There is a highly readable overview of the Alberto Vilar saga in the current Bloomberg Markets magazine. Recall, Vilar was the co-founder of go-go technology money management firm Amerindo Investment Advisors, and he was once a bilionaire and never-quit patron of the arts and other charities. Now charged with having stolen money from an investor, he is allegedly broke.
Unlike, however, the rest of the crew of white-collar criminals who have paraded through Manhattan courts in recent years, Vilar walks alone:
Vilar’s case stands out from those others. Freed from the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center just two days earlier, Vilar walked out into the world without the usual protective throng of family, friends and lawyers. Instead of a black sport utility vehicle or luxury sedan with tinted windows and a driver, Vilar stepped into a yellow cab for the $10.50 ride to his 20-room, two-story luxury apartment near the United Nations.
Vilar, who prosecutors said had once amassed a $950 million fortune, was released to home confinement after sitting in jail for three and a half weeks, unable to put together just $4 million to secure his bail. His lawyer, Susan Necheles, was trying to withdraw from the case, citing conflicts with her client and her concern that she wouldn’t be paid. Vilar faced a suit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the claims of former friends and investors who say he stole their money and court judgments won by business creditors and former employees. Many of the opera companies and other charities to which Vilar had pledged more than $200 million faced the reality that he wouldn’t pay them anytime soon, if ever.
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