>> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... meet the organized-crime gang bent on bringing down the house. they are the tran family, one of america's most successful rings of casino-gambling cheaters, winning hand after hand. >> many times, $30,000 to $90,000 a day going out of this casino. >> narrator: they use one of the oldest tricks in the book... >> it looks as though the cards may have been mixed. the cards were not. >> narrator: ...with a high-tech twist. >> the person is speaking into a microphone that has been wrapped around their neck. and what that person's communicating is the order of cards. >> narrator: and at each casino

they hit, corrupted dealers are willing to play along. >> he throws $1,000 at me and says, "you work for us now." >> narrator: june 8, 2006. biloxi, mississippi. in a hotel room at the imperial palace casino, an accomplished card cheat is trying to recruit help for his con. the man speaking is phuong truong, a vietnamese-american who, by all appearances, is living the american dream. but truong is no ordinary self-made man. he is in the business of scamming casinos, and he will go

down in history as one of america's most successful cheaters. phuong truong should not speak so fast. the man he is recruiting is an undercover fbi agent. truong can fool casino security cameras, but now he must outfox a federal officer. up until now, truong and his troupe of cheaters have had an easy time duping casinos from one end of the country to another. it all begins here in 2002. in the mountains just outside san diego is the sycuan casino, owned and operated by the native american sycuan tribe.

phuong truong works as a dealer here. eventually, fbi agent peter casey will come to know truong well. >> phuong truong -- he came to the states in the 1970s, went to el cajon high school. he was kind of a low-level guy. he worked at the casinos. >> narrator: at the same casino, dealing at a mini-baccarat table, is truong's wife, van tran. for the players tonight, there is nothing unusual. it appears that van tran shuffles the cards exactly as the casino requires. but look again. see her protect the top block of cards? those cards are not mixed in with the others. this is not a legitimate shuffle. it is an age-old card trick that allows cheaters to know the order of the cards before they are dealt. it is called a false shuffle. >> false shuffles and

false-shuffle schemes have been around since 15 minutes after they opened casinos. the bad guys knew them far before the casino operators did. >> narrator: a former magician and casino-surveillance director, george joseph now teaches casino employees how to detect cheating. and he is all too familiar with van tran's shuffle, designed to go undetected by the surveillance cameras over every table. >> they call it the sky shuffle. it's intended to fool the eye in the sky, and it's a very simple shuffle, where the cards are just riffled and then thrown right back on top of one another. it looks as though the cards may have been mixed. the cards were not. >> narrator: this trick -- this sleight of hand -- will eventually win van tran and phuong truong millions of dollars. but the cheat starts small at sycuan, where tran's false shuffle enables co-conspirators

to beat the house. and then they share their winnings with tran. >> she cheated a couple times, making $50 here, $60 there, and then she slowly ramped up. and a couple of cheats, she made $800, $600, $400. >> narrator: the trick works well, until the casino angles the camera into a new position. it is now clear both truong and tran are cheating. they are fired, and they lose their licenses as dealers. now unable to get legitimate work at a casino, they decide to try their hand at stealing from casinos instead. >> they saw the opportunity to absolutely bilk all these casinos out of as much money as they could as fast as they can. >> narrator: from the beginning, the cheat is a family affair. phuong truong is the leader, assisted by his wife, van tran. she brings in her sister, anh tran, her brothers khai tran

and phat tran, and her brother-in-law tai tran. willy tran is not related, but he, too, is in and becomes indispensable. by october 2002, the cheat team -- soon to be known as the tran organization -- is ready to take its simple stunt on the road. the group heads north to the cache creek casino outside of sacramento. the first step of their con is critical. the cheaters must find dealers they can corrupt. success -- at cache creek, the tran gang finds 10 employees willing to help, for a small fee. proving the case against the cheaters will be justice department trial attorney joseph wheatley. >> dealers tended to make a couple thousand dollars per cheat -- per false shuffle -- which is just a fraction of what the group would take away from the table. >> narrator: the game the tran

