The OC Savior: Ep. 8, The Good That I Did
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Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, the host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America.

Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life, because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives.

Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey y'all, Dr. Joy here. I invite you to join me every Wednesday on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly chat about mental health and personal development, where my expert guests and I discuss the unique challenges and triumphs faced by Black women through the lens of self-care, pop culture, and building the best version of you. So if you're looking for more ways to incorporate wellness into your life, listen to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, and welcome to Haunting, Purgatory's premiere podcast. I'm your host, Teresa. We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week, straight from the person who experienced it firsthand. Some will be unsettling, some unnerving, some even downright terrifying. But all of them will be totally true. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Lizzie is one of the best sociopathic crooks I've ever dealt with. In fact, I would venture to say that her husband, Jesse Mulder, and the kids were more of a prop.

Every time she would defraud people, they were part of that package. Lizzie Mulder is accused of scamming nearly a dozen people in and around Orange County, including a cowboy named Joe Love. He was an ex-boyfriend prior to Jesse Mulder. I think Lizzie used that relationship to con Joe Love. Oh, so Joe Love is a victim. He's a victim.

But according to Lizzie, she's actually the victim. Detective Jordan Merakian can prove Lizzie's lying. And he has a ton of evidence showing she's a bona fide con artist. But the Orange County DA isn't convinced he's got a case. And the detective is told to just...

to just let it go and let Lizzie get away. You know, I was getting pressure to basically close the case. They wanted you to get rid of it and not do anything. Just close it. The district attorney told me, I don't think this is a winnable case. It doesn't really have any jury appeal. But instead, Detective Merakian strategically leapfrogs over city and county authorities and gets the federal government involved. People's

People like Scott Tenley with the Department of Justice. Almost anything you do, you swipe an ATM card, you send a wire, it's going to go through the Federal Reserve, it's going to go through Bank of America. All over the place, multiple states. And these days, it's almost impossible not to be committing a federal crime when you're doing fraud. But when Lizzie Mulder finds out she's the target of an FBI investigation, she panics. And what she does next surprises everyone. You know, it's a bold move. Right? But...

I didn't bat an eyelash. I'm Jonathan Walton, and this is Queen of the Con, the OC Savior, Episode 8, The Good That I Did. What's great about being an assistant United States attorney and a federal prosecutor is we get to choose the cases we do, right? And so it's law enforcement agents bringing cases to us and saying, here's what we have. Do you want to make a federal case out of this?

In July of 2016, Scott Tenley is a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice. When we get involved in a case, it shakes people up. It shakes up defendants because this is a federal case now. Yeah. And that's something that's a very powerful part of the job, working for the federal government. You scare the bad guys. Exactly. And you wouldn't take a case if there wasn't a good case there. Well, certainly we're not going to take a case that we wouldn't be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

And somewhere along the way, Lizzie Mulder figures this out and starts waving a white flag. An attorney called and said, I'm going to represent Lizzie Mulder. And we walked through the evidence. And then pretty quickly, Lizzie wanted to resolve the case with a plea agreement.

Yep, you heard right. In March of 2017, more than a year after Detective Jordan Merakian first starts investigating her, Lizzie Mulder wants to plead guilty for scamming nearly a dozen people out of more than $1.5 million. Because her guilty plea will spare the government the uncertainty and the expense of a trial, prosecutors agree to reduce the charges they were initially planning to bring against her.

And so in that instance where we haven't had to file an indictment with all the charges, we effectively negotiate and pick what charges will be filed. So we brought a wire fraud charge, which is any type of fraud committed against a victim where you take their property through fraud using the interstate wires. And then we also brought a tax-related charge because she failed to report, as you would expect, report her stolen money as income on her taxes.

And so she pled to both of the charges we filed, even though we could have filed 20 more counts, 30 more counts. It was just the two that we picked.

