Everything Seemed So Normal About Teen in Internet Scam

Even by most teenagers’ hectic schedules, Cole Bartiromo would have been hard to keep up with.

In November, the 17-year-old from Mission Viejo was going to high school, attending baseball practice every weekday morning, pet-sitting for a family next door, flipping pizzas at a neighborhood restaurant and, according to federal authorities, masterminding an elaborate online investment scam that swindled more than $1 million from investors worldwide.

The next month, the curly-haired teenager neighbors call “choir boy Cole” was selling candy for a baseball fund-raiser, working out with teammates after school, shooting hoops with children on his suburban cul-de-sac and, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, dodging investigators while brazenly stringing along his victims with sophisticated e-mails.

And three days after Christmas, in an unrelated incident, the bright student-athlete was arrested at his house for allegedly shining a powerful green laser at an Orange County sheriff’s helicopter on routine patrol over his neighborhood. When confronted, Bartiromo told deputies he bought the laser on the Internet for $1,500 as a Christmas present for himself, but didn’t say what he planned to do with it. He was released to his parents that night.

The laser case is pending in juvenile court, but deputies viewed it as frivolous horseplay, nothing serious like the SEC accusations that have made Bartiromo the second youngest person to allegedly run afoul of federal regulators in an Internet scheme.

If what the SEC said in its civil complaint is true, Bartiromo is as stealthy as he is sweet, as unscrupulous as he is industrious, as arrogant as he is reserved. Yet not even his closest baseball teammates seemed to have an inkling that there was anything out of the ordinary in Cole’s life.

Cole and his parents have refused interviews since the SEC on Monday accused the teenager of civil securities fraud. The agency said Bartiromo agreed to turn over $900,000 that had been transferred to an account at a Costa Rica-based casino, which he did on Friday. The teenager may have to return additional funds as the SEC investigation continues, said an agency attorney. And while the SEC’s complaint did not name other defendants, officials have declined to say whether Bartiromo acted alone or had help.

“The whole thing’s mind-boggling,” said Tim Ellis, Bartiromo’s head coach at Trabuco Hills High School, who has known the boy since his freshman year. “I don’t even know what to think.”

Interviews with friends, neighbors and teammates, as well as various court documents, depict Bartiromo as the eldest child in a close-knit family that has at times been under significant stress, with two bankruptcy filings, a foreclosure of their home and work-related injury claims by Cole’s father, John Bartiromo. Cole and his father are said to be particularly close, and over the years they shared an escalating passion for dealing in the sports memorabilia market.

Kyle Kiel, who coached Little League with John Bartiromo and has known Cole since he was 10, says he thinks the boy’s interest in sports card trading led to his current troubles.

“Cole has a heart of gold,” said Kiel of Mission Viejo. “But he’s also very cunning and witty. He always had a great ability to put a deal together, and it all started with the baseball trading cards.”

Dreamed of Playing in the Big Leagues

As a youngster, Bartiromo had dreams of playing in the big leagues. And early on he showed promise. He was an all-star who helped his team clinch a state championship and an outfielder who hit home runs when it mattered.

“He had a really good work ethic because he wanted to please his dad,” said Ryan Clinkenbeard, a former Trabuco Hills teammate who last year transferred to El Toro High School. “He wanted to help out his family and repay his dad for everything he did for him.”

At home, Bartiromo’s father was struggling to support a family of five on a modest income working as a material handler for Southern California Edison, where he has been employed for 16 years, according to court records. In April 1993, with three small children in the house and Bartiromo’s mother, Jeanise, having just launched a home day care business, the Bartiromos filed for bankruptcy. The filing shows monthly income of $2,800 and almost $23,000 in credit card debt.

Four years later, the Bartiromos were $23,000 in arrears on their mortgage payments, and that prompted John Bartiromo, 44, to file another bankruptcy petition. But the court dismissed the case, and in the summer of 1997 the bank foreclosed on the Bartiromos’ three-bedroom, two-bath home.

The Bartiromos did not move out, however. John Bartiromo’s younger sister, Donna Smallwood, and her husband bought the house from the lender for $220,000.

“John made payments to my husband, and we paid the mortgage company,” Smallwood said. About a year later, property records show, John Bartiromo purchased the house from the Smallwoods, then refinanced the loan in November 1999.

It was around that time, friends say, that Cole became increasingly savvy in his sports cards dealings. He paired up with his dad to sell and trade them on the Internet. They took regular trips to Seattle to track down then-Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. for an autograph. They opened an EBay account together under the screen name “TigerWoods” and boasted to friends about getting handsome payouts for their efforts.

So occupied did Cole become with his collection of rare sports cards--and with selling them over the Internet--that friends grew tired of hearing about it.

“It would get old after a while,” said Kyle Allen, a former teammate at Trabuco Hills who now pitches at Orange Coast College. He recalled the living room walls at the Bartiromos’ house as being plastered with baseball pictures, posters and metal sports signs.

“We’d always call him up to see what he was doing, but he’d just say he was hanging out at home,” Allen said. “Eventually, we just stopped calling him.”

Meanwhile, Cole and his father were apparently branching out into other online business deals, and often bragged about the money they were making. Tom Burson, whose son, Matt, has played baseball with Bartiromo since Little League, recalled sitting in the stands with John Bartiromo, watching the game and listening to him chat about successes in day-trading stocks. Burson said Cole, too, talked about buying and selling stocks at a time when the market was soaring a few years ago.

“I think they were doing pretty well there for a while,” Burson said. “But then . . . they didn’t mention it again. I assume because they got hammered like everyone else.”

