← Betrayal Weekly
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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human from coast to coast. Unlock adventure at Red Lion Hotels by Sinesta where restful sleep, friendly service and trusted local knowledge are part of every stay. Red lion makes it easy to feel welcomed, comfortable and connected wherever the road takes you. Whether you're traveling for business or pleasure, you can spend less and make more of every trip. When you sign up for Sonesta Travel Pass, you'll you'll get our best rates instantly. Go to sonesta.com to book your stay and unlock the best rates with Sonesta Travel Pass. Here today, Rome tomorrow. Join now@sinesta.com terms and conditions apply. Open the door to Spring with Pyrrha Explore a vibrant sense inspired by place, designed to refresh your home and how it feels every day. Transport your senses to a terrace in Santorini or French lavender field, bringing the essence of spring into the home you love. Get started with a free Pura 4 diffuser when you subscribe to 2 cents monthly for six months. Shop now@pura.com this episode is sponsored by Virgin Voyages. There's something about the ocean. It creates space and sometimes space is exactly what you need. Virgin Voyages is adults only. No kids, no chaos, no buffets, just beautifully designed spaces, award winning food and room to actually breathe. Over 20 restaurants are included, plus entertainment, Wi Fi, fitness classes all covered. No surprises, no emotional or financial whiplash. It's not just a vacation, it's perspective. It's reset, it's choosing yourself. And sometimes that's the bravest thing you can do. Plan your escape@virgin voyages.com when it comes to advancing your education, you have more options than you think. At Rasmussen University they find ways to remove barriers, not build them like a new laptop if you're eligible and enroll in select online or on campus programs. That also means flexible and engaging online courses and resources, tuition saving options if you qualify, exceptional student support and much more online nationally or check out their 20 campuses across six states. Start when you're ready and get the support you need. Visit Rasmussen Edu Hi, it's Andrea and we are re releasing some of our past weekly episodes and there's a good reason why. For the last year I have been working with ABC on turning some of your favorite episodes of Betrayal Weekly into a TV show. The show is called Secrets and Lies and it airs every Sunday at 10pm on ABC. This week we are re releasing Libby Henry's story. Libby is fascinating because her story starts with something really small, a moment most of us wouldn't think twice about. She happened to be watching a TV show that made her go, wait, I don't actually know that much about my finances. And instead of brushing that feeling off, she talked to her husband and she started needling. And once she started doing that, everything unraveled. And what I admire so much about Libby is that she's turned that moment into purpose. She wants other women to know the business side of their marriages, to ask the questions, to not find themselves in the same position. And there's also something really tender about her story that stayed with me. Her engagement ring was a sapphire. I have a sapphire, too. And that same symbolism of love and commitment and trust. In her case, she's having to redefine what all of that means to her. If you have not heard this story, I won't give any more away. Hearing Libby's story is amazing, but seeing it unfold is a whole new experience. So please check out Secrets and Lies on ABC and Hulu to see Libby's story and where it all unfolded. Enjoy the episode.
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B
I remember this so, so clearly. I was in my powder blue pajamas and I came out and I said something to him. I go, what are you involved in? Are you being investigated by the FBI? And he looked at me so coldly, like he never knew me. And he said, if I go down, I'm taking you with me.
- [04:43]
A
I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal. A show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. Recently, we got in touch with a group called the White Collar Wives Project. It's a support group for women who were blindsided by their husband's financial crimes. Their mission is to help guide women through the fallout legally, financially, and emotionally. For members, it's a place where they can feel supported and most importantly, believed. A place where no one is asking the ever present question.
- [05:19]
B
He didn't know.
- [05:21]
A
That's Libby Henry. She was one of the first members of the White Collar Wives. And like all the women in the group, she was in the dark about what her husband was really doing at work.
- [05:32]
B
I didn't say, oh, honey, dinner's ready. And by the way, did you commit fraud?
- [05:38]
A
Libby grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. Or as the locals call it, Louisville.
- [05:44]
B
It's almost like you've got something caught in your throat. We automatically know if you're not from here, if you're saying Louisville or Louisville.
- [05:53]
A
Well, I'm not from there. So for this episode, I'm going to be saying Louisville. Early on, Libby knew her family wasn't like others. Her mother didn't get along with most people.
- [06:07]
B
She had an undiagnosed personality disorder. Today they call this borderline personality disorder. But at the time, I didn't know what was wrong with her because there wasn't the Internet, and nobody was talking about mental health back then.
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A
Because of her mom's mental illness, life at home was an emotional rollercoaster.
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B
As I entered the ninth grade, I was pretty much trying to spend the night out all the time because she had such a problem controlling her emotions. I just tried to get away.
