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In this episode of American Greed, it had all the makings of a red carpet

romance. She's an outspoken activist and TV star.

He's an Oscar winning artist and all around renaissance man.

Oxford. Baby seal.

Smart.

Handsome. But this is one rom -com with a true crime twist.

He's a pro.

He's a con artist.

And he's dangerous.

From Florida to Texas to Hollywood, Antonio Wilson has a cross -country rap

sheet going back decades.

He's stolen more than $4 million by breaking hearts, smashing dreams, and

swindling businessmen and women with outrageous lies.

He brought in a lot of money on the basis that he was a successful sound

designer, that he had won three Oscars.

Everything seemed legit until it wasn't. But it all boiled down to lies, lies,

lies. Give me your money, here's some lies.

American Greed has shocking new details in the torrid tale of this master in the

art of deception.

Crime does pay. That's what you're saying.

a .k .a. Tony Marriott, a .k .a. Bryce Carrington. He had a million names.

Antonio with the right woman is what he did. She brought down the wrath.

I'm sure Tony was confident. I would never tell.

It would be a scandal.

Wrong girl.

Actress, singer, and social activist Jennifer Lewis has spent decades on the

Broadway stage and starred in dozens of movies.

And in 2015, Lewis is on top of her game when she earns a co -starring role as

savagely funny Ruthie Johnson on the TV series Black -ish.

Just got black -ish and boom.

I said, oh, God sent the man.

The man is Antonio, Tony Marriott Wilson, a manager and personal trainer

L .A. Fitness, where Lewis escapes from her hectic schedule for a quick workout.

Lewis isn't looking for a boyfriend, but one fine spring day, love is in the

air. So he bumped into me as I was exiting the gym, and it happened to be

happy day. So when he did, I smiled and said, excuse me, and he smiled back.

He complimented my hair, and I kind of flirted with him. He flirted with me,

we met for coffee.

Lewis now believed the bump was a ruse, but at the time, it seemed like a

harmless one.

She's flattered and charmed.

He said he had graduated from Oxford University.

He'd been a Navy SEAL. His mother had passed away. He had two children and was

divorced. Lewis is impressed.

Well, he was beautiful.

He was handsome, well -spoken. He was educated. I mean, what woman

wouldn't, you know, sit up when someone says they graduated from Oxford?

Intriguingly, despite Lewis's long career and high visibility in Black

Tony Wilson also says he's unfamiliar with Lewis's work on stage and screen.

Is his professed ignorance a power move?

When he said he didn't know me as an actress, I believed him in that he was

England. Within weeks, Wilson sweeps Jennifer Lewis off her feet.

She finds her personal and now exclusive trainer is a bona fide Renaissance man,

a real -life Indiana Jones.

Yes, the former Navy SEAL is an Oxford grad, but he's also an author.

Theology professor at UCLA.

Biblical studies.

Archaeologist.

By all appearances, Tony Wilson is a catch.

According to Lewis, Wilson is deeply religious, and his claims are credible.

He shows her his writings, and when she checks online, his books are available

on Amazon.

Nothing about him made me not think he hadn't graduated from Oxford.

A good visual doesn't hurt either, as Jennifer finds when she opens the door

day to find Tony in full military garb, replete with the Navy SEALs' trident to

wow his famous girlfriend.

He wore his uniform here and said he had just trained some young

Navy SEALs. He brought medals to my house and said, this is the one Clinton

pinned on me after a special task force.

And to top it all off, turns out they're both in the movie business.

He says he's a motion picture sound designer for blockbuster films like

Park and King Kong.

What's not to believe?

He seems to know his way around Hollywood as well as Jennifer.

We would be driving near a studio, and he would say things like, that's the

building that we worked on with Jurassic Park.

But his real passion isn't fame, he tells Jennifer. It's fortune. He's a

in the making.

With all his industry know -how, he's created a specialized sound effects

company, Ultimate FX.

And he says he already has multi -million dollar prospects in the works

blue -chip clients like ABC and EA Sports.

Ultimate FX is ready to launch into the stratosphere.

He just needs to find the right investors.

It's an exciting time for Jennifer Lewis.

And to the graduates who majored in theater arts.

