In a statement released on Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service requested the public’s help in identifying a man that attended a Los Angeles Dodgers game in 2016. He is believed to resemble notorious criminal and wanted fugitive John Ruffo, who has been on the run since 1998.
In September of 2016, investigators in the Eastern District of Virginia received a tip indicating that Ruffo had been in attendance at Dodger Stadium on August 5, 2016 for a game between the Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox. He was allegedly wearing a blue shirt and sitting four rows up behind home plate. Although investigators were able to narrow the Section 1 seat down and identify the purchaser, they have been unable to identify the man in question who bears a resemblance to Ruffo.
Ruffo, a New York City businessman who served as the President of an IBM equipment reseller, was found guilty on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy in the late 1990s for his involvement in a scheme that defrauded banking institutions both in the United States and abroad out of $350 million.
Ruffo was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison in 1998, but disappeared in November of 1998 prior to his being ordered to report to a New Jersey prison. He has not been spotted since. He was last seen driving a rental car in the long-term parking lot at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Nov. 9, 1998.
Ruffo has since been a 15 Most Wanted fugitive, and a reward of $25,000 has been offered for any information that leads directly to his arrest.
Given his international connections through his work as a New York City businessman, investigators have cast a wide net in trying to pursue Ruffo over the last 23 years. As he has had travel ties to Aruba and Italy and is believed to be living overseas, wanted posters have been translated into seven different languages.
