A US banker on the lam:
NEWS
BANKER NOW ON LAM LIVED
HIGH ON HOG
By DAREH GREGORIAN
The fugitive banker who feds say disappeared
with $66 million of his company's money was
living the high life years before he vanished,
The Post has learned.
Ricardo Carrasco, 42, was last seen Feb. 19,
when he skipped a meeting with his
BankBoston bosses to discuss the whopping
amount of missing cash. He's been on the
lam ever since, officials said.
Carrasco, a native of Uruguay who was
assigned to BankBoston's New York office 10
years ago, started embezzling the cash in
1994 by making bogus loans and credit
extensions to a shady Argentine
businessman and his companies, according
to affadivits filed in federal court by the
Manhattan U.S. attorney.
Within a year, financial records show, he was
enjoying the best the Big Apple has to offer.
"All signs indicate he'd been living it up," said
Joe Valiquette of the FBI's New York office.
He rented a 2,500-square-foot loft on Bleecker
Street in Greenwich Village for $4,100 a
month and would often be seen in trendy night
spots like the Bowery Bar and Twilo. He had
two cars - a Toyota Land Cruiser and a
Jaguar.
He got a house in tony East Hampton, and he
co-owned an antique store with a friend in
Long Island.
Carrasco had seven credit cards, and in 1995,
he racked up more than $84,000 in charges
on just one of them, including $45,000 in
merchandise for his home and $10,000 in
dining bills from ritzy restaurants.
Another $15,000 went to travel expenses,
including vacations in South America and the
Caribbean.
His salary at the time was $288,000 a year,
plus about $100,000 in stock options.
He got a raise in 1996, making $345,000, but
his world started to crash in around him
toward the end of last year.
In the fall, bank officials noticed several
"irregularities" at the New York branch,
investigators said.
When he was first confronted by his
superiors, Carrasco, a 20-year employee of
BankBoston, acknowledged some money
was missing because of "administrative
errors," one investigator said.
But an internal audit by the company early in
January showed that up to $70 million was
missing from his department.
Bank officials flew down from Boston on Feb.
19 to meet with Carrasco, but he never
showed up.
He apparently went back to his apartment and
packed up some clothes. But most of his
expensive belongings, including designer
suits, a home entertainment system and the
two cars, were left behind.
Doing record checks, investigators
determined he spent the next few nights in a
flophouse on Jane Street before flying to
California under an assumed name.
Carrasco is unmarried and has no relatives in
the United States. Officials fear he's fled the
country and have launched an international
search for him.
"The focus is to determine how the theft
occurred and to what extent he profited. We
have more questions than answers,"
Valiquette said.
BankBoston has offered a $10,000 reward for
information leading to Carrasco's arrest and
conviction. Anyone with information on the
case is asked to call the FBI at (212)
384-1000.
"Among our white-collar criminal
investigations, he is a major, major fugitive,"
Valiquette said. "He's someone we would love
to apprehend."
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