Scam Artist Who Stole Thousands Is Arrested

WASHINGTON - A missing businessman who police said masqueraded as a Vietnam War hero, defrauded investors of almost half a million dollars and then tried to fake his own murder, was arrested late Tuesday in Iowa, the FBI said yesterday.

John Iannone, 52, formerly from a Pittsburgh suburb, was taken into custody in Clive, Iowa, 3 1/2 years after he disappeared.

Iannone has been indicted by federal authorities on 13 counts of wire and mail fraud for allegedly bilking Pennsylvania investors out of $470,000. Recent acquaintances in Texas, Colorado and South Carolina say he scammed them for more than $100,000 more.

Iannone's initial disappearance on Jan. 11, 1994, stunned his wife and three children, as well as members of the Vietnam veterans community who believed his story that he had been honored for heroism on the battlefield.

Once he disappeared, police discovered that he had never been to Vietnam, had never been decorated and had never been in the Army. They also discovered that his oil-drilling ventures were bogus, and the bloodstained van he left at the Pittsburgh airport was a carefully staged setup to cover his departure.

A few weeks after he disappeared, authorities say, Iannone resurfaced in the Denver area, telling people his family had been killed in a car wreck.

Last year and earlier this year, he began inducing his new friends to invest in the same kinds of bogus oil-drilling ventures he had promoted in Pennsylvania. Last month, the friends say, he again disappeared. When he then wrote them letters saying the drilling deal had gone bad, they called the FBI.