Filmmaker: Fraudster Marc Dreier Probably 'Very Content' Living in Prison

Just days before the largest Ponzi schemer in U.S history, Bernie Madoff, hit headlines across the world, Manhattan attorney Marc Dreier was arrested for concocting a massive fraud scheme that bilked clients of more than $750 million.

Dreier used a large portion of the fraudulent funds to sustain his increasingly lavish lifestyle, entertaining Hollywood and sports celebrities on his private yacht, building an extravagant art collection, and hosting exuberant charity benefits to create the perception of immense wealth.

So how did Dreier’s plan, employing forgeries, impersonations, conspiracy and embezzling, play out, and how did he get away with committing crimes for so long? The new documentary “Unraveled” has some answers.

Filmmaker and entertainment attorney Marc Simon, who worked for Dreier for several years and was one of more than 800 employees to lose their job when he was exposed, took his cameras inside the disgraced lawyer’s Upper East Side Penthouse, where he was spending 60 days under house arrest while awaiting sentencing, and captured his reflections, regrets and acceptance of a life behind bars.

“I have corresponded with Marc, but have not had any communication back from him in over a year. He has cocooned himself in prison. But I know about him and I’m told he is doing well," Simon told FOX411’s Pop Tarts prior to the ‘Unraveled” screening during the Los Angeles Film Festival. "There is a big weight off his shoulders now because of the stress. If it wasn’t for being away from his children, he would be very content with this lifestyle.”

In 2002, Dreier embarked on his illicit tirade – peddling fraudulent loans purportedly on behalf of his real estate tycoon client Sheldon Solow. Unable to repay the loans, he “borrowed” more and more money in a Ponzi scheme that ultimately could not sustain the credit crunch triggered by the country’s economic crisis. In the film, Dreier doesn’t hold back, dishing details about how he orchestrated his criminal spree and his consequent remorse. But he also made note of how his actions are so often applauded, at least on the big screen.

“I lost my way, I lost my common sense. I had the opportunity to take a lot of money so I did. I engaged in crimes that hurt a lot of people, people I care about,” Dreier said bluntly. “What I did was deplorable, but people go to the movies all the time, whether it is ‘Oceans 11’ or ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ – dozens and dozens of movies that romanticize going in and robbing a bank or taking money from a financial institution that can so-called afford it. The audience is essentially cheering for the financial criminal. There is hypocrisy in rooting for people to get away with it, and then taking a very different posture when it happens in so-called real life.”

Although the prosecutors were pushing for a 145 year jail term, the then 59-year-old was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on July 13, 2009. Despite requests from his legal counsel to have the divorced father-of-two placed in New York to be close to his family, Dreier was sent to Federal Correctional Institution Sandstone, a low-security prison in Minnesota.

So what compelled Dreier to agree to tell his story?

“Marc sees [participating in the documentary] as his last chance to get his word out to the public. He’s going away for two decades. He wants his last words to be that he is not a bad person, he wants to persuade audiences that he’s a good person who was just so ambitious and striving that he made a mistake,” Simon said. “Out of his great desire to be great, he just made a mistake. He’s not a bad evil, malicious person – that’s what he wants [us to think].”

“Unraveled” depicts a man not only greedy for fortune but greedy for fame.

“I spent two years in a large firm for the most part pushing around paper, that wasn’t very gratifying. A lot of what you do goes unrecognized, you get paid reasonably well, but not as well as most clients. You’re not at the financial level you deserve. That ld me to start my own law firm,” Dreier said. “And I was fearless. I made the mistake of funding the firm illegally in order to achieve the growth that I wanted. I needed recognition from others that I was doing great things.”