- [Narrator] The war in Ukraine is changing the world.

It has shone a spotlight on Russia's super rich, the oligarchs.

Their love of spending is legendary.

Mega yachts, exotic houses, even their own football clubs.

- Truffles, caviar, champagne.

That's the culture of being a Russian oligarch.

- [Narrator] But now, some are under attack.

The free world is punishing them.

- We're joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.

- [Narrator] Why?

Because of the actions of this man.

- [Announcer] Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

- [Narrator] Putin himself has become the focus of financial investigations.

Is Vladimir Putin the richest man on Earth?

- Putin has to be the richest of the rich.

He has to be the oligarch, the billionaire to beat all the other oligarchs and billionaires.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Officially, the Kremlin says that President Putin earns a relatively modest $140,000 a year.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] But reports featuring remarkable drone footage have alleged he has a vast palace worth $1 billion, as well as private jets and mega yachts.

- Russians like the idea that their tsar, their ruler, might be the richest of all.

- [Narrator] Putin maintains control in Russia through fear.

In 2003, he had the richest man in the country arrested and caged.

- He illustrates what will happen to those that do oppose him.

He will jail them and they will eventually be sent into exile itself.

- [Narrator] Now, with war raging in Ukraine, he calmly demands the oligarch's loyalty by threatening them on television.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] The oligarchs face a grave crisis.

Caught between criticism in the west and a backlash at home.

This is the story of Russia's super rich and the man who rules over them.

Putin came to power in 2000, when President Boris Yeltsin endorsed him as his successor.

The oligarchs also supported Putin.

- Some of these oligarchic figures thought for themselves that he is a forward thinking, perhaps even progressive, moderate politician.

He is someone who perhaps they can help steer, just as they've done with President Yeltsin.

- [Narrator] But they were in for a big surprise.

- It's very clear by the first and second years of Putin's term in power that the oligarchs have supported someone for president that they underestimated.

President Putin himself is going to be the actual man and regime in charge.

- [Narrator] Putin launched a crackdown on the oligarchs.

- And so he out maneuvers all of the old style oligarchs, people like Boris Berezovsky and others, who'd been close to Yeltsin, who thinks that they can manipulate Putin.

And they find out very quickly that they actually cannot.

- [Narrator] Berezovsky and Putin had a huge falling out and Berezovsky left the country in 2000.

But another oligarch, who rose to riches before Putin's presidency, has somehow remained in his good graces.

(dramatic music) Roman Abramovich is best known for buying the Chelsea Football Club.

He made his fortune through the Russian oil company Sibneft.

And he owns stakes in the steel giant Evraz, Norilsk Nickel and the country's largest aluminum company.

In 2005, Abramovich sold his stake in the oil company for over $13 billion.

Berezovsky sued Abramovich for breach of contract in the biggest civil case in UK history.

He claimed that he and Abramovich both held a stake in Sibneft.

- Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire, has been defending himself at the High Court in London against accusations that he betrayed a business rival.

The allegation is made by Boris Berezovsky, who claims that he was bullied, in effect, into selling oil shares at a fraction of their worth.

- [Reporter] In statements submitted to the court, he said, "I was not his protege and he was not my mentor.

I was quite surprised by his extravagant lifestyle however I was never interested in imitating this lifestyle."

- [Narrator] The judge ruled in favor of Abramovich.

Saying that Berezoovsky had never been an owner.

Berezovsky was left close to bankruptcy.

- Sometimes I had the impression that Putin himself wrote this judgment.

Sometimes I had this impression.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Less than a year later, Berezovsky was found dead at his country home with a ligature around his neck.

The coroner returned an open verdict.

Meanwhile, Abramovich (upbeat music) (distant cheering) was free to splash his cash on some very extravagant toys.

His yacht, the Eclipse, is worth a cool $500 million and costs an estimated 1 million euros just to fill it up with fuel.

It has two helicopter pads, two swimming pools, several hot tubs, a mini submarine, and a missile detection system.

(dramatic music) After Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich's future is uncertain.

The U.K. has frozen some of his assets, including his beloved Chelsea Football Club.

