All language subtitles for American Greed s06e12 The Tran Organization Blackjack Cheaters.eng

In this episode of American Greed, meet
the organized crime gang bet on bringing

down the house.

They are the Tran family, one of
America's most successful rings of

gambling cheaters, winning hand after
hand.

Many times, $30 ,000 to $90 ,000 a day
going out of this casino.

They use one of the oldest tricks in the
book.

It looks as though the cards may have
been mixed.

The cards were not.

With a high -tech twist.

The person is speaking into a microphone
that has been wrapped around their

neck. And what that person is
communicating is the order of cards.

And at each casino they hit, corrupted
dealers are willing to play along.

He throws $1 ,000 at me. He says, you
work for us now.

June 8, 2006, Biloxi, Mississippi.

In a hotel room at the Imperial Palace
Casino, an accomplished card cheat is

trying to recruit help for his card.

We can take a $50 ,000 shoe easy, even
in our 10 minutes.

The man speaking is Phong Truong, a
Vietnamese -American who, by all

appearances, is living the American
dream.

But Trang is no ordinary self -made man.

He is in the business of scamming
casinos, and he will go down in history

of America's most successful cheaters.

Fong Truong should not speak so fast.

The man he is recruiting is an
undercover FBI agent.

Truong can fool casino security cameras.

But now he must outfox a federal
officer.

Up until now, Frong and his troop of
cheaters have had an easy time duping

casinos from one end of the country to
another.

It all begins here in 2002.

In the mountains just outside San Diego
is the Siquan Casino, owned and operated

by the Native American Siquan tribe.

Fong Trong works as a dealer here.

Eventually, FBI agent Peter Casey will
come to know Trong well.

Feng Trong, he came to the States in the
1970s, went to El Cajon High School.

He was kind of a low -level guy. He
worked at the casinos.

At the same casino, dealing at a mini
baccarat table, is Trong's wife, Van

For the players tonight, there is
nothing unusual.

It appears that Van Tran shuffles the
cards exactly as the casino requires.

But look again.

See her protect the top block of cards?

Those cards are not mixed in with the
others.

This is not a legitimate shuffle.

It is an age -old card trick that allows
cheaters to know the order of the cards

before they are dealt.

It is called a false shuffle.

False shuffles and false shuffle schemes
have been around since 15 minutes after

they opened casinos. The bad guys knew
them far before the casino operators

A former magician and casino
surveillance director, George Joseph now

casino employees how to detect cheating.

And he is all too familiar with Vantran
Shuffle, designed to go undetected by

the surveillance cameras over every
table.

They call it the sky shuffle.

It's intended to fool the eye in the
sky.

And it's a very simple shuffle where the
cards are just riffled and then thrown

right back on top of one another.

It looks as though the cards may have
been mixed.

The cards are not.

This trick, this sleight of hand, will
eventually win Van Tran and Phong Truong

millions of dollars.

But the cheats start small at Sikwan,
where Tran's false shuffle enables co

-conspirators to beat the house.

And then they share their winnings with
Tran.

She cheated a couple times, making $50
here, $60 there, and then she slowly

ramped up, and a couple of cheats she
made $800, $600, $400.

The trick works well until the casino
angles the camera into a new position.

It is now clear both Trong and Tran are
cheating.

They are fired and they lose their
licenses as dealers.

Now unable to get legitimate work at a
casino, they decide to try their hand at

stealing from casinos instead.

They saw the opportunity to absolutely
bilk all these casinos out of as much

money as they could as fast as they can.

From the beginning, the cheat is a
family affair.

Fung Trang is the leader, assisted by
his wife, Van Tran.

She brings in her sister, Ann Tran, her
brothers, Kai Tran and Fat Tran, and her

brother -in -law, Tai Tran.

Willie Tran is not related, but he too
is in and becomes indispensable.

By October 2002, the cheat team...

Soon to be known as the Tran
Organization, is ready to take its

the road.

The group heads north to the Cash Creek
Casino outside of Sacramento.

The first step of their con is critical.

The cheaters must find dealers they can
corrupt.

Success. At Cash Creek, the Tran Gang
finds ten employees willing to help for

small fee.

