All language subtitles for American Greed s04e05 Crash and Burn

This is a CNBC original.

In this episode of American Greed,
Marcus Schrenker.

Remember this guy?

The plane crashed in Milton, Florida
Sunday night. He was a stunt pilot.

Basically, it's a very high -G routine
that has a lot of gyroscopic recession.

I've seen him do a few things in the
airplane that were...

Boy, this guy knows what he's doing. And
clients say a con man.

People trusted him, in some cases with a
million dollars. Who had the country

wondering for days whether he was dead
or alive.

Long range, I think we're in for a tough
fall. The American economy is in

trouble. January of 2009.

The nation is reeling from the worst
financial meltdown since the Great

Depression. And there is an astounding
decline in business in the country. On

Wall Street, the stock market is in free
fall.

On Main Street, home prices are
plummeting.

And inside a million -dollar house near
Indianapolis, a money manager named

Marcus Schrenker is ignoring the phone
that rings off the hook.

Many of his clients were expressing
concern about the rather dour economic

outlook, and then they began contacting
Marcus, and suddenly they weren't able

to get a hold of him. He wasn't
returning their phone calls. He'd have

of excuses why he couldn't get in touch
with them.

On January 11, 2009,

Schrenker tells his family he's going on
a brief trip.

An avid pilot, he boards his single
-engine Piper Malibu.

planning to fly solo to Florida.

There was an enormous amount of stress
in the weeks and days leading up to his

flight to Florida. It was a very
stressful period for him that he was on

medications, and as he said, he was not
in his right mind.

Schrenker lifts off around 6 .30 p .m.

With just a little under two hours into
the flight, He sends out a Mayday call.

And

that's

the last communication Marcus Schrenker
had with the Coast Guard.

Thirty minutes later, Schrenker's plane
crashes in a wooded area near Milton,

Florida.

Rescue crews arrive, but the twisted
wreckage they find doesn't match the

distress call.

The plane's windshield is intact.

There's no blood.

And more importantly, there's no pilot.

As his face is splashed on TV screens
around the world, a fascinated public

wonders, where is Marcus Schrenker?

Is he dead or alive?

Schrenker grows up in a small town in
Indiana. From the beginning, he seems

restless, always in a hurry to get
somewhere else.

If I could take a snapshot of him, it'd
be that he was climbing all the time,

trying to climb all the time, going
somewhere.

In 1996, Schranker graduates from Purdue
University, having studied both

financial planning and aviation.

Just out of school, he launches Heritage
Wealth Management, a financial planning

firm focused on low -risk investments.

So they were fairly safe investments to
be handled.

Qualified money and retirement accounts
and things like that that really

couldn't be manipulated or done badly
with.

Schrenker's money management business
grows.

He marries, has kids, and settles into
the Geist neighborhood north of

Indianapolis, a moneyed enclave of the
city's elite.

You know, Geist is an interesting place.
You have a lot of new money.

You have a lot of people who are doctors
and lawyers and athletes. And so

they're kind of drawn, I think, because
of the opulence, the extravagance of the

homes out there, and because of the
lake.

There's no denying that there's a lot of
wealth out there, and I think people

are attracted by that.

Always one to hunt for new investment
clients,

Schrager uses his love of aviation to
make friends with some commercial pilots

and manage their retirement accounts.

Pilots. Marcus was a pilot.

There was an automatic sort of entree
for him. He was able to get in there and

meet these people, get on their good
side, trust me, I'll do the right thing

you. In 2002, Mike Kenney's brother, a
commercial pilot, introduces him to Mark

Schranker. Kenney has a significant
investment portfolio and is looking for

new money manager.

He seemed like a very intelligent, very
knowledgeable person about what he was

talking about.

He proclaimed that we only put our
clients in the best of the best. Best of

best. That was the term that was used
quite a bit.

Schrager tells Kinney he makes money
only from a flat percent he charges

clients. It sounds like a good
arrangement.

You pay me for my performance, fee
-based advice. He declared very much up

front, I do not make commissions on
anything I sell.