organization plays is mini baccarat, a game as simple as a coin toss. two hands are dealt. whichever has a card value closest to 9 wins. players gamble to beat the house, not each other. for the cheaters, mini bac is made to order. >> in baccarat, you do not have a choice of whether to draw, hit, stand -- the cards play themselves. so, a big part of the scheme for the bad guys is that no legitimate square -- legitimate player -- could sit down and mess up the order of the cards by hitting or standing when they shouldn't. >> narrator: and most importantly, it is a game where tracking cards is allowed. >> we allow customers in baccarat to have what's known as a scorecard. you're trying to keep track of the number of times the player wins versus the number of times the bank wins, and you're looking for streaks or you're looking for patterns that you

recognize. and so, by and large, most of the time anyone uses a scorecard, it's just innocent. it's fun. it's a system. >> narrator: but the cheaters list the cards knowing the order will be protected in the false shuffle. >> if these cards go undisturbed, you know that they're gonna come back out in the reverse order, and you could predict the next hand. >> narrator: with a written list of the order of the cards, the cheaters just sit and wait for the block of unshuffled cards to be dealt and then start making bets they know they can't lose. that's what the surveillance cameras at cache creek record phuong truong doing at mini-bac table number 51 at 4:00 a.m. on march 25, 2003. see him light that cigarette? it's a signal. the unshuffled cards are now in play -- time to start stealing.

winning nearly every hand he plays in 14 minutes, he steals $9,000. but truong is not the only one cashing in on the cheat. also betting at the table is a new recruit to the organization, son johnson, who copies every move truong makes. from the one false shuffle here, johnson wins $21,000. >> in a mini-baccarat cheat, you could have multiple people at the table. you could have two or three people, for instance, doing the cheat walk away from the table with tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in a cheat, and sometimes as high as $900,000. >> narrator: eventually, casino security identifies a dealer breaking the shuffling protocol, and cache creek catches on. >> at the conclusion of cheating at cache creek, a number of the dealers that had been recruited by the group were arrested, not the leadership of the group.

that was not touched. >> narrator: the tran group slips out of town with their winnings intact -- close to $300,000 -- and three new members. in addition to son johnson, martin aronson and george lee, both dealers at the casino whose cheating is not discovered, are now working for the organization. up next... since the test run at cache creek has gone exceedingly well, it is now not a question of whether the cheat will work. the question is, how much money work. the question is, how much money can they steal? marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good!

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>> narrator: 30 miles south of seattle, in tacoma, washington, an abandoned riverboat is all that is left of the original emerald queen casino. owned by the puyallup tribe, it is one of the first casinos to open in the state. today the old boat has been replaced by two new casinos that are some of the most successful in the northwest. but in 2003, the action is still on the riverboat, and that is when the tran organization sets up its cheat at the casino. >> they were there for at least four to five months, doing

the -- committing the cheat, doing it on shifts. they had a day shift, a night shift, graveyard shift. >> narrator: as the casino manager, frank wright is in charge of keeping cheaters out of the emerald queen. >> we actually have a staff that is -- their sole responsibility is to monitor what the win on every table is and look for any deviation. >> narrator: the standard projection for the casino is that the house will make 15% off table games. but in the fall of 2003, the accountants at the emerald queen see that something is off at the mini-bac tables. >> they were averaging about 8% percent on all these tables, so they knew something was up. >> narrator: as the casino looks at the wins, one player consistently pulling in big money is named phuong truong. >> we had serious enough concerns that we watched him real close, and i was asking for specific reports on him on a

daily basis. >> narrator: but truong plays it smart. he keeps the casino guessing. >> every once in a while, they would move, let's say, to a craps table. and, on one particular occasion, they lost $50,000 on a craps table. >> narrator: like at all casinos, the first place to check for a cheater is with the surveillance video. >> we were watching real intense on the shuffling of the cards, and what -- there didn't appear to be anything wrong. >> narrator: that is the beauty of the tran organization's false shuffle -- it is so easily concealed from the eye in the sky. today, casinos have taken precautions against the trick. at the m resort in las vegas, with a fully digital surveillance system, every angle is instantly accessed. >> every camera on this property is recording 24 hours a day.