- [06:44]
A
She spent a lot of time at friends houses. By the time she graduated high school, she had one goal for her future. It was heartbreakingly simple.
- [06:55]
B
What I saw around me at my friends houses. I wanted for myself. I just wanted to have a normal home because I didn't come from one. That was my big plan. That was it.
- [07:09]
A
She started college at the University of Kentucky. It's in Lexington, the horse racing capital of the world.
- [07:16]
B
Oh, gosh, Lexington. Beautiful place surrounded by these beautiful horse farms, rolling fields. When I got there, the first thing I thought is that I had some freedom.
- [07:28]
A
It was the 80s. Libby was carefree. She joined a sorority and quickly made friends.
- [07:34]
B
There were a lot of fraternity parties. They could have all these keg parties. You would go from one house to the next house. Lots of bands were always playing. That was a lot of fun.
- [07:46]
A
Her junior year, she went to the first kickoff game of the football season. And of course, it was a big party.
- [07:53]
B
My friend came up to me and said, do you know Ted House?
- [07:59]
A
Ted House was in one of her history classes. He'd caught her eye before, but they didn't really know each other.
- [08:06]
B
He was undeniably good looking, you know, that tall, dark, and handsome. He was all those things. She goes, well, he wants to go out with you. And I'm like, oh, wow. Okay. So later that same night, he approached me and started talking to me. But he started talking about the history syllabus. And I think he was nervous because talking about the history syllabus was kind of boring.
- [08:34]
A
Libby left the party underwhelmed.
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B
But two days later, my friend called me and she said, we need a double date. He really wants to go out with you. And I'm like, okay. And we go on a double date to this French restaurant. And he was an entirely different human being. He was charming and funny and much more relaxed.
- [08:56]
A
It was like she was really seeing him for the first time.
- [08:59]
B
I thought, gosh, this guy's so fun. Wow. You know, I like this guy. And two Days after that, he asked me out again. And we just kept rolling and kept going out. And it wasn't long before we were an exclusive couple.
- [09:17]
A
Libby felt like herself around Ted. He was the first guy to make her feel that way.
- [09:23]
B
I was really comfortable with, with who I was with Ted, like, I was always laughing. He liked that about me. He liked the humor.
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A
But it quickly became clear that she and Ted came from different backgrounds. To borrow a term from the horse world, he had pedigree private boarding schools, country clubs, and summer trips abroad. But he wasn't pretentious about it.
- [09:47]
B
Ted didn't seem to care that I didn't have any money. That didn't seem to bother him.
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A
The difference in their upbringing meant nothing. They just wanted to be together.
- [09:58]
B
The mundane things that you do by yourself that don't seem very fun are, of course, very fun when you are head over heels with someone. And we were.
- [10:10]
A
Libby felt safe when she was with Ted. He had that kind of confidence.
- [10:16]
B
He was kind of like that protector and things were taken care of. If I was having an issue, here was Ted. He was taking care of everything. He was always that guy.
- [10:29]
A
After a few months of dating, Ted took Libby to meet his parents. They were in town for a fundraiser.
- [10:36]
B
And I didn't really realize when I walked into. They are a very politically connected family. The first time I met them, they were having a fundraiser for the governor of Indiana.
- [10:49]
A
Ted didn't really prepare her for this scene, and to be fair, he couldn't have.
- [10:55]
B
I walk in the foyer of this absolutely beautiful home, and at first, you know, you're just so nervous because I'm like, what do I have to offer in this conversation? What can I contribute that is very intimidating for someone like me who came from the background that I came from.
- [11:16]
A
Libby tried to stay quiet, smile, and hide the run in her stockings. But above all, she wanted to make a good first impression with Ted's parents.
- [11:26]
B
I do remember wondering if Ted's mother thought, maybe I'm really not good enough for her son. But I got through it. His parents were very nice to me.
- [11:37]
A
Ted's dad was a successful businessman, and his mother was a philanthropist, a patron of the arts type. The night of the fundraiser, Libby was just herself. She made them laugh, and it turned out that was enough for the house family. Pretty soon, Libby became a regular fixture at Ted's family events. They made her feel welcome.
- [12:03]
B
They never seemed ostentatious to me. They weren't people that bragged about money. They had money, but nobody was bragging about it. They were very supportive and they were interested in me. Things just seemed so effortless with them.
- [12:19]
A
Ted's family genuinely loved being around each other.
- [12:23]
B
So you can imagine when I'm with this family, where things are so easy and there wasn't chaos there. That's the word. There was no chaos. I loved them. I truly did.
