WEBVTT - The Athlete Whisperer: Ep. 5, Deceit from the Very Beginning 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:07.000 Previously on Queen of the Cohn She infiltrated my life. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.360 She became my best friend. In her exact words, I 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:13.920 was the sister that she never had. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.280 Kristin Williams, the wife of NFL running back Ricky Williams, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:24.280 starts unraveling financial manager Peggy Fulford's massive, multi million dollar fraud. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:29.000 We realized that we're paying for Peggy's lavish lifestyle, the 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:33.639 Bentley Rolls, Royce, the range Rovers, all of her homes. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:39.040 The only problem is Kristin's husband, Ricky Williams, refuses to 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.800 believe it. Peggy's got him snowed with her Oscar worthy performances. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.199 She's like ball of crying. She's like, I hope you 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.640 don't believe this, Like I would never do this to Ricky, 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:51.640 And she's like staying all this up, and I'm just like, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:53.159 I don't believe you. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.520 And what did Ricky get from her? 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.200 Like he got from her that she put his money 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.360 in stocks and like his money is spread out, So 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.559 in his mind he's thinking, Okay, let's give her time. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.760 And Ricky gives Peggy plenty of time, but he never 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.480 sees any of his money ever again. And it's the 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.560 beginning of the end of Peggy Fulford's many scams. But 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.920 the crazy, unbelievable drama is just getting started. I shouted 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.560 out loud when I saw that. I literally said, and 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:38.200 I said, you fucking way, is what I said. I'm 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.920 Jonathan Walton and this is Queen of the con The 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:48.480 Athlete Whisperer Episode five, deceit from the very beginning. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.680 Once it all happened with the Irs, because Kristen I 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:00.720 was one of the first people that she called once 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.760 the IRS called them and said how much they owe 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:05.200 and blah blah blah. 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.840 That's Chantelle Cohen again, Ricky William's lifelong friend. Peggy had 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:14.359 successfully driven a wedge between Ricky's wife Kristin and Chantelle, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.239 but now both of them are finally talking and they 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:19.600 have a lot to say. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.280 We sat on the phone for hours of just thinking 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.520 of all these stories and things she said to us, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:29.840 and just all the way down to how she played 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.800 Kristin and I against each other to where I didn't 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.400 think Kristin liked me, she didn't think that I liked her, 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:36.919 to where we wouldn't talk. 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:39.560 So she kept you guys separate. 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.960 Separate so she could do whatever she needed to do 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.760 over in that house, and I was over here because 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:49.240 I said to Kristin months into them hiring Peggy, and 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.680 I said, make sure that she gives you like an 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.440 outomized thing of what she's paying monthly for you guys, 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.000 so you know exactly where your money's going. Maybe it's 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.600 something that she puts in the refrigerator. She just stops 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.239 by and drops it off at you, guys. You should 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.640 know where your money's going, like, even though she's given 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.799 you guys an allowance, like, you should know where your 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.240 money's going. I don't know if Kristin mentioned it to Peggy. 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.320 I'm guessing she did, and that's one of the reasons 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.520 Peggy made sure Kristin and Chantelle never spoke again. But 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.400 now Peggy's lies are laid there, out in the open 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:26.800 for everyone to see. 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.359 Because even with Dennis Rodman, he didn't want to come 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.919 out and say anything. I know, his person was one 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.000 of my good friends. So we talked about it, and 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.120 I was like, no, you have to tell Dennis like 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:37.760 he's on a trip with her son. 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.960 That's right, Remember, Elkin, my responsibilities were to like completely 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.600 run Dennis. Peggy convinced Dennis Rodman that Elkin was her brother, 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.360 when in reality he's her son. And at this point 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.920 in twenty thirteen, Elkin is with Dennis Rodman in North 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.160 Korea while Chantelle and Kristen are realizing Peggy is a 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.280 con artist, and Chantelle is urging Dennis's assistant over the 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.280 phone to tell Dennis Rodman asap, like. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.800 You have to let him know what's going on with us, 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:12.760 and so that person had to talk with Dennis, and 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.320 Dennis is like, I don't want to deal with it. 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:16.480 Then we have to get lawyers and blah blah blah. 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.600 But then it was like the more stuff started coming out, 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.240 then there's no way for you to not deal with it, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.000 you know, at the end of the day. So he 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.039 had to deal with it, and it all came. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:32.520 Out, and by this point, Ricky Williams finally sees the 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:38.120 truth about Peggy, and on December sixteenth, twenty thirteen, six 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.320 years after hiring Peggy to manage their finances, he and 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:47.080 his wife Kristen file a lawsuit in Houston against Peggy, 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:49.400 accusing her of fraud. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:56.480 Plaintiffs Ricky and Kristin Williams, collectively plaintiffs filed this verified 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:01.040 complaint and application for temporary restraining order and pliminary injunction. 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.920 My buddy, Evan Goldstein, and I are examining all the 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.479 legal filings in that lawsuit. It took me weeks to 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.000 dig up all these court records and then figure out 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.360 who all the court reporters were and make formal requests 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:19.360 for transcripts and audio recordings. But my god, these filings 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.080 tell one hell of a story. 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.920 In two thousand and seven, mister Williams engaged Miss Wilford 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.839 and King Management, collectively defendants, to manage all of his 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:30.719 finances and investments. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.400 So this is two years before Dennis Rodman signs on. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.279 Dennis Rodman signs on hires Peggy in two thousand and nine. 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:41.479 Ricky Williams is two years earlier, in two thousand and seven. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.120 Yeah, and she kind of met Dennis Robin because Ricky 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.599 Williams was opening a restaurant right that was kind of 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:47.640 her way in with rod. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.279 One led to the other. It's a chess game for her. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.839 And while we're talking about Ricky Williams restaurant, the one 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.640 on South Beach called Proof, it actually ended up closing 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.960 and according to Ricky's business partner, A credit card machine 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.680 in that restaurant was secretly swapped out for another credit 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.640 card machine that allegedly fed directly into a bank account 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:12.679 controlled by Peggy. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.640 And we had to shut down Proof because allegedly she 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:18.240 was still in money from Proof. 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.479 And Chantel Cohen watched it all happen without realizing what 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.559 she was actually witnessing until years later. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:26.800 I was like. 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.119 Cleaning my house a few years ago and I found 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.960 postcards that she would send me from like China, Paris. 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.360 Like I'm like, was this on Dennis's dime, Ricky's dime? 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:39.279 Like ooh? 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:44.800 Was treated in these trips? And I've seen multiple cars, 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.680 big houses, just like all this stuff. And I'm just like, 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.520 when you came into this, how much money did you 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.800 actually have? Like how much was actually your money before 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:58.920 you started doing X, Y and Z with all these people. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.360 I don't think any of it was her money ever. 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.320 As for Ricky Williams lawsuit. 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.960 Miss Fulford maybe served at two eight four to one 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.960 Northeast thirty fifth Court, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:13.960 Now that's a hell of a house she's living in 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.040 in Fort laud Is it like a mansion, Yes, it's 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.120 a mansion on the on the Intracoastal. Oh yeah, waterfront. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.360 Those are super nice. It's got BMW's and Bentley's in 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.200 the driveway. She is a baller. I remember every sense 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:26.520 of the word. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:28.080 When I was a kid, I went down the Inner 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.240 Coastal Waterway and like on a tour and they're like, oh, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:32.640 there's Madonna's house. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:33.240 Yeah, there's it. 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.239 Like it's just very very well to do, very big 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.320 giant houses, and they have they all have their kind 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.320 of like docks in the back with their little dinghies 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.040 and like boats, and it's it's uppercrust and it's. 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.800 A million dollar lifestyle that she's using Ricky Williams money 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:49.160 to furnish. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.120 Yeah, that's a hell of an address. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.360 And I'm posting pictures of that address, Peggy's three point 0:07:55.480 --> 0:08:00.400 six million dollar Fort Lauderdale mansion inside and outside, front 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.720 and back at Queen of the Con on Instagram so 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.960 you can see for yourself one of the opulent smoke 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.400 screens Peggy used to trick victims into thinking she was 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.800 a multi millionaire investing whiz. 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.400 Between two thousand and seven and twenty twelve, mister Williams 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.920 earn income of approximately eleven million dollars. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.680 So it's like two million plus a year. That's the 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.440 money he's making, and that's the money she has access to. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.559 Onor about August fifteenth, two thousand and eight, miss Fulford 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.120 and mister Williams established a joint checking count at SunTrust 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.559 Bank in Orlando, Florida, without the knowledge or permission of plaintiffs. 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.199 Miss Fulford received and used a debit card for the 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.600 joint account. Plaintiffs were never provided a debit card for 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.320 the joint account. So this is like her funny money fund. 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:51.840 Yeah, it's she gets a debit card for their account 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:53.280 and doesn't give them a debit card. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.040 Yeah, it's just like straight to the Fendi bags and stuff. 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.520 After opening the joint account, miss Fulford is ablished at 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.280 least six other accounts at sun Trust Bank under several 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.079 different names, including King Management. So she's just like moving 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:07.720 this around. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.320 In the end, though, court record show Peggy actually opened 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.920 eighty five different bank accounts that she used to steal 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.600 from her clients, including Ricky Williams. 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.559 Between opening the joint account in August twenty twelve, approximately 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.599 six million dollars was transferred via account transfers, wire transfers, 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.280 check card debits, written checks, or cash withdrawals out of 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.720 the joint account by miss Fulford without plaintiffs authorization or knowledge. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.240 Six million dollars she's moving around like that seems like 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:41.040 such an oversight. 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.160 How do they not miss that like six million dollars? Well, 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.480 here's why. Because she pitched them as this financial guru 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.480 who's going to put them on a strict budget, invest 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.080 the access of their money, and create what she kept 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.360 calling generational wealth for their kids. So they believe her. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:59.480 They try to say, this money is not liquid anyway 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.560 she's in. It's not like they could just pull it 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.120 out of the stock market or whatever money market, whatever 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:05.400 she says she's doing. 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.240 They're not missing it because they think she's investing in. 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.760 She's building wealth with it. Right, It's just leave it there, 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.319 don't touch it. This is for your kids and your kids' kids. 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.200 Let it ride. Yep. But the craziest part of this 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.720 whole lawsuit is after the break, we'll be right back. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.680 Welcome back to Queen of the con. My buddy Evan 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.240 and I are going through the Ricky and Kristen Williams 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.120 lawsuit accusing Peggy of fraud. 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:42.000 Paige by Page Honor about September twenty thirteen, Miss Fulford 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.320 ceased all communications with Miss Williams. So it's kind of 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.079 like years go by, what's going on with our money? 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.040 And then basically by twenty thirteen she's like, Okay. 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.240 Bye, I gotta go. She ghosted them, She totally ghost it. 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.800 She ghosted them, and she ghosted Dennis Rodmins people, and 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.600 she ghosted Rashad mccent's people. This is her thing. When 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.839 she gets found out, she ghosts and she's on to 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:10.040 the next. But here's what's different. Travis Best kept it quiet. 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.680 Rashad mccent kept it quiet. Ricky Williams's wife is pissed. 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.320 One question is like, would she have gotten away with 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.800 this had Ricky Williams wife not have been pressing her, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.240 you know, if it was just Ricky Williams. 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.440 Yeah, she just scammed another day for maybe she would 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:27.080 have got away with it. It was the wife. It 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.240 was the wife. Yeah. By all accounts, she was the 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:34.800 catalyst to take her down. Evan continues reading from the lawsuit. 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.360 Mister williams twenty ten personal income tax return was prepared 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:43.240 by Miss Fulford honor about August twenty twelve. The internal 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.240 Revenue Service audited mister Williams twenty ten personal tax record 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.360 and contacted mister Williams for additional information. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.440 She's getting him audited. And it's similar to the way 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.120 Travis Best found out he got conned. He got a 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.320 letter from the IRS that he thought Peggy was paying 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.240 his taxes. Turns out she wasn't. I mean, it's identical 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:06.000 if you recall from season two what I don't care 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:06.360 for this show. 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:07.319 I don't really listen to it. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.040 What Lizzie Mulder was doing to scam her victim. She 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.000 claimed to be paying their taxes, and she was just 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.319 depositing all those checks that were earmark for taxes into 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.600 her own account for years, banking that tax no one 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:22.360 knew for years. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.959 The coup de gras was the checking account with the 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:27.480 name income tax Payments. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:29.680 She can just go to Bank of America and open 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.200 up an account called income tax payments. Yeah, and they don't. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.520 That doesn't raise a red flag for them. Yeah, No, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.760 that's just bullshit. But this is what puzzles me about 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.480 con artists. I don't know the answer. I just see 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.680 a trend in all these cases. How do they not 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:47.839 know or how do they not care? They're going to 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.719 get caught one day, at some point the jig is up. 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.439 Maybe it's just, you know, they get away with it. 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.000 Year one, they're probably nervous. Year two, maybe a little 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.360 less nervous. Year after year, getting this money, nothing happening 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.040 to them, they just start to lose their fear. Maybe 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.800 they just become more emboldened because they low themselves into 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.280 this kind of false sense of security where it's like, oh, 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.880 I didn't get caught the last ten years or whatever 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:14.000 six years. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:18.600 And they feel confident delivery get caught. Maybe remember con 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.760 artist is short for confidence artist, because they not only 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:27.440 gain your confidence to scam you, but they're also inordinately 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:32.720 confident they'll get away with whatever scam they're pulling anyway. 