Original subtitles

[intriguing music plays]

[car door shuts]

-Hi. Nice to meet you. -Hi, Lauren. Nice to meet you.

[Cecilie] Thank you so much for speaking to me

because we found you through the restraining order that you filed,

so I'm, like, really curious, like, what was your relationship to Chris?

So, I was in a romantic relationship with him, and I was defrauded.

Yeah.

I've had some bad relationships before, but nothing to this magnitude.

By the end of it, I was terrified because I have no idea who this person was.

[tense music plays]

So how did you guys meet?

We connected on Instagram. So that's kind of where it all started.

-Did he reach out on Instagram or did it-- -Yes. Yeah.

He had a lot of pictures of him just being very active,

and I probably talked to him maybe two, three months on Instagram.

He said he was an ex-baseball player for the LA Dodgers.

And I was very impressed with that.

So after two or three months of just chatting,

he actually came to visit me,

because he lived in California, and I lived in Arizona.

[quirky music plays]

[Lauren] The first time I saw him, I remember thinking he was really tall,

he was really in shape, and he dressed well.

And he just had this charisma about him where he just carried himself really well.

We spent the whole weekend together, and it was great.

It was exactly who I was texting and talking to.

He was attentive.

He opened the car door for me, opened the restaurant door for me.

Just the Southern gentleman that I really saw myself settling down with.

After that first trip, he texted me and asked me to be his girlfriend.

At the time, I thought that was just really romantic and sweet.

I said, "Let's give this a try. Why not? What's the worst that could happen?"

[music ends]

I just immediately just felt like he was somebody I had been looking for.

Like, he was just so charismatic, and persuasive, and intelligent.

Over the course of three months, he came to visit me four or five times.

-Oh, wow! -Yeah, so he was very persistent.

[upbeat orchestral music plays]

[Lauren] I was quite impressed by him.

He had several years of being a professional baseball player.

We had a deep friendship.

I felt like I had known him for years.

I definitely felt very happy.

But the honeymoon stage didn't last very long.

[melancholy music plays]

[Lauren] One day, when he came to visit me,

he was complaining about his accounts being frozen.

It was frozen due to fraud.

I've had fraud happen several times in my life,

and I've had cards freeze randomly and didn't think anything of it.

He would go on and on and complain, "I don't know what I'm going to do."

"I've never been in this position."

"And my rent is past due because of this account-freezing issue."

I lent him money.

It was little by little, $800 here, $1,200 there.

At the time, I just thought it was just a great guy that was down on his luck,

that was having issues.

I said, "Once your accounts are unfrozen, are you able to pay me everything?"

And he said, "It's not a big deal."

"I have $160,000 in an account back home

for a sign-on bonus from when I was an LA Dodger."

"Once I get that, I'll just transfer it to your bank."

[music ends]

Eventually, you know, two months in, I sat there and I started adding it up.

-[Cecilie] Yeah. -And I'm like, okay.

I-- This is not a normal thing.

And I started pressing him for, like, a timeline.

-To give me some type of answer. -[Cecilie] Yeah.

And it was always defensive, it was always excuses.

[foreboding music plays]

One day, I was in town in LA.

I figured, why don't I just go say hi?

[police sirens blaring in distance]

The area was unsafe, like, car alarms going on.

[car alarms sounding]

[Lauren] I walked up to his apartment, and he had several deadbolts,

which I feel like it's not standard.

He opened the door, immediately walked in,

dead bolted the door, looked around.

My stomach was turning. It was just like, there's something wrong.

I started kind of asking him about that, and his responses were just,

"Oh, I'm always traveling."

He asked me to spend the night, I refused.

Who is this person that I'm dating?

If he's so successful, then it's not adding up.

And I'm starting to panic.

[tense music plays]

[Lauren] The next thing I know, my card was maxed out.

I called the bank immediately.

I found out that Chris had taken tens of thousands of dollars.

When he would come and visit,

I believe he was using my laptop when I wasn't around,

and he was logging on to my online banking and requesting cash advances.

And as soon as the cash advances were available in my account,

he was transferring them to his account.

I started getting extremely angry with him

and started asking him a lot of questions, and that's when he lost it.

That's when Chris started becoming extremely irate and angry with me.

He started threatening me. He said, "I know where you live, where you work."