- [12:36]
A
As they got more serious, she and Ted opened up about their flaws and tried to help each other grow.
- [12:44]
B
He was the kind of guy that would get really mad, but then he would be like, okay, I popped off. That was always his thing. But he does know that about himself. And I wasn't the best either, because the one thing that I did not come out of my house with was coping skills. I came out of my house like a piece of swiss cheese. I had a lot of holes.
- [13:08]
A
Ted and Libby started talking about their future. They both knew they wanted to have kids and stay close to family.
- [13:16]
B
It was within a year he asked me to marry him. He was nervous, but it wasn't some big gesture.
- [13:27]
A
He proposed in her living room with the ring behind his back. She remembers seeing his nerves. He was shaking.
- [13:35]
B
He's like, you know, I'm not really good at this, but I want you to marry me. It was sweet and I liked it.
- [13:44]
A
Ted had the ring custom made, and it came with a special meaning.
- [13:50]
B
This woman named Bea Roth made all three of the daughter in law's rings. My mother in law had a sapphire, a diamond, emerald cut. I had a sapphire and diamond marquee. But we all had the sapphire and diamond to match our mother in law. I couldn't believe that I was marrying someone like Ted. Not because he came from money, but. But because I thought his family was so close. And they seemed like a cohesive unit. It was like that dream. I told you when I was young, I'm getting married and I'm going to have that family. I remember thinking, it's all happening for me.
- [14:39]
A
Once they graduated college, Libby and Ted had a big church wedding. They both took jobs working for the state of Indiana, Just over the border from Lexington.
- [14:49]
B
I worked for the department of insurance. He was in land and acquisition. So he would go and talk to people, and they loved him. Ted could talk to anybody. I mean, he could charm anybody. And they loved him.
- [15:01]
A
Ted was passionate about real estate, so he found them the perfect home. Even though they both worked, Ted's family money helped them close on that first house.
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B
I knew he had a trust fund because that's how we bought our first house, with his trust fund. And we're trying to make our house a home. His mother would always come over bringing gourmet goodies.
- [15:27]
A
That year, Libby got a special gift from her mother in law, something to symbolize their bond.
- [15:33]
B
Ted's mother had a circle pendant made for each daughter in law with little pearls around it. And she said, this is a symbol of our circle, our family, and that you're in the circle.
- [15:50]
A
Within the first year of their marriage, Libby found out she was pregnant with a baby girl. For a moment, everything felt perfect.
- [16:01]
B
But in about six months, I go to the doctor and there's no heartbeat.
- [16:16]
A
The baby had died at six months. Ted and his family surrounded Libby, helping her through the grief. The doctors recommended she wait to get pregnant again, but she didn't.
- [16:27]
B
I lost that baby in May and I was pregnant again in July. And then I had a healthy baby girl. At that point,
- [16:39]
A
it was a new beginning and they wanted a change of scenery to match. They started talking about returning to Louisville, Libby's hometown.
- [16:49]
B
And then Ted comes home and says, I've got big news. And I'm like, what kind of big news? And he said, well, I've got an offer to go into the mortgage business in Louisville. So when he said, we're moving, I was like, yay, you know, I'm going home.
- [17:06]
A
With their new baby. They packed up and started over and
- [17:09]
B
we both got full time jobs at that point I worked for wait for a paging company. Pagers were the things that was big technology back then. And he obviously was in the mortgage industry. He started working for a friend and he was a loan originator.
- [17:31]
A
The job came naturally to him. Before long, he started his own company brokering mortgages.
- [17:38]
B
He liked it so much he started his own business. They seemed to do so well. He had a lot of employees that started working for him. A lot of them he knew. They were people that we knew. And it just seemed like this was just the absolute best job. He's got friends that work for him.
- [17:58]
A
The first few years in Louisville were like a dream. Libby had the normal family she'd always wanted. The only thing that wasn't going perfectly was Libby's health. When her daughter was a toddler, Libby began having intense back pain. She needed spinal surgery, but the pain persisted. So she and Ted sat down and decided that Libby should quit her job, at least for the time being.
- [18:23]
B
Ted said, you know, I'm making enough money, you don't need to go back to work. So I didn't. I would stay home for the next 10 years. And that was a critical mistake for me.
- [18:58]
A
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- [23:23]
B
I did everything that stay at home, moms do, you know, kids, play dates, everything that had to do with my daughter, I was planning.
- [23:33]
A
It was Libby's job to handle their daughter's schedule, and Ted's job was to handle the finances, which he'd already been doing anyway.
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B
And I mean, I'm dyslexic. It affects my numbers. And Ted was like a human calculator.
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A
They'd been in Louisville a few years
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B
when Ted came home and said that he had looked at this house in a neighborhood called Bridgepoint, which was a very nice neighborhood and that was a big leap as far as cost of the homes.
- [24:03]
A
He wanted an upgrade, something to reflect his success. Libby started drawing up renovation plans and interior designs.
- [24:11]
B
I walked in and I redid the whole thing, the yard, you name it, I did it. Everything that I conjured up in my head, I was able to execute.
- [24:21]
A
When it was done, the house was perfect. It was going to be their forever home.
- [24:27]
B
Life seemed to be getting better and better and better. I never thought that money was an issue in my life at all.
- [24:41]
A
But Ted still wasn't satisfied. He Wanted to become a Kentucky real estate tycoon. So he found new business partners to start another venture flipping houses.
- [24:55]
B
Flipping homes in. In depressed parts of Louisville Wasn't unusual back then, because the timeframe of this is 2000, 2001, 2002, before the housing bubble burst. I mean, I knew so many people flipping houses.
- [25:14]
A
One of ted's new business partners was a real estate consultant named Khalid.
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B
Khalid was a guy who grew up in a depressed part of louisville, and khalid had done well for himself, business wise. So they went into business together flipping homes. Khalid was from that area, and I think he knew a lot of people in that area, which made him a nice liaison.
- [25:41]
A
Ted and Khalid's business proved more successful than either of them imagined. The money was rolling in, and ted really treated the family.
- [25:50]
B
We were able to do all of these things. For example, we were in Costa Rica. We were able to take our daughter to Bahamas, which was incredible. We were at Martha's vineyard. We were doing all these things that I could have never done. I always used to think, this is great, you know, what a charmed life. I really, truly was grateful for everything. And then things started to change because
- [26:20]
A
Ted's attitude started to change. He had always been quick to anger, but as libby shared, he was quick to calm down. This time, it was different.
- [26:31]
B
Like, he would come home increasingly irritable, But I couldn't understand why it was ongoing. And I would ask him, and he's like, oh, it's work stress. It's work stress. Then he started waking up in the middle of the night like he was in a panic. But it was every night like clockwork. And I never could understand it. I'm like, what in the world? Why do you wake up like this? Oh, I've just got a lot on my mind. I just thought, okay, well, there's stress.
- [27:02]
A
She knew his job could be intense. He was always managing multiple sales and home renovations. Each had their own deadlines and expenses. But as the year went on, Ted's stress only mounted.
- [27:16]
B
But I kept asking, and he kept getting a little bit short with me. And I thought, gosh, what is the problem?
- [27:26]
A
Ted never shared details about his business with libby. He kept it all inside, except for this one day in 2002. She walked into their bathroom to find Ted leaning over the sink.
- [27:38]
B
And I thought he was sick. And I said, what's wrong? His reaction was so unusual. He actually did have tears in his eyes. And he said, it's that effing Khalid. And I said, what are we talking about? What's wrong with khalid?
- [27:59]
A
Libby had met khalid once or twice. He had always been polite to her.
- [28:04]
B
He's so angry, and he's saying, you know, this effing khalid, he screwed me over. He's going to screw me. He just kept saying that over and over again. I go, I don't know what we're talking about. What are we talking about? And why are you angry with khalid? And he said, he's going to screw me, and he may kill. Kill you. He may kill our daughter. What? Those aren't words you expect to hear from your husband about a business associate ever. I was paralyzed for a second. I felt my chest tighten up because I thought, what do you mean, kill? He's like, well, there's a business deal that's gone bad, and I don't know what that mfer will do.
- [28:57]
A
Libby wanted to go to the police, but when she said that, ted quickly backtracked. He shook it off and told libby to forget he ever said anything. But that wasn't going to happen. Her mind was racing. Was khalid really threatening her and her daughter? Why would ted say that to her? She got in the car and left the house.
- [29:19]
B
I start crying. All that stress. I just start crying because I could not make sense of it.
- [29:24]
A
But when libby returned home to ask more questions, ted was gone.
- [29:30]
B
So I waited and waited, and he didn't come back. Well, I gathered myself together, and I thought, I'm gonna call his dad. I'm gonna call his parents. And I can still remember his mother saying they were outside by the pool and they absorbed all that information. But it wasn't like they were panicked like I was.
- [29:54]
A
A little while later, ted's mom called back. Apparently, they'd talked to ted, and he'd given them the full story.
