WEBVTT - Betrayal Weekly: EP 11 - Andrea 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:04.640 Pretty soon up over the hill, I saw a caravan 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.920 of dark vehicles with dark dinted windows. They're all in 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:14.440 FBI or US Marshall's jackets. They've got their sunglasses, they've 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.280 got their weapons, and they come to my house. They 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:20.319 rang the doorbell. I let them in. 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.640 I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.640 the people we trust the most and the deceptions that 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:47.040 change everything. Andrea Merriman came from money, a lot of money. 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:48.040 As a kid. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.200 Her family had a huge house, a vacation home in Hawaii, 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.120 and even a private plant. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.120 We flew everywhere. We didn't do road trips. It was 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:02.040 so my family to the plane at midnight and fly 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.480 to Arizona for the weekend to enjoy the sun, and 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.319 then be back when school started on Monday. 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.200 But if you met Andrea, you wouldn't know that's how 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:15.080 she grew up. She's not flashy, She's hard working and honest. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:16.920 Her parents raised her that way. 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.440 We had jobs around the house. We didn't get allowance 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.360 for it, or if we did, it was a dollar 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.119 a week, because my parents wanted to teach us responsibility 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:28.200 and accountability. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.399 Her family belonged to the church, of Jesus Christ of 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.759 Latter day Saints. Some people call it the Mormon Church, 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:38.000 but that's not the name she uses. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.560 That's a name given to church members who are not 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.360 of our faith. It's just a mouthful to say the 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:48.760 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saint. 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.680 From a young age, Andrea took her faith very seriously. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.720 When you're a child, they give you a ring and 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.200 it says ctr on it that stands for two use 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:05.520 the right. So part of the culture was to be 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:12.480 obedient to good principles, doing well in whatever I attempted to. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.920 Do, and in her religious community. She felt empowered as 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.440 a woman. The women around her were ambitious and well educated. 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.799 Many of them had both families and careers. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.000 My mom had a master's degree, and I remember going 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.679 to my dad asking for help with homework. My dad 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.800 would say, I can totally help you, but who really 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.799 could help you. The person who's the smartest in our 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:41.560 family as your mother. So I was raised that women 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.200 could do and be anything. 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.520 She was a straight a student, a great athlete. She 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.280 played three instruments and excelled at piano. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.400 Anything I did, I did to the best of my ability. 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.160 When she got older. She took that determination to bring 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.679 them young university, where she immediately got to work on 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:02.720 building her future. 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:05.839 My dad wanted me to be a lawyer, and that's 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.280 what I went to school thinking I would do. 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.440 Along the way, she found a dream of her own. 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.480 She wanted to start a career in advertising and public relations, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.000 and her work ethic extended outside the classroom. She got 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.440 a job in her apartment complex. That's how she met Sean. 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.320 He came into the office to pay his rent, and 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.040 I processed that for him. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.880 She would see him around the building, but they'd never 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:32.960 really talked before. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.760 My roommates in my apartment were good friends with the 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.800 guys and his apartment people thought highly of him and 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.520 his roommates, and they did fun things and seemed to 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:46.320 be good people. 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.400 Soon after they met in the office, Sean asked her out, 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.880 and right away he impressed her. He knew she liked music, 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.880 so for their first date, he took her to the Symphony. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.320 After that, they started going out together every weekend. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:06.640 He did not do the typical, cheap, low budget, crazy 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:13.680 college dates. He took me to the best restaurants, two concerts, 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:19.919 and then he'd take you out into his BMW. He 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:24.839 was always a very engaging, outgoing, charming person. 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.200 On one date, she wore a pearl necklace. Sean complimented 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.600 her on it and she told him it was borrowed 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.760 from a front So a few days later, he. 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.280 Just showed up at my door unexpectantly with a jewelry box. 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.360 I opened it up and it was a pearl necklace, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.839 and he said, any woman as beautiful as you should 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.880 not have to borrow pearls. I mean, that was what 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:56.480 it was like to date Sean Merriman. I remember thinking, Wow, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.200 all the other boys I've dated, if they tried to 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.920 do these grand gestures or date this way, it would 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.440 seem really cheesy and corny. But it works for Sean, 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.080 and it was just like in the movies. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.240 Even though he had expensive taste, Sean didn't come from money. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.840 His dad was a construction worker. They had moved all 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:25.479 around the country during his childhood, eleven times in seven 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:32.160 or eight years. There was a lot of alcoholism, divorce, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.960 and he was one of the first members of his 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:39.040 family to go to college. 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.480 Getting into college wasn't easy for Sean. He didn't have 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.840 the grades, but he made up for it with his 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:46.880 trademark charm. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:53.760 He started sending flowers to the woman in charge of admissions, 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.560 and eventually he got admitted. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.240 He was proud of this story, and he always had 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.880 fabulous stories to entertain people with. He was interested in 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.160 things most college kids weren't. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.440 He was into photography, he was into cars, he was 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.920 into building things. 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.680 Still, Sean didn't let his interests take over their relationship. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.080 We did everything that I loved. He knew that I 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.400 loved the beach, he knew that I loved eighties music. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.560 He knew that I loved travel, and I thought that 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.520 I was finding someone who believed the way I did 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:34.280 on everything. 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.919 After a few months of dating, the two took a 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.840 trip to California, and there on the beach, he got 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:43.039 down on one knee. 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:49.159 Going through my head mostly was wait, I'm only twenty two. 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:50.920 I'm too young to do this. 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.800 Andrea was still in school. She'd always planned to graduate, 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.520 start a career, and then get married, but saying yes 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.479 to Sean just made sense. 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.200 I don't know that I thought he was the one, 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.920 but I thought that he would be a great friend, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:15.000 great partner, great companion, great provider, great father. And am 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.800 I going to find somebody just like him. Again, if 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.400 I passed this by, I saw enough of those good 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.600 qualities and the things that I wanted as part of 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:30.040 my future. So when he proposed, I said yes. 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.360 So they got married and graduated college in that order. 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:40.880 We were on a good course together. We were equally 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.840 yoked as a couple to move forward and create the 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.800 life of our dreams. 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.679 Sean had a vision of moving to DC. He even 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.640 interviewed with the CIA. He also considered getting an MBA 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.960 and an Ivy League school. Timately, they decided to plant 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.000 roots in our home state of Colorado. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:10.000 We chose to move to Denver for my career. I 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.600 got a job working for a government agency doing public 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.160 relations for them. 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.560 Sean came to love Denver and he found a great 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.240 job at an investment firm. 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:26.640 He had immediate success, so then he actually started being 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.360 a stockbroker that fall. 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.440 When it came to investing, Sean had a minus touch. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.880 And I will tell you from September to December that 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.079 quarter he made fifty thousand dollars, and that was in 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:42.439 nineteen ninety. 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.439 That's a lot of money, especially right out of college. 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.920 Sean was bringing home two hundred k a year. But 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.080 that was the nineties. In today's money, that's the equivalent 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.880 of four hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year, and 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:57.800 the money just kept coming. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.000 Other firms would reach out to him and say, hey, 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.720 come and work for us. We'll give you a signing bonus, 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.280 and so he would take a fifty sixty seventy eighty 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.640 thousand dollars signing bonus and go work for a different firm. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.960 He hopped from firm to firm for a few years, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.959 and then soon after they had their first child in 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:22.080 nineteen ninety three, Sean came to Andrea with a business idea. 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.160 He came home from work and told me that he 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.440 had some very wealthy, blue blood old money clients in 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.800 Kansas City that had been so impressed with the money 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.600 management he had done for them that they had asked 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.880 him to step back from his career as a stockbroker 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:47.520 and manage their money privately for them. 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.439 She supported him one hundred percent, so he made the 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:56.000 leap and launched what became Market Street Advisors. It started 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.200 with those Kansas City clients, but pretty soon he was 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.520 investing for f family, friends and neighbors too, and even 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.280 in the madness of starting his own firm and finding 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.520 new clients. Sean made it a point to spend time 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.600 with Andrea at the end of every day. 