Mugshots: Martin Frankel | Forensic Files

Tonight on Mugshots, Martin Frankle. Is he the most successful con man in history? His goal, I think quite
obviously, was to become so big and so powerful and control so much money that nobody could stop him.
Frankle lived like a playboy with mansions, luxury cars, and rumors of kinky sex.
This is one of the largest financial fraud cases in the history of the world. I don't want to see anybody die, but
that's what he deserves. What I did is I made many mistakes. And Martin Frankle in his own words, a Court
TV exclusive. I'm not a money launderer. I'm not a rakateeer. And I'm not a thief. No
matter what they say. That's the truth. [Music] Daniel. [Music] [Music] Greenwich, Connecticut is one of the
richest addresses in America. Home to Fortune 500 CEOs and secluded estates. For many in this town of 60,000, crime
is something that happens somewhere else. Joe Johnson is the police reporter for the local newspaper, Greenwich Time.
There is a tremendous amount of affluence here. a lot of new money, a lot of old money, but um and that's what
Grant is known for. On May 6th, 1999, Johnson made a small discovery in the morning paper.
There on um what I think it was page uh four of that day's paper, at the bottom of the page was like a 1-in article,
cops are investigating the suspicious fire. When they got there, no one was home, but they found a file cabinet on
fire. What drew Johnson to the story was the address, 889 Lake Avenue. It just leaped off the page at me. I
said, "I know that place." A couple years earlier, um, a young woman had committed suicide up there. It was a
troubled young woman. Two years earlier, Johnson had reported on the death of 22-year-old Francis
Burge, whose body was found hanging from the rear deck of a mansion owned by Martin Frankle in a private Lake Avenue
culdesac. The first time I heard the name Marty Frankle was when I was talking to the
two detectives who investigated Francis Burg's suicide. I was just amazed at the
things that they told me about that they found out was going on up at that mansion. They did an interview in his
living room, but it wasn't just your normal living room. He was sitting there in front of a horseshoe shaped ensemble
of computer screens and stock quote machines and televisions turned on to financial news networks. you know, like
he's uh Captain Kirk on the bridge of Starship Enterprise. The detectives told Johnson that they
also discovered a darker side to their eccentric host. They found evidence of SNM sex being
practiced inside like videos, you know, hardcore SNM videos, you know, the the props, you know, like the riding props
and handcuffs laying around, whatnot, and they're wondering what the hell is going on up here. And it just intrigued
me that I began investigating um you know on my own who this Marty Frankle was. Johnson quickly learned that Frankle had
moved to Greenwich from Toledo, Ohio. And in 1992 he had been banned from trading by the Securities and Exchange
Commission which cited improprieties. Johnson also interviewed Frankle's Greenwich neighbors.
Who would want to have someone like that as a neighbor? mysterious people going in and out at all hours, limousines up
and down Lake Avenue. The neighbors would see, you know, limousines going in and out of his
estate with young women, this high level of security around him. They're wondering what the hell is going on up
here, you know, is this guy running a porn ring? Was he a major narcotics dealer? They didn't know what the hell
was going on because Frankle was not what you would call the best of neighbors. Donna Knives owns a Greenwich horse
stable. She once met Frankle on a bridal path that cut through his backyard. They were putting up what looked like a
12-oot chainlink fence and it was just about to go over the bridal path where I wanted to pass. So he looked at me and
he said, "Oh." He said, "I didn't realize it was a bridal path." And he said, "I have no intention of closing
this bridal path." But he always gave me false promises. And meanwhile then, of course, he did put up these huge 12t,
10ft, whatever they were. I just had a gut feeling that this guy was going to be a newsmaker in the future.
