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FBI DECLASSIFIED, THE
Air Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on CBS
Episode Title: (#104) "The Swindling Seductress"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

AN FBI AGENT REVEALS HOW HE OUTSMARTED A WOMAN WITH 15 ALIASES CONNING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FROM PEOPLE IN 16 STATES IN "THE FBI DECLASSIFIED: THE SWINDLING SEDUCTRESS"

Alana De La Garza, Star of CBS' "FBI" Drama Series, Narrates

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10:00 PM

Dana Lawrence, a career con woman - whose scams included posing as an heir to a cosmetics dynasty and an employee of a top Hollywood filmmaker - duped friends, lovers and acquaintances out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then FBI Special Agent Mark Hastbacka got the case. Hastbacka reveals his quest to outsmart the mysterious grifter in THE FBI DECLASSIFIED: "The Swindling Seductress" to be broadcast Tuesday, Oct. 27 (10:00-11:00 PM) on the CBS Television Network.

Investigators say Lawrence had 15 aliases and pulled off dozens of scams in 16 states that didn't end until Hastbacka got on the hunt.

"This is a story of a woman and her manipulations and cons over the last 20, 25 years," Hastbacka says. "We have the identity theft. The credit card theft. ... fugitive from justice. She's forging checks ... straight up larceny, taking the rent money."

Narrated by Alana De La Garza from CBS' drama series FBI, "The Swindling Seductress" takes viewers inside Hastbacka's months-long investigation: how he located multiple victims, followed a complex paper trail and how he enlisted one of Lawrence's daughters to help unravel the scams.

For decades, moving from state to state, Hastbacka says Lawrence swindled victims - wealthy businessmen, a pilot, a rabbi, a private school administrator and her own friends and lovers. At one point, she pretended to be an heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and passed herself off working for filmmaker George Lucas.

Hastbacka says Lawrence carried out scams where she sometimes either became pregnant or pretended to be pregnant. She also posed as an attorney and a fundraiser. Along the way, she told her children to go by different names to cover her tracks. He also uncovered how Lawrence used her children as props to gain sympathy.

"She just robbed me of my childhood," says daughter Kennedy Lawrence. "She robbed my brother and my sister of their childhoods."

THE FBI DECLASSIFIED features FBI agents and analysts taking viewers behind the scenes of some of the biggest cases they've solved during their careers. Through never-before-seen footage and in-depth interviews, each episode will focus on a different investigation and showcase the cooperation between the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

"I don't know what Dana's magnetism is," Hastbacka says. "I don't know what lures all these guys to her. But she doesn't seem to have a problem finding her next victim in that love circle."

THE FBI DECLASSIFIED: "The Swindling Seductress" is from the award-winning team behind CBS News' 48 HOURS. Anthony Batson is the executive producer. Matthew DeVoe is the director. Ruth Chenetz is the senior producer. Emily Bernstein is the producer. Chiara Norbitz is the field producer. Alicia Tejada is the senior coordinating producer. Phil Tangel and Marcus Balsam are the supervising producer-editors. Kevin Dean and Martin Bauza are the editors. Pat Milton is the supervising development producer.

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