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.760 He came home at night, had dinner with me, had 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.560 great stories about trades that he'd made that day. He 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:25.360 had no shortage of stories. He could tell, conversations, he 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.240 could share ideas that he had. 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.920 Life was good for the Merryman's. Sean's investment firm was 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.920 taking off, and the two of them were living comfortably, 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.080 more than comfortably. Even the house got bigger, the cars 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.640 got nicer, and for Andrea there was only one thing 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:45.680 missing more kids. 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.600 One of the things we talked about before we got 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:53.720 married was that I wanted four to six children. He 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.160 was like, Oh, that's great, That's what I've always wanted. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.840 They had another a baby girl, and Andrea was the 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.400 happiest she'd ever been. When Sean got home after a 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.320 long day at work, he didn't have the bandwidth to 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:10.360 help with the babies. 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.000 He was fine to play with the baby when he 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.080 was home, et cetera, but he was not a hands 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.160 on let me help bathe the baby, let me change diapers. 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.160 And when she asked him about having a third kid, 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.160 he was hesitant. She assured him she'd take on the 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.520 responsibilities that he couldn't, And so I. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:37.640 Did everything, handled everything for the baby so that it 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.560 wouldn't impact his life too much. And I could have 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.480 another child. And I continued to do everything and manage 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:49.600 the kids so that it didn't impact his life. By 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.240 the time we had our fourth kid, I could count 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.160 the number of dirty diapers on one hand that he 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:59.719 had changed. It really became. He was busy, he was 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.480 working on his career, and I was the partner in 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:07.000 the relationship who was focused on home and family. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.440 All in all, they had four kids together. She was 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.680 the homemaker, he was the provider, and she provided very well. 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.920 It was the life she always wanted. Over time, Sean 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.959 started to be more open about the life he wanted. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.760 I found out he didn't like dancing. He didn't like beaches. 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.839 Let's go on a trip to California. No, I hate 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.480 the beach. What yeah, I hate the feel of sand 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.880 between my toes. I'm not doing that. 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.719 He started developing expensive new hobbies, ones that required him 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:43.280 to travel. 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:49.760 He was a big African safari guy. He would go 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:55.440 to Cameroon and Tanzania and South Africa. And Zimbabwe, all 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.880 over the world to hunt and go on safaris for 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:04.720 animals and Quinci. Very wealthy people are engaged in those hobbies. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.880 He sold it as well, I'm actually doing this for work, 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.360 to get more clients to build my business. 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.920 These trips could be dangerous. One time, when he returned 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:20.280 from a safari in Ethiopia, Sean was acting strange. 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:25.199 He was keeping his distance and I said why, and 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.959 he said, I have got to go to the doctor. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.800 He was worried he could have contracted something. He told 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:34.679 Andrea a wild story. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:40.000 We were climbing a mountain and one of the people 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.760 in the party flipped and he was going to fall 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.960 off a cliff, and so I reached down and I 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.920 grabbed him and saved his life. But he and I 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.480 both got cut up in the process, and I need 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.520 to go and get tested to make sure I'm okay. 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.320 Thankfully, Sean was negative, and even though the story was 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.640 far fetched, Andrea believed him. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.559 He had so many stories about saving people's lives or 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.640 dramatic things. I used to tell him, if I didn't 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.360 live with you and see that your life is true, 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.440 I would never believe your life. What I didn't know 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:39.080 was most of those stories were probably lies. 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.320 As Andrea and Sean built a family together, Sean started 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.760 to change. He was around less and less working at 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.800 his investment firm, and when he wasn't working, he was 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:55.600 taking extravagant hunting trips on his own. It became Sean's world, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:15:00.160 and sometimes that bothered her, but she was committed to 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:01.480 him no matter what. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.480 For a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.440 Latter day Saints, you marry forever, and you make your choice, 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.560 and then you love your choice and you figure out 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.000 how to make it work. I was taught that pretty 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.400 much the only reason you would ever divorced, as if 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.320 in the case of physical abuse or something beyond that, 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:26.120 you marry forever. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.480 His behavior was a challenge, but not marriage ending. 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:38.440 It wasn't anything that I would have divorced over. It 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.920 was more, oh, I guess I'll make this work. 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.920 And she really did want to make it work. There 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.240 was still so much good in what they had together. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:53.000 I felt like we were very connected. We went on 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.320 dates every weekend together. He would call me when he 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.160 had downtimes at work, once every morning, and once or 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.160 twice in the afternoon. He'd just called me to check in, 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:06.400 see what I was doing, see how I was. 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.560 And when he did have the time, she could see 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.800 he was really trying. Especially as the kids got older, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.200 he became more involved. He led fifty mile hikes for 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.920 their son's boy Scout troop. He drove their daughter around 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.400 on errands. He joked with them, talked with them, and 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.440 above all, he made sure his kids had everything they 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.320 could ask for, all the things he didn't have. Growing up. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:35.560 My son played baseball and they won the championship of 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:40.320 their league. So he bought a batting cage and pitching 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.000 machine that he put in our backyard. We put in 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.120 a pool, We put in a sport court so that 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.720 our kids would have a great fun place to bring 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:49.520 their friends to. 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:53.480 Sean wanted their kids to be cultured. He took them 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.480 to museums around the world, and he even started their 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:57.920 own private art collection. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.840 We ended up with a collection of Rembrands that was 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.439 worth quite a bit of money, and sculptures by Frederick Hart, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.000 all kinds of things like that to make things beautiful 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.840 and to help educate our children. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:18.680 The batting cages, the private courts, the rembrands. Sure it 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.080 was a lot, but they could afford it in Sean's hands. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.320 Andrea had watched their money multiply. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.040 I had watched our account slowly grow up to a million, 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.520 and then I watched our account slowly grow to three million, 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:40.399 and then I watched my statement grow to total about 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:41.720 ten million dollars. 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.880 In the early two thousands, that was closer to eighteen million. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:51.400 Andrea also invested her own inheritance with Sean's firm, everything 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.760 she had saved and everything she got from her parents. 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.440 I had my own money. My parents had passed away 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.560 at this point, and like all of his investment clients, 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.400 I was getting monthly financial statements. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:08.040 Still, she wanted to make sure that they were being 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:09.240 smart with their spending. 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:19.560 I am very conservative financially. So my first goal was 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.320 I want our home paid off. And so I remember 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:27.679 I think it was my fortieth birthday. He gave me 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:31.200 the deed to our house, and our house was paid off. 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:34.560 And Sean kept making the house better and better. 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.359 He ended up building a building behind our home that 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:42.120 he called his shop. It was actually bigger than our home. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.000 His work office was in the top level, and then 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.880 the bottom was just cars and trophies. He had an 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:54.879 aston Martin. He had several porsches of Ferrari, Mercedes, Sedans, BMW's, 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:55.600 you name it. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.800 Sean spent pretty much all his time in his shop, 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.879 working on business or taking care of his cars. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.679 He would go out to his office from probably seven 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:10.560 am to five pm, come in, have dinner, and then 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.159 he'd be like, oh, I'm going to go out to 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.840 my shop and do this, and then he'd come in 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:15.720 at ten at night. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.439 Andrea knew all that hard work was funding their lifestyle, 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.520 but she missed him. She wanted him around more. 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.720 After seventeen or so years of marriage. I've said, we 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.040 don't need more money. We have plenty for our needs 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.439 and our wants and things we've never dreamed of, but 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:40.600 we need you, and he just said I can't. I've 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:41.880 got to build my business. 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.119 He'd spend twenty years prioritizing his work above everything else. 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.920 He didn't know how to shift gears. Maybe he didn't 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:54.800 want to, so Andrea made peace with the fact that 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.080 her husband would be around when he could be. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.400 I was kind of raised, if you look for good 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.959 in others, you will find it. If you're looking for 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:06.720 bad things and looking to tear people down and to 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:11.399 hate them, you'll find reasons for that too. He was 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.000 gone a lot of the time, but when he was home, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.240 he would be there for dinner and do other things 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.960 with us. Now, I don't think any life is completely perfect, 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:27.159 but it was a good life. 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:31.040 March seventeenth, two thousand and nine, was a really good day. 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:32.920 It was Saint Patti's Day. 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.960 There is a little irish in the Merriman side of 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:39.840 the family, so I always tried to make it a 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:44.119 fun day. I had gold coins and I made green 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.800 pancakes and green milk for breakfast. As I sent my 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.800 kids off to school, I took fun photos of them 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:57.560 dressed in their Saint Patrick's Day attire. What I didn't 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:02.640 know at the time was those were the last merrim 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:11.200 And family photos that I would ever take. The next day, 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.720 March eighteenth, unexpectedly, I was headed out on some errands. 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.760 I dropped my youngest child off at daycare to have 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:23.880 a babysitter while I quickly got some things done. And 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:26.760 Sean called me as I was driving down the highway 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.000 and he's like, what are you doing? And I said, 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.600 why do you need something? He said, well, actually I 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.159 was hoping to spend some time with you this morning. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.560 And I said, oh, well, I can turn around and 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:42.840 I'll come and get you and you can do my 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.960 errands with me. And he said, no, I need you 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:47.680 to come home. 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.879 So she turned the car around and went back to 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.240 the house. He was waiting for her in the kitchen. 0:21:56.160 --> 0:22:01.919 And he said, I've been running Market Street Advisors for 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:07.080 the past sixteen years, but I need you to know 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:11.199 that every day when I got up and left and 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:14.439 went to work and was gone all day, I was 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:16.359 actually running a Ponzi scheme. 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.679 Andrea thought that her husband, Sean had dedicated his career 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:38.160 to running his own investment firm, but then Sean confessed 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.960 that it was all a lie. Their life of luxury 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:45.200 was funded and stolen money. For the past sixteen years. 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:47.560 He had been running a Ponzi scheme. 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:51.439 I didn't even know what a Ponzi scheme was. I 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:53.920 had heard a Bernie maid off. I didn't pay too 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.960 much attention to those types of things. I knew he'd 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.400 done something wrong, but that's pretty much all I knew 0:22:59.400 --> 0:22:59.720 about it. 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:03.560 Sean explained that when he first started his firm was legitimate, 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:06.680 but in his first year one of his investments went 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:08.640 south and he panicked. 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:13.320 So he omitted the five thousand dollars loss from his statement, 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.359 and I'm sure he thought that he could make that 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.320 up with another trade, and then he never did so. 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.720 He kept fudging the books, selling people on his big wins, 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.600 and using money from new investors to pay old ones. 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:31.199 There were no million dollar trades or miracle investments. The 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:34.639 conversations he told her about, and all the financial documents 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:39.080 she'd seen were fake. He was a total fraud. His 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:43.000 clients had lost millions of dollars, some of them lost 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:47.159 everything they had. Not only did he lose other people's money, 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:50.720 all of their own money was gone too. The money 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.280 she'd inherited from her parents and their kids' college funds, 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:56.760 it was gone. 0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:03.080 Then he said, yesterday, in the company of my attorney, 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:07.399 turned myself into the US Marshals, to representatives of the 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:15.879 federal government, and I will be going to prison. And 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:22.439 when he said the word prison, I about died. My 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:25.400 mind was just swirling. When he said that, I thought 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:26.600 this cannot be real. 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:30.159 She thought back to all the Outlandis stories he told 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:34.120 over the years, like the one about saving someone's life 0:24:34.200 --> 0:24:38.960 on a safari. Was any of it real? As the 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:42.800 reality set in, she tried to cling to anything she could. 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:46.520 I was trying to find the positive, like I'd been 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:49.800 raised to do. And I said, at least the house 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:53.919 is paid off. And he said, no, you don't understand. 0:24:54.440 --> 0:25:02.720 The house is gone, the cars are gone, everything's gone. 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:07.000 I just kind of felt like I was witnessing the apocalypse. 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:12.359 I remember apologizing, saying, I'm so sorry, but I have 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:14.919 to get out of here. And I got up and 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.159 I ran out, and I got in my car and 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:21.080 I took off up my driveway and started driving out 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:28.879 of my neighborhood. Uncontrollably, tears were just streaming out of 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:29.600 my eyes. 0:25:30.760 --> 0:25:34.199 Andrea pulled over just minutes after leaving her home. She 0:25:34.280 --> 0:25:37.640