Source: FBI
Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a California federal judge to jail without bail a recent fugitive accused of a brazen $35 million fraud that involved him falsely telling investors he was a billionaire, a Harvard MBA, and a special forces veteran who was wounded twice in Iraq.
An FBI SWAT team caught the fugitive, Justin Costello, in a remote area near San Diego on Oct. 4. He was carrying a backpack loaded with six one-ounce gold bars worth $12,000, U.S. currency worth $60,000, another $10,000 in Mexican pesos and banking cards and checkbooks, prosecutors said in a court filing.
Costello, 42, also had a receipt for a pre-paid phone number in the backpack, along with a driver’s license with his photograph and the fake name “Christian Bolter,” the filing revealed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California cited the backpack’s contents and other factors in the filing as it urged a judge to remand Costello to jail pending trial. Prosecutors argued he is “a serious flight risk and a danger to the community.”
They noted that Costello failed to surrender to the FBI’s San Diego office as he had agreed through his lawyer on Sept. 29. He was set to face what he had been informed was a new indictment in federal court in Washington state on a slew of charges related to schemes involving penny stocks, shell companies, and cannabis businesses.
Cash and gold bars as detailed in court filing in US District court in San Diego in case of former fugitive...
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