A lawyer recuperating in a hospital after a suicide attempt could serve up to 20 years in jail after police found his suicide note admitting to a five-year-long Ponzi scheme.

Charles A. Bennett, a 56-year-old corporate lawyer, was rescued by police divers after he tried to drown himself by jumping into the Hudson River in New York City last November 3. He was brought to hospital where he was charged Friday with wire and securities fraud.

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After the failed suicide attempt last month, police discovered a suicide note at Bennett's hotel room entitled "A Sad Ending to My Life". In the 16-page handwritten note, he indicated why he tried to end his life.

"I have systematically over the course of five years perpetrated a huge Ponzi scheme enveloping my family and closest friends. I managed to completely squander the hard-earned money that my family and dear friends had set aside over the course of their working lives," the complaint said, quoting the suicide note.

In the note, Bennett confessed that the whole investment was a "complete fiction" and that most of the money was used "in classic Ponzi scheme fashion". A Ponzi scheme is described as an investment scam where money from new investors is paid as returns to other investors, instead of the operator's profits.

"It was all an illusion -- not one trade was ever done," Bennett said in the note.

Bennett admitted to fooling 30 of his friends and relatives into investing a total of around $5 million in the scheme he started in 2008 to support a fancy lifestyle.

The arraignment was done remotely with the judge and the prosecution at the Manhattan federal court communicating through cellular phone with Bennett in his hospital bed and represented by his lawyer Julia Gatto. He faces up to 20 years in prison according to federal law.