Catching up with accused Ponzi schemer Bruce Friedman

At last check - that is, more than a year ago - the alleged Sherman Oaks scamster had been indicted by a federal grand jury in L.A. and arrested by French police outside his hotel in Cannes. As extradition proceedings got going, it appeared as if he would be soon standing trial in the U.S. But 2011 is drawing to a close and Friedman remains in France. As you might guess, victims of his Ponzi scheme, which resulted in losses of $228 million, are not happy. The French courts have authorized his extradition, but the French government must make the final decision - and there's no telling when that will happen. From the LAT:

Several of Friedman's former clients said they hold little hope of recovering their investments so watching Friedman held accountable in criminal court is about all they have. The extradition delay has been aggravating, they said. "I want him to go to the worst jail he could go to for the rest of his life," said Patricia Hank, a Calabasas resident who invested her $300,000 retirement account with Friedman and fears she has lost it all. "He doesn't want to come back. Would you want to come back if you've done what he's done?"

This is from my June 2010 profile of Friedman in Los Angeles magazine:

It's a cliché in this post-Madoff world, but Friedman certainly didn't look the part. With his bulky build, salt-and-pepper hair, and conservative wardrobe, he could have passed for any of the thousands of other businessmen in town peddling investment strategies. "A real charming guy," says one lawyer who has had frequent conversations with him. "He would be perfectly able to sit there and convince you that the moon is blue." Investors who dealt with him directly say he seemed sharp and could persuasively answer their questions. "A lot of scam artists think that they're smarter than anyone else, and at some point they develop kind of a God complex where they believe they can't be caught," says Ken Yormark, who specializes in forensic accounting with the consulting firm LECG, which is based in Emeryville, California.