A Fugitive No Longer: Samuel Israel Surrenders in Massachusetts

[WSJ_law_blog]

The game of life is hard to play
I’m gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I’ll someday lay
So this is all I have to say. — from “Suicide is Painless,” by Johnny Mandel and Mike Altman



Samuel Israel III, the former CEO of Bayou, arrives at Manhattan federal court for his sentencing, April 14, 2008. (Credit: Associated Press/ Louis Lanzano)


For Samuel Israel III there will be no parties in Namibia or beaches in São Tomé. In fact, Israel, the hedge-fund-CEO-turned-felon-turned- fugitive who disappeared on the day he was to report to prison for a 20-year sentence, apparently got no further than the next state. Israel has surrendered to police in Massachusetts, the Justice Department said this morning. Here’s the AP report.

Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, said that Israel, 48, is in federal custody.

On June 9, Israel’s SUV was found abandoned on a bridge in New York’s Westchester County with the words “suicide is painless” scrawled in the dust on the hood — about 90 minutes before he was to report to prison in Massachusetts. Israel’s girlfriend, Debra Ryan, was arrested late last month and charged with helping him flee authorities.

Israel was sentenced in April after pleading guilty in September 2005 to conspiracy, investment-adviser fraud and other charges in a scheme to defraud Bayou investors out of more than $400 million. Two other former Bayou execs, including former Bayou CFO Daniel Marino, also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the matter. Marino is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Arkansas.