Speaker 1: Previously on Queen of the Cohn She infiltrated my life.
Speaker 1: She became my best friend. In her exact words, I
Speaker 1: was the sister that she never had.
Speaker 2: Kristin Williams, the wife of NFL running back Ricky Williams,
Speaker 2: starts unraveling financial manager Peggy Fulford's massive, multi million dollar fraud.
Speaker 1: We realized that we're paying for Peggy's lavish lifestyle, the
Speaker 1: Bentley Rolls, Royce, the range Rovers, all of her homes.
Speaker 2: The only problem is Kristin's husband, Ricky Williams, refuses to
Speaker 2: believe it. Peggy's got him snowed with her Oscar worthy performances.
Speaker 3: She's like ball of crying. She's like, I hope you
Speaker 3: don't believe this, Like I would never do this to Ricky,
Speaker 3: And she's like staying all this up, and I'm just like,
Speaker 3: I don't believe you.
Speaker 2: And what did Ricky get from her?
Speaker 3: Like he got from her that she put his money
Speaker 3: in stocks and like his money is spread out, So
Speaker 3: in his mind he's thinking, Okay, let's give her time.
Speaker 2: And Ricky gives Peggy plenty of time, but he never
Speaker 2: sees any of his money ever again. And it's the
Speaker 2: beginning of the end of Peggy Fulford's many scams. But
Speaker 2: the crazy, unbelievable drama is just getting started. I shouted
Speaker 2: out loud when I saw that. I literally said, and
Speaker 2: I said, you fucking way, is what I said. I'm
Speaker 2: Jonathan Walton and this is Queen of the con The
Speaker 2: Athlete Whisperer Episode five, deceit from the very beginning.
Speaker 3: Once it all happened with the Irs, because Kristen I
Speaker 3: was one of the first people that she called once
Speaker 3: the IRS called them and said how much they owe
Speaker 3: and blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: That's Chantelle Cohen again, Ricky William's lifelong friend. Peggy had
Speaker 2: successfully driven a wedge between Ricky's wife Kristin and Chantelle,
Speaker 2: but now both of them are finally talking and they
Speaker 2: have a lot to say.
Speaker 3: We sat on the phone for hours of just thinking
Speaker 3: of all these stories and things she said to us,
Speaker 3: and just all the way down to how she played
Speaker 3: Kristin and I against each other to where I didn't
Speaker 3: think Kristin liked me, she didn't think that I liked her,
Speaker 3: to where we wouldn't talk.
Speaker 2: So she kept you guys separate.
Speaker 3: Separate so she could do whatever she needed to do
Speaker 3: over in that house, and I was over here because
Speaker 3: I said to Kristin months into them hiring Peggy, and
Speaker 3: I said, make sure that she gives you like an
Speaker 3: outomized thing of what she's paying monthly for you guys,
Speaker 3: so you know exactly where your money's going. Maybe it's
Speaker 3: something that she puts in the refrigerator. She just stops
Speaker 3: by and drops it off at you, guys. You should
Speaker 3: know where your money's going, like, even though she's given
Speaker 3: you guys an allowance, like, you should know where your
Speaker 3: money's going. I don't know if Kristin mentioned it to Peggy.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing she did, and that's one of the reasons
Speaker 2: Peggy made sure Kristin and Chantelle never spoke again. But
Speaker 2: now Peggy's lies are laid there, out in the open
Speaker 2: for everyone to see.
Speaker 3: Because even with Dennis Rodman, he didn't want to come
Speaker 3: out and say anything. I know, his person was one
Speaker 3: of my good friends. So we talked about it, and
Speaker 3: I was like, no, you have to tell Dennis like
Speaker 3: he's on a trip with her son.
Speaker 2: That's right, Remember, Elkin, my responsibilities were to like completely
Speaker 2: run Dennis. Peggy convinced Dennis Rodman that Elkin was her brother,
Speaker 2: when in reality he's her son. And at this point
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, Elkin is with Dennis Rodman in North
Speaker 2: Korea while Chantelle and Kristen are realizing Peggy is a
Speaker 2: con artist, and Chantelle is urging Dennis's assistant over the
Speaker 2: phone to tell Dennis Rodman asap, like.
Speaker 3: You have to let him know what's going on with us,
Speaker 3: and so that person had to talk with Dennis, and
Speaker 3: Dennis is like, I don't want to deal with it.
Speaker 3: Then we have to get lawyers and blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: But then it was like the more stuff started coming out,
Speaker 3: then there's no way for you to not deal with it,
Speaker 3: you know, at the end of the day. So he
Speaker 3: had to deal with it, and it all came.
