All language subtitles for American Greed s13e07 The Fake Princes Royal Scam

In this episode of American Greed.

On an exclusive island, word spreads
about a new arrival.

Oh, there's like your highness or his
highness.

A Saudi prince has blessed Miami with
his presence.

He talked the part, he dressed the part,
he drove the part.

With a massive oil IPO looming.

His Highness brings in more than $8
million by promising investors a share

his unfathomable wealth. The idea that
there was a Saudi prince in Miami, it

whet the appetite of very many people.

But despite the bling he shows off on
Instagram... You know what it is?

You know what it is?

It turns out that this Saudi prince is
just a... King of cons.

He looked like an overweight Hispanic
guy from South America.

It just looked preposterous.

Preposterous. So who is this royal
scammer?

And how does he pull off his princely
scheme?

There could be any number of reasons why
people find him to be credible. But

they do.

And they do it again and again. It's
really quite a job.

Just off the causeway connecting
downtown Miami to Miami Beach, there's a

driveway few have ever seen.

Here, cars board a ferry that crosses a
narrow channel to an ultra -exclusive

enclave called Fisher Island.

Forget 90210.

Fisher Island has an average salary of
$669 ,000 a year.

Making 33109 America's richest zip code.

You've got Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey,
you name it, they've got residents

And you have to take a ferry to get
there. And they leave on the half hour,

there's a sense of exclusivity.

In March 2017, a man in his late 40s
takes the keys to his new penthouse home

the island.

When he does, he signs the papers as
Khalid bin Sultan Al Saud.

He shares a last name with members of
Saudi Arabia's ruling family.

And to those who catch a glimpse, he
looks the part.

He's got the, you know...

Rolexes, he's got the elaborate jewelry,
the Cartier bracelet.

He had all the high -end luxury
vehicles, Bentleys, Ferraris, Rolls

When he hits the streets, the prince is
accompanied by a bodyguard with a badge

that reads Diplomatic Security Service.

And his cars are adorned with diplomatic
plates.

Among those the prince meets in Miami is
Hall of Fame sportscaster Leslie

Bisser. He would dress in the flowing
linen, always looked like the latest. He

wore the latest Gucci fur slippers,
which I had to go home and Google. I

I'd never seen anything like that.

And, of course, he had that ridiculous
necklace for Foxy, which was diamond

-encrusted like, you know, Elizabeth
Taylor used to wear.

Though Visser has spent her life around
the good and the great, the prince

impresses her with various stories about
his royal upbringing and deep pockets.

I remember once my husband Bob asked him
which one of the king's wives was his

mother, and he said, oh, the good one.

And he just didn't doubt him. You know,
he talked the part, he dressed the part,

he drove the part.

So we said, wow, that's really
interesting.

Soon, Fisher Island's residents are
whispering about the enclave's newest

arrival.

Oh, there's like your highness or his
highness.

People from Fisher Island didn't know
how to respond, you know, and so he'd

one of... People in this group are like,
well, you know, you can just bow a

little bit. And, you know, he is a
prince after all. And people are like,

I guess I will do that.

The prince isn't just making his
presence known to his neighbors.

His Instagram is an ostentatious catalog
of his royal wealth.

You know what it is? We shut the pools
down so that a boss can slam in private.

Yeah, you know what it is?

Presidential suite.

Tell him, Toxie, what a new bathroom
looks like.

$300 ,000 bathroom.

For anyone considering doing business
with him, it's ready proof that he's a

who knows how to make big money.

Like at first glance, if you were
looking at it, you would just think, oh,

is another one of these just, I call
them peacocks, you know, who's just

off his life on Instagram.

You know, the beautiful life, you know,
the sweet life.

But the great thing about the Instagram
account is he loves his dog. And he has

this dog named Foxy.

And he treats Foxy like a queen.

Show them your new bed, Foxy.

57 Cadillac. Nice display.

Says spoiled.

But Foxy isn't the only royal pictured
here.

There are also photos of Saudi Arabia's
ruling family with captions like fam and

uncle. If this man, Prince Al -Waleed
bin Talal, truly is the prince's uncle,

he's not a bad relative to have.

