The curtain is coming down on the trial of a man who loved opera, perhaps too much.
Alberto W. Vilar, 68, an investment adviser who gave away millions and promised even more to support vocal music performance, is accused of securities fraud, money laundering and other charges.
Closing arguments in his federal trial in Manhattan were heard Wednesday and the case went to the jury Friday. If convicted, Villar faces a maximum of 150 years in prison.
Gary A. Tanaka, 65, Vilar’s partner in the former firm of Amerindo Investment Advisors, is also on trial.
The men were arrested in May 2005 on charges stemming, in part, from their dealings with a client, Lily Cates, an heiress and the estranged mother of actress Phoebe Cates.
In 2002, Lily Cates, the widow of movie mogul Marshall Naify, invested $5 million in an Amerindo fund.
Authorities charge that Vilar used the investment for his own purposes, sending some of it to his alma mater, Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. Other money allegedly went to the American Academy in Berlin.
Tanaka is also alleged to have been involved in the diversion of Cates’ money. Both men have denied the charges.
“You know what’s missing?” Vilar told The New York Times. “Zero. The government is saying, ‘None of your clients lost a penny, and you’ve got to go to jail for the rest of your life.’”
Vilar’s arrest opened a window on the life of a man whose rags-to-riches story was embraced by journalists and fund-raisers alike, even though it may have been less than accurate.
Though he had described himself as a Cuban refugee, Vilar, whose father was of Cuban descent, was actually born in New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported in a post-arrest profile. The family later moved to Puerto Rico.
Vilar and Tanaka founded Amerindo in 1979. The firm did extraordinarily well during the high-tech boom of the 1990s, steering clients into eBay Inc., Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft and other ventures.
Before the tech bubble burst in 2001, Vilar had an estimated worth of $900 million, Forbes magazine estimated.
Though Vilar spent lavishly on himself, he also seemed remarkably generous in his support of the arts.
“When money started coming in,” he told an interviewer, “I wanted to wanted to take care of the first love of my life, music.”
However, promises made were not always promises kept. Vilar pledged donations of about $225 million, but he made good on about half of that amount, according to reports.
In 1998, he pledged $20 million to New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Eventually, the opera took his name down from its Grand Tier and he lost his seat on the board when he didn’t come through with the cash.
Vilar also didn’t back up a $17 million pledge to England’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. And he never delivered on a $23.4 million pledge to New York University.
Now, it would seem Vilar doesn’t have much money left, as friends, including the conductor, Valery Gergiev, helped bail him out after he spent nearly a month in jail after his arrest.
Herald Price Fahringer, the criminal defense and First Amendment lawyer who defended Claus von Bulow and Larry Flynt, among others, is representing Vilar at trial.
Glenn C. Colton, a former prosecutor, is representing Tanaka in the trial before U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Sullivan. Born in the U.S., Tanaka now lives in England, where he is a well-known philanthropist and horse breeder.
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