Lifestyles Of The Rich And Wanted

By Melissa August, Michelle Derrow, Aisha Durham, Daniel S. Levy, Lina Lofaro, David Spitz and Chris Taylor

THE UNTOUCHABLES The hunt for financier Martin Frankel and at least $215 million from insurance firms he controlled led us to wonder what happened to the other moneymen on the lam. A roundup:

In 1997 investors lost billions when it was revealed that Bre-X Minerals engaged in the largest mining fraud in history. Bre-X vice chairman John Felderhof, who is charged with insider trading, lives beyond extradition, with his wife, in the Cayman Islands.

Christopher Skase is wanted in Australia, following the 1989 collapse of his highly leveraged firm, Qintex, under $1 billion in debts. He resides in a mansion in Majorca, from which the Spanish government refuses to extradite him.

Billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich fled to Switzerland in 1983 after he was indicted for wire fraud, racketeering and trading with the enemy by allegedly buying oil from Iran. He now resides in a villa near Lucerne with a private harbor and a steel-gated boathouse.

Thankfully, there is justice for some. Robert Vesco left the U.S. in 1972 after looting a mutual fund of $224 million and making an illegal $200,000 donation to Richard Nixon's campaign. He eventually found refuge in Cuba, only to be jailed by that government in 1996 for marketing an unproved cancer drug.