6 Burst results for "John Rufus"
Have You Seen This Man?
"john rufus" Discussed on Have You Seen This Man?
"Look on the surface that that is. I had spent a fair amount of time trying to make sense of these loose threads and while there seemed to be no way to tie them into a convincing yarn about john rufo turning in desperation to some wise guys for help. None of that raced italy from the map of his possible destinations. One person who i hoped might have some insight about that was now staring at me on a windy front porch rushing. My goodness we're doing a story about a man who was a customer. I showed the barber a photo of rufo saw. Forget about it. I don't know this guy. john. John rufo yes thirty five years ago. It was a recognize the photo right away. I know this but what do you want to know. I quickly recounted the story of the business card. The one with his brother's name on the business card. Yes magic magic. And he's back in italy right who that's my brother. Your brother his address and phone number was in john. Rufus right pocket right so i think the question would be do you think. Maybe he's somewhere in italy. Did your and you heard what happened. That he disappeared disappeared with money or something or he. He stole a lot of money from where i was trying to get back to the point of my visit. That paper with the address in italy. I wonder why he did. He know your brother was your brother still neither. They was just customer the shop. That's all michael told me. He did remember that rufo had his brother's information he knew it. He said because linda had come to see me. She wants annoy china where her husband was. I said i saw and because he was one of my brothers customer. They thought maybe you went to italy. After that i called my brother. And i asked him about it i say did john come over here and he said no. I haven't seen him in the long long time since i left since i came back to early. So i told michael. There was a theory one the us marshals had been pondering that perhaps rufo had fled to italy theory. Michael waved me off this not italy at all. He said i believe he moved south. America somewhere really. That's what i think just us. Yeah just a guest now. There was a woman on the stairs. Just behind michael. Who was still at the door talking to me. Yeah i wanna go just disappear without anything you know. i didn't. We weren't friends we didn't. I didn't go. Way south in eating kumbum house so i had more questions but i could see my window to ask them was closing. Michael began to turn to the stairs. That's all i know. I don't know anymore. If i knew some go you because it's been i don't even know if the guy he's still alive he might be. He's be sixty six right now. I still could be still alive. I felt sorry for his wife because when his wife came to see me right. fd disappeared. She said he he left. They took everything away from us. They took my modest house. They took my house. They took everybody's everybody's housing nominee middle of the street with my. I think i think he she had a baby girl. I think back then so. She left me in the middle of the street. She was making sure sounded like linda thought he knew more at least at the time but that was all i would get. Yeah i'm coming okay. I'm sorry thank. You really appreciate it i..
Have You Seen This Man?
"john rufus" Discussed on Have You Seen This Man?
"We turn again to our senior investigative reporter matthew mosque so i'm driving in. Where am i am in rural. Virginia spot sylvania. And i'm on my way to try and meet the wife of one of the most notorious american turncoat spies in history Fbi agent who in the nineteen eighties was caught spying for russia and went to prison. This woman actually is now his ex wife. We'll see if she has anything to say. It was early evening. And i made my way down a dark sloping driveway when i knocked on the door. A dog barks and the door cracked open for a number of weeks. Now i've been trying to track down a man. John rufo claimed he knew from back. Around the time the computer business was taking off a former. Fbi agent wants stationed in new york. A man named earl pitts but pits was no ordinary fbi agent. He was a notorious traitor and he wasn't going to be easy to find. I had tracked down his ex wife mary to ask for help decades ago she made headlines because she had hell turn him in it was unthinkable turn of events as she explained at the time on sixty minutes wasn't a big step for you. Yes i knew that he would be totally devastated. That i could go behind his back to someone else and at that point i realized my marriage was going to be over one way or the other but that chapter is long past. As she heard my request she listened politely but was skeptical. I i heard about earl. Pitts from another woman betrayed by her husband. Someone who also saw a storybook marriage obliterated by seismic joel. John rufus wife linda linda. I told me about him during a dinner. Not long after we met. She had a hunch she was important to rufo story but didn't know exactly why i didn't understand exactly what was going on and it. It was kind of scary and you had mentioned that one of the agents was a man named earl pets. He wasn't one of the agents that humans wrote office but it was during the investigation of earl pitts. Who was sentenced to a very long sentence for being a spy. What was the connection. There that name kept coming up during that time. Did rufo really know earl. Pitts report to him. His legal files gave me a first glimpse into his interactions with the fbi but buried deep in those boxes with another set of papers. I can't know for sure. Why but after his arrest rufo took time to make a written record of his work for the government and now i was looking at a copy in typed up notes. Some dictated to his lawyer and others. Apparently he wrote out himself. Rufo gave his own account of those years. This is a colleague of mine reading from his journals. During the periods of december nineteen eighty-six through approximately june of nineteen eighty-eight just prior to the end of the cold war with the soviet union. I was involved in various work and projects with the counterintelligence unit of the bureau of investigation. The work was secret had national security implications and therefore it was classified rufo provided his own version of events. He said it was a private investigations. Firm that i connected him to the fbi that firm known at the time as kroll associates had offices across the hall most people involved with investigative work would be familiar with kroll associates. That was probably the most secretive company that i had done. work for. Kroll associates no longer exists as it was then it was sold in two thousand and four and successor firms or formed but i did manage to reach the original founder of the firm jules kroll by email he wrote back to me to say. He had absolutely no recollection of these people or these events. Rufo said it was a retired. Fbi agent who worked at crawl a man named bill kish who became the conduit that introduced rufo to a multi year relationship with the government by rufus telling it was a relationship that blossomed group or squad i worked with was responsible for catching spies. My work was broad in scope and included the following types of espionage and counterespionage for the united states government through fo- spelled out a long list of the activities. He said he did from the fbi. Covert operations targeting soviet diplomats suspected of being kgb agents aiding in the defection of soviet citizens suspected of being an intelligence officer technical assistance in bugging computer equipment. Entering the soviet mission entertaining soviet diplomats counterespionage surveillance counter espionage. Like that day. Linda remembered when her then husband took a soviet diplomat to a yankees game. Rufo described the assignment in his journals. Saying the fbi gave him three tickets and asked him to take a man named vladimir and his son to a game. I had to convince vladimir that it was important to attend. It took some convincing after they entered the stadium and sat down. Rufo said he spotted. Fbi agents in the row in front of him during the game. The agents observed vladimir and his very closely. I was instructed by the fbi. That on a subsequent meeting. I would reveal the vladimir that everything we were working on was a fraud for the entire purpose of the past. Few months was for him to meet the government officials to discuss his living in the. Us rufo wrote that at the same time. The fbi was running a bogus. Electronics store called home entertainment systems not to be confused with any present day stores by that name. This one which has long since closed was actually a front company that the fbi used to lure soviets who craved western technology. The russians were eager to get their hands on computers. And that rufo claimed is how ccs came to employ an undercover fbi agent when he was exposed to soviet citizens in a potential sales environment he would be in a better position to convince them he was acting as a computer professional and not a spy in reality he was observing soviet nationals and reporting back to senior government officials and his acting squad supervisor farrell pets earl pitts like everything else. With this man i had to consider that this was an account draped and embellishments. Let's not forget. John rufo was a con man. He lied prolifically about himself. And his connections so this could easily have been another chapter in his long book of bluster and yet some details could be checked in his journals. Rufo identified f. b. i. Agents using both their real names and cover identities. One of them was a man named john blah blah. Last fall i found blah. He retired after an exemplary career. In the fbi's new york office and was now working. Corporate security for a major healthcare company remembered meeting rufo in the nineteen eighties will. He was an odd If my recollection is on point. He was an ad individual somalian stature. a tired sometimes In a very professional manner and then sometimes rather sloppy as blah explained. It ruefully joined something called the young professional organization. Or.
Have You Seen This Man?
"john rufus" Discussed on Have You Seen This Man?
"You sorta ghost now as changqing katie dug deeper into the list of retirement account holders. They were increasingly convinced. Something wasn't right for starters. Two of the supposed- employees had social security numbers. That were in sequential order. Oh yeah that one zero three two one in the slow three to to come on. Because that's what was. That's how i'd make up with virtual on one. Two three eighty said she wondered if this might be part of some other rufo scheme or may be these. Social security numbers were part of his escape plan. We went on the run. I would say i would lean toward stats on run money right good point but he could also that entire time he could have been driven money into an account for going run right. Chris realize the names on these bizarre accounts for people who died decades ago. Yeah versus that's something you'd find in a for both of those. Actually the date of birth is an eighteen year. Old people were getting computers. Cert- 401k hank. Continued digging into these. Two names many turned his computer around to show the others what he had found the. And if you the sit there oh. These recipients of retirement money from john rufus company who both appeared to be long dead when the payments were made now appeared to be living in a million dollar home in north carolina and the name of the street. Sheffield lame nice house. Yeah i wouldn't mind living in that interesting for somebody who has social security number associated with him in that account. That's from dead person. It was obviously used and the person she with obviously has another social security number associated with. Yeah the man. Seven thousand square foot home by drive onto strike. The gold lane was interrupted almost immediately by a high iron fence. This community of stately mansions was gated. So i pulled my rental car across the street alongside an empty lot and crossed over to the entrance. Did john rufo lived beyond that gate. All i could do was wait as cars approached and asked i. Hi my name is matthew moscow reporter with abc news. I'm doing a podcast about a long missing. Fugitive this man. I showed the driver the us marshal flyer with the age enhanced photo of rufo and there was a lead that put him on. Strike the gold lane. Which is i guess curious. Have you seen this man. Does he looked familiar to you. He does not doesn't look like somebody who lives here in the neighborhood. Now you seen this man. Does he look familiar to you. I have not never seen that person. Unfortunately okay i have not seen this person though. I don't doesn't look familiar earlier. No does not look kremlin binding. John rufo was not going to be as simple as this at this moment. Chris and danielle still believe the trail of money could point them in the right direction but as with everything else about a case this old and complex the hunt will not be easy. Do you guys have any sense of what you're learning or what you're able to learn from the finances. Are they complicated or they simple like. What's your sense so far. I'd say. I think chris will degrade their complicated. It's like every time they have more work ahead to see if these retirement funds maybe paid for rufo scape. There was one detail about those bogus accounts that did not escape. Chris and danielle's attention those long deceased account holders. They were italian owner. John rufo did board a flight. Jfk airport that day nineteen ninety eight. There was one destination at the top of his list. But how did he get out of the country and who might be able to help him. Rufo left behind his account of his secret government. Work the rufo diaries. That's from shady. That went on with the fbi and the us marshals develop a new lead from relatives of an old friend and so he says. Yeah i i. I think i know where he lives. So he knows what rufa. That's what he said next.
Have You Seen This Man?
"john rufus" Discussed on Have You Seen This Man?
"For attorney judd. Burstein all. This subterfuge made it harder to craft what he called a good faith defense where he could argue. That rufo thought project star was just one more secret government operation. The difficulty was is that a good faith defense. Only the men that the jury finds that you willful wide about something you know. The material in terms of the facts of the case the whole good-faith defense has lost. It was this problem. Bursting told me that ultimately persuaded him to pursue a plea deal it costs his client seventeen years but he would face considerably more at trial. And with all these lies he simply could not go before a jury you rarely do. I have clients. Fool me that badly he did. I believe necessarily. That story was true. One of my mentors said that a trial is circumcised. Search for the truth but the The criminal defense lawyer is not part of the search party. Those ugly details could have spelled disaster for rufo's prospects at trial but they had the opposite location for the us marshals. Who now had the mind. Boggling job of finding him rarely if ever have they chased a fugitive with so many false identities and companies and bank accounts at his disposal. We always thought that the way we're going to find rufo was to find the money with so many names and companies. Finding that money would be much harder than they ever imagined. Varied within those old files recordings. One other detail caught the attention of investigators. Remember that woman on the damage micro cassette recording that buried berated saved. She said something interesting about a proposition. Rufo may to her in the months before he vanished. He asked her to run away with him to sicily. I'd heard some of the rumors about rufo's crude habit of making romantic overtures. But there was something different about this having nothing to do with this conduct. It was what he said. This would not be the only time we'd hear rufo talking about italy. It was where his grandparents were from and linda told us he even explored italian citizenship. And then there was something else something she discovered in the pocket of a coat he had left behind when he fled. I found scribble notes in his suit pocket. After he went to the last hearing in the closet it looked like he took the name of these three bobbers. He used to go to since he was a teenager. And one of the move to italy. When i called one of those barber's shop. They told me that yeah. John said he's gonna go. You guys are going to go to italy soon. And he wanted to look up. My brother. Italy and that barber would only grow in significance as the investigation. Move forward but if rufo at harbored a secret plan to fleet italy one person. He didn't trust with that secret. Was ed reiner's and four hundred hours of prison. Phone calls key never mentioned it. Once when the us marshals star focusing on the financial records of john rufus company. They discover some very unusual activity after the break. It was a stunning fall from. Grace stood it. Concern you that. A number of tests weren't working on. Thoroughness was devices. her story. Unbelievable voice aunt mistake. I know that we made so many mistakes. This strange saga of elizabeth homes continues. I'm rebecca jarvis. And i've been reporting on the case of elizabeth homes for more than five years and now that she's finally going to trial will be following the case and elizabeth every step of the way chris finger i think she's holder robot ducks. The