(waves lashing)
(dramatic orchestral music)
(mellow strings music)
Narrator: What happens in the mind of con artists?
What makes their brain so well-equipped
for psychological trickery?
Is it greed?
A lack of empathy?
Loose morals?
Whatever it is, we are fascinated, like con artists.
(dramatic orchestral music)
Anchor: In 2004, Jan Lewan,
also known as the "Polka King",
was arrested and charged with securities fraud.
Lewan was sentenced to five years in prison.
Anchor: Jan Lewan is a Polish-American
Grammy-nominated polka musician
who performed for Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan,
and even befriended Pope John Paul II.
Reporter: His investors were elderly members
of the Polish-American community, mostly polka fans.
Lewan's financial crimes were described as Ponzi schemes.
Reporter: He defrauded over 400 people
in 22 states, of millions of dollars.
Lewan's American dream was built on the backs
and bank accounts of his biggest fans.
(dramatic orchestral music)
âª The judge said harshly, You going to jail âª
(dramatic orchestral music)
Narrator: We've all been lied to.
We've all been offered something
that is just too good to be true,
and still, we fell for it.
Although we love a good con,
we hate it when it happens to us.
To find out how to resist the manipulation,
we invited some of the greatest con artists
to our Institute.
Together with a team of experts,
we are going to analyze their stories,
pick their brains, and reveal
what their body language tells us.
Welcome to the Institute.
(soft pensive music)
-: Hello, Mr. Lewan. -: Hi, hi.
-: Hi, how was your flight?
-: Great, great, I slept whole night and ready to go.
-: Wonderful.
They are waiting you in the meeting room, shall we?
-: Yes, let's go.
Well, good morning.
Kerry: Hello, Mr. Lewan, hello.
Jan: Hello, hello.
-: Have a seat. -: Thank you.
-: And welcome to the Institute.
I know you've had a long journey,
so we're really very grateful that you can be with us.
Let me do the introductions.
I'm Kerry Daynes and I'm a consultant forensic psychologist.
I would love to talk to you about your social history,
all the events in your life that have shaped you.
And this is Mark Frank.
Mark is a professor of behavioral science.
-: I would like to observe you
as far as your behavioral stuff
and how that correlates to how you think,
how you process, what you feel.
In other ways, just to try to understand
a little bit better about who you are.
-: Yeah, I'll be more than happy to cooperate with ya.
-: And this is Moran Cerf and he is a professor
of neuroscience and business.
-: I'll try to learn from you how you think.
I'm gonna do it by having you play games.
And I'm gonna look at your brain while you do that,
so I can understand how you think
and how we can think when we interact with you.
-: I understand.
Yeah, go for it (chuckles).
-: It's important for me to say
that we're not here to be your doctors.
We're not here to give you therapy,
and we're certainly not here to diagnose you,
but we just want to understand as much
as we possibly can about con artists.
For now, I think you can take a look around the Institute,
and then in a few hours, I will have an interview with you
and you will have the opportunity
to tell your story as you see it.
-: Thank you, it was nice meeting you
and looking forward.
Yes, see you later. -: Bye-bye.
-: See you later.
(soft pensive music)
(pensive music crescendos)
-: When I met Jan Lewan, I met a person
who was delightful to speak to,
who was very entertaining.
He had a twinkle in his eye.
He was so upbeat, so positive,
but after we did further investigation,
after we found out that he knew
that he was selling an investment
that he had no business selling,
that his businesses were simply not making money,
we thought this innocent lamb
is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing.
(somber music)
Kerry: Hello.
Good to see you.
-: Nice to see you, too.
-: I can't wait to hear the story of your life.
-: Oh, thank you.
-: What made you want to come in
and share this experience with us?
-: Well, I'm not here to defend myself,
but every medal have a two sides.
I said, I will be happy to come here
as long as, if we have this opportunity
to say exactly like everything was wrong or right,
but like it was.
-: What were you eventually convicted of?
-: Oh, for the illegal investments.