And that was the relationship that I'd
come from from the previous advisor, and

that was one of the things I was
uncomfortable with. So that really

ear. And I liked the idea that he would
be paid based on how well he did for me

and how well he managed my investments.

That's what I wanted, and he was very
big in saying that.

Schreinker says he only makes money if
his clients make money, taking the

standard 1%. Before long, Mike, his
brother, and several relatives all have

their money managed by Schreinker.

Very safe funds that had good return
values on them. And that was what

me. As Kenny will later find out,
Schrenker is doing precisely the

what he's promised.

Rather than investing in mutual funds
and charging no commissions, Schrenker

putting Kenny's money into annuities,
low -risk insurance products with high

commissions for the selling agent.

And worse, investigators say Schrenker
is churning.

moving Kinney's money from account to
account, maximizing his commissions.

Churning is usually a behavior by agents
where they put money into an annuity,

and then they go ahead and surrender it
within, you know, a couple of years and

put it into yet another annuity.

Churning costs his clients huge
surrender fees for early withdrawal.

But Schrenker seems blinded by greed.

Marcus Schrenker can earn anywhere from
6 % to 18 % of the contract value on

commissions. So each and every annuity
that they sell, they get that

Schrenker's scheme is bringing in lots
of money, but he wants more.

And like magic, opportunity knocks on
his door.

Rumors are flying that Delta Airlines
will be filing for bankruptcy.

Its home base is in Atlanta, the busiest
airport in the world.

Suddenly, thousands of pilots will be
nudged into early retirement and given

lump sum payouts.

There's nothing more scary than having
seven figures of money and not knowing

what to do with it.

So I started asking around, hey, do you
have a guy that's doing your money? And

one of my favorite co -pilots, he said,
I would trust him with my kids. That's

how much I trust this guy.

I said, who was that guy?

It was Marcus Schrenker.

Dave Smith is one of those pilots.

He flew for Delta for almost 29 years.

He's educated and well -trained.

But he'd be the first to admit that he
has more money than financial savvy.

When he sits down with Marcus Schrenker,
his financial unease seems to

disappear. It's funny how the mind
works. You think you're above all this

The guy just flew it in an airplane
you'd give your right arm to own. And

wearing the right shoes and the good
Rolex.

Sits down and talks quietly and has all
the answers.

Wow, I'm glad to have him on my team,
you know?

Yeah.

Tranker signed Smith up, but there are
many more Dave Smiths to put on his

card. There were seven -figure crops to
be harvested out of this

retiring group of guys, and all he had
to do was get here, get among them.

So he literally moved to Atlanta.

Next on American Greed, when Marcus
Schrenker hits financial turbulence, his

clients get white -knuckled and want to
know, where's their money?

You've been charged those surrender
charges. That money is gone forever.

In 2005, Marcus Schrenker's financial
planning business is taking off.

He's tapped into a rich vein, managing
the retirement funds of former airline

pilots. Marcus had a relationship. He
could go down there and they could talk

about things that his clients loved, and
they were Delta pilots.

And then, of course, hey, I'm an
investment representative.

According to Schrenker, he has almost
500 clients, and he's managing well over

$6 million.

Business is so good, Schrenker moves his
family to Atlanta, a city teeming with

retired Delta Airlines pilots.

I think he went down there because there
was money to be made. Schrenker pitches

himself as a low -key guy with a
cautious approach to investing.

He gives all his clients the same pitch.

He doesn't charge commissions, only a
standard 1 % management fee.

And he puts their money into low -risk
mutual funds.

Mike Kenney has more than half a million
dollars with Schrenker. It was the

majority of my net worth, both liquid
and in, you know, like retirement type

stuff.

He proclaimed he was going to put it in
very safe funds that had good return

values on them.

And that was what attracted me.

Dave Smith, the retired Delta pilot, has
given Schrenker $1 million to invest.

Smith says Schrenker used fear to lure
him in, talking doom and gloom.

We've got the Olympics coming up, and
we've got a presidential election coming

up. Our intelligence department tells us
there could be a major terrorist attack

in any one of those things.

If that happens, this market is going to
go through the floor.

