FBI Flyer Triggered Arrest in Key West : Ex-Fugitive Pleads Guilty in NECC Fraud Case

SAN DIEGO — Larry Kent Clark probably thought his secret was safe as he went to work one day last October tending bar at the Holiday Inn in Key West.

After all, it had been two years since a federal grand jury in San Diego had indicted him on 22 counts of fraud and conspiracy, and, so far, Clark, using the alias Ray Deweese, had managed to elude the FBI agents who were looking for him.

So Clark probably didn’t think much of his conversation with the vacationing Atlanta businessman who came into the Holiday Inn bar that October day.

The two chatted a bit and, later, went their separate ways.

But when the businessman returned to his office in Atlanta, he found in his mail a flyer printed by the FBI.

On it was a picture of Larry Kent Clark, the bartender he had known as Ray Deweese.

The flyer described Clark and his business--New England Commercial Corp. (NECC), a San Diego-based equipment leasing firm that had bilked 20 companies out of $270,000.

FBI Mailings

As it has in other fugitive cases, the FBI mailed these flyers to targeted businesses in selected areas, hoping to alert companies that may come in contact with the suspect. In this case, the FBI mailed leaflets to car and equipment leasing firms in California, Florida and Georgia.

After recognizing Clark, the Atlanta businessman promptly contacted the Atlanta FBI, which in turn called federal agents in San Diego and Miami.

Clark was soon arrested and, in late November, was returned to San Diego.

On Thursday, Clark pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, and admitted to U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving that the NECC scheme had been a fraud from its inception in December, 1983.

At the time, Clark and his partner, Gary Nixon Parker, placed advertisements in newspapers throughout the country, claiming they had capital available for new and used equipment leasing.

Would-be customers called either NECC’s toll-free telephone number in Delaware or its San Diego operation--in a modest Point Loma house--to arrange leasing and financing.

The customers were told that the leasing contracts required at least two months’ advance payment--payable only by cashier’s checks or by wire transfers to NECC’s two bank accounts in San Diego, according to the grand jury indictment.

Both Clark and Parker used aliases--Clark was known as Joseph A. Butler and Parker was known alternately as Stephen Marshall, Donald Hunnicut or Robert Ogden.

Parker is 16 months into his five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Clark will be sentenced by Judge Irving on March 9. He faces 10 years in prison.