Whether Abramovich will hold onto his billions remains to be seen.

In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution brought about the Soviet Union and the first communist country.

It lasted for most of the 20th century.

Following Marxist economic theories, Soviet leaders from Lenin onward banned private ownership.

- So Russia started out as a country where all the wealth was held by the state.

- Doveryai, no proveryai.

Trust, but verify.

(audience laughing) - [Narrator] The Cold War began to thaw in 1985 when Yeltsin's predecessor Mikhail Gorbachev befriended U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and the Soviet Union fast forwarded into the modern era.

(upbeat music) This first taste of capitalism ignited an entrepreneurial spirit.

- They filled up their cars, went to China, came back and sold things 10 time, a hundred time the price.

- [Narrator] Russians started wanting a wealthier lifestyle.

(dramatic music) In December, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed.

- It begins in the Baltic states.

Soon extends into Eastern European republics themselves, in places like Ukraine, places like Moldova, every one of the republics has declared independence.

There is no more Soviet Union.

- [Narrator] The fall of the Soviet Union brought new problems.

Gorbachev fell out of favor and Boris Yeltsin became the new leader of an independent Russia.

But he inherited a country in dire straits.

- It was broke, there was very little food in the stores, the banks were on the brink of collapse.

The economy was on its knees.

And so President Yeltsin and the regime, they desperately needed money.

- [Narrator] He turned to the west for help.

- American advisors said, "Well, what you need is to sell everything off, privatize everything, move to a free market economy.

And that's the way forward."

- [Narrator] Yeltsin issued vouchers to the entire Russian population.

- They gave a voucher to every person.

So there's 150 million vouchers in circulation.

- [Narrator] The vouchers were a way to purchase shares in state owned companies.

Only a few knew their true value.

- Many people wouldn't know what to do with these vouchers.

They had to sell them off because they were so poor and clever people bought a lot of these vouchers.

And through that could then take over state properties.

- [Narrator] The vouchers didn't solve the need to pay for wages and pensions.

Yeltsin needed cash.

And quick.

One man had a solution.

Vladimir Potanin was the richest man in Russia in March, 2022.

He's known as the brains behind a scheme called loans-for-shares.

This financial plan was the birth of the oligarchy.

- He was really the architect, the mastermind behind Russia's privatization program.

In the '90s, he was really known as the uber oligarch of all.

- [Narrator] The way the scheme worked was, the well connected lent the Kremlin money and, if the government defaulted on the loan, they received shares in the country's national industries.

(dramatic music) Potanin set up in Interros bank and made his fortune by acquiring Norilsk Nickel, a company close to bankruptcy under communism that quickly found enormous commercial value.

- His great financial clout and influence even bought him a place in the Yeltsin government.

- [Narrator] In 1996, Potanin became Deputy Prime Minister.

But while a few prospered, many ordinary Russians did not.

- The vast number of Russian people were completely ripped off and the new free marketed economy didn't work.

In the sense it didn't deliver for the Russian people.

- There was literal starvation in provinces in Russia.

Professors had to become taxi drivers, nurses had to become prostitutes.

And so there wasn't a person in Russia that was happy at the end of the Yeltsin era.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Yeltsin was popular among the people.

But, after a series of uncomfortable televised appearances, faith in his leadership waned.

By 1999, it was the end of the road as alcoholism took its toll and his health deteriorated.

The following year, Vladimir Putin became President of Russia and a new era for the oligarchs began.

Born in St. Petersburg in 1952, Putin joined the Russian security services, the KGB, at age 23 and soon worked his way up the ranks.

- He'd obviously been trained from the very beginnings of joining the KGB as a young man back in the 1970s, in what was then Leningrad, to conceal information about himself.

- [Narrator] He was selected as a potential successor to Yeltsin and joined the administration in 1996.

He became a popular choice for leadership.

The public believed him to be a strong leader, a religious man and somebody who would crush corruption.

- [Casey] This bare chested bear of a man who is willing to do what these effeminate Western leaders are not willing to do.

- [Narrator] The oligarchs supported his rise, expecting him to be progressive like Yeltsin.