Part of Time Share in Las Vegas Sold Online

Last April, saying he needed money to put his two kids through college, John Bartiromo sold part of the time share he owns at the Jockey Club Resort in Las Vegas. The buyer, Darlene Tornes of Ohio, said she bought the time share--a penthouse suite on the Strip--on EBay for $5,600. Property records show Bartiromo bought the time share for $10,000 in 1994.

“He said he was only making $200 or $300 a year by renting the week out,” Tornes said. “So I’m sure the money he got by selling would help him with his kids.” The Bartiromos also have two daughters, 15 and 11.

Over the years, John Bartiromo was contending with a job-related back injury, according to a state Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board file. A doctor’s report last March said he first injured his lower back lifting 70-pound rolls of guy wire in 1986 and re-injured it several times in the following years, records show.

Edison and Bartiromo settled the workers’ compensation claim in 1999, although there appeared to be ongoing issues. Bartiromo recently returned to work in a new position as a business analyst, according to an Edison spokesman and Bartiromo’s sister.

“He was home a lot there for a while,” said neighbor Michael Greenwood. “But I don’t think he ever missed a baseball game.”

It was unclear whether John Bartiromo was working during November and December, when SEC officials said Cole pulled off the intricate scheme. Jeanise Bartiromo, 44, is employed as a substitute clerk for a local school district, working on an as-needed basis.

Cole and his dad were often together, friends say, and by last summer they had become successful enough in the world of sports card trading that ESPN took an interest. In an August interview, the father and son spoke to a reporter about their Tiger Woods cards from Sports Illustrated’s SI for Kids magazine.

An investor on EBay, John Bartiromo said, had indicated to them that one of the cards--deemed to be the closest thing to a rookie card for the golf superstar--had “six figure potential,” but he wouldn’t name the investor and it is unclear whether a sale was ever made.

Alex Baik, who owns a sports card shop in Mission Viejo, said Cole Bartiromo often stopped in before or after school last fall, and excitedly chatted about the sales he made on the Internet. While deciding on which pack of baseball cards he wanted to purchase from Baik that day, Cole sometimes talked about money.

“He made a lot,” Baik said. “I know he made a lot more at it than I do. One time he said he sold a card for $1,700.”

According to court documents and interviews with investors, however, it was sporting events rather than trading cards that was at the core of the Web site Invest Better 2001. Beginning on Nov. 1, the SEC said Cole promised investors huge short-term returns with no risk by letting him pool their cash and place bets with online sports books.

On the site, Cole offered a “Christmas Miracle” package, with returns of up to 2,500%.

Whether Bartiromo actually placed bets or kept the money is not yet known. But whereas Bartiromo was once boastful about his online earnings, he didn’t reveal the slightest clue about his new venture, which would have added to his already hectic schedule as the holidays were nearing.

Worked at a Pizza Parlor for 3 Weeks

In early November, Cole approached Baik at the sports card shop in Mission Viejo and said he wanted to get a job to earn some money for the holidays. Baik directed him next door to a Rubino’s pizza restaurant, and Cole started working in the kitchen part time. He quit about three weeks later, according to manager Joe Chiappone, but didn’t say why.

Neighbors and teammates said they didn’t notice a difference in Bartiromo’s lifestyle. Jim Byrne, who has lived next door to the Bartiromos for 12 years, said he asked Cole to watch his dog over the Thanksgiving holiday while they were out of town.

“We paid him $10,” Byrne said. “And he sure was happy to get that.”

By early December, authorities said, Cole knew they were closing in and he sought to evade them by telling investors he had to take his operation “private” and communicate only through e-mail. But angry investors already were barraging Invest Better 2001 with complaints about not receiving scheduled payouts. Cole defended his program as the “real deal” and quickly deleted critical feedback from the site, the SEC said.

Meanwhile, the teenager, who plays outfield for his baseball team, was working out in the gym after school and making all his morning practices. Cole had been a reserve player in his junior year on the varsity team, but mostly sat on the bench. This year, Cole has been designated to start, and the gangly left fielder, with good speed, a quick bat and a below-average throwing arm was getting ready for the season.

During December, he could also be seen regularly shooting baskets with younger neighborhood children in front of his house. About the only entrepreneurial streak he displayed publicly was for a team fund-raiser, in which he put peanut butter cups in a small cooler and carried it to class, to keep the candy from melting.

“He figured they were better cold,” said former teammate Ryan Clinkenbeard. “He was the only kid walking around with an ice chest full of candy and selling them in class.”

On Dec. 13, the SEC filed an action in federal court in New York to stop Invest Better 2001, without naming any individuals in the complaint. The week before Christmas break, authorities said, Cole removed the Invest Better 2001 Web site and the operation collapsed.

The disclosure that the accused is a 17-year-old who is so ordinary--a kid who adores Ken Griffey Jr., rap music and his stripped-down blue pickup truck--has puzzled and shocked Cole’s world, on and off the baseball field.

Kyle Kiel, who has gone fishing with the Bartiromos in Dana Point, said he e-mailed John Bartiromo after news of the SEC settlement came out last week.

“He replied by saying, ‘There goes the college fund,’ ” Kiel recalled. “ ‘I’ll hire the best attorneys I can . . . and see if we can get out of this.”’

At a winter league baseball game last week, John Bartiromo showed up to coach as planned. But before the game, he chatted with other parents in the stands and apologized for the “media circus” that had surrounded Cole and the team over the prior few days.

That night, Cole played solidly in left field, and hit a line drive up the middle in his first at bat. He made it safely to first.

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Times staff writers H.G. Reza, Mai Tran and James S. Granelli contributed to this report.