Latest / The Knife: A True Crime Podcast / Off Record: Scandal at the Zoo (with Marissa Gibson)

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Off Record: Scandal at the Zoo (with Marissa Gibson) · The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

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Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
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Speaker 2: The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of
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Speaker 2: the speaker and do not necessarily represent the Knife or
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Speaker 2: exactly right media.
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Speaker 3: The announce spent on catering, additional concert tickets, suites, everything
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Speaker 3: all together. That was over a million dollars of zoo's
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Speaker 3: money just for these men and their personal entertainment.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Knife. I'm Patia Eton.
0:43
Speaker 1: And I'm Hannah Smith, and today we have a really
0:46
Speaker 1: interesting story involving a zoo.
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Speaker 2: A scandal at the zoo. How wild.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, you found this article that you then sent to me,
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Speaker 1: and maybe we should start with you kind of explaining what.
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Speaker 4: Was in the art.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm always looking for a scandal story, and
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Speaker 2: when I kind of saw that there was a fraud
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Speaker 2: unfolding at the Columbus Zoo, I was like, okay, I
1:11
Speaker 2: need to know more. And so it was actually in
1:13
Speaker 2: an article from a local newspaper in Ohio called the
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Speaker 2: Columbus Dispatch, and it was written back in twenty twenty one,
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Speaker 2: and in the article, essentially what was said was that
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Speaker 2: a tip had come into the paper where someone had
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Speaker 2: reported that these high ranking zoo executives were misusing houses
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Speaker 2: that were owned by the zoo.
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Speaker 1: Which is just like, what are we talking about houses
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Speaker 1: owned by a zoo?
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Speaker 4: I know?
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Speaker 2: I was like, why does the zoo need all these houses?
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Speaker 2: What are they doing with them? What are they doing
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Speaker 2: with them? How does this work? I did a little
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Speaker 2: research and basically, zoos are you know, their nonprofit entities
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Speaker 2: and nonprofit organizations, and oftentimes if someone dies and wants
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Speaker 2: to leave their assets to the zoo, that might include
2:02
Speaker 2: a property like a house, and the zoo can then
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Speaker 2: own those homes and use them to some way benefit
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Speaker 2: the zoo, whether it's like charging market rent to raise
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Speaker 2: funds for the zoo, or maybe housing a donor or
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Speaker 2: someone who's working on the zoo. But this article was
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Speaker 2: saying that a tip came in that these zoo executives
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Speaker 2: were actually just using the houses to like give the
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Speaker 2: people that they love free rent, which is right, not.
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Speaker 1: Allowed, Yeah, not allowed. Not like the most scandalous accusation.
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Speaker 1: But spoiler alert, it doesn't end there.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't end there. We would never do that.
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Speaker 1: But it basically launches an investigation, a deeper investigation, because
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Speaker 1: there's like, first of all, We don't know who's sent
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Speaker 1: this tip in at this time, but it's like, Okay,
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Speaker 1: what's going on? Is there something to this?
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Speaker 2: This local newspaper that reports on this, you know, they
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Speaker 2: published the article and the article ends up with the
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Speaker 2: Ohio Auditors. So the state of Ohio has its own
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Speaker 2: Auditor's office and investigations unit. And so we're talking to
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Speaker 2: Marissa Gibson today who works for the Auditor's office. She
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Speaker 2: is an investigator, a special Investigations Unit investigator, and she
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Speaker 2: was a part of unraveling the entirety of this fraud,
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Speaker 2: which you know includes a pretty epic fall from grace
3:28
Speaker 2: for the people behind it. It gets bananas, wild, exotic, Untamed, Untamed,
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Speaker 2: And you know, Marissa gave us some stats that didn't
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Speaker 2: end up in the episode, but I want to just
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Speaker 2: mention them here because I think it's kind of good
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Speaker 2: context as we go through this interview. These are annual
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Speaker 2: salaries of other zoo staff at the Columbus Zoo from
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Speaker 2: like twenty fifteen to twenty twenty on average. So you know,
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Speaker 2: you have a lot of positions at the zoo. There's
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Speaker 2: also a lot of hourly workers. You think about, like
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Speaker 2: there's cafe, and there's delivery people, but animal nutrition assistants.
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Speaker 2: We're getting between forty four fifty one thousand a year
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Speaker 2: head zookeepers the ranges sixty three to sixty five thousand,
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Speaker 2: non head zookeepers approximately sixty k, and then warehouse workers
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Speaker 2: forty five K to forty seven K. Reasonable salaries for Columbus, Ohio.
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Speaker 2: But it's not like people are getting wealthy, right. They
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Speaker 2: are making, you know, a livable wage, but not much
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Speaker 2: more than that.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's get into the interview. As a note,
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Speaker 1: no animals were harmed in this story.
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Speaker 2: Thank you Marisa for joining us today.
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Speaker 4: Well, thanks for having me.
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Speaker 2: So this article from the Columbus Dispatch makes its way
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Speaker 2: to your office. The zoo executives have been misusing properties
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Speaker 2: owned by the zoo, and Franklin County residents are interested
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Speaker 2: where does it go from there?
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Speaker 3: So we start making because what we want to know
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Speaker 3: is whether or not any of these levee dollars were misappropriated.
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Speaker 3: So you know my partner on the case, who is Macleapique.
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Speaker 3: He was the forensic auditor assigned to this from my unit.
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Speaker 3: So he starts looking at all of the levee dollars,
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Speaker 3: and what we find is that, yes, the zoo is
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Speaker 3: receiving these payments, and the specific levee language says that
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Speaker 3: these funds are for animal care and for daily operation
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Speaker 3: of the zoo. So he's looking at those and everything
5:30
Speaker 3: appears to be okay as far as how that particular
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Speaker 3: money is spent. But the problem is that the zoo
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Speaker 3: was commingling these funds into general accounts.
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Speaker 4: So now all of the.
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Speaker 3: Money of the zoo is now commingled your taxpayer dollars
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Speaker 3: and the rest of your revenue. So that opens up
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Speaker 3: everything as free reign for us to look into all
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Speaker 3: finances of the zoo.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I see. So basically that initial look into their
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Speaker 1: finances showed that funds were being moved around, but in
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Speaker 1: ways that maybe didn't make a lot of sense. Money
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Speaker 1: was co mingling. At that point. You didn't know if
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Speaker 1: that was intentionally criminal or maybe like poor internal organization,
6:11
Speaker 1: but regardless, it didn't matter because it allowed you legally
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Speaker 1: to have access to everything, all of the bank accounts
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Speaker 1: associated with the zoo.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so now we have access to everything, and the
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Speaker 3: zoo has many, many, many bank accounts, so it's not
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Speaker 3: as if they just have one and we're looking in
6:29
Speaker 3: that one account. So if you think about everything that
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Speaker 3: goes into running a zoo, you have not only your payroll,
6:34
Speaker 3: but then you have all of your vendors that the
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Speaker 3: zoo pays. You know, they have to pay for the
6:38
Speaker 3: feed of the animal, so they have produce vendors. The
6:41
Speaker 3: zoo has restaurants on site, they hold weddings there. It's
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Speaker 3: a big venue for big events, you know, corporate events.
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Speaker 3: There are so many different things that go into the
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Speaker 3: daily operating of the zoo.
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Speaker 1: So as you start the investigation and you start going
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Speaker 1: through the accounts, who are the main people at the
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Speaker 1: zoo that you start to focus on.
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Speaker 3: So what it had been determined by the zoos internal
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Speaker 3: investigation is that generally speaking, we were looking at four
7:08
Speaker 3: executives here. So the four executives were people at the top,
7:12
Speaker 3: so that would be the CEO, Tom Stall, the CFO
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Speaker 3: who was Great Bell, the director of marketing who is
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Speaker 3: Pete Fingerhut, and then the director of purchasing which is
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Speaker 3: Tracy Murnaine. Very soon they became aware that we were
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Speaker 3: investigating and that this was going to be criminal and
7:29
Speaker 3: this was not going to just be a civil investigation
7:32
Speaker 3: that was done by their employer, so very very quickly,
7:35
Speaker 3: all of our suspects retained defense counsel. And not only
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Speaker 3: did they retain defense counsel, they retained like the premier
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Speaker 3: attorneys of Central Ohio. So the names that you see
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Speaker 3: in the news, like the ones that handled the big cases.
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Speaker 3: So to me, this is just a sign that we're
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Speaker 3: going to find something. There's something going on here.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't want to pay those big attorney fees
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Speaker 2: for nothing.
