The best swindlers always left no trail of exactly that it was done, or if it was done.. so one had in effect, no memory.
My hero is Bernie Cornfeld.
A group of 300 IOS employees complained to the Swiss authorities that Cornfeld and his co-founders pocketed part of the proceeds of a share issue raised among employees in 1969. Consequently he was charged with fraud in 1973 by the Swiss authories. When Cornfeld visited Geneva, Swiss authorities arrested him. He served 11 months in a Swiss jail before being freed on a bail surety of $600,000. Cornfeld always maintained his innocence, blaming the fraud on other IOS executives. His trial did not take place until 1979 and lasted three weeks, with Judge Pierre Fournier finally acquitting Cornfeld.
He returned to Beverly Hills, living less ostentatiously than in his previous years. He developed an obsession for health foods and vitamins, renounced red meat and seldom drank alcohol. In his last years he was a chairman of a land development firm in Arizona and also owned a real estate company in Los Angeles. His marriage ended in divorce, and he is survived by a daughter. His daughter, Jessica Cornfeld, wrote an article about her father in the The Mail on Sunday (London, England) 29th June 2003, entitled My father, the playboy who could never get enough lovers, where she suggests that he maintained a close friendship with Heidi Fleiss until his death in 1995. |
