Angry hedge fund clients at the gate

When investments go bad, angry investors sometimes write nasty letters to the people in charge. Others sue. This week Paul Omeara took things a step further.

Omeara broke into the Wayland home of hedge fund manager Michael C. Regan and stole a laptop computer and paper files in hopes of finding the $1.5 million he invested in Regan's troubled hedge fund, according to a police report and Regan's lawyer. Omeara, who didn't return phone messages, fled in an SUV, chased by a farm tractor.

The incident was the latest in a series of charged confrontations between Regan and investors, and another example of extreme lengths to which people have gone as high flying hedge funds and other investments crash to earth. Convicted hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel III faked his own death to avoid federal prison before turning himself in to Southwick police Wednesday after a three-week manhunt.