So those were the two that were actually filed. The other ones were just like waiting in the wings in case it was going to go to trial. If she had not agreed to plead guilty without an indictment and she said, no, you got to charge me, we would have charged her with multiple counts of wire fraud, multiple counts of filing false tax returns. We would probably have considered charging her with something called aggravated identity theft because she was impersonating people that she knew were obviously real people.

And so by coming in and resolving the case early, she helped kind of control her exposure. But things are far from over. While there isn't going to be a trial, per se, there is going to be a sentencing hearing in a federal courtroom where a judge will decide how much prison time, if any at all, Lizzie Mulder gets for the crimes she committed. I'd like to hear from you, counsel, and I'd like to hear from the victims. And then I've got a couple questions for you, Ms. Mulder.

It's Monday, October 16th, 2017. Courtroom 10A of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in downtown Santa Ana is packed at 9 in the morning. A visibly distraught Lizzie Mulder is there, hands folded and looking down, with her husband Jesse, as are several of her victims, some of whom we've never heard from until today.

Lawyers, police officers, FBI agents, and members of the press are also in attendance. The recording of this proceeding has never seen the light of day, until now. The Honorable David O. Carter is presiding. Why don't we hear from the victims? It's possible Lizzie Mulder could get off today with no prison time at all, just probation. And that's actually Jay and Marla Avery's worst fear.

There was a moment when we were sitting in court and I was like, this lady's going to walk away. Yeah. She wouldn't even look at us, so her face was, she was turned away. She had a hair in front of her face and she didn't make a move. No empathy, no compassion. No, I'm sorry. When I would look over, she had her head on the table looking down at the ground often. Rarely did she look at any of the victims that I could recall. And they said that too. And that, that annoyed them.

that she wouldn't even acknowledge to them that she wronged them. Yeah. He owns the LeBlanc Law Group now, but back in 2017, Paul LeBlanc is another federal prosecutor working on the Lizzie Mulder case. He has a real law professor air about him, extremely knowledgeable with decades of experience. He's an Iraq war veteran and even served as a judge in the U.S. Navy. This is probably the most intense sentencing case

that I have ever experienced. And I have prosecuted, when I was in the military, some really traumatic, horrendous sexual assaults where victims come in and tell their stories. And that's very compelling, and it's a different type of compelling. But this one, the tension in the courtroom when this was going down was palpable. ♪

because the victims are noticeably concerned that Lizzie Mulder is going to get away. She doesn't have a prior criminal record. Her husband is a firefighter. She's the mother of two little girls who need her. She also pled guilty, sparing the court a costly trial. Judges tend to look favorably on that kind of stuff and go easier on the perpetrator standing before them.

Federal prosecutor Scott Tenley says sentencing is always a crapshoot. The judge could decide to simply give her probation. He could have done anything. Because he's a judge. You see probation happen. It certainly is much, much less likely to happen when the victims are in the courtroom. So for fraud sentences, it's usually important to the government to bring the victims so the court can hear firsthand how it impacted the victims' lives. And then it's a lot harder for a judge to say, okay, probation. Yeah.

After your entire world is flipped upside down,

From unbelievable romantic betrayals... The love that was so real for me was always just a game for him. To betrayals in your own family... When I think about my dad, oh, well, he is a sociopath. Financial betrayal...

This is not even the part where he steals millions of dollars. And life or death deceptions. She's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio.

I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. I've collected the stories of hundreds of aspiring little Hitlers of the suburbs, from the Nazi cop who tried to join ISIS, to the National Guardsman plotting to assassinate the Supreme Court, to the Satanist soldier who tried to get his own unit blown up in Turkey. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil,

They're just some weird guy. And you can laugh. Honestly, I think you have to. Seeing these guys for what they are doesn't mean they're not a threat. It's a survival strategy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America. Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold, with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people. However, one murder of a crime boss sparked a chain of events that would ultimately dismantle the mob.

It sent the message that we can prosecute these people. Discover how law enforcement and prosecutors took on the mafia and together brought them down. These bosses on the commission had no idea what was coming their way from the federal government. From Wolf Entertainment and iHeartRadio, this is Law & Order Criminal Justice System. The first two episodes drop on August 22nd.

Plus, did you know that you can listen to the episodes as they come out completely ad-free? Don't miss out. Subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel today. Available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. ...ghoules and girls, and welcome to Haunting, Purgatory's premiere podcast for all things afterlife. I'm your host, Teresa. We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week straight from the person who experienced it firsthand. ...

Some will be unsettling. When she was with her imaginary friend, she would turn and look at you and you felt like something else was looking at you too. Some unnerving. The more I looked at it, I realized that the some looked more like a claw, like a demon. Some even downright terrifying. The things that I saw, heard, felt in that house were purely demonic. But all of them will be totally true.

Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you live and get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life and marriage. I don't think he knew how big it would be, how big the life I was given and live is in

I think he was like, oh, yeah, things come and go. But with me, it never came and went. Is she Donna Martin or a down-and-out divorcee? Is she living in Beverly Hills or a trailer park? In a town where the lines are blurred, Tori is finally going to clear the air in the podcast Misspelling. When a woman has nothing to lose, she has everything to gain. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words.

that I've said like in my head for like 16 years. Wild. Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The first victim to address the court is Jay Avery. It's been two years since Lizzie turned his world upside down with her cons. His wine business is now circling the drain because of what she did. He's mad as hell and he wants justice.

Plastic surgery is what we were told that she spent the money on, in a luxury house in Laguna that she rented.

Okay.

Let me hear it from some other folks, okay? No problem. I'll come back to you, and I want to thank you. Another victim who addresses the court you'll remember from episode four. My name is Mike Cochran. I owned California Print to Copy for 22 years and four months. Okay.

Mike tells the court that Lizzie Mulder not only scammed both him and his parents out of almost $40,000, but the years she pretended to be paying his taxes while actually funneling the money into her own bank account racked up a staggering number of back taxes that causes the IRS to punish Mike severely. We have 37 levies on us. 37 levies? 37 levies from the IRS and the state.

I sent out 420 odd letters to all my top clients instructing them that they were no longer able to pay me directly and that they had to pay the IRS which killed my customer base. Nobody wanted to touch me. Ruined our reputation. Are you in business today at all? No, we're not. The IRS shut us down.

It's just heartbreaking. But when it comes to unpaid taxes, the IRS really doesn't care if you got scammed or if you shirked your tax obligations intentionally. They punish you the same. That's just the way it is. And sadly, other companies Lizzie scams aren't faring much better. Every single day is a struggle to keep our business open. Remember Geneva Mendoza and her Newport Beach salon?

She steps up to the podium and tells the court. Lizzie stole almost $300,000 from us, which ultimately devastated our business, screwed up our credit, forced us to go into major debt. We almost lost our own homes. It damaged our relationships with our staff, our family, and each other. We are facing bankruptcy because of her. Our dream to run a nice business with security for ourselves has come crumbling down.

We have had to take an additional $190,000 in debt to pay all the taxes and bills. And Geneva's business partner, Lauren, is there too. She gets up, looks the judge square in the eye, and speaks publicly for the first time about her years-long ordeal with Lizzie Mulder. I've spent months thinking about how I could possibly express the devastating impact this has had on my life.

But there aren't words that will accurately describe the pain, anxiety, and stress that I have felt since her scheme began to unfold. Learning of the cunning and devious tactics, the betrayal of this woman I believed was my friend, has been beyond traumatizing. A position I never thought I'd be in, strategically calculated, manipulated, and crafted by Lizzie Mulder. Lizzie and I went to high school together and reconnected at a friend's wedding in

in Italy, which I'm sure she's spent other victims' money on, Lizzie bragged about her education, where she did her undergrad and where she did her master's program. She told us often about how she passed the CPA test on her very first try. But as you know, Lizzie didn't graduate from college. She has zero credentials. She's a self-taught con artist.

Over a two-year period, Lizzie would bring her family into our salon, con us with her charm, and reap the benefits of over $5,000 in bartered services, which Geneva and I would pay out-of-pocket to our stylist. Only a sick individual would capitalize on a trusted friendship, sitting in my chair, staring at herself in the mirror, all the while knowing that she's slowly destroying a business. Without any regard, she spent our money on plastic surgery. How do you know about that? I've seen her scars.

What kind of plastic surgery was it? It's called a full body lift. What's that? It is where a lot of excess skin and fat is removed and breast augmentation several times. Like a fat transfer to make her butt bigger that she bragged about. Okay, brags about. Has this existed more than one plastic surgery? Multiple events. Multiple plastic surgeries? Yes.

And you were told about these on each occasion? Yes. That this was occurring? Give me an idea, one or fifteen? At least three to four. So she personally tells you about it? Yes. She went on extensive trips, owned horses, and lived a lavish lifestyle. Lizzie was by our side for the beginning of our business, present at our first few Christmas parties, sat next to me at my bridal shower, sat in the aisle at our wedding,

gifted us all the wine we drank at our wedding. I'm sorry, Jack Avery. And you bought it from that gentleman? Oh, I didn't buy it. Lizzie gifted it to us as a wedding gift, about 10 cases of his wine. Okay. Yeah, but told us it was a gift. But according to Jay Avery, she never actually paid for it. She just took it from Jack Wines. Lauren continues. She was one of the first people I confided in when I became pregnant.

I actually considered you, Lizzie, one of my closest friends. Anytime I think of any of those events, I have to try and erase you, Lizzie, because it was all a lie. I can't look at my wedding photos or video now because you're all over them. Lizzie, you're a horrible person. You have no regard for anyone but yourself, and it will be no surprise that you'll try and present yourself as wife and mother of the year, but that could not be further from the truth. I don't believe she has any regret or remorse. Her behavior is arrogant.

Lizzie's belief that she'll get off scot-free might not be wrong.

Non-violent offenders walk out of court with just probation and no jail time every single day. But in a lot of those cases, victims like Geneva and Lauren aren't in court explaining to the judge just how devastated they are. Well, thank you both very much. This next victim, who we've never heard from before, is irreparably damaged by all the scams Lizzie Mulder pulls on her and her parents.

I'm not sure quite how to condense 10 years of lies and deceit and describe the pain and suffering it caused me and my family. Friday, May 13, 2016. That was the day I discovered the person whom I had considered my best friend, who was like a sister, had been stealing from me. The next few months were so surreal, like I was living a bad dream. Now my family and I are attempting to pick up the pieces and recover from the losses Elizabeth caused us.

Elizabeth Mulder is a predator. She chose me as a target from day one. I met her in the spring of 2006. I was her Pilates instructor. She was friendly, likable, a great listener, funny, approachable, all the perfect qualities in a textbook best friend. She was very candid, never seemed to hide anything. If anything, I would say she was an oversharer. I believe she knew exactly the kind of person she needed to portray in order to be well-liked.

Over the next year, we became close friends. And during that time, she embedded herself into every aspect of my life. She became friends with my family, my parents, my brothers, their wives. She attended our family Christmas celebration. We celebrated almost every holiday together. It was during this first year that she became like a sister, and I trusted her. She integrated herself into my family for one purpose only, to defraud me.

In the fall of 2007, Elizabeth suggested that I open my own Pilates studio. She had claimed to be an accountant and CPA, neither of which she actually is, and told me that she had experience helping other people establishing small businesses. She was my best friend, so our arrangement was her services in exchange for Pilates.

At the time, the exchange made sense to me. The process went smoothly and she seemed highly qualified. She made things happen. I obviously didn't realize at the time, before my studio's doors were even open, she was already seizing the opportunity to steal from me.