But Putin had no intention of allowing the oligarch's control over his presidency.

- Yeltsin fell prey to the machinations of the various oligarchs around him.

Putin does not want to be in that position.

Putin has to be the richest of the rich.

He has to be the oligarch, the billionaire, to beat all the other oligarchs and billionaires.

- [Narrator] He rallied popularity among the public, presenting himself as a charismatic action hero.

Riding with bikers, flying with cranes, spear fishing, cuddling animals and children.

He won the public's affections.

But his most popular move was reasserting control.

His currency, fear.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] He began with a bang, by pursuing the most famous oligarch in all of Russia.

(gentle music) In 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the wealthiest man in Russia.

His fortune was made from oil.

Khodorkovsky had a background in chemistry and a gift for pioneering new businesses.

- He's a very smart guy from a technical institution and he's very much a independent thinker.

But he was too far ahead of his time.

- [Narrator] In 1988, he established one of the country's first private banks.

He loaned the government money and struck gold when the government defaulted on the loan and he acquired a 78% interest in a state oil company.

- Yukos oil company became incredibly profitable and lucrative and was making billions of dollars.

- And then he does something that is quite surprising for many of these Russian oligarchs, he actually, over time, wants to transform it into a Western style company and actually to run it as a for profit concern, not as a cash cow that might be still linked into people close to the Kremlin.

- [Narrator] He then used some of his income to fund opposition parties.

This was a no go for the Kremlin.

- He was seen as a potential rival to Putin.

So Putin was persuaded that he should be taken down.

- [Narrator] The opportunity came when Khodorkovsky openly challenged Putin about state corruption on television.

The event would mark an historical turning point.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] Putin issued a quiet but devastating counter attack, accusing him of tax evasion.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] Then, on October 25th, 2003, Khodorkovsky's life was upended.

- Khodorkovsky was on his private jet, he landed on the runway and his jet was surrounded by members of the federal security service.

They arrested Khodorkovsky.

In Russia, when you are put on trial, there's a 99.7% conviction rate in criminal court in Russia.

And then Putin allows the television cameras to come in the room to film the richest man in Russia sitting in a cage.

And this had a profound effect on all the other oligarchs.

Imagine that you're on your yacht, you're parked off of Antibes, France, flick on CNN and there you see a guy far smarter, far more powerful, far richer than you sitting in a cage.

What's the natural reaction?

You don't wanna sit in that cage for yourself.

- [Narrator] Khodorkovsky was found guilty of fraud and sent to jail.

- So Khodorkovsky sits in a, essentially, Gulag for a good decade to warn other oligarchs of the limits of their ownership and the limits of their commercial independence.

- [Narrator] Khodorkovsky was eventually released in 2013.

He was flown to Berlin and moved to London.

Today, he is one of Putin's fiercest critics.

- You have to understand we're dealing with a criminal group in power and not a state of law.

This group, its power rests on force.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Bill Browder knows what it's like to be on the wrong side of Vladimir Putin.

He was one of the early foreign investors in Russia's new stock market.

In 2005, he was deported, his assets seized.

He testified about the impact of Khodorkovsky's trial in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

- Other oligarchs went to Vladimir Putin and said, "What do we have to do not sit in the cage?"

And he said, "Very straightforward, 50%."

Not 50% for the Russian government or 50% for the presidential administration of Russia, 50% for Vladimir Putin.

And so he became the richest man in the world in that moment.

- [Narrator] In response, other oligarchs from the time have strenuously denied Browder's claim.

- Power from him.

- [Narrator] While investigative journalists have tried to get to the bottom of Putin's purse strings.

- But the person who's been most effective at this has been Alexia Navalny, the Russian opposition figure.

And that's why he's in jail and that's why there was an attempt to assassinate him using Novichok, the same substance, but in a different form, that was used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

- [Narrator] Novichok is a deadly nerve agent, a chemical weapon.

- This was a very serious effort to eliminate Alexei Navalny because he's been exquisitely capable of unraveling and spooling an awful lot of the threads behind the corruption, the kleptocracy that surrounds Putin.

- [Narrator] Navalny survived.

But on return to Russia was jailed for breaking bail while receiving his life saving treatment.

- He returns to Moscow knowing full well he's gonna be arrested.

He releases a video that he spent an awful lot of time producing about the ownership threads that he and his team have traced to an enormous, luxurious, sumptuous villa on the Russian Black Sea.

Which is not just a palace, it puts Versailles to shame.

- [Narrator] Navalny's team bypassed a no-fly zone with a drone to capture Putin's palace in all its glory.

(dramatic music) The property is reported to be worth over $1 billion and loaded with opulent extravagances.

- It isn't a country house or a residence, it's an entire city or rather a kingdom.

Among its many features, this green mound is reported to house an underground ice hockey rink.

- He was almost mocking Putin for his lack of taste.

There was this horrible pole dancing room and a aqua-disco, and just really in poor taste.

- [Narrator] Putin denied any ties to the palace and another Russian billionaire later claimed ownership.

In March, 2022, as the bombs rained down on Ukraine, Navalny was given a further nine years in jail.

(speaking foreign language) It's unclear whether this was linked to Navalny's claims that this super yacht also belongs to Putin.

Press reports valued the Scheherazade at $700 million, making it one of the most expensive super yachts in the world.

The British captain denied the boat belongs to Putin.

As for Putin's other critics, Browder and Khodorkovsky, they both fled to London.

The city has also become a favorite destination for oligarchs.

The arrival of Russian riches in London has supercharged the economy.

- Russians like to spend big.

When the Russian oligarchs moved to London, one of the priority was to buy property as a bolt hole.

Their favorite areas would be Knightsbridge, particularly if it was close to Harrods.

If they have properties within the heart of the British establishment, which is Mayfair, Belgravia, Kensington, Chelsea, and those areas, they feel accepted.

- [Narrator] There have been a number of unexplained deaths of Russians in London.

Alexander Litvinenko was an ex-KGB agent.

He became a British citizen in 2006.

- He was a former member of the security services who essentially had defected to the west.

- [Narrator] In 1998, he accused the KGB of assassinating Boris Berezovsky and killing a journalist.

On November 1st, 2006, Litvinenko drank deadly tea in the Millennium Hotel in London's Mayfair.

He was known as the man who solved his own murder when he guessed he'd been poisoned.

It became a diplomatic incident.

- Putin wanted to make an example out of him, but he also wanted to test the British system of justice.

And he discovered that there really is not a very robust system of justice.

- [Narrator] Putin has always denied that the Russian state sponsors any assassinations.

Some oligarchs have tried to make inroads into the American political system.

Oleg Deripaska made his fortune in metals.

He was largely raised by his grandparents.

- My grandmother, she was always you careful with light.

There was no light in the house.

- [Narrator] He started trading in metals at a time when the Soviet Union had collapsed and lawlessness reigned.

(dramatic music) Aluminum promised massive profits and blood was spilled.

Gangsters vied to control the industry.

Around a hundred people were murdered.

Although it's not suggested that Deripaska was involved in any criminality, he did end up in control after the feuding subsided.

- Deripaska was able to emerge on top from a period which, in the nineties, had been really vicious.

The era was known as the aluminum wars.

- [Narrator] He's claimed in the past that he restored order to the industry.

- [Oleg] It was like a wild west in Russia.

- [Narrator] It's not a period he remembers with pride.

- To go through, without any single thing which you could later believe in, was wrong.

It was very difficult.

But I believe whatever I did...

I can't say that I'm proud, but I believe you know that I did right thing.

- [Narrator] Deripaska married into the Yeltsin circle and quickly adjusted to life under Putin.

- [Catherine] The Kremlin had taken control of law enforcement.

Most businessmen only own their businesses through the Kremlin's grace.

- [Narrator] Deripaska managed to maintain a working relationship with Putin.

- The oligarchs are now going to be subservient to the state itself and this is a shift, this is a new dynamic.

- [Narrator] Putin showed who was boss on national television after Deripaska shut down a local plant, leaving workers without wages.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] Deripaska was called up, like a naughty school boy, to sign an agreement to reopen his plant.

