Michael "Metro" Sabo (born 1943/1944) is an American consultant and speaker on identity theft and fraud in the business and personal sectors. He is executive director of Prison Consultants of America, a resource for individuals charged with

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 ...

. Sabo was a longtime

con artist A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

and forger who was released from prison in 2009.

Biography

Sabo grew up in Hampton Bays, NY, where he played high school football as a third string safety. He also earned credit toward a college degree while in the U.S. Army. Before 2009, Sabo was best known for his history as a check, stocks and bonds forger, a master impostor, and as an escaped fugitive from federal custody. He became notorious in the 1970s and throughout the 1980s for successfully forging bank and government checks, as well as the forgery of stock and bond certificates. By 1992, Sabo had been convicted of

bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many ins ...

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

of stocks and bonds,

grand larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Engla ...

, and

identity theft Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The term ''identity theft'' was co ...

, both in federal and state courts. In 2009, Sabo was sentenced to a year in prison for impersonating an official from the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

from 2004 to 2005. Sabo owed approximately $95,000 in federal

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

from 1994 to 1998, and the IRS placed

tax lien A tax lien is a lien which is imposed upon a property by law in order to secure the payment of taxes. A tax lien may be imposed for the purpose of collecting delinquent taxes which are owed on real property or personal property, or it may be im ...

s on his property to force repayment. He fraudulently signed releases on the liens by pretending to be an IRS agent. He has served a total of 11 years in federal and state prisons. He also had extensive

plastic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofa ...

performed while he was a fugitive.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabo, Michael 1940s births Living people American escapees American confidence tricksters American people convicted of fraud American people convicted of theft Escapees from United States federal government detention People convicted of forgery Impostors Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Criminals from Louisville, Kentucky People from McKeesport, Pennsylvania