(OBJECTS CLATTERING)
SAM LIPMAN-STERN: All right. Uh! Let's see.
Well, I was just sitting here, feeling like absolute...
I was just sitting here feeling like fucking shit.
I want to make a documentary about CDG.
I've been thinking about it
since I was a fucking little kid.
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: It was such a crazy, insane place.
It's weird. I don't even recognize
myself in the footage.
(SIGHS)
(EXHALES DEEPLY, GROANS)
I worked at CDG for seven years
and I never could have imagined
I was part of the biggest telemarketing scam
in American history.
But Pat was onto it right from the very start.
Pat was like born to be a whistleblower.
PATRICK J. PESPAS: Hambre, hambre! Oh, hambre!
-SAM: Patrick. Tell us-- -Hey. What's up?
Tell us about the place we're about to enter into.
Where-- where are we going into?
Oh, we're going into Civic Development Group,
and what we do is we call up people
on behalf of some bullshit organization
and chisel 'em out of money.
-(SAM LAUGHS) -Pat, what would you do with the decal
if you were to get mailed one to your house?
Dude, I have so many of those, it's pathetic.
I mail 'em out every day.
Every day, practically, to my house.
Hell, yeah. I got a whole collection
of those fucking stupid stickers.
SAM: Yo, Pat, did you-- Are you high right now
-a little bit? -Little bit.
-SAM: Little bit? Nice. -Little bit.
SAM: Let's go. Let's go get-- Let's head in.
Fucking, let's sell some stickers, guys.
-You guys ready? -PATRICK: I'm ready.
-SAM: All right, let's do it. -BILLY FEDOR: Let's go.
♪ ("OH HAIL NO" BY EL-P PLAYING) ♪
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
(TELEPHONE CONTINUES RINGING)
RECEIVER: Hello.
JAMES CHESTNUT: This is James Chestnut calling
on behalf of New Jersey State
Law Enforcement Officers Association.
Good evening to you.
PATRICK: Contributions and gifts are not tax-deductible.
Ninety-five, Malcolm. Solid as a rock.
-Ah! Whoo! -(TELEMARKETERS LAUGHING)
(ED HILGER YELLING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-Hi. Mm. Mm. -(WATER BUBBLING)
SAM: I started working at CDG when I was this 14-year-old kid.
SAM'S FRIEND: Oh, look at all that smoke!
SAM: I had just dropped out of the ninth grade.
-(ENGINE ACCELERATING) -SAM: Whoa, whoa, whoa!
I didn't even wanna fucking work there.
I just wanted to hang out and paint graffiti and film me
and my scumbag friends being little pieces of shit.
But my parents said I had to get a job,
and Civic Development Group, CDG for short,
was the only place that wanted to hire someone my age.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
It was fine, baby.
-TELEMARKETER 1: Here's my day at work. -(TELEMARKETER 2 CHEERS)
SAM: Before I came to CDG, I had, like, a mental image
of what I thought telemarketing was.
Yeah!
-SAM: This was not it. -TELEMARKETER: Ooh!
BILLY: They basically reinvented American telemarketing.
The whole art was the brainchild of this operation.
Every other telemarketer who drives you crazy,
in the whole world, is because of CDG.
SAM: Civic Development Group had been around since the '90s
and had offices all over Jersey.
TOM WHITE: CDG came up with a tremendous idea.
They would be the fundraising company
for a lot of charitable organizations.
Let's say you've got the firemen's organization
in New Jersey.
And when that firemen's organization
does their own fundraising,
let's say they get 175,000 bucks a year.
Along comes CDG. And CDG says,
"Boom! All you guys have to do is accept this check
for 350,000 dollars and allow us to use your name,
and we'll take care of everything else."
SAM: They told me that my job would be
to make calls on behalf of charitable police groups.
Ten bucks an hour, no commission.
Hi, this is Sabrina and I'm calling
on behalf of the New Jersey State
Law Enforcement Officers Association.
Lodge One is conducting a fall fund drive.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Thirty-five dollars
for the gold level, 25 dollars for the silver.
All they ask is that you send back the 55 dollars
as soon as you get the pledge kit in the mail.
Can they count on that?
(TELEMARKETER LAUGHS)
-TELEMARKETER: -MANAGER:
SAM: We'd call for dozens of different organizations,
but most of them were state lodges
of the Fraternal Order of Police.
REPORTER 1: The Fraternal Order of Police,
the largest law enforcement union in the world,
with more than 325,000 members nationwide.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
BRIAN GOETZ: The reality of it
is people wanna help the police, you know?
There're some people that are gonna say yes,
no matter what.
You could be the fucking biggest doofus salesman
that ever lived. They love the police.
SABRINA ROSS: This is the place
where you know you could definitely get a job.
Whoever can talk and read, you were in, you know.
As long as you made your little quota, you could stay.
SAM:
'Cause it was a fun place to be.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
TELEMARKETER: ♪ Yo You can't see me, B ♪
♪ I'm trying to work here Forever at my job at CDG ♪
It was just like you were going to a big-ass cookout,
every fucking day.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
TOM: You gotta understand something. CDG was a crucible.
It takes a certain kind of person
to be able to sit down
in front of that computer monitor
and just make calls,
and just keep calling, keep calling.
So, we would allow the guys to do whatever they needed to do
to get through their shift.
TELEMARKETER: That's pretty good.
Sean speaking. How can I help you today, buddy?
BILLY: You could smoke a joint, you could drink a beer.
They didn't care what you did.
You sell, you're good. You don't sell, you suck.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SAM: You know, I'm working at this place,
and I'm like, "I have to document this.
This is fucking insane."
BRIAN: You didn't wanna be there.
(LAUGHS)
But the thing was you were always smart.
That's the most important thing to me.
You gotta have a decent voice. You gotta be smart.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Hello?
