Imprisoned Ponzi Schemer: It Happens to the Best of Us

Jailed Ponzi lawyer just wanted a beach house. $380 million later...

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 29, 2009 3:32 PM CDT

(Newser) – Before he left house arrest in his posh New York apartment to start serving a 20-year sentence, Ponzi schemer Marc Dreier attempted to explain his bizarre actions. Dreier sold bogus debt to expand his law firm, impersonating execs from other companies to do so. His criminal enterprise, he tells Vanity Fair, was based on desire for a beachfront Hamptons home. “I wanted to just, well, appease myself,” he says.

The desire for material fulfillment came after a divorce and a life in law that lived up to no one’s expectations, including Dreier’s own. “I wanted to be happy again,” he says. So he started selling the phony debt of an old client’s company. His connections let him continue the fraud for years as he expanded a firm awash in high-profile clients. Even in Toronto at the end of his journey, in a desperate attempt to impersonate a pension fund manager, he thought he could pull it off. “Each time I always thought it was the last one.”

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Marc Dreier. (AP Photo)

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The initial misappropriation proved to be inadequate to make the firm what I wanted. So I did it again. I had one leg into building this law firm, you know, and I couldn’t bring myself to take that leg out. It was a little like quicksand. So I kept doing it. - Marc Dreier

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 13 comments

0001tr

Sep 30, 2009 12:20 PM CDT

sorry not even close to "the best of um"...the petty thieves are captured, imprisoned and even executed...."THE BEST OF UM", we elect and put into public office..

wwwonderer

Sep 30, 2009 6:54 AM CDT

Forgot to add. This is what happens when consumerism meets greed, and they then decide to have a threesome with class/social/cultural warfare. It's a good thing shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous permeated our conscious effort in the "pursuit of happiness". Me.me.me!!!! Mine.mine.mine!!!! Look at how much stuff I have and the worth as a person it AUTOMATICALLY bestows upon me.

wwwonderer

Sep 30, 2009 6:50 AM CDT

Many here are upset by the phrase "the best of us". I think he is right. I imagine the most successful, or better yet, the most afluent have gotten there by 'questionable' methods. How many beachfront Hampton homes do you think were earned by hard work and due diligence? Sure some. But I'm willing to bet ALL of the money in Marc Dreier's wallet that MANY of his neighbors are also guilty of questionable methods used to increase their wealth.

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New York City • federal prison • Ponzi scheme • bank fraud • law firm • Bernard Madoff • Marc Dreier

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Imprisoned Ponzi Schemer: It Happens to the Best of Us