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- [00:01]
Saatchi Cole
Wondery plus subscribers can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad free right now. Join Wondery plus in the Wondery app or Apple Podcasts.
- [00:08]
Sarah Hagee
Sarah, it's the holiday season and you know what people do at the holidays? They go home. Which is why I wanted to bring back an episode that we did last year. Because today on Scamfluencers, we're going to our home, otherwise known as Canada, with a scam that could not be more Canadian. A maple syrup heist.
- [00:27]
Julienne
You know, this is one of those stories where I thought I knew everything, but it was actually a lot crazier than I thought. And I didn't know this much about maple syrup and now I do.
- [00:38]
Saatchi Cole
Well, you know what?
- [00:39]
Sarah Hagee
It's extra timely because there's a new TV show inspired by this story out now on Amazon Prime. It's called the Sticky. And I know it isn't totally accurate to the actual story, but I really hope that our favorite Canadian hero makes an appearance. Of course, I'm talking about Julienne, the mullet rocking Quebecois libertarian who posed for an official photo by flipping the bird. I actually can't believe I forgot to be her for Halloween. Sarah.
- [01:04]
Julienne
You know, she was such a complicated and iconic woman that, you know, I lowkey miss her.
- [01:12]
Sarah Hagee
I know. Me too. Well, gather the whole family for the story of sweet, sweet scamming.
- [01:24]
Saatchi Cole
Sarah, is there anything that makes you proud to be a Canadian? Is it the beer? Is it the beavers? Is it the passive aggression?
- [01:32]
Julienne
Oh, that's a tough question. There are certain Canadians that I think are cool, but I'm not one for nationalistic pride.
- [01:42]
Saatchi Cole
That's true. Well, what about the maple syrup then?
- [01:46]
Julienne
I guess I feel some pride towards that. It's great stuff. I love using it, I love eating it, and people are impressed by it.
- [01:54]
Saatchi Cole
Well, it turns out Canada's maple syrup industry is a lot scammier than one might guess. So, Sarah, today we're going back home. Put on your toque and carry your best English to French dictionary. We're going to Quebec. In July 2012, accountant Michel Gouvreau arrives in the tiny Canadian town of St. Louis de Blancford. It's nestled between Montreal and Quebec City, and it's known for its picturesque landscapes and cranberry farms. It's basically a postcard for quiet country living. But Michel isn't here as a tourist. He's here for an important government audit. Because this small town is a central hub for one of Quebec's most precious resources. Maple syrup. Quebec makes over 70% of the world's maple syrup, and it's super valuable. Around the time Michel shows up for this audit, one barrel is worth about 13 times more than a barrel of crude oil. For context, a barrel holds more than 600 pounds of syrup. Michel's taking inventory. He's literally counting the barrels that are stacked all the way to the ceiling, about 20ft high. But as he reaches the top, they start wobbling beneath him and he almost falls over. He freaks out. These barrels should be heavy, so he knows that something's not right. Michel knocks on one of the barrels and it sounds hollow. He unscrews the lid and his worst fears are confirmed. The barrel is empty. And then he decides to open one of the heavy barrels, and to his horror, he realizes that it's filled with water. Michel panics. In total, more than 6 million pounds of maple syrup has vanished. It's worth around 18 million Canadian dollars. This becomes huge news, and soon the once quiet town is swarming with cops searching for clues. They don't know it yet, but they're at the center of one of the biggest, most shocking and most Canadian heists of all time.
- [04:00]
Sarah Hagee
All right, Audible's best of 2024 picks are here, so discover the year's top audiobooks, podcasts and originals in all your favorite genres.
- [04:08]
Julienne
That's right. From memoirs and sci fi to mysteries and thrillers, Audible's curated list in every category is the best way to hear 2024's best in audio entertainment.
- [04:18]
Sarah Hagee
Exactly like a stunning new full cast production of George Orwell's 1984. Or heartfelt memoirs like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's lovely one.
- [04:28]
Julienne
There's also the year's best fiction, like the Women by Kristin Hannah and Percival Everett's brilliantly subversive James. I would love to listen to Sally Rooney's Intermezzo. It just came out this year, and I think it was one of my favorite 24 releases.
- [04:43]
Sarah Hagee
Go to audible.comscampod and discover all the years best waiting for you. Ever wondered how industry giants like Allo and Skims dominate the online ret? The answer is simpler than you think. It's Shopify.
