Mexico: Cameroon fugitive Maxi Sopo arrested

[Quark]

What a maroon.

Fraud fugitive in Facebook trap
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8306032.stm

A man on the run, wanted for fraud by US authorities, inadvertently revealed where he was hiding through a series of extravagant Facebook updates.

Cameroon-born Maxi Sopo's messages made it clear he was living the high life in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

He also added a former US justice department official to his friend list who ended up helping to track him down.

US officials say Mr Sopo and an associate falsely obtained more than $200,000 in credit from banks.

In recent status updates Mr Sopo said he was "loving it", described himself as "living in paradise" and said he was "just here to have fun".

"He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies," said Assistant US Attorney Michael Scoville.

"He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing," he added.

The 26-year-old, who is currently in custody in Mexico City, initially sold roses in Seattle nightclubs after arriving in the US in 2003. He then allegedly moved on to bank fraud.

The former justice department official whom Mr Sopo befriended on the social networking site said he had only met the fugitive a few times in the city's nightclubs and had no idea that he was on the run.

He was able to discover exactly where Mr Sopo was living and the information was passed to the Mexican authorities who arrested him last month.

The idiot --->

[Kat]

Some people take to becoming a fugitive like a duck to water. They lay low, go out only in disguise, even create whole new identities. Others, it would appear, do not.

Take the case of Maxi Sopo, a 26-year-old criminal in hiding in Mexico who not only used his Facebook status to tell all and sundry what a good time he was having, but also made the somewhat elementary error of adding a former justice department official to his list of friends.

In status updates from Cancun, where the Cameroon-born fugitive was on the run from charges of bank fraud in Seattle, he said he was "living in paradise" and "loving it".

Michael Scoville, the assistant US attorney who helped find the fugitive, described how Sopo's updates described his lazy days on the beach and wild nights on the town. "He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies," Scoville said. "He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing."

With spectacular lack of caution, and in capital letters just in case anyone should miss the sentiment, on June 21 he wrote: "LIFE IS VERY SIMPLE REALLY!!!! BUT SOME OF US HUMANS MAKE A MESS OF IT ... REMEMBER AM JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE."

Sopo, who arrived in the US in about 2003, made a living selling roses in Seattle nightclubs until, according to prosecutors, he moved on to bank fraud. He apparently drove a rented car to Mexico in late February after learning that federal agents were investigating the fraud scheme.

Investigators scoured social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace but initially could find no trace of him and were unable to pin down his location in Mexico.

Several months later, a secret service agent, Seth Reeg, checked Facebook again and up popped MaxiSopo. His photo showed him partying in front of a backdrop featuring logos of BMW and Courvoisier cognac, sporting a black jacket adorned with a not-so-subtle white lion.

Although Sopo's profile was set to private, his list of friends was not. Scoville started combing through it and was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the justice department. He sent a message requesting a phone call.

"We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet," Scoville said.

Proving the 2.0 adage that a friend on Facebook is rarely a friend indeed, the former official said he had met Sopo in Cancun's nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and passed that information back to Scoville, who provided it to Mexican authorities. They arrested Sopo last month.

He had been living in an apartment complex, working at a hotel and partying at Cancun's beaches, pools and nightclubs, Scoville said.

Sopo is accused of masterminding a bank fraud scheme with Edward Asatoorians, who was convicted by a federal jury in Seattle last week. The court heard that the pair persuaded young co-conspirators to lie about their income to get loans to buy imaginary cars, and then used the money to prop up Asatoorians's business and to take an expensive trip to Las Vegas.

Asatoorians is expected to be sentenced to at least five years in prison. If convicted, Sopo could face up to 30 years. Whether the US authorities will allow him to update his status should that happen remains to be seen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...acebook-arrest

[Ed.Barff]

I Could Go For A Little Cancun,myself.......

[Poirot]

Separated at birth

[De Master Yoda]

Definitely twins! The ears give it away, (although it seems the dog chewed on his right ear?) as well as the unbelievable lack of intelligence. LOL

REMEMBER AM JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE."

Have a BIG party in your jail cell with your new found "friends" Maxi.