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In this episode of American Greed,
they're foreign.

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And when they were speaking, they had an
accent. They said, do you know where

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we're from?

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Flirty. The one very more taller,
sophisticated. The other one was more

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like the girl next door.

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And fun -loving. Very disarming. They
compliment you. You're very, very nice.

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You're a nice American.

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Thanks.

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They're bar girls, also known as B
-girls. And once they get a hold of a

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attention... The girls would straddle
the guys, rub up against the guys, grind

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on the guys.

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And his credit card, the game's over.

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Every three minutes, $2 ,000, $3 ,000,
$5 ,000, $800 tip, $700 tip. But behind

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the smiles and the seduction, a scheme
run by the Russian mob exploits Florida

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law. Listen, guy, I'll bust your head
right here.

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I'm a police officer and I can do it.
And runs up a bar tab for the record

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books.

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The limit of the credit card was the
only thing that stopped them.

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They exceeded the greed limit.

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Forget about Gecko. Greed is good. Greed
is not so good. Eventually you'll get

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nailed.

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is a Fox 29 weather authority update.

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I'm John Valera's happy St. Patrick's
Day.

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It's been a magnificent day with
temperatures well up there into the 60s.

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of sunshine for sure. Big question is
how long will it last? Details coming

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For TV weatherman John Valera, it's been
a long winter of forecasting snow and

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ice.

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Now that the February sweeps ratings
period is over, Valera's can relax a bit

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and enjoy his springtime ritual.

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Jetting off to Miami Beach.

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Head to the beach, pool, got the
workouts in, play golf, come back, do a

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dinner, you know, have a couple of
drinks and just chill out. And you

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just chilled and relaxed and had a good
time.

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Miami is an adult playground.

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A place where the normal rules of
society don't always apply.

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If you're a guy my age and you pull up
to a club in a Ferrari with a 28 -year

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-old stripper with a tattoo, they give
you applause.

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You're not humiliated. I mean, I would
be humiliated, right? But Miami, man,

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you're going good.

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On the night of March 27, 2010, John
Belaris leaves his room at the Fountain

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Blue Hotel and gets in a taxi heading
south on Collins Avenue.

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He gets out at the Delano Hotel and
heads in for sushi and drinks.

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Here's the thing about Valeris.
Everywhere he goes, he's mobbed by fans.

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You can see it in this news clip.

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Who's on that phone?

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I'm talking to my mother. Tell her I'm
in front of you.

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I was always accessible.

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I grew up blue collar on Long Island
and, you know, playing baseball. And so,

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you know, I was a very approachable guy.

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Even here in Miami, people recognize
John Valeris.

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Some Philadelphians on spring break see
him and say, Hey, John, what's the

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weather going to be?

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The bartender is also from Philly.

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Two women at the side of the bar take
note of this banter.

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And then they came up from behind and
said, Hey, you're a weather presenter in

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this country.

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And I looked at him, and I said, I don't
know about him, a weather presenter.

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And he goes, yeah, he's a weatherman.
He's a meteorologist. He goes, oh,

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very interesting.

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Valera says the women appear to be in
their mid -20s, and they're well

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Miami could be over the top quite a bit.

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South Beach, they were not that way.
They were sophisticated.

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I had a European look to them. And when
they were speaking, I had an accent.

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They said, do you know where we're from?
And I said, Poland.

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I just, they said, no Estonia. I said,
oh, okay.

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And then they, we started talking.

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Baleris, who is drinking Pinot Grigio,
orders a round for his new friends.

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One is named Marina, the other, Anna.

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They were visiting. They found most
Americans not nice.

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You seem to be an exception to the rule.
You're very nice and friendly to us.

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And I said, why wouldn't I be?

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You know, I think both Americans are
nice.

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I mean, you come up to me, you're
talking to me, I'm going to be nice to

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I said, you're not yelling at me for a
bad forecast.

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Remember saying that, you know, I don't
have to duck. I'm going to be nice. I'm

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in a good mood. I'm in Miami and I'm
enjoying some food and a couple of

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at the bar.

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Valera says that after a drink, he heads
out to the bar by the pool.

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The two girls join him.

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John insists that the girls never offer
to have sex.

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On the other hand, he says, he is open
to whatever the night might bring.

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I wasn't at, you know, a bingo church. I
was at South Beach, Miami.

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I'm a single guy. It may cross your
mind.

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It could cross your mind. It's normal to
cross your mind.

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It's not a crime in thinking that you
may be getting together or maybe not.

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knows?

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I don't know, maybe 10 minutes elapsed,
a few minutes elapsed, and they came by

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and said, do you want to do a shot with
us? I said, no, I don't want to do a

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shot.

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You know, I don't want to do a shot. I'm
having Pinot Grigio.

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I'm lining up for a shot, right?

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And I said, no.

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But the girls are persistent.

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But then they came over again.

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And they said, you're not doing a shot
with us. And then the one came behind me

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and sort of wrote much. Please do just a
shot with us. Let's just have a shot,

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you know, do it for, you know, our
country. And you're kind of said, OK,

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a shot.

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And then they like running it.

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And the other one put a shot down. I
thought it did the shot. OK.

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You know, there's not too much that goes
on after that that I can truly

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remember.

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One thing he does remember.

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The women suggest they go to an art
auction to benefit victims of the

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in Haiti.

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I said, all right, I'll stop in. I'll
stop in.

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I remember getting in the cab, and the
only thing I remember after that was

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someone holding my arm.

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I felt that, like, shining, shining
things.

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At one point, he remembers passing out.

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And then they got me up. They said, are
you okay?

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You know, I remember I said, whoa, you
must have, you like Drinker.

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I said, yeah.

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And they said, oh, you bid on the
painting. I said, what?

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I bid on a painting.

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I said, okay.

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Yeah, it's a painting. Come on, we're
going to take it back to your hotel.

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And I'm looking at the painting. I
remember, but I said, hmm.

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I checked for receipts.

