American Embezzler Fugitive Extradited By Thailand Is Sentenced

[sriracha john]

Man who fled US gets 5 years for stealing funds

Los Angeles -- A man who stole more than $1 million from a hospital and fled to Thailand to start a new life was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.

Gerald McAfee received the sentence in federal court in Los Angeles several months after pleading guilty to stealing the money from a Downey hospital more than 20 years ago.

McAfee used a stolen identity to get a job in 1985 as comptroller at College Hospital, where he embezzled more than $1 million into a brokerage account in the name of bogus company, authorities said. The following summer he converted most of the funds to bearer bonds and fled to Europe.

McAfee, now 66, was indicted in absentia in 1987 on bank fraud, mail fraud and other charges.

A 2007 tip led FBI agents to Thailand, where McAfee apparently married and had children under the name David K. Smyth. After spending eight months in a Thai prison, McAfee was extradited to Los Angeles last year.

McAfee could have faced up to 65 years in prison if he had been convicted on the charges.

In a 20 minute speech, McAfee begged the judge to allow him to immediately return to his family in Thailand, saying "the man you see before you now is not the foolish man who committed the crime in '86."

But U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real rejected his request, saying, "this man has not been truthful for most of his life."

McAfee brought up his military record, telling Real he had served in Vietnam in the early 1960s with the Green Berets.

"I am humbly pleading and begging for mercy — not for me, for my children," McAfee said.

Real had just one question: "What happened to the million?"

McAfee replied that he'd spent it all within five years of taking the money. He'd been working in Bangkok as an English teacher at an American school until his arrest.

Along with the prison term, Real ordered McAfee to pay $1 million in restitution to the hospital.

- Associated Press / 2009-04-06

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Earlier background article by Los Angeles Times from October 07, 2008

Alleged con artist to stand trial two decades after the crime

Gerald McAfee took a job as comptroller of a Downey hospital in 1985 and quickly bilked the company out of $1.6 million, prosecutors allege. He was recently extradited after being found in Thailand.

When Gerald McAfee was hired as comptroller of a small hospital in Downey two decades ago, he quickly convinced his new boss to let him move $1.6 million of the hospital's money from low-risk, low-yield CDs into a more aggressive bond fund, authorities said.

Four months after that authorization, hospital officials were shocked to learn that the account McAfee set up contained just $11, according to court documents. And McAfee, who was supposedly dealing with a family emergency in Illinois, was nowhere to be found.

Barry Weiss, the hospital's executive director, later learned that McAfee, operating under an assumed identity, had allegedly converted the hospital's money to bearer bonds and fled the country, authorities said.

On Monday afternoon, more than 21 years after being indicted in absence for bilking College Hospital out of $1.6 million, McAfee appeared in federal court in downtown Los Angeles to face the charges.

"They say we always get our man," said FBI Agent Scott Schofield, who was 10 years old when McAfee allegedly absconded with the money. "This one just took a little while."

Schofield and another agent flew to Thailand to retrieve McAfee, whom authorities said had been living there for years under yet another name.

According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, as well as interviews with authorities, McAfee began making preparations to rip off College Hospital before he was even hired.

In August 1985, while working for a company called Hospital Home Care, he stole the identity of a man named David Nathan Ward of Van Nuys, prosecutors allege. A month later he applied for the comptroller job and got it.

Several months after he started working at the hospital, McAfee obtained a Colorado driver's license and a U.S. passport bearing Ward's name and his own photo, according to court papers.

In the meantime, he'd contacted a Paine-Webber broker in Mission Viejo and told him he would soon be coming into a substantial amount of money, court records show.

In July 1986, he transferred $1.3 million to a Paine-Webber account in the name of a bogus company, telling the broker he was president of the firm, authorities allege. A month later, McAfee allegedly arranged for the transfer of $300,000 to another account and had lunch with the broker, telling him he was thinking about buying a hospital in Lucerne, Switzerland, according to the indictment.

After lunch, authorities say, McAfee took possession of $1.3 million in bearer bonds -- payable to whoever possesses them. He casually asked if such bonds could be traced, authorities allege.

That fall, McAfee allegedly hopscotched the globe making preparations to convert the bonds to cash and laying the ground work for his imminent departure from the country, law enforcement officials said.

All the while, McAfee had been showing College Hospital officials dummied up Paine-Webber statements indicating that their investment was doing fine, according to the indictment and authorities. But by November, Weiss had apparently grown suspicious. The hospital director had been trying for some time to get the Paine-Webber broker on the phone, but none of the numbers McAfee gave him seemed to work, authorities said.

He finally got through and the news was not good: Just $11 remained in the account.

By that time, McAfee had shipped all his belongings to Europe and was nowhere to be found, authorities allege.

Over the years, the FBI periodically sought the public's help in locating McAfee. At one point the bureau put the handsome, wavy-haired former swimming coach on a wanted poster that listed five of his alleged aliases. But the case was essentially gathering dust until last year when a tipster informed the bureau that McAfee was living in Thailand.

Special agents at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, working with Thai police, traced McAfee to a condominium purchased under the name David K. Smyth. A check of immigration records revealed that Smyth's passport bore McAfee's photo, authorities allege.

McAfee was arrested late last year and was being held in a Thai prison pending extradition to the U.S.

Schofield, the FBI agent, said McAfee, 65, was polite and friendly during the 14-hour flight to Los Angeles.

McAfee was happy to be coming back to the U.S., Schofield said.

He said McAfee intimated that prison in Thailand "is not very pleasant."

In federal court Monday, McAfee was ordered held without bond pending trial.

Edited April 7, 2009 by sriracha john

[BigSnake]

The Long long ARM of the LAW!!

[sriracha john]

The following summer he converted most of the funds to bearer bonds and fled to Europe.

Real had just one question: "What happened to the million?"

McAfee replied that he'd spent it all within five years of taking the money. He'd been working in Bangkok as an English teacher at an American school until his arrest.

From millionaire in Europe to English teacher in Bangkok... that's quite a fall...

Edited April 7, 2009 by sriracha john

[MJo]

Got what he deserved. Anyone know his TV nick ?

[runner]

Funny thing is, an executive from AIG can steal ten times the amount and he gets away with it. Get the law only applies to some folks.

[Ulysses G.]

That is exactly what I was thinking. I wish him well.

[TheWalkingMan]

I wonder how long he will get in the pokey.

TheWalkingMan

[sriracha john]

Los Angeles -- A man who stole more than $1 million from a hospital and fled to Thailand to start a new life was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.

I wonder how long he will get in the pokey.

on U.S. federal conviction there's no parole... so 1,825 days as per above

[skippybangkok]

McAfee could have faced up to 65 years in prison if he had been convicted on the charges.

Should have stuck to Virus Protecting !

[sriracha john]

McAfee could have faced up to 65 years in prison if he had been convicted on the charges.

Should have stuck to Virus Protecting !

His alias in Thailand, David Smyth, is also the same name as a famous Thai language learning instructor and author (a Thaivisa search has dozens of hits on that name).

Altho' McAfee/Smyth was an English teacher... I seriously doubt it's the same David Smyth.

[sanook2me]

nice retirement plan...

enjoy the fast money while young and then once old and past it let the state pay for your board and lodgings

He's my hero of the moment

[Carmine6]

20 years later in a foreign country and the FBI gets a tip? He blabbed to someone and they turned him in.

For stealing that much from a hospital he should have gotten way more time. If it's all about his children, how about they transfer him to Thailand so they can visit him in jail.

[Maigo6]

Paranoid Thai Visa Posters summary :

" It was probably his wife who turned him in, she had known about his crime and did a deal with the FBI for a 10% reward " !

She is now living happily with her Thai boyfriend in the house that the old geezer paid for in her name whilst the Thai boyfriend drives his car around.

She had been planning this since the day they met, typical Thai style scam.

[Carmine6]

Paranoid Thai Visa Posters summary :

" It was probably his wife who turned him in, she had known about his crime and did a deal with the FBI for a 10% reward " !

She is now living happily with her Thai boyfriend in the house that the old geezer paid for in her name whilst the Thai boyfriend drives his car around.

She had been planning this since the day they met, typical Thai style scam.

You forgot to mention the kids aren't really his.

[Sabum]

Paranoid Thai Visa Posters summary :

" It was probably his wife who turned him in, she had known about his crime and did a deal with the FBI for a 10% reward " !

She is now living happily with her Thai boyfriend in the house that the old geezer paid for in her name whilst the Thai boyfriend drives his car around.

She had been planning this since the day they met, typical Thai style scam.

You forgot to mention the kids aren't really his.

lol!