for strippers in manhattan and queens, accused of drugging customers. >> the story, sex, strippers, drugs, and rich guys. it's made for tabloids. >> i heard it was going to be made into a movie. well, duh, i knew i had a movie. >> so "hustlers" was a huge hit. >> a group of women who were working in strip clubs in and around new york city. >> it's rigged and it does not reward people who play by the rules. >> this is a story about my life and how things got crazy.

>> i wouldn't we were evil. con women, you could say that. >> i'm a businesswoman. i was just in the wrong business. >> these women would call themselves entrepreneurs. the police, they would call them criminals. >> men would wake up the next morning and discover that not only did they spend more than they thought they didn't remember what they were spending it on. >> i told her, you're nothing but a thief. i told her you're nothing but a swindler. >> they're survivors. we're all hustling. >> what makes a good hustler? i can't give up all my secrets. new york has always been a city of dreams. it's more than dreams, it's

fantasies. it attracts people who have made it or people who want to make it. >> every time i come to manhattan, i fit in. this is where i belong. the energy, the fast pace, the hustle. >> rosie was from rockland county. she was smart. she was quick. >> when she was growing up she used to buy candy and bring it to school and sell it for a profit. >> my childhood was a little rough. my mom was working two or three jobs and my father was kind of absent. i was always the black sheep of the family. >> she dropped out of school and became a waitress at 17 years old. >> and that's when i started hustling, 'cause, you know, you work off of tips. you know, the harder you work and the nicer you are, the more money you're gonna get. >> rosie is bubbly, smart. she's cunning, but not in a bad way.

>> she was lured into working at a strip club when waiting tables at a diner next door to a strip club. >> the managers from that club would come in and rosie was their waitress. >> they were like, "oh, you're hot, you know, you should be working there." >> so for the hours she's putting in waiting tables at a diner, she says, "you know what? man, i could be doing all that same amount of work and be making ten times the money i'm making." >> i always wanted to be in new york city dancing. you know there is a lot of money out there. when i was younger, i used to watch "g-string divas" on hbo. so, i was like, "oh, if they can do it, i could do it." >> there were shows on television on cable tv about strippers that were sort of mainstreaming, if you will, the fact that women can make a living doing this. so you add to that howard stern talking and interviewing strippers who were becoming stars on his radio show.

>> is being a dancer at scores the greatest thing a girl can do? >> he glorified it. he made it look so glamorous. >> i mean, this is like one of the best-looking girls i ever saw at scores. i was checking you out at scores. scores girls always look good. >> scores is basically the prototype of the high-end gentlemen's club, the superstar thing. it's a national brand, it is publicly traded and the company has clubs all over the country. >> so women were definitely aware that this job existed and this was a way to make good money fast. >> the first day, i think it was, like -- the quickest $2,000 or $3,000 i ever made. it felt great to have that power. >> the kind of gentlemen who went to gentlemen's clubs back in the day were, like, wall street bros with a lot of money. >> at one point, rosie was making about $10,000 a night from hedge fund managers. >> it's a rush. you get a high. you get a rush from it. >> rosie was a good fit for this because she was pushing, she was hustling. she was able to read people. >> when you first meet a

customer, you don't know what kind of buying power they have. first thing you got to do is have a drink with them. >> is that somebody who's wealthy? is that somebody who's here just to have one quick drink and look at a pretty woman, or is that somebody who's here to get hammered and to really spend? >> all of a sudden, the numbers are going off in your head. like, okay, this guy makes "x" amount of dollars. he can afford the champagne room. >> no, the champagne room is where the girls would say, "well, if you want a little extra something, we can take you to the fancy back room." >> they'd be escorted to these secret rooms, these private rooms, and that's when the credit cards would blow up. >> a champagne room is about $600 to $1,000 depending on where you are or what rooms you get. >> the more intoxicated you get, the more you're gonna spend. and that's the -- the game there. to make you spend more. to get you intoxicated. they start rolling out high-end

liquor. >> think about a bottle of champagne that you might spend $40 to purchase in a store. that bottle of champagne inside a strip club could be $500, even $1,000. the mark-ups are totally insane. >> before you know it, that man has $50,000 charged to his credit card. >> when i was going to school and working at the same time, i was making my tuition in one night and i was like, "oh, my gosh, school can wait." >> when these women are running those calculations and the men are walking in and the men are sitting down, they quickly stop being men and stop being people. they start being dollar figures, and all they want is they want more money. >> these men, they felt, were there just to see them with their clothes off, didn't take them as real people and they had a great deal of disdain for them. >> you see the worst of men when you work in a club. you see the scum of the earth.

