All language subtitles for American Greed s15e18 The Busted Mongul.eng

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In this episode of American Greed, he
was born at the top of the world and the

bottom of the ladder.

Lobsang Darjeet, a poor Buddhist monk
from Tibet.

He comes to America with dreams of
climbing that ladder and trading his

riches.

He was a force of nature. Well, he's a
fascinating person.

He marries a woman who can open doors
from a family of American sports

He's engaging.

He's unstoppable.

We have a very successful project, and
I've done a really good job. I want to

thank you. This dude's doing stuff.

This dude's living the American dream
and selling it to wealthy Chinese

investors.

A record number of Chinese are looking
to get into the United States and they

are willing to pay big money to make it
happen. He did something that crazy.

This was a fraud that was snowballing
and just getting bigger and bigger and

of control.

$120 million are on the table and the
dreams of 250 immigrant investors are

about to go up in smoke.

They would be asked to leave the country
immediately.

they would be deported. And when the
feds come calling, his own dream becomes

nightmare. Hold camera.

The former monk isn't talking, but
American Greed has the inside story from

those who thought they knew him best.

He's a driven person where nothing gets
in his way. If you're asking me, did he

need to be stopped?

Absolutely.

Dawn breaks on the upscale Seattle
suburb of Bellevue.

Tucked into the hillside is a multi
-million dollar mansion with a swimming

in the backyard and a Bentley in the
garage.

It's the home of a prominent Seattle
real estate developer named Lobsung

and his wife Tammy Agassi, the sister of
tennis great Andre Agassi.

Lobsung and Tammy would appear to have
it all.

But a knock at the door is about to
change all of that.

So, lost and sleeping, I'm up early with
the twins, and the FBI knocks on our

door.

Mr. Dargie came out in his underwear.

We told him to put some clothes on, and
then we sat down and tried to talk to

Mr. Dargie.

The feds have a lot of questions for
Lapsang, like how he financed his

and his Bentley.

What is he doing with his investors'
money, and why is he lying about it?

Money was continuing to come in and
being misappropriated. There's no way to

defend falsifying a bank statement.

And it was clear to us that there were
going to be huge losses for investors.

On the same day...

Federal agents raid Darkey's offices,
leaving his longtime colleagues stunned.

There's men and women and FBI
windbreakers everywhere, pulling

desks, shoving stuff in boxes.

It was very scary.

There was probably 15 FBI agents looking
at you, wondering what you did wrong.

Tammy Agassi is suddenly looking at her
husband and wondering the same thing.

Our world blew up because I needed to
know if I was married to a criminal.

Tammy will soon discover that her
husband is more than just a common

His life is a corruption of the American
dream.

It was, in all respects, an American
success story if he didn't take a wrong

turn.

Born in 1973,

Lapsang Darji comes from stark
beginnings.

The youngest of three sons toiling on a
small Tibetan farm without electricity

or running water.

It's a far cry from a mansion in
Bellevue.

From what I understand, Lapsang had a
very, very hard upbringing.

I know that they were very poor, that he
didn't even get his first toothbrush

until he made it to India at 19 or 20.

Grew up in a small hut. They would burn
yak dung for fuel.

That humble.

At 13, Lapsang is shipped off to a
Buddhist monastery to become a monk.

It's not the boy's choice.

It's economic necessity.

Conditions there are harsh.

Lapsang is lonely and eventually in
great danger.

Over the past two years, the Chinese
army has clashed with local people four

times. Tibetan monks led demonstrators
in demanding independence from Chinese

rule. The uprising in Tibet sends
Lapsang running for his life.

He trekked 2 ,800 miles across the
Himalaya Mountains to find refuge at the

Dalai Lama's Kirti Monastery in
Dharamsala, India.

For a devout Buddhist monk,

Kyrgyz is a holy place.

But Lobsang finds another calling here.

Business.

He has a gift for haggling at the local
market that earns him the formal role of

business monk.

You don't really think of ambition when
you think of Tibetan monks. And he was

the business side of the monastery.

And so maybe that started a little seed
of being an entrepreneur.

being in charge of the money of the
monastery.

As business monk, Lapsang befriends
Western travelers visiting the

While the tourists see a charming young
holy man, he may see a ticket to pursue

his true calling in America.

