Subject of major Cuyahoga housing fraud investigation in custody, flown to Cleveland

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The subject of an exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation into widespread housing fraud in Cuyahoga County was flown from California to Cleveland Monday night to face indictment on fraud charges.

Marc Tow arrived at Cleveland Hopkins Airport in the custody of Cuyahoga County Sheriff deputies shortly after 9 p.m. after being extradited from California.

Tow was indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury in August on charges he helped defraud investors by promising to rehab foreclosed home in Cleveland that could be sold for profit.

Instead, an exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation revealed that investors alleged Tow took their money, but failed to make improvements, leaving more than 150 homes in Cleveland to sit abandoned.

For more than two years, Tow eluded Cuyahoga County Housing Court officials and his company, EZ Access Funding, piled up millions of dollars in unpaid fines for housing code violations.

Neither investors, nor law enforcement authorities, were able to find Tow until an exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation last January found him living in a suburb of Los Angeles.

Tow blamed a business associate with being responsible for the what he called "the fraud."

Following several court appearances in Orange County Superior Court, Tow failed to show up for a fugitive warrant hearing in December.

U.S. Border Patrol agents found him crossing the border south of San Diego on the day of his hearing and placed him under arrest.

Tow was escorted from his flight directly to the Cuyahoga County Jail where he remains until a hearing on the charges is scheduled.