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I wanted to see, A, what I paid for the
painting, and if it's going to be a

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charity write -off, I've got to have the
receipt.

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There are no receipts to be found.

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And then I noticed as I was checking the
drawer, my sunglasses were missing.

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You know, expensive sunglasses.

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Then I thought something was up. I had
the painting there, sunglasses. I said,

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they took him.

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They took him, all right.

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But the B -girls aren't finished with
him yet.

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They're really, really good.

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You know, and they're the best.

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They're the best of the best.

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Up next.

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These curvaceous criminals are cold
-hearted crooks.

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He took pride in the fact that they
could screw over a guy without having to

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screw up.

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After waking up with a throbbing head
and a mysterious painting at the foot of

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his bed, John Belaris is a little
confused.

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I don't know exactly what happened,
because you don't remember anything, but

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know there's a painting there, there's
no receipt, your sunglasses are missing,

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you're in your full clothes, but you
have red wine on you, and you have

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I said, they took me.

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But if they took him, there's this
curiosity.

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His wallet is there, with all his credit
cards.

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And then later, after the swim, he sees
there's a message on his hotel phone.

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Hello, it's Marina. So sorry, we took
your sunglasses by accident.

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We hope you like the painting.

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And they left their number.

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They're saying they have their sunk my
sunglasses, and they made a mistake.

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I called them back.

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I said, hey, what the heck?

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You know, where's the receipt? What's
the painting? Oh, I said, I bid on this

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painting. Oh, you bid very heavily.

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Bolares can't remember bidding at all.

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But this much he does know.

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He has an acute case of buyer's regret,
and he wants their help to return the

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painting. Okay, if you don't like it,
we'll return it to the vendor, and we'll

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return your sunglasses.

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Okay.

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So what exactly is Bolares thinking at
this moment?

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You know, listen, everything was there.
My wallet was there. I mean, if they

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were going to rip me off, would they
come rip me off? My wallet's there.

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So what kind of a red flag are you going
to have with that?

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You're not.

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So John agrees to meet the girls again.

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He says he simply wants his stuff
returned.

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But Playboy writer Pat Jordan says it's
only natural that some other motivation

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could be in the mix.

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You wake up smelling a perfume with two
red lips, you think you did well, and

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you don't remember it, though.

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So maybe you go back to second night.

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John meets the girls once again at the
Delano, at the same pool bar.

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And they say, hey, John.

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I said, okay. I came over. I go, hey, we
got your sunglasses.

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So sorry. They look like our sunglasses.

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We were a little drunk.

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We had a good time.

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It was fun.

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They drink more Pinot Grigio and make
plans to return the dreaded painting.

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At one point, Valera says he leaves the
girls to go to the bathroom.

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He believes they take that opportunity
to spike his drink.

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Because after that, things get very
blurry.

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He remembers getting into a cab and
heading to the nightclub where they say

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bought the painting.

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When I walked in, the only thing I
remember is a bar and a person handing a

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purse to Marina.

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That's it.

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There's no way that from Pinot Grigio
that I'll take that kind of a ride, you

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know, or like, no.

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Total gone. Total.

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Put the black out.

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The next day is Groundhog Day, a painful
replay.

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But this morning, there's a ray of
light. The painting is gone.

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It looks like his new friends from
Estonia have made good on their promise.

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And I remember they came back to the
room and they took the painting.

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That was it.

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Valeris feels sick, much worse than the
day before.

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00:13:01,560 --> 00:13:04,220
But he manages to get on a plane back to
Philadelphia.

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00:13:04,620 --> 00:13:09,800
And when he shuffles home, dead tired,
he gets a call from American Express.

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00:13:11,460 --> 00:13:15,760
They say his credit card has a boatload
of suspicious charges.

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00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:21,380
Originally, they said $27 ,000 and
change, and then they called back and

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00:13:21,380 --> 00:13:23,800
upped it to $43 ,670.

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00:13:24,540 --> 00:13:26,980
I said, where did this transaction take
place?

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00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:30,160
They said at a place called the Caviar
Bar.

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00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:34,520
I said, I don't know what the Caviar Bar
is. Obviously, this is a mistake.

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I just knew something went on with my
credit card, and then it came to me it

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00:13:39,900 --> 00:13:40,900
them.

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00:13:43,380 --> 00:13:44,380
I called Marina.

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00:13:44,730 --> 00:13:49,110
I said, hey, hi, how are you? I said,
listen, what did you guys do? I said,

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00:13:49,110 --> 00:13:52,890
you did was a crime, I do believe. If
you use my credit card without my

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00:13:52,890 --> 00:13:54,310
authorization, that's a crime.

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00:13:55,010 --> 00:13:57,130
Oh, no, we would never do anything like
that. I said, no.

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00:13:57,970 --> 00:13:58,970
What did you do?

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00:13:59,090 --> 00:14:01,270
And I actually said to them, who are you
working for?

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00:14:02,730 --> 00:14:07,110
Belarus files a fraud claim with Amex
and refuses to pay the charges.

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00:14:07,670 --> 00:14:12,110
To his surprise, as he tells it, Amex
takes the merchant's side.

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00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:17,000
They were horrible. The chief
investigator said to me, I've seen this

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00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:18,000
times.

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00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:21,540
You're acting like a big shot, and
you're spending money.

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And I said, wait a minute.

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00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:25,680
You've seen this a thousand times on my
account?

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00:14:26,340 --> 00:14:30,960
Valeris asks for proof of the
transactions, and the credit card

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00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:32,460
receipts to him at work.

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00:14:32,740 --> 00:14:35,600
And I called him back and said, that's
not my signature.

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00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:37,940
And I said, look at the time stamps.

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00:14:38,650 --> 00:14:45,290
Every three minutes, $2 ,000, $3 ,000,
$5 ,000, $800 tip, $700 tip. He's just

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00:14:45,290 --> 00:14:46,670
barely exaggerating.