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC FADES) ♪
Hi, uh, Derek.
Uh, Sam Lipman-Stern calling on behalf of the Washington DC
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge Number one.
Good evening.
Just this last year, 163 police officers were killed
in the line of duty across the United States.
And whenever any Delaware police officer
is injured or killed in the line of duty,
the state FOP will offer to provide financial assistance
to them and their families.
Now, Lisa, these families, they do need your support.
Click.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JAMES: This is the hardest job you will ever have.
I'm a scumbag.
I'm annoying you at dinnertime and you're like,
"Fuck you. Stop calling me."
RECEIVER:
BRIAN: You always had to say "on behalf of,"
you were never a part of the Fraternal Order of Police.
You were never a cop. You were calling on behalf of 'em.
You had to know your disclosures.
'Cause if you didn't say those disclosures,
they'd take you right off the phone.
SAM: The other rule is that you had to tell people
how much the charity was getting,
which was usually about ten percent.
It sounded low,
but the managers would always say,
"Ten percent of something is better
than 100 percent of nothing."
FARUQ DAVIS: But we didn't have to disclose all the details
unless they asked specifically.
The person we'd call on the other line went like,
"Oh, so they only get ten percent, you keep the 90?
So, if I give you 100 bucks, you only give them ten dollars?"
You gotta say, "Yeah," 'cause it's the truth.
It really tested your rebuttal skills, you know?
We just wouldn't take no for an answer, no matter what.
They had a rebuttal for everything.
It doesn't matter what you...
You could've said, "My mom just died."
They had a rebuttal for that.
Your house just burned down, John?
Was it completely totaled?
Now, John, I don't wanna burden you
but we do have a bronze at 20 dollars,
or a booster at 15?
BRIAN: And if you guys remember,
there was rebuttals hung in the cubicle,
like how could you not read that card right there,
and when they say this, you say that
and be able to spit it right at 'em.
You know, they always used to tell me,
"Oh, it's tested. We test this, test that."
I can't complain with the fucking process, man. That shit worked.
As a paid solicitor with CDG,
I'm gonna send you out the new police decal.
Please display it proudly to show your support.
The decal, it was just some flimsy shit.
Like, you can make it at, like, OfficeMax.
As a way of saying, thanks for your support,
I'm gonna send you out a new 2007 police card and decal.
Do me a favor and just slap the decal
on the back of the vehicle.
Do me a favor, you put the decal
on the back of the vehicle and the card inside your wallet
to show your proud continued support
for these fallen officers.
When we would get asked questions of like
what this decal actually did... (CHUCKLES)
...well, we were told to not say,
"This will get you out of a ticket." We would say,
"This may be able to get you out of a ticket."
BRIAN: The guy who trained me used to say,
"I'm selling stickers."
We're gonna give you this fucking sticker
to put on your car, you're gonna think
it's gonna stop you from getting tickets.
And that's what CDG was, that was how CDG got built.
Donation levels to help out. The gold, the big one is 35.
The smaller silver still goes a long way for 25.
Could you reach up high and do the gold?
Or you wanna just play it safe with the silver?
This 35 is fantastic, Patricia.
And I wanna thank you very much for being a hero
for the state of New Jersey, and for these families.
(PATRICIA SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY OVER PHONE)
Let me just doublecheck the mailing address
to make sure it gets over to you...
I'd raise about 1,000 dollars a day
in these tiny dribs and drabs.
I didn't think I was doing anything bad at all.
I just thought that this was some shitty job
and this is how police raised their money.
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: I probably met Big Ed when I was like 16.
BRIAN: I don't think I'm exaggerating
when I say he was probably like 400 pounds.
The funniest dude I've ever been around.
One of the best salesmen.
You put him in a fucking room one-on-one against anybody,
that motherfucker's winning. He was nasty.
SAM:
Oh, absolutely.
SAM:
ED: What, man?
SAM: He told me that he had filmed
some footage at CDG,
-like, a few years back. -ED: ...Magnum P.I.
-Look at this shit. -(TELEMARKETER YAWNS)
ED: Fucking piece of-- There he goes. Old man Winter.
-WINTER: What's up? -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(ED LAUGHING)
This is the place where I usually clean up.
(LAUGHS)
SAM: It was actually Ed's idea that we start filming
CDG together.
-ED: Ray Liotta. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SAM: It was like, "Let's just film how weird
this place is and put it on YouTube."
(TELEMARKETERS LAUGHING)
-PATRICK: Zoom in. -Sam, this is bad for the movie.
For the Pespas movie.
...if you'd like to have it sent out.
So, just let them know that you'd like...
SAM: That's a live turtle?
TELEMARKETER: Twenty-dollar bronze and a 15-dollar booster.
This book is a record of the customers
that I didn't like, and maybe I'd put their address
and the details of how they pissed me off.
If I ever snap, it's nice to know... (CHUCKLES)
...that I have a list of people to go after.
-SAM: What's up Sabrina? -Hi.
SAM: What are you looking for in a man?
I'm looking for a man...
that is not crazy.
I'm looking for a man that has a job,
some type of job, has to be something.
He has to have a big dick...
and he has to be into fellatio.
-SAM: Um-- -Front and back.
Don't eat it like a puppy. I don't like that shit.
And lick the crack, too.
Don't just focus on the booty hole.
SAM: Even though nobody made any commission,
there were some guys who thought they were master salesmen
and took the job really seriously.
CDG has been good to me.
It has been real good to me.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SAM: These were the guys that Big Ed just liked
to fucking torture.
-(ED YELLING, LAUGHING) -I'm... Get away from me.
ED: Larry, um, how do you feel
about how telemarketing in general?
Well, it's a much-needed service.
-I mean... -ED: Well needed by whom?
Well, needed-- needed by most businesses and then...
I mean, in the case of CDG, it provides a public service
almost by accident.
