Arthur G. Nadel 75, Msg 01/14/09, Miami FL [LOCATED]

[sarahhod]

Police probe Fla. fraud claim, missing fund leader

By SUZETTE LABOY – 2 hours ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9PfJ4Jvx9jv0OKaLKaEXnVym8BAD95P1UNO0

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors out of millions is missing and his family is worried because he left a note indicating he was "distraught," police said Saturday.

Authorities were interviewing investors and looking into claims that Arthur G. Nadel stole from them, said Sarasota Police Capt. Bill Spitler. It was too soon to say exactly how much was invested, but there were reports the hedge fund could be out $350 million.

"The victims that I know of, I know some of them personally, they have no reason to lie," Spitler said.

Nadel, who operated under the name Scoop Management Inc. in Sarasota, was last seen Wednesday morning by his wife. She reported him missing later that day. Nadel, 75, left a note for his family, although authorities nor his wife would divulge its contents.

"The reason we were called was because he was distraught and they became concerned," said Sarasota County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Chuck Lesaltato.

Peg Nadel said she was cooperating with the authorities and all the investors, but wouldn't go into any detail.

Local authorities were working with the Securities Exchange Commission and FBI in the ongoing fraud investigation.

Arthur Nadel was prominent in local social and philanthropic circles in the beach town along the central Gulf Coast. His investors ranged from individuals to the local YMCA Foundation, The Sarasota-Herald Tribune reported.

Neil Moody, who said he employed Scoop as a trader for three funds in which he was a general partner, has told several investors interviewed by the newspaper that the hedge funds value was $350 million. He said Saturday that he has also lost millions.

"My family is over $12 million at risk," he said. He would not give any further information.

Moody, a director of the YMCA and first vice chair, told the group's local president Thursday that the money was gone and resigned from the board, the newspaper reported.

Another investor said he was not optimistic about getting the $730,000 he invested back.

"I feel abused. I feel beaten. I don't know who to believe," said Dr. Brad Lerner, an internal medicine physician.

[sarahhod]

Florida money manager, millions, missing: police
Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:57am GMT

http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE50G0JZ20090117


MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida money manager is missing and police have opened an investigation into the possible disappearance of "hundreds of millions" of dollars, authorities said on Friday.

Police are searching for Arthur Nadel, 75, a prominent Sarasota philanthropist and fund manager who was reported missing by his family on Wednesday.

Sarasota police are investigating complaints from at least five investors in Nadel's funds, run from a management office in Sarasota, that their money has disappeared. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported investors could be out as much as $350 million.

"It was brought to our attention that there has been a very significant number of victims with a very significant amount of money that has disappeared," Sarasota Police Capt. Bill Spitler said. "Allegedly it's hundreds of millions of dollars."

The investigation began just over a month after authorities arrested New York money manager Bernard Madoff, the suspected mastermind of a Ponzi scheme that may have cost investors $50 billion.

Lt. Chuck Lesaltato, a spokesman for the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, said investigators were told Nadel left his home in a Sarasota suburb on Wednesday morning for work, but later called his stepson and told him there was a note at his house. The family then called the police.

"They thought he (Nadel) was distraught," he said.

Lesaltato said he could not divulge the contents of the note. The Herald-Tribune called it a suicide note.

"We are following up a couple of leads. We are concerned for his safety," Lesaltato said.

Nadel managed funds called Valhalla, Viking, and Scoop, the newspaper said.

The report said Neil Moody, an associate of Nadel, told investors in a statement the funds "may have virtually no remaining value." The paper said Moody had contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other authorities to report the situation.

Reached at his Sarasota home on Friday night by Reuters, Moody said he would make a statement on Saturday.

A call to the fund's offices was not returned.

Spitler said the police investigation began on Friday afternoon after calls from at least five possible victims, and that many more called after news of the situation broke.

"You're talking about people who have lost the majority of their life savings," he said. "We are investigating all of the funds at that place (Nadel's company)."

"Many of our victims have lost $500,000 and up," he said.

Nadel's wife, Peg, told the newspaper, "The way I want to be represented is we are totally open and cooperative with all our clients and the authorities, and that includes the SEC.

"We have nothing to hide. But until our counsel has a statement prepared for us to make public, we cannot comment on what is happening here," the paper quoted her as saying.

[sarahhod]

Nadal's stepson: 'We hope that he is safe'

HALLE STOCKTON

Published: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 1:23 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 1:31 p.m.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090117/BREAKING/901170296/2055



A Sarasota fund principal who vanished this week was last heard from Wednesday afternoon when he called his stepson to retrieve a note he had left at home, said the Sarasota County Sheriff’s spokesman.

Arthur G. Nadel – an operator of a Sarasota-based hedge fund whose investors may now be out $350 million – was seen by his wife, Peg Nadel, preparing to go to work Wednesday morning, said Sarasota Lt. Chuck Lesaltato.

Around 1:20 p.m., Nadel’s stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, received a call from Nadel to go to his home and read the note he had left behind.

The contents of the note, which Lesaltato said he could not discuss, spurred Nadel’s family to call in a missing persons report.

The missing persons report from the Sheriff's Office lists Nadel's disappearance as a possible suicide. But Lesaltato was reluctant to characterize the note left behind as a suicide note.

“It was enough to alarm the family and to show that Mr. Nadel was distraught,” he said, adding that investigators are “concerned about his welfare.”

Geoff Quisenberry, the stepson of Nadel, said today that the family is not yet prepared to comment but that they are trying to gather their thoughts as quickly as possible.

“Other than that, all I can say is ... we love him. We miss him. We hope that he is safe, and we hope that he comes home,” said Quisenberry.

Lesaltato said the department has followed a few leads garnered through speaking with Nadel’s family, but there have been no tips from the general public.

He could not disclose details about those leads or what, if any, locations had been searched for Nadel, who is also a well-known local philanthropist.

Sarasota Police Department Capt. Bill Spitler said the agency received several phone calls Friday evening from people concerned about their funds. He did not have details about the peoples’ complaints.

[sarahhod]

Sarasota Police investigating multi-million dollar scheme

Updated: Jan 17, 2009 04:20 AM

http://www.wwsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=9689460&nav=menu577_1


SARASOTA - The Sarasota Police Department is looking into a huge theft that could involve hundreds of millions of dollars. And a Sarasota man who could be connected to the money...is missing.

Sarasota County Sheriff's deputies are looking for 75-year-old Art Nadel. On Wednesday, he was reported missing by his wife. Sheriff's deputies say a note was found at Nadel's house.

Deputies say they have a few leads as to Nadel's whereabouts. According to public records, over the years, Nadel has been connected to dozens of Suncoast businesses and has been a prominent member of the community.

Nadel has been described as a money manager, and deputies think he may be linked to the missing money. "Sarasota Police Department got a call earlier today from the Sarasota Sheriffs Department in reference to a large scale theft that had occurred," says Capt. Bill Spitler.

Detectives say hundreds of millions of dollars are involved. Some are calling the theft a Ponzi scheme, which is a type of illegal pyramid scam. It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul. The scheme works when investors give money. Then, as more investors contribute, some of that money is given back to the original investors...until eventually the scheme crumbles.

Detectives say multiple victims have already come forward - and not just individuals, but organizations as well.

The Sarasota YMCA and the Sarasota Ballet received a financial endowment, which may have been invested into the scheme. A YMCA representative tells ABC 7 they were told the money is gone.

Detectives believe many more people could be involved. "It is apparent that there has been a large scale theft of money, and as soon as we can figure out more we are asking for victims. We know that there are more than one victim. We've been contacted by more than one victim, so if anybody has any information or they've been victimized, they can call the Sarasota Police Department," says Capt. Spitler.

Detectives say since they started their investigation Friday afternoon, they are continuing to receive calls from numerous victims - not only here on the Suncoast, but from other states.

If you think you could be a victim, the Sarasota Police Department would like to hear from you.

And if you've seen Art Nadel, contact the Sarasota Sheriff's Office.

[sarahhod]

Sarasota hedge fund manager missing, $350 million vanished
Last Edited: Saturday, 17 Jan 2009, 1:42 PM EST
Created: Saturday, 17 Jan 2009, 1:42 PM EST

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=8269260&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1



http://i43.tinypic.com/2ep7x2e.jpg
Arthur Nadel

SARASOTA—The director of a hedge fund in Sarasota is missing, and his investors may be out of millions of dollars.

75-year-old Arthur Nadel has disappeared, along with $350 million in investors’ funds.

According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, Nadel’s wife filed a missing person’s report after finding a suicide note, but no body.

Nadel reportedly could not pay out $50 million in demands for withdrawals at the end of last year.

Several investors have filed police reports.

[sarahhod]

Nadel's car found at SRQ

By Kim Hackett

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090117/BREAKING/901170287/2055

Published: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 3:53 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 5:05 p.m.


Authorities confirmed today that they found Art Nadel’s light green Subaru earlier this week at the Sarasota-Bradenton airport.

Sarasota Sheriff’s spokesman Chuck Lesaltato said that airport police found the car at 4 P.M. Thursday, the day after his wife reported him missing. Police searched the car and then released it back to Nadel's family, Lesaltato said.

[sarahhod]

Missing money manager believed alive: associate
Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:42am GMT

http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE50G0JZ20090118


By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - A missing Florida money manager is believed to be alive, his business associate said on Saturday as police investigated the possible disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars from investment funds.

The family of Arthur Nadel, 75, a Sarasota, Florida, philanthropist and president of Scoop Management, Inc., reported him missing on Wednesday.

He left a note for his family that was characterized by a local newspaper as a suicide note. Police would not disclose its contents but said his family believed he was "distraught" at the time of his disappearance.

On Friday, Sarasota police launched an investigation, saying they had received complaints that "hundreds of millions of dollars" may have vanished from the funds Nadel managed.

Neil Moody, a Nadel business associate and the founder of a fund family that invested with Scoop, said Nadel has been in contact with Nadel's wife. He said he believed Nadel was still alive.

"At this point we have every indication that he is," Moody told Reuters, adding that he did not know where Nadel was.

"If we knew where he was, we'd be on him," Moody said.

The Florida investigation, which the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said could involve as much as $350 million, began just over a month after the arrest of New York money manager Bernard Madoff on charges he ran a giant $50 billion Ponzi scheme that shook the investment world.

The Madoff case rattled charities and wealthy families in Palm Beach on Florida's east coast. The Nadel allegations have struck hard in Sarasota, on the state's west coast, where the missing money manager was well-known in society circles and a prominent donor to local causes.

Moody's Valhalla Management said it contracted with Nadel's Sarasota-based Scoop Management to invest funds branded as Valhalla, Viking, and Viking IRA. The Herald-Tribune said Moody told investors in a statement this week that the funds may have "virtually no remaining value."

The paper said Moody had contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other authorities to report the situation.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Valhalla Management characterized Nadel's last message as a suicide note.

"It appears, however, that he is likely still at large. It also appears that he has engaged in improper and unauthorized activities," the statement said.

"The owners of Valhalla Management, who had contracted with Scoop Management to invest substantially all of Valhalla and related fund's assets, are cooperating with all local and federal authorities to determine exactly what happened."

VICTIMS CONTACT POLICE

Moody, who is also prominent in Sarasota social circles and active in causes ranging from the YMCA to the local symphony, was the founder of Valhalla Management and Viking Management, according to published reports.

Moody's lawyer, James Fox Miller of Boies, Schiller and Flexner, issued a brief statement via e-mail saying that Moody and his son, Christopher, were also victims of Nadel.

"Our clients Neil and Christopher Moody just learned that they, along with many others who invested monies with Arthur Nadel have been victimized by his unauthorized and inappropriate actions," it said.

Sarasota police said the investigation began on Friday after calls from at least five possible victims. Capt. Bill Spitler said many of the victims appeared to have lost $500,000 or more, some the majority of their life savings.

Other victims had come forward since news of Nadel's disappearance broke, Spitler said.

Geoff Quisenberry, Nadel's stepson, was quoted in the Herald-Tribune on Saturday as saying Nadel's family was not ready to comment on the allegations.

"Other than that, all I can say is ... we love him. We miss him. We hope that he is safe, and we hope that he comes home," Quisenberry told the newspaper.

[sarahhod]

Another Bernard Madoff? Hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel vanishes with $350 million of clients' cash

BY TINA MOORE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/17/2009-01-17_another_bernard_madoff_hedgefund_manager.html

Saturday, January 17th 2009, 5:35 PM


In a case with parallels to the Bernie Madoff scandal, a prominent Florida hedge-fund manager has vanished - and so has up to $350 million of his clients' money.

Sarasota police said they are looking into claims that Arthur Nadel, 76, defrauded investors before leaving a distraught note for his family and disappearing.

Nadel's wife, Peg, filed a missing person report with police on Wednesday. She told the Daily News on Saturday that she's cooperating.

"We are being very proactive," she said.

"There is nothing to show that anything was taken. They're investigating his disappearance for his own safety and his own well-being."

Some reports estimated that the hedge fund was out some $350 million, but Spitler said it's too soon to say exactly how much it was worth.

Nadel - president of Scoop Management - graduated from New York University Law School and was a real estate developer in the 1960s.

He was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 14 when he left for work, cops said.

He called his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, and told him to go to his house where he had left a note, cops said.

His disappearance comes a month after authorities charged Madoff, 70, with securities fraud for allegedly duping investors with a giant $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Earlier this week, Marcus Schrenker, an Indiana investment adviser suspected of bilking investors, was taken into custody by police in Florida, after allegedly attempting to fake his death in a plane crash.

tmoore@nydailynews.com

[sarahhod]

Family Pleads for Florida Money Manager's Return
By: CNBC.com | 18 Jan 2009 | 04:42 AM ET

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28715184


The family of a Florida money manager who has been missing since Wednesday is pleading for him to come home.

Seventy-six-year-old Arthur Nadel, who managed some $350 million for six Sarasota-based hedge funds, was last seen on Wednesday. That same day, investors in the funds were notified in a letter that all the funds' assets appeared to be gone.

While police initially were investigating the case as a possible suicide, it now appears Nadel did not go through with it. In a statement provided to CNBC by Nadel's stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, the family says, "We love him very much and would like him to come home." And a business partner, Neil Moody, told Reuters: "At this point we have every reason to believe that he is (alive)."

The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating where the $350 million went. In their statement, Nadel family members say that they, too, "have been victimized by his unauthorized actions," CNBC has learned.

Nadel is the general partner for Scoop Management, which operates three hedge funds. He also manages the assets for the Viking and Valhalla funds, for which Moody serves as general partner. The companies share a single office in Sarasota.

Here is the full statement from Scoop Management issued late Saturday to CNBC:

"The employees of Scoop Management, which includes Peg Nadel, the wife of Arthur Nadel, have just learned that they along with many others who invested money with Art have been victimized by his unauthorized actions. We are cooperating with all the appropriate authorities, and are in the process of gathering facts. We are also very focused on attempting to find our husband and father and employer to assure him that we love him very much and would like him to come home."

According to a police report, Nadel had phoned his stepson on Wednesday, distraught. He told him to "come over and read a note," apparently a suicide note. While it now appears Nadel did not follow through, his exact wherabouts are not known.

The Sarasota County Sherrif's Department confirmed to CNBC that they found Nadel's car Thursday afternoon at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport. It was not immediately clear if Nadel has his passport.

