{"id":2429,"date":"2023-05-24T18:24:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T18:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/05\/24\/investigative-reporting-freedom-of-press-public-records-interviewing-narrative-structure\/"},"modified":"2024-10-19T15:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T15:00:33","slug":"investigative-reporting-freedom-of-press-public-records-interviewing-narrative-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/05\/24\/investigative-reporting-freedom-of-press-public-records-interviewing-narrative-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"When a reporter is slain, another picks up the story"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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When one journalist falls, others rise to take up their cause. That\u2019s the animating principle behind a long history of journalists completing untold stories left behind by murdered or jailed reporters. Such memorial work gained attention 1976, when 38 journalists from 28 newspapers and TV stations around the country teamed to pick up where Don Bolles left off before the Arizona Republic reporter was killed by a car bomb while investigating mob activities; their stories added momentum to the recently formed Investigative Reporters and Editors. Today, the Forbidden Stories<\/a> project, started by a French journalist in 2017, builds coalitions of journalists who put aside competitive pressures to complete stories left behind by slain or jailed reporters.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Lizzie Johnson of The Washington Post<\/a> honored that principle when she took up the mantle of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German<\/a> after he was stabbed to death in September 2022, allegedly by a county official he was investigating and who now sits in jail accused of his murder.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Lizzie Johnson Penguin Random House<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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The Post, knowing the Las Vegas paper was overwhelmed by investigating his death, offered to help. An editor flagged one of the last stories German was working on, which was a probe of a Ponzi scheme that targeted Mormons that was brought down by federal authorities, and the idea found its way to Johnson at the Post.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cI didn\u2019t have to think about it twice,\u201d Johnson, an award-winning journalist on the paper\u2019s local enterprise team, told me. \u201cIt was an immediate yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Johnson picked up the thread of German\u2019s research a month after his death. What followed were three intense months of reporting \u2014 crisscrossing Las Vegas and tracking court records in search of victims, tracking court records \u2014 writing, editing and fact-checking.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThe whole endeavor was a lot of pressure \u2014 carrying the torch for a fallen journalist, doing a story in his honor,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI tried to focus on the reporting to prevent myself from being totally paralyzed by the immensity of the task.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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After amassing documents from the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission, doing phone and text interviews with Matt Beasley, one of the Ponzi scheme\u2019s creators in prison, and talking with more than three dozen victims, Johnson produced \u201cAn alleged $500 million Ponzi scheme preyed on Mormons. It ended with FBI gunfire<\/a>,\u201d published simultaneously by The Post and the Review-Journal on Feb. 1, 2023. The project was awarded the 2023 Press Catalyst Award<\/a> from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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It\u2019s a 4,900-word cinematic narrative that weaves vivid scenes featuring the Ponzi schemers, the impact on their victims and the investigations that dismantled the $500 million fraud. Johnson leads by reconstructing a bloody standoff between FBI agents and Beasley, who came up with the lucrative deception. She keeps the reader\u2019s attention by returning to that scene as the story progresses.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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With most victims who lost money ashamed to go on the record, Johnson was finally able to persuade one Las Vegas woman, Ann Mabeus, to let her hang out with her for several days \u2014 a standard practice for narrative writers. The story closes with Johnson\u2019s affecting profile of Mabeus, a newly divorced mother, as she struggles to rebuild her life after financial ruin.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The collaboration paired Johnson with with Review-Journal photojournalist Rachel Aston. She and Johnson discussed \u201cwhich locations and victims to photograph and how to tell the story visually,\u201d Johnson said. They wanted a photo of the gated multimillion-dollar mansion occupied by one of the main suspects; Aston breezed past security and got the shot. Editors at both papers zeroed in on legal issues raised by the story.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Jeff German Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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German\u2019s death and the pall of other attacks on journalists kept Johnson motivated as she faced the many challenges posed by the Ponzi scheme story.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cJournalism is a hard job,\u201d she said, \u201cand it feels like it\u2019s only gotten harder in recent years, with online harassment, intimidation and violence toward reporters increasing. I\u2019ve certainly felt that pressure and anxiety. That\u2019s partly why German\u2019s murder was so horrifying. But at the end of the day, I knew that finishing his work was important, making it clear that a story didn\u2019t have to die with a journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Before joining The Post, Johnson was a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, where she specialized in wildfire coverage; that coverage led to the 2022 book \u201cParadise: One Town\u2019s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire.\u201d<\/a> She is a three-time finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, and the California News Publishers Association has recognized her for Best Writing, Best Profile, Best Enterprise and Best Feature. In 2021, she won first place for long-form feature writing in the Best of the West contest. Her body of work reflects the extraordinary sensitivity she brings to interviews with victims.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cI never want someone I\u2019ve interviewed to walk away feeling like something was taken from them,\u201d she said. \u201cI want them to feel heard and acknowledged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In an email conversation with Storyboard and an annotation of the Las Vegas project, Johnson outlined the challenges of reporting and writing another journalist\u2019s story, the narrative\u2019s layered structure and her reliance on PACER<\/a>, the service that provides electronic public access to federal court records. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How far along was Jeff German in the reporting of this story?
<\/strong>All he\u2019d left behind were a few folders of court filings, which I\u2019d actually already pulled on PACER. He hadn\u2019t really gotten started. So I inherited the idea more than anything else.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I listened to a podcast he\u2019d hosted, \u201cMobbed Up<\/a>,\u201d as I drove across Las Vegas to interviews and often found myself wondering what he\u2019d think of the story as it developed.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What work did finishing German\u2019s story entail?
<\/strong>I started with the court filings, combing through the many, many dockets on PACER to better understand how the Ponzi scheme had come to be and what harm had been done. There were thousands of pages of filings, so this took some time. As I did that, I made a timeline, wrote down the names of people I wanted to contact and took screenshots of text messages and emails included in discovery documents, which I knew would be important once I started writing. When I had a good grasp of what had happened, I started reaching out to the victims and the alleged perpetrators, along with sources within different government agencies and the whistleblower group, Hindenburg Research, letting them know I had embarked on this story and wanted to talk with them about it, that I couldn\u2019t know the full truth of what had happened without their help. I knew that talking with attorney Matt Beasley \u2014 allegedly at the center of the Ponzi Scheme \u2014 would be incredibly important, too, so I made sure to write him a letter early on in the process. It felt like a huge reporting coup that he ended up agreeing to talk with me.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What were the particular challenges you faced?
