Yeah, there were a couple of tries, but they weren't successful. The guy who faked suicide by the bridge*, the parachuter who jumped into the swamps, the fat boyband manager who was caught in Indonesia, they were all caught. Is it really that hard to come up with a fake identity? Well, I guess this Miller guy doesn't apply, I think he did it on a moment's notice, I don't think he planed it very well. But Ponzi schemers should have a plan B for rainy days.... *"Angelo Haligiannis managed the hedge fund Sterling Watters as a Ponzi scheme and pled guilty in 2005 of defrauding investors of tens of millions of dollars. He fled an expected 15 year jail term the day before his scheduled sentencing on January 11, 2006. He was recaptured on the island of Crete in August, 2007, conditionally released by Greek authorities, and then arrested again in September of that year." http://nymag.com/nymag/features/23171/
The issue is you have to plan your fake identity and escape routes before the crime. If you plan on committing the crime you need to be sure you have a well rehearsed exit plan and set of identities ready to go. These people after the crime is unmasked try and do all of it rushed and on the fly which always leads to failure.
Not always... Both Madoff and Haligianni had plenty of time between found guilty and going to jail. The Greek tried and was on the run for a few years.... "Those write-ups only come out daily. Until the following dayâs report, what Angelo did between his breakfast and dinner phone calls was entirely his own business. Angeloâs prosecutor had warned the judge about this very loophole a year earlier, in an impassioned, failed request to deny him bail: Anyone can cut the ankle bracelet. Anyone with a little money can buy a fake passport, slip into Canada or Mexico, then board a plane for who knows where. Anyone can disappear with an eight-hour head startâgone until dinner before heâs even missed. Most donât, of course, because in the great cost-benefit analysis of life, the cost of leaving usually outweighs the benefit: There is the near certainty of more jail time if youâre caught, for starters, plus bail and the property put up as collateral behind it, not to mention the loved ones youâre forced to leave behind. The trick, if you decide to flee, is not minding the consequencesâhaving, perhaps, an unhealthy appetite for risk."
Who were these guys? Do you have names or any links? Case of Marc Rich comes to mind - I think he was a centi-millionaire and fled US and settled in Switzerland. There is a book about him. http://www.amazon.com/The-King-Oil-...UTF8&qid=1354736999&sr=8-1&keywords=marc+rich
The Greed series is a good start on CNBC. I think there are online episodes you can watch. I gave the link (long article) for the Greek. The boy band manager was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Pearlman * I forgot the parachuter guy, but he had a small plane, flew from NYC to Louisiana and after setting the plane on autopilot, called emergency and jumped into the swamps. The plane did go down on land, instead of the Gulf, so it was suspicious that there was no body in it. They got him a few days later in a trailer park. He had his motorcycle hidden in a storage as a getaway vehicle. I think he broke his leg at landing.... * Being 400 lbs sure doesn't help when you try blending in...
I'm astonished by this guy. Watching him do a slow motion escape over a month or so and basically get away with murdering a US citizen. I read that it is extremely unlikely that he will be sent to Belize to face questioning or any charges. He might be crazy but he did escape.