Receiver: Schrenker can’t pay restitution

A former money manager who tried to fake his death in a plane crash may not have enough money to pay restitution required as part of a plea deal on securities fraud charges, a court-appointed receiver said.

Marcus Schrenker, 39, was arrested at a Florida campground in January 2009, two days after officials say he put his plane on autopilot and bailed out over Alabama to flee personal and financial problems. The plane crashed about 200 miles away.

Schrenker is accused of bilking friends, family members and other investors of more than $1 million. He could face 10 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to five of 11 counts under a proposed plea agreement with Hamilton County prosecutors. He has already been sentenced to four years in federal prison on charges related to the plane crash.

Sales of his property — including his posh Geist home, motorcycle, a 29-foot boat, a diamond ring and a baby grand piano — have garnered about $595,000 to pay back victims, according to attorney O. Wayne Davis' estimates.

That's still short of the $630,000 Schrenker agreed to pay as part of a plea agreement filed Aug. 10 in Hamilton County Superior Court. A hearing on his offered guilty plea is set for Sept. 15.

And it doesn't include some $900,000 in restitution a federal judge ordered him to pay the U.S. Coast Guard and creditors for the plane crash. Schrenker also has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in lawsuits in recent years, and it isn't clear how much, if anything, he's paid on those.

"There's not going to be enough money to go around, that's for sure," Davis told The Times of Munster. Davis, a Greenfield attorney, said he will file a financial statement with Hamilton County Circuit Court within the next several weeks.

Indianapolis attorney Ken Munson, who is working with Davis, said a preliminary report of claims found that people sought more than $20 million from Schrenker.

Munson said there's no deadline for a judge to determine when, in what order and how claims will be paid. Davis said no money has been paid to victims of the Indiana securities fraud case since he was appointed receiver last year.

Schrenker's attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Saturday.

 Schrenker has claimed he was under psychiatric care and on medication for more than a year before the plane crash in Florida. He said he had been mentally incompetent due to stress and a prescription drug problem.