are you really serious about this? >> tonight on "20/20," we're on the hunt for people preying on the most desperate. you're talking about. >> meet the archbishop of the so-called church claiming hundreds of thousands of followers. a breakthrough in a bottle, curing disease. >> i've been totally cured. >> but what's in those miracle

here's brian ross. >> reporter: it was a cloudy saturday morning in southern california. as our "20/20" crew waited in this hotel, for the arrival of the man who calls himself the archbishop. 59-year-old mark grenon had no idea "20/20" was on his tail. and over the next two days we watched with hidden cameras rolling as the archbishop went about his business, making claims that what's in th g any disease. >> this is our sacrament. >> reporter: preying on the desperate and vulnerable, including women with breast cancer and the parents of autistic children. >> i would like to see somebody go get these people. >> reporter: on this day, the archbishop's cathedral was a hotel conference room. his vestments, a black leather jacket and a bejeweled panama hat. and his sermon, to people who

>> i got people curing some major stuff just from that. from prostate cancer, to brain cancer, to autism. >> reporter: all by drinking what he calls the sacraments of the genesis ii church of health and healing, available for anyone who makes what is called a donation. >> it's like watching a really good magician's show. >> reporter: dr. steven novella, of the yale school of medicine, has spent much of his career exposing all kinds of medical quacks. >> we're looking at the best. the people who have hit upon something that sells. >> reporter: mr. grenon, brian ross from abc news. can we talk to you for a second please? and when it came time to ask the archbishop about his miracle cure and preachings -- >> we are a church, we have sacraments we use. >> reporter: this can cure all these diseases. it quickly turned ugly. >> you are a piece of [ bleep ], as they say in spanish. >> reporter: quite the language from an archbishop. >> liars! >> reporter: and as you will see, it got even uglier.

>> reporter: for years, mark grenon has targeted people he calls the uneducated and simple, traveling the world from africa to latin america to the caribbean, making a good living as a man of the cloth. and now in the u.s., with slick internet videos. >> i can say i've been totally cured. >> reporter: and under the guise of a church, the archbishop and his supposed miracle cure, called mms, for miracle mineral soluti online congregation of devout followers they say numbers in the hundreds of thousands. >> vulnerable, desperate people are always going to be targets for conmen. if somebody swoops in with the miracle solution to your health problems, there's a huge emotional motivation to believe them. >> i've used it on my children. >> reporter: among the church's testimonials, this video from a licensed california doctor,

but when we set out to verify the claims of dr. humiston, he told us he no longer uses mms and never believed it could cure any disease. you regret having done that? >> yes, i'd say i regret having done that, yeah. >> reporter: to find out what's in this miracle cure, we first went undercover in houston, to get our hands on some of it. two "20/20" producers signed up to become church reverends at a weekend session, with dozens of people attending at a cost of $450 >> would you like to taste it? >> no, that's okay. >> it's safe because it's an oxidizer. >> reporter: featuring a clip of that california doctor who actually says he doesn't believe it cures any disease. at the end, a quick investiture, and an official-looking ministerial accreditation, signed by archbishop grenon. >> it's just a get out of jail free card, you know, to sell snake oil. >> reporter: as members of the church, our producers ordered a

we took our miracle cure to a respected testing laboratory, and the results were as expected. nothing miraculous about it, essentially a kind of chlorine. >> mms is an industrial chemical. it's an industrial bleach. >> reporter: dr. paul wang is the senior vice president of autism speaks. >> the fact that anybody would suggest that you should give this to somebody is ridiculous. this is scary, dangerous stuff. >> reporter: in fact, look what happened when we poured some of it undiluted onto a pair of jeans -- the denim turned white through both pant legs. and dr. wang says even at the prescribed, much smaller dose, it's still a danger. >> and that's what it's doing in the gut of the kids who are given this. there's nothing good that mms is doing. >> reporter: yet mms is being aggressively pushed by the church to parents of autistic children desperate for a cure, says roland eggers, the father

