The FBI says that fugitive lawyer Eric Conn has been spotted at a gas station and Walmart store in New Mexico.

The disgraced Floyd County attorney was sentenced in absentia Friday to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $170 million in restitution.

Conn, who was convicted of defrauding the government out of $550 million in Social Security disability payments, fled last month from Lexington and the FBI says it has obtained surveillance video showing him at the store and station.

More:Email to newspaper claiming to be from Eric Conn lists terms of surrender

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

The FBI said it discovered that Conn fled using a truck owned and registered by an unnamed co-conspirator to a dummy company in Montana, and that the co-conspirator also supplied him with other materials.

The statement said there is no evidence that Conn has crossed the border into Mexico.

Amy Hess, the special agent in charge of the Louisville field office, said it is working diligently to bring him to justice and that his flight from prosecution has “diminished any legitimacy and integrity he once held as an attorney and officer of the court.”

She said the FBI is seizing bank accounts and disrupting other means of support while pursuing law enforcement action against co-conspirators in his flight

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

The FBI has announced a reward of $20,000 for information leading to Conn’s arrest and released the surveillance photos of him Friday. It asks anyone with information about his whereabouts to call the FBI in Louisville at 502-263-6000.

“It is in the best interest of anyone helping him to cooperate with law enforcement and avoid criminal charges for providing aid to him,” she said.

Conn’s electronic ankle monitoring device was found June 2 in a backpack on Interstate 75 in Lexington. He had been released on bond pending his sentencing.

Conn, 56, pleaded guilty in March to one count of stealing from the Social Security Administration and one count of paying illegal gratuities to a federal judge. He admitted he submitted false documentation for clients seeking disability payments and that he paid off a federal administrative law judge who approved the claims.

The federal rules of criminal procedure generally require criminal defendants to be present at all stages of a case, but there is an exception for when they voluntarily absent themselves.

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