"Things will be so bad for you. They'll be so terrible."

-Yeah, I know. -What?

I know, it's wild.

It escalated in a very short period of time.

[ominous music plays]

[Lauren] Chris was not who I thought he was.

He was not the person that I was falling in love with.

He kept saying, "Things are going to be so bad for you."

He was threatening my livelihood.

He knew where I lived.

I moved out of my apartment because I was terrified.

At one point, I actually switched cars

because I didn't know what he was capable of.

Chris went from the Southern gentleman to someone that was terrorizing me,

that was so scary to the point of me having to get a restraining order.

I felt like he would definitely try to hurt me, absolutely.

[dramatic music plays]

[Cecilie] It's horrendous.

How much money was it?

I believe over $50,000.

-A lot of money. -Yeah.

So after the restraining order,

did you ever go to the police regarding the money that he took?

-Yes. -What did they tell you?

[Lauren] I've contacted several different police agencies.

I did a police report trying to explain everything that happened,

and they just really dismissed my whole story.

I tried for a very long time, and I just gave up.

[Cecilie] Would you be willing to give a statement?

Yes.

[curious music plays]

[Lauren] The impact that he's had on my life,

it's been one of the most, if not the most,

traumatic experiences that I've ever had.

I still have PTSD sometimes when I see people that look like him.

I kind of flinch.

It's just… something that will probably be with me my entire life.

I just hope he's prosecuted and I hope someone does something about it.

[Lindsay] After what Chris did to me,

I was feeling, like, really helpless with my life.

That's when I, like, started…

really thinking about, like, what I was gonna do.

[exhales]

[sighs] Like, if I hurt myself…

maybe that would just be easier.

[unsettling music plays]

I'm such a strong person.

I've gone through so much in my life that, like,

never did I ever think about, like, giving up.

[intriguing music plays]

[chimes]

[chimes]

[chimes]

[chimes]

[music intensifies]

-[Cecilie] Hi. Jim? Hi. Nice to meet you. -Hey. Yeah. How you doing?

-[Cecilie] Just sit over here? -Absolutely.

[Cecilie] Thank you for talking to me,

'cause we have been looking into Chris Lloyd.

And I've heard that you might have known him back in the day.

Chris and I met in June of 2012.

[Cecilie] Okay.

Um, we were playing for a team in Canada,

the London Rippers,

and, uh, Chris and I were teammates for a month and a half, almost two months.

He was an outstanding, I mean, outstanding athlete on the baseball field.

Very charming to be around.

[Cecilie] Yeah, I've seen videos of him. He looks good.

The London Rippers is an independent baseball team.

The lowest rung from Major League Baseball, let's just say that.

He says that he played then for the Dodgers in the Major League.

-Do you know anything about that? -That's not true.

-Whoa. -He played probably 20 games with us.

-Thirteen at bats. -[Cecilie] Mm.

[Jim] And that's the only experience

that I've known him to have in professional baseball.

I'm always, you know, looking at old teammates,

trying to figure out what they're doing for work.

I only know maybe five or six guys that made it to the big leagues.

-Out of all the years that I played. -Whoa.

Chris has been accused of defrauding two women out of more than $100,000.

You know, it's actually baffling to me.

From what I can remember, he was just a very likable guy.

But baseball guys in general, there's a big ego about them.

They all have the same goal, right? To make it to the big leagues.

All that sacrifice for 20-something years, and then not reaching the ultimate goal,

it's pretty… pretty detrimental for somebody.

[gentle music plays]

[Cecilie] We have proven that

he never played for any major league baseball.

He never played for the Dodgers.

And maybe that's why he was targeting women outside of LA.

Even though you felt you failed in life

and you didn't get the life that you feel like you deserve,

it's not okay to destroy other people's lives.

Even for Jim, he thought that Chris was just a friendly guy.

But this is how they are.

These fraudsters, they are likable people.

That's why they're dangerous.

[tense music plays]

[Brianne] We know Chris lied about being a major league baseball player.

But the way he got money from Lindsay was through investments.

First, I need to establish

whether Chris Lloyd is a licensed investment broker

in the state of California.

If he is, he should be listed in the FINRA regulatory agency search.

Let's see if he is.

[Lindsay] He knew tons about banking,

money, credit, loans, just all sorts of financial knowledge.

Made me feel safe in the investment.

[Brianne] No results.

But maybe he was working independently.

Chris told Lindsay

that he had investment opportunities for her through Planet 13.

They're an established company,

one of the biggest weed dispensaries in the US.

But he told Lindsay her check would be sent from Landmark Associates.

So that's who we need to look into.

When he was supposed to pay me, I asked, "Where's this check coming from?"

And he said, "Landmark Associates."

[Brianne] All right, so let's call Landmark.

[sighs] No one's available to take my call.

I couldn't find an email address on their website.

That doesn't sound right.

I'll definitely have to dig a bit deeper with this.

This is not making sense.

[dramatic music plays]

[Brianne] Oh, this is interesting.

A civil lawsuit filed by a female plaintiff

against both Chris Lloyd and the Landmark Associates.

The allegation? Fraud.

[intriguing music plays]

[Brianne] Hey, Cee, I found a civil suit of a woman suing Chris for fraud.

She doesn't wanna be identified, but her lawyer has agreed to meet with me.

Scott?

-Hi, Brianne Joseph, private investigator. -Scott.

Nice to meet you.

My partner, Cecilie, and I are investigating Christopher Lloyd,

and, um, I understand you have a court case open with him.

Absolutely correct.

So my client knew Christopher Lloyd.

-I believe they met on a dating website. -[Brianne] Okay.

[Scott] He represented that he was a broker.

He could take money, invest it, and give high returns

at a business organization he called Landmark Associates.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's funny you mention Landmark

because I've been trying to get in touch with Landmark.

Do you think it's a legitimate company? Are they closed? Open?

What do you know about Landmark?

Christopher Lloyd is a bad person in so many ways.

-[Brianne] Yeah. -But he can be clever, right?

You can google Landmark Associates

and probably find a "Landmark Associates" business

in any state.

I looked at the Landmark Associates

at the address that he said there was a Landmark Associates,

and there just simply wasn't one there.

My client gave to Christopher about $50,000 to $60,000

with the expectation that he would return some of that money…

-…with interest as an investment. -Yeah.

[Scott] But when he could not pay my client back,

he would say, "Your Venmo is not working."

"Your PayPal is not working."

-So… -Okay.

Before I thought to reach out to Christopher,

I wanted to get all the background I could on him before making initial contact.

[Brianne] Of course, yeah.

I sent subpoenas to Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal.

What'd you learn from that information?

[Scott] Between Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal,

he had received $300,000 just in one year from multiple female victims.

That's insane.

[Scott] Yeah.

If we can talk to these victims and perhaps get statements from them,

that just makes our ability to present these cases that much stronger.

Hopefully we can give him some real consequences.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Of course. I hope you get him.

[Brianne] Thank you.

-[cell phone ringing] -[Brianne] Hey, Cecilie.

Guess how much he has taken from multiple women thus far.

Around $300,000 within a year span, approximately.

This is horrendous.

[Brianne] Can you imagine how much money in total this man has taken so far?

We need to see if we can contact these women and get their statements.

[cell phone ringing]

-[Cecilie] Hi, Rhiannon. -[Rhiannon] Oh, hi there.

-[Brianne] Hi, Robin. -[Robin] Hello.

I'm investigating Chris Lloyd.

[Rhiannon] I met Chris on an online dating app.

And he was easy to talk to, and he used to play sports.

Like, very smart.

[Robin] We had this good, healthy relationship.

He was professional and had his shit together, basically.

Yeah.

[Rhiannon] He really showed concern about my future,

like, retirement,

and started talking about, um, like, a residual dividend account,

something that I would live off the interest.

You know, he just made it sound so easy.

[Robin] Everything was in writing, a legal contract.

I was completely convinced this was my boyfriend at this point. You know?

Yeah, and he looked legitimate.

He seemed to be legitimate with what his story was.

How much did he scam you out of?

[Robin] Probably $75,000.

Oh my God. That's a lot of money.

[Robin] I filed a police report, but they didn't do anything.

[Rhiannon] I can't believe that I gave him $150,000 for investment.

I went to the police,

but, you know, there's still kind of the shock factor, like,

this happened to me.

Do you have any idea where he's living at right now?

[Robin] No.

Where do you think he might be?

