Police catch DHS man who escaped from Minnesota prison

The U.S. Marshals Service says it’s found the two men who walked away from the Duluth prison camp last week.

Authorities say Gerald Greenfield and Michael Krzyzaniak were arrested at a hotel in Burnsville about 1 a.m. Friday. The fugitives escaped from the prison camp in Duluth on March 30. Federal agents say a tip led authorities to the hotel.

Krzyzaniak – locally known by his alias of Michael Joseph Crosby – was discovered missing during a “regularly scheduled prison count,” at 10 p.m. March 30, according to media sources.

The low-security prison camp is located near Duluth, on a former Air Force base.

Crosby, 64, was the managing partner of Palmwood Golf Club LLC, which began seeking investors to build a 1,766-acre commercial development off Highway 62 and Indian Avenue just outside of Desert Hot Springs in 2006.

The project, which was set to include retail shops, a luxury hotel, high-end housing and a golf course designed by professional golfer Phil Mickelson, was expected to be a game-changer for the city.

It was to be built on county land that the city of Desert Hot Springs hoped to annex.

“The beauty of the land lends itself to the application we’re proposing,” Crosby said back in January of 2006, when talks of the development first surfaced. “The commercial area will become a second downtown area for Desert Hot Springs.”

But instead Crosby bilked investors – including local investors within the valley – out of at least $20 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle complete with private jets, a $130,000 Mercedes-Benz and a California beach house.

Crosby entered a guilty plea to investment scams in a Minneapolis federal court and was convicted and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison in 2011.

He was previously convicted of fraud in 1993 when he worked as a rare coins dealer.