[Music] Now, Johnson's earlier hunch seemed to be paying off as he learned details
about the suspicious blaze from police and firefighters at the scene as they're bringing burning documents
out of the house to put them out. You know, they're looking at some of these documents and one of the things that
they saw was a charred to-do list and it just blew their mind. At the top of the
list was launder money. I mean, if you can believe that. launder money. One of the detectives explained to me almost
every other document they were finding, they were going, "Holy, look at this." So, I decided to go up there myself. Lo
and behold, I get up near Frank's place. I couldn't even get into the culdeac because there was a saw horse there with
a couple uniformed uh cops manning it. The only other way to the mansion was the horse bridal path and Johnson
returned to Donna Knives for help. She asked me if I knew how to ride the horse and I lied and I said yes, I know
how to ride but I really didn't. But luckily, you know, she gave me a pretty tame horse. We just, you know, breezed
right by the police at the roadblock, you know, good morning officers. Uh they didn't challenge us. You know, obviously
looks like we belong there. The next thing you know, you know, a couple FBI agents are running out of the house, you
know, saying, "What the hell are you doing here? and you know they chase us off the property. Nevertheless, you know
that gave me my story. The feds are at this place where this disbared securities dealer had lived. It's more
than just a suspicious fire investigation. It's a federal investigation. Johnson began a series of articles about
the mysterious case. Within days, he received a call from an investigator with the Mississippi Department of
Insurance. I said, "Why are you so interested in a fire up here in Granch, Connecticut?"
This is we're investigating some problems that some insurance companies are having down here and it could be
related to that. The problem was that three insurance companies in Mississippi had invested
their assets with Liberty National Securities, an investment firm run out of Martin Frankle's living room. Those
assets were now missing and the loss was huge. If you looked at the reserves of the
three companies that we were directly responsible for, you you're talking about in the vicinity of $180 million.
The funds were being invested through one investment firm that was basically a sham.
And Mississippi wasn't alone. Insurance companies in Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Arkansas all reported
money missing. Only hours before the fire was started in his mansion, Martin Frankle, along
with two women, had boarded his private jet and fled the country. Frankle was gone.
While Johnson's stories hit newswires worldwide, Frankle arrived in Italy and rented a secluded villa in Rome, the
first stop on his run from justice that would lead police through the wealthy playgrounds of Europe.
I definitely concluded early on that Marty was going places. I believe that at the end of the rainbow there would be
a pot of gold there. The mysterious man from Greenwich and his early attempts to strike it rich
when Mugsh shot returns. Toledo, Ohio is an industrial town of 325,000 people, Midwestern and middle class.
Martin Frankle's father was a county magistrate and his mother a secretary. Martin was the middle child of three.
And it was clear early on that he was different. I was teaching at Whitmer High School uh
back in the uh late 60s, early 70s. Marty was uh one of my students. He was an extremely good writer. He wrote at
probably, I would say, a post-graduate level as a sophomore in high school. I mean, he was a lot smarter than I was.
After graduating from high school in 1971, he attended the University of Toledo but dropped out after his second
year. Without school or a job, he complained bitterly about life at home with his parents. Clearly to Marty, it
wasn't a happy family. They would suggest that he uh get some menial job. And Marty always considered himself
intellectually uh powerful. He thought himself a genius or near genius. At college, Martin
Frankle had developed an interest in finance. And in 1985, he walked through the door of a small Toledo brokerage
firm owned by John Schulty and his wife Sonia. He came in under the guise of being a
client in our firm. It wasn't shortly thereafter that he first entered our brokerage that my spouse and he walked
into my office and Sonia had the revelation that she wanted him to become a producing broker.
Sonia Schultey was impressed with Frankle's knowledge of the markets and John Schulty agreed to hire him, but it
was clear from the start that the Schulties disagreed about their newest employee. Sonia, of course, thought the
sun rose and set on Martin Frankle. I think Sonia felt sorry for the guy because he was totally inept. He failed
the general securities sales examination twice in 1985. He'd always come in as though he were a ragam muffin off the
street. And so we stuck him in the furthest removed private office in our uh facility at that time. And that's
where he immediately began to concoct his ideas on the market. Frankle's ideas involved studying the
news to predict markets, a system he calledformational analysis. But in order for the system to work, he needed
hardware. Mr. Frankle had five monitors sitting on his desk where everybody else in our
office had simply one. That's all we needed to perform. But of course, he was Martin Frankle. He needed five because
he was going to be God's gift to the brokerage industry and make Sonia and I uh uh wealthy individuals by virtue of
his acumen in the markets. His knowledge of the markets impressed me very very much.
