This guy missed his calling. Enron would of made him a hero...
Fraud Suspect High-Tails It During Games
Friday, April 19, 2002
BY KEVIN CANTERA
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Allowed by a federal judge to spend the Olympics in his swank Park City condominium, a former Cisco Systems executive charged in California with embezzling millions of dollars has since disappeared.
Now Robert S. Gordon is the subject of a nationwide manhunt. The one-time Cisco vice president is accused of defrauding the San Jose-based computer networking company out of nearly $30 million in two complex schemes.
Earlier this week, Utah FBI agents with an arrest warrant knocked on the door of Gordon's $4.5 million condominium at 7900 Bald Eagle Dr. in Park City. He was nowhere to be found.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Eaton said interviews with a housekeeper and a security guard at the gated community near Deer Valley led agents to believe Gordon "has not been seen in Utah since the Olympics."
Federal prosecutors in California last saw Gordon on Feb. 11, when a federal magistrate in San Jose gave him permission to travel to Utah for the Winter Games. The 42-year-old was not considered a flight risk.
But when Gordon failed to appear in court for a scheduled hearing Tuesday, an arrest warrant was issued and federal prosecutors moved to take possession of the $5 million in cash Gordon posted as bond when he was first charged last year.
The U.S. government -- which has already seized about $17 million linked to Gordon's alleged scheme -- is also seeking his $1.7 million home in Palo Alto, Calif.
The Park City property was not included in the forfeiture request, but prosecutors will probably attempt to grab the condo in a separate civil action, said Gordon's lawyer, Richard Beada of Santa Monica, Calif.
In a phone interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, Beada said Thursday he spoke to his client "recently," but not since prosecutors declared him a fugitive.
"I'm concerned about him. I don't know where he is or if he is even alive," said Beada. "I'm concerned that he may have harmed himself."
Beada said he is especially concerned about Gordon's disappearance because he was close to working out a plea deal with prosecutors on the criminal charges.
Nearly a year ago, Gordon -- Cisco's vice president of business development -- was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of wire fraud. The former executive allegedly diverted over 150,000 shares of Cisco-owned stock into a phony company, "Cisco Bahamas," according to an FBI affidavit. He also allegedly funneled money away from Cisco's investment in a startup company called Spanlink.
When confronted by company officials, Gordon protested that he had Cisco's best interests in mind and was simply "thinking outside the box," according to the affidavit.
Still, Cisco fired Gordon over a year ago, according to charging documents.
kcantera@sltrib.com |