Arthur and Peg Nadel are prominent members of Sarasota society, raising funds for organizations including the Sarasota Opera, Jewish Family and Children's Services, and Habitat for Humanity.

[sarahhod]

Police find car of missing Sarasota hedge fund manager

By Times staff, wire reports
In Print: Sunday, January 18, 2009

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article968540.ece

SARASOTA — Police found the car of a missing investment fund manager at the airport this week, authorities confirmed Saturday.

Arthur G. Nadel, 75, and $350-million of investor money were believed to have vanished this week after Nadel's family reported him missing. Managers of the fund have told investors that the money is gone, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.

Police at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport found his light green Subaru on Thursday, the Herald-Tribune reported on its Web site Saturday.

Local authorities were working with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI in the ongoing fraud investigation.

Investigators were interviewing investors and looking into claims that Arthur G. Nadel stole from them, said Sarasota police Capt. Bill Spitler.

It was too soon to say how much was invested, but there were reports the hedge fund could be out $350-million. Investors had last heard that their money earned more than 8 percent as of November, despite market losses in a historic economic downturn.

"The victims that I know of, I know some of them personally, they have no reason to lie," Spitler said.

Nadel, who operated under the name Scoop Management in Sarasota, was last heard from on Wednesday.

That morning, his wife, Peg Nadel, saw him getting ready for work, Sarasota Lt. Chuck Lesaltato told the Herald-Tribune.

About 1:20 p.m., Nadel called stepson Geoff Quisenberry and told him to go home and read the note he left. After doing so, his family reported him missing.

"It was enough to alarm the family and to show that Mr. Nadel was distraught," Lesaltato said of the note, adding that investigators are concerned about his welfare.

The missing persons report lists his disappearance as a possible suicide, but Lesaltato was reluctant to describe the letter as a suicide note.

Quisenberry said Saturday that the family is not yet ready to comment. "We love him. We miss him. We hope that he is safe, and we hope that he comes home," Quisenberry said.

Art Nadel's ex-wife, Virginia Hoffman, a Sarasota artist, said she ran into her ex-husband six weeks ago. She said she immediately knew something was amiss.

"I knew something had to be going on," Hoffman said. "I think things must have been coming down around his head, and he was holding on for dear life."

The couple divorced in 1991 after four years of marriage, though she said they had seen each other for a decade before marrying.

"My husband had a history in Sarasota that wasn't a secret," Hoffman said of Nadel. "Many here knew about his past business deals which had gone sour. Yet, folks still trusted him with their money. Why?"

[sarahhod]

Seeking Nadel, and answers

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090118/ARTICLE/901180368/-1/NEWSSITEMAP


http://i44.tinypic.com/i43cwj.jpg
Arthur Nadel and Neil Moody operated under the name Scoop Management Inc. in a double storefront at 1816 Main St. in Sarasota.



Published: Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 12:38 a.m.

As burned investors tallied their losses, law enforcement authorities pressed their search Saturday for missing hedge fund operator Arthur G. Nadel of Sarasota.

http://i43.tinypic.com/e0s9k5.jpg
Arthur G. Nadel of Sarasota reportedly has been missing since Wednesday. Sources say he has left Florida.

Nadel reportedly has not been seen since Wednesday, the day before other fund managers admitted to customers that their money, totaling some $350 million, was gone.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Nadel's light green Subaru was found Thursday afternoon at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Deputies searched the car before releasing it to the family.

Nadel, 75, a well-known figure in Sarasota's social and charity worlds, appears to be the key to learning how the hedge funds he oversaw were wiped out.

Law enforcement officials say their priority is finding Nadel and returning him to Sarasota. The FBI has been brought in to assist the investigation.

Sources close to the investigation say Nadel has left the state. Some of the missing money may have been moved overseas, they added.

Nadel's wife, Peg, said she last saw him Wednesday morning, as he prepared to go to work. She is also a principal in Scoop Management Inc.

Art Nadel's last known contact was Wednesday afternoon, when he called his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, to retrieve a note Nadel had left at his home.

The note, which Quisenberry said referred to suicide, alarmed the family and spurred them to call in a missing person report.

On Saturday, Quisenberry read from a statement prepared by the family:

"The employees of Scoop Management, which includes Peg Nadel, the wife of Arthur Nadel, have just learned that they, along with many others who have invested money with Art, have been victimized by his unauthorized actions," he read.

Quisenberry also said the family is cooperating with authorities and is still trying to piece together what happened.

In a letter to investors, Fund principal Neil V. Moody stated that the funds "may have virtually no remaining value," and that no one else at downtown Sarasota's Scoop Management realized the funds were empty.

Michael Zucker, Scoop's internal accountant, said he was "blindsided" by the turn of events.

"We're trying to trace everything backwards," Zucker said. "We had no idea this was happening, that money was disappearing. We saw statements and assumed they were accurate." Zucker said he was primarily responsible for preparing year-end partnership tax returns.

Law enforcement officials say there is no indication that others in the company were aware that money was missing before Nadel's disappearance.

The Nadels and Moody were heavily involved in a variety of Sarasota nonprofit organizations -- as donors, board members and, at least twice, in ways that brought their outside businesses into play.

At Habitat for Humanity, the Nadels donated money and used the charity as a launch pad for their own product -- a highly energy-efficient system for building affordable panelized homes. Peg Nadel has also been in charge of the group's capital fundraising campaign for about 18 months.

"I was literally in shock," said Habitat board chairman Zeb Portanova. "It is a big deal for our town."

Habitat had no funds invested in any of the Nadel-managed funds.

But Habitat does have a contract for 12 of the panelized homes built by Home Front Homes, a Sarasota County company that is majority-controlled by the Nadels.

The couple gave generously, but they also had something to gain. "Hundreds of thousands were donated to Habitat," said Portanova. "A portion of that was, 'I want to make our homes more affordable so you guys can use them.' There was hundreds of thousands on top of that that was pure gifts."

The Nadels and Moody were involved at Girls Inc. of Sarasota County. The Nadels shared a vice-chairman role at the group's foundation, and Moody donated $30,000 in cash last summer.

"We definitely do not have any investments," said executive director Stephania Feltz.

At Circus Sarasota, Peg Nadel was the event chairwoman for its recent annual gala.

The investigation into Nadel and the hedge funds has been slowed by the three-day weekend. Banks are closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, preventing investigators from examining Nadel's bank records.

October was a tough month for all investors, but accountant Zucker thought Nadel was working through it.

"He was pulling out of it," he said. "I thought he was very confident about the future of the funds. That's what we all thought."

Zucker has known Nadel for 12 years and his wife for 17 years.

Nadel graduated from New York University's School of Law and was a lawyer and real estate developer in New York before moving to Sarasota, Zucker said.

The couple met in the 1990s and started a small investment newspaper and investment clubs, said Zucker, who became the accountant in their various enterprises.

Portanova, co-developer of the proposed The Proscenium project near the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, toyed with the idea of investing with the Nadels, but never did.

He says he sat with Art Nadel a couple of times and asked to be walked through the investment.

His impression was that Nadel traded leveraged derivatives, such as the one based on the NASDAQ 100 stock market index.

"He was essentially a day trader," said Portanova.

"If I had won the lottery tomorrow, would I put a couple million bucks with them? Yeah, I probably would have."

Alex Quisenberry, Peg Nadel's daughter, is answering her mother's cell phone these days. She said the family has not heard from Art.

"This case, like many others, is a case of how one of the most intelligent and wonderful men on the planet can have bad things happen," she said. "His family loves him and wants him home. We are just hoping and praying a lot."

Contact John Hielscher at 361-4875 and Michael Pollick at 361-4874.

[sarahhod]

FBI join the search for missing Florida fund manager Nadel

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2009/01/19/2003434089

BLOOMBERG


The FBI and securities regulators joined the investigation of Arthur Nadel, the Florida hedge-fund manager who disappeared five days ago, leaving clients concerned they may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Officials from the FBI and the US Securities and Exchange Commission are helping on the case, Sarasota Police Lieutenant Stanley Beishline said yesterday in a telephone interview. One of Nadel’s business partners, Neil Moody, said Nadel had spoken to his wife since taking off.

Nadel, 76, is president of Scoop Management Inc in Sarasota, which oversees funds including Valhalla Investment Partners LP. He was reported missing on Wednesday after he called his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, and told him to go to his house where he had left a note, Lieutenant Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said.

Nadel’s wife, Peg, and Quisenberry, were concerned about his welfare, Lesaltato said. Nadel had sounded distraught, Lesaltato said, citing the note. Beishline said he believes Nadel is alive.

“I think he is, at least until a couple of investors find him,” Beishline said in an interview.

Scoop may have managed as much as US$350 million, although that may be high because performance results were exaggerated, Moody said in an interview. He said he contracted with Nadel to manage three funds on his behalf, while Nadel alone had three others and did the trading for all six. Moody said he didn’t know anything was wrong until Nadel was reported missing.

Moody called his broker and “the amount did not jibe with what Mr Nadel said we had.”

“As much as US$12 million of the Moody family money may be lost and how much remains is not known. It looks very bleak,” Moody said.

[annalyzer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4284124/US-fund-manager-goes-missing-as-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-disappears.html

US fund manager goes missing as hundreds of millions of dollars 'disappears'

A missing Florida money manager is believed to be alive, his business associate has said as police investigate the possible disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars from investment funds.

Last Updated: 4:42PM GMT 18 Jan 2009

The family of Arthur Nadel, 75, reported him missing on Wednesday and on Friday Sarasota police launched an investigation into complaints that "hundreds of millions of dollars" may have vanished from the funds Mr Nadel managed.

Mr Nadel, president of Scoop Management Inc, left a note for his family that was said by a local newspaper to be a suicide note. Police would not disclose its contents but said his family believed he was "distraught" at the time of his disappearance.

Neil Moody, a business associate, said Mr Nadel has since been in contact with his wife. He said he believed Mr Nadel was still alive.

"At this point we have every indication that he is," Mr Moody told Reuters, adding that he did not know where his associate was.

"If we knew where he was, we'd be on him," Mr Moody added.

The Florida investigation, which the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said could involve as much as $350 million, began just over a month after the arrest of New York money manager Bernard Madoff on charges he ran a giant $50 billion Ponzi scheme that shook the investment world.

The Madoff case rattled charities and wealthy families in Palm Beach on Florida's east coast. The Nadel allegations have struck hard in Sarasota, on the state's west coast, where the missing money manager was well-known in society circles and a prominent donor to local causes.

Mr Nadel's Sarasota-based Scoop Management managed funds branded as Valhalla, Viking, and Scoop. The Herald-Tribune said Mr Moody told investors in a statement this week that the funds may have "virtually no remaining value."

[sarahhod]

No sign of US financier or his clients' millions

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO – 6 hours ago


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i2ATa-k9jmEhkTWjOcWeS8XmqVSQD95PUSIO0


SARASOTA, Florida (AP) — In this quaint seaside community, Arthur G. Nadel was looked upon as a trusted and generous philanthropist.

The 75-year-old hedge fund manager raked in high returns for his clients but left the luxury cars and the exorbitant lifestyle to others. So confident were investors in his ability to manage their money that they entrusted hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to his care.

Now they're wondering where Nadel is and what he's done with their money.

The Sarasota Police Department had received at least seven complaints as of Sunday from investors, some of whom say they have lost upward of $700,000. It wasn't clear how much money was invested or how much might be missing, though one investor said the hedge fund had been worth as much as $350 million and might have been completely drained.

"I'm angry," Brad Lerner, a doctor who invested $500,000 with Nadel three years ago, said Sunday. "I'd like to see the truth come out and (the) money returned."

Nadel's family reported him missing Wednesday, and on Thursday, police found his green Subaru in an airport parking lot. He left a note for his family, in which he appeared to be "very distraught," the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said.

A woman who answered the door Sunday at Nadel's home declined to identify herself.

Investigators continued to search for Nadel through the weekend.

"Sarasota is a good sized place, but it's actually a very small community of people," police Capt. Bill Spitler said. "Obviously we have white collar crime. But very few places have anything of this magnitude."

Nadel operated out of Scoop Management Inc., which has a modest office with burgundy awnings on Sarasota's Main Street. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, his investors ranged from individuals to the local YMCA Foundation.

"He didn't appear to be extravagant," said Bill Warner, a resident who knows a few of Nadel's investors. "That's why I think people trusted him."

Spitler said police still don't know exactly how the fund operated, but that each victim who has come forward claims to have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The alleged perpetrator and victims in this case were all philanthropists," he said. "They knew each other. They had a strong bond. And for our community, I don't care even if it's a big city ... this is a lot of money."

Lerner said he received monthly reports from the fund. "I was quite pleased with the results," he said.

The last update arrived at the end of November, and showed an 8.5 percent return for the year to date.

Then on Thursday, Lerner said he received a visit at his office from Neil Moody, a business associate of Nadel's. Lerner said he was told that Nadel had disappeared, and that the $350 million fund appeared to be empty. He didn't get many more details.

Contacted at his home on Sunday, Moody said there were six funds, and that Nadel was the trader for all of them. Moody declined to elaborate on his relationship to the fund, referring all comment to his attorney.

"I know nothing about how Mr. Nadel is doing and that's all I'm going to say," said Moody, who previously said his family has also lost millions.

Moody's attorney did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press.

Warner said investors are embarrassed.

"People lost their life savings with this guy," he said. "People who had a great lifestyle and were secure, and all of a sudden, it's all gone."

[sarahhod]

F.B.I. and S.E.C. Probe Missing Fund Manager

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/19sec.html?hp


Published: January 18, 2009

The F.B.I. and securities regulators have joined the investigation of Arthur Nadel, a Florida hedge fund manager who disappeared four days ago, leaving clients concerned that they might have lost as much as $350 million.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are helping on the case, police Lt. Stanley Beishline of Sarasota, Fla., said in a telephone interview.

One of Mr. Nadel’s business partners, Neil Moody, said Mr. Nadel had spoken to his wife, Peg, since he was reported missing. Mr. Nadel, 76, is president of Scoop Management in Sarasota, which oversees funds that include Valhalla Investment Partners. Mr. Moody holds no position in Scoop Management and was a partner with Mr. Nadel only on the Vahalla fund and two Viking funds.

Scoop’s claim to have managed as much as $350 million “may be high because performance results were exaggerated,” Mr. Moody said in an interview. Mr. Moody said he did not know anything was wrong until Mr. Nadel was reported missing.

Mr. Nadel was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday when he left for work, said Lt. Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County sheriff’s office.

Calls to Mrs. Nadel’s home or cellphone were not answered.

The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota described Mr. Nadel as a “prominent player in Sarasota social and philanthropic circles.”

Mr. Nadel, who graduated from New York University Law School, was a real estate developer during the 1960s, according to marketing documents for the Valhalla fund.

[sarahhod]

Nonprofits lose out when donor goes missing

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090119/ARTICLE/901190356?Title=Nonprofits_lose_out_when_donor_goe s_missing



http://i39.tinypic.com/2n0n5gn.jpg
PHOTO / ROD MILLINGTON
Homes under construction in the 2000 block of Central Avenue in Sarasota are being built with modular walls from HomeFront Homes, a company run by Sarasota hedge fund principal Arthur G.Nadel. Habitat for Humanity of Sarasota Inc. is a recipient of the largest charitable contribution made by Arthur and Peg Nadel.