He then offers a financial security
blanket.

We've got to do something to protect
your money.

I've got a plan I think I can get you
in. We heard last it was closed, but I

think I can get you in this.

So now you're just in a total panic
mode.

What am I going to do? What am I going
to do?

Well, it turns out, under the wire,
we're going to be able to get into this

investment. Schrenker describes the
investment as a type of mutual fund that

will never make less than 3 % a year.

Even in the worst of times, Smith hands
over his entire nest egg.

The catastrophes never materialize.

Instead, the stock market slowly climbs
in 2003 and 2004.

But Schrenker is making money.

His clients are, too.

And they're all getting along famously.

Dave Smith lives in Roswell, Georgia, a
city steeped in Civil War history.

And few people know that that
Confederate gray was actually called

And they made those uniforms right here
in town.

So when he and the kids and wife came
down here, we would go and look at this

stuff. And there's beautiful streams
with the waterfalls and the ruins, you

know, old Civil War ruins.

And so we did a lot together.

But friends also notice quirks about his
personality.

For instance, he has almost no sense of
humor.

Jokes would just ding by Marcus like he
was in a battlefield.

But he was the lucky guy in the
battlefield because nothing ever hit

And he actually had a fake laugh.

And everybody in the room would be dying
laughing over something going on, and

he'd be ha -ha -ha -ha -ha.

Schreiker also seems obsessed with his
personal appearance.

I've got a little beagle puppy. I defy
anybody to come up with anything cuter

than a brand -new little beagle puppy.

stands up and puts her little feet on
his pants. And he jumped back, brushed

pants off, and he said, I'll never
forget it. He goes, this is a $2 ,000

And I thought, yeah, and that's a $200
puppy. What do I care about your suit?

Smith shrugs it off as harmless vanity.

I think it came down to the fact that
people trusted him. There was a level of

trust that he was able to gain very
quickly.

A real talent for him.

But his clients are about to learn the
consequences of trusting Marcus

Schrenker.

Trouble appears in 2006, when Dave Smith
opens his annual statement from the

company Schrenker has his money invested
with.

Smith's statement reveals that he's been
charged more than $66 ,000 in surrender

fees.

Panicked, he calls Schrenker.

What is that?

Well, that's taxes.

Taxes? What do you mean, taxes?

Well, Dave, you know, you...

pay taxes on everything. It's just the
way it is.

Finally, I began to realize he is
stammering. I decided to heck with it.

calling the company.

He's shocked to learn that he's locked
into a 25 -year annuity, and Schrenker

has withdrawn 30 % of his money, $300
,000, after only a year.

The $66 ,000 is in taxes. It's surrender
fees for early withdrawal.

Smith confronts Schrenker.

Who told you that? He said.

A woman by the name of, I believe her
name is Christy.

She goes, Dave, she's just a clerk. She
doesn't know what this is. She thinks

that you're an off -the -street
investor.

This thing is an institutional
investment.

There are no surrender charges.

Look, I'll clear it up.

I'll call her. Well, maybe I should call
her back. No, no, I'll take care of it.

I'll clear it up. And so I talked to
her.

It's fine.

They're putting the money back.
Everything's fine. Don't worry about it.

Oh, wow, okay, that's great.

Smith says he later called the insurance
company again to confirm that the $66

,000 had been refunded.

The response was not the one he's hoping
to hear.

Mr. Smith, you're in this annuity, it's
this way. I don't know what this guy is

telling you, but this is what it is.

And you've been charged those surrender
charges. That money is gone forever.

And it gets worse.

Smith says without his knowledge,
Schrenker has already moved $100 ,000 of

nest egg into yet another annuity.

Every time he takes money out of one of
Smith's annuities, Smith is hit with a

big penalty, and Schrenker is on a roll.

According to the Indiana State's
investigators, he's moving Smith's money

like a pinball game.

Every time he does it, he makes at least
a 13 % commission, and he does it over

and over again.

When we began to peel back the layers of
what he had done to us in the fall of

06, we were sick. I mean, it was just a
sickening feeling.

