Tonight on 20/20 ` it was supposed to be a psychic shop, but in reality, it was a high-stakes con job. I've never worked anything like this in my career, and I don't expect to again. How a mother and daughter scored fancy cars, luxury homes and millions of dollars... Ciao! It was like they won the Powerball. ...and how a fantasy fleeced this man. We found two different sets of blonde wigs, and it also had a pair of glasses and a hat. Can you just spare us a minute? I've been told I'm not to talk. This is one of the craziest cases I've ever seen. Kia ora. I'm Sonya Wilson. The police called it the Sweetheart Swindle ` a game of deceit and double-dealing starring a mild-mannered millionaire. Ralph Raines was a lonely bachelor ` socially awkward and an only child. He lived on a tree farm planted by his father. And those trees were worth a fortune. But his friends say he was gullible. And as you'll see, he went looking for love in all the wrong places. This here is a wild strawberry plant. Oh, cool. Clearly, Ralph Raines was more into greenery than greenbacks. It's not even clear he knew how rich he was. He wasn't totally down to earth. I'm interested in the paranormal. He loved psychics. So when a psychic named Rachel Lee opened a new palm-reading shop in Bend, Ralph paid her a visit. It was at that point they began to develop a relationship. Donna Brecker Maddux is a federal prosecutor. She said that meeting would change Ralph's life. Did she have any clue at that point how rich this guy was? He began to share with Rachel his best-kept secrets, and they also related to his father's wealth and to the work on the tree farm. So once he starts to unburden himself, she presumably starts to realise this is somebody` this is the Powerball ticket. That's the hook, yeah. Rachel also reveals a lot about herself to Ralph, says she too is alone in the world ` she's lost her parents and had cared for her husband as he died of cancer. And that creates a sense of empathy. Bob Nygaard is a private investigator who has solved sweetheart swindle cases all over the world. They learned all about him, and then they specifically took what he told them to use it against him. They preyed upon him. Rachel convinces Ralph that her psychic abilities can help him get what he craves most ` companionship, a family. And now the trap is set. Rachel has the patience of a tree. She spends the next two years grooming her mark, becoming his closest friend and confidante. Soon he's buying her gifts and writing her cheques. Along the way, she introduces Ralph to somebody new ` a guy named Blancey. Blancey ` how does he come into the picture? Um, Blancey Lee was Rachel Lee's on-again-off-again boyfriend. Blancey held himself out as some who could do home construction projects. Blancey and Rachel come from California and, until now, appeared to be living a middle-class life off Rachel's earnings as a psychic. But two years into the con, things really begin to escalate. Rachel, who has established herself as an authority on bookkeeping and personal finance, convinces Ralph to purchase this 4600ft2 house ` a four-bedroom Tudor in an exclusive suburb of Portland. Price tag ` $915,000. A home he will never live in. So while Ralph and his ageing father stay on at the ageing properties on the tree farm, Rachel moves into the sparkling new home with her kids ` among them, her devoted daughter Porsha. And she would've done anything to stay in her mother's good graces. Just how much she'd be willing to do will be apparent later. Then a turning point ` Ralph Sr suffers a debilitating stroke. From now on, he'll need 24-hour care. Rachel seizes the moment and volunteers to take care of him. She weaselled her way into the residence as a caretaker. But she did a lot more taking than she did caring. By now, Ralph Jr is in the habit of saying yes to anything Rachel asks for. But this particular decision will cost him ` dearly. In Ralph's mind, life is as good as it's ever been ` his father has a caretaker; the house has a handyman; and he has a friend ` someone who can help him shoulder the burden of the family business ` someone in whom he can confide all his secrets. The only thing missing, the thing that he wants most of all, is a family ` a wife and child. And that's just what Rachel intends to give him. # Happy birthday... # She created a fake world for him, designed to exactly meet all the desires and wishes that he ever wanted to have. The plot thickens at Portland International Airport. One bright October day in 2007, Ralph Raines is on his way home from a timber convention. He calls Rachel Lee ` his bookkeeper and his father's caretaker ` for a ride home. But secretly, she has other plans to take him for a ride. Her devious plot was about to deepen in a big way. He was instructed by Rachel Lee to sit outside on one of the benches. Ralph likes blondes with fair skin. Rachel knows that from all their private conversations. So the psychic is about to play matchmaker. She found his dream girl. She did. She created it. An attractive stranger sidles up to the bench ` a blonde with a British accent who introduces herself as Mary Marks. She approached him and asked him if his name was Ralph. He said yes and was somewhat surprised by that. And from there they engaged in a conversation. On that airport bench, she tells Ralph she has psychic powers too. She offers to give him a reading. Armed with a few details secretly provided by Rachel, the reading is spot on. Ralph Raines Jr is hooked. Mary Marks tells Ralph the occult is just her hobby. She's a bookkeeper by trade. She explained to him that she was actually a British citizen that was here in this country and that she could potentially help him with the finances for his business. Sure enough, she's soon up at the tree farm, helping Rachel out with the books. Old Ralph thinks the two women, who he thinks have never met before, will act as a checks-and-balances system ` one keeping an eye on the other. Why the British accent? Mary Marks tells Ralph she needs a green card, and eventually, he agrees to marry her, all thanks to Rachel's matchmaking. Rachel Lee had all the information she needed to craft the exact fake lifestyle that this victim desired more than anything else, and that included a fake wife, and eventually, a fake child. The couple doesn't actually live together ` the excuse being that Mary Marks needs to spend most of her time in California because of her full-time job. Did they have a romantic relationship? We have no reason to believe that they did have a romantic relationship. They never consummate the marriage, but that doesn't stop Mary Marks from convincing Ralph to father a child with her through artificial insemination. She convinces Ralph she's pregnant with his son and even wears a fake baby bump. She goes back to California to give birth and returns months later, presenting him with a real baby. Ralph is led to believe that's his son. The baby grows up to believe he's Daddy. Mm-hm? Dada. He misses you, and he wants you to know it, and he wants to talk to you. Talk to Mom. (BABBLES) Here's the kicker ` the little boy, supposedly the son of this Oregon tree farmer, is named Georgio Armani. Crazy. Mm-hm. Well, it's a very Rodeo Drive name, I suppose. It` It tells you about what they had on their mind, what was important to them. Giorgio and I sure miss you. Yeah. Yay. Ralph revels in his new-found romance and the joys of family life. ALL: # Happy birthday to you! # Whoo! (CLAPS, LAUGHS) Ey! Get it one more time, Ralph. These images tell a poignant story ` a happy, growing family posing for holiday pictures. Giorgio and I are sending you this picture so you can kind of see how he's doing. All of it a mirage. Meanwhile Rachel is free to indulge her first love ` money ` along with her boyfriend, Blancey, who's been posing as Ralph's handyman. Three and a half years into the con, she receives the key to the treasure chest. The victim turned over control of all of his financial accounts to Rachel Lee. Power of attorney papers are drawn up, giving Rachel the power to manage every aspect of Ralph Jr's life and finances. One of the hallmarks of a sweetheart swindle is to isolate the victim from all friends and family and business associates. And in this case, that's what they did. Meanwhile, Rachel is diverting funds by sending big cheques to her family members ` to Blancey Lee and to her financial tag team partner, Mary Marks. Once she got her, you know, hands on those cheques, it was` they were home free. Lee's family members are also walking around with Raines' corporate credit cards, paying for anything and everything ` clothing, dining and most of all, travel. Rachel and Blancey start living the lifestyles of the rich and famous, jetting off on a European vacation. They fly first class to Paris, where they enjoy a romantic dinner for two in the city's most famous landmark. Blancey captures the highlights of the trip on video. We're here in Paris on our anniversary, at the Eiffel Tower, about to have dinner, five-star restaurant. There were five-star vacations to Monaco. Well, we're here in, uh, Monte Carlo, still, enjoying the sightseeing. Their hotel in Monte Carlo ` $1800 a night. After Monaco, they go on a grand tour of Italy, Rome, Venice and more. It's our last, uh, night here. We'll be in Florence tomorrow. Ciao! Back in the US, it's Vegas, baby. They would do extended, luxurious stays at the Bellagio, at the Wynn. They like to gamble. At the Bellagio, Rachel buys Blancey a $64,000 Rolex ` one of six Rolexes purchased with Ralph's money. Ralph paid for it all and never got so much as a postcard. And Rachel is even more dangerous on the ground. Ralph's credit card was always at hand. $1000 shoes and $2000 suits. They lived to excess in every way. 2011, Rachel's career as a caretaker comes to an end when Ralph Raines Sr dies at the age of 91. Ralph Jr, thinking ahead, makes space on the tombstone for himself, his beloved bride and his son ` the con now immortalised in stone. But the scam isn't over yet. In fact, Rachel and her partners in crime are about to take the con to a whole new level. Can anyone stop them? Tonight on 20/20 ` it was TENSE MUSIC I'm Liz Caruthers. I'm a detective with Portland Police. Detective Liz Caruthers sees the world through cop's eyes ` even when she's just driving to work. I live outside of a town called Canby, and I drive through there every day. On her daily commute into Portland, head turning, eyes darting, Caruthers spotted something that triggered her police sense ` this building here. I noticed a house, right