Bad Dads | American Greed

[Music] [Music] this could end up being one of the largest food recalls in US history recall comes after Federal officials confirmed salmonella contamination at a Georgia facility and now the recall is being expanded to include every item made from peanut products at that plant in the past 2 years peanut butter it's a multi-billion dollar year industry and one of the most popular items on store shelves but in January 2009 it's deadly peanut products are laced with the Salmonella bacteria it's sickening and even killing people from coast to coast there's a Race Against Time to trace the source and stop what's turning into a nationwide Panic Food and Drug Administration is advising Americans not to eat any products made with peanut butter or peanut paste until further notice and that includes cookies and cakes ice cream as well as other foods containing peanut butter made at this Georgia plant food safety Watchdog attorney Bill maror knows what this kind of catastrophe looks like I've been involved in every major and many minor foodborn illness outbreaks that have occurred in the United States um in the last 20 plus years they're all tragic but they all appropriately freak people out by February 2009 Congress is demanding answers from this Man steuart Parnell president and CEO of peanut Corporation of America one of the things I'm going to do today is ask Mr Parnell from peanut Corporation of America if he'd like to open this and sample some of the products that he didn't think were a problem in sending out for the rest of us to eat Stuart Parnell has apparently lost his appetite he declines the offer to taste the products and with good reason evidence is mounting that this was no accident for two years The Operators of the Georgia plant at the center of the investigation may have knowingly sold contaminated products Stuart parnell's peanut Empire is about to come crashing down but it was never supposed to end this way in the Rolling Hills of Central Virginia peanuts are a major cash crop it's here that hu Parnell Stuart's father Stakes his claim with the tiny company parnell's peanuts in 1977 Hugh overhauls a roasting facility in Gorman Texas and Rec christens his namesake company as peanut Corporation of America by 1994 revenues soar to more than $20 million Hugh cashes out and retires but peanuts are a family tradition so in 2000 Stewart Parnell buys PCA food safety Advocate and ethics Professor Darren deweer says Stuart's Ambitions are bigger than his father's when Stuart Parnell took over the panut Corporation of America he radically expanded the the the company both in terms of size and the amount of profit that it was made making PCA expands to another plant in Blakeley Georgia and at its height Stuart Parnell triples Revenue in just three years he's on the move his brother Michael becomes pca's number one peanut broker his brother was now a buyer of product for him and it wasn't just peanuts peanut powder or peanut dust that was being used in a lot of different products and that's great business for him because now he's able to use this this different version of the product from Ice Cream to energy bars to Frozen tie dinners to dog food PCA Lands new clients throughout the food supply chain but PCA is also hiding dirty little secrets shoddy sanitation low grade penuts and a corporate culture built upon intimidation low wages and exploitation of workers in Texas the management was run by a handful of white guys with all the workers being mexican-americans and in Georgia it was run by a handful of white guys and all the workers were African-American it was like you know a plantation it was like run like a plantation and just like those bad old days the work is profitable for the man on top Parnell snapped up another company in PL View Texas and a roasting and blanching company in Virginia close to his custombuilt home on a 5 acre estate in Lynchburg Parnell runs his growing PCA Dynasty from a converted garage behind the house the Parnell Brothers especially were making a pretty good living brokering and selling this product around the United States PCA processes around 2% of America's p nuts yet they Supply product to more than 200 companies including giants like Kelloggs and General Mills PCA had a pretty broad business they had a nice little corner of the market that 2% was uh you know pretty valuable schools nursing homes FEMA relief kits even America's troops overseas rely on PCA their products primarily went into them other products whether peanut butter cookies or crackers and they were these big tins of peanut butter that primarily went to hospitals and old folk homes I think that tells you a lot about sort of how integrated our food system is that you don't really even know who's making your stuff so who's making sure the food is SAFE Federal food safety agencies are mandated to Monitor and inspect factories but with limited resources these agencies depend on private companies to police their own operations perhaps surprisingly given the Scandal that will later emerge steuart Parnell sits on the government's peanut standard board the fox is guarding the hen house and the hen house is a filthy [Music] mess to maximize profits and to minimize expenses this peanut dust and powder would sit there in the open uncovered and during that time there was rat infestations they found holes in the roof and water would gather and bird droppings would get into the water