Speaker 2: Out, and by this point, Ricky Williams finally sees the
Speaker 2: truth about Peggy, and on December sixteenth, twenty thirteen, six
Speaker 2: years after hiring Peggy to manage their finances, he and
Speaker 2: his wife Kristen file a lawsuit in Houston against Peggy,
Speaker 2: accusing her of fraud.
Speaker 4: Plaintiffs Ricky and Kristin Williams, collectively plaintiffs filed this verified
Speaker 4: complaint and application for temporary restraining order and pliminary injunction.
Speaker 2: My buddy, Evan Goldstein, and I are examining all the
Speaker 2: legal filings in that lawsuit. It took me weeks to
Speaker 2: dig up all these court records and then figure out
Speaker 2: who all the court reporters were and make formal requests
Speaker 2: for transcripts and audio recordings. But my god, these filings
Speaker 2: tell one hell of a story.
Speaker 4: In two thousand and seven, mister Williams engaged Miss Wilford
Speaker 4: and King Management, collectively defendants, to manage all of his
Speaker 4: finances and investments.
Speaker 2: So this is two years before Dennis Rodman signs on.
Speaker 2: Dennis Rodman signs on hires Peggy in two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2: Ricky Williams is two years earlier, in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and she kind of met Dennis Robin because Ricky
Speaker 4: Williams was opening a restaurant right that was kind of
Speaker 4: her way in with rod.
Speaker 2: One led to the other. It's a chess game for her.
Speaker 2: And while we're talking about Ricky Williams restaurant, the one
Speaker 2: on South Beach called Proof, it actually ended up closing
Speaker 2: and according to Ricky's business partner, A credit card machine
Speaker 2: in that restaurant was secretly swapped out for another credit
Speaker 2: card machine that allegedly fed directly into a bank account
Speaker 2: controlled by Peggy.
Speaker 3: And we had to shut down Proof because allegedly she
Speaker 3: was still in money from Proof.
Speaker 2: And Chantel Cohen watched it all happen without realizing what
Speaker 2: she was actually witnessing until years later.
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 3: Cleaning my house a few years ago and I found
Speaker 3: postcards that she would send me from like China, Paris.
Speaker 3: Like I'm like, was this on Dennis's dime, Ricky's dime?
Speaker 2: Like ooh?
Speaker 3: Was treated in these trips? And I've seen multiple cars,
Speaker 3: big houses, just like all this stuff. And I'm just like,
Speaker 3: when you came into this, how much money did you
Speaker 3: actually have? Like how much was actually your money before
Speaker 3: you started doing X, Y and Z with all these people.
Speaker 2: I don't think any of it was her money ever.
Speaker 2: As for Ricky Williams lawsuit.
Speaker 4: Miss Fulford maybe served at two eight four to one
Speaker 4: Northeast thirty fifth Court, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Speaker 2: Now that's a hell of a house she's living in
Speaker 2: in Fort laud Is it like a mansion, Yes, it's
Speaker 2: a mansion on the on the Intracoastal. Oh yeah, waterfront.
Speaker 2: Those are super nice. It's got BMW's and Bentley's in
Speaker 2: the driveway. She is a baller. I remember every sense
Speaker 2: of the word.
Speaker 4: When I was a kid, I went down the Inner
Speaker 4: Coastal Waterway and like on a tour and they're like, oh,
Speaker 4: there's Madonna's house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's it.
Speaker 4: Like it's just very very well to do, very big
Speaker 4: giant houses, and they have they all have their kind
Speaker 4: of like docks in the back with their little dinghies
Speaker 4: and like boats, and it's it's uppercrust and it's.
Speaker 2: A million dollar lifestyle that she's using Ricky Williams money
Speaker 2: to furnish.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a hell of an address.
Speaker 2: And I'm posting pictures of that address, Peggy's three point
Speaker 2: six million dollar Fort Lauderdale mansion inside and outside, front
Speaker 2: and back at Queen of the Con on Instagram so
Speaker 2: you can see for yourself one of the opulent smoke
Speaker 2: screens Peggy used to trick victims into thinking she was
Speaker 2: a multi millionaire investing whiz.
Speaker 4: Between two thousand and seven and twenty twelve, mister Williams
Speaker 4: earn income of approximately eleven million dollars.
Speaker 2: So it's like two million plus a year. That's the
Speaker 2: money he's making, and that's the money she has access to.
Speaker 4: Onor about August fifteenth, two thousand and eight, miss Fulford
Speaker 4: and mister Williams established a joint checking count at SunTrust
Speaker 4: Bank in Orlando, Florida, without the knowledge or permission of plaintiffs.
