Catch Me If You Ken I 1. Boyfriend in the Garage

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It's a cloudy evening in Columbus, Ohio, as Steve and Crystal Sable pull up to Steve's brother and sister-in-law's house.

They're here for a Christmas get-together to celebrate the 2017 holiday season.

And they're excited because they're about to meet their niece's mysterious new boyfriend.

By the time we got to the 17 Christmas gathering, it was like, oh my goodness, we're going to meet this guy.

Let's see what he's all about.

That's Crystal.

She's blonde with tussled waves and bright blue eyes and a lot of enthusiasm for everything.

She works in fundraising for the Coast Guard and has two kids with her husband Steve.

It was all four of us, my parents, their family, so it was a full household.

Steve's tall, over six foot, with a bald head and a cropped beard.

He's a detective at the Akron Police Department.

Not the kind of guy who is easily impressed.

But right away, he notices something.

He did have a nice car, if I remember.

Oh, yeah, a lot of nice cars.

Because their niece's new boyfriend is apparently really rich.

He's the son of the guy who founded UniClo and heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune.

When we walked in, I just remember seeing the table set for the holiday dinner.

And then over on like a buffet, there was this huge, I've never seen so many roses in all of my life.

Like, I don't know how many dozen.

There had to be 150 maybe roses in this vase.

The flowers are for their niece, Becca's recent birthday, a present from the boyfriend.

And it was like, wow, he really is taking good care of her and he's really showering her with all of these gifts.

Becca's in her early 20s, tall, brunette, and athletic.

She has the big dark eyes and long, long hair of Kendall Jenner.

Honestly, she almost looks like a wax statue of Kendall Jenner.

All her characteristics are very similar.

But she's also very sporty.

She's on her college volleyball team, plays outside hitter, and was varsity captain in high school.

She's lovely also.

She's fun and smiling and just a lot of fun to be around.

Today's not game day, but I imagine Bec is feeling nervous.

The holidays are hard enough, every small disagreement over how to cook the turkey layered with the unspoken resentments of family dynamics.

Who feels like they've been doing more for their parents?

Who's still jealous that the other sibling is dad's favorite?

Plus, Becca's bringing a new boyfriend around on top of all this.

Becca's probably wondering, are Uncle Steve and Aunt Crystal going to get on well with him?

It matters what everyone thinks, because Becca's serious about him.

She allegedly dropped out of college in New Jersey to be with him.

They've been traveling the world.

Africa, Taiwan, Japan.

Dubai, in the deserts.

It's magical what money can do.

It can fill a room with the sweet scent of red roses, take you to places you never dreamed of, make things you've never imagined a reality.

That certainly seems to be what's happening for Becca.

Her whole world is opening up in front of her, filling with possibilities that stretch way beyond Cleveland, Ohio.

Steve and Crystal can't wait to meet this guy.

On the left, there's a formal living room and a dining room where the roses were.

On the right, there's the kitchen.

Food is being prepared where all the girls are hugging each other.

You know, we're all greeting one another and just waiting to meet Ken.

He was out in the garage.

And so finally, he comes in.

Ken, Becca's boyfriend.

He's in his late 20s, Asian and short, about five foot six.

Shorter than Becca, who's nearly six foot.

He's got a round face, cropped black hair, and a stubbly black beard.

His left arm is peppered with mismatched tattoos.

They introduced Ken to all of us.

And the thing that I noticed right away about him is he wouldn't look you in the eye, or at least wouldn't look me in the eye.

Ken's shy.

Maybe he's being deferential to Crystal, a more senior member of the family.

He doesn't talk much, but his gifts say a lot.

Ken pulls out these big, fancy, expensive cigars.

We went to the garage and had cigars.

This is a $50 or $100 cigar.

There, hanging out with the guys, Steve talks to Ken.

When When he speaks, Ken has an accent.

He says he's Japanese.

It was kind of hard to understand him.

Meanwhile, Crystal chats with Becca and her mom.

