Alberto Vilar, the once high-flying arts patron and technology investor jailed last week on charges he stole $5 million from a client and close friend, failed to meet bail on Friday, falling short by $1 million, and will remain in jail.
Vilar's lawyer, Susan Necheles, persuaded Judge Harold Baer to change the terms of a $10 million cash bail he set a week ago to a personal recognizance bond, secured by $4 million in assets and art, but it was not enough.
Necheles said too few friends came through for the opera buff who thrust himself into the performing arts spotlight by donating millions of dollars to some of the world's most renowned opera houses.
"I am disappointed. He's been an extremely generous person and helped a lot of people. It's a sad thing that these people are not willing to come forward," Necheles told reporters after the hearing in federal court in Manhattan.
An unnamed fund manager, a couple Vilar has known from his childhood more than 50 years ago in Puerto Rico, a Colorado skiing friend and Peter Berg, a Vail, Colorado, real estate executive, had all pledged to help Vilar, Necheles said.
Reached by telephone, Berg declined to comment, other than to say that he has known Vilar for 16 or 17 years.
Vilar, 64, who is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, is very thin and in poor health, Necheles said. She said Vilar says he is innocent and has known the alleged victim for 30 years.
The lawyer called the alleged victim "an extremely litigious woman" and said, "The mere fact that this woman said something is not exactly the strongest case."
If Vilar doesn't meet bail, prosecutors have to indict by next Friday. If Vilar does meet bail, prosecutors have 20 days after his arrest to indict him. A waiver could push that back to 30 days after the arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt said that Vilar faces up to 10 years in jail.
U.S. prosecutors last week filed a complaint that accused Vilar of misappropriating funds from a client of Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc., a firm he co-founded with Gary Tanaka, who faces similar charges.
Earlier Friday, Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz granted bail to Tanaka. As conditions for release, the judge ordered that Tanaka post a $10 million personal recognizance bond, surrender his passport and be subject to electronic monitoring.
Vilar would be subject to the same conditions. Tanaka's lawyer, Victor Rocco, said he hoped Tanaka could be released from detention by the end of the day.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in a separate civil complaint, described the client as a woman with whom Vilar "developed a close, almost familiar, relationship." The SEC complaint referred to the woman as "L.C." and "Cates."
The New York Times on Friday said the woman is Lily Cates, a 67-year-old widow whose late husband, Marshall Naify, made a fortune from a chain of California movie houses. Cates, who could not be reached for comment, is the mother of actress Phoebe Cates.
The government must now decide whether to go forward with the case and present evidence to a grand jury.
Vilar, estimated to be a billionaire by Forbes magazine several years ago, has less than $10,000 in cash and assets of less than $100 million, Necheles has said.
The Cuban-American Vilar made his name in technology stocks, making bets on Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco before the Internet craze hit. His Amerindo Technology D Fund returned almost 250 percent in 1999 before the tech bubble burst.
Vilar resides in an immense apartment facing the United Nations whose bottom floor sits vacant awaiting a concert hall he planned, but that was never built, according to a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Necheles said the apartment has a $5 million mortgage and a tax lien on it. She also said he has property worth $1.8 million in tony South Hampton, New York, and art in his home worth from $1 million to $2 million.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain on Thursday appointed lawyer Robert Knuts as a monitor of Amerindo Investment Advisors.
