From a killing, a fraud ring emerges

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- A macabre, broad daylight shooting that left a

49-year-old Newport Beach man dead -- and stunned many who witnessed the

surreal scene -- was much more than a heated fight between two men that

escalated out of control.

Information emerging from the trial shows the shooting that jolted

many people going about their everyday lives on a bright Friday afternoon

a year ago was a violent, unexpected and shocking episode -- if not the

conclusion -- in a series of convoluted stories spanning more than a

decade -- stories with underlying themes of crime, deceit and betrayal.

As a jury determines the fate of 42-year-old Ramadan Dokovic, possibly

on Friday, the case of the Downey man may have led detectives to an

underground credit card fraud ring in which at least one local business

was bilked out of more than $225,000.

It was on the afternoon of May 18, 2001, when several witnesses

testified they saw the two men struggling over a gun in the parking lot

of the Jack in the Box restaurant at the corner of 17th Street and Tustin

Avenue.

The pair sat parked in Miroslav Maric’s black Mercedes-Benz

convertible with the top down when many people, who were either shopping,

getting food, working or getting their hair done, heard Maric’s plaintive

cries for help and then saw him slump as the gun in Dokovic’s hand went

off, pumping three bullets into Maric from the long-barreled handgun at

close range.

Although detectives themselves called the incident the most public

shooting in the city’s history, the Costa Mesa Police Department released

little information about the investigation during the months that

followed.

But details that emerged from the trial, Dokovic’s own statements to

the police and other court documents have shown that the incident was

linked to a credit card fraud ring that operated mostly in Costa Mesa and

Newport Beach.

In his statements right after the incident, Dokovic told police he

met Maric on that fateful day so he could get in touch with his nephew,

Mike Dokovic, whose real name is Ilmija Frljuckic.

Dokovic said he had made a deal with Glenn Verdult, owner of Winston’s

Newport Jewelers in Costa Mesa, that he would retrieve four Rolex watches

from Mike Dokovic in return for $20,000. Ramadan Dokovic said Verdult

claimed those watches, each valued at more than $40,000, belonged to him

and a friend.

But Dokovic and his nephew went way back. Both had immigrated from

their native Yugoslavia to New York 10 years ago.

Ramadan Dokovic helped federal agents arrest his nephew in a bank

fraud case. As a result, Mike Dokovic received jail time and deportation,

while Ramadan received probation and then relocated to California.

But, as both prosecution and defense attorneys said in their opening

arguments, Mike Dokovic found his way back into the United States and

walked right back into a lifestyle he was familiar and comfortable with.

He allegedly spearheaded a fraud ring in Newport Beach that faked

credit cards and used them to buy expensive food, clothing and jewelry.

Mike Dokovic and associate Amo Dokovic, also known as Hamdja

Frljuckic, are named in a federal arrest warrant filed in the U.S.

District Court in Santa Ana on Nov. 15, 2001.

Since the shooting, however, authorities don’t know the whereabouts of

either Mike or Amo Dokovic.

An affidavit filed in the case by Secret Service agents details the

fraudulent scheme allegedly employed by Mike Dokovic at the Golden

Truffle Restaurant in Costa Mesa.

Investigators were able to track down Mike Dokovic and his associates

by reviewing cardholder transaction history from recovered counterfeit

credit cards and purchase receipts recovered from Maric’s Newport Beach

home.

The affidavit says a waiter at Golden Truffle admitted he stole credit

card account numbers from patrons and gave them to Mike Dokovic in

exchange for $300.

The waiter told investigators that Dokovic offered him the money and

provided him with a hand-held device known as a “skimmer,” with which he

could swipe a customer’s credit card and copy account information.

The waiter admitted to skimming between 40 and 60 credit card numbers

in about a week and a half. He then passed on the skimmer with the

information to Mike Dokovic, he said.

Investigators said in their report that such information is later

downloaded into a computer and the stolen account information is put into

counterfeit credit cards that are then used to conduct fraudulent

transactions.

Both Maric and Mike Dokovic were arrested by Newport Beach police in

March 2001, when they allegedly tried to buy clothing with counterfeit

American Express cards.

