Whatchamacolumn: Making sure trust is tempered with wariness
The older I get, the more cautious I become about financial transactions with anyone I don’t personally know and trust. Sometimes, even that isn’t enough protection from fraud.
Take Ruben Bernt, sentenced this week to 20 years in prison for cheating and defrauding dozens of people who trusted him with service and sales of their RVs and other vehicles.
A relative described Bernt as a good guy and admirable family man. He donated for years to a local charitable event. He was represented by prominent area attorneys in business filings.
Behind that façade, however, Bernt spent the past decade methodically creating and abandoning a series of business operations located in Sandy, Dayton, McMinnville and, finally, Aumsville … business names such as Mommies and Minis, McMinnville RV Sales and Consignment, Mac Sales Inc., Elusive Trailers, Elusive MFG and, most recently, Elusive Cabin Campers.
Sloppy Oregon laws allowed Bernt to evade justice for years, but the rising victim count finally led to his 2022 arrest on aggravated theft charges.
At the time, his attorney successfully argued for a reduction in bail from $1 million to $100,000, saying it simply was a “failure to pay off creditors while suffering business losses.”
Bernt, he said, “is not a con man. He’s a businessman. He is not a danger to the public.”
That was a big lie. Bernt was an incorrigible danger to the community and the people who trusted him. He kept swindling people almost to the day of his conviction and incarceration, with his last new business name filed May 30 of this year.
Wednesday this week, a man from Bandon found my 2022 column about Bernt and called to ask what I knew about him. The caller was, perhaps, Bernt’s last victim.
Bernt specialized in consignment sales, creating legal chaos for his victims by selling their used RVs, keeping the cash and leaving buyers with no vehicle title. He gained people’s trust and took their money with clear criminal intent.
Perhaps there are redeeming personal stories behind Bernt’s moral failures. However, victims of his frauds – most age 65 and over – are more interested in what happened to the money. Lots of money.
That’s a question now unlikely to be answered.
Unfortunately, Bernt’s case is the exception, not the rule. Property-related scams are proliferating because the rewards are high, the risks are low, and the Internet has become such an easily used tool of deception.
Addressing that situation, an article in Psychology Today warns:
“Many people who are consistently distrusting have good reason for being so. But a tendency not to trust others can have severe consequences in a number of domains—particularly interpersonal relationships—and can exacerbate loneliness, depression, or antisocial behavior.”
Maybe so. But it’s possible to maintain a healthy sense of doubt and wariness in financial dealings without losing an even healthier sense of faith and confidence in family, friends, long-time associates and even new acquaintances.
However, don’t forget to use the smell test.
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
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