- [30:03]
B
And they said, teddy got a little spooked. And I thought, a little spooked, you know, I didn't feel satisfied with that answer. She said, well, ted's realized that khalid might not be the most savory person. He's a little bit unsavory, and he's not gonna consort with him anymore or do business with him. And I said, well, he said, kill. She goes, he's just overreacted. I said, this seems a lot more serious than that. And she said, libby, it's okay. He's not gonna do business with him anymore. His dad's talked to him. And you know what? I believed that because his dad was telling me this. Businessman, stockbroker, graduate school educated man, highly respected, no nonsense man. If they thought that that was true. They just reassured me.
- [31:05]
A
They also advised Libby not to go around telling anyone about that conversation with Ted. She trusted his parents, but she was still unsettled.
- [31:16]
B
So that was not even a red flag. It was a red flare.
- [31:22]
A
When Ted finally came home, he didn't want to talk about it. He wouldn't talk about it. The house was filled with tension.
- [31:31]
B
And during that time, things really started to go sideways. Ted's moods were so awful.
- [31:42]
A
Every day. Ted was on edge. The days turned into weeks.
- [31:48]
B
So not only is he waking up at 3 o' clock in the morning, but I'm also waking up to the glow of the laptop. It's like he slept with that computer all the time.
- [32:04]
A
One night, Libby was home alone watching tv, and she saw something that would change her life.
- [32:11]
B
I don't know if it was Dateline, I don't know if it was 60 Minutes, but it was a woman on TV and her husband died. And she didn't know anything about her finances. Nothing. And apparently she owed thousands of dollars to the irs. And of course, she's on the hook because she signed those tax returns and she lost everything. And I was like, she is me. That is me.
- [32:41]
A
Since the beginning of their marriage, Ted had paid all their bills, paid off the credit cards, and managed their savings. When it came to their personal finances, she only knew what Ted told her. And as for his businesses, she was completely in the dark.
- [32:58]
B
So I went to him and I'm like, I want a folder. I wanted a folder that showed me what happens if he. If anything happened to him. I didn't know what would happen with the company. Would his business partner buy me out? I mean, these were maybe even silly questions. I just didn't know anything. So when I started asking, he started pushing back. And I remember thinking, you know, that's not normal. Why is he defensive?
- [33:34]
A
The more Ted pushed back, the more insistent Libby became. She needed to know everything. She wanted hard copies.
- [33:43]
B
I mean, every time I asked, he got madder and madder and madder and madder to the point we were having really big fights. But I'm still asking about that folder. Our arguments kept escalating because I thought, well, does he think I'm not smart enough to understand? Does he think he just needs to be controlling and he's the one that needs to be able to do it all? Never would I have thought he was involved in anything that was nefarious. Never. Didn't even occur to me.
- [34:17]
A
Libby never got that folder of financial documents because a few weeks later, Ted sat her down. And in a calm voice, he told her the truth, or at least a sliver of it.
- [34:30]
B
Three days before Christmas, he. He tells me we're bankrupt. We need to file bankruptcy. And I don't just mean any bankruptcy. I mean chapter seven, complete liquidation, bankrupt.
- [34:46]
A
Libby had spent a year begging Ted for financial transparency. The entire time, he never made any indication that they were in debt. Now out of the blue, he told her they were bankrupt. It didn't add up.
- [35:02]
B
I thought, that can't be right. I mean, it just can't be right because you have this company, you've purchased this beautiful home. We've lived this life. How would we be bankrupt? I couldn't make sense of it, and I didn't even get a good answer.
- [35:20]
A
When Ted tried to explain how it happened, it was just word salad about business deals gone bad. She needed space.
- [35:30]
B
I thought, something's really wrong. We really should be separated.
- [35:35]
A
She told him to move out, and he did. Before he left, he set up a meeting with a bankruptcy attorney.
- [35:41]
B
And I'm listening, but I'm still, like, in shock because I couldn't make sense of it. I'm like, well, how are we bankrupt? Like, why are we bankrupt? Where is the money?
- [35:51]
A
He told Libby this meeting would give her answers, but it didn't. The next day, he came to her with a new plan.
- [36:00]
B
He comes back and says, I think we could have just you file bankruptcy and not me. The house was solely in my name. I had no idea why he wanted to do that. I just knew that I was like, you need to leave. Because I thought he wants to saddle me with all of that. And he comes out of that unscathed. It was enough for me to be like, I'm done.
- [36:31]
A
She couldn't stay in the marriage. She wanted a divorce.
- [36:38]
B
And it was like a race down to our attorneys.
- [36:42]
A
They had both arrived at their separate attorney's offices at the same time.
- [36:47]
B
I was at my attorney's, he was at his attorney's. Well, he wanted to make sure that he was the petitioner that was so important to Ted. He needed to feel like he's the one that was divorcing me.
