California Police are attempting to locate Icelander, Alfreð Örn Clausen, on suspicion of stealing 44 Million USD, reports RÚV.
Alfreð, 41, allegedly committed grand theft by stealing millions from victims who sought loan modifications from their fraudulent law firm.
According to San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, victims were promised that all changes made to their loans would be handled by a licensed attorney within the Siringoringo Law Firm but the loans were passed off to unlicensed representatives that fraudulently altered the accounts, and collected monthly payments and upfront fees from the victims.
Three men have been charged with grand theft and money laundering in the case but Alfreð – who is currently in Iceland – remains at large.
Alfreð maintained his innocence in the case when reached by RÚV yesterday and said that he was not certain he was going to hand himself over to the American authorities.
“I’m not wanted [by police] here,” said Alfreð. “It’s a very complicated and weird case, but we did not do anything wrong.”
WANTED #AlfredClausen for Grand Theft in $44 million scheme. Clausen is known to go back and forth to #Iceland pic.twitter.com/JqvQwqEiJd
— SB District Attorney (@sbcountyda) March 17, 2015
The San Bernardino District Attorney’s office have been asking for help to locate Alfreð via Twitter – and even turned to Google Translate to appeal to Icelanders who may have knowledge of his whereabouts.
Alfred Clausen vildi fyrir Grand Theft og peningaþvætti í $ 44.000.000 fyrirætlun. Clausen vitað að heimsækja Ísland pic.twitter.com/0gkrNAlWEb
— SB District Attorney (@sbcountyda) March 17, 2015
Although the translation was quite bad, it had the desired effect and many Icelanders seem to have reached out to assist the SB District Attorney’s Office in their quest.
Thank you to everybody in #Iceland who has responded to our request for information regarding #AlfredClausen
— SB District Attorney (@sbcountyda) March 17, 2015
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