MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- U.S. Marshals have arrested a former Spokane attorney, suspected of stealing $1 Million dollars from investors and then fleeing to Mexico to live a lavish lifestyle.

Marshals tricked Claude Irwin Jr., who has been on the run for more than a decade, into leaving his tropical retreat and arrested him when his plane touched down in Los Angeles Wednesday night.

There are at least a half dozen Spokane families who will never forget Irwin and what he allegedly did with their nest eggs and retirement funds.

Court records show Irwin had collected money from investors promising to develop 400 acres of lakeside property near Harrison Idaho, but instead he vanished in 1998.

Investigators say the Powderhorn Ridge project never took shape for those families and Irwin assumed a new identity and moved to Southern Mexico, where he bought a ranch.

Detectives accuse Irwin of using investors’ money to live the high life in San Cristobal, a Mexican city about half the size of Spokane where Irwin ran a tour company.

Irwin was reportedly trying to raise more money for a new real estate deal there when a prospective investor found Irwin’s name on the internet and found the Spokesman Review article from 2000 detailing how he had fleeced so many Spokane area residents.

The paper put the suspicious tipster in touch with U.S. Marshals, who lured Irwin to Mexico City with a free plane ticket.

Deputy Chief Eric Mark with the U.S. Marshals Service says Mexican authorities decided to deport Irwin as an illegal alien and put him on a jet to Los Angeles.

“Unbeknownst to Irwin, one of our deputies was sitting in the seat next to him so when he landed in Los Angeles he was immediately arrested and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles,” Deputy Chief Mark said.

On Wednesday, a local judge asked that Irwin be held without bail until he can make his first court appearance in Spokane on one count of first degree theft.

Detectives say more charges could be coming.