Original subtitles

CHRIS: An influencer is somebody who can

persuade somebody's idea of something else,

and it's just that simple.

It could be anything in life.

- Too much.

[dramatic orchestral music]

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: If you looked at

Tracii Hutsona's Instagram page,

it was full of private jets and infinity pools

and Tracii standing in front of step and repeats.

It created the impression that she was living

this lavish life among the glitterati of LA.

- We are at Peter Marco in Beverly Hills,

picking up the jewels that I'll be dressed in

for today's shoot.

GABRIELLE: In her YouTube show,

she presented herself as totally authentic,

but it was all just a carefully-crafted persona,

which is, of course, an incredible psychological trick

to convince people she was real.

DEBORAH: Tracii's game is impersonating other people.

- It's almost like she did a hardcore study on my life

and then decided, I'm gonna recreate this.

[fireworks booming]

- We're living like millionaires.

We're living like our billionaire clients.

- She's so believable that it makes you feel so loved.

You get entangled in that web.

- People who say that they would never get caught up in it

have never met Tracii.

Sometimes, prettier things are on the outside,

the more rot there is on the inside.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[pensive orchestral music]

♪ ♪

LORIANN: My name is Loriann Hart Flaherty.

I'm a second generation Los Angeleno.

I come from a long line of entertainers.

I have been a singer and an actress.

I'm currently doing voiceovers.

Hi, Beau-Beau. Hi!

Then there's my baby Beau.

Yeah, I've got pictures of him on his birthday.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

I am full of love, full of laughter.

I am a complete empath,

and, um, I can be very naive.

♪ ♪

I first met Tracii Hutsona in 2002.

My son became friends with Tracii's son

when they were in first grade.

We became friends based on our love for our children

and our love for fun.

My life had changed so radically since the time

that I was young and single,

hanging out with OJ and Nicole

and Stephen Stills and Ringo Starr

and all those people.

I missed it.

[light clicks]

[curtains whirring]

I saw in Tracii a glamour.

People were so drawn to her.

People wanted to be her friend.

She was cool,

and makes you feel cool to be with her.

[operatic music]

♪ ♪

Tracii always wanted to make a big mark,

to be a powerful and influential person.

You'd see her on Facebook and Instagram.

She'd make sure that you could see this opulence

that she was living.

She always wanted to portray

an image of herself to be envied.

Tracii wanted all eyes on Tracii.

But the more I think about it,

I realized she had a plan from the get-go.

It's all about being famous,

so she had to be on social media.

DERRELL: What up, buddy? TRACII: Everybody comes here,

and they think they want to see somebody.

So they want you to be somebody so bad.

- They looking for Kim and Kanye,

but they fail to realize they live in Calabasas.

They don't live in LA.

[mellow R&B music]

LORIANN: She even started a Kardashians-type of show

on social media with Derrell, her husband.

[bright classical music]

TRACII: It's a super busy weekend.

We rented out, um, all the houses,

including our own, and we rented out all the cars.

We love how we live. We love where we live.

The trade-off is that we got to pack it up.

Babe, you packed up my closet, too?

DERRELL: Yeah, I got-- TRACII: I love you.

LORIANN: On Homeless Millionaires,

she's being the cool gal

who's with her 14-years-younger husband,

driving in a fancy car,

going to fancy places,

looking at expensive jewelry.

And they were just trying to get the notoriety

and get the Instagram followers.

[camera shutters clicking]

Everything she posts is just showing off,

is saying, "See what a great life I have?

Don't you wish you were me?"

But unfortunately, from what I've learned,

Tracii was a master at pulling the wool over people's eyes.

[dramatic musical flourish]

[car engine revs]

[soft piano music]

♪ ♪

JOUMANA: I didn't grow up with much.

[bell rings]

I worked full time at a makeup counter,

did modeling gigs on the side.

So when I got married to an NBA player,

it was a little bit of a crash course in,

you know, living in the limelight.

- What's it been like to be a part of Jason's success

here in his first year in New Jersey?

- It's amazing. I can't even...

It was fun, it was awesome,

and it gave me great opportunities

to, you know, pursue journalism.

I was always in charge of my money pre-marriage.

Then, you know, obviously, getting married,

it was like, whoa, OK,

these are numbers I've never seen.

And I wasn't prepared for what comes with it.

My name is Joumana Kidd.

