Financier Jake Butcher pleaded guilty.

Butcher, whose $3-billion business empire collapsed in one of the biggest bank failures in U.S. history, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in U.S. District Court in Memphis, Tenn., for the second time in eight days. Butcher, 48, admitted using forged signatures to defraud United American Bank of Memphis out of $1.5 million. He pleaded guilty to three counts of bank fraud and one count of mail fraud as part of a deal that guaranteed him no more than 20 years in a federal prison.