To some, Mr Vesco's ultimate scam was to suggest that the emaciated man snapped last November in a coffin, with his friends grieving round it, had something to do with him.

ECONOMIST: Robert Vesco

And they were still nowhere near the bottom of the schemes that brewed in Mr Vesco's head, behind the pencil moustache, the slicked-back hair and the dark glasses, the very essence of a Hollywood fraudster.

ECONOMIST: Robert Vesco

But Mr Vesco capped them all.

ECONOMIST: Robert Vesco