they would seep into this product and sometimes he literally had employees sweep off some of the rat poop this was just business as usual the idea of put it out there fortunately for the consumer most major food conglomerations like Parnell biggest clients want to make sure their providers are meeting safety standards they require independent Laboratory Testing so PCA hires several Labs including Charles dybles to test its peanut samples food manufacturers want to make food they don't necessarily want to do all of that inhouse it it has to do with core competencies their core competencies are not to run Labs that's what we do accurate testing takes anywhere from 28 hours to 5 days daal looks for several pathogens including the salmonella bacterium which can cause vomiting diarrhea dehydration and in some cases death at each stage of the process you're whittling that down to your Target and then you finally get your target organism by what we call confirmation test it's the last step in the process where we can say yay or nay this is salmon or this is not salola and if the results come back positive one positive takes precedence over however many negatives you may have tested in that lot you don't release it into Commerce not only that though if the product itself is contaminated all the equipment that that product touched is now contaminated when American Greed returns PCA test results are coming back positive for Sal manella but that's an easy fix Stu Parnell had his quality insurance manager literally take documents and use Liquid Paper to cover up the date and put a new date on it to satisfy food companies that wanted to buy that product by the mid 2000s Stuart Parnell is making big money in peanuts but Parnell is also turning a blind eye to glaring sanitation problems at his factories and he runs rough shot over food safety standards some of the lots that they were shipping out didn't even get tested it was economics to him and he didn't care about the consumer Parnell ships products out the door before getting test results at least six times between 2004 and 2006 even more troubling some of the tests that are being performed come back positive for salmonella and Sal manella is bad for business Stuart's brother is getting all these deals put together and they need to feed the system and you know they're getting contracts with Kellog they're getting contracts with a variety of other middlemen they're saying give me give me give me give me give me the peanut butter give me the peanut chips and they couldn't keep up with the orders because they kept getting positive salmonella tests [Music] in October 2009 ephran Taylor CEO of the socially conscious investment Development Group city capital is making his way through to the Bible Belt pitching his brand on his Building Wealth tour he recently appeared on television programs like the Today Show and 2020 promoting his bestselling book creating success From the Inside Out On this day he visits New Birth Missionary Baptist Church a mega church right in the heart of Georgia prior to his arrival Taylor's promotional video is shown to the congregation peing their interest good morning I'm ephan Taylor and I would like to thank Bishop long for extending such a gracious invitation to bring W to live to your beautiful congregation at Newber Taylor's wealth tour is recorded on video in attendance that day is congregant James JY Bailey who was impressed by the endorsement of Bishop long reflected prominently on this flyer when Ean Taylor was introduced by Bishop he gave us great confidence that this was a man sent To Us by God in the recorded video Bishop Eddie Long readies the congregation for Taylor's message your life is about to change if Bishop said he's okay then he's okay and put your hands together and receive my friend my brother the great ephran Taylor the self-proclaimed wealth manager is also the Son of a Preacher and is practiced at the art of mesmerizing a congregation as this video shows how many y right temp what time it is Taylor teaches about health wealth and how to get both God's way swept up in this feror is JB Bailey he came out like a southern baptist Holy Ghost Field fire baptized preacher he was pretty electrifying he really kept my attention and everybody [Music] else's Bailey is the caregiver for his longtime friend Larry who suffers from incopy a brain disorder the timing of Taylor's arrival couldn't be more fortuitous Ephraim Taylor's weal tour was announced over the pool pit I felt that this would be wonderful because we had just acquired monies from Larry's insurance and I wanted to make sure we did the best that we could for it Bailey listens to Taylor's pitch and likes what he hears eph from Taylor talk to us about so many wonderful Avenues of investing and things to fortify our financial knowledge you really felt like this man is brilliant Bailey decides to invest $14,000 with Taylor and city capital he's hoping the return on investment will provide better care for his friend Larry but by the time Taylor's Building Wealth to her comes to an end 400 Believers including JB Bailey will be built out of more than $16 million Ephraim Taylor promised to help others so they could help their communities but E from Taylor was really in the business of helping himself what we find heinous about this crime is that he was taking advantage of people in their places of worship he said that he was a Minister's son had grown up in a black