In 1998 and 1999 an empire began to unravel. It turned out to have been one of the slickest and largest financial crimes in history, whether you call it a swindle or just outright theft. The circumstances are such that the true amount stolen will probably never be known. Maybe some of the money that landed in the wrong hands will be recovered for those to whom it really belongs, but it is certain that only some of those people will have been partially bailed out by the taxpayers of several states. Since then other schemes and bankruptcies, such as Enron, have resulted in larger losses, but those were limited to shareholders and creditors. This is the story of the exploits of Martin Frankel and John Hackney who managed outrageous enhancement of their own standards of living at the expense of a number of insurance companies - or to put it more accurately, the beneficiaries of the people insured by those companies and a number of stockholders.
