Man sentenced for netting $8M in fraud scheme while on the run from prison
DENVER (KDVR) — A man who escaped a federal prison south of Denver in 2018 and evaded capture for five years has been sentenced to more time in prison after he ran a fraud scheme he started while in prison to collect more than $8 million in oil and gas royalties.
Allen Todd May, 60, will spend an additional 10 years in prison after pleading guilty through a plea deal to two counts of wire fraud, one count of escape, and one count of aggravated identity theft in the escape and scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado said in a Thursday press release.
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'The people of Colorado and Florida are safer today because Allen Todd May is back behind bars,' said Acting United States Attorney J. Bishop Grewell in the press release. 'The Federal Government will not rest when it comes to pursuing fraudsters and fugitives.'
May was serving a 20-year sentence imposed in the Northern District of Texas for fraud, according to the FBI Denver Field Office, at the Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood, in Jefferson County when he between 2016 and 2018 'devised a scheme to falsely and fraudulently claim that he and entities controlled by him were entitled to oil and gas royalties that had not yet been claimed by the true owners,' according to the press release.
May obtained more than $700,000 in royalties from this scheme, in which he participated using a phone he purchased from a fellow inmate illegally.
While at the prison camp, he drove a vehicle on the grounds as a facilities clerk, and on December 21, 2018, he 'drove off the Federal Prison Camp Compound and eluded capture by federal law enforcement for nearly five years,' according to the attorney's office.
He stole other inmates' identities to continue the royalties scheme outside of prison and claimed $8 million 'to support his extravagant lifestyle,' the attorney's office stated. 'He stole the identities of inmates serving long sentences, presented himself as those individuals, and conducted his fraud in their names.'
U.S. Marshals arrested May in August 2023 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was living under an alias.
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'Thanks to the tireless work of the U.S. Marshals Service, he was apprehended, and his criminal activities were stopped,' FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said in the press release. 'The defendant's actions leave no doubt that he is a threat to society and deserves to remain incarcerated.'
May's 10-year sentence will run consecutive to the about seven years left from the original Texas sentence.
May was also ordered to serve three years on supervised release after completion of his prison sentence. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $9 million in restitution, and forfeit the fraud proceeds and assets he obtained during the scheme.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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