from a philippine jail in 2001. rain charges, dropped. when we last spoke to carl, he told us dennis is a free man. rumored to be living in malaysia, and he has never been charged with fraud allegations made against him by carl and the other investors. the teacher got what he wanted. revenge. not just for how he was allegedly cheated. george rombach said carl had to hunt down dennis. it became carl s way of dealing with the loss of his father. he couldn t get on with the rest of his life without setting that straight. i am pleased he was able to get his life back and exonerate his name. maybe it goes back to that loney boy, who dreamed the pirates and treasure.
american named dennis standefer. i never anticipated he would do something like that. you know, he was trying to destroy everything i worked for my whole life, my reputation, my job. reporter: this was all no surprise to diver kirk shaffer who worked with standefer and had also allegedly given him money. that kind of fax, kirk says, is an old dennis trick. one of dennis favorite terminology was called the nasty-gram. what would happen is that anybody that started to stir up any trouble or any pressure, of course, they were automatically the enemy. and that s where the nasty-grams went. reporter: when karl told other investors about this fax, he learned the same thing had happened to one of them, too. george rombach had once complained to standefer about not getting any return on his investment. and soon, rombach says,
father. reporter: he felt crushed and betrayed. but this time, he was not alone. with kirk s help, he reached out to other investors. among them, george rombach, accountant and lawyer, who says he invested $30,000 for himself and clients with standefer. he s absolutely a danger to civilized society. no question in my mind about that. reporter: rombach says, that like karl, he was taken in by a smooth operator. he told tall tales very well. your impressions of the man the first time you saw him? first time i saw him they were not favorable. he s very affable. and very shortly, i almost felt guilty for my first reaction. reporter: and there was gene hasenbeck, computer engineer. he tells us he gave dennis $127,000, all of his and his parents savings. i lost my everything. i m living in a small, ten-by-ten room now to this day, just renting a small room. reporter: all these men started out investing small
for sunken treasure. he was now on a hunt for revenge, against dennis standefer, someone he says who took thousands of dollars from him in a treasure hunting scheme and then tried to silence him by faxing career-ending allegations to karl s school district. he thought this would probably finish me off. reporter: instead? it had the opposite effect. reporter: on the surface, teacher ryll seemed no match for the well-connected, wily standefer. a other investors, like george rombach and gene hasenbeck, said they, too, had been burned by the treasure hunter were worried. karl was becoming a friend, they told him, leave it all behind, move on. i didn t think karl had much of a chance. dennis has obviously been doing this for a long time. reporter: did you, gene? i tried talk him out of it. i said, karl, you re at a low point here. you don t have the money to be throwing after this. reporter: and karl began to have second thoughts himself. how would he do this? where would he
but this time, he was not alone. with kirk s help, he reached out to other investors. among them, george rombach, accountant and lawyer, who says he invested $30,000 for himself and clients with standefer. he s absolutely a danger to civilized society. no question in my mind about that. reporter: rombach says, that like karl, he was taken in by a smooth operator. he told tall tales very well. your impressions of the man the first time you saw him? first time i saw him they were not favorable. he s very affable. and very shortly, i almost felt guilty for my first reaction. reporter: and there was gene hasenbeck, computer engineer. he tells us he gave dennis $127,000, all of his and his parents savings. i lost my everything. i m living in a small, ten-by-ten room now to this day, just renting a small room. reporter: all these men