By Michael Pollick

Published: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 2:05 a.m.



While their stock market hedge-fund business was going strong, Art and Peg Nadel and their business partner, Neil Moody, were leading picture-perfect Sarasota lifestyles.

As principals in a rapidly growing hedge fund company called Scoop Management Inc., they had wealth, cash flow and influence.

Assets under their management of six funds ballooned from about $10 million to what they recently told investors was $350 million in less than a decade.

The Nadels maintained a nice home in a middle-class Sarasota suburb. They invested in real estate, attended black-tie galas, made big contributions to worthy causes, and helped raise even more money for the same groups -- the YMCA Foundation of Sarasota, the Sarasota Ballet, Girls Inc., Habitat for Humanity, and others.

And then, last Wednesday, the whole picture crumbled.

Art Nadel, the 76-year-old day trader who was the economic engine for this financial company with offices on Main Street, Sarasota, disappeared, supposedly without telling anyone that he was leaving.

He left a family car at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and what family members construed as a possible suicide note in his home office, prompting them to file a missing person report with local authorities.

That left Peg Nadel, Neil Moody, and other members of the family-run business to explain how funds that they said were on their way to a 9 percent return as of the end of November could have evaporated in the six weeks since.

As of Sunday afternoon, the Securities and Exchange Commission joined the FBI and local authorities in the investigation into Nadel's disappearance and the apparent failure of the firm for which he was the chief trader, police spokesman Capt. William Spitler confirmed.

The federal authorities are involved because "there are alleged federal violations," Spitler said. Sarasota police and the sheriff's office are still central to the investigation, since many of those left in a financial lurch live here.

Spitler said the investigation is at an early stage, adding it is too soon to provide numbers on how many investors are victims or the size of the loss. He invited those with information or a loss to call the front desk at the Sarasota Police Department, at 941-954-7025.

Other law enforcement sources have told the Herald Tribune that they are triangulating Nadel's location.

The big unanswered question -- affecting several important cultural and do-gooder groups, and as many as 300 well-heeled Sarasotans who entrusted their money to Scoop -- is what happened to the money, and when.

'The Inside Scoop'

The enterprise started back in September 1997 as a day-trader gathering place dubbed "The Inside Scoop."

The organizers were Art Nadel and the woman he would later married, Peg Quisenberry.

It was a time when many people with day jobs fancied themselves day traders, as startlingly large profits were being racked up on high-flying tech stocks.

Nadel and Quisenberry collected monthly dues from at least 100 members who frequented the club, using it to download market data, compare trading notes, or attend evening seminars on trading and investing.

As the day-trading frenzy abated, and as the Nadels took in Neil Moody as a partner, Scoop evolved into a trading house that made sophisticated stock market bets using the founders' and other investors' money.

Of the three founders, Art Nadel, a former jazz pianist on the New York club scene, is said to be the one who did all the trading. For investors, even though there was little transparency, the appeal was a steady, high annual returns that reportedly fluctuated in the 8 percent to 12 percent range.

To achieve these returns, Art Nadel and Neil Moody told their high-roller friends, Nadel would simply hedge his bets, which is the essence of what is called a hedge fund.

He would typically hold a set of fund positions in stock index options or futures, typically the Nasdaq or the Amex 100. He would keep one third of the money in cash, while betting on a rise with a third and betting on a decline with a third. Funds like this are supposed to thrive in volatile markets. Theoretically, during a huge stock decline, they would experience a loss on the leveraged upside or long speculation but make an even bigger profit on their downside bets, which would become suddenly popular with the crowd.

But during last year's extremely volatile stock and credit markets, two out of three hedge funds lost money, according to the New York Times, and hedge funds in general have been experiencing heavy withdrawals.

Then on Dec. 10, Bernard Madoff, a prominent New York hedge fund operator, told his two sons that his investments were a Ponzi scheme in which money from fresh investors was being used to pay off those demanding redemptions.

It was around that time, Neil Moody has told investors, that the firm had stacked up requests for roughly $50 million in year-end redemptions.

Assuming no Madoff-type fraud, it is conceivable that a combination of losing trades and unexpected redemptions pushed Scoop over the edge.

Zeb Portanova, chairman of the board of Habitat for Humanity Sarasota, guessed at how many well-heeled Sarasotans might be affected based on the steady stream of calls to his cell phone.

"I am guessing close to 300 people in Sarasota had money with them," he said.

Like most of those who had extensive social and charitable contact with the two couples, Portanova is still taking in the somber reality of the situation.

"I sat across from Art I don't know how many times, so I don't know what to think anymore."

Acquaintances say the Nadels were social but that most of the socializing was done with Peg. Her husband seemed amiable but private and talked little about himself or his past.

Susan Danis, executive director of Sarasota Opera, says she knows Peg better than Art, whom she described as a generous and warm-hearted music lover who seemed committed to the arts and public service.

"In the current world, I'm not surprised at anything," Danis said. "I don't think it takes away from their genuineness. That's the side of them that I knew."

Strings attached

In at least three of the nonprofits in which the two families were involved, there were strings attached to donations. In the case of the YMCA and the Ballet, the Moodys made sizeable donations last year with the catch that their endowments remain within one of the funds managed by Scoop Management Inc. When the funds were discovered to have imploded last week, those donations were wiped off the balance sheet.

In the case of Habitat for Humanity, the group's funds are safely invested elsewhere. The catch there was that some of the Nadels' contributions were made to encourage Habitat to buy a dozen pre-fabricated homes from a fledgling Sarasota company that the Nadels own a majority in -- Home Front Homes. Now, one of the homes on Central Avenue north of downtown is finished, one is nearly completed, and one is still a shell. The fate of the Central Avenue project is unknown.

At the Sarasota Ballet, board president Chris Pfahler confirmed Sunday, a $100,000 contribution from the Moodys has basically evaporated, because Neil Moody insisted when the couple gave the money last summer that the money must stay in one of the Scoop Management Inc. funds.

"As we understand it, that money is gone," said Pfahler.

"I think this is going to prompt any nonprofit to look at all of its investments and do a head-to-toe look at what's going on and where everything is. I think everybody is going to be doing that now."

The YMCA Foundation of Sarasota confirmed Friday that it had lost $1.188 million, or 13 percent of its total assets, because the money was invested with a fund run by Scoop Investments Inc. Scoop co-founder Moody had donated roughly $1 million to the YMCA, with the proviso that the money stay invested at one of Scoop's funds, called Valhalla Management LLC. Last week, Moody informed YMCA officials that the money was gone. Simultaneously, he resigned as foundation director.

Nadel generously supported the local jazz scene and his disappearance means trouble there as well.

"He sponsored nine separate events, eight of which we are going to have to cancel," said Gordon Garrett, president of the Jazz Club of Sarasota. "Without his sponsorship, we can't do it."

Garrett said Nadel once took 30 minutes to explain his business to him. At the end of the conversation, "I walked out shaking my head," Garrett remembered. "He was with some high rollers. That wasn't my game."

Staff writers Lauren Mayk, Cathy Zollo and Craig Burdick contributed to this article.

[sarahhod]

Search for missing fund manager ramps up
Some individuals lost more than $500,000 through Arthur G. Nadel’s investment firm
By BRIAN NEILL and BETH BURGER - Herald Staff Writers

http://www.bradenton.com/business/story/1162966.html


The FBI has been called in to help investigate the disappearance of Arthur G. Nadel, who ran a Sarasota hedge fund that may have lost as much as $350 million for its investors.

Reported missing Wednesday by his wife, the 75-year-old Nadel’s car was found the following day at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

Nadel, who family members said was acting distraught, had called his stepson and left a note at the house, said Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Chuck Lesaltato.

Lesaltato said investigators aren’t disclosing what they learned about Nadel’s travels.

Sarasota Police Capt. William Spitler said about seven investors contacted police Saturday, reporting that they had lost money through Nadel’s Scoop Management investment fund, on Main Street.

Some individuals reported losing $500,000 or more, Spitler said.

Spitler confirmed Sunday that the FBI had been called in to investigate.

“Obviously, with this investigation there’s federal allegations along with regulatory issues,” Spitler said. “This is not unusual, when there’s this amount of money, for the FBI to be involved.”

Police say it’s too soon to say how much money was invested or how much might be missing. But authorities say Nadel’s hedge fund might have lost as much as $350 million.

Hedge funds are loosely regulated and are not required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as are other types of investment funds.

Also, hedge funds can invest in non-traditional investments. Some hedge funds have even invested in sports teams.

Usually, hedge fund investing is restricted to only the most wealthy of clients. Many hedge funds have minimum investment requirements of $25,000 or more.

Nadel and his wife, Peg, are known in the Sarasota community as philanthropists.

Sarasota Mayor Lou Ann Palmer was surprised by the news of Arthur Nadel’s disappearance and the missing funds.

Palmer said she has had more interaction with Arthur Nadel’s wife than him.

“I know his wife and may have met him on a few occasions,” Palmer said.

“But she’s been very active on a lot of agencies within the community. I’ve seen her at a lot of events and she’s always seemed to be a very positive person in the community. I don’t know if she’s involved in this thing, but I trust that she’s not until I hear differently.”

The Nadels have an unpublished phone number. A message left Sunday evening on Peg Nadel’s voice mail at the office of Scoop Management was not immediately returned.

Tony Souza, executive director of the Sarasota chapter of Habitat for Humanity, said the couple generously contributed to the nonprofit and Peg Nadel served on the agency’s capital campaign committee.

“He was a very nice man — very cordial,” Souza said Sunday evening of Arthur Nadel. “You’d always see them at the fundraising affairs. They were big benefactors. They helped a lot of charities and nonprofits.”

Souza said the Sarasota chapter of Habitat for Humanity has used a special “green” wall system in some of its homes that is manufactured by Englewood-based Homefront Homes, in which Arthur Nadel has a financial stake.

But Souza said Habitat for Humanity didn’t invest in the company.

“It wasn’t that kind of relationship,” Souza said. “They never asked us for anything. They just loved our charity and helped us build houses.”

[sarahhod]

Nadel’s 32% Annual Returns in Doubt as Fund Manager Disappears

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.toVakkijf4&refer=home

By Joe Schneider and Doris Bloodsworth



Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Brad Lerner was pleased when a November statement showed his $500,000 investment in a fund run by Arthur Nadel had gained 8.5 percent for the year as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 39 percent.

Lerner, an internist from Sarasota, Florida, never got a December statement.

Instead, one of Nadel’s partners came to him last week with the news that the fund manager couldn’t be found. Lerner, 55, and others whose money was invested by Nadel’s Scoop Management Inc. in Sarasota may have lost as much as $350 million, law enforcement officials say.

“Hindsight is 20-20,” Lerner, who had most of his life savings in the Viking IRA fund, said in a Jan. 17 interview. “But I guess it was too good to be true.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation joined local police over the weekend in the search for Nadel, 76, who left his $250,000 four-bedroom home for work on the morning of Jan. 14 and hasn’t been seen by his family or business partners since. The probe follows by a month the alleged confession by New York’s Bernard Madoff of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Nadel’s light green Subaru was found on Jan. 15 in a parking lot at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. He left his family a note at home in which he sounded “distraught,” according to Lieutenant Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.

New Orleans Lead

He has since spoken by phone to his wife, Marguerite, according to Neil Moody, who contracted with Nadel to run three funds, including Viking IRA. Marguerite Nadel, president of Scoop Management, didn’t answer her home or mobile phone.

Lerner said he was told by the FBI that Nadel had last called his wife, known as Peg, from New Orleans. An FBI spokeswoman in New Orleans said the agency doesn’t comment on open investigations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is helping the Sarasota Police Department in the search for client funds.

Viking IRA is one of six private funds run by Nadel, according to Moody. The Valhalla Investment Partners LP and Viking funds are also managed under contract for Moody. Nadel’s firm, located in a storefront office on Main Street, has three funds of its own: Victory, Victory IRA and Scoop Real Estate.

Nadel said in a prospectus for Valhalla Investment Partners that he developed computer-generated investment and trading programs, which had been used by other hedge funds since 1999.

32% Annual Returns

Valhalla reported average annual returns of 32 percent from 2000 through 2006, according to a report by CogentHedge.com, a Web site that tracks the performance of hedge funds. The report, dated March 2007, said Valhalla had 55 consecutive profitable months from October 2001 to April 2006. The fund’s longest losing streak was two months in 2000.

Hedge funds lost an average of 18.3 percent last year, the worst year on record, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc., as managers misjudged the severity of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Moody declined to elaborate on the trading strategies used by the funds, their holdings or returns when contacted yesterday.

“We are cooperating with all the appropriate authorities, and are in the process of gathering the facts,” Moody’s lawyer, James Miller, said in an e-mailed statement.

Virginia Hoffman, Nadel’s ex-wife, said she wasn’t surprised to learn he had disappeared, along with the money.

“I am not shocked by the act,” Hoffman said in a Jan. 17 e-mail. “I am shocked by the magnitude of what he has done.”

Deals Gone Sour

Hoffman and Nadel were divorced in 1999, according to the Sarasota Clerk of County Comptroller. Hoffman said they were together for 15 years and married for four. Hoffman said she was Nadel’s third wife.

In Sarasota, many people “knew of his past business deals which had gone sour but yet folks still trusted him with their money,” Hoffman said.

Nadel, who had graduated from New York University School of Law, was disbarred in the 1980s, Hoffman said.

According to New York state records, an Arthur G. Nadel was disbarred Mar. 11, 1982, for violating terms of an escrow agreement, in which he held $50,000 as part of a sales transaction between a realty corporation and a hospital. He was found guilty of dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation by a disciplinary committee. Nadel paid back the money.

In Sarasota, a city of 54,000 on Florida’s west coast, Nadel was known as a successful hedge-fund manager and business owner, philanthropist, jazz and opera fan and a tennis enthusiast.

Homebuilder, Jet Services

Nadel’s name appears in registration documents for businesses including Home Front Homes, an Englewood, Florida- based builder of houses using prefabricated walls, and Venice Jet Center of Venice, Florida, which provides aviation services such as charters and hanger space. He is affiliated with the Guy-Nadel Foundation Inc., with assets of $3.4 million, according to taxemptworld.com, a Web site that tracks charities and nonprofit organizations.

Nadel owns a 2,660 square-foot home on Country View Drive in a Sarasota County subdivision, with a pool and three-car garage. Wreaths adorned the double front doors.

Nadel and his wife were described as a “dynamic” team “both in business and in community” in the January edition of the Bird Key Yacht Club newsletter. Nadel was cited as sponsor of two annual Sarasota Jazz Festivals and Peg was chairwoman of the Habitat for Humanity’s “Legacy of Hope” campaign.

“While service to others is a primary focus, music is a very close second” for the couple, according to the newsletter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Schneider in Toronto at jschneider5@bloomberg.netDoris Bloodsworth in Sarasota, Florida, at dorisbloods@earthlink.net.
Last Updated: January 19, 2009 00:01 EST

[sarahhod]

SEC, FBI on trail of vanished hedger
By Andrew Coen
January 19, 2009, 2:11 PM EST

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090119/REG/901199987



The mysterious disappearance of a Florida hedge fund manager five days ago has prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission to join the investigation, published reports said.