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Speaker 3: It's just experienced talking in that case. But yes, that
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Speaker 3: was a pretty good clue to us that there is something.
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Speaker 2: Here for sure, and until proof and guilty, but doesn't
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Speaker 2: look good.
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Speaker 4: It did not look good.
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Speaker 2: No.
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Speaker 3: So what we like to do, and this is not
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Speaker 3: just our unit, but typically law enforcement in general, when
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Speaker 3: you're doing a criminal investigation that involves multiple suspects, is
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Speaker 3: that we like to start with who is perceived to be,
8:28
Speaker 3: you know, the smallest fish, who looks like they have
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Speaker 3: the least amount of criminal liability here. And I like
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Speaker 3: to do that because that's almost always who is going
8:37
Speaker 3: to talk to you. You know, they're going to give
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Speaker 3: you the most information on the others. So in this case,
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Speaker 3: that was determined to be Tracy Murnane, who was the
8:44
Speaker 3: former director of Purchasing at the Zoo.
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Speaker 4: So we're not looking now just at zoo expenses.
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Speaker 3: You know, we we have an open criminal investigation now,
8:53
Speaker 3: so we have as a law enforcement unit, we have
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Speaker 3: subpoena authority. So we start looking at his personal bank records,
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Speaker 3: and what we noted in his personal bank records. Of course,
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Speaker 3: we're expecting to see payroll from the Zoo, as we should,
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Speaker 3: but something else that we found.
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Speaker 4: That far exceeded his payroll from the.
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Speaker 3: Zoo were a series of checks from a local classic
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Speaker 3: car company called Arena Motor Sales. And I think altogether
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Speaker 3: we identified around four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars
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Speaker 3: of payments from this classic car dealership.
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Speaker 4: And we're thinking, this is weird.
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Speaker 3: You know, why is this classic car company paying the
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Speaker 3: Zoo's director of purchasing. And it was several checks a
9:31
Speaker 3: month that were being deposited into his personal bank account.
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Speaker 3: And because this is a two year investigation that we're
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Speaker 3: trying to cram into a one hour podcast, I'm going
9:41
Speaker 3: to just get to like the cliff's note version of
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Speaker 3: Tracy's story. Since he's not our big fish. But what
9:46
Speaker 3: it turned out that he was doing is that he
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Speaker 3: was purchasing vehicles himself and he wanted to sell them
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Speaker 3: to the zoo. And he's solely in charge of you know,
9:55
Speaker 3: as the director of purchasing, he's in charge of buying
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Speaker 3: everything for the zoo. But he wanted to a way
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Speaker 3: that he could make some extra money, so he was
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Speaker 3: buying these vehicles. He knows that he cannot sell vehicles
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Speaker 3: that are owned by him to the zoo because that's
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Speaker 3: violating his code of ethics. So what he did is
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Speaker 3: he had all of these vehicles quickly titled to Arena
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Speaker 3: Motor Sales, and then Arena Motor Sales would on paper
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Speaker 3: sell these vehicles to the zoo, so the zoo would
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Speaker 3: pay Arena Motor Sales, and then Arena would immediately cut
10:23
Speaker 3: a check to Tracy Renaine. So Tracy is essentially selling
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Speaker 3: vehicles to the zoo, but not on paper. He's using
10:29
Speaker 3: a straw man as the seller. They also had a
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Speaker 3: little side hustle going on that did involve classic cars
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Speaker 3: and the classic cars. It was a mix of those
10:37
Speaker 3: vehicles and then the vehicles that he sold to the
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Speaker 3: zoo that totaled that five hundred and seventy six thousand
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Speaker 3: and some odd.
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Speaker 2: Sense, And you know, what was his yearly salary? I
10:48
Speaker 2: assume it changed a bit over the years, but what
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Speaker 2: was the ballpark salary for Tracy?
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Speaker 3: So he was definitely the lowest paid of our executives
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Speaker 3: and he was making around one hundred and twenty thousand
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Speaker 3: a year at the time shortly.
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Speaker 4: Before he separated from employment.
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Speaker 3: Just for comparison, Tom Stoff was making just under five
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Speaker 3: hundred thousand a year as the CEO, and then Greg
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Speaker 3: bell our CFO, he was making just under four hundred
11:14
Speaker 3: thousand per year.
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Speaker 2: That's a lot of money, yes, and I think.
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Speaker 3: That's really important for people to know because these are
11:22
Speaker 3: not people who were financially strapped at all. These are
11:26
Speaker 3: big salaries for the Midwest, for a medium cost of
11:31
Speaker 3: living city.
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Speaker 2: So, okay, does Tracy end up telling you anything about
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Speaker 2: the others or is he, you know, staying quiet?
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Speaker 4: No, he did.
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Speaker 3: He was very forthcoming with information about the others. He
11:44
Speaker 3: was not as forthcoming with information that would implicate.
11:46
Speaker 4: Himself, because they never are.
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Speaker 3: But he would say just enough, and then we would
11:51
Speaker 3: have to push back and say, actually, that's.
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Speaker 4: Not quite true. Let me show you this.
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Speaker 2: What does he tell you?
11:55
Speaker 4: So he does give us some information.
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Speaker 3: A lot of it was just him solidifying what we
11:59
Speaker 3: are already believed and him confirming that this is indeed
12:03
Speaker 3: the way it went. But he did get a lot
12:05
Speaker 3: of good information that he was willing to share on
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Speaker 3: the other three and that would be our CEO, CFO
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Speaker 3: and our director of marketing. He wasn't in their click
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Speaker 3: by any means. The click was Pete Fingerhut, Greg Bell,
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Speaker 3: and Tom Stalf. As we started to interview current and
12:23
Speaker 3: former employees from the zoo, I mean, for this case,
12:25
Speaker 3: we interviewed over one hundred and twenty five people. As
12:27
Speaker 3: I recall, and as Zoo employees had some choice nicknames
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Speaker 3: for these three individually. Tom Stalf was known by the
12:36
Speaker 3: employees there as the King because he did what he
12:39
Speaker 3: wanted and got what he wanted. And then Greg Bell,
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Speaker 3: our CFO, he was referred to as Big Daddy by
12:45
Speaker 3: zoo employees.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: And then our director of marketing Pete Fingerhut, his nickname
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Speaker 3: was the ticket Master for reasons that will become clear
12:56
Speaker 3: as we continue to go here.
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Speaker 2: Wow, so we have got the King, Big Dad, and
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Speaker 2: the Ticketmaster.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so the Zoo employees collectively, we heard some different
13:06
Speaker 3: names for them. It was the good old boys club
13:09
Speaker 3: amongst the people under them. They were not held in
13:12
Speaker 3: high esteem. Let's just say that.
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Speaker 2: Like these Zoo employees, they're not shocked when you come
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Speaker 2: to them and say something's going on.
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Speaker 3: The general consensus was that these men were very entitled
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Speaker 3: and they did what they want and they felt that
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Speaker 3: they were.
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Speaker 4: Above the law. That turned out to not be the case.
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Speaker 3: But yeah, and I know we're jumping ahead a little bit,
13:32
Speaker 3: but I can say that the majority of people that
13:34
Speaker 3: we talked to who are the former and current Zoom employees,
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Speaker 3: these are wonderful people who are there for the animals.
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Speaker 3: You know, they're there for the right reasons, and they
13:42
Speaker 3: felt extremely betrayed by what happened by their leadership. They
13:48
Speaker 3: were betrayed by this. They were angry.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I really want to get into what comes to
13:54
Speaker 1: light that would make Zoo employees so angry, as you
13:57
Speaker 1: just said. But also, you know, I think I want
13:59
Speaker 1: to remind listeners here that you know, a lot of
14:02
Speaker 1: the Zoo employees are making a very modest I mean
14:07
Speaker 1: a good wage, but a modest wage, and there's also
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Speaker 1: a lot of hourly employees, not all of them, of course,
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Speaker 1: but there's this huge range of jobs at the zoo.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the Columbus Zoo is a nonprofit organization.
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Speaker 2: It's great for the Columbus economy and draws a ton
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Speaker 2: of visitors, but at the end of the day, the
14:23
Speaker 2: goal of the zoo is not for profit. On their website,
14:27
Speaker 2: it actually says that their mission is to become one
14:30
Speaker 2: of the most impactful wildlife conservation institutions globally. They talk
14:35
Speaker 2: about the importance of conservation and education, as you pointed out,
14:39
Speaker 2: and that's, you know, I'm sure how most of these
14:42
Speaker 2: zoo employees actually feel.
