Ponzi schemer dies in prison

Arthur Nadel, a onetime prominent Sarasota financier convicted of a Ponzi scheme that cost investors $162 million, has died in a North Carolina prison. He was 79.

Nadel pleaded guilty to 15 federal fraud charges in 2010, and was sentenced to serve 14 years in prison. Federal prosecutors had requested a 24-year prison sentence, while Nadel's defense attorney sought a five-year sentence. Nadel's attorneys said at sentencing that anything much longer would be a death sentence.

Nadel, who had heart problems over the past few years, died Monday at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina.