Legal News

Our Ponzi Nation: Nadel to Plead Guilty

By Ashby Jones

Update: Nadel on Wednesday afternoon pleaded guilty to 15 charges related to his running a Ponzi scheme. Click here for the plea agrement.

It’s been a long and wacky ride for Florida hedge-funder Arthur Nadel, one which is slated to take a new twist on Wednesday.

According to his lawyer, Mark Gombiner of the New York Federal Defenders office, Nadel is set to plead guilty to all 15 counts charged against him in the indictment. Click here for the Bloomberg story; here for the AP story.

Nadel, 77, who founded hedge fund Scoop Management in Sarasota, made headlines early last year when he disappeared for two weeks after authorities began investigating investor complaints about missing money. He surrendered in Tampa that month.

Last spring, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed a 15-count indictment alleging securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud. Nadel previously pleaded not guilty.

Nadel allegedly raised more than $350 million from 370 investors during a 10-year period starting in 1999. Nadel told investors that the funds were pulling down double-digit gaines each year, when in fact the fund was typically losing money.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).