Scamfluencers - The Great Syrup Swindle

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

In Quebec, maple syrup is tightly regulated by a government-backed federation. It controls syrup prices – and profits. When a group of outlaws discovers they can make a ton of money by circumventing the federation, they devise a risky plan. Their dramatic heist reaps super sweet rewards… until things get a little too sticky. 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 scam flu answers early and add free right now join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts Sarah is there anything that makes you proud to be a Canadian? Is it the beer? Is it the beavers? Is it the passive aggression? Oh, that's a tough question. There are certain Canadians that I think are cool, but I'm not one for nationalistic pride. That's true. Well, what about the maple syrup then? I guess I feel some pride towards that.

It's great stuff. I love using it, I love eating it, and people are impressed by it. Well, it turns out Canada's maple syrup industry Great stuff, I love using it, I love eating it, and people are impressed by it. Well, it turns out Canada's maple syrup industry is a lot scamier than one might guess. So Sarah, today we're going back home. Put on your took and carry your best English

to French dictionary. We're going to Quebec. In July 2012, accountant Michele Govro arrives in the tiny Canadian town of St. Louis, De Blancford. It's nestled between Montreal and Quebec City, and it's known for its picturesque landscapes and cranberry farms. It's basically a postcard for quiet country living. But Michele isn't here as a tourist. He's here for an important government audit, because this small town is a central hub

for one of Quebec's most precious resources, maple syrup. Quebec makes over 70% of the world's maple syrup, and it's super valuable. Around the time Michelle shows up for this audit, one barrel is worth about 13 times more than a barrel of crude oil. For context, a barrel holds more than 600 pounds of syrup. Michelle's taking inventory.

He's literally counting the barrels that are stacked all the way to the ceiling, about 20 feet high. But as he reaches the top, they start wobbling beneath them and he almost falls over. He freaks out. These barrels should be heavy, so he knows that something's not right. Michelle knocks on one of the barrels, and it sounds hollow. He unscrews the lid, and his

worst fears are confirmed. The barrel is empty, and then he decides to open one of the heavy barrels, and to his horror, he realizes that it's filled with water. Michel Panics. In total, more than six million pounds of maple syrup has vanished. It's worth around $18 million Canadian dollars. This becomes huge news. And soon, the ones quiet town is swarming with cops, searching for clues.

They don't know it yet, but they're at the center of one of the biggest, most shocking, and most Canadian heists of all time. Hello, I'm Hannah. And I'm Sirete. And we are the hosts of A Red Handed, a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Red Handed,

we get stuck into the most talked about cases. But we also dig into those you might not have heard of. Like the Nephiles Royal Massacre and the Nithory Child Sacrifices. Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behaviour. Find, download, and binge-read-handed wherever you listen to your podcasts. Emily, do you remember when one's direction called it a day? I think you'll find there are still many people who can't talk about it.

Well luckily, we can. A lot, because our new season of Terabli Famous is all about the first One Directioner to go it alone. Zayn Malik We'll take you on Zayn's journey from Shilad from Bradford to being in the world's biggest boy band and explore why, when he reached the top, he decided to walk away. Follow terribly famous wherever you get your podcasts. T terribly famous.

From Wundry, I'm Sachi Kool. And I'm Sarah Haggi. And this is Scam Fluencers. I'm making me your attention, I'll forever move I'm a lesson term, I speak as you are loving I feel like a legend. While a maple syrup scam might seem a little small for our hyperskami show, it actually raises some pretty big questions about how the multi-million dollar industry is run. This scam involves unreasonable government restrictions, angry Quebecers, and $30 million worth of poorly guarded syrup.

