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STEVEN R. ROWE* AKA MIKE GROGAN, AKA BOB
HEITMAN, AKA STEVE HEITMAN, AKA JAMES RUBIN ROWE |
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He is a self-described Navy Seal, a Patriots football
star, and a million-dollar businessman. 1. THIS STORY STARTS NEAR THE END OF HIS CAREER IN 2002 WHEN HIS NAME WAS MIKE GROGAN The summer of 2000 he came into the town of Oceanside California with several trucks and motorcycles. He paid his apartment rent six months ahead and in cash. He claimed to be retired from the elite US Navy
Seals. While
he was there he developed the San Diego bar into a bar and restaurant,
naming it Grogan's Irish Steakhouse. This was to be developed into a chain
of restaurants. He spent a lot of money taking his friends to dinner and
golfing. He always paid for the bill in cash. He dated one of the
restaurant's employees. When he was with her, their conversation was
focused a lot on and about her and he attentively listened to her. He
wanted to improve her credit and bought expensive cars in her name. He
said that he was going to start a CAD/CAM software firm and that he would
offer his landlord 15% shares of the company for $10K. Then he offered 15%
of the company to his drinking buddy for using a person's credit line and
name as a partner and for being able to put his name on company documents.
He offered shares of a pizza parlor to his landlord for $30K. His landlord
took out two mortgages on his home for $83K and $17K, for a total of about
$100K. He
proposed to the employee that he was dating. At the wedding rehearsal
dinner two old and scruffy-looking US Marshals walked into the
restaurant's back door and asked for Mike Grogan to come into the kitchen
to talk with them. They arrested him. They then walked him out the front
door past his fiancée and friends. Bail was set at $10K and his landlord who had no more equity in his own home offered to bail him out using his credit card. But the bail bondsman refused to take a chance on him because Mike Grogan had too many other names and aliases. He left a number of people owing huge debts on the businesses and on the bills for the luxury cars. *The above material was based on the MSNBC show The Pretender, the story of scam artist Jim Rowe. Sunday, 31 DEC 06 2.
IN 1998 HIS NAME WAS BOB AND THEN STEVE HEITMAN He walked into a Seattle Washington ski shop. He
claimed to have 20 years in the military and he said that he wanted to
sell skis. It was obvious that initially he knew nothing about skis. But
he turned out to be a great salesman. He
learned fast and gave a good sales pitch and he did sell skis. Eventually
the manager of this ski shop fired him because of all of the stories and
lies he had been telling. She could not trust him. But while he worked at
this ski shop he had met a person whose first name was Dale of Microsoft,
who bankrolled his next new business, Nordic Sports Haus.
One
day when one of his employee’s pickup truck was in the repair shop he
tossed him the keys to his new and expensive Porche sports car so he would
have a loaner while his truck was being repaired. He was overheard lying
to customers. And none of his employees trusted him. He
and his apparently successful business was written up in the local
newspaper and here he further expanded his business background. He now
claimed that he served in Germany in the US Army. He had studied at the
University of Heidelberg. And that had worked for the Atomic and Head ski
companies as a ski designer and field tester. His
original employer saw that he was spending grossly excessive amounts of
money for this type of business. Since there were not obscene amounts of
money to be made in retail selling of skis, this level of spending sent up
all sorts of warning flags for his former boss. At one ski show he spent
$10K to transport 6 employees by helicopter and to see a NASCAR race. He
told one of his employees to order cellular phones for his store
employees. But the credit check for Steve Heitman revealed that Steve
Heitman was dead. His response was that while he was in the service in
Europe, he did not have to file for taxes on his income overseas and thus
his IRS record had become dormant. He used the money of banks and his
investors to buy and set up a 5-ski shop chain. He
met and married a young woman. He also bought a house, 13 acres of land, a
jet ski, trail bikes and set up a dirt track. He
ordered far too much ski merchandise. And he became way overdue for
payment. He was $400K behind in paying just for snowboards. His terms for
this was a 90 day payable and he was an additional 120 days past due (a
grand total of seven months). One of his employees complained about
over-ordering and being behind on payments. This employee was forced out
of the business. Then Steve hooked up with a second Microsoft investor. He
then started an exotic car dealership. And soon that business was in
financial trouble. One
day he was supposed to meet with his employees and friends and go
motorcycle riding. He never showed up and simply disappeared. He took
about $1M with him. He had left two businesses that slipped into
bankruptcy. His first Microsoft investor who had started in business with
Steve, began having $4.6M. At the end he was left with $9.6M in debt. HOW HE GOT HIS STEVE HEITMAN ALIAS.
Steve
Heitman was Steve Rowe's high school classmate who had died at 20 years of
age. When the story broke in The
East Side Journal about the failed ski business and the scams he had
committed, a reporter phoned the mother of the real Steve Heitman. He
informed her that someone was probably using her son's name. Steve
Heitman’s mother identified the phony’s real name when she identified
him as a classmate of her son. 3.
AN EARLIER SCAM UNDER THE
NAME OF JAMES RUBIN ROWE He
met a person, Ron Nelson, who had a gun collection and who was a
pawnbroker. Steve scammed him out of $250K when he took Ron's gun
collection worth $250K, sold it for $38K and pocketed all of the money.
During this time period Steve appeared at the local high school in
uniform, claiming to be a US Navy Seal and talked about sacrifice,
friendship, and faith. Ron had lost a son. An in order to win Ron's trust
in order to win over Ron, Steve had claimed that he had lost his wife and
two children in a fire. Steve would study a person and his family in order
to build a bond with them. Steve claimed to be an expert mountain biker
and he and Nelson had gone into business together using Nelson's money.
But when he left, Ron Nelson had to file for Chapter 7 and Nelson was left
bankrupt. 4.
PRIOR TO THAT HE HAD BEEN BRIEFLY MARRIED He
met a single woman with two kids and no money. He told her that he was a
retired US Navy Seal. And he would take her out in his dress whites when
they would go out for dinner. He told her that while he had been to sea
his wife and three children had been in a car accident, in a red VW
convertible. And he said that his wife and infant were killed outright and
his two remaining kids were brain-dead and he had to have the plug pulled
on them. Then, six weeks after they met they were married. Then she got a
phone call from another woman. She told her that the house and the antique
furniture that her new husband claimed to own actually belonged to her and
all that he had told her was a lie. His new wife moved out, moved to
another location, and changed her name and social security number because
this incident rattled her so much. 5.
THE EARLIEST DAYS OF SCAMMING PEOPLE In
Massachusetts he drove a truck for a lumber company and he embezzled $22K.
Then
in Colorado he worked for a company drilling water wells and there he
conned his foreman out of $40-45K.But he did not go to jail for doing
this. He
worked in a machine shop in San Diego in charge of quality control, but he
bluffed his way into this job. He knew nothing about quality control when
he started. Then
he worked for a company that printed blank government checks. He took some
of them and cashed one of them for $57K and for that he went to prison. He
then walked away from a halfway house. STEVE'S
ROWE’S TRICKS OF THE SCAM ARTIST To test someone he would give him or her a bull shit answer to a question of theirs. If they completely, unquestioningly accepted this far-out answer he knew he had a live one on the hook. He stated that he could check out a person in about 45 minutes while he was taking them out for dinner. In about two weeks they would become the best of friends and he would be ready to scam the person. He tried to minimize the magnitude of his crimes and rationalize the damage he had done to others. His father was also a con man -- but not as good -- and his mother was a facilitator and a mark. He did not know how to be legit. It was easier for him to be dishonest and he felt that he could make more money faster being dishonest. He bragged that in four months he had gained access to almost $10M. HIS MILITARY EXPLOITS
He had actually been in the Navy as a cook, and he
had been in the Army and briefly in the Marines. While he was in San Diego
he bought a naval officer's (chief's) uniform and then talked his way onto
the base. He posed as a Navy Seal. He got civilian investors to invest in
a ship hull cleaning scam. He
did this at the base officer's quarters. He got 26 people to invest $10K
each, cash -- and he was able to do this in three weeks. In order to
assume the identity of his dead classmate he went to the funeral home some
time after the funeral. He wore his navy uniform and asked to look at the
record book about the funeral details. From this he got the deceased's
date of birth, social security number, and mother's maiden name. He was
able to get a birth certificate. He then registered at the local community
college and got an ID card, then went to the high school and got a
transcript, and then proceeded to the DMV to get a driver's license. CLOSING
COMMENTS He
now reads his Bible daily and prays. He
claims to have found religion. He
said that if his friend were still alive he would be laughing his butt off
about Steve's exploits. To
cash checks he would go to the same teller. And after three times he
wouldn't be asked for an ID. And when he would go into the bank he would
wave to and smile at one of the bank's VP's. HIS TWO RULES FOR CONNING PEOPLE A fool and his
money should never be together in the first place. Never get attached to anything that you could not leave in 10 minutes. HE CLAIMS THAT HE HATES HIMSELF The question is whether he is telling people what they want to hear and to
say what would get him out of prison the fastest. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Obtained from The Seattle Times, Friday, December 21, 2001, 12:00 a.m. PacificBusiness impostor pleads guilty
to bank, wire fraud By Christine
Clarridge James
R. Rowe, 40, pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, interstate
transportation of stolen money, felony possession of a firearm and
impersonating a federal agent. He faces up to 30 years in prison, $1
million in fines for each
count of bank and wire fraud, and up to 10 years and $250,000 on each of
the other charges. He was once one of the country's 15 most wanted
fugitives. Rowe
began his most recent ruse in 1998 when he took the name of Steven Heitman,
a Ballard High School classmate who had died, and persuaded two Microsoft
executives, Dale Watanabe and Ron Hosogi, to invest with him.2000. In
October 1999, the two Microsoft executives bought Sports Cars
International in Seattle for several million dollars and made Rowe a full
partner. In addition, Rowe persuaded Towne Bank of Woodinville to issue a
multimillion-dollar loan. It was then, federal prosecutors said, that he
began siphoning money out of the business by wiring it to a casino in Las
Vegas and living the high life. "Most
of Rowe's alleged illegal activities have been fraud-related," said
Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Morgan. "But over the years, he also has
displayed a remarkable talent for taking on false identities." Rowe
also posed as a U.S. marshal to buy guns, officials said. A 1993 fraud
conviction had made it illegal for him to buy or possess firearms. Rowe is also sought for investigation of burglary in San Diego; counterfeiting in Denver; larceny in Lakewood, Colo.; probation violation in Arapahoe, Colo.; and larceny in Adams County, Colo, the Marshal Service said. The Seattle Times, Local News: Sunday, June 16, 2002
Ex-Seattleite
gets 12 years for fraud By Christine
Clarridge, Seattle
Times staff reporter A self-professed con man who used the name of a dead classmate to steal millions from local investors and banks has been sentenced to 12-1/2 years in a federal prison....
synopsis by Peter J Wihtol |