1 00:00:03,790 --> 00:00:09,930 In this episode of American Greed, hail to the thief, Commander Bobby Thompson. 2 00:00:10,330 --> 00:00:16,450 This story went from a dilapidated, run -down duplex all the way to the White 3 00:00:16,450 --> 00:00:20,750 House. Thompson's a Harvard -educated lawyer claiming to run a $100 million 4 00:00:20,750 --> 00:00:22,510 charity for veterans. 5 00:00:22,910 --> 00:00:27,310 This organization had collected millions of dollars promising to give that to 6 00:00:27,310 --> 00:00:30,770 veterans who needed it, and in turn, doing far from that. 7 00:00:31,869 --> 00:00:36,950 Veterans get pennies, and the commander uses the proceeds as a political slush 8 00:00:36,950 --> 00:00:41,090 fund. Is it just politics as usual, or is there something deeper going on? I 9 00:00:41,090 --> 00:00:44,650 still don't know the answer. When his crime is uncovered, Thompson dares 10 00:00:44,650 --> 00:00:49,290 investigators to find out where he is and who he is. 11 00:00:49,670 --> 00:00:52,490 We thought we were chasing Jason Bourne. The guy was a ghost. 12 00:00:52,810 --> 00:00:55,510 I can't help but wonder, who is this man? 13 00:00:56,060 --> 00:01:00,260 He's a man who thinks he can remain a fugitive forever using his own 14 00:01:00,260 --> 00:01:03,140 intelligence training and other people's money. 15 00:01:03,580 --> 00:01:07,080 It's the mother load. More money than I've ever seen in one spot. 16 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:28,660 April 16th, 2012. 17 00:01:29,380 --> 00:01:34,940 Security cameras roll, capturing a man as he enters a storage facility in 18 00:01:34,940 --> 00:01:35,940 Portland, Oregon. 19 00:01:37,980 --> 00:01:43,940 He was once an intelligence officer, a master of disguise, who felt at home in 20 00:01:43,940 --> 00:01:45,220 the corridors of power. 21 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:52,900 Now beaten down after decades on the run, his life is a tangle of lies, and 22 00:01:52,900 --> 00:01:54,200 step is a struggle. 23 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:02,520 He's on his way to Locker 646, where he stashed the secrets to his very 24 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:03,520 survival. 25 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:11,540 To authorities, he's known as Mr. X, a fitting name for a man cloaked in 26 00:02:11,540 --> 00:02:12,540 mystery. 27 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:16,780 The mystery has not been unraveled. 28 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:22,240 It might be stranger than what we already know. 29 00:02:43,340 --> 00:02:48,100 Dr. Patrick Bray knows that service to country involves great sacrifice. 30 00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:54,500 The Navy paid for him to go to medical school and sent him all over the world. 31 00:02:54,860 --> 00:02:58,980 As a Navy doctor, I know firsthand some of the hardships that this works on 32 00:02:58,980 --> 00:03:03,080 people. You know, it's tough to be deployed if your wife's pregnant and 33 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,600 not going to be there and they're having troubles at home. It's difficult. 34 00:03:07,980 --> 00:03:12,660 After leaving the military, Bray practices medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. 35 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,320 In 2007, he gets a call from a fundraiser. 36 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:23,300 I'm usually hanging up right away on a telemarketer, but he said Navy, and that 37 00:03:23,300 --> 00:03:24,300 kept me on the phone. 38 00:03:25,460 --> 00:03:30,560 Representatives of a charity called the U .S. Navy Veterans Association tell 39 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:35,580 Bray they're sending care packages to troops and supporting local vets in 40 00:03:36,300 --> 00:03:41,300 They aren't asking for much, and Bray writes them two checks totaling $300. 41 00:03:42,100 --> 00:03:44,580 Just the name was, you know, sounded legitimate. 42 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:46,280 U .S. Navy veterans. 43 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:47,880 Who's against that? 44 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:55,400 As Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine will later see, Bray is just one target 45 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,020 among thousands in a relentless telemarketing blitz. 46 00:03:59,340 --> 00:04:04,660 I think most Americans have a soft spot in their heart for veterans and feel 47 00:04:04,660 --> 00:04:05,660 that we owe them. 48 00:04:06,010 --> 00:04:07,010 A lot. 49 00:04:08,210 --> 00:04:14,850 Claiming a history dating back to 1927, the U .S. Navy Veterans Association, or 50 00:04:14,850 --> 00:04:21,450 USNVA, says it has 66 ,000 members, 41 state chapter offices, 51 00:04:21,769 --> 00:04:24,190 and a headquarters in Washington, D .C. 52 00:04:24,490 --> 00:04:30,630 Its CEO, Jack Nimitz, shares a last name with Chester Nimitz, commander of the 53 00:04:30,630 --> 00:04:32,490 Pacific Fleet during World War II. 54 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:39,600 In Ohio, Assistant Attorney General Brad Tamero says the U .S. NBA seems like 55 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:42,020 the right organization at the right moment. 56 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,840 I think at this time in our history, there is a strong patriotic feeling. 57 00:04:46,940 --> 00:04:49,780 There's a strong desire to help the veterans that are coming back from 58 00:04:49,780 --> 00:04:51,280 Afghanistan and Iraq. 59 00:04:52,380 --> 00:04:57,080 The charity has been recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs and 60 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:59,760 granted tax -exempt status by the IRS. 61 00:05:00,730 --> 00:05:05,910 41 states allow the association to operate after it files registration 62 00:05:05,910 --> 00:05:08,450 and keeps them current year after year. 63 00:05:09,170 --> 00:05:15,390 Though these papers list scores of officers, in truth, one man is behind it 64 00:05:15,610 --> 00:05:17,430 Commander Bobby Thompson. 65 00:05:18,670 --> 00:05:23,610 Thompson says he's a retired Navy lieutenant commander with a background 66 00:05:23,610 --> 00:05:24,610 intelligence. 67 00:05:25,030 --> 00:05:29,310 He hires Helen McMurray to be the U .S. NBA's attorney. 68 00:05:29,900 --> 00:05:35,440 And she believes in him 100%. No one loved this country more than he did. No 69 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,500 was a greater patriot. No one talked more about liberty and freedom and his 70 00:05:39,500 --> 00:05:40,840 appreciation for it than him. 71 00:05:41,660 --> 00:05:46,580 The charity touts an 80 -year history. But Thompson first files registration 72 00:05:46,580 --> 00:05:51,660 documents in the early 2000s, not long after showing up in Tampa, Florida. 73 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,800 When he first started off, there wasn't a whole lot of money coming in. 74 00:05:56,110 --> 00:05:57,770 and he was doing everything by himself. 75 00:05:58,070 --> 00:06:01,790 And it wasn't until he hired those professional fundraisers that things 76 00:06:01,790 --> 00:06:02,790 seemed to take off. 77 00:06:03,630 --> 00:06:08,690 The telemarketing firms Thompson hires will eventually help his charity bring 78 00:06:08,690 --> 00:06:09,690 millions. 79 00:06:10,050 --> 00:06:15,670 They are allowed to pocket an astounding 85 % of what they raise, and they don't 80 00:06:15,670 --> 00:06:17,690 ask many questions about Commander Thompson. 81 00:06:18,210 --> 00:06:22,530 If you want to look at it with a jaundiced eye, so to speak, you could 82 00:06:22,530 --> 00:06:24,530 were being paid a lot of money to do what they were doing. 83 00:06:25,260 --> 00:06:29,680 They asked a question. They got an answer. The answer seemed legitimate, 84 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:30,720 they didn't dig any deeper. 85 00:06:32,020 --> 00:06:37,320 As a former Ohio assistant attorney general, McMurray once went after 86 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:43,040 cheats. Now she works for nonprofits and telemarketers, helping them to clear 87 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:44,220 regulatory hurdles. 88 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,520 Bobby Thompson called me up, and he said that, you know, these gosh darn 89 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:50,680 regulators just keep trying to tell me what to do. 90 00:06:51,290 --> 00:06:56,550 He was the most passionate person I have ever heard talk about these issues on 91 00:06:56,550 --> 00:06:57,830 anything with anybody ever. 92 00:06:58,390 --> 00:07:02,830 I mean, when you're paying a lawyer hourly, you don't sit there and talk for 93 00:07:02,830 --> 00:07:03,830 hours and hours. 94 00:07:03,910 --> 00:07:05,230 And that's what he did. 95 00:07:05,870 --> 00:07:10,890 McMurray says she's not the only one to hear the commander's self -serving, anti 96 00:07:10,890 --> 00:07:12,090 -regulatory message. 97 00:07:12,550 --> 00:07:15,750 He regularly interacted with different important political people. 98 00:07:16,350 --> 00:07:19,110 You know, the same message is that, you know, we should be able to do what we 99 00:07:19,110 --> 00:07:22,150 want whenever we want to do it, however we want to do it. That's our right. 100 00:07:23,130 --> 00:07:28,690 As the U .S. NBA grows into a multimillion -dollar operation, Thompson 101 00:07:28,690 --> 00:07:32,390 big -time donor to politicians, most of them Republicans. 102 00:07:33,710 --> 00:07:38,090 The commander has his photo taken with presidential candidates John McCain and 103 00:07:38,090 --> 00:07:42,910 Rudolph Giuliani, Speaker of the House John Boehner, presidential advisor Karl 104 00:07:42,910 --> 00:07:45,930 Rove, and President George W. Bush. 105 00:07:46,910 --> 00:07:50,090 He's not afraid to share these pictures with others. 106 00:07:50,530 --> 00:07:54,210 He was trying to show he was a big shot, that he had a lot of pull with people 107 00:07:54,210 --> 00:07:56,050 due to his position with the USNBA. 108 00:07:57,430 --> 00:08:03,630 By 2009, tax returns say the U .S. Navy Veterans Association has brought in 109 00:08:03,630 --> 00:08:05,430 close to $100 million. 110 00:08:06,250 --> 00:08:07,870 It was a money -making business. 111 00:08:08,330 --> 00:08:10,430 He had money coming in hand over fist. 112 00:08:11,390 --> 00:08:17,610 If he had not had that altercation with the reporter, he would have kept taking 113 00:08:17,610 --> 00:08:18,610 the money. 114 00:08:22,270 --> 00:08:26,370 Journalists ask, who is the man behind this money -making organization? 115 00:08:27,210 --> 00:08:28,590 There wasn't anything. 116 00:08:28,850 --> 00:08:33,510 He might as well have landed in Tampa on a spaceship from Mars. 117 00:08:50,250 --> 00:08:55,850 In August 2009, investigative reporter Jeff Testerman is on his way to see 118 00:08:55,850 --> 00:09:00,610 Thompson about a donation he's made to a local politician in Tampa, Florida. 119 00:09:01,250 --> 00:09:05,530 My expectation was that I would talk to this retired Navy guy. 120 00:09:06,310 --> 00:09:10,930 And I'd have a nice quote for the, you know, the bottom of my story, you know, 121 00:09:10,950 --> 00:09:12,070 about this county commissioner. 122 00:09:13,590 --> 00:09:15,330 It didn't go like that at all. 123 00:09:18,090 --> 00:09:23,270 When Testerman gets to the commander's home, it hardly seems a fitting place 124 00:09:23,270 --> 00:09:26,710 a retired Navy officer running a multimillion -dollar charity. 125 00:09:28,190 --> 00:09:33,470 He was stuck in a hole across from a cigar factory with barbed wire around 126 00:09:33,770 --> 00:09:37,790 If you're looking to kind of keep a low profile, no better place. 127 00:09:39,570 --> 00:09:44,510 Thompson has his apartment on one side of his duplex and the office from which 128 00:09:44,510 --> 00:09:46,290 he runs his charity on the other. 129 00:09:48,110 --> 00:09:51,650 His windows are covered with an odd mix of stickers. 130 00:09:55,110 --> 00:09:59,970 Inside, he scrawls bizarre messages on nailed -up boards. 131 00:10:04,090 --> 00:10:08,290 And in the kitchen, he's said to keep tequila by the case full. 132 00:10:08,930 --> 00:10:10,250 This guy was no dummy. 133 00:10:10,930 --> 00:10:13,750 And yet, the place he's living is a dump. 134 00:10:15,020 --> 00:10:17,920 He might have a little bit of a screw loose, you know. 135 00:10:20,500 --> 00:10:23,860 He became openly hostile, aggressive. 136 00:10:24,500 --> 00:10:26,760 He basically threw me off his property. 137 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:34,380 Intrigued, Testerman returns to his office and discusses the strange 138 00:10:34,380 --> 00:10:37,080 with the newspaper's head researcher, John Martin. 139 00:10:37,420 --> 00:10:41,040 I said, you know, I just went over to see this guy. 140 00:10:41,470 --> 00:10:46,950 And this Lieutenant Commander Bobby Thompson was just all over me, like a 141 00:10:46,950 --> 00:10:48,030 vulture on roadkill. 142 00:10:48,290 --> 00:10:49,550 You know, what do you think? 143 00:10:50,390 --> 00:10:56,050 They think it's time to dig deeper and begin by looking at the association's at 144 00:10:56,050 --> 00:10:57,430 times rambling website. 145 00:10:58,230 --> 00:11:03,990 Among 85 names they find connected to the charity, one sticks out, that of the 146 00:11:03,990 --> 00:11:06,130 association's listed CEO. 147 00:11:06,950 --> 00:11:10,510 Jack Nemeth, this famous Navy name. 148 00:11:11,490 --> 00:11:15,090 let's find him, you know, let's call him and find out what's going on. 149 00:11:15,830 --> 00:11:18,690 And Jack Nemes was nowhere to be found. 