Federal investigators believe the fraud loss associated with the

Golden Truffle Restaurant alone, as reported by five credit card

companies, amounts to about $302,000.

Alan Greeley, owner of the Golden Truffle Restaurant, said he was

“shocked” to learn that he could be a victim of the fraud ring, some of

whom were his customers.

Greeley said he was interviewed by Secret Service agents last year and

had been receiving reports from some credit card companies, but that he

did not know one of his waiters who spoke to the agents had worked with

the fraud ring.

“I’m speechless,” he said Wednesday. “[The waiter] left us on very

good terms, and it’s disturbing that I was not informed about his actions

at all.”

Greeley said he is only “a little surprised” that the Jack in the Box

shooting was linked to the fraud ring.

“We have different clients who show up in fancy cars and spend a lot

of money,” he said. “Then after a few months, they never show up again.”

In this case, Greeley said, he found out one such customer had been

shot in public.

“I knew some of these guys who the agents said were involved in the

ring and later found out the names I knew them by were not even their

real names,” he said.

In his interviews with the police, Ramadan Dokovic said he decided to

meet with Mike Dokovic and get the Rolex watches for Verdult, not just

for the $20,000, but also because he wanted to do it.

“It’s not about money,” he told police. “It’s about doing the right

thing.”

Ramadan Dokovic said he was going through a rough time financially. He

was working all kinds of jobs, including at a pizza place and as a

machinist.

“I needed the money,” he said. “I was late on child support. I wasn’t

working.”

He fired the gun out of desperation and in self-defense, Dokovic

claimed.

“I’m not a psycho,” he told detectives in the taped interviews played

in court. “Was I insane like they say? No, I wasn’t insane. Did I mean to

do it? No. I told you we talk and he jumped. . . . The gun was loaded. I

put the bullets in the gun. I didn’t put them to shoot him. I just wanted

to get those watches.”

Dokovic said he met Verdult twice and spoke to him over the phone five

or six times. He said he heard Verdult was looking for the watches.

Dokovic said Verdult told him Mike Dokovic took the watches to show

his girlfriend and never brought them back.

“He said, ‘I’ll give you the money, but I don’t want my watch to get

by the police or the Feds. I’d rather have my watch from you,”’ Dokovic

said on the tape.

On tape, he said he suspected Verdult knew about Mike Dokovic’s and

Maric’s fraudulent operations. He said Mike Dokovic would make purchases

with the stolen credit cards at Verdult’s store. Verdult would then file

a police report and have the insurance company pay him for the lost

watches.

“But I have no proof of that or anything,” Dokovic told police in the

interview. “I wasn’t with them or around them.”

He said he had seen Verdult keep a lot of cash in his safe at the

jewelry store.

“At his age, to have millions of dollars like that, I don’t know . . .

something fishy,” Dokovic said on the tape.

Verdult declined to comment on Dokovic’s statements or the case and

also took the 5th Amendment when called to testify in this case.

“I can’t say anything,” he said. “[Maric] was a good customer, and

that’s how I got to know him. I even went to his memorial service.”

Verdult’s attorney did not return phone calls.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy and Public Defender Dolores Yost have not

argued about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. But they do

differ on how it happened.

Yost said the incident was not a murder but an accident. She said

several people saw the men in a physical fight over the gun. Yost said

Dokovic had to make a choice between life and death.

“For him, it was the choice between being judged by a jury of 12 or

being carried by six people in his own funeral,” she said.

But Murphy maintained Dokovic fired the gun because he was angry and

frustrated at not getting what he wanted -- a meeting with Mike Dokovic

to get Verdult’s watches.

Both Murphy and Yost declined to comment because the trial is in

progress.

As for the people who witnessed the incident, they say it is forever

branded in their memory.

Katherine Lesage, who was getting her hair done at a nearby salon and

testified for the prosecution, said she is still disturbed when she

replays that spine-chilling scene in her mind.

“It’s like this whole scene playing back over and over again,” she

said. “It’s something I’d never, never forget.”

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .