Episode Transcript
I remember this so clearly.
I was in my powder blue pajamas and I came out and I said something to him, I go, what are you involved in?
Are you being investigated by the FBI?
And he looked at me so coldly, like he never knew me, and he said, if I go down, I'm taking you with me.
Speaker 2I'm Andrea Gunning.
And this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything.
Recently, we got in touch with a group called the White Collar Wives Project.
It's a support group for women who were blindsided by their husband's finance crimes.
Their mission is to help guide women through the fallout legally, financially and emotionally.
For members, it's a place where they can feel supported and most importantly, believed, a place where no one is asking the ever present question he didn't know.
That's Libby Henry.
She was one of the first members of the White Collar Wives and like all the women in the group, she was in the dark about what her husband was really doing at work.
Speaker 1I didn't say, oh, honey, dinner's writing.
And by the way, did you commit fraud?
Speaker 2Libby grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, or as the locals call it, Lousvoe.
Speaker 1It's almost like you've got something caught in your throat.
We automatically know if you're not from here.
If you're saying Louisville or Louisville.
Speaker 2Well, I'm not from there.
So for this episode, I'm going to be saying Louisville.
Early on, Libby knew her family was like others.
Her mother didn't get along with most people.
Speaker 1She had an undiagnosed personality disorder.
Today they call this borderline personality disorder.
That at the time I didn't know what was wrong with her because there wasn't the Internet and nobody was talking about mental health back then.
Speaker 2Because of her mom's mental illness, life at home was an emotional roller coaster.
Speaker 1As I entered the ninth grade, I was pretty much trying to spend the night out all the time because she had such a problem controlling her emotions.
I just tried to get away.
Speaker 2She spent a lot of time at friends' houses, and by the time she graduated high school, she had one goal for her future.
It was heartbreakingly simple.
Speaker 1What I saw around meet my friend's houses.
I wanted for myself.
I just wanted to have a normal home because I didn't come from one.
That was my big plan.
That was it.
Speaker 2She started college at the University of Kentucky.
It's in Lexington, the horse racing capital of the world.
Speaker 1Oh gosh, Lexington, beautiful play surrounded by these beautiful horse farms, rolling fields.
When I got there, the first thing I thought is that I had some freedom.
Speaker 2It was the eighties.
Libby was carefree.
She joined a sorority and quickly made friends.
Speaker 1There were a lot of fraternity parties.
They could have all these cag parties.
You would go from one house to the next house.
Lots of bands were always playing.
That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2Her junior year, she went to the first kickoff game of the football season, and of course it was a big party.
Speaker 1My friend came up to me and said, do you know Ted House.
Speaker 2Ted House was in one of her history classes, caught her eye before, but they didn't really know each other.
Speaker 1He was undeniably good looking, you know that, tall, dark, and handsome.
He was all those things.
She goes, well, he wants to go out with you, and I'm like, oh wow, okay.
So later that same night he approached me and started talking to me, but he started talking about the history syllabus, and I think he was nervous because talking about the history syllabus was kind of boring.
Speaker 2Livy left the party underwhelmed.
Speaker 1But two days later my friend called me and she said, we need a double date.
He really wants to go out with you, and I'm like, okay, And we go on a double date to this French restaurant and he was an entirely different human being.
He was charming and funny and much more relaxed.
Speaker 2It was like she was really seeing him for the first time.
Speaker 1I thought, Gosh, this guy's so fun.
Wow, you know, I like this guy.
And two days after that he asked me out again, and we just kept rolling and kept going out, and it wasn't long before we were an exclusive couple.
Speaker 2Lebby felt like herself around Ted.
He was the first guy to make her feel that way.
Speaker 1I was really comfortable with who I was with Ted, like I was always laughing.
He liked that about me.
He liked the humor.
Speaker 2But it quickly became clear that she and Ted came from different backgrounds.
To borrow a term from the horse world, he had pedigree private boarding schools, country clubs and summer trips abroad, but he wasn't pretentious about it.
Speaker 1Ted didn't seem to care that I didn't have any money.
That didn't seem to bother him.
Speaker 2The difference in their upbringing meant nothing.
They just wanted to be together.
Speaker 1The mundane things that you do by yourself that don't see being very fun or of course very fun when you are head over heels with someone, and we were.
Speaker 2Libby felt safe when she was with Ted.
He had that kind of confidence.
Speaker 1He's kind of like that protector, and things were taken care of.
If I was having an issue, here was Ted.
He was taking care of everything.
He was always that guy.
Speaker 2After a few months of dating, Ted took Libby to meet his parents.
They were in town for a fundraiser.
Speaker 1And I didn't really realize what I walked into.
They are a very politically connected family.
The first time I met them, they were having a fundraiser for the governor of Indiana.
Speaker 2Ted didn't really prepare her for this scene, and to be fair, he couldn't have.
Speaker 1I'll walk in the foyer of this absolutely beautiful home, and at first, you know, you're just so nervous because I'm like, what do I have to offer in this conversation?
What can I contribute?
That is very intimidating for someone like me who came from the background that I came from.
Speaker 2Lebby tried to stay quiet, smile and hide the run in her stockings, but above all, she wanted to make a good first impression with Ted's parents.
Speaker 1Yeah, do you remember wondering if Ted's mother thought maybe I'm really not good enough first?
Speaker 2Then?
Speaker 1But I got through it and his parents were very nice to me.
Speaker 2Ted's dad was a successful businessman and his mother was a philanthropist, a patron of the arts type.
The night of the fundraiser, Libby was just herself.
She made them laugh, and it turned out that was enough for the House family.
Pretty Soon, Libby became a regular fixture at Ted's family events.
They made her feel welcome.
Speaker 1They never seemed ostentatious to me.
They weren't people that bragged about money.
They had money, but nobody was bragging about it.
They were very supportive, and they were interested in me.
Things just seemed so effortless with them.
Speaker 2Ted's family genuinely loved being around each other.
Speaker 1So you can imagine when I'm with this family where things are so easy, and there wasn't chaos.
That's the word.
There was no chaos.
I loved them, I truly did.
Speaker 2As they got more serious, she and Ted opened up about their flaws and tried to help each other grow.
Speaker 1He was the kind of guy that would get really mad, but then he would be like, okay, I popped off.
That was always his thing.
But he does know that about himself.
And I wasn't the best either, because the one thing that I did not come out of my house with was coping skills.
I came out of my house like a piece of Swiss cheese.
I had a lot of holes.
Speaker 2Ted and Libby started talking about their future.
They both knew they wanted to have kids and stay close to family.
Speaker 1It was within a year he asked me to marry him.
He was nervous, but it wasn't some big gesture.
Speaker 2He proposed in her living room with the ring behind his back.
She remembers seeing his nerves.
He was shaking.
Speaker 1He's like, you know, I'm not really good at this, but I want you to marry me.
It was sweet and I liked it.
Speaker 2Ted had the ring custom made and it came with a special meaning.
Speaker 1This woman named b Roth made all three of the daughter in law's rings.
My mother in law had a sapphire and diamond emerald cut I had a sapphire and diamond Marquis, but we all had the sapphire and diamond to match our mother in law.
I couldn't believe that I was marrying someone like Ted, not because he came from money, but because I thought his family was so close and they seemed like a cohesive unit.
It was like that dream I told you when I was young, I'm getting married and I'm going to have that family.
I remember thinking it's all happening for me.
Speaker 2Once they graduated college, Liby and Ted had a big church wedding.
They both took jobs working for the State of Indiana, just over the border from Lexington.
Speaker 1I worked for the Department of Insurance.
He was in land and acquisition, so he would go and talk to people and they loved him.
Ted could talk to anybody.
I mean he could charm anybody, and they loved him.
Speaker 2Ted was passionate about real estate, so he found them the perfect home.
Even though they both worked.
Ted's family money helped them close on that first house.
Speaker 1I knew he had a trust fund, because that's how we bought our first house with his trust fund.
Are we trying to make our house a home?
His mother would always come over bringing gourmet goodies.
Speaker 2That year, Libby got a special gift from her mother in law, something to symbolize their bond.