Every family member, as we were
confronted with what he was doing,

believe it, even myself at first. It's
like, I'm going, no, man, he wouldn't be

doing that to us.

I mean, it's Marcus.

He's a good guy.

But yet, it became undeniable.

Kenny loses $40 ,000 in surrender
charges alone.

He was certainly willing to do anything
it took to improve his financial

situation at whatever cost.

All told, Schrenker is raked in almost a
million dollars churning accounts,

leaving a wake of financial ruin in
Atlanta.

For this southern group of clients, he's
the equivalent of Civil War General

William T. Sherman.

All the way through our relationship,
and I mean literally till the day we

parted, and even after that.

He swore that he never made any
commission on any product.

And when our entire family terminated
our relationship with him, that's when

began to move back up to Indianapolis.
He thought that the writing was on the

wall for Atlanta.

Next on American Greed, investigators
say Schrenker starts a new scam.

But will his past catch up with him?

Looking back on my relationship with
Marcus, it was going to take jail to

him.

Marcus Schrenker, a pilot and money
manager, has beaten a hasty retreat from

Atlanta.

His clients, primarily a group of
retired pilots, say they have discovered

Schrenker was churning their retirement
accounts.

He moves their money from account to
account, breaking in nearly a million

dollars in commissions and causing his
clients to lose hundreds of thousands of

dollars in early withdrawal fees.

Schrenker moves his family back to their
original home, an upscale suburb of

Indianapolis called Geist.

Tom Britt is a friend of Schrenker's and
the publisher of a local newsletter.

He says Schrenker celebrates his return
by building a massive home on the Geist

Reservoir. It was almost a PR spot, the
rebranding of Marcus Schrenker in a lot

of respects, because there had been a
lot of talk.

Rumors had made their way around the
lake.

It's almost like he went through a deep
freeze over the winter, and he's coming

back, and now he wanted to kind of
reinvent himself.

And Tranker's experience in Atlanta has
not slowed him down.

He still dreams of big money.

He came to me one day and said, you
know, there's like $14 billion of wealth

Geist, and I want to get as much of that
under management as I can.

I think he just realized that he had
some connections, he knew some people.

People knew him. I think he saw that as
a fertile ground to set up shop.

In 2008, Schrenker adds another
investment firm to his family of

the Heritage Wealth Management umbrella.

He calls it the Icon Group.

Promising sound financial planning, the
Icon Group claims to have offices in

Singapore, Sao Paulo, and London, among
other cities.

In reality, there's only one office in a
strip mall in Indianapolis.

His base companies were Heritage Wealth
Management and Heritage Insurance

Management. And he combined them into a
group called the Icon Group.

I find it rather ironic, Icon.

Sometimes the name says it all.

Under the Icon name, Schrenker starts
talking a new product, something he

the Euro Fund.

Schrenker tells investors that with the
dollar in a steady decline, There's

money to be made investing in European
currency.

He would contact his clients and advise
them what a great investment the euro

would be and that the euro was going to
be very, very strong and it was a great

business opportunity.

Before long, Schrenker has a million and
a half of clients' money in the euro

fund, but his past is close behind.

Schrenker's victims of the Atlanta
churning scam have no intention of

without a fight.

When we began to investigate what can we
do about this, you begin to see that

lawsuits are very expensive, very
uncertain, and hard to do. So what can

to keep him from doing that kind of
thing to other people like us?

Because we felt like he was going to
keep on doing it.

We went to the Georgia Insurance
Commission.

They were, in a word, totally worthless.

Totally worthless.

Well... Good luck.

What are we going to do? What are we
going to do?

Indiana. What about Indiana Insurance
Commission?

In the summer of 2007, Mike Kenney, Dave
Smith, and several other retired pilots

approached the Indiana Department of
Insurance.

They provide investigator Lisa Harpenau
with evidence documenting Schrenker's

churning scam.

It was...

five - or six -page complaint that
referenced attachments and had notes on

attachments and basically walked me
through everything that they had went

through. I knew that, okay, I think I've
got some evidence now to file a

statement of charges.

That's exactly what Harper now does.

