WEBVTT - Andrea | Featured on ABC's Betrayal: Secrets and Lies 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.040 Hi, it's Andrea and we are re releasing some of 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.080 our past Weekly episodes and there's a good reason why. 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.360 For the last year, I have been working with ABC 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:12.920 on turning some of your favorite episodes of Betrayal Weekly 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.400 into a TV show. The show is called Betrayal, Secrets 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.599 and Lies, and it airs every Sunday at ten pm 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:24.360 on ABC. Some betrayals don't just break your heart, they 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.760 change your entire life overnight. Andrea thought she knew her husband, Sean. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.840 She trusted him, built a life with him, a family, 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.760 a future that felt secure, and then came the confession. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.839 What followed wasn't just emotional fallout. It was legal, it 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:42.479 was public, and it was completely out of her control. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.440 The life she thought she was living in an instant 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:50.280 was gone, replaced by something she never chose. Andrea's story 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.879 is one that really stays with you because it forces 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.360 you to ask a difficult question. How much responsibility do 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.280 you carry for something you didn't even know was happening. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.680 This is something we don't talk about enough, how often 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.200 women are held accountable for the actions of men in 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.160 their lives, even when they are completely in the dark. 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.880 It's complicated, it's frustrating, and it's incredibly important. So please 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.680 check out Betrayal Secrets and Lies on ABC and Hulu. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.240 See Andrea and where her story takes place. Enjoy the episode. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.560 Pretty soon up over the hill, I saw a caravan 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.840 of dark vehicles with dark denned windows. They're all in 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:34.399 FBI or US Marshals jackets. They've got their sunglasses, they've 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.200 got their weapons, and they come to my house. They 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.280 rang the doorbell. I let them in. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.559 I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.440 the people we trust the most and the dece options 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:06.400 that change everything. Andrea Merriman came from money, a lot 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:06.960 of money. 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:07.960 As a kid. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.120 Her family had a huge house, a vacation home in Hawaii, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.560 and even a private plane. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.040 We flew everywhere. We didn't do road trips. It was 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.359 so my family to pop in the plane at midnight 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.760 and fly to Arizona for the weekend to enjoy the sun, 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.240 and then be back when school started on Monday. 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.119 But if you met Andrea, you wouldn't know that's how 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.000 she grew up. She's not flashy, She's hard working and honest. 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:36.880 Her parents raised her that way. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.360 We had jobs around the house. We didn't get allowance 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:42.280 for it, or if we did, it was a dollar 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:47.080 a week, because my parents wanted to teach us responsibility 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:48.119 and accountability. 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.320 Her family belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.720 Latter day Saints. Some people call it the Mormon Church, 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:57.960 but that's not the name she uses. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.480 That's a name given to church members who are not 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.280 of our faith. It's just a mouthful to say the 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.680 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saith. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.600 From a young age, Andrea took her faith very seriously. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.640 When you're a child, they give you a ring and 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.639 it says ctr on it. That stands for choose the right. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:26.520 So part of the culture was to be obedient to 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:32.560 good principles, doing well in whatever I attempted to do. 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.280 And in her religious community, she felt empowered as a woman. 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.240 The women around her were ambitious and well educated. Many 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.720 of them had both families and careers. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.960 My mom had a master's degree, and I remember going 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.600 to my dad asking for help with homework. My dad 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.760 would say, I can totally help you, but who really 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.720 could help you. The person who's the smartest in our 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.520 family is your mother. So I was raised that women 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:03.160 could do and be anything. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.440 She was a straight a student, a great athlete. She 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.200 played three instruments and excelled at piano. 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.320 Anything I did, I did to the best of my ability. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.320 When she got older, she took that determination to Bringham 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.120 Young University, where she immediately got to work on building 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:22.640 her future. 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:25.800 My dad wanted me to be a lawyer, and that's 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.200 what I went to school thinking I would do. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.400 Along the way, she found a dream of her own. 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.600 She wanted to start a career in advertising and public relations, 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.920 and her work ethic extended outside the classroom. She got 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.360 a job in her apartment complex. That's how she met Sean. 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.240 He came into the office to pay his rent and 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:48.960 I processed that for him. 