150 00:11:19,570 --> 00:11:24,210 Over the next few months, they continue searching and get similar results. 151 00:11:24,730 --> 00:11:29,670 They were supposed to have a board of 12 people. They were supposed to have 85 152 00:11:29,670 --> 00:11:33,650 officers in state chapters around the country. 153 00:11:34,390 --> 00:11:38,550 They were supposed to have 66 ,000 dues -paying members. 154 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:44,060 We never found anything except Bobby Thompson. 155 00:11:44,340 --> 00:11:50,300 But even information on Commander Thompson is elusive. He's like a man 156 00:11:50,300 --> 00:11:57,100 past. The sort of background that real people, people like me, have, there 157 00:11:57,100 --> 00:11:58,100 wasn't anything. 158 00:11:58,460 --> 00:12:03,500 He might as well have landed in Tampa on a spaceship from Mars. 159 00:12:04,770 --> 00:12:09,410 Testerman discovers that the purported Navy lieutenant commander has no 160 00:12:09,410 --> 00:12:14,110 record. He's not the only one finding inconsistencies. 161 00:12:14,430 --> 00:12:19,410 At a breakfast meeting, attorney Helen McMurray asks Thompson about holes in 162 00:12:19,410 --> 00:12:22,370 record, and he offers a surprising explanation. 163 00:12:23,070 --> 00:12:27,610 The reason why he didn't have any current information on file was because 164 00:12:27,610 --> 00:12:31,210 actually working for the CIA, except it was black ops. 165 00:12:31,900 --> 00:12:36,740 and that this was a continuation of his military intelligence days and had to 166 00:12:36,740 --> 00:12:38,180 kind of remain somewhat invisible. 167 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:42,720 His lawyer doesn't know what to make of the early morning confession. 168 00:12:43,380 --> 00:12:46,700 Considering he was finishing up his fourth Bloody Mary by the time he 169 00:12:46,700 --> 00:12:48,100 the story, I didn't really think much of it. 170 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,260 But he had so many connections that worked out. It made a little bit of 171 00:12:54,220 --> 00:12:58,160 In their reporting, Testerman and Martin dig into these connections. 172 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:03,460 They see that while Thompson lives in poverty, he has donated hundreds of 173 00:13:03,460 --> 00:13:05,400 thousands of dollars to various politicians. 174 00:13:08,180 --> 00:13:13,480 The reporters wonder what they've stumbled upon and come up with three 175 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:19,140 First, Thompson is a lone wolf on the run from the law who created the 176 00:13:19,140 --> 00:13:20,900 association in order to survive. 177 00:13:22,500 --> 00:13:27,560 Second, the professional fundraisers are really in charge, and Thompson works 178 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:28,560 for them. 179 00:13:28,620 --> 00:13:35,000 And the third theory was, is Thompson the tool of a pretty much right -wing 180 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:41,580 group? I mean, sort of right of the Tea Party. We, to this day, I don't know 181 00:13:41,580 --> 00:13:43,780 which theory is actually the correct one. 182 00:13:45,180 --> 00:13:50,760 Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine received $1 ,000 from Thompson in 2006. 183 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:56,340 He offers a simpler explanation for the con man's seemingly high -profile 184 00:13:56,340 --> 00:13:57,340 connections. 185 00:13:57,560 --> 00:14:00,400 I'm sure the president of the United States had no idea who this guy was. 186 00:14:00,660 --> 00:14:03,240 It was probably at a fundraiser where he'd given some money. 187 00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:05,540 Both parties do that. It's not unusual. 188 00:14:06,100 --> 00:14:10,520 And it's just kind of the nature of, you know, politics is you have to raise a 189 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:11,520 lot of money. 190 00:14:12,300 --> 00:14:18,220 In March 2010, after seven months of investigating, the St. Petersburg Times 191 00:14:18,220 --> 00:14:21,920 publishes a series of articles about Thompson's Navy vet scam. 192 00:14:23,050 --> 00:14:26,870 Weeks later, a number of states across the country open investigations. 193 00:14:28,250 --> 00:14:33,410 Frying eyes are turning Thompson's criminal world upside down, threatening 194 00:14:33,410 --> 00:14:36,270 expose the true story of his hidden past. 195 00:14:39,100 --> 00:14:44,160 Next on American Greed, a U .S. Marshal's worst nightmare, tracking an 196 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:46,480 -intelligence officer who goes underground. 197 00:14:46,940 --> 00:14:51,300 Every single lead that we uncovered just led to another false identity. This was 198 00:14:51,300 --> 00:14:53,660 somebody who was highly trained and highly experienced. 199 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,960 For years, Bobby Thompson has been running a fake veterans charity from 200 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:17,120 rundown duplex in Tampa, Florida. 201 00:15:18,340 --> 00:15:23,560 He's been aided by professional telemarketers who make millions by 202 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:27,580 for money and asking the commander very little about the charity. 203 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:34,120 Now, a series of articles has finally forced them to dig deeper. 204 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:43,320 In June 2010, one telemarketer calls Thompson to Manhattan to give him the 205 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:46,480 chance to prove there's more to the charity than just him. 206 00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:51,040 The articles say there are no managers of this organization, there's no 207 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:52,720 officers, there's no trustees. 208 00:15:52,940 --> 00:15:54,160 Okay, produce them. 209 00:15:55,900 --> 00:16:00,180 Miraculously, Thompson brings two supposed board members with him. 210 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:01,660 But there's a problem. 211 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,360 They were appointed just days earlier. 212 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,860 The super -reported new board member made everybody feel even worse than they 213 00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:09,860 were before. 214 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:14,080 And so the next morning we got a communication from the attorney, and 215 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:15,160 we're done. 216 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,460 And I never heard from Bobby Thompson ever again. 