i can have three different angles on that shuffle, and i still have the overhead view, so that we have the ability to track you through the casino or track you at a game. and, in our case, we're following the action. >> narrator: but at the emerald queen in 2003, the options are far more limited. and all through the fall, the tran group walks out of the door with bags of cash from the casino. for travis vessey, an investigator with the washington state gambling commission, the success of the cheat is stunning. >> emerald queen lost upwards of, you know, $1.3 million throughout the course of this cheat. >> narrator: but the trans' previous cheat is catching up with them. news of the dealers' arrests at cache creek in california reaches investigators in washington. finally, the managers at the emerald queen know what to look for. >> once my staff knew what the scheme might be, they changed the angle of a couple of cameras, and within a couple of

hours, they were able to break the scam. >> narrator: but the casino is out more than $1 million. >> what people don't realize is, because these are tribal casinos, this money goes back to the tribe. this money goes towards infrastructure, schools, education. so, you know, the dollar loss really hits hard. >> narrator: with the scheme exposed, two dealers are arrested. but on the day of the arrest, the leaders of the tran organization are nowhere to be found. once again, they leave the scene of their crime just in time. but back in truong and tran's hometown, san diego, the fbi gets a tip that describes the tran organization's crime spree spreading across the country. >> at first, it might have just been an isolated incident in seattle and isolated incidents

down here in san diego, but as soon as we had this information that it was traveling over state lines, the fbi jurisdiction was really hammered into place. >> narrator: operation "tran wreck" is launched. the fbi's chase to catch the cheaters in the act is on. but the tran organization has a good head start. up next, how to corrupt a dealer. for the tran family cheaters, it is one of the easiest steps of the scam. >> he says, "here's $1,000," and he throws $1,000 at me and says, >> he says, "here's $1,000," and he throws $1,000 at me and says, "you work for us now."

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>> narrator: across the country, the tran organization is hitting casino after casino, cheating at table games, often making off with tens of thousands of

dollars in one night. at each target, they find dealers who can be corrupted. at the barona casino in lakeside, california, that dealer is jamie root, a gambler from a very young age. >> at 18, i started gambling, didn't know what i was doing, and lost several hundred thousand dollars. >> narrator: out of money, root takes a job as a dealer at the barona casino, and he takes his gambling to a casino nearby. that is where he bumps into the tran organization. >> i was playing -- playing blackjack, and the dealer there was pinching out the next card. and what i mean by that is as she was holding the deck in her hand, she was pinching the corner of the next card out so i could see the little bit of paint on it and knew what the next card was going to be. so, i won a few thousand dollars using that information. i had assumed it was a weak dealer. i didn't know she knew what she was doing -- was intentionally helping me.

>> narrator: the dealer, who calls herself "lee," is working for the tran organization, along with an additional member, don duong. >> so, she comes up and explains that her and her husband had been playing a lot at the casino i had dealt at and that they had lost a lot of money there and that now they were unable to pay their rent and, since she had helped me, would i help her? >> narrator: two months later, the dealer who helped root turns up at the barona with her husband. root decides to help them out. he pushes aside a few of their losing bets. >> about a month later, i'm dealing again. i dealt graveyard. it was a slow night. and don duong sits at my table, and he says, "i know what you and lee are up to." >> narrator: feeling threatened, root agrees to a meeting. >> i didn't ask questions. i got in the car. i had no idea what was going on at this point. >> narrator: finally, he is introduced to tai tran, who

shows root the false shuffle. >> and then he says, "is this something you could do?" and i said, "am i physically capable of doing this? yes." he says, "okay," and he throws $1,000 at me and says, "you work for us now." >> narrator: root knows he can make the cheat work, and he feels he is trapped. it's too late to report the scheme to the management at barona. >> they're gonna say, "well, he's been -- you know, he cheated over at this other casino. we showed him the cards. he won over here." and i thought, "i'm already compromised. there's -- there's nothing i can do." >> narrator: on the night root commits his crime, he is dealing the graveyard shift. at 5:22 a.m., on instructions from tai tran, he performs a false shuffle. >> i was nervous. i did my best not to show it. i never looked up. i thought there was a possibility that we could all be caught that night. >> narrator: but it all goes without a hitch.