The FBI and SEC are assisting Florida police in the search for Arthur Nadel, president of Sarasota, Fla.-based Scoop Management Inc., whose Jan. 14 disappearance has sparked complaints from investors fearful that the investment manager took off with their money.

Investors in Scoop may have lost as much as $350 million in assets, authorities said.

Neil Moody, the missing money manager’s business partner, said in published reports that Mr. Nadel has spoken to his wife since he was reported missing.

Mr. Nadel’s car was spotted on Jan. 15 at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Chuck Lesaltato said that the investigation was ongoing and that he could not comment on whether Mr. Nadel had left Florida or the United States.

The FBI and SEC, both based in Washington, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

[annalyzer]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5542425.ece

Investment broker Arthur Nadel missing after $350m goes missing from funds

From The TimesJanuary 19, 2009

Police and the FBI are searching for an investment broker after complaints that up to $350 million (£240 million) may have disappeared from funds that he managed.

Arthur Nadel, 75, handled millions of dollars through his Scoop Management investment firm in Sarasota, Florida, until he went missing on Wednesday. He left a suicide note but has since been in contact with his wife, Peg, according to reports.

Police officers started an investigation on Friday, saying that they had received complaints that “hundreds of millions of dollars” may have vanished from the hedge funds. Officers found Mr Nadel's car at the local airport.

Neil Moody, a business associate and the founder of three funds under Mr Nadel's management, said that Mr Nadel had been in contact with his wife since his disappearance.

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Scoop may have managed as much as $350 million, although “that may be high because performance results were exaggerated”, Mr Moody told Bloomberg News. He said that he did not know anything was wrong until Mr Nadel was reported missing. He said that as much as $12 million of the Moody family's money may be lost and how much remained was not known. “It looks very bleak,” Mr Moody said.

The FBI and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have been called in. Stanley Beishline, of the Sarasota Police Department, said he believed that Mr Nadel was alive. “I think he is - at least until a couple of investors find him,” he said.

Meanwhile, Idaho securities regulators are investigating allegations that a money manager in the state operated a long-running Ponzi scheme that cost investors as much as $100 million.

Marilyn Chastain, securities bureau chief for the state's Department of Finance, said a formal investigation of Daren Palmer of Idaho Falls has been opened following a meeting with about 30 investors there.

Mr. Palmer couldn't be reached for comment.

It was the latest of a number of cases, the most prominent of which focuses on New York's Bernard Madoff, that involve alleged Ponzi schemes in which money raised from new investors pays off earlier investors.

The case has rattled the business community in Idaho Falls, an agricultural center where many residents work for the federal government's nuclear-reactor test facility. "We think there is a pretty significant amount of money involved -- tens of millions maybe," Ms. Chastain said.

Kevin Taggart, a local real-estate agent who claims he lost $600,000, said that after talking with other people who fear they were victimized, "as near as we can tell, we lost $100 million," in total. Mr. Taggart is one of the investors who met with state regulators.

The complaints involve Mr. Palmer, 40 years old, and Trigon Group Inc., a company with an office in Idaho Falls that investors say was owned by him. Neither Mr. Palmer nor the firm are registered as investment advisers with state securities regulators.

An Idaho Falls couple, Mark and Penny Peterson, earlier this month filed a civil suit in Bonneville County, Idaho, district court accusing Mr. Palmer and his wife of owing them $500,000 that they said he put into a hedge fund he managed. The couple alleges that the Palmers promised in July to deposit the money -- payment for a tract of land they said they sold him -- in the hedge fund. But they say when they tried to collect money from the account -- in Trigon Group -- the Palmers failed to pay them or return the property.

Mr. Taggart said he started investing with Mr. Palmer about seven years ago after hearing from other investors that the money manager was "doing very well" for them. Mr. Taggart said he was promised 25% to 40% annual dividends on his investment. He said he began by investing $100,000 and, when returns matched the promises, he continued to invest more each year.

"He just seemed so legit," Mr. Taggart said. "He grew up in the area."

Investors didn't become alarmed until July, when Mr. Palmer began telling some of them he needed a few more weeks to pay their quarterly dividends. By October, a group of investors demanded a meeting with Mr. Palmer. He told them that in the bad market, "he was getting lots of margin calls and couldn't get out," Mr. Taggart recalled.

Even then, most investors decided to trust him. But on Jan. 2, a group met with him and was told by Mr. Palmer, "It's all gone," Mr. Taggart said.

[annalyzer]

http://www.rr.com/view/content/story.cfm?storyId=6588531&view=HOME&newsgroup=9000&sSect=HOM_1

Accountant: Fla. money manager owed $50 million


Published - Jan 19 2009 06:38PM EST | AP
Around the same time he mysteriously vanished, hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel owed a $50 million payout to some of the investors who had entrusted their life savings to him, an accountant said Monday.

Instead, they learned their money was gone _ and now they're left asking if it was all a bad investment, or if they were scammed.

The search for Nadel entered its sixth day Monday as more investors contacted authorities with concerns their savings, and Nadel, were gone forever. Nadel's green Subaru was found in a Sarasota airport parking lot on Jan. 15, and he left his family a note in which he appeared to be "very distraught," said Lt. Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff's office.


Nadel, 75, was expected to deliver a $50 million redemption that day to investors in the six hedge funds he managed, said Michael Zucker, an internal accountant for Scoop Management Inc., where Nadel traded. Nothing in documents indicated the funds weren't turning a profit, he said.

"Mind you, this was a lot, but it was still, we thought, very easily done," Zucker said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The payment was set to be made after the funds, which had about 600 investors from across the country, suffered losses in October, Zucker said. But if Nadel was nervous, he didn't show it: He often was seen around the office smiling and seemed on top of things.

"He felt that he was turning the whole thing around," Zucker said.

Investors and police said that Nadel or Neil Moody, who was a general partner in some of Scoop's funds, would often meet potential clients in person, and would promise big returns. Karin Gustafson, the YMCA Foundation of Sarasota head, said Moody promised them a 10 percent return each year _ and vowed to make up the difference himself if the fund didn't deliver. It always did, until now.

"All we know is someone has said that the money is gone," said Gufstason.

Gustafson said the YMCA had invested a $1.1 million endowment given to them by Moody. Moody's attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

more at link

[annalyzer]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480687,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/images/493643/0_61_nadel_arthur.jpg

Clients Seethe Over Missing Cash as Cops Hunt Financier
Monday, January 19, 2009

SARASOTA, Fla. — Federal investigators are still trying to figure out what happened to the operator of a massive hedge fund — and possibly millions of dollars managed by the missing man.

Arthur G. Nadel, 75, was reported missing by family members Wednesday. Police said he seemed "very distraught" in a note left for his family. His car was found Thursday in an airport parking lot.

It remains unclear exactly how much money had been invested or how much was missing, though one investor has said the fund was worth as much as $350 million.

Sarasota Police have received at least seven complaints from investors. Some say they lost more than $700,000.

Local authorities are working with the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission to find Nadel.

[Faith]

Federal investigators look for Nadel in Slidell, La.

Published: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 3:15 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 5:48 p.m.

Federal law enforcement agents have tracked missing Sarasota hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel to Slidell, La., through cell phone records, according to sources close to the investigation.

Nadel called his wife, Peg Nadel, last week and investigators used those records to place him in Slidell, a community of 90,000 northeast of New Orleans, during the weekend, the sources said.

FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators are believed to be in the city looking for Nadel.

It is unclear, though, how agents would be able to take the 76-year-old Nadel into custody. He is considered a suspect in a $350 million fraud case but officials do not have any charging documents against him.

“When they find him. They’ll bring him back. Trust me. They’re the feds,” a source said.

Slidell is just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, a city famed for its jazz.

Nadel, a former jazz pianist on the New York club scene, generously supported the Sarasota jazz community. His disappearence means that the Jazz Club of Sarasota is canceling eight of nine events he sponsored.

Nadel reportedly has not been seen since Wednesday, the day before other fund managers admitted to customers that their money was gone.

Nadel’s light green Subaru was found Thursday afternoon at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Sarasota County Sheriff’s deputies searched the car before releasing it to the family.

Nadel, a well-known figure in Sarasota’s social and charity worlds, appears to be the key to learning how the hedge funds he oversaw were wiped out.

Sources close to the investigation say some of the missing money may have been moved overseas, they added.

Nadel’s wife, Peg, said she last saw him Wednesday morning, as he prepared to go to work. She also is a principal in Scoop Management Inc.

Art Nadel’s last known contact was Wednesday afternoon, when he called his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, to retrieve a note Nadel had left at his home.

The note, which Quisenberry said referred to suicide, alarmed the family and spurred them to call in a missing person report.

On Saturday, Quisenberry read from a statement prepared by the family: “The employees of Scoop Management, which includes Peg Nadel, the wife of Arthur Nadel, have just learned that they, along with many others who have invested money with Art, have been victimized by his unauthorized actions,” he read.

In a letter to investors last week, Fund principal Neil V. Moody stated that the funds “may have virtually no remaining value,” and that no one else at downtown Sarasota’s Scoop Management realized the funds were empty.

Law enforcement officials say there is no indication that others in the company were aware that money was missing before Nadel’s disappearance.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090119/BREAKING/901190268/2055/NEWS?Title=Federal_investigators_look_for_Nadel_in _Slidell__La_

[sarahhod]

Florida financier, and millions, missing

PAUL WALDIE

January 20, 2009

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090120.RHEDGE20/TPStory/Business



Neil Moody thought Arthur Nadel was such a decent guy he not only went into business with Mr. Nadel but also gave him roughly $12-million (U.S.) to invest.

So when Mr. Nadel didn't show up for work at his office in Sarasota, Fla., on Wednesday, Mr. Moody got worried. Within hours, Mr. Nadel's family found an apparent suicide note and alerted police. The next day police located Mr. Nadel's green Subaru at the Sarasota airport.

Since then, the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission have joined local police in trying to find Mr. Nadel and figure out what happened to the roughly $350-million he managed through his company, Scoop Management Inc.

"He has disappointed a lot of people," Mr. Moody said yesterday in an interview from his Sarasota residence. "As far as I know he's still at large and believed to be somewhere in the U.S."

Mr. Nadel, 75, is the third investment fund manager in seven months to vanish after leaving a suicide note.

Last June, hedge fund manager Samuel Israel disappeared the day he was supposed to report to prison to begin serving a 20-year sentence for a $400-million fraud. Police found his car on a bridge about 90 kilometres north of New York City with the words "suicide is painless" written in dust on the hood. Police arrested his girlfriend, who confessed she helped Mr. Israel pack a camper with belongings and a motor scooter. Mr. Israel spent about three weeks in a campground in Massachusetts and then surrendered to local police, driving up to the station on the scooter.

Earlier this month, Indiana investment adviser Marcus Schrenker jumped out of an airplane over Alabama in an apparent fake suicide attempt. He sped away on a motorcycle that he had previously stashed, but was found at a campground in Florida. Mr. Schrenker faces several lawsuits alleging he owes investors and others more than $9-million.

While it's not clear what has happened to Mr. Nadel, Mr. Moody and others say he was a pillar of the local community.

He and his wife, Peg, donated to a wide variety of causes, including Habitat for Humanity and the local YMCA, which has said it had $1.1-million invested with Mr. Nadel. Last weekend, the couple attended a gala fundraising event at Circus Sarasota, which runs educational programs for children in addition to putting on performances.

Mr. Nadel, a lawyer by training, was a real estate developer in New York before moving to Florida in the 1990s. There are reports he ran into legal problems in New York and was disbarred.

He and Ms. Nadel started Scoop in 1999. Mr. Moody worked with Mr. Nadel since 1999 and he said there was no indication anything was wrong until last Wednesday. In fact, investors routinely received statements showing annual returns of between 8 and 12 per cent.

"He didn't show up and his wife came into the office around 11 expecting him to be there and he wasn't," Mr. Moody said. "My family is out a minimum of $12-million."

On Saturday, Mr. Nadel's family released a statement saying Ms. Nadel and other employees of Scoop "have just learned that they, along with many others who have invested money with Art, have been victimized by his unauthorized actions."

The family added that it is co-operating with police.

[annalyzer]

http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/861987.html

Florida man suspected of running Ponzi scheme


A highly trusted hedge fund manager from Sarasota has vanished -- and so have many millions of dollars.

The search for Arthur G. Nadel entered its sixth day Monday as more investors contacted authorities with concerns their savings, and Nadel, were gone forever.

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2009/01/20/08/251-0120nadel.embedded.prod_affiliate.56.jpg

SARASOTA -- Around the same time he mysteriously vanished, hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel owed a $50 million payout to some of the investors who had entrusted their life savings to him, an accountant said Monday.

Instead, they learned their money was gone -- and now they're left asking if it was all a bad investment, or if they were scammed.

The search for Nadel entered its sixth day Monday as more investors contacted authorities with concerns their savings, and Nadel, were gone forever. Nadel's green Subaru was found in a Sarasota airport parking lot on Jan. 15, and he left his family a note in which he appeared to be ''very distraught,'' said Lt. Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff's office.

Nadel, 75, was expected to deliver a $50 million redemption that day to investors in the six hedge funds he managed, said Michael Zucker, an internal accountant for Scoop Management Inc., where Nadel traded. Nothing in documents indicated the funds weren't turning a profit, he said.

''Mind you, this was a lot, but it was still, we thought, very easily done,'' Zucker told the Associated Press.

The payment was set to be made after the funds, which had about 600 investors from across the country, suffered losses in October, Zucker said. But if Nadel was nervous, he didn't show it: He often was seen around the office smiling and seemed on top of things.

''He felt that he was turning the whole thing around,'' Zucker said.

Investors and police said that Nadel or Neil Moody, who was a general partner in some of Scoop's funds, would often meet potential clients in person, and would promise big returns. Karin Gustafson, the YMCA Foundation of Sarasota head, said Moody promised them a 10 percent return each year -- and vowed to make up the difference himself if the fund didn't deliver. It always did, until now.

''All we know is someone has said that the money is gone,'' said Gufstason.

Gustafson said the YMCA had invested a $1.1 million endowment given to them by Moody. Moody's attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Nadel had what some have characterized as a mathematical formula to his investments, which even investors failed to fully comprehend. According to Zucker, Nadel traded through Goldman Sachs and primarily in the Nasdaq 100.

Dave Couvertier, a special agent with the FBI in Tampa, confirmed that investigators are reviewing the case, but said that the investigation is still in its preliminary stages. The Securities and Exchange Commission declined comment, and Nadel has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The investigation comes on the heels of two other high-profile financial fraud cases. Investigators say Wall Street's Bernard Madoff devastated investors of some $50 billion late last year in what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. And last week, Indiana money manager Marcus Schrenker was apprehended in Florida after allegedly trying to stage his death in a plane crash as investigators probed his businesses.

[annalyzer]

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/01/20/bus_508290.shtml

Fund manager is gone; so is clients' money

Tuesday, January 20,
SARASOTA, FLA. --- Around the same time he mysteriously vanished, hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel owed a $50 million payout to some of the investors who had entrusted their life savings to him, an accountant said Monday.

Instead, they learned their money was gone -- and now they're left asking if it was all a bad investment, or if they were scammed.

The search for Mr. Nadel entered its sixth day Monday as more investors contacted authorities with concerns their savings, and Mr. Nadel, were gone forever.

Mr. Nadel's green Subaru was found in a Sarasota airport parking lot on Jan. 15, and he left his family a note in which he appeared to be "very distraught," said Lt. Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff's office.

Mr. Nadel, 75, was expected to deliver a $50 million redemption that day to investors in the six hedge funds he managed, said Michael Zucker, an accountant for Scoop Management Inc., where Mr. Nadel traded. No documents indicated the funds weren't making money, he said.

[annalyzer]

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/missing-money-manager/310142

Missing Fund Manager Owed $50 Million

SARASOTA, Fla. (Jan. 20) -Around the same time he mysteriously vanished, hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel owed a $50 million payout to some of the investors who had entrusted their life savings to him, an accountant said Monday.
Instead, they learned their money was gone — and now they're left asking if it was all a bad investment, or if they were scammed.

The search for Nadel entered its sixth day Monday as more investors contacted authorities with concerns their savings, and Nadel, were gone forever. Nadel's green Subaru was found in a Sarasota airport parking lot on Jan. 15, and he left his family a note in which he appeared to be "very distraught," said Lt. Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff's office.

Nadel, 75, was expected to deliver a $50 million redemption that day to investors in the six hedge funds he managed, said Michael Zucker, an internal accountant for Scoop Management Inc., where Nadel traded. Nothing in documents indicated the funds weren't turning a profit, he said.
"Mind you, this was a lot, but it was still, we thought, very easily done," Zucker said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The payment was set to be made after the funds, which had about 600 investors from across the country, suffered losses in October, Zucker said. But if Nadel was nervous, he didn't show it: He often was seen around the office smiling and seemed on top of things.

"He felt that he was turning the whole thing around," Zucker said.
Investors and police said that Nadel or Neil Moody, who was a general partner in some of Scoop's funds, would often meet potential clients in person, and would promise big returns. Karin Gustafson, the YMCA Foundation of Sarasota head, said Moody promised them a 10 percent return each year — and vowed to make up the difference himself if the fund didn't deliver. It always did, until now.

"All we know is someone has said that the money is gone," said Gufstason.
Gustafson said the YMCA had invested a $1.1 million endowment given to them by Moody. Moody's attorney did not return a call seeking comment.
Nadel had what some have characterized as a mathematical formula to his investments, which even investors failed to fully comprehend. According to Zucker, Nadel traded through Goldman Sachs and primarily in the Nasdaq 100.

"Sometimes he'd be trading while we were talking," said Gordon Garrett, president of Sarasota's Jazz Club, which received donations from Nadel to put on nine jazz events in the community this year. "He had a formula that he followed, when a stock got too high would short, and when too low, would go in and buy. He was always looking for very small margins and traded very frequently."

Dave Couvertier, a special agent with the FBI in Tampa, confirmed that investigators are reviewing the case, but said that the investigation is still in its preliminary stages. The Securities and Exchange Commission declined comment, and Nadel has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
"What we're really trying to do is get to know a little bit about the victims and their scenario," said Sarasota County Police Department Capt. William Spitler. "None of us have any idea what the magnitude is."

The investigation comes on the heels of two other high-profile financial fraud cases. Investigators say Wall Street's Bernard Madoff devastated investors of some $50 billion late last year in what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. And last week, Indiana money manager Marcus Schrenker was apprehended in Florida after allegedly trying to stage his death in a plane crash as investigators probed his businesses.

But those who know Nadel say he was nothing like the accounts of those sensational cases. He was known around Sarasota as a trusted philanthropist who lived a low-key life. He didn't drive fancy cars, lived in a middle-class, white, ranch-style home, and gave generously to Habitat for Humanity and the Jazz Club of Sarasota, among other causes. Though he went to black-tie events, he preferred a sports jacket and shirt over a tuxedo or a tie.
"It's a huge shock for most of us in our community," Zeb Portanova, board chair of Habitat for Humanity in Sarasota, said. "I don't think anybody really saw this coming."

[sarahhod]

US police think money manager planned to vanish
By CHRISTINE ARMARIO – 6 hours ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i2ATa-k9jmEhkTWjOcWeS8XmqVSQD95R84380


TAMPA, Florida (AP) — A missing hedge fund manager who owed investors a $50 million payout told his wife in a note he felt guilty about mismanaging people's money, and threatened to kill himself, according to a sheriff's report released Tuesday.

However, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said it believes Arthur G. Nadel planned his disappearance and that it was ending its search for him.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will continue to investigate complaints from investors who were expecting Nadel to deliver the $50 million redemption on Jan. 15, the day after he disappeared.

The Florida financier's car was found at a Sarasota airport, and Sheriff's Lt. Chuck Lesaltato said they believe Nadel left on his own volition.

"He doesn't want to be found," Lesaltato said.

Also on Tuesday, pepper spray manufacturer Mace Security International claimed Nadel owed them $2.2 million. The company said in a release they'd been informed the deposits could not be located, and that documents Nadel had provided were not authentic.

"We have already filed a report with authorities, and we intend to take all possible legal action against the Victory Fund," Mace CEO Dennis Raefield said, referring to one of Nadel's hedge funds.

The 76-year-old financier disappeared last Wednesday. Nadel told his wife he was going to his office, but was not there when she arrived about two hours later. Later, Nadel called and said he'd left something for her in a desk drawer at their ranch-style home in Sarasota. That's where she found a suicide note, the sheriff's report states.

In it, Nadel told his wife how much he loved her. He also said he felt guilty over losing other people's money.

"The subject wrote that as a result of his management of other people's money that there are those that would like to kill him," the sheriff's report states, "but that he will do it himself."

Investigators attempted to find Nadel by tracing his cell phone activity. A final call placed him in Tampa Wednesday afternoon, after which his phone appears to have been turned off, according to the incident report.

On Thursday, police found his green Subaru outside the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Lesaltato said they don't know where Nadel went, and couldn't say how close they were to finding him.

"I don't know if we were ever really close," he said. "He was constantly moving as far as we know."

Nadel operated Scoop Management Inc., and was a trader for six different funds. According to Scoop's internal accountant, there are between 500 and 600 investors across the country. Last week, many were told that the funds are empty.

Mace said it invested $2 million in Nadel's Victory Fund Ltd., a short term hedge fund. The company requested a redemption in June, which was valued at $3.2 million and expected to be delivered in the fall.

In October, Mace said it was told the redemption would be withheld "due to extraordinary market conditions."

The fund agreed to a $1 million payment in November, which was received, and the remainder was due in January.

The situation was reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and state authorities.

Sarasota police have been fielding inquiries from around the country and as far away as France, though the size of the funds and the value of their assets still remains unclear.

Duncan McCandless, a watercolorist from California, said he invested around $500,000 since 2002, and that he believed it had nearly doubled in value. He was expecting $14,000 on Jan. 15 that never arrived.

"I feel a little embarrassed," he said. "I placed my faith with somebody."

[sarahhod]

Nadel considered missing ‘voluntarily’

http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/llnews.aspx?articleID=11411&bnpg=0



The Sarasota County Sheriff’s office on Tuesday announced it concluded its investigation of Art Nadel, who was reported missing by his wife on Jan. 14.

“Sheriff’s detectives believe that Mr. Nadel is missing voluntarily,” wrote Lt. Chuck Lesaltato in a news release.

And the Sarasota Police Department has turned over its investigation of Nadel’s company, Scoop Management, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Nadel, part owner of the Venice Jet Center, has been missing for a week, and is making national headlines in connection with the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in investment hedge funds, according to Bloomberg.com, a worldwide business and financial news organization.

His wife, Peg Nadel, filed a missing person report with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office shortly after finding what was described as a suicide note. Nadel phoned his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, and requested he come over and read the note in his desk, according to a sheriff’s report.

His light green Subaru was found Thursday at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Nadel, 76, was a money manager for Scoop Management Inc., a private investment firm he created that oversees funds of Valhalla Investment Partners. Its offices are on Main Street in Sarasota.

According to Bloomberg, “Nadel said in a prospectus for Valhalla Investment Partners that he developed computer-generated investment and trading programs, which had been used by other hedge funds since 1999.”

Several complaints have been filed with the Sarasota Police Department by investors who say they lost money in what is being described as a Ponzi scheme.

One investor told law enforcement Scoop Management may have lost as much as $350 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is assisting the FBI in the search for missing funds. The FBI was called in over the weekend to assist the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office in the missing persons search.

The Venice Police Department hasn’t been approached to assist in the investigation, said Capt. Tom McNulty, and no residents had filed complaints of missing investment funds with the VPD as of Tuesday.

Any person wishing to make a report regarding Scoop Management, said Lesaltato, is requested to do so by e-mailing the FBI directly at tampa.division@ic.fbi.gov.

The credit crunch and overall money market meltdown have caused hedge funds and other “assets under management” to fall sharply through a combination of trading losses and the withdrawal of funds by investors, according to investor reports. Whether funds dried up or foul play was involved in the demise of Scoop Management has yet to be determined.

That has local residents, city leaders and jet center employees wondering if the center’s finances were tied up with the missing hedge funds.

Jet Center manager Roger Jernigan said Tuesday none of the jet center’s funds were involved in those funds that have drawn complaints by investors.

He broke the news that Nadel went missing to about 15 employees at the airport Friday evening after learning about his disappearance from Nadel’s wife, he said.

“What a shock. Their main concern was for the welfare of Art. He is very well liked, as a boss and a friend,” he said.

He assured staff there would be no layoffs and relayed Peg Nadel’s commitment to maintaining the business.

Art Nadel owns the jet center in a 50-50 partnership with Peg Nadel, Jernigan said.

“As a business partner, she is very involved at the jet center,” he said. “It’s Mrs. Nadel’s intent that the jet center will continue with business as usual providing top-notch services to our clients.”

He gave the same message to Venice Airport Manager Fred Watts by telephone Tuesday morning, he said. Controversy The jet center pays the city $9,581 per month to lease the property, plus sales tax reimbursements from the state that push the monthly amount received by the city closer to $10,000, and another $25,221 annually from 5-cent per gallon flowage fees. The lease earns the city approximately $145,000 in revenues annually. The Nadels purchased the center in 2006, entering into a 30-year contract with the city. The jet center has been the source of controversy for proposing to build four new hangars at the airport. At a Jan. 13 meeting, city council delayed making a decision whether to authorize the hangars. It will revisit the issue again in about a month.

A number of residents at the meeting urged city leaders to consider running its own jet center or doing without one altogether.

Attorney Jeff Boone, whose firm represents the jet center, said having two fixed-base operators has been tried before but the lack of business made it unsuccessful.

And doing without one isn’t practical, he said.

“An airport the size of Venice’s requires at least one FBO,” he said. “If someone would equate” this turn of events to there not being an FBO at the airport, “I just don’t see that being the case at all. The Federal Aviation Administration wants to see fixed-base operators. Regardless of what ends up happening with the jet center, if anything, because of this unfortunate situation that has befallen Art Nadel, there is still going to be an FBO at Venice airport.”

The Boone law firm dealt mainly with Jernigan while representing the jet center, Boone said, and hadn’t met with Nadel since mid-summer.

He said the Boone law firm has never done any work for Nadel individually or for any of his other businesses, nor did any of the Boones invest with Nadel.

Nadelis one of the founding members of the Venice Airport Business Association formed in 2007 to promote local aviation businesses and help find solutions to community complaints about airport traffic and noise.

“We at the Venice Airport Business Association are deeply troubled and saddened by the events surrounding the disappearance of Mr. Art Nadel,” said VABA President Chuck Schmieler in a prepared statement issued Jan. 18. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Nadel family and the staff of the Venice Jet Center.”

Schmieler said VABA intends to continue its mission of “supporting all Venice area businesses through safe and sustainable aviation operations at the Venice Municipal Airport.”

Upon learning Nadel went missing on Saturday, Council Member Kit McKeon visited the jet center.

“My first concern was safety: Was it going well and if it wasn’t was (airport director) Fred Watts there?” he said.

“I saw trucks fueling aircraft and cars streaming into the art festival (on airport grounds). I talked with people at the counter, who said ‘we’re fine.’ ”

“I felt comfortable” after the visit, McKeon said. “I just didn’t know if things were disrupted. As a city official, it’s our responsibility to be involved.”

[sarahhod]

Nadel ‘Doesn’t Want To Be Found,’ Sheriff Says
January 21, 2009

http://www.finalternatives.com/node/6669


The police in missing hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel’s hometown have given up their search for him, saying “he doesn’t want to be found.”

Nadel disappeared last week, leaving investors in his Scoop Management hedge fund and several other funds he managed fearing they may have lost $350 million. He was reported him missing last Wednesday after his stepson found what authorities say was a suicide note at his home, sparking the Sarasota County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office to open a missing persons’ investigation.

But investigators have concluded that Nadel did not kill himself—authorities traced a weekend phone call he allegedly made to his wife from Slidell, La.—leading the Florida authorities to give up the search. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Securities and Exchange Commission continue to look for Nadel.

According to a report issued by the Sarasota sheriff yesterday, Nadel’s “suicide note” expressed remorse for the losses his investors suffered last year.

“The subject wrote that as a result of his management of other people’s money that there are those that would like to kill him, but that he will do it himself,” the report said.

[sarahhod]

Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 4:17pm EST | Modified: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 4:24pm

Mace Security says it’s owed $2M by missing hedge fund manager

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/01/19/daily16.html


Mace Security International Inc. said Tuesday it has only received $1 million of a little more than $3.2 million owed it by a hedge fund managed by missing Florida money manager Arthur Nadel.

The Horsham, Pa., maker of personal defense and electronic security products said the Victory Fund Ltd. didn’t pay Mace the roughly $2.2 million it was due Jan. 15.

“We have already filed a report with the authorities, and we intend to take all possible legal action against the Victory Fund,” Dennis Raefield, Mace’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “Mace continues to have a solid balance sheet, cash in the bank and strong business fundamentals.”

Mace (NASDAQ:MACE) said it will record a charge of $2,206,748 as an investment loss at Dec. 31, 2008. It will record any amount recovered when it receives it.

Nadel disappeared last Wednesday, the day before the Victory Fund and other funds managed by his Sarasota, Fla.-based Scoop Management Inc. were supposed to distribute $50 million.

A report on the HeraldTribune.com Web site Tuesday said federal law enforcement officials had tracked him to Slidell, La., citing sources close to the investigation.

Mace, which originally invested $2 million in the Victory Fund, asked to redeem its investment last June 18. The Victory Fund was required to pay Mace 10 business days after last Sept. 30, and determined that Mace’s investment had grown to a little more than $3.2 million.

On Oct. 15, however, the Victory Fund asserted the right to withhold payment because of extraordinary market circumstances. After negotiations, it agreed to pay Mace in two installments: one of $1 million, which Mace received Nov. 5; and one of a little more than $2.2 million which Mace was to get last Thursday.

Last Thursday, a representative of the Victory Fund told Mace that the deposits and other investments of the hedge funds managed by Nadel, including the Victory Fund, can’t be located; documents previously provided to the representative by Nadel have proven not to be authentic; and the representative had reported both things to the Securities and Exchange Commission and state authorities in Florida.

Mace said it is in the process of verifying the representative’s statements.

[sarahhod]

Nadel's note: People 'would like to kill me'
By Anthony Cormier

Published: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 4:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 4:56 p.m.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090120/BREAKING/901200249?Title=Nadel_s_note__People__would_like_t o_kill_me_



Missing hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel told his wife that people “would like to kill him” and that he was going to kill himself before they could, according to paraphrasing of a note in law-enforcement documents obtained Tuesday by the Herald-Tribune.

