The scheme was crafty, prosecutors say.

Ronnie Stevens offered to sell an elderly man valuable classic cars and vans from a Washington man’s estate, but first Stevens needed a cash advance to help the daughter of the deceased man cover estate fees and legal costs to access her inheritance.

A Tigard couple forked over $2.5 million to Stevens and his common law wife between September 2016 and May 2018, dipping into their retirement accounts, taking money out of their savings and checking accounts, cashing in gold and silver and obtaining personal loans.

They often met Stevens at an Elmer’s Restaurant in Tigard or another Elmer’s off Interstate 205. But the couple in their 70s never received anything in return -- no classic cars, no vans and they never got their money back, according to federal investigators.

On Friday morning, FBI agents raided the Happy Valley home of Stevens and his wife, Tina Ephrem, with a search warrant and arrested the pair on federal fraud allegations.

Stevens, 49, and Ephrem, 43, were brought separately before a U.S. magistrate judge Friday afternoon. They entered not guilty pleas to a six-count indictment, charging them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud.

It’s not their first foray into the criminal justice system. Both have been convicted on strikingly similar allegations before – Ephrem in Multnomah County court in 2011 and Stevens in Pierce County, Washington, in 2005, and again in King County, Washington, in 2012.

“This is a case of extreme elder financial exploitation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Maddux said as she argued for their continued detention.

Prosecutors allege Stevens and Ephrem make their living by preying on elderly people and then using the money to support lavish vacations, designer clothes and shoes, expensive cigars and gambling addictions.

They’ve spent thousands of dollars in Las Vegas and at local casinos, according to FBI agent Matt Swansinger. From December 2016 through July 11, 2018, Ephrem spent $67,864 at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, the agent found.

A relative’s Instagram account included a photo of Stevens and Ephrem dressed up at the Kentucky Derby on Mother’s Day, now an exhibit in a federal affidavit. The closet of their home was described by one federal agent as looking like a “museum,” decked out with high-end designer fashions and ladies’ purses, Maddux said.

In this case, Stevens is accused of first approaching the elderly man, who was selling a commercial trailer outside a Newberg business, in September 2016. Stevens had expressed an interest in buying the trailer but never did, then shared his proposed investment opportunity to obtain “numerous classic cars and vans” that were part of a Seattle man’s estate, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. Ephrem later ended up posing as the daughter of the Seattle man, who never existed, investigators said.

“The defendants skillfully used false friendship, trust, pity, promises and pressure to convince their victims to part with their life savings,” Maddux wrote to the court. “They leave a wake of financial and emotional destruction behind them. They have no compassion for their victims.”

One of the alleged victims and her son sat in the courtroom Friday. Attorney Erin Olson, who is representing the Tigard couple in the case and has represented past victims of the accused pair, told the judge she’s concerned that Stevens and Ephrem may target others if they’re allowed out of custody.

The Tigard couple’s cash has yet to be located, Olson said.

Court-appointed defense lawyer Alison Clark, representing Stevens, argued that neither Stevens nor Ephrem are “fly-by-night transient people” but have deep ties to the area and have made their past court appearances.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Stephen Sady, representing Ephrem, argued that the case doesn’t involve physical violence and the judge could impose conditions, including GPS monitoring and restrictions on financial accounts, for their release. Pretrial release officers also recommended their release with conditions.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta wasn’t persuaded.

“I’m not willing to take that chance in this case,” Acosta said. He signed the search warrant and was familiar with the couple’s past criminal convictions, he said, even quoting in court from a 2011 Oregonian/OregonLive story about their prior scams and Ephrem’s acknowledgement that she has no job.

Acosta found the pair are a “financial risk to the community” and ordered them detained. A five-day trial is tentatively set for March.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian