Due to the cliffhanger ending in the latest episode of Telemarketers, you might be left wondering what the heck happened to Patrick Pespas, one of the whistleblowers who helped uncover the conspiracy of a cold-call fundraising company soliciting charity donations that turned out to be largely fraudulent.
Pespas, alongside Sam Lipman-Stern, are both former employees of the Civic Development Group who became amateur documentary filmmakers to expose the truth of the company they worked for, as seen in the HBO miniseries whose second episode just dropped on Max on Sunday.
The episode in question seems to leave Pespas’ fate ambiguous since he apparently disappears from the investigation, leaving Lipman-Stern alone to pick up the pieces. What happened?
Is Pat Pespas still alive?
Pespas is still active to this day. Despite the cliffhanger ending of the second episode of Telemarketers, he does factor back into the story as the investigation unfolds in the forthcoming episode 3. Today Pespas engages in political reform efforts, such as making the so-called fundraising industry more transparent and equitable for its workers, as we previously reported.
However, Pespas indeed parted ways with Lipman-Stern temporarily after CDG was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission in 2010. Despite Pespas dropping out of the investigation for some time, he was described by his filmmaking partner as the essential glue that held the entire project together, Lipman-Stern told NJ Advance Media. Lipman-Stern added that Pespas is in a good place following struggles with substance use disorder, as depicted in the show.
“Pat’s actually doing really good now […] He’s been in recovery. He plays a lot of guitar, he does antiquing. I’m really proud of him.”
The series finale for Telemarketers will air on HBO and stream on Max on Aug. 27.