Snowball - Episode 1: The Girl With the Dragonfly Tattoo

Summary

Deep Cover Presents: Snowball – Episode 1: "The Girl With the Dragonfly Tattoo"

Podcast: Deep Cover (Pushkin Industries)
Episode Date: November 3, 2025
Host and Narrator: Ollie Wards

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Main Theme and Purpose

In this first episode of Snowball, Ollie Wards embarks on a deeply personal investigation into how his family was drawn into the orbit of a charming yet mysterious Californian woman, Leslie Manookian, and ultimately lost everything. As Ollie and his family members recount their mesmerizing, confusing, and disastrous experiences, the episode lays out a web of intrigue and deception that spans continents, blending true crime with familial drama and Kiwi humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Wedding and First Impressions (02:59 – 05:30)

• Ollie recalls serving as MC at his brother Greg’s wedding to Leslie and feeling uneasy despite her charisma.
• Early warning signs and the sense that "some things just didn’t add up.”
• Phil (Friend): “This woman's a bit kind of like, you know, not what she claims to be.” (03:57)
• Julie (Mother): Notes Leslie’s vivacious, exotic appearance. (04:01)
• Greg (Brother): Reflects on feeling he truly knew Leslie when marrying her. (04:08)

2. Financial Ruin: The Snowball Strikes (04:38 – 06:33)

• The Wards’ suspicion coalesces when a man arrives at their New Zealand café to announce they are being liquidated.
• David (Father): “I almost fainted. I went blank. I could feel the draining of blood from my face.” (05:07)
• The shock of realizing they’d lost their life savings and their home. (06:00)
• Julie (Mother): “He’d stepped to one side and he came to me and he looked absolutely dreadful, utterly drained.” (05:32)

3. Ollie Decides to Investigate (06:33 – 07:58)

• Ollie, living abroad during the chaos, returns home feeling guilty and compelled to unpack how his family became victims.
• The bizarre and sometimes darkly humorous elements of Leslie’s con come to light.

4. Who Is Leslie Manookian? The Woman of a Thousand Stories (09:06 – 15:09)

• Greg: Kiwi, keen on America, meets Leslie at a party in London during his OE (overseas experience).
• Leslie captivates Greg and his friends with elaborate tales:
  • Claims of escaping dangerous enemies in Hawaii, being sent to Europe by her wealthy parents.
  • Describes herself as a trust-fund kid, daughter of an army tank dealer.
  • Stories become more convoluted, with details shifting over time.
• Greg: “There was a US passport, but there was other documentation with different birthdays.” (29:01)
• Ollie: Perplexed by how Leslie’s narrative kept shifting—“Every answer seems to sprout more bizarre limbs.” (28:12)

5. Leslie’s Allure and Influence (15:09 – 19:12)

• Phil (Bar Owner): “Vivacious, bubbly…she knew how to sort of work people.” (15:13)
• Leslie impresses everyone by treating friends to drinks and gifts, using bar tabs and a charm offensive.
• Greg: “I became, you know, the backpacker in one of the world’s financial capitals getting beer rained on me.” (16:05)
• Leslie and Greg’s relationship escalates quickly—from moving in together to a proposal at Disneyland Paris on Christmas Day.

6. The American Fantasy vs. Reality (22:09 – 24:28)

• Greg and Leslie visit her “middle class” family in Orange County—not the “Laguna Beach mansion” he expected.
• Awkward and strict family dynamics; even married, the couple must sleep in separate rooms due to her conservative parents.

7. Contradictions and Red Flags (26:24 – 30:17)

• Leslie’s background begins to unravel:
  • No tangible trust fund, father built water tanks for the army.
  • Adoption stories and a mysterious Armenian heritage.
  • Multiple birth dates, dual passports.
  • Increasingly “enigma”-like, with every question answered by more confusion.
• Greg: “Eventually you actually just kind of give up asking and accept some of it and live in the moment and move on.” (27:48)

8. Leslie's Impact on the Wards Family (33:09 – 35:49)

• Leslie wins over Greg’s friends with generosity—alcohol, gifts, and wild nights.
• Julie (Mother): “She was rather lovely…bubbly, very yah yah American.” (34:29)
• Mum describes being swept up in Leslie’s daily plans and relentless energy.

9. The Dragonfly Café: The Key to the Con (35:49 – 40:06)

• Leslie finds the Dragonfly Café—a “sign” because of her dragonfly tattoo—and persuades the family to back her in buying the business and house worth over a million dollars.
• The Wards guarantee the loan based on Leslie’s presented documents and her convincing persona.
• David (Father): “You stick your neck out and it'll pay off. So we guaranteed a loan, a 100% loan to purchase $1.5 million worth of property and business.” (39:36)

10. The Wedding (“The Event”) (44:40 – 47:47)

• The wedding in New Zealand is a massive affair—yet Leslie brings no friends or family beyond her parents.
• Family and guests find Betty and Andrew (Leslie’s parents) especially cold and detached, calling into question their authenticity.
• Simon (Brother): “To this day, I have no idea if that’s her parents. No idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not.” (47:38)

11. Escalating Doubt and Early Signs of Fraud (48:00 – 50:45)

• Stories of Leslie doctoring documents (e.g., using “twink” to erase her DUIs off her US driving record).
• Issues at the café: unpaid suppliers, disappearing money, and Leslie’s sudden absence.
• Greg: “I couldn't ever get to the bottom of anything…The more it happens, the more angry she got at me, the more frustrated I got, and that became a real strain.” (50:45)
• David: “We weren't actually owners of the business, we weren't signatories to anything. Even Greg wasn't able to find out a lot of stuff.” (51:11)

