I've written previously about how, like the rest of us, the hedge fund gurus are quickly seeing their returns, assets, and now, even freedoms evaporate. Dealbook reports today that the founder of the Bayou family of hedge funds was sentenced to more than four years in prison Tuesday for a scheme to defraud investors.

James G. Marquez was sentenced to 51 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay nearly $6.26 million in restitution.

Ouch.

His scheme involved inducing "investors to contribute to funds by misrepresenting that the money-losing funds were highly profitable."

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

While identify theft is a huge global problem, it is also a big market opportunity. Take a look at TrustedID, which develops protection solutions.

This week the company announced a $10 million round of venture capital. Its investors include Opus Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

"Our funding process went quickly and smoothly," TrustedID CEO and co-founder Scott Mitic said in a BloggingStocks interview. "The investment community likes companies with proven market demand, strong revenue growth, reasonable customer acquisition costs and a great ability to retain customers for years."

TrustedID has a unique product called IDFreeze, which actually stops ID theft before it happens. There is even a $1 million guarantee.

"ID theft is definitely getting more pervasive and more complex," said Mitic. "As with many maturing crimes, we're seeing the problem morph and change. The majority of crimes are still focused on credit-based identity theft, but those crimes are getting more aggressive and starting to target new victims – children, for example. We're also seeing growth in non-credit based identity theft – for example employment-oriented identity theft which involves the theft of SSNs for use in employment by non-documented workers."

Yes, it's scary stuff. But, at the same time, it's propelling the business at TrustedID. "We're seeing great month-to-month customer growth and revenue growth," said Mitic.

Also visit DealProfiles.com to check out other recent venture fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Reb Tevye laments in the opening line of "If I Were a Rich Man" that "It's no shame to be poor. But it's no great honor either!"

The image of the poor peasant is so powerful that when people come into even a small windfall, they start to think of Tevye, which is a pity because he's offering bad financial advice. In fact, the last thing that anyone should do if they come into extra money is to break out into song.

Of course, the odds of Tevye or anyone else striking it rich are tiny but many people do get windfalls from an inheritance that's neither as generous nor as wacky as those outlined in this story. More commonly, people get extra money from investments including stocks and real estate.

Though everyone's situation is different, there are a couple of principles that people with extra cash on their hands should consider.

Rule number one is not to act like you've won the lottery. You shouldn't act that way even if you hit the latest Power Ball jackpot. That saying about a fool and his money being soon parted is true. Remember spending yourself into huge amounts of debt is easy. Just ask Michael Jackson.

The best investment for most people is themselves. Pay off any high-interest credit card debt if you have it. Get additional training or education if you need it. If there's still money after those expenses, then consult with either a tax or financial planning professional about your situation. If possible, do this before you get the money so you can plan ahead.

Investment ideas were aplenty, following up on our Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference blog earlier. Some ideas worth noting are:

• Bill Miller, despite being wrong on this investment since 1999, believes Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) will turnaround and is worth $45 per. As we have blogged in the past, the new CEO is very close to getting this business model to work, meaning this company could turn into a free cash flow machine.
• Steve Mandel, formerly of Tiger Management and now running a fund at Lone Pine Capital, likes EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), which was up big last week. In addition, he likes other large cap stocks such as General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS). He also has has postive comments on Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG).
• Wilbur Ross is still pushing his commodities turnaround plays, in particular International Coal Group Inc (NYSE: ICO). Ross's thinking is as follows: Coal pricing should reach healthy levels as excess inventory is burned off. Coal will account for 57% of U.S. electricity generation, up from 50% today, in the next twenty five years. Appalachian coal, in which ICO is rich, has considerable pricing power since East Coast supply is limited and demand is strong.

The ideas were aplenty with some negative views on MBIA Incorporated (NYSE: MBI), betting against subprime mortgage exposure, and The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE), the northwestern Florida real estate company, which is running into some difficulty as the housing market slowdown continues.

Rare is the day that a Wall Street analyst -- or a financial planner for that matter -- will recommend buying and holding a stock for a decade, or even longer.

The U.S. and international economic cycles, changing circumstances in a sector, operational changes in a company, and the continual change that characterizes the dawn of the globalization era, all point toward holding a stock for a considerably shorter period -- buying a stock, and then selling it at its short-term peak, however one would define that short-term period.

Still, in this space The Fly has outlined several rare exceptions, hopefully supported by enduring fundamental, macroeconomic, and technical data/reasons for maintaining the position long-term. The 3 members of that elite club described to-date: General Electric (NYSE:GE), Sears Holdings (NYSE:SHLD), and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX).

Well, add AT&T (NYSE:T) to that list.

AT&T has more than 70 million landlines, one of the biggest mobile phone systems in Cingular Wireless, an enormous geographical footprint, an emerging digital satellite TV service via Echostar's (NASDAQ:DISH) network, and, perhaps most overlooked, a broadband service.

Note: The Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX at 18.46

Washington Mutual -- (NYSE:WM) implied volatility & put volume indicates Aggressive Risk. WM, a consumer and small business bank with assets of $346 billion, is recently down .87 to $41.71. According to SNL Financial for The Wall Street Journal, WM has loan loss reserves of 0.60%. This is below banks set aside average of 1.09% at the end of last year according to data from 518 publicly traded banks according to SNL. WMcall option volume of 8,889 contracts compares to put volume of 38,848 contracts. WM April option implied volatility of 28 is above its 26-week average of 18 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

MGIC Investment Corp. -- (NYSE:MTG) volatility & put volume elevated suggests hedging of risk. MTG provides private mortgage insurance in the to the home mortgage lending industry.SBSH lowered its price target to $71 on "MTG's '06 10-K, filed yesterday, provided revised guidance regarding C-BASS -- indicating that the 1Q07 earnings contribution from unconsolidated subs will likely be 'materially lower' YOY." MTG call option volume of 2,291 contracts compares to put volume of 9,136 contracts. MTG April option implied volatility of 42 is above its 26-week average of 28 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Option volume leaders today were: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), New Century (NYSE:NEW), Novastar (NYSE:NFI) & Pfizer (NYSE:PFE).

Note: The Daily Option Update is provided by Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX down .47 to 10.49 after FOMC leaves rates unchanged at 5.25%

Comcast Corp. -(NASDAQ:CMCSK) option prices reveal subtle risks as expected into 2/1 EPS. Comcast will report EPS before the open on 2/1. Comcast February 45 straddle is priced at $2.30, above its theoretical value of $1.96 according to Track Data, suggesting increasing near term price fluctuations risks into EPS.

Google Inc.-(NASDAQ:GOOG )February option implied volatility elevated as expected into EPS. Google will report EPS after the close tonight. American Technology says "expect a solid report after close; Flat stock may reflect lower expectations." Google call option volume of 84,845 contracts compares to put volume of 54,692 contracts. Google February option implied volatility of 45 is above its 26-week average of 34 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Option volume leaders today were: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) and Microsoft Corp.(NASDAQ:MSFT).

Everyone knows that sex sells. That does not take much convincing. Why? Because we have a built-in mechanism that compels us every day, and through every week, month and year to at least take notice. The word in the blog title is a case in point. It probably piqued your interest in reading this, and I took advantage of that. Year in and year out sex sells. Well, the same can be said about stock dividends.

Dividends assure some return on your investment day by day, year after year, in up and down markets. The compounding of these dividends over time adds a burst of upside that is significant in the long run and this has been well documented. The Motley Fool talks about how dividends are powerful and that Wharton finance guru Jeremy Siegel agrees.

So following up on the importance of making a return on capital investments I thought I would add another historic consideration in value investing with a personal example. In my Roth IRA I am conducting a non-scientific experiment.