Schemer fails suicide – but faces $5M rap

A MANHATTAN lawyer’s failed attempt to end his life led to fraud charges after his $5 million Ponzi scheme was detailed in his 16-page suicide note, authorities said Friday.

Charles Bennett jumped into the Hudson River on Nov. 3, but was rescued by a police diver and taken to a hospital.

Less fortunately for Bennett, his note titled, “A Sad Ending to My Life,” was also recovered by cops.

“I have systematically over the course of five years or so perpetrated a huge Ponzi scheme envelloping (sic) my family and closest friends,” the note read.

“I managed to completely squander the hard earned money that my family and dear friends managed to set aside over the course of their working lives. To be clear about this: the whole . . . investment scheme that so many thought was real was in fact a complete and (sic) fiction of my crazed imagination.

“It was all an illusion — again not one trade was ever done. It was a Ponzi scheme pure and simple,” he wrote.

All of the cash went “to pay off other supposed ‘investors’ and my absurd lifestyle,” the note said.

An investigation discovered he was telling the truth — he’s charged with stealing $5 million from 30 clients since 2008.

A Securities and Exchange Commission complaint says he lured some of his victims by falsely telling them former governor Eliot Spitzer was one of his investors.

Bennett faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.