kelloggs5TLfan
Team Owner
Associated Press
http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/11757044.htm
AUSTIN - A Texas woman who fled the country after she pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with a scheme to fund her NASCAR racing team has been arrested in the Middle East, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday.
Fatemeh Angela Harkness, 29, admitted in January 2004 that she conspired with Austin banker Gary Jones to embezzle more than $1 million from his bank between 2000 and 2003.
Jones, a former Wells Fargo business banker who was vice president of his branch, prepared about 12 loans using several people's names and kept the money for himself, court documents show.
Jones and Harkness, a former stripper from Round Rock, used the money to assemble a NASCAR team called Angela's Motorsports. The racing team, featuring driver Mike McLaughlin, entered cars in the Busch Grand National Series starting in late 2002.
The Marshals Service learned Thursday that Harkness had recently been arrested in the United Arab Emirates on a U.S. warrant, agency spokesman Tim Hughes said. The agency is working with the government in Dubai on her extradition to the United States.
When she returns to the U.S., Harkness will be sentenced on the original charge and likely also will face charges for violating her bond, Hughes said.
Jones was sentenced to just under four years in prison in August after he pleaded guilty to fraud, theft and embezzlement charges.
http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/11757044.htm
AUSTIN - A Texas woman who fled the country after she pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with a scheme to fund her NASCAR racing team has been arrested in the Middle East, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday.
Fatemeh Angela Harkness, 29, admitted in January 2004 that she conspired with Austin banker Gary Jones to embezzle more than $1 million from his bank between 2000 and 2003.
Jones, a former Wells Fargo business banker who was vice president of his branch, prepared about 12 loans using several people's names and kept the money for himself, court documents show.
Jones and Harkness, a former stripper from Round Rock, used the money to assemble a NASCAR team called Angela's Motorsports. The racing team, featuring driver Mike McLaughlin, entered cars in the Busch Grand National Series starting in late 2002.
The Marshals Service learned Thursday that Harkness had recently been arrested in the United Arab Emirates on a U.S. warrant, agency spokesman Tim Hughes said. The agency is working with the government in Dubai on her extradition to the United States.
When she returns to the U.S., Harkness will be sentenced on the original charge and likely also will face charges for violating her bond, Hughes said.
Jones was sentenced to just under four years in prison in August after he pleaded guilty to fraud, theft and embezzlement charges.