Outspoken Hedge Fund Manager Seth Tobias Found Dead

Posted by JP, Sep 05, 2007 3:57PM

I met him a couple years ago after they'd gone through the rogue trader issue. Glad to see that Circle T came out the other side and won the judgment.

Regardless of blow or no blow, when a guy's got a young family like Seth did, it doesn't really matter.

Posted by Anonymous, Sep 06, 2007 11:56AM

Seth was a great guy -- had a good heart and a brilliant mind. He will be missed.

Posted by , Sep 08, 2007 12:30PM

Had nothing to do with blow. His wife is CRAZY. You do the math.

Posted by the1234insider, Oct 19, 2007 6:26AM

Question: 1) Was the alleged murder of Seth Tobias due to business or personal matters?

Question: 2) Who was finally elected to the (2) board of Director seats that Seth Tobias was running for on QSGI, INC. (QSGI.OB) . at the 2007 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “Annual Meeting”) of QSGI INC., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), will be held at 8:30 a.m., local time, on SEPTEMBER 17, 2007, at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport, 150 Australian Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL, 33401 ?

Question #3 ) Why was this QSGI, INC. (QSGI.OB) Board of Director’s election not delayed because of Seth Tobias's death the week before the vote?

Posted by , Dec 22, 2007 2:33PM

Things don't look good for Seth's wife. I've been watching it all unfold on TV. I can't wait to read the book or see the movie on Lifetime.

Posted by , Feb 05, 2008 4:26PM

First let me tell you that Billy Ash did great at the depostion and told the truth on what he was told happened that night that Seth Tobias was murdered. Billy was not in Florida the night Filomena killed Seth and only knows what Filomena told him. Billy has passed a polygraph. The tox report confirms his story on what he was saying for 5 months. It's sad that Filomena killed her husband Seth Tobias and her third husband Jay Jacknin told her to use his cell phone when talking to Billy in case her phones were taped. It's also sad that Jay Jacknin got onthe phone and called Billy from his office, cell and than several times from his home to tell him to lie in probate. That call was taped of Jay telling Billy to lie. It's very sad that Billy Ash had to hire a private P.I.'s to go and get statements from all past workers of Filomena's and Jay's that they pay there workers in cash and won't give 1099's and than make threats about taxes when the worker's don't do as ordered and Jay's office represents that area for taxes. Filomena killed Seth. The tox reports are out and his body contained ambien. Jay broke the law and knew he was doing it since he is an attorney. Jay has made claims in the past that Filomena cheated on him, was doing lots of drugs, and threatened to kill him. Filomena killed Seth Tobias. Billy feels very sorry for her but wasn't going to go to jail and cover up her crime as Jay Jacknin did. God Bless Filomena and I hope she doesn't get death, since in Florida that is usually the case in this type of murder. Billy is awaiting Jay's next move before he starts filing massive amounts of law suits against Jay and Filomena, but Billy said the paper work is ready to go. Billy does feel sorry for Filomena's two youngest kids but a crime is a crime and both of there parents are in the middle of crimes. I hope Filomena doesn't get death but she did kill Seth Tobias.

Posted by Adam, Feb 08, 2008 12:06PM

I believe Filomena killed Seth Tobias. Everything points in that direction. I know in my heart that she did it. I believe in an after life. I know Seth Tobias and there is NO way he’s going to forgive or let Filomena get away with killing him. Seth’s mother deserve justice.

Posted by Linda, Feb 08, 2008 7:24PM

Cops Hand Over Seth Tobias Case To The D.A. Filomena has been seen at the pool of The Palm Beach Breakers living it up! Look at the facts in the case. It sure looks like murder to me! There is a full page story on page 22 in The Globe and a cover story coming next week. Filomena cancelled her depostion because they are expecting an arrest and don't want any statements under oath. God Bless Bill Ash for coming forward!

Posted by Trish, Feb 10, 2008 8:41PM

I just saw a recent picture of Phyllis. She gained a lot of weight and looks really, really old! She killed Seth Tobias!

Posted by gator man, Feb 13, 2008 8:04PM

i think ash has just crashed and burned
www.nationalgaynews.com
why did anyone not contact them earlier ?

