they had, as he described it, a very

unusual connection.

Typical love story.

If Mike likes what he sees, so does Dahlia.

DiPolito runs a successful marketing company, drives a Porsche, and clearly

cash to spare.

One date leads to others, and soon a bond is formed.

When I met Dahlia, we seemed to connect instantly.

We would spend days together and...

We shared a lot of the same interests, and we would do things together all the

time, and it just, we hit it off right away.

Things move fast.

But just who is the woman Mike has welcomed into his life?

So Dahlia grew up here in South Florida.

My understanding is in a very strict Catholic home.

Went to religious school.

You know, she could have had a nice life in Florida, but as soon as she turned

18... Things took a different direction for Dahlia.

That direction is largely dictated by a power Dahlia possesses and knows how

to use.

Dahlia had learned from a very young age that she could use her body to

manipulate men to get money, to get, you know, anything that she wanted.

I mean, she owned every man in her life.

unsettling and bizarre as to the hold that she had on these men and what she

could get them to do.

Though he's not aware of it, Mike is just one of many men under Dahlia's

She had these really short shorts on, this really tight, tight shirt.

I mean, she was cute.

Mohammed Shehadeh first met Dahlia in the early 2000s.

when she visited his convenience store in Boca Raton, Florida.

I don't remember what she bought, but she bought something small, and then

minutes later she came and bought again something small.

Another five minutes later she came back and bought another thing.

I remember her saying, well, aren't you going to ask me for my phone number?

Soon, Mohammed and Dahlia become friends, with benefit.

But as they get to know each other, he says he sees her more demanding side.

You know, always wanted to go there, travel there, travel there, take me

do this, do that. You know, if she didn't get what she wanted, you could

heat a little bit in her.

After a few years, Dahlia moves to California.

And Mohammed says they lose touch for now.

Out west, she promotes herself online as a Colombian college girl looking to

steam things up.

Living in Orange County.

She's supported by another doting male admirer with whom she shares a bed.

She had a sugar daddy and a guy named Michael Stanley.

This guy was a successful businessman. He was a contractor.

He had done very well for himself.

When Dahlia returns to Florida around 2008, she finds a new Mike, Mike

a man who's also found success.

but is clearly no saint.

Mike DiPolito had a little bit of a rap sheet already.

Mike DiPolito was raised on the wrong side of the tracks in Philadelphia.

He admitted that he had a drug problem, had gone to rehab.

Now, after a lifetime of troubles, Mike finally feels that with Dahlia, he's

found something good.

We met, and it was everything about it. We just clicked.

You know, be it our sex life, be it just our spare time, be it the things we

like, all that. And it just happened.

Mike quickly divorces his first wife and marries Dahlia. And the newlyweds move

into a condo that he purchases.

This was their love shack. This was their forever home.

Right there in Boynton Beach.

A nice, cool little quarter million dollar condo.

She sends him love notes.

And things seemed like they couldn't be much better.

You know, Mike described that they had a very, very active, very good sex life.

She was a cult leader, and he was her congregation, so that he was

not very aware of what was going on around him.

Next on American Greed, hand in hand till death do they part.

Never saw it coming. No, never saw it coming.

I just, I never saw that coming in a million years. No.

I started giving my wife money because she was going to provide me with the

other half of the money for probation.

When Mike DiPolito meets Dahlia, he finished a two -year stint in prison for

his role in a boiler room operation.

Basically what we did, we represented ourselves as trading foreign currency

options, whereas there was no option to be traded.

Now he's dealing with 28 years of probation.

and is saddled with cumbersome restrictions until he pays $191 ,000 in

restitution to his victims.

And Dahlia was always wanting to take trips that might...

Would have to say, I can't go because I'm on probation and we can't do this

we can't go to Miami for dinner. It did become a little bit of a source of

contention between the two of them.

Honey, we can't leave the county. You know, you're not even allowed to travel.

We, you know, I didn't sign up for this. We got to get you off probation.

Mike has plenty of cash in the bank to help pay off his restitution.

But former prosecutor Elizabeth Parker says.

that as the convicted fraudster, if he writes the check, questions might arise

about its source.

You know, the reason he's on probation is because he scammed people, and

certainly there is a school of thought, you know, amongst the prosecutors, you

know, that maybe the money that he had currently was not legitimate funds.

If she was writing the checks on his behalf, it's going to look a lot better

than if he's coming up with...

this money that he might not otherwise be able to account for.

Dahlia quickly, you know, volunteered, yes, you know, I'll help you get off

probation. In fact, I'll pay half of what you owe. Just send me $100 ,000 and

I'll make up the difference, which was, I think, around $91 ,000.

