BEACHCOMBER
LUKEWARM PURSUIT
It was the headline that grabbed me: “Ponzi Scheme Suspect Flees FBI Agents, Dives Into Shasta Lake In Submersible”. I had visions of a Mr Big con-artist outrunning the Feds as hatchet-faced henchmen warmed up his cuttingedge escape vessel, all ready to go.
I imagined the fugitive disappearing through the hatch with one last triumphal sneer at his pursuers, before making for the depths at high speed.
The reality turned out to be a little different. The perp, one Matthew Piercey, had been charged with fraud, money-laundering and witnesstampering, having parted investors with $35 million (allegedly).
He led law-enforcement officers a merry chase through California’s highways, but when he abandoned his pick-up and took to the state’s biggest reservoir it was not to climb aboard his personal submarine but to hang onto a DPV he’d brought with him.
Whether he had time to change into scuba gear or used a snorkel was unclear, though the FBI did report that he spent some time under water, the officers patiently tracing his bubbles.