ED: By doing what?
Providing jobs to people that are unemployable.
What I mean by that is very simple.
Most of the people that worked at CDG
had questionable pasts.
BILLY: It was just high school students, people in transition,
teachers, or other people just trying to earn extra money,
but for the most part, it was a lot of criminals
that couldn't get other jobs
because they had criminal records.
We had a bunch of criminals in that motherfucker, man.
We had... (LAUGHS) We had criminals in there,
probably every other cubicle. You know what I'm saying?
You don't know who's working next to you.
There's no background checks, there's no drug testing.
Dudes flip out at the drop of a hat
and you just gotta deal with it.
SABRINA: CDG is just like anything you could ever imagine
in a gangster film, right in front of you.
It was like, "Who's going to get shot,
or robbed?" Every day was a new adventure.
Every other person was a drug dealer.
Like, either a drug dealer that wasn't caught yet,
or a drug dealer that just got out of jail
yesterday or a week ago.
You come up in there, you can buy some coke,
you can buy some dope, you can buy some Viagra
if your thing really ain't working right.
Motherfuckers was in there selling pit bulls.
Everything you need right there. Pussy...
ED: What the hell wrong with you?
BILLY: CDG would send their managers
and recruit directly at the halfway houses.
It was just an unlimited supply of workers.
X SANTINO THA GOD: I caught CDG coming out of the halfway house, man.
Like, I went to jail at 23, I come home at 30,
you know what I'm saying? I ain't have nothing at all.
Nowhere to live, no real bread, no real clothes.
I got a job in six days.
I'm on motherfucking ecstasy calling for the cops,
high as hell.
Like, "The cops need some money."
Motherfucker on the phone going, "I don't fuck with cops."
I'm saying to them like, "I don't either."
FARUQ: You had people who were committing criminal activities
inside and outside of the office,
but we're calling for policemen.
When you look at it from the outside looking in,
it doesn't make sense.
Society looks at you like you're a scumbag,
but the people you look to to keep you safe
look to us to put money in their safes.
SAM: I agree. Totally. Cool.
That was dope. Go back to work.
(CHUCKLES)
-♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
BRIAN: People can talk about the negatives all day long
and think, "These guys are scumbags," or whatever,
they don't understand camaraderie of the dudes
that be in these offices is like,
you're in there together, you're in the trenches.
The same thing as being in the army.
Putting in time, being in fucking jail.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
How did your tweezer stretch it out so much?
(LAUGHS MOCKINGLY)
SAM: Dude, you're the man. Move your head.
SABRINA: It was a big dysfunctional family.
-You was a part of it too, Sam. -SAM: Yeah.
SABRINA: Remember?
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Video taping
-what's going on here. -TELEMARKETER: (CHUCKLES) Oh, Shit.
-Don't act like you don't know, Sam. -(SAM CHUCKLES)
Shit.
SAM: You had to be crazy.
'Cause most people, they couldn't handle it.
I wasn't in a good place when I worked at CDG.
I don't think most people were.
But maybe that was how the owners liked it.
BRIAN: We were the number one office
in the whole entire company.
We went out to an awards dinner and we won everything.
I don't know if you remember,
-but we brought this shit back, it looked like the Stanley Cup. -SAM: Yeah.
BRIAN: We had it in the fucking office and shit.
Me and Pete used to drink beers out of it.
It was like a Super Bowl. Like, everybody did this together.
-(TELEMARKETERS CHEERING) -We're the office of the year!
-TELEMARKETER: Oh, yes, we did. -(TELEMARKETERS CHEER)
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC FADES) ♪
SAM: Hey, Pat.
-How's it going? -Good.
SAM: Good. Making sales?
-Yeah, I'm doing good today. -SAM: Nice.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER IN BACKGROUND)
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BILLY: The craziest thing I ever saw at CDG
was probably just like what they let Pat get away with.
You know, being high, doing heroin
right in the bathroom. Everybody knew it.
We got-- We got Pat The Tapper right over there.
SAM: Come on, Pat. Sell those stickers.
My nigga, Pat Pespas. Yeah, man.
We used to call him Pat The Tapper,
AKA, Pat The Smacker.
Hello.
BILLY: He would just be passing out at his desk,
but still getting sales half asleep,
you know, doing the dope nod and just still closing people.
Hello.
Hi, uh, Syrin?
Like, this nigga like this and jump up, "Hi, I'm Pat."
Well, I do understand, um...
X: You know, what I mean? Like, he goes straight
into the script. Good caller.
Financial assistance...
BILLY: I don't even know half the time if he knew
what he was saying to the people on the phone
and they would just give him money.
Like, it was just amazing.
Pat made that company a lot of money.
They used to kiss Pat's ass.
Pat Pespas, about two weeks ago,
he did, like, 350 an hour and that's all day.
-ED: Speaking of dope. -Pat fucking Pespas.
-BILLY: Oh, everybody loved Pat. -♪ (MUSIC TURNS SOFT) ♪
He had that drug problem,
but everybody loved him just the same.
Yo, Pat, Pat, Pat.
Yo, nothing like that on TV. No, no, no.
♪ (SOFT MUSIC FADES) ♪
Me and my buddy grew some pot in a ditch,
on the side of a highway,
and they charged me like, um,
a CDS manufacturing facility.
-Like, here I am... -SUE ORIN: What did they charge you?
...I threw a couple of pot seeds off the side of the road,
on a major highway,
and it happened to grow by accident.
SUE: Uh, I think you're minimizing it a little bit.
Well, I am minimizing it
a little bit, but that's--
SUE: Forty-eight pounds of pot seeds
-on the side of the road. -Yeah, but that's a factory?
Come on. Get real. Whatever.
-Hey, Sue, come here. -SUE: What?
-Just come here. -SUE: Dinner's ready.
-All right, well come here. -SUE: What?