<\/strong>Getting victims to talk with me. There was this fear that \u2014 if they agreed to let me use their name \u2014 other people in their life would view them as stupid or naive or greedy. Because Ponzi schemes are so siloed, they didn\u2019t realize that there were so<\/em> many others confronting similar issues. Early on in my reporting, I got hold of the contact lists used by a few of the scheme\u2019s marketers, which included the names of a few hundred investors. I left voicemails and sent emails to all of them. That resulted in a few dozen interviews, which funneled down to only a handful of people willing to go on the record.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How long did the reporting, writing and revision take?
<\/strong>I started reporting this story just before Halloween. In November, I traveled to New York City and Las Vegas for interviews \u2014 all in the midst of falling ill with COVID and moving apartments, which slowed me down a bit. Most of December and early January was spent writing, editing, accuracy checking and working with Review-Journal photographer Rachel Aston to make sure we had the right visuals.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What role did your editors play?
<\/strong>I\u2019m so lucky to have Lynda Robinson<\/a> as an editor. She knows how hard this work is and the time and patience that it takes. She\u2019s an incredible sounding board and has this uncanny ability to intuit what the structure of a story should be, particularly when I am feeling overwhelmed. Some days, we\u2019d spend hours on the phone talking through my reporting and what the outline should look like. At the Post, Craig Timberg<\/a> also coordinated the whole collaboration with the Review-Journal, and metro editor Mike Semel<\/a> ensured I had the time to do this story the way it should be done. I also had German\u2019s editor at the Review-Journal, Rhonda Prast<\/a>, checking in with me and forwarding on emails with tips that might be useful. It\u2019s rare to have this much support for a project, and the story was definitely better for it.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Which writers inspire your reporting and writing?
<\/strong>I\u2019m always inspired by my colleagues on the Post\u2019s local enterprise team, including William Wan, John Woodrow Cox, Peter Jamison, Ian Shapira, Sydney Trent,and Jessica Contrera, along with other powerhouse writers like Jason Fagone, Jennifer Senior, Stephanie McCrummen and Eli Saslow. They are all so good at distilling big themes and complicated ideas into sharp narratives. Their stories hold power to account. I\u2019d also be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention photographer Gabrielle Lurie, my former partner at the San Francisco Chronicle. She\u2019s not a writer, but I\u2019m always inspired by how she earns people\u2019s trust and visually builds narratives with texture and detail. We made a great team, and I learned a lot about storytelling from her during the years we worked together. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Annotation:<\/strong>\u00a0Storyboard\u2019s question are in red; Johnson\u2019s answers in blue. <\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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An alleged $500 million Ponzi scheme preyed on Mormons. It ended with FBI gunfire.<\/h2>\n

In Las Vegas, a lawyer with huge gambling debts is accused of a financial fraud that left hundreds of victims in its wake<\/em><\/h3>\t\nBy Lizzie Johnson
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\nFebruary 1, 2023


\nL<\/span>AS VEGAS \u2014 The FBI arrived at the only house on this stretch of Ruffian Road at 1:25 p.m., parking out front of the $1.6 million property, hedged by empty lots of scrub and dust.
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\nThe three agents approached the camera-equipped doorbell at the home\u2019s perimeter, pressing it once. Then they pushed past an unlocked gate, cut through the courtyard and rapped against the glass French doors of Matthew Beasley\u2019s home.
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\nThe Las Vegas attorney, then 49, had been anticipating this visit for months, he would tell an FBI hostage negotiator. He\u2019d already drafted letters to his wife and four children, explaining what he could and describing how much he loved them.
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\nOn this Thursday in March, Beasley knew his time was up. He placed the letters \u2014 along with a note addressed to the FBI and a zip drive of computer files \u2014 upstairs on the desk in his office. Then, alone in the house, he went to the front door. He paused, the left side of his body obscured by the door frame.
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\nOne of the agents \u2014 identified only as \u201cJ.M.\u201d in a detailed criminal complaint filed March 4 in the U.S. District Court of Nevada \u2014 opened his suit jacket and flashed his badge.
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\nBeasley stepped fully into the doorway. He held a loaded pistol against his head.
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\n\u201cEasy, easy,\u201d yelled J.M.
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\n\u201cDrop the gun,\u201d shouted a second agent.
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\n \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tYou launch the story with a nail-biting 234- word scene. Why did you choose this opening?\n<\/span>\n\tThis scene seemed like the natural place to start. It was very cinematic, the Review-Journal <\/em>had photos from that day, and it was the moment when so many victims realized that their money was gone. From here, I could go forward in time, examining the ongoing harm that was done because of the alleged Ponzi scheme, and also go back in time to help readers understand what had brought on this moment.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhat sources did you rely on to reconstruct the dramatic scene of Beasley\u2019s arrest? How did you verify it?\n<\/span>\n\tI relied on a detailed criminal complaint filed by the FBI in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, text message exchanges included in discovery documents from the Securities & Exchange Commission, a transcript of the nearly four-hour-long conversation between the FBI hostage negotiator and Beasley, and conversations with Beasley himself. There were enough primary source documents available that verification was pretty easy.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nAuthorities had long suspected Beasley of running a massive Ponzi scheme with his business partner, Jeffrey Judd, that mainly targeted Mormons, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are often called. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you identify them this way?\n<\/span>\n\tThis is how The Post\u2019s stylebook dictated they should be identified.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> The investment was pitched as a nearly risk-free opportunity to earn annual returns of 50 percent by lending money to slip-and-fall victims awaiting checks after the settlement of their lawsuits.
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\n \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhat made it possible for you to sum up the scene with such concision?\n<\/span>\n\tI\u2019d talked with enough victims about the pitch they were given \u2014 and read about it in so many court documents \u2014 that summing it up became second nature.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nThere was just one problem, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged in a civil complaint. None of it was real.
