Hedge fund fraudster Samuel Israel III, who was co-founder of Stamford-based Bayou hedge funds, pleaded guilty in a New York courtroom last week to a federal charge of failing to surrender, nearly 9 month after he went missing on the day he was supposed to report to prison for his role in a financial scandal.
Israel was sentenced last April to 20 years in prison for bilking investors out of about $450 million, but on the day he was supposed to report to prison last June, he went missing. When authorities went looking for him they found his sports utility vehicle abandoned on a New York bridge with the words “suicide is painless” written in dust on the hood.
When no body was found he was considered a fugitive, until he surrendered about a month later.
The 49-year-old faces as much as 10 additional years in prison on the bail jumping conviction. He will be sentenced on that charge in June.
Tower on Track
Asbestos removal is close to being finished, meaning a date with the wrecking ball is fast approaching for the former TV studio in Hartford’s Constitution Plaza that is to become the $40 million AI Technology office tower.
AI Engineers’ founder and president Abul Islam and Project Manager Dan Whittemore, of AI Engineers of Middletown, the building’s developer, told the Hartford 2000 coalition of city neighborhood’s that remediation of Broadcast House, WFSB-TV Channel 3’s former home, will be finished later this month.
Cold temperatures have slowed removal of the asbestos, a process that relies on water, Whittemore said.
Once asbestos remediation is complete, demolition of the concrete structure using excavators will begin soon after, he said.
In December, Islam announced plans for the 13-story tower to house AI’s headquarters and space for other tenants. Lease talks are under way with some of them, Whittemore said. He declined to name them.
Whittemore said tower construction is expected to begin later this year.