12. The Disappearance (52:54 – 54:08)

• Suspecting he’ll never unlock the truth while Leslie is around, Greg encourages her to visit America—which she does, never to return.
• The parting words: Leslie to Greg: "Greg, the Snowball is about to hit you." (54:08)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Ollie Wards: “It wasn’t just my brother’s marriage that fell apart. My whole family went down with it and none of us ever saw her again.” (03:49)
• Julie (Mother): “The sign was that she had a big dragonfly tattooed across her back.” (35:38)
• Phil (Friend): “She was very vivacious, bubbly, kind of effervescent personality, bubbly Californian type manner. You know, she was kind of quite engaging, very chatty…she knew how to sort of work people.” (15:13)
• Greg (Brother): “Look, Ollie, the whole thing is the entire time I was in Europe, I was on a bit of a cloud nine anyway, and it had been a great year, it was romantic, it was snowing, everything was cool and I thought this is the right thing to do.” (18:51)
• Simon (Brother): “Honestly, like to this day I have no idea if that’s her parents. No idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not.” (47:38)
• Greg (Brother): “She would block us learning about what the reality was…I told her to go and see her parents and…that was the only way.” (52:17)
• Leslie Manookian (reported by Greg): “Greg, the Snowball is about to hit you.” (54:08)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:59 Ollie reflects on the wedding and early doubts about Leslie.
• 04:38 The devastating moment the Wards learn they’ve lost everything.
• 06:33 Ollie decides to investigate his family’s downfall.
• 11:13 Greg meets Leslie in London.
• 13:00 – 14:41 Leslie’s elaborate escape-from-Hawaii story.
• 15:13 First-hand impressions from London friends.
• 18:15 – 19:12 Proposal at Disneyland Paris.
• 22:09 Greg’s first trip to the US and meeting Leslie’s parents.
• 35:49 The Dragonfly Café “sign” and family investment.
• 39:36 The family guarantees the high-risk loan.
• 44:40 The wedding, aka “the Event,” and the oddness of Leslie’s “parents.”
• 48:00 Leslie caught doctoring documents.
• 50:45 The café’s financial disarray.
• 52:54 Greg’s plan to send Leslie away, and her menacing parting shot.
• 54:08 End of episode; the “Snowball” is set in motion.

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Tone & Style

The episode is delivered with a blend of dry Kiwi wit, familial warmth, and sobering retrospection. Ollie’s narration carries both the incredulity and pain of someone piecing together a personal catastrophe, while family members contribute humor and candor, making the complex story relatable and vivid.

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Summary

The first episode of Snowball introduces listeners to the Wards family’s ordeal with Leslie Manookian—a woman whose charisma and ever-shifting stories captivated and ultimately devastated them. Through intimate interviews and Ollie’s wry observations, the episode paints a picture of trust misplaced, red flags overlooked, and the slow, devastating "snowball" of consequences set rolling by a master manipulator. Ollie sets out to answer the burning questions: Who is Leslie, how did she execute such an audacious con, and where did she go?

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Stay tuned for Episode 2, where Ollie begins to untangle the fallout and trace Leslie’s mysterious past.

Transcript

[Ollie Wards]

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Pushkin.

[Ollie Wards]

This series contains occasional course language. I was the MC at my brother's wedding. I did all the usual stuff. Housekeeping, toasts. I tried to crack a few jokes. But inside I had a nagging sense of unease about my brother's charismatic Californian bride. It was a feeling that some things just didn't add up. I didn't tell anyone how I felt. Probably couldn't have explained it anyway. My brother was happy. That's what matters, right? But maybe I should have paid more attention to that feeling because within a few months she had taken off to the us. It wasn't just my brother's marriage that fell apart. My whole family went down with it and none of us ever saw her again.

[Phil]

This woman's a bit kind of like, you know, not what she claims to be.

[Julie (Mother)]

She had this dark, vivacious surface skin and look to her.

[Greg]

I guess when you marry someone, you feel like you really know them.

[Ollie Wards]

And that was her allure. You just followed her. She's a manipulative con artist.

[Greg]

Standby.

[Ollie Wards]

We call her the Black Widow.

[Greg]

The snowball is about to hit you.

[Ollie Wards]

When my mum and dad found out that they had lost everything, it was during the Sunday lunchtime rush in a country New Zealand cafe. They had ended up running that cafe. And that day, dad was serving behind.

[David (Father)]

The counter, taking orders, passing them back to the chefs at the back next order.

[Ollie Wards]

Then he noticed a guy join the back of the line. It wasn't a random customer. Dad recognised him. And when this guy got to the front of the queue, he ordered and.

[David (Father)]

He said to me, I'll have a so and so and so and so, and I've come today to tell you that we are going to liquidate you. I almost fainted. I went blank. I could feel the draining of blood from my face. I must have been as white as a sheet.

[Ollie Wards]

My mum realised something was up.

[Julie (Mother)]

I'm busy bringing in dishes and doing whatever. And then I looked at dad. He'd stepped to one side and he came to me and he looked absolutely dreadful, utterly drained. And I just carried on. We didn't have time to reflect on things till later in the day. And what they all meant.

[Ollie Wards]

What it all meant was Mum and Dad had lost their life savings, more than a million dollars. And a few days later they found out they were homeless.

[David (Father)]

A court bailiff presented us with a paper saying our house was to be forfeited to the bank. And I said to the guy, I'm not going to sign that. And he said, it's going to happen. You don't need to sign anything. He just threw it on the desk and walked out.

[Ollie Wards]

My parents, in their 60s, went from living in a leafy Auckland suburb to squatting in the basement at my auntie's house. As my family tried to understand what had happened, they realised they might have been the victims of an elaborate con job. I was living overseas through most of this. Recently, I started learning about what happened and I kind of felt guilty I wasn't there when the walls fell down around everyone. So now I want to help figure things out. I normally work behind the scenes at an Australian radio station, Triple J, helping other people tell stories. But I knew I needed to investigate this story of my own. It was like the plot of a movie, one you'd never expect to feature. A pretty average Kiwi family. Things got weird and some of it's kind of funny.