Proving the case against the cheaters
will be Justice Department trial

Joseph Wheatley.

Dealers tended to make a couple thousand
dollars per cheat, per false shuffle,

which is just a fraction of what the
group would take away from the table.

The game the Tran organization plays is
mini baccarat, a game as simple as a

coin toss.

Two hands are dealt.

Whichever has a card value closest to
nine wins.

Players gamble to beat the house.

not each other.

For the cheaters, many bots is made to
order.

In Baccarat, you do not have a choice of
whether to draw, hit, stand.

The cards play themselves.

So, a big part of the scheme for the bad
guys is that no legitimate square,

legitimate player, could sit down and
mess up the order of the cards by

or standing when they shouldn't.

And most importantly, it is a game where
tracking cards is allowed.

We allow customers in Baccarat to have
what's known as a scorecard.

You're trying to keep track of the
number of times the player wins versus

number of times the bank wins. And
you're looking for streaks or you're

for patterns that you recognize. And so,
by and large, most of the time, anyone

uses a scorecard. It's just innocent.

It's fun.

It's a system.

But the cheaters list the cards knowing
the order will be protected in the false

shuffle. If these cards go undisturbed,
you know that they're going to come back

out in the reverse order, and you could
predict the next hand.

With a written list of the order of the
cards, the cheaters just sit and wait

for the block of unshuffled cards to be
dealt, and then start making bets they

know they can't lose.

That's what the surveillance cameras at
Cadd Creek record Fong Truong doing at

mini -back table number 51 at 4 a .m. on
March 25, 2003.

See him light that cigarette?

It's a signal.

The unshuffled cards are now in play.

Time to start stealing.

Winning nearly every hand he plays in 14
minutes, he steals $9 ,000.

But Tron is not the only one cashing in
on the cheat.

Also betting at the table is a new
recruit to the organization,

Son Johnson, who copies every move Tron
makes.

From the one false shuffle here, Johnson
wins $21 ,000.

The mini Baccarat cheat, you could have
multiple people at the table. You could

have two or three people, for instance,
doing the cheat. Walk away from the

table with...

Tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds
of thousands of dollars in a cheat, and

sometimes as high as $900 ,000.

Eventually, casino security identifies a
dealer breaking the shuffling protocol,

and Cash Creek catches on.

At the conclusion of cheating at Cash
Creek, a number of the dealers that had

been recruited by the group were
arrested.

Not the leadership of the group. That
was not touched.

The Trang Group slips out of town with
their winnings intact, close to $300

,000.

And three new members, in addition to
Son Johnson, Martin Aronson, and George

Lee, both dealers at the casino whose
cheating is not discovered, are now

working for the organization.

Up next, since the test run at Cash
Creek has gone exceedingly well, it is

not a question of whether the cheat will
work. The question is, How much money

can they steal?

Thirty miles south of Seattle in Tacoma,
Washington, an abandoned riverboat is

all that is left of the original Emerald
Queen Casino.

Owned by the Puyallup tribe, it is one
of the first casinos to open in the

state.

Today, the old boat has been replaced by
two new casinos that are some of the

most successful in the Northwest.

But in 2003, the action is still on the
riverboat. And that is when the Tran

organization set up its cheat at the
casino.

They were there for at least four to
five months, committing the cheat, doing

on shifts.

They had a day shift, a night shift,
graveyard shift.

As the casino manager, Frank Wright is
in charge of keeping cheaters out of the

Emerald Queen.

We actually have a staff that their sole
responsibility is to monitor what the

win on every table is and look for any
deviation.

The standard projection for the casino
is that the house will make 15 % off

table games.

But in the fall of 2003...

The accountants at the Emerald Queen see
that something is off at the many back

tables. They were averaging about 8 % on
all these tables, so they knew

something was up.

As the casino looks at the wins, one
player consistently pulling in big money

named Fong Trung.

We had serious enough concerns that we
watched him real close, and I was asking

for specific reports on him on a daily
basis.

But Trong plays it smart.

He keeps the casino guessing.

Every once in a while, they would move,
like, to a craps table. And on one

particular occasion, they lost $50 ,000
on a craps table.

Like at all casinos, the first place to
check for a cheater is with the

surveillance video.