Speaker 4: Miss Fulford received and used a debit card for the
Speaker 4: joint account. Plaintiffs were never provided a debit card for
Speaker 4: the joint account. So this is like her funny money fund.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's she gets a debit card for their account
Speaker 2: and doesn't give them a debit card.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just like straight to the Fendi bags and stuff.
Speaker 4: After opening the joint account, miss Fulford is ablished at
Speaker 4: least six other accounts at sun Trust Bank under several
Speaker 4: different names, including King Management. So she's just like moving
Speaker 4: this around.
Speaker 2: In the end, though, court record show Peggy actually opened
Speaker 2: eighty five different bank accounts that she used to steal
Speaker 2: from her clients, including Ricky Williams.
Speaker 4: Between opening the joint account in August twenty twelve, approximately
Speaker 4: six million dollars was transferred via account transfers, wire transfers,
Speaker 4: check card debits, written checks, or cash withdrawals out of
Speaker 4: the joint account by miss Fulford without plaintiffs authorization or knowledge.
Speaker 4: Six million dollars she's moving around like that seems like
Speaker 4: such an oversight.
Speaker 2: How do they not miss that like six million dollars? Well,
Speaker 2: here's why. Because she pitched them as this financial guru
Speaker 2: who's going to put them on a strict budget, invest
Speaker 2: the access of their money, and create what she kept
Speaker 2: calling generational wealth for their kids. So they believe her.
Speaker 4: They try to say, this money is not liquid anyway
Speaker 4: she's in. It's not like they could just pull it
Speaker 4: out of the stock market or whatever money market, whatever
Speaker 4: she says she's doing.
Speaker 2: They're not missing it because they think she's investing in.
Speaker 4: She's building wealth with it. Right, It's just leave it there,
Speaker 4: don't touch it. This is for your kids and your kids' kids.
Speaker 2: Let it ride. Yep. But the craziest part of this
Speaker 2: whole lawsuit is after the break, we'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Queen of the con. My buddy Evan
Speaker 2: and I are going through the Ricky and Kristen Williams
Speaker 2: lawsuit accusing Peggy of fraud.
Speaker 4: Paige by Page Honor about September twenty thirteen, Miss Fulford
Speaker 4: ceased all communications with Miss Williams. So it's kind of
Speaker 4: like years go by, what's going on with our money?
Speaker 4: And then basically by twenty thirteen she's like, Okay.
Speaker 2: Bye, I gotta go. She ghosted them, She totally ghost it.
Speaker 2: She ghosted them, and she ghosted Dennis Rodmins people, and
Speaker 2: she ghosted Rashad mccent's people. This is her thing. When
Speaker 2: she gets found out, she ghosts and she's on to
Speaker 2: the next. But here's what's different. Travis Best kept it quiet.
Speaker 2: Rashad mccent kept it quiet. Ricky Williams's wife is pissed.
Speaker 4: One question is like, would she have gotten away with
Speaker 4: this had Ricky Williams wife not have been pressing her,
Speaker 4: you know, if it was just Ricky Williams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she just scammed another day for maybe she would
Speaker 2: have got away with it. It was the wife. It
Speaker 2: was the wife. Yeah. By all accounts, she was the
Speaker 2: catalyst to take her down. Evan continues reading from the lawsuit.
Speaker 4: Mister williams twenty ten personal income tax return was prepared
Speaker 4: by Miss Fulford honor about August twenty twelve. The internal
Speaker 4: Revenue Service audited mister Williams twenty ten personal tax record
Speaker 4: and contacted mister Williams for additional information.
Speaker 2: She's getting him audited. And it's similar to the way
Speaker 2: Travis Best found out he got conned. He got a
Speaker 2: letter from the IRS that he thought Peggy was paying
Speaker 2: his taxes. Turns out she wasn't. I mean, it's identical
Speaker 2: if you recall from season two what I don't care
Speaker 2: for this show.
Speaker 4: I don't really listen to it.
Speaker 2: What Lizzie Mulder was doing to scam her victim. She
Speaker 2: claimed to be paying their taxes, and she was just
Speaker 2: depositing all those checks that were earmark for taxes into
Speaker 2: her own account for years, banking that tax no one
Speaker 2: knew for years.
Speaker 4: The coup de gras was the checking account with the
Speaker 4: name income tax Payments.
Speaker 2: She can just go to Bank of America and open
Speaker 2: up an account called income tax payments. Yeah, and they don't.
