All language subtitles for American Greed s13e09 The Fast and the Fraudulent

In this episode of American Greed, he's
a race car driver on a fast and

furious rise to the top of the payday
loan industry.

We started building an online lending
platform.

We built it into a multi -billion dollar
brand. But Scott Tucker is selling high

interest predatory loans designed to
bleed consumers dry.

They just kind of turned into piranha
and just attacked my account.

He was targeting people who could at
least afford it at the worst times in

lives. The customer dictated that they
didn't have any other place to go.

He's making a killing as he fleeces more
than $1 billion out of millions of

customers. All the fuel is high -octane
lifestyle.

There's a lot of snakes out there, and
Mr.

Tucker is damn sure one of them.

It's the American Le Mans Series in
Laguna Seca, California.

And 49 -year -old payday loan
entrepreneur Scott Tucker is behind the

facing a double -barrel challenge.

First, the racetrack itself, which is
known as one of the world's toughest.

Laguna Seca is challenging because of
the turns. The hairpins and the S's are

very, very tight, and they're difficult
to navigate in traffic.

To get that car around that corner that
fast with that speed and maintain that,

it's difficult to do. And it's a quick,
easy way to spin out.

He's also got the law hot on his trail.

The feds are after him for allegedly
ripping off consumers.

And they want to shut his business down.

But Tucker can't take his mind off the
road.

Not as he heads toward a corkscrew at
100 -plus miles per hour.

Any race car driver will tell you if
you're focused on anything else, that's

when you go off the track. If you're not
in that moment in that car, that could

be death.

It's 21 years before this race when
Scott Tucker first learns what a real

tailspin feels like. A failed criminal
enterprise lands him here at Leavenworth

Federal Penitentiary in Kansas in 1991.

Only 29 at the time, he's convicted of
mail fraud after running a scam under a

made -up company called Chase Morgan
Stearns & Lloyd.

Tucker started this business where he's
essentially telling people he can get

them loans, and that the reason why he
could get them loans is because his

business is owned by J .P. Morgan and
Chase Manhattan and Lloyds of London,

that as a result, he had access to
capital.

In fact, he had no connection to those
banks, and he had no ability to get

people financing.

He just charged them advance fees.

and pocketed their money.

After serving a year in prison, the
native Kansan seeks a fresh start.

According to Tucker himself, he bounces
from one business to the next, managing

a bar and grill, and then selling cars.

But it's in the rapidly growing payday
loan industry where he smells real

opportunity.

Payday loans are short -term loans for
an amount usually between $100 and $1

,000. And we call them payday loans
because they're usually due at the

borrower's next payday, which could be
two weeks after the loan is issued.

Most banks stopped making small cash
loans to consumers by the late 1990s. So

payday lenders are filling that void.

For people with no place else to turn,
many are willing to pay the costly

interest fees.

that payday lenders charge.

They're usually geared at financially
distressed consumers.

A lot of these folks are living paycheck
to paycheck, and some of them might

also have a special emergency, like a
car breakdown or a medical bill,

else like that.

Tucker gets in on the action and rents a
storefront outside Kansas City in 1997.

There, he begins operating a payday loan
service.

In this podcast, recorded in 2017, Scott
Tucker explains how he took a leap of

faith into an emerging industry.

The business model is, are you smart
enough to be able to make the decision

on who you will or will not advance
money to, and how do you price it? And

was no answers. You had to do it and
figure it out.

At first...

Tucker follows the same playbook as many
other payday lenders.

Besides charging high interest rates, he
makes the most money from customers who

can't pay him back on time and who get
roped into taking out a second or even

third loan known as a rollover.

Some people would say, you know, $350.

for borrowing $300, that's not that
crazy of a deal, especially for a

person. The problem is the rollover
fees, which is that they kind of nudge

they encourage you to extend the loan,
then it kind of traps you into the cycle

of debt.

But then Tucker meets Charles Hallinan,
a wealthy entrepreneur from

Pennsylvania.

Hallinan, who authorities would dub the
godfather of payday loans, makes plans

to tap into markets that no one else
touches, the ones where payday lending

tightly regulated or even outlawed.

Many states have state usury laws which
limit the amount of interest you can

charge. So the game becomes how do you
evade some of these state laws?