>> they're trying to date you. they keep trying to tell you, "oh, i want to sleep with you." >> you know diamond from the bronx, right? >> in the movie "hustlers," cardi b, who's a huge star in the music world, plays one of the dancers. >> i'm good at that. >> and she was actually drawing on some personal experience, because she was a stripper in several new york city clubs. >> i just got so tired of constantly meeting men, knowing that i'm 18 and you, like, around 50 and you touching me. and you just -- you just feel like you own me. >> so you just say, "yeah, yeah, yeah." you play along. you just string it along for as long as you can and make the money and leave. >> it just make you feel like, "i don't care, i don't care. i'm gonna hustle you 'cause i know you tryin' to hustle my body." that's how i felt, like, a lot. >> the more someone upset me, the more i would work harder to get more money from them.

>> and little by little, you start seeing why strippers, like, start to hate men. >> a lot of the club owners are men also. so you feel like they're treating you unfairly with unfair work conditions. >> women can make a lot of money working as dancers or strippers at these clubs, but they're at a huge disadvantage because, for starters, they have to pay just to work at the club. >> in the city, it was about $300 to work. >> i don't know anybody else who has to pay to go to their job. >> there's 30 minutes before we get fined. us girls have to get ready in a snap. >> they're also having to go around and tip everybody working inside these clubs. >> you have to tip a manager so that he will send you good clients. >> you have to pay out bartenders. >> there's all taxation there. >> front hook. >> so in the movie there's a part where the character, destiny, she gets paid out by the manager. he pays her out and then he has his hand out and says, "40%." >> minus 40% is $160.

>> you're like, "no, i'm doing all the work. i show up every day, miserable, drinking to be here, putting up with nonsense. what did you do? you came in a suit." >> i was so upset that i keep working for hours, hours, and then iave to pay a fee, and then i'm leaving home with nothing. >> we were fed up with the clubs. we were fed up with the customers. we just said enough. i snapped. >> i gave him a bump of blow and he fell asleep. he was, like, dead. oy!!!!! (excited squeal, giggling/panting) gotcha! (man) ah! (girl) nooooooooooooo! (man) nooooo! (girl) nooooo... (vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker, and is two times more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. (man and pirate girl) ahoy! (laughing)

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♪ call it nightmare on wall street. >> stocks all around the world are tanking. >> the stock market plunged 778 points. >> we are in the midst of a serious financial crisis. >> when the financial crisis hit in 2008, people were losing their homes.

businesses that had been around for years suddenly ceased to exist. overnight, trillions of dollars in wealth were gone. >> every kind of luxury that was not a necessity for life went way down. >> a lot of the money at was going into the strip clubs is disappearing. >> after the financial collapse, things are so different. the same clients never came back. >> so these girls decided they had to find a different way to bring in the big bucks. >> you weren't getting paid to sit and talk anymore and hang out. girls were doing dirty things. >> there were things that happened with champagne bottles that you can't say on network television. >> and i was like, oh, my gosh, i can't do that. >> so rosie's in the club, and she doesn't want to work as a prostitute, she wants to find something else to do. >> rosie is this enterprising hustler. and the world is amid all of these major changes.

so she teams up with samantha barbash. >> she was a single mom from the bronx. she was ambitious. >> samantha barbash was like the queen bee of the strip club scene. >> she had connections with the hosts and the customers. she was a veteran and she was somebody you wanted to have on your side. >> rosie sees samantha coming into the club. samantha has her louboutins, samantha looks great. and samantha is not dancing. she's doing marketing. >> it's under the umbrella of marketing and promotion that the scam really starts taking shape. >> the strippers don't call it marketing, they call it fishing. as in casting a line, see who we can catch, reel them in, get them into the club. >> the hustle starts from a very legal thing that happens every night in new york city. men are out on the town. they meet an attractive woman at a bar.