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\nFor five years, the SEC said, Beasley and Judd paid existing investors with money from new clients \u2014 a classic Ponzi scheme. The most notorious fraud of this kind, run by Wall Street financial guru Bernie Madoff<\/a>, cost investors billions of dollars. By comparison, one expert said, the alleged Vegas scam was distinguished less by its size and more by its victims: It came to be known as the \u201cMormon Ponzi scheme.\u201d
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\nMore than 900 people invested their savings \u2014 an estimated $500 million \u2014 between 2017 and 2022. They included surgeons, real estate developers, Mormon bishops, retirees and stay-at-home mothers. Money poured in from as far away as Singapore, Taiwan and Australia, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in July against Wells Fargo, where Beasley had an attorney trust account to hold and disburse client money. (The bank has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, denying any wrongdoing.) \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you get hold of the filing?\n<\/span>\n\tI found it on PACER.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nSome people emptied their retirement accounts, according to more than two dozen interviews with investors by The Washington Post, while others took out a second mortgage on their house.
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\n\u201cThey\u2019ve destroyed a lot of people\u2019s entire lives,\u201d said Greg Hart, 81, a retired entrepreneur who lives in Buckeye, Ariz., and fears he may be forced to sell his home. \u201cAbout $2.2 million \u2014 95 percent of our money \u2014 was tied up in it. \u2026 This has been completely and totally devastating.\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you interview Hart and the other victims?\n<\/span>\n\tSome were by phone, others were in person.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow do you approach interviews with various sources?\n<\/span>\n\tI don\u2019t think my approach is all that dissimilar, whether it\u2019s in person, over the phone, or over video call\u2026 I always explain who I am and what I\u2019m trying to do with a story. I ask if they have any questions for me before we get started. I try to be as transparent as possible about how journalism works and how I approach reporting.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nMeanwhile, Beasley, who repeatedly acknowledged that he was running a Ponzi scheme during his confrontation with the FBI, and Judd, who has denied knowingly defrauding anyone, amassed a fortune. They bought luxury vehicles, a private jet, cryptocurrency and multimillion-dollar properties in California, Nevada and Utah, according to reports by the court-appointed receiver,<\/a> who has recovered about $90 million in investor funds by selling those assets. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tDid you need any help deciphering the receiver\u2019s reports?\n<\/span>\n\tAbsolutely. So I called the receiver up and asked for help understanding the big takeaways. If you explain that you\u2019re new to something \u2014 as I was to financial reporting in this case \u2014 most people are happy to help you understand.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhat do you look for as you\u2019re reviewing these and other official records?\n<\/span>\n\tI\u2019m always looking for details that illustrate a larger theme. For this story, the receiver\u2019s report helped me understand what the marketers were buying with what was allegedly ill-gotten money.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nBefore the FBI arrived at Beasley\u2019s door that day, they\u2019d raided Judd\u2019s $6.6 million mountainside mansion, which overlooked the Las Vegas Strip. There, according to a new court filing, agents confiscated Judd\u2019s cellphones and computers, more than a half-dozen high-end watches, thousands of silver and gold coins, and nearly $400,000 in cash, just a day before the nuptials of his 21-year-old daughter. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you specify it was \u201cnew?\u201d\n<\/span>\n\tI had gotten these details from a source on background, and just before publication, they were made public in a court filing. I wanted to be clear that this was new information.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\u201cThe sad thing is he has all of his family in town for that big wedding,\u201d a colleague texted Beasley at 12:07 p.m.
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\n\u201cReally surprised they have [not] come to me,\u201d Beasley replied three minutes later.
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\nBut his house was next. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you obtain this text exchange?\n<\/span>\n\tIt was included in discovery documents filed in court by the Securities & Exchange Commission.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n <\/strong>As the FBI agents shouted at him, Beasley said later in an interview with The Post, he pointed the pistol toward the ground. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow, when and where did you land an interview with Beasley?\n<\/span>\n\tIn October, I wrote him a letter, not expecting to get a response back. Still, I knew you couldn\u2019t just assume what someone\u2019s answer would be \u2014 you always have to give them the chance to respond. Not long after, Beasley called me from the detention center where he was being held, asking if I\u2019d like to set up a time to talk on the phone. We started regularly chatting after that, which felt like a huge reporting feat.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nHe was doing what the three agents had asked of him, Beasley said, adding that \u201cI never pointed my gun anywhere except for my head.\u201d The FBI maintains in its criminal complaint, though, that he aimed the weapon at the agents. At least one opened fire, striking Beasley in the chest and shoulder.
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\nHe retreated into his home, refusing to come out as the FBI assembled a SWAT team<\/a> and began recording its calls with him. The hostage negotiator tried to persuade him to seek medical care, but Beasley repeatedly threatened to kill himself, saying that he didn\u2019t want to go to prison.
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\n\u201cI f—ed this all up \u2026\u201d Beasley told the FBI, which entered transcripts of the conversations into the court record. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHad Jeff German already obtained all the court records before he was killed? Or did you have to get them? If so, what did that entail?\n<\/span>\n\tGerman had gotten a few court filings, but he hadn\u2019t tracked down all of them. That was probably next on his list. They were quite voluminous and updated often. I got in the habit of checking the different dockets on PACER every morning; once you learn how to use itA, the system isn\u2019t too difficult to navigate.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n <\/strong>\u201cAnd I\u2019m not even talking about today. This was not even close to my worst decision today. My worst decisions happened many years ago.\u201d
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\nSoon after, the line went quiet. Crouched on the floor with the pistol resting on his chest, Beasley had dropped his cellphone, slick with his own blood. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow were you able to draw this vivid image?\n<\/span>\n\tThe FBI transcript with Beasley was incredibly detailed. Over the course of their conversation, the hostage negotiator continually asked Beasley where the gun was, where he was, what he was doing. At one point, Beasley apologized for going quiet, saying that he\u2019d dropped his cell phone because it was slippery and that there was blood everywhere.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tTo end this section, you return to the opening scene. How did you think about the structure?\n<\/span>\n\tThe opening needed to draw readers in. The FBI\u2019s arrival at Beasley\u2019s house seemed like a natural way to start, and it\u2019s also where The Review-Journal\u2019s reporting had left off. From there, I could take a step back to explain how the scheme had come to be. Then, I returned to the victims. I wanted to give them the final words in this story, since the ripple effects of the scheme had changed their lives forever \u2014 and continues to.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\n

\u2018Really lucky to be involved\u2019<\/h3>\nAnn Mabeus was at a Starbucks on March 3 when her cellphone began blinking with notifications. Then a call rang through. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tFrom the more than two dozen of the scheme\u2019s victims, how and why did you give such a central role in the story to Ann Mabeus?\n<\/span>\n\tMabeus was willing to give me access to her life in a way that few other victims were willing to. After flying to Las Vegas, I spent a few days with her, watching as she prepared her first house for listing and picked up groceries from her church\u2019s food pantry. She was reeling after losing her savings in the alleged Ponzi Scheme. Some victims had lost money, but it was money they could afford to lose. This wasn\u2019t the case with Mabeus. The fraud had had a profound effect on her life, and she exemplified the harm that had been done.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tDid you \u201caudition\u201d sources for a major role before you selected one, as some narrative writers do?\n<\/span>\n\tI look for people who are willing to let me tag along, who won\u2019t get annoyed by my presence or my many, many, many questions, and who will be open with me about what they\u2019re experiencing. Ultimately, I don\u2019t want to report on someone who doesn\u2019t want me there. I\u2019ll talk with quite a few potential sources before deciding on the best person to center a story on.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\u201cAnn,\u201d her friend told the single mother, then 42. \u201cDo you realize that the Humphries\u2019 house is getting raided right now?\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhat\u2019s the source of this quote?\n<\/span>\n\tThis was a conversation that Mabeus recalled for me. Her friend wasn\u2019t willing to talk with me about the conversation, so I asked Mabeus about it a few times, just to ensure her recollection was consistent. She recalled it the same way every time.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nThe FBI was also executing a search warrant at the home of Chris Humphries.
