Jessica King turned Maher in to authorities in southwest Missouri this month, according to her lawyer Brandon Potter of Springfield, Missouri. She hired Potter to help her get a reward offered by the British firm Securicor, which owned the van held up in Felixstowe, England, Potter said.
Maher, 56, is being held on a charge of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. He awaits possible extradition to the United Kingdom in the 1993 robber case.
Maher, dubbed "Fast Eddie" in British media after his disappearance, told the FBI he had been using the name of his brother, Michael Maher, and went to the U.S. in 1998 because he was wanted for a crime in the UK.
King recently learned from her husband, Lee King, about Maher's background, Potter said. Maher later confronted her, saying "I know that you know" and threatened to kill her if she said anything, Potter said.
But she went to police in Ozark, Mo., leading to Maher's arrest.
"When you look at it from a legal standpoint, it was the right thing to do," Potter said on Monday. "He was on the run."
Jessica King is in the process of divorcing her husband, whom she married in October, Potter said.
Potter said there were possible conditions attached to the reward, such as that Maher be convicted and that the cash be returned. But he said there are common law precedents dating back to the 1800s that should help King claim rights to the reward.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Bohan)
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alone is expected to lend another half trillion euros or more of super-cheap money to banks on Wednesday, following Japan and Britain which have already injected fresh cash. The Federal Reserve has promised to keep interest rates low until 2014 and act further if needed.There is a sense of deja-vu in financial markets. Just like the last time a wave of money was pumped into the world financial systems in 2011, crude oil - fuelled also this time by Middle East tensions - has jumped 15 percent this year.As a result, riskier assets such as equities are already coming off new year highs. Rising emerging market currencies are forcing some central banks there to intervene.The scale of money creation since the onset of the global credit shock can be seen in the size of central banks' balance sheet expansion.JP Morgan says G4 central bank balance sheets have more than doubled since 2007 to 24 percent of combined gross domestic product and will reach 26 percent this year."We have Monetary Anarchy running riot, where the elastic band between the real economy and the current liquidity-fuelled markets is stretched further and further beyond credulity," Bob Janjuah, head of tactical asset allocation at Nomura, noted.He said bubbles were visible in all asset classes because central bank balance sheets are at the core."If/when the current cycle implodes, central banks which have seen explosive balance sheet growth will add to the problems, rather than being able to act as credible lenders of last resort," he said."Real assets are relatively attractive. But I am going to wait for this current central bank bubble to burst before going all in. The end of the bubble will be signposted by either monetary anarchy creating major real economy inflation or by a deflationary credit collapse."QE3?Kicking off its second bout of quantitative easing 
Despite declining home prices reported Tuesday, Toll Brothers [TOL Loading... () 
] CEO Douglas Yearly sounded optimistic on what’s ahead for the nation’s largest luxury home builder. “We feel about the best we have in five years,” he said on “Fast Money.” “We’re really seeing improvement everywhere.” Home prices fell in 18 of 20 cities for the fourth consecutive month in December, according to the latest Case-Schiller report. The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index slid 3.8 percent, ending 2011 at the lowest levels since mid-2006. Last week, Toll Brothers posted a first-quarter loss on a slight decline in home deliveries and a higher cancellation rate. But Yearly said that orders were up 43 percent in the first three weeks of February. “I think right now what’s going on is people are sick and tired of waiting. They’ve been waiting five years to get on with their lives. They’re taking advantage of interest rates that are down below 4 percent,” he said. “Affordability’s never been higher, and I just think they’re feeling better about the economy in general and they’re out in the market.” The average selling price for a Toll Brothers home is $682,000, a number that was weighted by its new development, The Touraine, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Without that development, its average selling price was $595,000. “We sure love New York. We love Hoboken. We love Brooklyn. It’s been our best performing market for the last few years,” he said. “We’re aggressively trying to find new opportunities in those markets. It’s a tight land market, as you can imagine.” Yearly also said the builder was seeing continued strength in the corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston. Among the “Fast Money” traders, however, it was tough to find a buyer. “The Case-Schiller numbers reflect a very weak pricing environment no matter what these guys are talking about from a supply-demand perspective,” said Keith McCullough of Hedgeye Risk Management. McCullough said relative strength was not enough, especially in light of weak mortgage activity. “To me, it’s like comparing it to tulips,” he said. “To the prior peak in tulips, it’s attractive.” Drakon Capital’s Guy Adami saw Toll Brothers stock in a “pretty defined range.” Instead, he likes Home Depot [HD Loading... () 
Photo: Patrick Lane PhotographyA package-free, zero-waste grocery store where customers bring their own, reusable containers to fill with local and organic goods? It sounds like a dream for environmentalists, but it’s a real-life business venture for brothers and co-founders Christian and Joseph Lane.Their store, in.gredients, based in Austin, Texas, comes by its commitment to local food and sustainable practices naturally – Austin is the birthplace of Whole Foods [WFM Loading... () 
Photo: Patrick Lane PhotographyChristian Lane, co-founder of in.gredientsAs far as the capital, it is all investor money and loans — we are guaranteeing loans. When we had this idea, we had it as far as the business plan. Then we decided to crowdsource the funding and put together the IndieGoGo campaign. The campaign recognized in.gredients as the number one Food Campaign of 2011. [Through that effort we] received $15,455 in funding. Our business, [Brothers Lane, LLC] contributes some funds and we are selling shares of the store as a private place offering. Do you need to know a significant amount of information about the grocery industry? There are some industry-specific things [about the grocery business], but a lot of it is method. Our approach is not to come from a grocery-intense background, but to break the mold, do things differently. We did however, retain services of a local consultant that has 30 years or so experience in the natural food and organic business to give us feedback, to see where we were on and off and to see where we were headed with things. What demographics are you attracting?This has an appeal to a good number of people. What we anticipate is the 25- to 34-year-old who has an interest in cooking, as well as people that are into the more organic and natural foods. Austin is the right place because it is a progressive city. 
