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Samuel Israel III
Samuel Israel III (born July 20, 1959) is an American fraudster and former hedge fund manager for the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which he founded in 1996. In 2008, Israel was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million for defrauding his investors.
Israel was born into a Jewish family of wealthy commodities traders. He attended Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York. He attended Tulane University but does not have a college degree.
In 1996 Israel founded the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which raised $450 million from its investors and for which Israel was CEO. Bayou and Israel misappropriated these funds for personal use, running what would later be revealed as a Ponzi scheme. After poor returns in 1998, the firm founded a dummy accounting firm, which they hired to audit themselves in order to keep up appearances to investors.
In an attempt to recoup investing losses, Israel became embroiled in a series of highly speculative if not outright fraudulent schemes. He gave a $10 million loan to Robert Booth Nichols, a self-described espionage agent who gave Israel as collateral a series of supposed bonds from a vast and secretive "shadow market" similar to the prime bank fraud. These and other schemes all were unsuccessful for Israel, who was also heavily abusing cocaine and dealing with a series of painful surgeries.
The scheme was exposed after a series of investors grew suspicious and demanded their funds from Bayou only to be rebuffed. On September 29, 2005 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against Bayou, Israel, and Bayou CFO Daniel Marino. The next year, the hedge fund filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection.
Israel pled guilty and on April 14, 2008, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million to compensate victims. He was allowed to remain free until being sent to prison, due to pre-existing medical issues that needed treatment.
Israel failed to report to prison as ordered on June 9, 2008. His 2006 GMC Envoy was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge on June 10, 2008 with the phrase "Suicide is Painless" written in dust on the vehicle's hood. The phrase is the title of the theme song for both the movie and TV series M*A*S*H.
Police suspected Israel attempted to fake his own death in order to avoid prison. Israel and his girlfriend were featured on America's Most Wanted.
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Samuel Israel III
Samuel Israel III (born July 20, 1959) is an American fraudster and former hedge fund manager for the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which he founded in 1996. In 2008, Israel was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million for defrauding his investors.
Israel was born into a Jewish family of wealthy commodities traders. He attended Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York. He attended Tulane University but does not have a college degree.
In 1996 Israel founded the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which raised $450 million from its investors and for which Israel was CEO. Bayou and Israel misappropriated these funds for personal use, running what would later be revealed as a Ponzi scheme. After poor returns in 1998, the firm founded a dummy accounting firm, which they hired to audit themselves in order to keep up appearances to investors.
In an attempt to recoup investing losses, Israel became embroiled in a series of highly speculative if not outright fraudulent schemes. He gave a $10 million loan to Robert Booth Nichols, a self-described espionage agent who gave Israel as collateral a series of supposed bonds from a vast and secretive "shadow market" similar to the prime bank fraud. These and other schemes all were unsuccessful for Israel, who was also heavily abusing cocaine and dealing with a series of painful surgeries.
The scheme was exposed after a series of investors grew suspicious and demanded their funds from Bayou only to be rebuffed. On September 29, 2005 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against Bayou, Israel, and Bayou CFO Daniel Marino. The next year, the hedge fund filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection.
Israel pled guilty and on April 14, 2008, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million to compensate victims. He was allowed to remain free until being sent to prison, due to pre-existing medical issues that needed treatment.
Israel failed to report to prison as ordered on June 9, 2008. His 2006 GMC Envoy was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge on June 10, 2008 with the phrase "Suicide is Painless" written in dust on the vehicle's hood. The phrase is the title of the theme song for both the movie and TV series M*A*S*H.
Police suspected Israel attempted to fake his own death in order to avoid prison. Israel and his girlfriend were featured on America's Most Wanted.
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