When the FBI Comes Calling…®

July 19, 2005

Villains face the music

Brett Arends/ On State Street

Isn't it odd that the fallen tycoons Bernie Ebbers, John Rigas and L. Dennis Kozlowski all hung around to face the music?

Going on the lam isn't the perfect lifestyle, but it probably beats spending the rest of your days in prison.

WorldCom fraudster Bernie Ebbers, sentenced last week to up to 25 years, is 63 and has a dodgy heart.

Adelphia bandit John Rigas, sentenced to 15 years, is 80 and ailing.

Tyco sleaze L. Dennis Kozlowski could face up to 25 years in jail. He's 58.

They're all appealing their convictions.

Hub financier Brad Bleidt has confessed to stealing tens of millions from clients: if convicted he could be sentenced to decades. He's 50.

Ebbers, Rigas and Kozlowski collected hundreds of millions from their companies.

All someone needs to finance a vanishing act is a few million in gold coins, a secret account in Switzerland, and the name of a friendly pilot in the Keys.

Sure, they hoped they'd get off. But was it really worth the risk?

Bleidt blew his money on a radio station.

Douglas McNabb, a Houston, Tex.-based lawyer specializing in extradition, notes that it's harder to find safe havens than ever before.

``It has become more difficult post-9/11 for an individual to flee to another country,'' he said. ``The extradition treaties cover most of the countries in the world, and, because of 9/11, individual countries are being more careful about border checks.''

But the U.S. hasn't closed the net entirely. Although it now has treaties with most countries, there are about 50 exceptions.

Not all of them are places like North Korea, Angola and Mongolia.

Those outside the formal extradition system also include the Maldives tropical island chain, Bahrain in the Middle East, the Sultanate of Brunei, Nepal in the Himalayas, the Comoros islands off Africa, Indonesia and others.

Some other countries, such as Israel and Greece, are pretty safe if you have dual nationality.

Sure beats watching your back in the showers at Sing Sing.

And there's always Cuba.

McNabb says countries without extradition treaties may still deport unwanted immigrants back to the U.S.

But millions of dollars can go a long way on the road. And if you are already facing the real prospect of life in prison, what else can anyone do to you?