Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Stamford and Stanford Swindlers

I say we sacrifice them to the great economic God in the sky. Maybe he will make the missing money reappear.

"Swindler admits fleeing after getting sentence" by Associated Press | March 17, 2009

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Hedge-fund swindler Samuel Israel III admitted in court yesterday that he went on the lam last year rather than report to prison.

Israel, 49, is likely to get at least a year added to the 20-year sentence he was given for bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. He calmly told federal Judge Kenneth Karas that he knew he was supposed to surrender on June 9 and understood he was breaking the law when he did not show up.

Israel, cofounder of Stamford, Conn.-based Bayou hedge funds, did not mention the staged suicide that began his flight. Prosecutors say he abandoned his SUV on bridge north of New York City, wrote "Suicide is Painless" in the dust on the hood, and ran.

Investigators checked for a body in the Hudson River below the bridge but also launched a manhunt. They learned from Israel's girlfriend that he had loaded an RV with clothing and a scooter and gone on the lam.

On July 2, after apparently spending a few weeks in a campground, Israel drove up on his scooter and surrendered at a Southwick, Mass., police station. He was returned to Manhattan; a judge sentenced him the next day for the hedge fund fraud and angrily revoked his $500,000 bail.

Just knowing he was so close and hiding out just down the road sickens me.

Israel, who lived in Armonk, N.Y., told that judge he had tried to commit suicide for real after becoming a fugitive but it didn't work" and I realized God didn't want me to do that and I turned myself in." --more--"

Oh, found G0d did he? We'll make him see God!

Related: Hang the Hedge-Fund Managers

He wanted to die anyway!

Here's another one you can string up!

"IRS asks to pursue Stanford for taxes" by Associated Press | March 17, 2009

WASHINGTON - The government is asking a federal judge for permission to go after at least $226.6 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest it says are owed by R. Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire who has been accused of conducting an $8 billion investment fraud through an offshore bank.

Also see: The Stanford-Madoff Connection

AmeriKan MSM Concealing Obama-Stanford Link

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday filed a request with US District Judge David C. Godbey in Dallas to also order Stanford to file his tax return for 2007 by April 15. Stanford and his wife, Susan, may owe taxes in addition to the $226.6 million for 1999-2003, the IRS said in a court filing.

Stanford was charged with fraud last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil proceeding. He has been ordered to surrender his passport but hasn't been charged with a crime.

The links prove why, don't they?

The IRS filed four tax liens against Stanford in 2007 and 2008. In August, the Stanfords requested a due-process hearing by the IRS's Office of Appeals to contest a lien filed in July for tax years 2002 and 2003 and a notice of intent to collect back taxes, the IRS said in its court filing.

The IRS said the Stanfords also have contested the validity of what it says are their tax liabilities for those two years. Stanford's personal fortune has been estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine. His assets were frozen and put into receivership after the SEC lodged its civil complaint against him on Feb. 17.

In an amended complaint filed Feb. 27, the agency accused Stanford and his finance chief James M. Davis of conducting a "massive Ponzi scheme" through companies they controlled, including Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. An attorney representing Stanford has said his client denies the SEC allegations.

I propose renaming Ponzi scheme Madoff scheme.

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