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00:14:47,050 --> 00:14:52,430
The money trail shows that Valeris'
first transaction at the caviar bar is

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00:14:52,430 --> 00:14:53,630
.21 in the morning.

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00:14:55,050 --> 00:14:59,710
He's charged $1 ,888 for Palme d 'Or
champagne.

230
00:15:00,470 --> 00:15:02,570
It retails for about $100.

231
00:15:03,990 --> 00:15:09,630
Fifteen minutes later, he's charged $2
,495 for a bottle of Cristal.

232
00:15:10,570 --> 00:15:12,430
Gratuity is $499.

233
00:15:15,390 --> 00:15:18,750
Nineteen minutes later, another charge
for just over five grand.

234
00:15:19,870 --> 00:15:24,330
I hate champagne, okay? I'll do the
toast at a wedding, but I don't like

235
00:15:24,330 --> 00:15:25,330
champagne.

236
00:15:25,450 --> 00:15:28,950
Thirty -nine minutes later, he
apparently buys the painting.

237
00:15:29,430 --> 00:15:32,930
Spelled here, Panting, for $2 ,480.

238
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,160
Of course, that's before gratuity.

239
00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:38,640
And that's just the first night.

240
00:15:39,140 --> 00:15:43,540
The second night, Valera starts earlier
and does even more damage.

241
00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:49,540
$27 ,194 in just one night.

242
00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:53,460
I would have been dead.

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00:15:54,980 --> 00:16:00,240
According to Valera, the fraud
investigator says the caviar bar's

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00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:03,040
Pavlenko... is a legitimate businessman.

245
00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:10,420
American Express declined to speak with
American Greed, citing privacy concerns.

246
00:16:11,460 --> 00:16:16,540
But Baleris believes the Amex
investigator was fooled by Pavlenko.

247
00:16:17,060 --> 00:16:21,660
She goes, I have a photograph, you know,
of you. Having a good time, I go, oh

248
00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:22,660
yeah, what is this photograph?

249
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:28,080
She goes, well, it's you sitting down
with lipstick, you know, an imprint of

250
00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:29,540
lips on your cheek.

251
00:16:30,170 --> 00:16:31,210
Let me see this picture.

252
00:16:32,030 --> 00:16:34,770
I said, how did you get this picture?
Stan sent it.

253
00:16:35,110 --> 00:16:39,730
I said, why would Stan send pictures of
me if he wasn't planning on doing

254
00:16:39,730 --> 00:16:40,730
something?

255
00:16:41,010 --> 00:16:42,270
Don't you see that, I said?

256
00:16:42,610 --> 00:16:46,250
Don't you see that your Stan was setting
me up?

257
00:16:48,430 --> 00:16:51,050
This is a crime. I'm telling you it's a
crime.

258
00:16:51,450 --> 00:16:52,450
Nope.

259
00:16:52,690 --> 00:16:53,690
Case closed.

260
00:16:54,130 --> 00:16:55,130
Hung up the phone.

261
00:16:55,390 --> 00:16:57,070
I could never get back to her again.

262
00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,540
Valeris makes calls to the police in
Miami Beach.

263
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,440
And that's where Officer Luis King comes
in.

264
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:14,220
The Miami Beach PD allows officers to
work off -duty as security for

265
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:19,180
And the Miami branch of the FBI, which
is investigating fraud in nightclubs,

266
00:17:19,380 --> 00:17:22,940
knows Officer King has a history of
undercover work.

267
00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:25,400
The FBI sees a way in.

268
00:17:25,839 --> 00:17:28,980
They had told me briefly about a...

269
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:34,360
that they believe the club is involved
somehow in fraud, possibly drugging

270
00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:35,780
clients there.

271
00:17:36,020 --> 00:17:41,360
The FBI persuades King to go undercover
and find out what's going on in five

272
00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:44,160
clubs owned by Russian businessmen.

273
00:17:44,420 --> 00:17:47,720
They call it Operation Caviar Beach.

274
00:17:48,860 --> 00:17:53,460
A few days later, King meets with one of
the owners, Isaac Feldman.

275
00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:59,860
Feldman sells condos in Sunny Isles
Beach, known as Little Moscow.

276
00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:10,420
In this YouTube video he posted,

277
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,360
Feldman celebrates his birthday at the
office.

278
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,840
Now he's branching out into
entertainment.

279
00:18:18,660 --> 00:18:23,440
Feldman tells King the Stars Lounge is a
high -end private club.

280
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:26,600
that employs young girls to reel in
customers.

281
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:34,360
Immediately working vice here in Miami
Beach, I recognized that right off the

282
00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:39,520
beat. It's called B -Girls. B -Girls,
also known as Bar Girl.

283
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:45,560
Working undercover, Officer King gets a
front row seat to the wildest show on

284
00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:46,560
South Beach.

285
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:50,840
Up next, see the B -Girls in action.

286
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:55,620
The girls would straddle the guy, rub up
against the guys. They would grind on

287
00:18:55,620 --> 00:18:56,299
the guys.

288
00:18:56,300 --> 00:19:00,460
Anything they can to keep them
interested and keep them in the club and

289
00:19:00,460 --> 00:19:01,460
them drinking.

290
00:19:19,180 --> 00:19:25,740
In August 2010, Miami Beach Police
Officer Luis King goes undercover at

291
00:19:25,740 --> 00:19:26,740
Star's Lounge.

292
00:19:28,020 --> 00:19:31,960
He plays the role of an off -duty cop
doing security.

293
00:19:32,620 --> 00:19:38,060
And a camera hidden in his key fob
captures images which are reviewed every

294
00:19:38,060 --> 00:19:39,320
night by the FBI.

295
00:19:40,220 --> 00:19:45,940
One of the first people he meets is the
man who plays the heavy, Alec Oleg

296
00:19:45,940 --> 00:19:47,040
Simchuk.

