Police issue arrest warrant for Quincy real estate agent in Beachcomber scheme
Police have issued an arrest warrant for a man accused of defrauding 16 people in Quincy of nearly $2 million.
Quincy police said Wednesday that 67-year-old Scott J. Wolas is wanted for larceny by a single scheme, embezzlement, and identity theft for his involvement in a ponzi-type scheme.
Wolas also goes by the aliases Frank Amolsch, Drew Prescott, Allen Lee Hengst, Robert Francis McDowell, and Eugene Grathwohl, according to police.
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The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that a Quincy real estate agent known as Eugene Grathwohl failed to show up the closing of his deal to purchase the former Beachcomber bar on Wollaston Beach, sparking fears that he’d made off with $1.3 million from investors.
Quincy Police Captain John Dougan confirmed that the agent known as Grathwohl, who had been living in Quincy for several years, is Wolas.
Dougan said Wolas is also wanted on active warrants out of Alabama, Florida, and New York on similar charges.
According to the Globe, Wolas was indicted in New York in 2001 on 119 counts of larceny and fraud for allegedly stealing $20 million from his law clients. But, the Globe reports, he’d already moved on, working in Florida as a financial adviser under another alias.
Later, when he left the Sunshine State for Massachusetts, Wolas owed millions to investment clients, according to the Globe.
People who did business with Wolas, while he was going by the name of Grathwohl in Quincy, told the Globe he was gregarious and charismatic.
Dougan said since the investigation into Wolas began a week ago, the department has come across more victims, with the total loss being reported by local victims now up to $1.7 million.
“We’re expecting more victims to come forward,” he said.
The FBI is assisting with the department’s investigation.
Police said he was last seen on September 15, being dropped at the UMass/JFK train station and asked anyone with information about his location to contact the department.
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