Clyde "Peter" Hall cheated investors out of millions of dollars by promising to help them obtain loans from banks, only to accept large deposits before failing to deliver on his promises, the government said.

Hall pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors said in court papers that federal sentencing guidelines call for him to receive more than 27 years in prison for a fraud that lasted from 2004 until his January 2007 arrest.

Hall, drafted out of Marquette University as a quarterback in 1960, became "a professional fraudster," Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brown told Judge Richard J. Sullivan. He was on the team only one season and was not used as a quarterback; he was moved to end.

Brown said Hall had filed for bankruptcy in 1998, 2002 and 2004 and had never paid taxes until he was accused of the current fraud.

"Mr. Hall knows how to manipulate," he said.

Hall was apologetic when he entered his plea, saying he initially thought it was a legal venture when a close friend and another person enlisted him to help sell financial instruments he did not understand.

"There were red flags," he said. "There were warning bells. I should have felt like I was in the middle of St. Patrick's Cathedral. I ignored those flags and I ignored those bells and I did not react in a proper way."