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'Telemarketers' duo saw debauchery at NJ company — and found an industry full of graft
By
Linda Federico-ó Murchú
Published Sep 1, 2023
Modified Sep 1, 2023
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HBO
By
Linda Federico-ó Murchú
Published Sep 1, 2023
Modified Sep 1, 2023
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The HBO docuseries “Telemarketers” leaves audiences aghast – and maybe wondering whether there’s any end in sight to the jaw-dropping, industry-infesting graft portrayed by two guys who first met at a notorious New Jersey call center known for scamming consumers.
The three-part series begins with voyeuristic scenes shot in the early 2000s at the Civic Development Group, a New Brunswick-based telemarketing company where the pair of ragtag investigators worked. In 2010, the company would would go on to pay a record $18.8 million FTC settlement for duping consumers into donating to fire, police and veterans’ charities, while only a sliver of what CDG collected went to those groups.
The raucous sales team included a 14-year-old high school dropout, Sam Lipman-Stern, who began videotaping his coworkers’ hijinks as they wrestled in between cubicles, gave each other tattoos, smoked weed and snorted heroin – all while chatting on the phone to customers.
One of Lipman-Stern's favorite people was Pat J. Pespas, a charismatic 30-something heroin addict described in the series as a “telemarketing legend.” Pespas gleefully admits on film that “we call people up on behalf of some bulls--- organization, and chisel ’em out of money.”
When Lipman-Stern and Pespas reunited years later, they found the CDG-style playbook had become the gold standard in cold-calling for money. The series alleges that even police fraternal organizations are in on the grift, either taking a cut or looking the other way. Lipman-Stern and Pespas, former perpetrators, became investigators.
Gothamist spoke in separate interviews with the two longtime buddies. Lipman-Stern, now 36, is a professional filmmaker who jets between Los Angeles for work and his home in Medellín, Colombia.
Pespas, now 54 and a born-again Christian, is sober and lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Sue. On film, he’s personable, loud and brash — with big body language and a booming voice. Speaking to Gothamist, he's now more reserved and straightforward. He says he cringes when he looks back at footage of his drug-fueled days at CDG: “I'm not that person anymore.”
Excerpts of their interviews are below, abridged for brevity and edited lightly for clarity. In cases where the same question was asked of both “Telemarketers” subjects, answers from both are included.
Q: First I’ve got to ask, Sam: How did a 14-year-old wind up working at CDG?
Lipman-Stern: I left school in ninth grade. My parents were like, ‘OK, but you have to get a job.’ My parents are like, total hippies, Jewish hippies. They had no idea I was working with a bunch of ex-convicts — murderers, bank robbers, drug dealers, whatever, because if you’re a felon, telemarketing is one of the few jobs you can get.
Q: At what point did you realize that you guys weren’t just raising money for charity, that something more complex was going on?
Lipman-Stern: At first, I just thought, ‘Oh, this is how police organizations and charities raise their money.’ It wasn't 'til a few years later that I started realizing, ‘OK, wait, we might be involved in something much darker.’
Q: What made you realize that?
Lipman-Stern: One night on the 10 o'clock news, I saw one of the veterans charities we worked with. Turned out it was a fake charity. The money was supposed to help veterans — disabled veterans. But it all went into the owner’s pocket.
…
My manager, Big Ed, said to me, ‘Hey, man, you're a teenager. We're all a bunch of losers, but you should have bigger aspirations than just being a telemarketer the rest of your life.’ I told him, ‘I want to be a documentary filmmaker.’ He said, ‘bring your camera into work tomorrow.’ So I did.
I started filming all the office shenanigans, and Pat just stood out as a character. He was charismatic. He just loved being on camera. I wanted to make a documentary about the day in the life of a telemarketer, but he said, ‘No, let's do an investigation.’
Lipman-Stern and Pespas both described the the “Eureka” moment in the back of a coworker’s Cadillac. Lipman-Stern recalls Pespas saying: “‘Can you imagine what would happen if the American public really knew went on in our office?’”
Together, he said they realized: “We have to tell the real story. We're the only ones that can, because we're on the inside.”
The second and third episodes of “Telemarketers” documents the duo’s unlikely journey from phone scammers to documentary filmmakers to amateur sleuths — reuniting after years away from CDG, with a shared mission: to expose the rampant corruption in the telemarketing industry.
Pat Pespas says when he looks back at footage of his drug-fueled days working at Civic Development Group, he cringes.
HBO
Q: You’ve worked on this project, off and on, for the better part of 20 years. Many people would have given up. Why was it so important to finish?
