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'Suicide' hedge fraudster behind bars after being told by mother to turn himself in
03.07.08
The world's biggest hedge fund fraudster was tonight behind bars after his bizarre flight from justice.
Samuel Israel staged his own suicide after being sentenced in April for cheating investors in his Bayou Group out of $450 million.
But the former tycoon turned himself in after being told to by his mother yesterday.
The balding 48-year-old arrived at a Massachusettes police station on a Yamaha scooter to turn himself in. He was talking to his mother on his mobile phone as he arrived.
Israel was tonight ordered to jail immediately.
Police said he had been holed up at a nearby caravan park in the camper van he used as a getaway vehicle.
After his April sentencing, Israel's car was found abandoned on a bridge high over the Hudson River in New York with the words "suicide is painless" scrawled in dust on the bonnet.
Police trawled the river for a body but determined the suicide was a ruse.
Co-founder of the Connecticut hedge fund Bayou Group, Israel pleaded guilty in 2005 to a scheme to fabricate returns and cheat investors out of $450 million. It is still the largest fraud case involving a hedge fund.
Ten days after his disappearance, authorities arrested his girlfriend on charges of aiding and abetting.
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