Chapter Seven: Judge adds up the price for decades of schemes

(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 1--Six weeks after Jim O'Gara was supposed to be sentenced, court reconvened for Round 2.

The victims, the attorneys and the FBI agent all filed into the castle-like federal courthouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Aug. 1, 2005, wondering what O'Gara would get.

At the previous hearing, the judge had suggested that the recommended sentence of a year or less might be too short, considering the defendant's record of eight convictions for theft and fraud.

With a U.S. marshal at his side and shackles on his ankles, O'Gara shuffled into the golden-oak courtroom. None of his supporters came.

O'Gara admitted he had told sweeping lies -- about having big-name partners, staff and other resources -- to two businessmen who needed financing.

However, he swore he tried to find investors for their companies.

Judge Lawrence Piersol had delayed the sentencing to let him provide proof.

Now it was judgment time.

The courtroom fell silent, aside from the occasional squeak of a chair.

Piersol, high upon his bench, sifted through a sheaf of papers from the attorneys, resting his chin on his hand as he read.

Seven library-quiet minutes ticked away.

O'Gara propped his elbows on the defense table and buried his face in his palms.

The victims -- a radio station owner and a software company president bilked out of a combined $59,413 -- watched from straight-backed benches.

The judge finally spoke.

A few people had sent confidential letters to the court praising O'Gara for saving their companies, he said.

O'Gara obviously had intelligence, education and abilities.

But he lacked the morals to keep him from duping others.

"The public has to be protected from this defendant," the judge decided.

O'Gara stood and bowed his head to receive his sentence.

Jim O'Gara was going to prison, the judge announced . . .

For 24 months.

Two years.

Subtract the days he spent in the county jail before sentencing. And good conduct time if he behaves in prison.

O'Gara should be released Christmas Day 2006.

--Get the deals done, or get life in prison.

That threat had been dangled over O'Gara's head by Marc Weber Tobias, an attorney who fumed when he realized his loan broker was a convicted con man.

He hammered away at O'Gara -- unearthing documents and secretly taping conversations -- on and off for 11/2 years before charges were filed.

"By God, I decided Jim O'Gara just shouldn't be on the street," he said.

Law enforcement often spouts an "I'm-gonna-getcha" braggadocio. But the bluster fades to a whimper as the bureaucratic reality of criminal justice churns forward.

Tobias was among the 5 percent of fraud victims who contact government officials, out of an estimated 24 million Americans who get defrauded each year.

Fraud reports can sit idle with law enforcement for a variety of reasons, including lack of evidence, jurisdiction, resources or expertise. For O'Gara, at least three deals totaling more than $80,000 were reported but never prosecuted.

Even so, more than 50,000 people are convicted of fraud in a year.

Many plead guilty to lesser or fewer charges than prosecutors filed.

Over the years, O'Gara has been charged with 22 crimes involving theft and fraud.

Fourteen charges were dropped -- 13 of them through plea agreements.

Felons who get locked up for fraud stay an average of 11/2 years.

An estimated 40 percent of defendants convicted get no prison or jail time. Those who steal cars or get caught with drugs are more likely than con artists to see the inside of a cell.

Some investigators, knowing that property crimes often end in probation, are relieved just to tag a conviction on the crook. At least they've left a hint for the next person who looks.

So, when Judge Piersol dinged O'Gara with two years in prison, he doled out a rarity: a longer-than-average fraud sentence -- even harsher than recommended by the federal court's sentencing guidelines.

From that perspective, O'Gara didn't get away with it.

He actually got it worse than most.

--O'Gara's victims didn't get to lock him up forever, but at least he was ordered to pay them back.

On the surface, with his comfortable west Omaha lifestyle, he looked like the rare defendant who could.

He could afford a private attorney. His known deals generated an average of $40,000 a year in recent years.

He and his longtime girlfriend, Deanna Greene-Rogalski, shared a duplex near 165th Avenue and West Center Road with a $116,850 mortgage. He drove a black 2002 Buick Rendezvous sport utility vehicle.

Yet those assets couldn't be touched to repay his victims.

His girlfriend was listed as the owner.

"There are techniques that debtors can utilize," said O'Gara's attorney, Clarence Mock, "because the law is too unwieldy to be able to collect."

After O'Gara's sentencing, the bank foreclosed on the duplex, and the girlfriend filed for bankruptcy, wiping out $131,732 in credit card and other debt.

The government has tapped one asset in O'Gara's name to repay the South Dakota victims.

His inmate account.

The judge ordered him to pay $25 each quarter.

He owes $59,413.

"If I only get 10 bucks, 30 seconds before I die," radio station owner Lee Axdahl said, "I'd be happy."

He hasn't gotten a penny yet.

In case O'Gara accumulates assets later, federal prosecutors filed a lien to hook onto any future property.

He still has an outstanding lien for ignoring his bank-fraud fine from 1988.

--As O'Gara sat in prison this summer, his fictitious company SBF remained on the Better Business Bureau Web site.

"Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the Bureau. The Bureau processed a total of 0 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period."

--OK, so O'Gara didn't get life in prison, but Tobias thinks his con man won't have much of a life after prison.

He'll be 60 years old and monitored by a probation officer for three years. His girlfriend referred to him as her ex when she filed for bankruptcy last year.

"He's screwed," Tobias said. "He has no money. He has no house. He has no one. His life is wrecked."

Now that Tobias considers himself the victor, his vindictiveness has waned.

He calls his former archenemy Jimmy, reminiscing about him like an old college buddy.

He always liked O'Gara, he insists, even when he was infuriated by him. Sure, O'Gara may be a fraud, but he gets credit for caring for his girlfriend and her disabled son.

"It's not that the guy doesn't have a big heart," Tobias said. "He's just a thief."

Tobias, who first turned to O'Gara for his purported financial expertise, now thinks he has expertise to offer the convict.

In a letter shipped to the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., Tobias proposed a new partnership to inmate number 12483-047.

Why not give fraud lectures together?

O'Gara could reveal con secrets. Tobias could enlighten audiences as victim and investigator. Profits could repay the victims.

Several high-profile con men have turned criminal enterprise into fraud-prevention careers. Frank Abagnale, the real-life inspiration for the movie "Catch Me If You Can," gets $20,000 or more per speech.

In boxy handwriting, on lined notebook paper, O'Gara sent his reply:

"I am open to talk to you about a lecture, but it makes no sense to me to talk about it until after my release," he wrote.

"Back in the 80's, several attys (including one in the US atty's office) suggested I do just that; develop a series for bankers, venture capital companies and private investors to show them how to detect fraud."

Their negotiations could start after O'Gara moves Oct. 24 into a federal community corrections center in Council Bluffs.

A two-month stay in this halfway house will be the last phase of his sentence.

The center sits 11/2 miles from his old furniture factory, General Wood Works, where his fraud career blossomed in the 1980s.

Once O'Gara arrives there, Tobias has other ideas to float.

A book. Maybe even a movie.

Who would play the lead in "The Jim O'Gara Story"?

Tobias pondered for a few moments, tossed out a few names, then concluded:

"I'm not so sure O'Gara couldn't play himself."

Copyright (c) 2006, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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