UPDATE 1-Bayou fund swindler to face charges of fleeing

(Updates with lawyer's comment)

NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Self-confessed hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel will appear in court on Wednesday to answer charges that he fled for almost a month instead of reporting to prison, his lawyer and the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Israel, who faked his own death in June to avoid a 20-year prison sentence for cheating investors out of $450 million, will face a magistrate in U.S. District Court in White Plains, New York.

"We expect the hearing to be straightforward, but we won't anticipate what will happen," said Israel's lawyer, Barry Bohrer.

The co-founder of the Bayou Group hedge fund duped police into thinking he had killed himself by abandoning his car on a New York bridge above the Hudson River on June 9 with the words "suicide is painless" etched in dust on the hood.

When police did not find his body, they realized that Israel was a fugitive. Israel turned himself in to police in Southwick, Massachusetts, on July 2.

Israel, who pleaded guilty in September 2005 to charges of conspiracy to commit investment adviser fraud, will probably face additional prison time for having failed to show up at a low-security prison in Ayer, Massachusetts.

The former hedge fund manager said in a court appearance on July 3 that he realized that God had wanted him to surrender rather than kill himself. This and his mother's pleas made him leave the campground where he had been hiding out in a mobile home and ride his blue scooter to the police station.

Israel was denied bail and has been in custody in a federal holding facility awaiting a court appearance on the charges of failing to surrender for his prison sentence. (Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)