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They destroy the economy, rob billions of dollars and then expect love letters from the people they've ruined?!
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"In today's regulatory environment, it's virtually impossible to violate rules." -- Bernard Madoff, money manager, Oct. 20, 2007
About a year later, Madoff -- who once headed the Nasdaq Stock Market -- told investigators he had cost his investors $50 billion in an alleged Ponzi scheme.
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Anti-Semitism floods Internet after Madoff scandal: campaigners
AFP - Saturday, December 20
NEW YORK (AFP) - - Anti-Jewish commentary is flooding the Internet in the wake of Bernard Madoff's arrest on charges of masterminding one of the biggest Wall Street frauds in history, campaigners said Friday.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said there had been "an outpouring of anti-Semitic comments on mainstream and extremist Web sites."
Madoff, 70, is Jewish and a prominent member of the powerful US Jewish community. He is alleged to have defrauded investors, including a number of Jewish-related charities, of some 50 billion dollars.
"Site users have posted comments ranging from deeply offensive stereotypical statements about Jews and money -- with some suggesting that only Jews could perpetrate a fraud on such a scale -- to conspiracy theories about Jews stealing money to benefit Israel," the ADL said in a statement.
"Jews are always a convenient scapegoat in times of crisis, but the Madoff scandal and the fact that so many of the defrauded investors are Jewish has created a perfect storm for the anti-Semites," said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director.
"Nowadays, the first place Jew-haters will go is to the Internet, where they can give voice to their hateful ideas without fear of repercussions."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081219/ttc-us-finance-fraud-racism-jews-0de2eff.html
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New York University sues fund executive over Madoff
Bernard Madoff
NEW YORK (Reuters) "“ Hedge fund executive Ezra Merkin has been sued again for entrusting investments with confessed swindler Bernard Madoff, this time by New York University, which said it lost about $24 million.
The lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court is among a series against Merkin and other funds during the past week as investors seek to recover losses from the purported $50 billion Madoff scandal that would be Wall Street's biggest fraud.
More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081224/bs_nm/us_madoff_merkin_lawsuit_5
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Wiesel Foundation loses nearly everything in Madoff scheme
WASHINGTON (AFP) "“ The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost more than 15 million dollars -- nearly all of its assets -- in the alleged fraud scheme run by Wall Street baron Bernard Madoff, the fund said Wednesday.
More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081224/ts_alt_afp/usfinancefraudwieselfoundation
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Credit Suisse clients may have lost $925.9 mln on Madoff
ZURICH (Reuters) "“ Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) clients may have lost up to 1 billion Swiss francs ($925.9 million) on investments connected to accused swindler Bernard Madoff, newspaper Sonntag reported on Sunday.
Without giving details of its sources, Sonntag reported that internal forecasts at Credit Suisse showed that customers of Switzerland's second-largest bank could have lost 0.9-1.0 billion francs in the Madoff case.
More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081228/bs_nm/us_creditsuisse_2
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Madoff investor found dead of suicide
NEW YORK "“ The founder of an investment fund that lost $1.4 billion with Bernard Madoff was discovered dead Tuesday after committing suicide at his Madison Avenue office, marking a grim turn in a scandal that has left investors around the world in financial ruin.
Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was found sitting at his desk at about 8 a.m. with both wrists slashed, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. A box cutter was found on the floor along with a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk. No suicide note was found.
De la Villehuchet was one of several fund managers to be hit hard in Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_bi_ge/madoff_investor_suicide
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Who's Left To Trust In America?
If the former chairman of Nasdaq is a crook,Who Can You Trust in America?
By Nicholas von Hoffman
Dcember 20, 2008 "The Nation" "”- The news of Bernard Madoff's $50 billion fraud has hit the investor/401(k) class as nothing else "” not the fall of Lehman Brothers, not the death of Bear Stearns, nor the string of insolvency announcements of one household name after another. Madoff is the blow that did it.
Lesser explosions connected with Madoff are expected. His story that for decades he ran his gigantic fraud by himself is unbelievable. One man alone could not have done the work of inventing and cranking out thousands of statements every month, not to mention keeping track of the comings and goings of billions of dollars. Madoff has confederates.
That Madoff took some of the members of the centimillionaire club to the cleaners is not what caused the shock. It is the damage done to so many smaller investor/savers, so many pension funds, so many charities. You do not have to be one of Madoff's victims to be affected. Madoff, his own businesses aside, was a major figure in the world of investments, of stocks and bonds and securities and exchanges. If the former chairman of Nasdaq is a crook, whom do you trust?
Madoff has sown the seeds of suspicion everywhere. He has caused us to doubt men and women with whom we have done business with for years. There is no way of knowing if someone is a con artist. The presumption of trust is gone.
Business depends on trust, trust of all kinds. Trust that when you place an order with a broker he or she will get you the best price, trust that your investment or retirement adviser is not getting an under-the-table kickback to put your old age money into a shoddy annuity.
Trust is the indispensable element in all businesses. Contractors depend on subcontractors to get the job done when they say they will; retailers depend on distributors to deliver on time; lawyers are trusted to meet filing deadlines, steel fabricators are expected to get gigantic trusses to the building site exactly when they are needed. Doctors are expected to put patients' interests above money considerations; parts manufacturers are relied on to deliver on time to the factory. Business runs on trust, and Bernard Madoff has busted it.
So the Wall Street Journal says to its readers, "Could your investment manager be another Bernard Madoff?"¦ if someone like Mr. Madoff can be accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, can investors anywhere sleep easy? Ordinarily, when you are picking an investment manager or financial planner, you're given some common-sense advice. Avoid managers who are unknown, or unregulated, or come without good referrals, or haven't been in the industry long. But none of this would have saved you from Mr. Madoff. "˜This guy had oodles of referrals, at the highest levels,' notes Duane Thompson, a managing director at the Financial Planning Association in Washington. "˜He was [former] chairman of Nasdaq. He'd been in business since 1960."‚"
Fear, confusion and mistrust have been amplified by the absence of government supervision, regulation or policing. The Securities and Exchange Commission admits it did not do its job.