One of the Western travelers that he
met, he would cold call her all hours of

the day.

And finally, just because he badgered
her to death, she finally said okay and

sent a letter of invitation.

Dargie's ticket is punched and his bags
are packed. The enterprising young

business monk is on his way to America.

In this strange new land of milk and
honey, Dargie is broke, but wide -eyed

ambition. He sees freedom, wealth, and
opportunity all around him, and he wants

some. He gets here to America, and it's
like, hey, man, this is like a circus.

Everything's gravy after what I've been
through.

Joe's lab, Dargie's friend and former
vice president, has a front -row seat to

his transformation.

Rules? Sure, I'll obey the rules, but I
don't necessarily know all the rules,

and I'm just going to go whole hog. I'm
going to do everything I can.

I'm going to be unstoppable.

In Seattle, Lobsang finds many of the
locals sympathetic to the plight of an

exiled Tibetan monk.

With their help, he picks up odd jobs.

He's known around town as the painting
monk.

I actually know a realtor who knew him
as the painting monk and how he would

carry his ladder and paint on the bus,
which was against all the rules.

And before long, he puts down the
paintbrush and picks up a phone, selling

commercial phone service.

He would cold call all day until his
whole face would be red, his ear would

red. But they said he always closed the
deal at the end of the day.

A closer earning enough to buy a small
house.

And with roots now planted in America,
Dargie sheds the robes that never really

fit.

Poverty and chastity?

Why not give money and women a try?

And a chance encounter with Tammy Agassi
in 2003 offers up just the kind of

woman he's looking for.

I was executive director for a non
-profit in Seattle. As part of my job, I

a lot of relationships with a lot of
people who were very philanthropic.

Tammy rubs elbows with wealth and power,
and her brother is a superstar.

You've often said, Andre, that your
sister Tammy is your best friend.

Do you think he knew that your brother
was a sports superstar?

For sure he knew my brother was a sports
superstar.

And at the beginning, I thought it was
really refreshing because he pretended

that he didn't know.

At the time, her brother, Andre, is the
number one ranked tennis player in the

world.

Opportunity is knocking, and the
fearless young salesman is dialing.

He proceeded to cold call me for over a
year to go on a date.

This was the call. Hello, Tammy, this is
Austin. You want to go to dinner

sometime? He was very aggressive. He had
no understanding of protocol.

You shot him down. He acted like he
didn't really register it and would tell

to call him if you wanted to go to the
movie sometime.

After a year of saying no, Tammy finally
says okay already.

And much to her surprise, resistance
gives way to love.

Well, he's a fascinating person.

He's highly intelligent. He's very
charismatic.

He knows how to live in the present. He
doesn't adhere to any social protocol,

which makes him hilarious.

Lobsang closes perhaps the biggest deal
of his life when the couple marry in

December 2004.

Now headed for U .S. citizenship in a
well -connected family, Lobsang is set

to carve out his own slice of the
American pie.

Looking back, Tammy now wonders how much
of the groom's affection was heartfelt

and how much was hustle.

I think Lobson is an opportunist.

It doesn't mean that he didn't care
about me, but I think his eyes lit up

the circle that was around me.

Up next.

Finally, I want to thank my wife. I know
she's sitting there.

Charity begins at home. For this
hustler, so does greed.

At the time, I didn't think anything of
it. We were building a life together.

Looking back, that's flat out insane.

And later, where does a young American
entrepreneur go to raise capital?

Communist China, of course.

Cash -heavy Chinese increasingly want U
.S. citizenship.

He was offering a green card guarantee,
and he sold them on the American dream.

In Bellevue, Washington, Lapsang Darjeet
chases a new dream, real estate

development, with his new wife Tammy as
his angel investor.

The second we got married, he had quit
his job, lived off my salary for a year

and a half, and started pulling money
out of my asset to buy real estate.

He convinces Tammy to mortgage her
house, taking out a loan of $300 ,000

her equity.

At the time, I didn't think anything of
it. We were building a life together.

Tammy is not the only one in the Agassi
family charmed by Lapsang. Her father,

Mike, immigrated to America from Iran
and sees in Lapsang a younger version of

himself.

He invests $300 ,000 with his son -in
-law.

The young developer gets to work buying
and renovating old buildings in the

working -class town of Everett,
Washington.

