FBI: Disgraced lawyer had help fleeing, associates likely will be charged

Andrew Wolfson | Courier Journal

The FBI says it believes that disgraced lawyer-on-the-run Eric Conn is still in the United States and has been assisted in his escape

The FBI's special agent in charge for Kentucky, Amy Hess, also told reporters Friday that friends, associates, and relatives of Conn are likely to be charged with aiding his escape.

Hess also said that Conn or someone with inside information on his behalf has made posts on social media, but she wouldn’t elaborate.

The FBI and other agencies on Thursday executed a search of Conn’s office in Floyd County and of his mother’s home and car.

Related: Arrest warrant issued for prominent former east Kentucky lawyer Eric Conn

Background: Judge: Social Security shafted 7 in fraud cases

Conn’s electronic ankle monitoring device was found in a backpack on Interstate 75 in Lexington, but the FBI doesn’t know in what direction he was headed, Hess said.

Conn, who was to be sentenced July 14 for his role in a scheme that defrauded the Social Security Administration of $550 million, disappeared June 2 in Lexington after cutting off his the device.

A person purporting to be Conn has since sent emails and faxes to the Herald Leader as well as involved in the case seeking to negotiate the terms of his surrender and complaining about how he was treated unfairly.

The communications are thought to be legitimate because in one of them the writer disclosed that the monitoring device was found inside a backpack, which the FBI has confirmed.

In an email to the Lexington newspaper, the person claiming to be Conn said he fled because he felt it was unfair a Social Security judge convicted in the case would get far less prison time than him.

Hess said the FBI has notified U.S. Customs and Border Protection to put out "trip wires" in case Conn tries to leave the country, and is working with Kentucky State Police, the U.S. Marshal Service and other agencies to find him.

"Our primary goal is to bring him in safely," she said. "We have been working diligently around the clock."

She said the FBI would only discuss Conn's demands after he is caught, and that a grand jury has been convened to issue subpoenas to assist in the hunt.

More: Lawyers help Mr. Social Security's ex-clients

The writer said he would turn himself in on certain conditions, including that that the FBI publicly acknowledge Conn has no history of violence and that a caution they issued to members of the public about approaching him was not based on a specific concern; and finally, that the FBI not charge him with additional crimes for fleeing.

The writer also demanded that the FBI publicly state Conn fled because he found it unfair that others in the case will receive a combined sentence less than his. He also said he had been assisted in his escape "from someone who is absolutely insusceptible to the reach of American law." It didn't elaborate on the identity of the person or their location.

The fax lashed out at the government's case against psychologist Alfred Bradley Adkins., whom a jury convicted earlier this month of participating in the scheme.

More: 'Devastated' Conn client took own life

Ned Pillersdorf, a Prestonsburg attorney who has represented many of the 1,500 people who lost their benefits when the Social Security Administration ruled they were obtained by fraud, said he contacted the FBI after getting the fax from Conn, which Pillersdorf described as "the whinings of a desperate man."

Conn was originally placed on home detention in April 2106, after he was charged, by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Wier, despite the warnings of an FBI agent and other witnesses who said he had in 10 countries, crossed 140 borders over eight years, and vowed he would flee to Cuba or Ecuador before he was put behind bars.

But allowing him to be released on home monitoring and a bond secured by his $1.5 million home, Wier said Conn had traveled extensively before he was accused in news media accounts of rigging disability hearings and had expressed no intent do abscond in recent years.

More: Eric Conn's unusual 2010 YouTube campaign

When he pleaded guilty in March, Justice Department prosecutors recommended his continue release on those terms, pending his sentencing in July, and U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves accepted a plea bargain in which the recommendation was made.

Conn faces 12 years in prison for theft and giving gratuities to a public official, but could face more time if he has captured.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at 502-582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com

The FBI asks that anyone with information about Conn's whereabouts calls its Louisville office at 502-263-6000.