>> you thrive on this illusion that you're going to somehow fix your kid or that one day you're gonna unautismize your child. >> reporter: but eggers says he quickly knew to stay away from mms for his son, after doing just a little online checking. >> they've got their own facebook group. there are people admitting to using this stuff on their children. children are experiencing side effects like loss of bladder control. they're developing strange facial rashes which are more like chemical burns actually. we're talking about autistic children. a great many of them wouldn't be capable of telling you if this was bothering them. >> reporter: and for women with breast cancer, relying on mms could be potentially fatal if used instead of established medical treatments. but that's what archbishop grenon was preaching just this month on his church youtube channel. rely on mms, not mammograms or

>> if you get breast cancer, you -- i'm not gonna say deserve it, but you brought it on. >> i think that kind of advice is terrifying. >> reporter: dr. jennifer ashton, abc news senior medical contributor, was appalled to hear what the archbishop had to say. >> to go so far as to blame any woman for having or getting breast cancer to me is absolutely unacceptable. >> reporter: but it was only after the death of the wife of doug nash, a retired nasa scientist, that the government began to investigate who was peddling the miracle mms solution. on a sailing trip to the pacific with his wife sylvia, friends offered her a small container of mms as protection from malaria. >> about 15 minutes later, she began to indicate that she was feeling bad. >> reporter: what were the symptoms? >> diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and that increased in intensity.

and diarrhea are actually signs that the mms is working, nothing to worry about, laughed off by archbishop grenon. >> yet we go a little too fast, get a little diarrhea and nausea, "ooh, they got diarrhea! or nausea!" >> reporter: there was nothing funny about it for silvia nash. >> i felt her go slump. and her eyes flipped up in her head and defocused. i think that's when she actually died, when her heart stopped. >> reporter: right there. >> right there. >> reporter: in your arms? >> in my arms. >> reporter: an autopsy could not determine the precise cause of sylvia nash's death, and the church denies mms plays any role, to the outrage of her husband. >> mms did kill my wife. there's no question in my mind. >> reporter: and now nash is working to help expose mms and the leaders of the church who are pushing it. >> those that were there we remember with care -- >> reporter: especially the

priest, jim humble, who says he discovered the miracle cure. but humble's whereabouts have been a carefully guarded church secret until our "20/20" investigative team finally tracked him down, across the border in mexico, in a small town outside guadalajara, somewhere down this dirt road. prosecutors say they would love to have humble come back to the united states, but that as long as he is here in mexico he is beyond the reach of american law. but not beyond the reach of "20/20." mr. humble, or is it archbishop humble? brian ross, from abc news "20/20." when we come back. i'm beowulf boritt and i'm a broadway set designer. when i started designing a bronx tale: the musical, i came up... ...with this idea of four towers that were fire escapes... ...essentially.

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"20/20" continues, with brian ross. >> reporter: the leader of the roman catholic church can be found at the vatican. the church of england is overseen by the archbishop of canterbury. and then there is what's called the genesis ii church of health

who says he came down to earth from another galaxy, jim humble. >> there were five of us went to the milky way galaxy. >> reporter: and as wacky as he seems, he says hundreds of thousands of americans are now buying what he has been preaching -- a miracle cure for virtually every disease from autism to breast cancer, called mms, for miracle mineral solution. >> hundreds of thousands of lives have actually been saved up to this time. >> reporter: mr. humble, or is it archbishop humble? brian ross, from abc news "20/20." and when we caught up with him in mexico, without his church vestments of white pants and bejeweled panama hat, humble hardly seemed like the high priest of a church. the government says what you're selling is poison. that you're hurting people, you're hurting children. there may have been deaths. what do you say about that? >> i say it ain't true. >> reporter: you stand by this? >> of course. >> reporter: you think that's a good thing for children to take?

>> reporter: women with breast cancer should take this, you think? >> many women with breast cancer have been cured. >> reporter: there any proof of that, sir? >> i have -- i have thousands of -- >> reporter: there's no proof of that, and you know it. aren't you just a con man? >> well, i don't think so. >> reporter: but in the wake of the death of silvia nash, federal authorities opened an investigation of the mms network, resulting in the conviction of one of the mms distributors, daniel sth follower of jim humble, now serving four years in prison for selling mms as a drug. >> he turned a profit and people were buying it, believing that it would help them. >> reporter: assistant attorney general ben mizer says e-mail evidence showed smith was in it for the money, that he and others in a company he formed expected to become "six million dollar men" by selling the miracle cure. >> and that was all at the

>> reporter: and with the church claiming that millions of mms kits have been sold, and some 1,700 reverends who have gone through training seminars, there is big money at stake. you take $100 for every head, don't you? >> something like that. >> reporter: but when pressed for details about his cut -- the money didn't matter? >> that might be one reason. >> reporter: church leader humble became unhappy with our questions. >> i'm tired of this interview, i'm gonna leave. sorry. >> reporter: as long as the high priest humble stays in mexico, it may be difficult for american officials to investigate him. offering us a papal wave good-bye. and his number two man, archbishop grenon, boasts the law can't touch him either, because he's part of a church, offering a sacrament. >> the church is under no law. that's why you can go to a church and get political asylum. a priest can give a kid alcohol, a minor, in public, and not get arrested.

not protect illegal conduct from prosecution. >> reporter: so by calling it a sacrament of a church that they've created, they're still open to prosecution? >> they can still be prosecuted, yes, if they are selling it in order to cure diseases and are telling people that it will cure diseases. >> reporter: the archbishop says the church is collecting donations for the miracle cure, not selling it. but as we saw in our undercover investigation, grenon contins to make his outrageous claims. >> what would you use this for? the cancer, lyme disease, parkinson's. stuff that's taking a long time to heal. and usually within three to six months they're fine. >> he says that it can cure pretty much anything. >> reporter: among those who paid $450 to be inside the supposed church service, our "20/20" undercover reporter, lisa bartley of our los angeles station kabc, with her iphone in hand. he told you this would cure

>> he says that that's the very easiest thing they can cure. >> reporter: in fact, he says, all kinds of cancer. >> just with the one drop an hour, from prostate cancer to brain cancer to autism. >> reporter: plus, hiv. >> we'd get rid of that quick. easy. >> reporter: leukemia in children. >> we got some kids with leukemia who did ten hours a day. okay? >> reporter: mr. grenon, brian ross from abc news. can we talk to you for a few seconds please? but outside his hotel conference room pulpit, the archbishop didn't seem very eager to talk about his miracle cure. are you harming people with this do you think sir? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: you're not? >> not at all. >> reporter: and you're standing by that this can cure all these diseases? >> yes, we can cure many things. >> reporter: now joined by his son, also a self-ordained bishop of the church, grenon had a lot to say about us. >> abc's [ bleep ]. who owns that, the rothschilds? who owns these banks? >> reporter: what are you talking about? are you really serious?

so out of touch with reality. >> reporter: do you honestly -- let me ask you a question. >> abc, cbs, fox news, you -- you're all liars, it's all scripted. this guy's an actor. >> reporter: are you really serious about this? you think -- >> you're an actor, get this actor out of my way. >> reporter: no, i'm a reporter, and you honestly believe this can cure cancer? >> you're an actor, okay? >> reporter: i am a reporter. >> you're a piece of [ bleep ] as they say in spanish. >> just leave our church. >> go check out the facts, okay? i've asked for live interviews, and i've got the facts and you people are [ bleep ], liars, and you're just an actor. you're a puppet. you little puppet. look at you, "look at me sir, do you know this about the fda, sir?" you don't know what the hell you're talking about. >> reporter: i do know what i'm talking about, sir. >> you don't know. you're a scripted actor, that's all you are. enjoy yourself, buddy. >> stupid son of a bitch. >> reporter: and then the

his service to tell them about the encounter with "20/20," saying he looked forward to our investigative report. >> i hope they think i'm a raving lunatic, i really do. because we got to get people's attention, you know. >> mms as a medicine is a fraud. mms is not a medicine. it's a dangerous substance. it harmed me greatly by causing my wife and my partner in sailing and -- to be -- no longer with me. >> i don't know that i have the depraved enough mind to actually explain how these people are motivated or how they live with themselves. what kind of psychos t engaged in that allows them to walk around like this. >> you're preying on desperate mothers and fathers. how can you not call that evil? >> hello, i'm elizabeth vargas. >> and i'm david muir. that's our question, is it evil? do you think they're pretending to have a miracle cure to rake

let us know, use #abc2020. >> but there are people that are pretenders, faking disabilities for big bucks. wait until you see how far they've ghon. coming up, she was a waitress, so how did she reinvent herself as french royalty? and, what reality stars are now facing reality? there's our guy. >> the pretenders, when we return. ?i will follow you,? ?ever since you touched my hand i knew? ?i love you, i love you, i love you.? ?where you go i'll follow, i'll follow, i'll follow.?

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it's easy to understand, indulgiing in a fantasy life, bt what happens when it turns into a scam? here's rebecca jarvis. >> reporter: once upon a time, the story goes, a little girl grew up in a fairy tale castle, on a sprawling estate under towering trees. her name was as impressive as

her childhood, a storybook tale which begins our story, too. genevieve told the world she'd been born into the rochechouart family, one of the oldest noble families in france, dating back to the 800s. that's when charlemagne ruled the western world, and algebra was invented. >> the rochechouart family is one of the famous families of france. it's quite a well-known name. >> reporter: this is no movie set, no theme park. it's the actual family castle that datesac century. genevieve's resume was equally impressive -- educated at the finest european schools, earning degrees to match her pedigree. >> she was an md, and a ph.d. >> in genetics. >> reporter: but this story isn't the full story. we turn from france to fresno, the central california city where genevieve de montremare debuts in the early 1990s, her past shrouded in mystery, her

>> people come from all over the world to start a new life here. it's down to earth. it's not pretentious. there's also a lot of great wealth in kind of a quiet way. >> reporter: genevieve -- yes, that's her crown -- finds her prince when she meets dr. michael weilert, a wealthy pathologist. they marry in 1991, have a little girl, and eventually settle on this lush 15-acre property. genevieve's prize jewel is her stable of a very expensive and extremely rare breed of horse called friesians. >> she had way more than a million dollars' worth of horses, easy. >> she was a legend amongst the friesian community. she was a geneticist. she was revolutionizing friesians in america. >> reporter: you were star-struck. >> yeah, the fact that she would talk to me when she had all these horses and knew all these things. >> reporter: cheryl skigin and her husband brian gwartz both had a lifelong love of horses and she was eager to chat with the storied genevieve. you have described her as the

world." >> she exuded tremendous influence. >> reporter: did she flaunt her wealth? >> oh, yes. "oh, i don't deal with that, you know, my people deal with that." >> reporter: genevieve was famous for her lavish equestrian events and parties. what were the parties she hosted at her home like? >> oh, my gosh. they were great. she had a beautiful home. she would have a huge catered lunch on the tennis courts. and a beautiful covered arena. it was just spectacular. >> reporter: but genevieve herself was somewhat of a recluse. rarely came out of her house. few photos exist of her from this time. she told people she was battling leukemia, and on those rare occasions she was seen, friends say she almost always wore an i.v. like the one seen here. what did she tell you about her illness? >> that she was dying of leukemia. that she didn't know how long she had. i saw her twice. and i think that's more than most people have. >> reporter: over how many years? >> over ten years. >> reporter: but behind those

genevieve de montremare was hiding a queen-sized secret -- a secret that no one in her elite equestrian world could have ever imagined. a mere 30 miles away, we find a man named gary hoffman. he knows the face in this picture. who could forget it? but he says this woman's real name is genevieve sanders. first impression. >> beautiful young lady, very smart. the kind of person that, hey, i'd like to get to know her. >> reporter: genevieve sanders was an all-american girl from lindsay, california, the daughter of a farmer. she never earned a ph.d., and he says she didn't know much french. gary met her while she was a student at fresno state university and he was a teaching assistant. >> we got to know each other quite well. just hanging out here, going over to the library next door. >> reporter: after two years, the farmer's daughter and teacher tied the knot. they lived on a tight budget -- not quite in a shoe, but in a very modest home. genevieve took waitressing jobs

but that crown was real. just wasn't from france. check out her sash in this picture -- yes, genevieve sanders was the reigning national raisin queen. here she is arriving on a two-week trip to japan to bolster raisin sales around the pacific rim. she seemed to really enjoy the spotlight. >> yeah. she definitely enjoyed it. she enjoyed that little bit of taste of low-level celebrity she had. she could sort of see how this could be transformed to something else. >> reporter: now at this time, madonna was queen of the pop charts. that's important, because gary says her transformation from michigan girl to global superstar inspired his young bride. >> genevieve was very much into that and how a young woman could put on this persona, and through all these videos, project herself and this character. >> reporter: the metamorphosis is gradual. genevieve starts adopting a french accent while she's

>> i thought it was kind of funny. at home, she would get in front of the mirror and say a few words. i just came to think that it was reinforced, it was rewarded, it was something that people liked, to talk to her. she just became that much more interesting. >> reporter: the act worked. it brought bigger tips, and soon, genevieve is almost going full-time french, even at home. you had to have realized at some point, this is a little kind of crazy behavior. >> she was my wife, and i loved her. >> reporter: eventually, gary starts looking for an exit out of the land of make-believe. divorce papers are his ticket. >> i'm glad i'm out. >> reporter: years later, genevieve was able to fully realize her phony french dreams when she married the wealthy dr. weilert. her plebeian past has been replaced with the fabricated tale of her noble birth. and it might have worked, but some say she starts to take the marie antoinette act too far.

she could hurt you emotionally, she could hurt you financially. and she was mean. i did something that upset her, and at that point i was supposedly not allowed on her property. >> reporter: but how can you stay angry with a woman dying of leukemia? it was no secret. genevieve's failing health is even the subject of an article in this national horse magazine. then, in late 2007, her husband announces that genevieve succumbs to her illness. but was her end just the beginning? coming up -- chapter two of our story, as both genevieve and her buried past return with a vengeance. >> i was flabbergasted. i couldn't breathe for a second. it was just unbelievable. ?"all you need is love" plays? my friends know me so well. they can tell what i'm thinking, just by looking in my eyes. but what they didn't know was that i had dry, itchy eyes. i used artificial tears from the moment i woke up... ...to the moment i went to bed.

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"20/20" returns, with the pretenders. >> reporter: chapter two of our tale picks up with the news that genevieve de montremare has died and the heartbroken world of friesian horse breeding prepares to bid her adieu. >> they dedicated the national show to her. you know, she was like a heroine. >> reporter: this sorrowful obituary pays tribute to the "matriarch of the friesian

>> people were devastated. >> reporter: but there's no funeral. her friends are told this is because her body has been buried back in france according to an ancient family ritual. >> the french family, in france, they took her heart. and put it in a cathedral. >> reporter: her french death certificate, seen here, circulates among the grieving horse community. back in california, genevieve's distraught husband michael weilert says he can no longer bear to live here without his wife. he puts the place up for sale. touting it as a hot property, built and decorated to the standards of excellence demanded by the french aristocracy. asking price, $2.3 million. cheryl skigin and brian gwartz were in the market for a property for their horses. how was michael weilert coping with his wife's death? >> he stood at, in front of the front door with us, and actually cried over his wife's death. >> reporter: in may 2009, the

but when the new owners take possession they say the place is far from fit for a king, uncovering unremedied structural problems that they estimate would cost at least $800,000 to fix. >> and the minute we actually confronted him with that, it was, "you'll have to speak to my lawyer." >> reporter: in preparation for their lawsuit, cheryl and brian say they come across something startling. that's genevieve's signature on the deed to the property, but zut alors! it's dated march 20th, 2008. almost four months after she died. >> i was flabbergasted. i couldn't breathe for a second. it was just unbelievable. >> we thought the deed was forged. and then we got the notary. found out the deed was not forged because he remembered meeting genevieve de montremare. >> how was this possible? >> you know, it was just unbelievable. >> reporter: they dig deeper and find her first husband gary hoffman. and he reveals her other big secret. genevieve is a phony

you are called in to be deposed. >> yes. >> reporter: were you surprised? >> yes. what had been just talking at her restaurant to maybe get better tips became something that was a true character for her, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. i did not see that coming. >> reporter: word quickly gets around the equestrian community. >> oh, it spread like wildfire. it was basically, i can't believe it, i can't believe it. i can't believe it. and yet it's, oh, my god. >> reporter: in their suit, cheryl and brian allege that those claims about the royal status of the property were all a fraud cooked up by genevieve and her husband to inflate its value. >> this is abc 30 action news. >> the two claim de montremare was french royalty. cheryl skigin says their false claims drove up the price of the property. >> reporter: the case heads to trial. and it's not just the friesian world that's watching. fresno can't get enough of this story.

books about this and make a fantastic soap opera. >> reporter: which brings us to the strangest moment in this fantastic soap opera. >> here begins videotape number one in the deposition of genevieve de montremare. >> reporter: this is a deposition video unlike any other -- recorded not in a lawyer's office, but by genevieve's bed, her doctor at her side. >> has she been sedated, doctor? >> not to my knowledge. >> reporter: she spenda portion of the deposition hiding under her covers. but she insists she's not pulling a "princess and the pea" routine -- she's just too ill to respond. >> did you ever work as a waitress? >> okay. >> is that a yes? >> okay. >> she answered, okay. >> reporter: as the deposition continues, finally, the truth. >> who are you? >> genevieve sanders. >> isn't genevieve sanders your maiden name?

>> it was weird. you walked out of there going, oh, this is just a farce. this is a farce. >> reporter: the defense argues that the plaintiffs purchased the property "as-is" and should have inspected it more closely. the most shocking courtroom bombshell was that weilert admits to faking his wife's death. he said she was suffering from a debilitating medical condition and wanted, like garbo, to be left alone. >> what her husband testified was, he di that was her desire, was to be dead. and so, he made it so. at least on paper. >> reporter: after eight weeks, cheryl and brian win their case. >> cheryl skigin shed a few tears after a multi-million dollar verdict in her favor. >> reporter: they're awarded more than $1.5 million in damages. >> they read the first count.

>> reporter: today, genevieve and michael are living in more modest digs in clovis, california. clovis, by the way, is also the name of a medieval king -- perhaps the closest she will now come to french royalty. genevieve and her husband turned down our requests for an on-camera interview. she did message us on facebook, saying her "health issues are very real and punishing," and that her fake french identity was simply "an internet persona." >> if she had an illness, i would feel compassion for her having the illness, but having an illness doesn't excuse fraud and deceit. >> reporter: what would you say to genevieve if you were speaking to her face to face today? >> stand on your own two feet, and apologize to all the people that you hurt. >> own up to this and then continue on with a better life, because you can get forgiveness. >> reporter: sounds like brian and cheryl haven't given up hope that there still could be a

next, remember her? the poster child for workman's comp fraud? you've seen her busted. tonight, she has company that might surprise you. reality tv stars. >> busted.

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it's it worker's comp or worker's con? people going wild away from the office. it's not a laughing matter when you are, the american taxpayer, are then stuck with the bill. here's cecilia vega. >> cathy c >> reporter: who could forget this woman who said she was too hurt to work, yet spun the big wheel on "the price is right". or the beauty queen who sashayed down the runway on a foot that she supposedly injured on the job. tonight, meet a new member of our fake injury hall of shame, stalwart fisherman, paul hebert. he harpoons, hauls and heaves gigantic bluefin tuna fish on

show "wicked tuna." >> it's like tying a rope onto a train. >> reporter: but at the same time hebert was reeling in big hollywood bucks, prosecutors say there was something fishy going on. >> now under fire, a tv reality star who said he couldn't walk properly. >> reporter: it turns out the salty seafarer made national headlines for hauling in tens of thousands of dollars in disability payments for an injury to both of his legs that he claimed left him unable to work, walk or lift heavy weights. >> hea f >> reporter: what you haven't seen until tonight is hebert facing the music. when we caught up with him, the fearless fisherman denied being a scammer, saying that while he did catch a fish this big, it wasn't so heavy after all. >> tuna fish is the easiest job i've ever done in my life. i've been doing it since i was right out of diapers. >> reporter: we'll see hebert again a little later, but it turns out he's not the only person with tv fame accused of