Speaker 1Tut's mother had a circle pennant made for each daughter in law with little pearls around it, and she said, this is a symbol of our circle, our family, and that you're in the circle.
Speaker 2Within the first year of their marriage, Libby found out she was pregnant with the baby girl.
For a moment, everything felt perfect.
Speaker 1About six months, I go to the doctor and there's no heartbeat.
Speaker 2The baby had died.
At six months.
Ted and his family surrounded Libby, helping her through the grief.
The doctors recommended she wait to get pregnant again, but she didn't.
Speaker 1I that's that baby in May, and I was pregnant again in July, and then I had a healthy baby girl.
Speaker 2At that point, it was a new beginning and they wanted a change of scenery to match.
They started talking about returning to Louisville, Libby's hometown.
Speaker 1And then Ted comes home and says, I've got big news, and I'm like, what kind of big news?
And he said, well, I've got an offer to go into the mortgage business in Louisville.
So when he said we're moving, I was like, yay, you know, going home.
Speaker 2With their new baby.
They packed up and started over.
Speaker 1And we both got full time jobs.
At that point.
I worked for wait for it, a paging company, and pagers were the things that was big technology back then, and he obviously was in the mortgage industry.
He started working for a friend and he was alone originator.
Speaker 2The job came naturally to him.
Before long, he started his own company, brokering mortgages.
Speaker 1He liked it so much he started his own business.
They seemed to do so well.
He had a lot of employees that started working for him, a lot of them he knew.
There were people that we knew, and it just seemed like this was just the absolute best job.
He's got friends that work for him.
Speaker 2The first few years in Louisville were like a dream.
Libby had the normal family she'd always wanted.
The only thing that wasn't going perfectly was Libby's health.
When her daughter was a toddler, Libby began having intense back pain.
She needed spinal surgery, but the pain persisted, so she and Ted sat down and decided that Libby should quit her job, at least for the time being.
Speaker 1Ted said, you know, I'm making enough money, you don't need to go back to work.
So I didn't.
I would stay home for the next ten years.
And that was a critical mistake for me.
Speaker 2Ted's new mortgage business in Louisville was doing well enough for Libby to quit her job.
That way she could focus on her health and their daughter.
Speaker 1I did everything that stay at home moms do.
You know, kids, playdates, everything they had to do with my daughter.
You know, I was planning.
Speaker 2It was Libby's job to handle their daughter's schedule, and Ted's job was to handle the finances, which he'd already been doing anyway.
Speaker 1And I mean, I'm dyslexic.
It affects my numbers.
And Ted was like a human calculator.
Speaker 2They'd been in Louisville a few years when.
Speaker 1Ted came home and said that he had looked at this house in a neighborhood called Bridge Point, which was a very nice neighborhood, and that was a big leak as far as cost and the homes.
Speaker 2He wanted an upgrade, something to reflect his success.
Libby started drawing up renovation plans and interior designs.
Speaker 1I walked in and I redid the whole thing, the yard, you name it.
I did it.
Everything that I conjured up in my head I was able to execute.
Speaker 2When it was done, the house was perfect.
It was going to be the forever home.
Speaker 1Life seemed to be getting better and better and better.
I never thought that money was an issue in my life at all.
Speaker 2But Ted still wasn't satisfied.
He wanted to become a Kentucky real estate tycoon, so he found new business partners to start another venture, flipping houses.
Speaker 1Flipping homes in depressed parts of Louisville wasn't unusual back then, because the timeframe of this is two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand and two, before the housing bubble burst.
I mean, I knew so many people flipping houses.
Speaker 2One of Ted's new business partners was a real estate consultant named Khalid.
Speaker 1Khalid was a guy who grew up in a depressed part of Louisville, and Khalid had done well for himself business wise, so they went into business together flipping homes Khalid was from that area, and I think he knew a lot of people in that area, which made him a nice liaison.
Speaker 2Ted and Khaled's business proved more successful than either of them imagined.
The money was rolling in, and Ted really treated the family.
Speaker 1We were able to do all of these things.
For example, we were in Costa Rica.
We were able to take our daughter to Bahamas, which was incredible.