Come here. Come here.
Turn.
This is my lovely wife, Sue. Isn't she lovely?
(SAM CHUCKLING)
SUE:
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Pat was very sweet. Like such an innocent soul.
He never did nobody wrong. He was just like sweetest thing.
I remember Pat speaking about justice
and how things were just not right.
PATRICK: If it's gonna cost money for big corporations
in this country to do away with global warming,
it's gonna be very slow to happen.
As a matter of fact, when Bush took office,
he denied global warming even existed.
Only now, does he make a very remote,
"Well, it might be happening."
-Yeah, right, pal. -SAM: Does this mean a, uh...
an end to the world through global warming?
I don't know about-- Well, yeah,
-if we don't act soon. Yeah. -SAM: Are we gonna still gonna go to that restaurant...
Pat and I became friends right away,
and he was like, "You should film me."
You gotta love this place.
SAM: "Let's make a movie about the life
of a CDG employee."
Patrick J. Pespas The Movie.
How do you feel about the camera? Is it friend?
-It's my friend. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SAM: Oh, that's good. It's good you act that way.
The camera is your best friend.
The rare interview with my mom.
Hold on to your television sets. (CHUCKLES)
-How you doing? -PAT'S MOM: Fine. How are you?
-PATRICK: Sue's here. -PAT'S MOM: Who's that?
-PATRICK: That's Sam Lipman-Stern. -SAM: Hi.
PATRICK: He's a producer and he's following me
around today with the video camera.
What are you doing with him anyway?
What's this all about?
SAM: Well, we're pretty much--
we both work at this, uh, this telemarketing place.
-Yeah. -SAM: And, uh, we're trying to--
And it's a very-- It's a shady...
Did you know about that? Did he tell you
about the place we work at?
Yeah. Well, what about it?
PATRICK: You wouldn't believe the people
they have calling for,
like, law enforcement organizations
and, like, supposedly good charities,
and it's like a big bullshit scam.
(PAT'S MOM SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
PATRICK: So now, we're putting together
a documentary and now...
PAT'S MOM: For what? What are you saying on there?
-PATRICK: Um, well... -I don't get it.
I understand that, but what is the purpose of this?
SAM: Nice.
-PAT'S MOM: Uh. -SAM: I'd say like,
"What's your opinion of telemarketing?"
-(LAUGHS) -They're a pain in the ass,
-calling me up. -(COUGHS)
SAM: And, uh, one more question.
What's your opinion of Pat as a telemarketer?
Well, I... I hear he's good at it.
He's good with the bullshit lines.
Yeah. Yeah.
♪ ("CARRY ON WAYWARD SON" BY KANSAS PLAYING OVER RADIO) ♪
It's time to party, dude.
SAM: All right, dude.
-Now, we-- -SAM: Now, we go back to...
Now, we gotta go back to CDG, but it'll be all right.
You know, get a little buzzed, make some crazy phone calls.
-SAM: All right. -Put some old ladies down
for their cigarette money. (LAUGHS)
SAM: Straight up, dude.
Wanna do this right here? Or should I start driving back?
PATRICK: Ah, keep it on camera.
SAM: All right, cool. Yeah, I don't know.
-PATRICK: You should get this on camera. -SAM: Footage, dude.
-PATRICK: We'll use this for footage. Yeah. -SAM: Oh, yeah.
♪ (SOFT ROCK SONG PLAYING OVER RADIO) ♪
(SNIFFS)
PATRICK: The Bronx. The Bronx.
SAM: The Bronx.
PATRICK: People, don't try this at home. (LAUGHS)
Now, we gotta smash the list.
Either we get 200 dollars in an hour or we go home.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Hi. Good evening. My name is Patrick J. Pespas.
I'm calling on behalf of the New Jersey State
Law Enforcement Officers Association.
And the reason for my call, believe it or not,
this year, today, three brave New Jersey officers
were killed in the line of duty.
The New Jersey State
Law Enforcement Officers Association
has set up a fund providing
financial assistance to the families
of any New Jersey officer unfortunately killed
in the line of duty.
And, uh, this year, the top donation of 95
is the platinum level,
but they do have a 75-dollar gold level.
Could you reach up
from one of them levels this year?
Ninety-five is 100 percent comfortable for you?
Oh, fantastic. It goes a long way to help.
Thank you, Colleen, for being a supporter.
God bless you. Thank you.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(LAUGHS)
And, uh, if you noticed
before I sniffed that bag of her-- (HESITATES)
If you noticed, before I sniffed that bag, I couldn't get a sale.
(LAUGHS)
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: We were all just in
kind of like the bottom of society.
-TELEMARKETER: Let her rip! -(SAM SNIFFS)
I was in such a bad place,
and I was in no place to judge.
PATRICK: Well, I'm back here with my producer.
SAM: We're telemarketers. We're hardcore. (LAUGHS)
All right, so I'm gonna paint this one right here.
I bugged Pat to come paint graffiti with me
behind CDG on lunch breaks.
And Pat would be nervous about it.
He'd be like, "We're gonna get caught.
It's gonna fuck up my shit." But he'd come with me anyway.
Eh, what the hell? Fuck it.
SAM: I felt like he was maybe the only person in my life
who believed in me.
PATRICK: Ah, there you go.
Beautiful.
Nice.
-SAM: Yeah. -PATRICK: Nice.
Wow!
First, I was just like,
"Oh, I wanna be a documentary filmmaker."
But then Pat was like, "Yo, there's some, like,
-shady shit going on here." -BRIAN: Yeah, absolutely.
SAM: It started turning into more
of an investigation because of Pat.
-Really? -SAM: Yeah, dude.
-The plot thickens. (LAUGHS) -(SAM LAUGHS)
Hey, guys. Patrick J. Pespas again.
I'm here with Mark. He's a new CDG guy here.