church and and that's who he was victimizing as people in black churches according to the story Taylor tells in his book he spends the first year of his life in a cold waterer Tin Roof house in Mississippi Taylor's father Ephraim senior wanting more for his family earns a college degree and the family eventually settles in Overland Park Kansas by age 12 Taylor turns his passion Into Cash well according to the ephan Taylor myth as a young child he wanted a video game went to his mom asking for money to buy one she turned him down down and said why don't you go make one yourself so ephran did he went to the library and set it up on how to U create a video game and sold it to his friends young Ephron gets his first taste of professional success and likes how it feels at age 16 he creates a job search engine with a classmate called gogo.com the idea behind gof ferret.com was to match teenagers who need summer jobs with companies that needed summer help Taylor Wins the Microsoft Teen techfest Challenge a prestigious Nationwide contest and is awarded an entrepreneurial leadership scholarship the Press shines a spotlight on the rising star and the Money Follows or so he says he from Taylor claims go far go.com made him a millionaire by the time he was 19 the young entrepreneur Ely brags that it's worth $3.5 million allowing him to retire as a teenager Kathy lurman is a plaintiff's attorney who represents victims of financial fraud there was never $3.5 Million worth of anything and go Fair It Go Ephron told that story from the time he was 16 until he was 25 to as seen in these videos posted on YouTube High School $3.5 million and everyone bought into it a lot of investors felt that gof far.com had promise but within a year or so they realized it was not going to be a money maker and they pulled the plug they never made a dime in 2002 Taylor comes out of retirement to help his father fulfill a dream they found the Johnson County Church of Christ in sha NE Kansas where Ephraim senior will preside as Minister Ephraim Jr calls on his church Community to invest in his plan to help needy families and resurrect distressed communities ephan said that he was a socially conscious investor that's the pitch that he was giving to congregants the socially conscious aspect of his Spiel made him seem very altruistic a person who was not just interested in money he was interested in community and people one of the first red flags that something was a Miss with the ephan Taylor story was the lawsuit that was filed by three Kansas City area men in the lawsuit the men say Taylor claiming to be speaking on behalf of the Johnson County Church of Christ convinces them to invest in his plan to buy and Rehab inner city houses Eep selling points to the three Kansas City investors and convincing them to hand over their million to him was that some of those proceeds would go to further the ministry of his dad's church he also promised High rates of returns to investors they thought it was a great opportunity to do good and also to make money it's unclear what Ephraim did with the $225,000 investment money but the deal falls apart Taylor is sued by the three Kansas City investors although he denied any wrongdoing Taylor signs a confession of judgment and agrees to return the investor money but eventually defaults those victims never got their money back Ephraim Taylor Senor has not been implicated in any of his son's activities in 2005 Bank of America decides not to proceed on a planned 46 million doll development project near the Kansas City Historic Jazz District home to the American Jazz and the Negro League's baseball Museum the Kansas City Jazz scene of the 1930s and 40s has produced uh lots of big hits at the time count basy and others played there in recent years that District had fallen into disrepair Taylor sees an opportunity and purchases a large portion of the surrounding land for $300,000 Taylor claims to be building hundreds of homes homes for the working class the community is excited about the promising plans for the Historic Landmark it's not clear to me when he transformed from a legitimate businessman to a crook But ultimately he didn't put a dime into building housing in the area and it sat phow for years despite the complete lack of progress in the development Taylor had the public believing he had turned water into wine he actually Ed like that historic Jazz District investment was successful and that there were investors who had made a ton of money on it city capital A Nevada based company that uses money from public stockholders to invest in developing businesses takes notice they hire 23-year-old Taylor as their chief executive officer hoping he is the Silver Bullet needed to turn the financially challenged company around [Music] [Music] the work day is done the kids are home from school it's time to sit down for dinner then the phone rings hi how you doing who are you it's the cancer fund of America we're a 501c3 charity we help cancer patients anywhere in the United States now what does this do we provide those medical supplies and items for men women and children with the for stage cancer we're helping the patients with this one the people that need the help the most fighting the disease of cancer and we just wanted to be sure the cancer patients could car on your continued support would that be okay according to the National Cancer Institute nearly one .7 million Americans are diagnosed with the