Nadel, hunted by federal officials after his business partners say $350 million had disappeared from the hedge funds run by his Sarasota-based Scoop Management Inc., left the note in a desk drawer at his Sarasota home before he disappeared on Jan. 14.

In the note, he told his wife, Peg, that he was feeling “extreme guilt” over “business actions that he had taken which resulted in the loss of other people’s money.”

The 76-year-old told his wife that he was planning to commit suicide and that she should rely on “family and friends to get her through,” according to a report prepared by Sarasota County sheriff’s investigators.

Peg Nadel told officials that he had been “disturbed and depressed” recently but he did not tell her why. He has never been treated for mental illness, did not own a weapon and it was not clear how he planned to kill himself, according to police documents.

Authorities tracked Nadel to Louisiana through cell phone records. He was on the phone at least four times the following day: Nadel received a call while in Tallahassee; he made a call that lasted only a few seconds in Mobile, Ala.; he made phone call that lasted four minutes in Slidell, La.; and he took a 24-second call from New Orleans.

Sources close to the investigation said this week that they had tracked Nadel to Slidell but are also searching for him around New Orleans.

The phone call from New Orleans, according to documents, was taken on St. Charles Avenue, near a building that houses several banks and investments firms.

FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators are believed to be in Louisiana looking for Nadel.

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has closed its investigation, and the FBI has taken the lead in the case.

[sarahhod]

Arthur Nadel Disappeared A Day Before Investors Expected Payments
Date Published: Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/4585


Arthur Nadel, the Florida money manager whose disappearance has raised fears of another massive securities fraud scandal, was apparently expected to deliver a $50 million redemption to investors the day after he went missing. According to the Associated Press, those investors, many of whom had trusted Nadel with their entire life savings, now fear they have lost everything.

According to The New York Times, Nadel was first reported missing by his family on Wednesday. He is said to have left a suicide note, and his family said he sounded “distraught”. But according to a report on Bloomberg.com, Nadel has since spoken by phone to his wife, reportedly from New Orleans.

Nadel was president of Scoop Management Inc., a firm that managed six private investment funds. The funds managed by Scoop included Viking IRA, Valhalla Investment Partners LP, Viking, Victory, Victory IRA and Scoop Real Estate. Viking IRA, Valhalla and Viking funds were managed by Nadel under contract with his partner and Valhalla founder Neil Moody. The other three were Navel’s own funds.

After his disappearance made news in Florida, police there began fielding complaints from investors. A lieutenant with the Sarasota police told The New York Times that “allegedly hundreds of millions of dollars” of investor money has gone missing. One report said Nadel’s partners believe as much as $350 million were missing from the Scoop funds.

According to the Associated Press, Nadel was supposed to deliver a payout of $50 million to about 600 investors from across the country on January 15. The six funds Nadel managed had sustained losses in October, but an internal accountant for Scoop Management told the Associated Press that Nadel did not seem nervous about the redemption.

According to a report in the Herald Tribune, many investors who requested withdraws from their funds in December and January were told by Scoop employees they would have to wait until January 15. They told the Herald Tribune that had never had to wait for their money before.

According to the Herald Tribune, Neil V. Moody, Nadel’s business partner, told investors in a statement last week that he only learned on Jan. 14 “of an extremely serious situation suggesting that the funds may have virtually no remaining value.”

But some investors are suspicious of Moody’s claims that he and other people at Scoop only learned of situation that day. They point to the fact that their fund withdrawals were delayed by Scoop until a day after Nadel disappeared. Now, Nadel and their money is nowhere to be found.

[TigressPen]

*Snipped*But according to a report on Bloomberg.com, Nadel has since spoken by phone to his wife, reportedly from New Orleans.


Oh Man, not another one sitting somewhere living the good life on stolen funds!! I pray he is located soon and these people are able to recover some of their losses.

[sarahhod]

Newsletter touted missing money manager as U.S. No.1
By Jason Szep

http://www.theusdaily.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=635381


http://i41.tinypic.com/20a5npd.jpg
Arthur Nadel, 75, is shown in a photo provided by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office released to Reuters January 20, 2009. Nadel, a Florida investment manager, disappeared last week with what could be hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money, as the investigation into his dealings widened. REUTERS/Sarasota County Sheriff's Office/Handout

BOSTON (Reuters) - "America's Top Ranked Money Manager," read the 2003 headline in The Wall Street Digest, an investment newsletter.

Fast-forward six years: that money manager, Arthur Nadel, has vanished along with an estimated $350 million of his clients' money, and investors are fuming over the glowing report promoting the "unusual success" of the Florida hedge fund manager, who disappeared last Wednesday.

As a probe widens into Nadel, his burned investors are seeking answers. Some say they were blindsided by the losses. Others are quoted as saying they saw warning signs recently.

Some, like 68-year-old Tony Hagar, say they were drawn to his funds by The Wall Street Digest and the upbeat report by its editor, Donald Rowe, and now question how much due diligence the investment newsletter industry conducts.

"He seemed to indicate that they were a reasonable investment. They put out a letter that says these folks have done substantially well, and that Don Rowe had looked at them closely," said Hagar.

Hagar lost $1.5 million, nearly his entire retirement savings, along with any hope of retiring next year as planned from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he works as a professor in Daytona Beach, Florida.

"That's not going to happen," he said.

The FBI's Tampa office opened an investigation into Nadel on Tuesday, launching a search for the 76-year-old former New York jazz pianist whose disappearance has drawn parallels to last month's arrest of former Nasdaq Stock Market chairman Bernard Madoff.

Like Madoff's funds, Nadel's investments generated returns regardless of whether markets rose or fell. Hagar estimates he saw a total return of about 70 percent over seven years.

Madoff allegedly confessed to his sons that his firm's investment-advisory business was "basically a giant Ponzi scheme" in which money from new investors is used to pay distributions and redemptions to existing investors.

A visit to the offices of Nadel's company, Scoop Management Inc, in Sarasota on Tuesday found the doors locked and lights out. Through a window, the office looked orderly with papers stacked as if it were just closed for the weekend.

"They're out of business," a man said as he walked by.

At Nadel's home in a quiet, upscale neighborhood in Sarasota, his daughter Alex came outside to address reporters but would only say, "We can't say anything now."

Sarasota Police Capt. William Spitler said detectives were trying to determine the total amount of money that might be missing, based on calls from investors. "It's alarming. It's hundreds of millions of dollars for sure," Spitler said.

He said one man who had invested $750,000 with Nadel told detectives, "I'll be working for the rest of my life."

'HIGHLY TECHNICAL PROGRAM'

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune quoted another investor who learned about Nadel's hedge fund from the Sarasota-based Wall Street Digest. He invested about $200,000 and earned between 6 percent and 11 percent a year, the report said.

Rowe wrote in the Wall Street Digest in 2003 that he conducted a due diligence visit to the office of Nadel and his business partner, Neil Moody, who has said he was not aware of any problems until last week.

"I did not learn the various mathematical formulas in Nadel's 'black box' computer program," Rowe wrote.

"What I did learn is very important for the individual investor. After 26 years of reviewing the track records of over 11,000 mutual funds, 6,000 money managers and 5,800 hedge funds, Nadel's computerized investment program has produced the best track record and most consistent returns I have ever seen," Rowe wrote.

"The highly technical program used by the group is proprietary, but I was given an opportunity to see it in action during a due diligence visit to their office," he wrote.

Fine print at the bottom of the report notes that Rowe from time to time makes referrals to The Nadel Moody Group. Experts say that while such referrals could pose a conflict of interest there is little regulation over investment newsletters.

"I have no specific knowledge of Don Rowe, but it is not uncommon for money managers to compensate newsletter editors for providing leads," said Mark Hulbert, editor of the Hulbert Financial Digest, which tracks market newsletters.

Rowe did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune said in its Tuesday edition that Nadel was believed to be in Slidell, Louisiana. It also quoted some investors as saying they were baffled recently by an unusual delay in getting at their money back.

Nadel and his wife Peg were well known in Sarasota, a city of about 100,000 in southwest Florida with many wealthy retirees.

[sarahhod]

Hedge fund manager's disappearance was `staged'

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/864208.html

SARASOTA -- (AP) -- Authorities say they believe a missing hedge fund manager who owed investors a $50 million payout staged his disappearance.

Sarasota County Sheriff's Lt. Chuck Lesaltato said Tuesday the department was ending its involvement in the search for Arthur G. Nadel after finding no signs of foul play. The FBI is leading the investigation.

Nadel disappeared Jan. 14 after leaving his family a note indicating he was going to kill himself. Investigators found his car in a Sarasota airport parking lot the next day.

Also Tuesday, Mace Security International announced that Nadel owes it $2.2 million.

The pepper spray manufacturer said it was expecting the money Jan. 15 but was told the deposits could not be located.

[TigressPen]

I just pray he still has that money and hasn't squandered it away over the years. These investors deserve their money to be returned to them.

[sarahhod]

Florida fund manager expressed guilt over losses
Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:28pm GMT

http://uk.reuters.com/article/americasRegulatoryNes/idUKN2147668620090121



MIAMI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - In a suicide note left for his family, missing Florida fund manager Arthur Nadel expressed guilt for losing clients' money and felt someone might try to kill him, according to police documents released on Wednesday.

Nadel, the 76-year-old head of a Sarasota fund management company, was reported missing by his family a week ago. Two days later investors began complaining to police that possibly hundreds of millions of dollars were missing from the funds he ran.

Nadel left a note for his wife, Peg, in a desk drawer at his home, "indicating he was going to kill himself," a Sarasota County sheriff's deputy wrote in a police report.

But police said they have tracked calls from Nadel's cellphone to Slidell, Louisiana, New Orleans, and Mobile, Alabama, which were made last week after his disappearance.

In the note, Nadel expressed "the extreme guilt he was feeling over business actions that he had taken which resulted in the (loss) of other peoples money," the report said.

"The subject (Nadel) wrote that as a result of his management of other people's money that there are those that would like to kill him, but that he will do it himself," it said.

With the financial fraud investigation in its early stage, there were no warrants for his arrest.

Nadel's disappearance came little more than a month after authorities arrested New York money manager Bernard Madoff, who is accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

The Nadel case has been called a "mini-Madoff" in local media. Madoff recruited many of his investors through social circles in ultra-rich Palm Beach on Florida's east coast, while Nadel was a well-known philanthropist in Sarasota, a Florida west coast city that is home to many wealthy retirees.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said it had closed its missing persons investigation because Nadel had disappeared voluntarily. The FBI has taken over the investigation.

"We felt there was no foul play involved," Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Chuck Lesaltato said. "We just closed it out."

The Sarasota Police Department has said hundreds of millions of dollars may be missing from Nadel's Scoop Management. Published reports have put the figure at up to $350 million. (Reporting by Jim Loney; Editing by Eric Beech)

[sarahhod]

SEC charges missing money manager Nadel with fraud

26 minutes ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9PfJ4Jvx9jv0OKaLKaEXnVym8BAD95RNTNG0


WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are charging a missing hedge fund manager with fraud, saying he misled investors and overstated the value of investments in the six funds by about $300 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission won a court order Wednesday freezing the assets of Arthur G. Nadel, of Sarasota, Fla., and other defendants in the case.

Nadel owed investors a $50 million payout, told his wife in a note he felt guilty and threatened to kill himself, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. The authorities believe that Nadel, 76, planned his Jan. 14 disappearance.

The SEC says Nadel recently transferred at least $1.25 million from two of the hedge funds to secret bank accounts that he controlled.

[sarahhod]

SEC Files Suit Against Sarasota Hedge Fund Manager

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/21/211520/sec-files-suit-against-sarasota-hedge-fund-manager/



Published: January 21, 2009



TAMPA - The Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit in federal court against missing Sarasota hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel and his business entities, accusing Nadel of committing fraud by deceiving investors and funneling their money into secret bank accounts.

A federal judge granted a emergency motions from the SEC, appointing a receiver and imposing a restraining order to stop the fraudulent activity. A hearing was scheduled for Feb. 4.

Nadel recently transferred $1.25 million from the investment funds into a secret bank account, the SEC complaint states.

According to the SEC filing, Nadel and his companies have "materially misrepresented" the value of the hedge fund assets. "For example," the complaint states, "the Hedge Funds' internal books and records – used to provide false account statements to investors – indicate the value of their assets exceeds $300 million. In fact, the actual value of the Hedge Funds' assets is only about $506,000."

The complaint states the value of the funds were misrepresented to investors in false account statements directed by Nadel.

One Virginia investor who invested in the Victory IRA Fund, the complaint states, received a statement in October stating his investment was valued at $599,551.55, and the next month's statement valued his investment at $602,965.39. The investor made a second investment through another account with the same fund and received October and November statements valuing that investment at $172,354.07 and $173,335.45.

The actual total value of the entire Victory Fund's holdings was $2,938.86 at the end of October and in November, according to the SEC filing.

The same investor and his wife made other investments through Nadel's holdings, according the the complaint, which states those values were also misstated.

U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara wrote in an order that the SEC had established "a reasonable likelihood Nadel will harm the investing public by continuing to violate federal securities laws unless immediately restrained." He also found "good cause to believe that unless immediately restrained and enjoined by order of this court, Nadel will continue to dissipate, conceal or transfer" his fund assets.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's office has said it believes the 76-year-old Nadel planned his disappearance before he was scheduled to give investors a $50 million payout on Jan. 15.

[sarahhod]

January 21, 2009
Is Missing Florida Hedge Fund Manager a Marcus Schrenker Copy Cat?

http://blogs.discovery.com/criminal_report/2009/01/is-missing-flor.html


Arthur G. NadelThe Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken over the case of Arthur G. Nadel, a 76-year-old hedge fund manager from Sarasota, Florida, who investors suspect of defrauding them out of $350 million USD.

The case came to light on January 14, 2009, when police received a call from Nadel’s wife, Peg, notifying them that her husband was missing. She reportedly told them that she had last seen her husband when he left for work that morning; however when she went to meet him at his office later that day he was not there. That same day, at about 1:20 p.m., Nadel’s stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, received a call from Nadel, instructing him to go to his Sarasota home to retrieve a note he had left in a desk drawer. In the note, Nadel expressed his love for his wife and his guilt for mismanaging his clients’ money.

"The subject wrote that, as a result of his management of other people’s money, there are those who would like to kill him," the police report states, "but that he would do it himself."

The day after Nadel’s reported disappearance, investigators located his green Subaru abandoned in a parking lot at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. A trace of Nadel’s cell phone activity allegedly placed him in Tampa the day of his disappearance and then later in the New Orleans suburb of Slidell. Authorities say there has been no other recent activity.

As a result of the discovery of Nadel’s car and the cell phone activity, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office decided to close their investigation in the case.

"Sheriff’s detectives believe that Mr. Nadel is missing voluntarily," reads a January 20 press release issued by the sheriff’s office. "Sarasota Police Department has turned over its investigation of Mr. Nadel’s company, Scoop Management, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Any person wishing to make a report regarding Scoop Management is requested to do so by [contacting] the FBI."

In the days following Nadel’s disappearance, authorities received dozens of calls from investors, accusing Nadel of defrauding them of millions of dollars.

