John Ruffo

John Ruffo (born November 26, 1954) is an American former business executive, white-collar criminal and confidence person, who in 1998 was convicted in a scheme to defraud many US and foreign banking institutions of over 350 million US dollars. The swindle is considered one of the most significant cases of bank fraud in US history. He has been a fugitive from justice ever since, and is on the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list as of 29 August 2024.

Ruffo was the President of CCS, an IBM equipment reseller in New York City, in 1996.

Early life

Ruffo was born to a close-knit Italian American family in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn. He attended New York University on a scholarship, earning a degree in computer science. In May 1980, he married his childhood sweetheart, Linda. Ruffo initially worked for United Computer Systems LLC in New York, before eventually branching out to form his own firm, Consolidated Computer Services (CCS).

Criminal case

Ruffo became acquainted with and befriended another prominent New York businessman, Edward J. Reiners, formerly an executive with Philip Morris USA. After Reiners was laid off, he approached Ruffo with an idea in 1992. The scheme involved soliciting various banks in an attempt to secure financing for a fictitious "Project Star". They pitched the project to bank executives as a top secret operation for Phillip Morris to develop smokeless cigarettes. Ruffo's company, CCS, was to provide the computer hardware and consulting for five offices set up to work on the project. They leveraged Reiners' prior credentials as a Phillip Morris executive to forge documents and add authenticity to the scheme. They also included stringent confidentiality agreements stipulating that because of the sensitivity of the project, banks were to deal only with Reiners and to never contact Phillip Morris directly.