My studio was incredibly successful from day one. I was working seven days a week and pouring my heart into my work. Within the first year of business, I became pregnant with my first child. Being a mother herself, she was once again there every step of my pregnancy, buying extravagant baby gifts and treating me to spa days. Elizabeth even made sure that she was at the hospital for the birth of my baby. What happened in the hospital haunts me to this day, and it has become even more disturbing to me since discovering her fraud.

Shortly after my C-section, I was still heavily medicated and recovering from surgery. Elizabeth, without my knowledge or permission, somehow accessed the heavily secured NICU where my daughter was recovering and held her before I ever had the chance. Elizabeth photographed herself holding my baby and brought the pictures to my hospital room to show me. I could not fully process what she had managed to do given what I had just been through. She took that special moment from me.

Her actions completely sicken me. She has this need to be more a part of my life events than I was. The fact that she was there for almost every big moment of my life for the past decade makes me want to erase so many memories. During the next eight years, Elizabeth continued to help me with bookkeeping and taxes. We raised our kids together, all four girls, close in age, and even went on family vacations together. My dad and husband helped her move into her new, beautiful Laguna Beach home, which she claimed to have purchased.

During the last year, I learned Elizabeth stole from me, forged hundreds of checks to her own personal bank account, used my company credit card for her personal use, and also applied for and received loans for over $100,000 in my name. In total, she stole more than $200,000. She used it to pay luxuries like her plastic surgery. She owned numerous horses, road horses, weekly. I sat down with my girls, ages 5 and 7, to

to explain to them that my best friend and the woman who is like family to them is dangerous and they should never speak with her or have any contact. Sadly, next month I will be closing the doors of my studio. Ultimately, it is due to the theft by Elizabeth Mulder. I cannot possibly recover from the damages she caused in so many ways. I am sure Elizabeth will look to this court for sympathy, pity, and put on the performance of the loving mother and humble wife. I assure you she is none of these things.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Wow, you could almost hear a pin drop in the courtroom. The more victims who speak up like that, the less likely it seems that Lizzie Mulder is going to walk away from all this with just probation. The next victim to take the podium is a business owner who Lizzie scams while she's literally scamming everyone else for years. It's just unfathomable to me how she kept all those plates spinning at the same time.

I knew Lizzie's mother. She was a friend of mine actually. I had met her years ago at Ritz-Carlton and she worked as a massage therapist. So I actually had a, you know, kind of a trust for Lizzie because she always talked about Lizzie, her daughter. I'm here today like so many others because I've had the great misfortune of trusting Elizabeth Mulder Lizzie with the business that I've built for more than a decade.

From 2011 to 2016, she stole over $853,000. She did not do this as a one-time theft, but in a deliberate, repeated, calculating fashion, devising several creative methods of stealing money. Her schemes included forging my business checks, creating fictitious insurance business checks,

But her most damaging scheme was her creation of the income tax payment account with Bank of America. Lizzie directed me to draft multiple checks to income tax payments over a six-year period. From 2012 to 2016, she deposited over 46 checks from my business, which were meant to pay income tax payments.

She would come to my house and she'd say, "It's time for your quarterly payment." She would look me in the eye directly and she'd say blatantly, "You know what? I'm going to drive this to the IRS so it can be time stamped so there will be no chance it'll get lost in the mail or won't be deposited to your account." I've worked all my life for over 40 years. I'm 63. It was a dream of my own to have my own travel company. I hope to use my hard-earned money to eventually retire.

Now my savings are wiped out and as a 63-year-old woman, I will need to be working until I'm 80 to gain back the loss. In addition, I lost my 20-year marriage. I believe the disagreements with my husband over the financial problems created by Lizzie ruined our marriage. I would ask the court not to give great credence to Lizzie Mulder's lack of prior criminal record.

as the number of victims and the length of time she has been defrauding them shows that she has devoted much of her adult life to stealing from other people. Your Honor, I beg you to give Lizzie Milder the maximum sentence. The number of people she has hurt, the amount of times she has done it, and the callous and cruel manner in which she abused the trust of at least 16 victims and probably more warrants the maximum possible sentence.

