The author of a $100-million white-collar scam has sent a letter to his 9,200 victims, apologizing profusely and declaring himself "already dead."
Vincent Lacroix shocked a courtroom on Monday by pleading guilty to 200 fraud-related charges - a sudden about-face after the trust-fund manager spent years insisting he was innocent.
As he began what could be a lengthy prison stay, the former head of Norbourg Inc. sent a two-page letter to a French news agency, bluntly fessing up to his misdeeds. He said he was devastated by the harm he caused.
"I was a megalomaniac and completely hypnotized," said a copy of the letter, posted on the agency's website.
"I'm asking you once again for forgiveness 9,200 times over, but I understand your anger and your frustration, as well as that of the (general) public, against me. . . You have suffered from my criminality and it's extremely difficult to live with."
Where's the money?
However, Lacroix says he's puzzled that so much of the victims' money is still missing.
He said he financed many purchases with their savings before declaring personal and corporate bankruptcy. But he said much of the missing money should be with the bankruptcy receivers and that it should be distributed to his former clients.
He insisted he doesn't have any money left. Lacroix is already in prison, but arguments to determine the length of his sentence begin Friday.
He concluded his letter on a personal note.
"My children do not want to be seen in public with me," Lacroix wrote."I am a dead man.
"As I told a man who wanted to make me pay for the Norbourg scandal, you can hit me but you can't kill me. I'm already dead."
