Bayou's Israel may be ‘armed and dangerous’

Federal and state authorities are continuing their manhunt for an "armed and dangerous" Samuel Israel III, a former hedge fund manager who disappeared Monday before he was to begin serving a 20-year sentence for a scheme to cheat investors out of $450 million. Mr. Israel's car, a GMC Envoy, was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge in Orange County, N.Y., shortly before he was supposed to report to a federal prison in Ayer, Mass. The car’s keys were left in the ignition, prescription medication was found in the glove compartment and the phrase "suicide is painless" was written in the dust on the hood. Authorities, quickly convinced that there was no suicide, issued a bench warrant for Mr. Israel's arrest later that day, according to The New York Times. A wanted poster released by the U.S. Marshals Service called Mr. Israel "armed and dangerous." Mr. Israel, a founder of the Bayou Management LLC, pleaded guilty in September 2005 to charges of conspiracy and fraud in connection with thefts from investors in the Stamford, Conn., hedge fund. He was sentenced in April to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay his victims $300 million.