She hears all about the amazing things Becca and Ken have been up to.

He took her to Paris Fashion Week.

She got to see the John Galeano show.

He's even going to help Becca start her own fashion line.

He's whining and dining her.

She's showing all of these, you know, fancy excursions and gifts.

I mean, this sounds really incredible.

Imagine meeting someone you really love who can also change your life materially.

And money does change things.

It makes people act differently, strangely, and it can split families apart.

The Sables are about to find this out firsthand.

Because Ken's arrival is going to precipitate a mess so extreme it costs them more than $100,000, rips their family apart, and causes two brothers to stop speaking to each other.

From Sony Music Entertainment and Campsite Media, this is Catch Me If You Can.

Episode 1, Boyfriend in the Garage.

Catch me if you can.

My name is Natalie Robomet.

I'm a journalist living in LA, but I'm English and Lebanese and grew up in Dubai.

In other words, I'm an international person with a vague accent that's hard to pin down.

I know firsthand how people project all sorts of meanings onto accents.

They can create the illusion of wealth, mystery, and genius.

I've had people think I'm much richer than I am because of my accent, or much smarter than I am because of the way I pronounce my Ts.

It's given me a smokescreen of sorts, one I may have occasionally taken advantage of.

This is a story all about these kinds of smokescreens and the things we use to our advantage.

It's set in a world of seamsters and posers of social media, where the very glamorous, fashion-filled life someone projects can completely fool people, and where everything is not as it seems.

We're going to go around the world, from Beverly Hills to Singapore, Italy to Germany, to track down the true identity of a person who has allegedly stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from victims, but more than that has left them unable to trust again.

Back in Ohio, the Sables have dinner with Ken, Becca, and the rest of their family.

Even though he's quiet, Ken seems like a big shot, a major player on the global stage.

He's got the watch, the car, and the jet set lifestyle, the sort of person who takes international flights like they're his daily commute.

And their niece certainly seems happy.

She can't stop talking about how great he is and how excited she is about their fancy life together.

When Crystal and Steve get home, back to their house in Cleveland, two hours' drive away from Becca and her family, they discuss the night and Becca's new relationship.

They have the sort of private conversation that we only really have with our significant other, where we air our unvarnished judgments, the kind that aren't the most generous.

It was a little awkward that Christmas.

For one, Crystal and Steve have some resentments that Becca's parents aren't helping out enough with the family's sick grandparents.

My in-laws were very ill at that point.

We're trying to figure out why, you know, we're really the only ones helping the parents and they're bringing the new guy in.

Plus, Crystal doesn't approve of the fact that Becca seemingly quit school to be with this new guy.

As a mother of teenage girls, you want your daughter to drop out of college and go around the world with this person that we don't know?

Crystal might think this, but it's not her place to say anything.

Becca is Crystal's niece, not her daughter, and Becca's own mom seems really happy with Ken.

Becca's mom would say, oh, Becca has so, you know, found this, her man.

She's found her person in this world.

And he is, you know, he's just so wonderful to her.

Who could blame them?

It's huge to not have to worry about money especially if you don't come from a ton of money which I actually don't were you thinking that I did

that's part of what an accent does and Becca's parents don't come from money either very very middle-class family he worked for JCPenney which my dad worked for until they downsized and they let him go His job at that time was he was a buyer for big lots.

We all want our kids to have better lives than us, and the relief of not having to worry about where the next car payment is coming from, how you're going to afford rent, or what happens when you get a medical bill, it's monumental.

So it makes a lot of sense that Becca's own parents are supportive of her relationship.

I think that they thought this could be her ticket in life.

And maybe that ticket was about to get stamped.

Because a few weeks after meeting Crystal and Steve, 21-year-old Becca would marry 29-year-old Ken.

And according to Crystal, they'd do it in secret.

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So, Ken and Becca go home from Ohio, flying over the middle of the country to the coast.

They settle into their place in LA's Hollywood Hills, now as a married couple.

It's a $7 million home with five bedrooms, a pool, and a fish tank in the wall.

Out front are six luxury cars, including a Lamborghini, two Rolls-Royces, a Range Rover, and a G-Wagon.

Rent here is $29,000 a month, according to their landlord.

And this is the new home of ken and becca it was an older house but super nice modern with kind of a mid-century feel sunken living room you know lots of light colored walls this house had downstairs movie theater and everything yeah that's rita ken and becca's housekeeper i'm using an alias for reasons that will become clear later on I met them through them renting an Airbnb.

That was one of my clients.

And I became their cleaner.

And the relationship grew from there.

Rita first met Ken and Becca about a year earlier in 2017 when they initially moved to LA.

They were young and rich and really nice and didn't expect a lot.

You know, as far as a service, they were always really appreciative.

I would charge them $225, I believe, was the fee for the cleaning.

And I mean, the tip would be anywhere from like $50 to $100 each time.

99% of clients don't even tip to begin with so to be tipped 50 to 100

every time was kind of like wow thank you so i started coming twice a week and they still tipped every single time and they were also generous with whoever was with me that day like do you guys want coffee lunch you know whatever things like that marijuana

So they were just really generous people.

Even though they're a world away from Rita, she likes them.

They're good clients, kind people.

And surprisingly enough, Becca and Rita have some things in common.

Both of them have two dogs.

Rita's around Becca's dogs a lot.

Bully was a pit bull.

He was just the sweetest dog ever.

Bully is chunky and gray with a stubby tail, a breed of dog found all over LA's overflowing shelters.

And then Guac was a French bulldog.

Guok, named after Guacamole, is a squish-nosed, brown-colored, squat little thing with those funny triangle ears that stick straight up.

He's a very expensive pedigree dog.

And these dogs were Ken and Becca to a T, an adorable combination of high and low, the kind of people to love both a designer dog and an unwanted pit bull.

I ended up being becoming like their pet sitter and house sitter every time they would leave town.

So I was really close with their dogs.

In LA, dogs are basically like people's children.

So being close to somebody's dog is is as intimate as it gets.

And Rita becomes close to Ken and Becca in the way wealthy LA people often do with their help, where celebrities live in these big mansions on hills that are so isolated and unwalkable that the only people they see every day are their staff.

Rita learns all sorts of things about Ken and Becca, like the cute way they met.

She lived outside of New York.

And so her and her girlfriends used to love to go to the city on the weekends.

And they were in a library and they were being goofballs and she was sitting on the floor with a book reading it upside down and Ken walks by and says you know that book's upside down right and they she giggles and whatnot and they have like a little bit of banter and then he asked for her number

and

she was hesitant because he's short And then she ends up giving it to him for some reason.

And then they went on their first date and he like picked her up in a Maybag.

Rita figures they're a lovely young couple from different sides of the track, but very much in love.

And they seem to be building a great life together.

Becca's working on her clothing line and Ken's helping her build the business.

It always seemed like they were going to New York and Becca was traveling separately to other places to check out fabrics for her clothing line and stuff like this.

Things are on the up for them.

And Rita's excited to be along for the ride.

Back in Ohio, it's been seven months since Crystal and Steve met their niece Becca's boyfriend, Ken.

They've been busy with their own kids, going to volleyball practice and working on college applications.

You know how life can be, just busy all day, the to-do list never-ending.

But they've been getting periodic updates about Becca, including that she's working on a fashion line, which sounds cool.

She's always had a thing for fashion.

Here's Crystal.

Even as a teenager, she was in like a couple of modeling competitions and she won one.

We really always thought that she was going to be a famous model.

So a fashion business is a little different, but not completely.

And we're like, okay, let's see how this goes because people can make a career out of just being a hard worker and creative.

Becca's parents must be so proud.

An FYI, we reached out to Becca and her parents, but they did not respond to requests for an interview.

Their daughter is becoming an entrepreneur, starting a business in a high-falutin industry-like fashion.