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Speaker 1: So as you started to comb through the spending of
14:48
Speaker 1: these three top dogs, you know, with these nicknames, King,
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Speaker 1: Big Daddy, and Ticketmaster, what did you find?
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Speaker 3: All of the credit card purposes were a all the
15:00
Speaker 3: credit cards that were held by these zoo executives to
15:03
Speaker 3: see what they spent their money on. And what we
15:06
Speaker 3: found there was just a series of personal purchases to
15:11
Speaker 3: enhance their own lives and their own entertainment. I'll us
15:14
Speaker 3: give you a sampling. So Tom Stall, for instance, he
15:17
Speaker 3: spent money on World Series tickets for his family. I
15:21
Speaker 3: think those tickets alone or maybe just hent or ten
15:24
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. And then you know, they can't have just
15:27
Speaker 3: the craft seats. They have to have the good seats.
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Speaker 3: They have to have private catering. Pete Fingerhutt, who is
15:33
Speaker 3: our ticket master, he went on multiple personal trips that
15:38
Speaker 3: he used the zoo's credit card to pay for anything
15:41
Speaker 3: that he wanted.
15:42
Speaker 4: And of course you know what they were doing.
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Speaker 3: You know, like any bureaucracy, Zoo has credit card forms
15:48
Speaker 3: that you have to submit, you know, your receipt and
15:51
Speaker 3: what it is that you were doing and why you
15:53
Speaker 3: were doing it, and they would just falsify I mean period.
15:57
Speaker 3: Pete Fingerhut. You know, he would manipulate invoices, and this
16:02
Speaker 3: is something that he finally did admit to in an
16:04
Speaker 3: interview where his council was present. But he would just
16:07
Speaker 3: wipe things out on invoices, do a little photoshopping, make
16:11
Speaker 3: it say something else, and submit it to the zoo's
16:13
Speaker 3: finance office. But the way that they were able to
16:16
Speaker 3: get away with this is that again we're talking about
16:18
Speaker 3: the people at the very top, so they're just signing
16:21
Speaker 3: each other's credit card slips and then nobody says anything.
16:24
Speaker 2: Right because it's like, oh, I'm going to go up
16:26
Speaker 2: against the CEO on this credit card slip or I'm
16:30
Speaker 2: just going to keep my job and that will be
16:32
Speaker 2: someone else's problem, which is I mean that totally. I
16:34
Speaker 2: think reasonable take if you're just making an honest living.
16:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the people that work in the Zoo's accounts
16:40
Speaker 3: payable or accounts receivable office, like when a slip is
16:44
Speaker 3: signed off on by the CFO of the Zoo, these
16:47
Speaker 3: people are not going to question it because that is
16:49
Speaker 3: their boss. That is the ultimate boss of everything financial
16:53
Speaker 3: at the Zoo, who also had I'm going to call
17:02
Speaker 3: this a barter account system. That's the best way to
17:04
Speaker 3: really say it. Ohio has this, and these are maybe
17:07
Speaker 3: nationwide as well. But there are these barter networks that
17:10
Speaker 3: companies can join and essentially you have to put something
17:14
Speaker 3: of value out onto this barter market and then other
17:17
Speaker 3: businesses do the same. So the Zoo's item of value
17:20
Speaker 3: were admission tickets for the zoo or for zoombz Bay,
17:24
Speaker 3: which is their water park, and then also rounds of
17:26
Speaker 3: golf at Safari Golf, which is the course that they
17:28
Speaker 3: own and operate. So the Barter network is something that
17:32
Speaker 3: our forensic auditors examined as well, and what we found
17:35
Speaker 3: is that these executives were using those barn dollars again
17:39
Speaker 3: just to enrich their own life. We had the CEO
17:42
Speaker 3: who was using Barter dollars to purchase limousines.
17:46
Speaker 4: For his daughter's prom.
17:48
Speaker 3: We had Tracy Burnain who was using Barter dollars to
17:52
Speaker 3: get a party bus for his son's wedding. We had
17:55
Speaker 3: Tom Stuff, the CEO, who was using the Barter dollars
17:58
Speaker 3: to take his family on spring break trips. Some of
18:02
Speaker 3: these were really egregious. We had Tom stallf who was
18:05
Speaker 3: buying luxury watches for himself with these dollars. Greg Bell
18:10
Speaker 3: purchased an antique safe for his son. They got tickets
18:14
Speaker 3: to Hamilton, tickets to Laynez, anything that you can imagine
18:18
Speaker 3: that would make your life fun and interesting, that's what
18:21
Speaker 3: they were doing.
18:22
Speaker 2: Wow. And I don't know if this would have come
18:24
Speaker 2: up in your guys's investigation, but did you ever find
18:27
Speaker 2: any correspondence between either this click of executives or them
18:34
Speaker 2: and their families where it's like, ooh, we really shouldn't
18:38
Speaker 2: be doing this. We're kind of alluding to like that
18:40
Speaker 2: others knew what they were doing, or that they knew
18:43
Speaker 2: how bad it was.
18:45
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, in fact that honestly, that is what made
18:48
Speaker 3: this case so beautiful is that we were given full
18:51
Speaker 3: access to the zoo executives' emails. Love that not only
18:56
Speaker 3: their emails, but also you know, their outlook calendars and
19:00
Speaker 3: all of their contacts. We were able to view all
19:03
Speaker 3: of their communications between themselves and also yeah, between them
19:07
Speaker 3: and their family members and them and other people. And
19:10
Speaker 3: it became a blueprint of watching these people facilitate the
19:15
Speaker 3: fraud and how they were going to cover it up.
19:17
Speaker 3: I mean, they discuss everything over email as if nobody
19:21
Speaker 3: would ever see it, So little did they know those
19:24
Speaker 3: are going to be some of our best pieces of evidence.
19:27
Speaker 4: It was absolutely amazing.
19:29
Speaker 3: In fact, one of my favorite emails is and we'll
19:31
Speaker 3: talk about this later when we talk about tickets that
19:33
Speaker 3: they were purchasing, but one of my favorite emails in
19:36
Speaker 3: this entire case is when our CFO, CEO and director
19:41
Speaker 3: of Marketing, so the King, Big Daddy, and Ticketmaster, they're
19:46
Speaker 3: all talking to each other over email, and they're talking
19:48
Speaker 3: about suites that they have purchased at the Shatstein Center.
19:51
Speaker 3: For an upcoming concert, which of course was totally paid
19:55
Speaker 3: for by the zoo, and one of them says to
19:57
Speaker 3: the other, we are so spoiled. Another chimes in as
20:01
Speaker 3: a reply, yes.
20:02
Speaker 4: We are, like we are something to that effect.
20:06
Speaker 3: But it was just so egregious and awful and tone
20:08
Speaker 3: deaf because you're, yes, you're committing fraud. You are using
20:13
Speaker 3: the zoo's money to pay for something that no one
20:16
Speaker 3: else at the zoo knows about, and that you are
20:18
Speaker 3: fraudulently listing on invoices. The total loss associated with the
20:23
Speaker 3: barter network was it was around seventy thousand dollars of
20:27
Speaker 3: funds that were spent on this network that were supposed
20:31
Speaker 3: to be spent to better the zoo and for the
20:32
Speaker 3: zoo's day to day operations, but it ended up being
20:36
Speaker 3: tickets and vacations, watches, you know, again, anything to make
20:42
Speaker 3: their lives fun.
20:43
Speaker 2: Okay, so they've spent all his money on like concert
20:47
Speaker 2: tickets and suites and catering and vacations. What else were
20:52
Speaker 2: they buying?
20:53
Speaker 3: So going back to the self importance, I'll move on
20:57
Speaker 3: to another scheme that they had, and that was that
21:00
Speaker 3: involved memberships at some very prestigious country clubs here in
21:05
Speaker 3: central Ohio. So these guys they got some memberships at
21:10
Speaker 3: some country clubs that are here in Delaware County, which
21:15
Speaker 3: is the suburb of Columbus, the suburban area where the
21:18
Speaker 3: zoo itself.
21:19
Speaker 4: Is actually located.
21:21
Speaker 3: So they got these country club memberships. And what we
21:25
Speaker 3: were able to do is we subpoenaed all of the
21:28
Speaker 3: receipt details from these three different country.
21:30
Speaker 4: Clubs and we got to see what they bought.
21:32
Speaker 3: So the way that it works at the country club
21:35
Speaker 3: is you have a membership and you don't pay cash
21:38
Speaker 3: for anything.
21:38
Speaker 4: You charge it to your account and you get a
21:40
Speaker 4: bill at the end of the month.