Speaker 2: That doesn't raise a red flag for them. Yeah, No,
Speaker 2: that's just bullshit. But this is what puzzles me about
Speaker 2: con artists. I don't know the answer. I just see
Speaker 2: a trend in all these cases. How do they not
Speaker 2: know or how do they not care? They're going to
Speaker 2: get caught one day, at some point the jig is up.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's just, you know, they get away with it.
Speaker 4: Year one, they're probably nervous. Year two, maybe a little
Speaker 4: less nervous. Year after year, getting this money, nothing happening
Speaker 4: to them, they just start to lose their fear. Maybe
Speaker 4: they just become more emboldened because they low themselves into
Speaker 4: this kind of false sense of security where it's like, oh,
Speaker 4: I didn't get caught the last ten years or whatever
Speaker 4: six years.
Speaker 2: And they feel confident delivery get caught. Maybe remember con
Speaker 2: artist is short for confidence artist, because they not only
Speaker 2: gain your confidence to scam you, but they're also inordinately
Speaker 2: confident they'll get away with whatever scam they're pulling anyway.
Speaker 2: On January tenth, twenty fourteen, things take a crazy, freaking turn,
Speaker 2: a chain of whiplash inducing events on fold that no
Speaker 2: one sees coming first. Nearly one month after Ricky Williams
Speaker 2: and his wife Kristen file a lawsuit against Peggy alleging fraud,
Speaker 2: they end up dropping it out of the blue, and
Speaker 2: Peggy breathes a huge sigh of relief because she appears
Speaker 2: to be getting away with what she's done. Wow, Ricky
Speaker 2: Williams is spending I would guess hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 2: dollars on this lawyer to pursue this case, not just
Speaker 2: filing it in Texas, but then refiling it in Florida.
Speaker 2: And maybe that's one of the reasons he ultimately dismissed
Speaker 2: is because it's like, I don't have any more money
Speaker 2: to keep trying to get blood from a stone. Nothing.
Speaker 2: Anyone could sue anyone for anything, So it's not really
Speaker 2: a big deal when you file a civil lawsuit, but
Speaker 2: it made the local paper in Houston, the Houston Chronicle.
Speaker 2: An FBI agent in Houston who is a sports fan
Speaker 2: is reading about this Ricky Williams lawsuit and it piques
Speaker 2: his interest, so almost he goes rogue because this is
Speaker 2: not an investigation that was officially assigned to him. He
Speaker 2: just starts looking into the case and eventually he's convinced
Speaker 2: that Peggy's a major con woman who needs to go down.
Speaker 2: So this FBI agent, let's call him Agent Karma, actually
Speaker 2: gets the Department of Justice on board, and before long,
Speaker 2: Peggy Fulford is the subject of a federal investigation, and
Speaker 2: one by one, every victim and every witness to Peggy's
Speaker 2: many scams, gets interviewed on record by the FBI, including
Speaker 2: Chantel Cohen.
Speaker 3: The crazy thing about the FBI is that when they
Speaker 3: first came about the case, they did not want to
Speaker 3: arrest her with all the information me and Kristen gave them.
Speaker 3: Did not want to arrest her because they wanted to
Speaker 3: build a case against her. They watched her for a
Speaker 3: year and a half. The FBI gets involved, they already
Speaker 3: have so much evidence against you, Like this is not
Speaker 3: something they make up.
Speaker 4: They've been following you and.
Speaker 3: They have so much stuff. And so when they called
Speaker 3: me and said like the thing that they had, I
Speaker 3: was like on the floor, mouth wide open, like wait
Speaker 3: what I missed all that too? So just what I know?
Speaker 3: And then we have all that like that that's crazy
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 2: What the FBI uncovers is that from more than a decade,
Speaker 2: Peggy Fulford has been impersonating a financial manager and scamming
Speaker 2: millions and millions of dollars from a bunch of different athletes.
Speaker 4: Fulford falsely told victims that she graduated from Harvard Law
Speaker 4: School and Harvard Business School.
Speaker 2: My buddy Evan Goldstein, again reading filings from the Federal
Speaker 2: case against Peggy Fulford.
Speaker 4: And at various times that she had one made millions
Speaker 4: on Wall Street, two made millions by buying and selling hospitals,
Speaker 4: or three made millions on real estate in the Bahamas.
Speaker 2: Stories from far away hard to prove. That's a red flag.
Speaker 2: You're in the midst of a con.
Speaker 4: Right and who has the patience to look up someone
Speaker 4: else's life?
Speaker 2: No? One. You're going to prove she didn't buy and
Speaker 2: sell a hospital. Yeah, how are you going to do that? Yeah?
