With FBI, ex-wife looking, fugitive seen in Havana

The name tag said "Thomas Torres." But the American in the beige Polo shirt with a corporate logo on it was none other than Thomas H. Boylan: Clearwater businessman, father of three, fugitive.

No one was more surprised to hear about Boylan's appearance at a Havana, Cuba, trade show Thursday than his ex-wife.

Angela Boylan, a Tarpon Springs massage therapist, won a substantial divorce settlement against her ex-husband nearly two years ago, but not before he allegedly depleted the children's trust accounts and lost their Countryside home. She has yet to receive any child support or alimony.

"He left," Mrs. Boylan said Thursday, "and we never heard from him since."

"Scampered off to Cuba," is how her former divorce attorney, Mary Ellen Borja, put it.

Mrs. Boylan isn't the only person looking for her ex-husband.

Shortly before the divorce was finalized in late 2000, the former Buick salesman was charged with bankruptcy fraud and two counts of perjury, all felonies. The indictment accused him of concealing from the bankruptcy court his interest in a company, Sun International Holding Co., which he allegedly was using to develop a multimillion-dollar seaport, airport and free trade zone in Mariel, Cuba.

But Boylan didn't hang around to face the charges. According to records from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, a warrant for his arrest was issued May 25, 2000. Over the next two months, notices about his forthcoming hearing were sent to addresses in Harrison, N.J., and Bellaire, but all came back "return to sender."

The final entry in the case docket is dated July 17, 2000. It says, "No other known address to attempt."

The assistant U.S. attorney who sought to prosecute Boylan has since taken a job in Washington, D.C. Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa, said Thursday the government is still pursuing Boylan.

"We would like to arrest him and bring him to face these charges," he said. "The FBI is working toward trying to accomplish that." Attempts on Thursday afternoon to reach an FBI agent who had left his card with Angela Boylan two years ago were unsuccessful.

Boylan was wearing a shirt with the logo of Southport Agencies Inc., a bulk cargo handler in Metairie, La., but denied Thursday working for the company. He declined to comment further.

In 1999, Boylan ran into trouble with the law for allegedly negotiating to develop the Mariel seaport project. He was arrested under the rarely enforced Trading with the Enemy Act.

Those charges were later dropped. And on Sept. 1, 1999, a federal judge in Tampa ordered that Boylan's U.S. passport be returned to him.

"I sure wish the government hadn't given him (it) back," Borja said Thursday.

-- Information from Times researcher Cathy Wos and Times files was used in this report.

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