Assets of Schrenker's wife ordered frozen

INDIANAPOLIS | A judge sided with Indiana regulators Thursday and placed the financial assets of the estranged wife of indicted, parachuting money manager Marcus Schrenker into receivership, where bilked clients might recover some of their losses.

The judge in suburban Hamilton County ordered the assets of Michelle Schrenker frozen and controlled by a court-appointed receiver. He issued a separate order doing the same to the assets of Schrenker and three of his businesses.

Michelle Schrenker's assets are considered crucial by state attorneys because she was listed as chief financial officer in one of her husband's companies and has been residing in the couple's suburban Indianapolis home on Geist Reservoir assessed at $1.4 million.

Schrenker, 38, has been jailed in Florida since his arrest Jan. 13 at a Tallahassee-area campground, two days after authorities say he parachuted out of his airplane and left it pilotless over Alabama. He pleaded not guilty Jan. 22 to charges of deliberately crashing the aircraft and making a false distress call.

Judge J. Richard Campbell issued separate preliminary injunctions Thursday freezing the two sets of assets and placing them under the control of the court-appointed receiver, former Indiana Securities Commissioner O. Wayne Davis, until further notice.

A tearful Michelle Schrenker, emerging from a court hearing on her divorce petition shortly after Campbell ruled, said she was being treated unfairly.

"I have done nothing wrong," she told WTHR-TV. "The only thing my husband did was give me a glorified title in that company."

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, who overseas securities regulation in the state, said the ruling would allow his office and Davis "to continue identifying and preserving any assets that have been built up through ill-gotten gain."

"We continue to hear from victims in this investigation," Rokita said.

At a hearing on Friday, attorneys for the state and for Michelle Schrenker argued over the state's contention that she had been a willing and knowledgeable partner in her husband's activities.

Her attorney, Mary Schmid, argued that the state presented no evidence that Michelle Schrenker conspired with her husband other than his listing of her as chief financial officer of one of his companies. She said all Michelle Schrenker did was pay bills and manage the books for her husband.

However, Deputy Attorney General David Christoff said money managed by Marcus Schrenker might have ended up in the assets that were controlled by Michelle Schrenker.

Michelle Schrenker filed for divorce Dec. 30, a day before Indiana police served a search warrant on his home and office, seizing computers, tubs full of financial documents and evidence of recent document shredding. That was within days of his losing a $533,000 judgment to an insurance company.