Ted Bidder is a tool and die maker who was eager to invest his retirement savings with Frankle's new system. There
was only one problem. He would frequently cite s uh potential trades, but he wouldn't pull the
trigger. He would predict it and then he would sit on his hands and watch it go by. And this led to a great deal of
frustration for both both of us. and we struggled with how to circumvent this performance anxiety.
Frankle didn't know how to trade, couldn't trade. Frankle's trader block threatened his
job. But it was only when John Schulty learned that Frankle had acquired all of his equipment by posing as an officer of
Dominic and Dominic, the firm's parent brokerage, that he was fired. He immediately let out in some major
scene the most uh vulgar language that I'd heard. And of course, remember we're in a public setting, clients in the
office. He paraded out of my office and told everyone that he was going to get me.
In time, Martin Frankle would stay true to his word. About a year and a half. Early on, Marty and I just kind of
seemed to hit it off. We talked about a lot of things and he was very intelligent and we he would he expressed
a lot of views about things that I found interesting. After being fired, Frankle
set up shop in his parents' home with his stock quote machines and his one client and only friend. I had sympathy
for the guy in a way. He he didn't have any connections. He didn't have any friends. He didn't have a social life.
I would typically go pick him up on Saturday afternoon around 1:00 and we would uh just go get a bite to eat and
sit around and talk business. When it came to food, he tended to be very very picky. Everything just had to
be just so. When it came to business ethics, he tended to be a little squishy. He tended to have a situation
ethics approach. Right and wrong depend on the circumstances. I really did begin to have doubts, but
the problem was that I was personally acquainted with the guy and getting away from him was like a formidable
challenge. [Music] In 1987, Frankle received a telephone call from Douglas Maxwell, a businessman
with big money connections in Palm Beach, Florida. The two men created the Frankle Fund, an exclusive investment
vehicle. In order to sell the fund to Maxwell's rich friends, Frankle put his creative writing skills to work. And
with the help of these inflated claims, the fund quickly collected a million dollars. But his trader block may have
made it impossible for him to play the markets. And Maxwell's trades delivered big losses. When their largest investor
demanded that his $500,000 be returned, authorities say that Maxwell and Frankle
paid him off with other investors money. He was in a despondent state, depressed,
disoriented. I said, "Well, is is my my money's okay?" He says, "Oh, yeah. Your money is fine. Don't worry. Nothing to
worry about." He says, "Well, good, good." But in reality, Ted Bidder's retirement
savings were gone. A month later, Frankle admitted the truth over the phone to his former friend.
He was surprisingly cool when he told me. Of course, when I realized what happened, I made up for that because I,
you know, I wasn't taking it well at all. Realizing that your life savings had been ripped away from you, that's
difficult enough. And what really stunned me more than that was just the fact that Marty could have done that to
me. I specifically remember one incident. He was continuing with the woe is me stuff. What am I going to do?
What's going to become of me? What oh this is terrible? And I I just turned I just turned around. I looked him right
square in the face and I said, "Marty, I'm not the least bit concerned about you. There's a whole world of suckers
out there and you'll find plenty more to put the screws to just like you did me.
And then I walked away. Bidder sued Frankle and the Securities and Exchange Commission permanently
revoked his Trader License. But Martin Frankle may not have been scared straight. And the Frankle fund was just
the beginning. [Music] In 1988, Martin Frankle had been out of John Schulty's office for two years, but
he was not out of his former boss's life. Phone rang, I answered it, and it was Martin Frankle on the other end of the
phone. And quite frankly, my response was, "What the hell are you doing calling here?" And he said he was
calling to speak with Sonia. She said, "Oh, he checks on me often. We're friends." Perhaps fueled by the
Schulty's stormy marriage, Sonia Schulty and Martin Frankle had developed much more than a friendship.
I remember the occasion when he told me that he was in love with Sonia. You know, I look at Marty and I can't
imagine anyone being attracted to him. And I said, "Does she feel the same about you?"
