Extradition from Marbella of Julian Tzolov, one of America’s most wanted fraudster

'If you pick him up before Monday, drag him here. I want him here on trial'. Well, picked up he was - in Marbella in sunny Spain Wednesday. A new trial date has been set, however, for 21st July (enough time for the US and Spanish authorities to get him shipped over), and Tzolov faces up to 15 years in clink just for jumping bail. His lawyer said: 'Julian made a terrible mistake when he fled the jurisdiction. All he has succeeded in doing is further compromising his already fragile legal position'. No kiddin'.National Police, in close collaboration with the FBI, have arrested Julian Tzolov, one of America’s most wanted fraudster. “Dimitre Ivanov, a director at UBS Securities LLC, aided the government in the effort to locate former Credit Suisse Group AG broker Julian Tzolov while he was a fugitive”, Ivanov’s lawyer told Bloomberg.Julian Tzolov allegedly scammed investors out of $400 million during his time at Credit Suisse in New York.
Mr. Tzolov was arrested by Spanish National Police as he and a bodyguard stopped the Citroen Saxo they were travelling in at a petrol station. Mr. Tzolov was using forget identification bearing the name Ivan Stefanov Ivanov.He was staying with friends from the Bulgarian community in the region although he was seeking rental accommodation priced as high as 5,000 euros a month, a police spokesman said. Mr Tzolov was also exploring ways to buy property according to the spokesman.Mr Tzolov and Eric Butler, 37, a former Credit Suisse broker, allegedly defrauded clients out of millions of dollars by falsely telling clients their financial products were backed by federally guaranteed student loans while they were actually linked to auction-rate securities.The funds were then invested in high-risk assets including sub-prime mortgages.When the alleged fraud was discovered last September, investors were left with losses totalling $400 million.The alleged fraud “foisted more than $1 billion in sub prime-related securities” on customers, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said when the two men were first accused last September.
Mr Tzolov had been based in Marbella for just over two months when he was arrested.Tzolov became one of the most wanted fugitives by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after he disappeared from house arrest in May, just weeks before his trial.