48 Hours - Grapes of Wrath

Episode Date: January 7, 2018

Ambition, greed and gunshots at a Napa Valley winery.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. It's a brand new year, and California's wine country is coming back. From the wildfires that tore through last fall. For all its natural beauty, Napa is no stranger to tragedy.

Three years ago, a disaster of a different kind hit this peaceful valley. 911, where's your emergency? He calls 911 and he's yelling into the phone, help me, help me, he shot me. This is the actual transcript from the 911 call. Yes. So he's running from the 911 call. Yes. So he's running through the vineyard. He is running through the vineyard, and the shooter is in the truck, coming after him, shooting out the window. This is crazy. Crazy. Who are these guys? These guys were a couple of rich, ambitious wine lovers who wanted

to be in the business and own their own vineyards. Look, I have pictures. Here's Imad. Imad Taufilis. He's a smart guy from Silicon Valley who loved Hollywood. He even financed a movie. And here's the other guy, Robert Dahl, an operator who people said could make money grow on trees. In this case, vines. Take one, A-Mark. My name is Jonathan Kesselman. I'm a filmmaker. Jimmy Vestforth is a terrorist!

I was directing a film, and Emad was the principal investor in the film. Emad made his money in Silicon Valley and then was looking for other things to invest in? Yeah, I think, you know, he made a good living, wanted to invest his money into things he was more passionate about, movies, wine. Robert Dahl, did he come with a dream? Oh, definitely.

He really did have the vision of having some form of a winery. Robert made me feel like we'd been friends forever. Upon first meeting, you felt like that? No, within like the first 10 minutes. He was a very nice, outgoing, hardworking guy. So it seemed like a good guy to partner up with. Absolutely. One time, I don't know how I ended up on the back of his motorcycle,

and he looked out and he pointed at this mansion. And he said, you know what? Greg and I are going to make so much money that he's going to be able to buy a house like this for you someday. Everything seemed to be going great. Oh, it was awesome. Yeah, perfect. Until it all went wrong.

Yes. And this is over money. This is over money. $800,000 in a gym bag? Broken dreams. Broken dreams. Who lives? Who dies?

It's an incredible tale of wine, money, and murder. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate

your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best idea yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just the best idea yet. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. We have a male saying, help me, help me.

The advice of the subject saying that he has been shot again twice now. It was a showdown between two millionaires, Robert Dahl and Imad Taufilis. While the tales of a shocking murder in the Napa Valley, a bitter money dispute ends in an execution-style shooting. This all started at Dahl Vineyards on Solano Avenue. The victim... I mean, just look at this place. Napa Valley. Who wouldn't want a piece of this? That's what these two men wanted, and they went for it, but it ended in murder. So we came here to figure out what happened. And what we discovered is really interesting.

It turns out that no less than four people thought that they could have ended up targets of the killer, too. Could have been me running through the vineyard and ducking from flying bullets. I was probably number one on his list to kill. My first thought was, that could have very easily been Greg. What do you think would have happened if you were there? I think he would have killed me.

Hold on, let's just slow down for a second. How do you get from two ambitious guys trying to make it in the wine business to a murder mystery with four or five other potential victims? Well, we found a guy who can explain it all. Because his family has worked in these valleys for generations. And he says he could have been a victim that day, too. So is it customary if we visit to open a bottle of wine?

It's the only way that you can visit. Sure. Get to have some wine. Cheers. Cheers. Meet Dominic Fapoli, pretty close to royalty around here. Me and my brother and two sisters, we're the fourth generation in our family to be involved. I mean, our great-grandfather started doing this with grapes and making some wine in the early 1900s.

Now, he and his brother and sisters and friends run the Christopher Creek Winery. We've known each other for all of our lives, and so we are family above and beyond. Are there a lot of dreamers who come here? Oh, yeah, big time. Tech tycoons, Wall Street guys, rock stars, movie people, and they all want to come and have a slice of this. And a lot of people see the glamorous side of it without, you know, seeing the hard work that goes into it. The blood, sweat, and tears that it really takes to get to the point where we're at right now of drinking a great bottle. How tough is it to break in?