Thank you for being here.

Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Stories about regaining a sense of safety, a handle on reality after your entire world is flipped upside down.

From unbelievable romantic betrayals... The love that was so real for me was always just a game for him. To betrayals in your own family... When I think about my dad, oh, well, he is a sociopath. Financial betrayal...

This is not even the part where he steals millions of dollars. And life or death deceptions. She's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio.

I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. I've collected the stories of hundreds of aspiring little Hitlers of the suburbs, from the Nazi cop who tried to join ISIS, to the National Guardsman plotting to assassinate the Supreme Court, to the Satanist soldier who tried to get his own unit blown up in Turkey. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil,

They're just some weird guy. And you can laugh. Honestly, I think you have to. Seeing these guys for what they are doesn't mean they're not a threat. It's a survival strategy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America. Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For decades, the mafia had New York City in a stranglehold, with law enforcement seemingly powerless to intervene. It uses terror to extort people. However, one murder of a crime boss sparked a chain of events that would ultimately dismantle the mob.

It sent the message that we can prosecute these people. Discover how law enforcement and prosecutors took on the mafia and together brought them down. These bosses on the commission had no idea what was coming their way from the federal government. From Wolf Entertainment and iHeartRadio, this is Law & Order Criminal Justice System. The first two episodes drop on August 22nd.

Plus, did you know that you can listen to the episodes as they come out completely ad-free? Don't miss out. Subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel today. Available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. ...ghoules and girls, and welcome to Haunting, Purgatory's premiere podcast for all things afterlife. I'm your host, Teresa. We'll be bringing you different ghost stories each week straight from the person who experienced it firsthand.

Some will be unsettling. When she was with her imaginary friend, she would turn and look at you and you felt like something else was looking at you too. Some unnerving. The more I looked at it, I realized that the some looked more like a claw, like a demon. Some even downright terrifying. The things that I saw, heard, felt in that house were purely demonic. But all of them will be totally true.

Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you live and get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session, 24 hours. BPM 110, 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not.

What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's clear the damage Lizzie has done here is not just financial. It's emotional. It broke up a marriage. It robbed victims of their happy memories of their wedding day, memories of their first child being born.

After hearing from a cross-section of Lizzie's victims, the judge gets curious. The question I posed right at the beginning that I'd like you to ask on my behalf, or I'll ask it, is you've got the investigating officers here. I'd like to know what happened at the first contact with the defendant. And by the way, if she asserted her right to an attorney, that's fine. She's entitled to that. Or was she completely truthful? What was that first interview like?

Ushered up to the podium to give that answer is the hero of our story. Morning, how are you doing? I just need your name for the record type of problem. Jordan, first name, last name is Merakian. It's a pleasure. I'm interested in the first contact. My very first contact with Ms. Mulder, she came in to the Laguna Beach Police Department. I want to know if she lied to you or mitigated her involvement or if she just laid it out. She lied.

Okay, tell me about what initially she lied about and slow down and take your time with it. Absolutely. I was already in the middle of an investigation involving Jack Wines and Jay Avery. At the time, I was getting ready to approach the major fraud district attorney through the Orange County Superior Court to file charges against Ms. Mulder. Jesse Mulder walked into the Laguna Beach Police Station with a friend, an attorney of his, to essentially expose...

what was happening with his wife. At the time, I didn't know who Jesse Mulder was. He came in literally as I was walking out the door. One speculative portion of that could be, look, we're starting to get out in the community that there's an investigation going on. And if you're a suspicious investigator, here comes this person, not just cold off the street, but with an attorney in tow, obviously having knowledge that he might be accused of being involved.

or his wife might be accused, or they might. Correct. So this isn't what I call a good Samaritan walk-in where somebody suddenly has a revelation. This is because of your hard work, the word's floating out there, and this person knows enough to bring an attorney with him. Yes, Laguna Beach is a very small town, and word travels very quickly. We have sometimes difficulty keeping our investigations under wraps because we have employees that live in the community.

