An international con artist faces a lengthy prison term next month after a paper trail unravelled whilst trying to launder money in Bermuda.

American Dennis Herula was jailed for a month in Bermuda in 2001 but left to fleece millions from super-rich investors in Denver.

But American authorities were able to snare him using documents seized during the Bermuda investigation and he faces sentencing next month along with his partner in crime, financier Claude LeFebvre.

LeFebvre was convicted in a Denver federal court this month on charges of luring an heir to the Coors brewing fortune and other wealthy people to invest more than $60 million in a scheme promising weekly returns of 75 percent.

LeFebvre was found guilty of fraud and making illegal monetary transactions. Prosecutors said LeFebvre, along with former stockbroker Dennis Herula and Herula?s wife, spent $4.3 million of the money on automobiles, jewellery, antiques and cosmetic surgery before investigators froze the accounts.

Investors were told their money would be placed in ?financial institution instruments? and that they had to have at least $10 million to participate. Prosecutors called it ?a sophisticated scheme to defraud wealthy individuals?.

Victims included Joe Coors Jr. and K. Mack Robinson of Jackson, Mississippi. LeFebvre, 61, was convicted after an eight-day trial while Herula, 57, had earlier pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and bankruptcy fraud.

He also pleaded guilty to fraud for allegedly conning $13 million in a separate scheme and could face more than 20 years in prison when he is sentenced January 21 in both cases. LeFebvre faces up to 50 years in prison and $2.3 million in fines when he is sentenced on February 25.

Bermuda Detective Inspector Raphael Simons, now in charge of CID, was working in the Financial Investigations Unit when Californian Dennis Herula was jailed for a month in December 2001 after admitting trying to open a new bank account using false documents and information.

The 54-year-old told the bank he wanted the account to be in the name of Platinum Asset Management ? a company he was hoping to set up here.

And he said a cheque for $10 million dollars, which was the proceeds of bond trading, would be credited to the account soon after from a company named Legacy 2000 Incorporated based abroad.

However investigations by the bank showed Legacy 2000 did not exist and Police were informed. Herula and his wife Mary Lee, were arrested at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel. Det. Inspector Simons, who was in Denver to testify in the Herula case, remembers dealing with Herula first time around.

?He was sort of cocky, he didn?t want to say much, he didn?t think he had done anything wrong and he didn?t think we could prove anything.?

But Herula was carrying documents and a laptop computer which had all the necessary evidence to nail him for that fraud and also help convict him of further charges in Denver.

?Because of his fraudulent lifestyle he had to back himself up ? he was going to financial institutions all over the world purporting to be something he wasn?t. He basically carried his office with him so everything he wanted was at his fingertips. Everything was on credit cards and he had the flashy jewellery.?

Herula had been full of plans to buy a house in Bermuda and ensconce himself in the posh golf clubs said Det. Insp. Simons.

But authorities in Rhode Island, including the FBI, were already onto Herula who had operated scams there before he came to Bermuda.

?He had plans for the place in Tucker?s Town, he had written a letter to his lawyers to see if he could bring his Mercedes in and had been around a dealers here inquiring about Mercedes.?

Herula had seen Bermuda as a soft touch, said Det. Insp.. Simons, which he could use to launder his dirty money but he had badly miscalculated, confusing it with laxer regimes in the Caribbean.

?Bermuda is one of the most difficult places to do that, the laws are so strict and the bank?s compliance sector are pretty much on the ball, its difficult unless it?s an elaborate scheme and even then we eventually sniff it out. He thought he was a high roller and now he is sitting in a nasty prison cell in Denver and is about to spend another eleven years there.?