Somebody I know is famous. And got arrested.

Marvin Berkowitz - the ringleader of the most recent scam involving tax fraud, identity theft and millions of dollars - was arrested yesterday. He had been hiding out in Israel after the police were looking for him for previous crimes of his a few years ago (I think when his son got arrested and he fled to Israel).

I know Berkowitz. He is 62 years old, so obviously he is not my friend. I grew up with his son though. We were in the same class, and we were good friends. We stayed over at each others houses often enough.

This is not exactly the same level of scandal and chillul hashem as the other recent cases. Berkowitz has been a criminal since just about forever. the first criminal activity I remember him being associated with was real estate fraud. Everybody in Chicago knew he was selling real estate in Florida that did not exist to multiple people.

After that his name became associated with various other criminal offenses over the years with various forms of tax fraud, until eventually he ran off to hide in Israel.

Now he is in the news again as he was arrested for tax fraud and identity theft. He found names of inmates and US soldiers in Iraq and applied for tax refunds and took other peoples money.

One of the few famous people I know.