Boelens managed the Evergreen fund with Orlando associates Jeffrey A. Stanley and William H. Blankenship whose trials are pending. Boelens has pleaded guilty to single charges of fraud conspiracy and grand larceny of at least $29.5 million from the fund, according to the District Attorney's office.

Boelens faces a maximum 15 years imprisonment on the two charges. But he is expected to receive shorter prison time for his cooperating with authorities. He comes up for sentencing April 15. Boelens' conviction is the first of what is expected to become a laundry list of Evergreen conmen coming to trial.

The purported government mortgage securities-back Evergreen fund bilked 2,000 global investors over a 10-year period beginning in 1991 from conservatively-furnished offices on Pine Street in Downtown Orlando.