Posted by Nancy, Feb 14, 2008 4:32PM

I think everyone knows she killed Seth. How would Bill Ash know exactly what would come back in the toxicaligy report unless Filomena told him. Don't forget they pulled 380 crushed ambien out of Filomena's personnel safe. The facts point to she killed Seth. It's better to be rich and have tons of lawyers.

Posted by VERITA, Feb 21, 2008 9:25PM

The Con Artist Lives Again
Bill Ash Re-Emerges With a New Tale of Lies and Lust

By Norm Kent
Publisher, www.nationalgaynews.com
It is a story that could only have South Florida roots.

It is September of 2007, and Seth Tobias, 44, a multi millionaire hedge fund investor, known nationally for his appearances as a respected financial commentator for CNBC is found very dead in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach Estate, a 5 million dollar, 6,700 square foot mansion.
The night before his body was discovered, his friends, together for a pool party, witnessed an angry dispute between he and his wife of two years.

Allegations of sexual trysts, domestic violence, and drug abuse emerge as law enforcement officers interview the spouse, the brothers, and a mysterious online psychic whom the thrice-divorced wife apparently consulted with regularly. The psychic regales the willing media with lurid tales of drinking, of male hustlers, wild parties and cocaine.

That ‘psychic,’ Bill Ash, a rather large and exquisitely effeminate gay man, surprisingly alleges that the wife, his online confidant, is the one who murdered the husband to steal his fortune and avoid a divorce.

Ash purportedly holds secrets about the spousal relationship, and he has been peppering the media for months with hidden revelations, giving the story life, helping it run large in the tabloids and on the ‘net in force.

Today, it is all over pagesix.com

But Bill Ash is no psychic. Bill Ash is a con man with South Florida roots, and the roots have a very bad fungus.

You almost have to believe the movie rights are being sold as you read this. At the very least, the sordid and scandalous story of the sad death of Seth Tobias was the cover page feature of New York Magazine last week.

This week, not in the media, but in real life, in a Palm Beach county courtroom, a legion of attorneys- eight at least- are battling over the multi million dollar estate of Seth Tobias. His pre marital will leaves the bulk of his purported 25 million dollar estate to his family and brothers. But his wife, Phyllis, is fighting for her legal rights under Florida law, asserting she is now the rightful heir.

No one has been charged in the death of Seth Tobias, and months have passed without a measured toxicology report being published by the coroner.

Evidence is being gathered suggesting that Seth’s death was caused by an overdose; that there was cocaine and the sleeping pill, ambien, in his bloodstream. However, the mysterious gay psychic claims the wife confessed to him in an online session. So Seth’s brothers’ lawyers are using his testimony to advance the claim that as a potential murderer, she cannot be the rightful heir. It’s Florida law.

The psychic however, has claimed to have a relationship not only with Mrs. Tobias, but purports to have known Seth as well, claiming to have met him in La Jolla, California. He alleges that he provided male hustlers for Seth, took him to gay strip clubs like Cupid’s in West Palm Beach, and provided personal services on an ongoing basis for the deceased fund manager.

Bill Ash cannot sustain a single claim about his alleged relationship with Seth Tobias. However, one of Seth’s secretaries can. She represents Bill called and demanded money.

The New York Times bought into Bill Ash, and on the front page of their Business section last December 4th, ran a story about the Tobias death. The paper related Ash’s allegations du jour, including a claim that his wife had lured Seth into the pool with promises she would arrange a sexual liaison with a gay porn star.

However, police, lawyers, investigators, and journalists, who have spent countless hours investigating and unraveling the claims of ‘Billy’- that’s his new moniker- Ash are just beginning to learn that the man making these claims has a sordid past, pockmarked by defrauding countless others to advance his own mercenary, self-aggrandizing artifices and schemes.

The truth is that Bill Ash is a con man and the truth has caught up with him again.

It is not just that William Ash is a convicted felon. It is that his criminal history involves acts of fraud, transparent lies, knowing deceit, and repeated dishonesty. It is that his reputation for truth and reliability is virtually non existent.