217 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,660 Since starting the U .S. NBA, prosecutors say Thompson has siphoned 218 00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:29,700 approximately $3 million meant for veterans. 219 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:35,800 After the ill -fated meetings in New York, the commander begins hitting ATMs. 220 00:16:36,970 --> 00:16:40,030 Then he heads up the coast to Boston, Massachusetts. 221 00:16:41,010 --> 00:16:45,730 While trying to stay ahead of investigators, he hardly seems 222 00:16:46,010 --> 00:16:50,130 After he went on the run, he started out trying to create new charities. 223 00:16:50,350 --> 00:16:54,830 He created an organization on paper called the Plymouth Rock Society, and he 224 00:16:54,830 --> 00:16:58,810 created an organization called Quakers Penn's Landing, both of them religious 225 00:16:58,810 --> 00:16:59,810 organizations. 226 00:17:01,030 --> 00:17:05,530 In Ohio, donors handed over millions to Thompson's fake charity. 227 00:17:06,329 --> 00:17:10,930 And in October 2010, authorities there indict him on charges of racketeering, 228 00:17:11,089 --> 00:17:13,550 money laundering, and theft. 229 00:17:15,310 --> 00:17:19,849 But Thompson is nowhere to be found, and putting him in cuffs won't be easy. 230 00:17:20,569 --> 00:17:24,530 Normally when we get a fugitive case, a police agency comes to us and says, go 231 00:17:24,530 --> 00:17:28,730 find this person. Well, in this case, they said, go find a person. We don't 232 00:17:28,730 --> 00:17:29,730 who he is. 233 00:17:30,250 --> 00:17:34,990 It turns out that the name Bobby Thompson is nothing more than a stolen 234 00:17:34,990 --> 00:17:35,990 identity. 235 00:17:37,730 --> 00:17:42,490 Bill Bolden leads a team of U .S. Marshals from Cleveland, Ohio, after 236 00:17:42,490 --> 00:17:45,590 on the hunt for the mystery man in late 2011. 237 00:17:47,770 --> 00:17:52,750 They begin their search with three stolen identities their fugitive has 238 00:17:53,150 --> 00:17:57,470 Bobby Thompson, Elmer Dozier, and Ronnie Britton. 239 00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:01,120 As they dig deeper, this list grows longer. 240 00:18:01,580 --> 00:18:05,360 We would uncover an identity, and that would lead us to another identity. And 241 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:09,560 we'd try to investigate that identity, and it would overlap with another 242 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,840 identity. We thought we were chasing Jason Bourne. The guy was a ghost. 243 00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:19,940 Many of these identities were stolen from Native Americans living on the 244 00:18:19,940 --> 00:18:21,520 reservations of the Southwest. 245 00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:27,720 What's more, some were set up years before Thompson's crime came to light. 246 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:32,120 Marshals realize they're not dealing with a regular fugitive. 247 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:34,400 Well, he's good at what he is doing. 248 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:36,480 He knew how to cover his tracks. 249 00:18:37,060 --> 00:18:43,440 Obviously, he was trained, or he trained himself to be very good at hiding from 250 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:44,440 the law. 251 00:18:45,020 --> 00:18:48,980 Eventually, the search leads marshals to an apartment their fugitive has rented 252 00:18:48,980 --> 00:18:50,440 in Providence, Rhode Island. 253 00:18:51,630 --> 00:18:55,690 Though the commander has already skipped town, the team hunting him learns 254 00:18:55,690 --> 00:18:57,090 another name he's using, 255 00:18:57,790 --> 00:18:59,130 Anderson Yazzie. 256 00:18:59,430 --> 00:19:04,150 There was only one Anderson Yazzie in the country. That identity was so unique 257 00:19:04,150 --> 00:19:06,850 that it was very, very easy for us to track. 258 00:19:08,150 --> 00:19:13,750 Next on American Greed, investigators zero in and make a crucial discovery. 259 00:19:42,220 --> 00:19:48,100 In early 2012, a man with a limp shows up in Portland, Oregon, where he finds a 260 00:19:48,100 --> 00:19:50,160 room in Celia Moore's boarding house. 261 00:19:50,860 --> 00:19:54,240 He told me his name was Kenneth Don Morissette. 262 00:19:55,220 --> 00:20:01,360 And he said, don't call me Ken. My mom called me Kenny when I was growing up, 263 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:03,600 and I don't like it. Just call me Don. 264 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:10,240 Morissette claims to be a retired cop and a consultant for the Boeing company. 265 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:17,560 Often working on a computer in his room, Moore says he was an ideal tenant, as 266 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:19,640 long as she avoided one topic of conversation. 267 00:20:20,380 --> 00:20:25,320 Well, his politics were very, very far right -wing, and he said he was a 268 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:28,340 creationist, and just very far right. 269 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:35,180 Morissette lives quite frugally, taking some meals at a homeless shelter, and 270 00:20:35,180 --> 00:20:39,000 existing on Pepsi, string cheese, burritos, and ramen noodles. 271 00:20:40,110 --> 00:20:45,390 It's an amazing amount of lunches, like a man who was going to stay for a while. 272 00:20:46,050 --> 00:20:47,810 I thought he was staying a while. 273 00:20:54,270 --> 00:20:58,990 Outside the house, Morissette spends time visiting a rented storage locker. 274 00:20:59,230 --> 00:21:03,170 Well, he mentioned that he'd been married for 35 years and that it was a 275 00:21:03,170 --> 00:21:08,530 ugly divorce and that he didn't want his wife to know. 276 00:21:08,940 --> 00:21:09,940 where he was. 277 00:21:10,820 --> 00:21:14,860 That if she found him, she would take his money away. 278 00:21:16,580 --> 00:21:21,420 Now I realize that he was worried that the U .S. government would find him, not 279 00:21:21,420 --> 00:21:22,420 his wife. 280 00:21:24,820 --> 00:21:29,760 Not far from Moore's home, Morissette makes credit card purchases under the 281 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:33,720 that U .S. Marshals have keyed in on, Anderson Yazzie. 