297
00:19:48,750 --> 00:19:54,310
He told me that there's not going to be
any prostitution, that he ran clubs in

298
00:19:54,310 --> 00:19:59,790
Estonia and Latvia, and that he was
going to run it exactly the same way

299
00:20:00,250 --> 00:20:05,790
Simchuk tells King his team of bar
girls, or b -girls, doesn't need to sell

300
00:20:06,850 --> 00:20:09,770
They can make more money selling
overpriced liquor.

301
00:20:10,810 --> 00:20:11,930
And it's safer.

302
00:20:16,490 --> 00:20:21,850
Tim Chuck says he's killing it in
Latvia, and Miami is ripe for the

303
00:20:22,450 --> 00:20:24,090
They were very successful.

304
00:20:24,530 --> 00:20:30,930
The cheapest bottle of wine they had
went for $129, and those we found at

305
00:20:30,930 --> 00:20:36,210
Publix for $3 for a $35 bottle of
champagne.

306
00:20:36,550 --> 00:20:39,490
They would sell them for $2 ,500.

307
00:20:40,470 --> 00:20:44,550
The most expensive one I saw them sell
was...

308
00:20:45,950 --> 00:20:47,870
Came out to $17 ,000.

309
00:20:54,230 --> 00:20:57,410
The Russian owners love having a cop
around.

310
00:20:58,210 --> 00:21:02,670
They just assume he's corrupt because
that's how it worked in the old country.

311
00:21:03,790 --> 00:21:07,290
Still, the bosses keep their distance at
first.

312
00:21:07,530 --> 00:21:10,890
They didn't open up to me right off the
bat. The girls...

313
00:21:11,370 --> 00:21:16,190
I had more contact with them. One way
King earns goodwill is by letting the

314
00:21:16,190 --> 00:21:17,670
girls use his iPad.

315
00:21:18,490 --> 00:21:20,390
And they love to take pictures.

316
00:21:20,850 --> 00:21:26,410
And all that was to be able to gather
that information and to try to show what

317
00:21:26,410 --> 00:21:30,750
was going on inside the club and also to
be able to identify the girls later on.

318
00:21:33,450 --> 00:21:38,350
The captain of the team is one of the B
-girls who took John Valeras for a ride.

319
00:21:38,770 --> 00:21:40,070
Her name is Marina.

320
00:21:40,590 --> 00:21:42,790
A 24 -year -old from Latvia.

321
00:21:43,550 --> 00:21:47,570
Marina. She was a heavy drinker, and she
could hold her liquor.

322
00:21:47,790 --> 00:21:50,470
She was having a toast to vodka. They
loved vodka.

323
00:21:50,750 --> 00:21:54,730
She knew how to party. She could dance
with the guys. She could get the guys

324
00:21:54,730 --> 00:22:00,810
motivated and get them up there dancing
so that they would drink, and she would

325
00:22:00,810 --> 00:22:06,690
get them partying. And she knew how to
bring out the party animal in pretty

326
00:22:06,690 --> 00:22:07,690
all the guys.

327
00:22:07,870 --> 00:22:13,190
Anna, a 25 -year -old from Latvia, is
the other B -girl who duped Valera.

328
00:22:13,890 --> 00:22:16,170
She's also one of the leaders of the
pack.

329
00:22:16,830 --> 00:22:22,950
But she was extremely good. She got
another client for close to $40 ,000

330
00:22:23,690 --> 00:22:26,830
Albert Takalov is another partner in
this game.

331
00:22:27,610 --> 00:22:30,450
He runs the bar and recruits the girls.

332
00:22:31,070 --> 00:22:35,410
King says 50 girls come and go during
his eight -month undercover operation.

333
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:41,440
Her name is Victoria, Christina,
Anastasia.

334
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,440
Most are from Latvia and Estonia and are
in their late teens or early 20s.

335
00:22:47,820 --> 00:22:51,140
One of the things that they would try to
recruit the girls was that they weren't

336
00:22:51,140 --> 00:22:57,300
coming for prostitution purposes, that
they were coming to entertain gentlemen,

337
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,580
to bring them to the club as promoters.

338
00:23:01,180 --> 00:23:06,120
This B -girl looks innocent in a Minnie
Mouse sweatshirt when she poses on a

339
00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:07,960
plane. Leaving Latvia.

340
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:13,660
When she arrives in Miami, Louise King
is the first American she meets.

341
00:23:14,300 --> 00:23:18,200
Pick them up at the airport and help
them get set up. When they arrived, I

342
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:23,560
take them to Walgreens or one of the
local stores so that they can buy an air

343
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,240
mattress. Most times they would buy the
queen size so that two of them could

344
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:28,600
sleep on one mattress.

345
00:23:29,660 --> 00:23:34,420
If sharing a cheap mattress doesn't
sound like the glamorous life on the

346
00:23:34,420 --> 00:23:35,420
party scene,

347
00:23:36,340 --> 00:23:38,180
That's because it isn't.

348
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:42,640
It was all the organization that paid
for the flight for the girl. They would

349
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:44,760
buy a plane ticket for them to come
over.

350
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:50,160
They would hold that over their head in
that they would not buy a ticket for

351
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:55,100
them to fly back unless they worked and
produced and earned money for them to

352
00:23:55,100 --> 00:23:55,999
fly back.

353
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,840
Otherwise, they wouldn't buy them a
ticket. They would be stranded here.

354
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:03,400
King says the transformation of the
young women is unbelievable.

355
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:10,860
This is Anastasia before she became
involved with Oleg Simchuk's group.

356
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:17,320
She was very shy when she first started.
By April, she was a totally different

357
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,400
individual. She was on the wild side by
then.

358
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:26,160
These two were 18 years old. They were
both from Russia.

359
00:24:26,460 --> 00:24:31,100
Oleg Simchuk used to like trying to take
these two girls home on a regular

360
00:24:31,100 --> 00:24:32,100
basis.

361
00:24:32,250 --> 00:24:35,710
and they did not like having to go with
him. But when they would hear that Oleg

362
00:24:35,710 --> 00:24:39,230
was coming into the club, they would
take off running outside the club.

