Frankel to be resentenced today for schemes

Martin Frankel, left.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Financier Martin Frankel, sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for masterminding a scheme to loot insurance companies of more than $200 million, is scheduled to be resentenced today to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on sentencing guidelines.

Using those guidelines, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Burns sentenced Frankel in December, 2004, to 16 years and 8 months in prison. But a Supreme Court ruling in January made the guidelines advisory rather than mandatory and compelled the resentencing.

Judge Burns has said the high-court ruling would not have affected the sentence she imposed.

William Koch, Frankel's attorney, and the U.S. Attorney's office declined comment yesterday.

Frankel was convicted of looting insurance companies in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Tennessee of more than $200 million.

Mr. Koch has requested a sentence of about 10 years, saying Frankel, 51, has been diagnosed with a mental disorder.

One of four children from a middle-class Toledo family, Frankel attended Whitmer High School.

He began buying struggling insurance firms in the 1990s, authorities said.