Um, a lot of people know me

because I was once married to Jason Kidd,

but I'm a lot more than Jason Kidd's ex-wife.

I'm a businesswoman, a philanthropist...

And a mom of three amazing children.

[gentle music]

After my divorce,

I moved to Los Angeles,

which was a really, really big decision for me.

[engine revs]

And it was like the final hour before we're moving,

and I found out I had breast cancer.

[pensive orchestral music]

It's a lot to have to come to a new place,

do all this stuff, and deal with it,

you know, a scary illness.

And so I knew that I was gonna need some help,

almost like a glorified nanny...

[chuckles] You know, that, um, could also be, like,

a house manager.

So I actually reached out to a friend who I trust very much

and asked her if she knew anyone.

She called me back and said, "There is this one lady

that we always, like, use for random concierge stuff."

[notification chimes]

[operatic music]

She has this business called Elite Lux Life,

which is a concierge service.

- My name's Tracii.

I'm calling from Elite Luxe Life in Los Angeles.

JOUMANA: They could get your Airbnb.

You would get your car rental.

TRACII: This house comes with yacht.

JOUMANA: They could hook you up with makeup artists.

They could hook you up with tickets.

I mean, really, whatever you need.

Her social feeds were very elaborate

and high-end cars and jewelry.

Everyone viewed her as

this really accomplished businesswoman

who can make anything happen.

So I kind of expected her to come

and be way too overqualified, want way too much money.

So I don't know if she's even gonna be interested in this,

but she wants to take the meeting.

So I'm like, OK, cool.

And that's how I met Tracii Hutsona.

She bonded with me,

and she was very, very flexible and easy.

Honestly, I felt like I was winning.

Like, whoa. How did this land on my lap?

I got along well with Tracii.

She was easy to talk to.

I leaned on her a lot during my treatment.

Honestly, it would have been so tough to do on my own,

and it was nice to have a caring, maternal person

helping me care for my kids.

And they were happy that I found someone that could help.

It was almost like she was my, like,

fill-in husband or something, you know what I mean?

Like, she was the person that cared just as much.

- No, no, no, no, no.

It was nice having someone have my back,

someone looking out for me.

- So with our lifestyle management clients,

I just need to pop in and, uh, you know,

boss everybody around once in a while and then pop back out.

JOUMANA: I remember Tracii talked about

Homeless Millionaires as if it was, like,

some type of promo for their Elite Luxe Life.

She had explained to me that it's so funny.

Like, you know, we rent everything out,

including our own home, if someone wants it.

And that's where the "Homeless Millionaires" term

came about.

But no one watched Homeless Millionaires.

[chuckles]

It's kind of funny when I look back at how little

I was interested in her social media.

And I think that ended up working against me,

in a way, because I probably

would have seen a lot more red flags.

♪ ♪

[unsettling music]

[indistinct chatter]

Ever since I moved to Los Angeles,

Ron, my financial advisor,

would always kind of periodically reach out.

Just be like, slow down. Like, you're overspending.

You guys want a treat?

OK.

And I talked about it in front of Tracii.

She would even, like, pitch in.

She was always trying to find a deal

or find something less expensive.

But one day, Ron calls me and tells me,

OK, you're not a credit card person.

Why do you have this additional credit card?

And I'm like, what are you talking about?

I just have my Amex, and I have my visa.

And that's it. And he was like, no.

There's a Chase Card.

So I was on the phone with Tracii.

Do you ever hear me talk about a Chase card?

That's crazy. And she was just like,

you know, I think maybe because your kid's

gonna be starting college, don't you remember us

talking about having a credit card?

I'm like, uh, maybe. I don't remember.

You know, didn't even think anything of it,

but I just kind of figured I'll get to the bottom of this.

And about 30 minutes later, she was at my door.

[operatic music]

Then she's crying.

That credit card, that was me.

She had charged close to $100,000.

"You should call the cops right now."

[car horns honking]

[plucky string music]

GABRIELLE: My name is Gabrielle Bluestone.

I'm a journalist, author, and attorney,

and I broke the Tracii Hutsona story for The New York Times.

[dramatic sting]

I cover everything ranging from celebrities

to fraud to crime.

My book is called

Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists

Are Taking Over the Internet-- and Why We're Following.

And it looks at how modern-day scammers

are able to subvert tools,

whether it's social media, Google results,

any kind of algorithm

to hide in plain sight and to effectuate their scams.

