In these days of Madoff and AIG, it's nice to return to the story of Marc S. Dreier, the high-profile attorney who back in December got nailed for
pretending to be other people in commission of
complicated frauds. Now the feds have hit him with money laundering charges, and reveal that he
made about $700 million on the fake promissory notes he peddled during his masquerade, which, while it doesn't quite put him in Madoff's league, is pretty good for a guy who was at the same time running a big law firm (which after his apprehension
swiftly collapsed). There's a nice overview of Dreier's rise and fall at the
National Law Journal, including details of his various scams (like commandeering offices in which he had no legitimate business to impress and deceive his marks) and this reminiscence from a past adversary: "He was like Gatsby without the charm."
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