It's very, very tough unless you're coming with a lot of money. And then there's the matter of trust. Doing business in the wine country is often very personal. You know, their word is their bond. You shake their hands, you look in their eye, and you're good. You bond with a person and then maybe go into business with them? Absolutely. That's a huge, huge part of it. So, because you need to know that you can trust that person. But as we'll find out, watch out if that bond is broken. Absolutely. That's a huge, huge part of it. Because you need to know that you can trust that person. But, as we'll find out, watch out if that bond is broken. Because the stakes are high.

The money makes people crazy. Lou Perdue is a tech entrepreneur and the most respected wine writer in Napa. Money is intoxicating, and when you mix money and wine, I think you get intoxicated to the second or third power. How often does it happen that somebody comes in with a lot of money and not so much knowledge about wine, but just wants to be a part of this? Every day. Every day. Back in 2011, a guy named Robert Dahl was about to get drunk on all that money. 2011, a guy named Robert Dahl was about to get drunk on all that money.

He decided to leave Minnesota, where he had an unglamorous mold removal business, and become a Napa Valley wine entrepreneur. He had a booming voice. He was always the loudest guy in the room. Just a big presence. Yeah, big presence. Miles Davis is an electrician who worked for Dahl almost from the beginning of his time in Napa. You were friends with him initially when he was doing what business? Selling and buying grapes.

Selling and buying grapes. That's one way of saying Dahl was in the lower end of the wine business. He wasn't making fine wines. He was bottling no-name wine, making what they call shiners. The shiner is a bottle that doesn't have a label. And then he'd sell you that fruit, and you'd put your own label on it. Was he a good salesman? Oh, great salesman.

Great salesman. Oh, he could sell anyone. So the wine didn't even have to really be that good. He could sell it. Well, it never was really that good. And he talked a good game. He talked a great game. And you knew enough to know that he didn't know a lot. I knew that he had a good line of BS, which is fine, and it made him funnier. It was part of his charm that he could BS?

Yeah, I loved it about him. Dahl had moved to wine country with his wife and three children. His family's amazing. They're just wonderful people. His wife's a very sweet, loving woman. The kids are amazing. In fact, they call me their godfather. Within a couple of years, his bottling business was a big success, and Dahl liked to show it. He showed up at my office with $10,000 and said, let's buy a Harley. I'm sorry? He showed up at my office with $10,000 in cash and said,

we're buying a Harley. You pay me back in the next few months or whenever. That's Robert. He was all about stuff like that. Did he seem concerned about money? No. Never. So it was in 2011 that Robert Dahl took his next big step toward his dream of making it big in the wine business. He linked up with that prince of the wine country, Dominic Fipoli.

I had met some people from Asia who were looking into getting into importing California wine. Fipoli was young. He didn't have his own personal vineyard yet, and he needed more product. I couldn't literally package wine fast enough because I didn't have my own facility and so I met Robert. He was very new to this but he was willing to work really really hard and he had a genuineness that he could project that made you want to trust him, made you want to like him. Over the next year, Fopoli and Dahl became close. We'd go out to dinner and hang out and as a friend he was always there. I could text him at 11 o'clock at night, and he'd get back to me.

Business was good, and one day, Dahl made him a proposition. He called me up and said, hey, there's this place in your neck of the woods. They'd buy their own vineyard. And so I came over, and I met him here, and I looked at this view and the vineyards. And literally an hour after sitting down with him, we drank a bottle of wine on this deck. I said, I'm in. Let's do this. Fipoli staked everything he had on this partnership, even his house.

You know, I said, this is something I'm going to do. I'm going to have to go all in, and I need you to be all in, too. And he said, I got you. Fipoli didn't think it would be a stretch for Robert Dahl. I assumed that this was a fun little side project for him. I never had any reason to doubt that he was doing tremendously well. Did you feel like he had your back? Oh, completely.

There was not, I didn't doubt for a second. But almost as soon as the vineyard deal with Fipoli was closed, Dahl was looking for the next big thing. Sharing ownership in a vineyard wasn't good enough. He wanted to be the boss. To do that, he needed new partners. And then he found just the man he was looking for. A man with connections to the bright lights of Hollywood.

With a gym bag full of money. For more on how Napa's landscape became part of our story, join us on Facebook at 48 Hours. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access,

I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10

that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse

and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I directed a film called Jimmy Vest for the American Hero. It came out last year. It's a comedy. It's a comedy starring a comic named Mazra Brani.