And I'm like, absolutely, let's do it.

You know, I'm thinking, why not? This is great. You know, she's pushing me

forward too.

Soon after their wedding day, Mike begins writing checks to Dahlia.

He also adds her name to the new love nest he's bought.

But it's not long before he learns that trusting his new wife might not have

been the best idea.

As soon as that wire was to be sent, the games began.

It was off to the races with the games.

Dahlia is supposed to use Mike's money to help him get off probation.

But that never happened.

I mean, anybody that ever gets in trouble, believe me, always wants to get

of trouble. I mean, in my day, I thought I'd come. I thought we made this

payment, you know, it's in a form of a wire that's supposed to be arriving any

day.

The wire's not there.

You know, my lawyer's like, I don't know, Mike, I don't see it.

In truth, Dahlia is blowing through Mike's money, spending it on clothes,

tanning, and jewelry, then withdrawing much of it as cash.

And that's just the first part of her devious plan.

She immediately realized how long that his sentence could be if he violated his

probation.

In her mind, from what we gathered in court, the easiest way to do that was to

get him arrested.

It's crazy when you think about it, you know. But for a woman like her,

you know, if she walked away with a half a million dollars in cash and assets

and he's cooling his butt in prison, that's exactly where she wanted to be.

To enact this plan, Dahlia reconnects with an old flame, a man she hasn't seen

in years.

Her old lover, Mohamed Shihade.

She said, I want you to help me, you know, get drugs or, you know, get him to

violate probation.

Because she knew if she violated probation, he'd be going away for a long

In mid -March, she buys Mohamed a Range Rover with $38 ,000 of her husband's

money.

Around this time, police records show that Mohamed connects her with a cop who

frequents his convenience store.

She calls this cop.

She says, this guy, Dipolito, he's selling drugs, and I'll pay you.

I will literally pay you to bust him.

The cop turned down her shady offer, but she's far from done.

Over the next few weeks, numerous agencies pay Mike unwanted visits after

receiving anonymous tips that he's stealing drugs.

Five and a half years on probation, I didn't have one run -in with the police.

I'm with this girl six months, and the whole police department knows me. And I

might as well, you know, I might as well glow fluorescent, you know. I should

just put lights on me.

Since getting out of prison, Mike says he's gone clean.

But on March 29th, in the parking lot of an outdoor shopping mall, cops search

his SUV and find a small amount of cocaine stashed inside a cigarette pack.

You know, I actually started crying to this cop. I said, I can't believe it. I

don't know what's going on.

And the cop's just talking to me and he's asking me about my sobriety. And

like, look, man, I haven't done anything in five and a half years.

And, you know, I don't know how, why or what happened.

They let me go.

As Dahlia drives him home that night, Mike realizes she's the only person who

knew they'd be at the mall.

And that was the very first time Mike's kind of antenna went up, and he looked

at Dahlia, and he asked her, did you plant these drugs?

Did you have anything to do with it?

And her reaction?

Bam.

Pedal to the metal, 100 -plus miles an hour down the interstate. How dare you?

How dare you accuse me of that?

And I'm like, fine, fine, just stop, just stop. I thought you were going to

us.

Next on American Greed, Dahlia puts her dirty fingers to work.

Double X -rated, if that's even a rating. They were very, very steamy text

messages.

And lures another man into her devious scheme.

He strikes me as a very lonely guy.

On the day of his wife's arrest, Mike DiPolito tells police the reason he

his wife has been plotting against him.

Nobody knew we were there. Nobody had access to my vehicle. What was the

motivation to do that?

You're on probation.

At that point, yes.

And at that point, she already had stolen a hundred and some thousand

from me.

And so now I'm out a hundred thousand dollars and she got me involved in

scheme.

to where I lost another $90 ,000 or another $100 ,000 trying to, you know.

Basically, I lost $240 ,000 with this girl.

After handing over $100 ,000, Mike DiPolito says that because of his wife,

loses nearly $140 ,000 more.

It was like the worst kind of comedy. It was like, who's on first? What's going

on? Where's my money?

Still, Mike has more that Dahlia wants.

And she needs to make sure he doesn't kick her to the curb.

To buy time, she comes to him with news.

She's pregnant.

You know, she went as far as to be taking prenatal vitamins and reading

books with me and picking baby names.

She was, A, buying time, B, diverting his attention

from the fact that she was embezzling all his money, and C...

Getting his sympathy, she knew what she was doing. She was evil.

