Fugitive in $2-Million Real Estate Scam Caught After 8 Years

A spot-check of a relative’s home Saturday led investigators to the arrest of a fugitive who had been on the run for eight years after jumping bail in connection with a $2-million real estate scam, police said.

Clifford Dale Keller Jr., 55, of Bakersfield, who had pleaded guilty to grand theft and forgery in 1988 but disappeared before his sentencing date, was arrested at a Norwalk shopping center at 1 p.m., said Sgt. Jim Wells of the La Palma Police Department. He was being held in Orange County Jail on an outstanding “no bail warrant,” Wells said.

Keller, a former Cerritos resident, was one of two men arrested back in December 1986 in connection with a real estate scheme involving nonexistent second mortgages that had bilked more than 50 Southern California investors out of $2 million, Wells said. The investors had purchased second trust deeds, which turned out to be fake, from now-defunct Old Ranch Management & Investment Inc. of La Palma.

Wells said investigators on Saturday noticed a strange car at Keller’s daughter’s home in Norwalk. When a man who resembled Keller’s old photograph got in the car and drove off, the investigators stopped him and placed him under arrest.

“They got lucky today,” said Wells, who said detectives keep many similar long-standing cases active and under investigation.

“It’s just one of those things,” Wells said. “We have been trying different investigative avenues periodically the entire time.”

Wells said Keller at first denied his identity, but later give in.

“He is awaiting sentencing again now, but this time he’s in jail,” Wells said.