[David (Father)]

There's also a lot of randomness there.

[Greg]

With the story smuggled out of Armenia.

[Ollie Wards]

What?

[Greg]

Whoa.

[Ollie Wards]

Explain.

[Simon]

Oh, my fucking God.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Are you serious?

[Ollie Wards]

I mean, can I talk about drugs? This is weird. This is not how a normal friendship works. We were like her little ducklings, following behind her.

[David (Father)]

Lots of little intrigues.

[Simon]

$30,000.

[Ollie Wards]

I don't know where this money went.

[Simon]

They kind of knew that there was some fuckery.

[Ollie Wards]

We joked that they were hired actors.

[Julie (Mother)]

Personality, Bubbly. She was rather lovely.

[Ollie Wards]

He was broke.

She took every fucking thing he had.

The Stranger things get, the more questions I have about what happened. Like, why did this American woman con my family? How did she just get away? And who really is Leslie Minookian? Or in this season of Unravel, I'm going to find some answers. And to do it, I'm going to have to travel across the world to track Lesley down. I'm Ollie Wards and this is Snowball.

[Greg]

So this is recording, is it? Is there an option to edit it afterwards?

[Ollie Wards]

It's not a test. Surely there's no better subject than yourself.

[Greg]

So it's one or two sentences to describe who I am.

[Ollie Wards]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Okay. I'm a kiwi male, late 30s, probably quite typical. Trying to pay the mortgage and all the bills and look after everyone as best I can in the process, I guess.

[Ollie Wards]

My brother Greg is typical in lots of ways. He'd be happy with a $10 haircut, short back and sides, but he definitely has his quirks. Like he'll read a street map of a foreign city before bed like it's a novel. The other thing to know about Greg, that partly got us into all of this is that he loves everything to do with America.

[Greg]

There's a term for people interested in Europe, which is Europhile, I think I was an Americanophile.

[Ollie Wards]

So, like one night recently I was brushing my teeth and I got a surprise show and tell. Greg, you've just come out and shown something. What do you got here?

[Greg]

It's a $2 US note, and I'm told that they're quite rare and they're lucky for either the. I think it's the North Koreans. Anyway, that's me.

[Ollie Wards]

Now. This whole thing starts when Greg went off on his OE back in 2006. In New Zealand, your OE, or overseas experience, is kind of like a gap year after school or uni. It's where Kiwis live abroad, drink foreign beer and have people laugh at us for the different words we have for stuff like chilly bin. That's an esky if you're in Australia, or a cooler box pretty much anywhere else. Chilly bin. Anyway, as a Kiwi, it was easier for Greg to work in the UK than in the us, so he put his American dreams on hold and set himself up in London. One night he was at a house party wearing his favourite American football style jacket that makes him look like a high school jock. So he's wandering through the party, he steps outside to a courtyard and his ears prick up.

[Greg]

North American accents used to catch my attention.

[Ollie Wards]

In the corner of the courtyard, there's a woman with long dark hair smoking a cigarette. She's leading a conversation with the confidence just oozing out of her.

[Greg]

Well, let's throw in there Kim Kardashian look alike, sophisticated female operative ready to woo me as well.

[Ollie Wards]

That sophistication might have been to do with her being a fair bit older than Greg. Leslie was late 30s, Greg was mid 20s. Greg's not a smoker, but he thought he had smoked too. He wanted to talk and so he met Leslie. As they chatted in the dimly lit courtyard, Greg started to see the world in her. Literally.

[Greg]

It was more liked the concept of America as you know, it's the biggest economy in the world. What they do actually matters to most people on the planet.

[Ollie Wards]

I've never heard of another guy describing being attracted to a girl because of the size of her economy. But that's my brother.

[Greg]

You know, if you're interested in politics, they are a superpower.

[Ollie Wards]

Bit of a leap to a girl you meet at a house party though, isn't it?

[Greg]

Well, I guess that's how Naive I was.

[Ollie Wards]

Greg was also taken in by Lesley's wild story about why she was in London.

[Greg]

So it originally was to escape from Hawaii because some bad people in Hawaii were trying to attack her, you know, because they'd frauded her and we try and do bad stuff to her and. And her mum and dad sent her to Europe to escape them.

[Ollie Wards]

Lesley would tell everyone some version of the story. I actually heard it myself. It went like this. Before she was in London, Lesley owned the coolest bar, restaurant and nightclub on the island of Maui in Hawaii. The bar was called the Breakwater. Things were going well until one day Leslie caught the head security guard dealing drugs out of the back entrance. When she confronted him, he told her he planned to keep selling drugs. She shouldn't try to stop him. From there, things deteriorated with the locals. Like the electricity got cut off at the restaurant through a cousin at the power company. Lesley said it all culminated one night when she was at home hearing people breaking in. She hid under the bed. From there, she saw the head of security with some other guys come in carrying sugar cane knives. While they looked for her, they were talking about burying her in the fields. She was lucky, though, they didn't look under the bed. As soon as they left, Leslie went to the airport, her dad chartered a plane and she escaped to Europe. So according to Leslie, that's how she ended up laying low in London. And all of this was fascinating to Greg. He started introducing Leslie to his mates. Their relationship seemed a normal sort of relationship, aside from the fact that it got very intense very quickly. But you would expect that of Greg. He's not a game player and he wears his heart on his sleeve, so if he's into you, you'd find out pretty quickly.

My initial thoughts was that she was really open and friendly, maybe a bit too friendly, but.