We were at Martha's vineyard.
We were doing all these things that I could have never done.
Now he's used to think this is great, you know, what a charmed life.
I really truly was grateful for everything.
And then things started to change.
Speaker 2Because Ted's attitude started to change.
He had always been quick to anger, but as Libby shared, he was quick to calm down.
This time it was different.
Speaker 1Like he would come home increasingly irritable, but I couldn't understand why it was ongoing.
And I would ask him and he's like, oh, it's work, stress, it's work stress.
Then he started waking up in the middle of the night like he was in a panic.
But it was every night like clockwork, and I never can understand it.
I'm like, what in the world, why do you wake up like this?
Oh, I've just got a lot on my mind.
I just thought, okay, well, there's stress.
Speaker 2She knew his job could be intense.
He was always managing multiple sales and home renovations, each had their own deadlines and expenses.
But as the year went on, Ted's stress only mounted.
Speaker 1But I kept asking and he kept getting a little bit short with me, and I was thought, gosh, what is the problem.
Speaker 2Ted never shared details about his business with Libby.
He kept it all inside, except for this.
One day in two thousand and two.
She walked into their bathroom to find Ted leaning over the sink and.
Speaker 1I thought he was sick.
And I said what's wrong?
And his reaction was so unusual.
He actually did have tears in his eyes and he said, it's that f N Khalid, And I said, what are we talking about?
What's wrong with Khalid?
Speaker 2Libby had met Khalid once or twice.
He had always been polite to her.
Speaker 1He's so angry, and he's saying, you know this, f and Khalid he screwed me over, He's gonna screw me.
He just kept saying that over and our again.
I go, I don't know what we're talking about.
What are we talking about?
And why are you angry with Khalid?
And he said he's gonna screw me and he may kill you.
He may kill our daughter.
What those aren't words you expect to hear from your husband about a business associate.
Ever, I was paralyzed for a second.
I felt my chest tighten up because I thought, what do you mean kill?
He's like, well, there's a business deal that's gone bad, and I don't know what that mf or will do.
Speaker 2Libby wanted to go to the police, but when she said that, Ted quickly backtracked.
He shook it off and told Libby to forget he ever said anything.
But that wasn't going to happen.
Her mind was racing.
Was Khalid really threatening her and her daughter?
Why would Ted say that to her?
She got in the car and left the house.
Speaker 1I start crying all that stress.
I just start crying because I could not make sense of it.
Speaker 2But when Libby returned home to ask more questions, Ted was gone.
Speaker 1So I waited and waited and didn't come back.
Well, I gathered myself together and I thought, I'm going to call his dad.
I'm going to cause parents, and I can still remember his mother saying they were outside by the pool, and they absorbed all that information, but it wasn't like they were panicked like I was.
Speaker 2A little while later, Ted's mom called back.
Apparently they'd talked to Ted and he'd given them the full story.
Speaker 1And they said, Teddy got a little spooped, and I thought a little spooped.
You know, I didn't feel satisfied with that answer.
She said, well, Ted's realized that Khalid might not be the most savory person.
He's a little bit unsavory, and he's not going to consort with him anymore, do business with him.
And I said, well, he said kill she goes he's just overreacted.
I said, this seems a lot more serious than that, and she said, Libby, it's okay.
He's not going to do business with him anymore.
His dad's talked to him.
And you know what, I believed that because his dad was telling me this businessman, stockbroker, graduate school educated man, highly respected, no nonsense man.
If they thought that that was true, they just reassured me.
Speaker 2They also advised Libby not to go around telling anyone about that conversation with Ted.
She trusted his parents, but she was still unsettled.
Speaker 1So that was not even a ragged flag.
It was a red flare.
Speaker 2When Ted finally came home, he didn't want to talk about it.
He wouldn't talk about it.
The house was filled with tension.
Speaker 1And during that time things really started to go sideways.
Ted's moods were so awful.
Speaker 2Every day Ted was on edge.
The days turned into weeks.
Speaker 1So not only is he waking up at three o'clock in the morning, but I'm also waking up to the glow of the laptop.
It's like he slept with that computer all the time.
Speaker 2One night, Libby was home alone watching TV and she saw something that would change her life.
Speaker 1I don't know if it was date lone.
I don't know if it was sixty minutes, but it was a woman on TV and her husband died and she didn't know anything about her finances, nothing, and apparently she owed thousands of dollars to the IRASID.
Of course she's on the hook because she signed those tax returns and she lost everything.
And I was like, she is me, that is me.
Speaker 2Since the beginning of their marriage, Ted had paid all their bills, paid off the credit cards, and managed their savings.
When it came to their personal finances.
She only knew what Ted told her, and as for his businesses, she was completely in the dark.
Speaker 1So I went to him and I'm like, I want to fold her.
And I wanted a fold her that showed me what happens if anything happened to him.
I didn't know what would happen with the company, would his business partner buy me out?
I mean, these were maybe even silly questions.
I just didn't know anything.
So when I started asking, he started pushing back, and I remember thinking, you know, that's not normal.
Why is he defensive?
Speaker 2The more Ted pushed back, the more insistent Liddy became.
She needed to know everything.
She wanted hard copies.
Speaker 1I mean, every time I asked, got madder and matter and matter and matter, to the point we were having really big fights, but I'm still asking about that Faulder.
Our arguments kept escalating because I thought, well, does he think I'm not smart enough to understand?
Does he think he just needs to be controlling and he's the one that needs to be able to do at all.
Never would I have thought he was involved anything that was an a fairies never didn't even occur to me.
Speaker 2Libby never got that folder of financial documents because A few weeks later, Ted sat her down and in a calm voice, he told her the truth, or at least a sliver of it.
Speaker 1Three days before Christmas, he tells me, we're bankrupt.
We need to file bankruptcy.
And I don't just mean any bankruptcy, I mean Chapter seven complete liquidation, bankrupt.
Speaker 2Libby had spent a year begging Ted for financial transparency.
The entire time, he never made any indication that they were in debt.
Now, out of the blue, he told her they were bankrupt.
It didn't add up.
Speaker 1I thought that can't be right.
I mean, it just can't be right, because you have this company, You've purchased this beautiful home, We've lived this life.
How would we be bankrupt.
I couldn't make sense of it, and I didn't even get a good answer.
Speaker 2When Ted tried to explain how it happened, it was just word salad about business deals gone bad.
She needed space.
Speaker 1I thought something's really wrong.
We really should be separated.
Speaker 2She told him to move out, and he did.
Before he left, he set up a meeting with a bankruptcy attorney.
Speaker 1And I'm listening, but I'm still like in shock because I couldn't make sense of it.
I'm like, well, how are we bankrupt?
Like, why are we bankrupt?
Where is the money?
Speaker 2He told Libby this meeting would give her answers, but it didn't.
The next day he came to her with a new plan.
Speaker 1He comes back and says, I think we could have just you file bankruptcy and not me.
The house was solely in my name.
I had no idea why he wanted to do that.
I just knew that.
I was like, you need to leave because I thought he wants to saddle me with all of that.
And he comes out of that unscathed.
It was enough for me to be like, I'm done.
Speaker 2She couldn't stay in the marriage.
She wanted a divorce.
Speaker 1And it was like a race down to our attorneys.
Speaker 2They had both arrived at their separate attorney's offices at the same time.
Speaker 1I was at my attorneys, he was at his attorneys.
Well.
He wanted to make sure that he was the petitioner.
That was so important.
Attack he needed to feel like he's the one that was divorcing me.
Speaker 2They started the process, but before any papers were signed, Ted tried to take back control.
Speaker 1So as we're moving along in this divorce.
I came home and he's standing in our kitchen saying, I've called the divorce off.
That's exactly how he said it.
I've called the divorce off.
I'm like, okay, have you You've called it off?
And he said, and I've written this letter and I want you to read it.
And the letter stated all the things that he had done to me that were very unkind admitting everything.
And then he says, I know you don't know anything about my business practices, but that will change, Like I'm going to let you in now on everything.
But I still wasn't swayed by it, because I thought, well, why was he resistant in the first place.
Speaker 2The letter didn't change her mind.