At the point that Mr. Mulder walked in and revealed to me what's been disclosed today by the other victims, I was initially receptive but suspicious. I listened to what he had to say. And then within a matter of less than 24 hours, I was going to attempt to speak with Ms. Mulder, and she checked herself into a mental health facility. Okay, now just a moment. Husband comes in with an attorney.

You're pretty far down the investigation line. You might perceive that people in the community are starting to talk. She checks herself into a mental facility. Correct. Three weeks after we executed the search warrant at 746 Summit Drive. Okay. And is she then out of the mental hospital or out of the... Yes. And is that your first contact with her?

Yes, but at the time she didn't want to speak with me and I told her as I left the residence, here's my business card. If you decide that you want to speak with me, I'm absolutely going to be trying to... How long after the service of the warrant did she come into the police department? Within eight to ten hours. Now, you say she lied to you. What happened? Well, she initially lied during the disclosure of how much money she stole. Ms. Mulder mitigated her responsibility...

You know, I get all sorts of people. I get people who come in and they're just truthful right to begin with. Absolutely. Lay it all out. You know, those are sometimes people you work with as a judge. Sometimes you don't. Okay. But lies are big words. So I'm going to slow you down. One lie was the amount. Then you said other lies. The other lies had to do with the amount of victims that were out there. She did tell me about Jack Wines. Sure.

She told me about Tony and Guy Hairston. Got it. Did she tell you about Andre Builders? She did not. Tell you about California Pratt? No, she did not. And there was one other, or take attack and feed with Mr. Joseph Love, who's also present in court today. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. Pleasure.

The judge doesn't seem happy that Lizzie lied during her police interview about how much money she stole and how many victims there were. But when Lizzie Mulder addresses the court, none of that comes up. She makes a straight play for leniency and begs the judge for mercy, saying she plans to live the rest of her life with honesty and integrity.

FYI, this is the first time Lizzie Mulder ever speaks in public. And just as her victims predicted, she leans hard into her persona as a loving mother and wife. As a mother of two young daughters, I have fear that my actions will cause them pain and they will never forgive me. As a wife, I have a fear that my marriage will not last the unknown punishment. Most of all, I fear that I will not be able to repay my restitution fast enough for the needs of the victims. And as a human...

I have fear that my legacy in life will be that the good that I did in life will not outshine all this bad. Judge Carter, I ask of you today to let me show you that if you choose to be kind enough to grant me leniency, I will honor your decision by living the rest of my life working towards making everyone whole again. I want nothing more than to show my daughter that even after making terrible mistakes in life, you can still rebuild your life with honesty and integrity.

Now the ball's in Judge David Carter's court. He can literally do whatever he wants, whatever he deems just. He can let Lizzie off with probation or send her away for a lot of years.

you can cut the tension in that courtroom with a knife right now. Well, first of all, we're back on the record, and I want to thank all of our partners for your patience. Eventually, the judge makes his decision, and you can tell he's put a lot of thought into it. I think that this is the rare occasion when the appearance of the victims have made a significant impact. Hearing from you has been extraordinarily beneficial.

It's easy to read on a piece of paper what has occurred to people. It is very impactful when you hear people come to court and you actually hear the harm that you've suffered. The court believes that the loss caused is approximately $1,538,721.

These victims have not been compensated. There's been a suffering of substantial financial hardship that has ranged from IRS liens, penalties, a decreased business, the humble attempt to rebuild goodwill, including the closing, literally, of a business, let alone the personal degradation that has occurred.

This has resulted in a substantial financial hardship. The guideline range is 63 to 78 months, and the government's requested 63 months for sentencing purposes. The defense and the probation officer have requested 36 months. The abuse here is so prolonged, so personal, such a betrayal.

in the sense that the monies that were benefited from were largely for personal aggrandizement ranging from the personalized plastic surgery to the horses to an increased lifestyle on the backs of the victims in this matter. And this is particularly a vulnerable segment of society because

Small business in America is the backbone of our country. In listening to the proceedings today, I think the government is absolutely correct in your evaluation in this matter. It's 63 months. Also, it is ordered that you shall pay restitution in the total amount of $1,538,781.21.

