Fraud-Spinning Hedge Fund Manager Fakes Own Death, Gets Two More Years In The Clink

Sam Israel III was busted for managing the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which defrauded investors out of $450 million. He received 20 years in prison.

So naturally Israel decided that the best way to get out of the punishment fraud was to try still more fraud. You know, since he was so good at getting away with fraud. In June 2008 he abandoned his SUV on an upstate New York bridge and disappeared. He turned himself in less than a month later and was slapped with two more years Wednesday.

CNN’s story on the sentencing:

Federal guidelines call for a 12- to 18-month sentence, but Karas noted that Israel’s crime “took a fair amount of planning,” and he criticized the former hedge fund manager for “thumbing his nose at the system.”

The additional sentence will begin after Israel serves his first 20 years for fraud.

The suicide was about as solid an investment as Bayou.

Faked suicide adds two years to fraud sentence [CNN]
(Photo: WABC)

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