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It's the morning of August eighteen, one thousand nine hundred eighty. Outside the federal courthouse and brook on the sidewalks are packed with journalists and TV. There's a rough photographers leaning against park cars like soldiers in a bunker. And nearby dozens of onlookers are standing around trying to figure out what's causing such a scene.

A minute later, they get the answer as a sedan pulls up to the curb in the journalist pounds, snapping photos and hurling questions that a man who's become the center of one of the most unusual political scandals in decades, male winebox, is a lifelong comment. His barrel chested and wearing a cream coloured three p suit and a pair of tented aviator sunglasses, and on his pinkies, or gold rings study with diamonds, spent a long time. Since wine berg had any trouble making money for years, he'd made a fortune stealing from celebrities, business men, members of the mom, even terrorists.

Some of his schemes are so brazen and creative, he earned a near mythical status among fellow criminals. Wine berg has a reputation as someone who can con even the most powerful people in the world, people who enjoy special privileges and layers of protection and security, people like members of the united states congress. And that's why wine berg, here today, at this federal courts, he's about to give testimony about a scheme that revealed corruption at the highest levels of government.

Wine berg partnered with the FBI, pulling off a game almost stranger than fiction. Now one break job is to late all out for a jury telling the truth as far as he says, that that elected leaders are nothing more than common crux and that as long as you've got an envelope stuff, ed, with cash, america's politicians are willing to play ball. The reporters and camera and trail behind wider as he reaches an office on the third floor the court has, he shuts the door behind him and waves to a group of federal actions were all sitting playing a game of gin running wine.

Berg takes a seat in the leader of the Operation, FBI agent john good makes his way across the room. So now feeling ready. Why you think i'm worried? Come on.

I've been much worse than a bunch of clowns calling themselves White, true lawyers. No double will remember. These guys approve.

They're gona try and trip you up, make you lose your temper. I'll be cool. No problem. Well, I know you've got a lot of experience performing under pressure, that's for sure. But this hold a different ball game.

We're trying to put away members of congress that attorneys are going to be relentless going to try to make the jury see you is nothing but a command in the thief. Well, lucky for me, that's the truth in IT. I won't to deny anything now.

And you've got got to take this seriously. You are the government star witness, and when they start attacking, you have to stay a message. Just tell the facts.

Wine bird puls out as a jar and strike to match. Agent, good, I offer you, this feels like a whole new ball game going after politicians at all. But I ve been dealing with crooks for more than three decades, and these guys are no different from the rest of them.

Don't worry, i'll stay cool that gonna treat me up right. Well, then you're really any wine. Berg takes a couple of post firm, his cigar, and then not.

Then he heads back out into the hallway, approaching a crown of journalists and lawyers. It's time for him to tell the story about an FBI Operation known as am scan. There's a lot to say about the politicians they're about to take down how global they were on.

Nothing about their corruption was at all surprised. But what wine berg can't yet appreciate is how his story is going to send off a chain reaction, one that will change the course of law enforcement for decades to come. Hey, i'm ri riddles.

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From wandering finland's y gram. And this is american scandal.

In the thousand nine and seventies, the FBI was at a crossroads. The bureau's had been among the most respected law enforcement agencies. The world found itself mired in one scandal after another. In one thousand nine hundred and seventy one, activists made public documents exposing an illegal FBI Operation known as co intel pro, whose aim was to satoh civil rights activists, among others.

Two years later, the bureau's shaken once again after reports emerged showing that the new FBI director had been complicit in president nicks on water gay cover up by the end of the one thousand nine hundred and seventies, the FBI found itself under new leadership and a new Mandate to rehabilitate its public image and regain public trust. Part of that work involved a shift in priorities. The FBI began focusing less on so called blue collar crime, like bank robberies and stolen cars.

Instead, the bureau gave more attention to White collar crime like money laundry and bribery, but the agents needed some help developing their cases. So they began searching for informing, and soon that search LED to master con artist mellin's g with an unusual but effective scheme for snaring his targets. That scheme would become known as b scan sting Operation, so effective that expanded beyond the realm of White collar crime and transformed into a sprawling investigation of political corruption.

Absa was a highly unconventional Operation. The FBI staged a party on yacht. There were secret deals involving casinos and under cover agents dressed up in costumes pretending to represent businessmen in the middle.