What do you mean by that?

She just gave a lot. Like, she just was pretty quick to chat and want to hang out and make plans. And I remember thinking it was quite full on that she was so open so quickly. Maybe that's it.

In London, Lesley managed a couple of bars.

[Phil]

She was very vivacious, bubbly, kind of effervescent personality, bubbly Californian type manner, you know, she was kind of quite engaging, very chatty, you know, she knew how to sort of work people.

[Ollie Wards]

Phil owned one of the bars Leslie worked in. He saw my brother coming in all the time.

[Phil]

I can remember Greg. I remember Leslie bringing him into the bar and introducing me to. To him. Hell of a nice guy. Typical sort of kiwi in London, working hard. And then he'd come into the bar during the. In the evenings to, to wind down a bit. And he had a, you know, what I'd probably describe as a certain naivety about him at the time. And I remember sort of thinking, you know, you had Leslie, who was this sort of very confident kind of, you know, thing, and there was Greg, who was quieter and kind of, you know, so you could see the. The dynamic there.

[Ollie Wards]

Leslie would hook Greg and his mates up with drinks.

[Greg]

You know, we suddenly were invited to a bar and there's bloody buckets of beer being brought to our VIP table in the corner in the city of London with business people around. And it was like, I'm a backpacker and I'm in one of the world's financial capitals getting be rained on me.

[Ollie Wards]

So you felt like a bit of a rock star or something?

[Greg]

Yeah, I did. To be fair, yes.

[Ollie Wards]

Greg's friend Andy did wonder where it was all coming from. And she said, oh, it's all going on the tabs of different local law firms, so, you know, that'll come to settle up. And there'd be a few extra platters and bottles of wine. That was just one of her crafty ways of showing all her friends a good time, I suppose. Things were getting pretty serious between Greg and Lesley. And as the saying goes, first comes love, then comes me. Wanting to meet your new bae, I flew to London to meet my brother's American dream girl. My first impression was that Leslie knew stuff. She had been everywhere and done everything. I started saying all the time, leslie knows, and she loved that we joked about getting T shirts made. I was only partly being sarcastic. Leslie told me about how she was from Orange County, California. She said that she was a trust fund type kid and so were her friends. And she said that her dad was rich from selling tanks to the U.S. army. So it was all pretty impressive. But I have to admit I was nervous they'd end up together somehow. Lesley seemed to have a power over Greg, like he wasn't himself. I wondered if it was because she was so much older than him, but I didn't really dwell on that stuff, though, because I remember seeing how much Greg loved her. His arm was constantly around Lesley, so I was happy for him. After only a few months, they moved in together. Things were going quickly, but they were about to go into hyperdrive. The winter after they first met, Greg proposed to Leslie. It was snowing on Christmas Day and they were at Disneyland in Paris.

[Greg]

She honestly was buying everything, like Donald Duck. Keyrings, sherbet, elf bloody hats. We had a really nice dinner at, I think that movie Johnny Depp was in, Pirates of the Caribbean. So they've got a really cool restaurant, beautiful food, but.

[Ollie Wards]

So you had a ring burning a hole in your pocket?

[Greg]

Honestly, I don't even remember if I had a ring or I didn't. I don't think I.

[Ollie Wards]

But you remember the Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant.

[Greg]

Look, Ollie, the whole thing is the entire time I was in Europe, I was on a bit of a cloud nine anyway, and it had been a great year, it was romantic, it was snowing, everything was cool and I thought this is the right thing to do.

[Ollie Wards]

How did she react?

[Greg]

I think a little bit surprised, but also said yes pretty quick as well. So yeah, mate, we were in love.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Ollie Wards]

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[Ollie Wards]

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[Ollie Wards]

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[David (Father)]

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[Ollie Wards]

Terms and limitations apply. Just after he proposed, Greg followed his fiance back home to the superpower he had always wanted to visit.

[Greg]

Yeah, first time in the United States.

[Ollie Wards]

He expected New York to be paved in gold. Instead, it was dirty.

[Greg]

That was my first impression actually was this is rough as guts.

[Ollie Wards]

Then it was to the west coast to stay in Leslie's childhood home in Orange County, California. Leslie always said that she was from a rich background, so you might imagine her house to be like a mansion off Laguna Beach.

[Greg]

Nah, it's as middle income America as you could possibly find.

[Ollie Wards]

Leslie was warm and social, but it turned out that her mum and dad were the kind of parents that'll make you feel like you have to be on best behaviour. Her mum, Betty, with almost permanently pursed lips, and her dad Andrew had a squint through glasses that was somehow at the same time suspicious and disinterested.

[Greg]

I was put in a room next to her parents and she was put in her old room that she grew up in bed in the same place with the same TV, VHS cassettes underneath the TV.

[Ollie Wards]

Remember, Lesley was nearly 40 years old at this point, but it was a separate bedroom situation at this house.

[Greg]

There was a camera above the front door, like a CCTV camera, and I thought, oh, okay. Asked about it, you know, why you guys got security, and I remember the answer was the Hawaiians.

[Ollie Wards]

Something about that didn't add up for Greg, but he was on his best behaviour and let it go. He had bigger things on his mind. He was about to get married. To make immigration and paperwork stuff easier, as well as to avoid any discomfort with Leslie's conservative parents, they arranged to get hitched quickly at a courthouse in Santa Ana. Betty and Andrew seemed happy for them. Betty put on a nice dress, Andrew put on a jacket, and he drove them to the courthouse in his Cadillac. The ceremony was brief. The registry office was no frills, just a vase of flowers in the corner. Greg was happy, but he was feeling far away from home and also Greg thought making things official would change the sleeping arrangements, but it didn't.

[Greg]

Yeah, separate situation. I was quite keen to not have that situation, but I respected her.

