'Mini-Madoff' Nadel Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

Admitted con man Arthur Nadel, dubbed "mini-Madoff" in his home state of Florida for swindling hundreds of elderly investors in his funds, was sentenced on Thursday to serve 14 years in prison.

Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in New York to sentence Nadel, 77, to between 19-1/2 years and 24 years and five months, and to reject Nadel's plea that he not be sentenced to die in prison.

Koeltl said that sentence range was too long given Nadel's age and a heart condition, but acknowledged it was "a massive fraud perpetrated on his victims."

The Sarasota-based fund manager obtained more than $300 million from investors across the United States in managing six different funds, stealing about $168 million between January 1999 and January 2009.

Nadel pleaded guilty in February to running a Ponzi scheme, one in which early investors are paid with money from new clients.

Nadel stood in prison garb and told the judge that he had read the letters submitted by many of his victims.

"Their anger and outrage became mine at myself," Nadel said. "I blame only myself for my acts."

The scheme crashed with the declining economy in 2008 when more investors demanded redemptions, similar to the fate of New York financier Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar investment fraud. Nadel, who disappeared for two weeks after his fraud was revealed in January 2009, was referred to in Florida as a "mini-Madoff".

Madoff, arrested in December 2008, is serving a 150-year prison term after pleading guilty in March of 2009.

The case is USA v Nadel, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-433.

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