Tracy Smith

Don 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?

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?