SALT LAKE CITY – A Bountiful man pleaded innocent yesterday to running off with $110,000 from his fiance’s America First CU account after he left her at the alter.
Forty-two year-old John Egan was picked up by Cuban authorities on the high seas two months ago in a 35-foot sailboat authorities said he bought with the America First member’s life savings. They say he talked her into marrying him and selling her house and moving to Florida, where he never showed up.
Instead, they charged Egan closed out their joint account at the credit union, then hacked into her private account and cleared them both out of more than $200,000 in total.
Egan, who was allegedly trying to sail from Mexico to Ireland, was arrested by Cuban authorities for having a phony passport after his boat broke down.
On the day Egan was supposed to meet his lover in Tampa, he went online and used her account number and PIN to withdraw $109,900 from her account, according to a federal indictment. Later that day he went to the credit union twice and withdrew more than $100,000 from their joint account, then disappeared, the indictment charges.
