A former congressman was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday for having written a bad check for $50,000 years earlier, and then fleeing the country before the case was resolved.
Walter Fauntroy, also known for his work as a civil rights activist, was apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers upon returning to the U.S. from Dubai early Monday morning. Agents said his customs check revealed an outstanding warrant for the 83-year-old man after he failed to appear in court for a case involving the invalid check.
Fauntroy was taken into custody by Loudoun County law enforcement and will remain there overnight for his closed-circuit television court date on Tuesday.
The suspect wrote the check at a party he hosted following President Obama’s election in 2009, according to the Prince George’s County state’s attorney general’s office.
The defendant’s family reported him missing earlier this year. The former Democratic congressman, who served in Congress for 20 years, was said to have been traveling internationally despite family and friends’ pleas to return home.
Fauntroy served as the right-hand man to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and went on to pastor the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
