Former Oklahoma resident turned fugitive extradited from UK after over a decade on the run
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OKLAHOMA (KOCO) — A 63-year-old man who used to call Oklahoma home has been extradited from the United Kingdom to the U.S. after he was on the run for a 2010 conviction.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release that Mehran Koranki, a 63-year-old man who used to live in Yukon, fled the country after he was convicted on dozens of counts of mail fraud and money laundering. Between February 2005 and March 2006, Koranki owned and controlled two Oklahoma City companies that maintained, repaired and sold computer networking components and had extended warranty agreements with Nortel Networks.
Evidence in November of 2010 showed that Koranki’s businesses received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment through the warrant agreement, according to the news release. The companies then sold the equipment for a profit, which violated the warranty agreement.
Koranki was eventually found guilty of 48 counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering. He fled the country before his sentencing hearing, the news release states.
In January 2011, Koranki sent a letter to the court that read in part, “I sincerely regret to inform you I am no longer in the United States and will not be attending the sentencing hearing.” He has been on the run ever since.
The news release states that in September 2013, a U.S. district judge sentenced Koranki to serve 156 months in federal prison and to pay over $6 million in restitution.
In November 2015, the U.S. requested the United Kingdom government to extradite Koranki. He was arrested on Feb. 5, 2024, after traveling on a flight from Qatar to Manchester.
Authorities said the U.S. Marshals Service transported Koranki from the United Kington to the U.S.
“Those who seek to evade justice will eventually be apprehended and held accountable for their crimes,” U.S. Robert J. Attorney Troester said in the news release. “I commend the work done by the U.S. Marshals Service, the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, and United Kingdom authorities for their tireless efforts to bring this matter to a close.”
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