I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Vestford. Like Clint Eastwood, but Vestford. Very funny film. Hello, Mr. Carr. Director and screenwriter Jonathan Kesselman was shooting the film's wedding scene when one of the extras struck up

a conversation. While we're sort of in between setups, we started talking, and he said, Hi, I'm Imad, I'm the investor in the film. And just a really nice guy, we chatted. Imad Tafilis was a young businessman from Silicon Valley. What kind of actor was he? He was a better humanitarian than an actor.

He was a good extra. He was very good. He hit his marks. Emad was principal investor in the film. He put up about $200,000, and Kesselman became friendly with him. He was like a business person in tech, and I think he was excited to be not a corporate guy anymore. He had sort of made a lot of money, and he was tired of it and wanted to sort of explore other things in his life, things that he had passion for.

One of those passions was film. The other was wine. Imad invited his new film director friend and his wife to the fancy home he owned near the wine country. It was just, you know, I love wine. You guys like wine? Let's go wine tasting. He actually gave us his bedroom. His bedroom was very flashy. Like his bathroom he had redone. Like there was a television inside the mirror in the bathroom.

And he was very excited about his bathroom. But wine was more than a passion for Imad. It was a driving ambition. In 2011, Imad Tafilis got to know Robert Dahl. And they talked about the dream they shared of making it big in the wine business. But this story isn't just about wine. It's about cash, close to a million dollars in cash. Now, if you're wondering what that looks like,

well, so were we. So we got some Hollywood prop money, which looks a lot and feels a lot like the real thing. And this is how Robert Dahl did his next deal, $800,000 in cash in a gym bag. The money came from that movie investor, Imad Tofilis. In 2013, according to Imad, Robert told him that returns on his investment would be big. And if he invested cash, they'd get better deals.

Imad was jumping into business with Robert Dahl with both feet. It sounds like the perfect match. Robert, who supposedly knows about wine but doesn't have the money, and then Imad, who doesn't know a lot about wine but has the cash. Exactly. Remember, Dahl had already started a vineyard business with Dominic Fopoli, but that wasn't enough for him. Shortly after Dahl's partnership with Fopoli began,

it ended. There'd been problems. Now Dahl wanted his own thing. He wanted his name on the bottle. Emod was going to make that happen. His investment, which now totaled $1.2 million, would help launch Dahl Vineyards. Emod was finally a player, and Dahl was center stage.

Welcome to Dahl Vineyards in lovely Yonko, California. He's a salesman. It's a show. Did people seem like they were having a good time? Oh, yeah, always. He pours good wine, and he pours it well. Generously? Generously, and it was a nice product. He did a nice job on that winery.

And the business prospered, so much that Dahl was soon able to repay Imad part of his investment. And that's the thing. Everything that Robert Dahl touched seemed to be turning out golden, and it was happening so fast. Now, armed with Imad Tafilis' money, Dahl was on his way to being everything he wanted to be, the big man in Napa. Did he exude confidence?

Exuded confidence. Oh my gosh. Like nobody I've ever met before in my life. That same year, Dahl started up another brand new business with that Napa couple, Francine and Greg Knittel. This is just an abstract vineyard scene. They'd been pursuing their passions in Napa for years. Francine did her art. So Napa clearly inspires you. Yes, definitely. And Greg's construction business. This is one of our custom remodels. Oh, this is beautiful. Built some of the area's nicest homes and tasting rooms. Oh, look at the ceiling. It's like the Sistine Chapel. Some of this stuff I feel like we can't show on television.

Life was good. Every time we come home, we just say to each other, look at where we live. We're so blessed. And there was no hesitation when the new guy, Robert Dahl, came into their lives. He was very outgoing, charismatic, hardworking. Very hardworking. So it seemed like a good guy to partner up with. Absolutely. Oh yeah. Dahl and the Knittles started a craft beer brewery, a business that created fancy, handmade beers. Greg was a handy partner for Dahl. His construction company built the brewery. What did he promise you? Well, that we were going to have a reputable business that

we would be able to hand off to our kids. And he pointed at this mansion that's right off the Silverado Trail. And he looked back at me and he said, you know what? Greg and I are going to make so much money that he's going to be able to buy a house like this for you someday. The business was off to a good start. They added a brew pub. I mean, we had the best beer ever. Our restaurant was booming. The brewery was I mean, like within like three or four months, like it was incredible. It was incredible. Francine and Greg even became close friends with Dahl and his wife, Janelle. We did everything together for a year and it was

like it was going really well, like really, really well. He liked to live well. You know, he couldn't live in a 3,000 square foot house. It had to be a 5,000-square-foot house. It was all about looks. He didn't have to have one brand-new motorcycle. He had to have two brand-new motorcycles. I'm sure you'll play the video of him after the Napa earthquake. In fact, I have that video right here. This was taken after the 2014 earthquake in Napa.

