Investigators believe Wisconsin kayaker faked his own death before fleeing to eastern Europe

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man apparently faked his own drowning this summer so he could abandon his family and flee to eastern Europe, investigators say.

Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said in a news release Friday that the Dodge County Sheriff's Office informed his agency on Aug. 12 that Ryan Borgwardt of Watertown had gone missing after he went kayaking on Green Lake. Borgwardt’s wife said that he texted her at 10:49 p.m. on Aug. 11 saying he was heading to shore.

Deputies located Borgwardt's vehicle and trailer near the lake. They also found his overturned kayak with a life jacket attached to it on the lake, in an area where the waters run more than 200 feet (60 meters) deep. An angler later discovered Borgwardt's fishing rod.

Investigators had speculated that Borgwardt's kayak capsized and he didn't have a life jacket. The search for his body went on for more than 50 days, with divers on several occasions exploring the lake.

Bruce's Legacy, a nonprofit organization that specializes in recovering drowning victims, searched about 1,500 acres (6 square kilometers), often in more than 100 feet (30 meters) of water, and scoured hours of sonar data and images to no avail.

In early October, Podoll's department learned that Canadian law enforcement authorities had run Borgwardt's name through their databases the day after he was reported missing. The news release did not say why they ran his name or offer any further details about the circumstances.

Further investigation revealed that Borgwardt had reported his passport lost or stolen and had obtained a new one in May. His family easily found his original passport, the sheriff said in the release.

An analysis of a laptop — the release did not say whose — revealed a digital trail that shows Borgwardt had planned to head to Europe and tried to mislead investigators.

The laptop's hard drive had been replaced and the browsers had been cleared on the day Borgwardt disappeared, Podoll said in the news release. Investigators found passport photos, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks and communication with a woman from Uzbekistan. They also discovered that Borgwardt also took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January.

“At this time we believe that Ryan is alive and likely in Eastern Europe,” Podoll said in the news release.

He added that his agency will continue to work with federal and international law enforcement to determine whether Borgwardt committed any crimes and whether anyone helped him. The sheriff also plans to seek restitution for search expenses.

Podoll didn't immediately return a message left Tuesday by The Associated Press seeking more details. Attempts to reach Borgwardt family members by telephone weren't successful.

Keith Cormican runs Bruce's Legacy in honor of his brother, Bruce, a Black River Falls firefighter who drowned searching for a drowning victim in 1995. He called the Borgwardt search “disheartening," saying he could have used the time he spent searching for Borgwardt helping other families.

“You meet all kinds in the world and I guess this guy went to the extremes faking his disappearance, so it's a first,” Cormican said. “He definitely cost us a lot of grief, a lot of money, repairs and equipment. I just hope he comes forward sooner rather than later so the family can move on.”

Authorities this past January extradited an elusive U.S. fugitive named Nicholas Rossi from Scotland to Utah, where he's accused of two sexual assaults. Investigators believe he faked his own death and fled the U.S. to avoid charges. He was arrested in Scotland in 2021 after being recognized at a Glasgow hospital during treatment for COVID-19.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of “Podoll” and “Borgwardt” throughout.

Keith Cormican, founder of Bruce's Legacy, a nonprofit organization that specializes in recovering drowning victims, searches the waters of Green Lake, Wis., during the search for missing kayaker Ryan Borgwardt in in September 2024. (Keith Cormican via AP)

Gary Goerge, a volunteer with Bruce's Legacy, a nonprofit organization that searches for drowning victims, scans the surface of Green Lake, Wis., during the search for missing kayaker Ryan Borgwardt in August 2024. (Keith Cormican via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company's only certified baseball agent to three years.

Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The decision became become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo's agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three or their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.

Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value — concert tickets, gifts, money — to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”

“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”

María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.

“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.

Arroyo's clients included Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez and teammate Ronny Mauricio.

“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

FILE - Bad Bunny appears in the press room at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)