Ast abb sgam's methodologies would later come under fire. Though the Operation exposed political crime on a scale not scene since one day, defense attorneys and legal analysts viewed ABS game as an improper exercise of law enforcement. They argued that the stage did not expose criminals, but instead manipulated people into committing crimes, the practice known as entrap them.

Those arguments would prompt a heated debate in congress and lead to calls for reform, but the nation was also left puzzling over a mystery at the center of the scandal, how did a conman with a full mouth and a pension for complicated criminal schemes end up building so much influence at the FBI? And why were america's politicians so easy to target? This is episode one, money talks.

It's the spring of one hundred and seventy seven, and F, B, I, agent john good is in a difficult spot. He has to build a new case, but he's stuck. Good is sitting with his head, barry in a file, his eyes blood red and burning with fatigue.

Without looking up, he reaches for his coffee. Morgan lifts IT to his lips before realizing the cups empty. When did that happen? Good looks up from the file he's been reading and discovers he's alone in the office.

Well past quitting time, all the colleagues have gone home to have dinner with their families and put their kids to bed, which is what good all to be doing to if you weren't so fixated on this assignment. But getting lost in work isn't uncommon for he's a sixteen year veteran of the FBI and a supervising agent at the bureau office in midtown manhattan. His father was an agent, and five of his six siblings also work for the agency.

Good loves the FBI and he loves his work, but was keeping him late at the office tonight isn't love, it's pressure. Goods bosses have been pushing him to launch more and bigger White collar crime cases in readings of memos. Theyve stress that those cases are essential to restoring public confidence in the agency.

Good agrees with a strategy, but building successful y color cases presents unique chAllenges that can't be rushed with White collar crime IT can be difficult to catch someone in the act, so the bureau's ds to cultivate confidential sources, people who can offer a view from the inside of a criminal Operation, but inforcements are hard to fined. And after twelve hours sitting at this desk reading file after a file, goods still hasn't found a single person who seems right for the jump. He's beginning to think that that person might not exist.

Goods sets down yet. Another memo and gLance is over at a photo of his wife. He should probably just head home.

It's nine o'clock and he's still has a long commuter head of him. But good can stand the idea of having nothing to show for the work he's put in today. So he decides to look at just one more file and drive back to his home along g island.

Good reaches for us in box and pull a file right off the, and he opens the folder and begins to read almost immediately. He can feel this one is different. Good sets down the file and pushes away from his desk.

Attention he's felt in his shoulder all day just disappears. Smile comes creeping across his face the way he thanks he's found the perfect candidate fifty three old command from the bronx, a melbourn wine berg. When IT comes to criminals, melvin's is in a class of his own.

He's manipulative, uneducated and completely unremovable about a life spent stealing from other people. why? Berg began running scans when he was only six years old.

And over the years he tried and perfect IT just about every cn in the books. Sometimes they were smaller scale Operations involving stocks and fake contracts for gold. Other times they were more elaborate.

Once, wine berg pretended to be a police officer and robed a physician who is performing abortions, which at the time were illegal. But the scan that became wine berry ality was known as a front end scheme. In this con.

He learned people in with the promise of business loans and installed their lucrative application fees. Wine berg made millions of dollars doing this, and he was so talented that many of his victims never even knew theyve been stolen from. He was a skilled crafts man with an extensive rolodex of criminal contacts, both excEllent qualities for an informant.

But despite having lived a life of crime, wine berg also had a relationship with the FBI. Limburg have been feeding information to the bureau s since at least the thousand nine hundred and sixty. A combination of his skills, connections and willingness to assist the FBI made him a real asset.

He'd also recently been arrested and was facing jail time, which could motivate him to CoOperate further. So just a few days after reading wine, berg's file age and goods sends a Younger guy named miron fuller out to meet with wine berg and pitcher g. The goal is discuss them out and see if the FBI can recruit them.

It's around eleven thirty A M when mayon follow steps into a diner on the outside of pitcher g. Fuller doesn't have much of an appetite, and he's not planning to stay here long. He's read the file on malvine berg and knows the command is a professional talker, kind of guy who could get you to order a meal even if you weren't hungry, and then get you to pay for his fuller watch to maintain controller situation. So he plans to do most of the talking. He's gonna pitch a deal of wine berg, get him to say yes and get out of the dinner .

as quickly as possible.

Fuller scans the restaurant and spots whiner succeeded by himself in the booth. He stout, with a greasy, come over the shining under the glow and overhead light for their heads over the wine berg's table and takes a seat ready to start in but before he can get out a word, wine berg slammed his hand on the table is eyes wide like an actor from an old hollywood movie. All right, you've convinced me.