[Ollie Wards]

But you are married now.

[Greg]

Well, that's what was sort of, you know, I thought, hey, what else do I need to do here?

[Ollie Wards]

Hey, man, I've done the deed.

[Greg]

But.

[Ollie Wards]

But I want to do the deed.

[Greg]

Her parents were very, very conservative.

[Ollie Wards]

It didn't matter too much though, because they weren't planning on staying. As much as Greg was intrigued by America and he thought it'd be easier to settle at home in nz where they were going to have a proper wedding. But when it came time to leave California, it seemed like Betty and Andrew didn't really want their daughter to go.

[Greg]

They took us out to the airport, to lax and they, they, they, they cried shitloads when we left.

[Ollie Wards]

But it was all, you know, moving to New Zealand for a new life. What was their thoughts on that?

[Greg]

Oh, look, mate, I don't remember ever any optimism of Leslie moving to New Zealand. I honestly distinctly remember them being really sad, her leaving America again. Yeah. Now, whether that's because, you know, it's a loved one leaving to another land or another reason, who fucking knows?

[Ollie Wards]

Like, what do you mean by that? What would another reason be like knowing.

[Greg]

That she's gonna get in trouble again somewhere else, they can't keep an eye on her. I don't know.

[Ollie Wards]

It's late at night as Greg and I talk on the couch. We've never talked about all this stuff. I've kind of just wanted to help him forget. But now that we're talking, the more we get into what happened with Leslie, the more tangled up we get. I remember that the story was her dad worked in the armaments industry. And, you know, we've heard that she's a trust fund baby and there's all this money in her family and, you know, she's from this sort of rich background and everything. So.

[Greg]

None of that's true.

[Ollie Wards]

Say that again.

[Greg]

Well, none of that's true. Lest the part that. And her dad told me that he built water tanks for the U.S. army. Not, not armaments. It was water tanks.

[Ollie Wards]

I think she told me he built tanks for the US army. Which is. Which, to be fair, is kind of true. But when somebody says that they're building tanks for the army, you don't think. Water tanks.

[Greg]

Look, he was a smart guy. He was an engineer. So he was Iranian. He was born in. Sorry, he was actually. He was born in Tehran, but he was Armenian.

[Ollie Wards]

Leslie's dad.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Ollie Wards]

Or.

[Greg]

Sorry, no, adopted Father, I never. No one, as far as I know, well, least of all us, has met the biological parents. She was adopted, right?

[Ollie Wards]

Okay, I didn't know that, but, man.

[Greg]

That brings in the other piece. That actually is where the trust fund supposedly came from was from her biological parents and what she got left behind, and then she was adopted out.

[Ollie Wards]

So somebody adopted a baby with a trust fund?

[Greg]

Well, this is where, like, you know, there's so many facets to someone's personality or stories or all or otherwise. Eventually you actually just kind of give up asking and accept some of it and live in the moment and move on.

[Ollie Wards]

It just. It just seems like bullshit, you know?

[Greg]

Well, most of it is.

[Ollie Wards]

I knew this story had lots of strange tentacles, but as I'm asking Greg this stuff, every answer seems to sprout more bizarre limbs for me to understand. Even just basic, really basic questions, like, how old is Lesley?

[Greg]

Yeah, she was obviously a bit older than me.

[Ollie Wards]

How much older?

[Greg]

Well, she had two birth dates, so I never actually know you.

[Ollie Wards]

What do you mean she had two birthdays? I feel like I ask. What do you mean?

[Greg]

A lot. Yeah, that's fine. Well, in this situation, you should. It was either eight or ten years, I think.

[Ollie Wards]

What do you mean she had two birthdays?

[Greg]

She had two different passports as well.

[Ollie Wards]

What?

[Greg]

Whoa, wait.

[Ollie Wards]

Explain, explain.

[Greg]

So there was a US passport, but there was other documentation with different birthdays.

[Ollie Wards]

You didn't think that was strange?

[Greg]

Well, yeah, sure, but there was, you know, plausible reasons.

[Ollie Wards]

Which were what?

[Greg]

I think, for memory, it was. Was smuggled out of Armenia.

[Ollie Wards]

The passport was smuggled out of.

[Greg]

No, she was.

[Ollie Wards]

Wow.

[Greg]

So we've got that piece plus all the Hawaiians attacking her. Mate, she's an enigma.

[Simon]

Oh, Oliver.

[Ollie Wards]

Hey, bro.

[David (Father)]

Yeah.

[Ollie Wards]

I want you to meet my older brother, Simon.

[Simon]

My name's Simon. I'm your brother.

[Ollie Wards]

I'm the youngest of us brothers. Greg is in the middle. Simon's the oldest. Simon can be intimidating, but he's also charismatic. Like, he'd gatecrash your party and then be the life of it. He's got a shaved head, thick black beard. Can you, like, in a few sentences, just describe yourself for people listening? Like, you know, how would you, in a couple of sentences, sum yourself up?

[Simon]

I don't know. I'm an artist.

[Greg]

A lover?

[Simon]

No, no, I'm a brother. Like, what do you mean?

[Ollie Wards]

For kiwis at home? Like, Simon, when Leslie Manookian turned up, she was pretty full on. She was a real different character to have around.

[Simon]

Yeah, it was just a bit. It was. It Was a bit weird and to tell you the truth the only interaction I've ever had with an American I think like a proper American like she's like the quintessential kind of Cali chick with that strong accent I'd just seen that on TV just interactions with her I remember it feeling a bit like TV just cause you know what I mean?

[Ollie Wards]

Sort of like an intensity yeah man.

[Simon]

Wicked intensity it didn't seem like this huge love affair but Greg's quite interesting anyway he's quite interesting guy so something that may seem strange in another situation I'm like oh this is just Greg.

