So you meet him and he seems like he's just the perfect man, too good to be true.
Well, maybe he is and maybe he isn't.
The romantic swindler is often a smooth operator, tempting victims with charm and then breaking
hearts and then emptying some bank accounts along the way.
Later in the show, we're going to meet a man who thought that he was falling in love with
a Contessa from Spain.
I would have suspected that right away.
Any woman meets you in a bar, tells you she's a Contessa, look out.
And he's going to tell us how he found out that she was really an ex-con and a woman
for the first time on this show is going to confront the man who was her romantic swindler
who took her life savings.
She hasn't seen him since he left with all her money.
We'll meet them a little later on.
But now the story of twin sisters who say that they were falsely accused of romantically
swindling an older man.
This is a story.
For seven years, my guests were involved in a relationship with an elderly who, as the
prosecution said, craved the company of young women and was willing to pay for that company.
The question we're asking today, and I'm sure our audience will be very helpful in helping
us answer it, is was it more than just companionship?
Blonde, identical twins, Lynette Harris and Leon Connolly, who once posed nude for Playboy
Magazine, befriended an 88-year-old Milwaukee millionaire, David Kritziker.
He bought them homes and gifts, adding up to almost a million dollars in exchange for
companionship and sex, says the prosecution.
Both women claim the money given to them during the seven-year relationship was a gift, but
the federal government thought differently and sentenced them to prison for failing to
pay federal taxes on the money.
This August, their convictions were overturned due to insufficient evidence.
I just want to say that I just can't believe that this happened.
All I did was live my life, and I woke up to an awful nightmare.
Well, here to tell their side are Lynette Harris and Leon Connolly.
We're glad to have you all here, sisters.
So how did you, who first met this man?
I did.
You did.
And how did you meet him?
I met him over the telephone.
How?
Well, he was at his previous girlfriend's house, and he was not getting along very well
with her.
And we would have several conversations together.
And he asked to meet me when he came and flew in from Palm Springs one winter.
And I met him, and we struck up a relationship, and we just continued from there.
Okay.
So when you say struck up a relationship, what does that mean?
Well, actually we went out and we had dinner, and he said that he was looking for a new
girlfriend, and that he wanted to get to know me, and I said, well, I have to get to know
you, and we'll see what happens.
And we dated for a few weeks, and things like that.
Are you attracted to older men, specifically?
Yes, I am.
And what attracted me about him was his personality.
He was a lot like George Burns, who was really funny.
And he was very, very giving and very kind, very generous.
And he had a lot of wisdom.
And coming from Los Angeles, and being in the Playboy, and all of that, I just got kind
of tired of the whole thing, and was, you know, he just was what I was looking for.
Okay, so Leanne, then how did you meet him?
I met him through Lynn.
Okay.
They invited me for dinner one evening.
I was driving an old beater car, and I was studying acting at the Performing Arts Center,
pursuing my career.
It's always been my drive to do that.
And David met me, and he said, well, such a pretty girl like you shouldn't have to live
that way.
And at the time, I said, well, and he said that he would take care of me, and that he
had had a lot of women in his life since his wife had passed away.
And I asked him at that point in time what that would entail, and I told him that I did
not want to become involved in any kind of physical relationship, and I would be willing
to be his friend.
And I was rather hesitant in the beginning about the relationship, but David was very
kind, and we had a very caring, respectful concern for one another.
And he was almost like...
So you never had sex with him?
No, I did not.
But you did.
I established that point in the beginning, Oprah.
I couldn't.
I told him that I could not emotionally handle that.
Because your sister was with him.
Well, right.
And not only that, I just didn't want that kind of relationship, per se.
That just wasn't my makeup.
And he said that that was no problem with him, that it wasn't that important to him
at that time in his life.
Okay.
Because he already had a relationship with your sister.
Right.
Not only that.
I mean, he was in his 80s when I met him, Oprah.
Well, I wouldn't have been real happy about it.
Let's put it that way, if they had a sexual relationship.
David and I had...
But she's saying, oh, he was in his 80s, but he was still in his 80s with you, too.
Yes, he was.
It didn't bother me.
I got to ask her a question.
I don't know.
I found him, to be honest with you.
We had a very nice, loving relationship, and a very nice physical relationship.
And I enjoyed him, and he enjoyed me, and I loved him.
Okay.
So, he was giving you all these gifts and things, or was he?
Yes.
A spin about how much?
I read $686,000.
Yes.
That's right.
Yes, he was.
I never really looked at it that it was gifts.
I looked at it as if, that in a way, it was sort of like a marriage.
And women who are married...
How long were you with him?
Pardon?
How long were you with him?
Seven years.
Seven years.
And I would have continued to have been with him longer, but someone mysteriously beat him
up, and that terminated our relationship.
I would have continued to have been with him probably until he died, but I was not allowed
to see him after that.
Because what?
They suspected that you or your sister...
Might have had something to do with it, which was ridiculous, because I was the one that
saved him.
Excuse me.
And I was in Mexico at the time.
Okay.
So, that's it.
You were somewhere.
You are with someplace, and someone came into the house and beat him up, and then after that,
he didn't see you anymore.
Yes, that's correct.
Okay.
Were you held suspect in that incident?
No.
Not legally, but people talked?
Yes.
Okay.
