Dominican authorities repatriate Briton in US$58.0M fraud

SANTO DOMINGO.- Dominican authorities repatriated the Briton Michael Brown, who he had been wanted in the United Kingdom since 2008, when he was convicted of a US$58.0 million fraud.

Brown, who also went by the names of Darren Nally and Kurt Vanderlay, was escorted by INTERPOL agents the Friday night aboard a flight to Madrid, from where she would be handed over to British authorities.

Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom have neither an extradition treaty nor direct flights between Santo Domingo and London.

Brown, 45, was arrested in January in the tourist resort Punta Cana, around 200 kilometers east of Santo Domingo, and charged with defrauding local businesspersons. A Dominican court had first sent Brown to one year in prison while the Justice Ministry investigated the case.

The Dominican victims had dropped the charges to allow the Briton’s repatriation and to serve out his sentence, Dominican said police in a statement Saturday.

Brown had bee living under the name of Darren Nally in an upscale gated community in Punta Cana since 2008 when he fled his country and skipping.

Brown was convicted in absentia to seven years in prison and during the trial it was revealed that he had donated US$4.0 million to the Liberal Democratic Party, from the money scammed from his victims, including Martin Edwards, ex president of the Manchester United soccer team.

DT connection

Several British media had contacted DT about the case, including which sent a team to search Brown’s whereabouts, first in the north coast and finally getting a lead in Punta Cana.