That was the crime,
which I admit that I did wrong.
-: So, what did you promise your investors?
What was it that made that so attractive to them?
-: I was 3% more than on the Wall Street.
And the Wall Street was 9%, I was giving 12%.
-: How did this become what I understand
was a Ponzi scheme? -: Yeah.
-: Were are you using other people's money
to pay off interest of the other investors,
so that they believed that their investments were growing?
-: The investment was growing, was growing.
I didn't have luxury life.
I did not pay from one end, building up like a snowball.
I was building bigger and bigger security with,
I always say, with my merchandise,
amber, jewelry, gold, diamonds.
-: You must have been making
a good living in America at that point,
because you were successful,
you were popular.
-: Mm-hm. Announcer: Ladies
and gentlemen, here he is, Mr. Jan Lewan.
(upbeat music) (audience clapping)
Woman: He was known worldwide as the Polka King.
Some even say Jan Lewan was to polka
what Elvis Presley was to rock and roll.
(upbeat music)
-: I mean, to be nominated for a Grammy in 1995..
-: Yeah, that was beautiful. -: Yeah, I mean that's..
-: I met everybody.
-: It's an amazing achievement.
-: They didn't really like polkas.
Kerry: You didn't like it?
-: I was into classic music
and to play polkas didn't work too good, you know
but I turned this polka to the big band,
to more professional thing.
-: Did you fall in love with it?
-: Yes.
So once when Trump hire me,
I play polkas for 17 years,
for all of his big, in his casinos.
They didn't really like polkas.
-: Mm-hm.
So, what's his sense about polka?
-: Yeah, doesn't like it (laughs).
-: Why? -: He's the Polka King,
but I'm sensing that he doesn't like it to start with.
-: Right, and then, you know,
you had got some information from him
that he was a classically-trained,
and so this was maybe slumming to him, if you will.
-: Yeah.
-: Not a good use of his talents.
And he's showing you this.
We call that a "Referent gesture."
So that's there for your consumption.
He's making sure you know this, but it also,
I think, captures what he really feels as well.
-: So he's an expressive character.
I mean, he has a larger than life character.
-: And the thing is, on the first pass,
you saw a lot of the smiles,
so it was a lot of positivity,
you know, little bits of the movement,
it all looks sort of natural.
It's all sort of persuasive, he's engaging.
Those sorts of folks are often
a little bit harder to read in general, right?
Particularly with the smile,
a smile can cover a lot of things.
-: Oh, yes.
(soft pensive music)
(taut music)
(camera clicks) (taut music)
So, how did your career develop?
-: Well, when I was 16 years old,
they were forming the music theaters,
and they were looking for the voices to the choir.
To this, I went for the audition,
although you have to be 18 years old,
but I changed my identification for 18 instead of 16.
-: Oh, okay.
-: They were short of tenors, and I get in.
-: That little bit of deception actually created
an opportunity for you, didn't it?
-: Definitely, yes, yeah, yeah.
-: Would you say that you were a little bit of a rebel
and you were not, you know, you were not shy, were you,
in faking your age on that form?
-: No, I wanted to put any price to achieve.
-: You say any price?
-: Yes.
(upbeat music)
(singing in foreign language)
Kerry: You had a good career in Poland.
-: Yes, I did.
The way to get in, it was sometimes very difficult.
You have to sing the songs what they give it to you,
and in many cases was the propaganda songs
to support the communist party.
During the communist, they have this entertainment
for the 1st of May, for October Revolution,
for that in the factories.
(singing in foreign language)
Kerry: But it was the opposite
of what you believed, wasn't it?
Jan: That's correct, yes.
-: How uncomfortable did you feel about it?
-: Uncomfortable.
I sang once and took off and do my stuff,
but you cannot say no.
The communist, it's the bad thing
to make a living, difficult to make a living.
Nothing is practically available.
In the meat stores, you can put the cards.
There wasn't any meat.
(taut music)
You don't trust too many people.
