If not personally, his agents may know where he is.
John Ruffo (old photo, left; profile here), now 67, is a Brooklyn-born Italian-American con artist who disappeared in 1998 after being sentenced to prison for swindling U.S. banks out of $350 million.
Why might he be hiding in Russia?
Ruffo is a computer engineer. The FBI “contracted [with him] and his company … for work during the early ’90s … tracking Soviets,” ABC News says, by using his business “as a front company, with agents placed inside.”
And he had connections “to a Soviet computer engineer whose defection was sought after by U.S. officials,” ABC News says. (Read story here).
Hmm. If Ruffo, a known liar and swindler, took money from the FBI to hunt Russians, why wouldn’t he also take money from the Russinsa to double-cross the FBI? And then seek sanctuary in Russia when things fell apart in the U.S.? His last-known whereabouts is a parking lot at JFK International Airport, where he abandoned a rental car.
I’m only speculating, of course. But Ruffo has been gone a very long time, without a trace. Places besides Russia are black holes for people like him, if they have enough money, so Russia is only one possibility. Another is he may be dead by now, his ashes scattered in some foreign land or tossed into the sea. The money? Probably long gone, too. But loads of fun while it lasted.