• Headline Legal News updated  2010/09/16 08:55
An Indiana money manager who once led a high-flying lifestyle pleaded guilty to five securities fraud counts on Wednesday, nearly two years after he tried to fake his death in a Florida plane crash to escape the crush of financial and personal problems.
Marcus Schrenker, 39, admitted the charges in a plea agreement under which he agreed to a 10-year prison sentence and prosecutors dropped four other charges. He also agreed to pay more than $600,000 in restitution. Prosecutors say he bilked friends, family members and other investors of more than $1 million.
He will remain in jail until his Oct. 7 sentencing, when Hamilton Superior Court Judge Steven Nation is expected to rule whether Schrenker serves the sentence at the same time as a federal sentence or afterward.
Schrenker, shackled at his wrists and ankles and wearing an orange jail T-shirt emblazoned with "Inmate 453" on its back in large black letters, told Nation he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and has taken medication for it since 1992.