CEO still on the run

INDIANAPOLIS -- The former chief executive of an agricultural cooperative may have fled to New York state or Europe to escape sentencing for bilking the company out of $2.7 million, authorities said.\nFormer Countrymark CEO David H. Swanson failed to show up for sentencing Jan. 24. Since then, the U.S. marshal's office in Indianapolis has been trying to verify information that the Armenia, N.Y., resident returned to that area or Europe.\n"We're not even sure what name he's traveling under," said U.S. Marshal Jim Kennedy, noting that Swanson might have acquired a fake passport. Interpol and the FBI are working with the U.S. marshal's office to find Swanson if he is in Europe.\nA federal jury convicted Swanson last fall of taking more than $2.7 million in 1996 and 1997 from Countrymark Cooperative, then a three-state farm co-op based in Indianapolis.\nSwanson, 60, faces five to 10 years in prison on each of 19 felony convictions. At the time, prosecutors did not think he was a flight risk or a danger to himself, his victims or the community, and released him on his own recognizance.\nU.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued a warrant for Swanson's arrest after he missed his sentencing. If he is caught and charged with fleeing, he could face an additional five years in prison.\nSwanson is fluent in French, and owned two apartments in Verbier, Switzerland, at the time of his trial.