Suicide Really Is Painless for Convicted Hedge Fund ManagerLast week, we wrote about Samuel Israel III, the former hedge fund manager sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence for fleecing his clients out of $400 million.
At first, authorities thought Israel may have committed suicide when he disappeared on June 10, just days before the start of his prison term. They found his car near Bear Mountain Bridge with the words, “suicide is painless” scrawled in the dust on the hood.
But the enigmatic quip, the title of the theme song from the hit TV series M*A*S*H, was just part of a ruse to avoid incarceration, though authorities did not state why they had ruled out suicide.
From the AP:
U.S. Marshal Joseph Guccione said Monday that investigators now consider the case of Samuel Israel III to be solely a fugitive investigation.… Federal marshals issued a wanted poster Thursday for the man convicted of cheating investors out of $450 million in his Bayou hedge funds. They said he should be considered armed and dangerous.