Attorney on run for 20 years caught in Delray
Scott Wolas accused of fraud in N.Y., Massachusetts.
DELRAY BEACH — In January, the Patriot Ledger — a newspaper in Quincy, Mass. - asked in a headline: “Where i s S c o t t Wolas and what i s he u p t o ? ” wondering whatever happened t o t he di s - barred lawyer wanted for 20 years for scamming p e o p l e t h r o u g h v a r i o u s enterprises.
“We have no idea where he is,” Quincy police Capt. John Dougan told the Ledger.
Well, where else but Palm Beach County? Wolas, who went by many names, was arrested in Delray Beach last week, ending two decades on the lam. He is charged with wire fraud and aggrav a t e d i d e n t i t y t h e f t . He appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach on Friday and is expected to return to Massachusetts.
Authorities say Wolas took more than $100 million from investors in New York in the 1990s using a liquor-trading Ponzi scheme. He ripped off about 16 people in Massachusetts of $1.7 million — includ- ing an ex-girlfriend. He was also active in Florida, specializing in false identities.
The alleged scam included the redevelopment of the Beachcomber, a longtime bar and music venue on Wollaston Beach in the Boston suburb of Quincy, into condominiums and a “boutique” restaurant.
Wola s , t h e n p o s i n g a s Eugene Grathwohl, raised more than $1.5 million from 19 investors for that project. After months of extensions, he failed to show up at the closing in September, disappearing with the money.
“I’m so happy that he got caught,” Ben Porter, who lost $50,000 in the alleged scheme, told Boston CBS affiliate WBZ-TV. “He’s going to now be accountable for what he did.”
Wolas used $98,000 to purchase stamp books and other collectible items. He also spent $50,000 dining out at restaurants and withdrew more than $600,000 in cash for unknown purposes, according to court documents.
Besides Grathwohl, Wolas went by Frank Amolsch, Drew Prescott, Allen Lee Hengst and Robert Francis McDowell, police say. He told his girlfriend he needed to change his identity frequently because he once was in a “secret service” and was now in the witness protection program, according to a federal criminal complaint.
The real Grathwohl presently lives in Delray Beach, the criminal complaint said. He told the FBI that he knew Wolas as the ex-husband of a friend of his and had even met the man who assumed his identity, according to the FBI. Efforts to reach him Saturday were unsuccessful.
He n g s t — wh o i n r e a l life roomed with Wolas at Georgetown University, federal officials said — was the name Wolas used during his first foray into Florida, which took place after he fled New York in the 1990s but before he was indicted there in 1997.
While in the state, Wolas u s e d H e n g s t ’s n a me i n obtaining a license to sell securities, and his activities drew the attention of the FBI’s Tampa office in 2001.
The aliases that Wolas was using just before his arrest were Endicott Asquith and Cameron Sturge, the complaint said.
In late March, Wolas told a witness who knew him as Asquith that he planned to “come clean.” Through a photo provided by the witness, authorities who had earlier determined Grathwohl was Wolas determined that Asquith was Wolas as well, according to the complaint.