- [04:56]
Julienne
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- [05:04]
Saatchi Cole
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- [05:06]
Sarah Hagee
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- [05:12]
Julienne
With Shopify, your commerce platform will be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between.
- [05:22]
Sarah Hagee
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- [05:26]
Julienne
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- [05:38]
Sarah Hagee
Shopify.comscampod.
- [05:46]
Saatchi Cole
From Wondry. I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee and this is Scamfluencers.
- [05:52]
Julienne
Come and give me your attention. I won't ever learn my lesson. Turn my speaker 2:11 I feel like a legend.
- [06:00]
Saatchi Cole
While a maple syrup scam might seem a little small for our hyper scammy show, it actually raises some pretty big questions about how the multimillion dollar industry is run. This scam involves unreasonable government restrictions, angry Quebecers, and $30 million worth of poorly guarded syrup. Sarah, I can't imagine a sweeter setup for a heist. I call this one the great syrup swindle legend. To make sense of the story, we have to understand the Canadian maple syrup industry a little bit better. Most of the country's syrup comes from the eastern French speaking province of Quebec. There's one big issue, though. The amount of syrup produced changes every year based on how early spring comes. This inconsistency leads to fluctuation in the cost of syrup. A bad season causes the price to spike, and a good season when supply outpaces demand, sends prices falling dramatically. And that can make it hard for sugar shacks to run without losing money. The sugar shacks are where they boil a SAP down into syrup. And then the farms where the SAP is harvested are called sugar bushes. Sarah, when was the last time you went to a sugar shack?
- [07:11]
Julienne
Oh my God, it must have been when I was a kid. Like, you'd go on these field trips during winter festivals and they would pour that maple syrup over snow and you twist it around with a popsicle stick and have like a little maple syrup lolly.
- [07:25]
Saatchi Cole
So delicious. Like a peak highlight of the misery of January February in Canada.
- [07:31]
Julienne
Yes, it was the best.
- [07:33]
Saatchi Cole
Well, let's go back to the changing prices. In 1989, a government board that oversees agriculture in the region was like, okay, we can fix this. All we need to do is give a few people a lot of power. They decided to create a government sanctioned maple syrup regulator. It's called the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup producers. They're basically in charge of keeping tabs on all the maple syrup in Quebec. They also set the rules for producing, marketing, and selling Maple syrup as a way to stabilize prices. It means that the more than 13,000 Quebecois syrup producers are required legally to sell through the Federation, whether they like it or not. The Federation essentially becomes a legal cartel. And I'm not just saying that, Sarah. It is widely recognized as a cartel, but not everyone in the Federation agrees with that characterization, like this fifth generation maple syrup producer who was interviewed in a Vice documentary. First of all, we're sanctioned by the.
- [08:31]
Julienne
Government, so we're not a mafia. We're not an illegal body.
- [08:37]
Saatchi Cole
The Federation is run by a board of directors, and they all look like caricatures of maple syrup farmers, or just like people from Quebec in general. It's a bunch of old white dudes with very French names like Francois and Eric. They put a quota on how much syrup each producer is allowed to make. Any excess is placed into the global strategic reserve, which is the backup syrup supply for the entire world. Basically, a network of warehouses like the one Michel inspects. The idea is that if producers have a bad spring and they can't make enough syrup to meet demand, the Federation can release the barrels from these warehouses. But those producers don't get paid until it hits the market, which can take years. And given how much maple syrup is worth, it's a lot of money to be waiting around for. Some producers think that trade off is worth it. Others want the right to sell on their own, and they're willing to risk everything to do things their own way. All right, now that we've covered the history of the maple syrup cartel, let's get back to our story. It's 2006. A man named Etienne St. Pierre is getting ready to explore a new business opportunity. Etienne lives in a tiny town in Canada's New Brunswick province, not far from the Quebec border. He's a retired Mechanic in his 60s. He's got bright blue eyes, receding gray hair, and he wears the same navy blue shirts and pants to work every day, like a cartoon character. After Etienne retired, he ran a maple syrup farm for about a decade, and then he sold it to his son. Instead of making his own syrup, he decided to start SK Export, a company that packages and ships it. Everything was going smoothly until the Federation started enforcing their rules. Etienne decides to stop working with the producers in Quebec. It's just too big of a hassle. He sticks to working with maple syrup producers in his own province, New Brunswick. But then he gets to thinking there's money to be made by going around the Federation. He decides to send out ads to sugar shacks in Quebec asking if they want to work with him. Like he's mailing out actual physical flyers admitting that he's about to do something illegal. And like, hey, does anybody want to come with? Sarah, can you read what they said?