According to a 2001 CNBC report, Al
-Waleed has an Airbus A340,

a Boeing 767,

and a 283 -foot yacht once owned by
Donald Trump.

Then there's his house.

Quaint it isn't. Its 317 rooms include
18 sitting rooms, 15

dining rooms, 10 bedrooms, 16 pantries,
and one dozen elevators. The

garage is big, too. It has to be to
accommodate the prince's hundreds of

There's the obligatory rolls.

And, of course, the Batmobile.

With a combined wealth in the trillions,
there are two things most Americans

know about the Saudi royal family.

One, they're rich beyond imagination.

And two, their money comes from oil.

For decades, the kingdom's wealth has
been intertwined with the Saudi Arabian

Oil Company, or Aramco.

We have no official evaluation of what
the company's worth because it's

privately held, but it's estimated to be
in the trillions.

We've talked about their IPO. In 2016,
word begins to spread that Aramco is

going public.

Plus, we'll bring you an update on the
timing for the world's largest ever IPO,

Saudi Aramco, a giant.

They knew comments out this morning from
the Saudi crown prince. He says the

Aramco IPO will still take place next
year. And the valuation of the company

could top $2 trillion.

It was definitely all over the news. And
people were trying to get in on the

preferred stock. People were trying to
angle to get as much stock as they

Following the announcement, the new
arrival on Fisher Island begins offering

investors a way to share in the wealth.

He's claiming that he owns a percentage
of Saudi Aramco.

And he tells people, I'm going to sell
you a percentage of my ownership in

Aramco. And then when it goes public,
you're going to make five times

the amount of your money.

With such a potential upside, there are
plenty of people willing to hear out

Miami's Saudi prince.

There's no shortage of U .S., British,
foreign investors and business folks

want to do business with the royal
family.

Who doesn't want to at least hear what a
person has to say that has all these

things at their disposal and is selling
a good deal to me.

Next on American Greed.

The prince's multimillion -dollar scheme
starts not in a Saudi oil field, but in

small -town Michigan.

He claimed that Dom DeLuise was his
father.

And so the lies just got bigger and
bigger and bigger as he grew up.

Whether it's on the hot streets of Miami
or somewhere else altogether,

it's hard to forget a first encounter
with the man who calls himself Prince

Khalid bin Al Saud.

I met him when I was sitting in a bar
there in Eaton Rapids.

Eaton Rapids is a very small town, and
it's rural country.

Here he walks in wearing a very long...

white fur coat and he has a haircut
that's kind of like a bowl over his head

and he's got a lot of bling on and he's
got long acrylic nails and he's

quite flamboyant and everybody in that
place just stopped and looked like oh my

god what do we have here and what they
have is not a saudi prince

It's a Colombian orphan named Anthony
Gignac.

Lisa Whitehead was once partners with
Gignac's adoptive mother, a Michigan

who's now deceased, named Nancy.

In 1977, Nancy and her then -husband
adopted Anthony and his brother from

Bogota, Colombia.

They brought them to live in a nice
middle -class home in Plymouth Township,

Michigan.

Gignac will later say his pre -adoption
days in Bogota were filled with

hardship. And Whitehead says Nancy tells
stories about Anthony and his brother

that backed this up.

I remember her saying that they would
eat and they would stuff food in their

mouth, like a chipmunk, and because
they...

had gotten used to not knowing when they
were going to get their next food.

So they could see things like that that
were kind of reminders that they had had

it pretty rough up until that point.

Having come from nothing, Gignac begins
at an early age to claim he's really

quite something.

In first grade, he tells a teacher his
family owns the fabulous Grand Mackinac

Hotel in northern Michigan.

The next year, he claims to be the son
of actor Dom DeLuise.

A mental health professional, Whitehead
says Gignac was obsessed with wealth.

I think that he's a perfect example of
what happens when you have early

childhood trauma.

He could figure out from his early life
in Colombia that if you have...

Money, you have power, and if you have
money and power, then you have safety

respect. And I think that he will do
what he needs to do in order to get it.

In the 1970s and 80s, few people in the
world better represented the nexus of

wealth and power than a businessman
named Adnan Khashoggi.

While Khashoggi got his start in
California, the real basis for his

in Saudi Arabia.

Serving as the president of the Triad
Holding Company, Khashoggi became a mega

-rich Saudi arms dealer and a deal
-maker.

Khashoggi, who has no diplomatic status,
does not have to go through customs.

His wealth is his free pass.

Officials of the Sudan were waiting to
meet him, as someone is waiting to meet

him everywhere he goes.

After all, Triad means a whole lot of
money, and people with a whole lot of

money get a whole lot of respect.

Khashoggi is a real -life walking,
talking episode of Lifestyles of the

Famous.

And in Michigan, a boy who once lived on
the streets of Columbia seems to take

notice.

In early 1988, police receive a report
that Gignac has been cruising around

Detroit in a limo, living it up on a
stolen credit card belonging to his

friend's father.

At the same time, Ann Arbor police also
learned Gignac's been pretending to be

someone he's not, a Saudi prince with a
familiar name.

He used the name Adnan Khashoggi, so it
was obvious he was reading and paying

attention to what was going on and
thought he could live that lifestyle.

why he chose the name, is what he said.

According to police reports, Gignac
scams a stay at a University of Michigan

fraternity house, claiming to be Prince
Khashoggi.

Sole heir to the Saudi throne.

People liked this idea. They wanted to
entertain the Saudi prince. It was

something that they felt like they could
get something out of it.

The scheme worked, at first.

But soon, records say, Western Union
calls a fraternity member asking if he

authorized a charge of $125 to someone
named Anthony Gignac.

He says he did not.

Then, reports say, the prince begins
enjoying himself a little too much, and

questions arise.

He was a Saudi and a devout Arab Muslim.

Why was he drinking? Why was he partying
like this?

And they weren't, maybe as he's letting
loose, but then again, is he really? So

that kind of made him even more
suspicious.

Eventually, Gignac is arrested, and
Judge Kirk Tabby, then a prosecutor,

to the budding criminal and notices a
glint in his eye.

He was very fascinated that he was able
to do this so easily.

It was as if he had found a way to
survive or a way to live that was so

to him, and he knew that he could get
things.

and flash it and show people, I can be
wealthy, I'm good at this.

He thought flaunting money and showing
all of that was the way to go for him.

And he's not about to stop.

He kind of devoted his whole life, since
his teen years, to just pretending to

be somebody else.

Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Why
does anybody pretend to be somebody

other than who they are?

I guess to run away from who they are.

After being released on bond in his Ann
Arbor case, Gignac flees to California.

There, he begins running a series of
royal scams that will come to define his

life.

Over the years, he poses as a variety of
Saudi princes to get what he wants, but

settles on the name Prince Khalid bin al
-Saud, using it in a series of

escalating frauds.

Really, his MO was to go into these
hotels, these fine hotels.

He would tell them he was a prince.

He would run up astronomical charge,
staying in the best rooms that they had.

He's ordering limos.

He's shopping at the finest places
around.

But whatever credit card he gave them
was either tapped out already on its

credit limit or it was a fraudulent
credit card.

And then eventually...

The cops are called.

That really was his game for a good 20
years.

Dubbed the Prince of Fraud by the L .A.
Times, Gignac develops a loud

confrontational style that seems to
work.

Nobody would really believe that if you
were faking this, you would come in and

draw that much attention to yourself and
scream and yell.

He was very audacious.

He was very bold and he was very
aggressive. Because it's so bold and

what you normally would expect a con man
to do, it's probably why it worked.

Gignac's con is good enough to overcome
some pretty obvious shortcomings.

He looked like an overweight Hispanic
guy from South America or Latin America.

It just looked preposterous.

Preposterous, because nobody looks like
this in the Saudi kingdom.

I mean, was he swarthy? Was he darker
skin?

Yes. But did he have that appearance,
you know, of being from Saudi Arabia?

Absolutely not.

So why then do so many people fall for
Gignac's princely con?

Perhaps there's an incentive to believe
him if someone believes they're going to

get something out of it.

Or a fascination with royalty. There
could be any number of reasons why

people... find him to be credible, but
they do.

And they do it again and again. It's
really quite astounding.

Next on American Greed, an exclusive
tape shows Anthony Gignac spending a

-million dollar lie.

When I get out, you know, I'm going to
buy another Ferrari.

Yeah, you are.

And you're going to go into another
Neiman Marcus. No.

Yes, you are.

You might go to the back.

In December 2002, Anthony Gignac is
fresh out of jail from a princely scheme

Florida when he decides to go shopping.

Once again posing as Prince Khalid bin
Al Saud, he takes a trip to a mall

outside Troy, Michigan.

Here, he visits a Saks Fifth Avenue and
a Neiman Marcus where he is caught on a

store security camera.

Gignac will later admit he charges more
than $13 ,000 to an account at Neiman

Marcus belonging to a real Saudi prince
named Khalid.

That was something I was never able to
figure out, how he was able to acquire

the number, whether it was force of
personality. The reports in our case

indicated that he had a passport of some
sort identifying himself as Khalid bin

Al Thad. I never saw the passport. It
was never recovered by the police.

So it was a little bit mystifying for me
how he was able to do it.

Eventually, Neiman Marcus' employees
become suspicious and decide to call

corporate headquarters.

The chief fraud investigator basically
said, you know, that's Anthony Gignac.

knew immediately that it was Gignac and
what the scam was. And he was on a

minute call to police, get this guy
arrested. He's Anthony Gignac. It's not

prince.

On January 3rd, 2003, Gignac returns to
the mall and is fitted for handcuffs.

A few months later, he sits in an
interrogation room across from Jerry

then a prosecutor in Oakland County,
Michigan.

In this exclusive video, the so -called
prince claims that this is no scam.

He says he actually knows the Saudis.

And what he's done, he's done with their
approval.

Gignac boldly says the relationship
began after he had a homosexual

with the real Saudi prince.

He claims the family has been supporting
him ever since to buy his silence.

They found out that I was having a
homosexual affair with them, they cut

heads off. Yeah, well.

Or storm or throw them off a building.

No, it depends on if there's some... No,
the Sharia says...

Means

if you see me in the practice of
homosexuality, throw them from the

building or the highest wall or have a
wall fall upon them.

Gignac claims the Saudis created a hush
money trust fund worth millions for him

and says there are other perks too,
including the ability to run up charges

certain luxury store.

Why

did he

have to tell you you can do this if you
have this trust fund with all this

money?

Gignac has official -looking legal
documents attesting to the existence of

trust fund. But federal prosecutors will
later say he uses papers like these to

further his fraud.

And Gleason isn't buying the former
orphan's story.

I've also dealt with the princes and the
royal family's lawyers in Washington.

I know that there is no trust fund. I
know that there's been no negotiations.

During their chat, Gleason and Gignac
begin to discuss next steps and what a

trial might look like.

Realistically, you're going to try and
portray me that I'm a huge con man and

that you want to use all my criminal
history.

But you are a huge con man.

You are a huge con man. You are a huge
con man. You're doing well, okay?

I know it's a Gleason, but let me say, I
want a deal.

He gets one.

In May 2004, Gignac pleads guilty to six
counts of using the real Prince's

Neiman Marcus account without his
permission.

A judge sentences him to spend between
34 months and 15 years in state prison.

But his troubles are just beginning.

Back when he was first arrested in Troy,
court records say Gignac made some very

bold statements about his status as a
prince living in America.

He claimed that he had diplomatic
immunity and he was immune from

As a result of that claim, the Troy
Police Department contacted federal

authorities and the State Department
sent this agent to go and investigate.

According to a memo provided to American
Greed, A State Department Diplomatic

Security Service agent interviews Gignac
and hears the same story about his

alleged royal love affair and so -called
trust fund.

When the feds begin an investigation, an
assistant to the Saudi ambassador tells

them that Gignac was not a member of the
royal family nor associated in any way

with the Saudi royal family.

I believe that what turned out to be
true is that his name was Anthony

After serving 20 months on the state
charges from the Troy incident, Gignac

pleads guilty in federal court to a
count of impersonating a foreign

and another count of attempted bank
fraud related to a scheme he tried while

locked up.

But this is not the last time
authorities will hear from Prince

Next on American Greed.

After a lifetime of schemes, Anthony
Gignac launches his most ambitious

yet. All you got to do is give me X
amount of money and I'll triple it for

in no time. And that's the game. That's
the end game there.

After serving state and federal time on
charges related to the incident at the

mall in Troy, Michigan, Anthony Gignac
is a free man.

According to the government, shortly
after his release in March 2015, his

highness gets right back to business.

And he's no longer content with the
minor scores of his past.

He's running all these petty scams, $10
,000, $15 ,000, $20 ,000.

And when he gets to Miami, he takes a
giant jump.

Now we're talking millions and millions
and millions of dollars.

This was the end -all, be -all, to go
after this as aggressively and as quick

he could to defraud as many people and
innocent victims as possible.

As he gets his operation going, Gignac
seems to have learned an important

from his past royal schemes.

Anthony Gignac was smart enough to
realize that if he was too accessible,

couldn't possibly be a Saudi prince.

And how he protects that is by limiting
his interaction with his victims.

Some people never even physically met
him, but they talked to him on the phone

or texted with him.

Obviously, it seems to lend credence to
his image that I'm someone important, I

have people to do things for me, but
it's also just so that he doesn't get

called out on things that he doesn't
know anything about.

If he is going to hang in the shadows,
Gignac needs others to help him make

connections and talk up the prince.

Soon after his release in 2015, he uses
LinkedIn to connect with an Englishman

living in North Carolina named Carl
Martin Williamson.

It's kind of unclear on who contacted
who first, but somewhere along there,

they eventually figure out together.

that they're going to do this con.

In late 2015, Williamson travels to
London, where he meets with a well

-established investment banker.

Williamson says he's working for a Saudi
prince and claims they're looking for a

project in which His Highness can
invest.

After being shown bank documents and a
Saudi family tree,

The English banker says she agrees to
help the prince find projects seeking

capital. It is the most incredible part
of the story because if he doesn't con

this UK investment banker, then he

doesn't get anything else from this
point on.

Anthony Gignac now really starts to see
that he can make as much money as he

possibly wants.

The banker in England is never charged
with any wrongdoing and says she was

duped. Along with Williamson, she brings
in business people from around the

world who are led to believe the prince
is going to invest his fortune in their

projects.

And Mr. Gignac would read the Wall
Street Journal every single day when he

in prison.

So he was familiar with business
practices. He knew what buttons to push

successful businessmen and women.

And he was able to sell that image in
persona after 20 or 30 years of

people throughout the world.

Though they think they found an angel
investor, the prince's money for their

project never comes through.

He does, however, offer to let them in
on something even more lucrative.

Because of our relationship, because I
trust you now with this, you know, back

and forth that may or may not work out,
I'm willing to cut you in on this other

thing. All you got to do is give me.

X amount of money, and I'll triple it
for you in no time. And that's the game.

That's the end game there.

At first, Gignac pitches investment in a
fuel trading platform promising 14 .5

% returns.

Then there's his scheme offering pre
-IPO shares of Saudi Aramco.

The idea that you could buy a good
portion of that company, which is valued

$2 trillion at a discounted rate.

An outstanding return of investment is
something that lured a lot of people to

Mr. Gignac.

If it seems too good to be true, Gignac
has plenty of answers and even forms of

proof. He did have documents, and it was
more than just throwaway documents that

you can just get on the street, right?

He knew the names of...

attorneys and firms, and he knew what he
needed to put on these documents to

give them credibility, and he would just
fabricate them completely.

By 2017, Gignac is living on Fisher
Island, having fully assumed the role

been playing all his adult life.

He would wear Saudi clothing.