Don't think that I'm not aware that you are now my competition.

But it's also a fragile time.

In all of that, movies and television and commencement speeches, my mother

happened to be ill at the time that I met Tony.

I was real busy.

So basically, I was not paying attention.

Though in court statements, Wilson will later deny that his relationship with

Lewis was ever intimate, his text to her calling her the future Mrs. Wilson

imply a serious romance.

The reason I don't want to know about you or see your work is to know for

certain I love you.

and nothing else. It is my hope we get to a place where we never have to think

about cash, but the peace it brings.

One of my girlfriends one night, she came in and she was like, Jenny's in

Jenny's in love, Jenny's in love.

Well, I kind of told her, no, I'm not in love.

I'm in a relationship, but I'm not in love yet, you know?

But when he introduces Jennifer to his children, she melts.

When I saw how beautiful they were, smart and lovely, I softened.

And he built up this fantasy world.

And I started thinking, could I live a normal life? Could I actually marry

and raise two children, help raise two children?

And I was like, you know, why not?

Wilson offers undying devotion.

and a comfortable, if conventional, life together.

Less than three months after meeting Antonio Wilson, Lewis is sold.

He started to tell me about his sound business, and I agreed to invest in it.

sounded great. I looked it up on the Internet, looked legit, so I invested.

To the tune of $50 ,000.

According to court papers, he instructs her to write gift in the memo line of

her checks instead of investment.

And there's something else.

Lewis says that despite all their fun times and talk of the future, she's

just a bit ambivalent. There's a nagging instinct that she can't put her finger

on. Something is off.

It was like it was shattered.

Something wasn't right. There was no alignment in the feelings, you see.

But when Jennifer confesses she's scared by the pace of their whirlwind romance,

Wilson, who's courted her as a knight in shining armor, responds with an

unchivalrous ultimatum. Love your money or me, to be blunt.

That's pressure.

And I...

Pressuring a victim to pay quickly, you not only get the money, but you cut off

the victim's opportunities to check on what's going on and check your claims.

That type of pressure is also a red flag.

Coming up, a friend of Jennifer Lewis goes sleuthing and learns the stunning

truth about Antonio Marriott Wilson.

When I met him, he had just gotten out of jail.

By September of 2015, actress Jennifer Lewis is ramping up a whirlwind romance

with Antonio Wilson, Mr. Too Good to be True.

Just wanted you to know you are being thought of. Love you.

Whatever his faults, Tony is her rock.

She announces she's going to marry him and plans to pour tens of thousands more

into his ultimate FX sound software business.

Concerned and suspicious, friends gently caution.

What does she really know about Antonio Wilson?

A close girlfriend starts sleuthing Antonio Wilson's online footprint.

She went home and researched him, went deeper into the Internet, looking.

And then she found Bryce Carrington.

His picture, in my face, charged for fraud.

When I met him, he had just gotten out of jail.

Oh, my God. It was... It was beyond shocking.

She recalls wondering just how many other people her then -boyfriend had

off. But as she'll soon discover, Antonio Wilson has been slipping into

personas and inventing fantastical fictions for decades.

In 2005, in the affluent Bay Area city of Pleasanton, California, Antonio

goes by a different name, Bryce Carrington.

It's a name he penned himself, and it sounds like a soap opera character.

Bryce Carrington finds a home to match the name in a $2 .7 million estate in

exclusive Ruby Hill subdivision. He enlists mortgage broker Clay Cunningham

help him ink the deal.

Beautiful home.

6 ,100 square feet, four -car garage, huge acre worth of land, backed up

to 18 -hole golf course, which was the allure for that private community.

Reviewing his new client's financials, Cunningham sees large deposits, but no

regular paychecks.

Bryce tells him that's because he works in the movie industry, and that's not a

regular 9 -to -5 job.

I'm like, how do you...

Just get paid like $60 ,000 and $40 ,000 and $90

,000. And he goes, that's the way it goes in Hollywood. It's piecework.

So everything kind of fell into place and had a reasonable, plausible

explanation.

As Cunningham works the deal, he goes back and forth as to whether his client

legit. On the one hand, his style seems to match his story.

Carrington zips around town in a revolving lineup of luxury cars.