I'll do IT. I'm sorry what i'm in. I work with you.

You're looking for an informed type of deal, right? Yeah you want me to greece gears tell you who's doing the crimes officially speaking. And I think we're ironing out the details.

But yeah, partnership could work well, whatever IT is i'm in for. Well, that's great. Thank you.

Honestly, I didn't expect this to be so easy. I had a whole speech prepared. Well, I forget about that speech, and we know each other.

Now we're friends. And look, agent, agent folder, agent foller, here's the deal. I'm going to need you to do something for me.

Oh yes, of course we know you're facing charges of frog. You give this information will get the charges done. That sounds good.

No, no, no good. I can't work with that deal. I'm sorry, I don't understand.

I mean, you facing criminal charges, we can get them dropped. What else are you looking for? Well, aging for that is not what's concerning.

Mean, i'm going to beat those charges. Problem is, I got this girl, british, very sophisticated and dropped dead gorgeous. Now, sometimes in the work I do, I bring her around, right.

And sometimes I tell a little story. I'd say, my girl, she's the daughter of some higher british bankers, rich people. IT adds authenticity to the whole thing, you know, it's sure.

But what does I have to do with helping us? So well, here is my problem. You guys came and arrested me for frag, and you named her as an accomplice.

Your rats now there's a warn out for her rest and she's innocent. SHE is no idea was going on and I can't have that on my conscience. So this is what i'm all for.

You guys drop the charges against her and I do whatever IT is. You want me to do fuller poses taking stock at the request, but I ve say I was not prepared for this. I but don't work.

It's simple. Just go ask your boss, get them to say yes, and then we got a deal and I get to work. For the feels defeated, he can see why wine berg is so successful. As a coarse, he tells you what to do, and he makes IT sound easy, like you the only option in the world.

Fuller doesn't know whether this request is going to kill the deal or what kind of problems that could open up, but he can't see any other options, so he stands and goes in search of A A payphone to call the FBI field office in. A few days later, the terms of the deal are, sell wine. Berg is going to help the FBI and its efforts to curb White collar crime and exchange the bur is going to get wine, berg's girlfriend, out of her legal troubles.

It's a simple quid broker, but now that the agreements in place, the FBI, has another problem figuring out exactly what wine berg is going to do to build a case. Typically, inforcements provide law enforcement with details about crimes that already took place or which are ongoing or could happen in the future. But for this Operation, the FBI wants to run something closer to a thing, wants to be reo, identifies a target.

Winebox will lure them in with some kind of opportunity entity ing them to commit a crime. And then when the time is right, the FBI was springing a trap. But the question knows, what exactly is this enticing opportunities suppose to look like to help wine berg figure that out and manage the day to day work of the Operation? Supervising agent john cou designs two of his best man to the jump.

One of them is mine foer, the agent who recruit wine berg. The other is an older agent named jack mccarthy. Or neither man trust member going to have to get to know one Better, figure out how we find some way to CoOperate. They want to build a case.

It's an early summer evening in one thousand nine hundred and seventy nine in long island and melt liner extend, staring into the waters of the swimming behind his house, sitting behind wine per in his patriot chairs or two FBI agents, drinking ice and debating the best set up for their sting Operation. You've been added for hours, but as expected, wine berg hasn't heard a single decent pitch from either of the two men. It's like they have no idea how to execute a successful swing dow and why would they? Everything they know about crime, they learn from trying to prevent IT.

But wiberg gary has an idea and he knows it's a good one. He certain that if the FBI lets him use IT, they'll start racking up arrests. Wine berg will be able to get his girlfriend off of a hook, so he's biting his time, letting the agents runs all the half big scenario before countering with his own plan.

Finally, wine berg decides he kept them waiting long enough. He turns back to the agents and says nonchalantly that he liked to pitch an idea a while back before he was arrested, wine berg was running something called a front and loan scheme, a kind of con that mostly targets businessmen looking for quick cash. What makes these businessmen such a prime target is that, for whatever reason, they can't ask a legitimate bank for alone, so they start trying to get loans from less legitimate sources.

And this sort of scheme wine berg has pretended to be the owner of an independent long company. He claimed to have deep connections to international banks. One, berg granted a fancy office and drove an expensive car.

