Bernie Cornfeld
| Bernard Cornfeld | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 17, 1927 Istanbul, Turkey |
| Died | February 27, 1995 (aged 67) London, UK |
| Other names | Bernie |
| Occupation | Financier, businessman |
| Net worth | US$100 million (pre-1970) |
| Spouse(s) | Lorraine Armbruster |
| Children | Jessica Cornfeld Tiffanie Daniels |
Bernard "Bernie" Cornfeld (17 August 1927 – 27 February 1995) was a prominent businessman and international financier who sold investments in US mutual funds, and who was tried and acquitted for mismanagement of IOS.
Bernard Cornfeld was born in Istanbul, in Turkey. His father was a Romanian-Jewish actor; his mother was from a Russian-Jewish family. They moved to America when Bernard was four years old – his father dying two years later. The young Brooklyn-raised Cornfeld worked after school each day in fruit stores and as a delivery boy. Although he suffered from a stammer, he had a natural gift for selling and when a schoolfriend's father died, the two of them used the US$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 in Brooklyn and Brooklyn College.
During the Second World War he joined the U.S. Maritime Service. Afterwards he went to Brooklyn College, graduating with a degree in psychology, and then did an MA in social work at the School of Social Work at Columbia University. He initially worked as a social worker, but then switched to selling mutual funds for an investment house. In 1955, he left New York 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.
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