All language subtitles for American Greed s07e03 The Prisoner of Wall Street.eng

In this episode of American Greed,
locked up in a federal prison for

fraud, Perry Griggs shouldn't be a
threat anymore.

Eight years in prison's a long time.

I didn't think that we'd hear from him
again.

But this is no ordinary con man.

This prisoner is prospering with a new
scheme.

From inside the prison wall, he was able
to convince people he was a millionaire

commodities trader and have them invest
their money with a man in jail.

And before anyone is on to his scam,
Griggs gets released.

Perry had left in a hurry, so this
became an active fugitive investigation.

Leaving his victims with nothing.

Our property is taken illegally.

This actually rips the soul.

January 2010.

FBI agent Tom Simon is just back in the
office after the holidays when he begins

fielding several calls from panicked
investors.

So my phone starts ringing at the FBI
office in Honolulu from people telling

they had lost money because they had
invested with someone who was sitting in

federal prison.

I'm on the phone. I'm like, what? Tell
me that again? You invested money with a

man and sitting in federal prison? Tell
me why you thought that was a good idea.

From there the story began to unfold.

In order to understand how 48 -year -old
prisoner Perry Griggs is able to

operate a phony commodities trading
company from behind bars, one has to

understand how he got there in the first
place.

In 2000, Perry and Rochelle Griggs
appear to be a successful couple living

good life.

With Perry making a killing in
commodities trading.

At least, that's the story they tell
everyone at the famed PGA West community

La Quinta, California, where the Griggs
have recently moved into a high -end

home.

As soon as you walk through the front
gates, you get the sense of people here

have money.

Perry did his homework, and he
researched that, and he knew.

The potential pot of gold.

Landscape of all the homes.

Beautiful community.

Former Secret Service agent John Waugh
investigates Perry Griggs in the early

2000s.

Perry was a very good golfer.

And people thought that this must be a
country club guy. This is a guy who's

probably born with a silver spoon in his
mouth and has grown up in this culture.

And so he was easy to be trusted.

But the Griggs are not really the power
couple they claim to be.

And this is all deceit by design.

Perry Griggs is really an ex -con, whose
resume includes turning a flooring

company into a criminal enterprise at
the age of 28.

Perry had been convicted up in the state
of Washington for a Ponzi scam, where

he got friends and neighbors and family
members of friends and neighbors

flooring company, and he never invested
any money in the flooring company. He

used it all for his personal gain.

In 1989, Griggs is sentenced to three
years in a Washington state prison.

While there, he does not find
rehabilitation, but he does find love.

Rochelle Rutledge is a young single mom
who sometimes accompanies her minister

mother on visits to the prison.

She falls for the charming inmate.

and the two are married in 1992.

But instead of starting over as a
straight -laced family man,

Perry Griggs gets out of prison and
begins teeing up his next set of victims

the PGA West golf community.

They're very believable. They look like
they're very much in love, and they've

got this happy little family, and that
he has retired young, living in a

community. It's very believable that he
must have made his money somewhere.

Charming and gregarious, the Griggs both
cultivate relationships with their

wealthy neighbors.

He would invite them to his home and,
you know, wine them and dine them with

bottles of Cristal champagne and filet
mignon.

When Perry Griggs begins talking about
an investment opportunity that is making

him big bucks, his friends want to know
more.

Griggs claims that he has a reliable
inside track on Brazilian coffee

and that he can double and possibly even
triple their money in just 60 to 90

days.

These were neighbors, close personal
friends, and even the wife was involved,

bragging about how good business was.
She called him her coffee man

and her commodities man. She was very
happy and told everyone they had more

money than they could ever use in their
life, and they wanted to get other

people involved in this great
investment.

Word among Griggs' friends quickly
spreads.

And soon, Griggs is taking in millions
from more than 50 investors, promising

he can brew them a pot of gold.

For a while, everyone is happy, and bank
statements are showing their money

growing and growing.

Meanwhile, Perry and Rochelle Griggs are
living larger and larger.

spending weeks at a time vacationing at
the exclusive Hotel del Coronado,

golfing almost daily, and eventually
moving into a home on luxurious Coronado

Island.

Jim Truesdale is also an avid Coronado
golfer who meets Perry Griggs on the

links. Ended up getting paired with him
here at Coronado, and we played with him

and enjoyed ourselves with him and
invited him to play again and got to

played about two to three times a week.

He was a very sociable guy, very good
-looking, nice family.

Truesdale and his other buddies have to
schedule their tea times around work,

but Perry seems to be free any day, any
time.

and can be found on the course most
afternoons.

We assumed he made a lot of money and
was retired here and living, and he led

to believe that until one day we asked
him, what do you do exactly? And he

I buy and sell coffee futures.

Truesdale's friend is intrigued by
Perry's line of work and asks if he can

invest, but Perry plays coy.

He said, I'm not taking any new
customers at this time, and my buddy

Quite a salesman said, let me invest a
little bit of money, will you? I've

always heard that's been very successful
for some folks, and he basically set

the hook in my buddy and reeled him in.

Soon enough, the friend hands over $150
,000 and can't believe his good

fortune.

He was receiving statements every two or
three days, and there's a way you can

look coffee bean futures up on the
exchange, and he knew he was just making

quicker than he could give him money.

But risky commodities trading is not
Truesdale's thing.

He's a builder, and he's in the middle
of a big development deal.

He mentions to Perry that he's waiting
on a $500 ,000 bank loan to come

I explained that the bank was dragging
their fee. There were so many loan

applications, and it was just taking
time for me to get my money. And he

I'll be glad to give you the money.

I said, what kind of interest rates are
you going to charge me? And he says, I

won't charge you any interest.

I'll just, when you get your loan, you
can pay me back.

And he gave me a check for over a
quarter of a million dollars.

According to Griggs, there is just one
small holdup.

He explained that he had just sold a
bunch of coffee futures down in Brazil

that it takes about 10 days for the
check.

He asked me if I would wait about 10
days to deposit it.

A week later, Perry Griggs shows up at
Truesdale's home.

He came to me on a Friday afternoon real
late one day and explained that he

needed some money. He was going to Las
Vegas and asked if I could run to my

and get him some cash.

You know, the gentleman was giving me
over a quarter of a million dollars. I

figured the least I could do was advance
him some money to save him, you know,

having to go to his bank and it be
closed or something.

Truesdale hands him $25 ,000, cash.

A few days later, Truesdale finds out
the check for $350 ,000 Perry gave him

no good.

He's livid.

He races to Perry's house.

I just said, Terry, I want my money. I
said, you took my $25 ,000 and I want my

money and I want it now.

And he said, I don't have your money.

He would not open the door.

All the shouting was done through the
door. He was standing behind his wife

entire time.

Jim Truesdale is out $25 ,000 and he's
the lucky one.

His friend doesn't fare so well and
never sees his $150 ,000 again.

Next on American Greed, federal agents
come knocking on Perry Griggs' door.

He was very shocked. He thought that
this was all just a big

In 2001, Riverside, California, Secret
Service agents are working a case on 40

-year -old Perry Griggs.

Griggs was targeting victims, trying to
get them to buy phony coffee

commodity futures.

And he had somebody in Brazil that had
inside information, and it looked like

was phony, so we got involved.

In less than three years, Griggs takes
in more than $4 million from friends and

neighbors in Southern California.

People who think they are handing over
their life savings to a trusted member

the community.

The single largest investor is a
California dentist, a neighbor of

for more than $850 ,000.

He has no clue about where his money is
really going.

Looking through the bank records, there
was not one instance where he tried to

invest anyone's money.

It was all for personal use.

He was buying many things that we had to
seize, diamonds, high -end jewelry,

furniture, cars, things like that.

In December 2001,

Secret Service agents arrive at Perry
and Rochelle Griggs' Coronado Island

to execute a search and seizure warrant.

We set up and knocked on the door, and
Perry had opened the door. Rochelle was

right behind him.

We announced who we were and what we
were there to do.

He was very shocked. He had no idea that
federal agents and police were going to

be raiding his house.

And we said we have a court order from a
judge to search your residence, and he

insisted that this was all just a big
misunderstanding.

As agents search the home, Perry Griggs
is full of bravado.

He was pretty belligerent. He didn't
want to let us in, and he was going to

contact his lawyer, and he wanted all of
our names and badge numbers, and was

trying to be intimidating in that way.

