been set up with a job overseas.
Eric Conn
told The Lexington Herald-Leader in an email exchange over the weekend he flew
to a country that does not have an extradition agreement with the U.S.
The
Herald-Leader reported it tried to verify Conn’s identity by asking him
questions that only he could answer, including his Social Security number,
which it obtained from court documents, and details about one of his marriages.
He answered the questions correctly, the paper said.
Scott White,
Conn's attorney, said that he also received emails that originated from the
same address and from a person he believed to be Conn.
Many
believed that Conn, who fled home detention on June 2, had stashed money
overseas to live on but the email said that was not the case.
"The
money I sent overseas was money that has long since been spent," Conn
wrote.
Conn said
the day after cutting off the monitor he used the passport to fly out of the
U.S. He made a reference in one email to being on another continent but did not
say which. He added he boarded a commercial flight without any significant
problems but did not say where he caught the flight.
He did say
he worked to misdirect authorities. For example, Conn said he used his credit
card to buy a ticket to fly out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New
York. He said however that he never intended to go there because of the
likelihood the FBI was monitoring his transactions.
He used a
different, pre-paid credit card to buy a second ticket and used that one to
leave the country, he said.
Conn said
his leaving required preparation. A key factor was to not ask anyone left
behind for help so they would not get in trouble, he said.
"I had
to ask for help from an individual or individuals who were effectively immune
from the government's persecution," Conn said. "Fortunately, I had
previously made alliances with such individual or individuals."
The FBI did
not say whether it believes the emails are from Conn. A person claiming to be
Conn has sent the newspaper several emails since fleeing. Unlike the latest
emails, it was not possible to reply to the initial emails, the paper reported.
Conn pleaded
guilty in March to stealing from the federal government and bribing a doctor
and a judge to approve disability claims based on fake medical evidence.
Conn speaks
multiple languages, has crossed the border 140 times in the past decade and had
told at least six people he would flee the country instead of going to jail.
He
surrendered his passport in April 2016 after being indicted. An accomplice
outside the country obtained a fake passport for him, an email said.
The
Associated Press
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