Ruse Leads to Arrest of Fugitive Lawyer Accused of Duping Investors
A former Spokane, Wash., lawyer on the lam for more than a decade has been arrested after falling for a ruse by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Former lawyer and developer Claude Irwin will face theft charges in Spokane in connection with unpaid judgments stemming from a failed Idaho development, according to the Spokesman-Review. The Associated Press noted the story.
Irwin was detained after he flew to Mexico City at the behest of federal agent Robert Doty, who contacted the fugitive through a website promoting his Mexican tour business, the newspaper says. Doty said he was interested in possible tours, and persuaded Irwin to travel to Mexico City, where Mexican immigration officials put him on a plane to Los Angeles. Irwin was arrested when he stepped off the plane, the story says.
The Marshals Service acted after a tipster contacted the Spokesman Review in August about Irwin’s possible home and new identity in Mexico, the story says. The newspaper helped the tipster contact federal marshals.
Irwin was accused of investing client trust funds and investor money in a development near Lake Coeur d’Alene, the article says. He disappeared in 1997, leaving behind unpaid bills and investors who said they lost all of their money.
David Miller, a onetime associate in Irwin’s firm, had reported Irwin’s suspected misconduct to ethics authorities. “I never thought they’d catch him,” Miller told the Spokesman-Review. “I thought they quit looking.”
