The FBI Figured Out the Truth on How He Could Afford His Lifestyle

Sandy Jenkins spent years saving up for a new car and was still nowhere near his goal. The accountant currently working at Collins Street Bakery was staring at his computer screen at the blank spaces on his company's checks when Inspiration hit him. On a whim, he drove to the Dallas Lexus dealership and bought a gold Lexus sedan with a tan leather interior. Although he sold his old

Lexus as a down payment, he couldn't afford the monthly cost of his new vehicle. But he had a plan and swiped his car. Sandy drove home blasting music as he flew down the highway. He was sure people were looking at him in envy, and when he got home, he told his wife that the car was a gift from the fishers, a couple he'd been helping with

their accounting. According to the director, Sandy Jenkins was a good friend of mine. According to an article in Texas Monthly, a few weeks later, his credit card payment was due. Check to see that nobody was looking as he entered a $20,000 check in the accounting software payable to CityCard. Sandy printed the check, which automatically added CEO Bob McNatt signature, then avoided it in the system so

there'd be no record. Sandy then took the check, paid off his car. He smiled to himself. This was going to be fun. Sandy Jenkins was a shy accountant who was tired of feeling unnoticed. Every morning, he awoke before his alarm, made a strong cup of coffee, had breakfast with his wife, and watched Good Morning America. He spent his 10 minute morning commute day dreaming about the

life of luxury he never had. Sandy worked at the Collins Street bakery where he felt invisible. He silently admired Bob's job, McNatt, the beloved CEO who ran the bakery. Co-workers only visited Sandy to talk about payroll reports, sales reports, and other administrative work, but they sure loved talking to Bob. Sandy had worked at the bakery for six years and still needed to save up money to

buy the upgraded Lexus he wanted. Sandy and his wife, K, might not have been wealthy, but they lived a good life. They had refined tastes and lived in a nice neighborhood. Their home was well kept, and neighbors commented on their manicured front yard. Sandy spent his evenings with his wife, who would cook while he played classical music on the piano. Sandy's shyness defined most of his

social interactions, stemming back to his school days. He was quiet and only had a few friends, and worked at his family's grocery store after school and on weekends. Accounting wasn't Sandy's first passion. He wanted to work as a funeral director, but it's not exactly what drew him to the career. Funeral directors wore sharp outfits, drove immaculate black cars, eloquent, and worked in the rich backdrops of

funeral homes. When Sandy told his family father about his dream occupation, his dad discouraged him and suggested he go for a more mainstream career. Sandy decided to get a degree in business administration from Dallas Baptist University. He met K at the college after a family friend told him about her niece, who occasionally needed a ride to campus. Sandy picked K up from her aunt's house and

the two drove to class together. He couldn't believe his luck and eventually persuaded her to marry him. Jenkins' first job out of college was as an accounting clerk at a utility company in Fairfield, but he was much more interested in living in Corsicana. After the wealthy town, when Jenkins' company transferred him close enough, people in Corsicana loved to gossip, making it a place where everybody was

in on one another's business. When the Jenkins arrived in 1988, they had some catching up to it. And how were they ever going to get in with the upper crust of Corsicana's society? A few years after settling in the town, struggling to make ends meet, and spending a lot of time volunteering out their church, Sandy landed a job at the most famous employer around. Colin Street

Bakery sold premier fruit cakes, Sandy loved fruit cakes, it was the perfect fit. Not only was the bakery the best known business in Corsicana, but it was the world's most renowned purveyor of fruit cakes. Bob McNut ran the bakery, which had been in his family for generations. He'd recently expanded it, opening storefronts and places like Waco, Lindeil, and Greenville. Sandy joined the company as an accounts

payable and payroll supervisor in the same year as the expansion. He made $25,000 a year and had spent $1,000 of the bakery's money on an antiquesc reproduction for his new office. Sandy was one of the company's top performers and transitioned the bakery from a manual accounting system to a computerized one. His supervisor raved about Jenkins' hard work and how he completed every task on time. In

