Alberto Vilar

Alberto Vilar, a.k.a. Albert Vilar, (born October 4, 1940) is an American former investment manager who became particularly known as a patron of opera companies, performing arts organizations, and educational institutions. Following the collapse of his investment firm, Amerindo Investment Advisors, he was tried and convicted in November 2008 on charges of money laundering, investment advisor fraud, securities fraud, mail and wire fraud. He was sentenced in February 2010 to nine years in prison.

Originally from West Orange, New Jersey, Vilar earned an economics degree from Washington & Jefferson College, a liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. He then earned a master's degree in economics at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. In 1979, along with Gary Tanaka, he founded Amerindo Investment Advisors, an investment advisory firm based in San Francisco and New York, with offices in London. In 1981, Vilar made his first $1 million. Amerindo's main investment activities were in technology funds, which the stock market crash of 2000 severely affected. The value of the Amerindo funds declined sharply, and Vilar began to default on his pledges to arts institutions.

Vilar has served on the Washington & Jefferson College Board of Trustees.

The arts organisations to which Vilar pledged donations included:

As a result of his philanthropy, in 2002 the Americans for the Arts organization gave him their National Arts Award, for "Corporate Citizenship in the Arts".

As noted in James Stewart's 2006 New Yorker profile of Vilar, at some point in 2002, Vilar was hospitalized for a series of operations on his back, and he claims to have nearly died as the result of complications: "they were ready to give me the last rites". There was speculation that he might have missed some planned donations as the result of his illness.

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