they're having a fun time. she suggests, "hey, let's go to a strip club, that would be fun." >> and samantha goes out and recruits rosie and karina to help her. >> karina pascucci worked in these clubs as a waitress, not as a dancer. she describes herself as young and impressionable. >> i think my role in the group, i think i was bait. i was just new and green. >> so normally you would go to, like, a happy hour. i was dressed in a blazer. i was pretending that i also came out of work and had a rough day. people were like, "what kind of work are you in?" i'm like, "i'm in marketing." >> these women are in sales. and they know their targets. they can differentiate between a $100 watch and a $40,000 watch. >> we're lookin' for hublots, rolexes, patek philippes. >> i mean, we went all over the city.

lounges, bars, even restaurants. steakhouses. >> if you saw a black american express, you knew you had a high roller. you're like, oh, we have a shark. >> a shark is a serious high roller that these girls were able to reel in. >> and we would bring clients back to the club. >> for every dollar they spend, they get a percentage of that money. >> and your goal is just to get them to spend as much as possible. >> so literally, we're talking that meter is running the second you walk in and it's running fast and it's running high. that customer walks in, pays a cover charge, pays exorbitant money for food and drink. will pay a woman to get a lap dance. >> you can be paying several thousands of dollars per hour just for the service charges, for having the strippers, the dancers, or the masseuses come in and spend time in the room. >> so it's at this point that everything starts to cross the line and go from legal to basically illegal, because they're charging things on this

men's credit cards that never happened. >> sometimes the charges on these credit cards were so big that the bank would call and confirm that the charges were legit. and the women would pick up the phone pretending to be the assistants, so that the charges could be confirmed, and ultimately went through. >> the hustle became something that was no longer legit. >> i would be on the phone with the credit card company. and i would say, "oh, we are trying to put a $10,000 charge through. it got declined. can you tell me what's going on." >> taking somebody's credit card and running up their american express for $100,000 is a crime. >> i didn't think what i was doing was wrong. now, looking back, it's crazy. >> the scam takes an even darker turn that involves prostitution. >> the customers were expecting to be satisfied. >> so all of a sudden now these men insisted on sex. >> why did sex help in the scam?

because sex helps in every scam. >> the men are led to believe that they're paying all this money because they are actually going to be able to engage in sex acts. >> so samantha and i were like, "okay, we need to find girls." >> we did call girls from backpage and craigslist. i guess it's a form of outsourcing. >> i saw the connection, i saw the opportunity. and little by little, you find yourself doing things that sound crazy. >> somewhere along the line, they came up with a bright idea to drug them. >> they'd just give them, as they said, just a sprinkle of mdma and ketamine. >> it's not a date drug like a roofie, 'cause that totally incapacitates you. this is something that'll put you into a euphoric state so you'll be more complacent. you're agreeable to just about anything. >> the women would whip out that credit card and start charging. five bottles of the best and

most expensive champagne, another five bottles of the most expensive scotch. get him a lap dance. let's do a second hour in the champagne room. and he is under the influence of this drug cocktail. >> they ran this con like a business. >> i would like to think samantha was the ceo and i was the cfo. >> they were a criminal enterprise. >> you want more and more and more. you can't get enough money. and that's when you start making mistakes. >> all of a sudden you just lose control of the situation and you're like, "oh, my god, what just happened? what did i do?" ["white christmas" - performed by the drifters] ♪ (dad) woah! what do you think? [tries speaking korean] pecan nuts? (woman) [yelling in korean] honey, please do it well, do it well.

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♪ i think these women, the better organized women, were making upwards of half a million a year. >> they're living the life. they're wearing all the clothes that any woman would want in her closet. >> christian louboutins, chanel, gucci. i liked nice things. >> most businesses, when things are going really well, decide to keep pushing the boundaries, and that's what these women did, they innovated. unfortunately, that innovation was illegal. >> it was a little illegal, and then one thing led to the next. so things progress and, little by little, you find yourself doing things that sound crazy. >> the greed actually undermined their entire scam.

>> samantha had amassed over the years, like, a huge phone list, and she would just kind of run down the list every night like a telemarketer, and kind of call these guys and be like, "hey, what's up? what are you doing?" >> samantha was so good at texting clients that she would set up these dates. >> dr. younan enters the story as just another one of the marks. he runs into samantha somewhere, doesn't even remember the interaction. >> and that at the time they had exchanged numbers, but nothing had progressed beyond that. >> dr. younan, he's a single, never-married guy, cardiac surgeon from new jersey. >> dr. younan was the perfect target because he's wealthy, he's successful, and basically looking for love with money to spend. >> he was set up on a date with karina. >> samantha had texted him using my picture.

>> she'd be using pictures of some of these younger women, just to lure them in. >> and we would kind of coach the girl to say, "okay, your name is such-and-such. you guys met here and you work here." so we have a storyline for every girl. so it's no different than an actress reading a script. >> so what did she text you? >> "hi, remember me? i'm karina. i'm studying to become a nurse, and i really am looking for a nice guy, and i would love to go out to dinner with you." and we ended up going on a date. >> and everything just transpired from there. >> dr. younan invites her to dinner and it's actually going to be a dinner that's going to be the two of them plus dr. younan's friend and the friend's wife. >> and she was like, okay, you know, i'm running a little late. you know, i wanted to spend some time alone with you. >> so ultimately she shows up at the end of dinner, dr. younan's best friend and his wife stayed until dessert and ultimately it gets late and they leave. >> what did the two of you do then given the fact that she

arrived over dessert? >> we sat down, we had some wine together. >> we had drinks. he was very intoxicated. >> they finish the bottle of wine, and dr. younan excuses himself to go to the men's room and upon return, the last thing he remembers was drinking the remaining couple sips in his wine. >> and then i started feeling warm, flushy, and vision was a little blurry and cloudy. >> and what did you chalk that up to? >> i really didn't think twice. and then i don't remember much after that. >> well, that could happen when you drink too much alcohol. it's called blacking out. >> next thing he knows is he wakes up the next morning in his hotel room not knowing what had happened the last number of hours. >> and then karina had left me a note, saying, thank you very much for an unbelievable time. >> help me understand why you weren't freaked out. >> i guess i just got caught up in the moment with her. >> the swindle was that men would wake up the next morning and discover that not only did they spend more than they thought with those strippers last night, but they don't even remember part of what they were spending it on. >> so during the text messages

subsequently with the girl, he says to her, "what ended up happening last night?" she said, "oh, you had a lot of drinks, we went out, we had a great time, thanks. it was great." she says it would be great to get together again. >> they meet a second time and a very similar kind of thing happens. >> what did you do after dinner? >> i went to the bathroom and then i signed the bill. and then i don't remember the events. >> the second date when he woke up, he again was told by her that we had a wonderful night, you had a little too much to drink. i'm sorry if you don't remember. >> and no alarm bells are going off for you? >> no alarm bells. >> why not? >> i was naive and foolish. you know, i believed her, i trusted her. i mean, who hasn't done a stupid thing or two for a beautiful girl in life? >> he was sold that she was interested. he was sold that maybe this is a girl he could have a nice time with, and go out on a few dates or have dinner with, and introduce to his friends. >> he had texted me almost religiously, and i kind of felt bad, and he said he had gotten concert tickets. ♪ gonna be a transformation >> they agree to meet a third

time, and this time it's going to be a van morrison concert at madison square garden. >> we went to the concert together and all she kept asking was, was for wine, but at van morrison concerts, once the concert starts, they don't serve alcohol. >> that was a dreadful night. there was no alcohol that night, so i actually had to talk to him. sometimes you get tired of pretending and fake laughing all night, so that was rough. it's emotionally draining to do this. >> and some people go to have a drink afterwards, and then again, dr. younan remembers drinking a last half a glass of wine. >> so what's the next thing you remember? >> waking up in the hotel, and then there was a message left by american express. they said there was excessive charges on your credit card, it was close to $100,000 on a place called robert's steakhouse. can you please call us? >> scores has a steakhouse called robert's, and robert's is the name that shows up on your credit card. >> you had $100,000 of charges. did they tell you on one, two, or three nights? >> yeah, they said it was three

separate nights. and then i put it together. it was every time i went out to dinner with her. >> dr. younan immediately confronts karina. >> i said, i can't believe you did this to me. you spent all this money on my credit card. she turned immediately red. >> she says, "it wasn't me. it was my sisters. it was my cousin. it was the man on the moon." she came up with all kinds of excuses. >> and i told her, you're nothing but a thief, i told her you're nothing but a swindler. i don't want to see you. i don't want to talk to you ever again. >> i was definitely apologetic. i definitely 100% felt bad, because i didn't even know his bill was that high until i had found out from scores' manager and from samantha. >> he thought he had a girlfriend. he thought he was in a romance. she offered him something wholly different. >> it was a good scam that worked, yes, because a lot of them had wives and high-power positions. they didn't want any problems. they just wanted to pay the bill and move on. >> so very shortly after, american express does their preliminary investigation, and they determine that they are fraudulent charges.

>> they were all forged receipts, and they weren't even my own handwriting. >> so amex refused to pay scores, and scores came after dr. younan. >> they wanted to destroy me. >> scores then files a lawsuit against dr. younan. he hires a lawyer, and countersues, saying he was drugged, and that scores and the women defamed him. >> that was their absolute goal, was to embarrass me. i had never been to scores. i had never had an account with scores. i had never even stepped foot into scores. >> dr. younan, though, is on camera at scores, showing up, and then the new york city tabloids explode. i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi.

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younan wasn't the only victim in this scam. but nobody wanted to press charges.

>> when the other stories would pop up, everybody went, "ha ha, what a doofus." you know, you just got drunk and you spent too much money with women who were scantily clad and enticing you to spend. >> when there was a charge that was disputed, they would say look, he was here. >> so we would tell them, "listen, it's -- it's a losing battle. just give it up. we have you on camera." >> the police had been aware of this scam for some time, but they finally got a solid tip, so they set up a sting. >> we set up an operation at a luxury hotel. we have control inside of a room, we do audio and video and we'd have agents in other rooms in case there was an issue. >> the investigation team had a very, very clear goal that night in this sting. they wanted the guy to be approached. they wanted him to be drugged. they wanted to see the credit card being taken, run. >> they had a dea agent pose as a rich guy.

he did all the things that would make him a target. >> the way i dressed, the way i acted. we did our investigation ahead of time, so we knew they were gonna come to this high-end hotel bar. >> he sits there, an hour, hour and a half goes by, and like clockwork, they find him. >> and what was the opening line? i'm curious. >> it was basically if i wanted to party. >> and you said yes. >> yes. so we ended up in the hotel room. >> i actually wasn't supposed to be there that night. i was home in my apartment by myself sleeping. and rosie had called me. we went to the gansvoort hotel in the meatpacking district. and she told me to wait downstairs. and she went up there with another girl, another dancer. >> and right next door, on the other side of the wall, is a whole cadre of detectives and dea agents watching everything unfold. >> did they give you something

to drink? >> we had brought drinks up to the hotel room. >> mm-hmm. >> knowing that these drinks would possibly be drugged. >> did you begin to act like you were under the influence? >> yes, i did. >> they were trying to wake me up using various methods. they grabbed a beer from the hotel fridge and they had me drink that. >> here, sit up, babe. drink some of this. that's what all the ladies say, are you married? >> mm-hmm. >> did he even drink anything? >> rosie had called me to come upstairs. and i had seen a gentleman on the bed passed out. and i said, "what's going on?" and, you know, this woman said, "well, he's really sick. i gave him too much." >> did you give him something? >> i gave him a bump of blow and he fell asleep. he was, like, dead. >> it just didn't make sense to me. so i had went up to him, and i had taken his pulse. >> you shouldn't have gave him that bump.

i've never seen anyone go to sleep after a bump. >> he was breathing completely normal. i knew he wasn't blacked out. i knew he wasn't sick. his heart was fine. >> this dea agent is doing a bang-up job acting. and the detectives next door are freaking out. >> i'm worrying. >> we knew that he would pose as if he had been actually drugged. >> but we were afraid that he had actually been drugged. >> right. >> there was a point where the girls had crawled on the bed and they had a wet cloth. and it looks like they put the cloth over his mouth. >> i had actually several times given the order to move in, and it was only a split second that danny would stop me and say, "no no, not yet, he just gave a signal." >> i was like moving my leg, shaking it to show them i was okay. >> well, the two women become increasingly agitated because they can't rouse him. >> oh, my god. slapping him on his face. >> i felt like they were like vampires hovering over me. my blood was the credit card.

they needed to get me to this strip bar with my credit card to do their business. >> i have his credit card. why don't we just go find a look-alike? he's sleeping. >> so they're now freaking out because they need this guy up an ambulatory to walk into the strip club past the cameras so that they could claim he's perfectly fine, and let's get his credit card and start spending. >> let's get out of here. can he walk? >> and then they got, you know, they got him up off the bed and that's when they were getting a little physical with him. it got a little intrusive. it was getting to the point where they weren't leaving. they just wanted him to get this club. so we kind of came to the decision, like, this is gonna go on all night. >> the problem was the dea couldn't let the agent leave the room because he would then be in an uncontrolled environment and at risk. >> so i had some individuals pose as hotel security and enter the room. [ knocking ] >> security. security?

>> and finally, they burst into the room. >> this guy, is he alive? >> yeah. >> this guy does not look good. does he need an ambulance? >> no. we're going to the nightclub. right now! >> i mean, they had no regard for his health, if he was dead or not. >> they are not able to make the arrest that they were hoping to make. >> because in the end they could not run the credit card. >> but it wasn't a failure because we did get some evidence. >> they were able to get security camera footage, video and audiotape, of these women arguing over how much did you give him? >> don't, no, no, no, no. don't give him that. you don't need alcohol. you just need a little coronita. >> what did you give him? you gave them too much. they got lots of incriminating evidence that would help their case. >> they were able to retrieve the glass with the spiked drink and that was critical, because they were able to then test it in the dea lab to see precisely what the drug cocktail was. >> and when you had that tested, what was in it? >> you have a sedative and you have a stimulant. so you take molly to get you up

and alert, and you have a sedative to put you to bed. it's very, very dangerous. everybody is lucky that nobody died. >> gig is up. >> strippers are under arrest tonight, accused of drugging customers. >> the whole world goes black, and everything just goes silent. >> i think it was a shock. my psoriatic arthritis pain? i had enough! it's not getting in my way. joint pain, swelling, tenderness... ...much better. my psoriasis, clearer... cosentyx works on all of this. four years and counting. so watch out. i got this! watch me. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are feeling real relief with cosentyx. cosentyx is a different kind of targeted biologic. it treats the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis to help you look and feel better. it even helps stop further joint damage. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability...

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♪ we had gotten many calls over the years from guys who said, "oh, i was ripped off at a strip club." you know, "so? what do you expect?" >> of course, nobody ever

believes these men. dr. younan convinced american express that that $135,000 bill was the result of a crime. >> scores is out the 135. so they start fighting with the doctor. >> remember that when you're there, they have you on camera. you can't say you weren't there. the gentlemen's club will fight you if you try to fight the bill. >> it was a big deal. a rich doctor, a stripper, drugs. that had all the earmarks for a tabloid story. >> i was like, "oh, crap. this is not good. this is being blasted everywhere. it's not good." >> i think these women were banking on the fact that no man would go public like this, would be willing to be subjected to the humiliation. >> and what was interesting was one of the nypd detectives reached out for dr. younan. >> detective dan polotowski, when i told my story he was -- he believed me right away.

we started working together and trying to help with the case. >> and if the police hadn't had dr. younan, they couldn't have made the case. >> he's willing to say exactly what happened. within a couple of months the women involved in the case were arrested. >> strippers are under arrest tonight, accused of drugging customers and then racking up huge bills on the customers' charge cards. >> they make the bust. gig is up. >> these women knew they were taking great risks. and the greater the scam, the bigger it becomes. 'cause you believe at first you're golden, but then you realize they're coming. >> the day of my arrest, they come to my house early in the morning, and i was taken into handcuffs. >> among the alleged victims was 41-year-old new jersey cardiologist zyad younan. the prosecutors say the victims were so thoroughly drugged, they didn't even remember being in a club. >> it's like, "oh, my god, the whole world, everybody knows what i did." >> i was working in manhattan at

a clothing store at the time. so when they had come to apprehend me, i was really surprised. and they said, you know, "you know why we're here." and i was like, "i actually really don't know why you're here." >> all types of emotions are running through you. i think i was shocked. >> there was three big dea agents. i mean, when you get arrested, the whole world goes black and everything just goes silent. >> they start to break down almost immediately when they're arrested. they make statements. they have evidence that they don't think they have, that the police have. they have text messages. all kinds of things. they have credit card receipts. >> dr. younan saved text messages and voicemail messages which he could share with law enforcement. >> hi, zyad, it's karina. i just want to speak with you about your bill. >> they also have the women on tape talking about the fact that they give them these drugs. >> hey, sit up, babe.

