The ABC has tracked down a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. The Australian, who is accused of wire fraud and money laundering has been quietly living in Sydney’s south for decades.
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00:00Well, the FBI recently asked the public for tip-offs to try and locate this Australian
00:07man. His name is Geoff Bush. He's been accused of wire fraud and money laundering. Basically
00:12it was around an alleged Get Rich Quick scheme operating out of Florida in the early 2000s.
00:18So we checked US court documents. Turns out he has been indicted by a grand jury in Florida
00:23in 2007 in relation to this scheme. He's accused of basically fleecing US investors. The scheme
00:29itself. The allegations are around 12.3 million dollars. The US labelled him a fugitive and
00:37the FBI recently requested additional help to find him so we thought we would look for
00:41him. And you found him? That's the most surprising part about this whole story is that he's clearly
00:46not hiding. He says he's not avoiding arrest and he wasn't difficult to locate. I mean
00:50he even lists what city he's living in, Sydney, on his social media page and he makes no attempt
00:56to conceal his location which is just fascinating. So Geoff Bush is living a rather ordinary suburban
01:02life in Sydney, Sutherland Shire. We thought we would approach him and ask if he knows that
01:07he's being hunted by the FBI and this is what he told us.
01:10Are you aware of this? I'm aware of that posting, yeah. And how have you managed to avoid arrest
01:16so far? I'm not avoiding arrest. I've done nothing wrong. It's a travesty.
01:20Yeah, so basically we have been trying to figure out what's going on here. We think if the US
01:27government really want him, they likely would know where he was, where he is. His home address
01:32is on court documents. But the FBI clearly wanted to find him because they put out that call.
01:37And he's been listed in the white collar crime section of the FBI's Most Wanted page for several
01:43years now. They republished his wanted poster with his mugshot asking for public tip-offs about
01:49where he was. So the whole thing is just so bizarre. We spoke to a range of university experts,
01:55lawyers, politicians and the like to try and get a sense of what's actually gone on here.
02:00It appears the most common scenario is that the US has likely not requested his extradition.
02:06We couldn't find any record of it in our court system. The extradition process is typically
02:12quite lengthy. It can be quite expensive as well. But because he has been labelled a fugitive
02:17in the US court system, he remains on the FBI list. But his solicitor has told us that Mr. Bush
02:24has denied any wrongdoing. He's not avoiding arrest and he's just living his life.
02:29So he continues living in Sydney South and doesn't have any plans to go to the US of it?
02:33Certainly not.
02:36How does he get his name?
02:52He destroys his�를.
02:53He's dafton.
02:53He he's game which he's a big find of.