REMEMBER Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the movie Catch Me If You Can? He was a crook with nerve and verve. You couldn't help but secretly admire the guy.

TEXT/ILLUSTRATION: LARRY HAVERKAMP AND MAROO

Marc Dreier, 58, is like that too.

He earned his first degree from Yale and a law degree from Harvard. He went to work at top New York law firms, eventually setting up his own: Dreier LLP.

It grew into a powerhouse of 250 lawyers.

Then, Dreier allegedly found a way to make money even faster: Steal it.

He borrowed on behalf of his clients but allegedly kept the money himself. The clients were unaware of the phony loans.

Lenders were 40 of the smartest hedge funds in the US. Didn't they bother to check where the money went?

Yes, but Dreier had that base covered too.

He gave lenders the borrower's phone number but it actually rang at the offices of Dreier LLP. An associate impersonated the borrower and provided whatever assurances the lender wanted. Slick.

It was so easy that Dreier got careless and defaulted on a US$60 million ($90 million) loan. The worried lender - a hedge fund - asked to meet the borrower who, you will recall, had never heard of this loan.

Did he panic? Not our boy Marc.

He asked the hedge fund to meet him at the borrower's New York headquarters.

Smooth talker

There, Dreier talked his way past the receptionist by saying he had an appointment with the CEO.

He and an associate plopped themselves in the firm's conference room where the associate impersonated the borrower's chief accountant. He promised the US$60 million would be repaid.

Dreier LLP ultimately repaid that US$60million, but he did it with a new loan of US$100 million from a different hedge fund.

It was the same deal. Dreier said he represented a borrower but he allegedly pocketed the US$100 million himself.

His downfall came almost by accident.

Last November, he made a pitch to borrow US$33 million from the Fortress hedge fund. He said the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) was the guarantor.

Fortress asked to meet OTPP at their Toronto headquarters.

Marc Dreier was Mr Cool.

First, he found a pretence to meet the OTPP general counsel, Mr Michael Padfield, and exchanged name cards.

Later, he returned to the OTPP reception area, waited for the Fortress man and introduced himself as Mr Padfield, handing him the name card he had just received from Mr Padfield.

Later, the Fortress manager casually asked the OTPP receptionist if that was really Michael Padfield. She said no, the man was a visitor.

That is all it took. The Toronto police were called. Dreier was arrested. He posted bail and returned to New York where he was arrested at the airport for securities fraud.

Slowly, the enormity of his scheme unravelled. The fraud stands at US$700 million so far. Today, Dreier sits at home, under house arrest in his luxury condo.

If found guilty, he faces 30 years to life in prison.

The men & their Ponzi schemes

First place: Madoff Fund

Fund size: US$50 billion ($75b)

Missing money: US$49 billion

Bernard (Bernie) Madoff, 70, convinced investors that the Madoff fund earned perpetually high returns of around 10 per cent per year.

He made up those numbers.

It was a classic Ponzi scam that took money from new investors to pay old ones.

Madoff now sits in jail with sentencing scheduled for June.

He is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Before going to jail, he spent three months under house arrest and complained he couldn't go out for dinner.

Second place: Stanford Group

Managed assets: US$50 billion

Missing money: Still counting

Prosecutors say Allen Stanford, 60, ran a Ponzi scheme but unlike Madoff, Stanford says he is innocent.

In a tearful interview last week, he said his life has been tough since the government confiscated his six private jets.

The last time he flew commercial was 20 years ago and Stanford seems surprised by the increase in airport security.

He said: 'They make you take your shoes off and everything. It's terrible.'

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