High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! David J. Friedland (born December 20, 1937) is an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Hudson County, New Jersey who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, serving in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1966 to 1974 and then was elected to the Senate, serving from 1978 until his conviction on racketeering charges in 1980. He disappeared in September 1985 while awaiting sentencing by faking his death in a supposed drowning incident off Grand Bahama and was one of the U.S. government`s most wanted fugitives until his capture in the Maldives in 1987 where he drew attention to himself after creating a successful chain of scuba diving shops.