2000, Sandy received a promotion to corporate controller. The Jenkins's did well for themselves. Sandy had a good job, they'd raise the daughter, attend a church, and work contributing community members. But their accomplishments were meaningless in a town that noticed everything one another did. And in a place that only cared about money and a familial wealth, couple never truly fit in. Despite the promotion, Sandy dreamed of

making more money. He had big plans, like joining the Corsicana Country Club, a gourmet group or a wine society. Everyone who was anyone belonged to a supper club, many going back for generations. The Jenkins weren't members of fancy clubs. They were the people that made food down at the church. People in Corsicana only noticed that the couple didn't wear the right name brand clothing in that

cave didn't look after herself and get plastic surgery like the other women. Despite all his hard work, Sandy was still an outsider looking in. A chain. Everyone in town was loaded, but Sandy was doing the work of three people and feeling as though his employer barely paid him anything. He was tired of waiting to live out his dreams. His present job wasn't really doing much to

get him there. One day, Sandy helped himself to some of the bakeries petty cash. It wasn't a lot, but enough to stress him out if someone noticed. Except nobody did notice. He dreaded the moment someone would enter his office and ask where the cash went, but that day never came. So, he decided to drive to the Lexus dealer and purchase the newer gold model he had

dreamed about. The day when Sandy paid his credit card bill with a $20,000 check from the bakery. He was hooked. He waited until he was confident that nobody noticed the first fraudulent check he went on to repeat his scheme. Can Sandy were soon spending $98,000 on their credit card paid for by Colin Street Bakery. They remodeled their kitchen into the perfect entertaining space with high end

appliances, cooling and warming drawers and granite countertops. The couple hosted a elaborate dinner party where they opened $100 bottles of wine and served steaks and field chops. They joined multiple supper clubs, hosted champagne brunches and fully integrated with Corsican's exclusive social scene. Part of fitting in was looking the part. Although Sandy told people at work that he bought his outfits from Walmart, he was actually wearing

$600 from designer brands like Armani and Hermes. He filled his closet with expensive shoes like origamos and Gucci's and had a personal shopper at Name and Marcus. Sandy was also obsessed with expensive watches. He always admired them at Name and Marcus and in December 2006, he purchased just five Rolexes, worth $52,765. A little over his current annual salary. The home in Corsican also wasn't enough anymore.

When Sandy was on a trip to Santa Fe, he bought a $658,000 for Bedroom Adobe House. Sandy and Kay invited their upper class friends from Corsican to visit sending them on a private jet and treating them to expensive wines and dinners. Santa Fe wasn't their only vacation spot. They also traveled by jet to Aspen, Napa, the Martha's Vineyard. A year later, Sandy was in the city

of Napa. Here after the first fraudulent check, Sandy had taken 43 private flights costing $500,000. However, he told anyone who asked that he had a generous cousin who loaned him planes. It was only a matter of time before the town started talking. Sandy's sudden change in financial status was obvious in a town that loved gossip. The couple got ahead of rumors by telling people around town

they had inherited money, although sometimes their stories were inconsistent. By this point, the gold Lexus was long gone. The couple kept purchasing the newest Lexus BMD. The company was the first to buy the new Lexus BMD. Sandy told the co-worker he was a car trader, but mentioned others that the same cousin who loaned him planes also let him borrow cars. Kay knew that Sandy didn't have

a cousin with a private jet. She quit her job shortly after he sent the first check, but made efforts to keep extravagant purchases discrete. Kay ordered a two seat Lexus convertible in peacock blue. The same color as her previous car, so it was not to draw too much attention. When it arrived in midnight blue instead, she sent it back. But she couldn't stop neighbors from noticing

the flashy cars in the driveway. Back at the bakery, Bob McNutt didn't understand why the bakery wasn't profitable. He feared they'd expanded too quickly, but couldn't find a specific part of the business that was losing money. To identify the issue, McNutt examined their expenses. Looking into labor, inventory, payroll, and more. He didn't realize Sandy had timed his checks so well that he was undetectable. Sandy knew

when the bakery was making large purchases for things like ingredients and would pad those expense areas. Since those expenses would typically be high, nothing would seem off when the bakery ran its marketing analysis. Sandy's social climb was as safe as it could be. Kay wasn't as good at mingling with the town's socialites as she wanted to be. She often asked awkward questions like inquiring how much

money she would need to fit into a course of canis society. Despite their unusual social interactions, the couple enjoyed their new luxurious life. They preferred only the best food and drink, enjoying bottles of expensive champagne and dining on Petrojian caviar. They were jetting off to Santa Fe, Napa, or Martha's Vineyard when they weren't entertaining. They took over 223 trips on private jets with their travel costs

