Book deal for Linda Case’s ‘The Fugitive’s Sister’
SEPTEMBER 08, 2015 12:00 AM • MARY ANN NORBOM [email protected]
Argus Publishing has acquired Linda Case’s memoir, “The Fugitive’s Sister.”
Former Santa Ynez Valley resident Linda Case’s sister, Becky Parrett, was convicted in 2008 of securities fraud, money laundering and other charges tied to the collapse of Ohio-based National Century Financial Enterprises. It was nothing more than a $2 billion Ponzi Scheme, the government had successfully argued.
Allowed to fly from Ohio to Arizona unaccompanied by federal marshals after the trial (ostensibly to close up a ranch she had there before beginning her sentence), Parrett fled the country. Months later, she contacted Case, claiming she had proof of her innocence. Linda took the information to an attorney she trusted. He, in turn, informed the FBI.
Confronted by the FBI about contact with her fugitive sister, Case made the mistake of lying. For that she was sent to jail.
“I was being held as bait,” said Case. “They obviously thought that Becky would learn I was behind bars and would return. They didn’t know Becky,” Case said in an April 2015 interview with the Santa Ynez Valley News. Case ultimately spent six months in the Delaware County (Ohio) jail.
Weeks after Case’s release, her sister was found in Mexico, extradited back to the U.S., and sent to prison for 25 years. The sisters haven’t spoken since then.
Case has been residing with one of her daughters in Georgia since her almost unimaginable legal nightmare. Another daughter lives in the Santa Ynez Valley, and Case’s goal in getting her story published, she said, was to give her the financial means to move back to the Valley herself.
“Looks like I will be able to return to the Valley in the near future and I’m ecstatic,” she said.
Case’s memoir, “The Fugitive’s Sister,” is set for December publication.