We were watching real intense on the
shuffling of the cards.

And there didn't appear to be anything
wrong.

That is the beauty of the Tran
organization's false shuffle.

It is so easily concealed from the eye
in the sky.

Today, casinos have taken precautions
against the trick.

At the M Resort in Las Vegas, with a
fully digital surveillance system, every

angle is instantly accessed.

Every camera on this property is
recording 24 hours a day.

I can have three different angles on
that shuffle, and I still have the

view, so that we have the ability to
track you through the casino or track

at a game.

And in our case, we're following the
action.

But at the Emerald Queen in 2003, the
options are far more limited.

And all through the fall, the Tran Group
walks out of the door with bags of cash

from the casino.

For Travis Bessie, an investigator with
the Washington State Gambling

Commission, the success of the cheat is
stunning.

The Emerald Queen lost upwards of, you
know, $1 .3 million throughout the

of this cheat.

But the trend's previous cheat is
catching up with them.

News of the dealer's arrest at Cash
Creek in California reaches

Washington.

Finally, the managers of the Emerald
Queen know what to look for.

Once my staff knew what the scheme might
be, they changed the angle of a couple

of cameras, and within a couple of
hours, they were able to break the scam.

But the casino is out more than $1
million.

What people don't realize is because
these are tribal casinos, this money

back to the tribe. This money goes
towards infrastructure, schools,

So, you know, the dollar lots really hit
hard.

With the scheme exposed, two dealers are
arrested.

But on the day of the arrest, the
leaders of the Tran organization are

to be found.

Once again, they leave the scene of
their crime just in time.

But back in Trong and Tran's hometown,
San Diego, the FBI gets a tip.

that describes the Tran organization's
crime spree spreading across the

At first, it might have just been an
isolated incident in Seattle and an

isolated incident down here in San
Diego. But as soon as we had this

that it was traveling over state lines,
the FBI jurisdiction was really hammered

into place.

Operation Tranwreck is launched.

The FBI's chase to catch the cheaters in
the act is on.

But the Tran organization has a good
head start.

Up next, how to corrupt a dealer.

For the Tran family cheaters, it is one
of the easiest steps of the scan.

He says, here's $1 ,000.

And he throws $1 ,000 at me. He says,
you work for us now.

Across the country, the Tran
organization is hitting casino after

cheating at table games, often making
off with tens of thousands of dollars in

one night.

At each target, they find dealers who
can be corrupted.

At the Verona Casino in Lakeside,
California, that dealer is Jamie Root, a

gambler from a very young age.

At 18, I started gambling.

I didn't know what I was doing and lost
several hundred thousand dollars.

Out of money, Root takes a job as a
dealer at the Barona Casino.

And he takes his gambling to a casino
nearby.

That is where he bumps into the Tran
organization.

I was playing blackjack and the dealer
there was pinching out the next card.

And what I mean by that is as she was
holding the deck in her hand, she was

pinching the corner of the next card out
so I could see a little bit of paint on

it. and knew what the next card was
going to be.

So I won a few thousand dollars using
that information.

I had assumed it was a weak dealer. I
didn't know she knew what she was doing

and was intentionally helping me.

The dealer, who calls herself Lee, is
working for the Tran organization, along

with an additional member, Don Duong.

So she comes up and explains that her
and her husband had been playing a lot

the casino I had dealt at.

and that they had lost a lot of money
there, and that now they were unable to

pay their rent.

And since she had helped me, would I
help her?

Two months later, the dealer who helped
Root turns up at the Barona with her

husband.

Root decides to help them out. He pushes
aside a few of their losing bets.

About a month later, I'm dealing again.

I dealt Graveyard. It was a slow night,
and Dom Duan sits at my table.

And he says, I know what you and Lee are
up to.

Feeling threatened, Root agrees to a
meeting.

I didn't ask questions. I got in the
car.

I had no idea what was going on at this
point.

Finally, he is introduced to Ty Trach,
who shows Root the false shuffle.

And then he says, is this something you
could do?

And I said, am I physically capable of
doing this? Yeah.

He says, OK.

And he throws $1 ,000 at me. He says.

You work for us now.

Root knows he can make the cheat work,
and he feels he is trapped.

It's too late to report the scheme to
the management at Barona.

They're going to say, well, he cheated
over at this other casino. We showed him

the cards.

He went over here.

And I thought, I'm already compromised.

There's nothing I can do.

On the night Root commits his crime, he
is dealing the graveyard shift.

At 5 .22 a .m., on instructions from Ty
Tran, he performs a false shuffle.

I was nervous.

I did my best not to show it.

I never looked up.

I thought there was a possibility that
we could all be caught that night.

But it all goes without a hitch.

With two false shuffles, Jamie Root
helps the Tran organization win close to

$125 ,000.

The strategy the trans use to recruit
loot, I scratch your bag, you scratch

mine, is just one of many the group
employs.

Often the trans women are the front
people, looking for dealers who have a

weakness to exploit.

They would make an effort to get to know
the dealers, to see who might be

susceptible to being approached, whether
they have a gambling problem, if they

have some sort of money problem, or if
they just are looking for something.

Eventually,

Van Tran and Phong Trong's home in San
Diego becomes a key base of operation.

Dealers are flown in from around the
country.

They would pick them up at the airport,
take them back to the house, solicit

them for membership in the organization,
and then begin to train them.

Dealers who sign on with the Trans risk
their jobs.

Criminal prosecution, a prison sentence.

But the trick is so easy, and they ask,
who are they really hurting?

I don't condone cheating.

Not then and not now.

With that said, they weren't taking
money from an orphanage. They were

money from a casino.

I had lost a lot of money to that
particular casino and the hundreds of

thousands of dollars.

And I saw it over and over and over
again, people losing everything.

Next, the Tran team brings the old cheat
into the 21st century.

Hidden microphones and computer programs
are now in play.

It got to the point where that program
would say when to bet, when to double

down, when to hold back and not bet
anything.

It is two years since the Tran
Organization began cheating tribal

California.

Now they set their eyes on the Deep
South and the dozens of casinos to be

there.

One casino with definite potential is
the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi,

where high table limits could maximize
profits from a cheat.

And that is where surveillance cameras
spot Fong Truong on October 7, 2004,

ready to pull off the cheat.

But he is not at a mini -box table.

With casinos catching on to the mini
-box scheme, it is time for a change in

strategy.

The Tran team is moving to Blackjack.

The number of the casinos that they were
looking at cheating started to switch

in their shuffling from...

hand shuffling to automatic shuffling.

And so the game that was left was
blackjack.

Tonight at the Beaurevard, the
organization is testing its brand new

choreographed scheme.

With at least 10 cheaters working
together in total secrecy, anything can

wrong.

The group would meet before a cheat,
either at a hotel or at a place that

were renting, like an apartment.

They would meet with the group to sort
of work out who would be playing what

roles.

First off, they need to make sure no
legitimate players can get in the way of

the cheat.

They would have to start out by
controlling the table.

And that's done by people called
placeholders.

Those are members of the crew who aren't
there to bet. They're there to take

over a seat and to occupy it so that no
other person from the casino can sit

down and play.

Tonight, Fat Tran is one of several
placeholders.

Later, Van Tran arrives.

Now the organization is in charge of the
table.

The play begins.

This is the time the cheaters need to
record the cards as they are dealt.

In mini -box, they could write down the
sequence of cards, but not here.

Tonight, they are counting on a person
standing behind the table. They call him

the scorer.

Prosecutors believe it's this man,
George Lee, ironically wearing an FBI

speaking into a cell phone.

As the scorer, Lee would list the dealt
cards to a person off -site, typically

in a hotel room just upstairs.

That person enters the information into
a computer equipped with a program

similar to this one written to predict
the hands dealt in blackjack.

That program would reverse and flip the
cards so that we were able to predict

what cards are coming out. And it got to
the point where that program would say

when to bet, when to double down, when
to hold back and not bet anything.

Back at the table, the dealer picks up
the cards and does a false shuffle.

And then many times that dealer, he
rotates to the next table.

So he's not around when the cheat
actually happens.

Later, when the unshuffled cards come
into play, everyone at the table stops

betting, except Fong Truong.

Receiving signals on how to bet from the
scorer, he wins hand after hand.