-[Rhiannon] I don't know. He's slippery. -No. Mm. Yeah.

He's just a snake.

[Brianne] No one has seen Chris in months.

But if we can't find him,

we've got no chance of the police taking on Lindsay's case.

[tense music plays]

[Cecilie] We need the guy to get justice one way or the other.

The heartbreak that he's leaving all these people,

it's just not right, and that he can just vanish?

-[female producer] Are you doing okay? -No, I'm not.

This is very draining for me, you know?

[sobs] It breaks my heart, you know, all these people

he's taking everything from.

I can only imagine how difficult it is for her to see

the pain and the hurt that a lot of these victims are articulating.

I'm pretty sure it makes her reminisce on the deceit and the lies

that she had to witness and overcome and… and heal from.

I think that's what makes Cecilie's role in this so powerful

because she knows what they're feeling, she knows what they're going through,

and she can just walk them through what's necessary

to get them on the other side of this and hopefully get them justice.

[exhales heavily]

[music ends]

[somber music plays]

[chimes]

[Cecilie] I have maybe the biggest lead.

I'm in touch with a woman who believes she's Chris's latest victim.

She's still in contact with him, trying to get her money back.

-So she's on to him? -Yeah.

So maybe we can get her to lure him to, like, a public park.

-[Cecilie] Yeah. -[Brianne] That could work.

[chimes]

[chimes]

[tense music plays]

[Brianne] We received information from one of Chris's latest victims.

And she has, um, set up an opportunity

to potentially lure him into this park for us.

He thinks he's meeting her in the park,

but it's really a chance for us to track him down.

It's a big moment because we could potentially follow him,

figure out where he's living.

He supposedly currently drives a black Lexus with red interior.

So that's gonna be the primary car that we're looking for.

We know this guy is very elusive, he's very shady,

and he's very unpredictable.

Lindsay is here to help positively ID him.

Our local P.I. is gonna help us track him.

We don't know what direction he might come from,

so we're covering all entrances.

A lot of this is one-shot opportunity. So we all have to be on our A-game.

[Cecilie] Awesome.

[gasps]

Can anybody see who's in that white car that slowed down right next to us?

-Does that look like it's him? -I don't have a visual, but it's parking.

[suspenseful music plays]

That's not Chris.

Oh, come on.

[chimes]

[chimes]

[Cecilie] Fifteen minutes.

That's very close to him.

So if it's 15 minutes to get here, he must live reasonably close to here.

Hi, Bri, are you there?

Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?

He's just 15 minutes away.

-[Cecilie] Oh! -Oh, that's him. That's him.

-Oh my God. Just… Right there. -That's him. That's him right there.

-Oh my God. Chris is here. Chris is here. -[Lindsay] He's here in his black car.

[Brianne] All right, guys, he's here.

[gasps]

-[Lindsay] Oh my God. He's here. -Oh my God.

[Brianne] He's getting out, guys. Perfect.

[Cecilie] Fuck.

[Lindsay] Ooh, now my heart's beating.

He's moving.

[gasps] Oh God.

[foreboding music plays]

[chimes]

[chimes]

[Anita] He's moving. He's walking towards his car.

[Brianne] Anita, get ready to follow him.

[music intensifies]

Anita, what's your location? I'm following.

We're going north on, uh, State College Boulevard.

[Brianne] This could be our only shot at figuring out where this guy lives.

Stay with him.

It's gonna be difficult following him. He's looking around and changing lanes.

He's making a left.

I don't wanna go with him because he's, um…

I'm gonna go maneuver, see if I can beat him.

[Brianne] Get on the other side. Wait for him.

[tires screeching]

-Yeah, he's hauling ass now. -Haul ass with him.

[Anita] He's making a right on Krueger Street, residential.

Okay, keep your eyes on that.

Maybe he's going home.

He's going west on…

Fuck, he disappeared. Um…

I can't find him.

You lost sight of him?

He's probably in one of these units with the closed garages.

He disappeared quick.

[Brianne] The good news is that he's still in California,

and we have his license plate number.

He can't run forever.

[gentle music plays]

[Brianne] We've got a solid case.

We know he lied about being a professional baseball player,

and we know he was never a registered financial advisor.

And we have other victims who can corroborate Lindsay's story.

