Financier Set to Be Returned for U.S. Trial FRANKFURT. Martin R. Frankel, the fugitive American financier
wanted on charges of looting
more than $200 million from
insurance companies, may soon
be going back to the United
States.
Mr. Frankel, arrested in
Hamburg, Germany, last
September after evading the
F.B.I. for months, pleaded
guilty today to German charges
that he had evaded customs
duties on about $5 million
worth of diamonds he had
brought to finance his flight from
the United States.
Today's plea removes the main
obstacle to Mr. Frankel's
extradition to the United States,
where he faces more than 30
charges of fraud and money laundering as well as civil suits claiming
damages of $600 million.
The German authorities have already approved the United States Justice
Department's request to extradite the financier, and they have indicated
their willingness to carry out the extradition as soon as they have
prosecuted Mr. Frankel on German charges.
Though court officials declined to say exactly what the next step in the
process would be, Mr. Frankel could be sent back as early as the end of
next week. His German trial will be officially concluded next Wednesday,
when all sides make their final statements.
In addition to the charge of evading about $1 million worth of customs
duties on the jewels he brought to Germany, Mr. Frankel was also
indicted for carrying eight false passports and passing himself off in a
hotel in Hamburg as a British citizen named Roger John Ellis.
Mr. Frankel, bearded and rumpled and wearing a heavy wool overcoat
despite the spring weather, made it clear throughout his short trial that he
wanted to stay in Germany as long as he could. He spoke English in the
courtroom, and his remarks were translated into German by a court
official.
"The Germans respect human values," Mr. Frankel told reporters in the
courtroom today. "An extradition to America would be the same as an
execution."
The guilty plea is the latest in a series of tactical reversals that have
befuddled Mr. Frankel's own lawyers and angered the presiding judge.
On Wednesday, Mr. Frankel balked at confirming his name and place of
birth, and then refused to enter any plea or make any statement on his
own behalf.
But later, under pressure from Judge Horst Muntzger, Mr. Frankel
announced that he wanted to call four witnesses -- three from the United
States and one from Italy. The witnesses included Mona Kim and
Cynthia Allison, two of his female associates who joined him for part of
his time last year in Rome and Hamburg.
German officials had worried that arranging for testimony from the
witnesses -- something Mr. Frankel had said earlier would not be
necessary -- would delay the trial for months. Hans-Gerd Meine, the
prosecutor in charge of the case, warned Mr. Frankel that he might
simply drop the charges and proceed immediately with the extradition.
Before his abrupt flight from the United States last year, Mr. Frankel built
up a convoluted empire by acquiring small insurance companies and then
arranging to have himself put in charge of investing the companies' assets.
Mr. Frankel is accused of using a multitude of false names and using the
insurance companies' money to pay for a lavish life. But the empire was
collapsing around him and he disappeared last May. Firefighters in
Greenwich, Conn., found his house on fire and discovered piles of
documents stuffed into the fireplace.
Mr. Frankel led the F.B.I. in a global cat-and-mouse game, first hiding
with Ms. Kim in Rome and then leaving for Hamburg just as F.B.I.
agents were about to close in on him. It took several more months to
track him down at a small but luxurious Hamburg hotel. German police
arrested Mr. Frankel, who was accompanied by Ms. Allison, and he has
been in prison awaiting trial and extradition ever since.
Mr. Frankel's Germany lawyers say he has experienced enormous mood
swings and has habitually changed his mind on legal strategy.
Though he does not speak German, Mr. Frankel apparently made
acquaintances in prison who recommended lawyers to represent him.
Thomas Piplak, the first lawyer Mr. Frankel retained, said his client
decided to add a second and then a third lawyer to his legal defense
team.
Mr. Piplak resigned as Mr. Frankel's attorney.
Since then, he has been represented by Dirk Meinicke and GĀnther
Thiel. |