And they are happy to have him.

The city was happy because Lobsang had
potential. You bring in a young,

ambitious, aggressive developer, they're
going to be happy. It's good for the

city. In 2008, he graduates to new
construction with a large residential

retail complex.

He calls it Potala Village, named after
Potala Palace in Tibet.

once home to the Dalai Lamas.

Lapsang funds the project by raising $22
million through Tammy's personal

connections and a bank loan.

He got a loan, you know, in 2008 when no
one was getting loans or it was very

difficult to get loans, especially, you
know, for millions of dollars to build a

building. Most developers were kind of
curling up into the fetal position at

that point. And he's like, no, we're
going to do this thing. And so...

We did.

He built it out when most people were
not building.

He kind of got a name for himself at
that point of like, this dude's doing

stuff.

And though he is no longer a monk,

Buddhism is still a part of his life and
part of his brand.

Potala Village is adorned with symbols
that play well here in the progressive

Seattle area.

where Darjeel's heritage gives him
cachet.

He was very spiritual.

He would bring in monks.

When he'd buy a new construction site
before the groundbreaking, that would be

part of the ceremony where they'd come
out and bless the ground.

It was really important to him to have
that kind of energy in his projects.

Probably some of it was just natural to
him to do. Some of it was probably also

a little bit of marketing.

This is what I would say about
Lafayette's Buddhism and how it benefits

When it provides an opportunity for him,
he makes the right choice.

When it doesn't provide an opportunity
for him, he can weaponize that Buddhism.

I need to follow my karma and let go and
move on. He can switch back and forth

from that dimension all day long.

But Lobsang's dedication to the
discipline of non -attachment is about

to the test.

Good luck!

Kirkland, Washington is only 20 miles
south of Everett, but in the real estate

game, it's a world away.

For his next venture, Dargie eyes this
quiet, upscale town and a plot of prime

real estate, a stone's throw from Lake
Washington.

He commits to buying the property for $8
.6 million and pitches another high

-density residential project.

fully outlined in his blueprints and
striking promotional materials.

But this time, he hits a wall and learns
a new American concept.

NIMBY. Not in my backyard.

Developing in Kirkland is nowhere like
developing in Everett. He was cramming a

lot of units into the property, just
like he would do in Everett, and that

not go over well with the community.

They basically said no.

Dargie's business monk routine rings
hollow with the Tony residents of

They are turned off by the size of the
project and the aggressive style of the

builder.

He would stand up at meetings, they
would voice concerns, and he would bark

them and say, you don't need to worry
about that, versus addressing their

concerns. If he would have courted them
the same way he courts an investor,

he probably could have resolved a lot of
these concerns. But instead, he was a

bull in a china shop.

Darjeet lops horns with the local
citizen group, and his building permits

blocked. The conflict escalates, and
Lapsang digs in, deploying both lawyers

monks to the battleground.

Lawsuits, complaints, him flying in
bunks to unearthed... demons in the

so he could get his permit.

It was a constant source of needing to
come up with money.

So it was time and energy and expense
that I think he would have probably not

gone into had he known what he was
getting himself into.

However, once he was into it, there's no
backing out.

Dargie's dreams are sinking in Kirkland
and he needs to come up with money to

keep his enterprise afloat.

In a strange twist of fate, he's about
to get a lifeline from the country that

once oppressed him.

A record number of Chinese are looking
to get into the United States, and they

are willing to pay big money to make it
happen. They're doing it through an

investor immigrant visa program that's
called the EB -5 program.

Dargie hears about an obscure government
program called EB -5.

EB -5 is the technical name for the
program, which was designed to trade job

growth for U .S. citizenship.

Under EB -5, foreign nationals from
countries all over the world can earn

permanent residency or green card status
for themselves and their families.

To qualify, they must invest at least
$500 ,000 in a job -creating American

venture. But the key is that that money
actually be spent, all of it, on the job

-creating enterprise.

And so the fundamental requirement is
that all $500 ,000 goes to create jobs.

Darjeel's mind lights up. He knows that
China is full of wealthy entrepreneurs

who covet American residency.

The global business of passport
portfolios, this is where the wealthy

portfolio of passports, is booming. But
should we sell passports? We absolutely

should. Investment is good. Creating
jobs is good.

America has set the table for Lobsang
Darjeel.

