CLEVELAND (AP) -
A fugitive on the run for more than two years
has been arrested on accusations that he ran a scam that collected $100
million in donations from people in dozens of states who believed they
were helping U.S. Navy veterans, Ohio's attorney general and the U.S.
Marshals Service announced Tuesday.
The man, who uses the false
identify of Bobby Thompson, was indicted in Ohio in 2010 on theft,
money laundering and other charges related to the Florida-based charity.
He disappeared in June 2010. Little, if any, of the money collected by
the charity was used to benefit veterans, authorities have said.
Authorities acting on a tip
tracked Thompson to a bar in Portland, Ore., on Monday night, followed
him home and made the arrest, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. He
had multiple fake ID cards from Canada and a backpack containing cash,
DeWine said.
Thompson, who appeared in poor health and was walking with a cane, refused to speak to investigators, authorities said.
DeWine said authorities
hope to have the man returned within 10 days to Ohio, where he will be
tried in state court in Cleveland. The alleged fraud, which DeWine
called "despicable," spanned 41 states, including up to $2 million in
Ohio.
People who contributed gave
small amounts, ranging from $5 to $50, DeWine said. "The bulk of this
was not huge contributions," he said. "But these were patriotic
Americans who gave money believing that money was going to help
Navy veterans."
Authorities still don't
know the man's real name, but investigators uncovered information
earlier this year that led them to believe he may have lived recently in
New Mexico.
Ohio investigators also
tracked Thompson through Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Washington and West Virginia.
The arrest closes a search
dating back several years and involving a Tampa, Fla.-based charity
known as the U.S. Navy Veterans Association.
Last year, a co-defendant
of Thompson's, Blanca Contreras of Tampa, Fla., was sentenced to five
years in prison for her role in the scam. Contreras had pleaded guilty
to theft, money laundering and other charges related to allegations she
handled nearly $475,000 in Ohio donations for the charity.
Former Ohio Attorney
General Richard Cordray had also investigated Thompson and had worked
with the Hamilton County prosecutor's office on an arrest warrant issued
from Cincinnati, where in 2003 the man set up a UPS mailbox to collect
donations for the association.
Authorities say the real
Thompson wasn't connected to the association and had his identity,
including his Social Security number and date of birth, stolen.
The association made a few
sporadic contributions that benefited veterans, but public records show
the man behind it contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to
political candidates around the country, Cordray said in 2010.
Authorities didn't know the motives for those contributions, he said.
Cordray's office froze the association's bank accounts and drop boxes and ordered it to stop operations in Ohio.
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