There's his custom Hummer H2, Mercedes SL500R, and the pride of his fleet,

a black Lamborghini Murcielago.

On the other hand, there are red flags.

Carrington is quick to brag that he's an Oscar -winning sound designer, creating

all the signature sound effects for blockbuster movies.

Spider -Man, King Kong, Fantastic Four, Jurassic Park.

He said that he created the sound for the T -Rex on Jurassic

Park.

So I went to the movies and watched Jurassic Park.

Right when the credits start rolling, I'm like, I'm going to read every name.

And I want to see if Bryce Carrington's on there somewhere.

And it wasn't.

Gary Rydstrom is the real seven -time Oscar -winning sound artist, but Bryce

Carrington reasonably explains why his own name isn't in the credits.

Oh, that's typical, because, you know, we're the back office.

You know, we put the bounds together, and the producers put the film together.

Carrington builds a friendship with Cunningham, perhaps strategically.

We took rides in very expensive cars.

is Lamborghini.

He seemed to be a very nice guy.

Any lingering doubts Cunningham has quickly evaporate when he visits

Carrington's house and spots three gleaming actors in Carrington's office.

I'm like, wow, can I touch it? Can I pick one up? He goes, yeah, but put

little white gloves on first because I don't want your fingerprints to ruin the

polish on the statuette.

Cunningham is starstruck.

and convinced that Bryce Carrington is the real deal.

And as he will do years later with Jennifer Lewis, Antonio Wilson makes his

pitch. Though big -screen sound wizardry is his claim to fame, his software

business, dubbed Ultimate FX, is on the brink of taking off.

Carrington says he's creating a software mixing board that allows everyday folks

to download Hollywood -caliber sound effects into their own home movies with

few clicks.

He doctors up impressive -looking contracts with Pinnacle Software to show

Cunningham. And then he offered me the opportunity to be an investor because he

was going to make big money.

I trust what verified.

I verified even more than a normal person, the other investors, would

I did his lousy mortgage.

Cunningham invests $100 ,000, then another $200 ,000.

And he isn't alone.

According to court documents, at least 13 investors fork over more than $4 .5

million.

In reality, that's what is funding Bryce's glamorous lifestyle, say

Defense attorney Randy Sue Pollack recalls that her former client knows

his targets well.

A lot of the people were people who lived in his community.

I mean, they had money.

I mean, they have the money to invest.

And there's just, it's greed.

You know, everyone wants more money.

Prosecutors allege that while Carrington will spend a few hundred thousand on

developing a basic concept, he has zero credits in the film industry.

But who needs experience when you're a great hype man?

He touts his A -list movie work in PR listings and flaunts, polishing my

statuettes on Twitter.

Up next.

Hollywood's had it with Bryce Carrington's credit poaching.

He hurt our community.

He hurt, you know, a lot of people in the community.

But will he get away with his lies?

Crime does pay.

That's what you're saying.

Bryce Carrington is shamelessly promoting himself as an Oscar -winning

designer. He says it, I see it, then wow, you got it. And I wouldn't have

attention to a sound engineer.

You know, if he told me he won for acting, I would know that.

But, you know, it didn't seem like something really far afield.

But while most people might not catch on to his made -up credits, Hollywood's

actual sound community knows the truth.

I mean, everybody knew that he wasn't for real. We just considered him to be

just, you know, a jerk. Just a guy making up stuff because he can't.

Charles Maines is one of the real sonic maestros behind dozens of iconic films,

including Fantastic Four and Spider -Man.

I mean, I think people were really offended when he took the credit that he

Beyond offensive, Carrington is downright absurd when he advertises in

with this photo, claiming he uses a lion's roar in all of his signature

effects.

He literally had made these bus billboard posters, and somebody took a

of it, and I was like, oh my God, really?

But by 2007, Maine just had enough and calls Carrington out.

Somewhere along the lines, I had heard that he had claimed credit for working

Spider -Man. But I was able to actually get in touch with him. And I just said,

you know, it's like, this really isn't right. You shouldn't be claiming credit

for stuff you weren't involved in. And, you know, please stop.

In an industry trade statement, Carrington writes a rambling retraction,

admitting that he's never worked on a feature film, then claiming he's simply

creating his own version of well -known movie sound effects and selling these

alternatives to the public.

Like in Jurassic Park, we make a T -Rex using hogs in water, lion growls, a

lawnmower, and elephant roars. That is my version. His explanation lands with a

thud. I think, you know, anybody in the community who saw that was like, yeah,

right, that's total BS.

There's no evidence that these alternatives even exist.

The sound community is entirely unaware that he's pirating their credits to

steal millions of dollars, and he's not about to stop.

Until 2009, when Internal Revenue Service agents come calling.

Carrington's tax filings are in arrears, and U .S. attorneys take up a criminal

prosecution.

Up until now, Carrington's mortgage broker, turned ultimate FX investor,

Cunningham, believes his friend is going to make him rich.

Everything seemed legit until it wasn't.

When IRS investigators show up with questions about his role in financing

Carrington's house, his heart sinks.

It's an unnerving feeling to open the door and have two IRS agents, and they

were just drilling me for four hours.

I had a wife, I had a son.

We're just a working Joe.

Trying to make it, and I thought this was going to be my make it.

Though they immediately clear Cunningham of any wrongdoing, it's cold comfort.

He realizes he's been taken, and he says the ripple effects are painful.

What a horrible thing to go through and lose that money and be involved with

something like this and set my family back and the catalyst of my divorce, my

bankruptcy, lost the home, lost my...

child at 13.

And I ended up back in Michigan where I was born and

raised.

So, but it's out.

I no longer have to hide it.

As Carrington's court appointed counsel, Randy Pollack discovers her new client

is full of surprises.

First, Bryce Carrington is also Antonio Wilson.

Worse, Antonio Wilson has skipped out on another fraud case in Texas that he

hasn't disclosed to anyone.

But it was the same type of case, and his claim was he didn't know about it,

he did, and it was under his other name of Antonio Wilson.

Carrington pleads guilty to tax evasion and federal wire fraud for scamming

Cunningham and other investors.

The IRS confiscates his sprawling house and fancy cars, and he agrees to pay $4

.1 million in restitution to victims of his ultimate FX investment scam.

Carrington is sentenced to four years in prison.

And there's a cherry on top.

Remember those Oscars he showed Cunningham, the ones that sealed the

They're fake.

Carrington paid a local jeweler $52 ,000 to create exact replicas.

Now, in addition to prison, he has to pay a $15 ,000 copyright infringement

to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Clay Cunningham, left to rebuild his life, recalls angrily addressing the

at his former friend's sentencing.

I have no more faith in the judicial system.

Crime does pay.

That's what you're saying.

Behind bars, Bryce Carrington is reborn as Oxford University theologian, Dr.

Tony Marriott, and launches a hustle as a religious author, self -publishing

Behind the Faith, Revelation.

He's released in 2013 after serving three and a half years.

On September 11, 2015,

Within hours of her friend revealing the devastating truth about her potential

fiancé, Lewis is rocked by another crushing blow.

Not only did I find out that he was a con artist,

but I found it out on the day my mother died.

Though still reeling from grief, that night Lewis fires off a final text to

Wilson.

Tony? I have been given some information that is beyond disturbing.

I need to figure things out. Please do not contact me at all.

She notifies police and is eventually granted a temporary restraining order.

But in a civil complaint, Lewis says police tell her she doesn't have a case.

That's because Wilson instructed Jennifer to write gift in the memo line

investments. And according to police, she says... That four -letter word is

Wilson's get -out -of -jail -free card.

Though under fraudulent circumstances, she gave him the money. Police do not

arrest Wilson.

I found out I had to get justice myself.

Lewis alerts L .A. Fitness and tries to have him fired, but alleges in a later

civil complaint that Wilson keeps his job, and she is told to stop making

accusations without proof.

It's an assault.

You're humiliated at the impact of a tsunami

when somebody gets that close to you and you find out that it's

all a lie.

Everything is a lie.

And I will say, God knows I should have seen it.

Coming up, Jennifer Lewis knows the awful truth about Antonio Wilson.

And she's making sure everyone else does, too.

I'm sure Tony was confident that being a celebrity, I would never tell.