Sarah, I can't imagine a sweeter setup for a heist. I call this one the great syrup swindle. To make sense of the story, we have to understand the Canadian maple syrup industry a little bit better. Most of the country's syrup comes from the Eastern French-speaking province of Quebec. There's one big issue though. The amount of syrup produced changes every year based on how early spring comes. This inconsistency leads to fluctuation in the cost of syrup. A bad season causes

the price to spike, and a good season, when supply outpaces demand, sends prices falling dramatically. And that can make it hard for sugar shacks to run without losing money. The sugar shacks are where they boil a sap down into syrup. And then the farms where the sap is harvested are called sugar bushes. Sarah, when was the last time you went to a sugar shack?

Oh my god, it must have been when I was a kid. You'd go on these field trips during winter festivals, and they would pour that maple syrup over snow and you'd twist it around the popsicle stick and have like a little maple syrup lolly. So delicious. Like a peak highlight of the misery of January, February in Canada. Yes, it was a best.

Well, let's go back to the changing prices. In 1989, a government board that oversees agriculture in the region was like, okay, we can fix this. All we need to do is give a few people a lot of power. They decided to create a government sanctioned maple syrup regulator. It's called the Federation of Quebec Maple Serif producers. They're basically in charge of keeping tabs on all the maple syrup in Quebec. They also set the rules for producing, marketing, and selling maple syrup as a way to stabilize prices. It means that the more than 13,000 Kebacquois syrup producers are required legally to sell

through the Federation, whether they like it or not. The Federation essentially becomes a legal cartel. And I'm not just saying that, Sarah, it is widely recognized as a cartel, but not everyone in the Federation agrees with that characterization, like this fifth-generation maple syrup producer who was interviewed in a vice-documentary. First of all, we're sanctioned by the government,

so we're not a mafia, we're not a legal body. The Federation is run by a board of directors, and they all look like caricatures We're not a mafia. We're not a legal body. The Federation is run by a board of directors and they all look like caricatures of maple syrup farmers or just like people from Quebec in general. It's a bunch of old white dudes with very French names like Gnosswa and Iric. They put a quota on how much syrup each producer

is allowed to make. Any excess is placed into the global strategic reserve which is the backup syrup supply for the entire world. Basically a network of warehouses like the One Michel Inspecs. The idea is that if producers have a bad spring and they can't make enough syrup to meet demand, the federation can release the barrels from these warehouses. But those producers don't get paid until it hits the market, which can take years. And given how much maple syrup is worth, it's a lot of money to be waiting around for. Some producers think that tradeoff is worth it.

Others want the right to sell on their own, and they're willing to risk everything to do things their own way. Alright, now that we've covered the history of the maple syrup cartel, let's get back to our story. It's 2006, a man named Etienne St. Pierre is getting ready to explore a new business opportunity. Etienne lives in a tiny town in Canada's new Brunswick province, not far from the Quebec border. He's a retired mechanic in his 60s. He's got bright blue eyes, receding gray hair, and he wears the same navy blue shirts and pants to work every day, like a cartoon character.

After Etienne retired, he ran a maple syrup farm for about a decade, and then he sold it to his son. Instead of making his own syrup, he decided to start SKXport, a company that packages and ships it. Everything was going smoothly until the Federation started enforcing their rules. Etienne decides to stop working with the producers in Quebec. It's just too big of a hassle. He sticks to working with maple syrup producers in his own province, New Brunswick. But then he gets to thinking, there's money to be made by going around the Federation. He decides to send out ads to sugar shacks and Quebec, asking if they want to work with him. Like, he's mailing out actual physical flyers,

admitting that he's about to do something illegal, and like, hey, does anybody want to come with? Sarah, can you read what they said? Yeah, the first flyer says, our system is very confidential. And the second flyer says, St. Pierre is a very honest person and very well- known in the region.