21:41
Speaker 3: Well that bill was associated with credit cards that belong
21:45
Speaker 3: to the Columbus Zoo and not to our people here.
21:48
Speaker 3: So every single month it was just being built back
21:50
Speaker 3: to the zoo. The people in the zoo's finance office,
21:52
Speaker 3: they don't know what's being purchased because they're not seeing
21:54
Speaker 3: the individual receipt details.
21:56
Speaker 4: It's just a statement at the end of the month
21:57
Speaker 4: that comes.
21:58
Speaker 2: Were they making any sort of attempt on these like
22:01
Speaker 2: credit card statements like this lunch was to discuss animals
22:06
Speaker 2: anything like.
22:06
Speaker 3: That, Yes, And it was all bs and all nonsense.
22:11
Speaker 3: And this was one of the things that was really
22:12
Speaker 3: great about having access to their emails and having access
22:15
Speaker 3: to their outlook calendars that you know, they would put
22:18
Speaker 3: on their credit card usage form that had to be
22:20
Speaker 3: turned into finance. I'll just give you one example. So
22:23
Speaker 3: this one particular, and this happened all the time. There
22:26
Speaker 3: are a hundred examples, but I'm just going to choose one.
22:29
Speaker 3: So this was a baseball game in a suite that
22:34
Speaker 3: Greg Bell took his family to for his grandson's birthday.
22:38
Speaker 3: And not only you know, did the zoo have to
22:40
Speaker 3: pay for the suite, of course, but they also had
22:41
Speaker 3: to pay for the private catering, the food and the
22:43
Speaker 3: booze that was all used on the zoo's credit card.
22:46
Speaker 3: But so Greg bell our CFO, he has to turn
22:49
Speaker 3: in his usage form and he has to put what
22:51
Speaker 3: was the purpose of this particular event and the one
22:55
Speaker 3: that was for his grandson's birthday. He wrote, meeting with
23:00
Speaker 3: Columbus Minority Business Council. So this is what it was,
23:04
Speaker 3: over and over and over, fraudulently listing meetings with different
23:10
Speaker 3: people that never occurred. A lot of the entertainment type
23:13
Speaker 3: of things had meeting with board member, meeting with donor meeting,
23:17
Speaker 3: and it was all wise. It was them taking their
23:20
Speaker 3: friends and family out and spending the zoo's money. Like
23:23
Speaker 3: I said, we were reviewing all of the individual receipts
23:26
Speaker 3: and what we found is that it wasn't even just
23:29
Speaker 3: our suspects. It was their spouses and their kids that
23:32
Speaker 3: were going into the country clubs and just buying what
23:35
Speaker 3: they wanted and billing it to their account. We saw
23:38
Speaker 3: private boxing classes that were taken by Pete's wife, personal
23:42
Speaker 3: training by Tom, Tom's wife and Pete's wife, just cocktail
23:48
Speaker 3: hour at the country club and all of this was
23:51
Speaker 3: going back to the zoo.
23:53
Speaker 2: As you were going through this like forensic accounting, did
23:56
Speaker 2: you ever discover how this all started? I have to
23:59
Speaker 2: imagine at some point the three of these guys, Tom,
24:01
Speaker 2: Greg Pete, they make this decision to start committing fraud
24:05
Speaker 2: as a team, since it was truly or at least
24:07
Speaker 2: it sounds like a team effort.
24:10
Speaker 3: So Garth Brooks came to Columbus and I want to say,
24:15
Speaker 3: this is like two thousand and I don't know, eleven.
24:17
Speaker 2: Or twelve, like the Garth Brooks.
24:20
Speaker 3: The Garth Brooks he came to Comb and these guys
24:23
Speaker 3: decided they wanted to go.
24:25
Speaker 4: They were like, we got to go to this.
24:26
Speaker 2: I totally relate.
24:29
Speaker 3: Too. Yeah, and apparently, you know, the state of Ohio
24:33
Speaker 3: related too, because Garth did three Knights in a row
24:36
Speaker 3: and all three were sold out. So these guys, you know,
24:40
Speaker 3: they consider themselves royalty at this point, so they're not
24:42
Speaker 3: going to just get tickets, right, they want the best tickets.
24:46
Speaker 3: So they start talking to a rep over at the
24:49
Speaker 3: Shottenstein Center here in Columbus, one of the two big
24:51
Speaker 3: concert event venues, and they're like, hmm, how much would
24:56
Speaker 3: it be for a suite? So they're talking to the
24:59
Speaker 3: rep and we uncover an email essentially where the conversation
25:04
Speaker 3: is this between our three guys. They're like, huh, yeah,
25:09
Speaker 3: let's get a sweet like let's do this, and as
25:12
Speaker 3: I just explained, Garth was in.
25:13
Speaker 4: Town for three nights.
25:15
Speaker 3: We have an email where ticketmaster Pete Fingerhut reaches out
25:19
Speaker 3: to Tom Staff and.
25:20
Speaker 4: Says, hey, do you want to go twice?
25:22
Speaker 3: Like you want to go two nights in a row,
25:24
Speaker 3: and Tom says, yeah, I'd go again.
25:27
Speaker 4: So that's what they decide to do. So they decide that.
25:30
Speaker 3: They're going to rent a suite for the Garth concert,
25:34
Speaker 3: and that was to the tune of eight thousand dollars
25:38
Speaker 3: just for two nights in suite. Now, that's just for
25:41
Speaker 3: the cost of the suite. That doesn't even include your catering, which,
25:43
Speaker 3: of course, if you're going to go sit in the suite,
25:46
Speaker 3: you know you're going to live it up.
25:47
Speaker 4: You're not bringing your own water bottle with you.
25:49
Speaker 2: You're not going to be like completely sober and like
25:54
Speaker 2: bring your own snacks like my mom when I was
25:56
Speaker 2: eight to the movie theater or something.
25:58
Speaker 4: You're going to go in a party, right, They didn't
26:00
Speaker 4: bring in their own purses however, like that. No, so
26:04
Speaker 4: they're getting private catering.
26:05
Speaker 3: This is expensive, right, So I mean of all of
26:08
Speaker 3: the different concerts that we uncovered that they went to,
26:10
Speaker 3: I mean, these catering bills are between like fifteen hundred
26:12
Speaker 3: and two thousand dollars once you fill them with your
26:15
Speaker 3: friends and family and you guys all are drinking alcohol
26:18
Speaker 3: and ordering whatever you want.
26:20
Speaker 4: But anyway, so this is how it starts. So they're in.
26:29
Speaker 3: These suites at the Garth concert and they're like, okay,
26:32
Speaker 3: we've had a taste of what true exclusivity is and
26:35
Speaker 3: we want that.
26:36
Speaker 4: So we found an email.
26:38
Speaker 3: Pete emails Greg and what it is that he's emailing is,
26:42
Speaker 3: essentially it's a packet of materials of how much it
26:46
Speaker 3: costs to have a season suite at the Shawenstein Center,
26:51
Speaker 3: how much will it cost for us to have a
26:53
Speaker 3: suite for everything? Essentially, So it says, hey, how can
26:58
Speaker 3: we convince Tom to do this?
27:00
Speaker 4: They're talking about it back and forth.
27:01
Speaker 3: Well, anyways, Tom agrees because he's like, heck yeah, I mean,
27:04
Speaker 3: he's the King.
27:05
Speaker 4: He wants to be in on this. So they devised
27:07
Speaker 4: this plan. And this is where this was.
27:10
Speaker 3: Step one of what was determined to be the biggest
27:13
Speaker 3: fraud at the Zoo was these suite agreements not only
27:16
Speaker 3: at the Shot and Steam Center, but also at niche
27:18
Speaker 3: Wide Arena where the Blue Jackets play.
27:20
Speaker 4: So how it started was this. They originally just did
27:25
Speaker 4: it at.
27:25
Speaker 3: The Shot and they got OSU season tickets and then
27:28
Speaker 3: also all of these other concerts, and that alone, just
27:33
Speaker 3: for use of the suite, that three year contract was
27:36
Speaker 3: over two hundred thousand dollars. That's just for the suite
27:39
Speaker 3: for the sporting events. If you want to go to
27:41
Speaker 3: concerts that costs extra as well. And then if you
27:45
Speaker 3: want your catering, that costs extra as well. So they
27:48
Speaker 3: did that. However, how they filled out their credit card
27:51
Speaker 3: usage form and their check requests formed for the Zoo
27:54
Speaker 3: again was all just nonsense. Again, they had it say
27:58
Speaker 3: advertisement of State University. So they were sending it to
28:02
Speaker 3: the zoo's finance office as if they had entered into
28:05
Speaker 3: a contract for the Zoo to be essentially one of
28:08
Speaker 3: the sponsors at the shot Steam Center, that they were
28:11
Speaker 3: going to have you know, banners and huge things on
28:14
Speaker 3: the inside advertising.