dropout is back. Listen now in every tuesday during the trial. Wherever you get your podcasts. I'm in north carolina about thirty miles outside of charlotte summer day in twenty twenty one and out my window. I can see the landscape changing. I'm easing into the rural south where stately mansions mingle with fields of corn and switch grass. Just gonna come in on foot. See how that goes as i dash across a two lane. Road it dawns on me. This would be a very strange destination for brooklyn born drifter like john rufo even if he did occasionally enjoy trying on a southern drawl. It's not a bad idea. I thought of north carolina as a top retirement destination for cops not somewhere a wall street swindler would run and yet dear. I was armed with an age progression photograph to ask the central question in the ongoing manhunt. Hi i'm with abc news. I was wondering. Have you seen this man to see. Look familiar to you by path to this point began last year as i followed deputy. Us marshals. danielle. Schimdt chick and chris. Leur down a winding rabbit hole of shell companies corporate accounts and mail drops. We met up on a cold winter morning in a parking lot under the dulles airport flight path. I wound past rows of eighteen wheelers and into one of the scores of nondescript industrial parks that dot the dc suburbs nowhere. Is there a sign for the us. Marshals only an unmarked tinted glass door with a high tech security key pat. What is this building the deep. Can you say with the says like a secret lair. Yeah pretty want. We don't really like put inside was a sleek suite of offices filled with deputies down a hallway beyond a command center and a communications room we met up with two of the most season financial. Investigators the agency hank martin and katy cat sitting here next to christ. Everybody's a little caesar to that. Yeah i've work here map. Katie are both young and they don't look like auditors. Hank was hunched over his laptop and a baggy sweatshirt with a trim red beard. His is barely visible under the brim of.
Have You Seen This Man?
"john rufus" Discussed on Have You Seen This Man?
"The hard way. The two men became a sort of swindling odd couple with rufo. The bookish computer geek and reiner's the swashbuckling financier rufo short and unassuming reiner's tall with thick care rolling through manhattan with leading man. Looks after his arrest. Reiner still carried. Some of that. Bravado talked about spinning the project star story into a hollywood film. He thought actor kurt. Russell should play them on the big screen. He seemed to welcome the national attention. This is him going on tv. Beige prison jumpsuit. To tell his tale to sixty minutes. I actually thought we wouldn't get pissed phase. One would've made the first presentation they would've civil we have to talk to the president or the cfo of the company or whatnot. And that didn't come about. They bought it easy but as the years passed all that faded and when his seventeen year sentence and did she seemed to crave privacy. I tried several times to reach reiner's and in response. He sent an angry email subject. Line not interested. It's yesterday's news. He wrote leave me alone. While the ed reiner's of twenty twenty one is resolved to stay quiet. The reiner's from those early days in the months after his arrest is someone we can still hear from. That's because he agreed to become a key government witness against rufo and at the request of rufo's lawyers the bureau of prisons turnover. Nearly four hundred hours of prison. Phone recordings at the your name. The prison tapes. Some of which linda held onto in the back of her living room. Armoire there on cassettes so there. Greeny and the dean of prison drones on behind reiner's thick long island accent. But the recordings provide an unflinching. Look at ed reiner's downfall from his three million dollar trump palace condo crumbling century-old virginia jail fluent rats. Running around cockroaches up with it. I sat down and started listening to the tapes. Not so much to learn about reiner's but to see if those recordings might shed. Fresh light on his co-conspirator john rufo in the two years following reiner's arrest in march of nineteen ninety six that partnership that made him in rufo one of the country's most successful criminal tandems was wrenched. Apart from his jail cell. In virginia greiner started working with the fbi. He hoped to become the star witness. Who would bring down rufo and he dreamt of seeing a decade or more shaved off his sentence. Back in new york rufa was waiting for his own trial with a one hundred and fifty nine count fraud indictment hanging over his head during this time. The computer firm. Ccs state ben but it was tense. I tracked down a number of employees from that period. Most of whom knew nothing about projects star while it was happening. They told me it was a people were quitting and legitimate clients. Big law firms established companies. They were racing for the exits john. Von on was a sales rep at the time he had nothing to do with rufus crimes and he told me how rufo tried to spin the news and the investigation. What did he say he's innocent. Ed reiner's is at ryan. His light to me was a liar at this is all going to be cleared up. He put everything on Headliners criminal attorney. Jed burstein was piecing together a more elaborate to fats. The case would have two pillars one pinning the scam on ed reiner's and a second resting on a more fantastical notion that the swindle was all part of rufus secret work for the. Us government like those tales. Rufo spun about cia capers and fbi pals at all sounded far fetched. Burstein had been guarded with me about how he planned to support the outlandish sounding claims then one day in early twenty twenty one. He called with news. Those unclassified files. I had asked for back in his office a year earlier. They had finally been delivered from storage. If i was willing to drive to his house in the new york suburbs he'd be happy to let me see them. I pulled up to his door a few days later. How are you on bursting. Lead me through a winding series of hallways and into an unfinished garage. They're stacked on the floor. Were four cardboard boxes. They had the logo of city side. Storage a stenciled image of the manhattan skyline that still included the twin towers. Each box was labeled and thick black marker with one word rufo. I didn't know yet if these boxes would hold answers to any of the riddles about roofers past or as is so often the case they would just raise more questions but burstein seem convinced the contents would speak volumes. Everything you haven't talked. Oh great john rufus. Crime was grand in scale. The bernie made off his day and his disappearance every bit as confounding as db coopers and yet rufus garnered very little lasting attention except from those closest to the case like retired. Us marshal berry bo writer. Who told me he simply couldn't let go of all the old materials from the investigation. After my visit with judd burstein. I headed to various house in delaware to see what he had berry. Has sandy hair and the youthful weathered look of someone comfortable at the beach. He's living out his retirement on a beautiful stretch of the mid atlantic coast. When i arrived led me into a garden house. He had converted into a guestroom and office there. He had a mini cassette recorder out on the table. And.