- [10:48]
Julienne
Yeah. The first flyer says our system is very confidential. And the second flyer says St. Pierre is a very honest person and very well known in the region. Doesn't sound like he's a super discreet guy.
- [11:02]
Saatchi Cole
Right. Well, around this time, tensions are already high between Quebec syrup producers and the Federation. A lot of the producers see the group as an annoying middleman between them and their customers. So some of them take Etienne up on his offer. Etienne starts buying Quebec syrup behind the Federation's back and then packaging, shipping and selling it out of New Brunswick to other provinces and even out of Canada. After about two years, the Federation catches on and sends Etienne a subpoena. But Etienne and his second in command, Julien Bosset, couldn't care less. And Sarah, I actually have a photo of Julien and I. I would love for you to describe it.
- [11:41]
Julienne
Oh my God. This is a bad bitch.
- [11:46]
Saatchi Cole
She is a bad bitch.
- [11:48]
Julienne
So she's like an older woman with a mullet. I can only describe this as like a type of mullet. And she's in a field, it's winter, there's like snow everywhere. But she has her middle finger up. Yeah, she looks like, I don't know, like your school secretary kind of thing. Like she looks a bit mean.
- [12:08]
Saatchi Cole
She looks like the meanest teacher in her blue fur coat.
- [12:15]
Julienne
I would be scared of her, to be honest. One hand in the pocket, one hand flipping the bird. Yeah, I'm not messing with Julian.
- [12:24]
Saatchi Cole
Yeah. So as you can tell, Julian has the exact same anti Federation energy as Etienne and she does not hold back. She actually faxes the subpoena back to the Federation with a handwritten note that says, fuck you gang of assholes. Ha ha ha. We will keep buying maple syrup forever. Etienne and Julian aren't the only ones who want to make a buck at the Federation's expense. But back in Quebec, someone else is hatching an even wilder scheme. It's 2011, about five years after Etienne started illegally buying and selling Quebec syrup. His hustle is in full swing. But his nemesis, the Federation, is also thriving. They have so much reserve syrup that they need an additional warehouse to store it. So they decide to expand the global strategic reserve to the warehouse in St. Louis de Blantford, where they will stockpile millions of dollars worth of syrup in barrels. The warehouse is co owned by a few different People. One of them is a woman who's married to a guy named Ave Caron. He's in his late 30s. He's got downturned eyes, graying hair, and a shady criminal history. When he realizes what's being stored in his wife's warehouse, he doesn't just smell syrup, he smells opportunity. Avik knows that the warehouse has very little security, and he knows that maple syrup is worth a lot of money, so he decides to try to sell it on the black market. But Avik also knows that he can't do this alone. He's going to need help from people familiar with the syrup industry. So he throws himself into the best part of any heist movie, assembling a ragtag team of crooks to pull off the big score. A few months later, on a hot day in June, Avik pulls into the parking lot of a truck stop off the highway. It's in rural Quebec, about 20 minutes away from the syrup warehouse. Avik gets out of the car and joins two other men standing around in the parking lot. He's invited them here for a secret meeting about all the syrup his wife is storing in her warehouse, thanks to the Federation. And once they're all together, they immediately get to planning. First, there's Sebastien Joutra. Sebastien is bald with a brown goatee and a closet full of graphic T shirts. He's a truck driver, so he already has connections in the shipping industry. And he knows how to move barrels. He'll be the one hauling the stolen syrup. The other man is Richard Valliere. He has deep brown eyes, an intense widow's peak, and a seemingly permanent, mischievous smirk. His father owns a sugar shack, so the syrup industry has always been a part of his life. And so has crime. Richard has a reputation as a barrel roller, which is what they call a syrup smuggler, who finds a way around the Federation's rules.
- [15:08]
Julienne
You know, one thing that I think is very important about this story is that it's showing our non Canadian audience how much of a different world Quebec is.
- [15:22]
Saatchi Cole
They are not in the same timeline that we are in.
- [15:25]
Julienne
We're not living the same lives. They live in a very different reality.
