Bloomberg – Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Samuel Israel, the convicted founder of hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC charged with bail jumping, pleaded not guilty to helping him escape.
Israel, 49, is accused of faking his suicide and fleeing the day he was to begin a 20-year sentence for his federal conviction in a $400 million fraud. Ryan, 45, entered her plea today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith at federal court in White Plains, New York, according to Herb Hadad, a spokesman for interim U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin in New York.