Agents are not deterred.

But after hours of meticulous searching,
The house yields little in the way of

evidence.

There is, however, one last luxury
vehicle they haven't searched.

Perry's Lexus SUV.

So we asked him for the keys to his
vehicle, and he said, absolutely not,

not getting inside my vehicle.

And we told him that we had an order to
search the vehicles that were on the

property, and that Lexus SUV is on his
property, and that's what we're going to

search.

He reluctantly gave us the keys. Then we
searched the compartment that holds the

spare tire.

There was where we found the mother load
of documents.

All of the bank statements that Perry
had created in the victim's name showing

that they had millions of dollars in
their account.

Obviously, that was not true.

Once we walked back into the house and
showed him the papers, his attitude

changed 180 degrees.

Perry Griggs knows he's caught.

and immediately starts playing the role
of Mr. Nice Guy.

Now, he wanted to come clean.

He wanted to come clean. He wanted to
confess.

He was very, very sorry, but I think he
was more sorry for getting caught than

he was for actually ruining anybody's
life.

Subsequent interviews with Perry Griggs
reveal a con man so good, it's scary.

I could see myself...

befriending him, I could see myself
trusting him.

Being an agent, you always lead into
things with a skeptical mind.

He tried to pour on the sincere persona.

And if I didn't know any better, if I
was an unsuspecting person, if I wasn't

trained and I hadn't worked cases like
this in the past, I could see myself,

know, being lured in.

Perry Griggs agrees to plead guilty to
four counts of wire fraud and money

laundering. If Rochelle is not charged,
he gets hit with an eight -year prison

sentence. But Agent Waugh believes there
were two people at work.

In my mind, there's no way she could not
have known what was going on. He didn't

work. She didn't work. They spent all of
their time together.

Where else could this source of income
have been coming in from?

With Perry Griggs caught,

His victims are left financially
devastated, holding on to the hope that

will get some of their money back.

We were able to see some items,
including diamond bracelets and Rolex

golf cart, furniture, household
furnishings, but it was pennies on the

compared to what they stole.

When American Greed returns, with Perry
Griggs shipped off to prison, agents

think he's finally done in.

But his biggest crime is yet to come.

I didn't think that we'd hear from him
again. I was shocked.

In October 2003,

Perry Griggs steps into a low -security
federal prison camp on Nellis Air Force

Base in Nevada.

convicted of bilking more than $4
million from at least 50 victims.

But from day one, he presents himself as
someone else, someone whose only

crime is not paying his taxes.

Perry told the other prisoners at Nellis
that he was serving time in federal

prison for tax fraud and that he was a
multimillionaire commodities trader when

he was on the outside.

Griggs happens to be housed in a Nevada
unit with more than 100 inmates from the

Hawaiian Islands, mostly unsophisticated
criminals in on drug charges.

They weren't coming from places where
they knew multimillionaire commodities

traders, so the idea of meeting someone
like Perry Griggs, who was that

impressive, just really bowled them
over.

He subscribed to magazines like the Rob
Report for the affluent lifestyle and

Cigar Aficionado, Barron's and Forbes to
make it seem as if he was a man from

the world of high finance.

Griggs regales his new prison buddies
with stories of a high rollers

Perry even bribes his work camp
supervisor to look the other way as his

Rochelle smuggles in contraband food,
cigars, beers.

even cell phones and a laptop computer,
all this adding to his allure.

He then sets up a company in Rochelle's
name called Aloha Trading and begins to

convince the inmates that they can also
get rich.

From talking to the prisoners from
Hawaii, Perry understood that Hawaii is

incredibly expensive place to live. The
people who live here don't have giant

stacks of money sitting in their bank
accounts.

What many of them do have, though, are
houses that have been in their families

for generations.

and many of these houses did not have a
mortgage on it.

Perry saw that as an opportunity for
these people to use their homes as an

get the cash out, so they could give it
to Perry and Rochelle ostensibly to

invest in commodities.

With Perry stuck on the inside, Rochelle
becomes the face of Aloha Trading,

shuttling back and forth from her home
in Las Vegas to Hawaii, the conduit of

cash for Perry's scheme.

And in one year, Several inmates, their
relatives, and friends take equity out

of their Hawaiian properties and hand
over a total of nearly $2 million to

Rochelle under the expectation that
Perry would be investing it. The pitch

that Perry and Rochelle would pay the
mortgage for these folks back in Hawaii

for five years, and at the conclusion of
five years, they would pay off that

mortgage and then give the victims'
families $1 to $3 million cash.

It's not long before word begins to
spread in the small island communities

an investment opportunity that claims to
turn local people into millionaires.

Now, Haya Colton is a Honolulu
housewife.

and devout Catholic who runs a rosary
group that's been meeting every week for

more than 30 years.

This prayer group has helped so many
people, and I just don't want to stop

praying.

When friends and family in the rosary
group start telling Nohea about an

investment opportunity they are part of,
she wants to know more.

When they told me about it, doing
investment, that's how the rich people

They take money from, let's say, their
house, and then they put it in

in stock markets and all that. So it
sounded good.

Colton is soon introduced to Rochelle
Griggs, the kind -hearted woman whose

husband is supposedly an investment
guru.

She seems so...

sincere and constantly praising God and
saying, Jesus is going to take care of

us, and it was just sweet, and she
always addressed me as Auntie Nohea,

addressed me as that.

So I really thought they were really
good people.

Colton decides she wants in on the
investment, but she and her husband have

little in the way of savings. What they
do have is a piece of prime real estate.

This is where I was born and raised.

This is Kuleo Valley.

I think it's the smallest valley on this
island.

Colton is one of 14 brothers and sisters
born and raised in this valley, 20

minutes from Waikiki Beach on the island
of Oahu.

Her roots here run deep and wide.

Queen Liliuokalani gave to my
grandmother property here in Kuleo, and

lot of family here.

There's about 150 homes that are
relatives.

For 20 years, Nahea and her husband Dan
lived elsewhere.

But Nahea always dreamed of coming home.

This is the home that my grandfather
built.

And it took many, many years for me to
get enough money to buy

where my roots come from, Kulio 'o.

And I just love it.

In 1995, the Coltons paid $455 ,000 for
this house on a

29 ,000 -square -foot lot, a parcel of
land that had previously been in her

family for 100 years.

It's an old, old shack.

And it's a teardown, but I love it.

And I don't want to see it go.

Today, the property is estimated to be
worth more than $1 million.

But to Nohea Colton, living on her
ancestral land is priceless.

And when Rochelle Griggs offers her a
way to keep the land, fix it up, and

a tenfold return on her investment, the
66 -year -old grandmother is excited to

discuss the plan with her electrician
husband, Dan Colton.

I said, oh, Dan.

I met this lady, and we're going to be
able to pay off the house loan.

We'll be able to fix up the place so
it's more livable and get rid of all

termites in the house.

I said, Dan, at least then we can
breathe and live life.

I told her off the top, I said, you
know, it sounds too good to be true.

So I said, well, I said, you might be
messing with our retirement.

Nohea tells Dan that many of their
friends and family have already invested

are doing well.

And so I went along, not 100 % willing,
but...

If it plays out, it plays out.

A little wishing to, you know.

The Coltons take $600 ,000 in equity out
of their property and give it to

Rochelle Griggs.

I thought I made a wonderful decision,
and I was really upbeat.

I said, oh, boy, I'm going to be a
millionaire.

Really stupid, but I did.

In all honesty, I did.

For just over two years, Rochelle pays
Nohea's mortgage every month and assures

her that everything is going as planned.

But back in a mainland federal prison,
Perry Griggs is living up his role as a

power player.

With access to Rochelle's accounts, even
though he has no financial background,

Griggs actually tries his hand at
trading commodities.

and quickly loses more than $600 ,000.

When American Greed returns,

Perry Griggs' latest scam cuts a deep
path of ruin.

That really hurt me for him to do it to
so many of my sisters and I and cousins.

And devastates one of Hawaii's oldest
families.

And then I started to go, oh my God,
what are we going to do?

We're in Hawaii Lower Ridge, which is
the most expensive neighborhood in all

Oahu. It's got beautiful views. The
houses here are all mansions by Hawaii

standards. And the people who live here
are the ultra, ultra rich of Honolulu.

