Israel’s Girlfriend Pleads Guilty to Aiding Escape

Israel’s Girlfriend Pleads Guilty to Aiding Escape - 2/10/2009

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HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

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Israel’s Girlfriend Pleads Guilty to Aiding Escape
Lindsay Fortado

Bloomberg. February 10, 2009
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EXCERPT: Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Samuel Israel, convicted for his role in a $400 million fraud involving the collapse of hedge-fund firm Bayou Group LLC, pleaded guilty to aiding his escape. Israel, 49, is accused of faking his suicide by abandoning his car on an upstate New York bridge with the words “suicide is painless” written on the windshield and fleeing the day he was to begin a 20-year sentence. He pleaded guilty in 2005 after admitting he hid $400 million in losses at Connecticut-based Bayou. “The night before his surrender, Sam woke me up and begged me to help” him escape, Ryan told U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas today in White Plains, New York. “I knew that was wrong.” Ryan, 45, of Armonk, New York, was arrested on June 19 and charged with aiding and abetting Israel. She admitted she met him at an auto-repair shop in Bedford, New York, on June 7 to help him attach a motor scooter to a hydraulic lift on the back of a recreational vehicle, prosecutors said. She also helped him pack the RV with the belongings and gave police a suicide note written by Israel, according to court papers. Ryan faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to Herb Hadad, a spokesman for interim U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin in New York. Karas said that in the plea agreement between the government and Ryan, prosecutors are suggesting a sentencing guideline of 4 to 10 months. The judge set the sentencing date for May 22. Ryan pleaded not guilty last month to the charge. […] In October, Judge Karas delayed Israel’s plea for bail jumping for the third time while he undergoes medical and psychological evaluation. Karas had originally delayed Israel’s plea because of his addiction to methadone.

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