If an East Coaster's thinking about coming to Napa for harvest season to have some nice wine and have a few dinners, is it time to call that vacation off? Oh, absolutely not. Everything is back going in wine country. It's a great time to visit wine country, see some grapes being crushed, taste some fresh juice, and really take in the wine lifestyle. Man, listening to him, it almost sounds like he could be the mayor of Napa. But things aren't always exactly as they appear to be. Remember Dominic Fopoli, Dahl's former partner? Dominic had been running the winery, and Dahl was running the books. You know, we're selling a bunch of wine.

I mean, the winery was a hit, but there wasn't enough money to keep paying our bills, which I didn't understand, I didn't get. Where's the money going? Where's the't get. Where's the money going? Where's the money going? Where's the money going? That was the question plenty more people in the wine country were about to start asking. Tonight's 48 Hours will continue.

By 2014, the new doll vineyards seemed to be taking off. Robert Dahl and Imad Taufilis, the two ambitious entrepreneurs, were living their dreams. Robert himself running the show. Greetings from Dahl Vineyards. And Imad, silent partner, providing the money. Enjoy. And Imad, silent partner, providing the money. Enjoy. But what Imad didn't know was partnerships with Robert Dahl had a way of turning sour.

Remember Robert's first vineyard, the one he shared with Dominic Fapoli? One day, Dominic got a phone call from their lender. I'm starting foreclosure proceedings on you guys. Foreclosure proceedings on you guys. Foreclosure proceedings? Foreclosure, yeah, because we had missed our first payment to him for the winery. So I called Robert, and he said, you shouldn't be worried about that. I've got all that covered. And I said, are you kidding me? Vipoli went ballistic.

This is my dream, and we were successful in everything we were doing. His life savings and reputation were on the line. He had to get rid of Dahl. So my family and my partners, my brother and my best friends, came around and said, we'll do whatever we need to do and let's get this guy out. Fipoli got control of the vineyard, but he had to pay Dahl to go away.

He was bitter. You know, I introduced him as my partner, my friend. So I brought him into that circle of trust that we have here. Everybody welcomed him with open arms because I vouched for him. I had never been burned before. I was naive. And it turns out, Fopoli wasn't the only one. No one that ever put money into something that he was doing was ever going to get anything back. Steve Birch knows he's a winemaker who worked for Dahl. Back when Dahl looked like he was the golden boy of wine country, Birch introduced him to celebrities. For the comic and TV personality Adam Carolla,

he bottled a sangria called Mangria. He made money on it, but I know that there was a significant amount of payment for that that Adam never received. And there was the rapper E-40. He had Dahl package some wines for his label, Earl Stevens Wines. We started his product and it went really well, but I know he wasn't paid either. And there was Birch himself. I left with him owing me a lot of money. Can you give me a ballpark?

Yeah, we'll say it was well over $10,000. The same thing happened to Dahl's friend, electrician Miles Davis. Dahl owed him $15,000. Did you ever see that money? No.

But you were friends with him again? Yeah, because he's a great... Yeah, I'm fine with that. I mean, it wasn't about the money. It was about, you know, there was concerns that he was in trouble. So I didn't feel like my little $15,000 was anything to worry about. Because he was getting underwater.

Yeah. Did you say anything? No. No? No. Did you figure he'd find a way out of it? Yep. I hoped he would. And then there was Francine and Greg Knittel. Just a few months after the successful debut of the brewery they started with Dahl and a well-known brewmaster, the business started slipping. I got the first inkling that Dahl wasn't what he says he was because a friend of mine went to his brewery, and I put quotes around that, because the friend of mine liked craft beer, and he wasn't making beer at his quote-unquote brew pub. Apparently, by the time Lou's friend stopped by for a drink,

the brewery was no longer making its own beer. He wasn't making beer at the brewery? No, he was buying kegs from somebody else. And when this friend of mine came face-to-face and told him about that, he just went ballistic. Like he'd been found out. Like he had been found out. Dahl's partners, Francine and

Greg, say they didn't know what Dahl was up to at the brewery, and they were shocked when Dahl came in one day and announced he was shutting down the whole thing. Robert's sitting there and he goes, guys, the brewery's not making enough money. I'm going to close the doors. Francine and Greg say they not only lost $250,000 of their own money, they'd encouraged friends to invest too. And unlike Miles Davis, they felt personally betrayed by their friend, Robert Dahl. What gets to you the most? Somebody that we trusted had this capability, had this, I mean, Robert knew the whole time we were going to pretty much screw us over.

