Guilty plea from $200m fraudster

Frankel: siphoned $200m from firms in five states

A former financier who swindled insurance companies in five American states out of more than $200m before going on the run is pleading guilty to 24 federal charges including racketeering, securities fraud and conspiracy.

Martin Frankel, 47, could face a sentence of 150 years in jail and $6.5m in fines, though prosecutors have said they will back a lower penalty if he helps recover some of the stolen funds.

Frankel in detention in Hamburg in 2000

Frankel used the proceeds of one of the biggest frauds in American history to fund a life of luxury, including the purchase of big houses, expensive cars, vintage wines and presents for women.

Appearing pale and gaunt at his trial, and answering questions quietly and politely, Frankel's lawyer Jeremiah Donovan called him "a very contrite man".

Decade of crime

The court case marks the culmination of an investigation that began when incriminating documents were discovered after a fire in Frankel's home - including a handwritten list of tasks beginning with "launder money".

Frankel then escaped, sparking a four-month international manhunt until he was finally arrested by German police in September 1999 carrying nine passports and 547 diamonds. He was finally extradited back to the US in March 2001.

Frankel is "a very contrite man", says his lawyer

That finally brought the end to a career in crime more than a decade old.

Despite being banned for life from securities trading in 1992 - after complaints that $1m had disappeared from a fund he managed - Frankel was able to set up Liberty National Securities, an unlicensed brokerage.

'Ton of evidence'

Over the next few years, his company gained controlling stakes in insurance firms in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee and quietly milked their reserves of $208m.

Criminal streak

1989: Frankel begins insurance racketeering venture

1992: Banned from securities trading

Sets up unlicensed brokerage

May 1999: Fire in Frankel's home alerts authorities to his crimes

Frankel flees, sparking a manhunt.

Sept 1999: Arrested in Hamburg, Germany; subsequently jailed

March 2001: Extradited to US on 36 counts of corruption

May 2002: Charged on 24 counts; pleads guilty

He ran the operation from Connecticut, the state in which this federal trial is being conducted.

Mr Donovan admitted there was "a real ton of evidence" against Frankel.

"I sure hope he's a free man one day," he said.

Sentencing for the federal case is set for next year. Meanwhile, Frankel is expected to be taken Tennessee and Mississippi later this year to face the charges in those states.

So far, about $70m worth of cash, property and assets owned by Frankel has been recovered - $30m in a Swiss bank account that Frankel told authorities about.