CLEVELAND — Alex Spirikaitis, the former Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union CEO who had been an FBI fugitive for months following the collapse of the $24 million-asset Cleveland CU was captured by FBI agents Monday in the Collinwood area of the city.
Spirikaitis, 51, has been a fugitive since mid-July after a night-long showdown at his home with local police and the FBI, days after the CU was closed. When FBI agents moved in on the home July 16 they found it empty.
He is charged with making false credit institution entries. Prosecutors say he printed out numbers and taped them over the actual numbers from the credit union's account statements. He then copied the altered documents and submitted them as genuine to the regulators.
Spirikaitis also employed a computer software program called "Phantom Font" that allowed him to electronically download documents, then alter them on his computer. He would then print out the new version with the altered information in a format identical to the look and style of the original document, according to prosecutors.
The FBI declined to say how Spirikaitis was arrested or how they tracked him to Collinwood, only that federal agents "developed information based upon advanced investigative techniques that led to his apprehension,'' according to a brief statement.
Spirikaitis is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Kenneth McHargh Tuesday morning. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Morford told The Plain Dealer that a review of the CU's computers and paperwork found that the financial figures provided by Spirikaitis had been altered and modified.
