Did He Get the Idea from Krusty the Clown?

In a bizarre piece of news, Marcus Schrenker, a suburban Indianapolis financial manager under investigation for securities fraud apparently attempted to fake his own disappearance or death in an airplane crash as a means of subterfuge. When the news broke yesterday, the word was that a pilot had called in a distress call after which authorities found the wreckage of a plane but no body. Later, it was discovered that the pilot had been picked up by police officers unaware of the distress call, checked into a hotel under a false name, and then skipped out.

At one point, I thought this was a Johnny Knoxville-ish Jackass stunt pulled out of boredom gone terribly awry. Then word came of the investigation for securities fraud and the whole thing started to make a little more sense.

I wonder if Schrenker got this idea from a Simpsons episode "Bart the Fink", where Krusty the Clown, in an attempt to dodge tax-evasion charges, fakes his own death in a nightime plane crash. Just another case where life imitates art.