Leo Koretz Kayak Tour in Chicago Illinois

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Leo Koretz Kayak Tour in Chicago, Illinois with Wateriders!

This tour chronicles Leo Koretz’s rise—and eventual fall

Kayak Chicago with Wateriders, Chicagoland’s original urban kayaks.
Before Bernie Madoff, in Chicago there was Leo Koretz. 100 years ago, Koretz painted a picture of himself as a fabulously successful Jewish investor. LIke Madoff, he often turned away money from the tight-knit Jewish community that thought of him as an investment genius.
But, as his scheme began to unravel, and after he brought his family some of his ill-gotten proceeds, Koretz fled Chicago, first to New York and then to Halifax Newfoundland. Koretz’s long-forgotten story was rescued by a historian at the University of Halifax, whose book, Empire of Deception, describes the long and circuitous route by which Leo Koretz was brought to justice.
On this “Master Class” tour, guests will trace Leo Koretz’s scheme on the Chicago River and learn, again, that, as Joseph Weil, Chicago’s infamous “Yellow Kid,” said about his various cons: “They wanted something for nothing and I gave them nothing for something.”