282 00:21:42,030 --> 00:21:47,330 On the night of April 30th, 2012, it's been two years since reporters exposed 283 00:21:47,330 --> 00:21:51,250 Commander Bobby Thompson's veterans charity as a scam. 284 00:21:52,970 --> 00:21:58,130 That night, he sits down at Biddy McGraw's Irish pub on Portland's 285 00:21:58,130 --> 00:21:59,130 side. 286 00:22:00,030 --> 00:22:03,490 Sitting next to him is someone who has just arrived in town. 287 00:22:04,650 --> 00:22:09,730 It's one of the men tracking the scam artist, Deputy U .S. Marshal Bill 288 00:22:10,940 --> 00:22:16,000 Hoping to find clues inside their fugitive's home, they wait and follow 289 00:22:17,060 --> 00:22:20,040 Slowly. We were not going to arrest him right away. 290 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,880 We wanted to find out, number one, who he really was, and we were looking for 291 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:27,660 what we were calling the bank of Bobby Thompson. 292 00:22:29,900 --> 00:22:34,380 As he approaches his front door at 10 .30 p .m., marshals cuff him. 293 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:42,220 They finally caught the man who reeled in millions claiming to help those in 294 00:22:42,220 --> 00:22:44,240 uniform. But who is he? 295 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,640 We asked him his name. Sir, what is your name? 296 00:22:47,940 --> 00:22:52,280 His response was, I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights. I'm not going to tell 297 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:53,280 my name. 298 00:22:53,360 --> 00:22:57,980 Though their shadowy figure is tight -lipped, he's carrying three separate 299 00:22:57,980 --> 00:23:01,000 wallets, each containing a fully fleshed -out identity. 300 00:23:01,850 --> 00:23:06,510 In one, they find a business card for a storage facility with a unit number 301 00:23:06,510 --> 00:23:07,510 written on it. 302 00:23:08,250 --> 00:23:11,730 The marshals head there, not sure of what they'll find. 303 00:23:13,210 --> 00:23:15,830 Inside, they see two suitcases. 304 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:18,560 This is stacks of birth certificates. 305 00:23:19,220 --> 00:23:22,960 One contains a virtual workshop of fake ID material. 306 00:23:24,460 --> 00:23:25,000 And 307 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:31,700 inside 308 00:23:31,700 --> 00:23:33,760 the second bag? 309 00:23:34,660 --> 00:23:36,300 Oh, my God. 310 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:37,760 Oh, 100. 311 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:39,240 These are 100. 312 00:23:39,780 --> 00:23:40,780 How much? 313 00:23:41,180 --> 00:23:45,040 It's the mother load. This is, uh, we joked. We said hopefully this storage 314 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:46,300 is the bank of Bobby Thompson. 315 00:23:46,910 --> 00:23:47,609 This is it. 316 00:23:47,610 --> 00:23:49,350 We're talking these are mostly hundreds. 317 00:23:50,210 --> 00:23:54,510 50s, 100s, there's obviously a lot of 20s as well, but this is more money than 318 00:23:54,510 --> 00:23:55,510 I've ever seen in one spot. 319 00:23:56,050 --> 00:24:00,630 The team takes the loot to a secure location, running it through cash 320 00:24:00,910 --> 00:24:03,270 anxiously waiting for the final tally. 321 00:24:04,950 --> 00:24:05,950 $2 ,800. 322 00:24:06,430 --> 00:24:07,430 $2 ,800? 323 00:24:07,650 --> 00:24:08,650 Yeah. 324 00:24:10,710 --> 00:24:11,970 $981 ,650. 325 00:24:12,350 --> 00:24:13,350 It's just under a mil. 326 00:24:14,170 --> 00:24:15,470 It's a huge haul. 327 00:24:16,110 --> 00:24:20,290 But it's just a fraction of the millions that prosecutors will later say the 328 00:24:20,290 --> 00:24:21,770 commander pocketed. 329 00:24:23,550 --> 00:24:28,390 Across town, landlord Celia Moore makes one more interesting discovery in her 330 00:24:28,390 --> 00:24:29,390 tenant's rented room. 331 00:24:29,670 --> 00:24:33,690 A DVD of the film Catch Me If You Can. 332 00:24:37,550 --> 00:24:41,210 He thought he was like the guy in the movie, and nobody was ever going to 333 00:24:41,210 --> 00:24:44,570 him, and he was going to keep going and doing what he was doing. Because with a 334 00:24:44,570 --> 00:24:47,890 million dollars, he could have disappeared across the border the next 335 00:24:48,430 --> 00:24:51,230 But instead, he was staying and doing it all over again. 336 00:24:52,690 --> 00:24:56,030 The marshals prove they can catch their man. 337 00:24:57,090 --> 00:25:01,530 But when they lock him up in Ohio, where he's facing state charges related to 338 00:25:01,530 --> 00:25:05,810 the USNBA scam, he still refuses to say who he is. 339 00:25:06,250 --> 00:25:08,030 and signs his name with an X. 340 00:25:09,110 --> 00:25:13,370 Pete Elliott, U .S. Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, isn't too 341 00:25:13,370 --> 00:25:18,530 concerned. I thought for sure we were going to find out his true identity once 342 00:25:18,530 --> 00:25:20,870 we put his fingerprints in the national system. 343 00:25:21,350 --> 00:25:22,750 But it's not that easy. 344 00:25:23,350 --> 00:25:27,990 When they search for fingerprint matches, nothing comes up in the U .S., 345 00:25:28,230 --> 00:25:29,730 or through Interpol. 346 00:25:30,270 --> 00:25:33,590 I've been in law enforcement 30 years, and I've never seen that before. 347 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,480 We had no clue who Mr. X was. 348 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:43,100 For five months, Mr. X sits in a cell, leaving Elliot and others wondering who 349 00:25:43,100 --> 00:25:44,100 he is. 350 00:25:44,700 --> 00:25:49,260 I always felt that Bobby Thompson was probably somebody that did a similar 351 00:25:49,260 --> 00:25:52,920 in the past, but was never arrested for it, because if he was arrested, his 352 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,340 fingerprints would have been in our national system. 353 00:25:56,700 --> 00:25:59,620 To check this theory, in September 2012, 354 00:26:00,500 --> 00:26:02,280 Elliot fires up his computer. 355 00:26:03,530 --> 00:26:09,930 I started Googling missing Navy vets, most wanted military fugitives, 356 00:26:09,930 --> 00:26:13,090 and also most wanted fraud fugitives. 357 00:26:13,890 --> 00:26:19,010 What he finds is a story that would be unbelievable were it not true. 358 00:26:19,950 --> 00:26:25,810 Next on American Greed, his past catches up to him. Mr. X's true identity 359 00:26:25,810 --> 00:26:29,570 revealed. He just was strange. 360 00:26:30,490 --> 00:26:33,030 And it only got stranger as the conversation went on. 361 00:26:42,950 --> 00:26:47,250 When Marshal Pete Elliott starts searching for the true identity of Mr. 362 00:26:47,510 --> 00:26:52,490 X, he has no idea that the story of the Navy Vets charity scam is about to 363 00:26:52,490 --> 00:26:54,250 become even more bizarre. 364 00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:00,260 Among the results he finds is a wanted poster for a fraud fugitive from the 365 00:27:00,260 --> 00:27:03,680 1980s named John Donald Cody. 366 00:27:04,020 --> 00:27:07,880 So the first thing that popped out to me was a picture on the far left -hand 367 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:12,640 side of John Donald Cody from 1980, and he had a pompadour hairstyle. 