NY Trained Attorney Pulls $350 million Madoff Scam in Florida

Another Bernard Madoff? Hedge-fund manager Arthur Nadel vanishes with $350 million of clients' cash
The New York Daily News by TINA MOORE - January 17, 2009

In a case with parallels to the Bernie Madoff scandal, a prominent Florida hedge-fund manager has vanished - and so has up to $350 million of his clients' money. Sarasota police said they are looking into claims that Arthur Nadel, 76, defrauded investors before leaving a distraught note for his family and disappearing. Nadel's wife, Peg, filed a missing person report with police on Wednesday. She told the Daily News on Saturday that she's cooperating. "We are being very proactive," she said. "There is nothing to show that anything was taken. They're investigating his disappearance for his own safety and his own well-being." Some reports estimated that the hedge fund was out some $350 million, but Spitler said it's too soon to say exactly how much it was worth. Nadel - president of Scoop Management - graduated from New York University Law School and was a real estate developer in the 1960s. He was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 14 when he left for work, cops said. He called his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, and told him to go to his house where he had left a note, cops said. His disappearance comes a month after authorities charged Madoff, 70, with securities fraud for allegedly duping investors with a giant $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Earlier this week, Marcus Schrenker, an Indiana investment adviser suspected of bilking investors, was taken into custody by police in Florida, after allegedly attempting to fake his death in a plane crash. tmoore@nydailynews.com