The prodigal son returns — in shackles.
A fugitive currency trader, convicted of running a massive fraud scheme, destroyed his elderly parents’ finances when he fled to Canada to avoid prison in New York, officials say.
But Thomas Qualls will be back in court today, four years after he went on the lam while out on bail secured by his folks’ Florida home — which turned out to be nearly worthless.
After Qualls vanished in 2008 while on trial for running a foreign currency exchange scheme on Long Island, the feds hit his parents with a $250,000 judgment.
When Eldon and Mary Lou Qualls couldn’t come up with the money, US marshals seized their house.
But what appeared to be a valuable residential property turned out to be sitting directly atop a massive sinkhole — and was worth only $29,000.
As the feds moved towards seizing the property, the property was sold by the government to satisfy a portion of the outstanding bond. A few months later, Eldon Qualls died.
“Clearly, [Thomas Qualls] has no concern with whether his elderly and infirm parents will be rendered homeless by virtue of his actions,” attorney James Froccaro wrote a Brooklyn federal judge in 2009.
“Eldon Qualls is 78 years old and suffers from, among other things, congestive heart failure and emphysema. Mary Lou Qualls is 75 years old and suffers from high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis,” the lawyer wrote.
The husband and wife were people of modest means, without the financial wherewithal to pay off the bond and save their home.
“Both parents are retired and living primarily off of Social Security income,” Froccaro wrote to the judge.
Arrested by police near Montreal in 2009, Thomas Qualls, meanwhile, fought extradition from Canada for years.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors finally prevailed in getting Thomas Qualls returned to the US, and now he will have to answer for his actions when he appears before Brooklyn federal Judge Dora Irizarry this afternoon.
Convicted in absentia for his scheme, Qualls faces sentencing on that — as well as mandatory time for bail-jumping, officials said.
He could get up to life in prison, experts said.