But no one felt more ripped off than Imad Tafilis. He thought he'd invested more than a million dollars in a vineyard. Instead, Dahl diverted the cash, spending it on his lavish lifestyle, the brewery business, just about anything else. Dahl had stopped paying back the money he borrowed, and Toffilis hired a lawyer. He was angry, he wanted his money, and he wanted to find out everything he could about Robert Dahl. You amassed a pile of information about Robert Dahl. This is the pile of liens that

Robert had against him. Civil judgment from Ford Motor Company, $19,000. Allied Building Products Company, $61,000. $53,000. $7,900. Oh my goodness. Emad hired Dawn King, who has her own special niche in Napa Valley. Well, I'm a private investigator here in Napa, and I was an FBI agent for 10 years. An FBI agent? Yes. So you can smell a rat? Well, I like to put rats in prison anyway.

Dawn started digging. So he was just not paying his bills. I mean, he was just, like, you know, charging credit cards. Here's the federal credit union, 53,000. And then you get into his lawsuit. A lot of what Don discovered happened back in Minnesota during the years before Dahl came to Napa. But to Don, it told a story. You know, this is the theft, one of his theft charges. One of his theft charges. Yeah, he had two. This was the theft by Swindle. He actually was convicted of theft by Swindle.

He was. Thefts and Swindles got Dahl thrown into jail, not once, but twice back in Minnesota, and left him a convicted felon. I mean, this guy was a criminal. Now, here in the wine country, Dahl seemed to be scamming again. Every time he'd get a business investment, the money seemed to go right into his pocket. Was this kind of a Ponzi scheme? Yeah, to some extent.

I mean, except that no one got paid. Usually in a Ponzi scheme, the first people in get paid. But at this point, Robert did. It was, right, Robert got paid, but Robert spent all the money. In 2014, wine reporter Lou Perdue began to uncover the swindles Robert Dahl was pulling right here in Napa Valley. He started blogging what he found, and guess who responded? And those are his comments. Robert Dahl. Those are his comments. And then he starts to rant paragraph

by paragraph by paragraph. Oh my goodness. Everything in big red capital letters just keeps coming. Oh my goodness. This is like one of those magic scarves.

And it comes. Just ranting and ranting and ranting. I think I measured this at 26 feet. And what did this say to you? This says to me the guy was off his nut. Things were really heating up. Both sides were suing, and it looked as if things were headed for a showdown.

Ahmad was just, like like so crazed, and he was becoming like a desperate man. Tracy Smith shares her personal connection to this story online at 48hours.com. Oh my gosh. I mean, I used to get 10, 15, 20 phone calls a day. Imad Tofilis was angry, very angry. He wanted his whole investment back, but it wasn't looking good. How desperate was Emod? He was a desperate man.

On a scale from 1 to 10, he was about a 9. He was not going to let someone like Robert Dahl take advantage of him and bully him into being submissive. Attorney David Wiseblood. Emod came to me saying, I have this problem. So I looked at it and said, yeah, you have a problem. So we devised a strategy. That strategy was to hammer Robert Dahl in court

and force him to pay up. So the strategy was file a lawsuit in Napa to basically get control of the collateral and to prevent stuff from disappearing. That collateral was mostly the wine tanks and all the equipment used to make the wine. And what happened? Robert didn't roll that. Well, what happened, I had in a four-month period, 19 court appearances in the Napa court, which is crazy. I mean, the short answer is the Napa court issued an injunction against Robert saying you can't sell inventory,

which in effect should have shut down his winemaking and wine selling operations. That all belongs to Emad, basically. Right, pretty much. Even though Emad was winning in court, Robert Dahl was doing everything he could to cheat. He was even secretly taking equipment and trying to sell it off. Robert at that point had started hiding equipment, hiding whatever he could. He started moving stuff. But Robert Dahl's attorneys, Jasmine Dwall and Kusha Barakim...

