Defrauded States Recover More Frankel Assets

The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay states $72 million it raised by seizing and, in some cases selling, assets once owned by convicted embezzler and former insurance company owner Martin Frankel.

The U.S. District Court in Hartford recently ordered the IRS turn to sale proceeds and related assets over to receivers in 5 states in which Frankel once owned insurance companies.

Frankel fled from the United States in 1999 and was apprehended in Germany in 2000. In 2002, he was convicted of fleecing the 7 insurance companies he had controlled out of more than $200 million.

Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee will split the seized assets.

Creditors will get most of the funds the IRS is paying out, according to regulators in the states expecting to get the IRS asset payments.

Frankel case receivers have recovered a total of about $126 million, the Mississippi Insurance Department reports.