Australia's most wanted , former business high-flyer Kovelan Bangaru, is expected to be transported under high security from the US to a Sydney jail cell within days.
The US Marshals, the American government's primary fugitive hunting organisation, confirmed today it was holding Bangaru in the US ahead of extradition to Australia.
The 40-year-old father of two is accused of fleecing $A27 million from 70 investors, including "mum and dad investors", when his Sydney-based Streetwise property development company collapsed in 2005 and he fled to California.
"I can confirm he is still in our custody," a US Marshals spokesman told AAP today.
The US Marshals declined to give details of plans to transport Bangaru.
Bangaru was well-known in Australia before his demise, developing multi-million dollar Sydney harbourside penthouses, properties in Queensland, Victoria, Sydney and on the NSW south coast and featuring in news articles in publications such as The Australian Financial Review.
Australian authorities, in documents filed in the US courts, allege Bangaru would tell potential investors that sports stars, such as Australian cricketers Brett Lee and Michael Slater, were investors in his company.
"I have made many successful partnerships with Mr Slater and Mr Lee and I have made many people lots of money," Bangaru is accused of telling one victim who invested $A500,000 with Streetwise.
Bangaru was arrested by US authorities in an exclusive residential area in southern California's Orange County in April after upset Australian investors helped track him down.
He has been held in a jail in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, since the arrest and it was originally believed he would fight extradition.
However, on December 5 in the US District Court he entered into a "charge bargain agreement" with Australian prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to 11 of the 16 serious fraud charges.



"Kovelan Bangaru and the Australian prosecutors have entered into a 'charge bargain' agreement to resolve the pending criminal charges against the fugitive," Bangaru's US lawyer, Charles Pereyra-Suarez, wrote in a document submitted to US District Court judge Oswald Parada on December