dreaded disease each year so when someone asks for a small donation to help cancer patients it may seem like there's only one Humane response well I'll go ahead and give $20 oh great ma'am great thank you when you hear the word cancer it sends Shivers through your spine and so when you hear of a charity that is offering to provide some level of relief or assistance to either a family or a victim of cancer uh you automatically you know want to help we all know family members who have cancer or who died of cancer and we want to be there when this catastrophe hits the family it's out of this desire to help that one man has built a thriving family business our mission is to lift the spirits and Gladden the heart of the family because when cancer strikes it's so devastating to the family launched in the 1980s in Knoxville Tennessee the cancer fund of America is the brainchild of a former Army medic named Jim Reynolds senior oh he was looked up to Marilyn rasmusen lives in Knoxville where she attends church with Reynolds he was highly respected at least in the church uh because he had a charity after hearing about Reynold's successful charity at church Rasmus learns what they're really doing in 2002 when her father-in-law Eddie is diagnosed with cancer we got a box um in the mail out of clear blue sky and it said cancer fund of America on it we didn't ask for it but it cheered my father-in-law up when he saw the Box you know he was real excited and we were too the box and many like it are paid for with donations brought in by an army of telemarketers they called it sales they didn't call it you know fundraising they called it sales at a non-descript office in the Detroit suburbs ebony squirewell first goes to work for a fundraising offshoot of the cancer fund of America in 2003 some people would have to learn to be good at it but I was good at it right away Squire well sees the opportunity as more than just a way to pay the bills it's a very sensitive topic when it comes to cancer because there are cancer patients in my family so I said oh okay if it's to help cancer patients I'll do it you know it's been years since she made calls she thought were helping but the scripted pit she gave is still seared in her mind hello this is Ebony from the cancer fund of America Support Services how are you today you would say fine said well great we're calling really brief we're continuing our cancer rate program where we're helping cancer patients with their medical supplies and hospice care anything we can do to help these cancer patients in their time of need we just wanted to make sure we can get you out a pledge card and count on you for your support would that be okay over the years squirewell becomes an expert at bringing in cash for a cause she believes in and while she has daily contact with the managers who run the call room she never actually meets the man behind the curtain hello I'm Jim Reynolds I'm president for the cancer fund of America this is our national headquarters here we'd like to welcome you before starting his Charity Reynolds worked at the well-known and unrelated American Cancer Society which focuses on cancer research when he sets out on his own he creates a pitch meant to set his new charity apart now there's nothing wrong with research I hope they find a cure for cancer through research someday but there's so many organizations out there doing research that the few dollars we could put in research would be like a drop in the ocean I think the cancer fund of America was smart if you could use that phrase with this group by saying to people we're going to help people who have the disease right now art Taylor of the better business bureau's wise giving Alliance says there's value in differentiation yeah there are others out there doing research that's fine but when will we ever find the cure for cancer people need help today and that's what we're going to do we're going to help them right now there's many people out there that research is just too late for we've got to do something to help CFA and their callers give potential donors a laundry list of ways they're helping you're going to provide with Transportation pain medication you know medical supplies uh these are all things that they represented cancer fund would provid and they say it's all done on a massive scale the cancer fund of America is the only National Cancer charity that has Commodities and financial aid to victims of cancer as its major priority in this past year alone CFA has tended to the needs of some 70,000 clients with items designed to lift their SP spirits and improve their lives helping out with pain meds transportation and hospice sounds like a worthy Venture without your help this Warehouse could stand empty in this video made for telemarketers like ebony squirewell they make it clear that they can't do it alone and over 450 hospices with more than 5,000 patients would not have some of the things necessary to ease the suffering and pain as well as sustaining their Nutritional Health if this type of in encouragement isn't enough there are other ways to keep their fundraisers busy we were never allowed to accept no squirewell says her job depended on hitting a quota and persistence was essential if they say no then I'll give them a smaller amount you I give them a smaller amount they say no to 50 I'll say 25 they say no to 25 I'll say 15 they say no to 15 I'll say 10 you know I'm going to make you say yeah because again I'm not asking for anything today I'm just asking to send the pledge card out to you and counting on you for your support is that okay provided with a list of rebuttal answers meant to turn a no into a yes Squire well says she could always count on getting a pledge from a certain Target older people you pretty much knew that the rebuttal would get the older people the calls made by Squire well and many many other employees add up in a big big way between 2008 and 2012 CFA and two other cancer Charities run by the Reynolds Family raised $187 million but what are they actually doing in the fall of 2002 Marilyn rasmus's father-in-law Eddie opens the box he got from CFA and finds out there were a couple of bags of chips in there there was a coloring book there was little crayon there was a baby doll there was nothing there that he could use there was nothing there to give him Comfort this is one of the items that was in the box that my husband's father received it's the only thing that we saved because I like wild animals I think it's kind of funny because the bottom of it says storm brewing but I have to ask you what does this have to do with helping somebody with cancer you know how is this supposed to give him comfort I mean it it's pretty and I love animals so but it didn't help my father-in-law any it was just a bunch of things put together in a box it looked like somebody went through their warehouse and just threw things in the box and then just closed it up and shipped it out and I was just I was shocked Eddie rashm dies a few months later and his daughter-in-law says the cancer front's box felt like one last indignity when he got that box you know he was he was in a lot of physical pain he was suffering and that really did not help him any this is where it all begins this is the back part of our building we have a 10,000 ft Warehouse Jim Reynolds Senor brings in a fortune promising to help those in need we begin to understand that no person is alone in our society as long as we care and are there to help for years donors have promised their money will be used to provide pain medications to transport patients to ke chemo appointments and to pay for hospice care you know there were some things that you had to say in the script you know you had to say that you were helping cancer patients with medical supplies and hospice care but there's a glaring problem they did not purchase pain medications they did not provide hospice care and they did not provide transportation none of the money went to those three programs because they simply didn't exist instead patients get boxes like the one received by Marilyn rasmus's father-in-law law some contain potentially useful items like instant breakfast adult diapers and bed pads others contain curious odds and ends that are of no particular use to cancer patients things like sample-sized toiletries over-the-counter medications toys makeup DVDs and certain food items which Reynolds later tries hard to justify [Music] [Music] it's 2008 in veric New York a rural Town nestled in the fingerlakes region of the state in the rolling Fields between Sena and kuga lakes sits the farm of Carl Carlson Carlson is a factory worker but the farm is his true passion he raises Belgian draft horses our farm was a hobby Farm we usually had between 25 and 30 horses on the farm the horses can weigh up to 2,000 lb and cost up to $10,000 each the impressive horses fit right in with Carl's self-image he's actually very impressed with himself I think he would had the tendency to be a little bit of a Storyteller and a fabricator in his own mind anything he could do to draw attention to himself Michael Carlson is Carl's older brother it's all about him and money and his success His Image his Prestige Carlson manages the farm on his own with occasional help from his four children three are from his previous marriage Aaron the firstborn son Levi and Katie the youngest when times were good with Dad they were really good so he and I spent an awful lot of time going across the hay fields on tractors or you know plowing the snow in the winter and and so there was a lot of good memories that I have associated with stuff like that despite this bucolic life Carlson is sometimes at odds with his son Levi Levi seen here with his high school sweetheart Cassie doesn't f fit into Carl's idealized view of his family Levi was into heavy metal he hated country western but Carl loved country western um Carl was into country western music square dancing he very much considered himself a Country Gentleman Levi Now 23 moves out of his father's home at age 16 he hopped for a bit he would go stay with friends and then he you know met and fell in love with Cassie he was different and he seemed very comfortable with being different um I remember the first time I saw him he was dressed in his goath gear and his hair was blue and I found that like very interesting shortly after she graduates high school Cassie and Levi marry our daughter was born about 6 weeks after we got married she was the best thing to ever happen to him he loved her so much the two eventually have two daughters but the magic doesn't last they divorce after a few years of marriage but remain on good terms for their kids sake and there was always lots of kisses and lots of playing and you he's very active with them you they were his whole world Levi and his father Carl don't have much contact but still see each other a few times a