Mark Yagala

They were together for 13 months. Was Mark in love with Sandy?

Was Sandy in love with him?

Yes. The most expensive girl I've ever met in my life.

How much did you spend on her?

About six to seven million dollars. Six to seven million bucks? Yes.

So how did Mark Yagala manage to pay for all of this?

I was taking client money and there was no boundaries.

You were scamming your clients?

As it turns out, these guys were out peddling over a million dollars worth of jewelry that I had given my girlfriend. And that's effectively what got them killed. These jewels are definitely cursed.

Yes.

Instead of investing their money in stocks, He used it to pay for his incredibly expensive sexcapades.

He was running one big Ponzi scheme. He just was the definition of greed.

Mike Degnan is a special agent with the FBI.

I dug such a deep hole, $40, $50 million that I could not get myself out of.

When Sandy got wind of it all, Yagala says she dumped him.

Pretty much did not want to have anything to do with me. She was moving on.

Moving on, he says, but keeping most of his extravagant gifts, including a fortune in jewels. Police believe it was that jewelry that got Michael Tardio and Chris Monson murdered.

Bill Cox and other investigators believe Sandy hatched a plan with Michael Tardio to sell some of Yagala's gifts under the table to raise some fast cash.

Oh, I'm a sucker. Sandy was a total manipulator.

Mark Yagala is bitter and angry. But is he capable of murder? Did you have anything to do with the murder of Michael Tardio and Chris Monson? Just like in the good book, all roads in this case seem to lead to the Garden of Eden nightclub. Almost all the players in our mystery met and partied here. Mark Yagala, Hef and the Bentley twins.

It's where Michael Tardio, working the door, became involved with Sandy Bentley. Michael Tardio and Sandy Bentley's relationship, what was that? Was this an affair? Were they lovers?

Sandy may have played the gold digger in her past affairs, but this relationship seemed different.

And Michael and Sandy became a hot item in the hottest club in Hollywood.

Right across the street, that big black blob right now used to be one of the hottest places in the city.

And along with all the glamour and celebrity, a seedier element was also drawn to the garden. Detectives started focusing on that as they investigated deeper into Michael Tardio's life. You believe this is the club where Michael Tardio met the people ultimately responsible for his murder?

On the detectives' short list of suspects, Sandy Bentley's former lover, Mark Ugala. But there was one problem. Yagala had an ironclad alibi. He was in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to his massive Ponzi scheme.

Attorney Eugene Licker was responsible for finding out where Yagala squandered his victim's millions so they could get some money back. A major target, the gifts Yagala lavished on Sandy.

Faced with losing everything, police say a desperate Sandy Bentley went to her new boyfriend, Michael Tardio, for help.

And that's just what happened. Watch this grainy surveillance video a private eye shot at Sandy's Las Vegas mansion the week those two allegedly took the jewels.

It's estimated that Michael and Sandy made off with nearly $1 million in jewels and furs. Now, Sandy Bentley claims this was Tardio's idea, correct? Yes. But Tardy, of course, is dead. Do we really know the ultimate truth?

This video shows Eugene Licker inventorying the jewels that were left behind after Sandy was evicted.

Empty.

Yeah. See, there's only three bracelets there. I bought her a lot of bracelets. That was empty.

Fearful that she would be prosecuted for the missing jewels, Sandy told Eugene Licker they were lost or stolen by someone else.

stole it, and then tried to fence it through her boyfriend, Michael Tardio, back at the Garden of Eden. Their price for the treasure? $1 million cash. Who had that kind of money? This is where a strange story gets even more bizarre. Meet wealthy jewelry collector, Linda Kim. Linda, you are wearing very beautiful jewelry. This is a 14-carat diamond.

You know quality jewelry.

Linda Kim also knows scandal. You're very famous in South Korea. Is that right?

Big trouble is putting it lightly. An international weapons broker, in 2000, Kim was the central figure in a sex and bribery scandal that nearly toppled the South Korean government. Two years after that scandal, Michael Tardio came to her at the hotel she owned in LA with what seemed like the deal of a lifetime.

But the deal seemed fishy, and she sent him on his way.

By this time, too many people knew about the jewelry, including a lot of the wrong people, leaving a lot of questions about who murdered Michael Tardio and Christopher Monson.

And they were good guys. With few leads, no arrests, and the investigation going nowhere, the families of Michael Tardio and Christopher Monson made a public plea for help. And the guy who did it is out there. So please try and help us find him.

From the very beginning, Detective Bill Cox, now retired, had little to go on from the burned Mercedes at the crime scene.

And the million in jewels, gone. But they did find Michael Tardio's cell phone, and record show Tardio's girlfriend, Sandy Bentley, had talked with him just moments before he was murdered. And after questioning regulars at the Garden of Eden nightclub, investigators learned about those high-end jewels.

But Sandy Bentley, the woman who bared it all on the pages of Playboy, suddenly had something to hide.

We're heading north of Los Angeles right now trying to find Sandy Bentley. We'd requested an interview with her, she turned us down, but we feel as though there's some questions that have to be asked and need to be answered.

We're doing a story about Michael Tardio and I wanted to ask you what responsibility do you think you bear for Michael Tardio's death and Christopher Monson's death? Can you answer that question? Did you love Michael Tardio? Why won't you talk to us? Why didn't you help the police investigate this case? Sandy finally did open up to the cops when months after the murders, they turned up the heat.

What haunts retired Los Angeles homicide detective Bill Cox is the unsolved murders of those two handsome young men who had come to Hollywood to chase their dreams.

Sandy eventually agreed to cooperate in the murder investigation. In exchange, she would not be prosecuted for making off with the jewelry.

Sandy now admitted they were trying to sell those jewels and that Michael had finally found a buyer at the Garden of Eden.

It was with a mysterious man known as Mr. Big.

September 1st, 2002. It would be Michael Tardio's last day alive.

Looking to play the part for his meeting with Mr. Big, Tardio rents a black Mercedes. He also tried to find one of these cash counters in anticipation of his million dollar deal.

But was Michael getting nervous about the deal? Linda Kim says that he visited her a second time, this time just hours before the murder, hoping she would reconsider buying the jewels. Did Michael Tardio seem desperate to you at that time? Linda said no.

Michael asked a Hollywood stuntman like these guys to serve as muscle for the deal. The stuntman declined.

Finally, at around 9.30, Michael and Christopher set out on their fatal rendezvous.

It's a case that has frustrated police in Hollywood since 2002. Which is why we're doing a different 48 Hours. Look, I gotta tell you, there's no trial, there's not even an arrest. But Bill Cox and a number of detectives here are convinced this double homicide can be solved, perhaps with your help. We begin by telling you what we've learned about this crime and its two victims.

Their first stop was this restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, where cops believe they met Mr. Big. Do you have a sense of who this Mr. Big is based on your own investigation?

After meeting the prospective buyer, Mr. Big, they head up into the Hollywood Hills.

At 11.30, Sandy made that last call to Michael.

Less than two hours later...

Police believe Michael and Chris were shot somewhere in these hills.

And it was Sandy Bentley who would provide police with the most significant clue. A phone number Michael gave her right before he left for the meeting.

And that phone number links to the man who may hold the key to solving these murders. Back in 2002, the strongest lead cops had was that telephone number Michael Tardio had left with his girlfriend, Sandy Bentley. It linked to a person who would play a central role in the investigation.

48 Hours has learned he's talking about Michael Jacobs, a convicted felon seen here in a 1999 mugshot after resisting arrest. People from the Garden of Eden nightclub told us he and Michael Tardio discussed selling the jewels. Police believe Jacobs brought Tardio and Mr. Big together for the million dollar deal.

Police say evidence shows that in the hours before the killings, there were multiple calls between the cell phones of Tardio and Michael Jacobs during the day and into the night. In fact, Jacob's cell phone showed activity in the area where Tardio and Monson went to meet, according to cops, Mr. Big, before heading up here into the Hollywood Hills.

Jacob's cell phone also showed activity, and this is important, in the area where the bodies were found.

After a two-month search, investigative producer Chris O'Connell finally got Michael Jacobs on the phone from our office in New York.

By law, we're prohibited from recording Jacob's voice. Thanks, Mike. All right, bye. Is it your sense that Michael Jacobs knows much more about this case than he told you in this conversation? He knows that this is about Jules, but he won't say that. O'Connell flies to Los Angeles. He said he wanted to meet tonight. Let's see if he's for real.

He doesn't have an address for Jacobs, just a phone number.

Both young men came from successful families. Andrew Blankstein with the Los Angeles Times is one of the country's top crime reporters.

But when they finally connect, Jacobs gets cold feet.

Including the fact that Sandy Bentley did call him that night looking for Tardio. Jacobs refused an on-camera interview. He also refused to answer any questions about the jewelry deal, except to say that he had nothing to do with the murders and that he quote, sleeps well at night.

At the time of the murders, Jacobs was questioned extensively by police, but they never had evidence to charge him. For now, this investigation has hit a wall. Is this case solvable?

The woman at the center of it all, who once wore those millions in jewels, Playboy cover girl Sandy Bentley, is a little less glamorous today. She is married and a mother. Her former sugar daddy, who bought all those jewels, Mark Ugala, is broke and still owes millions to the people he scammed.

You know, I go from living every man's fantasy to having nothing.

No women.

No women. In my case, people lost money. Two people now have lost their lives.

And the other mystery is, where did all those jewels go?

It's all disappeared.

And so for now, we end this story the way it began, on the streets of Hollywood, a crime unsolved, and two promising young men dead. But authorities believe that with your help, they can solve this mystery and find the killer or killers of Michael Tardio and Christopher Monson. As we sit here talking today, There's a killer out there, a killer in your town, who's a free man.

Which made the events on the morning of September 2nd, 2002 so shocking. The bodies of Michael Tardio and Christopher Monson were found in this luxury SUV. They had been shot at close range. The killer or killers tried to burn the vehicle. Were there fingerprints other than Tardio and Monson's in that SUV?

Detective Cox took us back to the upscale North Hollywood neighborhood where the SUV was discovered.