And as I investigated Tracii, I realized that

this was a fascinating story of celebrity

and fraud and social influence.

There was definitely a gulf between what you could

discover about her online

versus what was happening in real life.

Doing Elite Luxe Life absolutely gave Tracii access

to the trappings of wealth, which she certainly flaunted

both on Instagram and on the home-produced reality show

that she hosted on YouTube.

[upbeat music]

DERRELL: This is one of my favorite houses.

This is our Hollywood Hills stunner.

GABRIELLE: Tracii and Derrell would give tours

of the luxury homes they were renting out,

which they would go and film at.

She emulated that Kardashian lifestyle.

SINGER: ♪ Yeah ♪

♪ You know we don't need to win it ♪

GABRIELLE: It's all of these homes and luxury cars,

you know, Rolls-Royces and Lamborghinis

and ridiculous kind of stuff.

And you know,

they were employees of that,

but that wasn't their life.

- We're living like millionaires.

DERRELL: Right.

- We're living like our billionaire clients.

DERRELL: Right. - But--

DERRELL: But you're working. - Yeah, we're working.

DERRELL: But you're always working.

- We're working, always.

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: The more I investigated Tracii,

the more it was clear that she is someone

who is extraordinarily good at impersonating

multiple people, and that this dated back

to when she was a teenager.

TRACII: They didn't RSVP for our wedding.

DEBORAH: She does not look her age at all.

TRACII: I'm not gonna underestimate things.

- I kind of always knew that my sister

would make it onto the national stage, you know?

It might have taken 30 years for her to do it,

but I knew she would.

She's bigger than life.

[sighs]

My name is Deborah Show-Lindstrom,

and I'm Tracii's older sister.

This is how Tracii is, as I remember her as a kid.

I'm looking at the face and trying to see a sign

of the woman she'd become.

But really, I just see a kid.

She had absolutely no fear.

If there was a way you could describe a child

as having electricity, she did.

My sister was born into a household

that was really chaotic.

Our dad was a lost soul,

because he was always, always stoned.

Marijuana at first, and then cocaine later on.

But my mom projected this image, you know,

of perfection.

She made herself look beautiful.

Always had nice things for herself.

- Tracii painted her background as one of

coming from a loving family, and she revered her mother.

DEBORAH: Our mother became a real estate agent.

She had a way of getting people into houses.

She called it creative financing.

So even if you didn't have the money,

she'd get you into a house.

So she kind of established a reputation

as a means-to-an-end person.

If our mother had been alive in the age of social media,

I'm sure that she would have put out a curated image

of having it all.

She had this vision, and so she kind of

transmitted that to us girls,

almost like a stage mom, in a way.

And Tracii got that message.

She had that excitement just from early on.

She wants to be adored.

You can really see how she's trying to be relevant.

For her, image is everything.

[notifications chiming]

In 1984, maybe, when she first came down to LA,

there wasn't a chance for her to do this kind of thing,

when she was, like, an 18-year-old.

But now, she sees opportunity everywhere.

♪ ♪

- When Tracii was at my door and had, like,

her complete breakdown about the credit card,

it was a weekend when my kids were away.

She said that she was just bringing mail in,

and there was a preapproved card.

She was having a weak moment,

and then she just kind of blurted it out.

"That credit card that Ron's talking about, that was me."

She had charged close to $100,000,

and she was mortified.

It was like a full-on confessional.

[dramatic orchestral music]

Tracii had been working for me about 3 and 1/2 years.

It was a lot of emotions.

And I was very confused

by the level of deceit,

because she just was so genuine and so sweet

and was such a hard worker.

This was the last person I actually would have thought

would be capable of something like this.

So I was thinking, wow.

Like, you had to have been at a low.

This is not like you.

Next thing you know, she's on her knees

and she's crying and begging for forgiveness.

[tense music]

"I just want to die.

You should call the cops right now."

I'm trying to talk her off the ledge

and telling her, like, you made a big mistake.

We can figure this out.

I told her, like, you know, don't worry.

No one has to know about this.

I did say, like,

I-I do think it's important that you tell Derrell.

He's your husband, and I think it's important

that you tell him.

♪ ♪

Two days later, she came over with Derrell.

Um, and they sat down with me.

And she said, you know, I told Derrell what you wanted me to.

