Spain helps US hunt down most wanted financial criminals

On October 16, 2008, Spanish authorities working alongside the FBI apprehended a 28-year-old California man and his wife in the seaside resort town of Sitges. The surveillance and subsequent bust was reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller- an international cat-and-mouse chase filled with intrigue and surprise.

But the husband wasn't any ordinary alleged felon. Garret Griffith Gililland was one of the US government's biggest targets in Operation Stolen Dreams, a nationwide crackdown on nearly 50 home mortgage fraudsters.

If it had not been for a can of Pringles potato chips, which a friend had used to try to send him $20,000 in cash, authorities may have never found out that he was hiding out with his wife and child in the chic beach town near Barcelona.

The Gililland case is one of a growing number of low-key arrests in Spain, with the help of local authorities, of high-profile fugitives wanted in the United States for financial crimes.

In April, Attorney General Eric Holder signed a memorandum of understanding with Spain's Prosecutor General Cándido Conde-Pumpido in Madrid to share intelligence information and strengthen cooperation on fighting international crime and terrorism. Collaboration efforts between Spanish and US authorities usually don't get much publicity in the Spanish press but are acknowledged in Washington following big busts.

One such arrest- and a case currently still being played out before the Spanish courts- is that of Richard Sinclair Pope, a British national who was allegedly part of an international ring that swindled investors by selling them worthless shares in US companies. Pope, 52, was arrested by Spanish authorities in Barcelona on November 2 after a global manhunt. He is awaiting a hearing to be extradited to Florida where he was indicted along with six others involved in the estimated $127-million fraud scheme.

According to the March 10, 2009 indictment, the conspirators would look up existing companies that were "dormant" or inactive on the NASDAQ stock exchange, update their filings, and then sell stock to investors overseas. Pope had allegedly set up a telemarketing system to entice gullible investors. Some of the victims who bought bogus stock were from Britain.

Pope controlled bank accounts in Switzerland and Cyprus and set up companies in Spain to help in the alleged illegal transactions. The situation set off alarms at the Spanish securities regualtor, the CNMV, which issued a statement that Pope and others were linked to a Barcelona-based company called Millennium Business Services, which was not authorized to provide investment services in Spain.

The defendants purchased hundreds of acres of property near Tampa Bay, Florida and the Turks and Caicos Islands. US prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of several accounts held at a Barcelona branch of savings bank La Caixa.

It is not clear whether Pope will fight extradition.

But not all fugitives go back quietly to the United States. Gililland and his wife Nicole Magpusao had been originally indicted in California in 2008 for allegedly setting up an massive mortgage fraud scheme that bilked American banks for $24 million over two years. He was also faces drug trafficking charges after investigators found 100 marijuana plants inside one of his empty homes.

When FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents raided his home in Chico, California on June 28, 2008, Gililland agreed to cooperate. For two weeks, his lawyers would call prosecutors promising to bring him in but never did. "Each day brought excuses for his delay: he didn't [feel] well; he needed to visit the doctor; he was 'a mess;' he wanted a second opinion from lawyers..." wrote Russell Carlberg, assistant US attorney in a case filing last year.

According to prosecutors, the couple fled to Colombia, where while continuing "to live the high life on the run," they tried to open a night club but failed. Gililland's lawyer said that his client "was safe" abroad and would only return if he were granted immunity. If not, "the government could go find him," Carlberg said.

Some months later, Gililland and his wife settled in Sitges. A man from Sacramento sent Gililland $20,000 in cash in a can of Pringles to a false name in Barcelona. "Agents intercepted the package and seized the cash. After considering whether to fill it with potato chips, the can was sent empty to the address and false name Gililland provided," the US attorney said.

With the help of Spanish authorities, Gililland and his wife were arrested on October 16, 2008. But the legal battle to get him home was just beginning. Before Spanish courts, he attacked the US federal grand jury system and filed an asylum petition, which was denied. In September 2009, the day Gililland was to be handed over to US Marshals, he refused to leave his cell. "Spanish authorities had to physically restrain him to the floor, and strap him to a wheelchair in order to ready him for travel," Carlberg wrote.

Gilliand and his wife are both in a California jail awaiting trial.