- [37:02]
A
They started the process, but before any papers were signed, Ted tried to take back control.
- [37:09]
B
So as we're moving along in this divorce, I came home and he's standing in our kitchen saying, I've called the divorce off. That's exactly how he said it. I've called the divorce off. I'm like, okay, have you? You've called it off. And he said, and I've written this letter and I want you to read it. And the letter stated all the things that he had done to me that were very unkind, admitting everything. And then he says, I know you don't know anything about my business practices, but that will change. Like I'm gonna let you in now on everything. But I still wasn't swayed by it because I thought, well, why was he resistant in the first place?
- [37:55]
A
The letter didn't change her mind. One line stood out, though. I know you don't know anything about my business practices, but that will change. It sounded like he was finally giving her what she wanted. Transparency. The only problem. He failed to mention the most important
- [38:17]
B
detail in that letter. I should point out he never says, by the way, I've been committing mortgage fraud and your life's about to implode.
- [38:35]
A
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- [41:59]
B
I would find out by a friend's husband that was an attorney. He said that Ted was being investigated by the FBI. I was like, what?
- [42:13]
A
Ted was being investigated for a complex mortgage fraud scheme built on forged documents and phony buyers. Ted Khalid and his coworkers were all in on it.
- [42:25]
B
They found these straw buyers to buy these homes in a dilapidated area of Louisville.
- [42:32]
A
On paper, those buyers looked great. They had jobs, income, and enough credit to qualify, but none of it was real.
- [42:42]
B
They made up their employment so they didn't make the money that they said they did. So that would end a lender to give them a loan when they shouldn't have had it in the first place.
- [42:54]
A
But in the moment, Libby didn't know any of these details. All she knew was that they were bankrupt and that her husband was being investigated by the FBI. So the next time Ted came over to the house, Libby met him in the driveway to demand answers.
- [43:12]
B
And I remember this so clear. I was in my powder blue pajamas and I came out and I said, what are you involved in? He knew at that point that I'm aware that something's wrong. And I said, are you being investigated by the FBI? And he looked at me so coldly, like he never knew me. And he said, if I go down, I'm taking you with me. I go, you owe me more of an explanation. And he said verbatim, I don't owe you anything, bitch. That's what he said to me. I don't owe you anything, bitch.
- [43:59]
A
The man she'd fallen in love with a decade ago was gone. Ted wasn't trying to protect her anymore. He was trying to pull her down right alongside him. But she wasn't about to let that happen. She made an appointment to speak with the authorities herself. A few days later, Libby found herself walking into a federal building, her heart pounding.
- [44:23]
B
And this is surreal to me. I mean, one minute I'm married, a stay at home mom, and the next minute I need to go and speak with the FBI. And so I get there, and there were three agents, and they're talking to me, asking me, you know, general questions.
- [44:46]
A
Libby sat there trying to recall every conversation, every detail, every red flag she ignored about her husband. She wanted to help their case and show them she was innocent. The agents left the room. Libby waited and waited.
- [45:03]
B
He comes back in and he said, the only thing you're guilty of is trusting your husband. That's all you're guilty of.
- [45:15]
A
While the FBI built their case, Libby still had to manage the divorce and bankruptcy filings. They short sold the house and nearly everything they owned.
- [45:27]
B
I think my first real taste of what I would have to endure was going to the grocery store, thinking that I had money. And I shopped, you know, for an hour, went to buy the groceries, and there was no money, you know, no funds. And they had to pull my card aside, and that's embarrassing. And I could feel the sweat beating up. And that was my first. I was like, this is bad. There's no money.
- [45:56]
A
In a matter of weeks, she went from never having to think about money to not having enough for groceries. To make matters worse, Ted became erratic. He knew the feds were closing in on him.
- [46:10]
B
Ted got really, really unruly. He would show up at my house, hide behind a tree. It'd be like late at night. And I would sit on the back of my steps and he would come and yell at me. He would say the oddest things to me. He would say things like, I will never be found guilty. I will be found innocent in a court of law. And he named himself Teflon Ted because the charges don't st.
- [46:44]
A
But Ted's nickname didn't hold up. He was indicted, and the charges were serious. Mortgage fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, totaling millions of dollars. Ted was one of four men named in the indictment. Along with Khalid and two other men Libby had never heard of. They'd been inflating the value of homes, flipping them to each other at ballooned prices and pocketing the difference.
- [47:12]
B
The scheme Worked for a while, but then they started to default on these loans and, you know, someone's left holding the bag.