He finds an eager protege in Tucker, and
together they launch a payday lending

company named National Money Service, or
NMS, in 1998.

Tucker agrees to run the business in a
Kansas City suburb, while Hallinan

provides the startup fund.

Hallinan invested about half a million
dollars with Tucker, a 50 -50 joint

venture, which essentially entitled
Charles Hallinan to half the proceeds of

Tucker's payday lending business.

It's at this point that they hatch their
scheme to sell loans all across the U

.S., using a bank as their front. This
scheme, called Rent -A -Bank, helps them

dodge state laws.

National banks don't have to obey the
state's interest rate limitations,

and therefore the payday lender would
say that it's the bank that's the

and therefore we can ignore your state's
regulations on payday loans.

They forge a partnership with the
obscure county bank of Delaware.

Its spokesy name and website belie the
fact...

that it has a federal charter.

In exchange for 5 % of their profits,
County Bank is willing to lend them its

name and charter.

The bank didn't actually lend any money.
The bank didn't put any money at risk.

But what they did do is they allowed
these payday lenders to say that they

extending their loans through County
Bank.

Around the same time, Tucker begins
taking his lending services online.

His new internet platform gives him
unfettered access to consumers.

Nathan White.

This was really a pure entrepreneur
move.

It was kind of like the Wild Wild West
back then on the Internet.

He was on the vanguard of it. I think he
came in at the right time in the early

2000s, figured out that you can leverage
the Internet to market these loans to a

whole new group of people. That could be
an explosively lucrative market.

As part of his operation, Tucker sets up
five different companies with names

like 500 Fast Cash, Cash Advance, and
United Cash Loans. They

serve as the public face of his lending
enterprise.

By 2003, Tucker's making millions of
loans each year and generating tens of

millions of dollars.

But when federal regulators begin taking
a closer look at County Bank of

Delaware, he decides that the banks
become too risky and too costly.

Tucker got tired of paying 5 % of the
county bank for nothing, particularly

he started to realize that he may have
another option.

Tucker is convinced that he's found the
perfect alternative, Native American

tribe.

States and Indian tribes have the same
status under federal law.

So a state cannot sue an Indian tribe. A
state cannot enforce state law against

an Indian tribe.

They have tribal sovereign immunity.

By partnering with one or more tribes,
he can use tribal law to shield himself

from regulators and keep more of the
profits for himself.

He would pay them a very small
percentage of his revenues in exchange

acting as the figureheads for his
lending business.

As Tucker begins to lure one tribe after
another into his racket, it seems he'll

exploit whomever he needs to for money.

When you have hopelessness to the level
I've seen in Indian country, and then

you have people come in with ideas, kind
of like the snake oil salesman, it

makes it worse.

Next on American Greed, Tucker pours a
fortune into the race car team of his

dreams. But will life in the public eye
be more than he can handle?

There was this interesting dichotomy of
like him wanting to hide his business,

but wanting to be famous for racing.

Those two things can't coexist.

Welcome to Miami, Miami, Oklahoma.

It's November 2003.

Payday lending entrepreneur Scott Tucker
is on the hunt for a new business

front.

So he strikes a deal with the Miami
Indian tribe, making them partners in

multi -million dollar lending
enterprise.

He does the same with the neighboring
Modoc tribe the following month.

Scott Tucker pitched them the idea that
in exchange for using their names, he

would give them 1 % of the revenues.

coming in from the payday loans. And
Scott Tucker believed that by doing so,

could create the appearance that the
tribes, and not Scott Tucker, was

this operation.

Because the tribes have sovereign
immunity to set their own regulations on

reservation lands, Tucker believes that
he can use them to evade state laws.

His lending operation, now called CLK
Management,

is already doing business illegally in
many states across the U .S. For one

thing, Tucker's selling payday loans in
places where it's outlawed.

For another, he's charging exorbitant
interest rates of 700 to 1 ,000 percent,

well above the legal limits where payday
lending is allowed.

At the outset, Tucker offers the Miami
and Modoc tribes major roles in his

organization.

But as their partnership moved forward,
it becomes clear that the tribes have no

real voice or decision -making power at
all.

They were not agreements by which the
tribes actually acquired any payday

lending business or put up any money to
acquire a payday lending business.

They didn't have to do anything, and he
didn't want them to do anything.

All of the actual work is being done at
Tucker's headquarters in Overland Park,

Kansas.

He's moved into a bigger building now,
where he employs several hundred call

center agents and debt collectors.

To maintain the rules that CLK is
tribally owned, his call center reps are

required to lie about the firm's
location.

If anybody asked where they were, they
were told, say, Miami, Oklahoma, and

were each day given a weather report of
what the weather was in Miami, Oklahoma.

So if somebody challenged them...

It's like, are you telling me the truth?
Is it really Miami, Oklahoma? They

could say, yeah, well, it's 72 degrees
and sunny right now.

Tucker wants an insurance policy in case
the Oklahoma tribes back out.

So his lawyers contact a third tribe,
the Yuroks in Northern California.

It's the spring of 2004 when Lisa Adams,
senior attorney for the Yurok tribe,

receives their call.

She's been vetting business
opportunities for the Yuroks.

who are desperate for revenue.

Their main industry, a commercial
fishery, collapsed less than two years

after a catastrophic salmon die -off.

You have the perfect storm, really, of
collapse of the food chain, then you

the lack of any meaningful development
of any kind on the reservation.

Scott Tucker came across initially, we
want to help the people.

As Adams recalls, The business that
Tucker proposes at first sounds like a

He invites her and the tribe's leaders
to his office in Kansas, where he makes

an apparent effort to wow them.

Mr. Tucker flew us out in his Learjet.
We landed at the airport, and a car

picked us up and took us to this
beautiful building.

All of a sudden, this is real. Look at
the successful...

Look at this number of people that he's
employed. So this is a big operation.

But Adams says once they get past the
razzle -dazzle, including a flashy video

presentation and a barbecue lunch,
there's a catch.

What Tucker and his team are pitching
them now isn't a bank, but a so -called

lending office on Yurok soil.

Its main function would be to receive
incoming mail.

and forward it to Tucker's headquarters
in Kansas.

Now all of a sudden, we've got a
building with a couple tribal members

envelopes. I'm like, what's up with
this?

One of Tucker's lawyers allegedly
describes the tribe's role as something

an offshore bank account.

You're using the term offshore bank
account. You're talking about a mere

presence and not an actual real
functioning business.

Smacks of money laundering.

Tucker promises the Yuroks monthly
payments of $12 ,500 if they sign the

The Yuroks fly home.

But the proposal ultimately goes
nowhere.

As hard -pressed as the Yuroks are, the
tribal council never finalizes the deal,

much to Tucker's dismay.

He was not happy.

Well, I'm offering you all this money.

Why aren't you going to just instantly
approve it?

The following year, Scott Tucker finally
lands his third tribal partner, the

Santee Sioux of Nebraska.

He's confident that the Native American
tribes will provide the cover his

business needs.

And with the tens of millions of dollars
that he's making, he can afford an

expensive new hobby, professional sports
car racing.

At that point in my life, I actually had
the time and I had the resources just

to give it a try.

Money can buy you a lot, and when it
comes to sports, sure, you can own an

team, but you're not going to be the one
throwing the ball on Sunday.

Racing is different.

It gives you the opportunity to spend
your money and be a part of the team.

Tucker launches his very own team and
calls it Level 5 Motorsports.

At age 44, he joins the ranks of so
-called Gentleman Drivers.

wealthy amateurs that bankroll teams and
trains to race competitively.

Endurance car racing is so much more
interesting to watch when you know that

any given point, one of those four
drivers during a driver change is going

someone that has been on the track for X
amount of time as opposed to a pro.

It really brings a human element to the
sport.

Like other gentlemen drivers, Tucker's
goal is to qualify to race at the most

prestigious events, from 24 hours of
Daytona to Le Mans in France.

As owner of Level 5 Motorsports, he
spares no expense assembling the best

pit crews, and professional drivers that
money can buy.

These cars aren't cheap. You know, a
Ferrari could be $240 ,000, half a

a million dollars.

I mean, a set of tires in one season
could be $2 ,500 for a set, and then you

times that by 30, and that's $75 ,000
just on tires.