on the main highway, that was being extensively remodelled, and that remodel job was taking about a year and a half, and that seemed like a long time for a remodel job. I saw some expensive cars parking next to the house ` in particular, a white Ferrari. So for a Ferrari to show up in this town, it really stuck out. Caruthers, a 22-year veteran on the job, works white-collar crimes. But at this point, there's no obvious crime and no complaint ` just one cop's hunch. So it didn't really make a lot of sense for that kind of money to be dumped into this dumpy little house. The licence plate ` Mr Big ` registered to one Blancey Lee. I noticed a smart car that parked there, and the licence plate on it said 'Mary', with a little heart shape, 'Ralph'. So I got to wondering who Ralph might be. The modest little car belongs to Ralph Raines, who also owns the property. In fact, it's one of a number of psychic shops and other real estate recently bought in his name, from Oregon to California. We were very concerned that we had a sweetheart swindle on our hands. Why would an Oregon tree farmer be investing in psychic shops? She has no idea. And it bugs her. Caruthers is on to something, but for now, the pieces to the puzzle simply don't fit. Then, a year and a half later, a chance encounter changes everything. Detective Caruthers is at a training seminar, and she happens to sit next to another detective. And, uh, at one of the breaks, we got to talking, and he mentioned that he was from Canby Police Department. That detective is 28-year veteran Steve Floyd. Computer forensics is his specialty. Ren and I very flippantly, sort of, asked him, 'What are you gonna do about that psychic shop right in your backyard?' There's another person there too ` Raines' family friend Marlene Olson, who grew up logging in Oregon. Now she works for the Department of Justice. And I turned and said, 'Ralph Raines? Raines Tree Farm?' Marlene popped up and said, 'Ralph Raines? 'I know him. I know that property. I used to be a logger. 'In fact, I used to go walking all over Ralph Raines' tree farm.' What are the odds that the three of us would be in the same place at the same time? From that chance encounter, an unofficial task force is born. They bring in Cameron Wall from the IRS to dig deeper into the finances. The unit now has the expertise, the jurisdiction and the juice to turn this into a federal case. I've never worked anything like this in my career, and I don't expect to again. Because she used to work as a logger on the tree farm, Marlene Olson is asked to quietly poke around. She's stunned by what she sees. Still takes my breath away when I think about it. What I was looking at when I stood at the gate was devastation. There was no trees. That lush, sustainable ATM ` stripped bare. Whoever said money doesn't grow on trees never imagined a swindler like Rachel Lee. Once the investment accounts are liquidated and there is no money left in the investment accounts, Rachel Lee turned to the one asset that was left ` that was the tree farm. Olson sounds the alarm. Ralph Raines Jr hasn't just lost the trees; he's lost almost all the land. New owners, chainsaws whirling, slice and dice his departed father's legacy to pieces. With the sale, Rachel Lee has turned herself into an instant millionaire. She sold off that tree farm in four parcels that brought in $12 million in one year. His beloved Douglas firs had been clear-cut; his father's legacy, gone. But Ralph Raines Jr appears to have no idea where the money went. We have a sustainable, certified forest. Mostly he wanted to talk about trees. He explained there was plenty he couldn't discuss about the case. I'm gonna be quiet on that. Yeah. My lawyers have told me to say nothing. But then he invited us up to his house for a longer chat, discussing his side of that first encounter with the task force. He says, 'Let me show you some things.' They went down the list ` expensive cars he'll never drive, vacations he never took, mansions he'll never live in. And I said, 'Well, I've got Rachel taking care of a lot of my affairs.' He was just completely checked out, almost. Yeah. Didn't wanna deal with it. Gave it to Rachel. 'Let Rachel deal with it. She's taking care of me.' And he said, 'She is not.' And, well, I was willing to listen to him. I felt we had a problem. Investigators are now worried that by confronting Ralph, they may have tipped their hand. Right after they spoke with him the very first time, they realised that he was going to immediately go to Rachel Lee about the allegations. Sure enough, they were right. I sprung this on Rachel, and Rachel's jaw dropped. The detectives moved fast, getting a search warrant for that psychic shop in Canby, which turns out to be a treasure trove of evidence. We found Rolexes, expensive-looking jewellery, valuable coins. But there's more than just bling. Investigators discover what appear to be disguises. We found two different sets of blonde wigs. The second blonde wig we found, uh, was tucked in between the mattress and the bed frame. And it also had a pair of glasses and a hat, um, with it. Blonde wig, glasses and a hat ` that description fits Mary Marks to a T. Investigators now make a hair-raising discovery that blows the case wide open. Ralph's bookkeeper bride, Mary