By the end of the night, Fong Truong and
Van Tran have reason to feel very good.

They have stolen $16 ,200 tonight.

Not bad for a new cheat.

At first, they had difficulty adapting
to it because they had all this

technology that they had to make work.

And sometimes you couldn't get a signal,
for instance, in a cheat because you're

inside of a casino and it's hard to
hear.

but then they start to hit their stride
and can make 80, 90, 100 grand in one

cheat. As they move from casino to
casino perfecting the cheat, each member

finds a specialty.

Willie Tran, he started out as just your
basic placeholder, and he moved all the

way on up to being the tracker of cards
because he could read it fast and get it

right. For this latest, much more
sophisticated cheat, The trans are now

equipment from so -called spy shops.

A wireless transmitter has replaced the
cell phone.

The person who's the scorer at that
table is speaking into a microphone that

been wrapped around their neck and is
hanging below their collar. And that

person speaks into that microphone,
often using a cigarette or something to

shield their mouth so that it doesn't
look strange to surveillance that

speaking. Because otherwise you just see
someone standing there muttering to

themselves.

Now what that person is communicating
through that microphone is the order of

cards. When the unshuffled cards appear,
Tran listens through a receiver in his

ear to the instructions on how to bet.

He then communicates the instructions he
hears to the shooter, the better at the

table, through a series of signals.

If the person who's betting is supposed
to bet, He lights a cigarette.

If he's supposed to, in blackjack, that
if you get two of the same cards, you

can split it and double down, he'll hold
the cigarette with two fingers.

By January 2005, the cheat is ready to
be tested at the largest casino complex

in the U .S., Foxwoods Resort in
Connecticut.

Tonight, the shooter, the big bettor, is
Duke Nguyen.

He is in the tan jacket, surveying the
table.

He buys into the game, and the cheat is
on.

The team is in perfect sync.

Nguyen makes bet after bet, winning
nearly every hand.

By all appearances, he's a man on a
lucky streak.

And then the block of known cards runs
out.

It is time to stop betting.

In 33 minutes of play, Nguyen steals $91
,000.

On average, they stole as little as $11
,000 for one sheet on up to $122 ,000

for another sheet.

They had their system down at this
point. They knew what they were doing.

Nguyen was recruited by the Trans in San
Diego, a player they knew from the

casinos there.

He was told, we're going to such and
such location for a day or two.

We'll pay all your expenses.

It's a location that he'd never been to,
so it seemed exciting to get on a plane

to go there.

But he did not consider that he would be
on the hook for all the money the Tran

organization steals while he is with the
team.

He didn't factor in the risk at all.

He's responsible for almost a million
dollars of loss, and yet he's being paid

somewhere between $2 ,000 and $3 ,000.

By now, it is clear that in the Tran
organization, the stolen money is kept

the top.

The lifestyle of Fung and Van and the
higher level guys, it was great. They

buying jewelry, buying flashy cars.

Where the guys down in the lower rung,
they would be lucky if they got paid.

A lot of these guys were living paycheck
to paycheck.

Up next.

From the largest casino to one of the
smallest, the Tran organization heads

to the Northwest.

But this time, they come as suspected
cheaters.

I logged on, and it said, mini -box
cheats.

And my heart kind of stopped for a
minute, because George Lee's picture was

right there.

See more tricks cheaters use?

Visit AmericanGreed .CNBC .com. We'll be
right back.

In the far northwest corner of the state
of Washington, the Nooksack River flows

west from the snow fields of the Cascade
Mountains.

Along its banks, just 20 miles below the
Canadian border, is the Nooksack River

Casino. Doug Adler is in charge of
casino surveillance at Nooksack.

Nooksack is a smaller casino.

Not really call it a hole in the wall,
but it's on the smaller end.

Owned by the Nooksack Indian tribe, the
Backwoods Casino seems an unlikely

target for a cheating gang that has
beaten the largest casino in the

But in October 2005, the casino managers
become suspicious.

There was a patron there by the name of
George Lee.

And he was winning, at the time, I think
it was about $4 ,000.

They were a little bit leery about this
guy.

George Lee has been with the Tran
organization since Cache Creek.

