[00:00:03] I think once she got a taste of that money, she liked it.
[00:00:06] Scam was masterfully designed.
It took a long, long, long, long time.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:00:27] Michelle: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Michelle Kosinski.
Last week we took you through the chilling story of a scam in the most unlikely of places.
She was this put together, smart, pretty, funny, self-made woman.
Her many friends there adored her.
She was like family.
Always generous, always in motion.
Well, believe it or not, this story gets even worse.
He picked up his phone.
He was now calling Monique to confront her.
I said, “Nothing.”
I said, “The IRS just left here.”
And then she’s like, “What were they doing at your office?”
I’m like, “They’re here for you.”
She’s like, “Why are they there for me?”
[00:02:35] Michelle: Oh my gosh.
Now she was lying, ‘cause she completely knew she was under investigation.
She goes, “What?”
She’s like “I gotta go, I gotta call my lawyer.”
And she hung the phone up.
So now, I’m like this is crazy.
Now, I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I said, this is crazy, this is crazy, and I’m trying to reach her.
And she won’t return my call.
Call me, let’s figure it out.
I’m sure I can help you."
I’m like, “We can definitely work this out,” And nothing.
[00:03:23] Michelle: Over and over again he tries to reach her and eerie silence.
She had a different phone number.
She’s like, “Call me on this number.”
Call my lawyer."
Click and hung up the phone.
And that was it.
That was the last time I ever spoke to her.
[00:03:44] Michelle: This is so sad.
[00:03:45] Sal Savastano: Yeah.
[00:03:46] Michelle: That was the real Monique right there.
Like hanging up on you.
Kim was godmother to one of Monique’s kids.
Now they were calling a lawyer.
The family was currently out around $300,000.
I mean it’s not like we just came into this money on, you know a trust fund.
My husband’s worked his whole life.
He’s like, “the millions.”
I’m like, oh God.
I knew then, I’m like, it’s done.
There’s no money.
[00:04:47] Michelle: What does her husband say to you at this point?
[00:04:51] Sal Savastano: He said, “Can we meet?”
I said, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll meet for coffee.”
The whole nine yards.
He’s like, “I can’t repay you for anything my wife did to you.”
He’s like, “I can’t.”
He’s like, “I don’t have those monies.”
Like, “I’m a fireman.”
He’s like, “I make 70 grand a year.”
He’s like, “I can’t believe it.
There’s nothing that I could ever do to say I’m sorry.”
And I said, “Well, it’s really not you, it was her.”
And I said, “And you didn’t know, right?”
And he’s like, “I had no idea.”
Oh, and it turns out she’s having an affair with her divorce attorney.
But that’s still not the end of it.
But all this is still not even what sets this case apart the most from other similar schemes.
It’s that the people Monique stole from were the people closest to her.
Her friends, her babysitter, her own family whom she had once escaped poverty with.
There was no bubble of inner circle loved ones that she kept insulated from her scam.
[00:06:45] Lee Vilker: In the summer of 2018 things started to fall apart in the scheme.
[00:06:58] Michelle: Oh wow.
Did they start comparing notes?
[00:07:02] Lee Vilker: They had a conversation.
And they started comparing notes, and they go, “Oh, you’re investing with Monique.
Ah, I’m investing with Monique.”
“Well what properties are you investing in?”
She was just relying on people to keep quiet.
She would watch their children.
She would just take money, whoever was willing to give it, she would take it.
[00:08:23] Michelle: Is that unusual compared to other similar crimes that you guys have handled?
[00:08:28] Lee Vilker: It’s very unusual.
It made this case very different than any case I’ve handled in my career.
So that literally was very shocking for us handling the case.
I’m like, you SOB.
You took like older people’s retirement funds.
She took from people who had no money and they’re destitute, and that’s awful.
[00:09:08] Michelle: Was it amazing to you that she was able to pull this off?
[00:09:12] Sal Savastano: She’s crafty.
Incredibly crafty, smart.
She’s good with words, very, very good with words.
But she never tripped over herself ever, never.
My friend, he’s a really, really accomplished attorney.
He’s got multiple businesses.
He didn’t see it either.
It took a long, long, long, long time.
Of course, because she didn’t have the trust proposition.
And if she didn’t have it, it was just an easy exposure to her.
So she was never going to let it happen.
It was masterfully designed, it really, really was.
[00:11:41] Michelle: So pretty minor jobs.
[00:12:04] Michelle: Got it.
She would be at the slot machines in the middle of the night.
[00:12:38] Sal Savastano: Spending my money, and everyone else’s money.
And she goes, “Oh yeah.”
[00:12:58] Michelle: Yeah.
She’s smart, she knew eventually this will pop.
She knew it, but she didn’t care.
She really didn’t care.
I heard her husband say things like, “Oh Monique, all she does is work.”
He’s like, she doesn’t listen to me."
Did she have a pile of money in a bank account somewhere?
That beautiful house I mentioned was heavily mortgaged.
The money was gone.
She had a very serious affinity for gambling.
She gambled away a lot of the money.
But to keep it going for so long was, you know, sadly impressive.
It was a fulltime job.
I think there were close to 200 different properties that she was claiming that she was rehabbing.
[00:16:07] Michelle: Got it.
Or they’ve been able to capture some elusive success.
They must know something.
[00:16:57] Lee Vilker: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Michelle: Right.
I have some room for a new investor.
[00:17:25] Michelle: That’s very Madoff-esque.
[00:17:27] Lee Vilker: Right.
Do you understand that?
And they still couldn’t believe it.
Sadly, Kim’s sister had died.
Kim, though, couldn’t bring herself to respond.
There was just so much pain.
Monique Brady was not quite finished yet though.
Prosecutors found out that she and her lawyer lover had bought one-way tickets for themselves to Vietnam.
[00:18:54] Michelle: Right.
For a while she also still denied that her business was anything but legitimate.
Prosecutors disagreed with all of that.
She was jailed and months later, she pleaded guilty to orchestrating this Ponzi scheme.
Kim Savastano was there in court that day along with rows of other victims.
Here, now, they didn’t even make eye contact.
[00:20:23] Kim Savastano: Hmm-hmm.
There were definitely some high emotions that day.
It was, it was, it was, it was really emotional.
They now no longer have a relationship with Monique’s husband, Tom, either or her children.
When not so long ago they all felt like one big extended family.
[00:21:05] Kim Savastano: I just, I wonder sometimes what she must be thinking.
Was it worth it in the end?
[00:21:11] Sal Savastano: She knows where I am, she knows what she did.
Are you kidding me?
How remorseful can you possibly be?
[00:21:22] Michelle: That sentencing day for Monique was just this past February.
It was awful, wrenching for everyone involved.
And she basically lost all of her money, all of her parents’ money.
[00:22:03] Michelle: Oh.
So it really, it was devastating what happened to these people.
[00:22:49] Michelle: How sad.
[00:22:50] Lee Vilker: So it’s just some like heartbreaking, heartbreaking stories.
I mean you’re just in, in tears.
People were in tears.
I had a tear in my eye in court listening to them.
[00:22:58] Michelle: I can imagine.
Other victims included her husband’s fellow firefighters.
They also dismissed any blame Monique might venture to place on her gambling.
[00:24:28] Michelle: The Rhode Island Attorney General, Peter Neronha agrees.
So it’s been on, and that case goes back to, you know 2010.
They can devastate people for generations to come.
[00:25:38] Peter Neronha: Yeah, they’ve skyrocketed.
So there’s a number of ways you do it.
Yeah, and even pre-COVID.
So we brought, I think it was a case against 19 different contractors.
We put together a mortgage taskforce, so you venture to direct it in that way.
[00:26:39] Michelle: For sure.
I don’t have the luxury as I had as US Attorney to just do the big ones.
It’s all still very fresh, the emotion is close to the surface.
I, I feel bad about that.
And she’s paying for it.
[00:28:01] Michelle: For sure.
[00:28:02] Kim Savastano: And you know, will I ever forgive her?
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
[00:28:10] Sal Savastano: I don’t feel bad for her.
I don’t, I don’t.
You know, um, I don’t feel bad.
I almost feel like um, she got off too easy, (chuckle).
[00:28:19] Michelle: What do you think this experience does to a person long term?
How, how has it affected your life and the lives of your family?
[00:28:41] Sal Savastano: I couldn’t see it.
I couldn’t see it.
It was a complete veil.
Yep I, I, you know really, really sharp lesson that I learned, it’s awful.
I mean you know; you just don’t want to trust people anymore.
I’ll never ever trust anybody that way ever again.
I, I can’t.
I want to see the approval from the bank.
I want to see the email.
I want to see the documentation.
I want to, I want to do that.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Michelle Kosinski.
Monique is not flipping foreclosed houses as she claims to beshes actually running a Ponzi scheme.
AARPs Fraud Watch connection can help you spot and avoid scams.