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.800 She would see him around the building, but they'd never 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:52.920 really talked before. 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.720 My roommates in my apartment were good friends with the 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:02.720 guys and his apartment people thought highly of him and 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.479 his roommates, and they did fun things and seemed to 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:06.280 be good people. 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.320 Soon after they met in the office, Sean asked her out, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.800 and right away he impressed her. He knew she liked music, 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.800 so for their first date, he took her to the symphony. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.240 After that, they started going out together every weekend. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.520 He did not do the typical cheap, low budget, crazy 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:33.600 college dates. He took me to the best restaurants, two concerts, 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:39.880 and then he'd take you out into his BMW. He 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.800 was always a very engaging, outgoing, charming person. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.120 On one date, she wore a pearl necklace. Sean complimented 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.560 her on it, and she told him it was borrowed 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.680 from a friend. So a few days later, he. 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.000 Just showed up at my door unexpectedly with a jewelry box. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.320 I opened it up and it was a pearl necklace, 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.800 and he said, any woman as beautiful as you should 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.840 not have to borrow pearls. I mean, that was what 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:16.440 it was like to date Sean Merriman. I remember thinking, Wow, 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.039 all the other boys I've dated, if they tried to 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.839 do these grand gestures or date this way, it would 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.360 seem really cheesy and corny. But it works for Sean, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.040 and it was just like in the movies. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.599 Even though he had expensive taste, Sean didn't come from money. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.760 His dad was a construction worker. They had moved all 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:45.440 around the country during his childhood, eleven times in seven 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:52.080 or eight years. There was a lot of alcoholism, divorce, 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.880 and he was one of the first members of his 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:58.719 family to go to college. 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.440 Getting into college wasn't easy for Sean. He didn't have 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.800 the grades, but he made up for it with his 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:06.839 trademark charm. 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:13.680 He started sending flowers to the woman in charge of admissions, 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.520 and eventually he got admitted. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.160 He was proud of this story, and he always had 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.800 fabulous stories to entertain people with. He was interested in 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:25.680 things most college kids weren't. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.360 He was into photography, he was into cars, he was 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.400 into building things. 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.600 Still, Sean didn't let his interests take over their relationship. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:42.000 We did everything that I loved. He knew that I 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.360 loved the beach. He knew that I loved eighties music, 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.520 he knew that I loved travel, and I thought that 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.440 I was finding someone who believed the way I did 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:54.240 on everything. 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.840 After a few months of dating, the two took a 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.760 trip to California, and there on the beach, he got 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:03.000 down on one knee. 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:09.080 Going through my head mostly was wait, I'm only twenty two. 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:10.880 I'm too young to do this. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.760 Andrea was still in school. She'd always planned to graduate, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.480 start a career, and then get married, but saying yes 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.440 to Sean just made sense. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.120 I don't know that I thought he was the one, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.840 but I thought that he would be a great friend, 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:34.959 great partner, great companion, great provider, great father, And am 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.760 I going to find somebody just like him again if 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.360 I pass this by. I saw enough of those good 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.520 qualities and the things that I wanted as part of 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:49.960 my future. So when he proposed, I said yes. 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.319 So they got married and graduated college in that order. 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:01.280 We were on a good course together, were equally yoked 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.160 as a couple to move forward and create the life 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:06.720 of our dreams. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.640 Sean had a vision of moving to DC. He even 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.600 interviewed with the CIA. He also considered getting an MBA 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.600 and an Ivy League school, but ultimately they decided to 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.960 plant roots in our home state of Colorado. 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.960 We chose to move to Denver for my career. I 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.520 got a job working for a government agency doing public 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:35.040 relations for them. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.480 Sean came to love Denver and he found a great 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.199 job at an investment firm. 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:46.560 He had immediate success, so then he actually started being 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.320 a stockbroker that fall. 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.360 When it came to investing, Sean had a minus touch, 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:53.480 and I. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.800 Will tell you from September to December that quarter he 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:02.760 made fifty thousand dollars, and that was in nineteen ninety. 