In his LinkedIn profile picture, Gale Rachuy looks like a fun grandpa, with a big white handlebar mustache and a wry smile. The 72-year-old poses in front of shelves of law textbooks, and lists himself as the CEO of Midwest Legal Service, based in Duluth, Minnesota.
But Rachuy is not and never has been a lawyer, according to an indictment filed against him in mid-December. Law enforcement say Rachuy posed as an attorney who had operated his own firm, and swindled at least one client out of $2,500. He is charged with one count of wire fraud.
This isn’t Rachuy’s first rodeo. He is the “epitome of a white-collar career offender” who has been committing acts of fraud and deception for more than 40 years, according to a judge who sentenced him in 2012 for interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle.
He has been charged in at least 56 criminal cases since the 1970s, including more than 90 counts of theft and swindling in Minnesota, according to the by James B. Mitchell, of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Mitchell hired Rachuy and paid the initial deposit, but then became worried he was being scammed, he told the paper. Rachuy never delivered the promised legal paperwork, nor did he refund Mitchell’s initial payment.
“He lies to his victims that he is an attorney when, in reality, he has never even graduated from any law school, and his only legal knowledge has been acquired by spending time in law libraries at the numerous federal and state prisons he has been incarcerated at over the course of his whole adulthood in the past 50 years,” Mitchell told the newspaper.
Rachuy is charged with one count of wire fraud. He is being held without bond in the Douglas County Jail. Attempts to reach Rachuy in jail were unsuccessful.
Over a lifetime spent in and out of prison, serving time hasn’t deterred 72-year-old Rachuy from continuing to commit crimes. He has spent almost 50 years of his life tied up in the criminal justice system.
Rachuy now faces up to 20 additional years in prison for wire fraud. He could be 92 years old before he is released and has a final chance to mend his ways.
