Missing money manager believed alive:

MIAMI (Reuters) – A missing Florida money manager is believed to be alive, his business associate said on Saturday as police investigated the possible disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars from investment funds.

The family of Arthur Nadel, 75, a Sarasota, Florida, philanthropist and president of Scoop Management, Inc., reported him missing on Wednesday.

He left a note for his family that was characterized by a local newspaper as a suicide note. Police would not disclose its contents but said his family believed he was "distraught" at the time of his disappearance.

On Friday, Sarasota police launched an investigation, saying they had received complaints that "hundreds of millions of dollars" may have vanished from the funds Nadel managed.

Neil Moody, a Nadel business associate and the founder of a fund family that invested with Scoop, said Nadel has been in contact with Nadel's wife. He said he believed Nadel was still alive.

"At this point we have every indication that he is," Moody told Reuters, adding that he did not know where Nadel was.

"If we knew where he was, we'd be on him," Moody said.

The Florida investigation, which the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said could involve as much as $350 million, began just over a month after the arrest of New York money manager Bernard Madoff on charges he ran a giant $50 billion Ponzi scheme that shook the investment world.

The Madoff case rattled charities and wealthy families in Palm Beach on Florida's east coast. The Nadel allegations have struck hard in Sarasota, on the state's west coast, where the missing money manager was well-known in society circles and a prominent donor to local causes.

Moody's Valhalla Management said it contracted with Nadel's Sarasota-based Scoop Management to invest funds branded as Valhalla, Viking, and Viking IRA. The Herald-Tribune said Moody told investors in a statement this week that the funds may have "virtually no remaining value."

The paper said Moody had contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other authorities to report the situation.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Valhalla Management characterized Nadel's last message as a suicide note.

"It appears, however, that he is likely still at large. It also appears that he has engaged in improper and unauthorized activities," the statement said.

"The owners of Valhalla Management, who had contracted with Scoop Management to invest substantially all of Valhalla and related fund's assets, are cooperating with all local and federal authorities to determine exactly what happened."

VICTIMS CONTACT POLICE

Moody, who is also prominent in Sarasota social circles and active in causes ranging from the YMCA to the local symphony, was the founder of Valhalla Management and Viking Management, according to published reports.

Moody's lawyer, James Fox Miller of Boies, Schiller and Flexner, issued a brief statement via e-mail saying that Moody and his son, Christopher, were also victims of Nadel.

"Our clients Neil and Christopher Moody just learned that they, along with many others who invested monies with Arthur Nadel have been victimized by his unauthorized and inappropriate actions," it said.

Sarasota police said the investigation began on Friday after calls from at least five possible victims. Capt. Bill Spitler said many of the victims appeared to have lost $500,000 or more, some the majority of their life savings.

Other victims had come forward since news of Nadel's disappearance broke, Spitler said.

Geoff Quisenberry, Nadel's stepson, was quoted in the Herald-Tribune on Saturday as saying Nadel's family was not ready to comment on the allegations.