drink some of this. >> they immediately cooperated. they knew how to get out of the heat. >> rosie was the first to take a plea deal. >> i had a child to take care of. i decided not to go to trial. i decided to just make it all stop. taking five years' probation and staying at home and focusing on my daughter and just being the mom that i should have been to her. the outcome could have been worse. >> karina was followed by the media the day she walked into court. and actually explained some of her conduct to crime watch daily. >> today i'm going to accept my plea. hopefully it goes as smooth as possible. >> we were there for her day in court, which brought a tough pill to swallow for the massage girl accused of drugging her clients. >> i pled guilty to conspiracy for grand theft. i'm taking my first breaths as a felon. i will be serving 16 weekends at riker's island and i will have five years probation. i definitely feel responsible for just luring people in and,

you know, manipulating them. >> the girls need to be accountable for their responsibilities and their actions. >> the case is over. one of the judges threw out, essentially, the scores' case for $135,000. >> the judge also threw out dr. younan's defamation case. >> i mean, it's affected me tremendously. i'm not as trusting as i used to be. i always stand up for what's right. and someone had to stand up, you know, and stop it. >> everybody's gonna have their own judgment about what these women were, and what motivated them, and what drove them. >> i mean, people might not find me remorseful. but i definitely went through my own remorse in privacy. >> hurt people tend to hurt people. so at the time, when i was hurting these people and i was doing wrong things, i was also hurt, myself. >> they may justify their actions by claiming they are victims, but they are not. >> the irony of the story is that the two ringleaders,

samantha and rosie, cooperated with law enforcement and they ended up not getting any jail time. >> i thought that the women got off with less than a slap on their naked wrists. i thought they got off completely. >> the investigators would have preferred a little bit more time, some more of a stringent sentence. >> in addition to scores, the women were taking these victims to other clubs as well. the big question obviously is, the nightclub had to be in on it. >> our reporting has shown that the clubs were absolutely investigated. but in the end, the feds and the nypd were unable to find that they had committed a crime, or that they knew about it. >> i think it's important to remember that we took down one organization that's operating in one city. and we have had phone calls across the country from men who, the story is the same.

>> what's amazing is that these women were incredibly successful at the scam for as long as they were. we don't know how many victims there were total, but their downfall was that they wanted more. >> it seems like it's a made for motion picture kind of story. >> i heard it was gonna be made into a movie and i was like, o♪ ozempic®! ♪ oh! oh! (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7 and maintained it. oh! under 7?

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60% of women wear the wrong size pad, and can experience leaks. you don't have to with always my fit try the next size up and get up to 20% better coverage - day or night because better coverage means better protection always. ♪ to great fanfare, the movie "hustlers" premiered at the toronto film festival.

>> this was a crazy story. >> and i'm glad we have a moment in time now captured on film. >> please help, this is my husband. >> so in the movie "hustlers," constance wu is playing the character that is inspired by my life. >> i was close. >> the character played by jennifer lopez is inspired by samantha barbash, the ringleader. >> when you're in these worlds that are kind of glamorous but also dangerous, it's a slippery slope. it's easy to kind of go down the wrong path if you let yourself. >> i'm sure in the movie they're all going to be like superheroes. the truth is, in this story, these women were running a criminal enterprise, period. >> so were these women victimized by predatory business practices on the parts of these strip clubs? maybe. were they victimized by obnoxious men? yeah, that's pretty bad, too. but it doesn't give you a free pass to go out and break the law. that's the bottom line. >> i don't think that samantha or rosie can ever stop being the kind of person they are, right?

they are hustlers. >> i feel like, yeah, i still have that in me, but i've tried to learn to flip that and just use it positively. >> i don't know where they're going to go from here. i have a sense they'll be fine in whatever world they find themselves in. >> i'm getting my associate's currently in criminal psychology. >> rosie has seized on the opportunity of this movie coming out. she's working on a memoir. >> i'm here to take accountability for my actions and just let everyone know that i learned from it. i was in the wrong industry. if i chose a different crowd, things could have been great for me. >> they accepted responsibility for their conduct. they took their punishments and they've moved on. >> what you do does not define who you are. it's what you learn from it. it's what you do after it. it's who you become later on.

that's $2020 for tonight. i'm david muir. >> and i'm amy robach. from all of us here at "20/20," good night.

vandals hit a popular bay area ice skating rink, forcing it to temporarily close.