Speaker 2: When you meet someone new, when they start telling you
Speaker 2: stories from far away places, yeah, be suspicious. On December thirteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, three whole years after Ricky Williams files a
Speaker 2: civil lawsuit against Peggy for fraud and then drops it,
Speaker 2: the Department of Justice actually indicts her and issues this
Speaker 2: press release.
Speaker 4: Peggy Ann Fulford, fifty eight, formerly of Houston and now
Speaker 4: residing in New Orleans, is charged with wire fraud, mail fraud,
Speaker 4: interstate transportation of stolen property, and money laundering. A federal
Speaker 4: grand jury in Houston returned the eight count indictment December thirteenth,
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, which was unsealed upon her arrest.
Speaker 2: Today, what I've learned interviewing federal prosecutors in the past,
Speaker 2: is they're charging her with these eight counts. They could
Speaker 2: have charged her with one hundred other counts. But at
Speaker 2: some point it's overkill because if she's convicted on all
Speaker 2: eight counts, she's going to jail forever. Oh right, Each
Speaker 2: count carries five to ten years for this. You know,
Speaker 2: if you add them all up and she's convicted of
Speaker 2: all of them, it's enough to put her in jail forever.
Speaker 4: But if they want her in jail longer, why wouldn't
Speaker 4: they just do more counts, because then you could be
Speaker 4: like guilty of more accunts. Like let's say they don't
Speaker 4: find her guilty of all the eight counts. Maybe they
Speaker 4: find she's guilty of two of these counts or whatever,
Speaker 4: and it's just less time she has to do.
Speaker 2: Well, here's what I've learned, and this might shock you.
Speaker 2: They don't want her in jail at all. By that,
Speaker 2: I mean, based on my experience dealing with the Department
Speaker 2: of Justice and with various district attorneys and state attorneys'
Speaker 2: offices across the country, the most important thing to any prosecutor,
Speaker 2: especially at the federal level, is securing a conviction period.
Speaker 2: That's a win for them, and we all want to win, right,
Speaker 2: especially federal prosecutors. And keep in mind, all of Peggy's
Speaker 2: scams are classified as white collar crime, and the vast
Speaker 2: majority of white collar criminals never see a day behind bars.
Speaker 2: Prosecutors know that, so they don't care about jail time
Speaker 2: or no jail time per se. They just want a conviction,
Speaker 2: ideally from a guilty plea, because that can't be appealed,
Speaker 2: whereas a conviction a trial can be. They want her
Speaker 2: to plead guilty. They don't want a trial. Prosecutors don't
Speaker 2: want to prosecute in a trial because a trial a
Speaker 2: is expensive. A trial, a federal trial can cost millions
Speaker 2: and millions of dollars. You got to impanel a jury
Speaker 2: and a backup jury. You might have to sequester them
Speaker 2: in a hotel three meals a day. It could go
Speaker 2: on for weeks or months. Add to that, what the
Speaker 2: judge is being paid to preside over a trial every
Speaker 2: day for months, what the US attorneys are being paid,
Speaker 2: and what all the expert witnesses and forensic accountants are
Speaker 2: being paid, not to mention the dozens of federal court
Speaker 2: house employees like the bailiffs and the court reporters.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of money.
Speaker 2: It's uncertain. You have one juror who doesn't say guilty.
Speaker 2: It's a hung jury, it's a mistrial. You got to
Speaker 2: do it again. There is such a level of difficulty
Speaker 2: and uncertainty with a trial. Nobody wants a trial. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so how they're writing this indictment with just a sliver
Speaker 2: of these crimes. They want to frighten her. They want
Speaker 2: to say, look, we got your number, lady, plead guilty.
Speaker 2: If you're convicted on eight of these charges, you're going
Speaker 2: to jail for good. So plead. Take a plea. Take
Speaker 2: a plea, Take a plea. That's the parenthetical in this
Speaker 2: whole indictment. Take a plea. They want her to take
Speaker 2: a plee. Not just her, they want every criminal to
Speaker 2: take a plea because a trial is a huge time
Speaker 2: suck and money suck, and they could get away. They
Speaker 2: could be found not guilty totally. So that's why from
Speaker 2: counts five to eight, these are tiny slivers of time
Speaker 2: and money. We're talking millions and millions of dollars. She
Speaker 2: still ultimately, but they're not accounting for all of that. Here,
Speaker 2: give me like a Cliff's notes, and you won't believe
Speaker 2: where Peggy's living when federal agents go searching for her
Speaker 2: right after this break. Welcome back to Queen of the Cohn.
