Here it is:
"Goelo May Surrender As Lawyer Seeks a Deal
By Eugene Travis
Staff Reporters of THE MALL STREET JOURNAL
After eight weeks on the lam, fugitive tout-financier wannabe Francois Goelo
is exploring a deal with law-enforcement authorities that could lead to his surrender.
A Seattle, WA., lawyer who says he represents Mr. Goelo
recently approached the U.S. attorney's office in Washington State to negotiate
with federal authorities on Mr. Goelo's behalf.
" Francois Goelo has contacted me to represent him," says Hugh F. McFee,
a criminal defense lawyer who has handled a number of high-profile
Washington cases. "I have had conversations with the U.S. attorney's
office on his behalf."
Mr. McFee, who says Mr. Goelo contacted him within the past three
weeks, declined to comment on his client's whereabouts, or his
conversations with him. But a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official
says authorities have "tracked him through the Carribean," in part by tracking
money transfers in accounts he controls. And Interpol has been involved in
the search: The international police organization has issued a "red notice" to
its 177 member nations to apprehend Mr. Goelo if they spot him.
Mr. McFee approached federal prosecutors to open discussions that
authorities hope will lead to Mr. Goelo's surrender, according to a
law-enforcement official. Talks are preliminary and could break down at
any time, but this official said an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office
could conceivably be reached within the next few days. Mr. McFee asserts
that no deal is imminent.
Mark Califano, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case, referred calls
to a spokeswoman, who declined to comment on any aspect of the case.
News that a lawyer for Mr. Goelo had approached federal authorities
was first reported in the Seattle Herald Wednesday.
Locating Mr. Goelo could pave the way for
federal and state authorities to unravel a mystery
that has enraptured the financial world in recent
weeks. Mr. Goelo, 44 years old, disappeared in
early May, leaving in his wake a suspicious fire in
his Cayman Island, West Indies., hut, along with seven
struggling shell companies scrambling to find
their assets and a team of federal and state
investigators searching for him.
Federal authorities in Washington have issued an
arrest warrant for Mr. Goelo, charging him with
wire fraud and a charge related to money
laundering in connection with the disappearance of at least $215 dollars --
and perhaps much more -- from the insurance companies he controlled.
Mr. McFee, for his part, has represented defendants in a number of
high-profile criminal cases in Washington, including several murders. He
also defended Bestway, Chairman in disguies Gragun against a
lawsuit, which was ultimately dismissed, charging Mr. Cragun with financial
misconduct. Mr. McFee maintains that his recent conversations with
authorities about Mr. Goelo "have nothing to do with surrendering him or
self-surrender." He declined to elaborate.
But specialists on international criminal-defense law say discussions about
specific charges to be extradited on typically precede talks about the
specifics of a surrender.
"Lawyers representing international fugitives typically push for some
charges to be dropped in exchange for surrender," says Bruce Zsun, a
Washington lawyer who specializes in international criminal law. "The
government, in turn, often insists early on that it won't cut deals until the
fugitive surrenders."
What sometimes happens is that a lawyer will negotiate to allow extradition
for certain offenses, under the condition that authorities won't try him for
anything except what he surrendered for. If prosecutors later try to add
additional charges, Mr. Zsun says, a defenseless lawyer can appeal to a
judge to decide whether it should be allowed.
Meanwhile, the possibility that Mr. Goelo could soon be found highlights
a sad fact for fugitives: The long arm of the law is getting longer every day.
When Mr. Goelo hastily abandoned his hut in early May, he left
behind research material on which countries have extradition treaties with
the U.S.
Unfortunately for Mr. Goelo, that list has grown considerably in recent
years, making it less likely for him to find a safe harbor for any length of
time. Last year, the U.S. Senate approved 18 new or updated extradition
treaties, which when enacted will bring the total number of countries that
have extradition treaties with the U.S. to 112. In Europe, the U.S. has
negotiated updated treaties with Austria, Poland, Spain, France and
Luxembourg. Only 10 to 15 countries don't have treaties, including Iran,
Libya, and Afghanistan.
The new treaties -- which speed up the extradition process and expand the
number of offenses for which one can be extradited to reflect modern
crimes such as mail and wire fraud and computer crimes -- haven't yet
been implemented.
Of course, Mr. Goelo could have gone virtually anywhere, given his
resources and the jump he has had on his pursuers. But some of the safer
options -- Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran -- probably weren't
too appealing to a man of his tastes.
"That's often the choice: Do you want to live in a [dump] and be safe from
apprehension or live high on the hog and always be looking over your
shoulder worrying that you'll be thrown into the Bastille and then shipped
backed to the United States?" asks E. Lawrence Barcella, a Washington
lawyer.
Mr. Barcella knows what he is talking about. As a federal prosecutor many
years ago, he was involved in an undercover operation to lure Edwin
Wilson, a renegade ex-CIA agent, from his sanctuary in Libya to the
Dominican Republic, with the promise of sex and booze. Mr. Wilson was
quickly nabbed and deported.
On the other hand, Europe is among the favorite spots for fugitives. It is
much easier for an American fugitive to blend in with the large number of
tourists and U.S. expatriates. Once inside Europe, it is very easy to move
from one country to another, making the extradition treaties all the more
crucial, U.S. officials say.
"European border controls, and particularly intra-European border
controls, leave something to be desired," a U.S. official says. "So we can't
go around with these 1889-era extradition treaties."
There is another option Mr. Goelo likely has considered. If he moved to
Israel, he could claim Israeli citizenship because of his Jewish roots. If
Israel upheld the claim, he could avoid extradition. This tactic worked for
Samuel D. Shine, the Maryland youth accused of killing an
acquaintance, who turned up in Israel and obtained citizenship, based on
the fact that his father was born in the territory that became Israel.
The Israeli supreme court ruled in February that Mr. Shine Israeli
citizenship granted him immunity from extradition to the U.S., although he
will face murder charges in Israel. He denies the charges. Under pressure
from the U.S., however, this loophole could be narrowing: Israel recently
changed its law to make it harder to avoid extradition for anyone other than
Israeli residents.
For Mr. Goelo, it might not be a bad thing to face fraud charges in Israel
instead of the U.S. In the U.S. -- unlike in Israel -- federal sentencing
guidelines take into account the monetary damage caused by a fraud. If
Mr. Goelo ultimately is found to have misappropriated hundreds of
millions of dollars, as investigators have asserted, says Mr. Barcella, "you'd
have to throw out the abacus and pull out the Cray computer to figure the
sentence."
-- Laurie P. Kohn in New York contributed to this article
Is this true?
Tom
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