A former Skaddens attorney was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday after operating a Ponzi scheme which defrauded around 30 of his friends and family members out of more than $5 million. Over a six-year period commencing in 2008, Charles Bennett encouraged people in his life to invest their life savings, retirement nest eggs and children’s education funds into an ‘exclusive’ Wyoming-based hedge fund, maintaining the illusion by producing fraudulent promissory notes and bank statements. One victim, a longtime friend of Mr Bennett who was present in the court for sentencing, said he remained ‘tormented’ by the fact that Mr Bennett had destroyed ‘what took the better part of 50 years to build.’ Addressing victims of the scheme in court, Mr Bennett was unable to provide an explanation for his actions: ‘I’m a criminal. I’m a thief. I’m a liar,’ he said. ‘Why I did it, I do not know.’

Career spiral

After beginning his career in 1985 as an associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Mr Bennett moved through stints at Martin & Maynadier and Proskauer Rose before quitting firm life in 2000, with his attorney citing severe mental health and substance abuse issues as the reason behind his departure. After a failed attempt at a solo career, Mr Bennett began defrauding those closest to him. The Ponzi scheme was confessed to in a suicide note that he wrote in November 2014 before jumping into the Hudson River, an ordeal he ultimately survived.

Sources: New York Law Journal; ABA Journal