Edward Porta (born November 13, 1954) is an

Argentinian Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish ( masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

former

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

trader who was based in the area of

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Off ...

. He pleaded guilty to a federal charge of

conspiracy to defraud Conspiracy to defraud is an offence under the common law of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. England and Wales The standard definition of a conspiracy to defraud was provided by Lord Dilhorne in '' Scott v Metropolitan Police Commissioner'' ...

the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

of more than $400,000. In February 2008, Porta escaped from the

minimum security A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

camp at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lee County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and was profiled on '' America's Most Wanted''.

Background

Porta was married and divorced four times, and has two children. He has five siblings who he claims he did not have contact with for 40 years, according to police.

Textile business

Porta began his career working for his father's textile business. Police stated that he plotted to take advantage of federal programs such as the Export Credit Guarantee Program, intended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist small U.S. and foreign

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

ers of cotton to compete against large corporations. As president of Porta Textiles and Porta Technologies, he acted as both the importer and the exporter, according to the police. Along with money he defrauded from the government, police said that Porta also swindled banks and other businesses of over $2 million. After his arrest, Porta said that he moved around various parts of the United States and Latin America during his life.

Incarceration, escape and recapture

Porta pleaded guilty on December 20, 2005 to the charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. On May 2, 2007, the court in Asheville, North Carolina sentenced Porta to 38 months at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lee County,

. He was ordered to pay $2.9 million

restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court ...

. Porta was assigned federal inmate register number 18862-058. Authorities believe Porta had walked away from the

camp at the penitentiary when he turned up missing during a 4 p.m. count on February 25, 2008. He had been placed in the low security area and was given a significant amount of freedom because he had been convicted of a business-related

white-collar crime The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a ...

. He was scheduled to have been released on April 15, 2010. Porta was profiled on '' America's Most Wanted''. Porta was captured on May 28, 2016 at a motel near Seattle Tacoma International airport after being featured on 'Washington's Most Wanted' Porta served the remainder of his sentence at a corrections facility in Russell County, Virginia. He was released on October 1, 2019.

References

External links

Case #1:05cr239 - United States of America v. Edward PortaWanted: Porta, Edward - arrest warrant
at

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porta, Edward 1954 births American escapees Argentine businesspeople Argentine escapees Argentine fraudsters Fugitives Fugitives wanted by the United States Living people People convicted of fraud