"Broken, Broken, Broken"

High above downtown Rio de Janeiro, in the hilly Santa Teresa district, a chauffeured Oldsmobile last week pulled up to a modern apartment building. As a pudgy, genial-looking man stepped out, English-speaking Brazilian Detective Sadoc Reis called out: "Hi, Lowell." "Fine," replied Lowell McAfee Birrell, 52, wanted in Manhattan on charges that he stole stock worth $14 million from two U.S. companies (TIME. July 20).

"Please come along with me," said Detective Reis, showing his credentials. "You're wanted for questioning." Answered Birrell smoothly: "Certainly, sir. It's a pleasure to be in a democratic country with such nice people."

At Rio's new Central Jail, Birrell at first refused to answer questions. Having boned up thoroughly on Birrell's intricate financial machinations, Rio police were interested in his wheeler-dealing around Rio, where he tried to promote stock in a plastic company and import seven cars as personal baggage (including Cadillacs worth $14,000 each in Rio). As the police frisked Birrell, they found a fresh charge in his left coat pocket: a Canadian passport he had used for false entry into Brazil only a week before.

Birrell spent the night in a one-man cell after supping on beans, rice and manioc flour, a far cry from the gourmet's cuisine that is his normal fare. Next morning he admitted the false-entry charges, then folded. Said Robbery and Theft Division Chief Fernando Ribeiro: "He was a broken man, broken, broken, broken." Debonairly dressed, but with sweaty brow and tremulous lips, Birrell cried: "I don't care how much it costs; I'm going to beat the rap. I'm ready to go back to the U.S. and face trial. I've got nothing to worry about. It's just a complicated business problem. People just don't understand anything about high finance."

At week's end Assistant New York District Attorney James V. Hallisey flew to Rio to test whether Lowell Birrell would come back willingly to stand trial. If Birrell has a change of heart, the Brazilian government, despite the lack of an extradition treaty with the U.S., can probably find ample cause to put him on a New York-bound plane.

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