For him, $4 ,000 is small time, but it's
a big win here.

You get to about a $2 ,500 threshold,
and you're going to start looking a

bit harder at the people with their
winnings, and you're going to decide at

point whether or not.

If it's legitimate play, you know, who
are they with? What kind of car are they

driving? Where are they from?

Adler consults the Oregon Surveillance
Network, an Internet site that posts

information on suspected cheaters.

When I went online, I logged on and it
said, and

my heart kind of stopped for a minute
because George Lee's picture was right

there. And the more I dug into it, the
more it looked like I was on to

at that point.

Adler contacts the tribal and state
gaming authorities, who put him in touch

with the FBI in San Diego, where agents
have been keeping close tabs on the Tran

gang.

Once I gave them the information, he
told me at that point that George Lee

his accomplices would be back on
property two days later.

Knowing Lee will be back soon, The
officials meet at Nooksack to prepare.

We explained to him that the normal
overhead camera view really doesn't show

actual unshuffled cards in good view.

So we moved a camera in from the slot
area and took an over -the -shoulder

approach in order to get in on the
table.

Two days later, exactly on schedule, Lee
and two others arrive in Seattle and

head north.

The FBI follows them every step of the
way.

I was coming down Mount Baker Highway,
and I got a phone call that George Lee

was 15 minutes out. He was driving a red
Hummer with a white Lincoln Town car

behind him.

That night, Lee gambles and wins in a
legitimate game. The next day, he is

and he heads straight to the mini -box
table.

This gentleman here is George Lee,
and...

Right now what he's doing is he's
writing down the sequence of cards

going to come out in the slug list to
follow here in a couple of minutes.

The dealer is Levi Mayfield.

Because it is close to Halloween, the
dealers are in costume.

Mayfield is dressed as a gangster.

And here it is in plain view.

The shovel that is winning the Tran team
millions.

He doesn't go into those cards. Those
cards are left. That's called a slug.

I think he's a little bit nervous the
way the cards are coming off here

generally speaking, there's no hitches
in the shuffle.

Once the false shuffle is recorded, the
game is stopped.

They bar George Lee and basically
approach him that, hey, your play is too

for us. We're going to have to bar you
from the facility.

Lee is not arrested.

Nor are the dealers at Nooksack.

They continue to work as if nothing has
happened.

We don't want to go arresting every
small bit player immediately because we

might miss the bigger people, the heads
of these organizations.

So we take the time to go after the
small guys and then build up so that we

that when we're ready to take down this
animal that we can cut the head off and

so it's not going to grow back.

Up next, the man who believes he will
never get caught steps into a trap.

They can't catch me. They'll never know
what the fuck I do. I promise you that.

For four

years, the Tran organization makes a
grand tour of casinos

across the U .S.

But time and again, they return to the
Gulf Coast.

In February of 2005, they are back at
the Beaurevage in Biloxi.

There, it is business as usual at the
blackjack table.

Fat Tran is a placeholder, helping to
block outsiders.

Willie Tran is the scorer, tracking the
cards.

Tian Vu is the shooter.

In 35 minutes of play, Vu wins 26 hands,
taking $56 ,000.

Cheating in Biloxi is paying off well
for the Tran organization.

But then, there is disaster.

Well, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina made
landfall here on the Gulf Coast and

devastated the entire coast.

But the...

The casino industry was especially hard
hit.

Nine of the 11 casinos were totally
destroyed.

With the casinos on the coast closed,
the Tran Group heads 350 miles north to

the city of Tunica, Mississippi.

The FBI and state gaming officials are
following close behind when the cheaters

enter the Horseshoe Casino.

We had a team that...

was able to follow him into the casino.

And from there, then, we were able to
follow him both through the surveillance

department and with undercover agents on
the floor as they roamed around the

floor, kind of acting nonchalant.

On the night of April 26, 2006, at the
Horseshoe, two members of the Tran

Renee Wang and Liam Lamb, are acting as
placeholders at a blackjack table.

Martin Aronson will be the shooter,
placing the big bets.

Fong Truong is, as usual, the man in
charge, making sure all is good to go.

Soon the FBI will be listening to every
phone conversation he has at the casino.