But according to Crystal, Becca's hard work and resourcefulness didn't always go towards a valuable goal.

Sometimes there was a lot of effort that just went into keeping up appearances or even selling the world a false version of what Becca's life was really like.

Crystal remembers this one particular time when Becca and her sister wanted to see the boy band One Direction.

They didn't have the money to go to the One Direction concert.

They would go outside of the concert where you could overhear the music and take pictures and put it on their Instagram to make it look like they went to the concert.

They like to be in that top spot in life or even if it wasn't true, they wanted to project that it was true.

Like we're this beautiful family, we've got it all together.

Becca having this rich boyfriend seems to fit right in with this image.

But what if Becca was so used to only seeing the good in people or the image they projected that she missed who they really were?

Around this time in the summer, as humidity begins to prickle back sweat and fireflies dance over evening lawns, Ken comes to Becca's father with a business opportunity.

Not Becca's fashion line.

Ken's starting a new business.

Essentially, it was an upscale Airbnb and it was called Your Sky.

Your Sky Investments.

The idea was it would be a platform for short-term premium rentals.

Nice homes like the one Ken and Becca first stayed in when they moved to LA.

Mansions like the one Rita, their housekeeper, took care of for them.

Ken knew a thing or two about luxury homes.

He traveled a lot and always stayed in nice digs.

Now he wanted to put his expertise to work, starting his own business, a company that could one day rival his father's.

And this could be a huge opportunity.

Today, Airbnb is worth $80 billion.

Imagine if you could have gotten in on the ground floor, given the founder a small amount of money, only for it to be returned a hundredfold.

That wouldn't just change your children's life.

It would change your children's children's life, create generational wealth, the real American dream.

It's such an enticing offer.

The chance to go into business with a guy who comes from such a big business family, who knows how these sorts of deals work, who already has other great investors on board.

According to Steve, Becca's dad is immediately interested.

He just takes you at your face value and leaves it at that.

He doesn't pry.

But Becca's dad has reason to trust Ken.

I mean, he trusts his daughter, and she and Ken are married.

Ken's family now.

This relationship couldn't get more serious.

And what Ken's allegedly asking for is serious, too.

I think they wanted like a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Big bucks, which makes sense for such a big opportunity.

According to the Sables, Becca's dad doesn't have that kind of money lying around, but he decides it's too good a chance to pass up.

He got a loan to invest in Ken and and Becca's business for $100,000.

Ken has one Sable family member on board, and soon he'd be setting his sights on other relatives, too.

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So as Ken is talking to Becca's dad about investing in Ken's new company, things are going downhill for Becca's grandparents.

The grandmother has dementia and needs special care.

Meanwhile, the grandfather has to have heart surgery.

Here's Crystal.

He was not recovering well from it, so he ended up going into a nursing home.

And she also ended up going into the nursing home with him.

Now, I don't know if you've ever spent time visiting a loved one in a nursing home or a hospital rehab facility, but I have.

They're pretty depressing places.

No bouquets of red roses here.

When I think of the one my dad was in, I remember the linoleum floors, the strong smell of cleaning chemicals covering up incontinence,

the vague plastic scent of hospital bedsheets on his skin.

I'm not going to lie.

It's tough and expensive.

Steve's entire family, they didn't come for money, but they saved their money and they did well because of that.

Well enough that they had some nest egg.

But the grandfather is stressed about paying for the the grandmother's care.

He was worried about money for mom because

$5,000 a month for memory care unit depletes savings funds pretty quickly.

So Ken invited Becca's dad to invest in the company.

And now, apparently, Ken is going to her grandpa with the same opportunity.

You could invest $50,000 and in six months you will get a million dollars back.

A million dollars.

That's a 1,900% return on investment.

An absolutely astronomical sum.

Steve is the executor of his father's estate, so he's helping his dad with finances.

And when he hears about the Your Sky business, he tells Crystal.

And I thought, this is so odd.

And I remember going and talking to Mike.

That's Becca's grandfather.