- [47:21]
A
The house of cards collapsed, and Libby was the one left trying to make sense of the wreckage. After the indictment, it was another four years of hearings and negotiations before Ted was sentenced to prison. Libby tried her best to co parent with him during this tense waiting period. He was ordered to pay $149 a month in child support, practically nothing. As part of the divorce agreement, Libby and her daughter could stay in a condo owned by Ted's parents, but only for two years. After that, she would be on her own.
- [47:59]
B
That's not a long time. When you don't have a job, you don't know if you have to go back to school. That goes by very quickly. My daughter was 10 years old, and that scared me a great deal. And what scared me more is Ted defaulted on every single thing. So I had to go to court.
- [48:18]
A
Ted left behind a trail of defaulted debt, some of it in Libby's name through forged signatures.
- [48:26]
B
And I knew whose signature it was. It was my husband's. I recognized his Hamworthy.
- [48:31]
A
She tried to call the debt collectors, but as soon as she said Ted was her ex husband, their tone shifted.
- [48:38]
B
If you say it's somebody you don't know, then they're alarmed. You say, it's your husband. Oh, like we're one person. It really was like I signed my identity over at the altar.
- [48:53]
A
Her credit was wrecked and her sense of safety was gone. After those two years were up, she had to find a new home. With nowhere to go, she and her daughter moved into a rundown apartment.
- [49:08]
B
Pretty dilapidated place, roaches, awful. But I needed a place to live.
- [49:14]
A
Because of her bankruptcy filing, she couldn't even get the lights turned on in her name.
- [49:20]
B
They wouldn't even let me get electric in my name without a co signer. And I'm like, well, am I just going to freeze to death?
- [49:30]
A
One of the last times she saw Ted, she asked him why he did it.
- [49:35]
B
And his answer was, because I can. That's what he said to me after all those years. And I said, you bankrupted me. His answer was, I bankrupted myself. It's almost like he didn't care how that affected me.
- [49:50]
A
One day when Libby was at a particularly low point, she decided to reach out to Ted's mother.
- [49:56]
B
I asked his mom, I begged and I said, we need money. I said, do you realize that ted only pays $149 a month? And her exact words were, that's what
- [50:08]
A
the courts say this woman had welcomed her into their family and even given her that circle necklace to represent their bond. But Ted's parents wouldn't give her a cent, not even for their granddaughter's education.
- [50:25]
B
And I couldn't believe it because I adored them. I mean, they had so much. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't be generous. They never gave me a dollar more.
- [50:39]
A
It was heartbreaking because she respected them and she thought she was in their circle. But when she was drowning, they looked the other way. In the end, their loyalty was never to her. It was to Ted.
- [50:54]
B
I felt like his parents thought I betrayed him by not standing by my man. In quotes, if you will. Because that's what I think they wanted me to do. But their son betrayed me.
- [51:07]
A
Finally, Ted pled guilty. There was no trial, no courtroom showdown, no witness stand where Libby could testify to what she'd lost. In a way, Libby wanted to hear it all out in the open.
- [51:21]
B
If there's a trial, you get to watch, and you can see what happened to your life. I wanted to know what really happened.
- [51:30]
A
He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution. After the sentencing, Libby decided to go look for answers on her own.
- [51:42]
B
I decided I wanted to do an archaeological dig on myself.
- [51:46]
A
She called up an acquaintance who worked in the mortgage business, and I asked
- [51:51]
B
her, do you know what happened? Because I thought she did. And she said, you know, Libby, let me tell you something. You need to get on online deed records. She goes, you might find yourself there. I go, what do you mean? I've never been on that, ever. She said, just take my advice and go look.
- [52:11]
A
So Libby did, and what she found made her stomach turn.
- [52:16]
B
Well, I go look at those deeds, and there my name was. They'd forged my name in that fraud scheme. When I found that out, I sent a text message to my ex husband that I knew what he had done to me. You used me in your fraudsky. I mean, what happens if the FBI would have thought that I really was a part of that, and I was sitting in prison. He put my freedom in jeopardy, and I never spoke a word to him again.
- [52:46]
A
Libby took the forged documents to the police station to try and press charges.
- [52:52]
B
This detective called me and goes, you know, I was interested in your case. Here's the thing. Your husband's already gone to prison. This case has been adjudicated, so there's nothing that we can do for you. And I thought, why not? How come I can't do something for me, I mean, it looks like I helped facilitate that fraud. But he said there was nothing that
- [53:17]
A
could be done if she couldn't get justice. She at least wanted to set the record straight.
- [53:24]
B
I said, well, I want my name off those deeds. I didn't care if they sat there for 10 years. I did not want for generations it to look like I committed that fraud.