Whatever her motivation, Dahlia can only maintain her pregnancy story for so

long. Any day, he's going to figure out that that's a lie, too. So she's really

backed into a corner.

With the clock ticking, Dahlia turns to a third lover for help, Mike Stanley,

the man she once lived with in California.

Not having spoken to Stanley for months, Dahlia begins to send him text

messages.

She knew the right buttons to press.

She knew the right things to say.

And it's a couple of text messages.

She'd set the hook and reel him right back in again. It was almost like magic.

Before long, they're reunited.

And Dahlia and Stanley text about having her husband's probation violated.

And planting drugs in his car.

She also recruits him to play a role in her scheme.

She tells Mike Stanley that

She needs him to play a fake lawyer and to call Mike DiPolito and give him legal

advice.

The advice DiPolito receives?

To get off probation, he needs to move his townhouse solely into his wife's

name. Mike DiPolito's sitting there saying, well, you know, there's a lawyer

here. This is the advice.

God, I'm going to get off probation.

All right, let's do it. And sure enough, they get in the car and they travel to

the title company and they transfer the house out of Mike's name and solely into

Dahlia's name. On paper, she thinks she owns that property.

But the reality was Florida is a 50 -50 mutual

property state. In other words, it doesn't matter.

whose name is on the deed, the only way she could have become the sole owner of

that condominium is if he wound up dead.

And so, at the end of July, Dahlia meets her old lover, Mohamed Shehadeh, at a

gas station near the interstate in Boynton Beach.

He says that during their meeting, she asks him about a hitman.

and then tries to steal a gun he has in his car.

I didn't know if she was going to do something with the guns or if she was

to give them to somebody to do something for them. So the first thing I thought

was my defense.

You know, obviously they're registered to me. They're in my name.

They're legally held in me.

You know, when your guns are gone missing, whatever happens to those guns

on your liability. So I did what I could to protect myself.

I swear.

On July 31st, 2009, Mohammed goes to the Boynton Beach Police Department to talk

about his stolen weapon.

First, she grabbed my gun out of my glove compartment. I went inside to grab

Red Bull and pack of cigarettes.

I came back. I put my wallet back in the glove compartment.

Didn't see my gun.

Seen a purse next to her. I opened her purse.

I seen my gun in her purse.

I took the gun out of the purse, put it back in the glove compartment.

I got really mad. I told her to get the hell out of the car.

But that's not all he has to say.

She asked if I knew someone who can kill her husband for her.

I said, basically, no, I don't.

And when did she ask you that?

Yesterday. Yesterday?

Okay.

Are you scared for the guy?

Yes.

Next on American Greed.

Police draw Dahlia to a well -constructed crime scene.

But there's something they aren't telling her. I just think it's

murder porn with a twist. And the twist is, there's no murder.

It's the day after Mohammed Shahadeh first

ratted out his lover to the cops.

Now he's working for them.

Are you good to go? Yeah, I'm good to go. All right.

At their request, he's told Dalia DiPolito that he can get her a hitman.

And they're watching as Dalia gets in his car.

She has no idea Mohammed is wearing a recorder, and that he's even told police

that with her, they shouldn't hide it in his pants.

You know, when you meet somebody in the car, in the parking lot, you know, stuff

happens, so pants was the wrong place to put it.

Mohammed's concerns prove unfounded.

The only business they get down to is discussing a hitman, working out an

initial down payment for his deadly services.

To make sure the job gets done, she gives Mohammed a

picture of her home and two photos of the man she wants dead.

As she plots her husband's death, Dahlia hardly seems worried about getting

caught.

And

with

that, she hands over the cash.

As soon as she hands him money, done deal.

They could have swooped in and made a bust right there.

They didn't. This story is just beginning to play itself out.

After having Mohammed make an intro, cops are watching two days later as

goes to meet the so -called hitman, who's actually an undercover police

Even though the consequences of this meeting are dire, Dahlia bats her

as though she's meeting a new escort client.

Dahlia listens intently as he explains what he has planned.

She likes what she hears.

So they discuss a fair price, and she gives him directions to the love nest

shares with Mike.

As they make plans, Dahlia agrees to clear out at the appointed time.

And Dahlia let this supposed murderer know just how certain she is.

Dahlia is 5 ,000 % sure.

And so, on the morning of August 5th, as she prepares to leave her house, It

seems that a slight worry may be crossing her mind.

Just not for the husband who she thinks will soon be dead.

At the end of the day, she doesn't know this hitman from Adam, and she doesn't

want him taking her assets, taking her jewelry. She leaves and she goes to the

gym. She had over $30 ,000 worth of jewelry in her expensive

Prada bag.