It is not just that he has misused his talents to persuade others to advance his own criminal acts, misdeeds, embezzlements, and swindles. It is that his skills at deception and dishonesty have harmed good and decent charitable organizations, as well as honest businessmen trying to earn a living. Add to that now the wild goose chase he must be sending lawyers for the Tobias family on.

The reality of Billy Ash’s chronicles of deception that newspapers and television crews are uncovering today in the Seth Tobias case were already exposed by The Express Gay News in March of 2000. I should know. I was the publisher and I was the author of the articles revealing his scams. Inconsistency and unreliability are Bill Ash’s middle name.

The crooked dealings of Bill Ash which I exposed in The Express seven years ago revealed a man who lied for a living, and attempted to compound one lie with another when caught and exposed in an untruth. It revealed a person who was incapable of remembering one story from another, since they were mostly made up to begin with. If his deeds were not so sinister, the conduct would have been comical.

Ash’s criminal history includes a 1996 felony conviction for stealing the client list of a company that sold goods manufactured by the disabled and setting up a rival company; passing worthless checks for years while delivering false promises of restitution; misrepresenting his role and compromising the position of AIDS charities and Pride South Florida; lying to tabloids about celebrities while publishing untruths engineered to defame them; and scamming businessmen by rendering payments with checks from a man he knew was dead.

In one of his more elaborate deceptions in 1995, he chartered a boat for his own 31st birthday, arranging for thousands of dollars on flowers and balloons by telling vendors he was throwing the party for Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, and that the Miami businessman would be footing the bill.

In another episode in the year 2001, he misled one charity into thinking he was booking Jennifer Holliday as a main act, failing to reveal that Holliday was so appalled by Ash she had sought a restraining order against him the year before.

All of these acts led to criminal prosecutions which were eventually consolidated before a Broward County Circuit Court Judge. Ash would initially be placed on probation, but he would violate it by running an illegal escort service. The court would revoke his probation, convict him as a felon, and give him jail time.

Ash did not just spend months in jail for running a prostitution ring as some of the stories concerning Tobias relate. Ash was adjudicated guilty of multiple criminal charges, including grand theft, kiting checks, not making restitution, and fraudulent use of credit cards.

This is the gay man and key witness whose testimony the Tobias family lawyers, on both sides of the bar, are now fighting over. This is the man who the media gave a moment in the sun.

His escort scheme was gay soap opera. At the time, Ash was billing himself as ‘Mr. Madam’ and boasted he had an offer to write a book about his days as a Heidi Fleiss–like pimp. He feigned elaborate connections, international contacts, and incredible wealth, all while bouncing checks to restaurants for fifty bucks. He claimed to own bars he never bought, booked acts he never paid for, and be involved in deals with people he never met and knew nothing about him.

Bill Ash may have stumbled upon fame when Phyllis Tobias reached out to him, relying on ‘askbilly.com’ for advice, counseling, and guidance. I understand he got paid thousands and was sought out often by the wife of the late Seth Tobias.

With his persuasive charm, I cannot imagine how much his newly discovered professional ‘psychic’ career has generated for him. You never know. Like W.C. Fields once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

There may be some measure of truth in some of the things Ash is relating to the media and authorities about Phyllis and Seth Tobias, but those who are listening to the things he says today ought to be reminded of his lack of credibility yesterday. The big boy has cried wolf a few thousand times too many.

He left South Florida for San Diego in disgrace, and set up shop on the Internet as the ‘world’s best psychic’. He gets involved intricately in the death of a celebrity and milks it for everything it is worth.

With Bill Ash involved, my guess is the milk turns out to be very sour.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE AND DISCLOSURE

Writing for New Times in 2001, Wyatt Olson did an even more elaborate story documenting the details and dimensions of the fraud that was Bill Ash, Entitled ‘Ash and Burn,’ you can still find it on the Internet. See the link below.

Unfortunately, the new owners of the Express, who I sold the newspaper to in December of 2003, have not put the first four years of our paper online yet.

Consequently, those researching Bill Ash’s background could never have come upon our first series of very revealing stories from February and March of 2000. Too bad; the cops and litigators could have used some background material.

To her credit, Courtney Ford of CNBC did thoroughly read and review the story of Bill Ash in New Times, and has now contacted me for more information, some of which I have published in this story.

Posted by VERITA, Feb 21, 2008 9:26PM

The Con Artist Lives Again
Bill Ash Re-Emerges With a New Tale of Lies and Lust

By Norm Kent
Publisher, www.nationalgaynews.com
It is a story that could only have South Florida roots.

It is September of 2007, and Seth Tobias, 44, a multi millionaire hedge fund investor, known nationally for his appearances as a respected financial commentator for CNBC is found very dead in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach Estate, a 5 million dollar, 6,700 square foot mansion.
The night before his body was discovered, his friends, together for a pool party, witnessed an angry dispute between he and his wife of two years.

Allegations of sexual trysts, domestic violence, and drug abuse emerge as law enforcement officers interview the spouse, the brothers, and a mysterious online psychic whom the thrice-divorced wife apparently consulted with regularly. The psychic regales the willing media with lurid tales of drinking, of male hustlers, wild parties and cocaine.

That ‘psychic,’ Bill Ash, a rather large and exquisitely effeminate gay man, surprisingly alleges that the wife, his online confidant, is the one who murdered the husband to steal his fortune and avoid a divorce.

Ash purportedly holds secrets about the spousal relationship, and he has been peppering the media for months with hidden revelations, giving the story life, helping it run large in the tabloids and on the ‘net in force.

Today, it is all over pagesix.com

But Bill Ash is no psychic. Bill Ash is a con man with South Florida roots, and the roots have a very bad fungus.

You almost have to believe the movie rights are being sold as you read this. At the very least, the sordid and scandalous story of the sad death of Seth Tobias was the cover page feature of New York Magazine last week.

This week, not in the media, but in real life, in a Palm Beach county courtroom, a legion of attorneys- eight at least- are battling over the multi million dollar estate of Seth Tobias. His pre marital will leaves the bulk of his purported 25 million dollar estate to his family and brothers. But his wife, Phyllis, is fighting for her legal rights under Florida law, asserting she is now the rightful heir.

No one has been charged in the death of Seth Tobias, and months have passed without a measured toxicology report being published by the coroner.

Evidence is being gathered suggesting that Seth’s death was caused by an overdose; that there was cocaine and the sleeping pill, ambien, in his bloodstream. However, the mysterious gay psychic claims the wife confessed to him in an online session. So Seth’s brothers’ lawyers are using his testimony to advance the claim that as a potential murderer, she cannot be the rightful heir. It’s Florida law.

The psychic however, has claimed to have a relationship not only with Mrs. Tobias, but purports to have known Seth as well, claiming to have met him in La Jolla, California. He alleges that he provided male hustlers for Seth, took him to gay strip clubs like Cupid’s in West Palm Beach, and provided personal services on an ongoing basis for the deceased fund manager.

Bill Ash cannot sustain a single claim about his alleged relationship with Seth Tobias. However, one of Seth’s secretaries can. She represents Bill called and demanded money.

The New York Times bought into Bill Ash, and on the front page of their Business section last December 4th, ran a story about the Tobias death. The paper related Ash’s allegations du jour, including a claim that his wife had lured Seth into the pool with promises she would arrange a sexual liaison with a gay porn star.

However, police, lawyers, investigators, and journalists, who have spent countless hours investigating and unraveling the claims of ‘Billy’- that’s his new moniker- Ash are just beginning to learn that the man making these claims has a sordid past, pockmarked by defrauding countless others to advance his own mercenary, self-aggrandizing artifices and schemes.

The truth is that Bill Ash is a con man and the truth has caught up with him again.

It is not just that William Ash is a convicted felon. It is that his criminal history involves acts of fraud, transparent lies, knowing deceit, and repeated dishonesty. It is that his reputation for truth and reliability is virtually non existent.

It is not just that he has misused his talents to persuade others to advance his own criminal acts, misdeeds, embezzlements, and swindles. It is that his skills at deception and dishonesty have harmed good and decent charitable organizations, as well as honest businessmen trying to earn a living. Add to that now the wild goose chase he must be sending lawyers for the Tobias family on.