year on this day November 20th 2008 Carl calls his son and asks if he can help fix up his old farm truck Levi has a knack for working with cars it was a big pickup truck like one of those F250 something like that big old farm truck the truck is a couple of decades old but it's a Workhorse Carlson uses it around the farm often Carlson says the truck needs repairs on its brakes he gives Levi 50 bucks for the job Levi was very well known for being able to help where he could when it came to helping his father with things the way a lot of times that he saw it was if he was helping then theob was getting done when Levi arrives at the farm the truck is already jacked up and ready for repairs the plan is for Levi to do the work while Carl and his wife Cindy Levi's stepmother attend the funeral of a relative as Cindy waits in their car Carl speaks to Levi in the barn then he joins her and they drive off that was about noon time left with his wife to go to a funeral in pan went to a reception after the funeral at the Moose Club acted like he always acted laughed in joke as he always did when Carl and his wife Cindy return from the funeral they're stunned at what they find in the barn Levi is pinned underneath the truck came home at about 3:50 p.m. discovered his son and screamed out for his wife to call 911 911 what's location of your emergency yes I live at 5 fir Road okay I think I need an ambulance she was you know hysterical on the phone he he's not alive is he is he breathing just his test was crushed he he's probably been under here for hours Levi is dead so I was driving to my boyfriend's house at the time and halfway there I got a phone call from my grandpa and his exact words were Levi's gone while Carl is at the funeral authorities say the thin wobbly railroad Jack that props up the truck Falls over you know it sounded like a tragic accident for everything that was explained to me that the Jack slipped is what I was told the Jack slipped and the truck came down on him Cassie is so stunned she can't even tell her kids what happened it was awful it was absolutely awful I couldn't even gather myself up enough to be the one to tell my children my mother told them Carl Carlson says he thinks he's cursed this is the second time a close family member of his has died died in a tragic accident that was our life growing up one bad incident after [Music] another Carl Carlson and his family's accidents is a story that span several decades and thousands of miles in the early 1980s Carlson is a Cadet in the Air Force while stationed in North Dakota working with nuclear missiles Carlson is drawn to the wife of a fellow Cadet Christina Alexander despite her marriage Carl sweeps Christina off her feet Carl and Christina had this Whirlwind Romance when they met on the Air Force Base in North Dakota Michael Carlson is 2 years older than his brother the first time we met her is when they came home we knew nothing about her other than he called my father and said um I'm going to be a dad and oh by the way I'm married and and when they got out of the service he came home with her Christina and Carl Carlson settled in central New York close to where Carl grew up Carlson's family is impressed with his new wife she's amazing young lady great kid the sun was always shining in her world just always had a smile on her face the couple eventually have three young children Aaron Levi and Katie Carl works at the local stone quarry but money is tight we were all in the same mode in life young kids ourselves newly married I don't think any one of us had a nickel the rub between you know it's just we were all trying to survive Christina's family lives out west in central California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains her father owns a sheet metal business he offers his new son-in-law an opportunity you know I told him look if you ever need a job come on on out to California and and you you work with me in the late ' 80s Christina and Carl take him up on the offer and relocate to her hometown of Murphy's California Christina's sister Colette says Carl is charming he can be very friendly he can be very funny um so my first impression with him was that he had a great sense of humor and that he made me laugh a lot Christina's father finds a home for the young family I got a had a house for them that I rent up on uh up above uh Murphy's on on the highway or just off the highway so I uh thought it might be good for them you know save a little bit of money that they could live in that house for free but Carl doesn't like being under his father-in-law's thumb he eventually finds his own home deep in the woods oh it's pretty much like an old Miner's Shack Carl's mother-in-law is appalled and when I got there and saw the state of that house that wasn't a house it was a shack they had water from the creek kind of thing it was just all time living the status of the home was it was a downgrade so I was a little disappointed when she told me they were moving it was in not the greatest of condition what the family doesn't know is that the new home would become the sight of their first great tragedy [Music]

Channel: CNBC Ambition

Views: 147,401

Keywords: Money, cnbc, cnbc channel, cnbc television, business, cnbc business, cnbc ambition, shark tank, american greed, undercover boss, documentaries, cnbc documentaries

Id: ZJixZiA66HY

Length: 40min 51sec (2451 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 16 2024