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\nMabeus blanched. Humphries \u2014 who has maintained his innocence and sought dismissal of the SEC complaint against him \u2014 had been a marketer of the same investment that she\u2019d put most of her money into.
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\nThough they socialized and were members of the same Mormon church, Mabeus and her husband wound up investing through another marketer, Shane Jager, the 47-year-old owner of a pest control company.
\n
\nJager had four children about the same age as the Mabeus kids. Like more than a dozen other marketers of the investment, he earned commissions by bringing people in, though he denies in an SEC filing that he knowingly defrauded anyone and accuses Beasley of deceiving him. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you obtain this filing?\n<\/span>\n\tPACER! It\u2019s a glorious thing. I swear I spent half of my time on PACER while reporting this story.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nEveryone called the operation J&J, referencing two LLCs created by Jeff Judd: J&J Consulting Services and J&J Purchasing.
\n
\nJager had told Mabeus about the opportunity to make money in August 2019, during a couples trip to Mexico, she said. She felt flattered to be included.
\n
\n\u201cWe were a little nervous, but we trusted him,\u201d Mabeus said. \u201cBecause we were friends and belonged to the same church, the red flags were heart-shaped. I was like, \u2018Wow. We are really lucky to be involved in this investment.\u2019\u201d
\n
\nThe next month, she and her husband wired over $140,000. Ninety days later, the first interest payment of $18,000 arrived, right on time. <\/strong> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tDid you see the bank statement or rely on Mabeus for this information?\n<\/span>\n\tI had her send me copies of her bank statements and her investment paperwork to confirm that what she was telling me was true and accurate.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nThe couple continued adding money, until they reached a total of $680,000, she said.
\n
\n\u201cThere was never a hiccup,\u201d Mabeus said. \u201cMy bishop was involved and invested, and so were my closest friends. A lot of people were told to keep it quiet.\u201d
\n
\nWhen she and her husband, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who worked for a medical device company, divorced in June 2021, Mabeus agreed to take the investment as alimony. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy didn\u2019t you identify the husband by name?\n<\/span>\n\tIt seemed irrelevant \u2014 like a distraction from the story.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> She planned to rely on the dividends, along with child support payments, to remain at home with her daughter and three sons. A former elementary school teacher, she hadn\u2019t worked for 13 years.
\n
\nNow, Mabeus hung up the phone, horrified.
\n
\nShe tried to call Jager. No answer.
\n
\n\u201cWord is spreading like wildfire,\u201d Mabeus remembered. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you use \u201cremembered\u201d for the attributive verb, rather than the more usual \u201csaid?\u201d\n<\/span>\n\tI wanted to make it clear that this moment was from a recollection and not sourced from a document, like a text message exchange or a court filing. Transparency is important when you\u2019re doing accountability reporting. I wanted to make sure the sourcing for each piece of information was clear.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \u201cPeople are texting left and right. No one is getting responses.\u201d
\n
\nMaybe it was all a big misunderstanding, she thought. She told herself that she\u2019d know for sure the next day, when the quarterly interest payment was scheduled to hit her bank account.
\n
\nBut when Friday arrived, the money didn\u2019t. All her savings, Mabeus realized, were gone. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you drop the attribution in the middle of this short sentence instead of at the end?\n<\/span>\n\tI wanted that gut-punch of the final word \u2014 gone. It wouldn\u2019t have been as powerful if the attribution was at the end of the sentence.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWas it easy to break the narrative here and switch back to Beasley? How much revision did it take to structure the piece like this?\n<\/span>\n\tThis break happened naturally. I wrote it into my first draft, and my editor didn\u2019t change it. I\u2019m always looking for places to ratchet up the tension and keep a reader going. Cliffhangers will do that.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n

<\/h3>\n

\u2018Gentleman\u2019s investment club\u2019<\/h3>\nMatt Beasley\u2019s gambling debts were mounting.
\n
\nHe was big into sports betting, he told the FBI, and by late 2016, he\u2019d paid his bookie the last $40,000 he had. He was being pressured to come up with more, he said, so he decided to get lunch with Judd, a friend and former law client. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you resume the narrative with consecutive profiles of Beasley and Judd?\n<\/span>\n\tI wanted to take a step back and help readers understand the men at the center of this alleged Ponzi scheme \u2013 how they came to be and how they had amassed such wealth and power.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nBeasley\u2019s path to becoming a Las Vegas lawyer had been a halting one.
\n
\nHe grew up in the Kansas City area, the younger of two children. After his parents\u2019 divorce, he rarely saw his father, a union electrician who went on to remarry four times, according to a psychological evaluation requested by his attorney and entered into the court record. Unmoored, it took Beasley a decade to finish his undergraduate degree, eventually obtaining a finance and management degree from Park University <\/a>in Missouri. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you learn all these details about Beasley?\n<\/span> \n\tThey were part of a psychological evaluation requested by his attorney, which was included in a filed motion to get Beasley released on bail. (The judge denied it.)\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nHe moved to Las Vegas in 2004 after graduating from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. He chose it, he told The Post during three short phone conversations and a series of written messages because he hadn\u2019t really visited anywhere else. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy were you limited to these kinds of communication?\n<\/span>\n\tYou can\u2019t just call up someone who is incarcerated. I was limited by the communication systems already in place. I had to wait for Beasley to call me, and there was a time limit to how long he could talk on the phone for. We were also able to chat via written message through a system called \u2014 oddly enough \u2014 GettingOut, though it was clunky and sometimes messages got flagged and weren\u2019t delivered.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nUnlike Judd, Beasley was not Mormon. The two men met through their sons, who played soccer together.
\n
\n\u201cWe became friends,\u201d Beasley told The Post, \u201cand then I represented him on a couple pharmacy cases.\u201d
\n
\nJudd was a native of Las Vegas who\u2019d dabbled in real estate and pharmaceutical sales while his wife, Jennifer, stayed home with their two sons and two daughters. <\/strong>
\n
\nAt lunch, Beasley told Judd that he had an investment opportunity to share: bridge loans for slip-and-fall victims awaiting their settlements.
\n
\n\u201cI just explained it as this type of deal related to lawsuits,\u201d Beasley told the FBI.
\n
\nIn an Oct. 6, 2016, email obtained by The Post, Beasley wrote to Judd that he had a client who \u201cwants a $50k loan which will pay back $60k within 45 days.\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you get this?\n<\/span>\n\tA source, who I agreed not to identify for legal reasons, sent it to me.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nJudd \u201cthought it was a legitimate investment,\u201d said someone familiar with Judd\u2019s involvement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for legal reasons.
\n
\n\u201cMan, this is a great idea,\u201d Beasley recalled Judd saying. \u201cDo you know any other attorneys [so] we could continue to grow this?\u201d
\n
\nAs cash flowed into Beasley\u2019s attorney trust account, he told the FBI, he used it to pay his gambling debts. In all, SEC forensic accounting would show that Beasley sent more than $6.7 million to his bookie. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow do you know this?\n<\/span>\n\tThese figures were part of a forensic accounting done by the SEC.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nAfter a while, Beasley told the FBI, \u201cI realized there\u2019s no going back. \u2026 Jeff had more people that were interested in getting in, so I made up more attorney\u2019s deals and I just kept growing it.\u201d Beasley said he never actually talked to other attorneys.
\n
\nHe maintained to the FBI that Judd didn\u2019t know it was a Ponzi scheme.
\n
\nIn an April SEC complaint against Judd \u2014 who received at least $315 million from the alleged scam \u2014 the regulatory agency said that he either \u201cknew or was reckless in not knowing \u2026 the business was a fraud.\u201d
\n
\nWhen asked to submit evidence clarifying his status as a \u201cvictim,\u201d SEC lawyers said in a July court filing, Judd refused, \u201casserting his \u2018Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.\u2019\u201d
\n
\nIn an email, Judd\u2019s criminal defense attorney, Nick Oberheiden, blamed Beasley for the alleged fraud and took issue with the SEC\u2019s characterization of Judd, saying that \u201clegal terms like \u2018knowledge\u2019 and \u2018intent\u2019 are complex, technical, and sausage-like: few know what\u2019s really inside.\u201d
\n
\nAs the operation got bigger, so did the men\u2019s lifestyles. Beasley bought a $3.8 million house in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. He bought a $750,000 RV, a $250,000 boat, a $240,000 Bentley Continental and two $25,000 Jet Skis, according to a list of relinquished and seized assets filed in court.
\n
\nJudd, now 50, purchased a 6,330-square-foot home in the gated community of Ascaya, which claimed Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis and Kiss rocker Gene Simmons as residents. He drove a $650,000 Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan and a $400,000 Rolls-Royce Dawn convertible.
\n
\n\u201cI have the illness,\u201d Judd texted a friend in April 2021, referencing the new Porsche he planned to add to his fleet of cars.
\n
\nThe SEC noted that in one text message from October 2020, Judd referenced the investment as \u201can illegal business.\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did the SEC get Judd\u2019s texts and then how did you get them?\n<\/span>\n\tWhen the FBI served a search warrant at Judd\u2019s home, they seized his cell phone and computers. The SEC was given access to communications on those devices, some of which were made publicly available in court filings.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nHe also assured potential investors that he\u2019d had discussions with the lawyers Beasley was working with \u2014 even though Beasley said he\u2019d never contacted any \u2014 and had seen the personal injury settlements and bank statements, the SEC said.
\n
\nThe source familiar with Judd\u2019s involvement called that assertion \u201can overstatement\u201d unsupported by any real evidence. He also denied Judd was the initiator of nondisclosure agreements intended, the SEC said, to deter clients from contacting the personal injury lawyers listed on their investment contracts, as well as a clause prohibiting them from contacting any parties \u201cwithout the written consent of Jeffrey Judd.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cBeasley created excuses for the need to have these,\u201d and Judd had no reason to question it, the person familiar with Judd\u2019s involvement said.
\n
\nDespite the red flags, hundreds of investors were receiving their dividends on time and word was spreading.
\n
\nMarshall Gibbs, a 37-year-old dentist in Cheney, Wash., said it was described to him by marketer Jason Jongeward as a \u201cgentleman\u2019s investment club.\u201d Jongeward has maintained he did not intentionally defraud anyone in SEC filings\u201cWe started chatting, and he said, \u2018We have this investment. My wife and I are going to be able to retire early because of it. We just feel so blessed,\u2019\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cI did have my suspicions, but he said his family was in it. That just kept fueling me to add more.\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you selectvictims’ statements to two or three from the more than two dozen you spoke with?\n<\/span>\n\tIt came down to who was willing to go on the record. From the get-go, many victims weren\u2019t. Others got cold feet right before publication.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nGibbs wound up investing $940,000, he said.
\n
\nThe SEC had been investigating J&J since at least December 2020, according to court documents, after a Salt Lake City attorney became alarmed by a friend\u2019s investment paperwork and reported it. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow long did it take to amass all the various records or had Jeff German already done so?\n<\/span>\n\tGathering all the records took me months. German had gotten a few court filings, but they were just the tip of the iceberg. I continued gathering documents up until a few days before publication.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nThen those same contracts started hitting the desk of an accountant in Washington state.
