It's a story with all the makings of a television drama: a reclusive financial whiz swindles insurance companies out of $200 million, attracts a harem of young women, outsmarts a posse of bumbling federal agents in a chase across Europe, and leads some very famous people down the garden path. Yet it's all part of the very real life of Martin Frankel. THE PRETENDER chronicles how a nerdy thirty year old used his financial skills to build an intricate Ponzi scheme based on lies and his amazing gift for luring businessmen, including Democratic power broker Robert Strauss, into his web. While Frankel's stolen millions allowed him to easily transform himself from mama's boy to corporate mogul, his attempts to go 'global' proved more challenging. Nevertheless, his creation of a phony Catholic charity drew the attention of priests with close Vatican ties and a new group of mysterious business partners, until increasing paranoia caused Frankel to vanish from his Greenwich estate, beginning a bizarre chase across Europe that would climax in a German hotel room.