Everybody was fighting for their own existence,
so family was very much tight.
-: What did you dream of?
What was your dream at that time?
-: We were always listening to Radio Free Europe.
My father always listened that.
(radio host speaks in foreign language)
Narrator: Never in history
has the American family known such well-being.
The standard of living beyond the wildest dreams
of anyone who lived a half-century ago.
-: And then we heard how it's beautiful on the West.
Everybody driving Cadillac,
their money hanging on the trees,
but they say they're practically hanging on the trees
that you just pick them up,
how beautiful life is in the west.
-: So was that something that you always aspired to?
-: Exactly. -: To come to America.
-: Yeah, that's what I leading to, yeah, yes.
(pensive piano music)
-: I wonder how much of his childhood in Poland
really impacted upon his desire for American dream,
the American dream success.
And I wonder whether the success itself
could ever live up to the fantasy
that had been developed during that childhood,
or maybe that's why he continued to go after it,
even when actually he'd achieved, you know,
more than most people would ever achieve.
-: The image of America, if you're sitting in Europe
and watching it is money grows on a tree,
that's the image he had in mind.
He came and he learned it's not the case,
but you can still make it if you just work,
a different magic, and he made his own narrative.
-: And he has succeeded against the odds in the past.
And I think that he's just learned from that
that he can succeed no matter what.
(mellow piano music)
-: I heard that one of the big singing group, "Mazowsze"
I called, went to New York for the tour,
and half of the group came back.
And now they have asked for political asylum,
and they stay.
Well, maybe one day I will go with the theater
or something, you know?
And actually what's happened
because in theater that I was working,
there was an impresario from New York.
He came to me and he said, well, Jan,
two years from now, I will get you with the group as well.
I said, I didn't believe it.
But I said, that's beautiful, you know?
But yeah, two years later I was with the theater,
the group to the North America, yeah.
Next day, I took the train
and I went and celebrate with my parents.
I going to America, but I didn't tell them I going
and I won't be back.
âª With tears in my eyes I left my Polish home âª
âª Two suitcases packed with everything I own âª
âª America, the money trees this was my only goal. âª
-: So off you went to America and what happened there?
Was there money growing on trees?
-: No, that was a little disappointment, yeah.
When the group went back and I stay, then you realize,
well, it's not like I expect, maybe I make mistake.
But I leave that just for myself.
I was showing my family I did the right thing.
So I was working in the gas station and all kinds of jobs.
-: The time that Jan spent
under communist rule in Poland is significant.
I think that must have made the fantasy of going to America
and succeeding all the more enticing,
all the more thrilling.
And so, yeah, I think that's a real part
of what motivates him and has driven him.
But I think maybe he accepted the American culture
a little bit too well, because he became greedy.
âª Body heart mind and soul âª
âª I dreamed that everyone in Vegas by now with know my name âª
âª In Chicago and Cleveland, I will have great pain âª
âª Evely Humble you will see my smiling face âª
âª From Central Park Soho even in âª
(pensive piano music)
-: In Jan Lewan, I look for a lot of things
that have to do with emotions,
and a lot of things have to do
with interacting with other people.
How are you feeling, okay?
-: Yeah, fine.
-: I think that there's something in the brain
that drives our behavior.
So if you take a person who was a con artist,
and we look at their brain, we have a chance
of finding a difference between them and the average person.
And if there is this difference
that we can point out to,
then maybe we can understand ourself and change it, fix it,
or at least learn how to avoid it if we have it.
In this one, you see pair of eyes
and those eyes carry some emotion in them.
Take the cursor to the word that you think it reflect
and then press it.
-: Ha ha ha, annoying.
Oh, upset.
(pensive piano music)
-: Here are the things that I looked at with him.
First of all, what he is very good in empathy.
So I had him look at emotions and kind of read them
and try to figure them out.
He was nearly perfect.
And when he made mistakes,
it was usually a mistake of English.
He just didn't know the word.
Like, what is the word?
