DENVER—A convicted swindler who fled to Israel when he was indicted on new fraud charges in Colorado was arrested Friday after returning to the United States.
The U.S. attorney for Colorado said 59-year-old Arnold Zaler was arrested at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta after arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv.
Zaler was indicted in February 2008 on federal fraud charges. Prosecutors say he bilked investors in his meat business by showing them fake orders for $1.5 million worth of food.
Zaler fled to Israel in March after he was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. He had surrendered his passport under court order and it’s not clear how he was able to leave.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Zaler returned voluntarily but that the Israeli National Police and several U.S. agencies participated.
Zaler was expected to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Atlanta Friday. The U.S. Marshals Service was expected to transport him back to Colorado, but it was unclear when that might happen.
Zaler served prison time for an Arizona fraud conviction in the late 1990s. Prosecutors say he ran a computer game business and bilked at least 15 investors out of more than $15 million. He was also charged with selling $35,000 in fake Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Suns tickets.
After he was paroled in 2002, he moved back to Denver, where he had lived in the 1970s.
