Sale ordered of Schrenker's home, plane

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. | A judge has ordered the sale of the waterfront home and stunt plane of indicted money manager Marcus Schrenker as part of state efforts to recover money for his former clients.

Hamilton Circuit Judge Paul Felix, in a series of recent rulings, ordered the home to be listed for sale and for both his estranged wife, Michelle, and a court-appointed receiver for the state to review offers for the property on Geist Reservoir in suburban Indianapolis.

The 10,000-square-foot home built in 2000 is being listed for $1.5 million by the Richwine Group, an Indianapolis real estate agency.

Schrenker, 38, a Merrillville High School graduate, is scheduled to go on trial Monday in Pensacola, Fla., on federal charges of intentionally crashing the single-engine Piper Malibu on Jan. 11 and placing false distress calls.

Federal authorities have alleged that Schrenker, an amateur daredevil pilot, bailed out over Alabama and took a motorcycle he had stashed in a storage unit to a remote Florida Panhandle campground where federal marshals tracked him three days later. They found him with his wrist slashed and drifting in and out of consciousness after an apparent suicide attempt.

The plane drifted 200 miles on autopilot toward the Gulf of Mexico, but ran out of fuel and crashed into a marshy area of the Panhandle.

In Indiana, Schrenker faces millions of dollars in judgments and penalties related to his failed business dealings. Indiana prosecutors are waiting to try Schrenker until the Florida charges are resolved.

Felix last month ordered the receiver for the state, former Indiana Securities Commissioner O. Wayne Davis, to try to sell Schrenker's stunt plane, which has been valued at about $300,000.

Felix also extended until mid-August the deadline for Davis to file an itemized list of Schrenker's assets and liabilities.

Financial investigators say investors lost millions through Schrenker, whose high-flying lifestyle included planes, luxury cars and the home in an area known as "Cocktail Cove," where affluent boaters often socialized.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita said he was pleased to see the home and stunt plane on the market.

"My main focus continues to be on the investors who have been wronged. It is on identifying and preserving any assets, property or wealth that's amassed as a result of deceptive or fraudulent activity," Rokita said in a statement Tuesday.

Michelle Schrenker, whose assets also have been frozen in court, can remain in the home with the couple's three young children until the property is sold, according to an agreement between attorneys for her and for the receiver.

The agreement also acknowledged a $947,165 lien against the home by the mortgage holder, identified in court papers as Union Savings.

Schrenker, in an April letter to The Associated Press, said he "snapped" under the pressure he was facing, never sought help and "it all came crashing down around me."

The AP left a message for Michelle Schrenker's attorney Tuesday seeking comment.