Convicted Hedge Funder's Mysterious Disappearance

Two months ago, Sam Israel III was sentenced to 20 years at a Massachusetts prison for swindling $450 million from investors in his hedge fund, the Bayou Hedge Fund Group. He was supposed to report to prison yesterday, but he never showed up. Instead his 2006 GMC Envoy was found on the Bear Mountain Bridge, keys still in the ignition and the words "Suicide is painless" (the theme song to M*A*S*H) written on the dusty hood.

While suicide has not been ruled out, ABC News' Blotter one hypothesis is that he staged the disappearance, possibly buying a black market passport on the Internet. WNBC reports that there's surveillance camera footage showing a second car pulling up next to the Envoy, though it is "unclear from the tape whether Israel gets into that vehicle."

Israel's body has not been found, and the NY State Police believe they will find it, if he did jump; investigator Brian Cuccia said told the NY Times, "The river will give him up."

When sentencing him, US District Judge Colleen McMahon told him, "You were, in every meaning of the sense, a career criminal. You ruined lives. Financial fraud, white-collar crimes are every bit as heinous as every other type of crime and they will be punished severely."

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By Jen Chung in News on June 10, 2008 5:28 PM

Comments [rss]

dronetacular

it's seems far fetched that he has ever heard of the welsh band Manic Street Preachers, but they did a cover of "Suicide is Painless" and the guitar players car was found near a bridge in Wales years ago. His body was never found, but it was ruled a suicide. Strange coincidence.

Guest

#8, he probably had half of that money earmarked for gas.

JenChungsBaby

This is why criminals should go straight to jail from sentencing. Hard to imagine how a judge could release this guy after he's handled all that cash and proved himself to be a world-class lying sack of shit.

eyekantspel

I hope the cops catch him and throw him off the Bear Mountain bridge. Assisted suicide. Save us all the costs of feeding and housing this worthless fuck.

Muscley Armed Paper Boy

He was driving a GMC Envoy? And a 2006?!? I guess $450 mill isn't worth what it used to be. I know he was probably trying to keep up appearances but c'mon, live a little.

sonyactivision

If this prick thinks he's getting off with a "little plunge off a bridge", he's got another think coming. They will drag the river, send down divers, and intoduce Vietnamese catfish into a new aquatic habitat to feed on his submerged corpse and gurgle up his DNA. This fuck's goin' down!

smitty

Wow, what a coward.

Anna_Merkin

Hillary is in Joan Jett's band? Who knew?!

suepart

you can believe that he offed himself like you can believe that hilary really supports obama in her black heart.

nik13

Israel will be spotted in Israel.

CR

How come in white-collar crime you get to "report" to prison? You've been convicted, you're a criminal, and if you have large amounts of money (which usually people who've been convicted usually have stashed away) it means you're a flight risk. I really don't understand - if getting convicted of a crime is supposed to suck then why not make it actually suck?