Former Stripper, NASCAR Scam Artist Captured - Again

The Fanhouse receives some interesting tips now and then and on Easter morning something came in attempting to inspire a post about strip clubs. Nothing NASCAR-related and post-worthy immediately came to mind or seemed appropriate on such a holy day.

A few Peeps later, there's news of a former stripper with NASCAR connections being captured by U.S. Marshals. Now that's enough to inspire a post on a slow NASCAR news weekend.

Who needs feature film entertainment like "The Fugitive" and "U.S. Marshals" when you can just tune in to NASCAR headlines?

Iranian-born Fatemah Karimkhani was taken into custody Sunday after after eluding authorities for three years.

Name isn't familiar? NASCAR fans might remember her alias, Angela Harkness, the "femme fatale who hoodwinked stock-car racing, then skipped town, leaving behind a dead husband and an embezzling lover."

Angela's Motorsports had a Busch Series team that was started with the money Harkness and Gary Jones, a Wells Fargo branch vice president, embezzled in an elaborate loan scheme. They were perceived as the "Diversity Dream Team that would open doors for women and minorities in stock-car racing." Their plan went awry when Jones was fired from the bank and the team's checks started bouncing.

Several employees were victims of their scam, including driver Mike McLaughlin, crew chief Greg Zipadelli's former roommate with whom he won the 1988 Modified Series Championship. After he had the rug pulled out from under him on the 2003 season, McLaughlin never secured another full-time ride.

Harkness pleaded guilty to fraud but skipped the country on $5,000 bail. In 2005, she was arrested in the United Arab Emirates--it's taken almost a year to get her back here. U.S. Marshals were waiting for her when she deplaned in New York City.

Identity Crisis
This woman had claimed to be "an orphan, an heiress, the baby in a family of nine, a college grad with a psychology degree, a teacher, a swimsuit model, a cop, a champion motocrosser, a trophy girl and a linguist with mastery of four languages."

That sounds like a few MySpace users I know who face similar identity crises and rival Harkness with their creative storytelling. We should all hope these peeps never get their hands on any significant amount of money.

No post about a stripper would be complete without a peep show: