http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344532,00.html
Wanted: Mastermind Con Man Leonard Ramey
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
By Melissa Underwood
Leonard Ramey
This is part of a regular series that profiles America's most wanted
criminals.
Leonard Ramey was working at a feed store in the early 1990s, trying to
make
ends meet in the
small farming community of Tualatin, Ore. But Ramey, who often buried his
nose in financial news
and talked of business ventures, had bigger dreams.
While working at the store, he befriended Michael Timm, a retired
commercial
pilot with a llama
farm whose young, dyslexic son worked with Ramey doing odd jobs.
Timm was impressed with Ramey, who had became a mentor to his son and
provided a positive
influence in his life.
"I thought of him as a friend," Timm said.
Ramey would talk to Timm about his money-making ideas, and he bragged
about
his knowledge in
finances. He tried to get Timm to invest, and he promised he could deliver
a
big payoff.
Timm finally jumped in. Over several years he and his family handed over
more than $300,000 for
Ramey to invest.
Timm gradually grew nervous about the dealings after receiving bogus
statements from Ramey, and
he repeatedly asked to see tax forms on his investments.
Then Ramey suddenly disappeared, and Timm called the police.
That's when he discovered that the man he called his friend and who had
been
mentoring his son
had been conning people his whole life.
"At least both of my children are alive and healthy, we have a roof over
our
head," Timm said.
"My son learned a lot. It's really kind of bad because at a fairly tender
age, he learned that
things aren't always as they seem."
Jim Strovink, a detective in the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office for 30
years, says Ramey only
cares about himself and will ruin other people's lives to get what he
wants.
"I"ll do anything to get Leonard Ramey," Strovink said.
Ramey grew up in a privileged household in California's Napa Valley. His
father was a surgeon,
and his mother was a nurse.
"He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth," Strovink said.
Ramey went to law school, but he never passed the bar exam. He then became
a
securities
stockbroker, but he didn't get a license. He was also the owner of a
company
that didn't exist.
Over the years he managed to swindle at least a million dollars from his
victims. He even scammed
his mother.
But in the 1980s he got caught up in something bigger than himself. A deal
went bad, Strovink
said, and the Mob came looking for him to collect on a debt.
Ramey vanished. His family, fearing the worst, held a memorial service,
Timm
said.
"They were sure that he was probably dead," he said.
But Ramey wasn't dead. He fled to the Seattle area and, under an assumed
name, started a new life
and a new con.
"You have to understand he views himself as a financial wizard," Strovink
said.
Ramey befriended some people at a health club, and when the time was
right,
he led them into his
money scheme. When his new friends became suspicious about their
investments, he disappeared
again.
His next stop was Tualatin, a small farming town near ****tland where Ramey
squeezed hundreds of
thousands of dollars out of Timm and others.
"Eventually, he ends up coming away with the money without paying several
people what they were
promised," said FBI special agent Leonard Opanashuk.
In late 2001, his cons caught up with him again. Ramey left Oregon without
a
trace, leaving
behind a common-law wife and child. Police found his car parked at an
air****t. There were no
other clues.
"There's not a doubt in my mind that he's out there continuing this
scheme;
there are victims
falling prey to him," Strovink said.
Investigators say Ramey likes to visit diners, ordering Mexican omelets
with
a glass of milk. He
also reads financial newspapers and leaves big tips for waitresses.
Authorities say he loves to gamble, especially blackjack and backgammon.
He
also wears a
horsehead ring on his left ring finger.
Ramey was born in 1946 in Pennsylvania. He is about 5-foot-11, 200 pounds
with brown eyes and
salt-and-pepper hair.
He is wanted for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, racketeering,
laundering a monetary
instrument, engaging in a financial transaction in property derived from
unlawful activity,
selling securities without a license, security fraud and aggravated theft
in
the first degree.
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