He gets here to America and it's like,
hey man, everything's gravy after what

I've been through.

And he's about to turn his old nemesis
into the ultimate gravy train.

Next on American Greed.

Dargie puts a huckster spin on EB -5,
calling it a green card guarantee.

What could possibly go wrong?

From the very first check that he got
from an investor, he was essentially

stealing from the project.

In August 2011, Lobsang Dargi is
approved for a federal program called

EB -5.

It's a lifeline connecting him to
millions of dollars from foreign

eager to become American residents.

These investors were not primarily drawn
to invest to make money. The main

motivation of immigrant investors in
this is the green card. They want to be

able to move to the United States.

Darjeet lures EB -5 investors with
glossy promotional materials for a huge

project in Everett, Washington.

He calls it the farmer's market, an
inviting mixed -use building of

retail space, and a hotel.

The estimated cost to build is $50
million, and Darjeet plans to raise most

that from Chinese investors.

He built the argument that he needs to
go to China for a month.

I would ask him,

Who do you know in China? This guy had
three contacts in China. He dropped

himself in China and built an empire.

Darjeet gets the ball rolling in China
by paying fees to Chinese migration

agents who connect him to a city stream
of prospects, people with dreams of

immigration just like his.

He speaks Mandarin.

So he can communicate directly with
investors.

And he got them very interested because
he had a great story to tell.

Federal prosecutors see things a little
differently.

We felt that Mr.

Darjeet used his immigration status as a
tool to help him enable his fraud. And

knowing that their dreams were similar
to his dreams, he took advantage of that

to make money for himself.

Darjeet's sales pitch is great.

But it's riddled with false claims.

He was offering a green card guarantee.

What he was promising people in all
different ways in his written materials

that if they invested with him, he would
get them permanent residency in this

country. And there's just no way that
Mr. Darjeet could have guaranteed a

card because that is given by the U .S.
government.

But the lure of Darjeet's life story and
his so -called green card guarantee is

powerful.

In March 2012, Dargi bags his first
Chinese investor and promptly begins

fast and loose with their money.

Days after receiving that very first
check from an investor, he was spending

money not on the projects he was
supposed to be spending them on, but on

personal projects that were running out
of money and that he was trying to

salvage. Dargie illegally diverged $306
,000 of that first $500 ,000

investment to other uses, especially the
loan surrounding his Kirkland property

and his mounting legal bills, which now
exceed a quarter million dollars.

We found pretty early on that Mr.
Dargie's Kirkland project had created

significant issues for him. We also saw
him spending a lot of money on personal

items, and so we had concerns because...
there was a very significant risk that

he was personally profiting from this
fraud as well.

Lapsang Darji has flipped the script on
his life story.

The country that once oppressed him is
now bankrolling his American dream.

Over the next six months, he raises $41
million from 82 Chinese investors.

and an additional $3 .7 million in
development fees.

And while most of the Chinese capital is
actually going to build the farmer's

market, in the EB -5 game, it's got to
be all or it's nothing.

So the main requirement is that all of
the money had to stay in the project. So

any time that the promoter, like Mr.
Dargie in this case, would divert that

money to either his own project...

or his own personal spending, that would
mean that the capital contribution was

misused and would have serious negative
consequences on the immigrant investor's

ability to get a green card.

As investments pour in, Dargie's misuse
of the money multiplies.

He even uses EB -5 funds to purchase a
$2 .5 million mansion in Bellevue for

himself and his family.

You helping Daddy cut the grass?

At the time, his wife Tammy has no
reason to doubt that Lapsang is anything

other than an all -American husband,
father, and provider.

Say thank you, Daddy.

I didn't care how much he was raising.

Buildings were being made. He was doing
his thing.

When you ask if my lifestyle improved,
my lifestyle improved for the fact that

didn't have to worry about certain camps
I wanted to put my kids in.

But was I walking around in designer
clothes? No, he was.

Not me. I was mom.

But Dargie is now providing for his own
family by putting his investors and

their loved ones at risk.

82 investor families could have their
pending green cards canceled if Dargie's

fraud is discovered.

These investors put their trust in Mr.
Dargie.

to live the American dream. They had
often sold all of their assets in China,

had moved to the U .S., had put their
children in school, had purchased a

here, and were really relying upon him
to do what he had promised that he was

going to do.

