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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MoneyPenny who wrote (177939)	1/19/2009 1:55:28 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

Be on the look out... Florida’s Nadel Missing as FBI, SEC Investigate Funds bloomberg.com Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The FBI and securities regulators joined the investigation of Arthur Nadel, the Florida hedge-fund manager who disappeared four days ago, leaving clients concerned they may have lost as much as $350 million. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are helping on the case, Sarasota Police Lieutenant Stanley Beishline said yesterday in a telephone interview. One of Nadel’s business partners, Neil Moody, said Nadel had spoken to his wife since taking off. Nadel, 76, is president of Scoop Management Inc. in Sarasota, which oversees funds including Valhalla Investment Partners LP. Scoop’s claim to have managed as much as $350 million “may be high because performance results were exaggerated,” Moody said in an interview. He said he contracted with Nadel to manage three funds on his behalf, while Nadel alone had three others and did the trading for all six. Moody said he didn’t know anything was wrong until Nadel was reported missing. Nadel called his stepson, Geoff Quisenberry, on Jan. 14 and told him to go to his house where he had left a note, according to Lieutenant Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Nadel’s wife, Peg, and Quisenberry, were “concerned about his welfare,” Lesaltato said. Nadel had sounded “distraught,” Lesaltato said, citing the note. Beishline said he believes Nadel is alive. “I think he is, at least until a couple of investors find him,” Beishline said in an interview. Balances Dont Jibe</a> Moody called his broker “and the amount did not jibe with what Mr. Nadel said we had.” As much as $12 million of the Moody family’s money may be lost and how much remains is not known. “It looks very bleak,” Moody said. Moody said he has sent notes to investors in his three funds alerting them to the possible missing funds. Nadel was last seen by his wife at 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 14 when he left for work, Lesaltato said. Peg Nadel didn’t answer her home or mobile phone. Sarasota police opened an investigation Jan. 16 after receiving calls alleging “hundreds of millions of dollars” are missing, Captain William Spitler said in a telephone interview. The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, on Florida’s west coast, described Nadel as a “prominent player in Sarasota social and philanthropic circles.” Nadel, who graduated from New York University Law School, was a real estate developer during the 1960s, according to marketing documents for the Valhalla fund, which was incorporated in 1999. The Nadels and others started a firm two years earlier that used computer-generated investment and trading programs, according to the documents. Calls to Scoop’s offices were answered by voice mail. Valhalla, Viking Funds Scoop provided trading services for Valhalla, Viking and Viking IRA funds under a contract with Moody. Scoop also handled trading for three Nadel funds: Victory, Victory IRA and Scoop Real Estate, Moody said. Moody holds no position in Scoop Management, and was a partner with Nadel only on the Vahalla and two Viking funds. The disappearance of Nadel comes more than a month after Bernard Madoff, 70, was arrested for securities fraud after allegedly using billions of dollars from new investors to pay off older ones. Madoff told authorities that investors may have lost $50 billion in a “giant Ponzi scheme,” prosecutors said. Many of his investors live in Palm Beach, on Florida’s east coast. Indiana investment adviser Marcus Schrenker was taken into custody by police in Gadsden County, Florida, last week after he allegedly attempted to fake his death in a plane crash and use a motorcycle to escape. Authorities said Schrenker may have defrauded investors through three companies he owns in a suburb of Indianapolis, CNN reported. To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net; Saijel Kishan in New York at skishan@bloomberg.net Last Updated: January 18, 2009 12:03 EST