This most recent incident is not the first time Nadel has been accused of fraud. According to records obtained by the St. Petersburg Times, Nadel was working as an attorney in 1978, when he allegedly took nearly $50,000 from a hospital escrow account to pay off a loan shark. Nadel eventually made full restitution; however, he was nevertheless disbarred for fraud and professional misconduct.

It remains unclear what Nadel did in the years immediately after losing his ability to practice law; however, in 2004, he began to solicit investors for his Scoop Real Estate Limited Partnership. Nadel told potential clients that their money would be used to purchase income-producing properties such as apartment or office buildings. He would then pass the rental income on to them. In time, when the properties appreciated, they would be sold for profit. Nadel would handle all the details, deciding what properties to buy and when to sell, and the investors would benefit from both high current income and long-term capital gains.

Despite his past history, Nadel’s company quickly grew, and before long he was trading for six different funds involving roughly 600 investors across the country. He also became well-known in his local community as a generous philanthropist. He was president of the Guy-Nadel Foundation, which, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, has assets of $3.4 million and an annual income of $1.2 million. The charity has given money to both art and church groups, as well as a one-time grant of $50,000 to Habitat for Humanity in 2006.

Investors were happy with Nadel and there was no sign of trouble until October, when Nadel informed some of them that his funds had suffered losses and that their redemption payments would be withheld "due to extraordinary market conditions."

Nadel later said that he would deliver a $50 million redemption payment on January 14. That, of course, never happened, as he disappeared the day before he was set to make payment. It remains unclear what happened to the $350 million that was in the six funds. According to employees of Nadel’s company, they have yet to find any documentation suggesting that the funds were not turning a profit. Regardless, all of the funds are almost completely depleted.

Two of the hardest-hit investors were YMCA of Sarasota and Mace International, which lost $1.1 million and $2.2 million, respectively.

According to Scoop’s private placement memorandum, the company is represented by Holland & Knight, a top law firm in Florida. A representative of the firm has refused to comment about the case. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also declined comment.

The allegations against Nadel have unnerved many investors, who are still getting over the recent shock of two other high-profile financial fraud cases.

* On Dec. 11, 2008, Bernard Madoff, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, was charged with defrauding investors of roughly $50 billion USD. If convicted, Madoff will have perpetrated the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person.

* On Jan. 10, Marcus Schrenker, a hedge fund manager from Indiana, allegedly tried to fake his own death after investigators launched an investigation into his businesses – Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management – for alleged securities violations.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Tampa is currently investigating Arthur Nadel’s disappearance and the allegations of fraud that have been levied against him by his investors. Nadel has not yet been charged with any wrongdoing. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI at 813-253-1000.

[sarahhod]

Nadel was disbarred as lawyer in New York
By Michael Pollick
STAFF WRITER

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090122/ARTICLE/901220350/2058/NEWS?Title=Nadel_was_disbarred_as_lawyer_in_New_Yo rk

Published: Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 10:40 p.m.

Long before he became a Sarasota hedge fund manager, missing-in-action Sarasotan Arthur G. Nadel had been an attorney in New York state.

His legal career ended with disbarment in 1982, based on a 1978 incident in which he took $50,000 out of an escrow account to pay off a loan shark, New York state judicial records show.

Nadel finally paid off the money with interest in 1981, but that did not prevent the New York state presiding justice from banning him from practicing law in 1982, citing "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation."

1978 was the same year that Nadel moved to Florida, says his current wife, Marquerite J. "Peg" Nadel.

Asked if her husband was the Arthur G. Nadel who began practicing law in New York in December 1958, Peg Nadel said, "Yes, that is the man I married."

She also confirmed that he began his stint as a lawyer after graduating from New York University School of Law.

"That is a matter of record. I've got his diploma hanging on the wall," she said.

But disbarment? "No, I never heard that," Peg Nadel said. By Wednesday, she had. She asked Arthur Nadel's son about the incident, and he confirmed it.

That same day, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Arthur Nadel with orchestrating a colossal fraud through investment funds that actually contain less than $1 million. Nadel had informed investors that those funds totaled $342 million.

How much money investors put into those funds, and where the money has gone, are still under investigation, an SEC spokesman said.

Richard Sanchez was Nadel's New York client back in the late 1970s, and Sanchez also came into a deal Nadel found in Sarasota, a proposed purchase and renovation of the Mira Mar Hotel on Palm Avenue.

"Last time I saw him, he was in Sarasota and it was 1982," Sanchez said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I haven't seen him for about 20 some years, but I think that is Arthur."

In July 1978, Nadel represented Sanchez and CCN Realty Corp. in the sale of a property. Nadel received $50,000 from the buyer on Aug. 21, 1978, and was to have deposited it in an escrow account with Citibank.

Nadel told New York judicial officials that he was indebted to loan sharks, according to the January 1982 paperwork that set the disbarment proceedings in motion. By early October, he had withdrawn all but $152.24 from the escrow account.

The property sale never went through, meaning that Nadel should have been able to return the $50,000 to the buyer.

Nadel did not challenge the disbarment panel's finding of guilt, but asked that the penalty be less than a five-year suspension.

The attorney prosecuting the case stated in writing that it was "not totally clear from this record whether the respondent was directly involved with the 'loansharks.'"

But his mishandling of escrowed money was deemed to be enough to disbar him and strike his name from the state's roll of attorneys.

Richard Sanchez does not think Nadel ever put the $50,000 into an escrow account. Instead, Sanchez believes that Nadel used the money to get started buying real estate in Sarasota. Sanchez said Nadel also used another several thousand dollars he borrowed from Sanchez and has never repaid.

"He wanted to go to Florida bad," Sanchez said. "He liked Sarasota for some reason."

[sarahhod]

SEC charges Nadel with fraud; $300 million gone
By John Hielscher

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090121/BREAKING/901210257/1006/SPORTS0301

Published: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 3:01 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 4:36 p.m.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged missing Sarasota hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel with defrauding investors out of $300 million.

In the federal complaint, the SEC said funds under Nadel’s control are valued at less than $1 million, not the $342 million he told his investors they were worth.

Nadel recently transferred at least $1.25 million from two of the funds to secret bank accounts, the SEC charged.

The agency has obtained an emergency court order freezing the assets of Nadel and his funds. A receiver has been appointed.

“Mr. Nadel’s alleged actions deceived investors, and we are seeking to hold him accountable for that misconduct,” said David Nelson, director of the SEC’s Miami office.

Six hedge funds and two investment management companies are also named as relief defendants. They are: Scoop Real Estate L.P., Valhalla Investment Partners L.P., Victory IRA Fund Ltd., Victory Fund Ltd., Viking IRA Fund LLC, Viking Fund LLC, Valhalla Management Inc. and Viking Management Inc.

Nadel, 76, fled Sarasota on Jan. 14.

Authorities have recently tracked him to Slidell, La.

[annalyzer]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=6700792

SEC Charges Missing Money Manager Nadel With Fraud

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/rt_nadel_090120_mn.jpg

SEC charges missing money manager Nadel with fraud; wins court order freezing assets

WASHINGTON January 21, 2009

Federal regulators on Wednesday charged a missing hedge fund manager with fraud, saying he misled investors and overstated the value of investments in the six funds by about $300 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission won a court order freezing the assets of Arthur G. Nadel, of Sarasota, Fla., and other defendants in the case.

Nadel owed investors a $50 million payout, told his wife in a note he felt guilty and threatened to kill himself, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. The authorities believe that Nadel, 76, planned his Jan. 14 disappearance.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Tampa, the SEC said Nadel recently transferred at least $1.25 million from two of the funds to secret bank accounts that he controlled.

Two investment companies co-owned by Nadel, Scoop Capital and Scoop Management, agreed in a settlement with the SEC to injunctions and an asset freeze. They neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

more at link ~

[annalyzer]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090123/ARTICLE/901230358/-1/NEWSSITEMAP

Sorting out losses in Nadel funds complex

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SH&Date=20090123&Category=ARTICLE&ArtNo=901230358&Ref=AR&MaxW=340&border=0
Peg Nadel has said she doesn't know where her husband, Art, is. He has been traced to Slidell, La. Losses at Arthur G. Nadel's Scoop Management could be $140 million to $225 million.

Published: Friday, January 23, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 23, 2009 at 1:45 a.m.

When he first invested $100,000 in Arthur G. Nadel's Viking Fund, David Walters was elated with a 7.77 percent return in just the first three months.

After the Sarasota-based fund delivered a 22 percent profit in 2004, Walters pumped in another $200,000 and watched the hedge fund soar -- more than 20 percent in 2005, 14.07 percent in 2006 and 15.17 percent in 2007.

Now, like hundreds of Nadel's other investors, Walters wonders if it was ever real.

"I should have known the old adage, 'If it looks too good, it is too good,'" he said.

(more at link)

[annalyzer]

http://hklaw.posterous.com/holland-and-knight-could-be-he

January 23, 2009

Holland & Knight could be held liable by investors claiming they were misled about Nadel's background

Missing investor kept N.Y. disbarment a secret, Sarasota's Art Nadel Paid $50,000 to Mob Loan Sharks From Clients Escrow Account. Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent In Print: Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

To pay off loan sharks, New York attorney Arthur G. Nadel violated a basic tenet of legal ethics — he dipped into an escrow account and took $50,000 that did not belong to him.

That was in the late 1970s, and Nadel was subsequently disbarred for "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation."

But in 2004 by which time Nadel was living in Sarasota he never disclosed his legal disgrace to investors in his Scoop Real Estate Limited Partnership. Thus, many were blindsided last week when the 75-year-old Nadel vanished, along with an estimated $350-million managed by him and his companies.

Had prospective investors known of Nadel's past, they might have been far more wary about entrusting their money to a man who promised unusually high, steady returns even as the stock market tanked. And should Nadel ever turn up, he, his partners and even Holland & Knight, the law firm for Scoop Real Estate, could be held liable by investors claiming they were misled about Nadel's background.

(more at link)

[annalyzer]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090125/ARTICLE/901250366/-1/NEWSSITEMAP

Gaps in oversight let Nadel avoid scrutiny


Published: Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 11:05 p.m.

Because of legal loopholes, Sarasota hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel avoided even the most basic scrutiny from regulators during an investment career that spanned a decade.

(more at link)

[sarahhod]

Arthur Nadel went from rags to riches to who knows where

By Susan Taylor Martin (http://www.tampabay.com/writers/article380309.ece), Times Senior Correspondent
In Print: Monday, January 26, 2009
The Sarasota office of missing hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel is empty except for some files and spartan furniture.
http://www.tampabay.com/multimedia/archive/00054/a4s_office012609_54143c.jpg
[SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN | Times]
SARASOTA — Before he traveled by private jet, before he became a philanthropist, before he managed huge sums of money for investors throughout the United States, Arthur G. Nadel was so broke he drove a 16-year-old Ford and argued with an ex-wife over a $100 camera.
"He has no assets, no liquidity, no money in the bank and no resources of any kind,'' Nadel's lawyer wrote a judge in 1995, asking that Nadel be spared from paying alimony. "The husband is financially impoverished.''
Yet in just nine years Nadel went from down-and-out musician — fired from playing the piano at the Homestyle Harmony restaurant — to hedge fund manager responsible for a reputed $350-million.
Today, that money is missing and so is the 76-year-old. He skipped town on Jan. 14, telling his fifth wife in a note that he felt guilty and feared he might be killed.
Federal regulators, who have charged Nadel with fraud, say he misled investors by vastly overstating the value of assets. Two of his companies have agreed to a freeze on whatever is left while the FBI hunts Nadel, thought to have fled at least temporarily to Louisiana.
But if his whereabouts are a mystery, so is this: Why did so many smart people — doctors, lawyers, corporate executives — entrust their fortunes to a man with such a questionable past?
The Piano Man arrives
Arthur Geoffrey Nadel, a tailor's son, was born in New York on Jan. 1, 1933, in the depths of the Depression. Brilliant and musically blessed, he paid his way through New York University's undergraduate and law schools by playing piano in Manhattan clubs.
Acquaintances say Nadel never actively practiced law, instead serving as adviser to a small group of associates. In 1982 he was disbarred for taking $50,000 from an escrow account to help Richard Sanchez, a friend and real estate company president who was deeply in debt to loan sharks.
Beyond that, Nadel's years between law school and disbarment are murky. He married twice, had several children and divorced twice.
In a prospectus for one of his hedge funds, he said he spent the 1960s as a "real estate developer and securities investor'' followed by a stint in the '70s as CEO of a public company that built health care facilities. He did not identify the company.
Around 1978, for reasons unclear, Nadel moved to Sarasota, where he, Sanchez and others tried to convert the historic but rundown Mira Mar hotel to condominiums. The plan flopped, and the hotel was razed.
For a time, Nadel played in piano bars, hanging out with local artists and musicians who found him an unassuming Woody Allen type with a wry sense of humor. In 1987, he married his third wife, Jennifer Hoffman, an artist 22 years his junior.
Nadel's next venture was the Sarasota Design Gallery, which catered to the interior decorating trade with unusual furnishings and original art. He tried to expand the business by attracting investors — claiming in a "confidential'' prospectus that the gallery had a healthy profit — but court records show several judgments against him for unpaid bills.
As Hoffman's artist friends began complaining that he had sold their works but never paid them, the couple's relationship grew strained. They divorced in 1991.
Concrete bulldog
While still running the gallery, Nadel met the woman who would soon be his fourth wife, Emelie Painter Zack. That, too, was a short-lived union, with Zack claiming in 1995 divorce papers that Nadel had physically abused her and borrowed so much money that she was "leaving the marriage in severe financial distress.''
In response to her request for $68,000, Nadel said he had lost a piano-playing job and had zero income and $129,075 in liabilities. After a two-day trial, he was ordered to pay Zack just a few hundred dollars, although the judge noted that Nadel's "poor reputation in the community, along with (his) responses under cross-examination, all lead this court to disbelieve (his) position.''
Nadel and Zack wrangled over personal property for the next two years. Among other things, he demanded that he be allowed to retrieve from their home a Polaroid camera and a concrete lawn statue of a bulldog.
"The dog really went with Nadel,'' Zack tersely responded.
Trading up
Then in his 60s and "not readily employable,'' as his lawyer put it, Nadel moved on to day trading — buying and selling stocks and other financial instruments with the goal of making quick profits. In 1997, he and Peg Quisenberry, who would become Wife No. 5, started a day-trading club and developed a computer-based investment and trading system.
The couple teamed up with Neil Moody, a Sarasota entrepreneur, and began managing money for clients in Moody's Valhalla, Victor and Viking funds. The companies attracted scores of investors, lured by the promise of high returns.
As the money rolled into their unprepossessing office on Main Street, the Nadels dramatically upped their social and philanthropic profile. Their Guy-Nadel Foundation made more than $1-million in donations, including $200,000 to Catholic churches, $100,000 to the Sarasota Opera and $75,000 to a local theater group.
"They were very caring, generous and committed to making a difference in young girls' lives,'' says Stephania Feltz, executive director of Girls Inc. It received $100,000, enough to fund a year's worth of services for 33 girls.
In 2005, the Nadels bought 430 acres near Asheville, N.C., and offered lots for up to $525,000 in a proposed development called Laurel Mountain Preserve, later featured in a New York Times piece on getaway "havens.'' The project stalled when prices collapsed, and the Nadels donated four lots to their foundation as a hefty tax writeoff.
Nadel also bought two general aviation facilities: the Venice Jet Center, where some of the Sept. 11 hijackers trained under different ownership, and Tradewind Aviation, based at a suburban Atlanta airport and run by his son Chris, who has an airline pilot's license. Federal records show Tradewind owns a Cessna business jet, a helicopter and two other aircraft.
Once, on a Cessna flight home from North Carolina, the Nadels gave a ride to the daughter of Sarasota jazz buff Wes Bearden. The two men became friends, and the Nadels later sponsored some Sarasota Jazz Club events.
"He's just a very pleasant and interesting guy,'' Bearden says. "And Peg, she's a real pretty gal, sharp and well-spoken.''
The Nadel-Moody hedge funds seemed to do well for a time; the YMCA of Sarasota received several thousand dollars in cash returns each year on an endowment managed by Nadel. But as the stock market fell, his bets, or "hedges'' that stocks would perform in a certain way, apparently led to disastrous drops in the funds' value.
People began to notice a dramatic change in Nadel, too. His face was ghostly pale and his 5-9 frame looked gaunt.
Disappearing act
On Jan. 14, with a large quarterly distribution to investors about to come due, Peg Nadel said she found a note from her husband saying that he thought people wanted to kill him and that he would do it himself. Authorities discovered his green Subaru at the Sarasota airport. They now think he planned his disappearance, noting that he had transferred at least $1.25-million to a secret bank account.
Left behind were hundreds of stunned investors like Illinois entrepreneur Michael Sullivan.
On the recommendation of his neighbor, an 80-year-old lawyer who invested $15-million, Sullivan put $250,000 into Nadel's Scoop Management three years ago. Encouraged by returns averaging 15 percent a year — at least on paper — he invested an additional $1.4-million shortly before Nadel vanished.
"I don't understand what I did, throwing money at a moron like this,'' Sullivan says.
Jennifer Hoffman Meketon, Nadel's third wife, who has since remarried, finds it even harder to understand why so many Sarasota residents aware of his checkered past still trusted him with their money.
"There is no excuse,'' she says. "People who knew about Arthur just didn't want to accept it."
Peg Nadel, Neil Moody and their partners have kept a low profile in recent days. All is quiet at the Nadels' $320,000 south Sarasota home, attractive but nothing like the luxury waterfront condos where many of their investors live.
Outside the house sits a concrete bulldog — the same lawn statue Nadel was so determined to keep when he was flat broke.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/article970529.ece