- [15:28]
Saatchi Cole
Yeah, well, Richard's been working as a middleman in the black market for about 10 years, buying syrup from Quebec producers and selling it outside of the province. He even does it with his dad's syrup. It's kind of a family business. Both father and son want to avoid the Federation whenever they can. Richard's actually had to pay the Federation thousands of dollars in fines. In the past. About three years earlier, he was fined almost 2 million Canadian dollars for selling maple syrup to unauthorized buyers. But no amount of fines will stop Richard from embarking on a new scheme. And what Avik is proposing is too good to pass up the chance to make millions by selling reserve syrup on the black market. Richard agrees to store the stolen syrup at his dad's farm and then he'll sell it to someone who can export it. And Richard says that he knows just the guy.
- [16:19]
Julienne
Oh, my God, this is a heist movie. When the new guy shows up and he has like a toothpick in his mouth and is wearing a leather jacket, it's even better.
- [16:28]
Saatchi Cole
It's two people. Because this is where Etienne and Julien come back into the picture. They run that syrup exporting company in New Brunswick and they love fucking with the federation. They're perfect for the job. Plus, they've bought black market syrup from Richard in the past, so they already have a good working relationship. The team is assembled. The plan is in place. And now there's just one last thing to do. Steal millions of dollars of precious maple syrup without getting caught.
- [17:02]
Julienne
Unexpected expenses that pop up, especially during the holidays, are truly the worst. Life doesn't wait for payday.
- [17:09]
Saatchi Cole
You got that right.
- [17:10]
Sarah Hagee
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- [17:28]
Julienne
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- [17:41]
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- [18:15]
Julienne
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Sarah Hagee
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- [18:37]
Julienne
I don't and I'm really sorry.
- [18:39]
Saatchi Cole
Thank you.
- [18:40]
Sarah Hagee
Well, it's hard. It's hard to find one that fits and that looks good and is comfortable and is super soft and I got one that's in leopard print. I look like Fran Drescher.
- [18:49]
Saatchi Cole
It's my favorite shirt. Wow.
- [18:50]
Julienne
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- [19:02]
Sarah Hagee
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- [19:20]
Saatchi Cole
It'S the fall of 2011. About four months after Avik put together his dream crime team. It's the middle of the night at the warehouse his wife co owns in St. Louis de Blonford. Everything is peaceful, the air is cool, the roads are empty and the sky is full of stars. The headlights of a big rig in a forklift appear down the road and pull up to the warehouse. Using the forklift, Avik and his crew take barrels from the warehouse and load them onto a truck. They make sure to pick ones at the back or in the middle of their stacks. Again, this warehouse is packed with thousands of barrels, so they figure if someone shows up, they won't notice that anything is amiss. Sebastien, the truck driver then drives the barrels to a sugar shack owned by Richard's dad. They empty the barrels and drive to a nearby lake to fill them back up with water. Then they return them to their original place in the warehouse all before sunrise. They are literally doing what teenagers do when they steal vodka from their parents and then replace it with water.
- [20:21]
Julienne
I mean, I understand this is technically a heist, but this is barely a heist. It's so easy. Like there's no like blueprint they have to look at. Yeah, they just walked in, took barrels, switched them out.
- [20:32]
Saatchi Cole
It's a heist if like museums just didn't lock the doors at night.
- [20:34]
Julienne
Yeah, it's crazy.
- [20:36]
Saatchi Cole
Well, one detail about the heist is that the crew has to return the same barrels instead of Swapping them for new ones, because the Federation's barrels have a distinct look. They are pristine, Sarah, and they're a specific shade of off white, with no scuffs or rust marks, because they're so well kept. And the gang knows that. There's an annual inventory check, but the barrels are never open for that. They're just counted. So as long as the barrels look right and they feel heavy enough, the smugglers think that no one will notice what they've done. That is, until the barrels are released from the reserve and sold to someone who realizes that they have just bought water. But that could take years. It is a perfect crime. So once Eitienne gets the stolen syrup, he puts stickers on the barrels to make them look like they came from New Brunswick rather than Quebec. That way, he can slowly sell them off without his clients knowing that they're buying from the black market. Months go by like this, with periodic midnight visits to the warehouse. The barrels get emptied, filled with water and returned over and over, and no one notices. For now, everything is going exactly as planned. Land. But every sugar high inevitably leads to a crash. In early 2012, a few months into the con, winter sets in. It's so cold that the lake where the smugglers have been refilling the barrels freezes over. This means it's way harder to do their work at Richard's dad's place. They need somewhere with access to running water and a lot of it. So they move their operation to a new warehouse. But they've been pulling off this heist for so long that they're starting to get sloppy. They even rent the warehouse under Richard's name. The crew is pumped about their success and they want to steal more and faster. So along with the new digs, they also get new people involved with the scheme. It's a risk they decide is worth taking.
