US deports pyramid scheme suspect to Germany
US deports pyramid scheme suspect to Germany
The Associated Press
Last modified: 2012-08-17T20:47:23Z
Published: Friday, Aug. 17, 2012 - 1:47 pm
LAS VEGAS --U.S. immigration officials have deported and handed over to German authorities a fugitive accused of defrauding European investors out of more than $100 million.
Ulrich Felix Anton Engler, 51, was flown to Frankfurt, German, on Friday under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, federal authorities said.
Engler had been sought for five years in an alleged Internet pyramid scheme. Last month, officers from ICE, the U.S. Marshals Service and Las Vegas police arrested Engler after finding him through fingerprints that were recorded in a drunken driving case.
Engler, who also went by Joseph Miller and Joseph Walter, collected almost $101 million from more than 3,500 investors in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2003 and 2004, German authorities said. The investors lost control of their money after it got to the United States, they said.
"The investors who were bilked by this suspect should gain some satisfaction now that he has been returned to Germany to answer for his alleged crimes," ICE Director John Morton said Friday in a news release.
It wasn't immediately clear if Engler had an attorney.
A Las Vegas-area drunken driving case from February 2011 produced a set of fingerprints linked to Engler, authorities said. A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper had issued Engler a summons for failure to drive in a marked lane and for driving under the influence of alcohol, records show.
That case helped investigators trace Engler in southern Nevada where they found more than 1,000 pieces of artwork at a storage facility he rented in Boulder City, about 25 miles east of Las Vegas. The warrant search at the storage facility was an effort to recover proceeds on behalf of the fraud victims, authorities said.
A local court in Mannheim and Hamburg, Germany, issued a warrant in December 2007 accusing Engler of multiple criminal fraud charges.
Engler also was named in a March 2010 notice from the international police agency Interpol.
Engler was believed to have been living in Florida when the arrest warrant was issued in Germany. He's accused of building the pyramid scheme through his Cape Coral, Fla., marketing company, Private Commercial Office.
He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
US deports pyramid scheme suspect to Germany - AP State Wire News - The Sacramento Bee
