Ex-Wall Street investor turned 85 – sentenced to years in prison in 2005 for financial fraud. Among other things, he sponsored the Salzburg Festival.
Former Wall Street investor and opera patron Alberto Vilar died on Saturday night in New York. He was 85 years old. This was confirmed by his roommate and an APA policeman who was called into his apartment on a telephone request. The cause of death is not known at the moment. The previous evening he had “complained of slight pain in his left hand and upper arm,” said the woman.
Vilar was arrested for financial fraud in 2005 and sentenced to nine years in prison after an eight-week trial. The judge added a year later. He was released in 2018. Vilar was a sponsor of the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festival, the Baden-Baden Festival, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London. His donations are said to have totaled around $ 225 million worldwide.
Born on October 10, 1940 in the US state of New Jersey, Vilar grew up in Puerto Rico. His father was Cuban and his mother American. Father Vilar was employed in the sugar industry. After Fidel Castro came to power, the family fled to Puerto Rico.
Vilar worked for First National Citibank (now Citibank) in New York during his early years. Thanks to his knowledge of Spanish, the bank sent him to Colombia and later to Kuwait. There he started his own business as a financial advisor and founded the Amerindo Investment Company in London in the early 1980s.
Prosecutors had accused Vilar and his partner Gary Tanaka of embezzling $ 21 million. After the verdict, it was found that Amerindo corporate accounts had more than $ 40 million in total. In 2017, all investors got their money back.