28:15
Speaker 4: The Columbus Zuo.
28:16
Speaker 2: So they just were leaving out the fact that this
28:19
Speaker 2: was a suite. They were just saying it's being paid
28:21
Speaker 2: to this stadium.
28:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, because all of the payments were to the Ohio
28:25
Speaker 3: State University. So no one in finance knew the difference.
28:28
Speaker 3: And again, you know, you have your people at the
28:30
Speaker 3: top signing off on these forums, there's never going to
28:33
Speaker 3: be any questions.
28:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you know.
28:35
Speaker 3: They continue to do this for the next eight nine years,
28:38
Speaker 3: and they just bought bigger sweet packages every single year,
28:41
Speaker 3: you know, at the Columbus Blue Jackets games, which are
28:44
Speaker 3: played at nationwide arena. You know, they started small back
28:48
Speaker 3: in twenty ten and started with just a small season
28:51
Speaker 3: ticket package. Well, they got greedier and greedier as the
28:54
Speaker 3: years went on, and then at the very end they
28:57
Speaker 3: had a full season in the suite. They also had
29:00
Speaker 3: full season in the loge, which is another premier seating area,
29:03
Speaker 3: and then they also had glass seats, which are considered
29:06
Speaker 3: the best seats at a hockey game, you know, right
29:07
Speaker 3: behind the penalty box.
29:09
Speaker 4: The amount of.
29:09
Speaker 3: Fraud that was perpetuated with these was just unbelievable. For
29:14
Speaker 3: every single night that you're there and you're getting this
29:16
Speaker 3: private catering that's all being built to a credit card,
29:18
Speaker 3: which again we're held by the Zoo. Every time you
29:20
Speaker 3: have that expense, you have to fill it out on
29:23
Speaker 3: your form of what it is, Why was I there?
29:25
Speaker 3: And every single thing was a lie. It was all
29:29
Speaker 3: a lie. Everything was entertaining this particular donor entertaining this
29:34
Speaker 3: board member. And you know, we went and talked all
29:37
Speaker 3: these people. None of them had ever been to any
29:40
Speaker 3: suite with these people.
29:41
Speaker 2: Which is actually so surprising to me because it's like, well,
29:44
Speaker 2: you've already paid for this suite, Like if you are
29:48
Speaker 2: trying to make it look like a valid expense you've
29:50
Speaker 2: already paid for it. Would it really kill you to
29:52
Speaker 2: like invite some of your donors one night.
29:55
Speaker 3: But it was never for anyone else. It was it
29:57
Speaker 3: was for them from the very beginning. It was for
29:59
Speaker 3: them and their family and their friends. There was never
30:03
Speaker 3: any type of legitimate zoo business being conducted in any
30:06
Speaker 3: of these form after form, just nothing but lies. And
30:10
Speaker 3: there were actually a couple of times where they almost
30:13
Speaker 3: were caught. So one time, the Shottenstein Center delivered or
30:18
Speaker 3: had shipped to the zoo like a month's worth of
30:21
Speaker 3: parking passes for suiteholders, So the zoo got to have
30:24
Speaker 3: all these special parking because when you have a suite,
30:26
Speaker 3: you know you get the bus parking.
30:27
Speaker 4: Well, they delivered all the.
30:28
Speaker 3: Parking passes to the zoo, and the zoo's mail room
30:32
Speaker 3: just assumed that these were for the zoo's philanthropy department,
30:35
Speaker 3: because they figured if anyone was going to be doing
30:37
Speaker 3: any type of entertaining at these venues, it's probably the
30:40
Speaker 3: people whose job it is is to find owners for
30:44
Speaker 3: the zoo. So all of these parking passes got routed
30:47
Speaker 3: to the zoo's philanthropy department. Well, the philanthropy department was like,
30:51
Speaker 3: I don't have any idea what these are. We don't
30:54
Speaker 3: have tickets to any of these events, we're not aware
30:56
Speaker 3: of any of this. So what they do is the
30:58
Speaker 3: Zoo's philanthropy department emails Fingerhut and Greg Bell and said
31:02
Speaker 3: does anybody know what these are for? So that we
31:05
Speaker 3: find a series of emails where Pete immediately emails Greg
31:09
Speaker 3: and says, go down there and get those parking and
31:11
Speaker 3: say that they're for Tom. Say that they're for Tom.
31:13
Speaker 3: So he freaks out. And then what we see next
31:16
Speaker 3: is Pete emailing both concert venues and saying, you know,
31:21
Speaker 3: just because the mailroom messes things up all the time,
31:24
Speaker 3: from now on, I'm going to go ahead and just
31:26
Speaker 3: request that you send all tickets and parking to this address.
31:29
Speaker 3: And it was his home, so you know, he knew
31:32
Speaker 3: that he was very close to being caught, very very close.
31:36
Speaker 2: Wow.
31:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wanted to give you some numbers of yeah,
31:39
Speaker 3: all this shook out. So just for Ohio State University,
31:42
Speaker 3: the money that they spent there on suites and also
31:46
Speaker 3: for catering, that was around three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
31:49
Speaker 3: But that was nowhere close to the amount of money
31:51
Speaker 3: that was spent at Nationwide.
31:52
Speaker 4: Arena with the close Blue Jackets. When we totaled that.
31:57
Speaker 3: The amount spent on catering at Nationwide Arena, additional concert tickets, suites,
32:02
Speaker 3: everything all together, that was over a million dollars of
32:06
Speaker 3: Zoo's money just for these men and their personal entertainment.
32:10
Speaker 2: A million dollars.
32:12
Speaker 3: No through business of any kind being conducted there none.
32:15
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so much money. I mean, they had to
32:17
Speaker 2: know that once they got up into like the seven figures,
32:22
Speaker 2: not that it's ever okay, but you don't want to
32:24
Speaker 2: get caught like that's really really bad because a million
32:27
Speaker 2: dollars that's newsworthy, which ends up being Yeah. So at
32:32
Speaker 2: this point they all know they're under investigation. They've all
32:35
Speaker 2: retained attorneys. We spoke about Tracy and your conversations with him.
32:40
Speaker 2: Tell me about your conversations with the other three and
32:43
Speaker 2: how things progressed once you were like, yeah, I have
32:45
Speaker 2: a great case and I'm ready to talk to them.
32:48
Speaker 3: So the second attorney that we reached out to, after
32:51
Speaker 3: speaking to Tracy, we were confident to go to the
32:53
Speaker 3: CFO to Greg Bell next, and we did we sat
32:56
Speaker 3: down with he and his attorney, I think a total
32:58
Speaker 3: of four times were again we did the same thing.
33:01
Speaker 3: We laid out our case and showed them what we
33:03
Speaker 3: already knew, and you know, it went a lot like
33:06
Speaker 3: it did with Tracy where Greg he was definitely eager
33:11
Speaker 3: to say what he knew about Pete and Tom, who
33:13
Speaker 3: we had not spoken with yet. He was very grateful
33:16
Speaker 3: because you know, again, you know, people want the best
33:18
Speaker 3: deal for themselves. Everybody knows that they're looking at prison
33:21
Speaker 3: in this instance because of the amount of money and
33:24
Speaker 3: because of the type of crimes here in Ohio that
33:26
Speaker 3: they could be charged under, which is essentially a racketeering
33:29
Speaker 3: type of situation. Engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
33:33
Speaker 3: That's what it's called here at least, which is a
33:35
Speaker 3: RICO case, which is a lot of times like what
33:38
Speaker 3: gangs are charged under. Its organized crime is what it was. Yeah,
33:41
Speaker 3: So they have the best defense counsel, so their clients
33:45
Speaker 3: have been prepped for what they could be facing here.
33:48
Speaker 3: So everybody wants a good deal.
33:49
Speaker 2: Which is what by the way, in decades in prison.
33:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, it can be most certainly, and the amount of theft,
33:56
Speaker 3: you know, when this was all said and done. We
33:57
Speaker 3: can talk about the numbers that were our final calcula.
34:00
Speaker 3: But yeah, this was felony one theft in Ohio. It
34:03
Speaker 3: doesn't get any more serious when it comes to a
34:05
Speaker 3: financial crime.
34:06
Speaker 4: It was a big deal.
