Fraud, Theft, and Schemes

This is part 2 of The ASU Bodybuilder

I had 1 thing in common with main
defendant – We both graduated from Arizona State University, but
after that fact, our lives took quite different paths. I will add
that this was a complex case and I actually worked on this
investigation for over five years. Some might say, wow you are pretty
slow, but the case involved multiple defendants, federal and state
charges, over 100 properties were involved and millions at stake.

Casimerro, where are you?
This was the mantra that was probably
said 100 times by myself and my family for 5 to 6 months in 2001.
We said it like it we were playing a hide and seek game, although the
stakes were much higher than a game, and it was fun to say.
Casimerro where are you? Did I find him? Listen to the case details
which included a helicopter surveillance, an attempted large drug
seizure, and a homemade alarm system to learn the answer.

I am retired Special Agent that worked
for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the
Department of Veterans Affairs for over 20 years. What I will
discuss is the actual cases that I was the primary investigator and
most were “white collar” fraud cases which resulted in
convictions. A desire to be in law enforcement started at a young age
for me and as I look back at my young adventures as a boy, I realized
they played a part in my future career.

Many of the details and the actual
stories are public record. During my Special Agent career I was the
affiant for 25 search warrants and each one of these affidavits told
a story. I have changed the names of the defendants, just to keep the
ghosts away but other details are fairly accurate to what happened.
I don't have a lot of source material from then, but have a pretty
good memory.
If you have a desire to go into federal
law enforcement, this will provide some background and education, and
insight into “white collar” criminal investigations. I hope
these stories are both informative and entertaining.
I retired in 2012, and have been
working as a computer forensic analyst and manager for several large
companies.
This first podcast that I'm recording
is called “Creative Staging”. Being creative at work can be fun
and productive, but I will begin this story as a boy.

The defendant in this case was
convincingly the most intelligent subject I investigated during my 20
+ years as an agent. Some of my other defendants might argue this
point, but he was a world champion card player and he ran a very
complex scheme all the while concealing his identity. He worked
hard to never meet anyone in person and used false identification to
open bank accounts and a private mail box. All these efforts made if
difficult to determine who was running the scheme, until one night at
9:00 pm I watched a man insert a key into a private mail box, and we
had him.

This is a case about a man, Mickey
Henchele, that had challenged the criminal justice system numerous
times and had won. Mickey had been a con man his entire adult life,
and had never been convicted or the few convictions that were part of
his record, had been expunged (meaning that technically the
conviction had never occurred). County officials, local police, and
the FBI had attempted to put investigations together and were never
able to get a charge to stick. That was until Mickey got into my my
cross hairs and it was a struggle. This case involved over 1,000
properties, two search warrants, and Mickey physically chasing me and
my cousin around the back alleys of Van Nuys California.