STRATEGIC PARTNERS
January 2, 2002
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Michael Schwartz, the 37-year-old Jersey City man who the FBI says stole $5 million of ATM vault cash, was buried yesterday, and with him went the secret of what he did with the missing 350 pounds of $20 bills.
According to a Newsday report, Special Agent Bill Evanina of the FBI's Newark office said Schwartz was found with no money.
Schwartz disappeared on Dec. 2, when he was last seen by a neighbor in Jersey City loading a van outside the apartment from where he ran his two businesses, Direct Connect ATM and Schwartz Armored LLC. Public records show Schwartz Armored declared bankruptcy in 1999 but continued to operate while the case worked through the courts.
On Christmas Day, a roommate in Florida who knew Schwartz by the name Jeff Alexander, found him lying in his underwear on the black leather couch in their apartment, empty beer cans and cigarette rolling paper strewn around his body.
Christopher Lacroix couldn't wake Schwartz from what appeared to be an alcohol-induced stupor. The cause of death has not been determined, but officials in Florida do not believe it involved foul play.
Lacroix, who rented a room to Schwartz for $600 a month, said Schwartz had been drinking heavily since arriving in a cab with his two cats, Bonnie and Clyde, at the Villages of West Palm Beach apartment complex. Schwartz had paid three months' rent in advance, using $100, $50 and $20 bills, Lacroix said.
Lacroix said his new roommate told him he had made a fortune in a toothbrush business. Schwartz's drinking started "at 8 in the morning," Lacroix told Newsday. "He drank everything from beer to Harvey's Bristol Cream to cooking sherry."
The mystery surrounding Schwartz began to play out on Dec. 7 when California-based Humboldt Bancorp noticed $5 million was missing and reported it to the FBI after unsuccessfully trying to reach Schwartz.
Humboldt supplied vault cash for the 160 ATMs that Schwartz serviced in New York and New Jersey, according to the FBI. Humboldt publicly announced the theft Dec. 12, reporting it would take an after-tax charge of about $3.1 million, or 29 cents a share.
According to several of Schwartz's customers, his always-strange behavior recently had become even more erratic.
Jeff Ali, who works at A&R News and Candy in Manhattan, told Newsdaythat Schwartz would drive around in his convertible BMW Z3 with the top down, sometimes leaving large amounts of money exposed on the seat while replenishing cash in the ATMs. He also frequented a neighborhood bar after making deliveries to A&R, Ali said.
On Nov. 28, the last time Ali said he saw his supplier of two years, Schwartz told employees he was refilling the ATM. After he left, employees noticed a "Temporarily out of service" sign on the machine. A closer look revealed that the telephone line from the machine had been cut, Ali said.
Ali isn't sure if the money in the machine is gone, but he said Schwartz owes the store an estimated $3,500 in fees.
Unable to find Schwartz, FBI officials contacted his mother and step-father in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Schwartz's mother, Linda Schnoll, flew to New Jersey to look for her son. When she arrived, she found his bed stripped of linen and his clothes and cats gone. She asked a nephew to file a missing person's report.
Schwartz's step-father, Jack Schnoll, told Newsday that he and his wife didn't know that Schwartz had moved just 40 miles from them until the police called to say they had found his body.