34:07
Speaker 3: So Greg, who we sat down with next, for the
34:09
Speaker 3: most part, Yeah, he admitted to everything that we laid out.
34:12
Speaker 3: There was not a whole lot of pushback. He knew
34:15
Speaker 3: what was coming for him and he did. He gave
34:17
Speaker 3: good information on Pete and also on Tom.
34:20
Speaker 4: So that's who we sat down with next.
34:23
Speaker 2: I guess I'm curious if Greg, because his son was
34:26
Speaker 2: also to some a smaller extent involved, I'm just putting
34:30
Speaker 2: myself in his shoes in this moment. I'm like, what
34:34
Speaker 2: do I have to tell you to get my son
34:35
Speaker 2: off the hook here?
34:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, and really not just his son, it was also
34:40
Speaker 3: his daughter had also been an employee of the zoo,
34:43
Speaker 3: and you know, back to those emails. But something that
34:46
Speaker 3: was just really unbelievable in this case is that we
34:49
Speaker 3: really got to see a lot about the family dynamics
34:52
Speaker 3: of the Bells and the entitlement of his children. He
34:56
Speaker 3: has three children, and we reviewed emails where children were
35:01
Speaker 3: basically sending him their list of demands of this is
35:05
Speaker 3: what we want. We want to go to this concert
35:08
Speaker 3: I want and his daughter Jillian, who was a zoo
35:10
Speaker 3: employee at one point, she would email him multiple times
35:14
Speaker 3: and say, here's my wish list and it would honestly
35:18
Speaker 3: be a long list of everything that she was expecting to.
35:21
Speaker 4: Have tickets too.
35:22
Speaker 2: So it seems like she knew that was coming from
35:25
Speaker 2: the zoo. Yeah, not from her dad's bank account.
35:28
Speaker 3: You know, it's hard to say where she Yeah, I
35:31
Speaker 3: don't know who she thought.
35:33
Speaker 4: Was paying for it.
35:34
Speaker 3: But I only bring that up because there was some
35:37
Speaker 3: unbelievable entitlement coming from these children. And you know, they
35:41
Speaker 3: said jump and he said how Hi? Like truly, if
35:44
Speaker 3: they wanted it, they got it.
35:46
Speaker 2: Wow. Are they able to at this stage in the
35:49
Speaker 2: process like negotiate like, Hey, I'm gonna tell you, but
35:54
Speaker 2: you gotta let my kid off the hook here.
35:56
Speaker 3: There was a little bit of negotiation like that when
35:58
Speaker 3: it came to the spout of hey, you know we're
36:03
Speaker 3: going to do this if this doesn't happen, There was
36:06
Speaker 3: a little bit of that. But his son, Grant, was
36:09
Speaker 3: an employee of the zoo, so him not being charged
36:12
Speaker 3: was never going to be an option because he was
36:15
Speaker 3: an employee. He had that responsibility to the zoo as
36:18
Speaker 3: his employer, and he chose to use the zoo's credit card.
36:21
Speaker 3: I know we haven't talked about Grant a lot, but
36:23
Speaker 3: you know, he used his credit card to take his
36:25
Speaker 3: family on vacation and then he did the same thing
36:27
Speaker 3: as everyone else, just falsified the invoice, falsified, made up
36:32
Speaker 3: some nonsense reason of what he was doing there.
36:34
Speaker 4: And it was all lies.
36:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, and would it be fair? I mean, I'm speculating,
36:38
Speaker 2: but like I'm assuming if my dad is a higher
36:41
Speaker 2: up at the zoo. Was his dad like you can
36:43
Speaker 2: kind of get away with this? Was there that conversation
36:47
Speaker 2: happening that made Grant feel like he could do that?
36:49
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
36:50
Speaker 3: Okay, they discussed exactly what he was going to do
36:52
Speaker 3: right over email. Wow, it was plain estet. His dad
36:55
Speaker 3: absolutely facilitated the fraud.
36:57
Speaker 2: Communicating a fraud over the workplace email that you're defrauding
37:02
Speaker 2: is unhinged to me. Never in my life.
37:06
Speaker 4: You would be shocked to what people do on devices.
37:09
Speaker 4: You know, I'm sure it didn't start out this way.
37:12
Speaker 4: I'm sure it started.
37:13
Speaker 3: Out with being very careful, but they were able to
37:16
Speaker 3: perpetuate this fraud for a decade without being caught. We
37:20
Speaker 3: see the same thing no matter what the investigation is.
37:23
Speaker 3: People start careful and then they just get complacent because
37:26
Speaker 3: they haven't been caught. They become greedier, their fraud becomes bigger,
37:31
Speaker 3: they start stealing more money. That's just the way it goes.
37:33
Speaker 3: They become untouchable. After a while, they feel untouchable.
37:37
Speaker 2: And so I guess, getting back into your conversations with Greg,
37:41
Speaker 2: where did that sort of lead you.
37:43
Speaker 3: Greg, for the most part, confirmed what we already knew,
37:46
Speaker 3: and he even admitted to some things that we didn't
37:49
Speaker 3: know that were things that we would have had no
37:52
Speaker 3: way of knowing. Because you know a lot of things
37:55
Speaker 3: as well that involved fraud that there won't be any
37:58
Speaker 3: records of whatsoever. There would be no way of us
38:01
Speaker 3: to even know that it.
38:02
Speaker 2: Exists, Like what things that.
38:04
Speaker 4: Involved cash transactions which I can't really say a whole
38:07
Speaker 4: lot about because he wasn't charged for these, because there
38:09
Speaker 4: was no way of coming up with like a cumulative
38:11
Speaker 4: number of things. But he knew where.
38:14
Speaker 3: He was going, He knew that prison was going to happen,
38:17
Speaker 3: so he absolutely did a flip on his co conspirators. Yeah,
38:22
Speaker 3: after Greg, it got a little bit trickier because neither
38:26
Speaker 3: Pete nor Tom wanted to talk. I'm not sure exactly.
38:33
Speaker 3: I think that they felt untouchable, I really do. I
38:36
Speaker 3: think that they felt that nothing was actually going to
38:39
Speaker 3: happen to them because nothing ever.
38:41
Speaker 4: Had actually happened to them. But it turns out they
38:44
Speaker 4: were wrong.
38:45
Speaker 2: Well, because if you have the emails, I'm assuming their
38:47
Speaker 2: defense attorneys have the emails. No, Oh, they don't. It
38:51
Speaker 2: doesn't work like that.
38:52
Speaker 3: No, So if they don't get any of those things
38:54
Speaker 3: until the case is actually charged in court and then
38:56
Speaker 3: they receive them from discovery.
38:58
Speaker 4: Oh so they don't know what we know at that point.
39:02
Speaker 2: I see, Okay, So only if they decide to take
39:05
Speaker 2: it to court is when they get that stuff.
39:08
Speaker 3: So we did have a session with Pete and his
39:12
Speaker 3: attorney at the very beginning, where we sat down and
39:15
Speaker 3: he lied the entire time. I mean, there wasn't a
39:18
Speaker 3: single thing that came out of his mouth that was factual. He,
39:22
Speaker 3: I think, quickly realized that that was a bad move.
39:26
Speaker 3: He ended up getting a different defense attorney who is
39:29
Speaker 3: absolutely top notch, and she made him realize that this
39:34
Speaker 3: is not something that is disappearing, and it's time to
39:37
Speaker 3: sit down and talk to us. And by the time
39:39
Speaker 3: he did that, you know, he had realized and finally
39:42
Speaker 3: come to the conclusion that he was very likely going
39:46
Speaker 3: to prison. And then he finally did decide to come
39:50
Speaker 3: clean on some things. He did lie to the end
39:54
Speaker 3: about others, one of which involved some bribes. He was
39:57
Speaker 3: charged with cash bribes by a vendor, a zoo vendor.
40:02
Speaker 3: He lied and I absolutely am confident that he continued
40:05
Speaker 3: to lie.
40:06
Speaker 2: Wow. Okay, And so he tells you a little bit
40:11
Speaker 2: of the truth, a lot of stuff that's not true.
40:14
Speaker 2: And then I assume you move on to Tom. Did
40:16
Speaker 2: he ever agree to speak with you?
40:19
Speaker 3: No?
40:19
Speaker 4: Wow, never sat down with us.
40:22
Speaker 3: And that turned out to not That didn't end well
40:25
Speaker 3: for him because he you know, if you want to
40:28
Speaker 3: talk about we didn't talk about all the schemes, and
40:29
Speaker 3: I don't know that we need to, but we can
40:31
Speaker 3: talk about final dollar amounts of the theft and what
40:34
Speaker 3: ended up happening to these people. But ultimately, you know, Tom,
40:37
Speaker 3: he got the longest sentence, and that does sometimes happen
40:41
Speaker 3: if you.