This home is where Rochelle Griggs lives
during her frequent visits to Hawaii

and where she meets with investors in
her husband Perry's phony commodities

trading company.

She rented it to create the image of
someone who had extreme success.

She took the time to lease a BMW while
she was here also for the same reason.

Rochelle was a girl next door with
extremely good taste. She always had

nice jewelry and purses and clothing.
But she didn't have that ostentatious

nature about her.

Rochelle has her Hawaiian investors
fooled.

But she also has a problem.

She's running out of money.

And the scheme is on the brink of
collapse.

Rochelle has no real connection to the
islands.

and limited contacts for bringing in
more cash.

Perry is no help. He's sitting in a
federal penitentiary, calling the shots.

And in order to keep the deal going, he
needs more investors.

They were running out of ideas, and then
their prayers were answered in the name

of a Hawaiian woman by the name of Kapua
Keolanui.

Kapua Keolanui is a flight attendant
from Hawaii whose husband is locked up

Perry Griggs.

During her frequent visits to the
prison, she meets Rochelle and Perry,

begin courting her as a business
partner.

Everyone liked Kapua. She was sweet, she
was a church -going woman, she was a

family person.

She was the type of person that you
would trust and the last person in the

you'd ever expect to get involved in a
multi -million dollar Ponzi scheme.

Kapua believes in Perry's ability to
guarantee profits, and she agrees to

with the Griggs.

With the encouragement of Perry and
Rochelle, Kapua went to her friends and

family members in Hawaii and told them
that she had been touched by Jesus

himself, who had bestowed upon her the
ability to trade commodities at high

profit. What she wasn't telling them is
that her business partner was not in

fact Jesus, but was a man sitting in
federal prison for operating a Ponzi

scheme.

Kapua's reputation as a religious,
hardworking mother is not lost on Nanife

Paglinawan.

I met her here in Honolulu several
times.

We went and had coffee, and all good.
You know, she had her children, and

I bid again hook, line, and sinker. I
did.

We wanted to invest but didn't know how
to invest. That wasn't our expertise.

And it sounded convincing, and because
there were family members that were

involved, I had a tendency to believe it
even more.

Nani Faye and her husband live on his
family's land, which has been passed

from his mother and has no mortgage.

The house and the land that we're on, my
husband was raised on, and my children

were raised on that property.

And I was hoping to pass it on to them.

The Paklinawans take out $600 ,000 in
equity from the property and invest it

with Kapua and Rochelle.

For more than a year, Nanife is
optimistic about her family's future.

Kapua is paying the new mortgage, and
Nanife is awaiting the million -dollar

payout. promised to her at the end of
five years.

I didn't need a gazillion dollars. I
wasn't asking for that much, just for

basic, especially for my grandkids that
I didn't have to.

You know, nobody wants to have them work
as hard as you do. You want it to get

easier and easier.

From investors like Nani Faye and her
own friends and family, Kapua is able to

collect more than $1 million.

most of which is going directly to Perry
and Rochelle Griggs.

Periodically, Perry and Rochelle would
wire transfer money to Kapua so she

continue to make the mortgage payments
she had promised to her own investors.

Now, Kapua did take a bit of the money
and put it in her pocket, but the lion's

share of the money she thought she was
investing with Perry Griggs' commodities

trading abilities.

With Kapua as a partner, the Griggs are
once again flush with cash.

But only Rochelle is living a life of
luxury.

Poor Perry can't enjoy any of the spoils
from inside prison.

So when it's time for a routine transfer
by Greyhound bus from one low -security

prison facility to another, Perry and
Rochelle see a chance to live it up.

So the prison van dropped Perry off at
the bus station. When the coast was

clear, Rochelle arrived and took Perry
in the rental car to an airstrip where

there was a rented Learjet waiting.

The couple pops the bubbly on board and
takes off on a whirlwind escape.

They spend the weekend partying in Las
Vegas.

And then the jet drops Perry off at his
final destination with no one the wiser.

And when the Bureau of Prisons arrived
at the bus stop to pick up Perry, they

had no idea that he had just spent a
weekend having fun in Las Vegas and

around the country in a Learjet.

At the new prison in Lompoc, California,
Perry sets about making it as

comfortable as possible for himself.

So Perry and Rochelle once again decide
to bribe Perry's work crew boss. They

actually made a $5 ,000 down payment to
get the guy a new truck.

