Steven Hoffenberg, a brash New York debt mogul who spend 18 years in federal prison after admitting to running a fraud scheme that prosecutors said was then among the largest such crimes in U.S. history, was found dead on August 23 in the modest apartment in Derby, CT, where he had lived for about two years. He was 77.

Mr. Hoffenberg pleaded guilty in 1995 to conspiracy and fraud charges arising from a Ponzi scheme tied to his main company, Towers Financial Corporation, which was primarily a collection firm that bought debt from businesses like hospitals, nursing homes, and phone companies.

Prosecutors said that Towers sold more than $460 million in fraudulent notes and bonds to investors, and used some of the money to pay interest owed to earlier investors. The rest went to propping up a fiscal house of cards that relied on inflated revenue and phony profits to make Towers look like a major healthcare financing firm. In his guilty plea, Mr. Hoffenberg, who once had a corporate jet, a limousine, a yacht, a Long Island estate, and a Manhattan apartment admitted to being the scheme’s mastermind. After leaving prison, he sought to blame someone else: his onetime business associate Jeffrey Epstein, who was later charged with the sexual abuse of young women and girls.