40:42
Speaker 4: Are if you're the last to fall.
40:46
Speaker 2: Do you know how many years he was facing and
40:49
Speaker 2: how many he was sentenced to.
40:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the total fraud, the full theft.
40:54
Speaker 3: Amount combined for everyone was two point three million dollars
40:58
Speaker 3: and some change. That's what it should out to be.
41:01
Speaker 3: And just to give you an idea some numbers. We
41:05
Speaker 3: had over one hundred and twenty five interviews that we conducted,
41:07
Speaker 3: There were over one hundreds of poenas that were issued,
41:10
Speaker 3: We reviewed thousands of emails, We conducted a total of
41:14
Speaker 3: fifteen profit sessions, and it was a two plus year investigation.
41:20
Speaker 3: So finally when we were done, there was a special
41:23
Speaker 3: grand jury that was convened in Delaware County. It was
41:25
Speaker 3: a three day grand jury where the grandeurs heard nothing
41:29
Speaker 3: but testimony on the Columbus Zoo. So typically when a
41:32
Speaker 3: grand jury is held, the grandeurs here multiple cases about
41:35
Speaker 3: different things throughout their service time as grandeurs. Well, this
41:38
Speaker 3: was different. This was three days of testimony only on
41:42
Speaker 3: the zoo. So this returned a ninety count indictment against
41:46
Speaker 3: everybody collectively. That was the number ninety counts and Tom
41:51
Speaker 3: Staff was indicted on thirty six count. He ended up
41:54
Speaker 3: pleading guilty to fifteen of those, you know, with the
41:57
Speaker 3: negotiative plea, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
42:02
Speaker 3: And he has a job in prison, and his prison
42:05
Speaker 3: job is a porter, which is basically a janitor.
42:07
Speaker 4: He's a custodian in prison.
42:09
Speaker 2: Wow.
42:10
Speaker 3: And then we have Greg Bell. He was indicted on
42:13
Speaker 3: fourteen counts and he pled guilty to all fourteen. He
42:17
Speaker 3: was sentenced to three years in prison, and he's also
42:19
Speaker 3: a jail custodian. So Pete Fingerhut he ended up being
42:26
Speaker 3: by far the most egregious of all. I mean, they
42:29
Speaker 3: were all terrible. Their conduct was all terrible, but his
42:32
Speaker 3: was by far the most egregious, just with the amount
42:35
Speaker 3: of fraud that he committed and the amount of invoices
42:38
Speaker 3: that he photo shopped and manipulated, and just it was insane.
42:43
Speaker 3: So he ended up leading guilty to seventeen of those counts.
42:46
Speaker 3: He was sentenced to five years in prison. He's also
42:49
Speaker 3: a custodian in jail. So these people have certainly fallen.
42:53
Speaker 2: Wow.
42:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
42:54
Speaker 3: And then the others, Tracy and Grant, it was just
42:57
Speaker 3: county jail time because they weren't quite as involved.
43:00
Speaker 2: I know that there were some changes that this resulted
43:04
Speaker 2: in with sort of the way the board oversees the zoo.
43:07
Speaker 2: Can you speak to any of that.
43:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the zoo has a new CEO.
43:12
Speaker 3: His name is Tom Schmid, and everything that we have
43:15
Speaker 3: learned is that, you know, he's an outstanding leader and
43:18
Speaker 3: that the employees of the zoo are very happy to
43:21
Speaker 3: have him there.
43:22
Speaker 4: I know that the board has been condensed.
43:25
Speaker 3: It was a huge board because again I mean the zoo,
43:28
Speaker 3: the Columbus Zoological Association, which handles all four of the
43:32
Speaker 3: businesses that we discussed, is a huge undertaking. So they
43:37
Speaker 3: had a large board of directors and they've really scaled
43:41
Speaker 3: down on that. And I think that the reason for
43:43
Speaker 3: doing that is just so there could be better communication
43:46
Speaker 3: and easier to have oversight and everyone talking amongst each
43:50
Speaker 3: other more.
43:51
Speaker 4: So.
43:51
Speaker 3: I know that there have been really positive changes at
43:54
Speaker 3: the zoo. And something that people ask us a lot
43:56
Speaker 3: when we present on this case is you know, did
43:59
Speaker 3: any of the an go without because of the amount
44:02
Speaker 3: of money that was being embezzled. And the answer, I'm
44:05
Speaker 3: happy to report the answer to that is no, Like
44:08
Speaker 3: all of the animals were so well cared for because
44:11
Speaker 3: they're being cared for by the people that matter and
44:14
Speaker 3: the great employees of the Columbus Zoo. So nothing ever
44:18
Speaker 3: happened to any of the animals. But what did happen
44:21
Speaker 3: is that, you know, the zoo morale was they really
44:23
Speaker 3: took a hit when these guys were in charge, and
44:26
Speaker 3: everyone knew that something was going on, but nobody really
44:29
Speaker 3: knew what it was, but they felt helpless to do anything.
44:32
Speaker 3: But there's one thing that I think that you would
44:35
Speaker 3: love to know about this case. This is always something
44:37
Speaker 3: that people ask us. They always ask, well, who was
44:42
Speaker 3: it that tipped off the Columbus Dispatch? Who gave them
44:46
Speaker 3: this information? And you're not going to believe the answer
44:49
Speaker 3: to this. So one of these zoo executives was actually
44:53
Speaker 3: let go during covid on citing financial concerns. So he
44:57
Speaker 3: was not even an employee at the time when this
45:00
Speaker 3: investigation kicked off. He had already been gone for about
45:03
Speaker 3: eight months. Well, this person was very, very upset and
45:07
Speaker 3: very salty over the fact that they had been let go,
45:11
Speaker 3: and that was Pete Fingerhut.
45:14
Speaker 4: No, Pete Fingerhut.
45:17
Speaker 2: Yes, Pete tipped off the financial crime that he was
45:21
Speaker 2: a part of.
45:23
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, Yeah, so he actually is the tipster. We
45:27
Speaker 4: found this out that he is the tipster to the.
45:29
Speaker 3: Columbus Dispatch, and he told the Dispatch about, you know,
45:33
Speaker 3: all of these things that are going on at the
45:35
Speaker 3: zoo that are being done by Tom Stalf and Greg Bell.
45:39
Speaker 4: I do not know what that man was thinking.
45:41
Speaker 2: He's like, no way this will get back to me. Impossible.
45:46
Speaker 3: Like I said, he ended up by far being the
45:48
Speaker 3: most egregious. His conduct was my far the most egregious.
45:51
Speaker 3: But again, I think that he was just so used
45:53
Speaker 3: to being able to talk his way out of anything
45:56
Speaker 3: that he didn't think that we were going to uncover
46:00
Speaker 3: that he was a huge part of this scheme, in
46:03
Speaker 3: this fraud. But anyways, Yeah, so he did admit during
46:08
Speaker 3: one of our sessions that he indeed was the tipster,
46:11
Speaker 3: and he certainly regrets doing that.
46:14
Speaker 4: I can tell you that much.
46:15
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, because here's the thing.
46:17
Speaker 4: I don't know, but this ever would have come to
46:19
Speaker 4: the surface had he not tipped off the Dispatch he
46:23
Speaker 4: told on himself. Is what happened here?
46:25
Speaker 2: Wow, that is unbelievable. It's like, okay, yeah, I'm glad
46:30
Speaker 2: he did that, but it is mind blowing because it's
46:33
Speaker 2: like you think that they're going to go down without
46:35
Speaker 2: bringing you down with them. There's no situation where that happens.
46:39
Speaker 3: I could not reconcile that in my own brain of
46:43
Speaker 3: him thinking that he is going to launch an investigation
46:48
Speaker 3: and somehow think that whoever is in charge of doing
46:52
Speaker 3: the investigation is not going to learn that he was
46:56
Speaker 3: a party to it.
46:56
Speaker 4: I just I don't know. I don't know what he
46:59
Speaker 4: was in his brain.
47:00
Speaker 2: That's wild.
47:06
Speaker 1: What an episode. Never did I think that I would
47:09
Speaker 1: hear such a story of fraud taking place at a zoo.
47:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the most unlikely setting. But the way that
47:16
Speaker 2: Marisa laid it all out, I thought was like so fascinating.
47:20
Speaker 2: You know, to think that people could be getting away
47:23
Speaker 2: with something for ten years, a decade years.