So, over the period of seven years, he's given you thousands of dollars worth of gifts.
Bought you a home?
Yes, he did.
Bought you a home?
Yes.
He bought you a home, and you were just a friend?
Yes, he did.
Well, he did.
Okay.
He's very generous.
Okay, so, Oprah, let me just say something to you.
This man loved women, and he loved the company of women.
Okay.
And we were not the only women.
Women, right.
He was involved with that at this time.
Did you know he was involved with other people?
I just found that out probably before I went into prison, when everything went to court.
I found out that he was involved with one of my friends.
So, how is it then?
Okay.
So, it seems to me, like, so far, audience, you all following this?
There, there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and there,
and there.
So, you're following him, and she's his sister, and she's getting things, and gifts?
What kinds of gifts?
If, with me, it was, he used to...
Cars?
He used to call me Blondie, and cars, and whatever I wanted.
What kind of cars?
Oh, I, I wanted a new car.
He said, sweetheart, I think you need a new car, and I walked into Capitol Imports, and
I bought a Porsche, a 1984 Porsche, and in one hour, I had the car.
Okay.
I drove it over to his house for a test drive, and he said he was scared because of my driving
skills, but anyway, I drove it over to his home, and he laughed, and he said, well, do
you want it?
And he called the dealership, and I had, I drove the car off the showroom floor.
Okay.
So, cars, and I saw you, one of you in the courtroom, looking very spiffy, and, and the
fur coat.
Yes, anything.
He bought jewels, furs, clothes.
Furs, clothes.
Anything.
I just...
So, you all were having just a kind of hey old time, weren't you?
Yeah?
Okay.
We'll be back.
And I'll talk about the money Lynette and Leanne received from 88-year-old David Kritzick
seems to have been within the law, right?
But was it moral?
We're going to ask the audience on Movie Turn, was it?
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I would not even try to do my own taxes anymore.
We just depend on H&R Block to do it.
H&R Block is prepared for you.
I wanted the Johnsons to feel at home.
She really knows her business, and her business is taxes.
We're always right there.
The whole team's behind us all the way.
I'm real committed to this team.
We stand behind our work and guarantee your satisfaction.
America's tax team's standing up for you.
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So what we the people are trying to understand then is, we the people, is in how you all
end up in jail.
You served what, a year?
I served seven months.
Seven months.
I served eight months in a federal penitentiary, five in a federal penitentiary, and three
in a federal halfway house.
Four.
Mine was tax evasion and tax fraud, and two counts of tax fraud and two counts of failure
to file.
Uh-huh.
Mine was for simply not filing income tax returns.
On that portion.
And I was never pursued civilly.
Uh-huh.
So and your lawyer's here, right?
This, okay, can you explain this to us?
So they went to jail because of all the gifts that they received.
They should have been reporting it?
They went to jail on the basis that the government said, and I'm going to speak on behalf of
Leanne Connolly because I was her attorney.
In Leanne Connolly's case, Mr. Kritzik did file gift tax returns, but he understated
the amounts that she had received as compared to what he put on the tax return.
The government took the position that the difference between what he stated and what
she received constituted income, and therefore by not filing tax returns and paying the tax,
she was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, which they would have had to prove of failing
to file income tax returns on income.
It was our position that these were gifts, number one, because of the gift tax returns
he filed.
Right.
And number two, because-
No, no, that if you give gifts and you have a lot of money and you give gifts to people,
you have to, somebody has to pay taxes on that money.
So the person giving the gift has to pay taxes or otherwise the person who gets the gift
has to pay taxes.
Yeah.
And since he did file gift tax returns, and it was shown beyond any reasonable doubt that
Leanne did not know what was on his tax returns because we subpoenaed his accountant during
the trial, said she never saw them.
So she would not have known, yet the jury found her guilty of knowingly and willfully
failing to file income tax returns.
See, this doesn't make any sense to me because if you're getting the gifts, okay, if you're
getting fur coats in porches and houses and things, and these in your mind are truly gifts,
why would you call up the IRS to say, got some fur coats here?
That's exactly right.
It's our feeling that the IRS selected this case for several purposes.
One, because it would be a high profile exposure case, twins, playboy.
Secondly, because it was in a conservative community such as Milwaukee and was our feeling
that IRS was trying to set an example to relationships that existed throughout the country, whereby
if you have a rich guy giving you stuff, pay IRS whether you have to or not to avoid what
happened here.
Okay.
Is that what you all think too?
Yes.
Well, I'd like to expound upon that if I may, Oprah.
Okay, do.
Thank you.
My father supplemented our income since I was a child doing income tax returns.
I was very concerned at all times with the amount of money that was being passed through
my bank account and the gifts given.
Because my father was an accountant and did tax returns to supplement the income, I knew
about my responsibilities as a citizen for my taxes.
But see, the only reason I'm saying it's a question, because I give a lot of gifts too,
but I pay the gift taxes on them and say to the people, look, I've already paid the tax
on this.
So if somebody's already paid the tax on it, then you shouldn't have to pay tax twice.
He shouldn't have to pay the tax and then you pay the tax.
Exactly.
This whole thing, that's why it was thrown out of appellate court.
It's mind boggling.
And knowing the law, I couldn't understand it.
And I had asked my father at the time, there was an investigation going on with Lynette.