\n
\n\u201cI started panicking because I realized there were five clients already involved in this stuff, probably blowing their money,\u201d said the accountant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the investigation. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you track down the accountant?\n<\/span>\n\tOne of my sources knew the accountant’s identity, so I asked if they\u2019d be willing to put us in touch. From there, the accountant agreed to talk on background, as long as their identifying information wasn\u2019t used.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nHe decided to send an email to a New York City-based investment firm that specializes in exposing fraud<\/a>.
\n
\n\u201cSo many of the details seem incredibly off,\u201d he wrote in the Jan. 11, 2022, email to Hindenburg Research<\/a> that he shared with The Post. \u201cI don\u2019t mean to waste your time but I am very concerned there are all kinds of people, small businesses, individuals, etc. that stand to lose tens of millions.\u201d
\n
\nIf anyone could help, the accountant thought, it would be this group. In some circles, the people at Hindenburg had come to be known as Ponzi hunters.\n\n

\u2018Outrageous claims\u2019<\/h3>\nThey were going to need a private plane. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tThis single line is such a great opening to the section. Was it ever considered as the lead of the story?\n<\/span>\n\tThank you! This was one of those rare lines that didn\u2019t get changed at all during editing. I never considered using it as the lead, because in earlier conversations with my editor, we had already decided to open with the scene of the FBI arriving at Beasley\u2019s home.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nIn the month since Hindenburg Research founder Nate Anderson<\/a> had first heard of J&J, his firm had secretly recorded phone conversations with Jongeward, who would later tell the SEC that he was \u201conly trying to help my family and friends.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cWe really, really struggled to see the risk,\u201d Jongeward had said during one call with Hindenburg Research. \u201cI think that\u2019s probably why the performance has been \u2014 I\u2019ll call it immaculate.\u201d
\n
\nAnderson, 38, who\u2019d once worked with the whistleblower who tried to warn the SEC about Bernie Madoff, said he had immediately spotted the telltale signs of a Ponzi scheme. An online search showed neither Judd nor Beasley had liens listed under their names, which, in a legitimate endeavor, would have ensured legal recourse if the slip-and-fall victims didn\u2019t pay back their loans, Anderson said.
\n
\nThe investment also had no website. Spread via word of mouth, it was reliant on the trust that came from a shared religious affiliation, known as an affinity scam<\/a>.
\n
\n\u201cThe explanation was that it was such a brilliant strategy that they needed to keep it as secretive as possible,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cLitigation finance is a competitive and specialized field. Yet they were claiming to be able to generate five times the returns of everyone else in the industry, with virtually no risk and no defaults. It took very little time to realize this was highly likely to be a complete Ponzi scheme. The challenge was in proving it.\u201d
\n
\nAny evidence that Hindenburg gathered would be turned over to authorities<\/a>, ensuring it would be in line for a government-funded whistleblower award. Under the SEC\u2019s program, the group could stand to receive up to 30 percent <\/a>of any fines collected, potentially amounting to millions of dollars.
\n
\nThe firm wanted to record Judd giving the same pitch as lower-level marketers. To lure him in, it would need something flashy.
\n
\nOne of Anderson\u2019s colleagues knew of just the right bait: Mark Holt, a Salt Lake City entrepreneur who owned a private aviation business \u2014 and had an unlikely connection to Judd.
\n
\nHolt, a Mormon, had attended Bonanza High School in Las Vegas with Judd. On Facebook, the two men shared more than 40 friends. Holt\u2019s ex-fiancee was a woman Judd had once dated, too.
\n
\nHolt agreed to help out by posing as a \u201cwhale\u201d \u2014 a wealthy businessman looking for places to invest large sums of money \u2014 in his case, $50 million. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy wasn\u2019t this considered entrapment?\n<\/span>\n\tThe whistleblower group, Hindenburg, told me that they worked closely with authorities as they orchestrated their sting operation. Their lawyers ran everything past the FBI to make sure that it was above board.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nHolt had been defrauded himself a decade earlier, giving money to a man who promised a 25 percent interest payment if the price of Canadian oil stayed above $30 a barrel. When his returns arrived, Holt decided to bring his mother in. Not long after she\u2019d invested a good chunk of her savings, he said, the man disappeared.
\n
\nNow one of Holt\u2019s private planes would serve as the site of a pitch meeting designed to expose J&J as a Ponzi scheme.
\n
\nOn Feb. 17, Holt arrived with a Hindenburg Research whistleblower \u2014 identified only as \u201cMike\u201d in recordings given to the FBI and SEC \u2014 <\/strong>at Henderson Executive Airport in Nevada, where a parked jet had been rigged with surveillance equipment. Cameras were tucked in a water bottle, a tissue box and a bowl of mints. Audio equipment was inserted into the plane\u2019s overhead lights.
\n
\nThey invited marketers Jongeward and Jager on board. Judd didn\u2019t usually do introductory pitches like this, though Holt hoped that their shared history, combined with the plane, would be enough to guarantee a later phone call.
\n
\nOver chicken salads and sandwiches, the men chatted with Holt about being Mormon and tried to sell him on the investment. A former improv comedian, Holt played the part \u2014 \u201cmostly excited,\u201d he said, \u201ca little bit cautious, credulous enough.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ve heard some pretty outrageous claims as far as returns go,\u201d Holt, then 48, told the marketers. \u201cSo it seems \u2026 too good to be true. So maybe you guys can help me understand, wrap my head around it.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cWhen I first heard about it,\u201d Jager replied, \u201cI thought it was too good to be true, and it took me \u2026 about six months to get off the fence and put some money into it. Fast-forward today, almost five years later, it\u2019s never missed a beat. \u2026 It\u2019s more or less a friends and family deal.\u201d
\n
\nHolt said he still wasn\u2019t sure. He wanted to talk with Judd first.
\n
\nA week later, on Feb. 24, they got on the phone.
\n
\n\u201cJeff lives high up on the mountain,\u201d Jager explained, his voice tinny as he merged the conference call. \u201cAnd sometimes cell service isn\u2019t great.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cAll right,\u201d Holt said. \u201cAwesome. Okay. This is the <\/em>Jeff Judd, huh?\u201d
\n
\n\u201cJeff Judd from a long time ago,\u201d Judd replied, laughing.
\n
\nThey spent a few minutes catching up on all that had transpired since their graduation from Bonanza High \u2014 how Judd had gone to Chile for his mission trip, while Holt had been sent to Portugal. How Judd\u2019s 23-year-old son was a professional soccer player<\/a> for the LA Galaxy, while Holt had a 1-year-old at home, with a second child on the way. Then they turned to business.