- [22:33]
Julienne
I mean, so far, there hasn't been a ton of risk with this, so I can see why they'd want to bring more people in and possibly get more syrup.
- [22:43]
Saatchi Cole
Well, it's about to get messy. According to court documents, a Federation employee actually notices a pool of water around a barrel at the St. Louis de Blonford warehouse one day. So Avik bribes him to keep his mouth shut, and he offers him even more money if he wants to join the scheme and help. The guy agrees. So now the crew has a man on the inside. But as the crew gets bigger, the crime also gets more visible. People who live near the warehouse start to notice traffic on the usually quiet road at all Hours of the night. They also see that the warehouse fence is always left open and someone has cut the lock. At some point, the men from the high slip up. We're not really sure how this happened, but empty barrels have somehow made their way back into the warehouse. There's another issue too. The barrels are starting to rust and get dirty. In the process of emptying and refilling the barrels, our heist team is causing visible damage. It's the kind of thing most people wouldn't notice. But Federation employees are not most people. Meanwhile, cans of stolen maple syrup start hitting shelves in grocery stores. It's estimated that several million cans of this stolen syrup were distributed in the United States alone. For now, our crew is pulling off a bigger scheme than they ever could have imagined. But you know what they say, Sarah? Pride cometh before the fall. By July 2012, Richard and the other thieves have been carrying out their heist for about 10 months. But they're starting to get paranoid. They've been using burner phones to talk to each other, and things are getting tense. Some members later claim that Avik becomes extremely aggressive, even scary. Allegedly, he's willing to threaten violence to get things done. But the men are about to experience something that makes their anxiety even worse. One day, Avik finds out an investigator is coming by the warehouse to do the annual inventory. In fact, he's on his way.
- [24:40]
Julienne
Oh, so this was kind of a total surprise to the team.
- [24:44]
Saatchi Cole
Well, that's the other thing some producers really hate about the Federation. Their inspectors can just show up to warehouses without notice. So Avik texts Richard on his burner phone saying that someone from the Federation may have seen their truck. Richard tells Avik to calm down, to which Avik replies, I am calm, sure. Avik says that they'll adjust the lights in the warehouse, making sure they're low so that it'll be harder to spot anything. But then Richard gets a text that makes his heart drop. It's from Sebastien. Our writer. Translated it from French. Sarah, care to read it?
- [25:16]
Julienne
Yeah. Sebastien goes. The alarm went off in the warehouse. Is everything okay?
- [25:20]
Saatchi Cole
Michel, the accountant hired by the Federation, has called the cops. That's after he nearly falls from a stack of barrels that turn out to be empty. A huge formal investigation takes off right away. More than 250 officers get involved in tracking down the syrup. They start by investigating the warehouse itself. With 16,000 barrels, it takes two months just to find all the empty and water filled barrels to figure out how much was stolen. As talk of the heist spreads through Quebec News team Teams quickly arrive on the scene. Police in Quebec are investigating after a major supply of the sticky stuff went missing. After police start investigating the warehouse, they also notice something is off with some of the barrels. They know Federation barrels are always pristine. They're moved around with a special forklift that doesn't damage them, and they're airtight, so there's never any leakage. But they see that many of the barrels in the warehouse now have visible markings, fingerprints, shoe prints, scratches, dents, and more than that, they have markings consistent with being moved around by a regular ass forklift, one that grips in the middle of the barrel instead of the top. The thing about a small town like St. Louis de Blandford is that there aren't a lot of options for forklift rentals. Investigators go to all the rental places in the area and get a list of their recent customers. And one of the names that pops up is Sebastien Jutra. When the investigators hear his name, they perk up. They have heard about Sebastien before. A few people they interviewed mentioned seeing a big rig frequently showing up in the middle of the night, one with Sebastien Express printed on the side. Sebastian Express is, of course, a transport company owned by our trusty driver. He was driving the getaway car with his name painted on the side. The heist crew had come across the perfect crime, but hubris and greed got in the way. And now their greatest threat is coming from the inside. The investigation involves the Royal Mounted police or the RCMP and the U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. They're taking this crime very seriously, especially after they tally all of the barrels. They discover that nearly 10,000 barrels have been emptied. Their contents amount to more than 18 million Canadian dollars. Our boys are in hot water now, and they start turning against each other almost immediately. Richard later alleges in a court testimony that Avik threatened him at gunpoint, saying he'd shoot Richard in the head if he spoke out.