47:26
Speaker 1: And probably would have continued to get away with it
47:29
Speaker 1: for who knows how long, if not for Pete. Can
47:32
Speaker 1: you believe that that was such a shock to me
47:35
Speaker 1: when she said he was the whistle flower?
47:38
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Same. And I'm also just thinking, like,
47:41
Speaker 2: if I'm a fraudster, I'm not gonna piss off my
47:45
Speaker 2: fellow fraudster that knows all about it. I would protect
47:49
Speaker 2: that man's job.
47:51
Speaker 1: But you would think that. They would probably be like, Okay,
47:54
Speaker 1: he might be upset, but there's no way he's going
47:56
Speaker 1: to turn himself in for fraud. Yeah, he turned himself
48:00
Speaker 1: in without even I think giving it much thought. I mean,
48:03
Speaker 1: I have to imagine that's charitable of me. I hope
48:06
Speaker 1: that he didn't give it much thought, and that's how
48:09
Speaker 1: he reached that decision. You know, he ended up doing time. Yeah.
48:15
Speaker 1: You think about what attracts someone to work at a zoo,
48:18
Speaker 1: and it's usually like love of animals and a desire
48:21
Speaker 1: to be part of conservation efforts. Yeah, it just sounds
48:24
Speaker 1: like the people working at the zoo were pretty happy
48:27
Speaker 1: when the good old Boys Club was kicked out.
48:30
Speaker 2: And honestly, like, if you've ever worked in a toxic
48:33
Speaker 2: work environment or even just like an unpleasant work environment,
48:37
Speaker 2: it's almost always you can attribute that to the people
48:40
Speaker 2: at the top.
48:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, they set the tone.
48:42
Speaker 2: They set the tone. And if you're a full time employee,
48:45
Speaker 2: you spend a lot of your life at work. And
48:47
Speaker 2: it's no small thing when someone has to like go
48:50
Speaker 2: in and do pretty serious labor for not a lot
48:54
Speaker 2: of money and watch these like high flying, well paid
48:57
Speaker 2: already executives just getting away with fraud and to know
49:02
Speaker 2: that it had been happening for so long.
49:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, and acting like they're untouchable and as if the
49:08
Speaker 1: zoo's money is their money. I mean, what a toxic environment.
49:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean two point three million dollars is so
49:14
Speaker 2: much like imagine if that had gone to bonuses, probably
49:17
Speaker 2: would have been like changing for people.
49:19
Speaker 1: For sure. I'm glad that they were caught.
49:22
Speaker 2: Me too. And so Tom Stoff the King was his nickname,
49:27
Speaker 2: He was the CEO. He was sentenced to seven years
49:31
Speaker 2: in prison and ordered to pay over three hundred thousand
49:35
Speaker 2: dollars in restitution. He was fined another ten thousand dollars.
49:41
Speaker 2: He pleaded guilty to several counts of tampering with records
49:44
Speaker 2: and theft by deception, corrupt activity, telecommunications fraud, I mean,
49:50
Speaker 2: a pretty long list.
49:52
Speaker 1: And my favorite part of this press release that we're
49:55
Speaker 1: referencing here from Ohio Auditor DOCOV. Under this part it
49:58
Speaker 1: says their sentencing memorandum to the court, prosecutors wrote that
50:03
Speaker 1: Stoff was a toxic leader who quote allowed the animal
50:07
Speaker 1: house atmosphere to infect the Columbus Zoo.
50:11
Speaker 2: I also loved love that.
50:12
Speaker 1: I threw that pun in there.
50:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, in all of my research after this interview and
50:17
Speaker 2: before I was on Reddit, and as someone had commented,
50:22
Speaker 2: there was a little thread when the scandal broke, and
50:24
Speaker 2: someone had commented that in the nineties their mom worked
50:27
Speaker 2: in the office at the zoo, and this person had
50:30
Speaker 2: memories of like the baby cheetahs or baby leopards. I
50:34
Speaker 2: don't know, some baby big cats running around the office
50:37
Speaker 2: just like playing. I mean, clearly a free for all
50:40
Speaker 2: for a long time.
50:41
Speaker 1: That was the nineties. I mean it sounds pretty cute,
50:44
Speaker 1: but probably not great for the animal I would imagine.
50:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably not. And so former director of Purchasing Tracy
50:53
Speaker 2: Murnaine also pleaded guilty to felony counts of grand theft,
50:56
Speaker 2: among other things. He was sentenced to sixty days in
50:59
Speaker 2: jail five five thousand dollars and paid close to one
51:02
Speaker 2: hundred thousand restitution. So then we have the CFO Greg Bell,
51:07
Speaker 2: who went by the nickname that I can barely get
51:10
Speaker 2: out of my mouth, Big Daddy. He was sentenced to
51:15
Speaker 2: three years in prison in order to pay over five
51:18
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars in restitution, and he played a guilty
51:22
Speaker 2: to twelve counts, including tampering with records, conspiracy to engage
51:26
Speaker 2: in a pattern of corrupt activity, and aggravated theft, which
51:29
Speaker 2: are all felonies. Yeah, and his son, Grant, a former
51:35
Speaker 2: purchasing agent, He committed the sort of the least of
51:39
Speaker 2: the crimes, but you know, was still definitely a part
51:42
Speaker 2: of this. He pleaded guilty to one count of theft
51:45
Speaker 2: and had to pay close to ten thousand dollars in
51:47
Speaker 2: restitution and audit costs, and had to complete forty hours
51:51
Speaker 2: of community service. Yeah. And then there was our whistleblower.
51:56
Speaker 1: Pete the ticketmaster. Why was he called ticketmaster? Is that
52:02
Speaker 1: because he was getting the tickets to the games? Yeah,
52:05
Speaker 1: he was like the guy to go to for that. Yeah,
52:09
Speaker 1: and so he the whistleblower, was sentenced to five years.
52:14
Speaker 1: He pleaded guilty to aggravate a theft, felony, counts of
52:18
Speaker 1: tampering with records, telecommunications fraud, conspiracy. I mean, I don't
52:25
Speaker 1: know what he was thinking. He must have been so
52:27
Speaker 1: mad that day that he called the newspaper. If you're
52:30
Speaker 1: going to go after someone, you got to make sure
52:31
Speaker 1: your closet is clean, Like if you've got some skeletons,
52:35
Speaker 1: don't go pussing people off. I know, like I wonder
52:38
Speaker 1: if it was worth it to him to get you know,
52:42
Speaker 1: Tom and Greg in trouble, but himself as well, like
52:46
Speaker 1: Wing that it was.
52:48
Speaker 2: She was like, I'll do five years to see these
52:50
Speaker 2: guys go down, no problem. They all faced some serious
52:54
Speaker 2: consequences and it was a great case for the prosecution
52:59
Speaker 2: because of all of their faulty record keeping.
53:02
Speaker 1: And it sounds like the Columbus Zoo has made a
53:03
Speaker 1: lot of changes since then and it is really attempting
53:06
Speaker 1: to put some measures in place to avoid something like
53:09
Speaker 1: that's happening in the future. So we can only hope
53:12
Speaker 1: that that works and that the funds go to the
53:15
Speaker 1: animals and to the hard working staff totally.
53:18
Speaker 2: And the prosecution also did consider charging some members of
53:23
Speaker 2: the board that we're supposed to be overseeing these executives
53:26
Speaker 2: more closely, but ultimately they decided that they hadn't done
53:30
Speaker 2: anything criminal. And the board I think now has less
53:34
Speaker 2: members and is far more involved in overseeing the zoo's
53:39
Speaker 2: executive team. So that's a good thing. Yeah, yeah, So
53:42
Speaker 2: glad Marissa was able to speak with us.
53:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a really interesting episode.
53:46
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
53:47
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week.
53:50
Speaker 2: If you have a story for us, we would love
53:52
Speaker 2: to hear it. Our email is The Knife at exactly
53:55
Speaker 2: rightmedia dot com, or you can follow us on Instagram
53:57
Speaker 2: at the Knife podcast or a Blue Sky Podcast.
54:00
Speaker 1: This has been an Exactly Right production hosted and produced
54:04
Speaker 1: by me Hannah Smith and me Pasha Eeny.
54:06
Speaker 2: Our producers are Tom Bryfogel and Alexis Amorrosi.
54:10
Speaker 1: This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel.
54:12
Speaker 2: Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.
54:14
Speaker 1: Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport, artwork
54:17
Speaker 1: by Vanessa Lilac. Executive produced by Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark
54:22
Speaker 1: and Danielle Kramer.