A con man who escaped from a federal prison in Colorado in 2018 has been arrested again in Florida after a photo of him during a fundraiser in Palm Beach appeared in a local newspaper.
Allen Todd May, 58, was arrested Tuesday by US Marshals from a $1.5 million home in Fort Lauderdale after an anonymous tipster told them he was leading a lavish lifestyle in southeastern Florida under the assumed name Jacob Turner.
When Marshals arrested him, they said he was driving a Mercedes worth about $125,000. A Palm Beach socialite who sat next to him at a fundraiser told DailyMail.com that he looked wealthy and wore a solid gold Rolex.
“It was a great situation because this couple came on the scene last season in Palm Beach,” he said, referring to May and his friend. “They drove around in a fancy car and went to all the parties in restaurants and posted stuff on social media.”
May, who also went by Alan May, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012 for stealing $6.8 million through a Ponzi scheme. According to federal investigators, he escaped prison in 2018 by hijacking a prison van and fleeing to Texas.
Although he was not caught, he was charged last year with additional fraud committed in prison, netting him about $700,000. That led to the most recent searches.
The arrest of Allen Todd May came after a photo of him at a fundraiser in Palm Beach appeared in a local newspaper, the Palm Beach Daily News
Allen Todd May, 58, was arrested Tuesday by US Marshals. He is pictured at the time of his arrest from a home in Fort Lauderdale
May was captured this week after attending a series of fundraisers in Palm Beach – and appeared in the Palm Beach Daily News.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the source who sat next to him at one of those events, but declined to be named, gave an insight into May’s lifestyle and behavior in the months leading up to his arrest.
He described May and his friend as Palm Beach socialites who had recently arrived on the scene and regularly attended events.
“They would go to opening an envelope,” he told DailyMail.com.
“You didn’t get the sense that he was a fugitive, you got the sense that he had recently settled in Palm Beach. He was wearing a flashy gold Rolex and you thought he was going to be a wealthy man,” he said.
The source said May and his partner were elusive when it came to what they did and where they came from.
“They just said he was a businessman and involved in everything from real estate to finance and his partner just said ‘I work in investments with my partner’ – they were very vague shall we say,” the source said .
An Instagram account called “@jacobturner1974” is said to belong to May and was created in October 2022, according to the platform.
The description reads, “Enjoying my wonderful life with my wonderful friend. Croquette. Polo. Sail. Tennis. To cook. Delicious cocktails.’
The source also shared how May once pledged $100,000 during a fundraiser but never went through with actually donating.
The fundraiser in question was for the local 211 hotline – a community helpline that offers suicide prevention and crisis intervention services, among other things.
‘I thought: “How nice”, people who were going to contribute to this innocent crisis hotline. Suddenly he said he was going to donate $100,000 and I thought, “Wow, that’s a lot,” but he never paid his pledge,” he said.
The source noted that May and his friend often eluded cameras and avoided being photographed, but their attitude was different on the day of the 211 fundraiser.
“Funnily enough, they dodged the cameras all the time. But for some reason they didn’t avoid the Palm Beach Post photographer,” he said.
In January 2018, with nine years left on his sentence, he was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institute in Englewood, Colorado.
Within a year, in December 2018, May stole a prison van and escaped from Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Colorado (pictured)
Thanks to that photo, May was arrested Aug. 1 from a home near East Cypress Creek Road and North East 18th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, according to a statement from the US Marshals.
Federal agents said they followed May’s suspected partner from a Palm Beach apartment to a home in Fort Lauderdale, where they eventually tracked down and arrested the fugitive. He had been on the run for nearly five years.
“He pretended to live in Palm Beach, but he obviously lived 35 miles away, and he was very vague about where he was from and where he worked. I didn’t get an answer from him,” the source said.
“It was a funny situation because I’m a Florida resident and I’ve been in the area for many, many years. And all of a sudden these people show up,” he said. “They appeared more or less out of nowhere, trying to intrude into Palm Beach society, so to speak. And I was shocked when I saw what happened on Instagram.’
In February 2012, May was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of mail fraud in the Northern District of Texas.
Then, in January 2018, with nine years left on his sentence, he was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institute in Englewood, Colorado.
Within a year of that transfer, on December 21, prison officials conducted a count and May went missing.
He allegedly escaped by stealing a Bureau of Prisons work truck and driving off the prison grounds without anyone noticing.
May rented a U-Haul van with a fake driver’s license that he somehow made behind bars just hours after escaping and headed for Texas, according to reports at the time.
While in prison between 2016 and 2018, he allegedly stole more than $700,000 by posing as corporations that owed oil and gas royalites
The next day, he was reportedly seen outside his mother’s house. U.S. Marshals have been actively searching him ever since.
On June 22, 2022, a federal grand jury in Colorado filed an indictment accusing May of 10 additional counts of wire fraud and seven counts of mail fraud.
While in prison between 2016 and 2018, he allegedly stole more than $700,000 by identifying companies that owed oil and gas royalties and impersonating them to claim those royalties.
He was also charged with the 2018 escape.
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Marshals issued a statement requesting the public’s help in locating May and offering a potential reward of up to $5,000 for any information leading to his capture.
Since that call for information in September, the Marshals began receiving tips about May that led them to pursue leads in California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas and Florida, they said this week.
An anonymous tipster began providing information about potential online profiles and websites he may have used under the alias “Cary Bailey” in May, but to no avail, the US Marshals said in a statement.
On July 25, the same tipster gave another tip and a photo of who they thought May was, which was published on the Palm Beach Daily News website – this was the 211 fundraising event he was photographed at.
May was booked at the Palm Beach County Jail on August 2.
On his first appearance in Florida’s Southern District Court, he was ordered to be transported back to Colorado to face charges.
“I would like to acknowledge and thank the anonymous tipster for providing information that led directly to the capture of this unorthodox fugitive,” said US Marshal Kirk Taylor of the Colorado District.
On Thursday, May was assigned a West Palm Beach Federal Defender.