\n
\nJudd explained that he had \u201c$475 million under management.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s changed a lot of people\u2019s lives,\u201d Judd said, because the returns are so good. \u201cI wasn\u2019t greedy when I did that. I mean, we pay a high percentage. So my thought process was, \u2018It\u2019s not my money. I\u2019m going to make my money on each deal. Then why wouldn\u2019t I pay out a high percentage?\u2019 So that\u2019s the way we set it up.\u201d
\n
\nJudd hit the same points as Jongeward and Jager \u2014 little risk, high reward. Holt pretended to mull it over. He said he was considering investing $2 million, to start.
\n
\nThat\u2019d be no problem, Judd agreed.
\n
\nWithin a week, the FBI was at Judd\u2019s door. And then they were at Beasley\u2019s. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you obtain the video and audio recordings of Holt\u2019s exchanges with the two marketers?\n<\/span>\n\tHindenburg agreed to give me this footage to see for myself, as long as I agreed not to publish it in entirety.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\n

\u2018Hey, Dad\u2019<\/h3>\nThe FBI negotiator couldn\u2019t persuade Beasley to surrender. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you return to the standoff here?\n<\/span>\n\tI hadn\u2019t yet wrapped up the scene. I wanted readers to have closure about what happened to Beasley after the stand-off and how he was finally removed from his home.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nBeasley\u2019s 22-year-old son joined the effort to end the standoff, now in its fourth hour. He\u2019d recorded a message for his father, but Beasley refused to listen to it.
\n
\nSlouched in the entryway, the floor scattered with broken glass from the front door, he fingered the loaded gun. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow were you able to write with such granular detail?\n<\/span>\n\tPublicly available documents, like the FBI transcript and court filings, and also a conversation with Beasley about that afternoon. For example, he recalled that the shattered French doors had left glass fragments across the foyer.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> He\u2019d bought the pistol just before his son\u2019s birth, he told the FBI, so he could protect him, no matter what.
\n
\nNow, Beasley wasn\u2019t sure he could stand up. He\u2019d lost a lot of blood and was in shock. He told the negotiator that he couldn\u2019t face his family.
\n
\n\u201cYour son is still here,\u201d the negotiator said. \u201cHe refuses to leave. \u2026 Do you want to hear his message?\u201d
\n
\nFinally, Beasley agreed. Over the phone, he heard a recording of his son\u2019s voice: Hey, Dad, it\u2019s me. \u2026 [We] are waiting for you outside. I love you and need you to come out. \u2026 Everything is going to be okay.<\/em> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you use italics here?\n<\/span>\n\tIt was a powerful recording, and I wanted to emphasize it.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nOutside, darkness had fallen. Floodlights were aimed at the house, and the SWAT team was finally ordered to enter and bring Beasley out in handcuffs.
\n
\nHe was taken to a hospital before being charged with assault on a federal officer.
\n
\nSince then, he\u2019s been held at Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, a windblown swath of high desert about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tDid you go there?\n<\/span>\n\tI didn\u2019t visit Pahrump on this trip, but I drove through it a few years ago on a road trip from San Francisco, where I was living at the time, back to my hometown in the Midwest.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nNo criminal charges have been filed against anyone else, including Judd, Humphries, Jager and Jongeward.
\n
\n\u201cWe do not comment on potential charges,\u201d said Trisha Young, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Las Vegas.
\n
\nIn an interview with The Post, Beasley said he figures more charges were probably coming.
\n
\n\u201cAlmost everything about the shooting has been misrepresented,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cConsidering the only charges I have are related to the shooting, I guess I don\u2019t have a problem with being the only one incarcerated. I assume that once charges on the alleged financial crimes come down that I won\u2019t be alone. It is simply illogical to think otherwise.\u201d
\n
\nAt Beasley\u2019s initial court appearance, on March 8, his attorney argued that his standoff with the FBI had been a result of a \u201cone-time extreme emotional crisis\u201d and asked that he be released. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWere you present? I wasn\u2019t.\n<\/span>\n\tThis appearance happened seven months before I started reporting this story and six months before German was killed. These details came from a court filing.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nBut Tony Lopez, chief of the white-collar crime section at the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Las Vegas, objected.
\n
\n\u201cThis nine-figure Ponzi scheme is what made the defendant hole up in his house for four hours until the FBI had to literally drag him out,\u201d Lopez told the judge. \u201cHe was willing to take his own life rather than answer for his actions.\u201d
\n
\nThe consequences of those actions were wreaking havoc on the lives of hundreds of people across the country, including Beasley\u2019s own loved ones.
\n
\nLess than three weeks after the FBI raid, Beasley\u2019s wife divorced him. She moved out of the house on Ruffian Road, which was seized along with millions of dollars in other assets to help repay investors.
\n
\nTo support their two younger sons, Beasley\u2019s attorney said in court, his wife had gotten a job working 5 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday. And his oldest son \u2014 who had once described his father as his greatest hero on his biography for his university soccer team \u2014 had left college to help out at home. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you use this detail?\n<\/span>\n\tI thought it was an incredibly human detail, and it illustrated the consequences the alleged Ponzi scheme had had on so many lives, including on the lives of Beasley\u2019s family.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\n

\u2018Survival mode\u2019<\/h3>\nThe mansion had a towering entryway with a chandelier that cast rainbows against the walls on sunny days. It had a soccer field and a basketball court and more garages than most families would ever need.
\n
\nAnn Mabeus hoped this house would save her. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tGreat lead for this section, but why keep it obscure, leaving out information that would let the reader know the context delivered below?\n<\/span>\n\tThis house was so symbolic to Mabeus of the future she was trying to build for herself. I wanted readers to have an image of it in their minds before I tackled the details of her finances.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nIt was mid-November, and she was still reeling from the collapse of J&J.
\n
\nShe\u2019d been renting a house across town for herself and her kids, but she\u2019d fallen behind on the $3,890 monthly payments. The $3,600 she received in child support each month wasn\u2019t enough to pay her bills.