That's the first question. And he said, "Yeah, just like that. Just like Yeah. April 14th, 1989. changed my life. She
walked out never to return. She had left seven times previously, gone to her parents, come back the next day. And
honestly, I didn't think that was the demise of our marriage, but she never came back in the door. Remember, Martin
Frankle's goal was to ruin me. First, he took my wife and the two children. Second, they set up a competing house on
the other side of town in an effort to ruin my business. In March of 1990, Martin Frank and Sonia Schulty sent
letters out to 2,000 of my clients saying they should do business with him. And then then the atomic bomb fell.
[Music] In the spring of 1990, John Schulty was accused by his former wife of molesting
their two young daughters, and the effect was immediate. In March of 1990, we were making $70,000
a month in my office. In April of 1990, we took in seven 7,000. definite lifestyle change. Guess where
all the accounts went? Bang. To the other side of town. Although Schulty was later found
innocent of the charges in court, the damage was done. The allegation was greater than the
truth. It was life in prison, no parole, uh took 3 years to be vindicated, lots of money, and uh it was all concocted by
Martin Frankle. John Schulty's problems did not end there. In 1993, he was accused of using
his client's money to pay legal bills and served seven months in a federal prison for mail and income tax fraud.
Martin Franklin and Sonish Schulty were behind that as well. No investor ever lost a dime investing with John Schulty.
Quite different than Martin Frankle. But we had no money to defend. Needless to say, I lost my securities license being
a felon. Needless to say, I was now ruined. And needless to say, I had to come back and pick up the pieces.
While John Schulty tried to put his life back together, Martin Frankle, flushed with money from his growing business
with Sonia Schulty, entered the South like a riverboat gambler. When Mugsh shot continues,
he wouldn't be somebody that I'd want to invite into my own, and I certainly wouldn't want to be a business partner.
A little bit too slick for us. That one cool little person got hurt at all by anything I ever did. Nobody cares
about that. And later in the program, Martin Frankle speaks out in a Court TV exclusive.
With John Schulty out of the way in Toledo, Martin Frankle and Sonia Schulty began attracting local investors with
claims of incredible returns. The fund they created was soon worth $13 million, and Frankle began looking for a new
opportunity. In the summer of 1991, Frankle was contacted by John Hackne, a businessman
on the hunt for investors to buy southern banks and insurance companies. As he and Frankle discussed the
prospect, they discovered a way to make a fortune. Frankle realized that by controlling
these insurance companies, uh, he would have instant access to extremely large amounts of cash. the money that they had
on hand for investment so they could pay policy holders whenever there was a claim that would come in. So, you know,
for a small investment of, you know, less than $4 million, he he can get his hands on 20, 30, $40 million.
To play this high stakes game, Hackne and Frankle began scouring the South for companies to buy. Their first purchase
was Tennessee-based Franklin American Life Insurance in October of 1991. Overnight, Frankle was a
multi-millionaire. And six months later, he abandoned Toledo for Greenwich, Connecticut. For
the next few years, Frankle and Hackne continued buying insurance companies under the name Thunor Trust.
Mr. Hackne presented himself as the sole trustee of the Thorn Trust, whatever that was. I asked him what it was and he
said that it was a group of Jewish people in in uh in the eastern part of the country and they all pull their
money. In 1961, Jack Robinson had opened Protective Services Life Insurance Company outside
of Jackson, Mississippi, and began selling small insurance policies. Margie Mangum bought two policies for her
grandchildren. We're not rich people. So, it meant the money meant something to us because I wanted something for the
kids to have when they got of age where they would have had school money to go to college if they wanted to.
A lot of these policy holders were older people that had these policies in effect
for quite some time. They were smaller policies that in many cases would be used for barrel expenses and that type
thing. Southerners, country folks, they want to be sure that they're buried properly. They don't want to be a burden
on their children. By 1995, the burial insurance business was booming for protective services life
with 35,000 policy holders and a healthy profit margin. But Jack Robinson was ready to move on.
I was already 70 years old. I wanted to get back in the funeral business, which was sort of a family business. you know,
I' been in it all my life and that's when I decided to come out here and build Rosemont Garden.
