Disbarred Lawyer in $20M+ Fraud Case Turns Himself In
A 76-year-old disbarred lawyer who disappeared earlier this month after being accused of having grossly overstated the value of the hedge funds he offered to investors has now turned himself in at an FBI office in Florida.
Arthur Nadel was accompanied by two lawyers, and is expected to be arraigned later today in federal court in Tampa on securities and wire fraud charges, reports Bloomberg. He is accused of defrauding investors of tens of millions while overstating the value of his hedge funds by $300 million or so.
The criminal charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, concerning his alleged operation of the funds between approximately 2004 and Jan. 14 of this year, Reuters reports. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed a civil fraud complaint against Nadel, and has obtained a court order freezing his assets.
Apparently expecting trouble, Nadel liquidated more than $1 million, starting in August, and put the money in secret accounts before disappearing, according to authorities. In a note he left for his wife, he suggested that she withdraw as much cash as she could and sell their Subaru if she found herself short of funds, Bloomberg recounts.
As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Nadel was disbarred in 1982 for taking $50,000 from a trust account. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law.
Additional coverage:
Wall Street Journal (sub. req.): “In Echoes Of Madoff, Ponzi Cases Proliferate”
Updated at 8:55 p.m. to include link to Wall Street Journal article.
