Why would a woman help her boyfriend evade the police and then take the fall for that deed?
Lots of smart women do dumb things when they’re in love, and this seems to be especially true when the boyfriend is a loser.
Debra Ryan, the girlfriend of Bayou Group founder Samuel Israel, helped the hedge fund fraudster disappear on June 9, the day he was due to report to federal prison hospital in Massachusetts, to serve a 20-year sentence for the crimes he committed with other people’s money.
That day, his SUV was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge, with the words “suicide is painless” scrawled on the hood.
Ryan was arrested last week and charged with aiding and abetting Israel’s flight from justice. She could face as much as 10 years in prison if convicted of the crime. Currently, she is free on $75,000 bail.
Israel was sentenced earlier this year to 20 years in prison for his role in defrauding investors in Bayou Group LLC of more than $400m.
Ryan, 45, admitted she helped Israel prepare a recreational vehicle on the days before he fled, and even helped him stow the RV at a rest area 20 miles from the Bear Mountain Bridge where his SUV was found, and then drove him back to their Armonk, NY home.
So they were close enough to share a home. Maybe they can get the feds to let theml share a prison cell.
There’s a nationwide alert out for Israel, who’s believed to be driving a $50,000 2007 white Coachman Freelander motor home. Israel is believed to still be in the area and living in the RV, which may have a blue 2005 Yamaha motor scooter strapped to the back end, according to a story in the New York Post.
Ryan, according to the complain filed against her, admitted she “helped Israel pack the RV with (his) belongings,” And then, on the morning he vanished, Israel “woke (Ryan) up and told her that he needed her help” and then had her follow him in her own care while he drove the motor home to a highway rest area near the junction of Interstate 684 and I-84.
Why did she do it? As I said, lots of smart women do dumb things for love, especially, for some strange reason, when the guy is a loser.