SAM: So how does it feel working with a bunch of ex-convicts?
It's not bad. I'm on probation myself.
-PATRICK: Ah, nice, nice. So am I. -SAM: Nice, okay.
-So am I. -SAM: So am I.
Yeah. You know what? You know what, guys?
Show this. Show this. You see, this says,
-"Civic Development Group." -MARK SEWAREN: It stands
-for Criminal Development Group. -PATRICK: No, no, no, no, no.
What CDG really stands for is "Criminals Doing Good."
-(SAM LAUGHING) -(MARK LAUGHING)
-♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -PATRICK: Oh, man.
That fucking place. Let me tell you, chief--
SUE: You have to be able to say, what's that word? Uh...
Oh, benevolent. Yeah.
That's the only job requirement for CDG.
You have to be able to pronounce "benevolent."
They want people like me at CDG.
This way they could pull all the shady crap
that they figure you won't do nothing about it
because you're doing shady crap to begin with.
SAM: I never knew much about who actually ran CDG.
People said there were like two groups of brothers,
the Keezers and the Pasches.
All I knew was that one of them
was in some terrible Christian rock band
with a guy from the Spin Doctors.
Didn't you tell me that you went to high school
with some of the owners?
PATRICK: Yeah, I went to school with the Pasches.
They used to actually party with my brother, get wasted,
do all kinds of crazy stuff.
BILLY: These guys were innovators.
They put together the scripts from their garage.
It was like similar to the genesis of, like, Apple.
Amazing. Amazing.
PATRICK: When I went to CDG,
it was like the first day I was working there,
they were calling for some Christian organization
and the initials of the Christian organization
were CASH.
So, they would tell you to tell the people,
tell them to make the check out to C-A-S-H,
and they were the initials, CASH!
SUE: And how many stupid people did that?
-Oh, probably a lot. -SUE: Stupid!
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BILLY: Back then in the '90s,
those guys would just say whatever.
They'd be like, "Hey, yeah, this is Lieutenant Callahan,
calling from the local FOP 48."
BRIAN: In the old days, they would straight up
tell people they were cops.
"We're doing the bulletproof vest drive."
"Hey, this is gonna provide bulletproof vests
for your officers in town."
PATRICK: That really got people pissed off.
FRANK HOUSEHOLDER: These people impersonate police officers,
firefighters, sheriffs.
They are taking people's money and not doing what they say
they're going to do.
DOUG MAYS: Their weapons are telephones, not guns,
and their places of business, the boiler rooms,
are the crack houses of consumer fraud.
PATRICK: They were on Barbara Walters's 20/20.
Yeah, uh, pretty big exposé on 'em.
REPORTER: It's a company called Civic Development Group,
which has been accused by three states
of misleading the public, charges the company denies.
INTERVIEWEE: They said such and such a police officer,
he's been shot
and his family needs help.
How much would you say that you've given
to the telemarketers?
Thousands of dollars.
REPORTER: Uh, do you have that much money
to kind of give away?
No, I had to go borrow it. (LAUGHS)
If someone calls claiming to be the police
and asking for money,
call the police.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: The government actually took them to court and won.
No more bulletproof vest shit. No more saying you're a cop.
Now, the Civic Development Group did not admit to any wrongdoing,
but agreed to pay 35,000 dollars in fines.
PATRICK: But I'll tell you the secret about CDG.
They don't ever change.
It's, "Where's the next little loophole we can get through?"
BRIAN: All the managers came in and gave us
like a fucking come-to-Jesus meeting.
They were like, "Hey,
there's a workaround to anything."
Wanda, in Kissimmee,
that doesn't have a fucking dime to her name,
but she just gave us ten bucks "for the guys."
You know, don't ever refer to them
as the officers, or the cops, or "the association."
You know, the guys. "Hey, can the guys count on you
to send that 35 soon as you get it in the mail?
Now, if you hit the lottery,
you can add a couple zeros on there at the end."
(IMITATES LAUGH)
-(SAM LAUGHS) -(CHUCKLES)
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
They-- They always laugh.
MATT PETZOLD: The goal was to sound like a cop
without saying you're a cop.
(IN DEEP VOICE) "Hi, Mary."
You know, like, if that means
put a little more bass in your voice,
sounding a little authoritative, think about, like,
what a cop sounds like in the cartoons
and almost try and do that.
(SIGHS) It's...
Yeah, that was what was taught to you.
What was pushed on you.
LARRY LAZARE: I just didn't like that aspect of it.
It almost made me feel like a crook.
Hey, it's James Chestnut, calling on behalf
of the Fraternal Order of Police.
How are you this evening?
Good to hear.
BILLY: People are intimidated 'cause they hear
the word "police."
Really, it was just fear based.
I mean, it was really people giving out of either fear
or just capitulation.
You force a nigga into saying, "Yeah."
And that's what, you know, the streets is all about.
That's all we doing, is forcing a motherfucker
to buy what we want. You know what I mean?
-You remember we got the whole Spanish section, dude. -SAM: Oh, yeah.
(TELEMARKETERS SPEAKING SPANISH)
BRIAN: (IN ENGLISH) Do you know how Spanish people react?
Especially in today's day and age, with all this ICE shit.
Maybe you don't have papers,
maybe you are in this country illegally,
and I call your phone number speaking Spanish and say,
"Hey, we're raising money for the police."
"Okay. Yep." Bang.
I don't care if you think they're scumbags or not,
that was genius.
When there's money to be made,
people will find a way to get to it, man.
They'll find a way.
PATRICK: Every couple of years a new attorney general sues 'em,
but it's the same shit every time.
They just agree to a bullshit fine
and nothing changes.
I'm still calling you for the police...
(LAUGHS) ...to donate money,
and they ain't even getting the money. (CHUCKLES)
I mean, come on people. Wake up, smell the coffee!
SAM: People always ask me like,
"If you guys thought this was so wrong,
why didn't you just quit?"
But it wasn't that simple.
Well, I'm 50 years old, I am disabled.
Four years ago, I had a heart attack.
Pat has to pay our bills.
He has no choice but to go there
and work for these horrendous people.
You try to find a job with a criminal record. Ha!
He has put himself through all this stuff to support us,
or we would've ended up homeless.
SAM: On one hand, Pat needed this job to survive.
On the other hand, he was like, "Yo, this fucking scam
has been going on for way too long
and you and I are the only ones that can finally stop it."
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
PATRICK: (OVER CELLPHONE)
-SAM: What do you mean? -This has gotta go like this. Watch.
SAM: Some guerilla shit right here.
Hey, guys, Patrick J. Pespas. I'm here with Joe Makko.
Now, how do you like CDG?
Oh, it's a great place to work, man.
-It's the greatest ever. -PATRICK: Is it crazy?
Oh, it's real crazy out here, you know?
PATRICK: Now, does it bother you
that like only 12 percent of the money goes
to the organization and the company's all shady
and pocketing all that charity money?
I don't know anything about those percentages, you know.
It depends on what set of books you're looking at over there.
You know how it is over there, you know.
-PATRICK: I do understand. -As long as I get my take,
-you know? -PATRICK: Yeah.
-As long as you get your take, right? -That's right.
What do-- What rebuttal do you use
for the percentage question?
-SAM: I tell them the percent and they don't give. (LAUGHS) -Right.
-SAM: Is this for me? -That's for you.
-SAM: And what do I do with it? -Smoke it!
SAM: That just looks like a cigarette.
-(PATRICK STAMMERS) -We gonna do marijuana?
-PATRICK: You wanna? -Do you do that?
-PATRICK: I don't know. Do you? -Well, first of all--
Put that camera down.
♪ ("A STICK AND SLACKS" BY SHINTARO SAKAMOTO PLAYING) ♪
Charity in America. Where does it all begin?
Well, uh, I'm walking up to my job,
and as you can see, it's a big warehouse.
They're keeping tabs on you, America.
This company that I work for doesn't forget anything.
We got a hold of your name.
You gave us money on behalf of some charity
that ain't even getting the money.
Ooh, you gave 25? Now, I want 55.
Ooh, you were stupid enough to give me that?
Oh, fantastic!
When your name comes up on that screen,
it's gonna tell me to ask you for at least 125.
Then the next time I call you, it's gonna tell me to ask you
for 225.
And then three months, it all starts again.
We're gonna call you from now till doomsday.
SAM: When I first got the job,
I was calling for just police organizations.
The Maine State Federation of the Firefighters.
SAM: But then as time went on,
we were calling for all kinds of shit.
Sam Lipman-Stern,
calling on behalf of the Southeastern chapter
of the Paralyzed Veterans Association.
Good afternoon.
I'm doing great. How you doing today?
I wanna remind you these brave men and women gave
so much for our country.
Now, it's time to give something back to them.
Donations help support wheelchair sporting events
to build self-esteem.
Paul, my name is Patrick J. Pespas.
I'm on behalf for the Maine State Federation
of the Firefighters.
Ms. Hamilton, just this past May
a 53-year-old Springfield firefighter
was killed in the line of duty
when his tanker truck overturned.
Levels to help out.
Big, you have gold level at 35, silver level at 25.
I'm gonna send you out a new decal.
Now, ma'am please accept this decal
in honor and support of these fallen heroes.
First we call you
for New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police.
If you give money, then we'll call you back
in about a week for New Jersey
Law Enforcement Officers Association.
SUE:
Then Police Officers Association.
-SUE: -What?
SUE:
Uh, cook them all up.
You name it, we've called for it.
First, it's the volunteer firemen,
then it's the retired firemen, then it's the fire chiefs.
SAM: We were getting handed scripts
for new organizations almost every day.
And some of them just sounded like bootleg versions
of existing charities.
Fucking the Children's Wish Foundation.
Not the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Children's Wish Foundation.
FARUQ: But then when, like, the Cancer Fund started,
shit like that,
it was like, "Oh, man. We calling motherfuckers
with cancer and they not even gonna get half the shit?"
Yeah! Oh... (SIGHS)
Then we called for the Cancer Fund of America--
Cancer Survivors Fund.
SUE: And my point is you survived the cancer,
what the hell else do you want outta life?
-Why do you ask for money? -Oh, every bullshit organization
-you can think of. -SUE: Oh, 'cause you survived
now you've got a big bill.
-♪ (SONG FADES) ♪ -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
BRIAN: CDG was building. They were always the next step.
Always the next step. I remember Marc Keezer,
Glenn Pasch, they had like blueprints
out on one of the tables.
They were trying to franchise
this shit like it was McDonald's.
When I started with the company,
I think there were five offices in New Jersey.
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
TOM: And then we started going into different states.
BILLY: CDG's strategy was to open up offices
in depressed areas
and areas that didn't have any kind of industry.
Pretty much hopeless places.
And they would just like provide these jobs
that paid pretty decent.
TOM: We were doing a massive amount of business
and we became the number one
fundraising telemarketing company in the country.
And the next closest company to us
was doing half the volume of--
I mean, there was just no comparison.
(INSECTS CHIRPING)
TOM: Things at CDG really started changing.
BRIAN: They had like these predictive numbers.
It's just, "Hey, this is the list.
This list should hit 180 dollars an hour."
And if you didn't hit that, bro...
But you wanna talk about pressure,
I had a goddamn heart attack.
MATT: Motherfucker!
PATRICK: There's so much chaos. I OD'd on the sales floor!
The regional manager
said, "Pat, Pat, wake up. Can you stand?" "Yeah."
"Can you talk?" "Yeah."
"Well, keep calling!
What are you doing? Call, call. Make money. Come on.
