wmlro.com - Lawyer gets 20 years for USD700 million Ponzi scheme.
“I was running a massive Ponzi scheme with no apparent way out. I recall only that I was desperate for some measure of the success that I felt had eluded me. I lost my perspective and my moral grounding, and really, in a sense, I just lost my mind.” This quote is not from who you think it is. It's what goes on when it's just another day at the office for New York's criminal courts.
59 year old Marc S Dreier was yesterday sentenced to 20 years in jail after being convicted of defrauding clients of almost USD50 million and investment funds and others of approx USD650 million.
Dreier sold fake IOUs (promissory notes) to hedge funds and other investors. The, as in many other cases, he created fictitious documents that "proved" that they were successful investments. He even paid others to act as "convincers" to persuade potential victims that success was likely.
But Dreier's downfall was the result of a bizarre attempt to assume the identity of a representative of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan - and trying to sell one of his fake notes for several million dollars.
Dreier laundered his profits in what is coming to look normal for fraudsters: he owned a flat in New York's expensive Upper East Side district, houses in The Hamptons, he spent a lot on artworks, cars and even a USD18 million yacht.
Dreier said in mitigation that he had started stealing in 2002 when he needed some quick cash and deducted it from a settlement due to a client. But his intention to pay it back was quickly lost and he started "running a massive Ponzi scheme with no apparent way out."
His motive? He was earning USD400,000 a year - and felt "“crushed by a sense of underachievement" when he compared himself to some of his contemporaries.
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