American Greed: Samuel Israel III

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by Pekelo, Feb 3, 2010.

  1. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    New episode about Samuel Israel III tonight at 9 pm Eastern on CNBC. He faked his own death to escape his HF's collapse after defrauding investors 450 million dollars.

    Program is going to be repeated at midnight, Eastern....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Israel_III

    "In 1996, investors gave the fund US$300 million. Investors were promised that the fund would grow to about US$7.1 billion in ten years. In 1998-9 trading losses accumulated quickly. The company started a dummy firm and hired it to audit themselves."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayou_Hedge_Fund_Group

    20 times return in 10 years. Sing me up Scotty!
     
  2. ds

    How appropriate same time they are repeating White Collar on USA.
     
  3. subban

    subban

    How come they never found his body? I hope he is'nt sitting at the beach in Tel Aviv drinking some mai tais and laughing at CNBC.
     
  4. wave

    wave

    Criminal Minds on CBS episode last night didn't do much either for the HF Manager image.
     
  5. jadam23

    jadam23

  6. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    The best part was when he was down to 150 million and "invested" it in a get rich quick scheme. The police first thought he was a victim (well, he was)
    Smarter people would have saved a few millions for rainy days and being a fugitive....
    I wouldn't go to prison for 20 years either. Also I didn't know that faking suicede was a crime (+2 years)...

    If you missed it:

    SHOW TIMES
    Episode 25: Suicide is Painless
    Friday, February 5th 10p | 1a ET
    Saturday, February 6th 7p | 3a ET
    Sunday, February 7th Midnight | 3a ET
    Wednesday, February 10th 8p ET
    Monday, February 15th 6p ET
     
  7. styron

    styron

    I don't understand why he didn't just leverage up to the hilt if he was so far in the hole. If you've broken all the rules anyway, why not leverage up with futures and/or options and hope things go your way. Maybe you can't do this with hundreds of millions without people being alerted I guess.
     
  8. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    Even with leveraging you still have to guess the direction right. Also options can expire faster than the direction turn back in your way.
     
  9. American Greed may well be the best show on CNBC.
     
  10. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    I agree. Tonight's show is about another guy who tried to fake his own death, Marcus Schrenker.

    Jumped out of a small plane after maydaying. But no body was found at the crash site in the swamps. :)
     
    #10     Mar 17, 2010