And Derrell, he was like, ah.

He was just so shook and so shocked.

And everyone was crying.

Like, it was, like, a really heartfelt conversation.

I didn't think that she needed to go to jail.

But at the same time, I did want her to pay me back.

♪ ♪

I came up with the idea of, like,

would you be comfortable if we signed something,

just so I don't feel like a complete idiot here,

you know?

It's gonna spell out what she did,

and it's gonna say if there's anything else,

that I'm going straight to the authorities.

And she had no problem signing it and was so grateful.

[chuckles]

I'm still thinking I couldn't trust her anymore

at that point.

I changed all my passwords.

I changed the lock to my house.

But by the end of that week, she came with $5,000,

and then, you know, another couple thousand.

♪ ♪

Honestly, I felt like I had it under control.

I really did.

[waves crashing]

♪ ♪

It had been several months now

of us in this deal of her paying me back.

Then she told me about a restaurant

that she had just opened in San Diego

called Breakfast Bitch. [chuckles]

[upbeat music]

- Welcome to Breakfast Bitch.

- Yeah.

DERRELL: Yeah.

JOUMANA: She's like, I'm telling you now,

we've opened a restaurant.

And I can pay you back in increments of even, like,

$10,000.

As soon as I have it, you'll have it.

And I was like, oh, that sounds great,

another business for you guys.

And she's posting on social media

at her restaurant all the time.

- We're very excited.

We're doing something, like, that neither of us

have experience in, which is a little scary.

But it's gonna be fun. [cheers and applause]

CUSTOMER: Go, go! CUSTOMER: Yay!

- If this is gonna pay me back, do what you got to do.

[dramatic operatic music]

♪ ♪

CHRIS: All right.

Ah, man. It was just a long trip.

I won't even wake up.

- Mmm. Thank you.

I launched it during, uh-- in 2019.

We made it just for women.

Um, it tastes like juice.

I do very well with women.

I actually get along with women better than men.

My name's Chris Viso.

I create concepts. I'm a visionary.

I can see five years ahead of time

and create things that really create a reaction.

[bell dings]

I would never think of myself as an influencer, ever.

I just create cool shit.

It's been told and said all the time in Miami

everything I touch is gold.

[upbeat music]

The idea for me was to always open a restaurant in Miami.

That was my goal.

Uh, I opened Bacon Bitch in 2017.

I built a lot of stuff for other people,

and this was the first one I actually

built from scratch, by myself.

And it worked, and everybody told me it wasn't gonna.

From day one,

they said, you're crazy, you can't name it this.

But when it started, I didn't have any money.

So I had to create something that was gonna market itself.

Probably walk in to the hostess. Right away, hey, bitch.

How you doing? Everything good today?

It was an idea that I knew was progressive,

and my goal was to make the word "bitch" OK.

And I got to tell you, I think I did.

And I started really making an entire brand.

Because a brand isn't just a name.

Brand's a feeling and brand's an experience.

And once it went on social media,

it just tripled, quadrupled.

Then it started going viral all the time.

You had to go to Bacon Bitch if you went to South Beach.

♪ ♪

So it was 2019.

I had a really good relationship with Yelp.

And one of the girls who worked there

called me one day, and she's like,

"Chris, you're never gonna believe this.

"Somebody called me today and tried to open up a Yelp

with the name Breakfast Bitch."

I was like, "You're fucking with me. No way.

"Like, they called you, out of all the people?

How big is this company? And they called you?"

She's like, "Chris, I don't even believe it myself.

"And then she sent me the menu, and it was your menu,

your exact same menu."

I was like, "No way. No way, no way, no way."

And it was the exact menu, word for word.

Insane.

So I pull the website up, BreakfastBitch.com.

And it says "Inspired by Miami's most iconic brunch restaurant."

I was like, wow.

And the girl's name was Tracii Hutsona.

I went into the situation with Tracii

almost like she didn't know what she was doing.

[orchestral music]

[camera shutter snaps]

Once I found out she was really trying to do this,

I was like, well,

why didn't you just call me and try to franchise this?

So I went back and looked, and she had two franchise requests

a month and a half before with her name, Tracii Hutsona.

Franchise, San Diego.

I was like, how is she gonna deny this now?

Finally got a hold of 'em.

She just kept adamantly denying

that she tried to copy us.