He dated a drop dead gorgeous british woman, all of which was sentiment to the illusion. Wiberg Marks then had no trouble believing he was a major player with access to large amounts of foreign capital. So theyd hand over thousands of dollars in processing fees, then wait for loans that would never materialize because the entire thing was a con.

Libert pauses to see if the agents were falling on. And as expected, he gets some push back from major jack. My carthy still surprised that guy looks like an oversize boys count and a cheap suit, the kind of man who wouldn't jay walk on an empty street in the middle the night.

Man like that could never understand how to pull off in a laborde cn. He says he just doesn't get IT. How could a loan scam aimed a desperate businessmen do anything to help the FBI byberg size the specifics of the loans game aren't what matters. What's important are the mechanics about knowing watch remark needs convincing him it's somewhere far away and some foreign land and that you're the only one who can give you to a that's how you lower people and and keep on hook. But the other agent, fuller, looks like he's beginning to catch on.

He asks how this would all work, why? Mart tells the two agents that IT starts with a basic rule, White collar criminals always need money, and if they were recently arrested, they're onna need even more money that makes them prime targets for something like the loan scan. Question is, what's the best cover story before either the two agents can answer? Wynberg says he knows how to hand lap part two back before he was arrested.

Even been reading a lot of newspaper stories about OPEC, the organization that coordinates oil policies for a few foreign countries. OPEC dominated headlines for months, and all the stories were filled with images of arab oil tycoons rich beyond belief, the kind of riches that could look like cells ation to a desperate White collar criminal. So wine brid makes his bitch take the loans game, but rework IT using a story about one of these arab cheeks.

Instead of saying you're connected to an international bank, you say you're funded by a powerful leader in the middle east and oil bearing with endless money, everyone would buy IT. You could use that covered to start targeting White color criminals, a carthy and ussel saying, this is the most absurd idea he's ever heard of. Who in their right mind would believe that a jewish hosteler from the bronze was working with some kind of higher up from the middle east? But one, berg says it's not that big of a right.

Before he got arrested, wiberg started telling people he was working for an arb guy with the pockets and major interests in U. S. businesses.

Before I knew IT long island's worst crooks were banging downs door to getting on the action. But why berg got busted before you can catalist still the word was out. Wine berg had connections to arb oil line, and in the time since no one's been told otherwise.

So they've got a cover story. We've got a way to draw in potential cross. All the FBI has to do now. Yes.

at.

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Over the course of melt wine berg long and illustrious career, he had stolen millions of dollars and treated countless people from all walks of life. I get a lot of people very angry along the way. But for more than three decades, one berg was able to Operate without any real threats to his life, because he'd always followed one simple rule, never cross a dangerous man.

But now, in the summer of one thousand nine hundred and seventy seven, the FBI has handed wine berg the names of his first two targets. And wine berg is a little more than concerned because one of the men is among the most dangerous in new york. Joe troke yo has a reputation for violence.

He provides the muscle for various criminal organizations in the area that has ties to the mafia, making him exactly the type of person wine berg has always known not to cross. And yet, to get his girlfriend off the hook, wine berg will have to set up in a elaborate thing and deliver a tokyo to the FBI. So sitting alone in his long island's new york home office, melvin berg uncoils a cable snaking from a boxy naral co tape recorder.

Wine berg takes the end of the cable and plus IT into the back of a black roguery telephone. And a few moments, one berg is going to press the red button on that record and dial number of joe trokoff o. This recording will be the first of many that one berg intends to make.

And if all goes according to plan, these tapes will help the FBI build their case against tokyo and secure and arrest. But in order to put away troke yo and his business partner, thread pro wine berg, needs to get a recording someone in the act of committing an actual crime. Wine works plan is to spin a story about some arab tycoons who are eager to do business.

And with any luck, tokyo will take debate. Libera dialed the number and sits waiting as the phone rings. Is this joe now now wider ah now how you do on can't complain, can't complain, can't complain and what I heard, oh, and what have you heard I heard you got punched.

Fans got up with you in 哦 no， that that was not that i'll get off with probation. Yeah, i'll go for you. Can i'm a little trouble myself.

Got a trial coming up on. Sorry to hear that what they poppy for as saying I moved one hundred fifty grand worth the stolen travellers jack charges artistic. The prosecutors got themselves a problem for a witnesses, somehow got back before they could testify, wiberg shelters and changes the subject.