I, mean, you know disrespectful.
You kind of, so I think he was good in reading emotions.
And the last thing I learned about him that was irrelevant
is that he doesn't really take chances.
In each round, you can press this button.
It says, pump up the balloon.
-: Okay. -: And then it's gonna get
bigger and bigger and bigger.
The bigger the balloon, the more money you make.
-: I like that.
-: Okay, but if you get it too big, it's going to explode.
And if it explode, you get nothing.
All right, let's start one.
So inflating it.
-: Oh, I got it now, yeah.
-: So this time you get nothing because it exploded.
-: That's fine.
-: Perfect.
Perfect, what was your strategy?
What did you.
-: Well, I learned on the first one who blow up.
-: Yes.
-: And that's why I don't go too far,
but I try to what I will do.
If I will blow the balloon, how much I can double the size.
It was telling me, Hey, don't overdo.
-: So you kind of took one trial to learn.
And from then on, you never changed.
-: You got that.
-: All right.
-: He took a chance in the beginning.
Once he got burnt, this became the limit.
And from then on, he stayed within the limits of that.
So he never took a chance a second time,
compared to other con artists constantly pushed.
Wherever the boundary is, he stayed always just below that,
but he never tried once again to push it.
-: He got burnt when he was prosecuted for his scheme
and went to prison.
So that's actually a good sign isn't it for the future?
-: Yeah, it's activism.
Like we think that at least he learned,
and now at least on this crime,
in this stage and he wouldn't do it again.
-: Yeah.
-: But if he is really a sophisticated con artist,
there's just gonna be a different way to, you know,
invent a new way to make money.
It's gonna be now the tango dancer or the.
(upbeat music)
(group chanting)
(speaking in a foreign language)
-: Why did you want to start running tours to Poland?
-: That was the one of the opportunity for the good income.
If you have 200 people and you know,
that time I was getting 30, $40,000 for my profit
to be the leader of the group.
-: I suppose that also led to you picking,
got more fans for your music.
-: Not only, I don't know if we're leading to that or not,
but you probably have questions coming that way,
that groups taking them to Poland during the communist time
in Poland, everything was cheap.
You buy for 10 cents, you sell in America for $20, okay?
So I went with this group for shopping for this,
and everybody was coming to me saying,
"Jan, why don't you open store?"
"We're gonna invest the money to you buy the Poland."
So I've came back and I said, that's a pretty good idea.
-: Two, three (clapping hands)
(audience applauding)
-: You're telling me that people said to you
open up a store full of Polish souvenirs,
that you can buy very cheaply in Poland.
Both: Yeah.
-: But that..
-: But we want to give you the money to do it.
-: Yes, but that time I need that 10 cents.
You know, for speaking generally.
So when we come back,
we create this promissory note and these people was flying.
I didn't ask nobody, they asked me.
-: People came to you and suggested
that they invest in your souvenir business.
-: Mm-mh.
-: Why did you need other people's money?
Surely you had money of your own
that you could have invested.
-: Not enough to invest it.
When I came to KrakÃ³w, and buy the factory of Visbianski,
there was hundreds, 20,000 little dolls available.
And I bought them all,
but I didn't have money to buy them all.
So when they invest the money, I was able in that time,
even like Vanessa was telling me Yanik,
by now, that's gonna change.
But I needed huge amount of money to make that happen.
So I didn't want to just put my effort for them.
I was bringing containers of the merchandise.
(upbeat music)
Hi, my name is Jan Lewan,
and I would like to invite you to our gift shop.
Announcer: Authentic handcrafted costumes
and dolls directly from Poland.
Hand woven rugs, religious items for check the hold on.
(suspense music)
-: So explain to me how this souvenir scheme worked.
People said, I want to invest money into this,
your souvenir shop.
And then what would you give them in return?
-: I prepare with my accountant promissory note,
which I promise 12% return.
And the promissory note was perfectly structured
to commit myself to be faithful to my promises.