You don't wanna work at McDonalds."
That's it. We don't give a fuck about it if your mama hungry,
your light's getting cut off.
If you wasn't making that money,
your ass had to go.
MANAGER:
SABRINA: Basically, modern day slavery.
"You better do what you need to do,
or we're gonna call your probation officer
and tell him you haven't been here.
Either make the sales or you're going back to jail."
MATT: Ownership told us they were changing
the business model.
They stopped calling us telemarketers.
Now, we were professional management consultants.
Once that happened,
the scripts were totally different.
You didn't have to mention you were calling on behalf.
You didn't have to mention the fact
that you were a paid solicitor.
You could say "we," you could say "us."
You could say "our."
We used to say, "Uh, yeah. Hi, Mrs. Smith.
Uh, this is Bill Fedor.
I'm calling on behalf of the New Jersey State
Fraternal Order of Police."
That wasn't good enough.
We wanted to take it to the point
where we could actually say,
"We are the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police."
This actually happened in Florida.
That's where they started the experiment.
BRIAN: And they kept trying to get me to go run an office.
It wasn't called CDG.
It was called the Florida Highway Patrol
Command Officers Association.
SAM:
Oh, we fucking killed it Sam.
SAM: We'd only heard rumors about the consultant thing,
but we knew they were testing it out
in a few Jersey offices.
MATT: We switched from CDG
to the New Jersey FOP Fundraising Center.
Everybody stayed overnight
to give everybody, like, a new login and file number
and take down all the signs.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: Using a cop voice was one thing,
but the consultant model was a fucking whole other level.
It was written right there in the rebuttals.
(READING PROMPT)
(CONTINUES READING PROMPT)
And what about if--
SAM:
"Hey, well, as an NJ FOP employee,
I am proud to tell you that a hundred percent
of your donation does go directly to the organization."
PATRICK:
Without a fucking doubt.
-(TELEPHONE RINGING) -(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
PATRICK: I still have the mailer from them
where they even put it in writing.
A hundred percent of the money.
-SAM: No way. Are you serious? -Dude...
SAM: Pat and I understood why they did it.
People want to give to the police,
not a telemarketer.
But we didn't really understand how they were doing it.
Like, we didn't know if CDG had found
some new loophole,
or if they were just totally running amok.
SAM:
Yeah. Didn't really care to be honest.
Yeah, I was young and I'd get fired
if I asked them too many questions.
"Hey, it's in the script."
And I had been trained. I had been conditioned.
"Shit. If it says in the script, the money goes directly
to the Florida Highway Patrol Command Officers Association,
I guess it does."
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
PATRICK: (OVER CELL PHONE)
MATT: The FOP sent a retired officer.
He was more or less in charge as like a disciplinarian,
and he kinda cracked down
on a lot of, like, the extracurricular activities
that would happen.
There's a cop in here running it, so we gotta--
everybody's gotta be on their best behavior.
SUPERVISOR:
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SAM: I'm doing journalism.
I got a call from the regional manager,
and he's like, "Sam, I saw all the videos.
You gotta take them down. You gotta take the videos down from YouTube."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(TELEMARKETERS CHEERING)
SAM: "Everyone says it's you with the camera.
Like it's, you know, the rumor is spreading around,
like you're filming." Yo. They're like,
"The bosses are talking about it.
Everyone's talking about it."
I was like, "Who gives a shit? I have, like, 40 views total."
One day, I walked into CDG and the owner told me
never to come in there again.
But Pat was like, "Yo, don't worry about it.
I'll feed you info from the inside."
And it gave me more time to dig into anything
I could find on CDG.
And then I started going down the rabbit hole.
-(TELEPHONE RINGING) -Hello?
REPORTER: When a telemarketer called on behalf
of the Utah Fraternal Order of Police, Sandy Ward said no.
That's when the threats began on her answering machine.
TELEMARKETER: (ON RECORDING)
REPORTER: We tracked the fundraiser here
to New Jersey and a company known as
Civic Development Group.
The company denied they made the call.
But now the Federal Trade Commission
has charged the company
with making misrepresentations to consumers,
going back to 1998.
CDG is telling consumers that 100 percent
of their donation is going directly to the charity.
We've alleged that that's not the case,
and that in fact, 80 to 90 percent of the donation
is going to CDG.
My manager called me and he was like, "Hey,
I just want you to know, man, don't listen to these rumors."
And I was like, "I don't even know what you're talking about."
And he was like, "Well, you know, there's all these rumors
that we're getting shut down, and this lawsuit,
and this and that." And I'll be honest,
I had no clue what the fuck he was talking about.
FARUQ: There was always rumors. And it's like, "All right,
well I heard this before, you know, whatever.
They... They'll get through it." You know what I'm saying?
They've been swindling motherfuckers all this time.
Who's to say it's gonna end now?
♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
VOICEMAIL: You have reached the voicemail box of...
SAM: (ON RECORDING) Sam Lipman-Stern.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(TELEPHONES RINGING) -(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
(TELEMARKETERS READING PROMPTS)
TOM: I don't know what it was,
whether their egos got too big,
but when I hear the downfall of the company...
I... I can only attribute it to greed.
-(OVERLAPPING CHATTER) -(TELEPHONE RINGING)
TELEMARKETER: Hi... (READS PROMPT)
RECEIVER: (OVER PHONE)
TELEMARKETER:
RECEIVER:
BRIAN: Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday, dude.
I was in my bed.
Somebody from HR called me and was like, "Hey, listen,
we're gonna shut down. We're gonna close everything down.
Your office is gonna be closed by Tuesday."
And my immediate reaction was like, "Yo, we're doing good. What are you talking about?"
Like, no. They're like, "No, the whole thing's, like, shut--
The whole company's shutting down."
FARUQ: A lot of motherfuckers was upset, man.