As investigators dug into the victim's backgrounds, they discovered that Michael Tardio had a girlfriend that most men could only dream of. Someone millions of men had seen naked. Sandy Bentley, Playboy cover girl and former live-in lover of the world's most famous bachelor, Hugh Hefner.

Sandy and her identical twin sister, Mandy, had their 15 minutes of fame back in 2000 as the Bentley twins. They lived with Hef at the Playboy mansion, sharing his famous circular bed and sharing some airtime as well, appearing on some of television's most popular shows. like Sex and the City.

A slow one, yes. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Can I tell you something?

Oh, you topped yourself.

That's what life's all about. And Two and a Half Men, where they played party girls. Oh, for God's sake.

Isabella St. James is another former live-in Hef girlfriend who wrote about life at the Playboy Mansion in her book, Bunny Tales. She has nothing good to say about Sandy Bentley.

Heartache, she says, like when Hef learned Sandy was cheating on him while still sharing his bed.

But in the late summer of 1999, while still living at the Playboy mansion, long before Sandy began dating Michael Tardio, she quietly became involved with this man, multi-millionaire Mark Yagala, a self-described Wall Street whiz kid.

I was looking for the ultimate trophy.

Yagala had big dreams, and Sandy quickly became a part of them when he was introduced to her by another Playboy model.

I stole her from Hugh Hefner, the ultimate heterosexual icon.

And was Hef happy with that?

No, he was not. I am persona non grata at the Playboy mansion.

Head over heels, Yagala began buying his Playboy bunny spectacular world-class jewelry, like an exact copy of the ruby and diamond necklace and earrings that Richard Gere gave Julia Roberts in the movie Pretty Woman.

It was her favorite movie. And how much did that cost you? A quarter of a million.

adding insult to betrayal. We've had major fundraisers here. Heff didn't know during this interview that Sandy was wearing Yagala's diamonds, a $150,000 necklace and earring set. But this was just the tip of the diamond iceberg. When Sandy wanted bling, Mark couldn't say no.

Two Rolexes, diamond rings. There's about a million dollars right there.

You bought a watch worth half a million dollars?

Yes.

Are you nuts?

I just wanted to make her happy.

And material things made her happy? Very, very happy. Yagala even spent about $3 million buying and redecorating this house for Sandy in Las Vegas. You were in love.

Yes, I was.

I think both.

Why? Because after Yagala and Sandy broke up, she took that jewelry into her relationship with her new boyfriend. Michael Tardio, one of the two men murdered in that SUV.

Every day I feel like a fool. You know, my greed and then, you know, her greed, you know, resulted in the murders of two innocent people.

Two dead young men. An unsolved double homicide. Link to jewelry and a Playboy model. And at the beginning of the investigative trail, a self-indulgent Wall Street millionaire.

Playmates, porn stars, the list was endless. I just became a sex craze maniac.

11 years ago, Mark Yagala was living most every man's fantasy. Having sex with some of the most beautiful women in the world.

It was exhilarating. It was a drug. It was my high.

No small feat, especially for this 33-year-old man who stands slightly over five feet tall and who considered himself a nerd growing up in rural Pennsylvania.

I was ranked number one in my class. The kids resented me because of that.

Do you have any girlfriends in high school? No. Ever go on a date in high school? No. but he did take a keen interest in the stock market.

I started spending a lot of time in the library, ordered the Wall Street Journal, ordering annual reports, digging into stocks.

At age 13?

Correct. So what was the attraction? I had developed sort of this fairy tale from movies that if you get money, you become successful, you get the girl.

like in the movie Wall Street. Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

I want it to be Gordon Gekko.

Yagala says he made $100,000 trading stocks while in high school.

My cousin backed me and I started trading. S&P futures, some tech stocks.

And he made millions more just a few years later with a hedge fund he'd set up.

It was intoxicating. I was having a great time.

Mark was living his dream.

As I was making money, it started with prostitutes.

By his own reckoning, he paid for thousands of them.

Sometimes three, four different girls a day.

In fact, Mark Ugalis says he became totally addicted to sex.

I was just out of control. in a strip club, in a bathroom, whatever I had to do to get sex.

Brian Bieber is Yagala's lawyer.

Yagala's insatiable appetite led him to this striking woman, Michelle Braun, who's known as the sex queen of LA.

She was the first person to really use the internet to offer prostitutes.

Ron ran this website, nickisgirls.com.

And she claims she offered these most desirable women to some of the world's wealthiest men, most notably Tiger Woods.

Try telling that to Mark Yagala, who was one of Braun's earliest clients. And what would a girl like that cost you, typically?

Anywhere from $5,000 a night to $50,000 a night.

So the geek in high school who couldn't get a date was now buying some of the most exotic women on planet Earth.

Any woman I wanted, yes.

Were you also lavishing them with gifts? Yes. Yagala says he couldn't help himself. He bought many of his escorts expensive cars, furs, jewelry, even houses, costing him millions. But it was only when another woman introduced Mark to Sandy Bentley, who he began dating, that his spending really went into orbit.

All the other girls were gold diggers, but I'd say Sandy was an educated gold digger.