They hear him speak to the corrupted
dealer at the horseshoe. They hear him

check on cards in play.

And tonight, cameras catch his team
steal tens of thousands of dollars from

casino. And on the coverage that we have
right here that we're looking at right

now, the team has won so much on this
table that

they have taken all of the high -value
chips off of the table.

With the tweet played out.

The surveillance cameras follow Martin
Aronson to the cashier to pick up his

winnings, $80 ,000.

He waits an hour for the money he stole
in half that time.

This crime has been recorded in every
way.

But for all he knows, the cheat has not
been noticed.

And Aronson is handed the cash.

The normal procedure for a casino with a
person who's won a large amount of

cash, they'll be escorted out and the
surveillance department will follow

So this coverage here is routine.

As Martin Aronson walks out the door of
one more casino with a wad of stolen

cash, the FBI is plotting a sting
designed to put an end to the Tran

organization.

It will take place in Biloxi.

The setup began earlier with a dealer
who worked with the trans at the Beau

Rivage.

With the FBI, we went to the dealer's
house and placed him under arrest, which

shocked him.

One of the things that the trans team
told all the dealers when they recruited

him was, oh, they won't catch you, we're
too good, nobody's ever going to notice

this, and if they do, you don't have to
worry about it.

But cheating is a felony in Mississippi.

So the dealer decides to work with the
FBI to set a trap.

He tells Trong he knows a dealer who can
be bought.

So the FBI brought in an undercover
officer to be a dealer.

We provided training.

We credentialed the individual.

And he went and physically worked a
shift as a dealer at the Imperial

That is how Fong Truong came to this
hotel room in June 2006, believing he is

recruiting a new dealer.

We can take a $50 ,000 shoe easy, even
in our 10 minutes.

He has carried out his cheat in 29
casinos in seven states and in Canada.

No wonder he thinks he will never get
caught.

They can't catch me.

Okay. They never know what the...

After this meeting, the plan is for
Trong, his co -conspirators, and this

to pull off the false shuffle cheat at
the Imperial Palace Casino.

We were going to try to get him actively
performing a cheat with these

undercover dealers, and then he would be
arrested.

And at the same time, everyone else
would be arrested.

But that never comes to be.

Trong returns to his home in San Diego
before the scheduled cheat.

And from there, he suddenly makes a move
no one is expecting.

He decided to drive to Los Angeles from
San Diego, a two -hour drive, to

LAX, Los Angeles International Airport,
to go hop on a flight back to Vietnam.

Later, it is learned that Trong was not
fleeing the country, merely taking a

short trip.

But the FBI does not know that.

We made the decision to arrest Phuong
Truong 10 minutes before he was to board

the flight to Vietnam.

It is over.

By now, investigators have reviewed
hundreds of hours of surveillance

order to build the case against the
trans.

And following a series of indictments,
more than 40 people plead guilty to

charges related to the cheating scheme.

The 45 people who pled guilty span the
entire reach of the conspiracy. You had

people who started out as placeholders
and bettors within the organization.

You had people who were also pit bosses
and supervisors for the casino, who were

also in the cheating crew.

Among those who plead guilty is Jamie
Root. He served 60 days in a federal

prison and is now responsible for
enormous restitution and legal fees.

For me, crime didn't pay.

I lost in this whole thing part of my
reputation, hundreds of thousands of

dollars, the ability to earn an honest
living as I can no longer be hired by

most businesses due to now having a
felony.

Martin Aronson, even before his
conviction, is broke, having lost all

he stole at the poker table.

He is sentenced to a four -year term in
federal prison.

George Lee is sentenced to two years.

Van Tran and Phong Trong are forced to
forfeit their houses, cars, and jewelry.

Phong Trong is sentenced to nearly four
years and owes restitution fees close to

$6 million.

They might have gotten away with the
cheat if they had quit early on, but

believed they would never get caught,
and the money was just too good.

As with all criminals, they got greedy.

That's where all criminals go wrong.

Next. My parents wanted to give me a
down payment. Big problem.

If they give me the money, they will
have almost nothing in savings.

What's a child to do?

They're trying to get their parents to
be responsible. This is the Orman Show,

next on CNBC.

Business intelligence.

CNBC.

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