exceeding $3.3 million. Sandy's splurges grew even more extravagant. Within purchasing a $7,200 cell phone, a $58,000 Steinway piano, and a $40,000 horse hair mattress. The couple no longer went to church as they felt the parishioners were still treating them as mere kitchen workers. Instead, Kay became the treasurer of the Quintillian Book Club and Sandy joined a wine club. The couple was living the dream. Sandy felt

invincible. Other people might have been paranoid about getting caught, but he never considered cashing out. Sandy Jenkins was no longer invisible, and that was all that mattered. In June 2013, Symmetric Walker, a new hire in accounting, came into Sandy's office. She found a check made out to Capitol One and was confused as the bakery didn't have accounts or credit cards with Capitol One. She asked Sandy

to help her understand it, and he said he'd look into it. He hoped panic didn't show on his face, but it did. Symmetric had a gut feeling about Sandy snuck into his office when he was out for the afternoon. She looked through the voided check register and immediately found a little bit of a secret. She had 11 discrepancies that were worth $400,000. She reported him to

the upper level executives who were ready to confront him the next day at work. Sandy's boss showed him the voided checks and asked for an explanation. At first, Sandy shrugged it off, acting like he'd done nothing wrong. But Sandy wasn't good on his feet and couldn't offer a logical explanation other than to say that he wrote checks for the bakery, a response that made almost no

sense. So they fired him, and he fled. He rushed home, taking two grocery bags from the kitchen and filling them with handfuls of valuable items from throughout the house. She was a jewelry and gold bars. He got in one of his cars with K and they raced out of town. When Colin Street Bakery spoke about Sandy's nine years of embezzlement, they claimed that a company of

their age often saw fluctuations in growth with some years better than other. The bakery was having troubles at the time as customers' views of their chief and most popular product. Fruitcake were changing for the worse. Leadership was busy worrying about overcoming the public's growing distaste for fruitcake and finding ways to generate new interest in it. They were preoccupied with marketing and advertising efforts. Sandy covered his

tracks by manipulating the books, make it look like the profit decrease was due to a marketing campaign failure. He was the person that approved claims and signed the checks. Meaning nobody was checking his work. The more the company spent on marketing, easier it was for Sandy to embezzle. When leadership finally confronted him about the voided checks, Sandy had embezzled $16.7 million with $16,649,786 in checks and

$114,342 bucks in cash. The increase in the purchase of the company was $1,342. The incremental amount Sandy took weren't enough to damage the bakery's immediate profits. Even though senior management knew they were losing money, they never thought to look at anyone but themselves. The news didn't hit the town until a month later, when the FBI showed up at the Jenkins home. Town flocked to the property

to see a swarm of cars and officers searching the house. Locals gathered around to gossip and watch a tow truck arrive for the couple's multiple vehicles and officers carried out boxes, a furz, wine, and other high-end items. Sandy and his wife were definitely no longer invisible. We're still out of town. Sandy had gathered his jewelry, dumped it in a whole food bag, and frantically scattered it

behind trees, bushes, and rocks at a local park. He also ditched his luxury watches and gold bars, hiding some in the bushes and dumping the rest in a lake. However, an off-duty police officer just happened to stumble across a quarter of a million dollars of the luxury items. Federal authorities sent a scuba team to search the lake, and the FBI linked the item's serial numbers to

Sandy's record. The FBI knocked on the Jenkins doors a few days later and indicted him on counts of money laundering, mail fraud, other related offenses. They all hadn't just stolen checks and cash. They ran up $11 million in charges on American Express Card. And if you're enjoying this video and think Sandy was way too quick to go to prison, be sure to stay tuned right here

for our past release to find out what this guy did from the FBI. The Jenkins estate sale was a big event in Corsicana. People started lining up at the house hours before the doors opened. Organizers let guests enter in small groups to see the Jenkins extravagance in person. The house had designer handbags, wallets, luggage, briefcases, collector pens, jewelry, and more. Bob McNutt handed out Colin Street

bakery treats to everyone in line, encouraging them to spend as much money as possible when they got inside. He needed to make back his $17 million in the sale was his best shot. Everyone speculated about Sandy's motivation and the gossip didn't stop. Some said he was bitter that Bob had the life Sandy dreamed of while others believed he would just wanted to feel like a big

