An investment manager facing a fraud investigation in the US has been arrested after apparently attempting to fake his own death in a plane crash.

US federal marshals yesterday intensified their search for an investment manager they believe faked a distress call before parachuting from his plane over Alabama and disappearing on a motorbike he had stashed in advance.

A failed financial adviser who faked his death by making a mayday call from his light plane then bailing out leaving it to crash was being hunted by US police today.