- [27:55]
Julienne
This is crazy because, I mean, they all clearly were so into it, and now they're all turning on one another, being like, he threatened me. He held me at gunpoint and said, you gotta steal this syrup.
- [28:10]
Saatchi Cole
Well, everything starts to unravel. Sebastien is brought in for questioning. He's wearing a graphic tee, per usual, and clasping his hands in front of him, seemingly nervous. And video of it made it to the Netflix series Dirty Money. The interrogator asks Sebastian if he's received any threats or promises for agreeing to be questioned. He shakes his head no. No promises, he says, but they told me it couldn't hurt my case. The interrogator nods and then, maybe feeling a little bit better about ratting on his friends. Sebastian Names. Names. Like all the names. And so now law enforcement is heading down to New Brunswick to take down the final player in this multimillion dollar scheme. It's 10am on September 25, 2012, less than two months after the investigation started. Etienne is at the office of his company, SK Exports, in the same navy shirt and work pants he always wears. Suddenly, two cops from Quebec's provincial police service show up with a search warrant. Julienne knows that a Quebec search warrant doesn't mean anything in New Brunswick. She later says that she snatched the warrant and pretended to wipe her ass with it. And then when officers ask to see Etienne's warehouse, Julienne reportedly takes the keys and shoves them into her bra.
- [29:35]
Julienne
I would expect nothing less from my dear Julienne.
- [29:40]
Saatchi Cole
Indelible well, the police leave, but they return around 12 hours later with approval from a New Brunswick judge. Etienne and Julienne can't stop them this time. The police use a crowbar to force the warehouse doors open and find over a million dollars worth of syrup. The next day, Etienne admits that around 800 of the barrels came from Richard. The police take everything all his syrup, his confidential list of suppliers, and even his forklift. Everything's coming together for the investigators, and Etienne is starting to look like a SAP.
- [30:19]
Sarah Hagee
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- [30:28]
Julienne
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- [30:34]
Tristan Redman
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- [31:07]
Saatchi Cole
About three months after the raid, Avik and Richard are arrested. Both men face charges of theft, conspiracy and fraud. Not long afterwards, Etienne and Sebastien are also arrested, along with others involved in the crime. In total, 25 Quebec residents face jail time. Plus plus one New Brunswick resident, Etienne, even Richard's dad gets taken in for storing the stolen goods. Around this time, news of the heist is making international headlines. Reporters are reprimanding the thieves, but they're also casting a critical eye on the federation itself. Right after the arrests, the Washington Post publishes a Headline with a big why is maple syrup controlled by a Quebec cartel anyway? Outlets like the New York Times also call the federation a cartel.
- [31:53]
Julienne
It is crazy when the rest of the world clues into what's happening in Canada. So this is very surreal, but I do remember this in the news and being like, oh, my God, like something big is happening right now. The New York Times is writing about it.
- [32:08]
Saatchi Cole
Yeah. The federation is under more scrutiny than ever. The story keeps getting bigger and bigger. In 2013, Jason Siegel was even cast in a movie about it, though it seems like it got scrapped. But maybe he just couldn't pull off a Quebecois accent.
- [32:22]
Julienne
I mean, not many people can pull off that specific type of accent because they just kind of go into doing France French. You got to live around that accent and to know that accent.
- [32:33]
Saatchi Cole
That's true. This takes a special person and a special life experience to know it well. When the men finally go to court in late 2015 and early 2016, Sebastian turns his back on his crew yet again. He testifies against Avic, Etienne, and Richard. Richard admits to his part in the crime, saying that he bought the stolen syrup to resell and filled the empty barrels with water. He says he never wanted to participate, though. In a dim wood paneled courtroom in Quebec, he testifies that he was forced to by Avik, who constantly carried a gun and threatened him. Richard's story of manipulation and threats is compelling but inconsistent. Witnesses in the court say he was actually one of the ringleaders of the heist. Mushard is found guilty of theft, fraud, and trafficking stolen goods. As for Etienne, he stays consistent. He hates the federation and he loves maple syrup, and that's that. He tells the jury, you can't prove what tree the syrup came from. And you know what? That is technically true. But he is also found guilty of fraud and trafficking. Stolen. Good. And Avik, well, he has a different tactic that comes completely out of left field. He blames the Italian mafia. Avic says that he wanted to end the heist way back in November 2011, just a month after it started. But then two brothers from the Italian mafia suddenly showed up and started pressuring him. Apparently, they forced him to keep the heist going.