shot. The conclusion was that Sandy and Kay wanted to be a part of Corsicana society, but needed more money. Despite his efforts, Sandy couldn't spare Kay from punishment, though her sentence was far more lenient than his. Sandy received 10 years and a federal detention facility and Kay got five years probation. Sandy's prison routine returned to something similar to his life before the embezzlement. He woke up,

rink his coffee, and ate breakfast while watching Good Morning America. But instead of dreaming about an extravagant and social future, you reminisced about his past's luxurious life. Sandy passed away in 2019 for years into his 10 years sentence. Back in 2020, FBI agents waited out a suspect in a $35 million Ponzi scheme, Matthew Pierci, while he hid in California's Lake Shasta. The accused faced a mountain

of charges, including 31 felony counts when he was finally brought in. The action began in the relatively calm city of Reading in Northern California. The scammer led authorities on a vehicle chase through the streets of Reading. The action picked up speed and started to get reckless. While still on busy local streets, Pierci ran off the road twice with his pursuers in tow. The chase didn't begin

and end in Reading. Pierci made a bold play for Interstate 5 and head north. The chase eventually reached Lake Shasta. When the determined man hopped out of his truck, he grabbed something from the vehicle, a point in police chases that usually doesn't end well. The object turned out to be a Yamaha 350 LI underwater scooter. Rather than making that cliche last stand, it seemed the scanner

was ready to try a legitimate career in scuba diving. Pierci swam into the massive artificial canal where he stayed for 25 minutes, using the scooter to go further and faster than any human swimmer. What's even crazier is this all happened in the winter. Temperatures for the area typically hovered in the area of the city. The culprit finally crawled out, feds nabbed him straight away. Before taking

him downtown, they were nice enough to give him a dry change of clothes provided by his wife. They even had their medical team given the once over to ensure he is okay before throwing the book at him. The dust in Piercy's case has yet to settle as of 2022, but official records speculate that he may get a life sentence. Piercy ran the scam that got him

chased into Lake Shasta through two different shell companies, each with its own function and clientele. The two companies, of course, had several things in common. The most prominent items on the list were that they centered on wealth management and that the money they were supposed to be investing and growing, went directly into Piercy's pockets. One of the two companies was known as Family Wealth Legacy, and

its intended purpose is what it says on the tin. The company targeted those who were already wealthy, but looking to get richer to give future family members a head start. This is actually a pretty tame premise for wealth management and investment firms, but Piercy and his associates put a somewhat different spin on things. The bold and risky play paid off until it didn't. The other company

was the more contemporary Zola. This, every man's investment firm, didn't target any particular audience or boast a lofty minimum like Family Wealth Legacy. Instead, the firm branched into several investment channels such as loans and real estate. There wasn't really a target audience in mind. Common folk were targeted just as gleefully as banks and even the federal government. The joint PR efforts were the biggest uniting factor

in how the two companies were run. Both were said to use an AI-based trading system for moving investments around. Termed the upvesting fund, this tool was supposed to use an algorithm that examined Wall Street patterns to get guaranteed returns. For about five years, this lie would be the primary vehicle, driving Piercy's scams. While Zola and Family Wealth Legacy were the stars of the show, a third

company came into play late in the game. In 2019, long after he had discovered that he was being investigated, Piercy used false credentials to start a third-shell company. On paper, this company was some sort of medical outfit operating out of reddit. In reality, it was a front for laundering funds from the two other businesses. Between those three companies, Piercy pulled down some $35 million from 2015

to 2020 when he was finally brought to justice. The scam also crossed state lines and he started at his family's law firm in Illinois where Family Wealth Legacy was founded. The feds eventually slapped the company with an order to cease operations, but it seemed that order went ignored. Additionally, Family Wealth Management and all of its various branches all held Delaware business licenses regardless of where they

operated. The answer to how Piercy and his people made $35 million appear from thin air is actually quite simple. They started by getting in some initial investments, lying to their investors and using early money to pay them back. They ran a textbook Ponzi scheme. The money eventually dries up. It's definitely worth noting that Piercy couldn't always keep up the facade. On many occasions, investors let him

know they had enough and he almost always had a clever response. Many victims believed their money was tied up and that reporting the company would violate their signed contract. He's all came back to bite Piercy as extra charges for witness tampering. The money that disappeared off the top went to a wide range of personal affairs. Piercy bought two houses and paid off some credit cards. He