Speaker 2: At this point in twenty sixteen, all the athletes Peggy
Speaker 2: was managing the finances for have cut ties with her,
Speaker 2: and she's hit hard times. Gone is her Fort Lauderdale
Speaker 2: mansion and luxury cars. She's short on cash now and
Speaker 2: living in an old apartment building in New Orleans, dealing
Speaker 2: with noisy neighbors, air condition problems, and cockroaches. And when
Speaker 2: federal agents from the FBI knock on Peggy's door on
Speaker 2: December thirteenth, twenty sixteen, they arrest her and get her
Speaker 2: into handcuffs, and then they start looking around her place
Speaker 2: and they immediately notice a check on her nightstand for
Speaker 2: nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Apparently Peggy's got another scam cooking.
Speaker 2: She tricked a local doctor into believing she bought a
Speaker 2: shuttered high school in the Lower ninth Ward of New
Speaker 2: Orleans and was in the process of renovating it and
Speaker 2: planning to reopen it as a retirement home and make
Speaker 2: millions of dollars in profits. The only problem is none
Speaker 2: of that's true. According to authorities.
Speaker 5: In New Orleans, this doctor invested many thousands of dollars
Speaker 5: one hundred and ninety seven thousand dollars to be accurate
Speaker 5: in that particular project known as a Holy Cross project,
Speaker 5: and as it turned out upon investigation, the property was
Speaker 5: not for sale.
Speaker 2: Luckily, that unsuspecting doctor got his check back in the
Speaker 2: nick of time.
Speaker 5: If the New Orleans I had arrested her one day later,
Speaker 5: that money would have been deposited, that money would have
Speaker 5: been gone.
Speaker 2: But sadly, Peggy did get away with stealing the other
Speaker 2: check he gave her for one hundred and seventy four
Speaker 2: thousand dollars weeks before cops come in. You have a
Speaker 2: check sitting on your nightstand, like, what is going on?
Speaker 2: Chantelle Cohen again?
Speaker 3: But that shows you that she has to catch back up.
Speaker 3: So she's going to figure out a way to do
Speaker 3: whatever she's been doing this whole time to get back
Speaker 3: to the fancy life as she loves to live. So
Speaker 3: that's what I'm nervous about of whoever her next victim is.
Speaker 2: And the US attorney prosecuting Peggy for the Southern District
Speaker 2: of Texas knows that now more.
Speaker 6: Than ever, Peggy Fulford is a financial predator. She looks
Speaker 6: for prey. She's looking for someone that she can ingratiate
Speaker 6: herself with, earn their trust, and steal their money.
Speaker 2: For more than a year, from late twenty sixteen to
Speaker 2: early twenty eighteen, the federal case against Peggy Fulford makes
Speaker 2: its way through the crowded criminal justice system. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: Peggy is free on bond awaiting federal trial, and she
Speaker 2: pleads not guilty to all eight counts against her. She
Speaker 2: says she can't afford to hire a lawyer now, so
Speaker 2: she requests a public defender who she doesn't have to
Speaker 2: pay anything to. And Peggy seems to really want to
Speaker 2: go to trial at first. But here's the thing about
Speaker 2: federal cases that go to trial. The vast majority of them,
Speaker 2: nearly one hundred percent, end with a conviction, and a
Speaker 2: scammer convicted at trial is usually sentenced to way more
Speaker 2: prison time than a scammer who throws prosecutors a bone
Speaker 2: and takes a plea deal. Actually, in a lot of
Speaker 2: those cases, if there's no violent criminal history, the scammer
Speaker 2: can usually get off with just probation and no prison
Speaker 2: time or very little prison time. And that's exactly what
Speaker 2: Peggy's public defender explains to her. So Peggy changes her mind,
Speaker 2: and on February first, twenty eighteen, she agrees to plead
Speaker 2: guilty to just one count, interstate transportation of stolen property.
Speaker 2: At this point, it's entirely possible that Peggy could walk
Speaker 2: away with zero prison time. But suddenly something unforeseen happens
Speaker 2: that shocks the living hell out of the federal prosecutor.
Speaker 6: I was busy and we were preparing for the sentencing
Speaker 6: the next day, and I got a message on my
Speaker 6: voicemail at work.
Speaker 2: That voicemail is from an engineer named Ray Thompson. Hi,
Speaker 2: my name is Ray Thompson, who says Peggy just scanned
Speaker 2: him in the days after pleading guilty to scan all
Speaker 2: those other people. And Engineer Ray Thompson is mad as hell.
Speaker 4: I'm so upset.