363
00:24:39,590 --> 00:24:42,610
That's how much they disliked having to
go home with Oleg.

364
00:24:43,910 --> 00:24:46,410
Because the B -girls don't like to be
prey.

365
00:24:46,970 --> 00:24:49,510
At heart, they're apex predators.

366
00:24:52,250 --> 00:24:54,690
Up next, pure greed.

367
00:24:55,130 --> 00:24:59,690
They were motivated on pure greed, and
the limit of the credit card was the

368
00:24:59,690 --> 00:25:00,690
thing that stopped them.

369
00:25:13,900 --> 00:25:19,700
In Miami Beach, when the clock strikes
midnight, it's time for the B -Girls to

370
00:25:19,700 --> 00:25:20,700
go to work.

371
00:25:26,300 --> 00:25:31,080
This is Ocean Drive. This is the main
area of entertainment here on Miami

372
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:35,900
The Cleveland there, in this area, was
the main hunting ground that I would

373
00:25:35,900 --> 00:25:38,120
bring the girls out for them to find the
clients.

374
00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:41,640
Also, just right down the street,
mangoes.

375
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,880
The B -girls hunt in teams of two, and
they have a keen sense of when to

376
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:51,560
One of the key things I would ask, what
are you looking for? Are you looking for

377
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:55,880
a watch, or what are you looking for?
And one of the things that the girls

378
00:25:55,880 --> 00:26:00,460
on coming back to is that you can always
tell if a guy has money by their shoes.

379
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:06,220
If it's high -quality, extremely
expensive shoes, then they got money.

380
00:26:06,900 --> 00:26:10,460
The girls move in, lavishing attention
on their mark.

381
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:15,420
If he's with friends, they try to
separate him, divide and conquer.

382
00:26:15,980 --> 00:26:20,160
And they tease him, playing on his sense
of machismo.

383
00:26:20,700 --> 00:26:25,680
They would love to hit on a man's ego
and tell him, let's take some shots.

384
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,780
And the other one poured a shot down my
throat and said, I did a shot, okay?

385
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,280
But the girls were served water and the
men were served vodka.

386
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,120
And they were masters of having...

387
00:26:38,410 --> 00:26:42,870
The clients drink an incredible amount
of vodka in a short period of time.

388
00:26:45,130 --> 00:26:49,690
Once the guy is good and liquored up,
they say they know a place around the

389
00:26:49,690 --> 00:26:52,590
corner that's quiet where they can talk.

390
00:26:54,230 --> 00:26:59,790
They're master manipulators of the male
psyche, says Pat Jordan, who wrote about

391
00:26:59,790 --> 00:27:01,410
the b -girls for Playboy.

392
00:27:01,630 --> 00:27:04,090
I'm just looking for a guy who thinks
he's a player.

393
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:05,740
They're like a Playboy cartoon.

394
00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:11,160
Two gorgeous women going up to some
nerdy guy in glasses at a bar and saying

395
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,740
he's the hottest thing they've ever
seen. A real player would know right

396
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,940
I mean, me? Two bar girls coming up to
me? I'd say, well, you want a

397
00:27:18,940 --> 00:27:22,980
grandfather? But it's got to be a guy
who thinks he's a player.

398
00:27:23,900 --> 00:27:28,760
And that self -delusion only grows
stronger as the night gets longer.

399
00:27:29,260 --> 00:27:32,500
Their main success is when they would
start actually coming back in.

400
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,700
would be between 4 and 5 o 'clock in the
morning. Some of them can barely walk

401
00:27:36,700 --> 00:27:41,100
as they come into the club, and they're
prime targets at that point.

402
00:27:42,260 --> 00:27:47,020
King takes American Greed to Washington
Avenue, just off the main drag.

403
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:54,600
The Russians run three clubs within a
few blocks, Tangier Club, Star's Lounge,

404
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,960
and Steel Toast. This is the main strip
that they would pick the clubs to work

405
00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:04,220
at. Here on Washington Avenue, they had
it both here.

406
00:28:04,620 --> 00:28:06,720
Right across the street, they had
another one.

407
00:28:07,060 --> 00:28:12,360
And earlier, the Stars Lounge was just
one block down further south.

408
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:18,420
As seen from the hidden camera, the B
-girls pretend that they don't know the

409
00:28:18,420 --> 00:28:21,780
bouncer checking IDs, even though he's
their boss.

410
00:28:22,580 --> 00:28:26,800
Once inside, the mark finds that the
club is largely empty.

411
00:28:28,030 --> 00:28:31,250
It's just him, a bartender, and a few
women.

412
00:28:32,490 --> 00:28:33,750
They would dance for him.

413
00:28:35,510 --> 00:28:40,070
You had a lot of touching. The girls
allowed themselves to be touched by the

414
00:28:40,070 --> 00:28:45,430
client pretty much as much as they
wanted to. They promised a lot to the

415
00:28:45,630 --> 00:28:52,450
whether it was just company or just
talking to them, or they promised them

416
00:28:52,450 --> 00:28:54,510
have sex with them later on that night.

417
00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:02,600
The B -girls take 20 % of all the booze
they sell, and it's absurdly overpriced.

418
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:08,500
The mark doesn't know it, but each swipe
of his card can cost $2 ,000, $3 ,000,

419
00:29:08,900 --> 00:29:10,100
even $5 ,000.

420
00:29:10,940 --> 00:29:15,800
The B -girls are so delirious with greed
that they'll sell anything, according

421
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,680
to one story that King says Marina tells
them.

422
00:29:19,060 --> 00:29:21,040
At one point she was telling me...

423
00:29:21,749 --> 00:29:25,310
that she had gotten some guy out of
Philadelphia.

424
00:29:25,510 --> 00:29:28,310
It was some TV guy.

425
00:29:28,910 --> 00:29:34,490
She was telling me that she got him for
$48 ,000 and sold him a picture that we

426
00:29:34,490 --> 00:29:38,070
used to have on the wall, and she
pointed to a bare spot that you could

427
00:29:38,070 --> 00:29:40,410
see the picture frame right there on the
wall.