It would be a scandal.

Wrong girl.

Living in Santa Monica, Antonio Wilson has scaled back from his flashy days in

Northern California.

Instead of a golf course estate, he stays off the radar in an upscale condo

blocks away from the beach.

But after his scam on Jennifer Lewis goes bust, Antonio Wilson is strapped

cash. He reboots with a new persona, altruistic businessman, and a new

he calls A Second Life.

Second Life's application will let you choose the service you need. Wilson says

it's a software application featuring videos to help viewers get government

benefits like welfare and medical care.

There is no method of simplifying the explanation of how to get public

assistance for those who find it difficult to understand the process.

Second Life's application is a solution to this challenge.

And just like before, Wilson targets wealthy, successful women as investors

his platform.

Prosecutors say he hooks up with them through dating apps such as Bumble.

They were not vulnerable, easy targets. The women by and large were smart,

successful, sophisticated women.

He just moved very quickly. I think he could identify what they were looking

for. And within a day or two, we're talking to him on the telephone.

And within that week, going on their first date with him.

Within a few dates, each new love interest gets the same smooth script

Wilson's many talents.

Author, Oxford grad, an enterprising entrepreneur.

He hints that big investors are already jockeying for position to buy into his

company. He would start going into these investment firms that wanted to.

give him $30 million for it and that he was out raising $10 million and all

these people wanted in on his new app. And then he would say, if you get in

early before all this happens, you know, you will own a certain number of shares

before the price goes up.

While investigators say Wilson does spend a few thousand dollars in web

development and promotional work, a second life shares are utterly

But it all boiled down to lies.

Lies. Lies.

Give me your money. Here's some lies.

Between 2015 and 2018, prosecutors say that Wilson rakes in at least $300 ,000

from girlfriends turned investors.

It isn't a billion -dollar hike, but as Charles Maines recalled years after his

own Bryce Carrington encounter, he might be chasing a bigger thrill.

You know, it's like I kept thinking back to the film Catch Me If You Can. He was

extremely skilled at deceiving people.

Former Assistant U .S. Attorney Alex Wyman, who will later prosecute Wilson,

thinks there's another motivation.

Greed played a factor.

He wanted to live above his means. He wanted more than he had.

Need, I think, certainly played a factor. He was a convicted felon. He

fraud as a way of making money. But most of all, I think he was a predator.

And it seems he's a sucker for the spotlight.

Slipping into his Dr. Wilson Oxford academic character.

He promotes himself as a learned scholar, and he records himself as a

-styled Indiana Jones, implying he's in Israel and the Middle East on

archaeological digs. He would have videos of himself out on

dig sites, you know, looking for, like, antiquities and stuff.

He would be in the dirt, you know, with a little brush.

And I don't know where he would go take these pictures, but I think it was

probably out in the Mojave Desert.

Dr. Marriott Wilson gains enough academic notoriety that writers even

out for interviews. He offers readers sage pearls of wisdom. Be honest.

While he's busy wooing women to invest in a second life, he's still a married

man. Married with two kids. I'm not really sure how that works.

And remember how he told Jennifer Lewis he was divorced?

That's just one story.

Other versions are downright gruesome.

And at the time, they knew he had kids, but he always had some sob story about,

you know, his wife, usually that she was murdered or in a car accident. And

another one was she was murdered in front of him and his children.

But one by one, investors are beginning to notice cracks in Wilson's stories.

When a girlfriend asks where her $150 ,000 investment has gone, he tap dances

around an explanation.

He would give her an Excel document of business expenses that he was doing, but

he never quite had the right answer for her, so she was starting to get very

suspicious. He never answered her question of what he was actually doing

her money and when she'd be able to get her money back.

Once Wilson's victims have handed over their money, he avoids their questions,

moves on, and apparently counts on them to stay quiet.

A lot of victims in romance scams are ashamed.

They're embarrassed.

That they were conned by someone that they trusted, someone they were

romantically involved in.

But Jennifer Lewis isn't ashamed anymore.

She's mad as hell.

Most people would have just wanted to push away from that. Not her.

And this Hollywood icon is about to turn the table.

She not only took out Antonio, she absolutely vaporized that guy. She

down the wrath.

