Robert Vesco was born on 4 December 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. The son of a car mechanic, he attended Cass Technical High School. Vesco dropped out of engineering school in his early twenties to go to work for an investment firm.
After a short period he struck out independently with an $800 stake matching buyers and sellers in the aluminum market, until he eventually acquired a portion of the profits of a floundering aluminum plant.
By 1965, he was in a position to borrow enough money to acquire International Controls Corporation. Through aggressive expansions and debt-financed takeovers of other businesses, ICC grew quickly. By 1968 the company owned an airline and several manufacturing plants, and Vesco held shares totaling $50 million.
In 1970, Vesco began a successful takeover bid for Benard Cornfeld’s Investors Overseas Service, Ltd. (IOS), a mutual fund investment firm with holdings of $1.5 billion. Cornfeld ran into trouble with the the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Vesco saw an oppurtunity and took control of the company. Cornfeld was thrown into jail in Switzerland and Vesco was accused of robbing the company of $224 million.
In February 1973, with criminal charges against him pending, Vesco fled to Costa Rica along with approximately $200 million worth of IOS’s investments, according to SEC allegations.
In 1982 he moved to Cuba, a country that would not extradite him to the US. Cuban authorities accepted him on the condition that he would not get involved in any financial deals. He married Lidia Alfonsa Llauger.
However, it was not long before Vesco incurred the wrath of the Cuban authorities, after attempting to defraud the Health Ministry with a so-called ‘super-drug’. The authorities seized control of the project and arrested both Vesco and his wife.
In 1996 the Cuban government sentenced Vesco to thirteen years in jail on charges stemming from the scandal. He was scheduled for release in 2009, when he would have been 74. Vesco’s wife Lidia was convicted on lesser charges and was released in 2005.
Vesco died of lung cancer on 23 November 2007. He is buried at Colon Cemetery in Havana, in an unmarked grave. However, his death was disputed, only being confirmed on 5 May 2008.