Catch me if you can ...

From Yahoo!: Calif. fraud suspect caught with $70,000 in boots.

A suspect in a nationwide mortgage fraud scheme who fled the country was caught at the Canadian border with $1 million in Swiss bank certificates and $70,000 stuffed in his cowboy boots, authorities said Wednesday.

Christopher J. Warren, 27, also was carrying four ounces of platinum valued at $1,420 an ounce when he was arrested early Wednesday while entering the United States at Buffalo, N.Y.

Court documents alleged they defrauded investors and mortgage companies of $100 million since 2006. The fraudulent deals involved 500 homes and condominiums in California, Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Colorado and Arizona, according to Internal Revenue Service affidavits.

Warren flew to Ireland on Feb. 3 on a chartered private jet, then traveled to Lebanon and Canada, acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown said. Immigration officials were on the lookout for him when he took a taxi from Toronto to the border at Buffalo.

Authorities believe Warren also had brought to Lebanon $4 million to $5 million in gold, which he had shown some of the flight crew, but that has not been recovered, Brown said.