- [34:02]
Julienne
Sure, buddy.
- [34:04]
Saatchi Cole
Well, unsurprisingly, Sarah, the jury doesn't buy any of it. Avik ultimately pleads guilty in January 2017 to charges of theft and trafficking. Finally, in April, convictions are handed out. A judge sentences Richard to eight years in prison and fines him $9.4 million. That's on top of the more than $600,000 that the judge confiscates from him. Etienne receives a sentence of about two years with three years probation. He's also required to pay $1.3 million and he faces five more years of jail time if he doesn't. Avik is identified as the instigator and he's sentenced to a five year prison term and a $1.2 million fine. Apparently, when he heard how stiff the sentence was, he flew into a rage, demanding a retrial and fighting with the security guard who tried to hold him back. The judge says that the sentence is so stiff because the crime has over 10,000 victims. Every law abiding syrup producer who relies on the federation.
- [35:04]
Julienne
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I mean, I'm sure most of these maple syrup producers don't love the rules, but they still abide by them because they have to make a living. So, yeah, I'd be pretty pissed off. I'd be like, yeah, I am your victim.
- [35:16]
Saatchi Cole
Yeah. Well, unfortunately, it seems like the men weren't very careful with how they transferred and stored the syrup. Evidence shows that some accomplices in the crime got sick after tasting it. And some of the recovered syrup was destroyed because it was deemed unsafe for human consumption. Only a small fraction of the stolen maple syrup was ever recovered. Much of that was found in the States, which is the biggest importer of Quebec syrup. Who knows where the rest of the stolen syrup ended up? It likely found its way into lots of kitchen cupboards across North America. We don't really know if consumers got sick from it, but if you had food poisoning after a pancake breakfast around 2012, maybe now you know why. In other news, Amazon, our parent company, is reportedly producing a TV show based on the heist. It's called the Sticky. Jamie Lee Curtis is in it. Sarah, do you want to read the official description?
- [36:09]
Julienne
Yeah. It goes. The Sticky revolves around Ruth Landry, a tough, supremely competent maple syrup farmer who. Who's had it with being hemmed in by the polite bureaucratic conventions native to her country's identity. With the help of Remy Bouchard, a mild mannered security guard, and Mike Byrne, a low level mobster, Ruth changes her fate and transforms the future of her community with the theft of millions of dollars worth of maple syrup.
- [36:37]
Saatchi Cole
I'm gonna watch that.
- [36:38]
Julienne
I will watch it. And I do like how it's kind of an empowering story here about how maple syrup can change a community.
- [36:46]
Saatchi Cole
I think that's beautiful. Oh, and by the way, despite all the scrutiny, this whole affair drummed up. The Federation is still chugging along as usual. Now they have a new name, the Quebec Maple syrup producers. In 2022, they even expanded their global strategic reserve again, building a new warehouse for all their extra syrup. And hopefully they install security cameras this time. Sarah, I think the real heroes of this episode are you and I, who had to explain several Canadian references to our producers and slowly went insane in the process.
- [37:20]
Julienne
You realize how little Americans know about Canada and also care about Canada. But this is a very big deal. This story was a big deal.
- [37:29]
Saatchi Cole
It was a huge deal back home. Like, I thought it was going to change how that entire industry operated. And I feel like the craziest part of this story is it did almost nothing. Like, all they did was get a new warehouse. They didn't change any of the rules around the Federation. They never thought about the fairness of it. They never thought about why people would go out of their way to do this.
- [37:47]
Julienne
That is kind of the craziest part to me is that the lack of security, but also the attention to detail. It was almost like, we don't need cameras because we know how all these barrels look and they're pristine. And we'll know if a forklift grabbed it from this way or this way. It's just. It's so quaint, you know, it's like all this money, this thing that's worth so much, that's such a huge export for province, and it was this easy for these people to do that.
