Police have tracked down a man in the United States who allegedly defrauded a Fort McMurray company of almost half a million dollars.

Christian Richardson, 28, faces three charges of fraud totalling $425,000 and three counts of attempted fraud totalling more than $1 million.

RCMP Const. Tiffany Miller said Richardson was arrested by U.S. police investigating a separate fraud complaint.

"Richardson was picked up actually in San Diego, Calif., in the U.S.A. on allegations of fraud in that jurisdiction and the U.S. officials did some background checks on him a realized there was a Canada-wide warrant issued out of Fort McMurray for his arrest."

RCMP in the northern Alberta city have applied to have him extradited back to Fort McMurray.