Report: Multimillionaire Fugitive Spends Time Fishing, Writing in Cuba

AP ^ | April 25, 2004

[nuconvert]

Report: Multimillionaire Fugitive Spends Time Fishing, Writing in Cuba

Apr 25, 2004

The Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) - A multimillionaire fugitive wanted on federal tax charges is spending his time fishing for marlin, writing and puffing on cigars in Cuba, according to a published report. "I'm an old man," Herbert Axelrod told The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark during an interview at his Havana bungalow, where he fled from federal tax charges in New Jersey last week. "I worked hard all my life and I want to relax."

A federal fugitive warrant has been issued for Axelrod, 76, on charges he conspired to defraud the IRS by helping a former executive of his pet-book publishing company hide $700,000 in bonus payments in a Swiss bank account in the 1990s.

Last week, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque denied knowing anything about Axelrod and said the island is not a haven for those fleeing justice.

On Friday, a talkative, kimono-clad Axelrod spoke with visitors for two hours at his one-bedroom bungalow in the Villa Paraiso section of Hemingway Marina. He said he had been going there for 25 years.

Axelrod is spending some of this time working on new pet-care books. Photographs of hamsters and notes on geckos and snakes rested on his wooden kitchen table.

Axelrod, a former Deal resident, said he was unfairly being targeted by the government because he's rich. "I'm a tycoon. And they're coming after the tycoons now," he said.

The charges against Axelrod are unrelated to an unusual deal last year in which he sold the so-called Golden Age Collection of 30 violins, violas and cellos crafted by legendary luthiers Antonio Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu and others during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The orchestra characterized the transaction as a gift. The selling price was listed at $18 million - including $4 million that was financed by Axelrod himself and later forgiven - well below the $50 million at which Axelrod valued the collection.

[Hank Rearden]

It's nice seeing Big Stupid Government get screwed for a change.

[clee1]

Surely he could have picked a better place to live?

[nuconvert]

"He said he had been going there for 25 years."

Guess he liked it.

[CalifornianConservative]

Uh, unfortunately, the only guys I know who like going to Cuba these days are going there as "sexual tourists".

In the early days of the "revolution" Castro castigated the Batista regime for their tolerance of prostitutes and gambling.

Now, Castro invites this type of tourism. It is worse there now than it ever was in Batista's day.

[clee1]

Maybe so.....

If I was a multimillionare, and on the run from US authorities, I could think of a few better places to go.

[nuconvert]

"the only guys I know who like going to Cuba these days are going there as "sexual tourists"."

Yeah, well, let's not get into that.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There are places in rural Missouri where I think only a coon dog could sniff you out.