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.280 That's a lot of money. Especially right out of college, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.840 Sean was bringing home two hundred k a year, but 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.040 that was the nineties. In today's money, that's the equivalent 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.800 of four hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year. And 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:17.720 the money just kept coming. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.920 Other firms would reach out to him and say, hey, 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.240 come and work for us. We'll give you a signing bonus, 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.199 and so he would take a fifty sixty seventy eighty 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.559 thousand dollars signing bonus and go work for a different firm. 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.040 He hopped from firm to firm for a few years, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.920 and then soon after they had their first child in 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:42.000 nineteen ninety three, Sean came to Andrea with a business idea. 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.080 He came home from work and told me that he 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.400 had some very wealthy, blue blood old money clients in 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.720 Kansas City that had been so impressed with the money 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.520 management he had done for them that they had asked 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:02.800 him to step back from his career as a stockbroker 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:07.600 and managed their money privately for them. 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.400 She supported him one hundred percent, so he made the 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.920 leap and launched what became Market Street Advisors. It started 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.120 with those Kansas City clients, but pretty soon he was 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:23.560 investing for family, friends and neighbors too. And even in 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.920 the madness of starting his own firm and finding new clients, 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.120 Sean made it a point to spend time with Andrea 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:31.520 at the end of every day. 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.680 He came home at night, had dinner with me, had 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.480 great stories about trades that he'd made that day. He 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:45.280 had no shortage of stories. He could tell, conversations, he 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.160 could share ideas that he had. 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.880 Life was good for the Merryman's. Sean's investment firm was 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.880 taking off, and the two of them were living comfortably, 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.720 more than comfortably. Even the house got bigger, cars got nicer, 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:05.640 and for Andrea there was only one thing missing more kids. 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.560 One of the things we talked about before we got 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:13.640 married was that I wanted four to six children. He 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.080 was like, Oh, that's great, That's what I've always wanted. 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.640 They had another child, a baby girl, and Andrea was 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.240 the happiest she'd ever been. When Sean got home after 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.080 a long day at work, he didn't have the bandwidth 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:30.320 to help with the babies. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.920 He was fine to play with the baby when he 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.000 was home, et cetera, that he was not a hands 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:42.040 on let me help bathe the baby, let me change diapers. 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.079 And when she asked him about having a third kid, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.080 he was hesitant. She assured him she'd take on the 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.160 responsibilities that he couldn't. 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:56.240 And so I did everything, handled everything for the baby 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.719 so that it wouldn't impact his life too much. And 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:03.199 I could have another child. And I continued to do 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:07.320 everything and manage the kids so that it didn't impact 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.120 his life. By the time we had our fourth kid, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.400 I could count the number of dirty diapers on one 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.959 hand that he had changed. It really became he was busy, 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.680 he was working on his career, and I was the 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.959 partner in the relationship who was focused on home and family. 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.360 All in all, they had four kids together. She was 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.600 the homemaker, he was the provider, and she provided very well. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.839 It was the life she always wanted. Over time, Sean 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.920 started to be more open about the life he wanted. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.720 I found out he didn't like dancing, he didn't like beaches. 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.760 Let's go on a trip to California. No, I hate 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.439 the beach. What yeah, I hate the feel of sand 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.840 between my toes. I'm not doing that. 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:02.640 He started developing expensive new hobbies, ones that required him 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:03.199 to travel. 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:09.679 He was a big African safari guy. He would go 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:15.360 to Cameroon, in Tanzania and South Africa and Zimbabwe, all 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.440 over the world to hunt and go on safaris for animals, 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:24.640 and coincidentally, very wealthy people are engaged in those hobbies. 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.800 He sold it as well, I'm actually doing this for work, 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.320 to get more clients to build my business. 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.880 These trips could be dangerous. One time, when he returned 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:40.200 from a safari in Ethiopia, Sean was acting strange. 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:45.120 He was keeping his distance and I said why, and 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.880 he said, I have got to go to the doctor. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.720 He was worried he could have contracted something. He told 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:54.640 Andrea a wild story. 