There's a lot more than the headlines. ...say Dahl was a clever businessman, but he was no crook. You think Robert's mindset was, I'm going to take this, but I'll be able to pay it back and everything's going to be okay. Absolutely. I think he had every intention to pay back the entire loan. Dahl's lawyers believed Dahl was a stand-up guy, that classic, all-American, risk-taking entrepreneur who puts it all on the line and at the last minute comes out a hero. The business was growing and it was not a Ponzi scheme or a house of cards.

I was shown a document that says Robert Dahl was convicted of swindle in Minnesota. If you look at that document again, you will see that that goes back to when he was about 19 or 21 years old or so. But still, people look at that and say, once a con man, always a con man. Robert definitely had his share of failed ventures before as well. But you don't think that proves that he's a thief? Not at all. A thief takes money and runs with it.

A thief doesn't go to court. He was a risk taker, and when you take risks, sometimes you end up harming other people as well. But our system is set up for that. as well, but our system is set up for that. In the wine business, Dahl's lawyers say, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And they insist Imad Taufilis was the real villain in this business deal. You think this was a scam for Imad? Absolutely. How would one come up with that much cash and why?

It's still a mystery where all that cash came from. But Dahl's lawyers say Imad was so angry, he was determined to destroy Robert Dahl's business. His barrels of wines were taken. His cars were taken. His brewing systems were taken. He was in an impossible place. With no business to operate, Dahl couldn't earn any money to pay off the debts he owed to Imad and others. And then, surprisingly, there was a breakthrough. It looked as if Imad might get more of his money back. The lawyers had come to a deal,

and Imad and Robert were going to get together to hammer out the details. Robert wanted to meet here at his vineyard. I went to my office Monday morning, and I get a phone call from Imad. David, I've decided to go to the winery. And I get a phone call from Emad. David, I've decided to go to the winery. On that morning, I was on the phone, and Emad's attorney was on the phone. Emad and Robert were there in person.

Their attorneys joined them on a conference call. There was a definite agreement on what was going to be paid to Emad. It was just so eerily calm. It was eerily calm. It was eerily calm. It was eerily calm. But then Robert Dahl rocked the boat. And he said, well, I don't give an S what the lawyers negotiated. This is my offer. What seemed to be a nearly done deal suddenly started unraveling. Which was several hundred thousand dollars less than what was agreed to. The lawyers felt it was a breakdown that Emad and Robert should deal with themselves.

They were both business savvy, and this was something that they both could have easily handled. So both lawyers got off the phone. Both expected to hear right back from their clients. 20 minutes go by. We had no idea what was going on. I don't hear from Imad. I was expecting a call. Then I got an email saying there was a shooting.

I got a call from Mr. Weisblut. He said, Kusha, tell me this didn't really happen. You thought Imad lost it. I thought Imad lost it. We both thought that. That's the winery up at the end of the row there. Yeah, up at the end of the row. That's the winery up at the end of the row. Up at the end of the row. On March 16, 2015, Imad Taufilis and Robert Dahl had finally gotten together to try to settle their ugly dispute. They'd been meeting one-on-one in a room inside that barn over there at Dahl Vineyard.

The lawyers were on the phone on a conference call. But just a few moments after everything started, they hit a snag. Imad wanted to settle it. And Dahl wanted to settle it. But something went wrong. Clearly they can't come to an agreement down there in the vineyard. Not only couldn't they come to an agreement, all hell breaks loose. There's a burst of gunfire. there in the vineyard. Not only couldn't they come to an agreement,

all hell breaks loose. There's a burst of gunfire, and evidence shows the men come tumbling out of the barn. One has a gun. He's firing. The other man is wounded, running for his life into the vines. They can't agree, and suddenly one person takes off.

Down these rows, like in between these grapes here. Right. Running through here. Right. Emod and Robert both take off, one hunting the other. Running down the row, being pursued by the other one, who is shooting at the guy who became the victim. Is shooting through these grapes just as the guy's running.

It's a wild chase, something out of a movie. The hunted man desperately dials 911. He's calling 911 as he's running through the vineyard. He's still running even though he's been shot. Right. So what does the shooter do? The shooter knows he can't catch the victim, so he goes back to the winery, gets in his car and drives over, hoping to cut the victim off as the victim runs out.