Speaker 6: He'd been working in Saudi Arabia to rebuild his life
Speaker 6: because he had lost everything after Katrina, and she convinced
Speaker 6: him that for a twenty five thousand dollars investment they
Speaker 6: were going to make a lot of money together. That
Speaker 6: I think really was the nail in the coffin about
Speaker 6: whether she was going to stop or not, and.
Speaker 2: It certainly doesn't inspire the federal judge who's about to
Speaker 2: sentence Peggy to let her off with probation. The other
Speaker 2: crazy scam that emerges before Peggy's sentencing hearing is that
Speaker 2: she actually stole someone's social Security number and used it
Speaker 2: to fraudulently file for bankruptcy in an attempt to hang
Speaker 2: on to the Florida real estate she owns that corresponds
Speaker 2: to her real social Security number. So during Peggy's sentencing hearing,
Speaker 2: prosecutors planned to make a case to the judge to
Speaker 2: give her the maximum ten years behind bars.
Speaker 6: We were ready to stop her because we knew that
Speaker 6: she was probably out victimizing people every day.
Speaker 2: It's November seventh, twenty eighteen, and Peggy's sentencing hearing is
Speaker 2: now in session. Three of her victims suddenly show up
Speaker 2: in the courtroom and they desperately want to talk to
Speaker 2: the judge. The first one to speak is Kristen Williams.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for giving me the time and
Speaker 1: opportunity to speak at this hearing today. Please know that
Speaker 1: I am speaking on behalf of myself as well as
Speaker 1: my former husband, Ricky Williams, who is not able to
Speaker 1: be here.
Speaker 2: Former husband Wow. The sad truth of the matter is,
Speaker 2: after getting scammed by Peggy out of millions and millions
Speaker 2: of dollars, Ricky Williams and Kristin are now divorced, but
Speaker 2: they appear to be on good terms. As Kristin explains
Speaker 2: to the judge why Ricky can't be here today, he.
Speaker 1: Is in the middle of midterm exams and working in California.
Speaker 1: He had to start a second career after losing every
Speaker 1: dollar he earned playing football in the NFL for twelve
Speaker 1: years to Peggy. Although I've had lots of time to
Speaker 1: prepare for this, I was never quite sure how to
Speaker 1: put everything I would want you to know about Peggy
Speaker 1: and the turmoil and hardship she has caused in our
Speaker 1: lives into words. I thought perhaps I could start with
Speaker 1: December one, twenty thirteen, when I discovered that not only
Speaker 1: was there not enough money for me to go to
Speaker 1: the grocery store in my checking account, but that nearly
Speaker 1: ten million dollars that my husband had worked so hard
Speaker 1: to save for our family was all gone.
Speaker 4: Or maybe the.
Speaker 1: Day I discovered that we had thirty days to prove
Speaker 1: my husband's innocence to the irs. You see, Peggy had
Speaker 1: received a fraudulent three hundred and thirty four thousand dollars
Speaker 1: tax refund in his name and deposited it into one
Speaker 1: of her more than eighty five bank accounts and promptly
Speaker 1: spent it. We have since discovered that that sort of
Speaker 1: thing was actually easy for her to do, because she
Speaker 1: would use her driver's license that had the last name
Speaker 1: Williams on it and just pretend to be Ricky's wife.
Speaker 2: When Kristen finishes speaking, what happens next in the courtroom
Speaker 2: stuns me. The judge seems to push back on Kristin Williams.
Speaker 7: You're obviously an intelligent woman, and I'm sure your husband
Speaker 7: had access to advice and counsel from the National Football League.
Speaker 7: Wasn't she an unlikely choice to manage money or manage investments?
Speaker 1: No, Peggy claimed to be a Harvard edge kated attorney.
Speaker 1: She had made up pleques on her walls. She supposedly
Speaker 1: had an NBA from Harvard. Her third husband, Force King.
Speaker 1: She told everyone everyone that they started the first HMO
Speaker 1: in the country. That he retired from practicing medicine because
Speaker 1: he had made so much money with his investments that
Speaker 1: everyone flocked to them. She claimed to be able to
Speaker 1: give us all generational wealth to take care of our families,
Speaker 1: and she had the highest friends in the highest places.
Speaker 1: She had an extreme amount of money. It appeared she
Speaker 1: drove fancy cars, she looked like and acted like she
Speaker 1: was all of these things. She hung out with well
Speaker 1: known attorneys. I mean, it was just, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't have enough time to sit here and tell you
Speaker 1: all of the things.