with two false shuffles, jamie root helps the tran organization win close to $125,000. the strategy the trans use to recruit root -- "i scratch your back, you scratch mine" -- is just one of many the group employs. often, the tran women are the frontpeople, looking for dealers who have a weakness to exploit. >> they would make an effort to get to know the dealers to see who might be susceptible to this -- to being approached, whether they have a gambling problem, if they have some sort of money problem, or if they just are looking for something -- excitement. >> narrator: eventually, van tran and phuong truong's home in san diego becomes a key base of operation. dealers are flown in from around the country. >> they would pick them up at the airport, take them back to the house, solicit them for membership in the organization,

and then begin to train them. >> narrator: dealers who sign on with the trans risk their jobs, criminal prosecution, a prison sentence. but the trick is so easy, and they ask, "who are they really hurting?" >> i don't condone cheating -- not then and not now. with that said, they weren't taking money from an orphanage. they were taking money from a casino. and i had lost a lot of money to that particular casino -- in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. and i saw it over and over and over again -- people losing everything. >> narrator: next, the tran team brings the old cheat into the 21st century. hidden microphones and computer programs are now in play. >> it got to the point where that program would say when to bet, when to double down, when to hold back and not bet

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[ sea gulls crying ] >> narrator: it is two years since the tran organization began cheating tribal casinos in california. now they set their eyes on the

deep south and the dozens of casinos to be conned there. one casino with definite potential is the beau rivage in biloxi, mississippi, where high table limits could maximize profits from a cheat. and that is where surveillance cameras spot phuong truong on october 7, 2004, ready to pull off the cheat. but he is not at a mini-bac table. with casinos catching on to the mini-bac scheme, it is time for a change in strategy. the tran team is moving to blackjack. >> a number of the casinos that they were looking at cheating started to switch in their shuffling -- from hand shuffling to automatic shuffling. and so the game that was left was blackjack. >> narrator: tonight at the beau rivage, the organization is testing its brand-new, carefully choreographed scheme.

with at least 10 cheaters working together in total secrecy, anything can go wrong. >> the group would meet before a cheat, either at a hotel or at a place that they were renting, like an apartment. they would meet with the group to sort of work out who would be playing what roles. >> narrator: first off, they need to make sure no legitimate players can get in the way of the cheat. >> they would have to start out by controlling the table, and that's done by people called "placeholders." those are members of the crew who aren't there to bet. they're there to take over a seat and occupy it so that no other person could -- from the casino can sit down and play. >> narrator: tonight phat tran is one of several placeholders. later, van tran arrives. now the organization is in charge of the table. the play begins.

this is the time the cheaters need to record the cards as they are dealt. in mini bac, they could write down the sequence of cards, but not here. tonight they are counting on a person standing behind the table. they call him the scorer. prosecutors believe it's this man, george lee, ironically wearing an fbi cap and speaking into a cellphone. as the scorer, lee would list the dealt cards to a person off-site, typically in a hotel room just upstairs. that person enters the information into a computer equipped with a program similar to this one, written to predict the hands dealt in blackjack. >> and that program would reverse and flip the cards so that it would be able to predict what cards are coming out, and it got to the point where that program would say when to bet, when to double down, when to hold back and not bet anything.

>> narrator: back at the table, the dealer picks up the cards and does a false shuffle. >> and then, many times, that dealer -- he rotates to the next table, so he's not around when the cheat actually happens. >> narrator: later, when the unshuffled cards come into play, everyone at the table stops betting, except phuong truong. receiving signals on how to bet from the scorer, he wins hand after hand. by the end of the night, phuong truong and van tran have reason to feel very good. they have stolen $16,200 tonight -- not bad for a new cheat. >> at first, they had difficulty adapting to it because they had all this technology that they had to make work, and sometimes you couldn't get a signal, for instance, in a cheat because you're inside of a casino and it's hard to hear. but then they start to -- start to hit their stride and can make 80, 90, 100 grand in one cheat.

>> narrator: as they move from casino to casino, perfecting the cheat, each member finds a specialty. >> willy tran -- he started out as just your basic placeholder. then he moved all the way on up to being the tracker of cards because he could read it fast and get it right. >> narrator: for this latest, much more sophisticated cheat, the trans are now buying equipment from so-called "spy shops." a wireless transmitter has replaced the cellphone. >> the person who's the scorer at that table is speaking into a microphone that has been wrapped around their neck and is hanging below their collar. and that person speaks into that microphone, often using a cigarette or something to shield their mouth so that it doesn't look strange to surveillance that they're speaking, because, otherwise, you would see someone standing there, muttering to themselves. now, what that person is communicating to that microphone

is the order of cards. >> narrator: when the unshuffled cards appear, tran listens through a receiver in his ear to the instructions on how to bet. he then communicates the instructions he hears to the shooter -- the bettor at the table -- through a series of signals. >> if the person who's betting is supposed to bet, he lights a cigarette. if he's supposed to -- in blackjack, if you get two of the same cards, you can split it and double down. he'll hold the cigarette with two fingers. >> narrator: by january 2005, the cheat is ready to be tested at the largest casino complex in the u.s. -- foxwoods resort in connecticut. tonight the shooter -- the big bettor -- is duc nguyen. he is in the tan jacket, surveying the table. he buys into the game, and the cheat is on. the team is in perfect sync.

nguyen makes bet after bet, winning nearly every hand. by all appearances, he's a man on a lucky streak -- and then the block of known cards runs out. it is time to stop betting. in 33 minutes of play, nguyen steals $91,000. >> on average, they stole as little as $11,000 for one cheat on up to $122,000 for another cheat. they had their system down at this point. they knew what they were doing. >> narrator: nguyen was recruited by the trans in san diego -- a player they knew from the casinos there. >> he was told, "we're going to such-and-such location for a day or two. we'll pay all your expenses." it's a location that he'd never been to, so it seemed exciting to get on a plane to go there. >> narrator: but he did not consider that he would be on the hook for all the money the tran organization steals while he is with the team. >> he didn't factor in the risk

at all. he's responsible for almost $1 million of loss, and yet he's being paid somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000. >> narrator: by now, it is clear that, in the tran organization, the stolen money is kept at the top. >> the lifestyle of phuong and van and the higher-level guys -- it was great. they were buying jewelry, buying flashy cars, where the guys down on the lower rung -- they would be lucky if they got paid. a lot of these guys were living paycheck to paycheck. >> narrator: up next, from the largest casino to one of the smallest -- the tran organization heads back to the northwest. but this time, they come as suspected cheaters. >> i logged on, and it said, "mini-bac cheats," and my heart kind of stopped for a minute, because george lee's picture was right there. >> narrator: see more tricks cheaters use. visit americangreed.cnbc.com.

cheaters use. visit americangreed.cnbc.com. we'll be right back. today is thursday

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doug addler is in charge of casino surveillance at nooksack. >> nooksack is a smaller casino. i would not really call it a hole in the wall, but it's -- it's on the smaller end. >> narrator: owned by the nooksack indian tribe, the backwoods casino seems an unlikely target for a cheating gang that has beaten the largest casino in the country. but in october 2005, the casino managers become suspicious. >> there was a patron there by the name of george lee, and he was winning -- at the time, i think it was about $4,000. they were a little bit leery about this guy. >> narrator: george lee has been with the tran organization since cache creek. for him, $4,000 is small-time, but it's a big win here. >> you get to about a $2,500 threshold, and you're gonna start looking a little bit harder at the people with their