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.880 We were climbing a mountain and one of the people 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.720 and the party flipped and he was going to fall 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.920 off a cliff, and so I reached down and I 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.840 grabbed him and saved his life. But he and I 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.440 both got cut up in the process, and I need 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.480 to go and get tested to make sure I'm okay. 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.240 Thankfully, Sean was negative, and even though the story was 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.560 far fetched, Andrea believed him. 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.480 He had so many stories about saving people's lives or 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.600 dramatic things. I used to tell him, if I didn't 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.359 live with you and see that your life is true, 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.360 I would never believe your life. What I didn't know 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.160 was most of those stories were probably lies. 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.280 As Andrea and Sean built a family together, Sean started 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.680 to change. He was around less and less working at 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.720 his investment firm, and when he wasn't working, he was 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:15.520 taking extravagant hunting trips on his own. It became Sean's world, 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:20.120 and sometimes that bothered her, but she was committed to 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:21.360 him no matter what. 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.400 For a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:29.360 Latter day Saints, you marry forever, and you make your choice, 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.520 and then you love your choice and you figure out 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.920 how to make up work. I was taught that pretty 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.360 much the only reason you had ever divorced, as if 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:43.200 in the case of physical abuse or something beyond that, 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.040 you marry forever. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.440 His behavior was a challenge, but not marriage ending. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.360 It wasn't anything that I would have divorced over. It 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:03.160 was more, oh, I guess I'll make this work. 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.840 And she really did want to make it work. There 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.199 was still so much good in what they had together. 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.920 I felt like we were very connected. We went on 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:17.240 dates every weekend together. He would call me when he 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.159 had downtimes at work, once every morning and once or 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.119 twice in the afternoon. He'd just called me to check in, 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:26.440 see what I was doing, see how I was. 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.480 And when he did have the time, she could see 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.720 he was really trying. Especially as the kids got older, 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.119 he became more involved. He led fifty mile hikes for 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.840 their son's boy Scout troop. He drove their daughter around 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.359 on errands, He joked with them, talk with them, and 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.359 above all, he made sure his kids had everything they 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.240 could ask for, all the things he didn't have growing up. 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:55.520 My son played baseball and they won the championship of 0:17:55.560 --> 0:18:00.160 their league. So he bought a batting cage and pitch 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.919 machine that he put in our backyard. We put in 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.040 a pool, We put in a sport court so that 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.680 our kids would have a great fun place to bring 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:09.480 their friends to. 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.400 Sean wanted their kids to be cultured. He took them 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.440 to museums around the world, and he even started their 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:17.840 own private art collection. 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.480 We ended up with a collection of rem brands that 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:26.400 was worth quite a bit of money, and sculptures by 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.040 Frederick Hart, all kinds of things like that, to make 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.760 things beautiful and to help educate our children. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:38.600 The batting cages, the private courts, the Rembrandts. Sure it 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.000 was a lot, but they could afford it. In Sean's hands, 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.240 Andrea had watched their money multiply. 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.960 I had watched our account slowly grow up to a million, 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.480 and then I watched our account slowly grow to three million, 0:18:55.400 --> 0:19:00.320 and then I watched my statement grow to total about 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.200 ten million dollars. 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.840 In the early two thousands, that was closer to eighteen million. 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:11.360 Andrea also invested her own inheritance with Sean's firm, everything 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.640 she had saved and everything she got from her parents. 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.359 I had my own money. My parents had passed away. 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.800 At this point, unlike all of his investment clients, I 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.320 was getting, you know, monthly financial statements. 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.000 Still, she wanted to make sure that they were being 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:29.160 smart with their spending. 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:39.479 I am very conservative financially, so my first goal was 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.280 I want our home paid off. And so I remember 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.600 I think it was my fortieth birthday. He gave me 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.840 the deed to our house, and our house was paid. 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.479 Off, and Sean kept making the house better and better. 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.280 He ended up building a building behind our home that 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.040 he called his shop. It was actually bigger than our home. 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.919 His work office was in the top level and then 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.800 the bottom was just cars and trophies. He had an 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:14.800 Aston Martin, he had several Porsches, a Ferrari, Mercedes, Sedans, BMW's, 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:15.520 you name it. 