text: FBI Sketches High Life Of Suspect / Investors' life savings apparently disappeared - SFGate
  https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/FBI-Sketches-High-Life-Of-Suspect-Investors-2809091.php
  FBI Sketches High Life Of Suspect / Investors' life savings apparently disappeared
  Peter Fimrite, Bill Wallace, Chronicle Staff Writers
  1997-09-05 04:00:00 PDT SAN RAFAEL -- Donald Marquis Bickerstaff seemed to have it all -- expensive cars, a stable of racehorses and expensive homes in Marin and San Diego counties.
  It was a good life. Maybe too good, according to the FBI. The Scottish-born investment counselor who had offices in San Rafael and San Diego has disappeared amid allegations that he cheated a bank and scores of elderly clients, many of whom invested their life's savings.
  The clients' missing millions, plus hundreds of thousands more in questionable bank loans, are the subject of a federal fraud investigation.
  An arrest warrant was issued two weeks ago for the 38-year-old invester and financial adviser, who is charged with bank fraud and making false statements to obtain federally insured loans. Authorities believe he has fled the country, possibly to Scotland.
  As FBI agents hunt for Bickerstaff and horrified clients learn that their money is missing, a picture is emerging of a man who apparently used other people's money repeatedly and fraudulently while enjoying a lavish lifestyle.
  Bickerstaff is licensed to race horses in California, according to officials with the California Horse Racing Board, and is known in the Bay Area's horse racing circles, as well as at tracks in Southern California.
  "He's a well-known owner," said one employee of the Bay Meadows race track in San Mateo.
  A spokeswoman at the Race Horse Commission at Del Mar said Bickerstaff "owns quite a few" horses, but declined to elaborate. Bickerstaff's trainer, Jeff Bonde, could not be reached for comment.
  No one appeared to be home yesterday at Bickerstaff's five-story home on a steep hillside in Mill Valley. His wife, Traci Bickerstaff, was left "in the cold," according to her lawyer, who said she is still living at the home.
  Neighbors, meanwhile, said they didn't see much of the Bickerstaffs even before all the trouble.
  "I wouldn't say he was very well-known in the neighborhood," said one neighbor, who did not want to be identified. "I don't know that anyone really got to know them."
  The neighbors recently held a block party, but Bickerstaff did not attend. "That was the thing that surprised us in the neighborhood," said another neighbor. "We never met him."
  Records show that Bickerstaff also owns a home in Tiburon, another in Poway, near San Diego, a 1996 Mercedes, and a Porsche. The homes are each worth about $1 million. The Tiburon home, where his ex-wife and two children live, is up for sale, according to neighbors.
  A picture of Bickerstaff's alleged frauds began to emerge yesterday with the release of a search warrant affidavit filed by FBI Agent Jonathan Rouske.
  According to Rouske, the gregarious investment counselor won his clients' confidence with smooth talk and quick answers.
  One investor, Leonard Enos, was typical. He told agents he had invested more than $900,000 of his money with FBFA Financial Services, one of Bickerstaff's firms, only to later find out that the money had never been invested as Bickerstaff told him.
  Two of Bickerstaff's former employees, Larry Peltz and Daniel Armentrout, also gave damaging information, according to the affidavit.
  Peltz, whose mother invested money with Bickerstaff, told agents that he wrote life insurance policies as Bickerstaff's employee even though documents show that Bickerstaff lost his state insurance licenses in 1995.
  Armentrout said he quit earlier this year after Bickerstaff claimed millions of dollars were in a non- existent accounts with Charles Schwab. Armentrout also told agents that he had caught Bickerstaff in lies about his educational background and his licensure with the National Association of Securities Dealers.
  Bickerstaff's Internet web site claims he has a master's degree in economics from Birbeck College, London University in England. The web site also states that he was a "frequent guest" on the "Brian Banmiller on Business" show on KTVU Channel 2. Banmiller said yesterday that neither he nor his producer has any recollection of Bickerstaff ever being on the show.
  Court records show a pattern of deception by Bickerstaff.
  The documents include allegations that he distorted his financial holdings, saying among other things that he had $2 million in securities held by WS Griffith and Co., in order to obtain a $750,000 line of credit from Pacific Bank in San Francisco.
  Last week, officials at WS Griffith also sued Bickerstaff, seeking legal fees and a court order barring him from using their logo on mailings to his clients. The lawsuit claims Bickerstaff had counterfeited WS Griffith documents and sent them to his clients, claiming their money had been invested through the New York firm.