American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals Season 11 Episode 5 Clean Teeth, Dirty Money / Comic Book Murder
- February 27, 2017
American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals season 11 episode 5 features two stories of greed and deceit that highlight the cunning ways people manipulate the system to line their pockets.
The first story, "Clean Teeth, Dirty Money," focuses on a group of dental professionals who scheme to defraud insurance companies out of millions of dollars for unnecessary dental work. With the help of recruiters who lure in patients with gift cards and other incentives, the dentists perform procedures ranging from tooth extraction to root canals on perfectly healthy teeth. They manipulate x-rays to make it appear as though the patients require the treatment and bill the insurance companies exorbitant amounts. The scam goes on for years until a suspicious insurance investigator uncovers evidence leading to arrests and convictions for the dentist and his accomplices.
The second story, "Comic Book Murder," revolves around the murder of a rare comic book dealer and collector named Ashely Cotter-Cairns. The episode delves into the cutthroat world of comic book collecting, where a single rare issue can be worth millions of dollars. Full of passionate collectors and dealers, the industry is also rife with deception and occasionally deadly rivalry. When Cotter-Cairns goes missing, investigators discover that his office has been ransacked and several valuable comic books are missing. Their investigation leads them down a twisted trail of suspects, including a business partner, a former employee, and a competitor, each with their motive and alibis. As the case unfolds, viewers are taken on a journey of greed and violence that ultimately leads to the truth of what happened to Cotter-Cairns.
Together, these two stories demonstrate the dangerous lengths people will go to for money and material possessions. As always, American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals season 11 episode 5 takes viewers behind the scenes of some of the most notorious cases of greed and corruption in recent history.