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Former fugitive pleads not guilty in U.S. court

Frankel

From CNNfn Correspondent Chris Huntington

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) -- Fugitive financier Martin Frankel -- accused of stealing more than $200 million from 10 small insurance companies -- pleaded not guilty Monday to fraud and racketeering charges.

Frankel pleaded not guilty in federal court to all 24 counts, including 20 counts for wire fraud.

His attorney, Jeremiah Donovan, did not rule out the possibility of a plea bargain. "My job as a defense attorney is to discuss the case," he said.

Frankel, 46, was extradited to the United States last Friday after spending a year and half in a German jail on false passport and diamond smuggling charges.

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Authorities said after a Mississippi insurance regulator began asking questions, the enterprise Frankel ran for eight years began to go up in smoke.

In May 1999, he fled his Greenwich mansion on a private plane, taking with him $10 million in diamonds and $16 million in gold coins.

He was arrested in Hamburg, Germany, in 1999 and was later sentenced to three years in prison for having false passports and smuggled diamonds.

U.S. prosecutors said Frankel gained control of the small insurance companies and then embezzled and converted their assets through a highly computerized money laundering network.

Prosecutors allege he used a number of shell companies, even a charity, to carry out his scheme.

He is accused of multiple counts of money laundering, racketeering, conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. If convicted of all charges, he could spend up to 150 years in prison.

Frankel is accused of cheating insurance companies in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Regulators in those states are seeking more than $600 million in damages from him.

Frankel is being held in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison in Rhode Island.

Jury selection is expected to begin sometime in September.

Fugitive financier Frankel flown to U.S.
March 2, 2001
Fugitive financier facing extradition
March 1, 2001
Police nab fugitive financier in Germany
September 4, 1999

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