[Ollie Wards]

This is my brother Greg's Kiwi mates also found Leslie quite buzzy we were.

Very quick to get wrapped up in Leslie because she was like the life of the party she'd roll up with you know her Jagermeister and to be honest back then I was 10 years ago, I was 24 so here's this chick who was like just paying for everything like she was always, I mean.

[Julie (Mother)]

Can I talk about drugs?

[Ollie Wards]

She was always supplying weed and Jagermeister.

A quick way to a 24 year old tart wheat and Jagermeister oh 100% right most people were like sweet as but for some others it was a.

Bit much like for instance if she said come over, we'll have a drink.

[Julie (Mother)]

Of wine we'd go over there and.

[Ollie Wards]

Have a really expensive bottle of red or something and I'll mention oh yeah, that's a really nice bottle she'd turn.

[Julie (Mother)]

Up the next day with like a.

[Ollie Wards]

Whole case of the stuff and be like this is for you Every time we caught up she was always showering us in gifts like giving us literally gifts, paying for everything, free alcohol, this is amazing but when it was every catch up I started to be like this is weird, this is not how a normal friendship works.

[Julie (Mother)]

Don'T put it near me.

[Ollie Wards]

What needs to come near you to record you?

[Julie (Mother)]

Penis Lookin at me A what?

[Ollie Wards]

That's my mum Julie describing my microphone Mum's a tall lady she used to be self conscious as a teenager One time she danced with her friend in the girl's bathroom because she didn't think any of the boys would want to dance with a taller girl but now she owns it she's pretty sassy and sarcastic could you just put it sort.

[Julie (Mother)]

Of over there, down there?

[Ollie Wards]

Can you start by just. Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?

[Julie (Mother)]

Hello, I'm the mother of three boys who I thought I would not survive their upbringing I Love the three of them to bits. The one we're going to speak of is our lovely Greg, who is a kind, far seeing, intelligent, good looking young man in that people used to even say he looked like Tom Cruise, so that must be a measure. But in that it seems there's been a bit of vulnerability.

[Ollie Wards]

My brother is kind, but I gotta say he doesn't look like Tom Cruise. I reckon Mum thought Lesley looked like a movie star too.

[Julie (Mother)]

She was rather lovely. She had this dark, vivacious, a surfer's skin and look to her personality. Bubbly, very yah yah American. You know how Americans have the accent where they go, nyah yah yah nya.

[Ollie Wards]

Yah yah yah yah yah.

[Julie (Mother)]

I know, I just know. So I thought, oh yes, that's just American. And we got on with it.

[Ollie Wards]

Mum ended up hanging out with Lesley like every day.

[Julie (Mother)]

Each day she would get up and make me take her somewhere, like, let's go. And I was happy to do it, for goodness sake.

[Ollie Wards]

What was their kind of plan though? I mean, what were they going to do?

[Julie (Mother)]

So I was going to buy a business in New Zealand of a hospitality nature. One day she'd been trawling through things up in the bedroom and she came down and she said, I found it, I've got it. She said, this is a sign, I have to buy this place.

[Ollie Wards]

What was the sign?

[Julie (Mother)]

The sign was that she had a big dragonfly tattooed across her back.

[Ollie Wards]

So the cafe is called the Dragonfly. She's got a dragonfly tattoo.

[Julie (Mother)]

It's a sign, it's meant to be.

[Ollie Wards]

The Dragonfly Cafe was in a small town called Matakana, an hour's drive north of Auckland. Around Matakana, lush native bush and farms sit next to sandy white beaches. There's a farmer's market vibe. Sometimes ducks waddle around town from the river, which is lit up by fairy lights at night. The dragonfly was on the main road leading into Marikana. At the front, a gift shop sold scented candles and beach house knick knacks on the back patio. The cafe looked down a slope towards a natural waterfall, all surrounded by native bush. If you looked back up towards the cafe, you'd see a house with a log cabin feel to it with exposed wooden beams. This is where Greg and Leslie would live.

[Julie (Mother)]

It was lovely, super staff.

[Ollie Wards]

And do you remember how much it was going to be worth?

[Julie (Mother)]

Over. Over a million because it had the house with it and the beautiful land and the business.

[David (Father)]

Okay, ready to rock and roll.

[Ollie Wards]

And finally, from our Fam, this is my dad, David.

[David (Father)]

I am a Kiwi fellow who has had lots of jobs, met lots of people. I feel fairly comfortable in myself. I have developed a fairly strong Christian faith and I think that's served me very well.

[Ollie Wards]

My whole life, dad has looked the same. He's got a round, warm face, incapable of showing anger. Square glasses, silver grey hair, just only on the sides. Maybe it's because I've been away from home for so long, but sometimes I hear dad like Murray, the manager from Flight of the Concords. Oh, you're like a cool looking pair of idiots. Dad was there to help Lesley get set up when she came to New Zealand.

[David (Father)]

So she needed a lawyer in order to look at properties and do some conveyancing. And I thought, poor girl, she doesn't know anybody, she can have our lawyer. So I introduced her to our lawyer.

[Ollie Wards]

This Auckland based lawyer had been acting for Mum and dad for 25 years. When my parents bought their house in 1982, he was there. Dad bought a business that hired out party equipment. He worked on that. It made sense to get him on the job for Lesley too, now that she was part of the family. With that sorted, Lesley went to New Zealand's state owned bank, creatively titled Kiwi bank, and she asked for a loan. The conditions included Lesley proving to Kiwibank that she had a trust fund. She was able to show the bank that she had US$5 million in her trust fund and 5,000 coming to her each month for life. But Lesley had only just come to New Zealand and she was still on a tourist visa. Another condition of the loan was having a Kiwi guarantor. Dad had just sold his party hire company and retired, so it seemed natural for them to get involved.

