Bernard "Bernie" Cornfeld (17 August 1927 – 27 February 1995) was a prominent businessman and international financier who sold investments in US

mutual fund A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV ...

s, and who was tried and acquitted for mismanagement of the Investors Overseas Services (IOS).

Early life

Bernard Cornfeld was born in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, in Turkey. His father was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish actor; his mother was from a Russian-Jewish family. They moved to the United States when Bernard was four years old – his father dying two years later. The young

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

-raised Cornfeld worked after school each day in fruit stores and as a delivery boy. He had a

stammer Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...

as well as a natural gift for selling and when a schoolfriend's father died, the two of them used the

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

3,000 insurance money to purchase and run an age and weight guessing stand at the Coney Island funfair. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School and Brooklyn College.Henriques, Diana B. (2 March 1995)
"Bernard Cornfeld, 67, Dies; Led Flamboyant Mutual Fund"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He initially worked as a social worker, but then switched to selling mutual funds for an investment house. In 1955, he left New York City for Paris and started his own company selling mutual funds, using his savings of a mere few hundred dollars. The company was named Investors Overseas Services (IOS). By selling the mutual funds mostly to American servicemen in Europe, Cornfeld was able to avoid both American and European tax regulations.

Investors Overseas Services

In the 1960s, Cornfeld formed his own mutual fund sales company, Investors Overseas Services (IOS), with principal offices in

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, although it was incorporated in Panama. He also established mutual funds in various jurisdictions, as noted below. Although the executive headquarters were in Geneva, the main operational offices of IOS were in

Ferney-Voltaire Ferney-Voltaire () is a commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It lies between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss border; it forms part of the metropolitan area of Geneva. History Ferney was first no ...

, France, across the French border from Geneva. During this period,

Diane von Furstenberg Diane may refer to: People *Diane (given name) Film * ''Diane'' (1929 film), a German silent film * ''Diane'' (1956 film), a historical drama film starring Lana Turner * ''Diane'' (2017 film), a mystery film directed by Michael Mongillo * ''D ...

worked for Cornfeld as a receptionist. Cornfeld decided that mutual funds should take their fees from the profits they made for their investors, not just a percentage of the money invested. The IOS system collapsed in 1970. Cornfeld was arrested in Switzerland in 1973 and sentenced to 11 months in preventive prison; however, he was ultimately acquitted in 1979. Having kept part of his earnings, he was able to maintain a luxurious (albeit less ostentatious) lifestyle until he died in 1995.

Personal life

Following his acquittal, Cornfeld settled in Beverly Hills, California, where he ingratiated himself to film industry circles. For a period of time until 1992, he lived in the Grayhall mansion, built in 1909 and at one time leased by

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thi ...

.Marc Wanamaker, ''Early Beverly Hills'', Arcadia Publishing, 2005, p. 4

/ref> Cornfeld numbered among his friends Elizabeth Taylor,

Michelle Phillips Michelle may refer to: People *Michelle (name), a given name and surname, the feminine form of Michael * Michelle Courtens, Dutch singer, performing as "Michelle" * Michelle (German singer) * Michelle (Scottish singer) (born 1980), Scottish ...

Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...

, Laurence Harvey,

Victor Lownes Victor Aubrey Lownes III (April 17, 1928 – January 11, 2017) was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc., later known as Playboy Enterprises, from 1955 through the early 1980s. Soon after he met Hugh Hefner in 1954, Hefner founded ''Playb ...

, Hugh Hefner,

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...

, Al Capp,

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s (Kansas Raiders, 1950) and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 f ...

Howard Sackler Howard Oliver Sackler (December 19, 1929 – October 12, 1982) was an American screenwriter and playwright who is best known for writing ''The Great White Hope'' (play: 1967; film: 1970). ''The Great White Hope'' enjoyed both a successful run on ...

, John Heyman and Simon Reuben. Grayhall mansion doubled as the home of rock star John Norman Howard (

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are " Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", " Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and " Help Me Make It Through the ...

) in the 1976 version of '' A Star Is Born'' starring

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

. At the age of 60, Cornfeld had an affair with the then 19-year-old

Heidi Fleiss Heidi Lynne Fleiss (born December 30, 1965) is an American former madam. She ran an upscale prostitution ring based in Los Angeles and is often referred to as the "Hollywood Madam". Fleiss has also worked as a columnist and was a television pers ...

Final years

By the 1990s, Cornfeld had developed an obsession for

health food A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy. A health ...

s and

vitamins A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules closely related chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an essential micronutrient that an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism. Essential nutrien ...

, renounced

red meat In gastronomy, red meat is commonly red when raw and a dark color after it is cooked, in contrast to white meat, which is pale in color before and after cooking. In culinary terms, only flesh from mammals or fowl (not fish) is classified as ...

and seldom drank alcohol. In his last years he was a chairman of a land development firm in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and also owned a real estate company in Los Angeles. Bernard Cornfeld suffered a stroke and died of

MRSA Methicillin-resistant ''Staphylococcus aureus'' (MRSA) is a group of Gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of ''Staphylococcus aureus''. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. ...

on 27 February 1995 in London, England.

References

Sources

*'' The Bernie Cornfeld Story'' by Bert Cantor, (Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1970). * With title quoting Cornfeld's celebrated pitch – '' Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich?'' by Charles Raw with Godfrey Hodgson and Bruce Page (Originally published by

André Deutsch André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951. Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish dentis ...

in 1971, ; reprinted by the " Library of Larceny", 2005, )

External links

Article analyzing the workings of IOS and Cornfeld's career
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090713040705/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/02/obituaries/bernard-cornfeld-67-dies-led-flamboyant-mutual-fund.html ''New York Times'' obituarybr>''Daily News'' obituary
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''. (16 August 1993).
"The Predator's Fall"
''Time''. (19 June 1995).

''Time''. (29 October 1979). {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornfeld, Bernard 1927 births 1995 deaths Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni American money managers American people of Romanian-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent Brooklyn College alumni Columbia University School of Social Work alumni Turkish emigrants to the United States American confidence tricksters 20th-century American businesspeople