An accused con man nicknamed "Brisbane's Bernie Madoff" is attempting to reverse guilty pleas he made in a Los Angeles court a year ago.
Eminiano Reodica, a 72-year-old whose alleged victims in Australia and California ranged from a grieving widow to multibillion-dollar banks, made a shock decision in the US District Court in Los Angeles in October 2015 when he admitted to 26 charges in his bank fraud case.
In the same LA court on Monday, he asked Judge James Otero for his guilty pleas to be withdrawn.
"Mr Reodica was not in a healthy place mentally or physically when he entered his guilty plea on October 5, 2015," his new lawyer, Karen Goldstein, told the judge.
Reodica, who has been locked up in LA's Metropolitan Detention Centre since his arrest in 2012 and has successfully delayed numerous trials, had defiantly argued his innocence until he made the surprise guilty pleas.
The guilty pleas came the day before his trial was scheduled to start.
Reodica claims his then lawyer told him he would lose at the trial.
"At the change of plea hearing Mr Reodica was suffering from the flu and taking antibiotics while simultaneously experiencing emotional distress at learning of his father's failing health and being swayed by his counsel's advice that the case could not be won," Ms Goldstein wrote in a court filing.
The Filipino-born Reodica's alleged fraud in California totalled more than $US70 million as he built his Grand Chevrolet company into the third-biggest car sales group in the US with 25 dealerships.
When the business crumbled in 1988, prosecutors allege Reodica wired $US500,000 to the Philippines, wrote a $US250,000 cheque to his then wife and disappeared.
In 1990, the fugitive allegedly resettled in Brisbane, became an Australian citizen and for more than 20 years lived under the alias Roberto Coscolluela.
Multiple lawsuits filed in Queensland allege Reodica, as Coscolluela, operated a tax agency and via a Ponzi scheme duped at least 26 people out of $A5 million to $A7 million.
In 2012, on the eve of a trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court where a widow with two young children accused Reodica of fleecing her of $A250,000 in superannuation and insurance payments from her husband's death, Reodica flew out of Brisbane with the aim of landing in Canada.
When the first leg of his trip stopped at Los Angeles International Airport a fingerprint check at US immigration alerted authorities to his true identity.
"Defendant repeatedly stated his name was Roberto Coscolluela while holding up his Australian passport in the same name," US prosecutors alleged.
A lawyer representing alleged Queensland victims told AAP Reodica could have more than 500 victims in Australia.
His alleged trail of deception has drawn comparisons to jailed Wall Street conman Bernie Madoff.
