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^ Had Bloom kept a lower profile, his scheme might not have come to light for a long time. But he was not satisfied with having it all; he wanted people to know that he had it. One investor says Bloom bragged that his other clients included the Sultan of Brunei and the Bass brothers of Fort Worth. Bloom loved to play the role of philanthropist. To his alma mater, Duke University, he sent two gifts of $10,000 each, which were to be the first installments on a $1 million pledge. He also gave the school two paintings, valued at $58,500. SEC officials said they first became curious about Bloom, who never registered with the agency as an investment manager, after reading several articles about him. The New York Times Magazine included him in a story about art collectors and showed a picture of his richly appointed, art-filled apartment.
Growing up in Manhattan, Bloom attended Trinity, a prestigious private school, where he is remembered vaguely as a quiet, "reliable" boy. He went to Duke in 1982 and formed an investment club with another freshman. The two raised $8,000 from about 20 fellow students to buy stocks. They turned a profit of about $2,500, and Bloom's reputation as a whiz kid was born.
In 1986, after earning a bachelor's degree in art history, Bloom began to play the role of a big-time investment adviser back home in New York City. He set up a corporation called Greater Sutton Investors Group, with luxurious 35th-floor offices just off Fifth Avenue. As word spread among family friends and acquaintances of his prowess as a trader, he pulled in most of the $10 million within two years. He invented detailed records of trading activity on behalf of his clients. Everyone got good news. One client's statement, for example, reported that Bloom had bought shares in Apple Computer at 40 and sold them at 52 1/2. On the few occasions when a client wanted to cash out, he simply dipped into another investor's account for the funds.
Bloom's friends cannot explain why he misused his obvious talents. Says Jake Phelps, director of the Duke University Union: "The really sad thing is David could have made that money honestly. I'd like to find out what was going on in his head." One clue may be a quotation he chose to put next to his high school yearbook picture. It was from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Rich Boy: "We are all queer fish, queerer behind our faces and voices than we want anyone to know or that we know ourselves."