(speaking foreign language) - [Narrator] Part of his plan was expanding in the USA.

And in 2003, he hired former Senator Bob Dole to lobby on his behalf.

- He's able to go to one of the leaders of the American Republican Party and say, "I would like to give you a slice of my newfound wealth in order to access your country, your policy making apparatus."

Dole agrees, Dole takes the money, and the doors of the United States of America are suddenly open to Mr. Deripaska.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] He became known for throwing lavish parties at Davos.

- He is succeeding in creating this image of himself as a globe trotting member of the global elite.

- [Narrator] Deripaska built a presence around the world.

In 2006, he formed En+ Group and his aluminum company became the world's largest.

Deripaska really hit the headlines with the Mueller inquiry into Russian interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

- He was very close with Paul Manafort, who was the former head chief of staff in the Trump campaign.

- The investigation into alleged links between Donald Trump's election campaign and Russia has taken a dramatic turn with the news that his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort had been indicted by a federal grand jury.

- [Narrator] Manafort was sentenced to seven years in prison.

- [Male] Traitor!

- His convictions included tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and unregistered lobbying.

A year later, he was pardoned by President Trump.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on En+ and seized some of Deripaska's assets in 2018.

- Circumstances.

- [Narrator] Oleg Deripaska denied all the charges leveled against him.

He attempted to clear his name by suing the U.S. Treasury.

Reporters asked him about the case.

- And I know that I was punished only because I was Russian businessman.

There was no other rational explanation.

And I hope to see what they will present in court, you know, when they need to present their answers.

- [Narrator] His suit was unsuccessful.

But the U.S. Treasury, under Trump, did lift the sanctions on En+ after Deripaska reduced his majority ownership.

- And so Putin was really more of an image for Trump of something that he wanted to be himself, he had degrees of autocrat envy.

And he certainly saw Putin, you know, on that surface as being the richest of the rich, potentially the richest man in the world, running a country's as if it was his own, as if it was his own asset.

And so he also saw him as being, not just fabulously rich, but fabulously powerful.

- [Narrator] As far as Deripaska... - He has come a long, long way from being simply a rising businessman with close ties, allegedly, to organized crime.

- [Narrator] In 2021, Deripaska suffered further trouble in the U.S. when the FBI raided his homes in New York and Washington DC.

(dramatic music) But when Putin invaded Ukraine, the UK imposed further sanctions on Deripaska, freezing his assets there too.

- What we've concluded is that there is enough connection, enough of a link between the Putin regime and the individuals in question to justify the action.

I can see that people connected to the Putin regime need to be sanctioned and that's what we're doing.

- [Narrator] Thanks to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, some oligarchs have seen their super yachts, private jets and stately homes seized by Western Europe and the United States.

The U.S. government announced in February, 2022, a new klepto-capture unit to enforce sanctions.

- We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war.

- [Narrator] One of the most loyal of the new breed of oligarchs hails from Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is alleged to have made his money from large catering contracts with the Kremlin.

- Out of the most recent oligarchs, those who are closest to Putin, Mr. Prigozhin is probably the most interesting, perhaps the most obvious candidate for scrutiny.

- Prigozhin is actually, by all accounts, a pretty talented guy.

He is, by all accounts, an incredibly talented chef.

In fact, he is known as Putin's chef.

- [Narrator] He served jail time for robbery, fraud and involving minors in crime.

After his release, he became a hotdog vendor before segueing into the restaurant business.

Putin became a regular patron of his restaurants and Prigozhin became a confidant.

He received large contracts to feed Russia's schools and military as well as catering state banquets.

In 2002, President George W. Bush was a guest.

Prigozhin always by Putin's side.

(dramatic music) Whether Prigozhin's role was purely food related is a little murky.

History would later see him accused of cooking up some very different recipes for the Kremlin.

- [Casey] He begins moving into a new space entirely, the social media space.

- [Narrator] Prigozhin was accused of attempting to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election by creating something called the Internet Research Agency.

- He was someone who could foresee the impact and influence of social media in and of itself.

- [Narrator] In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 13 Russians connected to the research agency.

- The defendants allegedly conducted, what they called, "Information warfare against the United States."

12 of the individual defendants worked at various times for a company called Internet Research Agency LLC, a Russian company based in St. Petersburg.

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin funded the conspiracy.

- [Narrator] U.S. intelligence described the agency as a troll farm.

It employed fake accounts, or bots, on major social media networks.

- These were Russian trolls sitting at keyboards in St. Petersburg targeting American tensions to sow chaos across the board.

- They used stolen or fictitious American identities, fraudulent bank accounts and false identification documents.

According to the indictment, the Americans did not know that they were communicating with Russians.

- A lot of it was really amplifying the really hot button topics and the divisions and cleavages that have merged.

For example, gun rights, abortion, religious identity.

- [Narrator] Prigozhin denied interfering in the 2016 election.

Saying, "If they want to see the devil, let them."

Then, in 2020, U.S. intelligence announced that Prigozhin was believed to be behind a private army called Wagner.

- He has been connected to all number of other extra-territorial Kremlin interests.

- The Wagner Group has been heavily involved in operations overseas for Russia, where the Russians don't want to risk conventional military forces.

- [Narrator] Military analysts say Wagner offers Putin plausible deniability.

Prigozhin was sanctioned by the EU and the UK for alleged links to Wagner activities.

The EU accused Wagner of serious human rights abuses, including torture.

In 2021, the FBI offered $250,000 for information leading to the arrest of Prigozhin.

- He has been identified by the highest levels of the American government.

One of the most successful players in Russian efforts at destabilizing Western countries, including the United States of America.

- [Narrator] Prigozhin has always denied any connection with Wagner activities or any wrongdoing.

In recent years, intelligence services have been focusing on Vladimir Putin.

And so have journalists.

(dramatic music) - In early 2016, hundreds of journalists around the world published an unprecedented look into the world of the offshore economy.

- [Narrator] This was known as the Panama Papers.

At its heart was information leaked from a firm called Mossack Fonseca.

- It was a law firm, an offshoring firm based in, as the name says, Panama providing offshoring and anonymous wealth services to any client around the world.

- [Narrator] In 2018, Mossack Fonseca said it would shut down as a result of reputational damage due to the Panama Papers leak.

It denied any wrongdoing.

In 2020, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for its partners on charges of accessory to tax evasion and forming a criminal organization.

(dramatic music) - But there was one figure in particular that emerged in the Panama Papers that I think everybody kind of raised an eyebrow at.

He wasn't an especially well known figure, certainly for his politics or even for his wealth in and of itself.

He was known, of all things, for his musical talents.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Sergei Roldugin is a professional musician and artistic director at the St. Petersburg House of Music.

It's well known that he is a close personal friend of Vladimir Putin.

- Roldugin is one of the figures emerging in the Panama Papers as secretly controlling a remarkable portfolio of wealth, using some of these offshore anonymous financial vehicles.

- [Narrator] The Panama Papers unveiled a $2 billion offshore scheme involving Roldugin.

Some wonder whether there was more to this than meets the eye.

Putin claimed the transactions were for expensive instruments.

Roldugin insists that any wealth linked to him were donations from businessmen to buy musical instruments for young Russians.

(speaking foreign language) (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Putin's finances have long been the subject of speculation, as has his relationship with the oligarchs.

But as billions are wiped off their collective balance sheets as a result of Putin's bloody war, that bond faces its greatest test.

Perhaps it was the oligarchs he was referring to in this angry address.

(speaking foreign language) (dramatic music) - So I think Putin does see himself as a czar in many respects.

He sees himself as a historic figure, carrying on at least the legacy of the Czars.

- [Narrator] The oligarch's ability to straddle the fence, enjoying the best of both worlds is over.

In the words of a Russian proverb, there's no escape from fate.

- There are never happy endings to Russian stories.

And there's not gonna be happy endings for most of the Russian oligarchs.

It's a terrible dog eat dog world to get where they got.

And it's kind of hard to see happy endings for most of these people.

(dramatic music)