And now Schrenker is obliged to respond.

The response has definitely raised some
red flags with me. One of his responses

said, I didn't know there were surrender
fees associated with these annuities.

And I knew right there, either he's
lying or he doesn't know how to sell an

annuity because...

Any agent that sells annuities knows
there's going to be surrender fees

involved. Schrenker plays his best hand.

His clients say he delays, drags his
feet, and postpones meetings with

regulators. He has good reason for his
tactic.

His Eurofund deal is paying off, and
he's expanding his client base.

Marker Schrenker, the sky's the limit.

There we go. He's going to get lined up
big. He had what's called an unlimited

routine.

And basically it's a very high G routine
that has a lot of gyroscopic recession

maneuvers in it.

People will look at my routine and
they'll go, how can an airplane possibly

that?

People are fascinated by flight. They
love to come out, especially kids.

And there's nothing more wholesome than
a parent bringing out their kids for an

air show.

Give Harkin Breaker a hand.

I'll tell you what, I couldn't have done
that.

Always eager to impress, Schrenker's
life in Geist is as choreographed as his

aerial routines.

He would fly them in his airplane, show
them his house out on Geist Reservoir,

and appeared to have all the trappings
of success.

And that would play some factor in our
victims deciding to invest their money

with him.

of what he had to do was live large to
convince people that he's

made it. You can trust him. He's doing
something right, isn't he?

Look at the car, look at the house, look
at the plane.

He's doing something right.

That was part of it.

But I think he was always just trying to
stay one step ahead of it.

But scratch the surface, and it all
falls apart.

The $1 .2 million house?

It's mortgage to the hilt.

Cars, lanes, they're all on banknotes.
When you look at all the trappings of

success, it's much like a Hollywood set.

Once you look behind that facade, you
can see that it's really empty.

And a storm is brewing.

Lisa Harpino's investigation is growing.

And Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeff
Waymiller is asking questions about

To him, Schrenker is starting to look
like a Hoosier Bernie Madoff.

He generates clients' Eurofund
statements with an online investment

Every chart, every return, every number
is pure fabrication.

Marcus would manipulate the numbers for
this Euro account to show, not only to

create the account, but also to show
false returns.

And, like a mini -Madoff, he spends
clients' money as though it were his

Well, the paper trail, according to the
probable cause, pretty much ends when he

was making personal payments on items
such as his house, his cars, his

Waymiller and local police prepare for a
search warrant of Schrenker's home and

office. But Schrenker is oblivious to
the impending storm.

His life in Geist is a Midwest version
of Margaritaville.

We live on a part of Geist Reservoir
called Cocktail Cove, and it's known as

being kind of the place where a lot of
the boats congregate in the summer.

We could have literally 200 boats in our
backyard tied up on a Saturday and

sometimes Sundays.

He had a boat. What was unique about
Marcus and his boat is he had a very

big boat, but he also had this big
floating trampoline.

On any given Saturday or Sunday
afternoon, you would see Marcus pull his

out, and he would actually pull the
trampoline behind him, and kids would

up to it, and they'd jump on it, and
they'd jump off the trampoline, jump

on. And so that was kind of a playful
thing that he would do on the weekends.

But as the summer of 08 turns to fall,
the markets implode.

And so does Marcus Schrenker.

When American Greed returns, Schrenker
takes a dangerous flight.

to escape this collapsing world.

Some

huge

companies in bad shape. There's fresh
evidence tonight that much of the world

in this with us.

In late December of 2008, amid the
global economic meltdown, the world of

manager Marcus Schrenker is collapsing.

Insurance regulators are closing in.

They say they know that Schrenker has
churned client accounts, costing them

hundreds of thousands of dollars in
surrender fees.

And now, criminal charges are in the
works.

Investigators believe his Euro fund is
all smoke and mirrors.

And Schrenker is pocketing clients'
money.

So someone would agree to invest with
him based on skills that he represented,

returns that he was supposedly getting
other clients, and he would usually take

that money and buy a home with it, buy a
plane with it, buy nice cars with it.