winnings, and you're gonna decide, at that point, whether or not -- if it's legitimate play -- you know, who are they with? what kind of car are they -- they driving? where are they from? >> narrator: addler consults the oregon surveillance network, an internet site that posts information on suspected cheaters. >> when i went online, i logged on, and it said, "mini-bac cheats," and my heart kind of stopped for a minute, because george lee's picture was right there. and the more i dug into it, the more it looked like i was on to something at that point. >> narrator: addler contacts the tribal and state gaming authorities, who put him in touch with the fbi in san diego, where agents have been keeping close tabs on the tran gang. >> once i gave them the information, they told me, at that point, that george lee and his accomplices would be back on property two days later. >> narrator: knowing lee will be

back soon, the officials meet at nooksack to prepare. >> we explained to him that the normal overhead camera view really doesn't show the actual unshuffled cards in good view. >> so, we moved a camera in from the slot area and took an over-the-shoulder approach in order to get in on the table. >> narrator: two days later, exactly on schedule, lee and two others arrive in seattle and head north. the fbi follows them every step of the way. >> i was coming down mount baker highway, and i got a phone call that george lee was 15 minutes out. he was driving a red hummer, with a white lincoln town car behind him. >> narrator: that night, lee gambles and wins in a legitimate game. the next day, he is back, and he heads straight to the mini-bac table. >> this gentleman here is george lee, and right now what he's doing is he's writing down the sequence of cards that's

gonna come out in the slug that's to follow here in a couple minutes. >> narrator: the dealer is levi mayfield. because it is close to halloween, the dealers are in costume. mayfield is dressed as a gangster. and here it is, in plain view -- the shuffle that is winning the tran team millions. >> you notice that he doesn't go into those cards. those cards are left. that's -- that's called a slug. i think he's a little bit nervous -- the way the cards are coming off here -- 'cause, generally speaking, there's no hitches in the shuffle. >> narrator: once the false shuffle is recorded, the game is stopped. >> they bar george lee and basically approach him, that, "hey, your play is too good for us. we're gonna have to bar you from this facility." >> narrator: lee is not arrested, nor are the dealers at nooksack. they continue to work as if nothing has happened.

>> we don't want to go arresting every small, bit player immediately because we might miss the bigger people -- the heads of these organizations. so, we take the time to go after the small guys and then build up so that we know that, when we're ready to take down this animal, that we can cut the head off and -- so it's not gonna grow back. >> narrator: up next, the man who believes he will never get caught steps into a trap. marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips.

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[ air horn blows ] >> narrator: for four years, the tran organization makes a grand tour of casinos across the u.s.

but time and again, they return to the gulf coast. in february of 2005, they are back at the beau rivage in biloxi. there, it is business as usual at the blackjack table. phat tran is a placeholder, helping to block outsiders. willy tran is the scorer tracking the cards. tien vu is the shooter. in 35 minutes of play, vu wins 26 hands, taking $56,000. cheating in biloxi is paying off well for the tran organization. but then there is disaster. >> well, in 2005, hurricane katrina made landfall here on the gulf coast and devastated the entire coast, but the casino industry was especially hard-hit.

9 of the 11 casinos were totally destroyed. >> narrator: with the casinos on the coast closed, the tran group heads 350 miles north to the city of tunica, mississippi. the fbi and state gaming officials are following close behind when the cheaters enter the horseshoe casino. >> we had a team that was able to follow them into the casino, and from there, then, we were able to follow them both through the surveillance department and with undercover agents on the floor as they roamed around the floor, kind of acting nonchalant. >> narrator: on the night of april 26, 2006, at the horseshoe, two members of the tran group, renee quang and liem lam, are acting as placeholders at a blackjack table. martin aronson will be the shooter, placing the big bets. phuong truong is, as usual, the

man in charge, making sure all is good to go. soon, the fbi will be listening to every phone conversation he has at the casino. they hear him speak to the corrupted dealer at the horseshoe. they hear him check on cards in play. and tonight, cameras catch his team steal tens of thousands of dollars from the casino. >> and on the coverage that we have right here that we're looking at right now, the team has won so much on this table that they have taken all of the high-value chips off of the table. >> narrator: with the cheat played out, the surveillance cameras follow martin aronson to the cashier to pick up his winnings -- $80,000. he waits an hour for the money

