Fugitive con man back in court

A self-confessed con man made his first appearance in federal court Wednesday after going on the run to avoid being sentenced and sent to prison.

On Thursday, Jeffrey Geddes appeared in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City after being captured earlier this month by federal authorities.

Geddes, 40, who admitted to swindling Zions Bank and other banks out of an estimated $30 million, appeared calm in court. At one point Geddes had a multimillion-dollar home, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Ferrari, art work and $4 million in jewelry. But he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells on Thursday that he did not have enough money to afford an attorney. Based on his declaration of poverty, Wells appointed a public defender to help him.

Geddes faced up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to 52 counts of bank fraud and four counts of wire fraud. On the morning of his sentencing last March, Geddes admitted to cutting off a GPS ankle monitor and sending an e-mail to his attorney indicating that he was going up into the mountains to kill himself. His Chevy Tahoe was found abandoned near a main highway, but search dogs could find no sign of Geddes.

Convinced the suicide note was yet another ruse to throw them off, marshals began searching numerous casinos across the country because Geddes saw himself as a "professional gambler." Marshals located Geddes at an American Indian reservation just outside San Diego, where he had changed his appearance and even had eye surgery to eliminate the glasses he wore. Initially, Geddes told marshals he was his brother, but later admitted to being who they were looking for.

Marshals say Zions was able to recover most of their loss but more than $7 million is still unaccounted for.

A sentencing date has been set for July 10. Because Geddes has violated his plea agreement, he could now face yet more time in federal prison.

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