Suspects in Theft Case Found in Caribbean

A pair of lavishly living fugitives from Silicon Valley turned up on a Caribbean island, almost seven months after vanishing in a rented minivan with their two young children, their nanny and their dog.

Robert and Kimberly Morgan fled prosecution on charges involving the theft of about $10 million from 700 clients through their ISU Diligent Insurance Agency in San Jose, said Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. Stephen Lowney.

The Morgans were arrested Thursday by police in St. Lucia, and taken by U.S. marshals Saturday to Puerto Rico, where they were in custody Tuesday, pending an extradition hearing.

They were tripped up by their own family members, who gave police a tip six weeks ago. Lowney wouldn’t go into the details, but he said the tip prompted a search of the Internet and a check on birth and marriage certificates.

“The tip led us to Santa Clara County records, and from there we were able to determine that they had applied for those papers and were probably using them under assumed names,” Lowney said.

That led them to St. Lucia, where the Morgans arrived in January and were living under the names Randy Sho and Jeanne Kay Kaneyuki, St. Lucia police said.

The Morgans moved into Cap Estate, one of the island’s most exclusive residential areas, and seemed to be earning their living by providing computer services to local businesses.

Lowney and other authorities didn’t release details about the circumstances of the Morgans’ arrest.

The couple’s children, who were 6 and 4 in January, returned to San Jose on Sunday with their nanny, Jean Checketts. Family members had a hand in making arrangements for their return, Lowney said.

The Morgans were accused of embezzling money that customers had given them to invest, and of collecting premiums for insurance policies that were never written.

Prosecutors in San Jose hadn’t thought that the Morgans, both in their mid-30s, would flee. They hired attorneys, have children, have close relatives in California, had no passports and supposedly had no money left.

But Robert Morgan’s attorney, William Graysen, said the couple apparently panicked when authorities decided to prosecute Kimberly Morgan as well as her husband.