Speaker 2: Next up to speak is a woman named Rebecca Hilliard,
Speaker 2: the wife of NFL player Lex Hilliard. Peggy scammed them
Speaker 2: both out of one hundred and thirty two thousand dollars
Speaker 2: and then continued scamming them even after they confronted her.
Speaker 8: A year or so after we fired her, she started
Speaker 8: up another account in both of our names, signed Lex's name,
Speaker 8: and put power of attorney, which she did not have,
Speaker 8: and then she filed our taxes in Montana, in Minnesota,
Speaker 8: and Florida and got three different tax refunds in our names.
Speaker 2: And as insane as that is, it's not quite as
Speaker 2: insane as Peggy scamming sixty four year old Ray Thompson
Speaker 2: while she was out on bond after actually pleading guilty
Speaker 2: to scamming everyone else. Now it's raised her to take
Speaker 2: the stand and tell the judge how Peggy tricked him
Speaker 2: out of twenty five thousand dollars, claiming she had a
Speaker 2: profitable medical management business in Phoenix and was going to
Speaker 2: give Ray a huge return on his investment. Oh and
Speaker 2: she told Ray her name was Peggy Jones. I imagine
Speaker 2: just in case Ray ever googled her real name and
Speaker 2: found news reports about her recent FBI arvest and federal indictment.
Speaker 9: So I gave her money, a total of twenty five
Speaker 9: thousand dollars cash.
Speaker 2: I trusted her, and.
Speaker 9: Even to know that her name wasn't even Peggy Jones,
Speaker 9: it just seemed like deceit from the beginning.
Speaker 2: Now it's up to the judge. But before he issues
Speaker 2: Peggy's sentence, is there anything else you would like to say?
Speaker 9: News Walford, Yes, your honor, please go ahead.
Speaker 2: And the stuff Peggy is about to tell this judge.
Speaker 2: You're gonna think I'm making up, but I promise you
Speaker 2: every word is true.
Speaker 7: You seem like you have so many skills, so much experience.
Speaker 7: Why was it necessary to do this. Was it simply
Speaker 7: shortage of cash?
Speaker 9: No, your honor, Can I explain something.
Speaker 2: Next time on Queen of the Khan.
Speaker 9: They know where the money went. That's what I will
Speaker 9: tell you is they definitely know where the money went.
Speaker 2: Peggy tries to play a federal judge.
Speaker 9: I know they painted a really ugly picture, but I
Speaker 9: was actually married to an anesthesiologist during that time. I
Speaker 9: was married to an orthodontist.
Speaker 2: Those cars a Roseworth.
Speaker 9: Ghost and all of that that was not in my name,
Speaker 9: That was in their names, Amasarati, that was in their names.
Speaker 4: All I'm saying, your Honor.
Speaker 9: Is that I was married to people who also made money.
Speaker 2: But will the judge fall for her charm offensive?
Speaker 7: I appreciate your candor, I really do. Thank you very much.
Speaker 9: You're welcome, your honor.
Speaker 2: If you're enjoying Queen of the Con, leave us a
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Speaker 2: Queen of the Cohn The Athlete Whisperer is a production
Speaker 2: of AYR Media and iHeartMedia, hosted by me Jonathan Walton
Speaker 2: Executive producers Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions and Elisa
Speaker 2: Rosen for AYR Media. Consulting producer Evan Goldstein, consulting producer,
Speaker 2: Trace Shean. Written by Jonathan Walton, Sound design by Zach Hirsch,
Speaker 2: Edited and mixed by Zach Hirsch, Audio engineer Justin Longerbean,
Speaker 2: audio engineer Chris Desmond, studio engineer Graham Gibson. Mastered by
Speaker 2: Justin Longerbean Legal counsel for AYR Media. Johnny Douglas, executive
Speaker 2: producer for iHeartMedia. Maya Howard Voice acting by Darnell Baldwin,
Speaker 2: Tyree Saxton, Junior Courtney, Hettrick Milan, Faxis, Jorge Farragut, David Teitelbaum,
Speaker 2: Terina Pouncey, Kim Ganier, Stuart Chait, Teresa Prindle. Statements from
Speaker 2: press reports, public interviews, and from court records were dramatized
Speaker 2: verbatim on this season of Queen of the Khan, b
Speaker 2: E t's American Gangster Trap, Queens, TNTs Rich and Shameless,
Speaker 2: CNBC's American Greed, The Guardian, Sports, Illustrated, The Times, Picky June,
Speaker 2: The Opportunist Podcast, victim interviews and Countless court records were
Speaker 2: the sources used on this season of Queen of the
Speaker 2: Khan