Doesn't sound like he's a super discreet guy, right? Well, around this time, tensions are already high between Quebec Serup producers and the Federation. A lot of the producers see the group as an annoying middleman between them and their customers. So some of them take Etienne up on his offer. Etienne starts buying Quebec Sierra

behind the Federation's back and then packaging, shipping and selling it out of New Brunswick to other provinces and even out of Canada. After about two years, the Federation catches on and sends Etienne a subpoena. But Etienne and his second in command, Julian Bosey couldn't care less. And Sarah, I actually have a photo of Julian and I would love for you to describe it. Oh, my God. This is a bad bitch. She is a bad bitch. So she's like an older woman with a mullet.

I can only describe this as like a type of mullet. And she's in a field, it's winter. There's like snow everywhere But she has her middle finger up. Yeah She looks like I don't know like your school secretary kind of thing like it. She looks a bit mean She looks like the meanest teacher in her blue fur coat I would be scared of her, to be honest. One hand in the pocket, one hand slip in the bird, yet I'm not messing with Julian.

Yeah, so as you can tell, Julian has the exact same anti-feteration energy as Etienne, and she does not hold back. She actually facts as the subpoena back to the Federation with a handwritten note that says, fuck you gang of assholes! Ha ha ha! We will keep buying Naples syrup forever!

Etienne and Julian aren't the only ones who want to make a buck at the Federation's expense. But back in Quebec, someone else is hatching an even wilder scheme. It's 2011, about five years after Etienne started illegally buying and selling Quebec syrup. His hustle is in full swing, but as nemesis, the federation, is also thriving. They have so much reserve syrup that they need an additional warehouse to store it. So they decide to expand the global strategic reserve to the warehouse in St. Louis, De Blancform, where they will stockpile millions of dollars' worth of syrup and barrels. The warehouse is co-owned by a few different people.

One of them is a woman who's married to a guy named Avid Courol. He's in his late 30s, he's got downturned eyes, graying hair, and a shady criminal history. When he realizes what's being stored in his wife's warehouse, he doesn't just smell syrup, he smells opportunity. Avik knows that the warehouse has very little security, and he knows that maple syrup is worth a lot of money. So he decides to try to sell it on the black market. But Avik also knows that he can't do this alone. He's going to need help from people familiar with the syrup industry. So he throws himself into the best part of any heist movie, assembling a rag-tag team of crooks to pull off the big score.

A few months later, on a hot day in June, Ovik pulls into the parking lot of a truck stop off the highway. It's in rural Quebec, about 20 minutes away from the syrup warehouse. Ovik gets out of the car and joins two other men standing around in the parking lot. He's invited them here for a secret meeting about all the syrup his wife is storing in her warehouse, thanks to the federation. And once they're all together, they immediately get to planning. First, there's Sebastian Zutra. Sebastian is bald with a brown goatee and a closet full of graphic t-shirts.

He's a truck driver, so he already has connections on the shipping industry, and he knows how to move barrels. He'll be the one hauling the stolen syrup. The other man is Rixar Valier. He has deep brown eyes, an intense widows peak, and a seemingly permanent mischievous smirk. His father owns a sugar shack, so the syrup industry has always been a part of his life, and so has crime. Reeshart has a reputation as a barrel roller, which is what they call a syrup smuggler who finds a way around the Federation's rules.

You know, one thing that I think is very important about this story is that it's showing our non-Canadian audience how much of a different world Quebec is. Yeah. They are not in the same timeline that we are in. We're not living the same lives. They live in a very different reality. Yeah.

Well, Rechar has been working as a middleman in the black market for about 10 years, buying syrup from Quebec producers and selling it outside of the province. He even does it with his dad, syrup. It's kind of a family business. Both father and son want to avoid the federation whenever they can. Reshards actually had to pay the federation thousands of dollars in fines in the past.

About three years earlier, he was fined almost 2 million Canadian dollars for selling maple syrup to unauthorized buyers. But no amount of fines will stop Reshard from embarking on a new scheme. And what Ovid is proposing is too good to pass up. The chance to make millions by selling reserve syrup on the black market. Reshard agrees to store the stolen syrup at his dad's farm,

and then he'll sell it to someone who can export it. And Reshard says that he knows just the guy. Oh my God, this is a heist movie when the new guy shows up and he has like a toothpick in his mouth and is wearing a leather jacket. It's even better, it's two people. Because this is where Etienne and Julian come back into the picture.

They run that Sarah by exporting company in New Brunswick and they love fucking with the Federation. They're perfect for the picture. They run that syrup exporting company in New Brunswick and they love fucking with the Federation. They're perfect for the job. Plus, they've bought black market syrup from ReShart in the past, so they already have a good working relationship. The team is assembled, the plan is in place, and now there's just one last thing to do. Steal millions steal millions of dollars of precious maple syrup without getting caught. I'm Rob Briden and welcome to my podcast, Briden and we are now in our third series. Among those still to come is some Michael Paling, the comedy duo Egg and Robbie Williams. The list goes on, so do sit back and enjoy.

Brighten and on Amazon Music, Wondery Plus or wherever you get your podcasts. Boss Legacy returns, now streaming. Maddie's been taken. Oh God. His daughter. He's in the hands of a madman. But the police have been looking for me. But nothing can stop a father. We want to find her just as much as you do.

I doubt that very much. From doing what the law can't. And we have to do this a by way. You have to. I can't. And we have to do this the very way. You have to. I don't. Bosch Legacy watched the new season now streaming exclusively on Freevy. And I feel like a... Let's get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it It's the fall of 2011, about four months after Avik put together his dream crime team. It's the middle of the night at the warehouse, his wife co-owns in St. Louis, De Blancford.

Everything is peaceful, the air is cool, the roads are empty, and the sky is full of stars. The headlights of a big rig in a forklift appear down the road and pull up to the warehouse. Using the forklift, Avik and his crew take barrels from the warehouse and load them onto a truck. They make sure to pick ones at the back or in the middle of their stacks. Again, this warehouse is packed with thousands of barrels, so they figure if someone shows up, they won't notice that anything is amiss. Sebastian, the truck driver, then drives the barrels to a sugar shack owned by Rechard's dad.

They empty the barrels and drive to a nearby lake to fill them back up with water. Then, they return them to their original place in the warehouse, all before sunrise. They are literally doing what teenagers do when they steal vodka from their parents and then replace it with water. I mean, I understand this is technically a heist, but this is barely a heist. It's so easy. Like, there's no like blueprint they have to look at. Yeah.

They just walked in, took barrels, switched them out. It's a heist if like museums just didn't lock the doors at night. Yeah, it's crazy. Well, one detail about the heist is that the crew has to return the same barrels instead of swapping them for new ones. Because the Federation's barrels have a distinct look. They are pristine, Sarah, and they're a specific shade of off-white, with no scoffs or

rust marks because they're so well-capped. And the gang knows that there's an annual inventory check, but the barrels are never open for that. They're just counted. So as long as the barrels look right and they feel heavy enough, the smugglers think that no one will notice what they've done. That is, until the barrels are released from the reserve and sold to someone who realizes that they have just bought water.

But that could take years. It is a perfect crime. So once I TN gets the stolen syrup, he puts stickers on the barrels to make them look like they came from New Brunswick rather than Quebec. That way, he can slowly sell them off without his clients knowing that they're buying from the black market. Months go by like this, with periodic midnight visits to the warehouse. The barrels get emptied, filled with water, and returned, over and over, and no one notices. For now, everything is going exactly as planned, but every sugar high

inevitably leads to a crash. In early 2012, a few months into the con winter sets in, it's so cold that the lake where the smugglers have been refilling the barrels freezes over. This means it's way harder to do their work at Recharred's dad's place. They need somewhere with access to running water and a lot of it. So they move their operation to a new warehouse, but they've been pulling off this heist for so long that they're starting to get sloppy. They even rent the warehouse under Recharred's name. The crew is pumped about their success and they want to steal more and faster.