Do you know the reason I called was I was hoping we could do a little business. You yeah, yeah. I've got this friend and ara, he's got major doe. He's told me he's looking for investment opportunities here in the states and that made me think of you.

So tell me you and your old power, fred pro, you got anything my guy could get in on for a second troke yo goes silent, joe, you still there. I'm here. Just like, what are we do and talking on the phone, I don't worried about that.

Just you and mean friends catching up. And these days you never know though and like, I used to be, no IT ain't. And look, I trust you tube, but if you don't trust me, I guess I ve just take the business elsewhere.

I'm sure there are plenty of places where my friend sheep and invest his millions. Well, hold on, all right. Look me in fred pro, we get something you guys could get involved in. Maybe maybe there's this mortgage firm, right? Broke Kevin men pro, we're using phony security to buy and do IT send things up, so a couple of the families in new york can use this place to wash their money.

But after a while, mm pro, we're gonna blow to drive, take all the assets, major payday, that the sort of thing you and your guy might want in on you do exactly that kind of pay day is exactly the thing looking for. Before hanging up, wine berg and trokoff o agreed to speak again in a few days to work out the specifics of the deal. And when the conversation ends, wine berg hit stop on his tape recorder, pulls a cigar from his draw and lights IT up.

Is time to celebrate. Over the next three months, wine berg continues to work the fbs case against a joe roki o and his partner, fred pro. Wine berg makes dozens of recordings and gathers intelligence about a variety of their crimes, including money honoring forgery and conspiracy y to commit murder by the fall of thousand nine hundred and seventy seven.

Landberg hands over everything to the FBI and as promised, the bureau's ranges to get the charges dropped against wine berg mistress. But the FBI is so thrilled with wine berg performance that the bureau rewards him by working out a new deal in which the common will plead guilty to his own charges, fraud, never go to prison. So at this point, one, berg has fulfilled his obligation to the FBI.

He and his girlfriend are free. But over the three months wine berg spent working, joe okyo and fred pro word spread about wine berg's connections to some wealthy arab shek. So now, even after the deal with the FBI is done, landberg phone is ringing off the hook with calls from other criminals asking for an introduction to comber abdul ramon, the fictional shek wine berg, isn't required to record these calls, but he does so anyway, and he turns the tapes over to the FBI.

When the agents listen to the recordings, they realize that wiberg scan is exposing a whole cynically of criminal enterprises, providing the kind of information that otherwise might take years to discover. Seems crazy to shot IT down now. So the spi asks wine berg to stay on the project officially, but they figure wine berg isn't likely to agree the work is risky and theyve already given him everything he wanted.

But to the FBI surprise, wine berg does a gree, though the reasons are far from altruistic. Wine berg knows that once the FBI puts away joe troke yo and fred pro, he could never go back to his old high role in criminal life, but he also can't live a Normal life with a Normal day's b he's not suit for IT. Wine berg is a swindler and he loves the work, even if that means swindling on the half of the U.

S. government. So one, berg says, yes, he'll continue working with the FBI on two conditions. The first is that the government differing taking any legal action against royo and pro limbourg will almost certainly have to testify at there are trials, but doing so we'll completely blow this cover as career as a con artist would be over. The second condition is that the government will have to pay expenses.

After some discussion, the FBI agrees to wine berg terms, and the Operation continues to move forward. What about a year later? There's another development that will completely change the course of the fbs Operation. It's the fall of one thousand nine hundred and seventy eight and malvine berg is waiting around in a cramped office and holly brook, new york.

Libra can't believe this is supposed to be the headquarter for the FBI sting Operation, which is now being called abscam, some code name based on the fictional arab shek at the center of the Operation, comber abdul raman. The office is a sad space, only about six hundred square feet, with three rooms and cheap furniture, not the kind of outpost you would expect from an arab oil type. But wine berg handlers that the FBI say they've maxed out of their budget, you'll just have to make do.

But wine berg doesn't going to sweat if anyone can tell this story with him. And as he stands staring at one of the office windows, he sees his next mark pull up in a shabby camera. William roseburg stepped out of the car.

And to wiberg, he looks like a cartoon of an upper class windlass thin must ash gray hair, a silk tyra is neck rose. And bergs Younger partner, dan minsky, is playing the part two, wearing some smug grin and an outfit that must cost a fortune. Landberg knows the rap on these guys.

Rose enberg spent four months locked up on security fraud is exactly the kind of guy the FBI is trying to target with a scan. And when rosenberg and his partner stepped into the office, another feeling starts to bubble up inside wine berg. He doesn't like this guy.