Dahlia DiPolito is a horrible person, right to the core. All you have to look

is the fact that she cleared out the house of all the valuables on the very

of this intended hit to make sure that no matter what, she got hers.

When Dahlia heads to the gym, cops clear Mike out of his home and get to work

constructing the perfect scene for their big reveal.

The entire street is blocked off. There's police cars everywhere.

There's crime scene tape.

They had one guy stationed at the door looking like he was lifting prints. You

know, they had everything in place. They had cameras going.

And there was no murder. It was just all to see her reactions. And they really

wanted to make her believe that Mike DiPolito was dead.

I'm Sergeant Ramsey. I'm the one that called you. Thank you for coming. I'm

sorry to call you. Listen, we had a report of a disturbance at your house,

there were shots fired.

Is your husband Michael?

Okay, I'm sorry to tell you, ma 'am, he's been killed.

He's been killed, ma 'am.

Generally, that kind of shocking news that is given to somebody, it takes a

for it to register.

But before he said the word killed.

She's already crying. Okay, I'm sorry to tell you, ma 'am, he's been killed.

The tape is a wondrous thing to behold.

She thinks she's zooming them.

They know that they're zooming her.

We're going to do everything we can, okay?

So we need your help. And everything is just all coming together into this

dramatic moment where she falls apart in this false grief.

And then it's just pure histrionics from then out all the way through.

Next on American Greed, the cops have a surprise for Danyam.

There's no more games with you and I.

Now we're going to get down to serious business.

I want to know if you know this guy.

Come here.

Bring this guy in here.

This investigation has been going on since Friday night.

Fortunately, you know, we ended up getting ourselves involved in, you know,

preventing this from happening to you.

You say it doesn't surprise you at all, huh? No.

It's like a bad movie, you know.

On August 5th, 2009, Boynton Beach police are talking to both Mike DiPolito

his wife Dahlia, who doesn't yet know what she's stepped into.

And seems more than confident that she can find a way out.

Dolly is sitting there thinking, they don't have anything on me.

They don't know.

Are you sure that you don't know anybody who would want to kill your husband?

You would want to kill him.

Not at all.

But she has no idea the evidence that law enforcement had until they start to

unfold that evidence piece by piece.

I want to know if you know this guy.

Come here.

Put this guy in here.

This guy is the undercover cop whose car Dahlia sat in just days ago, saying she

was 5 ,000 % sure she wanted him to kill her husband.

You know who this guy is?

No. You've never seen him before?

I've never seen him before, ever. Do you know her?

Put your head up and look at her. Put your head up.

I've never seen him.

What were you doing coming out of her house?

He's not here.

You're going to jail today for solicitation of murder. You're under

That's an undercover police officer.

What do you want to do?

What do you want to do here? I didn't do anything.

Listen to me. I didn't do anything.

You're going to jail.

Tell me you didn't do anything.

I didn't do anything.

You're going to jail today.

Police have Dahlia dead to rights.

And after putting her in cuffs, they have another surprise.

The husband she wanted dead survived her best efforts.

And they walk him by her open door.

Come here.

As she leaves the police station, charged with a

single count of solicitation to commit first -degree murder,

Dahlia declares her innocence before an already gathering media frenzy.

She continues to make the claim from behind bars that same day, placing an

unexpected call to her husband.

Amazingly, after trying to have him killed, she wants him to help her hire a

lawyer and tries to convince him that this is all one big misunderstanding.

how you're going to actually have the nerve to sit here and lie to me now.

I don't understand.

Like, I heard you say it, Dahlia. I saw your mouth do it.

Okay?

I can't help you even if I wanted to. Do you get it? Why don't you want to?

It's out of my hands. You're not even trying.

It's different if you're trying. You're not even trying. What could I possibly

do for you?

I don't get it. What could I do?

You're not even trying.

As she again attempts to manipulate him, Mike makes his wife an offer.

While she's locked up, he'll look after her mother if she gives him back his

townhouse.

Next on American Greed, a questionable decision by police officers.

It just boggles my mind that they allowed the cop show to be part of this.

Will it give Dahlia a shot at freedom?

This is a case about a rogue police department.

Okay, I'm sorry to tell you, ma 'am, he's been killed.

He's been killed, ma 'am.

If the saga of Dahlia DiPolito seems too good to be true...

Some observers say there's a reason why.

You couldn't have handed the media a better story. It has sex.

It has a murder plot.

It has a femme fatale.

It really has all the elements for good TV.

Why? Because it was good TV.

They put on an amazing show.

