Kansas City Fraud Suspect Arrested in Chicago

Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was joined today by Brian Truchon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Kansas City office, in announcing the arrest of a suspect in a Missouri fraud scheme.

HARRIS POULIKIDIS, age 61, whose last known address was in Overland Park, Kansas, was arrested by FBI Special Agents yesterday, without incident, at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.  POULIKIDIS was a passenger on an American Airlines flight that arrived late yesterday afternoon from Frankfurt, Germany.

POULIKIDIS has been the subject of an international manhunt coordinated by the FBI’s Kansas City office, since being charged by a Federal Grand Jury in May of 2004 with multiple counts of Bank Fraud, which is a felony offense.

According to the indictment, POULIKIDIS operated a home improvement business and several mortgage companies in the Kansas City area. It is alleged that from March of 2000 through March of 2001, POULIKIDIS executed a scheme to defraud several federally insured financial institutions by submitting loan applications with false statements to finance home improvement projects that were completed by his construction firm.

POULIKIDIS was held overnight at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago and is scheduled to appear later today in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  POULIKIDIS will eventually be removed to Kansas City where he will face the charges that are pending against him.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Additional details about the fraud investigation, including a copy of the grand jury indictment, are available from the Kansas City FBI Press Office at (816) 512-8833.