To fund his new enterprise, Robinson decided to sell his insurance company and found Thunor Trust willing to pay
top dollar. I sold it for $6 million. That's what I asked for it. I asked $6 million and
they paid me $6 million. The relationship was that if they bought the company that I would stay on as on the
board of directors. Robinson was told that the company's assets would now be managed by a
northern investment firm run by an anonymous financial guru. In fact, they say he stayed up all night
long. He stayed in his bathrobe and he lived in a big mansion and he was surrounded by computers and he was just
such a dynamic person that he was able to consistently produce 18% return on the investment and that was sort of
unheard of in the insurance business. You know, I mean, if we got 7 or 8%, we thought we had done real good. In
reality, prosecutors say assets transferred to Liberty National were secretly deposited into private bank
accounts in Switzerland, controlled by Martin Frankle. Jack Robinson's company was being bled dry. They actually backed
a pickup truck up to the door and loaded all the historical records and hauled them off to the dump. I called Hackne
two or three times said, "Hey man, you get what you're throwing the records away?" He said, "We don't need them. we
have everything on computer day and I was on there for two meetings and then he asked me to turn my letter
of resignation in to the company. I kept waiting for my notice to come in to make mail my payment and I got
nothing. Martin Frankle began his Greenwich fantasy with mansions, cars, and a private jet. But he soon found out that
money could buy him anything. Now that he acquired money, even though it was illegitimately, it's money still
equates with power. And um I think he used that power to try to buy the love that he never had. But he also had a
dark side to him. He had this fascination with kinky sex. Um he would advertise in in personal ads, in
newspapers, on the internet. He'd portray himself as a wealthy Connecticut investor looking for uh submissive
women. Frankle's personal ads drew dozens of willing women to his Lake Avenue home.
Brian Previtt was one of Martin Frankle's personal chefs. You kind of put two and two together. I
mean, a girl would come in and uh they would receive a car or something like that and we receive favors that way,
money and cars and stuff. I was amazed by all the minority of women that were there. Russian girls, oriental girls,
American girls, Spanish girls. It's always a pretty broad crop of women that were there.
[Music] Some of the women who answered Frankle's ads stayed to help him run his enterprise, including suicide victim
Francis Burge. In Frankle's police statement following Burgess suicide, he admitted that his
workers were mostly ex-girlfriends and that he dated many women who were all special to him. He also stated that
while he had sex with some of them, he never had sex with Francis Burge. While Frankle frolked in Greenwich, his first
love, Sonia Schulty, moved with her two children to North Carolina, but prosecutors say their business
relationship continued. Frankle even bought a second plane to ferry Sonia to and from Greenwich. Frankle's obsession
with security transformed his mansion into a compound of perimeter fencing, cameras, and bodyguards.
His selective eating habits also reached a new level. This is what Martin Franco made me use
every day for cooking, drinking, ice cubes, everything. Everything. Cases. Large, large bottles of it. 10, 12 cases
a week. While secluded in his mansion, Frankle also got serious about a passing interest in astrology.
Marty was not a very decisive type of person. Uh he was, you know, very Hamletike, you know, in deciding what to
do. And that's why he never made a move without consulting his horoscope, his astrology charts.
In the aftermath of the fire at the mansion, investigators found several of Frankle's astrology charts. One asked
the question, "Will I go to prison? [Music] When Mugsh shots returns, Martin Frankle's Vatican connection and the
Southern Showdown that ended it all. Basically said, "Show us the money. If you show us the money, uh, we'll be
satisfied." And they never could show us the money. According to prosecutors, by 1998,
Martin Frankle was in control of six southern insurance companies and millions of dollars in assets. In order
to keep the money flowing, prosecutors say he created a scheme to harness the power of the Vatican in Rome.
He just thought by having some kind of affiliation with them would just give him so much more credibility. uh when he
went around shopping for um for insurance companies, he had sort of an antagonistic view of
Christianity. And that antagonism uh it goes it went back to the the conflict and the stress that the Jewish
people have suffered through the years. When I learned about this fascination with Catholicism, I thought to myself,
this is a total setup. He is setting them up for sting. [Music] That sting allegedly began when Frankle
created the St. Francis of Aisi Foundation to aid the poor and alleviate suffering. In order for his foundation
to receive the blessing of the Vatican, Frankle enlisted an impressive group of people to lobby on its behalf, including
former US attorney and Ronald Reagan confidant Thomas Bolan, influential New York City priest, Father Peter Jacobs,
and retired Vatican official Monscinior Alio Kajiovani. The foundation's mission statement also
listed former Chrysler head Leia Akoka and Walter Konite as board members, although both have denied any connection
to the organization. The Vatican ultimately refused to be a part of Frankle's foundation. But according to
prosecutors, he instead forged a relationship with a Vatican affiliated organization run by Kajioani. With his
new scheme in place, Frankle was soon headed south again. In late 1998, under the cover of the St.