And they were receiving every month interest.
My attorney with my accountant,
who review that promissory note with my accountant
may she, he forgot to tell me I have to register that
in the government.
He said, everything is looks good.
Only you offer such a big percentage.
I said, well, that's fine.
I wanted people to be happy.
I want, they want me to do that, I do for them.
I gonna come up with that 10 cents sell for $20.
I'd be fine.
-: So had you done all of your maths beforehand
so you were very confident that you could deliver 12%
back to your investors? -: Yes, the store
was doing very good actually.
That time I was buying amber for 50 cents a gram
today it's $6.
So I was doing right think that time.
-: So you were buying and buying with
all this money? -: And buying, in every floor
in everywhere in my store was the cases of merchandise.
-: And you absolutely believed that you
had a market for all of this merchant?
-: When you watch that tape,
did you have a feeling for a moment
that it's somehow paused?
He finishes up his comment
and he just sorta ends it and then..
-: Was the cases of merchandise.
-: And you absolutely believed..
-: This, and I thought when I was watching this,
that I accidentally hit a pause button
because he's always moving while he was talking.
And then there was this freeze and he's no blinks,
no movements staring at you.
So whatever he said,
he's very carefully monitoring your reaction to it.
Is what that basically means.
-: So is that a convincing behavior?
Then he wants to see that he has convinced me
and he wants to maintain eye contact with me
-: Yeah, that's it. -: Because there's
that belief, isn't that?
That if somebody is looking you in the eye,
then they can't possibly be fooling you in any way.
-: Right, that's the perfect term for that.
I think the convincer, am I convincing?
Now watch it again, so he..
-: Merchandise.
-: And you absolutely believed that
you had a market for all of this merchandise?
-: Yeah, and then he stopped.
He didn't say, and therefore I was hoping to sell it.
So sort of, I want the story to end here.
Please don't ask me anymore, Kerry Daynes.
-: Let me understand exactly what you..
Jan: Sure. -: Yeah.
What exactly did you do that was illegal?
Was it unregistered promissory note?
-: That's the one.
Kerry: Yes.
-: Another one that should never offer 20%
and tell them that everything is fine, that was wrong.
Then I was told to stop and I didn't stop.
That was another wrong thing to do.
-: He was told these promissory notes are illegal.
So stop it, stop your business, pay back your investors.
And like he made a conscious decision to continue.
The way that he's telling his story, it's very passive.
Well, investors came to me, they flocked to me.
And I didn't realize that
my promissory notes weren't registered.
But I feel that there's more to this story
than we were being told, because this was a Ponzi scheme.
So if it was a Ponzi scheme, he has by definition,
taken money from somebody
and not invested it into his souvenir company,
but paid back other investors
in order to keep their trust, keep their confidence
and therefore encourage more people to join the scheme.
So that's con artistry, isn't it?
-: 'Cause it's intentional, right?
Because what you said in the beginning was
it's portrayed as sort of a crime of negligence,
if you will. Kerry: Yes.
-: I just forgot, I should have,
but what you're pointing out now.
This is clear intentionality.
And there's a difference between the two.
Kerry: Yeah.
-: We need to get him out of the performance zone
and get the truth out of him.
-: Does he ever come out the performance though?
And I don't know.
-: He has prepared statements for everything,
but I think that either, if we tire him talk, talk, talk,
talk until he's not able to.
Or if there are some issues that he's less comfortable
talking about to show emotions
that he doesn't show otherwise, I bet they exist.
(mellow strings music)
-: This is the today.
The funny thing is they learn everything,
what they want to learn from my side.
Now, they put their mind how
they can put the words in my mouth.
They thinks what they need to hear,
to make this spicy, all of this.
But I not gonna allow it to them
because I already said like it was,
and I gonna stick to that.
So it's very interesting.
I enjoy this challenge right now.
No, they tried to me up.
There's not, gonna be happened.
(Jan laughing)
Jan: Hello.
-: Hello, Jan, have a seat.
-: Thank you, nice to see you again.
-: I hope so.
Do you know I really wanted to chat to you again,
because there are just some things
that I don't fully understand
from the first interview that I wanted to clarify.
Why is this being described as a Ponzi scheme?
-: Well, that's the easiest way to describe.
And in our system of prosecution,
it's sometimes people expresses lots to be desire.
They have no time for explanations
and I don't want it explain, I, it was.
-: I don't understand the explanation though.
So there must have been a point then
when your business stopped making money.
-: Yes, I didn't realize that the things in,
the changes in the world gonna change everything,
till the point that, people after they come,
when is the break down,
people can go to Poland on their own.
They don't need at my store to buy that doll for $20.
They satisfied them with the souvenirs when they go there
and they were going to Poland in a mass of,
on their own and satisfied them with the things,
what I offered them for much more money in my store.
-: What was it do you think that stopped you
being honest with these investments?
-: I was buying time.
I was, I believe I gonna make it and I was buying time
to come to the better by the time, you know,
when the problem begin,
I still have that millions of dollars in merchandise,
which I cannot sell because we have 911,
when the market went down
and one after other after the other,
and then I was doing wrong.
-: But the 20% that you admit was absolutely.
You knew that that was fraudulent.
-: That's correct, yeah.
-: Yeah, what year did you start
writing those promissory notes?
-: On 2001, when the problems begin.
I, that's what I start offering more.
(upbeat music)
-: Started to use, then investors money to pay.
-: And I changed for 20% in that time to keep going,
because I still believe if I will pass by that time,
everything, what is laying down in my storage,
it much more than I needed to pay off everybody at the time.
-: I see what you're saying.
So you turned to that in order to,
as you felt buy yourself sometime?
-: Mm-hm
-: But nevertheless, that's..
-: That was my crime. -: That's a Ponzi scheme.
Yeah, that's is. -: That's why I went to prison.
-: That is a Ponzi scheme.
Did you have a typical investor.
-: Investors was more mostly in my,
my traveling people was mostly older people.
Kerry: Older people?
-: Yeah, and that they become the investors.
-: You offered people 20% return on their investment.
-: Knowing that I was doing illegal.
Both: Yeah.
-: So you knowingly offered people 20% return
on their investment during what was a financial crisis.
-: Mm-hm.
-: Why do you think that they didn't feel
that this was very fishy?
-: Because through this 20 years, they trust me,
and I believe that I will still make it.
-: Why do you think that they had so much trust in you?
-: Well, all of those things where I was doing
lead them to trust me, I gave them service all the time.
They got everything what make them comfortable
when they go with me someplace or do.
So that builds the trust.
-: With these repeat customers as well.
So people that maybe you've seen numerous times
over the years.
-: Good thing you just said,
I have a people who were with me over 10 times overseas.
When I was doing the concert,
that one person who was involved
with the promissory note with me,
he brought 10 other people
because they know it's his business.
(soft suspense music)
-: When I looked at the case of Jan Lewan,
I saw that this was affinity fraud.
That's when the person who is perpetrating the fraud
will go to members of his own community
or pretend to be part of a community.
And the purpose is that
the investment will just be discussed
within this particular group.
And hopefully because of the trust,
there will not be any questions as to whether
the person can really deliver
on what it is he or she is selling.
(soft suspense music)
He knew all these famous people
who would identify with Jan Lewan.
He knew Lech WaÅÄsa and he knew the Pope.
So who better to trust if you are going to invest your money
than a man who is friends with the Pope.
(crowd applauding) (cameras clicking)
-: How do you feel about these people who, as you say,
built up a trust in you over 20 years,
but then lost their money?
-: Yeah, I'm sad, I'm sorry for them.
Added to that is after prison, I organized the tour
and most of the people who lose the money, travel with me.
-: And what did you glean from that?
What did you believe about?
-: I just try to give you a picture
that some of the people knew what I went through
with all of these things that even though
I shouldn't say cheat, even though I did the wrong,
they're my friends now, lots of them, they travel with me.
-: They have forgiven you?
-: I guess we can say, forgive me.
They don't talk about that.
(singing in a foreign language)
-: How he speaks about his victims and calls them as friends.
What do you think is his view of his victims?
Do you think he realized that they actually are victims?
-: I don't think he wants to realize
what he's done to people.
A lot of his victims are dead,
so he doesn't really have to think about them.
And of course, they didn't live out
the retirement plan that they'd envisaged.
So the end of their life probably was very hard
because of his actions.
And so he's got 400 victims and yet he picks out
the few that still remain friends with him.
I'm sure that 400 people have not remained friends with him,
maybe 10 or 20 half, maybe even more than that,
because a lot of them really were hardcore fans of his.
So it's easy to point to them and say,
well, they are typical of my victim group.
When in actual fact they are not.
(singing in a foreign language)
(mellow strings music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
-: You can only imagine standing on stage
and being able to affect people.
You know, they're moving, they're dancing.
They're doing that because of you.
And what do you think is going through their
mind when you're performing?
-: Well, first of all,
make me feel good that it's work and they enjoy it.
They forget the problems.
When I see dancing polka professor of a university
or a doctor and this, and they just lose themselves.
They dancing for clapping hands.
That make me feel good, you know?
Yeah. -: All right.
And so then when you move to other ventures,
like what the, you know,
selling the objects and things like that
and interacting with those fans,
how does that make you feel?
Well, this is motion, different moments of absorbed that
sometimes make me feel good
that they were with the trust they go forward
they buy the things from my store.
They invest the money.
They do this, make me feel good.
I am dedicated to them, to make that worth for them.
Not only for me, you know, some.
So when you got one of those investors
who was impatient or whatever, and saying,
Hey Jan, like, you know my money,
what would you say to them at that point?
-: Most of them I give them money immediately
in the same moment till the catastrophic moment came
that I was unable, then some of them turn to be unpatient,
I shouldn't say ugly, but they didn't hold this love.
You know, there was moment of hurt to handle, you know.
(dramatic orchestral music)
-: And you ask him why the business ultimately went barely up
and he had to file for bankruptcy.
He pointed to the unfortunate accident
that he had while touring.
It didn't make sense that the accident with the tour bus
would have anything to do with paying investors back.
-: Many of the clients we met had clear events
that they alluded to as the moment
that things happened to them.
Like, I think that Lewan said that the accident,
the car accident, this is like, he picked that moment.
And that's the moment where things kind of from, you know,
from white to black, that's when it all happened.
If it's only weren't for the crash,
I would have actually got the money back.
Everything would be okay.
-: Desperate times call for well,
not necessarily desperate measures,
but desperate times seem to call for optimism.
It's so counter, there's a real thrill,
not just in pulling it off and getting that reward,
whatever it may be, financial pot, the journey.
-: Right, is it a rollercoaster
or is it a car going over the cliff?
(somber music)
-: We were to Florida for six sold out concerts.
I took the jewelry with me and everybody knew my investors.
Everybody knew I come in, they're gonna buy 50% discount
and everything was just perfect, but we never get there.
My, I call him my husband in law.
(Jan chuckles)
Well, he married my wife.
-: He married?
-: Yeah, my husband in law was the driver.
(soft pensive music)
And he fall asleep.
(horn honking) (tires screeching)
(breaking glass) (siren wailing)
Two of my musicians get killed,
and my son was critical in the trauma hospital.
And that was the download in my whole activities, yeah.
So that jewelry, expensive jewelry for $400,000
was all over the highway in South Carolina.
And then I, bus was upside down.
I managed to come after on the bus and I say,
I'm gonna pick it up that jewelry.
And so they said, no, no, no, you go to the ambulance.
I still wanted pick it up this jewelry.
-: Stop, stop just a second.
I've got to stop you there.
-: Yeah. -: Because I have
to ask you this, two people were killed in this crash.