Marks, is really Rachel's daughter Porsha Lee. Rachel Lee used her own teenage daughter to scam Ralph Raines Jr. A major player in the scam, and it turns out she was a minor. At the time that Rachel Lee enticed her daughter to become part of this fraud scheme, Porsha Lee was 17 years old. And what about that exquisitely named child, Georgio Armani, supposedly conceived through artificial insemination? He's another stand-in ` a grandchild of Rachel Lee from a different daughter. At one point, Mary Marks even wore a fake baby bump. So this wasn't just one person scamming an elderly person. This was a conspiracy. This was a whole group, a whole family preying upon one man, and they were all playing different parts in the scheme. One more revelation ` turns out there's a very real person named Mary Marks tracing back to the trunk of this twisted family tree. Rachel Lee's biological mother is named Mary Marks. If you're gonna open a bank account and you're gonna transfer property, it helps to have a real name, and it helps that that person is someone in your family. Even though the scam is unravelling fast, Ralph is still caught in the web. Rachel is still spinning lies to try and explain things. And she said, 'Yes, I spent a lot of money on myself.' And she said, 'Yes, I did accumulate a gambling debt.' We had so many cock and bull stories, I didn't know what to think. It was about this time Raines hired a new lawyer ` Brett Hall. Brett Hall. That's right. Yeah. Did he have a clear sense as to how much he had lost? No. He didn't have any idea. But... even at that point, again, he was still very much under the influence and control of Rachel Lee. In fact, after investigators explained the full extent of the scam, Ralph goes missing. When Brett Hall can't get in touch with Ralph, he contacts the prosecutor. I said, 'Donna, if you don't take these people into custody, 'there's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can do.' That's when the agents race up to Bend, Oregon ` to the psychic shop where Ralph had his first consultation with Rachel a decade ago. Agents in bullet-proof vests moved quickly toward the house. Inside, they find Rachel and Porsha, bags packed, looking like they're about to embark on a Thelma and Louise style getaway. The IRS agents lead mother and daughter out in handcuffs ` first Porsha then Rachel. Later, Blancey turns himself in. Prosecutors claim the woman took advantage of a Washington Country farmer and burned through millions of dollars. Amazing, eh? After the break, it's judgment day for the scammers. And we see Mary Marks unmasked. Ralph Raines Jr had never before seen Mary Marks out of disguise. So the prosecutors agreed to a sit-down, where the bogus bride would reveal all. Welcome back. Ralph Raines is almost bankrupt. The family of fraudsters he bankrolled has spent more than $15 million of his fortune. But what's really astonishing is that he doesn't blame them. For 10 years, Rachel Lee brainwashed Ralph Raines Jr. It's unclear what he understood at the time. The brainwashing was so complete that at the sentencing hearing, Raines actually takes the stand, raises his ring finger high to prove to everyone he still loves his wife even though she and her family took him for all he was worth. That even after an unorthodox meeting just prior to Porsha Lee's sentencing. Ralph Raines Jr had never before seen Mary Marks out of disguise. So the prosecutors agreed to a sit-down, where the bogus bride would reveal all. She wore the hat and the wig, and then she took it off. Correct. But he's still not convinced. I view Mary as a real person. In court, Porsha Lee claims she's a victim, betrayed by her mother, forced to wear that disguise. The judge doesn't completely buy it. She had an opportunity to stop this years ago, and she chose to stay engaged in the fraud. She chose to play a fake wife for years. 25-year-old Porsha is sentence to 33 months in prison ` roughly two and a half years. Blancey gets 24 months ` two years ` a reduced sentence because he cooperated. He promises to pay Ralph back ` which may take a while, as Blancey was last seen selling cheesesteaks from this trailer, under the alias of Gino. Rachel Lee, the mastermind, gets the longest sentence of all ` 100 months in federal prison ` about eight years. Amazingly, Ralph Raines wishes only the best to the gang who stole $15 million from him. I want them all to get out and do well. Yes, start leading a normal life. I want them to do well honestly. He still wishes he could play a role in the life of the boy, whose companionship meant more to him than money. Little Georgio now lives in California with his real mom, Porsha's sister. Ralph hopes he was a good influence. I do have an interest in Giorgio even though he's probably not my child, because I took the boy in and I had a relationship with the boy. The Raines Tree Farm may be gone, along with most of his inheritance, but Ralph isn't bitter. They may have taken his trees, but Ralph says his roots are still here. And, uh, despite the scale of the fraud, Ralph won't be flat broke. Selling up those cars, houses and other assets will recover several million dollars. Rachel and Porsha Lee have been imprisoned since earlier this year. Blancey Lee had begun his two-year term a few weeks ago.