One line stood out, though I know you don't know anything about my business practices, but that will change.
It sounded like he was finally giving her what she wanted, transparency.
The only problem he failed to mention the moment most important detail in.
Speaker 1That letter I should point out he never says, by the way, I've been committing mortgage fraud in your life's about to implode.
Speaker 2A few weeks after Libby and Ted began their divorce, Ted wanted to repair the relationship He wrote her a letter apologizing, promising to come clean about their finances, but Libby didn't trust it.
She had a hunt that Ted was still hiding something, so she decided to turn to the Louisville rumor mill.
Libby knew her town well.
If Ted was up to something, someone had to know.
Speaker 1I would find out by a friends has There was an attorney.
He said that Ted was being investigated by the FBI.
I was like what.
Speaker 2Ted was being investigated for?
A complex mortgage fraud scheme built on forged documents and phony buyers.
Ted Khalid and his coworkers were all in on it.
Speaker 1They found these straw buyers to buy these homes in a dilapidated area of Louisville.
Speaker 2On paper, those buyers looked great.
They had jobs, income, and enough credit to qualify, but none of it was real.
Speaker 1They made up their employment so they didn't make the money that they said they did, so that would induce a lender to give them a loan when they shouldn't have had it in the first place.
Speaker 2But in the moment, Libby didn't know any of these details.
All she knew was that they were bankrupt and that her husband was being in investigated by the FBI.
So the next time Ted came over to the house, Libby met him in the driveway to demand answers.
Speaker 1And I remember this so clearly.
I was in my powder blue pajamas and I came out and I said, what are you involved in?
He knew at that point that I'm aware that something's wrong.
And I said, are you being investigated by the FBI?
And he looked at me so coldly, like he never knew me, and he said, if I go down, I'm taking you with me.
I go You owe me more of an explanation, And he said, verbatim, I don't owe you anything, bitch.
That's what he said to me.
I don't owe you anything, bitch.
Speaker 2The man she'd fallen in love with a decade ago was gone.
Ted wasn't trying to protect her anymore.
He was trying to pull her down right alongside him.
But she wasn't about to let that happen.
She made an appointment to speak with the authorities herself.
A few days later, Libby found herself walking into a federal building, her heart pounding.
Speaker 1And this is surreal to me.
I mean, what minute, I'm married a stay at home mom and the next minute, I need to go and speak with the FBI.
And so I get there and there were three agents and they're talking to me, asking me, you know, general questions.
Speaker 2Libby sat there trying to recall every conversation, every detail, every red flag she ignored about her husband.
She wanted to help their case and show them she was innocent.
The agents left the room, Libby waited and waited.
Speaker 1He comes back in and he said, the only thing you're guilty of is trusting your husband.
That's all you're guilty of.
Speaker 2While the FBI built their case, Libby still had to manage the divorce and bankruptcy filings.
They short sold the house and nearly everything they owned.
Speaker 1I think my first real taste of what I would have to endare it was going to the grocery store thinking that I had money, and I shopped you for an hour, went to buy the groceries and there was no money, you know, no funds, and they had to pull my cart aside.
And that's embarrassing.
And I could feel the sweat beating up and that was my first indication.
I was like, this is bad.
There's no money.
Speaker 2In a matter of weeks, she went from never having to think about money, to not having enough for groceries to make matters worse, Ted became erratic.
He knew the FEDS were closing in on him.
Speaker 1Ted got really, really unruly.
He would show up at my house, hide behind a tree.
It'd be like late at night, and I would sit on the back of my steps and he would come and yell at me.
He would say the oddest things to me.
He would say things like, I will never be found guilty.
I will be found innocent in a court of lot.
And he named himself Teflne Ted because the charges don't stick.
Speaker 2But Ted's nickname didn't hold up.
He was indicted and the charges were serious mortgage fraud, bang fraud, wire fraud, totaling millions of dollars.
Ted was one of four men named in the indictment, along with Khalid and two other men lived had never heard of.
They'd been inflating the value of homes, flipping them to each other at ballooned prices, and pocketing the difference.