As the sting was ramping up, The Boynton Beach Police Department invited the

show Cops to film the final hours of their operation.

You need to come with me to the police station. You're not in trouble.

Your wife has hired a person to kill you.

In the years ahead, the department's decision will come back to haunt them.

I just, it just boggles my mind that they allowed the cop show to be part

of this. Essentially, what they were doing was...

Setting up her original defense, the reality show defense.

When Jalya goes to trial in 2011, her lawyers try to say she's not a criminal.

She's the victim of her husband's desire for fame.

The evidence will show that the plot for the contract killing of Mike DiBellito.

was never real.

It was a stunt.

It was a hoax, a ruse, a plan that Mike DiPolito, whether he'll admit it or not,

hoped to capture the attention of someone in reality TV.

Mike's take on this?

The silliest thing I've ever heard.

I mean, completely made up. And to walk in that courtroom and to make that

accusation and to not back it up at all,

you know, is even sillier.

Mike DiPolito, however, had other ideas.

And the result has been devastating to Dahlia DiPolito.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Parker calls Mike as the first witness.

I thought we had a good marriage.

We had some issues.

She also presents the many texts in which Dahlia and her lover Mike Stanley

plotted against her husband.

She speaks to him for eight minutes. And during that phone call, she gets a text

from her husband, Mike DiBellito.

And she texts Mike DiBellito back while she's still on the phone with Mike

Stanley. And she says, love you.

And she lets the undercover police videos speak for themselves.

By the time you get back from the gym, you're going to find two things. Dead

body in the house, all right, or nothing.

All right.

After a two -week trial, the jury takes less than three hours to decide Dahlia's

fate. That's account one. We find the defendant guilty of solicitation to

parts -degree murder.

DiPolito returns to court the next month for sentencing.

I'll find you guilty, I'll adjudicate you guilty, and I'm sentencing you to 20

years in the Department of Corrections. I think that I'm sorry, it's my fault, I

did it, would have gone a long way.

Dahlia once said she's 5 ,000 % sure she wanted her husband dead.

And when he leaves the courtroom, he voices his opinion.

I wish we were never here. And as far as the sentence, I'm 5 ,000 % happy with

it. That's all for now.

But that's not all for Dahlia. Okay, and at what point in time during this

questioning did Sergeant Sheridan finally tell you about my address?

At the end.

In 2014, she's granted a new trial on appeal and begins preparations with a

team of attorneys.

Are you aware whether Cops was filming the staged crime scene?

Yes, Cops was filming the staged crime scene.

This time around, her lawyers still argue Dahlia was set up for a shot at

reality TV fame.

Just not by Mike. They argue that the Boynton Beach, Florida Police Department

overstepped its authority by creating this fake crime scene and producing a

video, a video that they say was good television, all created, they say,

for the reality TV show Cops.

When the second trial begins in late 2016, seven years after Dahlia's arrest,

America is undergoing a major societal shift.

Michelle Quesada covers the proceedings for WPTV in West Palm Beach.

It was great timing for her defense team.

You need to pay attention in this case to the conduct of the Boynton Beach

Police Department.

There was so much animosity between society and police officers in so many

cities across the country, and they used this.

and were able to make the argument, well, this was a rogue police

This purported investigation had zero, zero integrity, none.

Boynton Beach police declined offers to be interviewed by American Greed, but

say they have always stood by the principled work of their detectives in

case. For Dahlia's defense team, however, attacking the police department

winning strategy.

On the record at this time, I'm now declaring this case mistried by virtue

the fact that the jury cannot reach unanimous verdict.

Even though Dahlia and her lawyer celebrate, six months later, the case

a jury for a third time.

We, the jury, find as follows. As to count one, we find the defendant guilty

solicitation to commit first -degree murder as charged in the information.

Once again found guilty at sentencing.

Her attorneys reveal that during years of home detention, Dahlia's become a

mother.

It's a fact that in the end gains her little sympathy from the judge.

It's my job to pass sentence, and that's what I'm doing. So it's 16 years with

credit for 163 days time served.

Dahlia did not respond to a request from American Greed for comment.

Her days as a vicious vixen now behind her.

She has plenty of time to think about the scheming and plotting that got her

here.

While she continues to appeal her case, many are left to wonder how this insane

tale of love, lies, and lust could really be true.

Hey, it's Florida.

It really does boil down to that. It's Florida.

The cruel Internet fraud leaves a trail of broken parts and empty wallets. Every

day they're out there trolling the Internet looking for unsuspecting

American Greed, coming up next.

CNBC, get yours.

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