He doesn't like his dandy outfit. He doesn't like the way he's trying to sound like some kind of british royalty, like he's Better than everyone. Wine berg got no patients for these kind of crooks, touches a nerve. So as he stares at rosenberg, winner gets a strong, almost visceral impulse. He wants to nail this guy, hand him off to the FBI wiberg sam's all his charms, and began spinning his tall tale, a story he knows will land this guy hopkin and sinker.

He goes on about his boss, the arab shek, up dual wine berg, paint a vivid picture of the hundred foot yard and private planes he talks about outdoors and mense wealth, and explains that with all the chaos in the middle east and dual feeling anxious about his money more and more, he wants to invest his considerable fortune in the us. Wine berg pauses, taking stock of his guests. He can see there drawn in.

He's given them something to celebrate over. And that step one now, liner g needs to let these guys bury themselves. So he invites rosenberg to start pitching him on ideas for a joint project.

Rosenberg sets an attack, a case on the desk. Then he pulls out a tight list describing several potential deals. At the top of that list is atlantic city.

Just a year ago, new jersey officially legalized ed casino gambling in the coastal city. Now tons of investors are looking to break ground on hotels and casinos to build their vision of an east coast lost vegas. But rosenberg says all of these investors have the same problem to Operate a casino in atlantic city.

You ve gotta get a license from a new jersey state commission, and you can't get final approval until construction is already started. The dilemmas obvious, if you've already spent tens of millions of dollars building a casino, you can't risk having the whole project fall through over a government license. And because of the risk involved, banks have grown hesitant to give investors alone, knowing that the final license from the state tboy could always be denied.

As a result, investors have had to take on loans with huge interest rates, and rose brook says that presents an opportunity. Rosberg suggest that wine, berg's boss of dull, could start offering lones himself for the construction of these casinos. They can make loads of money on the interest.

Wiberg agrees. That does sound like a good business opportunity, but privately he knows he's going to have to redirect the conversation rosenberg wants in. But so far he hasn't offered anything illegal, nothing wiberg could hand off to the FBI.

November IT takes another angle, potting out that anyone giving a one to one of these casino investors is taking on a huge risk. Why should his boss at dull absorbed that kind of liability? Rosenberg smirks, if I do invest with rosenberg in as men can guarantee the casino will get a license. They have their ways involving a powerful and well connected politician, Angelo eric ky.

The mayor, camden, new jersey, hearing the name of the mayor of a major city, wine berg's ears burke up with a little more trading, he gets rosenberg to admit the era Katie is willing to take bride and with the mayor support, rosen berg says wine berg boss shouldn't have any doubts about lending money is guaranteed income. They could even build a casino themselves, knowing their guarantee to get a license from the state, thanks to the honorable mayor of camden. Wiberg leans back, satisfy.

It's all here, the angle, the play. Liberry now has what he needs to hand off rosebery the FBI. But as the conversation unfolds, IT doesn't on wiberg that this meeting is going to change everything for over a year.

One, berg has been working to help the FBI build cases against forces and swine litters and thaves. But now a wine berg is catching out away with something else, corruption, and is not just coming from crooked business, but from the ivery towers of politics. If what rosenberg saying is true, if mayor Angelo arcady really is as dirty as he says, there is no telling how big APP game will, or how high of the latter's of power .

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By the late thousand nine hundred and seventy, amb scam is in full swing at the officers of abdul enterprises, the fate company used as a front for the Operation. The phone is ringing off the hook. Mellberg is taking call after call, discussing everything from security fund to a conspiracy involving uranium and one berg records every one of them handing over the tapes to the FBI who uses them to build air tii criminal cases.

But the Operation soon undergoes a shift after the FBI learns about Angelo eric kati, a supposedly corrupt mayor, camp a new jersey, the agents and wine berg began looking to see if there are other dirty players in elected offices. And a mission that had begun with a focus on White collar crime transforms into a growing investigation into political corruption. The stakes are now higher than ever, and with american politicians now a potentially a target of criminal investigation, federal agents know they're going to have to build cases that can withstand the most weathering scrutton in court.

In part, that means addressing an issue known as entrapment. Under federal law, there are limits to the kind of actions under cover agents can take when they're out in the field. The idea behind entrapment laws is that the government cannot master mine a criminal scheme.