>> reporter: meet joseph derrico, a former new jersey cop who sustained a left leg injury on the job, resigned from the force, and started collecting a $70,000-a-year pension for total disability. but watch as derrico shows up here, on the tru tv reality show "bear swamp recovery." and like a crazed grizzly, he plucks grown men from monster trucks and tosses them aside like rag dolls. >> get off of me! >> reporter: when you're totally and permanently disabled, what do you get? >> you get 66.66% of your salary for the rest of your life. >> reporter: john sierchio served on the new jersey retirement board that pulled the plug on derrico's pension after they saw his reality show stunts. >> if he could do this he could be a police officer. >> reporter: derrico is appealing the decision. now, all these scammers just couldn't stay out of the spotlight, which investigators

them. but intrepid new jersey private eye bari kroll knows that most fake injury investigations take a lot of time and creativity. >> that's our guy right there, there's our mark. >> reporter: we've been out sleuthing with bari before, and she will go the distance to get the surveillance goods she needs to make her case. i've seen you put on wigs. i've seen you drive like crazy. is there anything you won't do to get your guy? >> there's not much that i won't do. >> reporter: one case took years for bari to bust. a plaintiff who sued for medical malpractice, saying when he tried to go bass fishing, he had problems because of a botched abdominal surgery. >> now, this is somebody who says they can't bend, he can't -- you know, everything's uncomfortable for him. >> reporter: bari follows the suspected cheater as he gingerly makes his way to a doctor's appointment. >> he's looking sad. but watch, he'll, like, lift up his shirt and start to rub his stomach. oh, ouch. >> reporter: after leaving the doctor, he heads here and that

>> he leaves there. he goes to a liquor store. >> reporter: he must have come upon some sort of remedy in that liquor store, because even in all that pain, he picks up his rods and heads to the bay. >> he hops this guardrail and he starts walking down. he's ready to fish. >> reporter: i can vouch -- that is no cakewalk down to that pier. treacherous is the way i would describe this. they say fishing is therapeutic, but this is truly miraculous the fisherman had claimed he was too hurt to cast over his head. >> he's holding the fishing pole, as somebody normally would. he's got his bait on it and he's whipping it behind ?- >> reporter: whoa. >> -- and over. right over his shoulder. >> reporter: when presented with the video, bari says the plaintiff quickly settled his case. when gotcha video is the goal, chicago private eye bob kiehn will also go to any length to get it.

the woods to the roads. you love the chase, bob. >> absolutely. >> reporter: you have to be a little crazy to do this job. >> crazy? i don't know if the word's crazy. ambitious, persistent, clever, creative. >> reporter: this might be bob's most extreme challenge yet, an endurance obstacle course. he's here to track one of the contestants, whoob faking an upper body injury that supposedly left the man too hurt to work. the insurance company handling the claim didn't want us to show his face. bob begins the race, not really knowing what he's in for. >> that was ice water. >> reporter: and he channels his inner "rocky." ?

to keep up with his mark. he's got his eyes and his lens trained on the suspected faker, who's never more than one rope crawl or mud slide away. victory is sweet. >> all in a day's work. piece of cake. >> reporter: bob was also delighted with his surveillance results. >> he's a complete faker. he is busted. i am ecstatic. >> reporter: bob's client was equally thrilled after showing the evidence to the claimant, he instantly dropped his case. the consequences for getting caught can be severe. remember paul hebert, the man who catches huge tuna on reality tv? well, now he's in some pretty deep water. after catching his act on the tube, prosecutors slapped him with four counts of federal fraud charges. our team caught up with hebert outside the courthouse the day he was indicted. >> did you scam the government

disability on that fishing boat? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: but earlier this year, mr. wicked tuna changed his tune, pleading guilty to fraud and paying over upgrade season's here. i got my new iphone 7 from sprint. sprint? i'm hearing good things about the network. all the networks are great now. we're talking within a 1% difference in reliability of each other. and, sprint saves you 50% on most current national carrier rates. if you got 1% more haircut than me today, would you really pay twice as much? no i wouldn't. copy that! (vo) switch to sprint and get iphone 7. plus save 50% off most current national carrier rates.

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breaking news tonight as a police situation closes the i10 and almost any time that happens you see this, miles of back up. air 15 following this one since6:00. >> now we're seeing what caused that freeway standstill. police rushing in baskets out.