With the closing down of the old-time pension system, millions of employees were forced into 401(k)s requiring knowledge of finance, bonds, stocks, weird-sounding investments and tax law. They have had to make investment decisions effecting their future with no government protection against misrepresentation, legal traps laid for them and the small print obfuscation financial institutions practice on their customers. The result is the heart-wrenching situation for millions who fear that they will be living out the last decades of their lives counting their food stamps and hunting for bargains in the used clothing bins.
The Madoff swindle puts the spotlight on the collapse of the 401(k) retirement plan. The United States is the only advanced nation without a complete retirement system.
For 401(k)s to have worked, a bull market or at least a flat market was necessary. It was an unreliable gamble from the git-go, an arrangement that would fall to pieces when next the market crashed.
Madoff and the crash underline the powerlessness of the millions. As a matter of principle, the Republicans defended the unregulated lawlessness that enabled a Madoff to run his swindles. As for the Democrats, sometime in the Clinton era they sold their party to Wall Street and now they have Chuck Schumer to make sure it stays sold.
It remains for President-elect Obama to void the deal and break his party free to help those who have nowhere else to look.
http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/whos-left-to-trust-in-america/
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His Punishment?
The 70-year-old investment advisor is under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment. He was criminally charged on December 11 in what could prove to be Wall Street's biggest fraud. According to court documents, Madoff has confessed to his sons that he ran a Ponzi scheme for years, paying off early investors with money from new clients.
full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090102/od_nm/us_madoff_statue1_1
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Prosecutors seek to jail Madoff
By Grant McCool and Rachelle Younglai Grant Mccool And Rachelle Younglai
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) "“ U.S. prosecutors asked a judge to jail accused swindler Bernard Madoff on Monday, saying he sent jewelry and other items worth more than $1 million to family and friends in violation of his bail.
Many of Madoff's clients who say he stole their life savings are outraged that he has not been jailed, but allowed to remain in his $7 million apartment.
Litt argued that the items mailed nearly two weeks ago represented a "dissipation of assets" that threatened to compromise the value of the inevitable restitution and forfeiture that Madoff would have to make.
"It is impractical for the government to go around and collect such items as jewelry or small items scattered around the United States and indeed the world. It is not practical for the government to maintain them."
Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, was charged with securities fraud in a sweeping "Ponzi" scheme that the government says cost investors, banks and charities worldwide billions of dollars.
According to court documents, Madoff confessed to investigators that he ran the scheme over many years with losses of $50 billion. A Ponzi scheme is one in which early investors are paid off with the money of newer clients.
"Clearly our regulatory system has failed miserably and we must rebuild it now," said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Pennsylvania Democrat who chaired a hearing with witnesses that included the internal watchdog of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090105/bs_nm/us_madoff_2
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U.S. says Madoff sent diamonds in violation of bail
By Martha Graybow
NEW YORK (Reuters) "“ One of the packages accused swindler Bernard Madoff sent in violation of a court order contained about 13 watches, a diamond necklace and other valuables worth more than $1 million, prosecutors said in court papers released on Wednesday.
Other packages contained diamond Cartier and Tiffany watches as well as a diamond bracelet, gold watch, four diamond brooches and a jade necklace, the government said, offering new details of what they described as Madoff's attempt to obstruct justice.
Prosecutors said Madoff should be immediately jailed because he is now a flight risk. The government wants a federal magistrate to place him in custody.
"The need for detention in this case is clear," prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York wrote. Madoff's continued release "presents a clear risk of further obstruction of justice."
Madoff, who is under house arrest in his luxury Manhattan apartment, was arrested last month and charged with what authorities say was an investment scam that bilked clients of as much as $50 billion.
full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090107/bs_nm/us_madoff_10
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Prosecutors say Madoff was ready to send out $173M
Prosecutors said Thursday that investigators found 100 signed checks worth $173 million in Bernard Madoff's office desk that he was ready to send out to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month in what is alleged to be largest financial fraud in history.
The detail was provided in a court filing Thursday as prosecutors argued that Madoff should have his bail revoked and be sent to jail. They said the checks were further evidence that he wants to keep his assets away from burned investors in a more than $50 billion fraud.
full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_bi_ge/madoff_scandal
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U.S. judge allows Madoff to stay out of jail
NEW YORK (Reuters) "“ Accused swindler Bernard Madoff will be allowed to stay in his Manhattan apartment under house arrest, a U.S. judge ruled on Monday, rejecting a government request to throw him in jail.
The ruling gives Madoff, who has become one of the most vilified figures in America, more time in his $7 million home before he pleads guilty or goes to trial, as authorities probe a $50 billion investment fraud to which they say he confessed a month ago.
Madoff, has not formally answered one charge of securities fraud in court. He is the only person the government has so far accused. Fraud experts said the purported scheme was too complicated and went on too long to have been carried out by Madoff alone.
Wealthy investors, banks, hedge funds and charities worldwide have all declared themselves victims of the purported fraud. A hedge fund manager, a Frenchman, committed suicide in his New York office last month in distress.
The government has until mid-February to convince a grand jury to bring an indictment against Madoff, a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market and a figure for more than 40 years in a financial industry already reeling in crisis.
If convicted, Madoff would face up to 20 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines. According to court documents, he confessed to his sons a month ago that for many years he ran a "giant Ponzi scheme" with losses of $50 billion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090112/bs_nm/us_madoff_8
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