So why'd you send me two franchise requests

if you weren't trying to do this

and then decided to do the same thing?

And then she would just try to say, oh, it's different.

It's this and that. I'm like, what? How?

I didn't know the extent of the similarities

until she opened the restaurant.

She copied everything.

I'm talking about the menu

and the merchandise and clothing.

- All bitches are welcome.

CHRIS: She started saying, "Hey, bitch" to the customers,

which was a big point for me,

because that was what made us who we were at the beginning.

- You're a bitch and you're a bitch. [laughs]

- Tracii was pretty consistently promoting herself

on social media, showing off the restaurant

that she called Bacon Bitch.

No, Breakfast Bitch. See? Even I get confused.

CHRIS: I felt like the customer would think,

when they went to Breakfast Bitch,

they were in Bacon Bitch,

which was literally the biggest part of why

she can't do what she's doing.

We called Tracii over and over,

got nowhere.

It was to the point where we had to finally file a suit.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: The more I looked into Tracii's history,

it became clear that this was a much bigger story...

Her whole life.

It certainly seemed like Tracii is acting with

the sense that "I can't get caught.

And if I do, I won't get in trouble."

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: Tracii was scamming

multiple people over multiple years.

Her first run-in with the law was in 1994

when she was arrested for using a bad check

to purchase a 1988 Jeep from a dealership.

- According to my mom, she walked into a car dealership

and pretended that she was on the set of Jingle All the Way

and that Arnold Schwarzenegger needed a car to drive around.

And she convinced these poor saps into giving her a car.

[dramatic music]

GABRIELLE: After the dealership arrest,

Tracii was charged with forgery, larceny, and grand theft,

and sentenced to three years.

[dog barking]

[tense music]

♪ ♪

DEBORAH: My mother died in 1997,

and it was heartbreaking that she had to die

with my sister in jail.

- By all accounts, her prison sentence

was very tough on her family.

So when she came out,

it was kind of their chance to start over.

So in 2004, Tracii got a really good job

at a well-known staffing agency

and was earning close to $100,000 a year.

DEBORAH: She was living in Malibu, Pacific Palisades,

spending a lot of money on plastic surgery,

clothing, renting these fancy houses.

She had all this talent, and she could have been a CEO.

But I don't think that would ever be enough for her.

♪ ♪

JEFF: As vice president of business development,

Tracii was responsible for

finding and hiring temp workers

for her company's clients.

♪ ♪

Approximately five months later,

she started her first fraud scheme.

[operatic music]

My name is Jeff Mitchell. I'm a federal prosecutor

at the United States Attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Tracii's fraud scheme was continuous,

deliberate, and calculated.

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: She took her passport

and her husband's passport and photoshopped them a bit.

Tracii created these two fictitious people

and convinced this staffing company that they were real.

JEFF: She created these fake employees

and had all of their paychecks direct deposited

into her personal bank accounts.

GABRIELLE: The investigation into her started

in May of 2006

when her staffing company called the police.

I mean, that kind of kicked off

a series of events that took several years

and saw Tracii move from company to company.

So as that first scam ended,

that's when the second scam started.

♪ ♪

- We were able to obtain her bank records,

and the bank records show that she was receiving

deposits from several staffing companies.

GABRIELLE: And when the second scam was discovered,

that's when she launched a third scam.

♪ ♪

Looking at it from a bird's eye view,

it was just so audacious.

I mean, she had to have known

when the paychecks stopped coming from the first company

that law enforcement was likely to be involved,

and yet she did it again.

And when those paychecks stopped,

she did it a third time, using the same bank account.

It really was kind of amazing.

- Over the course of 18 months,

she stole approximately a half a million dollars.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[birds cawing]

LORIANN: Tracii told me that the FBI was after her.

And Tracii talked to me about how innocent she was

and how she was being framed.

And I was dumbfounded.

I believed that they had to have been wrong.

Not my friend.

[bus whirs]

GABRIELLE: In October 2008,

Tracii pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud,

one count of aggravated identity theft,

and one count of tax evasion.

JEFF: She was being escorted into custody,

and she stopped,

she turned around, and she yelled at me,

something to the extent of, "I hope you're happy."

Over the course of 15 years, I don't think anybody

has ever made it personal or yelled at me,

so she sticks out for that reason.

- Ultimately, she was sentenced to 75 months in prison.

JEFF: Over six years' imprisonment

was a significant sentence for her.