This provided Perry with an opportunity
to, again, have a cell phone, a

computer, food, beer, cigars while
inside prison walls.

And since he can't bear to be separated
from Rochelle, Perry works her way

around that as well.

Perry wasn't going to let incarceration
even get in the way of his sex life. He

bribed somebody to actually take him off
prison grounds to a motel where he and

Rochelle could enjoy each other's
company for a while.

Next on American Greed.

With his Ponzi scheme going strong from
behind bars, Perry Griggs is about to

get released before his victims realize
they've been had.

I spent the entire year trying to piece
together this fraud.

Meanwhile, the mystery remained, where
the heck are Perry and Rochelle Griggs?

For more information on Perry Griggs'
life behind bars, go to AmericanGreed

.CNBC .com and follow us on Twitter at
AmericanGreedTV.

We'll be right back.

In September 2009, Perry Griggs is
released from federal prison, and he and

wife Rochelle move to a high -end home
in Las Vegas, all funded by the

multimillion -dollar Ponzi scheme he's
been orchestrating from behind bars.

The problem is, though, at this point,
new investors were not coming in the

door, and Perry and Rochelle were living
the good life and running out of money.

Nani Faye Paglinawan has $600 ,000 in
equity from her property invested with

Griggs and their partner, Kapua Keola
Nui.

And she wants to know where the money
is.

In the beginning, there was always a
fast response.

And then it just got longer and longer.

They just started fading out and stopped
answering my emails or my phone calls.

And then I started to hear from my
sister and other people, did you hear

did you hear that?

For a while, Kapua and Perry Griggs were
able to make those monthly payments to

their victims.

At some point, though, when there's no
new victims coming in the door, every

Ponzi scheme is going to collapse, and
that's what happened with this case.

Word of trouble spreads quickly through
the ranks of investors.

many of whom are family members,
including Nanipe's younger sister, Nohea

Colton. She says, something is wrong
here, Nohea. She's cheating us.

The house note isn't getting paid.

Then we all got wind of it, that, you
know, there's something wrong.

I bet he's lying, and then we all
started to, and then I started to go,

God, what are we going to do?

So we have these furious investors on
our hands who are falling into

status on their mortgages because they
weren't getting paid by Perry, Rochelle,

and Kapua. They began calling the FBI
and looking for help.

Without a way to pay back their victims,
many of whom are ex -cons, Perry and

Rochelle make a run for it.

But their Hawaiian partner, Kapua, has
nowhere to go but to the feds.

I got a call from Kapua Kiolanui who
wanted to come in and tell me that she

fallen under the spell of a man named
Perry Griggs and in turn had done some

very bad things herself.

Kapua agrees to work with the FBI,
helping to build a case against the

and perhaps shift some of the burden
from her own shoulders.

Kapua's investors were mostly her
friends and family members. A lot of

senior citizens who had a lack of
financial sophistication.

The idea of Kapua stealing money from
these people was just unthinkable to

For 11 months, FBI agent Tom Simon
builds a white -collar crime case

Griggs.

Only when he has their indictment in
hand does he ramp up the search effort.

The FBI had arranged to have billboards
showing the pictures of Perry and

Rochelle Griggs with Wanted by the FBI
on them throughout the highways in the

United States.

So in the fall of 2010, my phone was
ringing off the hook with well -meaning

people who swore they saw Perry and
Rochelle driving the other way down the

highway.

But lead after lead ends up nowhere.

Until December 2010, when a tip comes
in, placing the Griggs in Arizona

and providing a possible cell phone
number.

But the number doesn't work.

So what I did was I used what I consider
to be a sophisticated investigative

technique that I'm happy to share with
you today. I googled the phone number.

And when I googled it, the first thing
that came up was a Craigslist ad from

Kingman, Arizona.

We'll paint your house for cash.

Call this number.

Agents eventually tracked down the
location of the man who placed the ad to

seedy rooming house.

They believe he's really Perry Griggs.

Once they had the name of the rooming
house, the FBI agents in Kingman,

stormed it and found Perry and Rochelle
hiding there and finally placed them

under arrest.

When American Greed returns,

the Griggs board a plane for Honolulu.

