Michael Mastro, Bankrupt Tycoon, Unlikely to Show at His Own 'Storage Wars' for The Rich

Mastro's 2007 Bentley

When the Bentley convertible, Steinway baby grand piano, fur coats and 25 Chihuly glass pieces are auctioned off along with most of his other last-known worldly goods this week in Palm Desert, California, Michael Mastro is the man most likely not to be there. The 86-year-old bankrupt Media real estate tycoon is of course on the lam with his 61-year-old wife.

As a getaway-saga, it's the nursing-home version of Bonnie and Clyde. The two were last seen six months ago enroute to Canada with the feds hot on Mastro's Tistoni loafers. (A few months earlier, the oldtimer was in a coma, for godsakes). U.S. Marshals missed the elderly duo by just a day or two in mid-summer when they rushed into what turned out to be the Mastro's just-vacated Canadian apartment hideout.

Now the FBI has joined in what is likely a worldwide search for the Mastros, who were known for their globetrotting skills. Even after declaring bankruptcy and as much as $570 million in debt, court records showed the couple vacationed in Italy, Switzerland, Paris, New York, and Palm Springs, plus kept up $8,000 a-month payments on a Rolls-Royce and the Bentley. (Mastro's lawyer said poor old Mike was just trying to keep his wife "happy in a difficult situation").

Though they've lost a fortune, including an elaborate Medina mansion sold at auction for just $8 million, and owe unsecured creditors more than $275 million, Michael and Linda Mastro are thought to still be millionaire fugitives. They absconded with Linda's two diamond rings (27.8 and 15.93 carats) worth $1.5 million which they'd been ordered to turn over to the court. As well, they could have stashed millions more in secret accounts prior to their getaway.

Mastro

The Mastros' last reported contact was with Michael's sister, Gloria Plischke, of West Seattle. He called her twice during the summer, she told the Seattle Times' Eric Pryne. "He said he would not tell me where he is," Plischke said. "I don't want to know."

In the process, the vanished Mastros stopped paying their attorneys, effectively limiting if not ending their legal challenges to the bankruptcy case, which has left some of their creditors high and dry. They're fighting over the remains from a once far-flung Mastro real estate empire of condos, apartments and office buildings. Investors are expecting to get back as little as just one percent of the amount they put into Mastro's deals.

This week's auction will provide a small bump to the debtors pot. The luxury items being sold off were taken from Medina and from a 4,200-square-foot California home the Mastros had been renting. James G. Murphy Co. is handling the auction, currently by advance bid through tomorrow, then live Wednesday online and at the Embassy Suites in Palm Desert.

The goods are being held in a nearby storage facility in the desert, the area where the Mastros were last seen in June, supposedly packing up for a return to Seattle and a court appearance. But this will be no low-rent "Storage Wars," as seen on TV. Besides the Bentley, the Chihulys, the baby grand and the five furs and one mink, the other leftovers from a swell life include a collection of luxury handbags and costly household furnishings, a queen sleigh bed and dining sets, sculptures and an ivory tusk, and assorted crystal and china, among others.

There is also one electronic safe, presumably empty.