They both did at the nurse account.

I'm like, Mike, are you sure about this?

Like,

I don't think this is legitimate.

Again, I don't know if any of you have tried to talk to an elder in failing health about what to do with their finances.

It can be really tricky.

They're still the adult, but they're also not.

And this grandfather is worried about affording his wife's dementia care.

He figures if there's any way this could help, he has to do it.

It was like, Ken's gonna let us in on this deal.

Still, it sounds too good to be true to anyone thinking clearly.

But the grandfather doesn't really seem to be thinking clearly.

He asks Steve to take him out of the nursing home and drive him down to Chase Bank.

I took my dad to the bank to

get a check drawn for $50,000.

Right before we go in, I remember asking him, I go, you know,

easily you could lose $50,000 just after writing this check.

He goes, yeah, I understand, but I trust Becca.

I'm like, okay, that's your choice.

I can't tell you no.

You know,

it's his choice.

They get the check.

The grandfather's handwriting is spindly, in italic cursive, and it's shaky, the letters falling below their designated lines.

When they leave the bank, Steve drops his dad back to the nursing home.

He's worried about what his dad's just done, scared he's about to lose a ton of money, but also feels like he needs to do what he's told.

So Steve brings the check back to his house.

Becca and her dad come to pick it up and drop off a contract for the grandfather.

You know, it was legalese and he was saying that he was part investor, Your Sky Investments.

It was very generic.

I've got a copy of that alleged contract in front of me.

It's a stock purchase agreement that says Steve's dad bought 30,000 shares in this company, Your Sky Investments, for $50,000.

He hasn't really seen proof of this company.

He only has Ken's word.

Now remember, according to the Sables, Becca's dad has also taken out a loan for $100,000 and invested that in the company.

So all told, the Sable family is in for $150,000, which is so much money for them.

They're regular working people, not the 1%.

Steve is nervous, but Ken's a rich guy.

He wouldn't be so cold and relentless as to scam his girlfriend's elderly grandparents, would he?

Steve doesn't know it yet, but his hardworking dad would soon find himself among dozens of victims who'd lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to sophisticated, ever-evolving scams.

Scams that spanned three continents and two decades, targeting the rich and glamorous to the working class and humble.

And Rita, the housekeeper, she would become another one of Ken's alleged victims, only to one day realize Ken and Becca had disappeared.

Gone.

Moved out of their beautiful Hollywood Hills home without so much as a goodbye.

And Rita's money?

Who knows if she would ever get it back?

This season on Catch Me If You Can.

I was just so mad.

My first reaction was just anger.

Like, no, he's not gonna get away with this.

I sent her photos of me and Ken together.

I'm like, I've been dating him.

Can we please talk?

When you see him with this younger, attractive girl, it sort of helps sell the, yes, I do have a lot of money.

And I'm like, am I fucked?

I was so angry.

I wanted to get this guy.

Catch me if you can.

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Catch Me If You Can is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Campside Media in association with Ish Entertainment.

It's written and hosted by me, Nathalie Robimed, and executive produced by myself and Vanessa Gregoriadis.

Our senior producer is Abakar Adan.

Our producer is Julia Case-Levine.

Our story editor is Michael Kanyon-Meyer.

And our assistant editor is Emma Siminoff.

We had help from Blake Brooke and Lily Houston-Smith, who managed the production.

Sound design, mix, and engineering by Mark McAdam.

Voice acting for Ken by E.

Wynne Lai Tremuyan.

Becca by Lily Houston-Smith, and Sophie by Madison Lanasy.

The executive producers at Sony Music Entertainment are Catherine St.

Louis and Jonathan Hirsch, Josh Dean, Adam Hoff, and Matt Scher at Campside Media, and Michael Hirshhorn at Ish Entertainment.

Thanks to Jess Antonini, Joe Mancino, and Reagan Graham.

And thanks to Campside's operations team, Doug Slaiwin, Ashley Warren, and Sabina Mara.

And thank you for listening.

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