He would wear a thobe, which is white.

cloth that goes from the neck down to
the feet. He would also wear the

headdress, which is a smog or a
keffiyeh. There's different variations

He's got diplomatic license plate and
he's driving openly, right? Like he's

just hiding it like only when it's
parked, like he is leaving the island

these tags on.

He was just so out in the open with his
scheme, with his fraud, that people are

like, this has to be real.

Gignac plays the part of a prince to a
tea, down to the way he treats his lowly

servants.

He wasn't a benevolent monarch, for lack
of a better term, right? Like, he was

rude to everyone he was with. He was
kind of very short, almost insulting of

people that were in his own circle. And
because to him, that's what he thought

he should do.

But the ultimate prop in his scheme is
his condo on Fisher Island.

After hiding behind the curtain for
months, he shows the place off to his

investors and on occasion lets visitors
catch a glimpse of his incredible

wealth. Anthony Gigna clearly saw this
as an address that he could use to

give the impression that he was of this
world, that he moved in this world, and

he did a pretty good job of it.

He's got the DSS security agents with
their badges. He's got the fleet of

He's got the lush penthouse overlooking
the water on the exclusive island in

Miami. It's the sultan outside the door.

He kind of has everything you would
expect. So why wouldn't this be true?

With his scheme firmly established,
Gignac hooks in more than 20 victims,

getting them to invest over $8 million.

But none of it goes to Aramco or
anything else he's promised.

He was paying some initial investors
back from investors later on.

But through all of it, he was using the
money to live this life.

Next on American Greed, Anthony Gignac
makes his biggest bet yet.

His honor has been hurt.

But you guys can make it up to him. You
have to go and apologize, and you need

to get him a gift, and the gift has to
be at least $50 ,000.

In Miami Beach, nothing shouts classic
luxury like the Fountain Blue.

For decades, it was the It Hotel.

And then...

It got long in the tooth like a lot of
Miami Beach.

According to former federal prosecutor
Trinity Jordan, after spending hundreds

of millions of dollars on renovations,
the hotel's owners go looking for an

infusion of capital.

It was just kind of whispered amongst
the investment community that they were

looking for someone to purchase 20 to 30
percent ownership in the Fountain Blue.

And so that kind of made its way to.

Anthony Gignac, investment banker in the
UK, she heard about the opportunity,

told Anthony Gignac, and he instructed
her then to make contact with the

Fountain Blue Hotel and let her get in
on that.

Leading the negotiation on the hotel
side is Jeffrey Sofer, a billionaire

estate developer once married to
supermodel Elle McPherson.

Before long...

The prince has Sofer believing he's
ready to make a major investment.

He makes an offer of $400 million to
purchase 30 % of the Fountain Blue

Hotel, which they immediately accept.

To sell the lie, His Highness brings a
hotel representative to Fisher Island,

showing off his garage full of exotic
cars and a document that proves...

He has the means to complete the deal.
He's got this letter from the Bank of

Dubai that he's got $600 million in some
sort of sovereign fund, readily

available to invest in a property like
the hotel.

At one point, however, the hotel team
begins to ask questions about who

really dealing with.

And when Gignac gets word, he doesn't
back down.

He doubles down.

Pretending his honor has been insulted,
he sends his London investment banker to

talk to hotel representatives.

It's been represented to Stouffer during
this period that the Saudi prince

doesn't appreciate the skepticism, that
there's been some doubts about his

credibility and about who he is, and
he'd really appreciate a gift. Then the

gift has to be at least $50 ,000.

So they go and buy him a Cartier
bracelet.

for $50 ,000 and present it to him and
apologize.

And so now the deal's back on.

Of course, the prince doesn't have the
money to buy a hotel.

So while the deal might be back on, it
never goes anywhere.

He had no intention of actually putting
any money into it because he was always

in the business of doing the opposite,
trying to get people to give him money

invest in things that really were
complete.

He was always trying to get people to
invest in his business opportunities,

business deals. That was always his M
.O.

If that's what he intends with Sofer, he
never gets the chance to set the hook.

His newest mark is starting to get wise.

And one of the things that sort of
stands out is his eating habits.

