Missing money manager had plan, authorities say

TAMPA, Fla. – A missing hedge fund manager who owed investors a $50 million payout told his wife in a note he felt guilty about mismanaging people’s money, and threatened to kill himself, according to a sheriff’s report released Tuesday.

However, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said it believes Arthur G. Nadel planned his disappearance and that it was ending its search for him.

The FBI will continue to investigate complaints from investors who were expecting Nadel to deliver the $50 million redemption on Jan. 15, the day after he disappeared.

The Florida financier’s car was found at a Sarasota airport, and Sheriff’s Lt. Chuck Lesaltato said they believe Nadel left on his own volition.

“He doesn’t want to be found,” Lesaltato said.

The 76-year-old financier disappeared last Wednesday. Nadel told his wife he was going to his office, but was not there when she arrived about two hours later. Nadel called later and said he’d left something for her in a desk drawer at their home in Sarasota. That’s where she found a suicide note, the sheriff’s report states.

In it, Nadel told his wife how much he loved her. He also said he felt guilty over losing other people’s money.

“The subject wrote that as a result of his management of other people’s money that there are those that would like to kill him,” the sheriff’s report states, “but that he will do it himself.”

On Thursday, police found his green Subaru outside the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Lesaltato said they don’t know where Nadel went.

“I don’t know if we were ever really close” to finding him, he said. “He was constantly moving as far as we know.”