Undercover agents aren't allowed to pressure individuals to form a crime, then turn around and prosecute those same people, especially if the targets wouldn't have committed the crime otherwise. In other words, the government cannot manipulate people into becoming criminals. So FBI supervising agent john good and other officials leading up scan have to grapple with some difficult question.

We're the FBI and melt wybert creating a criminal scheme where they inducing criminal behavior, where they merely inviting people to act on their own free will. The lions can be blurry, but the questions aren't an academic exercise. If abscam has crossed the line, the prosecution could fall apart and the defendants, which might include the mayor of an american city, could credibly argue that the FBI had broken the law.

Another potential humiliating spectacle for a bureau's ying to rehabilitated image. So shortly before wine, berg's first meeting with mayor Angelo arkady, agent john goods and federal prosecutor john Jacobs convene a meeting. It's time to go over some ground rules and make sure abscam is staying above board.

That's the fall of one thousand hundred and seventy eight and the team Carrying out abscam have gathered in their small craft office and hold broke new york FBI agent john goods and prosecutor or john Jacobs are joined by melt wider and agent jacket my carthy prosecutor, jake abstract, in his tie. And as he makes his way to the front of the room, he begins delivering a lecture about their work going forward. right? Well, mount jack, we're only days away from your meeting with air Candy.

We all know the goal. Get the mayor to promise he'll get casino licenses in exchange for money because if he takes the bribe, we have a guy. But and this is important, we have to be careful before Jacobs s can continue wybert jumps in.

I'm sorry, but this is why you call the meeting to tell me to be careful. I know how you like to get your guy mail, and I like that about you. I just want to make sure you're doing IT the right way so that when this gets to court, ara ki can't say he was the victim of interpret.

When you guys talking about in trap t, this guy is is as dirty as IT gets. Be that as IT may, there are certain lines we cannot cross, especially when we're taking on a politician, a man like eric katy's gona have the best lawyers money can buy. And those lawyers are going to try to undermine our case in any way they can.

So if we want the case to stand up in court, yeah sure, we can sit down with our Candy and make him an offer. And if he takes that, we have a case. But if we push him to break the law, if we manipulate him into a conspiracy, especially if he seems resistant, our prosecution will fall upon.

Resistant is not can seen resistance. You, for a prosecutor, you don't know much about crocks. Well, how can you be so short? There are two kinds of people ask what your dirty or your clean. Now I don't care of this guy, her cattle's, the mayor cambon or the pope. If he's dirty, he's dirty and he'll take the cash.

No one's gonna to push him, right? But but melt, you would agree that with some careful coding, you are more than capable of convincing someone to act against their Better judgment, right? May be even break the law.

Well, I mean, something small like jay walking. sure. But if you're clean, there's nothing I can do to change that. People are who they are.

Well, I see we have a difference in word view, but still, I need you to promise you're knock across the line. Eric kai has to make the decision himself. Okay, what do you say? I'll be careful.

Jacobs, not he's not sure he got through to wiper. There's a good chance to lifelong kon artist is just gonna ay by his own rules. But Jacobs tries to reassure himself according to their intelligence, Angelo arcata e is both corrupt and willing to use his power to advance his own self interest. The mayor shouldn't need any printing to break the law. And while the line between entrapment and a well executed sting isn't cutting dry, Jacobs believes this should be a straight forward Operation on that land with .

an arrest and a conviction.

It's december first thousand nine hundred and seven, eight and male wiberg is waiting in the headquarters of the fictional company of dual enterprises. He hears a set of car door slam shot and gLances out the window. Angelo ericka is approaching the building with two of his associate libert turns, exchanging a silent look with jack, my carthy, the FBI agent who's been one of his central partners.

All throughout up scan together, they've nailed a lot of White color criminals. But this meeting today could turn into something else entirely. Angelo arctic is one of the most powerful politicians in new jersey, is not only the mayor of camden, he's also a state senator and one of the most influential members of the entire state legislature.

He's got a reputation as a tough guy, a brash mover and shaker who wears expensive clothes and speaks and birth of preventing. And while he's likely full of bluster, arcady does wield considerable influence over the states casino commission, having helped several members get appointed. But if what they've learned is correct, that era cati is corrupt and he should be an easy target for the Operation and more than willing to take a bribe, arcadian us.

Man, step into the office. And right away, the mayor begins hurling a series of good nature insults, making fun of a dual enterprises. Di headquarters ers.