And so he clearly made the deliberate
decision not to follow through with that

promise, but instead to put the money in
places that benefited him.

To say that the stakes are high is an
understatement, and they are about to

triple in scope.

Next on American Greed, Lapsang Dargi's
business and his fraud grow to new

heights.

Honey, I think I have to buy a Bentley
for clients. The next day there's a

Bentley in my driveway.

Lapsang Darji is having no trouble
recruiting investors for his first EB -5

funded real estate project called the
Farmer's Market.

So he decides, why not launch a second?

Lapsang brought up the skyscraper
subject.

We were well into building the Farmer's
Market.

Then the thought of like, hey, let's do
a tower.

Darji's promotional materials for
investors showcase his plans.

to build a 41 -story skyscraper in
downtown Seattle.

It's also named after Potala Palace.

He calls it Potala Tower.

It's an undertaking that is both hugely
ambitious and risky.

It's just a much more complicated, high
-pressure situation.

And I wore a long song that's like, hey,
we're going from minor leagues to major

leagues here. This is, you know,
completely a step up, and we're not

it yet.

The tower is budgeted at $190 million.

Darjeel plans to fund the project mainly
through Chinese investors while

promising to invest $30 million of his
own capital.

To attract investors, Darjeel repeats
his farmer's market EB -5 playbook with

another round of trips to China. And
he's traveling in rarefied air.

EB -5 investors were not middle -class
Chinese.

These are the upper class of China.

These people are entrepreneurs.

They're business owners.

They're millionaires. They expect nice
things.

They don't go out to a crummy
restaurant.

They don't expect to get picked up in a
smelly pickup truck from a construction

site. If Dargie is going to play with
this crowd, he'll have to pay.

He illegally pulls funds out of the EB
-5 accounts to spend lavishly on his

investors to be.

He courts them with junkets to Las Vegas
casinos.

elaborate dinner, and the purchase of a
Bentley for airport pickup and tour.

And he said, honey, I think I have to
buy a Bentley for client. I can't send

driver in the Range Rover.

Really? You're thinking about that?

Yeah. The next day, there's a Bentley in
my driveway.

This former monk, who once didn't even
own a toothbrush, is now closing deals

his chauffeured $200 ,000 car.

That was not a legitimate excuse to be
spending the money in that way. And so

when he chose to take money that was
supposed to go to create jobs and build

these projects and spend these on his
own promotional business expenses to try

and get new investors, he was
essentially stealing from the project.

Darjeet raises $86 million from 171
Chinese investors.

But his promised contribution of $30
million goes unfulfilled.

In August 2014, Gargi holds a ceremonial
groundbreaking for the Potala Tower.

When crews broke ground on this Belltown
construction site, there was so much

pomp and circumstance, even the mayor
and actor Tom Skerritt were there.

Far removed from the smoke of Yat Dung
fires, Lapsang Gargi, builder of a

skyscraper, is rubbing elbows with
players at the highest levels of

power.

But despite all his success in America,
he is still restless, haunted by

nightmares from his tormented past in
Tibet.

You're seeing somebody lose it in the
middle of the night, and I had no idea

what Lobson was going through or what he
was struggling with. It wasn't until

many years later that he actually
acknowledged he's struggling with PTSD.

Dargie's nightmares are well -founded.

By now, he's diverted nearly $17 million
from the EB -5 accounts to other

projects, along with millions more for
perks like his mansion, his limousine,

and entertaining investors.

On the shores of Lake Washington, he's
lost the Kirkland lawsuit.

The chanting monks and crippling legal
fees were all for naught.

And while he's come so far and flown so
high, he's about to crash.

Up next on American Greed.

The FBI knocks on our door. And our
world blew up. Because I need to know if

was married to a criminal.

Want more greed?

Follow us on Instagram.

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American Greed podcast wherever you get

your podcasts.

We'll be right back.

In the spring of 2015, developer Lapsang
Darji is in the midst of two massive

projects under the federal government's
EB -5 program.

Chinese nationals have invested more
than $120 million in the projects in

to gain U .S. residency.

This man was working all angles for
anyone who can benefit him.

We have a very successful project, and
I've done a really good job. I want to

thank you.

But the high -flying developer is
beginning to pique some suspicion in

Acting on a confidential tip, federal
authorities get a search warrant for

Dargie's bank record. They quickly find
proof that he's raiding the EB -5

accounts for unauthorized illegal
spending.

So as we started to look through the
bank records, we noticed that there were

large number of cash withdrawals at
casinos.

which was a red flag because that's not
what you typically expect to see in a

business account.

And then we also saw that money was
being diverted for the personal purchase

Mr. Dargie's house.

To fill shortfalls in his EB -5
accounts, Dargie falsifies a bank

qualify for a $25 million loan.

He needed to show that he had a certain
amount of liquidity.

And to do that, he doctored an HSBC bank
statement to the tune of over $9

million, when in reality the account had
about $440 ,000 in it. And there's

really just, there's no way to defend
falsifying a bank statement.

By now, Dargie's finances are in free
fall, and all distress is finally

up with him.

I've felt mental decline big time.

He was so chaotic.

There was a time when I only spoke to
him first thing in the morning.

The rest of the day was me hanging up on
him.

Call me back when you're coherent.

Click.

In the dawn's early light of August 25,
2015,

Lobsang Darje's American dream
officially becomes a waking nightmare.

when federal investigators arrive at
your doorstep.

So, lost and sleeping, I'm up early with
the twins, and the FBI knocks on our

door.

Mr. Dargie came out in his underwear.

We told him to put some clothes on, and
then we sat down and tried to talk to

Mr. Dargie.

And I watched him defend himself for
maybe 45 minutes, an hour, because I

to know if I was married to a criminal.

He said he was allowed to take all this
money as developer fees.

The loans between the entities with the
EB -5 money was allowed. Everything was

disclosed.

He literally said to her, I'm happy to
work with you. Come back on Friday after

my investors leave and I will show you
everything.

And she said, that's not going to
happen. You need a criminal attorney.

So what happened after that?

Our world blew up.

That same day, investigators have a
court order to freeze Dargie's assets.

And the FBI executes search warrants at
his two offices.

Men and women and FBI windbreakers
everywhere, pulling computers off desks,

shoving stuff in boxes. It was very
scary.

There was probably 15 FBI agents looking
at you, wondering what you did wrong.

So I just kind of like stand in a corner
with some of the other consultants that

were sharing that space. And I'm like,
what's going on here?

Dargie's employees are rattled by the
FBI searcher. But investigators conclude

that he alone orchestrated the fraud.

Mr. Dargie was the only person who knew
the entire story.

He kept most employees in their specific
areas and they didn't know the whole

picture. At issue is the man who owns
this Bellevue house.

The SEC has filed a complaint and is
seeking a restraining order, alleging

Darjeet built 250 Chinese investors out
of millions of dollars.

With his assets frozen, all of Darjeet's
company activities abruptly cease.

Dozens of construction and development
personnel drop everything.

Today, we found just three workers on
site after legal papers have put the 41

-story Fatala Tower in limbo.

Boom, they just shut it down. All the
equipment on site was just frozen. There

were leases on that equipment.

I was in charge of paying every single
bill for all the buildings. I couldn't

pay anybody. I couldn't pay payroll. I
couldn't pay payroll taxes. I couldn't

anything.

And even worse for the investors, the EB
-5 status of both the farmer's market

and tower projects are revoked.

For 253 investor families, the dream of
permanent American residency is suddenly

in extreme peril.

There was a significant fear from each
of the investors.

They would be asked to leave the country
immediately.

They would be deported.

Investigators totaled up the loss to
investors at a whopping $24 million.

Four months later, Dargie is under
extreme duress.

He suffers a violent nervous breakdown
and attempts to ingest a pile of pills.

He was sitting on the couch, starting to
rock, felt his whole body itching.

Hold me, hold me, hold me. He's rocking,
he's rocking.

Eyes glossed over like a zombie.

The next thing I knew, he walked back to
the bedroom and just started downing

pills.

I called 911 and he got put in a cop car
and he was...

Hallucinating. He thought he was on his
way back to China, that he was going to

prison in China.

He got into the psych ward. He saw
things shooting at him.

He was gone. He was mentally gone.

No camera.

Next on American Greed, the price of
Dargie's fraud becomes personal.

If I didn't have family to help me and
support me, we could have been homeless.

After a severe mental breakdown and
weeks in psychiatric care, Seattle

Lapsang Darjeet returns to relative
health. But he still has to face the

magnitude of his business crimes.

I didn't meet Lapsang before the SEC
came knocking at his door with the FBI.

I'm sure that prior to that day, he was
a force of nature. The Lapsang that I

met was more reserved and, in many
respects, defeated.

Bradley Scher led an effort to take over
development of Darjeel's EB -5 projects

and save them from total collapse.

To help cover the $24 million loss he's
foisted on his investors, Darjeel

surrenders his majority equity stake in
both the farmer's market and the tower

projects.

He said his mission now is not to make
any money out of the project, but to

sure that the EB -5 investors were
repaid and that they get their green

Lopsang Darjeet, refusing to talk as he
left federal court.

He had just agreed with the U .S.
attorney to plead guilty.

Although he still claims ignorance of
his wrongdoing, Darjeet pleads guilty to

charges of wire fraud and lying to the U
.S. government.

While prosecutors seek a prison sentence
of 10 years, Darjeet's family floods

the judge with more than 70 letters of
support from his friends, contractors,

and Tibetans all seeking mercy.

Lapsang's former vice president of
construction, Joe Slab, submits one of

letters.

I thought that there was kind of an
injustice being done to him. I

that if he had been warned, you know,
with a strongly worded letter from the

SEC, hey, cut out what you're doing, he
would have cleaned up his act. People

had accused him of running a Ponzi
scheme, and they're like, no, he wasn't

running a Ponzi scheme. He was building
buildings.

Prosecutors counter Dargie's letters of
support with letters of their own from

jilted Chinese investors who feel
betrayed by Dargie's fraud.

Many of these were people who had sold
their homes, taken their kids out of

school in preparation to move to the
United States.

Many of them did move to the United
States. And then they received notices

the government saying, your money was
spent improperly, and so we're planning

cancel your application.

On August 4th, 2017, Judge Robert Lasnik
takes pity on Dargie.

Instead of 10 years, he gets four.

So he goes off to prison.

And I'm left with two -year -old twins
and a 10 -year -old living off the

generosity of my brother.

Tammy's brother, former tennis champion
Andre Agassi, keeps the family afloat.

And while in prison, Napsung convinces
Tammy that divorce is necessary to

her and their children from his $24
million restitution.

And he said, we have to get divorced to
protect you financially.

We will go through this together, but I
don't want you to worry. I know how to

make money. I will pay back your family.

While Lovesong does time, his former EB
projects are completed by new

developers, and their EB -5 status
restored.

As for the Chinese investors, the vast
majority are being made whole with their

investments recouped and green cards
awarded.

The story would appear to be on course
for a happy ending when Lapsang earns an

early release from custody in 2020.

But soon after he's in street clothes,
another shocker.

Come to find out, the moment our divorce
was final, this guy secretly gets

married. Turns out that divorce wasn't
just to protect Tammy. It also freed him

up to secretly marry a wealthy Chinese
woman.

It was diabolical.

Had I known what this guy was capable of
or what he was doing, I wouldn't have

been visiting him.

I wouldn't have paid his legal fees.

I wouldn't have done any of that.

Lapsang Darji came from nothing and rose
to extraordinary heights of success.

It was tragic that someone who had come
from difficult origins

and understood the importance of coming
to this country and getting citizenship

and what that can mean, that he sort of
turned that on its head and exploited

that. And when one of his projects hit a
snag, he just decided to defraud all of

these immigrant investors who had placed
not just their money in his hands, but

in fact their whole future.

No one invested more in Lapsang Darjeet
and his wife Tammy.

She gave him 16 years of her life and
lost her assets defending him in court.

And now she believes that he has taken
all he can from her and he is moving on

in more ways than one.

So Loftus told me he doesn't like this
country. He never should have left

He belongs back in Tibet.

He has told other people I know he wants
to go back to China and do big business

in China.

And I believe firmly that's what he's
planning.

He's actually far more comfortable
moving forward and looking forward.

I need to follow my karma and let go and
move on.

Which means good luck to me and the kid.

For now, Lapsung and his new wife remain
in the Seattle area.

Tammy won't be surprised if the restless
Seattle monk detaches from America and

vanishes into the same mountain mist
from which he came.

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