You're constantly spending money for
something that you might win the race,

that's all you get. These guys want to
be the best, and Scott was one of them.

Next on American Green, Scott Tucker
flaunts his turbocharged fortune at the

expense of consumers who are struggling
to get by.

They took the entire paycheck and left
me down to zero. I think I was so

overwhelmed, I just was giving up.

By the mid -2000s, Scott Tucker leads
one of the most profitable outfits in

online consumer loan industry.

The problem is...

He's dodging regulators and ripping off
millions of consumers.

Yes, he is giving payday loans, but he
was doing something much more

Tucker's thing was just more of a
straight -up scam.

They're truly trying to trick the people
who are borrowing.

Thank you for calling 500 -5 cash.

Customer service calls recorded by
Tucker's company reveal a disturbing

Time after time, consumers fail to
understand how the loans work until it's

late. It looks like you have an amount
due of $80 since November the 7th. I

borrowed, no, this is the thing, I only
borrowed $200 and you guys have already

taken $445 out of my account.

The manner in which Scott Tucker
marketed and delivered these loans to

was deliberately designed to confuse
consumers.

You're not notifying me? You're just
taking all this money out? And when you

could have easily have paid off my loan
a long time ago?

You agreed to us debiting the service
charge fee. You did not notify us that

wanted to pay in full.

Yes, I did.

The Federal Trade Commission says the
online contract that Tucker uses

federal law in several ways.

First, the TILA box, or Truth in Lending
Act box.

which requires lenders to disclose
exactly how much the loan will cost, is

misleading, according to lead attorney
Nikhil Singhvi.

For a $300 loan, which is the most
common one, the loan was supposed to

$390. So you would have an APR, you
would have a $300 amount financed,

you'd have a $90 finance charge, and you
have $390 in total payments.

That's the takeaway that consumers would
get.

However, buried in the fine print below
is a whole different story.

It says that the loan will be
automatically renewed unless the

the company not to do so by the first
due date.

In fact, the loan will be automatically
renewed for the first four pay dates,

costing an additional $90 in finance
charges each time.

At which point you will have paid $360
in finance charges only.

And it comes as a big shock to consumers
when they find out that all that money

has gone to finance charges and none of
it's gone to repay their loans.

From there, the principal gets repaid in
$50 increments while incurring even

more finance charges until the debt is
clear.

As far as I knew, frickin' Thursday, the
damn loan was going to be paid off. So

I ain't even paid nothing towards them.
I've paid you almost $400 and ain't not

a dime gone towards the loan?

Correct, sir.

These are people that are really stuck
on hard times.

And to experience alone what they
thought was going to cost them $90, but

fact cost them hundreds and hundreds of
dollars, it's just devastating for them.

Angela Vanderhoof, a state employee
living on a tight budget, is among those

get blindsided.

She takes out a $400 loan from One Click
Cash, one of the online lenders under

Tucker's umbrella.

I'd gotten behind on bills. A car
payment needed to be made, and so I

something right now.

The contract, it appears, obligates her
to pay back a total of $520, which she

agrees to.

She says that One Click Cash withdraws
close to that amount from her bank

account over the next two months.

I thought I was getting to the point of
being able to pay that off.

But then she experiences a traumatic
event that upends her life.

I was assaulted and

severely battered for the most part. The
assault was

fairly violent and using of a stun gun.

So I had shattered fingertips and 14
stitches to kind of put me back

and I had to take a leave of absence
from work.

Faced with no income for the next month,
she calls One Click Cash and asks for

an extension on her next payment.

When I spoke to them, they were very
considerate. They were understanding. I

felt pretty confident when I got off the
phone that they were going to help me

out.

Four days later, however, one -click
cash withdraws everything that's left in

her account, and it also costs her an
overdraft fee. She contacts them

immediately. Basically, it was, but you
owe the money, so we're going to keep

trying until we get it. I even went so
far as to request a supervisor and was

refused and then hung up on.

They make eight more attempts to
withdraw money, jacking up her overdraft

By the time she goes back to work and
receives her next paycheck, they strike

again. They took the entire paycheck and
left me down to zero. I think I was so

overwhelmed, I just was giving up.

