Man who fled to Iran faces more charges
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
May 26, 2009
CRIME, IRAN, MILAN — Federal prosecutors say a Bethesda man who fled to Iran to avoid bank fraud charges ripped off $30,000 from a U.S. bank while in Tehran.
Michael Milan fled to Iran in July, just days after FBI agents informed him he was a target in a bank fraud investigation.
Milan was arrested April 23 after landing at Washington Dulles International Airport. The charges were first reported by The Examiner in February.
Milan was released on bail May 1. If he fails to return to court, he will forfeit a $5 million home in Bethesda and his rights to the patent for “Coollid,” an invention that quickly cools hot coffee to make it immediately drinkable, his attorneys wrote in court documents filed in Alexandria’s federal court.
Prosecutors, however, want Milan kept behind bars because he is a “risk of both flight and danger,” they wrote in court documents.
Milan was charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud after his co-conspirator, Navid Housein Mahdavi, turned over to the FBI their plan to steal about $6 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages. Mahdavi has pleaded guilty and in February was sentenced to one year in prison.
Their plan was for Mahdavi to pretend to buy Milan’s Bethesda home, Mahdavi admitted. The cash would come the day the deal was finalized, when several loans the conspirators were set to receive based on fraudulent information would come to fruition.
With Mahdavi’s help, the FBI was able to prevent the plan from going through. But Milan then fled to Iran.
After his return to the U.S., Milan told a magistrate he intended to come back sooner, but he was detained in Iran on espionage charges, prosecutors wrote.
Milan told the magistrate he was held for about a month in late July and early August, court documents said.
But prosecutors said that couldn’t be true. They said that during that time, Milan stole about $30,000 from SunTrust Bank using a fake check to abuse a line of credit the bank extended to one of his businesses.
Milan’s attorneys wrote that he had planned to return and had gone to Iran to finalize a divorce from his wife.
He is now behind bars after being indicted on bank fraud charges from the mortgage case Thursday and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.
fklopott@washingtonexaminer.com
More from Freeman Klopott
- Feds, local officials say they've dismantled Latin Kings in Md.
- State Department adds restrictions to diplomats bringing servants into the U.S.
- Executive accused of planning night of sex with young girl
- Town's ex-police chief accused of selling stolen department gun
- P.G. police point to youth outreach as cause of lower crime