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:18.720 Sean spent pretty much all his time in his shop, 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.840 working on business or taking care of his cars. 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.600 He would go out to his office from probably seven 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:30.480 am to five pm, come in, have dinner, and then 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:32.080 he'd be like, Oh, I'm going to go out to 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.760 my shop and do this, and then he'd come in 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:35.640 at ten at night. 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.359 Andrea knew all that hard work was funding their lifestyle, 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:42.440 but she missed him. She wanted him around more. 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.639 After seventeen or so years of marriage, I've said, we 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.960 don't need more money. We have plenty for our needs 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:55.399 and our wants and things we've never dreamed of, but 0:20:55.480 --> 0:21:00.560 we need you, and he just said I can't. I've 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:01.800 got to build my business. 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.080 He'd spend twenty years prioritizing his work above everything else. 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.840 He didn't know how to shift gears. Maybe he didn't 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.720 want to, So Andrea made peace with the fact that 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.120 her husband would be around when he could be. 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.000 I was kind of raised. If you look for the 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.679 good in others, you will find it. If you're looking 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.520 for bad things and looking to tear people down and 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:31.119 to hate them, you'll find reasons for that too. He 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.480 was gone a lot of the time, but when he 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.360 was home, he would be there for dinner and do 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.000 other things with us. Now, I don't think any life 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:46.119 is completely perfect, but it was a good life. 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:50.960 March seventeenth, two thousand and nine, was a really good day. 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:52.840 It was Saint Patti's Day. 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:56.879 There is a little irish in the Merriman's side of 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:59.639 the family, so I always tried to make it a 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:04.000 fun day. I had gold coins and I made green 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:08.760 pancakes and green milk for breakfast. As I sent my 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.760 kids off to school, I took fun photos of them 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:17.560 dressed in their Saint Patrick's Day attire. What I didn't 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:22.600 know at the time was those were the last merrim 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:31.120 And family photos that I would ever take. The next day, 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:35.640 March eighteenth, unexpectedly, I was headed out on some errands. 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.679 I dropped my youngest child off at daycare to have 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:43.840 a babysitter while I quickly got some things done, and 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.679 Sean called me as I was driving down the highway 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:49.920 and he's like, what are you doing? And I said, 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:54.560 why do you need something? He said, well, actually, I 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:57.080 was hoping to spend some time with you this morning. 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:00.720 And I said, oh, well, I can turn and I'll 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.359 come and get you and you can do my errands 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:07.040 with me. And he said, no, I need you to 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:07.600 come home. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:11.800 So she turned the car around and went back to 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:15.200 the house. He was waiting for her in the kitchen. 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:21.840 And he said, I've been running Market Street Advisors for 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:27.040 the past sixteen years, but I need you to know 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:31.119 that every day when I got up and left and 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.399 went to work and was gone all day, I was 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:36.280 actually running a Ponzi scheme. 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:53.640 Andrea thought that her husband John had dedicated his career 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:58.080 to running his own investment firm, but then Sean confessed 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:01.000 that it was all a lie. Life of luxury was 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:05.640 funded on stolen money. For the past sixteen years. He 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:07.480 had been running a Ponzi scheme. 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:11.320 I didn't even know what a Ponzi scheme was. I 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:13.800 had heard a Bernie made off. I didn't pay too 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:16.880 much attention to those types of things. I knew he'd 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.320 done something wrong, but that's pretty much all I knew 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:19.600 about it. 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:23.480 Sean explained that when he first started his firm was legitimate, 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:26.600 but in his first year one of his investments went 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:28.160 south and he panicked. 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:33.280 So he omitted the five thousand dollars loss from his statement, 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:36.320 and I'm sure he thought that he could make that 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:39.200 up with another trade, and then he never did. 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:42.800 So he kept fudging the books, selling people on his 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:45.880 big wins, and using money from new investors to pay 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:50.440 old ones. There were no million dollar trades or miracle investments. 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.040 The conversations he told her about and all the financial 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:58.240 documents she'd seen were fake. He was a total fraud. 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:02.600 His clients had lost millions of dollars. Some of them 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:06.240 lost everything they had. Not only did he lose other 0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:09.159 people's money. All of their own money was gone, to 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.400 the money she'd inherited from her parents and their kids' 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:16.199