High-Flying Trader Tied to New Airborne Venture
In the less than two years that it was in business, First International Trading Co. (FITC), a commodity investment firm masterminded by convicted con man Ronald J. McIntosh, earned a reputation for flying high.
According to court records, top salesmen were frequently rewarded with $100 bills and trips to Rio de Janeiro. One salesman received $425,000 in bonuses in a 10-month period. Another was presented with a Jaguar.
FITC employees also cruised around San Francisco in swank cars leased to the firm by the Fit for a King Limousine Co., owned by McIntosh’s wife, April, and the chauffeur of McIntosh’s partner.
Earns Prison Sentence
All that came crashing down last year when the company went bankrupt and McIntosh pleaded no contest--the legal equivalent of guilty--in San Francisco Superior Court of bilking $18 million from 2,500 investors. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
But, it seems, he was back flying high again Wednesday. McIntosh, who disappeared from custody Oct. 28 while on unsupervised transfer from the federal prison in Pleasanton to the one in Lompoc, is believed to have hijacked a helicopter, piloted it into the Pleasanton prison yard and then flown off with another inmate, Samantha D. Lopez.
“Ron is not your typical criminal,” said Santa Rosa attorney Stephen Turer, who represents McIntosh in civil lawsuits filed against FITC by the federal government.
Turer described McIntosh, 42, as a veteran who learned to pilot a helicopter in Vietnam and loved to fly.
“In a way I’m not surprised (he escaped),” said Turer. “I know he did not like living in jail.”
Wire Fraud Charges
A former commodities broker from Seattle, McIntosh had his first problems with the law in 1982, when he lost his license to sell commodities after being convicted of wire fraud charges, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. He was sentenced to serve 18 months on the charges, and was released on probation in 1983 and moved to the Bay Area.
Unlike his two partners in FITC, who drove Rolls-Royces and lived in luxurious Marin County homes, McIntosh was a family man who owned a Cadillac and lived in a middle-class tract house in suburban Sebastopol, Turer said.
Turer said McIntosh, who separated from his wife after FITC collapsed and he was arrested on criminal charges, has a 20-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son. He said McIntosh and his wife were active in raising money and sponsoring programs for developmentally disabled children when they lived in Seattle.
While serving his first prison term in the federal prison in Lompoc, McIntosh met Michael Leroy Wyatt, who is also known as Michael Anthony, according to court records.
Ater he and Anthony were released on probation in the fall of 1983, they purchased a defunct Nevada corporation, M&J; Enterprises, and resurrected it as FITC.
An Array of Interests
Working from offices in San Francisco, Irvine, Dallas and Houston, scores of FITC telephone salesmen sold contracts for gold and silver futures. The parent company also operated an Oklahoma silver refinery, a mining company and a film company, according to court records.
Because of his criminal record, McIntosh did not want to be directly associated with FITC, according to court records. So he set up a separate consulting firm called Gravenstein Diversified Inc. That firm received $1.1 million from FITC between October, 1984, and February, 1985, according to a report filed in federal court by FITC’s court-appointed receiver in July, 1985.
About $1.7 million in cash and gold coins allegedly taken from investors was never accounted for, said Arthur J. Salzberg, who investigated FITC’s operations as regional counsel for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Salzberg said he believes McIntosh may have moved the money to Panama, where bank secrecy laws can provide a haven for illicit funds.
Turer said McIntosh founded FITC after his prison record prevented him from getting other work, including a job selling used cars.
Jane Applegate reported from Los Angeles and Mark A. Stein from San Francisco.
