We heard about Enron for years at least 4 years it was a regular news piece. But as the truth unravels that several prominent Democrats made out like bandits.... literally. We see a fake investigation thinly veiling a whitewash as the media looks the other way. For the record the Madoff scam dwarfed the Enron deal in magnitude. Friday, May 22, 2009 Few Seem to Think Madoff Acted Alone Did jailed Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard L. Madoff act alone, as he repeatedly maintained during his guilty plea in March? Few people seem to think so and the investigation into his epic fraud, which may have bilked investors of $65 billion over the years, is far from over. For instance, there’s the matter of his wife Ruth’s role in his investment firm -- the same firm that collected billions from investors, but hadn’t conducted a single trade on behalf of those investors in at least the last 13 years prior to his arrest, according to investigators. Prosecutors have said the entire Madoff family, including his wife, his brother Peter, and his sons, Mark and Andrew, are all under investigation. Lawyers for each have claimed they had no knowledge of the scheme. Insight into Ruth Madoff’s role in her husband’s business, legitimate or otherwise, is expected to be gleaned from a hard drive taken from her work computer and now in the hands of a private law firm. Visit our Bernie Madoff Page for the latest stories and videos on the Ponzi scheme mastermind FOX Business Network has spoken to a lawyer who has viewed the contents of the hard drive, and the contents will be discussed on a documentary called ‘Target Madoff,’ which will air this weekend at 11 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. In addition, the lawyer’s firm took pictures of Madoff’s accountant, David Friehling, about two weeks after Madoff’s arrest in December. Friehling, the only other person besides Madoff facing criminal charges in the fraud, is seen carrying computer equipment out of his office in suburban Rockland County, about an hour north of New York City. The pictures have been reviewed by the FBI. Friehling, who is accused of rubber-stamping audits of Madoff’s phony financial statements, is reportedly working on a plea deal with federal prosecutors. He was released after posting $2.5 million bail following his arrest in March. Meanwhile, a prominent philanthropist sued by the trustee in charge of recovering funds for victims of Madoff’s fraud has requested that a judge unfreeze his assets so that he can defend himself. Stanley Chais, who invested heavily with Madoff, was sued earlier this month by the trustee Irving Picard seeking the return of about $1 billion that Chais allegedly received from Madoff’s firm before the scheme collapsed. Chais, 82, told the judge he is suffering from a “serious blood disease,†advanced myelodysplastic syndrome, and asked for a meeting that could be scheduled around his regular appointments at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. In the letter, Chais claims that “almost†all of his money vanished when Madoff’s scheme unraveled. “In the past several weeks I have been accused of some terrible and untrue things,†Chais wrote U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton R. Lifland. “Yet, the Trustee, Irving Picard, is preventing me from being able to properly defend myself.†Picard has challenged Chais’ request and a ruling is pending.
All those who started tuning out of the Madoff matter after Bernie pleaded guilty back in March might want to reconsider: things could get very interesting very soon. The latest: the WSJ’s Amir Efrati reports today that the criminal investigation into who knew about Bernie’s fraud has expanded to include some of his highest-profile investors, including Jeffry Picower and Stanley Chais, two philanthropists who invested heavily with Madoff, and Carl Shapiro (pictured) one of Bernie’s oldest friends. The group — along with at least five others — are being scrutinized by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Federal investigators have gathered evidence they think will show that Picower and Chais told Madoff how much in returns they wanted and that their accounts soon would reflect those amounts. Prosecutors haven’t charged any Madoff investors with criminal wrongdoing. A lawyer for Picower, 67 years old, said his client wasn’t complicit in the fraud and suffered losses in the billions. A lawyer for Chais, 82, a money manager who channeled West Coast clients to Madoff’s firm, said he was unaware of a criminal probe of Chais and his client didn’t have knowledge of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Chais “has cooperated fully†with investigators, the lawyer said. A representative for Shapiro, 96, said Shapiro had no knowledge of the fraud. Picower and Chais already have been accused of seeking fictitious gains in civil lawsuits brought against them by the trustee of Bernie’s firm. As part of his effort to recover assets for Madoff’s victims, Picard alleged that the trio sought — and then received — better returns than thousands of other Madoff investors. In some cases, their returns reached 300% or 950% a year, Picard has alleged. The two men made withdrawals from Mr. Madoff’s firm of more than $6 billion in supposed profits above and beyond the principal they deposited for themselves, family members and foundations, the lawsuits allege. It’s unclear why Madoff would allegedly have given some investors such high returns and why some investors allegedly made requests for specific gains. Picard’s lawsuit against Picower and Chais doesn’t speak to possible motive, only alleging that the defendants knew or should have known they were “reaping the benefits†of “manipulated purported returns, false documents and fictitious reports.†Here is a Madoff client search that I believe is suspect to being whitewashed.
During the year before authorities brought Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme to light, some of his investors pulled nearly $12 billion out of Madoff funds. Should those investors be forced to share the returns with others who got wholly burned by the scandal? Madoff Family Members Withdrew Heavily In Days Before Collapse I would like to see the list of 223 Here's more evidence that Madoff's inner sanctum, including his family members, were aware of the ongoing fraud and decided to get out of the oncoming train. Daily Beast: The Daily Beast has learned that in the 90 days leading to the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, $735 million was withdrawn from accounts controlled by Madoff’s relatives, employees, and their relatives, and by people who fed billions of dollars of investors’ money to Madoff. The dollar amount has been previously known. What has not been reported until now is the unusually short period in which the withdrawals were made, and how close it was to the collapse of the Madoff firm and to his confession on December 10, 2008. The timing of those withdrawals prompted Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee, to send “clawback letters†in mid-April to 223 people among the more than 8,000 investors who had accounts with Madoff. What this shows is that the bankruptcy trustee is not randomly trying to recover money from every Madoff investor—he’s looking for people who may be culpable. “If you were a close relative of Bernie or Ruth, you got a letter,†said David Sheehan, who is a leader of Picard’s legal team at Baker, Hostetler.' Not only is this interesting in terms of timing, but it also indicates that Picard isn't just indiscriminately mailing out clawback letters to the Madoff winners. Not everyone is being asked to give the money back -- only, it seems, those folks with some kind of connection to the company and a reason to believe that the funds were actually gained fraudulently. Still, if you were a family member and you know the fund was a fraud, why would you have any money with the firm at all?