Your son, terribly injured.
You get out of the bus and your first thought
is to pick up the jewelry.
-: Yes, yeah, I didn't know that
two get killed at that moment.
-: Right.
-: I didn't know that my son is going to the trauma.
They were taking my remaining musicians in the ambulances
and this, and I knew that I have to save this,
what is all over the highway.
-: Yes, but your bus is upside down.
So human life is at risk.
There are ambulances there.
Do you think that you had become
too focused on material goods at that time?
-: At that time, unfortunately,
that was for me important to save that
because I feel that then what next?
I mean, I didn't see the way out, you know,
so unfortunately yes, you're right.
-: The Ponzi scheme had to end
because he no longer had a way to bring in new investors.
It was critical for him to tour.
And he knew that if he couldn't tour,
he couldn't bring on new investors.
And if he can't bring new investors,
he can't pay the old ones back.
And that's why his scheme ended after that bus accident.
(soft music)
-: So here's the thought that stuck with me
throughout the entire time we had with Jan.
To me, he's learned that it's bad
because he was caught, prisoned.
Someone, I don't know if he registers
the badness at any point.
For every question he was asked,
you will get the official answer and the word, "but"
and then the truth.
Why did you do that?
I did it because it's X, Y,
but actually, here is the truth.
And if you can cut in the movie, the second part,
you get his narrative, which is, it happened to me.
It was the fault of other people.
There was a lot of, and that's a dissonance.
He lives in those two worlds.
He knows the correct answer.
They kind of prepare statement.
And he has his own answer that keeps coming up.
He can't hide.
-: He externalizes all of the blame.
But when you pin him down, he has to acknowledge that
at the time that he was running this Ponzi scheme,
and it was a Ponzi scheme,
he knew that his actions were criminal.
But I think that he thought
that the end justified the means,
it was all going to work out fine.
And I think that here is somebody
who has got a pretty sensational life story,
and he has succeeded against the odds.
And I think that he's had to come down to earth with a bump.
(soft pensive music)
-: Oh, well, it's about time to go home.
(Jan chuckles)
-: Have you enjoyed your time with us?
-: Very much, there was subjects
like they never before come up with that.
So I was able to just express myself.
-: Like what? -: And I thank you.
First of all, you know,
I never had that really opportunity to say
how sorry I am, and, but also never have opportunity
that I never give up
because I wanted repay as much I can.
I never really looking.
I'm driving my friend's car, I living in their home.
I, everything I putting in to my restitution.
-: The last sentence, heard one sentence that said,
I wanted to say that I'm sorry, then the word, but,
and then a very long..
-: I'm sorry, but yeah.
-: But this is something that we noticed before.
-: I really do admire your enthusiasm and your energy.
I wish I had your energy.
And I think that your optimism and your self belief
generally are good things, but there's a saying,
"You can have too much of a good thing."
And I think that maybe you had a bit too much optimism
and too much self-belief
and you gambled with other people's money
and other people's lives.
So maybe that's a lesson for you
to try and be a little bit more tempered, I think,
in these qualities
which are fantastic in many circumstances,
but they can get a little out of control.
-: Yeah, well, I cannot just to relate it to word "give up,"
I have to have that optimism.
I have to think positive way.
I have to put a more energy
than a regular person in my age.
I just don't give up, I'm gonna make it.
Moran Cerf: You're still young.
-: Yes, off course, but I believe it.
(soft string music)
-: It's a pleasure. -: Thank you.
Pleasure meeting you, yes.
-: Take care, Jan.
Oh, thank you, you charmer.
-: Thank you.
-: Thank you so much, I appreciate that.
I'm gonna take a plane back home
full of positive thinking being with you guys.
-: Okay, well, we've enjoyed meeting you.
It's been an experience.
-: Thank you. Kerry: Thank you.
-: Thank you very much.
Kerry: Have a safe journey.
-: Thank you, thanks.
See you in Buffalo.
(dramatic orchestral music)