Only five days before the Bernard Madoff scandal broke, another Ponzi scheme was unraveled.  Marc Dreier, 59, pulled off a $380 million Ponzi scheme until he was caught impersonating a Toronto lawyer and it all fell apart.

According to a recent Vanity Fair interview, his reason was simple; he wanted a beachfront house in the Hamptons.  Dreier, a former Manhattan lawyer told Bryan Burrough that he thought it would, “make him happy again.”  After a painful divorce and a long series of professional disappointments, Drier began selling the nonexistent debt of client, Sheldon Solow, to hedge funds.  Solow is a New York real estate developer and Dreier is now serving 20 years in federal prison at the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center for committing fraud.  “I was very, very caught up in seeing the criteria of success in terms of professional and financial achievement,” Drier said, “which I think was a big part of the problem.”

Dreier’s plan did provide him with the means of owning a beachfront home in the Hamptons.  In fact, he owned two.  However, his goal of being “happy again” was most likely never reached.  At least he can blame it on the allure of the Hamptons and the of course, the divorce.

Via: The Real Deal