428
00:29:40,690 --> 00:29:44,190
She was so proud of that. She said, I
bid on this painting. Oh, you bid very

429
00:29:44,190 --> 00:29:45,190
heavily.

430
00:29:45,740 --> 00:29:49,760
The girls took pride, and they kept on
saying this thing. They took pride in

431
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,840
fact that they could screw over a guy
without having to screw him.

432
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:59,680
They were so proud of that. And they
kind of looked down on other girls, and

433
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:03,940
they said, why are these girls
prostituting when they can make just as

434
00:30:03,940 --> 00:30:05,860
more money taking advantage of guys?

435
00:30:06,340 --> 00:30:12,060
Up next, how the Russian mob exploits
Florida law and brings down the hammer

436
00:30:12,060 --> 00:30:13,980
when a mark decides to run.

437
00:30:14,650 --> 00:30:15,990
Hey! Hey!

438
00:30:16,510 --> 00:30:17,670
Hey! Come here!

439
00:30:18,370 --> 00:30:19,370
Police officer!

440
00:30:19,450 --> 00:30:24,110
Hey, I'm a police officer! Come over
here! To hear more about Officer King's

441
00:30:24,110 --> 00:30:29,830
undercover investigation of the B
-Girls, go to cnbcprime .com slash

442
00:30:29,830 --> 00:30:31,950
Greed. We'll be right back.

443
00:30:38,730 --> 00:30:44,230
By four or five in the morning, most men
in Star's Lounge can't even see

444
00:30:44,230 --> 00:30:47,590
straight. It's the perfect time to
present the bill.

445
00:30:48,110 --> 00:30:49,970
And that's Marina's job.

446
00:30:50,630 --> 00:30:54,290
She's got a little trick to separate men
from their money.

447
00:30:54,690 --> 00:30:58,850
She covers up zeros with her thumb and
tells them where to sign.

448
00:30:59,170 --> 00:31:04,790
Then the other girls who brought them in
would try to distract them by...

449
00:31:05,210 --> 00:31:09,290
by caressing them, by kissing them, and
they would do anything they could to

450
00:31:09,290 --> 00:31:13,530
distract and pull their attention away
from what the actual bill was. And they

451
00:31:13,530 --> 00:31:15,290
were extremely successful at that.

452
00:31:15,930 --> 00:31:18,590
Occasionally, the B -girls have to take
control.

453
00:31:18,990 --> 00:31:23,110
One guy in particular that I remember,
he was so drunk, they were getting

454
00:31:23,110 --> 00:31:28,850
buckets of ice water and throwing it on
top of him. One girl sat on his chest

455
00:31:28,850 --> 00:31:33,090
and just started slapping him to wake
him up so he could sign his bills.

456
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,420
But not all the men are slobbering
suckers.

457
00:31:37,020 --> 00:31:40,700
Sometimes the B -girls bring back a guy
who can really hold his liquor.

458
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,120
Or perhaps a new girl is clumsy in her
sleight of hand.

459
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,660
In those cases, the Marg senses a trap.

460
00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:55,320
The first night that I was there, I was
in plain clothes, and an individual took

461
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:56,219
off running.

462
00:31:56,220 --> 00:31:58,560
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

463
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,940
Hey, hey, hey, come here.

464
00:32:02,540 --> 00:32:09,520
And I had to chase him down, threaten
him, and threaten to handcuff him.

465
00:32:13,380 --> 00:32:14,380
Yes,

466
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:24,440
in Florida, it does matter.

467
00:32:25,180 --> 00:32:30,860
The Russians cleverly exploit Florida
Statute 509 .151.

468
00:32:31,260 --> 00:32:34,020
more commonly known as the innkeeper's
law.

469
00:32:35,060 --> 00:32:39,860
The innkeeper's law in South Florida
prevents tourists coming down and

470
00:32:39,860 --> 00:32:44,820
off restaurants and stuff by running out
on the tab and going, you know, hopping

471
00:32:44,820 --> 00:32:45,980
the next plane back to Ohio.

472
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:51,780
Running out on a bill of more than $300
is a felony in Florida.

473
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:57,200
It was a very convincing argument to get
somebody to pay.

474
00:32:57,660 --> 00:32:59,080
Put your hands behind your back.

475
00:32:59,690 --> 00:33:00,770
You're going to take care of that bill?

476
00:33:01,350 --> 00:33:02,349
Let me out.

477
00:33:02,350 --> 00:33:04,930
No. Listen, guy, I'll bust your head
right here.

478
00:33:05,450 --> 00:33:08,910
I'm a police officer and I can do it.
All right, let me out. Okay. Let me out.

479
00:33:09,010 --> 00:33:10,770
No. Just let me out. No.

480
00:33:11,650 --> 00:33:12,970
Please, let me settle it.

481
00:33:13,590 --> 00:33:14,950
You're going to go settle it? Yeah,
yeah.

482
00:33:15,530 --> 00:33:17,730
Give me your wallet. We're going to walk
back and settle it.

483
00:33:18,970 --> 00:33:22,110
I would tell him, listen, your bill is
$5 ,000.

484
00:33:22,910 --> 00:33:27,310
You either pay the $5 ,000 now or you're
going to be paying the $5 ,000 when you

485
00:33:27,310 --> 00:33:28,310
post bond.

486
00:33:28,350 --> 00:33:29,350
Which is it going to be?

487
00:33:29,890 --> 00:33:33,870
On more than one occasion, I had people
yelling at me, calling me corrupt.

488
00:33:34,550 --> 00:33:37,430
And it was just part of the undercover
deal.

489
00:33:37,730 --> 00:33:39,210
It's a clever fraud.

490
00:33:39,590 --> 00:33:44,990
And one B -girl tells King she makes as
much in two weeks as she does in a year

491
00:33:44,990 --> 00:33:45,990
back home.

