Bucks man on the lam for allegedly scamming folks out of thousands is nabbed in Belize

WHEN NO one was around yesterday, Catherine Hahn did a cartwheel in her Bucks County office.

A few countries away, in Panama, Don Winner, 48, took to dancing with joy and humming ditties.

Both were moved to childlike expressions of glee at news of the arrest of Richard Cover Jr., an alleged bigamist and convicted con artist who fled Bucks County in 2008, then, police said, scammed his way around Central America until he was picked up Monday in Belize.

Winner, an American who knew Cover as RJ Erwin, said Cover used his name to scam a couple of expatriates in Panama out of $50,000. Hahn claims Cover stole more than $100,000 from her and her elderly aunt in a construction scheme in Lower Southampton.

"Wherever he is, I want to look in his face and see if there's any remorse in his eyes," Hahn said. "If there is, I'm sure it's fake."

Cover, 38, fled the country in 2008, after he learned that he would be arrested for scamming Hahn and her aunt on a remodeling project that was never completed, Lower Southampton police Detective Shane Hearn said.

Cover left behind a wife and four kids - including triplets.

"He came off as a family man. He loved his children, he loved his wife, but obviously that was a scam, too," Hearn said. "He scammed his own family."

Hahn, 44, said she met Cover when he and his wife owned Appletree Childcare and Learning Center of Bucks County. She took her son to that day care and attended birthday parties for the Covers' triplets.

So in 2006, when Cover was in court for securities fraud, Hahn stood up for him as a character reference during his sentencing.

Cover was sentenced to six to 23 months in prison, most of which he served on house arrest, for telling people that he was going to take his day care public and that shares would skyrocket, Hearn said. The seven people who each invested between $15,000 and $30,000 never saw a dime, he said.

"It never went public and he had no intentions of taking it public," Hearn said. "He defrauded all of them and kept the money."

After Cover served his time, he started Cover Construction and Remodeling. He even landed a brief stint on the HGTV show "Spice Up My Kitchen," Hahn said, and he showed off clips from the program to potential clients.

But that business soon devolved into a scam, too, in which Cover would take money from homeowners then hire subcontractors to do projects but never pay them, Hearn said.

Cover talked Hahn into doing an "extreme home makeover" on her aunt Carol Merchiore's house, where Hahn and Merchiore were to live together. He demolished the house and framed it, but after that, the work stopped, Hahn said.

To pay for everything Cover allegedly stole, Hahn said, she had to liquidate her sports-marketing business that took eight years to build and she had to fire her seven employees. She now works three part-time jobs. Her aunt, now 70, lost her retirement savings and, although she herself has trouble walking, must continue to work as a physical therapist.

Cover was still on probation from the Appletree case when detectives confronted him about the alleged construction fraud. Hearn said that he got a confession out of Cover but that he fled before a warrant was filed.

In February 2008, Cover was paid to remodel a bathroom in Horsham but never performed the work, according to the FBI warrant for Cover's arrest. A search on the website RipoffReport. com turns up five stories of people who claim that Cover swindled them.

After fleeing in 2008, Cover continued his scams in Panama, Costa Rica and Belize, and used a variety of aliases, including RJ Erwin and Ricardo Caveras, according to authorities. He married another woman, a Panamanian native, and fathered a child with her, said Don Winner, the American in Panama. But Cover may still be married to his wife here, who now lives with his parents in Northeast Philadelphia, a source familiar with the case said.

A message left by the Daily News at what appeared to be Cover's parents' home was not returned.

Winner said he met Cover, who several sources said is a gambling addict, at a poker tournament in Panama.

Winner, a retired master sergeant who spent 20 years in the Air Force, now runs Panama-Guide.com, a news website in English. He said Cover used his name and status to con two expats out of $50,000. Cover told the men that he had partnered with Winner and that they had a contract to move dirt for the Panama Canal expansion project, Winner said.

"The most important thing I have is my name," Winner said. "The fact that that son of a b---- used my name to rip people off, it became personal."

Winner started posting stories and pictures about Cover on his website. He said he received e-mails and phone calls from other alleged victims of Cover, including guys with thick New Jersey accents who said Cover owed them gambling debts. Hahn said that before he fled, Cover was running a poker ring in Northeast Philadelphia.

Cover then went to Costa Rica, where he did some land scams, Hearn said, before heading to San Pedro, Belize, where he worked as general manager of a Coldwell Banker real-estate office, according to Ambergris Daily, an online Belizean news site.

The exact circumstances of his identification and arrest are not clear.

According to the FBI warrant for Cover's arrest, on Oct. 13 a tipster contacted the FBI and said that Cover was living in San Pedro, Belize, and that he had possibly paid a Belizean official to get paperwork that shows he's a Belizean citizen.

On Tuesday, the tipster called the FBI again to say Cover had been arrested in San Pedro. The FBI confirmed that the person in custody was Cover, according to court documents.

He's now awaiting extradition.

"There are a lot of people very happy to think this guy is going home to face the music," Winner said.

Anyone with information about Cover or his past dealings is urged to call Detective Hearn at 215-357-1235 ext. 338.