Episode 51: Fraternal Order of Profits: Police Unions and Telemarketing Scams

Episode 51 dives into one of the strangest, most chaotic real-life investigations you’ve probably never heard of—featuring Sam Lipman-Stern and Pat Pespas. What started as two coworkers at a sketchy telemarketing company turned into a decades-long mission to expose a massive scam hiding in plain sight. Working out of a call center packed with ex-cons, addicts, and absolute mayhem, they realized the money they were raising for charities… wasn’t really going where people thought. Armed with a camcorder, questionable judgment, and a lot of persistence, Sam and Pat went from part of the problem to trying to blow the whole thing wide open. But between addiction, disappearances, and a system that didn’t seem to care, this story is anything but straightforward. Because sometimes the people exposing the scam… are just as chaotic as the scam itself.