Financier's girlfriend is given probation
The girlfriend of former hedge fund executive Samuel Israel III was sentenced to probation Tuesday after pleading guilty in February to helping him flee last summer shortly before he was to begin serving a lengthy prison term.
US District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, NY, sentenced Debra Ryan, Israel's longtime live-in girlfriend, to three years' probation, four months of which would be served under home confinement. The judge also ordered Ryan to not have any contact with Israel.
"This has been a horrible ordeal for Ms. Ryan and she is glad it is finally behind her," said Richard Strassberg, Ms. Ryan's lawyer. "She wants to thank her family, friends, and clients -- all of whom supported her throughout this process. We also thank the Court for its thoughtful and balanced approach in determining the sentence. Ryan is now looking to move forward with her artistic work and pick up the pieces of her life."
Ryan, pleaded guilty in February to a single count of aiding and abetting Israel's flight. Ryan, of Armonk, NY, had faced a sentencing-guidelines range of four months to 10 months in prison under a plea agreement with the government.
She originally was charged in the matter last June, shortly after Israel, the former chief executive of Bayou Management, disappeared before he was to begin serving a 20-year prison sentence.
On June 9, 2008, Israel's sport-utility vehicle was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge in Westchester County, outside New York City, with the words "suicide is painless" scrawled in the dust on the hood, about 90 minutes before he was to report to prison in Massachusetts.
Authorities investigated at the time whether he may have jumped from the bridge in a suicide attempt but later ruled that out. Israel turned himself in to Southwick, Mass., police July 2, 2008. The next day, he was ordered to begin serving his prison term.
In March, Israel pleaded guilty to a separate bail-jumping charge and is expected to be sentenced on that charge in July.
Israel was charged with misrepresenting the value of Bayou's funds and defrauding clients of more than $400m (€283.2m). Israel pleaded guilty in 2005 along with two other executives and was sentenced in April 2008 to 20 years in prison. The government also alleged Israel and others created a phony accounting firm, Richmond-Fairfield Associates, which Bayou executives claimed audited the hedge-fund company's annual financial statements. Bayou abruptly closed in July 2005.
Write to Chad Bray at chad.bray@dowjones.com
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