But there is no luxury vacation in their
plans.

This time, it's to face up to their
crimes.

and their victims.

I wanted to have eye -to -eye contact,
and I said what I said. A rat is a rat

a rat.

In April 2011,

Perry Griggs pleads guilty to charges of
mail and wire fraud.

Griggs declined American Greed's request
for an interview, but his attorney,

John Shum, believes that Perry's heart
was in the right place.

His intentions were to make money for
himself, to prove that he could actually

be a financial investor, to have a
legitimate business, and to help the

that he had offered to help.

He was trying to make their lives better
along with making his own life better.

But at his sentencing hearing, the judge
doesn't buy it.

He calls Perry Griggs a serial fraud
artist and one of the most blatant

criminals he's seen in 24 years on the
bench.

He then allows victims to address Griggs
in the courtroom.

Now, Hayek Colton looks right at the man
who stole $600 ,000.

and possibly her home.

I wanted to have eye -to -eye contact.
And I said what I said. He was a rat, is

a rat, is a rat. And his payment not
going to be here on earth. But when he

dies, I feel sorry for him.

That's what I said. I really feel sorry
for you. And he looked at me and kept

saying he was sorry. And I said, you're
not sorry.

And I refused to cry.

Because I told him he wasn't worth.

A penny worth of tears from me.

I'm a hardworking person. I've worked
all my life.

We had our children, and we really
believed him.

These victims felt so betrayed, and they
expressed that in the courtroom at the

sentencing, that they had trusted Kapua,
Rochelle, and Perry with their entire

life savings, with the homes that had
been in their families for generations,

and they just could not believe that
that trust had been violated so

Griggs gets a seven -year prison
sentence, serving time in a special

unit in Terre Haute, Indiana, with
limited supervised access to phone and

computer. The prison is known as
Guantanamo North.

It's one of the highest security -level
federal institutions that I'm aware of.

He's housed with a lot of terrorists and
has very little contact with the

outside world.

For Perry Griggs, who spent years
bribing and conniving his way to special

privileges in the prison system, it is
perhaps bitter irony that a man who

seemingly talk his way into anything can
now talk to no one.

Rochelle Griggs also pleads guilty to
mail and wire fraud and for her part

a four -year sentence.

Kapua Keolanui maintains that she is
also a victim of Perry Griggs.

But since she knowingly lied to
investors, she is sentenced to three

serves her time in prison in Oahu.

For the victims whose lives have been
irreparably damaged by the Griggs'

there is little solace in justice.

Well, my trust factor is like nil, and I
don't trust anybody.

During this ordeal, Nani Faye Paglinawan
lost her husband of 35 years.

She believes that Perry, Rochelle, and
Kapua...

are partially responsible for the
extreme stress that may have contributed

his heart attack.

I do blame them, and I'm not going to
carry their burden.

They have to carry their own burden. I
don't want to carry their burden. It's

too heavy.

Today, Nani Faye's home and property are
in foreclosure.

But this victim of greed prefers to
focus on the things she does have.

I still have a lot to be grateful for.

You know, I can still work, but the
world is still good to me.

You know, I get to come and see my
daughter and my grandkids.

I know that's basic.

I'm so grateful for, you know, to be
alive.

Nani Faye's younger sister, Nohea, and
her husband, Dan Colton, have managed to

hang on to their property for now.

I don't know how we can keep it. I mean,
the more I think about it, I don't know

how, but God's will be done, period,
because it's only a place.

But I really don't want to lose this
place.

We're just surviving, my husband and I.

Really, I feel rich, though. I got rich
with my grandkids and my sisters and

brothers and nieces and nephews, and
that's all really I want.

As far as the money, the FBI says, there
are no secret accounts, no hidden

stash, nothing at all left to recover.

The FBI was unable to seize any money in
this case because by the time we

learned about the fraud, it had all been
spent.

Several of the victims in this case
ended up losing their homes, homes that

been in their families for generations.

This was their legacy, and it was all
gone.

For the Secret Service agent who put
Perry Griggs behind bars eight years

earlier, he believes that Griggs'
failure to stop his criminal activity is

sign that the man is unwilling to
change.

I would never bet money against Perry. I
think Perry's capable of continuing

this on until he's no longer on the
earth.

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