"The First International Bank of Grenada is one of the crudest-ever examples of financial crime," said David Marchant, publisher of the Miami-based "Off-Shore Alert," which exposed the scam.

Marchant said Ziegler, with no banking experience, no money and a passport issued by a nonexistent country, "Melchizedek," was able to capitalize a bank using a photograph of a 10,000-carat ruby the bank did not own or possess, and take in more than $100 million in deposits.

Like many white-collar crooks, Ziegler specialized in "ripping off the elderly and the religious" and appeared to have "no conscience about doing so," Marchant said.