Eric cati is animate and full mouthed, with a self assurance ness that almost radiant, makes wiberg like the guy almost too bad. They are going to have to drop into a thing, but that's the job. So why? Berr begins the familiar story about his financial back at the arb.

SHE kept dull and all the money he's looking to invest in the united states. why? Berg explains that the'd like to get into casinos now that atlantic city is about to take off, but wine berg says they need some help.

They can't invest in a casino unless they have a guarantee that you'll get a license from the state commission. And the word is, eric cati can take care of those arrangements. Araceli narrows his eyes, sizing up, limber.

After a moment, he says, that's no problem. I can do that. I've done IT before. Now it's one bergs turned to pause. This was easy, but they have to get specific.

So he asks eric kati how much IT would cost for the mayor to help secure the casino licenses with this arcade. I tenses up and says, I don't want to discuss IT you talk to these gentleman then he stepped out of the office, leaving his two associations behind. Wiberg looks over at under the coverage of the party who gives him anode and signals they should keep moving forward with the deal.

So one berg asks arkady associated, I was this all gonna work? One of the men, Williams eden, says they are going to have to pay eric Kitty between three hundred fifty and four hundred thousand dollars, including a one hundred thousand dollar down payment. When it's time to pay up, err, cati won't accept the payment directly.

Instead, we'll have to put the money in a colored envelope and hand IT over to eaten. From there, eden will walk the money over to arki. He's going to be sitting in a park car.

And once the deal is done, the mayor will handle the rest, distribute the money to the right people, and make sure that abdul enterprises gets its license wiper exchanges. Another look with agean carthy eden didn't specify who the right people were, but it's clear to wire that he's already to officials on the state commission that approves casino licences. So wine brick says they're ready to play ball.

The men then shake hands and the meeting breaks up. And as eric cai and his pasi drive away from the building, libera just shakes his head and laughs. These always known politicians were dirty, but this guy, eric Kitty, looked, sounded and talk, just like every other dirty player from the world of east coast crime and from the sound of IT era.

Katie is not alone. If his associate are right, there are plenty of other political officials and new jersey on the take people willing to do a political favor in exchange phenomenon, stuff ed with cash. From wondering this is episode one of absa for american scanning. In our next episode, the fbs Operation expands and begins targeting members of congress but in fight with federal prosecutors .

threats to the tion.

You've just listen to episode one of our season on abscam, but there's more to come as the season unfolds. You will witness melvin, a season command, take center stage as the mastermind behind an elaborate sting Operation working with FBI agent john good wine berg and his team poses midden eastern shakes, learning in some of the most powerful politicians in america, one by one.

Senators, congresswomen and other public officials all fall into the trap. But the real question is, who is truly being kind? Is that just the corrupt officials? Or has the FBI cross the line, manipulating people into committing crimes they never would have otherwise considered? Will this Operation bring down some of the country's most powerful men? Or we lead back fire, destroying the credibility of the FBI itself?

To listen to the rest of this season of american scandal, start your free trial of wunder plus in the wander up apple podcast or sponsible y with wondering. Plus you can listen to other incredible history podcast. It's like american history tellers history, daily tides of history and more. Download the wunder APP today.

If you'd like to learn more about ABS, can we recommend the book the stinger by Robert Green and the U. S. Senators exhausted study on the Operation from the sema one thousand nine hundred eighty two? This episode contains reenacts and dramatize details.

And while in most cases we can know exactly what we said, all our dramatizations are based on historical research. American scandal is hosted, edited and execute to produce by me linty gram for airship audio editing by Christian heroic sound designed by Molly bg music editing by Katrina iraq music by linty ground. This episode is written by handle D.

S, edited by an accountant that checking by elisa jung Perry, produced by andy herman. Our senior producers gave riven execute producers our stephney genes. Jani, our backman, march lui for.

This is a story that begins with a dying wish.

One thing I would like you to do.

my mother's last request that my sister and I ve finished writing, the member sheet, started about her german childhood when her father designed a secret super weapon for adolf hitler. My grandfather, Robert lesser, had a the nazi project to build the world's first cruise missile, which terrorized millions and left the legacy that dogged my mother.

Like a curse, SHE some, create some.

I'm suzann rio joined my sister and me as we searched for the truth behind our grandfather's work and for the first time, fed the ghost .

of our past chess.

Listen to the man who calculated death exclusively with wonderful plus. Join wondering plus in the wondering APP apple podcast or spotify.