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Steve Marcus / Reuters
A police car blocks the road Friday as federal and local law enforcement officials take artwork from a storage building in Boulder City, Nevada, in a seizure related to the arrest of German fugitive Ulrich Felix Anton Engler.
A German fugitive sought for five years in a Florida-based fraud scheme that netted more than $100 million has been arrested in Las Vegas, authorities said Friday.
Ulrich Felix Anton Engler, 51, was arrested for being in violation of U.S. immigration law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
He is wanted on criminal charges filed in Mannheim and Hamburg, Germany, courts where he is accused of committing fraud on a repetitive and gainful basis, officials said in a prepared statement. If convicted, Engler faces up to 20 years in prison.
A fingerprint match from a Feb. 11, 2011, drunken driving case in which a Nevada Highway Patrol officer cited Engler, who may have used a different name at the time, helped U.S. Marshals track him down, The Associated Press reported.
“I hope Mr. Engler's victims in this case feel a measure of relief that Mr. Engler's fraud and long run are over and that he will soon face justice in Germany for his alleged crimes," said ICE Director John Morton.
The FBI and local police on Friday seized more than 1,000 pieces of artwork from a storage facility that Engler allegedly rented in Boulder City, about 25 miles east of Las Vegas.
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FBI Agent Patrick Turner in Las Vegas called the action an effort to recover proceeds on behalf of Engler's alleged victims.
Engler is accused of using a marketing company in Cape Coral, Fla., to build an Internet pyramid scheme. From June 2003 to December 2004, it collected almost $101 million from more than 3,500 investors in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, authorities said. Once the money reached the United States, investors lost access to it, they said.
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When the arrest warrant was issued in Germany, Engler was believed to have been living in Florida.
Last year, U.S. marshals and INTERPOL officials in Washington determined Engler was living in Nevada, where he was perpetuating his fraud schemes under a new identity, Joseph Miller, officials said.
He will be turned over to law enforcement officials in Germany, they said.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and NBC News' Jim Gold.
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Leave a Comment:
Well, be careful where you invest. Hard to feel sorry for these people.
Florida's laws are so lax regarding scammers that they come there from other countries.
What a MAJOR BUST !!!!!!!!! Way to go, law enforcement ! Way to go !!!!!!! Congratulations !!!!
" A fingerprint match from a Feb. 11, 2011, drunken driving case ......."
If republicans would stop messing with budgets and get this country some revenue/income,
law enforcement wouldn't have taken nearly a year to finally match that fingerprint.
Lee if democrats had there way the police would not have been able to finger print him or ask his country of origin....dem immigration laws would have let him be free to roam and commit more crime.
Beachbum if republicans would quit voting in crying drunks like Boehner and world class nut cases like Bachman and mens room foot tapers like Larry Craig who was looking for a same sex partner instead of doing something positive for job growth the country might get to a place where people are working and not losing their homes.
Von Engler, "Was passiert. Sie sind einen guten Tag im Gefängnis" What's happening. Are you having a good day in jail.
...and if Democrats got off their asses and actully did something...well, you know the rest if you graduated...
A fool and his money.............????
Lee2,
Aside from the FBI, DEA and other such Federal agencies, law enforcement is funded by the states. But don't let the facts stand in the way of a good rant.
Jerry, if failures like Obama, Reid and Pelosi weren't elected into office, our country would have been well on the road to recovery. Liberal socialist schemes of spreading the wealth only bankrupts the middle class.
Class warfare, divisiveness and race baiting are the common traits of liberal politics.This administrations reign of failures will no longer prevail after Nov. 2012.
WAITAMINNIT!!!!! A GERMAN FUGITIVE managed to sneak into the U.S., and nobody freakin' stopped him?
Where the hell was the Border Patrol and the Reich-wing CONservative Tea-Tagger Elite Immigration Control Squad to keep this criminal out of the U.S.A.!?!?!
Oh, right, only Mexicans and other such types would ever dare sneak into the U.S. and commit any kind of crime. Of course.
Now just what the hell does your hatred of Democrats have top do with how this GERMAN FUGITIVE got into the U.S.A.?
Class warfare? Hell, the puppet-masters of the Reich-wing CONservative Tea-Tagger Party of NO are past master at that game -- they know that the best way to keep the "rabble" in line is to keep 'em POOR and IGNORANT.
"The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too." --Oscar Levant
Here's something all you Reich-wing Tea-Tagger types who happen to want all the "wetbacks" and other "illegals" out of the U.S. to actually THINK about:
When there are no more "illegals" to bring in the food crops across the U.S.A., your daily bread (and other food) is likely going to cost at least THREE TIMES AS MUCH as it does now. Unless, of course, all you Reich-wing Tea-Tagger anti-"illegal" types get off your own lazy arses and go bring in all that food for the same $3-$7 an hour all those "illegals" do it for now.
Oh, sorry, I forgot that none of you could possibly survive on anything less than $20 an hour....
Yo, Chirs, maybe YOU have a private investigator on retainer, just so you can check out all them people you want to invest with, but believe or not, not everyone is rich enough to do that.
But then again, when YOU lose a ton of money to a scammer because YOU are too damn greedy to have that investigator on retainer -- it'll be even harder for anyone to feel sorry for YOU.
That was probably Lee's point. But please don't let the ability to reason stand in the way of a good rant.
Apparently, you haven't let the inability to reason, or to be reasonable, stop you from ranting.
Hey denverbill, are you going to complain to your Congressman about how this GERMAN was able to get into the U.S. and commit crimes -- or do you save that for only the "Mexicans"?
FRAMED, i tell you! i swear, he was FRAMED!!
while they don't hang people in germany i hope the charges are on the level. despite having a brush with the law early last year, he finally got nailed, after painting himself into a corner.
so to speak.
hopefully the handcuffs won't be on to tight or on toulouse, either!
Maybe just turn the this Krautball over to the investors at some point 12 miles off the coast?
why do you need to defraud 100 million? plenty of crooks get away with a million or two and don't make the news. he got greedy like gordon gekko. greed ain't good. it's dumb.
I saw the headline, thought they caught that seashepherd guy. Disappointed.
it would be interesting to see if he was registered to vote in florida , before he moved to vegas , i would give 5 to 1 odds that he was voting .... democrat ,,,lol
Why would he vote Democrat -- when it's the Tea-Tagger Republican CONservatives who were allowing him to keep raking in all that money? After all, he MUST have had a valid passport/visa, he MUST have paid all the taxes he was legally obligated to pay, he MUST have been a member of the the "correct" country clubs, etc, etc.
What he did wasn't "really" illegal, after all -- I bet he'll try to say it's just another case of not really knowing what's going on with his money. Just like Mitty Romney and HIS money (yeah, I did watch and pay attention to that particular interview).
agnon memna ,,, you're obviously in love with this german guy and want to give him a good reacharound like all the other liberal democrats , you suck and are a brain dead idiot if you think any of the 'values' this criminal has are anything but liberal , rant and rave all you want , you look in the mirror and see this guy ... polesmoker
Now that's a nice personal attack there, "watchin' ya all". Too bad for you that your Tea-Tagger Reich-wing CONservative heroes want to do away with all the Gub'mint Regg-yoo-laishuns that helped nail this guy to the wall. Have a day!
Hmmm, why do they put effort into these little fish when they should be arresting and prosecuting the exec's of large banks like the world banks, investment firms, goldman sac's and the federal reserve, politians on the take n such? ... Pretty retarded if you ask me.
Because if they did that, those banks and mega-corporations would fail -- and we all know they're "too big to fail".
Often, I'm astonished at the stupidity of the average American. There are so many cops on the street - courtesy of a Democrat, former-President Bill Clinton - that they doodle while eagerly awaiting for the next crime to occur. There are so many of them that they must create situations to justify their existence. e.g., unjustified traffic stops a/k/a Driving While Black... sobriety check points at 3pm in the afternoon... participation in entrapment schemes a la "To Catch A Predator"... search & frisk operations by ambitious politicians - Christian Todd Whitman, and extended probation sentences in hopes of catching people re-offending. The list is endless.
This Germ(an) guy learned quickly from American 'elite' culture, but the best advice given is Caveat emptor. The sooner investors do their due-diligence before investing, the sooner these types of outrageous schemes will cease to exist.