Have You Seen This Man?
"john rufus" Discussed on Have You Seen This Man?
"Staying informed has never been more important. Information is coming at us faster than ever. So how do you make sense of. It'll start here. hey. I'm brad mielke from abc news. In every weekday we will break down the latest headlines in just twenty minutes straightforward reporting dynamic interviews and analysis from experts. You can trust always credible always solid start here from abc news twenty minutes every weekday on your smart speaker or your favorite podcast app. It's a quiet spring morning in suburban virginia. And i'm in the backseat of a nondescript minivan with tinted windows. Deputy marshals chris lure and daniel schimdt. Check our stakeout. their mission. fine. John rufo crisis latte pretty much. Yeah because it's hard. I mean this is robot robot like a little robot. You can drive around with a camera case. You've got a giant pots. Jason is weapon of a rifle today. Shield of yep so Ballistic shield matthew person. Danielle don't think they'll need that kind of firepower. But they're always ready. This turned out to be rufa. You'd wait for other people though. We were not do this alone but if you had you. Had you got what you need. I hope we can outrun. Look that fast. But you'd be surprised sometimes but we do have We have a for their freedom right at any one time there are hundreds of fugitives wanted by law enforcement. The us marshals are in charge of finding them. Then there's a small group of special cases the fugitives who've been so hard to find. They need extra attention. These cases get priority status. They get more resources. Bigger awards like john rufus case. Chris and danielle had been in pursuit of rufo for almost three years now. Much of the work is painstaking. Reconstructing financial records analyzing personal habits and traits and mapping his contacts. But the two deputies also follow up on every possible sighting. No matter how. Flimsy the tip may seem. Today they're looking into a tip. That came into headquarters in arlington virginia. So what is the origin of this guy. We're going to take a look at. What's where did he come from. So he came from one of the inspectors have been headquarters Sent us this tip and our redo it the tips. I've served a guy who looks very similar to rufo at a store. I'm going to give us address Who's in the Couple times and when he found interesting was The guy fit the physical descriptions of rebel heavy new york accent. Same height and weight goes. You can't just ignore that like yeah and we're not gonna ignore any that comes through and what was interesting about it was it came from you know an inspector so somebody who somebody who's like not a lay person right. Who would maybe just say. Oh well and send us a bogus tip like a tip. We got last week was. Oh hey we see rufo. he's in kansas. The guy six foot something. It's likely not rufo paid. You're allowed can rule out pretty quickly just by digging like the one. We got last week where he was in. Kansas danielle's probably spent a couple of hours on the computer and was able to find a driver's license photo of the individual. And we did not need to investigate that. Further buds kristen. Danielle had arrived an hour earlier to stake out the location. It's a small store in a suburban strip mall selling mattresses recliners and easy chairs. Actually as i was kind of pulling into the parking lot at about nine fifteen is pretty easy to identify individual which this tip was about. Did he look like roof food. You he does. He's the same. He's the same height and we have our capabilities of advanced. When we're out in know when we're out in the field out on the street we can obtain driver's license photos on our phones. Depending on state so I always able to identify the individual saw where he parked and based off vehicle information Was able to identify him and so we do. So we know the individual is from new york. He is five foot three revival four. He has a very italian name You hold photo side by side which is always interesting to do so. That's not a bad. That's a pretty decent lead so you know the one in kansas. We looked at it. I quietly enter the story behind them. The salesman's smile melts away as they explain. They're not looking for furniture. He does look like rufo lightly as possible. They asked the man if they can scan his fingerprints..