368 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:20,440 And Bobby Thompson from 1990s and 2000s, he has a pompadour 369 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:21,440 hairstyle. 370 00:27:22,730 --> 00:27:27,890 Elliot notes other similarities between the man on the wanted poster, Cody, and 371 00:27:27,890 --> 00:27:29,470 the man in custody, Thompson. 372 00:27:30,430 --> 00:27:33,350 The fugitive, Cody, has no tear glands. 373 00:27:34,430 --> 00:27:37,950 Thompson leaves bottles of eye drops in his room in Portland. 374 00:27:38,690 --> 00:27:41,370 Cody is a former Army intelligence captain. 375 00:27:41,930 --> 00:27:45,630 Thompson claims to be a Navy intelligence lieutenant commander. 376 00:27:46,490 --> 00:27:48,470 Cody has a Harvard law degree. 377 00:27:49,260 --> 00:27:53,860 Thompson is taking an active role defending himself in the Navy veterans 378 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,600 Give us a breakdown, Mr. Britton, of what you were doing in 1997. 379 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,920 So all these things started adding up, but nothing's exact. 380 00:28:04,220 --> 00:28:06,580 I could be as right as I could be wrong. 381 00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:11,900 To prove that the man arrested for stealing millions is actually John 382 00:28:11,900 --> 00:28:14,340 Cody, Elliott needs his fingerprints. 383 00:28:15,340 --> 00:28:20,500 When he calls an FBI agent working Cody's old case, he learns that the 384 00:28:20,500 --> 00:28:24,140 has a set of his prints that were never entered into the national database. 385 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:29,100 I don't know why they were not in the national system. The bottom line is, if 386 00:28:29,100 --> 00:28:33,620 they were in the national system, then we wouldn't have spent five months 387 00:28:33,620 --> 00:28:35,780 to identify who he really was. 388 00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:40,940 When Elliott receives a copy, he has them triple -checked against Mr. 389 00:28:41,180 --> 00:28:42,180 X's prints. 390 00:28:42,810 --> 00:28:46,290 Then he pays the Navy vet scammer a visit in his cell. 391 00:28:46,710 --> 00:28:49,690 I go, we uncovered who you are, John Donald Cody. 392 00:28:49,930 --> 00:28:52,290 And he just looked at me with a smile on his face. 393 00:28:52,510 --> 00:28:53,510 And that was it. 394 00:28:55,550 --> 00:28:58,790 Elliot has figured out the mystery man's true identity. 395 00:28:59,410 --> 00:29:05,010 But how Captain Cody became Commander Thompson is a story that still leaves 396 00:29:05,010 --> 00:29:06,010 guessing. 397 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:15,180 While many of his classmates protested the Vietnam War, John Donald Cody 398 00:29:15,180 --> 00:29:16,620 followed the call of duty. 399 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:23,900 When he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1972, Cody was a reserve army 400 00:29:23,900 --> 00:29:28,560 officer with a specialty in military intelligence and a top -secret 401 00:29:29,100 --> 00:29:30,120 He was intelligent. 402 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:32,640 He had all the opportunity he could want. 403 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,600 It seemed like everything would have been on the up and up for him. 404 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:42,940 Cody's military records show him working civilian jobs at a variety of top 405 00:29:42,940 --> 00:29:45,680 -notch law firms in the early 1970s. 406 00:29:45,940 --> 00:29:52,400 They also include an offer letter from 1974 for a job with an obscure Defense 407 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:54,560 Department office in Washington, D .C. 408 00:29:55,020 --> 00:30:00,420 Cody and a person once listed publicly as an employee of the office say it was 409 00:30:00,420 --> 00:30:02,380 cover for CIA agents. 410 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,380 Cody will later say he worked for the agency starting in 1972. 411 00:30:08,460 --> 00:30:11,300 The CIA declined to comment on his claim. 412 00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:16,620 Whether he ever had any contact with the CIA, I have no clue. There's just no 413 00:30:16,620 --> 00:30:18,100 way for us to know that. 414 00:30:18,980 --> 00:30:24,700 In 1977, Cody's records say he's in the Philippines attending graduate school. 415 00:30:25,580 --> 00:30:32,340 In 1979, the year he leaves, his employer is listed as U .S. Government 416 00:30:32,340 --> 00:30:33,340 Classified. 417 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:41,020 That same year, he returns to the U .S. and sets up his own law firm in an 418 00:30:41,020 --> 00:30:42,020 unlikely place, 419 00:30:42,740 --> 00:30:44,120 Sierra Vista, Arizona. 420 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:51,200 It's a dusty town along the Mexican border and is home to an Army 421 00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,360 base where Cody once trained. 422 00:30:54,960 --> 00:31:00,200 In Sierra Vista, he befriends Terry Sariso, who gets to know him as a 423 00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:01,200 liberal Democrat. 424 00:31:01,900 --> 00:31:07,040 He had a picture of Bobby Kennedy on the wall behind his chair in his office. 425 00:31:07,460 --> 00:31:12,460 He wanted equality for people, and he was willing to fight for it. 426 00:31:13,460 --> 00:31:18,920 One of Cody's secretaries, Diane Shaughnessy, says this philosophy 427 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,400 to the way he treats his clients, many of them indigents. 428 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,120 Important. One was not better than the other. 429 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,200 And he fought hard for everybody. 430 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:37,640 Representing clients in both criminal and civil matters, Cody racks up many 431 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:38,760 courtroom victories. 432 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:45,260 While Cody has his law office, as a reservist, records say he also does part 433 00:31:45,260 --> 00:31:47,880 -time legal duty at the intelligence base in town. 434 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,400 Performance reviews from 1980 call him a superior officer. 435 00:31:54,060 --> 00:31:55,720 with a high degree of integrity. 