Once I was mentally in a better space to
kind of assess the damage and came to

realize just how much it had cost me, it
was like astronomical by the end

result.

Angela discovers that she's paid them $1
,300.

More than three times the amount of her
original $400 loan.

They've also cost her an additional $200
in bank overdraft fees.

They just kind of turned into piranha
and just attacked my account.

Like Angela, approximately 60 % of
Tucker's customers fall into the same

automatic loan renewals.

When I started going back to my bank
statements,

And started adding up the money. I said,
they've been paid more than enough

money by now.

Then you get frustrated. Then you get
angry.

And it's very disturbing. Out of a $250
loan, they stole approximately

$1 ,000 from me.

There's no question that caused a lot of
consumer harm and put a lot of money in

Scott Tucker's pockets.

This was...

the way they intended the business to
run, and it was an important profit

for them.

He robbed from the poor to have a rich
lifestyle.

He didn't give a damn about anybody.

Next on American Greed, a relentless
prosecutor wages a seven -year battle to

stop Scott Tucker.

If he was a legitimate businessman, why
would he have gone to such great pains

to conceal himself?

In Denver, the Colorado Attorney
General's office begins investigating

online lending companies operating
illegally in the state.

Neither lender, cash advance nor
preferred cash loans, is licensed to do

business in Colorado.

In November 2004, Assistant Attorney
General Paul Chesson writes cease and

desist letters to the companies.

His only tangible lead... is that both
have mailing addresses in Carson City,

Nevada.

Cash Advance did not respond to that
letter.

Preferred Cash did. Basically, it was a
blow -off. I needed to get some more

information as to who these lenders
were.

I needed some flesh and blood behind
these names.

Chesson subpoenas both lenders for their
corporate records, but neither

complies. So he contacts the Nevada
Attorney General's office for help.

What are these addresses, and what can
we learn?

Turns out these addresses were mail
drops.

The mail drops belonged to two different
Nevada firms, CB Service Corp. and

Executive Global Management.

Both share the same officer, James
Fontano.

I had thought that Mr. Fontano was the
man behind the curtain.

So with that information, I went.

into court and got the contempt
citation.

And these companies had to be in court
at a date certain, July of 2005.

Two days before the court date, however,
Chesson gets thrown for the loop.

He received a call from an attorney
claiming that two Native American

the Miami tribe of Oklahoma and the
Santee Sioux of Nebraska, are the actual

owners of cash advance and preferred
cash loans.

And he said, so we're going to move to
dismiss your contempt citation.

You can't touch us. You can't touch the
Indian tribes due to something called

tribal sovereign immunity.

It just didn't sound right. How would
these tribes have found out about this

proceeding? It just smells.

At the same time, both Nevada firms tied
to James Fontanone, CB Service Corp.,

and Executive Global Management deny
having anything to do with payday

Chesson demands that the tribes and the
Nevada companies produce proof to

support their claims.

But they refuse.

The tribes, not only would they not give
us any information, but they said that

we don't have to give you information
because we're immune from soup.

Chesson spends the next two years locked
in legal battle with them.

Until March 2007, when the elusive James
Fontano finally agrees to talk.

Fontano, just released from federal
prison for tax fraud, reveals the truth

about cash advance and preferred cash
loans.

Mr. Fontano basically said, hey, I am
really not the president. I don't have

day -to -day business operations.

I just do what Mr. Tucker tells me to
do. Mr. Tucker is actually the one who's

running these lenders.

It's the first that Chesson's ever heard
of Scott Tucker.

As Fontana would later testify at trial,
Tucker paid him to set up shell

companies with mail drops in Nevada.

It's a service that Fontana provides to
hundreds of clients, and it's perfectly

legal in Nevada.

He would testify that all of the mail
that went to cash advance and preferred

cash loans was then forwarded to
Tucker's office in Kansas.

Fontana is never convicted of any crime
in connection with Tucker's scam.

The structure that Tucker set up was
really elaborate. He had a front

and then he had a fake CEO for that.

And then he had these payday lending
brands on top of that.

The more companies he would set up, the
harder it would be for a consumer or for

a regulator to find him.

Armed with this new information, Chesson
subpoenas Scott Tucker, who fails to

appear in court for a summons.

So a Denver judge issues a warrant for
Tucker's arrest in May 2008.