He's supposed to be, you know, a Saudi
prince. He's supposed to be, you know, a

believer in Islam, a Muslim faith.

And he's wolfing down all this bacon and
pork product.

There were so many things that they're
like, is he really a good Muslim? Is he

really a good member of the Saudi royal
family?

As questions arise, a professional
security firm is hired to look into the

prince. And it doesn't take them long to
reach a conclusion.

This guy is not the prince. This guy is
Anthony Gignac.

And he just got out of federal prison
about three years ago.

To Sofer's credit, he did figure it out
where others hadn't. It didn't cost him

anything more than just a Cartier
bracelet.

After making their discovery, the P .I.
brings what he's learned to the feds.

Investigators from the State
Department's Diplomatic Security Service

digging. And it becomes apparent that
Gignac has once again been committing

federal crime of impersonating a
diplomat.

But they wonder, how is he doing it in
such style?

We knew who we had, but as far as what
questions we had is, what's the end

What is he trying to do?

And then when we started to peel the
layers back a little bit, we saw this

significant financial piece.

Didn't get any less crazy along the way.

Next on American Greed, from prince to
pauper, the weight of the prince's con

becomes evident.

Mr. Gignac preyed on individuals from
all walks of life.

Everybody was prey.

Everybody was fair game.

Unaware he's the target of a federal
investigation, in the fall of 2017,

Gignac takes an overseas business trip
using someone else's passport.

Once he sets foot back on American soil,
a team of agents from the Diplomatic

Security Service moves in on his Fisher
Island home, and Agent Azaz Tareen is

waiting for him at JFK Airports in New
York.

Right off the bat.

He's just spouting all these conspiracy
theories, playing the prince thing. I'm

like, you know, I'm from Saudi Arabia.
And then where's my dog? Like, what are

you doing with my dog? Where's Foxy? So
I put him on speaker.

I had an agent with his dog, Foxy. I was
like, is Foxy okay?

Yes, Foxy's okay. And immediately just
waterworks, uncontrollably crying,

shaking, freaking out.

Once agents seize Gignac's belongings
and begin to discover business

the case quickly shifts.

It was a no -brainer that we were going
to transition from an aggravated

identity theft case and passport fraud
impersonation of a diplomat to a larger

financial investigation that involved
money and bank accounts and assets

throughout the world.

I mean, we followed the money. That's
what part of the core of the

was. We were following them. Where is
this money coming from? How is he

affording all this stuff?

And it was pretty easy to figure out
that it wasn't coming from legitimate

means.

As their investigation unfolds, agents
uncover Gignac's multimillion -dollar

investment scheme and realize how far
-reaching it is.

Mr. Gignac preyed on individuals from
all walks of life.

Everybody was prey.

Everybody was fair game.

He's not just scamming billionaires and
large companies, but he's also scamming,

you know, salt of the earth people that
are not billionaires.

A few weeks after Gignac's arrest, the
feds get word about his alleged co

-conspirator, Carl Williamson, the man
he met on LinkedIn who helped introduce

him to investors worldwide.

He left a suicide note.

He didn't admit his role. He admitted
that he was going to go to prison.

And he told his family that if he had to
go to prison and be away from them,

that he'd rather just, you know, not be
around.

Following Williamson's death,
prosecutors dismissed charges against

Then in March 2019,

Anthony Gignac pleads guilty to
impersonating a foreign diplomat,

identity theft, wire fraud, and
conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Two months later, he is sentenced to
more than 18 years in federal prison.

Gignac did not respond to American
Greed's requests for comment.

Despite the craziness of his story,
those who've come face to face with

Gignac say his criminality and greed are
nothing to be scoffed at.

For a while I thought, well, the poor
thing, he must be really mentally ill.

But when he was deemed competent to
stand trial, that meant he knew what he

doing.

He's a con man.

Period. For every one truth he tells,
it's backed up by multiple lies.

This isn't a celebrity fraudster.

He's a predator.

He is preying on people in any way that
he possibly can.

It wouldn't shock me if he was in
prison.

telling people he was a prince right
now.