436 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:03,700 This is a far cry from the Cody that former prosecutor Dennis Lusk knows 437 00:32:03,700 --> 00:32:04,700 the same time. 438 00:32:05,100 --> 00:32:06,700 Honesty meant nothing to him. 439 00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,980 Ethics meant nothing to him. Candor to the court meant nothing to him if it 440 00:32:10,980 --> 00:32:12,300 meant getting ahead with his clients. 441 00:32:13,580 --> 00:32:18,080 Here at the Bisbee Courthouse, Lusk prosecutes many of Cody's clients. 442 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:23,500 He says Cody viewed him and other prosecutors through a distorted lens. 443 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:29,300 No matter how routine the case was, it was the worst case of prosecutorial 444 00:32:29,300 --> 00:32:33,080 misconduct and overstepping, and we were trying to stomp him under the Nazi 445 00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:37,500 boot. And that was a term he used fairly frequently over the course of time that 446 00:32:37,500 --> 00:32:38,499 I knew him. 447 00:32:38,500 --> 00:32:43,980 In legal filings on behalf of his clients, Cody seems at times unhinged. 448 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:50,060 Signed with a strange scrawl, he references Adolf Hitler and compares 449 00:32:50,060 --> 00:32:51,100 KGB agent. 450 00:32:51,660 --> 00:32:56,860 As time went on, he seemed more and more radical, almost to the point of being 451 00:32:56,860 --> 00:32:57,860 an anarchist. 452 00:32:59,260 --> 00:33:04,500 Cody lives at this simple apartment complex, and over the years, friends 453 00:33:04,500 --> 00:33:06,480 he's growing increasingly paranoid. 454 00:33:07,100 --> 00:33:13,160 In 1981, he tells a reporter he fears prosecutors may be trying to kill him. 455 00:33:13,580 --> 00:33:15,940 Did he have personality disorder? 456 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:17,880 I don't know. 457 00:33:22,060 --> 00:33:28,740 In late May 1984, Cody meets Sariso at the Sari Gulch Saloon and tells her 458 00:33:28,740 --> 00:33:30,780 he's involved in a secret mission. 459 00:33:31,300 --> 00:33:33,660 There were a lot of drugs coming in across the border. 460 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:40,920 He felt there were official people who were perpetuating it, and he wanted to 461 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:41,920 bring them down. 462 00:33:43,020 --> 00:33:47,980 But he said, if I can't accomplish this, I will have to disappear. 463 00:33:50,020 --> 00:33:55,960 On May 21, 1984, Cody says he's leaving town on unexpected business. 464 00:33:56,760 --> 00:34:03,520 I had no idea that this would be the last day that I would ever see or hear 465 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:04,520 him. 466 00:34:04,820 --> 00:34:10,380 I was perplexed. I thought John was trying to do something good, and it went 467 00:34:10,380 --> 00:34:11,380 bad. 468 00:34:12,010 --> 00:34:15,710 But in the days to come, another story will come out. 469 00:34:17,070 --> 00:34:22,630 At the Bisbee Courthouse, Cody has been held in contempt after he allegedly lied 470 00:34:22,630 --> 00:34:23,630 to a judge. 471 00:34:24,030 --> 00:34:29,710 He has skipped town with nearly $100 ,000 stolen from his clients and left 472 00:34:29,710 --> 00:34:33,870 Corvette at the Phoenix Airport, unlocked with the keys in the ignition. 473 00:34:35,050 --> 00:34:40,270 In 1987, Cody is indicted on federal fraud charges related to the theft from 474 00:34:40,270 --> 00:34:41,270 clients in Arizona. 475 00:34:43,090 --> 00:34:48,210 The FBI poster that Pete Elliott will eventually find says Cody is also wanted 476 00:34:48,210 --> 00:34:51,090 for questioning in an espionage investigation. 477 00:34:52,070 --> 00:34:57,790 The FBI tells American Greed that national security precludes them from 478 00:34:57,790 --> 00:34:58,810 about Cody's case. 479 00:35:01,850 --> 00:35:04,010 So what made Cody run? 480 00:35:06,810 --> 00:35:11,570 Prosecutors in Ohio say his advancement in the Army Reserves was not going as he 481 00:35:11,570 --> 00:35:12,509 might have hoped. 482 00:35:12,510 --> 00:35:15,610 But a definitive cause remains elusive. 483 00:35:15,970 --> 00:35:19,810 There's nothing in his military records that indicates anything right off the 484 00:35:19,810 --> 00:35:23,010 bat that would say this happened and therefore he's gone. 485 00:35:23,230 --> 00:35:25,210 And that's the big question mark. 486 00:35:25,830 --> 00:35:27,610 It's not the only one. 487 00:35:28,490 --> 00:35:34,490 After leaving Arizona in 1984, Cody remains underground until he emerges in 488 00:35:34,490 --> 00:35:39,570 Florida in 1998 as the highly connected Commander Bobby Thompson. 489 00:35:40,350 --> 00:35:46,670 There's a big block of time where no one has been able to determine what 490 00:35:46,670 --> 00:35:48,630 Thompson was doing in that 15 -year period. 491 00:35:48,990 --> 00:35:53,970 How did he feel so comfortable walking into the White House while he was an FBI 492 00:35:53,970 --> 00:35:54,970 wanted fugitive? 493 00:35:55,500 --> 00:35:59,680 I still think there's a lot about John Donald Cody that we just do not know. 494 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:06,620 Next on American Greed, from his jail cell, Cody offers up an intriguing 495 00:36:06,620 --> 00:36:09,000 explanation for his Navy vet crime. 496 00:36:09,580 --> 00:36:12,120 How did I drop into a Tom Clancy novel? 497 00:36:12,340 --> 00:36:13,680 I mean, that's what came to my mind. 498 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:35,860 As John Donald Cody heads to trial for running the Navy Vets charity scam, he 499 00:36:35,860 --> 00:36:41,260 digs into his past as a Harvard -trained lawyer, filing scores of handwritten 500 00:36:41,260 --> 00:36:42,260 motions. 501 00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:48,620 In these, he says that he worked for the CIA beginning in the 1970s, that the 502 00:36:48,620 --> 00:36:52,640 agency subjected him to hypnosis and psychotropic drug treatment. 503 00:36:53,260 --> 00:36:58,960 and even claims that until 2012, he was working for them as a non -official 504 00:36:58,960 --> 00:36:59,960 cover officer. 505 00:37:00,420 --> 00:37:04,800 We can't say whether he was a CIA agent or whether he never was a CIA agent. 506 00:37:05,060 --> 00:37:08,020 According to the record, he was a lawyer, and that's what he was. 507 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:09,840 That's what the records say. 508 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:15,960 While running his fake charity, Cody donated hundreds of thousands of dollars 509 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:16,960 politicians. 510 00:37:17,710 --> 00:37:23,850 He claims the U .S. Navy Veterans Association was not a criminal 511 00:37:23,850 --> 00:37:28,550 a U .S. intelligence community, White House, and Republican Party manipulated 512 00:37:28,550 --> 00:37:29,550 operation. 513 00:37:30,110 --> 00:37:31,410 I was taking orders. 