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Bush was with Ferguson when the sheriff, Sgt. Brian Needham and the FBI agent drove out to the farming operation about 12 miles east of Burns on Taylor Lane around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Bush and Ferguson were talking when they arrived, and Ferguson appeared unruffled.

"He said, 'Kenny, take the tractor around, and I'll be back in a second,'" Bush said.

Ferguson climbed into an old Ford flatbed truck and drove out to meet the officers. Ferguson was parked next to the law officers less than a minute when Glerup and Needham jumped out with guns drawn, Bush said. A police report said they fired a total of three shots from their .40-caliber handguns.

Ferguson drove away fast with the sheriff in pursuit. Ferguson's truck finally stopped about 200 yards from the initial encounter.

Bush drove up to the scene on a motorbike. "When I got there, they told me he killed himself," he said.

Kenneth E. Ivan, a retired FBI agent who headed the Ferguson fraud case in Indiana, said he was glad the law caught up to the fugitive.

Ivan estimated Ferguson walked away with at least $26 million from his investors after promising them big gains and sending them monthly reports that showed as much as 19 percent returns.

"I felt really bad for the victims," Ivan said. "Here they thought they were going to make some money. It's typical. Mama, grandma, grandpa, or a local farmer thinks he can invest some money and make a nice chunk of change. He lied to them the whole time."

Some of Ferguson's marks eventually grew suspicious, the FBI opened an investigation "and he took off," Ivan said.

Months later, Ivan learned Ferguson was living in Colorado and using an alias. His cover story was that he was working bridge construction jobs. Ivan called local authorities, who hurried to his home.

"We had just missed him," he said.

Ivan never found out where the millions went. "We were not able to trace the money because we don't know where he put it," he said.

Bush remains mystified about the reports of all that money.

Ferguson "talked about gambling and hookers ... my guess is he played around in Las Vegas until he went broke," he said.

Twenty-five million dollars? Bush can only shrug. "I don't care what he did in the past," he said. "That's not the person I know. The man I know was an inspiration."

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