Intense search is on for man accused of swindling girlfriend

Jen Lawson

Monday, June 6, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

Tracey Tran thought Jim Puglin was the perfect man.

He took her on romantic trips to Palm Springs and Florida. He had a body builder's physique and was articulate. They never fought -- he raised his voice at her only once during their 15-month relationship.

She never had any inkling of what would come. He is accused of swindling her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, then disappearing.

A private investigator working on the case says Puglin used a book called "How to Change Your Identity and Go Underground" as a guide and made immediate plans to have his face reconstructed through plastic surgery.

"When I look back, I wonder, how come I never saw it?" Tran, a sales executive at Neiman Marcus, said. "He fooled everybody, my friends, my mother, everybody. He was such a good con artist."

After a four-month probe, Metro Police issued an arrest warrant May 11 charging Puglin, 36, with felony theft, alleging that he stole $475,000 from a real estate investing company he started with Tran and another partner.

But the problem is finding him.

Tony Jones, a private investigator with Archer Intelligence, has been trailing Puglin for four months and said he can't hide forever.

"We're looking harder for him than he expected," Jones said. "He's going to screw up, it's just a matter of time."

Despite what appears to be careful plotting, Puglin left behind his laptop computer at home and notes in a rented storage unit, which Jones said allowed him to piece together a secret life.

Jones also found painstakingly detailed to-do lists that apparently lay out Puglin's plans to start a new life under a new identity in a new city.

"Shave head on Saturday night + goatee!!" the list reads. "Delete e-mail accounts from server ... Make more sheets with different names ... Take cash to casino and launder - $100,000."

Puglin's criminal record dates back to the mid-1990s when he was nabbed in Las Vegas on a federal fraud charges out of Pennsylvania, records show. He was released in 2000 after serving six years and settled in Las Vegas, where he had family.

Among the belongings Puglin left in the storage unit after he skipped town, Jones found notes he wrote in prison with plans to start an outdoors magazine.

The former competitive BMX rider and avid skier borrowed money from his mother and sister and launched Las Vegas Sports and Recreation a year after his release from prison.

After 12 issues the magazine folded. Jones said Puglin had began accepting barters from local businesses in exchange for ad space, which he used to pay for vacations, cosmetic surgery and dental veneers.

"It's something that would have taken off," Jones said. "But because of the bartering he wasn't able to pay out (to the advertisers). He did try, but he got too greedy."

He supplemented his income, Jones said, as a male escort and private dancer. Using the moniker "Joey B," Puglin opened up for business with a post office box and cell phone number, Jones said.

"It's just one thing after another," Jones said. "There are so many twists in this case."

Using funds he garnered from his entertainment work and the contacts he established through the magazine, Puglin managed to build another company, www.funinlv.com, in March 2003.

He opened a basic business checking account, but Metro Police indicated in Puglin's arrest warrant that detectives were unable to find a corporate filing for www.funinlv.com with the secretary of state's office.

In October 2003, Tran and Puglin met through a mutual friend. Within a few months they were living together in her house.

According to Jones, Puglin was dating several other women when they met and thought Tran would be his best target.

"I think he had the agenda from the time he first met her," Jones said.

With his Internet venture failing, Puglin supported Tran's decision to sell her home, she said, but instead of trading up and buying a bigger home as she planned, he convinced her that they should move in with his mother and use the $200,000 in equity to start a new-home default and foreclosure business.

Tran's friend also invested $300,0000 in their venture.

Although it was called "J & T Investment Properties," for Jim and Tracy, police said Puglin had no ownership in the company but was an authorized signer on the company's bank account.

During the first week of January, bank records showed, Puglin withdrew $475,000 from J & T Investments and deposited it into his Internet venture account. Then over the course of two days, he made five cash withdrawals at different bank branches, draining the account, police said.

While Tran was at work, Puglin used that money to buy some items he'd need to start his new life -- about $20,000 worth of furniture and $7,500 in electronics -- which he kept in a storage unit in Boulder City, investigators said.

But on Jan. 22, the day he was to disappear, Tran became ill and came home from work early, Jones said. She called Puglin on her way home, allegedly catching him off guard and preventing him from completing all of the steps on his checklist.

Jones said Puglin had just enough time to load up on the cash, grab his main computer and copies of his numerous homemade identifications. They drove by each other as they passed through the gate to their subdivision, and she said he ignored her honks.

"He wouldn't look at me," Tran said. "I tried to turn around the car, but he was already gone. I couldn't find him anywhere."

That was the last time she saw him.

Tran said that night she realized the money was missing, but she didn't think he disappeared intentionally. She thought someone had kidnapped him for the money or some other form of foul play had befallen him.

She filed a missing persons report with Metro Police and a short time later the Chevrolet Tahoe he had been driving was located through On-Star, a global positioning system, in Henderson.

Police found the vehicle unlocked with the keys inside, as well as a file folder containing numerous forms of fake identification and more than $30,000 in cash.

"He was probably in the area when his car was found," Detective Lonnie Jolliff of the missing persons section said.

His deception became obvious to Jones when Gold's Gym records showed he worked out twice on Jan. 26.

Tran said she was shocked when she realized he disappeared on purpose.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, this isn't really happening to me,' " she said. "I trusted him with everything, everything. I never thought he would do this."

Four days before he disappeared, Puglin had rented a 2004 burgundy Pontiac Vibe with Nevada plate 419-RWS from Hertz in Henderson in preparation for his departure. The car is still missing and Henderson Police have filed auto theft charges against Puglin.

Jones believes Puglin wanted to undergo a total facial reconstruction and also get chest and biceps implants. He said his investigation showed Puglin had received cheek implants.

Jones said Puglin's lists showed he intended to go to Austin, Texas, "to get identity setup," then to Phoenix, but appeared unsure, adding "Too close to Vegas???"

He also listed possible career paths: "real estate school; loan officer; incorporate business; buy house at auction or make lowball offer."

Jones thinks Puglin is either on the East Coast or in Los Angles, where he has lived before.

Jones and Tran fear that Puglin might try to go into business with other unsuspecting people, and that is one of the reasons why Jones set up a website, www.lasvegasmissing.com, on which he warns potential investors of Puglin's alleged crimes.

Tran filed a civil suit against Puglin, and on April 28, District Judge Michael Cherry ruled in her favor, granting her $4.14 million in damages, court records show. But Tran said the point isn't getting Puglin to compensate her.

"The idea is to find him. The idea is to find him," she said. "He could be out there with the next lady right now, and I don't want him to do this again."

Anyone with information on Puglin's whereabouts can e-mail tips through the Web site or call Metro's fraud unit at 229-3285. A $10,000 reward is being offered.

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