On December 31, 2008, a search warrant
is served on Schrenker's home.

Well, the search warrant authorized
agents of the Secretary of State's

with the assistance of the Indiana State
Police to seize any business records,

computers, any information that would
document the business activities of the

heritage companies and ICON.

His wife, Michelle, is home.

Tranker is gone.

He's in Key West, shacked up with a
girlfriend.

It seems his business isn't the only
thing that's crumbling.

The day before the search warrant,
Michelle files for divorce.

The perfect family was breaking up.

Yes. Yes. And certainly Marcus Schrenker
left the impression that he had the

perfect family with the perfect kids.

However, he also had a woman on the
side, his girlfriend.

Schrenker's future looks bleak.

Divorce, financial ruin, and prison.

My personal opinion is that he was a
desperate man who'd lost everything, and

devised what he thought was an ingenious
plan.

In early January 2009,

Schrenker plots an exit strategy.

His scheme involves a plane, a
parachute, and a motorcycle.

On January 10th, Schrenker drives from
Indiana to the small town of

Harpersville, Alabama.

The most interesting aspect about
Harpersville, Alabama, is the fact that

lies directly between Indiana and the
Gulf of Mexico.

He's towing a trailer.

Inside is a red Yamaha motorcycle.

When he reached Harpersville, he sought
out a public storage unit, contacted the

owner, and told this owner that he
wanted to store his motorcycle for a few

days.

Schrenker stashes his motorcycle in
Harpersville and returns home to

The next day, on January 11, 2009, he
tells friends and family he's flying

to Destin, Florida, where his dad lives.

The pressure must be intense because
Schrenker is acting erratically.

Before he boards his plane, he texts a
friend with a bizarre message.

Well, I can just tell you what he texted
to his friend, that he was going to

visit his father in Florida before
entering into the witness protection

according to his text. That night... A
clearly stressed out Schrenker is caught

on camera doing donuts at the airstrip
where he keeps his plane.

Moments after this is filmed, the
troubled man who claims to be entering a

witness protection program boards his
plane and takes off.

He's headed south.

Two hours into the flight, high above
Huntsville, Alabama, Schrenker sends a

Mayday call.

He said that his cabin had lost
pressure, that the windshield was

that he was losing consciousness.

He then said something about blood being
on the windshield, and that's the last

communication Marcus Schrenker had with
the Coast Guard.

Alarm that the pilot is dead or
disabled, the Navy dispatches two F

The fighter pilots pull alongside
Schrenker's plane in midair. The door is

The cockpit is dark.

The pilot is gone.

Two F -15 jet fighters were dispatched
to intercept the airplane.

Once the pilots arrived, they were able
to report that there were no lights on

and they weren't able to see any
movement within the cabin.

Even without its pilot, the Piper Malibu
continues its path south, but the

stairs are down, creating drag.

The plane is quickly running out of gas.

Just across the Alabama state line, the
plane crashes into a swamp.

just a quarter mile from a subdivision.

After the airplane crashed, rescue
workers were very quickly on site and

able to determine that there were no
remains of the pilot. From that, they

inferred that the pilot had jumped.

They're exactly right.

Schrenker has jumped to 10 ,000 feet
above central Alabama.

The plan was to parachute into a sod
farm, but he misses the mark and lands

swamp near the Coosa River.

Schranker wades out and walks to the
nearest house.

We are a sod farm in Harpersville.

I think Marcus meant to land somewhere
in this general area. As you can see,

it's a good big target for somebody who
knew what they were doing, which

obviously Marcus didn't. He wound up
landing actually on the other side of

river, and probably those were the
lights that he could see at that home

He just approached those lights, hoping
he could get help.

He knocks on the door, soaking wet and
covered in mud.

He says he was canoeing in a nearby
river.

He capsized and lost his boat.

The homeowner is skeptical and calls
police.

He then offers Schrenker a ride to the
nearest convenience store.

You know, it was wintertime, and the
story, according to this man, just

contrived. You know, sounded like he'd
made it up. Police arrive and talk to

Schrenker, who surprisingly gives them
his real name.