[David (Father)]

There were a lot of people that were sort of saying things, cautioning us, are you sure? That's a huge thing to do. And I was thinking, Lesley seems to be on top of all this. She has all this fantastic references from running restaurants over in America and in Hawaii. She talks the talk. She convinced our lawyer that it was a good thing to do.

[Ollie Wards]

I tried to talk to this lawyer but he didn't want to be interviewed in a case that happened later. He said he never told Mum and Dad that it was a great venture. He said he doesn't give that kind of advice to his clients. But dad remembers things differently.

[David (Father)]

He said to me, you don't have to do anything, David, because I would say she's a human dynamo. That's his words. She is a human dynamo. We're thinking every now and again you gotta stick your neck out. You stick your neck out and it'll pay off. So we guaranteed a loan, a 100% loan to purchase $1.5 million worth of property and business.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Ollie Wards]

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[David (Father)]

There'S an awful lot on trust here on my part and our part. Huge amount. We did stick our necks out.

[Ollie Wards]

Greg and Leslie moved into the house at the Dragonfly over the Last few months of 2007, Greg wouldn't have much to do with the cafe. He had his own job, Leslie was in charge. But soon my brother Simon got roped in on the food side of the business.

[Simon]

So I may have embellished the story, but I remember it being just a few days before the cafe opened. She had a blue with the chef and so, and then, so I was.

[Ollie Wards]

Just like the chef as in he.

[Simon]

Quit, some French guy and he quit.

[Ollie Wards]

When the cafe reopened, there was a lot of buzz around it. Things were going well. Leslie was making an impact on the chilled out Matakana community. Here was this California power business lady shaking things up. The local magazine did a write up.

Now under its new owner, Leslie Manookian, who has previously owned restaurants in Lake Tahoe in the US and in Hawaii. Dragonfly is getting better by the day.

Meanwhile, preparations were underway for a massive wedding. But it soon became clear that none of Leslie's trust fund friends from America were going to make it. She said none of them could hack the 13 hour flight to Auckland. So Kiwi girls that Leslie had known for only a matter of months started getting the call up to the bridal party, like Carla, who is back in London.

I remember sitting at my desk in Hoxton and at my office and I remember thinking, fuck, this is so weird, and sort of saying to a few of the girls in the showroom like, so I've just asked me to be a bridesmaid to this girl I barely know in New Zealand in January.

One of the other bridesmaids, Alicia, hadn't known Lesley for long either.

I was asked to be a bridesmaid, which was quite surprising. I think she said something about her cousin couldn't come. So I think I was kind of filling in like she didn't really have any family here. And yeah, I mean, I guess I was happy to do it because we were, you know, we were close at the time.

After everything that went down, my mum stopped referring to it as the wedding. She renamed it. In our family, it's now known as the Event. The event happened on a blue sky summer day just after Christmas in a small colonial era church with painted white arches and stiff wooden pews.

And it just was really surreal. It was like I was kind of acting, I was acting in a, in a sitcom or something like that was my role to arrive and then I was going to go walk, you know, down the aisle and it was, it was so weird.

The ceremony was pretty standard. A priest, those Bible readings from every church wedding ever. Love Is patient love is kind. After that the party started straight away in a hall next door. I was living in London by this point and I had flown home especially for the wedding. I was happy to be the mc. I remember making a joke like geez, I go away for a couple of months and I come back and Greg's got a cafe, a house and a waterfall. I can't find any recordings of that night. Pretty much everyone we know in New Zealand was there. More than 150 people came. There were even wedding crashes watching from the deck. But here's the weird thing. Almost all the guests were from Greg's side. The only guests that weren't already friends or family of Greg's were Leslie's parents, Betty and Andrew.

[Simon]

There was two people. Yeah, no friends, no family. I think the weirdest thing and I think the weirdest thing for everyone just about the event was the parent thing, her parents and just how. I think there was a lot of. They were just standoffish. They were just like. I don't know, it was just fucking weird. I don't remember really being able to talk to them at all. There was no really interaction.

[Julie (Mother)]

They were very quiet and you couldn't raise a, a lip of a smile. You couldn't get a word out of them. They looked very, she looked very pale and colourless.

[Ollie Wards]

The best man, Nat made a special effort with Lesley's parents.

[Greg]

They were very, very hard to try and make them feel welcome.

[David (Father)]

So I just remember at one point.

[Ollie Wards]

Just walking away and thinking oh well.

[Greg]

I remember joking with Nat about the fact that potentially you know, Lesley's parents, even her real parents or did she just ring in a couple of actors?

[Ollie Wards]

They seemed a little bit stand in.

[Julie (Mother)]

Like because they were sort of a bit there but not there.

[Ollie Wards]

We joked that they were hired actors because.

Yeah.

[David (Father)]

Why?

[Ollie Wards]

I don't know, they just. Oh well. Cause they definitely didn't fit the profile of like who you think her parents would be and they were kind of weird and quiet and there wasn't like a lot of love and like vibing relationship between the two like you would expect from a parent and child.

[Simon]

Like I don't know, like honestly like to this day I have no idea if that's her parents. No idea. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be surprised if that's not. I don't remember seeing any kind of love going on.

[Ollie Wards]

I remember Betty and Andrew, they bought me a pair of Levi jeans as a gift. That was cool. But they didn't really talk to me either. I Still don't know what they knew about what was going on or what their role was in all of this.

[Simon]

I think they kind of knew that there was some fuckery involved, you know what I mean?

[Ollie Wards]

It wasn't long after the wedding that people started to notice some of that fuckery.

I was up in Room your Shops and I bumped into Leslie and she had just come out of the public library and she was showing me this document that she had sent over from the US because she was trying to get her her driver's license in New Zealand, but she had to submit like a driving record from the US and we were having a laugh because she had all these DUI and some like suspended licenses or something. Like a. She had like a few things and she was in the public library, no joke. She was twinking out these from her record that obviously she had asked for and been sent over from the US Twinking these out and then refilled, photocopying them and then touching them up and re photocopying them until it looked legit.

By the way, twink is one of those words that people laugh at us Kiwis about. It's whiteout, liquid eraser, twink.

And I just remember standing on the road with her, like so vividly. Just her showing me the document and her and I having a laugh about it. And I was thinking, wow, like that's, I think, was the first time I was like, she's like, she's got some secrets, you know, like you're hiding some stuff.

And up at the Dragonfly Cafe, things were starting to go wrong.

We ran out of water, so we didn't have access in the kitchen to water. And so Greg and likewise were kind of running back and forward to the house trying to get like bottles of water, trying to get stuff to wash dishes. And there were just so many days like that where something was going wrong and there was just no fixing it. I don't think Leslie was around for much of that. I remember her coming in really strong at the beginning and then kind of not being around. And all our staff were like, what's happening?

[Greg]

There was one moment where it was a bit of a watershed moment for me and that's when the milk supplier for the cafe arrived. And then I sort of said, g', day, how are you? And he basically said that he had never been paid for milk. It wasn't his first attempt at getting money. I could tell that he was a bit worked up about it. And, you know, I thought, this is not right. And I Recall talking to Lesley about it and she sort of, as she did with lots of things, I'll take care of it. Don't get involved. Leave it to me.

[Ollie Wards]

The Dragonfly was becoming a total cluster. A bunch of people were saying they weren't getting paid.

[Greg]

I became very frustrated that I couldn't access any information. I couldn't ever get to the bottom of anything. Lesley almost got angry at me for attempting to, you know, try and help and get more involved. The more it happens, the more angry she got at me, the more frustrated I got. And that became a real strain.

[David (Father)]

I started to feel very uneasy and we needed to find out what was going on. We weren't able to find out a heck of a lot from the bank. We weren't actually owners of the business, we weren't signatories to anything. Even Greg wasn't able to find out a lot of stuff.

[Ollie Wards]

But you were the guarantors and, you know, you guys had put money on the line, but you. You had signed up to be the guarantors, but not signed up to be able to see anything. Isn't that weird?

[David (Father)]

You could say it like that. But I did follow my lawyer's advice that she knows what she's doing. She's a human dynamo.

[Ollie Wards]

Leslie would spend most of the day locked in the house, which had become a sanctuary from the outside world and the questions people were starting to ask. A date was set for a meeting where an accountant was going to start combing through the books. But Leslie didn't show up. Greg knew he needed to do something, so he came up with a plan.

[Greg]

If she was here, she would block us. Learning about what the reality was, I told her to go and see her parents and go over holiday, get out of the country.

[Ollie Wards]

And you actually thought that would be an opportunity to look around properly was the only way?

[Greg]

Yep.

[Ollie Wards]

And what was, you know, if you don't mind me asking, like, what was the kind of relationship like at that point?

[Greg]

Frosty and just completely untrusting on both sides.

[Ollie Wards]

At pretty short notice, Lesley booked a flight to America to visit her family. So my mum and dad would have to step up and look after the cafe. As Greg drove her to Auckland Airport, things were tense. There was a lot unsaid. But Greg wanted to work this whole mess out and get back to life with Lesley when she got back from the States.

[Greg]

So we're parked, checked in, formalities are done. It's me and Leslie now walking upstairs to the actual departure gate, where there's not a lot of love going on. There was probably a nervous but cold hug. Hope to see you again. Let's try and work this out. And she, right at the last moment, put it right out there that Greg the Snowball is about to hit you.

[Ollie Wards]

Next episode the Snowball Hits.

[Julie (Mother)]

We cried. We just were destroyed.

[David (Father)]

That was a fundamental wow moment for me. When you present that to a bank and they accept it.

[Ollie Wards]

Adrenaline is my best friend.

[Simon]

That's quite calculated. That's fucking out there.

[Ollie Wards]

Somebody's been wrong using my name and rightfully believes that the person who wronged them is me.

[Julie (Mother)]

I found it, he said. Your janitors should have found it.

[Ollie Wards]

How often would you go in there and look?

[David (Father)]

At least once a week.

[Ollie Wards]

Damn it. It's so weird.

[David (Father)]

It is weird.

[Ollie Wards]

It is weird. Snowball is hosted and produced by me, Ollie Wardes. Big ups to my brave brother Greg and my entire family for letting me tell this story. Unravel's totally stoic and awesome supervising producer is Tim Roxburgh. Our super diligent audio producer is Emma Lancaster. Assisting with audio production is Shane Anderson, who is also our whip smart fact checker Sound designed by the very creative left and right panning John Jacobs and Tim Jenkins. A big thanks to my prolific and legendary mates from flight facilities for the funky ass Unravel theme song. Additional music by the talented tunesmith Bryce Halliday. You can check out some behind the scenes stuff over at my Instagram lliewards O L L I E W A.

[David (Father)]

R D S.

[Ollie Wards]

Unravel is a product of ABC Audio Studios led by the ebullient, thoughtful and patient Kelly Reardon and Unravel's expert and excitable executive producer is Ian Walker.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Binge episodes of Deep Cover Presents Snowball early and ad free with a Pushkin plus subscription. Find Pushkin plus on the Deep Cover show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM Plus.

[Ollie Wards]

Pushkin subscribers can access ad free episodes.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Full audiobooks and exclusive binges of other.

[Ollie Wards]

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[Ollie Wards]

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