Photo: Patrick Lane PhotographyThe concept is built around the idea that people will bring their own containers, or buy them in the store. What makes you sure this idea will succeed? We felt strongly about this business plan and so we shared it with our friends and family. But they are not going to tell you that you have a bad idea. We needed to get an outside sense of our plan; instead of using a focus group we did crowdfunding. So a big part of that validation came from IndieGoGo. We thought, ‘If this doesn’t work then what we had was a bad idea.’ [Since then] We have had about 300 people [contacting us through social media] volunteer to help. What's next? 
Such caution permeated last week’s report that the People’s Bank of China has recommended accelerated opening up of the Chinese financial system. Given what is at stake, in both China and the world, it is essential to consider the implications. Maybe the world will then do a better job of managing this process than it has done in the past.This plan was published by Xinhua, the state news agency, not on the PBoC’s web site. Moreover, it was published under the name of Sheng Songcheng, head of the statistics department, not that of the governor or a deputy governor. This must mean that it is more an exercise in kite-flying than a policy. Nevertheless, this was published with the PBoC’s approval and, quite possibly, with that of people much higher up still.The article lays out three stages for reform. The first, to occur over the next three years, would clear the path for more Chinese investment abroad as “the shrinkage of western banks and companies has vacated space for Chinese investments” and so presented a “strategic opportunity”. The second phase, in between three and five years, would accelerate foreign lending of the renminbi. In the longer term, over five to 10 years, foreigners could invest in Chinese stocks, bonds and property. Free convertibility of the renminbi would be the “last step”, to be taken at an unspecified time. It would also be combined with restrictions on “speculative” capital flows and short-term foreign borrowing. In sum, full integration would be indefinitely delayed.What are the implications of this plan? The answer is that it seems sensible. In reaching that view, one has to take into account the benefits and risks of financial “reform and opening” for China and the world.The arguments for such opening up to the world are closely connected to those for domestic reform. Indeed, the former cannot be undertaken prior to the latter: opening up today’s highly regulated financial system to the world is a recipe for disaster, as Chinese policymakers know. It is for this reason that full convertibility would come in the distant future, as this plan suggests.Happily, arguments for domestic reform are powerful. Dynamic financial markets are an essential element in any economy that wishes both to sustain growth and to begin rivaling rich countries in productivity, as China surely aspires to do. More immediately, as Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics notes in a recent study: “Negative real deposit rates impose a high implicit tax on households, which are large net depositors in the banking system, and lead to excessive investment in residential housing. Negative real lending rates subsidize investment in capital-intensive industries, thus undermining the goal of restructuring the economy in favor of light industries and services.”*Yet, as Mr Lardy also knows, this distorted financial regime is part of a wider system for taxing savings, promoting investment and repressing consumption, which has led to huge interventions in foreign currency markets and vast accumulations of foreign currency reserves. The deeper case for reform is that this system no longer contributes to a desirable pattern of development. But it has become so deeply entrenched in the economy that reform is politically fraught and economically disruptive. The question is even whether such reform is politically feasible. It is surely likely to be a slow process.How would the PBoC’s proposed moves towards opening up then fit with such a cautious reform? Presumably, the greater freedom for capital outflows envisaged for the next five years would partly substitute for accumulations of foreign currency reserves. Yet if this went with suggested moves towards higher real interest rates, China’s savings and current account surpluses might explode, worsening the external imbalances.This point underlines just how big a stake the rest of the world has in the nature of China’s reform and opening up of the financial sector.China’s gross savings are running at an annual rate of well over $3 trillion, which is more than 50 per cent larger than the gross savings of the U.S.. Full integration of these vast flows is sure to have huge global effects. China’s financial institutions, already enormous, are also almost certain to become the biggest in the world over the next decade. One need only think back to Japan’s integration in the 1980s and subsequent financial implosion to recognize the possible dangers. We should be pleased, therefore, that China is taking a cautious approach.The world has a huge interest in a shift of China’s economy towards more balanced growth. It has a parallel interest in the way China manages its domestic reform and opening up of the financial system. A whole range of policies need to be co-ordinated, particularly over financial regulation, monetary policy and exchange rate regimes. If this is done well, today’s high-income countries’ crisis will not be promptly followed by the “China crisis” of the 2020s or 2030s. If it is done badly, even the Chinese might lose control, with devastating results.The PBoC suggests a timetable of reforms that would fit with China’s and the world’s needs. But if this is to happen, thorough discussion of all the implications must now occur. China’s policies do not matter for the Chinese alone. That is what it means to be a superpower — as the U.S. should note.* Sustaining China’s Economic Growth After the Global Financial Crisis, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2012.