New York, February 27:

Fresh from a medical checkup, a New York hedge-fund cheat is returning to court on charges that he skipped out on a 20-year prison sentence.

Instead of reporting to federal prison last June for bilking millions from his investors, Samuel Israel faked his suicide and took off in a motor home for nearly a month before surrendering.

The 49-year-old Israel has spent months getting a physical and psychological checkup at a prison hospital in Ayer, Massachusetts.

A federal judge ordered the evaluation to help him decide whether Israel is competent to plead guilty to going on the run before a court date set for Friday.

The judge refused to accept the plea last year when Israel told him that treatment for his addiction to painkillers had impaired his thinking.