It was longer than anything she had received in the past,

um, and we hoped it would deter her.

But unfortunately, it did not.

[soft indistinct chatter]

LORIANN: I was so shocked by the whole thing.

I didn't communicate with Tracii at all

while she was in prison.

I figured that was it.

I would never hear from her again.

[pensive music]

Then, in 2014, I was, uh, on the road

coming back from Palm Springs

when Tracii called me out of the blue.

[phone buzzing]

For her to call me after seven years was surprising.

We had a very long conversation,

and she was in a halfway house in downtown LA at that point.

And so I opened up my arms to her,

because I figured she had been rehabilitated.

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: It's a pattern that you will see repeated

a number of times in Tracii's life,

where people repeatedly offer her grace.

LORIANN: I have been an angel in many people's lives.

I'm not ashamed to say that, and I thought I was her angel.

♪ ♪

And it just occurred to my husband, Vince, and I

that maybe she should move into the other house,

which is on our property as well.

We thought it was a good idea

because it would give her a place to start over

and to rebuild.

Tracii moved into this.

This is the back side of the 12,000-square-foot home

that Vince built.

She moved in there and, uh, enjoyed every minute of it,

as you can imagine.

She went from living in a prison cell for seven years

to moving into a 12,000-square-foot mansion

in, like, one day.

It's a big place with painted murals,

all wood-paneled, and it's just beautiful.

My husband and I were together for about 17 years

before she came here and moved in.

Vince and I had a really rocky relationship.

When Tracii came here, she recognized that right away.

And she would agree that I was being disrespected.

Tracii was telling me that

Vince was a narcissistic piece of crap,

and what a terrible person he was,

and how I needed to get rid of him.

And she wouldn't really tell me

exactly why she felt that way.

And at the same time, she told me

how wonderful I was and how special a person I am.

[tense music]

For nine months, I was being built up,

loved, and respected.

But I'm not really sure what she was doing behind my back.

[orchestral music]

She played Polly Purebred with me.

She dressed very plainly.

On the other hand,

when she was at the other house around Vince,

she'd be dressing very, very sexily,

to a point where it was embarrassing.

And I asked her, would you please

stop dressing in this fashion?

It's not fair to Vince.

It's not fair to my son.

It's inappropriate.

Please don't do that.

I didn't know that they were going places together.

And when I found that out, I was appalled and hurt.

I felt that he was choosing Tracii over me,

that Tracii was the younger version and the trophy girl.

♪ ♪

Her end game, I don't know for sure.

But I feel that she wanted to

get Vince to herself

and be the proud owner of the villa and any other property.

I just think that she wanted something I had

and was trying to get it.

I'm angry and I'm hurt to this day.

I still cry about it. It was that painful.

[somber music]

I couldn't believe that people would treat me that way,

people who supposedly loved me.

♪ ♪

I'm sorry. Should I take a break?

[sniffles]

[pensive music]

♪ ♪

GABRIELLE: As I spoke to more and more people

who knew Tracii,

a number of traits kind of stuck out.

Tracii is extraordinarily intelligent

in the emotional sense,

someone who is good at understanding

what people are looking for,

who is very good at getting you to help her

while thinking that she's helping you.

All the while, she's the one in control.

And there's really no real way to tell what's what.

LORIANN: She doesn't think she's gonna get in trouble.

A good example is of what she did with Joumana.

♪ ♪

And Joumana gave her a second chance,

and she did worse.

[soft dramatic music]

JOUMANA: It had been several months now

of us in this deal of Tracii paying me back

the $100,000 that she put on the credit cards.

She had already paid me a good, like, 45,000.

It is extremely important for me

when people are genuine, when people are transparent,

when people are humble.

And I do believe that everyone always

deserves a second chance.

And after the confession,

I would wake up to random texts.

She said, like, "You had no reason

to give me the level of grace that you've given me."

And you know, "There's so many people

"who just say they're Christian.

You really live it."

It was just kind of like an ongoing affirmation

that I did the right thing, allowing her to pay me back.

I hadn't talked to anyone about it.

And I just felt like I needed to tell someone.

And I called my financial advisor, Ron,

and I said, remember that Chase card from a while back?

It-it was Tracii.

That was a really tough conversation,

because he was just so disappointed in me

and so upset with me.

And so then Ron says to me, OK, don't ever talk to her again.

Don't fire her. Don't say a word to her.

He called these, like, forensic guys

that dive into cases like this.

And I started calling credit cards.

I called Bank of America, and I told them

that I needed to cancel my card

and I needed to close my checking and my savings.

And so he pulls it all up.

And he says, OK, well, that's done.

How about the other ones?

And I'm like, there are no other ones.

And he's like, there are other ones.

And you actually have limited access.

[dramatic music]

I was just overwhelmed.

Like, how is all of this happening?

At that point, I thought, let me call everything.

So I called the kids' college funds.

Their college money was no longer there.

[tense music]

[somber music]

I just became undone at that point.

Who does that?

I think that is when I removed her

from, like, the human category.

You can attack me, you can steal from me,

but this was an attack at my children.

That was probably one of the lowest points of my life.

I told my kids.

They were just so sweet and, like,

wanting to make sure that I knew that,

"You didn't let us down."

♪ ♪

And then we went right into Quantico mode.

[suspenseful music]

It was like this huge investigation

of trying to figure out who Tracii was.

My daughter had this app where you could, like,

download every text you've ever had.

Our goal was to look at the credit card statements,

social media, and connect it all with the texts

and see consistencies, inconsistencies.

♪ ♪

This went from one credit card to a slew of things in a day.

So many bank statements, credit card statements.

It was, like, a lot of moving money.

It consumed us.

Starts off the conversation telling me that

she needs to take one of the cars in for service.

And then she texts me.

She needed to get a security question.

What city is your mother born in?

The last thing I'm thinking is that this person

is trying to get information.

[operatic music]

I really couldn't wrap my brain around

how she was getting all the access.

I finally learned she had power of attorney.

And I'm like, wait, what?

I-I've never signed a power of attorney.

So we asked for a copy of it.

So she had snuck a page

into something that I was signing.

When she had that power of attorney signed,

she had full acc--she was me.

There was nothing she didn't have access to.

Tracii ended up stealing

1.5 million cash...

Including between 600,000 and 700,000

from the kids' college funds,

and then another 1.14 million in credit.

Our goal was to have this, like, airtight case,

and to make sure that it went straight to the DA.

Every time I found something,

I would just send it off to them.

And I was told that we'll have her arrested by December.

And then that didn't happen.

Then they said, OK, probably January.

And then that didn't happen.

And, um, I really thought that once we figured out

all the fraud stuff, if you had that evidence,

you can go to jail.

[indistinct chatter]

But she still has the restaurants.

As a matter of fact, she ended up branching out

and opening a second one in Phoenix.

This was all after I'd turned her in.

She's just posting on social media.

- The same way she stole Joumana's identity,

I mean, Breakfast Bitch stole Bacon Bitch's identity.

[tense music]

This is the MO.

♪ ♪

So I wake up one morning, and my phone's blowing up.

And I look, and I'm watching

Jimmy Fallon talking about Bacon Bitch.

- The owners of the restaurant Bacon Bitch

are suing the owners of a San Diego restaurant

called Breakfast Bitch...

[crowd laughs]

For stealing their idea.

CHRIS: This was the first national attention we had.

And then the stories were everywhere.

But not only did it hit the late nights,

but it also hit the news.

I was kind of already contemplating

letting her run her businesses into the ground

because she doesn't know what she's doing.

And I don't know how she's affording all this.

When you open a store,

you don't make money for the first year.

It doesn't matter how busy you are.

So, like, I-- I-I knew something was off.

I was like, she must be getting the money

from an illicit source.

Little did I know, she was stealing money from Joumana.

♪ ♪

- So when the police were ready to arrest Tracii,

they had me call her,

try to, you know, get her on the phone

so they can nail down her location.

♪ ♪

She never answered,

but she ended up sending me this long text

the very next day,

just basically saying how, you know, she was just--

it just rocked her to the core to hear my voice.

"No matter how I try to pay it forward in acts of kindness,

I feel like I'm a fraud."

One day, she's gonna woman up

and have a conversation with me and how she's sorry.

It's just so fake.

But it was what the police needed,

and I guess they were able to secure her location.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

JOUMANA: When the police were ready to arrest Tracii,

they drove by the restaurant.

And then they saw her in the alley.

And once she saw them, apparently, she ran on foot.

[siren wailing]

ANCHOR: Tracii Hutsona is accused of stealing

more than $1,000,000.

