Legal News

Bail Jumper Roundup: One Pleads, Another is Captured

By Amir Efrati

Tuesday was a busy day for New York-based bail jumpers.

Samuel Israel III, of Bayou Hedge Fund fame, pleaded guilty to failing to report to prison last year for a 20-year prison sentence for defraud investors out of more than $400 million. He lasted a measly month as a fugitive. (Here’s the WSJ story and a prior LB post.)

Meanwhile, Canadian authorities arrested a fugitive U.S. currency broker who was convicted last fall of commodities fraud in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. (The WSJ story is here.)

Thomas Qualls, who failed to show up in court for closing arguments in his trial in November, was found in an apartment in Montreal yesterday after being placed on an Interpol-sponsored database of fugitives, law-enforcement officials said. The U.S. Marshals Service believes he may have had help in fleeing the U.S., said an official familiar with the matter.

Martin Geduldig, a lawyer for Qualls, said his next scheduled appearance is for sentencing. “He may have other problems as well but we’ll deal with those when they come up,” he said.

Qualls bilked investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by having them invest in a Garden City, N.Y. firm that purportedly traded in foreign currencies. He created account statements reflecting trades, but many of the trades never occurred.

Federal prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York could charge Qualls with failure to appear in court, a felony, or they could let a judge take the bail violation into account when he is sentenced for the prior conviction.

Qualls, who was facing substantial prison time, had been free on a $250,000 bond secured by his parents’ home in Florida. Last month AUSA Daniel Spector, who is handling the case, got a federal judge to order the seizure and sale of the home.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).