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Marc Dreier

Marc Dreier has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his $700M hedge fund swindle. Dreier pleaded guilty to swindling hedge fund investors out of $700 million by claiming he was authorized to sell promissory notes issued by Manhattan real estate developer Sheldon Solow.

Prosecutors had asked for a 145-year sentence, likened to the 150-year sentence U.S. District Judge Denny Chin handed down to Bernie Madoff. Dreier’s attorney sought no more than 12-and-a-half years.

Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff asked, “Is the government serious about asking for 145 years?”

“To me, for the government to ask for 145 years is to demean the sentence Judge [Denny] Chin imposed on Mr. Madoff.

“It says the government is not sensitive to the need to be fact-specific. … He [Dreier] is not going to get any sympathy from this court, [but] he is no Mr. Madoff under any analysis.”

“I am sorry, deeply sorry for the harm and sadness I have caused so many people,” said Dreier, as he addressed the court. “At this point, all I can do is express my shame and remorse.”

In a letter to the court last week, Dreier, a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, said his crimes in part grew out of his finding himself in great debt several years after starting the law firm, the collapse of his 15-year marriage and a crushing sense of underachievement.

”All of this left me feeling overwhelmed – by my debt, by a disappointing career, by a failed marriage. And so, incomprehensibly, in 2002 I started stealing,” Dreier said. ”First, I invaded some settlement proceeds due a client. Then I arranged a few bogus investments with some individuals. And soon I stumbled upon the brazen idea of arranging fictitious loans from hedge funds, ostensibly to my principal client – the real estate developer referenced in the indictment – and diverting the loan proceeds to myself.”

“To me, the most appalling fact is the betrayal of trust,” Rakoff said.

The judge ordered Dreier to receive treatment for his alcoholism while locked up. Dreier’s attorney, Gerald Shargel, asked that Dreier serve his term at a federal prison in Allenwood, Pa.

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