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Where's Vesco?

Jan 14 2008

Back to: Rogue on the Run

Robert Vesco is escorted into court on November 13, 1973, to face extradition from the Bahamas.
Vesco's Cuban home.
The family man in Connecticut, 1960.
Vesco at his Costa Rican retreat, 1974.
Vesco's private plane (grounded).
Vesco's yacht (impounded).
Bernard Cornfeld and friends, 1974.
Fidel Castro in 1985.
Vesco is interviewed for ABC News, 1974.
Vesco's compound in Costa Rica, 1974.
Nixon explains Watergate, 1973.
Vesco leaves a Cuban court, convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 13 years in jail, 1996.
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Collared
Robert Vesco is escorted into court on November 13, 1973, to face extradition from the Bahamas. The S.E.C. had warned the State Department that Vesco "may be attempting to insulate himself from the jurisdiction of the United States courts."
House Arrest
Vesco's Cuban home. An influential Cuban American who visited Miami in November spoke to "some people who should know" and was told that Vesco "is serving a sentence under house arrest" and that "they do not expect him to be released alive."
Family Man
Vesco with his wife and sons in Connecticut, 1960. Married at 17 and a father of three by 26, Vesco juggled engineering and middle-management jobs in the automobile industry with a variety of odd pursuits: running small-stakes-gambling operations and bingo parlors, as well as a highway bar called the Powder Mill Inn.
Southern Haven
Vesco at his Costa Rican retreat, 1974. With his slick black hair, beady eyes, and dastardly pencil mustache, Vesco attained legendary status: the original "fugitive financier."
Jet-Setter
Vesco's private plane (grounded). He lived the most ostentatious kind of exile: crowning Latin American beauty queens, waxing defiant via satellite to Walter Cronkite, declaring victory outside the Caribbean courthouses where he staved off extradition.
Sail Away
Vesco's yacht (impounded).
Infamous Predecessor
Bernard Cornfeld and friends, 1974. Cornfeld, the original jet-setting investment scammer, bitterly derided Vesco as "that hoodlum."
The Glory Years
Fidel Castro in 1985. By 1982, having worn out his welcome in the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Antigua, Vesco had relocated to Cuba. "If he wants to live, let him live here," Castro told an interviewer. "We don't care what he did in the United States."
Big Talker
Vesco is interviewed for ABC News, 1974.
Hideout
Vesco's compound in Costa Rica, 1974.
The Explainer
Nixon explains Watergate, 1973. Inside the White House, Vesco's indictment stirred little alarm. "The way this will probably end up," adviser John Ehrlichman correctly predicted in a taped conversation with Nixon on March 16, 1973, Vesco "will go to Costa Rica, where he has bought the president."
Convicted Criminal
Vesco leaves a Cuban court, convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 13 years in jail, 1996. He hasn't been heard from since.

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