492
00:33:47,070 --> 00:33:49,110
The lion's share goes to the owners.

493
00:33:49,830 --> 00:33:54,310
Just one pair of high -performing B
-girls can bring in a quarter million

494
00:33:54,310 --> 00:33:56,110
dollars a month for the club.

495
00:33:56,970 --> 00:34:01,860
Olexemchuk. would buy cars. He had a
BMW, he had a Hummer.

496
00:34:02,220 --> 00:34:05,740
Albert Takalov purchased a new vehicle
for his wife.

497
00:34:05,980 --> 00:34:10,239
They would go on trips. They would spend
as much money as they could. The

498
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:13,480
Russians tell themselves they're in the
entertainment business.

499
00:34:14,500 --> 00:34:18,300
And it's true that they follow the
number one rule of showbiz.

500
00:34:18,659 --> 00:34:20,639
Always leave them wanting more.

501
00:34:20,940 --> 00:34:24,840
Because once the card's maxed out, the
show's over.

502
00:34:25,469 --> 00:34:30,409
There was one guy in particular that I
remembered. He got taken, I think, for

503
00:34:30,409 --> 00:34:31,409
about $5 ,500.

504
00:34:32,190 --> 00:34:36,469
The girls actually dumped him inside the
club, and they went out through the

505
00:34:36,469 --> 00:34:37,129
back door.

506
00:34:37,130 --> 00:34:42,270
He hung around that club for the longest
period of time, hoping that they would

507
00:34:42,270 --> 00:34:43,208
come back.

508
00:34:43,210 --> 00:34:45,150
And I'm telling him, the girls are gone.

509
00:34:45,530 --> 00:34:49,170
And they kept on telling me, get them
out of here so that the girls can bring

510
00:34:49,170 --> 00:34:50,129
new guys in.

511
00:34:50,130 --> 00:34:52,650
But he refused to leave, thinking they
would come back.

512
00:34:53,509 --> 00:34:55,949
Drunk, broke, and dejected.

513
00:34:56,510 --> 00:34:58,530
The men are kicked to the curb.

514
00:34:59,170 --> 00:35:02,750
And sometimes they quite literally lose
their shirts.

515
00:35:03,550 --> 00:35:09,050
The girls, as a trophy, would love to
take the men's shirt. I don't know why.

516
00:35:10,670 --> 00:35:14,690
If they got a really good client and
they got them for a lot of money, they

517
00:35:14,690 --> 00:35:16,090
would take their shirts as a trophy.

518
00:35:21,190 --> 00:35:25,350
Next on American Greed, the B -girls go
all the way.

519
00:35:26,050 --> 00:35:29,550
They exceeded the greed limit, whatever
there is on a greed limit, you know.

520
00:35:29,810 --> 00:35:33,510
Forget about gecko, greed is good. Greed
is not so good. Eventually you'll get

521
00:35:33,510 --> 00:35:34,510
nailed.

522
00:35:46,350 --> 00:35:51,070
After eight months of working
undercover, Officer Louise King has

523
00:35:51,070 --> 00:35:53,550
trust of the Russians running the B
-Girls scam.

524
00:35:55,170 --> 00:36:00,850
King makes speeding tickets and parking
citations disappear, and he fixes any

525
00:36:00,850 --> 00:36:02,830
hassle with the city of Miami Beach.

526
00:36:03,750 --> 00:36:09,310
Albert Takalov and Alex Simchuk trust
him so much, they make King a partner

527
00:36:09,310 --> 00:36:12,070
entitled to 5 % of the profits.

528
00:36:12,310 --> 00:36:16,870
And what that did was that opened up...
The books to me. I got to see them. The

529
00:36:16,870 --> 00:36:20,950
records show that hundreds of men have
been victimized and defrauded of more

530
00:36:20,950 --> 00:36:22,110
than $2 million.

531
00:36:23,030 --> 00:36:28,630
With this key evidence in hand, the FBI
decides it's time to put the B -girls on

532
00:36:28,630 --> 00:36:33,330
ice. But how should they bring all the
players together at one time?

533
00:36:33,950 --> 00:36:40,130
King has an idea. The B -girls recently
threw a 21st birthday party for him.

534
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:44,480
That actually gave me the idea to when
they finally, to bring them all together

535
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:49,060
at the end was to throw another party.
King tells the gang he's getting

536
00:36:49,060 --> 00:36:54,440
to sergeant. It's great news. With more
power, he can do even more for them.

537
00:36:55,340 --> 00:36:58,220
They stage a promotion party for King.

538
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:05,000
We ordered stone crabs and a big spread
for all the

539
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,180
girls. And when everyone's assembled...

540
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:11,240
King sends a text to his handlers at the
Bureau.

541
00:37:11,980 --> 00:37:15,320
And five minutes later, the FBI walks in
the door.

542
00:37:16,020 --> 00:37:17,020
And it was over.

543
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:22,580
The bosses and the B -girls are taken by
surprise and arrested without incident.

544
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:28,040
And I know before the raid, I said to
one of the feds, I said, can you do me a

545
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,680
favor? When you go in, because they told
me they were going in, tell Marina that

546
00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:32,680
the weatherman says hello.

547
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:36,820
Because they bragged about what they did
to me.

548
00:37:37,260 --> 00:37:38,260
They got greedy.

549
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:44,020
After filing a civil lawsuit against
American Express, John Belaris

550
00:37:44,020 --> 00:37:45,440
gets his money back.

551
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:50,360
But his fight costs him much more than
$43 ,000.

552
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,280
The Philadelphia media goes nuts with
the story.

553
00:37:54,940 --> 00:37:57,520
Belaris even merits his own cartoon.

554
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,500
And the way the press make things look,
like it was called The Hangover, the

555
00:38:02,500 --> 00:38:03,500
real -life hangover.

556
00:38:04,340 --> 00:38:05,480
And, uh...

557
00:38:06,050 --> 00:38:08,590
Making it look like I just had a fun
time in Miami.