The reality of Billy Ash’s chronicles of deception that newspapers and television crews are uncovering today in the Seth Tobias case were already exposed by The Express Gay News in March of 2000. I should know. I was the publisher and I was the author of the articles revealing his scams. Inconsistency and unreliability are Bill Ash’s middle name.

The crooked dealings of Bill Ash which I exposed in The Express seven years ago revealed a man who lied for a living, and attempted to compound one lie with another when caught and exposed in an untruth. It revealed a person who was incapable of remembering one story from another, since they were mostly made up to begin with. If his deeds were not so sinister, the conduct would have been comical.

Ash’s criminal history includes a 1996 felony conviction for stealing the client list of a company that sold goods manufactured by the disabled and setting up a rival company; passing worthless checks for years while delivering false promises of restitution; misrepresenting his role and compromising the position of AIDS charities and Pride South Florida; lying to tabloids about celebrities while publishing untruths engineered to defame them; and scamming businessmen by rendering payments with checks from a man he knew was dead.

In one of his more elaborate deceptions in 1995, he chartered a boat for his own 31st birthday, arranging for thousands of dollars on flowers and balloons by telling vendors he was throwing the party for Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, and that the Miami businessman would be footing the bill.

In another episode in the year 2001, he misled one charity into thinking he was booking Jennifer Holliday as a main act, failing to reveal that Holliday was so appalled by Ash she had sought a restraining order against him the year before.

All of these acts led to criminal prosecutions which were eventually consolidated before a Broward County Circuit Court Judge. Ash would initially be placed on probation, but he would violate it by running an illegal escort service. The court would revoke his probation, convict him as a felon, and give him jail time.

Ash did not just spend months in jail for running a prostitution ring as some of the stories concerning Tobias relate. Ash was adjudicated guilty of multiple criminal charges, including grand theft, kiting checks, not making restitution, and fraudulent use of credit cards.

This is the gay man and key witness whose testimony the Tobias family lawyers, on both sides of the bar, are now fighting over. This is the man who the media gave a moment in the sun.

His escort scheme was gay soap opera. At the time, Ash was billing himself as ‘Mr. Madam’ and boasted he had an offer to write a book about his days as a Heidi Fleiss–like pimp. He feigned elaborate connections, international contacts, and incredible wealth, all while bouncing checks to restaurants for fifty bucks. He claimed to own bars he never bought, booked acts he never paid for, and be involved in deals with people he never met and knew nothing about him.

Bill Ash may have stumbled upon fame when Phyllis Tobias reached out to him, relying on ‘askbilly.com’ for advice, counseling, and guidance. I understand he got paid thousands and was sought out often by the wife of the late Seth Tobias.

With his persuasive charm, I cannot imagine how much his newly discovered professional ‘psychic’ career has generated for him. You never know. Like W.C. Fields once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

There may be some measure of truth in some of the things Ash is relating to the media and authorities about Phyllis and Seth Tobias, but those who are listening to the things he says today ought to be reminded of his lack of credibility yesterday. The big boy has cried wolf a few thousand times too many.

He left South Florida for San Diego in disgrace, and set up shop on the Internet as the ‘world’s best psychic’. He gets involved intricately in the death of a celebrity and milks it for everything it is worth.

With Bill Ash involved, my guess is the milk turns out to be very sour.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE AND DISCLOSURE

Writing for New Times in 2001, Wyatt Olson did an even more elaborate story documenting the details and dimensions of the fraud that was Bill Ash, Entitled ‘Ash and Burn,’ you can still find it on the Internet. See the link below.

Unfortunately, the new owners of the Express, who I sold the newspaper to in December of 2003, have not put the first four years of our paper online yet.

Consequently, those researching Bill Ash’s background could never have come upon our first series of very revealing stories from February and March of 2000. Too bad; the cops and litigators could have used some background material.

To her credit, Courtney Ford of CNBC did thoroughly read and review the story of Bill Ash in New Times, and has now contacted me for more information, some of which I have published in this story.