[EIDXA] Romeo--Where Art Thou?

[Jim Spencer]

This should bring back some memories!!!

73,  Jim


Gather 'round the campfire, boys and girls...

A few months back, I posted a note on the Society of Midwest Contesters 
reflector asking if anybody knew the whereabouts of our dear old friend 
Romeo Stepanenko, 3W3RR. As many will recall, Romeo had a habit in the late 
1980's and early 1990's of popping up with his gear from some of the rarest 
countries in the world of ham radio, make tens of thousands of contacts, and 
then getting us armchair DX'ers to flood him with requests for QSL cards 
(which included "green stamps") that often came very late or not at all. 
There was also that minor issue of him not being able to provide the DXCC 
administrators with the proper documentation from some of his adventures, 
proving he was indeed where he said he was. In the parlance of DX'ing, Romeo 
was the ultimate Slim, a pirate.

I'm a musician, and I figured if ever there was somebody that was worthy of 
a scurvy-dog, sea-shanty kind of song, ol' Romeo was that person. There were 
rumors he was a shady character, who showed up at the Dayton Hamvention in 
1999, years after being expelled from DXCC, and then disappeared from the 
face of the Earth. He is the sort that is perfect for song and story. I 
needed factual material for the tune, so I started to do my homework. The 
note to the SMC reflector was the beginning of that homework.

I didn't get much response other than a couple of notes that said, "Yeah, 
whatever happened to that guy?" So, In July 2005, I posted a note on 
Eham.com in their DX forum, entitled "Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?" Again, no 
info. So, I started searching on Google. I found an article online about ham 
radio in Afghanistan that mentioned him in passing, and a site that had 
several of Romeo's QSL's (including WX9X's fake P5/R0MEO card he handed out 
at Dayton one year). I printed the articles and stuck them in my notebook I 
keep for writing lyrics, where they have sat for a while, collecting dust. I 
forgot about it and moved on to other projects.

On the evening of October 19, 2005, I received a phone call from an 
inspector with the U.S Postal Service based in St. Louis. He said he needed 
to meet with me concerning an investigation of "...one of my associates." I 
obviously made myself available at his earliest convenience, which was the 
next day's lunch hour.

I ran over to my friend Matt, NM9H's place. Was he trading endangered 
animals over the Internet? Circumnavigating customs laws by importing fresh 
fruit from Venezuela? Ripping tags off of mattresses and mailing them to 
Botswana? He assured me he was doing nothing of the sort, as he was "...an 
old man with a house full of kids, with neither the time nor energy to be 
surreptitious."

A night of fitful sleep ensued. We jazz and folk musicians have a sordid 
history in America, often lumped together with other unsavories like 
gangsters, communists, and bootleggers. Which of my compadres had warranted 
constabulatory intervention, and how did the Postal Service get involved? 
Besides, my youthful indiscretions are long over, as I have nothing to be 
discrete about any longer and I'm closer to middle-aged than youthful. In 
short, like my friend NM9H, I'm boring and getting old.

The Inspector came to my place today (20 October
2005), and after some pleasantries, asked if the name Roman Vega meant 
anything to me; I truthfully answered no. He then asked if I was a ham 
operator, to which I said yes. He then asked if the name Romeo Stepanenko 
meant anything to me, and I nodded uncertainly. The Inspector then produced 
a printout of my Romeo inquiry on Eham.com. He said he was following up on 
an investigation from the US Department of Justice in San Francisco 
concerning our beloved Romeo, and he wanted to know why I was asking about 
him in a public forum.

I gave him a Reader's Digest version of ham radio, DX'ing, and an overview 
of the DXCC program. I explained how Romeo pretended to operate from various 
exceptionally rare places, duped tens of thousands of us into sending him 
SASE's with green stamps included, and was then caught and expelled from the 
DXCC program for these fraudulent ham activities. I explained why this 
caused such a scandal to a program that has had an exceedingly high level of 
ethics and scrutiny associated with it over the years. He was quite 
interested in people sending dollars along with QSL requests. I explained it 
was customary to help pay for the QSL you're going to receive, especially 
when dealing with an operation from a place as rare as Myanmar or North 
Korea.

I then had to explain to him why I'd want to write a song about such an 
unsavory character. As I explained, every hobby or pastime has some level of 
folklore or legend attached to it, and Romeo is one of the most infamous 
characters in the history of DX'ing. In baseball, people wrote songs about 
Jackie Robinson and Joltin' Joe. Bob Dylan wrote about Emmett Till. Heck, 
Frank Zappa wrote about a wacko dubbed by the press as The Illinois Enema 
Bandit. Numerous ballads have been written about pirates, oddballs, 
do-gooders and ne'er-do-wells in all cultures all around the globe. Ham 
Radio DX'ing may be a small culture in the grand scheme of things, but it is 
a culture nonetheless. It stands to reason that, just like any other 
culture, the heroes are glorified and the villains are reviled. To me, 
writing a song about Romeo seemed logical and fun.

After an hour of questioning by the Inspector (nice guy, by the way), he 
said it was quite obvious I wasn't involved in any of Romeo's current 
shenanigans, and proceeded to tell me The Story:

Roman Vega, aka Romeo Stepanenko, was arrested and extradited from Cyprus to 
the United States in March of 2004, and has been charged with 40 counts of 
wire fraud and trafficking in stolen credit card numbers. He is alleged to 
have done this in online chat rooms. The Inspector I spoke with indicated 
that he allegedly bilked over $3 million out of this scheme. Romeo has 
pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has been held in northern California, 
as he is considered a flight risk. His trial is scheduled to begin in San 
Francisco on Monday, November 28.

Here is a link to the US Department Of Justice press release:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/press/html/2004_06_04_vega.html

Here is a link to the actual indictment filed in Federal Court:


http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/press/assets/applets/2004_06_04_Vega_in d.pdf 
As Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know the rest of  the story." The 
Inspector never informed me that I was not allowed to discuss this, so I'm 
posting it here for all to see. He indicated the case against Romeo looked 
quite good indeed, and that they were following up on all leads they had 
concerning him. I was "lucky" enough to have been considered a Person Of 
Interest; I got to see a copy of my Federal subpoena, where I was 
"commanded" to appear in Federal court on November 28 at 8:30AM. The 
Inspector indicated this would probably not be needed. He did mention that 
San Francisco is quite nice this time of year, though, and it was almost a 
pity I wouldn't get to take the Government up on their free "vacation." I 
gave him one of those nervous smiles and waited for him to move on.  He left 
me his card, said he'd file his report, and told me I'd probably never hear 
from him again. He did give me the case number (Northern District of 
California CR04-0101 CRD), since it's a matter of public record. The fact 
that I was sitting on the edge of my seat as he was telling me this, 
slack-jawed and with my eyes as wide as saucers, might have had something to 
do with him giving me the info as well. How did I get associated with Romeo? 
I'm just a ham operator who had one QSO with him when he was in Vietnam 
(still my only 3W QSO), spent probably hundreds of hours listening for him 
from his other far-flung locales, but never worked him anywhere other than 
3W. I just happened to ask the right question at the wrong time.  It 
certainly is interesting what bites sometimes when you go fishing, eh?  I'm 
finally recording my solo CD now. I'll be sure to let everybody know when 
it's done. I could use a lead player, though; maybe I should give WB6ACU a 
call...

73, Sean Kutzko KX9X Gillespie, IL