Source:
Reuters via Yahoo!NEW YORK (Reuters) - The former chief financial officer of defunct hedge fund Bayou Group was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for his role in a scheme that cheated investors of more than $400 million.
Daniel Marino pleaded guilty in September 2005 to conspiracy and three counts of fraud. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Judge Colleen McMahon ordered him to begin serving the prison sentence immediately.
His sentence was more than four times longer than the prison term handed down last week to one of the firm's founders, James Marquez, who was ordered to serve four years and three months in prison. Another founder of the firm, Samuel Israel III, awaits sentencing.
<snip>
While Marino cooperated with prosecutors probing the case, he only came forward when the scheme unraveled and did not provide much useful information, she said. She called him "a sad individual" and said that "I've never met anyone, Mr. Marino, who has stolen this much money."
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080129/bs_nm/bayou_marino_dc
here's the connection:
Bayou and the Bush CousinA first cousin of President Bush is emerging as a peripheral player in the increasingly bizarre Bayou Management hedge fund scandal.
Sources say John P. Ellis, a former journalist turned investment banker, represented several companies in investment presentations to IM Partners, a side venture set up by Samuel Israel and Daniel Marino. Israel and Marino were the management team that ran Bayou and who federal prosecutors allege defrauded investors out of $300 million.
People familiar with the Bayou saga say Ellis, a personal friend of Israel for the past several years, helped arranged at least five investment deals for IM Partners while working as a managing director for GH Venture Partners, a New York City-based investment bank. In all, IM Partners, a Connecticut-based investment partnership, invested at least $25 million in deals handled by GH Venture.
<snip>
A former columnist for the Boston Globe, Ellis may be best known for his work as an electoral consultant for Fox News during the 2000 presidential election. It was Ellis' analysis of the Florida vote total that led Fox to declare Bush the victor before any of the other networks.
<snip>
IM Partners also invested $2 million in Debit Direct, another Isle of Man company with close ties to Kycos. Last year IM Partners and Marino, who is listed as the general partner of IM Partners, sued Debit Direct in federal court seeking the return of its money. The lawsuit is still pending.
It's believed that IM Partners stands for Israel Marino Partners.
...more...