558
00:38:09,910 --> 00:38:12,150
Pat Jordan writes a piece for Playboy.

559
00:38:15,030 --> 00:38:16,370
Valeris doesn't like it.

560
00:38:16,730 --> 00:38:20,170
And his boss at the TV station really
hates it.

561
00:38:21,350 --> 00:38:22,490
You're an embarrassment.

562
00:38:23,050 --> 00:38:26,570
You're an embarrassment to the industry.
You're an embarrassment to me.

563
00:38:27,150 --> 00:38:28,790
You're an embarrassment to everyone.

564
00:38:29,050 --> 00:38:30,970
You should be embarrassed in front of
your daughter.

565
00:38:31,170 --> 00:38:33,670
You're an embarrassing individual to me.

566
00:38:42,350 --> 00:38:49,250
But still believes he has no option
other than to let

567
00:38:49,250 --> 00:38:50,250
him go.

568
00:38:50,370 --> 00:38:54,590
John, when you decide to go to Miami and
not be with your little girl and hang

569
00:38:54,590 --> 00:38:57,270
out with Russian hookers, what do you
think we're going to do?

570
00:38:58,130 --> 00:38:59,670
And he goes, it's all perception.

571
00:39:00,850 --> 00:39:01,850
And that was it.

572
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:08,880
I don't think there was any call from
Philadelphia TV weather viewers

573
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:11,020
to have John Belaris fired.

574
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:13,320
He was a weatherman.

575
00:39:13,540 --> 00:39:18,680
He wasn't Bill Murray in Groundhog Day,
you know, who thought he was better than

576
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:21,260
what he was doing. John liked the
weather.

577
00:39:22,060 --> 00:39:28,220
Belaris says his lost weekend ultimately
costs him $2 million in lost wages,

578
00:39:28,540 --> 00:39:31,080
and he believes he's been blackballed.

579
00:39:31,530 --> 00:39:32,950
No one gave me the opportunity.

580
00:39:33,270 --> 00:39:37,510
I mean, it's over. I mean, there's just,
you know, I've come to the realization

581
00:39:37,510 --> 00:39:42,730
I'm not getting back into the TV
industry because there's, you know, as

582
00:39:42,730 --> 00:39:43,730
say, cricket.

583
00:39:46,630 --> 00:39:50,930
Nineteen defendants are charged with
multiple counts of wire fraud and money

584
00:39:50,930 --> 00:39:51,930
laundering.

585
00:39:52,530 --> 00:39:57,990
Thirteen defendants plead guilty,
including Marina Tursina and Anna

586
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:04,600
The B -girls do a short time in prison
and then are deported to their home

587
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:05,600
countries.

588
00:40:05,780 --> 00:40:07,900
Alex Simchuk flees to Russia.

589
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:13,320
He lands on the FBI's fugitive list,
where he remains for over a year.

590
00:40:14,020 --> 00:40:20,600
On October 10, 2012, in a federal
courthouse in Miami, the trial begins

591
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:22,760
Albert Takalov and four others.

592
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:25,740
But where is Alex Simchuk?

593
00:40:26,260 --> 00:40:32,190
In a bit of courtroom drama, the former
fugitive makes an appearance as the star

594
00:40:32,190 --> 00:40:34,770
witness against his former comrades.

595
00:40:35,170 --> 00:40:38,270
And he has a harrowing tale of life on
the run.

596
00:40:39,530 --> 00:40:45,150
He testifies that while smoking a
cigarette in St. Petersburg, a man

597
00:40:45,150 --> 00:40:46,270
him and says,

598
00:40:47,150 --> 00:40:50,370
Good people from Miami don't want you to
testify.

599
00:40:50,810 --> 00:40:53,730
You have a beautiful wife. Stay at home.

600
00:40:54,770 --> 00:40:57,130
His leg is snapped and the bone is
broken.

601
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:02,980
Simchuk testifies that despite the clear
warning, I don't want to be on the run

602
00:41:02,980 --> 00:41:06,300
all my life. I want to put everything
behind me.

603
00:41:08,540 --> 00:41:12,560
Alex Simchuk pleads guilty and gets
three years in prison.

604
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:17,540
At trial, one defendant is acquitted,
but the other three are found guilty of

605
00:41:17,540 --> 00:41:18,980
wire fraud and money laundering.

606
00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:23,400
Stanislav Pavlenko gets six and a half
years in prison.

607
00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:25,720
Isaac Feldman, eight.

608
00:41:26,510 --> 00:41:29,530
And Albert Takalov gets 12 years in
prison.

609
00:41:30,290 --> 00:41:36,950
If it wasn't for Belarus being actually
pretty tough

610
00:41:36,950 --> 00:41:41,370
and insistent, they would still be
operating.

611
00:41:41,790 --> 00:41:44,510
You know, it's like the guy who sees a
murder, everybody sees the murder and

612
00:41:44,510 --> 00:41:46,270
nobody will testify because they're
afraid.

613
00:41:46,490 --> 00:41:50,670
And one guy stands up in court, puts his
life on the line and testifies. John

614
00:41:50,670 --> 00:41:54,830
didn't know whether the Russian mob was
a real serious Russian mob, you know.

615
00:41:55,630 --> 00:41:59,750
that was going to whack him or anything
it took a lot of courage by valeris to

616
00:41:59,750 --> 00:42:06,290
come forth because he he knew the what
people were going to say about him that

617
00:42:06,290 --> 00:42:11,190
he was going to be ridiculed and my hat
goes off to him

618
00:42:11,190 --> 00:42:17,890
though they hail from the baltic states
the b girls are

619
00:42:17,890 --> 00:42:23,350
masters of american greed they're
experts at exploiting a man's naive

620
00:42:23,950 --> 00:42:30,030
that tonight is his lucky night. If you
go to South Beach thinking you might get

621
00:42:30,030 --> 00:42:32,550
laid, I'll guarantee you you'll get
screwed.