Speaker 1The scheme worked for a while, but then they started to defall on these loans, and you know, someone's left holding the bag.
Speaker 2The house of cards collapsed and Libby was the one left trying to make sense of the wreckage After the indictment, It was another four years of hearings and negotiations before Ted was sentenced to prison.
Libby tried her best to co parent with him during this tense waiting period.
He was ordered to pay one hundred and forty nine dollars a month in child support, practically nothing.
As part of the divorce agreement, Libby and her daughter could stay in a condo owned by Ted's parents, but only for two years.
After that she would be on her own.
Speaker 1That's not a long time.
When you don't have a job, you don't know if you have to go back to school, that goes by very quickly.
My daughter was ten years old, and that scared me a great deal.
And what scared me more is Ted defaulted on every single thing, so I had to go to court.
Speaker 2Ted left behind a trail of defaulted debt, some of it in Libby's name through forged signatures, and I.
Speaker 1Knew whose signature it was.
It was my husband's.
I recognized his paintwriting.
Speaker 2She tried to call the debt collectors, but as soon as she said Ted was her ex husband, they're tone shifted.
Speaker 1If you say it's somebody you don't know, then their alarm.
You say it's your husband.
Uh, like we're one person.
It really was like I saw my identity over at the altar.
Speaker 2Her credit was wrecked and her sense of safety was gone.
After those two years were up, she had to find a new home.
With nowhere to go, she and her daughter moved into a Rundown apartment.
Speaker 1Pretty dilapidated place, roaches awful, but I needed a place to live.
Speaker 2Because of her bankruptcy filing, she couldn't even get the lights turned on in her name.
Speaker 1They wouldn't even let me get electric in money without a co center.
And I'm like, well, am I just going to freeze to death.
Speaker 2One of the last times she saw Ted, she asked him why he did.
Speaker 1It it is answer was because I can't That's what he said to me after all those years.
And I said, you bankrupted me.
His answer was I bankrupted myself.
It's almost like he didn't care how that affected me.
Speaker 2One day, when Libby was at a particularly low point, she decided to reach out to Ted's mother.
Speaker 1I asked his mom, I begged, and I said, we need money.
I said, do you realize that Ted only Patty's one hundred and forty nine dollars a month, and her exact words were, that's what the courts say.
Speaker 2This woman had welcomed her into their family and even given her that circle necklace to represent their bond.
But Ted's parents wouldn't give her a cent, not even for their granddaughter's education.
Speaker 1And I couldn't believe it because I adored them.
I mean, they had so much.
I couldn't understand why they wouldn't be generous.
They never gave me a dollar more.
Speaker 2It was heartbreaking because she respected them and she thought she was in their circle, but when she was drowning, they looked the other way.
In the end, their loyalty was never to her, it was to Ted.
Speaker 1I felt like his parents thought I'd betrayed him by not standing by my man.
In quotes, if you will it is, that's sort of I think they wanted me to do.
But their son betrayed me.
Speaker 2Finally, Ted pled guilty.
There was no trial, no courtroom showdown, no witness stand where Libby could testify to what she'd lost.
In a way, Libby wanted to hear it all out in the open.
Speaker 1If there's a trial you get to watch and you can see what happened to your life.
I wanted to know what really happened.
Speaker 2He was sentenced to eighteen months in federal prison and ordered to pay three million dollars in restitution.
After the sentencing, Libby decided to go look for answers on her own.
Speaker 1I decided I wanted to do an archaeological dig on myself.
Speaker 2She called up an acquaintance who worked in the mortgage business.
Speaker 1And I asked her, do you know what happened?
Because I thought she did, And she said, you know, Libby, let me tell you something.
You need to get on online deed records.
She goes, you might find yourself there.
I go, what do you mean, I've never been on that ever.
She said, just take my advice and go look.
Speaker 2So Lebby did and what she found made her stomach turn.
Speaker 1Well, I go look at those deeds and there my name was.
They had forged my name in that freud schime.
When I found that out, I sent a text message to my ex husband that I knew what he had done to me.
You used me in your floud ski.
I mean, what happens if the FBI would have thought that I really was a part of that, and I was sitting in prison.