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/27/thinkstrategy-invested-with-missing-money/

ThinkStrategy invested with missing money manager

January 27, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

ThinkStrategy Capital Management LLC, a New York-based hedge-fund firm, said it invested with Arthur Nadel, the Florida money manager who disappeared after allegedly overstating client accounts by $300 million.

The firm's Multi-Strategy Fund LP had about 9 percent of its assets in Nadel's Valhalla and Victory funds and may lose as much as 19.8 percent after including borrowed money, ThinkStrategy said in a letter Wednesday.

The firm "is in the process of reserving for the potential losses from this unforeseen event," it said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Nadel, 76, who ran Scoop Management Inc. in Sarasota, Fla., left home Jan. 14 and was reported a missing person by his family.

His disappearance occurred amid a wave of federal investigations targeting money managers following the disclosure last month of Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

(more at link)

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8329490

US arrests, charges missing US fund manager Nadel

Reuters, Tuesday January 27 2009 (Adds investor reaction, details of criminal complaint)
By Grant McCool

NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Florida fund manager Arthur Nadel, whose family reported him missing two weeks ago, turned himself in for arrest on Tuesday on a criminal charge of securities fraud, U.S. officials said.
Nadel fled after a partner in his firm told him that following the arrest of accused swindler Bernard Madoff in December, the funds should hire an independent accountant to audit the books, an FBI agent said in a court filing.
Nadel, head of Scoop Management overseeing six hedge funds he had valued at more than $300 million but may have less than $1 million according to authorities, is expected to make an initial appearance in a federal court in Tampa, Florida, later on Tuesday.
"Arthur Nadel surrendered in the company of two lawyers to FBI agents in Tampa," New York FBI spokeswoman Monica McLean said.
Nadel was charged with securities fraud in New York because he traded through a brokerage in the city. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
The purported fraud is one of several that authorities have announced across the United States following the sharp decline in the fortunes of the financial industry.
The biggest by far is New York investment manager Madoff, who authorities said confessed to running a Ponzi scheme over many years with losses of $50 billion. A Ponzi scheme is one in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.
A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan linked Nadel's decision to flee to the Madoff case.
FBI agent Kevin Riordan said that an unidentified partner of Nadel's "informed me that, following the arrest of Bernard L. Madoff by the FBI in New York and the subsequent publicity ... Partner I again told Nadel that (the funds) had to hire an independent certified public accountant to conduct an audit."
The document said that on Jan. 8 Nadel agreed to the audit but by Jan. 14 he was reported missing by his family after leaving a suicide note "reflecting that he was no longer going to be around."
Nadel was charged with securities fraud and wire fraud related to his funds from around 2004 until at least Jan. 14 this year. Investors were located throughout the United States, the court document said. His assets have been frozen by court order.
The complaint contains excerpts of a handwritten letter from Nadel, 76, to his wife. It says the letter was found by Scoop employees in an office shredding machine.
"The avenues to money for you will likely be blocked soon," the letter quoted in an affidavit by Riordan said. "You must use the trust (yours) to your benefit as much and as soon as possible."
The complaint said Nadel of Sarasota, Florida, owned two general partnerships: Scoop Management and Scoop Capital LLC. An unidentified partner created two other partnerships called Valhalla Management and Viking Management LLC.
Nadel was the investment adviser for all of the funds under the partnerships and the only person with authority to trade the money, according to the court document.
One investor, Larry Collier of Sarasota, Florida, said he was "glad to hear" Nadel was in custody.
"At least we'll find out what happened to the money, whether it's a Ponzi scheme or he just lost it," said Collier, whose last statement indicated he had $670,000. (Additional reporting by Jim Loney in Miami, editing by Matthew Lewis) Printable version larger | smaller Business

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http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article970950.ece

Sarasota money manager Arthur Nadel turns himself in

By Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent
Posted: Jan 27, 2009 02:41 PM

TAMPA — Missing Sarasota hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel, charged with fraud in what authorities say was an elaborate Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of millions of dollars, has turned himself in to the FBI in Tampa and is scheduled to make his first appearance before a federal magistrate this afternoon.

Nadel, 76, disappeared from his Sarasota home on Jan. 14, telling his wife in a note that he felt guilty and feared he would be killed. Authorities traced him to Louisiana using cell phone records, but his whereabouts in more recent days had been unknown.

"I'm absolutely elated" by Nadel's arrest, said Chris Moody, whose father, Neil, started several investment funds managed by Nadel. "But other than that, the authorities have told me I can't make any comment."

(more at link)

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8329769

US arrests, charges missing fund manager Nadel

Reuters, Tuesday January 27

2009 (Adds Florida court hearing)
By Grant McCool
NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Florida hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel, who went missing two weeks ago, turned himself in on Tuesday and was ordered held on securities and wire fraud charges until a bail hearing on Friday.

Nadel fled after a partner in his firm told him that following the arrest of accused swindler Bernard Madoff in December, the funds should hire an independent accountant to audit the books, an FBI agent said in a court filing.

Nadel, head of Scoop Management, based in Sarasota, Florida, was accompanied by two lawyers when he surrendered to FBI agents in Tampa, an FBI spokesman said. He was led into a Tampa courtroom in handcuffs and leg shackles for a brief appearance before a U.S. magistrate.
In a fraud complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week, investigators said Nadel had valued the six hedge funds he oversaw at more than $300 million, when in reality they contained less than $1 million.

Nadel was charged with securities fraud in New York because he traded through a brokerage in the city.
The purported fraud is one of several that authorities have announced across the United States following the sharp decline in the fortunes of the financial industry.

(more at link)

[sarahhod]

Missing Florida Money Manager Will Remain in Jail After Turning Himself in to FBI

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 http://www.foxnews.com/images/foxnews_story.gif





A missing hedge fund manager who owes millions and is believed to have staged his own death will remain behind bars after turning himself in to the FBI Tuesday morning.
A federal judge ordered Arthur G. Nadel held at least until Friday. The government had asked for more time to prepare for a bail hearing, which is scheduled for then.
Nadel's attorney, Barry Cohen, said his client was not violent and should be released following a hearing Tuesday afternoon in Tampa. The attorney argued Nadel has been suffering from emotional problems and needed treatment.
Asked outside court where his client had been, Cohen said, "He went away for a while just to be alone." He said Nadel turned himself in as soon as he learned about the charges.
Nadel, who appeared in court chained at the waist and wrists, disappeared earlier this month just as he was due to pay investors $50 million. Accompanied by lawyers, he turned himself in at the FBI Tampa field office Tuesday morning and was arrested.
He faces federal securities and wire fraud charges.
Nadel's Sarasota, Fla.-based firm Valhalla Management is under investigation for investment and asset theft.

Nadel allegedly owes investors in his funds a $50 million payout, which he was due to give them before he vanished.
Federal regulators have charged Nadel with fraud, saying he misled investors and overstated the value of investments in the six funds by about $300 million.
Nadel turned himself in to Tampa agents at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, accompanied by two attorneys, FBI Special Agent David Couvertier told FOX News. He was turned over to the U.S. Marshals facility in Tampa.
He will ultimately be prosecuted in New York, law enforcement officials said.
The Florida financier has been compared to a small-scale Bernard Madoff — the former NASDAQ chief and hedge fund manager who is under house arrest for orchestrating a far-reaching, $50 billion Ponzi scheme that hurt scores of investors.
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said Nadel planned his disappearance.
Nadel was reported missing by his wife on Jan. 14. He left a note for her telling her he felt guilty about mismanaging people's money and threatening to kill himself, according to a sheriff's report released last week.
The 76-year-old financier told his wife he was going to his office, but he wasn't there when she arrived about two hours later.
Nadel then called and said he'd left something for her in a desk drawer at their ranch house in Sarasota. That's where she found a suicide note, according to the sheriff's report. In it, Nadel told his wife how much he loved her. He also said he felt guilty about losing clients' money.
"The subject wrote that as a result of his management of other people's money that there are those that would like to kill him," the sheriff's report states, "but that he will do it himself."
His car vanished with him, but was later found at a Sarasota airport.
Pepper spray manufacturer Mace Security International claims Nadel owes them $2.2 million. The company said in a release last Tuesday that they'd been informed the deposits could not be located, and that documents Nadel had provided were not authentic.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483506,00.html

[sarahhod]

Judge decides to keep Nadel in jail


By John Hielscher (john.hielscher@heraldtribune.com)


Published: Friday, January 30, 2009 at 5:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 30, 2009 at 5:39 p.m.


TAMPA - A federal judge denied a request by attorneys for Arthur G. Nadel to allow their client to exit jail by posting bond.
The 76-year-old, known in Sarasota’s business and social circles as “Art,” was arrested Tuesday and charged with two federal counts of securities fraud and wire fraud.
Federal Judge Mark Pizzo supported his decision Friday by citing the amount of assets that are missing — an amount allegedly overstated to investors as $300 million. He also said that the “the risk of flight is out there.” Pizzo said that if detained at home, Nadel would have sufficient time to change his mind and flee. Nadel had been missing for two weeks since leaving a suicide note with for his wife saying that he feared people wanted to kill him. Investigators think he traveled to Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina, possibly by private jet.
Nadel’s Tampa attorneys, Barry Cohen and Todd Foster, said that their client did not have enough money to pay a high bail, but near the end of the hearing asked Pizzo if they could come up with $5 million, would the judge consider setting a bond. Pizzo said that if the lawyers decided to present additional information, he would consider it.
It is possible that Nadel soon will be on his way to New York, where the U.S. Attorney’s Office hopes to prosecute him. Pizzo is expected to enter a formal detention order on Monday and then also has to accomplish a “warrant removal,” which could send Nadel to New York.
The FBI, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a court-appointed receiver continue to investigate Nadel and his six hedge funds, which contain only a fraction of the $342 million he claimed they were worth.
Law enforcement sources have said it is almost certain that Nadel would face more charges.
A report from receiver Burton Wiand detailed more than $95 million in management and profit-incentive fees collected since 2003 by Nadel and the general partners in the funds.
A federal judge has frozen Nadel’s assets, including his Scoop Management Inc., the Venice Jet Center and a 430-acre subdivision in North Carolina.
Lawyers for some of the hedge funds’ estimated 600 investors have been urging the SEC to ask a judge to expand the scope of that freeze to include other Scoop officials’ assets.


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090130/BREAKING/901300234/-1/NEWSSITEMAP

[sarahhod]

Florida fund manager plotted to flee for months: U.S.

Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:28pm GMT


NEW YORK (Reuters) - An accused Florida hedge fund manager who disappeared in January as his losses mounted as high as $300 million, had planned to flee for months, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday in a move to deny him bail.
The government said in court documents that fund manager Arthur Nadel wrote at least 14 checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to himself and sold real estate between October and December last year.
"Nadel started to prepare for his disappearance at least weeks, if not months, before he fled," prosecutors said in a memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Nadel was scheduled to appear on Friday.
According to U.S. investigators, the funds Nadel said held more than $300 million actually had less than $1 million, one of a series of purported frauds investigators say they have uncovered across the country as the economy sharply declined.
Thursday's filing by the government was in response to a request by Nadel's lawyers to release him on bail and into house arrest with electronic monitoring.
"We are familiar with what the (government) filing says and we look forward to addressing it in court tomorrow," said Todd Foster, a lawyer for 76-year-old Nadel.
Last week, a U.S. magistrate judge in Florida ordered Nadel held without bail as a flight risk and sent to New York. Nadel was charged with securities fraud and wire fraud in New York because he traded through a brokerage in the city.
During his two weeks as a fugitive from January 14, Nadel traveled to San Antonio, Texas, Hollywood and San Francisco, according to the government brief, which cited faxes Nadel sent and a credit card record.

"His claim that he did not know he was wanted or a fugitive, that he went away for a few days to think things over belies common sense and the evidence," prosecutors said. "Common sense dictates that Nadel fled to escape from a life behind bars."
The fund manager went missing after partners in his firm told him their funds should hire an independent accountant to audit the books following the arrest of accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff, according to court documents.
Sarasota, Florida-based Nadel was a well known philanthropist who headed two general partnerships he created, Scoop Management and Scoop Capital. He controlled six investment funds.
The case is USA v Nadel 09-mj-00169 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)


http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN1231574820090212

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Former Hedge Fund Manager Arthur G. Nadel Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to a Massive Ponzi Scheme

February 24, 2010

NADEL pleaded guilty to six counts of securities fraud, one count of mail fraud, and eight counts of wire fraud, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each of thecounts. For the securities fraud charges, NADEL faces a maximum fine of the greater of $5 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. For the mail fraud and wire fraud charges, NADEL faces a maximum fine of the greater of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or less from the offense. In addition, NADEL admitted to allegations in the Indictment seeking forfeiture.

NADEL, 77, of Sarasota, Florida is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge KOELTL on June 11, 2010.

(more at link)
http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo022410a.htm