[handcuffs clicking]

ANCHOR: Our camera's there as she's arrested in Phoenix,

getting out of her company car.

JOUMANA: They arrested her, and it was a great day.

But Tracii went to jail and got out,

like, the next day on bail. [chuckles]

REPORTER: Hutsona denies it all.

JOUMANA: I mean, not even house arrest?

Part of me felt--

I hate to go this route, but, like,

the white privilege was just next level.

[siren wails]

I've heard stories of people being pulled over with weed

and they're doing life.

This woman is robbing people.

We even had evidence that she had purchased things

to open the restaurant on my credit cards.

- Chilling on a Friday.

JOUMANA: She's posting videos floating in her pool,

talking about, um, living the life,

and looks dead in the camera and says,

"Just don't con anyone."

- Like, what the fuck is wrong with her?

[laughs]

TRACII: I'm not gonna underestimate things.

- My sister is so good at her game.

TRACII: Most of you know me.

DEBORAH: She's mastered it.

- I keep it real 100%.

So I'm just gonna tell you the truth right now.

- "I'm gonna tell you the truth right now."

So Joumana Kidd was just being human.

And people who say that they would never

get caught up in it have never met my sister, Tracii.

[tense music]

LORIANN: Tracii has a way of getting you

to feel like she had your back,

and then she'd stick the knife in.

[shutter clicking] I'm a savvy person.

I've been around the block more than once.

She really can sell you.

I was her best friend.

She loved me more than her sisters.

I was the greatest friend she's ever had in her life.

I mean, even with this interview,

I have a little tiny bit of me

that makes me feel like I'm betraying Tracii.

[thunder rumbles]

- Fraudsters need to convince their victims

that they're authentic and genuine.

So having a social media presence

or indicators of trustworthiness

is important to the fraud.

DEBORAH: It's the perfect time for Tracii,

if only she wasn't 54 years old.

When image is everything, it's got to be really hard

when you see yourself getting older.

♪ ♪

There's only so many filtered photographs

you can put out there.

[soft music]

CHRIS: And we finally got Tracii

to come to mediation, and...

[sighs] Didn't get anywhere.

♪ ♪

I decided to walk away from the lawsuit

and let it get dismissed.

The last thing I wanted to do was be throwing money at her.

She had no intention of coming to a solution.

- It's just something that she gets a high off of.

She's not someone who's stealing

to put food on the table for her kids.

REPORTER: The US Attorney's office

calls the owner of this Hillcrest restaurant

a "serial con artist."

She faces up to 20 years in prison

if convicted on all charges.

LORIANN: When I caught wind of Tracii in trouble again,

I wanted to find out more and more.

And I reached out to Debbie and told her who I was

and what had happened.

And she set me up with meeting Joumana.

- Tracii would be devastated to know

that I've been talking to Joumana Kidd.

- It made things come together.

The puzzle was more complete.

JOUMANA: I am the person who will tell you

that something good came out of anything.

Bringing me together with, like,

Chris Viso, Deb, and Loriann is a gift on its own.

[truck horn honks]

[indistinct chatter]

[engine revs]

GABRIELLE: In July 2022,

Tracii pled guilty to one count of wire fraud.

She only pleaded to one count,

so they obviously struck some bargain.

Cameras caught Tracii as she was leaving the court

with her attorney,

but she declined to comment to reporters.

JOUMANA: Tracii finally came to a plea deal,

and she agreed to pay 1.1 million back to me,

and 1.1 million in forfeitures to the government.

Well, I feel like she owes me more than 1.1 million.

And by the way, that's a really high-profile lawyer

she has there.

So I'd love to know how she's affording that also.

I guess I'm paying for that too.

- Even after the arrest became public,

Tracii was pretty consistently promoting herself

on social media, proclaiming her innocence

and that the truth would come out.

When I started investigating the story,

the Breakfast Bitch account

started liking photos on my Instagram.

You know, there was definitely no,

you know, attempt to kind of retreat in any way.

[dramatic music]

[cheers and applause]

JOUMANA: 100%, she was striving to be an influencer.

[shutter clicking]

It's just all so fake.

She's pretending she's something she's not.

- Tracii is a manipulative, calculated con artist

who is absolutely addicted to conning.

Someone like that's capable of anything.

[both laugh]

[bright operatic music]

♪ ♪