Pespas: In the third episode, there’s a man named Mike Burns. He was a Chicago police officer injured in the line of duty. They [telemarketing callers] said they were collecting money for him, but they lied. I could see the tears in his eyes when he talked about it. That’s the type of person who gets cheated. He did everything right. He’s the guy you want on your police force. It’s because of people like Mike Burns that this story needs to be told.
Lipman-Stern: Whether you believe in karma or not, I think for us, this was our way of giving back for the harm we’d done by taking someone's last $10 for food. It feels like atonement.
I said to myself, before I die, while I'm on this earth, I have to finish “Telemarketers.” Also, I promised Big Ed that we'd finish the documentary. The series is dedicated to him, in his honor.
From their headquarters at McDonald’s (for the free WiFi) Pespas and Lipman-Stern reached out to public officials and financial organizations. They explored how dark-money political action committees benefit from aggressive telemarketing and truth-bending.
Their tiny film crew storms the offices of bureaucrats with a focused and confrontational Pespas leading the way and asking the hard questions. At some point, he starts to refer to himself as a freelance journalist. By then, he swapped his baggy sweatshirts for a plaid sport coat, dark glasses and a beret.
Lipman-Stern says he was inspired by Sacha Baron Cohen's "Ali G." character, while Pespas was inspired by director Michael Moore.
Q: Did you realize what you were getting yourselves into?
Lipman-Stern: Oh, we had to do it. [At CDG], we’d been calling on behalf of sound-alike cancer charities – you know, where they use a name that sounds like Make-A-Wish but isn’t Make-A-Wish. Both my grandparents passed away from cancer. I had to expose this thing.
By then we also knew police organizations like the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police] across the United States that were wrapped up in these telemarketing scams. But we noticed the police were never mentioned in any of the news reports. So, we started asking why.
The duo’s quest ends (spoiler alert) in the U.S. Capitol Building, closer to the present day. They get a meeting with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), who took on corporate accountability by going after deceptive callers offering extended car warranties during his 20-year stint as Connecticut's attorney general.
Lipman-Stern recalled how Pespas arrived prepared with many pages of detailed research displayed on the conference table. But instead of the hour they were promised with Blumenthal, they got six minutes.
"Telemarketers" editor Christopher Passig, executive producer Benny Safdie, musician Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe/Lichens (who wrote original music for the film) and telemarketer-turned-documentarian Patrick Pespas attend the film's New York premiere at Hudson Yards on July 26.
Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO
Q: So – what happened?
Lipman-Stern: I think Richard Blumenthal should have given Pat more respect. Still – a high school dropout graffiti writer and a former heroin addict speaking to a senator? I mean, that’s a win, any way you look it.
Pespas: Mr. Blumenthal is an absolute great senator. He has done a lot of work for many years on behalf of law enforcement. All we were asking for was common-sense reform. That's it.
In a statement to Gothamist, Blumenthal said "We will be focusing intensely on telemarketing frauds and scams that cause consumers such serious harms."
"For me, this battle against telemarketing con artists has been a long-standing life’s work, going back many years as Attorney General of Connecticut. I am eager to work with anyone who has information about wrongdoing as I’ve done throughout my career. Whatever misunderstanding there may have been about this interview, anybody with information about telemarketing fraud is welcome in my office and we’re going to act on it."
Q: “Telemarketers” exposed the dark side of the telemarketing industry. Now that your film is released, what do you hope will happen? What’s your ideal scenario?
Pespas: I’d like to see unionized call centers that run properly, and fundraising done in an ethical manner. And the “Do Not Call” list, it's very weak.
We have to respect and honor our first-responders. Right now, you only have to give a legitimate nonprofit pennies on every dollar you raise. Most should be going directly to our first responders. I mean, it costs money to raise money, but it doesn't cost 90% or 80% of what you're raising.
Lipman-Stern: My utopian answer would be, Pat testifies in front of Congress. They pass sensible regulation for the industry. Right now, telemarketing companies exploit the loopholes around nonprofits and charities. And PACs — Political Action Committees — are a whole other beast.
…
But I don’t want to take away the one great thing about the industry: It gives jobs to people who are unemployable. Otherwise, Congress needs to take a good hard look at these scams. They need to hold police organizations accountable that work hand-in-hand with the telemarketers.
Q: Have you stayed in touch with your former friends from CDG?
Lipman-Stern: A lot of people have passed away now, especially from heroin. I mean, it's a part of that culture. But we had to get releases for everyone you see in the documentary. We're all still like a dysfunctional family. If you worked at CDG in the early 2000s, you’ll forever be part of our dysfunctional family. (Laughs.) We all graduated from the same university: ‘Convicts Doing Good’ University.
This story was updated to include a statement from Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Tagged
economy
new jersey
Politics
art
Linda Federico-ó Murchú
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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