\n
\nHer church had helped, paying two months of rent and providing donated groceries, which she picked up at the Bishops\u2019 Storehouse, a 24-mile drive away. But Mabeus didn\u2019t have health insurance. She couldn\u2019t afford birthday parties for the kids. She needed to start earning an income again. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow did you learn all this information about the family\u2019s private life?\n<\/span>\n\tI spent a few days in Las Vegas with Mabeus, and I also saw copies of her bank statements, email exchanges and other personal records.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n\u201cI don\u2019t have time to be angry,\u201d Mabeus said. \u201cI\u2019m in survival mode. Everything in my life has to change. I have to learn how to make money.\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tClearly, Mabeus decided to open up to you. How do you make that happen in your interviews?\n<\/span>\n\tI try to be present, curious, and non-judgmental. I don\u2019t come to an interview with preconceptions about what someone\u2019s life is like. I give them the space to share what they want to share, and I try to be gentle as I prod deeper or ask difficult questions.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nShe\u2019d decided to become a real estate agent. If she sold this mansion \u2014 owned by someone whose children she\u2019d home-schooled during the pandemic and who had since moved to Florida \u2014 she\u2019d make enough on commission to pay her debts and float her family for a few more months, until she could list more houses.
\n
\nOn a dark-skied afternoon just before Thanksgiving, she drove toward a real estate firm, where she\u2019d enrolled in a home-selling course. Outside, the palm trees whipped in the wind, winter rain splashing against the arid ground. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWere you with her?\n<\/span> \n\tI sure was. I get carsick easily, so driving around with story subjects in their vehicles is always a little harrowing.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nMabeus felt like she was foundering. She often woke up in the middle of the night, panicked and anxious.
\n
\nIn class, a presenter promised the aspiring real estate agents that prospecting karma \u2014 making connections to sell houses \u2014 was a thing.
\n
\nMabeus rested her chin in her hand, her mind wandering. She had a lot left to do to get the mansion listed and sold. She needed to get landscapers in and a dumpster out. She needed to get an exterior light fixed and the dust and debris swept out of the hallways.
\n
\nAfter the class ended, she drove back to the huge house. In the driveway, she checked her cellphone. A friend had texted, asking how she was doing. She set her phone down without replying.\n\n

Fearing eviction<\/h3>\nIn mid-January, Mabeus arrived home to a pink notice on the garage door of her rental.
\n
\nShe\u2019d fallen behind on all her bills, she said. Her bank account was overdrawn. She\u2019d racked up nearly $10,000 in credit card debt. The internet had been shut off, and the electricity was next. She was considering filing for bankruptcy. Her 17-year-old son \u2014 with $201.12 in his checking account \u2014 had more to his name than she did.
\n
\nNow, this notice was threatening eviction.
\n
\nMabeus had a week to pay the two months of rent she\u2019d missed or risk being booted from her home. She couldn\u2019t afford to pay the $7,780, but she also couldn\u2019t afford to move. A new place meant another deposit and first month\u2019s rent.
\n
\nThe mansion with the chandelier was still a week or so away from being listed<\/a>. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tIt appears that the house is still listed. Why did you decide to link to the listing? And how is Mabeus doing?\n<\/span>\n\tI included the link because I thought readers might be curious to see the house for themselves. Mabeus\u2019 housing situation is still uncertain, and she doesn\u2019t know how she\u2019ll provide for her family. The lives of the people I write about continue on, even after publication, and there\u2019s often no closure. So goes in this case, too.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nShe counted the cash in her wallet: $54. \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy did you decide to conclude the story with this detailed portrait about just one of the victims?\n<\/span>\n\tThere\u2019s something universal about the specific, and I thought Mabeus was representative of what other victims were facing.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nOnline, she applied for teaching jobs, food stamps, housing assistance. She had a master\u2019s degree, but couldn\u2019t get a call back about work.
\n
\nMabeus\u2019s bishop held an emergency meeting. The church would pay her back rent and take care of the utilities, he told her, but he wanted the family in something cheaper, like a two-bedroom apartment, before her lease ran out on March 1. She had six weeks to figure it out, and she was determined to do so.
\n
\nOn New Year\u2019s Eve, Mabeus had jotted down a list of goals for 2023 in a note on her cellphone. She scrolled through the list again. The final one was the most important. It read: \u201cStand on my own two feet.\u201d \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tA striking ending! Why did you choose to close the narrative this way?\n<\/span>\n\tMabeus had lost so much agency and power after her savings vanished. I wanted to give the last word to her \u2014 and allow her an identity other than victim.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tHow much drafting and revision did the story take overall?\n<\/span>\n\tMy editor and I have many conversations before I ever start writing, so when we get to the editing stage, it doesn’t feel like a heavy lift. We\u2019ll oftentimes edit a story section by section, too, so that I know I\u2019m on the right track.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \n

About this story<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\nLas Vegas investigative reporter <\/em>Jeff German<\/em><\/a> was slain outside his home on Sept. 2<\/em>; a Clark County official he had investigated is <\/em>charged in his death<\/em><\/a>. To continue German\u2019s work, The Washington Post teamed up with his newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to complete one of the stories he\u2019d planned to pursue before <\/em>his killing<\/em><\/a>. A folder on German\u2019s desk contained court documents he\u2019d started to gather about an alleged Ponzi scheme that left hundreds of victims \u2013 many of them Mormon \u2013 in its wake. Post reporter Lizzie Johnson began investigating, working with Review-Journal photographer Rachel Aston.<\/em> \n\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\tWhy wasn\u2019t this context included in the story itself?\n<\/span>\n\tThis account of the origins of the story actually appeared twice in the digital version of the story, in a context box in the first section of the story and again at the bottom. We did it that way to avoid interrupting the story while also being transparent with readers.\n<\/span>\n\t<\/span> \n<\/span> \nEditing by Lynda Robinson, photo editing by Benjamin Hager and Mark Miller, copy editing by Frances Moody and Christopher Rickett, design by Tara McCarty, design editing by Christian Font. Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.<\/em>
\n
\n* * *
\n
\nChip Scanlan <\/strong>is an award-winning newspaper reporter who taught writing at The Poynter Institute for 15 years. He publishes Chip\u2019s Writing Lessons<\/a> and has two books, \u201dWriters on Writing\u201d and \u201c33 Ways Not To Screw Up Your Journalism.\n<\/em>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post sent Lizzie Johnson to Las Vegas to continue an investigation started by Review-Journal reporter Jeff German<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[13],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-2429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annotation-tuesday","authors-chip-scanlan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen a reporter is slain, another picks up the story - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/05\/24\/investigative-reporting-freedom-of-press-public-records-interviewing-narrative-structure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When a reporter is slain, another picks up the story - 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