Lawyer’s Suicide Confession Can Stand, Though He Survived

In November 2014 a lawyer who had hit rock bottom – after duping dozens of people, including his parents, in a $5 million Ponzi scheme – jumped off a Manhattan pier and left behind a 16-page suicide note entitled, “A Sad Ending to My Life.” Police pulled Charles Bennett from the river and resuscitated him, then discovered the lengthy and detailed written confession. Bennett was charged with fraud based on the confession, and in October 2015 he pleaded guilty. The Washington Post details Bennett’s dive into addiction, fraud, and depression, and even accusations from some victims that the suicide was staged to evoke sympathy. “I think he’s a narcissist who’s trying to beat the system,” said Brendt Mullan, one of Bennett’s Ponzi pawns. Bennett was sentenced to five years in prison.