A man who's been wanted for nearly five years after escaping a federal prison in Colorado is back in custody after he was found living a lavish lifestyle in Fort Lauderdale, authorities said.
Allen Todd May, 58, was arrested Tuesday night by Deputy U.S. Marshals from the Southern District of Florida, along with Task Force Officers from the Florida-Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force, authorities said.
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May was found living at a home near East Cypress Creek Road and Northeast 18th Avenue, less than two miles from the ocean in a neighborhood where many homes are valued at over $1 million, authorities said.
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May had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in February 2012 after he'd been convicted of mail fraud in Texas.
He had been transferred to a prison in Colorado in January 2018 but in December of that year, it was discovered he'd escaped during a prisoner count, officials said.
It was later learned that before his escape and while May had been in prison, he'd identified several business entities that were owed unclaimed oil and gas royalties and filed fraudulent documents to act as the representative of those companies to claim the royalties for himself, authorities said.
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The scheme, which lasted from at least mid-2016 to late in 2018, is believed to have brought in more than $700,000 for May, officials said.
May was charged in 2022 with 10 counts of wire fraud and seven counts of mail fraud in the scheme, but remained a fugitive.
After the U.S. Marshals announced a $5,000 reward in the case in September 2022, they started to receive tips that led investigators to pursue leads in California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, and Florida.
One anonymous tipster began providing information in May about potential online profiles and websites which May was possibly using under the alias of "Cary Bailey." Investigators followed up on the information provided but were never able to pin down a location for May, officials said.
But on July 25, the same tipster provided a new tip and a photo of who they believed to be May which had been published on the website of the Palm Beach Daily News.
The new information, which included a new, previously unknown alias, allowed investigators to learn about a possible location for May at a penthouse apartment in Palm Beach, authorities said.
On Monday, authorities set up surveillance on the apartment but saw no signs of May. But the next day, May’s suspected partner was seen leaving the Palm Beach apartment in a U-Haul rental truck.
Authorities followed the partner in the U-Haul almost 50 miles from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale, where the partner backed the U-Haul truck into the driveway of the home near East Cypress Creek Road and Northeast 18th Avenue.
A man who later came out of the home was taken into custody and confirmed to be May, officials said.
May was booked into a local jail and will be taken back to Colorado.
"I’d like to recognize and thank the anonymous tipster for the information they provided that directly led to the arrest of this unorthodox fugitive," District of Colorado U.S. Marshal Kirk Taylor said in a statement Wednesday. "I would also like to thank and recognize the incredible tenacity of the Deputy U.S. Marshals who pursued every lead over the years in the District of Colorado, culminating in the arrest in the Southern District of Florida last night."
