In the late 1970s, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter leaves his small Bavarian village in pursuit of the American dream. He enrolls in high school in Connecticut and tries to impress his classmates with fake accents, fancy suits, and grandiose stories. Over the years, he spins even bigger lies and creates fake names and new identities all over the country, winni ... Show More
Sep 21
Carl Rinsch: Lights, Camera, Fraud | 232
Carl Rinsch had everything Hollywood loves in an up-and-coming director: talent, charisma, and the ability to make people believe. His obsessive perfectionism was written off as the mark of a visionary. But when Netflix handed him millions for a TV series and the pandemic kept ev ... Show More
56m 40s
Sep 14
Milli Vanilli: Girl You Know It’s (Not) True | 231
When news broke that Milli Vanilli were lip-syncing frauds, it was a defining moment in pop-culture. Forty years later, their name is still synonymous with fakery. But Rob and Fab weren’t the masterminds. Behind them was a Svengali producer named Frank Farian, who’d built his ent ... Show More
55m 49s
Sep 2025
He's Another FAKE Billionaire - The Christian Gerhartsreiter Story
Christian Gerhartsreiter’s story is one of the most bizarre cases of deception in modern history. Born in Germany, he came to the United States in the late 1970s and reinvented himself multiple times, adopting false identities, most famously posing as a Rockefeller, a supposed he ... Show More
8m 46s
Apr 2024
The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money
Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting spectacular returns. Sam himself had spent years proclaiming the fund's brilliant results. But in reality, Sam had been marking his own homework, publishing fraudulent accounts and using thes ... Show More
1 h
Nov 2024
Lou Pearlman: The Con Man of Pop | I Want It That Way | 1
Lou Pearlman rises from humble beginnings in Queens, New York to launch a successful blimp and charter plane company called Trans Continental. In the ‘90s, he cements his reputation as a risk-taking entrepreneur when he creates a pop music “boy band,” the Backstreet Boys. But Pea ... Show More
40m 50s