Bayou’s Samuel Israel III Gets 20 Years Behind Bars

Samuel Israel III, the former Stamford, Conn., Bayou hedge fund manager who authorities found to have cheated investors out of $400 million, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal judge, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Israel must pay back $300 million.

Earlier, Daniel Marino, onetime chief financial officer of Bayou, also got 20 years in January, while co-founder James G. Marquez was sentenced to 51 months in jail.

Marino and Israel pleaded guilty in 2005 to inflating the value of the hedge funds they ran at the elite hedge fund company they founded in 1996. Marquez fessed up to his role in the plot the following year. Shortly after the fraud came to light, Israel barricaded himself inside his mansion, which he was subletting from Donald Trump and owed back rent.

The ruling is one of the severest sentences ever handed down for a white-collar crime.

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