The warrant is enforceable only in
Colorado, giving Tucker ample reason to

away. But he's brazen enough to
practically dare authorities to catch

During that time that the state was
going after him, he actually bought...

an $8 million house in Aspen, Colorado,
and would fly his private jet into

Colorado. And he was racing in Colorado,
so he clearly was not concerned.

Instead, Tucker appears more worried
about another threat, a lawsuit filed by

the so -called godfather of payday
loans, Charles Hallinan.

Hallinan, who launched a 50 -50 joint
venture with Tucker 11 years earlier,

claims that his former protege has been
cheating him out of his share of the

profits.

Charles Hallinan got wind of the fact
that the checks he was getting didn't

actually reflect half of Tucker's entire
business. That was obviously a very

problematic lawsuit for Tucker, a
lawsuit about who really owned his

with possibilities of discovery.

That's the last thing he wanted when he
was in the middle of pretending that

tribes actually owned his business.

So in 2010, Tucker settled out of court
with Hallinan for $30 million, but does

not admit any wrongdoing.

While he's ended a lawsuit, he's written
emails to Hallinan that will come back

to haunt him in court.

Emails that expose his tribal
partnerships as being a total fraud.

Even Tucker, in an unguarded, honest
moment, admitted that nothing changed

the business has remained his.

Next on American Greed, a whistleblower
makes secret recordings that conceal

Scott Tucker's fate at trial.

But we're laundering money.

It is illegal. That may be true. There
is a laundering aspect to it.

Scott Tucker is on a tear.

While the rest of the U .S. economy is
struggling in 2010, his payday lending

empire is booming.

Post -2008 was a great time to be in the
payday loan business because you had

all these people out of work and
desperate for money. That is actually

the golden era for Tucker.

During just the five years from around
2008 to 2012, his businesses pulled in

about $3 .5 billion.

He pulls another fast one on state
regulators when he sells his company,

Management, to a tribal entity named AMG
Services.

Now, he says, the Native American tribes
are the full owners of the operation,

and he's just an employee, but it's all
a big charade.

Tucker's Payday Loan Enterprise was
pulling in what we estimate about $20

million a month, and yet...

Tucker sold his business to the tribes
for $120 ,000.

It was a sham merger.

In fact, no money exchanged hands at the
time or for even years later.

Tucker's out flagging his competition on
the racetrack as well, as he and his

team, Level 5, continue beefing up their
fleet.

They clinch one trophy after the next at
races around the world.

People were aware that, you know, he was
spending a little more money than...

Your average team, that's kind of what
kind of kicked teams out of the series.

mean, you run out of money. You run out
of money quickly.

And Scott's team didn't have that
problem.

But above everything else that year,
Tucker scores his biggest coup of all in

the courtroom.

Paul Chesson and the Colorado Attorney
General's office are fighting for access

to the Miami and Santee Sioux Tribe's
business records.

The tribes argue that they're shielded
by sovereign immunity.

The battle goes all the way to the
Colorado Supreme Court in November 2010,

where the court decides in favor of the
tribes.

That basically stopped our investigation
until our case came to an ignominious

end. As the tribes would later admit to
federal authorities, they submitted

false information to the courts.

They won.

By lying to the court about who they
were.

They said it's us, we're the ones making
the payday loans, we're in charge of

it. You know, it was working. The whole
thing was working.

Nevertheless, Tucker's victory proves
fleeting.

Because the feds are getting ready to
drop a hammer on him.

What Colorado did, it laid the
groundwork for the federal agencies to

ball and run with it.

In April 2012, the Federal Trade
Commission launches a civil suit against

and his enterprise and requests a court
-ordered freeze on his lending services.

Our main concern here was that the loans
were deceptive. The loan document was

deceptive. It was harming consumers in
astronomical numbers.

Undaunted, Tucker vows to fight the FTC.

But other people tangled up in his web
are alarmed.

One of them is a paralegal that works
for the Miami tribe.

She believes that Tucker's using the
tribe to launder money and putting them

legal jeopardy.

Her name is Carolyn Williams, and she
begins secretly recording her

conversations with her boss, Don Brady,
who runs the tribe's business arm.

