Man who escaped federal prison in CO and evaded capture for 5 years now sentenced to 10

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - A 60-year-old man who escaped a federal prison camp in Colorado and evaded capture for five years has now been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado announced Thursday.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), 60-year-old Allen May was sentenced to 10 years after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, one count of escape, and one count of aggravated identity theft. He will serve his sentence consecutively to approximately seven years he must serve on a sentence imposed in the Northern District of Texas, which he was serving when he escaped.

The DOJ said May must also serve three years on supervised release after completion of his prison sentence, and pay $9,113,375.49 in restitution, and forfeit the fraud proceeds and assets he obtained during his scheme.

According to the DOJ, between mid-2016 and December 2018, while serving a 20-year sentence at the federal prison camp in Englewood, Colorado, May devised a scheme to falsely and fraudulently claim that he and entities controlled by him were entitled to oil and gas royalties that had not yet been claimed by the true owners.  He was able to participate in this scheme through an unlawfully obtained iPhone he purchased from a fellow inmate at the federal prison camp. Throughout the course of this scheme, May obtained more than $700,000 in royalties to which he was not entitled, the DOJ said.

In regards to how May escaped, the DOJ said he worked as a facilities clerk where he drove vehicles on prison grounds. On December 21, 2018, he drove off the federal prison camp compound and eluded capture by federal law enforcement for nearly five years.

While on the run, May also engaged in the same fraudulent oil and gas royalties scheme and netted $8 million in funds to which he was not entitled and used these funds to support his extravagant lifestyle, the DOJ said. He stole the identities of inmates serving long sentences, presented himself as those individuals, and conducted his fraud in their names.

The United States Marshals Service arrested May in August of 2023 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he had been living under an alias.