Posted on 01/16/2009 8:21:57 PM PST by seacapn
Investors in a Sarasota-based hedge fund could be out $350 million, and the man behind it has vanished.
Managers of the fund are telling clients that their money is gone, and they do not know if any will be recovered.
Fund principal Arthur G. Nadel, a prominent player in Sarasota social and philanthropic circles, disappeared this week. His wife, Peg, filed a missing person report with law enforcement after finding a suicide note.
Investors — from individuals to the Sarasota YMCA Foundation — in the funds branded Viking, Valhalla and Scoop were stunned this week to learn they may be victims in what could become the largest investment swindle in Southwest Florida history.
Despite the carnage on Wall Street last year, investors had been told their investments earned more than 8 percent as of November.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldtribune.com ...
Sounds like a trend is getting started. These guys were all actors and now the show is over.
LOL
So right. Why do wealthy people trust total strangers to handle all their money?
P.T. Barnum said it best: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
I'm with you.
Not that I've had enough 'discretionary' stuff to put anywhere. But if I did, I'd follow Will Rogers advice: "Buy land. They ain't making any more."
I'm probably gonna offend a lot of folk here, but putting large amounts of money that you can't afford to loose without shooting yourself is nothing more than greed and no smarter than gambling in Vegas.
"Put not your faith in the arm of man."
There's an admonition from a pretty reliable source that might be wise to follow.
Hedge fund? There’s a name dripping risk! Sounds like a non-profit would have lots of ‘splaining to do for choosing something like that. Slammer time for their BoD, no?
Probably more Madoffs and Nadels out there before it’s all over.
Three hundred and Fifty million dollars is chump change these days!
At first when I saw ‘haroldtribune’ I thought it was a joke. The later link was spelled right. I guess lotta folks in Sarasota area are waiting for the punch line.
They're sitting by the pool in bermudas and flowery shirts soaking up some rays...
First guy says to the other; "What do you do?"
Second guy responds: "Well I was in the shmatah business, then my shop caught fire and burned down, so I decided I might well just take the insurance money and move down here."
The first guy says: "What a coincidence, I was in the shmatah business too and my shop was destroyed in a flood, so I took the insurance money and retired down here."
Second guys asks; "How do you start a flood???"
What? No-one jumps out the windows of tall building anymore?
I recall stories of stock brokers jumping from windows back in 1929. Is this an indication of bad times ahead? After all, these brokers and financial advisors know enough inside info about our economy, things the public isn’t being told, and they are losing it.
In the 1980s I invested money in a mutual fund, Fidelity Magellan.
When I bought a lot (paid cash), I cashed in my mutual fund in 1990 and paid for half the cost of having a custom home built with that money.
I did very well with that investment.
Air conditioning.
Windows don’t open anymore.
Coming out of college, I sold stocks for a couple of years. One of the biggest things I learned was that brokers don’t have to be smart. Most of them are just natural sellers. They are no smarter than anybody else. I could’ve made mad money ... it just required me to sell my soul ... I went into IT instead.
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