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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Fugitive Fund Manager Turns Himself In

FOXBusiness

Former fund manager of the Bayou hedge fund, Samuel Israel III turned himself in to police in Southwick, Mass. on Wednesday.

“Eventually he felt that the heat was on him,” Frank Dawson, a deputy U.S. Marshal, told FOXBusiness.com.

Israel walked into the local police in this morning and surrendered, telling them his name and that he was a fugitive.

Israel has been on the run since June 9, the day he was supposed to report to prison. He was sentenced in April to serve a 20-year prison sentence after he plead guilty of defrauding investors in his hedge fund of more than $400 million.

The fund manager allegedly faked his own suicide by abandoning his SUV on Bear Mountain Bridge, with the message “suicide is painless,” the theme song from the television show “M*A*S*H,” written in dust on the car's hood.

Authorities labeled the hedge fund manager a fugitive when his body was not found in the water beneath the bridge. Dawson said that the Marshals had been in contact with his mother, who lives in Illinois, since the time he fled. Israel was in contact with his mother as well, making law enforcement officials were very confident that he had not committed suicide.

He is currently being held at the local station and will be transported to the U.S. Marshals office in Springfield, Mass. He will have an initial appearance on failure to appear sometime this morning or early this afternoon.

Israel’s girlfriend, Debra Ryan, was also charged with aiding and abetting on June 19. She was taken into custody in White Plains, Mass. and was released on bail.

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