As the victim gets here, he tells 911 that he can see the deputies arriving here. So he's saved. He can see the deputies. And the shooter comes around, gets out of his car, and shoots the victim in the head with a fatal shot as the police cars are arriving. So the shooter gets out, basically stands over the guy? Yes. Delivers the coup de grace. While the sheriff's deputies were right there?

The sheriff's deputies were arriving right at this corner. And this is where it all ended. The winery these two men had dreamed of building together. Imad Tafilis was lying dead on the ground, murdered by Robert Dahl. He knows it's all over.

I mean, he knows that no matter what he does, he's been caught. He can't talk his way out of it. So he gets in the vehicle, drives up a terrible road here where there are very few outlets. And as the police are closing in on vehicle, drives up a terrible road here where there are very few outlets, and as the police are closing in on him, he shoots himself in the head and kills himself. And kills himself.

All over. The final bad life choice on a crooked life that's led all the way back to Minnesota. It's hard to say what set Robert Dahl off that day. It certainly seems the crime was premeditated. Dahl had brought a gun, and remember, he was a convicted felon, and he wasn't allowed to own one. And at that final meeting, he pulled out a bizarre document that he wanted Tofilis to sign,

a document that seemed almost insane. That was basically a manifesto that Imad was trying to ruin his life. This was supposed to be a confession by Imad that it was all a hoax and it was all his fault. So the idea is Robert pulls out this crazy manifesto and says, sign this. And he pulls out a gun and says, sign this. There was evidence that Dahl may have been ready to kill more people. Duct tape, flex cuffs, a tarp, gloves. And there was ammo, more than 750 rounds. A magnetic gun holder that goes on a car.

So you can hide the gun. Yeah. To me, that is a murder kit. I mean, plain and simple. I think he was trying to figure out how to kill the people that had brought him down. And that theory fits what we've discovered here in Napa. In the course of our reporting, so many people told us they too could have been victims.

There was Don King, the dirt-digging private eye. Could have been me running through the vineyard. Could have been. Lou Perdue, the dogged wine journalist. I think I was probably number one on his list to kill because I was the guy who blew the whistle on everything. Francine and Greg Knittel, who filed a criminal case against Dahl.

My first thought was, that could have very easily been Greg. And Imad Tafilis' attorney, David Wiseblood. It certainly could have been me. And I'm sure that it would have been. There was even that prince of the wine country, Dominic Fopoli. You think he would have killed you too?

Oh, yeah. Finally, we were left with one more question. This month's wine club shipment includes our... How could Robert Dahl have convinced all these people to believe in him? Robert Dahl was an Academy Award winning actor when it comes to convincing people to trust him. How did he not get found out? Nobody checked. People like this, they keep moving,

destroy somebody else's life for their own good, their own benefit. Imad Tafilis' murder haunts almost everyone he knew in the wine country. You think about this case every day? I do, yeah. Two years, two years plus. Dominic Fapoli says back when he and Dahl were still partners, he tried to warn Iman. I said, I want to give you a heads up.

I'm having all these issues with Robert. You warned him? Yeah, we sat here on this deck and, you know, and talked. How did you hear about what he did? Somebody pulled up their phone and they showed me the article, what had happened. I was just in shock. that here on this deck, and, you know, and talked. How did you hear about what he did? Somebody pulled up their phone, and they showed me the article, what had happened. I was just in shock.

And immediately, I mean, honestly, I started crying, and it was a mix of guilt, because I guess I didn't do enough to warn Ahmaud about him. Jonathan Kesselman, the director, felt deeply about Ahmaud. He was a really sweet, kind, generous guy, and I just felt I needed to say that, you know, just so it's on the record. You know, there's some legacy of Emad where, you know, he was remembered. He was a good person. As for Robert Dahl, he may have shown up in Napa with a grand vision. But in the end, he brought his dreams and those of so many around him crashing down. We wanted to be that guy that had a vineyard and had wine with his name on it. He wanted to live

the life of the big fish. He was a little fish. This is not your typical wine story. No, it isn't. And one that we don't want to hear about around here again, for sure. Dahl's wife and kids still live in California wine country. The grapes on the old Dahl vineyard were harvested last fall. The property is for sale. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.