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:38.920 On January tenth, twenty fourteen, things take a crazy, freaking turn, 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.480 a chain of whiplash inducing events on fold that no 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:48.640 one sees coming first. Nearly one month after Ricky Williams 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.520 and his wife Kristen file a lawsuit against Peggy alleging fraud, 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.760 they end up dropping it out of the blue, and 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:01.840 Peggy breathes a huge sigh of relief because she appears 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:06.240 to be getting away with what she's done. Wow, Ricky 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:10.199 Williams is spending I would guess hundreds of thousands of 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.200 dollars on this lawyer to pursue this case, not just 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.840 filing it in Texas, but then refiling it in Florida. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.200 And maybe that's one of the reasons he ultimately dismissed 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.680 is because it's like, I don't have any more money 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.760 to keep trying to get blood from a stone. Nothing. 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.560 Anyone could sue anyone for anything, So it's not really 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.000 a big deal when you file a civil lawsuit, but 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.000 it made the local paper in Houston, the Houston Chronicle. 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.840 An FBI agent in Houston who is a sports fan 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.600 is reading about this Ricky Williams lawsuit and it piques 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:50.080 his interest, so almost he goes rogue because this is 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.280 not an investigation that was officially assigned to him. He 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:57.480 just starts looking into the case and eventually he's convinced 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.320 that Peggy's a major con woman who needs to go down. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:07.680 So this FBI agent, let's call him Agent Karma, actually 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.000 gets the Department of Justice on board, and before long, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:16.480 Peggy Fulford is the subject of a federal investigation, and 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.880 one by one, every victim and every witness to Peggy's 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:27.240 many scams, gets interviewed on record by the FBI, including 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:28.560 Chantel Cohen. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.960 The crazy thing about the FBI is that when they 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.160 first came about the case, they did not want to 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.840 arrest her with all the information me and Kristen gave them. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.600 Did not want to arrest her because they wanted to 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.120 build a case against her. They watched her for a 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.440 year and a half. The FBI gets involved, they already 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.800 have so much evidence against you, Like this is not 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:53.040 something they make up. 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:55.520 They've been following you and. 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.320 They have so much stuff. And so when they called 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.200 me and said like the thing that they had, I 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.840 was like on the floor, mouth wide open, like wait 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.800 what I missed all that too? So just what I know? 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.080 And then we have all that like that that's crazy 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:11.280 to me. 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.520 What the FBI uncovers is that from more than a decade, 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:20.479 Peggy Fulford has been impersonating a financial manager and scamming 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.680 millions and millions of dollars from a bunch of different athletes. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.720 Fulford falsely told victims that she graduated from Harvard Law 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.640 School and Harvard Business School. 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.000 My buddy Evan Goldstein, again reading filings from the Federal 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.320 case against Peggy Fulford. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.720 And at various times that she had one made millions 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:45.040 on Wall Street, two made millions by buying and selling hospitals, 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:49.360 or three made millions on real estate in the Bahamas. 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:55.240 Stories from far away hard to prove. That's a red flag. 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:56.960 You're in the midst of a con. 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.240 Right and who has the patience to look up someone 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:00.960 else's life? 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:02.920 No? One. You're going to prove she didn't buy and 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.960 sell a hospital. Yeah, how are you going to do that? Yeah? 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.000 When you meet someone new, when they start telling you 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:13.320 stories from far away places, yeah, be suspicious. On December thirteenth, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.399 twenty sixteen, three whole years after Ricky Williams files a 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.639 civil lawsuit against Peggy for fraud and then drops it, 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:25.960 the Department of Justice actually indicts her and issues this 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:26.800 press release. 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.680 Peggy Ann Fulford, fifty eight, formerly of Houston and now 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.600 residing in New Orleans, is charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.399 interstate transportation of stolen property, and money laundering. A federal 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.120 grand jury in Houston returned the eight count indictment December thirteenth, 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.280 twenty sixteen, which was unsealed upon her arrest. 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:52.960 Today, what I've learned interviewing federal prosecutors in the past, 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.440 is they're charging her with these eight counts. They could 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.600 have charged her with one hundred other counts. But at 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:04.160 some point it's overkill because if she's convicted on all 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.200 eight counts, she's going to jail forever. Oh right, Each 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.639 count carries five to ten years for this. You know, 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:11.320 if you add them all up and she's convicted of 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.439 all of them, it's enough to put her in jail forever. 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.040 But if they want her in jail longer, why wouldn't 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:17.520 they just do more counts, because then you could be 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.600 like guilty of more accunts. Like let's say they don't 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:21.639 find her guilty of all the eight counts. Maybe they 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.040 find she's guilty of two of these counts or whatever, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:25.560 and it's just less time she has to do. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.080 Well, here's what I've learned, and this might shock you. 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.840 They don't want her in jail at all. By that, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.920 I mean, based on my experience dealing with the Department 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.119 of Justice and with various district attorneys and state attorneys' 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:43.880 offices across the country, the most important thing to any prosecutor, 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:49.000 especially at the federal level, is securing a conviction period. 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.440 That's a win for them, and we all want to win, right, 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:57.240 especially federal prosecutors. And keep in mind, all of Peggy's 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:02.040 scams are classified as white collar crime, and the vast 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.320 majority of white collar criminals never see a day behind bars. 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.720 Prosecutors know that, so they don't care about jail time 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.600 or no jail time per se. They just want a conviction, 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.360 ideally from a guilty plea, because that can't be appealed, 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.600 whereas a conviction a trial can be. They want her 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:28.520 to plead guilty. They don't want a trial. Prosecutors don't 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.879 want to prosecute in a trial because a trial a 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.360 is expensive. A trial, a federal trial can cost millions 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.040 and millions of dollars. You got to impanel a jury 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.639 and a backup jury. You might have to sequester them 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:42.840 in a hotel three meals a day. It could go 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:46.000 on for weeks or months. Add to that, what the 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.280 judge is being paid to preside over a trial every 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.560 day for months, what the US attorneys are being paid, 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.679 and what all the expert witnesses and forensic accountants are 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.920 being paid, not to mention the dozens of federal court 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.960 house employees like the bailiffs and the court reporters. 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:03.800 It's a lot of money. 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.920 It's uncertain. You have one juror who doesn't say guilty. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.040 It's a hung jury, it's a mistrial. You got to 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.760 do it again. There is such a level of difficulty 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.440 and uncertainty with a trial. Nobody wants a trial. Yeah, 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.879 so how they're writing this indictment with just a sliver 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.440 of these crimes. They want to frighten her. They want 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:28.119 to say, look, we got your number, lady, plead guilty. 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.080 If you're convicted on eight of these charges, you're going 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.360 to jail for good. So plead. Take a plea. Take 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.119 a plea, Take a plea. That's the parenthetical in this 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.720 whole indictment. Take a plea. They want her to take 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:41.800 a plee. Not just her, they want every criminal to 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.080 take a plea because a trial is a huge time 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.919 suck and money suck, and they could get away. They 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.840 could be found not guilty totally. So that's why from 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.640 counts five to eight, these are tiny slivers of time 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.359 and money. We're talking millions and millions of dollars. She 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.840 still ultimately, but they're not accounting for all of that. Here, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.760 give me like a Cliff's notes, and you won't believe 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.840 where Peggy's living when federal agents go searching for her 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:18.640 right after this break. Welcome back to Queen of the Cohn. 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:23.000 At this point in twenty sixteen, all the athletes Peggy 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.120 was managing the finances for have cut ties with her, 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:30.400 and she's hit hard times. Gone is her Fort Lauderdale 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.520 mansion and luxury cars. She's short on cash now and 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:39.040 living in an old apartment building in New Orleans, dealing 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:52.840 with noisy neighbors, air condition problems, and cockroaches. And when 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:57.240 federal agents from the FBI knock on Peggy's door on 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.439 December thirteenth, twenty sixteen, they arrest her and get her 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:06.760 into handcuffs, and then they start looking around her place 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:12.399 and they immediately notice a check on her nightstand for 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:19.159 nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Apparently Peggy's got another scam cooking. 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.560 She tricked a local doctor into believing she bought a 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.359 shuttered high school in the Lower ninth Ward of New 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:29.760 Orleans and was in the process of renovating it and 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.320 planning to reopen it as a retirement home and make 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:37.520 millions of dollars in profits. The only problem is none 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.639 of that's true. According to authorities. 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.280 In New Orleans, this doctor invested many thousands of dollars 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:45.560 one hundred and ninety seven thousand dollars to be accurate 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.440 in that particular project known as a Holy Cross project, 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.840 and as it turned out upon investigation, the property was 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:52.800 not for sale. 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:57.919 Luckily, that unsuspecting doctor got his check back in the 0:22:58.040 --> 0:22:58.840 nick of time. 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:01.480 If the New Orleans I had arrested her one day later, 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:04.960