Francis of Aisi Foundation, Martin Frankle began courting at least 10 insurance companies around the country.
But it was the earlier purchase of three companies in Mississippi, including Jack
Robinson's, that would come back to haunt him. I relied on my professional staff. They
said, "There's something about this that smells." Didn't know exactly what it was.
George Dale has been Mississippi's insurance commissioner for 26 years. In the course of a regular review of
insurance companies in the state, something didn't add up. You don't have usually three insurance
companies investing all their investments through one uh investment firm. Usually, insurance companies
select a number of of investment firms. Uh that that was one of the main red flags that went up first. Dale's
investigators quickly discovered that the Wall Street address on Liberty National documents was nothing more than
a private mailbox and that Thunor Trust, the owner of the insurance companies, had recently been taken over by the St.
Francis Foundation without reporting the change to Commissioner Dale. It just got to the point where I said,
"Wait a minute. Time out. Let's bring all the players into our office here and let's ask these questions with all
players present. [Music] On April 28th, 1999, Martin Frankle flew to Jackson, Mississippi, and checked
into the presidential suite at the Hilton under the name of his bodyguard, David Ross. His entourage, including
Jacobs, Galagioani, Bolan, and John Hackne, occupied adjoining suites. There they prepared to meet the
insurance commissioner. The next day at the insurance commission offices across town, Frankle's team
filed into the conference room without their leader. Hours earlier, Frankle had boarded his private jet and flown back
to Greenwich. So, we had to decide now we've got all these people here. Do we go forward with
the meeting, ask the questions when one of the main players is evidently not here? So we decided to go forward with
it and questions were asked such as to the folks allegedly from the Vatican, do you mean to tell me you uh invest this
much money without checks and balances? And their answer would always be we want
to help people. We want to do good things. And then we would go back to asking the same question and it'd be the
same answer. At that point, I visited with my professional staff privately and we just made a decision that there just
too many questions that can't answer. Dale immediately ordered the three insurance companies put under
administrative supervision, effectively taking control of their checkbooks and assets.
That's when this this circle of investments that had been going on uh when we pull the plug and stop the
circle, then that's when the cards begin to fall. On May 4th, 5 days after the showdown with Commissioner Dale, Martin
Frankle vanished from Greenwich with his empire in flames. All of a sudden, I seen everybody
scampering around and he got in his truck and a couple girls joined him inside the truck and took off down the
driveway and that was it. That's I seen him. Didn't know where they were going. Didn't know why. That was it.
The people of Mississippi are finally asking the hard questions that should have been asked long ago. And Frank
realizes his game's about over. So he just thought he'd go on a lamb in Europe. The international manhunt for Martin
Frankle when Mugsh shot continues. [Music] Martin Frankle fled Greenwich for Europe
with two women and a suitcase filled with diamonds. For weeks, Frankle lived in Rome as a fugitive sought by the FBI,
Interpol, and Italian police. But as authorities closed in, he again vanished. Meanwhile, his run from
justice grabbed headlines around the world. In the summer of 99, Martin Frankle was
major news. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing his face on a newspaper or on a on a television newscast. So, it
was just a matter of time that he'd be caught. On July 2nd, Frankle resurfaced in
Hamburg, Germany, checking into a private suite in the luxurious Prem Hotel along the banks of Olter Lake.
He reportedly spent time in the city's active red light district filled with echoes of his kinky sex life in
Greenwich. But Frankle spent most of his time sequestered in his room, watching videotapes and writing in the margins of
an astrological daily planner about his increasingly desperate situation of a failed plan to fly to Libya. He
noted, "Word is if I go on plane, I'm toast." And after hearing reports of disgruntled former colleagues, he wrote,
"FBI says two groups trying to kill me." Late at night on September 4th, 1999, Martin Frankle was watching a video in
his suite when two German police officers broke through the door with their weapons drawn.
