Hedge Fund Fraud Gets 20 Years

Car on NY bridge belonged to exec due yesterday in prison

(NEWSER) - Police aren't ruling out suicide as a New York hedge-fund manager due to begin serving a 20-year prison term yesterday remains missing, the Wall Street Journal reports. Police found Samuel Israel's car parked near a bridge over the Hudson, with “Suicide is painless” written in dust on the hood. More»

Alleged fraudster files a motion to move to cushier Houston jail

(NEWSER) - Accused financier R. Allen Stanford is demanding he be moved from his current jail to a nicer facility in Houston, on grounds that his current cell is not comfortable enough, the New York Post reports. Stanford, charged with swindling investors out of $7 billion, complained through his lawyer that the Joe Corely Detention facility lacks air conditioning and suffers frequent power outages. More»

(NEWSER) - If past fraud cases are a guide, investors rooked by Bernard Madoff will have to wait quite a while to see even a fraction of their initial investments returned, Reuters reports. Court action is notoriously slow, but that’s only half the problem: Recovering money is possible only if it’s there to find. “I think we are talking less than half,” one lawyer said of the anticipated payout. More»

Hedge funds that sold access to Ponzi scheme face collapse

(NEWSER) - Last week Walter Noel was a successful hedge fund manager, with houses from Connecticut to the Caribbean and an adulatory photo shoot in Vanity Fair. But overnight, when Bernie Madoff's giant Ponzi scheme was exposed, his $14.1 billion firm, Fairfield Greenwich Group, lost more than half its assets. While the hedge fund capital of Greenwich has expressed sympathy for Noel, Madoff's biggest known loser—others question his firm's failure to perform due diligence on Madoff's suspiciously steady returns. More»

Swindler was money manager of choice in elite circles

(NEWSER) - Some of America's wealthiest people are finding themselves a lot poorer in the wake of the Bernard Madoff fund scandal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Madoff strived to become known as the investor of choice in elite circles, and counted New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and GMAC chairman Ezra Wilkin among the clients he swindled out of a total that could reach $50 billion. More»