As we predicted, Arthur Nadel is alive.  He surrendered to authorities after two weeks on the lam.  No one had been sure what became of him after he phoned a relative to alert him to the presence of a supposed suicide note in which he expressed despair over how much of his clients money he had lost.  News reports put him in the vicinity of suburban New Orleans last week.  We will likely know soon where his two week wonderings took him, and whether he ever came close to escaping the country. (more…)

Every day that passes without authorities finding Arthur Nadel makes me think of Homer Forster, a fraudster we pursued in my days at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Forster redeemed customers’ variable annuity contracts without their knowledge or consent and took the money (just over $1.6 million) for himself.  He had been planning his escape for quite sometime, and managed to leave the country before the criminal authorities could track him down.  He and his girlfriend had applied for and received U.S. Passports under assumed names, and used them to flee the States. (more…)

Like conspicuous consumption, the financial criminal who attempts to fake his own death and takes it on the lam has become trite.  We have seen it three times in the past year. 

First, Samuel Israel, the architect of the fraudulent Bayou hedge fund, left his car on a bridge over the Hudson River with the phrase “Suicide is Painless” drawn in the dust and pollen on the hood, leaving authorities - who were expecting him to report to prison that day - wondering whether he had jumped to his death.  (more…)

Down in southwest Florida, they are calling Arthur Nadel the mini-Madoff.  It’s a lesson in proportion, I guess.  Sixty days ago, we’d have considered a $350 million financial scam to be huge.  Next to Madoff’s $50 million effort, though, it looks rather puny.

John Hielscher & Michael Pollick of the Herald Tribune are covering the Nadel case closely, and their coverage is well worth a read.  (more…)

The skies are threatening as the New York Times reports on yet another financial manager gone missing under circumstances that lead investigators to believe that he has committed suicide. 

The police are searching for Arthur Nadel, 75, a prominent Sarasota philanthropist and fund manager who was reported missing by his family Wednesday. He left a note, described as a suicide note by The Sarasota Herald- Tribune, that reported that investors could be out as much as $350 million. (more…)

It will be hard for Bernard Madoff to think of himself as smart when he’s sitting in a cell in a federal penitentiary.  And no one who has a heart for the victms of schemes like his can admire anything about his fraud.  But, among the community of scam artists, his scheme has, no doubt, attracted admirers who will learn from Madoff’s example.  (more…)

Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme may have ripples all over the world.  It will be months, if not years, before it fades from the headlines.  Let us hope that the size of the scam does not lead people to write it off as a once-in-a-lifetime event, akin to the current worldwide financial collapse.   (more…)

Grace Gagliano of the Bradenton Herald has written a terrific article about a Florida woman who allegedly defrauded members of her own church. The article recounts the tale of Leesa Heiman, whom the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested this week and charged with fraud, selling unregistered securities and money laundering. (more…)

Evan S. Benn of the Miami Herald wrote a great story about another Ponzi scheme. 

You may recognize Dr. Joshua Perper’s name from the news.  He was the top investigator in Anna Nicole Smith’s death.  And now he is in the news again, but for other reasons.  Perper says he was swindled out of $400,000 by a Ponzi scheme. (more…)

Scamsters don’t have just one target audience for their schemes.  They are looking for anyone who might fall.  This time it was the elderly with little investment experience.

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