Frankle's run from the law was over cuz he had like nine fake passports with him. He had um like $8 million worth of
diamonds on him that he didn't declare. So they put him in prison. Appearing confused and disheveled,
Martin Frankle was led before a German court and sentenced to 3 years in prison.
But his biggest problem was back home. While in German custody, a grand jury in Connecticut handed down a 36-count
federal indictment. If convicted on all charges, Frankle faced 416 years behind bars.
Well, the main issue is the issue of human rights. In America, you can send someone to
prison for the rest of their life and you can have capital punishment and kill someone. But in Germany, you can't do
that. It's against the German constitution to put someone in jail for the rest of their life. And it's against
the German constitution to kill someone. So that's the important. So obviously, I'd rather stay in Germany.
[Music] Frankle was locked up in this prison in Hamburgg where he continued to fight
against returning to the US to face what he believed could be a death sentence. Germans respect human dignity and human
rights more than almost any people in the world now. And no, no one who faced execution would be sent back.
Next on Mugsh shot, the man being called the world's most successful con artist comes home.
If we're going to prosecute people that hold up convenience stores for $129, we ought to prosecute folks that held up
insurance companies for $180 million, even if they didn't use a gun. Crime is crime.
[Music] On March 2nd, 2001, a commercial flight from Germany landed at New York's JFK
airport, carrying Martin Frankle in handcuffs. Frankle had served 18 months in German prison. The day before his
extradition, prison authorities claimed that he had attempted to saw through the
bars of his cell and escape. With Frankle now in federal custody, US Attorney Mark Calfano broke the news.
Mr. Frankle will be tried at this point in time on the fraud counts, the securities fraud count, the RICO counts,
and the RICO forfeite count. Fraud, racketeering, conspiracy, all part of government claims that Frankle
stole $200 million in what may be the largest scam in history. Since his extradition, he has not spoken publicly
about his case, but Court TV has obtained exclusive audio tapes of telephone calls made by Martin Frankle
from prison. You have more freedom in death row than you do here. I have been accused quote
unquote of a of being some super mastermind of some huge financial like crime worse than murder in their eyes.
I'm serious. If I had killed someone, I wouldn't even be here. In the tapes, Frankle also suggests a
conspiracy may be at the core of his case. No, I can call as a witness. I shouldn't
even say it over this phone. Go ahead. Say it. The highest people in the American
government like this will probably get me, you know, killed or something. Believe me, they can come in my cell
anytime they want. Give me a drug. Make me die of a heart attack tomorrow. [Music]
On March 4th, Martin Frankle was brought before a judge in US District Court in New Haven, Connecticut to hear the
charges. Joe Johnson attended his arraignment. Two weeks later, Marty had almost a deer in the
headlights kind of look. It was all too real to him now. He was back in the United States. He was in a federal
courtroom facing these racketeering charges and he's like almost overwhelmed with everything that was going on around
him. He looked he looked kind of scared. Meanwhile, Martin Frankle's empire is being pulled apart. At this warehouse in
New Jersey, Frankle's fleet of more than 30 luxury cars was sold at government auction for more than $700,000.
And US authorities have seized $60 million from Frankle's Swiss bank accounts and other sources.
Jeremiah Donovan and his wife Terry were assigned as public defenders to Martin Frankle's case.
Special treatment. I think he should be treated as someone who still is entitled
to the presumption of innocence. I don't I certainly don't think he's suicidal, but I certainly think he's
quite an unhappy man. It's kind of ironic that Marty is now represented by a public defender. And so
this man who was once sitting on, you know, top of the mountain in backcountry Greenwich is now claiming, you know,
that he's a plopper. The media crush also attracted Frankle's brother, Bob. was somebody asked me why
I'm here and the answer is to show uh love and support for my brother. Martin Frankle's brother is not his only
supporter. Toledo native George Window has known him for 20 years. Intellectual people enjoy speaking to
one another and that's how our friendship blossomed. Since Frankle's imprisonment, Wendow has
rekindled their friendship and he now talks frequently with Frankle on the telephone. He has also recorded many of
the conversations. I believe I have a social responsibility to show people what's happening to my
friend and what's happening to many people in the justice system. They're put in these detention centers where
they are guilty until proven innocent. In the tapes, it is clear that Frankle believes he must make a deal with his
accusers. I've been convicted in the court of public opinion a billion times. There's
no the the only quote legal hope for me is just like roll over, plead guilty, and hope that they don't like
trick-assem. The game is once you're arrested, you hope that they give you some sort of deal so you plead guilty so
they don't hurt you as much as they would if you went to trial. And that's about it. Everything else you've heard
about the system, it's a it's an anomaly. 99% of it goes that way. 10% of it is OJ Simpson.
Frankle was the master manipulator of the system from day one. He was above the law.
John Schulty, who believes he was ruined by Martin Frankle, now works as a mortgage broker from the convenience
store he owns in Stony Ridge, Ohio, a small town outside of Toledo. Truly, I have no feelings towards Mr.
Frankle at all. I care less what happens to him. I think he'll be a ward of the federal
government for the rest of his life. He won't be able to cope. He'll probably lose his mind if he hasn't already.
Schulty's former wife, Sonia, has been indicted as a co-conspirator for her role in helping Frankle and faces a
lengthy prison sentence if convicted. Martin Frankle's southern connection, John Hackne, plead guilty to both
federal and state charges and is awaiting sentencing. Mississippi State special assistant
attorney general Lee Martin is hopeful that Martin Frankle may also face southern prosecution after a federal
trial. According to our figures, Mississippi was hit the hardest by far of all the
states involved. But I would venture to say that once we're finished with our prosecution, Mr. Franco will regret
having chose three insurance companies in the state of Mississippi. Those in Mississippi who were duped by Frankle
and his scheme are also anxious to see justice served. I think it was pretty stupid to think
that he could have gotten away with such a big fraud. I sooner or later this this
this had to be exposed. I tell you what, they dish out some southern punishment that's not pleasant.
I think it's terrible that people that's got that kind of knowledge [Music] that uses it
to benefit themselves in instead of trying to help the lower class of people that really needs the help.
Back in Greenwich, Joe Johnson continues to work on a story that may be far from
over. As of now, the feds have either seized or frozen roughly $70 million of the
alleged stolen money. That means there's at least $100 million still out there. Speculation is, you know, somebody as
clever as Marty, somebody who's as good as hiding things as Marty, uh, has a nice treasure trove buried out there
somewhere. They still think that I have some money quote hidden somewhere. You got to
believe me on this one. I ain't got no money anywhere. Sorry, there isn't 200 million missing
because it's like an invented figure. Somebody gives you $1, you say you have 10, but that doesn't mean you stole the
other nine. [Music] I still in my heart hold out the hope that somewhere along the way one of
these people is going to be human and look at this and look at the individual and say this guy isn't a demon. This guy
did this big financial thing. He's not a bad person cuz I swear to God if they want to they can just basically destroy
you. [Music] The last century, people took guns and went in and held up banks. The new guys on the block are going to
take computers and rob banks. Marty Frankle might be the first of those robbing banks in the new century.
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey.

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Brief Summary

Martin Frankle's rise and fall as a con man led to one of history's largest financial frauds, impacting many lives and resulting in his capture.

Key points

The Mysterious Martin Frankle. Exploring the life of Martin Frankle, a con man with a lavish lifestyle and dark secrets.
A Suspicious Fire. A police reporter uncovers a suspicious fire linked to Martin Frankle, leading to a federal investigation.
The Rise of Frankle Fund. Frankle's investment fund quickly collects millions, but his trading skills lead to disaster.
Frankle's Deceptive Tactics. Frankle's unethical practices lead to the downfall of his former boss, John Schulty.
Burial Insurance Boom. By 1995, the burial insurance business was booming with 35,000 policy holders.
Martin Frankle's Lavish Lifestyle. Frankle indulged in luxury while running his fraudulent schemes, living in a mansion with a dark side.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I was just amazed at the things that they told me.

A reporter's reaction to the detectives' revelations about Frankle.

2:47WatchJul 28, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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