A man wanted for embezzling more than $8 million from his former employer has confessed to the crime.
The FBI says James Hammes, whose case was profiled on CNBC’s American Greed in 2012, got away with embezzling $8.7 million dollars over 17 years, from his former employer, a Pepsi bottling company near Cincinnati. When the Feds closed in on him in 2009, he took off. Colleagues thought the licensed pilot fled the country, but it turns out he’s been hiking the Appalachian Trail. He was finally arrested in May. The AP explains how:
The show is credited with leading to Hammes’ arrest: A fellow Appalachian Trail hiker saw the episode and recognized the man he knew as Bismarck. The FBI said Friday that Hammes also used a living person’s identity as an alias while a fugitive. An FBI spokesman declined to identify the person.
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