Koatz, how did you get so smart? You are right the avarage American is dumber then a bag of rocks. He is just happy to have his brew and football and that is it, while being led to the slaughter house by a Judah goat(television).
Agree - caveat emptor - buyer beware!
So where, exactly are all those extra cops you speak of? Last I heard, you Reich-wing CONservatives Tea-taggers were "downsizing" police forces across the U.S. in an effort to "save money" and make Government smaller...................
As for some of your allegations, such as sobriety stops at 3pm: Do you REALLY think that drunks and alcoholics wait until "happy hour" to start getting drunk?
Oh, and those search & frisk operations? Look at Jan Brewer and "Sheriff Joe": They think that just because someone "looks illegal" they really are "illegal". THAT'S how the Reich-wing Tea-Tagger CONservative mind works! SIEG HEIL!
Another "jobs provider" bites the dust...
One day in jail for every $1000.00 he bilked from his victims. That oughta about do it.
Begin removal proceedings on this slimey mensch. He's not welcome here.
Another fine mess you got yourself into MSNBC, you failed your journalistic responsibility in providing main details for you story. Just what the hell did this SHWABEN do as he defrauded his clients? Your writers are bunch of GED highschoolers with ADD.
And thanks for reading! Every view is another nickel in the "liberal media's" pocket!
Well how about YOU get yourself hired as a writer for MSNBC then, so you can make sure we all get the details of every news story?
There is nowhere to hide
he should be forced to do hard labor till either he dies, or pays back every cent! ! ! ! ! and that includes the cost of keeping him too! ! ! ! !
If he was Mexican and caught in Arizona, the comments here would be very different...
yes .. and he would be closer to deport too
Agreed. Had he been "Mexican", there would be screams for blood and a complete lockdown of U.S. borders. But, he's white, European and of course, the Reich-wing Tea-Taggers are silent on how he managed to get into the U.S. to begin with.........
See #10, above.
how did he manage to get into this country?
i suspect he flew in. but he might have taken a ship!
Just another illegal that needs to be deported to his home country. I think the headline should've been "Scamming illegal alien caught in Nevada." Ship him home and quick, last thing we need is one more illegal alien in the country.
Hey, Pilot -- how's that inexpensive FOOD on your plate? Yeah, it's them "illegals" who do the work of harvesting that help keep food prices down.
Here's just a thought on FLA laws on spamming skimming and scamming IF the operations are based in FLA just pass!!!! That is where most illegitimate operations are based. I got burned once, and thought it a fluke. I almost got burned the second time and had to threaten to get the US attorney general involved and that got my $$ back in 2 days!
Fast and Furious the truth hurts! Obama is responsible and he is covering it up with Executive Priviledge! US border guard and hundreds of Mexicans dead.
This guy is GERMAN, you nit. Now, try to tell us all how he got into the U.S.
Do they serve weiner scnitzel in jail?
his cellmate bubba will
Typical Nazi. Stealing artwork.
Typical know-nothing brain-dead arsewipe. Thinking that just because the guy is German he has to be a Nazi.
From your "handle" it looks like you live in Washington state. Guess that means you're a member of one of those anti-U.S. Government militias and have only a 10th grade education. Don't try to deny it, we all know what really goes on in those mountain backwoods.
(for you "moderators", this is called satire and sarcasm)
Take all his assets, watches, rings, whatever he has; then throw him in the clink for 20 yrs no possibility of parole; and if he is still alive after that DEPORT HIM A.S.A.P. Pronto!
No doubt he is friends with Jeb Bush and Karl (Oberstfurher) Rove!
he was a voting democrat
That was just his cover -- he's really a Republican.
I am an equal opportunity American.We don't need this white person either.Of course we don't have several million illegal germans here.As a send off-new rule-A lash for every thousand stolen "that's gonna leave a mark"
We don't need $20 a pound potatoes, either -- but that's what we're gonna get when all those "illegals" are no longer available to dig the potatoes at less than $8 an hour.
Incorrect sir
Only 20 years (max)? For stealing $100M he should get the death penalty. That will be a good deterrent.
His plot is kaput.
What a guy...age 51 had 100 million dollars.
Expected max. jail time 20 years = 5 millon per year....