Arthur Nadel - Personal Life and Previous Occupations

Personal Life and Previous Occupations

Nadel worked his way through New York University, and in 1957, graduated from New York University Law School, playing piano in Manhattan. He never actively practiced law, but was disbarred in 1982, citing "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation".

He moved to Sarasota in around 1978, and he allegedly took $50,000 from an escrow account to help a friend and real estate company president who was deeply in debt. Different versions of who received the money have been reported. He had already repaid the money with interest by 1981. He had already been married and divorced twice and had several children. He was a CEO in the 1970s of a public company that built health care facilities. In 1978, he and others tried to convert the rundown, historic Mira Mar Hotel into condominiums. The plan fell apart. He subsequently played in piano bars, befriending local artists and musicians.

In 1987, he married his third wife, Virginia "Jennifer" Hoffman, an artist 22 years his junior. Her friends began complaining that he had sold their works but never paid them. They divorced in 1991. He attempted to expand an interior decorating business—the Sarasota Design Gallery, which sold unusual furnishings and original art—by attracting investors, claiming in a "confidential" prospectus that the gallery was profitable, although court records showed several judgments against him for unpaid bills. He married a fourth wife, Emelie Painter Zack, and she divorced him in 1999. He claimed destitution.

He became a real estate developer and securities investor in Sarasota during the 1960s, according to marketing documents for the Valhalla fund.

From 1994 through 1997, Nadel was employed as a piano player at Homestyle Harmony restaurant, a family-style dining establishment in Sarasota where waitstaff sang "sing-a-long" songs to customers during dinner, as well as performing for guests in a "parlor" show down the hall in the restaurant. The restaurant closed in 1997.

In 1997, he and Peg started a day-trading club and developed a computer-based investment and trading system. They teamed up with Neil V. Moody, a Sarasota entrepreneur, and began managing money for clients in Moody's Valhalla, Victor, and Viking funds. The companies attracted scores of investors, promising high returns. In 2005, the Nadels bought 430 acres (1.7 km2) near Asheville, North Carolina, intending to sell lots for up to $525,000 in a proposed development called Laurel Mountain Preserve. The project turned when prices collapsed. Four lots were donated to their foundation as tax write off.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported "The Nadels were known for their civic activities, serving on boards and donating money to charity: Habitat for Humanity, Jewish Family & Children’s Services, and Girls Inc. which received $100,000. All received cash gifts and pledges from the couple in recent years. None had any money invested in the hedge funds." Their Guy-Nadel Foundation made more than $1-million in donations, including $200,000 to Catholic churches, $100,000 to the Sarasota Opera and $75,000 to a local theater group.