Timothy T. Duax U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa
A Minnesota resident, Jay Anthony Tapper, has been sentenced to nine months in federal prison for harboring a fugitive. Tapper, 57, from Rosemount, Minnesota, pleaded guilty on May 13, 2025, to one count of harboring a fugitive.
Court proceedings revealed that in August and September of 2022, Tapper was aware of an outstanding federal warrant for Mary Kate Nguyen’s arrest. Despite this knowledge, he assisted Nguyen by booking hotels under his name and purchasing a camper for her use. He also acted as a lookout during a meeting between Nguyen and a potential fraud victim. These actions were intended to prevent Nguyen’s discovery and arrest while she faced pending felony charges.
During the period when Nguyen was evading authorities in 2022, both Tapper and Nguyen submitted the winning $1.3 million bid to buy the former U.S. Courthouse in Bemidji, Minnesota. While Nguyen was incarcerated later on, Tapper maintained telephone contact with her and assisted with financial transactions.
Nguyen was eventually apprehended by U.S. Marshals and received a ten-year sentence in January 2025 for fraud and contempt charges. Tapper admitted to making false statements to a grand jury investigating Nguyen’s financial crimes in 2022 and withholding documents from that investigation.
United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand handed down the sentence in Sioux City: nine months’ imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release. Federal inmates are not eligible for parole.
Tapper remains free on bond until he is required to report to the Bureau of Prisons at a date yet to be determined. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek following an investigation led by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation-Special Enforcement Operations Bureau with assistance from several law enforcement agencies including the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation; Woodbury Police Department; U.S. Marshal’s Service; Sioux County Sheriff’s Office; Iowa State Patrol; Minnesota Department of Public Safety Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement; and Iowa Division of Intelligence.