So along with the new digs, they also get new people involved with the scheme. It's a risk they decide is worth taking. I mean, so far there hasn't been a ton of risk with this, so I can see why they'd want to bring more people in and possibly get more syrup. Well, it's about to get messy. According to court documents, a Federation employee actually notices a pool of water around a barrel at the St. Louis de Blancford warehouse one day. So Ovick bribes him to keep his mouth shut, and he offers him even more money if he wants to join the scheme and help. The guy agrees.

So now the crew has a man on the inside. But as the crew gets bigger, the crime also gets more visible. People who live near the warehouse start to notice traffic on the usually quiet road at all hours of the night. They also see that the warehouse fence is always left open and someone has cut the lock. At some point, the men from the high slip-up, we're not really sure how this happened, but empty barrels have somehow made their way back into the lock. At some point, the men from the high slip up were not really sure how this happened, but empty barrels have somehow made their way back into the warehouse. There's another issue too.

The barrels are starting to rust and get dirty. In the process of emptying and refilling the barrels, our heist team is causing visible damage. It's the kind of thing most people wouldn't notice, but Federation employees are not most people. Meanwhile, cans of stolen maple syrup start hitting shelves and grocery stores. It's estimated that several million cans of this stolen syrup

were distributed in the United States alone. For now, our crew is pulling off a bigger scheme than they ever could have imagined. But you know what they say, Sarah? Pride comeeth before the fall. But you know what they say, Sarah? Pride comeeth before the fall. By July 2012, Reeshard and the other thieves have been carrying out their heist for about 10 months,

but they're starting to get paranoid. They've been using burner phones to talk to each other, and things are getting tense. Some members later claim that Avik becomes extremely aggressive, even scary. Allegedly, he's willing to threaten violence to get things done. But the men are about to experience something that makes their anxiety even worse. One day, Oviq finds out an investigator is coming by the warehouse to do the annual inventory.

In fact, he's on his way. Oh, so this was kind of a total surprise to the team. Well, let's see other things some producers really hate about the Federation. Their inspectors can just show up to warehouses without notice. So, Avik text Rechard on his burner phone, saying that someone from the Federation may have seen their truck. Rechard tells Avik to calm down, to which Avik replies, I am calm. Sure. Avik says that that the lajustal lights in the warehouse, making sure they're low so that it'll be harder to spot anything.

But then, ReShart gets a text that makes his heart drop. It's from Sebastian. Our writer translated it from French. Sarah, care to read it? Yeah, Sebastian goes, the alarm went off in the warehouse. Is everything OK? Michel, the accountant hired by the Federation, has called the cops.

That's after he nearly falls from a stack of barrels that turn out to be empty. A huge formal investigation takes off right away. More than 250 officers get involved in tracking down the syrup. They start by investigating the warehouse itself. With 16,000 barrels, it takes two months just to find all the empty

and water-filled barrels to figure out how much was stolen. As talk of the highest spreads through Quebec, news teams quickly arrive on the scene. Police in Quebec are investigating after a major supply of the sticky stuff went missing. After police start investigating the warehouse, they also notice something is off with some of the barrels. They know Federation barrels are always pristine. They're moved around with a special forklift that doesn't damage them,

and they're airtight, so there's never any leakage. But, they see that many of the barrels in the warehouse now have visible markings. Fingerprints, shoe prints, scratches, dents, and more than that, they have markings consistent with being moved around by a regular-ass forklift, one that grips in the middle of the barrel instead of the top. The thing about a small town like St. Louis de Blancford is that there aren't a lot of options for forklift rentals. Investigators go to all the rental places in the area and get a list of their recent

customers. And one of the names that pops up is Sebastian Jutra. When the investigators hear his name, they perk up. They have heard about Sebastian before. A few people they interviewed mentioned seeing a big rig frequently showing up in the middle of the night. One with Sebastian Express printed on the side. Sebastian Express is, of course,

a transport company owned by our trusty driver. He was driving the getaway car, with his name painted on the side. The Heist crew had come across the perfect crime, but hubris and greed got in the way. And now their greatest threat is coming from the inside. The investigation involves the Royal Mounted Police, or the RCMP, and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. They're taking this crime very seriously, especially after they tally all of the barrels. They discover that nearly 10,000 barrels have been emptied.