So Lizzie Mulder is sentenced to 63 months, a little over five years, in federal prison. And she's ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution. But that figure doesn't include the millions of dollars she causes her victims to lose in IRS penalties, in legal fees, and in back taxes.

Lizzie Mulder tells the court she has no money to pay restitution, but she says she'll pay her victims back as soon as and as quickly as she can. After it was over, we walked outside of the courtroom. Federal Prosecutor Scott Tenley is relieved. And the victims all kind of gather around, and I wanted to just talk to him about what had happened. And one of the things I said to them was...

I can tell you 100%, 110% that you guys being here changed the ultimate sentence, right? And you had an impact. And I remember getting choked up.

And I don't know if they could tell, but probably close to, you know, maybe tearing up because I was that kind of emotionally myself impacted by the sentence. And I think, you know, people that work with me would probably be like, well, that's not Scott, right? He's a pretty hardened, you know, straightforward guy. But I just remember it was an incredibly emotional hearing. And then to come out and talk to them and, you know, I think a lot of them had a sense that they got some amount of justice out of that hearing.

You know, part of it was the impact of what they said, but also part of it was like, wow, this is why I'm doing this job. Yeah. Is to help people like this that need a voice and can get some justice. But that's probably something I'll never forget about my time as a prosecutor was that moment with them and coming out of that hearing. It was a very moving and powerful sentencing hearing. Yeah. Yeah.

All of the victims are like, yay, we should go out for drinks. You know, not that any of the money is here, but justice has been served. Geneva Mendoza almost goes out of business after Lizzie Mulder scams nearly $300,000 from the salon in Newport Beach that she opened with her business partner, Lauren. It's going to take the span of our lease, truly, to pay back what Lizzie stole from us.

But I think it speaks to the talent and the tenacity and the drive of you and Lauren. You're still in business. Yeah. You took the hit and you came back out swinging and you're doing really well now. I would say we're doing pretty well. I've done a lot of work and I feel that I have come out of it stronger and more aware. And that's what I'm taking. That's the glass is half full.

Other victims, though, like Mike Cochran's print shop... She crippled us. She crippled us badly. And Jay Avery's Jack Wines... Her scams put you out of business. 100%. ...were not as fortunate. It was doing well. It had momentum. And I let her run with it, not knowing that this would be the outcome. I had no idea.

Lizzie Mulder reports to federal prison in January of 2018, and she serves four years of her five-year sentence. She's released in January of 2022. But this story is not over. There's something really important that Lizzie Mulder is not telling the judge and not telling prosecutors, and it could cost her big time.

I definitely think that's a violation of the plea agreement. If I was still at the U.S. Attorney's Office... Wouldn't this piss you off? Yeah, I would say, yeah. I would go to the boss and say, this is something we need to open up. Yes, you do. Next time on Queen of the Con, The O.C.'s Savior...

Lizzie pulls a fast one on the judge and on federal prosecutors. How can that legally go through? Well, I think it's a matter of one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. It's a new scam that could blow the whole case wide open again. Well, you'd call it a fraudulent conveyance. If I had found out that that was going on, we could have probably backed out of the plea agreement.

Queen of the Con, the OC's savior, is a production of AYR Media and iHeart Media, hosted by me, Jonathan Walton. Executive Producers, Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Productions, and Elisa Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Jonathan Walton. Consulting Producer, Evan Goldstein. Senior Associate Producer, Eric Newman. Sound Design by Baked ZD Media.

Mixed and mastered by Cameron Tagge. Sound editing, audio and studio engineering by Matt Jacobson. Legal counsel for AYR Media, Gianni Douglas. Executive producer for iHeart Media, Maya Howard.

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