Lindsay claims she lost $140,000.

-Yes. -Lauren lost over $50,000.

Rhiannon lost over $150,000.

I think that's what's important with this.

It's just showing that it's not an isolated incident.

It's time Lindsay presents this to the authorities.

[Cecilie] Hi, Lindsay. I've got some good news.

We know that you've struggled

to get the police to take this case seriously in the past.

But I have been in touch with a district attorney,

and they've agreed to meet

and might be able to help get the police to pick up the case.

I am now headed to a very important and exciting meeting with DA Erin West.

And she's one of the leading investigators in romance fraud,

and she's a deputy district attorney here in California.

We're both fraud fighters,

so I'm actually very excited myself personally

to be able to meet her 'cause I kind of look up to her.

So I've become a bit giddy, you know, 'cause I'm gonna meet Erin West.

I'm so sorry, but she is super cool.

-[Cecilie] Hi, Lindsay. Good to see you. -[Lindsay] Hi.

-[Cecilie] How are you? I'm good. -[Lindsay] Good, you? Good.

So what I have here is actually the documentation.

So I feel like you can be the one to actually bring that in.

-[Lindsay] Awesome. It's important. -Because it's kind of… It's your work.

-Yeah, for sure. -Thank you.

-[Lindsay] Hello. Hi, how are you? -[Erin] Hey! Hey.

-Really nice to see you guys. -[Lindsay] You too.

Thank you for meeting.

Lindsay was defrauded by Chris Lloyd out of $140,000

in what we believe was an investment scam.

It's almost 300 pages from start till end with evidence of the manipulation.

So we know there are so many more victims.

I am not… I am one of like maybe a dozen plus.

-Right. -[Lindsay] That's… yeah.

[Erin] I'm really sorry this happened to you.

This is the fake contract.

-[Lindsay] Yeah. -[Cecilie] Yeah.

[Erin] I've never seen a case like this.

I have never seen an in-person romance case like this.

And then when you tell me, "Oh, it happened to her and her and her…"

Wow.

-I want this case. This is a great case. -Yeah? Yeah.

I don't like the way you got bounced around between police departments.

But I can also see how something like this falls between the cracks.

We need to, like, dig it out of the cracks and get it seen

because this is a really important case.

I would charge it as theft by false pretenses.

-Let's shine some light on this. Let's-- -Yeah.

Let's ask some questions.

Let's figure out where things are

and what it would take to move things forward.

-This game's not over. -No, okay. That's good to hear.

-Bye. -[Lindsay] Good to check in with you.

-Thank you so much. Appreciate it. -'Course. So good to see you.

-So how are you feeling? -I feel great.

I feel like that was, like, very productive, very helpful.

-Thank you. Honestly. -[Cecilie] Have a hug.

Thank you so much for everything, always.

-[Cecilie] What a journey. I know. -Honestly.

[Cecilie] To even get in the room with a district attorney is rare.

And for it to be so encouraging about the case, it's…

It's a one in a million. Like, it doesn't happen. It just doesn't.

[gentle music plays]

I'm done for the day. [chuckles]

Someone like Chris, who's managed to slip through the cracks somehow,

deserves to finally, you know, pay for what he's done.

He belongs in jail.

And I'm determined to put this behind me and move on with my life.

[curious music plays]

[Brianne] I've seen a lot as an investigator for 15 years.

A lot of times, the bad guys don't get caught.

And victims don't get justice.

So it is refreshing for me to play a part in balancing the scales a little bit.

It's important for us to continue this fight for justice and help people.

[Cecilie] We may not stop every scam, but we can stop the silence.

There's power in speaking up.

[Shareza] You did a really good job. You should be proud.

[officer] It's gone past a civil matter into a criminal matter.

Oh God!

[sobbing]

-[Cecilie] We exposed these fraudsters. -[Nykki] You've been conning women.

[Cecilie] And shown people how to hold them accountable.

Do I deserve how you treated me? Stole from me?

You're going to jail.

[Cecilie] They fucked with the wrong women this time around.

[women cheering]

[Cecilie] This is just the beginning.

-Cheers! -[Brianne] To justice!

[Cecilie] We can't let scammers

destroy one of the most beautiful things in life.

Love.

[music ends]

[uplifting music plays]

[music ends]