MEXICO CITY – Authorities arrested a 26-year-old fugitive from a credit union car loan scheme in Cancun earlier this month after the FBI discovered him online at the suspect’s Facebook page.
"One of the agents, in fact, saw him on Facebook," said Emily Langlie, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Seattle, where Maxi Sopo is wanted for scamming for local credit unions Seattle Metropolitan CU, Watermark CU, Washington State Employees CU and Alaska USA FCU, out of more than $200,000.
"Frequently, when agents are looking for people they do online searches using names and this name was very unusual and it came up," Langlie told The Credit Union Journal yesterday.
The suspect, Maxi Sopo, was making posts about how wonderful life was on the beach and how he was "living in paradise." The fugitive had been living at a nice apartment complex, working at a hotel and partying at Cancun's beaches, pools and nightclubs.
"LIFE IS VERY SIMPLE REALLY!!!!" he wrote on June 21. "BUT SOME OF US HUMANS MAKE A MESS OF IT...REMEMBER AM JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN PARTEEEEEEE," he wrote on his facebook page.
Sopo is one of three people charged with using fake documents and nominees to obtain fraudulent car loans from the credit unions. The three others have either been convicted or pled guilty.
Authorities said Sopo drove a rented car to Mexico in February after he learned he was about to be indicted.
Sopo, a native of Cameroon, is being held in jail in Mexico City from where U.S. authorities will seek to have him extradited, according to Langlie.
