Sean Ludwick

MA, University of Pennsylvania img MBA, University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

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Sean Ludwick, a wealthy forty-two-year-old New York City real estate developer, was staying at his house in Bridgehampton. It was a Saturday night in August 2015. Ludwick went out drinking in Southampton with Paul Hansen, fifty-two, a Hamptons-based Douglas Elliman real estate agent. What Hansen, a devoted family man, was doing with Ludwick, a dedicated womanizer and well-known lowlife,* is anyone’s guess.* Developing a potential client? Ludwick drank a lot of tequila and hit on a blond Morgan Stanley financial advisor. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, he gave up his quest, stumbled out of the bar, and got behind the wheel of his silver 2013 Porsche Carrera convertible. The idea was, he would take Hansen home to Sag Harbor, pick up his eleven-year-old son, who was having a sleepover at the Hansens’, then drive himself and the kid back to Bridgehampton.

It was a reasonable plan, but the execution was flawed: Ludwick crashed at high speed into a utility pole in front of Hansen’s house. The impact threw Hansen halfway out of the car. Ludwick hauled him the rest of the way out, dumped him on the ground, and drove off. The car gave up after a quarter mile. When the police arrived Ludwick was standing next to his expensive German wreck, glassy-eyed, reeking of alcohol, swaying from side to side, nearly falling down.* They found Hansen’s wallet in the woods where Ludwick had tossed it, presumably—who knows?—so that he, drunk Ludwick, wouldn’t be associated with the body lying at the far end of the oil trail the leaking Porsche had left. Yes, “body.” Hansen was dead.

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Ludwick was charged with thirteen counts, including DWI, felony aggravated vehicular homicide, and “leaving the scene of an incident without reporting that it involves death,” good for a bounce inside of up to thirty-two years. At his hearing Ludwick insulted and infuriated Hansen’s grieving relatives by taking out a two-inch-thick roll of bills and conspicuously counting them while waiting for his turn before the judge. He was released on $1 million bond.

Ludwick’s freedom didn’t last long. In January 2016, deemed to be a flight risk, he was arrested and tossed into Suffolk County Jail. Why? Funny story. He’d been in Puerto Rico taking sailing lessons and asking his instructor a lot of suspicious questions.* The instructor told a fellow instructor, who happened to be an off-duty FBI agent, who did some research on Ludwick, was suitably appalled, and contacted a friend at the Southampton Police Department. The authorities soon descended upon Ludwick, who, they found, had transferred nearly $400,000 to a Puerto Rican bank account and was lining up a deal to buy an ocean-capable fifty-footer. Equally damning was their discovery of the vast, Mad Magazine-esque collection of Google searches his powerful Ivy-caliber brain had generated, including:

• “5 countries with no extradition”

• “Does Venezuela extradite to the US?”

• “Seeking citizenship in Venezuela”

• “What is expatriate life like in Venezuela?”

• “10 secrets to being a good liar”

• “Can I leave on a cruise with an arrest warrant?”

• “Percentage of bail jumpers caught”

• “How do fugitives escape?”

• “Why do fugitives get caught?”

The prisoner’s attorney argued that his client was simply researching vacation activities for himself and his children. The Google searches? “Just a fantasy.” No one bought it. Ludwick, bail revoked, remains in his Hamptons penal dormitory, awaiting trial.

Which leads us to the obvious question: Who is the most malignant real estate developer ever to come out of Penn, Sean Ludwick or Donald Trump? It’s a tough one.