- [53:37]
A
After eight years of back and forth, she got the documents amended.
- [53:42]
B
It finally says on online deed records my name was obtained, forged by ex husband or others. It officially says that now there's proof. I now can set that rumor straight. But words, rumors really, truly can harm you forever.
- [54:02]
A
Even after she got the records fixed, she still hears whispers, rumors about her being in on it.
- [54:10]
B
And people love it when people that they see as being affluent, living the life, belonging to country clubs fall. I didn't grow up with all that. I appreciated it. But a lot of people just assume, oh, they deserve it. They knew I didn't know I was financially illiterate and that I tell people, do not be that. If your significant other is pushing back, that's a red flag.
- [54:41]
A
It's a lesson she learned the hardest way possible. But unlike the bankruptcy and the deeds, some consequences could never be expunged.
- [54:52]
B
It affected my relationship with my daughter. A young girl had this beautiful life, and all of a sudden it's food stamps and people at school aren't being nice to her because her dad's in prison. She was so upset. I mean, her father's going to prison. She just wanted to see him. And he got mad at her and sent her an email from prison saying, don't be like your mother. You won't do well in life from prison. And I thought, wow, what a statement to make. You're in a federal prison telling your daughter not to be like her mother.
- [55:37]
A
Ted was released from prison in 2010. He never reached out to Libby.
- [55:42]
B
And then he got to transition right back into another home and a condo that his parents owned. It was never like that for me. I applied for affordable housing twice. Never could get it.
- [55:55]
A
It's hard for Libby to stomach watching Ted end up with a soft landing. She's had to fight tooth and nail to rebuild her life and regain financial stability. Plus, there are still big unanswered questions. Did Khalid really threaten to kill her? What was really going on there?
- [56:17]
B
To this day, I don't really know if that's true or not. Maybe a fear tactic. I don't know. I don't know if Ted was lying to me. Only Ted would know that.
- [56:34]
A
She's had to come to terms with being in the dark and not knowing everything about the crimes that destroyed her life.
- [56:43]
B
I have to just live with never knowing because maybe somebody will come out of the woodwork to talk to me and tell me they haven't yet. But you never know. You never know what could happen. You're supposed to forgive people for yourself. I have a really hard time with that. But I don't want to be bitter because that just eats you up.
- [57:09]
A
We end every episode with the same question. Why did you want to tell your story?
- [57:17]
B
I always mourn that I didn't get the life that I set out to have because I grew up with such dysfunction. My dream was to be married to someone who loved me. I know it's silly with that house and the white picket fence and a nice family because I didn't have it in the end. It's also a cautionary tale. There's a lot in there that I would never do again. I had a bank account and he put money in it, and I was okay with that. He paid all the credit cards. He did all of it. And I was clueless. You know, don't do that. Don't let that happen to you. Some small things that I could have done could have changed the course of my life. And I mean, literally, here I am today and my life imploded, and I'm like, why did that happen? Maybe to help other people. Maybe that's just as simple as that.
- [58:20]
A
Next week on Betrayal Weekly.
- [58:23]
B
She's ruined so many lives, broken so many hearts. It's just left me wondering, did she ever have any love for any of us?
- [58:44]
A
If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us@betrayalpodmail.com that's betrayalpodmail.com we're great. Grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by Monique Laborde. Also produced by Ben Federman. Associate producers are Kristin Melchiori and Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krynczyk. Audio editing and mixing by Matt d'. Alvecchio. Additional editing support from Tanner Robbins Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines Music Library provided by Mib Music and for more popular podcast from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Sonesta Travel Pass is the most rewarding way to travel designed to help you get more out of every stay. Sign up@sinesta.com to enjoy instant savings, bonus points and valuable perks like early check in, late checkout room upgrades and free stays. Over time With Sonesta Travel Pass, every stay brings you closer to your next reward. Choose from more than 1100 hotels across 13 distinctive brands and unlock the best available rates when you book direct with Sonesta Travel Pass Here today, Rome tomorrow. Join now@sonesta.com terms and conditions apply when it comes to advancing your education, you have more options than you think. At Rasmussen University they find ways to remove barriers, not build them like a new laptop. If you're eligible and enroll in select online or on campus programs. That also means flexible and engaging online courses and resources, tuition saving options if you qualify, exceptional student support and much more online nationally or check out their 20 campuses across six states. Start when you're ready and get the support you need. Visit Rasmussen. Edu if you're feeling off fatigue, mood
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Visit innerbalance.com today to start feeling like yourself again. That's innerbalance. Com.
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