And he gave him the same story,
basically, that he'd been separated from

friends, canoeing. So the officer ran
his driver's license on the National

Computer Database. Information was
there, but no red flags, no warrants,

to show that anybody, any agency, law
enforcement agency, had any interest in

him. At Schrenker's request, police
escort him to a hotel in Harpersville.

Security footage records Schrenker
checking in, but Schrenker never intends

stay the night.

Instead, he jogs half a mile down the
road to the storage facility where his

motorcycle is waiting.

And he drives off into the night.

The plane crashed Sunday night.

The next day, the plane crashed and the
missing pilot are worldwide news.

Alabama authorities say that after
checking into a hotel under a different

Shrinker put on a black cap and moved
into the woods, his plane hitting the

ground miles away, empty.

In Harpersville, one of Chief Latimer's
deputies remembers seeing Schrenker in

town. U .S. Marshals are called.

With the information received from
Birmingham that he was now operating a

Yamaha motorcycle, we had something go
on.

When American Greed returns, can the
feds find a desperate Marcus Schrenker

before he really does himself in?

In Florida, a plane piloted by money
manager Marcus Schrenker has crashed,

there's no body.

Many believe Schrenker faked his death.

He was flying one of his planes to
Florida Sunday when authorities say they

a fake distress call when his turboprop
then crashed without him in it.

He didn't crash his airplane.

One thing, you know, the guy had no
sense of humor. If his lips are moving,

lying, but he was a good pilot.

David Smith is one of many retired
commercial pilots who were scammed by

Schrenker. Smith says he has good reason
to be cynical.

Well, then the story began to unfold,
and it was like, oh, my God.

And it was tempered with a little bit of
laughter.

I knew he was going to do something.

I knew he was going to do something, and
he did.

On January 13, 2009, less than two days
after Schrenker's disappearance,

His friend and confidant, Tom Britt, is
glued to the TV, asking the questions so

many are asking.

Where is Marcus Schrenker?

Then Britt checks his email.

I hit send and receive on my email, and
an email pops up in the subject line.

It says, from Marcus.

Looking for anyone to hear his side of
the story, Schrenker reaches out to

someone he thinks might be a sympathetic
ear.

And he's trying to pass all the blame
off onto someone else.

And then he talks about his wife, and he
says, you know, she divorced me, I

deserved it. He says, this is the last
time I'm going to embarrass my family

like this.

And he said, by the time you read this,
I'll be gone.

Take care, Marcus.

My immediate thought was, I've got to
get this to the police.

The U .S. Marshals are already hot on
his trail.

Recovered from the wreckage of the
airplane was the U .S.

campground directory with the Florida
page ripped out. We knew he was heading

Florida. We were able to determine how
far he would have been able to travel,

and our operational plan was to check
all the campgrounds along the I -10

Amazingly, the marshals strike gold at
the very first campsite they check, this

KOA campground outside of Tallahassee.

The manager recognizes Schrenker as a
guy who checked in last night, bought a

bundle of firewood and a six -pack of
beer.

She directs the marshals to his tent.

As we approached the tent and gave the
verbal commands, he complied. He stuck

both hands out of the open door flap.

At that time, we saw the wound to his
left wrist and saw the large amount of

blood on his clothing on the front of
the tent, and we knew we had a medical

situation. Inside the tent, there's a
pool of blood.

Schrenker is in and out of
consciousness, muttering, die, die.

With authorities closing in, he has used
a razor blade to slash his wrists.

He has suffered massive blood loss, but
doctors are able to save him just in

time.

In my opinion, seeing him that night,
the condition he was in, the two

injuries that he inflicted to himself, I
don't think he would have made it

through tonight.

If Marcus Schrenker was looking for an
easy way out, he won't get it.

As soon as he recovers here, he's
already facing felony charges of fraud

federal charges for causing his own
plane crash.

Federal charges of intentionally
crashing a plane are now added to a

list of financial charges.

And then there is the question of his
wife, Michelle.

She holds the title of chief financial
officer in Schrenker's companies.

A cloud of suspicion falls on her head.

That's what investigators have been very
interested in. How much of a role did

she play?

Shortly after her husband's arrest,
Michelle Schrenker goes on the Today

talk about her role in the company.

When you hear about it, how much did you
know, how aware were you of the

severity of the financial problems?

I had limited duties there.

All I did was help my husband out.

I payrolled and I did paid bills. That's
all I did.

You were a bookkeeper?

I was a bookkeeper, but it wasn't what
he wanted for the image, for the

marketing. And, Michelle, are you in
contact with your husband? Have you

to him in jail?

I have. He has made his apologies to me.

But right now, I'm just focusing on my
kids and on what I need to do next.

Michelle Schrenker faces no criminal
charges.

I think the focus now, to be honest with
you, is on him.

And I think the...

Investigators in Indiana feel that if
they're going to be charged against her,

then so be it, and they're patient.
They're willing to be patient and wait.

Federal authorities filed two charges
against him. One, the intentional

destruction of an aircraft. The other
one was issuing a false distress call.

And so we waited patiently until the
federal court had finished with him.

Schrenker pleads guilty to the charges
relating to the crash and receives four

years in federal prison.

As for the financial crimes...

Investigators believe Schrenker cleared
more than $2 million between his annuity

scam and the Eurofund scam.

Looking back, Dave Smith realizes he
should have seen the warning signs when

investment advisor became one of his
closest friends.

The red flags that I should have seen
were the ones that you really wouldn't

think about seeing, and that's what
makes the scheme work.

You know, you've heard the expression,
there's nothing new under the sun. There

isn't. This is the same old trick. You
know, you make...

Friends with somebody. Your buddies,
your pals.

Hey, let's go get a beer.

Let's do this, let's do that. Before you
know it, the guy's running around with

your wife.

Dave Smith, Mike Kenney, and the other
victims contact the companies whose

insurance was sold by Schrenker, asking
for their money back.

At first, their pleas fall on deaf ears.

The money was acquired fraudulently. Not
their fraud, but it was acquired

fraudulently. They drug their feet, they
fought.

Suddenly, after refusal, refusal,
refusal, suddenly said, fine, here's

money. Tonight he faces federal charges.
In an ironic twist of fate, Schrenker's

high -profile escape benefits his
churning victims.

His shenanigans with his airplane did us
the biggest favor he could possibly do.

Those companies did not want to be
associated with such a bad news story,

bad agent who was obviously...

caught guilty in doing such bad things.

So they were very eager to cut their
ties with him and with us in light of

he had done as their agent.

And one after another, the phone call
would come in.

Thank God I just got a check.

I can't believe it. I just got a check.

The check came in today and we kept it
up and we kept it up and we kept it up

until everybody got their money back.

Victims of Schrenker's Eurofund scam are
not as lucky.

In that case, there are no insurance
companies to cover the losses.

He had a very lavish lifestyle that
required a lot of money to maintain.

As far as we can tell, Mr. Shrinker was
spending the money as quickly as he was

taking it.

Shrinker is scheduled to stand trial in
Indiana in 2010.

He's facing multiple criminal charges,
including nine counts of fraudulent sale

of securities.

He is charged with 11 classy felonies.

If the court were to sentence him to all
the counts and run them consecutively

to their maximum, he could serve up to
88 years.

Local NBC reporter Chris Proffitt of
WTHR has a chance to speak with Marcus

Schrenker while he's behind bars in
Indianapolis.

He does not take any responsibility for
the loss of money.

He said through a disclosure, these
people knew exactly the risk that they

taking. He never once said that I took
money that didn't belong to me.

He said these were legitimate losses in
his words.

So he doesn't take responsibility for
any of that, and to this day maintains

hasn't stolen anything from anyone.

Marcus could be the friendliest guy.

He's given me handfuls of gifts.

Always there to take you places.

Offers to, hey, I'm on my way. We're
going to go to the football game

And I liked him.

But the bad side of him was he knew if
he could just get his hands on money, he

could be somebody.

And I think that maybe there's that
element for Marcus. Marcus wants to be

somebody.

He's a story.

He is a story.