Their contents amount to more than $18 million Canadian dollars. Our boys are in hot water now, and they start turning against each other almost immediately. Rechard leader alleges in a court testimony that Avick threatened him at gunpoint, saying he'd shoot Rechard in the head if he spoke out. This is crazy because, I mean, they all clearly were so into it, and now they're all turning on one another,

being like, you threatened me. You held me at gunpoint and said, you gotta steal this syrup now. Ha ha ha. Well, everything starts to unravel. Sebastian is brought in for questioning. He's wearing a graphic T per usual. And clasping his hands in front of him, seemingly nervous.

And video of it made it to the Netflix series Dirty Money. The interrogator asks Sebastian if he's received any threats or promises for agreeing to be questioned. He shakes his head no. No promises, he says, but they told me it couldn't hurt my case. The interrogator nods. And then, maybe feeling a little bit better about writing on his friends, Sebastian names names, like all the names. And so now, law enforcement is heading down to New Brunswick to take down the final player in this multi-million dollar scheme. It's 10 am on September 25, 2012, less than two months after the investigation started.

At tan is at the office of his company, SKX Sports, in the same Navy shirt and work pants he always wears. Suddenly, two cops from Quebec's Provincial Police Service show up with a search warrant. Julien knows that a Quebec search warrant doesn't mean anything in New Brunswick. She later says that she snatched the warrant and pretended to wipe her ass with it. And then, when officers asked to see Etienne's warehouse, Juulien reportedly takes the keys and shoves them into her bra. I would expect nothing less from my dear Juulien indelible.

Well the police leave, but they return around 12 hours later with approval from a new bronze wick judge. Etienne and Julien can't stop them this time. The police use a crowbar to force the warehouse doors open and find over a million dollars worth of syrup. The next day, Etienne admits that around 800 of the barrels came from Rechard. The police take everything. All his syrup, his confidential list of suppliers,

and even his forklift. Everything's coming together for the investigators, and Etienne is starting to look like a sap. Ghost Sound Reel. At least is a journalist, that's what I've always believed. Sure, odd things happened in my childhood bedroom, but ultimately, I shrugged it all off. That is, until a couple of years ago, when I discovered that every subsequent occupant of that house is convinced they've experienced something inexplicable too. Including the most recent inhabitant,

who says she was visited at night by the ghost of a faceless woman. And it gets even stranger. It just so happens that the alleged ghost haunted my childhood room might just be my wife's great grandmother. It was murdered in the house next door by two gunshots to the face. From Wondering and Pineapple Street Studios comes Ghost Story, a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming coincidence, and the things that come back to haunt us. Follow Ghost Story on the Wondering app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can binge all episodes at free right now by joining Wondry Plus. About three months after the raid, Avig and Rechard are arrested. Both men face charges of theft, conspiracy, and fraud. Not long afterwards, Etienne and Sebastian are also arrested, along with others involved in the crime. In total, 25 Quebec residents face jail time, plus one new Brunswick resident, Etienne.

Even Rechard's dad gets taken in for storing the stolen goods. Around this time, news of the heist is making international headlines. Reporters are reprimanding the thieves, but they're also casting a critical eye on the Federation itself. Right after the arrests, the Washington Post

publishes a headline with a big question. Why is maple syrup controlled by a Quebec cartel anyway? Outlets like the New York Times also call the Federation a cartel. It is crazy when the rest of the world clues into what's happening in Canada. So this is very surreal, but I do remember this and then using being like, oh my god, like something big is happening right now. The New York Times is writing about it. Yeah, the Federation is under more scrutiny than ever. The story keeps getting bigger and bigger.