- [38:16]
Saatchi Cole
Of course, a Canadian scam is, like, adorable.
- [38:21]
Julienne
Also, I don't think people realize how much maple syrup is worth and also how fickle the industry is. I know people who tap trees to make their own syrup. And it really depends on when that spring hits.
- [38:35]
Saatchi Cole
Do you think most Americans even know that you gotta tap a tree to get that shit out there.
- [38:40]
Julienne
You gotta milk a tree.
- [38:41]
Saatchi Cole
You gotta milk that tree boob to get the syrup.
- [38:45]
Julienne
It's something that requires a lot of patience. But again, if they were more sophisticated, I think they could have gotten away with it for longer.
- [38:53]
Saatchi Cole
I'd frankly be more on board with it if there hadn't have been so many people who were following the rules and were ultimately punished by the crime. Like, if they were just stealing from, like, from the Federation, I'd be fine with that. That's okay. Go for it.
- [39:07]
Julienne
I also love that they really did assemble a team of randos and they just trusted one another until the second someone questioned what was happening and they all turned so fast. There was no solidarity here. This was nothing Like Ocean's Eleven.
- [39:22]
Saatchi Cole
No honor amongst thieves, Haggie. No honor amongst thieves. We know this.
- [39:26]
Julienne
You know what the TV show should be Ocean's Eleven, but with syrup. Yeah, that's what I want the show to be. I want them to correct the mistakes that these.
- [39:36]
Saatchi Cole
Well, my hope is that our friends at Amazon are listening to this and are taking our notes seriously.
- [39:43]
Julienne
Yeah, it doesn't sit right with me that they were so disloyal to one another. That's the biggest crime.
- [39:48]
Saatchi Cole
That's the thing you're upset about? Yeah.
- [39:50]
Julienne
They should have been friends.
- [39:51]
Saatchi Cole
Okay, well, it's nice that you're ending this in the most Canadian way possible.
- [39:55]
Julienne
Now. That's just bad. That's just dishonorable if you ask me. It's not polite.
- [40:00]
Saatchi Cole
Yeah. One of the biggest issues in this case was the impoliteness. If you like scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
- [40:16]
Sarah Hagee
Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
- [40:19]
Saatchi Cole
Before you go, tell us about yourself.
- [40:20]
Sarah Hagee
By filling out a short survey@wondry.com survey.
- [40:28]
Saatchi Cole
This is the Great Syrup Swindle. I'm Saatchi Cole.
- [40:31]
Julienne
And I'm Sarah Hage. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us@scamfluencersundery.com we use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Bloomberg's the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist by Brandon Borrell, Vanity Fair's Inside Quebec's Great Multimillion Dollar Syrup Heist by Rich Cohen and the Maple Syrup Heist episode of the Netflix docus series Dirty Money.
- [40:58]
Saatchi Cole
Gabrielle Joliet wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Saatchi Cole and Sarah Hagie. Our senior producer is Jen Swan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peery. Our story editor and producer is Sarah Enney. Eric Thurm is our story editor. Sound design is by Ryan Podesta. Fact checking by Will Tavlin. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia. Our music supervisor is Scoff Alaska for Freeze on Sync. Desi Blaylock is our coordinating producer. Our managing producer is Matt Gant and our senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Kate Young and Olivia Richard are our series producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our senior producer is Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelo, Stephanie Jens, Jenny Lauer Beckman and Marshall Louie. For Wondri.
- [41:52]
Gabrielle Joliet
I'm Tristan Redman, and as a journalist, I've never believed in ghosts. But when I discovered that my wife's great grandmother was murdered in the house next door to where I grew up, I started wondering about the inexplicable things that happened in my childhood bedroom. When I tried to find out more, I discovered that someone who slept in my room after me, someone I'd never met, was visited by the ghost of a faceless woman. So I started digging into the murder in my wife's family, and I unearthed family secrets nobody could have imagined. Ghost Story won Best Documentary podcast at the 2024Ambies and is a Best True Crime nominee at the British Podcast Awards 2024 Ghost Story is now the first ever Apple podcast series Essential. Each month, Apple Podcast Editors spotlight one series that has captivated listeners with masterful storytelling, creative excellence and a unique creative voice and vision. To recognize Ghost Story being chosen as the first series Essential, Wondry has made it ad free for a limited time only on Apple Podcasts. If you haven't listened yet, head over to Apple Podcasts to hear for yourself.