also used the money to pay for his own money. He also made a cover operational expenses for the two major show companies. Naturally, this included paying dividends and withdrawals to customers. One of the more curious items was $1,195 spent on a Yamaha Model 350 LIC scooter. Many people don't think about single man underwater propulsion systems very often. They are usually relegated to fictional curiosities like the

gadget in the PlayStation game Ape Escape. They are, however, an authentic category of hardware. The car has a strong position with multiple models. One of those sitting near the top of the heap is the 350 LIC that was used in this crazy escape. It's nearly $1,200 price tag puts the 350 LIC firmly in the top and at the market. In fact, many top picks from reliable

publications come in and around half the price. That money gets you a scooter that can move up to 4 miles per hour in water and run for about 75 minutes on a single charge. Compared to contemporaries in the field, this one is definitely head and shoulders above the rest. Even so, it wasn't enough to help piercing. The feds reported that piercing entered Lake Shasta and stayed

there for about 25 minutes. There were multiple instances where authorities couldn't make visual contact with piercing and had to track him by the bubbles rising from the water. No details were provided as to how he may have been breathing underwater if that was the case at all. One source says that a well-trained person could hold their breath without special preparations for about 11 minutes at a

stretch. Bear in mind that the average person can barely surpass a minute. By then, his scooter's battery would be dead and the police would have been in a hurry to get there. This would have driven around to the other side. And don't forget about hypothermia. Some time in 2018, Pierci found out he was under investigation and his business owner would have gathered any evidence of legitimacy

they had and come forward. Pierci did the exact opposite. Keeping transparency to a minimum was the standard for Pierci and that didn't change when he came under scrutiny. In fact, he got even bouldered. He sent a letter to then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, championing Zola as the troubled banking officer for the industry salvation. He even tried to get investors to join it. While this

was all before the devastation that the COVID-19 pandemic wrought on the global economy, the United States wasn't exactly breaking fiscal records that year. Wall Street was a cautiously optimistic place around that time, so Pierci's proposed plan probably wouldn't have gone over too well. Not that trying to scam the entire United States government is a better plan. He would later point to this letter as the reasons

subpoenas were going out to staff and investors, hiding the real focus of the investment. The book of Proverbs in the King James Bible says, that he had been injecting Judeo-Christian platitudes into his businesses. His appeals definitely didn't fall on dev years. Church members began investing in droves, forming the bulk of his income for the two businesses at one point. None of them knew they had been

taken in until it all blew up in 2020. This is even more embarrassing because it's not Bethel Church's first rodeo. The congregation has seen a similar scam in the not-too-distant past. In 2016, a man named David Arnold Sousa began scamming Church members, taking advantage of the fact that he was a former member of the United States government. The advantage of their faith and, allegedly, their advance

age in some cases, Sousa told members that he knew how to work the stock market. He proceeded to fleece about $650,000 from the Church at large. The money went to dental work, travel, gym membership, and a rental catalact costing a cool $1800 a month. He ultimately ended up netting in 18 years sentence for his scheming and was ordered to pay back about $520,000 to his victims.

He won't be eligible for parole until he served at least nine years. He took on angry clients and did all he could to keep them from going to the cops with the whole thing, keeping up the appearance of a successful finance company. By 2019, he was appointed the CEO of Zola and had a hand in operating family wealth legacy. In 2020, not long before things hit

the fan, Pierc handed Zola over to Winton and let him handle it as the owner. Winton ended up pleading guilty with sentencing set for February of 2021. Details on what happened to him aren't easily available, but he faced almost 20 years in jail. He'd also have to pay a $250,000 for his wife. Pierc, the man at the center of it all, still seems to be awaiting

sentencing. Available records don't indicate any entry of a plea at the moment either. In any case, things aren't looking good for the engineer of family wealth legacy. With 31 felony counts hanging over his head, Pierc's chance of avoiding prison time are extremely low. Some of his charges carry standard penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This will of course be an addition to

the order of any reparations. With Pierc's accounts mostly drained, officials will have difficulty figuring out how to pay back victims. Pierc himself is most likely in for a life sentence according to court documents. Click to watch one of these next videos. Let us know in the comments section what you'd rather do if you were in sandy shoes. Go on the run earlier or face the facts

and go to prison.