He's also been implicated in the FTC
suit.

We open those accounts in our name and
then we hold his money to keep him from

paying taxes on it. But that money is
owed to him. It's his money.

But we're laundering money.

Well, that may be true. That may be
true. There is a laundering aspect to

Okay. But the business model is what it
is. What these recordings did was they

showed that it wasn't just Tucker who
knew that this tribal relationship was

sham.

Everybody knew.

100 % ownership, wholly owned.

None of that's true. Every declaration
that you signed, that the chief signed,

none of it's true.

Well, I'm telling you, how do you sleep
at night knowing this stuff?

I sleep just fine, honey.

Williams' protests go unheeded. But her
recordings will be introduced at trial.

Because by 2014...

Federal investigators are mounting a
criminal case and tribal sovereignty

protect anyone this time.

There was kind of nowhere to hide at
that point.

When American Green returns, Scott
Tucker is losing control and bracing for

impact. When the government has the eye
on you and they snare you, you're not

getting out.

After amassing a payday lending empire
worth billions, by February 2016,

Scott Tucker is facing the end of his
reign.

Federal agents arrest him at his home
outside Kansas City and charge him with

counts of racketeering, fraud, and money
laundering.

The U .S. Attorney's Office in the
Southern District of New York is

the case.

to prosecute mafia loan sharks.

There is a part of the racketeering laws
which prohibits anyone from operating a

business that extends loans at more than
twice the rates allowed under state

law. The fact that there was a federal
statute gave us an opportunity to

investigate what he was doing.

He's also able to subpoena the Native
American tribes tied to Tucker because

federal law takes precedence over tribal
sovereign immunity.

Tucker, who's been hiding behind one
business front after another for more

15 years, is completely exposed now.

If you look at his career in the 90s
through 2012, it's obviously at the

level just the willingness to lie to get
people's money.

Besides being under criminal indictment,
he's fighting a civil lawsuit filed by

the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC's goal is to recover the money
that Tucker allegedly swindled from

consumers.

The government claims that from 2008 to
2012, he built more than $1 billion out

of 4 .5 million customers.

We had every transaction, and we were
able to calculate with absolute

how many consumers paid more than they
were told they were going to pay and

exactly how much they paid.

And that was the $1 .3 billion number.

In September 2016,

Tucker suffers a massive defeat.

A federal judge ordering race car driver
Scott Tucker and several consumer

lending companies he manages to pay
nearly $1 .3 billion to the FTC.

The $1 .3 billion was the highest
litigated recovery in FTC history.

One year later, his criminal case goes
to trial, and a federal jury finds him

guilty on all 14 counts of racketeering,
fraud, and money laundering.

I would have never, ever imagined
anything like this.

Tucker seems unrepentant to the very
end. He records this interview for a

podcast series called Prison Professors
in December 2017 while he's under house

arrest and awaiting sentencing.

If you're super successful and there's a
lot of money involved, there's a good

chance you're going to turn off some of
the jurors. No doubt about it.

I'm not a psychologist, but my guess is
that many criminals and sociopaths

rationalize their behavior.

Tucker's no different.

He's sentenced to 16 years and eight
months in federal prison.

Tucker declined repeated requests to be
interviewed by American Greed. He is

currently appealing his case.

The Miami tribe, the Murdoch tribe, and
the Santee Sioux are not charged and

enter non -prosecution agreements with
the government.

They admit their part in Tucker's scheme
and forfeit the money he stashed in

their accounts.

They also declined to be interviewed by
American Greed.

Tucker's mentor, Charles Hallinan, is
serving 14 years in federal prison for a

separate payday lending scheme.

In September 2018, the FTC begins
sending refund checks to more than one

consumers harmed by Tucker's predatory
loans.

The government's recovered and repaid a
total of $505 million so far.

What this guy was doing was he was going
after people who had to...

turned to the internet to borrow $300 to
get through the week.

And he was stealing their money.

It must be nice, you know, to be able to
live that lavish life and be able to go

through those things when realistically
I was struggling from day to day.

And what they took from me was just
supplying him even more to do these

things that anyone else would ever dream
of doing.

Right is right and wrong is wrong. And
how dare he?

But I will say this.

What goes around comes around.

And karma is what it is.