Man Accused in S.D. Scam Is Held in a Florida Fraud

A man accused in San Diego of bilking an 88-year-old woman out of $50,000 in bank stocks has been arrested here on separate charges that he cashed in on the recent national sympathy for Vietnam veterans by offering “forgotten man” medallions at $100 apiece, authorities say.

Michael J. Crosby persuaded 6,000 people, including many veterans, to buy $100 silver medallions honoring America’s “forgotten man” from the Vietnam War, but few of the buyers ever received them, authorities said. He also misled famed former test pilot Chuck Yeager into making a videotape touting another project to raise money for a veterans’ memorial park, prosecutors say.

Crosby, 42, a fugitive from a November conviction on mail fraud charges, was arrested Thursday by the FBI at his home at the Polo Club of Boca Raton. He was ordered held without bail until he could be returned to Minneapolis, where he faces a prison sentence of 160 years.

An FBI agent in San Diego said Crosby is also wanted on charges of bilking an 88-year-old woman out of $50,000 in bank stocks.

Crosby was arrested at 6:20 a.m. Thursday as he left his home to walk his collie, said FBI Special Agent Bob Neumann. Crosby, who also goes by the names Krzyzaniak, Jeffreys, Carlisle and Montgomery, told agents he was John Anders, Neumann said.

“I think he exploited the feelings of people that Vietnam vets were not given a fair shake,” said Assistant U. S. Atty. Joan Lancaster of Minneapolis. “Through exploitation, he induced people to make an investment they otherwise would be prevented, through common sense, to make.”

Crosby’s company, “Vets for Vets,” solicited investors in a plan to build a veterans memorial park near Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Lancaster said. But Crosby reneged on a $90,000 land contract, and the park was never built.

Likewise, only 400 of the 6,000 people throughout the United States who bought Crosby’s commemorative medallions ever received them, Lancaster said.

“He blinded people,” Lancaster said. “It was a very standard boiler-room scheme. They were calling people up, promising them the earth, getting them to wire money or wire a check, or they picked it up by Federal Express the same day. And, of course, there was no delivery.”