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Samuel Israel, III Sentenced to Two Years in
Prison for Failing to Surrender
LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for
the Southern District of New York, announced that SAMUEL ISRAEL
III was sentenced today to two years in prison for failing to
surrender to serve a 20-year prison sentence for fraudulently
inducing investments in the Bayou hedge funds of over $450
million. The sentence was imposed by United States District
Judge KENNETH M. KARAS in White Plains federal court and is
consecutive to ISRAEL's sentence in the underlying fraud case.
In imposing the sentence, which was above the
applicable Sentencing Guidelines range, Judge KARAS noted that,
by fleeing and failing to surrender to serve his sentence, ISRAEL
was "thumbing his nose at the system."
According to statements made at ISRAEL's guilty plea,
sentencing, and other proceedings in the case:
ISRAEL pleaded guilty on September 29, 2005, to charges
of mail fraud, investment advisor fraud, and conspiracy. On
April 14, 2008, United States District Judge COLLEEN McMAHON, who
presided over the underlying fraud case, sentenced ISRAEL to 20
years in prison and ordered him to surrender to begin serving his
sentence on June 9, 2008.
In the days leading up to his surrender date, ISRAEL
obtained false identifications and obtained an RV, which he
outfitted with a television, mattress, and scooter. On June 9,
2008, ISRAEL abandoned his car at the Bear Mountain Bridge, in
the vicinity of Cortlandt, New York, in an apparent attempt to
stage his own suicide. ISRAEL then had an associate drive him to
a rest area near the intersection of Interstates 684 and 84,
where the RV was waiting. ISRAEL then fled and remained a
fugitive until July 2, 2008.
Mr. DASSIN praised the investigative work of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, and
the New York State Police.
Assistant United States Attorneys SARAH R. KRISSOFF and
MARGERY B. FEINZIG are in charge of the criminal prosecution.
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