Marc Dreier: The Swindler
Here is an excellent video about disgraced attorney and hedge fund fraudster Marc Dreier from CBS 60 Minutes. This 
piece was Mr. Dreier’s first TV appearance. In it it he described how he fabricated documents, lied about relationships with former clients, used former clients (Kosta Kovachev) to impersonate people and dug himself into a $400 million Ponzi hole which as he describes, “he couldn’t get out of.”
It’s worth noting that in a separate case, Kovachev in 2006 was ordered to pay $350,000 in a civil suit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him and 11 others of defrauding more than 600 investors of more than $28 million in a Ponzi scheme. The SEC said that Kovachev and others sold unregistered securities structured as hotel timeshare rental interests.
Mr. Dreier was a graduate of Yale as well as Harvard Law School. He previously ran Dreier LLP which had offices in five cities, employed over 250 lawyers and annual revenues of over $90 million. the firm’s client’s included Bill Cosby, Andy Pettitte and Justin Timberlake. The firm is now defunct.
Notable quotes from the video, which investors might want to keep in the back of their mind during the operational due diligence process include:
“The more money you look for the fewer questions people ask sometimes.”
“It was clear to me the more you showed people you didn’t need money, the easier it was to attract money”
“A $20 million dollar mistake had grown into a $100 million mistake”
“Do I have chutzpah? Yes!”
He further goes onto describe part of the reason he finally was caught was that a potential investor, who was attempting to defraud, had acted diligently and made some phone calls (i.e. – performed due diligence) which had raised his suspicions. If that isn’t an endorsement for operational due diligence I don’t know what is.
The video describes how Dreier lived a lavish lifestyle to create the illusion that he already was a billionaire before his empire crumbled. Some of his assets included an $11 million ocean front compound in the Hamptons, his $10.5 million apartment, an art collection that included a Picasso, three Matisse’s and 12 Warhol’s. Also just like Madoff, Dreier had a yacht. His was a 120 foot yacht called “Seascape” staffed by a full-time crew of 10, which Dreier paid $18 million for.
The video also describes how Dreier tried to further add an air of credibility to his persona by hosting charity events with former New York Giants (American football) player turned actor Michael Strahan, which were attended by such celebrities as Diana Ross, Jon Bon Jovi, Alicia Keys and William Shatner.
Dreier is serving 20 years at a Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota. He is scheduled for release on October 26, 2026.
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