he stole in half that time. his crime has been recorded in every way, but for all he knows, the cheat has not been noticed, and aronson is handed the cash. >> the normal procedure for a casino with a person that's won a large amount of cash -- they'll be escorted out, and the surveillance department will follow them. so, this coverage here is routine. >> narrator: as martin aronson walks out the door of one more casino with a wad of stolen cash, the fbi is plotting a sting designed to put an end to the tran organization. it will take place in biloxi. the setup began earlier with a dealer who worked with the trans at the beau rivage. >> with the fbi, we went to the dealer's house and placed him under arrest, which shocked him.

one of the things that the tran team told all the dealers when they recruited them was, "oh, they won't catch you. we're too good. nobody's ever gonna notice this, and if they do, you don't have to worry about it." >> narrator: but cheating is a felony in mississippi, so the dealer decides to work with the fbi to set a trap. he tells truong he knows a dealer who can be bought. >> so, the fbi brought in an undercover officer to be a dealer. we provided training. we credentialed the individual, and he went and physically worked a shift as a dealer at the imperial palace. >> narrator: that is how phuong truong came to this hotel room in june 2006, believing he is recruiting a new dealer. he has carried out his cheat in 29 casinos in 7 states and in canada. no wonder he thinks he will

never get caught. after this meeting, the plan is for truong, his co-conspirators, and this "dealer" to pull off the false-shuffle cheat at the imperial palace casino. >> we were gonna try to get him actively performing a cheat with these undercover dealers, and then he would be arrested, and, at the same time, everyone else would be arrested. >> narrator: but that never comes to be. truong returns to his home in san diego before the scheduled cheat, and, from there, he suddenly makes a move no one is expecting. >> he decided to drive to los angeles from san diego -- a two-hour drive to l.a.x., los angeles international airport -- to go hop on a flight back to vietnam. >> narrator: later, it is learned that truong was not fleeing the country, merely taking a short trip.

but the fbi does not know that. >> we made the decision to arrest phuong truong 10 minutes before he was to board his flight to vietnam. >> narrator: it is over. by now, investigators have reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage in order to build the case against the trans. and, following a series of indictments, more than 40 people plead guilty to charges related to the cheating scheme. >> the 45 people who pled guilty span the entire reach of the conspiracy. you had people who started out as placeholders and bettors within the organization. you had people who were also pit bosses and supervisors for the casino who were also in the cheating crew. >> narrator: among those who plead guilty is jamie root. he serves 60 days in a federal prison and is now responsible for enormous restitution and legal fees. >> for me, crime didn't pay. i lost in this whole thing part

of my reputation, hundreds of thousands of dollars, the ability to earn an honest living, as i can no longer be hired by most businesses due to now having a felony. >> narrator: martin aronson, even before his conviction, is broke, having lost all the money he stole at the poker table. he is sentenced to a four-year term in federal prison. george lee is sentenced to two years. van tran and phuong truong are forced to forfeit their houses, cars and jewelry. they are sentenced to time in federal prison and owe restitution fees of close to $6 million. they might have gotten away with the cheat if they had quit early on, but they believed they would never get caught, and the money was just too good. >> as with all criminals, they got greedy. that's where all criminals go wrong.

>> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... he's called the "mormon madoff." shawn merriman is a bishop in the church... the father of four children... and the head of a thriving investment business pulling in millions. >> everybody wants to be a part of an exclusive club. so you had to get in quick. that's why he was able to take advantage of so many people. >> narrator: but for 15 years, merriman lives a lie, ripping off his neighbors, members of his church... even his own mother. >> he just said, "mom, i have to tell you something very bad." i said, "you took all of our money that we're counting on for retirement?" he said, "yes." >> narrator: shawn merriman is a scam artist.