Missing Fla. money manager owed $50m

Pat Nadel and her son, Geoff Quisenberry, can only wonder where her husband, Arthur Nadel, a money manager, is. (Mike Lang/Sarasota Herald-Tribune via Associated Press)

SARASOTA, Fla. - Around the same time he mysteriously vanished, hedge fund manager Arthur G. Nadel owed a $50 million payout to some of the investors who had entrusted their life savings to him, an accountant said yesterday.

Instead, they learned their money was gone - and now they're left asking if it was all a bad investment, or if they were scammed.

The search for Nadel entered its sixth day yesterday as more investors contacted authorities with concerns their savings, and Nadel, were gone forever. Nadel's Subaru was found in a Sarasota airport parking lot Jan. 15, and he left his family a note in which he appeared to be "very distraught," said Lieutenant Chuck Lesaltato of the Sarasota County Sheriff's office.

Nadel, 75, was expected to deliver a $50 million redemption that day to investors in the six hedge funds he managed, said Michael Zucker, an internal accountant for Scoop Management Inc., where Nadel traded. Nothing in documents indicated the funds weren't turning a profit, he said.

"Mind you, this was a lot, but it was still, we thought, very easily done," Zucker said.

The payment was set to be made after the funds, which had about 600 investors, suffered losses in October, Zucker said.

"He felt that he was turning the whole thing around," Zucker said.