In 2013, Jason Seagull was even cast in a movie about it, though it seems like it got scrapped. But maybe he just couldn't pull off a Kibblekwa accent. I mean, not many people can pull off that specific type of accent, because he just kind of go into doing France French. You got to live around that accent to know that accent. That's true. Stakes a special person and a special life experience to know it.

Well, when the men finally go to court in late 2015 and early 2016, Sebastian turns his back on his crew yet again. He testifies against Avik, Etienne, and Rechart. Rechart admits to his part in the crime, saying that he bought the stolen syrup to resell and filled the empty barrels with water. He says he never wanted to participate though. In a dim wood-paneled courtroom in Quebec,

he testifies that he was forced to by Avik, who constantly carried a gun and threatened him. Rechard's story of manipulation and threats is compelling but inconsistent. Witnesses in the court say he was actually one of the ring leaders of the heist. Richard is found guilty of theft, fraud, and trafficking stolen goods.

As for Etienne, he stays consistent. He hates the Federation and he loves maple syrup. And that's that. He tells the jury, you can't prove what tree the syrup came from And you know what that is technically true But he is also found guilty of fraud and trafficking stolen goods and Avick well, he has a different tactic that comes completely out of left field He blames the Italian Mafia

He blames the Italian Mafia. Avik says that he wanted to end the heist way back in November 2011, just a month after it started, but then, two brothers from the Italian Mafia suddenly showed up and started pressuring him. Apparently, they forced him to keep the heist going. Sure, buddy. Well, unsurprisingly, Sarah, the jury doesn't buy any of it. Avik ultimately pleads guilty in January 2017 to charges of theft and trafficking.

Finally, in April, convictions are handed out. A judge sentences Rechard to eight years in prison and finds him $9.4 million. That's on top of the more than $600,000 that the judge confiscates from him. Etienne receives a sentence of about two years with three years probation. He's also required to pay $1.3 million,

and he faces five more years of jail time if he doesn't. Avic is identified as the instigator, and he sentenced to a five-year prison term in a $1.2 million fine. Apparently, when he heard how stiff the sentence was, he flew into a rage, demanding a retrial and fighting with a security guard who tried to hold him back. The judge says that the sentence is so stiff

because the crime has over 10,000 victims. Every law abiding syrup producer who relies on the federation. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I mean, I'm sure most of these maple syrup producers don't love the rules, but they still abide by them because they have to make a living. So yeah, I'd be pretty pissed off.

I'd be like, yeah, I am your victim. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, it seems like the men weren't very careful with how they transferred and stored the syrup. Evidence shows that some accomplices in the crime got sick after tasting it. And some of the recovered syrup was destroyed because it was deemed unsafe for human consumption. Only a small fraction of the stolen maple syrup was ever recovered.

Much of that was found in the States, which is the biggest importer of Quebec syrup. Who knows where the rest of the stolen syrup ended up? It likely found its way into lots of kitchen cupboards across North America. We don't really know if consumers got sick from it, but if you had food poisoning after a pancake breakfast around 2012, maybe now you know why. In other news, Amazon, our parent company, is reportedly producing a TV show based on the heist. It's called The Sticky, Jamie Lee Curtis isn't it?

Sarah, do you want wanna read the official description? Yeah, it goes, the sticky revolves around Ruth Landry, a tough, supremely competent maple syrup farmer who's had it with being hemmed in by the polite bureaucratic conventions and native to her country's identity. With the help of Remy Bouchard, a mild-mannered security guard,

and Mike Burn, a low-level mobster, Ruth changes her fate and transforms a future of her community with the theft of millions of dollars worth of maple syrup. I'm going to watch that. I will watch it, and I do like how it's kind of an empowering story here about how maple syrup can change a community. I think that's beautiful.

Oh, and by the way, despite all the scrutiny this whole affair drummed up, the Federation is still chugging along as usual. Now they have a new name, the Quebec Maple Serif producers. In 2022, they even expanded their global strategic reserve again, building a new warehouse for all their extra syrup. And hopefully they install security cameras this time. Sarah, I think the real heroes of this episode are you and I, who had to explain several Canadian references to our producers and slowly went insane in the process. You realize how little Americans know about Canada and also care about Canada. But this is a very big deal. This story was a big deal.

It was a huge deal back home. Like, I thought it was gonna change how that entire industry operated. And I feel like the craziest part of the story is it did almost nothing. Like all they did was get a new warehouse. They didn't change any of the rules around the federation. They never thought about the fairness of it.

They never thought about why people would go out of their way to do this. That is kind of the craziest part to me is that the lack of security, but also the attention to detail. It was almost like, we don't need cameras because we know how all these barrels look and they're pristine.

And we'll know if a forklift grabbed it from this way or this way. It's just, it's so quaint, you know? It's like all this money, this thing that's worth so much, that's such a huge export for province. And it was this easy for these people to do that. Of course, a Canadian scam is like adorable.

Also I don't think people realize how much maple syrup is worth. And also how fickle the industry is, I know people who tap trees to make their own syrup and it really depends on when that spring hits. Do you think most Americans even know that you got a tap a tree to get that shit out there? You got a milk a tree. You got a milk that tree boob to get the syrup. It's something that requires a lot of patience.

But again, if they were more sophisticated, I think they could have gotten away with it for longer. I'd frankly be more on board with it if there hadn't been so many people who were following the rules and were ultimately punished by the crime. Like, if they were just stealing from like, from the federation, I'd be fine with that.

That's okay. Go for it. I also love that they really did assemble a team of Randos and they just trusted one another until the second someone questioned what was happening and they all turned so fast, there's no solidarity here. This is nothing like Ocean's 11. No honor amongst thieves, Haggy. No honor amongst thieves.

We know this. You know what, the TV show should be Oceans 11, but with syrup. Yeah. That's what I want the show to be. I want them to correct the mistakes that these people made. Well, my hope is that our friends at Amazon are listening to this and are taking our notes seriously. Yeah, it doesn't sit right with me that they were so disloyal to one another. That's the biggest crime. That's the thing you're upset about? Yeah, they should have been friends. Okay, well it's nice that you're ending this in the most Canadian way possible.

Now that's just bad, that's just dishonorable. If you ask me, it's not polite. Yeah, one of the biggest issues in this case was the impoliteness. Hey, prime members, you can listen to scamful answers, add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. This is the great syrupap Swindle.

I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggi. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencersatwondery.com. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Bloomberg's The Great Canadian Maple Serapized by Brandon Borrell, Vanity Fair's Inside Quebec's great multi-million dollar syrup-iced by Rich Cohen, and the Maple Syrop Hiced episode of a Netflix docuseries, Dirty Money.

Gabrielle Jorollet wrote this episode, additional writing by Us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Haggy. Our senior producer is Jen Swan, our producer is John Reed, our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peary, our Story Editor and Producer is Sarah Annie, Eric Thurham is our Story Editor, Sound Design is by Ryan Podesta, Fact Checking by Will Tablin, Additional Audio Assistance provided by Adrian Tapia, our Music Supervisor is Scott Folaska's for Freeze on Sync, Desi Blaylock is our coordinating producer, our Managing Producer is Matt Gantt and our senior managing producer is Ryan Moore.

Kate Young and Olivia ReShard are our series producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our senior producer is Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Jeanine Cornelot, Stephanie Gens, Jenny Lauer Beckman, and Marshall Louis for Wundery. Wundery Wunder. You're under one, you're under one. Bosh Legacy returns. My name's Harry Bosh, I'm a private investigator. Now streaming in a two-episode premiere event.

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