Want more greed?

Follow us on Instagram, connect on Facebook, and listen to the American

Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be right back.

By early 2017, Jennifer Lewis is on a mission.

This man came into my life, into my home, into my bedroom, and then

into me.

I was embarrassed.

I felt like a victim, which I don't like that word.

I believe in fighting back.

I believe in getting justice.

And she has a plan.

She hires a private investigator, files a scathing civil suit against L .A.

Fitness and Antonio Wilson, and sets the stage to play the player.

Jasmine Brand, whose namesake entertainment site gets wind of the

publishes an exclusive.

So typically when we break a big story, I'm always nervous about how is it going

to be perceived?

You know, what are her fans going to think?

Are we going to get backlash?

She's an established actress, and she was a victim. It didn't really make

to the average person, but it was true, and everyone was really kind of shocked

by it.

Lewis lights up her former boyfriend on TMZ and social media interviews.

This is a horrible man, and he, you know, I really got hurt. It was very

painful. Are you a serial addict? I most certainly am. I'm sure Tony Marriott

was confident.

That being a celebrity, I would never tell.

It would be a scandal.

Wrong girl.

No, I tell everything.

When you tell,

it is so freeing.

You're not holding it in.

She was brutally honest, and you know what she said? Because of this

you know, I had to go to therapy again.

I battled depression again. Those are real feelings, and the fact that she's

the public eye and she talked about that kind of speaks to this is something

that can happen to any woman, and this is something that can affect you. As the

news gains traction, Lewis finds an army of supporters and a hard -as -nails

champion named Don Shipley.

That's the power of people like Jennifer Lewis, the power of the Internet. It

works both ways. The phonies use it. You might as well use it as well.

Far from Hollywood, at his veterans retreat in rural Maryland, Shipley is a

retired Navy SEAL senior chief.

He's also obsessed with stolen valor, the act of military impersonation that

a federal crime.

A lot of the lies are very easy to understand.

The guy goes to the VFW. He's a veteran. He goes to the VFW. He has a few shots

of Bruce Lee at the bar, and he drops the seal bomb. And he can't get out of

because people have heard him.

Shipley publishes a website featuring a phony seal of the week.

He has defrocked thousands.

I'm good at it, and I don't enjoy doing it, but I enjoy taking down guys that

need taking down. I think I'll be doing this until I close my eyes for the final

time. When Jennifer Lewis goes public, many people see that Wilson claims to be

a SEAL. Some of them write to Shipley asking him to find the truth.

Navy SEAL training is an unclassified Navy school.

It's like being a cook in the Navy, a gunner's mate. And records are kept of

every guy that's ever graduated any form of underwater demolition or SEAL team.

And it's right at my fingertips.

A couple of keystrokes.

Amazingly, Shipley realizes that he has investigated Wilson years before, back

when Bryce Carrington was first making his phony claims.

Then, and now, Antonio Wilson has never been a SEAL, but he is a Navy veteran.

He did seven years. He got out as an E -5. He had deployed with those air wings

overseas a couple of times. There was no combat. There were no personal awards

that he had. But by everything on his record, he was a good sailor.

Good sailor, better liar, but not good enough to outrun the truth forever.

Wilson earns a four -star excoriation in a two -parter Don Shipley writes for

phony seal of the week.

Antonio with the wrong woman is what he did. Now you're out and everybody else

knows you're a phony. And everybody who hasn't heard about the term phony Navy

seal before that watch knows it now.

Meanwhile, after months of civil litigation, Lewis obtains a $13 ,000

against L .A. Fitness that she donates to charity, a moral victory.

L .A. Fitness has not responded to American greed, but in a statement

Wilson passed their background check and denied wrongdoing. By 2018, when

federal prosecutors and the FBI take up the case, Wilson is still selling ladies

with his second life scheme.

But he's no match for the legal comeuppance that's headed his way.

The FBI uses a trap and trace technique, identifying call patterns and reaching

out to the women he's swindled, including Jennifer Lewis.

They came right to my door. It was kind of cool.

The FBI comes to your door and goes, FBI.

It reminded me of Dragnet, where he would say, just the facts, ma 'am. And

of the female FBI members said, Miss Lewis, just the facts.

I was like, okay, okay.

And more women are coming forward with stories eerily similar to Jennifer's.

One of Wilson's targets even offers to record a call with him asking for her

,000 investment back.

This victim actually called a meeting with Antonio Wilson and gave him a very

big sob story about why she needed her money back. And he actually did give her

her money back. But she was the only victim that actually ever saw any money

back. But it still doesn't erase his criminal culpability.

If you're intentionally and knowingly telling lies to somebody to get them to

invest in a business that doesn't even exist, absolutely, that's still

Antonio Wilson has not responded to American Greed. Though in later court

documents, Wilson expresses regret.

He disputes at least some of the events that the women described to prosecutors.

Up next.

The feds close in, and there's yet another surprise in store.

He started conning people at 15 years old.

Federal investigators combed through Antonio Wilson's records and his bank

accounts to verify his victim's statement.

And in this type of fraud, it's very relevant to review the money coming in

where does that money go? What does he spend it on? Does he spend it on actual

business expenses and growing his app like he's telling the victims? Or is he

spending it on personal expenses, which he was?

And following up on Jennifer Lewis's preliminary legwork, they confirm

the most unsettling discovery of all. Most of Antonio Wilson's adult life is a

roadmap of coast -to -coast crimes.

See, he was very smart.

Not smart enough not to get caught.

He started conning people at 15 years old.

In Florida, Wilson makes the papers in 1988 for earlier, less sophisticated

versions of his romance scams.

And makes headlines again after appearing on an Orlando morning show

be NFL pro Dokey Williams.

But for all his dramatic flair and intriguing incarnations, all of Antonio

Wilson's con artist characters are finally catching up to him. In early

the FBI calls Wilson's cell phone.

At that point, he didn't know what we knew. I found it interesting that he

started rambling on and he used the word he wasn't doing anything evil. And we

hadn't even talked much at that point. We just asked him about his business.

But when she informed him that he's the target of a criminal investigation,

Wilson lawyers up.

And I'm wondering if it's because he was in the same exact position a handful of

years ago and knows the process, knows what to expect.

And if the FBI is calling, then he probably knew his game was up.

Within days, he's ready to make a plea deal.

In May of 2020, Wilson pleads guilty to a count of wire fraud, and Jennifer

Lewis celebrates on Facebook.

Other women who had been abused by this predator came forth, and I am so proud

of them.

Sometimes, justice does prevail.

But before his sentencing hearing, Wilson doubles and triples down on his

claiming to be a Navy chief.

Prosecutors enter into evidence the DD -214 military service form is falsified,

listing embellished or made -up training and awards.

And there's more.

This appears to be a degree... Wilson even submits easily disproven

diplomas from Oxford.

The probation officer...

contacted Oxford, and Oxford had absolutely no record of Wilson ever

part of any of their schools.

It was kind of curious that he submitted this, given that as part of the plea

agreement, he admitted that he didn't actually graduate from Oxford.

On March 10, 2021, instead of the 30 months prosecutors asked for, Judge

Wilson exceeds the range, sentencing him to eight years in federal prison, and

is ordered to pay $272 ,000 in restitution.

No, he's good.

But you're not better than me.

And I hope he's watching.

Got you, didn't I?

Yeah. And I'm going to get you again. If you get out, I'm going to get you

again. I think all of the ladies in this story kind of got the last word. You

know, because look who's behind bars.

Jennifer Lewis has moved on to a new starring role as a formidable CEO.

And her own real -life experience has inspired Lewis to lend her voice to a

documentary for a family seeking justice.

Joining me now is actress Jennifer Lewis.

She's also the narrator and executive producer of Finding Kendrick Johnson.

Lewis says she never expects to see her investment money return, even after

Antonio Wilson is released from prison in 2028.

He could be a good person and choose to do the right thing, and he continues.

to do everything opposite of that. You know, he deserves to sit in prison for

eight years and think about that and hopefully make better decisions when he

comes out. And Tony's not going to make the mistakes he made this time, but he's

not done. I mean, he's going to get out of prison. He's going to eat again, and

he's good at it. And if Don Shipley's right... We don't mind coming after you

again.