Stamford Advocate – Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Samuel Israel, convicted for his role in a $400 million fraud involving the collapse of Stamford-based hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC, was sentenced to three years probation for aiding his escape.

Ryan, a decorator who once rented a house on Highland Avenue in Greenwich, also was ordered to be confined at home for four months and not to have any contact with Israel.

Israel, 49, pleaded guilty in March to faking his suicide by abandoning his car on the Bear Mountain bridge with the words "suicide is painless" written on the windshield and fleeing the day he was to begin a 20-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to fraud in 2005 after admitting he hid $400 million in losses at Bayou.

Read Complete Article

Tags: bear mountain bridge, collapse, four months, fraud, girlfriend, greenwich, group-llc, hedge fund, israel, israel israel, losses, probation, stamford advocate, suicide, windshield

Caribbean Net News – Citadel Investment Group, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, is closing down a Bermuda reinsurer it formed in 2004, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Citadel, which manages roughly $18 billion, thought it had a winning business plan with CIG Re because it was fully collateralized, giving the insured certainty their claims would be paid if catastrophe struck.

It is unwinding the reinsurer, according to this person, because the company’s cost of capital is too high. The reinsurer, which does not have a financial strength rating, has also had a hard time competing with rivals who do.

The Chicago-based firm formed the property-catastrophe reinsurer, CIG Reinsurance Ltd, four years ago because it saw reinsurance as uncorrelated with its other investment strategies.

Read Complete Article

Tags: backlash, extensive-network, fame, gulf-coast, probation, settlement-system