'Cause it was like,
"Man, y'all motherfuckers is outta here." (LAUGHS)
This is over.
You know what I'm saying? It's a wrap.
REPORTER: It's being called the biggest telemarketing scam
in American history.
Civic Development Group,
a New Jersey based telemarketing firm
has been permanently shut down by the Federal Trade Commission.
I was shredding stuff in the office.
All of a sudden it's like these big white vans came.
Like, Men in Black type shit.
And they took the fucking file cabinets out, like desks.
Swipe-- They swiped it clean.
SAM:
I fucking clapped.
REPORTER 1: CDG made 189 million calls
using the so-called consultant model,
which implied that 100 percent of donations
would go to charity.
And in three years,
donations grew from five million to 250 million
with CDG keeping nearly all the money for themselves.
REPORTER 2: The Federal Trade Commission sued
the company for misleading donors.
And a few months ago, the company agreed to pay
a 19-million-dollar fine
and get out of the fundraising business.
REPORTER 3: No jail time is expected
and no criminal charges have been filed,
but CDG owners, David Keezer and Scott Pasch,
have been banned from telemarketing for life.
REPORTER 4: Keezer and Pasch were also forced
to hand over their assets to a court-appointed liquidator,
including, wait till you hear this,
two multimillion dollar mansions,
original Van Goghs and Picassos valued at 1.5 million,
a million-dollar guitar collection,
three Mercedes, two Bentleys, a Range Rover, and an Escalade,
and a quarter of a million dollars
in fine wine.
They told me this cat had a fucking house
on both ends of the lake,
and had a fucking boat that would go--
"Okay, I got the house on this end of the lake,
we're gonna get in the boat
to go to the other house on the other end of the lake."
And he said he had to liquidate all his artwork.
And I'm begging old ladies for ten-dollar donations!
Get the fuck outta here.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC FADES) ♪
(BLINKERS CLICKING)
(CAR HORN HONKING)
SAM: What's... (CHUCKLES) What's up?
-Hey, Sam. -SAM: How you doing?
Good. It's the aftermath of, uh...
CDG is dead, gone, buried.
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM:
PATRICK: Yeah, that's it, right there.
-The Han Hin. -SAM: Mm. (CHUCKLES)
PATRICK: This is the turn right here.
SAM: (CHUCKLING) The old CDG.
PATRICK: Dude, I have that "I'm going to work" feeling
-right now. -SAM: I know.
Uh-uh. And the sign is still there.
PATRICK: Yeah, let's go check it out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, this was nothing but a cash cow.
This was, uh, Pasch
and Keezer's personal checkbook.
"Oh, please donate to me. I need a new Corvette."
They didn't wanna share. They wanted--
They couldn't live with 90 percent of the money.
They wanted a... They wanted 100 percent of the money,
and then lie to you where it's going.
Do you think that fine meant anything?
It was nothing, it was a slap on the wrist.
The owner of this company had a band and they sucked.
Now, they have a fucking infomercial.
♪ (UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ANNOUNCER: This is real.
This is loud.
This is J-Henry.
I'm a party guy. I'm a rock and roll guy, you know?
I like to drink every day
and I like to play music every day.
ANNOUNCER: This special exclusive TV offer
includes three...
PATRICK: Can you imagine? You're an old lady,
you donate money, thinking it's going to the cops
down the street,
and these clowns take that money
and just make shitty records with it.
The thing that I don't understand
is how did they get away without going to jail?
I mean, if I ripped off all that money
in the name of the police, I'd be in jail.
But these guys, I guess, you know,
I guess what they say is true.
If you got money in this country,
don't have to worry about a thing.
(LAUGHS)
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: I think Pat and I were resigned to the fact
that there was nothing left for us to investigate
and it was time to move on with our lives.
But then I got a call from Big Ed.
-♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -TELEMARKETER: ...and they take.
You know why?
Because right now many of the war heroes
need-- coming home, they need medical attention.
Yeah. Hi. Is this Mr. Lee? Mr. Lee?
SAM: He'd gotten a job at a new call center
and it was basically the same as CDG.
Okay. We have a... We have a 50, 75.
Can you do the big one this year?
Can I at least get you involved with the ten-dollar pledge?
SAM: Same list, same scripts. Same callers.
ED: (FARTING) Ah, there we go.
MR. SMYTHE: Can we stop the shenanigans, please?
ED: One leg up. (FARTING)
MR. SMYTHE: Can you tell him to stop it, please?
-I'm gonna tell Stanley. -(ED CHUCKLING)
ED: I'm not doing anything...
BILLY: After CDG was closed down,
I mean, people saw that the recipe was there
and other companies took it and ran with it.
SAM: He told me that he could get me hired there
if I wanted.
And it sounded pretty good.
I mean, I kind of missed CDG to be honest.
(INAUDIBLE)
SAM: I told Pat about it and he was like, "Fuck that."
"Yo, forget CDG. Forget this new spot.
Let's take down the entire industry."
So, action.
♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SAM: Pat and Sam. We're back together.
-Yeah. Well, we got more to do yet, you know. -Yeah.
We'll get it all in there. Well, but right now,
we're in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
-Yeah, New Jersey. -Yeah.
I thought it would be cool if we could maybe interview
some people that run the organizations...
-Yeah. That... -...that would be great.
That would be good. Exposing the truth.
-I feel we're like Michael Moore, you know. -Yeah.
-Cool. Yeah, dude. -Yeah, dude.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
JEFF: (IN DISTORTED VOICE)
SAM:
JEFF:
SAM:
JEFF:
SAM:
JEFF:
SAM:
JEFF:
SAM:
JEFF:
SAM:
JEFF:
-(SIRENS BLARING) -(INDISTINCT POLICE RADIO CHATTER)
JEFF:
SAM:
JEFF:
(SIRENS CONTINUE BLARING)
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