He put my freedom in jeopardy and I never spoke a war to him again.
Speaker 2Libby took the forged documents to the police station to try and press charges.
Speaker 1This detective called me and goes, you know, I was interested in your case.
Here's the thing.
Your husband's already gone to prison.
This case has been a unicated, so there's nothing that we can do for you.
And I thought, why not?
How come I can't do something for me?
I mean, it looks like I help facilitate that fraud.
But he said there was nothing that could be done.
Speaker 2If she couldn't get justice, she at least wanted to set the record straight.
Speaker 1I said, well, I want my name off those dats.
I didn't care if they sat there for ten years.
I did not want for generations it to look like I committed that fraud.
Speaker 2After eight years of back and forth, she got the documents amended.
Speaker 1It finally says on online deed records, my name was obtained forged ex husband or others.
It officially says that now there's proof, and now I can set that rumor straight.
But words rumors really truly can harm you forever.
Speaker 2Even after she got the records fixed, she still hears whispers rumors about her being in on it.
Speaker 1And people love it when people that they see as being affluent, living the life, belonging to country clubs fall I didn't grow up with all that.
I appreciated it, but a lot of people just assume, Oh, they deserve it, they need I didn't know.
I was financially illiterate, and that I tell people, do not be that.
If your significant other is push them back, that's a red flag.
Speaker 2It's a lesson.
She learned the hardest way possible, but unlike the bankruptcy and the deeds, some consequences could never be expunged.
Speaker 1It affected my relationship with my daughter.
A young girl had this beautiful life and all of a sudden, it's food stamps.
People at school aren't being nice to her because her dad's in prison.
She was so upset in here her father's going to prison.
She just wanted to see him, and he got mad at her and sent her an email from prison saying, don't be like your mother.
You won't do well in life from prison, and I thought, Wow, what a statement to make.
You're in a federal prison.
Telling you know, your daughter not to be like her mother.
Speaker 2Ted was released from prison in twenty ten.
He never reached out to Libby.
Speaker 1And then he got to transition right back into another home and a condo that his parents owned.
Was never like that for me.
I applied for affordable housing twice, never could get it.
Speaker 2It's hard for Libby to stomach watching Ted end up with a soft landing.
She's had to fight tooth and nail to reach build her life and regain financial stability.
Plus there's still big unanswered questions.
Did Khalid really threaten to kill her?
What was really going on there to.
Speaker 1This day, I don't really know if that's true or not.
Maybe a fear tached I don't know.
I don't know if Ted was lying to me.
Only Ted would know that.
Speaker 2She's had to come to terms with being in the dark and not knowing everything about the crimes that destroyed her life.
Speaker 1I have to just live with never knowing, because maybe somebody will come out of the woodwork to talk to me and tell me they haven't yet.
But you never know, You never know what could happen.
You're supposed to forgive people for yourself.
I have a really hard time with that, but I don't want to be bitter because that just eats you at.
Speaker 2We end every episode with the same question, why did you want to tell your story?
Speaker 1I always warn that I didn't get the life that I set out to have because I grew up with such dysfunction.
My dream was to be married to someone who loved me.
I know, it's silly with that house and white picket fence and a nice family because I didn't have it.
In the end, it's also a cautionary tale.
There's a lot in there that I would never do again.
I had a bake of kille and he put many in it, and I was okay with that.
He paid all the credit cards, he did all of it, and I was clueless.
You know, don't do that.
Don't let that happen to you.
Some small things that I could have done could have changed the course of my life.
And I mean literally, here I am today and while life imploded, and I'm like, why did that happen?
Maybe to help other people, Maybe that's just as simple as that.
Speaker 2Next week on Betrayal Weekly, She's doing so many lives, broken so many hearts.
Speaker 1It's just left me wondering, did she.
Speaker 2Ever have any love for any of us.
If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us at betrayalpod at gmail dot com.
That's Betrayal pod at gmail dot com.
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Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Associate producers are Kristin Mercury and Caitlin Golden.
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krincheck.
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support from Tanner Robbins.
Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Bains.
Music library provided by my Music and for more podcasts from iHeart, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from.