514 00:37:32,010 --> 00:37:36,330 Higher -ups were telling me to do this, and I was, you know, following orders 515 00:37:36,330 --> 00:37:38,710 and this sort of thing. He put that out there. 516 00:37:39,720 --> 00:37:44,140 Attorney Helen McMurray remembers that breakfast meeting when Cody downed 517 00:37:44,140 --> 00:37:48,620 multiple Bloody Marys and told her the association was tied to the CIA. 518 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:56,980 She still wonders if his story is one she can dismiss 100%. I can't. 519 00:37:56,980 --> 00:38:02,080 And quite frankly, the fact that when they arrested him and his fingerprints 520 00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:05,180 not turn up in any database, it really makes you question. 521 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,680 But prosecutors see it another way. 522 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:15,420 It sort of goes against what would be in the, I would guess, the spy 101 manual 523 00:38:15,420 --> 00:38:18,260 to say I'm a super secret spy. 524 00:38:18,540 --> 00:38:22,100 But by the way, here's a picture of me shaking hands with the president of the 525 00:38:22,100 --> 00:38:23,100 United States. 526 00:38:24,380 --> 00:38:29,120 What's more, they say Cody's cloak and dagger justification for running his 527 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:31,020 charity is a moot point. 528 00:38:31,380 --> 00:38:34,620 Even if he would have been the James Bond of Ohio. 529 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:39,340 There's no exemptions that allow a federal officer of any kind to come into 530 00:38:39,340 --> 00:38:44,840 state of Ohio or any other state and break state laws at their own will or at 531 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:45,880 the command of someone else. 532 00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:55,980 In September 2013, Thompson's Navy Vets charity fraud trial gets underway here 533 00:38:55,980 --> 00:38:58,880 at the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio. 534 00:39:00,750 --> 00:39:06,290 In his opening statement, Cody's attorney, Joseph Patatus, hints at a 535 00:39:06,290 --> 00:39:09,350 involving Cody's claimed CIA career. 536 00:39:09,690 --> 00:39:12,550 You're going to have to ask yourself, how does he get that close to the 537 00:39:12,550 --> 00:39:13,550 president of the United States? 538 00:39:14,170 --> 00:39:18,630 The prosecution presents its case first and calls 42 witnesses. 539 00:39:20,110 --> 00:39:23,590 As they finish, things turn strange. 540 00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:29,840 Those in the courtroom hear the defendant in a nearby holding cell 541 00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:30,960 head against a wall. 542 00:39:31,860 --> 00:39:35,580 Days later, he shows up looking disheveled. 543 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:39,900 The magnitude of the evidence that was presented against him was coming home. 544 00:39:40,340 --> 00:39:44,280 It was a ploy for a mistrial, again to try to manipulate the system. 545 00:39:46,060 --> 00:39:51,320 After months of hitting on a defense involving his claimed CIA career, Cody 546 00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:56,080 refuses to testify, and his lawyer calls no witnesses in his defense. 547 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:58,040 I think he didn't have any defense. 548 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:00,620 There was nothing that he really could say. 549 00:40:01,220 --> 00:40:05,100 Once you take the stand, you open yourself up for all kinds of cross 550 00:40:05,100 --> 00:40:06,100 -examination. 551 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:12,400 The jury needs only three hours before they find Cody guilty of racketeering, 552 00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,360 theft, money laundering, and identity fraud charges. 553 00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:23,160 One month later, Judge Stephen Gall sentences him to 28 years in prison. 554 00:40:24,140 --> 00:40:29,920 He also orders the one -time Army captain to spend every Veterans Day in 555 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:31,400 solitary confinement. 556 00:40:37,420 --> 00:40:43,060 Now, Cody sits here at an Ohio prison where he could spend the rest of his 557 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:49,900 To this day, many are left with questions about Cody's past, about his 558 00:40:49,900 --> 00:40:56,240 to hide in plain sight, and about his reason for stealing millions while 559 00:40:56,240 --> 00:40:57,400 a life of poverty. 560 00:40:57,800 --> 00:40:59,800 The game was what it was all about to him. 561 00:41:00,940 --> 00:41:04,380 The ability to walk into the White House with a fake ID. 562 00:41:04,990 --> 00:41:07,550 knowing that he was already a fugitive when he did that. 563 00:41:08,270 --> 00:41:12,970 One thing about John Donald Cody, he always has to be the smartest guy in the 564 00:41:12,970 --> 00:41:17,770 room, no matter what room he is in. He may have been the smartest person in the 565 00:41:17,770 --> 00:41:21,910 room most of the time, but somewhere along the line, he got twisted, he got 566 00:41:21,910 --> 00:41:24,650 turned, and just dropped off the deep end. 567 00:41:25,350 --> 00:41:27,790 And when he dropped off the deep end, he went full bore. 568 00:41:29,250 --> 00:41:36,250 This story went from a dilapidated, run -down duplex, and it went all the way to 569 00:41:36,250 --> 00:41:37,250 the White House. 570 00:41:37,310 --> 00:41:38,450 What's going on here? 571 00:41:39,130 --> 00:41:40,510 I still don't know the answer. 572 00:41:41,470 --> 00:41:45,190 In Portland, Marshall's found close to $1 million. 573 00:41:46,170 --> 00:41:52,350 But it's only a fraction of the $100 million Thompson -slash -Cody said he 574 00:41:52,350 --> 00:41:53,350 raised for veterans. 575 00:41:53,950 --> 00:41:55,570 What happened to the rest? 576 00:41:56,110 --> 00:41:58,970 A lot of this money really hasn't been accounted for. 577 00:41:59,790 --> 00:42:03,030 And I don't know if anybody knows, aside from Thompson, where it went. 578 00:42:04,530 --> 00:42:06,670 Do I think there's other storage units out there? 579 00:42:07,850 --> 00:42:11,330 If I was a betting man, I would say I think there probably is. 580 00:42:15,950 --> 00:42:20,410 Next, a devious genius gets rich quick, printing millions at home. 581 00:42:20,670 --> 00:42:23,390 The opportunity was there for them to make easy money. 582 00:42:23,870 --> 00:42:29,350 The CNBC hit series, American Greed. Games, scoundrels, and suckers. Knack. 583 00:42:30,510 --> 00:42:34,490 Don't get taken. Be a part of the conversation on Twitter. Hashtag 584 00:42:34,490 --> 00:42:35,490 Greed.